fisherd3

I have looked at Yahoo Messenger and cannot see how to use it with Thai phones. Is there any other site around which allows you to send SMS from your computer to any phone in Thailand?

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Maybe you are still using an old version?

On the top of YM I have four icons: Add - IM - Text - Chat. If I cliick "Text" a new window opens where I can add the phone number of any SMS phone in the world, and a text field for the message. Free.

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Well maybe thats a clue clicking 'text' whilst in search of SMS sounds like a matter of luck to me that you found it, although SMS does send a 'text message', the link is not immeadiately obvious. to me.

Thanks for the tip.

Easy b seems to be a really nice guy but most 'Top Fortune 500 US executive courting $10 a night Thai hooker.' (They do if they have to! The $10 that is.) which at least should be a clue.

You are absolutely right, or I should say, I absolutely agree with you here... except for the 'have to'. Either side of the fence, it would fill a book, or two... That is what Forums are for.

O.K. hands up, $10 short time $12 for the night.

Maybe this kind of post should be also sent to the Thai Newspapers if some kind of campaign could be developed maybe the top boys might put their foot down , as it seems to me a matter of 'face' if the Royal mail is being plundered and abused in this way, (as well as FedEx).

As long as it is a secret in the expat community it will remain a problem, and it is a huge problem.

Easy b seems to be a really nice guy but most of what he writes seems to me to be about some kind of international 'Peyton Place' he is operating in (and writing about). He tacitly acknowledges the obvious pitfalls that exist and explains them away U.S. style but does not seem to acknowledge the nonsense of the statement 'Top Fortune 500 US executive courting $10 a night Thai hooker.' (They do if they have to! The $10 that is.) which at least should be a clue.

It is impossible to write a short succinct explanation containing the whole equation as I am sure it could fill a book and anyway noone knows all the answers, so one tries to put it in a short statement such as the above in the hope that it might ring some bells, this technique however does make it easy for others to shoot it down as it is really only a punchline, however I think the 'in quotes' above is pretty unarguable, and if this is the case such a strange statement is likely to have strange consequences flowing from it.. .........anywhere!

I downloaded this piece of freeware which monitors motherboard and case temperature in system tray, may help you monitor temperature

Motherboard monitor - http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311

Search freeware on this subject page for stacks more.

hello,

i am looking for a new portable cd player. i tested a few of the off brands, and the quality of sound was pretty poor.  and i don't know if the major brands "panasonic, sony" are the real mccoy or not.  anybody know where i can look at a good selection, and test them, (robinson wouldn't let me test) or somebody have a good second hand they would like to sell?  thanks

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The ONLY way to judge this kind of product is to listen to it. I had a Panasonic unit that looked pretty average, was reasonably expensive, but sounded amazing, then Panasonic brought out what was called 'the Cobra' because somehow the Cd bit in the middle raised up like a Cobra , it looked sensational and cost a bomb but did not compare in sound quality with my boring looking unit.

Having said that one possible indication that the unit might be of good design and therefore sound good is the power rating, the only meaningful power rating is 'watts R.M.S.'. 4-5 watts R.M.S. up OK, 10 watts R.M.S. (per channel) excellent for such a unit .

The qualification 'Watts P.M.P.O' is virtually meaningless as you may gather if you see things like 500wtts P.M.P.O. quoted for something that costs 2000bht.

No one intending to sell a product to a serious audiophile would use the rating 'watts P.M.P.O." it is strictly consumer b.s.

Personally if I found a unit that sounded really good I would buy it above brand names.

If you can't find a really good sounding one you will probably better off going for an average sounding unit at a good price, than imagining that a big name sounds better than it does.

By the way never buy a consumer Cd player that changes cds they always go wrong, and are hard to fix, bigger changers that take say 50 cds are OK (different mechanism).

The reality is that all the western analysis , philosophy, predictions, good faith, good heart ...everything is double dutch when applied to a Thai/Farang relationship. The mind sets are just on a different planet.

