Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
It’s april’s fool again
I didn't do that "love you" trick this time.
However, Google started it's new innovative service to day... Google TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider)
From its press release, google states that "The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system."
For more information, see here:
http://www.google.com/tisp/
It's a joke but I think it is also some kind of hope for the future...
Gmail got another interesting one: Gmail Paper, offering the service that send you hard copys of your emails for free.
When you click on any linksof this page it will say it is a April Fool's Day joke.
The clever thing is, there is a mailto link "Send the joke to a friend you think will fall for it" and gmail didn't forget to advertise itself and get more users from Microsoft:
" Did the links open up in a mail program you don't use? To set Gmail as your default mail client, try downloading the Google Toolbar for Firefox"
A Chinese struggles to protect his property (updated!)
UPDATE:(28 March) The Houseowner's blog is closed by its BSP without any prior notices, but the house is still standing.
UPDATE: (25 March) After the house owner putted up another banner " The country [China] respects and protects human right", all media have been silenced and online discussions were forced to end as a result of increasing control.
There is now no way for me to receive latest situations. The nail house is still there but I doubt it can survive through the night today.
UPDATE: (6.00pm Beijing Time, 24 March) The house is still safe, confirmed by various bloggers. It's another nightfall in China now.
UPDATE: (4.40pm Beijing Time, 24 March) All chinese media received a notice from State Council media bureau requesting removal of all reports and posts related to this issue online. There is no way for me to hear latest news now. Fate of this house is still unknown.
UPDATE: (23 March) the court has said it will not pull down the two-story building today.(Shanghai Daily)
 A house or an Island? A real ' house' in Chonqqing, China.* |
"No one in China will sleep tonight, at least all members of my family." - A Chinese Netizen, 22 March.
"No man is an island, but his house may be" - The Independent, South Africa
A picture can say thousands of words.
Chongqing residents Yang Wu and his wife Wu Ping are now the most famous public figures in China. They are the owner of that house, or should I call it an island?
Pictures of this sometimes referred as "9th wonder of the world", were uploaded online by netizens around early March, and immediately become the most viewed picture in the China.
 A house or an Island?From different point of view. |
The property developer wants to acquire their and surrounded land to start a commercial plaza project, but cannot agree claims from Yang Wu, that his 210 sq2 and two-storey building worth about 20 million Yuan (approx. $NZ 3.7 million). He demanded the compensation or a new house of same area and close location.
Yang Wu and his wife has been deal with the developer for more than 2 years and still cannot come to a settlement.
The problem is, it is a common knowledge in China that all property developers are having close relationship of local governments, and sometimes the local government even depends on developers to maintain its taxation and ... possibly bribes.
That's also why property disputes are so rife in China, so many of them are illegal and also usually involves unfair treatment from the government. Another recent case is a property owner killed 2 government employees because they want the owner to give up his house immediately to give way for a commercial project.
Despite the fact that this old house is a private property of Yang Wu, and that the new development project have absolutely no whatsoever relationship with public interest, after the house went under the public light, the local court ordered the owner to tear down the house before 23 March or it will be torn down by force.
The deadline passed already.
Since the house has been seiged by developer's wide and steep trench, no one lives in there. After the court decision that has caused a wide spread anger in China, owner of the house, Yang Wu, moved back to the house with stored gas supplies, food, drink water that I believe is enough for him to stay there about a week.
 A Chinese netizen's view on the courage of Yang Wu. |
Chinese media described this holdout house as a "stubborn nail house"（钉子户）,because it's like a nail that cannot easily be removed from wood.
“I just want my lawful right to be respected,” Yang Wu said, “It is unfair to order us to tear down the house before a settlement is reached.” He waves Chinese national flag on the “Island” and putted up a banner, says “Citizens’ private property right is inviolable.” – A sentence directly from the Chinese Constitution.
Most people thought that the house will be demolished right on clock at 12am, 23 March. This court decision has sparked wide anger through Netizens.
Hours before the final deadline, some people in Chongqing were starting to gather outside the building site, shouting, screaming and even singing the Internationale, no police was at the scene but the situation was quite intense.
People not live in Chongqing were gathered in major online discussion forums and BBS in China, posting their anger and trying to stop the house to being tear down by force. This even cause some servers to crash - the highest peak I observed were about 2 posts a second, and there are reports say that some websites' pageview were millions higher than usual.
A local television in Shanghai broadcasted live pictures from the scene, but stopped for less than half an hours, after received 'pressure' from government. Other Medias said nothing about this before the deadline, but it doesn't matter anyway.
Some netizens volunteered to go to the scene and report the latest situation. All 'official media' were totally discarded by people.
China's first private property law was just passed a month ago and is to be effective on October the 1st this year. Most netizens cares about the fate of this house as it is an indicator that whether the government really willing to protect people's property or just another useless law passed.
Even some netizens believe they are witnessing an important chapter of history in China. They think the house should be treated as a monument of Chinese struggle to get protection of their property, a monument of democratic and civic rights movement in China ... if it can survive from a court decision. People cliams if anyone dear to tear down the house without a mutual agreement with the owner, they will lose all confidence to the communist government.
