Google may be "99.9 per cent" certain that it will leave China, but Twitter will instead move into the Middle Kingdom....

Offloading malware protection to the cloud

All Things D – “If Google’s (GOOG) talks with the Chinese government end at an impasse and the company shutters Google.cn and ramps down its operations in the country, it best do so properly and according to law. That’s the latest from Beijing, which continues to threaten and posture amid reports that the search giant is on the brink of closing its Chinese search engine.”

Diagnostics and Repair Use the Check Computer feature to perform a complete diagnostics check of the computer and the Macintosh formatted hard drives with one click of the mouse. This includes a SMART test of the computer's built-in hard drive to check for impending drive failure, a test of the computer's available RAM, a check of the disk directories, and much more. If problems are found, advice is provided on how to proceed to repair the problem. Use Check Computer regularly as a part of a preventive maintenance program.

Volume Rebuild In addition to testing the disk directories of hard drives, TechTool Pro can also perform a complete rebuild of them. This optimizes these critical data structures and, on a corrupted drive, repair any problems. Use volume rebuild to keep your hard drives operating at their peak performance.

Optimization TechTool Pro performs both file and volume optimization. File optimization consolidates each individual file into a contiguous area of the hard drive. Volume optimization consolidates the free space on a hard drive. Optimizing enhances the overall performance of your drives and simplifies the file storage layout.

Data Recovery TechTool Pro includes several methods of data recovery. Use them to recover data from corrupted drives that don't mount on the desktop and save the data to another location. Use the Trash History feature to track the location of deleted files and increase the chance of their recovery in the case of an accidental deletion.

eDrive One of the unique features of TechTool Pro is the eDrive. This is a bootable Mac OS X partition containing TechTool Pro and a small copy of your system that you can use when performing regular maintenance or in the case of an emergency. It is created on one of your hard drives without the need to reformat it.

Protection TechTool Pro includes the option to install the TechTool Protection system preference. This is where you configure automatic functions that operate in the background. In particular, you can configure Protection to track deleted files, monitor the free space on your hard drives, save backups of critical directory data to help with recovery in the event of drive corruption, and to monitor the SMART routines of your hard drives. If problems are found, Protection provides an onscreen alert and can even be configured to send an email alert.

• Added 64-bit support to the TechTool Protection system preference.
• Major improvements and fixes to the File Structures test.
• Fixed issues with TechTool Protection on non-administrator user accounts.
• Additional support for SSD (solid state drives) in SMART Check test.
• Fixed Cache size for Intel i5 and i7 processors.
• Fixed SMART Check reporting issue.
• Addressed support for SD cards in Tests category.
• Fixed low memory issue with Volume Rebuild tool and eDrive creation.
• Updated dynamic volume mount/unmount for Surface Scan and File Structures tests.
• Addressed FileVault when creating an eDrive volume.
• Updated and fixed localization issues for French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified).
• Included additional machine identification models to Check Computer.

• PowerPC G4, G5, or Intel Mac
• Mac OS X 10.4.9 or newer
• DVD-ROM drive

Donnie Dong (Hao Dong), a Berkman Fellow, is giving a Berkman Tuesday lunchtime talk.

NOTE: Live-blogging. Getting things wrong. Missing points. Omitting key information. Introducing artificial choppiness. Over-emphasizing small matters. Paraphrasing badly. Not running a spellpchecker. Mangling other people’s ideas and words. You are warned, people.

Donnie begins by asking us to play “spot the difference”: Google’s homepage on March 14 (3.14 — the Google pi logo) and Google.cn (Google’s Chinese home page) on that day. Besides not having the pi logo, the link to gmail is missing on China.cn, there’s no sign-in link, therte’s a link to tianya.cn, and the Chinese version has an official government ICP license number.

