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.

BBC Earth App

It's probably stupid to write about an app. I never would think I would do that but I do feel the need to write about this new BBC Earth app.

Well it's really simple indeed. It plays curated lists of clips of years of BBC Earth documentaries with different themes, ranging from deep of the sea to begin of time. Quality is great, even will adjust video quality according to the bandwidth.

It's fantastic as expected. But I always want more. For years I have been loving the contents BBC produces. For me BBC RADIO 4 is always my favorite. But for its documentaries and most other contents it's really hard for people outside of UK, especially in China, to be able to see. I get it. BBC gets its funding from UK government there is no way to give all of the BBC to the world for free. But, it's sort of a waste just to let those go. Maybe, at this time of history, BBC would learn a bit from other media companies and have a more robust global strategy.

posted from Bloggeroid

Telegram WhatsApp and China

There is an article floating on the internet, pushing for telegram voice calls ( http://telegra.ph/Why-Telegram-Voice-Calls-Are-Blocked-in-Countries-Like-China-or-Iran-04-19 ). While I have no problem for marketing a product on its own media platform ( aka telegra.ph ) but using availability in China proving telegram is better than WhatsApp in privacy prospective , is ridiculous, and for billions of Chinese, unfair.

Over the years living in China, I have tried both telegram and WhatsApp. When telegram first came out a lot of friends of mine were talking about it and using it daily, and it was soon blocked by Chinese government. No surprise there. Till today, some of my friends are still using it, as a secure alternative to native IMs, that are clearly monitoring everything. But in order to use telegram, people inside of China has to use circumvention tools. These tools are difficult to setup and mostly a pain to use. Then came WhatsApp. Until now WhatsApp as an app is usable on both Android and iOS, yet its web version and its entire website is blocked. Although, if installed the pc client still works. And I have been using WhatsApp with my gf and friends ever after. Oh btw WhatsApp's encrypted voice calls work inside of China.

I don't want to go into details here, on encryption itself comparing telegram and WhatsApp, for I am no security expert. But for public knowledge we know: WhatsApp is using a open source encryption method, and its way of utilization is checked by various security experts. While telegram is using a in house close source encryption method, and I am not aware of any third party source checking so far.

That's pretty much the situation so far for security minded users inside of China. What drives me nuts in that article is that conspiracy attitude. Because WhatsApp works means it's less secure? Because telegram is blocked by China, a "regime", it means it's better in protection against government intrusion? Sorry this logic just doesn't stand for me. AND by the way as a don't give a fuck and user comes first company telegram let me ask you something, what have you done to your users inside of China? Being blocked makes you happy that you want to wear it like a badge of honor? Shame on you.

What China build on its internet, is called GFW, great firewall of China. It is getting more and more attention everyday. Recently Pinterest has been blocked. US made it a trade barrier. And China is willing to export the technology to Russia. But I have not seen ANY meaningful moves from the devs across the globe engaging it, although eventually it will help free up billions of people on earth. No. You guys have the skills and are happy in your first world bubbles. Fine. Just don't use us, internet users inside of China, as your marketing schemes. Thank you.

posted from Bloggeroid

Negativity At Work

I have a co worker that is, and has been, very negative. I know there always is one or another reason people turns negative towards the work they do everyday. Be it the working environment, the boss, the pay, other co workers, hell lot of them. And sometimes, a bit of negativity is not a bad thing. Nobody is a sheep and we are human after all. But recently this one's negativity has been growing out of control. I guess I am the only person there to listen to him complaining all the time? When I finally gave up give one or two comments on his endless daily, even hourly complain, this co worker finally decided to quite.

I don't know if this one really would quite or not. It's beyond hard to find a job these days. But his negativity is really becoming toxic. For some reason subtly is not his thing, he would always like to comment pointedly and often openly on things that should be kept below the table. And most of time he would look at my direction for support. Sure most of the topics he dislikes really need improvement, but negativity won't solve a damn thing. On the contrary, negativity is really the easy way. For me, current work environment is not perfect, but because of my previous experience in other companies, it is not unique or even worst at all. If you can't cop with this one, well, I don't think any other company would be any better at all. Unless, you are lying to yourself.

Changing a job sometimes I don't think requires so much negativity.

posted from Bloggeroid

LG V20's Sad Update Status

I have been on this LG V20 for quite some time. It's almost all I have wanted for a phone: nice yet not flashy design, tons of useful features and swappable batteries. But the sad thing is, system update is just unreasonable.

According to my own experience and this unofficial page for V20's update (https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-h990ds-firmwares/#more-3756) some models have not seen an system update since November 2016. Think about that. And then think about all the security holes found and patched by Google in between.

Yeah I guess I kind of getting it that LG has probably been busy with its new shinny G6 and what new skin that comes with it. Fine. And considering the fact that, LG must have a small dev team because, they just use most of Google's service, unlike Samsung. But lagging for sooooo long is, ridiculous. My phone tells me it's running the latest OS while the last update was the end of 2016, making the transition from a Nexus 6p extra hard for me.

Come on LG! As a customer from your Nexus 4 days at least release some security updates or something. I want nothing new on that G6 because I have no interest in that phone. Just do your job and have some security update!

posted from Bloggeroid

Age of Empires Castle Siege Lags Like Shit on Android

Well Microsoft's copycat mobile game is now on Android. Generally speaking the gaming experience has much similarities with other mobile games, which exploit the worst of human beings in order to make some in app micro payment. It's the thing these days but the problem is, during battle the frame rate would drop, so severe that it looks like a colorful PowerPoint. In a word, this game lags like shit. Devs are doing nothing. Testing is a joke. Aside from the icon looks like… literal pile of shit:



Mind you I have been running this game on a powerful enough 2016 flagship.

Releasing a game at a stage like this, is a fucking shame, Microsoft.

posted from Bloggeroid