Well, it's typical for companies to change their rules to fit a country's laws/ideals. Like McDonald's in India not serving beef. True there may not be laws against using such words, but in communist China, they line between just using words and political dissent is thin, and MS wants to be on China's good side. Google did it first, and it's nothing new. I'm just suprised to see this reported on MSNBC Financial of all places...

Kids up late tonight, huh?

/too tired for the whiny libs vs evil neocons pissing match - I'll catch the score in the a.m.

SquirrelHill: Microsoft should be very, very ashamed of themselves

Ashamed? They STILL haven't apologized for WindowsME.

SquirrelHill

Microsoft should be very, very ashamed of themselves,


Along with Google and Yahoo.

And every other corporation that does business with that vile government

GungFu
Maybe something is lost in translation, but the slam was on America in my statement. If the people rose up against this act like the US rose up against 9-11 with all kinds of crazy shiat, I bet they'd have some catchy slogan.

You can't deny lots of Chinese replace R's and L's when speaking english as a second language.

Laugh it off I say. I'm short, white, no girlfriend, lay it on me. S'all good. Same farking bombs will kill us both.

Did anyone else find it odd that there was an article bashing Microsoft on MSNBC?

/good to see it's not just the Australian government kissing Chinese arse

You mean if an article says boobies or boobies that the Chinese firewall will boobies it?

I guess China doesn't like people announcing that they got the initial post, either.

unbrchain:

2005-06-11 02:51:04 AM unbrchain

GungFu
Maybe something is lost in translation, but the slam was on America in my statement. If the people rose up against this act like the US rose up against 9-11 with all kinds of crazy shiat, I bet they'd have some catchy slogan.

Erm..?

You can't deny lots of Chinese replace R's and L's when speaking english as a second language.

Yeah, that's why I wrote 'letard', cos that's the way all asians say it.

Actually, from experience, I find that more prevalent in the Japanese. But hey, it's a second language, what does one expect? Instant total fruency?

Laugh it off I say. I'm short, white, no girlfriend, lay it on me. S'all good. Same farking bombs will kill us both.

I sympathise. It is shiat to be white, especially rame joke telling ones based on demeaning racial stereotypes that occur constantly whenever anything Asian is mentioned, regardless of the topic.

It's just old. But that's fark for you, I suppose.

I usually never bother about it - must have had some bad rice, shark's fin soup or chop suey or something today.

It is Microsoft's choice to remove the words (and Microsoft has only done it for the titles of people's blogs.)

It's so specific I'm betting shenanigans on someone in Microsoft's part. Either that or someone is retarded.

/rtfa.

Congratulations, Microsoft. You just ensured that my next computer will be a Macintosh.

And yes, I just sent Microsoft an email telling them the same thing.

No shiat? Immagine that! Luckilly my mainland cousins know how to get around the Great Chinese Firewall. And no, I did not RTFA as I am sure it is a rehash of prior articles. Those that live in the larger mainland Chinese cities have access to western media via the internet. Hence the popularity of internet cafes as most "dissidents" would prefer their IP address clean.

I actually lived in Shanghai, and used a proxy server to get into western news. As I am an American, I was not charged, although, my work visa was not renewed. Mind you, I did not ever show the Chinese citizens how to read western news (somthing about fearing being charged with espionage).

I thought they just changed them with a Fark-like filter to "obey" and "consume".

/ 5 min hate

Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra.

Okey. They're commies, but for how long?

/Going to China on business in the fall. I'll take care of it.

noob, every linux distro can run that crappy window manager and applets.

thats gayness 3r33t.

slackware > *

all else = lame attempts to make linux more like "windows"

so sucky.

Here in Australia we have refused a protection visa to a Chinese diplomat who claims there are over 1000 Chinese spies here. Oh yeah, we're in the middle of trade negotiations. Send in the Jedi, that's what I say.

Attempts to input words in Chinese such as "democracy" prompted an error message from the site: "This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the forbidden speech from this item." Other phrases banned included the Chinese for "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence"

THAT IS SOME CRAZY shiat

No matter what our political persuasions, we should all encourage our governments to cease trading with China. No matter how you spin it, it is morally treasonable to everyone who believes in and values the liberty of the individual, be they on the left or right. When you deny a person the right to choose their own direction in life, you take away what makes them human. Make no mistake, China is the evil empire.

