sting01

And I would suggest a visit to an optician as your vision is anything but 20/20. The staying/working on a visa free entry was never a valid or legal option. It was tolerated but abused and for that reason there is now an attempt to remove that loophole. As for the derogatory comments on a group of people please review forum rules before posting again.

I would suggest you , as you are a moderator, to keep your saying staight.

During at least 3 years I got a VOA From the immigration officer sitting in Aranyaprathet (never the same person). I do suppose that person did know better than me or you what was legal, or are you pretenting the immigration did not know what he /she was doing? Or are you assuming I corrupted the whole Aranyaprathet immigration office in the goal to get an 'illigitime' visa every month?

If not, then it was legal option , as it was gived by an immigration officer during his/her duty without any fake information given by me.

sorry for the rant but it just makes me wonder why so many peeps with "other" visas think it is a GREAT idea that 30 day border runners are FINALLY being "dealt with" & not allowed to stay long term as was ok in the past?

Well said totally agree. Some people get a different visa and, all of a sudden they are better than everyone else. What is up with this visa snobbery?

Some people choose to be compliant. Some don't ( well didn't )

Untill a recent moment, I was a scumbag myself (VOA) for almost 4 years. I am uttermost lucky I got a regular job with WP (almost a miracle in my case).

Anyway I still continue to think the following :

VOA WAS (past tense) a valid and legal option in the past, right now it's not true anymore. People choosed to use that options not becausse they looked to be criminal, but simply because for some it was the only one existing.

Right now, a part of the expat community is simply invited to leave the country. I do claim that part is not the nice fellas who are sponsorising the sex industry in Thailand, nor those who currently buy shoes for buffalos. //deorgortory comments to specific group removed - lopburi3//

The expats that are kicked out Thailand is the kind of 35 y old, who invested his money in a real business or more simply who tried to restart his her life here. Those people are kicked simply because they are a pain in the a*** for the local : they do not waste money in bar fine and short time hotel. they mostly do not bother themself by hiring 4 lazy peoples just because they could got a WP , the VOA was taken care of that and saved them a lot of money and headhache. In more , cherry on the cake, mostly if they go, they will not be able to move back 100% of their investment, there is also laws who do not allow you move freely YOUR money outside Thailand.

For me, I was on the departure 3 month ago, then I got a job. So my situation have changed but not my vision on that very problem. The motto is still the same : Thailande love your money but dislike you.

Remember this is Thailand!!!

Please precise what you mean? I think I was clear enought in my 3 posts to deserve the whole of your thoughts. I ask, because I am supposing we are going to the same conclusion, but you simply do not express it completly

Im not sure we are going in the same direction.

If I was a member of the public out on the streets right now, the faith I have in the local Police Force is virtually nil.The army on the other hand have got specialists in this kind of situation. My this is Thailand quote referred to the fact that in other parts of the world, there would be more confidence in the Police

Yes we do, Police is not the most respected service in thailand due several corruption problems, and Police is not also considered as efficient. For that we both agree.

What was the primary target of the bombs (if we can believe the reports at that time)? Police station mostly, the civilian casualities are only a collateral damage, and it was minimum , kept inside an acceptable poll (I do apologise here for the victims, who are /were not number but human people).

What is end result : disturbance of the publicservice maybe chaos, at a moment where people brain is not focuse on the reality. The casualities are light, and no symbol of the power in place is touch (but the less respected part of this power). On the other hand, everyone will agree it's time for a cleansing, who can accept bombs??????

Let say the following, a supposition not an affirmation : someone who have been in that business some time ago would certainly tell us it's a cover up ... something will come after in some days.

Remember this is Thailand!!!

Please precise what you mean? I think I was clear enought in my 3 posts to deserve the whole of your thoughts. I ask, because I am supposing we are going to the same conclusion, but you simply do not express it completly

Old power clique suspected of being behind Bangkok bomb attacks: source

A security source at the Government House said the old power clique was behind the simultaneous bomb attacks in Bangkok.

The source from an intelligence agency said the intelligence agencies had learnt about the plan of the old clique to create disturbance toward the yearend.

The source said Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont was on the standby in Bangkok because he expected the attacks.

