tomo's blog

Vietnam is blessed with free wifi at nearly any cafe even if it doesn't always work as advertised, like most things in Vietnam. Vietnam is also blessed with cafes on nearly every block. So finding a wireless access point to get online is pretty easy for anyone traveling or living in Vietnam.

Hackers can see what websites you're visiting and then log into those websites as you

The problem is security. Many times cafe owners will leave their wifi access points completely open without needing a password to get on. This makes it basically trivial for a hacker to sniff the airwaves and see everything on the network. If you are on such a network you should secure your connection with an SSH tunnel or a VPN.

If they do have a password, they may be using older security schemes like WEP or WPA, rather than WPA2. Without WPA2 or more secure systems that require the network owner setting up an authentication server (too much to ask for any cafe owner) it is also possible to break the encryption.

Security setting: WPA2

For now, insist on at least WPA2. If you're setting up wifi at your house and you don't want people to sniff your traffic, use WPA2 with a long random password and be sure to change the SSID from the default network name provided by the manufacturer. (The reason that using a default SSID is less secure is that rainbow tables exist for these, making password cracking potentially easy.)

Using WPA2 means that it's harder for crackers to guess your network's password and then either use your network connection or sniff your traffic. But if you give out your password, anyone with the password can do the same. With WPA2 it's harder for other people to sniff your traffic, but there are ways (ARP poisoning) around it. You should thus still create an encrypted connection (for normal people I would recommend using a VPN) to an outside server and tunnel your traffic over that connection.

Besides sniffing your traffic, a hacker who steals your cookies can then login to websites which you're currently logged in by pretending to be your computer. So they could post on Facebook as you, send emails as you from Gmail, or worse.

MAC Address Filtering

What else can you do on your home wifi network? Since you usually know what computers you want to allow to access the wifi router, you can set it so only known computers are allowed on the network by using MAC address filtering. The MAC address the hardware address built into your wireless card or in the wireless hardware of a laptop and it's very difficult to lie about what your MAC address is so this will help keep the riff raff out.

Advanced users can install DD-WRT or OpenWRT firmwares onto their wireless access point, thus enabling tons of extra features and the ability for finer grained security controls.

Using Google AdSense in Drupal

Submitted by tomo on October 8, 2012 - 10:11pm

Recently I attended a BarCamp where there was a session about monetizing blogs for a very modest monthly income, although an amount that amounts to a lot for a local blogger. With Drupal, setting up Google AdSense content is easy.

First, just copy the code generated from Adsense into a new block using the block admin interface. Be sure to save the node with the PHP Input Filter (you may need to give yourself permission in admin/permissions to use this powerful filter). Full HTML filter is not sufficient for AdSense code as it will break the finicky JavaScript, so use PHP which performs no filtering or transformations or create a new input filter that does no filtering.

You may want to create a special region (by editing the .info file for your theme and adding a new line, then refreshing cache to see it in the dropdown in blocks admin) for your ads otherwise use an existing region to place the block. If you already have regions like a sidebar that has space for content in the same dimensions (especially width) as your chosen AdSense ad then you won't need to do anything. If you want to optimize your ads though it's recommended, even by Google themselves, to choose larger ad sizes - especially large square ads.

For placing the node somewhere within the node's content, it's trickier as you can't place it use the block admin interface which only deals with regions that are defined in .info and made available via preprocess functions to your page.tpl.php. You can still use blocks to contain the code though. So create a new block, then look for the number in the URL which is the block id. Then you can manually place that block's content anywhere with this code:

$block = module_invoke('block', 'block', 'view', <BLOCK_ID_HERE>);
print $block['content'];

When publishing your ad blocks, if they don't appear at first and you see "Bad Request 400" in Chrome's Developer JavaScript Console, you can try waiting and may magically go away after awhile. That's what happened to me.

There's also an AdSense module (http://drupal.org/project/adsense) which makes this all a bit easier, but as you can see it's not hard at all to do manually, which means one less module on your system to complicate things.

But here are some other things the Drupal AdSense module can do:


The module provides easy-to-use ad blocks.
You can easily disable the ads for certain roles.
Provides simple controls for troubleshooting the ads before going live with the site.
If Google changes some minor details in the script in , your script can be updated site-wide just by upgrading the module.
If you want to do ad revenue sharing, there's really no other option

This technique can be used for other online advertising networks besides Google AdSense. It could just as easily be used for Amazon.com's affiliate program. If you're in Vietnam you might consider one of the burgeoning number of Vietnamese online ad networks, although they won't have anything like the inventory of Google.

Vietnam Online Ad Networks

Submitted by tomo on October 8, 2012 - 10:10pm

What to do if you're a content provider in Vietnam?

