PMK

There was encouraging news for the growing army of Google-haters yesterday when a leading internet advertising researcher suggested that the search engine’s stranglehold on online promotions was looser than he had expected....

.....The draft report identified several companies as posing substantial threats to privacy, with Google ranking as the most hostile to privacy because it keeps data on user searches for months after they have been conducted. eBay was found to be one of the least hostile.

Privacy is a big concern to politicians and consumer groups alike. The US Federal Trade Commission has decided for the first time to include “consumer protection” matters in its investigation into the competition issues surrounding Google’s planned $3.1 billion (£1.6 billion) takeover of DoubleClick, the online advertising company. The FTC will shortly decide whether to extend its initial review of the deal into a more formal inquiry.....

Times Online

Have no idea! Only that a neighbour's property has had a well - the property is abandoned now so I can't ask details.

Peter

Do you know how deep your water table is? Just going deep isn't necessarily the right way to go about it.

Same way you know if the municipal water is clean or dirty, I guess - you don't and just assume dirty and never trust anyone. It is not so much for drinking water although I would not have any qualms about drinking it after going through a RO or charcoal + UV filter. I figure mine are at least as good as the local water delivery guys and all they do is filter tap water. Also, I study I saw on bottled water in India showed a lot of contamination in Nestle and other multinational brands so bottled water is not necessarily safe or healthy either.

It's really more of a financial decision for me. To pipe in municipal water they want 45,000 baht and said 'don't complain if there is no water' (!). I have to watch the budget right now so it is not an easy decision, but I'm going to call the guy Rimmer suggested and get a quote.

Thanks for all the info thus far.

Peter

never though about this; how do you know if the water from the ground is clean or dirty, and who can you trust? interesting idea!

Any information is helpful, so yes, it does help. It seems like 100,000 is not uncommon. I don't know why it should be so much - maybe this is a business worth looking into. ;-)

Peter

I don't know any good ones, but there are plenty available.

The cost depends on how deep they have to drill to get clear water.

Most drill only to a maximum of 25 meters but then your water would be brownish.

A friend of mine had a well drilled to about 60 meters.

Perfect drinkable water and it cost him about 100.000 baht including well pump.

Unfortunately he has moved to better pastures so I cannot ask him anymore which company he used.

Hope this helped.

cheers

onzestan

Hi Astral,

I'm not sure how to interpret your last sentence. Do you mean show the place without furniture?

Peter

Thailand furnished means table and chairs, sofa, beds, stove in kitchen.

I would not suggest you go further until you have a prospective tenant.

Does anyone know of good water well digging contractor in the Pattaya-Sattahip area? Also, if you have had one dug, what did it cost you?

Thanks,

Peter

Does anyone know of good water well digging contractor in the Pattaya-Sattahip area? Also, if you have had one dug, what did it cost you?

Thanks,

Peter

How about matresses?

Thanks,

Peter

In our case, renting a "fully furnished" did not include bedsheets, towels, kitchen stuff. We would not use them anyway.

All functionalities were there - 2 TVs, 2 aircons, microwave, washing machine, dining table and chairs, stove, beds, coffee table and a sofa, some cabinets and a wardrobe.

Only bulky things and nothing that can be taken in a pocket or in a bag.

Thais use furniture part for some tax trick. Our previous place was 60% rent for the condo and 40% was for the furniture that was built in and could not be easily removed.

We are just going through this in Sattahip for the first time. Big ones might be supplying water, electricity to the house and exterior wall or fence. Check if parking area and if you want it, a concrete area around the house is included in your quote. Also is water tank and pump included? You will have to buy burglar bars and screens yourself. Of course phone, TV - cable or whatever and landscaping including grading.

If you don't specify the builder may well supply the abolute cheapest lighting, plumbling fixtures, doors, tiles, paint and everything else that he find. The costs should all be spelled out (bedroom door - 6,000 baht, etc), or deducted and you buy all that stuff yourself.

