Foxconn Admit to breaking Chinese Labour Laws

"In what would seem to be a 180-degree reversal from last week's vehement denials concerning the Daily Mail's "iPod City" exposé, Hon Hai Precision Industry's Foxconn factory has now come forward to admit that it has indeed been in violation of Chinese labor laws. Even though the company -- which was accused of underpaying and overworking employees -- had initially threatened to take legal action over the story, ChinaCSR is now reporting that a Foxconn spokesperson has publicly copped to the fact that its workers are forced to be on duty an extra 80 hours a month, which is 44 more hours of overtime than Chinese regulations allow (or 1.5 to 2 extra hours per day depending on the length of their work week)." engadget.com

Jonathan Ross

There's a big stink about Jonathan Ross' interview of David Cameron (leader of Conservative party): a - because Jonathan Ross was rude and suggested David Cameron masterbated to Margeret Thatcher when he was younger, and b - because other conservatives don't think Mr. Cameron should have been there.

BBC end their article on it in the following way: "A BBC spokeswoman said 27 complaints had been received about the programme, with four related to Ross's interview with Cameron."

So what were the other 23 complaints about? Are they not news-worthy? :)

In other Jonathan Ross related news, he's now being paid £18 million by the BBC - is this the best way to spend people's TV license fee's - spending such a big chunk for one program / person?

Happy to pay more for greener PCs?

BBC News are reporting that we'd be happy to pay an extra £64 - £108 / $117 - $197 for an environmentally friendly PC with fewer chemicals. People in the UK were willing to pay the £64 extra, whilst people in China were willing to pay an extra £108 according to a Green-Peace report.

Okay, this raises some questions, 1. What were the base prices for PCs. Ie were the UK PCs £400 to start with meaning people would be happy to pay £464 total price? In China, what is the base price of a PC, £200? Less? More? 2. Can people in the UK / China afford to pay this much extra for a PC, ie, the study is a theoretical study, when it actually comes to the crunch when people are handing over money for a new PC, will they be as happy then to part with the extra dosh? 3. Poor US people can't afford cheap PCs, how can people in China afford an extra £108 for a PC when wages for a lot of people are around £15 per month?

Even if there are environmentally friendly PCs available for an extra £64/£108, what will stop budget manufacturers continuing to produce the cheapest PC possible? (You know the people who try market £300 / $300 PCs in Walmart / Dell Newspaper Offers) - And how about paying more for products that aren't manufactured in sweatshops?

Link

iPod powered laser system.

What will they think of next?

Futurama Season 4 only £11.97 Delivered

From Amazon UK/Jersey. All the other Futurama, Family Guy and Simpsons seasons are dirt cheap too!

Sexed Robots

Wow. Robots that wander around looking for another robot to have sex with. Have a look at the video on the site. They are great. Via Boing Boing.

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The cloud appreciation society.

No,really.

The Bad People List - Updated

FAI - steal take money off poor people to the tune of $1500 extra for a $300 PC. Why don't people just buy a second hand PC or save up $300 for an emachines from Walmart?

Foxconn / China.
McDonalds.
Carol Vorderman.
Apple.

Foxconn (Apple, Dell Manufacturers) Deny Sweatshop

Engadget have details stating that Foxconn have denied the claims of them running a sweatshop called "ipod city", where people work 15 hours days. Foxconn state that they pay the government required minimum wage. Apple say they will investigate the claims.

Did you see the program on BBC2 on Tuesday at 9pm about Women in China, some of the women worked 8am till 8pm in factories and weren't allowed to talk all day. Naturally they hated there jobs but had no choice but to work there in order to make enough money to live. The program stated that China has the highest suicide rate for women in the world. So perhaps even though companies do follow China's laws regarding labour, perhaps the laws aren't enough to prevent intolerable conditions?

Batteries Included

Batteries Included is an awesome blog about the batteries that come with stuff. "This site is a gallery of batteries — those strange, off-brand batteries that are included when you buy remote controls, toys, and other consumer electronics." And if you wanted to know what's inside batteries, then this site seems to cover them all. Image uploading to blogger totally doesn't work with opera. so here's a link to a pic.

PS - They do battery recycling in my area now, when they give up paper recycling bags, they also give us battery recycling bags. Neat!

Linkage

TiVo on your mobile.

To watch the World Cup in ASCII enter: telnet ascii-wm.net 2006 in to the command line shell.

Alan Partridge The Movie (2007)

Movie expected 2007!. He's even got his own my space account.

Boing Boing: Man lives on monkey chow for less than $1 per meal

Boing Boing: Man lives on monkey chow for less than $1 per meal

Wired News: A Sixth Sense for a Wired World

Wired News: A Sixth Sense for a Wired World: "What if, seconds before your laptop began stalling, you could feel the hard drive spin up under the load? Or you could tell if an electrical cord was live before you touched it? For the few people who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers, these are among the reported effects -- a finger that feels electromagnetic fields along with the normal sense of touch." Gross, but cool. via BoingBoing.