copyright

Copyright is a type of property that is founded on a person's creative skill and labour. It is designed to prevent the unauthorised use by others of a work, that is, the original form in which an idea or information has been expressed by the creator.
Copyright is not a tangible thing. It is made up of a bundle of exclusive economic rights to do certain acts with an original work or other copyright subject-matter. These rights include the right to copy, publish, communicate (eg broadcast, make available online) and publicly perform the copyright material.
Copyright creators also have a number of non-economic rights. These are known as moral rights. This term derives from the French droit moral. Moral rights recognised in Australia are the right of integrity of authorship, the right of attribution of authorship and the right against false attribution of authorship.
Copyright is distinct from physical property
A clear distinction exists between the copyright in a work and the ownership of the physical article in which the work exists. For example, an author may own the copyright in the text in a book even though the physical copy of the book will be owned by the person who purchases it. Similarly, the purchaser of an original painting does not have the right to make copies of it without the permission of the owner of copyright: the right of reproduction remains with the copyright owner who is generally the artist.

What is intellectual property?
Copyright is part of an area of law known as intellectual property. Intellectual property law protects the property rights in creative and inventive endeavours and gives creators and inventors certain exclusive economic rights, generally for a limited time, to deal with their creative works or inventions. This legal protection is designed as a reward to creators to encourage further intellectual creativity and innovation, as well as enabling access by the community to the products of intellectual property. Because intellectual property protects rights, rather than physical property, intellectual property is an intangible form of property. It is property which cannot be seen or touched.
Intellectual property is the general name given to the laws covering patents, trade marks, designs, circuit layouts, plant breeder's rights and copyright. Each of these forms of intellectual property is protected by a specific Act of the Commonwealth Parliament. The framework for these Acts is largely based on Australia's obligations under international treaties.

Information system

The term information system (IS) sometimes refers to a system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. Computer-based information systems are the field of study for information technology, elements of which are sometimes called an "information system" as well, a usage some consider to be incorrect.
Overview
The term "information system" has different meanings:
In computer security, an information system is described by three objects (Aceituno, 2004):
Structure:
Repositories, which hold data permanently or temporarily, such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache, etc.
Interfaces, which exchange information with the non-digital world, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners, printers, etc.
Channels, which connect repositories, such as buses, cables, wireless links, etc. A Network is a set of logical or physical channels.
Behavior:
Services, which provide value to users or to other services via messages interchange.
Messages, which carries a meaning to users or services.
In geography and cartography, a geographic information system (GIS) is used to integrate, store, edit, analyze, share, and display georeferenced information. There are many applications of GIS, ranging from ecology and geology, to the social sciences.
In knowledge representation, an information system consists of three components: human, technology, organization. In this view, information is defined in terms of the three levels of semiotics. Data which can be automatically processed by the application system corresponds to the syntax-level. In the context of an individual who interprets the data they become information, which correspond to the semantic-level. Information becomes knowledge when an individual knows (understands) and evaluates the information (e.g., for a specific task). This corresponds to the pragmatic-level.
In mathematics in the area of domain theory, a Scott information system (after its inventor Dana Scott) is a mathematical 'structure' that provides an alternative representation of Scott domains and, as a special case, algebraic lattices.
In mathematics rough set theory, an information system is an attribute-value system.
In sociology information systems are also social systems whose behavior is heavily influenced by the goals, values and beliefs of individuals and groups, as well as the performance of the technology.
In systems theory, an information system is a system, automated or manual, that comprises people, machines, and/or methods organized to collect, process, transmit, and disseminate data that represent user information.
In telecommunications, an information system is any telecommunications and/or computer related equipment or interconnected system or subsystems of equipment that is used in the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of voice and/or data, and includes software, firmware, and hardware.
In organisational informatics an information system is a system of communication between people. Information systems are systems involved in the gathering, processing, distribution and use of information and as such support human activity systems .
The most common[citation needed]. view of an information system is one of Input-Process-Output.
History of information systems
The study of information systems originated as a sub-discipline of computer science in an attempt to understand and rationalize the management of technology within organizations. It has matured into a major field of management, that is increasingly being emphasized as an important area of research in management studies, and is taught at all major universities and business schools in the world. Börje Langefors introduced the concept of "Information Systems" at the third International Conference on Information Processing and Computer Science in New York in 1965.
Information technology is a very important malleable resource available to executives.[5] Many companies have created a position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO).The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa.
Applications of information systems

