I wouldn't worry about China. There are millions of Indonesians on overcrowded islands just to the north of Australia. They would love to come on down for a visit, maybe stay awhile.
Thus, you should purchase 5 times less games, since you'll be so busy and unable to consume the same number of games as movies. I can watch 4 movies over the course of a weekend, who has time for 4 new video games?
Christ, Google Suggest has been around for all of 8 days now. It was released December 10, and is a Google Labs project, which according to the website "showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time."
Homer: "Hey, what are all these holes?" (points at bullet holes in car hood)
Car salesmen: "These are speed holes. They make the car go faster."
Homer (impressed): "Oh yeah, speed holes.
I don't know - George Carlin and Lenny Bruce come to mind. They'd be far funnier if they'd have had the good sense to die when they were popular, instead of becoming parodies of themselves in later life.
Craftsman tools are for the casual user. You won't find professional tools at Sears, much like you won't find high-end audio equipment or advanced PC motherboard diagnostic hardware.
I found a old, rusty Craftsman wrench in a ditch once. I took it to Sears, and I had a brand-new wrench. Not to mention a school district I used to know that would take its Craftsman tools in every 2-3 years and get new ones. It's all about what the end-user desires.
Sigh...ancient urban legend. See snopes.com for the usual debunking. The TV show "West Wing" recently reported this hoax as true, so probably more people believe it now.
A regular pencil creates lots of graphite dust, which is a big problem in zero gravity. It gets into computer gear and creates short circuits.
If the Russians have great space tech, said tech is surely not in use on aircraft. Russian air service has the worst safety record of anything not in Africa.
No arguments on the Russians being able to competently crash their space station.
The Antonov was used because it's the biggest aircraft in the world. The right tool for the right job.
I have a sneaking suspicion you have an alternate life as a USENET troll with a radical Russian nationalist agenda. A bonus for avoiding ALL CAPS to make your points.
I'm overseas, and I talk to my family with voice (to avoid paying $$$ long distance) and video for family gatherings. Sure, I could use NetMeeting, but for the fact that it doesn't play well with firewalls. Yahoo Messenger and MSN "just work". What's Gnomemeeting? I looked on the web page, and there's a notice apologizing for a disk crash, the webserver was sloooow, and what other software does it work with? What the heck is H.235 Annex D. support? I don't think Mom and Dad are going to be installing linux just to talk with me.
The only thing crashing and burning around here is your non-hilarious sense of humor. Ever see the neighbor guy in "Raising Arizona" try to tell the Polish joke?
The Russian stuff is simple not out of philosophy, but because they're forced to make do with whatever is availible. Sure, the heli will fly, but does it have radar, GPS, IFF, air conditioning, redundant controls, and other modern comforts? I sure as hell wouldn't fly on a Russian aircraft.
The Canadaian example is sad...though it's entirely due to the gov't underfunding their military and not buying new helis to replace the ancient Sea Kings. Used to be, the Canadian Forces punched far about their weight class. These days, they've atrophied so far, I don't know if they can recover.
Here in China, Lenovo makes crappy laptops. I played with one in a store, and it was scary. Lightweight breakable plastic, the foldable hinge looked like it could break at any moment, and I could have peeled off the trim with my fingernail. I don't want to think what the insides looked like. They weren't even particularly cheap, $1100 for the entry-level model.
The worst part is that Chinese business culture will now dictate IBM's PC business. In other words, if they cut corners and ship a crappy product, it's your fault for not detecting it. They don't feel a shred of shame for doing things like this, hell, I should know.
In my experience, people who leave the US generally do it for adventure and more money than they'd make at home. But like I said, they're rational, unlike your foaming, ranting thoughts that tell far more about yourself than you let on.
Attributing positive attributes like "enlightened" to being liberal is the worst kind of liberal elitism.
The fellow Americans I've met (and it ain't been too many) tend to be businessmen instead of backpackers, and of course they're far more rational and worldly in their viewpoints, than idealistic and leftist.
Mandarin is indeed the lingua franca of China. It was a big shock to me, when I took my translator 60 miles from where she lived, and she said she couldn't understand the local language there. An hour's drive! Besides, I handwaved dialect issues away.
And no, I don't live anywhere near Hong Kong. Only went there once for 3 days a month ago, for a visa run. I live in a medium-sized city in the mainland.
The polylingual aspect of Europe is a negative, for sure. I've worked overseas for 2 years now in Japan and China, and let me tell you having a large country with one language (don't get me started on dialects) is a big positive.
I looked in to working in Europe, and gave it up. Asia is a far better business environment. Basically, to work in Europe, you have to be a rich expat type, with executive housing lined up, saunas and squash courts, the whole expat package. It's not something that you can just decide that you want to do, and get a plane ticket. Not saying it can't happen, but Asia is far more accepting of, ahem, "pedestrian" types such as myself.
