Vietnam | I Spit Hot Fire

Human Rights Ads in Vietnam (Witnessorg)

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

While accidentally searching for “Twitter” the other day, I saw a human rights advertisement (it won’t always come up, you may have to reload the page a few times to see it) on Google at the top. This might not seem like a big deal, just an ad for a Twitter account, but this is Vietnam, where talking about this stuff is very sensitive. For example, it would not be a good idea for me to start a blog site to talk about human rights.

When you advertise with Google, you can target your ads by location, so it’s guaranteed Witnessorg wanted this advertisement seen by Vietnamese (You can tell I’m on google.com.vn by the way) or expats here. If you look at their Twitter site (image below), their bio says: “WITNESS (www.witness.org) uses video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.” This is basically an ad to tell people in Vietnam to document violations on video and share.

Yikes. Like I said, sensitive stuff.

Tags: advertisement, Google, human rights, Politics, Twitter, Vietnam

28.02.2010 Politics, Twitter, Vietnam No Comments

A Look at Mimo.vn – Vietnam’s Twitter?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

(Disclosure: I know someone who works for Mimo- he invited me to check it out a few months ago while the site was in a much rougher state and asked me to give some feedback and suggestions before I wrote this post)

I’m a big Twitter user- not that I have a ton of followers or anything, but I like to post. A big thing about using it in Vietnam is that it was hard to use it via mobile- there are all sorts of stupid things I want to say when I’m in a taxi or just out and about, random things I want to take pictures of and have them posted immediately online (it’s not the same to post them hours or day later, it’s all about the moment). I’d love to do a better job of sharing my life in Vietnam with friends and family over in the US.

Like I said, Twitter is not really so practical via mobile here (think of the costs to send a SMS internationally), and thus I’ve been hoping for a solution to this for a while, and it didn’t necessarily have to be free. There was a free Twitter/SMS option I saw sometime last year, but they would always embed their tag in your post, which I didn’t like so much.

I then started using Mimo. Mimo is Twitter. For Vietnamese (the site is hosted in VN, and the default language is Vietnamese). And when I say it’s Twitter, it really, really, looks like Twitter. And while that might scream “knock-off” or “clone”, I think it’s actually pretty good. I’d actually call it more of a Twitter Plus.

Mimo = Twitter Plus

Mimo has a ton of features that a lot of people wish were already in Twitter, while at the same not making the UI overly messy nor removing anything that people love about Twitter. To me, it’s obvious the Mimo team has used Twitter or at least researched how people use it.

SMS Support: this is the big one for me. It’s 500 VND (about the same price as a normal SMS, I believe. 500 VND is 2.7 cents in USD) to send an SMS, but free to receive SMS from Mimo. So you can follow a ton of people and get their posts on your phone at no extra cost even if you never post. You can do a ton of things via SMS, like follow, private message, block users, even register. It’s a bit much for me, but I think you could basically use Mimo without going to the website at all if you wanted. The only bad thing I’ve found is that MMS is not supported, so you won’t be seeing silly pictures from me. Yet.
Sync with Facebook and Twitter: since I’m on both Facebook and Twitter, this is pretty important to me as well. Now I can send a SMS update to Mimo for less than 3 cents, and my sister in the US sees it on her Facebook instantly. The sync works both ways, I’ve confirmed- if you post on Twitter or Facebook, it’ll come back into your Mimo.
Language Support: Mimo supports both English and Vietnamese, and the English has been done really well! No signs of broken Google-translated English anywhere.
Attachment functionality: up to 20 MB per post, supporting basically any file format you want. It’ll show images and play music files inline as well. Thumbnails next to the post text make it obvious when there’s an attachment. You can’t watch videos on the site yet, though, there will just be a download prompt.
Webcam: support for avatars and uploads. Too bad you can’t record videos yet though.
Apps: Mimo has a seriously ridiculous amount of apps ready for it. I use TwitterFox for Twitter, and Mimo has a version of it out already. They’ve also got apps for Adobe Air and Windows .Net, and you can use Yahoo Messenger (it’s the number 1 IM client here) with it. Now they just need an iPhone app, and they can go claim themselves king.

