Well, I've only played for 20 years, but surely using your eyes is an advantage? I don't scan the fretboard constantly because in a band situation you need to checking with the drummer, or nodding to the keyboard player to take a solo; but when I'm in a complex passage or ripping out a solo I'm 100% concentrated on getting things right, and to me that includes visual feedback of the fretboard.
Sure riffing some Am chord or playing some simple blues riffs you don't NEED to look down all the time but I don't see what you gain from NOT making sure of yourself at times.
The ONLY shops here that seem to sell legal software are some of the supermarket chains. In fact, the only legal software I see in any quantity (and not much of that)are PS3 games, since they haven't been cracked yet. These sell for about 300-400 rmb ($40-$60). Compare that to any other computer game of 4-7 rmb ($0.5-$1).
Same thing with movies. I can often buy the DVD release of a movie before it's available in the west, complete with picture insert and so forth, for around $1.
I understand that music is not a big seller since everyone downloads it.
I often discuss this my students (I'm an English teacher) and, quite literally, EVERYBODY buys / downloads / uses copied media. It's part of the fabric of the country. Since the government love to keep the people happy, you aren't going to see any change whatsoever on this in the near future, despite whatever the Chinese government may say.
The only two examples I know of that seem to 'sell' software with any success is WOW, since they have a separate Chinese micro-payment system, and QQ, an instant messaging service, which also handles micro-transactions (you can upgrade your avatar with extra clothes, and many other things - I've never looked to closely).
Most students that I teach in China (18-22) can't afford the computer required, so they play WOW and CS at their Internet bar. These places are usually dark, dingy and full of second-hand cigarette smoke. They make some of my teenage hacker basements look positively healthy.
So I think it's not that the parents are really worried about the length of time spent playing, it's the conditions they are played under.
The very idea that you must even sell each computer with said software on it is a non-starter. The rule of law here is very thin; if you don't annoy the govt. you can pretty much do what you like.
I bought a computer today from the flea market that is Harbin's main computer store (the infamous downstairs section, for those of you living here). This is a zero-regulated place where the very idea of mandating computer software is laughable.
It's like a few weeks ago when there was an article about mandating Red Flag Linux in cybercafes. This place is very capitalist and such measures simply won't even be enacted, let alone enforced.
Even the Chinese government know this. From TFA:
"The software must either be preinstalled on the hard drive or enclosed on a compact disc"
So at the very best, it'll be a CD thrown away when new machines are purchased.
Touchscreen calibration? I used to work for a company that built quiz machines and the like for the UK pub industry (circa 2000). Essentially they were simple PC's with a touchscreen (the monitor had a PS2 output).
We used to leave those machines running at various sites for YEARS, and I can't ever remember a calibration problem. And trust me, we'd know because when a customer starts to lose money they let the pub know about it all right. The biggest problem we had was the coin slot mechanism screwing up.
So now you're telling me that almost 10 years later and the calibration in a voting machine can't last A WHOLE GODDAMN DAY? That's service so bad it almost makes me believe in the conspiracy angle!
It IS transparent to the population of China. I live here, and its just not an issue even with the net-addicted teenagers I teach every day. They all use Chinese video sites, and the only people annoyed by this are us westerners.
Think of it this way: how many Chinese language sites do you go to every day? Would you notice if a few got shut down? That, my friends, is the reality of this to the average Chinese person.
Now, if they shut down WOW, we'd have a revolution today!
I thought the best measure was the ratio of total_cells / inputs? For humans, it's about 50:1 - for every nerve input into the brain you have 50 cells to process it. For dogs, it's 3:1, for cats 4:1. A Chimpanzee is about 12:1 and if I remember correctly a dolphin is about 10:1.
Elephants have a very large brain but they obviously also have a huge number of inputs due to the size of the nervous system.
As as westerner who lives in China, can I simply say 'bollocks' to this story?
In China, as long as you don't upset the government you can do what you like (in many ways this is a very liberal society).
The worst thing to happen is that the many many numerous internet bars here (mainly frequented by chain-smoking WoW players) will simply either ignore this rule or slip 100 RMB into the pocket of the local officer.
I did some 15 years of assembly code from the early eighties, and yes, it does tend to be commented on line by line. Not because you can't remember what 'dbnz' means, but because the code itself doesn''t read very well. I might say x=(2*(5+y))-z in C but that'll look like an awful lot of assembly, and you needed a lot of comments to understand what was going.
Also, it was common to have instruction tricks; for example, on a Z80 CPU I used to use XOR A,A to set the accumulator to 0. Not obvious to anybody reading the code.
Finally, comments didn't get in the way of the code; typically, from left to right, you would have a first column of labels, then a column of instructions, then a column on operands, then a column of comments:
Living in China myself (Harbin, in the far north east), I find that the pollution over a year varies a lot. In the summer, it's not too bad at all. However, when winter comes (-25C is fairly normal most nights) a forest of small chimneys start burning coal to heat all of the houses. Only then does the pollution get really bad.
