Wheels upon wheels upon wheels -
and now, on top of the spies and their false-flag operations, they're going to bring in the lawyers ! Some professions are always in demand....
Henri
1222 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Dec 2009
Right, «Anonymous Coward», the problem is not at all greed on the part of MPAA ; the organisation has paid for the legislators fair and square (at least «fair and square» according to the MPAA's lights) and therefore gets to write precisely the legislation that serves its interest and see to it that it gets passed. Ain't capitalism grand ?!!...
Henri
«Surprisingly China and India are way down in 59th and 61st respectively.» Alas, Phil, you seem to have misread the report (thanks for the link, by the way !) ; Table 1: The Networked Readiness Index 2012 on p 12 clearly shows China as number 51 (the highest placing of all the BRICS), with India as number 69 ( a discussion of these rankings is found on pp 21 and 22)....
Henri
they don't even allow such essential freedoms as ordering firearms via the Internet and contracting for delivery via express delivery services ! Outrageous ! Why I'll bet they don't even have an amendment to their constitution which calls for a «well regulated Militia» !...
As to your statement to the effect that «[g]iven that the China Daily is a state-run newspaper, as all of the media outlets are in China», one can only wonder how, to take one example, Hu Shuli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Shuli) and other employees of Caixin Media would feel about that remark. While they no doubt would welcome less state control over the media in general and their own products in particular, I suspect they would find remarks characterising these latter as «state-run» both odious and false....
Henri
does indeed succeed in forcing ISPs to offer better coverage to consumers outside the major cities in the eastern part of the country. That would, I suspect, help to contribute to reducing the great geographic inequalities in economic development which exist there. Other countries with a poorly served rural population will no doubt look upon these efforts with great interest....
Henri
Having recently moved from an ADSL connexion here in Stockholm that gave me 15+Mb/s speeds downstream and a remarkably consistent 0.86 Mb/s upstream, I'm now getting speeds of 95-97 Mb/s downstream and 11-12 Mb/s upstream from a nominally 100/10 fibre-cable connexion. Since ten (10) network jacks are provided in my little two-room apartment, I hardly feel the need for Wifi, which at best would halve my present downstream speed. My experience in helping others set up a home Wifi is that even when connected to a 100/100 jack, they rarely get much more than 20 Mb/s in either direction....
Henri
so long as these sites happen to originate in the People's Republic ? Or do you support Anonymous attacks on *all* government sites, even those of so-called «democratic» countries, which spend their time bringing their version of «democracy» - Aristoteles would rather have called it «plutocracy» - to other countries by means of interminable wars of aggression made palatable for domestic consumption by calling them «humanitarian intervention» or «R2P» ? For some odd reason, you're being less than forthright here....
Henri
having carelessly given up production of the stuff years ago.» Not to worry, Ru ; according to the World Nuclear Association :
«Total world generation of reactor-grade plutonium in spent fuel is some 70 tonnes per year. About 1300 tonnes have been produced so far, and most of this remains in the used fuel, with some 370 tonnes extracted.»
Given that about 2 % of that plutonium takes the form of Pu-238, which is used in radioisotope thermal generators, and that the amount such an RTG requires is in the kilogramme range, this should suffice for quite a lot of deep-space craft. If we are not seeing quite so many of these latter as some of us would like, the problem problably lies elsewhere than in the supply of Pu-238....
Henri
And with a (divine, no doubt) mandate - aka «no options off the table» - to bomb to oblivion any other country which may displease its government. What people in the United States are (all too) slowly coming to recognise that Empire abroad inevitably leads to Repression at home. Perhaps they will soon also realise that the preconditions envisaged by Thomas Jefferson fpr political change - «whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it [i e, an existing form of government], and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness» - have been at hand for at least a decade, if not longer....
Henri
Unfortunately, but hardly surprisingly, Mr Muncaster here confuses «markets» with «governments» ; it is the latter rather than the former which are displaying their unremitting hostility to Huawei and other Chinese enterprises which are enjoying significant and increasing success internationally. Were, indeed, the markets themselves hostile, the governments would hardly have been moved to intervene....
Henri
While Reg bloggers would indeed do well to cease insisting on «28000 kph», still the success of the vehicle in getting its velocity in the ISS' reference frame down to zero is no mean feat. Hoping for more of the same !...
Henri
I signed up for the service and found the aggregated information concerning my use of my Google account - mainly Gmail - between 29 February and 27 March this year of great interest. I hope that information regarding my use of other Google products will soon be made available to me ; Google, after all, already possesses it. An excellent initiative on the part of Google !...
