Phil Conners

Think what you like, I'm just passing on a tip few people are aware about.

Actually, about Zenni, I just realized that while they did finally issue a store credit for the faulty glasses, there are no credit for the shipment, $10 every time they make a mistake + of of course my cost of sending them back, which was about the same. $20 on a cost of $50 is quite a considerable loss percentage imo.

Be nice if Phil Conners will put up a helpful Google Map again this year of the hotspots.

Certainly - here you go: http://goo.gl/uWR7jz

However, as I also mentioned last year, this is just an empty map, without your input it is not going to be very useful. I will try to update it as I can, but as I am very busy with private projects at this time it would be a great help if anyone wants to volunteer as collaborators. Feel free to send me a PM.

Well it's still ongoing. I returned the glasses and waited forever on their confirmation that they received it. They said to send it by standard mail, and then came back asking for a tracking number. I think if for any reason it hadn't arrived they would just say it was my fault, but in the end it arrived. They kept insisting the glasses were perfect and it was all my own fault, but they issued me a store credit for the amount. I haven't gotten around to order a new pair yet. I will, sometime when I have time. Not really recommendable unless you have plenty of time and are the patient type.

In the meantime I went back to the guy with the stall in Tukcom (ground floor, in the back). I've mentioned him before. An unusually friendly Thai guy. He made me a pair of reading glasses, memory-titanium frames and +1.75 acrylic glasses 1.61 index with AR coating, 1,200 baht all included. He even delivered them to my house when they were ready. Highly recommendable. (Yes, I know you can buy the pre-made reading glasses on all corners, but there is an abysmal quality difference).

I think the cost of the staff for the extra check probably exceed any savings. Sometimes they make funny rules here and once a rule is made, it's like set in concrete and never changed. Probably all part of the face thing. TIT.

I've passed by the corner a couple of times around 8-9 pm recently and noticed the absence of the truck.

It's a UBIQUITI UniFi access point. You can buy them on Ebay for around 2,000 baht + shipping. I don't have experience with them myself but they seem to get good reviews on the Internet, and they look darn cool too! Tempted to buy one actually.

Wow imagine that. Back in the day they were virtually free from the army surplus stores

Well, the IQ1 has been on a shelf for some months after my wife got a Note 2 instead, but now I dropped and cracked my Nexus 5, and while I wait for a new screen to arrive from China (4,000 baht vs. 8,000 baht repaired by LG Thailand) I thought I'd use the IQ1. I don't know what happened to it while it was on the shelf but it is slooooow now. A cold boot takes a full minute, from clicking the Facebook icon until it's ready 30 full seconds. Maybe software got bigger and more complicated since we used this phone before or something is broke in it.

Anyway I see there is now a V20 firmware available for it (http://droidfriend.com/forums/index.php/topic,1051.0.html) but the website is Thai-only and Google Translate actually make it even less comprehensible, if that is even possible.

So, does anyone have the low down on upgrading an IQ1? I already have ADB on my Linux box, and it sees the phone. I can fastboot into recovery so I guess I just need to upload the V20 to the phone and then pick it from the recovery mode right?

The V20 zip file has a boot.img of 6.3M - seems a tad small for an Android image - the rest is like a filesystem, that I don't think can be loaded through recovery.

The droidfriend forum seems to suggest installing some SP flash tool, is that really necessary? I'd hate having to install a windows pc just to be able to flash a phone, normally adb should be able to do anything any flash tool can do?

Actually I believe a pad krapow in Carrefour Extra's food court is about 35-45 baht. That includes both rice and air-con and regardless of what it's made of. Egg on top is another 5 baht or so. It is a known fact and understandable that Farang food in Thailand is generally more expensive than Thai food.

Now can we get back to discussing restaurants in Nongprue?

I paid by Paypal and had no problems, so I don't know why you did. My Paypal address is registered in Thailand so it should be the same situation I suppose?

The frames looked very nice, but having said that, I noticed a few complaints on their feedback site that this particular frame was prone to break at the nose when people polish the glass. My second choice didn't have any complaints so let's hope they'll be ok.

I think you'll be very hard pressed to find a farang sized memory titanium frame with progressive bifocals, hard coated and clip-on sun shades for the ~1,800 baht all in I paid.

I think you misunderstood the issue. The strength of the glasses has nothing to do with the location of the focal area within the frame.

Well that's basically what this post was about, to find out if a PJ would be a viable option.

I have a wall about 3.5 mtr wide that would be cool to use as home theater. It seems screens are routinely about 120" - I presume like with traditional TV screens that's diagonal, so I guess that'd be around 2.5 mtr wide right? Sounds like a good size.

Average seating distance would be about 3 mtr.

