Actually, going by your US/JP example, it may be causing problems. WiFi channels go up to 11 in the States, but Japan goes up to channel 14, which may be locked out of US firmware because the FCC prohibits the use of channels 12-14 for whatever reason. This may be why Sony complained somewhat when people in the US downloaded JP firmware to their PSPs. For that matter, a US laptop could also be breaking Japanese wireless regulations. For example, in Japan it's illegal to use 802.11a outdoors (and the manual that came with my import laptop stated as much- to avoid breaking the law I have turn off 802.11a while outdoors) while I'm sure the US doesn't have such a regulation.
Weren't you already directed to Edimax (and given a US-based address to contact about purchasing from them, too) the first time you asked?
USA Branch Office
Edimax Computer Company
3350 Scott Blvd., Bldg.15 Santa Clara, CA 95054
TEL : 1-408-496-1105 FAX : 1-408-980-1530
sales@edimax.com
If that's not enough of a push in the right direction, then there may be other issues.
Plane trips are the reason for the PSP battery to last longer than 6 hours per charge. Of course, most people where I live (China) don't complain about battery life, but then again, they all run games off of memory stick (with games priced at $50 each I don't blame them or me- I used to have a PSP before I got a DS Lite so I was one of those people) so the disk drive isn't used at all. Heck, if my laptop (Panasonic Let's Note/Toughbook T5- finally upgraded from that VAIO) can last 15 hours on a standard battery (up to 21 hours with an additional battery) so should something like the PSP.
You just wait- Chinese people will hack Vista to make non-DRM content work the way it was meant to or they will all dump Vista and go to a system that supports what they are trying to do.
I hope you don't mind anything you do gets ripped and sold there for pennies
Gee, like the way the US takes advantage of cheap Chinese labor? What goes around comes around.
Exactly- the story games are what drove me to get a DS (the only good story game for the PSP is based off someone's blog- then again, said blog also got turned into a TV show and the blog is still up at http://yugure.ameblo.jp/ but I went off on a tangent there) especially Phoenix Wright which I played in Chinese (yay for fan translations) but wanted to support its further development for the US market. The non-games are especially helpful- I have a Korean and Japanese dictionary for the DS as well as a cookbook for the DS. Everyone seems to like the PSP better where I live, though- I'm the only person in my school with a DS (well, there are a couple of Indonesian students with DSes but they let them gather dust after they got PSPs) and even the teachers have PSPs. Of course, I'm in China so this may be because of the "pirate" culture here (when you buy a PSP here the store selling the PSP downgrades it for you and download the ISOs of your choice to the system to play) which makes a PSP cheaper to own as opposed to the DS (where people still have to buy a flash cartridge). I wish I had a PSP now though- LocoRoco and Katamari in particular are the reasons (as well as Densha de Go but I can get that for the Wii).
Do you mean the "real" Toughbooks or do you mean the Let's Note series (the silver ones)? for that matter, why did they call the Let's Note laptops Toughbooks in the US?
I actually agree with this. America would be lots better if Bush and the movie/recording industry execs were forced into Russia (certainly a better use for them than they're doing now). One tip, though- I write like that when I'm up at 2AM in the morning after a busy day. Maybe it would help to wait until you're more refreshed (a cup of coffee/tea/caffiene drink would work too) to post here. Your opinion is appreciated, though.
I wonder too. It's really just a Gamecube controller with a keyboard in the middle (imagine a keyboard with half the Gamecube controller attached to each end- that's what it looked like) so it should work... I wonder if anyone's tried?
I could have sworn that that was what the USB ports on the PS2 were for, and I have seen a keyboard for Gamecube too (ahh, if you only knew what else didn't leave the shores of Japan). I can't say about the Xbox, though.
You're right- for the longest time DS and PSP games were freely available off of some Chinese gaming forums because the genuine article is far too expensive ($50 per game- PSP and DS games are the same price). This doesn't apply everyhwere, though- World of Warcraft uses a pre-paid system here- you pay depending on how long you play the game, so a $3.50 card could give you 20-odd hours, I think (I haven't checked, since I don't play it, but I know people in school who do- they told me that's how it was) so if you don't play a lot it's a lot cheaper than a fixed monthly fee (of course, you have to log on to Chinese servers but that's not a problem for a school in China, even if it is an international school). CDs, on the other hand, have no reason to be pirated. The genuine article is definitely priced to move reasonably in the market (legitimate CDs cost at most $10 here in China, and are usually around $5-7, but I still don't buy from RIAA-affiliated labels) so the people buying pirated CDs don't have a leg to stand on. Well, I'm being hypocritical- I bought pirated CDs often when I couldn't find what I wanted. J-Pop is so hard to find legitimately in China unless you're looking for Ayu or someone with similar international recognition, like BoA, and even then, they put on this DRM that only allows the CD to be transferred to MiniDisc and played back on PC with a player. (I wonder what the public response in the US would be if Sony Music used what they used here in China for its US market?) I'm going to be glad to be out of China, if only for my viewpoints, but I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts.
