Second National ICT Master Plan 2552-2556 (2009-2013)

The Cabinet has approved the Second National ICT Master Plan B.E. 2552 - 2556 (2009-2013) on 5th August 2552 (2009).

The Cabinet approved all four of the proposals put forward by the Ministry of ICT.

1. Approval of the Second National ICT Master Plan B.E. 2552 - 2556

2. Every ministry, department, state enterprise, local adminstration body and related agency to come up with their own ICT plan in accordance with the Second National ICT Master Plan

3. The Bureau of Strategy and Planning, Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology as secretariat of the national ICT committee is to be responsible for coordination with various agencies for development of their ICT plans as well and for budgeting as well as measure and follow up on progress.

4. Central government agencies related to resource allocation (Bureau of the Budget, Civil Service Comission, Office of the Public Sector Development Commission) to use the Second National ICT master plan to reform and and develop their ICT infrastructure during the duration of the plan (2552 to 2556).

Key sections of the plan can be summarised as follows:

1. Vision. Smart Thailand.

2. Mission. Develop ICT human resources in both quality and quantity; develop high speed ICT networks; develop good governance frameworks for ICT governance.

3. Objectives. Increase ICT human resource numbers and capability; create good governance in ICT; support manufacturing; empower communities and individuals; empowering businesses and the ICT industry.

4. Goals.

• 50 percent of the population know of; have access to; and can create information in a manner that is with discretion, aware, just and moral; thus leading to benefits for education, work and everyday life.
• Raise Thailand into the top 25 percent of countries according to the networked readiness index.
• Increase the share of ICT industries to 15 percent of GDP.

5. Strategy. The second ICT master plan is made up of six strategies.

• Create an ICT workforce that can create with; develop; and use ICT with awareness and discretion.
• Manage ICT with good governance (national ICT governance)
• Develop basic ICT infrastructure.
• Use ICT for good governance in the public sector.
• Increase the competitive of Thailand's ICT industry to add value to the country's economy and generate income.
• Use ICT for sustainable growth.

The second ICT master plan (2552 - 2556) is a national ICT development plan that follows on from the IT2010 plan and the first ICT master plan, updated with new policies to keep up with the changes in technology, economics and society. The plan is both a tool and an opportunity for increasing the competitiveness of Thailand. It is a clear sign that the government is using ICT to develop the country.

Rough translation from Nectec Academy.

iPhone 3GS - Let's do the math.

Now that the initial rush of getting the press release online is out of the way, let us do the math.

In the UK on O2, the iPhone 3Gs 16GB is 440 / 540 pounds for the 16/32 GB versions (not that the 16GB version seems to be available in the shops but...) on prepaid but locked. That price includes one year of WiFi/3G access thrown in.

On contract, the 16G 3GS is free on hefty 45 a month two year contracts and 32G still needs 97 pounds payment even with the 45 a month tariff (1200 minutes / 500 sms a month). So over two years a 16GB iPhone 3GS works out at 1,080 pounds with the lots of minutes and texts. Google tells me that is 61,411 Baht.

The biggest TrueMove monthly package (in the press release at least) is 869 Baht for 600 minutes and 400 text messages. Half the minutes but a heavy user package nonetheless. That works out to 20,856 over the two years we are looking at. Add the cost of the phone at 24,500 and the cost for two years of heavy use is 45,356.

In that light, the TrueMove phones prices don't come out that bad actually. Now, if only they could get their network to work properly, we would all be happy.

iPhone 3GS deliveries to start 28 August

TrueMove opens reservations for the new iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi beginning August 5,
Handsets available August 28.Delivering a full range of lifestyle entertainment right to your hand to speed up your new generation lifestyle!

Bangkok, August 3, 2009: TrueMove once again reinforces its leadership in fast paced lifestyles with the launch of the new iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi in Thailand on August 28, 2009 by inviting iPhone fans to reserve the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. The innovative breakthrough handset features 2x speed, video recording and editing, a 3 megapixel digital camera, autofocus, Thai language support and many other features. Customers can stay connected via TrueMove’s convergence network which includes 3G on a trial service across downtown and in the central business districts of Bangkok, Hua Hin and Phuket. Moreover, they can enjoy automatic connections to more than 18,000 Wi-Fi by TrueMove hot spots nationwide. Reservations for the new iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi will be open between August 5-24, 2009 at www.truemove.com or at True Shops around the nation.

According to Mr. Papon Ratanachaikanont, Assistant to President & CEO and Deputy Group Chief Commercial Officer, True Corporation Plc, “True is focused on promoting the fast paced lifestyle for Thai consumers and extending the successful launch of the iPhone 3G Wi-Fi in Thailand via the introduction of the new iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi. The new “S” model supports 2x speed performance and many other innovative features. Customers can make advance reservation between August 5-24, 2009 with a deposit of THB 2,000 and they can specify the True Shop where they want to receive their handset at www.truemove.com. Customers can also reserve and pick up their iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi at the True Shop branch that is convenient for them. They can pick up their iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi from August 28 to September 3, 2009. The launch of iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi reinforces True’s commitment to provide a hi-speed online experience for customers to enjoy via 3G, Wi-Fi and EDGE/GPRS networks. The TrueMove 3G service is currently available on a trial basis in downtown Bangkok including Silom, Siam, Sathorn, Ploenchit, Sukhumvit, as well as Suvarnabhumi Airport, Cha-am, Hua Hin and Phuket. We also have over 18,000 hi-speed Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide. With the iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi, customers can access news, information and content with a one-time login to the True Wi-Fi system of over 18,000 Wi-Fi spots around the country.”

iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi is the latest innovation in the Apple iPhone family and it supports new features to meet all lifestyles. The iPhone 3G S Wi-Fi comes with 2x speed performance, video recording and editing, a 3 megapixel digital camera, autofocus, voice control, electronic compass, extended use battery and many other features.