Tiany.cn is a massively popular social network. At the hot topics in the forums, there can be millions visitors and millions replies. (Donnie shows one topic that has over 4 million replies, and it was only posted in February of this year.) There are hundreds of boards and board masters, organizationally structured in a way similar to the Chinese government: A secretary general, branching powers, judges, appeals judges, etc. The structure works well. The rules say that no posts can be deleted or edited, so people consider carefully what they are writing. You can petition for a change to any edits made by the board master, but that’s embedded in an administrative bureaucracy. This is “decentralization under a super power,” he says.

QQ.com is an instant messenger app with over 1.4 billion accounts. It offers many kinds of services, all based on IM. It is a closed system with an open API.

Douban.com is a Web 2.0 site. (“Douban” is a Chinese dish.) Douban provides links to media (books, DVDs), etc., and enables its 36M people to comment, review, and discuss them. Everything posted at Douban is public. “Douban has a lot of Habermas’ public sphere.” But, Donnie adds, it strongly supports censorship.

Donnie points to common features of Chinese Web sites. First, they accept Web 2.0 ideas, but make user-generated contents controllable. Second, they only comply with Chinese culture. Third, they provide integrated services, not an open API. Fourth, they are driven by instant messaging, with a bulletin board management style. The Chinese Internet is not driven by email but by IM.

Google has never made money in China, Donnie says.

Donnie points out the “music” link on the Google.cn page. Google.cn actually is provided by t0p100.cn [I may not have transcribed accurately]. You can download legal music there. But at mp3.Baidu.com you can search the Internet and download what you find. Baidu has been sued, but it’s been defended by the safe harbor laws. Google has been copying Baidu, but not very successfully, Donnie says.

Until 2005, the Chinese control over the Net was accomplished mainly by technical control. From 2003-9, there was more and more legal enforcement. In 2010, there is a legislative rebooting. There is now a jungle of licenses: domains, commercial websites, webcast website, news website, online games…

The switch from tech to law has increased certainty because the authorities have explained why sites are being shut down. It has also caused important discussions to occur. But, the law is immature and thus enforcement is somewhat arbitrary. And the “clouds of licensing systems” are still difficult to navigate. But, these are temporary.

Hillary Clinton said there is a single Internet, says Donnie. “I do not think it is really true from the cultural, legal, and linguistic aspects.” Tim Wu, in Who Controls the Internet, says that the Internet is splitting, and there are under-appreciated advantages of this. “I agree,” says Donnie. Can we get along with each other in this world if the Net splits? “I think we can,” he says, because the Net consists of autonomous systems connected without hierarchy. We have to look at the Internet as pluralist, he says.

What we should really care about, he says, is that those with wealth, who have more access to the Net, do not replicate the economic/social divide on the Internet. [This is based on a brief conversation with Donnie afterwards.]

Q: The Chinese language itself is a barrier, in both directions, but not with Taiwan. Are the sites accessible?
A: Most of the Taiwanese Web sites are accessible in China, including the official government sites. Some sites that advocate Taiwan’s continuing autonomy are not accessible.

Q: What will be the effect of the announcement that access to the Internet is a basic human right?
A: The BBC had a survey that showed that 80% of people believe that, and that news was published all over the Chinese Web sites without problem. The problem is the law from the 1990s. I believe they will be changed sooner or later.

Q: To what extent does the system of govt bureaucracy account for the siloed nature of their services?
A: I think those structures were based on the notion that the Internet is just like other public media, such as TV.

Q: How does the censorship look from the inside?
A: As Rebecca MacKinnon said, most of the citizens don’t feel the censorship. There’s so much information available, so much news, so many services, so many forums. And if you really want to get some information, you can find a way to. And if you really want to express something, you can. The filtering mechanism can’t work perfectly, and their are many examples of this.
Q: What’s wrong with the system?
A: Because it reflects the old mass media, not on the Internet’s nature. It’s old logic. If we can reform the law so that it fits the Internet better, the question will be less urgent.

