• Kaizen

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: In the 80’s, we saw many books about Japan e.g. Rising Sun, The Japan That Can Say NO. Now, the Most Admired Country list seems to say NO to Japan, and places it at number 5. Versace closed its door there after having sold to all the old people…

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  • Load balancing

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: A few years back, we got headlines like “women made strides with Nobel prizes“. And I remember hearing our shared winner of Economics said she studied ways which societies managed to share work load, from fisheries to farming. I assumed she was trying to crack the “non-zero sum” code,…

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  • Snapperizing

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: The Nobel Prize winners this year are being honored for their work on fiber optic (which made possible  data transmission across the globe) and digital photography (pixel-driven process). Put the two inventions together with the rise of crowdsourcing, we got the phenomenon of  iPhoto, Flicker etc.. I am sure…

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  • Nano in the wind

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Kansas didn’t expect its slow number to be a hit, but there it was: Dust in the Wind. I am privy to have met three gentlemen, all Vietnamese nano technology scientists. Through them, I learn about our next frontier, not out there, but right here e.g. coconut shells from…

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  • Smart brand

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Given everything that has been going on, recent news that Ford turned the corner on North American market was quite remarkable. Ford, as American as Coca Cola and apple pie, has done a number of things right: – it cross-pollinated ideas and markets (Smart in US vs Fiesta in…

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  • California Dreaming

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: TIME spotlights California on its cover this week. As a country, California would be with the G8 ( between Italy and Brazil, thus displacing BRIC with CRIC  i.e. California, Russia, India and China). Yet it has no world-class soccer team (despite having in-shored Beckham) just yet. That’s said, it…

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  • Aimy Telephony

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: Aimy’s birthday is this Friday. She was born in Burbank, while I was still trying to close a telephony deal (Centrex or “cloud telephony”). Phones get smaller (from brick phone to pocket phone) while Aimy grows bigger. She went with me to many direct sales events, Daddy and daughter…

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  • Forced realities

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: “the Network Effect of Nations”. Brazil, the “B” in BRIC, is on course to be number 5 by 2014 according to the Economist. http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14845197&source=most_commented So, it’s not just the International Olympic Committee which noticed Brazil Rising. Nor is it seen only as the  corn basket of the world (When…

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  • Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: I thought the USS New York was cool until I read about ex-refugee came back as US Naval Commander in China Beach. http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=58579&heading=Asia Same waters, similar vessels, but context and crew have changed. Just like what we read today about a school teacher walking students on a day field…

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  • strip tease

    Originally posted on Thang Nguyen 555: A Canadian lady, on her insurance-paid leave for mental distress, walked into a bar. Not just any bar, but a male strip tease bar. And she posted her excursion in Facebook to share with “friends”. Among the uninvited  “friends” was the Insurance adjuster. So, her insurance checks stop coming.…

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