Chris Easton » Interesting Links and Articles

Google and China, possibly no more?

Chris Easton — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:28:34 +0000

According to this post on the Google blog, Google has decided to stop censoring search results on their Google China site (http://www.google.cn/). They are going to go to the Chinese government and basically say they are going to pull out of China or they will run the non-filtered search engine. This is quite a brave move for a U.S.-based company and I wish more companies would shrug off China because of their Human Rights and Censorship stance.

Even more interesting is the fact that this decision came because Google detected an attack against their systems that originated in China. And it looks like the China-based attack went after Anti-Censorship Activists in both China and those outside of China who are against Chinese censorship. I applaud Google for doing the right thing and confronting the Chinese government for its censorship laws. I only hope this gives some REAL change to China and isn’t just dust in the wind.

On a side note, I’m trying hard to completely stop buying Chinese-made goods. My actions are likely just dust in the wind, but at least I feel better that I’m not supporting the crazy that is going on in China (basically slave-labour, human rights violations, Tibet, censorship, etc.)

Tesla Roadster

Chris Easton — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:04:03 +0000

I've been following this Tesla Roadster ever since I first heard of it about a year or two ago. The thing has me really excited about the future and our independence from oil. I really wish they'd make it cheaper for the common man though, the price tag is pretty hefty (~$100,000). Makes me wonder how a small team from California can create such a technologically advanced car that should be what we're driving in the year 2008!

Jay Leno has a video of it here.

Air-car!

Chris Easton — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:47:17 +0000

This car runs on air:

If only it weren't as ugly as Paris Hilton. Look at that nose!

In any event, it really does run on air. A simple compressed air tank that takes 30 seconds to refill for practically nothing. This is actually a novel idea I think. I don't think anyone here in America has even thought about such a thing. I know I haven't. I just keep thinking of electric cars, hydrogen cars, thought-powered cars. Well not the last one, for most people that'd probably stop working (har har). But I mean, its so simple if you think about it. They could probably even make it look like this:

If it did, I'd definitely buy it. I mean, how heavy is an air compressor to lug around anyway? Oh wow, thats a good idea. Have an air compressor built in that you could just plug into a wall socket to fill up the thing. Brilliant!

More info about that air car here.

(I think I fixed this site as well, it seems to be working well now).

Will Ferrell can do comedy.

Chris Easton — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:53:22 +0000

http://sjl.funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

On a side note, that sites looks too much like Youtube.

Since the media got their numbers…

Chris Easton — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:21:13 +0000

We really should look at the names of people who have died in Iraq. Soldiers aren’t just cattle, don’t count the numbers, these are people that are being killed. I hate the media when they just report on the number and not the names. They’re just looking for shock. Then on to the Entertainment report.. (Bullshit)

http://icasualties.org/oif/BY_DOD.aspx

Linux

Chris Easton — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 07:40:39 +0000

I’m messing with linux more and more. I just installed it on my desktop (without a hard drive, as that causes a crash for some reason.. too many hard drives?). And got beryl and xgl and all that working. I’m not all too happy with this new version of ubuntu, it suffers from the same issue as previous ones (that damn Rocket 100 IDE Controller card driver), but it works, so why complain? It took me a while to get the ati drivers working too, although thats an ati driver issue problem. I had to add in the restricted repositories in order to get them to work. Lots of reboots later and it works. Next step is to get it working with dual monitors. Although, I did find an interesting program I wish I had found sooner: http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ which lets two computer connect virtually in sort of a dual monitor config (one mouse and keyboard). We’ll see. Adobe has also released version of flash player 9 for linux: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/ (and some other goodies). Beryl also works well, and a lot faster than my laptop. Lots of next steps. Will keep you up to date.

If you’re curious as to what beryl is, some videos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=G3p8IBNNd88
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELwnG9f7lDM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC_YbhhINHk

Think Max OSX, Vista, but free and expandable (to anything you can think and program).

Another funny video.

Chris Easton — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 18:00:38 +0000

What happens when a mercedes-benz owner gets upset at an old lady crossing the street? Well, this might happen.

Heh.

Chris Easton — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 03:45:13 +0000

Watching people get hurt is fun. And it hurts. OW!

Oh yeah, I can imagine doing this…

Chris Easton — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 01:35:53 +0000

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/12/cooling_your_kids.html

Funny article. I still wanna mess around with peltiers. Electricity is so cool.

Heh.

Chris Easton — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 17:34:09 +0000