Trust Me, In China No One Cares If You Are A Spy

It really confuses me when I read something on Economics, that "even children are watching for spies". That's just beyond laughable, that's sad. I really don't want to bash media, especially western media. I respect them, but stuff like this coming out in print really makes me laugh, then makes me sad.

The fact is, in China there is almost no one cares if you are a spy. I would venture out and say it's best time for spies.

But there are several catches.

First is the anti-spy operations must be very effective. No matter how China gets its info from, hacking, showing money, whatever, it must be effective. But that doesn't mean everyone here in China is watching every foreigner. Come on, it's no North Korea. Of course Chinese are curious, they would sometimes looks at foreigners for a bit too long. But no one gives a damn about what you do.

Second, there are known spy operations for a long time. From where I live, it's a known place for spies from some countries to carry out their business.  It is widely known and hey guess what, nobody cares. Normal everyday people can hardly get by, they really don't want to and care to mind more than what they already have at hand.

Third, the education. Of course, the party gives a lot of propaganda material in Children's education. Well it's certainly not good, but Chinese people generally give it any thought. Everyone knows the fact, no matter what the government says.

Just saying.

A V20 Update

Well, after about half a year, my Taiwan region, dual SIM version V20 finally has an software update.

It has been on last year's security patch for better part of 2017, and it's ridiculous. Maybe it's me, spoiled by Nexus lines of phones for years. What's strange is, with different versions of V20, some has regular updates, pretty much in sync with Google's patches. But some, like mine, updates are really really rare.

Anyways, it's a good thing to finally have some patch going on (now it's May patch). As a costumer, I really don't expect to have 7.1 or 8 any time soon. But I think for an unlocked phone, having regular security updates should not be a hard thing to ask for, right?

The Gone Emoji

In fact it never occurred to me the big change ahead with the emoji in android O. There are a lot changes under the hood but visually not much with the latest version of the most popular OS on earth. I can't say much is because, hey, there is little chance for me to have android O now that I am on LG V20 instead of a nexus of a pixel.

But, after reading the verge coverage (https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/25/15688528/google-blob-emoji-android-o-rip), with all the comparison of emoji from different versions, I find myself missing the days of android 4.4.

It's just my personal opinion but emoji back to version 4.4 is really the best of all. With everyone else doing a round face, what android had back then is a "blob". Not any blobs but blobs with a neck (sort of). Blobs can look up and down and sideways because of the neck they have. To me that's way more expressive than what we will have.

I guess it has something to do with time as well. Back then, most apps with built in emojis were doing apple line of them. Sending a blob most always meant I am the only person who can see what it really was. It is strange. But people are strange anyways. And, I guess people just don't like changes.

Nationalism Is the Best Tool to Make People Enslave Themselves

Yep, I said it.

There is some news floating around the internet, that a young Chinese giving a speech at some American university. In her speech, she said almost nothing wrong, no lies whatsoever. She praised the air quality. She said she enjoyed the open and democratic atmosphere there in America. And, that's about it. It was pretty much it until some media inside China began to say things like she was betraying her own country. How dare she compare America and her own motherland. Soon a huge number of internet trolls inside China began harassing her, including digging up her personal info.

It was like a dream. And I really can not say it was not a dream. Because, for me, I believe the basic human right of free speech. And besides she made no lies. She just gave some observations of her own.

Days after the news broke, under pressure, she apologized. To whom I don't understand. I guess trolls won, again.

when you look at this whole thing from certain prospective, it's pretty scary. Because you will see what nationalism would do to people. Blind nationalism will distort people's visions, making them do things that are so illogical that almost laughable.

For one thing, what are these trolls defending? They are certainly not defending truth, or freedom of expression that's for sure. Nobody in China would deny that in America, air is indeed much more cleaner, and people enjoy much more personal freedom. It is a fact. Saying fact is no crime. If stopping people saying truth about a country is what the trolls do, then they are no trolls, they are slaves.

Years of education finally we have so many people that are defending a government against truth.

