Andreas Sigurdsson

Date: 2012-01-03
Route: Vientiane to Si Bun Rueang
Distance: 166 km
Terrrain: Flat highway and tailwind

After half a day rest it felt good to be on the road again. Legs like new and body full with energy.
Left hotel around 0650. Took it easy out of Vientiane. Bought fresh yoghurt and chocolate milk at one place for breakfast, stopped several times and took photos some temples and of monks collecting food people donating it on the street, and bought my last last baguette in Laos. This time it was a stuffed with a lot and I only managed to finish half standing on the street. It had the traditional pate, different kinds of meet and slices of skin from pork belly. My speed was good and despite the breaks I finished the 20 km and crossed the border by 0800.

Going across the friendship bridge to Thailand there was a small cloud on the blue sky and believe it or not, it managed go drop some droplets of rain on me, most likely as a symbolic gesture to remind me of the terrible crossing from Vietnam a week before.

In Thailand I immediately got a sim card, updated the forward function for skype, ran into to Sweden that lived in the area which suggested me to avoid the highway, and then got started again.

Although the road was extremely boring, it was good tarmac and I had a tailwind enabling me to hold over 25km/h in average. Mostly around 30 and by 1100 I had covered 80 km in total. Had lunch for an hour. Great duck noodles and some fruit salad together with a coke. Started slower but realized quick there was not much extra effort to go faster and I did. Realized I should take the chance having good circumstance and decided to head for a city a bit further away, a total of 160km. There was a lot to wish for when it came to scenic road, but today was a day to cover ground, not do sightseeing.

By the end of the day, under a hot sun, I knew how a grilled chicken must feel. Going south the sun started on my left side and then as the day elapsed it went over my head and down in my right side, making sure to grill all visible parts.

Reaching my destination I finally also find a place to stay, a resort a bit outside town. Take a showe, moinitor my newly barbecued arms and legs, and then head to the place where there was massage. Clock was 1730 and everything was closed of closing down. Only or restaurant open so had some tasty phad tai and then went back to work some in my room.

The iPad is beautiful but it is not a good tool for working. Anyway, most can be done, just a bit less convenient, and with keynote I can also work on presentations.

Three more days to go in Thailand and tomorrow I am to take some smaller roads.

Date: 2012-01-04
Route: Si Bun Rueang to Mueang Chaiyaphum
Distance: 161 km with average speed of 23.2 km/h
Terrain: Flat

Today was a day after a long ride and I could feel it. Energy was gone. Worried to become sunburned as i could notice my arms and legs had suffered from seven hours under the sun, I dressed in long pants and long armed jersey. Fortunately, the day turned out to be mainly cloudy saving me from what could otherwise turn out to be heat exhaustion.

Late start at 0730. Tried to have a stable breakfast along the road, rice with meat mix, but no help. First two hours was a struggle. I even drove of the road! Stiff in my neck I sometime stretch it by looking down. The was a national road, good tarmac but with sharp edges where the road ended and steep side. I was driving close to edge as the space to from the lane was not big. After one of my stretch movements, I raise my head just as the wheel go of the sharp edge of the Tarmac and bike out on the steep side. Probably not going more than 20-25 km/h I brake and fall on the side toward the tarmac. Remember feeling my fetter stuck on the pedals and notice how I brace the fall by putting down my hand. My only thought is “shit, there goes the wrist”. But it was ok. No I jury at all. Hand and wrist probably a bit stronger after two weeks biking with weight on the handlebar. I rush of, drink some water and off I go. Now suddenly with more energy, probably thanks to adrenaline.

A cup of coffee later on gives me the boast my body needed and with the help of snickers I manage to do another 160 km day over seven hours on the bike.

Biking alone, for long exhausting days are interesting. Little interaction with people, and you one focus on when to take a break to get more energy to get through those remaining hours until you can shower, eat again and rest. Day after day.

Good thing with Thailand. Everyone is so friendly, it is cheaper than both Laos and Vietnam, and food is great! Problem with the language? I have to admit I initially thought it is much better traveling in china as I speak the language, but it is surprisingly easy to communicate. Ordering food is done quickly and with some gestures all other communication can be done as well. People are so friendly and helpful. They try to understand, are vey curious about me biking, especially alone, and to where I am going. English speaking people often comes up to support when I struggle with my gestures and the police usually wave happily when I speed by their traffic stations.

I think the period right now is a bit different. I have heard there are new year celebrations which might explain the limited offering of Thai massage (none!). But the cities also close down at sunset, so even before 1800 everything, except 7/11 and some noodle restaurants, is closed.

Hotel is not easy to find. After the resort last night I tried to find a cheaper guesthouse (400 baht is not really expensive though). Close to the bus terminal I was showed some rooms with terrible and dirty beds and crappy in general. I turned my bike I direction on the closest resort. Reaching it the prices were around 1,000 baht, far over what I need so got the tips for another hotel for 500 baht. Clean and with wifi I happily checked in and got my long awaited shower.

Date: 2012-01-05
Route: Chaiyaphum to close to Khok Samrong
Distance: 180 km

Second last day. Good start, nice noodles for breakfast. Chose a road today which might not have been the most optimal. It went through a hilly area and was 10 km longer. So why? Reason was that riding on the highway is extremely boring. More fun to climb hills and enjoy the ride down. And for sure, I was not bored and my mind occupied by the pain in my legs climbing uphill, and by the speed going down avoiding potholes.

After some 90 km my right pannier collapsed. The screws holding it was gone and there I was. A full pannier that cannot be used. I tightened it on top of my rack and hang a sport bag over my shoulders. Took me 15 km to find a repair shop that had screws in the size I needed. It got fixed and feeling light with no bag on my back I continued.

Along the road are distance markers counting down. When you are at 140 km with 15 km left it is almost annoying with it. Reaching zero and coming in to the town, I still feel fresh. With next town only 23 km away I decide to add one more hour to the day. Loading up with a snickers and an energy first I then head of. At exactly a total of 180 km today I finally find a hotel. They are a lot more difficult to find in Thailand as there are no English characters used. Just have to ask until you find it.

Could feel I was low on energy. After the dinner I was still hungry and had to order one more portion, and then I went to 7-eleven and bunkered up with snacks. Confident snickers has seen a peek in their Thailand sales this week…

Date: 2012-01-06
Route: Somewhere to Bangkok
Distance: 172 km

Eager to make a good last day of my trip I started before 0700 with the plan to bike 120 km and finish in Ayutthaya, 70 km outside of Bangkok, just in order to avoide terrible traffic.

I made good speed and by lunch time I have some noodles just 15 km north of Ayutthaya. It is a hot day, road dusty, narrow and with a lot of heavy traffic. I have a couple of close encounters with trucks but manage to survive. Worst was those parts where I have to ride in the lane and heavy trucks swish past me, first the wind pushing me notably forward and then when it is up next to me and passing, the wind dragging my in towards the truck. After climbing one bill i had to it the breaks when I got up close to 60 km/h catching more and more speed as trucks close passed me ushering me forward faster and faster.

I reach Ayutthaya, the old capital with several ancient buildings around In the town, I see some tourists and am baffled with how unfriendly and reserved they all were. I was in a great mood, smiling buit those I met kind of avoided all possible contact. Asking one middle aged couple to help me by taking a photo of me and the bike, I could feel that my approach was not welomed, they could of course not say no so they took the photo and just gave the camera back and left. Nothing chatting were I came from or anything.