Mmmm... As far as I understand, Tibet was invaded in 1710 by the Manchu dynasty and has been part of China ever since. From 1904 - 1951 it was de facto independant but no other country recognised this independance. In 1951 Chinese troops returned. So essentially Tibet has been part of China for the last 300 years. (One should also note that the Manchu's invaded because Tibet was such a hostile, warlike people). One can argue about the cultural effects of communism all you like; but in 1951 the average life span in Tibet was 35; it's now 67.
I'm typing this from an internet bar in Harbin, north-east China, so this is the perfect time to do some testing. You can't get through to youtube (it gets redirected to Baidu), as TFA states. Let's just see how good this firewall is by trying 'Tibet protests' into google.cn:
OK, you get enough pages to find out pretty much everything you need to know (although it does feel a little strange - I feel like the police are going to come and arrest me at any time).
And I remember the C64 keyboard being *good* for the time. They have the Sinclair 2068 keyboard, which if it was anything like the Spectrum 48k (for us Europeans) was pretty bad, although that was a step up from the rubber nightmare of the Spectrum 16k, which can be seen at http://s206301103.websitehome.co.uk/sinclair/picts/spectrum.jpg/
But even worse were the ZX80/ZX81 keyboards - http://www.vintagecomputer.net/sinclair/sinclair_zx81.jpg/. Not only were they small, awkward to use and with about 6 functions to each key, to much pressure on them would make the (obligatory) 16k RAM expansion wobble, thus giving you a user friendly hard reset. Moving up the C64 seemed like a dream in '83 or thereabouts.
Slashdot Mirror
The OED wants to be the recorder of living language, not to set rules in stone for future generations. There's nothing wrong with that.
Well, I've only played for 20 years, but surely using your eyes is an advantage? I don't scan the fretboard constantly because in a band situation you need to checking with the drummer, or nodding to the keyboard player to take a solo; but when I'm in a complex passage or ripping out a solo I'm 100% concentrated on getting things right, and to me that includes visual feedback of the fretboard.
Sure riffing some Am chord or playing some simple blues riffs you don't NEED to look down all the time but I don't see what you gain from NOT making sure of yourself at times.
It sounds like World Championship Big Brother.
I live in China (Harbin, to be exact).
The ONLY shops here that seem to sell legal software are some of the supermarket chains. In fact, the only legal software I see in any quantity (and not much of that)are PS3 games, since they haven't been cracked yet. These sell for about 300-400 rmb ($40-$60). Compare that to any other computer game of 4-7 rmb ($0.5-$1).
Same thing with movies. I can often buy the DVD release of a movie before it's available in the west, complete with picture insert and so forth, for around $1.
I understand that music is not a big seller since everyone downloads it.
I often discuss this my students (I'm an English teacher) and, quite literally, EVERYBODY buys / downloads / uses copied media. It's part of the fabric of the country. Since the government love to keep the people happy, you aren't going to see any change whatsoever on this in the near future, despite whatever the Chinese government may say.
The only two examples I know of that seem to 'sell' software with any success is WOW, since they have a separate Chinese micro-payment system, and QQ, an instant messaging service, which also handles micro-transactions (you can upgrade your avatar with extra clothes, and many other things - I've never looked to closely).
Not true. I live in China, and can easily find info on Tiananmen square, I just have to use google.com and not google.cn.
Exercise always makes me hungry!
Nice try, but I'm sure it's disestablishmentarianism and not antiestablishmentarianism (although the spell checker I have dislikes both).
Most students that I teach in China (18-22) can't afford the computer required, so they play WOW and CS at their Internet bar. These places are usually dark, dingy and full of second-hand cigarette smoke. They make some of my teenage hacker basements look positively healthy. So I think it's not that the parents are really worried about the length of time spent playing, it's the conditions they are played under.
I live in China. This will not happen.
The very idea that you must even sell each computer with said software on it is a non-starter. The rule of law here is very thin; if you don't annoy the govt. you can pretty much do what you like.
I bought a computer today from the flea market that is Harbin's main computer store (the infamous downstairs section, for those of you living here). This is a zero-regulated place where the very idea of mandating computer software is laughable.
It's like a few weeks ago when there was an article about mandating Red Flag Linux in cybercafes. This place is very capitalist and such measures simply won't even be enacted, let alone enforced.
Even the Chinese government know this. From TFA:
"The software must either be preinstalled on the hard drive or enclosed on a compact disc"
So at the very best, it'll be a CD thrown away when new machines are purchased.
Touchscreen calibration? I used to work for a company that built quiz machines and the like for the UK pub industry (circa 2000). Essentially they were simple PC's with a touchscreen (the monitor had a PS2 output).
We used to leave those machines running at various sites for YEARS, and I can't ever remember a calibration problem. And trust me, we'd know because when a customer starts to lose money they let the pub know about it all right. The biggest problem we had was the coin slot mechanism screwing up.
