Jiu-Jitsu

Perhaps the people making alternate suggestions can carry them out themselves. mollyp asked about 'prison visits', not your opinion on whether she should or not.

I have visited inmates in Bangkwang. Whilst there are inmates who absolutely don't deserve the time of a visitor, there are other who are grateful for a small kindness. If it weren't for a stupid, maybe unthinking mistake.... The point being that not all are a menace to society and would be unlikely to commit a criminal act again.

So let the individual decide on where they should place their charity, without your pontificating. Remember that 'it takes all kinds to make the world go around'.

http://jib.co.th/TH/category.asp?Lang=TH&ID_Category=61

This should give you an idea of whats available.

These are the ones I described as being around 250 to 300 baht. Fine for watching films and listening to music. Anything less won't do justice.

Ignore the silly wattage figures. Divide by ten to get a more accurate figure.

They don't have the 2.1 system that I can recommend. The closest they have to the design is this one with a decently sized subwoofer to resolve that oft needed bass.

If you are staying in one place and have good sound proofing, you can pick up a decent 2.1 Home Cinema system. I think mine is around 30 watts RMS including the sub woofer. Cost around 800 baht. Brand names vary, but one of mine is TIGER. Good enough for house parties.

If you are looking for portable, then you have to choose between battery and mains. Mains, you can get a decent sounding set for around 250-300. The ones for 180 are probably a little tinny. Battery powered, you might struggle to find similar quality to mains powered for anywhere near the same price.

Yeah, AIS unlimited plan at 650B + VAT isn't bad. You're never going to get much speed over EDGE, but for mobile usage it's not too bad. Perfect if you're using a smart phone with always-on data.

Is it unlimited or is it limited to 1GB of DATA?

Thanks for gettng back on topic for those of us actually interested in purchasing new laptops.

I was wondering about the Toshiba factor, are parts pricier than most or are these things all pretty interchangeable? A friend of mine swears by Asus while another one wouldn't touch Lenovo with a ten foot pole.

So, is it really all subjective?

I do appreciate the earlier link to squaretrade's report on laptop reliability so I do get there are varying degrees of "good" laptops.

And does anyone have an opinion on refurb?

I bought a Toshiba in the UK and then bought an extended 3 year International Warranty via the Toshiba website for another £50(2500 baht).

So, can you confirm that what people usually call 3G for cellphones is not currently available anywhere in Thailand ?

People who pretend to use 3G only use CDMA with a special card plugged on their computer? (but not cellphone)

Thanks.

Do your research or search the board. Don't be lazy. It is available in some places.

I checked the international speedtest to hutch3G and it is about 120 to 280 kps in Sout Pattaya in theyr Office at 4 clock afternoon. Not fast, but faster than normal mobilephones. Not sure how it is in BKK. Pattaya maybe not ready yet.

Don't know what happened to TOT promised completion date of April for their 3G rollout in Pattaya.

Staying for 1 day? Should we guess?

I thought it was LNG Liquid Natural Gas

CNG is compressed gas....

Seems that you are not a "slightly retarded member" after all.

So, can you confirm that what people usually call 3G for cellphones is not currently available anywhere in Thailand ?

People who pretend to use 3G only use CDMA with a special card plugged on their computer? (but not cellphone)

Thanks.

Do your research or search the board. Don't be lazy. It is available in some places.

Buy a better supported model?

Buses from the North Pattaya station are safe when it comes to your luggage. No reports of theft.

ive been robbed on one, my bag was missing from the luggage hold when i went to collect!

That wouldn't be anything to do with the bus service. That was a passenger who stole your bag most likely.

Even with the dodgy bus services, they are unlikely to be able to remove your bag. They would just have someone below rifling through them. These tend to be long bus rides, such as to Surat Thani(for Samui) and Chiang Mai.

I think it's not something endemic at the North Pattaya Aircon Bus Station.

What amuses me about all the ridicule being placed upon Thailand in this case is that we don't even have 2Mbps Internet throughout the UK.

