Lannig

Huh? Well I hope you don't some day have a rude awakening there. If your client is untrusted - meaning your computer has been breached - then anything you can do on your banking account isn't safe anymore. Unless BKK bank internet banking doesn't actually allow you do do anything - and I don't know that since I am staying the hell away from it - it's unsafe.

Nothing contrary to what I wrote here: your account can be compromised, your banking information can be stolen, up to a certain point (see below) illegal transactions can possibly be made from your account, but in no way can this lead to a global break-in of the bank's servers.

Say you can initiate bank transactions, imagine a worst case scenario, your computer is under control of some hacker group, sold to organized crime. I'll illustrate how this would work on my European bank account because that's supposedly very secure. It uses a sheet of one time TAN numbers to authorize any transaction:

- I initiate a transaction - $100 to my brother's account

- I have to enter my one time TAN number to sign off on the transaction - security feature! - I do that

- My computer takes this information and uses the TAN number to initiate a $10,000 transfer to Dimitry in Russia

(...)

Nice demonstration. I'm not a BKK Bank customer so I can't tell for sure, but last time I checked both KBANK and my local bank here in the western world required a SMS confirmation each time there's a new recipient for a money transfer who's not already registered.

In such a case your demonstration doesn't work. And your phone number has to be registered too.

Don't know if BKK Bank offers that layer of safety, though.

(...) this idea becomes part of a virus delivery kit that any script kiddie can install on your compromised machine.

If your computer is infected, there are far easier ways to compromise your bank account, such as key and mouse gesture loggers. No need to get into such a sophisticated attack.

Long story short: I recommend urgently not to use the BKK bank internet banking. But hey, it's your money. Good luck with the customer service at BKK bank should a breach occur...

Thanks for the tip but as mentioned above I'm not actually a customer.

Where I work now, the only supported browser to access online patient data is IE6. It certainly sucks, but that's the way it is, because just every action has been tested with IE6 and not yet with other browsers. And on computers isolated from the Internet, IE6 is still (barely, I know) acceptable.

Sad, isn't it?

Microsoft is actively trying to get rid of IE 6 - they even have a countdown page, and voluminous articles trying to get people to switch - but some companies remain intransigent.

It's not a matter of being intransigent or not. It's a matter of money.

Validating another browser, fixing IE6isms in an application (provided there's enough left of the company / the internal team who wrote it to fix anything - not always the case), all this costs a nice pile of bahts/euros/dollars/<insert your favourite currency here>

So as long as people don't complain too loud, as long as the security consequences are manageable etc. most businesses will drag their feet.

SCB's Business Banking program, Biznet, has one function that only works with IE. It's a sign of poor programming. Some day they'll fix it, but I won't hold my breath.

Not necessarily poor programming. Short-sighted programming I'd say, which tends to be enough for the masses using IE anyway.

Major computer iron manufacturers produce boxes (like e.g. SAN storage arrays) whose web administration interface work only with IE. HP still sells blade servers today whose remote web console only works with preposterous versions of the Java plug-in.

Even in the IT business, those shortcomings exist.

I wouldn't trust any website that only runs on IE. Whoever made this clearly don't know what they're doing.

A banking website that only runs on IE? Yeah right. Switch to another bank if you want to do internet banking.

I am serious. Stay away from this. It's only a matter of time until they have a major security breach.

Geez, Nikster, get real. I hate IE and M$ just as much as you do, I've worked in universities long enough to have a real culture of open-source, but in the Real World things aren't that simple. When any error accessing online data, any action done through a browser bears strong liablity concerns and can even have legal consequences, a business has to very clearly state which browsers it supports and block access from other ones. Where I work now, the only supported browser to access online patient data is IE6. It certainly sucks, but that's the way it is, because just every action has been tested with IE6 and not yet with other browsers. And on computers isolated from the Internet, IE6 is still (barely, I know) acceptable.

If BKK Bank only supports IE at this time, that's their choice. Of course, you're 100% entitled to switch to another bank if that pisses you off.

As for IE being the channel for a major security breach of the bank's online services, that's a joke. Security breaches don't work that way, through vulnerabilities in the client's browser. Only your own computer (and therefore possibly your account details) can be compromised this way.

