"Can you hear me now?"
There was an earthquake in Taiwan a couple of nights ago. We barely felt it here in Zhongshan. We were all in the office, working on respective projects, when I suddenly felt a little vertigo.
I turned to Sienna, "Is it just me, or is the building shaking?" I asked.
She waited for a moment, "Yeah it is," she said.
"Uh oh, it's an earthquake" Andy said, facicously. "We better start running around in cirlcles."
"You do that," I said, "I'll light the furnature on fire and push it over the balcony."
We had just complained to the landlord of a clogged drain, and we assumed that the rocking of the building was due to the building crew having it out with the underground pipes. It was an easy mistake, as we all knew China still had a lot to learn about architechture, engineering, and foundations (and plumbing).
Over the next few hours, though, I noticed the internet was acting funny. And when I say "acting funny," what I mean is "not there."
I didn't worry about it all that much. Our computers are ad hoc constructs of factory rejected parts that have been Frankensteined together by Andy and his McGuyver-like prowess with chewing gum and lotus leaves. So, when something goes ker-flunky, it's usually just a matter of waiting a few minutes, maybe hitting a reset button or two, and everything will be back to "normal" eventually.
But, the problem persisted. Until we noticed two things; A) Chinese websites were loading perfectly, and b) Google.com was loading perfectly. Everything else was coming up as "connection timed out" or "server reset," which usually means "Censored by China."
So, now we're starting to panic a bit. We tried a dozen web sites. Nothing. We started making up .com names that we new had to be out there, like "dirtbusters.com" or "freelegaladivice.com" and the like. Still nothing.
"Oh my god," I said, "They finally done it, they've censored the world." This assumtion was an easy leap from the news I had heard the day before: China has declared their meteorlogical data as a matter of national security. Meaning, anyone that gives information on China's climate changes to anyone outside China get's the privilage of serving the people at a Re-Education Camp. (By the way, it's getting a little chilly over here. Can someone send me a sweater?)
But the news finally came through to us; There actually was an earthquake, and it tore apart all of the underwater cables between China and Taiwan, efectively cutting China's international communication pipelines in half.
And now, with half the bandwidth to work with, China Telecom is giving priority to established businesses, putting small businesses and residents in the back of the queue. So, it wasn't that the pages weren't loading, they were just loading so slow that Firefox decided they weren't worth it.
Current estimates are 3-5 days before the cables are repaired. I'm going stir-crazy, because while we're waiting for this to get fixed, I've got no way to read the news, download my podcasts, or even get my daily crossword from Yahoo Games.
And yet, here I am. You're probably wondering how I'm able to update ye olde blog with no access to the outside world. As I mentioned before, Google.com was among the websites that loaded just fine along with the local Chinese websites. And I'm not talking about Google.cn, I mean the good old American Google.COM.
Somehow, (and I'm no 1337 so I've got no way of knowing how it works) Google is the one ".com" that didn't let us down. All hail the great and powerful "Goog." Somebody buy those guys a pizza.
This matters because blogspot.com and blogger.com are both owned by Google, and therefore my only means of communication at this time. My international phone line was VoIP based, and so it is kaput until China and Taiwan start talking to each other again.
TTFN
I turned to Sienna, "Is it just me, or is the building shaking?" I asked.
She waited for a moment, "Yeah it is," she said.
"Uh oh, it's an earthquake" Andy said, facicously. "We better start running around in cirlcles."
"You do that," I said, "I'll light the furnature on fire and push it over the balcony."
We had just complained to the landlord of a clogged drain, and we assumed that the rocking of the building was due to the building crew having it out with the underground pipes. It was an easy mistake, as we all knew China still had a lot to learn about architechture, engineering, and foundations (and plumbing).
Over the next few hours, though, I noticed the internet was acting funny. And when I say "acting funny," what I mean is "not there."
I didn't worry about it all that much. Our computers are ad hoc constructs of factory rejected parts that have been Frankensteined together by Andy and his McGuyver-like prowess with chewing gum and lotus leaves. So, when something goes ker-flunky, it's usually just a matter of waiting a few minutes, maybe hitting a reset button or two, and everything will be back to "normal" eventually.
But, the problem persisted. Until we noticed two things; A) Chinese websites were loading perfectly, and b) Google.com was loading perfectly. Everything else was coming up as "connection timed out" or "server reset," which usually means "Censored by China."
So, now we're starting to panic a bit. We tried a dozen web sites. Nothing. We started making up .com names that we new had to be out there, like "dirtbusters.com" or "freelegaladivice.com" and the like. Still nothing.
"Oh my god," I said, "They finally done it, they've censored the world." This assumtion was an easy leap from the news I had heard the day before: China has declared their meteorlogical data as a matter of national security. Meaning, anyone that gives information on China's climate changes to anyone outside China get's the privilage of serving the people at a Re-Education Camp. (By the way, it's getting a little chilly over here. Can someone send me a sweater?)
But the news finally came through to us; There actually was an earthquake, and it tore apart all of the underwater cables between China and Taiwan, efectively cutting China's international communication pipelines in half.
And now, with half the bandwidth to work with, China Telecom is giving priority to established businesses, putting small businesses and residents in the back of the queue. So, it wasn't that the pages weren't loading, they were just loading so slow that Firefox decided they weren't worth it.
Current estimates are 3-5 days before the cables are repaired. I'm going stir-crazy, because while we're waiting for this to get fixed, I've got no way to read the news, download my podcasts, or even get my daily crossword from Yahoo Games.
And yet, here I am. You're probably wondering how I'm able to update ye olde blog with no access to the outside world. As I mentioned before, Google.com was among the websites that loaded just fine along with the local Chinese websites. And I'm not talking about Google.cn, I mean the good old American Google.COM.
Somehow, (and I'm no 1337 so I've got no way of knowing how it works) Google is the one ".com" that didn't let us down. All hail the great and powerful "Goog." Somebody buy those guys a pizza.
This matters because blogspot.com and blogger.com are both owned by Google, and therefore my only means of communication at this time. My international phone line was VoIP based, and so it is kaput until China and Taiwan start talking to each other again.
TTFN
posted by The Infinite Jester at 1:43 AM
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