A Fuzzy Philosopher

Healthy Appreciation

2012-01-30T00:19:00.000-06:00

Someone just asked me to elaborate the quote in the blog description.

WANDERING BETWEEN SIN AND DISCIPLINE,
WHAT I CAN DO IS MERELY TO LOOK AROUND AND LINGER ON IN VANITY FAIR.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--- FOREVER AND EVER

According to the Bible, men are born with sin and tend to fall. On the other hand, discipline is enforced through laws and education for men to resist the desire to sin. That's the world we live in. I don't mean to judge or change something, simply taking it easy and staying externally or internally in the vanity fair until the end of the world.

Pretty Christian, huh? Well, not really. I'll tell you what.

In Taiwan, Taoism dominates, teaching people to harmonize with the nature while Buddhism enlightens us to achieve inner peace without reliance on any external entity. In the US, there are more Christians than ever enthusiastically telling me stories in the Bible. As an agnostic, I never deny the positive meanings conveyed in the religions but barely sit with healthy appreciation of everything in a position beyond faith and disbelief.

Ways to Convert a Web Page into Kindle 3 Format

2011-03-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

When it comes to converting a web page for reading on Kindle 3, PDF is not always desirable. Though in general web content is reflowable and resizable, images and tables are not the case. For example, a typical Wikipedia page containing mathematical formulas and tables would get trimmed if the output page size is set for Kindle 3. That's why it's wise to choose MOBI instead of PDF as the output format since the images and tables could retain their size while their detail could be viewed by zooming out locally.

There are several ways for conversion from a web page into Kindle 3 format. However, none of them are perfect so far.

Instapaper is capable of converting all the articles for you to read later into a single Kindle 3 periodical. It's useful for reading casual passages but not desirable for referring to and organizing specific articles on the Kindle 3 since every periodical has the same title so that you need to open it to find where the article is.
UPDATE: Calibre has a built-in recipe to fetch the unread list in text view with images retained. which seems like the most favorable solution so far for converting general web pages.
Calibre does this job almost perfectly in terms of image quality and table structures compared to Kindlepedia and Instapaper ~~even if some scientific notations like nested superscripts and subscripts are not well-converted~~. It's better to save the printable version of the web page for import.
UPDATE1: nested superscripts conversion has been fixed in the latest release.
UPDATE2: saving web pages with built-in web2disk can convert html anchors to relative links.
dotEPUB is easy to use as a browser extension, plugin or bookmark. They would preprocess the web page into a readable form using Readablility and then transform the intermediate into an epub file for downloading. Unfortunately, the readable form may unexpectedly eliminate the desirable images and tables. Besides, you had better download kindlegen by Amazon to convert the epub into mobi for Kindle to avoid the limitations of Calibre above.
The perfect way is to copy the web page into a word processor like Google docs which is able to send the manually edited and formatted content as an RTF attachment to your Kindle email account for conversion while the scientific notations are retained but extra effort is required.

Overall, there seems no perfect and efficient method for converting web pages so far. The key is whether it could make the content readable without losing necessary information while getting the conversion done accurately. Maybe a future color Kindle with a full-featured browser and modern note-taking extensions could simply blow away the obstacles.

Convert absolute HTML anchors to relative ones for the Kindle

2011-02-08T19:24:00.000-06:00

If you've ever tried to save and convert an entry from Wikipedia to the format MOBI for the Kindle, you would find the links of the table of content still point to internet addresses so that the web browser would be invoked to open the specified page on click. This is circuitous! Fortunately, a command-line tool "web2disk" bundled with Calibre does the conversion.

prompt:~$> web2disk -r 0 [-d DIR] http://example.url

You can optionally specify the argument DIR for the base directory to save the downloaded materials. Anyway, the saved web page should have the absolute anchors converted. Subsequently, invoke Calibre to convert it to the desired output format as usual. That's all.

Kindle 3 Replacement

2011-02-08T12:35:00.000-06:00

Due to unexpected pressure, the screen of my kindle 3 got broken. Well, to be specific, I just heard something behind the screen crack and then the screen never displays appropriately.

I must say the EInk screen is not as strong as LCD. The vulnerability should be taken care of especially. Thanks to Amazon's instant customer service, a new replacement is delivered in only 5 days. The books purchased have to be downloaded again from the archives. Direct transfer from the old one doesn't work. While the collections is retained, personal documents require manual effort. Besides the broken screen, there are still other problems such the painting on the 5-way button which is peeled off after several months' use and a weird rattle inside. By and large, this is a desirable replacement. Even though there may be some e-readers made by vendors in China or Taiwan with lower prices than the Amazon Kindle 3, they hardly promise an instant replacement. Due to the vulnerability of the EInk screen, the warranty should deserve higher consideration than anything else.

Steps to request a replacement:

keep the Kindle registered to your Amazon account
contact Amazon Customer Service on the phone
state the problem instead of the cause
provide the account ID, shipping address, and credit card number
after confirmation, wait for the email containing a pre-paid shipping label for return within 30 days
there will be an order of the replacement placed in your account within 24 hours or so

NOTE:

the couriers of the return and the replacement may differ
both have tracking numbers
「Reset to Factory Defaults」restores the system and erases the storage

Alternative book light for Amazon Kindle

2010-11-20T13:02:00.000-06:00

meets!?

While Kindle 3 has a significant price cut, the Kindle Lighted Leather Cover appears to cost an arm and a leg. There are many book lights designed for the Kindle family with the idea of attaching the device. However, a more decent light source and flexibility could be achieved if the attachment is not forced. Take the above tripod flashlight for example, it accepts three, six or nine batteries of size AA depending the needed continuous run time which ranges from 50 to 200 hours. Thanks to the tripod, a desirable position is no longer hard to find for the light source to lodge and the Kindle can keep lightweight gracefully. Nonetheless, the most amazing news is its dirty cheapness compared to the official lighted leather cover. What's more, there is no excuse leaving Kindle absent in outdoor activities like camping.

Shot in front of a mirror with only 3 LEDs on.

A closer look at the text.

The bottom line

pros

using 3, 6 or 9 batteries of size AA
decent light with 3 LEDs and 6 LEDs at maximum
adjustable light head at an angle of more than 90 degrees
easy positioning
no need to attach a Kindle

cons

a little heavy for about 300g or more with 3 batteries of size AA installed
hard to read a Kindle while walking

Unfavorable issues for Kindle 3 to Browse Chinese Web Pages and Documents

2010-09-15T10:52:00.000-05:00

After using Kindle 3 for several weeks, I found some annoying issues when browsing Chinese web pages and converting Chinese documents.

First, some Chinese characters are displayed as boxes under particular circumstances. I mean, the same Chinese character is shown correctly somewhere while as a box somewhere else.

▲The Chinese character「說」is shown correctly and incorrectly as a box in the same web page.

Another example demonstrates this problem only occurs on some specific characters such as 說, 閱, 另. Amazon online personal document conversion service also fails to address this issue which can be verified by creating a MS Word file with "說閱另" as its only content and "說閱另.doc" as the filename ,and then sending it to Amazon for conversion as well as delivery to Kindle 3. Both the filename and content would be displayed as boxes on Kindle 3. It is revealed that the Chinese font provided by Kindle 3 seems no problem but the procedure of handling the Chinese character encoding has some troubles.

Second, lots of Chinese characters in a web page would go broken eventually after a large number of screen text replacements.

▲after dozens of screen text replacements, Chinese characters start to break.

▲Things could get even worse and worse.

▲Nothing has chances to recover.

▲Zooming to another scale looks like a temporary fix but actually starts the next broken cycle.

The web page loads a chapter of text from a fiction at first and then splits the chapter text into pages. Readers can go to the next page by pressing the space bar so as to cause the screen text to be replaced with the next page without loading another web page. The web interface design works fine but after dozens of screen text replacements, the Chinese characters start to break as the above diagrams show. The situation goes worse and worse. The only way to recover is to restart the system since the browser can not be started again manually after running. Though zooming to another scale seems able to recover the characters, it basically begins the next cycle leading to broken characters. The problem pertains to Kindle 3 since it never occurs on an LCD screen like iPhone. Moreover, ghosting and faint remnants of from the previous screen text appear more quickly than a general English web page after merely two or more times of screen text replacements. The phenomenon can not be captured by pressing Shit+Alt+G.

By and large, the problems dissected here should be addressed as soon as possible because they harm the readability seriously and permanently. Otherwise it's a shame for Kindle 3 to claim support for Chinese characters as its selling point which is not usable as expected in reality.

UPDATE

the first problem seems able to be solved by typing the following commands on the home screen:
;debugOn
~changeLocale zh-TW.utf8
;debugOffThere are two types of fonts in Kindle 3 to show non-Latin characters. However, neither of both are perfect. The one used under the default Kindle 3 locale "en-US.utf8" is bolder but fails to render most traditional or simplified characters so as to show boxes. The other font type is complete and used after the locale is changed to "zh-TW.utf8" but not dark or bold enough. For the browser, the former is used for the title while the later is used for the content under the default locale. That's the reason behind I guess.

Amazon Kindles my Life (3rd generation)

2010-09-01T05:51:00.000-05:00

Taiwan time at 12:27 on August 27, 2010, while my cell phone was ringing due to a short message informing the credit card was charged NT. 7300 dollars or so, and I knew Amazon was ready to kick off the shipment.

Then less than 12 hours, my Kindle 3 was submitted to the hands of DHL, indicating the launch of the official shipment.

