When I took over the China beat from Rick Martin after his move to Tokyo (and Tokyo Shift), I was honoured to be a part of the proud pedigree that he and Will Moss before him had created.

Upon announcing my resignation to the supreme overseaers of CNET Asia, I was asked if I knew of anyone qualified to take over the spot. I could think of no one more perfect for the gig than my good friend Steven Millward.

A writer, tech-enthusiast and long-time China resident, Steven will surely bring his unique voice and perspective to this role. Many of you may recognize Steven from his active presence on Twitter (@SirSteven) or his frequent contributions to Lost Laowai.

If you are only just getting to know Steven, I hope you’ll please offer him as warm a welcome as you have all given me in my time here. It truly has been an amazing experience, and one I leave with nothing but fondness for.

And I guess that brings us to the “why”. Why leave such an amazing gig as blogging for CNET Asia? Don’t think that I haven’t continually asked myself that question again and again in the couple weeks since making the decision to do so.

The simple reason for my departure is I’ve recognized that I’m simply too over-extended and something had to give. With a full-time job (that often hits 70-80 hours a week, and doesn’t look to be slowing), a laundry list of side-projects (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), and a new family on the way (fingers-crossed), I had to let something go.

But I am certain that my loss is everyone’s gain, as Steven is sure to breath new life into this spot — though under the newly conjured moniker of Sinobytes.

And please don’t think you’ve heard the last of me. I plan to still haunt the comments of both Steven’s new blog and the blogs of the friends I’ve made here at CNET Asia. If that’s not enough, I hope you’ll all continue to follow me on Twitter (@thehumanaught) or catch me on my personal blog.

A big thanks to Juniper and the CNET Asia crew. You’ve been wonderful to work with. And, of course, a big thanks to the many many many fantastic people involved (if even peripherally) in China’s tech industry. It’s been a blast getting to know you all, and I look forward to continuing to do so.

願原力與你同在 / yuan yuanli yuni tongzai (?)

And while traditional media outlets are never shy to publish a juicy or scandalous story, a number of blogs have popped up in recent years that do all-weird, all the time. What follows is a list of some of my favourite sources of weird China news.

chinaSMACK: With just over a year’s worth of posts in its archives, chinaSMACK has taken the translation-blog genre to an entirely new level. The site’s daily posts act as a meme tracker of what is happening on the Chinese Internet. Translated stories and BBS posts give a rare (and often gritty) look into what is happening around China’s Web.

Weird Asia News: Around since 2006, Weird Asia News doesn’t specifically focus on China, but offers up both China and Hong Kong coverage. Wacky stories from Japan, Korea and SE Asia help keep China’s weirdness in perspective.

ChinaHush: Relatively new to the game, and similar to chinaSMACK right down to the China + onomatopoeia domain, ChinaHush dishes out scandalous stories from around China. It is another meme tracker, and a great way to find out what seedy things are happening around the Chinese Web.

Hao Hao Report: While not specifically a resource for weird China news, the Hao Hao Report has a dedicated category to the topic, offering a quick way to find out what strange China stories are worth reading. Disclaimer: Hao Hao Report is a site I founded in 2006 which allows anyone to submit Chinese news and blog stories to be voted on by the community.

EastSouthNorthWest (ESWN): The blog that launched a hundred blogs. ESWN has been the prima-site to get an insider’s look at what unscrupulous things are going on in the Middle Kingdom. More than a half-decade before chinaSMACK was pulling up the skirt of China’s Internet, ESWN was dishing the goods to foreign correspondents, bloggers and readers alike (despite its lackluster design and awkward domain).

Worth a mention

The following sites don’t focus on weird China news, but often offer it up all the same and are well worth a visit:
Danwei
ChinaGeeks
Shanghaiist

Have a great resource for weird China news? Be sure to leave it in the comments below.

An experienced filmmaker who recently finished a stint as a visiting lecturer at the Beijing Film Academy, Siok Siok’s credits also include being an executive producer for Discovery Channel programming as well as directing Boomtown Beijing, a fantastic documentary that followed the lives of four common Chinese during the leadup to the 2008 Olympics (see my interview with Siok Siok from last year).

