welo

Thanks Welo for that great advice and explanation. I've changed a couple of things now in Power Options.

And did it solve the problem?

That is a nice offer indeed!

However, if they want to get things done correctly at the border I am not so sure this is the right way to do it, bypassing the official immigration procedure

Maybe I am cynical, but I still wonder whether he maybe just wants to get his share of the visa bribe money. I remember months ago when they started construction work on the new building and put up the containers on the right hand side just after the stone arc (coming from Thailand), they lured me into one of the 'offices' there to give me the 1000 THB visa. It might as well have been the Tourist Police office, but I'm not 100% sure.

But thanks for the report.

When talking about the Cambodian visa I always like to point out the possibility of getting an evisa when still 'at home'. You need an internet connection, a digital photo of yours, a credit card and a printer and there you go to http://www.mfaic.gov.kh/evisa/. Have done it many times now (and so have others on this forum), the billing process is done by a company in Singapore. This time the visa has been issued within minutes, before it used to take maybe 4-5 hours. Best to apply 2-3 days before embarking on your visa run. Costs are 20 USD plus 5 USD fee - you take a printout of the evisa and go straight to the Cambodian immigration, no need to deal with the visa-on-arrival guys.

welo

Yes, a DVD won't last forever... There are many factors such as quality of the disc itself, proper handling, defective players, accidents, act of god, your visitors' kids playing around with your collection, etc...

And sunlight! The less exposure the better!

Pixelation during playback might as well be a decoder issue. The DVD standard allows various encoding settings, and some players may have troubles with high bit-rates for instance.

If the problems are due to a deteriorated DVD surface, some players might read DVDs better than others.

If you notice problems a backup is surely recommended. Some enthusiasts would make a copy after purchase and never touch the original - of course this is problematic with copyright protected DVDs. Others would not even remove the cellophane packaging from a rare collector's edition

How is your modem connected to your PC? Do you use ADSL or CDMA?

I assume that the modem hardware drivers cannot handle the standby/hibernation mode properly which - I assume - the laptop is entering when you close the lid.

Possible solutions:

• Go to Power Options and change what happens when you close the laptop lid.
  
• I prefer to disable any action when closing the lid and use 'hibernation' mode when the power button is pressed. Hibernation will take longer to power down than 'standby' mode but will have the laptop consume zero power.
  
• If your ADSL modem is connected via USB, connect it via Ethernet (network cable) if possible - there will be no special driver required for the modem in this mode since your PC uses standard network drivers to connect to the modem. This is the preferred connection method anyway since it has other advantages as well.
  
• If you have a USB modem (CDMA or GPRS/EDGE), try updating your drivers.
  
• You might also check the energy options of you modem device (in case of a USB connection) in the Device Manager and disable energy saving options (Allow this device to be turned off to save power).
  

welo

I have a UPS which also has phone line protection and the house is well grounded. I can say in this case the UPS saved my computer in a fraction of a second the computer was turned off and the monitor flashed.

That's valuable information! From other comments on this forum I assumed that a UPS would not save any equipment with a lightning strike so close.

I guess that a direct lightning strike to the house (TV antenna or mobile phone antenna) would still be 'too much' for a UPS to handle though.

welo

Are you talking about paying the Cambodian officials to stamp you out on the same day or Thai officials? The most I ever paid the Cambodians was 100 baht and that was just to avoid a long argument but I wasn't aware they had Cambodian tourist police at the border, or have I misunderstood your post?

I never heard of any bribing in Poipet with Thai Immigration - I assume OP talks about Cambodian officers.

100 THB is the tea money they sometimes collect when you want to return the very same day that you arrive in Cambodia (border run). I was never asked and have never paid this 'fee'.

You could always tell them that you go to the Casino area I guess - they will hardly trouble Casino customers.