Date	Time	Location	Event Details
August 30, 2010	10:59:00 AM	TAIPEI Ta	Delivered
August 30, 2010	09:04:00 AM	Taipei TW	Out for delivery
August 30, 2010	07:49:00 AM	Taipei TW	Arrival Scan
August 30, 2010	12:51:00 AM	Taipei TW	Departure Scan
August 30, 2010	12:47:00 AM	Taipei TW	Arrival Scan
August 29, 2010	11:37:00 PM	Taipei TW	Completed customs clearance process
August 29, 2010	11:12:00 PM	Taipei TW	Arrival Scan
August 29, 2010	05:52:00 PM	Hong Kong HK	Departure Scan
August 29, 2010	05:28:00 PM	Hong Kong HK	Arrival Scan
August 29, 2010	04:45:00 PM	Hong Kong HK	Completed customs clearance process
August 29, 2010	04:41:00 PM	Hong Kong HK	Arrival Scan
August 28, 2010	05:57:00 AM	Cincinnati Hub OH US	Departure Scan
August 28, 2010	05:42:00 AM	Cincinnati Hub OH US	Arrival Scan
August 27, 2010	08:42:00 PM	San Francisco Gateway	Departure Scan
August 27, 2010	07:59:00 PM	San Francisco Gateway	Arrival Scan
August 27, 2010	04:56:00 PM	Sparks NV US	Departure Scan
August 27, 2010	04:56:00 PM	Sparks NV US	Arrival Scan
August 27, 2010	11:20:00 AM	Sparks NV US	Shipment received by carrier

Tossing and turning not too long, on August 30, sooner after running into a Kindle 2 in the morning during the mass rapid transportation, the Kindle 3 had been delivered to my house. I had no chance of witnessing and even signing the alleged affidavit for importing goods. Moreover, as for the tariff, as long as the original order was placed with the Import Fees Deposit prepaid, there’s no need to worry about it. If the tariff is not actually charged, the fees will be returned. No one needs to compensate even if the duty charges more than expected. That’s the courteous treatment a consumer buying a Kindle 3 deserves.

Appearance

▲ Instructions shows in the state of shutdown without an additional printed guidelines.

▲ Volume control, headphone, microphone, micro USB port and power slide bar from left to right.

▲ When purchasing, please remember to select the U.S. version which comes with the white option and the US power adapter applicable in Taiwan. "International Shipment" is to facilitate the users to buy a non-US power adapter with discounts. Both versions are basically the same.

▲ As a rule, all Kindles start from here.

▲ It’s courtesy for the CEO to attach his signature.

▲ After booting, the first thing is to thank customers, very basic but easily forgotten.

▲ Not only a dash of pedantry but also more leisure are exposed via the monthly fee-free 3G access.

▲ Landscape mode looks pretty good.

▲ The 3G data module is manufactured by AnyDATA DTP-600W, supporting 3.6Mbps DL and 384Kbps UL. Surfing Internet is such a trifle that there’s no need to bother setting on Kindle 3.

▲ In a residential area near the Taipei Veterans General Hospital, continuously testing the 3G connection speed produces fairly stable results.
▲ Compared with laptops, Kindle 3 with Atheros AR6102G installed fails to reach the expected wireless transmission performance. Over a line of bandwidth 10M/1M, only half of the bandwidth or so is fulfilled. To make matters worse, performance degrades easily along with the increase of the distance from the wireless station or some other obstructions.

▲ Successive tests, though not satisfying but acceptable.
Internet Surfing
Maybe it’s stimulated by Nook that Kindle 3 finally equips a Webkit-based browser, making Internet surfing no longer tasteless and leading to a perfect comensalism with the monthly fee-free 3G roaming.

▲ iGoogle, a typical web page filled with Javascript and AJAX, is displayed with little effort.

▲ The current browser does not support opening new windows. A expedient alternative is to directly enter the URL.

▲ Sure enough, the full version of GMail works as desired but the mobile version is more efficient in practical uses.

▲ Google Maps aerial photographs are displayed fully, but Street View is missing because of the lack of Flash plug-in.

▲ In addition to PDF and Amazon’s proprietary formats, ebooks in the cloud are also a piece of cake for Kindle 3 to read.

▲ Simplified Chinese characters may not show properly in the form of boxes on the title bar.

▲ Google Books mobile version might be better for practical use.

▲ Awesome on Kindle 3.

▲ Apart from e-books, how could Google Reader be absent on Kindle 3?

▲ Google Reader mobile version and Kindle 3 are simply a perfect match.

▲ While eslite bookstore is good to read, Kindle 3 is much better for reading.

▲ Since AJAX is no problem, Javascript menu works fine for sure.

▲ Read without facebook? No way!

▲ Time to Plurk.

▲ Classic Chinese novels rendered in the vertical text direction.

▲ Kindle 3 layouts with ease, leaking no trace of disorder.

▲ Finally, of course, don’t forget to return to Mobile01 to linger on.

▲ No matter how many images are in a web page, Kindle 3 is able to display the whole.

▲ Some elements unrelated to the content in a web page are inevitably eyesores. It’s time for Kindle 3 to switch on the Article Mode.

▲ More readable to the eyes.

▲ Unfortunately, the Article Mode can not be applied arbitrarily.

▲ The expediency is to tell Google Mobile to transforming the web page into a mobile version for Kindle 3.

▲ Even if the site does not provide a mobile version, Google Mobile could take it over.

▲ Flash and Java are blacklisted by Kindle 3, not to mention HTML5.

▲ A good boy should not download unknown files. Only AZW, PRC, MOBI and TXT are allowed.

Internet Surfing Tips
Read with an RSS Reader.

Mobile version is preferable.

Transform web pages with Google Mobile.

View the full version directly.

Reading
PDF Capabilities
Vertical Full Page View

Landscape

Zoom and Pan

Text Search

Dictionary Lookup

Bookmark

Notes

Single Column Text Highlight

Multiple Column Text Highlight

Highlight Social Share

Autocrop Margins in portrait mode

Autocrop Margins in lanscape mode(fit content to page width)

hyperlinks

Table of Content

Text Reflow

Page Split Layout

Early before the prevalence of electronic readers, PDF documents have already spread all over the world on the demand to make sure of the exchange of files consistent with the original layout and format. However, whether the reader is able to share the same reading experience and comfort with the editor depends on the terminal display’s size and resolution. In other words, PDF is not designed so much for the optimal reading experience as for retaining the format integrity. As a result, as long as the display of the mobile device is smaller than the document in size and resolution, it is inevitably required to zoom and pan. Let’s look at the actual performance on Kindle 3:

▲ Full page view of multi-column text

▲ Select the scaling percentage.

▲ Select the zoom area, pressing Shift + 5-way controller to adjust in tiny scale.

▲ Scaled display where the 5-way controller can be used to pan.

▲ No problem with Chinese, but the default font contrast may be too light.

▲ Press AA to adjust the font contrast.

▲ Mixed text and tables is a piece of cake.

▲ Want to highlight multi-column text?

▲ Forget it, just pain.

▲ Single column of text can be highlighted with ease. In addition, dictionary lookup shows the result of the word near the cursor.

▲ Wherever the cursor is, notes can be directly input and share on Facebook and Twitter.

▲ Prior to posting on social networks, be sure to set up the accounts on the settings page.

By and large, Kindle 3’s support for PDF on the document level is fair. Except multi-column text highlight, it should be acceptable for most documents to be viewed in the landscape mode without zooming and panning. However, due to the lack of table of content, it’s a hassle to jump to a desired chapter. Fortunately, Kindle 3 is capable of memorizing the location of the last page read so as not to cause troubles when the book is read from beginning to end.

AZW
It is a proprietary format with DRM that only the Kindle device or software reader with the account registered to the one who places the order is able to open. Compared with the zooming and panning of PDF viewing, what replace them are settings of font size, line spacing, words per line, text-to-speech and reflow which are more suitable for ebooks without being confined to the mapping of physical book pages. After all, ebooks are not designed for printing initially.

If there is anything worth mentioning is probably the personal file conversion service, which converts files sent as an attachment to "name"@free.kindle.com or "name"@kindle.com into AZW so that Kindle can automatically download. The difference is that the former allows only WiFi download while the later makes it possible to download via WiFi or 3G depending on the connection. Downloading the converted document via 3G roaming may charge extra fees. Currently the following file formats are supported:

Microsoft Word (.DOC & .DOCX)

HTML (.HTML, .HTM)

RTF (.RTF)

JPEG (.JPEG, .JPG)

GIF (.GIF)

PNG (.PNG)

BMP (.BMP)

PDF (.PDF): since PDF can be opened natively, conversion service requires the email subject start with “convert.”

In addition, the files to be converted can be compressed into a zip attachment, but the size before compression must be less than 50MB and the files inside the archive will get converted respectively into AZW. In other words, even if the archive contains a pile of images, Kindle will eventually receive the corresponding AZW for each image file.

Last but not least, personal file conversion service is not perfect. Users had better compare the results with the original file if the document includes a large number of mathematical notations, symbols, special characters and tables. Nevertheless, it just works for general use.

▲ After conversion, Amazon will send a notification to Kindle.
Dictionary Lookup
Besides the built-in two English-English dictionaries, you can install additional ones, but only one of them can be specified as the main dictionary for lookup in reading.

Instant lookup shows the first definition of the word near the cursor, not necessarily the suitable explanation in the context.

If the word to look up is a derivative, you may need to press "⤶" to find out the term in the definitions of the root word. For example, looking up gambler will list the definitions of the word gamble, you have to navigate for gambler in the explanations.

Some other dictionaries probably enumerate derivatives as single terms.