If you're fairly established as a Party-affiliated Vietnamese newspaper then you have probably been selling banner ads for years on your online properties. Maybe you have enough online properties that they constitute a small ad hoc online ad network which you can sell to advertisers. If you're smaller than that then you should be concentrating on producing content rather than developing the ad selling product. So you'd need to find some service to take care of selling your available ad space inventory.

How online ads are sold outside of Vietnam

The first online ad marketplace that should come to anyone's mind is Google with its AdWords and AdSense products (which complement each other as supply and demand). I've played around with Google AdSense (the advertising product for publishers) on this site but it may not be appropriate for Vietnamese publishers. As an American it's easy for me to connect to the US financial system. Vietnamese people would have trouble opening up a US bank and the Vietnamese banking system is barely connected to itself (making homegrown PayPal clones even more difficult to pull off) much less to the US or international banking system. It's hard to move money into and out of Vietnam, although regulations make inflows of cash much easier than outflows. And due to the large amount of fraud originating from Vietnam it's hard to get outsiders to allow normal Vietnamese people to receive money, since once it enters Vietnam it's hard to get it back out if there are any problems, outside of the remittance networks. Until very recently it wasn't possible to use PayPal as a Vietnamese person here and it's still extremely rare.

If you're one of Vietnam's major publishers then you don't care too much about homegrown ad networks since they only reduce your monopoly on ad space, while pushing down prices and encouraging transparency which could force you to be more honest about your product and push prices down even further.

Vietnamese ad networks for Vietnamese content websites!

But having more available ad networks to Vietnamese content producers helps develop a strong web ecosystem for and by Vietnamese people, giving them ways to earn money both domestically and from foreign companies wanting to market to Vietnam. Blogs and other content websites could potentially give Vietnam's economy a tiny push in the right direction although currently it's risky to plan a business around content websites in Vietnam for a number of reasons and monetization is just one of them. (Just recently, Zing, a large content network with news, a social network, and lots of downloadable but unlicensed (pirated) music got dropped by major advertisers like Samsung, Coca Cola, Canon, Yamaha, Intel, etc. precisely because of the latter - they didn't want to associate themselves with an illegal music downloading site, but without the mp3s it would be hard for Zing to get traffic.)

So without further ado here are the online ad networks in and targeting Vietnam:

- ComScore put Innity in first place (of only two measured competitors?) for ad network size in Vietnam in February of 2011 with 900,000 average daily visitors. I really can't say whether Innity, from Malaysia and serving all of Southeast Asia, is the biggest ad network running in Vietnam.

- VietAd, part of IDG Vietnam's portfolio, running since May of 2007. According to them:
"VietAd Ad-Network is an intermediate system connecting sellers and buyers of online advertising. In other words, VietAd operates as an trading platform helping website owners to sell advertising, individuals and enterprises to advertises; both of them can save time and cost while they still have effective advertising campaigns."

"After more than two years on the market, VietAd attracted nearly 1,000 quality media, news, commentary and entertainment websites in Vietnam, served more than 3 billion Ad views and reached 400 million website hits per month."

- AdMarket, a product from AdMicro which is part of BarCamp Saigon sponsor VC Corp. (not to be confused with MicroAd which just entered Vietnam from Japan). Online advertising from 900đ/click and reaching up to 25 million people.

- AdNet.vn from PeaceSoft (NganLuong, eBay.vn, ChoDienTu)

- Ambient Digital Network (minimum payout payment of 300,000 VND) based in Ho Chi Minh City.

- VietBUZZad

- AdMax Network in South East Asia, based in Singapore

- AdBay, partner of PeaceSoft and VietBUZZad.

- AdBay.vn in Hanoi

- CleverAds, a local Google AdWords partner who helps companies set up their AdWords campaigns, also claim to have their own AdNetwork.

- Some hints of an ad network (Fmob) coming from Joomlart. Will have to ask him about that soon.

- New from FPT, eClick.vn

As mentioned, large news sites have their own ad networks. I skipped some really pathetically small ad networks. If you have anything to share about the ad networks listed above -please- post a comment. :)

One question I have and I welcome any theories:
How long before MJ Group (NhomMua, DiaDiem) or Rocket Internet, both big consumers of online ad space in Vietnam, decide to roll their own ad networks?

Awhile ago, some time after I undertook a bicycle trek from Nha Trang to Mui Ne, I was contacted by a reporter from Tuoi Tre News to write something about it. Only a tiny bit of the information I provided was actually used and I've since lost track of the article so I'll just post what I already wrote here.

1. How do you think about this new trend: travelling across the
country by bicycle. Is it popular in your country? Did you ever make
it or finish it shortly?

