dddave

In Jomtien, stuck with TOT. Previously, I had 1GB down and everything ran great, but expensive.  This year I tried downgrading my speed to 300mps, less than half the price.  At first OK but now I notice many HD YouTube videos do not play smoothly, kind of jumping.  4K Netflix TV also very uneven with some buffering.

I did several speed tests and am getting about 360mps up/down so I am getting what I'm paying for.  Would upgrading to 500mps likely solve my playback issues or do I probably need to bite the bullet and go back to 1gb.?

BTW, I live alone so not sharing the signal with others.

On 5/21/2023 at 7:37 PM, Goodboybkk said:

23 minutes ago, clokwise said:

That sounds like an awesome service, although I'd hate to be on the receiving end when Customs decides to do their job, or didn't get their bribe, that day.

Customs might very well be doing their job.  Like any other government department or business that has to deal with a huge task volume along with complex rules and  limited manpower to process it all, they may make agreements that while not assessing every single item, follows a process that guarantees customs close to the amount of revenue they would expect to generate if the processes were enforced.  A percentage of items will get through not paying what they would have paid but overall, everybody gets what they want.

On 6/21/2023 at 5:41 PM, connda said:

If it sounds good.  Link up where you bought it.  I may want one too.

You'll see Marshall and JBL knock-off's at most electronics kiosks at almost any BIG-C or Lotus's shopping center.  Noticed a few yesterday at the Sukhumvit Rd Lotus's in Pattaya.  Thing is, you can probably find even better sounding speakers at an even lower price at the same kiosk.  If you have music on your phone, just test any speaker they have with your Bluetooth.

22 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Occasionally I have had some escape...and thankfully they always come back in a day or two and I just open the door and they go straight back inside. I have even had serval stray budgies turn up trying to get in with mine.  Again I open the door and they fly inside. 

Thanks for your well considered reply and not taking my question as a hostile accusation.  Your birds are beautiful.

I remember reading a few years ago about a flock of Parakeets that nest around one of New York's busy airports. They are all escaped domestic birds or their descendants.  Not a great environment for a tropical species but they appear to be pretty tough and adaptable critters with definite New York attitude as anybody who has tried to trap them has discovered.

Sorry, but I have to ask.

Are these birds born and raised in hatcheries or are they trapped in the wild, then sold to collectors?

A month is going to be too long.  You quickly find there is a definite sameness to almost all Isarn Cities and rural areas.   I would pick three or four distinct provinces and then do them one or two at a time, maybe going by day bus from Bangkok and renting a vehicle locally.  Were I to pick 4, it would be Nong Khai, Loei, Petchabun and Nahkon Phanom but not in one trip.

44 minutes ago, grain said:

Infinix INBook X1 14 Inches Core i5 (8GB RAM - 512GB SSD) Currently on sale for ฿14,488.00 at PowerBuy or Shopee.

I bought a similar Infinix at Advice for my niece as a graduation gift a year ago.  No issues so far, seems a good machine though the manufacturer specializes in low-end phones and other devices 

11 minutes ago, ravip said:

Yes, maybe I will try this. Changing the keyboard is simple, and yes... a ssd should give it a bit more pep!

Thank you.

Mine already had 6gb ram so I didn't upgrade it as it seemed sufficient for Windows-10.  If yours has only 4gb currently, probably worthwhile to upgrade that also.

Also, while it was open, I gave it a really good cleaning,  Lint really packed around the processor.

EDIT: Just realized you already said you have 8gb ram so no issue

Dramamine, nominally for motion sickness has always been a dependable sleep aid for me with virtually no side effects, no morning fuzzies.

1 minute ago, RickG16 said:

There's also a finite number of direct flights into Bangkok. 

Well then, as a singularly youthful thinker, Perhaps a session on ChatGPT will provide the answers you seek.

The Thai Embassy/Consulate in PP has never been a particularly welcoming or helpful place. Agency fees are cheap and well worth the hassles avoided.   It's been many years since I used one so I have no recommendations. 

2 minutes ago, RickG16 said:

Good points but why would it be a harder task for a website than giving you the cheapest flights from a destination? After all there are just as many potential flights out as there are in

Not too difficult.  An airport such as BKK has departures to a finite number of final destinations, passengers terminating in any of the hundreds of other possible destinations connect from the initial destination.  Thus, a flight say from BKK to FRA (Frankfurt) may have passengers connecting in FRA to dozens of destinations spread around Europe.

Considering there are hundreds, if not thousands of possible international departure points, it would be quite a monumental task to to provide up to date  data for all to a single destination.  

Perhaps OP might go to a flight tracking website such as "FlightAware" and backtrack a list of all international flights arriving at BKK over any given period of time.

"I realise this will probably confuse many over a certain age. So confused emojis fully expected.

Any advice from those born in the last 200 years will be appreciated." 

As the OP seems to consider himself a singularly youthful thinker, perhaps he might engage a brain cell or two of his own.

On a FB Pattaya food page, several people recommend a beef market in the Rai Vanasin evening market on Soi Country Club.  They claim they get excellent cuts of beef at very low prices.   Just before the "Mr. DIY"

On 4/14/2023 at 12:36 PM, Guderian said:

When I lived in West Africa many years ago, one English couple used to buy the (pretty awful) local beef and hang it for a week or so in their storeroom in one of the wife's stockings.

I was stationed in Morocco many years ago.  During orientation, we were warned about buying the meats hanging in local market stalls.  Specifically, we were warned NOT to buy any meats WITHOUT flies around it.  It seemed that some meat sellers figured out Americans hated flies so sprayed their products with "RAID".

A friend in Khon Kaen had urgent bypass heart surgery at SriNakarind Government Hospital in Khon Kaen City last year.  He believes he got excellent care and had a full recovery. All of his Doctors were proficient in English though many of the nurses were not.

Most private hospitals quoted B1M but his came out to about B300K, all in.  If your friend needs a private room, it will be more and he will require a care giver to be in the room with him.

Angioplasties with no complications usually require no more than a day or two confinement.  Probably significantly less than my friends's bypass.

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

If she has no land/vehicle/savings they will do nothing beyond a letter to her registered address every year for 5 years asking for the money+ credit blacklist. After 5 years the debt will be written off and she can get credit as normal again.

 

It used to be 10 years but they reduced that to 5 years around 3 years back.

The way they seem to get around that 5 year expiration is the lender sells that debt to a collection agency just before expiration. The lender can they clear the debt from their books but the collection agency now owns the right to collect the debt and the expiration is nullified.  It's a big loophole in the law.

If one watches the often gruesome Thai nightly news shows on TV, one becomes aware that of the three or four murders appearing every night, at least one will be tied to a land dispute.