Source: The Nation - 31 December 2006

Hard to believe the 'old power clique' is behind the bombings as it would be stupid and harm their possible future political plans immensely.

And, how come the Government (PM Surayud) 'expected' these bombings ....?

If they know already who was behind the attacks within a few hours (and expected the attacks), why didn't they do something before it happened ?

Odd and strange.

LaoPo

Like what LaopAo?

What could they have possibly done? More police? Army? call superman?

If you don't know WHERE the bombs have been planted theres nothing you can really do.I mean how do you stop someone dropping a grenade from a bridge? that could happen anywhere in the world.

This has been happening in the west/Isreal for a long time and the sad fact is it is near impossible to stop.Thailands military/police don't get anywhere near the same level of funding as say their western counterparts.If we can't stop these type of attacks how can we expect them to?

In 95 my country went throught something similar events. The bottom line was the shooting of the head of the terrorist network by the French Gendarmerie (kind of military Police or Feldgendarmerie). To do so you need information, not money. Money is not the key, information is. To hunt down a jackall, you simply wolfes

The only terrorism that is hard to expell is the one linked to criminal (Corsica in France, mafia in Sicilia), In europe the political terrorism is dead with Bader/Meinhoff as the Police learned how to handle it.

On the other side, I would like to join my voice to those who already expressed concern for the victims and their familly. I will pray tonight for them

quite odd if this was a muslim incident that the ksr area was not targeted. one, it has so many people. two it has throngs of isrealis. next, i find it curious that there does not appear to be any bombing in the south. third, it is further curious that a few months back taksin buddy was found w/ a 'bomb' on his way to ??? taksins house (or so taksin would like you to believe). finally, like bush&co this could be an excuse for junta to cling to power AND make it more palatable for financial markets to swallow.

i hope the authorities have enogh balls and intelligence to shake this out.

I got the same idea. Specials were deployed but it was not real threat. Now (after the deployment) there is threat. Also, wich responsible government will willingly step down while civilians are killed? Who think at that time (emphazing 'that time' as it can be wrong in some month) the Junta will be ready to step down?

first I am unusre that topic fit with the neutral line of TV, it look like for me as a huge critism of the junta!

Second I do agree with, one freedom I lost in thailand was the freedom to do work for some websites. Censor happend not only for political sites , or porn site, but also for legi business (such musical stuffs) if those businesses are concurent of businesses owned by influential persons (got the problem in 2005).

For the tech person who point out the free proxy, I am still in doubt a prozy can be used for FTP protocol, or for HTTPS (while trying to access a distant database with the goal to modify the design of it).

Just an opinion from an non anglo saxon person.

Does people born the same? I mean Am I the same physically, psychologically, financially, as Charma or endure or any other of the poster in this topic? I do not think so, and I am sure they would claim their diference if I pretented to be.

The so called PC brigade is only people who refuse to admit people can be different, such as one is good to learn mathematic, another is good to learn litterature. Obviously I was not good to learn english at school, but I was great in mathematic, does it make me better or worst than those who fluently spoked/spoke english? No just different. I neve felt hurt when western african call me 'boiled pig',, it's the old way Peul people called the french, on the other hand no one of the soldiers from western africa who served with me felt hurt that I call them'blackie', as they had the right to use the 'boiled pig' nicname to refer to me .... same apply for the couples ' roumi/bougnoule', 'rice cup/ zoreilles'..... many origins also in france. Anyway, as long as it's nickname, mean a funny way to design someone, mean also the person you design with that nickname can also design you with one; there is nothing wrong. Certainly crude (or unpolite), but traditional.

I was lucky enought in my life to live many country, in asia, europe, africa, north america. One thing that make this world wonderful is the diversity of the human race, saying that one group is better than other is stupid, but negate/refuse to admit the difference is stupid too. We are not the same, but we are equal. Refuse the difference will mean on the long term the equality will be forget also.

Hi!

I'm not here to say that this is some sort of "good revenge" on western people, as many of these farangs in this forum had nothing to do with their own country's visa rules applied towards Asians.

However, this is interesting:

Case: Farang complains that while he has lived here for years, he is "not" illegally working here, so Thai government ppl are imbacils by making it hard for ALL farangs to get visas.

