Telecommunications in Vietnam visualized with some network maps showing both international and domestic peering arrangements between ISPs. Bookmark this page and I'll add more maps as I find them.

For international bandwidth VNPT (VDC) is important. For domestic internet look for connections through VNIX. VNPT, FPT, Viettel, NetNam, SPT, even VinaGame and Google.

Information about server hosting in Vietnam
Information about cloud hosting and content delivery network access from Vietnam

Attachments: 

So do huong ket noi cua VDC.JPG

viettel-international.jpg

DNS-SD-VNIX-20120905.gif

viettel-backbone.jpg

I've been doing some testing on a plethora of content delivery networks using cloudharmony.com's speedtest service. Testing from multiple ISPs in Vietnam, during the most recent undersea cable outage, it becomes clear that, although none of the CDNs publicly have datacenters in Vietnam, a small handfull of networks like Edgecast CDN (via http://www.speedyrails.com/) come out on top as winners (except for an anomalous reading of small file size downloading from one ISP). In these tests, performance of poor hosts relative to the top was as much as 20 times slower, meaning CDN selection without taking into consideration the real world results in Vietnam can mean you're throwing a lot of money away. Poorly performing content delivery networks were more or less not any faster than hosting in the US.

Limelight CDN also had some of the best overall results, better than Edgecast in some cases.

VoxCAST CDN had a surprisingly low latency time suggesting it could be closer to Vietnam than anything in Singapore, but VoxCAST (Internap) do have a Singaporean datacenter which is probably just faster than other points in Singapore. Unfortunately, the transfer speeds were too low. Internap's CDN taken into consideration alone fared poorly. Edgecast state they use Equinix Singapore Exchange so it may be worth looking into colocating there.

Windows Azure CDN had some promising results in some tests whereas other tests failed. I didn't investigate further when CDNs failed, assuming they should not fail.

What may be more surprising is who isn't the winner here: Amazon

Amazon EC2 instances in both Singapore and Tokyo (just for comparison) performed poorly both in terms of latency and throughput. Amazon's CloudFront service did no better.

Asia-America Gateway undersea cable outage

At the time of writing, the AAG internet cable that connects to Vietnam at Vung Tau's landing station, thus providing FPT (although Viettel and VNPT do also use AAG) in Ho Chi Minh City and its subscribers with international bandwidth to Hong Kong, Singapore, and points beyond in the US, has been cut or damaged again. The cable experiences cuts both at the Vung Tau cable landing station as well as in the main trunk when all traffic along the cable would be affected. It is one of several international links to Vietnamese ISPs such as SEA-ME-WE 3 (but not SEA-ME-WE 4) which connects to Vietnam in Da Nang and links Southeast Asia with East Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and Western Europe. TVH and TGN-Intra Asia Cable System also land in Vung Tau connecting Southern Vietnam to the greater Internet. Vietnam also has terrestrial internet connections to China.

[Update: The AAG cable is being repaired from October 25, 2012 until November 4.]

One evening while on a brief holiday at sea in Vung Tau I got a phone call.

"Anh Tomo, can you do me a favor?"

One early thing I learned about Vietnamese interpersonal relations is that people are much more forward when it comes to asking for favors than Americans might be. There isn't the hesitation to owe other people favors that keeps me from asking in most situations.

Around this time I had begun practicing a new philosophy though. Basically, like the Jim Carrey movie "Yes Man" I started saying "yes!" to invitations and requests that I would have probably hemmed and hawed at in the past. This has led to some awesome times and amazing new friendships in Vietnam. But there have also been many moments of great regret.

This time the request was to be an emcee.

Some people (like my friend Minh) are (by whatever means (whether natural tendency or hard work and practice)) good emcees. They are able to talk continuously and control the flow of the audience as the situation requires.

A good MC has a bunch of qualities and I basically had none of them.

How to be an MC when you're not an MC:

1) Don't care.
2) Smile. (I'm told I don't.)
3) Have a good sense of humor. LOL.
4) Look pretty. Smiling helps and being funny leads to smiling.

That's about all I can really teach about that subject.

The event in question was a "date auction" for a charity I'd never heard of called Helping Hand Saigon. My first thought was "OMG, selling young Vietnamese girls to foreigners - can I really be a part of such an operation?"

