The very first iterations of them were mediocre at best, so everyone automatically concluded the idea sucked and it was doomed from there. The 2nd generation Turbo Memory cards actually worked decently (as long as the crappy drivers didn't take a dump on you), especially with slightly older HDDs which aren't quite as fast as today's newest drives. But by that time nobody cared and SSDs and hybrid HDDs gained a foothold. The end.
You can buy these cards off ebay of course, but the largest 4GB cards are so not worth the money. The 2GB cards are reasonably priced. Either one works in your D830, unofficially. It goes into where your cellular card goes, so if you are using it for that, then out it goes!
DOSbox is great and does basically everything you listed, but it is no substitute for real hardware which some games either require or you want. Some games such as Lemmings which does the "key disk" copy protection does not work at all in DOSbox, which forces you to use a cracked copy (for some retrogamers this is a big deal as they want everything unmolested). Also games such as Lemmings have weird graphics issues that is still unresolved in DOSbox 0.74.
Then there's the problem with sound... the FM emulation works very well but it is still slightly off from a real Yamaha YMF262 (found on many ISA sound cards, such as the early Sound Blaster 16s). And then there's the lack of AWE32 emulation. "Big deal" as most say, but don't forget only half the most popular games supported GUS while the rest were AWE32. You can obviously workaround this limitation by having a real wavetable daughter card in your modern system (difficult to do) and set DOSBox to output via MPU401, but it is almost impractical to do given the difficulties in acquiring such a setup and physically being able to use it (most modern sound cards have no wave blaster header).
And finally, you still are limited to playing DOS games of the 80s/early 90s. There's some Windows games worthy of being played again and they only work right in Win9x (many work in Win2K/XP but not anything newer). Don't forget DOSbox's GLIDE support is also sketchy, which locks you out from some games too.
So yeah, if you are only going to play the few most popular DOS games casually, DOSbox works great. But like I said, it's no substitute for real hardware at this time. I have no doubt in my mind that one day it can pretty much replace a real system but it looks like it's a long way off.
Oh and sometimes it's awesome to blast cubic player on a real GUS (with globs of RAM) while manipulating all sorts of effects in it... or watching those old demos for that matter:)
IIRC, 25hz power is still available to industrial customers in Ontario, but on a very limited basis. The Sir Adam Beck station has frequency converters to supply 25hz power to Stelco in Hamilton (45 mins to 1 hour north by car) where it is used to power their blast furnaces.
The NYC subway used 25hz power for their trains supplied through power substations using rotary converters... not sure if they still do
Re:Business cards are more than just contact info
on
Is the Business Card Dead?
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· Score: 3, Informative
In Japan, business cards are also very important. Not receiving it with both hands and carefully reading it is considered rude. It is also rude to immediately put it away if you are at a meeting and when you put it away, you must put it into something to protect it as a sign of respect.
As for your own cards, you should never hand over anything less than perfect; nothing dirty, creases, or bends.
I made my own cards to introduce myself and my website when I went to a job interview in October in Tokyo. It was a good thing I did!
The loss of formalities in the US commerce sector is pretty scary. We have people going into an office looking like crap and nobody cares about letters, CVs, or resumes anymore. Resumes is pretty much the only formality I still see, but that's about it.
Considering how EHRs are going to be required in the near future, I'm not surprised that hospitals/doctors are still getting dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
HL7 was created in 1988, and over 20 years later, it still has very little penetration in the US. I had friends ask their acquaintances working at hospital IT departments, and many don't even know what HL7 is! Part of this is the government's fault (lack of incentives unlike European countries), but most of this is due to the lack of understanding and technophobia.
The other problem is HL7 is epicly hard to learn. There's a major shortage of trained/certified people to help hospitals deploy this right now. I'm trying to learn some of this so I can take on a job in Tokyo (part of getting my work visa approved involves understanding HL7). But with the lack of free resources or books, it appears to be a feat that requires divine intervention.
I don't see how intercity rail is going to really help our transportation needs when many of our cities have very inadequate transit systems.
How can they expect me to take Amtrak from Chicago to Kansas City for example and be able to get around in my destination city? Rent a car? What's the point of even taking the train then if the purpose was to reduce carbon footprint? Buses also are inefficient at quickly covering geographical distances in a typical sprawled out American city, so that makes them impractical.
If we want any hope for bettering Amtrak, we need to go back to our roots and improve intracity transportation first! I'm all for granting funds for building some sort of rail transit infrastructure in many metropolitan areas. Cities such as Dallas have successfully built light rail pretty much on their own (which took about 20 years to do) and it is being heavily used.
If we want to aspire to be like Europe and Asia, we need to have a fully interworking system. In Europe and many parts of Asia, one can just go to their neighborhood subway station, hop on the next train, then "go to union station", and switch to an actual train that takes them to another city hundreds of miles away, then do the process in reverse to get to their final destination.
