William

Prompt me to wonder if Vietnam have such regulations for Search Engines? China have blocked Internet sites on Democracy, Tibet and Taiwan. The top 10 Google results using the key words “Tibet,” “Taiwan China” and “equality” were all blocked, as were eight of the top 10 results using “democracy China” and “dissident China.”
Seven of the top 10 were blocked using “Taiwan” alone and “revolution.”

China has been trying to combat independence movements in Tibet and considers Taiwan its territory. Democracy and human rights have also been politically sensitive topics for the communist government. The country often blocks an entire Web site, even if only parts of the site contain sensitive information.

And if you think these are the only sites they blocked, read on to find what blogging sites they had blocked:

To date here are a few of the services that have been blocked:

http://blogger.com
http://wordpress.com/
http://www.blogspot.com
http://egoweblog.com
http://www.blogspirit.com/
http://www.blogeasy.com/
http://www.blogzor.com/
http://www.mazeme.com/
http://www.yesblogger.com/
http://www.tblog.com/
http://joeuser.com/
http://typepad.com/

Well, you can check if you website is blocked via this site: http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org
And darn it, my site is blocked.

Same goes to my Video-Sharing site (www.ourbits.com) & My Mac User site (www.askthemacguru.com)! There are many questions on the needs for Censorship in China, I’ll name a few here:

1) China is not a police state.
2) China enjoys better economy and stability than other Communist countries, better than North Korea and Vietnam.
3) Even Vietnam did not impose such censorship on the Internet. At least, Vietnamese are surfing Youtube, Google and Wikipedia.

And more…

My Answer? Yes, absolutely. My answer is simple: “Infamous incident of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989″

“The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were a series of demonstrations led by students, intellectuals, and labor activists in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) between April 15, 1989 and June 4, 1989. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and voiced complaints ranging from minor criticisms to calls for full-fledged democracy and the establishment of broader freedoms.”

The younger generation may repeat the same tragic if they are exposed to too much information from the Internet. People who try to find a agenda in life may misunderstand the meaning of Democracy and interpret in their own ways.

Technorati Tags: China Censorship

I am never a Pro in taking Photos (though I wished I could be). I am a bit much better in Video and its editing workflow. Before I purchased my Lumix, I used to borrow my friend’s camera and just get it over.

Until a while ago (last year), Adrianna (www.popagandhi.com) introduced me Lumix. I’d read the reviews and fall in love with it (mainly because of 16:9 capture). Was thinking of getting a DSLR (Canon E400D), it will cost me about $1.4K for the whole thing with kits. Unfortunately, my freaking 1TB’s fried! And I would have to spend a good $700 for a new external HDD.

Worst still, I may not be able to retrieve my DATA. Sigh~

I remembered spending the entire night setting and installing Windows XP on a Company laptop (MacBook Pro) last year April when Apple released Apple Boot Camp.

Excited? No.. Not because I lost my sleep, but I am not eager. I could not get a XP with Service Pack 2 included, so I installed just XP. The graphic works but not the rest. Managed to get it all dressed up for a interview by Channel U Tech show.

When I was having Coffee with Junior (Apple Snr Software Engineer), he introduced me Parallel Desktop (formerly known as Parallel Workstation).

“There is a hit on the performance” He said “But worth a try!”

I was skeptic about embracing virtualization. I even wrote a report to my Directors about the Pros of Boot Camp and the Cons of Parallel. Only months later, the geek side of me proved myself wrong. Taming virtualization can be really fun. At least, it is not as predicable as Boot Camp. Ever since then, I am the best advocate for Parallel Desktop.

However, the recent released of Parallel Desktop (Which claimed to support 3D gaming and more) had disappointed me. One thing for sure, I regretted paying for it. This is the problem with commerical-ware, they seems to make you pay more and more by upgrading their software. Claiming the “upgrades” on this version and that, and charge you additional USD30 or more. Very often, the customers will see what I’d seen and come to believe the software which used to work for them had become bloodsucker.