Much like Boomtown Beijing, Twittamentary wont be focusing on its subject directly, but rather intends to break the topic down to its fundamental human elements. In a recent interview with WebProNews, Siok Siok explained: “The film explores the idea that Twitter accelerates serendipity. When lives intersect at an ever-increasing speed, great stories happen at an astonishing rate. We want to tell these wonderful stories. All the rest of it, the themes and the topics are just part of the great backdrop.”

The documentary’s Web site has issued a general call for submissions (whether written, videoed, recorded or otherwise) that tell “the most fascinating thing that happened to you because of Twitter”. The gathering of submissions will culminate in a 24-hour global event this September in which all Twitter users can submit new stories, as well as vote and comment on those Twitter stories (twories?) contributed by others. The best submissions will be weaved into the fabric of the film.

Though no official release date has been set for the film, it is expected to be available, online (and with a Creative Commons license), in the first half of 2010. Be sure to check out Twittamentary.com for the latest information. You can also follow Siok Siok on Twitter @sioksiok

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And what a way to get back in the saddle–China has created the first-ever SMS worm:

Three Chinese companies–XiaMen Jinlonghuatian Technology, ShenZhen ChenGuangWuXian Technology, and XinZhongLi TianJin–created the “Sexy Space” worms or Yxe Worm (Worm:SymbOS/Yxe.D) and submitted to Symbian OS-based phones through the express signing procedure, said F-Secure Security Labs recently.

The clever little worm exploits Symbian’s express signing procedure, allowing an attacker to send out an SMS message with a link to the worm’s site, which once clicked will install itself on the device and send a similar SMS to everyone in the infected mobile’s phonebook.

And if you guessed that each of those infectious and insidious messages is going to eat into your phone credit, you are absolutely right.With very close to half of the world’s mobiles using Symbian OS, it’s no surprise that parallels are being drawn between the network-clogging potential of this worm and the self-propagating email viruses that attack a victim’s contacts list and fire off copies of itself to everyone and their Aunt Betty.

Potential targets of the Sexy Space worm include phones from Fujitsu, Huawei, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Sharp and Sony Ericsson–all manufacturers that develop using the Symbian open-source platform. Fortunately, avoiding the worm is simple. Just as you no longer open emails with attachments such as “funpicsofyou.exe” (you don’t, right?), simply do not click on links if you’re not absolutely certain you know where they lead–no matter who the message is from.

Hopefully, with a bit of critical SMS usership, an improved signing procedure from Symbian and better antivirus software at the network level, this invention won’t mar the otherwise impressive list of items China has gifted to the world.

(h/t to Appfrica and Darknet)

We are posting real untouched photos of factory working conditions from about one year ago. We have decided this summer to show you an important part of the job we do during audits by telling you why these pictures have been taken. Actually, an audit is much more investigative than ticking boxes off a questionaire. One has to walk in with an open mind ready to question everything in these situations and not only ask a list of predefined questions.

Conditions of toilets.

Young person waiting in the dormitory.

Exhausted worker, after too long a working time.

Plastic injection on electronical component.

Toy production with drilling machine (without protection).

Queueing for the cantine.

Inside the dormitories.

Certainly makes you think about how tough your job really is.

The path of the eclipse as it crosses over China

The eclipse will begin just shortly before 8am and will end around 11am–with the total eclipse lasting (long by eclipse standards) more than 5 minutes. You can check this excellent NASA/Google Maps mashup for the exact times in your location. Simply click the map and it will create a marker with the start and end times of both the partial and total eclipse.

For easy reference, here are times for some of China’s major cities in the path of the eclipse (all times in China Standard Time/+8UT):

PS=Partial Eclipse Start, TS=Total Eclipse Start, ME=Maximum Eclipse, TE=Total Eclipse End, PE=Partial Eclipse End

Of course, it’s important to remember that if you value the ability to see, you cannot view the eclipse without special glasses. Sunglasses will not do the trick. I’ve noticed here in Suzhou most of the small shops are selling eclipse glasses for 8-10 yuan.