TrueMove has developed new iPhone applications to provide more convenience and meet customer needs. Among the 27 applications available at the App Store are True Wi-Fi, TrueMusic, Thai Top Load, Thai Dict, TrueSport, Thai Stock Watch and Thailand Guide. Customers can also enjoy 24-hour TNN hot news TNN Channel 24 and cheer for their favorite dream hunters on the True AF 6 reality program.

TrueMove iPhone 3G S Price Plans

Model	Selected Package	Other Customers		For TrueVisions Gold/Platinum package customers and TrueOnline customers*
		Phone only	Phone & Basic Package (12 months)	Package A 24 months	Package B 24 months	Package C 24 months	Package D 24 months
16GB (Price of phone: THB 24,500)	Payment for Phone	THB 24,500	THB 24,500	-	-	-	-
	Upfront payment	-	-	-	THB 5,999
	Installment payment for phone	-	-	THB 1,020.83	THB 770.88	THB 1,020.83	THB 1/020.83
32GB (Price of phone: THB 28,500)	Payment for Phone	THB 28,500	THB 28,500	-	-	-	-
	Upfront payment	-	-	THB 2,500	THB 9,499	THB 3,500	THB 2,500
	Installment payment for phone	-	-	THB 1,083.33	THB 791.71	THB 1,041.67	THB 1,083.33
Monthly Payment			THB 599	THB 599	THB 400	THB 569	THB 869
Voice calls			300 mins	300 mins	100 mins	200 mins	300 mins
SMS			300	300	200	300	400
MMS			50	50	20	50	100
3G**/EDGE/GPRS			unlimited	unlimited	10 hrs	2GB	unlimited
Wi-Fi (Speed 1 Mbps)			unlimited	unlimited	20 hrs	unlimited	unlimited

* For TrueVisions Gold/Platinum customers or TrueOnline customers (Baht 890 package and up) with membership/subscription since September 1, 2008
** 3G services are offered on a non-commercial trial basis

To cater to the iPhone’s popularity, TrueMove has opened the 3G Lounge on the 4^th Floor, TrueMove Square, Siam Square 2 to provide after sales service and information on iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S functionality and applications.

To show its appreciation and thanks to existing TrueMove iPhone 3G Wi-Fi customers for their trust and confidence in TrueMove services and network, the company will be sending them a thank you letter together with a gift voucher which can be redeemed for a limited edition genuine TrueMove iPhone leather case that is not available anywhere else. Gift redemption is available at the True Shop specified in the letter.

Source: True Press release

HTC Hero

Got an HTC Hero today - on launch day.

First impressions? Smaller than I thought, about N95 wide and it feels great in the hand. The screen is, like the iPhone capacitative. Different, though I am not sure if it is better.

In one way it is more precise than the traditional resistive screens, but it does not work at all with nails or anything other than living flesh. The problem is that smaller icons are a bit hard to pinpoint with a big finger (probably my finger's fault rather than the phone's).

People said it was slow, but again, for a newbie it is, bar the startup delay, as fast as anyone would expect. That said, I have not installed any software on it.

Catering to its target market, it comes with bookmarks for Facebook and Peep, a Twitter client pre-installed. I was up and tweeting and updating my facebook status in minutes. Being able to coherently update it is another matter (big finger syndrome) but after a few hours of wallowing on the on-screen keyboard, messages were ok, but nowhere as fast as I have been on T9 or a full Qwerty keypad. Time will tell if this will grow on me or not, but for now, I still look to my Samsung i780 for long email messages.

More updates once I figure out how to use it.

Bangkok Post contracts Twitteritis

In the past 24 hours, the Bangkok Post's Twitter account @Bangkok_Post has lost ten percent of its followers due to a condition that is gradually becoming known as Twitteritis. Since yesterday evening, @Bangkok_Post has been re-spewing the same old messages every few minutes, flooding Twitter Users with more and more copies of the same piece of old news.

The number of followers of @Bangkok_Post has dropped from just under 1,000 when the Twitteritis began to 933 at dusk the next day, annoyed at the huge amount of unwanted, repetitive messages.

Many Tweeple have Tweeted their concerns at the event, exchanging emails of executives at the Bangkok Post as well as commenting that they have phoned in but to no avail.

"It's a case of 'Mai Pen Rai'," one foreign journalist Tweeted in resignation.

On a technical note, it is interesting that the messages are sent "via the web" rather than through the Twitter API. This means that someone at the Bangkok Post's web department had made an automated script that was malfunctioning to input the Tweets on a web page rather than a dedicated program.

Twitter may be useful for people to keep up with news, but as the loss of followers of Thailand's oldest newspapers also means that an unattended bot run amok can make followers turn their back as quickly as they joined in the first place.

No comment was received by the people at the Bangkok Post and the case of Twitteritis continues unabated.

Set computers to Thai military time or be fined half a million

Thanks to @coldfusionPaul for this blog which warns of a hefty fine and curious interpretation of the Computer Misuse Act when it comes to keeping logs with correct timestamps:

if you have servers/workstations in Thailand you probably should know that as of aug-23rd every business computer in the kingdom has to set it's time to the new TST (Thai Standard Time) or get fined a wheelbarrow full of money (from 100,000 to 500,000 baht, that's about $2500 to $15,000 US, yikes). i can understand the idea of using a timeserver to keep stuff in synch (really, who doesn't?) but man, that's a whopping big fine for being "time dumb" (especially if that's a per computer fine!). this article claims one of the reasons for doing this is so that everybody hears the national anthem at the same time.

the Royal Thai Navy's Hydrographic department is in charge of providing a national time server & it looks like they got windows covered at least (yes they devoted more than 1/2 of that page to windows 95/windows ME, no Mac, no Linux--not sure what stats they're running off).

in any case, if you're in Thailand, point your time server at:

time.navy.mi.th

and bob's your uncle. i like the idea of having a "local" time server so we swapped tout de suite. works plenty fine. the navy, as usual, did a bang up job.

