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jayceenik
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Posts posted by jayceenik
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The Thai IDP is delivered to farangs who have the 5-year Thai driver's license (but not the initial one-year). Valid for one year. From personal experience it is accepted with no fuss by Hertz USA, Hertz Switzerland and Europcar Belgium. Looks exactly like the Belgian IDP I used to get there decades ago before I settled down here, so Thailand certainly follows the multi-language international format for its IDP. Get it while you wait at the address given by a previous OP. You'll need your Thai driver's license and photocopy, passport and ID page photocopy, an immigration or home embassy residence certificate, plus a couple pictures and some satangs.
Khao San Road street traders might offer fancy "IDP", even "UN IDP". Of course these are worthless and illegal.
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While vacationing in the US a few years ago I experienced annoying eye cloudiness. Went to an expensive ophthalmologist in Eureka CA who did a quick eye test and found nothing. Back in BKK I went to Bumrungrad where I passed a battery of eye tests. After careful check the ophthalmologist correctly identified the problem. Told me it would eventually go away. It did. That at a fraction of what I had paid for that useless consultation in the US.
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Watch out for some cheaper laptops which have the fan underneath, I had one from work which had the fan in a position where it was covered by my leg when it was on my lap and it would overheat and shut down. Not much point having a laptop that you can't put on your lap.
The HP notebooks manuals, available online, specifically enjoin never to put the notebook (laptop) on one's laptop! Indeed for preventing fan cooling blockage problems. Must be set on a hard surface.
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True 4MPS in BKK
At times the speed will drop to dial-up snail pace. And there was a couple weeks when web sites would not load completely (red crosses in lieu of pics, for instance)
1/ Your line is not good, you must contact your apartment manager (my personal, dedicated True line runs outside the building straight from their box in the street to my apt).
2/ Disconnect, reconnect, disconnect, etc... your modem.
3/ If you have a filter it's the filter.
4/ You have virus.
5/ True Internet is good, it must be your PC that's bad.
I've given up calling True when the line drops down. Just read a book, go out, watch TV and weather the bad connexion time.
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How about a naturalized citizen losing his US citizenship because of not maintaining permanent abode in the US! Days before being shipped over to the Vietnam War in 1970 (I had enlisted in the US Army in 1969) I was naturalized (what an expression!). Came back and was honorably discharged after an extended tour of combat duty (18 months). Couldn't find a good job stateside, went to Canada and from there to Indonesia. Renewed US passport five years later at the US consulate in Jakarta and in short order received a letter from INS telling me that since I had left immediately after being sworn in as a new citizen (I was sent to the Nam by the US Army!) and not having permanent abode in the US they were considering cancelling my citizenship. Through a friend's connections Senator Barry Goldwater (God bless his soul) intervened in my behalf and the matter was dropped but I was so flustered with this affair (having come close to being stateless as I had automatically lost my former citizenship upon acquiring the US one) that I immediately took the legal steps to regain my former European citizenship and then formally renounced my US citizenship at a US consulate.
I've never come across this requirement to maintaining citizenship. It was my understanding that one can only lose their citizenship if found to have obtained citizenship illegally, been a part of a "subversive" organization, such as the NAZI party or concealing or misrepresenting a material fact in obtaining citizenship. I wouldn't call "where" you intend to live as a material fact because that can change quickly.Here's a excerpt from the USCIS site explaining that:
for the purpose of revoking and setting aside the order admitting such person to citizenship and canceling the certificate of naturalization on the ground that such order and certificate of naturalization were illegally procured or were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation, and such revocation and setting aside of the order admitting such person to citizenship and such canceling of certificate of naturalization shall be effective as of the original date of the order and certificate, respectively:
I think the USCIS has much more important priorities than to go after a naturalized citizen who chooses to live abroad with their citizen spouse, unless of course that place abroad is Cuba....lol.
Martian
At the time I applied for naturalization (1970), in the application form there was indeed the question "Do you intend to make the USA your permanent abode?" (or something to the effect). Learned about the importance of that question (to which I had obviously answered by "Yes") only when I got the INS letter which was, the INS Director (I went to DC to see him, so mad and concerned I was) told me, was initiated by the (overzealous?) US consul in Jakarta who must have taken a dislike at me (my Vietnam military service? my European origin?).
And, yes, I had to declare all my whereabouts since getting my very first passport five years earlier. In your quote there is the "willfull misrepresentation" clause which was indeed used against me by the INS claiming that I had demonstrated that I had no intention to permanently "abode" in the USA and so had lied on my application. Not true, really, I had tried hard to get a job stateside after my discharge. And it was ridiculous in the extreme to go after a straight guy just trying to make an honest living.
BTW I was filing IRS tax returns all the five years; while in the Army, working in Canada and then Indonesia and, being single, had no permanent abode anywhere; just company lodgings.
