* Posts by LaeMi Qian

320 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jul 2007

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World's oldest mum pops clogs

LaeMi Qian

Child of a single parent

I and my 2 siblings are children of a single mum, and while we turned out fine (all tertiary trained and in good jobs) my mum pretty much killed herself to get us where we are. I concur that while effective single parenting is quite possible, having two parents is definitely an advantage.

Main reason I am childless is I never managed to find someone to be a co-parent with me.

Any monkey or mouse can reproduce, /parenting/ takes time and effort - plenty of men and women that think they want to have kids just aren't up to it.

Reg reader tickled by Acer's Easy Lai

LaeMi Qian

@AC#1

The more general reason for the Chinese word-as-name syndrome is that, unlike English, many languages use actual words as names most of the time and Chinese often don't realise that common words like 'Apple' (to take a common example from my time teaching English in China) doesn't really make a good English name. (Flowers, personality attributes - in old-<strike>school</strike>church religious families - and a few uncommon-but-still-in-use words are exceptions to this rule of thumb).

Chinese names can literally translate to things like 'Snow King' without sounding the least odd in the native locales. I imagine 'Easy' could well have been a pocket-translation-dictionary guess at a translation of a local name.

My favourite direct-name-translation disaster was a student at one place I was teaching who had translated his name to 'High-man', and to be fair, even if he had tried back-translating it in that form to double-check, he would have been unaware of what it sounded like.

Police told to use Wikipedia for court preparation

LaeMi Qian
FAIL

Objection

Objection, you honour: citation needed.

Rogue Atlantis knob removed by hand

LaeMi Qian

hmmmm

Manipulating the knob with the hand. Hmmmm. :-D

LaeMi Qian
Boffin

Actually...

NASA probably put off the 'by hand' approach until all the more convoluted technical approaches had failed solely to try and avoid all the people like us making snide remarks regarding hand manipulation of knobs.

Ecopocalypse causes giant fish ears

LaeMi Qian
Boffin

The directional-sensory parts of the ear, at least

What we generally consider the 'ear bones' (the 'ossicles' AKA the stirrup, the hammer and the anvil) developed from gill support bones, I read recently. The balance mechanism is the mentioned otoliths AKA: semi-circular canals. But they are all bones in the ear, of course, so 'ear bones' fits. Just made my brain have to stretch a bit, which is never a bad thing.

I for one welcome our big-ear-boned aquatic underlords.

Great Australian Firewall to censor online games

LaeMi Qian

Ah, Australia!

Beautiful one day, [CENSORED] the next.

Man hooks home into Twitter

LaeMi Qian

Face it!

This house is probably far more interesting to follow on twitter than most of the people on there.

Safari 4: Apple's crash-happy shipper

LaeMi Qian
FAIL

Final compile

For the final compile, don't all these faceless* IT corporations flip on the --random_crashing flag? I thought it was legally required or something.

*the 'face' presented by the marketing arm don't count.

BOFH: Stick this

LaeMi Qian
Heart

For the sake of efficiency...

...use a carrot ON a stick.

Google News serves up...Wikipedia links

LaeMi Qian

WikiWikiWiki

While I find Wikipedia an invaluable resource for an overview of established technologies (eg, what features does this model of intel cpu have?; Dang I have forgotten yet again if it is the anode or cathode of the LED I connect to the positive rail?), information on contentious issues such as current (and usually historical) events are things I would /never/ use Wikipedia for!

Dinosaurs actually slimmer than we thought, say boffins

LaeMi Qian

Please Please Please

make this apply to my bathroom scales too!

:-P

Don't call me Ishmael

LaeMi Qian

My last job...

...named their servers after dictators. It was a psychiatric practice.

Lenin never would talk to Trotsky (seriously).

----

Girls, don't name your root drive in Linux after yourself!

"LaeMi has been mounted 43 times without being checked." is not so good, and "LaeMi was not cleanly unmounted, check forced." sounds a good deal worse :-(

----

Presently I am calling my home rig "System". I can't think of anything good and would rather something boring to something bad.

US city demands FaceSpaceGooHoo log-ins from job seekers

LaeMi Qian
Pirate

So we are going to have a city...

...who's entire public service is lax with their passwords?

I'd live there, yeah right!

I might consider a visit though - walk into the local council office in a severe-looking hairdo and skirt-suit and carrying a clipboard for the "annual password check" and take down their details. :-X

Zaphod Beeblebrox home sun 'shrinking', may have blown up

LaeMi Qian

Just popped in...

...to 56 LY out from BJ. Quite a pretty show. Planning to go back next year to 57 LY out and see it again.

Teens rate top tech brands

LaeMi Qian
Boffin

@Frank Bough

"Yeah, couldn't possibly have anything to do with the iPod being the best overall PMP, could it?"

iPod is an also-ran technically. Nothing wrong with them, but nothing special other than marketing. You can get same or better for less money by avoiding the marketing-driven group-think.

iPhones, OTOH do appear to be game-leaders, for now at least. Pity about the company in charge though. I rate Apple on par with Sony for anti-social corporate attitudes. (ex indi-Apple dev from the '90's, so bitterness towards the company is to be expected ;-).

Scientists design picture projection specs

LaeMi Qian

BSOD

EEeek.

Cant... see.... road.... Big... blue... box... blocking... view...

BAM-BOOM.

Bike kiosk grumbleflick shocks Spaniards

LaeMi Qian
Coat

What's the problem?

They were just advertising the town bike!

Firefox users flip out over sneak MS add-on

LaeMi Qian

Microsoft?

Sounds like some sort of anti-Viagra.

Egyptian cuts off todger to spite his face dad

LaeMi Qian

Keep in mind...

...that the cultural background is one of Martyrdom for one's beliefs (not just Islam, all the Abrahamic offshoots tend this way). This week's NewScientist has an article about how people who make a genuine sacrifice make a lasting impression on their culture. He may have cut off his own options, but he will likely make a difference for others.

Besides, if they can regularly do it to girls, (it IS the same organ, just a different developmental path) why not boys as well!

Irish politicos try to cut off call girls' mobiles

LaeMi Qian

We will eliminate 'call' girls...

...by taking away their phones. They they will be forced back to being 'street' girls. Ergo, no more 'call' girls, government strategy is a success.

While the exploitation of people in this profession is horrid, I am all in favour of allowing people who willingly enter the field to practice safely and legally. As in licensing with regular medical checks, access to law enforcement for personal protection, all the socially useful things that criminalisation stops happening.

Boffins: Ordinary lightbulbs can be made efficient, cheaply

LaeMi Qian

@Tjalf Boris Prößdorf

I swap in my collection of incandescent bulbs in late autumn and don't run heating over winter (in Australia, so winters are coldish but not cold-cold (spent several years living in Northern China where -30degC is normal winter-night temp., so a mere 10degC is almost T-shirt weather by comparison). Also let my PC do heavy video processing which I am not game to do in the summer (no AC either). My power bills are well below the national average for a comparable dwelling here.

I've been using CFLs since the late 80's. The last of the first set I ever bought is still running in my bathroom.

Fans decry tennis gal's breast-slash plan

LaeMi Qian

While I don't have the issue myself,

I know from friends that large breasts are VERY uncomfortable for any vigorous activity (well, outside the bedroom anyway) if not properly restrained.

I do feel that the poster further up is right that a sports bra manufacturer might be able to offer a less surgical solution, however in the end it is her body and career and not many people complain when a woman gets enlargement surgery for far less reason.

...

And I know plenty of guys who prefer things there a manageable proportion too. I guess they weren't put on bottle-feeding in infancy? :-P

UK2 brings support back to Blighty, culls execs

LaeMi Qian

Makes sense

Laying off a manager saves the same money as laying of several workers, and while good management is necessary to keep a business running, many seem to be rather over-managed these days.

Shifty study proclaims Brits a nation of freetards

LaeMi Qian
Boffin

"huge economic losses"

So all this money that is not being spent on purchasing legal copies of music/movies/etc. is just mysteriously vanishing into nothing? Not being spent instead in other parts of the economy at all? WOW! that is some bizarro economics you people have over there!

NASA explores 'Curiosity' for nuclear-powered Mars rover

LaeMi Qian
Thumb Up

Excellent name

kudos to Clara

Fellers at Dell ditch Della?

LaeMi Qian

The real reason Della was dropped...

...was that productivity of male Dell employees was dropping off as they weren't getting enough sleep on their couches (those that weren't sleeping in their offices out of fear to go home).

You don't sell a product by implying your target demographic is facile (even Apple, who's target demographic these days IS the facile set*, know better ).

(And my family is still under orders that anyone buying me a pink screwdriver will need a good proctologist to assist with returning it to the store :-P )

----

*Which doesn't mean all Apple users are facile: there are still a few who are desperately clinging to the '90's when Apple PCs were genuinely superior to anything else available and well worth the extra cost.

Charges against London tube tourist snapper thrown out

LaeMi Qian

I always learned...

...(from 'Junior Photography' type books - ie, photography books for kids learning to take photographs, not books about taking photos of juniors) that you should always ask permission from anyone who will be in your photo (excepting crowds or people too far away to be identifiable).

'Bolt removal issue' hits Hubble spacewalk

LaeMi Qian
Boffin

Space suits are designed to be peed in

or at least the special underwear part of the suit is.

(Well, last time I checked, which was admittedly over 25 years ago.)

Besides, I can hold 8 hours with only minor discomfort if I don't drink, though my renollogist advises against it! Kidney stones are not fun!

Next Ubuntu alpha reveals video change

LaeMi Qian
Coat

I use Kubuntu

Kubuntu Karmic Koala.

Should I start making a white pointy face-concealing hat?

(And nice to see Konqueror can finally handle this comment board again!)

SOCA: Cons' consoles causing crime

LaeMi Qian

GTA?

no comment

iPhone users to walk and read at same time

LaeMi Qian

24-inch perceptive bubble

For a long time now I have noticed that more and more people just can't seem to perceive the world around them further than a short hand-reach from themselves anymore.

Being able to bowl into them on the footpath is one of the few benefits of being quite overweight.

Being short then makes the evil stare I give them even more withering.

People who stop dead without warning in a crowded foot path are fun too. You just have to practice overriding the instinct to try and stop yourself.

What we really need is some sort of large predatory animal with very short legs. Easy to avoid by paying attention, otherwise it might take a limb or two for lunch.

Kanye West doesn't have a f***ing Twitter, OK?

LaeMi Qian
Thumb Up

Putting the C in RAP

But I thought the rant was quite good - compared to the average 14yo internet ranter it was excellent!

(There is real RAP and there is CommercialRAP (C-RAP). I only like the former, but haven't heard any since the 80's.)

Could Sadville break the internet with nakedness?

LaeMi Qian
Boffin

Appologies for posting ON-topic

I have a little little parcel in SL that is VERY adult themed.

Ironically, I have gone to so much trouble to keep the adult stuff out of the neighbors' faces that I am likely to be missed for the move, despite that I WANT to go to the adult continent.

I sell enough virtual product (mostly adult stuff) to cover my playing costs (which is all I desire - I have a day job to cover RL costs) and being located in a place where people seeking this stuff will be going rather than in some random corner of the general grid suits me very well.

And believe me: if you are into the RL equivalents of some if my SL stuff than YOU are the real saddo (plus, where the hell did you get it?)

Final note, I am spending more time on OpenSim these days anyway. SL = eWorld, OS = WWW (in the very early days).

Fanbois squeal over Mac OS X upgrade

LaeMi Qian
Alert

@James O'Brien

Eek!! I know MacOS is technically based on BSD, but....

...well, about 15-20 years back there was a movie called "Misery" about an author abducted by a psychotic fan. When he tries to escape she ties him to his bed, puts a big block of wood between his lower calves and smashes both his ankles in with a sledge hammer so he can't run off again...

...that is more-or-less what Apple has done to their "*nix" so it really irks me when people group MacOS in with the real *nixes :-(

(Having to keep MacOS desktops working on our large mixed environment also irks me - Apple spent months in our server room trying to get it right while we refused to pay them until it was. In the end they gave up and put a Windows server in 'temporarily'.)

Site schools world+dog in browsing history pilfering

LaeMi Qian
Thumb Down

Konqueror and Firefox on Kububtu

Hmmm.

Konqueror(4.2.2)'s javascript is so broken that the applet won't run properly. Security through interoperability, that is called ;-)

Firefox(3.0.10) was only giving up the sites it had been to that session (Google [ my start page] and startpanic itself).

...

A little trippy through my bookmarks menu and some random clicking off to side links from those places didn't seem to change the list of "I know everything" from the first two it displayed. So more like <Manuel>I know NOTHING</Manuel> from what I can see - I visited Google, Wowee, you can work out my whole life from that!

LaeMi Qian
Happy

W00T! Got another

After much hopping around I finally got it to acknowledge that I had been to Schlock Mercenary that session!!

Do I win a prize?

LaeMi Qian

Finally got a bit of a list up.

Boy it was an effort:

* startpanic.com

* fav Darths & Droids

* fav Schlock Mercenary, the Online Comi...

* fav Home of Gibson Researc...

* fav LinuxDevices.com -- All About Linu...

* fav Compare prices - Australia - Pric...

* fav The Register: Sci/Tech News for th...

* fav AnandTech: your source for hardwar...

* fav Science news and science jobs from...

* fav Virtual worlds, avatars, 3D chat, ...

* fav Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tes...

That is from visiting over 50 sites: it is VERY hit-and-miss! I am very much wondering just what the criteria is for a site to be stored in such a way that it can be read out of the history cache while others are not?????

2060: Humvee-sized, bulletproof meat-eating spiders attack

LaeMi Qian
Thumb Up

Strewth! What a bunch of pommy wimps!

Here in the land down-under we wrestle things bigger and stroppier than that for light exercise.

I think we will leave the north to the widdle spidies and just wrestle the buggers that make it across the equator. Serves you lot right!

Australia - if something cold-blooded isn't trying to kill you, you haven't got there yet!

Pig plague 2.0: Can't spell 'pandemic' without 'panic'

LaeMi Qian
Alert

Was in China for SARS

Bit of a non-event. In the end, CARS still killed two orders of magnitude more people during the 'epidemic'.

It was pleasant to walk around without the usual crowds, though. And always getting a seat on the bus.

Swine flu apocalypse: Batten down the hatches

LaeMi Qian
Pirate

over 100 dead!!

Call me when it is over 100 Million.

Even if it takes out 1/3 of humanity there is likely still twice as many people left as the planet can sustain.

I scored two whole loaves of bread left over and abandoned in the storeroom from last Friday's work BBQ so I am well-supplied for the coming apocalypse.

(Okay, it is 1:35 in the morning here and I am tired but can't sleep :-/)

Big boost for Aussie firewall

LaeMi Qian
Unhappy

Wow!

OptusNet access became so slow and unreliable about 2 moths ago that I had assumed they had already joined.

Scots to pioneer remote sex via glowing ring

LaeMi Qian
Alert

Awaiting the first instance of...

...announcing intention of divorce via Mutsutogo.

Pirate Bay server becomes museum artefact

LaeMi Qian
Pirate

So does this mean...

...that the museum will be connecting it to the internet to continue its famed function?

Student sentenced for F-ucked up grade hack

LaeMi Qian

@ Adam Williamson

Well, if a uni/college gives out undeserved high grades, it doesn't take employers long to catch on and then the university's name is mud. Quality applicants drop and you are left with a student base predominantly like those featuring in the article. Sponsorship/research funding/grants/bequeaths drop off to match. Even a hint of such from a story like this can make money move down the road to the next uni.

And the deserving students who went through just before the uni went down find themselves considerably undervalued at job interviews for the next several years until they can let their academics drop off the bottom of their CVs.

(Sorry for going on, I spent most of this decade trying to explain to Chinese universities why graduating by quota rather than ability wasn't doing the country, the universities or ultimately the students a favor).

NASA rover resurrected twice over Easter weekend

LaeMi Qian
Happy

a VERY good life

Hmmm. Live 20 times my expected lifespan and explore an alien world.

Keep holding in there little rovers, you have the best job in the worlds!

Wolverine leak claims first victim?

LaeMi Qian
Flame

@If no one bought crap films

"If no one bought crap films the studios would soon wake up and stop churning out shite..."

should read:

If no one bought crap films the studios would blame the internet for their inability to make money 'entertaining' the public.

Ad watchdog gives thumbs up for female TV orgasms

LaeMi Qian
Stop

Women having orgasms?

Wouldn't that imply that they are enjoying it? Shock! Horror! The world will fall apart if women realise they are allowed to enjoy sex. Everyone knows only prostitutes have orgasms because they are the only women who enjoy their sex.

Oh wait, that was the 19th century!

Can't get a job? Try plastic surgery

LaeMi Qian

Thank goodness...

...my present employer was explicitly looking for the older won't-be-intimidated-by-the-users types.

MS blames non-Redmond apps for security woes

LaeMi Qian

I'd tend to agree

The vast majority of grief I get at work (IT field-support for a university) is caused by crap 3rd-party MS-Windows programmers who don't understand that MS users DON"T always have (or even want) administrative privileges. That and 3rd-rater programmer hacks that haven't realised that MS-Windows has supported multiple users since the turn of the century.

At least in the Linux world we publicly ridicule at programmers who expect users to run as root or try to store their prefs in /bin directories.

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