Plus

On the other hand the Toyota mentioned is like 25 years old as a model, with terrible crash safety and the handbrake still under the steering wheel.

In Thailand it was introduced as Hilux tiger just over ten years ago, before that it was MightyX.

Later the engine was upgraded to d4d.

There's one dirvers airbag, ABS, and seat belts with pretension. The body was designed according to Toyota's GOA that is used on all their passenger vehicles.

Sportrider is quite slow by today's standards, especially on highways. Forget overtaking over 120 though it's adequate below that.

On the other hand, if it's only five year old, it will last forever with minimum maintanance. But it's based on pickup truck so don't expect a soft ride.

There's tons of interior space, a lot more than in a taxi, probably more than in an Camry.

Abhisit spouting his usual platitudes, while his puppet-masters are looting the state coffers under his very nose!

That's quite a twist given that neither Abhisit nor the military are mentioned at all.

>>>>

Police and some ministries and agencies are not the news.

TAO and other provincial bodies are a surprise - they have to be voted in locally, if they are so obviously corrupt, how are they getting re-elected? Is it a problem with electorate? If it is, how can you trust this same electorate make clean choices on the national level when they can't keep their local bodies clean?

Maybe we should accept that corruption has become a standard way of governing for Thai society. Is it dangerous? How much? Should it be reduced, or let's just learn to live with it? For some it's unacceptable no matter what, for others it's not such a big deal.

If you are really incapable of getting a Linux machine connected to the internet

Mental note to myself - some "helpers" are incapable of even readin reading.

My Linux is unaccessible by Windowns on the same network. That is Samba and file sharing.

As for connection to the Internet - I asked a few questions on this board a while back when I used True modem. Linux would connect, but only manually, if I reset default connection to pppoe, after a reboot the default would shift back to eth0, the system couldn't keep the setting. By comparison, WindowsXP on the same machine had absolutely no problems connecting on start up.

Solved that problem by buying a proper router+modem.

The problem exists between the keyboard and the user's chair.

With attitudes like that there will be quite some time before Linux would challenge Windows for market share - the original point of this thread.

Plus

It works fine

No, it doesn't. On my computer it doesn't.

Are you telling me it does, and those "destination unreachable" errors do not exist?

That's a great way to prove a point that Linux is a troublefree operating system.

Some distros had no networking problems, this PClinuxOS does.

I went through several guides and manuals for making Samba work. It doesn't.

Actualy Linux appears but refuses to allow entry to see the shares.

Not a big deal - I can copy files from linux to pc, there's only few meters between them.

Oh, and it's been months but I can't make my pclinuxos2007 visible to windows laptop on home network, and win laptop doesn't show up on linux samba list either. It's accessible via 192.168... route only. I tried all GUI tools and checked all config files, doesn't work.

As for help - unlike windows where you can just search for answer and it's there, I need to create accounts for linux forums and inquire myself. Replies appears in few hours, sometimes on the next day.

So far there wasn't a single problem that was fixed using that help. Nothing, nada. Altogether I ran up to ten pages of replies but in the end they were all abandoned.

Win help, as i said - search and you can find. No more than five minutes if you can formulate your search correctly.

Linux is for fun, not for convenience.

I'm trying to get usenet client to work on Linux and so far there's no success.

Usenet was developed long long time ago, way before Internet with www and http was invented. There are lots of windows clients for accessing it but only one, crippled linux program - Pan.

Pan does only three connections to a server while any other program does up to twenty. That puts a great limit on potential download speed.

Pan does not support secure SSL encryption. In practical terms it means that my ISP sniffs out my download pockets and throttles my speed. Windows clients with SSL set to OFF, connecting to the same server, download at ridiculous 3kbps. With SSL at ON the speed is 3,000 kbps.

Downloading with PAN is like being on 1995 14kbps modem by comparison.

And this one and only usenet client for Linus has absolutely no documentation or support.

There are several other linux clients, but they can't be arsed to make themselves compatible with hundreds of linux distros. From their point of view - if it worked fine in 2005 on Fedora, my job is done. People who invented "SuperduperLinux2009" have to port it themselves. And those people can't be arsed, too.

Who can blame them - linux is all about leaching off some enthusiasts unpaid work. They have absolutely no obligations to provide me with working software, many of them have no intentions to do so, too. They can always pull "lazy user" excuse. It's a lot easier to blame users than to make sure your program works.

