🛬 Wheels down Shanghai. Only 4 hours late which is classed as on-time in China 😜
Let’s try again. Boarding for second time, let’s hope we make it to Shanghai.
I hope they can keep their Flux under control this time.
Only in China can you board a flight on time, sit on the plane for an hour and then be told to disembark as there are air traffic control delays.
When I landed in Xi’an I saw these Take a nap boxes. Let’s hope my boss doesn’t come up with cost saving ideas after seeing them! Actually at 30RMB/hour they are not exactly cheap.
From the picture it looks quite comfortable and could well be a better standard than my normal business trip hotel!
If I can find them in the departure area of the airport on Friday, I think my curiosity will get the better of me.
Come to think of it, this could be a great escape room from a nagging wife!
Wheels down 🛬 Xi’an
I am just leaving home to go on my first business trip since returning to China. I am headed to the ancient city of Xi’an I sincerely hope this trip lasts it’s intended length.
Duff Beer portrait, taken with my iPhone. I’m quite pleased with the outcome. The beer was good too!
When I first got back to my apartment complex after my 14 days quarantine, I observed an unmanned food cart at the entrance. Over the last few weeks I have seen these carts at subway station entrances in the morning. They looked interesting but I had never seen one moving until yesterday.
First I should say that I live next to Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in the Pudong District of Shanghai. Across the street from my apartment complex is the Pudong Software Park where I often take my dogs for a walk because in the middle is a nice lake where the dogs can enjoy sniffing and running around.
Yesterday as we headed towards the park, I observed one of these unmanned food carts, but it was actually an autonomous unmanned food cart. As you can see in the video below, it is oblivious to the red light, not only at the pedestrian crossing, but also at the main junction. When I shared the video with my friend, he said it must have been programmed by a cyclist because the cyclist is also ignoring the red lights (which is pretty normal in China to be honest).
So it looks like they have a lot more work to do on the software before these are allowed to freely roam around the city.
And there it goes, big rain on my day off.
My dogs let me sleep in an extra hour this morning. Sometimes I think they understand me more than I give them credit for.
🐶 This is what happens when you all want the rope…
I got this email this morning. Looks like I can finally quit my job! 😜
After a year of using Acronis True Image with the cloud storage option, I have decided to switch back to using Arq to backup data to both my Drobo 5N2 and Wasabi Object Storage.
Although Acronis True Image did the job, I just didn’t find it easy or speedy to use. That may of course be due to the internet connection here in China. I also cannot help but think it is becoming bloatware with it’s new ransomeware detection features and so on. The personal version also lacks some of the advanced features available in the business version, perhaps I expect too much and I am just not the target audience for them.
What backup tools do you all use?
Researchers have demonstrated that they can make a working 3D-printed copy of a key just by listening to how the key sounds when inserted into a lock. And you don’t need a fancy mic — a smartphone or smart doorbell will do nicely if you can get it close enough to the lock.
🔗Researchers Can Duplicate Keys from the Sounds They Make in Locks
This is wild!
Sounds like a neighbour is decorating. Constant drilling and banging for the last hour.
The joys of Shanghai apartment living.
Since I was away in Germany, the German supermarket chain ALDI has opened more locations in Shanghai. I guess it’s possible that some were opened beforehand but I only knew of one across the river in Puxi. Now I have one nearby and can place home delivery orders via WeChat!
I have no idea why, but after I came home from the Whisky L! Show, Benny decides to sit with her butt on my head!
This sunset was taken in Rizhao, Shandong Province back in August 2012. Not the best of photos, but not bad for an iPhone of the time and it appears I was leaning out of a taxi! @odd
Harry on his new naughty chair! 🐶
Bath time for Harry 🐕
I’ve been quiet lately. I am finding a day of work in the heat and humidity along with the commute really tiring. Maybe I should just face the fact that I’m getting old.
Sadly, this first week back in the office has me working on Saturday. I now miss Germany!
These are some cool photos from yesterday’s storm in Shanghai:
Lightning rods on the Oriental Pearl Tower and other skyscrapers in Shanghai "attract" lightning as thunderstorm looms over the city. pic.twitter.com/TlOLnlEik3
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) August 11, 2020
The view from our apartment during dinner. Such beautiful and clear skies for a change!
Today is my first day in the Shanghai office since January. I wonder if I still have a desk?
The block was put in place at the end of July and is enforced via China’s Great Firewall.
🔗China is now blocking all encrypted HTTPS traffic that uses TLS 1.3 and ESNI | ZDNet
This isn’t a nice welcome back home. I don’t know how many sites implement TLS 1.3 and ESNI but it seems many countries want to have more control over the internet. If we are not careful we will end up with _CountryNets_with premium insecure monitored tunnels for external connections.