Spending two three hours biking around and taking photos I headed for the trains station, only to find there was at least a two hour wait but probably longer, and the 1.5 hours to Bangkok. Not in the mood to wait for a train that even could be cancelled I fill up my water bottles, check the map and decide to bike to Bangkok. It was already 1600, my bike computer showed 140 km already biked and I knew it was at least 72 km to Bangkok. I filled up my enter with two snickers and just got started. It was a highway, lot of cars and tailwind. I kept 30-35 km/h but after little more than an hour as I started to enter the outskirts it just go worse, it was rush hour on a Friday. I could not keep the speed, people coming out on the part of the road I was riding on and motorcycles started to make more of an appearance coming up on my side of the road going in the wrong direction! It was noisy, dirty and full of pollution. I could feel a headache coming and just decided I was enoug. I waived down a taxi, took of the front wheel, strapped the bike to the back of the car and then settle down in the front seat. I aw happy to have made that decision. Traffic was a nightmare and kept getting worse. Traffic jam most of the time with motor cycles doing zig-zag in between the cars in all directions. The distance of about 40 km to the apartment took more than two hours.

And that was all. Not a single flat tire the whole 2000 km something that I biked. Only problems were a loose spoke that had to be tightened, a rack that collapsed and had to be replaced, and both panniers having issues the last day requiring some improvising to keep it together. It took me 15 days of biking and one day of rest in Hanoi. Now I will rest, eat and have massage before heading back to the reality in Shanghai again.

Date: 2011-12-31
Route: Lak Sao to Pakkading
Distance: 141km
Terrain: Beautiful but with a couple of very steep inclines crossing several mountains

Had a good sleep. Hotel great with balcony for about 10USD. Started at 0700 and went for breakfast. Two baguettes, two fried eggs and one cup of coffee.

Weather chilly in mornings and evenings, but as so sun is up it gets quickly hot. There were several mountains chains in the way that had to be crossed, and the climbs were very steep and challenging. The downhill ride was steep as well and had to brake after reaching 61 km/h.

Today we met five other cyclist going the opposite way. A swizzle couple that had been on the road for nine months, a Brazilian couple that started in Bangkok and a German sounding guy which we just biked past.

The scenery was amazing. The mountains and vegetation is something completely different from Vietnam. Climate also a lot dryer. Roads good.

Stopping early the day before we decided to cover some more distance and after 141km we stopped at a guest house. This after more than seven hours biking.

One strange thing in Lao is the food. We have not food any busy restaurants, and those we found served no special food. It seemed they were more towards travelers on bus going of buying some stuff, while residents ate at home. Being relatively poor villages it is understandable. Hotels and guesthouses are all nice but we a constant feeling of being ripped of when shopping. A lot worse than in Vietnam.

Time to sleep early on this last day of the year and can only wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Location as of 20:22 today

Date: 2012-01-01
Route: Pakkading to Ban Hai
Distance: 137km
Terrain: Flat and boring but with nice sights of Mekong river

Falling asleep before nine the day the previous day (new years eve) I was up at 0600 and ready by seven. Couldn’t find any baguettes or other breakfast do started around 0730. Finding baguettes was so difficult. I was really hungry and low on energy so had to open my chinese made Compressed food cookie that seemed to be made for military use, it gave some well needed energy. After two hours we reached a city, searching around we finally gave up and settled for noodles again for late breakfast. Fortunately enough, the restaurant choose had its own wagon for making coffee and for the first time in several days we got very good strong coffee. Also, the noodle soup we thought we ordered was a rice soup, and a pretty good one! So it turned out good, and a lot cheaper than the they meals we had. Only 30,000 KIP for two bowls of rice soup, four cups of coffee and a basket of oily bread.

Leaving the city we saw a market, a quick check uncovered a stand selling baguettes and suddenly it was all covered.

The road continued, flat and boring, but interesting enough there were a lot of groups with people drinking and dancing in groups. Saw it already around eight in the morning and it appeared the whole day. A sharp difference from vietnam. Not sure if there is any specific holiday but seeing men and women drunk and dancing before lunch is a bit surprising. The first part of Lao was poor and this part on the flatland feels more like what I would expect from Australia where everyone drives offload pickups and drink in bars spread out along the road.

After 100km, disappointed so far about the food in Lao, we settled for a restaurant by the road. Choosing mixed fried rice and a fish dish, we got mixed vegetables and fish to dip in soy sauce with Japanese wasabi. Food was great and turned out to be just what I was longing for, vegetables.

We pushed for another 30km to the final destination where we at the end of the small town for d a guest house. In a declining standard this one was even more basic than previous ones, no shower and no sink. Only a barrel you could fill and scope to pour water over yourself. This was also used to flush the toilet. Also got a pet in my room, a green salamander and several Mosquitos (which I am more worried about as they have malaria in Lao).

Dinner was once again a challenge. On the only road there was many empty restaurants, and everyone living there seemed to be drunk in a home party playing loud music. We went to one of the many stores and after noticing they watched chinese tv we found out all shop owners in the town were all from Hunan province in china. Surprise surprise that chinese come here as well to do business. Why they settled down In this place I never asked but maybe were the directed here without options.

Anyway, we got recommendations and the chinese lady followed us to the restaurant on help. We order dishes with a final bill of 140 RMB. Since day one we have felt like being ripped of. One of the problems is probably that we only eat and buy in the shops along the road that target travelers on bus. So of course it is expensive. But there is nothing else to be found!

Tomorrow hopefully an easy ride of 60km to Vientiane. Arrive before lunch, do some sightseeing and rest, wash clothes and prepare for the push through Thailand. It is over 600km to Bangkok and I’m running low on time so plan is to do it in four days, and stop in the outskirts to avoid the worst traffic of Bangkok. Problem is that I am already a bit tired after doing around 130 for six days. We will see what happens. Plans have changed before.

Date: 2012-01-02
Route: Ban Hai to Vientiane
Distance: 62 km

With the good routine of an early start we hit the road before 0730. Today the plan was easy. Bike 62 km, reach Vientiane before lunch, and then rest for the remaining day.

Lack of breakfast places forced us to bike 10km before we decided to have some unhealthy disgusting Nescafé (58% sugar, 31% milk powder and only 11% coffee).We met another couple on bikes, this time from Austria, where they also started to bike with some distances covered by train.

A first temple was also visited.

Not until reaching the outskirts of Vientiane before we have the first food, baguettes! Nice made and to a lower price than on the country side we were happy reach some civilization.

Checking before noon I was happy to send all my clothes for laundry, have a Lao style coffee and then a massage. I walked around a bit but couldn’t find anything interesting. There were more foreigners on the streets than locals. Several pizza places and even hamburger stand. It was not as I expected. Close to the bus station I had another nice filled baguette and then went back to e french bakery and worked some on my iPad.

I tried to get one more massage but they were all full(!) until late in the evening. Very surprising as the street was full of massages stores.

