An easy way of updating Twitter in China via SMS

So everyone knows there are a bunch of twitter clones out there in CHina, such as fanfou, jiwai, etc. There were ways, rather circuitous ones that is–of syncing updates, which involved using fanfou and RSS’s…for the most part, most people i know here tend to just update twitter by going online with their mobile phones. A lot of these people have iphones and have twitter apps. They can either get online where there’s wifi or else just pay for the data by getting online via GPRS or whatever its called.

However, i just learned (and please let me know if this is really old news) that you can update your twitter with your mobile phone by just sending SMS’s. I know that you can do this with twitter, but there are not local #’s–as i recall there were just three numbers for the entire world, one in the US, one in the UK, and one somewhere else. However, with zuosa.com you can make updating a whole lot easier.

Sign up for zuosa.com. Then go to the settings section (设置）. then on the right there’s a link for syncing with twitter (同步 twitter) and then enter your twitter information.

Then the last step is to get your phone set up. Go to the part where it says 绑定手机 and then send a confirmation SMS to the zuosa mobile # indicated. You will get a confirmation reply SMS. From then on, you can just send your updates to zuosa via that mobile #, and your zuosa, and hence your twitter, will get updated for the price of an SMS. It’s probably more convenient, and probably cheaper over the long run, then getting a data plan, though perhaps with the iphone and the twitter apps its not that much of a hassle anyway.

My sense, however, is that its cheaper and a bit easier just to use SMS.

The two year old cigarette smoking boy of Chongqing

This is one that has been making the rounds on the internets. Most people are understandably pissed off about it.

Not sure what to say about this: not really the moment for cultural criticism. Most of what can be said i am sure you have already thought in your minds.
ugh.

Gong Li became a Singaporean and some Chinese people are pissed

What, so this is news today? Well, news in China is always of the form “event+internet reaction,” which itself is some kind of recursive phenomenon, especially when there are naked or scantily clad people involved–with violence, corruption, repression following behind that.

So when Gong Li became a Singaporean, as they tell us she has (her husband is Singaporean, I believe), there was a bunch of internet hotheads that started the usual flame wars about her not loving her country, and these venal movie stars, know they nothing of loyalty, etc. One writer says it quite simply though: there are certain rights and freedoms that only a certain kind of passport can get you and those freedoms and rights are probably of some use to people of Gong Li’s profession and station in life.

I am not sure why they made such a hubbub about it this time, since as many articles point out Chinese movie stars, directors, and celebs have been doing this often and that doesn’t begin to mention all the Chinese students that end up emigrating and naturalizing in western countries.

The usual arguments are hashed and rehashed so there’s no need for me to repeat them here. However, I do think that this specious patriotism is not just some internet malcontents spewing off: this kind of danger is built into the so-called “healthy” type of patriotic education, perhaps in a way, i dont know, that Enlightenment Reason produced the Holocaust (cf. Horkheimer/Adorno). OK, that’s a bit half-baked, but when I am trying to get at is that they are flip sides of the same coin, and that by drilling into students and impressionable young people that you have to, by necessity, love your motherland, and give it your undying and unflinching loyalty and never renege on it, even when another passport could get your lower taxes and better shopping conditions, you create this kind of reflex, this kind of automatic association that occurs before life, experience, books, and a generally tolerant and cosmopolitan attitude can generally install something better in its place. And when you have that kind of intellectual–or shall we say, more accurately, *non-intellectual* reflex in place–you are going to savage anything that is critical or worse yet may even vitiate those tenets and sacred cows.

But then again my attitude towards sacred cows has always been: massacre the fuckers.

One of the writers linked above mentions “freedoms and rights” and all the social elites–the top students–that go abroad each year and effectively, don’t come back (at least in terms of nationality). Brain drain is something i first encountered as a topic in high school debate practice, but of course i, and most other azn-amerikkkans, have an intimate knowlege of brain drain because some of those brains are the ones that begat us. My father, as a scientist, never regrets moving to the US–where else would you want to go, what with all those jobs, the money, and that academic freedom tripe that everyone’s been telling me about?

Reading another unrelated blog post on Chinese internet censorship, i came across a point that most people who have lived here and talked to Chinese people know–they don’t give a shit about not reading the “truth” on TAM square in 89, because they are too busy having fun on the internet wacking off, buying stuff, and dissing people anonymously to care. However, I do think that people who decide to leave China–and who work in these generally intellectual-type professions–must, to some degree, care about this kind of freedom. Sure, their research might not be ideological in nature, which means that in some sense you could do it in China as well, but still, there is so much bureaucracy and other stuff from Chinese society that seeps into academe, and that is why the intellectual cultures of different countries are so different. That’s why the US, UK, Canada, Australia all sport different intellectual and academic cultures as well. And of course, not many CHinese writers are going to state this point, when talking about Gong Li who is, as we know, inconsequential to the fate of the Chinese people and the Republic for which they stand–and that point is that there are people that prize the kind of intellectual freedom that they can get in the West–to do the kind of research they want, to fulfill themselves as human beings–and they can’t get that in China. And there are reasons that they cannot get it. And to figure out what those reasons are, and to see what the Chinese ought to do about them, is, by far, much more pressing than the passport of middle-aged Loreal representative.