I haven't tried this, but the laptop comes with ""Splashtop" which is a simple o/s that can be be used before booting up Windows to run built in aps like email, web browser, Skype etc at power on without Windows. Whilst the screen flicker is not as bad it is still there with Splashtop running - especially as I scroll down web pages, on a web site so I think it's hardware related rather than Windows. The flicker isn't like the YouTube post above, but more a general heavy pixelation of noise over the Windows desktop and external displays it connects to along with larger areas usually large areas of triangular shaped distortions across the windows screen.

Hmmm, I have to say, this sounds awfully like a failed GPU indeed.

Hope you'll be able to buy a bare remplacement motherboard, don't know if HP sells these to end users.

Good luck and welcome to the club of frustrated HP customers.

It's a high end HP ENVY model so not easy to find in Thailand....

Oh... HP Envy

Another ill-fated notebook model from HP I'm afraid.

The launch model went "this item is no longer available" from HP's online store within weeks after being announced. Not "out of stock". I smell something wrong here. I hope yours isn't one of the first batches.

Found this on Youtube:

Does it look like what you're seeing?

Geez... I used to be a big fan of HP hardware but as of lately the quality of their notebooks especially has been going down the drain. The Elitebook 8530p given by my employer (a kind of high-end model also) is falling apart after just over one year of very careful use. My own Probook 4515s has failed twice in one year (LCD panel and DVD drive - covered by the warranty, but not comforting).

Agree with Floridaguy. Failure of the GPU (aka. VGA chip) normally isn't likely unless it has severely overheated because of heavy gaming with the notebook not properly cooled for some reason. Having a dark screen doesn't necessarily mean GPU failure. It could be the LCD display itself, and on notebooks another likely culprit is the cable that runs from the mainboard to the lid.

However there are some specific notebook models infamous for failing GPUs: among them the HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 series with NVIDIA GPUs. I had one in my hands that worked only in 256 color mode. Anything beyond that gave a completely white screen.

Is yours one of these?

What's the exact symptom you're seeing?

Anyway, if it's out of warranty, there's one place where it could make sense economically speaking to repair it and it's Thailand. In the western world repair costs are prohibitive.

But if it really is the GPU... well, that machine's future looks grim I'd say.

Thanks for your reply Lomatopo,

A MoJo SIM would be useless outside of metro-Bangkok; limited voice roaming, no SMS, no 2G data, and no 3G data (obviously).

Huh? I didn't expect 3G but no 2G either? you sure? So this basically means no coverage at at all, these SIMs are valid for the BKK metropolis only if I understand your point.

I wouldn't use it for anything but data anyway (in a 3G USB stick). No voice, no SMS.

Maybe better to get Truemove SIM and an AIS/One-2-Call SIM and hope for a decent 2G (GSM data: GPRS/EDGE) upcountry? Truemove has (supposedly) completed a massive build-out of 2G data, and AIS claims EDGE+ (384 Kbps) on 100% of their base-stations (YMMV).

384kb/s is more than enough for my needs (occasional mail and int'l news web sites browsing).

Based on my experience with True, I might give AIS a chance this time if Mojo isn't usable upcountry.

FWIW, 2G data basically uses available bandwidth, and is shared with voice calls. Voice calls have priority so if a lot of people make voice calls on your serving base station your 2G data rates will drop, and the session may be terminated. As with SMS, 2G data is not a guaranteed service.

Isn't this true (no pun intended) for 3G also? basically whatever happens you share the pipes from the base station to the global infrastructure anyway.

As for my worries with True, since I suffer from insomnia I often found myself willing to do some surfing at 3AM. No way.

I don't think voice traffic was the issue at that time.

edited to add: just saw the bit about the Truemove Hi Speed NetSIM. That SIM, once activated, acts as a "normal" SIM. Calls are 1 baht/min, SMS 1.25 per, and you can layer on a time-based or volume-based data plan. Most services can be added/changes remotely with automated service commands.

Well, I can't recall the exact details but this SIM was the 2nd or 3rd one of the same batch bought at Zeer and the first one not working at all. It was a special data-only promotion as written on the box, something like 3 hours on 3G, 30 hours on EDGE/GPRS. Very cheap (I think I got them for 69 or 79b each).

I still have a couple of yet unused packages.

Cheops, thanks for the useful tips.

I'll certainly look for those Mojo SIMs. I usually make a trip to Zeer during my very first day in Thailand. I kind of know the place too. Used to go there very often when I was a resident and I miss it... too.

My stick is a Huawei E160E and yes, according to the specs I've found online, it does support 2100 Mhz. Thanks for the heads up.

