jybkk

There are quite a few foreigners helping, however it's not so visible... but who cares?

Despite it sometimes looks like there are so many of us, it's because we're all concentrated in a few "ghettos". Among the 60 million Thais, we're not many, and the immense majority of us are not in the areas the most affected.

Now for those who aren't affected, the help that can be given is mostly invisible. The best seem to be to donate money and food. Going to help on the field might not be the best idea. Many of us are not able to communicate fluently in Thai, which can be pretty dangerous if the situation were to change quickly. And it's pretty difficult to imagine taking your car, heading to some flooded zone, to help who, how, where? Thais already struggle to understand the situation and get information. The problem is worse for the farangs.

Now I'm sure if the flooding were to enter the zones with high concentrations of farangs, you'll see them sleeves rolled up and feets in the water. It's not selfishness, it's common sense. The thais you see on the TV filling the sandbags are the ones who live in the area and they are trying to protect their homes.

Let's not add ourselves to the list of victims to rescue.

I agree with everything you said, but I have to ask, have you ever met a Thai teacher, and most especaially a Thai school administrator? If theory could become reaity what a magnicent country this could be.

That was also my point. No matter how great the idea is in theory (and I strongly believe in the need for education to be on par with technology and the modern world), my first hand experience with Thai education system tells me they won't be able to handle such an ambitious change.

Let me say I do know what the fuss is about, I do know about this and similar projects on a professional level and as such in favor of this project – you have been warned.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer so precisely.

You make a lot of very good points.

I wish such a debate existed between the people in charge, because I'd be much more optimistic about the success of this project then.

As I said, I'm pessimistic not because of the qualities of such a project but because of the confidence I have in the capacity of Thai ministry of education to do it properly.

I was an IT Manager back in Europe. Part of my work was have people in workshop use IT systems.

Then, when I first came to Thailand, I worked as a foreign teacher in a Thai public school in Bangkok.

I've experienced first-hand the daily madness of this administration. Absolutely no decision made sense. Everything was about looking good and politics. Quality of the education was judged through VIP visits of the school and end-of year tests. The visits were announced very early and the weeks before were used to prepare a demonstration of the student skills, that had nothing to do with the actual daily teachings. The tests were rigged. Most of the teachers gave a similar (if not identical) one to the student a week or two before, and no-one was to authorized to fail a student. I was personnally asked by a Director to falsify the results of my test so it appeared all the students passed.

In these conditions, whatever the theoretical value of such a project, its complexity is way past the capacity of the current admisnitration to handle.

My list is meant to show all the hurdles they'll have to pass. As you demonstrated, there's a solution for each of them but I can't believe they will manage to get around them all.

I do believe the only solution for long-term progress in Thailand is through education. The efforts of the nation MUST be put towards this. But they should have realistic goals, and this project is one step too far for now. When I was teaching, there were so many things missing. We didn't even have things as simple as proper chairs, fans in the classrooms of copiers...

There are so many things that can be improved right here, right now, for zero cost. On my side, I tried to bring change where I could, but I soon realized it was limited to my classroom. Out of that I was the farang and nobody was ready to even acknowledge the idea of improvement, because in their eye, it only meant they were doing bad before.

So to answer your question: yes, this is my opinion based on my personal experience within the Thai education system.

Let's focus on having the basics right first, before we go for the advanced education. This project can't compensate for the lack of a proper curriculum, a decently organized administration or properly trained trachers. I think it won't be "better than nothing", because it will result in diverting money from more important things.

I bought one 2 months ago (somehow wish I waited a bit more, the price of the new models is really interesting), and a friend of mine did the same a week later.

Amazon.com redirects you to the appropriate page to order for Thailand, they include the cost of tax import and the delivery was flawless (using DHL, delivered to Bangkok).

Many don't seem to understand what the fuss is all about.

The problem is not whether or not tablets are a good medium for education. It's actually pretty clear to most that it is helpful.

The problem is that the implementation of such a tool in the current state of Thai education system is completely unrealistic.

