noise

Since it inside security and you are supposed to have a boarding pass to go in, you may not be able to talk to them.

On 1 August, as I was leaving the country, I stopped and asked them when they have agents there to do re-entry visas. The answer was any time an international flight is going out, they man the booth and any one can get a re-entry visa.

This is a standard phishing ploy that has been running around the globe for years. I just got one saying a "computer identified as mine but not linked to iTunes had bought a Miley Cyrus (sp?) song for $3.98. If me, ignore; if not me click this link." There are so many variations that everyone with an email account should know never to click on links in any email that deals with money or goods. Go to the official web site.

While in Seattle for the month of August, and using a simple cell phone, I bought a T-Mobile sim card for $80 that gave me unlimited calls within the U.S. and to Thailand for 30 days.

The Thai dept of motor vehicles is well organized and easy to deal with here in Chiangmai. I have never heard of a single person having a problem when they go in with the proper paperwork. And with patience if you do not speak Thai.

From your words I would say you are just moving the vehicle and want to reregister here. I would guess that at the most you would need some proof of a residence address in addition to the motorcycle ownership paper and the old registration and insurance papers. And, of course, your passport showing the visa. And, to save time, might as well take in copies of everything.

As an alternative, the local agent for your insurance can probably do it for you for a small fee and some wait time. I know my auto insurance company offers that service but I always renew the registration myself because it is so easy.

What are the model and brand of you water and O2 pumps?

I do not remember the brand of the pump, which has been my main problem. I now run it 24 hrs a day (though I may not have to). I got several brands over the year and finally ended up a fairly expensive one from Germany rated at 260 lph at the pump. Because of the length of the piping and the junctions, the flow is probably restricted to half of that, which still gives me one change over each hour. I see them now in Home Pro, Global House, Home Mall, and even sometimes in Lotus. Good pumps are not too hard to find.

I had the most problem with the red and orange cast iron ones from China. The capacitors kept burning out.

The water return inlets were cut in such a way with a vertical breather pipe that they suck in air and blow bubbles into the water. No separate O2 generator, per se

I have a tiled fish pond and went through trials and tribulations to get it working correctly, including killing 2 batches of koi. Luckily I bought small ones.

The pond came with the house new, and the builder put in a gravity fed, two section "filter", and that was it. Little mosquito fish did well, aquatic plants did well, but big fish died. After killing the koi I realized I needed a real filter. I drained the pond and had a real system put in. Still gravity fed with pump return, five sections:

1. In take; settling section
2. fiber filter catches most of the fish crap. I use thick fiber frequently used for blanket/comforter filler. Throw it away weekly.
3. Lava rock
4. Lava rock
5. pump return

#3 & #4: Internet says that bacteria lives in the lava rock and eats/cleans the water (google for more techical explantion) and that washing with tap water (having chlorine) will kill it. By having two sections of lava rock, I can wash one section this month and the other in 3 months and back to the first in 6 months. So there is always live bacteria in the filter.

The filter is higher than the sewer outside my property and is tied into it (again, the builder did it). So each section has a removeable stand pipe allowing gravity draining (see figure included). The figure below does not show it, but the drains are just closed off by simple long pieces of pipe that stick up above the water level and let my just grab them and pull them out to open and push them back in to closed the drain. Easy, low tech solution that works well.

When the contractor put in this filter, he also ran the return feed around the pond, drilled holes through the sides, and put in 6 inlets for O2 generation. I also had him run a feed to the middle of the pond for a fountain, another "O2 generator"

So what worked for me was (a) clean the water and ( generate O2. Been working well for 7 years now. I am probably at my fish load limit now for the approximately 7000 liter pond. I have 19 large koi (20-24 inches long), 6-8 suckers ranging from 6-8 inches to 20 inches, maybe 15 or so 6-8 inch algae eaters, and hundreds of mosquito fish.

I tried aquatic plants but the koi would root up the mud and ate the vegetation; finally gave up.

I change 25% of the water weekly using tap water with no added chemicals. I have forgotten to watch many times and probably added at least 3500 liters with no effect on the fish. But the water is circulating through the filter at about 7000 liters per hour and has constant O2 generator bubblers. That helps disipate the chlorine.