Found a local restaurant without foreigners were we had some noodles soup that also contained dumplings. Finished of with a nice banana crepe looking thing with chocolate. Delicious! A last beer was shared with Herbert on the balcony of the hotel as we tomorrow of continues on our own. Me speeding through Thailand to Bangkok while he takes it slower having more time to spare. A later night than usual, now already 2245 so still hope I will be able to leave at seven. I will be a long day including border crossing.

Date: 2011-12-25
Route: Huu Long to Hanoi
Distance: 87km
Terrain: Flat on “simple roads”

The night was terrible. The room was next to the highway and trucks kept speeding past all night and as there were some houses close by they also often used their horns to my suffering. At 6am local time (7am Beijing time) I went up and started to prepare. One hour later me and the Dutch guy named Herbert left together towards Hanoi. It was cold. Reading showed 5 degrees and the sun was not yet up.

We hold a pleasant pace of 20 km/h, less demanding then my own 25-30km/h I have tried to hold. After 30 minutes we reached a small village and found a market were they Hadders baguettes(!). Delicious to have some warm bread in the cold morning.15 minutes later we saw the first cafe and sat down to enjoy a cup of strong Vietnamese coffee. Before reaching Bac Giang we took off to an older road that instead went through villages. Road was not that good so it was a shaky ride. After two hours we crossed a larger bridge and I saw the first Giant shop. Right after the bridge there was a large bump and the steel wire now holding my rack in place broke (it was arranged by the border due to lack of screws). I went into the closest repair shop to find a new screw. Taking of the panniers I realized the whole rack was deformed and would not last. Fortunately, the only bike shop I had seen was just 500 meters behind me so turned around and went back there. Got a new Giant rack for 550,000 dong, had my fears of the gears needed to be replaced proven true and off I went again. Already delayed 40 minutes Herbert was a fair distance ahead of me. In speeded up but within 10 minutes the bike came to and immediate stop. The rack was not fastened correctly and had fallen backwards over the wheel. Taking out my own tools to fix it I realized not a single screw was tightened. Sending 5 minutes going throught the newly installed rack, I then prepared to race. Took of my jacket and figured if I kept 30 km/h for an hour skipping lunch I should be able to catch up. And of I went. 40 minutes later, somewhat tired after a total of three hours on the bike without food, I was doing 35 km/h through a city when I suddenly heard someone yell loudly something incomprehensible. It was Herbert having a baguette on the left side of the street and not knowing what to yell or being prepared as i quickly went past him passing scoters and cars he just raised up and made noise.

Happy to get a chance to breath I had a warm baguette with newly made egg and other stuff and ate it together with their delicious chili sauce.

With only 30 km left we took of again in a slow and nice pace. Reaching Hanoi and knowing that a friend from shanghai would be leaving Hanoi the same day I decided to drop by and look for him. I found the hotel inside the old quarters and just as a arrived he stepped out of the door. We decided to meet up for dinner two hours later but failed to meet. The cellphone generation is not suited for being with out instant communication devices. He sent an email with a new location instead of the agreed one, however, I was not online.

Finding hotels is easy, they’re everywhere. Finding one allowing me to also store the bike there was a lot more difficult. After trying several hostels we tried a normal midrange hotel, they were all the same. No bike in the room and no space to store it. But, one had a balcony and for 30 USD I got a room with three beds and my own balcony.

Sending the rest after afternoon walking around the old quarters we found a lot of great food. I just love the food in Vietnam. Have had the noodle soups, with different ingredients, the cold noodles with spring rolls, the baguettes, everything served in small restaurant on the street where you sit on small small chairs. Great are also the many cafe that are everywhere. Simple with small chairs that you sit on at the sidewalk.

Tired and out of energy we bought a few beers and sat on my balcony and talked about possible routes from Hanoi going south…and what is the next plan…

Date: 2011-12-26

With the plan to leave Hanoi the day after we arrived, I was up early and had a good breakfast. Without reliable maps we decided to to a bookstore before leaving for an easy ride after lunch. Leaving the hotel we decide to first have a cup of coffee and direct our steps towards the same cafe as the day before. Looking for a seat I suddenly see a familiar face. Sitting having coffee with a beautiful girl was the guy I shared room with for six months when studying chinese almost four years ago. It took him some seconds to realize it was me when he saw me staring at him.

We chatted and after getting being invited for dinner in the evening we decided to postpone the start one day and instead rest. We spent an hour updating each other, using chinese not English. On the same page we parted and me and Herbert found a atlas in the bookstore satisfying the needs. Splitting up I headed back to the hotel and slept or two hours in the afternoon and then went out walking around taking photos and drinking coffee. I also managed to buy two propaganda posters that I now have to carry on my bike.

In the evening we were picked up in by a friend to my friend in his brand new fiat. We were taken through the city to north of the west lake to a buffer restaurants, famous for offering close to 400 different dishes for different minorities in northern vietnam. A lot of food consumed and after bring many calories biking it is now most likely in balance.

Date: 2011-12-27
Route: Hanoi to Cam Thuy
Distance: 128km
Terrain: beautiful landscape, flat with a few mountains to climb

After breakfast at seven, we were checked out and the busy roads of Hanoi before 0815. And these roads were busy. A cloudy day as it was, the pollution probably had no way to go and it was thick. The old buses, trucks and many many scoters created a noise and polluted air that was almost breaking us. It took and hour to get out of the chaos and the it just became better and better.

Only one part was tough, just before reaching HCM highway we passed through, and stopped for lunch, in at town covered in dust. Clothes and everything had a yellow layer of dust.

We fund our way to the Ho Chi Minh highway which passed though the inner lands of Vietnam, next to mountains, often in between, though small villages and farm fields. It was a beautiful landscape, green and peaceful. Not that much traffic made it very pleasant. We stopped for newly grilled corn and had snacks on the way.

After 6.5 hours on the bike we reached Cam Thuy, found a hotel and after the first dinner with rice it became an early night.

Date: 2011-12-28
Route: Cam Thuy to Thai Hao
Distance: 130km

With start at 0800 and end at 1730 it was another long day with more than six hours on the bike. Landscape was beautiful, remote with only small villages and no cities. Mountain and rice fields along the way, many just being planted.

Breakfast was eaten on the bike in the way of a newly made baguette with banana taste. Just delicious. Later on we stopped at a cafe and had a cup of coffee.

76km was done before lunch, which was the standard pho noodle soup, but this time with more meat. People along the way are very friendly, kids and grown ups all waving and yelling hello after us. Many kids also tried to ride with us. Day passed and by late afternoon we started to look for a hotel, for me most important was a quiet one. Found one on a side street and settled with 200,000 Dong. Now sitting in the lobby after having had dinner and writing this post I realize there is a KTV either in the same building or next door…..doesn’t look promising as I usually go to bed at 2100.

Tomorrow we will continue south about 130km to a city close to Laos border. There I must decide if going back to Shanghai or continuing through Laos and finally to Bangkok in Thailand, another two weeks away. Started to rain in the evening so hope it will be over by tomorrow.

Me in the lobby with a Christmas tree behind

Date: 2011-12-29
Route: Thai Hoa to Pho Chau
Distance: 130km

The hotel proved to be a disaster, or at least not as good at the previous ones. With a karaoke on the same floor it was extremely noisy but in some way I still managed to fall asleep from exhaustion. Woke up several times, such as 0200 when a choir of roosters got started outside my window…thought they started first at dawn. Anyway, the sounds of the country side was better than the false singing of drunk people and I fell in and out of sleep until 0600 when I decided to start prepare the day. I took my last Dutch Lady chocolate drink and packed my luggage.

