Remember last month when Baidu was hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army?

Well, Domain Name Wire explains the hi-tech coding techniques used to perpertrate the crime:

Here’s how Baidu alleges the hacker got access to one of the world’s most popular web sites domain name account in under an hour:

1. Hacker starts online chat session with Register.com representative, claiming to be an agent of Baidu.

2. Register.com representative asks hacker to provide verification information. Hacker provides invalid information, but Register.com goes ahead and e-mails a security code to the email address it has on file for Baidu anyway.

3. The hacker doesn’t have access to that e-mail address, so he/she relays a bogus security code to the Register.com representative via chat. Baidu claims the representative didn’t bother to compare the code to the actual one.

4. Hacker asks Register.com representative to change email address on file to antiwahabi2008@gmail.com, and representative does.

5. Hacker now uses “forgot password” link at Register.com to request the username and password to the account. Hacker can then log in and change the name servers.

Baidu is currently suing Register.com but they could have simply avoided this whole debacle by paying a few extra  dollars a year for increased domain security. After all they do rely on their website being available for their core business. But it’s easier to blame it on the idiocy of a Register.com tech support guy.

The Shanghaiist reports about a KFC outlet in Hong Kong serving food out of the trash.  Apparently the staff, eager to to get home early, would stop kitchen operations, throw away all leftover food, and start cleaning up before the restaurant closes. Unfortunately,  if an unlucky customer would enter the establishment at that time then he would be served food right out of the can. For a short video and some pictures check out the above link.

This gives a whole new meaning to the words Junk Food.

The Cat has even gone one step further and took the time to translate it, as follows:

Make haste to Somalia, cruise the Gulf of Aden
With lofty sentiments, the Chinese navy heads for the deep blue
Braving wind and waves, the warship’s flag flutters, The Chinese navy, a bright sword to harmonize the ocean.

Chinese warriors, valiant men with iron wills,
Intrepid journey, 600 years after Zheng He.
Heroic sailors, forge bravely ahead,
Bearing heavy responsibility, the motherland will see our triumphant return.

Play it loud, dont play it low. Blow your speakers!

MUL Adds: Borrowing media relations tactics from the U.S. in Iraq, they even embedded a reporter with the ship!

The register is reporting that China is about to take measures to clamp down on lip-synching:

China’s ministry of culture has announced a clampdown on miming professional musos, marking an end to lip-synching and fake guitar strumming…

…the new regs will not affect amateur performers such as Lin Miaoke, who famously mimed Ode to the Motherland at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

The ministry’s Sun Qiuxia said it would first “consult with the public over the next few weeks, before agreeing final details of new rules on commercial performances”.

Nator, in case you were worried, the new regulations will not apply to Air guitar, so we are definitely still on for next Friday!

As reported by Ars Technica:

Those who are using pirated versions of Windows—particularly those in China—are getting riled up over Microsoft’s latest tactic to “encourage” them to purchase legit copies. The software giant recently began issuing an update that changes users’ desktop backgrounds to a black wallpaper with a reminder to switch to a legal copy of Windows as part of the Windows Office Genuine Advantage program. Now, Chinese users in particular are getting up in arms over the tactic, saying that Microsoft is violating their rights and isn’t thinking of its users.

How dare they!

It’s worth pointing out that the update wasn’t just issued in China—it was released to XP users across the globe who have opted to allow Internet updates from Microsoft. However, Microsoft says that there has been little outcry in other parts of the world, with Chinese users apparently alone in their angst. And angsty they are. “Why is Microsoft automatically connected with my computer? The computer is mine!” one commenter wrote on Sina.com

So let me get this straight. Users are upset because their stolen unpaid for copy of Windows is reminding them that their copy is not legit, because they downloaded the latest Microsoft Genuine Advantage update, which is completely voluntary. I am confused. Why didn’t they listen to the guy at Hailong that told them to turn off the automatic updates.

