http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/15/apples_share_of_u_s_pc_market_slips_to_7_4_as_sales_decline.html

Although Apple's U.S. market share is ~7.5% and holding, it is buried in the "Other" category world wide, somewhere below Toshiba's 5.5%.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/UB9X4tdiMrLy_BAKxmik-w?authkey=Gv1sRgCNyVjfrFgdu7vQE&feat=directlink

Krod Mandoon puts the ___ Movie genre to shame.

Oh, and the new homepage design for Slashdot lost me and it took two minutes to figure out how to get to the journal.

I've been in Korea for just shy of five years now. Most days, I deal with it, but there are quite a few things that make me want to twist someone's head off. There are good things, too. I love teaching children, and the country gives me the opportunity to do that. They pay me well enough for what I do, and considering my housing is paid for, I end up with half my money in the bank at the end of the year. Since the won crashed, this nest egg hasn't been worth so much, but ....

I walk or bike to work, as I have for most of my life. I don't own a car, hoping that my carbon emissions are better than most people's. If I've got to travel, I take a train, bus, or taxi, with my preferences in that order. Taxis are cheap here and the city bus is regular and less than a U.S. dollar.

Korean society is homogeneous. Being a citizen of Korea is synonymous with being of Korean ancestry. With the new "problem" of farmers now importing Vietnamese, Chinese, and Filipino wives just so they've got someone to marry (shortage of women born due to aborting female fetuses, you see), the homogeneity may change in a generation or two. Right now, though, being non-Korean means being an outsider. Being obviously non-Korean -- I'm caucasion -- I don't make it into anyone's circle of friends.

And that's a big problem because Korea is all about circles. If you aren't a friend, family, or co-worker, Koreans don't give a shit about you. Normally nice people will drive full-speed right through a crosswalk full of children in a school zone and expect the children (outside their circles) to get out of the way or die, I guess. The same drivers will stop for someone they have a relationship with.

Since I'm an outsider and I walk or bike, that puts me in a dangerous position every day. I go beyond defensive walking into paranoia. Normally a sweet guy, the danger I'm in makes me upset and defensive, and I end up screaming at drivers or even kicking cars when they barely miss me in the crosswalk.

Then there's the racial problem. Goy is of Chinese decent, and she looks Korean to most Koreans (though westerners continue to tell me that she looks Thai ... sigh). She is classed as a traitor to her race .. not by everyone, but by a large enough percentage to make shit uncomfortable -- cursing is common; spitting less so. The blood purity thing really gets to me, and we are innocent victims of its wrath. It's VERY thinly veiled racism.

There's also a war mentality caused by a forty-year-old cease fire, which exposes itself in two ways. Firstly, the older generation doesn't wait for anyone, throwing elbows or shoulders and brazenly cutting in line. Older drivers don't wait for anyone, either, turning right out of the far left lane or left out of the far right. Secondly, there's a legacy of military-style management. Information is power. Nothing is disclosed until the last possible moment, and everyone jumps on whatever seems most urgent at the time. This is what I learned in school as crisis management. If you look at the link with a list of sixteen of mis-management factors, you'll get a good overview of Korean management style at the places I've worked. It drives me nuts and destroys my job motivation.

Then there's stupid shit like requiring a Korean national ID number to do anything -- purchasing online or posting in web forums. I have a number just like theirs, but my alien ID number doesn't go into the database and I'm cut out. By the way, the online registration requirement was due to an actress killing herself after being slandered (libeled?) online. Instead of using the tragedy as a teaching point that people's words are not a good reason for committing suicide, the government effectively taught people that it IS a good reason, and that you need protection from the government in the form of netiquette police and a three strikes law.

Finally, there's the nationalism. Being an American, I may not be in a position to criticize, but the constant misinformation and outright censorship in order to boost or keep the national image really bugs me. That would be true if I saw it in the U.S., too.

That's my rant.

I'm gong on two weeks' vacation to Thailand tomorrow. Expect my account to be very quiet while I lie on the beach, spend nights with Goy, and eat spicy seafood.

OK. I took the Mac-head's advice and compared equivalent hardware versus the cost to see whether Macs come out "surprisingly competitive" as is often claimed. I looked at Apple, Dell, and HP because they were the first ones that came to mind for on-line ordering. I've never done this before or bought any of the brands I looked at, so I'm not a fanboi. The results:

Apple iMac 24"

        * Cost: $2199
        * CPU: 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
        * RAM: 2GB memory
        * HD: 500GB hard drive
        * DVD: 8x double-layer SuperDrive
        * GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB memory

HP IQ800t -- This is 26", not 24".

        * Cost: $1939
        * CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T8400 [2.26GHz, 3MB] -- This is slower than the Mac, but it's the highest offered.
        * RAM: 4GB DDR2-800MHz system memory [2x2048] -- More memory
        * HD: 500GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive -- same HD
        * GPU: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS HD -- Better GPU
        * DVD: Slot-load SuperMulti DVD Burner -- Probably the same, but who knows?

Dell XPS One 24 24" -- same as Mac

        * Cost: $1899
        * CPU: Intel® Coreâ 2 Quad Q8200 processor -- Quad core, newer chip, same FSB but 2.33GHz. Cores vs. GHz.
        * RAM: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800Mhz - 2 DIMMs -- More RAM
        * GPU: 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT -- Newer GPU
        * HD: 750GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive --Bigger HD.
        * DVD: 8X Slot load CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) -- Again, who knows?

