youngkiwi

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out!

I'm looking to purchase a glass computer desk. Having looked in all the obvious places (Index, Koncept) and the office furniture stores, most desks made in Thailand are either made of wood or wood veneer.

I'm specifically looking for a large desk with a glass top. If you've seen any around, I'd be grateful for any pointers on where to look.

The older C180's are very reliable indeed. They are built for comfort and have a spacious interior as well.

Sinativa Spa Club near the Green Palace Hotel. While considerably more expensive than other venues, great massage and first class service. One hour oil massage will set you back 900 baht.

Yes, you have to pay for a consultation with the surgeon but the cost is low (under 1000 baht) for initial consultation. I suggest that you contact the hospital directly with your other questions. This way you will get more informed answers.

Dr Amorn Poomee is widely regarded as one of the foremost plastic surgeons specialising in this area who practices at Bumrungrad. I know of several people close to me which have had extensive work done by him with excellent results. Bumrungrad has an excellent reputation as an international hospital, and likewise Bangkok General Hospital which is a private facility.

It is easy to arrange travel and transportation. It would be cheaper to stay at a guesthouse on Khao San, but personally I would recommend you stay in Sukhumvit near the hospital. There is no shortage of reasonably priced hotels in the area. Perhaps if you gave us your hotel budget, we could give you more specific recommendations.

3DMax is the design software of choice for many top interior designers, both here in Thailand and abroad.

I never get bored, there is so much to do. If you're stuck in a rut, you need to look at your motivation which is why many people get into a slump and find it hard to move forward. Of course in order to get motivated, you need to have clear goals and know what you want. Look at your goals first and work back from there.

Google Adsense is the most popular advertising network enabling you to display ads on your pages, and get paid for each click. You can learn more about Adsense, how it works, and how to set it up here: http://www.google.com/adsense

The key to generating income via Adsense is to build quality content on your web site. There is no trick to instantly making a fortune through Adsense. It all comes by developing quality, unique content which is valuable to your visitors.

I know of many people who only make a dollar or two a day from Adsense, but then again I also know people who make thousands of dollars each month. Typically these sites have been running for many years, and provide a significant content base as well as a loyal community of followers.

As far as SEO is concerned, Google rewards sites which provide valuable content, and hence ranks them higher in its search results. There are also search engine optimisation strategies which one can incorporate to improve their position in search results, one of which is link building (getting other sites to link to you).

Ultimately, if you are wanting to generate a passive income using Adsense, I suggest you focus on building worthwhile content and if you have the patience and commitment, Google will reward you for this in the long run.

Solar or wind turbine are options but setup costs are hefty.

Have you checked for faulty memory? Download Hiren's Boot CD and use the memtest application to make sure your RAM is okay. Faulty RAM can cause the types of problems you are experiencing.

Cha-am is a great spot with the longest white sand beach in Thailand. It's approximately 2.5-3 hours from Bangkok depending on how you get there, and is not packed with tourists making it an ideal spot to unwind. Plenty of fresh seafood and accommodation options.

Just a thought, as you want to include online purchasing, you may want to consider using Oscommerce or Zencart. Both are open-source online shopping applications which can be installed on your web site. The online shopping/product catalogue options are built in, plus being open source the software is free.

All you need to do is either purchase a template, or have one customised for you and you have your own custom store. Both applications also support multiple languages and a Thai language pack is available, as well as multiple currency options and integration with different payment processors. I have customised both Oscommerce and Zencart sites using the Thai language pack and localised currency options which is all straightforward.

The more direction you can provide the the designer the better, so that they can have a clear picture of the style of logo you want to achieve. Beware of designers which only offer one revision to the initial design. This is a trap which many people fall into. It's best to provide as much detail as possible from the outset, and make sure your designer is willing to accommodate a reasonable round of revisions to fine-tweak the logo to how you want it.

You need to also consider the colours required. Logos in full colour (CMYK) will cost more to print if you use off-set printing. If you plan a large amount of off-set printing using the logo, it would be best to use a limited number of colours, say, two or three, and make these pantone colours. Printing in pantone is cheaper as only the pantone colours need to be loaded into the press. Of course, for use on the web, or printing via digital means, using full colour is not an issue.

I recommend you also obtain your logo in its original vector form, such as AI or PDF format. The vector format has advantages over raster based files including better scalability (your logo can be resized without any quality loss), and portability (logo is compatible with Macs/PC's or Linux machines). Many designers try not to provide the original vector files so that you have to go back to them if you need another format (and hence charge you more).

In addition to having the original vector files, you can have them made raster riles at 300 dpi (print ready), such as TIF or PNG. GIF and JPG formats are widely used for the web.

Make sure you get the original vector files which allows you to easily obtain the above formats.

If you use a content management system, open-source software such as Joomla is one of the best options. There is a strong developer base and excellent support via the Joomla forums. Joomla is also easy to "skin", ie, install templates which you can obtain for free, or purchase from Joomla template providers.

