OnLive's move was a stroke of genius. An evil genius, but genius nonetheless.
Too bad a sole proprietorship is under a very different set of law compared to companies, so I can't save that in the back of my mind as a backup plan.
What they did to avoid bankruptcy and all the troubles that come with it was to set up a second company and hire all the employees they intended to keep.
Every debt and everyone they were going to fire got left behind in the empty shell of a company.
For those who are more ignorant than myself, legally speaking, a company is its own entity just like individuals. Its debts are its debts, not its CEO's, not it's shareholders' and definitely not its directors'. In the eyes of the law, a company is almost a person.
It's clear that someone or some people over there read the Thirty-Six Strategems because this is "金蝉脱壳" (jin1 chan2 tuo1 ke2), and this is one of those rare moments when a company followed one of them so literally.
Although the point of that strategy is to escape unnoticed, what they did allowed them to escape noticed but without consequences anyway (legally speaking) so it can be said that they basically accomplished the same goal, since to escape unnoticed is to avoid the consequences of getting caught doing so in the first place.
While dismantling the box packaging of the old Linksys USB network adapter that recently stopped working, I recalled that it might have a warranty, so I looked through the contents and found the receipt.
Nope, it seems it was bought in September 2009.
Which means it has been around for far longer than I thought.
It felt like it's only been a year TBH. The adapter still looks so new now.
Oh well, I guess it was really worth the money.
Now I've got this TP-Link 300 Mbps High Gain Wireless N USB Adapter model TL-WN822N as the replacement and it's pretty cool. Mainly it's because of the extra cable that I've connected to the USB extension cord I've been using for the Linksys adapter.
The combined cable is so long I'm able to leave the adapter outside my room, ensuring optimal signal strength even with my door closed.
When I leave it in my room, the strength is around 80-90%. Right now, it's steady at 100%, dropping to 98% once in a long while.
The other day I tried using the dumbbells for my bicep curls again. What I was expecting was the resistance I felt in the past but the first rep was more bicep swing than curl.
They felt so light!
Damn! Those resistance bands are hard!
And this is what NASA's going to be playing when Curiosity finds Prothean tech on Mars.
Mass Effect's also going to be having an anime out in November and it's going to be set during the timeline of ME2 about Vega's mission.
And of course there's that film whose film rights have already been bought. Now we're just waiting for someone to actually do something more than that.
And then parents wonder why the government isn't giving them more money to help them with their kids.
How can they save for retirement when they have to struggle just to send their children to school and tuition?
Don't have kids since you clearly can't afford it.
I may be cruel to say this but it's not a new idea.
Oh please, people have been following this rule for a very long time! Back in the day, it was worse. You think not getting enough government money is bad? Wait till you see arranged marriage. Yeah, go to India and take a look.
The basic idea is the same - don't start a family if you aren't going to make enough. If you do, don't blame the world for not helping you cover up your mistake.
Now I am addicted to online shopping. I browse online stores like 3-4 times a day looking for cheap crap I can buy, though I don't actually buy something everyday. I just like the feeling of opening packages sent to me.
Holy crap! There's a new Kickstarter project for a humongous-scale RTS that lets you play on the big picture or in the field.
From what I gather, this game is going to be the result when Supreme Commander and Sins of a Solar Empire get together and have a baby.
I am indeed excited about the game but not enough to fork out money for it.
Moreover, the US$15 early bird option has already been sold out - all 5000 slots of it. The current cheapest option is $20.
It's only been around since the 16th and it's already hit over US$500k of its US$900k goal.
There's no doubt that it's going to exceed the goal, and probably by 100% at least. At this rate, US$2M isn't too high a goal to hit by the 15th of September.
Meanwhile on the Design side there's a not-so-original idea that is still more practical IMO than most of the other ideas.
This may not be the first solar energy project on Kickstarter but it's the first that's both useful and usable without much effort. Yes, there's already another project for a solar panel that charges your phone, but I can find 50,000 similar ones, albeit also 50,000 times shittier, on DealExtreme. Long story short, it's been done before, just not as well.
The Forty2, on the other hand, is a 2ft *3ft 25lbs (24" * 36" or 60cm*90cm and 11kg) laptop-style solar panel with a 350 watt-hour lithium ion battery and generates 180-200W of power.
In comparison, an iPhone charger only handles 10W of power.
It's still not a lot; a decent PC can have a power supply unit that handles 600W. Moreover, those numbers are only for optimal conditions, and Singapore's pretty cloudy on a lot of days. Still, I guess that's good for a large campsite or something.
One issue is how long it can last versus the cost of electricity.
In this project, the lowest price of each unit is US$500. Meanwhile, electricity in Singapore currently costs around S$0.28 per kWh.
US$500 is around S$650 - S$700, so that's 2321 - 2500kWh.
My home consumes about 350-400kWh monthly, so 2500kWh will take slightly over half a year.
But that's only if I use the unit to power everything, which is impossible unless they finally allow us to plug our own generators into our electric supply. Otherwise I'll probably only use it for my fan and lights, and at the 50W for my fan, 2500kWh is going to take 50,000 hours or 5.7 years even if I leave my fan on at full blast 24/7 throughout.
Or if you're using a small chiller/personal fridge, that may work too.
So yea, that thing is practical, but not for everyone. But it's way better than the solar phone chargers.
Ok, it's not practical :P
Got to face the facts. 350Wh means it will power my fan for 7 hours. I sleep longer than that, so unless there's a way for my fan to automatically switch power supply, this won't work at all for me.
Though it will come in handy if you're going camping and decide to bring a few larger electronic items with you, the thing is, if you're going to lug those things around, chances are you're going to drive, which means you can afford to get the heavier alternative of an insulated container filled with ice.
I guess this leaves one last scenario - going to some rural area in a developing country.
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