They said we're finally migrating from XP. Thank God they still let me keep Office 2003.

My new Win Vista laptop at work requires a USB key to even boot. I've been warned that if I ever lose that key, I'm screwed. I have no idea what the encryption key even is (I've not browsed the key, or even know if there's a filesystem on it). I'm hoping the key is something long and complex and not something stupid like "I.T. Guzé" or similar.

(I won't really be screwed, because I run Unison daily to back up everything that's important to a network drive anyway.)

Sigh. Right-to-work isn't at all the same as at-will. My state -- Michigan -- is a union-shop state, but also an at-will state. They have no bearing on each other, and have nothing at all common in law.

Right-to-work means (only) that non-members don't have to pay union dues. In a union-shop state, you *still* have the right not to join a union -- you're still stuck paying union dues (actually, an "agency fee" which is slightly less than the union dues). Unions can still thrive and prosper and protect their works in right-to-work states, and a lot of them do so.

At-will only applies to non-contract employment in at-will states. If you have a union and you have a contract with the appropriate language, then you're not an at-will employee, even in at at-will state.

I read that as capacity, i.e., his 10kW device would cost 1000 to 1500 dollars. Does that include fuel? I have no idea, and I've never read anything about this device. I do know that a 10kW natural gas backup generator would run me about $10,000 installed with an automatic switch, because that's something I've been looking for.

Oh, neat. I'm in Jiangsu. Except for some reason all of my channels come from the Philippines. I'm getting good at Tagalog, which doesn't really help me in China.

Or Plex, if you have multiple front-ends. Mac/Windows, and Linux is looking promising.

Well, as an American living in China, it's impossible to maintain my Western lifestyle without my VPN service. While I've not looked for outright censorship on Chinese websites, it's a fact that hundreds (in my experience) to thousands (as reported by others) of Western (not just USA) websites are blocked by the Great Firewall. In most respects, that's worse than censuring something's that's been published. It's like pre-crime (pre-censoring?)

(In any case, I'd still need a VPN for geo-blocking, but that's a separate issue.)

In China, it's "hanzi."

As for phonetically spelling out every word, well, not really. You can get close approximations, but there are sounds and speech patterns in other languages that can't be written or transcribed into Chinese. The best you can do with my simple name is "Jimu" for example.

You mentioned kanji, though, which is Japanese, and in Japan, most foreign names and other words are transliterated not in kanji, but rather in katakana. My experience is with Chinese, not Japanese, so I don't know how closely transcribed the words can become. Because katakana is all syllables, I think they must have some of the same problems as hanzi.

I admit it; not everyone is me. I don't need the US postal service, but somewhere, there's someone who doesn't have a computer and needs to get her cancelled checks back from her bank every month in order to balance her checkbook. (Obviously but a single example of many.)

So, let the rates boost. If you're going to demand a postal service and also not adapt to modern times, stop making everyone else subsidize you. Pay the rates the market bears. I hear dumb people on sites like consumerist complain about the outrageous price of $0.44 postage stamps. But you know what, that's dirt cheap! Why not charge a flat buck? What not two bucks? Hell, when I need a guarantee, I happily pay $10 and up for mail.

Also, ./ apparently doesn't like cents symbols, at least on preview.

I'm an automotive engineer working for an American company in China presently. Your use of proper English will be much, much more important to you here than any amount of Chinese.

I've also spent years in Mexico related to the job. Same thing goes there.

In both cultures, though, your personal life will be greatly enhanced by speaking the native language.