If it really is a trend rather than just a few outlier cases, then I
think it's great and it should really be encouraged as a wholesome and
healthy activity as well as a way to travel. In the US, it's actually
not a common thing to do although there are clubs which regularly meet
and do long-distance rides together, which may also include camping,
if the weather is agreeable. But I would like to see more people in
Vietnam ride bicycles for sport and exercise and also as a means of
transportation, not just for slow but far journeys like the one we
took. Besides the possibility of extremely cold weather in my home
country, there are many other ways in which Vietnam is a more ideal
long distance cycling destination which I hope to blog about someday.

My father is a cyclist and I joined him on a ride through forests and
countryside before I came to Vietnam. Unfortunately, I don't have a
bike to ride with me now.

2. According to Vietnamese traditional lifestyle, youngsters all
should follow the same way: finishing school, going to work, getting
married and living in peace for the rest of their life. Youngsters who
choose to go other ways like: doing gap year, going through other
countries by bicycle in a long time… means something crazy and
undervalued. How do you think about this way of thought?

Actually, I think most people can fit a cycling trip into an otherwise
traditional education since it can easily be organized during a break
and can be done on a budget. I don't think it's crazy at all, nor
should traveling to other countries or taking off for a gap year be
considered especially crazy. If you think so then your bar for what is
crazy is set too low. I do think that Vietnamese youth should be
willing to try new things and not constrain themselves only to what
the mass majority has done in the past. And definitely learn from what
people are doing around the world, not just the world around you.

3. According to your opinion, what is the thing that youngsters
gained and you lost after this trip?

I lost some weight, haha. Otherwise, there's really nothing to lose.

I gained some new friends who I now have a lot of respect for. I
learned things about myself as well. Any time we travel we gain new
experiences as well as learn about ourselves. And of course seeing a
country at the slow pace of a bicycle is much different from a car on
a highway. On a bicycle, not only do you see the terrain but you feel
the gradients, the shade from every tree, and the difference in wind
from province to province. What I gained was a new perspective on
Vietnam and especially the Vietnamese people.

Monsoon Seasons in Vietnam

Submitted by tomo on October 8, 2012 - 1:41am

In South Vietnam, like the rest of tropical Southeast Asia (but not North Vietnam), there are only two seasons: rainy season and dry season. Hanoi has the traditional four seasons with mild but cold winters.

The actual timing of monsoon seasons varies from country to country and there are many regional monsoons throughout the world, including the United States. In Saigon and the Mekong Delta the dry season is from about November to February (around Tet) after which the weather transitions into rainy season around June. April and May can be uncomfortably hot without the respite provided by rains.

The difference is not just in precipitation but also temperature. The temperature range for Ho Chi Minh City throughout the year is generally 25C to 33C, whereas in the hottest days of May it may reach a max of 35C and the coldest nights of December may reach as low as 20C. For travelers who want to enjoy the coolest and driest weather then the months of November, December, and January would be the best, although travelers to Da Lat can come any time of the year and enjoy cool weather.

Tropical Storm Weather

During the wet season, there are also many tropical storms and typhoons off the sea to the east. These storm systems often batter the Philippines and then head to central or northern Vietnam and usually only cause heavy rain to fall on Saigon which rarely gets directly hit.

How should you prepare for Vietnam's weather?

1. Bring an umbrella! Vietnamese people seldom use umbrellas and when they do it's to block the sun not rain. Umbrellas are not that easy to buy in Vietnam.
2. Most of the year it can be pretty sunny although the cooler weather is accompanied by overcast skies. Vietnamese people generally cover their skin with long sleeves and pants (and extra socks, gloves, and face masks) to avoid sun exposure. More foreigners don't, and so may want to use some sun screen which can be purchased at Western-style pharmacies here.
3. You can buy various rain coats here but mostly they are targeting bike riders, who need freedom of movement of their legs thus exposing the legs to rain and puddle splashes. You can buy them for around $1. You can buy cheap and easily ripped ponchos for around 4 per $1 and these come in small enough packs to carry with you. There are some interesting only-in-Vietnam raincoats such as ones with two head-holes so both the driver and passenger on a bike can share one rain coat, and also rain coats with a clear window in front in order to allow a bike's headlights to shine through.
4. Wear comfortable walking sandals. Most tourists walk a lot and they stick out because they're the only ones walking. When it rains your feet will get wet and you may be forced to walk through puddles. You don't want to wear socks or shoes that don't wash and dry easily.

When it rains, it pours

During the normal rainy season, there are many consecutive days where it will rain shortly every day. People who get caught driving in the rain will often pull over and seek shelter in front of shops or at bus stops. They should probably just ride busses more during the rainy season, but that's another topic altogether! It's best not to have any set schedule during the rainy season that way you can wait out any sudden downpours rather than trying to make appointments. You will find that Vietnamese people will use heavy rain as an excuse for not coming somewhere on time.

