Despite all the talk, all the late night sweats in Beijing, and all the curses from VPN-lagging China-based twitterers; it turns out Twitter and the PRC see more eye-to-eye than either side would have you believe.
The following is a screen capture by Nick (@riceagain), a Kiwi splitting his time between Taiwan and the Mainland, who noticed a peculiar phrasing when attempting to set the Twitter tweet location to “Taiwan”:
As I write this, I am listening to Radio Free Asia, a podcast which I subscribed to on iTunes with no hassle. After I finish writing this, I plan, just for shits and grins, to run a Google search on Liu Xiaobo and proclaim my love for a free Tibet on Twitter. When I first [...]
In my previous two posts I outlined how to get your computer connected to your TV and where to get some good media centre software, as well as the setup I’m using. I continue in this part with where to find things to watch on your newly setup HTPC (or how to justify the purchase of a new 2TB hard drive).
All of this setup was for naught if you don’t have decent stuff on your computer to watch. Here are a few sources to get you started in the wonderful world of digital media.
In my last post I explained how to get your computer connected to your TV and where to get some good media centre software. Before I share a few resources for getting content for your newly configured media centre, I thought I would talk a bit about my home setup and some of the more “advanced” tweaks you can make to get even more functionality and convenience from your HTPC (or HTMB, if you will).
First though, I’ll explain what I had been using until recently for a matter of comparison and diversity; as I’m sure many are stuck in apartments, like I was, without a decent TV.
If you’re like me you probably long-ago did away with the bland programming of CCTV9, the endless carousel of period dramas, and ever-more-annoying variety shows that China’s cable providers offer up. For some that means getting outside and getting a life. For people like me, that means finding better ways to get the entertainment I want when I want it.
This is part one of a three-part series I’ve wanted to put together for a while now outlining how to get better sources of entertainment while living in China. It intends to walk you through hooking up your computer to your TV, installing some media centre (HTPC) software, dishing out what my current HTPC setup is (so you may want to wait and read that before you rush out and buy any of the gear mentioned below), and finding some good sources of media.
A little down recently about my regular VPN’s lackluster speed, I started testing out a new service called ibVPN (Invisible Browsing VPN) and am decently happy with the results/ease of use.
The service is strictly PPTP and not SSL, which I suppose is both a pro and a con. From my experience PPTP is faster and easier to setup as services go, but is easier to get blocked.
And blocked I think is exactly what happened with the initial setup I was using with the service. ibVPN allows you to use various different gateways (3 US, 2 UK, 1 DE and 1 NL). I slapped the first US gateway into my settings and tried to connect — no go. Not a great start for my review. Not easily dissuaded, especially when the reward is funny cat videos, I gave the second US gateway a try — worked great.
Our friends over at Shanghai Expat asked for our help getting the news out about some access problems their visitors might be experiencing. Always happy to help out our friends in the ‘sphere, here’s more information from them:
This is a bit sinister: the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has been dropping digital certificates into the computers of everyone in China, which could potentially allow them to snoop on your normally secure ‘https’ web-surfing, such as your online banking and email. CNNIC’s digital certificate, which is probably in your computer right now, [...]
Welcome back to Fact or Fiction. In case you missed it last time, it is an (ir)regular feature here on Lost Laowai. Every edition I will have a guest and we will discuss a few of the big issues in China of the day. Every answer will have a “Fact” or a “Fiction” and some justification to go along with it.
Today, like much of the blogosphere we will be talking about the Google vs. GFW debate. Which makes my guest, Steven, the perfect counterpart. The current resident of Suzhou, writes here at Lost Laowai and most of his posts have a technological theme. He is also the sole China blogger for CNET Asia with his blog Sinobytes.
So without further ado, let’s get down to Fact or Fiction 2: Electric Googaloo!!!
Well-wishers leave flowers at Google China HQ earlier today
Google has announced that it might soon pull the plug on its operations in China, citing grave concerns over some recent, bizarre hack attacks, and lack of freedom of speech.
The official notice on the main Google blog reveals that a concerted hacking attack, which originated in China, has been using phishing and malware to access the accounts of human rights activists.
In the statement, the Chief Legal Officer of Google, David Drummond, detailed the attacks in full. It was not stated explicitly, but I read in the implication that these concerted attempts to get into the Gmail inboxes and Google accounts of these human rights activists was actually government sponsored.
In addition, Mr. Drummond called-out “the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web” in China, but did not name any sites in particular, not even mentioning its own sites which are blocked
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