Thai Government fails to find facts on 13 April mayhem

The Thai government launches a website to respond to 13 April allegations, but forgets to populate it.

The Abhisit government has taken the public opinion war to the Internet by launching a website depicting its versions of events that led up to, and followed the incidents on Songkran day, 13 April. It also has an English language icon which when clicked results in this sight for sore eyes.



Yes, one could say that the government has nothing to say to foreigners, no facts to refute the opposition's versions of events. The website clearly says, "page not found". Cynics would laugh at the message it is sending out.

However, on the Thai language section, the site has a smattering of no doubt carefully screened pictures and a few video clips. It has a list of government announcements and news clips too. However, as of yet aside from the non-existent English language version of the site, it seems to totally lack any narrative or message and the viewer is left to browse through this scrapbook and come to his own conclusion as to what happened.

Dear Minister Satit, perhaps a simple message along the lines of, "We didn't kill anyone", might have been nice to start readers along the right way.

The only page that seems to be fully populated and narrated is the one with the committee members who set up the website. Yes, of course giving credit to the hard working bureaucrats who made this embarrassing use of public funds shining beacon of truth is the most important thing. Obviously they had to work hard to find pictures of the event all over the Internet and often link to them in-situ, hard coding their pictures links into the factreport site without linking back to their authors' pages or giving them credit half the time.

One almost envisions someone suing the Abhisit government for breaches of copyright or even creative commons share and attribute clauses.

The joke site is produced by the Office of the Prime Minister under which Satit Wongnongtoey is the Minister to the PM's Office responsible for media.

The only redeeming feature is that the site uses the Drupal Open Source engine, which is a nice step up from other government run sites.

BlackBerry launches in Cambodia

Alcatel-Lucent, RIM and Cambodian telco hello brings the BlackBerry Solution to Cambodia.

Bangkok, Cambodia, France and Waterloo, Ontario– April 30, 2009 - hello, Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the commercial launch of the BlackBerry® solution in Cambodia for the first time. With the launch of the BlackBerry products and services, hello is offering its customers a unique mobile solution that delivers the benefits of enhanced communications and increased productivity by making it easy to access email, browse the web, make phone calls, send and receive text and picture messages, as well as access a wide variety of business and leisure applications on the move.

At launch, hello will offer its customers the BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8120 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 8320 smartphones, as well as BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and BlackBerry® Internet Service.

Based on its distribution agreement with RIM, Alcatel-Lucent will leverage its strong local presence in the region to provide hello with the end-to-end implementation, integration, launch, and on-going support services for delivering the BlackBerry solution to the Cambodian market.

“As hello is the first and currently only operator in Cambodia offering the BlackBerry solution, we are able to offer our customers a significant advantage through this unique mobile solution," said Syed Azmeer, chief marketing officer for hello. “We are pleased to offer BlackBerry smartphones and services to both corporate customers and consumers. It is an innovative and revolutionary solution that is already used by millions of people worldwide.”

“This agreement strengthens Alcatel-Lucent’s leading position worldwide and in the region,” said Wei Luo, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s business in Cambodia. “hello will expand their business opportunity and enable their customers to benefit from the high flexibility offered by BlackBerry smartphones for staying connected any time and everywhere.”

“We are very pleased to launch the BlackBerry solution in Cambodia with Alcatel-Lucent and hello,” said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry solution is the gold standard for mobility, allowing both business people and consumers to make the most of their time.”

Source: Alcatel-Lucent.

Seagate ships low power drives

Seagate has announced the shipment of its new Barracuda LP (low power) drives that come in 2, 1.5 and 1 TB versions.



Seagate claims that the new 5900 RPM drives use up to 25 percent less power than other 5400 RPM drives from competitors or 50 percent less power than standard desktop drives.

No mention was made as to the origin of these drives nor was it immediately clear how much of a performance hit these slower-spinning drives carry compared to standard desktop drives which spin at 7200 RPM.

SEAGATE SHIPS BARRACUDA LP -- NEW LOW-POWER DESKTOP HARD DRIVE FAMILY WITH BEST POWER EFFICIENCY AND LARGEST STORAGE CAPACITY AVAILABLE

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — April 30, 2009 — Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) today began worldwide shipments of a power-thrifty desktop hard drive family that combines the largest storage capacity available with the best power efficiency and performance in its class, using as much as 50 percent less electricity than standard desktop hard drives*.

The new line of Seagate Barracuda® LP (Low Power) hard drives deliver on the promise of sustainability, energy efficiency and a more eco-friendly footprint by helping organizations cut PC power costs and giving money-minded consumers great performance for their energy dollar. The new family of energy-efficient Seagate desktop drives helps reduce system power costs, runs quieter than traditional drives and operates at lower temperatures, extending the life of system components.

“Growing demand for power-efficient computing systems is not just a data center phenomenon as more builders of external storage devices, desktop PCs and home networking systems work to provide customers with products that combine power-efficiency with rock-solid performance,” said Joan Motsinger, Seagate vice president of Personal Systems Marketing and Strategy. “Seagate is pleased to deliver a new low-power product line in our Barracuda family that enables system builders and end users alike to attain a higher level of environmental friendliness while cutting costs.”

The Seagate Barracuda LP hard drive, a 3.5-inch 5900RPM drive, is available in capacities of 2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB. The new hard drive family helps reduce product costs for makers of low-power personal computers, external PC storage and multiple-drive home networking SOHO systems by allowing them to use lighter-duty fans, power supplies and other system components.

Watcharee PR

Censorship and promotion

When will the Ministry of Truth learn that in today's connected world, the best way to promote something is by banning it?

