There are 2 things that I noticed regularly happen that I did not see mentioned in the article.
A number of KickStart products are just Chinese products that people in the West don't know about yet. I always found it stupid seeing products on Kickstarter that only had minor cosmetic changes from products already on Taobao and then cost a lot more.
A lot of Kickstarter products are made in China. What a surprise people in the factories talk to each other and a copy is released in the Chinese market quickly and tailored for Chinese needs. Generally significantly cheaper and in Chinese. The Kickstarter project could have focused on this market as well but didn't. Not really a surprise...
When people estimate that there are 10 to 50 errors per 1000 lines of code rarely if ever will those bugs change the outcome of normal data being used in a normal way.
These bugs are easy to find, easy to reproduce and easy to fix. They are also easy to test for and are considered serious bugs. You generally don't ship code with serious bugs.
The kinds of bugs that generally exist for stable programs are things like the following REAL bug that currently exists in EVERY version of Microsoft Access:
Create an Access Database in Access (Any version). Open the database in a Chinese Version of Microsoft Access and create a NEW Form then create a Macro or VBA code and save the database. If you now open the database in Microsoft Access in an English version of Access it can open the form but not run the form. You can change the name of the form from a Chinese name to an English name which will fix the form BUT you cannot change the code that Access generated for you which is in Chinese that does not work on Windows without Chinese installed. You have to create a new form. Copy everything over and delete the old form.
This is a real bug. It is really annoying but data is never corrupted. These are the kinds of low level bugs that generally are not fixed. It involves using multiple computers with different languages and only happens in a very specific situation. It can also be worked around easily. To fix the issues is also difficult and likely to create new bugs.
Saying that there is a 10% chance that a bug will "meaningfully affects the result" is crazy because you with a little bit of effort you can figure out a more accurate number. Look at Linux, Mozilla or smaller project and then classify the bugs and find out how many actually change or corrupt the data as opposed to crashing the program.
The reality in Australia is that a lot of the Internet is hosted in the USA (for better or worse) and that means that most users have a high percentage of international traffic. Unfortunately that connection is limited (which we found out when a stupid ship destroyed one of the cables with an anchor. Look it up. The internet was horrible for about 6 month while another cable was physically laid).
All ISPs have to pay for data on that connection. The data will never be free which means that no ISPs in Australia ever offered true unlimited data there has always been physical limitations (there was been unlimited dial up because the ISP could calculate the exact cost and charge based on that. There has also been unlimited ISDN again limited by physical speed). There are lots of plans that are called unlimited BUT they generally shape the data at some point.
That being said they don't have to pay for peered content. The big ISPs screw you over and charge you for peered content. ISPs that are more consumer friendly (TPG & iiNet are ones that I have used in the past) generally have a list of peered services that you can use for free. The main thing on the list that I cared about are download mirrors that have local copies of Linux ISOs, Software downloads (there was a SourceForge & Tucows mirror back in the day). There was also a large list of gaming servers that were hosted in peering location.
If you cared you could often find a local mirror and download files faster and free. Some also let you send data to other people on the same network for free (some don't). They don't all do this because they want to make money and the big ISPs don't do this at all.
The main issue is that no Australian ISP can offer full unlimited internet at maximum speed without any limitations because too much of the data goes out of the country and that is unlikely to change any time soon. That connection is owned by a private company and they will keep on charging the ISPs as much as they can get away with. (It is cheaper for me to set up an Australian website in the USA than in Australia so why would I set it up in Australia ... hence a lot of smaller Australia websites are not hosted in Australia).
Thought I might share since I actually use to live a few blocks away from this store. The store itself is in the middle of suburbia so there is no reason to go to the store unless you want to go to this specific store. You would not just go there and look around. You would not EVEN find it unless you were actively looking for it. So I can understand her frustration when people would have had to:
1. Look it up online or in the telephone book.
2. Drive to the store (for most people at 15+ minute drive).
3. Come in, ask questions and get high quality service.
It's not like anyone is just looking around to see what the store is like or if they have something in stock.
She has also imported a number of products that most stores do not stock.
That being said it is a 5 minute drive from 2 large grocery stores and they offer some of the gluten free products but not the same range as this store. For people that cannot eat glutton this store is great but you would still need to go to the grocery store to buy the rest of your food.
As for buying food online it would not be a big issue for her since customs and shipping fees would making buying food from overseas too expensive. Also there are not many stores that sell food online in Australia.
There are other stores that have sections for gluten free (health stores) but nowhere near as big as her selection. That being said I never shopped there since I am not a coeliac and when my auntie comes over that is a coeliac we generally cook meat, vegetables and macraoons which she can eat.
Our mobile Internet has always been this way on smart phones but most people that I know never bought anything. The only "plan" that is popular is facebook. People often get contracts that have unlimited facebook and only a small amount of data.
Australia is a bit different to other markets since we are a long way from the "backbone" of the internet and most of our traffic is overseas not local. This means that Internet in Australia has almost always been metered.
