StatlerandWaldorf

The Flu is a virus, it is in no way caused by the cold.

You also cannot catch AIDS from a toilet seat.

Condolences to the family of the man.

It's probably one of the better ways to go. One time when I was biking up in the Pennines (England) in winter, my core body temperature must have been losing it despite some fairly hardcore exercise. I sheltered behind a wall from the wind and hail, and it was actually quite comfortable. You just get drowsy and want to sleep. If it weren't for my co-riders coaxing and dragging me I wouldn't be alive today.

If the guy just drifted into sleep, then perhaps even if he was with other people they may not have noticed.

I guess we're not far from that time of year where an 'emergency' shipment of blankets will be going North. Why they don't ship them in good time I can't figure.

Forward planning? Seriously? Why?

Also, what happened to the blankets that were shipped last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, I could go on.

Versus 2.3 million from the Philippines who work overseas, says something about the Thai economy.

The average Filipino speaks English which makes them easily employable away from home, they're even here teaching English, after a fashion.

Thailand claims to have almost zero unemployment. Compared to the Philippines, Thailand has a manufacturing industry with overseas companies investment. It has a large tourism industry and a major international airport.

The Philippines is a basket case as far as infrastructure goes. The Japanese built most of the transport infrastructure there 20-30 years ago.

Without the crutch of 2.3 million overseas Philippino workers sending remittances home from overseas to prop up the economy, the government there would have to make an effort.

I agree, the Philippines is a disaster in terms of attracting foreign investment, even allowing entrepreneurship of it's own citizens seems to be mired in so much constant red tape it seems like they are discouraging it.

On the unemployment numbers for Thailand! Well, I think this number is just that, a number. How do they come to that number? is it the number of people eligible for, and claiming social security? What percentage of the population are actually eligible?

If you go out to the provinces you can see plenty of working age people lounging around all day, because they work in the rice fields for 6 weeks a year does this count as being employed?

There are more questions than answers on this issue I think.

In this case it would seem the truck driver was at fault, but what we must also realise that there is always 2 sides to a story. Not belittling what happened to this guy as it is truly tragic and his family have my deepest sympathy, but I have experienced on many occasions cyclists making truly idiotic and dangerous moves and even a group of cyclists taking up the entire centre lane on a very busy 3 lane road.

The modern day cyclist is normally at least middle class and are only accustomed to driving cars where they push, shove, and ignore motorcycles like they don't exist, now they are the ones on 2 wheels they act in the same arrogant manner and have no concept of defensive riding, they also expect everyone else to get the hell out of their way because everyone should know they are 'not the normal poor person who historically is using 2 wheeled transport'.

Everyone using the roads, be they driving a 16 wheel truck or a unicycle has a responsibility to drive with care, consideration for others and to follow the rules of the road. The rules are there to protect people from their own stupidity, this applies to every Country on the planet, not only Thailand.

Of course, some kind of law enforcement may push people to actually bother to pay any attention to the laws. Just yesterday I was driving my Son home from school and there was a young lady riding a motorcycle with no helmet, my Son said "look, she is not wearing a helmet, where are the police?", to which I replied "Singapore". Strangely enough, we then saw a 'policeman' pass us, then proceed to pass the lady with no helmet and didn't even give her a second glance.

Oh, what's the point?

Due to the huge amount of money involved in these projects I think it best that it is all dealt with while the military is still in charge, as they will ensure that there is no corruption involved and all is dealt with transparently.

Same shit ,different day,Lost course even talking about it Nobody gives a shit ,Not even the Government .

You would think that one day someone might notice that there seem to be a lot of these types of accident I wonder why that is and look into it? Or at least set up a transport committee to look into it, the Government should care its mainly their people (Thais) who are the innocent victims.

I wonder if anyone knows how many bus crashes there are in every year?

I agree with you wholeheartedly and because there is nothing done about this year after year after year, one could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that actually, they don't care.

There doesn't even need to be any original thought put into things, just copy systems and processes from other countries that have been proven to work.

Cue expensive fact finding/shopping trips abroad.

Just imagine this hypothetical situation. Government employees from Country 'A' get to travel on all expenses paid 'fact finding' trips abroad. Said Government successfully implements what they have learned and things improve. Future 'fact finding' trips are no longer necessary. Where's the fun in that?

After all it is only poor people who travel on public transport and motorcycles.

The two 'gentlemen' carrying the body seem to find something rather amusing about the situation. What is Thai for empathy?

Simple fact is this: He is not unusually wealthy.

