Embarrassing Encounter

I've came to know Dai Viet Vision Join Stock Company since 20 April 2008. That day, I was in Hanoi and received a call from my father asking me to go to a conference. This is how I met Dai Viet Vision's owners and attracted with the company. And this is how I decided to join the force.

I went to the conference and realized that it was the opening ceremony of San Thuong Mai Dien Tu edv.vn. I was so embarrassed when everyone else was wearing formal clothing. Men were wearing shirt, pants, and leather shoes. Women were wearing Vietnamese dresses. What was I wearing? I was wearing short Jeans, t-shirt, and sleepers. On top of that, I was the only one who wear a big black backpack, which I used as my seat.

Everyone was looking at me as an alien!

Initial Chat with Dai Viet's Owners

Mr Tinh Van Han, which is CEO of Dai Viet Vision, happens to be a good friend of my parents. That's the power of relationship. Thanks to that, I could talk to him, and the vice-director Hai Huu Han, who is his nephew. I was very surprised uncle Tinh is a CEO of such a IT company. He should be old and more traditional?

Mr vice-director Han knew I graduated IT from Australia. He immediately expressed his will to have me work and invest in his company. He seemed to truly appreciated my Australian degree, even though we just met for the first time.

Join or Not?

The next few days, Hai called me and openly asked me for opinions on joining the company. I hesitated at first, so I spend few more days investigating the business and current Vietnam e-commerce status.

On 29 April, I visited Hai and other staffs of Dai Viet Vision in Hanoi, right at the head-quarter. I joined the company's party pre-holiday. 30 April is the Vietnamese Day celebrating the day of gaining freedom.

Join as Investor?

Vietnam is developing, and Internet commerce is one of the biggest, fastest growing business model. I want to make something like edv.vn for so long, but never had a chance to start it. Now is the chance, someone already made the company and the site. I only need to improve it (I hope).

My father disagreed to invest at first. He couldn't understand the business model. However, my mother agreed. She use Internet everyday and she believe in it. My girlfriend also disagreed at first. She worry I lose the money and time for a risky business.

Join as a worker?

That's what Hai offer me. He tried his best to bring me to work for the company, with or without investing money. I couldn't decide quickly because I'm only temporary in Vietnam. My future is in Australia, not here. On the other hand, it's a good way to gain more IT experience and prove my ability to make big projects successful.

I have too many ideas haven't implemented. My talents have not been used for long, and this is a chance for them to shine again. With my qualification and skills, I want to be a manager. I don't want to spend whole day on coding something that is designed by someone else. I want to give ideas, and manage people to implement those ideas. This way, I can contribute more of my skills, knowledge, talents, at the maximum productivity to contribute to the company.

Decision to Join

Join as a Worker

After doing enough analysis, I decided to join the workforce of Dai Viet Vision. At the moment the standard salary of Dai Viet Vision's personnel is still low. However, with my degree and real skills, I requested twice the current highest salary. I also requested a managerial position where ideas are important, not labor force. My request was accepted without any hesitation and conditions.

Join as an Investor

I also decide to buy from 10% to 20% of the shares of Dai Viet Vision. This is for me to gain more authority and ownership. It's important to be a owner. That way, I will be more responsible and work harder. I will be part of the company, and the company will be mine. However, this will not be too soon. I still need more time to be sure it works.

I couldn't proceed with my plan this year because China is suffering from greatest snow disaster in 50 years. Many news articles cover this topic so I would like people to read and pay some empathy to those poor Chinese who are dead, jammed, stranded, or can't go home for this greatest holiday of the year. Sadly true, the snow is destroying people, food supply, transportation and more.

The News

1. China is recovering after snow storms

There was new hope for people trying to travel home for the Chinese New Year after the worst winter storms in half a century crippled the country's transport system.

2. Chinese fight to get home amid winter chaos

SHANGHAI, China -- Crowds of frantic Chinese fought for seats Wednesday on the few trains leaving southern China, where the worst winter storms in half a century have crippled the nation's transport system during its busiest travel season.

3. Chinese snow storms strand 200,000 at station in new year exodus

The worst weather in 50 years pummelled swaths of central, southern and eastern China as migrant workers and students, business travellers and officials assigned to provincial postings battled for tickets to join their families for the lunar new year holiday.

4. Water supply frozen, roads shut

MORE than 100,000 people have endured water shortages in central China's Hubei Province since Thursday when supplies were frozen by plunging temperatures.

5. Millions stranded by snow in China holiday havoc

GUANGZHOU, China, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Millions of Chinese shivered through power cuts and water shortages on Wednesday and millions more were stranded by snow and ice ahead of what is for many their only family reunion of the year.