Comment: Even for legitimate Asian tourists from rich Asian families, do you know how ###### hard it is for us to get a visa in "your" countries USA, Australia, Canada, NZ, etc???

In the big picture, IMO it balances out well in our (Asians) favor. It's more difficult for us to visit, true. But it's easier for us to settle down once there. It's easier for foreigners to visit, but more difficult for them to settle down. Just look at the numbers of Asians permanently living in western countries vs. the number of foreigners permanently living in Asia (over the past say... 200 or so years). In terms of numbers, there's a huge imbalance.

And that's just talking about the numbers. If you want to talk about the outflow of wealth and assets + investment in one's local environment: given the nature (broad generalization alert, and it varies of course) of Asian cultures vs. western cultures, this results in an outflow of wealth and assets from western countries more than it does from Asian countries. In short: they tend to burn their bridges, we don't. Sure, Asians invest in our local communities and businesses in western countries, but we also transfer a lot of it home to Asia. Most western foreigners don't do this.

One more Time Heng is right, and describe cleary the reality. Maybe he forget one point, Asian comunity at home are basically harder to accept foreigner then european (still Thai Chi people have hard time to mix with thai thai; or chinese in Malaysia ...).

Hi!

I'm not here to say that this is some sort of "good revenge" on western people, as many of these farangs in this forum had nothing to do with their own country's visa rules applied towards Asians.

However, this is interesting:

Case: Farang complains that while he has lived here for years, he is "not" illegally working here, so Thai government ppl are imbacils by making it hard for ALL farangs to get visas.

Comment: Even for legitimate Asian tourists from rich Asian families, do you know how ###### hard it is for us to get a visa in "your" countries USA, Australia, Canada, NZ, etc???

Even with our "complete documents" and proof that we are only going to visit your countries, your embassies deny us outright. We just take it with a grain of salt, accept that it's "your" country's "right and prerogative", and accept and admit that many of our fellow Asians decide to overstay in your countries to find illegal work, ... and so we just accept the USA visa denial.

Despite this, I've never heard of Farangs complaining that legitimate Asian tourists have a hard time getting visas in the West.

Well, wake up, smell the coffee! It's the same thing here in Thailand. So many farangs working illegally, and so Thai government makes it hard for "all" farangs, including "legitimate" ones.

The "legitimate" farangs complain that the "hard" rules shouldn't be applied to them, and that it should only be applied to the "non-legitimate" farangs.

These "legitimate" want the Thai government to go through the "painstaking trouble" of "carefully" studying each and every case of each and every farang and to make sure that it's applied to only the "bad" ones.

Well I agree with them.

However, following that logic, shouldn't Western governments such as yours also extend the same courtesy, and also go through the "painstaking trouble" of carefully studying each and every case of each and every Asian tourist, and make sure that only the "bad" ones are singled out???

Instead of also (just like the current Thai government) giving a difficult set of "blanket" rules for all Southeast Asians ??? (except Singapore passport)

I'm not saying that the current difficult set of rules is correct, nor am I saying that Farangs "deserve" this revenge (As I said earlier, it's your government who is doing this to Asians, not necessarily you directly).

I'm just showing the big picture, and that this is a mirror of what your Asian friends go through when applying for visas in your "first world" countries.

Point to ponder.

To answer about MY COUNTRY policy toward some other countries :

Citizens from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam usually have no problem to apply for a visa to the French consulate, mostly those people or go to France to visit their familly, or they apply as migrants and as usually they are hard working person they are accepted.

For Thai people it's a bit more tricky I do agree, simply because the past it was a hel_l a problem with them. In 1999, the police had to close 12 massages parlors, 3 restaurants and one hotel in Port Frejus (Var, France). Those businesses were illegally open by thais people who applied for visas tourist (not migrant visas) , were not conform to the usual rules on hygiene, security and with the social laws. They were also more related to prostitution than massage or restauration. Rather than to comply when the fire soldiers went there the firs time, they (thai culture I suppose) tried to pay tea money to some local political men ...

