As the final list of 1,000 participants was confirmed, the remaining children were returned to their parents. Each child who persisted to the end also received an additional bonus of 10,000 yuan, marking a relatively good conclusion.
They would then return to their normal academic paths. Ultimately, this world relies on education for future prospects; sports are a path only a select few can tread.
During the period when Chairman Huang was busy with football, 2016 had quietly passed by its midpoint. The world-shaking "Lj Gate" incident was barely mentioned by anyone anymore.
Snowden, the whistleblower, did not become the hero he had imagined.
He harbored no illusions of returning to the United States to be a celebrated hero; he knew he could never go back.
However, he had at least expected to be portrayed as a hero in media reports. Yet, in the Western world, the media ultimately cast him as a traitor who had betrayed his country, sold state secrets to his enemies, and finally defected to them entirely. xxs1
Yet, perhaps this was not entirely inaccurate, as Snowden's ultimate fate was likely to spend the rest of his life in Russia.
However, it could not be said that Snowden's influence had completely ended. At the very least, the computer system market, with Windows as its core, experienced some collapse.
Although Microsoft's efforts ensured that it received virtually no penalties from the United States, and American citizens, despite suffering severe losses due to Microsoft's issues, filed claims for a staggering 3.2 trillion US dollars in compensation.
However, after the Supreme Court's review, it was determined that Microsoft bore only a minor portion of the responsibility in this incident.
The court's logic was quite simple: the ransomware attacks were carried out by hackers, therefore the primary responsibility lay with the hackers, not Microsoft.
While Microsoft's products did have flaws, these defects were not the fundamental cause of the losses. These companies should seek compensation from the hackers who extorted them, rather than from Microsoft as a service provider.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that Microsoft's responsibility in the entire affair was less than 5.62%. While the exact calculation behind those two decimal places remained unclear, this was how the court ruled.
The total compensation of 3.2 trillion US dollars was reduced by the court to 320 billion US dollars, and Microsoft was only required to pay 5.62% of that, totaling around 18 billion US dollars.
While this still seemed like an enormous sum, it was ultimately a drop in the ocean for Microsoft.
The companies that had collectively sued Microsoft could only accept this outcome. After all, Microsoft had clearly informed them that this was the maximum compensation it could offer. If they chose to appeal further, Microsoft would employ a delaying tactic, extending the entire appeals period to over three years, with no guarantee of a better outcome.
Therefore, after careful consideration, these companies opted to receive the money as soon as possible. Microsoft thus resolved this massive crisis for just 18 billion US dollars.
Strangely, however, Microsoft had not yet released a patch to disable the background control. It was unclear whether Microsoft's research and development capabilities had completely declined to such an extent or if they simply had no intention of creating such a patch.
Of course, Microsoft was not entirely disregarding the issue. They eventually provided a patch. The effect of this patch was to prevent individuals without authorized passwords from exploiting this backdoor.
To illustrate, it was as if Microsoft had secretly left an unnoticeable backdoor in your house while building it, and this backdoor was not locked.
Once this backdoor was exposed, any thief could use it to enter your home and snoop around.
As the homeowner's demand, it was naturally to have this backdoor removed entirely and replaced with a solid wall.
However, Microsoft stated this was impossible and could only add a lock to the backdoor, securing it to prevent thieves from entering.
This solution seemed somewhat acceptable, but the problem was that the key to this lock was not in the homeowner's hands but remained with Microsoft. If Microsoft themselves wished, they could still enter your home at any time and meticulously examine your privacy.
Such an absurd patch naturally failed to satisfy the majority of users.
However, the American people had no recourse because their relevant authorities had already approved this patch and stated they would no longer address the matter. If you remained concerned about the backdoor, you were advised to simply switch to a different operating system.
Americans fared no better than Europeans. Although the European Union's relevant departments had also imposed hefty fines on Microsoft, they did not address the backdoor issue.
European netizens caused a stir, but apart from a small minority who completely switched their home computer systems to Linux, the rest were still limited to choosing Microsoft's systems.
However, Microsoft could not possibly expect all countries to be so compliant.
