Ged Carroll

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  • Shrook RSS reader

    How China’s internet regulations got me thinking about the Shrook RSS reader and service. I got unfettered internet access during a trip across the border from Shenzhen , China to Hong Kong. I briefly checked my Bloglines account and found that I had over 11,000 unread posts to catch up on.

    11029 unread items

    This got me thinking about a solution, so I will be trying out Shrook RSS reader and service to see if it provides an effective solution to my RSS addiction in China.

    Bloglines like Google Reader was blocked in China. I presume because these platforms would otherwise provide access to content that the Chinese government might to have censored.

    Shrook is a mix of application and cloud service with a freemium price plan offering always-on RSS goodness. Given my China-specific needs, it makes sense to go to smaller, niche services like Shrook. Shrook has a nice simple design to the RSS reader and is a native app for the Mac. It compares favourably to the way NetNewsWire was back in the day. The ability to sync online also allows RSS usage across different devices – so for instance home and work machines.

    UPDATE (September 19, 2020): Both Bloglines and the Shrook RSS sync service no longer exist. The last version of the Shrook RSS reader to work was published in 2016. The app has since been withdrawn from the Mac App Store. Bloglines closed down on October 1, 2010.

  • Classy Kiss yoghurt drink

    While staying in Shenzhen, I came across Classy Kiss yoghurt drink. At first I was a bit thrown, the European Dickensian vintage illustration was at odds with the product name.

    The name was the only English apart from <- Open on the package.

    Classy Kiss yoghurt drink, originally uploaded by renaissancechambara.

    So why have the name in English and why European people on the packaging? Here are a few likely factors:

    • Chinese people up until recently generally didn’t consume dairy products, so a ‘foreign looking’ brand might make more sense. It came into vogue when they wanted taller stronger kids and had the economic purchasing power to buy a higher protein diet. The old illustration likely conveys heritage (and so trust) of some sort
    • Most Chinese people wouldn’t know what the packaging was saying in English. They also wouldn’t appreciate the odd typography. It would probably feel balanced to a Chinese eye and not too out of step with the feel of the Chinese ideograms
    • It will contrast on the shelf against the clean modernist packaging of western brands like Danone, or General Mills’ Yoplait

    As for the ‘Open’; that was likely on the InDesign file template for the TetraPak packaging. I wouldn’t say that the product is like a classy kiss, but it is a perfectly passable yoghurt drink. More FMCG related posts here.

  • Google Music China

    I spent some time in Shenzhen and tried the Google Music China service. It was unlike anything else I have seen and was designed especially for consumers in mainland China.

    Google Music China

    Google Music China is impressive in terms of the size of its catalogue and ease-of-use. You have a mix of western artists and Chinese artists on the service. There didn’t seem to be a lot of censorship going on. You could download the full expletive riven Eminem experience. The music is downloaded into your computer as MP3 files and doesn’t have any DRM on it. I put it into my iTunes library. The service is powered by a Chinese partner for Google, which becomes apparent when you look at the URL on the page for an individual track.

    There didn’t seem to be a restriction on the amount of music that you could download. I got a mix of material from jazz to techno including a number of albums by The Jazz Messengers.

    Much of the music seems to have been licensed through the US right holders of the music; such as this Astralwerks license for a Fat Boy Slim track below.

    The service is free, in that I didn’t have to pay per track, or pay a subscription. Instead the music is ad funded with display ads as shown below.

    Google Music banner ad

    I do wonder what the click through rates are on the adverts that periodically get vended on the service?  More China-related content here.

  • Stussy Bearbrick

    Shawn Stussy just threw down on a Stussy Bearbrick. Admitted the Stussy Bearbrick looks pretty lame. Imagine if you set up your own company and you named after yourself because you signed all your work. Over time your signature became the most valuable design asset of the company. Over time you decide that you want to take some of your hard earned cash, take time out and do the stuff that you actually enjoy. You leave your business, having been bought out.

    However, you then have the problem of seeing your name plastered over absolute tat.

    taking your name in vain

    Welcome to Shawn Stussy’s world. They guy invented streetwear as we know it. He mixed American classics like the oxford cotton button down, denim and t-shirts together. On top of that he added American workwear beloved of surfers.  Shawn also got Japan and what they could bring to the table back when everyone else was just thinking about Sony.

    And then the copy and paste aspects of punk culture. There is a reason why Stussy designs come off like old school fanzines. They both come from a common cultural route. The backward SS was a homage to Chanel. The repeating pattern a nod to the luxury brands from Gucci and Louis Vuitton to MCM.

    Supreme, Palace, Neighborhood, Off-White all are following in his footsteps.

    I am a big Stussy fan and it is a rare season where I don’t buy something from their collection. It is hard to keep banging out new streetwear, season after season, even when you’re delving into an archive like Stussy has.  But some of the stuff ends up being pretty ropey and I sympathise with Shawn Stussy’s predicament. Which is why I look forward to seeing what his long-awaited new venture S-Double Studios will come out of the trap with. More on luxury here.

  • Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and The Great Secret of China by Simon Winchester

    Bomb, Book and Compass

    Simon Winchester’s Bomb, Book and Compass delves into the history of science and innovation. The old adage of the victor writing history applies not only to wars but also the history of innovation and science. Everything you were taught in school about the history of science is likely to be wrong. It usually having a European focus; from the Greeks and Romans to the Italian-based renaissance via the wisdom preserved within the monasteries of Europe during the dark and early medieval ages.

    Book, the book and the compass

    The Chinese, in comparison, were seen as inscrutable and cunning rather like the Fu Manchu character of Sax Rohmer’s novels but less sophisticated than their European counterparts. This diacotomy helped assuage the consciences of empire-builders who had designs on the riches of the Chinese market, from bringing away silk and porcelain to finding a ready market for Indian-grown opium and laying the foundations for the modern-day heroin trade.

    Up until the European’s arrived China was the world’s largest manufacturer, counting for about 30 per cent of the economic activity by value in the world. This time of weakness is what the Chinese refer to as the century of shame, which was finally laid to rest when they claimed back Macau in 1999.

    Joseph Needham

    Bomb, Book & Compass is the story of Cambridge biochemistry professor Joseph Needham and his quest to find the real truth behind the history of science and China’s role within it, he did this during the chaos of the second world war, when he had the chance to get at the documentary evidence.

    He then spent the rest of his life curating and writing material for a vast series of books Science and Civilisation in China. These books were not only a historical record that put China closer to the centre stage position that they deserved in science, but also put the country on a more even standing with the ‘civilised world’ restoring or enhancing its reputation. In some respects Needham’s work could be considered to be the largest unpaid (in that China didn’t pay for it) corporate reputation campaign in the annals of public relations.

    Bomb, Book & Compass is a compelling read, by turns adventure, travelogue and political intrigue. I would recommend it, if nothing else for the very human portrait it paints of Joseph Needham as a man of great intellect and passion, but also a man with some very human failings. More book reviews here.