In terms of the UI, and not messing anything up, let me give you an example:

Mimo UI Basics:

Top Center: Pick your Language. UK flag for English, Vietnamese Flag for Vietnamese.
Upper Right: If you like to type with diacritics (accents), click that.
Left of Avatar: Webcam uploads, Attachments, and Character Count.
Upper Left: (below Mimo logo) autocomplete username on replies – it’s like Facebook when you search! When you start typing @ and the beginning of someone’s username, Mimo will suggest people based on whom you’re following for the autocomplete.
Individual Posts: Favorite / Reply / Copy. Copy is basically Retweet- they do it the old school Twitter style, adding RT and copying the text of the post into the text entry box.
Right Navigation Menu: If you have a new reply or Private (Direct) Message, it will let you know in an obvious manner (like Gmail). I always thought the total Direct Messages count you see in Twitter was useless- I could never tell if I had something new because I don’t remember what the count used to be.

Here’s an example of what a post with an attachment (photo thumbnail on the right) looks like:

Now, here’s Twitter’s UI:

Super familiar right? But that’s what I mean by Twitter Plus. If you already like Twitter, getting into Mimo is easy, and it has some nice small enhancements that make the experience a good deal nicer. I’m going to be using both Mimo and Twitter- Mimo to post updates and interact with my Vietnamese friends, and Twitter to monitor what my American friends are up to in the US.

Some negatives:

I am not sure Hot Topics is working right. I like the Twitter one, where you can see all the new trending and hot topics. I hope they can fix this, as getting real time insights into what Vietnamese people are thinking and doing would be pretty awesome. Imagine stuff like when VN has a big football (soccer) match, and everyone’s getting ready to go out in the streets, or everyone is excited to see Avatar 3D at Megastar, but can’t get tickets.
No Free SMS – ok, so I’m being picky. That’s not really a negative, that’s just me being greedy. Maybe they can have an ad-supported version in which you can send SMS posts for free. You could opt in to receive 2-3 SMS ads per day, and then you would be able to post to Mimo for free.
Already mentioned: MMS not supported yet, no direct video playback, no video through webcam, no iPhone or Mobile app (so what if I don’t have an iPhone), but there is a WAP site, m.mimo.vn. GPRS in Vietnam can be super slow though, I’d rather stick with SMS.
It took me 3 hrs to update my Twitter badge on the upper right (below the header) with a Mimo one. Why is this a negative? Because I am lazy and like to complain.

Some people to follow:

SaoNoiTieng: trash talking gossip.
QuaCauMaThuat is like Magic 8 Ball. I tried it (alright, I was a little drunk) with a friend via mobile, answering it random questions, and it would give me those random answers like back when we were kids. It does support English, it just depends on what language you have selected in the Mimo UI.
Eduard Kazanov and Tommy Tran: Eduard and Tommy are listed as two of the Suggested Users when you register for an account. They’re celebrities/VIPs as models/actors, and they’re actually very nice. I happen to know them and for whatever reason, they got me a pass into the Hard Rock Cafe grand opening. So that’s a plug for them!

Of course, feel free to follow me on either Mimo or Twitter:

Tags: eduard kazanov, Mimo, Tech, tommy tran, Twitter, Vietnam

24.02.2010 Tech, Twitter, Vietnam 2 Comments

Pickup Basketball in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Hi there! Looking for a basketball / streetball game in Saigon? Not sure if you always want to play with locals? There’s nothing wrong with that as locals can be quite good, but the style of play is often quite…different.

I play with a group of expats, and while we’re not good, we do like to play and stay in shape and pretend that we’re not old. We can’t cover up that we’re short though (I’m 5’6).

We play in District 10, over at Phu Tho Stadium, the Luu Gia Street Gate. If you’re going by taxi or xe om and don’t know much Vietnamese, type this in to your phone and show the driver:

“San thi dau Phu Tho, duong Ly Thuong Kiet, Q10, cong Lu Gia”

We reserve half or full court (full whenever we can) on Thursday nights and a weekend night (based on availability), and all pitch in for drinks (water, sports drinks) and court rental (Very affordable: a little over $5 USD per hour for the full court. That’s not per person, that’s total.). As far as I know, Phu Tho is considered the best place for basketball in the city. It is far for most people though, but it’s worth it if you really want to play basketball.

