The Squirrels Are Watching

Moving!

I ruminated a whiles ago about moving to Wordpress, and I've gone ahead and done it. Unfortunately, wordpress.com sucks -- you can't upload your own themes and plug-ins, so I sucked it up and bought hosting. The Squirrels Are Watching is now available at thesquirrelsarewatching.com. Andrewfong.com will also redirect to there.

Open-source AIDS vaccine?

Bill Gates tries an an open-source approach to finding a cure for AIDS. Wonder if anyone's asked them why this doesn't apply to Windows too?

More in common ...

Oh look, India's banned blogspot too!

Report a Chicken

In the Mong Kok MTR stop, Argyle Exit (D), there's a "report a (mosquito?) chicken and be pleasantly surprised" sign.

7-Eleven + Chicken = Self Reporting Station, Prevent a chicken left close? My translating ability needs work. Perhaps it's a reference to Bird Flu?

Beyond Whiteness

I dunno, sounds like something that'd cause cancer.

A Scarlet Letter Crime

How serious of a crime is theft in Hong Kong? Well, apparently it's worthy of big red A. Sticker located near some place that sells suits across the street from G2000 (?) in Mong Kok.

Eye Infections

This Hong Kong ad by the Jordan MTR station tells us to wash our hands because clearly, hovering land sharks with white hats are the number one cause of eye infections.

The Search and the Clickstream

"The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture" (John Battelle)
Ellen Kim gave me this book before I took off, and I read it while in Hong Kong. She also gave me Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" (Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner), really interesting stuff as well, but there's nothing in it I feel like blogging about (the fact that the book is back home is contributing somewhat to that disincentive).

Anyhow, The Search is worth blogging about, but there's a lot to cover, so it'll be over a few posts. The first thing worth thinking about is, as Battelle calls it, the "clickstream." The clickstream, loosely put, is the sum of everything you do online. It consists of which websites you go to, what terms you search for, and what items you buy. In other words, it's a digital paper trail.

By mining that clickstream, we can create, as Battelle puts it, a "database of intentions." As far as business is concerned, that means being able to know exactly what consumers want, when they want it, and, with a little web magic, getting it to them on the spot. That's the power of search.

The Piracy Trump Card?

So as I was thinking how Microsoft could bring down the Great Firewall in an earlier post, I concluded, "What's the PRC going to do? Ban Windows?"

The answer I was thinking of was, even if it does, people would just get illegal copies of it. But since this isn't in Microsoft's interest, the PRC could force even a mega-standard like Windows to comply by simply threatening (subtly of course given its WTO commitments).

Maybe it's time for Microsoft to move to a new business model.

Playing God with Missile Defense

This was started by the Essembly resolve:

An effective defense against ballistic missiles is in the best interest of the United States, and as such it should actively and aggressively peruse developing and deploying such a defense.

The link goes to the discussion I'm having with Andrew Berman about why I disagree. This is probably harks back to me debating why space-based weapons (i.e. Star Wars) is a bad idea during junior year of high school. So yeah, I'm not exactly approaching this with an open mind.