Take, for instance, Giles Ungpakorn's Red Siam blog. It is banned in Thailand and going to wdpress.blog.co.uk will instead take you to w3.mict.go.th or a fake 404 page depending on the time of day it seems. Yet that has not stopped a lot of relatively low tech people I know using their email to forward his blog entries out of curiosity.

I recently received Giles' scathing attack on the NGO movement on its support of the Yellow Shirt movement. That was one of his more reasonable (read: less crazy) and well written blog entries it must be said.

However, dear Abhisit, might I suggest that the best way to get rid of him, politically speaking, is to unblock his blog and let everyone see for himself how insane some of his ideas are? By blocking it, the government is tantamount to admitting it is fearing him and giving him an air of mystique that he does not deserve.

Take, for instance, his recent post regarding the Swine Flu. A short excerpt follows:

5. ยาฆ่าไวรัสที่ใช้ได้มีแค่สองชนิด ที่รู้จักกันดีคือ Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) ซึ่งรัฐบาลไทยสะสมไว้ไม่พอ รัฐบาลตะวันตกสะสมไว้สำหรับ 25% ของประชากรและกำลังผลิตเพิ่ม แต่ในไทยไม่ได้เตรียมการถึงขนาดนี้ (ประเทศไทยจะต้องมียานี้อย่างน้อย 175 ล้านเม็ดถึงจะเพียงพอ) และคนที่จะได้ยาคงเป็นพวกอำมาตย์และผู้มีเส้นสาย นอกจากนี้ถ้ามันระบาดร้ายแรงในไทย มันจะกลายเป็นอีกข้ออ้างหนึ่งที่จะใช้อำนาจเผด็จการและทหาร อาจมีการล้อมปิดหมู่บ้านหรือชุมชน

Apologies that it is in Thai. However, despite his protests and passport that purport otherwise, Thai seems to be his first language.

In a nutshell, Giles says that Thailand is not stocking or producing enough of the medication needed to combat an epidemic, thus it will be the elite who gets the medication and that the government may use the epidemic as an excuse to send the army in to take care of small remote villages.

Er yes, I am sure that the government would use the epidemic as an excuse to let only the rich survive and send the army in to sterilise and kill all the poor red-shirt villagers. That sounds so reasonable. Maybe Giles' has been watching too many zombie movies now that he lives in exile there.

Or take Giles' take of the 6 October student protest massacre in his blog entry of 15 April. Let's just say that repeating what he has to say will probably land me in jail and therein lies another point to ponder. By censoring Giles' website, the government is effectively protecting him for further lese majeste lawsuits. The point whether such a lawsuit is good or bad notwithstanding, censorship protects the writer from further lawsuits. Think about it.

Censoring of views and opinions is bullying. It only creates sympathy for those on the receiving end, it does not work anyway and besides, with comments like this, Giles is probably his own worst enemy.

Finally, on a side note, it is odd to see Giles name himself wdpress. Wordpress is the name of a popular blog engine and host. Was he naive enough to think that a generic blog name would keep his Red Siam (as he signs himself) entries off the radar? If so, we are truly witnessing a war of the ancients; of an Orwellian Ministry of Truth and a communist-era misinformation insurgent. Which perhaps is indeed what this war is all about.

Don Sambandaraksa

Sun launches MySQL 5.4 preview, no word on Oracle takeover

Sun Microsystems Announces MySQL 5.4 - Up To 90% Faster Response Times and Scalability; Up to 16-way x86 Servers and 64-way CMT Servers

Organizations can Achieve Breakthrough Performance and Scalability Gains while Saving Millions of Dollars with the World's Most Popular Open Source Database

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced MySQL 5.4, a new version of the world's most popular open source database, designed to deliver significant performance and scalability improvements to MySQL applications. A preview version of MySQL 5.4 is available now for download at http://www.mysql.com/5.4.

Today's announcement was made at the seventh annual MySQL Conference & Expo being held this week at the Santa Clara Convention Center. With more than 2,000 attendees, it is the world's largest event for open source database developers, DBAs, vendors and corporate IT managers.

MySQL 5.4 includes performance and scalability improvements enabling the InnoDB storage engine to scale up to 16-way x86 servers and 64-way CMT servers. MySQL 5.4 also includes new subquery optimizations and JOIN improvements, resulting in 90% better response times for certain queries*. These performance and scalability gains are transparent and don't require any additional application or SQL coding to take advantage of them.

In the conference's opening keynote, Karen Tegan Padir, vice president of Sun's MySQL and Software Infrastructure Group, addressed the MySQL community, "Without any modifications to your applications, MySQL 5.4 will transparently increase the performance and scalability of your applications, to enable them to scale under more demanding user and data processing loads. MySQL 5.4 is also better suited for scale-up deployments on SMP systems. Please download today's preview version and send us your feedback - we want this to be the fastest, highest-quality release of MySQL ever."

"Our initial tests of MySQL 5.4 show our application performance is up to 40% faster right out-of-the-box," said Phil Hildebrand, manager of Database & Deployments at thePlatform. "We'll continue to follow this release closely for additional improvements."

MySQL 5.4 Features & Benefits

A number of new enterprise features and compelling fixes are planned for MySQL 5.4, including:

* Scalability improvements -- these fixes allow the InnoDB storage engine to scale up to 16-way x86 servers and 64-way CMT servers, more than doubling its previous capability;

* Subquery optimizations -- improves the performance of analytic query operations, with some subqueries now executing in a fraction of the time compared to previous MySQL versions;

* New query algorithms -- utilizes main memory to speed up the execution time of multi-way joins, especially for MySQL Cluster because the number of round-trips between the server and cluster nodes is minimized;

* Improved stored procedures -- enables more robust error management through the implementation of the SIGNAL/RESIGNAL functions, so applications can more easily rely on stored procedures for business logic;

* Improved prepared statements -- Output parameters will now be supported in prepared statements, which increases their functionality;

* Improved Information Schema -- provides more metadata access to parameters and data return types that stored procedures use, which allows much more information to be made available for developers using connectors such as ODBC and JDBC;

* Improved DTrace support -- improves diagnostics and troubleshooting capabilities for MySQL on the Solaris Operating System.