We’ll play each other (we’re mostly Americans but also play with Taiwanese friends), and sometimes pickup people to join us.

So, whether If you’re in town for a visit or living here, and would like to play, we’d love for you to join us, just leave me a comment below or contact me over at the About Me page. It’s also a good opportunity to network (hint, hint).

By the way, the picture above is at Phan Dinh Phung (PDP) Sports Complex in District 1 on Pasteur. They have a pretty nice court there, but like most good courts in Vietnam, very hard (virtually impossible) to reserve- they’re usually set aside for public (school) leagues or teams and can’t be used for pickup. If you want to do pickup there, you’ll have to do so at what are their almost quarter-like courts. You’ll understand if you go by there.

I’m also always happy to post more information on good pickup games to share if I get it. We’re always looking for more court options for games, but we want to be able to reserve a court, because true pickup (get in line and hope to get on) is too hard when you’re working and have a tight schedule.

I personally would pay $100 a month for a court/gym I could play at and practice by myself for couple hours a few times a week.

(EDIT: March 6, 2010)

BasketballSaigon I opened a Mimo account (think of Twitter for Vietnam) to list out when we play. As soon as I receive confirmation of a time, I’ll post it to Mimo. To get the latest news, you can either check our page, or if you register for your own Mimo account, you can follow us, and get the updates delivered to your mobile through SMS for free.

We’re @BasketballSaigon.

Tags: Basketball, ho chi minh city, Mimo, saigon, tphcm, Vietnam

19.02.2010 Basketball, Vietnam 2 Comments

Buying Blu-Ray (HD) Movies in Vietnam [More on Piracy]

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

This blog has never been afraid to discuss piracy openly. (Notice I mention “this blog”. I, however, do not condone piracy in any way or fashion. “This blog” made me do it! I am innocent!)

Some examples: How to be a Digital Pirate in Vietnam, My Torrent Guide for You, The Escapist : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

Today, I want to share about the world of network media tanks, getting HD-quality movies on the cheap, and how to make this all happen. I won’t talk too much about the situation of piracy, having discussed those in detail in other articles. I also won’t get too technical about the discussion, just what 99% of the people reading this need to know to get things done.

The lowdown: getting HD movies in Vietnam can be quite affordable. Will these movies be the exact same quality as buying a Blu-Ray disc in the US? No. But pretty close for most concerning eyes (if you’re reading this article here of all places, you probably cannot tell the difference. I don’t even know if I can, for that matter, and I have a HD Player and Movies for my Xbox 360)

Getting movies basically gets down to getting a player for them (media tank), the movies (movie copy service), and of course, the TV.

Buying Movies:

3 Steps:

Buy a Media Tank
Buy a Hard Drive to Attach to Media Tank
Buy Movies

Step 1, Buy a Media Tank:

A media tank is like a DVD Player or VCR. You connect it to your TV and it has the ability to play media. I have a WD TV hooked up to a Seagate 1.5 TB Drive. If you want to know more scroll to the bottom of post.

For a full list of Media Tanks available at Halo Shop in Saigon, see here: Media Tank List, Halo Shop. I generally recommend them for any purchases. They can speak English and they’re not so full of BS so you can take their advice for an easier process.

If you’re from Hanoi, sorry, I don’t know of any places in Hanoi, though I’m sure they exist- ask a local Home Theater shop, and they should be able to point you in the right direction.

A few more notes: Don’t bother getting HD movies unless you have an HDTV. There will be no benefit. Also, use an HDMI cable to connect the Media Tank to the HD TV. HDMI Cables should cost less than $10 USD- don’t be tricked into paying more. Lastly, if you’re not going to hook up a 5.1 (or 7.1/8.1/etc.) sound system to your TV, you should make sure the audio will be ok if you connect the Media Tank to your TV. Just ask “Can I use this Media Tank with my TV speakers?” With the WD TV, this isn’t a problem unless you are playing DTS movies, but scroll to the end of this post for more on that.