Note- this was posted at 2AM local time where I am so if it's somewhat incoherent, I apologize.
Exactly- if I had a choice I'd be running Linux, since when I tried it before it worked like a charm... well, if I stayed offline and did nothing but work with OpenOffice and fool with photos. Wireless LAN was troublesome to work with (the first few bootups it worked great- then for whatever reason it wouldn't recognize the wireless card anymore) and sound refused to work. That was Knoppix Live-CD. I keep that live-CD around, if only because sometimes I want to browse some...sites of ill repute... and don't want to be infected with viruses (I keep rebooting if it doesn't recognize the wireless card- it does eventually).
They're too used to dealing with things the Chinese way- you have to yell and swear at them until they cave (or bring the media down on them- that works quite well here in their native market). For that matter, here it's possible (and almost customary) to haggle on prices for things like that (if you can't get a discount on that fridge, get some free stuff thrown in) so if you got it at full price you were probably taken for a ride.
The joy of pirated DVDs- 0-region so it reads on anything (well, sometimes it gets stuck in the drive because of a couple of imperfections, but a paper-clip hook will pull it out of the slot just fine).
Oh yes- woodchips. I went to an elementary school that used woodchips in its playground. I liked it at first (it was easier to clean out from my shoes than sand) but I grew to hate it. First, the splinters, then I played on the parallel bars and fell off them while hanging upside-down- head trauma, nosebleed and several splinters (oh, and woodchips up the nose=pain).
Nope, I'm seeing this just fine. Of course, my school also gets unrestricted internet- it's just a matter of "getting friendly" with the right people- they'll route your internet around the Great Firewall (or make sure that your proxy server of choice outside the country is fast and stays up).
Slashdot Mirror
Nope- your post is still there.
Actually, going by your US/JP example, it may be causing problems. WiFi channels go up to 11 in the States, but Japan goes up to channel 14, which may be locked out of US firmware because the FCC prohibits the use of channels 12-14 for whatever reason. This may be why Sony complained somewhat when people in the US downloaded JP firmware to their PSPs. For that matter, a US laptop could also be breaking Japanese wireless regulations. For example, in Japan it's illegal to use 802.11a outdoors (and the manual that came with my import laptop stated as much- to avoid breaking the law I have turn off 802.11a while outdoors) while I'm sure the US doesn't have such a regulation.
Weren't you already directed to Edimax (and given a US-based address to contact about purchasing from them, too) the first time you asked? USA Branch Office Edimax Computer Company 3350 Scott Blvd., Bldg.15 Santa Clara, CA 95054 TEL : 1-408-496-1105 FAX : 1-408-980-1530 sales@edimax.com If that's not enough of a push in the right direction, then there may be other issues.
As someone already said, try TP-LINK. Pretty much everything they sell should be supported.
Plane trips are the reason for the PSP battery to last longer than 6 hours per charge. Of course, most people where I live (China) don't complain about battery life, but then again, they all run games off of memory stick (with games priced at $50 each I don't blame them or me- I used to have a PSP before I got a DS Lite so I was one of those people) so the disk drive isn't used at all. Heck, if my laptop (Panasonic Let's Note/Toughbook T5- finally upgraded from that VAIO) can last 15 hours on a standard battery (up to 21 hours with an additional battery) so should something like the PSP.
Wildlife refuse
Is this the place where deformed animals are put to rest?
You just wait- Chinese people will hack Vista to make non-DRM content work the way it was meant to or they will all dump Vista and go to a system that supports what they are trying to do.
I hope you don't mind anything you do gets ripped and sold there for pennies
Gee, like the way the US takes advantage of cheap Chinese labor? What goes around comes around.
They're not leeching off of the rest of the world- they offer cheap manufacturing to the rest of the world.
Exactly- the story games are what drove me to get a DS (the only good story game for the PSP is based off someone's blog- then again, said blog also got turned into a TV show and the blog is still up at http://yugure.ameblo.jp/ but I went off on a tangent there) especially Phoenix Wright which I played in Chinese (yay for fan translations) but wanted to support its further development for the US market. The non-games are especially helpful- I have a Korean and Japanese dictionary for the DS as well as a cookbook for the DS. Everyone seems to like the PSP better where I live, though- I'm the only person in my school with a DS (well, there are a couple of Indonesian students with DSes but they let them gather dust after they got PSPs) and even the teachers have PSPs. Of course, I'm in China so this may be because of the "pirate" culture here (when you buy a PSP here the store selling the PSP downgrades it for you and download the ISOs of your choice to the system to play) which makes a PSP cheaper to own as opposed to the DS (where people still have to buy a flash cartridge). I wish I had a PSP now though- LocoRoco and Katamari in particular are the reasons (as well as Densha de Go but I can get that for the Wii).