Distance between PC and screen would preferably be around 4 mtr, but could be up to 8 mtr if necessary. I think there would be considerably light-loss at that distance though - I recall from my photography days that light reduce with the square of the distance, right?

I can't completely block out all ambient light, but it's not too bad, and besides, we don't generally watch much TV during daytime anyway.

I got the glasses last week.

First, the frame was considerably larger than what was apparent from the test photo on the website. The glasses that looked perfect on the test photo made me look like an owl Since they know the PD (distance between the pupils) it should be possible to adjust the picture and the frame so the relative size become correct, but that doesn't happen. What I'd recommend doing is, check the width of the frames you like and physically check how wide that would be on your head.

Second, the reading area was way too low, it didn't kick in until I was looking a mm above the bottom of the frames.

Obviously it's a disappointment, and an annoyance having to send the frames back and wait for the replacement, but at least they are cool about exchanges. Now I am aware of the size issue I found a similar pair with a size that'll fit, and hopefully they'll be more careful about the reading area next time. Time will show. I'll keep y'all updated how it goes.

Well yes but this check would be against organized theft, it's not just shoplifting. And other shops manage to deal with it without inconveniencing their honest customers. Good for you if you're retired and have plenty of time, many of us have a busy life an want to be in and out and don't enjoy being in a queue behind 3-4 top loaded shopping trollies that need to be checked, after just having spent time in another queue up to the checkout.

I'm considering getting a projector instead of upgrading our ageing LCD TV, would that be available somewhere in Pattaya or would we have to go to Bangkok for that?

Anyone know what's available and what's the best deal? Obviously I had a look online, but most websites discuss what's available in US/EU. As we know that's rarely what's available here.

I'd also be interested in any first-hand experiences with projector TV, pro/cons. I understand the viewing area should be relatively dark for a good result, I assume that's still the case? Is it enough to draw the curtains, assuming there's no direct sunlight, or does it really need to be pitch black for it to be watchable? I'm no concerned about sound, I already have a decent sound system and would anyway not considering listening to TV speakers.

Yes, this is why it is done - but by doing the check they are implicitly saying they expect their customers to be thieves. They may have a theft problem, but they should not inconvenience their customers with it. Besides, there are no way they can really check each item by the cursory glance the trolley get before they stamp the bill.

To get an idea of what this is I found this youtube video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNeOIGRQ98A#t=0

I'm not sure why the OP ask for players in Pattaya only. The network in Thailand is actually very good, you'd normally not get much worse than 60 ms pings anywhere within Thailand, so I'll move this topic to our computer games forum.

As for what people spend their time doing, live and let live. If you think spending some of your time playing computer games is silly, just hit the "next" button, no need for negative comments.

So what happened to the old Rendezvous location?

Very unlikely to be a new Bangkok Pattaya hospital as they still haven't used a fraction of the property they have now. As Sheryl already pointed out, if at all possible you are better off going to Bangkok, but for an emergency you usually don't have that option so it can only be a good thing to get another hospital alternative here in Pattaya.

Out of curiosity I had a look for what a M51 parka would look like but Google came up with a lot of different ones, did you mean something like this?

Brings back memories, I used to wear one of those in the seventies, combined with one of these

Happy days.

We've been paying water and electricity by DD for quite some time, but I seem to recall when we switched they told us to keep paying as long as it was possible, i.e. the bill had a barcode. Once the barcode is gone it means the DD is active, and without the barcode you can't pay it in 7/11.

We've had the electricity meter removed once because we forgot to maintain enough funds in the bank account. Of course it was our own fault but still amazing they wouldn't just knock on the door and get the money instead of sneaking up to remove the meter. Other than that we haven't had any problems with the DD payments, just have to keep in mind the delay between the bill and the charge, in our case usually around 2 weeks.

I don't care if Makro has more bureaucracy, I pay cash, don't need tax invoices and if they waste my time with their trolley checks I just walk off without it, they always come running after me and can't wait to put a stamp on the bill. I've already told the manager what I think about their stamping of the bill and he seemed genuinely surprised that it was even an issue. He said it was company policy and he would take it up with his boss, but I don't hold my breath for any change.

If we just need a couple of things we normally just stop in at Foodland, but to get everything on the weekly shopping list we generally have to visit 4 supermarkets to find what we want. Makro for kraftkorn bread, fruit, canned, bottled and frozen food, meat, cleaning products. Extra for french cheeses, toiletries, black sesame bread, baguette, frozen food. Foodland for vegetables and hard cheeses, meat. Best for wine and spirits. Lotus doesn't seem to offer anything we can't get somewhere else so at least we don't need to stop in there.

Yep, it's still blocked.

Sent from my Nexus 5.

Thanks.

I need to go to a meeting in Silom today. Does anyone know if Din Daeng intersection is still blocked?