Dry Walled: Defective Products, Defective Businesses, Defective Media

This is a particularly difficult article for us to write.  Back when the whole defective dry-wall issue first surfaced in the mainstream media, we had already discussed the need to bring some balanced perspective to this issue.  However, we held back because we didn’t want to come across as being apologists for the scoundrels who have peddled these defective products and in doing so, have really turned a lot of people’s lives upside down.  However, this issue is one that will be with us for quite some time and, uncomfortable or not, we feel the need to put our point across. If you haven’t been following this issue, you can just take a look at this August 7th WSJ article, “Nervous Homeowners Await Findings on Chinese Drywall’s Health Effects”. This article is pretty consistent with the others that have splattered the mainstream news over the last couple months.  Every time we’ve seen this issue come up, the way it has been covered left us feeling both sad and indignant. The situation is definitely sad.  For most people, their house is the biggest component of their net-worth and the center of their family life.  To find that your home is uninhabitable and the bill to fix it is well beyond your means would simply be devastating.  There are also some reports that point to a possible link to health problems from these defective products.  If found to be true, the cost and suffering for these unfortunate families will be compounded. What drives us crazy is that every one of these news articles screams about “Chinese drywall” or “another instance of Chinese product safety problems” when what is really happening is another instance of unscrupulous non-Chinese firms going into China to exploit, pollute, and then export sub-standard crap to rip-off consumers everywhere.  It happened with toys, then tires, then cat-food, and now dry-wall.  While all these products carry the sadly tarnished Made-in-China moniker, they were supposedly designed, produced, and quality-checked with the superior high-tech techniques brought to China by well-established US or European firms.  In these cases, what they brought to China was not better technology or techniques, but a desire to cut corners, fatten margins, and to find an unsophisticated fall-guy for when the whole thing crapped out. Now don’t get us wrong.  Not every foreign firm turning to China for their manufacturing is acting in this manner.  However, the couple rotten apples have really spoilt the pie.  Counter to what the media would have us believe, this is not a case of “Americans getting victimized by Chinese people“.  If we chase the money trail and look for the fat margins, we’ll find that the Chinese workers (and Chinese people if you count the polution) are getting ripped-off just as much as the US consumer. If the AP has got their figures right, we could be talking about a $10 Billion USD problem just with the defective dry-wall issue (100,000 homes needing $100,000 in repairs on average).  Chinese companies should band together to file an additional $10 Billion USD class-action suit against the scoundrels for the reputational damage so that they can spend it on the marketing needed to rehabilitate the Made-in-China brand.

你被“石灰墙”了吗？——不良产品，不良生意，不良媒体 下笔讨论这个话题是一件尤为困难的事情。几个月之前，当石灰墙事件在美国的主流媒体上刚刚浮现的时候，我们就觉得有义务说些什么。几个月以来，提笔放笔，反复了几次。面对美国主流媒体的失衡报导，我们意在发表一些相对平衡的观点，同时却充分认识到这个话题之微妙复杂，对我们的写作和沟通能力是个很大的挑战；若处理不当可能会使得大家误以为我们试图为不法商家作辩护——而我们丝毫没有如此意愿。现在看起来，在未来不短的时间之内，这个话题将在媒体上反复出现，以他们的方式持续伴随并困扰我们。因此，乐意也好，不乐意也罢，我们觉得必须得挑一挑这根刺。 如果你错过了以前的报导，只需要看看8月7号《华尔街日报》名为《住房业主紧张等待着中国石灰墙对健康影响报告》一文。 这篇文章很能代表过去几个月美国主流媒体对于石灰墙事件的报导。几个月以来，只要看到相关的报导，我们既感到痛心，又感到愤慨。 劣质石灰墙给相关业主造成的伤害令人痛心。对于大多数人来说，住房是家庭净资产中的最大一项，也是他们日常生活的中心。突然得知自己的房子不宜居住，而解决问题所需费用超出自己可支付金额，这是一个毁灭性的打击。有关健康机构怀疑这些劣质石灰墙对业主的身体健康造成危害。如果调查结果表明所怀疑的情况属实，这些不幸的家庭无疑将遭受加倍的伤害。 令我们感到愤慨的是，美国主流媒体大声叫嚷着“中国石灰墙”“中国产品存在安全问题的另一个例子”，毫无公允地避免提及这只是另一家进入中国采掘资源，污染环境，生产次等货，危害世界各地的消费者的不道德的非中国公司：有害玩具，有害轮胎，有害宠物食品，现在是有害石灰墙，无一例外。在这些事件中，这些被贴上 “中国制造”的有害产品，是由号称“向中国输入先进的科技和技术”的颇有建树的美国公司或欧洲公司设计、生产和质检的。这些公司并没有象他们自己承诺的，“向中国输入先进的科技和技术”，相反，他们不惜以诈取胜，扩张利润，一旦丑事败露，他们便拉上一个懵懵懂懂的垫背，使“中国制造” 蒙受更多的耻辱。 读到这里，请大家千万不要误会。我们无意一棍子打翻一船人，并不是所有在中国设立生产加工基地的外国公司都行不义之举，但是，“一粒老鼠屎打坏一锅汤”也是事实。媒体希望人们相信“美国人受害于中国人”，但是事实并非如此。如果我们进一步去追查谁获得了最肥厚的利润，我们会发现那些中国工人（如果算上污染，还包括中国老百姓）跟美国消费者受到同等程度的损害。 如果美联社的数字是对的，劣质石灰墙造成的经济总损失为100亿美金（10万幢住房，每幢平均修复金额10万美金）。中国公司也应该联合起来，集体状告这些不法商贩，索赔100亿美金的名誉损失费，用这笔钱进行市场营销，洗清被污染的“中国制造”之名。