Information systems deal with the development, use and management of an organization's IT infrastructure.
In the post-industrial information age, the focus of companies has shifted from being product-oriented to knowledge-oriented in the sense that market operators today compete in process and innovation rather than in products: the emphasis has shifted from the quality and quantity of production to the production process itself--and the services that accompany the production process.
The biggest asset of companies today is their information--represented by people, experience, know-how, innovations (patents, copyrights, trade secrets)--and for a market operator to be able to compete, he or she must have a strong information infrastructure, at the heart of which lies the information technology infrastructure. Thus the study of information systems focuses on why and how technology can be put into best use to serve the information flow within an organization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Systems - 54k - 54k

computer history

A HISTORY OF THE COMPUTER: PREHISTORY

The abacus, a simple counting aid, may have been invented in Babylonia (now Iraq) in the fourth century B.C.
The Antikythera mechanism, used for registering and predicting the motion of the stars and planets, is dated to the first century B.C. It was discovered off the coast of Greece in 1901.
Arabic numerals are introduced to Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. Roman numerals remain in use in some parts of Europe until the seventeenth century. The Arabic system introduced the concepts of the zero and fixed places for tens, hundreds, thousand, etc., and greatly simplified mathematical calculations.
John Napier, Baron of Merchiston, Scotland, invents logs in 1614. Logs allow multiplication and division to be reduced to addition and subtraction.
Wilhelm Schickard builds the first mechanical calculator in 1623. It can work with six digits, and carries digits across columns. It works, but never makes it beyond the prototype stage. Schickard is a professor at the University of Tubingen, Germany.
Blaise Pascal builds a mechanical calculator in 1642. It has the capacity for eight digits, but has trouble carrying and its gears tend to jam.
Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents an automatic loom controlled by punch cards.
Charles Babbage conceives of a "Difference Engine" in 1820 or 1821. It is a massive steam-powered mechanical calculator designed to print astronomical tables. He attempts to build it over the course of the next 20 years, only to have the project cancelled by the British government in 1842. Babbage's next idea is the Analytical Engine - a mechanical computer that can solve any mathematical problem. It uses punch-cards similar to those used by the Jacquard loom and can perform simple conditional operations.
Augusta Ada Byron, the countess of Lovelace, met Babbage in 1833. She describes the Analytical Engine as weaving "algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves." Her published analysis of the Analytical Engine is our best record of its programming potential. In it she outlines the fundamentals of computer programming, including data analysis, looping and memory addressing.

A HISTORY OF THE COMPUTER: ELECTRONICS

Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, completes the first general purpose progammable calculator in 1941. He pioneers the use of binary math and boolean logic in electronic calculation.
Colossus, a British computer used for code-breaking, is operational by December of 1943. ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzor and Computer, is developed by the Ballistics Research Laboratory in Maryland to assist in the preparation of firing tables for artillery. It is built at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering and completed in November 1945.
Bell Telephone Laboratories develops the transistor in 1947.
UNIVAC, the Universal Automatic Computer (pictured below), is developed in 1951. It can store 12,000 digits in random access mercury-delay lines.
EDVAC, for Electronic Discrete Variable Computer, is completed under contract for the Ordinance Department in 1952.
In 1952 G.W. Dummer, a radar expert from the British Royal Radar Establishment, proposes that electronic equipment be manufactured as a solid block with no connecting wires. The prototype he builds doesn't work and he receives little support for his research.
Texas Instruments and Fairchild semiconductor both announce the integrated circuit in 1959.
The IBM 360 is introduced in April of 1964 and quickly becomes the standard institutional mainframe computer. By the mid-80s the 360 and its descendents will have generated more than $100 billion in revenue for IBM.

A HISTORY OF THE COMPUTER: MINI

Texas Instruments and Fairchild semiconductor both announce the integrated circuit in 1959.
Ivan Sutherland demonstrates a program called Sketchpad on a TX-2 mainframe at MIT's Lincoln Labs in 1962. It allows him to make engineering drawings with a light pen.
A typical minicomputer costs about $20,000.
1965: An IC that cost $1000 in 1959 now costs less than $10. Gordon Moore predicts that the number of components in an IC will double every year. This is known as Moore's Law.
Doug Engelbart demonstrates in 1968 a word processor, an early hypertext system and a collaborative application: three now common computer applications.
Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce found Intel in 1968.
Xerox creates its Palo Alto Research Center - Xerox PARC - in 1969. Its mission is to explore the "architecture of information."
Fairchild Semiconductor introduces a 256-bit RAM chip in 1970.
In late 1970 Intel introduces a 1K RAM chip and the 4004, a 4-bit microprocessor. Two years later comes the 8008, an 8-bit microprocessor.

