Shouldn't they be pleased? That's exactly what the Japanese ended up doing to a lot of folk. So in a weird sense of justice, it is only fair that they had to endure that. The atomic bombs were too much, even for a nation full of unrepentant war criminals.
Just because somebody is poor does not make them trash. Even if you want to be an elitist there are less offensive ways to state the same thing without paiting yourself like an asshole.
Actually what Amazon is doing amounts to driving out the competition and there are several anti-dumping laws in place to deal with those issues. Just because it is a well known brand as opposed to some nameless Chinese factory does not make it right. Monopolies are not good.
The whole NYC metro system is something I really cannot understand about the US. I haven't visited the whole world but NY city metro is by far the worst I have been, starting with the dirty station that includes God knows how many rats and the old equipment. Hell there are places in Latin America that have better stuff. Sure it has a lot of coverage and works 24/7 but either everybody else is doing something extraordinary or I don't know what's the deal.
So now seeing this whole 'debate' about whether to use articulated cars is like watching a discussion about the merits of the wheel to improve transportation. They really need to invest heavily into the system, especially in a city like NY where millions depend on the subway as their primary mean of transportation.
Venezuela? Dude you should really go over there, there are shortages of toilet paper as we speak. Whenever I hear such remarks is when I realize is that the menace to the world is not only the US government, but people like yourself as well. And that is a far bigger threat than the Iranians getting nukes or some crazies killing each other in the Middle East.
In Spanish it is called America where is the confusion comes from. Remember that after all the whole thing is named after Americo Vespucci. I think the main issue here is that people in the British colonies referred to them as Americans to differentiate from Europeans, while the Spanish and Portuguese parts of the continent referred themselves as From The Indies, or criollos (creoles). Either way, Europeans in the Americas liked to say they were more pure and that brought a lot of social friction that still remains in Latin America mostly.
Amen to that, being a non-US citizen I truly feel disconnected from what the US keeps doing. To the point where I am working my ass off to learn how to run everything myself (email,web, etc) using Debian/OpenBSD. And this is coming from a guy who had a US flag with a painted Harley in his room as a teenager.
The fall of the Soviet Union and 9/11 changed the US in a truly bad way. It is kind of like the same story of every monopoly, after they reach total control it is like the beginning of the end. Kind of like what happened with Ancient Rome and Alexander the Great.
Reading your post I cannot fail but realize that the terrorist behind 9/11 actually won. They have screwed American politics so bad into this fear everybody mentality that now what the US govt is doing feels like a time bomb waiting to explode.
A lot of people abuse the American system, from people on food stamps to Mexicans crossing the border, people with student visas that end up staying over there, etc, etc. The fact that Americans are doing a lot of business in China render your point invalid. Because if you don't like them, why do you keep investing over there? Hollywood is spending big on China, with massive advertising. All this hatred towards China coming from America is truly disturbing, especially so after you spend some time in China, and realize that most Chinese would like to be friends with America. Sometimes I honestly feel like telling them, don't get so excited, deep down they kind of hate you over there.
You have never been to Hong Kong it seems. Totally different place than mainland China, not only because of Cantonese, but also extremely fast internet with no internet filtering, cool movies and very cheap prices. I know a lot of people in Shanghai that travel over there just for shopping. Hell you actually need a different visa to get over there so I don't know why you think the Chinese government changed Hong Kong somehow.
Google Play was a joke in China even before it was cancelled. It didn't allow you to buy any goods, just use the free crap, and more importantly, in China there are dozens of Android app stores, even stores provided by phone manufacturers like Lenovo or Xiaomi or phone carriers like China Unicom, and some of them are way better than Google Play when you are here (granted you need to know Chinese).
Google started acting like a bully since they really couldn't penetrate the Chinese market, with the likes of Baidu dominating the market. Hell, even Yahoo was better positioned before they decided to pull out, and even them were not in the same league as providers like 126/163.com, Tencent, etc. So there is nothing heroic about what they did, just sheer stupidity or what did they think? that they were going to create massive demonstrations because people didn't have access to Google? It's funny that after all the Snowden revelations the Chinese government is actually looking a lot more wiser with some of these apparently absurd decisions.