Step 2, Buy a Hard Drive to Attach to Media Tank:

You can buy these anywhere. I would suggest getting a package deal when you get your Media Tank, minimum 1TB Hard Drive, get 2TB if you can afford it. Remember, movies are 5-10 GB each, so a 1TB Hard Drive will store only 200 movies. Tank + Hard Drive may cost $400 to $500 depending on what you buy. Sounds expensive, but the movies themselves are extremely cheap.

Step 3, Buy Movies:

There are basically 3 types of content: 480P (DVD quality), 720P (Hi Def), and 1080P (Bad ass Hi Def). You, for practical purposes, want 720P content. If you really think you need 1080P, read the section about buying a TV below. I do have a 32” 1080P TV, but I also sit less than 3 feet away from it.

One other thing to consider is that not that many movies are available in 1080P here, so not necessarily worth the extra cash.

There are two places that I consider:

ChepPhim.Net: 199/19 Duong (Street) 3/2 F11 District 10, TPHCM. Movie List, ChepPhim.Net
Halo Shop: 82 Pasteur, District 1, TPHCM. Movie List, Halo Shop

ChepPhim.net is cheap, fast, and has much more content available compared to Halo Shop. You can get 1TB copied for about $10 USD in less than two days. They update their movie list about twice a month and even have TV sets like Lost and Prison Break.

Buying a TV and Home Audio:

TV:

I’ll make this simple- get a 720P TV. If you really think you may want a 1080P, read this article first: 1080p Does Matter – Here’s When (Screen Size vs. Viewing Distance vs. Resolution). If you have a family or plan to share the TV with someone else, unless you are just rich, get a 720P. A bonus about having a 1080P TV, though, is that you can use it as a 1920 x 1080 PC monitor.

For the record, I have a 32” 1080P from LG, and like I said before, I have to sit less than 3 feet away from it to take full advantage of 1080p movies, of which there are few. Most video games also max out at 720P.

Retailers:

DIEN MAY CHO LON .VN (Saigon)
Thien Hoa (Saigon)
Vatgia.com (Price Engine)
Aha.vn (Price Engine)

Home Audio:

This one’s a bit tougher. I can’t really help here in terms of where to buy in Vietnam or what to buy. Try HD Vietnam if you can read Vietnamese. Otherwise, stick with the stereo TV speakers.

———————————————————–

About the Western Digital WD TV: [Quick Review and Tips]

I have the WD TV, the original version.

Some notes on it:

It’s cheap. I expect the original can be had for about $100 USD now in Vietnam. I don’t think the WD TV is sold at Halo Shop anymore.
Supports most video formats, but surprisingly, not .FLV or .WMV. I don’t use it for audio or pictures.
Overall, it’s okay. Not great. But a solid value for $100. The HDMI connection on mine is a bit loose, so sometimes there’s no signal, and the remote can be frustratingly spotty. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the machine won’t turn on or off, even when the remove is right next to the sensor. Once the machine starts recognizing the remote that particular day, everything is great.
Getting the new version (Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player) or the original (WD TV Live) is fine for most purposes. The 2 main additions in the WD TV Live are 1) DTS support and 2) Networking support. Networking support means you can hook it up to another computer and stream stuff rather than have to connect a Hard Drive to it. The DTS support, for me, is a bit more important, because many movies that I’ve purchased here are DTS-only and therefore result in no audio when using the original WD TV. There is a fix – you’ll need this to convert those movies with the PopCorn MKV AudioConverter (along with Tutorial for converting audio tracks with HeartWare MKV Audio Converter).
There’s an issue with some 1080P movies on the WD TV with movies that have too many Reference (Ref) frames. This is where we get a bit technical. If you run into this issue, you’ll have to re-encode the entire movie, which is a two day process. If you get a 1080P movie that seems to stutter, try to find a 720P version. Or get a different media tank. If you really need help with this, you can find the solution on forums online. My hint: I used a combination of MediaInfo and RipBot264 to fix The Dark Knight. I haven’t fixed any other movies yet.