This abode requirement may have been dropped since then.
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How about a naturalized citizen losing his US citizenship because of not maintaining permanent abode in the US! Days before being shipped over to the Vietnam War in 1970 (I had enlisted in the US Army in 1969) I was naturalized (what an expression!). Came back and was honorably discharged after an extended tour of combat duty (18 months). Couldn't find a good job stateside, went to Canada and from there to Indonesia. Renewed US passport five years later at the US consulate in Jakarta and in short order received a letter from INS telling me that since I had left immediately after being sworn in as a new citizen (I was sent to the Nam by the US Army!) and not having permanent abode in the US they were considering cancelling my citizenship. Through a friend's connections Senator Barry Goldwater (God bless his soul) intervened in my behalf and the matter was dropped but I was so flustered with this affair (having come close to being stateless as I had automatically lost my former citizenship upon acquiring the US one) that I immediately took the legal steps to regain my former European citizenship and then formally renounced my US citizenship at a US consulate.
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Thanks to newbie and monty for the info.
As for basjke I'm too experiencing a lot of unusual short and not so short internet cuts with True 4MPS ADSL in Bangkok for the past few days, especially in the afternoon. I don't bother to call True anymore. Every time I complain about internet troubles on the phone they blame my equipment. Eventually the connection reverts to normal, anyway.
For info (from yesterday's The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/1...ia.digitalmedia ):
YouTube, which was founded in California in 2005, was bought by Google just a year later for $1.65bn and has since become the biggest video sharing website on the web.
It has an estimated 72 million users in the US alone, and its videos are watched more than 2.5 billion times each month.
In the UK, YouTube accounted for almost 50% of the 3.5bn video clips watched by web users in March, according to the latest comScore figures.
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I'm in BKK this month with True ADSL. No problem getting YouTube. In August I return to Pattaya where I have TOT since February and, unfortunately, no YouTube. I plan to bail out of TOT and go over to TT&T Maxnet. YouTube is just too important a source of information (BBC, EU, CNN, US prez election) and entertainment.
The Loxinfo manager in Pattaya told me that TOT's international internet feed is low grade. Banning YouTube certainly frees up some bandwidth. Plus that obnoxious a**hole and his derogatory clips about the king...
From the previous posts I gather that (please correct if wrong)
1/ TT&T Maxnet has an office in Carrefour. I can't remember seeing it, where is it?
2/ A TT&T phone line is required (with possibly a lengthy wait). My present TOT line cannot be used?
3/ TT&T Maxnet subscribers have not experienced any YouTube censorship?
4/ I once found the TT&T Maxnet website but have lost it. Google brings now only a speed test. Anybody has it?
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You're a guest in this country. Act like it.
Let me get this straight: A Thai goes shopping in a Carrefour store in Paris, is overcharged (mistake or whatever) at the cashier's but is not expected to complain because he is a guest. Have I got this right?
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1/ I'm thinking of closing my TOT Pattaya ADSL and switching over to TT&T MAXNET. Seems like users are satisfied and no blockage of youtube. I'd rather switch than fight (TOT)!
2/ BTW. Do we get an e-mail address (to use with Outlook or Mail) with a 1MPS TOT account? I've twice already asked at their office on Central Road but could get no useable info on that. The first time I was told to use a cybercafé if I wanted one! (I can use Hotmail from my own PC, thank you!) The second time I got a "SMTP.totisP.net" scribble but that's not enough for Outlook or Mail to set up an e-mail address!
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I'm having problems here in Bangbon as well. The pages load and I can see the details about the videos, but as soon as I click on the video I get the message "We're sorry, this video is no longer available." I've written to Yotube (Google security issue) and got an automatic response and will probably have to wait for the weekend to finish before an actial human reads the information I sent (I even sent a screen shot of the page with the message in the video).
If anyone else wants to alert them, send an Email to this address
I emailed them already. My original message was:
Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:16:13 -0700
The filter (Sorry, this video is no longer available) set up for
Thailand now blocks for the past couple months nearly all VDO for users
of ISP TOT in Pattaya, Thailand. Other ISP and TOT elsewhere not
affected. Please tweak asap your server concerning TOT Pattaya.
I first got this automated answer back (the one you got already):
Thank you for contacting YouTube about your video player issue! We receive lots of questions from users like you every day. While, we are continually trying our best to give everyone a personal response we encourage you to review the common questions and answers in this automated email to see if they help your situation.
Followed by a long list of things that can go wrong with streaming YT. Useless in this case.
Then this personal reply:
Hi there,
Thanks for your email.We have found that the users with ad-blocking software enabled may not be able to see videos due to a conflict with our flash detection code. Also, try disabling any softwares like "Web Accelerator" which might be causing this issue.
