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User: Rick+in+China

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  1. Wheel size limitations.. on Japanese Engineer Develops 'WalkCar,' a Mini-Segway · · Score: 1, Informative

    With wheels that small I can imagine that, unless you're on a very smooth even surface it will end up getting f'd up by rocks, divits, bumps, or just generally tiled/uneven textures that can be found all over. It's also not a whole lot smaller than those electric unicycles, except it goes half as slow as the average one and lasts far shorter distances - and carries less weight.

    Useless product.

  2. Suitable change. on North Korea Is Switching To a New Time Zone · · Score: 1

    NK already goes by their own calendar system, based on Il-sung's date of birth, it's only natural that they select their own time zone.

    The funny thing is - even though their calendar is "their own" - it's based on the same gregorian calendar months and days per month, coincidentally their self-selected timezone is also based on the int'l standard. They're essentially trying to say "fuck you we go our own way", KIGTOW? Except they're doing so within the confines of the system already set (or erm.... imposed) internationally.

    Next up: Fatty Kim Jr. shaves his head, pierces his nose, and dresses like the "God King" from 300.

  3. Digital temperature controls! on One Night In the Hotel Room of the Future · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The future is....digital temperature controls?

    "Augmented reality wall" - um, so, it looks like a panel that displays local information, it's hardly Minority Report style interactivity. Just marketing bullshit, tons of hotels, in Asia at least, have these features without advertising them as 'futuristic'. Most botique hotels in Hong Kong have all the digital room control functions on panels similarly designed, even, and have for years. I don't get how this is anything regarding 'future tech'.

  4. Turkey vs. China? on Facebook Allows Turkish Government To Set the Censorship Rules · · Score: 1

    If Facebook is so willing to bend completely to the Turkish government's demands for censorship, I wonder why, then, it remains banned in China - being that the key (publicly accepted) reason circled around censorship.

    I know that the Chinese government isn't so keen on allowing Facebook to operate in China at all, given that they are in support of local competitors, but in order to legitimately prevent Facebook from competing if they wanted to - they'd need to essentially abide by the same rules as the local competitors. They'll bend over for Turkey, but not China? Surely China is far more profitable if they had bent earlier while it was still available and making headway in the market.

  5. Re:I heard this days ago..and on Girls Catfish ISIS On Social Media For Travel Money · · Score: 1

    Nobody, other than maybe ISIS, is complaining about the NSA monitoring ISIS communications. They're complaining about the NSA illegally monitoring innocent civilians communications and strapping it under the "stop terrorism" banners.

    Since ISIS is a stated enemy of many governments around the world - and many governments around the world are actively fighting against them, it's hardly an apples to apples comparison you're making. What would be an apples to apples comparison - if some hackers took down ISIS websites, do you think their respective governments would put any effort into charging them with computer crimes? I'd sure as hell hope not. The fact the victim is an enemy of your state sworn to destruction, death, and chaos - displaying beheadings and shit on the internet hoping to strike fear in civilian lives - absolutely changes the fact that they 'broke the law', and if it doesn't, it should.

  6. Re:Regarding computing power.. on China To Impose Export Control On High Tech Drones and Supercomputers · · Score: 1

    The same could be said for so many revolutionary next-gen leaps in technology, based on what is known at the time. Before they sent people up to space and to the moon, I don't think anyone was like "Yeah it's easy give us X and Y and it's done son." That's sort of part and parcel with discovering something new.

  7. I heard this days ago..and on Girls Catfish ISIS On Social Media For Travel Money · · Score: 2

    LET THEM GO! Come on, really going to charge some women with cheating ISIS out of a few grand?

  8. Regarding computing power.. on China To Impose Export Control On High Tech Drones and Supercomputers · · Score: 1

    The 'next big leap' is the important thing. Not relatively small incremental jumps over competition by fine tuning and addition of 'more of the same' - what I mean is, whether it's an entirely new architecture or more likely quantum computing, the leap is what will make the difference in competitive technology not the crawl.

    I have no idea where China sits with quantum computing (or entirely new architectures), however, with Google banned and their investment in quantum computing and relationship with the 'western nations' I don't know if it matters.

