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”:

What can one really say about that but, wow. Twitter, you may have just hurt the feelings of 23 million people, but endeared yourself to 1.3 billion … who can’t use your service.

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.

Youtube videos were loading decently fast, and I could login to Facebook and Twitter no problem and with no noticeable VPN lag. After a few days though, I suddenly started getting this error on Facebook. So, with one gateway completely inaccessible, and the other gateway’s IP being blocked by Facebook, I loaded up the third and final US gateway. Fortunately it’s been working a treat for the last few days, with no problems at all.

Here is some speed data done by pinging the referenced sites with the VPN on and off:

So, as you can see, decently fast (I generally consider anything that pings between 200-300 “fast enough” when dealing with sites hosted, literally, overseas). My final tests were the ones that are most important to me when it comes to make or break for a VPN — how fast does Youtube stream?

I tested three Youtube videos of varying lengths to get a sense of the streaming speed, and tested them at 11am (+8 GMT) and again at 10pm (+8 GMT). Here are the results:

@ 11am:
This 48sec video, this 1:21 sec video, and this 22 min all streamed fine with no need to perform the “pause-wait shuffle”.

@ 10pm:
All three videos loaded at about the same rate, but were noticeably slower than when accessed in the morning. They could not be streamed, and had to be paused to allow a bit of time for them to load. Not a lot of time mind you, but still, not the fluid streaming I had seen earlier in the day.

Pricing

ibVPN’s pricing is about on par with the industry, and if anything a bit cheaper than some of the other VPNs I’ve looked at — likely due to the fact that they only offer PPTP. For access to either the US- or UK-based gateways, it will set you back about $20 USD for half a year, and they throw in the Netherlands gateway for free. For an additional $17 you can have access to all the gateways (US, UK, DE and NL).

Overall

Generally a decent service at a decent price. I’m a little nervous about the inaccessibility of the first US gateway, and Facebook’s blocking of the second’s IP, but results are results and as it stands at the time of this review, I am able to quickly and easily get on all the sites and have them operate with satisfactory, or better than satisfactory results.

Another bonus is that they offer monthly, quarterly and semi-annually payment options — which makes it the perfect service for anyone visiting China in the short-term for travel, teaching ESL or a business trip.

NOTE: The links in the review are all clean, non-affiliate links. However, if you decide to sign up and give ibVPN a try yourself, we’d love for you to show your support of Lost Laowai and use our affiliate link. It costs you nothing, and helps us keep the lights on.

Anyway, enough explanation let’s get down to business….

My first guest is someone that you all know very well.  He is the creator of this very site which you are all visiting, as well as The Hao Hao Report, and his very popular blog The Humanaught — he is of course Mr. Ryan McLaughlin.  Today he and I will be talking about the Great Firewall, Obama, alcohol and parades.

1. You will be able to access Twitter without a VPN sometime in 2010.

Glen: FICTION

I think that the Great Firewall is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I was hopeful when it was loosened a bit right after the June Anniversary, but they clamped down again right after the July riots. I was expecting it to loosen again after the October Anniversary but that should have probably happened by now. I think if anything we are more likely to see some new Web 2.0 thing to play before the PRC notices.

Ryan: FACT

Like that little bit of food that gets stuck in the back of your mouth, it feels like it’s never going to come free until it does. Elation follows. I never thought Wikipedia was going to get unblocked, and then it was. Same with BBC’s news site. YouTube was, and then wasn’t. Blogger and WordPress.com were and then weren’t. Flickr had its switch thrown a couple times, and is now accessible. I think the reason Twitter’s not unblocked already is simply because, unlike us Tweeks, the brass in Zhongnanhai don’t give a fuck about whether it’s unblocked. They’ll give it back when they feel like it, or remember to, and if anyone complains, that’s another 6 months without it (and hell, Wikipedia too).

It looks like we are off to a disagreeable start.  We are 0 for 1.

He thinks it will be a success, do you? by Gary Soup

2. The Shanghai Expo will be considered a success.

Glen: FACT

The Beijing Olympics were considered a rousing success so there is no reason to think that the Chinese can’t deliver big time on the world stage. I think the event will generate a lot of money for the city. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the more people that come to China the more people’s perception of this country will change. This I think is what the Chinese are really after. They want to show the world how much they have changed and that they belong as a major player on the world stage.

