orosee

What a piece of angry, stupid rubbish. If it hadn't been attributed to the Nation, I would have guessed this editorial to be a random post from one of the (too) many threads regarding the crash. The moment someone spews forth utter nonsense like "Full extent of the law" all credibility is lost. No surprise though that this comes from the Thai journaille who think they should run the country, or at least decide how the country is run, because their opinions apprea in print.

The best news through the entire incident is that (a) nobody relevant reads or cares for the opinions written on an outsider web board that assumes the personality of an Iranian revolutionary court, and ( the same pretty much goes for both English language newspapers. There's still a chance that this will be decided in an evenhanded manner with a balance between punishment, compensation and atonement.

It may be that the facts have changed, but how could parents be responsible for a child driving the car of a friend (that was the last status I read)?

I don't think the writer has much knowledge of actual laws here or elsewhere. Not that this would stop anyone from writing.

TO ALL WHO KEEP REPLYING TO PIENGRUDEE'S TROLL post:

Have you never listened to Whitney Houston in your life?

"I believe the children are our are future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier..."

Please stop quoting and replying to it. Thanks.

There's also a chance that the 16 year old is just taking the blame for her sister because she might get a more lenient sentence.

"18 year old woman"... why hasn't anybody picked up on that fact yet? It seems that both drivers survived and none fled the scene. Why not wait for the police enquiry results before jumping to conclusions?

"In God we trust"... makes sense perfectly only because that's what's written on the dollar notes, and money is what keeps dangerous drivers on the road here. Much more than possible in the west.

"SPEEDing" kills. Otherwise planes would be more dangerous than cars. You're safer at 1000 km/h in the air than at any speed on the road, including not moving at all.

"We're all travelling at 19 m/s"... interesting but irrelevant because you're not safer speeding west than you are speeding east. What kills is relative speed which is why in car racing a stalled vehicle is a greater threat than the others moving at 200 km/h with you.

Just a thought... two people sitting in an unsafe vehicle, one terrified the other not bothered at all. Both stay for the entire trip. Which one is smarter? tip: not the one who wrote on thai VISA. Sorry for being a smart ass today but it fit so well with the rest of the posts.

The only lesson I see here is that apparently keyboards are sold "downtown" for cheap, but without the punctuation keys The OP was a real rollercoaster "write"!

Apart from that, why not use Shopping 101 such as: check the price tag, pay at the cashier (don't be lazy and wait for your change where you found the goods) by yourself, know the rough value of the goods you're looking for, be able to distinguish apparently similar types of goods (e.g. a manufacturer replacement remote should be significantly more expensive than a Chinese knock-off sold in "downtown" shops, same goes for universal remotes).

As a moral, I'd say "don't make generalizing statements based on anectodical evidence" would be a good one. Got two posts here where this applies.

Bangers has a thumbs up in my eyes.

That ought to hurt :-)

This seems to be a general issue with the Galaxy-S and Tab. If I compare battery performance to my ancient iPhone 2G, in flight mode (since one cannot use the 2G in Korea, it now basically doubles as an iPod), I can get at least 2 weeks standby/listening mix from the iPhone (about 90-120 minutes a day, screen off - I'm an audiobook guy). Switched off entirely, there seems to be around 10-20% battery drain per month. My typical charging cycles with the iPhone were one full charge every 10-14 days; it would also last through an entire 11 hour flight back to Europe with at least 25% battery to spare for calls etc.

Now the Galaxy... and I say that as a happy owner, this is a beautiful phone (so much that I'm considering buying a Tab as well) - I use it more often and more intensive, of course, since I'm on an unlimited data plan, it also works as a phone being 3G, runs Android where your apps are often updated (and need to be downloaded) 2-4 times in a week, has Gmail, Facebook and other auto-syncing apps running - I know that you cannot compare one gadget in flight mode with another in full operation, but even with everything shut off, I see 15-25% battery drain overnight (for me that's 6 hours) which would end up to one full charge per day. So I wouldn't be surprised if in flight mode the phone would deplete the battery 100% in 3-5 days max.