Enjoying the Solar Eclipse Safely

Courtesy of SF Exploratorium

In this post, we’re taking a short departure from our usual topics to address an urgent public safety issue that has come to our attention. The total solar eclipse is truly one of the most rare and beautiful sights of nature. Our sister and her family in Hunan are taking the four hour drive to Wuhan in Hubei province to take in the spectacular event. As we talked about how nice it is to witness such an amazing sight, the issue of eye safety came up. Perusing the official media sources, we felt that a couple key points of caution has been missed. To remedy this, we have compiling the key do’s and don’t from several notable sources and will push this out to family and friends, and also to the Chinese community at large through online Chinese forums. If you have friends or family in China who are planning on watching the eclipse, we strongly urge you to forward them these points. We don’t want the legacy of this spectacular event to be a rash of vision damage or vision loss, especially in the young. As a reader of our blog, you know how strongly we feel about carrying out the duties of our social consciousness. Please help us get the word out, and as you do so, please urge your family and friends to spread the word of caution to the kids they see in the streets or parks around them to make sure they are safe. Key Cautions: The biggest danger is that damage to the eyes is cause mainly by invisible infrared wavelengths. What this means is that even if you are looking through a material that dims the visible portion of the light, you may still be fully exposed to the damaging invisible infrared light. People who try to view the eclipse through sunglasses or other-tinted materials will be putting themselves in great danger of severe and irreversible eye damage You can cause very serious eye damage in a short period of exposure (just seconds) No pain does not mean no damage. Eye damage from retinal burns do not cause immediate pain and you will not realize the severity of the damage until several hours later… much too late to do anything about it. Burns to retina can cause permanent vision loss During the “totality” (when the sun is completely obscured by the moon), the eclipse is safe for direct viewing. However, DON’T LOOK UNTIL THE ECLIPSE HAS PASSED. In particular, the “diamond ring” effect (when the sun is just starting to reemerge behind the moon) is particular damaging since your pupils will be dilated and even a small fraction of direct sunlight is strong enough to cause severe burns to the retina. Please Don’t: Please don’t try to take pictures of the partial eclipse. Photographic equipment will focus the light and increase the danger of damaging your eyes. Only attempt to photograph the eclipse if you have purchased and installed the proper filter on your equipment. Same goes for telescopes and binoculars. Please don’t use unapproved filters that just dim the light. They WILL NOT PROTECT YOUR EYES. Unapproved filters include: sunglasses photographic neutral density filters smoked glass polarizing filters compact discs floppy disk media all color film black-and-white film that contains no silver any film negatives bearing images. jars of ink Please Do: Pin-hole cameras/projectors are the safest way to view the eclipse. These can be made in just a couple minutes from materials that you have handy. Below are a couple good links we’ve found. If you’re going to make one, please go ahead and make a couple more spares. I’m sure you’ll find a kid outside who will be very grateful to have it. http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/card.html http://westlake.k12.oh.us/LbmsLibrary/8sc/pinhole%20project.pdf Shade number 14 welder’s glass If you are going to be using a special pair of eclipse viewing “glasses”, please be sure to get it from a source you trust! Don’t put your eyes at risk to save a couple yuan. Enjoy the eclipse! It is a fabulous expression of nature and one you won’t see again in quite a good many years. And while you’re doing so, please be sure to help and protect the children around you.

