Day: October 5, 2022

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How the covid pop-up window is wreaking havoc on daily life in China

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/04/1060628/covid-pop-up-window-beijing/

Welcome back! Hope you are not stuck in highway traffic if you are enjoying the National Day holiday in China. 

Though maybe it’s still better than staying at home—after all, travel feels like such a luxury in China today. While the rest of the world drops its remaining covid-related travel restrictions, even a short trip in China is plagued by flight cancellations, mandatory quarantines, and requirements to update regular covid test results. 

And for the more than 20 million people who live in or visit Beijing, the capital city, there is one additional worry: a pop-up window that can randomly show up on your phone to disrupt all your plans.

Starting in 2020, China rolled out a contact tracing program that assigns a QR code to everyone in the country. It shows your covid status and allows you to enter public venues or take public transportation. Part of China’s stringent zero-covid policy, the system has persisted, and some of the once-lauded features that kept deaths comparatively low in the country now feel more burdensome than beneficial to its citizens. (Most covid apps in other countries have been suspended. We documented all of them back in 2020.)

The pop-up, ??, is one additional complicated layer that Beijing added to its tracing system. This window in the mobile covid app won’t go away unless the user immediately takes a PCR test. It gives broad instructions on what to do under the title “friendly reminders,” but it’s not so friendly. It masks a user’s QR code so that it can’t be scanned, thus denying people access to just about everywhere in China. In some cases, it takes only a day to get a PCR test to make the window go away; other times, people may be asked to quarantine at home for seven days or more.

I have friends scattered around all parts of China, and this year I’ve seen so many of them complaining about it. “I went to take a PCR test to solve the pop-up window problem, but the testing location turned out to be a high-risk zone, so I was asked to quarantine at home for 14 days,” wrote a friend in April. The specifics may differ, but they all agree on the particular menace: no one knows why they are receiving the pop-up window or when they will get it, and there’s no way to prepare for it.

Officially, the municipal government of Beijing says there are several reasons why people get a pop-up window: you have been to a city with recent covid cases; you have just been abroad; you have been in the same “time and space” with someone exposed to covid; or you didn’t get a PCR test within 72 hours of buying fever or cough medicine. 

But the problem is, despite being touted as a high-tech pandemic solution, the app’s risk-identifying mechanism tends to cast a wider-than-necessary net, with zero explanation as to why the pop-up is appearing—which often leaves people confused and stuck in covid limbo. 

That’s what happened to Flora Yuan, a 28-year-old Beijing resident. She received the pop-up window for the first time earlier this year when she was walking outside her office building; she was immediately blocked from reentering. “After the pop-up window, you could still walk around on the street, but you’d need a QR code to go into any place, a park, a restaurant, or a shop,” she told me recently. 

Since then, she has received the pop-up window just as she was about to enter a restaurant; on the day of Chinese New Year, when all hospitals were closed and she couldn’t take a PCR test anywhere; and hours before she was supposed to take a train out of Beijing. 

In none of these instances had she actually engaged in high-risk activities or had a known exposure. As best she could guess, the system perhaps thought she was elsewhere (her phone number was not registered in Beijing), or she unknowingly happened to be in the same GPS location with a covid patient, perhaps on the subway. 

But whether or not she was actually exposed is sort of beside the point. Since there’s little explanation for why the windows appear, there’s no accountability. And erring on the side of caution (and over-reaching into people’s lives) is a feature of the pop-up window, not a bug.

For all the hype about how tech-savvy the Chinese government is, the pop-up windows reveal major cracks in the system: though often viewed outside China as a smart but utopian use of surveillance technology, the actual covid tracing app is flawed and creates more burdens than it resolves. 

The impact has been vast: When people are waiting for the pop-up to disappear, they miss out on their jobs, vacations, and sometimes urgent medical services. Thousands of people have complained on Weibo about the pop-up suddenly stranding them far from home. The pop-up also haunts the lives of the millions of non-Beijing residents who go to the city for work or to visit family and are subject to the same unpredictable restrictions. 

Instead of precise prevention, the technology is more of a blunt instrument that enables the government to be as strict as possible,just like how China obsessively disinfects every surface. Does it help China reduce the number of covid deaths? Yes. But at what cost? 

Increasingly, this is how the public in China feels. The measures that were considered essential in reducing covid’s spread in the first two years of the pandemic now feel performative and taxing. Ordinary people, even if they want to abide by the covid control policies, still feel they can’t control their own lives. For Yuan, the only thing she can do is to frequently check the app, sometimes once every hour, before she’s due to board a train or plane. 

“Compared to all the tragedies caused by the covid prevention policies, this probably doesn’t seem significant. But when it falls on an individual, it still feels devastating,” she says. 