Links:

Official Firmware: WD TV Product Update – you can probably ask whomever you buy this from to install it for you if you are non-technical, but it also isn’t so difficult.
Unofficial Firmware: B-RAD (Don’t worry about using this unless you want to spend a lot of time on techie stuff. A note about the unofficial firmware is that I still can’t it to work right with all the extra functionality people have developed for it)
More talk about Firmware and Stuff: WDTV Forum Homebrew / Custom Firmware

———————————————————–

Sorry if this post got a bit crazy, but hopefully it’s useful to someone out there. If you have any questions or want to send in your own recommendations and tips, please leave a comment!

Tags: blu-ray, hanoi, media tank, Movies, piracy, Reviews, saigon, tphcm, Vietnam, wd tv, western digital

09.02.2010 Movies, Reviews, Tech, Vietnam No Comments

Hard Rock Cafe: Grand Opening, Saigon

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Here I am at another VIP event, somehow:

Ah, so that wasn’t me, that was the very pretty (and tall) model Ha Anh. What, you don’t like looking at pretty girls?

Alright, here’s me at the last Friday’s grand opening of Hard Rock Cafe in Saigon, the first in Vietnam (there have been fakes before):

Thanks to well-connected friends Tommy and Eduard and Jin, I somehow cheated my way into this invite-only party. Main event: DMC from Run DMC! (Yes, this is picky, but a bit disappointing to have just 1 of the 3 people in the group, and yes, I do know that Jay is dead)

Although the event started at 6 PM officially, everyone came much later- we got there closer to 7. DMC was scheduled to go on at 8, but as I expected, it was well after 9 before he got on. Got home at 11ish.

The key points of the night:

- Free booze! Solid mojitos, sponsorship by Coors Light, they even had the cold-activated bottles! (I learned about these on my last trip back to the US) The odd thing is, I don’t think I was aware that Coors Light was sold in Vietnam. Budweiser just came in about a year ago. First drinking of 2010!

- The venue is pretty nice. I expect it to be pretty damn expensive to eat/drink there, which removes me as a regular customer, but if they become a good booker for international acts, I could definitely see myself heading there pretty often- I might have to ask for a raise though. I heard a rumor that they’re going to try to bring in Billy Joe from Green Day, maybe on an acoustic session. How they can possibly make the finances work out on that, I do not know, but Vietnamese do make decisions on ego (see Hoang Anh Gia Lai’s sponsorship of Arsenal at Emirates Stadium for an example).

- A lot of stars and celebs as you would expect. After all, stars got me in the event in the first place!

- I didn’t think the audio configuration was too good. I had a great spot in the middle of the room, but I couldn’t make out what DMC was saying, even when he was just talking.

- In food, I’ve heard some really good things (Kevin and others) about their chicken wings and nachos. Unfortunately, while there was some solid food throughout the night, neither flagship product came out. Weak!

- No, I do not know why the Hard Rock Cafe has a grand opening with a rap act. Run DMC is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, however. Also, there is no way most people there knew of Run DMC. Even I don’t really know their music that well.

Some more pictures from the event below, see the Gallery on Smugmug for all:

Tags: ha anh, hard rock cafe, saigon, tphcm, Vietnam

25.01.2010 Vietnam No Comments

Me at the Clash Red Carpet Premiere [Wannabe Moments] (Bay Rong)

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

(Thanks to Norey for the pictures, thanks to bigwig Jenny for the invite!)

Somehow, I got lucky enough to sneak my way in (ie Jenny) to the Clash (Bay Rong) Red Carpet Premiere last month. In the picture, I am neither the suave Vinh (left) or hilariously dapper Jimmy (right), but as usual the center of attention alongside Ngo Thanh Van. (btw, despite being very tired from the night, Van was very nice)

After hearing some stories of how not-so-red carpet the red carpet premiere of Johnny Tri Nguyen’s last movie, Nu Ho Than Chet was, I wasn’t expecting a ton, but this was a great event. (Yikes, what a sentence) Not that I would know, being a nobody, but I would be happy to cheat my way in to other events like this in the future.