安全观看日全食 （今天的讨论将稍微偏离我们通常涉及的话题。今天去观看日全食的国内的亲人和朋友：这是一份安全警告！） 日全食是一个罕见而美丽的自然景观。在长沙的姐姐将带着她的孩子去最佳观测地点之一武汉去欣赏这一罕有景观。今天中午，我们谈起了不安全的观测方法将对眼睛造成极大的伤害，最严重的甚至可能导致永久性失明。我决定花点时间了解一下国内公众所依赖的权威信息来源以及官方或主流媒体提供了什么样的指导 或建议。我去了国家航天局和北京天文馆的网站（两个网站上面都没有太多的信息），又浏览了央视网、人民日报网站、光明日报网站、新浪网的相关文章和视频，接着又查阅了美国国家航天局的网站、BBC在1999年日全食在英国出现时所制作的专题。我发现国内的主流媒体关于日全食的报道及专家的访谈中，对不安全的观测方法对眼睛造成的危害强调得远远不够。某些观测方法从理论上来说是“安全”的，从操作的角度来说却是很不安全的。 我们匆匆忙忙地总结了一些关键注意事项，发送给亲人和朋友，并会在各大网上论坛上发布。如果你的亲人或朋友准备去观看日全食，强烈建议你把这几点注意事项转告给他们。我们不希望因为这次自然奇观的发生，在中国造成大规模范围的视力损伤甚至失明。每个人背负起自己的那份社会责任是这个博客力推的价值观。请帮助我们传递这些注意事项。并请你的亲人和朋友转告他们的邻居、或是 恰好站在他们身边的其他观看日全食的所有孩子。 重要警告: 对视力造成伤害的主要来源是肉眼不可见的红外线。也就是说，就算某些工具能够降低肉眼可见光线的强度，并不代表它是安全的。使用太阳眼睛、胶片、或其它有色材料观看日全食将会损害眼睛。 在如此的强光直接照射之下，只需几秒钟就会损害眼睛。 没有立即感到疼痛并不意味着你的眼睛没有受到损害。视网膜的灼伤并不一定造成立时的疼痛，你可能在几小时之后才察觉到眼睛被损害，而那个时候，已经没有太多补救措施。 一旦视网膜被灼伤，将造成永久性失明。 理论上来说，日全食（月亮和太阳完全重叠的瞬间）是可以用肉眼观看的。无数见证者都认为这是一个不可错过的美丽景观。如果你是在用肉眼观看，千万不要等着太阳重新出现的一瞬间再收回你的视线，因为那一瞬间足以伤害你的眼睛。在太阳重新出现那一刻，会出现所谓的“钻石光环”，对眼睛的伤害尤其严重。 ——因为日全食的时候的黑暗使得你的眼睛处在散瞳状态，瞬间暴露在强光之下足以灼伤视网膜。 千万不要: 月亮和太阳没有完全重叠的时候，不要拍照。镜头的聚光效应将加倍伤害你的眼睛。同样的原因，不要使用任何形式的望远镜。 不要使用未经安全验证的滤镜。包括: 墨镜 偏光墨镜或滤镜 摄影用滤光镜 深色玻璃 CD 曝光后的底片 彩色底片 不含银的曝光适度的黑白底片（只有少数的黑白底片如柯达Tri-X或Pan-X是含银的，而且需要曝光适度才可以用来观测日食，此方法操作起来太复杂，故不推荐使用） 冲洗后的上有影像的底片 装有墨水的玻璃瓶 安全的工具： 小孔成像的工具是最安全的观看日食的工具。几分钟就可以做好，而且材料随手可得。请看 http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/card.html http://westlake.k12.oh.us/LbmsLibrary/8sc/pinhole%20project.pdf 电焊护目镜（14号镜片） 如果你决定购买日全食观测专用镜，请确认商家的信誉。千万不要做得不偿失的不明智的决定。 最后，希望你们好好欣赏这个奇妙的自然景观，同时请留意并保护你周围的孩子。

Open Platforms: How open can it be?

