life in general: updates to the posts on ubuntu and china

I have just now made important additions to two recents posts -- the Ubuntu one (13 August) and the China-Olympics one (9 August). The updates can be read in the posts directly or down below.

Update to the Ubuntu post:
With the help of a googled result on an Indian linux user's attempt to connect his GPRS-enabled GSM phone to the internet on Ubuntu, I could also succeed in connecting my Nokia 6233 to the internet using Vodafone (its GPRS is active on my number) on Ubuntu. It took me over an hour of fiddling with a file 'wvdial.conf' that I had to create and edit. The nice thing in ubuntu is that you can use the Run prompt to do all this and learn at least one or two things that the programmers use.

Update to the China-Olympics post:
(...there's more deceit and tragedy happening at the Beijing Games -- read about it here, here and here. ... i also wrote something on china and olympics in the magazine i work for; it follows below after the HRW statement)
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My small write-up on China & Olympics:

Olympic diplomacy

The Olympics has unreservedly shown China's ability to pull off a large event with the efficiencies rarely seen. After getting the green signal from International Olympic Committee in 2001 China's government has put in its heart and soul in upgrading the infrastructure in Beijing to host the Olympics. Dedication, hard work and economic efficiencies has paid off for China as it should.

The Olympic diplomacy is what states like to flaunt. In the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Germany, it was Adolf Hitler, the host country's chancellor, who said about the Olympics "..it also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace." But the reality borne out by Jews, Gypsies and other non-Aryans in Germany and that borne out by Europe from 1939 to 1945, at the behest of Germany, did not live up to this promise.

China too is failing to live up to a similar promise. Human Rights Watch, on 6 August, issued a statement that sounded like old hat but was yet telling in its tone. It stated that "..abuses of migrant construction workers who were pivotal to Beijing's infrastructure improvements have increased, as have evictions of Beijing residents whose homes were demolished to make way for that infrastructure."