There was an actual red carpet in front of the Paragon in Q7, people waiting outside (not USA levels, but respectable), pictures at the entrance, gift bags for the VIP attendees (not much inside, though), stars (models, singers, rich people) and wannabees (me), and free Johnny Walker (advertised as Blue Label, given out as Gold) for all with a special (again, thanks to Jenny) invite-only after party at Khai Silk’s Cham Charm (known for the $40 weekend buffet).

The movie itself? Good! It’s action heavy, plot-light, but that’s what you would want and hope for. The movie has good pacing and doesn’t try to do too much, ending when it should. A good mark for Vietnamese cinema, for sure. I gave it a 7/10 on IMDB.

Other pictures from the night: (gallery on Smugmug)

Ah, and trailer for Clash:

Tags: bay rong, Clash, johnny tri nguyen, Movies, ngo thanh van, Vietnam

23.01.2010 Movies, Vietnam No Comments

The Escapist : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

The Escapist : News : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

This reminds me of Sony trying to sell legit DVDs and Blu-Rays in Vietnam. Sony is trying to sell Blu-Rays for the normal full price in the US (Over $30 USD per movie) in a country where you can have 2TB of HD-quality Movies (average movie is 5GB, so that’s 400 movies!) transferred to a hard drive for less than $20 USD.

So, unsurprisingly, it’s already cheaper to buy imported Sony game consoles than waiting for the “officially authorized” machines.

Ho Chi Minh City (TPHCM/Saigon), Halo Shop:

Playstation 3: 6,750,000 VND ($360 USD compared to $532.57 from Sony)
Playstation 2: 3,200,000 VND (longer, full coverage warranty from shop) / 2,700,000 VND ($172 or $145 compared to $239.37 from Sony)
Playstation Portable: 5,000,000 VND (longer, full coverage warranty from shop) / 4,600,000 VND ($270 or $194 compared to $319.33 from Sony))

Hanoi, XGame:

Playstation 3: 6.499.000 VND ($350 USD compared to $532.57 from Sony)
Playstation 2: 2.499.000 VND ($134 USD compared to $239.37 from Sony)
Playstation Portable: 3.899.000 VND – 4.099.000 VND (colors) ($210 – $216 compared to $319.33 from Sony)

A friend made the point that people will pay more for officially authorized products, for support and warranty reasons. This is possible, however:

You’re looking at 50-80% premiums from buying something new (gray market imported from another country) for the same thing, also new, just officially authorized.
You cannot pirate games for the PS3, so you would be buying real games and therefore, a warranty claim is legit. However, if you have a PSP or PS2, there is no one here, absolutely no one, who is buying legitimate software for those consoles. So if you’re hacking your console, you will have invalidated your warranty anyway. Even rich people (I know of some) will just pirate- and why wouldn’t you?
The most popular, trustworthy shops who are selling these modded systems and pirated software also do repairs themselves, and are quite experienced at it.
Sony sells authorized DVDs and Blu-Rays, but they’re extremely difficult to find, either in terms of information online, and in shops. I only know of one place that sells them here, and I just saw them by chance. Sony obviously won’t let a Halo Shop or XGame sell authorized consoles next to imported ones and pirated game discs, so where are you going to find these systems?
If they’re selling games, they’re going to sell non-localized games? Most Vietnamese do not read or understand spoken English that well (couldn’t handle a Final Fantasy game, for example), so non-localized games makes the value of buying legit even lower.

The reason why XBox’s and Wii’s are not officially sold here is because you can easily pirates games for those two systems. Microsoft (maybe not at this point in the product cycle, I guess) takes a loss on each system sold, trying to make it back through software, so if all software is pirated, not such a big reason to sell it officially here. I don’t even know of any places to buy legitimate 360 software. The Wii is profitable on the hardware, but overall, Vietnam is not such a big market for video games (consoles) as it is for PC games, in which companies make money off online games in which they can restrict piracy.

PC games are much more accessible to the normal Vietnamese youngster because the cost to play is so much lower. Players can rent a seat at an Internet cafe and play free games, paying only for microtransactions while a console + accessories investment is well over an average Vietnamese monthly income, perhaps even double the monthly income.

Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

Greg Tito posted on 20 January 2010 1:09 am

Sony announced that it is now selling its PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2 and 3 consoles in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

As of January 16th, 2010, citizens of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam will be able to purchase Sony videogame consoles in their country. Vietnam is now the eighth Asian nation in which Sony sells its videogame hardware. PlayStation Portable is 5,990,000 Vietnamese Dong or US $319.33. The PlayStation 2 will retail for 4,490,000 Vietnamese Dong (US $239.37), while the PlayStation 3 is being sold for 9,990,000 Dong ($532.57). Any way you cut it, that’s a lot of Dong.

The PlayStation 3 model being sold in Vietnam is the “slim” model with a 120gb hard drive which was released last year. “While inheriting the sleek curved body design of the original model,” Sony said. “The form factor of the new PS3 system features a new meticulous design with textured surface finish, giving an all new impression and a casual look.”

Previously, if you wanted a PlayStation in Vietnam, you were forced to import it yourself. There is no mention as to why Sony did not sell its consoles in the country before, or why the sales are now allowed in the Socialist nation.

The Escapist : News : Sony Invades Vietnam with PlayStations

Tags: hanoi, piracy, playstation, saigon, sony, tphcm, Video Games, Vietnam

21.01.2010 Video Games, Vietnam No Comments

Vietnam Needs Stable Economy, Better Dong Sentiment, IMF Says – BusinessWeek

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Growing pains of the “tiger”….

Vietnam Needs Stable Economy, Better Dong Sentiment, IMF Says

January 11, 2010, 10:24 PM EST

By Jason Folkmanis

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — Vietnam needs to improve its balance of payments and increase confidence in the dong to strengthen economic growth to at least 6 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said.

The economy grew at a decade-low pace of 5.3 percent last year. The country recorded a trade deficit of $12.25 billion in 2009 after posting a surplus in the first quarter, and was forced to devalue the dong as Vietnamese increased buying of dollars and gold.

Growth this year will be partly determined by Vietnam’s balance of payments, Benedict Bingham, the IMF’s Hanoi-based senior resident representative in Vietnam, said in an interview today.

“If they re-establish stable macroeconomic conditions, and generate more positive sentiment towards the dong, then I think they can certainly achieve 6 percent growth,” he said.

A government stimulus package hurt Vietnam’s balance of payments last year, threatening the country’s economic stability, the Washington-based IMF said last month.

“What was causing pressure on the balance of payments was a combination of a widening trade deficit and weak sentiment towards the dong, especially by Vietnamese investors,” Bingham said.

The dong traded at 18,474 against the dollar as of 10 a.m. in Hanoi, compared with about 19,280 in the black market. The government only allows the dong to fluctuate 3 percent on either side of the official reference rate that it sets daily.

Dong, Exports

The central bank devalued the dong in November after the gap between official and black-market rates increased ten-fold to more than 11 percent.

Vietnam’s exports should strengthen this year, in part because of a more competitive exchange rate, Johanna Chua, head of Asia economic research at Citigroup Inc., said in a note to investors this month.

Overseas shipments rose 12 percent in December to $5.25 billion from $4.69 billion in November. Garment exports gained 12 percent to $820 million, while shipments of shoes jumped 22 percent to $420 million.

Exports performed “reasonably well” in December, and imports were lower than anticipated, helping to improve the trade gap, the IMF’s Bingham said. December’s shortfall narrowed 38 percent from November to $1.3 billion, according to preliminary figures from the government statistics office.

Deficit Moderates

Last month’s export gains were “due in part to rice and coffee, but encouragingly non-commodity exports also seem to be recovering,” Bingham said. “We will have to see whether this moderation in the trade deficit will be sustained.”

Inflation in Vietnam accelerated to 6.52 percent in December, from 4.35 percent the prior month, as economic growth quickened to 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter, from 6.04 percent in the previous three months.

“The authorities need to keep a close eye on inflation, especially if commodity prices continue to firm this year,” Bingham said. “Although much of the recent increase in the consumer price index is due to rice and fuel prices, the seasonally adjusted three-month rate of inflation is currently running at an annual rate of over 10 percent, which is high.”

