Hey!! By that logic, we should also legalize marijuana, cocaine, heroine, and other drugs!

Quick translation, since I'm kinda in a hurry (though, c'mon, DNS-and-Bind, you've lived there for 7 years? if I remember from a previous post, and you can't speak fluent mandarin now, plus a few dialects? What have you been doing with your time?)

Anchorwoman: We will now explore the background behind these (Wifi Keys) and the hidden danger they present to internet security.
The journalist installed the Wifi Cracking kit according to the instructions, and then used the Cd-rom to open the password cracking software. After 5 seconds, the computer monitor correctly displayed 5 wireless network signals. Click on any of the networks and the computer will automatically start cracking the password. After 4 minutes, a series of numbers appears on the display.
I'm just going to freeform this bit, I'm translating background chatter, not just the subtitles. Mostly Mr. Hu and the reporter talking, I won't note who is who, but it should be kind of obvious...also, there's stuff that isn't in the subtitles, so it should flow better
Guy1: oh, this is the password (background)
Guy1: AAAAA....
Reporter: His password is 8 A's (this is the subtitle guy number 1)
Guy1: What an idiot!
Reporter: Take a look at it now, did it work?
Mr. Hu (Hu something-ying, the middle character is too low resolution), network expert at a Wuhan Guangtong Computer Technology Development company: It succeeded, we're already online.
Reporter: So we can get online directly?
Mr. Hu: Yes, we're online through his network(thanks to the key)
Here we have 4 signals, this signal isn't bad! 18megabit speeds.
Anchorwoman: The computer expert explains, the Wifi Cracking kit is essentially a just wireless card, but its ability to search out wireless networks is much stronger than normal wireless cards. What's scarier, is that it's combined with a "hacker" software program that can easily hack into other people's host machine (host computer), if this apparatus is used for nefarious purposes, it could result in computer files being accessed, privacy leaks, etc., with serious consequences.
Mr. Hu: This is a serious threat to internet security. It can reveal secrets, and interferes with security. Look, I can directly make copies of his files, copy it directly to my own computer.Anchorwoman: Wuhan network expert Mr. Hu of the XYZ company IT dept. says that reports of successful network intrusion attempts are skyrocketing. He also explains that protecting yourself is not difficult, by setting the number of user accounts or adjusting the router settings.
Mr. Hu: Turn off the DHCP on the router, then even if you access the network, you can't get online,since there's no IP address. The important thing is to do it from the router.
Anchorwoman: The phenomenon of Wifi password cracking is common outside China, regardless of the nation. Singapore considers it to be a crime, and the UK considers it illegal and you can be arrested. In China, however, there are no laws about Wifi password cracking.
Phone caller, from Hubei, works with communications related company: This thing presents two main problems. The first is password cracking. This is a security/safety problem. The other is using other people's Wifi connections for free, this is a problem of stealing access. If you check and can find evidence of.....(is cut off)

I may have cut a few corners, but that's the gist. I don't do much technical translation, but this one was light on the technical terms anyway, so if you have questions or need other stuff translated, let me know.

Lineage II and other games not on the list brace for usage spikes during those time blocks. Stockholders are braced for wads of cash to fly their way. CEOs hope new subsriptions outway the bribes they paid to keep their games off the list.

This is prohibitively expensive. Many studies in sociology and economics rely on demographic data, which is usually best provided by the census.

I just wish we had yearly data :(

Immerse yourself in the language. Write it and speak it every day. For some, this means living in the country; for others, date someone whose native language is the one you're trying to learn (and who doesn't have any other language in common with you; for example, my girlfriend speaks English, but my Chinese is much better than her English, so we always speak Chinese to each other, as it feels much more natural).

But yeah, do anything and everything that increases exposure. Flash cards are just one way. Set interfaces in Chinese, watch stuff with Chinese subtitles, etc. After spending a few summers in China, and spending much of my time with Chinese graduate students here (and having a Chinese girlfriend....), I often find myself thinking in Chinese, or mentally translating from Chinese into English, or pirating things with Chinese subtitles because it's faster for me to read Chinese subtitles.

I would expect this to be done in 3D, with mad special effects and CGI, sort of like Avatar in Middle-Earth.

If done well, that wouldn't be a bad thing :D

This isn't a problem. They are closing down the localized version of Google.cn only. Unless the Powers That Be decide to completely block access to Google.com (individual content wouldn't be blocked unless it was "objectionable", and most content on Google Scholar is decidedly apolitical), Chinese scholars can just use the English version. Many of them have decent English, or have access to grad students with decent English. So again, no big loss unless they somehow lose access to the English Google scholar as well.

Before I get modded troll, consider he does actually have a point. Openness and free exchange of information are serious threats to social stability in China (which is, as others have pointed out, what Google does best). China watched the fall of the Soviet Union as a result of glasnost and perestroika. They are eager to avoid the same mistake, as the costs of social instability (both human and economic) would be far too high, for the country, its people, and not least themselves.