300-400 THB is the 'fee' for not having to queue at the Cambodian immigration exit and entry counters. I guess this makes sense when there is a long queue and/or for holders of a Non-O retirement visa

1000THB for the Cambodian visa includes quite a hefty tea-money, the offical visa costs are USD 20, which would be about 650 Baht.

So which bribe did the officer complain about?

Thanks guys for your feedback! Sorry to not reply sooner, but I have just returned from Phnom Penh on my brand new Tourist Visa.

What's going on at the Thai Embassy Phnom Penh

It seems that the consul was/is indeed out of town. Another story I heard is that a new officer has just returned from Hongkong and is very picky on Visa requirements. The interview I did was not with the consul but with a young officer with very good English - but more about this later.

I also noticed that on Thursday afternoon the embassy staff was pretty hard working and processing passports (scheduled for pickup - not visa applications) until after 16:30, the official closing time.

I met two Westerners who had applied on Monday, both were told to come back on Thursday, one for an interview, one for supposedly normal pickup! My visa was actually also stamped on Monday. I assume that my interview was also scheduled for Thursday, even though my agent had told me that I have an appointment on Wednesday which we didn't make in time (or was never supposed to take place anyway).

The pre-stamped 'tickets' from Thursday (15th) showed Tuesday (20th) afternoon for pickup - that is x + 3 days excluding the weekend.

My Passport

I had 4 Tourist Visas from Phnom Penh in my Passport. Plus 1 each from Penang, Vientiane and my home country. I first came to Thailand in 2007, and last returned to my home country in mid 2008. I also had only 2 pages left before starting the visa run.

The Interview

The interview was done at the counter by a rather young Thai (male) officer, who did not do any other counter work than my interview, maybe he was said replacement for the consul. He was very polite and friendly, maybe even a bit nervous. He asked me about my stay in Thailand, and I told him that I'm married but haven't done the paperwork yet. He further requested paperwork to proof my relationship - since I came straight from Poipet I couldn't show him anything other than a photo of my wife's ID on my digital camera which I had taken quickly before leaving. He then asked for pictures showing the two of us together, which I didn't have on the camera. He instructed me to have my wife fax a letter with copy of the id to the embassy (stating our relationship etc).

Seeing more troubles and delays coming up, I took my chances and asked if the embassy had an internet connection - since I had tons of pictures on facebook. He actually produced a fancy smartphone and asking me for details. Unfortunately facebook is rather confusing on a small smartphone screen, and it took us some time to access the required information. I have tight privacy settings on facebook so the information without logging in is rather scarce. He checked my wifes profile pic with the one from the id, and checked her friend list which included me as well as my sister. He then accepted this as proof.

Maybe that was the first time in history that facebook was used as a proof of relationship in a Thai embassy He explained that he would make a written note of my relationship ('fiance') on the visa - otherwise I might be rejected by Thai immigration at the border because of my long stay (3yrs). First time I heard something like this, but my granted Visa actually has a hand-written note stating exactly this.

Pickup was suggested on the next day in the afternoon. I voiced my concerns for this delay since my visa run already lasted since Sunday, and he told me to come back that afternoon, 'maybe' I could pick it up. I also asked for a 'ticket' since my passport was handed in by an agent and I didn't have any receipt. This turned out to be a wise move, since the new ticket I received stated the date and a number. Later that day in the afternoon my passport was one of the last processed and handed out, the counter officer actually making a call explicitly requesting the passport to be processed.

The only troubles I had at Thai immigration at the border was a confusion about whether the last page of my passport is allowed to be stamped or not - the officer checked back with another officer who said no problem - no questions asked.

Foot Notes

No idea if my troubles were due to my many Tourist Visas or long-term stay in Thailand, or related to the Consul being out of town. However, I saw a couple of application forms with a hand-written note 'no visa issued without an interview' (or similar) when I spied at the documents behind the counter.

Interestingly, during the interview I had a chance to glance at my passport and saw that the visa sticker was already glued into my passport - what would they have done if I had requested my passport back without providing further paperwork and canceling the visa process?

