joekicker

Why let your fingers make threats you can't even begin to back up? You enjoy attention being called twice each time to how silly you looked the first time? Or what? You can't do a thing about it. Get over it. Or not, som nam na.

1550 Sunday afternoon Darkside time, and the camera is OFF

The only safe computer is tied to a large rock, with all connecting cables pulled out, and located at a minimum of 1,000 feet under the sea. Once a computer is connected to the Internet it CAN BE compromised. It doesn't matter if the computer is in the middle of a Pattaya go-go bar or the squad room of Scotland Yard, the online threat is identical. The idea that it is more unsafe to go online from Thailand than from Australia is ludicrous. Answer to your question, Alan: Yes. The idea is not to have a keylogger onboard your computer, of course. On a laptop that's always in your possession that no one else can install anything, you need a good firewall, and you need NOT to use it for recreational surfing to dodgy websites, those are the two most essential sofware safeguards. If you ignore either Rule No 1 or Rule No 2, you'd best not use it for any serious financial dealing. If you ignore Rule No 1, just bend over and take it like a man, you are totally screwed. There are good security steps you can take to further help yourself, the best being to work in a "sandbox" such as SandboxIE, a free and secure environment, but just slow.

Totally concur in all of the above. Good advice all round. 007, 8 and 9 are all good quality and very dependable. Of course you have computer-based commo such as Skype, which can be free computer-to-computer. Also, if you are communicating with the same person or set of people in North America always, get a 1-800 connection, let them call you, and pay 2 or 3 cents a minutes. There are about a zillion companies that broker these deals, Thaitel.com being a mid-level example.

Well, I haven't done that. So now that you are backed into your pititful corner after your un-threat, your next step will be to do exactly what? Hmmmm? Yes, that's what I thought you'd think. Good idea, in my opinion. Just be careful about the hair growth on your hand because sometimes I really think you're doing it too much -- not that you should let my concern stop you, perish the thought.

Why or how is financial computing on your own computer in Thailand more dangerous ... no, how is it different in any manner at all from in Australia?

Well, in addition to the probability of theft, you have the advantages of sand in the keyboard and salt on the screen. Doing online "work" at the beach sounds romantic. SOUNDS romantic.

Normally, on Oct 31 you would go to immigration and apply to extend the visa. They would take it under advisement and tell you to come back in a month (or so) for an answer. I would not employ a lawyer who told me "don't worry" and refused to tell me what was going on, though. Just my two satang.

Do you think the dairy farmers get 42 baht a litre for their milk? Do you think Mercedes Benz workers split $50,000 for each car they assemble? Are you and other buyers mad to play such ridiculous markups?

The rainy season ended last week. It is officially the "winter" (dry/cool) season and it was a bone-chilling 24C in Pattaya on Sunday night/Monday morning. Right now, there is no sign of the sun at all. That makes sense, however, since it is 1 a.m.

It's dark!

Of course anyone CAN live for today or tomorrow. For example, it works very well for me. You choose to be a little safer. That's no advertisement for the lifestyle. Advising a current cancer sufferer to be sure to plan his life well is entertaining, though.

Good one, Lance. How come you got kicked off eBay?

The monsoon changed on Thursday. The rainy season is over. There might be some floods from high tides, but the offshore (northeast) monsoon prevails and winter has started.

cowboy that is a real kick in the nuts life just dealt you. I'll be praying the doc is wrong and mixing up your report with someone worthless. But I'm on your side here. There was a song a couple of years ago, "Live like you were dying". I say DO rush into things, do as much as you can, go as many places as you can, screw as many as you can, lust after the ones you can't, and never look back. No matter what, you've got some time, months, years, whatever. You can still cram in more experiences. I know I keep trying to. All the best.

Must be a "newbie" thing. There are a zillion avatars on the Net. Pick one and link to it. (Careful because not everyone allows linking.) http://www.avatarsdb.com/ http://www.avatarist.com/ http://www.avatarity.com/ http://www.iconator.com/ http://www.beyondavatars.com/

Go to My Controls and look for the avatar section. Open that and look for "Upload a new image from your computer". It will walk you through. I don't KNOW this works, but it seems to, and it should.

Joe "The Paedophile" Canadian, caught last week has appealed to his country to "just get me out of here". heh heh-heh. heehehehehehehe bwooohahahahahahahahahaha Apparently he doesn't appreciate the accommodations, and he is too thick to realise how lucky he is to have avoided a nasty fall down steep stairs shortly after his arrest like many Thai paedos suffer. OK, that was off-topic but it made me feel better. "Sillypore" I liked that too. But yes, I didn't chew gum there. Up to them.

That's one thing about Bangkok, is they don't have to worry about tropical storms. There is just no extreme weather at all.

As world cities go, Bangkok is near the top of "All Time Safest". This doesn't mean you can leave your brain at home. It means there is ALMOST no chance you will be physically attacked, and an equally small chance you will be ripped off in a random crime. "Almost none" does not mean "none". English translation: I broke the law in Thailand and I got caught. In my country I just throw things on the ground when I feel like it and why can't the Thais realise this and do it my way? Sympathy expended: 0

I don't think there's an "L" permit for beginners. If she's with the instructor in his car, there's no problem -- at least for her, heh. Owning a vehicle (once you finish paying for it) is not hard at all. There's not actually any important restriction. Time was you needed all those papers including the embassy letter just to get a driver's licence actually (I thought you still do, actually). The letter is/was a major source of income for some embassies.

The original Villa Market is between Sois 33 and 35 on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok. Not too long ago, maybe five or so years ago I think, they started to open branches. I've heard stories, and I have no idea if they are true or just common conception, that the programme to open other stores has been somewhere between barely adequate and terrible. I've been in two of the branches once each and I have no feel for how good they are. I do shop at the original branch, roughly every couple of weeks.

kolobos, that link didn't work for me. It worked when I put the "www" in, i.e. this worked: http://www.jimmysfishingpark.com/

Nah you didn't, I'm just being a smartass. I'm very surprised no one jumped in here. There are always a number of active threads of places to stay, though, so go through the posts and the archives and you WILL get help. I live in Thailand so of course this is one thing I'm no expert on, heh.

You're very wrong about being flamed. Why would I flame you for such a thing anyway? That's pretty sensitive. As an aside, I would hope that if I were to flame you, that I'm good enough that you wouldn't wonder about whether I'd done it. I would have bet Villa was around for more than 33 years, but I freely admit I missed the part that said this was a history test, my apologies for that or I would have researched it or not answered at all. I didn't notice anyone else getting the correct answer, so I'm not actually ashamed, though, other than not living up to your expectations and being off by 7 years. As I said, there are prices you cannot compare, because the reason Villa is famous is that it has items that other markets do not. You can't compare the prices of US beef, halal chicken, most of the wine, much of the beer, Dinty Moore's stew or a hundred other items -- because the other stores don't have what Villa has. If you want a rack of Australian lamb, it's pretty sure you'll be going to Villa and not Big C for it. You asked why it was famous/admired, and I gave you *the* two reasons -- imported stuff and meat. Damned if I can imagine why that's controversial or somehow inflammable, either one.