dsys

Does anybody know what the demand for General Insurance actuaries (UK exams) is in Thailand? Anybody know of any decent website advertising, or agencies

thanks

Just got back online - based in chiang kham mae lao.

We got hit very hard over the last few days. Large land slide which knocked out about 40% or the village maize . Lost all of the village rice paddy.

No damage to the housing though. Very very scary.

No water at the moment. Local government have been superb. Surprisingly well co-ordinated. All the roads are now cleared and the village is returing to normal. There is talk of compensation for the lost corn. If there isn't any a lot of people here will have lost al lot of their income.

Heading back to the UK for a while, have to leave the wife and kids. Not looking forward to that.

Will try and post some photos but the intenet connection is a bit flaky at the mo.

Hi,

Worked in ireland or a while and I am due back some tax. I was going to use a tax agent to do this - has anybody done this before know/recommend any companies found one on the web www.taxback.com anybody used these guys? kno anything about them

This may sound a bit cazy but look into it - we used DHL air freight, thats right DHL. About 2000kg all in, door to door in about a week no hastle with customs.

Not as expensive as you may think, especially if you can find a friend or relative with access to a corporate account

I would re-read Reimar and SBK's posts - the D drive is setup as a recovery partition. You should NOT be saving data to this partition.

Can you actually access this partition from windows explorer?

Can you lay your hands on a copy of "ERD Commander" ?

Cuban -

I have a copy but can't get it to run under Vista and I have no local XP PC's. Even tried to run via a VMWare image of an XP PC but no joy.

There is an CD named Emergency 2006 available n which you can use for to do the job. You need to boot from that CD and just choose the required PRG and than your drive. You ca find that CD in most of the IT-Malls.

Cheers.

Thanks reimar - will grab that next time i am near a stall

No assumptions on my part. Everything I wrote is common knowledge and has been in the west for more than a century. I can say that common sense is not really that common. As you say, steering clear of street food does not guarantee you will not get sick but it is a good beginning. You are right by saying that higher risk may exist in alternatives to the street food. Many people don't think about what they cannot see in those kitchens behind closed doors. Buyer beware. This stuff usually doesn't kill you it is just a bit unconfortable for a while.

This is one of the reasons we decided to live in Thailand while our kids were young - the western environment is so sterile. Get as much exposure to all these "bugs" when you are young and you'll have a great immune system for when you are older.

Street food is great. It tastes good but the best bit is sending home photos of the kids eating all sorts of bugs. As a five year old I got grounded for eating worms etc but here you can do it in public and they even charge you for it.

But seriously -

I used to baulk at the idea of no refigeration etc. then I thought about it - the supply chain here is too short to merit it, animals killed and eaten within a few hours/days. In the west the supply chain is a lot longer and refrigeration is needed - pick up a pack of pork at Tescos and you'll be lucky if its a week old.

As for the untensils (plates etc) there is a lot of room for improvement in this area but it does not seem to bother a load of Thais so perhaps we are missing out the benefit/protection of a side serving of feces.

Can you lay your hands on a copy of "ERD Commander" ?

Cuban -

I have a copy but can't get it to run under Vista and I have no local XP PC's. Even tried to run via a VMWare image of an XP PC but no joy.

hmm smells like a bit of forum marketing here - but giving you the benefit of the doubt:

I checked the usual suspects.

1. compression - the site is not sending compressed files

2. design - site has loads of errors and does not validate properly, also old table based designs. - so its not that

3. chaching - difficult to check but probably got high cahe exipry values and there appears to be no real dynamic content - could be partly to blame.

4. Proxy chaching - didnt check the setup

5. looks like Site hosted on or around http://www.netway.co.th/ and this site has similar performance so -

I would say its cause its located in Thailand - no apparent fancy stuff going on, that a quick lok shows up.

Here is the setup I have:

I am running windows vista (SP1 not installed).

The Network drive is a standalone device (ie not connected to a server etc)

The netork drive is a Buffallo Link station 500GB .

