AnimeSuki Forums

Vexx · 2010-07-22, 03:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by anti-random

did anyone else hear that onemanga is closing down or is this plain silly?

The manga sites are being discussed in the manga subforum in a sticky thread if you want more information about events surrounding the various scanlation sites. I suspect this new stance from manga companies will only succeed if they provide better synchronization of english translation releases than they have. Otherwise, people will simply continue to scanlate and release via other internet protocols -- people want to read a manga within a reasonable time from its japanese release, not years later. People don't want to invest in a manga series only to have a jackass company like T*ky*p*p drop it into limbo with no explanation (e.g. ARIA, T. Moon Phase). One of the worst things in Japanese culture is to be considered unreliable, so certain US/western manga distributors should be on notice that this new game only works if they perform.

~~Tsuyoshi~~ · 2010-07-23, 08:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ricky Controversy

Well, I find that there's an inherent beauty in the way languages are constructed, and I suppose it is a reaffirming thing to see that despite our many conflicts, human beings can cooperate so extensively as to create so many functional solutions to the problem of communication.

So I'm hearing Spanish and Mandarin. Any other recommendations? Remember that I'm mainly looking to hear about languages that you find pleasing to listen to. Practicality is certainly a bonus, but first and foremost I want something that feels and sounds good coming off the tongue.

I don't want to be biased, but considering you have some Spanish and French in there, I think you should complete the circle and study Italian. Idk about me but many people I know love to hear it and always ask me to speak Italian even though they don't understand it for some reason.

Konakaga · 2010-07-23, 21:39

So time for a rather odd question on cosplaying, I am wondering why is that a girl cosplaying a male character is so generally accepted, while the guy cosplaying a female character isn't?

Also I mean ignoring the awful ones that are so very wrong for reasons besides gender thing, you know the ones xD.

Edit: Made this post before I saw this in silly news, so maybe it's just non-japan then?

Kudryavka · 2010-07-23, 23:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Konakaga

So time for a rather odd question on cosplaying, I am wondering why is that a girl cosplaying a male character is so generally accepted, while the guy cosplaying a female character isn't?

Also I mean ignoring the awful ones that are so very wrong for reasons besides gender thing, you know the ones xD.

Edit: Made this post before I saw this in silly news, so maybe it's just non-japan then?

Same reason why masculine girls are simply seen as "tomboyish", while feminine guys are seen as "Ho No!" "He is GAY" "Extricate that mess from our society!" "No room for you GAY", regardless of his true sexual orientation. We accept women trying to emulate men, the stronger and better gender. Women are weak by nature, so men emulating women are perceived as weak and soft, not worthy of being men who are supposed to set examples for their women. Remember that this playing stage is being judged by men.

btw I highly doubt that this thinking is absent from Japan, in response to the post you referenced.

FateAnomaly · 2010-07-25, 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Komari

Same reason why masculine girls are simply seen as "tomboyish", while feminine guys are seen as "Ho No!" "He is GAY" "Extricate that mess from our society!" "No room for you GAY", regardless of his true sexual orientation. We accept women trying to emulate men, the stronger and better gender. Women are weak by nature, so men emulating women are perceived as weak and soft, not worthy of being men who are supposed to set examples for their women. Remember that this playing stage is being judged by men.

btw I highly doubt that this thinking is absent from Japan, in response to the post you referenced.

I thought its because most guys cosplaying girls are a blight on the eyes while girls cosplaying guys are still not too bad.

Kudryavka · 2010-07-25, 23:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by FateAnomaly

I thought its because most guys cosplaying girls are a blight on the eyes while girls cosplaying guys are still not too bad.

And why do we have that mindset? Because of my previous response.

Irenicus · 2010-07-27, 21:36

Uh, I need a little advice.

Spoiler for personal situation/little traceable information though, unless you're a pro internet stalker:

Anyway, long story short, I'm a college student planning to go study abroad in Japan. The ETA is...a month and a half away. That's all fine and dandy. But I have a problem. A financial sort of problem.

No this isn't a solicitation for money over the Internet, but for advice. Rather, read on for an oops it's a mess kind of story. Essentially, it's like this:

Things are coming merrily along. But I have a few deadlines to meet. The earliest is to send the flight information to the school and organization involved and as part of the visa application. This is by July 31st, very soon.