Web hosting can be provided by any competent provider worldwide. It would be wise to go with one of the larger companies, which ensures you are dealing directly with the source, and not through a "reseller" which is often the case with many small providers both here and internationally. As I mentioned in a previous post, dealing with resellers can cause headaches in the long run if your site goes down and you can't contact the reseller. Best to deal direct with the source and ensure they have 24 hour availability to deal with any support issues which may arise.

Choosing the location to host your site largely depends on your target market. If your main target is the US, hosting in the USA would provide the best connectivity to that market. Hosting is not dependent on the providers location.

There are no technical differences between the domain suffixes you mention, .com, .net, .org, etc. Traditionally .com domains are the leading domain suffix for commercial/business sites. The .net suffix was established for network based operations in the US, and .org domains for organisations. In saying that, all of those combinations are widely used for commercial/business sites, regardless of the registrant's location. Any good provider can arrange the registration of any virtually any domain you require, as well as any localised domains in particular countries required (eg, .co.th if you have a Thai registered company). On another note, .asia domains are gaining in popularity and these are being snapped up fast by companies who want to expand into Asia.

I tried a Cheeseburger at Garage Central World tonight. The bun was hard, beef pattie watery and it was cooked unevenly. Despite the tomato being good quality, overall it was a very average burger and I would not recommend. Tony Roma's does a much better burger for a tad more money.

The main reason to have your hosting separate from your web designer is some designers provide a sub-standard hosting service and quite often are resellers of a hosting company, so in essence you are dealing with the middleman. This can be a problem if your site goes down and your point of contact is with the designer (who you may not be able to contact 24/7) rather than the hosting company itself. While many designers are reliable in terms of arranging and providing ongoing hosting, if you want to be assured that you are dealing direct with the hosting source, sign-up with a hosting provider directly.

It is not necessarily true that you should avoid all-in-one solutions as the previous poster indicates. Unless the web site you are having built is built around some kind of content management system which the developer uses, designers do not "hard-code" sites specifically to their server. If your designer does use a content management system to build on, make sure they are using an open-source solution such as Joomla, and that you have a backup of your CMS database (usually MySQL) as well as all your web site content/images. This way, you can easily move to a different provider should the need arise.

For most sites which are not overly complex, in fact it may not be necessary to have a content management system in place. A static site is much easier to transfer to another provider than one with a back-end database.

Make sure your domain name is registered in your own name, and not that of your designer or hosting company - so that you maintain ownership control and can transfer the domain name if required. Some designers register their clients domains in their own name, so this is something to look out for.

Regarding search engine optimisation, your site should be constructed from the outset using basic SEO techniques, including good use of META tags and keyword density, etc. An important ongoing part of successful SEO is building links from other pages which link to your site. If you have the time, you can accomplish basic link building yourself and hire an SEO expert to make adjustments to your site where required.

Hope this info is useful, and if you need further help, please PM me.

Agreed on the Red Rose being the best theme hotel. If you're passing through Chiang Rai, check it out. It is also impeccably clean and maintained to the highest standard.

Dr Amorn Poomee at Bumrungrad Hospital. He is a highly competent and widely respected plastic surgeon.

You can use EMS (tracking) via Thailand Post to send items internationally. It is cheaper at an official Thailand Post Office rather than one of the mail agents, who add on a margin. I can't offer advice regarding mailing items to Thailand from the USA, having never done so. I've had no problems receiving however many items from abroad, as long as the packages are not too large (books, bags, clothing). It is unlikely that Thai customs will stop small items unless they have a high declared value on the customs declaration. In saying that, I have had purchases with declared values of several thousand baht come straight through with no hold-ups.

Pan Cosmetics at Siam Square. A tad expensive but great deals if you buy a coupon book for repeat visits. Very professional staff and a range of treatment options for different skin types. All I can say is wow!

8 years and counting.

I use Thailand's EMS to send items regularly between Thailand and New Zealand and have found the service to be flawless, both in terms of delivery speed (3-4 days), and online tracking to the final destination. I can't speak for sending to other countries though.

The Bangkok General Post office is located on Chareonkrung Road (opposite Charoenkrung Soi 47) which is not far from the bottom of Silom Road, within walking distance from State Tower. To get there on the BTS, just get off at Saphan Taksin station and keep walking past Robinson Bangrak shopping centre for about 1km. It's on the same side. You can't miss it.

If you take a public bus from Mo Chit bus station, it takes approximately four hours. Jack's Golf offer a turn-key package which leaves from Sukhumvit Soi 12 daily at 5am, which gets you back into Bangkok by 1pm. They charge 2200 baht including Cambodia visa and buffet lunch. If you want a hassle free and easy option, that would be your best bet. It is not necessary to get a visa in advance, as this can be obtained on the border. If you use Jack's Golf, they handle all of this for you. Hope this helps.