A HISTORY OF THE COMPUTER: MICRO

Bill Gates and Paul Allen form Traf-O-Data in 1971 to sell their computer traffic-analysis systems.
1972: Gary Kildall writes PL/M, the first high-level programming language for the Intel microprocessor.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are building and selling "blue boxes" in Southern California in 1971.
April 1972: Intel introduces the 8008, the first 8-bit microprocessor.
Jonathan A. Titus designs the Mark-8, "Your Personal Minicomputer," according to the July, 1974 cover of Radio-Electronics.
Popular Electronics features the MITS Altair 8800 on its cover, January 1975. It is hailed as the first "personal" computer. Thousands of orders for the 8800 rescue MITS from bankruptcy.
Pictured below: The Homebrew Computer Club in 1975.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates develop BASIC for the Altair 8800. Microsoft is born.
1977: Apple is selling its Apple II for $1,195, including 16K of RAM but no monitor.
Software Arts develops the first spreadsheet program, Visicalc, by the spring of 1979. It is released in October and is an immediate success. Copies shipped per month rise from 500 to 12,000 between 1979 and 1981.
By 1980 Apple has captured 50% of the personal computer market.
In 1980 Microsoft is approached by IBM to develop BASIC for its personal computer project. The IBM PC is released in August, 1981.
The Apple Macintosh debuts in 1984. It features a simple, graphical interface, uses the 8-MHz, 32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU, and has a built-in 9-inch B/W screen.
Microsoft Windows 1.0 ships in November, 1985.
Motorola announces the 68040, a 32-bit 25MHz microprocessor.
Microsoft's sales for 1989 reach $1 billion, the first year to do so.

A HISTORY OF THE COMPUTER: NETWORK

Timesharing, the concept of linking a large numbers of users to a single computer via remote terminals, is developed at MIT in the late 50s and early 60s.
1962: Paul Baran of RAND develops the idea of distributed, packet-switching networks.
ARPANET goes online in 1969.
Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf develop the basic ideas of the Internet in 1973.
In 1974 BBN opens the first public packet-switched network - Telenet.
A UUCP link between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University establishes USENET in 1979. The first MUD is also developed in 1979, at the University of Essex.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) is established as the standard for ARPANET in 1982.
1987: the number of network hosts breaks 10,000.
1989: the number of hosts breaks 100,000.
Tim Berners-Lee develops the World Wide Web. CERN releases the first Web server in 1991.
1992: the number of hosts breaks 1,000,000.
The World Wide Web sports a growth rate of 341,634% in service traffic in its third year, 1993.
The main U.S. Internet backbone traffic begins routing through commercial providers as NSFNET reverts to a research network in 1994.
The Internet 1996 World Exposition is the first World's Fair to be held on the internet.
WORLD INTERNET CONNECTIVITY (As of 6/15/95)

Evaluation

Evaluation
is systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards. Evaluation often is used to characterize and appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including the arts, criminal justice, foundations and non-profit organizations, government, health care, and other human services.