Picture source: The Economist

From time to time, my Facebook News Feeds tell me that my friend Belinda is uploading new pictures to her Flickr pro account. It’s a pretty nifty feature and I do enjoy Belinda’s photography. I’m also a Flickr Pro (their paid service) user since they seem to do a better job of managing photos than other sites. Connecting the two services made good sense so I set about trying to connect my Flickr account to my Facebook. Here is the procedure I took: Instinctively, I went to Belinda’s FB account and looked for the application she was using to connect Flickr updates to her Facebook feed. Since the crux of social networking is to share cool things with your friends, sharing cool Facebook things should a no-brainer, right? Wrong. I went back to Facebook to “browse more applications”, didn’t see anything that looked like what I wanted under “Featured by Facebook” or “Applications you may like”. A category of “Apps Your Friends are Using” was also conspicuously missing. Giving up on Facebook, I signed into my Flickr Pro account to continue searching for the tool to connect the two services. They didn’t intend to make it easy for me either. A few (aggravating) minutes later, I gave that up too. It appears that the walls around these “walled gardens” are rather well fortified. Whether that’s by acts of omission or commission is harder to tell. When the obvious fails, I turned to Google. My query, “how to share Flickr photos on Facebook?” returned the typical 17,275,865 search results. The first answer they threw at me was a blog entry talking about Flickr2Facebook, which turned out not be the app I wanted. The next couple results were also off target. I changed my Google query to “How to upload Facebook and Flickr automatically”. The third link pointed to an app called “Facebook My Flickr” on Facebook’s website so I decided to give that a try. (It must be good since it’s on Facebook’s own site, right?) I installed the application. The installation was a single click, but the application itself had the most user-unfriendly interface I’ve seen in quite a while. I simply couldn’t get it to work. I glanced at the clock at it was 35 minutes since I started. That’s way longer than I’d expected to spend to figure out how to install an app on Facebook. I think I’m pretty darn tech savvy but without a compsci degree, I can’t qualify as a real geek. Would a technie be able to figure it out faster? I had to find out. My guy has a compsci BS from Berkeley and had designed CPUs in his days so that should be enough geek-cred to figure this out. I got him to sit in front of the computer, showed him Belinda’s Facebook newsfeeds with her Flickr photo uploads, and asked him to figure out how to install the same feature on his account. I also told him I was treating it as a bit of “ethnographic research” on user experience and would be timing him. While he was accessing his FB account, he pitched to me his intended approach to the mission, “Aren’t we talking about ‘open’ social?! I bet I’m going to find a page on how to do this on either Facebook or Flickr (I’m betting Facebook). If I need to use Google, that’s going to be real sad….” He set out with such great