So you understand my misery? We don’t mind paying for legitimate software, but the support from them are crap.

To all of you out there, if you want to try setting Windows on your Mac and you want to do so via virtualization? Try Virtual Box! It is Open Source and it is free. There will be consistent updates and it will still remain free! Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD.

And imagine the children using OLPC laptops. They can try to use other guest operating systems via VirtualBox.

Visit www.virtualbox.org for more information.

Was googling for some clues on the kind of OS or themes they used in Die Hard 4. Got this from Digg.com posting:

“When a criminal plot is in place to take down the entire computer and technological structure that supports the economy of the United States (and the world)…”

Its called Windows.

I was laughing when I read this.

Murphy’s law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance. “If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.” It is most often cited as “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong” (or, alternately, “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.”

Today, I’m a witness to this saying. What happened?

My 1TB External HDD just die on me. In case you have a problem understanding how much is 1TB, it is about 1000GB (to be exact, 947GB). Which I had used up about 600GB. Mainly Video clips , TV series, Movies, Software..

Realized that the HDD is giving me strange reactions since last night. I could not read or drag a file more than 100MB. Suspecting the problem with my Mac Mini. So I switched off the HDD. This morning, when I turned it on (teleporting my Completed downloads over).. I heard the most devastating sound from a HDD, the infamous clicking sound!

Me: “Quick, prepare the OT (Operation Theater) ready. I need all necessary equipments. This is code red!”

Stryler (my alter ego): “It would be extremely helpful if you have keep your table neat.. This mess..”

Me: “Shut the Fish up, where are my cables?”

Stryler: “All here, ready for operation. All Rescure Software are standing by.”

Me: “What is the reading?”

Stryler: “Drive Genius has detected the the HDD, but it failed to repair the volume!”

Me: “Darn, Babe (HDD)! Stay with me!

Stryler: “Both Data Rescue and Disk Utility could not detect the HDD.”

Me: : “How is this possible? I am performing Disk Warrior! Babe, look at me! You’re not going anywhere! Stay with me okay? Look at me in the eyes, say you are staying!”

Stryler: “We.. We’re losing her…”

Me: “…………………”

After a long pause of silence, I’d decided to use the ultimate program. Not too long ago, I managed to grab hold of this Expert Forensic Program (Used by FBI/CSI) that will retrieve any information that was intentionally destroyed by suspects. I was excited about this program, but I have not face a broken HDD which would require me to use this program.

“Open the Black Eyes File.” I said with a heavy heart. “May God help us.”

“Are you Positive?” Stryler was surprised by the decision. “We never done this before. Beside..”

“We have no other alternatives!” I cut him off.

So we proceed with the “operation”. When we diagnose the HDD with this Ultimate program, the unthinkable happened. It gave us the “No HDD Connected” caution sign.

“This could not be happening!” Stryler was pulling his hair.

“Face it! She’s dead!” I tried to console him, and myself.

“But William!” Stryler screamed, looking at me with his teary eyes.”You are the Expert for saving corrupted disk!”

Me: “Get this in your head, she is beyond hope! Data Rescue, Drive Genius, Disk Utility, Disk Warrior and even Forensic Program used by FBI could not help! I’d certified that she is dead!”

Stryler: “Without her, we are like Captain Jack Sparrow who’d lost his Black Pearl. She is our Rock, testimonial of our Piracy Career! ”

Me: “Shut the fish up! You just missed your South Park!”

Stryler: “Yes Loser, and you’re only mourning for your Software!”

Fish, I will burn my important files into CDs and DVDs as back-up. I’ll offer this advise to anyone who wanted to keep Optical Disc as a medium for backing up their files:

– keep burned disks in a cool dark place (light and heat degrade the dyes).
- use a slower write speed – there’s some (anecdotal) evidence that this increases lifespan.
- develop a relaxed attitude towards permanence and change.