|
19 Apr
|
Posted by Musashi
|
A 23-year-old Chinese student in Toronto was chatting with a friend back home in China when an unidentified man broke into her apartment and brutally murdered her…while her friend sat helplessly and witnessed the crime via webcam. I think this just made my ‘Most Horrible News Story of the Year’ shortlist.
The friend she was talking to reportedly lives in China and was Liu’s boyfriend, according to posts on a Chinese-language chatroom, the Toronto Star reported. He reported seeing a struggle break out between the two before the man turned off Liu’s laptop and threw her cellphone on the floor.
Police say the laptop is now missing.
The friend tried to get help but the people he tried to contact were asleep, the Star reported. No one got his frantic message until 8:30 a.m. Saturday and it wasn’t until 10:30 a.m. that the landlord unlocked the apartment door, the Star reported.
|
17 Aug
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Swimmingly, according to this piece at MSNBC. Frankly I’m not sure how appealing a 3D skin flick would be – any kind of pornography that requires gear to enjoy seems a bit off-putting. Then again, when you factor in the segment of the population that dresses up as cartoon animals to have sex – maybe this isn’t all that wierd.
The big question is – what IMAX venue will be willing to project 3-D Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy? That would make for an interesting family night at the cineplex.
The producers are hoping the erotic period drama will prove a titillating hit with 3-D-glasses-wearing audiences and help develop a lucrative, niche film market.
“It’s because it’s forbidden in China, (that there) is so much enthusiasm in China for this film,” said film maker Stephen Shiu, who was responsible for the original 1991 erotic film “Sex and Zen,” which grossed over $2.6 million and held the mantle as the city’s highest-grossing adult film for over a decade.
Taking almost twice the time to shoot than conventional films and with a higher budget, more advanced equipment and elaborate lighting, the take-up of 3-D productions has been relatively slow in the porno industry despite early excitement at its promise.
“We have to change the lenses for a long time, the setting, lighting, we need more time than a normal movie,” said Japanese porn star Saori Hara after completing a scene.
|
17 Aug
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Our favorite despotic dictatorship, North Korea, is now on Twitter. I’m not sure how North Korea plans to use it’s newly found communicative ability, but I can’t wait to hit the ‘Follow’ button. I bet all kinds of crazy Tweets are in our future – except I don’t read Korean, so that might be a barrier to enjoying the crazy.
North Korea isn’t looking to chit-chat about the MTV Video Music Awards or even the 38th parallel, the latitude separating it from democratic South Korea. Nor will North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il be giving tips on hair stylists. The country has launched its own PR campaign, joining the legions of thousands of other individuals and companies that do the same thing on Twitter.
Nine messages were posted on North Korea’s Twitter page as of Monday afternoon, with the first posts having been made Aug. 12.
The country’s Twitter name, “uriminzok” “can be translated into “our people,” according to The Korea Times. “Most of the messages have links to anti-South Korea and anti-US statements on the communist regime’s official website,” the newspaper said.
As of Monday morning PT, North Korea had more than 1,600 followers.
| Category: News | Tag: noth korea, propaganda, social media, tech, twitter |
|
12 Jul
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Famed animator Hayao Miyazaki is an Old Guy. And you know what that means! He’s old-timey and hates newfangled gadgets, like computers and TV’s. And what does he compare the iPad to? Jerking off! That’s right – to Hayao Miyazaki, all you people out there stroking your lap-tablets are just playing with yourselves!
In an interview in the July issue of “Neppuu”, the Studio Ghibli published pamphlet, the famed animator does not pull any punches when discussing the iPad, or what he calls the “game machine-like thing” that people are “stroking with strange gestures”.
“For me, there is no feeling of admiration or no excitement whatsoever,” Miyazaki said about the iPad. “It’s disgusting. On trains, the number of those people doing that strange masturbation-like gesture is multiplying.”
| Category: News | Tag: Hayao Miyazaki, iPad, luddite, masturbation, old dudes, tech |
|
2 Jun
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Another day, another dead Foxconn employee. Except this one didn’t take his own life – unless you consider working for Foxconn itself to be a suicidal act.