5. China Slow Disaster

Last but not least, what Google can find for China Slow Disaster.

My take

The wost thing about this event is that I found many comments on the news that's totally off-topic. People were commenting about politics, goverments, wars, global warming, cause-effect, etc, etc... and totally forget about the PEOPLE who are suffering.

I have empathy to those people and I wish they can get over it. I want to be a volunteer to give a helping hand for those people who are desperate to get over the snow problems.

Please, if you stop buy here, tell the world your opinion about this incident by giving a comment to this post. Thank you in advance.

So far I've been holding back writing and promoting my blog and asked myself Should I Migrate to WordPress MU?. Since then I made the decision to Migrate to WordPress MU and then finally Successfully Migrated to WordPress MU.

I've been showing this Christmas Days theme since 21 Nov 2007 and believe me I really got itchy when looking at it now. Perhaps it is a good choice for a start up blog for a simple look and feel while giving people a clue that Christmas is coming. However, theme become obsolete now. The themes from 7 Free Christmas WordPress Themes 2007 are much better than this.

The New Design

New Year is coming! I need some theme that can meet some very strict requirements. Before continue reading, please open Copy Blogger and Daily Blog Tips in new windows so that you can understand what I mean without having a headache. I want to make my blog look similar to those.

Header

Header should include

1. the logo/site name,
2. site slogan,
3. search box (wordpress or Google)
4. RSS feeds (nofollow links)
5. A horizontal menu that show pages by slug, not full title.
6. Sub-pages should go in drop down, or not shown at all.
7. And other must-have features that the designer thinks fit.

The header should have at least the following characteristics:

1. be lower to save space and possibly allow some 728 banner ad under it. Perhaps 100px height?
2. uniquely identify my blog from others.
3. encourage people to subscribe to my feeds.

The Body/Main content

The body should contain:

1. The Page title
2. Whatever content a blog should have

The body should have the following attributes

1. be at least 468px to fit that size of banner ad and photos.
2. preferably 480px or 500px.
3. Blockqoute should be blockquote.
4. Minimal modification to default styles.

The Side Bars:

1. One sidebar on the left to display most relevant stuff like pages and categories.
2. Two side bars on the right to display relevant links or advertisements. Possibly 150px wide to display 150x150 buttons.
3. A side bar below those 2 sidebars, which is as wide as both of them, to display longer links.
4. Should look professional while saving as much space as possible.

Widgets

Who dare to take a big challenge with widgets? If I will definitely break my way out to design some extra widget place holders such as:

1. the sidebars,
2. the whole pane right below the header,
3. above the post title, OR below it but above the fold
4. below the post content, but before the comments
5. below the comments, before the footer
6. the footer, so that I can change footer

Why? I hate modifying the themes to insert additional content. Do you? Drupal, DotNetNuke and most other Content Management System (CMS) have those, why the most famous one WordPress don't? Too much limitation cause lots of suffering for bloggers.

Every day I waste time on searching for plugins to do very simple job for my blog, still couldn't get satisfied. Then, I need to modify the themes. Then, I need to modify the plugins. They say WordPress require little tech knowledge, my use of it prove the opposite.

Additionally if possible, the theme should have options in the WordPress back-end Options page.

SEO Features

I'm not yet an expert in SEO, yet. However I do have some basic requirements to meet elementary level of SEO:

1. The site name must not be H1 for any pages other than home page.
2. Every page must have a H1 title, including archives, tags, pages, posts, categories, search etc.
3. All styles should be in external CSS file.
4. The lighter the better, so no unnecessary class attributes, use the ID attribute and nested HTML default classes to format elements instead. Example: Don't define a class "PostContent" when in fact the Content is under <div id="content"> already.
5. The main content goes first, then the side bars. No excuses for putting right sidebar in front of the main content.
6. JavaScript for menu? Good idea, but the menu must be written in HTML and dynamic by JavaScript, not use document.write.
7. Ajax? yes another good idea, but please make sure only for sidebars.

The Styles

Technically knowledgable about CSS in advanced level, I would like to have to following styles:

1. The less classes, the better
2. Use ID and HTML element ID thoroughly
3. Smartly format image and objects depend on alignment (barely seen).
4. The less images the better, but must have enough to make the site look neat and nice.
5. The images need to be optimized over 10KB is not a good file size. Consider the dial-up users and the 10s effect.

Am I too tough? The list above is only half of my requirements. If you think you are good enough, go ahead and take the credit. If you up for the challenge?

Free Custom Blog Design

Thanks to Quan Quach from BlinkDagger for writing Win a Free Custom WordPress Design! I come to realise that Brian Purkiss from plainBETA Design and Blogging is giving out a Free Custom WordPress Theme

Do I meet the requirements?