As it turns out, they were auctioning off young Vietnamese men as well. A Vietnamese male singer-song writer also showed up, performed a few songs, and then auctioned himself off, garnering over a million dongs. Later I saw one of his music videos on TV so I guess it was a bargain.

All the money raised was going to charity and not the girls. The charity would then help educate poor Vietnamese kids. The auction winners would get contact details of the won "lot" in order to arrange a coffee, movie, or other PG-rated date. So not at a short time hotel.

There is a point to this blog post. Tomorrow night (this Saturday night) Helping Hand Saigon is having their second date auction!

If you want to do some online window shopping before deciding whether or not to go you can see the date auction candidate's photos on Facebook.

If you are interested in buying a cheap Vietnamese bride then Helping Hand Saigon's Date Auction will only waste your time. If you really do want to find a Vietnamese bride I recommend you just spend some time in Vietnam, volunteering and meeting people.

Useful Errata:

Time: 5:30pm August 25th, 2012
Location: H&M Lounge, 101 Suong Nguyet Anh, District 1

My friend Grover and I have a lot of mutual friends as I noticed on Facebook one day. And I know that I have a lot of friends with whom I share a large number of friends. I got curious and asked myself: "Who do I have the most shared friends with?" This question turned into a Facebook FQL query which gave me the data. Then I decided to turn it into a "product" and ended up learning stuff about Facebook's PHP and JavaScript SDKs.

The final result is this Facebook App: Saigonist Mutual Friends.

Just enable the app and you'll see a list of your top 10 friends with mutual friends. I got my answer: my friend Jodie and I share 158 friends.

--

Next steps? I'd like to visualize what cliques or subnetworks exist within my Facebook network...

Attention English teachers living in Saigon: My friend has an English center on Tu Xuong Street in District 3 and is in urgent need of a substitute English teacher, and more permanent staff for the future. Please read the following then either call 848. 39326594 or Create a Teacher Listing to be notified about other open English (or Vietnamese) teaching or tutoring jobs around Vietnam:

Again, if you want to be notified of other odd teaching jobs or school openings or tutoring requests, enlist in the free Saigonist Vietnam teacher directory service.

This simply service is dedicated to both Vietnamese and English teachers. I hope that it can help some friends.

Rubbing my eyes, contact lenses still in, I slowly woke up to an orange sun just beginning its daily ascent. We were still on a bus, just about to arrive in Nha Trang after driving all night from Saigon, but waking up alive meant I'd survived seven consecutive days of being a vegetarian (coinciding with the start of a bicycle trek from Nha Trang to Saigon, an exercise in which I would need all the calories I could get, regardless of source - future blog post on that experience). Since then, in the name of science I did another one week stint as a vegetarian which led me to finish writing this post.

Vegetarian restaurants in Saigon

[ Above is a map I made of vegetarian restaurants mostly around Districts 1, 3, and Binh Thanh. Red Markers indicated closed restaurants. Google and other online resources for Vietnam/Ho Chi Minh City are useful sources too but I always find them to be both lacking, inaccurate and, out of date, which means I've wasted a lot of time looking for restaurants that no longer exist or have moved. Feel free to suggest additions in the comments or let me know if you want to be a collaborator on the map and I'll give you access. I will only list restaurants that I have verified or which you can vouch for. The map will be updated periodically.]

Why eat vegetables and not animals in Vietnam?

With any luck, you should actually enjoy eating a healthier diet and feel better for it, both physically and mentally or spiritually. If you do convert to vegetarianism you should do it for yourself before any other reason.

Not eating tons of meat has health benefits. It will lower your risk for various diseases while you'll be eating more of the good nutrients you probably aren't getting enough of. You'll avoid more of the poisons like pesticides and heavy metals that accumulate in higher concentrations in animals. Vegetarian restaurants in Vietnam often go an extra step and refrain from using MSG in their food. (Next time you eat out in Vietnam, you'll be praying that Ajinomoto is the worst of all the additives used in most other restaurants.) Being vegetarian can be good for your conscience too - less animal farming is better for the environment and uses less of our resources and not killing sentient beings is something they'll appreciate (although it's up for debate whether invertebrates feel pain). If you're Buddhist then you should be concerned about what Buddhism says about that last point. Otherwise, try not to let it bother you. Try not to think of a purple elephant while you're at it.