Regards,
Rayo
The YouTube Team
And yesterday I got an automated "Are you satisfied with our answer, etc..." Definitely not! There was also a comment box where I renewed my original complaint about TOT's disastrous use of their "offending" clips blocking filter.
Super to have send them a screen shot. But how did you manage to join it to the YT message?
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Of interest http://thaicrisis.wordpress.com/2008/06/09...-filter-system/
Includes a post by the idiot (I'll not mention his name!) who is on a one-man crusade to mad the Thai govt into blocking YouTube (or parts thereof). Click on his post name blog link (you'll guess easily which one!) and see the message you get.
Also check http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotne...newsid=30073522.
Apparently, on YouTube at least, that guy is the only "serious" offender. Click the youtube link (it's the first one!) and his personal YT page will open but the VDO will show the usual 'Sorry". Like I said, a total idiot.
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I don't think that the server problems or whatever the problem, is restricted to only the You Tube site. I haven't been able to view videos from other sites such as Yahoo, AOL and even CNET Asia. Is anyone else having difficulty viewing video from sites other than You Tube?
Pattayadavid
TOT Pattaya. Except for YouTube no problems streaming from all VDO sites including Yahoo, CNET and AOL. Except that YouTube clips are blocked on AOL (not the others).
I tried the Flash Player 10 beta version. Made no difference in the blockage.
YouTube (except, I guess, the "offending" clips) is not blocked at all on my True ADSL connection in BKK. No problems there.
I still think that this blockage (which is haphazard by the way, many clips get through) has to do with the censorship filter. The problem being that the other ISP have installed the YouTube filter properly. TOT hasn't.
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Confined to Pattaya? Your mistake indeed. Sorry, I'd also stupidly missed the facts that this thread is in the Pattaya forum and Pattaya is mentioned in the title.
I'm in Ratchaburi and haven't been able to get Youtube for at least a month. No I haven't complained and don't intend to as this is so obviously part of a national problem.
How strangely pedantic of you to draw attention to my spelling 'elitist' wrong. No there is no such thing as an ''elitist Pattaya attitude'' as far as I'm aware. I was joking. Next time I'll have to remember to add a smiley for the hard of thinking. (Oh I've just noticed I did add 'Lols'- sorry... must be more obvious)
Anyway, if I caused offence, I apologise, I didn't mean to.
1/ Confined to Pattaya. Yes. All your quoted posts date from April and nothing has been heard lately from TOT YT problems outside of Pattaya (just you).
2/ This is not part of the Pattaya Forum. It's the Youtube Problems (Mini?) Forum.
3/ The general subject is-surprise-Youtube problems in general. In the past couple weeks a thread has been started concerning TOT Pattaya subscribers unable to stream YT clips. It's a thread! That is a discussion about a very particular aspect of the general forum, concerning only those affected individuals (here the TOT Pattaya residents). So, it creates confusion to chime in the thread to say that, unlike the other guys, you have no problems if you don't also mention that you're not in Pattaya! But, of course, the (Mini?) Forum itself is open to all, not just the Pattaya Elite or the East Coast Elite or the Obama Elite.
4/ Consumer 101 says Complain and Complain Again if you're not satisfied with a product!
5/ I did not correct your spelling. (sic) is a literary device to indicate that the spelling belongs to the quoted words. Maybe a typing mistake or maybe intentional. Word 2007 spelling check doesn't work with TV so it's only too easy to let typing mistakes slip by.
6/ So, I'm hard of thinking (your words). Could be. After 37 years in SE Asia (last 20 in the LOS) I'm bound to have a few circuits fried in my brain.
7/ Relax. Don't get upset about small nothings. TV is a great way to request and exchange info, give one's take on a subject, and (maybe!) make a few cyberbuddies on the way.
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Where does this thread say it's only about Pattaya?
Certainly the problem is not confined to Pattaya but is nationwide. What a strange post unless I'm missing something. Is this the 'Elitest Pattaya attitude' that we here so much about. Lols.
Interesting to hear that, according to you, YouTube is blocked nationwide by TOT. We thought this TOT blockage was presently confined only to Pattaya. That's why this thread ran on TOT Pattaya's troubles, ways to get around it and, hopefully, fix it. Our mistake, then.
So, where are you in Thailand that TOT has also blocked your access to YouTube? Please tell us. Have you complained to your TOT office yet? If yes, are they going to fix the problem?
Also, is there really such a thing as "Elitest (sic) Pattaya attitude"? What is it? I have never heard about it, but then my main abode is Bangkok (where I have True 4MPS and so don't know if YouTube is also blocked by TOT in BKK).
LOL LOL LOL
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Here is the latest on YouTube and TOT Pattaya.