So yes, it can be difficult for thai people to go in France because we do not need extra hookers (we have enought already), massage is a medical act and you have to study several years before to have the right to do it, we do prefer the taste of viet and chinese food , we love chilly but definitively we love the african chilly that are more tasteful. People willing to enter in france have tp proove they have a work in their homecountry (to be sure they will go back), or they have a contact in France (have to give official documentation) who can take care of them in case of overstaying. On the other hand, when you are in France and if you want to stay more, you just go to the police and ask for a new visa (3 month), if you land a job then that is your boss who will sign some papers and the police will deliver you a 10 years work visa ... Difficult? I do nt think so as long as you follow the rules. Complicate? I do not think so, and you should ask the hundreds of thousand of migrants who choose to livei n France every years, or the millions of tourist who come to visit with their familly France every year. I do have more hassle to stay in Thailand, even if I have a business here (legally registred, paying taxes too). Fact is Thailand and Thai people is willing to get my money, but is not willing to have me here.

On the other hand, I do support the move made since some month by Thai authorities to kick out those so called tourist who do in Thailand the exact same things that I described. Kick those who open illegal business, kick those who do not stay legally, kick those who do not comply to the laws. But on the same time, make it simple for those who have a life to stay here. No legal immigrant in France have to live the country to beg a new visa non b from an embassy abroad .... it's wasting time and money. In france a legal migrant will simply go to the police and apply there (a sunday or a saturday will be fine). Even in some difficult case, the police can go to the working place to collect the signature from the person to not make him/her to go to the police station (case of foreigner who speak french a little and who mostly are scare to go to the police).

And the lover visa .............. How can I apply for any kind of visa about my love life as the person I love is a Ladyboy? Does any Thai laws can make things smooth? If she want to go in France, she simply show the PACS we signed and she is entitle to a visa (can NOT be refused), she can apply also as French, as she got SRS she can also choose to have Miss (And not Mister) if oneday she decide to be french ... Where is thailand here?

Forget to say that I am out of this misery this week, me, my business, my money and my LB girlfriend we move to Laos ....

I personnly just used (still in use lol) Star Town Inn, 85 RM per night , TV , aircon, clean, nice, staff are french spoken, they are in the golden triangle (198-200 Jalan pudu is the address).

For the embassy, take the monotrain to KL Sentral (1.60 RM) then the train to Ampang PArk (2 RM) then a taxi to the embassy (2.60 RM). Be there at 9.00, take a hat or an umbrella, they love to make people wait unde rthe sun. BE sure to have enought RM with you.

Be aware they start to be unfriendly, today they turned down some tourist with many VOA (the kind of anglo saxons middle aged males, already drunk at 10 am and obviously sex pats ... could not stop to laught loudly).

Anyway KL is a beautiful city. clean , secure, with no hookers (but thai ladies), with no hassle (but thai massage parlour), were people are civilisate, mostly spoken a decent english (what a relieve after years in Nakhon nowhere), and most of all with people trully polite who do not look to rip you off.

To the OP :

Please dear Sir , comply with the spirit of the Thai laws. Go back to farang land and never come, while you are giving away to your wonderfull thai wife your hotel and any parts or shares you can have in any kind of business in Thailand. Here farangs (most of them old, smelly and un educated) are tolerate only as short time tourist (this is why short time hotels were created, to be able to park those personns).

Anyway, what use are you for thailand? ARe you investing (currently)? If you did in the past and got a year in Thailand, then things were fair. IF you do not invest now, so no reason for you to stay here, you simply take the place of soimeone weathly enought to waste his/her money in the Land of Smiles.

To answer your question, my earning in 2005 were about 80 K bath a month , in 2006 they will be about 85 k a month. I work as freelance and I am not looking to earn less than I currently earn.

35k a month for a programmer? What language? Amstrad Basic? Pascal 1st generation? Because even for php, javascript/ajax or any scripting language, no one will take the job, or just for a very short time . I do assume at this point you have an important turn around with your personnal.

A competent scripter will earn way more in RAC or scriptlance than with you, and certainly without all the hassles that can exist in your firm.

Think too mutt give the way to go : pay decent salary, train your staff and keep your coders long enought to get ROI. The industry is full of "wannabe Pedro" thinking they can pay peanuts and get 'top of art' work.

To give an idea, a competent scripter (mean fluent in simple languages as php, perl, javascript or eventually java) is able to earn btw 1500 and 2500 $ in REntACoder with not much problem, so why a java programmer, or a perl hacker would work for your firm and earn less? Think about that.

