according to the nytimes, they’re internet-savvy!:
Taipei’s WiFly network may be the most visible evidence of Taiwan’s technological aspirations, but behind the scenes the government has been working since the 1990’s on a far-reaching plan to use the Internet to make it faster and cheaper for bureaucrats to communicate among themselves and with citizens.
The rewards have been substantial. In 2005, 92 percent of businesses and 35 percent of individuals filed their taxes electronically, reducing paperwork and speeding up the payment of returns.
The island’s government distributes about 100,000 documents online every working day, saving about $3 million in postage. Before, when the prime minister’s office issued executive orders, it typically took up to a week to distribute them across the island. Now it takes about an hour.
By pooling the telecommunications services of all the ministries, the government saves about $70 million annually.
The government also accepts 15,000 online bids each month from companies seeking public contracts. Thousands of students and parents pay school tuition on the Internet, and citizens apply for drivers’ licenses, property titles and a host of other certificates online.
To speed up delivery of these services, about one million citizens now have identification cards with chips inside that, when scanned, instantly provide personal data.
…
The government’s efforts have attracted notice. The Brown University Taubman Center for Public Policy put Taiwan at the top of its list of the world’s most Internet-savvy governments.
compare this to the last time you waited around at the dmv.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>tracert boingboing.net Tracing route to boingboing.net [204.11.50.136] over a maximum of 30 hops: 5 43 ms * 13 ms 10g-8-1-ur01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.226.45] 6 * * * Request timed out. 7 * * * Request timed out. 8 16 ms 11 ms 14 ms 12.116.188.5 9 78 ms 77 ms 78 ms tbr1011401.sffca.ip.att.net [12.123.12.122] 10 76 ms 83 ms 76 ms tbr1-cl1.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.10.5] 11 75 ms 74 ms 74 ms tbr1-cl14.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.10.1] 12 72 ms 72 ms 73 ms sar1-a300s3.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.123.0.153] 13 * * * Request timed out. 14 176 ms 88 ms 86 ms 3.ge-3-0-0.gbr2.nwr.nac.net [209.123.11.189] 15 103 ms 107 ms 123 ms 0.so-0-3-0.gbr1.tto.nac.net [209.123.11.226] 16 99 ms 98 ms 104 ms gi-1-1.msfc01.tor1.prioritycolo.com [204.11.48.249] 17 100 ms 102 ms 98 ms boingboing.net [204.11.50.136] Trace complete.well, that’s not a good sign, is it? on the other hand, if i use the vpn and trace a route starting from the corporate network, the results are a little different:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>tracert boingboing.net Tracing route to boingboing.net [204.11.50.136] over a maximum of 30 hops: 5 30 ms 32 ms 24 ms sl-gw3-sj-1-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.228.111.113] 6 21 ms 23 ms 21 ms sl-bb21-sj-1-3.sprintlink.net [144.232.3.49] 7 21 ms 21 ms 23 ms sl-bb24-sj-12-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.3.202] 8 56 ms 36 ms 33 ms sl-bb20-ana-6-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.100] 9 49 ms 31 ms 31 ms 144.232.1.170 10 33 ms 30 ms 36 ms sl-st20-la-13-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.67] 11 28 ms 30 ms 32 ms 144.232.9.54 12 109 ms 162 ms 110 ms 217.239.40.78 13 108 ms 109 ms 109 ms 62.153.203.226 14 149 ms 106 ms 107 ms boingboing.net [204.11.50.136] Trace complete.no side trips to the alleged wiretap site. i suppose i could try my speakeasy dsl as well, but then i’d have to go and rewire stuff.
rear window dust paintings.
word is that i’m going to be making a trip out to china and japan to visit yahoo around end of july. specifically shanghai and tokyo. really specifically, hangzhou and tokyo. and then crazily enough, the trip would put us down in hawaii right for our sales club in the beginning of august. which means that i would have to pack for a international business trip and a island resort vacation all in one suitcase? plus i need to bring suits as well. hooray!
the good side is due to the schedule, i may have a weekend in tokyo with nothing to do except meals to expense. shinjuku here i come!
unfortunately, i don’t think i’ll have time to swing by taiwan and see the relatives, which is a shame because i haven’t been back there for over a decade. but maybe that’s for the best, as i’d like to spend a little more time there, and hmc would like to go as well.
speaking of trips, i can’t believe what the kodamas sent my way today…
had a good weekend down visiting my parents. this was the “it’s been too long since you’ve come and seen us although you only live an hour away” visit, but also it was the “we’re old now so we have to tell you things” conversation. old? how can my parents be old? oh yeah, that’s right, I’M OLD. thus, they have to be old+.