Ryan: FICTION

Can anyone name an expo that was a success? Hell, can anyone even name an expo? The only reason the event even registers in my weathered and worn brain is that my youth was spent rooting against Canada’s only other MLB team, which had the misfortune of having a team name not even a manager could love. I think, like any average Montreal Expos game, the Shanghai Expo will go on too long, be mostly empty, and be forgotten even before it’s over, possibly even before it begins. That is, by everyone but the poor Shanghairen relocated to make way for it.

Sure we disagree, but how can anyone get mad at a Montreal Expos reference?  We are 0 for 2.

3. Obama’s recent visit to China was overrated.

Glen: FICTION

While this is not in the Nixon in ’72 level of importance, it is still a big deal. Anytime the US President comes to the PRC it is still a very big deal. Lest we forget that it wasn’t that long ago that the Chinese were considered Godless Commies in the US. For better or worse Obama needs China far more than China needs Obama. He has done a lot of talk about establishing international consensus on issues like the economy, global security and climate change. If he is going to absolutely need China’s help on all of those things as the G2 gets more and more official.

Ryan: FICTION

That Obama made it through his China visit without awkwardly walking into a massively ornate locked door is a minor miracle. Granted, I think whatever Barry-Oh does is a bit overrated, but I feel Obama’s trip to China was important and significant. More than anything, Obama’s presidency is going to work to re-legitimize America to the rest of the world as the Super-Duper Power it is, and coming to China and flashing his humbleness to the world’s largest and most sensitive nation is a smart move all around. Now, if he can make it through the rest of his term without accidentally bombing a Chinese embassy, he’ll undoubtedly be remembered as a Friend of China™ for 10,000 years.

And here we have our first time agreement.  We are 1 for 3.  Now it’s time to switch the order just to spice things up.

Another casualty by taylorandayumi

4. Matt’s recent post was right: Foreigners drink too much in China

Ryan: FACT

Matt nailed it. But to be fair, the Chinese aren’t sitting idly by watching the laowai take the Alkie Cup without a fight. I think there’s just something about this country that makes it all a bit easier to handle with your buzz on. China, in so many ways, reminds me of what I imagine the Wild West was like — general lawlessness, an over-emphasis and reliance on blood ties, danger around every corner, beasts of burden marching down the street, dirt, and a helluva lot of booze.

Glen: FACT

And I’d like to add:  Fact, Fact, FACT!!!!  As I said in the comment section in Matt’s post that there aren’t too many things like to casually fill your leisure time like movie theatres or sporting events, so boredom tends to set in.  Boredom can be a terrible thing to fight and alcohol can give some temporary rest to that one.

And we have another agreement.  Not a shock for two guys who have raised many a glass together.  2 for 4.

5. China will make significant concessions at the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference.

Ryan: FACT

I admit, this is more wishful than anything. I’ve been saying for years (almost exactly four of them in fact) that China is in a fantastic spot to lead the charge on the climate change issue. The problem (until now I hope) has been that the politics of it all has had China crying “poor me” so hard that it wasn’t able to stop and realize the more powerful nation needs to stand up and make a commitment. China’s neck and neck with the US for popular kid on the playground, and could score huge points globally if they lay down some serious commitments in Copenhagen. Will it happen, we’ll find out soon enough. I’m hopeful, but not naive. She’s still a massive machine that experience has shown tends to favour her endless LED-tricked out roadways over the plight of polar bears and coal miners.

Glen: FICTION

As much as I would love to say Fact to this, I just don’t see it really happening.  As much as China wants to gain some political clout, they will get a hell of a lot more down the line if they have more resources to share.  I think that if one thing China will make some serious gains from the conference, probably in the form of Green Technology from the US and EU.  Make no mistake about it, China still has a long way to go to catch up to the US economically and they won’t do anything that will slow their ascent without a fight.

The streak is over and we are back to disagreeing.  2 for 5.

Tanks in Beijing by gadgetdan

6. The 60th Anniversary Parade was awesome.

Ryan: FICTION

Oh, it was awe and then some, it was just complete fiction. It had more military porn than your average Chinese children’s book. With the history and cultural identity that exists in this country, there’s sure to be much more dick wagging down the road. But I return to my last answer — and my hope that China will realize she’s large ‘n’ in change, and doesn’t need to play silly schoolyard games to show her might. The most revered Chinese throughout history have tended to be silent, wise and understated; I hope that I live long enough to see the day when the country, and not just the best of her people, develops these same characteristics.