Three days ago, Vietnamese IT sources said an Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable has been breached somewhere between Hong Kong and Vietnam. An executive from FPT Telecom confirmed the incident although he did not say how it happened.

So, until it is fixed, we can (or should) only suffer in silence.

What worked for me in Chiangmai is along the lines of most of your replies. I ended up using InvadeIT as my data source, designed my computer the way I wanted it selecting each component by brand, noting the price. I used the vendor in our Pantip I had confidence in and gave them the spec. They gave me a quote that was acceptable. They tried to offer me different components because they had them on hand. For example, they wanted to give 16GB of RAM instead of the 32GB I wanted. But I told them I did not need it in the near term and that they had time to get items from Bangkok if they did not have it in stock. They did. The only change to my spec was the RAM brand, which was a good one, and they had a better case than the one I selected.

When I first started and just asked a competitor what components he would recommend for heavy photoshop work and no video, he tried to offer only what he had in stock. That is when realized I had to do the due dilligence research and design my computer, delivering a finished spec to the builder. Every shop I contacted in the local Pantip said they could order any part available in Thailand.

So the bottom line is, decide what you want based on what is available in Thailand using some on line sites as references. Give that spec to a reputable shop allowing them the time to order those specific components. You might also specify they do a 24 hr or more burn in so you do not end up with a immediate failure.

20 Sep 11:00 4 speed tests, 3 with True and 1 with Ookla. I am getting my True fiber 15/1.5 program in country, but not out of country. It is interesting that my upload speeds seem stable and it is the download speeds that are throttled.

Some unkind person abandoned a cat, NoName (since I do not know his name), after apparently raising him in the house. He showed up at my house and begged to come in. But I already have 2 cats that come in and I do not want a 3rd. But I do feed him. So does my neighbor across the street, but he won't let him in the house and doesn't want a cat either.

He has been coming daily, morning and afternoons and evenings for months now. If he sees us, he keeps begging to come in. If I leave the door open by mistake, he comes and calm wanders around. He is obviously not scared or nervous of being inside, of being confined and will slowly walk on out when I tell him to, though sometimes I have to physically furn him toward the door. He used to being handled and petted; he lets me pick him up.. I would guess he is litter box trained.

I think he would be a good, friendly cat for just about anyone. He is not agressive with our 2 cats, sniffs noses now and then and they ignore each other the rest of the time. He is really likeable. I think he would be a good companion you could let in the day time and just put him out at night (so no litter box).

He is not neutered.

Send me a PM is you are interest.

I set up my Win7 64bit with 3 accounts, admin, my normal account, and guest.

Admin privileges unlimited by definition

My acct: set up with admin privileges but it asks me before running programs, e.g., Firefox update.

Guest acct: no previliges, can not run programs.

So I suggest you go to your control panel and check your acct authorizations and make changes if you wish to do so.

I used to power down both the computer and modem every night back on Win XP and ADSL. My computer cleared cache et al and ran faster the next morning. And I got a new internet connection which was faster. And when I first got wireless router, I found a neighbor using it before I had set up any security other than isolating access to my computer/LAN. So I turned it off at night so neither they nor anyone else would have as much time to try to get back in.

Now I have a new computer, Win 7, fiber, and secure router but continue the practice. Researching the subject, I can find not definitive reason not to.

Yes, the article says Kad Khom. The picture is of Kad Khom as well.

Supposed to be a lot of water around kad kom but it always floods around there.

The flooding at Kad Kom and other places is caused by the drainage systems not be able to handle the water flow. That is either because of heavy downpour or partially blocked drain pipes or both. So the water flowing from "upstream" comes up the drains in the lower city areas and you get that localized flooding (which can be quite extensive).,

You might go to your local bank and ask the manager how the transaction should take place in a manner that protects you.  This type of deal is probably very common at every bank, people buying a car they can not pay off and then having to sell it.

If he entered on a U.S. passport, then the rules pertaining to U.S. nationals entering the kingdom would apply, which would mean he is subject to the same requirements on extension. I have two passports, U.S. and Thai, and the Thai customs would not let me enter on the Thai passport. I overstayed. Showed Thai passport when I left swampy. They didn't fine me for leaving.

