Astonishingly perhaps, most of China’s computer infrastructure is still running Windows XP, nearly 5 years after all support from Microsoft ended, rendering it more and more open to attack. The above picture was taken in a Liuzhou branch of the Bank of China, just days ago. Most ATMs are still using XP as are many […]
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m mentioning it again because it’s getting worse. If I counted correctly, the underground shopping mall full of cheap crap under Longcheng road in the city centre has 13 escalators. For weeks now, the majority don’t work. They claim they are broken, but I don’t believe them. At present only […]
At the heart of Liuzhou’s most modern general hospital, Liuzhou Peoples’ Hospital, is their computer network system which handles appointments, patients’ medical records, prescription dispensing etc. Most importantly, (from the socialism with Chinese characteristics point of view) was that patients could no longer pay before being attended to. No pay. No doctor. At 5:00 […]
This evening, Guangxi Early Warning Centre, sent a text message to all cell phones in the area. It reads: 【广西预警中心】炎热暑假，未成年人溺水易发，请您监护好孩子。如您发现有小孩在危险水域游泳、戏水，请主动劝告制止，防止溺水事故发生。 Roughly translated it means In the hot summer vacation, minors are prone to be attracted to water. Please monitor your child. If you find that children are swimming in dangerous waters and or playing in […]
My internet connection has just been restored after 26 hours of down time. This was caused entirely by China Telecom, my provider. At 8 am yesterday morning, while I was working on something very important, my internet died. I was cut off. Several attempts to reconnect failed. I was being told the system did not […]
I’ve muttered about this before, but it’s getting worse. Here I give you but two examples from a local supermarket. It could have been from any Liuzhou supermarket. Exhibit A 270 g of Granulated Chicken Bouillon at ¥21.30. Seems reasonable. ¥0.08 per gram. Exhibit B Right next to the above, on the same shelf, […]
Yesterday at noon, I noticed that my cell phone was no longer working as nature intended. I had no service. Attempting to call anyone resulted in a voice message telling me that my service had been suspended but gave no reason. I headed to the China Mobile office where I was told I needed to […]
Yesterday evening, across China, China Mobile sent this message to its subscribers. Basically says that the 2018 dreaded Gaokao (高考) is being held today and tomorrow (June 7th and 8th). They are warning that, In order to curb cheating in this all important exam, exam centres are employing blocking systems which may have repercussions for […]
For many years now, a number of homeless Liuzhou people have camped out in the riverside area under the northern end of Liujiang Bridge and in the environs. Recently, a few (about 10) have been sleeping out on 滨江西路 where this building at No. 9 affords an overhanging projection offering some, if little, protection from […]
It appears the bus is late. The South Korea’s National Space Situational Awareness Organisation has said that it is due to enter the upper atmosphere between 4:00 am and 12 noon on Monday. The debris from the abandoned eight-tonne craft could land anywhere between the latitudes of 43º north and 43º south – from New […]