bkkguy

I am surprised to hear you say that because in 20 years I have never seen it transliterated as "Palam" anywhere and even the Thais that are happy to disrespectfully call me "the falung" seem to be respectful enough of the current dynasty to at least roll their r's correctly when referring to the roads and bridges named after them - even the red shirt taxi drivers! bkkguy

if your article is to be read by falung then I am sure they would understand either spelling as would most Thais that read English, if you are targeting Thais then probably use falung because polite Thais would not use the word around foreigners anyway but if they did they would know how to pronounce/spell it correctly! if your Thai "friends" or "business associates" are using the term to refer to you then you may have a problem because it is not a polite term in that context, but may be considered neutral if used by a Thai you do not know in a more general context bkkguy

We already have in Bangkok - the Penis Shrine (Chao Mae Tuptim Shrine) in Nai Lert Park next to the hotel of the same name (used to be the Hilton Hotel), just before the klong in Withayu before Phetburi intersection bkkguy

as was obvious to others, nothing in my comment related to my approval or otherwise of the teacher's actions - you are not just reading between the lines you are making it up as you go along, as were the publishers when they wrote the front and back covers of the book in the story, by the age of 14 Chai was already a problem child that could not be controlled by his guardians - he ran with a bad pack at school, he was a drinker and a gambler and needed money to pay his gambling debts so he decided to have sex with the teacher to get the money you claim I don't understand the book, so with your greater knowledge and understanding explain to me how the publishers manage to convert this story into "Bangkok Boy is a heart-rending account of a childhood lost to sexual abuse. Chai was a normal boy until he was molested by a school teacher" to quote from the back cover of the book the story does contain some insights into why some guys end up in Soi Twilight, and some of their experiences there - he has a girlfriend (who works in a straight go-go bar) and kids who he is not good at providing support for, he has problems with gambling and drink etc - but they are not the insights that you, or the sensationalist publishers, seem to want to focus on! I have many fond memories of Twilight Bar in the early days, but those memories do not in any way prompt me to re-read or promote this over-hyped book bkkguy

while the story may have been ghost-written based at least minimally on a real character still regularly seen in Soi Twilight, this whole "stolen childhood" crap is just a sensationalist way of selling the book. as a mid-teen he was invited to a teacher's house and everyone in the whole school knew that meant sex but he went willingly because he wanted the money to pay off his gambling and drinking debts. he stole his own childhood and moved to bangkok to sell his body and repeatedly ended up in the same situation for the same self-inflicted reasons - or is that the "other side of the coin" you are referring to? bkkguy

I am shocked, really shocked, that someone would make such a scandalous and libelous comment in a public forum about such a pillar of Pattaya expat society and a company that is so respected by the community and many posters here - this is why people need lawyers on a hair-trigger scanning the forums, to protect their reputation! as I am sure HeyGay and others will be quick to point out very few of the court cases the company has been involved in have found against them, and those have been overturned on appeal - thus confirming their impeccable reputation as a Thai business entity! bkkguy

and the real reason why there was no room at the inn: An Interview With the Nativity Innkeeper

I have TV, Internet and phone with them in Bangkok and previously I would have agreed with you but my recent experiences have been the opposite - a month ago I placed a service call about an Internet problem at 4:00 PM Monday, they said an engineer would be there within 24 hrs, he was there at 10:00 AM Tuesday and resolved the issue very quickly and competently - previously their "engineers" have taken days to arrive and where hopeless - a few months ago I upgraded my Internet service, they did not mention and I did not notice that this new account had a different biller ID so my online payments where not credited to the new account, when I noticed the payments were not showing on the statements I called them and they resolved the issue and credited the payments to the correct account within days - previously billing problems have taken months and many phone calls to resolve - I recently upgraded my TV service over the phone, they said it would be active within the hour and it was your milage may vary bkkguy

you claim to have already read extensively but give no idea of what was not sensible about what you have already read, you give no idea of what your requirements are but you expect us to give you sensible advice as to whether the iPad will suit you or not, you bitch and moan about being put down and retreat behind claiming to be computer dyslexic but perhaps posting a sensible question would get you some sensible replies! bkkguy