I want to be able to do the same. I want to be able to go to my neighborhood rail transit station, hop on, go to Union Station, buy an Amtrak ticket to another city, then be able to switch to their local transit to get to my hotel. I don't want to be bothered with renting a car or taking a cab. If I want to involve an automobile to begin with, why shouldn't I just buy a Southwest ticket and park my car at the airport? Carless transport works in Europe and Asia because they have an effective interworking system. Not broken pieces that inconveniences the traveler and wastes their time. If it wastes their time, they will just drive instead!
The day this happens is the day every American has to stop saying we're better than China, North Korea, Egypt, and all the other oppressive countries, because having a kill switch makes us no different/better than them!
Mazda invented it over a year ago but Ford takes the credit as usual (they took credit for blind spot reducing mirrors not too long ago which were invented by European automakers 10 years ago too). The Mazda3 in Europe and Japan already has this feature for a year now, but it's not here because of the retarded EPA testing methods. FYI, the 3 is not available in a hybrid, so it isn't using the usual quick start/stop system used in the Prius, etc. Mazda invented a system where the cylinders are precisely positioned ("staged" if you will call it that) so that a restart is quick/effortless.
This isn't Ford bashing, but it irritates me when credit isn't given where it's due; especially to the underling companies that the general public still believe produces poor cars or innovates nothing.
And yet, OEMs like HP expect you to burn the 3-4 disc recovery media set as soon as you buy their crappy netbook. How the hell am I supposed to do that with no DVD burner equipped in the system (not a single removable media drive, period)? So they expect me to spend another 40-50 bucks for a USB burner, PLUS another 10-20 bucks for DVD-Rs just so I can have my recovery discs!
That's fine that the system doesn't come with any sort of CD/DVD drive, but don't hide the fact I have to spend another 40-60 bucks right after I open the box, have to waste time driving back to the store to get what I need to make the recovery discs. Just give me the PRESSED recovery discs that won't ever degrade (like burnable media do) and I can go buy a USB burner drive on my sweet time (like when the HDD fails)!
This exact problem came up recently with a friend that just bought an HP netbook. It gets better, the built in utility says you can only make the media once (Toshiba's OTOH lets you use it as many times as you want, though they are just as guilty as HP for not providing the discs out of the box), so just hope you didn't burn a coaster! Anyway, since it's a netbook, there's obviously no optical drive of any sort. The chick didn't even know what a USB CD-ROM drive was! Well since she was leaving town the next day, wanted to use the shiny new computer, but also make sure that she can fix her computer if it blows up, I had to think of something fast. The quick and dirty solution? I downloaded a trial copy of Virtual CD, mounted a "DVD-R" in the virtual burner drive, and let the stupid recovery utility "burn" to an ISO. Then I copied the ISOs across the network onto my laptop and burned from there. Not very efficient but it got the job done. Took hours this way. I left the ISOs on the HDD in case she ever needs to reburn them again, and gave the middle finger salute to HP and the cyberlink recovery disc creator.
Any Windows 7 discs take OEM and retail product keys (pertinent to that edition), unless it's the Enterprise version (which accepts ONLY MAK/KMS keys). The Pro version also accepts KMS keys.
so by that logic, isn't that like saying *I* hating rap music (in general) means I "hate" bla^H^H^H^HAfrican Americans?
if they're whining and moaning about outsiders imposing on their "culture", who's to say they're not doing so on all the other 31 countries' matches? what the hell does the vuvuzela have anything to do with a italian vs paraguay match (for example)? just ban the f'ing things for all matches except for when their beloved south african team plays if they want PCness
the monotony and annoyance is no different than hypnosis
oh and this so-called "culture" and "tradition" started in the 1990s according to various other websites I googled regarding the vuvuzela issue and it appears to be a strictly ZA thing
it's still used by a few and it's still "alive and kicking" despite what many will think! OS/2 lives on currently as eComstation... what they did was took the best out of OS/2 Warp 4.5 and made it work well with modern hardware, along with modern features that we all take for granted... it still won't support win32s but I heard that's in the works
The culture is different. They speak a different language for starters.
If you go to google.com.hk, you may notice the site is in Traditional Chinese, with links near the bottom for versions in Simplified Chinese (which the mainlanders use) and English.
Not entirely correct. Natives of Guangdong province *usually* speak Cantonese as a home/native language, which is what Hong Kongers speak (while it can be said that the Hong Kong "sub-dialect" is different not due to just accent but words/terminologies used).
Chinese nationals of Hong Kong origins (meaning they were born there and are eligible of holding Hong Kong passports), obtain a thing called a "Home Return Permit" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Return_Permit in which ever since the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong, it is practically an extension of their Hong Kong Identity Cards. As the wikipedia article states, it is not a requirement to have a Home Return Permit but is a requirement to have a HKID card. Current issues of Home Return Permits are tied to the holder's HKID card number which results in the practical extension of HKID card and therefore acts as their Mainland China identity card in practice. This allows a Hong Konger to almost enjoy all the things that a Mainland Chinese could do such as own real estate (but usually denied loans for practicality reasons), have a driver's license (must have HK driver's license because it is also an extension of it), go to places foreigners are denied going to (such as Tibet AFAIK), etc.
