Technology As Innovator

In Vietnam where I’m living, Yahoo! Messenger is the most popular IM service. Like most Vietnamese, I started communicating through IM with Yahoo! Messenger.

In 2006, my account has reached its maximum number of friends an account can add: 300.

My Yahoo! 360, Yahoo’s blogger service also limits to 300 and I always have a hard time managing my friend list. I had to work around by configuring registry to allow multiple Y!M instances to run at once.

So my concern when registering for any social network or IM service is the maximum number of friends an account can add.

And here’s the current data:

5,000 for Facebook. This is sufficient for me, till now.

600 for Windows Live Messenger. Still not enough, as my connections now have passed 1,000.

300 for Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! 360. I can’t live with this cap.

No statistics for Gtalk

1,000 for Yahoo! 360plus Vietnam. However, “add friend” in this service doesn’t work in the standard way since friend adding is one-way: doesn’t require confirmation, doesn’t show vice versa.

2,000 for Twitter. I haven’t planned to reach that number just yet.

So what platform are you on? Have you reached the cap in your friend list? If yes, what have you done to solve the issue?

Overall

Why would I want to use a Vietnamese web service

1. Connection speed, especially for video streaming
2. Local opportunities

What would drive me away

1. Security, including revelation of my account information and spam
2. Careless design
3. Immature communities

Networking

Professional Networking

I’m favoring CyVee because opportunities are real and more closely intact.

LinkedIn is terrific, but opportunities might come at a lower pace.

Social Networking

I’m currently very happy with Facebook.

If faceViet or yobanbe want to get me, they have to provide

1. Professional theme
2. English interface
3. Strong personalization options.

Social News

It’s a pity I prefer utilizing my RSS Reader over social news sites such as Digg. Therefore, no remark just yet.

However, the news sharing platform of CyVee looks nice and could be very useful in promoting company brand like the way Tim of TRG is doing.

Additionally, if Vietnamese service provider can create something like StumbleUpon, it would make a hit and I’ll definitely consider.

Photos Networking

Picasa has everything I need: 1Gb free account, folders, tagging and an uploader.

Is there a local site focusing on photos networking?

Music Networking

I’m enjoying sharing music on imeem. I am more into English songs. I like new age, hard rock and symphony and I’m not sure whether nhacso, Zing mp3 are rich of such genres.

Video Networking

Youtube is absolutely wonderful. I am amazed by its fast connection speed and stability.

Therefore, I don’t have the plan to move to Clip.vn just yet.

Mobile Networking

Has any Vietnamese vendor invest in this area?

Blogging

I am maintaining my different blogs on self-hosted WordPress, Yahoo! 360 and Windows Live Spaces.

If local blogging providers such as ngoisaoblog, blog.com.vn want to attract me, they would have to ensure:

1. High SEO compatibility
2. High security, including spam protection and splog tracking
3. Backup options and standard-compliant import/export functionalities
4. Permalinks

Instant Messaging

My clients in the US are using MSN Messenger. Most of my friends are using Yahoo! Messenger. For conference, Skype is just wonderful.

I don’t feel the urge of switching to Zing chat.

Email

Apart from professional emails on my domain, I use a Gmail account to access Google services and a Yahoo! email to make it easier for my friends.

Any company is investing in providing free email service in Vietnam?

Portal

I use my portal for work purpose and netvibes is still number one.

Zing looks very nice, but I’d rather having something customizable.

e-Commerce

I’m not having a real need of C2C e-Commerce, so no comment on this.

Map

A vote for diadiem, simply because I need to find ways in my local areas.

Entertainment

I’d rather go out playing sports than wandering online, so good luck socvui, hihihehe and so on

Conclusion

In conclusion, the 2 local web services that I utilize are CyVee and diadiem

CyVee give me real local opportunities and diadiem is definitely more useful than its Google counterpart.

For others, if they can bring me real values I’m seeking…

Problem defined

“An idea pops up my mind”

OK! Imagine this. It’s a nice day, and you’re away from home and from your working cubicle. While talking to your friends, or seeing some billboard along the way, or just doing the routine exercise, an idea pops up your mind.

Do you want to note it down? Of course you do, for a million reasons. Ideas sell these days.

“I need a pen and paper”

So you’ll need a pen and a piece of paper. “Oh my, why can’t I find one!” you think.

“But wait, there’s a PC right here”

Sounds cool. Computers are around: airports, public places, internet café, libraries.etc., and you have just spotted one you can use. Typing the idea to a connected PC makes it easier to save, edit and send the information.

You turn on the machine, go to the address of your mailbox, and prepare to login. Wait a sec!

“Excuse me, anybody watching?”

You might want to turn around to see if anybody is behind your back peeping your user name and password. “Phew, no one.” you relieved.

I beg your attention. Are you sure there is no one?

“Of course there is no one beside me. Are you hallucinated?” you’re getting irritated.

For your sake, I am still sane. I wonder if you have heard of keyl.ogg.er. It is a program that monitors your activities on the computer: it tracks all websites you visit and applications you launch, records all keys you type in the text boxes. It sees your user name and password and snitch your account to some a guy usually known as ha.cker. Scary?

So you see, whether you log into your Gmail, MySpace account, Google Notebook, blog, music website, all your accounts are revealed.

Solution

I am here to tell you a tip on how to take notes securely without having to authenticate yourself to any login form, and in style too

If you have got a Blogger, or a WordPress blog, simply note down anything you want as a comment. You can always proceed with these drafts when you have returned to the safety of your well-protected PC.

If you haven’t got one, setting up a blog is easy: just go to blogger.com or wordpress.com for a free blog. Well, just that you need to do this before hand because they require you to open an confirmation email, which requires you to login your mailbox.

Why in style?

Ah, there are certainly other alternative ways to take notes online without authentication. For example, some forums allow Guest to post information.

However, a blog is more stylish than a forum, correct? Furthermore, posting comments to your own blog gives you full and more personalized control.

Not only you do it, you do it in style!

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I want to hear you: What do you usually do when you need to take notes while sparing the peepers out?