I've been reading a lot about the differences between a small electric grill and the new 6 burner Webber gas bar-b-q. Seems to me that if you need to do some serious cooking, then you have to have the Webber even tho it is a lot more expensive. In that case, is there any reason for having a small electric grill as well? Just curious. I've also been reading a lot about the differences between the BMW 2-door M3 sports coupe and the new BMW 7 Series sedan. Seems to me that if you need to be chauffeured around, then you have to have the 7 series even tho it is a lot more expensive. In that case, is there any reason for having a coupe as well? Just as curious. you don't see these type of questions very often in forums, so what is it about the basic marketing concept that companies target different items to address different consumer requirements that is so much more difficult to understand in the tech world? if you like the BMW brand and philosophy and you need a car then they offer 1,3,5,7 series as coupe, sedan or special models - what are your requirements and which model best suites your requirements if you like the Apple brand and philosophy and you need a portable device then they offer iPod, iPhone, iPad and Airbook - what are your requirements and which model best suites your requirements - is it really that different or that hard? conversely, if you need a car then BM and Benz are used as taxis in Germany because of their long term reliability, they are both considered luxury cars in Australia and the nouveau riche in Thailand would buy a Benz as soon as they could get the loan but wouldn't look at a BWM, similarly an Apple fanboi would never consider a Samsung Galaxy Tablet a serious competitor to the iPad - brand cache in a market segment is brand cache! is the tech market really that different to other markets? is "reading a lot" in the tech media that different to "reading a lot" in the motoring or household appliance media in that it seriously fails to clarify the key differences between the iPad and the AirBook and/or somehow clouds your ability to identify your needs and select a device that meets them? Really curious! bkkguy

of course - nobody buys Apple products for the features or value for money, they buy because they think they are sexy! to in BKK all the places I send people to on a scale from high-end to basic including Le Meridian, Tarntawan, Siam Heritage and Om Yim all have Wi-Fi in room, in Pattaya/Jomtien and Chiang Mai I tend to stay in boutique style places and they all have Wi-Fi in room, last time I was in Singapore Wi-Fi coverage was good enough without having to rely on the hotel service, in Sydney I use 3G that is why you buy the 3G version - but in Thailand you are still fairly stuffed unless you are happy with Edge speeds!! bkkguy

in the last three years I have not stayed in a hotel that has Ethernet only with no Wi-Fi but your mileage may vary, but I would not hold your breath waiting for an iPad with an RJ-45 jack! bkkguy

Apple markets it as an easy to use device to surf the web and play media - what are you trying to turn it into? the need for an Ethernet port I don't understand - the Wi-Fi version supports 802.11a/b/g/n and 802.11n routers are fairly cheap these days for home network use and out and about you are more likely to find Wi-Fi rather than RJ-45 jacks so what are you doing at home that justifies tethering it to a cable to get gigabit Ethernet speeds? and you probably should be doing it on your desktop PC anyway! piss poor memory? I can fit my entire music collection and quite a few hours of TV or movies easily in 32 GB, which is more than enough for a small convenient to carry "entertainment" device such as my smartphone or an iPad. if you want a home entertainment system there are many options available, even from Apple. I have a WD-TV with 2 TB of hard disk attached (and they are ultra-portable disks and the media player is ultra-portable as well if I really need to take my entire movie collection away for the weekend). I am no Apple fanboi and there are many reasons why I would never buy an iPad but putting up straw man cases that that what you really want is a desktop/notebook/netbook/home media center replacement and the iPad is not it because it does not have Ethernet or enough memory is really a bit of a waste of time - try it on slashdot.org, the anti-Apple set there really go for it! bkkguy

(sorry I fave forgotten how to embed youtube video here) 129 million Baht well spent - need one say more bkkguy

