https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/617849382/chinas-zte-to-pay-1-billion-fine-to-settle-u-s-trade-case
Wow. It’s not the first corp to really get nailed for lying and cheating, but it’s the first Chinese one in my memory.
August 10, 2018 Update . . . ZTE continues to have problems from the USA trade actions. ZTE is still in business and has offered a new phone . . . https://www.androidheadlines.com/2018/08/zte-is-back-in-the-game-blade-v9-up-for-pre-order.html
A quick visit to the Obsession for a beer, and the band was playing the classic Louis Armstrong song, It’s a Wonderful World.
The 2018 Bid Data Expo of Guiyang is now history. It closed Tuesday after four days of successful events and exhibitions. Details of the event, along with participants and exhibitors can be found at the Big Data Expo website: BIG DATA CENTRAL WEB SITE.
2018 Big Data Expo rocks according to Jack.
There were many similarities to the 2017, but also a surprise. It was beyond even my wildest overactive imagination. I wasn’t shy about my disappointment in the 2017 Expo because it was so lacking in robotics, motion control, and automated vehicles. I consider this to be central to our future as humans . . . see: 2017 Big Data Expo.
Though I was unsatisfied with the robotics, motion control and automated vehicle coverage in the 2017 Expo, I was MORE THAN SATISFIED with it’s prominence in 2018. Artificial intelligence (AI) was everywhere in the Pixmoving presentation. The highlights were the coffee robot, the donkey car race, and the driverless car. The coffee robot demonstrated the fine detail, proving how far robotics and AI has come. The donkey car competition showed how difficult it is to drive a car, even in fairly predictable environments and situations.
The robot that serves the coffee was impressive, but it had no eyes. No wives or children moved the coffee pot, or the cups. Nevertheless, this demonstration was very good. You can tell by the audience reaction. This display got everybody’s attention.
The Donkey Car is a car that drives itself, but with very limited intelligence. It has a small on-board computer, some rule based controls, and a camera. The camera helps the car stay between the white lines. It looks like a toy “remote control” car, but there is no (human) controller when the race begins. All the decisions on direction and speed are made by the on-board computer. It is dumb, like a donkey.
The driverless car was also a big hit. There were so many people that wanted to ride around the circuit that I heard a man complain that he waited two hours to get on the car. The driverless car has a Lidar navigation sensor (on top) which is a newer product for machine vision. It uses lasers to judge objects and distances, many, many lasers to gather active data about the road. This car highlights several of the “drive by wire” products marketed by Pixmotion. Pixmotion is promoting open source coding for Automated Vehicles and has it’s own line of hardware that they are seeking to install, not only on cars, but many kinds of vehicles, from freight moving trucks to coffee serving robots on wheels.
Other Things at the Big Data Conference
The Exhibition Hall was open from the 26th to the 29th and there were also classes and presentations on the 25th. This conference was similar to prior conferences in that special tickets allowing more access were available. One impressive presentation was about the use of Big Data to expedite the permitting process for businesses. Rather than using staff time and a complex permitting process for each department, more departments are being merged and application forms are being populated by the government’s Big Data database. This eliminates fees and long waiting periods while applications are processed. If your registration with the government is in order, you get your permit — quickly. This kind of cost cutting and convenience to citizens is a big deal.
The exhibits seemed less expansive than in the past, with a bit of a push from a few vendors expanding presence. Of course Pixmoving was the biggest. Google and Facebook were also well represented, along with many of the other big names. Smart City software, mapping software, and health care were big. Of course virtual reality and the “whole body” virtual world devices were present as well. Here are some sample photos.
It was fun talking to vendors with various levels of English. It was fairly simple to stop and talk, especially with people that are working on their English skills. Alex Lau of Sefonsoft was very kind to me . . .AlexLau
Well CNN lists NINE REASONS as to why you should come to Guizhou, but the list is really incomplete. If you spend some time browsing the pages of the web site you will get some ideas. Guizhou is growing rapidly and China has made some very important investments. Sure, you can see the world’s tallest bridge, the worlds largest radio telescope, or the world’s largest transformer, but those three items are 1/3 of the nine listed by CNN and doesn’t come close to doing Guzhou justice.
Here is a list of some of the very interesting stuffs, all taken from this web site:
Caohai’s Black Necked Cranes
Fast Train Access to Southern China
Wine Festival Every September 9
Lost Road History
Guizhou Food by CNN
Guizhou Food by Chef James
Local Directory of Services
Minority People
It is really considered bad form for a teacher to laugh at a student’s mistake. In an English classroom we will often teach the polite way to ask for something and receive it. For example, “May I have a glass of water?” to which the response is “Here you are”. Then you hand the person a glass of water. In Chinese the question is like “Qing gei wo yi bei shui.” (“May I have a glass of water?”), to which the answer is “Gei Ni.” (literally “give you”, pronounced “gay knee”) as you hand him the glass of water.
So I recently heard of a teacher that lost it and cracked up when the student mixed up his Chinese and English — called Chiinglish. The student mixed up “Gei ni” and “Here you are”. It came out: “Gay you are.”
(Sorry, I guess you have to be an English teacher in China to appreciate this one.)
See Detailed article at this link: Fatal AV Crash details
This Tesla which is modified for autonomous driving has an on-board computer which didn’t recognize and/or react to the obstacle in front of it. The automatic braking system again failed. The proliferation of the “UNconnected” Autonomous Vehicle appears to be creating hazards on public streets, based on two recent USA crashes of AVs. The supercomputer coordinated system advocated on this site seems like the better alternative to the proliferation of weaker, unconnected computer controlled cars.
MICHIGAN AUTOMOTIVE NEWS (modified for web posting)
Elon Musk, federal investigators at odds over fatal Tesla crash investigation
Updated 4:55 AM; Posted 4:02 AM 4/3/2018
In this Friday March 23, 2018 photo provided by KTVU, emergency personnel work a the scene where a Tesla electric SUV crashed into a barrier on U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View, Calif. The National Transportation Safety Board has sent two Continue reading
The Proposal for Autonomous Vehicle testing in the Beizhan bus terminal seems like a safe way to address this technology. Sensors in smart buses can be tested safely with professional drivers in an area where pedestrians and bicycles are prohibited. The US is moving too fast I think. Pedestrian Killed in US by Automated Vehicle. See Guiyang Tech Village .
This is Guiyang Jazz. Martin, an Australian, has loved music all his life. He plays with Chinese musicians and brings his jazzy friends up from Australia to play at the Obsession Jazz bar, on Wenchang Beilu. Live Jazz ( Alt Link ) . It is right across from the Wenchang Castle in the old part of town. It is a multicultural experience with Chinese and foreigners together in the same Jazz Bar venue.
Martin has drawn from many parts of the globe, including from England to Australia. Guiyang Jazz, like all Jazz has it roots in the south of the USA. Martin even pulls in Americans to play drums, horns, and one of my favorites, the zydeco. 
The zydeco is sometimes referred to as a Louisiana washboard Zydeco ( Alt Link ).
Guiyang jazz seems to be coming up in the jazz world. Guiyang Report