It is perfectly 'usual' for someone in his position to have assets way way beyond what he could have amassed from his official income. It is purely a play on words, it is not unusual because everyone in a position similar to his has a similar lifestyle, by definition making it not unusual.

It really is that simple.

Of course the perpetrator was dark skinned, light skinned people in Thailand are never the bad guys. Just watch Thai T.V the evidence is there for all to see.

And as it is on T.V it must be true.

This just reinforces these bull excrement beliefs that white skin good, dark skin bad.

Is 1800MHz better than 900MHz?

If I remember correctly the previous auction was a failure...3 or 4 bands to bid on and only 3 companies to bid. So everybody got their lowest price. Why was there such a frenzy over the 1800 MHz band?

Higher frequency = higher bandwidth capacity.

So why not go even higher?

Higher frequency also = more attenuation, basically less range from the antennae. Also more loss from things like rain, hence loss of satellite service in the rain, satellite frequencies are in the multi GHz band.

Hi all,

I am a little desperate right now as my Son's birthday is in a few days and his ps4 has ceased working, it will no start, beeps once, clicks twice and switches off. I think this is likely a power unit problem. This is an issue because we bought some new ps4 games for his birthday.

So off we went to the Sony Service Centre on BangNa Trad to have it fixed, only to be told that Sony Thailand do not support this console because the model number doesn't end in a certain range!! WHAT?

I did buy the console in Singapore and it is definitely a genuine unit but why do Sony not support their own product range? they could at least have had a look to see if it was an easy fix, but no, in typical Thai service, they just wanted us to go away as quickly as possible.

Does anyone have any ideas of how/where to get this fixed?

My Son's birthday is in 4 days and he will have no way to play his new games, imagine how disappointed he will be to have new games which are of no use.

Needless to say, I will certainly not be purchasing anything from Sony again, they give the false sense of security by buying a global brand with a global support service but it is nothing but hot air, smoke and mirrors.

Is anybody REALLY surprised?

In a nation where appearance trumps everything else, what can you expect?

Form over function, as long as it looks good who cares if it works or not?

Nice peace loving Buddhists?

Predictable, unoriginal, shortsighted post?

Sorry to disappoint you, but the mere fact of having "Buddhist" on ones birth certificate doesn't automatically make one "peace loving".

Neither does having "Christian" guarantee that one will "turn the other cheek", nor "Judaism" prevent one from eating pork or "Islam" stop the consumption of alcohol, nor "Hindu" etc, etc...........

Being a member of a vocational school gang (which is where the "belief" resides) does however, have it's own rigorous "duties" and unpleasant "consequences".

Could you please pass this information on to the other similarly predictable, unoriginal, shortsighted clones, who litter TV with the same sort of lame comment?

I agree with your sentiments. This may be slightly off topic, but what the hell are they teaching at these 'vocational colleges'? Because finding anybody with any actual vocational skills is like trying to find rocking horse poo. Don't get me started on the 3 'electricians' that came to my house to fix what was obviously (to me anyway) a grounding issue on an instantaneous water heater. Thanks, but any electrical work I will do myself, the lives of my family are at stake on that one.

The first to be exposed, the 10 millionth to do it.

I hope you choke on the stuff that was stolen from me.......well over 60k worth

I wholeheartedly second your sentiments.

Dozens of my items stolen over the years by the thieving employees of Thailand Post................

To be balanced and fair, I never had any issues for a number of years until about 18 months ago, since then anything that may look like it has any value whatsoever has disappeared. Most notably, gifts sent for my kids' birthdays and Christmas. I tell my family now not to bother sending any gifts or cards with money inside, better to give to a worthwhile charity, which by the way does not include the thai post office.

Again, before this time I used to have complete faith in the postal system and even had quite important items sent via the normal mail system. They have had ZERO credibility with me for around a year now and my trust is not easily won back.

If I was to judge an INDIAN cook I would assume to be a good Indian cook you must prepare your own curry mixtures yourself. Tailored to your special take on the dish in question.

I think probably THAI cooking should be seen the same way.

If the curry pastes aren't made fresh to the taste of the chef ... then it's basically SHORTCUT cooking.

Indian curries are based upon mixes of dried spices. It's really no effort to toss together a few spoonfuls of powder from different jars. On the other hand, Thai curry pastes are extremely labour-intensive, requiring the pounding of fresh ingredients, some of them, such as galangal, very hard. They are also sensitive to variations in the characteristics of the ingredients, so one can't simply rely upon a recipe to give the correct results.

Commercial pastes aren't made by pounding, but (usually) by passing the ingredients through a mincer. This produces a finer texture, but does slightly alter the taste. However, they are very consistent.