I want to wipe the drive clean, ie overwrite each sector not just format the drive. I usually use MediaWiper from WhiteCanyon to do this but I can't use this software to access network drives.

Does anybody know how to go about this, apart from opening up the NAS and putting it in a USB box?

Also not sure if the Buffallo drive has "an operating system" on the drive or in Flash

Any help appreciated

" I have found that the line or rather the protocol drops out every hour or so, this was sometimes a problem with Indy also but not as often"

Just out of interest what protocol? How are you measuring/noticing this?

if you were born with a British passport you had won the lottery of life. Discuss

To some extent I agree but I would rather have either/all of Irish/Canadian/Swiss passports than British.

Not illegal and available. I need it ASAP and I'm just asking if anyone has paid for it (can PM) or knows of a site still offering it for free.

Have you tried www.192.com

electoral role

directory enquiries

reverse phone number search

census data

house hold incomes

just about anything you wanted to know about anybody in the uk.

particularly useful is the company director search.

I think when you register you get 5 free searches - havent used it in a long time and my account in inactive but give it a try

Average Bangkok Pork prices from government approved suppliers is 120 Baht. Look for further increases. The price quotations come out weekly which prevents any long term planning. Non governmnet approved farms and processing plant beef or pork is dangerous. Much of the beef has been smuggled live. There are no government approved slaughter houses in the south of Thailand.

Don

Last year we were selling pigs at 28baht/kilo . A large loss, many owners in the area went out of business. The markets were selling pork at 60-90baht/kilo.

This year there is a shortage and we are selling at around 60baht/kilo. Food prices (for the pigs) have gone up by about 20%. The markets are now selling pork at 90-120baht/kilo.

If the sellers had been willing to pay more last year instead of taking close on 100% markup, then there would not be the shortage there is now.

I have been to processing plants both in the UK and here. I have seen the unapproved slaughter houses and the aproved slaughter houses. There is not much difference.

oh good god nooooooo......

Please don't tell my wife or my bank manager

Thanks its broadband. The issue is the ISP is logging me off, and I have to login through a a web form before any other pages can be loaded. When I'm logged out all page requests get redirected to their login page.

My kludge is working pretty well so far, my VPN stayed up overnight for the first time ever, but I'd really like to find an alternative to iMacros. Is it possible to send pre-made http requests via puTTy or telnet or something? So I can 'login' without having to actually use a browser?

First off good cludge.

To get a more robust free solution should be relatively painless, here's how I would go about it.

1. Get a copy of visual studio vb.net (download free version from microsoft)

2. Use the browser object model ( DOM) part of vb.net to "interface with " your website.

3. call the dom script from your batch file.

There are loads of ways to do it google "dom scripting autologin"

here is a java dom script that will get you part of the way :: note gpl license and header must stay attached

1. // Allow Password Remembering
   
2. // version 0.1
   
3. // 2005-04-06
   
4. // Copyright © 2005, Julien Couvreur
   
5. // Released under the GPL license
   
6. // http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
   
7. // Based on the remember password bookmarklet:
   
8. // http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/for...member_password
   
9. // --------------------------------------------------------------------
   
10. //
    
11. //
    
12. //
    
13. // To install, you need Greasemonkey: http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/
    
14. // Then restart Firefox and revisit this script.
    
15. // Under Tools, there will be a new menu item to "Install User Script".
    
16. // Accept the default configuration and install.
    
17. // If you want, you can configure the Included and Excluded pages in
    
18. // the GreaseMonkey configuration.
    
19. //
    
20. // To uninstall, go to Tools/Manage User Scripts,
    
21. // select "Allow Password Remembering", and click Uninstall.
    
22. //
    
23. // --------------------------------------------------------------------
    
24. //
    
25. // WHAT IT DOES:
    
26. // Sites can direct the browser not to save some password fields (for
    
27. // increased security). They do it by tagging the password field with
    
28. // autocomplete="off", in the HTML. "Allow Password Remembering" removes
    
29. // these tags, so that the user can decide which password the browser
    
30. // should save.
    
