Category Archives: The Tech Dynasty
Posts written at CNET Asia’s The Tech Dynasty
Harmonization goes one step further, soon to be on all Chinese PCs
Well, it’s June 9–five days after that anniversary of events that “never happened”–and Internet access is limping back to normal here in the PRC. Twitter is unblocked and Flickr is… erm… flickering back to normal. YouTube and Blogspot are still out, but maybe those switches are in a different GFW building or something. I’ll be patient.
And just as the sun was beginning to shine on my online experience, I get this news:
Chinese block darn near everything ahead of Tiananmen Anniversary
I intentionally try to keep things apolitical here on The Tech Dynasty. This is a tech blog, and politics have little to do with the wonderfully utopian world of technology.
However, I’d be remiss if I failed to mention what an absolute pain in the butt living in China can be when anything remotely controversial pops up. This Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of the violent suppression of the student-led demonstrations of 1989, putting everyone in the upper echelons of Chinese politics on edge.
Comparing China, US Internet usage
A couple of days ago Silicon Alley Insider posted a chart displaying the differences and similarities between Chinese and US Web usership. The chart mines and melds data from the Pew Research Center and China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC, why isn’t it CINIC?).
There were no huge surprises, but it does give a pretty good overview of how the world’s top two Netizen bases use this fandangled thing we call the World Wide Web.
Apple Snow Leopard allows Chinese writing with trackpad
While I’m still relatively new to the Mac world, and haven’t fully embraced the hype surrounding an unquestioning allegiance to everything Apple, I absolutely adore my MacBook’s trackpad.
The multitouch glass trackpad could school any of its contemporaries on how to do it right. The big and beautiful button allows me to use my digit dextarity in ways I never thought possible. Sweeping windows away, pulling them back, pinching things smaller, spreading things wider… it’s simply awesome.
Review: The Wikipedia Revolution
When I first heard of Andrew Lih‘s new book about Wikipedia, I’m certain there was a questioning look on my face. I couldn’t help but think that a book about an encyclopedia wouldn’t be anything more than an exercise in pedantry.
Much like the rest of the globe’s Netizens, of course, I knew about Wikipedia. And as a Creative Commons blogger, open-source developer and avid user of all things GNU, Wikipedia’s philosophies were not unknown to me, either. But having just finished the book, The Wikipedia Revolution, I realized how little I really knew about the site and the movements that spawned it.
Chinese space program — boldly going where others have gone before
I understand that the Chinese space program is a stepping stone of pride and development for the country, and I really don’t mean to trounce it. However, is it too much to expect that a space program would at least be above the IP-infringing rife on the ground?
I mean, the space program isn’t exactly “novel” in any sense of the word. Its biggest ambition is to put a man on the moon only 50 years after some other nation did it, before most people even knew what a computer was. So, perhaps it shouldn’t surprise me that the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA. Maybe it sounds as cool as NASA in Chinese?) has, it appears, blatantly ripped off not one, but two Star Trek emblems in the creation of their logo:
10,000 years of China tech–celebrating Chinese invention
Lets face it, in our break-neck, high-tech, don’t look back culture, China tends to get a lot of flack for being–ahem–under-innovative. The number of articles written about China’s IP infringement/piracy and massive shanzhai industry are too numerous to count.
With this in mind, I thought I’d take a moment and a post to reflect on some of the many things China has gifted to the world through applying creativity to life’s little problems.
Twitter is a tool, and so is Maureen Dowd
I was cruising the blogs here at CNET Asia when I came across Isabella Chen’s recent post “Twitter? Why not?“. Isabella, a fantastic blogger out of Singapore, opens her post by explaining: “To be honest, I don’t really get Twitter.” A lot of people seem to share this lack of understanding about the world’s current “it” topic.
Certainly, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd does, as she so comprehensively illustrated in her recent twinterview with Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. “I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account. Is there anything you can say to change my mind?”
Understanding Chinese Web site names
Since coming to China nearly half a decade ago, and even more so since taking the reins here at The Tech Dynasty, I’ve become increasingly surrounded by the facinating world of Chinese Web sites. While the West has an ever-convoluted domain pool to deal with, the Chinese are not to be outdone. What follows is my modest attempt to explain the meaning behind some of China’s largest Web sites and their sometimes obscure domain names.
The Happy Wars–a battle for white-collar SNS in China
There are a lot of facets to China’s buzzing social-networking sites that amaze and amuse me. They’re not only dominating the Chinese market, their figures are pushing past global leaders as well.TenCent’s QZone announced nearly two full months before Facebook that it had reached the 200 millionth user mark. And while successful monetization has become somewhat Grail-like for Western SNSes, their Chinese counterparts can’t spend their QQ coins fast enough.