Instant lookup still works when you are reading the definitions.

Text-to-Speech
Page turns automatically when Kindle is reading to you.

The speech rate and speaking voice can not be changed till the text-to-speech is on.

Press the space bar to stop or resume.

Not applicable to dictionaries.

▲press to open the fileAAmenu, you can start reading TTS

▲press read againAAto change the reading speed or change male and female voices
Voice Guide
It is a extension of text-to-speech. The guide appears whenever the option or menu item is changed. It seems that you can not switch the voice. Furthermore, with the combination of text-to-speech and voice guide, Kindle allows you to “read” regardless of dark conditions.

Active Content
Also known as the Kindle App. Currently there are several free active contents such as the Shuffle Row, the Every Word and the Mine Sweeper. High quality paid active contents by professional game companies like E.A. are also available.

▲ This is a game

▲ From the above letters spell a word as long as possible

▲ waiting for you to challenge the

Hardware
Screen: EInk Pearl with black and white contrast ratio of 10:1 compared to 6:1 of Kindle 2. It’s not a borderless design and vulnerable to dust.

Battery: LICO S11GTSF01A 3.7V 1750 mAh lithium polymer, replaceable with extra effort.

3G module: AnyDATA DTP-600W, 3.6Mbps DL and 384Kbps UL.

WiFi module: Atheros AR6102G, 802.11 b/g.

Microphone: no application available.

Kindle Store
Perform a keyword search test as follows:

Keyword
Kindle Store
B&N
SONY

cloud comnputing
61
28
30

self-stabilization
3
0
0

linguistics
5287
896
4409

Chinese
1528
2068*
1302

The search results show the number of Kindle ebooks is rich indeed while B&N with an alliance with Google books counts the sum of both. SONY, though allied with Google books, doesn’t mix the results and in general has more records than B&N.
The Bottom Line
pros
the pioneer adopting EInk Pearl, very eye-friendly

clear even under the sun

monthly fee-free 3G roaming for Internet access and ebook download

WebKit-based browser

authentic English text-to-speech

essential PDF support: adjustable contrast, highlight, lookup, and conversion

personal document conversion service with free delivery via WiFi

annotation synchronization with different devices

long battery life and fast recharge with only 2.5 hours

returnable within 30 days

cons
the default Chinese font has some characters missing while the other is complete but has lighter contrast

impossible to read the Daily Prophet

the scree is vulnerable to dust

weak in the dark

not stable enough and restart sometimes

unfriendly audio playback and support only mp3

the browser fails to open a new window

the browser rejects to download PDF documents

expensive covers

about the future
The main differences between e-readers and other general-purpose tablets lie in the following:

lack of color: limited types of publication

long refresh time: limited operations and applications

Major e-reader technologies include EPD(EInk and Sipix), IMOD(Qualcomm's Mirasol), ChLCD and IPE, the first two fo which go mass production with high possibility. Qualcomm Mirasol is the most promising for its improved screen refresh time and the mass production cost is worthy of concern. On the other hand, the technological innovation based on LCD and going mass production is only Pixel Qi. But the power consumption and available view angle still fall behind at a higher price.

Then what if the electronic paper overcomes the bottleneck, is an optimistic future prospective? Not necessarily, because the electronic paper suppliers have not been exclusive for device manufactures, general-purpose tablet devices also have the right to apply the technology, which means that the hardware market segments appear more vague, leaving only differentiation in software and services. Amazon's service has been taking the lead with customer purchase analysis and monthly fee-free 3G roaming in the industry; by contrast, those vendors selling smartphones and general-purpose tablets at prices several times higher than Kindle seem always busy running after maximal profit rather than beef their products and services up.

However, when it comes to the competitive advantage on software aspects, AmazonKindle is simply acceptable as a dedicated reading device but inadequate as a general-purpose tablet for two reasons:

the proprietary platform and a relatively small number of applications

keyboard-based operations are not intuitive while the existing user interface is not applicable to touchscreen

Hands down, MeeGo or Android should bring more competing power proved by Nook. While it is so easy to inherit existing applications, third-party support for a variety of media formats, such as ePub and ogg is also a piece of cake so that users no longer need to wait for firmware update beyond reach. As a matter of fact, what’s essential for Amazon to develop and maintain by itself are merely the proprietary format AZW and the annotation synchronization. If Amazon could dedicate more effort on the integration of educational applications and resources instead of distractions with unfamiliar software development, the chances are that Kindle 10th, or even 20th generation will come true and reading the Daily Prophet is not a dream.

FAQ
1. How is the 3G transmission charged?
As long as the relationship with AT&T is not broken, monthly fee-free 3G roaming spans dozen of countries. As for the traffic flow, Amazon has clearly defined traffic outside the United States exempt from the fees are:

books, single periodicals, purchased archives

browsing Kindle Store

using the browser

Fees charged outside the United States include:

weekly newspaper, magazine, and blog subscriptions

personal documents converted by Amazon

2. How does Amazon amortize the fees for 3G roaming outside the United States?
In addition to the aforementioned items charge according to the actual file size, the ebook price are added at least $2 if the customer’s IP address is outside the US. Beseides, free Kindle books are not available for users with Kindle address set outside the US. Anyway, the extra 3G transmission fees would be ignored as long as the Kindle address belongs to the US. Once the transaction succeeds, Amazon will not charge anything no matter how the book is downloaded. Be warned that Amazon seems to check if the purchaser’s IP address belongs to the US and tolerates a fixed times of transaction when the IP address mismatches the Kindle address. The case covers downloading a free chapter.
3. What differs between sending files to "name"@free.kindle.com and "name"@kindle.com?
The former accepts to download via WiFi only free of charge while the later allows to download via WiFi or 3G depending on the connection. The 3G transmission charges $0.15/MB inside the US and $0.99/MB otherwise. What’s more, if the fees exceed the limit, the document will be forwarded to the "name"@free.kindle.com for WiFi download.

4. What is the difference between annotations and Clippings?
There are three types of Kindle annotations:
Bookmark that marks the entire page

Highlight

Note

Clippings is a simple text file where all the annotations are copied. You can modify, back up or deleted it without affecting the original annotations. It is purely created for users to review such that there’s no need for synchronization.

5. What does Whispersync synchronize?All the following are synchronized among different devices:

Annotations

Bookmark

Highlight

Note

Furthest page read

6. What does kindle.amazon.com serves?
After login with the Kindle account, users can view the reading progress and highlights of all the books purchased (personal documents are not applicable). Statistics of popular highlights from other users are also gathered. Moreover, cues to review a book read are displayed at random.

Response to Amazon's Jeff Bezos about Kindle 3

2010-07-29T22:48:00.000-05:00

USA TODAY Personal Technology columnist Edward C. Baig visited Bezos in Seattle to discuss Kindle, tablets and e-books in general. Excerpts, edited for space and clarity:

Q: Why not add multimedia to e-books?

A: You want to enter the author's world, the great novel or engaging non-fiction narrative. In the case of a physical book, you're not noticing the stitching and the glue and the paper and the ink. That all disappears. We're always trying to make Kindle get out of the way.

If it's a book about music history, having music people can play at certain points in the book can be useful. Maybe biology textbooks can benefit from certain animations. You're not going to make Hemingway better by adding animations.

But readers aren't always enjoying literary classics, right? For wizards and witches, it's a shame that Kindle 3 fails to display the Daily Prophet all the time.

Q: Why didn't you add a touch-screen?

A: It'd be very easy to add a touch-screen; in fact, Sony has done it. We don't want to compromise the reading experience. Today's capacitive touch-screen technology is an extra layer on top of the display surface, and it increases glare.

There are a variety of touchscreen technologies, not just capacitive. At least, infrared and dispersive signal make no sacrifices of the optical clarity. Moreover, why not learn something from Samsung Super AMOLED which integrates the layer that detects touch into the screen rather than overlays it on top.

Lots of fun of reading comes from touching the book and pages. However, Amazon chooses to kill the delight instead of kindling it.

Q: Why doesn't Amazon support the popular "e-pub" standard used by your competitors and many libraries?

A: We are innovating so rapidly that having our own standard allows us to incorporate new things at a very rapid rate. For example: Whispersync (which uses wireless connections to sync your place in a book across devices) and changing font sizes.

Other standards over time may incorporate some of these things. But we're moving very quickly to improve the state of the art. It's very helpful not to have to wait for some third-party standard to catch up.

Q: Are you concerned about growing competition?

A: All we can see is our sales are accelerating. When you think about things like tablet computers (and) the iPad, at Amazon we're excited because it's likely to be a driver of mobile commerce. We have this retail business, so we like it when people are connected to the Internet as often as possible.

There are going to be a lot of tablet computers — the Android ones are coming. Kindle works on BlackBerry, Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, PC and Mac. Our approach is: Buy once, read everywhere. We want you to be able to read your Kindle book on any device, then we want separately to make the very best uncompromised e-reader.

Sounds like fun to read a Kindle book on any device. However, it only holds on the premise that the reader can always obtain the book in Amazon's proprietary format. Needless to say, the dream hardly comes true in our lifetime unless iPad or Nook dies tomorrow. In the long run, Amazon's approach just spoils the freedom and comfort of reading as many books as possible on Kindle.

Q: How about a Kindle with a color screen?

A: If you could add color without compromising readability, great. But color is not ready for prime time.

An LCD (color) display (such as the one on the iPad) has many compromises: All of a sudden, you can't read outside; people like to read outside. All of a sudden, you have to worry about your battery. For many people, extended reading sessions on an LCD display cause eyestrain. There's a whole bunch of reasons you want a display like Kindle.

