jeffer

JIB are consistently the cheapest in my experience. Never had any major issues apart from a faulty DVD burner and that was replaced on the spot. Hardware House is also reliable. IT City can have a wider range on other than basic items but not always so competitive on price. All have branches at Fortune as well as just about every other IT mall in Thailand.

If there are any differences in price between Pantip and Fortune then they will be small unless one store is overstocked and wanting to clear stock. JIB and HH have websites listing prices so I doubt they have different prices for different locations unless they are running a special instore promotion. Some people will tell you everyone at Pantip is crooked so you should shop at Fortune but I've never had a problem at either location. Shopping at Pantip you also have the added bonus/annoyance of numerous people offering to sell you the sort of action movies you can't watch on television.

Apparently they do cache cookies but while I was joking about being logged in as George I have in the past been logged in as different users on a number of other websites, all about True saving on bandwidth although why they need to cache cookies I don't know unless they can't separate cookies from the other information. Hasn't happened to me for at least two years. At an internet cafe you can explain it as a previous user forgetting to log out but when you are the only person using a home computer and another username pops up then it must be a caching problem. Only ever had it happen in Thailand with True but I'm sure that's no surpise to many people.

If you are having problems with a product key you believe to be genuine then I would be contacting Microsoft with as much information as possible. Reimar probably has a phone number you can try. If it is genuine then I think there is a good chance they would be able to help. I've re-installed XP a number of times on different computers and never had problems with product keys but even on US computer forums you see people report problems. Call me paranoid and nothing against where you bought your XP from as I know the store but I would never let any shop employee install Windows for me in a country where piracy is so common....

Getting signed in to the accounts of other users is usually a problem caused by the caching used by your ISP. I've experienced it in Thailand with True in the past but not for a long time. I couldn't believe it when I was signed in as George one time, all the extra things that suddenly appeared on my screen. I always log into and out of websites and I believe that fixed the problem for me. I use CC Cleaner sometimes but haven't had your problem. With a program like that you do have to be careful what you tick to clean e.g. I don't let it clean cookies or downloaded form information.

If your version of Windows is suspect then I don't know if you will be able to try Sytstem Restore or attemp a Windows repair. If you can't then I would buy a real version of XP for around 3000 baht and install it myself while you still can rather than play around with dodgy versions. It will be easier in the long run.

The USB models are the cheapest and will probably be brands you've never heard of but they work anyway. I've used a few different models but now use a Sennheiser headset for comfort and very good quality sound.

There are various phones you can run through a suitable modem/router so you don't even have to turn on your computer to make a call. Don't know where to buy in Pattaya but in Pantip I would try the shop, second floor from the top under the IT City store, that has different brands of networking hardware. I think I've seen the Linksys phones there that can be used for Skype and normal calls.

Is there really much point in responding to a year old post by a banned poster, even if he was one of the more interesting and entertaining posters on this forum?

It's not on the Jedi website so maybe it's not available yet in Thailand.

CoolerMaster distributor for Thailand is Ban Leong TEL: 0-2530-7729, 0-2530-7363 Give them a call and see what they say.

There was a doco on tv a few years ago about some young monks using computers for religious research and to help their wat further its religious teaching in the local community. It's true, you do see a lot of monks at Pantip some days but why should they live in the stone age? Computers are an integral part of life for many people theses days so why exclude monks.

You do get some people who just don't know what to do when a foreigner enters their shop and want to run away from you or hide because they can't handle it. Crazy but true.

I walked into a computer shop yesterday, one other customer and 5 staff. Went to the counter to be served and everyone backed away. I'm not too scary looking unless I need to be, was dressed well enough and had showered so not that. After a moment one of the male staff started talking to the other staff and the conversation was about who was going to have to deal with the foreigner because none of them spoke English. After 30 seconds the youngest girl was delegated the task and when she approached me and I said hello in Thai you could hear a sigh of relief from everyone. Maybe they had problems before with foreigners but once they heard me speak a couple of words of Thai they relaxed. The really amusing part was when I was getting my change. The girl in charge of the money was literally shaking as she fumbled trying to get together some small notes and coins to give me my change, stealing a glance at me for a split second then some more fumbling and then another furtive glance. Even all the other staff were laughing because she was so nervous dealing with a foreigner.