31. //
    
32. // --------------------------------------------------------------------
    
33. //
    
34. // ==UserScript==
    
35. // @name Allow Password Remembering
    
36. // @namespace http://blog.monstuff.com/archives/cat_greasemonkey.html
    
37. // @description Removes autocomplete="off" attributes
    
38. // @include http://*
    
39. // @include https://*
    
40. // ==/UserScript==
    
41. 
    
42. // Updated (2005/09/09):
    
43. // Included Mark Pilgrim's fix for DeerPark:
    
44. // must access element.attributes as an array of objects and use .name and .value properties, can't shortcut with element.attributes['autocomplete']
    
45. 
    
46. 
    
47. var allowAutoComplete = function(element) {
    
48. var iAttrCount = element.attributes.length;
    
49. for (var i = 0; i < iAttrCount; i++) {
    
50. var oAttr = element.attributes;
    
51. if (oAttr.name == 'autocomplete') {
    
52. oAttr.value = 'on';
    
53. break;
    
54. }
    
55. }
    
56. }
    
57. 
    
58. var forms = document.getElementsByTagName('form');
    
59. for (var i = 0; i < forms.length; i++)
    
60. {
    
61. var form = forms;
    
62. var elements = form.elements;
    
63. 
    
64. allowAutoComplete(form);
    
65. 
    
66. for (var j = 0; j < elements.length; j++)
    
67. {
    
68. allowAutoComplete(elements[j]);
    
69. }
    
70. }
    
71. 
    

I want to buy an Apple computer. They have very tight restrictions on what they sell to whom, where and at what price. The price difference (I have checked out prices with various suppliers around Bangkok) between Thailand and the USA is $500! About 30%. I have a friend who could buy for me in the USA and ship it over.

I have two questions.

1. What would the import duty be on a computer costing $1,299?

2. Is there a (major) shipping company people can recommend to use or avoid?

Thank you.

I had a friend in the UK buy a laptop and giftwrap it, added a birthday card and ship it via DHL. No problems, door to door without issue.

Used the same method to buy an ipod touch, parcel was opened and I was "charged" 2000 baht in import tax.

I think its your donald.

As for the actual import tax if declared - dont know.

edit - of course crushdepth comes up with the simplest solution as usual That would be the best way to do it.

A PCI Simple Adapter is not a network card, it's a dial-up modem - usually built in to the motherboard.

sorry endure missing your point here.

The OP told us that he saw a yellow exclamation mark by the PCI Simple Adapter so he changed his NIC. I'm pointing out that a Simple Adapter is not a NIC. Just pointing out that it might be a bit of a red herring.

good spot there - missed that.

[ps edited the name confusion - your just too quick for me:) ]

A PCI Simple Adapter is not a network card, it's a dial-up modem - usually built in to the motherboard.

sorry endure missing your point here.

Sounds like you got a driver conflict or adressing problem.

Just checking - was the original NIC actually a PCI card or was it built into the motherboard?

I'd take out the new NIC and see if you can reboot into safemode.

The beep codes you describe sound like the description for a system board or power supply problem. (based on the classic IBM codes) Google your Motherboard and find the manual - check the definition for your specific mother board.

Thinking out loud-

hmmm system board proble coupled with "no video input" - sure you didn't remove the graphics card? Is your monitor plugged into the correct connector? Is the video card seated properly?

Hi dsys,

Yes, the original NIC was a plug-in D-Link PCI card and not built in to the main board. My computer was able to boot the first time after I installed the new PCI. Since then, I have tried to boot with this new card, with the original card and with no card at all. Each time, the keyboard lights flash, the hard disk whirrs, the two DVD-ROM drives light up but then nothing happens other than the bleeping. The main board LEDs are lit also.

I can't boot into safe mode, I can't do anything other than listen to the pesky bleeps!!!!

I didn't remove the graphics card and, just to check, I removed it and reseated it.

The monitor is plugged into the correct connection.

Maybe it is the main board that is gradually handing in its soup plate!!!! It's 7 years old now!!!

