SaigonNezumi.com » SaigonTech

Farewell Yahoo 360

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:46:49 +0000

I started posting blog entries on my Yahoo 360 account back in August 20, 2006. My Vietnamese Sociology students from the Center for International Education and other university students at SaigonTech wanted me to post more on Yahoo 360 since they were all active there. I remember being very active there for a couple of years. I even met some friends from there as well and made some good contacts.

Sadly, Yahoo 360 will be shutdown. It is still a surprise to many young Vietnamese bloggers who have used Yahoo 360 religiously for the last 3-4 years. My students still use it. They are the ardent ones who will use it until the end which should come soon.

I have been lucky that I started SaigonNezumi.com before I created my Yahoo 360 accounts. I will not be affected much by the shutdown. Many of my 360 Friends have already added me to my Facebook account.

I do feel sorry for the many young 360 bloggers who have no place to move their blog entries too. I created a blog forum for my students but it is no way ready to handle anymore than 200 users. Not yet at least.

Yahoo 360 Plus does not seem a popular option as well. I posted this entry nearly a year ago:

The negative, since Yahoo 360plus will not be connected to the universal profile with other Yahoo products, could be the death blow to Yahoo 360 in Vietnam. The strength of Yahoo 360 is that it enabled Vietnamese bloggers to connect with other Yahoo 360 users around the world. If Yahoo 360plus just focuses on the Vietnamese market, many 360 users could move over to Facebook which is rapidly becoming popular among students and friends.

Unfortunately for you English speakers, Yahoo 360plus is only available in the Vietnamese language.

This is exactly what is happening. I am seeing many of the Vietnamese bloggers who write English move over to Facebook. They are very active as well. That includes my high school ICT students and former university students. I expect the same for other Yahoo 360 English speaking Vietnamese users as well.

Will they continue to blog? It is hard to say. I hate to say it, you can do quite a bit with Facebook now. If a developer adds a small blogging application to Facebook (I am not sure if one is there), that could be make Facebook a perfect replacement for Yahoo 360.

I am sure the Young Vietnamese IT geeks will have their opinions on this one.

Below is my last Yahoo 360 post:

It seems that Yahoo 360 will end soon. If you want to keep in contact with me, please visit the following sites:

1. SaigonNezumi.com (my blog) -> http://www.saigonnezumi.com

2. Facebook -> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=678700482

3. Twitter -> http://twitter.com/saigonnezumi

If you need help finding a new blog site, please email me at: http://www.saigonnezumi.com/aboutkevinmillerjr/contact-kevin-miller-jr/ and I will help you find a new place to blog at.

Thank you for being my Yahoo 360 Friends. I hope to see you at another forum.

Kevin Miller, Jr. saigonnezumi

Farewell Yahoo 360!

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BarCamp Saigon Venue Candidate – SaigonTech

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:09:02 +0000

This week the BarCamp Saigon organizers will finally select the venue for next month’s BarCamp here in Ho Chi Minh City. Over a week ago, Anh Hung and I visited the Saigon Institute of Technology (SaigonTech) Cong Hoa campus. SaigonTech is a private university providing IT training to Vietnamese students. They have an affiliation with the Houston Community College System which allows Vietnamese students to earn a 2 year AA American degree in Vietnam.

SaigonTech has been the only venue candidate that is supportive of BarCamp Saigon. Ms. Huong, the office manager, and I have known each other for nearly 3 years. If we chose SaigonTech, we will get all the support we need to host the barcamp event there.

SaigonTech’s Cong Hoa campus is air conditioned but there are no elevators. The building design is typical Vietnamese architecture which means it is very narrow and tall. I think there are around 6-7 floors.

Here are pictures of the rooms:

(Large classroom seats 50 but we can accommodate up to 80 I think)

(Another view of the large classroom)

(A smaller classroom – seats about 30)

(Sorry guys, no elevators, you will be walking)

Tuesday night will be announce the venue for BarCamp Saigon.