Most iPad users hardly worry about the battery life. Besides, people are smart enough to find a cafe to sit comfortably reading. Anyway, just let us know that the next generation display technologies such as Pixel Qi's 3Qi, Mirasol, QR-LPD and LiquavistaColor are being evaluated in Amazon's lab, OK?

Run RAID1 on Your Cloud Storage

2010-06-23T22:28:00.000-05:00

Popular cloud storage hosting services such as Ubuntu One, Dropbox and ZumoDrive grow more tremendously than ever. Usually they give us an impression of reliability and persistence. However, since the vicissitude of life is hard to predict, no one can definitely foresees their future survival. That is, the storage isn't 100 percent robust yet. So, what if they can synchronize to back up each other?

Instead of oscillating between RAID hardware and software, all you need is to put, for example, the Dropbox folder into the ZumoDrive. Then, whenever a file is added or edited in the Dropbox folder, the addition or change will automatically synchronizes with both Dropbox and ZumoDrive services at the expense of duplicate storage.

Sounds crazy but practical especially when you want to give an untrusted new online storage hosting service a shot.

Recent HP Printer Software Stalls Your Windows on Boot and Login

2010-06-22T02:40:00.000-05:00

Whenever I install the software package of HP J4580, Windows XP always hangs for about two minutes to log in a user. This is quite annoying so that an average user would rather avoid shutting down the Windows than wait for another long time booting. Does it aggravate the green house effects? It's a no-brainer that HP's SQA and its customer support are to blame for neither early discovering nor addressing consumers' troubles for years.

Though many customers leave complaints on the HP's official forums, there seems no official solutions yet. Fortunately, with the efforts by some users of perseverance, a expedient is proposed by Grisham.

Another way to get rid of the problem is to install and use these printers on Linux with HPLIP which works more efficiently than its corresponding Windows software package. Most popular Linux distributions such as ubuntu and Fedora have built it in. However, receiving fax to computers is only supported on Windows currently. The best solutions of both worlds is still unavailable.

Write a startup script for a linux daemon program

2010-06-15T10:27:00.000-05:00

If you have written a daemon program and want it to run at system startup, or control it as a general system service, how to do that?

The answer is to write a startup script for your daemon program.

For Redhat distribution, refer to the following as template:

#!/bin/sh
# Service descriptions and general comments
#
# chkconfig: <runlevel list> <start priority> <end priority>
# description: <multi-line description of service>
#
# processname: <shown in ps>
# pidfile: /var/run/$NAME.pid
#
# Source function library: daemon(), killproc() and status()
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

NAME=$(basename "$0")
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
SERVICE="My Service"
DAEMON="/path/to/my/daemon -s arg0 -f arg1"
RETVAL=0

test -x "$DAEMON" || exit 0

case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting $SERVICE ..."
daemon $DAEMON
RETVAL=$?
echo
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/$NAME
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping $SERVICE daemon: "
killproc $NAME
RETVAL=$?
rm -f /var/lock/subsys/$NAME && rm -f /var/lock/$NAME
echo
;;
status)
status $NAME
RETVAL=$?
;;
restart|force-reload)
$0 stop
$0 start
RETVAL=$?
;;
*)
printf "Usage: %q {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}\n" "$0" >&2
exit 1
;;
esac

exit $RETVAL

Then type the following:

#Copy your startup script as /etc/init.d/daemon:
cp daemon /etc/init.d/daemon
#Let it executable:
chmod +x /etc/init.d/daemon
#Register the service:
chkconfig --add daemon

For Debian variants, refer to the following as template:

#!/bin/sh
NAME=$(basename "$0")
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
SERVICE="My Service"
DAEMON="/path/to/my/daemon -s arg0 -f arg1"
USER=user
RETVAL=0

test -x "$DAEMON" || exit 0

case "$1" in
start)
echo -n "Starting $SERVICE ... "
su "$USER" -c "$(printf "%q -f" "$DAEMON" )"
echo "$NAME."
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping $SERVICE ... "
killall --quiet "$DAEMON"
echo "$NAME."
;;
restart|force-reload)
echo -n "Restarting $SERVICE ... "
killall --quiet "$DAEMON"
sleep 1
su "$USER" -c "$(printf "%q -f" "$DAEMON" )"
;;
*)
printf "Usage: %q {start|stop|restart|force-reload}\n" "$0" >&2
exit 1
;;
esac

exit 0

Then type the following:

#Copy your startup script as /etc/init.d/daemon:
cp daemon /etc/init.d/daemon
#Let it executable:
chmod +x /etc/init.d/daemon
#Register it to run at startup:
# on debian distros:
update-rc.d daemon defaults
# on a generic distro
ln -s /etc/init.d/daemon /etc/rc0.d/K20daemon
ln -s /etc/init.d/daemon /etc/rc1.d/K20daemon
ln -s /etc/init.d/daemon /etc/rc6.d/K20daemon
ln -s /etc/init.d/daemon /etc/rc4.d/S20daemon
ln -s /etc/init.d/daemon /etc/rc5.d/S20daemon

References

FAQ amuled
Writing System V init scripts for Red Hat Linux
Linux: How to write a System V init script

Google Apps account and Google account have separate permissions

2010-06-01T22:46:00.000-05:00

Two popular social broadcasting services, HelloTxT and Ping, deliver massive messaging support for a bunch of social networks. However, the former fails to post to my Google Buzz while the later does.

In my case, I use Google Apps mail and have a Google account set up with the apps mail address. However, Google Buzz is currently only available for Google account so that a social broadcasting service needs to clarify the right account for Google Buzz. It's a no-brainer HelloTxT confuses the two accounts' email addresses and unexpectedly links to the Google Apps account whose Buzz is unavailable.

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Blank Screen on Boot

2010-06-01T05:48:00.000-05:00

After installing the latest release of ubuntu 10.04 on my home server, whenever the monitor's signal plug is connected, the screen goes blank with high possibility on boot and then shows no signal. If the signal plug is not connected otherwise, the system usually boots to login successfully.

There is some workaround proposed on the web, where the key is to add i915.modeset=0 at the end of the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" in /etc/default/grub. Afterwards, run sudo update-grub to update the grub and no pains recur.

GRE Practice Argument: Forestville Speed Limit

2010-04-26T11:44:00.000-05:00

Six months ago the region of Forestville increased the speed limit for vehicles traveling on the region's highways by ten miles per hour. Since that change took effect, the number of automobile accidents in that region has increased by 15 percent. But the speed limit in Elmsford, a region neighboring Forestville, remained unchanged, and automobile accidents declined slightly during the same six-month period. Therefore, if the citizens of Forestville want to reduce the number of automobile accidents on the region's highways, they should campaign to reduce Forestville's speed limit to what it was before the increase.

Outline:

drivers

region population number vs percent
approvals of driver's licences for callow young

business

logistics efficiency and benefits

period

accidents caused by external traffic from Elmsford

place

traffic routes become more dangerous

potential problem

lowering the limit may cause more accidents

Response scored 5 by ScoreItNow:

The proposed argument in an attempt to link the increased rate of automobile accidents in Forestville and the speed limit seems convincing if several critical factors, supplemental material and alternative possibilities are not concerned. From the viewpoints of car drivers' characteristics, business, period and regions, there are many uncertainties to clarify for fear of fallacious conclusion and decision.

If the numbers of automobile accidents in both regions are the same, the region with fewer automobiles should reach a higher accident rate in terms of percentage. Hence, the report should have included essential regional data for reference to make its statistics more sound. Further, what if there was a more significant increase of new approved driver's licences over the past six months in Forestville? The number of automobile accidents may accumulate sharply due to those callow drivers. It is unfair to compare two regions without regard to their population, not to mention the characteristics of the samples are also omitted.

Besides the drivers, the cause of the accidents is dubious, too. Since the speed limit in Forestville was increased, isn't it possible that the traffic from external regions like Elmsford also increased? And chances are that the increase of the number of accidents was caused by the external automobiles in reality. If not, why over the same period the number of automobile accidents in Elmsford also slightly decreased? As a result, the relation between the statistics in the two neighboring regions weakens the presented argument in fact.

Even if the argument is reasonable, conclusions to reduce the speed limit require more concern. First off more accidents may occur because the drivers fail to get used to the lowered speed limit immediately so that the change leads to more tragedies. In addition, to make a decision, one should take more perspectives into consideration. For example, the efficiency and benefits of the logistics business accrue due to the increased speed limit while people feel more satisfied with the shipment deliveries than before. The authorities can actually take other measures to decrease the automobile accidents under the same speed limit such as to set up more warning signs, deploy extra police officers in appropriate positions and improve potentially dangerous routes. Reducing the speed limit to the original is not the only choice.

To sum up, there are several critical points not concerned weakening this argument while the concluding remark also lacks alternative solutions to reach a win-win life. Therefore, based on the above discussion, without the characteristics of the drivers, causes of the accidents, business benefits from the increased speed limit, etc. fully clarified, how can an ordinary resident in Forestville accept such an argument which potentially manipulates his future life?

Response scored 6 by ETS

It is probably correct that lowering the Forestville speed limit would reduce the number of accidents in the region, given the information presented; however, the argument fails to refute or even consider alternate explanations of the increase in the number of accidents. No data are given to suggest these other explanations, but the people of Forestville would be well advised to look into them before changing their laws again.