Originally you bought a "CAP" and then you paid a massive amount if you went over. Example: 10GB cost $50 + $150 per GB. A number of people got hit with $1,000+ bills once their children discovered youtube or online gaming, etc.
After a while a lot of ISPs offered metered and unmetered bandwidth. Certain FTP sites did not count against your quota. Some Australian video sites did not count, etc.
Over time shaping became the defacto standard since so many people had been burned (or know someone that had) by excess usage fees. This meant that when you reached the cap you could still access the internet but it was reduced to 64/64kps or 256/256kps. That way surfing and email still worked and you didn't break the bank.
Currently most ISPs have separate peak/off peak times. I personally have 30GB on peak, 60GB off peak. If I want to download something large I generally schedule it. I also have updates set to run in the off peak window, etc. Also the excess rate for most ISPs has dropped to less than $1 per GB which isn't cheap but much better than $150. A few ISPs offer unlimited but the plans are expensive.
The final difference between our metered plans an the plans that I have heard about overseas is that the ISP normally has a website that reports your daily usage updated daily including historical usage. There are also apps that sit in your task bar that scrape this information so it is easy to know how close you are to your cap.
Most ISPs let you upgrade to a high cap for free but charge to downgrade your cap.
Finally the caps are slowly but constantly increasing with increase usage.
10 years ago $50 = 5 GB + $150 per GB.
5 years ago $50 = 10GB peak/ 10GB off peak, 64kps shaped.
3 years ago $50 = 20GB peak/ 40GB off peak, 128kps shaped.
1 years ago $50 = 30GB peak/ 60GB off peak, 256kps shaped.
now $50 = 40GB peak/ 100GB off peak, 256kps shaped or $0.5 per GB.
The thing I don't get is people trashing China for suppressing free speech in one second and then in the next second lobby the government to pass laws to force ISPs to filter porn.
If they do it's suppressing free speech. If we do it then it's supporting the community?
They make companies self censor themselves. We have the DMCA, EULA and NDA, which makes it illegal to share censored information.
Maybe I’m just becoming jaded but to me it looks like in the end the results will be the same in both countries with one country controlling information through overly complex laws (to cover all the fringe cases) and the other controlling information through proverbs.
In other words the west is yet again doing something the western way (more laws) and the east is yet again doing something the eastern way (philosophy). The west doesn’t understand how to operate without laws that govern what can and can’t be done (and manipulated) so they yell and scream. The east points at the west and says what’s the big deal you do the same thing but call it something else. Then the lectures and journalists that want grant money, fame, a story or publicity try and make it into a big deal for their own ends. The world goes on and no one cares.
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This was one of my favourite things when I lived in China
There are 2 things that I noticed regularly happen that I did not see mentioned in the article.
A number of KickStart products are just Chinese products that people in the West don't know about yet. I always found it stupid seeing products on Kickstarter that only had minor cosmetic changes from products already on Taobao and then cost a lot more.
All bugs are not considered equal.
When people estimate that there are 10 to 50 errors per 1000 lines of code rarely if ever will those bugs change the outcome of normal data being used in a normal way.
These bugs are easy to find, easy to reproduce and easy to fix. They are also easy to test for and are considered serious bugs. You generally don't ship code with serious bugs.
The kinds of bugs that generally exist for stable programs are things like the following REAL bug that currently exists in EVERY version of Microsoft Access:
Create an Access Database in Access (Any version). Open the database in a Chinese Version of Microsoft Access and create a NEW Form then create a Macro or VBA code and save the database. If you now open the database in Microsoft Access in an English version of Access it can open the form but not run the form. You can change the name of the form from a Chinese name to an English name which will fix the form BUT you cannot change the code that Access generated for you which is in Chinese that does not work on Windows without Chinese installed. You have to create a new form. Copy everything over and delete the old form.
This is a real bug. It is really annoying but data is never corrupted. These are the kinds of low level bugs that generally are not fixed. It involves using multiple computers with different languages and only happens in a very specific situation. It can also be worked around easily. To fix the issues is also difficult and likely to create new bugs.
Saying that there is a 10% chance that a bug will "meaningfully affects the result" is crazy because you with a little bit of effort you can figure out a more accurate number. Look at Linux, Mozilla or smaller project and then classify the bugs and find out how many actually change or corrupt the data as opposed to crashing the program.
Local peering and the Big American pipe...
The reality in Australia is that a lot of the Internet is hosted in the USA (for better or worse) and that means that most users have a high percentage of international traffic. Unfortunately that connection is limited (which we found out when a stupid ship destroyed one of the cables with an anchor. Look it up. The internet was horrible for about 6 month while another cable was physically laid).
All ISPs have to pay for data on that connection. The data will never be free which means that no ISPs in Australia ever offered true unlimited data there has always been physical limitations (there was been unlimited dial up because the ISP could calculate the exact cost and charge based on that. There has also been unlimited ISDN again limited by physical speed). There are lots of plans that are called unlimited BUT they generally shape the data at some point.
