joekicker

There are hundreds of possible Super Bowl bets, including the coin flips. But when people say "the book" they mean the final score and the actual winner. "I bet the Patriots". Bear in mind that the actual books including Las Vegas always use a half point, so that there are no pushed bets. Every bet made with a sports book either wins or loses so long as the game is completed. There are no ties in Super Bowl, the game is played to a final result. (If a typhoon hits the stadium all bets are returned.) So. Let's say for argument the Patriots are favored by the bookies by 2.5 points at the time you bet. That is the EVEN bet, returning you $2 for $1 bet -- is that the final score will be a Patriots' win by 2.5 points or more. It's a very simple, even-money bet. Since there are no actual half-points in gridiron football, it works like this on that bet on the Patriots by 2.5 points. If you bet $1 that the Patriots win, then: - If the Patriots win by 3 points or more, you get your $1 back plus $1 winnings. - If the Patriots win by one point or two points OR if the Giants win by any score at all, you lose your bet, the bookie keeps your $1. It is very simple betting but this is what Americans mean when they say "what are the odds" on any sports bet. There are many other bets, some of them horrifically involved, and each of them with unique rules and odds. The second most popular after the winner, is an under-over bet on the TOTAL points scored in the game, which last I looked was set by the bookies at 55.5 for this Super Bowl. Again, not complicated - either the two teams score 56 or more points, or 55 or fewer points total. And again you simply double your money if you win; otherwise you lose your bet. While bookies set original odds for these things, almost all books use a computerised tote system, where the sucker... er, the gamblers themselves are actually setting the odds and the books can't really lose on almost any bets. The chances of actually beating a real book in the U.S. is indistinguishable from zero - but of course any individual bettor can do well for himself if he thinks out what he is doing AND gets some luck to go with it. He's not beating the book, he's beating dumber fellow gamblers. Super Bowl gambling is like New Year's Eve drinking - amateur hour. "Real" bets on US sports are going to be odds, but again it's fairly simple stuff. TeamA is favoured by 6-5 over TeamB, for example - so you risk $6 to win $11 (your bet plus $5 winnings) if you bet TeamA, and vice-versa for TeamB. One of my favourite all-time odds, where I made a tidy little needed sum was 8-to-1. Those were the odds that Sonny Liston would beat up Cassius Clay. The reason I took that bet and won $8 for every $1 I risked, was that I figured that one pro boxer against one pro boxer can't EVER be that long odds. Nice to be right once in a while and have something to brag about, heh. But I really hate betting on humans. Animals and things are much more predictable. I've won 100 times more at the track than on team-sports bets, that's for sure. North American track odds are simple, like my TeamA-TeamB example - a horse is 3-to-1 say - so you bet $2 and if the horse wins you get a total of $8 back. Caution: Horse racing in Thailand *is* betting on the humans involved. Form and training mean nothing. Best possible advice about betting on Thai ponies: Don't. .

New England by about three. I say "about" because, first, the books are about evenly split between 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 as I write, and second, there is a LOT of money suddenly coming in on New York for those odds. Looks like it's going to settle right about even on the totes at least. .

Normally you install a program and get rid of the install file. Most people would simply delete it *in order to* save disk space. But yes, if you have an install program, you can install the program. .

That IS amazing. Very well done. I better look at "number of posts" a little more carefully. Still... the replies are good. Maybe you should look into getting a "topic starter" bot. .

Well, of course. Will ANYONE that is not engaged that day in actual, ongoing invasive surgery miss it? Lots of people don't believe in it. Here's a chance to see a Dreamliner with your own eyes!! .

If you want to see one, it will be in Bangkok next Thursday Feb 9. .

Fake phones are sold as fake phones. The "fake" part is the main appeal, just like fake football shirts and fake Rolexes. If you have to use caution to avoid being sold a fake, you are too dull to be allowed out of your home town and under no circumstances should you ever buy anything in Thailand, even a meal. .

Yeah, that's why I asked if it was really diagnosed. When you have that KIND of trouble, you don't really care the specifics. Most such are bacteria-caused but of course antibiotics won't work then. .

Not trying to bust your balls here, but I'm curious. Was this actually diagnosed? Rotavirus is quite rare in Thailand and should be taken seriously - but you can get some pretty serious gut and stomach stuff that is NOT gastroenteritis, and even worse, so I'm just wondering. Usually people just get boring old "food poisoning" which is about as bad as anything I ever want to get. .

Whatever, the specifics are a different topic. But my point was that I don't personally think it's wise to be sticking foreign cards in where they don't really belong, heh. I was thinking a bit about this exchange, and I really can't remember the last time I used a foreign card in Thailand. I "ship" money by transfer, yep, or on occasion carry it. I have used my Thai cards in foreign ATMs though, come to think of it. But there's just something off-putting about doing the reverse except in the most dire circumstances, which I seldom have. Oh, once in a while there's a family emergency or whatnot. Seldom, but yeah, I think based on what I "know" about you from this forum, you are one heck of a better planner. .

Oh, sure, foreign yes. If that's what Frosty meant, then sure, definitely. But IMO - If you live in Thailand, you shouldn't be using a foreign card in kerbside Pattaya ATMs. I do my transfers inside the bank. I do almost all transactions inside the bank. By "inside the bank" I *might* use their machines in there there to update my bank book, make a deposit -- the machines that are locked up every night at 7pm or whatever. If it's really busy, long lines, I might use the ATM. But I'm using my Thai card for all of this. If it's 11pm and I suddenly need some cash, I go to the ATM in a mall (usually) or the 24-hour bank lobby - and use my Thai card to get some cash - and even then I still hope I'm not in Pattaya at the time. Again, this is people living in Thailand or very frequent visitors who have a Thai bank account. .