Jeez, get off the cross already. I've been overseas for two years, and it's incredibly rare for me to have a negative reaction because I'm an American. The negative reactions fall into two categories of people: uneducated working men who think that I set U.S. government policy and want to chastise me about it, and university professors who think that I set U.S. government policy and want to chastise me about it.
Besides, this conversation is about Europe...Australia isn't Europe, but hey that's no reason not to run off at the mouth with a political rant about the biased U.S. media (FWIW, I agree with you that they're liberally biased).
Slashdot Mirror
You can't write to an RFID tag, the data is burned in.
I wouldn't worry about China. There are millions of Indonesians on overcrowded islands just to the north of Australia. They would love to come on down for a visit, maybe stay awhile.
Oh, I don't believe I just said that on slashdot.
A movie is $10/unit. A video game is $50/unit. Let's divide your numbers by five and then talk.
Christ, Google Suggest has been around for all of 8 days now. It was released December 10, and is a Google Labs project, which according to the website "showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time."
Or how about if the project becomes popular and successful. It kicks off development in the area, and soon becomes surrounded by new buildings.
Homer: "Hey, what are all these holes?" (points at bullet holes in car hood)
Car salesmen: "These are speed holes. They make the car go faster."
Homer (impressed): "Oh yeah, speed holes.
I don't know - George Carlin and Lenny Bruce come to mind. They'd be far funnier if they'd have had the good sense to die when they were popular, instead of becoming parodies of themselves in later life.
I found a old, rusty Craftsman wrench in a ditch once. I took it to Sears, and I had a brand-new wrench. Not to mention a school district I used to know that would take its Craftsman tools in every 2-3 years and get new ones. It's all about what the end-user desires.
The new, hot buzzword oxymoron for 2004 is "journalistic ethics".
The Olympics are the same way. For some time now, the Olympic Games have not been about who is the best athlete, but who is the best chemist.
A regular pencil creates lots of graphite dust, which is a big problem in zero gravity. It gets into computer gear and creates short circuits.
No arguments on the Russians being able to competently crash their space station.
The Antonov was used because it's the biggest aircraft in the world. The right tool for the right job.
I have a sneaking suspicion you have an alternate life as a USENET troll with a radical Russian nationalist agenda. A bonus for avoiding ALL CAPS to make your points.
I'm overseas, and I talk to my family with voice (to avoid paying $$$ long distance) and video for family gatherings. Sure, I could use NetMeeting, but for the fact that it doesn't play well with firewalls. Yahoo Messenger and MSN "just work". What's Gnomemeeting? I looked on the web page, and there's a notice apologizing for a disk crash, the webserver was sloooow, and what other software does it work with? What the heck is H.235 Annex D. support? I don't think Mom and Dad are going to be installing linux just to talk with me.
The only thing crashing and burning around here is your non-hilarious sense of humor. Ever see the neighbor guy in "Raising Arizona" try to tell the Polish joke?
The Canadaian example is sad...though it's entirely due to the gov't underfunding their military and not buying new helis to replace the ancient Sea Kings. Used to be, the Canadian Forces punched far about their weight class. These days, they've atrophied so far, I don't know if they can recover.
Q: Why do they only drink Sprite at NASA?
A: Because they can't get 7-Up!
And the Challenger didn't go up, it went down. Fuck dude...get it straight. The Iraqi Information Minister's second cousin was more funny than you.
Eh? Never used AOL, but MSN and Yahoo Messenger have video and voice chat, and they work just fine (for varying definitions of "fine").
They got video and voice chat working with these "open" standards yet? Nope? Well, then it's useless to me.
The worst part is that Chinese business culture will now dictate IBM's PC business. In other words, if they cut corners and ship a crappy product, it's your fault for not detecting it. They don't feel a shred of shame for doing things like this, hell, I should know.
In my experience, people who leave the US generally do it for adventure and more money than they'd make at home. But like I said, they're rational, unlike your foaming, ranting thoughts that tell far more about yourself than you let on.
The fellow Americans I've met (and it ain't been too many) tend to be businessmen instead of backpackers, and of course they're far more rational and worldly in their viewpoints, than idealistic and leftist.
Mandarin is indeed the lingua franca of China. It was a big shock to me, when I took my translator 60 miles from where she lived, and she said she couldn't understand the local language there. An hour's drive! Besides, I handwaved dialect issues away.
And no, I don't live anywhere near Hong Kong. Only went there once for 3 days a month ago, for a visa run. I live in a medium-sized city in the mainland.
I looked in to working in Europe, and gave it up. Asia is a far better business environment. Basically, to work in Europe, you have to be a rich expat type, with executive housing lined up, saunas and squash courts, the whole expat package. It's not something that you can just decide that you want to do, and get a plane ticket. Not saying it can't happen, but Asia is far more accepting of, ahem, "pedestrian" types such as myself.
Besides, this conversation is about Europe...Australia isn't Europe, but hey that's no reason not to run off at the mouth with a political rant about the biased U.S. media (FWIW, I agree with you that they're liberally biased).