JimShortz

Be warned.... If you have DTAC with a pre-paid promotion you will get a monthly renewal text message at midnight to inform you that the renewal has occurred. Bloody annoying! I have had to set my phone in Do Not Disturb mode during the wee hours to prevent the sms waking me once a month. This really should not be necessary.

I love the deal. For 206 Baht a month I get 100 minutes of free calls and 500 mb of 3G data (that switches to Edge if it runs out, not start charging at 1 Baht per mb like most competitor offerings) + sms only 1 Baht each, BUT monthly midnight sms messages are ridiculous. I called their helpline and spoke to a very helpful young man who said he will pass my complaint to management, but unfortunately cannot change the time - apparently they do this to all of their customers... Unbelievable!!!

If you are interested in Adobe building around Chiang Mai, take a look at http://www.punpunthailand.org/?page_id=66

You should consider the newer mirrorless DSLRs. I recently sold my Canon 550D camera and lenses (that I liked very much by the way - great entry level DSLR) and replaced it with a tiny and light Sony Nex 3 with it's kit lens (16 to 50mm). This is way more compact, is a fully featured mirrorless DSLR, and takes superb photos, but does not have a viewfinder. For that you need to go for a Nex 5 or 7 - but I am guessing your daughter won't care...

The Nex 3 with kit lens is about 15k Baht in the shops, but I bought it online from a Lazada associate for 11,500. You can but it with an additional long zoom for under 20k. I think your daughter may love that setup....

I love mine. No way I'll go back to a huge DSLR again - the future is mirrorless for sure! The Nex range are a good mirrorless choice rather than the micro 4/3rds cameras as they have a much larger sensor - the same size as my Canon 550D.

You can buy several versions at Toys R Us at Promenada Mall - the only store worth entering that ghost town for. I bought my son a nice "briefcase" type set from their. It's a decent size and has a nice soft lining, making it quiet to shake the dice in. Enjoy!

If you didn't penetrate her and the baby cannot possibly be yours then why even ask? This is a bar girl you are talking about? Since you think there are others it's safe to say she is a bit of a slag?

Wow! How is it to live with such a complete lack of humanity?

You ask "This is a bar girl you are talking about?" as though if the answer is yes then she is sub-human and not worthy of help. I am not suggesting that he should hand over his wallet, but try showing some humanity... and respect for ALL people...

I haven't heard the phrase "slag" used for many years! Even then it was usually only used by morons who believe that women don't have the same rights as men to be sexually liberated. I guess that little has changed.

What's the opposite of 'slag'. Is it "stud"? Not the same connotations has it...

F F S give it a rest - this is good no matter how you look at it, better than spending billions on useless tablets - now move on

Err, no.... It depends how you look at it. Isn't this just Microsoft using it's power to maintain dominance by giving its software away at the grass roots level. Businesses are then forced to buy it...

It does make you feel funny.

Yes, it does indeed. A friend any I mocked my wife for telling us not to drink if we were going to eat the durian that she had brought home. We thought just another Thai thing.... But after eating it on top of beer did feel somewhat strange. Neither of us have combined the two again.

Hard to describe how I felt, but just not right - more queer than usual!

I'm sending this from there now. If you want to go take a look just drive in from the canal road in to the stadium entrance and follow around to the back of the main stadium. Lots of cars and trucks burning out their tyres and generally having a good time... Come see!

I've asked on here before about motorsports around Chiang Mai, and a kind soul let me know about this. If anyone else hears of other motorsports in the region please let me know.

I believe it goes on until about 5pm today. Anyway, back to the watching; I'll post some photos and video later.

ask honda dealers. They still keep the parts catalog of bikes from 20 years before so they might order for you or at least they know a place that is selling fairings fr nsr.

That's probably what I need to do, thank you.

If the RR uses the same as the SP Tyga stock replacement plastic.

http://tyga-performance.com/th/index.php?cPath=72_1036_77_94

Thanks, but as far as I understand it they are not quite the same - unfortunately... although, at a push, it may be possible to make them fit!

I have an NSR150RR without the lower half of the front fairing and a screen that needs replacing. Can these still be purchased through the Honda dealer? Are there non-Honda replacement parts available from elsewhere for less?

In either case where do I need to go to buy them? How much are they likely to cost me?

Any help with this much appreciated. Thank you!