Q: You’re optimistic about the future of the split Internet. But there should be a common denominator wherever you go. A core function of the Net is to foster the circulation of info. What about the Chinese attitude toward copyright protection?
A: You can compare the systems of censorship and copyright protection. In China, there is a great deal of “freedom” (in quotes) in using copyrighted materials, even though China’s copyright laws are pretty much the same as everyone’s. The govt could do a campaign to fight piracy just as it does to fight pornography, and it could be very effective.

Q: It’s normal that a medium would be adapted to local needs. But do you think there is something about the Net’s design and essence that is core so that if it were changed, it’s not the Internet?
A: I believe everyone in the world has universal rights that should be complied with. But I’m suggesting that the separated parts of the Net could have universal principles and universal protocols.
Q: What separates the Internets?
A: Infrastructurally, linguistically, culturally, legally. By infrastructure, I mean the physical base of the Net. The protocols are the same.

Q: Can you compare the Chinese Internet to other linguistically isolated cultures? E.g., Would you say that Japan has a different Internet as well?
A: The term “pluralism” itself has many layers.

Q: What’s the effect on the ordinary Chinese citizen on Google’s departure? A Nature poll says that Google is the first choice of scientists in China.
A: Google won’t quit all of China. (This is just a guess, he says.) Resourceful users will be able to get to Google even after it departs.

China is no stranger to Internet censorship. The country’s Great Firewall includes many well known sites, but up until now BitTorrent sites have never been blocked.

There was a short blocking incident two years ago when Mininova, isoHunt and The Pirate Bay were hijacked and redirected to the leading Chinese search engine, Baidu. However, this issue was solved in a matter of days without an official explanation.

In the years that followed the Chinese government mainly targeted local BitTorrent sites, leaving the previously mentioned sites unharmed. According to reports from isoHunt’s owner Gary Fung, this tolerant stance might have changed as visits from China to isoHunt have plunged dramatically.

The drop in traffic is so significant that any technical difficulties have to be ruled out. Last Saturday, isoHunt had only 1,349 visitors from China compared to 131,362 the week before, a massive 99% decrease.

Despite the signs that this ban of isoHunt is intentional, there hasn’t been any official word from the Chinese authorities on the situation. Whether it has anything to do with the recent P2P site crackdown in China, where the authorities shut down hundreds of local sites including some of the biggest BitTorrent trackers, is unknown.

IsoHunt owner Gary Fung told TorrentFreak that he recommends that Chinese users who want to continue using the site should access it through a foreign proxy. Gary said that China was never a huge source of traffic for his site, but sees the ban as a “big deal” for the ongoing net censorship debate.

Although China’s authorities are not known for their democratic principles, speaking out against the ban might help. “China has flipflopped between site bans, so putting on pressure and people voicing opinions do matter,” Gary added, referring to China’s previous banning and unbanning of websites such as Wikipedia.

The Pirate Bay, BTjunkie and all the other major foreign BitTorrent sites are unaffected and remain accessible in China. For now.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More than 50 villagers suffering from lead poisoning have been in custody for six months after the bus taking them to the doctor was stopped by police

Chinese authorities have defended the six-month detention of lead poisoning victims who were seeking medical care, saying the punishment was necessary for "public education".

Police in Jiahe, Hunan province, blocked a bus carrying 53 villagers who were on their way to get health checks last September, according to Chinese media.

Mistakenly believing the villagers were planning to protest, the police have detained two of them for the six months since on the charge of "disrupting traffic". Though it has since been proved that they and their children were contaminated by illegal emissions of heavy metals from a smelting factory, the local government was unapologetic.

"We may have blocked the wrong visit, but they should not have been on that road," Li Ying, deputy secretary of Jiahe county political and legislative committee told the Beijing News, which today published an investigation into the incident.

Ou Shudong, the chairman of the local People's Congress, told the newspaper the police roadblock and detentions were justified. "The villagers' intentions were unclear. Even if they were going for a medical examination, they should have informed the government."