@tomosaigon Twitter Archive - 09-2010

Submitted by tomo on October 6, 2012 - 4:57pm
8/31 20:47 to add some spice to your life, pick your nose after handling chopped up chilis #
8/30 8:54 even the bike repair shop has wifi in saigon #
8/29 20:13 @peoplewithideas i've learned to self-diagnose, google the bag'o'pills from the Rx when i get home. being a Dr. isn't so hard after all! #
8/29 19:55 @tdichristopher imo VN must develop inter+intra-urban train travel to make SG-HN bullet trains feasible; SG-Nha Trang would be a start #
8/27 6:51 i think 'Reasons to hate Vietnam' http://bit.ly/c1HRkd can mostly be mitigated by leaving hanoi and living in saigon for awhile #
8/25 8:14 @tamkaizen cops should be out looking for all the petty thieves instead of looking for bribes, otoh i can drive w/o a license for 100-200k #
8/24 7:51 @Vietnam720 I lease a dedicated server in the US (not VN), been doing so for years, before the cloud was an option #
8/19 14:48 goodbye dubai? (http://bit.ly/aZOtQa) #
8/18 16:29 turn saigon into the silicon delta #
8/18 13:06 usatoday's why .5 million Viet Kieu are coming home annually (with stock photo of Saigon Pearl) (http://bit.ly/bluxdt) #

