Showing 11 - 20 of 22
Myanmar moves step closer to new bids on China-backed belt and road project
Published on 09/09/2020
» Myanmar is a step closer to allowing companies to challenge a bid from China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) to build the behemoth New Yangon City project, after hiring German consulting firm Roland Berger to oversee the tendering process.
We must stay united, says PM
News, Published on 07/08/2020
» Stability is the key to driving Thailand's economy to rebound, and unity and cooperation from Thais are needed to revive the country in the face of the economic fall due to the Covid-19-crisis, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Thursday.
Try not to drop your phone
Life, James Hein, Published on 25/03/2020
» The big news these days is coronavirus, the family name that covers the latest version, Covid-19. The impacts on tech are fairly obvious -- a lot of stuff is made in China these days. Apple, for example, is heavily invested in Chinese manufacturing and it has closed stores because the supply chain has run dry. Replacement iPhones are in short supply, so if you've damaged your phone, expect a potentially long wait before a full replacement is available. This also applies to replacement parts. So don't drop your phone. Employee travel is also discouraged while the virus spreads across the globe. At the time of this writing, stores in China have reopened and will not close. As an aside, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a non-partisan think-tank, named Apple as one of 83 internationally known brands utilising the slave labour of Uighur Muslims.
Don't call AI bigoted
Life, James Hein, Published on 06/11/2019
» Despite what some claim, Artificial Intelligence is not racist. Google built a system to detect hate speech or speech that exhibited questionable content. Following the rules given, it picked out a range of people with what some try to claim was a bias toward black people. Wrong. The AI simply followed the rules and a larger number of black people and some other minorities, as defined in the US, were found to be breaking those rules. It didn't matter to the machines that when one group says it, it isn't defined as hate speech by some; it simply followed the rules. People can ignore or pretend not to see rules, but machines don't work that way. What the exercise actually found was that speech by some groups is ignored while the same thing said by others isn't. As the saying goes, don't ask the question if you're not prepared to hear the answer.
Seamless synchronicity
Life, James Hein, Published on 11/09/2019
» As I was walking to work thinking about this week's column, I did a quick self-inventory. I was listening to On Liberty by John Stuart Mill through my noise cancelling headphones. The audio was being sent by Bluetooth from my Samsung Galaxy S10 5G phone that I was also using to play a location-based game, Ingress. This was being fed my position by satellite and receiving information from the internet via my phone's data connection. Occasionally I would pull down the notification tab to see what was on for the day and who had tried to contact me via a number of social-media services.
Beam me up!
Guru, Pornchai Sereemongkonpol, Published on 23/08/2019
» Interest in extraterrestrial things (and beings) make a comeback to the Thai collective consciousness, thanks to asteroid 2006 QQ23 flying by and a viral video in which a local man, who claims to be a medium of Pluto God, warns humanity of 2020 doomsday in an alien tongue. This got us thinking about the local interest in UFOs and aliens, and how Thailand is linked to alien stories in a way that you may not be aware of. We aren't saying we believe in Pluto God or trying to convince you one way or another but there are many pieces of evidence (of varying degrees of credibility) of alleged alien visits to the Land Of Smiles and they are too fascinating not to share.
Year of turbulence
Asia focus, Published on 31/12/2018
» Two unpredictable men with weird haircuts and access to nuclear weapons had a friendly chat in Singapore -- and that was just one of the many noteworthy stories of 2018. Elsewhere in Asia, we witnessed some surprising political developments (Malaysia) and not-so-surprising ones (Cambodia), along with what seemed to be a disturbingly high number of natural disasters. Many see the latter as a manifestation of the growing impact of climate change, and it's a debate that is bound to intensify in the year ahead. Below, Asia Focus looks back on the eventful year now ending.
2018 winners & losers in geek
Guru, Eric E Surbano, Published on 28/12/2018
» The year has seen its share of ups and downs, highs and lows and memorable moments. Here's a breakdown of the "who owned 2018" and who were "struggs to func" (that's "struggling to function" for you non-Queer Eye fans)
China is blowing an opportunity with Meng's arrest
News, Published on 21/12/2018
» China is blowing the geopolitical opportunity of a lifetime. There has probably never been a better moment to undo America's greatest strategic advantage by dividing the US from its global network of democratic allies, many of which are horrified by President Trump's rhetoric and policies and deeply worried about Washington's staying power. Yet, Beijing is doing its best to remind that democratic world that it has far more to fear from a hegemonic China than from an erratic America.