We need one of these for the news broadcasts.

DontMakeMeComeBackThere: too tired for the whiny libs vs evil neocons pissing match

But which is which in this argument? The neocons love to biatch about how countries like Iran and North Korea and Alquaedastan hate freedom and don't even like democracy not one bit. But the neocons are also the first to say what's good for business is good for business.

The whiny libs on the other hand love to point out how ironical it is that the neos talk about freedom like it's a type of french fry & democracy like it's a way to get/keep Bush in office by any means necessary. They also tend to favor keeping our distance from China due to their crazyass oppressive dictatorship.

So which is which and who is who? This is a case where hating freedom means loving business, which has got to be frying the neocons' pathetic little cranial ganglia. The libs's, too.

Just remember this simple odiot-friendly formula, fulks;

as

CHINA : DEMOCRACY

so

USA : COMMUNISM



Easy-peasy.

Does anyone need further proof that large American corporations would sell us (US citizens) all down the river as well if there was profit in it? Does anyone doubt that most American based defense contractors would be just as glad to seel weapon systems to the enemies of the USA, if it were in their financial interest to do so?

Remember this when most of those on the right are touting just as wonderful big business really is and how it is "ALL" good for America and Americans. Just turn on TV and watch any of those stock market and business shows and see if the commentators aren't basically slavishly devoted to the cult of corporations.

I have nothing against people doing business, its just that people better wake up and realize that the reality of the situation is that most of the big business world only cares about you to the extent it is profitable to do so. They are not going to act in your/our best interest, they are duty bound to act in the best (financial) interest of their shareholders. If that means assisting the government in trampling your rights, turning you into slaves or keeping you ignorant and unawares then that's just the cost of doing business to them. Business has become the leading source of graft, corruption and fraud in this country, which probably pisses off many in government who see that as their job.

Obscure fact:

There is no word in the Chinese language (all of them) for the word DUDE !

Probably a few more also, RAD, biatchin etc., CA surfer talk.

and i believe it was Cisco who sold the Chinese all the technology to block the internet in the first place. Actually, it's very easy to get around these things with a simple proxy server setup. The only site i can never see with normal Chinese DSL is the BBC. Which sucks, cuase they are one of the few I really want to see. But all the porn, and political stuff comes through. This in in English mind you. I've never tried to look up stuff in Chinese google in Chinese with the proxy. Maybe I'll try on Monday.

People don't really pay much attention to the news here anyway, at least as relates to their own government, they pretty much know it's all bullshiat. But guys, seriously China doesn't want democracy as we know it on a large scale. There are definitely some hardcore people (mostly who have gone abroad and come back) who are willing to demonstrate for it, but most people think that it amount to mob rule. They have no precedent for it in their entire history. If you saw how people drive, push in line for train tickets, food, basically anything, you would understand their fear. They believe that you have to take everything for yourself first, because there are always so many other people waiting to take the thing from you first if you hesitate. So, they feel that they need some very autocratic government to keep order. Of course most people are very unhappy with some actions of the CCP, and have no problem telling you about it.
I know I always post in the China theads, but I just like people to get an idea of what things are really like over here.

Kudos to submitter to linking to MSN for aticle. Maybe headline should read:

Microsoft: "Our new Chinese portal prevents Chinese viewers from accessing this page."

Axl Rose unavailable for comment?

Not a threadjack, but a roundabout story here. Bear with me:

Most of the Arab states boycott Israeli goods, and many of them have what's called a "secondary boycott", which means that any company that wants to do business in said Arab country must sign a deal agreeing that they will not do business in Israel. The US, naturally, takes a pretty dim view of this. There are laws on the books here forbidding US companies from engaging in "secondary boycott" practices, and any foreign country that signs such an agreement is forbidden from doing business in the US.

Now, I bring this up to make the point that US companies can be brought to account for unethical dealings overseas. If people were seriously pissed off about Microsoft's kow-towing to the Chinese censors, the US could pass a law forbidding them or any other Internet software company from making that sort of business deal.

It's really a question of putting your money where your mouth is. If it bugs you, write your congressman. I'm sure there are plenty of folks on Capitol Hill that'd be willing to slam China and MS in a single stoke.

