My Tibetan Mastiff Dream

David Nealis with  Tibetan Mastiff puppy

The Tibetan Mastiff (Tibetan: འདོགས་ཁྱི; Chinese: 藏獒; Pinyin: Zàng áo) is a large Tibetan dog breed.

This still primitive dog breed was developed centuries ago in Tibet.

Originating with the nomadic cultures of Tibet, China, Mongolia, India and Nepal, it is used by local tribes of Tibetans to protect sheep from wolves, leopards, bears, and tigers.

The Tibetan Mastiff dog is known for its loyalty and has been used as a nomad dog for thousands of years.

I having a running deal with a good Chinese friend of mine who raises Tibetan Mastiffs on the grounds of his auto parts factory is just outside of Shenyang, Liaoning China. He lets one roam at night to protect the factory, if he lets two roam they will fight each other, the deal is I get to choose a puppy but my modern nomadic lifestyle has prevented me from taking him up on his generous offer but one day I will.

Tibetan Mastiff Stud

This Tibetan Mastiff really doesn't like me

Bali The Island Paradise

David Nealis at a temple in Bali

Bali is one of those places that’s on most of ours bucket list, but once I got there I fell in love with its soulfulness.

David Nealis at a sea turtle rescue in Bali

Bali is an Indonesian island known for its lush forests filled with banyan trees, jack-fruit, coconuts, bamboo and bananas, volcanic mountains, ancient rice paddies, gorgeous beaches and beautiful coral reefs with nearly a thousand species of exotic fish.

David Nealis on the beach in Bali

Everywhere you go on the island you see flowers in bloom jasmine, roses, hibiscus, orchids and more.

David Nealis with fruit bats in Bali

I am looking forward to many returns to this paradise 

Warren Buffett Pitching Cherry Cokes in China

Warren Buffett on Cherry Coke

Billionaire Warren Buffett helped Coca-Cola launch Cherry Coke into the China Market by adorning a cartoon character of him onto limited addition Cherry Coke cans and bottles.

Who better to pitch Cherry Coke in China then the highly regarded investment genius who says that he drinks at least five cans a day consuming regular Coke at the office and Cherry Coke at home. He claims it is his secret to staying young.

Buffet didn’t ask to get paid to help with the promotion well at least not directly after all Berkshire Hathaway is the largest single shareholder in Coca-Cola with an investment worth about $17 billion.

The Oracle of Omaha’s cult like status isn’t just limited to Americans, an estimated 3,000 Chinese investors flocked to Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders meeting last year.

That subliminal message might be if I drink one of these everyday maybe I will be as Rich as Warren Buffet.

David Nealis 

While making my purchase of Cherry Coke at Family Mart in Shanghai,  I asked some Chinese people if they knew who was the person on the can a few said they didn’t know some creative answers and asked if it was Colonel Sanders of KFC ha ha ha.

The African Swine Virus Rages Across China

                        The African Swine Virus Rages Across China

David Nealis on the farm in Erdos, China.

As we enter the 2019 Lunar New Year of the Pig, the African Swine Virus is raging across China and now spreading to other parts of Asia and Europe.

This incurable disease that typically takes years to eradicate has reached at least 24 Chinese provinces and regions since the first reported outbreak in August of 2018. It’s a common thought that the African Swine Virus was introduced to China from Russia. The US –China Trade War has China scrambling to find alternative sources of commodities to prove to the US that they do not need them to help feed their 1.3 billion population, this has some conspiracy theorist imaginations going wild.

On our yeoman farm in the Inner Mongolia City of Erdos, we feared the rapid spread of the African Swine Virus, as many of the large and small producers in the region started to contract the virus so we decided to send our hogs to market earlier than normal to avoid the chance of losing all of our stock to the virus. All that we kept were a few mature females that we use for breeding and so far they have been spared from contracting the virus.

Jane Yang on the farm in Erdos , Inner Mongolia China

What is the African Swine Virus?

The African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causative agent of African swine fever (ASF). The virus causes a haemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in pigs, but persistently infects its natural hosts, warthogs, bushpigs, and soft ticks of the genus Ornithodoros, with no disease signs.

In attempts to reduce the spread of the virus the Chinese Central Government has banned feeding kitchen/restaurant waste to pigs which is a very popular practice in China, and restricted transportation of live pigs and products from infected areas. 

Hogs on the way to market in China.

So far the virus hasn’t mutated to be able to affect humans but it has affected the lives of many humans. Tens of thousands of Chinese farmers are expected to abandon pig farming as weak demand and higher regulation costs cut deep into their profits. It is estimated that will reduce production in China by 20 per cent this year. The weak demand for pork is also affecting global commodity producers with downward pressure on soybeans.This might not be considered a negative affect by the Chinese Central Government which has been pushing for larger factory farms were there can be more control.

