China tightens Internet with the new web filtering
June 12, 2009
As the world turns to China for being the least affected with financial crisis and as the next promising super-power country, China has decided to tightens its Internet censorship by forcing all new computers to be installed with its new firewall software. And this is the country that was promiting upcoming Internet freedom before and during the Beijing olympics.
Basically, the firewall application that is required on all new PCs, has the ability to block users from surfing prohibited websites (i.e pornography). But not just that, it all blocks any search a user is trying to make based on key political words or phrases. A user with many attempts to search for such prohibited words will be subject to imprisonment or fine.
The experts who saw the code for the application have noted that prohibited political keywords is much more than actual pornography sites. However, the chinese authorities are promoting this application as “healthy development of the Internet” and “effectively manage harmful material for the public and prevent it from being spread”.
Now here is something interesting, BBC and research fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society have reported that this application has many security vulnerabilities that may case the PC to be easily hacked or spammed with spyware. I guess the chinese gov’t could careless about those issues as long as it can benefit out of the outcome.
Playing for change: song around the world
May 5, 2009
Dries just blogged about one of my favorite music video out there, and I thought I should share it as well.
Here it is:
Well, let me quote what Dries said about this video in his blog post:
This video will bring a smile on your face.
It is a cover of “Stand by me” recorded by completely unknown artists all around the world. It started with base tracks by a street musician called Roger Ridley. These tracks were then taken all over the world where other street artists added vocals and new instruments to it. All done with a simple laptop, some headphones and some microphones. They never met.
This song marked the start of what would become a global collaborative music movement. Today, everyone can participate by joining Playing for Change. To date, seven episodes have been recorded and people are hosting screenings, musicians are holding benefit concerts of every size, fans are spreading the message. I wish I could play music (I can’t) but maybe it will inspire some of you to join.
Sounds familiar? I thought so too …
Now, don’t we all love Drupal?! 
Visualizing your data
February 11, 2009
Found this cool web application called Wordle.net that visualizes any data that you feed it, including RSS feed, your delicious, or even raw text.
Thought you might be interested, here is the tagcloud of my blog posts:
OpenID + Paypal = Promising future
January 30, 2009
As a member of OpenID Foundation, I was extremely excited to see Paypal finally joining the OpenID force. Having Paypal on board doesn’t just mean you’ll be able to log into your paypal account with your Openid, but it means that OpenID one day will be used for secured transactions (including retail).
So far, Google, Virisign, Microsoft are on OpenID board also. I am pretty sure that the usage of OpenID on the Internet and Mobile will increase in the near future. But what will be interesting is how OpenID will play with Visa & Mastercard?