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Super Crazy Saigon Traffic :-)

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:50:02 +0000

I got some great shots of the what the traffic is like in Saigon now. Since last summer, it the roads have gotten very congested due to the increase of both cars and motorbikes. Even the police seem to have problems directing traffic anymore. For once, I saw people arguing with the police which is not the norm here.

(Morning view of the congested Cong Hoa street from SaigonTech)

(Cong Hoa street is packed in the morning near E-Town)

(Huynh Van Banh street at an intersection)

(I stayed in this spot for about 10 minutes)

(Ward Police to the rescue )

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A Saigon Monday

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:45:30 +0000

Woke up late, 9 AM. Ninja, my kitten was meowing loudly but I could not hear him since I wore my ear plugs

Tofu woman dropped by my house at 10:30AM but I was behind schedule so no tofu for me.

Had lunch at Mimosa on Bui Vien Street. Bought an Economist for 40,000 VND ($2.50 US). Headed to my school at 1:30 PM.

By 2 PM, realized my students were more competent in IT than IT staff. I spent half the class time being more of a system administrator than teacher. Finally got students to do things in the command line and nano towards the end of class.

Made it to Tan Binh District at 6 PM. Had a great time at SaigonTech. School wireless worked flawlessly

Home now watching Ninja sleep on Lucky’s pillow.

End of another Saigon Monday…

I typed this post with my Nokia N800 using OS2008. It is awesome!

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Another Weekend At Home Pondering

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:26:22 +0000

Darn, I had to spend another weekend at home working on my Laptop again. I really hit geek mode since I returned from the US. I am still not sure if I truly recovered from my trip yet.

One thing is for sure, I am ready for a short trip out of Saigon really soon. I am thinking about flying back up to Hanoi to meet a couple of friends and go over some legal matters in regards to forming a business in Vietnam.

Teaching is going okay this semester though I am getting burned out at SaigonTech now. Next semester I will either reduce the hours or take a one semester Leave of Absence to rest. I really like my IT class at the American International School. Bright kids, some of the best I have ever had all with bright futures.

My second stench with Indochina Capital is going very well. My teaching methodology has improved since my last batch of students.

IT is my realm though. No, I will not pursue the Unix SysAdmin position with Google. I want to stay in Vietnam and turn the Saigon Linux Group into something. First, though, I am thinking that maybe it is time that I do something with my IT skills. Everytime I walk away from IT, I seem to come right back. Maybe I should stay this time…

Cross-posted at: Yahoo 360 – AmerasianKevin

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Vietnam Underwater – Bye Bye Vung Tau

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:25:16 +0000

Over a week ago, I showed the film, An Inconvenient Truth, to my students at SaigonTech. I had realized that very few of them knew anything, or seem to cared, about the influence of global warming on Vietnam. As they watched the film, they were a bit surprised. Imagine, I told them, if the the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica melted resulting in a 5 meter rise in sea water, what would happen to Vietnam.

Yeah, Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Mui Ne, Phan Thiet, etc., would all be underwater. The Mekong Delta would be flooded but not by fresh water. Halong Bay well known beauty would be submerged. I even joked with them that Saigon would be next to the sea. Who knows?

The underlying theme here is that we all are like the frog in the film that jumped into water being heated up (not boiling, he jumped out, remember?). We ride our motorbikes in the midst of dangerous and toxic fumes with our masks and helmets. Yet we do nothing…

Yesterday, the Worldwatch Institute in Thailand announced the 21 megacities would be greatly affected by the sea rise. They also mentioned that Vietnam was the 4th most peril country in sea rises and other climate conditions associated to global warming. (See Article Here)

If the sea rises, “Bye Bye Vung Tau.”

