Arthur Francis Tyde III

The New-Co team and I made a quick trip to Dalian China this month to launch the company in stealth mode. Think killer app for mobile devices / social networks. It's totally new; don't ask because we aren't ready to tell... It's a great new adventure on the frontier of business... Not coincidentally, I picked up Jim Rogers (speculator, author, adventure capitalist) book "A Bull in China" at Relay Books in Hong Kong to keep me company on the long flight.

Paul Kullich (speculator, polo player, entrepreneur), Robin Greenlees (banker, Buddhist, capitalist) and I (space ghost) decided to chase after the biggest potential market and take the intellectual property to China under state and local government assurances it would be protected. The promise of a faster rate of growth, large user population, business incentives, and our seed capital going much further was hard to resist. Back in July Paul and I were the only two technology entrepreneurs (from outside China) present at the China International Software and Services Fair. (which was surprising, and made us the center of much curiosity and attention.) In the spirit of Richard Branson, we said, "Screw it, let's do it!" and started planning for New-Co in China. We brought on an exceptionally talented MBA from Beijing University (Vivin, who parks her flying saucer on a hill above the city) to be our eyes and ears on the ground in China while we prepped and to help guide us through the process. It's an honor to be working with such an awesome team.

The process of actually creating WFOE (Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise) was fairly straightforward. After validating that Dalian was "the place" (versus other potential locations in China) we wrote up the articles of association, filled out all the required forms, booked our tickets and ventured forth. On arrival it took about a week to get all the WFOE details sorted out, starting from downtown Dalian we moved out to the economic development zone where all the high tech stuff is happening to meet with officials and sign final documents. It's about the same amount of work required to set up a LLC in the USA, although the experience was far less bureaucratic than similar structures I have formed in the US, EU or Japan. The Dalian Municipal Peoples Government clearly understands the value of technology sovereignty and importing Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. They proved their commitment to developing a culture of innovation by offering significant corporate tax advantages and exceptionally attractive lease terms for our first year in one of their technology parks. Of course the real work on this project is just beginning…

When I am lying on my death bed, I won't ask for another day at the office, the only time I'll regret wasting are the many hours and days I've spent loading Windows XP, downloading Service Pack (whatever) and installing hundreds of updates hoping to get a decent build that doesn't slow down, mysteriously start crashing, or wind up host to a variety of uninvited software parasites. Luckily I don't reload as much as I used to in the six years or so since I gave up on hardware. VMWARE is my machine of choice; I create builds that I call baseloads. A baseload of Windows XP will have the OS, all the most recent updates, and the applications I consider standard. This usually means the most recent version of MS office, some flight planning software, and some mapping / road trip tools. I make two copies of this image and once every year or so I update the virgin copy by spending a few days in Windows Update hell. Typically, I could put on a couple of DVD's (movies) and get XP done, start to finish, in a long weekend.

On a new computer, the only application I load is VMWARE and whatever drivers are required to talk to the printer. If the machine gets trashed, hard disk crashes, or something bad happens that requires a reload - no big deal. I reload the OS from the recovery disks (usually XP Home or some similar crappy mal-ware infested demo infused or otherwise crippled version of the OS that came with the machine), add VMWARE, point it at my production disk image on the server and I'm off to the races again. For my notebooks, I keep a local copy of the VMWARE image on the hard disk and back it up to the server weekly. So while this all seems like a lot of work, when I need to recover or upgrade my computers - the restore process is possible, and can be accomplished in minutes vs. days.

Sadly, I was hoping the Windows Vista experience would be somewhat different. Turns out that it is just as time consuming, and even more dependent on the whims of Windows Update to generate a working (and activated) build. I am happy to report that Vista runs well in VMWARE. VMWARE also insulates it from many of the environmental changes that force you to re-activate the OS or the applications from Microsoft. Vista is hyper sensitive to changes in a machine, simply updating a video or network card driver (which can happen without your knowing about it) trigger the re-authentication process. I stopped using Vista on my notebook (as a host OS) when a memory upgrade on a business trip locked me out of my machine for about a week. Try re-activating from rural China without any of your Windows CD's, documentation; high speed internet or an accessible (or affordable) method of placing a long distance international call.

Unfortunately, Windows Update for Vista fails frequently requiring many trips to the updated help info, downloading new executables manually, and in general is a much greater pain in the ass than Update for XP. My main complaint against Windows Update for XP is the amount and number of updates required, however - for the most part you could start the process, crawl back into your stasis pod and do other things (like sleep) while it does it's thing. Not only does Vista keep you awake searching, downloading and pressing buttons - but it forces you through the Genuine Windows Validation Process to apply every manually downloaded fix. I did not pay $400.00+ on an operating system to be nagged to death by bugs and then have my ethics called into question when I am trying to fix my operating system. While I have been more or less of a Microsoft fan for many years, the plumbing is so complicated these days it seems that nearly anything can stop up the drain.

It took me a week to make a decent baseload of Windows Vista Ultimate. I am generally happy with the new OS, Windows Media Player seems to make me less and less happy as Microsoft cripples it with more DRM and continues to create the most undecipherable user interface I have ever experienced. However, luckily - there are other programs I can use which offer a better and more open multimedia experience. The net of this is, in terms of overall improvement it's a wash. My overall experience is no better (in most ways), and no worse. You might as well get used to the new boss, same as the old.

Epilogue - the most recent patch I applied to this Vista system completely trashed it and forced a reload from scratch (OS, all apps, all fixes). Apparently, applying the MS recommended fix for Chinese language support is a one way trip to a blank, black screen and solid drive status LED.