One reason I like the twitter messages going to facebook is that facebook has a superior comments system, and often my friends say interesting things about my status messages; otherwise, I have friends on facebook that are not following me on twitter, and they might like to hear what’s roaming around in my brain every now and then.

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Read the rest of facebook’s not-so-great firewall (334 words)

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Post tags: censorship, china, great firewall, internet

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Seemingly lost amidst all the windbaggery on this topic is the fact that according to Alexa, google.cn is as of this writing the #3 most-trafficked website in China. google.com, though, is #6.

I’m now beginning to think that Google’s strategy here might have something to do with the fact that google.com is already one of the top websites in China, with or without google.cn. Sure, by exiting the country entirely, they lose some leverage with the government, but monetarily, one would guess that at least some of the viewership and revenue from the Chinese operations will transfer back to the mothership.

Of course, the Chinese government could block Google’s domain entirely, like they do with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and they well might, but I would rate such a prospect as somewhat unlikely, since the GFW can already filter particular search queries when it wants to begin with.

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Post tags: business, china, google, internet

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First, as someone living in China, I’d like to explain some things. Google operates in China as a separate entity from Google’s main headquarters in the USA. I’ve frequently seen this misunderstood by people who post on sites like slashdot, whenever there is a story about Google censoring information. In the past, Google has agreed to censor information on google.cn (from Tiananmen Square, to Falun Gong, to the Dalai Lama, and so on).

However, these same searches are not censored on google.com, and google.com is not blocked by the Great Firewall. The Great Firewall, though, does detect your search queries, and will itself block access to information coming off of google.com (and others) if it finds material it has flagged as objectionable. (Of course, it should be said that anyone who gives a shit about free access to information in China uses a proxy, VPN, or some other secure means of avoiding the Great Firewall entirely.)

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Read the rest of Clever PR move, Google: give up the ball (717 words)

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Post tags: business, china, google, great firewall, internet

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This being my second visit to Shanghai, I wasn’t as concerned with traipsing around gawking at touristy schlock as I was with things like drinking beer and eating food and pontificating with other beer-drinking food-eaters about the state of life in China, but I did reserve one touristy thing for my last day.

Upon arrival, I had a ride into town, so the opportunity wasn’t there, but I made my way back to Pudong Airport all by my lonesome, which meant I could feel free to go and do one of those nerdy things that often seems to entertain me more than the poor people who get stuck with me: I rode the Shanghai maglev train.

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Read the rest of All trains should go 431 km/h (804 words)

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Post tags: china, trains, transportation

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Now, listen, I’m not going to argue whether the Chinese invented noodles; they probably did. But there’s something about archaeology that I find utterly idiotic. And the funny part is that archaeologists are the ones always explaining this point to us. Here it is:

Most stuff from the past has disappeared!

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Read the rest of “Oldest” noodles found in China (214 words)

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Post tags: china, science

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