December 2008 - Ryan McLaughlin

Addie Update #2: The Youth in Asia Debate

A couple of days ago I drew up a calendar on a whiteboard Maggie uses to keep track of her yoga clients. The calendar shows the dates from December 23 (the day before we found out Addie was suffering from aflatoxicity) to January 4th (one day after the vet said she would be lucky to …

December 31, 2008

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Addie Update

Having been up until 4am the last two nights watching my dog suck endless bottles of medical juice into her veins, my head’s not really in the game – but I wanted to post a bit of an update on her condition and the situation as a whole. First, she’s de-energized but still fighting. She’s …

December 28, 2008

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US-made Optima dog food in China may have killed my dog

In what’s poised to be the absolute worst Christmas ever, there is an excellent chance my dog – my awesome, beautiful, wonderful, fantastic dog – is going to die. After posting the other day about the possibility of her having come into contact with aflatoxin contaminated Optima dog food, a visit to the vet yesterday …

December 25, 2008

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Feeding your dog Optima in China? Stop.

The last two days we’ve been dealing with a bit of a scare. We got a call from our pet shop asking us if we’d seen the news. Optima – the decent-quality, American-made dog food we’ve always fed our pup – was issuing a major recall because contaminants had been found in it. Apparently since …

December 23, 2008

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What is Google China thinking?

<In cruising around the Internet I came across a humorous post at The Next Web asking, “What is Google thinking?“. The author points out that Google has some rather interesting “suggestions” for the simple phrase “How long does…” The auto-complete feature that Google recently rolled out worldwide has been an integrated part of Google.cn for …

December 22, 2008

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America more communist than China?

Aside from the proliferation of Chinese food other than Cantonese world-wide, the coolest part of the People’s Republic’s grand opening 30 years ago was that the country started down the long road of disassembling State-run industries. If communism has proven anything, it’s that the government has no ability to properly run a business, any more …

December 18, 2008

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Shanghai woman refuses to be held captiva by tower, viral ad?

With marketing budgets being slashed in the “new economy”, low-cost/high-return word-of-mouth advertising is going to be more relevant than ever.A new viral video spreading its way across Chinese forums shows a Shanghai woman arguing with a tow truck driver. Despite her Chevrolet Captiva‘s rear wheels being hitched to the tow truck, she jumps in her …

December 16, 2008

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Addie’s First Birthday

Alright, I never wanted to become one of those people that have a dog and they go on and on about their dog like it was their child. I never did. But I also never expected that such a connection could be formed between myself and a dog. I’ve had lots of pets, including a …

December 15, 2008

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MS Windows hacking Chinese computers or just Chinese pricing?

When in October Microsoft, via their Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) engine, began blacking out pirated versions of their operating system across China, you would have thought they were poisoning babies with the upheaval it caused. A lawyer in Beijing went so far as to call it a crime and to cry out “That’s not fair.” …

December 12, 2008

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Qifang becomes first Chinese WEF Technology Pioneer

The World Economic Forum has just announced Shanghai-based Qifang as one of its prestigious Technology Pioneers of 2009. Joining the ranks of past winners (Google, Wikipedia, Mozilla), Qifang is the first Chinese company to receive the honor.Qifang, which takes its name from the poem “????????? (Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of …

December 4, 2008

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Why self-medicating is an essential China expat skill

Maybe everyone should take an interest in what pills and pokes their doctor is giving them, despite how frowned upon it is by House. But in China, figuring out what’s really wrong with you, on your own – armed only with Google and Wikipedia – is a tragic, but essential, fact of expat life. Over …

December 4, 2008

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Best tech blog in China?

By no means do I think I’ve earned enough stripes here on CNET Asia to propose that the seven-post-old The Tech Dynasty is the best tech blog in China, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t draw attention to the Best China Blog Awards ’08 that have just kicked off.

December 2, 2008

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