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

The History of the internet

The History of the Internet in ThailandBy Thiravudh Khoman

It is said that those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it. Wariness, though, isn't the only reason to look to the past. Frequently, history provides a good explanation of why things are the way they are in the here and now. It allows past decisions, both good and bad, to be critiqued or lauded from an objective distance.
I recently came across a research paper titled "The History of the Internet in Thailand" authored by Sirin Palasri, Steven Huter and Zita Wenzel (The Network Startup Research Center, University of Oregon, 1999). The book does a good job of documenting the events leading to the birth and the initial growth of the internet in Thailand. It also discusses structural anomalies which may be causing problems for many ISP's, especially in the aftermath of Thailand's financial crisis.
What follows are highlights from the book which I've taken the liberty to paraphrase.
In The Beginning
The book credits Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut, a professor at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand, as being the first person to send an email from Thailand in 1986. Dr. Kanchana did her doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne (UM) in Australia and when she returned to Thailand, was disappointed that she could not maintain email contact with her colleagues in Australia.
With the help of Dr. Tomonori Kimura, an AIT colleague who also wanted to keep in touch with friends and colleagues in Tokyo, they used the Communications Authority of Thailand's (CAT) Thaipak X.25 service to "uucp" with servers at UM and the University of Tokyo. From this connection was sent the first email message.
In 1988, the Australian International National Development Plan provided technical assistance in setting up the first email network in Thailand. Dubbed "TCSNet" (Thai Computer Science Network), it comprised AIT, Prince Songkhla University (PSU), and Chulalongkorn University (CU). With AIT and PSU acting as gateways, academics could dial into either AIT or PSU, with UM polling AIT and PSU twice daily (via long distance dial-up) in order to pick up and/or deliver mail to the local servers.
In 1991, another host was established at Thammasat University (TU) under the supervision of Dr. Thaweesak Koanantakool with assistance from the Australian Academic Research Network. As with PSU, TU's server connected to UM using software called MHSNet.
With the growing use of email as well as interest in the underlying Unix operating system, Professor Pairash Thajchayapong suggested in 1992 that the MHSNet system used by PSU and TU and the UUCP system used by AIT be consolidated under a full Internet Protocol (IP). This merger resulted in the establishment of "Thaisarn" (Thai Social/Scientific Academic and Research Network). Funded by the national budget and strongly supported by computer vendors such as IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Hewlett-Packard, Thaisarn grew rapidly, pulling in numerous government organizations and many other Thai universities.
The Volunteer Ethic
According to the book, much of what had been achieved to this point was due to a dedicated and knowledgeable group of people who were willing to work for a common good. Trin Tantsetthi, for one, was able to spend much of his time on internet related activities thanks to his employer DEC. His work eventually gave birth to Thailand's first ftp, gopher, news and web servers.
Besides Trin, many other volunteers worked hand-in-hand under the banner of the NECTEC Email Working Group, providing technical expertise and helping to support the growing community of users. For their toil, they were each given a free email account on NECTEC's server. CU also served as a breeding ground for future engineers, many of whom ended up at NECTEC after their graduation. Unshackled by government bureaucracy, NECTEC was a fertile ground for ideas and the volunteer corps took it upon themselves to build anything they felt was necessary to improve the network. No doubt, this was facilitated by the fact that many if not most key Unix tools were easily available over the internet.
ISP Beginnings
The telecommunications industry in Thailand is run as a monopoly with the Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) overseeing the domestic telephone network and the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) regulating international calls and circuits to the internet.
In early 1995, growing demand for internet services resulted in the establishment of Thailand's first commercial ISP, Internet Thailand, a joint venture of the TOT and CAT (with 33% shareholding each) and the NSTDA (the legal entity of NECTEC, with 34%). CAT took this opportunity to establish guidelines for the setup of future ISP's, being:
Applicants must be from the telecommunications or computing industry.
The new ISP must be a joint venture with CAT, with CAT receiving 35% of total equity FREE (33% for CAT itself, 2% for CAT's staff).
The new ISP must buy leased circuits to the internet from CAT.
CAT reserves the right to send its personnel to work for the new ISP.
CAT may unilaterally veto any decision by the new ISP's Board of Directors.
The new ISP agrees to transfer ownership of all networking equipment (e.g. routers and modems) to CAT at the outset.
CAT will set the rate structures that ISPs may charge its customers.
During 1995, several more ISP's were approved by CAT, these being KSC Comnet, Loxinfo, and ISP's belonging to the Wattachak and Advanced Research Groups.
Causes and Effects
Depending on your viewpoint, the above guidelines may have either been a reflection CAT's desire to lend its "good offices" to the newly created ISP's or an attempt by CAT to maintain if not extend its monopoly status. Or perhaps both.
The first time I became aware of these guidelines - and I doubt most internet users are aware of them - I was aghast at how one-sided and burdensome they were. Indeed, the book posits that CAT's involvement had unintended detrimental effects. Rates charged to individual and corporate users are on average, several times that of other Asian countries. Looking at countries with similar GDP's, The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) found Thailand to be 1-2 years behind its neighbours. Looking at the number of hosts per GDP as an indicator, Thailand ranks in the same group as the Philippines and Indonesia with less than 50 hosts/GDP. Meanwhile, Malaysia's figures are 5.5 times's that, Singapore 8 times that, and Asean as a whole, 3 times that.
The burden of CAT's free shares forced ISP's to pass on the extra costs to users, and CAT's limits on data traffic forced numerous websites to switch to U.S. ISP's to avoid massive excess charges. In 1996, CAT reduced its charges to ISP's by 25% and encouraged ISP's to reduce user charges as well. Unfortunately, ISP payments to international internet access providers weren't reduced and in fact increased significantly due to the Baht devaluation. The result of this was that many ISP's suffered serious liquidity problems if not outright losses.
Unfortunately, the option to increase capital is similarly laden with problems: someone will need to pay for CAT's new shares so that their shareholding isn't diluted. As if capital increases weren't difficult enough in these financially trying times, the distortions caused by CAT's free shares simply compound the problems. It seems inevitable that CAT will have to retract itself from these ISP's sometime in the future, but how? Easy come, easy go? Not very likely.
Final Notes
Although this is a fairly short book, I've still skimmed over much of the material. As such, I highly recommend anyone who has the slightest interest in how Thailand "got connected" to read it. As an academic paper, I doubt if it can be found in any bookstore, but thankfully, The Network Startup Research Center's website (http://www.nsrc.org) has the text online available for downloading in various formats.
The English version of the book is available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and PostScript formats, while the Thai version is only available in Acrobat and PostScript. I recommend that you choose the PDF versions (702kb for English, 1.88mb in Thai). (Note: If you don't have Adobe's Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free from Adobe's website at http://www.adobe.com.) I strongly suggest that you avoid the HTML version, which is made up of scans of individual pages stitched together with HTML. The text is much less readable than the PDF version.
(Thanks to Dr. Kanchana of AIT for sparing me two of her hard copies - after the proverbial dog "ate" the first one - and for that fateful first email! Thanks also to all of the Thai internet pioneers for their work and dedication which brought us this valuable resource. Finally, thanks to all the local and external sponsors who provided the initial resources and support without which these endeavours may never have gotten off the ground.)

อยากมีความสุข...จงทำตัวเหมือนน้ำ

อยากมีความสุข... จงทำตัวเหมือนน้ำ

บางครั้งการดำเนินชีวิตอย่างปกติสุข ต้องรู้จักปรับตัวให้สอดคล้องกับสภาพแวดล้อม ทั้งสภาพแวดล้อมภายนอก เช่น สภาพเศรษฐกิจ สังคม ผู้คน วัฒนธรรม ค่านิยม ฯลฯ หรือสภาพแวดล้อมภายใน ซึ่งได้แก่ ฐานานุรูป หรือสถานะทางสังคมของตัวเองและครอบครัว ความรู้ ฯลฯ

หลายคนเป็นทุกข์ หาความสุขไม่เจอ เพราะไม่สามารถ "ปรับตัว" ให้เข้ากับปัจจัยทั้ง 2 ประการได้ น้ำเป็นตัวอย่างที่ดีของการปรับตัวเหล่านี้

1. รู้จักประมาณตัว น้ำ ไม่ว่าจะอยู่ในภาชนะรูปแบบไหนๆ หรือแหล่งน้ำธรรมชาติลักษณะใดๆ ก็สามารถทำตัวกลมกลืนมีรูปร่างไปตามนั้น เช่น อยู่ในแอ่งเล็กๆ อยู่ในสระขนาดกลาง อยู่ในบึงกว้างๆ อยู่ในทะเลสาบขนาดใหญ่ หรือแม้แต่อยู่ในมหาสมุทร น้ำก็อยู่ได้

คนเองก็ต้องรู้จักปรับตัวให้เข้ากับที่อยุ่หรือสิ่งแวดล้อมที่ห่อหุ้มชีวิต อยู่บ้านใหญ่ก็อยู่ได้ อยู่บ้านเล็กก็ปรับตัวให้เหมาะสม เศรษฐกิจดีก็ใช้เยอะ เศรษฐกิจแย่ก็ตัดรายจ่ายได้ ไม่ทุกข์ร้อนใจ มีมากใช้มาก มีน้อยใช้น้อย ตามภาษิต ‘นกน้อยทำรังแต่พอตัว’

เบื้องต้น คนต้องรู้ตัวเองเสียก่อนว่าเป็นน้ำในอะไร บางคนเป็นแค่น้ำขังในกะลา ทว่าใช้ชีวิตเหมือน้ำในทะเลสาบ แน่นอนล่ะ ในที่สุดก็ต้องอัตคัตขัดสน หามาได้ก็ใช้หนี้ หมุนวนอยู่อย่างนั้น เพราะดำเนินชีวิตแบบ "เกินกำลัง" ของตัวเอง

เมื่อรู้ตัวแล้ว ก็ต้องรู้สถานการณ์ มีแล้วค่อยใช้ ไม่มีให้เก็บออม คนสมัยนี้ชอบเอา "เงินอนาคต" มาใช้ เงินอนาคตหมายถึงอะไรน่ะหรือ ก็หมายถึงเงินหรือรายได้ที่คาดว่าจะได้ในวันข้างหน้า แต่ก็เลือกที่จะใช้เสียในวันนี้ เช่น ซื้อของเงินผ่อน กู้ หรือรูดบัตรเครดิตไปก่อน แล้วค่อยจ่ายทีหลัง มีจ่ายก็ดีไป ถึงเวลารายได้ไม่มาอย่างที่คิด ลำบากเอามากๆ

2. รู้จักถ่อมตน-เคารพคนอื่น น้ำไหลจากที่สูงลงสู่ที่ต่ำเสมอ น้ำตกเกิดเพราะบนที่สูง บนยอดเขามีน้ำอยู่มาก ไม่ว่าอยู่บนผิวดินหรือใต้ดิน ถึงที่สุดก็ต้องไหลลงสู่ที่ต่ำ

เปรียบดั่งคนที่รู้จักอ่อนน้อมถ่อมตน ไม่ติดยึดกับหัวโขนที่สวมอยู่ ว่าฉันเป็นมหาเศรษฐี ฉันเป็นอธิการบดี ฉันเป็นรัฐมนตรี ฉันเป็นกรรมการผู้จัดการ ฉันเป็นนายพล ฯลฯ แต่สามารถปรับตัวได้ตามกาลเทศะ พบผู้อาวุโสก็รู้จักนอบน้อม พบผู้อ่อนอาวุโสหรือด้อยฐานะกว่า ก็เคารพ ให้เกียรติ และมีเมตตา ไม่ดูถูก ไม่รังเกียจ

3. รู้จักยืดหยุ่น น้ำนั้นอ่อนนุ่ม แต่มีแรงปะทะมหาศาล ยามที่อยู่เฉยๆ น้ำไม่ทำร้ายใคร แต่ยามที่น้ำไหลบ่าก็สามารถทำลายแม้กระทั่งขุนเขาขนาดมหึมา

คนจึงต้องรู้จักอดทน อดกลั้น และข้ามผ่านช่วงเวลาที่ไม่น่าพอใจไปให้ได้ ด้วยการรู้จักยืดหยุ่น รู้เขารู้เรา รู้จักถอยเพื่อก้าว เมื่อได้ชัยชนะให้เกียรติคู่ต่อสู้ แข็งมาอ่อนกลับ ชนะจากภายในสู่ภายนอก

จะชนะผู้อื่นได้จึงต้องทำตัวเหมือนน้ำทั้งกายภาพและจิตใจ ใช้ความอ่อนนุ่มสยบความแข็งกร้าว ว่าไปแล้วประวัติศาสตร์ที่ผ่านมาหลายร้อยหลายพันปีก็มีตัวอย่างมายืนยันความคิดนี้ ผู้ชายที่มีอำนาจอันแข็งแกร่งล้วนแต่พ่ายแพ้ต่อสตรีที่อ่อนโยนและเลอโฉมมาแล้วทั้งสิ้น

Thai food

I spent most of the day at the Book Fair at Queen Sirikit Convention Hall. The big fairs are usually during the school holidays in April and October. I used to comment that Thai people don’t like reading much (apart from cartoon books), but every year more and more people go to these book fairs. Today was packed and I could hardly move. I bought quite a few books that I will share with you later, but first I want to show you this book which is all about the Top 10 of Thai Food! Obviously one of my favourite subjects. As you can see, the book is in Thai. I think I already have the best of the cookery books in English. Most of them are quite limited and repeat themselves a lot. So, that is why today I was browsing through the cook books written by Thai people. A better selection for sure. I bought half a dozen cook books which will help me a lot identifying the ingredients of street food that I have already photographed. I could blog about Thai food every day, I am just lacking the information sometimes.
Anyway, according to this book, the following is the Top 10 list of Thai Food:
1.Hot and sour soup with shrimp
2.Green curry with chicken
3.Fried Noodles
4.Pork fried in basil
5.Red curry with roast duck
6.Coconut soup with chicken
7.Thai style salad with beef
8.Satay pork
9.Fried chicken with cashew
10.Panang curry

In Thai:
1.ต้มยำกุ้ง (tom yum goong)
2.แกงเขียวหวาน (gaeng kiaw waen gai)
3.ผัดไทย (pad tai)
4.ผัดกระเพรา (pat ga-prao)
5.แกงเผ็ดเป็ดย่าง (gaeng pet bet yaang)
6.ต้มข่าไก่ (tom kaa gai)
7.ยำเนื้อย่าง (yam neua yaang)
8.สะเต๊ะหมู (moo sa-teh)
9.ไก่ผัดเม็ดมะม่วงหิมพานต์ (gai pat met ma-muang him-ma-paan)
10.พะแนง (pa-naeng)

www.enjoythaifood.com/top10thaifood.php - 33k

kingdom of Thailand..

Thailand is situated in South-East Asia, covering an area of nearly 513,115 square kilometres. It is roughly the size of France. It shares land borders with Myanmar (Burma) in the north and west, the Andaman Sea in the west, Laos in the north and north-east, Cambodia and the Gulf of Thailand in the east, and Malaysia in the south.
The shape of the country is similar to the profile of an elephant with a long trunk stretching down the peninsular. At school, students are taught that their country resembles the shape of an ancient axe with the peninsular being the handle.

Fact File

Geography :
Thailand covers a land area of 513,115 square kilometres (198,114 square miles), extends about 1,620 kilometres (1,007 miles) from north to south and 750 kilometres (482 miles) at its widest point from east to west, or approximately the same size as France, with a coastline of approximately 2,700 kilometres (1,143 miles) on the Gulf of Thailand and 865 kilometres (537 miles) along the Indian Ocean.
Lowest point: Gulf of Thailand 0 mHighest point: Doi Inthanon 2,576 mGeographic coordinates: 15 00 N, 100 00 ENatural resources: tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum, timber, lead, fish, gypsum, lignite, fluoriteClimate: The climate is sub-tropical with long hours of sunshine and high humidity. There are three seasons. The hot season lasts from March to June. The rainy season, from July to October. The cool season from November to February. Average low temperature is 20c and high temperature is 37c. The geographic and climatic conditions make the country suitable for the cultivation of a wide range of tropical and semi-tropical agricultural crops.Land use: arable land: 34%, permanent crops: 6%, permanent pastures: 2%, forests and woodland: 26%, other: 32%.Irrigated land: 44,000 sq km)
Thailand is divided into four geographical regions : Central Thailand (including Bangkok), Northern Thailand, Northeastern Thailand, and Southern Thailand. The country has also an Eastern Region which is often included into the Central Region.
People :
Population : About 64,800,000 people. Life expectancy at birth : male 69.4 years ; female : 73,7 years.
Infant mortality rate 20.48 deaths/1,000 live births ; total fertility rate 1,87 born/woman (higher in provinces, lower in Bangkok).
Ethnic groups : Thai 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11%
Religions : Buddhism 95%, Muslim 3.8%, Christianity 0.5%, Hinduism 0.1%
Languages : Thai (English language and Chinese language newspapers available)
Literacy (age 15 and over who can read and write) : 93.8%

Government :
The conventional long name of the country : Kingdom of Thailand. Short name : Thailand, formerly named Siam.Thailand has a constitutional monarchy. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is head of state. Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. The country has 76 provinces.
The latest constitution was signed in 1997 by King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX). The present government is headed by Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai Rak Thai political party). Parlementary elections are scheduled every 4 years.
Legislative branch : the National Assembly consists of the Senate (200 seats) and the House of Representatives (500 seats). Members to both are elected every four years.
Judiciary : Supreme Court or Sandika (judges appointed by H.M. the King)

Economy :
Thailand enjoyed very high growth rates between 1985 and 1995 (9% annually). A severe economic crisis followed in 1997. At the time the baht was allowed to float (before it was pegged to the dollar at about 25 baht for one dollar). At present one dollar is worth about 39-40 baht. The last few years under the present government of Khun Thaksin Shinawatra, the economy has been recovering with growth rates between 5-7%.
Contribution to GDP (approximate) : Agriculture 9 % (although a much larger proportion of the population is working in this sector) ; industry 44 %, services 47%.
Labour force by occupation : agriculture 43 %, industry 17 %, services 40 % (2005 est.)
GDP - per capita (purchasing power parity) : US$ 8,100 (much higher in Bangkok, much lower in many rural areas). 'Standard GDP' : 2,703 US$. GPD growth in 2005 of 3.5 %. After years of low inflation (around 2 %), the rate of inflation in 2005 and 2006 is around 5-6 %.
Important industries : Tourism, textiles and garments, agricultural products, beverages, tobacco, cement, jewelry, electric appliances and components, computer and computer accessories, integrated circuits, furniture, plastics, tin

Communications :
There are many Thai language T.V. stations. English-language programs are also widely available through cable TV (including BBC, CNN, NSBC etc.)Mobile phone use is widespread, with approximately half the populations owing a mobile phone. There are more mobile phones than fixed line phones.Internet access is available throughout the country. Cities and towns in Thailand have Internet-Cafes with cheap rate of access (less than 1 dollar per hour usually). Broadband services are also available and are now being heavily promoted.

Thai History before the Sukhothai Kingdom

Thai history concentrates on the history of the Thai people, less on the history of people living in the geographical area of present day Thailand. Simplified, Thai history can be divided in a pre-Sukhothai and a post-Sukhothai period, the Sukhothai period being regarded as the first true Thai kingdom. Also since that time history has been recorded and written down.
Thai history before the Sukhothai kingdom
We should start with the important archaeologic findings of the Ban Chiang culture in the northeast of Thailand. There existed in that area a strongly developed culture with early agriculture and bronze metallurgy about 3000 BC. When visiting Bangkok one should not neglect to visit Wang Suan Phakkaat, a museum that besides other artefacts, has an important collection of Ban Chiang ceramics and artefacts. The pottery is quite colorful and modern looking.

Influencial Cultures before Sukhothai

The ancestors of present day Thailand were scattered over a wide area of South-East Asia, including parts of south and south-west China. Up to this day Thai language related languages are spoken in parts of southern China. The classical view is that Thai people migrated southwards to the area of present day Thailand, possibly over a long time period, and possibly in a more pronounced way during the 13th century with the rise of the Mongols in China.

In the area of present day Central Thailand the Dvaravati culture flourished up to the 11-12 th century AD. The Dvaravati people were most likely of Mon of mixed Mon-Khmer origin. While most of us know of the Khmer, in part due to their remaining impressive architectural achievements (Angkor Wat), the Mon are more of a mystery and interesting at that. They lived and live in the area of present day Thailand and Burma, with temporary kingdoms in Burma, and have later on been absorbed into the other cultures.

The Khmer had a long influence over most parts over present day Thailand, most extensively in the north-east and central areas. Their settlements or outposts at Phimai and Prasaat Phanom Rung in the north-eastern province, are certainly worth a visit. Just across the border with Cambodia lies Khao Phra Wihaan, of equal importance. (check if the border is open, before embarking on your trip). These places can well compensate, if you are not able to make it to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The Khmer empire declined during the 14-15th century AD and Angkor was finally defeated by the Thais of Ayuthaya in 1431.

Sukhothai and Ayutthaya Kingdoms

Sukhothai is considered to be the first true Thai kingdom. Eventually, it only lasted a very short period, until the rise of Ayuthaya. An independent Thai kingdom was established in 1238 and lasted until 1376, when it was annexed by Ayuthaya. Its most well known king is King Ramkhamhaeng, who is also credited as with establishing the Thai writing system. A famous inscription reads as follows : There is fish in the water and rice in the fields, indicating a prosperous land.

The Ayudhaya kingdom lasted from 1350 to 1767, when the city was conquered and destroyed by the invading Burmese. The Burmese were the great rivals of the Thais of Ayudhaya and sacked the city also a first time about 200 years earlier.Ayudhaya was an imposing and wealthy city during its heyday. Early European visitors were impressed with its prosperity. Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese and other settlements were present. Contrary to the Sukhothai period, which was more egalitarian, the Ayudhaya kings were god-kings with absolute authority. Commoners were forbidden with penalty of death to look directly at the king.

Rattanakosin Period

After the destruction of Ayudhaya, the Thais managed to regroup around a Thai general, Taaksin, who became the new king and established his capital in Thonburi, opposite the river of present day Bangkok. He was eventually deposed and executed in 1782 and the present day Chakri dynasty was established. Bangkok became the new capital. This area up to the present day is referred to as the Rattanakosin period, named after a small island in the center of Bangkok.
During the 19th century diplomatic relations and trade agreements were established with the European powers. Importantly, thanks to the diplomatic skills of King Mongkut and King Chulalongkorn, colonisation of Thailand was avoided, while all the countries surrounding it became colonised by either France or Great-Britain. The Thai territory became smaller though, with France claiming Laos and Cambodia, and Britain taking some Malayan states.
Absolute monarch was ended in 1935 with the abdication of King Rama VII. King Rama IX, the present day King, ascended the throne in 1946 and is the longest reigning king on earth. Over the last decades Thailand has been politically characterised by alternating periods of democracy and military rule. Bloody repression of opposition occurred in 1973 and 1976. Thailand prospered under military rule of prime minister Prem Tinsunalonda in the 1980's, with the start of a booming economy. In 1988, a democratic government was elected. A brief episode of military intervention occurred in 1991, with multiple casualties during protests in may 1992. However, new elections were held in september 1992 and since that time, elected governments haveheld office

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