• Japanese investigators have found 'no abnormality' at the dumpling factory in Hebei Province at the centre of a food safety scare in Japan after hundreds of people suffered from pesticide poisoning from eating the dumplings. Traces of pesticide were found on the outside of the dumplings and not in the fillings, leading investigators to point to "deliberate poisoning, rather than accidental contamination". This idea, however, has been rejected by Chinese experts.
• The world's most powerful music labels — Universal Music, Sony BMG (HK) and Warner Music (HK) — have taken Baidu to court in Beijing for not removing links they say infringe on their copyrights. In a related ruling in December, the three firms lost their case against Sohu and Sogou. Meanwhile, Google is preparing to crack China open in the digital music arena. It is in talks with Universal to offer music downloads here. EMI and Sony BMG may join the deal.
• A statement from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry has clarified that the controversial new rules requiring online-video companies to be state-controlled don't apply to already-established Web sites, offering hope to privately-owned video startups such as Youku and Tudou which have raised tens of millions of dollars from venture capitalists.

When the Chinese State Development and Planning Council made an announcement along with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry on January 2, 2008, they did so out of concern — that roaming charges inside China were a bit on the expensive side. more ›

So in the meanwhile, Youtube remains blocked. Shanghai blogger John Pasden of Sinosplice informs us that Youtube wasn't the only unlucky fella. Revver.com and Dailymotion.com also appear to be hit. And of course Google Video was never accessible in China to begin with, so that's a no-count. more ›

There seem to be some varying opinions on whether China is really going to be requiring bloggers to register their blogs using their real names or not. Earlier in the week, it was widely reported that the ISC (Internet Society of China), a quasi-governmental organization that exists under the umbrella of the MII (Ministry of Information Industry), had published a draft "code of conduct" that would encourage but not mandate that users register under their own names. According to Xinhua: more ›

There are a few Microsoft fanbois (or is that fanboys?) among Shanghaiist staff. (Emphasis on few.) And not even they (well, notably this contributor) would deny that the glory days of the original MS-DOS came and went long ago, along with our snappy 286 computer and dazzling EGA monitor. But, maybe we're all wrong. What’s old is new again, and DOS is making a comeback, along with bell bottom jeans and throwback jerseys. Walk around Beijing’s Bainaohui/百脑汇 (means “where a hundred brain/computer meets” .. clever, eh?) computer market, and you would find the latest engineering marvels, courtesy of folks at Intel and AMD, running on -- you guessed it -- MS-DOS. more ›

News that China was creating its own domain names that use Chinese characters has created quite a hubbub among techie types recently. Some of the controversy was a misunderstanding, apparently, but some are still worried that China is somehow circumventing "the system." Shanghaiist is not a techie, so we defer to those who know more about this. (But we always found it a little odd that those who don't speak or read English had to write URLs in "English" to surf the web.) Here are some links that will either clear up some confusion regarding this topic, or cause more confusion: more ›