gtm2k

I am planning to purchase a netbook in near future. I'd like to know if netbooks with 2GB Ram are available in Thailand.

My second question: are they distributed with W7 already?

What is the best brand. My budget is 25K Baht max.

Thanks

This one has no operating system but is under your budget. http://www.shop4thai.com/en/product/25781/

I bought this one for 20K from Pantip, and guess wat...it came wid 3GB of ram

Of course, at least 1GB of the 3 came free wid it.. as the sales guy said.

HI euca,

Could be one of the two things-

1. you really need to provide you correct login details once again to the adsl router. I use TOT too and sometimes the device forgets the logon details !

2. Sometimes its just a small "reconnect" bug in the router for which you have to reset your connection.

For this, open your browser and type in http://192.168.1.1

You should see a router administration screen with the front page showing you the internet connect status. There should be a connection button (toggle) which changes the status from "connect" / "disconnect" as you hit it.

Just click disconnect (and it should now read connect)... and hit it once again.

All this, im assuming that you are using a thomson (speedtouch) type adsl router.

Cheers,

gtm2k

Hi Yabaa,

Would first like to know your real name !

Will be happy to help you out. First thing I would like you to do is, help me visit you site. Depending on what you would like to do, i would be happy to either educate you or suggest you something else altogether.

Cheers,

Gautam

not to be funny but they must have seen this coming? and i'd imagine that swine 'flu has sod all to do with it.

I entirely agree, its like their vision is limited to the next meal,.

Ya Haaa Haa !! I agree .. .not that i'd like to start thai bashing, but professionaly this is what i experience every single day.. trying to expand my customers vision beyong the next meal of "koi-tio" !

Hi,

I'm coming again next July. I was wondering if the skytrain to the airport has opened yet or not, two years ago it seemed almost finished.

Many thanks !

The irony here - It still seems almost finished !

Grab a cab from the airport mate ! Thats the best way into town, at least for now. Or if you want to save some cash, try the airport link bus (Baht 150, avl on the ground floor) and depending on the route you take, you can get off either at sukhumvit or silom.

Cheers.

With all the bad press we hear of scams and rip-offs, I was pleasantly surprised on my most recent visit to LOS . I've always stayed at the Opera Hotel , Pratunam on arrival in Bangkok and after checking in had a beer by the pool before going to my room.

After a 3 hour kip I realised I didn't have my wallet . Searched the room - no luck . Panic !! Debit card / credit card / Bt23k cash / driving licence. I went to reception to explain what I'd done when I heard a shout . A young Thai lad of about 20 had recognised the photo of my partner in the wallet he'd found by the pool, while cleaning, and seemed genuinely pleased to have tracked me down !!

He wouldn't accept 1000bt reward, so I arranged for him to get the evening off and we had a few beers and saw a cracking live band in town somewhere, with a couple of his mates.

Thanks to his honesty I got my wallet, my sanity, a couple of new buddies - oh and a hangover !!! Restored my faith in human nature for sure

I have to admit that on three separate instances, i either left my wallet, forgot my phone and forgot my notebook at three difference restaurants (local street restaurants as well as the shiny ones). On all three occasions, i have been handed over my stuff by the staff.

So in my opinion - General, common, average thai's are not thugs (except for the taxi and tuk tuk drivers). The other place to get ripped is probably the street market at silom, those guys are certified rip-offs.

I would go with OP on this one, faith in human nature

Did anyone go to the Barbican meeting? I heard that it was for marketing folks.

I like the Barbican; quite a few gay people get in there, including gay ajarns from Chula and gay execs from Silom and Suriwong.

Does BYP have a 'gay section'? Or is it very mixed?

PEd

I was there last nite , met a bunch of guys.. bt no-one seemed gay alryt!

I found a very nice job opening for me and for sure more than qualified for the job. Knew a few people in the company and my Thai is not too bad.

I am reasonably well know in the industry I used to work in, in Thailand as well as the rest of Asia.

And for sure I could support this company extremely well.

Send all my documents by mail, e-mail to HR heard nothing, then I send to BDM, nothing then direct to the GM, nothing not even a reply that it was received.