@tomosaigon Twitter Archive - 9-2010

Submitted by tomo on October 6, 2012 - 4:56pm
9/30 18:09 @caligarn $500/mo in VN gets me a house w/ maid svc 4x size of my chicago apt, personal transport (not the El), eat out/coffee daily, etc #
9/30 10:59 @layered perhaps that 80% makeup figure should be read: 20% of vn girls never wear makeup, the rest do sometimes #
9/30 7:09 @caligarn yup, have a number of .jp friends including some 2nd gen (ie def. not counted by .jp gov). refreshingly, only 1 teaches english #
9/30 6:51 just found out there's 10000 japanese registered with .gov in vietnam, mostly in #saigon #
9/26 13:22 @kennedypj how different from twitter/tumblr/posterous or smaller microblogging sites? #
9/26 13:20 @dylanduong @rockportrait re: dallas, i might distinguish btwn contemporary as opp. to authentic/nostalgic vn cuisine; broader range here #
9/26 13:00 @kennedypj i was just there for nearly 3 hours! #
9/26 5:17 i won a 100,000VND voucher for Phở 24 at last night's fiesta! at their current prices, enough to buy 2 bowls of phở. attn: phở diggers #
9/26 4:57 @rockportrait @dylanduong my $0.02 from living in dallas (one of the largest vn by pop), a few good contemporary vn joints, mostly just avg #
9/26 4:20 @kennedypj please share more about your microblogging idea, maybe i can help #
9/24 12:31 @tamkaizen neither. mày là Việt Kiều! #
9/24 11:58 @tamkaizen you/nielsen or cimigo should have accurate figures on vn? numbeo is biased from english-speakers = expats who pay >$2 for smokes? #
9/24 11:35 @caligarn haven't played violin since high school when i picked up guitar, later turntables. shame really. you play? #
9/24 11:24 @betoneko know any JP speakers who would like to work for a game/3d company? #
9/24 7:07 @caligarn kennedypj saigon-mui ne really unpleasant imo, only worthwhile if continuing on to da lat which is a beautiful ride #
9/24 6:59 @tamkaizen they pull stats from anyone willing to enter datapoints. weak and unsubstantiated. bet few real vnese there. median salary < $653 #
9/24 6:52 @caligarn dude you played viola? i played the squeeky violin for like 9 years by the suzuki method #
9/23 21:36 @tamkaizen $4.50 for an inexpensive meal in vn? think numbeo's numbers may err high for vn, more accurate for US #
9/21 9:08 @Vietnam720 same here! kaiten zushi is fun w/ a friend. so i think Kichi Kichi hotpot applies the concept well even if there's better lau #
9/21 8:55 @jodiehuynh @betoneko @Vietnam720 Sushi Bar = Pho 24: many locations, a lil pricy, the only one many have tried, but real jp/vn go elsewhere #
9/21 8:44 @kennedypj @jodiehuynh yes, correction: the event is saturday! #
9/21 7:18 @jodiehuynh i've been following @thomaswanhoff tweets re: barcamp vientiane. see that it's not til Nov. thx for reminding! #
9/21 7:04 @jodiehuynh looking forward to eating/networking with mexican food/people this sunday! at http://bit.ly/bWVYfV #
9/21 6:59 sadly just now finding out about #barcamp phnom penh this weekend #barcamppp3 #
9/21 6:54 @Vietnam720 @betoneko baby spoon serves contemporary japanese/western cuisine, think of dishes like omu-rice made with cream #
9/20 8:05 @jodiehuynh coffee on wednesday it is! #
9/20 8:02 @betoneko thx for putting me in a special box ;) #
9/19 16:13 @caligarn @tamkaizen i believe HCMC govt keeps statistics on foreigners on their website. most expats are asian, not "white" #
9/19 16:12 @caligarn good question. how much are you willing to pay for an option to purchase today's paper for delivery in 1 year? #
9/19 15:44 @kennedypj with names like that, those beans'd probably sell for a high premium in VN, right? with sữa i probably couldn't discern anyhow #
9/19 15:36 @betoneko i just picked up a copy of yesterday's paper. i can't believe they still sell yesterday's news, and at today's price! #
9/19 15:14 @betoneko i'm also interested in printing biz cards; obviously Ly Thai To is the go-to street; b4 i went nearby on Dien Bien Phu #
9/19 15:04 product development in 3 words: "Ready! Fire! Aim!" #
9/19 10:00 @rockportrait @kennedypj it's not real weasel-from-weasel-butt-hole coffee, but it's still delicious (and i'm kind of an anti-fan of #4sq ;) #
9/19 8:32 reminder to self: return to this bamboo cafe to see if it's as awesome on another day. delicious weasel coffee #
9/19 3:47 anyone have a copy of saturday's Tuoi Tre? i got a long quote in @betoneko's article about working 2nd jobs #
9/18 19:18 @CoachLeaders i don't remember much about the BC era (Before Computers) ; if it's not in the cloud does it truly exist? #
9/18 7:55 sometimes i dream in slideshow format moving from one conceptual frame to the next #
9/16 9:21 the time has come to raise the bar in saigon, say 1m higher. re-christen "venice of the orient" and call it a day #
9/16 9:15 @jodiehuynh it was from the previous tweetup. how a propos! #
9/16 9:12 @michaelcoyote yup, traffic cops and usually a bill or 2 should be sufficient but whiteface'll get hit up for more for not knowing better #
9/16 9:09 when i type @ i want names to start autocompleting, and then i want whatever i am thinking to just appear in the box #
9/16 9:09 @saigonnezumi i know a secret route behind the manor that should skip the flooded portion of NHC #
9/16 8:24 i guess i did get caught by a photographer in the latest issue of The Word magazine #
9/15 12:13 saw an old white guy busted by cong an at the edge of D1, counting off a wad of 100s that was too much. he looked like this: >:[ #
9/14 17:20 @CoachLeaders nice chatting with ya at #saigontweetup but i hope half of what you said went right over her head haha #
9/11 6:30 at blackcat sg: family of 3 speaking .fr; a .jp couple; 2 .kr girls 1 speaking .vn on mobile; single .jp guy reading silently; and me. #
9/10 11:08 need priority inbox for twitter and facebook #
9/3 10:21 looking for the cheapest way to get 180 Trung Thu lanterns to the US (Ann Arbor) by September 12 #
9/2 7:28 you're sick. you're coughing as hard as you can. do you have to cough directly on me? thanks for giving me a reason to take pseudoephedrine #
9/1 17:41 @HelpingHandSG i already donated my bike to a poor student, actually he borrowed it and just never gave it back #
9/1 11:31 and... vietnam goes on holiday for the rest of the week #

