Here you'll find an assorted mix of content from yours truly. I post about a lot
of things, but primarily
Shenzhen Adventure Day 11
17 Jun 2015
The printing press guys were really the best – so good, they get three posts
for one day!
Following our visit, they taught us how to do – and appreciate – the
traditional tea ceremony.
To make the tea ceremony, first you use hot water in
a little basin to wash out all of the tea cups. Then, you fill the teapot with
tealeaves, and use the basin (with fresh water) to pour hot water over the
leaves. You stir by gently shaking the tea for 30 seconds, and then pour out
the water. The first wash is thrown out traditionally to make sure the leaves
are clean. Then, you repeat and let steep for a few minutes. You drink all the
tea, and then repeat over multiple washes of the tea.
The tea they were using was incredibly good; probably the best I’ve ever had.
When we asked where it came from, they told us their friend grew it!
A parting gift
The week we were set to leave Shenzhen, the guys from the printing press sent
us a big box of the tea we made the ceremony with. I’ve shared my stash of the
tea with friends and family, sharing my stories from Shenzhen, especially the
generosity of everyone who made us so welcome there!
Shenzhen Adventure Day 11
17 Jun 2015
With the guys from the printing press we got lunch in the middle of our tour.
We went to this lovely restuarant by the sea that had really fantastic seafood.
The sea is that color from sediment
After lunch, we went to Shenzhen’s Opium war musuem and saw some of the
exhibits. It was really interesting to see the Chinese perspective on this
era, and the museum itself was interesting architecturally.
The MIT Crew entering the museum
Shenzhen Adventure Day 11
17 Jun 2015
Today we got to see a printing press. Printing presses are pretty cool; they’re a pretty old technology which one might
argue was the driving force behind the renaissance.
Printing
Printing presses are fast. If you’re looking to get something made at one of these factories, you need to order at least something
like 10,000 copies because it prints that many in about the time they can turn the machine on and off.
Gold Leafing
One of the coolest processes we got to see at the factory was how they gold-leaf page edges.
Basically, they sand down the edges of a block of paper to be super smooth.
And then they press a piece of foil onto it.
The result is very shiny!
Paper Cutter
Imagine cutting a piece of paper. Now two pieces. Four? 16? 32? At a certain point, the paper becomes too thick to easily cut.
Now imagine you aren’t just trying to cut it, but you’re try to make a perfect edge, uniformly.
At a printing press, they cut thousands of sheets simultaneously. That requires a really sharp knife, a lot of pressure, and a highly attentive worker.
At the factory, pages are typically cut twice. The first time is to cut to the general size of the job and the second time is done as a trim on the finished product to remove the edges.
Binding
These big rotary machines are used to bind pages
Special Requests
Printing presses – or at least this very awesome one – can accommodate a lot of special requests.
Here are a few examples of special processes
Adding a bookmark
Plastic window
Shenzhen Adventure Day 9
15 Jun 2015
Today we wrapped up our electrical changes to the orchard board. At the end of
the day, we submitted our boards for Engineering Queries and price quotes.
I also added some sweet graphics to my board, this is what is will look like:
One thing people often ask is how bad the pollution is… Actually Shenzhen is
basically a physically greener city than any other I’ve been to and the air is
very clear. Of course, some days are better than others, today was particularly
clear. What does suck is that everyone is smoking everywhere; that is probably
worse for the air quality than other factors.
Bonus office selfie from Hax:
After work, we went out to dinner at Coco Park, the notorious clubbing part of
Shenzhen. We didn’t go clubbing, but we went to a pretty western-menued bar
& grill for beers and dinner.
Shenzhen Adventure Day 9
15 Jun 2015
So you find yourself in China, and you want to go out in the evening. How can you be sure that your electronics aren’t tampered with?
Use tamper evident seals!
Basically you go and buy a big plastic bin, tape over the edges,
paint glitter nailpolish over the tape, and take a picture. You can’t get into the box without destroying the seals/re-aligning them perfectly.
“Reasonably Secure”