One of the Westerners I talked to had actually applied for a Non-O Single Entry (retirement) on Monday, and was told to come back for an interview and provide more documents. When he turned up Thursday afternoon he was told that the embassy had already stamped a Tourist Visa into the passport. After waiting an hour they finally agreed that he accepted the Tourist Visa and would apply for the Non-O with the required paperwork next time - he did have only two pages left in his passport.

The officer handing out the passports in the afternoon definitely has a stressful job - and his very basic English skills ('you wait!' after returning the ticket without any comment 2 times before) don't make the job for him a lot easier.

I'm currently in Poipet/Cambodia on a Tourist Visa Run. Used an agent here before and didn't have any troubles before (like red stamps).

Got the news today that the embassy (in Phnom Penh) wants to give me troubles and requires me to show up in person for an interview. Reason: too many TV. I have to say my passport is full of TV and it's been a while since I was back in Europe. Furthermore I'm running out of pages and have just enough pages left for the visa plus 4-6 stamps. Plan was to get a new passport after this Visa Run (and hopefully sort out my Non-O soon).

Agent wants me to go to PP tomorrow morning, but while his service was usually fast and reliable he always had problems giving definite statements ('maybe', 'maybe not') and the same now: he says 'maybe' I can get a visa.

I'm not sure what to expect. Is that expected procedure to have an interview at the embassy (probably to make sure I am not working)? Or will I just waste my time to pick up a denied visa?

Is there anything I can do from here (telephone)? Is there any paperwork I can bring, like recommendation letter? Not that I brought anything with me, but maybe I could have arranged having something faxed. I'm married here but paperwork not done yet. I have lots of photos of the wedding

If the visa really gets denied, I assume that I can still enter Thailand on a 15-days Stamp?

I know nobody can really tell me what is going on, but I am curious about opinions from more experienced members.

Thanks,

welo

Update to the latest version

What's new in v4.6.393?

Fixed a permanent loss connection with the server.

Fixed the problem for me.

However, error message was 'The Request To The Server has timed out' and not 'ERROR - GOOGLE BLOCK YOUR REQUEST'

welo

So this is [...] the corner-stone of the discussion around intellectual copyright and technical patents: How do businesses protect their investment into research and development (intellectual property) without enslaving users and the 'market' as a whole.

Enslaving users and the 'market' is unethical and makes a far more important point than any protection of "intellectual property".

"Intellectual property" consist of a wide range of completely unrelated things such as unfair restrictions via licenses and patents, that really should not be possible to invest in or protect at all, and other things such as brand names and trademarks that of course should be possible to protect and invest in.

To mix these items into the same category is not motivated, only confusing.

And yet again did you misunderstand me, I attribute this to my mediocre English language skills. I re-added the context to my original post.

My question was not meant rhetorical, implying that 'enslaving users' is the only way of protecting investment into research and development, I rather stated the problem/question that has to be solved: 'How do businesses protect their investment into research and development (intellectual property) without enslaving users and the 'market' as a whole.'

And...

Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which property rights are recognised--and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property

Out of these 5 types let's scratch 'trademarks', that leaves us with copyrights, patents, industrial-design rights and trade secrets.

The basic idea is similar with all of them, namely to allow protecting a 'creation of the mind' and its commercial exploitation, in order to encourage and support research and innovation.

These exclusive rights allow owners of intellectual property to benefit from the property they have created, providing a financial incentive for the creation of and investment in intellectual property, and, in case of patents, pay associated research and development costs.

Which of the mentioned types of intellectual property do you oppose? And are your concerns only related to software or general?

I do understand that people are dissatisfied with some of the consequences of intellectual property rights.

I do see the negative consequences of the industry/individual companies eagerly trying to overpower the user/consumer for their own benefit.

However, I personally don't have a problem with moderately crafted intellectual property laws. I assume that there are solutions to the problems that you suffer from other than the defacto abolishment of intellectual property rights by enforcing the right to redistribute to the consumer.