The reason for such a scheme is because travelling to/from Hong Kong is considered "domestic" travel and despite the fact that there is a border between HK and the Mainland, the Chinese government doesn't want to make it appear as an international border. This means they don't want to make Chinese nationals from either side of the border use passports. This is where those goofy permits come to play (which even applies if you got on a plane from HK and flew to Beijing, you still can't use a Chinese passport) in order to require documentation to pass the checkpoints while avoiding the appearance of international travel (passports). Despite the fact that this sounds all so complicated, it actually works out quite well to a Hong Konger as there are special lines for them to pass through quickly instead of the slower lines for foreigners (where passport usage and stamping is required).
Yeah, despite what many people think, travelling in Japan is not as expensive or difficult as everybody thinks. There's plenty of other places more expensive (like Hong Kong and European cities) where you feel like you're flushing $100 (US) bills down the toilet every hour. If you know where to look, and can speak/read basic Japanese, you can find hot meals for as little as $3, and that is NOT McDonald's (which is NYC prices btw).
What's interesting is, cheap food is cheaper in "downtown" Tokyo than in the suburbs. I think it has to do with lots of competition and heavy volumes of customers.
It is ALSO cheaper to road trip in Japan if you're traveling with more than 2 persons rather than taking the train (even passes get expensive). Highway tolls and fuel prices were considered of course for me to come up with this belief.
As for living there, yes it is expensive, but based on the many cheap eating establishments, stores and frugality techniques I've found in Tokyo, I believe it is a lot cheaper to live there than in Hong Kong where everything is just expensive and trying to be a cheap bastard is just near impossible. FWIW, between spending 3 days in a hotel in Kyoto, US SOFA sponsored car rental, and staying at 2 different friend's places all cumulative for 3 weeks, I say spending only $1000 US was pretty good on my part (I did this as a test even though I had the ability to spend more).
Yes, it's possible to be frugal in Japan unlike some other parts of the world.
There were a bunch of homeless camping out at the Ikebukuro "west gate" park when I was there in April. I wasn't surprised at all.
There weren't any in Ueno park because they all got kicked out for the Golden Week festival stuff.
There was a bunch of other homeless people in Yoyogi park when I walked from Harajuku to Shibuya (the long "scenic route") but they weren't close to the street but rather inside the park (you had to really look) unlike the ones who were just blatantly there in Ikebukuro.
It's "cheap" only when you're far away from a train station, stores, or any sort of real commerical center... that is how real estate prices are calculated in japan-- based on distance from train station. Then of course the other matter is whether the place is furnished or not and if there's a private bathroom.
My friend lives at the apartments (We Americans will call it a "condo") literally across the street from the TBS tower in Akasaka (and next to the subway station of the same name). His rent costs $3000 a month! He can afford it only because he works for a major US financial company a few minutes away.
My other friend lives way out in the suburbs in western Tokyo... his rent is at a house but half that, only because it takes 30 minutes to walk to the train station (I counted it myself because I missed the last bus when I was there last April one night... bus stop is only 5 minutes from the house on the main road) and he's miles from any department store. It takes 1-1.5 hours by train to "downtown" Tokyo or Yokohama from his house (bus to train station to Shinjuku) and it costs 850-1050 yen to get there (depends on how much further you go). Add that to your expenses from commuting to/from work and wasting 3+ hours a day on that, a coffin hotel in "downtown" doesn't seem so expensive after all.
Further "living in Japan" reading and links to apartment searching: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2200.html I looked into that myself when there was possibility for a job in Tokyo earlier this year, but after all the uncertainties, expenses, and poor economy, living in one of the most expensive cities in the world (cheaper than Hong Kong, and much cheaper than Moscow) doesn't look possible right now.
NEC and CSA specifies 14 gauge wiring for 15 amp installations and 12 gauge wiring for 20 amp installations IIRC. This is apparent if you visit a Home Depot and look at the boxes of romex wiring;)
Many Japanese plugs have the same British style "shielding" on the prongs due to the stricter standards imposed by PSE, MITI and JIS in Japan. The "shielding" is a dielectric covering about 2mm end of the blade closest to the plastic part you grab on. This, like the BS1363 plug, is safer in case the plug decides to partially fall off the wall outlet and reduces electrocution/shorting hazards. My Japanese Playstation2 came with this style of plug but is unpolarized unlike the US version which has a polarized plug without the "shielding". Same thing goes for the Nikon camera battery charger that I got (also Japan market).
