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Avast free version doesn't expire - you just need to get a new registration key from them. The program will remind you near the expiration date and will take you to their website in one click. Give them your e-mail and pick the new key from your inbox in five minutes, copy-paste - Done.

It has six real-time "shields" - new files written on the disk, USB sticks plugged into the computer, mail, p2p traffic etc. You can pause and start them altogether or one by one if you need - it's all done with a right-click on Avast icon in system tray, you don't need to start the program and wait until it loads.

Avast doesn't give you daily splash screen with advertising, like Avira, and no update progress window that you have to minimize manually, it does everything in the background, there's just a popup in the system tray when it's done - virus database has been updated.

From the convenience point of view - it's perfect, way above the competition. If you start talking about detection rate it's just average. Perhaps NOD32 or even Norton have better scores in that area, but the risk is worth it in my view - there is always have to be a compromise between security and convenience.

It wasn't the same car. Abhisit has left the Ministry at that time already.

No, I meant their previous stint in government. Dbrenn said they'd nothing for years, he wasn't obviously talking about present.

Great, all in all it was a very productive morning.

Got Opera with all my settings, wallpapers, uTorrent up and running, time for lunch.

Thanks a lot.

Got that, too.

Changed to "work" in Control Panel, then start-computer-rightclick-properties and change the default workgroup name to my own, couldn't find the way to change workgroup name from Control Panel itself.

Got Talesrunner installed, with Thai menus and crap, kids are welcome to enjoy.

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Win7 boots just a tad faster than WinXP, actually it loads Personal settings a LOT faster, in XP desktop is there but it needs another half a minute to come to life, in Win7 I can start any program I want already.

Copying files is about the same - XP doesn't give speed details, Linux does, and the speeds are comparable. Linux also runs 3d desktop effects ala Aero that is not available for my video card according to Win7.

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One more question - how to set timeout on windows boot menu where I get Win7 and "earlier windows"? It seems I have to hit enter to start Win7. Can I set 10 sec timeout somehow?

Ok, got it.

Clicked update driver in Win7, then select from the list, have disk, browse to win2k-xp folder on ATI Cd and that was it.

Don't remember the steps exactly, they are pretty obvious once you see it on the screen, I'm posting from a different machine.

I guess it would have worked the same if I pointed to any folder with Xp drivers, don't know about Xp own driver folder, but Ati installs usually create their own directory from where their setup copies files to xp. I have them left on every partition now, even after unsuccessful installs.

Next question - what's with the Homegroup? From Windows help I understand that it's visible only to other Win7 machines, my Xp notebook doesn't detect it in "Microsoft Windows Network" at all.

Off to solve that one.

No luck - no Vista drivers for 9200 series either.

Tried the original installation CD that came with the card in compatibility mode - XP SP3+Admin, doesn't work. Tried a driver downloaded from drivermax, recommended above in the same comp. mode - no luck.

Will try driver tool from that website next, and other ideas in Win7 forums. Work in progress.

At least the old XP boots just fine.

I have two hard disks and usually the system boots from the one that has Linux on it.

Win 7 refused to install into partition I created for it on the disk with Windows, so I took Linux drive out, install Win7, plugged Linux back in and everything worked, I get the same old Linux boot menu, if I choose "Windows" from there, it takes me to Win7 boot where I can choose "Earlier Windows version" for XP, though I haven't tried booting XP yet.

Win7 works like a charm on that machine, with 768MB ram.

The only problem is that ATI hasn't released Win7 drivers for Radeon 9200 series yet, I don't know if it's big problem or not, I'm searching Win7 forums for solutions at the moment.

Can I use my original ATI installation CD? It was from pre-Vista days. Can I try to install Vista drivers? Without proper drivers I can't set native resolution on my 22'' LCD, fonts are difficult to read in non-native, low resolutions.

Oh do me a favour! Abhisit relying on the support of 'Newin-the-Banned-but-with 22-Spare-MPs' to get his job, and grovelling to him in public for his support, giving him flowers in front of the world media?