Also the Chinese have been very protective about their market when it comes to blocking foreign companies for whatever reason. Apple and Microsoft have been very smart by complying with all the rules and regulations. Because in the end of they day you can complain all you want about China, but it is their country, so you should really abide by their rules or get out.
Look at it this way, with all the money you are saving on Microsoft licenses you can hire yourself a real Linux guru, and this person you hire will accept natural spoken language as commands so you don't have to deal with criptic stuff or scripts and what not. Way better than what Active Directory does. That way you don't have to worry about administering the systems, will save a lot of money, look good with the boss, and by the time everybody realizes that you have been too lazy to catch up with technology you will be up for retirement, so they will probably keep you around for staying out of trouble. Win-win.
It seems I'm the only one but I feel the change of those icons is horrible. Flat design might be ok for windows, etc, while the blur and other effects are cool, but the fonts are thinner and even when you use the Bold option in accessibility, it still doesn't read as good as it read before. I guess with a shiny Retina display it is awesome, but for an iPad mini it doesn't work extremely well. I really can't wait until the industry hit The Next Big Thing TM and focus away from flat design. It might be cool for some things but I really dislike all that white space in stuff like the new Office in Windows 8 and the Setting and Mail app on iOS7.
I had an old iphone 3g and noticed those slowdowns as well with the new OS updates but to say that they were forced to you proves you are nothing but a troll. To this day I can still use my iphone 3g just fine, and the battery will still work if I turn 3G off. If anything what made me upgrade was that certain third-party apps were refusing to install in the version of iOS I have.
Which is way Assange's case is so hilarious. The US is blaming a foreigner for breaking US laws and trying to get him extradited. And the weirdest part is that the breaking the law was just acting like a newspaper.
This, until Google does that all they are trying to be is try to appear like the good guys. It would be really bad for the US govt if major corporations start moving operations overseas so they cannot be forced into stuff like that.
Another solution is to have major datacenters in each region, but legally they would be independent of each other. That way only the local governments get to mess with their own traffic.
I'm with you regarding the fact that you would lose some info. But I do not believe that homophones would be such a big issue as you make them to be. In fact, it is easier to learn with pinyin, even if you are native speaker before moving to Chinese characters. Plus you always have stuff like the word music and Coca-Cola (the Cola part) that render any advantage of each character per symbol totally useless. For example: (music) (cola), you have the same character in the end but the first one is "yin yue" while the second one is "ke le". I really would like to see the logic in stuff like that, and I'm close to being in China for 1 year already doing intensive Chinese.
After living here you realize that the Chinese have a strong work ethic is because everything is extra hard for them. They need to learn Roman characters and pinyin and Chinese characters and English and Chinese AND their freaking dialect. I'm sorry but I still consider that to be screwed up and a waste of time.
I don't know about the reading part since I'm still not fluent in Chinese, but I can totally back up the claim that Chinese (characters, etc) takes longer to learn than your average Western language. And it is also true that as far as computers go, with the Wubi input method you can write stuff faster than the equivalent systems in the West, even if it is a bitch to learn (again, you type with the radicals of the characters).
Exactly my point. The Koreans said at some point, screw all this nonsense, let's simplify it and to be honest Korean is a wonderful language, easy to learn and characters that are easy to recognize as well.
Maybe if the language wasn't so difficult it would see more widespread adoption. I honestly believe that the Chinese should switch to some sort of romanization like pinyin, even if it does not have100% of what the Chinese characters provide. I understand the heritage and cultural proudness of having your own characters, but that way you still keep your language, and second you don't waste vauable time thhat can be used to learn something else. Chinese atm is like a legacy programming language with lots of ancient functions that can make the code messy. Learning the radicals, stroke sequences and others on top of all the tones is absurd to me.
But hey, if somebody can make a counterpoint I will be happy to debate.
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Shouldn't they be pleased? That's exactly what the Japanese ended up doing to a lot of folk. So in a weird sense of justice, it is only fair that they had to endure that. The atomic bombs were too much, even for a nation full of unrepentant war criminals.