It's laughable that many DC driven appliances uses the annoying polarized plug when it is completely unnecessary in the safety perspective. It makes it difficult to use items you bring with you from the US to an overseas hotel because their special outlets have unpolarized plugs (and practially all outlets in Japan for that matter). Even some of the socket adapters are that way too, which forces me to grind off the "fatter" polarized blade before I get on the plane!
On another note, I'd like to correct that mains voltage in North America is now 120V... it used to be 110 a long long time ago, but it is now 120 to better account for transmission losses. Japan's voltage is also 100V (not 110 as the article stated), the lowest in the world. The article also fails to mention that there are still some BS546 plugs in existence in the UK due to older installation or preferred use in some industries (apparently) such as theaters, due to the lack of internal fuse and non-requirement for a earthing pin to be pushed first to allow plug insertion The BS546 plugs look like the current "euro" plug, but with different spacing and size. These plugs were also well used into the mid-80s in some British colonies.
As for those who bitch about their plugs falling off their American style outlets due to frequent use, get rid of the 50 cent standard issue POS that is allowed in residential installations with industrial or hospital grade ones. FWIW, many home theater enthusiasts prefer to use hospital grade plugs and outlets due to the high insertion and retaining force, heavy duty wear rate, and the fact that some outlets have a built in TVSS and minimal noise filtering. Hospital grade plugs/outlets practically have the same level of force as the BS1363 plugs in practice but they are very hard to find. Industrial grade plugs are the next best thing and aren't that bad despite the lower grade. However, if you're just a cheap bastard, any commercial grade outlet is better than the el cheapo 50 cent residential one!
According to the PS2 Linux forums, the moderators (who obviously have their ties with Sony), stated that Sony did in fact started with the 2.2.1 kernel a long time ago. They mentioned that they are porting whatever new version/fixes of stuff back to 2.2.1 compatibility. Whatever.
The Net Yaroze system is black (the blue system was the super expensive game developer version) and did cost $750. You had to sign a special agreement including which you agreed not to resell the system. The system was like the original SCPH-1001 system, which meant video output jacks at the back, and 2 black original PSX controllers (non-analog/dual shock). The Net Yaroze system also allowed games (legit ones) from all regions to be played; "backups" could not be played (go figure). More information about this system can be found here
Anyway, that BS aside, I'm guessing Sony decided on the PS2 Linux after the success of the Net Yaroze system by yet again testing the waters with the Japanese beta 1 version (that sold out in a day, I think it was 200 copies). With that and the positive feedback from their little poll, I'm glad they came to their senses and finally allowing a larger number of people to play around with this not as expensive (still expensive) toy.:)
I remember reading about an article from Popular Mechanics; the April 1994 issue in fact. I still have it (a meager few issues I kept). What's different from PM is that its not a tunnel, but a bridge. Which is can be a even more difficult thing to accomplish. The problem here is time. Short spring/summers in the artic, which a lot of you know already make work possible in only less than 5 months a year.
According to the article, the bridge's design is by a T.Y. Lin. His wacky idea is to tow in prefabricated pieces and connect the spans together; which will be towing the support in, sink it and make it stay, then put the bridge span on top. It says there will be 220 spams, which will be 1200ft each except the 2 middle spans which are 1800ft. The bridge will be of a triple deck. Oil pipeline at the bottom, then high speed rail, then an actual seasonal road deck. The suspension cable spans would be encased in concrete to protect from weather. The bridge will naturally hop through the Diomede islands of course.
There was also a little section on a page in that same article about an idea for a tunnel under the Bering sea too. It's not too hard to dig a tunnel under the sea either, its only 180ft average deep.
Are these ideas crazy? I think so. Is it possible? Yes, but why do we need a land connection? Lots of money and effort will have to go to making this happen anyway. Don't forget the fault lines, and the earth quakes that happen all the time in that region. We will have to definately deal with the weather and permafrost. There's no economic feasiblity for a link other than for natural resources. It's still cheaper to send things by ship anyway. Train shipping is going to be too expensive to worth it. Sure its faster than ship. But if you really want something to get there fast, why not air?
When I was going through the specs for the announced CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-RAM/DVD-R combo drive on Pioneer's site, I noticed a pecular "DVD-R for General type (650nm)". As soon as I saw that, I remember reading a post on/. a while back about how the DVD consortium had seriously munged up the DVD-R specs.
According to this PC Extremist article, the DVD consortium decided to have the DVD-R Book version 2.0 have 2 different laser wave lengths. The consumer DVD-R laser wavelength is 650nm, while the "professional/authoring" one is 635nm. The last DVD-R Book version 1.9 only had 635nm. The DVD consortium's excuse was that it would be cheaper to make the 650nm laser unit. While this is true that it's cheaper, it also adds to the confusion among people who need to get a DVD-R drive. What's even more messed up about this is that, a DVD-R with a 635nm laser can only use 635nm DVD-R media, while the 650nm one can only use 650nm.