What's wrong with it, exactly? Everybody knows without Newin's support he couldn't have formed a ruling coalition. Should he hide it, no photo-ops, no flowers in public? And Newin? What was his choice? He didn't want to stay with PPP. Supporting Democrats was his only option.

There was no other way for him, no other way for Abhisit, no other way for parliament to move forward.

Copying Thaksin's populist agenda - 15 years too late by handing out cash to the peasants - looks silly too. The Dems did nothing for years to help the rural poor.

15 years ago Thaksin gave a Rolls Royce to a general from Suchinda led junta, I don't remember anything about handing cash to peasants. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the practice in Chamlong's Phalang Dharma party Thaksin have joined.

Dems have been in power slightly over three years, dealing with the biggest economic crisis this country has ever seen, following rules negotiated with IMF by Thaksin's personal banker. There was no room for helping the rural poor in that deal. VAT - up, social spending down. Send you regards to Thanong Bidaya. Thaksin was Deputy PM during those negotiations, btw, he knew perfectly well what kind of deal Thailand was getting into. Now he blames the Democrats for that. How convenient.

Could it be because Thai army was following standard operating procedures for dealing with Rohingya? You can't prosecute them for following orders.

all charges against Manas Kongpan were mysteriously dropped

This quote implies that he was charged in the court of law - nothing like this has ever happened. Manas has never been charged with anything, you can't drop what is not there.

It's not Abhisit's job to charge anyone for whatever happened five years ago. He can only start some sort of new investigation in the old case, if it seems important enough to make room in his schedule.

Why do you jump to the conclusion that Democrats are corrupt? Just because they took Bhum Jai Thai asa coalition partner? They are not responsible for anything Newin and co has done before, and there's nothing to pin on Newin now, so far.

Of course if some scandal breaks out and Newin will use his leverage to sweep it under the carpet, then you CAN start blaming Democrats.

Being pragmatic and realistic in that situation would be weighing the total corruption outcome if they try keep Newin on the leash themselves or let him go and live under the "watchful" eye of Chalerm.

Being pragmatic and realistic means understanding that nothing can stop Newin or corruption in general, the goal is to minimize the impact.

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As for nothing been done - there was 2,000 baht handout, and school kids get free books and uniforms when school starts later this month. The govt implemented the first round of stimulus measures and now it's in the hands of bureaucrats and civil servants, working through the system. The govt in the meantime is preparing the second round. April was lost on Asean summit and dealing with the reds.

Abhisit has just passed 100 day mark, btw.

Hopefully people realise that it serves absolutely no purpose before they are be called for another street war and forced to take sides.

Const. amendments are just not high on the agenda now, they are there to pacify politicians, not the public, and the troublemakers from PTP camp won't stop fighting after rewrites anyway, and they also won't start working.

It's a red herring.

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The reasoning now goes like this - Abhisit needs fresh electoral mandate and he can't call elections unless constitution is re-written.

And so - Welcome "Supreme law of the land", take 20. With a bit of practice they can produce brand new constitution every calendar year.

I think Chaya has his own faction, or at least MPs under his control. He's a big man in Nakhon Phanom.

I don't think it's illegal to buy a dish and recieve transmission from any satellite you want, and there will be some free content but you can forget about ESPN/AXN/HBO, they are encrypted and you need to be a legal, paying customer to watch them.

Only True can sell you rights to watch those channels, it would be illegal for any other company. For them - Dream, Astro etc. it's black and white. It's a grey area for you if you use their subscription legally bought in their countries to use in Thailand.

I couldn't find list of channels and prices on Dream's website, you have to contact them personally for that. If it's as short as in Spirit's post, it's crap.

When he was indicted by NCCC there was a public pressure on him to resign. Chaya came up with a "compromise" - he resigns but his Health Minister portfolio must go to his brother.