Just because somebody is poor does not make them trash. Even if you want to be an elitist there are less offensive ways to state the same thing without paiting yourself like an asshole.
Actually what Amazon is doing amounts to driving out the competition and there are several anti-dumping laws in place to deal with those issues. Just because it is a well known brand as opposed to some nameless Chinese factory does not make it right. Monopolies are not good.
The whole NYC metro system is something I really cannot understand about the US. I haven't visited the whole world but NY city metro is by far the worst I have been, starting with the dirty station that includes God knows how many rats and the old equipment. Hell there are places in Latin America that have better stuff. Sure it has a lot of coverage and works 24/7 but either everybody else is doing something extraordinary or I don't know what's the deal.
So now seeing this whole 'debate' about whether to use articulated cars is like watching a discussion about the merits of the wheel to improve transportation. They really need to invest heavily into the system, especially in a city like NY where millions depend on the subway as their primary mean of transportation.
Venezuela? Dude you should really go over there, there are shortages of toilet paper as we speak. Whenever I hear such remarks is when I realize is that the menace to the world is not only the US government, but people like yourself as well. And that is a far bigger threat than the Iranians getting nukes or some crazies killing each other in the Middle East.
I would really like to know which state of the US you are from since you have reached a level of stupidity I haven't seen in a while.
Care to show any proof of such ramblings?
In Spanish it is called America where is the confusion comes from. Remember that after all the whole thing is named after Americo Vespucci. I think the main issue here is that people in the British colonies referred to them as Americans to differentiate from Europeans, while the Spanish and Portuguese parts of the continent referred themselves as From The Indies, or criollos (creoles). Either way, Europeans in the Americas liked to say they were more pure and that brought a lot of social friction that still remains in Latin America mostly.
Jesus, no micropayments for WoW, that would ruin the game. We have enough with the gold sellers already.
Amen to that, being a non-US citizen I truly feel disconnected from what the US keeps doing. To the point where I am working my ass off to learn how to run everything myself (email,web, etc) using Debian/OpenBSD. And this is coming from a guy who had a US flag with a painted Harley in his room as a teenager.
The fall of the Soviet Union and 9/11 changed the US in a truly bad way. It is kind of like the same story of every monopoly, after they reach total control it is like the beginning of the end. Kind of like what happened with Ancient Rome and Alexander the Great.
Reading your post I cannot fail but realize that the terrorist behind 9/11 actually won. They have screwed American politics so bad into this fear everybody mentality that now what the US govt is doing feels like a time bomb waiting to explode.
A lot of people abuse the American system, from people on food stamps to Mexicans crossing the border, people with student visas that end up staying over there, etc, etc. The fact that Americans are doing a lot of business in China render your point invalid. Because if you don't like them, why do you keep investing over there? Hollywood is spending big on China, with massive advertising. All this hatred towards China coming from America is truly disturbing, especially so after you spend some time in China, and realize that most Chinese would like to be friends with America. Sometimes I honestly feel like telling them, don't get so excited, deep down they kind of hate you over there.
You have never been to Hong Kong it seems. Totally different place than mainland China, not only because of Cantonese, but also extremely fast internet with no internet filtering, cool movies and very cheap prices. I know a lot of people in Shanghai that travel over there just for shopping. Hell you actually need a different visa to get over there so I don't know why you think the Chinese government changed Hong Kong somehow.
Jesus, you should try to hear yourself. What a tool.
Google Play was a joke in China even before it was cancelled. It didn't allow you to buy any goods, just use the free crap, and more importantly, in China there are dozens of Android app stores, even stores provided by phone manufacturers like Lenovo or Xiaomi or phone carriers like China Unicom, and some of them are way better than Google Play when you are here (granted you need to know Chinese).
Google started acting like a bully since they really couldn't penetrate the Chinese market, with the likes of Baidu dominating the market. Hell, even Yahoo was better positioned before they decided to pull out, and even them were not in the same league as providers like 126/163.com, Tencent, etc. So there is nothing heroic about what they did, just sheer stupidity or what did they think? that they were going to create massive demonstrations because people didn't have access to Google? It's funny that after all the Snowden revelations the Chinese government is actually looking a lot more wiser with some of these apparently absurd decisions.