I really think that current standalone DVD players will not be able to read DVDs burned from a "consumer" DVD-R drive. Either that, or major difficulties. The only drive that currently burns proper 635nm DVD-Rs that I know of, is the Pioneer DVR-S201. So if you want to burn DVDs so you can watch it on your standalone, go for the expensive 635nm DVD-R drive (what a rip off).
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So does this mean the Indians have developed holographic technology? :P
Where does the line start for buying those devices that emit photons and forcefields? It'll sure be fun to cut up holographic frogs!
"they" did... it's called Intel Turbo Memory.
The very first iterations of them were mediocre at best, so everyone automatically concluded the idea sucked and it was doomed from there. The 2nd generation Turbo Memory cards actually worked decently (as long as the crappy drivers didn't take a dump on you), especially with slightly older HDDs which aren't quite as fast as today's newest drives. But by that time nobody cared and SSDs and hybrid HDDs gained a foothold. The end.
You can buy these cards off ebay of course, but the largest 4GB cards are so not worth the money. The 2GB cards are reasonably priced. Either one works in your D830, unofficially. It goes into where your cellular card goes, so if you are using it for that, then out it goes!
DOSbox is great and does basically everything you listed, but it is no substitute for real hardware which some games either require or you want . Some games such as Lemmings which does the "key disk" copy protection does not work at all in DOSbox, which forces you to use a cracked copy (for some retrogamers this is a big deal as they want everything unmolested). Also games such as Lemmings have weird graphics issues that is still unresolved in DOSbox 0.74.
:)
Then there's the problem with sound... the FM emulation works very well but it is still slightly off from a real Yamaha YMF262 (found on many ISA sound cards, such as the early Sound Blaster 16s). And then there's the lack of AWE32 emulation. "Big deal" as most say, but don't forget only half the most popular games supported GUS while the rest were AWE32. You can obviously workaround this limitation by having a real wavetable daughter card in your modern system (difficult to do) and set DOSBox to output via MPU401, but it is almost impractical to do given the difficulties in acquiring such a setup and physically being able to use it (most modern sound cards have no wave blaster header).
And finally, you still are limited to playing DOS games of the 80s/early 90s. There's some Windows games worthy of being played again and they only work right in Win9x (many work in Win2K/XP but not anything newer). Don't forget DOSbox's GLIDE support is also sketchy, which locks you out from some games too.
So yeah, if you are only going to play the few most popular DOS games casually, DOSbox works great. But like I said, it's no substitute for real hardware at this time. I have no doubt in my mind that one day it can pretty much replace a real system but it looks like it's a long way off.
Oh and sometimes it's awesome to blast cubic player on a real GUS (with globs of RAM) while manipulating all sorts of effects in it... or watching those old demos for that matter
IIRC, 25hz power is still available to industrial customers in Ontario, but on a very limited basis. The Sir Adam Beck station has frequency converters to supply 25hz power to Stelco in Hamilton (45 mins to 1 hour north by car) where it is used to power their blast furnaces.
The NYC subway used 25hz power for their trains supplied through power substations using rotary converters... not sure if they still do
In Japan, business cards are also very important. Not receiving it with both hands and carefully reading it is considered rude. It is also rude to immediately put it away if you are at a meeting and when you put it away, you must put it into something to protect it as a sign of respect.
As for your own cards, you should never hand over anything less than perfect; nothing dirty, creases, or bends.
I made my own cards to introduce myself and my website when I went to a job interview in October in Tokyo. It was a good thing I did!
The loss of formalities in the US commerce sector is pretty scary. We have people going into an office looking like crap and nobody cares about letters, CVs, or resumes anymore. Resumes is pretty much the only formality I still see, but that's about it.
Considering how EHRs are going to be required in the near future, I'm not surprised that hospitals/doctors are still getting dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
HL7 was created in 1988, and over 20 years later, it still has very little penetration in the US. I had friends ask their acquaintances working at hospital IT departments, and many don't even know what HL7 is! Part of this is the government's fault (lack of incentives unlike European countries), but most of this is due to the lack of understanding and technophobia.
The other problem is HL7 is epicly hard to learn. There's a major shortage of trained/certified people to help hospitals deploy this right now. I'm trying to learn some of this so I can take on a job in Tokyo (part of getting my work visa approved involves understanding HL7). But with the lack of free resources or books, it appears to be a feat that requires divine intervention.
How can they expect me to take Amtrak from Chicago to Kansas City for example and be able to get around in my destination city? Rent a car? What's the point of even taking the train then if the purpose was to reduce carbon footprint? Buses also are inefficient at quickly covering geographical distances in a typical sprawled out American city, so that makes them impractical.
If we want any hope for bettering Amtrak, we need to go back to our roots and improve intracity transportation first! I'm all for granting funds for building some sort of rail transit infrastructure in many metropolitan areas. Cities such as Dallas have successfully built light rail pretty much on their own (which took about 20 years to do) and it is being heavily used.