Examples:

The state already provides a framework for the market that includes consumer protection laws in order to protect consumers from being overpowered by the industry.

Copyright law is not absolute, for example can I quote from a book or an article, or use texts for educational purposes.

General software patents are granted and enforced in the United States, but very limited in Europe.

welo

but I don't see it working for end-user oriented software products.

The fact that you don't see it working doesn't mean it doesn't work... Obviously it does work. There are lots of free end user software products and I'm using gigabytes of it right now......

Now you are putting words into my mouth. I never claimed that there is a lack of end-user oriented 'free software', I was talking about companies *selling* free software products. Because in a previous post you stated that one 'can see that companies can charge for [free] software if the market is willing to pay' (maybe implying that the market is not?).

But of course - as you just pointed out - in terms of a software market without restricting licenses 'the supply is larger than the demand and therefore the price goes down to basically zero'. You explain this as a 'natural process': 'as the availability is basically limitless when it comes to free software, the price tag naturally falls to something very close to what the distribution cost is.'

However, the 'distribution' costs don't equal the 'production' costs of software. Even though the costs for *re*-producing software is low, the production costs usually involve a fair amount of human resources aka man-power. One can find this discrepancy between production costs per unit and production costs over the whole product life-cycle (including research and development) in many other areas as well, e.g. the pharmaceutical industry, but also in any other technical industry (e.g. automotive industry).

So this is no news, but the corner-stone of the discussion around intellectual copyright and technical patents: How do businesses protect their investment into research and development (intellectual property) without enslaving users and the 'market' as a whole.

I do share concerns about software licenses that burden and restrict the user up to an unacceptable degree.

I do oppose the patentability of software in general as practiced in the US (for instance) - I'm sure you know that the patentability of software in Europe is very limited (even though there is lobbying done to change this)

I do like the concept of Open Source and appreciate its benefits.

I do appreciate and respect the work of the FSF to raise the awareness and educate users.

I do like high-quality software, no matter if it is 'free software' or not.

I am NOT defending Microsoft and other software companies that impose ridiculous software license schemes and abuse their monopoly with dubious methods.

However, I don't agree that 'The only way of dealing with this kind of stuff is to use free software'. No need to tear down the whole house just because the windows are broke

welo

Does the upload drop or the complete internet connection?

I remember a discussion on this very message board with the conclusion that nothing (surge protector, outlet off switch) will protect the computer when the house is directly 'hit' by a lightning strike other than completely disconnecting from the power source. Even then the energy might travel through the house/ground near the computer and damage it.

But a surge protector might protect against a lightning strike in the neighborhood that is inducing a surge into the grid.

I'm just doing the parrot here repeating what I've heard, so others, please, do correct me!

You are right about business models, but replace the "free of charge" with "free as in freedom" and you can see that companies can charge for software if the market is willing to pay.

[...]

Free software, according to the FSF definition, is never, ever forbidden from being used in commercial applications as long as they do not violate the license, which, if the license is copyleft, give the users the same rights if they receive a modified version as they had with the original version.

I know we could discuss this on a theoretical basis, but to be honest I am lazy and I'll take the shortcut, repeating my question from my previous post:

Why are there so view commercial free-software products, that is free software (as in freedom), I mean companies that 'sell' the actual product and not services around it? I know this business model works for service-intensive software, but I don't see it working for end-user oriented software products.

Of course software is not created with the goal to feed software programmers, but the process of creating software does require fed programmers

And while many Open Source software projects (sorry to inter-mingle words here, but I dare say this is the most common representation of 'free software', please correct me if I'm wrong) are supported by companies driven by business interests, this is not that common for end-user software - these are often software developers that earn their money as employee of a software company that is producing non-free software.

welo

Martin,

sorry, my post was probably too provocative - whereas I intended to provoke a little, I obviously stepped over a line - sorry for that!