I can read the headlines now: Worlds Largest Plane breaks new airport's cracked runways, Thai(s) forced to reopen Don Muang.

Ah-ha the technically challenged !

It will be landing light as it will not be carrying any great loads.

I don't know the LCN(Load classification number) but looking at the undercarriage

I doubt whether there will be any problems.

The A380 flies very well. It has just done some crosswind trials in Iceland.

It dealt with a 43 knot! crosswind without any trouble.

I still can't figure out how Airbus got their knickers in a twist over the wiring?

Or their wiring in a twist over their knickers?

Did you ever own a Peugeot 405, or Citroen ZX with the full electric pack? If so, you have answered your own question...

Thanks for the memories. I owned a Peugeot 504 and it was the most comfortable car to drive when it was not in the single shop in the city that would even bother to work on the ever troublesome wiring. I even remember walking into a respected shop closer to home only to be greeted by a sign "We do not work on Peugeots."

504 and 405 are different technology. The 504 as her little sisters (404,304.204 and with some extend the 104) was vehicules specifically designed for extrem conditions. More specifically 504 for hot weather climate (africa), 104 for cold weather (north east of france where you can find minus 40 celsius (Pontarlier or Valdahon) during the winter), 204 and 304 for urban driving, 404 for an upcountry usage (as the citroen 2 CV, the initial specifications precised a basket full of eggs can be carried on the rear seat while driving upcountry roads). The quality of those vehicules is remarquable because here in Bangkok you can still witness 3 504 that are daily used near Rangsit ( I saw those vehicules everyday, but never had the chances to met the owners). The weakness of the 504 stay in the electrical lines, who used to be somehow very "upcountry", the initial specifications stating than even a garage in Bamako, or in Bouar or in KM5 in Bangui should be able to make it working in less than 2 hours. So it's easy to patch, but very complicate to do a 'state of art' fix. The condition, the goal, was not to deliver a vehicule that the usual 'johnny' will be able to drive (I am amongst the usual 'Johnny') but to deliver vehicules that can always be patched , even if upcountry in africa or asia. that is similar to the very old 4cv, that was designed for Sahara at first (even if they were sold also in europe), or the motor engine M from Berliet. All those vehicules were designed for EXTREM usages, not for normal usages.

405 (and with some extents the 205) are modern vehicules with very different technology, and appart the models designed for rally, they are more usual vehicules as any other european cars. Anyway the electrical wiring (faisceau electrique in good french) is a bit complicate as usually the person working on have to have a specialisation on it. the reason is the same as for the 04 cars, it must be possible for a non tech person to patch quickly the wiring in case of problems and bypass the normal wiring.

try copernic (www.copernic.com) ... the most accurate . and you can or can not use double quotes.

No bashing, but you stay here since year on VOA or on tourist visa. So many temple to visit in Mae Sai?

You get a partner (no married? Disrespect of the thai culture about rship?) that is non thai (Burmese, kinda the most beloved historical ennemies of Thailand) who work in thailand (and by so take job from a thai person) and had 2 kids with her (2 kids who are costing money to the social system in thailand).

I repeat no bashing, but some people will think like that and by so certainly decide you are not a bona fide tourist. So the ways to go are :

1) stop to be a fake tourist

or

2) get a support visa (as lopburi said, put money in a bank, get a retirement visa or marry a thai lady, as long as you buy shoesfor her buffalo she will not mind if you have a mia noi)

or

3) As I , you still have the option to move in a country where you will be considered as a human person and have some rights (well here we do have rights, such as the rights to stay silent, the rights to say all is wonderful and sabai sabai, and the incredible right to support the thai economy by injected daily our hard earning money in the thai system .... make me remenber today is the 'tea money' day , have to go to ATM soon).

The fact you have childrens here is not relevant, thought you can have children with a thai lady and be not qualified to get a proper visa (if you are an english teacher you will not earn enought to meet the requirement), so if you leave and let your familly (sic) here will not make the immigration cry a river I am affraid.

