Starting this year, public security departments nationwide solved nearly 150 new types of online crime and detained about 3,500 suspects, thanks to cooperation from Tencent, the tech and internet company, according to the report jointly released by the Ministry of Public Security, the company and the Internet Society of China.

Last year, police in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, clamped down with the company’s assistance on 21 workshops using almost 150,000 pieces of personal information to send spam.

“In recent years, those illegally benefiting from purchasing others’ personal iformation, online telecom fraud and blackmail have been seen frequently, which prompted us to take more responsibility as the internet operator,” said Cheng Cheng, a security specialist from Tencent.

“To effectively fight such crimes, we set up a program to do online data analysis in April 2016 and joined hands with governmental departments to reduce residents’ economic losses,” she said.

In March, for example, the ministry arranged police officers in 14 regions, including Beijing and Anhui, Henan and Liaoning provinces, to solve a big case using the company’s data collection and analysis. Authorities arrested 96 people accused of stealing and purchasing about 5 billion pieces of residents’ addresses and phone numbers, as well as medical, social and bank account information.

Meanwhile, crimes in the industries of online gambling or games also are emerging and taken as the major targets in the fight, according to the company.

Zhong Zhong, deputy director of the ministry’ cybersecurity bureau, named such a cooperative fight as “clouding governance”, noting it is an innovation in fighting online fraud and drug-related cases.

“Using big data can make our crackdowns more accurate and effective, as well as reduce cost in the law enforcement,” he said.

Lu Wei, the internet society’s secretary-general, said the cooperation also will contribute to developments in cyberspace. “Technology and internet enterprises should play a role in improving online legal protection and increase studies on technical skills,” he said.

According to NEA deputy managing director Sunil Kumar Dhungel, the charging station was set up as a campaign to encourage use of electricity-powered vehicles to control air pollution.

“The charging station has been set up just for a demonstration purpose at the moment. The main purpose behind it is to give out the message that the use of electric vehicles can contribute to clean environment. It will also decrease dependency on fossil fuel and promote use of electricity generated in the country,” he said.

The NEA has partnered with the Chinese electric motor company, BYD Auto, to set up the station.

Dhungel said the NEA was open to the proposal of other companies if they wish to set up similar charging stations in other locations.

“We can encourage those companies who want to set up such stations. The NEA can support them by providing electricity if they wish to operate in different locations,” he said.

The NEA has said that after the completion of Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project, the country will have energy surplus situation, especially in monsoon, which can be used to power charging stations in different parts of the country.

In recent times, stakeholders have urged the concerned agencies for creating a conducive environment to facilitate the use of electronic vehicles to address the deteriorating air-quality in major cities.

The Environment-friendly Vehicle and Transport Policy (2014) has been introduced to minimise green house gases emission especially from the transport sector as well as raise share of electric vehicles up to 20 per cent by 2020 in country’s total vehicle number.

However, the electric vehicles have to pass through an unusual test before getting the permission to go on the road.

In absence of any standard method for testing, the efficiency of electric two-wheelers has been examined by its capacity plying on steep roads.

The Vehicle Fitness Test Centre of the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) conducts test for electric vehicles by examining its battery capacity, motor power, energy storing capacity of the battery, mileage after full charge, breaking distance and its capability to go uphill ,among others, according to Ram Chandra Paudel, the centre’s chief.

“Different vehicles have to go through varied tests. But in absence of standard for electric vehicles, we have to conduct test based on different grading of elevation,” said Paudel. “Vehicle manufacturers are asked to follow some criteria set by the government of the country where they are based. “

Liang Jiqiu, chief designer of Kuaizhou rockets at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the nation’s largest missile-maker, described the engine as having a diameter of over four metres and a liftoff thrust of more than 1,000 tonnes.

Until now, the largest solid-propellant rocket in the world, developed by Orbital ATK Inc in the United States, has a diameter of 3.7 metres, he said.

Engineers were required to overcome a host of technical obstacles because China had never developed such a large and sophisticated solid-propellant rocket and there were some gaps in their knowledge of structure, materials and mechanics, Liang said.

Tests of components have now been completed and engineers are assembling an engine for ignition tests, he said.

The engine will be used with Kuaizhou 21 and Kuaizhou 31 rockets, both new-generation models under development at CASIC. Kuaizhou 21 will be capable of sending a 20-tonne spacecraft to low Earth orbit while Kuaizhou 31 will be able to transport a 70-tonne payload, the chief designer said.

CASIC began to develop the Kuaizhou series in 2009 as a low-cost, quick-response product for the commercial space market. The company has launched three: two Kuaizhou 1s and one Kuaizhou 1A.

In addition to state-owned companies such as CASIC, private entrepreneurs are also targeting China’s commercial space market.

OneSpace and LandSpace in Beijing and Link Space in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, have announced plans to design and produce carrier rockets.