By 0730 we were both ready to head out and surprisingly enough there was a foreign couple from holland also biking and had spent the night in the same hotel in this small city. Around sixty years and professional looking they were most likely experienced bikers. We left to have some baguettes for breakfast, the couple swished past and we never managed to catch up or see them again.

After two hours biking we changed to a smaller road. Going though a flatter country side with many old villages and rice fields under work, it was a few very nice hours. We had lunch in a village and half way through the lunch we were surrounded by people and one old man sat close to me and started to draw a world map to figure out were Sweden was. With USSR in the north, asia underneath I positioned sweden next to the left corner of USSR. It became a bit too much in the end and worried about loosing stuff in the tumult we left before I had managed to finish my lunch. Bought two baguettes instead to fill me up.

After 90km we turned east to get back on Ho Chi Minh highway. The road immediately got more challenging with many hills having 10 degree climbs. 30 km like this and we finally reached flat and the destination for today.

Reaching Pho Chao, 50 km from Lao border, we hesitated between two hotels. One had signs advertising for karaoke on had not. Remember the recent experience we took the one without. After getting into the rooms we find power is dead. Promised it will be back 1800 we went out for lunch instead. Now at the time of writing, 1910, power is still out and no way to take a shower. Starting to feel very tired and would easily fall asleep.

Restaurant we now sit in waiting for power to come back. The few with power have generator and it is apparently good for business.

Date: 2011-12-30
Route: Pan Chaou to Lak Sao
Distance: 81km
Terrain: Challenging! Rain and mountain climb for 30 kilometers

After a ok night in my hotel room I woke up to the sound of rain outside. The climate in this city was very humid, which could be told from all the mould covering walls and roof in my room. Saw on my bike computer that my new bike had 5 kilometers left before reaching 1000 kilometer. Doing my quick check of the bike I noticed a first problem, one spoke was loose and back wheel not straight. Decided to fix it in the a service shop along the road.

Leaving the hotel we found the best baguettes so far just around the corner. A small store had a traditional stone oven using wood. In front of it was newly baked baguettes. We sat down close to the fire under the rain cover and enjoyed the warm bread. Satisfied we headed towards Lao border some 50 kilometers away. The weather didn’t improve, kept raining but road was fairly easy. After one hour I found a shop were the tightened my spokes and even oiled the chain.

After that the hell began. Already covered about 20 kilometers we got 30 kilometers climbing straight up across the mountains to Lao. The rain was constant and just kept getting colder. After more than three hours climbing uphill we reached the border area. Desperate for heat we went to the restaurant and ordered hot food. The place was not heated so we ate while shaking. A quick look showed a temperature of ten degrees and dressed in short tight pants and completely soaked it was getting cold. Altitude of 700 or 900 meters also added some to it.

We went quickly through Vietnamese and Lao immigration. 1 USD in stamp fee leaving vietnam and for Lao visa on arrival I had to pay 35 USD for visa, 1 USD for not bringing a photo and 1 USD in stamp fee.

The amazing thing crossing the border was, immediately going downhill it also stopped raining and not long after we had the sun in our face and the sky was blue. Behind us we could see the heavy clouds hanging over the mountain pass.

After 30 km into Lao we reached a town, finding out next was 50km away we decided to stop for the day, this time with only a total of 81km but some challenging ones!

With everyone away from Shanghai i made a last minute decision to test my new bike on the road.

Plan: flight to Nanning and from there to Hanoi.
Equipment: two panniers, equipment in one and bike bag in one.

2011-12-22
Distance covered: 85km
Terrain: Soft rolling hills

Arriving at lunch time at Nanning airport, it took me an hour to assemble the bike and prepare everything. Many people gathered around me preparing the bike, one bought a map and another took his own bike to show me a place where I could pump the tires. As feared my gears had once again received a rough treatment on the flight and barely usable. Only high gears to use with less noise.

I felt good to be on the road, legs fresh and bike hungry to cover some distance. Everything felt good, bike was stable and fast, roads were good most of the time and the rolling hills gave nice speed going down and no to challenging to climb.

As I started late I planned for an easy ride with only 50km to Dongmen. Unfortunately, full of speed and energy I accidentally went in wrong direction twice. First was not that bad, realized it when I saw the sign of Nanning in front of me when it should be behind me. Second time was worse. With distance covered passing 50km but no town I find out on my phone that I one our back to the wrong road going straight east instead of south…it was a great ride with the wind in my back and downhill much of it…going back mean the opposite…mood was not good. And after half an hour I try to cheer up with a Snickers and just later I notice a short cut to my original road cutting the distance I need for recover by much. Energy was running out as I never planned going more than 50km on empty stomach. Worse was also that the nice road I experienced on the wrong roadways not yet done on the correct one. It was all under construction for fair distance. Finally after 85km I reached Dongmen and one motorcyclist that kept me company for 20 minutes showed me a hotel. Clean with computer for 70 RMB.

There was not much than one road through the city with a lot of trucks passing through 24/7. Fortunately I was so tired so I managed to sleep anyway.

Date: 2011-12-23
Distance: 105km
Terrain: Rolling bigger hills

Without alarm I woke up after 08, packaged everything and prepared to leave. Putting on the panniers I found out that one screw was gone from the rack explaining the strange noise on rough roads the day before. Sacrificing breakfast I set out to solve it. Found few stored and settled with a Honda shop. The guy quickly found and old screw and fixed it. The women was most likely the manager. She inspected the bike and commented on how expensive it was and that I must be rich. Taking advantage of it she asked for 5 yuan for that old rusty screw I got…congratulating her for the extra money earned thanks to me being a foreigner I paid and left.

Could feel the legs from the day before. Biked 10km until I found a restaurant for truck drivers. Got s bowl of rice with parts from a pig leg. Had company by a local pig trader who was a big fan of Swedish table tennis players. Chatted during the breakfast and them it was time to cover some distance.

The hills got bigger and bigger today. My gears became more of an issue as my options for climbing were limited and they kept jumping. Legs had to work extra hard on the hills.

After two hours biking I settled for lunch. Best food for a long time. I found a restaurant and upon requesting rice and tofu, she ran away to the market close by and bought fresh tofu and pork. A portion suitable for a hard working farmer it also filled me up.

The weather was not as nice today as the day before. A bit chilly especially with the wind, causing me to wear three layers plus a wind jacket. Now regret not buying to leg and warmers a friend recommended.

After 4.5 hours I reached the destination or today, Ningmig. The border and Pengxiang was only 40-50km away but decided it was better to save my strengths for the coming days as I was unsure about the terrain around the border.

Found a hotel for 108 RMB and this time I asked for a quiet room and got one facing away from the road.

Happy to have brought my long hiking pants and fleece jacket to wear after the biking. Plan is to rest, sleep early and hit the border by lunch tomorrow then send one more day before reaching Hanoi.