Glen: FACT

Oh come on buddy, how was it not awesome?  I never had the privilege of watching a Soviet Era military parade so it was great to experience the closest thing that we could get to in this day and age.  As much as it seemed like military propaganda, the day was still a cause for celebration for a lot of people.

And so concludes our first edition.  2 for 6.
Agree with Glen, Ryan? A bit of both?  Let us know about it!  Also, if you have any ideas for new topics or guests, let us know!

Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and more: all blocked in China

Just a few months ago I posted here on Lost Laowai about China’s massive web-filtering system, and how it was becoming distinctly anti-social in that it was targeting social-networking and web 2.0 sites, such as Facebook and YouTube, which are characterised by allowing a fast flow of information and ideas.

Bad news: that’s getting worse, and this time there’s no identifiable reason. Usually, a wave of tightening-up on the internet by the Chinese government comes immediately after some particular incident; we saw it right after the troubles in Tibet, then again in Xinjiang, and recurring at sensitive anniversaries. But, this summer, no clear justification for new blockages – it just seems to be malicious, and that makes it more sinister.

So, to add to lengthy list of blocked websites from earlier this summer (see the footnote, at the end of this post) we must now add a few more:

Vimeo
Friendfeed
Bit.ly (URL shortening service)
Post.ly (URL shortening service)
Blip.tv
Yahoo Meme
Google Documents (accessible again)
Fileden.com
iTweet.net (a twitter web app)
Twitzap (a twitter web app)
Dabr.co.uk (a twitter web app)
TwitterGadget (a tiny twitter app on iGoogle)

The situation really is getting ridiculous. A few other ways to access twitter still exist, thankfully. Just this afternoon one China-based expat on twitter commented that “China no longer has internet. It has LAN” (h/t @illuminantceo), which is an apt description of how insular and freaky it’s getting.

It’s not just an inconvenience to laowais, remember. Such a crackdown has economic repercussions for everyone in the country, as well as drastically stifling creativity and the sharing of ideas (those last two, obviously, are actual aims of the Chinese government who implement the Great Firewall). It’s impossible to quantify the economic damage done by this web-filtering, and it might even amount to quite little, but undeniably it costs a lot of companies extra time and frustration, and limits some companies in dealing with foreign clients and partners.

So, this second major wave of censorship is clearly aimed at slowing or stopping the flow of information and ideas. It’s visible, too, in the Chinese webosphere, where severe Terms of Service on websites or constant filtering of content means that ‘sensitive’ material is spotted and deleted (and the account removed) possibly within an hour of offending content being posted. Try putting up a sensitive video on Tudou or Youku, and see how long it lasts. Thus, Chinese websites don’t get blocked, as such, as there’s already that two-pronged devils fork of enforced compliance.

Foreign-based websites cannot be similarly coerced, so they just get blocked.

Even Virtual Private Networks are under stronger attack, as detailed quite recently by Rebecca Mackinnon (requires a proxy or VPN to access inside China).

Anger is clearly mounting over this. Right now, on twitter – despite there being fewer ways to access it – I can clearly see hundreds of tweets regarding the Great Firewall – labelled as #gfw and #fuckgfw – by younger tech-savvy Chinese people detailing sites that have been newly whisked away into purgatory, and also expressing a hell of a lot of anger aimed at the web-filtering system and the government in Beijing as well.

Just a few days ago, at the World Media Summit which was this year hosted in Beijing, China’s President Hu Jintao suggested “cooperation, action, win-win, and development,” in the realms of all world media, and called for “monitoring by the public and the safeguarding of the rights to be informed, to participation, to expression…..and their important functions put into play,” to an audience that included News Corporation CEO, Rupert Murdoch. If you’ve managed to avoid vomiting after such a display of hypocrisy, then you have a stronger stomach than I.

From where I’m standing, the Chinese government is failing its people with such extensive censorship; there’s a massive disparity between the kindness, good-natured openness and eagerness to learn of the Chinese people, and the paranoid, low-down, two-faced, narrow-minded bigotry of the Chinese government.

I’m ordinarily against intervention by foreign governments, but right now I’d love to see President Obama and some European leaders stand up – in the manner of John F. Kennedy Ronald Reagan on the Berlin Wall – and say “Tear down this Firewall.”

