Taoyuan Nights

Before you read this article, I want you to watch something…Bananaphone. It’ll take a minute to load, but it’s very worthwhile.
Ok, back? Then let’s talk about Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual reality world, which appears to be inhabited by two types of person, each labouring under a terrible delusion:

“Furries”. These [...]

Oh my god. What a great ending to the season and cliffhanger for the next. Confirms beyond doubt that BSG is some of the best sci-fi ever produced.

It’s been a mixed season – an interesting start, interesting middle and a few occasional wonderful plot twists (several involving Gaius), with filler episodes spread throughout. But this? [...]

61737609 (match all the digits for the grand prize of $2 million NTD).
10439011 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits at the right hand side).
67032883 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits at the right hand side).
84391882 (prizes for matching 3 or more digits at [...]

Memory is what tells a man that his wife’s birthday was yesterday.
~Mario Rocco

In fact, the type of memory I’m thinking of just now is computer memory. In the last 2 months, the price of DRAM chips has more than halved. I hadn’t noticed, since I haven’t been particularly looking to upgrade my computer, but this [...]

In Taiwan, it’s easy to see what an absolute curse low interest rates can be.
What happens is this:
Day 1: Person A has a genius idea – selling ice cream for people’s pet dogs to eat.
Day 5: Persons B,C,D… notice that A has been making a tidy sum of money, selling ice cream for dogs.
Day 6: [...]

I previously reported that the Wii was expected to arrive en masse in Taiwan around the end of Chinese New Year, (mid-February). This was based on what I was hearing from the store managers of large electricals stores in Taiwan. Unfortunately, it hasn’t panned out. It’s now mid-March, and lo and behold, there’s bugger all [...]

Just saw 300 in Taipei. I think this review describes it much better than I ever could. (Trailers here)

Warner Bros.
For those of you living in Taoyuan, I can confirm that the cinema in Taoyuan city centre has it showing 8 times per day right now, lunch till late, prices from 170 to 220 NTD. [...]

Space.com is reporting that absolutely astounding amounts of water have just been confirmed on Mars with the new Mars Express orbiter. There’s at least enough water in this one location to cover the entire planet’s surface 10 metres deep!
From Space.com
This is absolutely incredible news. Unbelievable news. This discovery literally makes the prospect of human colonisation [...]

The UK government is extending a tax credit to dividends paid by non-UK resident companies.
Previously the notional tax credit (that prevents you needing to pay basic rate tax on dividends, and saves hassle on your tax return) was only available for companies based in the UK. This new change means it is also available [...]

Today, I stumbled upon this link to a wonderful article at the New York Times. Normally I’d just hit forward and send it to a few friends, but the ideas are so intriguing that it deserves a blog mention.
Essentially, it asks: Why is the universe “human-suitable” in terms of the difficulty of understanding what’s going [...]