OldAsiaHand

According to a lengthy review of Boot Camp yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Monty, you are correct. It runs natively and there is no performance hit at all. The only real drawback that the Journal underscored is that, naturally, you can only run one OS at a time and must reboot to switch between them. Apparently some Mac apps will be able to access Windows documents without rebooting, but not the other way around.

I'm glad I could help. If you know he right person to talk to here, a great many things can be sorted out easily enough.

I would seriously suggest you remove the name and location of this company immediatly.

Why?

All sorts of people -- public figures and private individuals -- are trashed on this board all the time, frequently in harsh and irrational terms. This gentleman has raised a legitimate concern about a company that is prominent in Bangkok and he has done it in quite a reasonable way. If his story is true, he deserves to tell it. Why would you want to prevent him from doing so? What purpose could that possibly serve in an open forum like this?

Something is seriously wrong here. I can tell you that the presumptions you are making about the management of Bookazine are entirely unjustified. Turning this incident into an attack on 'explotive foreign companies' is complete nonsense. Stay focused on what happened. Help you friend solve his problem and put a cork in the political diatribes.

The managing director of Bookazine is an American who is an absolutely solid guy, a true book-business professional who used to work for Amazon and would not hang his people out to dry. Write Bob Pfaff directly and tell him your story. His email address is [email protected].

How far up will the SET open tomorrow? Five points? Ten points? Twenty maybe? Good God, not more....

And then,

(1) where will it close on Wednesday

(2) where will it close for Songkron

Place your bets, fellows.

Oh yeah, my guesses are:

Open on Wednesday - 7 points up

Close on Wednesday - 17 points up

Close at Songkron - 771

Your turn.......

Thaksin: lost 'Face', after his resignation ?....

Maybe, but hasn't the so-called oposition also lost face? Didn't they come out, on the whole -- particularly right after the resignation -- looking weak, confused, and indecisive?

Within fifteen minutes of the announcement, Korn was on BBC for the Democrats saying it would be perfectly okay for the PM to come back in the future 'if he is legally elected.'

Zounds!

I know a fair few foreigners who make a decent profit here - in most cases nothing extravagant, but definitely enough to live very comfortably...it is the people who succeed despite the problems that you should ask for advice.

Perhaps not. I have 'succeeded' in a way that could only be described by anyone as 'extravagant,' to use your term. Yet, when I answered the OP's question with observations based on my conclusion that it is NOT worth it to try and do business in Thailand, I have been dismissed as at best a bitter nut and at worst a cynical loser.

It appears that most poster here are only interested in the point of view of people who support their own predispositions. They not looking for advice; they're seeking affirmation.

PAD has their fair share of nutcases don't they?

I thought their proposed boycott of Singaporean products and overall xenophobia was out there, then this one gave me a laugh:

"Phibhop Dhongchai, a core leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, said Mr Thaksin had once

again used votes to justify himself. The caretaker prime minister had asked the public what his

problems were. "

But this is one better.

You're certainly right there.

The loonies are well and truly on the march.

I gather there is somewhat more to this story, although there would appear to be an outrage here regardless of what else there is to say about it. The cops didn't suddenly appear in a genuine bookstore and bust bookshop employees on such a thin pretext as you have described without a lot of encouragement from somebody and without a motive better than you have described.

Can you tell us more? What bookstore? What kind of material do they generally sell and to whom? Is this store is harassed by the cops on a continuing basis for some reason?

There isn't any quick and easy fix for the circumstances you describe, but my heart goes out to these employees who are clearly caught in the middle of some conflict not of their making. Perhaps, with a little more information, I can offer some intelligent suggestions.

Transpo International, Bangkok. Absolutely the best and most reliable household moving agent in Thailand with local agents worldwide. They have all sorts of embassy and commercial contracts here. I've used them several times and recommend them without reservation.

http://www.asiantigers-thailand.com/

.....By mentioning Martin Luther King, I can see you are shortsighted and immatured.[/color].....

Your logic here, if any, eludes me entirely.

