Tag: english

Weird bugs

February 23, 2014
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There are a few weird bugs in my system that I can’t figure out how to fix. I have an Ubuntu (always updated) and Windows 7 dual boot. One of the bugs is that when I reboot from one system to the other, the system time is totally messed up. When I reboot from Ubuntu to Windows, on Windows I get a system time 8 or so hours behind my timezone (I suppose it displays UTC but I didn’t check), and when I return to Ubuntu, I see the other way around: the system time is 8 or so hours ahead of what it should be. The problem is, I have no idea which system is bugged.

Edit: this can be solved by setting the UTC option in /etc/default/rcS to “no”.

My problem with education

February 19, 2014
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My problem with education is that they don’t teach kids what they need to know. They teach in depth about specific stuff – for some reason stuff that you will never ever need in your life.

Will you ever need to know how to calculate the derivate of a function? Unlikely, unless you’re an engineer or economist. Will you ever need to know which year some king signed some tax decree? Never, unless you want to be a historian. Will you ever need to understand the chemical process how mitochondria in cells convert energy? Not unless you’re a med major.

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Muster the force

February 17, 2014
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My highest level ship is at this point Kitakami at level 97 (20-something thousand xp to go to 98), closely followed by I-168 and Ooi, both also at 97. As for torpedo cruisers, there isn’t really a race: even number three, Kiso is in the latter stages of level 96 at this point.

The field of subs is more spread out, Imuya having a two-level lead ahead of I-19, currently at 95, the rest following in the mid-80’s with the latecomer I-8 quickly catching up. She’s currently 66.

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Me, Japanese and I

February 16, 2014
valeblog
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My memories from my high school days are quite limited, mostly just socializing and parties are what I can recall (and the occasional school event). I must admit I don’t remember anymore why or when exactly I started learning Japanese, but looking at the blog’s archives (currently offline) it must’ve been sometime in 2006.

I recall trying to write blogposts in Japanese, and just falling back to using Google Translate (and Babelfish) when I failed. Thing is, while I learned some words and basic grammar, I couldn’t make that next step forward, after which I could’ve said I know the language.

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That addiction

February 13, 2014
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I’m always in severe need for some entertainment. In the years before, that was fansubbing for me: translating was perfectly enough for me. Translating, being a part of the community, then later writing reviews even was great. But even then, I always had problems clearing my backlogs, since I simply couldn’t get myself to work on stuff unless I was doing it on the usual weekly scheduled timeslot.

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陰の伝承歌 / Lay of the Shadow

February 12, 2014
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第一部

郷の奥　続く道
虚を数えて　辿る道
つづら折り　見え消ゆる
友の影追い　参りけり
深き森のお社へ
山の端　日陰りて
影は虚にとなりにけり

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ESO (beta) second impressions

February 11, 2014
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After the rage-inducing installation of the ESO beta finished, I was more than skeptical as I dove into the world of Tamriel. Luckily the gameplay itself wasn’t as insane as the installation, but it sure took a good time to get used to. So I can say that my first second impressions were mixed, but definitely still better than my experience with WoW was.

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ESO (beta) first impressions

February 7, 2014
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Horrible. I didn’t even get to play the game yet, and I can already say that much.

I’ve been staring at the installer’s screen for no less than five hours now – I’m positive that in this time I could torrent Windows 8.1, burn it on a bluray or DVD, completely format my entire hard drive and finish installing Windows. Seriously, if you can’t provide a normal bandwidth for downloads (and this 4 gigabyte thing here at the 70% mark, which is about the third download in the process by the way, is downloading at a mighty 200 kB/s), then just outsource it. Include a limited-functionality torrent client in the installer and make the users download from each other. It’s not such great magic – it’s been done before (sadly, googling “torrent based installer” doesn’t return any relevant results so I can’t provide any actual examples, but I remember such).

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On definitions

February 7, 2014
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During my winter break I had the same argument twice, about definitions. People said that definitions can be disproved, and I said that that doesn’t make sense, since definitions have no truth value.

What do you call a definition (haha, define “definition”)? To put it simply, it’s giving something a name. The thing is described, and a name is assigned to that description. So a definition has no truth value, it’s just a naming. It can’t be true or false, it can only be different from other definitions (whether of the same term or the same thing is irrelevant).

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On the soul

February 7, 2014
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I don’t think there’s any mainstream religion out there that doesn’t assume the existence of a soul, nor that there is anyone out there who would need the explanation of what is meant by it. Still, I’d say that the soul is nothing but a fancy name for consciousness. And that definitely doesn’t have to be something breathed into us by some higher spiritual existence. Even less does it have to be something unique to humans, however painful that is to certain people to hear. Remember that only a few hundred years ago (and I daresay deep within even today), “civilized people” still refused to consider others humans just because the color of their skin.

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