There's a decent (short) discussion of the whole 'depends how you measure it' thing here.
For the record, most structural engineers who work on very tall buildings (yes, I'm one) tend to take the view that its habitable space that matters - but having said that some large spires are accessible with observation decks and whatever so these would probably count too. There's a fair bit of difference in the amount of engineering effort required for these than for some carbon fibre mast stuck on top for bragging rights.
Also, koalas aren't bears... they're marsupials, females having a pouch in which their young first develop. Their pouch faces the rear and has a drawstring like muscle that the mother can tighten. They are the sole member of the family Phascolarctidae (and yes, it does really bug me when people call them bears).
Knowing only traditional characters you can definitely read enough to understand things written in simplified characters. Admittedly going the other way is a bit more difficult, but most people can at least get the gist of stuff.
I'm always surprised when I read stories like this on/. Here in HK 58% (as of October 2001... probably much more now) of all internet users are broadband subscribers.
Why? that's easy - choose between 3Mbps downstream speed and 256Kbps upstream for US$38/month or 6Mbps downstream speed and 256Kbps upstream for US$51/month. Theoretically you're limited to 100 or 200 hours respectively but they waive that as part of the continual promotions because the competition is so fierce.
The result? If you use the internet much you get broadband... it's become the norm. The mindset has shifted and dial-up is definitely only a legacy thing now.
My mates in Japan email me from their mobiles... none of my other friends around the world do that. I know they probably can - it just hasn't reached the critical mass this sort of thing needs to be popular.
They also send each other photos, download maps, download restaurant reviews, and play games. Frankly I'm jealous. I live in Hong Kong so we normally get this sort of thing pretty quickly, but not this.
Sure I can see the U.S. is maybe primed to overtake Europe, there was an article related to this in the Economist last week too (premium content though - can't link to it) but Japan?
Re:I guess I am too young ...
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The Last Place
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You don't actually have to try that hard to get away from it. Whenever I've been travelling in places like China or India you don't have to get far off the backpacker trail to find villages where there is no tv. The people don't seem to miss it either... then again without a tv I guess they've got no way of knowing what they're missing:)
Something I've seen enough times that it doesn't really surprise me anymore is small rural villages where nobody has a tv but there is a village computer with internet accesss. Usually set up by some Government scheme or other. I even saw this sort of thing in Iran of all places.
Installing software on (most distributions of) linux is much easier than on any other OS
This is a bit much. Installing from binaries is not much easier - ask any newbie what they dislike most about linux and they'll tell you it's the difficulty of installing new software. Dependancy hell is not fun for a newcomer to linux.
In Hong Kong the popular ADSL plans are all about the same and something like:
3Mb/s, no download limit for the 1st year (100hrs a month free after that with any additional charged at about 25c an hour): US$26/month
6Mb/s, no dowload limit for the 1st year (200 hrs a month free after that with any additional charged at about 25c an hour): US$38/month
Plus you get installation fee waived and some pretty cool toys depending on which company you sign up with. I doesn't happen very often but it definitely seems that we get a pretty good deal here as far as broadband goes.
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For the record, most structural engineers who work on very tall buildings (yes, I'm one) tend to take the view that its habitable space that matters - but having said that some large spires are accessible with observation decks and whatever so these would probably count too. There's a fair bit of difference in the amount of engineering effort required for these than for some carbon fibre mast stuck on top for bragging rights.
Also, koalas aren't bears... they're marsupials, females having a pouch in which their young first develop. Their pouch faces the rear and has a drawstring like muscle that the mother can tighten. They are the sole member of the family Phascolarctidae (and yes, it does really bug me when people call them bears).
Knowing only traditional characters you can definitely read enough to understand things written in simplified characters. Admittedly going the other way is a bit more difficult, but most people can at least get the gist of stuff.
I'm always surprised when I read stories like this on /. Here in HK 58% (as of October 2001... probably much more now) of all internet users are broadband subscribers.
Why? that's easy - choose between 3Mbps downstream speed and 256Kbps upstream for US$38/month or 6Mbps downstream speed and 256Kbps upstream for US$51/month. Theoretically you're limited to 100 or 200 hours respectively but they waive that as part of the continual promotions because the competition is so fierce.
The result? If you use the internet much you get broadband... it's become the norm. The mindset has shifted and dial-up is definitely only a legacy thing now.
My mates in Japan email me from their mobiles... none of my other friends around the world do that. I know they probably can - it just hasn't reached the critical mass this sort of thing needs to be popular.
They also send each other photos, download maps, download restaurant reviews, and play games. Frankly I'm jealous. I live in Hong Kong so we normally get this sort of thing pretty quickly, but not this.
Sure I can see the U.S. is maybe primed to overtake Europe, there was an article related to this in the Economist last week too (premium content though - can't link to it) but Japan?
You don't actually have to try that hard to get away from it. Whenever I've been travelling in places like China or India you don't have to get far off the backpacker trail to find villages where there is no tv. The people don't seem to miss it either... then again without a tv I guess they've got no way of knowing what they're missing :)
Something I've seen enough times that it doesn't really surprise me anymore is small rural villages where nobody has a tv but there is a village computer with internet accesss. Usually set up by some Government scheme or other. I even saw this sort of thing in Iran of all places.
This is a bit much. Installing from binaries is not much easier - ask any newbie what they dislike most about linux and they'll tell you it's the difficulty of installing new software. Dependancy hell is not fun for a newcomer to linux.
3Mb/s, no download limit for the 1st year (100hrs a month free after that with any additional charged at about 25c an hour): US$26/month
6Mb/s, no dowload limit for the 1st year (200 hrs a month free after that with any additional charged at about 25c an hour): US$38/month
Plus you get installation fee waived and some pretty cool toys depending on which company you sign up with. I doesn't happen very often but it definitely seems that we get a pretty good deal here as far as broadband goes.