ukrules

The US will look to exempt any goods that they need access to. Hard disks are going to be one of them. If the Thais want to wage war against the US they could shut down the small consular outpost in Chiang Mai in retaliation and whatever else they're doing for the Americans that we don't know about - and I am reasonably sure there's plenty going on.

That's the thing with visas. You can just get another one and unless you're on the blacklist nobody cares.

Why would I? If they don't speak English I don't care to speak to them.

I make zero effort to do anything Thai. I did a language course once but could not be bothered to continue with it. I give his country and its people exactly what it gives me - which is nothing at all.

Retaliation is needed here - shoot them down whenever they approach. Then follow up with an invasion - always room for a little more Thai Land.

Yes, I do. How about you?

Whatever happens to this guy is the same pathway that can be used against any foreigner who slightly annoys any Thai person. I am watching this case very closely. The guy may have been a complete moron but lets sit back and watch them steal all of his assets until he's broke and then kick him out of the country. Even the Interior Minister - Anutin announced he wants him out - such extrajudicial punishment. If Phuket was a toilet someone is about to press the flush button.

These emoji things are largely irrelevant, does anyone even really look at them or care who's clicking what? Having said that I do like the thumbs down emoji, I suggested that the poop emoji might be a good idea a few years back but that didn't seem to stick 🤣

Indeed, probably better to think of the current iterations of Blue Origin as an aircraft launched by rocket and landing with parachutes with no landing gear. It's essentially a robot.

You know this kind of thing happened before in China, they called it 'Russian Flu' back in to 70s a flu strain which hadn't been seen since the 50s appeared with no changes at all - like it was frozen. This happened because it was frozen all that time - in a lab and it wasn't in Russia.

That it was meddled with in a lab, sure. What I'd like to know is the actual origin. It would almost certainly have came from a bat which is a reservoir for all sorts of viruses that don't seem to harm them in any real way. Finding the original non modified source virus would be the real smoking gun here. It is out there but likely well off limits in China. So where in China are the huge bat populations which are strictly off limits. Even past research could shed light on this - I have little doubt that the big virus collectors around the world (Us / Uk, etc) probably already know I mean this is hardly news, back in the first half of 2020 some guy named Deerlove who used to run MI6 announced in an interview that this was almost certainly a leak from a nearby lab - someone who would know such things. Yet his comments seem to have been ignored - this was in 2020!

Why act at all? Who cares what someone else believes? You might not realise it but many people are completely and utterly incapable of thinking for themselves, they repeat what they hear - like parrots. Don't listen to the parrots and leave them to it.

Now everyone knows, dumb <deleted> at the hospital should have kept their mouths shut

I simply can't see any foreigners receiving a single Baht, ever.

Peak Thailand right there. Nobody stopped, what are the odds.

Oh no, how unexpected. Better check everything built for the government and go back at least 10 years to find out how many more there are just on the off chance this isn't the only one.

Well some of them definitely weren't. One example who springs to mind is Cnut the great, we're going back a long way there.

One of the many reasons I left the UK was the immense number of morons I found myself surrounded by on a daily basis. I eventually came to realise that it's a global phenomenon, most people are just pretty dumb and I include a lot of so called successful professionals in this as well.

I remember when this happened, Pepsi literally disappeared overnight and the word on the street was it had been rebranded to EST for Asia. Likely completely inaccurate but that's what the word on the street was..... That was years ago though.

Nah they didn't, it's still called Chang

Yes, they attempted to claim ownership of a global brand simply because they had an old expired business deal. A great example of what Thai business partners have in mind when they begin 'cooperation'. What were they thinking? Did they actually think they could get away with stealing the name of one of the largest brands on earth? You couldn't make this kind of stuff up if you tried.

Just speculation on my part but if I ever produced a contract that had illegal terms in it then I would kind of expect the entire contract to be null and void, perhaps the Thai courts are only voiding the second and subsequent renewals - for now. I do wonder if someone attempted to have an entire lease nullified based on the known bad auto renewals. You see - if the intent of the lease was only to circumvent the foreign control of land rules and 30 year maximum then the court could take a dim view of that. I wouldn't want to be in the position of owning a lease that expires in the next few years, this will not end well - many people bought leaseholds back in the 90s - it's going to be a wild ride.

Indeed, these contracts should technically all be null and void shouldn't they? As in the entire lease cancelled. Look at it as a 30 year pre-paid rental, anything extra is a bonus.

Yeah me too, I never touched SIP in all these years because Skype just worked perfectly for what I wanted. There are apps for the phones but choosing the right provider with a package is the key part. Now they would have accepted my UK credit card but wanted photos of both sides of my signed credit card including the 3 digits on the signature strip (illegal to store that on their end) and also a copy of my passport - so I chose the bank transfer. I could have easily chosen to pay with my Thai bank card but that may have locked me into Thai calling plans - I'm not sure on that. Anyway I got it up and running and it seems to do the job.

VOIPStudio has its own softphone app, allows calls to landlines and works on Android / IOS. The issue you might have with these SIP systems is that it is kind of compulsory to have a number attached - well it's not - but a lot of phone companies will simply reject the call if it arrives with no number attached. So they will assign you a number - which is where the issues can begin - they will want proof that you're from where you say you're from - I had issues with that Then when it comes to paying - they require the bank account to be in the same country that you're currently in - because in this world apparently nobody ever travels around the world and sets things up while on the move - I got it sorted only by doing a direct bank transfer - I guess they're paranoid about chargebacks from the fraudsters - which is fair enough as I know the world is full of scammers. Anyway - suggest you give VOIP Studio a go and try out their app - if the app is no good then something like Zoiper will also work on phones.