Nanyang: Man fined 1900 yuan for having porno on his computer

Man, I’d hate to see what I would get fined if they … Poor Ren Chaoqi, you really have to feel for this guy — he got his fifteen minutes of fame for being fined 1900 RMB for having some dirty videos on his computer. The story goes that the police were checking up on someone else’s computer, a friend of Ren’s perhaps, and then decided to check his computer too. The reason that he got fined is that according to the police, having downloaded something on bit torrents means that you were uploading (seeding) as well, which means that you are, in effect, spreading porno far and wide in China, and that’s against the law.

This whole issues has made the Baidu Nanyang BBS into one of the most heavily trafficked in the last few days. And that has to do with the fact that a supposed “internet policeman” called Kuang Re de Feng (狂热的风）[which means something like 'crazy' or 'fanatical' wind] has dived into the fray, answering the questions, comments, criticisms of netizens, igniting something of a flame war.

Not surprisingly, there are plenty of people who think that this whole kind of thing is preposterous — not the amount of the fine, just the idea that your privacy can be breached and then, because you have some porn on your computer, that you must be fined even though you’re mostly just using it for late-night stroke material and not trying to promote the next Dirk Diggler.

Here’s what the first commenter said:

狂热的风我想问你几句？你怎么知道任超奇是的片子是BT下载的？我还说是从是HTTP下载了呢？第二点谁给你们的权利可以随便搜查别人电脑的？是不是可以这么讲你们可以半夜跑进别人家搜查下电脑？一无所获后再敲开邻居的门顺便搜查下啊！！谁给你们的权利，适用什么法律啊！！

[translation: Kuang Re De Feng, i want to ask you: how do you know that the videos that Ren downloaded are from BT? What if i say it was from HTTP? And secondly, what gives you the right to search other people's computers? Does this mean that you can just come in the middle of the night and search people's computers? And if you find nothing, are you going to just knock on the neighbors' doors and search their computers while you are at it? Who gave you the right, what kind of law are you using?!"]

china, internet, porn, tech, computers, BT, privacy, law, nanyang, henan

An internet speed test in Shanghai

This shows the result of the internet speed test I just took on Speed.io and it looks like that although the PING speed isn’t hot, the rest is OK. I have noticed, and this is a purely subjective judgment, that my internet has become seemingly faster. That’s because I use iStats on my mac and I have my I/O in real-time on the upper right hand side of my screen. There are more double-digits and triple-digit numbers than I use to remember…anyhow. I have also recently used a program called Cocktail, for OS X, that has among its many functions the ability to tweak and optimize your internet connection. This is something that with windows was accomplished with the TCP/IP optimizer. I don’t know the technical aspects of this, so I can’t really judge if any of those programs work well, and under what conditions they might work well. The difference might in fact be negligible … like decreasing the friction coefficient somewhat. The big issue is still the distance, the infrastructure, the GFW.

Google in China: logos, software packs, etc.

google china software pack

I just noticed that on the Google China page you can find this bunch of Chinese Google or Google-related software for download in one pack. It’s got spyware removers, virus removers, toolbars for explorer or firefox, the Google Chinese input (yeah, the plagiarized one), some other Chinese/English language tools, etc. Might not be bad if you were doing a fresh install or had a fresh install of Windows you wanted to begin pimping out without putting too much effort in to scrounge around…one stop shops are always appreciated like that.

Another thing I noticed is that yesterday, Sept 10, was Teacher’s Day in China, and so the Google China homepage had that chalkboard picture…but the rest of the world had the Hadron Collider picture, which you see here:

google hadron collider picture logo

Today–Sept 11 in China–the Google China page has returned to normal, while the other Googles (including France, US, Japan) are still using the hadron collider picture. I guess what this means is that they are really operating on the Two Googles one system tip. Or something like that. I guess the Hadron Collider is not as big a deal to Chinese people as it is to everyone else on the planet.
I can understand that, really—it is such an acquired taste.

Journalism needs more explanations and less “information”

PressThink: National Explainer: A Job for Journalists on the Demand Side of News

I noticed something in the weeks after I first listened to “The Giant Pool of Money.” I became a customer for ongoing news about the mortgage mess and the credit crisis that developed from it. (How one caused the other was explained in the program’s conclusion.) ‘Twas a successful act of explanation that put me in the market for information. Before that moment I had ignored hundreds of news reports about Americans losing their homes, the housing market crashing, banks in trouble, Wall Street firms on the brink of collapse.

In the normal hierarchy of journalistic achievement the most “basic” acts are reporting today’s news and providing current information, as with prices, weather reports and ball scores. We think of “analysis,” “interpretation,” and also “explanation” as higher order acts. They come after the news has been reported, building upon a base of factual information laid down by prior reports.

