Headworx

High speed trains in China are phenomenal. I could sit by the window for hours watching the passing landscape. They do not run on ground. They either soar high on concrete bridges and piers or pierce through tunnels. It is thousands of kilometers of piers and tunnels. And the landscape mostly flips from agricultural fields to endless seas of industrial buildings - factories. It is totally unlike anywhere else. When the train enters an industrial zone, there are thousands and thousands factories. It probably takes such a train ride to understand the hypothetical effort of moving manufacturing to the West. The factories form a unique and super efficient industrial supply chain. It is not about the iPhone. While a flagship symbol of Western dominance, we could do without iPhones. But probably we could not do without lights, linen, pots, just about every daily used item is made in China. And then there are basic components to make them: wires, bolts, glue, paint. And then the raw materials...

In this last part (so far) of the Getting Around in China mini-series I'd like to share tips on personal mapping and navigation software. Actually this is a one big tip. The Gauda / Amap mobile application. In different markets (app stores) it goes by different names, so search the app store for either Gauda or Amap. This is the go-to replacement for Google Maps or Apple Maps. While both Google and Apple work to some extent in China, their functionality is severely limited. They will not find you any public transport options and even basic driving / walking functions are limited. Also in several interesting areas Amap offers very interesting options not available in any app in the Western hemisphere. Driving in underground garages. I still need to explore the technical side of this, but the long story short is Amap can navigate in underground garage structures. Clearly no satellite reception there, so I suspect Bluetooth beacons may be at play. Nevertheless you will appreciate the ...

The terrifying crash of the Air India flight 171 in Ahmedabad has ignited a number of theories on the cause of the accident. The plane took off and went down immediately as it appeared to lose thrust in both engines. Today's aircraft are considered very safe. The key for the safety record is redundancy of all critical systems. Everything is doubled or tripled or quadrupled. From the probability theory perspective, multiplying the critical components vastly reduces the chance of a total failure, as the individual equipment unit failures are considered to be independent. That is mostly true for legacy / mechanical components. An engine blade failure in one engine does not cause the other engine to fail. Or a chance of two blades (one in each engine) failing at the same time is practically zero. But it turns out when software is involved, equipment failures can be fully synchronous. Which I believe is what happened in this accident. In the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the fuel pumps are el...

In this third episode of the China: Getting Around mini series I'm going to share tips about long(er) distance travel in China. So far we have already covered passports, eSIM data in part 1 and translation apps, mobile payments, WeChat and DiDi in part 2 . Airlines. There is not much special about how airlines work in China. Buy tickets online, show up for check-in etc. There are some differences related to items allowed in a carry-on bag. For example foldable walking poles are not allowed. So are not multi-tools designed as so called "TSA-safe" (from my experience, they are not in Mexico either). As they say "a tool is a tool and tools are not allowed". Period. Cigarette lighters are prohibited too, and there is an interesting solution - you drop the lighter before security in a box and that box then goes to the security exit door where disembarking passengers can grab lighters.  Trains. High speed trains are what China is really famous for. The network is inc...

You have the passport and a phone with the internet on it. What is next? Translate. Unless you speak Mandarin, a language translator app in the next on the list. Language has been a barrier, but translator apps break through that barrier. Use the one you like. I use Google translate. It is prudent to download the languages for offline use. Once done you can either type or dictate (or have someone else dictate) or use camera for instant translation of signage or restaurant menus. The apps are not perfect (yet), but they do a really good job. On one of the past trips, for example, we were able to negotiate a set of medicines in a pharmacy. The pharmacist was asking many questions in Chinese, us answering in English, and ultimately the medicine worked very well. Payments. As I mentioned, China has its own preferred payment systems. Credit cards would not work in most cases. Maybe in higher end hotels. But the default means of payment is by presenting or scanning a QR code. The app I use m...

I never thought I would become an expert on China and I'm still far from being one. But our business relationships with Chinese partners have been growing strongly and that is reflected in much more frequent China trips. So here is the mini series of blogs with some tips which you may find helpful. China is not straightforward for Western visitors. It is just different and small things matter when preparing for a trip. Or just knowing what to expect. May marks my second trip to China in 2025 an I plan to be here back in June. What is different is I'm the first time on my own, which I find both exciting and liberating. Being able to do things on my own has always been important, be it soldering a PCB or writing a piece of assembly code or trekking in the mountains of Georgia or Kirgizstan. Organized trips and telling people to do things for you or carry your bags is simply not my style. So you are going to China - where to start? Passport. Obviously the number one step is making...

SILVAIR published the Q1-2025 report on May 15th. Bound by the corporate governance rules I could not share our progress earlier, but now the cat is out of the bag. We had a stellar quarter. Q4-2024 was record and always in such cases the worry is if the trend would continue. It has continued. Even stronger. Despite the US trade wars introducing uncertainty in the markets. Fundamentally I think there are couple of jointly contributing factors to our overall progress: Brand recognition. Despite very low marketing budget, we continue to be increasingly more recognized. And this is both Bluetooth NLC as the only truly interoperable wireless lighting control standard, and Silvair as the leading product based on this standard. Both brands are associated with performance, quality, robustness and ease of use. A perfect combination of features. The product feature set is increasingly more complete, particularly addressing the needs of customers in the enterprise segment. Network scalability ha...