I'm in about my 3rd month of doing exactly what it sounds like you want to do -- teaching myself Japanese. On the whole, I don't think it's as hard as people make it out to be. The key thing is, do you enjoy learning? If so, then it should be worthwhile to try.
There are a couple of resources I am using to learn:
Japanese in Mangaland - a fantastic book that is organized into simple lessons of grammar, culture, and vocabulary. Each lesson includes examples of actual Manga to apply what you have learned. (There are two more books in the series once you get past the first one.)
If you read that book and decide you want to learn more, then it's time to start learning Kanji (you should already have learned the two phonetic scripts -- Hiragana and Katakana by then). For Kanji, I have been very pleased with:
This book may or may not work for you depending on your learning style, but it's been fantastic for me (I'm up to 400 Kanji in 3 months). It basically lays out the history of each Kanji and explains why it came to have it's current meaning. It shows you how to break the characters down into their component parts (called radicals) and what the meaning of those parts is. Since radicals can be shared by many kanji, this gives you extra insight into what a Kanji is likely to mean, even if you don't know it to begin with. This is a great memory aid, since it means you're not just memorizing random symbols but actually learning a system of symbols with meaning and context.
The other tool I used to learn Kanji is King Kanji. This is a Palm program that has tons of different writing lessons. It does handwriting recognition and tells you when you are writing the characters incorrectly. You can use it to quiz either the kanji, katakana, hiragana, or the meanings or pronunciation of the Kanji. I basically do this whenever I have some down time (bathroom, bus, etc.) and that is what has allowed me to progress as far as I have on my own with learning the Japanese writing.
Finally, a couple of websites that I have found helpful:
Sensible, but we're not talking about whether it's sensible to protect information you want to keep private. We're talking about whether it's ok to snoop on traffic that isn't explicitly protected.
Just because you are aware of the risk in transmitting unencrypted information doesn't make it ok for someone to listen in on your private traffic. See my comment above regarding cell phone signal interception for an example.
Nothing was taken? So if he was paying for a 4 Mbps connection, and the guy out front who was sneaking on to his network was using 2 Mbps of that, he was only getting half of what he paid for.
I imagine most slashdotters get pretty pissed when they're broadband/DSL connections run slow.
We have been driving it for 2 years in both city and highway, and in all kinds of weather (we live in Michigan). It drives well, has the most comfortable seats of any car I've ever ridden in, and gets excellent mileage.
We average about 35 mpg city (due to lots of very short trips in cold weather where the engine doesn't get a chance to warm up properly), and 43 mpg highway. A little less than advertised, but still pretty darn good.
We take it on 2-3 extensive road trips each year, anywhere from 600-2000 miles round trip. It is always a great way to travel.
It has a decent amount of power. A little less than some larger cars, but we rarely have trouble getting up to speed quickly on the highway. It's certainly not like driving a Ford Escort or some similar gerbil-mobile.
One of the nice things about a Prius is that, in addition to the good mileage, the emissions are outstandingly low. Many economy cars can achieve the mileage of a Prius, but none of them qualify as a SULEV (Super Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle) according to the EPA. I believe this is better than the competing vehicles from Honda, but that may have changed with the new Civic.
The new Prius for 2004 will be larger and have a hatchback, so it's even more practical that the older version. I wish we could afford to trade ours in for the new one!
The Prius comes with a full 8-year warranty on the hybrid electrical system, so that should help alleviate any concerns you might have on the long-term reliability of the car.
In short, I highly recommend the Prius. There is a yahoogroup dedicated to the Prius as well, if you are interested in more user experiences. You can find it here.
Good luck with your decision!
--Scott
Re:oh really?
on
Worst Buy
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I suggest you re-read the hypothermia web page. The wording of the original Best Buy offer on the Best Buy web site made it very clear that this was an intentional pricing sale, not a typo.
In case you missed it, here is the quote from hypothermia about the original web offer:
Here's a strange one... we found an Advertisement at BestBuy.com yesterday that proclaimed "VisionTek GeForce4 Ti4600 for Special Pre-Order Price of $129.00..the savings is a $200.00 Value".
Normally a "typo" or mistake would be something to the effect of a misplaced decimal point or an accidental wrong price. It usually doesn't consist of adding terms like Special Pre-Order Price and savings is a $200.00 Value, ( since it sounds reasonable $129.00 + $200.00 savings for a card announced that day with no real set price yet ) all over the advertisement. So we did the right thing and CALLED. BestBuy.com confirmed the price of $129.00 twice, at which time they gave us the $200.00 value / saving quotes.
From my reading of the patent application as linked above, you will see that what they are patenting is not being able to watch one program while taping another, but the ability to tape one program while watching another one that is already recorded. This is a significant and concrete improvement over the state of the art, and seems, IMO, worthy of a patent.
One of the main problems that we see in geek/non-conformist culture is harrassment by the established culture, especially other students. If the W.A.V.E system is put into place, let's not forget that it works both ways -- geeks being abused or harrassed by their classmates could report *that* dangerous behavior to the WAVE system, too. That might allow a bit more equity as to who gets identified by this. Please don't take this to mean that I actually advocate this system -- I abhor it. But if non-conforming students are saddled with it, they can make it work for them as well as against them. --Scott
Slashdot Mirror
There's a great analysis of the problem by the always knowledgeable Danny MacPherson up on his blog at Arbor Networks.
