Oink Oink

Swine Flu O No!

This current even seems to be shaking everything up and I've had some trouble finding out some basic information about the disease so I did a little googling I thought I'd share with everyone. Here is an informative document about some specifics of the disease. It eased some of my concerns and gave me some much needed clarity on the issue. Don't worry it's not the plague its merely a new strain of flu virus which can be combated with traditional flu prevention methods.

As outlined in the article you can take the following steps to safeguard yourself (sorry germaphobes I will not go into exaggerated detail)

1. Keep your hands washed and sanitized


2. Avoid being near others who might be sick to avoid breathing droplets they have sneezed or coughed, or touching something they have touched


3. When you greet others, consider not shaking their hands or hugging or kissing them during this time.


4. If you have travel plans, do some due diligence and consider changing plans if you will be traveling to an area where cases of swine flu, even possible cases of swine flue, have been identified

The disease is spread exactly like any other flu virus, contact with contagious people, contact with infected bovine (pigs are still smarter than dogs), and airborne droplets from sneezes and such (cover your mouth dammit!). Unfortunately its nature seems to favor giving those of us with healthier immune systems a harder time than those usually more at risk (babies, childeren, elders, and those with compromised immune systems). 

Until next time....

Tiananmen Square and Wikipedia

Tiananmen Square 1989

I began reading "Getting Rich First - Life in a Changing China" today in an attempt to stave off a bout of aggrevated depression which comes now and then with my daily stresses and I thought it would be a good idea to dive into the infamous Tiananmen Square incident of 1989. For those of you who are not familiar with the incident I highly recommend reading up on it as it gives exceptional insight into China, it's people, government, and history. You could potentially learn the entirety of China's recent history via this article and the links it contains. Take it a step at a time though I'm still on the first level of links and the amount of information to absorb is mind numbing to say the least.

Hopefully my blog will not get blocked in the coming weeks for mentioning this article and this highlighted historical event *crossing fingers*. I could not help but find the event fascinating as it so vividly displays the turmoil of the country on a global stage. Some noteable finds within my research are details about Tiananmen Square itself - "The Tank Man" "HanDongfang - 韩东方"

some history on key political players at the time including Deng Xiaoping - 邓小平 shame on you if you don't know him by name ;).  Clarification on China's one country, two systems policy and Glasnost and plenty of other goodies all linked up nicely.

Wikipedia & Wikileaks

If your an activist or an aspiring one then you owe it to yourself to take a look at Wikileaks. This is a very intense effort at circumventing corruption by enabling anyone to post documents of a senstive nature (govenement, religious, corporate) that bring corruption and other wrongdoings to light completely anonymously. Developed by Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and startup company technologists from the U.S., Taiwan, Europe, Australia, and South Africa this is one of the coolest discoveries I've made online recently. Take a look at some of the impact this site has had worldwide posted on the wikipedia page and you'll see what I mean. 

I'd like to give a very quick shout out to Wikipedia in general. Thank you for existing and for being increadibly useful. For those of you that don't know you can set up an account with Wikipedia and begin helping the community update pages as well as add your own informative content. I've hit several bumps when searching for technical terminology revolving around the PCB industry which I would love for a better informed individual to add to the wiki. I'm sure this sentiment is shared by plenty of people who have come to rely on wikipedia as an information resource and as such I encourage everyone capable to add their expertise to fill in the blanks for terms wherever they can. 

Hardcore Webdevelopment @ Home

Nice Hat Mike! That Shirt is not Business Casual...

After a hard days work Mike and I returned back to my home a mere 3 mintues walk from the office to get a little R&R... well the thought is what counts I suppose. My newly acquired internet effectively turned all of my time at home and at the office into productive working time. The workaholic in me sings cheers of praise. Last night I ended up in bed around 6am,  well done sir well done!

Shenzhen Stats and Class Site Up & Running

Shenzhen Statistics

Here are some interesting stats on Shenzhen.