Now they hired a local who I happened to have met a few times and he is a total moron, knows extremely little but has apparently "The Looks"

In the current economical environment I believe it will be hard to get hired by a Thai managed company.

Unless you have some special skill like moving a mountain with the snap of your fingers.....

I am in a Sales Function and it requires me to do a lot of communication with Email. My experience in Thailand, is that there is no email culture here. Its the telephone call and the relationship that matter more than anything else. Till data, I have barely received any replies to my email whether they are written in english or thai. So if you dont get a reply, dont be surprised. I'd say rather pick up the phone and get to the person directly and do your talk.

I am an experienced IT Professional with a lot of consulting (and little sales) experience in SAP Solutions. I have mostly worked for SAP B1 and SAP FICO Projects. I also do a lot .net based development. Currently looking for new opportunities in the region.

Prefer Thailand, but open to other places as well. Immediately available.

Please PM for additional info.

Cheers,

Gautam

Hi Bob,

I happen to be working in thailand since the past 5 years as a SAP Consultant. Over the years i have freelanced, consulted and sold SAP Products / Solutions as well as Bespoke (.net based) applications.

At the moment, I am contemplating setting up my own company, to begin with market my QA Products for manufacturing companies and SAP B1.

Since you are actively planning to do your own startup here, could we please meet sometime and see if we could collaborate & work together ? I am based in Bkk.

Do let me know your thoughts on this,

Cheers,

Gautam

Hi all,

I'm currently researching the viability of starting up an office/registering a Thai company to resource project tasks sent over from our established IT company in the UK. Initially would be looking to employ 2-3 persons with myself heading up and running the office in Thailand. I would like to do this in Phuket as I like to surf in my spare time and would like to stay close by the beach! I've got 3-4 years experience of living in Thailand and understand a bit about the culture and language.

So far I've got all the figures and general information for the set-up and paper running costs of the business, from Sunbelt.

I would welcome any information from people who have experience of setting up a similar business scenario, as outlined above... or just general business information and links that people think may be useful.

The biggest question really is... 'Is it viable?' .. so far from what research I've done I would say the answer is yes.

Thanks & Regards,

Bob

I filed my income tax return in January, but still haven't received my refund.

Has anyone received their 2008 refund yet ?

I got mine recently, though the cheque has misspelled my surname by one character.

hi. i have been reading in this forum for quite some time since i got that very interesting offer from a software company based in singapore, but the client site is in Bangkok, and work will be paid in Thai Baht. i would say that i've already learned a lot, but would like to ask questions more specifically about my field.

i am a Filipino Software Engineer/Consultant and been working for less than 5 yrs, for US-based clients with offices in the Philippines. i currently have a regular (and is considered secured) job but i am always eager to work outside of my country, mainly because i'd like to experience other work environments, get a little bit of travel, and to increase my savings.

my questions are these:

1. how much is considered a decent pay in Bangkok for an IT professional?

2. what are the deductions takan from the salary? i.e. income tax, healthcard deductions, etc.

3. what benefits should one ask an employer? i.e. how many vacation leaves, sick leaves, health benefits, etc.

4. if you are to live in bangkok alone, how much is the average monthly expenses? note that i am not a fan of clubs and bars, i mostly spend my free time browsing the internet and playing pc games.

5. is it not hard to communicate with Thais in general? i don't speak a single Thai word, only Filipino and English.

6. how would one know when a job offer in Thailand is real? Is there like a site that lists all legal Thai companies and recruiters?

Thank you very much in advance guys.

1. The minimum pay is decided by the labour department. You might want to check on the labour department website for the minimum on Philipinos.

2. The least compulsory deduction will be social security (750 Baht) and income tax which is roughly about 9% of your gross salary.

3. Benefits vary from employer to employer... in most good companies health insurance is offered along with 10 days of annual leave and 4 days of sick leave

4. No matter in which part of the world you live, you should consider a minimum of 30% (of your nett salary) dedicated as fixed monthly expenses. This does not include your daily expenses but the basic bills of rentals and utilities. On average your expenses will be at least 150 baht a day.

