May 2005 Archives

A real nerdy post... well, more than usual.

I finally decided to take advantage of our 3 laptop computing power flat and purchased a wireless router from the Hong Kong Plaza electronics market on Huaihai Road. Not that the initial installation was easy - mine decided to crap itself at every opportunity. I found a solution (reset the firmware!) care of the friendly mac user group here in Shanghai and since then its been working well with both my Powerbook and Lin's Dell PC. Now I just need to get my work laptop connected - might have to ask the power's that be to allow this to happen - its hard working with a half-crippled PC...

Wireless is noice. I'm now writing from the couch with ease, whilst enjoying a quiet morning's coffee and breakfast before I go and fight the dawdling masses on the train. Oh sh!t, look at the time...

Gotta go..

I came across this on the ABC News website this morning. Will I this website be affected?

China in drive to register websites. 29/05/2005. ABC News Online:
China in drive to register websites Chinese-run websites have until the end of May to register their sites or face being shut down as part of a new government campaign to police the Internet, a leading portal has announced. The registration drive is an effort by the Ministry of Information Industry to clamp down on fraud and other "unhealthy" activity on the Internet, the portal Sohu.com said. "If you have not registered by June, then your website could be ordered shut down," the portal quoted an official from the Beijing communications bureau as saying. The registration drive started in March and aims to issue registration numbers to all China-based websites, including commercial, government and personal sites, it said.

Now, I have my site hosted in Australia, but the worst thing that could happen is that access to this website gets 'denied' - meaning no more posts. I've learnt that the filtering that goes on here is sometimes revised - with me now being able to access certain inocuous websites (such as a greenroom Sargent Major A$$hole - you Noam Chomsky lovin' hippie). This one has been denied to me ever since I got here - and I get many a 'document contains no data' websignals from various connections.

Linda wrote about this situation in a previous post of hers. She's much more eloquent and righteous about this topic than what I am. Luckily my workplace has a very secure network & proxy connections that allow me to view outside of the sphere. Its only when I am at home that I realise how much has been denied to the average user here. Various anonymous proxy servers are around that would normally allow people to surf anonymously, but all of the ones I have found out about have the 'document contains no data' call back. There's many more ways to get around this, but I'm yet to discover them (and maybe its all just too hard - hence the idea of content filtering disuading further investigation).

I was contacted by an IT guy who runs a new expat-website that wants to initiate a blog ring about expats worldwide. Asking me to join up, I said that I would check it out. No luck. Writing to him, he complained that he has a lot of problems getting traffic to his site from the PRC networks. I wonder if this will close his desire to get PRC-based expat websites linked to his blog ring?

Currently listening to....
Out Of Habit from the album "Like I Said: Songs 1990-91" by Ani DiFranco
The Stars Of Track And Field from the album "If You're Feeling Sinister" by Belle & Sebastian

Here's a real boring post for you...

The aim of this blog wasn't about me writing about work. This would explain the lack of posts I have made recently - my workplace is very demanding. And, due to other things, like keeping propriety information in-house, I'm not really going to ever talk about that stuff here. Unless something really cool happens (like potential work-trips to Hong Kong or Malaysia!)... he he he...

But, here's the low down on a normal morning commute in my life, Monday to Friday...

When people think of Shanghai, often they think of the shopping. And in particular, shopping for "DVDs".

Here's an interesting story that will make you think twice about the nature of this market here in Shanghai.

Visiting the Pirate's Lair - Where to buy fake DVDs in Shanghai? Try a fake restaurant. By Henry Blodget:

If not, enjoy your RMB 7.00 movie!

Linda has by far been better at getting our latest news written and published. Me, I'm looking to get the images up and making my site nice and pretty. So, in keeping with this theme, I'll link over to Linda's website to introduce you to her outlook on our visit to the Propaganda Poster Centre.

