Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Friday, December 07, 2007
December Blues
For most people December should be a great month. First of all, there are numerous holidays on December. We have the King's Birthday, Constitution Day, Christmas (for some of us), and New Year. In addition to all of that, it seems that many of the weddings are arranged in this month also - considering it is one of the most auspicious months as defined by fortune tellers. Now that is where the trouble lies. If you have a number of friends and collegues that have weddings on the same date, and you have to go to a wedding for nearly everyday for a week, then that is where December can be very aggreviating. Maybe it is just me, but I keep on wondering why those fortune tellers don't spread out the auspicious dates into other months?
Sunday, December 02, 2007
GK Glut
Every Sunday, I usually go to play football at a local field that I rent with a group of friends. One of the funny things that has happened in the field is that our group of players that has been assembled from various sources and teams (or we could call team fragments), we suddenly have a glut of Goalkeepers.
In Thailand in most amateur leagues and teams, it is difficult to find a decent goalkeeper to stand between the posts. This could easily be found in public football fields that you can rent. You will notice that many of the teams do not have a dedicated goalkeeper which is evident by the lack of goalkeeper attaire and equipment (e.g. gloves). Usually the weakest player is punished by letting them stand in that postition.
Strangely enough in our Sunday games, we now have like 5 decent goalkeepers including one of them that was in the under-17 national squad. Now we are having a dilemna on who to place in goal. At the moment, all I'm planning to do is to play one half as a GK and the other half as an out field player. That should be fun :)
In Thailand in most amateur leagues and teams, it is difficult to find a decent goalkeeper to stand between the posts. This could easily be found in public football fields that you can rent. You will notice that many of the teams do not have a dedicated goalkeeper which is evident by the lack of goalkeeper attaire and equipment (e.g. gloves). Usually the weakest player is punished by letting them stand in that postition.
Strangely enough in our Sunday games, we now have like 5 decent goalkeepers including one of them that was in the under-17 national squad. Now we are having a dilemna on who to place in goal. At the moment, all I'm planning to do is to play one half as a GK and the other half as an out field player. That should be fun :)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
How to Judge the Quality of a Japanese Restaurant
For those who don't know (you might find it odd), but if you want to find which Japanese restaurant are really good and authentic, you should count the number of Japanese patrons in the shop. The rationale is easy. Japanese people like to eat Japanese food and are extremely picky. Try that when you plan to eat at your next restaurant the next time and avoid Fuji and Oishi.
Friday, July 20, 2007
New ID Card
I just got my new ID card from the district. In Thailand, there are two types of ID cards. The first type utilizes a simple magnetic strip. The newer type that was supposed to replace the first was a Smart Card version. I got the old version during my update because the new Smart Card type was not shipped to districts due to a myriad of reasons.
No matter what, I'm happy with my old ID. Let me explain you why. First of all, the Smart Card ID (which was implemented a few years back) is more expensive. Also the implementation of the Smart Card had a number of flaws, as reported by a number of developers, which would make it easy to have your confidential data compromised.
As noted, I'm not always for new technological advancements, especially when they offer nothing better than the original system.
No matter what, I'm happy with my old ID. Let me explain you why. First of all, the Smart Card ID (which was implemented a few years back) is more expensive. Also the implementation of the Smart Card had a number of flaws, as reported by a number of developers, which would make it easy to have your confidential data compromised.
As noted, I'm not always for new technological advancements, especially when they offer nothing better than the original system.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
A Parallel Story about Web Censorship in Thailand
One issue that I find rather funny is about the state of Web Censorship in Thailand. Just to rewind, about 6-7 years ago in the university I teach in, there was a web censorship program set up, in which numerous websites were blocked. Topics that were blocked included Pornography, Games, Diversions and Hobbies, and Audio/Video streaming. As being in a private university, policies like these could be dictated and implemented without consultation and consensus. I myself was rather caught by surprise by the implementation when a number of sites related with computer games that I usually read are no longer assessible. I usually like to prowl around a few local game development sites and an international site called gamaustra, which was the world's best site providing news about the game industry.
Initially I was rather somewhat annoyed, but life goes on as usual. After a few more weeks, more website were banned, including anti religious, political, and the most surprising of all was sourceforge which was the place you have to go for open-source software. That was the last straw. I found the censorship implemented to be over the top, and I've decided to start my own subversive activities. To be exact, going around internet censorship is easy if you know how. Anyone with intermediate computer knowledge will know that the use of proxy servers is the simplest form of getting around the censorship. To be exact, all you have to do is to set your browser to retrieve information that is banned from another server (proxy). So without much more thought, all my browsing in the local university net has been done with a proxy.
