randomenigma comments

@mistie710

I just get a giggle out of reminding these fanbois that the primary use for a phone is to make and receive calls... ^o^

Not since 2006 or earlier, it isn't. The primary uses are now text messaging and email.

Cool, hopefully some day the robot can also do my job, so that I don't have to.

I won't have time to read everything on my list if they do this. If you want to write an essay, do that on another site and then link to it from Twitter if you want us to know about it.

I really want to hate the Apple Watch, but lately I have been deliberately trying to avoid buying one, and the market seems to be doing everything in its power to prevent me buying anything else.

Interesting. I was always under the impression that crossbows fired bolts, but are there types which can fire arrows?

The term "download" did exist in 1985.

I always use one, even if the other person isn't.

See, that is the kind of KY behaviour which tends to piss me off when I see other people doing it. If someone is talking with a certain level of formality, you should try to notice and follow.

I don't think a salutation is necessarily required for every email. Sure, for the first email in a thread to somebody you don't interact with on a daily basis, put in a salutation. But feel free to omit it if you're replying to something the other person just asked.

What annoys me personally in emails:

Putting your reply at the top. The correct way is to quote the fragment you're replying to and put your reply below it. If you put it at the top and don't even cut down the email, I can't tell what you're replying to.

"Cleverly" putting your replies at the bottom but not actually quoting the stuff above, so I can't even see which parts of the text are yours and which ones are the previous sender's.

Not including the required context when forwarding a mail from a thread that I was not already on. Nobody wants to read the entire thread just to see what you mean by "Please see below", and I have decided that it is a waste of time to read it at all.

Putting me as a To even though there is nothing in the email which I care about or even want to know about. To means that the recipient is the direct recipient of the email and that it is being sent for a reason. If you use it as if it's a Cc, I will start ignoring you.

Conversely, putting me as a Cc and then later complaining when I didn't act on the email, even though it's your own fault for not putting me in To.

Hijacking a thread with an irrelevant discussion. Create a new thread instead.

Conversely, creating a new thread to continue another thread. Use the existing thread instead.

Using "Reply to All" for every single email.

These are some of the real rules of email etiquette. Basically it all comes down to understanding the medium you are using, what the different things mean and then using them like they were intended.

"The real-life divers were concerned that the character shows only the appeal of a young woman’s body"

Old bags feel insecure about a young girl with better assets. Naturally they're going to want her gone, then.

What's with the hate on MSG? I personally find MSG delicious. So many of the tastiest foods have it in there as a natural ingredient, yet as soon as you extract it and put it in something else, it's now disgusting? I don't really understand that point of view.

Awesome. I need to rejuvenate my pencil.

A laser mosquito defence system was invented many years ago. I take it this never went into production? What went wrong? Is there a story?

"Proprietary formats"... like MPEG-4, AAC and H.264?

@M3M3M3 Agreed. Logos which are too prominent are enough reason for me to avoid buying something. If Apple stuck their logo on the front when it's already on the back, that would be gaudy too. I don't buy laptops which put Windows logos on the top of the keyboard either. Keep that crap for surfaces nobody has to look at.

"Idols" are supposed to be different from "stars".

"Stars" are these untouchable, ultra-popular people who have perfect skills, appear on TV and who you never meet.

"Idols" aren't ultra-popular, generally you do get chances to interact with them but their dancing and singing can be less than perfect, but your support encourages them to grow as a performer.

Maybe I'm over-romanticising it. I'm not even an idol fan. 3dpd.

But my point is, if you're not going to take the shows, or at least the promotional events, overseas, then the fans can't interact with your performers, so you're not promoting them as idols, you're promoting them as stars.

Not that the metric system is perfect, a kg is yet to be defined as a base unit under a new measurement system.

Um, no. The kilogram is still a base unit, and even if it were, "yet" would not be the correct word to use in a context where something used to be something.