The relevant facts are: easyb has got the dough and it seems a higher than average man management ability, the lady has the 'magical' thai feminine charms, how these elements are mutually dispensed will determine the success or the failure of this and all Thai/farang realtionships of this nature. The unique element in the above is 'the magic' therefore the lady is ultimately in control , what ever easyb says about his attitude to handouts and the lady standing on her own two feet, she will never, legitimately, by herself in Thailand be able to provide enough money to pay 'all her bills' which is why she was 'working' in the first place. She knows this, does easyb?

If she knows this is the bottom line she is basically with easyb for the money because if the money wasn't there she would have to look elsewhere, just like she 'had' to go to 'work'.

So in conclusion, easyb has the dough so everything should work out OK but if he went bankrupt tomorrow he would be out of the game. Would he marry a U.S./ U.K. lady with this attitude probably not, but thats all part of the 'Thai magic'!

We absolutely love Koh Samui and have been looking for a business to buy.  We recently found our dream business in our perfect location, a bungalow resort on Bangrak beach.  It was run down but something we could put some effort into.

My husband booked his flight to have a look round only to find it was in the process of being sold and we are gutted, as we were mistakenly told it was still available only the day before.

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I too was looking at property in Ko samui and I was interested in looking at a property via the estate agents www.samuihouseandland.com which I have since read good reports on from other posters, however this property also turned out to be sold , and it would have been impossible in an efficient business that the person I was conversing with within this company not to have known at least that this property was very likely to be sold , if it was not already, but this was never mentioned until I made an offer, while my interest was utilised to take me to see various (few) other properties they had on their books.

I believe this property was in fact a 'come on' and was never available for sale at the price it was put in their shop window.

The moral being I would never deal at arms length i.e. from abroad with anything that could cost me a flight from a long way away , because tit (this is Thailand) and you never know what is going on , even when I was there! and with a supposedly reputable firm in which I had only spoken with westerners.

Not to say similar things would not go on in say the UK or US property market , just get yourself out there and stop dreaming.

Have you read the posts about business on Samui being controlled by a 'mafia' like small group of Thais? seems like this should be understood before diving in.

Don't just hit 'reset' on your CPU, thats not good for your computer and nobody should advise you to do it.

cv

Next time please try to provide more details 

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I would be interested to learn why hitting reset is a bad thing to do?

I have looked at Yahoo Messenger and cannot see how to use it with Thai phones. Is there any other site around which allows you to send SMS from your computer to any phone in Thailand?

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If you're talking free I believe the answer is no, but for what seems a reasonable rate check out www.ipipi.com , half the price of my mobile provider in Britain and others say it works well, though I have yet to use it , I will be giving it a try when back in Britain.

censored in the light of the above.

Censored though factual and inoffensive..

7 % VAT on anything marked with a value (over 20 USD in my experience)...

20% import duty seems the norm though DVD's seem to incurr 30 and other stuff I have bought has mysteriously been charged none..

Seems to be higher charges and always billed when using a courier like DHL but often slips through with Thai mail.

The real issue is I tend to only get 50% of packages shipped to me.. Currently have 500 USD worth of stuff (insured signed for) missing for >2 months..

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Yeah check out the real issue, out of four items sent to me from abroad only one package arrived, the missing items include 2ozs of tea tree oil from Australia and one plain letter in DL envelope (typed full address albeit in Roman characters) from UK. I believe world wide, including UK the honesty of postal workers is on the decline.

Based on this experience I would not ship anything to LOS unless I had previous experience / advice shipper was 100% reliable. Tey are unlikely to be cheap.Can you control who Amazon uses?

I don't know whether its too obvious to mention , but the showing of world weather every ten minutes , and the world stock exchanges on CNN, both with totally agravating background music (though CNN worse) instantly make me reach for the remote on both channels , probably this is the U.S. commercial break period, so not much hope of changing anything for us 'aliens'.

This 'problem' does not seem to afflict the BBC news Channel or Bloomberg, available in many Thai packages but not on Sophon Pattaya's cable provider making the interminable breaks inescapable if a news channel is required.

Had a look for DSO exploit on Google and came up with the following web site that tells you how make spybot ignore it, as if all microsoft updates are in place it does not apparently have any effect anyway, this might be alittle less hazordous than tampering with the registry as above, and I could do it! must be easy. Browse on!