  9. Re:It was bound to happen. on Hitchhiking Robot's Cross-Country Trip Ends In Philadelphia · · Score: 1

    Yeah :( All the Canadians and Europeans who are far less fortunate than those in Philly. Rough times, rough times.

  10. I'd be interested in some values on scalability... on Japanese Scientists Fire the Most Powerful Laser On the Planet · · Score: 0

    "enough energy to warm up your breakfast burrito for two full seconds"

    *stunned in awe*

    So, since the experiment is effectively useless, some information on whether the same technology scales and what sort of energy would be required to heat a burrito for like, 2 minutes. Or does it not scale, so conveniently leaves that type of information out?

  11. The boy, or the docs? on 8-Year-Old Makes History As First Pediatric Dual Hand Transplant Recipient · · Score: 1

    All the love in the world for the boy who has hands due to medical science, that's wonderful for him - and his entire life, there are few things greater than providing a child with opportunities that they had lost before even coming to the age of reason or self-identification.

    That being said, I don't get the title - why is it the boy who 'makes history', and not the wonderful doctors? It seems to me that it is the doctors responsible for this amazing transplant rather than the boy who received it.

  12. Re:"If you install x on both computers...." on Air-Gapped Computer Hacked (Again) · · Score: 1

    As soon as the article got to "The attack requires both the targeted computer and the mobile phone to have malware installed on them"..... I stopped reading.

  13. Reality on the ground.... on Chinese Consumers Can Now Buy Formerly Banned Consoles, Nationwide · · Score: 3, Informative

    The reality of gaming in China is this:

    The domestic version of the consoles is restrictive, actually, especially for foreigners in China in many cases. The domestic version of the PS4, for example, will only work with a Chinese playstation store ID - so you can't log in to your overseas-created ID from the Chinese console.

    That being said, in China - now, as before, as always, you can very easily purchase whichever console you choose from graymarket shops. By gray market I mean fully legally functioning and not hiding anything shops (in Chengdu typically found on the 4th floor of the 'computer city' malls), often legally imported (illegally only if they were brought in without paying import taxes), from a variety of countries. In China, typically it means HK or Japanese models of the consoles and associated games. The shop I get my games from often has US versions of the games also, which I by far prefer because it lets me use the bonus content with my Canadian account.

    Consoles and games were only really 'banned' from legitimate channels of mass market entry - never illegal in the sense they weren't allowed to be sold or owned or played, that's a notion that many people overseas simply don't understand when they read articles like this, which are a little bit misleading.

    Oh, also, the piracy aspect of all consoles is equally gray market - each of those shops will mod any console they sell and let you transfer games from their game library upon purchase, or bring your HD in for a bunch of transfers, at the cost of about $1usd/game....banned, pfft.

  14. Re:How real poacher-killing goes: on Game About Killing Poachers Vies For Top Prize In Microsoft Student Tech Contest · · Score: 1

    They're the poacher-killers, not the poachers! The gorillas unfortunately don't respawn their paws, so the poacher-killers camp up in the trees waiting for the invading Congolese poachers (who I presume spawn in Congo) to sleuth about through the thick jungle dropping traps.

  15. How real poacher-killing goes: on Game About Killing Poachers Vies For Top Prize In Microsoft Student Tech Contest · · Score: 2

    I was on a hike in the Virunga mountains, specifically right on the border between Rwanda and Congo. We were on a Mountain Gorilla trek, and after a few hours of hiking our guide pointed out, with the note, "don't be afraid" - a guy in green way up in a tree with an assault rifle.

    They're basically campers.

  16. "Developer" or "Journalist"? on Interviews: Ask Brianna Wu a Question · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm interested in what development languages you excel in and how you mastered them - as head of development for a gaming company, I think that's my first question. Follow-up side-points would be when you transitioned from journalist to game developer, and why game development? Was it related to some of the 'sparks' and 'movements' by some other females 'in the gaming community' - and seen as an easy way to jump on a bandwagon that was clearly going to make waves? Journalist to developer just seems like a very strange transition to me, so I'm curious about the particulars.

    Do you have a github account where you publish some of your code?