Have you had a traumatic experience with the pop-up windows, or do you have any thoughts on them as a pandemic tool? Write to me at zeyi@technologyreview.com

Catch up with China

1. I wrote last week about how a new fuel can help transition China’s cars away from gas—good!—but may also increase China’s dependence on coal—not so good. (MIT Technology Review)

2. Lots of news in the Chinese vaccine world: 

  • Indonesia became the first country to approve a Chinese-made mRNA vaccine for emergency use—it hasn’t been approved even in China yet. (Reuters $)
  • Moderna wants to offer its mRNA vaccine in China but has reportedly refused the government’s request to transfer the technology to a Chinese company in order to sell it there. (Financial Times $)
  • Japan is going to start waiving covid test requirements for foreign travelers if they’ve been vaccinated with three shots—including (non-mRNA) Chinese vaccines. (The Strait Times)

3. From “static management” to “unnecessary food,” here are the nonsensical phrases deployed by the Chinese government to serve its zero-covid policy. (The New York Times $)

4. Richard Liu, founder and ex-CEO of China’s ecommerce giant JD, settled a 2018 sexual assault lawsuit in Minnesota. (The Wall Street Journal $)

5. Say bye to Google Translate in China, one of the last remaining services from the tech giant that was still operating in the country. (CNBC)

6. New research shows how Chinese-government-backed hackers have targeted Tibetan organizations in exile. (Bloomberg $)

Lost in Translation

Home to over 90% of e-cigarette production in the world, China has implemented a much stricter regulation on vaper sales since October 1, reports the Chinese publication Sina Tech. All e-cigarettes need to have childproof locks built in, and companies can’t produce or sell fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, which are controversial for attracting children to vaping. Also, wholesalers and retail owners will have to make all transactions on a state-operated central marketplace, and only after they secure licenses from the state. Amid the rush to comply with the new rules, some retailers are hoarding fruit-flavored e-cigarettes and selling them at a 100% premium.

One More Thing

WeChat or baijiu liquor—which one represents China’s economic future? On Friday, Kweichow Moutai, maker of China’s luxury liquor (priced at over $200 per bottle), dethroned Tencent as the most valuable publicly traded Chinese company. The latter has seen its market cap evaporate 64% since January 2021, mostly as a result of China’s moves to regulate Big Tech. It turns out tech companies come and go, but baijiu is forever.

via Technology Review Feed – Tech Review Top Stories https://ift.tt/SVE7MC4

October 4, 2022 at 04:02PM

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The World’s Whitest Paint Can Now Be Used to Naturally Cool Cars and Planes

https://gizmodo.com/worlds-whitest-paint-can-now-be-used-to-cool-cars-and-p-1849613597


As peak temperatures around the world continue to soar, simply turning up the air conditioning isn’t going to be a long-term solution. We’re going to need other ways to beat the heat, like developing ultra-white paints that can efficiently reflect sunlight for natural cooling, which a team from Purdue University has finally optimized for use on vehicles.

Last year we reported on the research being done at Purdue to develop a white paint with extreme reflectivity, which has actually been many years in the making. In the Fall of 2020, the team successfully developed a white paint that was able to reflect 95.5% of light, and just a few months later, in early 2021, they bested that with a new paint formulation that could reflect up to 98.1% of light. The whitest paints that are currently commercially available only reflect about 80% to 90% of light, which means they’re absorbing 10% to 20% of it, and we all know from regrettable Summer wardrobe choices that reducing light and heat absorption is a big part of keeping cool when it’s hot out.

The world’s whitest paint is made using high concentrations of barium sulfate with particles of varying sizes designed to scatter the varying wavelengths that make up sunlight and prevent that energy from being absorbed and transmitted. The current formulation can be applied to the exterior roof and walls of buildings and can actually make interiors up to 4.5-degrees Celsius cooler than the ambient temperatures outside, reducing the workload of climate control systems. But to work effectively, and achieve that level of cooling, the paint needs to be applied in a layer that’s at least 0.4-millimeters thick.

That makes the world’s whitest paint great for buildings and other structures that don’t go anywhere but impractical for vehicles whose design and performance can be affected by the added weight of a thick layer of paint. That’s where a lot of interest in the material has come from, including spacecraft manufacturers, so the researchers set out to create a new formulation.

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In a paper recently published in the Cell Reports Physical Science journal, it was revealed that using hexagonal boron nitride, a “substance mostly used in lubricants,” instead of barium sulfate, resulted in a white paint with 97.9% solar reflectance from an application thickness of just 0.15-millimeters. The new formulation was also highly porous and weighed 80% less than the previous paint made from barium sulfate while achieving nearly the same amount of light reflectance.

That means the new recipe for the world’s whitest paint allows it to finally be used on everything from cars, to planes, to even spacecraft, without any compromises in mileage, performance, or even their design. The new formulation takes the world’s whitest paint from being a scientific curiosity to a product with widespread commercial uses and advantages—assuming people will actually be able to get their hands on it. The team at Purdue has only revealed that they “are in discussions right now to commercialize it” but it could still be a while as there are “a few issues that need to be addressed, but progress is being made.”