Date: 2011-12-24
Route: Ningming to Huu Lang
Distance: 140km

After 12 hours sleep I set off at 0900. It was a tougher rid to the border than expected. Malfunctioning gears did not make it easier. After 60km and lunch I reached the border and got through without any hassle. Highway AH1 started at the border showing signs of 169km to Hanoi so figured it would be better to stay on it. I made a slight mistake with money. Not finding any place to exchange I tried my luck at a few places and found one who offered to exchange 100RMB to 250,000 Dong, not a great rate but I was desperate.

The road from the border was a dream. Going slightly down hill for more than 30 kilometers it was a pleasant ride and not to exhausting.

After a total of 140km I found my first hotel I decided to not push it any further. Had some excellent noodles close by and then went to check in. Figuring out the price the first foreigner comes by and decide to stay there as well. A Dutch guy that had biked all the way from Yangshuo and going same direction as me. Showed him my noodle place and chatted a bit about plans. After heading back to the hotel and taking a well needed homer I went downstairs to use the wifi. Sitting with the family running it I was offered delicious root fruits and in return they played around with my iPad. Amazing how intuitive the interface and touch function is. They just loved looking at google maps.

French villa on the chinese side of the border

July 2011

Deciding it was time for vacation, I managed to collect a week and escape to Philippines for 10 days in July. The plan was simple, dive and train Balintawak (stick-fighting). I found a place on Cebu that was famous for diving, nothing else, and my Balintawak trainer was as least on the same island. I rented a hut for 10 USD per day without aircon and was disconnected from email and Internet for a week.

I managed to get four days of diving, including the advanced open water. Favorite dive site as in the photos below where a lot of sardins and even sharks (for the lucky ones) could be seen.

Movie from the dive visible here:

Moalboal is a quiet and boring place if you don’t dive. For me it was perfect. Between dives I rested in a hammock reading on my kindle

You can say it is very close to the water, taking into account that there is no beach, so when high tide it is on the water, and at low tide rocks.

As icing on the cake, Henry which I last time met 2004 had time to come by for training three days.

And a video of us training here.

And then some photos from Manila where I stopped one day on the way back:

All photos visible here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigurdsson/sets/72157627392281297/

After finishing the establishment and recruitment of Kunming office, the next stop was Guiyang…

One good thing with Guiyang is its excellent food!

Office furniture all bought in a former hall of some kind, huge!

And weekends could be spent visiting a local temple

which also served great, and cheap, vegetarian food

and then the office was up and running here as well

and had the fortune to try some sheep brain

and many options for breakfast

Sent out with limited time on hand to get the office up and running, it was an exciting time to recruit people, find office, get it furnished and arrange training for the sales people.

First night ni Kunming I met up with old friend resident there.

A week after arriving in Kunming, the office was up and running:

=

With a group of foreign investors and bankers, visits were done in Chongqing and introduced were given to the plans and development of Chongqing.

Just realised I spend a lot of time chatting with interesting people while out travelling, or just taking a taxi in Shanghai. There are often interesting comments and stories told. Therefore I plan to start sharing some, and maybe can there also be some insights.

On December 30, after a burger and beer with an american friend, I took a taxi back home. The taxi drivers are usually happy to chat and this one was no exception. He told me how he has worked as taxi driver since 1983, and when he started he had to spend 10 months getting a driving license, this compared to the few weeks needed today in Shanghai. We could both agree that it is clearly visible that most drivers in Shanghai today would benefit from some additional training.

The discussion continued with cars, and the disappointment that there were no good Chinese cars. My joke that Volvo now was a Chinese car company was not fully comprehended.

He kept on complaining about the airplane industry and that you cannot trust Chinese airplanes. However, the trains are good. It was clear he was proud over China’s achievements when it comes to high-speed trains. And it reminds me how often I hear strong comments on subjects, that internationally are being questioned, clearly in line with what I assume is the official opinion. To mention that the current high-speed trains are all based on German and Japanese technology and there are talks about infringements was better to skip.

Going forward we also entered military equipment and the coming aircraft carriers, the first one launched maybe already next year (soviet-era one bought from Ukraine).  I was told that China is very good in making artillery, something I was not aware of, although I know that the small neutral Kingdom of Sweden is excelling in this area as well. Doing some research today I did notice that China is one of the few nations still maintains artillery divisions, and one of the largest and best equipped ones are stationed on the coast opposite Taiwan. Apparently, the American Aircraft carriers that has been in the area to discourage an attack on Taiwan has prompted China to develop invest heavily in technology. Just two days ago, it was reported that China is stepping up testing on a space missile that could sink American aircraft carriers in the Pacific.”The DF 21D’s uniqueness is in its ability to hit a powerfully defended moving target with pinpoint precision”. “Latest DF-21 models in development are believed to be armed with 300kt nuclear warheads and will be the world’s first and only anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM).” (Source) The name DF, is an abbreviation for Dong Feng meaning East Wind, and maybe is that what the west will feel the coming decade – the wind from east.

With parents visiting I managed to find time to visit the small Swedish town outside Shanghai, a copy of Sigtuna.

It did give a Swedish feeling walking around on the empty(!) streets, but a weird addition was the number of couples taking wedding photos to both left and right.

This was a post I started to work on over a year ago. As always, other things comes in between and not being paid to blog real work have priority. However, this subject proved to be really interesting and I could see how the wheels of time where moving in direction of my assumptions. The only problem was difficulties in how to illustrate it in a good way, being the main reason for the delay.

Anyway, when I started I defined how access to online content is something that could be done from different layers; the desktop, mobile, social and app layer. I took the three players I felt was most important to illustrate it – Google, Facebook and Apple – all with different approaches to it.

At that point Facebook was the ruler of the social layer, both Google and Apple was on the other hand in the mobile and desktop, although in different forms.

Google managed to control Internet content access through Chrome, Android, Android Apps and Google services online.

Apple, such as Microsoft although not being in the comparison, has both its own desktop OS but also itunes which works closely with its mobile devices. So access could be controlled from the desktop, iPhone and with a not so successful attempt in the cloud, mobile.me

What happened then was a clear indication from both Google and Apple to strengthen certain fronts. Google launched Google+ and Apple launched iCloud. Apple is also making Mac OS moving closer to iOS, which makes me believe we will only have one OS in the end from Apple and one from Google. Integration is key and Apple is the one to look to. Google has made it work from the other direction, integrating Android with the Online Google Services removing the need to connect it to desktop for synchronisation. The addition of Google+ makes it even better where photos taken on the phone is immediately uploaded (something that starts rivaling my use of Flickr).

This forced me to rethink my layers and I changed the order as I realised also Chrome has entered into the apps layer.

So the change became that Android covers Mobile and Apps, Chrome covers Desktop and Apps, iOS mobile and Apps, and Facebook Social and Online content.

So how about facebook? Controlling social is no long-term position. I have claimed before that I don’t believe in them and I stick to that. From my point of view Facebook needs to do one of the following, move down and control another layer such as mobile (which makes more sense then desktop as developing nations such as China, mobile access is growing faster), or join forces with someone not present in social such as Apple or Microsoft. With mobile OS such as android they have all opportunities to get control of the OS, and it is probably just a matter of time before it becomes as easy to change mobile OS as it is to install a new browser on your desktop.