For more traditional ways of viewing the eclipse, if glasses aren’t available, get a bucket of water and put some black ink (which can be bought for calligraphy at any Chinese stationary store) in it, then view the eclipse via its reflection. A slightly more “science guy” approach can be found here.

And finally, for any photographer looking to shoot the eclipse, be sure to check out “How to photograph a solar eclipse“, by Fred Espenak. Basically, you should have a Solar Filter, a darn decent telephoto (300mm+) or an attachment to a telescope.

Now, let’s all pray the weather report is wrong, and it won’t be rainy here in Suzhou/Shanghai that day–oh, and that it won’t bring about massive earthquakes (fingers crossed).

Whoop. Tee. Doo.

I mean, congratulations to Apple for having finally managed to navigate the complex and kowtow-requiring process of doing business in China. However, it will simply be a couple years too late.

The iPhone is already a widely successful product in China. Sure, its instruction booklet is in traditional characters, and the warranty sucks, but that hasn’t stopped an estimated million+ folks from buying one. Hong Kong iPhones have been flowing into the Mainland since the smartphone landed there this time last year.

And if cross-market competition wasn’t enough to rain on the mobile’s China “debute”, the Chinese iPhone is required to be de-WiFi’d. Yep, one of the most significant and useful features of the phone will be removed before the handset is put under the glass at your local Apple store.

All this means is that the majority of iPhone wanters will buy a jailbroken WiFi-enabled one, thereby null and voiding the value of the warranty. Either that or they’ll just continue purchasing the non-modified WiFi-enabled one from Hong Kong, which comes with an equally useless warranty.

While I do respect that a good warranty can be a deal sealer, trading feature-rich phone now for possible protection later goes against all the small fibers of our instantly gratified nature.

Add to this the fact that foreign-brand electronics are almost universally more expensive in the Mainland than they are in HK (or via proxy, on the grey market), and I just can’t see what the advantage is to buy the “legit” iPhone. No, I believe it’s much more likely that in-China Apple lovers will be sporting the new iPhone 3GS long before the Year of the Tiger arrives.

(Photo via Peopleware)

What was, as of July 1, to be mandatory censorship software installed on all new computers in China, has been indefinitely delayed due to a lack of prep time being given to hardware manufacturers.The 11th hour announcement came late on June 30 via the Government’s official mouthpiece, the Xinhua News Agency. And while a quote from an MIIT spokesperson laid fault of the delay on “computer manufacturers which don’t want to be “hasty” about carrying out the massive installation project“, it’s hard to believe that the immense domestic pressure wasn’t of primary concern.

Surely everyone who stood up and said, “hey, wait a minute… this is stupid,” played a part in causing the broken, stolen and lying piece of software to be aborted before it even truly began? However, personally, I doubt strongly worded letters from international business associations or US trade officials were the key resonating voices of dissent echoing through the halls of Beijing.

No, I think that voice belonged to the Chinese Netizens who were anything but quiet on the matter. From peaceful parties organized by prolific artists/bloggers to hacker attacks and death threats directed at the software’s manufacturer, China’s Internet community made it quite clear that the “well-intentioned” and deeply insidious software was anything but welcome on their personal computers.

Most of the (largely Western) media linked above (or found via a quick Google search) espoused much the opposite, perhaps eager to pat themselves on the back for encouraging a positive blow against censorship. But in a nation that suffers from in-around 100,000 “mass incidents” (a Zhongnanhai euphemism for riots, protests and demonstrations) per year, it is my opinion that the powers that be are more focused on their legitimacy inside their borders than out.

I think those heading up the Green Dam launch realized shortly after its initial announcement the massive mistake it clearly was, and looked for a relatively quiet way to back out. Saying that it was the hardware manufacturers’ problem of not being able to accommodate their request on time would give them a face-saving out that would allow them to shelve the project which after this week will largely be forgotten.

Well, until the Green Diaphragm Child Protector software is launched in 2010.

Fortunately China’s shanzhai culture never leaves a man wanting for a chuckle, and it is especially amusing when that pseudo product offers up the latest un-authorized endorsement from a celebrity in a Chinese ad. This time it’s none other than the President of the United States, Barack Obama, touting the wonders of his beloved BlackBlockberry.