That being said they don't have to pay for peered content. The big ISPs screw you over and charge you for peered content. ISPs that are more consumer friendly (TPG & iiNet are ones that I have used in the past) generally have a list of peered services that you can use for free. The main thing on the list that I cared about are download mirrors that have local copies of Linux ISOs, Software downloads (there was a SourceForge & Tucows mirror back in the day). There was also a large list of gaming servers that were hosted in peering location.
If you cared you could often find a local mirror and download files faster and free. Some also let you send data to other people on the same network for free (some don't). They don't all do this because they want to make money and the big ISPs don't do this at all.
The main issue is that no Australian ISP can offer full unlimited internet at maximum speed without any limitations because too much of the data goes out of the country and that is unlikely to change any time soon. That connection is owned by a private company and they will keep on charging the ISPs as much as they can get away with. (It is cheaper for me to set up an Australian website in the USA than in Australia so why would I set it up in Australia ... hence a lot of smaller Australia websites are not hosted in Australia).
I used to leave near this store
Hi everyone,
Thought I might share since I actually use to live a few blocks away from this store. The store itself is in the middle of suburbia so there is no reason to go to the store unless you want to go to this specific store. You would not just go there and look around. You would not EVEN find it unless you were actively looking for it. So I can understand her frustration when people would have had to:
1. Look it up online or in the telephone book.
2. Drive to the store (for most people at 15+ minute drive).
3. Come in, ask questions and get high quality service.
It's not like anyone is just looking around to see what the store is like or if they have something in stock.
She has also imported a number of products that most stores do not stock.
That being said it is a 5 minute drive from 2 large grocery stores and they offer some of the gluten free products but not the same range as this store. For people that cannot eat glutton this store is great but you would still need to go to the grocery store to buy the rest of your food.
As for buying food online it would not be a big issue for her since customs and shipping fees would making buying food from overseas too expensive. Also there are not many stores that sell food online in Australia.
There are other stores that have sections for gluten free (health stores) but nowhere near as big as her selection. That being said I never shopped there since I am not a coeliac and when my auntie comes over that is a coeliac we generally cook meat, vegetables and macraoons which she can eat.
Has always been in Australia
Our mobile Internet has always been this way on smart phones but most people that I know never bought anything. The only "plan" that is popular is facebook. People often get contracts that have unlimited facebook and only a small amount of data.
Have a look at what's happened in Australia...
Australia is a bit different to other markets since we are a long way from the "backbone" of the internet and most of our traffic is overseas not local. This means that Internet in Australia has almost always been metered.
Originally you bought a "CAP" and then you paid a massive amount if you went over. Example: 10GB cost $50 + $150 per GB. A number of people got hit with $1,000+ bills once their children discovered youtube or online gaming, etc.
After a while a lot of ISPs offered metered and unmetered bandwidth. Certain FTP sites did not count against your quota. Some Australian video sites did not count, etc.
Over time shaping became the defacto standard since so many people had been burned (or know someone that had) by excess usage fees. This meant that when you reached the cap you could still access the internet but it was reduced to 64/64kps or 256/256kps. That way surfing and email still worked and you didn't break the bank.
Currently most ISPs have separate peak/off peak times. I personally have 30GB on peak, 60GB off peak. If I want to download something large I generally schedule it. I also have updates set to run in the off peak window, etc. Also the excess rate for most ISPs has dropped to less than $1 per GB which isn't cheap but much better than $150. A few ISPs offer unlimited but the plans are expensive.
The final difference between our metered plans an the plans that I have heard about overseas is that the ISP normally has a website that reports your daily usage updated daily including historical usage. There are also apps that sit in your task bar that scrape this information so it is easy to know how close you are to your cap.
Most ISPs let you upgrade to a high cap for free but charge to downgrade your cap.
Finally the caps are slowly but constantly increasing with increase usage.
10 years ago $50 = 5 GB + $150 per GB.
5 years ago $50 = 10GB peak/ 10GB off peak, 64kps shaped.
3 years ago $50 = 20GB peak/ 40GB off peak, 128kps shaped.
1 years ago $50 = 30GB peak/ 60GB off peak, 256kps shaped.
now $50 = 40GB peak/ 100GB off peak, 256kps shaped or $0.5 per GB.
What is free speach?
The thing I don't get is people trashing China for suppressing free speech in one second and then in the next second lobby the government to pass laws to force ISPs to filter porn.
If they do it's suppressing free speech. If we do it then it's supporting the community?
They make companies self censor themselves. We have the DMCA, EULA and NDA, which makes it illegal to share censored information.
Maybe I’m just becoming jaded but to me it looks like in the end the results will be the same in both countries with one country controlling information through overly complex laws (to cover all the fringe cases) and the other controlling information through proverbs.
In other words the west is yet again doing something the western way (more laws) and the east is yet again doing something the eastern way (philosophy). The west doesn’t understand how to operate without laws that govern what can and can’t be done (and manipulated) so they yell and scream. The east points at the west and says what’s the big deal you do the same thing but call it something else. Then the lectures and journalists that want grant money, fame, a story or publicity try and make it into a big deal for their own ends. The world goes on and no one cares.