Another day in Paradize

To those who will say I am not good in this post, please let me know why you have to assume the OP have 400K or 800K since 3 month in the bank or 45 K of monthly earning?How many english teachers do you know who work here legally and earn 45 k a month? I do know the OP is not an english teacher, but that is an easy exemple to show the iniquity of that law, and the fooliness of some answers who are not in tune with the reality of the main stream of the expats. If Rockfeller decide to live in Thailand, I am sure it will be no problem, but John Smith will have (and mostly we are more John Smith than Rockfeller).

I like the idea of all company data, customer details, leads, inventory, webstore, accounts, personell, everything, forming one coherent database.

What single, comprehensive business solutions are out there that are able to combine all this stuff into one application?

The closest / best i can find is Oracle Small Business Suite, however it is rather expensive, and, afaik, Oracle do not do special deals for small businesses in thailand.

I would like to say here that I am highly impressed by the quality of information I get from computer people in this forum. Thailand might not be leading the world in IT, but it has some great people here I think. (Why is that? Any ideas?)

Thank you for your interest people!

OK, i have looked at Wikipedia, and there is a list of lots of stuff. Maybe easier if people made comments on what is here

[edit] Free and Open Source ERP software

(sorted alphabetically)

Adempiere

Compiere

GNU Enterprise

OFBiz

OpenMFG

[edit] Proprietary ERP software

24SevenOffice Start, Premium, Professional and Custom from 24SevenOffice

Accpac from The Sage Group

ORION from 3i-INFOTECH LTD.

BPCS from SSA Global Technologies

CIG from FEDITEC ENTERPRISES

Enterprise Business System from Made2Manage Systems

Epicor Enterprise from Epicor

Guide from Guideix

IFS Applications from Industrial and Financial Systems

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne from Oracle

kVASy4 from SIV.AG

Lawson Financials from Lawson Software

MFG/PRO from QAD

Microsoft Dynamics

Movex from Intentia

NetERP from NetSuite Inc.

Oracle e-Business Suite from Oracle

PeopleSoft from Oracle

PRONTO-Xi from Pronto Software

Ramco e.Applications from Ramco Systems

Sage MAS 500 from The Sage Group

SAP R/3 from SAP

mySAP from SAP

SSA ERP LN from SSA Global Technologies

SYSPRO ERP software from SYSPRO

AMS Advantage from CGI Group (formerly American Management Systems)

1C:Enterprise from 1C Company

WinMan ERP Software

SAGE is not expensive, fully cusotmisable to the accounting plan, can issue verious kind of stock, and and accepted as accounting program in the EU. And it's not expensive ( in EU standart).

Also it have a full set of option for export import (for the data I mean)

My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

tour‧ist  /ˈtʊrɪst/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[toor-ist]

1. a person who is traveling, esp. for pleasure.

That is what a tourist is that is not what you're doing. I assure you if you give this argument to the European, Australian or North American governments they would also disagree with you.

If you are making a living on the internet in Thailand and not paying taxes to Thailand my guess is that you are not paying taxes to your government either which, I am sure would be much higher than Thailand.

What you are doing is one of the things creating the problem for everyone. Just do the right thing and get a visa and register your business.

Here is my case .

I do work on internet (freelance programmer), I opened a company, registred with 4 millions bht of capital (2 millions of cash, 2 millions in ideas), I pay taxes since 4 years, and I am NOT eligible to have a work permit, and my last request of non B was denied (in january this year) on the ground it was the third I asked.

So what do I do? well right now I use VOA, for the last time, I am closing my company and the 15 th of december I will be in Laos.

So btw us, what you say is simply silly, because thai officials do not want people like me or the other posters. They want OLD farang (you know what I mean, I love older..... you certainly heard it more than I can imagine). In my place we say old = senescence, moslty you are old , and can not think clearly .... (I will develop because it would equal a ban, but I suppose the idea clear enought)

I would add to your informative list expats 50 and over who cannot meet the new retirement rules because their pension is not large enough to reach 40K per month income (average pension of US citizen is just over US$1000 now). Previously, many could have put 400K in the bank and received a long term visa solution. The govt. knew this, and removed that option.

The rules were and are 65k income/800k bank deposit or a combination of the two for retirement extension of stay for those over age 50. The only change is the requirement that the 800k, if using that, is in the bank at least 3 months (to prevent extension day loans).

Sorry to bother you dear Sir, but I have some doubt about the validity of your knowledges. Or to be more exaact, I do believe you are saying only a part of the true because it please you to do so.