Supported Platforms & Availability

MySQL 5.4 will be generally available for a wide variety of hardware and software platforms, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SuSE Enterprise Linux, Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris 10 Operating System, Mac OS X, Free BSD, HP-UX, IBM AIX, IBM i5/OS and other popular Linux distributions.

The preview version of MySQL 5.4 is currently available for download at http://www.mysql.com/5.4 for 64-bit versions of the Linux and Solaris 10 Operating Systems. Based on community feedback, an estimated release date for the GA version will be announced later this year.

From Sun Thailand

ATTO and Hitachi GST hit 6 Gb/s SAS

ATTO Technology and Hitachi GST Demonstrate 6Gb/s SAS Interoperability for High-Performance Storage Environments

6Gb/s SAS Industry Leaders Deliver Compatible, High-Performance

Storage Solutions for OEM and Worldwide Distribution Channels

Amherst, NY and San Jose, CA (April 28, 2009) – ATTO Technology and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced interoperability of their respective 6Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) products designed for use in high-performance server and storage applications. The combination of ATTO ExpressSAS Host Bus Adapters with Hitachi Ultrastar C10K300 hard drives deliver fast 6Gb/s data transfers for high I/O enterprise environments. The new 6Gb/s SAS interface delivers 100 percent faster data throughput than previously available using a 3Gb/s SAS interconnect. The companies began working together early in the development of 6Gb/s SAS to share design implementations and debug information, as well as conduct extensive testing to ensure an interoperable solution that delivers compatibility and overall system performance.

ATTO 6Gb/s ExpressSAS host adapters are available in five models, in both 8- and 16-port configurations, providing 600MB/s connectivity per port with support for up to 512 physical devices; and, are a perfect compliment to the dual-ported Hitachi Ultrastar C10K300 hard drives offered in 147GB and 300GB capacities. Both ATTO and Hitachi designed their products with advanced technology that addresses the need for low latency environments, enabling customers to access data more quickly and efficiently.

The established relationship between ATTO and Hitachi GST ensures a solid foundation for stable and consistent interoperability across product offerings. This interoperable solution offers connectivity for a wide range of enterprise-class applications, including data warehousing, data-intensive content-on-demand, multi-stream video, and disk-based backup. The impressive transfer rate of the new SAS interface operating at 6Gb/s is ideal for meeting these challenges.

.

The new serial interface also offers backward compatibility with existing 3Gb/s products to provide customers with exceptional configuration flexibility, investment protection, and a simplified path for users to migrate to 6Gb/s platforms. ATTO ExpressSAS HBAs and Hitachi hard drives are now shipping to OEM and distribution customers worldwide.

“ATTO and Hitachi GST have industry-proven experience in developing high-performance solutions for the digital media and IT markets. This introduction of 6Gb/s technology, combining ATTO ExpressSAS with Hitachi Ultrastar drives, provides customers with an ideal solution for high-bandwidth storage applications," said Timothy Klein, President and CEO at ATTO Technology. "Together, Hitachi and ATTO have delivered a fast and robust SAS storage solution.”

“We are pleased to collaborate with ATTO Technology to demonstrate interoperability between our respective products and underscore the numerous benefits of the new serial interconnect,” said Brendan Collins, vice president, Product Marketing, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. “The 6Gb/s SAS interface delivers outstanding performance that is well-suited to meet the requirements of today’s most demanding enterprise server and storage applications. Our first 6Gb/s SAS product, the Hitachi Ultrastar C10K300, is delivering impressive performance benchmarks and receiving an extremely favorable response from customers.”

Qualcomm launches Gobi 3G-cum-GPS

Qualcomm has launched its new Gobi embedded 3G + GPS device for OEMs to put in their laptops. By and large it is nothing radical and something that is not that relevant to Thailand as few notebooks are even offered with 3G modules, the lack of 3G being one obvious reason. Of more interest is the gpsOneXTRA..

Qualcomm’s Gobi Embedded 3G Module Enables Notebooks with Location-Based Services from Top Software Providers

— Microsoft, DeLorme and Absolute Software among Companies

Leveraging GPS Capability of Gobi Module —

bANGKOK — April 28, 2009 — Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, today announced that its Gobi™ embedded 3G module is enabling a wide range of location-based services on notebooks and mobile computers. Leading software companies - including Microsoft, DeLorme and Absolute® Software - are leveraging the ability of Qualcomm's Gobi module to bring GPS positioning capabilities to notebook computers, netbooks and mobile Internet devices.

“Leading OEMs now offer a wide range of notebooks and netbooks with Qualcomm's Gobi module for multi-mode mobile broadband connectivity and GPS,” said Mike Concannon, senior vice president of connectivity for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “This provides a key opportunity for software companies to develop applications for notebooks that bring navigation and other location-aware services to consumers and businesses.”

Applications leveraging the GPS capabilities of Qualcomm's Gobi module include products targeted for consumers and for enterprises, including:

• From Microsoft: Streets & Trips travel and map software for consumers; Mappoint business mapping and analysis software
• From DeLorme — the innovation leader in mapmaking technology since 1976, and a pioneering GPS provider for more than 12 years — three different options are available, all with up-to-date cartographic detail, automatic routing, and high-end GIS capabilities:
• Street Atlas USA for street-level navigation in the U.S. and Canada, and four million places of interest
• Topo USA for street-level data of the U.S. and Canada, four million places of interest, and topographic maps with land use and land cover detail
• XMap for GIS mapping professionals and mobile workforces
• From Absolute: Computrace® LoJack® for Laptops for computer theft recovery; Computrace® Complete for persistent IT asset management, real-time data security, geolocation and theft recovery capabilities.