Do you mean the "real" Toughbooks or do you mean the Let's Note series (the silver ones)? for that matter, why did they call the Let's Note laptops Toughbooks in the US?
or use rice (which I hear is far more entertaining).
I actually agree with this. America would be lots better if Bush and the movie/recording industry execs were forced into Russia (certainly a better use for them than they're doing now). One tip, though- I write like that when I'm up at 2AM in the morning after a busy day. Maybe it would help to wait until you're more refreshed (a cup of coffee/tea/caffiene drink would work too) to post here. Your opinion is appreciated, though.
I wonder too. It's really just a Gamecube controller with a keyboard in the middle (imagine a keyboard with half the Gamecube controller attached to each end- that's what it looked like) so it should work... I wonder if anyone's tried?
I could have sworn that that was what the USB ports on the PS2 were for, and I have seen a keyboard for Gamecube too (ahh, if you only knew what else didn't leave the shores of Japan). I can't say about the Xbox, though.
You're right- for the longest time DS and PSP games were freely available off of some Chinese gaming forums because the genuine article is far too expensive ($50 per game- PSP and DS games are the same price). This doesn't apply everyhwere, though- World of Warcraft uses a pre-paid system here- you pay depending on how long you play the game, so a $3.50 card could give you 20-odd hours, I think (I haven't checked, since I don't play it, but I know people in school who do- they told me that's how it was) so if you don't play a lot it's a lot cheaper than a fixed monthly fee (of course, you have to log on to Chinese servers but that's not a problem for a school in China, even if it is an international school). CDs, on the other hand, have no reason to be pirated. The genuine article is definitely priced to move reasonably in the market (legitimate CDs cost at most $10 here in China, and are usually around $5-7, but I still don't buy from RIAA-affiliated labels) so the people buying pirated CDs don't have a leg to stand on. Well, I'm being hypocritical- I bought pirated CDs often when I couldn't find what I wanted. J-Pop is so hard to find legitimately in China unless you're looking for Ayu or someone with similar international recognition, like BoA, and even then, they put on this DRM that only allows the CD to be transferred to MiniDisc and played back on PC with a player. (I wonder what the public response in the US would be if Sony Music used what they used here in China for its US market?) I'm going to be glad to be out of China, if only for my viewpoints, but I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts.
Note- this was posted at 2AM local time where I am so if it's somewhat incoherent, I apologize.
*Western* Europe. Not Ukraine/Poland/whatever, more like UK/France/Germany/whatever.
Exactly- if I had a choice I'd be running Linux, since when I tried it before it worked like a charm... well, if I stayed offline and did nothing but work with OpenOffice and fool with photos. Wireless LAN was troublesome to work with (the first few bootups it worked great- then for whatever reason it wouldn't recognize the wireless card anymore) and sound refused to work. That was Knoppix Live-CD. I keep that live-CD around, if only because sometimes I want to browse some ...sites of ill repute... and don't want to be infected with viruses (I keep rebooting if it doesn't recognize the wireless card- it does eventually).
They're too used to dealing with things the Chinese way- you have to yell and swear at them until they cave (or bring the media down on them- that works quite well here in their native market). For that matter, here it's possible (and almost customary) to haggle on prices for things like that (if you can't get a discount on that fridge, get some free stuff thrown in) so if you got it at full price you were probably taken for a ride.
In HK would have it been so much trouble to cross the border and get some region-free DVDs?
The joy of pirated DVDs- 0-region so it reads on anything (well, sometimes it gets stuck in the drive because of a couple of imperfections, but a paper-clip hook will pull it out of the slot just fine).
Oh yes- woodchips. I went to an elementary school that used woodchips in its playground. I liked it at first (it was easier to clean out from my shoes than sand) but I grew to hate it. First, the splinters, then I played on the parallel bars and fell off them while hanging upside-down- head trauma, nosebleed and several splinters (oh, and woodchips up the nose=pain).
They do use the same symbol to represent their currencies, though.
you catching up with North Korea
Great... I'm DEFINITELY not staying in China for college- back to the States the first chance I get.
Nope, I'm seeing this just fine. Of course, my school also gets unrestricted internet- it's just a matter of "getting friendly" with the right people- they'll route your internet around the Great Firewall (or make sure that your proxy server of choice outside the country is fast and stays up).