If we want to aspire to be like Europe and Asia, we need to have a fully interworking system. In Europe and many parts of Asia, one can just go to their neighborhood subway station, hop on the next train, then "go to union station", and switch to an actual train that takes them to another city hundreds of miles away, then do the process in reverse to get to their final destination.
I want to be able to do the same. I want to be able to go to my neighborhood rail transit station, hop on, go to Union Station, buy an Amtrak ticket to another city, then be able to switch to their local transit to get to my hotel. I don't want to be bothered with renting a car or taking a cab. If I want to involve an automobile to begin with, why shouldn't I just buy a Southwest ticket and park my car at the airport? Carless transport works in Europe and Asia because they have an effective interworking system. Not broken pieces that inconveniences the traveler and wastes their time. If it wastes their time, they will just drive instead!
The day this happens is the day every American has to stop saying we're better than China, North Korea, Egypt, and all the other oppressive countries, because having a kill switch makes us no different/better than them!
Mazda invented it over a year ago but Ford takes the credit as usual (they took credit for blind spot reducing mirrors not too long ago which were invented by European automakers 10 years ago too).
The Mazda3 in Europe and Japan already has this feature for a year now, but it's not here because of the retarded EPA testing methods. FYI, the 3 is not available in a hybrid, so it isn't using the usual quick start/stop system used in the Prius, etc. Mazda invented a system where the cylinders are precisely positioned ("staged" if you will call it that) so that a restart is quick/effortless.
This isn't Ford bashing, but it irritates me when credit isn't given where it's due; especially to the underling companies that the general public still believe produces poor cars or innovates nothing.
And yet, OEMs like HP expect you to burn the 3-4 disc recovery media set as soon as you buy their crappy netbook. How the hell am I supposed to do that with no DVD burner equipped in the system (not a single removable media drive, period)? So they expect me to spend another 40-50 bucks for a USB burner, PLUS another 10-20 bucks for DVD-Rs just so I can have my recovery discs!
That's fine that the system doesn't come with any sort of CD/DVD drive, but don't hide the fact I have to spend another 40-60 bucks right after I open the box, have to waste time driving back to the store to get what I need to make the recovery discs. Just give me the PRESSED recovery discs that won't ever degrade (like burnable media do) and I can go buy a USB burner drive on my sweet time (like when the HDD fails)!
This exact problem came up recently with a friend that just bought an HP netbook. It gets better, the built in utility says you can only make the media once (Toshiba's OTOH lets you use it as many times as you want, though they are just as guilty as HP for not providing the discs out of the box), so just hope you didn't burn a coaster! Anyway, since it's a netbook, there's obviously no optical drive of any sort. The chick didn't even know what a USB CD-ROM drive was! Well since she was leaving town the next day, wanted to use the shiny new computer, but also make sure that she can fix her computer if it blows up, I had to think of something fast. The quick and dirty solution? I downloaded a trial copy of Virtual CD, mounted a "DVD-R" in the virtual burner drive, and let the stupid recovery utility "burn" to an ISO. Then I copied the ISOs across the network onto my laptop and burned from there. Not very efficient but it got the job done. Took hours this way. I left the ISOs on the HDD in case she ever needs to reburn them again, and gave the middle finger salute to HP and the cyberlink recovery disc creator.
Any Windows 7 discs take OEM and retail product keys (pertinent to that edition), unless it's the Enterprise version (which accepts ONLY MAK/KMS keys). The Pro version also accepts KMS keys.
so by that logic, isn't that like saying *I* hating rap music (in general) means I "hate" bla^H^H^H^HAfrican Americans? if they're whining and moaning about outsiders imposing on their "culture", who's to say they're not doing so on all the other 31 countries' matches? what the hell does the vuvuzela have anything to do with a italian vs paraguay match (for example)? just ban the f'ing things for all matches except for when their beloved south african team plays if they want PCness the monotony and annoyance is no different than hypnosis oh and this so-called "culture" and "tradition" started in the 1990s according to various other websites I googled regarding the vuvuzela issue and it appears to be a strictly ZA thing
it's still used by a few and it's still "alive and kicking" despite what many will think! OS/2 lives on currently as eComstation... what they did was took the best out of OS/2 Warp 4.5 and made it work well with modern hardware, along with modern features that we all take for granted... it still won't support win32s but I heard that's in the works
The culture is different. They speak a different language for starters.
If you go to google.com.hk, you may notice the site is in Traditional Chinese, with links near the bottom for versions in Simplified Chinese (which the mainlanders use) and English.
Not entirely correct. Natives of Guangdong province *usually* speak Cantonese as a home/native language, which is what Hong Kongers speak (while it can be said that the Hong Kong "sub-dialect" is different not due to just accent but words/terminologies used).
No they don't, unless they are foreign nationals.