And as for this nascent debate in which a couple of posters are castigating me for calling Sondi a 'politician,' what in the world is that about? The man styles himself as the uberleader of a 'political' movement, he rides throught the streets repeatedly at the head of 'political' marches, and he isn't a 'politician' because he's not actually standing for a specific elective office? Surely you can't be serious.

just curious Old Asia Hand.

Why are you here? You write about counting off the days till you can leave your Thai cell; is something keeping you here?

Not a flame . . just curious what keeps you in a place you've obviously have lost any empathy for long ago.

To tell the truth, and I say this most respectfully, I'm not particularly inclined to detail my personal circumstances to you to satisfy your curiosity. I've already said several times on this board that I'm here because I have to be. I fervently wish that it was not so, but it is.

I know an awful lot of people in Bangkok who are in similar positions, however -- i.e. for some specific reason, they are stuck here, at least for a while. Do you think all those people who live in Detroit (or Hamburg or Manchester or.....) live in those places because they have chosen them over all other places on earth as the most desireable? Family, commerce, and other obligations shape most of our choices. That's life, huh?

I have no particular agenda concerning Thailand. I really couldn't care less about it. I answer questions on this board occasionally when I have nothing better to do by voicing my own experiences here. My experiences here span a couple of decades so it seems to me that they may hold some value to some people. Still, the politically correct brigade gets in such a twitter when anyone speaks up who doesn't particularly like Thais and is contemptous for what passes here as government and commerce that I don't really know why I bother.

...LAst point, I know some will certainly say i am myself clueless and know nothing about thailand...

Don't worry about it. Whatever you say some dink on this board will tell you that you are 'clueless and know nothing about Thailand.' It is the standard response of all those self-righteous foreigners who clog this board with posts designed mostly to prove how politically correct and morally superior to the rest of us they are, that only they have attained a state of blissful oneness with these lovely smiling people among whom we live.

Now that you've stirred up these folks, I have no doubt that they will bombard you with prime examples of their own unique wisdom (like those you have already attracted above). Batten down the hatches, Froggy. The culturally sensitive nuts are marching.

...Dirty politician always hit their opponent pocket until they bleeds.

And you are classifying Sondi as.......what? A clean politician?

You don't know very much about any of these people do you, son?

He is not a politician yet, but a critic that exposed the corrupts. You don't seem to know much.

Are you this naive about everything, son, or are just really desperate to be perceived as a politically correct foreigner?

Your Mr. Sondi was one of the biggest and most notorious beneficiaries of the Prime Minister's own original brand of crony capitalism. When he proved too dumb to take advantage of even the unfair advantages he had been given by the PM, he abandoned his bankrupt media company, took a huge number of people down with him and, like so many other Thai screw-ups, fled the country.

Now he comes back, reinvented as a self-declared saint, and people like you, who know nothing of the history here, treat him like he was a Thai Martin Luther King. Good Lord. How naive.

Most airlines in the US do not allow bags of more than 50 lbs due to agreements with baggage handlers or medical insurance....

Yeah, you're right. I was nailed on this by Delta recently when connecting at LAX off a flight from BKK. The Delta counter girl refused to check my bag for being 1 pound (!) overweight. I had to open it right there on the floor at LAX and remove a book.

A great many American airline personnel see themselves as abused victims of their employers. Their only pleasure anymore is in sticking it to as many passengers as they can to get even. If you run into one of those (as I did), the baggage rule will be strictly enforced. Most of the time, however, as long as you're somewhere in the ballpark, you will be okay.

Most of the people I know will tell you whether you ask them or not. Frankly, I'm more interested in finding a way to get them to shut up about it.

Yup, the manipulation behind the scenes must be reaaally scary.

We'd better stop here

And that is exactly what is scary about it.

In the face of even the worst abuses of power, Thais bow their heads, smile uncertainly, and do nothing. The passivity of people here, their willingness to accept abuse as their lot and the way of the world, is absolutely terrifying. The fundamental reason that this country has little or no chance at significance is that ordinary Thais revel in their ordinariness and always 'stop here.'