Foxconn Employee Dies After 34-Hour Shift
Yes – 34 hours on the clock. That’s the work schedule 28-year-old Yan Li was on when he croaked, presumably from being overworked. I’m not sure what China’s labor laws have to say about this sort of thing, but that’s the economic reality of bringing cheap electronics to the rest of the world.
|
26 May
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Wow, if you think you have a hard time hauling your ass into work every day – at least you don’t work at Foxconn International Holdings, Ltd. Things have gotten so bad at the electronics firm (which manufactures iPods and other hitech goodies we take for granted) that management is asking the workers to sign ‘no suicide’ clauses to help stem the lemming-like wave of deaths.
The normally secretive Taiwanese company opened its sprawling factory complex in the southern city of Shenzhen to reporters Wednesday after a 19-year-old worker jumped to his death from a building, the ninth apparent suicide this year at the factory that makes iPods and iPhones.
Foxconn Technology Group Chairman Terry Gou bowed deeply several times and apologized but also cautioned there was only so much his company could do.
“I’m very concerned about this. I can’t sleep every night,” said Gou, one of Taiwan’s best known businessmen. “From a scientific point of view, I’m not confident we can stop every case. But, as a responsible employer, we have to take up the responsibility of preventing as many as we can.”
The world’s largest contract maker of electronics, which also counts among its products Dell computers and Nokia phones, has been a lightning rod for labor activists who say its working conditions cause misery for its vast work force.
The tour comes after the suicide on Tuesday of Li Hai, 19. He was the latest victim of the suicide surge, jumping to his death from a building at the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, which also counts among its products Dell computers and Nokia phones.
Police said Li killed himself after working at the plant for only 42 days, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
|
13 May
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Watching this recent iPhone ‘unveiling’ in Vietnam, and reading this subsequent post at Wired about Apple’s obsession with security, it suddenly dawned on me – Steve Jobs is Willy Wonka. All the security measures and secrecy implemented by Apple remind me of nothing less than Wonka’s obsessive protection of his own iPhone, the Everlasting Gobstopper. Maybe all these iPhones are being leaked to scrounge up Jobs’ replacement, a la Charlie Bucket. The first person who finds a 4th gen iPhone and dutifully returns it to Apple will be the new CEO.
| Category: News, Video | Tag: apple, iPhone, steve jobs, tech, willy wonka |
|
12 May
|
Posted by Musashi
|
I am not in possession of the suicide rates of your typical Chinese tech sweatshop (or, indeed, assembly-line workers anywhere), but eight in five months sounds a bit high to me.
“We regret to see the recurrence of such incidents,” Foxconn said in statement that came a day after a 24-year-old Foxconn factory worker surnamed Chu killed herself by jumping from her rented apartment in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Foxconn, the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, said that Chu, whose full name was not released, began her employment last August.
The company has attracted wide attention from the Chinese media following a spate of suicides among young Chinese working at its mammoth Shenzhen factory complex, where some 300,000 are employed.
A week ago a 24-year-old male factory worker surnamed Lu committed suicide by jumping from a building inside the complex.
The most notable Foxconn suicide came last July when 25-year-old Sun Danyong jumped from his high-rise apartment after being interrogated over a missing iPhone prototype.
Foxconn makes products for leading Western companies including the Mac mini, the iPod, the iPad, and the iPhone for Apple Inc., Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp. and motherboards for U.K. computer manufacturer Zoostorm.
Apple investigated claims of abusive Foxconn employment practices stemming from a June 2006 complaint, and found the claims to be largely unfounded.
|
17 Apr
|
Posted by Musashi
|
I’ll probably never bother with this again, but I’m amused to be posting this on my iPod from the IHOP in Kenwood, Ohio.
