china

Campaign PCs of Obama, McCain cyberattacked

Last summer, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential-campaign computers came under cyberattack from an "unknown entity." His machines weren't alone; John McCain's computers were also attacked, according to a report appearing Wednesday on the site of Newsweek magazine.

The Obama attack was initially thought to be a piece of malware downloaded from a phishing site. Newsweek reports that "the next day, both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: 'You have a problem way bigger than what you understand,' an agent told them. 'You have been compromised, and a … Read more

The 404 218: Where Wilson's Halloween costume totally sucks

On today's Halloween episode, Jeff and I don our spookiest masks and berate Wilson for his awful costume. Tune in to find out the travesty that is Halloween at the Tang's. We also talk about our love/hate relationship with Chipotle and discuss Superman and other weak-sauce superheroes. And on the second half of the show, we welcome Alex Armour from Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) to talk about some of its most popular video game titles.

Be sure to check out the second half of the show, Alex Armour, a rep from Sony Computer Entertainment of America comes on and answers our pressing SCEA video game questions. If you like smashing things with cars, we recommend checking out Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, an off-road racing game that takes place on a tropical island. We also get Alex's take on the whole LittleBigPlanet soundtrack fiasco and I break some unfortunate news about Jeff's recently inflated paychecks. Finally, we also get a sneak peak about the upcoming Resistance 2, a sequel to the popular first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man. Even more exciting is Alex's Halloween costume for this year; it's Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China! It's one of my favorite movies and I can't wait to see what he looks like in that mullet wig and tank top, don't forget to send us pictures tomorrow Alex! Also, check out the video below for Jeff's countdown of the top 7 scariest video games of all time! Have a very happy and safe Halloween everyone!

Episode 218 Download today's podcast … Read more

Explore the Web from China--without leaving home

It slows down your browsing. It makes some Web sites inaccessible for no discernible reason. It doesn't even offer you any xiao long bao or pu'er tea for your troubles. But if you want to know what life behind the Great Firewall of China is like, then the Firefox plug-in China Channel is the cheapest and fastest way to experience using the Internet in China without actually being there.

After installation, getting to experience Web surfing the way the Chinese do isn't hard at all. Users have three ways to activate China Channel: via the China Channel … Read more

Clean-tech fundings: Intel in China, ice-powered air conditioners

Clarification at 10:50 a.m. PDT: The extent of Intel Capital's clean-tech investments in China has been modified.

Even with turmoil in the financial markets, venture capital is still flowing to energy-tech ventures.

Here are the latest such investments: Intel Capital has made its first clean-tech investment in China, the company said Tuesday.

The venture-capital arm of the chip giant put $20 million into Trony Solar Holdings, a Chinese solar thin-film cell developer. It also invested an undisclosed sum in NP Holdings, which makes large-scale energy storage systems for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Intel Capital set … Read more

Science finds a way to erase Wall Street's errors

Did you lose a lot of money in the markets over the last two weeks? Do you fear you will lose even more before the bell tolls today?

Please don't worry. Some scientists will soon be able to help you.

Yes, very soon, you will realize that these awful things never happened. You will realize you lost no money. You will realize there was no need for a bailout. You will realize that tomorrow truly is a new day and that yesterday was almost as new as tomorrow.

Whatever people tell you about the future--whether it be investing in … Read more

Beijing Net cafes to take mug shots, scan IDs

In a purported effort to cut down on "ID sharing" in Beijing's Internet cafes, the government will require that by the end of 2008, first-time visitors will have their picture taken and ID scanned before being allowed online, according to The Beijing News and the China Media Project.

Users were already required to show identification when they entered, a rule that has been spottily enforced at times but more strictly, by most accounts, since preparations for the Olympics began. David Bandurski at China Media Project writes:

The newspaper quoted Li Fei (李菲), a spokesperson for the Beijing Cultural … Read more

For China, the financial crisis is an opportunity

I asked my colleagues in frog design's Shanghai studio about their perspective on the current economic downturn, and here's what they wrote back:

"The US may be the initiator of this round of global economic recession but it may not be the final payer. China's economy is about to suffer as well - and in more ways than one.

And yet, the people who have been around the longest know not to pay too much attention to one-direction comments. They know that the sufferers will always shout much louder than the beneficiaries. They also know that … Read more

Coming in 2009: Yourname@somewhere.中国

The era of online domination by the Roman alphabet will come one step closer to its end next year when a new top-level domain for China, .中国, is deployed. Xinhua reports that ICANN expects the domain, which uses the two-character modern Chinese word for "China," will be ready in 2009.

The report also notes that people will be able to use Chinese characters for their mailbox name (the part before the @ sign) as well.

In the future, Internet users (will be able to) use their native languages as mailbox names to send and receive e-mail, which means (the) English-dominant (… Read more

The court of bus riders: Why it's faster than driving in Shanghai

Shanghai blogger Wang Jianshuo points out a less-than-expected reason why riding the bus is faster than driving on his commute: ad hoc protest against traffic enforcement:

Bus drivers don't follow the traffic rule as strictly as other car drivers. They just drive wildly, and policemen tend not to care about them. Why? I saw some cases when the policeman stops the bus, and the whole bunch of people on the bus surrounded the policeman and protest to ask the policeman release the driver.

This comes in addition to a more engineered factor, the bus-only lane on highways. People bending … Read more

MIT: Dirty coal to blame for China pollution

In a rare independent study of China's energy sector, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that the problem with China's coal power generation is not that its power plants lack cleaner technology.

The emissions are definitely higher than they could be, the report found, but the culprit is usually low-quality coal rather than low-tech plants. As an MIT statement explains:

Lower-grade coal, which produces high levels of sulfur emissions, can be obtained locally, whereas the highest-grade anthracite comes mostly from China's northwest and must travel long distances to the plants, adding greatly to its … Read more