Thanks Tizme.

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cgi-bin/yabb/...;num=1082096807

Yeah I get this DSO thing everytime too, if its so prolific why isn't it blocked? Anyone cast light on DSO?

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I think the acronym stands for Dynamic Shared Object.

The DSO Exploit is a sensitive opening in internet browsers that can allow all types of spyware run on a computer.

This DSO Exploit browser gap can also allow a hacker to gain access to your system, manipulating your computer for various personal and financial information.

Many experts have suggested that this exploit may be a significant contributor to the rise in Internet ID Theft worldwide.

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Thank you for the information, so, as it seems to be so common and so dangerous how can its presence on a computer be prevented, cleaning via spybot or similar seems to be a bit late, the damage could easily have been done, it needs to be stopped virus like, is their a facility available?.

It was able to find even what Ad-aware and Spybot, search n destroy combined together could not detect on my pc.

and spybot found stuff that ms beta didnt ,

after running ms beta which found a few things , i ran spybot which then found a few more things , albeit the same 5 things that it finds every time i run it, even though i delete the buggers every time too (dso exploits , whatever they are ?) but they werent found by the microsoft prog.

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Yeah I get this DSO thing everytime too, if its so prolific why isn't it blocked? Anyone cast light on DSO?

In Pattaya at Bangkok Bank opened a savings account with ATM card with 500bht initial deposit, I think you have to pay for the ATM card, at that time and during the whole process visa status did not come up and didn't cross my mind. The girl who did the paperwork was sitting at an open plan desk doing about three customers at once conveyor belt style (!) NO Problem. Am not aware of availability of internet banking on this account but you may know that there are plenty of ATM like machines available where you can update your savings book without having to queue up.

I believe Phuket tries to maintain some kind of 'Premium' image over other resorts in Thailand I do not think the Premium paid in money to partake of this image has anything to do with the quality of bars, clubs and women, in the case of hotels I would say Phuket could be worthy of such a premium say if you were on a honeymoon and took advantage of the more secluded locations made possible by the less 'city', environment, such as the Meridian and similar hotels. This 'Premium' feeling is carried through at all levels including I read Tuk Tuk drivers more or less openly conning tourists as a matter of course , this probably runs throught the whole local mentality. I would imagine that bar/ladies life is prolific there (as everwhere) but I think economics in this area would also involve a Premium mentality. As after all you would be a Premium customer. I read elsewhere in this forum Phuket has 3000 HIV cases 2000 of which are women which seems what I would call a risky level for such a small place, beware (everywhere)!

I have been staying in Pattaya for a few weeks now, I am part of a couple, so have not indulged but on the face of it Pattaya is just like Wonderland for Alice for the interests you specify , I would go as far as to say for the average Englishman it is unbelievable, there is just so much of everything I can't see how a deal can't be had on everything with a bit of care.

However, the overiding feeling I get in Pattaya is that of 'Big City' not holiday resort, and personally I would forget Phuket in Favour of Ko Samui on a dual centre holiday,

and for general good feeling, with plenty of trimmings I would put Samui at No.1, Chaweng beach at dusk can't be beat for a Happy hour beer or two, anywhere, Plenty of Ladybars, probably not such hardcore ladies, plenty of clubs in Green Mango its namesake disco I thought was spot on, and in Lamai twelve miles down the road.

Personally , I would consider coming out independently rather than on a package deal, if you do this it is crucial that you work out when high season is not, as then there will be plenty of accommodation at bargain prices and you could change loaction easily and cheaply to take advantage say of the discos in Chaweng and Lamai , cos even though they are only about 12 miles apart you don't need that at two o'clock in the morning, especially if you a have a new lady!

I arrived Samui August 18th and no problem at all , and EVERYTHING was cheaper because out of main season.

Any questions PM me.

I have a Canon Ixus that is getting a bit tired, in particular the battery cover door is lose and turns the camera off when it becomes slightly open. and I am suspicious that the in/out socket is not mating with the USB cable properly.