Frankly, typing on this thing is a bit of a pain but you do get used to it. Makes me think about picking up an iPad…
And now that I’ve used my Off-Topic Karma for the day, I’ll have to post something more relevant this afternoon.
|
25 Jan
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Eugene Lin’s hilarious Ignite speech, about the creation of his softcore porn iPhone app peekaboo. Seriously, this is worth 5 minutes of your life. Not so sure about the app.
(via BoingBoing)
|
27 Jul
|
Posted by Musashi
|
AT&T has placed itself in the dubious position of policing net traffic to 4chan’s infamous /b/ message board. Why they did so is predictable, but I’m amazed on two fronts: one, that they would place themselves in a position to censor net traffic and two, fucking with 4chan – possibly the largest hornet’s nest on the internet.
Why’s it doing this? Only AT&T knows, and so far they’re not telling. When it finally does come clean on the issue, it’s likely the company will trot out motives along the lines of preventing piracy or hacking, or maybe even preserving national security (who knows? just possibly). But blocking 4chan isn’t the same as blocking any other website: The community has already begun to organize its response–and it could get ugly. There’s a clarion call for sanity among /b/ users, though, coming from a posting at EncyclopediaDramatica, pushing for a response along legitimate complaint lines, rather than illegal acts which would merely justify the shutdown. “Flood the callcenters and inboxes of AT&T…Then make the honest threat of service cancellation if this censorship isn’t undone,” it suggests.
Most interestingly, there’s a suggestion AT&T’s actually breaking the law by blocking parts of 4chan–it seems the FCC Comcast/Bit Torrent ruling covers the issue, and this stipulates that ISP’s may only traffic-slow or cap connection speeds rather than blocking access.
| Category: News | Tag: 4chan, censorship, internets, tech |
|
22 Jul
|
Posted by Musashi
|
An engineer working at a factory in Shenzen, China committed suicide last week after a prototype iPhone he was responsible for went missing.
The Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper said Sun — responsible for sending iPhone prototypes to Apple — noticed he was missing one of the 16 units he received on July 9. He reported the missing phone on July 13 and his apartment was searched by Foxconn employees, the Chinese-language report said.
Sun jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building July 16.
“We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death,” said Jill Tan, an Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong. “We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.”
|
20 Jul
|
Posted by Musashi
|
Of all the headlines from the Chinese takeover of faux-news website The Onion we mentioned earlier, this one’s my favorite…
Obama Axes Pentagon Plan To Build Billion Dollar Tank In Shape Of Dragon
|
14 Jul
|
Posted by Musashi
|
China has vowed to cease administering shock therapy to citizens who have a problem staying off the internet, claiming there was ‘no evidence’ that the practice was effective. Might have been helpful to determine this beforehand, eh?
The ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site late Monday there is no domestic or international clinical evidence that electric shock therapy helps cure Internet addiction. Electric shock therapy is most often used to treat severe depression.
Chinese psychologists say symptoms of Internet addiction include being online more than six hours a day — playing games and looking at pornography rather than working or studying — and getting angry when unable to get online.
Man, this definition includes just about everyone I associate with.
| Category: Uncategorized | Tag: china, internet, psychiatry, sad, tech |
|
20 Jun
|
Posted by Musashi
|
I don’t own an iPhone, although after misplacing my car last weekend (don’t ask) I’m tempted to pick one up, or at least a phone with GPS. Then again, why bother with Apple’s shiny 23rd century tech when I can rock it like it’s 2002!
The xpPhone, from Chinese firm In Technology, sports a 800 x 480 pixel screen and apparently runs a full version of Windows XP – which makes me wonder if you could install World of Warcraft on that puppy and run a group raid while waiting for your proctologist to probe your ass.
Looks kinda big, though.
| Category: News | Tag: china, geekery, iPhone, proctology, tech, world of warcraft |