I'd imagine there will be a similar situation with the Tab, both being from the same Samsung engineers. I've been living in Korea long enough to know that the Korean engineering paradigm is often more around how things look rather than how thinks work - here I give huge credit to Apple, who lost out this time because the iPhone 4G was just too similar to my 2G to be worth buying (and there's the issue of Android, which I just had to try) - most of the time this materializes in weird (to a Western standard) user interfaces but clearly the phone was made for a Korean infrastructure and usage pattern: You live with the phone always in your hand, always have 1-2 spare and charged batteries in your pocket, and there are free chargers in every coffee shop (which also provide free wireless internet and electricity outlets). The Galaxy-S is actually the first Korean phone I own that did now want to make me throw it into the nearest body of water after a week. If you still need to experience Korean usuability weirdness, there's always Kies - I never liked iTunes but after trying to use Kies, I would marry the design/programming team of iTunes be they men or women.

I've seen the iPad in use by a kid (movies, games and music through an 11 hour flight, some nap time) and it was working on departure and on arrival. Good battery life.

I don't really have a solution except to try Juice Defender and see if that helps. Also, look for apps that show you which service was using how much battery. See if there are options to sync manually or prevent them from running all the time. Unfortunately I found that under Android, some apps are impossible to prevent from running and cannot be removed from the autostart list. If possible, replace these apps with something else and send a quick email to the developer to notify them of the issue. At the most basic, a task manager culd help you shoot down some of the apps that won't provide a proper exit option, for example Skype.

Yeah, and join me in wishing for a fix in Android 2.x (provided that Kies allows for a smooth upgrade, or someone invents a proper replacement for that POS software).

Maybe you can update your experiences ever so often?

I know of a business guy who collected fetuses and sold it for 25,000.00 per fetus USD to stem cell researches.

I think you know of a guy who like to talk rubbish after a couple of drinks (as we all do, either way). If anything, this guy would have had to collect embryos, not fetuses.

A study had also found that more than half of the juveniles committing crimes came from single-parent families.

Great statistics! Reminds me of the classic Dilbert "Did you know that 40% of sick leave is taken either on a Friday or Monday!?"

Utterly meaningless without further information, but useful in scaring the middle class readership.

As I understand it, you have to leave the country and be "stamped" into another country before re-entering Thailand, I have read in other threads of people trying this on Land borders like Nong Khai, they have tried just stamping out and walking across the road and back in but hit problems because they dont have the stamp from the other country.

That may be the case at certain checkpoints but can't be a general rule. Usually your home country (or, if you're an EU citizen, any member country) would not put a stamp in your passport.

If convenience would be an item on the immigration department's agenda, they'd allow an extension of a multi-visa by (for example) charging you a fee in the order of the cheapest trip over the nearest border

I'm surprised nobody has said that already! Perhaps because the question wasn't posted in the Pattaya or Phuket forums?

LIFE is cheap in Thailand

And seriously, when you can save 50-75% on comparable rent EACH MONTH, 50% on food EACH DAY, what's the point of complaining that imported goods (the only ones worth buying) which are purchased perhaps once every 3-6 years are a little more expensive?

You mention a thunderstorm and it was night time? My best bet is that someone tested their new Klieg light and you got the reflection off some oddly shaped clouds, perhaps with refractions from water droplets thrown in.

"We are not alone" - well, unfortunately for all practical purposes, we are. But so is probably all other life in this (and other) universe.

The REAL crime here is the weird spelling of a plural with apostrophe, i.e. "Thai's" instead of "Thais". Very common on Thai Visa, and cannot be blamed on nationalities or languages because to my knowledge there is no language that builds a plural with an apostrophe.

I wish the police would take care of that instead, say a 2,000 Baht fine for anyone caught "littering" their posts with unnecessary apostrophes. They can start by hanging out in internet cafes (or cafe's, since I'm safely out of reach of the BiB).