Had a man start yelling at me for no reason once when I entered his upcountry shop to buy a can of iced coffee. Found out later that apparently I looked like someone involved in policing counterfeit goods or excise avoidance and this chap was selling cigarettes or tobacco without paying taxes, bringing stuff in from another country or something.

Had a shop opposite where I lived for a while and the man there would never serve me, always walk away and his wife would have to come to the counter to serve me. I found out the reason was because one of his daughters was married to a Brit who he didn't think treated her well enough so because of this he would have nothing to do with foreigners.

The way I sorted out your first question is with a popular program called Tweak UI, think it's from the Microsoft website.

In that program in the General settings you can prevent applications from stealing focus from the window you are working in. Instead the taskbar icon for the other application flashes to let you know the application is trying to get your attention. There may be another way of achieving this but Tweak UI has been the way I've managed to do it.

Opera has a feature called Wand that remembers all passwords including Yahoo but you still have to log in usually. Do you have cookies enabled for Yahoo because Yahoo works for me in Firefox unless you log out, then you have to log back in the next time. Isn't there a Yahoo setting so it remembers you for the next two weeks anyway?

I feel your pain having gone through this before. You get an account for 22 baht for a fax you sent and if you don't pay it on time, even a day late places like 7/11 who are always good to deal with tell you they can't accept payment. You make some enquiries that cost a lot more than 22 baht in time and effort and you find that the only way you can pay this account and have your phone line restored is to go to the head office and pay in person. Simply unbelievable, and all the cajoling and pleading in the world will not get TOT to restore your line unless the 22 baht is paid to their office. So you go to the TOT Head Office, over an hours drive in a very congested part of Bangkok. When you get there you think you will be so clever and before paying the account ask if there are any more recent ammounts owing so you can pay them as well. They check, tell you no so you pay the bill and resolve not to use a fax from home but to use the one at the local shop next time. A week later you get another account for 18 baht...

At the time this was happening I needed to have a reliable overseas line so I took the next account to 7/11 or somewhere and wanted to pay an additional 500 baht to avoid future problems for a while. Sorry, can only pay the amount of the account, cannot accept any amount other than what is on the account. Of course a few months later forgot to pay an account of 80 baht so here we go again. Get a local moto driver to go to the TOT office for me this time. When he gets there he has instructions to check if there are any additional charges after the last bill because I want to pay 500 baht on top of what is owed to stop having to worry about this account for a while. He checks, rings me from the TOT office and says no more charges. Hmmm I think, that overseas call I made last week, did I use my mobile or the house phone? So I ask him to check again while I wait on the line. No, they say for sure no more charges. Okay, he pays the account plus 500 baht. Two days later an account for 460 baht arrives from TOT...

You would assume a Dell from the US would be cheaper as most computer hardware is. Not having Windows pre-installed will reduce the price of the notebook, however if you're going to install Windows yourself it will be more expensive to buy your own copy as companies like Dell are buying millions of licenses and will get a better deal. The downside is most companies install a lot of extra programs for which they get a commission. If you want all the programs then that's fine but many people find them annoying. If I thought there wasn't a lot to be saved I'd install my own license and set it up the way I wanted to but then you might not have the restore feature from a hidden partition a lot of pre-built computers have.

The link you posted, checked the brochure I have and these were the closest I could find:

#R560265 T7250, 2GB RAM, 160Gb HD, 14.1", 128MB GF8400 GS, VHP, 2.4kg @35990 +VAT

#R560264 T5550, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, 14.1", GMA X3100, VHB, 2.4kg @29,990 +VAT

(seems to be the $799 model?)

