I am a Caucasian man, age 43. I have been traveling between the USA and Taiwan since 1990. I have come to spend a significant amount of time with Taiwanese people over these years, and have spent a fair amount of effort learning about the Taiwanese and Chinese cultures.

In 2004 I started going to China and have been well received everywhere I have been so far: Shenzhen, Nanning, Suzhou, and Shanghai.

I am reasonably conversational in Mandarin. I've done business with Taiwanese and Chinese people off and on over those years, in financial services, real estate, and some export-import. I have developed certain perspectives based on what I have experienced that might be useful to others.

First, avoid confrontation whenever possible. It doesn't do any good for people to criticize people. This is universal no matter what the race or background. It's always best to hesitate or pause before saying or writing something that might hurt someone. Courtesy always wins, worldwide, 100% of the time. Courtesy is especially useful in the Chinese social network because it inspires trust.

Many of us have scientific or engineering educational backgrounds, so that leads us to critical thinking, but we must always be careful to posture our criticisms in a polite, constructive way that can help the person who receives our message. Further, those criticisms must always be directed at the idea, not at the person.

The observation about being able to trust people in China for business is a valid discussion point and something I have talked with Taiwanese businesspeople about in great detail. From what I have observed, the Taiwanese businesses in China are more effective at collecting and processing money than the Caucasian businesses. So, I suggest to learn from people who are working daily in China, and making money against the odds - reach out to any Taiwanese you know who is doing business in China and ask them their thoughts.

Other Caucasians have faced this same challenge of finding people in China to trust and written about it extensively. The following are my observations. First and foremost, let me say that it is 100% possible to find people you can trust in China. I have several people that I know there who I can trust with anything and they are not family connections. For me, the best way to find such people is to think outside of the box and find people who you like you as a person first, before you explore business relationships. Remember, you should be thinking long-term, so it will pay off over the years to develop sincere friendships with people who can help you if you help them. The Internet offers many opportunities to meet people socially and I would suggest you do that first. Meeting people through the Internet means they have some knowledge about how to use the Internet and it makes it easier for you to communicate with them while you're not in China. Next, go to China and ask to stay at your friend's home. Unlike here in the USA, many people in China are glad to have you stay with them. Watch how they live. Watch how they interact with their parents, kids, friends, and colleagues. It's not hard to learn who you should trust when you're living in the same home as them.

In trying to find people you can trust, you should look for the same signs of personal and family stability that you would look for in a person anywhere. What are some of the clues that a person is trustworthy? I look for people who have a family, people who look after or live with their parents, people who have lived in the same place for a long time, and people who have worked at the same job for some time.

That is my setup for finding people to trust. About finding the business opportunities, my Taiwanese partners and I have established these criteria for anything we do:

1. Never compete in any business the local Chinese people can do themselves. If you do, and you are successful, eventually the local people will take your success away from you.
   
   
2. Avoid any capital intensive business. The world is awash in capital and many of the best businesses need almost no capital. If you are involved in a capital intensive business, use the capital of a neutral third party, not personal or family funds.
   
   
3. Try to do business where the payment of money comes from foreign companies, not local Chinese companies. The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai has more than 3,000 member companies that are all non-local companies with local offices or operations in Shanghai. These foreign companies are in Shanghai to build their business by spending money, so consider becoming a vendor to them. That is a big enough market to keep any of us busy for an entire lifetime. This is their website: http://www.amcham-shanghai.org/AmchamPortal/ so you can get some idea of what they're doing. The site response is slow so be patient.
   
   To comment further about this opportunity, from what I have observed I believe that the cultural gap and expectations gap between local Chinese people in China and the foreigners who come to China is always going to be a challenge to successfully bridge. So I see genuine, long-term business opportunities from being the understanding middle party between the foreign businesses with money to spend and the local people with little knowledge of foreign habits and culture.
   
   
4. If you are going to do business where the payment of money comes from local people, do something to eliminate or greatly reduce the risk that you won't get paid the money you are owed. In certain types of business such as education, personal services, and travel / tourism, pre-payment or payment in cash at the time of service is the normal expectation and will keep you from running into accounts receivable problems. I really like the way that cell phone service in China is prepaid, and I think that's a good model for most types of businesses a non-local person might want to get involved with.