If you happen to meditate, you may be interested in knowing that vegetarians shoved in an fMRI machine show more empathy. Personally, I've found myself feeling a bit more compassion for animals. From an enlightenment perspective, this extra push in compassion may help with your concentration, as meditation on compassion leads to improved concentration. (Thus compassion, beyond or despite its altruism, also shapes us into better human beings.)

In Vietnam, we should be especially concerned about what poisons may be going into our foods because when hearing reported seizures of rotten meat for sale to consumers (40 tons of rotten meat seized in Thu Duc District in the first half of 2012) we know it's just the tip of the iceberg. Fear of death due to eating rotten chicken may be reason enough to vegetarianize yourself, when chicken is often undercooked here, not to mention Vietnam's own various raw meat dishes including the raw beef thrown in pho. Lack of refrigeration is common at the numerous informal restaurants and carts in Vietnam despite the tropical weather and, whereas vegetable dishes can go unrefrigerated for awhile, meat dishes will spoil quickly despite being cooked possibly hours before being served to and eaten by customers, with leftover lunch being kept in the afternoon heat to be served for dinner.

Meat in Vietnam is often served with skin and fat included, making it even less healthy (although it can also be more delicious this way). And sinewy Vietnamese beef doesn't even taste good, does it?! This is why beef imported from Australia or the US is available for a markup here, for even minimally discerning tastes. I would honestly not miss eating Vietnamese beef. But Vietnamese people enjoy gnawing on chewy stuff, apparently.

Buddhists in Vietnam are also supposed to eat vegetarian once or twice a month, based on the lunar calendar, and can eat free vegetarian meals at pagodas on those days. The world is a better place for it on those days at least.

Vegetarians become aware of protein alternatives (e.g. broccoli, soy, beans, etc. although most beans are actually quite rare) and Vietnamese vegetarian restaurants have numerous mock meat dishes, some of which are rather convincing. How could you live in the south of Vietnam without eating "cơm tấm", broken rice served with grilled pork, shredded pork skin, and a slab of pork meatloaf? Thankfully, vegetarian restaurants in Saigon can do a convincing faux meat version (pictured above) of this signature dish and other Vietnamese favorites of mine like chả giò and canh khổ qua. Besides soy-based "meat", Vietnamese use wheat gluten (mì căn) to make mock meats. I'm impressed by what Vietnam has done with vegetarian (generally vegan) cuisine and want to encourage even more conversion of the low hanging fruit of Vietnamese cuisine into meatless versions.

Generally, meals at Vietnamese restaurants might come with fresh herbs but lack vegetables beyond a measly slice of unripe tomato and cucumber. We all know we should be eating more vegetables and eating at a vegetarian restaurant is an easy way to inject some vitamins into our diets.

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Vietnamese Vegetarian Restaurants

Saigon has vegetarian restaurants sprinkled throughout the city, from cheap (under a dollar per meal) to fancy (e.g. Hoa Dang a.k.a. Loving Hut). But if you like to stay up late and eat late meals it can be harder to find your favorite veggie spot still serving - often the normal vegetarian "com chay" quans, like most restaurants in Vietnam, stop selling after lunch around 2:00 PM and start back up around 4:00, but then after 8:00 close for the day. I work late at night which is normally not a big problem for food in Saigon where late night joints can be found throughout town. So a late night vegetarian restaurants would have at least one customer!

There are basically two types of vegetarian restaurants in Vietnam. The most common is a "quan com chay" and they are easy to find all around the city. Just make sure it says "cơm chay" and not "cơm cháy" because the latter is a kind of crispy rice wafer., which may not be vegetarian at all. A quan com chay will generally have a cart in front with a buffet of a dozen or so vegetarian dishes such as tofu, mock meats, sauteed vegetables, greens, etc. to be eaten with rice.

The other kind of vegetarian restaurant is the proper restaurant with non-plastic chairs for seating, with air conditioning, where you will be shown a proper menu from which you will order dishes. This is where you'd take guests whereas the former is where you'd stop in for a quick meal.

Won't it suck?