Great. I just happened to have a surplus of $2500 from a scholarship stipend. With the price of the round trip around ~$1800 at most, I was fine.

Or so I thought. Of course I had a problem. There was another deadline after this one, August 6, nine days after this day of course. The JPN school asked me for let's say 300000 yen for short for important housing fees, which around this moment calculates to ~$3500. They asked for yen and they wanted it in Japan, which means I'll have to visit a big bank and do some alchemy with my Presidents. So hurry that deadline up a day or three.

Fine too, I thought. I had a big FAFSA-related disbursement of grants and loans and shit coming up. 3500 was well within my budget and more...

...that is, if it actually was coming up on time. Its earliest possible disbursement date was August 13. I asked the finaid counselor if they could move it earlier. Nope, nadah, this is federal regulation. Never gonna happen. I asked the JPN school if they could delay it a bit later. Nein either, it's concrete pay-or-don't-go moment.

So I was like, uhhh shit, what the Haruhi was I gonna do. Well, I thought of a solution. I still had that $2500 scholarship still standing, add that to say $500 or so in my account, and it's only 600 short for the Important Payment, counting in possible transaction fees, which I could hopefully scrounge up from somewhere.

Fine then, but that meant I had no more money to actually buy my tickets. Went online and realized (well, I knew it earlier), but those damned airfare comparison/agent sites like expedia and so on demanded that I pay straight out, and their return policy was generally, well, shit.

I googled to find yet another solution (promise it's the last one). Well, real, live travel agents allow a bit of a leeway between booking and payment. The agent mentioned that she could hold a ticket for me for about three days. Yay, solution! I could book it now, get a copy of the itinerary, send this preliminary plan around like it was my real one, cancel and then try again ten days later when I actually have the money. Good idea right? Well, that's the point where I need some advice:

1) How do I actually go about this? Do I just book, cancel, then go back to the agent (who's giving me a surprisingly good deal I would've gone "why not?" in a heartbeat had I not have this problem, even in comparison with online airfare bargain search engines) like nothing happened? Or should I try to explain (which I did a little already, though not in any detail), that I needed to apply for a visa and the money for the ticket won't actually be there 'til the 13th, and that she should join in my evil conspiracy to trick some people with utterly innocuous information?

2) Actually, do the visa guys take offense if my flight information was changed along the way, if I report to them properly right after the change?

3) More generally, the reason I wrote the whole affair down is because I want people to see what kind of holes are in my solution and what I really should be doing instead at this point, noting that I have an extremely limited resource and double obligations that MUST be fulfilled during this period of time between now and the disbursement date?

Vexx · 2010-07-27, 23:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Komari

And why do we have that mindset? Because of my previous response.

Well... there are *good* crossdressing efforts -- but the American scene is infamous for guys who basically insult the living daylights out of characters they purport to be dressing as. I've seen some outstanding male crossdress cosplay --- and I've seen things that make anyone of any orientation want to stick nails in their eyes.

I love cosplay... but frankly I know my limits and those limits are roles where "curmudgeonly Viking" might fit in (e.g. like a salamander or delivery guy in ARIA). If I were slight of build with more androgynous looks then more options would open up.

oompa loompa · 2010-07-29, 13:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Uh, I need a little advice.

Spoiler for personal situation/little traceable information though, unless you're a pro internet stalker:

Anyway, long story short, I'm a college student planning to go study abroad in Japan. The ETA is...a month and a half away. That's all fine and dandy. But I have a problem. A financial sort of problem.

No this isn't a solicitation for money over the Internet, but for advice. Rather, read on for an oops it's a mess kind of story. Essentially, it's like this:

Things are coming merrily along. But I have a few deadlines to meet. The earliest is to send the flight information to the school and organization involved and as part of the visa application. This is by July 31st, very soon.

Great. I just happened to have a surplus of $2500 from a scholarship stipend. With the price of the round trip around ~$1800 at most, I was fine.