There is no comparison of the data from the 6-month study to the previous year. In fact, we are not even told which six months are in question. If accidents were tracked beginning in the summer and ending in the winter in a snowy, icy region, we should expect an increase - perhaps of 15% - to be caused by the poorer driving conditions. Since neighboring Elmsford did not experience a "seasonal" increase in accidents, this explanation seems unlikely, but hardly impossible.

The decrease in accidents in Elmsford is intriguing, even though we are unfortunately not told quantitatively how significant it is. Could Elmsford drivers be changing their driving routes to take advantage of higher Forestville speed limits, thus driving less on their own highways and more on those of Forestville? To test this hypothesis it would help to know whether there had been a change in overall traffic volume in either community. It seems plausible that an increase in the number of cars traveling a highway would lead to an increase in the number of accidents, even if speed limits were not a factor. We must take into account, however, that people do not have unlimited choice of what highways to use (as they would if they were choosing between two products in a store, for example) since they must take roads that go to their destination. Thus, people are less likely to go to another community to take advantage of its speed limit laws than they are to take advantage of, for instance, its more permissive drinking laws.

How significant is six months in a study of accident patterns? A broad comparison to other traffic data might tell us that random fluctuations of 15% or even more are common, and that only a longer or more acute trend can be taken as meaningful. Likewise, how many accidents are actually involved? If Forestville is a small region that saw its number of accidents rise from 6 to 7, we would be inclined to dismiss the "trend" out of hand; if the increase were from 600 to 690, we would not.

Perhaps most useful would be a comparison of the last six months in Forestville to the first six months after raising a speed limit in another community, one that kept its higher speed limit despite the accidents. If the data were comparable, we could attempt to use the later accident statistics of the other community as a projection of what would happen in Forestville. Perhaps it would turn out that this other community experienced a short-term increase in automobile accidents as local drivers became accustomed to the new speed limit but soon saw its accident rate return to normal. If this were the case, it would be a strong argument against re-lowering the Forestville speed limit.

Finally, the conclusion of the argument is rather naively worded. We can assume that just about any region's citizens would want to reduce the number of automobile accidents, but many regions raise speed limits despite believing their actions will lead to more deaths and injuries on the highway. The macabre fact is that setting a speed limit is a balancing act between convenience and safety; everyone wants both, and both factors must be considered in any policy-making decision on speed limits.

Response scored 5 by ETS

The argument above presents a sound case for arguing that if the region of Forestville wants to reduce the number of automobile accidents on the region's highways, they should consider reducing the speed limit to what it was before the increase in speed limit took place 6 months previously. However, there are some intermediate steps that one could take before jumping to the conclusion that reducing the speed limit is the only way in which traffic accidents can be reduced.

First of all, I would examine the actual number of traffic accidents that occurred before and after the speed limit increase and compare this to the size of the region and its driving population. For example, if the Forestville region's driving population is 1 million people, and the traffic accidents for a 6-month period before the speed increase totaled 100, then the 15% increase would amount to an additional 16 traffic accidents, or 116 total. For a population of 1 million, there may be other solutions to this increase besides reducing the speed limit to what it was. (The comparison to the region of Elmsford would only be helpful if the regions driving demography is comparable in terms of size and scope.) A public education campaign emphasizing driver safety and safe driving techniques may suffice to reduce the number of traffic accidents. Especially considering that if the number of accidents relative to the population is somewhat small, it is a fairly safe driving population anyway.

In addition, I would consider lengthening the time of the study. Six months may be a relatively short period of time for which to study the rate of traffic accidents. Upon a closer examination of when the accidents occurred, one might ascertain that most of the driving accidents occurred within a month of raising the speed limit, but that there have been relatively few additional accidents since that first phase-in period. Lengthening the study to a one-year period would help adjust for any untypical statistics and paint a more accurate picture of the long-term affects of the speed limit increase.

I would also examine what else was occurring in the region during the period of the study. For example, was there a major highway construction project happening during this time which would have added to the unsafe nature of raod travel? Are there any alternative explanations for why the increase in traffic accidents could have occurred, or is the increase in speed limit the sole variable? Looking at the type of accidents that occurred, I would examine whether these are the types of car accidents one would expect from traveling at a faster speed to corroborate the cause and effect relationship.

GRE Practice Issue C100

2010-04-25T13:52:00.000-05:00

Both the development of technological tools and the uses to which humanity has put them have created modern civilizations in which loneliness is ever increasing.

Outline:

modern civilizations

biz success and convenience
loneliness

solidify social relationship
loneliness measure
relationship effectiveness
distraction management
win-win life

Response scored 5 by ScoreItNow:

In the modern age of digital evolution, the development of technological gadgets and the uses have greatly improved communication and the chances of business success while loneliness among people increases more and more. Modern civilizations are in search of the balance between both sides.

Business performance does enhance due to modern devices which accelerate customer responses and technical support. For example, if customer support is provided over phone lines, then only one customer is served at one time for a single customer assistant. But instant messaging service makes it possible to offer assistance to several customers simultaneously. Besides, email communication allows offline requests to be delivered at the same time without being blocked which lends more flexibility to customer relationship management. Moreover, urgent problems can be notified by short messages over mobile phones immediately which further reduces the service delay and increases customer satisfaction. That's why today's business outperforms those before.

However, convenience never implies to help solidify social relationship more than before because many people using these gadgets without an explicit goal find it easy to get indulged in the virtual world alone. Though the internet provided by the gadgets connects people, it is also flooded with enormous information waiting for digestion. The more information is exposed, the less time is spared for communication with people so that loneliness increases. Take a couple of lovers for instance. In the former times, they can share love with each other without being bothered by external information. But today both are required to check emails, messages from microblogs, hot videos and new fashionable or technological stuffs from thousands of favorite sites. Finally, the devotion to the love between them is discounted and hard to recover as before. Needless to say, loneliness eventually grows more and one day may exclude their love.

To maintain the balance between the technological improvement and loneliness among people, everyone has to learn how to manage the effectiveness of social relationship in negative proportion to loneliness. The effectiveness of a relationship can be measured according to several factors such as the possibilities of business cooperation, offering help in difficult situations, etc. Everyone should prepare such criteria for evaluation and then take a series of steps in following. First off prioritize the relationships. Spare time for people you really wants to make friends with sincerely. Using online calendar service to keep in touch periodically, esp. in special holidays is an effective way to force the execution. Inviting them to enjoy online games together is yet another more effective interaction. Next, apply information aggregators like Google reader to reduce the overhead of processing news from a variety of sources. Filtering out those with lowest access frequency periodically should increase the efficiency. As time goes by, more effective relationship will form gradually while less efforts are wasted in worthless information.

In conclusion, no one can reject modern civilizations but it's possible to find a way to moderate the loneliness with the development of technological tools and its uses. Nonetheless, it depends on whether one is aware loneliness is ever increasing and would like to make up his mind taking measure to search for the balance rather than just gets lost in the information burst. Since it is an unavoidable trend, our education system should take this issue into consideration and instruct the young how to effectively manipulate technological improvement while retain solid social relationship. After successfully managing the development, it goes without saying modern civilizations eventually leads to a win-win life.

Response scored 6 by ETS:

While the uses humanity may find for its ever-evolving technological capabilities may isolate the members of its civilizations, it is difficult to accept the premise that the mere development of these technological tools causes the isolation. In fact, the development of technological tools may be a response to loneliness rather than the cause of it.

Teenagers born after 1980 are part of the "Millenial Generation." Studies have shown that this generation of young people have grown up with PCs, the internet, and cellular communication capabilities. They have never known a world in which these technologies did not exist. And yet, this generation is not less lonely than their parents were at that age - in fact, they may be even more social and gregarious. Statistically, they are the most "involved" - in clubs, teams and issues of social justice - of any generation in recent history (and certainly more than Gen Xers.) They have email conversations with young people from all different cultures and backgrounds. They learn more quickly what is socially acceptable and what is not, thus enabling them smoother socialization in schools. Some teens are, indeed, more isolated because of the internet, but these same teens fifty years ago might have been holed up in a library.

It is not technological tools that create psychological states, but psychological states which make use of the technologies. A person who is naturally introverted will use cell phones or the internet to avoid the contact with people which wears her out. A teenager or adult whose lifestyle and personality do not fit culturally accepted norms may seek friends or companions with similar tastes via the internet, where it is possible to find a variety people from all over the world. A child whose parents have not adequately developed a love of the outdoors or an understanding of the importance of being healthy may indeed find entertainment hours on end in front of a television rather than interacting with others. It is not likely, however, that an active child whose parents encourage relationships with others will forego play and companionship for the artificial action on a television screen. Individuals' penchant toward loneliness is not caused by technological developments.

In the postmodern era, advances in such techonolgies as television, the internet and cellular phones may have in fact been due to the demand for these tools, rather than their development leading to demand. After World War II, the economic prosperity levels of the United States soared. Men were encouraged back into the workforce, taking the place of the "Rosie the Riveter" female workers who had kept the country's production levels high while their husbands, brothers and sons were overseas fighting. As women returned to the cult of domesticity and men prospered in their new or re-found jobs, mass-marketing and development aimed its advertising at housewives, who were now unemployed and had "leisure time." Television offered afternoon "soap operas" to women whose homes were sparkling thanks to their new (and improved!) dishwashers and vacuum cleaners. And as the business world prospered and diversified, the clamor went forth for new and better ways to stay connected. The developments may have been subverted from military technologies, but they came into the American household at the request of the American people.

Rather than the development of technological tools, it is indeed "the uses to which humanity has put them" that have created the possibility for isolation among its civilizations. However, isolation does not always lead to loneliness. Four people in isolated homes throughout the world may be connected by phone or internet and not feel lonely. Our human fallibility may wish us to blame technology for our loneliness, but it is, ultimately, our own choices and personality that determines the destiny of humankind.