The recently announced Gobi2000™ module, expected to launch in commercial devices this summer, builds on the multi-mode broadband capabilities of the first-generation Gobi1000™ module to deliver enhanced positioning capabilities with Assisted-GPS (A-GPS ) and gpsOneXTRA™ Assistance Technology, which delivers enhanced operation for standalone-GPS via assistance data when A-GPS is not available.

Source: TQPR

NComputing does 4 for 1 virtual desktops for cash strapped times

They said that 2009 would be the year where virtualisation goes beyond the data centre and hits the desktop. That said, NComputing's approach does sound quite different from that of Citrix and HP's desktop blades.

NComputing Builds on Ultra Low-Cost Computing Success with New X-series Desktop Virtualization Kit

NComputing launches new X350 kit as adoption of its virtual desktops accelerates

Bangkok, April 24, 2009 – The global economic slowdown is driving a surge of sales in ultra low-cost computing. And now NComputing, the market leader, has added another compelling offering to its award-winning X-series product line. The new X350 is designed specifically for organizations that want to economically and efficiently add users for the lowest cost and best performance.

Built to accommodate popular slim-line PCs, the X350 kit, with a list price of THB3,900 per user, turns one PC into four virtual desktops – each delivering rich multimedia performance and full-screen video. With a second X350 kit, a total of seven users can share a single PC. The X350 is a lower-cost, low-profile version of the highly successful NComputing X550, which supports up to 11 users on a full-sized PC. And like all NComputing solutions, the X350 features the award-winning NComputing vSpace™ desktop virtualization software.

“Now more than ever, customers need to lower their computing costs,” said Stephen Dukker, CEO and chairman of NComputing. “Customer IT and finance departments agree that NComputing delivers the performance their users need while saving money today and in long-term maintenance and energy costs. The X350 continues our tradition of unmatched computing value.”

IBM Watson

Earlier today, IBM Thailand sent me this YouTube video press release on its latest project, Watson. The project is innovative, and so is delivering a press release via YouTube.

Double standards at CAT

CAT blocks Dtac's request for 3G shortly after approving TrueMove's request for the same.

The Nation recently ran a story on how former state enterprise CAT Telecom recently, finally, refused a request from number two telco Dtac to launch a 3G service on the 850 MHz band that it currently uses for 1G AMPS, citing that it would be considered a concession amendment that falls under article 22 of the Public-Private Joint Venture act.

What the story did not mention was that when TOT partner AIS made the same request, TOT decided it was not an amendment and that it was a network upgrade and hence AIS was allowed to launch 3G on its existing, if somewhat cramped, 900MHz spectrum. CAT also recently allowed TrueMove to launch trial 3G services on the same 850MHz that Dtac wants.

A while back, I talked to Dtac CEO Torre Johnsen who put things in a somewhat different light.

Dtac was the first of the Thai Telcos who, fed up with the delay that the NTC was having getting its 2.1 GHz 3G act together, wanted to do in-band migration and go for 850 MHz 3G on frequencies it was already using for the 1G AMPS network. Dtac told, not asked, but told CAT it would be performing a network upgrade. CAT had other ideas and came back with all sorts of demands, such as asking Dtac to move its frequencies a bit so that another 5MHz slot could be squeezed in for TrueMove and that CAT, not Dtac, would be the point of call termination for the new 3G network.

In other words, no, Dtac could not just upgrade their network, but would have to move over so that TrueMove could have a say and also bend over so that CAT could control who gets the calls and how.

Dtac's point of view was that upgrading a network with existing frequencies should have been legal and within the existing agreement and that the matter would not have to go to the section 22 committee. On the contrary, asking Dtac to move over and give TrueMove space would definitely be considered a new agreement and would have to go to section 22.

Indeed, when AIS later asked its concession holder TOT the same question, TOT deemed it was a network upgrade and that led to Thailand's first 3G 900MHz cell up in Chiang Mai. Ironically now that TrueMove is using that bit of 2.5 MHz spectrum that Dtac claims it owns, both TrueMove and AIS now have 850 and 900 MHz 3G live in Bangkok, but Dtac still has yet to launch.

The mess leads to a much bigger question: Who runs the show in Thailand? We are supposed to have an independent regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (as per the 1997 constitution) or its replacement National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) as per the 2007 constitution (or, to be precise, as per the interpretation of the 2007 constitution in the pending Frequency Allocation Act, but that is getting a bit too detailed); we are supposed to have privatised the Telephone Organisation of Thailand and the Communications Authority of Thailand and thus move to a free market. But the truth is that the real power still lies in the hands of CAT / TOT and that they continue to act as a government regulator when the time suits them, and as a private entity when the government breathes down the neck.

Thailand seemed to have already decided, once in 1997 and the other in 2007, that the country would be on the way to a free market economy with a liberalised telecom sector. Obviously someone forgot to tell CAT and TOT. Worse, someone also forgot to tell the governments that we have had in the past decade as the Anti-Monopololy act explicitly excludes former state enterprises from the anti-competition legislation.

Today we are in a mess. A mess to the tune of 50 billion Baht a year that these competitors / regulators / privatised entities suck up dry; money that should be returned to the government coffers so that it could be spent strategically by the real regulator in a way that benefits all 60 million people, not just the 17,000 or so employees of the de facto regulator.

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand CENSORED!

Reposted from FACT's website.

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand CENSORED!
26-04-09

If you can read this, YOU PROBABLY AREN’T IN THAILAND!

