Who's really helping the terrorists?..

I have that habit I sometimes feel really ashamed of. There's no point in trying to conceal it, it still shows, like the proverbial needle in the sack. I mean that I read the news. And what's worse, I think while reading...

Taming the iPhone — Starting from the basics

So I bought the iPhone. It was China Unicom 32 Gb iPhone 3GS. I will not write about the box contents — it's pretty much the same all over the world (by the way, that handsfree thingy works really good with Mac Book Pro's audio jack, iTunes remote and all) — it was beaten to death before me. Let's cut to the chase.

Taming the iPhone — The Prelude

As you have probably heard, Apple has launched their famous phone in China. At the time of launch there were millions of iPhone users already — Hong Kong was the primary source of those for quite some time now, for both jailbroken and legit devices (they were selling iPhones without carrier lock for quite some time now). My wife was dreaming about the gadget since it was launched… So when iPhone 3GS was launched in Hong Kong we tried to buy it.

Of course we were not that lucky. The damned device was permanently out of stock. As my trips to Hong Kong at company's expense were about to end I had to look at other options… and by that weird coincidence Apple decided to launch the phone in China just at that time, so we decided to wait and see what will come out of this.

The launch happened in the middle of the autumn. If I remember correctly, it was October 30th or something like that. Suddenly there were "There's an app for this!" ads everywhere on TV… and not much else. No queues at the local Apple retailers and carrier offices. No oversized ads. No hype on the 'net.

Next day after the launch we were walking through the city center and, passing the local equivalent of the Apple Shop, saw the ad for the 3GS. Naturally we went inside… and there it was. 6999 yuan for 32 gigabyte. That's about US$ 1010. Naturally we got two because I was fed up with all the syncing problems I had with my TyTN II and MacBook Pro. And such was the beginning of Chinese iPhone saga…

Some more factory photos...

Here is a photo from one of the factories I work with...

Safety, law and disorder

As I mentioned before for many, many times, I'm doing quality control. Now, if your country is something more visible on map than Tuvalu, it's bound to have certification requirements for all things electrical. If it does not... well, consider emigration to somewhere where government at least tries to impose some safety requirements on the stuff. But I digress (as usual).

Maybe some years before they would be happy if the samples provided for certification won't short-circuit on you, but now it's much more complicated.You have to send the samples still, but they'll also send people to the factory that produced them. And woe befall those who try to cheat the system...

And now the time has come for me to have my (unfair, if you ask me) share of this. Day after tomorrow the Earth will freeze... no, wait... two guys from Belorussia certification authority will come to see whether two of our partners are good enough (in terms of quality control) to supply their products to their country.

Now, I know that they're good (the factories, I mean). And our boss knows it. And even those guys know it. But all the same I'll have to go through the motions and waste a week or so of my time kowtowing to them instead of doing real work...

Finally they see the light!

Browsing BBC website I came upon this article. Finally them analysts started to acknowledge that janitors and social workers worth more than bankers and lawyers. In other words, they (finally!) understood that people doing real hard work need to be paid more and parasites paid less.

You know, there's something inherently unfair in our consumerist, post-capitalism society. All media teach us that hard work is stupid and the only thing worth fighting for is fame and easy money. If you are ready to humiliate yourself on TV, you can become that peculiar thing called celebrity. Otherwise you are nobody. We have taken the path to evolutionary dead end.

As I watch TV or read the news, I see more and more modern shamans, fortunetellers, religious zealots who come strait from Dark Ages. Everything is being dumbed down, cut to small, easy-to-swallow pieces. Western society is happily embracing that monkey within which tells us to stop thinking and just follow that alpha male (Or female. Or some gender-confused alpha... being).

It takes ugly forms sometimes. In my country there's a TV show where some self-proclaimed healer (plumber or handyman by trade) teaches people how to cure everything from pimples to diabetes via magic of urine therapy. There are plenty of dead bodies already, but that show is still on air.

Western TV seems to be dominated by the same sort of crap. We are being fed the same old bullshit over and over, only more sex and crap and gore is added each time (the monkey within just loves sex and filth!). More and more humanoid mannequins are famous for being famous (White House party gatecrashers anyone?), being empty nothings otherwise.

I hope that the report I mentioned above will make people think. Think about the value they can bring to the society. Think about being somebody who does the real work, not being a parasite. Make them remember the fate of the Eloi in H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine". They were just cattle for ugly (but hard-working!) Morloks...

And now for something completely... political

It looks like I've been lost for blogging for 2 months exactly. That's what you get when you have your boss coming to visit your quiet little village... but that's not what I wanted to tell the world about.

You  see, I have that stupid way of wasting my time... I read the RSS feed off the BBC World News site. Sometimes it's boring (Who in his right ming would read all that stuff about India and Sri Lanka battling each other in the cricket game?), sometimes it's disturbing... and sometimes it's just plain stupid and offensive.

What I talk about is this article. Somehow British journalism has developed a strict rule of reporting on anything that concerns Russia: "Be biased!". Whenever there are news about Russia, you can count on BBC to say something about Georgia, Ukraine or some obscure little 'rights activist' and other nonsense.

It is in no way bad that they can tell the story from the point of view of Ukraine, or Georgia, or whatever else. Offensive part is when you realize that they never care to tell the other side of the story. The Russian side.

Take that poor country called Georgia. I remember the outcry n Western media when they started the war in August 2008. My country was portrayed as agressor, trying to conquer 'little proud democracy' and violating basic Georgia rights (rights to genocide, I presume). Nobody even asked one simple question: What for? We definitely do not need more Georgian people (half of them live in Russia, it seems), they do not have anything we need and the last thing we needed was another war. Oh, and we are not (and I'm afraid we never were) that monstrous Russian Bear that wishes to eradicate all those who dare to think 'freely'. The truth is, the bear just wants to live in peace without fighting with anyone.

But will the world let us be ourselves?..

Divorces are messy business.

It happens. Seemingly perfect couple splits and they start dividing everything, from bank account to children to cutlery to roaches in the trash can. Everybody is left bitter, unhappy and with that peculiar aftertaste of faeces.

It is the same between countries. If you look at all the rhetoric that politicians of Ukraine, Baltic states, Georgia or Poland spew at Russia, it leaves you with image of bitchy ex-wife that is unable to get on with her own life. Come on, people, get over it already! You are independent now so act like it! Stop blaming us for everything and just get on with your life!