Or so I thought. Of course I had a problem. There was another deadline after this one, August 6, nine days after this day of course. The JPN school asked me for let's say 300000 yen for short for important housing fees, which around this moment calculates to ~$3500. They asked for yen and they wanted it in Japan, which means I'll have to visit a big bank and do some alchemy with my Presidents. So hurry that deadline up a day or three.

Fine too, I thought. I had a big FAFSA-related disbursement of grants and loans and shit coming up. 3500 was well within my budget and more...

...that is, if it actually was coming up on time. Its earliest possible disbursement date was August 13. I asked the finaid counselor if they could move it earlier. Nope, nadah, this is federal regulation. Never gonna happen. I asked the JPN school if they could delay it a bit later. Nein either, it's concrete pay-or-don't-go moment.

So I was like, uhhh shit, what the Haruhi was I gonna do. Well, I thought of a solution. I still had that $2500 scholarship still standing, add that to say $500 or so in my account, and it's only 600 short for the Important Payment, counting in possible transaction fees, which I could hopefully scrounge up from somewhere.

Fine then, but that meant I had no more money to actually buy my tickets. Went online and realized (well, I knew it earlier), but those damned airfare comparison/agent sites like expedia and so on demanded that I pay straight out, and their return policy was generally, well, shit.

I googled to find yet another solution (promise it's the last one). Well, real, live travel agents allow a bit of a leeway between booking and payment. The agent mentioned that she could hold a ticket for me for about three days. Yay, solution! I could book it now, get a copy of the itinerary, send this preliminary plan around like it was my real one, cancel and then try again ten days later when I actually have the money. Good idea right? Well, that's the point where I need some advice:

1) How do I actually go about this? Do I just book, cancel, then go back to the agent (who's giving me a surprisingly good deal I would've gone "why not?" in a heartbeat had I not have this problem, even in comparison with online airfare bargain search engines) like nothing happened? Or should I try to explain (which I did a little already, though not in any detail), that I needed to apply for a visa and the money for the ticket won't actually be there 'til the 13th, and that she should join in my evil conspiracy to trick some people with utterly innocuous information?

2) Actually, do the visa guys take offense if my flight information was changed along the way, if I report to them properly right after the change?

3) More generally, the reason I wrote the whole affair down is because I want people to see what kind of holes are in my solution and what I really should be doing instead at this point, noting that I have an extremely limited resource and double obligations that MUST be fulfilled during this period of time between now and the disbursement date?

I'm gonna be studying abroad there too

After having my fair share of flight problems, I can tell you that your plan doesn't sound all that bad, but you need to get some security in there. You should probably get in contact with your home school; I'm sure they've had this problem before. Your study abroad office mind you, not the financial aid one. Worst comes to worst you should ask your school to give you a student loan, although you may lose a pound of flesh in the process. If the money will be there within a week I can't see it being a problem.

Mhmm.. talking to the travel agent is tricky. It's a gamble either way, but I would talk to your travel agent about it. It's just that otherwise, you could find yourself down a lot of money, and with no ticket to Japan.

Visa Officials! No, they don't care that much as far as I know - especially for stuff like study abroad. One of the perks of having people read the documents. I don't think they'll mind and you are allowed to do so - they really aren't that draconian.

Gah as much as I hate to send people into a debt-trap, you should look into taking out a loan if you're not already knee deep in debt.

Irenicus · 2010-07-29, 18:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by oompa loompa

I'm gonna be studying abroad there too

Where are you going?

Quote:

After having my fair share of flight problems, I can tell you that your plan doesn't sound all that bad, but you need to get some security in there. You should probably get in contact with your home school; I'm sure they've had this problem before. Your study abroad office mind you, not the financial aid one. Worst comes to worst you should ask your school to give you a student loan, although you may lose a pound of flesh in the process. If the money will be there within a week I can't see it being a problem.

Actually, I'm already "guaranteed" enough money for the study abroad trip on paper. It's just that it would only arrive when the grants I've received and the loans I've taken start disbursing (the usual FAFSA-related government loans). My problem is that it won't come in time to deal with both the 305000 yen fee deadline and the flight plan deadline. What I have in hand is enough for one but not the other at the same time.

