October 2008

This morning I was headed to Pham Ngu Lao to meet an American friend who arrived from Kazakhstan via Thailand. I headed out of my house at about 8:10 AM knowing that I…

If you have not done so, please register for the first BarCamp Saigon event. The event will be held on November 15th at RMIT in Phu My Hung, located about 15-20 minutes…

Gasoline prices dropped yet again last Saturday. 50,000 VND ($3.03 US) is beginning to fill up my gas tank again. It now costs about 15,500 VND (94 cents US) for 1 liter…

Yes guys, you read the title right. Today I saw some people water skiing on the Saigon River. I was a bit surprised since I for one would not even dare putting his hand…

The Thu Duc District has changed quite a bit since I moved to Vietnam 4 and a half years ago. I expect many more apartments and skyrises to be built along the Saigon…

Maybe I am getting old but I really like this water fountain I saw at this Vietnamese restaurant in District 1:

Ever notice when a new group of Expats arrive in a particular country, in my case Vietnam, they tend to think they are 'Above the law'? Even some longtimers, those who…

Below is a picture of my former student, Daniyar, from Kazakhstan where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1997-1999. Looking at the picture of the mountain in the…

Okay, I know Debian Lenny is still in Beta but I just had to try it on my Thinkpad T60. My Thinkpad is very picky when it comes to BSD/Linux distributions. Normally the…

I attended my first Oktoberfest ever with Tony and his wife last Friday night at the Windsor Plaza. I really enjoyed it, expecially the food being a big fan of German…

Last Friday I was invited to the 2008 Saigon Oktoberfest by Tony and his company, GHP Far East. On the way there, I got soaked from the rain storm walking to the taxi. I…

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…

This one has been in the works for a couple months now. Google will hold its first Hackathon (DevFest) in Saigon on November 4th. It is a free event and includes free…

Wow, another beginning to a busy week. Several more meetings scheduled for this week plus a BarCamp Saigon organizational meeting. Saigon Linux Group will be separated…

The Vietnamese government announced that it created an agency to act as a watchdog in the regulation of blogs within Vietnam. With nearly 1.1 million blogs just inside…

My 8th Grade ICT students at AIS must really love me this week. I finally gave them their first exam. It was just a 33 question multiple-choice exam focusing on the key…

My 3 year lease ends in 3 months. My landlord says I can break my lease now with no penalty if I find a house before then. It will probably cost me $100 US to get the…