Issues that might come up:

Hunger: Do you find regular Vietnamese portions to be too small, even after eating in Vietnam for awhile? Then it won't be better when eating vegetarian. I was used to it, and was already eating several vegetarian meals a week, but still felt hungry sometimes. But at most buffets you can choose to order more side dishes and even more rice. But Quan Thien Tam at 152 Ban Co, right off Dien Bien Phu in District 3, a 15000 VND rice plate is enough to satiate almost anyone's appetite.

Craving for animal flesh: I recently quit smoking. Thinking about a specific meal containing meat sometimes does not compare to the desire to smoke a cigarette after you've just quit.

Availability: It's available all over Saigon as long as you don't need to eat after 9 PM or so! I did not restrict myself to a vegan diet so eggs and milk products were "on the menu" so it was possible to eat at many normal restaurants too.

This is bún chả giò, rice noodles tossed with fried spring rolls and some bean sprouts and herbs, like salad with fish sauce as the dressing. Except the fish sauce here isn't made from fish and the spring rolls have tubers and other plans as ingredients instead of pork. It's delicious aka "ngon" in Vietnamese.

This is the long awaited blog post on finding housing in Vietnam (requested by many readers of the classic Cost of Living in Vietnam post, and this new post is especially about the Ho Chi Minh City rental scene for expats.

As I've mentioned before, I live in an unfurnished two-storey house of about 70 square meters located in a tiny alley (I'll explain why below) which is less than a 10 minute drive from downtown District 1. For this I pay less than $200 per month including all utilities. For the past year, rent has been stable whereas the previous year it went up by $10/month.

I pay more for housing than the average single Vietnamese person pays, while paying far less per square meter than the average expat in Vietnam.

How (can I not get ripped off on housing)?

1. Have Vietnamese friends on your side, finding housing for you that they would be willing to pay for for themselves or their families. Not real estate agents who see each foreigner as a fat commission check (even when they are foreigners themselves), where the higher they can negotiate monthly rent the more money they earn. Agents are incentivized to get you into the most expensive housing you're willing to pay for. Friends want to save you money. The difference between the two methods can mean hundreds of dollars saved each month.

When you first arrive in Vietnam, consider staying in temporary housing, a guesthouse, or a hotel for three months or so, while you build a network of Vietnamese friends. Don't rush yourself into a 1-year contract.

2. "Nhà cho thuê". Memorize this Vietnamese phrase. It literally means "House for rent" and it's a sign that you won't have to pay extra for having some agent with a storefront market the house (or spam the internet). These landlords get less requests for their properties if they're relying on eyeballs on their signs alone. These are hidden gems. If you see a sign in an area (and it should be in an alley) that you'd like to check out then write down the phone number, name (the name is probably preceded by "A." or "C."), and address, then have a Vietnamese friend call for you, ask for the price, and then schedule an appointment to come check it out.

Also be on the lookout for "Phòng cho thuê" which means "Room for rent" which means you'd only be renting a single room in a house. You'll see these signs for guesthouses in the backpacker district as well. For most rooms for rent where the landlord lives in the house and is in charge of unlocking the front door, it will be inconvenient for you to come home after a late night of partying as someone will have to wake up to open the door.

Some other vocabulary:
"ở ghép" - This means a group of people are looking for someone to share a room.
"nữ" - This means the housing is for females only.
"sinh viên" - This housing is meant for university students. Any of these are probably not a good match for foreigners moving to Vietnam.

Spend time walking or leisurely bicycling through kilometer after kilometer of alleys and find as many of these as you can. Especially be willing to venture into dead-end alleys. For the same reason that you'd normally not go into them (which isn't due to any physical danger - Vietnam is generally really safe), for the people who actually live there it's a quiet place to live without the through traffic.

You can also find posters attached to light poles and other public areas although in that case you won't be able to immediately see the outside of the house.

3. Unfurnished housing. A rule of thumb is that furnished housing costs twice as much as unfurnished housing, even though the "value" you get from renting furniture from your landlord rapidly goes down as the price goes up. So at $300/month for a fully furnished room for rent, you could find a similar yet unfurnished room for rent for 3 million VND. A 4 million VND house would easily ask $400/month if furnished.

