Monday, November 29, 2004

Could you imagine the people who never used Google

The top editor from one of the most popular newspapers in Hong Kong, said he never used Google. Do you believe? I didn't believe it until I heard from his mouth. Yes, he does, and maybe many people do not use Google. What's it mean?
Some people may say it means nothing, because Google is not the rice that everyone has to eat every day. I am not a technology aficionado; but I would like to argue that Google is the quickest way you can find the useful information in the web. If you don't use Google, it means, at least, your information from the web is not the most updated; it also implies that you are not a frequent user to look for information on the web.
Before entering into this program, I am not trying to be a technical savvy; but now I want to be because I know its importance. I can see how Internet changes the China in a dramatically fast way; and also to the world. Many people call Internet the virtual society; true, but I would like to add one word on it, which is "virtual global society". Technology can take the vacumm in the society and make people in the country and outside the country know the information in several seconds. Especially in China, the change in the media brought by Internet can not happen with one or two TV program. But Internet has done that.
But I am still confused about one thing- the communication between humans in the Internet. It is a different way from in the real society. Maybe the two way can exist together for a long time, or maybe one will replace another. If there is, I believe it will be the online communication that will win finally.

Friday, November 26, 2004

My "speculation" about the revaluation of Yuan

Yes, people are speculating more and more on the

appreciation of Yuan. Bankers and fund managers in
different organizations all believe that yuan will
appreciate in a short time. From the angle of the
reporters, we can see different speeches or viewpoints
from Chinese officials,and diffrent measures for them
to reduce the pressure on Yuan. But I do believe the
bankers should have some reason to do such
speculation. One of them, I think, is that U.S
dollar's devaluation has put great measure on Yuan.
There is an exaggerated news whose headline is "U.S.
dollar's devaluation equals with robbing money from
Chinese's porket". For instance, with the U.S.
dollar's devaluation, China's Foreign reserve, most of
which are in the currency of dollars, has devalued
about 10%. Also, People's Bank of China needs to buy
more gold from the international markets to maintain
the foreign reserve. But the gold price has been more
expensive, marching above 455 dollars per ounce this
week, the highest price in 16 years. I am not sure if
China can resist the pressure or not.

Who will decide Ukraine's future?

Ukraine has become one of our topics in the class. No one knows what happened to Ukraine indeed, but everyone knows it is a big news because it appears on the headline of major newspapers.
Election will always be the most deputable stories in human's history. The lates U.S. election has already proved it. But the one in Ukraine is apparently a different story, where the other countries spoke out their viewpoint in the public. EU prefers Viktor Yushchendo, while Russian President Putin prefers Viktor Yanukovich, according to IHT. But there is no voice from Ukraine's people, though every politician said the people are the most important.
Then I began to wonder Ukraine's future...
But do not be afraid that EU and Russian will fight with each other at last, for they are still relying on each other in the economic development, one of the advantages brought by globalization. Conflict becomes more complex, while internal relation becomes more close, too.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Wired generation, I am one of them

With more and more teenagers become wired, the time they spend on realistic social activities is less and less. Internet is a virtual society, making people sharing their social life with the original life.
I am one of the few people who has been educated engineering and social science. The first period told me the happiness in processing machine code and communicating with online strangers, and the second taught me the necessaries to talk with people and exchange with ideas. But not all people have the same oppotunity as me. That's why we can always see the outgoing-character girl who has no idea about the Internet, and the shy boy in real life who is a forum talker.

One of my law professor said he was afraid of engineers. "Lawyer are depending on talking; Economist are depending on talking, too. But less-talking engineers will always create something surprising. "

Social people don't understand engineer; in reverse, engineers don't like social people, either. Listening to the debate between politicians on the radio, engineers consider it as a waste of time. They could take the time to produce some spaceship, robots and the other techi-stuff to make the world more efficiency.

How could I survive in the middle?

Monopoly accounting

Monopoly is a bad thing, according to the industry rules. The same may happen to the accounting industry. With more and more scandel in the company they audited, the Big Four don't feel comfortable though they are still enjoying the below amazing statistics:

"According to the General Accounting Office, a congressional watchdog, the “Big Four”—Deloitte & Touche, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Ernst & Young (E&Y) and KPMG—audit 97% of all public companies in America with sales over $250m. They audit more than 80% of public companies in Japan, two-thirds of those in Canada, all of Britain's 100-biggest public companies and, according to International Accounting Bulletin, they hold over 70% of the European market by fee income.-Economist"


Monday, November 22, 2004

How long google could go?

A new service called Google scholar has been introduced last week. It is aiming at scientists and academic researchers. They can look for scholarly reviewd papers there. Good idea. How large markets remain now?

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Contempt of Court, Press should take care

Facing with the possible jail of contempt of court, a journalist has chosen to keeping his promise instead of breaching of confidence.
Jim's statement
Jim Taricani, a 30-year veteran journalist,
who works for NBC's TV station in Providence, R.I, was sued for not disclosing his source of one tape about the mayor's corruption. Many media reported the action as a threat to the Freedom of Expression. But it is more important to find that if he violated the law of Contempt of Court. The mayor has already been judged into prison, which means the jurisdical result is not affected by the show of the tape. And the second, if Mr. Taricani is willing to disclose the source, will he be suede for "Breach of Confidence"?

Like ICAC case in Hong Kong, when Singtao daily sued ICAC for "offense of freedom expression", the Court of Appeal didn't consider it as a big deal. Journalists should not be always proud of the exclusive right. Even if they are on behalf of "public opinion", they should be aware that the citizens also need the other rights. Like one of the comments on Taricani's case, " Freedom of Expression is the right of every citizen, not only journalists. If they violated the court order against the other right, they should bear the consequence"

Why everyone is afraid of China?

