July 9, 2009. Internet Blocked, Everyone Happy.

Shenzhen Airport
I guess you must behave yourself inside. No uncivilized behavior allowed.

There was no Twitter nor Facebook tonight. Not one person mentioned it today. I kept my mouth shut. The TV news seemed to be all about the riots in Xinjiang. Apparently there are thousands of troops in the cities now.

I found a news story that said Google was blocked along with Twitter and FaceBook, but when I tried Google it seemed to work. I even Googled “Xinjiang riots” and got results. One thing I can not get to work is the Huffington Post. I don’t know if it is blocked or there is another problem.

I am going to Malaysia on the 19th. My plans are not finalized, but I plan on spending 5 days in Kuala Lumpur, 5 days in Penang, and possibly 5 days in Borneo. The Borneo part is still in question. I am debating between Borneo and Pattaya in Thailand. Borneo is mostly jungle and beaches. Pattaya is beach and city. There might be more to do there.

There is plenty of jungle everywhere in Malaysia, so I think Borneo jungles might be redundant. There are a couple of things I wanted to do in Bangkok when I was there before, but was

Sign
I stole this one. Don’t know where it is located.

unable because of Songkran. I will decide tonight or tomorrow.

Internet problems solved. I have been reading some bulletin boards about Facebook being blocked. All you have to do is sign on to a “proxy server.” That is a server that you go to and it then directs you to where you really want to go.

Most of these servers are under the radar operations, so they are not blocked. Almost everyone in China uses them. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of them. Most are free. So all the blocks and slow downs are pretty much useless to the government. And it explains why no one is upset about the blocks. They are all but completely ineffective.

I’m sure every 12 year old in the world knows about these things. Now I do too.