mikebike

Contact the manufacturer in China (see above link to AliBaba) and talk to them about shipping you some 'samples' as though you were going to make a larger purchase.

I don't think that steve was being snarky... just incredulous at the question itself when the sois are awash in dogs waiting to be adopted. Often one just wanders up and adopts you.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/VAR903-a-M4-retro-leather-shoulder_475679618.html

this is obviously something every Apple user should know about.

Why? Its been there for YEARS and hasn't caused any issues... End users really don't give a toss - they just want their device(s) to work as advertised. only techy nerds really care about this shizzle.

Privacy is not an issue to you?

Sent from my SM-N900T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I tend not to worry about things that have not caused any problems. Reporting/exposing a backdoor which has been benign for years is not cause for alarm... BTW, yeti, boogie-men, straw-men and the Loch Ness monster don't worry me either!

this is obviously something every Apple user should know about.

Why? Its been there for YEARS and hasn't caused any issues... End users really don't give a toss - they just want their device(s) to work as advertised. only techy nerds really care about this shizzle.

1. I'm not saying it's safer but at least there are no known hidden "backdoors" in Android phones / systems planted by the manufacturer, if you know of any please provide the links.

http://www.darkreading.com/mobile-security/samsung-galaxy-security-alert-android-backdoor-discovered/d/d-id/1127675

http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/top-security-stories/android-backdoor-discovered-nine-samsung-galaxy-models/

Does anybody know a work-around for this on a Mac? OSX doesn't format NTFS. And Samsung TV wants NTFS.

1. Was your Mac set up with BootCamp? If yes, boot up the virtual Windows machine and do your NFTS to USB there.

2. Is your Mac a laptop? If yes, buy a HDMI cable and use your Mac to drive the Samsung. Buy a cheap Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (Logitec 650 baht) and your Samsung becomes your biggest monitor ever!

3. MacFuse (FREE) allows OSX Macs to read and write to NTFS drives.

how typical that there wouldn't be a single intelligent answer from the subscribers on this site

There were plenty of intelligent and correct answers.

I will attempt to spell it out for you.

1. TWO Thai ministries control the movement of foreign nationals into Thailand: the Foreign Ministry sets the policy/laws; and the Immigration Department enforces policy/laws.

2. Work permits are issued by the Labour Ministry but may require additional professional certification or endorsements from specific departments (such as education ministry). The requirements for work permits vary according to the type of labour - i.e.: a labourer requires no endorsement of education, nor any certificates of qualification or graduation, whereas a professional most certainly does.

3. As with almost any nation, preferential treatment regarding immigration is given to neighbouring nations labourers to fill empty jobs that local nationals are unwilling or unable to fill.

4. Commercial sectors requiring or dependant upon imported labour have worked long and hard to secure bilateral agreements and concessions to allowing local foreign labour to be able to work and reside in the Kingdom.

5. The Royal Thai Education Ministry, many schools and many teacher-placement agencies have for many, many years, been "gaming" their own immigration system: That is they have relied upon the seemingly endless supply of young, cheap, transient, uncertified, native english speakers to fill teaching jobs without every worrying about immigration requirements, and often without worrying about professional qualifications.

6. Thai immigration has recently decided to step up its enforcement of existing policy/laws/requirements seemingly making it more difficult to "game" the system using tourist visas and exempt entries to live and work in Thailand.

7. The issue you have described is not Asia v West thing. It is a local unskilled labour v foreign professional worker and shady employer thing. You, as a NES looking for teaching work in Thailand must understand the visa and professional requirements to legally teach in Thailand and you must understand the history of NES teachers in Thailand has been one of huge oversupply and little regard for legality. At a time when the country is in need of NES teachers the Ministry, schools, and agencies had better pull their heads outta the sand and make it easier for teachers to be legal.

Let's say you have a valid tourist visa issued in another country and plan to exit Thailand via train to Malaysia. For whatever reason Thai immigration won't let you in and airline has to ship you out again. Airline checked for visa, did as required per rules, but ball was dropped by immigration. Do the airlines have any recourse against Thai government, or do they just have to shut up and eat it?