>>>>

Everyone I know uses some kind of instant messenger. In Thailand is MSN by default, many use Yahoo, too. These two finally learned to talk to each other, I heard. But not to Linux users on office networks.

Every office network I know runs a proxy for Internet access, in the name of big brother control. Interestingly the most popular choice is probably Squid that runs on Linux.

But that's not my point. My point is that there are no Linux instant messengers that can connect through a proxy. I think it's possible to connect if you get the proxy and router set to open certain ports to use certain protocols, but that means you have to go to IT bosses and tell them that you want these special privileges because you want to chat to friends on non-authorised, self-installed operating system.

That's just ridiculous.

>>>>

Linux will always be a platform for enthusiasts to express themselves, not for general public who want to use computers to get job done.

When people say that Internet runs of Unix they are of course right. They forget to mention that those Unix servers are not free. Linux distros are just a byproduct of that effort (a very well paid effort, too) so they will never be as good as Unix servers themselves. Linux distros are bones, left overs. Users are meant to figure out how to make them work all by themselves.

It's like building a working computer out of parts salvaged at a dump site. It might do some basic work, if you put a lot of effort in it, but it's not guaranteed.

Many of users have very low requirements, granted, so working browser and Open Office could be enough, but any step out of line and you are on your own.

Nerds would say - great, I'm finally free of shackles of the great satan Bill, but the users will be thinking - $300 is just a pocket change comparing to all the troubles this "freedom" will bring me.

>>>

Bottom line - Linux is not for users, it's for geeks to have a lot of fun, and I don't think trying to migrate from geeks to users will bring any long term success. I don't think it should be a goal at all.

There was never meant to be a working relationship between developers and users. It was all setup wrong from the start.

Anyone willing to pay what looks to be about $300.00 US will be able to port there productivity apps (some) to win7.  but mostly they are going to be putting out funds for new apps with the excuss that they are inovative updates.  The biggest problem with windows is having the carpet pulled out from under your feet like clock work.  Learn to fish and never go hungry.

Actually for many it's easier to pay $300 than try to get Linux working.

Curiously enough, it's easier to have free linux programs running happily on Windows than to make them work on linux own distros.

I do like the idea of opening Synaptic and clicking apps and they get installed. But if they are not in the official repos, you are doomed to eternal life in a hel_l of a shell.

I remember my frist try at installing unofficial Canon driver on my first try with linux.

The Readme simply had to commands - make and install, that's all support that there was.

But in order to get that make working I had to download three-four packages it depends on, and no one tells you what they are, it's just hit and miss. After days of fuc_king around with it and no replies on the forum I gave up.

OpenSuse was more accomodating, but I got stuck with gs errors, and gave up. I still have bookmarked pages with printing and ghostscript troubleshooting but I doubt I will ever have time to study them. They are teasing me with simple perl script that throws errors, and it's perfectly readable, but the problem might be with permissions and parent script that calls on it.

It's so much fun trying to figure out why when the script returns 1 it doesn't get accepted by the driver. I feel like I can spend the rest of my life on installing one dumb printer and be happy doing it.

Some people enjoy a relaxed, steady drive that also saves gas.

Some enjoy driving fast and care less about fuel expenses or whether they save any time.

Cooperation is about letting everyone enjoy whatever they want.

Psychologically everyone driving faster than you is a suicidal maniac and everyone driving slower is a retarded moron but you should grow out of this ego-centric view of society.

The NCCC promises a court case really soon

Ahh, but the case is already with Attorney General now, got you!

Instant messengers - of course they work through proxies on Windows.

Kopete or whatever else comes on Gnome doesn't as a matter of principle. Proxy support was promised in KDE4 but it's still not there.

Video driver for OpenSuse - legacy driver from Nvidia, recommended by OpenSuse itself, they have an official manual for it. I had a five page thread on their forum that got abandoned for the lack of progress.

Wine problem - Grabit started briskly, than it (or wine) killed my window decorations and disappeared. Now it sits in the system tray and responds to right clicks by the actual window never comes up.

Splash screen - I don't remember ever changing anything, I DO rememeber trying to get it back. The fact that I can't pisses me off far more than its absense. It should be there, needed or not. I don't have time to browse through thousands of boot related posts after all GUI and Wizard tools failed. Apparently at the X level every config option is fine.

Canon printer - it works in WinXP, and it serves three other XP machines. If it fails in Linux, everybody gets pissed, at me.

