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Restaurant Chinese
Some colleges offer conversational Chinese. Others teach business Chinese. However, for Chinese Americans, the real deal is Restaurant Chinese. If you want to order off the Chinese menu, but can’t quite figure out a few of the characters, what do you do? At one point in time, I could only order dishes whose names I…
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Nanking
I’m watching Nanking on Hulu. Considering the nature of this documentary, Hulu really shouldn’t be showing advertisements, especially Japanese car ads.
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Oakland Zoo: Oakland, CA
The Oakland Zoo offers a different experience than the larger San Francisco Zoo across the bay. For small children, the Oakland Zoo offers a more manageable experience since the exhibits are smaller and closer together. For example, the giraffes at the Oakland Zoo are confined to a large dirt lot instead of the gigantic savanna.…
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San Francisco Zoo: San Francisco, CA
The San Francisco Zoo is a fun place for children and adults. Located near Lake Merced, the zoo showcases a broad spectrum of animals in various habitats. Some exhibits, like the giraffes at the African Savanna, appear expansive and more modern. Others, like the Lion House and the various playgrounds, seem dated. Overall, the zoo…
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Fairyland: Oakland, CA
Fairyland is a large playground located near Lake Merritt in Oakland. It’s not an amusement park, so don’t expect a Disneyland or Great America-type experience. Instead, Fairyland offer sandboxes, slides, puppet shows, farm animals, and a few rides with a fairy tale theme. Most rides have minimum and maximum height requirements, so your child cannot…
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PowerBook / MacBook: Half Keyboard Doesn’t Work
Strange things can happen when the kids play with the computer. So, the kids managed to restart the computer. However, they couldn’t get past the login prompt. And, neither could I. When I tried to login, half the keyboard didn’t work. Only the right-side of the keyboard would work when I tried to enter the…
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New York Times iPhone Application
Something appears to be missing. I can read the article. I see the reload button. I see an e-mail button. I see two buttons for changing the font size. And, I see the save button. But, where is the back button? Once I read an article, I get stuck in a dead end.
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$470 Rice Cooker
My National SR-MK18N rice cooker still works. However, the cooking insert had developed a scratch on its non-stick surface. And, as consumers of non-stick cooking products all know, today’s scratch is tomorrow’s flake. So, who used a metal utensil in my rice cooker? Anyways, Panasonic sells a replacement pan for $49 (which seems a bit…
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Security by Stupidity
I hate security questions—those idiotic series of questions that pretend to make your web experience more secure. I’m not sure how these so-called security questions can be any more secure than the last four digits of your social security number or your mother’s maiden name. At least, most of us has commissioned those two pieces…
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The Internet is Broken
I love the American Experience series. However, when I was watching the episode on Test Tube Babies, I came across this annoying segment: Part of the documentary is blacked out on the Internet, presumably because WGBH only has the rights to broadcast the NBC historical news clips over certain forms of transmission. 21st century technology…