"but ball was dropped by immigration"

What the heck? Immigration can do whatever they want with you... Just because an airline has done a brief review of your documents doesn't mean you've been vetted by immigration.

Most airline will probably follow Eva Air's example and make you sign a waiver that if you are not allowed entry you are on your own.

I am all for freedom to do with ones body what you please as long as you don't bother others.

And there in lies the dilemma - alcohol quite often leads to 'bothering' others!

Thailand is NOT a secular nation. It is a Buddhist nation and you'd think everyone could follow the 5th precept at least a couple of times a year... kinda like CXhristians going to church only at Xmas and Easter...

Sure there are quite a lot of idiots who become even greater idiots when drunk. I am an atheist so why would I follow any religion they all are equally crazy to me.

Sent from my ME172V using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

FSAR - your problem is a strictly urban one and not at all limited to Thailand... begging scams happen in cities all over the world. Personal choice as to whether you feel like giving or not... I, personally, find it fairly easy to distinguish those truly in need from the scammers (hint - prime locations are occupied by scammers). In my village (15,000 peeps) there are no scammers, and really no one in need as the community tends to care for the disenfranchised.

Sorry but you're squatters and you bribing the local government to let you build your restaurants there doesn't make it legal. It's time to take out the trash!

Go Army!

If they do have a contract from Patong Municipality they can take Patong Municipality to court for breach of contract.

steven - you cannot sue for breach of an illegal contract.

I am all for freedom to do with ones body what you please as long as you don't bother others.

And there in lies the dilemma - alcohol quite often leads to 'bothering' others!

Thailand is NOT a secular nation. It is a Buddhist nation and you'd think everyone could follow the 5th precept at least a couple of times a year... kinda like CXhristians going to church only at Xmas and Easter...

For all practises and purposes: workpermit for the OP will not be possible.

I'm not so sure about that steven. Nanny services in BKK seem to be advertising Burmese and Philippine nannies.... If this English nanny and her prospective customers could work a deal through a nanny service/agency then a work permit may well be an option. The customers would be paying big for the privilege of an English nanny though... maybe well worth the hoop jumping though!

I don't know Swift. I deal with TD Canada Trust and if I want to send money to Thailand I have to be there in person.

Sorry Apache but that just is not true. As a TD-CT customer the 8 yrs I've been here SWIFT transfers with TD-CT are an easy and expedient way to move larger amounts to Thailand. Just contact your manager/rep at TD-CT. They will want a written, signed request (fax or PDF) and your banks info here (their name, address, SWIFT number and your account number). Transfer fees are reasonable and $$ here in 3-5 working days.

Hopefully the foreign expat mentioned in the story has brought this up to the new powers that be.

The expat mentioned in the article is, at the present, contemplating a very generous offer from the EVA Group to purchase his home...

USA media and news may not be the best, but when compared with Thailand its pretty much a knockout.

I'd say that US journalism had a golden age from the end of WWII through about the end of the 70s when ethical, critical journalism was practiced. Mainstream media, as practised today in the US is not journalism in any distinguishable sense.

In this case I believe the U.S. has made the right call, and despite what currently seems to be a well intentioned junta, I can see this going badly if it's allowed to have carte blanche rule. You only need to look next door to the recent history of Myanmar (Burma) to see what could happen.

I really do not understand a philosophy which says, "if someone has tried something and it didn't work out well, no one should ever try again". It is a philosophy of fear. Of control. Just because my next door neighbour lost his house doesn't mean I'm going to. Be afraid of mistakes, don't try anything we don't endorse.

Dear Thailand,

Please feel free to stop sending your big-wigs to America for their education.

Which really would be prudent for all nations... USA's primary and secondary education systems are amongst the worst in the developed world and their higher education has, for the most part, lost the plot. 'Higher education' institutions are now expected to produce cookie-cutter productive citizens and consumers rather than citizens which develop critical thought and a healthy degree of scepticism.

Mike, I would have to disagree.

Higher education institutions are only expected to make a profit.

Its all about research grants today.

AOA - that IS the point.

This could be a really long discussion but I will try to keep it short and on point.

IMHO there are certain institutions which should NEVER be subject to the free market. In my world these include education, health care and benefits for the disenfranchised and needy/elderly.

