Category Archives: Travels

Never a dull moment at Barcamp Saigon 5

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They say you come to Vietnam and you understand a lot in a few minutes. But the rest has got to be lived.

And what better way to do this than by joining the barcamp in Saigon.

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This event brings together local technology and design enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and people working on interesting projects for a day of intense discussions.

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A call for presentations ideas and discussion topics. You put up your idea on the topic board. If the participants like it then they vote for it. Once you have accumulated enough votes, your topic goes into the time table projected on the screen.

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Then we make our own timetable, we figure out what room we want to at what time.

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We ran out of coffee soon. Why? see the next photo.

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Many people were up the previous night looking at the lunar eclipse. Here our friend Hoa shows the photos she took of the moon. She is from the Vietnamese Amateur Astronomy group.

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Once the presentations start, we are not sleepy any more. This year we saw even more local presenters taking on topics of local interest. Here is a discussion on raising funds for local ventures.

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RMIT, the venue sponsor had their students do a mini-trade fair. They had a room with projects that their students had built. Here is a Zigbee (a wireless protocol that enabled inter-device communication) based car parking aid. I enjoyed talking to the students, they were confident and knew how to answer even the non-technical questions.

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Don’t you love when school are proactive in hosting un-conferences and giving their students the opportunity to interact with people outside academia. This is the fifth Barcamp that RMIT is hosting in Saigon.

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A discussion on connectivity around the world.

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I also got to play with the Kindle Fire at a booth that one of the sponsor Tiki.vn had set up. Tiki sells books online, they also import Kindles for local customers.

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A discussion on improving photography skills. Our friend Thuy talking about Vietnamese online forums where they discuss photography. My own session discussed making engaging presentations. Another session that I did urged the Vietnamese to come to BarCamps in South East Asia specifically the ones in Cambodia. We also talked about running more BarCamps in other Vietnamese cities. I truly believe that such ground up events can help us connect the wider region and also help people within a city learn from each other.

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The awesome volunteers. I must say that this year’s t-shirt design was distinct and fresh.

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Yet another memorable events. The highlight this year was 1.seeing more Vietnamese leading sessions, both in English and in Vietnamese language, 2.the participants moving away from presentations to running discussions and 3.meeting such active participants. The Saigon barcamp is a good venue to get the pulse of VN technology and popular culture scene. Thanks to the #barcampsaigon organizing team and volunteers. I am eagerly waiting for the next one.

Just a reminder that Barcamp Yangon will be happening on February 12 and 13. We will be putting up travel and accommodation information soon on the http://www.barcampsingapore.com/upcoming site.

Container Terminal 9 and why I love the future

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I was in Tsing Yi. From my window I could see the Container Terminal 9 stretching all the way to Rambler’s Channel. I have always been curious about how well the global logistics system works.

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And then I wondered about the history of containers. Who first thought about moving things in metal boxes? How did so many companies and ports standardize on the size of containers? How does the system work so well?  A search on Amazon, and i found The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger .

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And I was reading the Kindle edition of the book, barely  minutes after getting curious about container shipping. Isn’t future fun?

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We will probably stop shipping physical books soon.

Huddlespaces

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Many years back in in the far north of China, one morning I hitchhiked from Yinchuan, in Ningxia province to the border of  Inner Mongolia.

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Nothing but wilderness and crumbling ruins of a wall (part of the series of walls that make the great wall). There were no tourists here, hardly any traffic and the landscape wall all mine to wonder about.  I thought about all the people who had traveled though here to the west along the silk route. Places like these where the travelers may have camped – someone makes a fire and that becomes the resting places of several caravan headed in different directions  - Persian, Koreans, Chinese and a dozen other nationalities that no longer exist. Wish I could go back in time to find out what stories they exchanged.

These days the nearest I can get to the silk route camp experience is the  huddlespaces I find in airports – around power plugs and wi-fi points.

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This is one place, strangers are friends – they are happy to talk about their phones and gadgets.

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The price of iPhone on their respective countries is often the topic.

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Images from Kuala Lumpur budget terminal.