If you live in Thailand and are a FACT reader, you probably don’t use TOT ADSL, Kasetsart University or Buddy Broadband as your ISP. All three of those ISPs have been blocking FACT since at least noon on April 25 and at least TOT was redirecting users via transparent proxy to a blank blockpage at Thailand’s ICT ministry.

Will FACT readers please keep us informed if and when FACTsite http://facthai.wordpress.com is blocked by other ISPs. Please let us know by email: facthai@gmail.com. Please include your mobile number so we can call you back.

We need to know if KU and Buddy and perhaps other ISPs are redirecting users by transparent proxy to http://w3.mict.go.th, as is TOT.

The fact that THREE ISPs are now blocking FACTsite indicates that the blocking order did, in fact, come from MICT and is not just an ISP decision.

This means that probably more ISPs will start to block FACTsite as the MICT ”request” is implemented by them. Some may be inefficient and not get around to blocking; others may simply ignore MICT’s “request”.

It is HIGHLY unlikely that MICT sought a court order to block FACTsite. Therefore, we have a good basis for a court case. FACT would like to become the second legal website in Thailand after Midnight University!

In any case, the first step is a letter of complaint to MICT and the three ISPs. We shall also get on the phone to all four on Monday.

Can some FACT readers please let us know if FACT’s RSS feed is still sending to subscribers?

Thanks for your help and support. FACT readers should use proxies and VPN till we get a new, mirrored website up. (This is the same way we’ll continue to post.)

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) has prepared a formal letter of complaint to send to Ranongruk Suwanachee, ICT minister, and the CEOs of the three ISPs:

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand

กลุ่มเสรีภาพต่อต้านการเซ็นเซอร์แห่งประเทศไทย

April 25, 2009

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Formal Letter of Complaint Over Website Blocking

Cease and Desist Order

It has been brought to our attention that, on April 25, 2009, the WordPress blogsite of Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) http://facthai.wordpress.com was inaccessible to subscribers of the Telephone Organisation of Thailand’s ADSL Internet service (2009.04.25 13:07; 2009.04.25 17:15; 2009.04.25 17:33; 2009.04.25 21:49), Kasetsart University (2009.04.25 14:32), and Buddy Broadband (2009.04.26 02:16). Our website was apparently accessible from many other ISPs in Thailand. Users of TOT ADSL, Kasetsart University, and Buddy Broadband attempting to access FACT’s website were redirected by transparent proxy to http://w3.mict.go.th, indicating that FACT’s website was blocked by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) is a non-political, non-partisan, public non-governmental organisation providing information on censorship issues in Thailand and worldwide. FACT is a network of more than 900 citizens concerned over censorship issues.

I am FACT’s coordinator and registered owner of FACT’s website http://facthai.wordpress.com.

If the ICT ministry and/or TOT is blocking FACT’s website http://facthai.wordpress.com, we require you to provide a copy of the court order authorising censorship of our website along with complete reasons for such censorship. If there is no such court order, the ICT ministry and/or TOT is acting illegally under the requirements of the Computer-Related Crimes Act 2007 and must immediately restore access to our website by all Internet users.

Should you fail to provide us with the relevant court orders and reasons for blocking FACT’s website, we will take legal action against you.

We expect your prompt reply and the removal of any block against FACT’s website.

Sincerely,

CJ Hinke

Box 31, Udomsuk Post Office

Bangkok 10261 Thailand

http://facthai.wordpress.com

telephone. +66-7-976-1880 email. facthai@gmail.com

IBM Thailand launches lower end Xeon blades and racks for the poor SMEs

Bangkok – April 23, 2009: IBM Thailand unveiled new generation of Intel Xeon processor 5500 series-based System x™ servers and software that would equip Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with the strength to brave the current economic challenges while being able to more easily roll out virtualized computing and significantly reduce growing operating costs with higher performance, simplified management and increased utilization.

With the current economic downturn, many SMEs find it a mandatory task to reduce cost, improve their operation efficiency as well as enhance their competency in order to survive and beat the economic recession. In order to achieve this objective, many SMEs realize that they need to be equipped with the powerful tools and one of them is the right IT solutions that are efficient yet affordable and easy to manage. With this requirement of SMEs in mind, IBM has put tremendous effort by leveraging state of the art technologies used in designing data centers for large corporation and deployed them in BladeCenter and System x, the IBM’s Intel-based servers, to create a dynamic infrastructure for SMEs. In addition, in order to help enable a more dynamic infrastructure, IBM’s four new x86 rack servers and blades feature unique designs – such as lower wattage requirements – that can slash energy costs up to 93 percent. At the same time, the new System x servers boast double the compute performance in some models, and support more memory, storage and I/O to help customers of all sizes ease the transition to highly efficient virtualized computing resources. System x blades and racks lead the industry with 96GB to 1TB memory options.

“The current economic downturn has sent seismic tremor throughout every segment of the business and SMEs are no exception. This has pushed them to the point where they all need to take whatever action that can help them beat the crisis and survive. With this challenge in mind, SMEs need to be equipped with the right tools that can help them save cost, improve operation efficiency and also enhance their competitiveness. Obviously, the efficient yet affordable and cost-saving IT solution is one of those tools” said Tanapong Ittisakulchai, Country Manager, Systems and Technology Group, IBM Thailand Co., Ltd. “With the launch of the new generation of IBM BladeCenter and System x, our range of Intel-based servers, today, we are strongly confident that it would equip SMEs with the strength to weather the current economic storm and help them achieve their business objectives in the long run.” added Mr. Tanapong.

In addition to the hardware innovations, IBM also announced new management software to complement Systems Director 6.1, which enables clients to automatically manage virtual and physical assets across platforms. IBM Power Systems, System z, storage and non-IBM x86 servers are all supported, with a potential cost savings in management costs of up to 44 percent.

New IBM Servers: Lower Ownership Costs Through Innovation

This new generation of System x technology maximizes the power and performance with a new generation of intelligent server processors – the Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 series.