Many thanks for your help and advice dsys...... this just started with a problem with my IP address!!!!

oh dear - youppear to be able to get to POST(power on self test) are you getting to the BIOS, do you see the hit del/esc to enter bios config message?

i guess you can't - if you cant and all the connectors / cards are correctly seated and the CMOS battery is not discharged I guess the MB has died. If your MB is 7 years old try replacing the battery first if that does not fix it, new MB time - unless anybody has any other ideas.

If you don't mind me asking...what's the point. Flash Express Cards are awfully slow, often even slower than a USB thumbdrive. If it's for Vista's Ready Boost, it's a bit of a waste, if it's for a swapfile, definite waste, in fact the only thing I could think that it would be good for is to use as a low power boot device(that would be very slow).

None of the above, transfer of encryption keys and fianancial databese via personal courier. USB thumb drives are too small and DVDs are not allowed. The contract specifies the use of express cards.

Sounds like you got a driver conflict or adressing problem.

Just checking - was the original NIC actually a PCI card or was it built into the motherboard?

I'd take out the new NIC and see if you can reboot into safemode.

The beep codes you describe sound like the description for a system board or power supply problem. (based on the classic IBM codes) Google your Motherboard and find the manual - check the definition for your specific mother board.

Thinking out loud-

hmmm system board proble coupled with "no video input" - sure you didn't remove the graphics card? Is your monitor plugged into the correct connector? Is the video card seated properly?

my gut says no, on this one - get another phone line installed.

Greetings all. I have a little question for the techie guys out there running Vista. On my shut down menu I used to have the option to hibernate. This seems to have vanished? Can I get it back or has it gone for good? Any ides as to why it went in the first place. Also when I ran my nod 32 yesterday it found a java trojan but didnt give me any other option but to leave it or copy to quarentine. Any ideas there would be helpful. The name was Java/ trojan downloader.openstream.NAB trojan,I googled it but got no method of cleaningit? Cheers guys in advance .

hybernate can vanish for several reasons, including; you did a disk clean up and deleted the hybernate files, you entered hybrid sleep by changing some power settings, you changed the power down options in the power settings etc.

to get it back run a command prompt with admin rights and type > powercfg.exe /hibernate on

should bring it back if it is not related to this java trojan

On the java trojan - sorry dont know that one. I would have thought though that putting it in quarantine would be fine.

My company has a website, but I would like to add simple e-commerce functions to the web so that my customers can place their orders and pay through Visa or Mastercards.

1) Are there any legal requirements before I can set up an e-commerce site? Eg. must i apply for special license or anything?

2) I know Kasikorn has an e-commerce service whereby they can act as our e-commerce credit card Merchant..has anyone tried them before? Any problems?

3) Anyone knows of any good web design/hosting companies that can do a decent job on website design, hosting and e-commerce at reasonable rates?

Thank you

1) Depends on where your business is located,

eg in the UK you will have to conform to the data protection code, the ecommerce act 2002, distance selling act and the telecommunications act - are all relevent to the way you set up your business. Note that you will still be subject to the e-commerce act and telecoms act even if you do not "trade" on your site. If you are in the UK check out http://www.out-law.com/page-431

As for other countries I am not sure - best to check with a lawyer.

Most people don't give this much thought but it is always good to check ou the regs just to make sure.

2) Personally never used Kasicrn but know of of a few people using them, benefits are - international cards can be used easily when purchasing in Thailand. Good English communications, easy to use. Downside - expensive, difficult to get without loads of paperwork if you are a farang. Sometimes slow to payout.

If the business is going to be in Thailand I would suggest you use a Thai merchant provider as foreign providers often block transactrions within Thailand, causing grief for your customers.

Chargebacks in Thailand are very high - so make sure you have an effective plan to cover you losses for this. Remember you are liable for those losses and this can often cause a considerable cash flow problem for businesses starting out in e-commerce. Plan for around 15% loss.

3) I dont know of any in Thailand - cause i have never needed to look for one. Perhaps sopmebody else can point you in the correct direction.