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User: Yuan-Lung

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Comments · 157

  1. scam? on EVE Player Loses $1,200 Worth of Game Time In-Game · · Score: 1

    It would sounds like a scam in most other settings...

    You pay for 6 years of golf club membership, but if you lose a game with your membership card on you, your card will be canceled with no refund.

    Not that I ever played the game or know its lingo, but why would anyone link account subscription onto in-game items that can be destroyed in the course of the game?

    Then again, maybe they are trying to be a casino... you lose your chips and you can gtfo.

  2. Re:NOT the most disgusting form of human imaginabl on Child Porn As a Weapon · · Score: 1

    You can't look at them if they aren't taken genius.

    So those people that 'can't help it' and 'just look', are very much dependent on those that actually molest children, and take photos of it.

    There is no distinction, you can't just look without perpetuating the other.

    That is sound if all we are talking about are actual photos taken from molested subjects. However, when you start factoring animations, drawings, or literature, as in, written words, it starts to become beyond absurd.

    Writing about murders in crime dramas certainly doesn't land the writers in jail, nor does it convict the producers with actual murder, so why should writing/drawing about underage sex be any different?

  3. Re:On a rail and not on The Bus That Rides Above Traffic · · Score: 1

    "Is this on a rail or not?"

    Yes. At least, from what I understand through the translated text, the bus could run both on a rail (for maximum energy efficiency) and also like a bus, using video tracking technology to follow white lines on the pavement. Although, I think I'd prefer a human driver instead.

    Actually, according to the video in TFA, there is a human driver.

  4. Re:Publish it on Piratebay instead on ATM Vendors Threaten, Stop Research Presentation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why would he be in trouble? It's not illegal to speak or publish your thoughts.

    Really?

    I am thinking of a number.... it's between 13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,639 and 13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,641

  5. Re:Can You Spot the Difference? on Bill Gates's New Version of the Einstein Letter · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe, or then again, it could just be a westerner with his heart set to demonize China no matter what the facts maybe. Maybe bitter because his job was outsourced.

    Growing up in the tiny island of Taiwan I was taught through out my school year to regard the Chinese communists as the "commie bandits of 10,000 evils".... but that does prevent me from seeing how much China has progressed in the past few decades. The zomgzlolwtfbbqgreencard used to be synonymous with a pass to the garden of Eden, no longer has that much draw. In fact, with the recent economic boom in China and the decline in America, many Asian immigrants in the west have moved to China for opportunities. Their government actually is offering some nice intensives for talents to 'return to the motherland', and people are taking the offer. Besides, as the US Freedom(TM) getting raped and eroded day after day, the human right gap is becoming much smaller than it was 20 years ago. You can keep siting cultural revolution and Tienanmen over and over, but the fact is, those horses are deader than dead, yes they are significant historical lessons, but there is not much use keep beating on them trying to milk more propaganda mileage


    So don't kid yourself that you can cause a mass exodus of top scientists just by dangling a green card over them. Like many things this day and age, a big wad of bank notes would likely fare much better.

  6. Re:Rectifying interference with more interference? on Gulf Oil Spill Disaster — Spawn of the Living Dead · · Score: 1

    I've tried everything from simple salmon-on-some-rice to squid tentacles.

    Would you conclude all hamburgers are bad from eating every kind of burgers in McDonald's and Wendy's?

    I am not saying everyone should love sushi, just trying to point out, even the simple salmon/tuna, there can be massive difference depending on what you are getting from where. IMHO, anything made from farmed Atlantic salmon should go straight into a can of cat food, or just into the can. Albacore tuna is just a slimy and tasteless mess. However, I would never say no to a piece of properly made nigiri sushi topped with blue-fin tuna or wild sockeye salmon (although, both are now close to depletion).

  7. Re:And does it wash well? on Smart Underwear Designed For Military · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure about the wisdom of putting expensive "smarts" into a garment that gets changed/washed a lot. Wouldn't it be better as a belt?

    That was my first thought as well. Wouldn't it be better to not have electronics in your laundry? A detachable waist band/arm band/strap would have been much logical... unless of course, the point is to collect vital data without the knowledge of the wearer....

    Or maybe the military don't change them as often.

    apperantly...