Also the Chinese have been very protective about their market when it comes to blocking foreign companies for whatever reason. Apple and Microsoft have been very smart by complying with all the rules and regulations. Because in the end of they day you can complain all you want about China, but it is their country, so you should really abide by their rules or get out.
That was a brutally honest post. If you don't like the law, deal with the lawmakers, not with people obeying the laws.
Look at it this way, with all the money you are saving on Microsoft licenses you can hire yourself a real Linux guru, and this person you hire will accept natural spoken language as commands so you don't have to deal with criptic stuff or scripts and what not. Way better than what Active Directory does. That way you don't have to worry about administering the systems, will save a lot of money, look good with the boss, and by the time everybody realizes that you have been too lazy to catch up with technology you will be up for retirement, so they will probably keep you around for staying out of trouble. Win-win.
It seems I'm the only one but I feel the change of those icons is horrible. Flat design might be ok for windows, etc, while the blur and other effects are cool, but the fonts are thinner and even when you use the Bold option in accessibility, it still doesn't read as good as it read before. I guess with a shiny Retina display it is awesome, but for an iPad mini it doesn't work extremely well. I really can't wait until the industry hit The Next Big Thing TM and focus away from flat design. It might be cool for some things but I really dislike all that white space in stuff like the new Office in Windows 8 and the Setting and Mail app on iOS7.
I had an old iphone 3g and noticed those slowdowns as well with the new OS updates but to say that they were forced to you proves you are nothing but a troll. To this day I can still use my iphone 3g just fine, and the battery will still work if I turn 3G off. If anything what made me upgrade was that certain third-party apps were refusing to install in the version of iOS I have.
Which is way Assange's case is so hilarious. The US is blaming a foreigner for breaking US laws and trying to get him extradited. And the weirdest part is that the breaking the law was just acting like a newspaper.
This, until Google does that all they are trying to be is try to appear like the good guys. It would be really bad for the US govt if major corporations start moving operations overseas so they cannot be forced into stuff like that.
Another solution is to have major datacenters in each region, but legally they would be independent of each other. That way only the local governments get to mess with their own traffic.
I'm with you regarding the fact that you would lose some info. But I do not believe that homophones would be such a big issue as you make them to be. In fact, it is easier to learn with pinyin, even if you are native speaker before moving to Chinese characters. Plus you always have stuff like the word music and Coca-Cola (the Cola part) that render any advantage of each character per symbol totally useless. For example: (music) (cola), you have the same character in the end but the first one is "yin yue" while the second one is "ke le". I really would like to see the logic in stuff like that, and I'm close to being in China for 1 year already doing intensive Chinese.
After living here you realize that the Chinese have a strong work ethic is because everything is extra hard for them. They need to learn Roman characters and pinyin and Chinese characters and English and Chinese AND their freaking dialect. I'm sorry but I still consider that to be screwed up and a waste of time.
I don't know about the reading part since I'm still not fluent in Chinese, but I can totally back up the claim that Chinese (characters, etc) takes longer to learn than your average Western language. And it is also true that as far as computers go, with the Wubi input method you can write stuff faster than the equivalent systems in the West, even if it is a bitch to learn (again, you type with the radicals of the characters).
Exactly my point. The Koreans said at some point, screw all this nonsense, let's simplify it and to be honest Korean is a wonderful language, easy to learn and characters that are easy to recognize as well.
Maybe if the language wasn't so difficult it would see more widespread adoption. I honestly believe that the Chinese should switch to some sort of romanization like pinyin, even if it does not have100% of what the Chinese characters provide. I understand the heritage and cultural proudness of having your own characters, but that way you still keep your language, and second you don't waste vauable time thhat can be used to learn something else. Chinese atm is like a legacy programming language with lots of ancient functions that can make the code messy. Learning the radicals, stroke sequences and others on top of all the tones is absurd to me.
But hey, if somebody can make a counterpoint I will be happy to debate.