Pretty well everyone does this in Thailand. Go in a bank, about half the people there are doing this. In Thailand, the ATM is still more of an emergency machine than a real-life "teller". A *lot* of deals are still done in Thailand with cold, hard cash rather than cheques or plastic. .

Frosty, think about switching banks, and not just because they are effing with you over eaten cards. It takes me about 5 minutes to get an ATM card at Bangkok Bank. .

This is entirely hearsay, I've never had a machine eat my card (knock on wood) but they ask you for some sort of ID. AGAIN, though, the emphasis is on common sense. If you did *not* just lose your ATM card in the machine, you'd be taking one hell of a chance to come in and claim you did -- and especially a foreigner, asking for a card with a foreigner's name on it. But more common sense - even if you got the ATM card of the last guy who lost his ATM card and did *not* walk in to try to reclaim it, how useful would it be? It's right up there with counterfeiting 10-baht banknotes - a huge amount of work, plus a large risk, for almost no gain. Without the pin, most ATM cards are useful for springing trashy doorlocks, not much else. You could rush home, try to make an online purchase before the guy cancels his card, but what a lot of work for that unlikely chance. So the bank will give up the card *fairly* quickly, but wants some sort of ID, that's what I hear. .

JMO, that FastStone is an excellent choice for light photo work - as is Irfanview and several others. But really, you need to do something about your space problem or you are going to be doing something like this every few days. One solution: Get an account "in the cloud" and move all your sometimes-used data like movies and photos there. They are off your disk, but you can get to them when needed on the Internet. There are lots of services that will give you between two and 10 gigs for free for this purpose. Google is your friend in finding them. Of course, also consider: Do I really *need* this movie?

That "free cat" picture totally cracks me up. I have to feel God kept me alive all these years just to see it. That is total payback for thousands of stupid lolcat pictures, all in one photo.

One of the (many) great things about Thailand is that they tell your international banking agreement folks to eff off and take the horse they rode in on with them. If you lose your ATM card at a machine that is at a bank in Thailand, you will almost certainly be able to go in and talk to the *nice* people in the bank who will get it back for you, and laugh at your international banking agreements and the horrible, ridiculous and stunningly anti-consumer policies they represent. .

You can't copy it anywhere, and use it. Once that program is installed, that's it. The only way to put it elsewhere or use it another day, is to get the original and install it all over again. If you are going to take Elements 9 off your machine, then that copy of it is gone forever. You're better off just simply un-installing it completely and reclaiming ALL the disk space and living without it. The bottom line is that you cannot do what you want to do, it's not possible. All that said. First, if you are going to take this program off "for a while" then you don't NEED this program, right? So dump it and don't look back. Look to getting a really small alternative - there are loads of them around. Try Irfanview, free, small and pretty good. Or just use Picasa. Then. Elements 9 doesn't use that much disk space, as programs go these days - about 3 gigabytes. If you are down to the point where you really, Really, REALLY need 3GB of disk space, then you're in pretty bad space problems anyhow, and you need to look at a different solution - a new hard drive, an external hard drive to store all your data, a new computer something along that line. In today's Internet world with different browsers and streaming video and all - 3GB is chump change - hardly get you through a light day of work. I wouldn't dream of having less than 150GB free space when I go to work in the morning. But if you have less than 10GB, and you're on the Internet, you're gasping for air, computer-wise. .

Thanks for not providing photographic proof. .

About the only way I ever get baht cash is ATM for walking-around money, or into the bank and into line for larger amounts. I'm probably not typical, because I generally send baht out of Thailand (mostly by bank transfer), not bring foreign currency in. And near as I can figure, not having researched it, this 20-bill limit is universal in ATMs. HOWEVER. I have actually noticed recently on brand-new, fancy-shmancy ATMs in the US that there is a 30-item limit, in or out of the ATM. The new ATMs take deposits, and you can only put in 30 pieces of paper per transaction, including banknotes and cheques - and you can only get 30 banknotes out. So it seems to me that the 20-note (old) and 30-note (new) limits are very, very hard-wired and probably a world standard. .

Anywhere. My advice is to look for one of those shingles they hang out streetside for VD and such, go in, give them 300 baht (probably) and get the letter that breath was detected. This is NOT a serious matter. .

Two different problems, and not related. ATMs, the actual machines, for mechanical and policy reasons, have limits on the number of banknotes they can physically dispense per transaction. That's entirely separate from your agreement with your bank over the *amount of money* you can have, which has little to do with the number of banknotes you may get. And note a major key difference: per transaction (ATM) versus per day (your bank). MM - "KrungSri" is a service/marketing description for a consumer part of Bank of Ayudhya. Like Bangkok Bank's Bualuang, for example - .

And I agree with jacko - chef's hair is probably my greatest worry too. If they're so sick they need a mask for the phlegm and germs they're coughing up, they shouldn't be there and I won't be, if I hear them hacking behind the mask. If they cook with poop and pee on their hands, there'll be lots of notice it's a restaurant to avoid. But hair FALLS in food, it's no sign of un-cleanliness per se. Caps and lack of beard are indicated, I think. We should invite Obsession in here to suggest how women cooks could keep their heads covered. .

A *good* cook or chef tastes the food. (S)he does that in a clean, sanitary manner, but you can't do it through a mask. I never trust a cook that doesn't taste the food. .

Finally!! A hard-core prediction from a person who really knows what they're talking about concerning the NFL. .