  8. Re:What about Official English? on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 1

    (granted, there's an element of tone to pronunciation that gives some hints about which version of the word you mean)

    Which was why I specifically said written.. As a native Chinese speaker, the spoken tones are meaningful clues to me. They are not present, however, in written form. So the kanji do offer valuable clues. Also, while it's possible to tell the difference in context sometimes, other times, it just can't be deciphered without the kanji... -_-;

    It's even worse when it's written in romaji, where you may get things like a "n" followed by a kana from the first row....

    FYI, kau as in "to buy" starts with a low pitch and goes up, and kau as in "to raise" starts with a higher pitch and goes down.

  9. Re:Impractical - Obsolete on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 1

    It's not really modifying a character set. We are talking about character that were originally use prior to the 1960s, but were taken out of school curriculum as "commonly used kanji". They are just adding them back to the list of "you need to write these out as kanji in an exam".

    The current font set actually already contain them anyways and many people already recognize them (based on discussion on slashdot.jp).

  10. Re:Worst Languages Ever on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 1

    Why don't you add a set for every god damn fonts while you are it, Mr. Einstein?

    Because, dufus, while a different font only offer a variation of the same set of basic shapes, a different case actually is a very different shape. Then the cursive is yet another very different set. This may not be obvious for those who learned the letters very young and have not yet started teaching their young ones, but it's very obvious to those who learned English later on in life of are observing young children learning the alphabet.

  11. Re:What about Official English? on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 1

    Kanji are words, they're just words whose "spelling" is entirely unrelated to their pronunciation.

    It depends. Chinese characters are constructed in a number of ways, one group does contain pronunciation cues.
    Also, they are NOT words. Especially not the way they are used in Japanese. It takes a combination of kanji or kanji and kana to form a word.

    Hiragana or Katakana are the equivalent of English letters, and nobody's suggesting that those ever change.

    Except English contains irregular spelling variations and lots more pronounceable sounds. So there are many fewer homophone and they can be differentiated in writing. This is not the case if you were to write Japanese without kanji... they can be damn confusing.

  12. Re:What about Official English? on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not really, Kanji have "ON" and "KUN" readings. One is for full words, others is to mix with other kanjis and make other words. Forgot which is which, but in many cases kanji can serve the same use as kana.

    Onyumi is the original pronouciation of the Chinese character. Usually used for proper names and nouns. Kunyumi is when the character retrofitted into a Japanese word, usually used as verbs. They don't really 'serve the same use as kana', Using the proper kanji instead of spelling it out with kana provides more definition, but hides the pronunciation.

  13. Re:What about Official English? on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 1

    I'll try to say this as simply as possible:

    The characters *are* words.

    Not exactly. They are NOT equivalent to words. they can be, and often are complex, but ambiguous in meaning, unless used in groups.

    This article provides some basic idea.

  14. Re:Worst Languages Ever on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 1

    Really, why have three sets of script/alphabet/glyphs?

    Says the the person typing in a language using at least 4 sets. {capital, lower case}x{printed, cursive}

  15. Re:You can use katakana on Official Kanji Count Increasing Due To Electronics · · Score: 2, Informative

    As a non-Japanese-speaking-person-who-watches-anime-and-stuff I've always wondered why they have both (well, several) writing systems. They have katakana, and Kanji, and sometimes Kanji with furigana to help with pronunciation. Is it just because it takes less space to write in Kanji? Kind of like how we abbreviate things?

    Actually, 3 systems:

    • hiragana, which are based on cursive Chinese characters; used as phonetics to spell out words in native language
    • katakana, which are based on partial Chinese characters; used to spell out foreign words
    • kanji, Chinese characters integrated into the Japanese language; used as names, nouns or the root of verbs.

    IMO, Kanji are used partly due to the fact that Japanese has a limited set of pronounceable sounds (~70) which creates many ambiguous situations. Writing the kanji root out instead of having bare hiragana helps to remove some of that ambiguity... So it's actually the OPPOSITE to abbreviation as it provides more accurate information.

    Also there are those who consider it more 'elegant' as it's a time-consuming process to lean and use kanji, and even more time consuming to write them with elegance. (something even many Chinese people are struggling with).