  17. Hilarious.. on Bell Media President Says Canadians Are 'Stealing' US Netflix Content · · Score: 2

    Like many here, the socially unacceptable portion makes me laugh so hard. I live in China, I'd gladly pay for content I happily enjoy -- but if it's not available legally for me within reasonable methods, then fuck it, VPN first, piracy second. I found myself watching lots of Hulu content at one point and tried to upgrade to their premium service.......had no feasible way whatsoever, even via VPN, because I was trying to pay with a Canadian credit card and mailed them on the topic to see if I could legally pay for it, answer was "no, it's not possible.". If people can't pay for content and watch it legally what do these corporations expect?

    I'd say it's more than socially acceptable, it's socially desirable. Many I've met who haven't got the technical means to access particular content wants to know how. That's just how it is. Companies like this and dumb bitches who complain about circumvention tactics in order to access content need to learn to deal with it by making content easily accessible for all..then, perhaps, they'll have at least one leg to stand on when soap boxing.

  18. Re:I'd like to solve the puzzle please. on How To Execute People In the 21st Century · · Score: 1

    Essentially an ancient way to kill sheep, with an anonymous guess factor thrown in for the button presser's.... not sure exactly sure what. So, the goal when executing a human is to make it so that whomever provides the approval gets to be anonymous, yet the executors (in doing their job) don't get the individual responsibility, but, who was responsible for the decision that ultimately said "execute him"? I would imagine that if you vote "Yes" to execute someone, or if some person made that decision, they would all be fully willing to flip the switch. If not, then the lack of responsibility in any of those parties should be called into question. How can you say "Execute that person" yet not be willing to execute that person yourself? Why must that be made subject to "I pressed, but don't know if it was me who ACTUALLY did the act, therefor can sleep well..." nonsense? No. If you choose to execute someone in a group or individually, be prepared to perform the act, no?

  19. Re:Sacred Geometry in action on Strange Stars Pulse To the Golden Mean · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You may like to pick up and learn something of Cellular Automata, if you're astonished by and interested in the relationships between math and nature, it may help provide some concepts that fold the two together in extremely interesting ways.

  20. Re:Hey China! on Chinese Government Takes Down Anti-Pollution Documentary "Under The Dome" · · Score: 1

    The issue isn't about burying heads in sand. People here discuss pollution daily. It's on the news, it's in the media. The premier, last Thursday, made a speech about pollution and how the gov't vows to continue fighting pollution, calling it a "blight on people's quality of life and a trouble that weighs on their hearts". There is a huge effort in China to try to curb the pollution issue, and as someone who lives here and has serious concerns about the air, I can attest to watching the AQI (US consulate sourced) in a variety of cities.. and I believe pollution is *actually* getting a little better in the last couple years compared to airpocolypses that was slamming our lungs in the past. I don't claim to know why this docu. was removed from Chinese media specifically but I would guess it has less to do with the content itself, and more to do with controlling the narrative. Rest assured, though, pollution isn't being 'hidden' from the Chinese public, it's being breathed in daily.

  21. Ancient article just rehashed on a crappy site.. on Make Those Brown Eyes Blue · · Score: 1

    This isn't "news", you can find articles stating the exact same information from like, 2011. Some due diligence please!

  22. Re:Alternate Bank of Canada Press Release on Star Trek Fans Told To Stop "Spocking" Canadian $5 Bill · · Score: 1

    In this case the "may be refused" portion could be justified under the case where security measures which are required to identify legal tender are not recognisable or have been damaged, which would be sufficient means to refuse the money as legal tender.

  23. Re:Don't do it, Snowden! on Snowden Reportedly In Talks To Return To US To Face Trial · · Score: 1

    "well, russia is a shit-hole"

    How much time have you spent in Russia? I'm guessing none.

  24. Re:Bad idea on Snowden Reportedly In Talks To Return To US To Face Trial · · Score: 1

    I think you're missing out on the whole 'public' thing. This situation is so big and so public that it would be devastating for the US gov't to try sneaky shit and get around any legal promises made.

  25. I wonder if... on Foxconn Factories' Future: Fewer Humans, More Robots · · Score: 1

    They'll have to install tamper proofing on electrical outlets everywhere to prevent the robots from committing robot suicide?