However after a few weeks, there were rumblings from a number of other staff and lecturers which were complaining about the sites they want to visit where censored. After comparing their list, there were many valid reasons to complain. One good example would be the banning of the CNN video/audio streaming which was completely banned. Another example would be certain programming tutorial websites. After much consultation, I decided to act by contacting the University Administrator to discuss about how the Internet Censorship in the Internet was completely out of hand. After much discussion, the administrator still refused to take down the voluntary censorship, but mentioned that he would be willing to allow reporting of websites that should not be censored. I also mentioned that the censorship was useless as it was easy to go around the system with proxies. Unabashed, the adminstrator said he can't stop the computer elite to get around it, but he said it is worth it to cut access to the majority of illiterate that are browsing websites that are inappropriate. The initial talk was unsatifactory, though I managed to get consessions that websites that are are useful could be unblocked by reporting them to the administrator. As I've already talked with numerous other sources, I had in my own hand a few pages of sites that should be unblocked along with its reason.
The system worked well for a while, however after a week, things were revered again. It seems that the adminstrators updated the list of blocked sites by keyword, and due to this reason, all the sites that were sent to unblocked, were blocked again. As the follow up discussion with the administrators was unsatisfactory (they refuse to update the list we submit them every week), so I reverted to slowly educating how to get around the censorship. After a few more months, the system was no longer in place, and all sites were available for view.
The reason why that was stopped because implementing Internet Censorship is expensive (especially if you set up a rather large amount of sites), easily subverted (with proxies), can usually end up being counter productive (censoring sites that are useful), and usually provides a negative vibe (especially in the user's view against the system).
What is strange is that the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) in Thailand has actually started a implementation of the censorship much like what my university did many years ago. The system that the MICT used was the usage of a large number of computer personnel to browse around and individually add websites to censor which is extremely expensive to maintain. The sites that were blocked initially were immoral websites, which is later extended to counter revolutionary websites. When looking at this situation, it seems that it closely parallels what has happened in the case of my university. How long the system would be maintained would either depend on the people's persistence in demanding the system to be scrapped, or either the maintainer's organization finding that the cost is expensive and decides to scrap it.
Initially I was rather somewhat annoyed, but life goes on as usual. After a few more weeks, more website were banned, including anti religious, political, and the most surprising of all was sourceforge which was the place you have to go for open-source software. That was the last straw. I found the censorship implemented to be over the top, and I've decided to start my own subversive activities. To be exact, going around internet censorship is easy if you know how. Anyone with intermediate computer knowledge will know that the use of proxy servers is the simplest form of getting around the censorship. To be exact, all you have to do is to set your browser to retrieve information that is banned from another server (proxy). So without much more thought, all my browsing in the local university net has been done with a proxy.
However after a few weeks, there were rumblings from a number of other staff and lecturers which were complaining about the sites they want to visit where censored. After comparing their list, there were many valid reasons to complain. One good example would be the banning of the CNN video/audio streaming which was completely banned. Another example would be certain programming tutorial websites. After much consultation, I decided to act by contacting the University Administrator to discuss about how the Internet Censorship in the Internet was completely out of hand. After much discussion, the administrator still refused to take down the voluntary censorship, but mentioned that he would be willing to allow reporting of websites that should not be censored. I also mentioned that the censorship was useless as it was easy to go around the system with proxies. Unabashed, the adminstrator said he can't stop the computer elite to get around it, but he said it is worth it to cut access to the majority of illiterate that are browsing websites that are inappropriate. The initial talk was unsatifactory, though I managed to get consessions that websites that are are useful could be unblocked by reporting them to the administrator. As I've already talked with numerous other sources, I had in my own hand a few pages of sites that should be unblocked along with its reason.
The system worked well for a while, however after a week, things were revered again. It seems that the adminstrators updated the list of blocked sites by keyword, and due to this reason, all the sites that were sent to unblocked, were blocked again. As the follow up discussion with the administrators was unsatisfactory (they refuse to update the list we submit them every week), so I reverted to slowly educating how to get around the censorship. After a few more months, the system was no longer in place, and all sites were available for view.
The reason why that was stopped because implementing Internet Censorship is expensive (especially if you set up a rather large amount of sites), easily subverted (with proxies), can usually end up being counter productive (censoring sites that are useful), and usually provides a negative vibe (especially in the user's view against the system).
What is strange is that the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) in Thailand has actually started a implementation of the censorship much like what my university did many years ago. The system that the MICT used was the usage of a large number of computer personnel to browse around and individually add websites to censor which is extremely expensive to maintain. The sites that were blocked initially were immoral websites, which is later extended to counter revolutionary websites. When looking at this situation, it seems that it closely parallels what has happened in the case of my university. How long the system would be maintained would either depend on the people's persistence in demanding the system to be scrapped, or either the maintainer's organization finding that the cost is expensive and decides to scrap it.
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