BearToy: Thanks for the off-topic comment! Try not to install the new version of Debian, which totally f*cks your system.

BTW - If you are still running win2k, you may want to make the switch to XP SP2. It is light years ahead in stability and security, and win2k is pretty stable to begin with.

What percentage of goods sold at Wal-Mart are made in China?

The scary thing about China is that they think for the long term. Their special forcers are in in Cuba and South America (they have bases in Cuba that have disrupted our air traffic control). The arms Russia has sold China (when Russia collapsed and we all went home thinking "whew that was close, I'm going golfing") have been fitted with technologies stolen out of our own labs that can hit all our major cities.

America is like a big fat kid in a candy shop, we don't really think all that far ahead and we just want to be left alone and eat. China on the other hand thinks ahead. It wants to control the way the world works in the 21st century. It has a coherent culture and a plan for the future. We have ten million cultures and think each one is as valid as the next.

America has her problems, but we do still advocate world democracy. China wants World Empire, they're playing chess while we're not even bothering to look up the rules. China as an idea has existed for over 2000 years; we're a young stupid country without a plan.

As an aside I just finished grad school (mathematics, I am queen of the nerds) and the thing that struck me most from the Chinese grad students (all in siences) is their hatred for this country. They called us idiots for giving us all our information and then went back home to use it against us. I don't want to sound as though I hate the Chinese ... but I realy loath their government.

By the way. Typically we Americans want Clean air, clean water and good wages -- but we don't want to pay for things made under those conditions.

but but but they're our tradin' buddy, they can't be evil, right?

Jar Jar Binks-Laden

What percentage of goods sold at Wal-Mart are made in China?



100% if you dont count the hooker in the parking lot.

Cauchy_Riemann_equations:

By the way. Typically we Americans want Clean air, clean water and good wages -- but we don't want to pay for things made under those conditions.

You hit the nail on the head.

I wonder if M$ also eliminated words like "intellectual property theft" or "behemoth monopoly" or "security flaws?"

What percentage of goods sold at Wal-Mart are made in China?

I wish we wouldn't be so myopic. China has a plan, we got nothing.

OK China makes a lot of stuff. In making that stuff they steal our microchip specs and put them in their missiles. They realize that they need oil so theyre making the South China Sea their sea. They are doing to Hong Kong what our tycoons did to companies in the 1980s; striping it for all it is worth. They are moving Hong Kong industry from HK to mainland China. HK is being bled white, promises made to Britain are not being kept and no one will ask them to keep these promises.

There is no effort on the part of our intellectuals and politicians to think about China in terms other than them taking our jobs. Theyre out for a whole lot more than that. Wake up people.

This reminds me of the weeks before Sept 11. I remember very clearly that all the news people were reporting that there was no news. There is always news! The world is always doing something, there were revolutions taking place, people being massacred and ethnic groups being oppressed, in China in the world, just about everywhere. But we dont and didnt give a damn. Well be blindsided again because were so myopic.

/ooo look pretty white girl went missing in Aruba. Maybe Chinas special forces did it!
//not looking forward to their banking collapsing.

They did it because President Bush's speeches were getting too long... With the words "democracy" and "freedom" blocked, they now are about one sentence long.

Uchiha_Cycliste

Orson Welles? o_O

This reminds me of the weeks before Sept 11. I remember very clearly that all the news people were reporting that there was no news. There is always news!

What they meant was there were no cute white girls dead or missing. And no celebrities were currently under investigation for beating/killing their wife. Those are, after all, the most important news stories.

What they meant was there were no cute white girls dead or missing. And no celebrities were currently under investigation for beating/killing their wife. Those are, after all, the most important news stories.

I'm not alone in remembering this am I? I have a clear memory of Katie Couric telling me that there was no news so they reported on shark attacks off the Florida and South Carolina coasts. I dont have a very good memory but I remember this.

I just think it's funny that this article is on MSN.

/somebody's gonna get fired

I don't know if its a matter of "no news" but I am starting to get the impression that a handful of news agency executives get together every so often and talk about which select news items they will focus on that week. It's the only way to explain why every news channel makes sure we know exactly how much community service the "runaway bride" has and whether she's still wearing her engagement ring rather than giving us any info on Bin Laden's whereabouts, Sudan's genocide or who in the White House outed that female spy.