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To: RealMuLan who wrote (44471)	1/10/2004 3:34:18 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

Security counsel Published: January 10 2004 4:00 \| Last Updated: January 10 2004 4:00 news.ft.com Only a masochist could claim to enjoy transatlantic air travel in recent years. Poor links with airports, overloaded terminals and congested air space have made delay endemic, while cramped accommodation and airline catering have done little for comfort. Over Christmas, however, new security measures have added delays before take-off, a ban on queueing for toilets, the presence of armed sky marshals, longer queues at immigration - and soon lengthy US visa applications. The weary traveller could be forgiven for seeing it all as an overreaction by politicians intent on covering their backs. Such cynicism is encouraged by the reliance of the security authorities on intelligence about terrorist intentions that cannot be wholly shared with those at risk. The credibility of such information has been weakened by the intelligence failures that were used to justify the war in Iraq over non-existent weapons of mass destruction. And, by its nature, intelligence is best on finding out what Donald Rumsfeld calls the "known unknowns" - the things we know we do not know. Much of the security effort is therefore focused on opportunities to use air travel to launch suicide bombing strikes along the lines of the terrorist attack on America of September 11 2001. The terrorists have the advantage of surprise by being able to choose different strategies for their strikes - Mr Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns". Such strategies have already been seen in the bombing of places such as Bali, Morocco, Kenya and Turkey. These attacks have been on much softer targets than the US and its allies but they have demonstrated that the initiative still lies with the terrorists. And while US and European governments must continue to defeat every attempt to attack them, the terrorists need only occasional success to achieve their aim. In this context, talk of "victory" in the war against terrorism is unhelpful. Previous terrorist movements, from the Russian revolutionaries in the 19th century to the Basque nationalists and the Irish republicans of recent decades, have rarely suffered military defeat. Where they have been defeated, it was because governments minimised the impact of their campaigns until the perpetrators realised they could not achieve their aims. The challenge facing the leaders of countries now threatened by terrorist attack is to create the conditions under which a similar conclusion can be reached. The temptation is to exaggerate the threat, to avoid criticism of complacency when attacks succeed. Yet the result can be to heighten fear needlessly, leaving everyone worse off. That means governments have to strike the right balance between security and freedom of movement. Globalisation and international mobility have made the terrorist's job much easier, particularly for the suicide bomber prepared to die in an aircraft, train or truck. The danger is that the search for 100 per cent security makes the world a less connected place, whose fearful citizens dare not travel abroad - yet still succumb to unexpected attacks. Everything reasonable that can be done to make life difficult for terrorists must be done, even if it is unpalatable. But what is done must be demonstrably effective and not imposed in a manner that undermines the international co-operation essential to defeating terrorism. Meanwhile, we shall all have to be a little more patient when planning flights to the US; but it may be too much to expect us to develop better self-control when nature calls during the flight

To: RealMuLan who wrote (44471)	1/10/2004 6:03:40 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 74559

Yiwu, China Unicom can already do 3G in their existing spectrum using 1xEV-DO and it's better spectrum than 2GHz for 3G [being better in propagation, meaning base stations can be further apart than in 2GHz networks to achieve the same coverage]. Here are some WiFi vs 1xEV-DO comparisons. airvananet.com Meanwhile, I've invested in RoamAD, roamad.com a struggling WiFi start-up, because I think WiFi will have a place in places like downtown Beijing where hordes of people will want mobile cyberspace available and spectrum will be crowded. China is better to go with CDMA2000 than W-CDMA. There's no need for further spectrum yet, so no hurry to issue 2GHz licences. China is just getting going on mobile cyberspace. The W-CDMA technology is still too fragile and expensive. You are obviously unable to understand what's good for Q and what's not and just want to poke me in the eye for fun. While you are doing that, Chinese are getting interested in mobile cyberspace and Unicom's CDMA2000 is the only effective way of delivering it now. GSM-based technologies can cobble together a few bits and send them slowly. Using GSM would be like Jay playing last man standing with his fighter running at quarter speed and having no purchasing power to buy more ammo - no good when some speedy action is required. Check the price of QCOM to see what the 'bad news' did. Giggle... if $60 resulted from bad news, it'll be fun to see what happens when there's good news. Meanwhile, I have been in Beijing, writing China's history and plan to do more. It's great to be back after having been absent since 1923. I can now recolonize China. They seemed to love working for me. I felt like a royal visitor, with crowds of people calling hello and grabbing at my sleeves and wanting me to talk to them. As happens in colonisation, they wrote a bit of history on me too, right there in my immune system, with three days of sars-like disease wracking my body and now a rash to deal with too. Each writes history on the other and neither is ever the same. Son is busy learning more Mandarin, becoming partly Chinese. Happy New Year! Mqurice