Response scored 5 by ETS:
I disagree with the argument that "Both the development of technological tools and the uses to which humanity has put them have created modern civilizations in which loneliness is ever increasing."" Arguments can be made for this thesis, but they depend largely upon what I believe to be a poor definition of "loneliness".

If one defines loneliness as the absence of as much physical, face-to-face contact with other people, then this argument is probably true. The invention of modern telecommunications devices such as telephones, fax machines, and computers has definitely cut down on the amount of physical contact with other people. This is especially true in recent times due to the extremely rapid expansion of the Internet. E-mail and tele-conferencing are direct substitutes for physical contact, especially in the business world.

However, I believe that loneliness can be better measured by intellectual contact with other individuals. Unarguably, modern technology makes this faster and easier, with better communication with a larger number of people. Some employers have argued that productivity is lessened since they have had computers linked to the Internet, as the employees spend much of their time "chatting" with friends, acquaintances, or business contacts across the country. This is probably not a good thing for the employers, but it demonstrates the increased degree of communication due to modern technology.

Of course, some technologies have increased loneliness by any standards, such as the automobile or other transportation mechanisms. These encourage substantially longer commutes between home and work. Automobiles have made possible the pattern of suburbanization that has been in place in the United States since immediately after World War Two. Time spent commuting is generally unproductive and spent alone, unless the individual in question is car-pooling or using mass transit. The contribution of the commuting culture to loneliness may actually be changing now due to new technology that is being invented and used by the general public. Popular new devices, such as the cellular phone, the laptop computer, and the combination thereof may actually convert commuting time to a period of increased communications between people, to "pass the time". This will be especially true as use of mass transit grows, which will probably happen, due to problems with gas shortages, air pollution, and the creation of further mass transit by federal and local governments.

The motivation for the declaration that loneliness is increasing may be due to the fact that many people, especially blue-collar workers, are unable to afford or use these new devices. However, since the advent of the personal computer, the price per computing power has continually lowered rapidly, and this trend shows no sign of changing. Several companies, such as Sun Microsystems and Oracle have announced that they are attempting to develop terminals with little computing power, but a full capability to access the Internet. These devices will be in approximately the $500 price range, which is much more reasonable than the price of the current top of the line PC. In addition, to cater to a larger mass of the public, software companies have been carefully making their products easier to use by non-"computer nerds". This trend is not likely to cease.

In conclusion, although early development of modern transportation may have increased loneliness, I believe that more recent technologies are actually doing the opposite, stimulating interpersonal contact and encouraging intellectual expansion. The perception that the opposite is true derives from what I believe is poor definition of loneliness and the difficulty that the working class has in acquiring and using modern telecommunications devices.

Take sGRE-CS in Singapore

2010-04-13T09:57:00.000-05:00

Since sGRE takes place only once a year in Taiwan so that the schedule is tight for anyone to prepare for advanced study. It is a reasonable expedience to take the exam overseas because sGRE is held several times a year in foreign countries. I chose Singapore as my first try for several reasons:

economical:

budget airlines are available like Jetstar with direct routes.
accommodation fees can be as cheap as S$12 one night in a local hostel such as the Prince of Wales.

language: most Singaporeans are bilingual or even trilingual.
map: Google Maps Street View is available in the whole Singapore and useful with GPS.
traffic: the MRT network is fully developed and directly connects the international airport.

Compared to GRE General test, sGRE gains less focus and reveals little information for test takers. Moreover, because the existing tutorial for taking such an exam in Singapore is not applicable anymore, I decide to compose an effective guide for the following test takers from Taiwan.

STEP 1. make a lodge reservation

Go to some particular lodge reservation broker like http://www.hostels.com for making a cheap lodge reservation. There is usually an additional special discount on the normal price if the reservation is made early.

STEP 2. book flights

Take Jetstar as an example. Just visit its website to place your order. Since it's a budget airlines, lots of concerns such as the seat location, carry-on baggage and the dates to take off and return all relate to the final price. After the flights are booked successfully, an electronic itinerary will be emailed showing the departing and arriving terminals.

Remember to bring your passport to the Jetsart counter combined with the China Airlines and check in for obtaining your boarding pass.

STEP 3. fly to Singapore

The flight duration takes almost four hours. After arrival, there's no need to rush out of the airport since the ChangYi airport in Singapore is the top 1 for backpackers. You can take a rest, surf the internet and feed some food here until daybreak if your flight arrivals late at midnight.

Have you ever seen an airport with a dedicated garden inside?

The ambassador transit hotel is available in all the terminals but it charges crazily high as you can see below:

Unfortunately, facilities such as the gym, swimming pools, etc are no longer free of charge as alleged.

The free gadget charger is provided with embedded lockers. What a convenience!

Surf the web for free as you wish. 24hr food provisions are also available.

Noodles are not recommended in Singapore.

Indian Prata with the magic sauce is highly recommended.

Sleeping here overnight is no crime.

You can also enjoy the cinema and XBOX360 games for free.

STEP 4. take the MRT

The MRT station is just located outside terminal 2. You can take it to most scenic spots in Singapore. For now, you may need to check into your lodge first. Most hostels are situated around the Bugis and Little India MRT stations.

There are station indicators inside the MRT compartments.

Don't forget to get the refund with your ticket in front of the vending machine at the target station. BTW, the Monga movie from Taiwan is about to be screened in Singapore ;-D

STEP 5. check into the hostel

If you make the reservation at hotels.com, you need to pay up all the remaining payment in cash at the check-in. Some services like a personal locker may charge extra fees.

STEP 6. take the sGRE

Usually, sGRE requires you to arrive by 8:30AM. You had better estimate the time and get the directions as well as the route with Google Maps beforehand. The exam held in the St. Francis Methodist School on the Upper Bukit Timah Road in Singapore is remote and MRT-unreachable. Fortunately, you can go to the school by bus at the Little India MRT station. It takes about 30 minutes if the traffic is not terrible. Before getting on, be sure to look up fare information on the stop list and bring enough coins.

The fare in cash is determined according to the color of the destination stop. For example, our destination is the Opp Rail Mall which is the first stop in the purple segment labeled 'E.' Therefore, the bus course charges S$1.60 in cash.

For fear of being late, don't take a bus later than 7:30AM. In addition, the bus captain never announces the stop name so that you have to recognize stop landmarks to get off correctly.

Time to get off when you see the above landmarks.

Walk through the overpass to the other side.

24hr restaurants are also availabe here. Don't worry about the breakfast or lunch.

Furthermore, the popular chain supermarket ColdStorage stands near.

Now, it's time to get to the church school.

Turn left to get down the stairs.

Advance along the sidewalk.

Since the main entrance is closed, keep moving forward.

Turn right to the side entrance.

Go forward and turn left to step up the stairs.

Turn right to enter and you will see the target sign.

Follow the directions and finally reach the exam level.

NOTE: Your valid ID or passport along with the GRE ticket will be examined at about 8:15AM while the exam may begin before 9:00AM. Get ready to enjoy the test with a light heart.

Business Philosophy vs. Local Laws

2010-03-30T14:06:00.000-05:00

Recently, Google has stoped the self-filtering mechanism of Google.cn since China wants to take a further step to restrict the freedom of speech on internet. As what the motto of Google "Don't be evil" and its philosophy "You can make money without being evil" claim, the counteraction is no more than taken for granted. Furthermore, something worth thinking is educed:

Can any country declare it owns the internet or part of the internet by law?

Of course the network infrastructures, servers and other real properties surely belong to some party in some country. However, this never implies the messages and privacies inside are automatically taken possessions of by the owner, not to mention the freedom and rights bound together. As is known to all, the communication channel is an international virtual space so that people all over the world are able to post something for exchange. Here, "international" indicates the network is actually shared, rather than merely owned by some particular country. So who has the authority to shape or put any restrictions on the internet just according to local laws? China, the USA, or neither of them?

The internet is apparently an indomitable realm. No particular country or some kind of doctrine can be the winner to take all. All it requires is self-organization and self-regulation which evolves itself over time. All the communications and message traffic finally contribute and form the memes in the progression. Any other actions taken to influence or force the course of the internet to diverge from its nature should be treated evil, esp. those enacted on behalf of a certain party.

By the way, several days ago, Plurk, a popular internet microblog service, was asked to hand over users' registration details and IPs to the police in Taiwan. The founder of Plurk claims publicly they are willing to ensure local laws as long as the requested measures follow the due process in relation to privacy. Look, Google does obey the law enforcement on internet in China for years. Nonetheless, Google eventually comes back to its original philosophy which must never yield under any circumstances. Hence, we plurkers shall inquire what's the philosophy of Plurk? To sacrifice anything to obey the local laws for business survival is an option, but is it far from evil?

Patch to enable stardict to play mp3 audio

2010-03-05T00:59:00.000-06:00

It goes without saying the most popular and free extensible multilingual dictionary on Linux is stardict so far. However, failing to play back mp3 or other compressed audio recordings is a serious drawback which leads up to falling behind Lingoes on Windows. After looking inside the source code, it's a piece of cake to achieve such a requirement.

Why stardict doesn't support mp3 or other compressed audio playback? Two key restraints are hard-coded:

filename suffixes such as mp3 and ogg are filtered out.
gnome_sound_play() accepting only wav formats is called to play audio recordings.