"China is sleepless tonight", a netizen said, it was 3am local time but he still does not want go to bed. He was too afraid that those 'bad people' will tear down the house while everyone is sleeping.
Possibly because the strong public voice present, bulldozers at the building did not operate after the passing of deadline. But there will be another night again, and again. Who knows what will happen? People cannot to stay awake every night.
*all photos in the post were from cat898 and and were used in a good faith. Copyright license of this blog doesn't apply to those photos.
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This story is also on:
The Telegraph, United Kingdom
France24, France
The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand
The Independent, South Africa
Daily Times, Pakistan
BBC NEWS, United Kingdom
....
And much more to come.
Yahoo Xtra
Bit surprised to see the new Xtra today. After years of marriage between xtra and MSN, Telecom New Zealand's Xtra site, seems to have a new partner, Yahoo.
One thing that really surprised me is ... why Yahoo?
As you may not know, since 2005, a group of Chinese netizens includes me, and some other organisatios like National Union of Journalists in Britain boycotted all Yahoo! services.
Yahoo! is responsible for at least two Chinese journalists' imprisonment. Yahoo has provided private information of Shi Tao to Chinese Government in April, 2005, and now Mr Shi will be in the prison for his next ten years.
Also a Reporters Without Borders report indicates that Yahoo! is also responsible for the imprisonment of Chinese writer, Jiang Lijun.
Yahoo! neither apologised or regreted on those inccidents. Until that, I will never use all Yahoo services including Flickr and del.icio.us, and added to the list: Yahoo Xtra.
And I'm calling you to consider to join the boycott, if you are currently using any of Yahoo services. The reason is simple, especially if you are a journalist: you never know when Yahoo gonna sell you cheap.
Expected but still disappointed.
Telecom New Zealand has started its new broadband plans today. Its new 'go large' plan attracted most attentions as it is the first time that Telecom has offered fast broadband without data cap.
Though this plan has Fair use policy which doesn't allows you to use more than 700MB during the peak time and Traffic management policy which mainly focus on use of peer-to-peer software, it is still the most attractive plan for family users.
Other ISPs who are using Telecom's lines, have also followed the move. However, as far as I understand, none of them is able to offer unlimited data allowance plans.
Just few days ago the Commerce Commission, the regulator of Bitstream sets the new wholesale price at $27.76, which is again a mix of bureaucracy and Telecom's abuse of its market dominance. Once the GST is added, Telecom's retail price is even cheaper than the wholesale price.
Sure it's very clear now the Telecom is the main blockage that stops New Zealand's internet from moving forward.
可怕的“白领交友圈”
最近MSN里突然冒出来一堆中文名字的联系人要求加入，这些人，也许我应该说是机器人，他们唯一的任务就是推销一个叫“中国缘”的“高素质”，“高品位”的“白领交友圈”，至于其他的问题，机器人不知道也不会回答你。
这种现象最近更加严重，几乎天天都有两三个叫类似于“缘来是你”“幸福总是相似的”要求加入，而且垃圾邮件也是一天几封，脾气再好的人也会被搞得火大。类似于流氓的网络暴力行为虽然全世界都有，但不得不承认的是，中国特别多。虽然在现实生活中，每个国家之间都是有国界的，但是网络却不存在国界问题，我看不见另外那半球的土地，那边的流氓仍然在天天骚扰着我。
我很奇怪是他们如何搞到那么多人email地址的。其实一看注册页面就明白了：
MSN邮件：-------- 此处输入您的MSN帐号
密码： ------- MSN密码就是您在中国缘的登陆密码
重输密码： ------ 再次确认你输入的密码
登录帐号： ------ 可包含英文字母、数字、长度为4—20位
这已经很明显了，这个网站通过用户注册来欺骗MSN的用户名和密码，然后导出联系人名单并且开始发广告。这种网站全世界也有，但从来没有那么流氓过，最多是以注册人的名义发一封邀请函。
但这也是我拒绝注册类似于Hi5!，Bebo之类玩意的原因，就算70%以上的朋友都在上面，我也不会去注册。这些网站里的注册程序都有诱导你交出MSN，GMAIL或者AOL帐号密码的行为，谁知道他们究竟有没有记录任何信息，现在也许只是对你的朋友发封信，但对于明天他们要干什么，我就不知道了。
我不知道是我联系人里的哪个蠢货会上这种当，我一旦发现这个人一定要好好教训一顿，你最好自己出来自首。
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MSN is just getting ridiculous.
or shall I say "Windows Live Spaces"?
The newest update is totally an failure, this theme is just look awful and the banner on the top of the page is definitely putting me away.
The most important one,Micro$oft doesn't care to ask about people's opinion before any changes, so you don't expect they will listen anything after those changes, also changes in the future time.
If M$ is still thinking that people will just use any rubbishes they offer like the case of Windows, they are definitely wrong. In the age of Internet there's much more freedom to choose services and when you get unhappy about something, you just use your foot to express your feeling.
As far as I know, probably 50%+ of bloggers using MSN Spaces I seen are planning to move out from there.
And I am one of them. My old space will stop update very soon but remain opens as the archives. (Bear's Blog Beta - MSN Space)