• People compare the 3000thb with the cost of the book but seem to forget that after the purchase of the tablet, a very complex infrastructure of management, repair, charging, update, bug-fixing and support has to be put in place.
• There is a great confusion about what these tablets are going to be. A 3000THB tablet has very little to do with an iPad. Corners are cut in every way possible to the point of being barely usable. Those currently sold in this price range are buggy, unresponsive and will have a battery life closer from the minutes than from the hours. Check "nanopad".
• The kids who will handle these tablets WILL break them. Oh, I know, when you're with your 4-year-old she does treat your iPad with care. So does she with the books she's reading with you standing next to her. Believe me, in the middle of a class of 30+, it's a totally different story.
• Who will put the content on these tablets? The ministry of education? Have you seen their websites? Do you trust them to come up with something viable or hire any relative with an obscure degree in computer science to come up with a joke of a software?
• Sure, there is a lot of resources online... in English. My experience in the Thai education system is that most of the teachers barely know how to use internet (unless to log on Hi5) and very few of them have enough proficiency to actually reach and use these resources

In short: tablets can be a very interesting teaching tool, but this specific project is guaranteed to result in a net loss of time, energy and money with no positive impact on Thai students.

It makes me sad to see all these people rushing towards the wall simply because they already promised too much and can't afford to change direction now and lose face.

This "study" is another attempt at justifying why they had good reasons to think it was a good idea, while they already know it's doomed to fail.

They had to disconnect some areas so they can pay the bills for all the marketing about True Move H..

"-Would you agree to see parts of Bangkok let to the flood to help the provinces?"

"- Sure!.... Just not MY part of Bangkok"

I think we will agree to disagree.

There's a thin line between inspiration and copying. All sides are constantly playing around it, Including Apple.

When I read your answer, it sounds like Apple is the only one innovating and the other ones are only good at copying them. I'm not going to lecture you about innovation in design and technology, but once you start to look for who copies who, it's a chicken and egg situation. The only indisputable fact about the iPhone and iPad is that they brought to the masses technologies and solution that were so far relatively confidential.

Now it's up to you to continue thinking that 2011 is "the year of the copycats", but if you look carefully, it looks as if the copycat isn't the one we expected.

LOL! Did you get your iPhoney 5?

Haha!

The only noticeable difference between iPhone4 and iPhone4S is the the speaker: there are now 2 slits instead of one. Yesterday, I've seen they already are selling screen protections that include a printed second slit so it looks like you already got the latest model.

Last time I posted a comment about Mr. Jobs demise, which was on Thursday, my PC was promptly hacked and crashed....needless to say, this will seriously impede my meaningful participation in any forums...so much for freedom of speech...

Paranoid much?

The effort involved in tracking you down, then hacking past the various protections on your network and computer would be really disproportionate for a simple comment on a forum.

And even if you had upset a genius hacker who suddenly decided to spend so much time going after you, he wouldn't have simply crashed your computer but made sure you understood why that was happening.

[...]

The patent war with Samsung is getting out of hand but I genuinely believe it is being waged in order to prevent others - not just Samsung - from blatantly copying Apple. Apple wants to make that harder.

[...]

Case in point: Pre-orders for the iPhone 4S started a few hours ago and the Apple store is more or less down - once you get to payment, things stop working. It's a challenge to scale sales for Apple...

There are good chances that you are right, but I would be more prudent.

Pre-orders have always been good for Apple and can't really be an indicator of the success (see the release of the "Cube", first weeks sales were crazy, then it all vanished)

I feel this release will later be seen as some kind of tipping point. The moment where the competition (mainly android but not only) has leveled up with Apple on all the crucial points.

I really believe the patent war declared by Apple is an admission of their worry rather than an attempt to protect their intellectual propery (after all, iOS5 has borrowed a lot from the competitors, and it would be pretty hypocritical from Apple to say they are the only ones who innovate).

The Germany design patent has to be one of the most ridiculous illustration of the farce that is the patenting system... Apple managed to basically patent anything rectangular with a glass front, and uphold it.