Picky about furniture? You will actually be better off buying your own and renting an unfurnished place. If you're concerned about not being certain how long you'll be here, just consider that the monthly savings could easily cover buying appliances, etc. in the 6 months your likely minimum shortest contract is for. If you do suddenly leave in 6 months you do have the option of selling your nearly new appliances. On the other hand, wait awhile before you move into your first permanent home and you might be fortunate enough to have new expat friends who decide to leave the country and give you their furniture and appliances! (One thing you quickly learn about being an expat is that we are an impermanent lot)

Oh, don't forget that you can actually affordably have custom furniture built for your home in Vietnam.

4. In general, not being too picky about having something in mind and finding something that matches it exactly. Did you willingly decide to move to Vietnam yourself? Then you should dispel any expectations of Vietnam changing itself to suit you on your arrival without having to conform in any way. If an international company sent you here to work then you might have an argument for being housed in more expensive expat housing.

Do you need to live on any given street, or really close to your work? Probably not if you can ride a motorbike.

In Vietnam, kitchens can range from spacious countertopped rooms to nothing but a sink. But a sink, anywhere with a water hookup, is the kernel of a kitchen. Any area with a sink can be turned into a kitchen with some tables and shelves. If the place is unfurnished, you can provide your own portable gas or electric stoves. Don't expect to find an oven, something most homes in this tropical climate don't have.

If you don't like how the rooms are arranged in a house, have you ever considered knocking down the walls and having the insides rebuilt to your liking? In Vietnam, this is actually an affordable option if you consider the savings compounded over more than a year. This includes adding new sinks or moving them around.

Do you need a pool in your apartment complex? If you did stay somewhere with a pool, keep in mind you would have to pay extra for it, when you could just live near a pool which you could go to when you felt like it. Despite the tropical climate, it's actually too cold to swim for many months anyways.

All that said, you should live somewhere you feel comfortable. If you have special requirements, even if they seem like normal requirements to you, it may take longer to find the right place or you may have to pay a lot more for it.
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How much does a house cost in Saigon? Apartments for rent in Ho Chi Minh City

$25-$100

At the very low end might be a tiny, thin-walled (privacy is optional in Vietnam) room for rent with no private bathroom. In District 1, this might be $100/month. Outside of D1, maybe $25/month, but in this price range it would be more common for Vietnamese to share a room. But it's very unlikely this range of housing would suit a foreigner - if you can even find it such a place on your own.

$100-$125

Next up might be a small but furnished room for rent in District 1 from $100-$125/month. This would have a tiny bathroom in the room, but probably nowhere to cook. The small dimensions would make a lot of tall Westerners feel claustrophobic.

$150-$250

The Pham Ngu Lao backpacker district in D1 is full of guesthouses for rent for foreigners at around $200/month. These are generally furnished with beds, desks, closets, air conditioning, and a private bathroom. Like a hotel, there is housekeeping service included. On the other side of Tran Hung Dao, Co Giang and Co Bac Streets are full of these. Vietnamese would find similar housing for $150.

[ Alleys outside of D1 also have many one to two-storey small houses from 3 million VND (about $150) on up (unfurnished). ]

$250-$350

Old, non-luxury highrise apartments start from about 5 million VND ($250). For example:

• - 1 bedroom apartment in D5, 10 minutes drive from downtown: 5 million
• - 2 bedroom in brand new housing in the suburban districts: 7 million.
• - 1 bedroom in an older midrise apartment complex 5 minutes from downtown: 6 million.

[ The outer districts (Tan Phu, Binh Tan, D6, D8, D12, D9) have a lot of brand new highrises being built. Meanwhile, there are very few buyers and the real estate market in Vietnam is in a deep slump. This means there is a vast oversupply of this kind of housing. ]

$400-$800

At this range you can rent a furnished four or five bedroom house for foreigners or a large serviced apartment (or what they will call "luxury apartments" here). This could be in District 1, District 2 (An Phu), District 7 (Phu My Hung), or elsewhere, and generally people (expats) go through agents to find these, although for apartments you can just walk up to an apartment building you like and there should be an agent on site so you could just cab it from highrise to highrise looking at serviced apartments.

You would also find houses for foreigners in The Ghetto (Thai Van Lung and Le Thanh Ton area of D1, which has many Japanese residents) in this range.