If he is here to buy property, he would need to have his national Thai ID card for property purchase. That is proof of Thai nationality, which would probably get him out of paying any overstee.

This is the first time I have heard of this. My wife and all her friends who are U.S. citizens leave and enter Thailand on the Thai passport without encountering any problems in either country. They have done so for years.

Submaniac -- What was the discussion with immigration (vice customs?) that prevented you from using your Thai passport?

You might try Googling searching in Win 7. It works differently than WinXP and is not intuitive for the long time XP user.

You might check to see if your home country has a tax treaty with Thailand. If so, it is likely that income earned and taxed in Thailand is exempt from taxation in your home country.

I would suggest going to Central Festival mall and visiting all the providers (I think they all have fairly large offices there). Tell them your address and ask them what they can give you at that spot.

Different ISPs have fiber in different parts of town. So me being on True fiber and my program costs may not be useful info for you.

It could be that this or that ISP can not add any more ADSL customers in certain areas because their hardware capabilities are maxed out. That was the case in my moo baan several years ago (but not today).

I have read some posts from people in apartments where they have been told they have to use what your apartment has, the other ISPs can not change that or run new cable/ADSL line to your specific apartment.

I do not think any of us can give you the definitive, specific answer you are looking for, only the ISP's can do that based on your address.

it depends where you will be living. but you don't have many choices. ..........

I, too, would suggest you find your accomodations and then go to the Central Festival Mall and check with every internet provider. I am pretty sure all of them provide cable TV along with the internet.

I personally use True and find their rates very reasonable and competitive. I got a 15 Mbps/1.5Mbps program fiber/cable link which includes something like 85 free TV channels. For an additional fee, you can get a program with specific foreign channels. I get what I pay for and get good customer service.

ASIDE: I would suggest you take someone with you who speaks Thai because sometimes the customer service reps do not understand some of the nuances that we English speaker inadvertantly insert into our words and sentences. And they are not technicians, so once you deviate from the broader aspect of a program into technical details you tend to get mislead.

3BB and TOT and others provide the same type of set up.

If you are downloading and printing the forms at home, be sure to print two-sided forms on two sides of a single sheet of paper. Two sheets of paper ─ one with the front of the form and one with the back of the form ─ are not acceptable.

The TM-8 I down loaded from the Immigration web site this week was a "fillable and save" one sided MS Word doc. Accepted at Chiangmai immigration with no comment, except that I had not added my phone number.

I will be able to re-use this document any time I need another re-entry permit by simply changing the appropriate information.

Johnmcc6

You said: "I am having many many time outs trying to surf the web. I had the guy out who said they have gone to fibre and changed my settings for connections. Everything takes forever and the time outs are terrible. Anyone else having this problem or is my computer/modem stuffed???"

I have to ask for clarification. The tech saying "gone to fibre" reads to me as if you are on ADSL. He would not have said that if you were already on fiber.

Therefore, if the tech did not run new copper coax from the fiber box on a pole outside on the street into your desk and give you a cable modem/router I do not see what difference having fiber in the area would make to you on ADSL coming in on a phone line.

Now if he was just suggesting you change over, that would make sense. After he made the suggestions, I would guess he then just tried to adjust your connection so that the impact of too many users sharing the bandwidth is minimized.

If my assumption is true, I would suggest you consider moving to fiber. Works for me, way better than my old TOT ADSL.

Reblepower12

Are you saying

1. someone told you that a 3rd person is writing about you on Facebook?
2. And putting up pictures of you that make fun of you?
3. and you do not have a Facebook account so you do not know if it is true?

Are you asking

1. How do you find out if it is true?
2. If it is true, what can you do?

Home Pro had heavy duty clear vinyl mats and also lighter duty ones. I got these at the Super Hwy branch, but the one on Hang Dong road is worth trying too.

I also changed the wheels on my chair to sliders, to even up the pressure on the floor. Anyone selling office chairs should have the replacements.

I thought I checked for any kind of mat at Home Pro super hwy but will go look again.

How well do the sliders work on a mat on top of a rug?

I have been to all the likely stores I can think of and have not been able to find a plastic mat for a rolling desk chair on a carpet. Has any one seen one for sale somewhere?