My remark about the 'therapeutic' aspect was not meant to discredit you or your post (not at all!), but rather as a mild joke about the troubles at work that you had described in your post - because I can honestly say that these kind of experiences are a constant source of frustration for myself - I'm not tolerant when it comes to badly programmed software, and even more badly programmed copyright protection techniques (and the time zone problem obviously was of that kind).

I know what free software means in terms of the Free Software Foundation. But let's face the facts, in the real world most of the free software is NOT commercial software.

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware allow user modifications to their hardware. Free software is generally available without charge, but can have a fee.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

There are business models available for free software, one is to provide professional support while the software itself is free (as in free of charge).

This model works for software aimed at corporate businesses. It usually doesn't work for consumer oriented software - at least that is my experience.

So do I like free (as in freedom) software, yes, do I see some advantages of free software, yes!

But my question is:

1. Are my observations about business models correct?

2. And if so, why do only view companies offer free (as in freedom) commercial (as in purchase) software.

peace,

welo

Gosh, I thought *I* have problem writing posts that are too long

The post seems a bit therapeutic to me, looks like you had quite some stress with non-free software at work

I'm not a friend of copyright-ing everything or of strict and unflexible user-licenses, but IMHO there is nothing wrong with charging money for a good piece of software. Not least because I'm software engineer myself and need to make a living.

You further assume that there is a piece of free software for every problem or domain there is - and without detailed analysis I dare say there is not!

Why people expect everything to be freely available when it comes to software? Just because software is only bits and bytes doesn't mean there is no production process and resources spent/invested...

I'm actually an advocate of dual-license schemes for private/business use or restricted freeware software (with expert or professional features only available in the paid version). Because I agree that it's hardly worth spending big $$$ for software that you need only once or twice.

Of course limits and restrictions have to be reasonable, and marketing has to be honest about the differences between versions.

Restricted licenses, error-prone copy-protection and bad-quality software are not equivalent to paid (commercial) software products. There are many commercial products available that are high-quality, provide good customer support, and offer easy ways of paying/purchasing without cumbersome license terms.

This is not an anti free software post, this is merely an anti-anti-commercial-software post.

So nothing wrong with going with Ubuntu and enjoying the merits of free software.

peace,

welo

Haha, I imagine Martin's kids meet nikster's kids and have them to choose from a dual boot screen.

Kids will choose where they know they'll find their favorite game or painting program, and when asked for an opinion they most likely copy what they hear all day from their daddies ('Windows/Linux is stupid').

welo

Seems the laptop is an Asian-only model and shipped with Windows Vista...

Specs: http://www.buycoms.com/spec.asp?ProductID=31110&ProductTypeID=1

Vista Drivers: http://www.benq.com.my/support/downloads/downloads.cfm?product=2667

However, I don't recommend installing the drivers from the benq website, since they are most likely outdated.

Touchpad is Synaptics. You can download the latest drivers from here (same link as before):

http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers (get the package 'Windows XP/Vista and Win7 32-bit Edition v14.0.3')

welo

I assume the mouse has either a broken cable or another electrical defect, OR there is a problem with your laptop and its USB ports - maybe a power issue or whatever.

Did you have this problems BEFORE the re-install as well?

I will lookup the drivers for your model, maybe installing the correct chipset and USB drivers will help with your USB problems as well.

Windows XP, isn't it? Or Vista?

welo

This is one of MANY voip services run by the German-based company 'Betamax' (yes, named like the video system that finally lost to the inferior VHS ). While their service is usually dirt-cheap there is also little customer service and sometimes other problems. They have more than 20 different websites all with different names, I assume all using the same technology and network but offering different rates and schemes.

I used dialnow and it worked most of the time, but when I ran into problems with my calls (not sure who was to blame) support was basically non-existent. I switched to localphone.com, which has far superior voice quality at still good prices.

