] Lam Vi Quoc negotiates his scooter through Ho Chi Minh
] City's relentless stream of pedal traffic and hangs a
] right down a crowded alley. He climbs the steep wooden
] stairs of the tiny house he shares with nine family
] members, passing by his mother, who is stooped on the
] floor of the second level preparing lunch. He ascends
] another set of even steeper steps to the third level and
] settles on a stool at a small desk, pushing aside the
] rolled-up mat he sleeps on with one of his brothers. To
] the smell of a chicken roasting on a grill in the alley
] and the clang of the next-door neighbor's metalworking
] operation, Lam turns on his Pentium 4 PC, and soon the
] screen displays Lecture 2 of Laboratory in Software
] Engineering, a course taught each semester on the campus
] of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Here," he
] says, pointing at the screen. "This is where I got the
] idea to use decoupling as a way of integrating two
] programs."