[time-nuts] ebay warning

[Steve]

There it's all out in the open. You can buy a "real" fake that supposedly will work for some time, or a "fake" fake that just looks good but is made from cheap (even by Chinese standards) stamped parts. The guy that bought a "real" fake in August says its still keeping time within a few seconds a day. Not 'nut grade but it looks and works good enough for him. About $100 if I recall.

Not much chance to look for electronics and I was warned ahead of time not to bring along anything that vaguely resembled receiving or transmitting equipment other than a cell phone. To my surprise, virtually everyone on the street in Beijing was talking or texting on cell phones. The Chinese middle class appears to be as techno-literate and as educated as pretty much anywhere else.

Now if I can get past the fact the hotel had gas masks in every room just in case the Russians or the US attacked, and get over the mandatory PE at 10AM and 2PM for the same reason...

Steve



On Feb 21, 2012, at 3:39 PM, Chris Albertson <albertson.chris at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 1:03 PM, Steve <steve-krull at cox.net> wrote:
>> Be cautious when straying off the tourist track over there. The Silk Market in Beijing for example. Showing interest in knock-off Rolex's in one stall
> 
> I bought a knock-off Rolex.  But not exactly there.   The seller was
> careful and kept them in the back.  They had several different grades.
> He started at the top with one that looked OK but I wanted an obvious
> fake.
> 
> At first China only offered low skill, low wage assembly line type
> labor.  But now they graduate more engineers than the US does each
> year.   We (in the US) are on the wrong end of an "education gap".
> This happened with Japan years ago.
> 
> Look at ham radio in China.  Here is it for the most part old men who
> remember the days of vacuum tubes and CW.   In China it is a hobby for
> the young middle class, mostly trained engineers.
> 
> 
> Chris Albertson
> Redondo Beach, California
> 
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