Is that what you mean or have I misunderstood?

Peter

Im looking to build a new house on 54sq wah already have the quote for land which is 350k and house cost to build is 1.8m. besides these 2 expenses what other expenses will i be looking at?

Hi,

I posted this a few days ago in another, and probably the wrong, forum as I didn't receive any replies so I'm trying again here.

We are completing a 4 bedroom house in Sattahip that we want to rent out. I know there is not much market for unfurnished, but just how bad is it? Is it even worth considering? Just what does ‘furnished’ usually mean -what of the following are typically included on a one year lease?

Sheets and pillowcases

Blankets

Towels

Dishes

Cutlery

Pots and pans

What’s the typical deposit on house and furniture as a percent of the value of each?

Any other tips or suggestions welcome.

Peter

I'm just guessing too, but the term 'communal property' generally refers to a divorce or separation situation, and the way the law is written I would say it means just what is says: The spouse's share is equal to one child. Of course we are now talking about what happens in the absence of a will.

Now the following is not explained anywhere but i assume that since the spouse already owns 50% if the house was acquired during marriage with communal assets then the 50% owned by the deceased would be the only part that is inheritable ???????

People, I need some help with this. I’m a complete newbie at renting.

We are completing a 4 bedroom house in Sattahip that we want to rent out. I know there is not much market for unfurnished, but just how bad is it? Is it even worth considering? Just what does ‘furnished’ usually mean -what of the following are typically included on a one year lease?

Sheets and pillowcases

Blankets

Towels

Dishes

Cutlery

Pots and pans

What’s the typical deposit on house and furniture as a percent of the value of each?

Any other tips or suggestions welcome.

Peter

Thanks but this is the kind of site I am looking for an alternative to as it quotes in US$ and payment is by paypal or credit card. I specifically don't want to use a credit card, but a baht transfer to their account.

Actually I've found a few sites but I was more looking for recommendations based on personal experience.

Peter

Try here....flowers

totster

Hi,

I need to send flowers to someone in Bangkok. Order online and bank transfer funds to the shop would be most convenient for me, but so far all the places I've found price in US or other foreign currencies and are very expensive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Peter

Similar situation here. I got a new Toshiba Satellite with Vista. I can't find wireless network drivers for 2K or XP so am stuck with it. I detest it. Working over a network is miserable. Right click on file over the network and two minutes later the context menu comes up. Task Manager never loads when I need it - just hangs. BTW, it has 2 GB RAM.

Now I do 90% of my work on it in an XP virtual machine. I use Winpatrol or the teatimer function of Spybot Search and Destroy for security on all my computers, host - or virtual, which lets me approve or deny any registry changes. That basically takes care of 99% of security issues. I don't think I am missing out on anything by not using Vista - just the opposite, in fact.

Peter

Bought a new laptop with Vista. Vista sucks so bad it finally pushed me over the edge and I went out and bought a Macbook. Gorgeous!

Anybody wanting a nearly-new Vaio at a discounted price, pm me!

A DRM licensing authority is strong-arming search engines, bloggers and open source advocates in a desperate attempt to stop the spread of a software key that discables copyright protections on Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks.

Copyright reform activist Cory Doctorow on Monday decided to remove the information from a group blog to which he contributes after he received a cease and desist letter from the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACS-LA).

The consortium is backed by technology vendors including IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony and the Walt Disney Company. It oversees the AACS digital rights management technology that is used on high definition DVDs.

The so-called processing keys that the blog published lets users disable the DRM technology that prevents users from copying the disks or from playing it on unlicensed equipment or software.

Doctorow isn't the first blogger to receive a legal order from the DRM technology group. Several other blogs have been ordered to remove references to the key and links to a forum where it was first disclosed. Google also has received legal threats from the company.

The crack first surfaced mid February a Doom 9 forum.