Remote Reboot Devices - Reboot via Web Interface

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Four Outlets

NetReach Model IPS-400 - 4-Plug, 100-120 VAC Remote Power Management Switch - $445

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Watchdog Products - Automatic Reboot on System Failure

• http://www.pcwatchdog.com/ - PCI Card ~$170
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• http://www.tripplite.com/products/ups/ups-model-series.cfm - to use a Tripp Lite UPS' watchdog capabilities to monitor and reboot a Linux server, pick a model with a DB9 Serial Port connector, not USB, such as these:
• Internet550SER Basic UPS ~$50
• Smart1200LCD Rack Mount UPS ~$240

August 25, 2006

Here's my comparison of prices and battery capacity for AA rechargeable batteries:

Clearly Wal-Mart is the winner in this comparison. The Energizer battery they offer is half the price of Radio Shack's best battery, and the capacity is 25% more.

March 28, 2006

The weather in Washington, DC was pleasant today: 65°F / 18°C, and the newspaper had reported the Cherry Blossom trees at West Potomac Park should be near their peak beauty, so I went.

Most of the tree blossoms have not opened up as of today, however they are still beautiful to see and enjoy.

I am pleased with these 15 photos I took today.

The photos are presented with JAlbum version 6.3.2, an excellent free program to create web-based photo albums. You can look at the photos one by one or play them in a slideshow using the controls at the top of the photo album window.

March 8, 2006

Bob Marshall has built a great enterprise around the idea of sensors connected to the Internet.

In Marshall's case, those sensors number nearly 8,000 weather data collection sensors located throughout the USA. The sensors are primarily located at schools, feeding large-scale computer systems that turn the raw data into highly detailed and localized weather information.

Growth of the Ex-Internet

Inspired by a Forrester Research study which correctly predicted enormous growth in the: “ex-Internet”, meaning sensors and other objects beyond the servers and computers we typically think of as the Internet, Bob Marshall founded AWS Convergence Technologies in 1992. Today AWS is the owner and operator of WeatherBug software. AWS has 200 employees.

One billion people around the world use the Internet today; however the rate of new users signing on to the Internet is slowing. But the number of sensors connected to the Internet continues to grow at an exponential pace.

Marshall believes that you can improve the quality of people's lives through those sensors, and in so doing you have a business and revenue opportunity. As he puts it: "Weather is just a big deal". 

Marshall observes that weather:

• Is the #1 topic of conversation.
  
• Is the #1 reason people watch the TV news, with $1 billion in associated advertising.
  
• Impacts $3 trillion of the the U.S. economy.
  
• Impacts people's familes and national security.
  
  

National Weather Service and AWS

The National Weather Service (NWS) network has 1,500 weather stations, mostly at the airports. By contrast, Marshall has created his own proprietary network of 8,000 weather stations, almost 700 in the Washington / Baltimore area alone, mostly located at schools. These are professional grade systems, making 27 different measurements in real-time. All of these weather stations of Marshall's are connected to the Internet, feeding data to his servers at the rate of 3 billion connections / day, or 20,000 connections / second. The data is streamed back to desktop and mobile applications. The other significant difference between AWS and the NWS is freshness of weather data; AWS' weather sensors are all real-time; NWS data is published only hourly. 

Marshall went into some detail about the business opportunities and challenges facing AWS, and noted that The Weather Channel is their biggest competitor. Many futuristic applications involving bringing personalized data to your cell phone and car are in the works.

March 20, 2006

On October 17, 2004 I bought a new Dell Inspiron 700m notebook computer. After using the computer for 15 minutes or longer, the skin on the palm side of the leftmost part of my left hand's palm (which rests on the computer during typing) gets burned by the hot metallic surface of the computer. This is the first computer I've ever used that causes me repeated physical harm from ordinary use.

Mostly a Great Notebook Computer

By most standards, my Dell Inspiron 700m is a fine notebook computer. Compact and lightweight, I take it everywhere I go without a second thought about it being too heavy or large to bring with me.

My copy of Dell's Packing Slip shows the computer's configuration and order information. Certain personal details were erased from the scan of the packing slip.

There is a problem with the Inspiron 700m's screen flickering occassionally, which is an annoyance I can live with. Another reviewer has written that the compact keyboard has the keys spaced too closely together for comfortable typing for large-handed typists, an observation this large-handed typist confirms.

Keyboard Keys Stop Hard at Bottom of Travel

To that remark I will add that the keyboard's keys have minimal "cushion" when they are fully depressed; the effect of typing for some time on the Inspiron 700m's keyboard is similar to repeatedly tapping my fingertips on a hard table surface. Most other keyboards do a good job of damping the key motion as the key is depressed towards its maximum depth, eliminating the tapping sensation on my fingertips. Apple's notebook computer keyboards are especially comfortable in this regard.

The DVD/CD-RW Combo drive was replaced under warranty for making excessive noise and not always playing DVDs smoothly.