Looking at the numbers, I don't think Apple is at all concerned with the "growing market share" of Android phones.

Considering the latest patent war Apple is waging against Samsung, I'd say they are pretty concerned. Thinking they are safe would be a big mistake.

Nokia then RIM, once kings of their own market, did treat competition with contempt and I would be very surprised to see Apple repeat that.

Now the reason why this release is so conservative is still up to speculation.

Few theories I've heard here and there:

• They are having some trouble with the iPhone5 and prefer take some time to iron out the issues rather than ship something not perfect
• They want 4G technology to be really stable in the US and keep the iPhone5 until then, giving the iPhone4S for customers to wait a bit longer
• They want to milk the iPhone4 platform as much as possible

But the timing of the announcement of Steve Jobs' death is striking. It could be a complete coincidence, but I wouldn't be surprised if they planned a minor release so as not to mix-up big announcements with sad events.

All-in-all, I'm expecting a release with much more dramatic changes in a few months, rather than the usual yearly cycle.

Indeed they do not charge the Farang tax because they are a Malaysian credit bank.

Actually they are a Japanese Retail company. They have subsidies in Malaysia (and other countries) but my guess is that the Aeon ATMs do not charge foreigners mostly to satisfy the many Japanese living in Thailand. Nice from them to share with the others!

They also are the ones operating Jusco and MaxValu (which have been recently springing up everywhere around bangkok, accompanied with their Aeon ATMs)

1 thai baht of gold is 15.16 gram, so your 153 gram is almost exactly 10 baht of gold. 3 months ago the price was about 24.000 for a baht of gold, so your loss would have been around 240.000 baht=5000 pound, so I think your wife should be very happy with 8300 pound !

Whether it was 18 or 10 baths of gold they had, seems that the 8,300 pounds offer was actually a good deal.

I don't know how much OP was expecting, but 150g of gold isn't *that* much.

Now about the whole gold buying thing, I still don't understand why people go for the physical purchase rather than stocks indexed on the price of gold. You can't get those stolen...

Of course if it's for wearing it, it's different. But as an investment, I think there's way too much risk to see your life savings get in a burglar's pocket.

Windows 8 release date is still not announced... Win7 has demonstrated stability and security over the past few years. I'd say it would be a safer bet rather than being an early adopter.

Ok Windows 7 it is then.

Another question...any thoughts on the best antivuris software at the moment?

I usually recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.

Pretty lightweight and has been recognized as among the best by many specialists: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features/software/3284387/five-of-the-best-free-security-suites/

Ditch Vista and go for Win7. Performance will improve without any change on the hardware.

Compatibility and stability too...

That's what I was thinking but with Windows 8 out there maybe that would be better still...?

Windows 8 release date is still not announced... Win7 has demonstrated stability and security over the past few years. I'd say it would be a safer bet rather than being an early adopter.

Ditch Vista and go for Win7. Performance will improve without any change on the hardware.

Compatibility and stability too...

XP is really an old operating system...

Note that one of the impressive features of Windows7 is that it actually requires less powerful machines than the previous Vista. Most of machines who could run XP can also run Win7...

And it seems the upcoming Windows8 is even better at that: some people announced they managed to have it running on a 128MB RAM machine (!!!)

Thanks for that. I thought GMail did it but had forgotten the upload procedure via the Add-Image icon. Maybe some email programs you can just cut and paste. Thunderbird allows re-sizing during text composition.

In addition to the "add image" icon, simple copy paste of a picture works for me on Gmail in the browser. Using Chrome.

Apparently it's a feature available since last june: http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2011/06/copy-and-paste-images-with-gmail.html

Well. It's like comparing LADA to MB. With LADA you can get from one place to another (most of the times). With Mercedes Benz you get there with style. The price tag defines your likelihood to get to the destination as well as the style you are driving.

At least a LADA can bring you from A to B.

In this case, they tried so much to go below the $100 bar that it's like they decided to save money on everything, and fitted the Lada with a 50cc motorcycle engine and bicycle tires.

There are very decent Android tablets on the market. They sell for at least triple of that.

I wouldn't be surprised if the tablet purchased for thai students doesn't fare better. There's no way you can get a decent tablet at that price today. Maybe in a year or two, but not yet.

It's going to be so unusable that providing them with a gold-plated 3000THB tablet of wood would be about the same.

OP says she doesn't want to work for someone to make him rich... then consider MLM as an alternative...

MLM is based on the principle that people on top make money out of the work of the ones below thanks to the commission system.

It's absolutely NOT an alternative to traditional business except in the fact that entry-level employee start by actually investing money in the company. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission requires Amway to label its products with the message that 54% of Amway recruits make nothing and the rest earn on average $65 a month.

In other words: quite a lot of the money made by Amway successful members comes from the losses of the failed ones. Nice.

I too feel that OP is actually trying to find new members rather than asking for advice.

Interesting read.

http://www.skepdic.com/amway.html

Here's the review by Ars Technica of a $99 Android tablet.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/reviews/2010/11/worst-gadget-ever-ars-reviews-a-99-android-tablet.ars

It's probably almost identical to the crap device the government is considering purchasing for its "One Tablet per Child" program.

To go down to $99, you have to cut so many corners that there's no chance it can run anything properly, and this review is yet another proof of that.

I have been torchered by a Vista laptop for 3 years ..... it's time to skip Windows 7, 8 and 9 and go for Apple or Linux

You never upgraded from Vista????!!!!!....my gosh man, you must love pain. I wiped Vista from my hard drive the first month that Windows 7 was officially released...Windows 7 has been rock solid for me.

But I'm still undergoing therapy to wipe all the Vista bad memories from my brain....fortunately, Windows 7 has really helped the healing process.

As 'Familyonthemove' post shows, Microsoft is still paying a great price for the disaster that Vista was. It understandably disgusted a lot of users to the point they still don't feel like giving a chance to Win7 and others.

I feel sad for anyone who got stuck with a Vista OS. Furthermore, most of them were casual users (because those with a bit of knowledge quickly understood you better stay with XP), therefore more likely to suffer from Vista's poor quality.

I sure hope Microsoft understood the lesson. Win7 is really a great OS, they should take all the time needed to make Win8 a worthy upgrade.

More bugs, More hardware upgrades, More software updates required. Yet another learning curve for the new interface and programme updates, meaning more lost productivity

I'll stick to my Linux thank you. I have been MS free for nearly 2 years and loving every minute of it.

and Yes before you say I am biased but I believe with good reason

You might have left MS at the wrong moment.

They got it right with win7... 2 years ago.

None of what you listed occured in this release: no new bugs, no huge security gap, backards compatible and an interface that can be "downgraded" for those not comfortable with change. Give it a try. I installed it 2 years ago as dual boot on an netbook. I don't think I've felt the need to fire up Ubuntu for more than a year now.

Apple computer now for 2 years... never seen a blue screen or what so ever...keep on trying MS!

It really irks me that every time there's someone reporting about a problem on Windows, there's the "clever guy" who suggest "buy a mac" as a solution.

I think I haven't seen a BSOD for years either. And I'm running Microsoft.

My 4 year-old Dell runs Windows 7 continuously for 2 years now and has been rebooted only a few times for some updates. Better: my parents have exactly the same computer and while they use it daily and I didn't upgrade it to Win7, they have yet to have a problem.

People blaming Microsoft on BSODs are wrong, because failures are actually caused in the very wide majority of the cases by faulty hardware drivers... which are the responsibility of the manufacturer of the device, not Microsoft. This is the advantage and the drawback of Windows. You can plug anything you want... including crap that will crash your computer.

Last time I tried to transfer pics from my SD card to my friend's Macbook , the picture viewer crashed and we had to reboot the Mac. Well.. sh**t happens. I didn't tell my friend he should change his laptop.

I like Apple computers. Mac OS is really neat, but dam_n those fanboys are annoying!