From WSJ China Journal: “The ad promotes a smartphone called the �BlockBerry?? 9500� (??, xuanfeng, means �whirlwind�), that more-than-slightly resembles the BlackBerry Storm, Research In Motion�s (RIMM) first touch-screen device, released last fall. The touch-screen BlockBerry purportedly runs on Windows Mobile software, has WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G wireless capabilities, and comes in six colors, from purple to champagne.”

The post astutely points out that the image contains some rather sloppy design work, with the image of Barry-O having been reversed, causing the lapel pin to not only appear on the wrong side, but with the flag backwards as well — I guess (ahem) accuracy wasn’t what the ad is going for.

The tagline beneath Obama reads: “Obama�s BlackBerry. My Blockberry?? 9500″

When China Journal contacted MobileUncle, the Web site where the ad first appeared, they were informed that the producer of the Blockberry is a factory in Shenzhen, which despite the name on the ad, is not called Haff-Comm. Shanzhai or not, this WiFi/Bluetooth enabled, 3G ready, Windows Mobile handset, is sure to be a popular product when it hits electronic markets and online Taobao shops next month sporting the relatively low price tag of around 1500 RMB ($220 USD) — the Blackberry Storm runs about double that.

(h/t FarWestChina/HHR)

The new was-said-to-be-mandatory-but-now-isn’t-and-maybe-never-was software, produced for the Chinese Government as a way to protect the world’s most massive population from the evils of fairer skin tones, has everyone up in arms.

Having said my piece on the matter, I thought I would offer up a summary of the latest Green Dam Youth Escort developments since last week’s panic-enduced reporting announcement that it would be mandatory on all new Chinese PCs as of July 1st.

1. Poor programming causing security issues

June 11, 2009–The Computer Science & Engineering Division of the University of Michigan analyzed the software and found that anyone using it is basically putting his personal information and computer security on a platter for malicious Web sites.

“We examined the Green Dam software and found that it contains serious security vulnerabilities due to programming errors. Once Green Dam is installed, any Web site the user visits can exploit these problems to take control of the computer. This could allow malicious sites to steal private data, send spam, or enlist the computer in a botnet. In addition, we found vulnerabilities in the way Green Dam processes blacklist updates that could allow the software makers or others to install malicious code during the update process.

We found these problems with less than 12 hours of testing, and we believe they may be only the tip of the iceberg. Green Dam makes frequent use of unsafe and outdated programming practices that likely introduce numerous other vulnerabilities. Correcting these problems will require extensive changes to the software and careful retesting. In the meantime, we recommend that users protect themselves by uninstalling Green Dam immediately.”

June 17, 2009–Jiangmin, a large Chinese antivirus software developer, backs up the U. of M. crew’s analysis (source: ChinaTechNews):

“The company said that the loophole exists in the filtering function of the software. If users open some specially set Web pages when the filtering function is active, the loophole will appear in the buffer of the relevant module. Taking advantage of this loophole, hackers can reportedly place trojans on these Web pages and spread viruses. Computers attacked by virus will have the risks of serious information leak or remotely controlled by hackers.”

2. Chinese Netizens’ criticisms

According to polls on China’s top portals, more than 80 percent object to the software being preinstalled on their new PCs. An anti-Green Dam petition was created at the cleverly domained www.lssw365.org (the official Green Dam Youth Escort site’s domain is www.lssw365.net).

Additionally, Li Fangping, a Beijing-based rights lawyer who made a name for himself during the milk scandal last fall, has sent a request to the Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT) inquiring into the software, its reasons for development and the legal basis behind requiring it be preinstalled (source).

A good portion of the anger about the software is not just directed at the potential invasion of privacy or censorship, but rather questioning why it cost nearly 42 million yuan (about US$6 million) of tax payer money to develop software that was overwhelmingly unwanted.