Consequently, relevant regulations were soon introduced, prohibiting not only government agencies but also any companies operating with large amounts of data from using Microsoft's systems. Other private entities wishing to use Microsoft systems would be required to establish a comprehensive backup storage system that could synchronize data storage, ensuring the ability to resume operations immediately even in the event of a system attack.
Otherwise, these private enterprises would be unable to obtain an internet operating license.
Upon the announcement of this rule, it essentially meant that Microsoft's systems would be completely withdrawn from the market. Microsoft formally protested, calling it discrimination against Microsoft.
However, when asked to provide a patch that could genuinely and completely remove the backdoor, Microsoft remained silent. Consequently, they were disregarded, and the order was implemented.
The direct result was the dissolution of a crucial business segment for Fantasy Computer.
Previously, to control the market, Fantasy Computer had gone to great lengths to secure the lowest supply prices from various computer hardware and software providers, thereby squeezing other system manufacturers from various angles and leaving no room for competitors to operate.
However, this strategy proved entirely ineffective against Jiangnan Group.
After Windows systems were banned, the only option in all of China naturally became the new Lingyun System launched by Jiangnan Group.
In this regard, Jiangnan Group once again deployed its classic tactic of dominating the entire terminal platform. That is, besides producing chips themselves, they only provided technology licensing for other products, without participating in the market itself, leaving it entirely to companies to compete.
However, there was one condition: these companies must join the China High-Tech Electronics Industry Development Alliance, and their products must be sold within the framework of the alliance. Any company found selling outside the alliance's framework would immediately have all corresponding technology licenses frozen.
The sales rules within the alliance framework stipulated price transparency, and procurement and shipments had to be conducted through the alliance's platform.
Since the alliance itself did not charge any commission for procurement and shipments, the selling price was entirely up to the companies. The alliance's sole purpose was to control market flow and regulate market prices through this mechanism.
Therefore, companies within the alliance generally welcomed this. While they were subject to alliance pricing restrictions, it also prevented price crashes caused by vicious competition, which was undoubtedly a boon for many small enterprises.
However, this was not so good for Fantasy Computer. Fantasy Computer's previous procurement cost advantage ceased to exist due to the alliance.
On the other hand, as all computers adopted the entirely new five-digit computer system, Fantasy Computer's accumulated technical patents in various equipment assembly became meaningless. This placed Fantasy Computer and many other emerging system brands on the same starting line.
Then, Fantasy Computer found itself struggling to adapt.
Initially, Fantasy Computer believed it still held a significant advantage because, for both government and corporate procurement, relationship management was often more important.
This was why Yang Yuan, the owner of Fantasy Computer, was willing to endure the unpleasantness of purchasing goods at a high price from Jiangnan Group to meet delivery deadlines; it was to avoid damaging the pre-established relationships.
However, with all procurement related to the Lingyun system being conducted within the alliance framework, and the prices of all products becoming absolutely transparent and stable, the procurement prices for all computer components could be directly checked online.
In recent years, with the continuous deepening of reforms in the country, almost all procurement had to go through bidding, and the relevant tender documents had to be publicized. Any significant discrepancies in procurement prices would lead to legal trouble.
During the previous era of Windows systems, Fantasy Computer could obtain many components at relatively low prices. Therefore, even with bidding, they still had a substantial profit margin compared to other companies and could naturally offer more kickbacks, making them unafraid of the bidding system.
But in this era of complete transparency, many enterprises and institutions directly bid based on their needs and then set a margin of about 10-20% on the total publicly available component procurement price, effectively fixing the price. Even with strong relationships, it was of no use, as these were prices directly set by higher authorities, and those below, no matter how capable, dared not violate these rigid price regulations.
More critically, a large number of new system enterprises entered the market. Established terminal companies like Xiaomi and vivo also entered the fray. Many industry insiders saw this new trend and directly entered the market.
In any case, the barrier to entry for producing systems had become incredibly low. All that was needed was to configure their systems, then procure directly from the alliance's official website. The companies themselves only needed to be responsible for system assembly and after-sales service, with virtually no technical threshold. This naturally attracted a large number of new entrants.
Then, Fantasy Computer woke up in shock to discover that the market it had once monopolized suddenly had hundreds of competitors, all eyeing the lucrative market of institutional and corporate procurement. Who could withstand such competition!