  16. Re:BBQ? on Steak-Scented Billboard Entices Drivers · · Score: 1

    Canadian bacon is ham. >_>

    Not exactly... You are thinking of US made "Canadian style bacon".. -_-;


    Up here it's a lean cut from the loin, sweet pickle cured, rolled in peameal (hence the alt name: peameal bacon) or more often nowadays, corn meal. It it NOT smoked.

  17. Re:Solution? on 2 In 3 Misunderstand Gas Mileage; Here's Why · · Score: 1

    I don't know if changing the units will help much ..

    It's a bit more than a mere unit change. Going from MPG, which is a distance/fuel, to a fuel/distance gives you the inverse. This way ,to figure out fuel consumption/fuel saved, rather than a division, you are doing a multiplication, which is much more intuitive for most people. The numbers are even directly comparable in a linear fashion.



    an example:
    Fuel saved over a 200 mile trip going from 10MPG to 20MPG:

    (200miles / 10MPG) - (200miles / 20MPG) = 20 gallons - 10 gallons = 10 gallon.

    Fuel saved over a 200km trip going from 15L/100km to 10L/100km:

    200km * 15L/100km - 100km * 10L/100km

    but because of the calculation being multiplication now, most can now easily perform this in their heads:

    200km * (15L/100km - 10L/100km) = 200km * 5L/100km = 10L

  18. Re:Bluff City is south of Bristol Motor Speedway on Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain · · Score: 1

    The difference with eating butter and salt is that the only person it's going to kill is you..

    Really? Tell that to this boy.

    more examples.

  19. Re:May be missing the point of the patent system on Human Gene Patent Challenged In Australian Court · · Score: 1

    "they write the patent so it loosly covers anything that might interact with that gene to alter or manipulate its function"

    Maybe I should patent the nerves on the penis and clitoris, and collect a fee whenever someone try to manipulate those....

  20. Re:"You're doing it wrong." on How To Go Broke Selling Zero-Day Exploits · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Selling vulnerabilities == little money"

    Are you sure about that?

    I know of a certain company in Redmond that sold vulnerabilities in bulk packages. They seem to be doing alright.

  21. Prior Art... on Apple Seeks Patent On Operating System Advertising · · Score: 1

    That reminds me of the good old Windows messenger service pop-up ads.... Microsoft is probably is a good position to contest this pattern.

  22. Sounds familiar... on Schooling, Homeschooling, and Now, "Unschooling" · · Score: 1

    Doesn't sound so bad... as long as the kid has had the essential basic such as reading and arithmetic. It's actually what I did my entire junior high period where I self studied computer science during the nights and slept in school during the days.. pretty much in protest in the teaching method and some useless content of the regular classes.

    My teachers back then pretty much referred to as 'a failure that will never amount to anything'. Then the Internet boom came....


    Although, the child's own drive to learn would be paramount to this method of education. Some guidance and support from the parents whenever needed would probably be nice too.

  23. convenience on What Do You Do With a Personal Domain? · · Score: 1

    What do non-bloggers do with their personal domains?"

    Nothing spectacular.. just little convenience tools here and there:

    • most of all, easy-to-use names instead of memorizing/typing out the IPs of my network and those of my friends.
    • creating email aliases so I can have custom addresses for each thing I sigh up. So that I turn them off when the address gets sold to spammers
    • centralized depository of little utilities I often find myself needing to use on remote PCs
    • for sharing photos and home videos with the family.
    • a place to put my ebooks, organized to my liking on a simple list, so I can access them easily on my mobile devices when I get bored on a bus
    • posting little pictures in forums, because most free image hosting places are too fussy for me.
    • simple forums for friends and family
  24. What about.... on Study Shows Cocaine And Other Drugs In Spanish Air · · Score: 2

    downtown Vancouver?


    I kinda wonder how much of the 'good stuff' is in our air..

    Sometimes I get a bit of a buzz just walking down the street after work to the bus stop.

  25. Re:why not feed your chinese silk worms with on For Super-Tough Spider Silk, Just Add Titanium · · Score: 4, Informative

    titanium enriched bugs and stuffs.

    Because, the primary diet for silkworms are mulberry leaves.