1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 454 Opening

"A single volume of 'The Three-Body Problem' is approximately 100,000 words."

The air was filled with the smell of a mixture of coolant and solder.

Zhai Yuan walked into the equipment room of the South Korean telecommunications company. The four walls were covered with gray dustproof plastic panels. In the corner were Sun Microsystems workstations and IBM tape drives. Servers the size of refrigerators made a rumbling sound, and indicator lights alternated between red and green. Staff members carried recycling bins full of punched paper tape back and forth.

A typical internet server room of this era.

"Inspector Wei, a book with 100,000 words is probably this thick, right?"

Zhai Yuan took two steps back, away from the harsh connection noise of the old-fashioned dial-up modem, and gestured a hand's width of thickness to Wei Yixin, who had come to visit the server room with him.

Wei Yixin turned his curious gaze away from the series of command lines flashing green on the CRT monitor, looked at Zhai Yuan, and nodded.

"So what? Does having the internet mean you can save paper?"

Wei Yixin's tone was indifferent, but he was clearly still somewhat displeased with Zhai Yuan's disappearance and escape to South Korea.

"Saving paper is a hardware-related issue, but if you're interested, I can explain it to you."

Zhai Yuan laughed, completely unconcerned about the other party's attitude, and said, "The external hard drive on IBM computers can now be expanded to 80MB, which means that a computer can store approximately..."

At this point, he looked at Tao Zongyi beside him and asked, "How much?"

Tao Zongyi laughed and said, "Converted to words, it's about 40 million words, which is more than 400 novels."

"Listen to this! This is technology, Officer Wei! Four hundred books on one hard drive, how many would ten hard drives hold?"

Zhai Yuan grinned at Wei Yixin and said, "You'll surpass the library of Hong Kong University in no time. Tell me, are you saving any paper?"

Wei Yixin glanced at Zhai Yuan and said dismissively, "A computer costs tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. Putting aside portability, the cost is much higher than that of a book."

"So, one must embrace the times. The Eastern Telegraph Company failed to develop broadband services in Hong Kong. Even you, the Governor of Hong Kong, don't understand the advancements in technology today. Do you think we're still in the hardware-first stage of a few years ago?"

Zhai Yuan smiled and pointed to the Telecom Commune's server room, saying, "South Korea's internet, built using the UUCP protocol, is currently mainly prevalent in universities, with a signal transmission rate of 60KB per second... Lao Tao, can you give me an example?"

Tao Zongyi continued, "If we continue to use the example of 400 books, at a transmission rate of 60KB per second, theoretically, it would only take about two minutes to transmit 400 books."

Zhai Yuan continued, "In other words, as long as you are under the radiation of a South Korean signal base station, no matter how far away you are from me, I can deliver these four hundred books to you in just two minutes."

Wei Yixin frowned upon hearing this, as it clearly touched upon a blind spot in his knowledge.

In fact, Britain also had the internet, only a year later than Japan, using a collaborative academic network built on the College Book. However, the British were clearly less enthusiastic about it than the Americans. At that time, the NSF had already established five supercomputing centers in the United States, while Britain was still wavering, struggling in this internet protocol war between using the open OSI system protocol promoted by Europe or the TCP protocol of the United States.

"A few years ago, Akira Toriyama, the author of Dragon Ball, finished drawing the manuscript and needed to drive ten minutes to the editorial office to deliver it."

Zhai Yuan continued, "After that, he bought an industrial-grade fax machine, so he could finally fax his manuscripts from home without having to drive out every week. Now it's even more convenient. Shueisha's editorial department is equipped with Apple computers, so Toriyama Akira can even throw away his bulky fax machine. I heard from an anime artist recently that Toriyama Akira is researching computer drawing, and his biggest wish is that the computer can automatically generate images just by typing in a few lines of text."

"Advances in communication technology are not as simple as I've described. Universities in South Korea and Japan have already started an internet revolution, and educational networks have been effectively extended to civilian use. Various protocols and networks are emerging one after another. Today, it still takes two minutes to transfer four hundred books. Perhaps in a while, even if you, Mr. Wei, retire and return to the UK, I will be far away in Hong Kong, and books, songs, and movies from Hong Kong will be delivered to you in just one or two seconds."

"This is the result of the collective wisdom of the world, a stage of explosive growth in various technologies and applications. The United States has become the winner in this agreement war, dominating the global network. And what is our Cable & Wireless doing? After acquiring Hong Kong Telephone Company, it is still building more telephone booths. South Korea has developed its own Big Brother telephone, and Hong Kong is about to become the city with the most telephone booths in East Asia."