The stuff sold in supermarkets is (I presume) heat-sterilised which will inevitably alter the taste. (And most are very salty - particularly Lobo brand - possibly to help with preservation.) What you get at the local market is usually superior in my experience.

I understand your point of view on this but I have to disagree to a certain extent. The same principle applies to a chef of Indian food. For example, garam masala is a personal blend of different spices, and although blended from dry spices, the best version is made from dry roasting a number of spice seeds such as cumin seeds, coriander seeds etc. and then ground to a fine powder, this then gives you the basic garam masala which is one of many ingredients then used to make the Indian curry paste.

On the flip side, you are correct to a certain degree in that things like turmeric powder are not ordinarily home made but come from the jar, but believe me, to make a good bhuna ghosht from scratch really takes the best part of a full day.

I think that we have all become so accustomed to taking short cuts that we are losing the skill of making food 'from scratch', when I have time I like to make food from scratch, where possible from herbs etc. grown in my own garden, maybe this can be my hobby when/if I retire.

every time you drive you have to be aware that thais do not look in their mirror to see whats happening behind them, they do not give way, they do not use indicators, red lights and stop signs just mean go faster, they believe if they pull over to your side of the road to overtake or to avoid a puddle of water you have to pull off the road or stop for them, that they can turn left across the front of you car while you are moving forwards and that you will stop and let them do it, that overtaking on blind corners with double lines is ok and that anyone coming on the other side will drive into the trees so they dont crash,they can simply pull out from a corner or the kerb without looking to see if there is a car coming, that they have the right to do whatever they want and everyone else has to let them, that having a bigger/more expensive vehicle means they have the right of way, motor bikes have right of way all the time, they can stop in the middle of the lane to go into a shop or talk to their friends, they think flashing their headlights at you means you have to get off the road for them so they dont have to slow down, that everytime they drive they have to beat everyone else to the place they are going to show that they have a bigger dick and that none of them even have a clue as to who goes first at a cross road intersection. Maybe if they actually had to learn to drive on the streets and also to get a licence they would improve, understanding the road rules as well and having a licence would also help, then of course if all the riders/drivers were old enough to even have a licence wouldnt go astray either

What he said.

I know that some people like to assimilate and start to drive like many of the locals, I personally do not do this, tailgating for example, is dangerous and if you are willing to put your life and that of your family in danger just to assimilate, then be my guest, I will not endanger my family just to fit in.

I know we cannot change the way that many of them drive, but that does not make it ok, their sheer stupidity and inability to control a vehicle in a safe manner is reflected in the road death toll. Fact is, they must be happy with the way it is, or they would change it.

The true character of people is shown when they get behind the wheel of a car, and all the fake deference and niceties go out of the window. Basically Thais are culturally oppressed and are not allowed to express their true feelings, I think this shows once they become anonymous behind the wheel of a car with blacked out windows.

Many of the issues on roads are simply down to a lack of consideration for anyone else, the reality is that many people lack empathy and don't care a damn if they endanger other peoples lives or inconvenience them by blocking 50% of the road to buy noodles because they couldn't be arsed to park 5 metres up the road and walk.

The poor/dangerous driving is definitely one of the downsides of living in Thailand.

Having flown regularly to both Vietnam (HCMC) and KL, I would personally go for KL, flights with Malaysian Airlines are very reasonable and hotels in KL are some of the best value in the region. The downside of Vietnam is the hassle with the visa, which of course is not required for KL.

on 50/10 3bb im only getting 15/11.5 on san jose..

FTTH fiberhome modem. I can't max out my speed anywhere with single thread download, nor get anywhere near 30mb

Here's what I got just now.

I flew to Yangon recently, and one of the cabin crew was (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful and well proportioned ladies I have ever laid eyes on. That in itself is worth an award in my humble opinion

A step in the right direction, but I agree with previous replies that something really needs to be done about the soi dog population. As euthanasia seems to be a difficult subject in Thailand, neutering should be implemented throughout the Kingdom on any dogs that are not kept inside somebody's property boundary to reduce the dog population organically.

As I used to work in the Telecoms industry I will help a little with this topic of fibre.

FTTx has been talked about for many years FTT meaning 'Fibre To The' and the x being the wild card which could be fibre to the kerb or what was the holy grail in the past FTTH 'Fibre To The Home'.

Coincidentally, I just had the 3BB installers at my house today to install FTTH 30Mb, so this is full fibre to the home and they feed in the fibre and connect directly via an SC connector to the wireless router. I opted for them to provide the router and it is a decent Huawei Optical Network Terminal with WiFi.

