TVLover

Many thanks to the contributors.

Well, from the feedback received so far, it looks like a visa trip to Penang is pointless in my case. Unless there are suggestions for a better place in the region, I'll probably head back to Europe in a couple of months to apply for a new non-Imm 'O'.

TV friends, I am kindly asking for your advice on the following.

I am considering going to Penang to apply for (renew) a new multiple-entry non-immigrant 'O' visa at the Royal Thai Consulate over there.

Here is my current situation:

* I am less than 50 year old

* I do not have a Thai spouse

* I have already obtained a multiple-entry non-immigrant 'O' visa (1 year validity) twice at the Thai Embassy in France: in 2005 (still valid but about to expire), and in 2004.

I am aware that getting this visa in my situation is a bit dodgy, but it has worked (twice) in the past.

I have never been to the Thai consulate in Penang, but I have read in this forum that things are smoother over there compared to most other Thai embassies/consulates in the region.

What are my chances of being successful in Penang?

There have been increasing rumours indicating that, according to some "lip reading experts" who analyzed the videos taken during the incident, Materazzi would have called ZZ's sister a 'wh-re' twice, and then insulted ZZ with an unrevealed word!

ZZ has said today that he would talk to the press and elaborate on the incident in the following days.

Reports in the French Press have Matzeratti calling ZZ a "dirty terrorist".

That's correct, I've read that too. And now, some other media claim that Materazzi might have told ZZ: “We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore, so just <deleted>> off!”. So, let's wait for ZZ's press conference in the next few days.

And, in the meantime, don't miss this at any cost: Materrazi's best fouls!. And enjoy the Italian comments while you watch!

(Rooney, if you happen to visit this forum, could you comment at #1?)

There have been increasing rumours indicating that, according to some "lip reading experts" who analyzed the videos taken during the incident, Materazzi would have called ZZ's sister a 'wh-re' twice, and then insulted ZZ with an unrevealed word!

ZZ has said today that he would talk to the press and elaborate on the incident in the following days.

and when he can't get the ball, others' balls are at risk...

It's simply amazing to see the amount of discussion about England's performance now that it has exited the WC, and the lack of interest for the last 1/4-final match (Brazil-France) on this forum!

The Brits have shown us one of the poorest performances, both with their squad and their referee. The image of one of their key players kicking small balls after being unable to kick the big one has been shown around the globe, and will certainly remain one the worst ever seen in the WC history. They've just been incredibly lucky to reach the 1/4-finals.

As for Brazil-France, it has been described by many as the most spectacular and dramatic 1/4-final match, and one of the best games since the beginning of the tournament.

Too bad, however, there is no more Latin America team in the competition.

Noodles, you still haven't given clear explanations on WHY you wish to split this 700MB file (whether in 5 or 2 parts).

No obligation of course, but if you could elaborate, it might help us ... help you!

Interesting.

I just checked the log of my AV programme and I see that the "Win32/Sober.Y worm" threat was blocked 7 times in the past 3 weeks, including 3 times in the last 48 hours. So there might be something true here...

Nobody posting comments. Does it mean that either nobody went there, or nobody wishes to comment...?

What a disaster it was!

We came at about 8:30pm. 15-20 dudes were there, but I could not recognize any face I had met at the last piss-up. No name tags, so I could figure out who was from TV. No DJ either. I asked for George, but the guy at the bar told me that didn't know anyone by this name! George, were you there?

My GF was hungry but all the food left (apparently) was a bowl of tomatoes salad. My GF asked me if TV was some kind of vegeterian society... There was a tall girl at the bar, wearing a short jeans skirt, with a prostitute look. I even wondered if I was at the right place, but some folks told me they were from TV.

As my GF wanted to eat, we went out. I considered going back to the "party" for a 2nd try, but my GF was not really enthusiastic about it. So we went somewhere else.

Anyway, thanks to the organizers, but, sure can do better...

ahhhhhhhhh  

i'm feel to much better now

today i finish my contract with true,i go to shop in fortune and finish anything with tis bad service ,i hope this company can't arrival to next year!!!!!Never i try some adsl like true,always use proxy!!!!!!Absolutely incredible!!!!!!!Finish my day nervous!!!!!!True disounest!!!!!!!!  