Regarding higher education there are two philosophies which used to be clearly delineated: Trade colleges produced trained employees and universities produced critical thinkers. Not everyone is suited for critical thought but in market-driven higher education every idiot who couldn't write a critical essay if their life depended on it feels entitled to a higher education. Universities are now glorified trade colleges where there is no value in critical thought. Professors are reduced to 'content deliverers' and higher education becomes a farce.

Good primer here: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Miseducation-of-America/147227/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

Yes it is funny, but what is even more funny is all the fanatics that want to bash the USA, even there own citizens! I know this article is about USA, but the rest of the civilized world has taken the same approach/attitude towards the coup as the USA. Most all these other civilized countries have a much seedier past than the USA, but its always easier to bash the current number 1 country.

Most other developed ('civilized' is a colonial concept... as is 'developed' really but it seems less derogatory) countries have a much LONGER history than the USA so their transgressions may appear to be 'seedier'. In reality the USA has accomplished a great deal of 'seediness' in its short history and seems to be able to ramp that shizzle up considerable at their own whim.

I do take exception with the comment about "the US has the highest prison rate in the world". Why in the heck do you see that as a negative?

I see that America probably has the best democratic law and order society in the world. The average person in america is no different than the average person in the world. That said, its these countries like Thailand that have a joke of law/order system. If they did have an excellent justice system in place, these countries would have prison rates comparable to America's..

But they don't so many people out there are getting away with all sorts of crimes where they should be serving time and penalties according to proper enforcement of laws and regulations....Thailand is an incredibley weak law and order society where they turn to cultural complaince over regulatory compliance.

People in general (everywhere in the world) are dishonest and regulations are needed to manage them. Just take Thai driving behaviors and statistics as evidence...Without proper enforcement, drivers do as they please and stats reflect that. I only using Thai driving as one example but as an example with strict and proper enforcemnt, significant improvement would be noted...

CB

I guess some people need the security blanket of a police state. Me, I prefer fending for myself in the 'Wild East'. Ironic as most US citizens harken back to their own wild west as a sort of golden age of American freedom.

Is there anything more embarrassing than when a Thai starts spouting this nonsense?

Is this person seriously trying to compare corruption in the US with Thailand?

There is barely ANY law and order in this country

The only difference in corruption between the USA and Thailand is scale. In Thailand the average person has access to certain levels of corruption. In the USA corruption is an exclusive realm of economic whales (think Trump) and corporations...

Dear Thailand,

Please feel free to stop sending your big-wigs to America for their education.

Which really would be prudent for all nations... USA's primary and secondary education systems are amongst the worst in the developed world and their higher education has, for the most part, lost the plot. 'Higher education' institutions are now expected to produce cookie-cutter productive citizens and consumers rather than citizens which develop critical thought and a healthy degree of scepticism.

The genocide in what is now called America was committed mostly by Spain, with best supporting roles by a few other European powers.

Lets go with Europeans... In reality the 'genocide' was biological, small pox being the biggest killer of native americans. Although the Brits were fairly diabolical in their efforts to eradicate the 'primitive, uncivilized' natives:

Historical stories point to Lord Amherst requesting that smallpox infected blankets be sent to the Indians... “Captain Simeon Ecuyer had bought time by sending smallpox-infected blankets and handkerchiefs to the Indians surrounding the fort—an early example of biological warfare—which started an epidemic among them. Amherst himself had encouraged this tactic in a letter to Ecuyer.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/20/american-history-myths-debunked-indians-werent-defeated-white-settlers-113869

And BTW, the natives were far from 'primitive' or 'uncivilized'. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/23/american-myths-debunked-europeans-brought-culture-north-america-114481

We don't need the US or the EU and if Japanese businesses pull out because of politics, flooding ow whatever we don't need them either.

In fact we don't need anybody as we have ourselves and Thainess and as a line in an old song goes " who could ask for anything more ? ".

Are you an ostrich with its head buried in the sand? You don't (seemingly) understand micro or macro economics!

Yeah, let's rely on a flawed soft science who's academic elites are almost all collusionists in the international (read US) banking (read control) industry.