I have had this for only a few hours but I did a speed test both to servers inside Thailand and to San Jose in California and both showed around 34Mb down and 3Mb up, which surprised me for the San Jose test, being international.

Anyway, the guys did a decent job, under supervision, they wanted to run the fibre along the floor in my spare room/office which is not a good idea with fibre and it looks unprofessional, so I helped them to run it in some plastic conduit which I already had installed myself previously.

BE AWARE, you cannot bend fibre optic cables like you do with copper cables, if you bend at 90 degrees, if the fibre core does not break you will increase signal attenuation significantly, it must be gentle curves. To give a practical example, you should be ok to loop it round a large Leo bottle (the thick part) without causing too much trouble.

Sorry, forgot to include that typically in the Telecom world speed is measured in bits, not bytes. That's a small b, a bit is 'b' a byte is 'B', obviously they differ by a factor of 8, 8 bits in a byte. 30Mb is 30 megabits per second, however in the past few years with apps like Vuze, they are showing the data rate in MB which is megabytes, 1MB is 8 times faster than 1Mb, 8 bits in a byte.

Data storage and file sizes are measured in Bytes, large B.

Historically data rates in network terms have always been measured in bits, just something to bear in mind if/when you think your data rate is not as fast as advertised.

As I used to work in the Telecoms industry I will help a little with this topic of fibre.

FTTx has been talked about for many years FTT meaning 'Fibre To The' and the x being the wild card which could be fibre to the kerb or what was the holy grail in the past FTTH 'Fibre To The Home'.

Coincidentally, I just had the 3BB installers at my house today to install FTTH 30Mb, so this is full fibre to the home and they feed in the fibre and connect directly via an SC connector to the wireless router. I opted for them to provide the router and it is a decent Huawei Optical Network Terminal with WiFi.

I have had this for only a few hours but I did a speed test both to servers inside Thailand and to San Jose in California and both showed around 34Mb down and 3Mb up, which surprised me for the San Jose test, being international.

Anyway, the guys did a decent job, under supervision, they wanted to run the fibre along the floor in my spare room/office which is not a good idea with fibre and it looks unprofessional, so I helped them to run it in some plastic conduit which I already had installed myself previously.

BE AWARE, you cannot bend fibre optic cables like you do with copper cables, if you bend at 90 degrees, if the fibre core does not break you will increase signal attenuation significantly, it must be gentle curves. To give a practical example, you should be ok to loop it round a large Leo bottle (the thick part) without causing too much trouble.

Hires former commando's . . . what? Could someone specify?

Former commando's brother?

Former commando's left testicle?

Who knows!

Isn't it better to ask others for help...and learn from them....and do it better next time? Rather than bumbling around the dark without a clue. There's nothing to lose now...face has already been lost.

Here is a man who obviously had a western education where it is ok to make mistakes, that is how we learn is it not?

Now, imagine a world where if you make a mistake it is the cultural norm not only to pretend it never happened, but it is considered extremely bad form for anyone else to point out the error, as this would make the person feel bad. Kreng jai, saving face, whatever you want to call it.

I believe that this is the root cause of many of Thailand's issues.

DavisH, you are absolutely right, how can anything improve if you are unable to acknowledge the fact that it could be improved?

Just yesterday I was driving on a 4 lane road (2 lanes in either direction) which had a number of traffic light controlled pedestrian crossings. During my trip, 2 of the lights turned red for pedestrians to cross, I stopped of course, on the first occasion a large bus just swerved around me and continued driving in excess of 50kmph followed by various other 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles, fortunately nobody was on the crossing at the time, if there had been they would have stood no chance.

On the second occasion I was at the front of the line and stopped both for the red light and to allow a couple to cross the road, because I didn't set off again as soon as they had crossed (the light was still red) a number of cars behind me were honking their horns. I refused to budge until the light turned green, western brainwashing? perhaps, but I prefer to think of it like this. I have 2 young children myself, and it is perfectly feasible that a child could see the lights are green (for pedestrians) and hurry to cross the road before the lights turn. I am able to consider the possible consequences of my actions, many people it seems, are not. The people who are unable to perceive the dangers of driving should not be permitted to drive, simple as that. It is tantamount to giving somebody a loaded weapon with no training on it's safe use.

The way that so many people drive here is at best inconsiderate, and at worst homicidal, IGNORANCE IS NOT AN EXCUSE. For those who say "that's how it is here, don't complain or leave", there are many things I accept that I do not personally agree with, that is life anywhere in the world. However, if other people's actions endanger my life and that of my family, I reserve the right to be pi$$ed off with them regardless of race, creed or colour.

And that's all i've got to say about that! For now.