Lannig

I wouldn't bother about the RAM but I would put the hard disk in my cabin luggage.

That's what I've done when I've carried a few desktops along.

I've never had any problem. My baggage hasn't been inspected anyway but even if it had, it was very obvious that they were not new machines (recycled desktop computers from my employer)

Don't know about you, but the link to their e-store for the J5 doesn't work for me, which would make it difficult to buy it from there.

The J5 is nowhere to be seen on their mobile phone section either: https://www.s-estore.com/category/mobile

I think that the Samsung A series are well-built and reliable phones at a very good price.

In my opinion you have made a wise choice.

As for 2G shutdown, well, for the time being only AIS is concerned in the foreseeable future if I'm not misled.

See: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/907368-implications-of-shutdown-of-2g-service/

Maybe you are being far-sighted ? While we can't know what the future holds, the odds do seem to be against Thailand going through it's present stage and emerging as a better place to live and bring up a family. More factions seeking power here than in Game of Thrones.

I really can't envision a scenario towards a "better place" as of now. Not for us, for sure.

The country is more deeply divided than ever and the junta is slowly spreading ideas that foreigners are the source for much of Thailand's trouble. When things turn very ugly, and I predict that there's a very high chance for this to happen when all Thais will have lost their only common moral reference, then I wouldn't like to be in Thailand, because angry mobs will seek scapegoats ... have you people seen the movie "No Escape"? Just fiction... but becoming more and more a possible scenario as time passes IMHO.

Weird indeed! can you use it now? and can you refill it?

A word of caution : if you get a free SIM, do keep the package with the bar code.

Recently I have been unable to register my passport and therefore activate a new SIM because I hadn't kept it For a new SIM that has never been used, they do need the barcode on the package to process the registration. They can't get the information from the SIM itself, apparently.

The SIM I had was bundled with a smartphone, with very limited packaging and just glued to the phone's box. I had carelessly destroyed the shrink wrap plastic with the barcode sticker...

I eventually had to buy another SIM. Not a big deal (50B), just a bit of frustration.

When you buy a new SIM (as opposed to getting it for free or having it come bundled to a phone) the registration is done at sale time.

I've always found most of the staff at the Telewiz outlets (now being renamed to AIS Buddy) especially clueless and with a terrible attitude.

Many times I've really felt like I was at some goverment office with the kind of people you often (OK, I said often, not always) have to deal with there.

DTAC shops are way, way more customer-oriented.

OK, my bad for having a momentary lapse of judgement trying to apply a rationale (market price) to the pricing of second hand cars. You people who've corrected me are absolutely right, especially Familyonthemove who's mentioned the loan issues.

Yes, pretty much the same for house rents. It has happened to me, after renting a townhouse for 5 years, after applying some fresh paint the landlord suddenly decided to multiply the rent by more than two. I moved and the place has been empty since then (almost 2 years), slowly degradating...

Same goes for restaurants with very few customers. The "Thai logic" is to raise the price.

I am not going into politics here. But!!. She foresees big trouble.Increasing poverty and debt, increasing violence and "control measures", maybe increased climate and agricultural problems.She thinks the police/military rivalry maybe insoluble and also the royalist/democratic divide She thinks the problem of Islam in France and the UK is by comparison a small problem!

I wouldn't call problems with islamists in France "small" but I do agree on most of these grim predictions for Thailand.

I have made the same decision in 2007 (roughly after the coup) and the reasons that made me leave then are even much, much more true today.

Do I regret this decision sometimes? of course I do. Do I still think that it was the wisest thing to do? Yes, I still do.

Giving children a proper education in Thailand costs a lot too. Really a lot. Agree with WishWashMan.

Neither have I seen such lately. I suspect that the fact that you need to have your passport registered to your SIM card before it even activates now makes this kind of freebie offer not practical.

Naked SIMs are just 50B in any 7/11. Almost nothing.

People at operators booths in the airport will push you towards the special "tourist SIM" bundles they offer for a few hundred bahts that include talk time and internet data. Whether these are good for you or not is your choice.

Yesterday it was up and down like a whore's drawers.

Seem alright now.

Probably applying Windows Updates.