Although if you mean I should ask the school itself if it can give me a short-term "painkiller" kind of boost, that's very interesting. I'll try and talk to them, but honestly I don't think they can do something extraordinary like that. It is something of an unusual case and the school, being a public university, is practically broke (it cut down its budget severely recently) and bound by bureaucratic rules that a more "personal" liberal arts college can sometimes just cut through in the interest of its students.

Quote:

Mhmm.. talking to the travel agent is tricky. It's a gamble either way, but I would talk to your travel agent about it. It's just that otherwise, you could find yourself down a lot of money, and with no ticket to Japan.

Mm, yes. I see your point. I think I'll take the honest approach. Hopefully the agent will prove understanding.

Quote:

Visa Officials! No, they don't care that much as far as I know - especially for stuff like study abroad. One of the perks of having people read the documents. I don't think they'll mind and you are allowed to do so - they really aren't that draconian.

That's actually very relieving to hear. If for example I send them a flight itinerary with all the information now, but cancel my reservation soon after, would that cause a problem? And should I send them the new itinerary after I receive the disbursed money to actually pay for the "real" ticket, or is it something better left alone?

I know they want to know I actually won't just go there and stay instead of returning, but I don't know if they'll be verifying the flight information directly during their processing, err, process, since it's likely I'll cancel *that* booking to buy another (the agent says I can't keep the reservation very long).

Come to think of it, how long does the Visa process usually take after an application reach them? I have the CoE and everything of course.

SaintessHeart · 2010-07-30, 07:32

Is there a way to quickly edit a 10-page report without dying? I did the first paragraph and there are already 3 spelling mistakes, 2 sentence structure problems and an excessively amount of wordiness!

P.S Yeah yeah I brought this upon myself. I thought by volunteering for editing of the report can save me all the trouble of having of thinking up of something to write. Didn't know that it is whole lot more trouble by having to think of something to replace the stuff written.

TinyRedLeaf · 2010-07-30, 08:57

Nope, there's no short cut. I edit, on average, about 12 stories a night, each an average of 500 words in length. That's about 6,000 words a night and, on some nights, around 50 per cent more.

That is, about 9,000 words a night, which is roughly the length of one chapter of a typical novel. So, as you can imagine, my brain is pretty much mush by the end of an eight- or nine-hour shift.

There are books that can teach you how to write clean, concise prose. The most accessible one is The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Or, you can follow George Orwell's six elementary rules:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Rule 4 might need a bit of explaining. A sentence written in the "active" voice uses a simple subject-verb-object structure. Examples: "I go to the zoo."; "Tom picks up the book."; "Jane met Tom."

A sentence written in the "passive" voice uses to a "object-verb-subject" structure. It is typically longer and sounds awkward. Examples: "The book was picked up by Tom."; "Tom was met by Jane."

Civil servants and officials, especially, love to use the passive voice, because it allows them to drop the subject of the sentence. Example: "The goal was met (by whom? how?)."

That creates ambiguity, and also leads to long, horrible sentences.

thevil1 · 2010-07-30, 10:31

Can someone explain the concept of Cloud Computing, and how it works works? I just can not understand it.

TinyRedLeaf · 2010-07-30, 10:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by thevil1

Can someone explain the concept of Cloud Computing, and how it works works? I just can not understand it.

In layman terms, it simply refers to the trend of shifting computing applications and resources to a network of machines (the "cloud"), rather than have them reside in individual, standalone computers.

This has been made possible by the rapidly decreasing cost of computer storage and network bandwidth. A good example of "cloud computing" in practice is Google Apps. It provides a full suite of applications that businesses or consumers typically use, such as e-mail, chat-conferencing, word-processing tools, presentation tools, spreadsheets and so on.

In the past, a business would have to pay a licence fee to use these tools, and it would also have to host these applications on its own servers, which it also uses to store its corporate information. Now, however, the business can simply make use of Google Apps to set up its own "enterprise" system and, theoretically, not have to care about where its information and applications are being stored, because Google will take care of those details in the background.

So, in a way, "cloud computing" is about outsourcing your applications and data storage to a third party. The obvious advantages are reduced overheads, and distributed computing: You can access those tools and data wherever you can get an Internet connection.