no, not really, but my parents are getting up there, so they sat me down and told me where all the important documents are (secret panel behind velvet painting of drunken frogs singing and wearing sombreros), and where all the money is squirrelled away (tin pirate chest buried in back yard, underneath the chestnut tree with a Y fork). also, i learned that they’d rather be cremated, and the ashes don’t have to go back to taiwan. i can scatter them anywhere (shea stadium? back in the tin pirate chest?) or maybe even keep them in an urn on the mantle (mental note: buy mantle).
hmc came out to visit and see them as well, and also got to pick up her new macbook pro. the migration assistant worked surprisingly well in transferring her old account and applications to the new laptop. however, there was a small glitch in that i already had a account with the same name that i created when setting up the laptop, so i had to rename her old account to some other name. nothing big, but i see weird glitches in our future. it would have been easier if i had her laptop when i was first setting up, or if i had just made some dummy root account. live and learn, i guess.
in any case, the net net is that my parents are happy and well, hmc is happy and macbook pro-ed, and now she wants crazy stuff like a handle and a velvet sleeve.
hmc’s new macbook pro arrived yesterday. straight from shanghai. (how many times to i need to tell them that taiwan is better!?)
i tried not to waste too much time futzing with it last night (between that and reflashing my phone, and messing with the decks, and cleaning and and and…), but you can’t help yourself — it’s beautiful! 15” widescreen with the faster cpu and hard drive, and 1gb of memory on a single dimm (i’ll add more later if she needs it). to answer the burning question, she opted for matte and not glossy (i would have gone for glossy, but i’m more willing to put up with inconvenience for aesthetics, i think).
the next exciting(?) step is to try and migrate all of the stuff off of her ibook using the migration assistant, which we’ll try when i go down to lost angels this weekend.
oh, did i mention that she started a new film gig this week? she’s working on a film called mimzy, directed by the former head of new line. so far it sounds like they’re working out of a cardboard box in some alley in west hollywood, but maybe i’m just being overly dramatic. maybe.
i’m sure a new computer will help, right? it seems to help the homeless, at least.
maybe i’m just trying to figure out what to do with my .mac account now that monkeysars is gone. or to get some use out of it if i don’t let it expire in two months.
anyhow, ohbejuan, this is for you: i’ve been listening to neko case’s fox confessor brings the flood. nice little alt-country album, but what made me think of you is that if you love tanya donnelly and belly, you should be listening to this immediately.
so do it: neko case - star witness (7MB)
“dwayne wade walks into a bar. oh, and they call dallas for the foul!”
yes, i know you were wondering, did i forget all about the nba finals?
no, not by a long shot, even though detroit’s out of it. but with two first time teams, who to root for? let’s break this down:
miami heat -
pros:
dallas mavericks -
pros:
0 vs 3 = i guess i’m rooting for the mavs. maybe it’s also if shaq wins #4, then kobe falls behind. and don’t we love kobe more than shaq?
anyway, what an incredible game five. huge shots over and over by dwayne wade, and then the incredible shot by dirk. but then the foul called (how do you call that?!) giving wade the go-ahead free throws. still, no visitor has won away, so we’re technically on track. tuesday should be huge!
i got into my car today to head over to stern grove (more later) to find the contents of my car all spread out and rummaged through. once again, some crackhead has broken into my car, this time stealing my cell phone charger (again! what the hell is the market for cell phone chargers? and why do they never steal the one i DON’T need?), some empty altoids tins, and god knows what else.
the good sign is that they DIDN’T slash my top to get in, which is probably due to the fact that i no longer lock my car for that very reason. of course, it begs the question as to whether they would have broken in at all had it been locked, but in any case, this is what i wanted right? no more top slashing. go ahead and steal all of the nothing-of-value items i leave in my car since you can’t get into the trunk anyway, and just leave my top alone.
thanks?
quick follow-up: had a feldenkrais session with w today. afterwards, with a couple of adjustments, suddenly i was sitting and standing straight like i haven’t done in years. YEARS. supporting my head with the muscles in my lower back, not in my tired tired neck. i haven’t done this since i was practicing alexander technique with my kung-fu instructor.
it’s all related. when i was being squashed earlier this week, the only position that hurt a little less was to sit with my back straight. no slouching. that felt better than anything else, even laying down.
it turns out they’re all right. don’t slouch. sit up straight. eat your vegetables. and get a haircut while you’re at it!