The bigger houses would be harder to find, but follow my instructions above.

$10000

Apparently, you can even pay this much for a crazy villa.

But anything above $1000 is outside the arena of value judgement when it comes to this blog post.

A note on online apartment finding services

While it would be really convenient if we could just use the same websites we used back home to find housing, unfortunately they don't work well here. While Craigslist does exist, it is full of a handful of real estate agents pumping their overpriced products. You can assume that anything on there is a ripoff.

Since MetVuong is no longer up, another website worth mentioning is MuaBan. It's the online presence of a popular classified ads paper published daily or weekly. You can also go buy a copy for a few thousand dong. You will see lots of listings for housing and it will give you an idea of how they're described. Get someone to translate for you. But beware: nearly all of the phone numbers are for real estate agents and not the actual landlord. They may not know which ad you're looking at when you call and they will definitely try to show you some other properties instead. They will also want to charge you for the privilege. It's rare that they will ever find a house for you to move into, but they make their money by just showing you any house.

Otherwise, for the time being, just avoid any online real estate website for foreigners.

07/13 01:34 A bike helmet that can read your mind: http://t.co/4CEnF2jz - Just imagine the implications for Vietnam road traffic #
07/12 23:45 Apologists defend police corruption due to low pay. I'd counter the #1 reason for 99% of cops joining being the HIGH pay. Stop the inpunity. #
07/12 22:25 Challenge: decode an 31337 '92 William Gibson poem published as a self-encrypting Mac program on diskette: http://t.co/04eI782c #
07/12 04:58 @caligarn I don't think that's so common but you wouldn't know as well as me due to lack of experience, son #
07/12 03:51 @vietnam720 They don't care to tell people they're the same company! BTW, now raining in Saigon's northwest center #
07/12 03:15 Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer found the Vietnamese police force considered most corrupt public institution in VN #
07/12 03:13 "We cannot say that the public image of a Vietnamese traffic police officer is that he is immoral or unethical" #lolwut? #corruption #
07/12 01:24 @vietnam720 Rocket in Vietnam have opened Lazada (electronics), Zalora (fashion), and HungryPanda.vn-aka-FoodPanda food delivery #
07/12 00:49 Rocket Internet opens up what looks to be a stripped down Lazada in Cambodia, rebranded as http://t.co/FllpKWhJ #
07/12 00:29 @vietnam720 @nguyenhimself There are various forums like http://t.co/Y6VZKkHM. For tech scene/startup news, Ngan Sau's action.vn. #
07/11 12:11 RT @barijoe: very cool house in HCMC http://t.co/WpFN7tau #
07/11 09:19 Class for driving test ends => Entire class walks to parking lot to get their bikes and drive home #
07/11 04:34 @jon7b @nguyenhimself Not lack of RAM. Ran memory tests, crashed. Took laptop apart, tested each stick individually, now magically fixed. #
07/11 04:24 @chrisfharvey Hahaha. OMG. In that case, I do NOT need to know him better than I thought - some avenues of thought are not worth pursuing #
07/11 03:23 @caligarn Including many endangered/soon-to-be-extinct languages in Vietnam. Once I have resources, I wish to work to preserve them. #
07/11 02:43 My friend's Facebook account has been hacked and how "she" keeps messaging me about how horny "she" is (it's a guy friend) #
07/11 01:47 @barijoe Haha, because of sprawl? Pollution can't be worse, maybe traffic congestion is though. Jakarta has a busway though :-) #
07/11 01:45 @ChrisInCambo Probably published by a real estate/tourism authority from Hong Kong! No 2 lists the same. But yeah, pollution, Hong Kong? #
07/10 23:10 Phnom Penh as 4th worst place to live, re: green space, pollution, connectivity... Wonder where Vietnam's cities rank? http://t.co/otoi2PvW #
07/10 01:09 Chinese pay more attn to a diploma than a real education. A diploma is worth actual money whereas an education is not. http://t.co/IRb4H4vM #
07/09 07:49 @nguyenhimself I'm checking if my ram is bad. It's all browsers and other memory intense apps. I'll be sad to go back to 4gb if it's that #
07/09 07:48 @layered I also tried disabling most browser extensions but Safari which has no extensions was also crashing. Now I see it's not browsers. #
07/09 04:58 @nguyenhimself Nope, Macbook Pro. Also, Firefox immediately crashes the OS. Not sure why, maybe both are memory intensive apps #
07/09 04:36 @caligarn How hot? Room temperature, laptop was asleep for a while. Hasn't heated up yet. Cpu load is low. #
07/09 04:31 @saigonnezumi FPT, but probably not a quality of service issue specific to them. Not even sure who owns the lines at where it's broken #
07/09 04:30 @nguyenhimself Net broke for my area, fixed 2 days later. Then they took it down to "refix better" and now it's down again. Refix not so gud #
07/09 04:19 Now OSX is crashing every time I start browsing. Can't even Google for a solution! Can the solution be crowd sourced? #
07/09 02:10 Despite temporary attempts to fix it, going on 5th day of no home Internet in the past week. Low tech infrastructure here, it mostly works #
07/06 05:21 @lupohiep Who accepts responsibility here? Water price increases, saying one told another to fix it asap doesn't help. Like rogue taxis. #
07/06 04:27 @ChrisInCambo What you can't see are the ropes tying it to the banister on the other side of the bike. Not sure if even that's sufficient! #
07/06 02:46 Motorcycle parked on a staircase to nowhere #saigon #vietnam http://t.co/XzC7KsHG #