hopes that I almost felt bad knowing what he was going to find… 15 minutes later, he threw up his arms in exasperation, “So much for ‘open‘ social.” With a wry smile, he said he was going to need to fall back on Google. The first search result he found was the same “Facebook My Flickr” app that I had found earlier. Here’s where he did something different. Instead of clicking the install button, he started reading up on the app, checked the submitter and looked through the feedback. He saw that I was also a user of the app and asked me if I had gotten it work. Nope. And then he had a good laugh and asked, “Did you just give your Yahoo login to a junior at the University of Houston?” Doh! Wait a second! What junior at UH? I’m usually pretty cautious about installing apps. Given the amount of spam, phishing, and malware I come across every day, I usually check and double-check before installing any apps or widgets. In this case, I slipped. Between the frustration of not finding the information readily available on either sites and seeing that a couple friends (including Belinda and three engineers) were already using it, I thought the app must be the right one. The one-click installation also hadn’t point out that this was a third-party app and that I was potentially releasing control of my Flickr account to a third-party. At the 25-minute point, my technie came across a Google search result which pointed to a page on Flickr’s support page (which neither of us had spotted earlier using their internal search engines). That page outlined a step-by-step process to link up the two services, both from the Flickr side and also provided the necessary link to the Facebook account setup page. The rest was easy. So it took 30 minutes, a couple Google queries, and a comp-sci degree to enable a no-brainer functionality on Facebook! Makes you wonder what the people over at Facebook and Flickr even imagine an “open platform” to be. An open platform strategy is one that entices third-party developers to add value for your users. It’s not enough to simply ask, “Can they do it?” Whereas the current answer is, “Yes.” However, just because they can do it (e.g. by having APIs) doesn’t mean that you’ve successfully created an ecosystem that would attract the best external-driven innovation and that your users are able to take advantage of all the cool new features. Instead, an open platform strategy needs to be holistic and considers the needs and benefits of all the stakeholders involved. For example, if you expect developers to spend their time building great apps, you need to consider how contributors can reach the users so that their work will be appreciated (and maybe even monetized). To protect the user, you need to provide mechanisms to ensure quality apps (i.e. a comment thread is not nearly enough). You also need to provide safeguards to protect users from those with malicious intent. These are just some of the basics. Microsoft’s three decade reign over the PC industry has already demonstrated the power of open platforms. Today, social networking web services still seem to be struggling to get through the “walled garden” phase of mainstream deployment. Instead of focusing on creating