For God's sake I do hope they're not running the forum on Winblows boxes

Love such discussion about old iron like this

Never had this particular machine myself athough that's quite my "era" of personal computing hobbyist youngster (which later turned out to become my job)

I remember messing with 5 1/4 floppy disc seek timings to speed them up, poking values in the binaries of the disc O/S (Flex 6800)

Household debt in the UK is huge. Mainly because of house prices/mortgages. Household debt in Thailand is unsustainable as no-body wants second hand cars or houses. The only asset of value is land. I can buy a secondhand Mercedes for 50,000 Baht in the UK. Here it is 200,000 Baht. I can buy a house in the UK for 10M Baht. But I can probably sell it. Here I can buy one for 5M Baht Unsaleable. The Bank will take it if I don't pay the loan, but they can't sell it either. Cuckoo land.

Although I think you do have a point, you're contradicting yourself. If no-one wanted 2nd hand cars, the prices would be low. As you've pointed out, second-hand cars are insanely expensive in Thailand.

I guess the only thing she can be thank full for now, is not being caught in Dubai.

Why? because UAE applies the death penalty to drug traffickers? oh wait...

Useful extra tip from KhunBENQ above.

Glad you've figured it out. Don't be too hard on your J7. Granted it's kind of low-end in the Samsung product range, but it's still quite a decent phone IMHO. Don't think it's that "dumb"

To all the ThaiVisa commentators advising that people stay away from Thailand, how many of you will follow your own advice and either leave Thailand, or if like most, you don't live here, will never come back to Thailand again ?

Thought so.

Entirely irrelevant. Expats and frequent visitors posting to this forum are a minuscule minority of the foreigners staying in Thailand at a given time, and even if such a despicable event seriously harms their motivation to be in the LOS, they more or less all have overwhelming reasons to stay or come back, such as having GF/BF/family/children/house/job etc.

Will it cost Thailand a small drop in the number of arrivals of the mass of "regular", "ordinary" tourists who are what's relevant to the economy? I would think so.

Forgot to mention: while I like Emirates, they have a drawback for net addicts like me

- they have in-flight internet aboard the A380s. It's even free for the first 10 megs and only 1$ for the next 500 megs which is very cheap. However it's all but usable.in my experience: hours of complete blackout during most flights and the rest of the time you can count bits as they arrive. Loading even the simplest web page takes minutes. I usually give up quickly...

- wifi at Dubai sucks too. It's only free for 1 hour and after this you have to pay (something like 5$/hour) for a service of abysmal quality, slow as hell and unstable. Heavily censored too. I've found out that even mainstream French media web sites were censored for some strange reason.

Agreed with both posters. Although I'm a big Android fan, I have to say that I've been quite impressed by what Windows Phone have to offer for a low price. I have a Lumia 550 and an Archos Cesium 50 and both are stable, smooth to use and reasonably responsive devices for less than 100 euros.

For people with little or no experience of smartphones, I'd certainly recommend a Windows Phone over Android (my deep beliefs prohibits me from touching an Ip**** or even pronounce its name ... so that's not an option)

I'm sad to see MS giving up. The Windows Mobile platform has a potential but they're sadly unable to make it user base reach a critical mass. Screwing up badly, indeed.

You have read the Hun Hin news or watched the video? I suspect that is the cause. Currently there seems to still be about twice the number of forum users than is normal.

Hmmm... far reached I'd say, I wouldn't expect this sad event to drag in as many users, as, say, a new coup

But who knows?

Between the two hua hin topics there are around 3700 viewers there alone at the moment. Probably much more shortly after breaking the news.

Nice to know, but the real question is: is this too much for the site to remain stable? in other words, is this the reason for the severe instability we've been experiencing earlier today?

+1

If you need to discuss something rather complicated and want to communicate with someone who has good English skills, you'd better try the Philippines.

Now is the time for Asean, mate.

Thai people are supposed to become able to communicate in English. At least that's what the government junta wants.

I know, wishful thinking.

Agreed, what suprised me was dumbphone with wifi capability.

You have read the Hun Hin news or watched the video? I suspect that is the cause. Currently there seems to still be about twice the number of forum users than is normal.

Hmmm... far reached I'd say, I wouldn't expect this sad event to drag in as many users, as, say, a new coup

But who knows?

You're using your TOT wifi package when there's an antenna within reach and you connect to their signal.

If you're not connected to any wifi and you have data (3G or maybe GPRS/EDGE) active on your phone, it will revert to this service for data connection and AIS will charge you for this. That's what has happened here.

Make sure that 3G/GPRS/EDGE data are disabled on your phone.

By the way, you mention "dumbphone" which I find confusing. What kind of "dumbphone" has wifi? or was that just a play of words?

Whomever started it, what civilized being, getting a slap on the face from an old lady for whatever reason good or not, would knock her down then kick her face violently while she's lying semi-unconscious?

None. This is animal behaviour. Can't be justified, whatever has been said or done before.