HTC's is due at the end of this year and now Sony's is due at the start of next year. Oculus... yeah, I like Oculus a a company, but I wish they would actually deliver a product.

Doesn't the U.S. have a "fair use" rule for copyrighted material, which explicitly allowed parodies? I wish this rule would extend to more regions in the world.

I remember reading somewhere that Japan technically didn't have such a clause (someone was using it to explain why Japanese Wikipedia articles often lack pictures) but that the copyright holders simply let doujin creators do what they want, because it just gets their franchises more popularity anyway.

So this whole deal with the TPP supposedly imposing rules on Japan which would impact parodies seems a bit hypocritical, like the U.S is saying it's okay if they parody stuff, but everybody else has to pay.

Have fun. Treat being connected as abnormal while you can.

In 30 years we'll be the ones trying to cure you of your lack of connection.

Weaker yen? I have been watching it all year and from my perspective, the yen hasn't gotten any cheaper. The US dollar has gotten expensive, though.

Passbook.... it's that feature that sounds awesome but nothing seems to support.

Airline tickets would be a good use case, but even though my airline supposedly supports the feature, there is no documentation anywhere telling me how to get my ticket in there and it certainly isn't obvious how it's supposed to work.

Concert tickets would be another good use case, but all the companies I have seen so far still use those physical paper tickets and force you to pick them up from a konbini.

"Unfair competition"? Isn't that what the airlines are doing? If an airline around here tried to sue people who figured out how to get a cheaper fare, the consumer commission would crush them for anticompetitive behaviour.

Not sure about "taco rice" lacking the taco shell, i.e. the one thing that makes a taco a taco. Why not call it "chilli rice"...

Even though there are only supposed to be 2-3 ingredients, there is often flavouring or sweeteners involved, and who knows what might be contained in those. Some flavourings common in food were determined to be carcinogenic years after they were put into use. Maybe some of the flavourings which are totally fine to eat turn completely nasty with a bit of heat applied.

But really, if you're going to post findings like this, it is proper to name the exact brands you used, not only so that people know which ones to avoid, but also so that others can verify or dispute the claims. The fact that they didn't name names just makes the whole study seem completely bogus (and if it seems bogus, it probably is.)

¥20,000 for one night? What a ripoff.

No physical presence at all, thus: (1) No easy way to browse for it randomly in physical stores yet (this might change.) (2) No easy and legal way to lend it to a friend.

No booklet, thus: (1) No nice artwork aside from the single image you may not even get in the track metadata. (2) No lyrics info whatsoever. (3) No decent metadata for the tracks (MP3s have the ability but nobody does it right.) (4) Nothing to display on my shelves to show who I like.

No attached physical bonuses. A good number of the CDs I buy come with posters. You could have a digital poster, but what's the point? The note they say about goods is spot on. The CD is just another form of goods.

Soft distribution may just completely replace the media at some point in the future. But the industry can't just sit back and expect that to happen. They have to provide solutions to all the above issues so that people don't look at soft distribution as an inferior method.

It doesn't even have to be a train service. A night bus running the same train lines would be sufficient. The only problem with this one was that it was a poorly chosen single route which was never going to be useful to anyone (except, I dunno, someone who happened to live in Shibuya and really didn't like walking?)

Meetings for me are just a way other people in the office waste my time. I'd rather get work done.

@Extra Virgin Palm Oil

It's not a donut (nor a doughnut, either).

An enclosed, fried thing with jam in it is called a jam doughnut. Logically, an enclosed, fried thing with ramen in it would be called a ramen doughnut.

So I guess if you're going to make outrageous claims like "durrhurr, it's not a doughnut", you should at a minimum:

Explain why you think it's wrong, so that people can point out the exact reason you're wrong, and Provide a superior alternative.

Otherwise you just end up looking like an idiot, like you did in that comment.

just because you only have 7 tiles doesn't mean you can only make eight letter words. Nobody ever said you could only use one existing tile on the board in your word and I'm sure there are cases of people making 15-letter words.