http://www.lifeof80.com Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:31:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I am headed to China again, but this time for 5 months (March - July).  My previous exposure to China was a 3-week trip in 2007 (see these posts), but only for 3 weeks.  This is also my second foray into living abroad as I lived in India in 2008 ... http://www.lifeof80.com/1-3-billion-people-cant-be-wrong/ Taking the train to Chicago is pretty cool.  You have plenty of legroom, you can spend all of your time hanging out in the lounge car, and you get to eat dinner with strangers.  In general, it has a nice old-school feel to it, with freedon to roam about and ... http://www.lifeof80.com/im-on-board/ I've recently become rather fixated on SMS services and applications in emerging markets.  Here are some ways that SMS is being used: Getting Information There are a few companies providing standard commercial endeavoers with SMS customer surveys and customer service questionnaires.  These seem to be more available in South Africa, but I've ... http://www.lifeof80.com/obsessed-with-sms/ I have recently embarked on a fair amount of camping in the first national park, Yosemite, and at Itasca State Park, head of the Mississippi River. Yosemite was huge and totally developed. There was a shuttle bus every 15 minutes to take you everywhere, including the deli, the pizza restaurant, ... http://www.lifeof80.com/supercamp/ Recently a phenomenon has hit Minneapolis- 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide (that's 6 minutes and 40 seconds total). To be fair, Solutions Twin Cities has been doing this since its debut in May of 2007.   The presentation format is exactly what it says.  You are allowed 20 slides, each of ... http://www.lifeof80.com/6-minutes-and-40-seconds/