Current Population: 17million+

Urban Density: 10,105.0/km^2 (26,174.1/sq mi) (2007)

SEZ formed (Special Economic Zone): May 1, 1980

Total Land Area: 2,052km^2 (790 sq mi)

Urban Land Area: 395.81km^2 (152.8 sq mi)

Elevation: 25m (82ft) - Global warming flood proof ;)... maybe

Population @ end of 2007: 8,615,500

Internet Users: 253 million +

Global Population Snapshot

Current world Population: 6,773,021,184

China's Population: 1,336,599,805 (1 in 5 baby 1 in 5)

USA Popluation: 306,206,895

For more China related stats you can check out the CIA public factbook on China

Class Site Up and Running

So I finally got my website up and running for Chinese.  Please feel free to leave me feedback on what you feel could be done better and/or could be added to make the site a more valuable resource to those trying to learn the Chinese language. 

Omegle.com

Looking to Talk to Strangers?

Omegle.com is an online chat that will randomly connect you with another online user and allows you to chat annonymously to any end you would like. There is no login or handle to worry about there is only "You" and "Stranger" that converse in cyberspace as mutually ignorant parties. Take a look at the official blog to learn more about whats going on with this webpage.

There is a lot of potential for Leif K-Brooks to make a good deal of money if he can find a way to monetize his traffic. I can think of no short list of ways to do this and I wish him all the best going forward. Maybe if I can open up a dialogue with him I can hitch a ride to the top with him hahah. There is a running dialogue on his blog about it possibly being a copy of www.anicechat.net which I'll have to take a look into when I get a moment. For now I'm going to get back to discussing nonesense with disembodied voices. Ciao!

FYI - you can also check out zoom-in.com for a more detailed blog entry about Omegle.

Bye Bye Youtube

Why are all my Starcraft II Youtube vid's dead links....

Porn I suppose is understandable to block, but the cybercops of the motherland, due to recent controversial footage being posted, have put up blockades around youtube as well - Chinese netizens can no longer view youtube.com - well at least not without the use of a proxy. For those of you that don't know using a browser such as Opera Tor (spelling?), Firefox with a proxy add-on (google foxyproxy if you need this) or even the less user friendly/reliable add-ons to Microsofts archaic browser Internet Explorer [Shame on you if your reading my page through IE!!] will allow you to get around this inconvenience as well as grant you anonymous browsing.

Why is it such an inconvenience to me? one might ask. Well for starters I can no longer easily access scantily clad women stripping and/or dancing in various countries to all sorts of music I've never heard before - thus stemming the development of my international music sense *sigh* Seriously speaking though it is a major pain in the ass as many of the sites I'm developing as well as businessfolk I deal with utilize Youtube in a professional manner to get things done (product demo videos, tutorials, walk-throughs, company introductions, service outlines and so forth) all now appear as dead links (Google loves those *sad face*) traffic generated directly from youtube is also negatively impacted. Though aggrevating, on the lighter side the traffic we're primarily targeting remains in the western world and thus remains unimpacted by this change. Sorry would be ex-patriot customers residing in China you'll just have to deal with text and images for now.

Chinese Language Website 2.0

http://www.chinese.daviddho.com yes it's no mistake the site is down (for now) but fear not it will be up and running again once my head cools down from my last attempt at fixing it up. The endlessly frustrating combination of poor internet connection/reliability and poorly constructed webbased applications does sometimes get the better of me. With any luck I should have this puppy up and running by the end of this week and will allow all of my fellow Chinese language students at the local university Shenzhen Da Xue 深圳大学 access to learning materials me and a few of my friends have contructed, class notes - graciously posted by me everyday - *cough* I mean days that I show up in class, class pictures, linkage to my previous website for the 1st level of Chinese, and some other useful links/online resources. Not to toot my own horn but it is becoming a handy networking resource for meeting reputable foreigners looking to get ahead in life through ventures in China. There is of course the consequential meeting of more ladyfolk involved with this networking but hey, I guess I've learned to cope with that inconvenience. ***That last lines for Sarah - you know who you are***