IBM BladeCenter HS22

A no-compromise blade with breakneck speed, the two-socket IBM BladeCenter HS22 offers outstanding performance, flexible configuration options and simple management in an efficient server designed to run a broad range of workloads. Among other features, the completely revamped HS22 features three times as much memory as its predecessor, which allows the HS22 to process twice as many transactions per minute. In fact, customers can achieve as high as a 11-to-1 consolidation ratio migrating older rack and blade servers onto HS22 blades, while saving over 93 percent in energy costs alone. In addition, two hot-swap internal storage bays offer customers a choice of SAS, SATA, or solid state options. The HS22 offers best-in-class reliability and is fully compatible with all BladeCenter enterprise and office chassis, protecting the investments customers have already made in BladeCenter.

IBM System x3650 M2 and x3550 M2

Built with all-new, energy-smart designs to simplify power distribution and reduce energy loss, these two-socket enterprise servers feature lower wattage, highly efficient power supplies exceeding the “80 Plus Gold” standard, counter-rotating fans, altimeters, and advanced power management. These innovations translate into reducing energy consumption and lowering annual energy costs for a single enterprise class data center. They also feature outstanding performance delivering computing speeds up to 6.4GT/s, design redundancy and unique security options.

Systems Management Leadership

IBM Thailand today also announced key system management upgrades designed to complement its new generation of x86 systems and help IT managers orchestrate the unique workload demands of modern businesses.

IBM Systems Director 6.1

The new IBM Systems Director 6.1 provides powerful tools for managing both physical and virtual resources and features an easy-to-use, web-based interface with integrated wizards/tutorials, such as Systems Director Active Energy Manager. It delivers broad cross-platform support including IBM Power Systems, System z, storage and non-IBM x86 servers, with a potential cost savings that can reach 34.5 percent for Windows servers and 43.8 percent for Linux x86 servers.

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)

IBM is offering next-generation BIOS -- the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) – to provide a consistent BIOS across its portfolio and to allow for more detailed remote-configuration options.

Integrated Management Module (IMM)

The Integrated Management Module (IMM) combines diagnostics, virtual presence and remote control to manage, monitor, troubleshoot and repair from any corner of the world. Its standards-based alerting also enables “out-of-the-box” integration into enterprise management environments and provides a single firmware stack for all IMM based systems.

IBM ToolsCenter

The IBM ToolsCenter initiative simplifies the acquisition and usage of single system management tools with a single webpage to acquire tools. It establishes a common look and feel across the entire tool set, this maximizes efficiency and reduces training cost. The latest addition to the ToolsCenter portfolio, IBM bootable media creator is used to create custom bootable media (CD, DVD or USB key) with updates for clients systems.

Thaicom President steps down.

Shinsat President Damrong Kasemsate has resigned from Temasek-owned Thaicom/Shin Satellite, effective 13 April. No reason was given.

Nokia E75 launched at 17,600 Baht.

Email the way you want with Nokia E75
The first device with Nokia Messaging

Bangkok, 23 April 2009 – Nokia today unveiled a new addition to its Eseries range, the full QWERTY Nokia E75, which is the first to ship with the company’s new email user interface to offer a richer messaging experience. Nokia E75 comes with Nokia Messaging that, when added to the company’s corporate email clients, gives people the most efficient solution for accessing the world’s consumers and corporate emails on the go.

“In today’s climate, the costs and benefits of technology are under closer scrutiny and email is an essential driver of efficiency and productivity. Efficiency is about doing more with less and focusing on what’s truly essential,” says Mr.Shumit Kapoor, General Manager, Nokia (Thailand) ltd. “With direct access to Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes, companies can potentially save up to a third of their operating costs as there’s no need for middleware or additional servers.”

Nokia Messaging is a service that opens up the world's leading consumer email accounts - including Yahoo! Mail®, Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail - and is joined by Nokia's corporate email clients, Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler.

With the latest Eseries devices, people will no longer need to boot up a PC to get a full desktop email experience. The enhanced email UI includes folder and HTML email support, expandable views and sorting capability by date, sender and size, as well as the most commonly used email functions just a single click away. In addition to emails, the devices also offer improved calendar capability, as well as contacts and task management.

“With the Nokia E75 we took a lot of inspiration from the successful Nokia Communicator series. Owners of the Nokia Communicator range of devices loved the messaging functionality a full keyboard provided, but also often used the traditional phone keypad. With the Nokia E75 we kept these essential ingredients, significantly upgraded all of the features and made it as compact and efficient as possible,” says Mr.Shumit Kapoor, General Manager, Nokia (Thailand) ltd.

“Complementing this with Nokia Messaging”, continues Mr.Kapoor, “we have made the setting up of email on your choice of a Nokia device really simple. Nokia’s aim is to make mobile email easily discoverable and available to everyone, no matter what their preference of device and service are. We believe that potentially, mobile email can become as ubiquitous as voice and SMS communications.”

Added to the free Nokia Messaging subscription, Nokia E75 comes with full Nokia Maps and assisted GPS with integrated 3-month license for turn-by-turn navigation, and free usage of Ovi Files 1GB for 1 year. Another important feature of the Nokia E75 is that important files stored on a PC can be remotely managed and shared, even when your PC is switched off.

The new handset comes in the wake of the most successful year for Eseries to date, with more than 10 million units shipped in 2008. “With companies looking to consolidate costs and assets, and with the number of email-enabled devices in the Nokia range and our direct access model, Nokia looks set to continue this performance in 2009,” concludes Mr.Kapoor.

To educate target consumers about Nokia E75 and Nokia Messaging, Nokia will conduct roadshow activities to meet target groups at office buildings throughout Bangkok from April 20 – May 2, 2009.

The Nokia E75 is available now at 17, 600 THB.

Source: Burson Marstellar.