Last Friday I went to TOT Pattaya Klang to complain about YouTube being blocked. The girl was blissfully unaware of any block, didn't even know what YouTube is. After assuring her that I was not a mad Farang complaining about nothing she called a tech in BKK who, indeed, acknowledged that it was a server problem and they would look into it. They did! I went again this morning to renew my complaint but this time the girl was smilingly waiting for me. She even has my TOT tel nr posted on her monitor! Anyway, TOT BKK is now well aware of the problem with YouTube in Pattaya. It is a block problem with their server here but cannot be fixed right away because they need a part that's not readily available right now. Thus she would not give me an estimate about when the server will be fixed but insisted that they will do their utmost diligence to get YouTube back online. OK with me.
I think that they have been tinkering with the filter that YouTube had to devise for the Thai govt to block offending clips without having to block entirely YouTube everytime some idiot uploads a "bad" clip.
Goody, goody! We'll eventually get our YouTube! Next week? Next month? Patience!
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After at least several days of limited functionality of YouTube, things are back to normal. Whereas before I had to use the &fmt=18 trick to get videos to play, and restart my browser in order to obtain audio, and I could not access videos embedded on websites outside YouTube.
What happens if, for example, you click
"Finally, a Zoo recognizes the evil powers of otters!"
No problem with watching that, even if I do detest otters and their cuteness.
Then, if you can watch that and if you have no trouble streaming YouTube clips you are not on the TOT Pattaya server since by now even TOT has acknowledged that, indeed, YouTube is (in greater part) blocked on their Pattaya server because of a technical problem. Either you don't live in Pattaya or you're pulling our collective leg!
This thread is about us TOT subscribers in Pattaya unable to watch YouTube!
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Going around "We're sorry, this video is no longer available".
This method works well. A pain to do the copy&paste and it doesn't fix the blocking of embedded VDO but it's better than not being able to watch our favorite clips at all.
Wonder how long before "they" will block it too!
http://skyllohacks.blogspot.com/2008/02/ho...s-when-you.html
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quote]<br /><br /><br />
as i said in my post you need to use the high quality download link as the other is blocked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsDJycG4Va0&fmt=18
High quality is what I used and got the censorship message.
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<br /><br /><br />
you can use www.keepvid.com and download your video.
Trying to use www.keepvid.com to download one of the "sorry, not available" YT clips this is the censorship message I get:
<H1 id=mainTitle>The website declined to show this webpage</H1> HTTP 403 <H3 id=likelyCauses>Most likely causes:</H3>
- This website requires you to log in.
<H2 id=whatToTry>What you can try:</H2>
Go back to the previous page.
This error (HTTP 403 Forbidden) means that Internet Explorer was able to connect to the website, but it does not have permission to view the webpage.
For more information about HTTP errors, see Help.
- This website requires you to log in.
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So, after reading your problems now... I see only one explanation : YouTube messed it up. And has lost control over its filter system.
However, I do think that the thai authorities -again- are playing with their ban system, and obviously too : they messed it up.
I think you've got it right. I thought too about this being possibly a filter initiated originally by YT to please the Thais and now gone awry on some Thai ISP servers like TOT Pattaya. I was in BKK a week ago, where I have True 4MPS, and, strangely enough, I got a couple of these "sorry, no longer available" messages but a retry would nevertheless stream the clip OK. Indication of a "bug", isn't?
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After at least several days of limited functionality of YouTube, things are back to normal. Whereas before I had to use the &fmt=18 trick to get videos to play, and restart my browser in order to obtain audio, and I could not access videos embedded on websites outside YouTube.
What happens if, for example, you click
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Very confusing. After adding &fmt=18 I can watch all these "giraffes" clips (previous post) and also some (not all!) other clips that come in High Quality without the add-on. But most of the Obama series, for example, like
, are blocked.I'll try TOT again Monday. This time I'll get the girl to download Flash Player and see for herself what the problem is.
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I went to TOT Pattaya Klang this morning. The friendly little girl in the back office had no idea what YouTube is and, anyway, could not replicate the non-available problem because Flash Player is not installed on her work station PC (the YT page would open up with all the bells and whistles except that at the screen place was the message that Flash Player had to be installed). I had to convince her that all my friends in Pattaya have the same problem and it's with TOT only. She discussed the matter on the phone with a technician who said it was a Server problem and he would try to fix it later today.
If it's not fixed by this weekend I'll go back and complain Monday. I suggest that all disgruntled TOT users do the same.
Fox News Is A Great Tool For Judging My Buddhist Practice
in Buddhism
Posted
And what is your other English channel? If it's Aljazeera then you're indeed on a wild ride surfing from one to the other, and courting high blood pressure and a smashed TV in the process. I used to watch a lot of FOX for political entertainment but it's too infuriating too often for my mental peace. A pity, FOX has a good format and some very talented hosts (no, not BOR!). Anyway, it's sad that so many Americans swear only by FOX News (like Dick Cheney!) for their information. They end up hating not only the terminally evil Democrats but also the whole world (except Israel and whatever the currently approved lapdog country is).