the best user experience, they are busy fighting for user-share and finding annoying ways of creating “lock-in“. If past experience is any guide, once the technology becomes commonplace, users will gravitate toward the service that is friendliest to use. Let’s see which web service is actually going to put a true open-platform strategy in place to become the preferred platform for social web services innovation. Yahoo, are you listening? PS. If I’ve piqued your interests in connecting your Flickr account to Facebook, here is the link

开放平台，能有多开放？ Facebook上的“活动信息通报”时不时地告诉我：Belinda往她的Flickr帐户上传了一张照片。我觉得这个功能挺酷的，让我能及时地欣赏Belinda的最新摄影作品。正好我也有一个Flickr的专业帐户（Flickr的付费服务，愿意付这个费也是因为他们的确比别的图片分享网站做得好）。我觉得把Flickr跟Facebook连接起来是个挺好的主意，于是马上开始了行动。所经过的步骤如下一一： 理所当然地，我先来到了Belinda的Facebook页面，期望可以在这儿轻易地找到她所用的插件。既然社交网络的关键是跟朋友之间分享一切“酷”的东西，Facebook分享自己的“酷”的东西不就是拿手一绝吗？事实却并非如此。 我在Belinda的页面上刨来刨去，结果却是一无所获 。 我回到自己的Facebook帐号上“浏览更多功能”，在“Facebook推荐插件”以及“也许你会喜欢的插件”的目录下， 看来看去也没看到我想要的功能。此外，显而易见地，他们也缺乏一个类似“你的朋友正在使用的插件”的目录。 在Facebook上白白费了些时间之后, 我登录到Flickr，希望他们给我提供连接两个帐户的途径。结果证明他们也没打算让我的日子好过一点儿。折腾了几分钟，我决定另找出路。看来“围墙花园”的围墙还真不低。——很难说这是疏忽还是有意。 明修栈道既然不成，只能暗渡陈仓了。我求助于Google。一如既往地，针对我的问题“如何在Facebook帐户分享Flickr的照片”，Google顺手一扔，给了我一个天文数字的“查询结果”——管它们沾边儿还是不沾边儿。第一个链接是一篇谈及Flickr2Facebook的博文。看了一下，发现不是我想要的功能。接下来的几个链接都是八杆子打不着的主儿。 把Google查询改为“如何自动更新Flickr和Facebook?” 看到第三个链接的名字就叫“Facebook My Flickr”, 直接指向Facebook的网址，于是决定试一下。（既然在Facebook自己的网站上，应该还会不错吧。）插件安装一键就成。使用界面却是不近的近来我所见过的最不友好的一个。整了半天我就是整不明白怎么个用法。 看了一下时间，从我开始试着安装这个插件算起，35分钟已经过去了，远远超过我预想的在Facebook上装一个插件的时间。于是宣告此次安装活动就此告终。 虽然我自认为算是个网络技术老手，但是没有一个计算机科学的学位，我怎么也算不上个合格的技术“极客”。真正的技术“极客”是不是很快就把这事儿搞定？——我必须得给这个问题找到答案。 我LD是伯克利大学的电子工程＋计算机科学专业出身、又曾设计CPU好几年，他应该算得上个“极客”了吧。我把他拉到电脑前，让他看了“活动信息通报”上关于Belinda往她的Flickr帐户上传了照片的信息，请他在他的Facebook上装上同样的功能。我告诉他这是一个关于“用户体验”的调研，整个过程将被严格计时。 在他登录Facebook的同时，他向我解释他完成此项任务的方法论：这不是“开放社交”时代嘛，因此呢，我敢打赌呢，这个插件呢，不在Flickr上就在Facebook上。不过我在Facebook上多放一点赌注……如果我需要启动Google来完成这项任务，那就未免太悲哀了…….” 他就这样信心满满地出发了，让我几乎为他感到难过。 15分钟之后，他近乎抓狂地地两手一摊…… “开放社交”？！！！ 他的嘴角浮现一丝嘲讽的微笑，告诉我他也只能求助于Google了。他的第一个搜索结果把他引到了我早先安装的“Facebook My Flickr”。 他没有点击安装，而是查看了程序编写人，阅读了说明和用户反馈。同时他发现我已经下载了这个程序，就问我是不是已经启动了我想要的功能。我说没有。他笑着问我：“那你干吗把你的Yahoo 帐户信息（与我的Flickr帐户同步）提交给一个休斯顿大学的大三学生？！” 什么？！什么休斯顿大学的大三学生？！我通常对安装插件保持非常谨慎的态度。看看我们每天被多少垃圾邮件、网络诈骗、恶意软件轰炸！一般来说，在我安装插件或程序之前，我都要检查了再检查。但是我刚才竟然疏忽了！在抓狂和被误导（看到5个朋友包括Belinda和3个在硅谷工作的工程师安装了此插件的提示）之间，我以为这就是我想要找的插件。“一键安装”甚至没有提醒我这是第三方软件，安装此软件意味着我的Flickr和Facebook帐户信息可能面向第三方开放！ 25分钟。我的“极客”在Google查询结果上看到了一条通往Flickr的帮助链接。（但是之前我们俩在Flickr网站上搜索的时候，都没有发现这个页面。）这个页面解说了连接两个帐户的步骤，并提供了通往Facebook相关操作界面的链接。之后的故事就很简单了……. 看来，为了安装一个简单的Facebook插件并使之运行，你需要30分钟、数次Google查询、1个计算机科学学位！你不禁疑惑在Facebook和Flickr的想像中，“开放平台”到底意味着什么。开放平台策略是吸引第三方程序编写人员为你的用户提供更多价值。可是，仅仅提出“他们（第三方程序编写人员）能行吗？”这个简单的问题远远不够。这个问题的回答是肯定的。但是他们能行并不代表你能成功创造一个激励外部开发力量持续创新、方便用户采用最新最酷功能的生态环境。 开放平台需要具备全体意识、考虑到每个利益相关者的需要和需求。比如说，如果你想要第三方程序人员花时间给你编写功能强大的插件，你最好也花点时间想清楚你能如何保证他们的作品／产品被欣赏和采用，甚至，赚点钱。而从用户的角度，你需要提供一个保障插件质量的机制（只是一个反馈信息页面远远不够）。你还需要保护你的用户，防止他们遭受恶意攻击。这些都是基本必需。 微软三十多年来一统电脑工业，身体力行地证实了开放平台的力量。今天，社交网络服务似乎仍然挣扎在主流科技曾经经历的“围墙花园”阶段。他们把更多的精力在花在抢用户、绞尽脑汁用各种招用户烦的手段“锁住”用户，而不是在提供更好的用户体验方面竞争。如果过去的经验可以借鉴，那么有一点可以肯定，那就是，一旦科技不再是稀缺资源，谁能给用户提供更友好的服务，用户就偏向谁。让我们拭目以待，看看哪个网络服务将实行真正意义的“开放平台策略”，创新社交网络服务，赢得用户的偏爱。 Yahoo, 你们在倾听用户的声音吗？ 附言：读完此文之后，如果你也想同步你的Flickr和Facebook帐号，请点此链接