We were happy when the CNET web media empire finally got round to running stories about China. And now, today's CNET News podcast has a report from Tom Krazit who has just come back from his first trip in China giving a broad, down to earth, if not ground breaking summary of technology in this country, covering the issues of infrastructural development, the digital divide, censorship, the rise of Baidu, an explanation of pinyin, outsourcing, building works and pollution. Apparently, China has electricity already.

You can hear for yourself by downloading this mp3.

Photo by Ron Rothman.

Many thanks to studiozero for bringing Ramona Cordova to Shanghai and introducing his music to us. Last night's performance was one of the best musical experiences we've had in half a decade in Shanghai — the guy plays a mean acoustic guitar and his songs are painfully beautiful. We weren't sure what we would think about the falsetto he sometimes uses, but it worked. We actually think we like him better live than on his CD (which we bought after the show).

The setting was intimate, like a bunch of friends sitting around a campfire. He talked a lot, and actually seemed a bit nervous — his is the appearance that makes girls in the audience go "Awwww." The "secret" location turned out to be the newish underground artist enclave at 696 Weihai Lu, an old building that at one time was an opium den and most recently was an auto parts warehouse. Maleonn lives there. Only 111 people were granted entry to the show, so there were more candles than people.

Here are two videos of Ramona Cordova:

Audio of the entire show, in two parts, recorded with our new favorite gadget:

And if that's not enough Ramona Cordova for you, check out our photos from the evening (we ran out of memory during the third song).

UPDATE: SH reports that 696 Weihai is scheduled to be knocked down this summer. If true, that really sucks. Cool space.