By...Lin...Ed...: Labour Day Golden Week - The Shanghai Propaganda Poster Centre:

I had a good time. It was an interesting centre. As we made our way into this well-hidden museum located deep within the bowels of a non-descript building within a 'standard' apartment block, I mused that this was a charade for body-part snatchers. It certainly felt like it. After cranking up the lighting, we were faced with some amazing images and sculptures of Communist China from the 1940's through to the late 1970's. It was well-worth a visit, and very enjoyable way to spend a wet afternoon.

Now for a little bit of normality, besides my wondrous and exciting life here in Shanghai (lab set-ups are SO exciting!).

Linda and I are on a bit of a mind-body shake-up right now. I'm chock full of new research at work, and Linda's starting to plough through her language training and TEFL course. We're both going to check out a Chinese Mandarin language school tonight that is not too far from our place, which is amazing, as most seem to be on the other side of town and not accessible by our favoured mode of transportation - the Shanghai metro.

But that is just one half of the picture. I started exercising again. Knowing that my running shoes were in a safe cardboard box on another hemisphere, I finally sourced and purchased a new set of runners. Sunday, with Linda working full-time, and I having to make up hours from the prior Golden Week holiday, I spent the majority of the day out at Zhangjiang Hi-Tech park at work. Luckily, my workplace has a few distractions, namely a basketball court + an indoor gym. I went for the basketball option, and found I had no 'touch'. Very disappointing for me I'm afraid. A good part of my teenage life was spent running up and down courts back in Brisbane. I did find that it started to come back, so its not all that disheartening. However, due to a lack of exercise in past 4 months - even that gentle workout left me with a few uneasy moments the next day. So, to top that off, Linda & I joined Star Gym, not too far from our place. I'm feeling sore this morning. And I'm unfit. Ugh.

No, I haven't fallen under the wheels of the numerous red-light running electric mopeds on our street. We've just been enjoying a relatively quiet time over the past few days.

Unlike most of the western world, China really knows how to celebrate May Day. Long weekend? Phwah! Try a week long break. Hence the term 'Golden Week'.

Back in the late 1990's, the PRC government changed the way the average Chinese had their holidays. Not content with everyone doing their own thing (now that's not pulling your weight comrade), to this day each the average Chinese worker can claim 3 public holidays. If their employer is nice (and not all are), they give you another 2 extra days in lieu. This happens 3 times a year in China; once for the Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year), May 1st/Labour Day celebrations, and the National Day (October 1st).

The only problem with this idea is that everyone goes on holiday at the same time. Every 1.3 billion citizens of the PRC on holidays. You can imagine the congestion.

So, in the spirit of things, Linda and I decided to do our tourism bit and do a little exploring. Both of our employers saw fit to give us the whole week off, so with time in hand, and slept caught up upon, we spent the remainder of our holiday time exploring the nooks and crannies of Shanghai we hadn't had time to explore as of yet. We found quite a few more to explore as well. Towards the end of our holiday, we ventured off to Suzhou, about 100km away from Shanghai. It is a renowned tourist destination famed for its history as part of the Silk Road route, its exotic Chinese gardens, various artisans, craft work, silk productionh, and large holiday crowds. We were lucky, no crowds, great weather, and blue skies!

Of course we took a lot of photos, but hey, I haven't had all this time to upload and get them sorted. It will come in time, so keep an eye on my Gallery page. I've release some other photos that I've had stored and sorted for quite a while, so have a little dig around the Shanghai section.

Time to go, its late, and I'm b#ggered.

I've always had an association with Chinese food. As far back as I can remember. In many ways my familiarity with Chinese cuisine influenced my move to Shanghai. I didn't fear it. I do fear eating some things, I don't know if I can bring myself to eat frog, or sometimes what is translated in English versions of restaurant menus literally as 'other meat'.

My introduction to Chinese food started early in life. My Mum used to work for a local bowling club in their Chinese restaurant when I was quite young, I think I can remember back to the age of about 4 or so eating beef in black bean with Mum's special fried rice. Mind you, it did have the Aussie twist on it, whether my Mum made it for her appreciative hubby & offspring. So as far back as I can remember, we've always had Chinese for dinner, whether it was at home or on certain occasions, we made it out to the local Chinese restaurant.