Chinese nationals of Hong Kong origins (meaning they were born there and are eligible of holding Hong Kong passports), obtain a thing called a "Home Return Permit" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Return_Permit in which ever since the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong, it is practically an extension of their Hong Kong Identity Cards. As the wikipedia article states, it is not a requirement to have a Home Return Permit but is a requirement to have a HKID card. Current issues of Home Return Permits are tied to the holder's HKID card number which results in the practical extension of HKID card and therefore acts as their Mainland China identity card in practice. This allows a Hong Konger to almost enjoy all the things that a Mainland Chinese could do such as own real estate (but usually denied loans for practicality reasons), have a driver's license (must have HK driver's license because it is also an extension of it), go to places foreigners are denied going to (such as Tibet AFAIK), etc.
The reason for such a scheme is because travelling to/from Hong Kong is considered "domestic" travel and despite the fact that there is a border between HK and the Mainland, the Chinese government doesn't want to make it appear as an international border. This means they don't want to make Chinese nationals from either side of the border use passports. This is where those goofy permits come to play (which even applies if you got on a plane from HK and flew to Beijing, you still can't use a Chinese passport) in order to require documentation to pass the checkpoints while avoiding the appearance of international travel (passports). Despite the fact that this sounds all so complicated, it actually works out quite well to a Hong Konger as there are special lines for them to pass through quickly instead of the slower lines for foreigners (where passport usage and stamping is required).
Yeah, despite what many people think, travelling in Japan is not as expensive or difficult as everybody thinks. There's plenty of other places more expensive (like Hong Kong and European cities) where you feel like you're flushing $100 (US) bills down the toilet every hour. If you know where to look, and can speak/read basic Japanese, you can find hot meals for as little as $3, and that is NOT McDonald's (which is NYC prices btw).
What's interesting is, cheap food is cheaper in "downtown" Tokyo than in the suburbs. I think it has to do with lots of competition and heavy volumes of customers.
It is ALSO cheaper to road trip in Japan if you're traveling with more than 2 persons rather than taking the train (even passes get expensive). Highway tolls and fuel prices were considered of course for me to come up with this belief.
As for living there, yes it is expensive, but based on the many cheap eating establishments, stores and frugality techniques I've found in Tokyo, I believe it is a lot cheaper to live there than in Hong Kong where everything is just expensive and trying to be a cheap bastard is just near impossible. FWIW, between spending 3 days in a hotel in Kyoto, US SOFA sponsored car rental, and staying at 2 different friend's places all cumulative for 3 weeks, I say spending only $1000 US was pretty good on my part (I did this as a test even though I had the ability to spend more).
Yes, it's possible to be frugal in Japan unlike some other parts of the world.
There were a bunch of homeless camping out at the Ikebukuro "west gate" park when I was there in April. I wasn't surprised at all.
There weren't any in Ueno park because they all got kicked out for the Golden Week festival stuff.
There was a bunch of other homeless people in Yoyogi park when I walked from Harajuku to Shibuya (the long "scenic route") but they weren't close to the street but rather inside the park (you had to really look) unlike the ones who were just blatantly there in Ikebukuro.
It's "cheap" only when you're far away from a train station, stores, or any sort of real commerical center... that is how real estate prices are calculated in japan-- based on distance from train station. Then of course the other matter is whether the place is furnished or not and if there's a private bathroom.
My friend lives at the apartments (We Americans will call it a "condo") literally across the street from the TBS tower in Akasaka (and next to the subway station of the same name). His rent costs $3000 a month! He can afford it only because he works for a major US financial company a few minutes away.
My other friend lives way out in the suburbs in western Tokyo... his rent is at a house but half that, only because it takes 30 minutes to walk to the train station (I counted it myself because I missed the last bus when I was there last April one night... bus stop is only 5 minutes from the house on the main road) and he's miles from any department store. It takes 1-1.5 hours by train to "downtown" Tokyo or Yokohama from his house (bus to train station to Shinjuku) and it costs 850-1050 yen to get there (depends on how much further you go). Add that to your expenses from commuting to/from work and wasting 3+ hours a day on that, a coffin hotel in "downtown" doesn't seem so expensive after all.
Further "living in Japan" reading and links to apartment searching:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2200.html
I looked into that myself when there was possibility for a job in Tokyo earlier this year, but after all the uncertainties, expenses, and poor economy, living in one of the most expensive cities in the world (cheaper than Hong Kong, and much cheaper than Moscow) doesn't look possible right now.
If you want to see it right side up, go to China ;)
NEC and CSA specifies 14 gauge wiring for 15 amp installations and 12 gauge wiring for 20 amp installations IIRC. This is apparent if you visit a Home Depot and look at the boxes of romex wiring ;)
Many Japanese plugs have the same British style "shielding" on the prongs due to the stricter standards imposed by PSE, MITI and JIS in Japan. The "shielding" is a dielectric covering about 2mm end of the blade closest to the plastic part you grab on. This, like the BS1363 plug, is safer in case the plug decides to partially fall off the wall outlet and reduces electrocution/shorting hazards. My Japanese Playstation2 came with this style of plug but is unpolarized unlike the US version which has a polarized plug without the "shielding". Same thing goes for the Nikon camera battery charger that I got (also Japan market).