On Friday, OneSpace conducted a successful ignition test in Jiangxi province of what it said was the first rocket engine designed by a private Chinese company.

The test lasted 35 seconds and validated the solid-propellant engine’s overall design and major parts, OneSpace said in a statement on Saturday.

It added that the engine will be used on the company’s OS-X series of rockets.

Design has been finalised on the first in the series, which will carry out its maiden flight in the first half of next year, the company said.

In early November, a lecture event for fostering writers was held in the Tenro-in Shoten bookstore, which is run by Takanori Miura, 40, in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Participants packed the store, which occupies only about 40 square meters on the second floor of a multi-tenant building.

Miura told participants: “To have people read your writing until the end, be conscious of how easy to read it is. If the work is hard to understand, a switch will activate in the readers’ minds to close the book.”

He talked about practical writing techniques such as using Japanese-style quotation marks at the opening of the work and placing eye-catching words in titles. “After joining my current company, I felt deeply how important writing skills are in introducing our properties via websites,” said Takumi Hayashi from Hachioji, Tokyo, who works for a real estate company. “The lecture is practical enough to understand, even for people who feel they’re not good at writing.”

Miura opened the Tenro-in store in the Ikebukuro area in 2013. He also manages bookstores in Kyoto and Fukuoka. Almost every week, the Ikebukuro store has held various events: lectures for fostering not only writers, but also photographers or novelists and also English conversation lessons. There are sometimes performances by drama troupes, the store also manages travel plans.

Miura said he thought “people who come here to look for books won’t be satisfied just with finding the books they want”

He changed his mindset to “I will sell the opportunity of experience I want to devise ideas so visitors to my store can enjoy it in a variety of ways,” he said. A bookstore called B&B in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, has grown in popularity with the catchphrase: “A bookstore where you can drink beer.”

B&B opened in 2012 — and its name is an abbreviation of “book and beer”.

Late into the night, the bookstore is alive with people who enjoy beer and food while reading their favourite books.

The store does not rely on book wholesalers for its selection. In most cases, books sold at retail stores are selected by wholesale companies on the basis of past sale data. However, B&B’s staff select all the books they sell.It is impossible to have a wide range of books like those in large-scale bookstores, but B&B’s lineup includes publications that capture the interest of people who adore reading, such as handmade books and a pictorial book of fictitious insects.

One of the staff is Shintaro Uchinuma, 37, a book coordinator who selects books for bookstores and libraries. In the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, he heard people in the disaster-hit areas had visited local bookstores seeking information. “Bookstores are also essential as sources of information in local communities,” he said.

He wanted B&B to serve as a model for other small and midsize bookstores. So B&B expanded its revenue sources — it began allowing not only drinking and dining at the store, but also held various events, including daily talks with writers.

Print’s charms celebrated

Uchinuma said: “When people are surrounded by a huge number of books, they’re blown away, thinking how much information exists in the world. Electronic books are convenient, but physical books have their own charms.”

The number of bookstores nationwide fell from 17,911 in fiscal 2006 to 14,098 in fiscal 2016, according to the Tokyo-based Japan Publishing Organization For Information Infrastructure Development (JPO), which is funded by organizations related to publishing. However, sales floor space has increased. The JPO believes this means that more and more small and midsize bookstores have closed.

The market for publications has been also shrinking. Estimated sales of paper publications in 2016 fell 3.4 percent from the year before to about ?1.47 trillion, marking the 12th straight annual decrease, according to the Tokyo-based Research Institute for Publications. Ohraido Shoten, a bookstore based in Tokyo, became famous for grouping books according to themes and relations rather than according to author.

“Bookstores’ profits in comparison with sales of books are small under the business structure,” said Tetsuya Ando, who was the first manager of Ohraido Shoten.

“In addition to the rise of Amazon.com and other online bookstores, sales of magazines have been sluggish. As a result, small and midsize bookstores are especially struggling,” he said. He added, “In years of uncertainty, more and more people seek answers from books. The role of bookstores as guides is important. While struggling amid adverse winds, bookstores that can increase their fan base through their own endeavours will be the ones that survive.”

These guidelines are intended for members of the public, network enthusiasts and IT professionals who are keen on evolving their home and business networks into an IPv6 capable network.

IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP), which is the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet.

This Internet Protocol is what is used to connect your desktop PC, laptops, game consoles, mobile-phones, tablets, CCTVs and other devices to the Internet.

IPv6 was developed to overcome the limited number of IP addresses available with IPv4, in view of the fact that with more and more devices, such as Internet of Thing and Smart Home appliances, connecting to the Internet, more IP addresses will be required.

Hence, IPv6 has been designed to provide a larger address space and better features. Through proper address planning and technical configuration, IPv6 can provide more efficient routing, IP multicasting, auto-configuration and also mobile IPv6.

Another important feature is IPv6 packet security, which if configured properly can greatly secure your Internet network.

These advisory guidelines are intended for all parties interested in implementing IPv6 in their network.