But My Left Palm Just Gets Too Hot

The problem which really irritates me is that the my Dell Inspiron 700m notebook computer burns my left hand after about 15 minutes of active use.

The region of my left hand which is burned by the excess heat from my Dell Inspiron 700m is the skin on the palm side of the leftmost part of my left hand's palm (which rests on the computer during typing) medically known as the muscles of hypothenar eminence.

I took a series of temperature measurements to see just how hot the area where my left palm rests actually is. I used a digital thermometer with a remote sensor whose accuracy I confirmed against a second digital thermometer made by Oregon Scientific. The ambient room temperature was 72°F. To increase the thermal conductivity from the computer to the temperature sensor, I did two separate tests:

1. I placed a heavy object on top of the temperature sensor to improve the heat transfer. This simulates the increased pressure of my hand's weight on my palm, forcing a tighter thermal connection to the computer's hot surface.
   
2. I applied Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound between the temperature sensor and the laptop palm rest.
   
   

The following table shows the temperature measurements:

The Setup to Measure Temperatures

Dell Inspiron 700m with Verizon Wireless PC Card Installed, Temperature Probe Attached,
and Thermal Conducting Compound Applied

Conclusions

The Verizon Wireless PC Card does raise the temperature but only nominally. Still, it doesn't seem unreasonable to be able to expect to use this device in this computer.

I was surprised that the temperature never exceeded 99.1 °F / 37.3 °C because you would not think that is an uncomfortable temperature. However, I can assure readers that my left palm sometimes becomes so uncomfortable after extended use that I have to stop using the computer. Perhaps the hand is far more sensitive to higher temperatures than other parts of our body.

I invite other comments and observations; if you would like to add to this discussion, please login and write your comment. If you're not yet a member of our website, please join and then write your comment.

March 1, 2006

How does the Nation's Capital go from insolvency, unable to borrow a penny, to an A+ credit rating from Standard & Poors and a $1.6 billion surplus of cumulative funds?

You appoint the most disciplined, unimpeachable CFO in the history of the city. You make him independent of the local elected political leadership, get out of his way, and let him work.

The Importance of a Brand Name

It helps if the man you pick has the last name of Gandhi - a name with similar brand value in India as Roosevelt or Kennedy in the United States. Dr. Natwar Gandhi was a recent speaker for an inspiring Asia Society talk entitled: "A Decade of Rebuilding - An Asian American in the Nation's Capital."

There is nothing opaque or difficult to understand regarding what Dr. Gandhi must do, how he thinks, how the city's finances now operate, or whether we should have continued confidence in the renaissance of the Nation's Capital.

Consider the following:

• The District Government only resumed having full control over its finances in 2001, after a four year Congressionally mandated Financial Control Board became dormant, the District of Columbia's Government having hit all its required financial goals for four years in a row.
  
• The residential housing market in Washington, DC is among the top markets in the USA by virtually any measurement.
• The commercial real estate market in Washington, DC is among the top markets in the entire world.
  
• Washington, DC has $300 million in cash reserves, an unprecedented amount for any city.
• Other municipalities now send delegations to Washington, DC to find out what they should do to improve their finances.
  

These accomplishments are especially profound, considering that:

• The Tax Base in Washington is inequitable for the city, with fully 42% of real property being tax exempt.
• Washington, DC is the only city in the country with the inability to tax non-resident earnings. Tens of thousands of professionals who earn a high income in Washington pay the city not one penny in income taxes - because they live outside of the District of Columbia. The United States Congress protects and maintains this arrangement.
  
• "The City is Not Economically Viable" to quote Dr. Gandhi. This is a city with a 38% adult illiteracy rate.
  
• The office of the CFO had to litigate against a major multi-national agency headquartered in Washington to be able to collect sales taxes on food sales in the agency's upscale cafeteria.
  

Sober, Heartbreaking Decisions with A Sense of Balance

Being the CFO of a major municipal government means having to make heartbreaking decisions like closing DC General Hospital for lack of funds. So it helps to keep an optimist's sense of balance and to always be able to deliver some great one-liners to lighten up a crowd, such as:

• "From my old office at 441 Fourth Street, I could look out my window at beautiful galleries, museums, and Federal Government buildings - but I couldn't tax any of it!"
• "We [residents of the District of Columbia] subsidize two of the richest counties in the entire country: Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland!"
  

The obstacles for the District's CFO have been enormous, but the results delivered to date have been equally potent. Because for someone like Natwar Gandhi, the journey has been the reward, and: "the great story about this country is that an immigrant with an accent can become CFO of the Nation's Capital."

Additional Information

Office of the Chief Financial Officer of the District of Columbia

Biography of Natwar M. Gandhi