The story highlights the feudal control that local officials exercise in much of rural China. It also exemplifies the widespread strategy of stifling dissent by making an example of suspected ringleaders, a tactic known as "killing a chicken to scare the monkeys".

A Jiahe county report cited by the newspaper says the punishment of a few people "served the purpose of public education for the majority". The Guardian's calls to the county government, police bureau and communist party went unanswered.

The journalistic exposure of police tactics came amid a widening wave of heavy metal scandals. Since the first cases last summer, more than 3,000 children nationwide have been found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, forcing the closure of dozens of factories.

According to the environment ministry, 12 heavy metal pollutions incident were reported last year, prompting 32 public disturbances.

Amid widespread unease that the full scale of the problem has yet to emerge, the authorities face a growing environmental and public security challenge.

The factory in Jiahe was operated by Tenda Corporation, a company that had been ejected from other, wealthier areas because of its dire pollution record. Jiahe – one of China's poorest counties – allowed it to operate despite warnings from the local environmental department that the plant was breaking toxic emission regulations.

A gradual build-up of lead in the bloodstream can damage the nervous system and lead to anaemia, muscle weakness, arrested development and brain damage.

Local people complained of health problems and unusually belligerent behaviour and poor school grades among their children, but their petitions to the authorities were ignored for more than three years.

However, medical tests have proved their claims. The latest results, received on 24 February, revealed that 250 of the 397 children in the village had excess levels of lead in their blood. The victims included four of the five children of Liao Mingxiu, one of those still in police detention.

More lead poisoning cases are emerging elsewhere. This week, 88 children and six adults tested positive for lead poisoning in Longchang county, Sichuan province.

Seven children have been hospitalised for a week and more than 700 people are awaiting medical test results.

The source of the contamination, the Zhongyi Alloy factory, has since been closed.

"We have sent 10 doctors to the villages to explain the situation to residents," said Zheng Shili, propaganda director of Longchang government. "Public sentiment is basically calm."

Additional reporting by Han Ying

Since August 2009

Jiahe county, Hunan province, 250 children affected

Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province, 615 children

Wugang city, Hunan province, 1,345 children

Dongchuan district of Kunming city, Yunnan province, over 200 children

October 2009

Jiyuan city, Henan province 1,008 children

Dec 2009

Longtang town, Qingyuan city, Guangdong province, 44 children affected

Jan 2010

Longchang county, Sichuan province, 81 children

• Pollution
• China
• Health

Çin Halk Cumhuriyeti'nde de ülkemizde olduÄŸu gibi birçok siteye eriÅŸim engeli konulmuÅŸ.
ama çin'de gördüÄŸüm kadarıyla facebook, twitter, blogger gibi popüler sitelerin hemen hepsi engellenmiÅŸ durumda.
bu siteler engellenme durumlarına ve kategorilerine göre ÅŸöyle sıralanmışlar;

• kırmızı renkteki sitelere eriÅŸim tamamen engellenmiÅŸ,
• sarı renkteki sitelere kısmen de olsa girilebiliyor,
• yeÅŸil renktekiler ise engelleme olmayan siteler.

EriÅŸime engellenmiÅŸ sosyal networklar ve iletiÅŸim siteleri
facebook, twitter, blogger, tumblr, WordPress (hosted blogs), TypePad (hosted blogs), FriendFeed, Posterous, Technorati

EriÅŸime engellenmiÅŸ fotoÄŸraf ve video siteleri
YouTube, vimeo, dailymotion, twitpic, imageshack, google picasa, ustream, blip.tv
kısmen engellenen iTunes Store

devamını oku »

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etiketler: wikipedia, vimeo, technorati, blogger, wordpress, çin, youtube, china, typepad, dailymotion, imageshack, google code, google search, facebook, çin halk cumhuriyeti, google apps, yousendit, popular, chinese, scribd, twitter, google picasa, popüler siteler, blip.tv, tumblr, ustream, the pirate bay, bbc news, friendfeed, mediafire, yasaklanmış siteler, engellenen siteler, wikileaks, ping.fm, seesmic, posterous, twitpic, mixx, xmarks, bit.ly, hootsuite, chrome extensions, itunes store, whatblocked, what blocked

While most of the world happily enjoys Internet’s free services such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Google, in China these are either inaccessible or might become so in the following months.