5. The only language thais understand (the majority of them) is thai. English skills are poorer than vietnam and if you come here you should be prepared to pick up some basic thai. As a developer you will tend to interact with end-users and english will not always help.

6. There is no site to give you any list. But, you should be smart and educated enough to ask questions regarding your employment offer and make the right decision.

Another word of advice, if you are a parallel technologies developer (i mean non-microsoft) you should have more options here. But very honestly, thailand is more of a product based market and less of bespoke (unlike china, india, indonesia and phillipines). THe general population has a very cubish mindset about IT ,as anything from custom software to enterprise products like SAP and ORACLE is finally called a "program". So if you are coming to work for a development firm, be sure of your future growth options and learning curve that the prospective employer will offer you.

Cheers and happy hunting.

Hello all,

I am looking to improve my thai, when it comes to formal / business oriented conversations.

Can someone please recommend a good thai school specifically for learning business thai.

One basic requirement - I have to work full-time(based in ChongNonsi area), so the classes have to timed after 6.00pm or on weekends.

Please advice suitably.

Thanks to all.

Cheers,

Gautam

Well, ever noticed how indian arranged marriages worked well ? You think it's because the couples love each other or have terrific sex while hardly talking to each other before wedding?? Nah... it's because they match eachother. Not that we match particulary well, but when you're working over a long term relationship, you should think over the practical details rather deeply... taking a girl that has to support her family and see you like a jackpot ain't gona help you much through tough times( Besides I had a good socioprofessionnal situation when we married, Missus is also a practical kind of girl)

You know there is a saying that arranged marriages actually have a lower divorce rate than people that actually fall in love and dated?

Many elders say marriages should be arranged due to their birth date, horoscopes, status of both families, blood types, etc. Also that if two people live together long enough and start a family they will love each other in the end. I crack up everytime I see those big marriage ceremonies like Tao and Nat or Fluke and Beau with big sinod, even Tata Young and in the end they divorce each other after a year.

Total bull,if you are right what you say its because the woman is scared shitless of leaving due to the many murders in that type of community.

the women are not wives,they are slaves.let get this right

Being an indian myself, i ve seen two things which i'll agree with. One, As of today only 2 in 10 marriages (in my friend circle) have been arranged. Secondly, if an arranged marriage is not working hardly anyone gets to know about it. And that is only because of our community being so unforgiving to divorced couples. Close friends even family members would stop visiting you / asking you if you happen to be a divorcee.

I really dont know if to call it the other side of the coin or decreasing popularity. But surely, tradition and religion cannot be the basis of a successful marriage. In my opinion, trust, understanding and love (in that order) is a lot more important than what previous generation parents / elders consider as the golden ticket to a stunning married life !

Sounds GRRRR...EAT !

I can smell te ribs already

Thank you all for you valuable comments.

There are so many things to consider, but knowing the cons are helping more than knowing the pros !

Distribution through agencies seems to be the way to go if you dont want to run around doing ur sales... but from a sellers point , is there anything to protect my interests... ? or do i hav to go by the way of the agency .. or negotiate.. or be on contractual terms (as andy points out abt written contracts as well... )

which agencies are at least the most reputable as of today ?

Cheers

Gautam

Hi,

It seems that you are looking for some serious web app dev resource. I have a profile that you might be interested in, my major skill sets are in asp.net and sql server.

I have engineered a bunch of web apps of all kinds, e-commerce, crm, lots of manufacturing transaction processes.

Please PM with more details about what kinda work are you trying to get done. We'll take it ahead from there.

Cheers,

gautam

.. for serious project(s) ... All is say in the topic !

Hard to find something here in thailand ( bangkok ). I try some local magazines, and web... Maybe I was on wrong places :-/ ? So any suggestions are welcome !

in advance, thank you.

K.

ps : i connot edit the titile agency of course ! ( not agancy ! )

Can someone throw some light on how can a mag'zine related publication be started ?

My basic content outline is somewhat prepared for at least 6 months ... so i know what to deliver in the coming months...

uve even identified a distribution agencies.. .

i know xpats cant start newspapers.... but im quite sure we can start a magazine...

