Thread: Are there parts of Issan without arrows?

Originally Posted by Fabian

Another anecdote about isaanites and arrows. My ex thought she had to press the down arrow if she want to take the elevator up.

actually for Thai elevators, that's how it is supposed to work, I do it all the time and it works

actually don't get me started on that topic because I could rant for hours, some elevators have "farang" programming logic, while others are pure Thai. This was confirmed when I received a memo from the building management regarding upgrading the elevator software to Thai programming

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

This sounds similar to what the BBC recently did

Can you remember what programme it was?

Originally Posted by Fabian

Another anecdote about isaanites and arrows. My ex thought she had to press the down arrow if she want to take the elevator up.

Even I have had to think about that one in the past:

"Am I telling it I want to go up, or am I calling it down?

I was up-country once and some lad went to turn the CD over in my portable player. Of course I had to stop him whilst thinking "idiot, stupid idiot". Although on second thoughts, there is another side to cassettes and vinyl and so why not CD's. He wasn't being stupid at all, he'd just never seen one before.

Originally Posted by Moonraker

Originally Posted by Fabian

Another anecdote about isaanites and arrows. My ex thought she had to press the down arrow if she want to take the elevator up.

Even I have had to think about that one in the past:

"Am I telling it I want to go up, or am I calling it down?

I was up-country once and some lad went to turn the CD over in my portable player. Of course I had to stop him whilst thinking "idiot, stupid idiot". Although on second thoughts, there is another side to cassettes and vinyl and so why not CD's. He wasn't being stupid at all, he'd just never seen one before.

Is there another side to T.D.ers or are there like cds,too modern?

Great little thread. Lots of interesting alternative ideas. That BBC tape story is a surprise. The CD story made me think too. Why don't they work out double sided CDs? I've seen the escalator shock country people face when they first ride one. Guess we all have had that but when we were very very young.

You could also say that at the same time the BKK people may be having some sort of reverse culture shock. Shouldn't they have known that people like this existed? People say Bangkok is right next to Thailand. Bangkokians can be just as 'ignorant' about how to do things in rural Thailand as country bumpkins are in BKK.

Originally Posted by sabang

maybe mountain country like Loei.

Nah, we have traffic lights in Loei town, 2 sets if i remember rightly, probably can counton the fingers of 1 hand how many others are in the province.

Originally Posted by Propagator

probably can count on one finger how many others are in the province.

Correct. Are you sure there are 2 in Loei?

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

This sounds similar to what the BBC recently did

Can you remember what programme it was?

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

(do go to the above link - the comments are hilarious)


Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

When the Sony Walkman was launched, 30 years ago this week, it started a revolution in portable music. But how does it compare with its digital successors? The Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week.

My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.

He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade - a bland grey.

LISTEN UP TEENAGERS... THE CLASSIC WALKMAN EXPLAINED
1: Clunky buttons
2: Switch to metal (that's a type of cassette, not heavy rock music)
3: Battery light - usually found flickering in its death throes
4: Double headphone jack (not to be found on an iPod)
5: Door ejects - watch out for flying tapes and eye injuries
So it's not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.

From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.

When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.

As I boarded the school bus, where I live in Aberdeenshire, I was greeted with laughter. One boy said: "No-one uses them any more." Another said: "Groovy." Yet another one quipped: "That would be hard to lose."

My friends couldn't imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked.

In some classes in school they let me listen to music and one teacher recognised it and got nostalgic.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

“ I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down 'rewind' and releasing it randomly ”
Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

I told my dad about my clever idea. His words of warning brought home the difference between the portable music players of today, which don't have moving parts, and the mechanical playback of old. In his words, "Walkmans eat tapes". So my clumsy clicking could have ended up ruining my favourite tape, leaving me music-less for the rest of the day.

Digital relief

Throughout my week using the Walkman, I came to realise that I have very little knowledge of technology from the past. I made a number of naive mistakes, but I also learned a lot about the grandfather of the MP3 Player.

You can almost imagine the excitement about the Walkman coming out 30 years ago, as it was the newest piece of technology at the time.

Perhaps that kind of anticipation and excitement has been somewhat lost in the flood of new products which now hit our shelves on a regular basis.

Personally, I'm relieved I live in the digital age, with bigger choice, more functions and smaller devices. I'm relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born, as I can't imagine having to use such basic equipment every day.

Having said all that, portable music is better than no music.

Now, for technically curious readers, I've directly compared the portable cassette player with its latter-day successor. Here are the main cons, and even a pro, I found with this piece of antique technology.

SOUND

This is the function that matters most. To make the music play, you push the large play button. It engages with a satisfying clunk, unlike the finger tip tap for the iPod.

When playing, it is clearly evident that the music sounds significantly different than when played on an MP3 player, mainly because of the hissy backtrack and odd warbly noises on the Walkman.

The warbling is probably because of the horrifically short battery life; it is nearly completely dead within three hours of firing it up. Not long after the music warbled into life, it abruptly ended.

CONVENIENCE

With the plethora of MP3 players available on the market nowadays, each boasting bigger and better features than its predecessor, it is hard to imagine the prospect of purchasing and using a bulky cassette player instead of a digital device.

Furthermore, there were a number of buttons protruding from the top and sides of this device to provide functions such as "rewinding" and "fast-forwarding" (remember those?), which added even more bulk.

As well as this, the need for changing tapes is bothersome in itself. The tapes which I had could only hold around 12 tracks each, a fraction of the capacity of the smallest iPod.

Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?

"I remembered it fondly as a way to enjoy what music I liked, where I liked," he said. "But when I see it now, I wonder how I carried it!"

WALKMAN 1, MP3 PLAYER 0

But it's not all a one-way street when you line up a Walkman against an iPod. The Walkman actually has two headphone sockets, labelled A and B, meaning the little music that I have, I can share with friends. To plug two pairs of headphones in to an iPod, you have to buy a special adapter.

Another useful feature is the power socket on the side, so that you can plug the Walkman into the wall when you're not on the move. But given the dreadful battery life, I guess this was an outright necessity rather than an extra function.

Scott Campbell co-edits his own news website,

Originally Posted by Lily

Originally Posted by Fabian

My ex thought she had to press the down arrow if she want to take the elevator up.

That is not illogical, though. She wanted it to come down and pick her up.

If she wasn't used to elevators if makes perfect sense.

I doubt it was that logical as that came from the same person who used the left indicator lights if she wanted to turn right.

^I usually turn on the windshield wipers when I want to turn.

Happens to me for the first day too when change from left hand to right hand driving and vice versa but she did that willingly.

To her defence, she failed the driving license test and got her license by paying 500 Baht.

Originally Posted by Rattanaburi

Why don't they work out double sided CDs?

They have done double sided DVDs. I'm guessing there is just no call for it. The working part of a CD/DVD is the label. The plastic disk is there just to give some rigidity to it. That is why you should never write on the label with a biro but you can polish scratches out of the clear plastic side.

commercial DVDs are dual layer and the laser simply refocuses to switch layers. Not sure if blueray is multiple layer but there was something that had several layers. As I said, they have done dual sided DVDs but you have to make a sandwich of clear plastic disk, a side label, b side label, and clear plastic disk. it's much easier to just do two disks

Originally Posted by Norton

I usually turn on the windshield wipers when I want to turn.

I wash the windscreen when I want to flash someone, it really helps when you obscure your view with a stream of water just as something important is happening.

There is a trace of Ned Ludd in all of us. If not, there should be....