@tomosaigon Twitter Archive - 10-2010

Submitted by tomo on October 6, 2012 - 4:55pm
10/31 8:06 @Conversoul do you skate? i'm only aware of the skate shop on Bui Vien #
10/30 7:24 someone please invent socks that keep your feet cool, and kills mosquitos #
10/28 6:30 luxury imports -> inflation -> poorer people. so each minivan you see is a small village of hungry people, each iphone is a hungry child #
10/28 6:27 @kennedypj excellent! flying direct to vte? i'm planning fly -> bkk, train -> vientiane #
10/28 6:25 @rockportrait @kennedypj @betoneko indeed, said tongue in cheek. nip=nippon, but rarely heard now. to youth, nip is just short for nipple #
10/28 5:09 anyone want to go to Barcamp Vientiane nov 27? http://barcampvientiane.org @barcampVTE #
10/28 4:56 @betoneko hey! shouldn't call japanese people japs. nips is better, and funnier #
10/27 6:45 cost-benefit analysis: arresting a blogger is probably an ineffective way to keep a topic off the internet #
10/27 6:43 @betoneko @saigonnezumi check out Drupal, it comes highly recommended (by me :). if you have any questions ask me #
10/27 6:22 @saigoninacup @caligarn i too set down the fiddle many moons ago. i studied suzuki method, so played for years before i could actually read #
10/27 6:15 @BellVietnam i know some SEO/SEM guys in saigon. hit me up for the infoz #
10/24 20:41 ended up at chinese-vnese b-day party for a 4-yo, starting at midnight, not knowing the name of a single person and xlating japanese to viet #
10/23 11:00 @betoneko wow, back in my father's time it was much simpler - live in a French house, eat Chinese food, marry a Japanese girl (or something) #
10/23 4:10 @caligarn Computer Assisted Language Learning! #
10/22 7:43 @HerDailyDigest i was wearing a blue shirt, with 2 lovely ladies. i didn't know it was your kid! #
10/21 8:15 @HerDailyDigest yes, saw some kids running around last night... did you shrink? :) #
10/21 8:14 @rockportrait @HerDailyDigest it was loud, not sure how i'd classify - contemporary rock. there was a japanese noise band at Tadao last week #
10/21 7:35 @HerDailyDigest oh, i was at Pacharan last night too but didn't see you, was listening to that japanese band! #
10/21 7:07 @TylerWatts @dynamicscholar @ericburdette my friend's dad gets around his (f'n big) property in D2 by golf cart, even takes it out to street #
10/21 7:02 @betoneko i set up a needanym project for naming your Expat Page w/ some suggestions, invite ppl to suggest names at http://bit.ly/aSMD5q #
10/20 9:12 @kennedypj lorem ipsum is used by web developers to fill in content, say for a mockup, so as not to distract from the design #
10/20 7:35 @kennedypj @betoneko @shilkytouch It's gangstafied lorem ipsum, my twizzles. meant to be meaningless text (not unlike many tweets) #
10/20 7:26 @caligarn hey dude, did you get my DM? not sure what's up with twitter #
10/20 6:25 Lorizzle ipsizzle fo shiznit boofron, crazy adipiscing elit. sapizzle velit, crunk volutpizzle, suscipizzle quizzle, yippiyo vizzle, arcu. #
10/19 15:11 @dynamicscholar i think i won't switch to my Wu name "Dubious Masturbatah-X" @tamkaizen #
10/18 10:55 @betoneko thx.. i'll be sure to ask for the biggest cakes they have! #
10/18 5:25 what bakery in saigon delivers birthday cakes? #
10/17 5:46 @saigoninacup i have some jalapenos (from Veggys) but you can never have enough! #
10/16 20:19 @shilkytouch holla! you've self-actualized into 100% super salaryman kevin in yo profile, so i didn't recognize #
10/16 19:44 @michaelcoyote in saigon convenience stores they sell these packs of what are basically like thick nori chips, meant to be eaten as snacks! #
10/16 16:50 about to book on #Qatar Airways, "World's 5-Star Airline" #
10/15 18:52 just put #beatcancer in a tweet and a nickel is raised against cancer (for the next day or so) #
10/15 9:42 @HerDailyDigest my exp booking hotels in Jakarta is that prices are cheaper when you just walk up than prebooking online #
10/15 7:10 @caligarn @BellVietnam @tamkaizen i think VN can learn many lessons from SIN, but "have once been a british colony" isn't one of them :) #
10/12 15:39 @saigonnezumi so let's talk about a Drupal-based SIS :) #
10/12 15:33 @saigonnezumi FPT is giving me over 50% packet loss right now, it's been like this for a few days and i wonder if other ISPs are any better #
10/11 12:47 i get a kick out of giving directions to vietnamese who stop me on the street #
10/11 12:24 @betoneko what language for the expat column? #
10/11 7:15 today is just a little bit quieter without #4sq #
10/10 14:36 sat at a cafe waiting for someone, instead of tweeting about it, I hacked together "h8sq: The 4sq Killer for Twitter" http://shar.es/0ZqN2 #
10/10 9:41 @ethuynh Silicon Valley is neither a city, nor is it cool, just has VC. the time to build the Silicon Delta is now #
10/8 7:08 @saigoninacup @ericburdette haha, like chicken mcnuggets... but fish! however, i'm a fan of White Castle's "chicken rings" #
10/8 6:48 @ericburdette what?! there's a Long John Silvers in Vietnam? #
10/8 6:09 someone should invent a fish w/o bones that still tastes like fish. or maybe chicken. #
10/8 5:02 @betoneko $0 earners: maybe farmers or people far from civilization, retirees, kids! also sometimes me :) #
10/8 4:36 @saigoninacup you can definitely order Dr Pepper at Wayne's Texas, since it wouldn't be TX w/o Dr Pepper. prob also penos and ranch there #
10/7 18:19 @BellVietnam true dat, Peter, many aspects of living in VN can't be compared, esp. things i like most can't be bought for reasonable $ in US #
10/7 17:55 @ethuynh my vietnamese name is Trí which i did not pick myself #
10/7 17:41 @betoneko calculating costs as a %age of salary sounds really smart. so if i make $0, then everything costs exactly the same? :) #
10/7 10:47 @betoneko vn is much cheaper than jp! :) thx #
10/7 10:45 @mattlepub i think low-end/entry-level smartphone market is interesting, tho certainly not best quality. plus .cn fones do 2x sims :) #
10/7 10:40 @caligarn blogged about CoL in saigon on http://www.saigonist.com ; see you at rich people jazz night tmrw ;) #
10/6 20:07 @ethuynh hey trung, good to catch up. btw, we have the same family name! #
10/6 19:28 my take on the cost of living in Vietnam: It's Really Cheap http://shar.es/0dNRz #
10/6 18:17 so where can i buy a Huawei (Chinese) Android phone in #saigon #
10/6 18:15 @betoneko people would say "what's a prattle?" and "why are you no longer a prattle?" #
10/6 6:35 Of 6909 known languages 1/2 expected to disappear this century; every 2 weeks, the last fluent speaker of one dies. (http://bit.ly/b1jh1t) #
10/5 20:44 i wonder if Animal Farm has ever been translated into Vietnamese #
10/5 6:22 i like how it can be pouring down rain, but cross the street into another district and all the streets are dry #
10/3 7:41 RT @Orangwutang Vietnamese universities do little original research; rarely cited by scientific scholars (The Economist http://is.gd/fHPDJ) #
10/3 7:17 @ericburdette re: the article, where in OH are you from? i grew up in columbus #
10/2 15:49 The Immigrant Paradox: so stay in VN to have math genius kids (http://bit.ly/cD11Tq) #
10/1 15:49 just noticed youtube has rolled out html5 by default, at least for some videos. one more nail in the flash coffin #