Anyone know of an outfit in Pattaya capable of dealing with these problems at reasonable cost, or could it be a bin job?

Thanks

Scouser:  How long did you have unprotected sex with your wife, including pre-marital sex, before she was diagnosed?

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15 months.

Scouse.

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With Scouse, a seemingly very worldly/informed individual, having unprotected sex with his girlfriend/wife as apparently normal behaviour ( as many/most people in a stable relationship end up doing) and in my case , when I asked my tgf why she allowed without any question unprotected sex when suggested after a couple of weeks, she responded 'we boyfriend/ girlfriend' and me doing it (also a relatively highly educated person), not to mention the greater millions who have virtually no education and women no bargaining power in demanding condom use, and the apparent ignoring of condom advice by young people in 'civilised' western societies, indicates that ultimately across the board the believe in and reliance on condom use to curb the HIV /AIDS plague on a worldly basis ( may work in localised situations such as a blitz on tbgs, when maintained) is pretty much almost entirely misplaced and may be providing the various authorities with a false sense of security, weakening the anti HIV propganda ethic.

Until HIV propaganda is seen virtually everywhere in all media all the time , including anti phasing techniques to keep the message fresh, as I believe the original Thai blitz was , unfortunately I think this will prove to be just too expensive for the capitalists to countenance so they will have to deal with decimation of their workforce instead, and pay the cost that way.

Generally backpackers, have saved a suitable quantity of money and their only income is the interest on this money, this is most unlikely to exceed the first tier on the new form i.e.$20,000 notwithstanding this they have a perfect ability to support themselves for their visit.

The Thai economy must benefit hugely in the receipt of foreign currency from back packers of which we all know there is a huge number. Far too many for any income check of any sort to be applied across the board at borders.

It is also true that many people might have quite substantial cash holdings that do not generate much 'income' but is still most able to be spent in the Thai economy.

For these reasons and the position of the income question on the new form I do not believe that it's inclusion is for the purpose of excluding admission to the kingdom, but as purported elsewhere for statistical purposes .

OK lets get more specific, to get to the bottom of this: Where do the Thai vendors on the pavement i.e. no stall, who look like individuals with no buying power or other large resources in towns like Phitsanaluk and in Chatachuk markets buy things like nailclippers and cheapo combs etc for a price that enables them to sell at 10baht and 5 baht respectively, given they probably don't travel very far to buy them certainly not to towns like Mai sai, and certainly are not part of any big importing company, they must be buying them locally and I speculate in what I would call a warehouse (even if it looks like a shop). Is it just a question of trawling round Chatachuk to find the location of the supply at this level.

It makes no sense to me that the price they are retailing at is the best price available to me.

Thank you for your input.

Bkk to Samui by overnight train.

Buy a combination ticket, Train (second class sleeper)/bus/ferry. 650baht.

Train takes you to Surat Thani, bus awaits to take you to ferry.

Train takes aound 11 hours, 3/4 hours bus to ferry. 2 hours ferry to K/Samui.

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With respect to sea tramp I wonder why Thais seem to avoid the train in favour of the bus, considering the train option sounds pretty ideal. My GF says train takes much longer than bus ( unbelievably I must admit).

Mr BigSpuds,

The alternative (better, but one that will cost you some money) is to retain the services of a Thai private eye and have the slueth check out the facts for you.

These guys are fully aquainted with all the methods. (you will need to give him a photograph)

Check out www.stickmanbangkok.com excellent site full of all sorts of info and he provides a 'secret sleuth' service that probably won't rip you off!

Given markets like Chatuchak and sampeng are supposed to be the place where goods are bought at 'best price' where do vendors even within the precinct of Chatuchak and Sampeng buy there goods at wholesale , e.g where would a bag vendor within Chatuchak selling for say 59baht buy at wholesale , some other place within Chatuchak? If so where, I do not believe it would be another stall, where are the warehouses and what are the qualification for dealing with them i.e. minimum spend. Where would a street vendor , without a proper stall or on the street in Phitsanaluk buy nail clippers that he can sell for 10 baht?

Beats me.