And now reds think it's the bureaucrats who are screwing the country, not elected <deleted> like Chaya, who sitll has considerable weight in his party.

No matter what the coach says you cant help it if a defender slips and your keeper reacts to slowly to a shot from 35 yards, at which point it was game over.

The coach is responsible for their lapse in concentration and forgiving attitude, so they do it again and again and again.

I prepared 60GB partition for this baby, hope it finds itself comfortable there.

I've read in The Nation yesterday how Arsene was preparing his boys - relax and play your own game, people never become great footballers under pressure, bla bla bla.

Is it normal for Arsene? No wonder his team can't win anything with attitude like this. I think he has become a sissy and it reflects badly on the whole team.

Dont know if this student i-report of the Songkhran thing has been posted before but interesting:

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-243682

Yeah, in the middle of the video someone throws a molotov at advancing soldiers, several go up in flames and while they tried to put out the fire a taxi rams through the line sending at least one person flying several meters back.

They are not aiming at PTP as an entity imho but at individual MPs in the party who are quite willing to side change even if still nominally in PTP. They are also aiming at bringing in certain of the ex-111.

I don't know what Democrats are aiming for, Abhisit started talking about amnesty right after the red riots, on the spur of the moment.

Who is really going to benefit from it is a different story. These last couple of days the matter has been overshadowed by speculation of blue power moves. By the time the appointed commission finishes its amendment proposals the question could be - "Who cares?"

I believe two weeks initially set by Abhisit for all parties to come with their ideas have quietly passed already - who cares?

I won't be surprised if two weeks from now everyone will completely forget what all this "reconciliation" was all about and who was supposed to reconcile what.

Whites are idiots for several reasons.

First, their main message is for everyone to shut up and put up. I understand that they are tired of street protests, but all that is needed to evil to prevail is for good people to keep quiet. You can't get around this simple fact. You can't call for people to be quiet about whatever the military, politicians, businessmen etc. are doing to their country.

Second, even if their plan is to unite reds and yellows against some common enemy - they should know that simply walking up and down the street dressed in same color never achieves anything. At this stage of power play, if you are not prepared to do some serious damage, no one will listen.

Third, if they want to be political force, they need to have some ideology that attracts some and turns off others. It's silly to expect universal acceptance, it's even sillier to expect it when your main reason for existence is to be against everyone else.

Fourth, the white movement is a capitulation in the face of stress of growing democracy in this country. "Oh, politics is too hard, we'd better become white robed monks and withdraw from it"

All this talk about reconciliation via const amendements is just a diversion, a red herring.

The crux of PTP protest was expressed very eloquently by Chalerm: "people elected us to govern, not to be in opposition". I don't believe for a second that his party would accept any elections or any conditions that don't bring them back to power.

They don't care about the rules or constitution versions or fairness or democracy - they just want to be the government. That's the real meaning of "reconciliation" for them. They are not interested in holding MP positions as those are legislative, not executive. Legislation doesn't pay as much as getting hands on real budgets.

You can't reason with them, you can't be logical - they don't accept logic and reasoning if doesn't get them what they want.

What is better in the new constitution compared to the 1997 one?

There are more restrictions on politicians and their executive power, and people have more rights in checking it.

For example the PM can't stay longer than eight years, and the number of MPs required for no-confidence debate is half of 1997 version.

National Human Rights Commission can take people's complaints straight to the courts, and the number of signatures required for proposing new laws is reduced from fifty to ten thousand. I believe it's twenty thousand to petition Senate for impeachement of office holders.

the 15. october was on topic all the time during the month before the coup

Nonsense.

The decree was published on July 21, EC commissioners were jailed on July 26. There was no one to organise the elections and so impossible to keep the original schedule and no one talked about it.

There was a talk about mid-November at the earliest - about two months after appointing new commissioners.

And it wasn't the date that people were worried about - it was participation of Thaksin. He promised to stay away when he tearfully resigned in April but didn't show he was keeping his promise.