I suppose it depends on where your home town is and your experiences in Thailand - after 15 years of visiting/living here if I compare Bangkok (a city of some 10 million people) with my home town of Sydney (a city half that size), while Bangkok may be somewhat "tolerant" of gay sex and have a greater selection of commercial sex options and venues, Sydney is much more "accepting" of gay lifestyles at both the government and society level and it has a much greater variety of "non-commercial" gay sex and gay venue options. as a gay falung in Bangkok you may rarely be confronted with anti-gay sentiments but that is more Thai politeness and "tolerance" than "acceptance" - most of my Thai gay friends here, particularly middle class, particularly Thai-Chinese, are much more desperate to escape family pressure to be "normal" than are my gay friends in Sydney, but for some families here the possible financial advantages of a son having a falung "friend" make the whole thing OK yes there is some homophobic violence in Sydney but you are also starting to see some anti-gay aggression here as well, and the loony religious right is always a worry in Australia but the indifference to addressing gay issues in Thailand is depressing at best and yes you may see katoey everywhere here, at schools and even employed at your local bank or 7-11 but the whole "gay" Vs "katoey" issue for Thais Vs westerners is a whole other issue! Having lived as an openly gay man in both Sydney and Bangkok I would say my reasons for living in Bangkok have little to do with "the freedom regarding gay lifestyle that we can have in Thailand", but your mileage may vary! bkkguy

perhaps Bangkok should be trying this instead: China to build ginormous buses that cars can drive under bkkguy

and of course Pattayaland Soi 1 is not Boyztown so the thread topic is misleading! bkkguy

the outcome of the "Oracle vs Google" lawsuit will be a good indicator of how well Google understands software development in today's complex environment! up until now Google's track record with "software" is fairly checkered - while they do a good search engine and ad server Chrome is a fairly mediocre browser, and lets not talk about Wave, Buzz and most of Google Apps! Google's Android or the customised version supplied by your handset manufacturer?

you know the old joke about how does a Westerner make a small fortune in Thailand - he starts out with a large one!

so you installed another phone line and they still could not manage to cope with the internal wiring or you are still on the one "4-wire" phone line? but you were willing to pay thousands of baht for a router that would not give you access to the combined speeds of the two ISP lines you were paying for, just give you fallback if one failed - I have this bridge I would like to sell you

really? which brochure? which router? I would love to read it

why do you think Android is just trying to imitate Apple - 12 months ago handsets based on early versions of Android like 1.5 and 1.6 had features that Apple is only just introducing into iOS now - and their philosophical stances are significantly different! while the year of the Linux desktop may not arrive for a while, they year of the Linux phone is I think almost here! your source for this? because most of the stats that I have seen show new Android based phone handset sales significantly outpacing new iPhone sales (though there are a number of factors contributing to this) and comparing total smartphone market share Android is increasing and iOS is decreasing, but BlackBerry is still way in front! wait till early next year when there are some serious Android tablets around, eg from Samsung and a few others, and we can talk real figures against the iPad as well I am no Apple fanboi or Android fanboi so don't get me wrong - the iPhone and iPad will continue to sell well, and there is no denying the iPod, iPhone and iPad have redefined or created the market they are selling into, and you either like Apple's "walled garden" or Android's more open approach but you can't just dismiss one as an poor imitator of the other!

I stand by my first post on this thread that you should stick to how much to tip the ISP techo for a blow job rather than look for technical help here because most of the responses so far are incomplete, misleading or just plain wrong - you, your friend and most of the posters here don't seem to understand what a telephone line or a load balancing router is - this is the reality you face when posting technical questions into non-technical forums! the best advice is for you to compare your Internet usage patterns with those of your friend, compare the typical slowdowns and failures of the two ISPs you want to use with those your friend uses, and get your friend to accurately quantify the performance increases he has seen in specific circumstances and see how well these match with the performance increases you want to see in the circumstances you want to see them - then you can make an informed decision as to whether the expense of a second telephone line, a second ADSL account, a second ADSL modem and a load balancing router with fallback are really worth the expense, because none of the other advice here is really going to help you! alternatively, you have already said on another thread that the iPad saved your bacon when your ADSL connection was down, perhaps consider why you need more than what the iPad offered at that time or why your mobile phone that probably already has an Edge/3G data account is not enough when functioning as a WiFi access point or tethering your PC/notebook when you main ADSL connection is down.

you keep suggesting these scenarios that are unrelated to real situations where a load balancing router might be used so I will leave you to go off on your own and read up on and understand the concept of load balancing routers!