About the local True shops, yeah, mostly they don't know anything (but that goes for almost every shop in Thailand) Just call there call-center, which have some good English speaking staff, who mostly know how to help you.

Oh well they tried hard, even calling me on my mobile the day after I went to the shop. But basically since they weren't selling any data SIMs they couldn't replace mine. And for some reason the SIM I had (from a sealed yellow True High Speed Net package) was registered as a voice SIM "in the computer" (it's always the computer's fault in the end, right?)

Language wasn't the issue, since I can speak enough Thai for that kind of conversation.

The hotline was completely helpless either. Just insisting that this SIM wasn't meant for data usage.

Will be in Thailand soon, last time was the first time I came carrying an (unlocked) 3G stick. I bought a few prepaid True SIMs at Zeer Rangsit to use them upcountry (KP). I only have EDGE coverage at my place and I've had all kinds of problems with these SIMs, from suddenly dead-slow connections despite reported strong signal (even slower than a 56K modem, definitely much less than what a "normal" EDGE connection should give me, and strangely at random hours) to a SIM that plain and simple wouldn't activate (and the local True shop really hasn't been helpful... their final advice was to go back where I had bought it for an exchange - 800km roundtrip, sure).

So this Mojo thing sounds interesting. I have a couple of questions:

- what GSM/3G network are they using? I don't presume they have their own so they must basically be a reseller for bandwidth from one of the major GSM operators: which one? do they have coverage upcountry? (not in 3G of course, but I expect EDGE)

- the discussion above is about "topping up" which I understand as refilling credit to an existing SIM, right? Do you buy the SIM at the same place? (eg. Zeer) Is it worth refilling? sometimes it seems that buying a new SIM with the latest promotion gives you more bang for your baths (borrowing the expression...)

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Just went to the web site of the product and it looks very, well... ahem... Thai, to say the least.

Granted it's been developed on real OSes so I'll give it a try. Can't see it as a serious contender to well-established open-source tools like Nagios, but for the sake of it...

I don't think the point is security at all.

I can smell the odor of massive amounts of money going under the table, premium price paid for sub-standard, possibly second hand equipment (bought from the Germans maybe?). Anyone remembers the baggage scanners?

Massive amounts of money? How? The whole project budget is only a piddling 100 million baht!

Ahem... projected budget, right?

Well, I am willing to bet that the final cost will be 2 or 3 times that, just as it happened for the baggage scanners.

And the difference between the price paid and the real value starts to convert to quite a few top-of-the-line Volvos, BMWs or Benz for the handful of concerned people at AoT.

I don't think the point is security at all.

I can smell the odor of massive amounts of money going under the table, premium price paid for sub-standard, possibly second hand equipment (bought from the Germans maybe?). Anyone remembers the baggage scanners?

This will be Priewpan's second go-round with a Drug War.

So I guess this country is now headed towards another round of mass extra-judicial killings.

That's not the "best" part of Thaksin's former regime it deserved to go through again, IMO.

I'll eat my words if proven wrong but I really don't see Google winning any significant part of the social networking crowds over Facebook. All their previous shots at e.g. Twitter (with Buzz) have failed miserably. Plus it's just too late anyway. Like it or not (I don't have a Facebook account myself) Facebook has won and will remain the reference in the foreseeable future. It has even managed to kill well-established local variants like Orkut in Brazil. I don't know how well Hi5 survives in Asia...

(...)

There is a warning statement on eRightSoft's site stating:

v2011.build.48 (April 23, 2011) hosted on this eRightSoft site is totally different

from any v2011.build.48 (April 23, 2011) hosted on any other site.

Super is an useful piece of software although honestly, it's nothing much more than a very, very confusing front-end to mencoder and ffmpeg, but its author seems completely insane to me

His web site must win the Internet Award for the most difficult download link to find on a web site. And the never-ending colorful verbiage is mind-boggling.

The quote above is sooo much "him"

NTC makes tremendous effort fixing this issue. They are making sure in 3 years, by 3G, hi-speed network will cover 80% of the population. This is on the list for whoever get to license must achieve.

I shall believe this when I see it ... really.

I don't have figures at hand, but I doubt that Bangkok+Chiang Mai+Nakorn Sawan+Korat(+Phuket+Pattaya presumably)+maybe a couple other main cities account for 80% of the Thai population.