Henri
«Deputy IT minister, Su Bo, reportedly told an industry seminar in Xiamen that the decision was taken because China now wants to promote sustainability in its mining practices (cough, splutter).» May I ask what evidence you can adduce, Phil, to imply that Mr Su isn't at least as concerned with sustainablity in mining practices as your minister of the environment, in the event your government happens to have one and whoever he or she happens to be ? Or is evidence entirely unnecessary when writing articles for the Reg that deal with China ?...
Henri
Wow, Phil, glad to see that you are on the side of the angels here ! Not a word, of course, about such concepts as «prior art» or «obviousness», but rather a convenientlyl nebulous conception of the meaning of the term «intellectual». Looking forward to see more of your «objective» reporting on China, about which you seem to be particularly well informed....
Henri
chose to go viral over being forced to accept censorship regulations in China, it didn't have a word to say about doing the same thing in Thailand - or India or Turkey - to mention just a few places in which that well-publicised corporate devotion to and responsibility for free speech seems to have been conspicuous by its absence. All animals are equal, but some....
Henri
«the fucking Chinese» who are (being accused of) ripping off somebody's so-called «IP», now it's (no doubt) hardworking pub owners from England's southern coast. One more example of how absurd all these lawyerly claims to so-called «intellectual property» are - but what I really want to know is - what's in those «Gandalf» cocktails ? Never did trust that old wizard....
Henri
in the HPC branch of human endeavour, Dan - it's almost worth hanging around a few more years just to follow developments ! An exaflop cruncher would really be something - hope the first one will be used for other purposes than figuring out ever more sophisticated ways of killing people !...
Henri
accompanied by fewer comments of the type in which profanity tends to substitute for argument than is the wont for Reg columns. As Morg points out above, manufacturing is not merely a question of the level of wages - the quality of the physical infrastructure and, not least, that of the work force plays a role that is no less, and often more, important. The Chinese, like other societies with a Confucian ethic, are good at organisation, and educational levels are relatively high, which is a plus in this connexion. It won't be easy for countries which lack this tradition or an equivalent to match the Chinese experience....
As regards so-called IP, that seems to be most often a question of which claimant has the best lawyers or the best, to use a Chinese term, guanxi (关系) - as a case in point, consider certain recent court decisions in Germany which more or less implied that Apple enjoys exclusive rights to certain Platonic solids. Those who believe that the Chinese have no talent for innovation and are merely imitators are sadly ignorant of the history of the major technical innovations (printing with movable type, the compass, gunpowder, etc) on which the modern world was built....
Henri
is going to become the world's leading flash-production location. That could be a worry, given its rare earth monopoly supply practices.» As has been pointed out innumerable times, so-called rare earths are not at all rare and are found widely distributed around the world, not only in China. Their extraction, however, is extremely destructive of the environment, so it's been convenient for manufacturers in Europe, North America, and Japan to outsource mining - and thus environmental destruction - to China. If, now that the Chinese are limiting sales of these products abroad, foreign manufacturers are feeling the pinch, the alternative is obvious - open mines in their own countries....
Henri
Northrop Grumman, that well-know «designer, systems integrator and manufacturer of military aircraft, defense electronics, precision weapons, commercial and military aerostructures» has written a «report» for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (aka the «China Is Our Enemy Commission») which - quelle surprise ! - concludes that China is testing its capabilities to take out vital US cyberspace functions. Good to see that the commission has employed an unbiased, objective, and disinterested source to produce that report - after all, Northrop Grumman in no way stands to gain if the US government suddenly finds it necessary to award lucrative contracts to fight the Chinese menace to firms like, say, Northrop Grumman Information Systems. Why am I reminded of Major General Smedly Darlington Butler and his more than eighty-year-old observation that «war is a racket» ? Were Mr Butler alive today, the only thing he would have to do is widen the definition of «war»to encompass «cyberwar»....
Henri
It seems to be proceding at a steady, methodical, step-by-step pace, abstaining from attempts to take giant leaps which risk costly failures and setbacks. My guess is that they have learned from their own history - both that which stretches back thousands of years, and more recent events....
稳扎稳打....
Henri
in «tech know-nothing» to describe our beloved Anthony Charles Lynton Blair ? Was it in order to preserve that other qualifier «self-confessed» ? The most pressing current problem with Mr Blair is that he is not «confessing» to the mulititudinous crimes against the peace and other war crimes for which he - and his bosom cronies like Willian Jefferson Clinton and George Walker Bush - are responsible (I almost wrote «bear responsibility», but of course, none of these people have ever borne - and it is unfortunately unlikely that they will ever be forced to bear - responsibility for their actions) before a tribunal at Den Haag (or elsewhere). The idea of the despicable Mr Blair referring to something other than himself as «disgraceful» would be ineffable, were it not for the fact that he has made a career of it. Note that the RSA is allowed to deduct the no doubt considerable fee paid to Mr Blair for his mouthings as a «business expense» - see there, a tax loophole that can and should immediate be closed to help bring the US federal budget into balance !...