And, as shown by Google’s recent squabble with the Chinese government, it can be very hard to operate in the world’s most populous country. But Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has faith that Twitter will be able to operate in China, although it’s currently blocked by the government.

At a New York panel discussion on social media and digital activism, Chinese activist Ai Weiwei asked Dorsey whether they can promise availability of Twitter in China. Dorsey said: “I would say yes. It’s just a matter of time”. Weiwei called this answer “very philosophical”; knowing that a giant like Google has trouble securing their presence in China, a cautious answer like this by a much smaller Twitter instills little confidence.

Weiwei also pointed out a very interesting fact that westerners probably don’t think about: Twitter is a very different tool in Chinese and in English. “At 140 words, in Chinese, you can really write a novel. You can discuss most profound ideas really to democracy, freedom, poetry,” he said. Unfortunately, it seems that this fact didn’t escape Chinese censors, which have been blocking Twitter for nearly a year now.

Tags: china, social media, twitter

88tc88.com Launches Unprecedented Service at SXSW; Backed By Shanghai Media Group.Thomas Reemer, Chairman, Presents at SXSW Interactive Conversation Entitled “How to Access the Chinese Music Market” on March 16th, at 11:00 AM, in 19B. (PRWeb Mar 16, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3728214.htm

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

According to local media, 25 people have died in an illegal coal mine in central China, after a fire broke out there.

SAP's new co-CEOs today promised faster software innovation and better execution on a hybrid enterprise software model that includes cloud computing and traditional enterprise software.

SAP, which describes itself as the world's largest business software company, recently reshuffled its top management replacing CEO Léo Apotheker with Bill McDermott, who was head of field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, who was head of product development.

Their appearance at the SAP Silicon Valley center was their first joint press/analyst conference since the announcement of their appointment in early February.

Here are some notes from the press conference:

- Business by Design, the cloud computing offering, has been slow getting off the ground but has been successful in terms of software quality. The development team has been using agile software techniques which has reduced development team size by one-third and produced higher quality software than expected.

- SAP continues to believe a hybrid strategy is best, combining the traditional enterprise software business model with cloud computing/on-demand software as a service.

- SAP intends to become the number one on-demand software company in the world. It sees huge opportunities in the Chinese market.

- This summer there will be a major new release of the Business by Design software service and will be followed regular improvements every five weeks.

- Oracle was criticized for not being innovative. It's acquisition strategy is not providing any benefits to customers, unlike SAP, which has been investing hundreds of thousands of man-years in innovation, such as enabling customers to take advantage of new features without having to upgrade their systems.

- The new co-CEOs will try to move the company at a faster "clock-rate" than the former CEO. The basic strategy will remain the same but the execution will be faster.

- SAP wants its employees to be excited about coming to work. It is also impressed by its developer community, which is coming up with lots of interesting ideas.

- SAP is not going to follow Oracle's strategy of tying applications to specific hardware, as through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. But it does want to eliminate the conversation about stacks and focus on solutions.

- Best of breed solutions were criticized, the problem is that "they don't breed well."

- The acquisition of Business Objects was important in broadening SAP's view of the software world. It sees the future as enabling customers to work with many different companies and allowing their corporate systems to easily interact with their business partners.

- SAP justified the maintenance fees being paid by customers because the company is innovating across industry sectors.

- Innovation was a frequently used word during the Q&A but it wasn't clear what this meant or what it would look like.