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Did the True people ask them why you wanted to cancel your subscription?

Did you tell them that you were unhappy with the service?

How long had you been with True? Upon cancellation, were you asked to pay any 'penalty' fees?

Anyway, I wish you will find your new ISP more ... ounest!

Ciao Giulio! True? È della merde! Non vero? True, ora è finito. Basta basta!

...but tonight, my 1MB ADSL package is running at 37.5K. That's right, the GPRS modem in my mobile phone is marginally faster than my ADSL.

Going to find another company on the weekend, thats it.

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Talking, only talking... Inactive complainers have never obtained anything... Why don't you take some action?

Suggestions:

* Pay half (or any other fraction you will find relevant) of the amount charged in your next bill, instead of the full amount

* File a Police report (for fraud, false advertising, ...) and send a copy to True's CEO. And CC the Bangkok Post or the Nation for more fun...

* Any other suggestion anyone?

...

Okay, folks. Guess who came to visit us in our Bangkok condominium the past 2 days? The Buddy Broadband buddies, you know, those guys who want to take some market shares from True and CSLLoxinfo with a new ADSL service.

Brought with them a green and white booth, about the size of a DSLAM cabinet. Inside, from top to bottom: a TV screen, a computer monitor, and a keyboard & mouse.

As I was looking at it, I got approached by a nice fellow who looked like a post-graduate student: "Mister, can speak Thai?". "Mai dai". Then a little smiling lady came to me: "Now we have Broadband TV and High Speed Internet here. We have special promotion". I was then explained that there are 2 packages: the TV+PC at THB650/mth, and the PC only at THB500/mth. "During promotion, no pay entry fee, no deposit, only 1 month fee", I was explained. "How fast is the Internet?" "In our package, the download speed is 2Mbps for local sites and 1MBps for international sites" "OK, let's take a look", I replied.

I was first shown the BB TV, which requires a set-top box and remote control. About 10 channels available, mostly in Thai. I asked if there was any international content, maybe in English. "Not now, but in the future. Because of that, most farangs take Internet only". So, I asked if I could check the Internet.

First, I tried the CNN home page. It took about 30 seconds to display the whole page. Then, the New York Times, Le Figaro, the Bangkok Post and a few others I can't recall. For each site, it took between 30 and 45 sec to display the page. I decided then to make a speed test and I went to the speakeasy.net/speedtest page. First server I tested: 38kbps for the DL speed! (no typo here: thirty-eight kilobits-per-second) "Didn't you say that the speed was 1Mbps?". The guy (who apparently was the technical expert in the team) told me: "This is because of the server in USA!". I suggested to test the speed from a few other servers, the result was always between 35 and 45 kbps. "Is it always so slow?", I asked. "This is because you test with web sites in USA, outside Thailand". I did not tell them that, my guess would be that most of the sites I would access would be located in Yankee land...

The lady went back to me: "We can install in room you very quick!". "Probably as quickly as it takes to an IP packet to cross the BB gateway and come back", I thought. Then, I thanked her for the demo. I was then offered to write my comments in a notebook. I did, and, trust me or not, I refrained from writing too sarcastic remarks about what I just experienced (you know me, folks, it's not my style...). Just mentioned that I found the Internet service a little slow, and that I would be happy to try again BB once they have faster speeds. I left my contact info, just in case (who knows, I might receive a greeting card from them for the forthcoming holiday season...).

I finally went away, thinking that:

1. Those who send these kids out to do that kind of job must really be cruel...

2. Perhaps, I may just stop calling the True CS line more than once a month to complain...

Hi

  Anyone know if you can cancel a True internet contract ?

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yes u can cancel , but you have to paid 2000 bht for so-called fine

(and for people who use Package 2 "SME Pack" have to paid for wifi ADSL router compensation fee 4000 bht)

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If you really wish to cancel, you can do so without paying any kind of 'fine', regardless of the contract you signed with them. If they ask you questions, you can easily tell them that, since they did not honour their commitments to you (to provide you with decent broadband Internet service), you have no reason to honour yours. I know several people who cancelled their True subscription and refused to pay any fine when being asked. Case closed.

