It's a good thing I'm not an Indian. Think of how many mothers I cannot comment on!
Except that's in the Old Covenant which Christians don't really follow. He'd be better off saying he can quote the Torah instead.
He has a point. Why do they care so much about what people do when they're together in private? "Nobody's being gay at you."
J. Edgar Hoover was a hipster fag. He was gay before it was mainstream.
Diablo 3 won't be cracked for some time as far as I can tell because the game uses server-based AI scripts, meaning the codes for the behaviour of the monsters and NPCs are on the servers and not installed on the users' computers.
It's almost like a MMO in this aspect, so it's almost impossible to "crack" the game now.
To create a server emulator, AFAIK there are at least two possible methods:
1) create AI scripts similar to the legit ones.
2) hack into Blizzard and steal the codes.
Those are what MMORPG private servers usually use anyway.
Anyways, I believe D3 is setting an example for future big-budget games. The game has basically prevented piracy by storing half the game on its on servers, and now that most people have good broadband access, the always-online thing shouldn't be a problem.
Sucks for people with internet or power issues though.
Oh wow they're now selling the exact same portable router I'm using on some discount site for... S$35 (U.P. $75).
Right.
I bought 2 for US$22.70 each from DX back then, so that was roughly S$29.50 each.
And the $35 was only for self-collection; delivery costs $5 more.
Even at S$140 for 4, that's still $35 ie free delivery for a single order of 4 of those.
That's stupid. For four pieces, I could activate bulk rate for my order on DX and get the "3 or more" price of US$21 each, ie S$26.25 using the current rate of S$1.25 = US$1.00.
And that's a good example of how non-PRC-based retailers in Asia, online and physical, should not take the "cheap" path - it's a dead end.
You just can't beat the retailers from the country of origin of everything you sell!
This didn't use to be true back in my father's day but now that the Chinese retailers are going online, the rules have changed for every country that has good internet access availability.
Here in Singapore, the story is no different from that of Hong Kong, where retailers and wholesalers have adapted through quality assurance. Since there's no way we can beat the prices offered by China-based stores, the easiest path is to build up a reputation of reliability by spending more effort on checking the goods. We make sure we don't give you shit as often as Chinese sellers do, and in return we charge you more.
In a way, you can say that part of our job is to absorb risks for the consumers. If anyone ever thinks that he gets a lot of defective goods from SG or HK sellers, that person probably has no idea how terrible they really are over in China.
It's kinda like luxury retailers and posh restaurants which spend a lot of money on appearance and hype. They must spend more than others on their own products but that alone cannot justify their charging what they must to cover their costs.
For example, jewellery stores need more security than other kinds of retail stores (in addition to other higher costs like special expertise), but you can't just charge customers for that, so they make pretty boxes and bags, and use ambiance to make everything look high class. Those don't actually cost a lot and technically, they're nowhere close to justifying the differences between the costs and the selling prices of their products, but the feel of buying something from them that the combination produces do.
Anyways DX is a HK-based company which has a warehouse right next to a postal office. Clearly you will likely be able to find the same products sold there even cheaper if you went to China yourself or find an actual China-based online store, but DX allows free exchange for defective products and will pay for the postage when you mail it back.
There - reliability.
If I were to try and compete with that, I will have to find a way to justify my even higher prices since the import taxes and shipping charges here in Singapore are much higher.
In other words, I will need something that can beat that free exchange policy (and other things that DX offers, like reward points) without increasing my costs too much.
Until then, no Singapore online store will be able to match DX and similar websites (and there are A LOT of those).
Mankind is doomed! She has bred!
After overcoming a few challenges in Towns 0.46 I've got a town with a few heroes. It always felt like such a hassle to manually order my soldiers to explore the dungeons, so when the heroes arrived and automatically explored, killed the monsters and actually survive everything, the game felt so wonderful all over again.
The new challenge I'm facing is the lack of food partly caused by a complete absence of iron on the surface. I've fully explored the first level dungeon and all I've found is a lot of coal and copper deposits, yet not a single bit of iron.
Without iron, I can't make a stove. Without a stove, I can only keep making campfires to cook meat.
Anyways, my current solution is to build dining rooms in the further parts of the map that my people frequent together with a few barrels for storing prepared food and campfires so that there is an incentive to bring food to those dining rooms at all.
TBH this isn't really helping so I'm kinda out of ideas at the moment.
I have another idea which is to make a few plantations close to every entrance to the lower levels but that would take a lot of work. Trying to see if there are simpler solutions before I do that.
Meanwhile, my population has dropped from its peak of 41 to 13 due to sieges and starvation.
...
Ok it's been rising and dropping between 16-22 people. I'm not sure if hunger has been the issue since I haven't been checking on them while I was doing some other stuff but I've watched as a few of them were killed by dungeon mobs chasing injured heroes.
The residents are now wearing a mix of bone, iron, spiderite, goblinite and direrite equipment but most of them are still too weak to fight against a bunch of hobgoblin kaisers.
...
And it doesn't load my save after I restarted my PC.
D:
Oh well, I don't miss it anyway. Yes I have put in a lot of work but since I've never reached that far into this game before, most of the town was just an inelegant hodgepodge of temporary solutions.
This time, it's going to look nice.