So now you're telling me that almost 10 years later and the calibration in a voting machine can't last A WHOLE GODDAMN DAY? That's service so bad it almost makes me believe in the conspiracy angle!
It IS transparent to the population of China. I live here, and its just not an issue even with the net-addicted teenagers I teach every day. They all use Chinese video sites, and the only people annoyed by this are us westerners.
Think of it this way: how many Chinese language sites do you go to every day? Would you notice if a few got shut down? That, my friends, is the reality of this to the average Chinese person.
Now, if they shut down WOW, we'd have a revolution today!
I live in China - this place is more capitalist than the U.S.A!
I've only ever met one communist here, and he was a teacher from Canada
I thought the best measure was the ratio of total_cells / inputs? For humans, it's about 50:1 - for every nerve input into the brain you have 50 cells to process it. For dogs, it's 3:1, for cats 4:1. A Chimpanzee is about 12:1 and if I remember correctly a dolphin is about 10:1.
Elephants have a very large brain but they obviously also have a huge number of inputs due to the size of the nervous system.
As as westerner who lives in China, can I simply say 'bollocks' to this story?
In China, as long as you don't upset the government you can do what you like (in many ways this is a very liberal society).
The worst thing to happen is that the many many numerous internet bars here (mainly frequented by chain-smoking WoW players) will simply either ignore this rule or slip 100 RMB into the pocket of the local officer.
I did some 15 years of assembly code from the early eighties, and yes, it does tend to be commented on line by line. Not because you can't remember what 'dbnz' means, but because the code itself doesn''t read very well. I might say x=(2*(5+y))-z in C but that'll look like an awful lot of assembly, and you needed a lot of comments to understand what was going.
Also, it was common to have instruction tricks; for example, on a Z80 CPU I used to use XOR A,A to set the accumulator to 0. Not obvious to anybody reading the code.
Finally, comments didn't get in the way of the code; typically, from left to right, you would have a first column of labels, then a column of instructions, then a column on operands, then a column of comments:
loop: LD A,15 ;setup loop counter
Oh, those were the days....
Living in China myself (Harbin, in the far north east), I find that the pollution over a year varies a lot. In the summer, it's not too bad at all. However, when winter comes (-25C is fairly normal most nights) a forest of small chimneys start burning coal to heat all of the houses. Only then does the pollution get really bad.
And just about the shortest amount of time that any image has ever taken to be slashdotted, as well!
According to this http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/08/wii-the-greenes.html/, the Wii uses 17 watts of energy, compared to the PS3's 171 watts and the 360 Elite's 194 watts.
Doesn't this make th Wii the greenest? OK, so it may not be the easiest to recycle, but it's an order of magnitude better on power consumption!
When ... drunk ... must .. remember .. to ... scroll down ... linked images
... not ... loose ... geek ... credentials ....
Must
There are 113 symbols, each of which is either 1, 2 or 3 strokes. So it is essentially a 113 digit base 3 number.
This limits the amount of information that the message is trying to pass.
For example, using base 26 - all the letters - means we could convey the same information in ??? digits.
Oh damn it. I'm too drunk and Google ain't working for me. Perhaps someone could give a value for ???
But I'm betting it won't be very many digits. I.e. this message is very short.
Mmmm... As far as I understand, Tibet was invaded in 1710 by the Manchu dynasty and has been part of China ever since. From 1904 - 1951 it was de facto independant but no other country recognised this independance. In 1951 Chinese troops returned. So essentially Tibet has been part of China for the last 300 years. (One should also note that the Manchu's invaded because Tibet was such a hostile, warlike people).
One can argue about the cultural effects of communism all you like; but in 1951 the average life span in Tibet was 35; it's now 67.
I'm typing this from an internet bar in Harbin, north-east China, so this is the perfect time to do some testing.
You can't get through to youtube (it gets redirected to Baidu), as TFA states. Let's just see how good this firewall is by trying 'Tibet protests' into google.cn:
OK, you get enough pages to find out pretty much everything you need to know (although it does feel a little strange - I feel like the police are going to come and arrest me at any time).
From TFA:
"The system is very responsive, using barely 480MB of memory after boot."
I've obviously been in *nix land for too long, I'm still of the impression that 256 Mb is pretty much all one needs for most tasks. Even EMACS!
And I remember the C64 keyboard being *good* for the time. They have the Sinclair 2068 keyboard, which if it was anything like the Spectrum 48k (for us Europeans) was pretty bad, although that was a step up from the rubber nightmare of the Spectrum 16k, which can be seen at http://s206301103.websitehome.co.uk/sinclair/picts/spectrum.jpg/ But even worse were the ZX80/ZX81 keyboards - http://www.vintagecomputer.net/sinclair/sinclair_zx81.jpg/. Not only were they small, awkward to use and with about 6 functions to each key, to much pressure on them would make the (obligatory) 16k RAM expansion wobble, thus giving you a user friendly hard reset. Moving up the C64 seemed like a dream in '83 or thereabouts.