Will China back a nuclear-armed North Korea?

Story.

It seems highly unlikely that China would continue to side with North Korea - a regime whose days are so clearly numbered. Numbered as much by their own policy and crippling military budget, as much as by current United States foreign policy.

Beijing, in my view, is well aware that its future is as a major economic power. By supporting North Korea, it is setting itself at odds with Washington - neither a wise move strategically nor economically. Further, China gains nothing by supporting North Korea, excepting the deferrence of a potential presence of US troops on its border after any Korean unification.

It's my view that the North Korean state is on the verge - maybe five more years - of buckling, and I further consider that China not just recognises which side its bread is buttered, but now regards its bastard lovechild increasingly as its very own Glenn Close. Not for nothing did China recently briefly suspend oil exports to Pyonang (AP) following their decision to irritate the United States by restarting the YongByon ractor: it was calculated to send the not-very-coded message: don't get too big for your boots, and don't pick a fight with the school bully".

See also, post, at 3/19/2003 and 2/6/2003.

"No, I will not fix your website"

Am I being a technology snob about this?

Firstly, let me make it clear that I am not referring to personal pages, and people learning web design. Everyone who knows web design has learnt somehow, and usually it's by building personal sites.

What I'm talking about is companies expecting everything for nothing. If something is important to your business, it has an asset value! You can't call us - the hosting company - and say "our website isn't working", when the problem is clearly and demonstrably code- not server-related. People keep getting this problem, and either they've hired a company on a one-off to design the site and the company's gone off somewhere, or else the managing director's "just had a go" in Microsoft Frontpage.

My view: If you don't know anything about HTML, or the web, or the internet, or computers; if you have absolutely no knowledge of technology, that doens't make you a bad person, and it doesn't make you a bad businessman. It means that you need to pay someone who does know about these things, just the same as if you have a fleet of vehicles, you either retain a mechanic or have a contract with a supplier - you don't just remember that one of your staff knows something about motorbikes, and that's kind of like being a car engine repairman.

The bottom line: websites are financial assets to a company, and if you want a website, you need to spend to the money that it costs to have people who know what they're doing designing, writing and maintaining your website. You get what you pay for: if you won't reach in your pocket, you can't expect miracles.