===

Footnote:

Here’s my previous block-list, from July 31st this year. All sites mentioned below except ‘blog.com’ seem to still be blocked.

Facebook
twitter
YouTube
Blogger blogs
Wordpress free blogs
Typepad blogs
Blog.com blogs
Opera blogs
Tumblr
LiveLeak
Google’s Picasa Web Albums (log-in accessible, but borked thereafter)
Google Image search results (very frequent re-set connections)
Orkut
Bebo

by thehumanaught

I went to the supermarket today, but was blocked at the entrance by some dude checking his receipt and yelling at someone on his phone. Shrugged it off. Grabbed my gear and headed for the bus stop, but was blocked by some old lady super excited to bear witness to China’s mass-transit system in motion. Shrugged it off.

On the bus, we headed away from the bus stop but were blocked by a black sedan idling the world’s resources away in air conditioned arrogance. I shrugged it off. Arrived at my stop and pushed to the back of the bus to get off – blocked, blocked, blocked. Fell out the back door into an e-bike blocking the exit. Finally got home, hit the washroom to blow the China blocking my nose. Threw the tissue in the toilet, blocked.

Sat down at my computer to relax and catch up on what’s happening online: Twitter.com (blocked), WordPress.com (blocked), Blogspot.com (blocked), Youtube.com (blocked), HuffingtonPost.com (blocked), Danwei.org (blocked), PekingDuck.org (blocked), Technorati.com (blocked), Gutenberg.org (blocked), Flickr (partially-blocked), Wikipedia.org (partially-blocked).

Exchange of ideas (blocked), impartial and freely critical media (blocked), creative development (blocked), self-empowerment (blocked), humanitarianism (partially-blocked), acceptance of China as a forward-looking developed nation on the global stage (blocked), national Chinese pride and self-respect (blocked).

What am I missing?

This was just before the Dawn of Blogs and the coining of the term “traditional” or “old” media. We still idolized journalists, figuring in our slightly hung-over starry-eyed student view that anyone who worked for a newspaper or major news network must be a Woodward or Bernstein.

We sat through class upon class about journalistic ethics, proper sourcing, how to get and cite quotes. And this wasn’t so long ago. In fact, I’m sure all major journalism schools still slip this into the curriculum somewhere … right?

But then why have I, who was once so convinced of the infallibility of the ‘Journalist’, begun to forsake the old news institutions?

Because of shit like this:

Marc van der Chijs

Yesterday Marc van der Chrijs (Tudou, Spil Games Asia, Marc.cn) tweeted a message on Twitter that he had been misquoted in an AFP article.

In and of itself, no big deal. I’ve been interviewed a good number of times, and rarely has the quote appeared verbatim. But following up on his blog I learned that this wasn’t just a rewording, or slight twisting of what he said. The AFP journalist Glenn Chapman, in writing an article about YouTube currently being blocked in China, lifted a long and in-depth quote directly from Marc’s blog, as shown below:

Marc van der Chijs, a Dutch Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Shanghai-based video-sharing website Tudou.com, offered another theory for the YouTube blockage in a Tuesday message on his website.

“I suspect the real reason might be that YouTube just launched a Chinese version, which would make the site much more accessible for Chinese users,” van der Chijs wrote.

“Not a very smart idea to do that in the middle of the National Congress, and I am surprised nobody at mother company Google’s China offices rang an alarm bell about this before launch.”

California-based Google bought YouTube in 2006 in a 1.65-billion-dollar stock deal.

“I don’t like sites to be blocked; even not those of our competitors,” van der Chijs wrote. “But, it will be an interesting discussion point for our Tudou board meeting tomorrow.”

Only problem is, that “Tuesday message on his website” was actually from a Thursday, not a Tuesday – oh, and October 2007, not March 2009.

From there it’s turned into some 21st Century journalistic version of Chinese Whispers, with Jane Macartney of The Times scooping the exact same quote off the exact same 2007 post. And while the AFP, having seen Marc’s post about their mistake, has re-issued the article with a correction announcement, several other media outlets are still running the story as-was.

Granted, word of YouTube being blocked, yet again, isn’t exactly hard news and probably doesn’t warrant the amount of footwork that an exposé on the corruption of government does. But blindingly painful gaffes like this do illustrate the cracks in the foundation of old media.