Virtualbox - no, it doesn't harm the kernel. It only stops desktop from loading. I can still boot into console and remove it manually. Or try to use Linux a few days later - it has a mind of its own and crashes appproximately on every other third boot.

Mouse - have no idea, got it from official KDE candy site. Green apparatus, works fine in OpenSuse but colors are not the same.

External drive - plugged in via USB, gets recognised by the system but won't mount despite automount option being set.

SABnbzd+ - installed fine but throws errors and refuses to work. Briefly searched for solutions but exact error message didn't bring any results and I gave up. Pclinuxos doesn't have all required/recommended packages in their repos, or they are called something different. Usenext client works fine initially but fails to download anything. There are SSL errors of some kind. There's still hellanzb to install, and Grabit to fix in that Wine, then there's Ninan. None of them are in the repos, so installation problems are practically guaranteed, and then they won't work for one reason or other.

Ubuntu and VGA onboard - I had to work on some other machine for a couple of hours, so I brought Ubuntu liveCD to play. No luck. Now I'm certainly in no position to recommend linux switch as there are possibly hundreds of the same spec machines there. I suspect Win7 will install just fine on them, btw.

On Win7 my problem was with video driver. The one I had on manufacturer CD worked but had to be reinstalled on every reboot. I downloaded latest driver from Intel website and it worked ever since without a glitch. Very straightforward procedure that should have been done from the start.

>>>>

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fixing all these problems, it just takes enourmous amount of time and I won't wish it on anybody, let alone an average computer user, let alone on a Thai with rudimentary English skills.

Me, I do it just for kicks, just because I can. WinXP/Win7 already answer all my needs

Why do they still allow people to run their machine in full administrative mode by default?

Ever since I created a separate account, anytime anything wants to be changed on the system, it asks me for admin password. I can't install a virus without it even if I wanted to.

Of course if you give this password to the kids...., but it seems like the first natural step to protect the computer.

People can remember their e-mail passwords, they can surely remember one big mother of all passwords - the admin. Users can be set to autologin or login with blank, it doesn't matter as much.

Finally something it happening.

Chrome is perfect for a quickie.

So the reds "distanced" themselves from Thaksin by refusing to print his article but chose to provide stage for a <deleted> who called for armed struggle against Thai state?

That's a moron's destiny - no matter what you do, it will always be wrong.

Nothing was paid so far, the contract is stalled.

5 payments have been made so far:

Feb 2007 = 845,000,000 baht

Aug 2007 = 743,000,000 baht

Feb 2008 = 600,000,000 baht

Aug 2008 = 700,000,000 baht

Feb 2009 = 750,000,000 baht

The sixth payment out of nine is due in Aug 2009..

Thanks, I totally missed that.

Has any of the trucks been delivered?

Before someone accuses local media of being Thaksin obsessive - The Nation carries exact reprint of the first DPA report in the corner of the second page with relatively small headline font.

Good point.

On the other hand it's not practical. Imagine if every job applicant went to the courts to demand review of his rejection.

Maybe EC shouldn't impose financial punishment, that way all that is lost is really a job opportunity, no big deal.

Now they invest a lot of undeclared money in elections, so there ARE financial losses one way or another, but why should the system protect the under the table investments?

I think on the previous page I said that Thailand projects a very bad image with this bus deal. That's where outsiders' perspective come from.

I think you have noticed that personally I get my nose in every little problem here and know all the anwers. If only people would listen...

What doesn't work?

You don't really want to deal with the list of all the things that don't work in this particular thread.

Instant messengers via proxy don't work at all, for example, on any distro. Not my personal problem, but a girl I tried to encourage to use Linux.

Compiz on old nvidia, on Suse. Works just fine in PclinuxOs. Pclos, on the other hand, rendered awfully bad fonts on CRT monitor.

Virtualbox periodically crashes the system on boot. So much for Linux stability.

Wine programs GUI disappear.

(those two are for running Windows programs in Linux)

A particular Canon printer doesn't work on any distro I tried, even when properly istalled. There are either ghostscript or "backend" problems.

Splash screen on boot will never come up anymore, even if boot options are specifically set to "silent". No big deal but looks very ugly.

On shutdown the console shifts outside of monitor range by about 10 characters, no splash either.

My favourite cursor theme leaves white boxes on the screen from time to time, or has screwed up colors in opensuse.

External hard drive won't mount automatically, and I use it for saving torrent files. Every time I start ktorrent before manually mounting the drive, it throws me as many errors as active torrents I have. Sometimes up to twenty pop up messages.

There's no proper usenet client in repositories. Pan is a joke.

Ubuntu LiveCD doesn't support some onboard VGA on Acer desktop, gives black windows. Very embarassing for a presentation of Linux power.

Support for wireless is very patchy. Some distros would work just fine, others won't budge.

>>>

I keep experimenting on my desktops, but with the notebook I gave up for now - Windows 7 works perfectly after some initial driver hickups. I will have to make a decision again when it expires next year. Buying a basic version without Aero would give me a peace of mind.

I have all sorts of problems with various Linux distributions. While it's fun to try and fix them, it is time consuming and unproductive.

Ubuntu and others have covered basic functions on current hardware, but switching from XP on old machines to Linux is pain the ass.

Getting support is a lot harder than for Windows, too. Forums are active, true, but very often it's just newbies complaining to each other how this or that doesn't work.

I'm not even going to comment on "you have the command line prompt, what more do you want" warm welcome to Linux community.

>>>

It's all work in progress, I hope pretty soon we'll have a couple of really good, well supported distros for newcomers instead of hundreds of half baked ones. For now it looks like every nerd out there wants to start his own Linux movement and be nerdier than everyone else.

As much as I have respect for times when men were men and wrote their own drivers, I don't have time for it. I wish I had but I don't.

I don't buy all the compaining about tailgating.

First of all it happens for a reason, and the reason is most often you yourself. Usually tailgating is just a reminder that you are a slow driver who fell asleep behind the wheel, or sometimes it's a message that you have slow reflexes and leave too much space in front of you. Either way, some people accept this reality and move over. Some people spot fast approaching cars from far away and leave the lane clear for them to pass. But then there are people who feel offended, probably because they realise that the reason is perfectly valid. Then they try to prove that they are unrecognised Shumachers and start speeding all over the place. Another way they try to validate their perception of their driving skills is by quoting rule books or seeking consollatioin on discussion boards. Some even devise various ways to create unpredictable and dangerous situations on the road!

Completely self-absorbed, narcissistic individuals.

Tailgaters will eventually overtake you one way or another, in the meantime you will think that you are making the roads safer by forcing them to weave through two-three lanes of traffic on the left, and you will feel like you are in total control of how fast other people should be driving.

One poster earlier made a very important point - driving is about cooperating, not competing.

If you drive slowly and block the right lane people will often get annoyed, overtake, and hit the brakes in front of you just to get even.

Sometimes if you cut someone off in a rather rude way, the guy might chase you for two kilometers and wait for a chance to do exactly the same thing to you. Very often it's a girl, too.

It's not very serious, if you crash into a car cutting in front of you they will be at fault, but they trust you won't do that and brake in time. They don't mean any harm, and they usually try to exact their revenge in exactly the same way, give you the taste of your own behaviour. You could even say it's educational.

Raising left palm up as if saying you are sorry usually settles it.

And you should drive as if you are sorry, Thais are very good judges of driving manners, you won't fool them.

dysfunctional to the extreme and incapable of doing this procurement effectively or efficiently

Actually it's quite a progress comparing to just a few years ago when they could care less about efficiency and public interest.

Now this demand for efficiency and transparency is the biggest stumbling block - the govt can rollover the opposition party but doesn't dare to challenge the public.

That's a big big change from pre-coup times, and I hope it's sustainable.

So, let me see if I understand you Plus. What you are saying is that the Thai political system is flawed to the point where it is dysfunctional to the extreme and incapable of doing this procurement effectively or efficiently. Therefore, because the need for new buses is so great, we have to pay off the entire bureaucracy with huge amounts of cash at the Thai peoples expense to move forward.

That's right, except I was speaking frome outsider's perspective without proposing any solutions, that would be too presumptious for an outsider.

They can pay, they can clean up bureaucracy, they can live without buses for a while - doesn't really matter, there will always be enough excuses for whatever they decide.

Personally I'm for political system overhaul.

I would also object to bureaucrats being solely blamed for this fiasco - the project is pushed by politicians who need this money to run in the elections.

I have often argued that bureaucrats, as professionals with life long careers, won't screw their industries over for a quick buck, and they can't possibly steal as much as a endlessly rotating bunch of politicians with six months deadline to set their families for life, or big businesses with appetites equal to some small countries.

Bureaucrats are the lesser evil than many others.

Only Bangkok has a public bus system in Thailand, I doubt that's enough to sustain local industry. Thais build tour coaches instead, those are in demand all over the country.