You must have an entry/exit stamp from Cambodia when you return to enter Thailand.

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I find this very strange.

Just imagine the following plausible scenario. At Poipet, you exit Thailand normally (get your exit stamp on your passport), cross the border, then proceed to the Cambodia entry point, just to find out that you can't enter Cambodia (there can be dozens of reasons for being denied to enter a country...). Then you turn back towards the Thailand entry point (you do NOT have any Cambodia stamp on your passport since you did not enter the country), and simply explain to the Thai immigration officers that you were denied entry into Cambodia and you wish to re-enter Thailand.

Are you saying that you will then be denied to enter Thailand again? Following this logic, what are you supposed to do? (you are not allowed to enter Cambodia, and you can't re-enter Thailand) Spend the rest of your life at the border between the 2 countries?

If theres no concern over safety howcome they are banned from flying in Europe?.

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Precisely! And what's more is that they have been banned in Europe before the skidding incident!

I don't think I can possibly respond to this without saying something that will get me in legal trouble. For example, if I were to muse aloud that someone may be putting face, and influence before public safety, someone may call it slanderous, so I'll be quiet. 

cv

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Even without saying it, I think you are clear enough...

But why can't you say what you think? Aren't you free to express yourself?

Just tried to load this page with and without ad blocker (emptying the cache folder before both tries), from 11s down to 6s.

It's nearly half the time, but just a small difference anyway (5s).

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I don't think it's a small difference, if you consider that, every time you load a page, you save some 50% on the total loading time. If you cumulate the time you save over a long period of time you use to surf, it will all add up and become significant.

And this makes me think that, for those who access the Net on a non-unlimited package and who are charged by their ISP according to the time they spend on-line (especially through dial-up access), they will not only save time, but also money! No wonder why I've never seen ad blockers installed in Internet Cafes!

Moral issues aside...

Just installed adblock+ and the G filter set and auto updater to firefox.. WOW doubled my browsing sped at least.. I guess I knew about adblockers but hadnt really considered how much time was wasted collecting different banners from different servers to render the page..

Thats a keeper..

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Hi cv,

This could be an endless debate.

Working in marketing, I have a slightly different opinion.

...

Ps: sorry to the original poster for this post hijack.

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Not at all, yeti! It's helpful. Thanks to those who have contributed, we already have a lot of useful input in order to help us eliminate ads and surf faster (I said 'we' because I am certain that others will benefit from this input, too). I find your "debate" with cdnvic equally interesting and, who knows, I might even join it later...!

Honestly, when I started this topic, I expected we would have this discussion, although it was not the purpose of my posting...

I use spybot search and destroy, adawear, and microsoft Antispyware beta1, they keep my comp clean as a whistle. Also spybot has many other features. All can be downloaded for free and updated regularly you should have very few if any prob's. Also spyblaster is good for blocking active x file's that can make ur comp go to places and do thing's ya don't want it too.

Or "Hijackthis" is another cool little exe that lets ya keep ur comp' free from hijakers.

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Here, I am a little puzzled. I thought that the purpose of those software was to prevent the - malicious or undeliberate (from the user's view point) - installation of spyware/adware/malware programs on your PC, not the removal of ad banners when browsing the Net. Btw, I use MS Antispyware Beta, and it certainly does not help in suppressing ad banners.

Zone Alarm Pro, NOT the Suite.

Free download and try it for 30 days. 

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Thanks for your contribution too, cdnvic and clokwise!

It is my intention to try Firefox and now that you indicate that it has an ad-blocking feature, I have an even more compelling reason to do so.

As I mentioned, I use Opera (and, occasionally, IE when a web site does not display well with Opera) and it does not have any ad banner blocking function (only a pop-up window blocker, or am I missing something?)

I use a simple  plain text file called a host file..

With this you can block any site you want 

The hard work of finding all those adservers and sites that try to install malware/spyware on to your computer ..has allready been done,well I should say its an ongoing process as things change frequently.

Using this method, there is no need to install any new software.

( which in its self could be spyware )

Only bad point is that you need to manualy update every now and again.

More information here:  http://www.hosts-file.net

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