She runs great and looks good, but really needs this plastic to make her whole again... :-)

The simple answer is that the majority of posters are grumpy old farts who spend their days at their keyboards moaning and bitching. I only hope it keeps the old gits off the streets and away from the rest of the (much happier) human race!

Moanin' and grumblin', grrhh, argh... It wan't like that in my day... Work hard and earn your retirement like me... Grrhhh... Etc....

I think he would be better to fake a heart attack and go to hospital than jail.

Or become mentally unstable and get a nice bed in a home with a garden view.

Or go out in style...stand in middle of piccadilly naked and run around shouting I've got a big bomb up my arrse...

Such creative ideas Showbags. I love it!

To JimShortz

I hope that you are not teaching English.

No.

Why do you ask that?

It is apparently happening with the Thai universities first - this year. The aim being, as noted earlier, to bring them in line with ASEAN (and most of the world for that matter). This should make it much better for Thai's wanting to attend university abroad, and for attracting university students into Thai university international (English language) programmes - some of which are very good, but most not considered too hot.

Supposedly, this means they are closed now for 6 months and will reopen in September. Being Thailand, the only way to know is to watch and see when they actually reopen!

If they go ahead as planned and follow this through into Thai schools, then dog help the poor kids and their teachers in the non-AC classrooms through April and May... Sweat it... Sleep on the desks?

Another well thought through plan...

"Thai university international (English language) programmes - some of which are very good, but most not considered too hot."

Considered by who - you? Based on what criteria - your bias, opinion, gut feel, what you heard down at the bar?

The subject is about calendar changes to align with other countries - but some can't help themselves.

Well, since you ask - through eight years teaching at international schools in Thailand, being actively involved with senior students' university selection and through feedback from a great many students who I know well and have entered into the Thai university English language international programmes...

Also from knowing personally teachers in the aforementioned programmes and the admission tutors at two (people who I have good enough personal relationships with that they let me know which programmes they are running are professionally run and good, and err... the others...)

Where do you get your information from?

Please don't be rude to people for no reason at all - check the facts nicely first...

Great advice, both of you. Thank you kind people!

It is apparently happening with the Thai universities first - this year. The aim being, as noted earlier, to bring them in line with ASEAN (and most of the world for that matter). This should make it much better for Thai's wanting to attend university abroad, and for attracting university students into Thai university international (English language) programmes - some of which are very good, but most not considered too hot.

Supposedly, this means they are closed now for 6 months and will reopen in September. Being Thailand, the only way to know is to watch and see when they actually reopen!

If they go ahead as planned and follow this through into Thai schools, then dog help the poor kids and their teachers in the non-AC classrooms through April and May... Sweat it... Sleep on the desks?

Another well thought through plan...

My wife has a visa application appointment next week, but we are unsure how she will collect back her passport (hopefully with visa and documents) - unsurprisingly, the vfsglobal website is unclear...

On the FAQ page (http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/Thailand/frequently_asked_questions.html) it states: "How do I collect my documents and passport back? To collect your documents and passport, you need to visit the VFS Global visa application centre, where you have submitted your documents and passport."

That seems clear enough - go and collect them, BUT....

on their User Pay Services page (http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/Thailand/user_pay_services.html) it has: "Courier service: Applicants can choose to have their processed visa application, documents and passport couriered to their house or office by paying a nominal additional charge.

 
I used to go to see a girl to repair her computer and she always paid me in kind. One day I went and she was talking on Skype to her husban-to-be. I had to stand in the corner so he couldn't see ,e. Nothing wrong with the computer, she just wanted sex

Why bother building one when you can buy one for under 10,000?

http://www.invadeit.co.th/category/desktop-pcs/

The simple answer is that it is a choice... you don't have to. The real advantage is that you get to choose all of the components to meet your needs precisely, and most components bought this way have a three year warranty, as opposed to the standard one year for most pre-built machines.

However, the Lenovos that you link to are undoubtedly some of the best value (and great quality) machines around and a great idea for many people. The problem I find is that they are often not quite the mix of kit that I want - but then I have much more clearly defined requirements than most purchasers.