If for a quick moment take in Microsoft, which has not been mentioned, they have a similar situation as Apple. The completely dominate desktops, they have for a long been in mobile and now re-invented their presence, they have a dominant Instant Messenger (IM) that can relate to social, and they have MSN.com. Problem is they have not done it well or even to early so they lost momentum. They are already involved with Facebook which shows they are aware of what they are lacking.

I would dare to say that we are now approaching a scenario where we only have two layers to talk about, an access layer (access to online content) and a social layer. Google is currently the only one covering both.

So what to expect next? The traditional layers, where there is no integration between devices as in the good old times (Nokia are you listening?) will be gone and devices run the same OS, social is going to be an integrated part of access to online content, no matter from what device it is being done.

Each player needs to decide if they want to be part of setting the rules creating the eco-system or offer services and content on it and compete for the space. A scenario painted up is with Facebook moving down establishing itself as a “Face OS” side by side with Google and Apple.

An interesting aspect of thinking in these terms is that the game has changed. Previous rulers such as Nokia, Motorola etc has lost dominance for software companies. But, I do think that old content providers such as Yahoo could have a comeback if playing their cards right. No matter how good the services are, content is king and Google has come to power by making others content accessible. Someone like Yahoo has the users and the content, both external but also created by their own in contrast to Google. Yahoo also has a social service that is not used to its full potential, Flickr and the previous Delicious. So, Yahoo has all the assets but is lacking the vision.

Microsoft is currently creating the right alliances so they are to be watched. If joining forces with both Facebook and Nokia (remember Connecting People?) they would immediately grab a stronghold, and then cementing the desktop position with MSN moving closer to social interaction and Facebook integration (think Tencent’s QQ).

Players such as Sony also seems to think in the same terms but take another approach, the househould appliances approach. they are integrating TVs and other stuff with Sony Ericsson phones and Playstation. It could be an interesting way too but the social layer is missing? And this is something that Google is doing right, they are not establishing Google+ as a new walled community, instead it is put as a layer on top of all their services and slowly being integrated.

I still believe that Openid will be the key going forward, something not requiring you to establish new accounts, instead use an existing membership to interact on new ground. However, we are entering exciting times!

The change in mobile usage and access to online services made we to play with what to expect next. Words all around us today are: cloud, android, iOS, apps, widgets, tablet etc etc. Google is an interesting company to look at and what they have done. Their latest developments are especially interesting, the launch of Android and Chrome OS. Coming back to that later, I looked at the technology side. Services such as Oauth is gaining ground and it makes a lot of sense: “OAuth provides a method for users to grant third-party access to their private resources (e.g. photos, videos, contact lists) stored somewhere without sharing their passwords. It also provides a way to grant limited access (in scope, duration, etc.). For example, a web user (resource owner) can grant a printing service (client) access to her private photos stored at a photo sharing service (server), without sharing her username and password with the printing service. Instead, she authenticates directly with the photo sharing service which issues the printing service delegation-specific credentials.” (clipped from Introducing OAuth 2.0.)

All these things shows a trend how the web access is being decentralized, meaning you are not only using your computer and a browser to access an online service. You might be using an app on your phone to add a todo on rememberthemilk.com or a widget to follow your twitter feed, or even an online photo service to access your photos stored on flickr. On the other hand, a development I hold my fingers crossed for is the consolidation of ownership for you own content. Why keep differ friendslists/addressbooks on different services when you instead can decide on one, say Google Contacts, and let all other get restricted access to it in order to match you with friends. So no more need to create new accounts and share information about yourself. I have for a long time used openid but it never really got traction but offered a single sign on solution and automatic registration at those services supporting it. Same thing happening with photos and music with what is called “the cloud”. Where your resources are located in one place and then shared with the devices or services who need to access it.

So, what does this take us in the future? One company to not underestimate is Facebook. Have a dominating control of your social network you are forced to be there in order to connect with them. There is probably no way Facebook would happily opening up the gates. This is shown by Google’s recent decision to turn of the connection that allowed Facebook to access Google Contacts in order to match you with friends. Reason? because it was only one way with Facebook giving nothing back. Facebook has moved from a closed community to an open where everyone can join and practically all information is accessible to anyone. At the same time they have managed to make sure there is only a one-way flow in, nothing going out to any other services. Facebook gained popularity as you could connect with your friends and play games and other stuff. They are now moving include communication introducing “a new way” to communicate by combining all mediums so that you can from “inside facebook” communicate also with people outside and not members, making sure you don’t leave for some other service.

So, what can threaten them? Well as always, the turn of time…What is happening today in normal usage? As mentioned above, online services is increasingly being accessed through applications. If you have tried out the Facebook application it is nothing close to the same user experience as the website. It is merely for reading status updates from friends. This I see as their biggest threat and why they probably have already passed the summit. What to expect if not doom? That the Facebook platform moves out from the browser in the same way as Google have acted. A Facebook browser or even a Facebook OS. That’s the only way they will keep people inside Facebook, continuing to do what they have done before. Take Flock as a good example, it enables you to stay in contact with Facebook and Twitter while surfing the web. M

The scary part, do we really want to be in the hands of companies such as Google and Facebook? Maybe even Microsoft is a better alternative with no hidden agenda of monitoring and tracking you, or? Is free always better when you take the privacy intrusion into account? Spyware has now the same status as virus, but what makes them different from for example Facebook that can spy on your and your friends actions all over the web?

There is one thing for sure, the majority of computer and internet users have no clue of what is happening after they log on and what kind of information they share, what kind of companies that monitor them or why.

The economist posted a few good articles about the data mining/tracking industry that has sprung up, where companies mine and track website visitors and sell information about them to advertisement firms or other companies. One of the biggest bad guys online? Facebook…

Let’s take a look at Facebook and their approach to privacy. According to the time-line provided by EFF in “Facebook’s Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline” , the latest privacy policy you agree to includes this: “When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. … The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” … Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing (or not making) the connection.” With other words, Facebook started as a closed community and has developed into a global one where your information is freely shared with other companies and ads.

People find what Google knows about you to be scary, how about Facebook? Accessible is:
- Your name
- Location
- Relationships
- Friends (and their friends)
- Interests and hobbies
- Photos
- and then everything outside connected to Facebook as what you Like etc.

With its partners, who implement Facebook connect, you are constantly being monitored and content tailored for you according to everything Facebook know about you. And for many there is not much left to disclose…

WSJ posted one article recently, “Facebook in privacy breach“, where they showed that “Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.”

There has been lof of attention to the subject lately:
The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets
Sites Feed Personal Details To New Tracking Industry
A Web Pioneer Profiles Users by Name
On the Web’s Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only
What They Know
Watchdog Planned for Online Privacy

Another interesting discussion is about geolocation services. Why do you want to let people know where you are?
Foursquare is a popular one where people check into locations. This means a list is stored of where you often go with the following loopholes: Foursquare’s privacy loopholes.

Most people might not care about it as who would like to do them something bad? Well, think about an angry ex-boy/girlfriend, or some bad people when you get famous or successful. The article How Privacy Vanishes Online touch on an interesting thing, ” “Personal privacy is no longer an individual thing,” said Harold Abelson, the computer science professor at M.I.T. “In today’s online world, what your mother told you is true, only more so: people really can judge you by your friends.” “

To add to this, don’t forget all the monitoring that can be done by spyware or in your own company (Is your PC watching you? Find out!).

