Robs' Blog: incoherencies from an american ex-pat in exotic beijing,
  or: how i learned to stop worrying and love bureaucracy

The equipment pictured on the left is part of a pilot Open Lab project here at the Sun China Engineering and Research Institute (ERI). The team is experimenting with is a lab of equipment totally accessible to the outside network. Previous labs have been setup with internal (or SWAN) access. This has presented many security issues when trying to also share equipment with an outside network. Much of this equipment will be available for free use as part of the OpenSolaris Test Farm initiative, which will be officially launched shortly. Some of the other equipment is available to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to test their offerings with OpenSolaris. Still more is made available to our partners for file transfers, netinstalls, and other uses. Being involved with projects such as this is one of the very gratifying things about working at ERI. PS... we'll be demonstrating the OpenSolaris Test Farm at the upcoming Intel Developer Forum in Taipei October 20th and 21st. Be sure to come by the booth if you're at the event!

I had the great pleasure of speaking with Jim Grisanzio at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications right before we went on Golden Week Holiday.

See Jim's post here for pictures and info about the night:

  http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/entry/beijing_university_of_posts_and

It was truly a blast. And, it was made even more special for me since Zhang Wenzhi, who was recently an intern in the lab group here at ERI, was in charge of the event.

I look forward to doing more such talks.

Talk given at Sun China Engineering and Research Institute by Jim Mauro and Alex Noordegraaf[Read More]

In what I'm sure is a change brought-on by the upcoming Olympics, the security guards have started dressing really crisply. Their shirts are buttoned, ties are on, military style hats are worn... even white gloves at times.

Up until recently, they were dressed in a manner more suited to the few rmb an hour these mostly young men from the countryside make... unbuttoned shirts, pants legs rolled-up, and no hats of any kind. Gloves? Forget about them.

Another thing that's changed is that they now come to attention and salute as people pass in to or out of the apartment complex.

And, each time that I get a salute, I get quesy.

Even though I spent four years in the military (US Coast Guard), I cannot remember ever returning a salute. I'm sure that there must have been a time... maybe when I advanced through the ranks to ET-2/E-5 or for some mundane service medal... but nothing comes to mind.

Now, I must've given thousands of them. Unlike my dear friend Amiram, my time in the military was spent as an enlisted man, not as an officer. We give salutes, we don't return them... let alone dressed in civilian clothes. Yuck!

I am so looking forward to when this madness stops.

In the meantime, I will continue look for opportunities to pass when they aren't paying attention, or are engaged in saluting someone else.

A few months back, signs like this were posted nearby every entrance into my apartment complex:

Is this some notice that beings akin to those in *batteries not included have taken-up residence in the complex? If only I could read Mandarin...

Yep, ol' Robs made the news here in Beijing:

Beijing, July 19th, 2008 Today, the mayor of Beijing announced that from August 1st onward, hands-free devices will be required for operators of all types of vehicles when a cellphone is being used. This, of course, is like similar laws enacted in American states such as New York and California, with the major difference being that such laws only applied to conventional motor vehicles. In making the announcement, the Mayor said, "It is well known that the citizens of Beijing make use of many different types of wheeled vehicles in their daily lives... from bicycles to gas and electric three-wheel carts, even gas-powered skateboards. We cannot help to protect the lives of one group of our citizens without endeavoring to save those who are perhaps more at risk since they don't have the strong metal body of a car or truck to protect them".

"I think it's an okay idea," grumbled American Ex-Pat Robert Schigion, "but if they really wanted to cut down on distractions, they'd ban girls on the backseats of bicycles from talking on the phone... that's the real distraction." Mr. Schigion was then promptly bonked on the back of the head with a cellphone by his back-seat passenger.

Okay, so they spelled my name wrong. I still made the news.

I was on my way home on my electric bike after having gotten some baked dough-egg-chives goodness from one of the local vendors when I saw a guy on a three-wheel cart heading the opposite direction. He had bananas, peaches, and a scale on the back of his cart. We made eye contact as we passed. And, boom, that was it. We both screeched to a stop, got off our vehicles, and, in a few minutes, I was on my way with three bananas in my basket.

Just before I left work on Friday there was this sudden downpour the type that turns the sky black with rain and clouds with thunder and lighting and the works and then it was over just like that so I went downstairs to my electric bicycle with a damp seat even though it was parked under an awning and got on and started on my way home it was something like seven pm or close to that I'm the type who can forget whether I've just used shampoo or conditioner so expecting me to remember exactly what time I did something just shouldn't well be expected in any event I got to a section of the road that was flooded to the curb with dark rain water and I'm going through it with three-wheel carts to the left and right of me bikes electric bikes and motorcycles around me as well and I started to laugh laugh laugh and was thinking my goodness I do so love this city. I do so love Beijing.

I was chatting with my brother David yesterday, and he IM'd me this:

hey, you have to check this out. Truly amazing way that Sun's systems are being used to cross the digital divide: http://snipr.com/2ctls