With gas prices on the rise, even with the car manufacturing boom in China, most people still cannot afford to own a automobile. Thus, they’re moving to the next best thing. Electric bicycles.
Truthfully, anyone that has ever ridden in a taxi in China’s major cities should know that the roads are almost too crowded as it is. The fact that there’s a rule if I’m not mistaken where even numbered license plates for taxis get to be in the city on certain days, and the odd number plates are allowed the other days, should be proof enough that cars aren’t really for the masses yet.
Seeing how most people get around on two wheels, and while the price tag is a little higher than most would like, it’s still definitely great to see that transportation advances moving forward for the majority of the Chinese.
Photo Credit: (avixyz)
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There is a lot to be said about the Great Firewall of China. Also known as the Golden Shield Project, this baby has been intact since 2003, but has been in design since as early as 98. The goal of this is to restrict any information that might jeopardize their control over the current media mediums. The easiest of this is by blacklists, but there are other items such as keyword blocks and selective routing.
DNS poisoning anyone? Funny that many of the so-called features were and are tactics for simplistic network hacking and misdirection. All of which is done at the router level.
So the big question however on everyone’s mind is… is 8Asians influential enough to even gain a block from the Golden Shield? So far, I’ve heard mixed reviews so I decided to put it to the test. Other 8A authors have said that it indeed is blocked. Yet John Kennedy from Global Voices, tested the link from Beijing University and had no issues getting through.
So which was it?
The Great Firewall of China test site came back with a block. Yet Website Pulse’s China test site came back from their servers in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai all with flying colors. The partial block straight out would mean that we are probably not blacklisted. In fact, it could only be a localized or separate blacklist provision since you would think that any type of routing that is blocked by Golden Shield would be blocked regardless of where the servers are due to how the main routing tables are set up in China.
One day perhaps we’ll actually see that 8Asians has risen to the top of the block list. But for now, we’re still getting through.
Photo Credit: (Isaac Mao)
7 Comments | Posted in: Technology
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The Third annual Chinese BloggerCon is underway and my what a sight to behold.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand Chinese. Rebecca MacKinnon, who used to be the Beijing Bureau Chief for CNN, will probably post her thoughts on it since she has in the past and John Kennedy, the Chinese language editor for Global voices, is live blogging the event.
What’s interesting about this event is that it’s much more than about blogging itself. Blogging is great, but in China where speech is censored and there are people that are trying to speak out on this, that, or another thing, this event is really about how the technology has empowered regular people the ability to move forward. Just take a look at the technology in itself. This event even showcases the talent behind China’s equivalents to our Internet fads.
For example, Fanfou is the Chinese equivalent to Twitter. Apparently many people in China actually post direct from mobiles. Baidu is the Google of China even though Google has a presence there. You could go on and on. This only barely scratches the surface from a perspective of how the Internet and technology is advancing both Chinese thought and journalistic aspects.
Funny that not only is this event getting a lot of love in China, but friends on this side of the Pacific like Robert Scoble is wishing he was there. And I totally understand the sentiment. Sometimes you just want to be at events that are changing the world, of which CnBloggercon is sure to do.
(Photo credit: Shi Zhao)
4 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Technology
I got to hand it to Chinese companies: they sure have the art of imitation down. Movies, music, software, clothes, automobiles, and of course, electronics.
You may already know about the Meizu M8 and its GUI. (There’s even a case of an imitation of an imitator. Love it!)
A friend just told me about the Chintendo Vii.
Chintendo. Vii. Ha! What a great name for a rip-off! What will they think of next? The “Praystation Won”? The “Microshaft XCOX 180″? HA!
(I can’t take credit for those other names; clever commenters did).
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In one of the blogs I follow, Real Pop, had a YouTube link to a video of this Japanese video game:
This video game is just too funny. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think! The way the girls giggle while shooting just cracks me up.
3 Comments | Posted in: Observations, Technology, Video Games
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A friend of mine sent me this article this morning, “Virtual Beijing police to patrol in cyber world.” Starting Saturday, Chinese internet users behind the Great Firewall of China, can report to the government offensive and malicious (anti-Communist, pro-Democracy, pro-Taiwan independence?) internet material to Beijing cybercops:
“A Beijing netizen need only click the two cartoon police if he or she wants to report malicious information or pornographic websites. Then the netizen shall
fill in a form to end the whole reporting processing, Beijing police said Tuesday at a press conference. Police would offer a feedback in 30 minutes after they received valid calls, said Zhao Hongzhi, deputy director of the Internet department of the Beijing police bureau. The cartoon policeman and policewoman would pop up on web pages every 30 minutes. They would patrol Beijing’s gateway websites as of September 1 and all websites and forums in Beijing since December.”
Looks like Big Brother is not only watching you, but wants Little Brother to help out in sensoring the internet in China. The Beijing Public Security Bureau’s cybercop cartoon police officers are just too funny if you ask me (yes, the image above is for real). Thankfully, 8Asians is hosted outside of China - but we are blocked in China to protect its citizens!
1 Comment | Posted in: Current Events, Observations, Politics, Technology
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Since Genghis has been covering all sorts of news about China, I wondered, what about the Philippines? I mean, Asia is more than just Chinese, right?
That’s when I found out about WikiPilipinas, the hip and free Philippine encyclopedia that you can edit. Based on the popular open source software MediaWiki (which runs Wikipedia, of course), WikiPilipinas is a wealth of information.
Like, did you know that (Continued)
4 Comments | Posted in: Technology
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I came across an article, where a couple in China wants to name their son @. You read correctly, @, which prounounced in Mandarin is “ai ta” and translated in English means “love him”. It turns out that the deputy chief of the State Language Commission, turned down their request, saying
…the name was an extreme example of people’s increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialization and the Internet break down conventions.
I shouldn’t be one to talk. I’ve had the name Genghis all my life. It’s served me well, and most people give me compliments for being named after a Mongolian barbarian. “That’s such a strong and powerful name” except of course when it’s butchered at your local Starbucks. The barrista calls my order, “Iced Grande Vanilla latte for Gingivitis”. I flee to a corner and wait a few minutes to pick up my latte as to not draw more embarrassment. I suppose @ would have a difficult time at Starbucks too.
“Hi, I’d like to order an Iced grande vanilla latte.”
“What’s your name?”, the cashier replies.
“@.”
“How do you spell it?”
“@ like the symbol in your email address.”
A hush falls over Starbucks, the music stops. The cashier looks at @ in confusion.
“Nevermind, the name’s Ed.”
11 Comments | Posted in: Lifestyles, Technology
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