thanks for the kind thoughts. much like the breakup of pangea, the huge muscle spasm in my back seems to have broken up into the standard smaller spasms and aches that i’m used to, and everything is more or less back to your regularly scheduled programming. for example, i can now once again crack my back. hooray! on the other hand, now that everything’s loosened up, now the parts are free to lock up on their own: welcome back, krick in neck!
moral of the story: don’t get old.
i don’t know what’s going on with me. all i know is that starting saturday morning, i’ve been in incredible pain. it’s like someone’s squeezing my organs from the inside. it hurts to lay down on my back, it hurts to lay down on my stomach. it hurts to lay down on my side. it hurts to sit up, it hurts when i bend over. it feels like someone’s punching my kidneys. from the inside.
which doesn’t leave a lot of options.
i went to see dr. mike the chiropractor on saturday, and he did some heat treatment, as well as treatment ultrasound and muscular electrostimulation. none of which seemed to help that much. although it was really painful when he tried to adjust me, if that helps.
i went to see my doctor yesterday, and she concurs that it’s probably some sort of muscle sprain. a muscle sprain that hurts from the inside when i breathe too deeply. but she tested me for kidney stuff and that came out negative.
i wouldn’t mind the sprain explanation, if i had actually done something the night before. hey, if this had happened a week ago, right after playing punk rock kickball, then that would make sense. but after getting a good night’s sleep? is nothing sacred?
at least i’m feeling a little better today. but if someone could get the squeezing to stop, i’d really appreciate it.
this post about teri hatcher pretty much explains why go fug yourself may be my favorite webite. EVER.
finally. a day yesterday where i didn’t have to slog down to sunnyvale. so what do i do all day?
i waste it breaking and fixing things. things like:
1. windshield. sure, there was that rock crater, but that was up by the rear view mirror. hell, i couldn’t even see it, so that didn’t count. but then the crack out of the corner was also there, which kept getting longer and longer and longer. and then last weekend i parked on the street and it grew by a FOOT. hmc yelled at me to replace it before it fell off and sliced my head off.
2. cingular 8125. despite my month-long annoyance with the device, i finally tweaked it and installed all these hacks to get it working to an acceptable tolerable level, despite it being pocket pc/windows mobile. so what do i do? i go and install a brand new rom on it off some hacker site. for “improvements”. which is fine, except that wipes out all your settings and programs. ok, so reinstall, no big deal. except now nothing works. especially goodlink, the blackberry functionality of automatically syncing with my work outlook mail and calendar. which is pretty much the whole purpose of the device. oops. it’s unfucked now, and maybe even better, but it took a lot of fucking trouble. and to be honest, i think when it’s all said and done, i really just want a q.
3. cable modem. why? i don’t know. not enough to do, apparently. the guys at work were raving about the incredible speeds they were getting. and finance is cracking down on expense reports, so we can only expense 1/2 our dsl bill. since these damn cable modems claimed to give me 2-3x faster connections at 1/2 the price, i figured why not give it a shot?
| test run | download kbs | upload kbs |
|---|---|---|
| speakeasy | 1147 | 590 |
| comcast #1 | 12370 | 684 |
| comcast #2 | 2905 | 698 |
PhotogenicMasks have been created for anyone who desires to become a girl quickly and easily.
Our goal is:
* To create a “photogenic,” attractive look as far as is possible
* A mask that is quick/easy/safe to put on/take off
* Anytime
* Anywhere
* For anybody who wants to be a girl
while our scientists are fucking around trying to fix the space shuttle, those wacky czechs are doing real work:
The beer, developed by the Czech Republic’s Research Institute for Brewing and Malting, is intended to relieve menopausal symptoms and maintain bone density by tackling a lack of the oestrogen hormone in many Czech women.
The development marks a sizeable breakthrough in the realm of functional beer, at a time when functional foods are becoming more popular in many markets.
Oestrogen levels drop significantly in women at the onset of the menopause and remain low from then on. Studies have linked a lack of the hormone to increased risk of various health problems, including heart disease and osteoporosis.
“Czech women lack oestrogen in their diet, so we wanted to solve this through beer because the Czech Republic is number one in the world for beer consumption,” Karel Kosar, managing director of the brewing research institute, told Cee-FoodIndustry.com.
Czechs drink an average 161 litres of beer each every year, compared to 121 in Germany, 84 in the US and around one litre in India.
i could make some crack about how this also ties in with sex drive being much higher in older women, but i’m really more amazed at the fact that people are pursuing “functional beer”.