Best you do your own reading and then decide whether you want to use their services.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax_%28VoIP_company%29

http://cheapestvoipcalls.net/cheapvoip-new-betamax-service-review/

and google...

wink seems the obvious choice, but didn't work for me on 64bit Windows 7 (it seems the 64bit part that gives problems, please don't tell the 64bit-Windows-is-weird advocates on this forum ). I consider running it in a virtual machine, but I am still hoping for other options.

I'm also not sure if I should look for something like wink which is based on screenshots, or use a movie based screencast solution.

The first probably offers smaller file sizes and easier editing capabilities (for the arrows and stuff), but I wonder whether compression is good enough already so one doesn't have to worry about file size if the screen changes infrequently.

@siamect

There will be NO GRAPHICAL UI on my Linux server, NEVER EVER!!! I consider running an X-Server app on my windows machine though.. But I still would have to install most of the UI packages on my server, at least that's how I understand it. Are we getting off-topic here? Well, it's my topic anyway

welo

Thanks, my only Linux computer runs in headless mode, no graphical UI. My workstation is Windows, that's why I didn't post in the Linux subforum

welo

ok, thanks for actually checking the mouse settings again and making sure. If you don't have any additional tabs there then this is the standard Microsoft driver, that means no special Touchpad driver has been installed.

On the matter of your USB mice dying on you... Are you saying that they stop working after a view minutes after being plugged into your laptop, or are we talking about weeks/months here? The first indicates rather a problem with your laptop than with the mice.

I need the exact model number to lookup the drivers. Usually you find this on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop.

welo

I want to create a simple tutorial for a web based software UI (comparable to a router's web administration interface).

I found several free solutions but none offered editing features. I want to be able to cut out parts of the video (not just at the beginning and the end) because I don't want to include (slow) page loading and build-up times in the tutorial I tried using pause/resume but this didn't work well.

Enlarged mouse pointers and click animations would be nice to have features, as well as being able to add arrows and text, etc.

I guess I am looking for something that is not aimed at screencasts in general and outputs a movie with x frames/sec, but is optimized for software tutorials.

I don't mind Watermarks being added or even ads, I just don't want to spend (much) money on it, since it's just for private use.

Thanks,

welo

Maybe you can download the drivers from a friend or from an internet cafe? (Even though I don't recommend the latter because you will most likely end up with a virus on your USB thumb drive if you don't know how to protect yourself).

You could also bring the Laptop to the shop that did the install and ask them to install suitable Touchpad drivers.

What's your laptop model anyway? I want to check if you require the ALPS or the Touchpad drivers.

Please make sure you really don't have any Touchpad drivers installed. Go to Control Panel -> Mouse, and see if there is any 'Tab' named Synaptics or ALPS. (Sorry to keep nagging you, just to make sure you don't go through loops while everything is there already )

The actual appearance will differ between brands and driver versions, but might look like this:

A word on your USB mouse problems

I bought several (cheap non-brand) USB mouses in Thailand and none gave me problems (other than mechanical defects after just a view months )

Did you try the mouses on your old setup or on your new install? Maybe the guys didn't setup the hardware drivers correctly? Do you have issues with other USB devices as well?

Go to Device Manager and check if you have any yellow question or exclamation marks in the list.

Right–click My Computer, click Manage, and then click Device Manager.

A word on your Internet Connection and Download Problems

What internet connection do you actually use? Bluetooth only connects from your PC to probably your phone. From there you most likely use GPRS/EDGE to connect to 12Call or alike. And yes, this will not give you good download speeds.

If your connection is unstable you might want to rule out that your mobile phone's bluetooth support is the culprit. Get a USB cable connection to your phone. Might be worth a try!

Which browser do you use for downloading? If IE, then AFAIK it does not support 'resuming' a download (or at least not well). You should consider using an alternative Browser such as Firefox, Chrome or Opera. You could also install a Download Manager, such as 'Free Download Manager' (2.1MB download: http://files.freedownloadmanager.org/lite/fdminst-lite.exe).

If your connection is lost, you can pickup the download from where it stopped and don't have to start all over.

Report back here.

welo