A web post had exposed valid modifications to remove the above restrictions. After performing some verifications on the ubuntu Linux platform, the modifications are rewritten into a distributable form. To apply the changes step by step, all you need to do are:

download the source code stardict-3.0.1.tar.bz2
download stardict-3.0.1-mp3.patch and configure.ubuntu
tar jxf stardict-3.0.1.tar.bz2
cd stardict-3.0.1
patch -p1 < ../stardict-3.0.1-mp3.patch
chmod +x ../configure.ubuntu
ln -s ../configure.ubuntu
./configure.ubuntu
make
sudo make install

That's all. But be careful:

espeak should be installed before configuring stardict.
stardict has been configured to play audio by an external command, e.g. mplayer which has to be installed beforehand.
custom audio recordings need to be installed in the same form and location(i.e. /usr/share) specified by stardict.

Return from the U.K.

2010-02-26T20:25:00.000-06:00

The U.K. is a prestigious country where myriads of large historic palaces and churches spread all over. Countless prominent scenery spots includes the elephant house where J.K. Rowling embodied Harry Potter, the Shakespeare's birthplace, the Beatles Story in Liverpool, the world of Beatrix Potter who invented Peter Rabbit and so on. Not to mention the Cambridge and Oxford university towns. However, the capricious weather may perturb the mood due to failing to take nice shots. Moreover, super high price index and internet access cost indicate to keep the life in mind is more practical than to pursue a permanent residence.

See how many encomia were mentioned on the Apple iPad

2010-02-08T01:51:00.000-06:00

A panegyrical eulogy was made in the following video by Steve Jobs and the associates:

The enormous tributes are listed below in alphabetical order:

amazing, ambitious, awesome
beautiful, best magical
cool
dream
easy, exciting, extraordinary
far better
gorgeous, great
incredible, incredibly great
phenomenal
remarkable, revolutionary
simple, super high quality, super responsive
tremendous, terrific, truly magical
unbeatable, unbelievably great
very nice
wonderful

The compliment used most often by Steve Jobs is "phenomenal" which may the best praise for iPad.

Google Adwords in Taiwan Sucks

2009-12-09T06:36:00.000-06:00

After using Google Adwords more than half a year, I reach a conclusion that it sucks comparing to the size of Google.

the email response from the customer service requires one working day. Moreover, they can do nothing but forward the complaints about the pesky hassles to those unknown related departments.
Taking weekends off, no available 0800 special line for paid clients (Yes, paid ones cannot enjoy the special line because it's for the possible would-bes.), failing to answer questions immediately while presuming clients to get served only if he or she is qualified to type and email, aren't Google aware most managers of traditional companies are impatient with slow internet support?
Google seems to be so self-confident as the leader of the keyword advertisement business in Taiwan that they can delay invoices by several weeks later than their competitors even after receiving the payments.
prepay billing by credit card is unscheduled (at least nobody knows the timetable.) while no invoices are provided in Taiwan if postpay billing by credit card is chosen.

It goes without saying Google is such an international giant. However, it is also funny why they always react like retarded dinosaurs and treat as trifles those crucial operations which play a vital role in reality on user experiences as well as evaluations?

My Favorite Music: New Age and Asian Pops

2009-11-14T22:49:00.000-06:00

As far as music is concerned, New Age is not just relaxing and soothing but does bring hope and raise people up such as the song "May it be" composed by Enya which concludes Lord of the Ring. As we know, at the end of the film, the main characters brought the hope of a new age.

In addition, another well-known song "You Raise me Up" written by Secret Garden for commemorations of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks soon became pop with countless covers. Moreover, the piece of music "Breakout" from Lord of the Dance is also well-done and fires the audience in New Age style by Bandari band. To sum up, New Age is absolutely not restricted to being listened to in acupuncture or doing breathing exercises.

Finally, it goes without saying that Asian pops move millions of people. Not limited to Chinese, Japanese and Thai songs likewise lead to great enjoyment. Two of my favorites are "蕾" made by コブクロ, a Japanese band, as the theme music of the drama "Tokyo Tower", and "Thanx" by August band from Thailand who came out of the movie "The Love of Siam."

FW: Communications with the ETS

2009-09-30T19:52:00.000-05:00

NOTE: this article is mainly forwarded from the webpage, and is authorized by the author for educational use only.

Communications with the ETS

寄件者：Hsuan Yuanyu [yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net]

寄件日期：2007/5/10 (星期四) 上午 03:33

收件者：customer.service@mcgraw-hill.com; os_internet@ets.org

Dear Sirs:

I'm about to start teaching TOEFL Reading using the McGraw Hill "Official Guide to the New TOEFL iBT," International Edition 2006, printed in Singapore. I've spotted a possible mistake in the book, which is potentially very serious. I've attached my explanations in a Word document.

I'll start teaching around May 25. I'll appreciate it very much if you can reply to me before that. Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Hsuan Yuanyu, Taipei, Taiwan

Attachment

Dear Sirs:

I have been studying McGraw Hill's The Official Guide to the New TOEFL iBT, International Edition 2006, printed in Singapore. I believe there may be a serious mistake in the book.

In the Explanation on pages 34-35, Choice 6 is among the Correct Choices, and Choice 1 among the Incorrect. I chose differently when I did the question. When I looked at the corresponding Explanations, they failed to convince me.

Choice 6 reads: In the twentieth century, artists working in the fine arts often treat materials in new ways whereas applied arts specialists continue to think of crafts in terms of function.

There are two problems with this choice. First, The first sentence of the last paragraph says: 「Even though the fine arts in the twentieth century often treat materials in new ways, the basic difference in attitude of artists in relation to their materials in the fine arts and the applied arts remains relatively constant.」 The weight of the sentence is clearly on the second and main clause, since the first clause (starting 「Even though」) is merely a concession. Thus, the whole sentence merely reaffirms that 「the basic difference … remains relatively constant.」 Choice 6 says 「In the twentieth century, artists working in the fine arts often treat materials in new ways….」 This repeats the content of the 「Even though…」 clause, which stands in logical contrast to the main clause, the clause that contains the main idea. Therefore, Choice 6 is far from being an accurate summary of any main idea in the passage.

Second, after the author makes a passing reference of a new trend in the fine arts in the twentieth century as a concession, he immediately returns to his main thesis and goes on to conclude: 「It would therefore not be too great an exaggeration to say….」 The structure of the last paragraph indicates that the concluding sentence is a summary of the main idea, whereas the sentence preceding it (on which Choice 6 is erroneously based) is merely a supporting detail. Therefore, Choice 6 is clearly incorrect.

Choice 1 reads: The fine arts are only affected by the laws of physics because of the limitations of the materials that are used.

The Explanation for Choice 1 goes: 「This answer is incorrect because it is a minor point mentioned in sentence 4 of paragraph 2. The statement is true, but it is made only to support the broader theme (of the second correct answer choice above) about the differences between the two forms of art. Thus, it is used as an example in support of a major idea and is not itself one of the major themes in the passage.」

This Explanation necessitates a look at 「the second correct answer choice,」 which is this: Applied-art objects are bound by the laws of physics in two ways: by the materials used to make them, and the function they are to serve. This answer choice deals with 「applied-art objects」 only. Therefore, the theme of Choice 2 is neither broader nor narrower than that of Choice 1. Since the passage as a whole is a contrast between fine arts and applied arts, Choice 2 covers only half the theme (the half that has to do with applied arts); Choice 1 covers the other half (the half that deals with fine arts).

The first two sentences of paragraph 2 serve as transition that leads to the third: 「This assumption misses a significant difference between the two disciplines,」 and thus to the fourth and fifth sentences: 「Fine-art objects are not constrained by the laws of physics in the same way that applied-art objects are. Because their primary purpose is not functional, they are only limited in terms of the materials used to make them,」 which is basically what Choice 1 says. Sentence 5 (not sentence 4 as the Explanation says) truly points out a 「significant difference」 between the two kinds of arts. All the remaining sentences of this paragraph (seven in all) are devoted to supporting and developing this difference.

Explanation for Choice 2 says that 「five or six」 sentences are used to develop the major theme of the first paragraph, which is that applied-art objects are bound by physical laws both in function and in material. Now 「seven」 sentences are used to develop the major theme of the second paragraph, which is that fine-art objects are bound by physical laws only in material—exactly what Choice 1 says. If Choice 2 is correct, then Choice 1 must be correct.

I'm supposed to start teaching a TOEFL Reading class in Taipei around May 25, using McGraw Hill's Official Guide. I cannot in good faith tell my students what they see in the Official Guide is correct. If there really is a mistake in the Official Guide, please acknowledge it. If I am mistaken in my interpretations, please enlighten me. Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards,

Hsuan Yuanyu, Taipei, Taiwan

-----Original Message-----

From: Wall, Charles [mailto:Charles_Wall@mcgraw-hill.com]

Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 12:19 AM

To: yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net

Cc: Prof_CS, College

Subject: ETS TOEFL Guide

Dear Sir:

I have received your letter regarding a possible error in the ETS TOEFL guide. I have forwarded it to ETS for a response.

I will contact you as soon as I hear from ETS.

Thank you for contacting us.

Chuck Wall

Senior Editor

McGraw-Hill

From: Hsuan Yuanyu [mailto:yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net]

Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 2:01 PM

To: Wall, Charles

Cc: os_internet@ets.org

Subject: RE: ETS TOEFL Guide

Dear Mr. Wall:

Thank you for your response. I have to inform you, however, that I have spotted another mistake--this time a rather obvious one--in the same book (The Official Guide to the NEW TOEFL iBT, International Edition 2006). Question 1 on page 70 is a simple, straightforward Factual Information Question. The answer should be Choice 2. Your book gives Choice 3 as the answer, and offers some very lame explanations on page 75.