In this model, I would receive news about something brewing in the mortgage banking arena, and make note it. (“”Subprime lenders in trouble: check.”) Then I would receive some more news and perhaps keep an even closer eye on the story. After absorbing additional reports of ongoing problems in the mortgage market (their frequency serving as a signal that something is truly up) I might then turn to an “analysis” piece for more on the possible consequences, or perhaps a roundtable with experts on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. I thus graduate from the simpler to the more sophisticated forms of news as I learn more about a potentially far-reaching development. That’s the way it works… right?

Wrong! For there are some stories—and the mortgage crisis is a great example—where until I grasp the whole I am unable to make sense of any part. Not only am I not a customer for news reports prior to that moment, but the very frequency of the updates alienates me from the providers of those updates because the news stream is adding daily to my feeling of being ill-informed, overwhelmed, out of the loop. I respond with indifference, even though I’ve picked up a blinking red light from the news system’s repeated placement of “subprime” items in front of me.

This is a terribly important point that has not been made enough, or if it has has not yet managed to seep into popular consciousness (much less journalism education for undergrads, grads, and cub reporters)—but I think, properly realized, it would really impact the whole industry or, if you’re in the mood for hyperbole, the entire way that we relate to the world, since how we relate to the world is fundamentally mediated through this input/output process that occurs between us and the media, broadly construed.

我可不是一个阿陆仔

Nien 生活紀錄 – 阿陸仔呀阿陸仔呀 via kwout

The Taiwanese are always fulla hate for the mainlanders, with good reason at times. However, it’s gotten a bit out of hand–maybe not in the case talked about in the blog above, but because mainland-bashing is now one of their favorite pastimes, and they never say anything positive about the mainland. Their position is always that of the snob looking down their noses. Snobs are not always wrong, but they are still snobs.

Google China has some nifty Olympics features and functions

Clicking around Google China, I found some stuff that might be of some help as I prepare to head up to Beijing later today.
One of them is the SMS alert function, where you can subscribe to stuff like overall medal count, the weather, and individual sports. I suppose they will just SMS you the results, which is nice, takes some of the work out of it for you.

移动 via kwout

Also you can see that the iGoogle Olympics page has a lot of information that you might find useful. What was strange was that this iGoogle page didn’t seem to recognize that i was signed into Google accounts—so i doubt this page is one of the customizable ones where you can add tabs and fiddle around with the configuration. Anyhow it’s got a daily schedule which you can see in the front and centre, which is nice.

iGoogle via kwout

Illegal Chinese net bars and net addicts: a match made in heaven

OK, so internet addiction is old hat but I am continually amazed by the stuff that people will do just to get their fix. There are other, perhaps extenuating circumstances: broken homes, parental neglect, problems at school—but some young people in China are really falling through the cracks. Read an article about how an 18 yr old boy lived in an internet cafe for three years; he basically played games until he was too tired to go on and then would sleep. He developed some kind of pelvis infection and things finally caught up to him recently when he tried to get up to go the loo and could not move. They rushed him to the hospital and that’s how his story got picked up by the media. Internet addiction makes people do strange things. A third-year student at a Kunming university spent so much time on the net that he neglected to shower for three days.

A more in-depth story about the “black” net bars that cater to underage consumers with little cash is a bit more shocking. Xiao Xing, a middle school student, became so addicted to the internet that his parents were forced to get rid of the computer. With nowhere to get his fix the boy turned to the illegal net bars that are ensconced within regular apartments. There is obviously no signage: people who know, know where to go. Adults are not allowed in. There are often more than 10 computers stuffed into these apartments. Kids can surf the internet for 2 rmb/hour sans ID card.

When Mr. Chen, Xiao Xing’s father, went looking for his son, he went into one of the first net bars and a saw several computers, but no kids. Then he went to a second one, and again saw a bunch of computers, but no people. He noticed that the monitor lights and mouse lights were blinking. He sensed that these computers had recently been used. He heard a sound and opened a curtain to find several boys hunched and hidden behind it, staring out at him in fear. Xiao Xing wasn’t there. He told them “go home, your parents are going to get worried.”

The reporter managed to interview a kid (it might have been Xiao Xing, on the way home) and discovered that this was standard protocol at the illegal net bars: whenever someone knocks or comes in, the kids have to hide, behind curtains, in the bathroom, on the balcony, etc. People know about the existence of these places, but the strong arm of the law hasn’t done much to clamp down on this phenomenon: at most they took away some of the computers and restricted the number of computers able to access the internet from that apartment—but never were these people arrested or ordered to stop, which is, in my mind, what ought to happen.

One time when asked who all these kids surfing the internet were, the boss lady replied “these are all my relatives…oh and that boy is a friend of theirs.” Shameless. Just shameless.

These places mushrooms, you stamp them out in one place and they pop up somewhere else. All the parents that are trying to curb the excessive net addictions of their kids had best beware. If the heat is on one of the places, the kids can just go to another one nearby.
I really think they ought to just not let the owners of those apartments ever get online again, ever—or limit their connection to one computer.