In an act of defiance, numerous bloggers have posted the key on their websites or linked to the website detailing the original crack. They also submitted such web pages to social news services such as Digg in an effort to spread the information to a wide audience.

Ultimately the AACS' campaign succeed in achieving the direct opposite of what it attempted. Instead of stopping it from spreading, it notified more people of the crack and methods explaining how to exploit it.

Hi,

About a month ago the wife mentioned that she heard on the news that a major gov't dog shelter upcountry somewhere had it's budget cut drastically and there was not enough food for the occupants. Does anyone know about this and also how we could help, which I guess means where to send money.

Thanks,

Peter

Whisper (freeware) It also generates passwords.

Peter

Okay, I'll bite. Why are you not surprised?

Peter

Why am I not surprised that the person fronting for the complainants hold US citizenship.

That did it - thanks a lot.

Peter

You used to be able to hold down the end call button (hang up) for a few seconds to disconnect GPRS without having to navigate through the menus.

There does not seem to be an easy way to turn off GPRS on the O2 PDA. Is it necessary or is there no charge if there is no activity?

Thanks,

Peter

Gee, where did I criticize or 'go at' anyone? All I did was state facts and ask a question, but I do appreciate your response.

Peter

I originally had a married-to-Thai visa issued in Bangkok. Years later I reapplied in Pattaya. That necessitated starting again from scratch - in essence canceling the original visa. Therefore switching offices was not something to be done casually. Does anyone know if that is still the case on these non-immigrant visas?

Peter

I'm by no means an expert on this, and been wrong footed many times myself. However, if I understand you correctly, then what transpired is no surprise to me, and I don't see how you can criticise Pattaya immigration in this instance.

I assume you are not talking about the transfer of current visas from an old to a new passport (which is what this thread is about).

You are talking about re-applying for a marriage visa, when the existing one expired.

Well first and foremost they are not 'visas' as such, but permission to extend your stay in Thailand for a further 12 months. This has to be done every year, and every year there is a fresh consideration of your status - be it married to a Thai, retirement or whatever. Obviously if you reapplied in Bangkok, they would have your file to hand, and the extension for another year should be a formality, provide you still fulfilled their conditions - including any modifications thereof.

Now, if you decide to go to another immigration office, it is hardly surprising that they would wish to start from scratch. After all they don't have your previous case history, and my understanding on marriage extensions is that provincial immigration officers are required to carry out standard checks on applicants, and then pass the file to Bangkok for final approval. OK I suppose they could have requested your file from Bangkok, and checked the details - but I think that is expecting a bit too much, and in any event, as you are now applying at a different location, how are they to know that your circumstances - vis a vis your marriage - haven't changed in some way?

Retirement visas are not referred to Bangkok and can be approved on the spot by any office. But that doesn't alter the fact that each year is a new consideration, and the fact that you may have been stamped up for several years at that office or any other office has no bearing on their decision on whether to let you stay for another year.

By all means have a go at immigration when justified - but in this instance, I think not.

I originally had a married-to-Thai visa issued in Bangkok. Years later I reapplied in Pattaya. That necessitated starting again from scratch - in essence canceling the original visa. Therefore switching offices was not something to be done casually. Does anyone know if that is still the case on these non-immigrant visas?

Peter

Someone once told me there is an immigration office in Sattahip which is much nicer to deal with and much less busy than Pattaya. Anyone know more about that?

The reason I am posting this is to make you aware that your purchased copy of Vista could be a hack that will expire in a year, not so you will do the hack yourself ;-).

From the MS technet site: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista...3.mspx?mfr=true

PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/129890-1/ar...ml?tk=nl_dnxnws

Peter

Sorry to hear you mashed your screen. I'm going to try and check on the Thai font thing next week. I'll post if I find out anything useful.

Peter

No idea!

Mine doesn't do Thai either (actually doesn't do anything at all, smashed the touchscreen few days ago )

Didn't bother me that much, only thing I got in Thai were those silly AIS promo sms messages!