PS: If you wonder why I get upset at what amounts to mere sloppiness, think of where this might lead to. Soon every word ending in an "s" sound will have an apostrophe, and do you really want to read an article where "house" is spelled "hou's" and "houses" spelled "hou's's"? I know you don't!

Guilt has not been established yet, but what would I do (assuming I'd be innocent) in this case?

A little bit of risk management (think Russian Roulette - the odds are 1 in 6 that a shot is fired, but 100% that you're dead in that case):

Worst case, I get convicted but plead my innocence, so I get 20 years in a Thai prison, with some chance of a royal pardon after some years or a transfer to fulfill the sentence in my home country.

Bad case, I get convicted after I (falsely) plead guilty and get my sentence halved, so 10 years in a Thai prison and the rest as above.

In both cases, there's a chance that I will still lose my money and property, by confiscation or other means. Also, there's a chance I might be retried after my return home on thee same charges.

My name will be tainted forever.

Now the alternative:

I do not return, forfeit the (small) bail and wait for a trial in absentia, maybe represented only by my lawyer if that is possible, and wait for the verdict.

Worst case, if found guilty, possibly (but not necessarily) forfeit my properties (they may be in another person's name who could recover some of my investments), will probably not be extradited to Thailand (better check that beforehand), may be tried in my home country with (another assumption) a better chance of justice.

If found innocent, no harm done except that the bail money is probably gone.

So all in all, even if 100% innocent, I would not return unless there was a high risk of extradition (I might have to do a Polansky on that one then).

Perhaps the police does not have that much of a case against him? The judge who decided the (pretty low) bail would have weighed the facts (I know I know, this is Thailand). But let's not forget that Pletnev also has some very valuable assets in Thailand which might be seized if he jumps bail.

no problem at all with customs, but it is travelling 101 that you never pack valuables in your luggage as there is a very high chance of theft at any airport in the world.

I don't know where you get your number of 5% from, but even if this is an accurate figure (probably much too high), I would think that a much higher percentage of luggage containing valuable is being pilfered than the average. In other words, airport thieves won't bother to pilfer luggage that contains only worn underwear and a shaving kit, but go straight for the tagged baggage that contains the good stuff. How'd they know that? Well...

So, you may take your chances with this one. You're also taking your chances with believing that your customs officeers will only use your hand luggage ("We couldn't find any contraband because they put it in their checked baggage! I wish we were legally allowed to search all baggage including body cavities" - "Oh wait, we are! Let's start with this guy with the shifty eyes.").

Check your destination's legal limits. Maybe you can get everything in without paying too much and without committing an illegal act.

*** EDIT *** Sorry, it appears that I quoted the wrong post Should be clear which one I meant

Has anyone bothered to look up "Nationalism" in the dictionary? There are always several definitions given, the vast majority is positive. So is the historic move from city-state or feudal territory towards a nation. Nationalistic can be used in a negative way (although most of the times, the term "ultra-nationalist" is used) but might as well be identical in meaning to "patriotic".

My theory why Thailand practices a Thai nationalism: the country is multi-ethnic (not as much as Malaysia, where my theory would also apply) and as can be seen from cases such as the former Yugoslavia or the Kurds, certain nationalistic ways can rip a state apart. The government then uses a strong Thai nationalism to counteract these separatist trends, creating the feeling of a group of 60 million to cancel out movements of groups of, say, one million.

Imagine what would happen to China without a feeling of comprehensive Chinese nationalism...

I guess once Pattaya or Phuket hit the threshold of say 2 million permanently residing foreign retirees, a case can be made to separate from Thailand as a new nation or city state (kind of like an Anti-Singapore) by democratic or other means, under UN supervision. Who knows, perhaps that will be when the whining finally stops?

Well, this will come and go just as the timers at McDonald's. Anything over 15 minutes is already in my inconvenience zone. I've been through Thai immigration in under 5 minutes before and never more than 45 minutes, but in the country I'm living in now (which has an award winning airport that mostly deserves the accolade) I've made the Triathlon of check-in/security/immigration regularly in less than 10 (and without check-in, always in less than 10 minutes). All the times I've been smiled at and greeted in a friendly manner by check-in staff, security staff and immigration staff.

