The Chinese government tried pushing Linux in the past, research “Red Flag” Linux. It was a failure. I only saw it once. I happened to be in a shop in Xian and I saw it on a computer. Before I could comment on it the sales man assured me that if I purchased the computer they would put a copy of Windows on it “so it could be useful.”

As others have commented, Linux is competing with free copies of Windows. Further, it lacks the games that the Chinese want (also free).

Free as in speech has no ring to the Chinese ear. The issue is broken down to choosing between two flavours of free beer.

I will also point out that weight loss was not the only goal. i also wanted to build up my arms and shoulders. In all the regimen worked well. I definitely was getting more positive attention from the young women in the office and the men were treating me different too, in a better way. I was no longer just the nice guy who had the ability, and the willingness, to help anyone out ( a classic "Bob").

  I was the nice guy who had the ability, and the willingness, to help anyone out who, no one doubted, could punch though a wall if I wanted to. In an aggressive culture it mattered. I really did continue being the same person; but, people stopped acting like I was a pushover. Like I said, it also went over well with the younger office women too (and really, why else do we care about our waist to shoulder ratio?)..

It certainly does fly in that face with most recommendations about weight loss. There is no magic bullet, and certainly not one that will work in most offices. That is why I think it needs to be combined with cardio, like riding a bicycle to work. The problem is that there just isn't much, as far as long, low intensity, workouts that work well in a real office environment.

That being said, I found the boxing to be good for keeping my general activity level higher at work. Weight loss does not only occur during intense activity, it also is increased by raising your activity level. The reality is that workplace fitness needs to be something you can do for 3-5 minutes; no, that is not ideal for weight loss. However, it becomes part of the process.

BTW, I went from 229 to 185 ( I am 5'6", the goal is 175)

At my last position I was able to put a punching bag in the hall next to my office. The nice thing about a punching bag is that just a few minutes is a good amount of time, unlike things like a treadmill that are low intensity but are used for long intervals

I think the boxing equipment also added to my "reputation" at work. It worked well for me and my personality becuae I am a real nice, helpfull, type; but, it is something you may want to weigh. In my case it halped add ballance to the personality I presented, if you are already a agressive type it may make you look like a hothead, if you are a real quiet type it may leave people thinking you are going to go postal.

At my new position, I havn't been here long enough for stuff "start showing up" so I just do some pushups now and again. I also cycle to work.

The trouble with that idea is that there are almost no entry level teaching positions. I have well over ten years of hardware experience, starting in Copier, and fax, repair and moving on to networked printers with a stint in network administration. I then went back to college and got my MBA with the intent of teaching. After that I spent four years teaching in a college in China so that I would have experience teaching college age students.

It turned out that thee are, simply, no jobs for teachers other than STEM. BTW, there are no entry level jobs for 45 year old MBAs' in "business"occupations either. So far, with over two months of searching daily, the only job offers I have gotten are as an entry level security guard.

Interestingly enough, even Canada ranks as more dangerous (in terms of gum related homicides) than Zimbabwe.

I am also in China. By the way, I just sent an email to my alternate gmail address. It went through just fine.

That being said, google has been throttled for months. I am able to search using google HK; but, if I try to follow a search result I cannot. I just times out. This has more to do with trying to push users to the Chinese brand product competitor, Biadu, than with censorship.

What to website fails to capture is economic censorship. This is the restricting of bandwidth in order to push users to domestic services. The target website is still accessible; but, it works poorly. This has the effect of pushing users to domestically owned competitors.

An example would be Google. While Google is accessible much of the time, and note that I did not say all of the time, following links from Google is often impossible. This has the effect of pushing users to Baidu, an underdeveloped Google clone that is popular, and owned in, China.

Another example is Photobucket. While the website in the article claims it is no censored, it is not usable. Links between pages do not work so it is impossible to sign in and pictures can only be accessed by typing in their exact URL. While it will return a ping, it is not being given enough bandwidth to function properly. The restrictions on social websites, such as this, are not purely political. They are also driven by an attempt to push all traffic to the domestically owned (and really poor in usability) q-zone.

The articles website fails to capture the entire problem and fails to understand that the problem is not just politics. It is, as is seen so often elsewhere too, business colluding with government.

The biggest problems that I see are that the electronic voting, as it is currently done, is not anonymous and takes significantly more manpower to process.

I filled out my absentee forms, scanned them (really I took a picture of them with my digital camera), and emailed them to the county clerk. She then sent me an email stating that they have been received and, when printed, were legible.

It worked well; but, as stated, if many people were to do this the system would choke. It would also not work well for people who are afraid of having others see their ballot choices.

It is not available in P.R. China through any authorized channel. Even if it were, it would be edited to nothing. The real odd thing to me is that it has recently been featured in the national student newspaper (21'st Century) in a two page spread . The article was mostly an attempt to explain the program and to help students understand the names.

What I found interesting was that there was a full two page article on a program that is not even officially available and contains a significant amount of material that would be censored even if it were available. All that being said, it is not popular with the Chinese students that I know. The plot is too complicated for the male students and it is too violent, and overtly sexual, for the female students. However, it seems to be popular with many of the westerners here; further, considering that the article was written, I expect it is popular with some Chinese, just not here.

Its right above the product description. [quote]Firearms may only be shipped to a licensed dealer (FFL Holder).[/quote]

You don't entirely get it, acknowledging the attacks feeds into the official line that China is always under attack.

China is an extremely nationalistic country that continually repeats to its people "China is a very poor country that is under constant attack and must continually allow the Government to provide for its defense at any cost." Thus, any opposition to the Government is seen as actions against The Nation in the face of the enemy.

As a teacher this is the one I run into.

At my school the students have a dedicated chat room for each class. live chats can be conducted, messages can be posted and files can be posted (there are some other features, like group voice chat too). Yet, when I post an assignment or a class instruction (unless it is a "class canceled" posting) about half of the students say they didn't see it.

If I want them to do something, about the only thing that really works is to hand them a piece of paper and read the paper to them. This isn't because they can not read, it is about eliminating excuses.

This is precisely what will happen in my house. My wife will buy it because she morally equates the piracy with stealing. Then she will run into some issue, like wanting to play when the internet connection is down; or, God only knows what.

At that point she will tell me to make it work. I will tell her that to make it work in need to download a pirated version.
She will give some vague answer that translates to, "I don't what to hear how you do it, I only want to hear that it is working!"

This has happened before, it will happen again.

Actually, I am in P.R. China; so, if I saw someone running around with what looked like a rifle, and he wasn't obviously police or security, I would assume that he was playing airsoft.