And who else is using blind nationalism to do the biding? Well from what I can see, most of the countries.

Depressing.

Haier 11 inch Chromebook: first impressions

So, let's talk about Chromebooks.

I have always been curious about one of those Chromebooks floating around, and recent news about Chromebooks taking control of US schools is certainly interesting. And.... I bought myself one of those on Taobao the other day, and hopefully embedding it into my daily work/entertainment routines.

The result: better than I thought.

And for the fact that the Chromebook I got is on the crappier side of Chromebooks, the result is amazing. For the money's worth, I bought a (probably second hand) dirt cheap one made by Haier. Yep, the same company that is famous (at least famous here in China) for its washing machines and other home appliances. It is a 11 inch laptop from 2015, with 2 gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage, costing around 500 RMB (below 100 US dollars).

For sure this laptop, with its conditions and its dubious origins, is likely shipped to China to stripped for parts, aka trash. Well, as for the fact that Chromebooks are never meant to be sold here in China (unusable unless the user has a way to get over the GFW), this is the best I can get for the price. Because of the design simplicity and its security measures I can use this device without worrying about risks of using a second hand device.

This one comes with really cheap specs, an Intel N series CPU, low on RAM, to be honest I was not expecting much. I intended to buy this to easy the need for a cheap tablet. After days of tweaks and real life experience I am positively surprised.

First of all, it comes with a stable Chrome OS version 44, which was released back in, I don't know, 2015? Apparently never got updated afterwards. After "network issues" were dealt with, (wink wink), it updated itself to version 58 without any problems and running great. Google says they will continue support it until 2020.

Second the hardware itself. This is the second generation 11 inch Chromebook Haier has made, and the selling point of it was, CHEAP. Keyboard feels shallow, screen, is a TN panel with a very limited optimal viewing angle, plastic shell, and even the Chrome label on the back is just a plastic sticker. One of the cheapest feeling device I have ever used. It has enough ports, and no fans. It is so light compared with my gaming laptop that it is really a "lap" top. Working with it on my lap does not make me feel a thing.

Then performance. Don't laugh but I will have to talk about it. The fact that Chrome OS is just a Chrome running on a lightweight Linux kernel makes it VERY efficient, although nowadays Chrome browser is far from "efficient" compared with what it was years back. But on a Chromebook, especially on a cheap one like this, it really shows how optimized this OS is. It can do everything I do on a gaming laptop running Chrome without any hiccups, and some great Chrome apps are really all I need on a daily basis. People (including me before having tried this) always say Chromebooks can't do a thing, that with such a limited set of functions, it's better just to get a general PC. NO. I would say it is just because the limited functions this thing can do, people would REALLY do things on it. Yes indeed I can do almost anything on a PC but I won't do them most of the time. 80 percent of the time I spent on a PC is, in Chrome or with Google products (search, docs, gmail). So it never feels the need to boot up my PC while using this laptop. It is limited, but it is efficient and a simplified focusing experience to have.

Oh, this sub 100 dollar Chromebook has a battery life of over 8 hours, beating my V20 phone without even trying.

About Apps and extensions I have, well, I am still experimenting. And unlike android there is little info on those. I have to dig out gems by myself most of the time. All the Google services works out of the box, and I have some great 3rd party ones installed as well. Google states that Android apps support is planned on this model and it looks promising (in fact I have already installed the ARC required for Android apps, it's just I don't have the time to tweak around to hack some Android app on this one). Chinese input method looks primitive but good enough. Shortcuts are more than enough for usage without my huge gaming mouse, and I am typing in a minimalist offline markdown editor that just weights about 300kb and boy it is some pleasant experience to just type on and no distractions.

Anyways. I am happy that I bought this one instead of some cheap Windows 10 tablets and having to type on glass. And this about sums up my impressions so far. I will certainly post other tips and findings on this Chromebooks as I continue to use it. And I am wondering when those stickers will arrive, that Haier logo on the back sure looks terrible, lol.