Please take me seriously. It won't take you more than two minutes to do the question and check the Answers and Explanations. You'll see what I mean.

I'm in the publishing business myself. It's easy to imagine the kind of pressure your company and the ETS people must have been under to bring out this new guide in time for the new test format. Mistakes are understandable, if not inevitable. I have no intention of challenging the authority of your company or of the ETS. All I ask is an acknowledgement, so that I can face my students with some degree of assurance. Otherwise, I really don't know how I'm supposed to use the book in class. Thank you very much for your help.

Hsuan Yuanyu, Taipei, Taiwan

-----Original Message-----

From: Wall, Charles [mailto:Charles_Wall@mcgraw-hill.com]

Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 2:34 AM

To: Hsuan Yuanyu

Cc: Prof_CS, College

Subject: RE: ETS TOEFL Guide

Dear Hsuan Yanyu:

Thank you once again for taking the time to write to us.

I will need to submit your note to ETS and get a response from them. All content questions regarding this book are for them to decide. I will get back to you as soon as I have a response.

Cordially,

Chuck Wall

Senior Editor

McGraw-Hill

From: Hsuan Yuanyu [mailto:yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net]

Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 11:37 AM

To: Wall, Charles

Cc: os_internet@ets.org

Subject: RE: ETS TOEFL Guide

Dear Mr. Wall:

I have written two letters to the ETS informing them of the mistakes in the Official Guide, and you have also forwarded my letters to the ETS. I regret to say that I haven't received any reply from the ETS yet. Obviously the ETS has chosen to ignore me, hoping the whole thing will just blow away.

If I don't get a replay very soon, here's what I'll do. First, I will announce to all my students that there are unforgivable mistakes in the Official Guide, and that the ETS has opted for a coverup. Then, as Chief Editorial Writer of TIME for Students, a bilingual magazine authorized for publication in Taiwan and Hong Kong by Time Inc., I will make the same announcement in the editorial of next month's issue. After that, I will call a press conference to expose the scandal--I have elicited the help of several TOEFL teachers who will back up my claims, and by then the ETS's lack of response will have escalated into a full-blown scandal. These emails will be presented as evidence that the ETS is attempting a coverup. Meanwhile, I will leave my comments on every English-learning website I can find. Sorry, but this will not just blow away.

Please tell the ETS people that I am offering them a last chance to do the right thing. Let me reiterate my point: all I ask for is an acknowledgement of the mistakes, in the form of an email to me, so that I can face my students with a clear conscience. If I can't have that, I have no choice but to fight for what is right.

As the publishing company, McGraw-Hill is not without responsibility in this matter. I am sure you are capable of telling right from wrong, without having to wait for the ETS.

Thank you for your help.

Best regards,

Hsuan Yuanyu

-----Original Message-----

From: Wall, Charles [mailto:Charles_Wall@mcgraw-hill.com]

Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 12:25 AM

To: Hsuan Yuanyu

Subject: RE: ETS TOEFL Guide

Dear Hsuan Yuanyu,

The staff at ETS has composed a response to you and I'm sure it will be on its way to you shortly. I will contact them and emphasize the urgency of your request.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Charles A. Wall

Senior Editor

McGraw-Hill Professional

2 Penn Plaza, 11th Floor

New York, NY 10121

phone 212 904 5387

fax 212 904 5134

charles_wall@mcgraw-hill.com

www.mhprofessional.com

-----Original Message-----

From: Thompson, Dolores [mailto:dthompson@ETS.ORG]

Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 12:57 AM

To: yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net

Cc: OS_Internet

Subject: RE: O S X FW: Possible Mistake in Official Guide to the New TOEFL iBT

Dear Hsuan Yuanyu,

Attached is a letter responding to your email of May 9 regarding a possible mistake in the Official Guide to the New TOEFL iBT.

Feel free to contact our Order Services mailbox @ OS_Internet@ets.org with any further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

ETS Order Services

Dolores-2988

Attachment

Dear Mr. Hsuan Yuanyu:

Thank you very much for your communication of May 2, 2007 concerning a possible error in the ETS/McGraw-Hill 「Official Guide to New TOEFL iBT,」 International Edition 2006. I work in Test Development area of ETS on the TOEFL test, and am one of the staff who is responsible for writing TOEFL iBT Reading Comprehension questions.

You wrote that you believe that identified correct answers for the sample Prose Summary on pages 34 and 35 of the Guide are incorrect, specifically, that Choice 1 has many characteristics that make it as important a point in the summary, if not a better point in the summary than Choice 6. I believe that your analysis is substantially correct. We will revise this example of the Prose Summary item in the next reprint of the TOEFL Guide.

You also wrote on May 15 about a Reading Comprehension question on page 70 of the Guide. Again, we agree that the distinctions between Choices 2 and 3 should be clearer for this to be an effective practice question. We will make changes in this question in the next printing of the Guide.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to us. We are very concerned that our products be as helpful as possible to students, and we appreciate your efforts to make the Official Guide to the New TOEFL iBT better. Good luck with your upcoming class.

Sincerely yours,

Philip Everson

寄件者：Hsuan Yuanyu [yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net]

寄件日期：2007/5/23 (星期三) 上午 02:08

收件者：Thompson, Dolores

副本：WallCharles

主旨(J)：RE: O S X FW: Possible Mistake in Official Guide to the New TOEFL BT

Dear Ms. Thompson:

Thank you for your response. Now I can go to class with a light heart, and I see no need to take any further action on this matter. I don't have Mr. Everson's email address. Please tell Mr. Everson that I appreciate his candid admission of mistakes.

Best regards,

Hsuan Yuanyu

From: Hsuan Yuanyu [mailto:yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net]

Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 2:15 PM

To: Wall, Charles

Subject: RE: ETS TOEFL Guide

Dear Mr. Wall:

Thanks to your help, the ETS has written me and admitted mistakes on both counts. As I said, that's all I need to face my students, and I see no need to take further action on this matter.

Thank you again for your help.

Best regards,

Hsuan Yuanyu

寄件者：Wall, Charles [Charles_Wall@mcgraw-hill.com]

寄件日期：2007/5/23 (星期三) 上午 02:18

收件者：Hsuan Yuanyu

主旨(J)：RE: ETS TOEFL Guide

I'm very glad that ETS was able to answer your concerns.

Thank you again for writing to us. We always appreciate hearing from readers!

Best wishes,

Charles A. Wall

Senior Editor

McGraw-Hill Professional

2 Penn Plaza, 11th Floor

New York, NY 10121

phone 212 904 5387

fax 212 904 5134

charles_wall@mcgraw-hill.com

www.mhprofessional.com

PS.

Mr. Hsuan Yuanyu is an English master of high repute in Taiwan who. The above communication e-mails written by him vividly demonstrate how to fight for justice with a so-called authority. This material definitely deserves insight for learning.

Young People Enjoy Life More

2009-08-21T03:14:00.000-05:00

Question:
Do you agree the following statement?
Young people enjoy life more than older people.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Young People Enjoy Life More

There are plenty of activities important in life. It goes without saying that the most essential is whether a person can enjoy his or her life. While some guys may think that older people enjoy life more than young people do since they are experienced and can observe the world from many different perspectives, I disagree this opinion for several reasons.

First, young people are ususally healthier than older ones without wasting time taking medical care. It's a given that a healthy person is easily filled with energy to take actions but those older people always need to pay more attention to the body and tend to spend so more time worrying about actions not taken that they cannot totally devote themselves to enjoying life. For example, an older man may reject an journey invitation in consideration of the strength cost and energy reduction since it requires much more time to recover.

Second, learning more and experiences are obstacles to enjoy life. Although older people have observed and been aware of lots of stuffs in the world, this causes them to incline to imagine the results of taking actions to enjoy life rather than just to do that. For instance, even if diving into the sea is so much fun, an older man may still refuse the plan considering that he is probably in danger of a shark.

In conclusion, I agree that young people enjoy life more than older people do because they are physically fit and never easily get confined to the past observations and knowledge.

Best way to Learn Independence

2009-08-16T00:07:00.000-05:00

Question:

Some young adults want independence from their parents as soon as possible. Other young adults prefer to live with their families for a longer time. Which of these situations do you think is better?

Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Best way to Learn Independence

Even though a person has grown adult, there are still many things and experiences to learn. The most important of all should be independence. I think to live independently is the best way to learn it for several reasons.

First, making a living on his or her own is the fundamental part of independence. Since by living alone, young adults are forced to earn money, tackle problems in life immediately, such as negotiations with neighbors or a landlady. They will soon experience the effort made by their parents and learn to cherish what he or she possesses now because it is never easy to gain anything they want without the support of their parents.

Second, removing reliance on and influence of parents can speed up young adults to derive the true independence of their own. While some people may argue that parents living together will give appropriate advices to young adults when there is a problem, I should point out that each advice also means a hint or suggestion putting influence on the decisions and the consideration of young adults. This causes reliance and imitation which restrict the creativeness of the young to invent new solutions and subsequently slow down the progress made by the young generation.

To sum up, the best and fastest way to learn independence is to live alone. Not only a young adult can experience the real difficulties in life but also get rid of the reliance and influence from parents to derive true independence which help them think more innovatively. For these reason, I highly inspire those young adults to live independently as early as possible.

Keyword	Kindle Store	B&N	SONY
cloud comnputing	61	28	30
self-stabilization	3	0	0
linguistics	5287	896	4409
Chinese	1528	2068*	1302