This isn't about Tiananmen or the Great Leap Forward, which are pretty much open secrets. It's about suppressing free flow of information, and maintaining control over all mediums of information exchange. They had control of the traditional media, phones, SMS, etc. The internet is another beast. Finding out and sharing information about corruption and other major shortfalls is far too easy with an open, uncensored internet. They don't want peasants knowing too much about local corruption, and when they do know, they don't want them to be able to organize or share this information. Censorship is a key component; allowing criticism of the government even on such now-unimportant bygones as the Great Leap Forward would potentially open the floodgates on new criticism on issues that could result in instability.

So, Li is right. In order to suppress dissent, they must maintain control and continue censoring. Whether you think the cost imposed by censorship and lack of free speech is greater than the potential losses from any resulting social instability is another matter entirely. Many Chinese think, and I often agree, that while the Chinese government is too sensitive right now, maintaining a stable environment for economic growth is a bigger priority than free speech. The farmers I talked to in Shandong and Jilin also agreed- they know they're getting shafted in comparison to urban dwellers, but they're still doing better than at any time in history, and would rather not lose their chance at a new fridge, air conditioning, and a TV in return for some abstract ideas about freedom to criticize the government. In their minds, censorship and its evils are the lesser evil, when compared to potential civil strife.

Most educated Chinese are well aware, and really don't care that much about the Mao years. Same party, different leadership. American parallel: The Civil War killed more Americans than pretty much all other wars combined to date, since it was Americans vs Americans on American soil. At the time, Lincoln was in charge, and he was a Republican (which used to be the "good" party- Democrats and Republicans sorta swapped platforms in the 1960s as a result of the Civil Rights movement).

So new boss, very different from the old boss. They don't give a fuck if the Chinese know about 6/4 or the Great Leap Forward. But stopping censorship would open up the floodgates of freedom of speech and criticism. Peasants don't know and don't care about history. They do know that the local party officials are corrupt, and that many of them are getting shafted. An uncensored, free internet would be a great way for them to learn more,share stories, and organize. It would be an amazing platform for the criticism of the communist party.

It's not even the Central party they'd be criticizing; many Chinese adore Grandpa Hu and Grandpa Wen. The local party officials are another thing altogether, especially in rural areas.

While this works well for the more widely-spoken languages (Western/European Languages, Chinese, Japanese), I suspect there is a massive drop-off for some of the less common languages, especially those for languages spoken in countries less connected to the internet. The article mentioned they feed the algorithm human translations from the EU and UN proceedings; what about less-common Asian languages, the Indian subcontinent languages, central Asian languages? The volume simply doesn't exist.
Where the volume does exist, what about Russian and Korean, which are dominated by Yandex and Naver? Might be interesting to run a comparison, but unfortunately all the languages I speak are covered fairly well by Google at this point :(

FTFA: 1.3 trillion pounds, or 600 million tons. Dividing by 2*10^3 shouldn't be that difficult.

Then again, this is Slashdot, nobody ever reads TFA!

I'm not fluent in Chinese law (yet, though I plan to be someday), but there are large numbers of Western lawyers who are. And I'm sure Google and the US government employ many of these.

I have noticed no changes. Searching in Chinese version still provides "All pages" "All Chinese pages" "All Simplified Chinese pages" as options, with "All pages" as default, regardless of language query.

The English version of Google helpfully suggests "Search English pages only" when entering a Chinese search term, with no "Written in any language" options available on the top of the search page (still available in options). When entering German search terms, same results as English search terms. Same for Russian and other non-Roman alphabets.

I would say it's bias, in that Americans generally only speak English, and don't ask for targeted language results, whereas users of localized version might have an interest in language options.

You're doing it wrong. Search for Falun Gong in Chinese, Baidu functions completely normally, returning all the relevant results. Google.com(English, using Chinese search terms) and Baidu naturally return different results; but the Chinese results are much better! They provide much more useful information regarding the evil cult that is Falun Gong! Sort of like how searching Google for Scientology provides nasty, biased, Scientology-backed and funded apologist propaganda, but China helpfully censors that nasty pro-cult crap, leaving you with the truth!

Piracy brought Anime to America, and sustains other markets as well, where Japanese prices are too high (China, Taiwan: manga insanely popular, but everyone buys pirates versions or reads scanlations online). The producers of manga and anime do so primarily for the Japanese market, which remains highly profitable. Unless the Japanese start pirating, the industry will do fine, and keep producing. Manga and anime needs to be as popular overseas as it is in Japan for traditional print distribution or dubbing studios to be profitable. The only places besides Japan where manga is that popular is China/Taiwan/Korea, and they have the same piracy issues as America, since noone there wants to pay for inferior service (long wait times and poor voice acting), compared to the superiority of fans who do it for the love of the medium.

Bottom line: Overseas production companies are going to hemmorhage money.

Also, I'm not crying about this. Fans do an awesome job of translating. There are far more fansubs and fan translations available than official licensed translations. Where they do buy rights to huge series, the pirated version has been out long before. I don't want to wait months for some company to wade through licensure and waiting for completed books; I happily read it the day it comes out in Japan, as it is usually scanned and translated within 3 hours, tops. Most fan translations do a great job, and I hate dubs with a passion. Why on earth should I pay for the DVD or a bound book?

Plus, the intersection of the anime/manga crowd and the geek crowd is a fairly large set. We're not stupid, and know how to use the internet(s) to get what we want.