Martin Perry's Weblog

Phuket Airport Fully Open

mjperry — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:12:37 +0000

So finally took that flight from Phuket to Bangkok on Monday without any problems at all, flew up to Bangkok in the morning and back to Phuket again on the last flight in the evening to attend a job interview in Bangkok.

Phuket is open again, lets hope it hasn’t scared off all the tourists

Phuket Airport Closed Until Further Notice

mjperry — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:39:43 +0000

Gah, the saga continues was re-booked on the 07:25 from Phuket to Bangkok tomorrow (Sunday August 31st) after the no-go today, but just heard that Phuket Airport is now officially closed until 18:00 on Sunday at the earliest.

And given that the protesters are saying they will be keeping it closed until Thai PM Samak Sundaravej resigns and the PM has restated again tonight not long ago on NBT (Thai state TV) that he is not going anywhere and will continue his work this could go on for quite some time.

Airport Closed in Phuket

mjperry — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:37:43 +0000

Well got back to my house not long ago, went to Phuket airport this morning to take the 10:00 Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, when i’d arrived there were no protesters in site and no Thai Airways staff either, nobody on the check-in desks, nobody at the Thai ticket counter, and lots of tourists and other travellers waiting around. There were signs up on all the check-in counters saying due to anti-government protests the airport was closed till 18:00, these were later replaced with signs saying the runway was closed until 18:00 at the earliest and to get in contact with Thai Airways call centers with their phone numbers listed.

Then lots of Thai Airways staff appeared and started recommending everybody leave the airport and not to wait as definitely nothing happening before 18:00, after I got outside on my motorbike it became clear why, the protesters had started gathering again outside and I guess the staff were worried we might get stuck inside.

Decided to go to the Thai Airways main office in Phuket Town to try and get some sense of what was happening as all we got from the airport staff was ‘sorry we’re closed’ and the call center was obviosuly jammed, tried waiting on hold for 30 mins before giving up. In Phuket Town they weren’t able to change my flight to any of the scheduled flights after 18:00 on the off chance they manage to go as her computer said those flights were un-bookable so the nice lady rebooked my flight for tomorrow and suggested I call the airport/Thai Airways closer to 18:00 to see if it was likely anything would be leaving tonight similar to the flight that was allowed to leave late last night, she gave me these numbers to try them on:

076360444 – Thai Airways @ Phuket Airport
076327230 through 076327236 – Phuket Airport Information (Not Thai Airways)

NBT Thai State TV Offline

mjperry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:04:09 +0000

Looks like the protestors in Bangkok are winning so far, the state run NBT has been offline here in Phuket for a while now

Military figures meet to discuss about unrest

mjperry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:28:21 +0000

Military figures meet to discuss about unrest: “Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej shifted the weekly cabinet meeting Tuesday to the Royal Thai Armed Forces headquarters after supporters of People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) blocked roads around the Government House.”

(Via Bangkokpost.com.)

Army chief: Soldiers won’t stage a coup

mjperry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:27:27 +0000

And the army are saying they won’t get involved, seriously doubt they can hold that position for too long seeing the protestors overpowering the police everywhere they’ve been so far!

Army chief: Soldiers won’t stage a coup: “Army chief Anupong Paochinda vowed that soldiers will not stage a coup d’etat while anti-government group People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rallied at important venues around Bangkok.”

(Via Bangkokpost.com.)

PAD invades NBT

mjperry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:26:07 +0000

Awoke to find all hell had broken loose in Bangkok this morning!

PAD invades NBT: “One of the five leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), Mr Sondhi Limthongkul, announced at the anti-government rally near Makkhawan Rangsan on Tuesday morning that the state-run National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT) television channel was shut down, creating a euphoric atmosphere among the PAD supporters at the venue.”

(Via Bangkokpost.com.)

IE 8 Team Nearly Finished Copying Safari 10.3 Feature Set

mjperry — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:54:35 +0000

IE 8 Team Nearly Finished Copying Safari 10.3 Feature Set: “Apple’s Safari browser has offered ‘private browsing’ since 2005, Firefox since 2006 (via the Stealther extension), and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer may soon offer it as well. Earlier this week, Natya Nadella, senior VP of Microsoft’s search, portal and advertising platform group, said the company is planning to give IE 8 a privacy feature for erasing search histories and the other data that browsers often log automatically. Now iStartedSomething has discovered two trademark filings that may apply to the new feature. The first, for ‘Cleartracks,’ describes a program for deleting search history after accessing Web sites. The second, ‘InPrivate,’ disables a browser’s history and file-caching features, notifies users when their browsing is being monitored and controls access to the details of their browsing sessions.

Handy tools for when you’re researching a medical condition at work, shopping online for family Christmas presents, or you know, SURFING PORN, which is, after all, what the Internet was designed for. …

(Via Digital Daily.)

Worlds’ most distant webcam goes live

mjperry — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:28:26 +0000

Worlds’ most distant webcam goes live: “You can use a webcam to sneak peeks at birds’ nests, active volcanoes, watch the Shuttle launch, and even to check traffic. But that’s just local stuff. What if you want more of a far look?

Then you need to check out the most distant webcam (so far) in the solar system: the Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera”

(Via Bad Astronomy.)

Apple’s secret “Back to My Mac” push behind IPv6

mjperry — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:56:02 +0000

Apple’s secret “Back to My Mac” push behind IPv6: “The Internet is running out of addresses. To get around this problem and a host of others not addressed in the existing Internet Protocol (IPv4), a new revision has been in development for years, called IPv6. Uptake has been slow; it requires upgradi…”

(Via AppleInsider.)