The obvious disadvantage is the potential loss of privacy and security. How much do you trust the third party, Google for example, to keep your data safe?

thevil1 · 2010-07-30, 11:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

In layman terms, it simply refers to the trend of shifting computing applications and resources to a network of machines (the "cloud"), rather than have them reside in individual, standalone computers.

This has been made possible by the rapidly decreasing cost of computer storage and network bandwidth. A good example of "cloud computing" in practice is Google Apps. It provides a full suite of applications that businesses or consumers typically use, such as e-mail, chat-conferencing, word-processing tools, presentation tools, spreadsheets and so on.

In the past, a business would have to pay a licence fee to use these tools, and it would also have to host these applications on its own servers, which it also uses to store its corporate information. Now, however, the business can simply make use of Google Apps to set up its own "enterprise" system and, theoretically, not have to care about where its information and applications are being stored, because Google will take care of those details in the background.

So, in a way, "cloud computing" is about outsourcing your applications and data storage to a third party. The obvious advantages are reduced overheads, and distributed computing: You can access those tools and data wherever you can get an Internet connection.

The obvious disadvantage is the potential loss of privacy and security. How much do you trust the third party, Google for example, to keep your data safe?

So you would say that "The Cloud" is a large scale version of an online forum. It connects people of same interests from all over to one place. It utilizes it's own rules of Common Courtesy, and contains it's own laws of physics.
Is that a correct understanding?

Quote:

So, in a way, "cloud computing" is about outsourcing your applications and data storage to a third party. The obvious advantages are reduced overheads, and distributed computing: You can access those tools and data wherever you can get an Internet connection.

The obvious disadvantage is the potential loss of privacy and security. How much do you trust the third party, Google for example, to keep your data safe?

Google actually doesn't secure their data. They don't encrypt. At least that's what I read. And Google uses Pay-Per-Click advertising. doesn't that go against your explanation? Or do I still have the wrong idea.

SaintessHeart · 2010-07-30, 11:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Nope, there's no short cut. I edit, on average, about 12 stories a night, each an average of 500 words in length. That's about 6,000 words a night and, on some nights, around 50 per cent more.

That is, about 9,000 words a night, which is roughly the length of one chapter of a typical novel. So, as you can imagine, my brain is pretty much mush by the end of an eight- or nine-hour shift.

There are books that can teach you how to write clean, concise prose. The most accessible one is The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Or, you can follow George Orwell's six elementary rules:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Rule 4 might need a bit of explaining. A sentence written in the "active" voice uses a simple subject-verb-object structure. Examples: "I go to the zoo."; "Tom picks up the book."; "Jane met Tom."

A sentence written in the "passive" voice uses to a "object-verb-subject" structure. It is typically longer and sounds awkward. Examples: "The book was picked up by Tom."; "Tom was met by Jane."

Civil servants and officials, especially, love to use the passive voice, because it allows them to drop the subject of the sentence. Example: "The goal was met (by whom? how?)."

That creates ambiguity, and also leads to long, horrible sentences.

I read about Orwell's tenets, however I find that applying Rule No. 2 & 3 results in a disaster : ignoring errors make the entire paragraph read funnily. The reason is that get stuff like this :

Quote:

Generally most of the students find the bookshop and the cafeteria not up to the standard as 47.4% rate the bookshop “poor” and 34.2% rate the same thing for the cafeteria. However there is still a high percentage of respondents (42.1%) who feel satisfied and rate “good” for the current bookshop. The cafeteria’s rating spreads quite evenly among the ratings. Besides “poor” rating from 34.2 %, there are 28.9% rate “good” and 26.3% rate unacceptable at the same time. The cafeteria does not receive a very positive feedback due to the fact that the range of food catered at the cafeteria is quite limited and not so tasty according to the majority of the students. A lot of people feedback that the cafeteria at the other campus is significantly better. Additionally, 10.5 % rate the cafeteria “excellent” still.

Which I split and cut to :

Quote:

A visible percentage of the students find the bookshop unsatisfactory as it was rated poor by 47.4% of the respondents. On the contrary, there still an equally high percentage of respondents (42.1%) who are satisfied with the bookshop and rated it “good”.

