Technology is great. I love it- when it works.

I think that’s how we all feel about technology. We’re so use to it in our lives and on most days, it seems to work seemlessly. But on the days that it’s a tad slow or worse, not available, it just plain sucks.

One of the great movements of technology into our daily lives is the sharing of information. Rather, allowing for the greater access of digital files. In the past, and sometimes today, it was something of a mystery to get or share files. One way around it was to attach a file to an email, and email yourself. (I still do that from time to time.) Another way could be to use Google Docs. Even when you have your file “up there”, you may want to share it with someone else. This usually happens, per file. Yeah, you could arrange to share a folder, but that’s a few more steps than the average person wants to take. Next thing you know you have dozens of different web services accounts to do a little bit of everything. Think about it…

Gmail, Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, Flicker, Kodak, Picasa, DropBox, etc…………….

Multiple accounts because not everyone you know uses the same thing, and not every service provides what you want.

I know that not every service is supposed to be used for everything, and that we don’t want to share everything with all of our “friends” on Facebook, but you probably have 5 close people you want to share things with. Let’s narrow that down some more. Say you have 5 family members that you want to share things with, or a group of 5 close friends. You’re spread out all over the globe- heck, you could even be a small company- and want to share files, but also music, pictures, and recipes.

Technically speaking, the simplest solution would be to implement a file server that gives access to multiple users. Linux would be the cheapest solution, using Samba and SWAT. Yes, but not as pretty or as aesthetically pleasing as what the average user is accustomed to when it comes to installation, setup, and management.

Enter the HP solution.

HP EX485 MediaSmart Home Server (2.0 GHz Intel Celeron 64-Bit Processor, 750 GB Hard Drive, Windows Home Server)

And it’s cheap, too.

Links:
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OI2ZG4
- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

I’ll be setting up one of these bad boys next week at an NGO, and I am excited! I think every household, small business, or NGO should have one of these.

However, I do say this without having ever used Windows Home Server and can say that I am influenced by the hype and reviews online. But the potential in what I’ve read sounds exciting. I’ll have a post-op published at the start of May to validate or smash down my high hopes.

Action stations.

alan-???? Gunjou no Tani MV (DVD Ver.)

The song and video by Alan Dawa Dolma is beautiful and it brings back all the memories I have from the study abroad trip to China. The scenery in the video is amazing and it makes me long to see more. I hope that one day Tibet and China can come to a peaceful agreement.

[Above: VASCON 3 Slideshow]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2009

CONTACT
VASCON Communications
vascon.communication@gmail.com
www.vasconlove.org

Vietnamese American Student Conference Bids Farewell

Washington, D.C. – Today, the board of the Vietnamese American Student Conference (VASCON) announces that the annual event will no longer convene, but are discussing plans to assemble a similar event with narrower creative focus this coming June in New York City.

Last year on this very day, the board held its fourth annual conference for the first time outside of Austin, TX –where VASCON was founded—at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Over 250 students from 30 colleges and universities from across the nation gathered to dialogue and discuss practical solutions to the most pressing issues and events related to the Vietnamese American community. Every year, the conference assembles renowned experts in fields such as human rights, community organizing, politics, business, film, arts and entertainment to engage youth over the course of an inspiring, transformational three days.

“I have experienced few things more beautiful than VASCON,” says founder and previous executive director Kym Pham. “Knowing that this is the end of the road for this incredible journey proves to be bittersweet. However, what lives on is the change brought about by the individuals who were touched by this conference. I have witnessed and believe in the beauty of the mark they are each leaving on the world, the first and foremost of which belong to the passionate and dedicated young leaders part of the VASCON board. VASCON has an unbelievably special place in the hearts of many, and so does the VASCON family.”

Since its conception in 2004, VASCON built tremendous momentum, moving from a conference of a little less than 200 students to over 1000 over the four years it convened. Pham attributes much of VASCON’s development to the foundation set by sister conferences KASCON (Korean American Student Conference) and NAASCON (National Asian American Student Conference), and continues to be deeply grateful to the continuous support of uNAVSA (Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations), VIA-1 (Vietnamese Interacting as One), and VANG (Vietnamese American National Gala), all of which encouraged one another to improve and inspire the state of the community.

In VASCON’s fourth year, Pham joined the advisory board and transitioned the role of executive director to Xuan Le. “I was honored to serve as executive director of VASCON in its fourth and final year,” says Le. “This was one of the first conferences focused on Vietnamese Americans to come to the mid-Atlantic region and that allowed us to reach out to many new students and working professionals. I want to extend endless gratitude to everyone who helped to make VASCON a success each and every year. It was a true privilege to work with individuals who gave their whole hearts and sacrificed so much of themselves to make this a reality.”

The new, yet-to-be-named event potentially taking place this summer plans to partner up with Kollaboration New York on the weekend of June 27th. Its out-of-the-box programming will follow a series of quick-fire talks and performances by accomplished Vietnamese American architects, fashion designers, writers, musicians, among other creative thinkers in the New York scene. Similar to Kollaboration in its support of the Asian American artist community, the event hopes to encourage, inspire, and challenge individuals to pursue their dreams in the creative arena, by connecting them to those who are already doing so. If interested in helping, please email: kym@kollaboration.org .

—

Past sponsors of VASCON include: Beyond Bouquets, Boat People SOS, Catholic University of America, Chaos Theory Music, Lee’s Sandwiches, National Congress of Vietnamese Americans, SBTN, Storyline Designs, VATV, and the Vietnamese Professional Society, Wells Fargo, alongside numerous other small businesses, private donors, student and community organizations.

VASCON is an annual conference co-founded in 2004 by students at the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University, which has since gathered over 1,000 students and young professionals to engage in open dialogue about the state of Vietnamese America with distinguished guests from a spectrum of disciplines.

Legality.

Is that like “Fatality” or “Babality” in Mortal Kombat? An excerpt from Wired says it all.

In an appropriately glib statement, Parker and Stone said they were inspired to start the site when they got “really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time. So we gave ourselves a legal alternative.”

Source: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/stone-unveils-s.html