David Nealis President of Ceres Ltd

China’s pork industry is US$1 trillion market, not only is China the world’s largest producer of pork and also a net importer of pork. In 2017 it is estimated that China slaughtered 700 million pigs. Yeoman farms producing fewer than 500 pigs for slaughter each year are estimated to account for about 40 per cent of China’s output annually.

During the Year of the Pig let’s hope that the Chinese and other affected regions of the world get the African Swine Virus under control and while they are at it let’s find an intelligent and fair solution to the US - China Trade War as well.

In-N-Out lives up to the hype.

Recently I was in Southern California and could not resist the opportunity to try the famous In-N-Out Burger! 

David Nealis at In N Out Burger

Recently I was in Southern California helping a wealthy Chinese client set up operations there after a few days of lavish Chinese meals and drinking until deep into the night with the client and his new found friends I needed to escape for a true American meal and what better then to try the famous In-N-Out Burger.

The line was long which was a good sign

 This wasn’t my first time to Southern California but after a decade of living in China if I can find the opportunity for a good burger I am not going to pass it up.

To the best of my ability I tried to keep the Hollywood hype out of my mind as I pulled up to the place.

As I walked in I noticed the long line and thought to myself that is always a good sign. The line moved quickly and a couple minutes later my order came up.

It was a great burger and the price was fair, the fries weren’t my favorite but not bad either and the burger made up for it. The burger completely hit the spot!

The burger hit the spot! 

I will surely seek out In-N-Out in the future, even at the cost of missing another gourmet Chinese meal.

It wasn’t easy explaining to the client that I pasted up a gourmet Chinese meal for  some fast food, he gave me the most confused look when I was telling him about it , in the end I had to be very Chinese and say “ oh my friend wanted to go there” luckily he didn’t ask which friend ha ha.

                                                                                                                                                                  I will surely seek out In-N-Out in the future, even at the cost of missing another gourmet Chinese meal.

This Old PC Gets a New Life as a NAS

This Old PC

We had an aging PC in our office that ran a version of MS that Microsoft was going to stop supporting so instead of getting rid of it I decided to find a new function for it.

I examined our IT needs and decided that I needed to improve our internal data storage by adding a NAS to the network (NAS – Network Attached Storage).

I made the NAS by:

1) Replaced the hard drive with a new larger drive.

2) The RAM was already sufficient, but it never hurts to add RAM if possible.

3) Installed a copy of Linux on the PC as the Operating System.

4) Updated the BIOs on the PC hardware.

5) Downloaded a copy of Free NAS onto the PC then configured it.

The end product is a NAS with decent processing power that fulfilled the needs of our office. Obviously this won’t work on an Enterprise level, but for our boutique office in Shanghai, China this was a great low cost solution and admittedly a fun project for me.

  

Years ago I wrote another blog post about utilizing an old PC in your small business.

I labeled it “This Old PC part one”, I was living in Shanghai at the time and unfortunately soon after that the Chinese blocked all non-Chinese blogs, the Great Fire Wall of China severely stopped my blogging.

I am spending a little time back in the USA after a decade in China and I am cleaning up an old laptop and I came across some old blogs and I have decided to go ahead and post some of them, though they might be a bit dated I hope they are some value to you.

David Nealis President of Ceres Ltd

In the past if a PC wasn’t up to task for its current role I would clean them up and try to repurpose them while using the old operating system. But in the current age that we live in with additional cybersecurity concerns that is no longer a feasible thing to do, even if this PC isn’t directly connecting to the internet it still is a security risk as hackers scan your network looking for the weakest link. When Miscosoft stops supporting an operating system  it becomes more of a liability on your network because security updates for it  end as well as for third party venders. This makes it a massive security liability on your network.

Previously I wrote about utilizing older PCs for print servers and DNS Servers, but we no longer have any PCs in the office so as I look to the future of my legacy IT equipment my imagination is at work thinking about what can I repurpose those laptops , tablets and smart phones to do.

This brings back memories of a fail project using an old palm pilot to be the brain of a very very simple robot. This makes me hope that I sent that to the e-waste collection place and it’s not rusting away in my basement or garage.

Here are the links to previous tech blogs of mine:

http://davidnealis.blogspot.com/2012/05/this-old-pc-part-one-while-running.html

http://davidnealis.blogspot.com/2011/02/airlink-101-anas350-nas.html

https://davidnealis.blogspot.com/2010/11/mid-irobot-android-tablet-pc.html