For Example:

Lenovo G3220, 11k Baht - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/desktop-pcs/lenovo/essential-h530-57325028-intel-pentium-g3220-2gb-ddr3-1tb-intel-hd-dos-p018445/ = Superb value, with USB 3, HDMI, card reader, etc. BUT annoyingly only 2GB ram. I have no hesitation at all in recommending this machine (we buy lenovos for school because of the great warranties!), but you would immediately have to add in more memory; so not quite as cheap as it sounds, still great value though, and this one has 3 years on-site warranty. Now that is a wow, and I would certainly consider buying it.

Lenovo i3 for 10K sounds like great value until you realise that it only has a 500 GB HDD (very annoying since 1TB is only slightly more expensive to buy), but worse, it is a slow spin (5400), slow connection (SATA 2) drive. The i3 chip is 3rd generation - we are currently selling gen 4 at the higher end (actually, if you follow their specs link it shows a 2nd generation processor - much slower!)

All of the machines cheaper than these have processors that I would not be happy to buy, but that's a personal choice...

My real point is, that you must look at the detail, not just the headline, if you really want to compare like for like. Personally, I think the Lenovo G3220 with 3 years warranty is great. Just add a bit more for a memory upgrade and perhaps an SSD and you are good to go. I'm not sure if you can open it without invalidating the 3 year warranty though - my guess is that you can't; you'd have to go to Lenovo to get this done. That annoys me; if I buy a machine I want to be able to modify as I like, but of course others absolutely don't want to even look inside!

Hi JSixpack, that's some nice advice on the case - Kiwi1 should have plenty to think about there....

I know that you are also right about the power supply too, but it's tough in a cheap build to put a lot into something that you basically never see. What happened to you sounds horrific, but it's not something that has ever happened to me when I have had power supplies fail. I have been fortunate in it just being the PSU failing alone... You pay your money ( or don't ) and take your chance I guess. Everyone has to do the cost/risk thing; a bit like do you want to buy insurance or not I suppose!

I had opted for the 3 year power supply in the hope that if they are prepared to guarantee it for 3 years it has a lesser chance of failure. I hope that logic doesn't prove to be flawed.

Have you got any moderately priced power supplies that you think could be a good buy?

I'm sure you are also right about AMD now too, but for me I can't get over the once bitten twice shy feeling. I also used to support AMD as the underdog - then the bugger bit me!

Thanks for all the constructive interest,

Am presently uisng 41 GB of my 111GB hard drive.

Assuming I use SDD for Windows 7 OS then could I get away with, say 60GB SSD plus a larger HDD for data?

Hi Kiwi1. To answer your question, yes, you certainly could do that. I just wonder if it is the best solution...

From 41GB of disk usage I would guess that no more than 10 or 15 GB are data (i.e. not program installations). If that's the case you may be better off with just an SSD and no Hard Drive, for now, and use something like Google drive to keep your data backed up in "the cloud" for free. Google supplies a free 25GB cloud storage space to all Gmail users for free!

What I have done on my home computer is downloaded the google Drive app and installed that, then I have set that drive folder as the only folder within my Windows 7 Documents library. The upshot is that when I save anything to my documents folder it is actually my Google Drive folder, and as such it automatically backs up all of my important data to the cloud, on the fly, with no effort from me. In between typing on Thaivisa (too much!) I am working on an important assignment. I love the fact that as it is saved as I go along it is automatically in the cloud; the last thing I want is to be 5000 words in and have the beast disappear due to my hardware failing. it could happen...

To be on the safe side (and that is the best side) I also occasionally back this folder up to an external drive. I'm guessing that in your case you could even do this simply on a 16GB flash drive or SD card - cheap as chips!

I would not buy a 60GB SSD (ever, in fact - I think they will become increasingly cramped and restrictive in a few short years). IMHO you should spend the extra on a minimum 120GB SSD. Remember that as well as your regular use of space (41GB in your case) anything on your desktop that is being played with has to be added in (maybe occasional large photo or video editing?) and you need space to allow for data growth - an unstoppable phenomenon... The OS also needs some spare space for working. Basically, don't buy a 60GB SSD unless you want it to be annoying you in the near future... IMHO. You can, but I wouldn't!

Of course, you can always add another HDD or SSD later if storage demands grow, but try and avoid being saddled with lots of increasingly useless small drives.

Okay, new plan!

I don't see any budget for an OS. Is that over/above the 10,000 baht goal?

No OS budget necessary, that has all been taken care of, and yes, it will update, etc...

and we don't have a 10k goal this time, just somewhere around that area!