Contest Requirements

1. Must be a WordPress powered blog: OK
2. The desired layout must be a minimalist, web 2.0, like design: OK
3. The blog must be something that I like: OK, but does that mean your friend is reserved?
4. No logo design can be involved: OK, but does that mean you can't do graphic?
5. ‘Designed by’ link must remain in the footer: OK, if it is good then credit is reserved. After all that's the contest all about.
6. The blog already needs to be in existence: OK, you are reading it.

How to Enter

1: Write a post on your blog linking to this post ’selling’ your blog to me: Done

-Why should I pick your blog?

Answer:

1.1 Would you like to design some blog that set its goal to 10,000 subscribers? I'm thinking of expanding my blog to pagerank 6+. Wouldn't you like to get a link back from so high PR site? Then my blog is for you.

1.2 Would you like to design a blog of a fellow web developer and take some nice credit from doing so? Then this blog is for you.

1.3 Would you like to give a hand to someone who help other bloggers and web master live on his blog? Then this blog is foryou.

1.4 Would you like to take some high-requirements challenge and get well-known, instead of designing some simple blog just to throw your business card? Then this blog is for you.

1.5 Would you like to be recognized as a top WordPress designer and get known by the WordPress community? Then this blog is for you.

-What do you want the design to look like?

Answer:

As mentioned above. But I'd love to hear your expert advices if they work better.

-Remember, I have to like your blog in order to pick it. So what’s so special about it?

Answer:

At this stage it is not so special. I only help other bloggers to become better bloggers. I love to help others. So if you help me you are giving a hand to other bloggers, too.

I'm sure my requirements are higher than other bloggers, so will you take the challenge?

2: Contact me with a link to your entry.

Answer: OK, I will contact you after this.

What's Next

If Brian decide not to design my blog, I will end up spending some time choosing some free theme and customize it for my own use. Of course I will make it meet the requirements I set above. If I do, I will distribute it. If Brian does, I might ask him to let me distribute, too. So stay tune for the result.

Update 28/12/2007: I realize some requirements maybe too high for a standard designer, so I don't expect to find or get those immediately.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year and Holidays to anyone who have. If you don't celebrate New Year in your country, why not celebrate it online?

• Help for general issues, anything goes here.
• AdSense Help, for AdSense related issues.
• Programing Help, for HTML related issues.

I'm not a super-expert and can't solve every problem. However, I'm a very open-minded and resourceful person and I wish to help others as much as I can. If you have problems, feel free to ask and I will try my best to help you solve it.

While I neglect in making my own website look good, I'm very interested in making other people's website become better. While I'm not very good at managing my own life, I am good at pointing other people to the right direction. So while reading my blog, if you find something you feel not OK, please tell me and I will try to change it.

I was also a former graduate student, so if you need help on study, you can ask me too. I've done my Bachelor and Diploma of IT majoring in Computer Software Development and Net-Technologies.

What do you think about those pages? What should I do to improve them?

This woman, whose name is Binh Thi Nguyen was kept as a slave in a family right in the capital of Vietnam. She was tortured and forced to work hard for 13 years since she was only 11 year old. She was still fortunate enough to get rescued by a neighbor.

The compassionate neighbor who rescued Binh is an 70 year old woman, also called Binh, Binh Thi Ha.

The news article states:

It was a case that outraged a nation: for 13 years a Vietnamese couple abused and tortured a young woman they kept as a virtual slave, until she was finally rescued by a compassionate neighbor.

When Nguyen Thi Binh, 24, emerged from the family-run Hanoi noodle shop that had been her prison, her tragic story and the scars covering her body triggered outrage at the perpetrators -- and anger at officials who did nothing.

Source: Maid's ordeal in Vietnam highlights domestic violence

And another article just for the rescuer:

The Ha Noi People's Committee has awarded a certificate of merit to Ha Thi Binh for her role in helping Nguyen Thi Binh, a domestic servant, escape thirteen years of abuse at the hands of her employers.

Source: Woman honoured for blowing whistle in Hanoi abuse case

My take: I can't believe their is still enslavement in the modern society. I worry this is not the only case that happen in Vietnam. And I think in the world there are countless much-worse cases.

Note: Please bear with the naming confusion.

• In Vietnamese the name is in order of Surname > Middle name -> First name,
• while in English it is First name -> Middle name -> Surname.

I'm writing in pure English so it is the second case, while the news article write in half English so it's the first case.

What's next?

I found this news article from Google Alerts. In fact I have have alert everyday with the keyword "Binh", so from now on I will spare sometimes posting news about the other Binhs around the world. What do you think about this idea?

As always, please feel free to say your opinion in the comment form.