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Linux in Vietnam

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:12:23 +0000

Here are a couple of very interesting pictures I took with my iPhone last week here in Saigon. While I was teaching at SaigonTech, one of my students showed me a copy of the Ubuntu install LiveCD. I was a bit surprised to see my student with it. Got to give Ubuntu a big thumbs up for sending these LiveCDs to Vietnam

(Student with Ubuntu LiveCD)

About 4 hours later, I was at the American International School giving my students a quiz in their Computer Science class. One of my quiz questions asked who created Linux. As they were taking the quiz, I noticed Tux at back of the room. A couple students just needed to turn their heads to see the answer

(Hey Tux)

Yeah, Linux is making some inroads here

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Vietnamese Ghost Stories I

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:13:07 +0000

The Vietnamese people like to talk about ghost stories no matter how scary they are. Most foreign expats write them off and tell the Vietnamese that it is just merely a figment of their imagination. I used to be one of those skeptics. Then I came to Vietnam…

I saw my first ghost in January, 2005. I was sleeping and in the middle of a dream (yes, ghosts DO appear in dreams which many people do not realize according to Buddhist doctrine), the ghost appeared. She was a very young Asian women with long black hair wearing only white. I remember I was lying on my bed in the dream. I turned my head left and saw her looking at me floating in air. I woke up immediately and stared at that direction though out the night.

The next morning I asked my landlord’s daughter if there was a ghost in the house. She and her family said no. After a couple days I forgot about the ghost.

Ten months later I saw the same ghost again in my room but this time I had been awake. I had just got a Quan Am Shrine earlier that week and put it in my room. I was walking next to my computer when I saw an image of a young woman wearing all white standing next to the shrine. I turned to the direction where she was at but she disappeared immediately. After a couple days, I forgot about seeing this ghost again.

In February, 2006, I was teaching a group of students at SaigonTech. For some reason we started talking about ghosts. What they told me started to spook me. One student told me about seeing a young Asian woman with long black hair wearing white standing next to his friend one night while he was sleeping. He asked his friend who the woman was. His friend did not know. About 5 of my students told me the same story of seeing this same young women. Most of them saw her while they were awake but some said that she does appear in their dreams as well.

Most Vietnamese that I talked to about this ghost say she is Quan Am. Others are not too sure but she tends to be one of the most commonly seen ghosts in Vietnam.

Yesterday, I asked a new group of students to write about ghost stories (I will post some of these later). One of the stories again mentioned of a young women with long black hair wearing a white shirt (I said she wore white but most people I talk to said she only her shirt was white). The student mentioned that when he was a child, people in his hometown would always see the ghost of this woman at midnight. They would hear her crying at a big tree in the village. Many of the villagers were curious to see who was crying but only the unmarried boys and men could see her (I never heard of a married man seeing her). They could just see her for a moment (in the stories I have heard, she tends to disappear immediately). She kept making an appearances until an old man (most likely a Buddhist monk) came to the tree to say a prayer. She never appeared again.

Who is she? Quan Am (Kannon in Japanese)? I guess we will never know.

Oh yeah, I did see her again a couple months ago and this time she did look like Quan Am. . .

Until the next Vietnamese Ghost Story . . .

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SaigonTech Picture Day

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:31:34 +0000

Well, this morning was a long one for everyone. For some odd reason, everyone was just exhausted. So what did we do for fun? Just see for yourself:

(John taking my picture)

(He then took Kerry’s picture)

(A reluctant Sophia let me take her picture with Mike smiling in the background)

Oh yes, you do see one of my students with a laptop on his desk. Today the class had to turn in their 5-page essay. Ken, the guy with the laptop, had to complete it during class.

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Bill’s Birthday Party – SaigonTech

SaigonNezumi (Kevin) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:23:20 +0000

My student, Bill, had a birthday party last month. Had some great food with my students. As usual, I was the “adult” for them

(Bill receiving his birthday cake)

(Just relaxing)

I had some discipline problems with one of my students, Katy. Maybe it was the cognac or beer, well, you decide…

(Just making sure Katy, my student, behaves)

(Katy getting her revenge and an “F” for the course)

(I have horrible discipline skills)

Overall, the party was very interesting. Food was great. Bill was exhausted after hosting such a huge party:

(Sweet Dreams!)

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