The technology offers so many opportunities, but unfortunately are users still on square one moving forward blindly with closed eyes and at the same time fully embracing the online world and move more and more of their daily business as well as communication and information online.

That’s the thing, Internet feels more secure as you cannot physical see anything threatening, instead it goes on behind the curtain and compared to the issues advertising firms have to target you in the real offline world, online you are completely in their hands, as well as the other ones who are familiar with the dark side…….

Maybe what we need is a simple button on the browser where you can chose 1) “Yes, I want to share my information in order to have content tailored for me on websites I visit”, or 2) “No, I don’t want to share any information about myself.” And maybe will the trend be that services start charging for offering a service if you dont agree to them collecting or using your private information in order to finance the service through targeted advertisement. Just like ad-based business planes before, with the difference they have become a lot more efficient as your information is “all out there”.

The last decade has been Apple’s. It started with the Ipod and then the snowball just got bigger. They are being dubbed and made role-model for innovative companies all over the world. Sometimes I though believe media is the biggest reason they sell as good as they do. So what happened? I have not really put the time and effort into making a serious analysis, instead I am just grabbing a few thoughts that have hit me regarding the latest news such as an App Store for Mac. Few things Apple do are really new, but what they do they do well and they managed to position themselves as a life-syle company so people are blindly buying whatever they throw out! Is that to be innovative? Maybe within branding, in which they excel! Grab some good ideas from small companies, package it nicely and then use your muscles and channels to make people buy them.

One thing is for sure, iPod was never the best MP3 player, neither was it the first. iPhone was not the first smartphone, the first generations was absolutely not very good. But what they did was to take a new approach to cellphones which I give them a lot of credit for. But were they first? iPad was not the first tablet computer, many have tried but not really managed to get through. Apple rode on the iphone hype and delivered an enlarged iPhone in nice package that all Apple wannabe had to buy. Amazon and a lot of other companies have been selling e-readers for a long time and when Apple launched the iPad media started talking about a new way to deliver news(?). Well, no reason to go into media’s incompetence and lack responsibilities. There is a Chinese word I have started to appreciate with the latest technology hype: GenFeng (follow the wind, follow suit) and describes all the people who try to get an identity by buying expensive stuff from for example Apple where you proudly show off the logo to get status. It started with the ipod earphones many years ago. In Shanghai it is especially now about Apple products but also professional DSLR cameras.

With the new OS, blogs and sites are full of praises for Apple’s new approach with an App store for Mac. See for example “Apple’s Mac App Store: This Changes Everything” . Let’s take a break and zoom out. Is this something new? Every heard about Linux and Ubuntu? They have their Software Center where you can download all software you need and also keeps it updated + its for free! Heard about Jolicloud? This is a “cloud os” and the only way to install software is to use their “software center” for downloading apps. And these are a mix of normal stand-alone software and website apps. I think a comment on an article about Jolicloud sums up what I want to say: “With its simple interface, Jolicloud lets you run a web browser and use applications like Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Skype, Boxee, Meebo, Dropbox and hundreds of others from one webtop-type interface. Unfortunately, so will Google Chrome OS – when it launches, that is. And unlike Jolicloud, Chrome OS will have the power of the Google brand behind it, not to mention the marketing power of a company so profitable that it’s literally creating new services just to have more places to advertise on the net.” (full article here)

As a conclusion, the most important question I find is if Apple is stimulating innovation in the industry or are companies just playing catch-up with media’s hunt for the next ipod/iphone/ipad killer?

The latest development is now telling me that that the mainstream users and “laggards” and getting into high-tech devices and now is probably the time when we will see more questioning of standardisation and new demands come up in areas such as privacy online! The adoption of Facebook shows that people dont mind settling in to one platform and this seems to be what drives Facebook to take more and more of “internet” and now even offer their own email domain.

Some disclosure:
I started early with the first PC, moved all they way up through the versions until Windows XP where I made the transition to Mac. Extremely satisfied, and I still see Mac Os as the most beautiful and user friendly OS, but the whole media circus is now making me sick. So a few years ago I also bought a cheap laptop and installed ubuntu (which is now my main os). With Ubuntu I can do everything I did with Mac OS and Windows, but it is for free and has been so much more convenient as all software is accessible through the software center. I bought the HTC Desire half a year ago to get a chance to play around with it, and I see much more potential for it than for iOS, both technology wise and from a business perspective. The UI is more attractive with its widgets, and I can imagine tablet manufacturers to have a good chance to compete using Android.

Playing around with Google Apps Market place I am positively surprised. Previously, I have been forced to use services such as Basecamp and Highrise from 37Signals all stand-alone. Now I found apps so they can be fully integrated into Google Apps and Gmail. There are many other useful apps that enable you to add for example fully functional project management tools, either for for free or for a small cost, to your domain.

This is a great way to collaborate online and to cut down on IT costs.

Below is a screenshot of the market place:

Wrote an article recently at my private blog about time for blogging to evolve?. The idea behind is the fact that I have just resumed my private blogging and I realised it is not that convenient when you have gotten used to facebook and twitter. It can all be linked of course but only by those who care to spend the time to do it and find out how to. It is not as easy as pressing the “follow” button on twitter if you want to follow a person.

So the conclusions is, maybe it is time for blogging to evolve and be more user friendly.

I haven’t been blogging for a long time, mainly du to a change of industry but it also since I have had less time to share my thoughts about technology. There was though one post that I started to write on in february and I decided to post this weekend. It is about privacy online and the development of what can be argued to be integrity intruding technologies, in this case the development of facial and pattern recognition technologies.

There was several articles in february that I planned to comment regarding people being tracked down online, but so much time has passed so I don’t even remember my point anymore.What I do remember, which might be old information now, is my thoughts around facial recognition and the recent development in these area that we have seen. What facinates me with these technology developments is the value the bring and the potential to change behavior online. That technologies can change normal usage is of course nothing new, but there is an aspect of it when it could as well have a negative effect on usage. Facial recognition is not new, but the fact that it is becoming available for everyone is an interesting development. That means the ability to find and recognise anyone online. Image search today is very limited and pictures are only found if the have been tagged or contains the used keyword in the name or description, which of course seldom is the case. This is the problem a growing number of facial recognition companies are aiming to solve.

Polar Rose is a browser plugin that lets you discover who is who in any public photo. Photos are tagged by using facial recognition and by assigning a tag to a photo, other photos with that person can be recognised.

Picollator has been in beta mode since january and is a multimedia search and indexing engine. It scans Internet, collects digital pictures and makes the index, matching visual objects in the images by pattern recognition. You can simply upload a photo with people to launch the search process.

TinEye was launched recently and is an image identification-based web search engine, that doesn’t do any facial or pattern recognition, instead it enables you to find matching pictures. This one I have heard was useful on flickr in a case when someone suspected his pictures were used without permission.

There has been reports about Google trying out facial recognition where the tag face is added to show pictures with a face, so it still offers very limited functionality. Reuters has also been testing facial recognition in video search. Another player is Riya. They started out with facial recognition and visual search, but then moved into object recognition by launching Like.com that allows you to find similar looking products.