“Wai sir, now is a crucial moment to lay the foundation for Hong Kong’s global communications. Only with the most open mechanism can we keep up with the pace of the times. The American National Science Foundation invests over 100 million US dollars every year to fund technical talents to participate in network construction. I don’t expect the Hong Kong government to fund me, but don’t hold me back and continue to let the Cable & Wireless monopolize this communications business? Be stubborn!”

The first dedicated internet line in Hong Kong was introduced to the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991 and was only shared by other universities.

It wasn't until 1995 that Hong Kong saw the emergence of internet providers, which propelled the internet into a commercial stage.

Unfortunately, the dot-com bubble burst that same year, and many emerging internet companies in Hong Kong went bankrupt, fled, or were injured. This led to a long period of fear surrounding the internet. By the time people recovered, it was too late. The era had arrived where people used Yahoo for news, Google for search, NASDAQ for finance, YouTube for videos, Facebook for social media, and WhatsApp for texting.

There are no internet products in Hong Kong... Is it because there is no talent? Not really. Later, mainland websites like Xiaohongshu had their technology departments involving Hong Kong-funded enterprises. They missed opportunities one after another, and the complex social environment made it difficult for technology companies to take off in Hong Kong, so they had to turn to the mainland.

In this matter, the Cable & Wireless may not have been bad; they may have simply been stupid.

However, since Zhai Yuan intends to engage in communications business related to industrial technology, the more foolish Da Dong is this time, the better. It would be best if they didn't get involved at all.

"Let's watch the Seoul Olympics first."

Wei Yixin was in the computer room of the Telecom Commune, listening to the rumbling noise around him, and smoothed his balding hairline back.

"When I get back to Hong Kong, I will talk to Da Dong's representative in Hong Kong about this."

Wei Yixin sighed and looked at Zhai Yuan with a helpless expression: "You should know that most of the time, even the Governor of Hong Kong cannot rule with absolute power."

“I’m glad you agreed, Officer Wai. As long as the Hong Kong government doesn’t drag this out for three to five years on the permit, I’ll figure out how to compete with the Eastern Telegraph Company.”

Zhai Yuan smiled, knowing full well that Wei Yixin's term was getting shorter and shorter, and the time left for him to develop was also getting shorter.

To defeat Da Dong strategically as quickly as possible, we must first secure the communications card, so that we can acquire more leverage in the near future...

…………

In any case, Wei Yixin did not hide away like He Zilang had guessed.

Over the next two days, Zhai Yuan and the Governor of Hong Kong visited several universities in Seoul, which gave him a better understanding of the sweeping internet trend.

Time flew by and it was September 17th.
The Seoul Olympics have officially begun.

Interestingly, while Zhai Yuan was able to watch the Olympic Games live in South Korea, ATV and TVB in Hong Kong were embroiled in a lawsuit over the broadcasting rights for the Seoul Olympics. The matter even reached the Privy Council in the United Kingdom, and the authorities eventually demanded that TVB and ATV share the broadcasting rights, which brought the matter to a close.

Early in the morning,
Zhai Yuan and his entourage then headed to the Seoul Jamsil Olympic Stadium.
The streets were decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and South Korean citizens were full of enthusiasm. Colorful Olympic flags could be seen everywhere, and shop windows were filled with smiling mascots.

The vast city of Seoul was bustling with unprecedented activity.

"That's true, Seoul really does look much cleaner than Hong Kong."

"Yes, I've never been here before. I thought South Korea was very backward."

"It's impossible for it to be backward, but the environment is definitely more pleasing to the eye than Hong Kong. I've been here for so long and haven't even seen a single homeless person..."

Sitting in the car, looking at the street scene outside, I could hear Girls' Generation chattering away.

Zhai Yuan chuckled inwardly; these young girls were still too young.

Back when the Republic of Korea won the bid to host the Olympics, the two presidents began to clear out the low-end population. Of course, you can't see homeless people on the streets anymore; they've all been locked up in mental hospitals. Even children who come to Seoul from other places to visit relatives have to go through a concentration camp to check their identity first. If they can't produce proof, they can forget about leaving. The Republic of Korea is afraid of losing face in front of the delegations from other countries this time.

However, such matters should naturally not be mentioned, otherwise how could the South Korean film industry have been embroiled in such strict censorship?
Departing from the Shilla Hotel
When they arrived at Jamsil Olympic Stadium, the opening ceremony had not yet begun.

The stadium, which can hold 100,000 people, was packed with people. Amid the noise and commotion, the sound of South Koreans singing their national anthem in unison could be heard.

As the ten o'clock bell rang,

Delegations and athletes from all over the world gathered one after another.

1988 years,
To truly propel South Korea into economic prosperity and towards a modern era of sporting extravaganzas.

coming.

(End of this chapter)