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Voting in the USA – Chengdu Consulate Rocks

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For those of you concerned about voting in the USA, I suggest you get after it.  I was disenfranchised by the Express mail two years ago.  I paid China Post a lot of money and the ballot, which was supposed to be delivered in five business days, arrived at the Clerks office a week late.  See: Fast Mail and Voting

This year I got after it earlier and by contacting my Township Clerk’s office, I was able to file a request for absentee ballot and receive it the same day.  I filled out the request and took a picture with my cell phone. I emailed it to the Township Clerk and she immediately sent me the ballot by email.  I checked with my advisers in the USA on the various ballot issues, Supreme Court Candidates, School Board, etc. and completed my ballot in a couple days.

The American Secretary of State has a website on voting and there is a postage paid envelope available which I used. First I had to get the envelope, with ballot enclosed to the Chengdu Consulate. They put the envelope in a diplomatic pouch and it gets mailed from the USA. A Chinese friend from Chengdu was visiting her parents in Guiyang during the October holiday so I gave the envelope to Daisy. She was going to deliver it to the Chengdu Consulate.

Daisy showed up at the Chengdu Consulate today and was turned away by the Chinese Police guarding the consulate. She wasn’t permitted to enter unless she had an American Passport. She called me, and while she was on hold, I went to the US Embassy website for Beijing.  I called the number and told them the problem.  They put me on hold and called the duty officer. in Chengdu. The Chengdu Consulate was closed due to the holiday.

They put me through to the duty officer, named Ben.  Somehow my call was being handled by the emergency hotline.  I gave Daisy’s phone number to Ben  and the spelling of her name.  He got after it.  He was near the Consulate so he either went there himself, or had somebody go outside to find Daisy. Case closed. The ballot will be in the diplomatic pouch tomorrow morning.

I spoke to another American about voting. His state, Washington, has a pure vote by internet system available.  I think each state has it’s own system   I believe that they all take this subject seriously. If you want to vote, you can go to your State’s website, probably the Secretary of State in your state to find out how to do it.  I hope you vote. A democracy is a terrible thing to waste.

Foreigner wins Guiyang Heavyweight Boxing Competition

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Urison Kokulbekov of Tajikistan won the Heavyweight Boxing Competition in Guiyang.

Even with the drastic differences in amateur and professional boxing a lot of guys do make that transition and have a lot of success with it. One of the top scouts in Guiyang these days is the current Heavyweight Champion of The Tank Boxing Association. Urison Kokulbekov, is a student of Guizhou Institute of Engineering and Technology and is currently a talent scout for the Tank Boxing Association.  He focuses much of his efforts on boxing which flows in his arteries, veins and capillaries. He’s credited with winning the current Tank Heavyweight Championship in Guiyang.

His dream is to become a successful entrepreneur, as well as boxer. He looks forward to do his higher studies from a top university. He likes Harvard or the London School of Economics.

My Neighborhood

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It is hard to explain what it is like to live in a nice part of Guiyang, of Guizhou Province. It is best to just show a video of my neighborhood.  My neighborhood is maybe ten or fifteen years old, and has been surpassed in values by newer, and better construction in and around Guiyang. My neighborhood is still very nice. I have a little electric bicycle that gets me up and down the hill in front of my apartment.  I am on the twelfth floor and can ride my bicycle to the elevator . . . no stairs. 
I had to to out for bread so I put the cell phone in my shirt pocket and tried to give you a flavor for what my neighborhood looks like. It is considered one of the nicer parts of Guiyang.
Click to view:
Riding Home from the Bread Store

ZTE is back in Business

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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

2018 Big Data Expo of Guiyang

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2017 Big Data Expo

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 (aka_ John_ S._Porter)

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