Journalists have long argued that “their” media is “real” media, and blogging and bloggers are just a collection of non-creditable amateurs writing about what they ate for dinner today. Well, I’m calling up the journalism program admin at my Alma Mater and suggesting they add “blog post date checking” to the course schedule. I imagine that Glenn Chapman and Jane Macartney will both be blogging about how they ate a rather humble tasting pie today.

More here at Shanghaiist: AFP pulls quote about Youtube block from two-year-old blog post

Fortunately there are events like the one this Saturday (February 28) at M1NT in Shanghai where all us digital laowai can congregate and inebriate together – IRL. SXSW @ M1NT is “an official pre-SXSW cocktail…to highlight China’s tech sector presence at SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, TX in March.”

Put on by The China Business Network and The Symbio Group, the event will feature the following:

• A great RSVP list is forming with confirmed guests from Microsoft, Ogilvy, CIC, Softbank, Spil Games Asia, IBM, China Economic Review, CNET Asia [that's me!], Asian Venture Capital Journal, Qifang.cn and The China Business Network to name a few. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for latest update on attendees: http://www.eventbrite.com/rss/event_list_attendees/284254212
• Jacob Hsu, CEO of The Symbio Group is an influential international speaker in the areas of China market entry strategy and outsourcing and will be in attendance at this cocktail.
• SXSW will be giving away two Gold Badges so make sure to bring an extra business card for the giveaway.
• Boingo will be giving complimentary 2 month laptop and mobile Wi-Fi accounts to all attendees of this event. Valued at $133 USD. Boingo recently announced over 1,000+ Wi-Fi hotspots in China.
• There will be free flow Moet & Chandon champagne from 9pm – 10pm. Please ensure you arrive early!
• House Films production company will have a film crew on site conducting interviews which will be shown by Christine Lu during the China panel at SXSW in March. Interviews will also be syndicated on The China Business Network’s soon to be launched Tech channel as well as The China Business Show.
• M1NT will provide open Wi-Fi at the event for live tweeting, blogging & streaming. The Twitter hashtag for the event is #sxswshanghai
• Andrew Lih, author of the upcoming book Wikipedia Revolution will be in attendance from Beijing. Andrew is also a featured speaker on the China panel at SXSW in March.
• Kaiser Kuo, China tech influencer and lead guitarist for Chinese heavy metal band Chunqiu. Kaiser is also the founding member of China’s first heavy metal band in the 80s called Tang Dynasty and will be flying down from Beijing to join us.

Now, it doesn’t take the super astute to see that this has shake-smile-sip-card-moveon written on it, a chain of activities that I long ago swore off. However, having attended two similar events in Shanghai over the course of the last year, also organized by The China Business Network/Christine Lu, I feel confident in saying it’s going to rock.

For me, more than anything else, it offers a chance to catch up with many people I consider friends, whether I see them more than a couple times a year or not. People, who through their blogs, e-mails or Twitter accounts have entered my sphere and made my day just that much more enjoyable, informed or entertaining.

So, if you’ve got a couple hundred kuai kickin’ around, check out the sign-up page and be sure to RSVP as soon as possible. Attendance is limited to 150, presumably not including the sharks M1NT’s entrance features.

I may be live tweeting from the event (it’s rare that I go to the bar and have it socially acceptable to bring along my laptop), so if you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow me (good time to start following @lostlaowai as well). And if you can make it out, I look forward to seeing you there.

As, by now, everyone’s likely aware – “eight” is an auspicious number in Chinese culture and it’s no coincidence that The Games are starting at 8:08:08 pm on 08/08/2008. The reason for this is that 8, 八 in Chinese, is pronounced bā – which is somewhat similar to the pronunciation of 发/fā, meaning “prosper” or “wealth”.

Drivers pay for license plates with 8s in them, businesses scramble to get lots of 8s in their phone numbers, couples wait to marry on days and times with 8s in them… it’s little surprise that the biggest Chinese event of the century would be designed to centre around the number.

In line with that, three Chinese bloggers (Flypig,
Webleon and Babechloe) have started an Olympic meme on Twitter called the #080808 tag campaign and it is spreading faster than doping rumours in the Olympic village.

The concept is simple – to show your support for the Games, just create yourself a little #080808 icon and tag your Twits with “#080808″. There’s even a graphic template you can use to create your #080808-ified avatar.

Here are some examples, as collected by YUKI.N: