robot_dave: March 2010 Archives

"The West has religion, and we Chinese used to have a value system of glory and shame," Zhou Xiaozheng , a sociology professor at Renmin University, said. "However, we have reached an age where people will do anything as long as it's profitable, or brings wealth. There is no longer a sense of shame ... This is a worrying trend."

The expatriate mother who sent out the e-mail that went around Hong Kong falsely claiming two Chinese women tried to abduct a boy in Ocean Park admitted yesterday she got her facts wrong after picking up the story in a bar on Saturday night.

If you own a GSM phone then there are several codes that can be entered to tell the network how to handle incoming calls and more. These codes are not really considered secrets, but they are poorly documented by service providers.

Chrysler says all-electric Fiat 500 will carry Americans, American Touristers in 2012

A growing number of American businesses feel unwelcome in mainland because of what they see as discriminatory government policies and inconsistent legal treatment, according to a survey released on Monday.

So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk. Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.

And this, in the simplest terms, explains the deficit phobia of Wall Street, the corporate media and the right-wing economists. Bankers don't like budget deficits because they compete with bank loans as a source of growth. When a bank makes a loan, cash balances in private hands also go up. But now the cash is not owned free and clear. There is a contractual obligation to pay interest and to repay principal. If the enterprise defaults, there may be an asset left over--a house or factory or company--that will then become the property of the bank. It's easy to see why bankers love private credit but hate public deficits.

Joyce and Heaney, Beckett and Wilde, Bill O’Herlihy, Dunphy and Giles, Evans, Hewson, Mullen and Clayton, Westlife and Jedward the pride of our nation!

"Americans have every right to be angry at us," Google spokesperson Janet Kemper told reporters. "Though perhaps Dale Gilbert should just take a few deep breaths and go sit in his car and relax, like they tell him to do at the anger management classes he attends over at St. Francis Church every Tuesday night."

Most importantly for Ireland, Mr Fitzgerald raises the fundamental issue of accountability. It would be nice to be able to dismiss his perception that the Irish elite has little interest in taking responsibility for its actions and inactions. He is, unfortunately, right. There is precious little evidence that those at the top in the banks, in government or in the wider nexus of business and politics really understand the idea of being answerable for the disaster they caused.

Allowing employers to dip into MPF accounts at will like this is madness. It negates the whole point of having a pension fund, which is supposed to be to provide for workers' old age.

Americans are historically a tough lot. But the policies and rhetoric of the Bush-Cheney years, which set the tone for the current GOP attacks, are infantilizing: be very afraid, we're told, and let the government take care of you. The tough-guy bluster has led to a permanent state of anxiety—and a slew of counterproductive policies, from harsh visa restrictions to waterboarding. Our politicians rail about apocalyptic threats while TSA officers pat down toddlers at the airport. The irony is that many potentially lethal terror attacks—from United Flight 93 to Richard Reid to the underwear bomber—have been foiled by regular citizens. The aim of terrorists is to make people feel powerless and afraid. Un-fortunately, not every plot will be foiled. But if that's the standard we and our leaders set for ourselves, we are doomed to perpetuate dumb policies that flow from irrational fears. Just what the terrorists want.

In 2008, 14,180 Americans were murdered, according to the FBI. In that year, there were 34,017 fatal vehicle crashes in the U.S. and, so the U.S. Fire Administration tells us, 3,320 deaths by fire. More than 11,000 Americans died of the swine flu between April and mid-December 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; on average, a staggering 443,600 Americans die yearly of illnesses related to tobacco use, reports the American Cancer Society; 5,000 Americans die annually from food-borne diseases; an estimated 1,760 children died from abuse or neglect in 2007; and the next year, 560 Americans died of weather-related conditions, according to the National Weather Service, including 126 from tornadoes, 67 from rip tides, 58 from flash floods, 27 from lightning, 27 from avalanches, and 1 from a dust devil.

I was trying to update the BIOS of an old ECS K7SOM+, a 1 Ghz-era AMD Athlon motherboard. The problem is that I don't use Windows/DOS nor do I use floppies. Fortunately, there's UNetbootin, a tool design specifically to make bootable USB flash drives from Linux. Here are the general instructions:

4000 AD is a unique game of strategy set two thousand years in the future, when men have spread to the planets of other stars hundreds of light-years from the earth. An interstellar conflict between worlds is its subject. The concept of star travel by hyper-space is the basis of its unique playing character. 4000 AD is pure strategy of movement, with no chance element. Two to four players may play independently or in alliance with others.

4000 AD is a science fiction game set 2000 years into the future. Players maneuver fleets of ships in an attempt to conquer the known galaxy.