It's laughable that many DC driven appliances uses the annoying polarized plug when it is completely unnecessary in the safety perspective. It makes it difficult to use items you bring with you from the US to an overseas hotel because their special outlets have unpolarized plugs (and practially all outlets in Japan for that matter). Even some of the socket adapters are that way too, which forces me to grind off the "fatter" polarized blade before I get on the plane!
On another note, I'd like to correct that mains voltage in North America is now 120V... it used to be 110 a long long time ago, but it is now 120 to better account for transmission losses. Japan's voltage is also 100V (not 110 as the article stated), the lowest in the world. The article also fails to mention that there are still some BS546 plugs in existence in the UK due to older installation or preferred use in some industries (apparently) such as theaters, due to the lack of internal fuse and non-requirement for a earthing pin to be pushed first to allow plug insertion The BS546 plugs look like the current "euro" plug, but with different spacing and size. These plugs were also well used into the mid-80s in some British colonies.
As for those who bitch about their plugs falling off their American style outlets due to frequent use, get rid of the 50 cent standard issue POS that is allowed in residential installations with industrial or hospital grade ones. FWIW, many home theater enthusiasts prefer to use hospital grade plugs and outlets due to the high insertion and retaining force, heavy duty wear rate, and the fact that some outlets have a built in TVSS and minimal noise filtering. Hospital grade plugs/outlets practically have the same level of force as the BS1363 plugs in practice but they are very hard to find. Industrial grade plugs are the next best thing and aren't that bad despite the lower grade. However, if you're just a cheap bastard, any commercial grade outlet is better than the el cheapo 50 cent residential one!
According to the PS2 Linux forums, the moderators (who obviously have their ties with Sony), stated that Sony did in fact started with the 2.2.1 kernel a long time ago. They mentioned that they are porting whatever new version/fixes of stuff back to 2.2.1 compatibility. Whatever.
The Net Yaroze system is black (the blue system was the super expensive game developer version) and did cost $750. You had to sign a special agreement including which you agreed not to resell the system. The system was like the original SCPH-1001 system, which meant video output jacks at the back, and 2 black original PSX controllers (non-analog/dual shock). The Net Yaroze system also allowed games (legit ones) from all regions to be played; "backups" could not be played (go figure). More information about this system can be found here Anyway, that BS aside, I'm guessing Sony decided on the PS2 Linux after the success of the Net Yaroze system by yet again testing the waters with the Japanese beta 1 version (that sold out in a day, I think it was 200 copies). With that and the positive feedback from their little poll, I'm glad they came to their senses and finally allowing a larger number of people to play around with this not as expensive (still expensive) toy. :)
According to the article, the bridge's design is by a T.Y. Lin. His wacky idea is to tow in prefabricated pieces and connect the spans together; which will be towing the support in, sink it and make it stay, then put the bridge span on top. It says there will be 220 spams, which will be 1200ft each except the 2 middle spans which are 1800ft. The bridge will be of a triple deck. Oil pipeline at the bottom, then high speed rail, then an actual seasonal road deck. The suspension cable spans would be encased in concrete to protect from weather. The bridge will naturally hop through the Diomede islands of course.
There was also a little section on a page in that same article about an idea for a tunnel under the Bering sea too. It's not too hard to dig a tunnel under the sea either, its only 180ft average deep.
Are these ideas crazy? I think so. Is it possible? Yes, but why do we need a land connection? Lots of money and effort will have to go to making this happen anyway. Don't forget the fault lines, and the earth quakes that happen all the time in that region. We will have to definately deal with the weather and permafrost. There's no economic feasiblity for a link other than for natural resources. It's still cheaper to send things by ship anyway. Train shipping is going to be too expensive to worth it. Sure its faster than ship. But if you really want something to get there fast, why not air?
According to this PC Extremist article, the DVD consortium decided to have the DVD-R Book version 2.0 have 2 different laser wave lengths. The consumer DVD-R laser wavelength is 650nm, while the "professional/authoring" one is 635nm. The last DVD-R Book version 1.9 only had 635nm. The DVD consortium's excuse was that it would be cheaper to make the 650nm laser unit. While this is true that it's cheaper, it also adds to the confusion among people who need to get a DVD-R drive. What's even more messed up about this is that, a DVD-R with a 635nm laser can only use 635nm DVD-R media, while the 650nm one can only use 650nm.
I really think that current standalone DVD players will not be able to read DVDs burned from a "consumer" DVD-R drive. Either that, or major difficulties. The only drive that currently burns proper 635nm DVD-Rs that I know of, is the Pioneer DVR-S201. So if you want to burn DVDs so you can watch it on your standalone, go for the expensive 635nm DVD-R drive (what a rip off).