.....Certainly is not for everyone but a number of people have done VERY well here. Factoring in both the infrastructure and cost, and Thailand is one of the top countries to do business in.

www.lawyer.th.com

Oh come on now. 'One of the top countries to do business in'? What a pile of rubbish.

I know you earn your living off people naive enough to believe this kind of nonsense, but even a casual reading of the posts on this forum amply demonstrates that the overwhelming experience foreigners have in business here is quite negative.

I am one of those people you cite who most would think 'have done VERY well' in my nearly twenty years here. Regardless, the combination of smugness ond sheer stupidity most Thais bring to commercial transactions continues to astonish me nearly every day. No foreigner with the slightest sense ought to be stumbling around in a country like this pretending to think he is accomplishing anything productive. And if he tells others that he is......well, he is either incredibly dumb, hopelessly naive, or a complete scondrel.

...Dirty politician always hit their opponent pocket until they bleeds.

And you are classifying Sondi as.......what? A clean politician?

You don't know very much about any of these people do you, son?

I'm not sure what it is exactly that you think you would be celebrating. What was once a rather lovely, traditional Thai festival has been hijacked by hooligans, thugs, and drunks to justify three or four days of generally offensive behavior toward others. Some foreigners in particular seem to see Songkron as a license to be even more boorish than they are the rest of the year. If you have any sense, you'll do what most people who have to live here do during Songkron: stay inside your apartment.

Have you noticed how much pride there is reflected in the continuing announcements of how many more web sites the government has blocked?

'We've blocked another 1000 web sites this week!' 'We're blocked another 5000 web sites this week!'

The lousy, stinking bandwidith here is sinking toward Fourth World status.

Maybe we could also ban young Brits from 6pm tonight until midnight tomorrow just to see how it works out.

Ah, jeez. What is it about this place that get these self-righteous prats all riled uplike this? They respond to anyone who doesn't express undying love for Thailand as if they were defending their girlfriend's honor.

A lot of people spend part (or all) of their lives in places they can't stand. What's so odd about some of those folks being here in Thailand? Thailand is NOT a special case. It does NOT exist on a different plain from the rest of the known universe. It's just another Third World hole, friend.

It's good to see we have a financial genius on board. The problem is that I didn't see any funds mentioned EXCEPT US funds. I think if you read back you will get a better idea of what was being discussed.

Surely you are putting us on here. Nobody is that dumb.

Whether the fund is US or Ukranian and whether it accounts in USD or not, any fund that invest in foreign securities of any kind effectively hedges the dollar against a general dollar decline. If you want to hedge specifically against the euro you would select a fund holding euro denominated securities, and if you want to hedge against the baht, of course, you would choose a fund that holds baht denominated securities. That is what the original poster asked about and that is how I answered his question.

Your sneering does nothing to disguish the kind of silly, uneducated response you gave to a perfectly sensible question. It was unfortunately all too typlical of the kind of advice the smug and ignorant constantly foist off on the less sophisticated posters on this forum. Come to think of it, maybe you are that dumb. Your sophomoric sarcasm certainly does nothing to persuade anyone from reaching that conclusion.

....My question is this. So why so many ex-pats in Thailand?.....

This is an inexpensive, undemanding place to live. It attracts people to whom an inexpensive, undemanding life appeals.

Most of us who are here have some specific reason for being here -- commerce, family, employment, like that. Most of us did not choose to live in Thailand because, above all places on the earth, it is wonderful. If we could have made that kind of choice, we'd probably be in Maui.

Regardless, the emotional drop outs who tend to wind up here seem to think that all of us who are here entered into a kind of marriage relationship with Thailand and promised to love it forever. Even the slighest whiff of criticism of the dear old dame sends them into spasms of self-righteousness.

I guess I can understand that. Most of them have no place else to go. This is their last, sometimes their only hope, and they don't want to hear anyone speak ill of it. Frankly, as for me, I'm crossing the days off the calendar on the wall of my cell and waiting for the warden to tell me I've served my time.