The results are questionable because I don't see nearly as many specs listed for the iMac as for the other all-in-ones. Both the HP and Dell include stuff like remotes, wireless keyboards, and bluetooth. I assume the Mac has all these. Both Vista-based ones come with MS Works and varios other productivity software, while the Mac comes with iLife. I call it about even.

The bottom line, though, is that I can get a better CPU (I prefer cores over raw GHz), more RAM, a newer GPU, and a larger hard drive in the Dell for $300 less, or I can get a remarkably similar machine overall (slower CPU but better GPU and RAM) with a slightly bigger screen from HP for $260 less. Either way, unless you want/need OS X specifically, Macs seem to lose.

No, this isn't a comprehensive run-down. No, I couldn't get everything exactly the same. I only chose one model and looked at it. I chose one of the higher-end Macs because I've heard that's where Apple is competitive. Interestingly, the Dell includes some nice extras like in-home warranty service and remote access / on-line backup (which I guess equate to Apple's pay services).

I doubt this post will sway any of you guys, but there are the raw numbers. Oh, and I'd like to add that I don't plan to buy any of the models.

Well, I was in a familiar situation last night, being drunk and hit on pretty heavily by a fairly attractive woman, and I reacted the way I always do -- I backed off into the "obviously friendly" zone and snubbed her. I'm trying to figure out why that is my reaction (and has been throughout my life).

Last night was my 41st birthday party, and all the expats from the surrounding area came out to drink at a local bar and go for some karaoke. There were about fifteen all together. I got liquored up pretty good at the bar, but I like to watch out for Goy (who never slows down), so I didn't drink much while we were singing. An expat who's been here for close to a year and who I've known for a couple started dancing up next to me, and my suspicions about her come-ons were confirmed when she turned away and made the "accidental brush" which really serves as a package check for women on the dance floor. She used to date a guy who slept with Goy a couple years ago, and she knows that we have an open relationship, so I knew that she knew the score.

She was horny and wanted to get laid. Specifically, she's part-time bi and wanted to know if Goy was good in bed because the lady's experience with Asian women had been pretty awful (they don't learn much about sex here). I kept the conversation factual and this woman at arm's length. She went home alone to her vibrator.

As I said, this happens to me fairly often -- probably a dozen times in the last two years. The gamut has been run ... from innuendo to dry humps to a through-the-pants hand job and tongue down the throat. I've treated them the same way every time -- I put them in the friend zone.

I'm starting to wonder why I do this. I don't regret my inability to just "get laid," but I think it must say something important about me that I don't react the way every other man I know would. I'm searching for what that message is.

Prostate cancer has been linked to the number of ejaculations in early years, specifically relating to masturbation. I'm surprised I'm still alive. I once played hookie just to lay in front of my dad's porn and masturbate all day (maybe 8 times). Heck, I've done it three times AND gotten a BJ since yesterday afternoon, and I'm over 40.

My mother should have said "You'll kill yourself" instead of "You'll go blind!"

I get tired of this line: "Businesses refuse to base their systems on beta software so Google Apps will never make it into the enterprise." It comes up twenty times every Gmail or Google Docs article on Slashdot. I think it must be an MS talking point.

Let's look at the facts, eh?
The Standard Edition ToS: This is the free version and paragraph 15 limits liability extensively and declares

The Premium Edition ToS: This is the supported version and the limits on liabilities are fewer (para. 14) and the word "beta" isn't mentioned anywhere in the contract.

The Education Edition ToS: This is the version free for schools. Paragraph 13 is identical to Premium's Paragraph 14.

The summary?

1. The Standard Edition is free, beta, and has new features.
2. The Business Edition isn't beta and it has a more conservative feature set.
3. The Education Edition isn't beta, either, and is basically identical to the Business Edition.

Thank you for you time. That is all. ;)

Since I get fifteen mod points fairly regularly and never seem to use all of them, I've made a resolution:

I want to remain mostly positive, but the TT trolls really piss me off.

I was beaten as a child for being a "fag" because I liked hanging out with girls. What my classmates didn't realize was that the action didn't make me gay. Other things that don't make someone gay include:

• Kissing your friend
• Incidental contact in a MFM threesome
• Being raped in prison
• Giving a BJ for money or on a dare
• Enjoying having a finger shoved up your ass by your girlfriend
• Doing anything but being attracted to the same sex

Why don't people get that being gay is a matter of the heart, not of your actions? I'm not gay, but if I were, I'd be damn proud of the fact.

http://slashdot.org/~Daengbo/comments

I was waiting in line at a Dunkin and listening to a whiny, acoustic song over the sound system sung by someone I assumed was Korean. Since the song was in English, I listened more carefully than I would otherwise have, and I kept thinking "That song is familiar -- where have I heard it before? It's a cover. Who sang it originally?"

Well, it turned out to be "Never Gonna Give You Up," and I almost spat all over the donuts when I realized it. I still think it's probably a Korean. I though it might be Ashley Tisdale's version, though it's not actually released, but I found that on YouTube and it's kind of techno. Sadly, when researching the AT version of the song, I was horribly scarred by the OMG! I'm a Degree Girl web site. Gag me with a spoon!

My gal just went to visit an adult social site and got an "Internet police" page instead. Apparently the new Internet morality laws are in force. I expect Korea to be much less fun now.

I am already filtered at work so that I can't view the UK Telegraph site or several other real news sites. Now I can't get unfiltered access at home, either.

The nanny state may be the end of Korea for me.

In the post-fight interview after Mir's KO of Nogueira in UFC 92, (paraphrased)

Mir showed class and gave great respect to a great fighter, then turned to the pompous Lesnar and gave him none, all in one smooth movement.