Incidentally Dell are getting more involved in the local market. I visited Zeer yesterday and on the third floor JIB have a brand new shop just for notebooks and prominent on display were Dell. Several other JIB shops had Dells on their shelves also. Seemed to be the same models I saw at BigIT so if 2 large vendors are stocking Dell then you have to think service is available because they wouldn't sell them if there wasn't.

I've been in Chinese restaurants outside of Thailand with Chinese friends and there has been the menu and there has also been the menu that isn't written anywhere but is read out to them in Chinese. Having tried a few of the things my friends ordered I can understand why the items didn't make it on to the written menu. Very limited appeal for most non Chinese I would have thought. People tell me I try a lot of things that only Chinese would eat and while it can be interesting to try new things I tend to stick to the regular menu. Sometimes you're not really missing out on much by not knowing about all the other stuff.

This is the website for the local distributor www.ascenti.co.th

Doesn't appear to be but you could give them a call to confirm on 02961 7297

I was in Pantip last week and while plenty of places were selling 8GB drives for around 1000 baht I didn't see larger sizes.

If anyone can confirm 16GB or 32GB of any brand are available for sale in Bangkok then maybe they can advise a store name and location.

While I have Nero I find I use CDBurner XP most of the time to burn .avi files to DVD. It's simpler to use, quick, free and the DVDs play on any player I've ever used. Many free burning software programs are speed limited but CD Burner XP burns your disc at whatever speed it is rated e.g. x4 for DVD RW, x16 for DVD R. I've tried a lot of the free software burners and this is the best I've found. I don't think a DVD is going to play in a VCD player whatever software you use unless maybe you reduce it to a smaller size so it can be burnt to CD.

I'll tell you one thing your little price survey demonstates and it's this. Thai are selective on where they try to match Air Asia on price.

I thought I'd compare prices on an upcoming Bangkok-Jakarta return flight I booked recently. I paid 3,500 a couple of weeks ago with Air Asia and the current price for the same flights is 5,400 baht including extras. Now you would expect to pay more on Thai but just how much more? Super promotions don't seem to exist for Thai when talking Indonesia because the cheapest flights on the days I will be travelling total 16,325 baht and I checked 3 times because I thought I must have made a mistake. Looks like cheap fares to Chiang mai are subsidised by expensive fares to other destinations. Insurance that includes baggage coverage for 15,000 amongst other things is 210 baht for my Indonesian trip. The difference of 10,925 baht buys a lot of snacks, drinks and extra baggage allowance if required. The only thing going for Thai is they have earlier flights but Air Asia have now added an extra earlier flight which is an improvement but to save 10,000+ baht I'd still go on the flight that arrives in Jakarta close to midnight if I had to. Others agree with me because all my recent flights to Jakarta have been 90-95% full.

Express boarding according to the Air Asia website is 100 baht domestic, 200 baht international. Excess baggage is 80bt per kg. domestic, 160bt international +VAT.

Must be stupid:

-the one who believes that Thai airways prices are the same as Air Asia

I just picked a day at random. July 1 Bangkok to Chiang Mai, return July 2.

Thai Airways Hot Deals, booked through their website: 4,380.00 THB total including taxes

Air Asia: 3,242.10 THB + 30x2 THB for 1 checked bag + 200 THB x 2 for express boarding + 430 THB x 2 overweight (15kg -> 20kg) = 4562.10 THB

Like you say, the person who said you can get a Thai Airways promotion ticket for the same price was stupid, because the Thai Airways ticket is actually cheaper. At least he's not a retard like you and the other retards who blindly think you're getting a good deal for Air Asia's crap service when actually you may be paying more than a full service airline. That Air Asia price was also a discounted ticket. If it was a full priced ticket it wouldn't even be close. The question I want to know is why there are there so many retards out there praising this piece of crap airline?