@tomosaigon Twitter Archive - 11-2010

Submitted by tomo on October 6, 2012 - 4:53pm
11/30 16:11 @michaelcoyote haha, Titlescorer technology would go great with Needanym, thanks! #
11/29 10:04 @TerranceCollins please DM me your email, I can't DM you because you're not following me (?) #
11/29 9:16 @betoneko banh cuon hat gao vang is my favorite :) #
11/27 17:30 lol Bitexco is really proud of overcoming the odds to put up the US$300 building RT @ourman http://is.gd/hRURP #
11/27 11:01 @TerranceCollins i know an SEO/SEM group in SGN i can refer; DM me. have also refer'd to @BellVietnam #
11/25 17:37 @Vietnam720 lol headline: "Charity Race Ends in Bombing of Online Phone Store" #
11/25 16:28 @betoneko i hope those busses are replaced by ones with doors on both sides so they can pick up riders without cutting across all lanes! #
11/25 16:05 need to go to Dong Nai to kill simdepdongnai/simsodepsovip/simdongnai .coms for spamming my site #
11/25 7:53 feels a bit like Thanksgiving back home - cops lurking around every corner #
11/23 19:56 My quick hack to download YouTube video files w/o installing any software: http://shar.es/X0a6H #saigonist #
11/22 9:07 @ducban a vietnamese girl who speaks drupal? we should all get together! #
11/21 17:42 @fisheggtree hey i'm like 37.49% michigander (A2). dominos on me. but i'd feel better eating detroit square pizza, even little caesars #
11/21 15:28 @Vietnam720 you can decide for yourself how serious it is, hopefully @afieldofgrass doesn't kill me :) #
11/21 9:28 presenting 4stalk: a 4sq with benefits http://saigonist.com/4stalk #
11/20 20:11 I propose an X Prize for condoms that feel better than real. Call it the XXX Prize: saves the world, profitable, fun! #
11/20 13:18 dude, i totally just bought a bag of homemade seaweed that looks and is packaged like a bag of real weed #
11/20 4:49 i have got a devious new location-based service idea, it should rake in millions (of dongs) #
11/20 4:37 @philip_arthur the simplest vietnamese word for mu might be vô, which has the same chinese origin, but also mostly used in compound words #
11/20 4:01 @caligarn would like to check that cafe out.. japanese? Himiko (Pimiko) is a lady from japanese history #
11/19 6:48 @caligarn let's buy the trampoline and use it to cover large sinkholes on the road #
11/18 13:48 @potkin had Mr BBQ in Q1 yesterday, but plenty in D2 area of Binh Thanh, and next to Superbowl #
11/18 6:05 @betoneko always wondered how common is it to call Phnom Penh "Nam Vang"? #
11/17 5:52 this soup (canh) is just half a pineapple chopped and boiled and served in a small flower pot #
11/15 16:52 @betoneko good question. i think if Japanese dev agencies saw plan & proof of rapid growth in Quy Nhon, Da Nang, Hue they'd start sooner #
11/15 16:33 i want an investor login to the angelsoft database #
11/15 9:02 @betoneko in order for a future Hanoi-Saigon shinkansen, VN needs to build a Saigon-Nha Trang line, and develop cities like Da Nang, Hue #
11/14 12:01 I'm across the street from Inches 'Plussize & Matured Woman Boutique' #
11/14 9:02 The future of Foursquare - should you bother? http://shar.es/0PQHG #
11/14 1:27 take the bus in #saigon: http://www.donxebuyt.com/ #
11/13 5:56 the entire #fossasia conference organization has disappeared under mysterious circumstances #
11/13 3:16 at #fossasia at Raffles. where's lunch?! #
11/12 6:35 I'm at Intel Software Seminar at Intercontinental Hotel, so far it's nothing about software. #failsquare #
11/12 6:30 @rockportrait not sure if you're serious or not, but my ex-roomie/friends wrote the Rebirth iPad app! #
11/9 10:15 @tramyhurricane do you go to any french-speaking clubs? also, i have 2 friends looking for a french tutor if you wanna split costs.. #
11/8 17:19 i'll probably watch Star Trek five more times this week #
11/5 8:39 @caligarn have you tried Wrap and Roll's lunch buffet? if anything, a lot of choices #
11/4 15:52 i wish neighbors would stop dying, or at least do so more quietly #
11/4 8:27 @HerDailyDigest in jakarta i like to eat satay and ride the bus rapid transit! at night, enjoy nice views atop nice hotel bars #

