Dropbox dropped

I just discovered that Dropbox, maybe the most useful piece of cloud software ever, is blocked here. This doesn't matter so much to people that use VPNs or tunnels, but it is an interesting event. I can understand the political/social motivations for blocking things like Blogspot, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook. It's not really clear to me why you would want to block Dropbox. Is Dropbox being used in ways that are perceived to undermine the government? I just use it for syncing files between two computers. Two computers that I own. I promise!

UPDATE 1

I posted this article to Hacker News. It's basically a voting site for nerdy news articles. A couple of observations. First, the number of Nerd Points (Hacker News, or HN, likes to call them 'karma') I had this morning was 0. Now I'm up to 167. You get points for posting and commenting. If people like your comments or articles you get even more points.

Second, it's been about 7 hours and the article is still at the top. I think the article rank system is something like highest points/minute or something like that. This is the second time I've been famous in the last 30 days! The first time was even nerdier than this. The truth of the matter is that I'm totally envious of all the cool internerds that everyone pays attention to. Maybe one day I'll be invited to the lunch table. I'll probably have to say something or do something better than posting articles on HN. Update 2 It's no longer number 1 but now I have enough Nerd Points to downvote other people. Yay! Some seriouser thoughts on this: • This is most likely related to viewing Dropbox as a source of information sharing that cannot be controlled. It is a testament to Dropbox's influence, that the government would see DB as a threat. Until DB can promise the government a sufficient amount of control over the content shared, they won't be allowed to be accessed here. (See Google) • Up until this point, the whole Google fiasco has been settled quite well.

1. Google didn't want to remain in China and be forced to censor content. Check.
2. China didn't want to make an exception. Check.
3. Google still has a presence in China and doesn't have to filter its content. China hasn't lost face and been forced to make an exception. Check.

Even though it's not ideal and the service gets blocked sometimes, I sense that China and Google came to an agreement together that Google's move to Hong Kong would be the most appropriate thing to accomplish the two seemingly contradictory goals. You will note that if China didn't want Google at all, they would've blocked Google in HK from day one. That's not to say that Google will never be blocked, but at this point it's safe to say that the government does not see Google as a big enough threat to warrant being blocked. • Could DB do something similar? Maybe. It seems that DB would have to reach out to the Chinese government and cooperate to some degree in a sign to show that there is a desire to be in China. Then, like Google, they could choose to pull out to HK, where hopefully there would continue to be this unspoken agreement to let foreign companies be. This might backfire in that the government might just pull the plug on all foreign companies in HK, feeling that the initial overtures were superficial and that there was just a desire to be given a certain level of access in China without having to abide by the other stipulations that other companies have. If DB chooses to cooperate, this would lead to some form of censorship (either by DB, the government, or by the users themselves) thus defeating some of the benefit of using DB. DB is fundamentally different from the service that Google offers, though, so following Google's path might not work. • This whole thing makes me sad. Chinese culture is fundamentally different from Western culture. That doesn't justify certain things but you'll have to talk to people (real people…not just read chinaSMACK) to understand better some of the reasons for these policies. The point is, though, that the Chinese government is dealing with a different set of problems with a different set of values than other Western governments. Until there are some changes in the problems or in the values, we'll continue to see different permutations of these kinds of policies. I've also seen a pattern of non-risk taking behavior here. Policies like these discourage people take chances at producing great ideas. Most Chinese comp sci students want to get a good job at a stable company. From what I have seen, and I'm still learning a lot about tech here, the lack of the entrepreneurial spirit is related to a lack in the quality of programming. There isn't the same kind of cut-throat competition that I've seen in the States and this leads to less motivation for learning the best (or better) way to do things. There are obvious exceptions to this, but in general, the motivation for someone to set up their own business is very low. It's too risky.

Being friends with other people's parents

It's surreal how air travel makes the world smaller. Beijing is only 2 hours away; all the conveniences and luxuries of a Western lifestyle seem so accessible. I haven't been to Beijing in a while (2006) and it seems so different to me. It seems really modern and clean (well as clean as you can expect). Big highways, little to no dust. Lots of cars and lots of Western amenities. Cookie's parents graciously hosted me. I had a great time hanging out with them; I learned a lot, and I mean a lot, about Cookie and her parents, Auntie and Uncle Shoe. It has always been pretty easy for me to connect with my friends' parents; I've learned that the keys are listening and asking questions. Older people love to talk about themselves and love to give advice. Myself included. Being almost 32 automatically qualifies you for the "older people" crowd. Ironically, my interaction with my parents isn't the same as my interaction with my friends' parents. It's unrealistic to expect that my relationship with my parents would be the same. There's more history. There's more emotion. There's a deeper understanding about the nature of the person and the color of the relationship. These things are absent from my conversations with my friends' parents; in an absurdly unintuitive way, distance builds intimacy. In the ideal world, those that we know the best and love the most, these relationships would be the ones that we would enjoy abundantly. But this is hardly the ideal world and oftentimes we find that not knowing someone allows us to appreciate the relationship even more; the cliché . Perhaps that is why the spectrum of relationships is so wide and why even our most intimate and best relationships do not exclude the existence of others. And, perhaps, this is why the common scenario of one of your friends getting a significant other and then abandoning all of their non-romantic relationships is distasteful. Not just for the fact that they deserted your friendship (which is painful and annoying) but it shows a kind of immaturity that fails to recognize that our relational needs are deep and that they are most likely not met in the soul of one person. Even being married to the Boss, as wonderful and exclusive as it is, we both recognize that there are some things that can only be met in the other and there are other things that will never be satisfied by the other. I feel like this is a reminder by the Divine of how complex and needy we are and how gracious He is to provide for those needs in the friendship and love of others. Movie that best describes my trip: Meet the Parents