delboy

Strange that the ESPNSTAR website was showing the game in it's schedules for Thailand even as the game was in progress.

Was this a very late decision not to show the match, or are ESPNSTAR just as incompetent as UBC/True?

I do believe that the Premier League matches will appear as normal, but I'm unsure about the ESPN coverage (FA Cup, Football Focus etc.).

The ESPNSTAR website is showing Football Focus in it's schedule for Thailand tonight at 19.00 and it's also shown in the True online schedule, so maybe things will get a little clearer then.

Important - If you hold UK State Pension Rights - This Could Cost You Money.

But there is now a time limit at the bottom of page 3 in this UK National Insurance - Voluntary Payments Guide there is a statement that Voluntary Payments must be made before 6th April 2009

There is nothing new in this, it's been known ever since the UK government made their cock-up. The time limit of 6 April 2009 applys ONLY to voluntary contributions for the years 1996-2002, voluntary contributions for other years can still be paid up till 5 years after the year in question. For example you can pay voluntary contributions for the tax year 2007-2008 up to March 2013, but they will be increased in line with inflation.

However it is a great way to pay for years that you have missed at a bargain price, and anybody who does not have the 30 years credits should avail themselves of this opportunity to boost their pension.

Any idea on how to disable the yahoo search toolbar?? As, I'm sure that is what is in conflict with my google search toolbar.

Tried their info and didn't find anything.

I installed AVG 8 and chose to install the Toolbar by mistake. To get rid of it, re-install AVG 8, without unistalling your current copy. In the installation process, choose the Add/Remove Components option. It will then ask you to choose which components you want to retain. When it shows the Toolbar option, ensure that the box is unchecked.

It worked for me. The Toolbar and Yahoo Search facility is gone.

Try as hard as they could Chelsea had no answer to the brave tenacity of these Yorkshire lads.

Not one of the Barnsley team was a Yorkshireman, they were born in places like Rotterdam, Sao Paulo, Jamaica, Nigeria, and Hungary.

I'm not knocking their performance, the better team won, but I don't think I'll be looking forward to a Cardiff v West Brom final.

The big clubs are only interested in the competition for the money it generates. The English players do realise what it still means to the supporters, but to the foreign players, it's a nothing competition.

While it is probably not a legal retirement to contact the Immigration Office when you arrive back in Thailand, I would think that it's a good idea to do it anyway.

Then they can calculate the date that you next need to do a 90 day visit. You wouldn't need to complete the 90 day form, just request them to give you the next date.

This would prevent the possibilty of you making a mistake in your own calculations and finding yourself in an overstay situation.

I realise that it's not exactly rocket science maths needed, but we all have bad days.

Comparing Newcastle's results so far this season against the corresponding matches last season (substituting promoted teams for relegated teams) they have scored 3 goals more, conceded 13 goals more and have 4 points less.

For the "Big Four" clubs, Man U have 2 points less, Chelsea have 1 point less, Arsenal have 11 points more, and Liverpool have 3 points more.

The biggest gainers are Man City with 19 points more, and the biggest losers are Reading with 11 points less.

The three clubs promoted from the Championship last season all have less points than the 3 clubs that were relegated from the Premier League. Sunderland 1 point less than Sheff U, Birmingham 1 point less than Charlton, and Derby have a whopping 10 points less than Watford had. Watford finished last season with 28 points.

This is comparing the matches the teams have played, with the matches played against the same opponents last season, not just the first 21 matches of the season.

A few weeks ago Harry Redknapp (concerning the England Manager job) said that he was happy at Portsmouth and did not need the money and aggro attached to the job. Now, I know that he was never a serious contender for the England job and he could afford to say that, but the Newcastle job is just as dangerous, reputation wise, as the England job, so now we can see just exactly what his words are worth.

Personally I think that he would be stupid to give up a good job in an area that he loves so much to move to Newcastle where he knows he's got till the end of the season (at most) to impress.

There won't be a shortage of applicants though, what a cushy post for someone that wants it. Sign a 4 year contract, do nothing for a few months, and walk away with a few million in the bank.

Where do I sign?

That website is miles out of date....imagine my surprise....

For 1024/512 on Premier which Im going to change to is 1166 inc tax now, the old price for 256/128. Sure hoping it solves my problems with my java trading application that will only work with a VPN connection (which takes 3/4 reboots of router to login to a connection that works!) ....ah the joys of Thai ISP's. Never known anything quite like it.....nothing quite like trial and error to get a nice consistent ISP service....er...er....

Will post back to report on whether it solves my problems....fingers crossed

That price of 1,090 baht per month before tax is a promotion price until December 31st, the normal price is 3,400 baht per month before tax. Nobody knows yet if current subscribers will see a price increase at the end of the year when the promotion ends.

The Chelsea jinx strikes again.

Valencia lose to Chelsea at home - Valencia manager leaves.

Bolton lose to Chelsea at home - Sammy Lee leaves

Wigan lose to Chelsea at home - Chris Hutchins leaves.

Derby lose to Chelsea at home - Billy Davies leaves.

I extended my visa recently with 2 bank accounts, and Bangkok Bank issued just the one certification letter that covered both accounts. As one account was a joint account with my wife, I had to produce the marriage certificate and her ID for Immigration, but there were no problems with the application.

Managers must be very nervous when they play Chelsea at home. Sammy Lee lost his job after Bolton played Chelsea, Hutchins went after Wigan played Chelsea and the Valencia manager didn't last long after they played Chelsea. Is David Moyes worried?

No Wiki for me either for 3 days. I'm on Maxnet, other friends having no problems. ok to access it on dial-up connection.

