Irrelevant David Feng Tech Banter: Of Twitter, Scoble and Subways

I’m probably more known for my Subway fetish than any real tech expertise, so I’ll probably blog about this in Subway mode. But this morning, a Best of FriendFeed post came across to my inbox — and it had Scoble wishing — less-than-well, shall we say, about Twitter.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up late at night. In Subway-ese, it’s like you just got off an old train and not only do you not thank it for taking you from A to B, but you kick the thing. It’s tragic behavior.

I’ve heard about Twitter way before FriendFeed or even Scoble (as in I heard about Twitter first before hearing of the Scobleizer). I don’t really have an idea what this enmity towards Twitter is all about. Sure, there are spammers, but just block ‘em en masse — no harm done.

Meanwhile, Scoble kicking the old Twitter train is something I’m not really up for. Sure, no service is perfect. But didn’t you like start off with Twitter or somesuch? Why kick an old train when it at least served you? It may have no aircon but at least it’s not totally useless or something…

The Tweet of the Day: 1984, Brave New World, and China

What do Huxley, Orwell and the Twitter user @baixiaoci have in common?

@baixiaoci started out with a tweet (in Chinese) at 22:00 last night (August 18, 2009), which read (translated):

There’s something unfortunate about the Chinese over the Americans: the predictions of both Orwell and Huxley have become reality in China Switch on television, and you get Brave New World. Surf the Web, and it’s 1984.

Your tech blogger retweeted this in the morning hours today (August 19, 2009). This tweet got retweeted upwards of 20 or even more than 20 times in a single day, probably setting a brand-new record…

@baixiaoci, by the way, is from Shenzhen, but is presently in Shanghai as his tweets have him. He’s a photographer and has a site — 50mm.cn as well as another one at baixiaoci.com.

See, we had to promote this guy. He’s now famous. With just one tweet.

The Internet As-Is in China: Still Partially Borked

Not enough encouraging news, I know… here’s another list update on the Chinese Internet situation as-is…

• It seems that mainly China Unicom’s affected. That’s China Netcom as it used to be — if we’ve got the stats right. China Telecom seems to be unaffected. Ditto with China Mobile.
• VPNs are also hit — some work, but others are dead, including HotspotShield if you haven’t installed it.
• We’re getting reports that about 66% of MSN accounts are coming back — it’ll hit 75% soon, but no word when we’ll get that figure back up to 100%.
• Also hit is Dropbox, as we may have reported, but MobileMe remains up.
• Chinese IM folks have had to switch to QQ — which is viewed less “pro” than MSN / Windows Live Messenger.

Your tech blogger is coming through using a reroute which works, and now has the whole Internet back — but he does pity those who have to stick with what they have. It’s tragic.

More on the Internet, post-2009 Taiwan Earthquake

In list form so that the details come out the quickest:

• Two quakes that hit earlier today (August 17) seem to have done damage — one off Japan, one off Taiwan.
• Websites hosted on DreamHost appear OK. Websites on Media Temple are not.
• This is not a Great Firewall issue; Hong Kong is equally affected.
• Access to Windows Live Messenger is impossible.
• iTweet.net loads slowly (this is relevant for those who tweet in China, as Twitter has been blocked for about a month now).
• VPN access often fails as well.
• Apple’s page at www.apple.com does not work; however, both me.com email, MobileMe iSync and apple.com.cn seem to work great.
• Most importantly: if you can stand slow connection speeds, try going through China Mobile’s GPRS services. (Your tech blogger has tested this; it works.) Add VPN, and you’ve also broken the Chinese Great Firewall.

Access to Sites Outside China (Mainland) Slow

Widespread reports are coming in about slow Internet access — especially when sites outside the Chinese Mainland are requested. This is also causing email, MSN Messenger and VPN several headaches.

Tweets are flowing in about this as well, with some comparing this issue to the undersea cable underneath the Pacific that borked in late 2006. We at techblog86, however, also do not exclude the possibility of heightened censorship efforts.

Onto stuff unrelated to the Internet, we even have reports that security at the Beijing Subway, of all things, have been stepped up. It’s China Big Sixty on October 1, 2009, but clearly, folks are only going to be in the mood to celebrate if the birthday party, which features a military parade, goes ahead without a hitch.

