Yesterday evening I got a mobile SIM card, which means I now have mobile internet access. My WiFi account at the university will be connected today, maybe, hopefully.
As expected, I'm up against the great firewall. When I tried yesterday both tor and my vpn wouldn't connect. It felt so strange to have nominal internet access, but without the default rostrum of gmail, twitter, facebook, or youtube.
My phone, despite running an open source ROM, has Google apps flashed onto it, and Google play services are crashing repeatedly. Sorry Google.
It just compounds how much we rely on a handful of large services for communication with the rest of the world. Imagine trying to contact your family and friends, without the help of any major silicon valley company. Nor can you ask a neighbour for help as the firewall extends nationwide. Not easy is it?
What is the internet when you're not clicking through the same handful of websites over and over again? It's only really noticeable when they become inaccessible.
And yet, all the little services are untouched. I can still connect to my preferred irc chatroom without a problem. I can still post to the small forums I visit from time to time. Telegram messenger, p2p Bleep messenger, withknown, indymedia, gnu social; all work fine.
So I'm ok with this for the moment, if only that it puts me in a different bubble of dissenters who shy away from mainstream social media.
It's always a good day to bury bad news, so switch off your tv and go start some trouble.
China seems so well organised, then everyone decides to go on holiday for a week and it's complete chaos
incidentally, hostel in Enshi was also full, think I've learned how difficult it is to travel in China during the national holiday
thoughts on Enshi: it is roughly equidistant between Chongqing and Yichang, has a train station, otherwise not much else to see
in Enshi, small town, mobile internet cut off so found an internet cafe
really hoping it doesn't rain though
youth hostel in Yichang was full so I'm sleeping on a roof, much better than trying to sleep on the floor of the train station
brief survey of university library perfectly demonstrates tensions of Chinese socialism: business textbooks sitting next to Marxist theory
the building next door to my dorm is a robotics lab, went in today, one room has rows of 3D printers & students building CAD models
Chinese minitel
2 min read
Friendship ended with EU, now People's Republic is best friend of Britain http://
