About Us

Claire Wang
Hi everyone! I’m Claire. I live in Taiwan, a very small island located very close to China. Taiwan is an interesting little country, or province of China, depending on your point of view. We have retained our 5,000 years of Chinese history, culture and traditions but at the same time, evolved to become an important part of today’s IT industry. More interestingly, I am a little combination of both Western & Chinese. I went to high school and university in Canada but returned to Taiwan to work for an IT company after I graduated two years ago.

It’s a little funny to say but I have been a computer idiot since the beginning of my life. But that’s O.K. because I am learning more and more through my days at VIA and I love my life – one which is full of artistic creativity and style. The fact that I am a Visual Art major should say it all. I am a cat lover and I’m a Yankees fan because I love Wang (I’m also surnamed Wang). Although it’s tough with the time difference between Taiwan and the US, I am always able to get up at 4 am to catch the Yankees game.

I just recently moved into my new apartment with my Tabby cat Mozhi (meaning Ink in Chinese.) I designed the interior, which my colleague, Tim thinks it’s just like from out of a IKEA catalog or something. But who cares :-p, I love it and I am very proud of the fact that I picked the right color and even painted the wall myself! I’ll share with you my learnings in later blog entries. Hope my sharings in this website will give you some inspiration or tips when you encounter some similar projects in your personal life. And for now, just try to imagine how mobility would give you a complete new experience in your little projects and change your life in a revolutionary way!

Tim Brown
Hi, I’m the kind of person that loves to travel; I’ve been to 35 different countries so far either for business or pleasure. I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in some interesting technology projects in such exotic far away places as Tomboctou (Timbuktu) in Northern Africa, Russia, China and Argentina. I’ve been working in the IT industry for the last 12 years and I’ve focused primarily on mobile hardware and software.

I’m also really passionate about football (soccer to my fellow North Americans!) and while I discovered it late in life I would trade all my child-hood years playing hockey in Canada for a half decent touch on a football. I support Barcelona FC in La Liga after learning to admire players like Luis Enrique and I follow the EPL pretty closely as well.

I’ve lived in Asia for the last 12 years with my loyal dog Lulu. Living in a culture so radically different than my original one, has really opened my mind to possibilities and opportunities I never dared dream of when I was younger. Thanks to technology I’m still able to connect to my past and my family at home in Canada as well.

Stewart Haston
Greetings. My name's Stew and I work for VIA as a part of the International Marketing Team. I've been located in Taipei now for over nine years and consider it my home.

I've been interested in technology since my parents first bought me a Sinclair ZX Spectrum at the age of nine. I used to run a computer repair store in my spare time and love nothing more than taking a screwdriver to anything remotely techie. I hope you'll enjoy watching me taking mini-notes and UMPCs to pieces to reveal what really happens under the hood of these cool new devices.

Apart from being an avid Liverpool Football Club fan, I'm a huge music lover. I've played guitar since I was about twelve and currently play bass guitar in a power trio rock outfit. Writing songs with the guys when we have time to get together and jam is usually the highlight of my week. My influences are fairly eclectic and include Zappa, Miles Davis and Mozart.

Ben Hall
Born and raised in New Zealand, I’ve lived in Taiwan for almost 7 years. The last couple of those have been spent at VIA Technologies Inc. working in their International Marketing division.

While not particularly drawn to the hi-tech field when in NZ, immersion in the electronics obsessed Taiwan marketplace soon changed that and a degree in technology management followed.

I was brought up next to the beach and so my hobbies very much revolve around water-based activities. I’m a keen diver, fisherman and sailor and get out to the coast of Taiwan as much as I can. I’m also involved in the local rugby and cricket scenes here in Taiwan and participate in one of the sports most weekends.

The increasing cross-over between sport and technology is an area that particularly interests me and one that I hope to explore in detail on HowToBeMobile.com.

Harsha Pramod
I am from Bangalore, known as India's Silicon valley. I've been living in this city for the last 14 years and I have seen this city transforming from a Pensioners' paradise into an IT city. I can tell you that anything you see in this city is related to IT!

In Bangalore, your laptop determines the rent you have to pay for your apartment! House owners size up their tenants by their laptops. The idea is that if the guy has a laptop, he is working with an IT company and is earning big bucks. So why not charge him more? The same principle works with autorickshaws too. Many of my friends got around this by not exhibiting their laptops!

I think I saw a computer for the first time when I was in high school. The computers were obviously considered  very precious and were stored in specially designed dust free rooms. Our teachers were enthusiastic about training in computers. Today, 10 year-olds learn HTML in schools! I have always been awe-struck with the growth of technology. I won't be surprised if the next generation kids don't learn to write with their hands.

I had no intentions of having anything to do with computers other than learning the basics. However, Photoshop lured me to computers. I love to paint, especially portraits. I have worked with publishing companies in their multimedia wings. Watching those powerful machines handling animated videos was pure pleasure. It is only recently that I got introduced to the small mobile machines. It is really interesting to see how much these machines can actually handle. I would love to experiment and will keep you posted.

Subhankar Kundu
Hello everyone!  I am Subhankar. I live in Bangalore, the IT capital of India though I hail from Siliguri, foothills of Darjeeling on the eastern parts of the country. I come from a place very different from this IT-oriented life of Bengaluru (name changed from Bangalore). Now, I too have turned into a true Bangalorean while writing about mobility with computers for How To Be Mobile.

I previously worked as an IT journalist to cover every pulse, and every beat of the IT industry for a news website. My educational background includes post graduate work in Journalism and Mass Communication. Hence, communicating to the masses has always been my strength and interest. Moreover, when it comes to online media platforms, I see a great potential, challenge and contentment in reaching out to a wider global audience sans boundaries.

Apart from being a keen cricket follower, my interests lie in film-making, story-telling and music. I hope I can make use of that in scripting interesting story lines for H2BM.

Roshi Vijaywargiya
Hi, I am Roshi (which means ‘hope’) and I feel it reflects in my personality too. I came with a lot of hope to Bangalore, the IT hub of India to complete my Majors in Biotechnology. Although I have been a bookworm since my early days and have a special love towards science even now, fate had something else in store for me. I landed up in the IT industry by mere chance and now really cherish being here.

When my uncle brought our first computer, it was considered a very special item in home. It was the very first in the whole neighborhood too. I used to show it off to my friends with a lot of pride and never let anybody touch it. Although I was always in awe of this machine, I never got to use it any more than playing games or listening to songs. The reason is that the single PC in our house had a number of contenders that time. And now we have one PC and two laptops in a family of two!

My father loves travelling and this is how I got my chance to explore the unseen parts of India. India is a beautiful and a big country. And I never found myself short of places to visit in this country and I am still counting. It has become a passion with me now. My other favorite pastime is reading books; I can spend hours together reading Michel Crichton, Robin Cook, Chetan Bhagat and my favorite all time classic short stories by Oscar Wilde.

My first write up as a technical writer was about hard drives. How a room sized machine has transformed itself in to a handheld device has always intrigued me. I really love to explore the potential of these little machines and I will keep you posted.