The cafeteria’s general opinion is inconclusive judging from the data garnered from the ratings. It has a 10.5% rating of “excellent”, 28.9% rating of “good”, 34.2 % rating of “poor” and 26.3% rating of “unacceptable”. The cafeteria did not receive a overall positive feedback (60.5% rated “poor” and “unacceptable”) due to the food being “limited” and “unappetising”, according to the written opinions from the survey. It has also been noted that a number of students compared the campus's cafeteria with that of another, possibly suggesting the former being remodeled to be like the latter.

In the end, I end up writing more and making some mistakes which I can't correct without rewriting the entire section from scratch. And that isn't all, I still have 2 more drafts to go, and each is about 1,500 words. And my editing gets more and more slipshod towards the end of the entire report that I almost end up ignoring a whole bunch of individual sentences chunked together at the end.

Is there a proper guideline to writing those readable reports that major government agencies release from time to time? The things I read from the net usually give me stuff that gave my group members the report writing structures.

TinyRedLeaf · 2010-07-30, 12:05

You're not expecting me to do your homework for you, are you?

My advice? Too many numbers crammed into one paragraph, enough to cause any reader's eyes to glaze over.

Start with the key finding. What's the story? Is business good or bad at the bookshop and cafeteria? Why? That should be your opening sentence.

Everything else will follow from there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thevil1

So you would say that "The Cloud" is a large scale version of an online forum. It connects people of same interests from all over to one place. It utilizes it's own rules of Common Courtesy, and contains it's own laws of physics.
Is that a correct understanding?

No, not really. While forum sites like AnimeSuki do exist in "the cloud", as do all other social-networking sites, there isn't any "computing" being done.

In any case, "cloud computing" is really no more than a fad label, like "Web 2.0" for example. The idea of sharing computing resources over distributed networks is as old as the Internet. It's just that it's now easier than ever before, so some smart hack came up with the name, ran with it, and finally pushed the concept into mainstream consciousness.

thevil1 · 2010-07-30, 12:12

I get it... so it's more a concept then an actual "thing".

SaintessHeart · 2010-07-30, 12:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

You're not expecting me to do your homework for you, are you?

My advice? Too many numbers crammed into one paragraph, enough to cause any reader's eyes to glaze over.

Start with the key finding. What's the story? Is business good or bad at the bookshop and cafeteria? Why? That should be your opening sentence.

Everything else will follow from there.

Of course not. I prefer to do my homework myself unless it gets too annoying for me to handle. And unlike other homeworks which I can simply ignore if it gets irritating, this accounts for a huge proportion of my marks. Therefore I have to find a way to do it without screwing up.

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I have to rewrite the entire section.

Konakaga · 2010-07-30, 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by thevil1

I get it... so it's more a concept then an actual "thing".

Currently yes, though theoretically as internet speed increases enough it becomes a more viable thing to make use of.

2010-07-30, 07:32	Link #4031
SaintessHeart Petting MY Kana-tan Join Date: Nov 2007 Age: 24	Is there a way to quickly edit a 10-page report without dying? I did the first paragraph and there are already 3 spelling mistakes, 2 sentence structure problems and an excessively amount of wordiness! P.S Yeah yeah I brought this upon myself. I thought by volunteering for editing of the report can save me all the trouble of having of thinking up of something to write. Didn't know that it is whole lot more trouble by having to think of something to replace the stuff written. __________________ Now I am ready to start my own Lastation Coffee Time Band! When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus. Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

2010-07-30, 08:57	Link #4032
TinyRedLeaf I was born for this Author Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Singapore Age: 38	Nope, there's no short cut. I edit, on average, about 12 stories a night, each an average of 500 words in length. That's about 6,000 words a night and, on some nights, around 50 per cent more. That is, about 9,000 words a night, which is roughly the length of one chapter of a typical novel. So, as you can imagine, my brain is pretty much mush by the end of an eight- or nine-hour shift. There are books that can teach you how to write clean, concise prose. The most accessible one is The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Or, you can follow George Orwell's six elementary rules: 1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3. If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out. 4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Rule 4 might need a bit of explaining. A sentence written in the "active" voice uses a simple subject-verb-object structure. Examples: "I go to the zoo."; "Tom picks up the book."; "Jane met Tom." A sentence written in the "passive" voice uses to a "object-verb-subject" structure. It is typically longer and sounds awkward. Examples: "The book was picked up by Tom."; "Tom was met by Jane." Civil servants and officials, especially, love to use the passive voice, because it allows them to drop the subject of the sentence. Example: "The goal was met (by whom? how?)." That creates ambiguity, and also leads to long, horrible sentences.