Among these facial recognition products – Riya is trying a business model where they utilize their technology for ecommerce. Polarrose I don’t know, their technology is open-source (which of course is great) but as a browser plugin I cannot understand how they will make money from it. Maybe from the integration into different services such as flickr and facebook so the tagging becomes better or similar. Technologies like Picollator (part of recogmission.com) is a technology that is possible to integrate in to search engines, beefing up the existing image search.

There is though an interesting issue coming up, and that is the fact that what is put up on the web is often available to the public. In the good old time, users have lived in a pleasant belief that what is put up will most likely not be found since the web is so vast -  now with better search engines and better pattern recognition services everything can be found easily, a face on a party picture, a presence in a video clip etc. It is just like being tagged on facebook but it covers the whole web and it is automatic. If someone just once have said a person is you, or use a picture of you, they will be able to find you in every media from pictures to videos.

How will this work with copyright and integrity when a previously anonymous person you took a photo of on the street suddenly has a name and identity? Could have interesting complications….

I have always promoted open communities since I wanted what I share to be accessible for friends without the need of being members. But with a technology such as Polarrose offering something like facebook tagging for everything that is public there might be a move towards more closed sharing where you decide what you want public and what you want to only be accessible for friends and family. Projects like open social and single sign on will of course make closed networks easier to access for friends without the need of additional memberships.

So apart from the integrity issue when it comes to widely deployed facial recognition and tagging I do look forward to pattern recognition that enables you to find similair looking objects and photos. That could be very useful when you for example want to find more photos of a car – you can just search for similar ones.

Interesting applications of facial recognition is the two entertainment services provided by Optical Recognition Obectives; Play-Analogia for finding celebrities lookalike and IconDate that is a dating site where you can find a date that looks like a certain celebrity you chose or any other person you want your date to look like. That has to be value adding for dating

The reason I came into the privacy issue was due to an experience in february at an event in Shanghai. It was an afterwork and one guy walked around taking photos, encouraged by the organiser and the people who posed. But there were also a few people starting to question it and didn’t allow him to take photos of them, asking if they would be put up on facebook. It was clear that they were worried about having the pictures tagged on facebook. I talked with the photographer and heard that it happened at a house-party in Sweden as well, people started to talk about their legal rights and that he is not allowed to take photos of them. An interesting development of how social networks is affecting peoples real life behavior such as photographing a at a party. Which of course is good since it is related. Swedish organisations have published official warnings to people urging them not to tag or comment friends on Facebook due to the implications it can have at a later stage job interview etc.

Despite the privacy implications the discussed technologies have it is not necessary bad. The online behaviour today is not always normal and well thought through, and a change in it will be good for people that for example put up less suitable pictures of themself without realising they easily can be found. At the same time are laws sometimes not adopted to the changing society in all and we have seen this regarding filesharing, music and movies…..maybe we will now enter into the discussion of sharing private information.

Online Marketing is taking over traditional marketing but still suffer from the lack of good metrics and measurement. At the same time is Mobile marketing growing promising thrilling opportunities to reach the customer even more direct and personlised. And it is an attractive option if you look how the cellphone is used and present all the time – no need to emphasize on that.

Scott Shaffer at the Pondering Primate talks about "Mobile Bar Code Reading as the Next Technology Wave". He brings up the idea of how billions of hyperlinks can be created over night by just assigning one to every existing 1D barcode on product packages.

CamClic is a strong entrant focusing on helping companies to create interactive communicaiton with their customers via product packages. This is done via the 1D barcode and a java software on the customers cellphone. On CamClic’s blog it can be read how CamClic together with global leaders in the Pharmaceuptical Industry have identified the needs and the applications for "The Real World Web" that will be attractive and a value for patients/consumers interacting with pharmaceuptical products with their mobile phones. The platform for patient "Real World Web" services is now beeing created.

Mobile Marketing and Barcodes are moving into an exciting era now. Several companies are into 2D barcodes – mainly as technology providers – which has alread been adopted in Japan some time ago. Other solutions are utilising picture recognition of product packages and rfid and NFC (near field communication) that enables the phone to act as a wireless reader. The only problem I have seen with mobile marketing is the promise and future possibility but no real practical opportunity that can deliver value today (maybe until CamClic?). 2D barcodes that recieves the most publicity is not standardised and is yet not in the value chain making it a good large scale solution. It has to be put on every product separetly if to be used. And how do you know what reader to use when there are so many different? Another threshold is the mobile industry itself. There is a large amount of platforms and models so applications has to be customised for each handset and network.

CamClic’s idea make very much sense using existing standardised identifiers such as the 1D barcode to deliver content to the user. Using a barcode on a package doesn’t even need any training, everyone knows it can be scanned to get information such as price.

I believe there will be an interesting development of the mobile industry and that we will see a consolidation of platforms; symbian, linux, windows and openmobile. Nokia is as usually ahead of the competition realising they have to move higher up in the value chain offering value added services and content. 

So even if mobile marketing has a great promise I believe it to be more critical to really be able to measure it. Online marketing still has problems because it cannot be measured accurate enough which barely makes sense since it ought to be the perfect medium for metrics and measurement.

Hong Kong is a fascinating city in many ways. Living in Shanghai it is often a kind of relief coming to Hong Kong. There everything is working effectively, it is clean, nature is very close, its international, and they make use of technology in good ways. Google Maps is working great on cell phones, especially using HSDPA with speeds around 3.8 mbps. Metro cards can be used in convenient stores to shop with, and on the bus I even saw people using their watches as Metro cards.

Walking around in the city I ran into two phone booths that offered wireless access. These can be found all over the city and many stores and places offer wireless access as well. They are even doing campaigns right now in taxis where you can plug in your computer and enjoy internet access. Last time I were in Hong Kong there was another campaign offering wireless access in certain taxis.

Google’s latest move announcing the Open Social Project is a step towards standardising social networking online. To briefly explain how it works: by having a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds. So project developers can build a single social networking application for multiple networks rather then the current model of building multiple applications based on each network’s unique API. This will cut down on development time and costs. Companies who already have decided to support it are for example MySpace and Plaxo.

There are though other similair moves, such as Facebook that recently announced their plans license their platform to other social sites. The idea is similair and builds on that developers will only have to write their widget or small application once if there is a common platform for structuring how the applications integrate with site. According to New York Times (source)Bebo has already decided to use Facebook’s standards for its own Open Application Platform, however, it will eventually support Google’s OpenSocial too.

Another one just entering social networking platforms is Cisco. They will offer the Cisco Entertainment Operating System that is a hosted software-as-a-service platform that Cisco will deliver to various media companies in 2008 according to New York Times.

The whole push for standardisation is good and needed. I have myself just started to try out a service called lifestrea.ms, which offers an attractive way collect all of your online content that you create but also from different networks and feeds. You have five different profiles allowing you to decided to what network of friends you want to post what, for example; public, friends, family and professionals. It is all based on standards and integrate perfectly with a bunch of services. I can for example post blogpost to wordpress, update status at twitter and upload pictures to flickr. It will at the same time be posted in the lifestream of the profile i prefer e.g. friends.

I am not fund of inviting people to different new networks every time so that is why I also am hoping on a standardised solution such as openid to enable people to easy join and be part of multiple networks. The open social project where you easily can import your friendlist and details are a step in the right direction but a big threshold is still the need for registration.