Even the Beijing Subway Doesn’t Like the Great Firewall

Beijing’s Subway has recently been hit by at least one count of — anti-censorship stickers. It looks like one of those passengers had so much against the net blocks in force that he — resorted to George Carlin language, sticking a sticker (pardon the pun) that read: https://f***.gfw”.

The hashtag #f***GFW is often used in protest of the net censorship measures, which have removed direct access to Twitter, YouTube and a number of other social networking and Web 2.0 sites in China. And while the seemingly innocent Beijing Subway is just being hit by this, it just goes out to say how much an inconvenience the blocks are.

The sticker was found on a ticket fare gate on Line 13 — and may have been removed — but it lives on here in this picture (warning: strong language). It may have been removed as a result — after all, isn’t this micro-vandalism?

This article is cross-posted on the following textweit Content Sites: Beijing A to B (English only), techblog86

Is Xiaonei Going To Get Harmonized?

We have a scary tweet coming in from @xinhaiguang on Twitter, who may have it that — Xiaonei might get harmonized. What’s known for sure is that big university-centered SNS networks won’t see major developments, as development in this direction has been frozen.

Apparently, hard hit will be both Baidu’s University Bar as well as Xiaonei itself. Oak Pacific Interactive, who’s the company which made Xiaonei possible, might even be on the verge of announcing a major shift in directions.

Not sure is just how much this will go — will we see the annihilation of the SNS in China? Xiaonei has come under fire previously as a Shanzhai Facebook. But to shut the SNS down and to nix millions of innocent accounts would be taking the whole thing too far.

iPhone + China: No Wifi, China Unicom

If you thought that China was without an iPhone, you’re wrong. Many folks have their iPhones in China over from Hong Kong or overseas, and your fellow blogger himself is an iPhone user and a dedicated tweeter on one of these things.

News coming in from German Mac site Mac Life reports a local, official version of the iPhone OKed — but without the crucial wifi option. PRC telco laws prohibit devices sold locally from doing both voice communications and wifi — apparently to get people pay extra for using long-distance services from local telcos.

This very iPhone, then, has been ridiculed amongst the Chinese Twittersphere as the “eunuch iPhone” (太监 iPhone). The phone is slated to be bundled with China Unicom, which uses the WCDMA protocol (as opposed to heavyweight China Mobile sticking by Chinese-made TD-SCDMA protocols).

This article is cross-posted on the following textweit Content Sites: Global Mac News, techblog86

Kunming Web Cafe Installs Censorship Software…

…and yes, there’s more to it: censorship authorities in Kunming have dictated the installation of “Small Guard” censorship software, which not only harmonizes controversial content, but also has a commercial factor behind this. In yet another case of capitalism and communism coming head-on (after the fiasco created by Green Dam), the new censorship software also throws in your face — ads — and there could be a bit of profit sharing regarding those ads.

It’s at this point where all this censorship can be grilled with maximum fire. Here we have:

• software designed to censor content
• software installed on computers as required (there could be a monopoly factor in this)
• software that censors and throws ads at you
• and a fair bit of behind-the-back money sharing…

The authorities are tight-lipped: they are mentioning only the fact that the new software is required. They’re not going an inch at describing just how the money will be shared.

Very creepy. (Source: Sohu IT)

MSN Turns 10; China’s Coolest MSN Signatures

We call ‘em “signatures” here in China — status bar messages as is known elsewhere around Planet Terra. We’re pulling out the very best of the “signatures” from the Beijing Evening News and are providing a quick translation attempt. Enjoy!

• There is no distance further on the planet than the fact that I’m online — and you’re offline. It’s further than the distance between life and death. (世上最遥远的距离，不是生与死的距离，而是我联机，你却是脱机)

• Mom asks: You smoke? No. You drink? No. Got a lover? No. Mom goes: You can have one of those. And I go: I swear, I don’t have one! (妈问抽烟没？没有。喝酒没？没有。妈问有对象没？没有。妈说，这个可以有，我说，这个真没有)

• The Moon goes on a date with the Sun. Progress! They’ve turned off the lights! (月亮和太阳约会，这次有进步，灯都关了)

• Our prices are closer to Europe; our house rates are closer to astronomical figures; our salaries look African! (物价与欧洲接轨，房价与月球接轨，工资与非洲接轨)

• Mirrors will always reflect… and money will always be spent. (This is a play on Chinese characters — which is why it appears so “bland” in English.) (是镜子，总会反光的……是金子，总会花光的)

• I want a boyfriend that’s like Excel: hide at will, choose at will, delete at will… and if I don’t like him, I won’t save him! (找个像 Excel 的男友——想隐藏就隐藏，想筛选就筛选，想删除就删除，一个不高兴，我还不保存!)

• I nearly got squashed into a photo in the Subway this morning. That doesn’t sound that bad! Even worse: having my photo taking with an ugly man… (今天早上地铁里，我差点被挤成照片，其实照片还不是最可怕的，最可怕的是和恶心的男人拍合影)

If you’re really into Chinese — have a go!

MSN Turns 10; Beijing Evening Paper Creates “MSN Republic”

In a year where China’s getting increasingly on edge about anything that might create a political or social stability manhole just before the Big Sixty, when the PRC turns 60 on October 1, 2009, the Beijing Evening News has done a multi-page special in its Saturday LOHAS edition about — MSN, or now known more “accurately” as Windows Live Messenger.

During the past ten years, a fair number — pardon the pun — of MSN numbers have stacked up. Here’s how MSN has impacted us:

• The average age worldwide for MSN users is 26.5 years.

• An average MSN chat takes 5 minutes; in China, which is somewhat a chattier nation, chats go up to 8 minutes on average.

• On average, people go on MSN as often as they eat — that’s three times a day.

• 28 million trees are saved through MSN chats — if they were printed out, the planet would be a hotter place.

• 30.5 million users are on MSN — and that’s in Brazil alone. That’s 82.4% of the netizenry there — and 11.4% of the whole Internet population. (Figures given in the paper are good through July 2007 — we realize that this thing’s a little “tardy”…)