Cut and pasted from the Air Asia website a few minutes ago...

Same day, same destinations, the cheapest and the most expensive tickets are listed below...

Your TravelGoing Out

Bangkok (BKK) to Chiang Mai (CNX)

01 Jul 2008 FD 3238

Departs 1045 Arrives 1155

1621.05 BT

Going Out

Bangkok (BKK) to Chiang Mai (CNX)

FD 3238 - Depart BKK 10:45 AM 07/01/08

Arrive CNX 11:55 AM 07/01/08

Coming Back

Chiang Mai (CNX) to Bangkok (BKK)

02 Jul 2008 FD 3243

Departs 2050 Arrives 2155

925.55 BT

Coming Back

Chiang Mai (CNX) to Bangkok (BKK)

FD 3243 - Depart CNX 8:50 PM 07/02/08

Arrive BKK 9:55 PM 07/02/08

_____________________________________________________________________

Going Out Total 1,621.05 THB Going Out Total 1,621.05 THB 1 Guest @ 750.00 750.00 THB

Airport Tax 100.00 THB Insurance Surcharge 50.00 THB Administration Fee 65.00 THB Value Added Tax 106.05 THB Fuel Surcharge 550.00 THB

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Back Total 925.55 THB Coming Back Total 925.55 THB 1 Guest @ 100.00 100.00 THB

Airport Tax 100.00 THB Insurance Surcharge 50.00 THB Administration Fee 65.00 THB Value Added Tax 60.55 THB Fuel Surcharge 550.00 THB

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Package Price

2,546.60 THB

Your TravelGoing Out

Bangkok (BKK) to Chiang Mai (CNX)

01 Jul 2008 FD 3234

Departs 1250 Arrives 1400

1621.05 BT

Going Out

Bangkok (BKK) to Chiang Mai (CNX)

FD 3234 - Depart BKK 12:50 PM 07/01/08

Arrive CNX 2:00 PM 07/01/08

Coming Back

Chiang Mai (CNX) to Bangkok (BKK)

02 Jul 2008 FD 3241

Departs 1705 Arrives 1815

1621.05 BT

Coming Back

Chiang Mai (CNX) to Bangkok (BKK)

FD 3241 - Depart CNX 5:05 PM 07/02/08

Arrive BKK 6:15 PM 07/02/08

_____________________________________________________________________

Going Out Total 1,621.05 THB Going Out Total 1,621.05 THB 1 Guest @ 750.00 750.00 THB

Airport Tax 100.00 THB Insurance Surcharge 50.00 THB Administration Fee 65.00 THB Value Added Tax 106.05 THB Fuel Surcharge 550.00 THB

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Back Total 1,621.05 THB Coming Back Total 1,621.05 THB 1 Guest @ 750.00 750.00 THB

Airport Tax 100.00 THB Insurance Surcharge 50.00 THB Administration Fee 65.00 THB Value Added Tax 106.05 THB Fuel Surcharge 550.00 THB

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Package Price

3,242.10 THB

So to make your figures stack up you had to resort to adding 400 baht for express boarding and 860 baht for extra baggage so you could bump up the fare higher than Thai Airways, conveniently ignoring the fact that not everyone has excess baggage and few pay for express boarding as well as ignoring other cheaper flights available on the same day.

The Dell listed in the BigIT brochure has the following:

Intel 5450, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, 13.3" WXGA TL, DVDRW, GMA X3100 graphics, 2 mp webcam, Wireless 3945, Vista HP, free light weight case, finger print reader, 1.8 Kg.

37,990 +VAT.

You might want to take a look at the shop because I noticed with another brand they had versions not listed in the their brochure i.e. different processors, RAM and hard disk so they might also have other XPS M1330 with different specs. There is another shop opposite the Siam Softtech shop (across the void) selling Dells but I didn't take note of what they sold. Dell indicated in their original press release there would be service in Thailand but I don't know if it's up and running yet.