@tomosaigon Twitter Archive - 12-2010

Submitted by tomo on October 6, 2012 - 4:50pm
12/31 16:19 happy non-vietnamese new year to everyone in vietnam! #
12/29 16:33 robbed in berlin. WTF are you going to do with VND? #
12/29 1:08 stay in Berlin or go to a) Barcelona b) Madrid c) Lisbon #
12/28 16:08 @Vietnam720 about 7 months in advance ;) i've fixed my fake birthday on FB now :) #
12/28 16:05 #27c3 the 27th Chaos Computer Congress is happening right here, right now at bcc, Alexanderplatz #
12/27 4:03 I'm in the Middle East #
12/22 18:28 @betoneko Vietnam didn't help by renaming it's major city, but I think you can say New York, Tokyo, Paris, or London w/o country :) #
12/22 17:30 @HelpingHandSG Thursday night I have dinner plans from 7, then work at 11, but what do y'all need? give me a call :) #
12/21 15:11 Cambodia's Bamboo Train http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Catching-the-Bamboo-Train.html #
12/18 19:26 free calls to the US in my Gmail by ssh'ing to the US #
12/13 13:29 @afieldofgrass @MoodyRain yup, coffee sounds good! #
12/13 8:35 @careyz cool, let's get coffee and talk drupal sometime #
12/12 13:20 good times at #barcampsaigon, thanks to those who came to my Groupon clone/Drupal talk... both of you! #
12/12 13:19 @betoneko sooooo sorrrrrrry!!!!! #
12/11 9:50 @thomaswanhoff i do Drupal and plan to present at #barcampsaigon tomorrow if you're coming #
12/10 8:12 @ericburdette i know a neighboring place just finishing construction, big room w/ private entrance, 4 mil vnd/mo #
12/10 8:09 @madsmonsen it's sad that magazines only send writers/photographers to cover Detroit's "ruin porn" and ignore what else they find #
12/7 9:20 @fisheggtree massive props to your 'investigative journalism', michigander! #
12/6 16:05 does vietnam need to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to build roads, or find a way for people to get around on the existing ones? #
12/4 9:37 @betoneko also a small place on Chu Man Trinh sells fresh onigiri with salmon (my preference), but not as cheap as FM. they also sell natto #
12/4 9:35 @betoneko i love onigiri. i hear it's best to come to Family Mart at 10pm when they get it fresh. #
12/3 19:20 this is a great game: http://www.supercratebox.com (good tunes too) #
12/3 7:10 i know a nice 30m2 room for rent available for 4 million/mo, private entrance, for non-assholes only #
12/3 6:07 NASA should spend more time exploring Planet Earth, more cost effective #
12/2 15:25 living in vietnam, my preconceptions of what should be sweet or salty (or spicy) have been flipped upside down #
12/1 4:19 @dukedylan @AC220 in a vietnamese motorbike altercation, the one who doesn't start yelling is to blame :) #
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