The only person who can say if you can have or not a visa is the immigration member justin front of you when you ask for it. The regulations are issued to offer a guidline to this person.

But the person have soverigh authority, mean if you are denied you can not argue because their is no laws. So rather thant to try to calm down things because if not it would hurt your business, you should tell the true as is it :

The thai official who issue a visa have sovereign authority to do it or to not do it, and no one know for sure before to have the answer from the concerned thai official if you met or not the criterias.

Maybe it will avoid to send people in many places for nothing, trip are costly and many of us are not rich enought to handle several (Well the money was already used to support thai wifes , thai mia noi, thai kids, thai teachers, thai beggar, thai economy, thai stock exchange .... so what is left for the trip?)

Not a study but a mere nationalist and racism Bullshit.

Worst, I do believe it was written in the only purpose to keep the rural mass poor and uneducated; well how dare are those issaan gilrs to marry a farang , have kids and finally to start to think like them?????????????? A good issan girl (according to the study writer, not I ) have to stay poor, not educated, and as weel married only with thai to breed more slaves (oooooooooooops I mean to breed more issan kids)

Orange had locked their phones for far longer than either Dtac or AIS. I think it was Dtac that started it as their launched their new, rebranded service a few months before Orange.

Having one 3G network and leasing it to operators is not a bad idea. Having offered a choice of building your own 3G or leasing, all them would go with leasing as investment costs are prohibitive and payoffs are unclear. There's no visible demand for 3G, it's driven by hardware vendors, not consumers.

I don't understand his comments on Open Source at all. Maybe he is speaking from Thai experience with Open Source that quite possible produces tons of buggy, useless programs and consumed billions of baht in development.

Things like Pla Dao Office suite.

Unsure if it was Pla Dao , but I do remenber a soft who took away OOo source, repackaged it as an original thai soft (OOo had an asian release already) and tried to appear on the market. IT was 3/5 years ago.

I also remenber one day in Pantip they were selling an 'official' thai Linux relase without Tux (but with another animal). while spoken withthe seller, I learned Linux was in fact an original thai concept, and as the whole concept was pirated by the west they were trying to diffuse it on their own ....

I do suppose both were costly and at the end were wasted money.But both were knda a perversion of the main concept of the free software (I hated to not see Tux with the originla thai Linux)

actually having read the article, I'll stick up for him on most points.

....

My take on this bloke is that he is actually cluey, and that his plans for the telco sector in thailand ........

I do agree on that part of your post. Yes the guy seems to be cluey, myabe more than both of us think.

For all the rest I totally disagree, but it's personal opinion.

MSOffice is a great software, it's a de fact standart. But what about OOo (openoffice) that not only is compatible MSoffice but also compatible with other offices (some who are not existing but still in use in many places)? Make money? Ask Sun microsystem who package and sell (yes Sir , S E L L ) StarOffice, that is simply OOo + Sun logo?

Free software does not mean price = 0 necessary. Any soft release under the GNU can be sold by anyone, as long as you package it (burn a CD is enought) and you find moron ready to buy .... ooooooooooooops I mean find happy campers ready to buy. Better you clients will not have to wait you deliver a patch , as the source is acessible someone will have already done it.

Do not misunderstand me, I use XP (that I consider better than Linux for a normal use, even if I am a former member of Linux dev team). But imagine the source of XP being free, we would not wait the updates, they would have been realized since a long time.

How to make money? Well, take Mysql or postgreSQL, the DB are free, but if I run a critical application who use them, I will hire people from there to optimize the server, the queries, maybe on a regular basis. I will pay for real knowledge, not just because I have to spend my money. That is the phylosophy behing the free softwares.

About porn on the net, and other censorship, well the discussion exist since a long time, it's like racism or other deviance : Being tolerant, should we have to tolerate the untolerable or should we have to be came non tolerant ourself to protect our tolerance? PErsonaly I consider porn website should display pictures tonly totheir members, and the member ship should be kinda expensive. People love to waste money on sex, why not take advantage of it?

For those who still ignore it, I am a frog, for the stubborn Franche Comte.

As well, I look down to anyone who is not born in or near my place, should I precise how much I love the yanks (and rosbeefs alike)?