Universal broadband delayed until 2015

Thursday 15 July 2010 15:08:38 by John Hunt

The UK Culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has at today's broadband summit announced a delay to the roll out of a universal 2meg broadband across the country. The government had previously stated they wanted to ensure virtually all homes could connect to the Internet at a speed of 2Mbps by 2012 but this has been delayed to 2015. Whilst the universal service obligation (USO) wouldn't have made it to every home, dropping this back by three years is a blow to the UK's broadband roll out.

The reason for the delay is blamed on the previous government having left insufficient resources to meet the target. Labour put forward plans to implement a 50p tax on all phone lines to help fund investment in to next-generation broadband for rural areas, which when deployed, would have no doubt helped boost some communities well past the 2meg barrier. Labours plans for directly investing in 2meg by 2012 would have used the excess funding from the digital switchover (DSO) to fund this. The new government are now saying that this isn't enough to cover all areas. It's not clear where they instead expect to find a new source of funding, particularly with industry asking for more public money to deploy next-generation services.

Hunt also reiterated today his ambition that the UK should have "the best broadband network in Europe" by the end of parliament in 2015, but gave more information in that he defines this in terms of the number of people connected and the speed of their access. Whilst many will be connected to fibre-to-the-cabinet deployments by this date, there may still be great swathes of people on slower services and only just receiving 2meg broadband, widening the broadband divide.

See, the British is just as backward as Thai.

Hey hey...take it easy. I'm British.

I was just making the point that many here just shoot their mouths off without thinking.

What amuses me about all the ridicule being placed upon Thailand in this case is that we don't even have 2Mbps Internet throughout the UK.

Universal broadband delayed until 2015

Thursday 15 July 2010 15:08:38 by John Hunt

The UK Culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has at today's broadband summit announced a delay to the roll out of a universal 2meg broadband across the country. The government had previously stated they wanted to ensure virtually all homes could connect to the Internet at a speed of 2Mbps by 2012 but this has been delayed to 2015. Whilst the universal service obligation (USO) wouldn't have made it to every home, dropping this back by three years is a blow to the UK's broadband roll out.

The reason for the delay is blamed on the previous government having left insufficient resources to meet the target. Labour put forward plans to implement a 50p tax on all phone lines to help fund investment in to next-generation broadband for rural areas, which when deployed, would have no doubt helped boost some communities well past the 2meg barrier. Labours plans for directly investing in 2meg by 2012 would have used the excess funding from the digital switchover (DSO) to fund this. The new government are now saying that this isn't enough to cover all areas. It's not clear where they instead expect to find a new source of funding, particularly with industry asking for more public money to deploy next-generation services.

Hunt also reiterated today his ambition that the UK should have "the best broadband network in Europe" by the end of parliament in 2015, but gave more information in that he defines this in terms of the number of people connected and the speed of their access. Whilst many will be connected to fibre-to-the-cabinet deployments by this date, there may still be great swathes of people on slower services and only just receiving 2meg broadband, widening the broadband divide.

Ok, I think everything is clear now. I checked Happy/DTAC's website and once I've activated the SIM card I can make international calls as well. I am also now clear about dialling different prefix's to route the international calls through different providers.

At 199 Bt the SIM card comes with 300 Bt credit. It says by using the 004 prefix it's about 5 Bt a minute to UK landlines and 10 Bt a minute to UK mobiles, so I doubt we'll even use up the credit by the end of the holiday. At those prices I'm not too bothered about getting the absolute cheapest calls as we won't be phoning home that much, but the charges are much cheaper than using my UK SIM card!

Thanks for all your help.

John

No, that's wrong.

•Receive 50 baht free calling credit valid for 30 days after activation.

•Receive a Happy Bonus worth a total of 250 baht for calls and SMS/MMS within dtac network, 24 hours! All you have to do is keep your phone activated, and dtac will give you 50 baht per month for the first 5 months!