But the best, or at least most interesting, criticisms have come from creative Netizens who have put their imaginations to the task with some satirical and humorously artistic creations protesting the intrusive software, including a whole series of “Green Dam Girl (???)” cartoons, like this one:

Green Dam Girl, badged with the River Crab emblem, and carrying Green Dam Youth Escort bunny mascots and a "sealed-off" banner.

4. Protection from spiritual movements and pig porn

And while praise for the product is a bit short on the ground, some have argued that principally it has the right idea. The staff at ChinaTechNews argued earlier this week that the software is a necessary step in getting China’s horribly under-secured Internet under control.

“In China, the effect of thousands of computers which do not have properly installed security software has already caused mass outages and Internet disruptions. Chinese domain name service registrar DNSPod last month reported activities that affected its services and caused network outages in various provinces; Internet users in Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangxi, Henan, Gansu, and Zhejiang reported that they suffered slow Internet speeds or were unable to visit some Web sites. Green Dam stops porn, but it has the potential to truly aid users from visiting other potentially unsafe areas on the Web.”

But for that to happen, the software actually needs to be secure, which if you’ll refer back to point number one above, it seems it isn’t.

What’s more, despite repeated claims that it is not at all intended for political censorship by the software’s developer, as well as various high-ups in Beijing, there have been claims that Chinese hackers have accessed Green Dam‘s keyword blacklist and it contains 2,700 some-odd terms related to pornography, and an additional 6,500 that are “politically sensitive”.

And if that wasn’t enough to make everyone using the software scramble for the “uninstall” command, it doesn’t even block porn properly! The software uses an algorithm that analyzes skin-colored images combined with facial (snicker, snicker) recognition software to determine what is porn and what isn’t. But like anything that you leave a robot to figure out, they’re bound to mess it up. Stupid robots.

Somewhat famously now, it has been reported that the software is quite comfortable with 10-year-olds looking at pornography as long as the objects of their gaze are of the “darker” skinned variety (which Green Dam ignores), while all kids hoping to find images of, say, pigs or Garfield, will be denied.

Piggy porn, according to the Green Dam software

5. Crafted from stolen code and data

So, we have an unwanted piece of software billed to the taxpayer for the pricey sum of US$6 million, that instead of securing the cleanliness of your child’s Internet experience, blocks images of pigs and cats while leaving your computer and its data open to malicious attacks.

But wait, it gets more amusing worse. It turns out that large amounts of the software’s data libraries were lifted verbatim from the censorship program CyberSitter by Solid Oak Software Inc., violating that company’s copyright. Additionally, Green Dam primarily uses OpenCV, an open source computer vision product (that technically should be blamed for the piggy mixup above). Use of OpenCV requires adherence to its BSD license, a fact that Green Dam developers have neglected to do–which is sad really, because it’s a hugely open license and doesn’t take much to meet the neccessary requirements.

6. Monitoring your every move long after it’s “gone”

The Wikileaks.org article linked to above also explained in its analysis of the software that Green Dam Youth Escort doesn’t just stop your Internet browser from visiting skin-showing Web sites, it also monitors a large number of other applications on your computer.

Should you happen to enter any of the 2,700 pornographic words or 6,500 politically sensitive ones, the program shuts down without so much as a “we’re not even going to save that for you” warning. Apparently, kids aren’t allowed to write any dirty emails, either.

A list of the programs being monitored in the current version of Green Dam can be found here–virtually all common PC word processors, text editors, office suites, email clients, instant messaging programs and browsers are being watched.

Fortunately, if you’ve had the bad luck to get a new PC with this garbage preinstalled, you can just uninstall it, right? Well, so says the company. However, according to a computer expert, only the user interface is disabled when using the Green Dam uninstaller: “About half of Green Dam‘s 110 system files continued to reside in the computer. After restarting the computer, Green Dam‘s screening program is running actively in the background.” It should be stated though, that this information comes from The Epoch Times, a creditable source only in its own mind.

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And so, that about sums it up. Green Dam Youth Escort–it doesn’t do what it should, it does what it shouldn’t, it’s made from stolen software, and it’s despised by the people for whom it was built and paid for by.

To borrow a phrase from the always au courant Imagethief–Green Dam Youth Escort is, in short, crapware.