April 16th 2008
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Life, News, Politics
Several blogs today report on a current trend with the popular instant messaging program MSN/Windows Live Messenger. 
Chinese internet users are adding a “love China” icon to their screen names in support of their country and in protest to perceived Western bullying seen in recent Olympic protests.
From SushiPanda, linked above:
Over half of my Chinese-Chinese friends on MSN have put the badge on their contact names, in defiance of all the anti-China bullying that they’re undoubtedly reading about in the Chinese newspapers, watching on the Chinese news, and scouring over on the hundreds of blogs and BBS’s peppering China’s cyberscape and devoted to propping up this country’s national pride.
I’ve no problem with patriotism, within limits of course, but we all know that information is manipulated in an unprecedented way in China and it’s a shame that the people - the good people of China - don’t realise why foreigners do protest. It’s nice to see that Chinese internet users can rally together like this, but just a shame they seem to have a misguided view.
February 27th 2008
Blogging, Life
Considering I usually write about things in a rather dull and boring manner, I’m quite astounded about how much my little tiny blog over here has grown. Spawned from a dark corner on Blogspot (remember that :)) in 2004, it moved to its current home in October 2005. Below is a graph of unique visitors, hits and pages served over this time. Some interesting trends.
Still going strong and I got a post coming up for you all tomorrow. Thanks to those that read it.
February 11th 2008
Life, Politics
When it was announced that China would be hosting the 2008 Olympic games, I was quite literally disgusted. Since then, China has built (and is still building in some cases) the facilities for the summer event. This has come at a cost to both the population and the government. Hundreds, if not thousands of people have been forced out of their homes. Dogs have been dragged off the streets. Murdered in front of their owners. Homeless people have been kicked out of Beijing. Builders are working under conditions Health and Safety here in the UK would have a field day with. All because the Chinese government want to present an image of Beijing that satisfies western ideals. Just so that we feel comfortable going there.
Today, the Daily Mail and several other papers report that British athletes are being forced to give up their right to freedom of speech in order to compete. It honestly makes me sick. I’ve always said we should boycott these Olympics. I still believe this. Why are we supporting China? They’re still a communist dictatorship.
What are your views?
October 1st 2007
Life, News, Technology
The computer literate will be thinking that the WTF in WTF Magazine stands for a less than polite interruption. Well, it stands for “What’s the Future Magazine”, to put your minds at rest. This new publication is the result of one company having too much money and too much time. For this, I’m actually quite greatful. The well known online electrical retailer eBuyer has created this bi-monthly publication to fill our brains with more news and reviews than you can shake a stick at. There are a few drawbacks which I will go into but so far, it seems a pretty decent and interesting magazine.
WTF is this?
WTF Magazine is a new publication brought to us by that well known UK online retailer eBuyer. It features reviews of hardware such as laptop comparisons, flash drives and what not. At the moment, it also offers a few competitions which some pretty nice prizes although I feel some of the things you have to do to enter have to relevance to technology whatsoever.
It’s a welcome sight to see a full colour technology magazine which is free to subscribe to. Obviously, with this positive comes a few negatives. Even my other favourite technology magazine, .net, is relatively padded with advertisements and this is no different. Also, it’s not as long as some other magazines and there’s no freebies or discounts with it as of yet. But that’s not all you get this stuff for is it?
A Worthwhile Read?
Sure, the magazine is a nice bit of reading but in all honesty, it’s just a catalogue for eBuyer with some articles slipped in on some pages. Granted there’s a bit more detail in the product descriptions than on the e-commerce site and it’s nice to see a catalogue for an online shop.
To sum up, it’s a free technology mag that is worth a read if not to learn a bit more about recent technology and products then to pass some time either on your commute or on the toilet. If that isn’t a enough a reason, then get it for the obligatory photos of the woman wearing a tight plastic jumpsuit.
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Chinese internet users are adding a “love China” icon to their screen names in support of their country and in protest to perceived Western bullying seen in recent Olympic protests.