Henri
to support your claim - otherwise, why post as an AC ? But readers who want to know what's going on in China may find the the counterexample of Motorola v Guangzhou Weierwei as reported on this page : http://www.finnegan.com/resources/articles/articlesdetail.aspx?news=ac1bec74-c483-4f26-8202-e603d78626fa ....
Luckily, knowledge of the subject matter under discussion is not required to post to Reg forums....
Henri
«Apple has also apparently sent a letter to Rongshan ...» Phil, isn't it about time that even Reg authors learn that Chinese family names are placed *before* given names ? After all, it seems likely that the Reg will in the future publish quite a few articles in which Chinese persons are mentioned. Yang Rongshan's family name is Yang ; thus it probably would have been better to write «Apple has also apparently sent a letter to Yang» ; that is, if you are not on a first-name basis with him....
Henri
like that those dastardly climatologists attempt to foist upon us innocents ! This is merely a transparent attempt to convince people that the Siberian permafrost is in the process of melting due to so-called «global warming» ! Good that that we have (at least for the present) the Heartland Institute (http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/02/20/heartland-launches-legal-action-against-climate-change-bloggers-journos/) to fund knights in shining armour to defend our (corporate) interests....
Henri
who would make political capital of representing China as the next «enemy», they are doomed, I suggest, to continued economic decline and what is worse, they risk having their political leadership initiate a thermonuclear war which can put an end to us all. It is not merely the end of post WWII that we are experiencing now, but also the end of post Opium War. East Asia is in the process of regaining the status in world trade it enjoyed before 1840 ; North America and Europe (and the rest of the world) will have to accommodate this change, which, if properly handled, can benefit us all. (Background information on East Asia can be found here : http://japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/3061.) But of course, pointing the finger (index or middle, it makes no difference) at the other in order to distract attention from one's own failings is an ancient technique - witness Matthew 7:3-5....
Henri
or the lights will start going out.» Couldn't they just put A O on a bicycle/treadmill - or preferably, have him read his stuff aloud in front of a turbine fan ? That should produce all the leccy any country, including the UK could reasonably need. Might even be able to export to the French....
Henri
working on this project are rogue overclockers. A glimpse at them adjusting the machine in the video sufficed to confirm this suspicion - if sound had been recorded then, we no doubt would have heard one researcher saying to another - if we can lower the temp another Kelvin, I'm sure we can get this graphics card to over 9.0 GHz....
Henri
what Taipei zoo director Chin Shih-chien replied to Hon Hai/Foxconn honcho Guo Taiming (aka Terry Gou) when the latter asked him how to manage his «one million animals» att a Hon Hai annual bash (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399109,00.asp). Obviously Chen must have replied «給他們加薪, 台铭!» («give'm a raise, Taiming !» - I write with traditional glyphs as the conversation took place in Taiwan). In that case, kudos to Mr Chen - and to Mr Guo, as well, for heeding the advice !...
Henri
a significant shove in the direction of non-microsoft products, mainly Free/Open. ...» In a perfectly rational world, JustaKOS, that would certainly be the case, but given the fact that the main qualification held by so many technical personnel is a Microsoft Certificate, there will inevitably be a great deal of internal resistance to such a change. FOSS won't have a sporting chance until IT workers receive a broader education/training in computer science - which, of course, is one of the reasons that Microsoft exerts such efforts to monopolise such education and training....
Henri
like our political «representative democracy», has shown itself by and large to be a façade manipulated in their own interests by people with lots of money behind the scene. No wonder the AT&T management reacted with outrage and horror to the proposal of Mike D et al that the corporation's shareholders be allowed to vote on its position on net neutrality, rather than allowing it to be determined by management - such things are simply not done in the best of all corporate worlds ! In any case, it will be interesting to follow these votes - perhaps, after all, the age of miracles is not past ?...
Henri
one of the reasons why The Jobs was lauded as a business genius. The brillance really comes through when one learns how Hon Hai/Foxconn's Guo Taiming (aka «Terry Gou» - another business genius and the same chap that requested advice from the head of the zoo in Taipei with regard to how handle his workers) manages to further lower the amounts paid to workers by the judicious use of «internships» (http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/2/15/foxconn-s-other-dirty-secret-the-world-s-largest-internship-program)....
But this worm may turn....
I have no doubt that this incident - like other «glitches» in MS code which «accidently» derailed Google products - was nothing but an unfortunate mistake. After all, we all know how much Steven Anthony - «I'm going to f***ing kill Google.» - Ballmer loves and appreciates Google, in particular Eric Schmidt (http://news.cnet.com/2100-1014_3-5846243.html)....
Henri