[kragen]

Shenzhen (and Taipei, Wuxi, etc.) supplies the electronics for the entire world economy, which it turns out is mostly boring incompetent greyface stuff like General Motors and Cemex. They supply hackers too, but hackers are a minority of their customer base. Shenzhen's customer base isn't comparable to that of Radio Shack or Byte.

[rasz]

I dont understand your argument. People named Ralph are the minority of Walmart customers, therefore .. ??

The difference between eighties and now is in the eighties corporations wouldnt even talk to you, so you had to go to RadioShacks, hamventions, or live near Akihabara Electric Town. Nowadays random hacker has access to whole planets supply chain with overnight shipping and websites taking orders 24/7.

[kragen]

> People named Ralph are the minority of Walmart customers, therefore .. ??

Therefore Walmart doesn't have a whole workforce supplying people named Ralph.

> Nowadays random hacker has access to whole planet's supply chain with overnight shipping and websites taking orders 24/7.

Concur.