Briefs | CTM’s fiber network service blackout

Local telecom operator CTM experienced a partial blackout yesterday when its fiber network service failed to function for several hours during the evening. CTM issued a press release early today, mentioning that its Network Management Center detected that two major internet access servers were in failure, affecting access to internet from a significant number of residential users. “CTM immediately rerouted the relevant internet traffic and an improvement could be observed. However, a large group of users continued to experience difficulties in accessing the internet,” CTM mentioned. “Although the root cause is still under investigation, an unusual surge of traffic was registered immediately prior to the incident. The service continued to improve through the evening and eventually resumed at 23.49.”

Library Week opens on Saturday

The “Macao Library Week 2017” will be inaugurated on April 22, at 10.30 a.m, at the Old Court Building.  A number of activities, including a charity sale of archived periodicals, book exchange, bookcrossing, hand puppet shows in English, book accessories workshops such as “Marbling Bookmarks DIY” and “Non-woven Fabric Memo Holder DIY”, a German comic book exhibition and game booths will be held during the event. This year’s “Macao Library Week” is themed “Reading and Images”, aiming to broaden reader’s perspectives and explore the interrelationship between images and text, allowing images to provoke imagination in reading. The event will be held from April 22 to 25.

209k fake products seized from both SARS

In 2016, the Guangdong Sub-Administration of China Customs seized 209,000 products from Macau and Hong Kong that were involved in infringement of intellectual property rights.  According to the Guangdong customs authority, the goods are worth more than HKD13 million. The majority of the products which violated trademarks mainly consist of clothes, shoes and leather products. Last year, Guangdong jointly organized four customs operations with Hong Kong, and three with Macau.  The Guangdong department also filed more than 25,000 cases regarding fake products and infringement in the entire year of 2016.

Macau ranks 17th place in beach volleyball games

A local women’s volleyball team, comprised of Lei Sin Kuan and Tam Kin Teng, clinched their first win in the 2017 Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championship. The duo of players defeated Singapore in two sets by 21:12 and 21:19, finishing their journey in the competition. In total, the two female athletes played three games, having lost two and winning one. A total of 29 teams competed for honors during the event, which took place in Thailand.

Guangdong’s troubled bike-sharing schemes

A report released by the Guangdong Consumer Council on the province’s bike-sharing schemes shared that 64 percent of bike users’ unruly behavior are associated with random parking. The report informs that, in Guangzhou, some bike-sharing operators, to gain an advantage over their competition, have broken other companies’ bicycles. Other cases are related to individual criminals who steal bicycle components, or attach fake QR codes and advertisements on the bicycles to trick users.