2010-07-30, 10:31	Link #4033
thevil1 Adventure ∀logger Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Looking for Reason to hear it's voice Age: 2	Can someone explain the concept of Cloud Computing, and how it works works? I just can not understand it. __________________ Adventure Vlog \| Adventure Blog \| Twitter A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles - Christopher Reeve

2010-07-30, 12:12	Link #4038
thevil1 Adventure ∀logger Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Looking for Reason to hear it's voice Age: 2	I get it... so it's more a concept then an actual "thing". __________________ Adventure Vlog \| Adventure Blog \| Twitter A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles - Christopher Reeve

2010-07-27, 21:36	Link #4027
Irenicus Le fou, c'est moi Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA Age: 23	Uh, I need a little advice. Spoiler for personal situation/little traceable information though, unless you're a pro internet stalker: Anyway, long story short, I'm a college student planning to go study abroad in Japan. The ETA is...a month and a half away. That's all fine and dandy. But I have a problem. A financial sort of problem. No this isn't a solicitation for money over the Internet, but for advice. Rather, read on for an oops it's a mess kind of story. Essentially, it's like this: Things are coming merrily along. But I have a few deadlines to meet. The earliest is to send the flight information to the school and organization involved and as part of the visa application. This is by July 31st, very soon. Great. I just happened to have a surplus of $2500 from a scholarship stipend. With the price of the round trip around ~$1800 at most, I was fine. Or so I thought. Of course I had a problem. There was another deadline after this one, August 6, nine days after this day of course. The JPN school asked me for let's say 300000 yen for short for important housing fees, which around this moment calculates to ~$3500. They asked for yen and they wanted it in Japan, which means I'll have to visit a big bank and do some alchemy with my Presidents. So hurry that deadline up a day or three. Fine too, I thought. I had a big FAFSA-related disbursement of grants and loans and shit coming up. 3500 was well within my budget and more... ...that is, if it actually was coming up on time. Its earliest possible disbursement date was August 13. I asked the finaid counselor if they could move it earlier. Nope, nadah, this is federal regulation. Never gonna happen. I asked the JPN school if they could delay it a bit later. Nein either, it's concrete pay-or-don't-go moment. So I was like, uhhh shit, what the Haruhi was I gonna do. Well, I thought of a solution. I still had that $2500 scholarship still standing, add that to say $500 or so in my account, and it's only 600 short for the Important Payment, counting in possible transaction fees, which I could hopefully scrounge up from somewhere. Fine then, but that meant I had no more money to actually buy my tickets. Went online and realized (well, I knew it earlier), but those damned airfare comparison/agent sites like expedia and so on demanded that I pay straight out, and their return policy was generally, well, shit. I googled to find yet another solution (promise it's the last one). Well, real, live travel agents allow a bit of a leeway between booking and payment. The agent mentioned that she could hold a ticket for me for about three days. Yay, solution! I could book it now, get a copy of the itinerary, send this preliminary plan around like it was my real one, cancel and then try again ten days later when I actually have the money. Good idea right? Well, that's the point where I need some advice: 1) How do I actually go about this? Do I just book, cancel, then go back to the agent (who's giving me a surprisingly good deal I would've gone "why not?" in a heartbeat had I not have this problem, even in comparison with online airfare bargain search engines) like nothing happened? Or should I try to explain (which I did a little already, though not in any detail), that I needed to apply for a visa and the money for the ticket won't actually be there 'til the 13th, and that she should join in my evil conspiracy to trick some people with utterly innocuous information? 2) Actually, do the visa guys take offense if my flight information was changed along the way, if I report to them properly right after the change? 3) More generally, the reason I wrote the whole affair down is because I want people to see what kind of holes are in my solution and what I really should be doing instead at this point, noting that I have an extremely limited resource and double obligations that MUST be fulfilled during this period of time between now and the disbursement date?