So it's not just Greece, but in several other western European countries people are transferring their bank savings elsewhere, although it is particularly serious in Greece.
Greece's banks have lost 72 billion euros in deposits since the start of 2010, or about 30 percent, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Five of Greece's top banks saw 37 billion euros taken out last year, including 12 billion from EFG Eurobank (EFGr.AT) and 8-9 billion apiece at National Bank of Greece (NBGr.AT), Piraeus (BOPr.AT) and Alpha Bank (ACBr.AT).
More than 120 billion euros was taken from two banks in Belgium alone, including an exodus of customer deposits from Dexia (DEXI.BR) which had to be bailed out and restructured. KBC (KBC.BR) also saw a big outflow.
Some 90 billion euros was taken from France's banks, including around 30 billion each from Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA).
Imagine if the Greeks reverted to their drachma. Dohoho!
Why would I donate money to the family of the taxi driver who died in the recent accident with the speeding Ferrari when there are worthier causes to donate to that are featured in flyers I get together with my utility bill every month?
Even if the widowed wife is unskilled, the three children are aged 17, 19 and 21! All of them could take care of themselves, and surely the insurance will provide more than enough for the funeral and living expenses for at least a couple months.
The 17-year old could get a shitty part-time job, the 19-year-old should be going for NS which means SAF is going to provide for him for two years, and the 21-year-old is either working or studying at an university or poly soon, which means she's qualified for some better-paying part-time jobs.
Donating hundreds or even thousands of dollars to them does not make sense to me, especially since I know how well hospices do in Singapore.
I still remember that one time after the funeral when I called the nurse counter there and asked if they still wanted the unused adult diapers I got for my mother before she was hospitalised. I clearly stated that they were unused but the bags have been opened and they were a little dusty.
Frankly, I was taken aback by the sense of urgency she had in her voice when she exclaimed,"Yes! Yes! Yes! We want! We want!"
Whoa! Chill! Those were just diapers!
I didn't even bother to mention the cheque donation. Didn't want her to jump and scream or anything like that. Those patients there need the tranquility.
And if a hospice, a place which few Singaporeans ever visit (and many more don't even know what "hospices" are), can run on such a tight budget, then what about all these free clinics that SP Services are helping to advertise?
That family can take care of itself financially but these clinics are probably barely able to operate every day.
If I had the money to donate, that family would be the last group of people I'm giving it to. I'm not going to donate money just because someone died tragically. Let me put it this way: he died a quick death unlike my parents, so I have little sympathy for him, and only slightly more for his surviving family.
What they really need now is psychological and spiritual support, not financial.
I don't get why D3 is getting so much hate, but I believe it's because other game companies are behind it.
Would Blizzard really make such a bad game?
That feel when I'm sending an email in the cab and realize that my router died while I was typing it.
I really need to get into the habit of recharging it every night regardless of whether I'd only used it for 20mins the day before.
Or at the very least, take it out of my bag everyday and put it back in before I go to bed, just to force myself to think about whether it needs to be recharged.
It's annoying when I need to get that email out before office hours end and I won't be reaching home that soon.
I turned on my phone's wifi the other day at about 5pm and left it on.
Nothing happened.
1am. New message on Whatsapp.
Message was sent 13 hours ago at 10am.
Oh Whatsapp, you so hilarious.
It's funny because it's true.
Right now I worry about the end of the year. I'm watching what videos I can find on fashion shows for autumn/winter 2012 but I can't see much.
I have no idea what to look out for.
I'm probably wasting my time.
But I need to get some designs out soon to order them in time for our winter season, and I haven't got any.
I'm not even going to release anything new for June and July, just reorders for old stocks. Kinda learnt something from the last few months. Shit doesn't move and just clog up my storage space.
So the terahertz range is great for data transmission but it doesn't work over long distances.
Routers.
I want to sell my TV but... I haven't finished my PS2 games.
To me, the worst thing about witchhunts in medieval times was not that innocent people were killed but that there were witchhunters who killed them and yet lived for the rest of their lives believing they had never made a mistake and were even rewarded and respected for their deeds.
Which only goes to show that justice cannot be taken for granted.
The poor does not like meritocracy. It is fair but unfair.
All these unhappy voices online, they are the victims of meritocracy. Pity the poor, they say. It is not always their doing, they say.
And I agree with the latter.
If not for what my parents left me, I would be struggling through life with a terrible job.
More importantly, I'd be one of those voices.
I'll do what I'm willing to do to give them more opportunities but never will I give the poor man a fish. Medicine, maybe, but no fish.
The question is: do the talentless and the unfortunate deserve sympathy?
Should we feed the useless just because they are human?
I agree the question was phrased harshly but the purpose is to exaggerate our differences.
That man who is strolling nonchalantly across the road when the green light is on for the cars, and then shouts vulgarities and gives the finger to the drivers who horn at him, are we equals?
Yes. Despite my disdain, I must say yes.
However, should we treat the talentless and the unfortunate the same?
If not, how do we differentiate between them?
And don't give me the nonsense that nobody is useless. Tell that to the blind beggar in the streets who has no legs, no education and only has working experience in some form of manual labour. Go ahead and tell him he is a useful and productive member of his society.
Or tell that to Kony.
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