Vietnam Needs Stable Economy, Better Dong Sentiment, IMF Says – BusinessWeek

Tags: businessweek, economy, Vietnam

12.01.2010 Vietnam No Comments

How to Avoid the Facebook Block/Ban in Vietnam

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Recently, I’ve heard a huge hoopla over whether the Vietnamese government is blocking Facebook. Along with that, I read and hear people scrambling to find a solution to access it.

Here’s an easy fix that’s also free, Hotspot Shield. It’s ad supported (you’ll see an ad while you browse on the top of the window), and while that may turn off some, at least you can guess how it might be making money. For those complete free/no-ad solutions, how secure can you really feel that they’re not making ends meet by selling your data? Another solid use for the software is when you’re using a public wireless internet connection, like at a hotel or coffee shop. Normally, it’s easy for someone to spy on you and see what you’re doing online (see what you’re writing, where you’re browsing), but Hotspot Shield and other VPN software can shield you. Nevertheless, this is not a solution for protection in hiding illegal activities, but it is useful for accessing Facebook and avoiding IP detection (some sites don’t let let access them if you’re not in the US).

To access Facebook, here’s what to do:

Part 1:

Download Hotspot Shield: http://hotspotshield.com/ (or you can try a direct link, http://hotspotshield.com/downloads/thank-you-VN/?type=na&p=ftp&)
Install it (it’s a small file)
Run it

In Windows, you’ll see icons like the ones below: (you want Hotspot Shield Launch)

Part 2:

When you run it, Hotspot will open your browser (or a new tab if it’s open) and you’ll see a message like the one in the screenshot below. You’ll also see a icon in your taskbar (the lower right corner of your screen). The icon will show red if it’s not connected (cannot access Facebook yet), and green if it is (that means GOOD!)

If you’re done connecting, right click on the taskbar icon and choose “Disconnect/OFF” You can then close Hotspot Shield or reconnect later.

And that’s all there is. One more note, if you find you can’t connect to Hotspot Shield, try downloading the newest version- there’s no autoupgrader, and new versions usually solve connection issues.

Good luck!

Tags: facebook, hotspot shield, Vietnam, vpn

29.11.2009 Tech, Vietnam 3 Comments

Finds Errors in your English Writing with ESL Assistant – For Non-Native English Speakers

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

This is pretty awesome, too bad there are never Vietnamese tools that can help me…(reposted from http://www.labnol.org/internet/find-errors-in-english-writing/10303/)

Finds Errors in your English Writing with the ESL Assistant

While the majority of international communication happens in English, a lot of these people, who communicate in English on a daily basis, aren’t very comfortable as English is not their native language.

They therefore have to sometimes struggle to express themselves correctly in English, only to be dismayed that native English speakers can immediately notice the flaws in their writing.

When English is a Foreign Language for you

Microsoft Research has created a useful online proofing tool to help people who use English as a foreign language.

This tool, called ESL Assistant, is a web service that analyzes text for the common mistakes that non-native English speakers, especially those from Southeast Asia, often make in their writing such as the choice of determiners and prepositions.

Type some English sentences into the text box and the tool will look for possible problems in your writing and indicate them with wavy green underlines.

Once it identifies possible mistakes in your writing, the tool will generate suggestions for correcting the problems. What’s even more interesting is that the tool will find you real-world examples of both the incorrect and correct usage from other web pages on the Internet using Bing.

You can just hover your mouse over the suggested phrase and the search results in the two Bing windows will change automatically.

Check Errors in your Outlook Emails with ESL

Anyone can use the ESL (English as Second Language) Tool to check their emails and other writings for errors online though the site requires the Silverlight plugin.

The other option is that you download the ESL addon for Microsoft Outlook and integrate the web service into your email program.

There’s a bit of privacy issue here because when you click the ESL Assistant button in Outlook to check your message for errors, the program will send the entire text of your email to the ESL website where you can review it for problems. If you correct errors online, you will have to copy the text back into Outlook manually.

Although ESL Assistant will not catch or correct all errors, it often finds problems that are overlooked by normal spelling and grammar checking tools. This makes it a great tool to expand your options and make sure that your English sounds as correct as possible.