VNI

VNI Software Company is the Westminster, California–based, family-owned developer of various education, entertainment, office, and utility software packages.

History

VNI was founded in 1987 by Hồ Thành Việt to develop software that eases Vietnamese language use on computers. Among their products were the VNI Encoding and VNI Input Method.

VNI vs. Microsoft

In the 1990s, Microsoft recognized the potential of VNI's products and incorporated VNI Input Method into Windows 95 Vietnamese Edition and MSDN, in use worldwide.

Upon Microsoft's unauthorized use of these technologies, VNI took Microsoft to court over the matter. Microsoft settled the case out of court, withdrew the input method from their entire product line, and developed their own input method. It has, although virtually unknown, appeared in every Windows release since Windows 98.

Unicode

Despite the growing popularity of Unicode in computing, the VNI Encoding (see below) is still in wide use by Vietnamese speakers both in Vietnam and abroad. All professional printing facilities in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Orange County, California continue to use the VNI Encoding when processing Vietnamese text. For this reason, print jobs submitted using the VNI Character Set are compatible with local printers.

VNI (molecule)

VNI is an experimental drug for treating Chagas disease currently being studied at Vanderbilt University. The molecule acts by inhibiting Trypanosoma cruzi sterol 14α-desmethylase activity in vitro. It exhibits no toxicity in mouse cells and unlike the related compounds posaconazole and fluconazole, increasing the dose is not required to maintain anti-parasitic activity.

According to the researchers, "VNI cures the acute and chronic forms of Chagas disease in mice, with 100% survival and no observable side effects. Low cost (<$0.10/mg ), oral bioavailability, favorable pharmacokinetics, and low toxicity make this compound an exceptional candidate for clinical trials. The efficacy of VNI provides additional compelling support for efficacious antiparasitic treatment of chronic Chagas disease, further validating CYP51 as a viable drug targeting T. cruzi, and it opens a new opportunity for therapeutic cure of patients. Although widespread searches for other new drugs that target T. cruzi are surely being pursued, there are millions of patients with this debilitating illness who need immediate therapy, and VNI or a derivative might fulfill this need."