It was the notebooks that caught my eye so I didn't see any Dell desktops but I have a BigIT brochure and they list the Inspiron 530s (16990 +VAT) and the Inspiron 530 (28,900 + VAT) E4500, 19" monitor, 320GB hard disk, Vista basic etc. I think I counted 9 BigIT shops in the same area of Pantip so presumably at least one will have the desktops for sale if you take a walk around. Currently I don't think there will be any other desktop models available unless you go to the Dell website.

If anyone finds this topic when searching about Dell then I can advise I saw Dell notebooks for sale at Panthip at a couple of places today. On the third floor, that's the level above the foodcourt, are a number of shops called BigIT (Com7). To find the one that sells notebooks look up and across from the food court for the red Siam Softtech sign. Siam is a corner shop so go down the aisle beside it towards the back of Pantip and the shop you want is on the left, just before all the repair shops.

XPS M1330 with Vista HP was 37,990, Inspirons were also available.

The following is based on my experience using a POA drawn up for use outside of Thailand and may or may not be applicable.

There are different types of POA. In your situation and assuming your father is agreeable then what you want is known as an Enduring POA. This gives you total access to all of his affairs, no limits. If he isn't comfortable with this then limits can be imposed e.g. property cannot be sold or a limit put on the amount of money that can be withdrawn from a particular account.

There is an additional POA called a Medical POA. In the case of your father requiring medical treatment this means you can give consent for medical treatment if your father is not able to himself and a hospital then has to do what you say as you are authorised to speak on his behalf. One example is where someone is on life support. You will know if that person would want to be kept alive for the sake of being kept alive or would prefer to have the plug pulled. I know for myself I would prefer the latter but if you're unconscious then you can't tell anyone that and you may have a doctor or hospital who will want to try everything to keep you alive even when the quality of life is no longer acceptable to you.

Once a person dies then a POA can no longer be used. To continue to use one is fraud if anyone were to catch you doing it.

When using a POA always carry the original with you as well as some copies. You will find that even some senior staff at banks do not understand what you can do using a POA. Ask for the manager if they refuse to let you use the POA for a transaction and have a card from your lawyer if there is still a problem. With one bank I eventually had their HQ make a PDF copy, add it to the files of different bank accounts with some additional notes and if a problem arose I could ask the counter staff to contact HQ who would then tell them to do whatever I required as if I was the account holder myself. If you have a bank account in Thailand then you understand how what you can do at one branch can be refused by staff at another. If you find one member of staff who understands the issues then only deal with them as otherwise you are going to be spending a lot of time explaining things again and again.

Regarding a will. I always try to get a good price for most things but I wouldn't be bargaining very much for a will. It's too important an issue and a good lawyer will be able to raise issues you may never have thought of that will help prevent problems down the track.

Hope you have a fast and very reliable connection. The speeds they list should be playable on a 2MB connection but apart from a few Australian tv programs I found most would never download at anywhere near the speed needed to be watchable, there was constant buffering and some shows could never download fast enough to even begin playing. If you can't reliably stream Youtube videos then you're probably going to have problems with Sopcast.

Sent you a message

FAQ 16 on the Slysoft forum specifically warns against Matshita drives. They only work under specific circumstances.

I get the message about setting a region on my notebook with a Matshita DVD when I try to play certain DVDs. Never seen it when playing the same DVDs on my other computers using LG and Pioneer drives. For stand alone players bought in Thailand never had a problem playing anything on the ones I have, Panasonic and Pioneer.

As I understand it if you have automatic updates turned on then not everyone will get a message about SP3. Maybe Microsoft are still giving it a little more time to iron out some bugs. I think I read that it will be another week or two before Microsoft make it available to everyone. Until then if you want it you need to make your own way to Windows Update. About 60MB is the average download but i wanted to share the update with some friends who still use dial-up so I downloaded the complete version and burnt a few copies to CD to give them.