Playing with some gadgets in Tokyo

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Am in Tokyo these days and some interesting things I am observing

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Small camera that doubles as USB storage.

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Reminds me of the early iPod Shuffle. Charges via USB.

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Increasingly the  QR codes in Japan are linking to Facebook pages.

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Mockup of Nikong’s mirror less compact camera. Though I am waiting for Fuji X10.

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Nikon 1.

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Sony’s dual screen tablet. It folds to fit into salaryman’s jacket.

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On screens that need text input, the screen at the bottom changed to a keyboard.

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Sony’s wi-fi only tablet.

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Side view of the wi-fi tablet.

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Softbank’s ladies only free magazine for iPhone and iPad users

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Its trying to persuade you why iPad is good for you.

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A friend books an appointment with Apple genius. Services like these makes iPads and iPhones more attractive to customers.

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Yamato Transport. I just edited information about this logo on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_Transport

Taipei attraction for geek tourist – 光華商場 Guang Hua Digital Plaza

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Guang Hua Digital Plaza , seen from the back, The nearest MRT is Zhongxiao Xinsheng Station.

Taiwan is the home of HTC after all. I bought some batteries for my Android phones here. I was hoping to find cheap Android phones, surprisingly, the most inexpensive Android was not a Taiwanese brand but an LG at 230 USD.

The weekends are festive here with tech and game companies running promotions. The booth girls are always are hit,

Panda promoting something.

There is good crowd inside too, though shops only start becoming active around 11AM.

Mobile and tablet accessories seem to the big draw these days. In the home of ASUS and Acer, iPads and iPhones have a good presence.

DIY computer making is still very active here in Taipei. I see it declining in many other places in Asia.

Gaming competitions

Outside the mall, once you get out of the back entrance, you see more IT and mobile shops.

The nearby Burger King has iPod docks and personal listening stations.

And some street snacks

And a large Apple store.

Was getting too fed up with wires dangling from the iPhone as I am always listening to audio books or podcasts. So ended up getting this set of bluetooth earphones. This is Plantronics backbeat 903+, it works well with the iPhone and the mac but Galaxy S has trouble recognizing it. http://www.plantronics.com/us/product/backbeat-903-plus

Another small local brand gadget I picked up is this Bone iPhone USB link II. Don’t like carrying those long USB cables, this is very compact. Want to pick up the micro USB version of this too. http://www.fruitshop.com.tw/en/products/detail/bone-link-ii/

Weekend in Hualien City, Taiwan

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Taiwan has several smaller cities that are fun to visit. This time we decided to go to Hualien. Train is a good way to travel. You can book your tickets online at Taiwan Rail online booking site at http://railway.hinet.net/net_eng.htm

The 3 to 4 hour train ride from Taipei to Hualien gets interesting in the second half when you start seeing the ocean. Try to get a seat on the left.

Glorious ocean and Turtle island beyond.

There is a night market near the ocean. You can try your hands at winning the angry birds.

Many food and drinks.

And games.

And more food.

Bamboo shoot with rice.

Making food at night market.

Diners at night market

Pickled cabbage.

We were just in time for the summer festival and witnessed the fireworks.

Don’t miss this famous dumpling shop. The city is walkable and folks friendly. Just feel free to ask the people and they will direct you.

Expect a wait if you are here on a weekend. Many people come here from Taipei and other parts of Taiwan.

Their chili sauce is fun too.

More street snacks.

The city has many cats.

It was hot durning the day so nice to find such juicy fruits.

We entered a temple to see this puppet stage.

And got offered this rice ball dessert by the Temple caretakers.

Walk by the ocean.

It was angry. That is why not much swimming in the area.

It seems to me that this city had its glory day in the past. Many things looked like they have passed their prime. like this bridge. But that gives them an unique rusted look.

One of the advantages of a roaring democracy is that election posters can be recycled.

Night market in the day, looks like a post-apocalyptic zone, no one in sight.

Night market in the day.

Night market in the day.

Cute stall.

Walking back to city, more local food stall. Usually they have limited seating area, as most local bike in, buy the food as a take -away and bike back.

I love a city with laundromat.

Hualien train station.