I haven't been able to connect to hotmail from my Maxnet connection for several weeks. With Firefox I get the "never complete" message, with IE6 the page times out. I can connect easily using my dial-up connection and I use that to check my mail.

It seems speeds on Maxnet have taken a horrible dive over the past few weeks as well. It's all a bit of a mystery at this point - one more part of the this greater mystery we all love...called Thailand

It's no mystery at all if you're on the Maxnet Indy service. This is a service designed for Thai web surfing only and over the past few weeks Maxnet and other ISPs have been restricting the bandwidth allocated to international connections and boosting the bandwidth available to domestic connections. If you have a torrent that has a connection to at least one Thai IP address then it downloads fairly fast. If all your connections are to international IP addresses it will dribble. This is unlikely to improve in the future and Maxnet are advising anyone that uses international connections to upgrade to their Premier service at a much higher charge.

It occurred to me recently what a security risk it is to provide copies of my bank account details when applying for a visa extension, and some applicants even have to provide photos taken inside their home, and a map showing it's location, how handy for any burglar.

What happens to these documents? How secure is the place where they are stored, and who looks after them?

I'm not even sure if this would invalidate any household insurance policy that the applicant may have.

If you want to permanently change your "Preferred Server", click on My Results at the top of the page. There will be some drop down selection boxes where you can change settings including your preferred server. When you've finished selecting, click save on the far right of the screen to save your selections.

From the head-on shot on TV (what the ref obviously couldn't see) it appeared to me that Gerrard put his right arm across Hibbit's chest then, as soon as he was in diving distance of the penalty area, he just slackened speed slightly to allow Hibbit to make contact before launching himself forward. Hibbit was stupid to allow himself to be so close to Gerrard who certainly knew what he was doing. The ref took the yellow card out and, after Gerrard reminded him that he was clear through on goal, then produced the red card.

Kuyt lucky not to be sent off for two footed ariel challenge, probably would have been if he had connected.

Mr. Clutterberk got it wrong again.

No problems with the second pen, good save by Neville though.

Remember the statement by the Bolton chairman when Allardyce left. It went something like "We have gone as far as we can with Allardyce, and we're going nowhere. With Sammy Lee and the new team we gan get to where we want to be".

The Championship?

Gerrard, Barry & the Klingon, total <deleted>. McLaren to go, get big Sam in there to take charge.

No late nights for me next summer.

I am a Maxnet Indy subscriber.

I have been struggling with FTP connections over the last few days too. With hours of retries for what used to take 5 minutes.

FTP downloads have been terrible for weeks. At first there was an artificial limit of 10kBs/sec, then that was lowered to 5kBs/sec, and now the download struggles at less than 1kB/sec until it times out.

My solution is to do all my FTP downloads on my dial-up connection, it averages about 4kBs/sec and doesn't time-out, much faster than my ADSL connection.

With bittorrents, most are struggling at about 5kBs/sec, but somtimes a torrent can reach 35kBs/sec. When I then check the IP addresses of fellow downloaders I always find that the big download comes from one connection which is to another Thai IP address. When there are only International connections in the swarm, it crawls.

All of these services that we are complaining about have degraded for international connections since we were "upgraded" a few weeks ago.

My theory is that there is no "fault" with these services that is going to be "fixed".

The services are advertised as "best for Thai surfing" and I believe the bandwith allocated to international use has been restricted to allow more bandwidth for Thai domestc use. This means that the ISPs can upgrade our speeds for domestic use only.

By also restricting bittorrent download speeds and FTP download speeds they are able to provide their advertised speeds for domestic use.

It probably wouldn't be allowed in most countries without prominent statements from the ISPs, but TiT and we do have the option to pay more for a premier service to get the sort of service we were used to a few weeks ago.

I do hope I'm wrong, and it IS a temporary fault, but it's going on for too long.

Did they ask for proof of foreign import of the money?

Not for me, but then Bangkok Bank have always shown the code for foreign transfer in the passbook and I've never been asked. It may be that other banks don't show such a code, so proof may be needed in the form of a bank letter.

I extended my retirement visa (3rd extension) at Chiang Mai today with no problems.

I had the required amount spread between 2 bank accounts, one in my name only, and one a joint account with my wife. Last year the joint account was rejected, but this year the same officer accepted it, as long as I provided copies of my marriage certificate and my wife's ID card.

The service was very good, and very respectful on both sides. No mention of proof that funds came from abroad.

Why can't it always be like that?

I recently was granted a visa extension on grounds of retirement having produced a copy of my letter from the British Consulate verifying my pension payment. My letter was issued in 2002 and for the past 2 applications I have had a different passport. I have only noticed this since my recent application and it wasn't discovered during my visit to the Immigration Office.

This was probably due to the documents not being examined closely and I intend to visit the Consulate before my next application to get a new letter. I have never been told that an updated letter was needed, but if you are told this, then be thankful that you applied before your visa expired, and that you have time to obtain a new letter.

As said the retirement account has been applicant name only or twice as much required.

My previous retirement visa extension applications have always accepted my joint account and my friend has recently applied with a joint account with no problem.

This was stated by two officers (one of high rank) to be a new rule. Of course I have been in LOS long enough to realise that some new rules come and go at the whim of each officer and how they feel at a particular time. I am merely trying to state what happened to me in order to warn others who may be in a similar situation to make enquiries in time to make other arrangements if necessary.

The reason given for accepting joint accounts for two foreigners was that "if one leaves the country, the other person will also leave". I don't quite see the reasoning behind this, but that's what I was told.