Green Dam: No Longer Required… For Most Of Us, Anyway

Remember Green Dam, that software that had the world grilling China for its stepped-up censorship efforts? Well, that thing isn’t dead yet — but it’s not coming back alive either. Green Dam was quickly shelved like a few hours before the July 1, 2009 deadline, and word has it that it’s coming back — but in a very “mum” way.

For one thing, it won’t be required on all computers — and we haven’t heard much about a Mac version. What’s most likely to happen is that it’ll be required in schools and Internet cafés — places that have never been (at least not recently) associated with libre speech, but for the masses who buy their PCs it won’t be required. Ministers have been quoted as saying that the software will not be made compulsory and be installed by force on every new computer (and at the same time, they’ve also criticized the critics for politicizing the whole issue).

Green Dam has made a lot of concessions (so to speak). First, it became required — then un-installable — then optional — then shelved — and now, again optional (this time, it’s likely to be “very” optional). It looks like the censors have to put up with the force that is the vox populi.

Twremarks: What Chinese Tweeps Are Talking About

Ever wonder why Fanfou was shut down? The site was full of political tweets flying to and fro. Never mind it had a Chinese ICP site — it was nixed, no questions asked. With the PRC’s Big Sixty coming in this close, those at the top are hoping that there’ll be “nothing big” that could get out of control — not even with 300 million virtual beings.

Today was just another day in the Chinese Twittersphere — except for one thing: the Tan Zuoren case started and, as usual, some of the Chinese tweeps started tweeting about the case. We had reports of hushed courts, police brutality and other disturbing tweets coming in this side of the Pacific, whereas the tweets coming in from the US were much closer to home — and were less political.

I tweeted about this some time back. The Chinese Twittersphere seems to have a particular political interest vested amongst the community. Yet in the US, Twitter’s used to describe things that may not be all that political. It’s not that the US and politics don’t mix on Twitter — that’s what put @BarackObama on the map. Yet, the intensity of politics is lesser felt outside the PRC — especially in the USA.

Chinese Netspeak as a Second Language: NC

Ever seen NC on its own on a Chinese post? That’s short for naocan (脑残), or braindead.

You get to hear this the most often when it comes to discussing interchange stations that require a Long March to change from one line to the other (sorry): We have some seriously NC designers… (设计通道的那帮人 NC 了吧!)

It may not, by the way, stand for niucha (牛叉), which is short-ese for niubi (牛逼), as in really, really cool.

Remember the #080808 Hashtag?

Just a year ago this day, the Beijing Olympics got off to a start. Whether it was a bang or a whimper (as in the massively stepped security procedures and almost-impossible-to-get PRC visas) — that we’ll let you decide. But there’s a hashtag that was part of the day: #080808.

Not just that. Everyone China or even remotely Chinese-related had #080808 on their avatars. @thecarol from Taiwan did that. @isaac did it. Everyone in the region went #080808, thanks to @flypig’s idea.

The irony of this is that, in the name of the Big Sixty coming later this year, the #080808 hashtag — along with everything else Twitter-related — appears to have been harmonized. Oh yeah — and also the Internet censorship. You could access sites you couldn’t access otherwise in China a year ago. YouTube or even BBC Chinese? Yours last year.

#Harminator’s this year.

The skies outside today in Beijing appear just as gloomy as it was a year ago. (Obviously, and we’re going off at a slant here — for the best blue skies, come in winter around January or February. Satisfaction guaranteed.)

Twitter In A Double Whammy in China

Talk about Twitter in China these days! First it went down in early June (password here had something to do with Tian’anmen), then it went down right after Urumqi shook with riots. Now Twitter itself has been compromised with denial-of-service attacks, and just lately all passwords have been reset.

Here’s how sorry the situation has gotten as of late:

• In all of this: Twitter (as in the twitter.com site) has been blocked in China.
• Late Thursday: Access to iTweet, Hahlo and some other third-party Twitter sites became cumbersome.
• Early Friday: iTweet, Hahlo pretty much dead by mid-morning.
• Late Friday: PeopleBrowsr looking OK, but still very iffy. Ping.fm does not post all tweets going through.
• Very late Friday: Twitter working again via iTweet and Hahlo.
• Early Saturday: iTweet, Hahlo working again.
• 09:49 Saturday morning: Twitter sends password resets, access to iTweet and Hahlo die again.

We’re pointing a finger at Twitter directly. Politically speaking, if you could save Iran, why not save China?

Thanks to @POPOEVER, @daygan and others for helping your tweeter out through all this.