I discovered them through my wife, who is an operations manager for a well-known multinational computer company based in Santa Clara, California. This company tends to use Fujitsu and other high-end laptops, and Protocol is one of their local providers for these systems. You would not know this fact merely looking at their store front but that’s the way it is. They of course also carry the standard notebook and workstation inventory one would expect.

Here is the specific experience I had which prompted me to write about them:

1. I bought a Thinkpad from them two years ago and for some reason opted for the three-year manufacturer warranty.
2. Recently, it began randomly failing to power up, emitting a tone which indicates a motherboard failure.
3. I called Protocol’s sales manager, K. Ton (ต้น) and he sent a courier to my office to receive the broken device.
4. Later, Lenovo called me and asked how to log in so they may test whether it crashes. This worried me as it meant that they hadn’t replicated the problem and they were preparing to return the unit unrepaired.
5. Lenovo indeeed returned the unmodified system to Protocol; however, Protocol took the initiative to test the unit themselves, and when it failed to boot, they sent it back to Lenovo for further investigation. I simply got a telephone call updating me about the status. This is why they work with multinationals from Silicon Valley. I can’t begin to explain how rare this is in Thailand. It’s incredibly valuable. Had K. Ton not gone to bat for me, then I would have had to take the time to prove to Lenovo that the problem was genuine, and frankly I would have opted to reduce my business uncertainty and time cost by cutting my losses and buying a new Thinkpad.
6. Finally, Lenovo saw the problem, replaced the motherboard, and returned the Thinkpad to Protocol.
7. Protocol again sent a courier to my office to give me the working system.

The process took a few days and cost me no money. So, I have found Protocol’s service to be so exceptionally good that for a large class of hardware, my first choice now is to buy from them before placing an international order from the West.

(Incidentally, I never spoke with Protocol staff in English so I couldn’t ascertain their proficiency in the language; however, assuming that it is average for Bangkok, their service is worth enduring the language barrier.)

Is your team nearing completion of a Solaris, Linux, BSD, or cross-platform application? Have you formed a plan for distributing your software to your users in the smoothest way possible? Which distributions should you support, and on which architectures? Will your app need to integrate with system activities such as booting, logging, SMF, DBus, Network Manager, or GNOME/KDE/CDE sessions? What is the technical relationship between your software and open source software on the system? What is your strategy for supporting new Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE release about twice per year)?

These are the questions which we solve for our customers.

More announcements are to follow, including case studies and upcoming free seminars in the Southeast Asia region.

I will post slides of my SSH talk shortly. Please check the site in a day or so, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

About the Siam eBook Printers giveaway, I will be contacting the winners of the lucky draw shortly.

So stop by and say “This is awesome!” (or even better: your own constructive criticism) to get your discount today! As always, shipping is free, and books about free software (and open source) get an additional 150 baht price reduction.

If you have an ebook in PDF format, just attach the file on the web page and provide your delivery address. In a few days, a nice bound volume arrives at your door from EMS. If you’ve ever seen these shops in malls and universities that print and bind books, then you know exactly what this is, except we do it over the web.

We are aiming directly at foreigners and I.T. professionals in Thailand. Here is what makes Siam Book Printers unique:

• Everything is in English
• We cater to busy people. You attach a PDF on the web site, and you receive EMS packages.
• We guarantee no mechanical errors, smudges, missing pages, or other flaws. If you are dissatisfied, we will send you a replacement book.
• There is no guesswork; you preview exactly what you will get.
• Besides standard bank transfers, we accept credit card payments and PayPal. We accept payment in Thai baht or U.S. dollars.

Personally, having eBooks printed is one of my favorite activities in Thailand. When done right, the end result is quite beautiful. Ever since I had The Debian System from No Starch Press made into a hardback, I have been hooked. I doubt the site will be successful financially; but my goal is to reveal and simplify the eBook printing process to more foreigners and software professionals.

Finally, Siam Book Printers is a platform to promote free software in Thailand. We offer discounts for eBooks about free and open source software. When you order a book about free or open source software, just click the checkbox to receive your discount!

I will have announcements covering training, services, and solutions aimed at improving the Asian state of the art using free software.