This is just a personal ode to my favorite cartoon, Adventure Time.

I used to use dimethyltryptamine as my Unix ident, running from an identd server I hacked myself in a few lines of shell. If you understood that whole sentence then we need to hang out.

"This cosmic dance of bursting decadence and withheld permissions twists all our arms collectively, but, if sweetness can win, and it can, then I'll still be here tomorrow to high-five you yesterday my friend. Peace." -Old Tart Toter

"Even dimethyltryptamine from the pineal gland!"

Even the music is awesome.

Another fan page: http://8heartbeats.tumblr.com/tagged/Adventure+Time/page/2

“When you have stanky old wizard eyes, sometimes you see things that are real, and other times it's like, crazy crazy crazy, in your face, all the time. All the time.”

06/21 05:34 @barcampSaigon Unfortunately, 14 people have already retweeted that false news! Hope they are willing to retweet retractions.. #
06/21 05:21 @caligarn Some devices are constrained to be wireless. I'd be ok with wires if it meant being able to use one, or it being cheaper #
06/21 05:18 http://t.co/BADkuM1V website updated. Next event is NOT July 1st, hopefully end of summer instead. Please spread the world. @barcampSaigon #
06/21 05:13 @barcampSaigon Was hoping to address website at hackathon this weekend... but hold on a second and it will be fixed #
06/21 05:01 @natalie470 Hi Anh. Bored? #
06/21 02:55 @caligarn How do we get one & SDK? Better: How can we build one using Arduino and other parts? Hardware needn't be portable for us. #
06/21 02:53 @chrisfharvey I think I catch myself using it for the same reason now. Might be disingenuous but can hardly think of anything better to say #
06/21 01:38 @barcampSaigon Err, that's a mistake! BarCampSaigon in July will be postponed #
06/21 01:37 Nuance (Dragon Naturally Speaking) supercharges Swype with Dragon-powered voice #recognition input http://t.co/zVqIY4gd #
06/20 04:36 RT @walterm: Why I've decided to be helpful rather than good http://t.co/eH1bfsEk #
06/20 03:11 What does the deceptively simple "sounds good" really mean really? #
06/18 01:59 Recharging cells with Vietnamese coffee in order to do stupid things faster with more energy!! #
06/16 07:01 @PedroInSaigon Or you just want to buy a disposable phone? You can buy some Nokias for like 300k when they are on deal #
06/16 06:58 @PedroInSaigon No single place will have the best price on every phone. Search on store aggregators, TGDD, Hnam, etc #
06/16 01:05 The best of #FailedTechBands: RT @thomas_quinlan: R'Sync #FailedTechBands #
06/15 04:17 @madlyduck Apologies if you get 2nd reply, Twitter problems. I'm in Saigon, no sudden rain here yesterday! #
06/15 04:16 @laidbackfreak Sorry, I should probably update the Barcamp website immediately but was waiting for new venue. Definitely NOT July 1 at RMIT. #