Pom Michael

A bit misleading - it only flew 400kms so far on it's first leg - an no where close to the Atlantic. The aircraft - called Solar Impulse-2 - took off from Abu Dhabi, heading east to Muscat in Oman. With businessman and pilot Andre Borschbeg at the controls, the aircraft touched down in Oman at 16:14 GMT after a 12-hour flight. But - with a bit of luck and lots of planning - they have a chance to make it. The 4 to 5 day leg over the Pacific is going to be the major test of endurance.

FM - but you can also look at it from the other side. I bought a Toyota Vios 7 years ago for 600K. The "E" version. Sold it last month for 250K - so I can understand why used cars are higher here - because they keep their value for a decent time. My 10 year old Honda Accord was sold last April for 230K - believe it was about 1.2 million when bought in 2005.`

Stonesoup - I had to look that up to be sure - I seem to have forgotten the reduction after the 1997 financial crisis. Thailand official VAT rate is actually 10% not 7%. But VAT rate was reduced to 7% as part of the economic measures taken following the crisis of 1997. The reduced rate of 7% has been since then confirmed every year.

Register numbers from here also (landline / mobile) - works the same way for phones you regularly use there - you can call from the phones once you register. Now, without a smartphone - not sure how that will work. I mostly use my computer to make phone calls to the USA. Second way is on the iphone using the localphone app. Both are connected - so any address in my computer app is also in my mobile app. The other way I use is to receive calls - someone calls my USA number, and it is transferred to my local Thai phone. This you can set up at their website - called Call Forwarding. Now for this - "I would like to call from my mobile there, but I guess I can't, right?" - i believe you need to do a mapping of the phone number you want on the localphone webpage, and they will assign that phone number a specific phone number that you call and it connects you. There are also callback services, etc... So it can be done.

http://www2.bangkokpost.com/news/general/485134/scb-agrees-to-pay-kmitl-b1-5bn Something is fishy here! There must be more to the story.

I trust it is called - The Smoking Pug? Found a quick plug .... ... moved on to Bangkok and open the Smokin' Pug BBQ & Blues Bar. It is located near the Meridien Hotel. American style pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, beers and cocktails will no doubt entertain the expat community and the locals in Bangkok. Looking back at Dana and Dany track record in Asia, the Smoking Pub will no doubt impact the Bangkok Restaurant scene.

SlingTV is a new service - however as I just tried to get to the website - looks like it is blocked to serve us in Thailand.

Government is functioning fine. The General PM still talks to the people, every Friday night, and it is translated in English in advance. Better times still to come.

A lot of crap about nothing (in my opinion). I've only had an issue when one of the SUV type taxi's - they didn't want to take me with a normal fare. So just moved to the next taxi and problem solved.

Army? Where did you get that from? Air Force maybe - but Army?

When is the going away party? I think I can still find the Stickman Bachelor Shirt - but for sure cannot fit into it now!

I may need to backtrack. I noticed now that someone was using my computer and possibly they allowed "PrivDog" to be installed. So it may have been this program that added an add on to Opera that was the real reason for the f&cked up format.

Opera released Version 25 or 26 - when I installed it - it works fine - but if f%cks the format completely. Thankfully it didn't overwrite the older version of Opera (I'm running version 12.17) - so I'm back to normal. And I would say that Opera is the best browser (at least up until this change) - not sure where you get the opinion that it is not compatible. IE is by far the worst for not following the standards.

8 baht per km for me.

Yes, it does rain in January - localized and not heavy - but I used to note every year when the first rain came - and it was always before February.

Hey - is this 2015 or a flashback to 2005? Lusty/Rusty - SOTH - whose next to come out of the woodwork? Wild Alaska?

Pii JaoPaw = พี่เจ้าพ่อ

Can someone send me details on the VFW event for Saturday - is it the 20th or 23rd of Dec?

I will be upcountry this weekend - maybe out Monday night - but for now I'm more based down in Laem Chabang/Chonburi area.

Flash - that price is good - does it include any labor for loading? Where about are you moving? I live down there a few days a week for work - not much to do - (at least not that I have found)!

What year was the first board? I think I ran into you guys in either 1996 or 1997 in the old Woodstock - the waitresses called the small group that gathered there on Friday nights the "Internet" group.

I loved my Atari 800XL. After years of sharing my friends Atari 400, i was finally able to save enough for my own!

Can you get to the website (in Thailand)? http://www.asiasenti...ntinel.com/ doesn't work from my home connection. I can vpn into it - and reading that article is scary - what is going to happen when IT happens?

That number tried to contact you. Could have been when your phone was off, and you got the message later.

Looks like the standard registration details (name/email and contact details). You do not have to use your own phone number - this is just optional if you want to show it as Caller ID. They have Credit Card and Paypal for buying credit. They verify the numbers by auto call message, so yes someone would need to be there to answer if you wanted to use that number for your Caller Id. But again, not required - you could use your own USA mobile number, or you can buy a new USA number for $1 per month. I picked a number in the LAX area, which ends up showing that I'm calling from Beverly Hills!