If everything goes well, Thailand can also move to 3.9G or 4G. This doesnt require new cell planning.

It will, however, require massive capacity upgrades of backbones again.

Let alone main international trunks. TOT & CAT can take care of that easily.

Really? ask TOT ADSL customers what they think of the international bandwidth they get today already. When hordes of 3G mobile users will hammer the same congested pipes, I can only imagine what it will look like.

Summary. Thailand must go 3G. There is no reason not doing it.

I haven't challenged this. I just wanted to somewhat cool down expectations.

Thanks for all the replies, pals. Amazing how dates differ, even for rather close places (e.g. NS vs. Sukothai). I should be safe planning for the 10-15 I hope.

As for letting someone go ask... Well, I wish I could to do this. Seems that it's considered rude to "disturb" an ajarn for this so no one would dare going.

Amazing Thailand :-)

Your a farang so you get away with asking them.

Fair enough. Except that I'm 10,000km away right now so I kind of need to rely on the locals to go ask (and they won't).

Anyway I've got plenty of hints from helpful people here, thanks again to all of you. I can plan now.

Guys, I don't know how much you've been using 3G when in your home country ("biological home" should I write, since many of us rightfully consider Thailand as their homes after so many years), but don't hope for the Holy Graal of Browsing Speed unless you live in the heart of Bangkok or one of the few other big cities (and even so).

Building an infrastructure that gives a decent and reliable 3G connectivity to most areas of a country means enormous investments and completely revised capacity planning of the telco's network backbones. I wouldn't hold my breath until this becomes a reality in Thailand... especially considering that it's still far from being achieved in many western developed countries. Widespread 3G also puts a huge strain on IP network infrastructures, exchange points and international links. Those already are under pressure in Thailand.

Paying for 3G is one thing, having your mobile actually hooked to a stable 3G connection is another and having significantly better network speeds than when using EDGE is yet another (especially during peak hours). This, even in countries usually considered as having an "advanced" telecom infrastructure. I consider 3G one of the biggest ripoffs of recent history from telco operators.

Thanks for all the replies, pals. Amazing how dates differ, even for rather close places (e.g. NS vs. Sukothai). I should be safe planning for the 10-15 I hope.

As for letting someone go ask... Well, I wish I could to do this. Seems that it's considered rude to "disturb" an ajarn for this so no one would dare going.

Amazing Thailand :-)

Hello there,

Would anyone here please be able to provide reliable information as to what the official dates of "pit term lek" (autumn school break) are in the Kamphaeng Phet province ?

I need to plan for a family trip there that has to take place during the school break and such information seem to be impossible to get from the folks over there... can't get anything more precise than "sometime in october". TiT eh ? :-)

Having this information online on a web site (even in Thai) would be great if such exists but maybe I'm asking for too much.

Thanks in advance.

Nectec usually does a good job on Internet research as they were the founding fathers, along with the ISP which became Inet-TH. This report is no exception - however it is already outdated because some of the rules, such as exchange of international traffic, no longer apply. Some of the concepts do still hold true though.

Some ISPs now have their own international gateways so any discussion of a single international gateway is irrelevant.

No Sir, to the very best of my knowledge it is *not*.

As already explained in my previous post, they may have their own bandwidth with international providers but the physical "pipes", the fiber optics, *do* run through the CAT facilitie(s) (they may have more than the one in the building on the Chao Praya bank now, I don't know) because of the monopoly.

CAT *is* the biggest international gateway and serves more ISPs, however. True is the next largest, and I believe CS-Loxinfo is the third largest international gateway.

I know for sure that fibers run from their Suah Pah building to the CAT building.

The latest Internet map is here: http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/down...ap.iir?Sec=home

Also, Internet cafes are not necessarily the bottom of the chain - home users are. Cafes use the same types of connections that home users do, although sometimes they may be higher speed, and sometimes they may be commercial-grade (less contention).

Wow, you must go to the expensive ones. All the ones I've been using were using lowly home user ADSL links.

I read somewhere that the discontinuation of Internet services in any western country would cause that country's economy to collapse within 48 hours.

I don't know where you may have read this, but it is pretty nonsensical.

There might be disruptions, of which the most recent catastrophic type would have been nine-eleven. But a discontinuation is all but impossible, given that the networks are heavily meshed (i.e., alternate paths) and built of highly redundant, high availabilty technology. It is common practice for these kinds of businesses to have multiple voice and internet access points with more than one provider.

