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Comment: It's a game (Score 1) 226

by renzhi (#45657163) Attached to: Nokia Takeover In Jeopardy Due To Alleged $3.4B Tax Bill In India

It's a game played by the Indian government. Nokia's handset division is to be sold to Microsoft, which has a ton of cash on hand. It's a game worth playing, as Nokia has no way of packing their bag and getting out tomorrow, so does Microsoft. Microsoft wants that handset division as part of its strategy, and the liability can be worked out by Nokia/Microsoft to transfer to Microsoft, which will then work out a deal with the government, which will promise to sweeten via some kind of tax break on the condition that Microsoft invest more in the country. At the end, they will make a join release, saying that each one has made a score, it is good for the consumer, for the shareholders, for the country, for Jesus, for Buhda, for Ganesha, for Annapurna, for Hanuman, and whatever deity you've got. Everyone would be happy, and it would be the end of the story.

It's the same kind of game governments play all over the world.

Comment: Re:ridiculous... (Score 1) 495

by renzhi (#45489147) Attached to: Norway's Army Battles Global Warming By Going Vegetarian
I never tried to convince anyone to save the planet. My arguments have always been it's good for your health, and it saves you a tons of money too. But when people have a "dream", they don't give a shit about other things, they "need" to fullfill their dream first, which is to live the american life.

Comment: Re:ridiculous... (Score 5, Insightful) 495

by renzhi (#45488917) Attached to: Norway's Army Battles Global Warming By Going Vegetarian

Per capita wise, we probably should start with the USA. If the Americans eat less meat, drive less and consume less resources, I'm sure that's going to have a very positive impact on their health too, not just the environment of this planet.

Unfortunately, the american lifestyle is a model that most Chinese dream of right now. So this trend is a terrible one. But what do you expect people in other countries to do, when the Americans export their movies in which people are living in big houses, with gigantic backyard, and there are more cars than persons in a family, have a fun life with a lot of meat (fill in your favorite resources)? When people in other countries have the means, they will want the same thing. And they emulate. This is totally normal. That means, in China, people also want a big house, at least a car, or preferably, one car per person, and all the comfort in life that the Americans have been enjoying for so long.

I gave up driving 10 years ago, my wife and I each have a bike. We ride or take the public transit, set a quota on our own diet, watch closely our AC and heater to just have a minimum of comfort. We watch our carbon footprint carefully. But when we try to convince other people to at least try to do something, people think we are idiots. The planet belongs to everyone, if the Americans/Europeans can enjoy the resources, why can't we?

It would interesting if there was some kind of quota system on all countries in the world, based on the population size. And it would be even more interesting if we can control it at the individual level. You want to enjoy more resources? Pay for it. That money will go to those who have left over. So the rich people can have all the shit they want, as long as they pay for it.

Comment: Interested in battery (Score 1) 177

by renzhi (#45431051) Attached to: Military Robots Expected To Outnumber Troops By 2023
Ok, are these robots going to run on battery or just some kind of diesel engine? If they are going to run on battery, is the technology available yet, or are we so optimistic that we can solve the issue in 10 years? I'm only interested in the battery technology, this is going to make it or break it. I'm not that optimistic, unless these guys have something in the pocket that we don't know about. Until we solve the battery (or fuel cell, or whatever portable energy pack) problem, we are not going to see much of autonomous robots (save the unmanned drone, or vehicle large enough to carry a big fuel tank).

Comment: Not going to happen (Score 3, Insightful) 112

by renzhi (#45268339) Attached to: Motorola's "Project Ara" Will Allow Users To Customize Their Smartphones

Don't hold your breath, this is not going to happen. There is little profit margin in selling components like this, why would the phone manufacturers get into low-margin business and abandon their high-profit business? Selling replaceable components means that users are going to hold on to their longer, and replace it less. Where's the profit in that the manufacturers? Their job is to dump a new phone model on the market every 3 months, rinse and repeat.

Comment: Baffled to read comments here (Score 5, Insightful) 562

by renzhi (#44787487) Attached to: 400 Million Chinese Cannot Speak Mandarin

I'm baffled to read comments from those who don't know Chinese, or don't even bother to learn Chinese. The mandarin, is just another dialect in China, which happens to be promoted by the emperor/government as the one unified tongue so as to facilitate communication. Even with tens of different regional dialects, they are all based on the same character set. People had been able to communicate with each other for thousands of years.

The worst thing is to see people suggest that the Chinese should "latinize" their language. Please, do not make stupid suggestions like on subject you have no idea.

And for people who said that Chinese is difficult, that's because you haven't really put efforts into it. Look, how many hours have you put into learning Chinese on a daily basis, as compared to the hours that Chinese people (and other people all over the world) had put into learning English? And you even complain that these folks can't speak English correctly, whereas the Chinese people would have congratulated you even all you can say is "nihao" and "xiexie". For non-English-speaking people, English is really a bastard language. Why is "shit" not "sheet" or "shait"? Words such as "anticonstitutionally", where am I supposed to put the tone on? And the grammatical rules and exceptions. And shit like that.

And the French language. Try to learn just the conjugation of the verbs. Try to master the grammar. And how do I figure out the gender of a noun? Is there a rule for that? I spent years learning French, I know it pretty well, but I can't even say I really master the grammar. And before we went on a trip to Italy, everyone said Italian is really easy. Even with my French background, I still struggled quite a bit to learn that other latin-based language.

And before going to Germany, I also tried to learn German. Oh, ouch, err... learning German is like being a masochist.

How about if people in other parts of the world tell the Amerians/Brits to "simplify" English, or tell the French to simplify French, or tell the Germans to simplify German? Or to simplify your _insert_your_favorite_mother_tongue_here_ ? You know what, it's been a struggling experience for them too.

I master quite well Chinese (Mandarin plus other 3 dialects)/English/French, know a bit of Italian and Spanish, Khmer and Vietnamese, but still struggle a lot whenever I try to learn a new language. Languages evolve over hundreds/thousands of years, it's hard to learn, even harder to master. You need to really put effort into it. Besides, learning a new language or get to know a new culture, is supposed to be an intellectual endeavor of your own journey. People don't give a shit about what you think of their language or culture. You are supposed to approach them. They have no duty to "make it easy" (whatever that means) for you.

Comment: Ah rats... (Score 1) 85