Power, is the most frequent word I have heard after I came to Hong Kong. Hong Kong locals are afraid of Chinese power when they see China leader's visit to other countries. Foreigners are also afraid of the power when they find that China has becoming more and more agreesive in the relation with other countries. But what's is the power of China?

The Times reported on Friday that Brazil academic and officials are questioning the cooperation between China and Brazil. They have thought that China would benefit a lot from the raw material provided by Brazil, but Brazil's industry will be vulnerable. They said that China has taken a lot of FDI from latin America, also. In a word, China have already robbed, and will continute to rob Brazile's markets.

They even talked about pollution. China will bring its own polluting problem to Brazil, according to some academics.

Oppositing voice will always come out under the government policy. So does Brazil policy this time. People will consider China as another U.S., though most of them still prefer U.S. investment as a way to promote the economy. But they are used to the only superpower. No so many people blames U.S. when it starts to use the raw material and energy of the other country, because it is natural.

Media plays a big role forming the people's opinion. A veteran finicial journalist said that there are always two voices in the foreign media: one is "China's economy is becoming more and more stronger". and the other is "Chinese government is becoming worse in making up the decision". So the image for China is weird. That's why people feel afraid of. They can't control the Chinese government, while they are attracted by Chinese Economy.

" Every Chinese wants power", is that true? We need to find out, and it is still too early to get to a conclusion.

Friday, November 19, 2004

My poor Chinese media colleagues

Scientists always find good reasons to talk to people, without saying his or her hidden background and purpose. Especially in the media-sensitive market, like China, they always do so.

Chinese media reported one of the great scientists in the Internet development had visited Beijing to discuss IPv6, one of the Internet protocols, from NOV.17 th to 19th. Robert E. Kahn is one of the founders of TCP/IP protocol, which was largely reported in Chinese media at the time he visited. But nobody mentioned he is one of the director of Qualcomm, the company who is eager to enter into Chinese 3G market via CDMA2000.

No one knows the detailed schedule of Mr. Kahn. But when interviewed by Sina.com(in Chinese), he said China Unicom had done a great job in the research of IPv6. But in one former article also from Sina, Mr. Kahn would visit the academic devoting in IPv6.

Qualcomm has been a major and long-term supporter when China Unicom began to set up CDMA network in the coutry. In Qualcomm's website, it says" QUALCOMM understands that China Unicom is considering the deployment of CDMA 1x(the successor of common CDMA network) and possibly HDR for 3G".

China Unicom has just changed the CEO from Wang Jianzhou to Chang Xiaobing.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

The process of learning language

Learn a new language is not that easy. It is what I have found in Hong Kong. When you think you know it good enough, you begin to feel difficult. When you are headache about it, it begins to flatter you. I believe there must be some "language cell" fighting with each other in the brain when you learn another anguage. Finally they know how to live with others well after a hard fighting.

So are the human life. People fight with each other before they know how to adapt others. When human first developed from monkey, they fight with each other for food; After centuries, they fight with each other for everything, including money, place, famor. We are, too.

Today's class is Chinese Foreign Policy. We talked of some possibility of China's future. But my question is how people know a country's future without knowing its history. China is a country with five thousand year's cultural history, where people develop tradition, culture, and all the things in Chinese character. I would like to describe my country as a "secret" country not because they are secret, just because people can not understand. When western countries just started, China had already set up its own management system and it has worked well for thousands of years. But the internal fighting between people has made the society instable. So we had stopped for hundreds of year, where some innovative country set up in the other side of the ocean.

Talk back to languages. There was once a saying: God create different languages for humans, in order to inhibit them developing smarter than the God. So we humans need to develop ourselves beyond languages, especially in the journalism field. Suddenly, I find I should not be resisted to the difference and difficulties here. I am doing something useful.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Question to learn journalism in Hong Kong

I was once asked by a magazine's senior editor: Why you learn journalism in Hong Kong? I can see from his eyes that my answers didn't satisfy him. I began to ask myself, and then found I was not satisfied, either.
English? Who will be my future readers? I know my English is not that well as the one of native-English speaker.
News values? I am still confused by it after three-month study.
At last, I was totally confused, then silent at all the class for the whole week.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Afarat is dead, first news coming from AFP

Afarat died in Paris hospital, according to AFP. Rumors are flying in bbc radio. Nobody can confirm the news, before the official annoucenment. Sorry to hear the news.

Bush's first press conference after re-elected

From BBC
Questions:
Will you add some democratics into the counsel?
Bush:
Yes... Democratic wants a peaceful world. BTW, we has already worked together in Sep.11. It is not Republican or Democratics...

His voice is not as strong as the one in the debate. Tired after a tight election? But his answer is in two way: First, he doesn't want a peaceful world. Second, he can work together with Democratics, but the result is not that good.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Recovery and Revitalisation

How Asian, especially Chinese, discuss "Recovery and Revitaalisation" when the telecom carrier still enjoy a tremendous need in voice and data services? The eighth Asia Pacific Telecommunication Rountable, held by the Economist in Shanghai, may give an answer on Nov 11th to 12nd.
It's a pity that none of the Chinese carriers are involved in the speaker list.



Monday, November 01, 2004

Will DTT hit hackpot in EU?

Really a good news feature. It starts with Finland's struggle to get the DTT, and argues if DTT can make good money in EU.