But i dont know where to start with registration of the name, issn etc..

cheers!

If your employment has ended you appear to be on overstay. Your extension of stay ends when employment ends; not when the WP is returned. It is normally possible to obtain a 7 day extension of stay upon loss of employment but if you do not overstay seems to be charged from day employment ends now.

Thanks for your input mate !

Hello all,

I m a 27yr old indian, working in thailand since the past 4 years now. I recently jumped into a new job, and my old co wants to cancel the work permit. I resigned from the older co last month, and at the new place am being trained into new products.

At the new workplace, my approval from BOI is pending early next week. I was assuming that if the older co does cancel the WP, i still get 7 days to leave the country. (BTW, my existing non-imm-B visa expires oct 08 !). But today, the thai lady who did my WP at the older place, calld to say that under the "NEW RULES", 7 days are no more available after WP cancellation, consequent to which, i'll have to leave the country on the next day ?

Is this BS or genuinely true ? I intend to call up immigration to check myself, but i though it would be wise to get advice from my expat frnds here too.

Thanks to all,

cheers,

Gautam

Consider this..

All the international Bandwidth in this country comes thru CAT. So thers a significant diff in connection times of websites hosting within TH or abroad. If your intended audience is outside TH , then have the website hosted outside thailand. But if your customer base is within TH, then host the web inside thailand.

Hosting with thai providers is preferred because, at times when you need help they can be directly called and spoken with. Try siaminet.com. They can provide hosting for both TH and US based servers.

Need any more info , you can PM me.

i dont think if these guys are biased abt givin out a credit card , its jus tat bank of thailand has tuf rules for plastic money .. splly wen it comes to non-thai's !

the min criteria i know of -

1. a salary pkg of at least 1 Mil THB (most of the banks do this, even if its not a printed requirement !)

2. Account cash flow

3. Recurring balance maintained

4. Spending habits / debt history

6. At least one year in the SAME company (or TWO for some). If you change your job after a year, youre bak to spot zero again !

Finally a pinch of luck !

BUT AEON is biased, they say its only for thai and japanese !

cheers !

You answered yourself in the first sentence of above post. Up to them.

Simple solution -

get someone to configure this router to assign IP addresses 'dynamically' ... dont call TRUE guys they wudnt do it.. it has to be a techy frnd of yours !

Next, get yourself a wireless HUB and stick this white network cable into it.

Assuming that your PC;s at home have wireless ethernet adapters, they wil automatically connect to this network (provided they arnt any more wifi networks arnd) and you can start using your internet !

Cheers !

Am I unusual having True not via a phone line?

um - yes

it does look like you do have a cable connection - I didn't know true did them.

you can just use a switch and cat5 cabling to link your computers , but I would probably go a NAT router to save your self the problem of configuring your network , though even this route will require network setup

Hi !

try siaminet.com

becoz how cat manages the international bw, traffic (required within) thailand is much faster than routin it thru US based servers.

Ive used this provider for hosting many of my clients websites and they dont seem to oversell what they are capable of. I suggest before goin with any provider now, give them some numbers (of data volume you'd transact) and ask if they could cater to it.

cheers !

No problems with emails here. It's not a "national" problem. I'd recommend switching to a different provider, Thai or U.S. based... I am sure there's lots of professional level email hosters out there...

Your prof has asked for something really worth adding here !

You could actually mention how the internet used to exist as "intranet" for US defense establishements, and how they used this infrastructure to host / exchange / share information.

Basically, your lecturer is asking you to show some prehistoric internet information, which usually makes a lot of sense to understand how useful is modern day web hosting for an organisation / business / individual

cheers !

Hi there,

Im currently doing a project for my Digital Business Enterprise class at uni.

The topic Ive chosen is Web Hosting Management. In this project I will be covering how it works, why people use it, the technology that's used, benefits and ROI.

But my lecturer has requested that I need to put in something about BEFORE web hosting was used. I dont see how that is possible as surely it has existed since the internet began?

Could anyone help me with this?

Thanks

David