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

October 4, 2022 at 09:39AM

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Someone made an operating system for the NES

https://www.engadget.com/nes-os-134544459.html?src=rss

You probably never saw the NES as a productivity machine, but some clever developers beg to differ. Hackaday and Ars Technica note Inkbox Software has released a graphical operating system, NESOS, for Nintendo’s console. The mid-’80s technology restricts the OS to two apps (a word processor and settings) and eight 832-byte files, but you have an honest-to-goodness pointer, movable icons and customizable interface colors.

Inkbox primarily had to overcome the NES’ very limited memory and storage. NESOS fits into just 48K, and the files have to sit inside the 2K of NVRAM that retains data when the console turns off. Graphics memory was a particularly large hurdle. Nintendo’s system only has two sprite memory grids (one each for the foreground and background), and it can only display 64 sprites at any time — that’s why many NES games flicker at busy moments. The creator had to combine sprites into larger shapes.

The project is available in a ROM that you’ll likely use through an emulator (unless you make your own cartridge). You won’t be writing a novel in NESOS. The memory prevents any kind of substantial content creation, and typing with the NES controller involves very slowly cycling through characters. This is more about defying expectations, and it’s significant that Inkbox didn’t have to modify the console to achieve its feat.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

October 5, 2022 at 08:53AM

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Overwatch 2’s Phone Requirement: ‘It’s Like Being Punished For Being Poor’

https://kotaku.com/overwatch-2-phone-requirement-fps-blizzard-cricket-mint-1849620021


“It feels like being punished for being poor,” Overwatch player Richard Meunster told Kotaku over email. Along with 19 million other people, Richard and his brother both use Cricket Wireless, one of the prepaid phone services that Overwatch 2 will not accept for its newly instated, mandatory two-factor authentication system, SMS Protect.

Every single Overwatch 2 player, including those who had previously purchased Overwatch, need to provide a phone number that fits certain requirements in order to start the game. As part of those requirements, numbers can’t be attached to a prepaid phone plan, landline, or use VOIP. Though what remains of Blizzard’s heart seems to be in the right place—the developer hopes the requirement will cut down “both cheating and disruptive behavior”—players like Richard are forgotten. Not because they don’t play well or don’t care or don’t want to have fun, but because they can’t afford the right kind of phone.

Prepaid phone plans like Cricket and Mint Mobile allow people to pay the cost of their usage up front. Though unfairly maligned as Breaking Bad-type “burner phones,” prepaid phones are easier to incorporate into low-income budgets, with monthly cost usually between $15 and $50. Some companies like AT&T even advertise prepaid services directly to low-income customers.

Richard, a college student, uses Cricket’s $50 monthly plan because “if you can’t pay it that month they just shut down the phone instead of taking you to collections.”

“If I get a regular phone plan and then can’t pay, my credit score gets destroyed,” he said.

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Horror Video Games to Play Leading Up to Halloween

Spooky and scary
Something video games have over their film counterparts when it comes to horror is the player’s agency. Sure, watching the slasher claim their next victim can get a jumpscare out of you, but you know what’s scarier? Knowing you had the power to stop it. Watching someone slowly open a door and enter a dark room is unnerving, but having to do it yourself will send shivers down your spine and paralyze you with fear.

At one point in 2020, there were 74 million prepaid phone plan users in the U.S. alone. Richard is far from being the only Overwatch player being phased out.

“I am ashamed of having a prepaid phone,” one Reddit user, who posted in r/Overwatch and received one thousand upvotes in less than 24 hours, said. “Never thought I would be disqualified from playing Overwatch based on my ability to afford a phone contract, but here we are…Blizzard is the first company to make me feel too poor to play a game.”

Read More: Be Prepared For These 7 Big Overwatch 2 Gameplay Changes

“Cannot believe Blizzard is denying people with prepaid phone plans access to Overwatch 2,” one Twitter user wrote. “Why does it matter how I pay my phone bill?? 6 years of my life, all the time, money, and progress down the drain.”

Blizzard’s phone restrictions seem to primarily and widely impair U.S. prepaid phone plan users, and the company did not return Kotaku’s request for comment in time for publication. Prepaid phone users in other countries have reported being able to log into the game problem-free, which some players speculate could either be because their country necessitates identification in order to purchase a prepaid phone, or because Blizzard has only banned known prepaid phone plans.

“This is why the system isn’t going to stop hackers or smurfs,” one Reddit user wrote. They’ll just use a virtual number service that Blizz don’t know about.”

While Blizzard works it out, Richard and countless other low-income prepaid phone users are hurting.

“It feels like a large injustice,” Richard said. “Cheap postpaid plans are around $90. If you are a prepaid phone owner who really wants to play Overwatch 2, you are looking at $50 more a month to get a Blizzard-approved phone. Talk about going free to play.”

 

via Kotaku https://kotaku.com

October 5, 2022 at 12:54PM