Just buy the HAPPY Simple SIM for 49 baht and top up the amount of credit you wish to use. 'Activate' means to put the SIM card in the mobile. You can make International call straight away.

You can take any HAPPY SIM. Their SIMPLE SIM at 49 baht automatically tops up to a year for any voucher top up. But if you want to choose another tariff, you can choose the best for you and use the option to top up airtime at 2 baht per 30 days. You can even do it online and from abroad if you activate Roaming before you leave.

...or you can buy it in the UK for £60 and unlock it yourself for free.

The one sold at Total Aircard is the old version; the Huawei E5830 and is relatively expensive in Thailand. The new model is the Huawei E585. You can get it in the UK for around £75 unlocked.

If you hire a baht bus be very careful, i once traveled to Chon Buri by one along the motorway, by the time I arrived I was very sick. The reason for this- fumes, because of the design, at high speeds the fumes blow back into the rear passenger compartment, and do not clear the vehicle.

If you hire a baht bus, you sit in the front. The back was for somewhere to secure the animals. Otherwise one wouldn't be interested in sitting in the back of one of those things for such a journey.

Forget about 004 if it adds complications, you can use 009 44 ******* Cost will be between 6 & 7 baht per minute. You can check the prices here.

If you want really cheap International calls to say, UK landlines, then you'll need another SIM card, but don't worry, it's only 49 baht(£1). Calls are from 1 baht per minute. TRUEMOVE Inter SIM

I only mentioned the One2Call SIM card as backup in case there is ever a time where your DTAC card doesn't work.

Would advise you to get two. HAPPY SIM and a One2Call SIM. HAPPY SIMs costs as little as 49 baht(Simple SIM) at your local SevenEleven/FamilyMart. You can change the tariff easily. Topups available there too. So no problems there.

Both are able to connect to the Internet via EDGE nationwide at no more than 1.o7 baht per minute. Internet packages are available.

HAPPY are cheaper for International SMS. 5 baht.

Examples: Zoostorm Freedom Netbook for the princely sum of £144(7100 baht). Unattainable in Thailand for the same specification.

MSI X410 £234(11500 baht)

Good spec laptop with Windows 7 £304(15000 baht)

Medion Akoya P6613

Intel Pentium dual core T4200 processor.

2.00GHz processor speed.

4GB DDR2 RAM.

16in screen size.

Resolution 1366 x 768 pixels.

320GB SATA hard drive.

Multi format dual layer drive.

NVIDIA GeForce G105M graphics.

256MB graphics memory.

Multi card reader.

Express Card slot 54

4 USB ports.

e-SATA port.

HDMI.

1.3MP webcam.

802.11 b/g/n wireless enabled.

Windows 7 Premium operating system installed.

Up to 2.5 hours battery life.

Weight 3kg

Used to be cheaper to get laptops in Thailand. Now it's cheaper from the UK.

If you are concerned about it breaking, you would be better off with a PCMCIA card. Example shown here. Another advantage is that it leaves the USB ports free.

If you are from the UK or have friends coming out, there are some good bargains to be had there....with a genuinely licenced OS.

actually a taxi charges 800thb one way and I'm sure you can get some less for both ways....

My cats and dogs are not allowed so far so it's all kinda useless, hope the bus will allow them.

If you are so sure Smart Alec, book it.

The fares are cheap out of Pattaya because taxis are returning to Bangkok and are happy to cover their costs. Travellingto Pattaya you will pay full fare, at least 1200 baht. Then there may be tolls.

I wonder if Songthaews are allowed to travel that far. An open air vehicle might be better for the animals...or you could rent a pick up for 1200 baht and drive there yourself.

can someone tell me which bus from Bangkok and which station goes to the bus stop in jomtiem please?

None. The bus leaves from the airport. Airport Bus Pattaya(Chom Tien) 124 baht

If you want a hotel to hotel service, use Bell Travel Service for 350 baht.

Why not take that bus direct to Ekkamai?

If you want a proper taxi service with English speaking driver, use Limo Pattaya 2400 baht for the return trip including Tolls.