Changian

There was picture in the Papers in the UK of an object , pyramid shape hovering over the Kremlin in Russia.

maybe ET on a world tour.

The object over the Kremlim was one of The Empire's Imperial Class Star Destroyers, and therefore not a UFO. Whereas the objects over Bangkok were shiny Christmas balloons. Totally different.

Other reports of this story have placed Koh Chang in the Indian Ocean. Indian / Pacific . . . same same it's somewhere foreign and exotic.

No response from Billy, but there again his phone is probably been ringing continuously since starting the thread

^ I think you can put that down to The Nation's crap reporting - they are probably missing a couple of words such as 'a minimum of'

But i'd be surprised if anyone bought it as it's worthless without government backing and with total losses of1.4 Billion Baht it is hardly a money spinner.

This story even made the Scottish newspapers

The Scotsman - Hebrides find a new home near Thailand courtesy of tourist board

Thanks - could it be this Asus model? : http://www.shop4thai.com/en/product/22286/

Not heard anything. The protesters did say that they would block the road on the 18 Dec if they didnt get their land titles upgraded by then. Let's see what happens in a couple of days.

Got a 4 year old B/G Belkin that's on it's last legs so need to get a new wifi router. Preferably one with a decent range. The Belkin can send a signal about 25 metres, through a wooden house to the outdoor deck on the river but need to get a bit further now, so looking for 'N' capability.

Dont need frills, just something idiot proof that can broadcast a signal 30-40 metres.

Any recommendations?

I think we can have a good game here. Which Thai government site does this Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page report on?

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 202 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 12608 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 2150 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-12-13, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-12-13.

Malicious software includes 1423 trojan(s), 813 scripting exploit(s), 117 exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 4 new process(es) on the target machine.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, xxxxxxxx appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 3 site(s)

Has this site hosted malware?

Yes, this site has hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

Any ideas? Looks like this site has a few problems with internet security. . . . click here to find out.

www.e24.no (business news in norwegian) is redirected to mict.go.th

You aren't missing much, main headline right now on e24.no, viewed via TOT on Koh Chang, is

Får krisehjelp på 58 mrd. av nabo Dubai reddes i 12. time av en gavepakke på 10 milliarder dollar fra naboemiratet Abu Dhabi.

Twitter / Facebook / CNN / Yahoo etc etc all fine on TOT ADSL here in Koh Chang 'Island of the Free'.

More likely some ISPs screwing things up than the government.

Following speculation that he was wearing light armour for self-protection under his shirt due to the political turmoil, Abhisit unbuttoned his shirt to show journalists 10 amulets around his neck.The public especially amulet enthusiasts wondered what was in the premiere's collection.Abhisit reportedly had been given several outstanding examples, so his collection could be worth an eight-digit figure.

However Democrat MP for Bangkok, Thana Cheeravinij, who frequently visits the Sunday Moradok Thai amulet club at Pantip Plaza's Mall Ngam Wongwan branch, said Abhisit was Western-schooled so he was not into Thai amulets.

This isn't from Not The Nation, it's from The Nation - very hard to tell sometimes. But somehow I doubt Abhisit will be baring his medallion collection for other world leaders to stare at in admiration. And I'm sure he's thinking to himself that wearing necklaces in order to win votes from the superstitious wasnt something he signed up for when he became PM.

Depends what you are looking for. You will still be able to find rooms easily enough when you arrive but might find that the more popular 2-3 star resorts & well known bungalows right on the beach are already full of Russians.

But pretty much all resorts will have vacancies. If you want to stay in a better resort then book online in advance as they'll charge an arm & a leg for walk in rates. If you are happy with something simpler then take a look around when you arrive - White Sand or Kai Bae beaches are best if you want lots of shops/restaurants and a range of accommodation close by. Klong Prao if you want along quiet beach, Lonely Beach or Bailan if you are a backpacker. The East coast if you are Thai or simply lost.

The actual really busy High Season begins around Dec 30th when the Thai visitors arrive for New Year and ends on around Jan 2nd when they leave.

Has anyone else noticed the uncanny similarity between Kai Bae beach and one on a remote Scottish island?

No, neither have I. But someone in the National Park office has. This is from the "It's alright, no-one will notice" files.

Exhibit A: Signboard in the visitor centre at Klong Plu Waterfall, Koh Chang extolling the virtues of Kai Bae beach

Exhibit B: The Harris Hills as seen from the Isle of Berneray, Scotland.

You can see the government PR machine's thinking: " 'What can we do to keep the poor distracted?' What do upcountry folks like more than anything else? A chance to be rich. We could keep them busy digging holes in northeastern wasteland for years in the slim hope of striking it lucky."

Are you doing the www to non-www redirect on purpose?

Didn't realise that was still there. I have a vague memory of not liking www's for some reason and adding the re-direct. Is that redirect bad? Or just pointless?

It was a Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage, probably resting now.

Remember when you were at school and they'd be one kid who'd always be taking. The teacher would say something like "Children, if the whole class behaves then you can all go to break five minutes early. If anyone speaks then it's detention for all of you." Thus putting the onus on other members of the class to tell the annoying child to shut it and get in line.

The Dems are showing it is possible to run a country the same way as you treat a class of 8 year olds. Next step will be a ban on staying up after 8pm and not allowing anyone out to play with their friends if they are caught protesting.

Dont worry, you're not missing much :-)

The site went down after it was hacked in late September, by some Russians apparently. After a little battle between an IT guy who helped me out and the hackers the site was back again in mid-October.

After that there were some problems with people getting '500' server errors on the site. No idea why and the hosting company cant find the cause either. Not sure how many people this affects - but I still get plenty of emails every day so some people can see it.

I have tried several things to fix it that have been suggested by a techie guy I know and also the tech support at the hosting company but there are still some people seeing the error.

But the site is up & running - I am looking at it now and still add stuff to it regularly.

If I could replicate the 500 error myself, then I could log into the Cpanel, see the error log and identify what was causing the problem, talk to the hosting guys and then find a way to fix it. But I have never been able to do this as I have never got the error message.

It's strange because some people get the error at home but can see the site fine at work, others can see it OK in Explorer but not in Firefox (or vice-versa).

Try clearing your browser cache, as you may be seeing a very old stored page or use a different browser and see if that makes a difference.

The original Op Ed would be far more accurate if Thaksin's name was replaced by, say, 'Crown Property Bureau' which is exposed in a big way to Siam Cement, PTT and pretty much every large Thai conglomerate, also has close links to certain influential people.

Anyone have any theories why TV is trying to drag itself down to the level of The Nation? I think it's a plot by a certain Mr T.

I have the cheap internet package - 890 baht/month, 4MB connection. But this includes 890 Baht of Free phone calls every month too - so technically the internet is free.

I'll guarantee the above story doesn't make it into The Nation.

One word . . . . . Skype

Almost everyone is changing their internet provider to CAT from TOT, even the manager of TOT office in Koh Chang uses CAT at home because he knows TOT is rubbish.

Wondered why my TOT connection was working better than ever. Hope more people keep switching to CAT, keeps my download speed high

Did this happen at White Sand Beach, or one of the smaller areas?

Were the suspects residents on Koh Chang, or just visiting tourists?

This could be important information for those currently staying on Koh Chang, or planning to visit soon, and should not compromise the identify of the victims.

Read Drummond's blog and another Thailand forum where he posts for the info. The suspects were visitors to Koh Chang, not residents and they allegedly met the English couple in Sabay Bar on White Sand Beach.

I dont recall any cute pandas being killed in Tak Bai. Only Muslims. Hence the level of media coverage.