I'm in about my 3rd month of doing exactly what it sounds like you want to do -- teaching myself Japanese. On the whole, I don't think it's as hard as people make it out to be. The key thing is, do you enjoy learning? If so, then it should be worthwhile to try.
There are a couple of resources I am using to learn:
Japanese in Mangaland - a fantastic book that is organized into simple lessons of grammar, culture, and vocabulary. Each lesson includes examples of actual Manga to apply what you have learned. (There are two more books in the series once you get past the first one.)
If you read that book and decide you want to learn more, then it's time to start learning Kanji (you should already have learned the two phonetic scripts -- Hiragana and Katakana by then). For Kanji, I have been very pleased with:
Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters by Henshall.
This book may or may not work for you depending on your learning style, but it's been fantastic for me (I'm up to 400 Kanji in 3 months). It basically lays out the history of each Kanji and explains why it came to have it's current meaning. It shows you how to break the characters down into their component parts (called radicals) and what the meaning of those parts is. Since radicals can be shared by many kanji, this gives you extra insight into what a Kanji is likely to mean, even if you don't know it to begin with. This is a great memory aid, since it means you're not just memorizing random symbols but actually learning a system of symbols with meaning and context.
The other tool I used to learn Kanji is King Kanji. This is a Palm program that has tons of different writing lessons. It does handwriting recognition and tells you when you are writing the characters incorrectly. You can use it to quiz either the kanji, katakana, hiragana, or the meanings or pronunciation of the Kanji. I basically do this whenever I have some down time (bathroom, bus, etc.) and that is what has allowed me to progress as far as I have on my own with learning the Japanese writing.
Finally, a couple of websites that I have found helpful:
Teach yourself Japanese has a great detailed explanation of Japanese grammar.
Japanese Online has fantastic language lessons.
There are a ton of other sites out there as well. Just spend some time with Google and I'm sure you'll find the ones that work for you.
Good luck! Learning Japanese has been a lot of fun for me, and isn't nearly as hard as people make it out to be.
Sensible, but we're not talking about whether it's sensible to protect information you want to keep private. We're talking about whether it's ok to snoop on traffic that isn't explicitly protected.
Just because you are aware of the risk in transmitting unencrypted information doesn't make it ok for someone to listen in on your private traffic. See my comment above regarding cell phone signal interception for an example.
Nothing was taken? So if he was paying for a 4 Mbps connection, and the guy out front who was sneaking on to his network was using 2 Mbps of that, he was only getting half of what he paid for.
I imagine most slashdotters get pretty pissed when they're broadband/DSL connections run slow.
I see. So you're ok with people listening in on your cell phone calls because the radio waves may be leaving the bounds of your private property?
I'd be very surprised if you thought that was ok. And even if you do, the law obviously doesn't agree with you -- doing so is absolutely illegal.
That's funny, it looked pretty demarcated to me, what with a network name that I know isn't mine and all...
Except that by doing so you could be denying the owner the use of some or even most of the pool that he is paying for.
Taking an unlocked car no longer considered stealing!
Taking things from an unlocked home no longer considered burglary!
Don't think those are valid analogies? How about:
Staying in an unlocked home while the owners are out of town no longer considered illegal entry!
and my wife and I love it.
We have been driving it for 2 years in both city and highway, and in all kinds of weather (we live in Michigan). It drives well, has the most comfortable seats of any car I've ever ridden in, and gets excellent mileage.
We average about 35 mpg city (due to lots of very short trips in cold weather where the engine doesn't get a chance to warm up properly), and 43 mpg highway. A little less than advertised, but still pretty darn good.
We take it on 2-3 extensive road trips each year, anywhere from 600-2000 miles round trip. It is always a great way to travel.
It has a decent amount of power. A little less than some larger cars, but we rarely have trouble getting up to speed quickly on the highway. It's certainly not like driving a Ford Escort or some similar gerbil-mobile.
One of the nice things about a Prius is that, in addition to the good mileage, the emissions are outstandingly low. Many economy cars can achieve the mileage of a Prius, but none of them qualify as a SULEV (Super Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle) according to the EPA. I believe this is better than the competing vehicles from Honda, but that may have changed with the new Civic.
The new Prius for 2004 will be larger and have a hatchback, so it's even more practical that the older version. I wish we could afford to trade ours in for the new one!
The Prius comes with a full 8-year warranty on the hybrid electrical system, so that should help alleviate any concerns you might have on the long-term reliability of the car.
In short, I highly recommend the Prius. There is a yahoogroup dedicated to the Prius as well, if you are interested in more user experiences. You can find it here.
Good luck with your decision!
--Scott
In case you missed it, here is the quote from hypothermia about the original web offer:
--Scott D. Iekel-Johnson
2001-3-15 15:12:07 Gratuitous text to fool the too-many-caps filter.
--Scott D. Iekel-Johnson
One of the main problems that we see in geek/non-conformist culture is harrassment by the established culture, especially other students. If the W.A.V.E system is put into place, let's not forget that it works both ways -- geeks being abused or harrassed by their classmates could report *that* dangerous behavior to the WAVE system, too. That might allow a bit more equity as to who gets identified by this. Please don't take this to mean that I actually advocate this system -- I abhor it. But if non-conforming students are saddled with it, they can make it work for them as well as against them. --Scott