The only way someone might have any sort of chance of doing this would be simultaneous attacks on all major undersea fiber routes. But these are heavily guarded, if not inaccessible. Even if this were to occur, mission critical traffic would still be routed through other redundant system. There might be a lot of outages, packet loss, latency, etc.

In any case, the economy wouldn't collapse because of it, and certainly not within 48 hours.

I wonder how long it would take to cause Thailands economy to collapse.

If there is indeed only a single internet and telephony gateway for the entire country, via CAT, this would appear to be a very serious problem (aka single point failure). Fortunately, the problem could easily be alleviated by opening up the market to more suppliers.

I used to work in the engineering for one of the top 3 Internet service providers in Thailand (don't shoot me, I've tried doing my best with the staff and equipment I could have).

The situation there is very unusual: EVERYTHING runs through CAT. Even companies buying bandwidth from foreign international backbone providers (Sprint etc.) HAVE to run the fibers these through the CAT building because there is a monopoly. The laws make it so difficult and expensive to buy bandwidth from non-CAT foreign providers that except for the very premium customers, all the traffic goes through the CAT international exchange anyway.

So yes, I can perfectly imagine a scenario in which a bunch of PAD unionists break into operations rooms (don't think it would be hard anyway) and turn off equipment or unplug a bunch of fiber optics. That would effectively make most if not all of international Internet connections impossible in the whole country. And certainly for all individual ISP customers this would mean a complete blackout.

And don't tell me about security at CAT. During a massive break-in that happened while I was working at that ISP, I was called to help track down intruders and found out that a core network router at CAT was being used for a staging attack. I soon found out that the top-of-the-line Cisco router costing millions of bahts had the super-user password set as ... 'cisco' (the installation default).

Sylpheed is another program worth taking a look at. It's open-source, free and more lightweight than Thunderbird.

--Lannig

I just went for a short trip to Europe, so I am now among the lucky (not!) guys who've experienced the new airport. To summarize my opinion: it's a shame, a disgrace, it's ugly, ill-designed, impractical, unfinished etc. It's new and it already looks dirty in many places. This thing will durably harm Thailand's reputation to travelers. Take it down and build new would be my advice

The arrival hall is laughable, its size would be perfect for a provincial airport... before that, the big display panel at the end of the arrival corridor is made almost invisible by a huge duty free shop. A real shame because that's the place where belt numbers for baggage delivery are shown. Obviously many people miss it. I've seen quite a few walking around the baggage belts room trying to locate the right place. Furthermore I've waited more than 45 minutes for my luggage (I should write only 45 minutes and consider myself lucky I guess) etc. Most of these complaints have been written already so I won't repeat.

Since I had left my car parked at the airport during my trip, I just wanted to add my two cents about the parking lots: they're free at this time, for any length of stay, which is a nice thing but has nothing to do with generosity: it's only because the barriers and guard kiosks are not built yet! Now be careful if you park your car there. There are (at least) two parking lots close to the airport, and absolutely no indication of which one you are at when inside. They use the same set of location markers (e.g. there's a green "3A" in both parking lots). So if you think that your car has been stolen when you come back, maybe you're not searching the right parking lot!

Be very careful when you exit the parking lots. The signs are small and sparse and you could easly enter the wrong spiral ramp! Actually they seem to have changed the direction of these ramps at some point because the one I had to use to go down (as directed by an employee standing there) had the yellow/black chevron marks on the side painted for the other direction!

Oh... and don't go by a rainy day. The roofs over the bridges from the parking lots to the airport have gaps so you'd get soaked up. Worse, the roofs over the parking lot staircases are leaking like hel_l so don't use these either.

I really miss Don Muang

--Lannig

I have recently started running Windows Defender (beta 2) daily on a full system scan. After about 20 mins scanning I hear a 1 - 2 sec buzzing sound from the main PC unit (like a door buzzer) followed by a shorter buzz about 2 or 3 minutes later. I am pretty sure it is Defender related as when I ran the scan one hour later, the buzzing also occurred about 1 hour later.

The buzzing did not occur with the quick scan option which I was running before. Any ideas if this is a problem, (it certainly gives me a start when I hear it).

Thanks

Any chance it could just be the heads of your HD doing seeks at a high rate due to the scan? I mean, very intensive disk access can produce buzzer-like sounds.

The full scan in Windows Defender really causes very intensive disk access.

--Lannig