This is not a country known anywhere as a land of smiles, nor is it a famous tourist destination or even a country used to deal with lots of foreigners. They just try harder and succeed.

Fortunately for Thailand, once you're inside it makes up 10x for any inconvenience you experienced trying to get in, and as for leaving... never mind.

Another sectarian mass-murder fails, through lack of proper planning...

SC

Awesome!

EASEUS Partition Manager is free for private use. It works like a charm on XP, Vista and Windows 7 x86 but I'm not sure if it does so on x64 systems (there is some check in the software to determine if you run a "personal" type of Windows or a "professional" one - so for some Windows versions it will tell you to buy the pro software).

The interface is similar to the old PartitionMagic (which is no longer supported and doesn't work on Vista and newer OS). Meaning that it can be very easy to use, but you can also bring yourself some serious grief. Best to use the Wizard for a simple task such as resizing partitions.

In general, with a new computer, HD or OS I always do at least the following:

- partition the "C" drive for the main OS to be at least 64 GB (if Vista or W7) - under XP days 8 GB use to be plenty (Office, Photoshop etc. also used to have smaller installs then).

- partition a generous "D" for "DATA" and have Windows use this drive instead of the "My Documents" folder on "C" - that way I can easily and quickly back up my data without searching through the OS drive, and the "C" drive keeps its space free for more software, TEMP files and other garbage

- create at least one additional partition with a secondary OS - that can be anything but the point is that it allows me in most problem cases to boot into the secondary OS and try to fix the main OS or rescue any data and settings. A boot disk could do that too but since the advent of 32GB thumb drives and 500GB portable mini-HDs I do not do CDs anymore.

Even during the days when 100GB drives were the biggest you could get, I had 3 and more OS available - a secure work partition, a gaming partition, an XP partition for older games, and an experimental partition (made to be messed up).

Anyone remember when drives were 40-80 MB(!) large, contained the (D)OS and Office and games with room to spare (usually 2-3 MB, haha) AND it still took the same time to install everything that it takes nowadays for 20-30 GB?

@ECHO OFF

over 10,000 baht bus and motorbike taxi drivers, who, being at the grass roots level, have a great part to pay in this new crime prevention campaign

Good to know that the PP has its financing already set up.

This kind of ranking is useless and insignificant except for its entertainment value. There is no basis on which to compare the hotels. Everyone could easily compare the best hotel of, say, Tadjikistan with the worst hotel anywhere. If they had compared standardised hotels such as Hilton, Hyatt, Accor Group etc. it would make some sense - "worst Novotel in the World" etc. - but this is nothing except a quick laugh and forgotten within moments.

The UK hotels report a few days back - my guess is that a lot of the reviews came from domestic UK travelers perhaps?

No standard checklist, no standard hotel categories, no standard test methods and evaluation - all rubbish.

Yeah yeah yeah... last time the Germans did what their government asked them to do, what was the result?

There are better reasons not to use IE 6/7/8 than risks.

Pretty silly the entire story, but I'm sure that as I'm writing this, police is already cracking down on pharmacies all over Phuket.

If not, perhaps these laws can be changed accordingly:

- it is okay for shops to sell cigarettes and alcohol to minors, since it is forbidden for them to smoke/drink. However if caught with the goods on the street, minors should immediately produce a written note of the parent/older sibling/uncle etc. stating clearly that the kid was just shooping on his/her behalf.

Otherwise arrest, of course.

Or just prohibit the sales of Valium etc. from 2pm to 5pm (unless bought in bulk, of course).

I am shocked... shocked to see how many people writing in this thread seem to have checked their balls at immigration as well as their decency - rapid assimilation syndrome, I presume. Fortunately the further decisions are now in more competent hands (the Thai police - guys, you have just been insulted).