A few other sections in the article caught my attention:

Still, upsetting what could potentially be Microsoft’s largest software market could turn out to be a bad move…

it could add to Microsoft’s troubles in monetizing a huge market with a proven appetite for its software.

A proven appetite indeed, but for fake unpaid for software.  Let’s do the math. Let’s say a half of Microsoft in China users now get a black screen on their computer, and of those a quarter decide to switch to another operating system. Microsoft’s net loss would be: 50% x 25% x 0$ = 0$ .

China may decide it’s fed up with Microsoft’s antics and either try and build its own software solution or make a serious investment in other, open source options, practical or not.

Good luck!

China has “successfully” explored this path before: WAPI instead of WiFI, their own version of RFID, TD-SCDMA their own 3G standard. Why would someone pay for such a software solution when they can get free copies of Windows?

But the worst part is that, after the very first time I am actually on Microsoft’s side, they go on and do this:

Microsoft, of course, has already begun to do damage control on Chinese users’ reactions to the blackouts. “We are extremely grateful for our users’ attention. At the same time, we believe there are numerous misunderstandings about the Windows Office Genuine Advantage program,”Microsoft wrote in an open letter to its Chinese users, published on Sina.com

The story of Chinese astronauts conducting their first ever space walk has been all over the news today.

China catapulted itself into the upper reaches of space science yesterday, becoming only the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to successfully conduct a spacewalk.

Sorry but I fail to see all the excitement, what exactly is the big deal?

It appears that astronaut Zhai is only the 298th person in the world to have conducted a space walk. There were no scientific or technological breakthroughs being made.

Seems to fall a little short of those black holes being made in Switzerland.

Police in South China have reportedly arrested nine suspects for murdering elderly or infirm villagers and selling their bodies.

The corpse-selling operation was designed to help wealthy families to avoid having to cremate their relatives.

Cremation is mandatory in most areas of Guangdong. Proper burials, traditionally an important sign of Confucian filial piety, were outlawed by the Communist Party in many areas in order to conserve farmland and avoid superstition.

Families who bought corpses from the group swapped them with their own relatives and sent them off for cremation. They could then bury their loved ones in secret.

As many as 400 people may have been killed, according to Apple Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper which conducted an investigation into the practice.

Just took this photo with my cell phone on the way to lunch.

A London black cab with Beijing colors colours…

NATOR ADDS: China Car Times had some info on this back in May.

ODB ADDS: I know Israel was also testing these cabs out a few years ago, as they are supposed to be more secure with the driver being in a separate compartment from the passengers.

It seems Ha’aretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, shares some of our views on the opening ceremony. Here are a few excerpts:

I should have been excited, but I wasn’t. I sat a few dozen meters from the track at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium and was one of the 91,000 lucky individuals who had tickets for the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games, an event that dozens of millions of Chinese and many other millions around the world would have loved to attend.

…

Still, from where I sat, the ceremony looked soulless. No doubt, the production was grandiose and the ceremony rich in color, but it was somewhat schematic and mechanical, even a touch militaristic.

Note: In the original Hebrew article (which was much better), the words “maybe even fascist” appeared after the word militaristic.

In my opinion there were two emotional moments that stood out. The first was when giant Chinese basketball player Yao Ming walked alongside a little Chinese boy who barely reached his knees. The second was when members of the Spanish delegation started to dance while circling the stadium, ignoring the pleas of Chinese organizers that they complete their round.

…

Yimou was quoted in the ceremony’s program as saying his aim was to put together a happy event. Going by Friday’s final product, he failed.  

“This isn’t the first time this has happened and it doesn’t surprise me anymore,” Olympic Committee of Israel General Secretary Efraim Zinger told The Jerusalem Post.

“My heart goes out to the Iranian athletes. In the Athens Olympics one of their sportsmen, who was a gold medal favorite, had to pull out because he was drawn against an Israeli.”

“There’s no place for this kind of behavior in the Olympic movement and it’s a shame it continues.”