tin_the_fatty weblog

The Kindle is now available in Hong Kong. Note that it comes with lifetime free 3G data. USD300 total, shipping included.
I don’t think it does CJK languages thou.
Honwang E-books are about the same size, fully support PDF and Chinese (the higher models are supposed to support both Traditional and Simplified Chinese) plus annotation, but are [...]

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英文原版：China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power.
作者Bob Gifford（一個通中文的英國人），用六星期時間，以陸路源著國道312從上海走到哈薩克邊界，途中所見所聞，思想中華人民帝國的發展和困難。這本書可以令你對現今中國重新有個初步的認識。
強列推荐！

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一向十分喜愛火影忍者這套日本漫話，故事精采緊湊，人物刻劃深入，所創作的忍術天馬行空，受歡迎當然有道理。
可惜，在最近故事中，之前全無認識的極強大敵人突然出現，攻擊主角的國家，殺死了幾個故事中的重要人物，最後主角勸服敵人在死前將戰爭中被殺的人還原！文學技巧中有所謂Deus ex machina, 在現代多是在作者發現故事情況不可收拾時，以不合邏輯的方式草草收場。連日本一級漫畫火影忍者也淪落至這個田地，唉！

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李文雋 《擁抱伊朗》 萬里機構：我被書名和封面的兩個女子所吸引，一向亦對伊朗這個國家很有興趣，所以只看了一下內頁，有圖畫有文字便買了下來。
只花了幾小時就看完了，因為事實上這本書內容有點貧乏，頭幾章有關伊朗的資料，在這個人人可用維基百科的網絡時代，可有可無。之後整本書就像一篇又一篇格式重覆的中學家課式遊記，描寫不太深入，沒有甚麼insight。書中的圖片亦多是到此一遊式照片，不過幾張手畫地圖反而可喜有趣。
整體上，有點失望。
美玲、芳子 《敲打天堂的門。古巴》 大家出版：前衛有趣的封面，有趣的國家，加上作者介紹，和封底兩位作者所寫有關古巴的短短幾句，吸引我買了這本書。
兩位作者都在古巴住了一段不短的時間，我想她們亦會西班牙文，能夠與當地人溝通，所以能夠對古巴，與及書末幾章有關的幾個中南美洲國家有較深入的認識。她們的故事主要圍繞著她們在當地認識的人，以這些人的生活、文化、工作、看法、宗教等等作為切入點，給讀者們一個更深入，完整的故事。
推荐這本書。

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爆漫o
風轉西藏——我在拉薩賣咖啡
兩本都剛剛看完。正！強烈推薦。

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I just read this on the Internet – best-selling writer Michael Crichton has passed away. I really liked his earlier works such as the Jurassic Park and the Lost World, but ain’t so hot about his later work the State of Fear. I’m sure we’ll all miss him, even if you weren’t a fan of [...]

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Film and original graphic novel. Chinese version of the graphic novel was published around summer last year. Highly recommended.

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The Edge Annual Question 2008: What have you changed your mind about? Why? Lots of good stuff. It was Slashdot that bought this to my attention, and quoting Sam Harris :-
Mother Nature is not our friend.
So Sam finally agrees with Laozi. In Tao Te Ching, paragraph 5:-
天地不仁，以萬物為芻狗
(which I roughly translate to “Mother Nature is [...]

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I first got this news from the radio. It didn’t mention what the sign/wording was on the T-shirts and postcards. The online versions of most local newspapers (except Apple Daily) also didn’t give the details. After a couple of days overseas Chinese newspapers started to reveal the sign/wording.

While we have to be constantly vigilant in [...]

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Very interesting and well written. Link. Makes me want to keep bees as hobby, but even the monks in the Trappist Monastery, surrounded by forestry, said they couldn’t keep bees, what little chance do I have?
Highly recommended.

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I am still reading this great book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond. In chapter 6, Diamond argued that sexual selection of our ancestors has a very notable effect on how we look, and we “learn” our sexual preference from our young age. The male would tend to prefer someone [...]

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I was reading this review of the Fujitsu SnanSnap S500m, which brought my attention to DEVONthink Pro Office. The software stores all your PDF files (plus other file types) and indices them all. The “Office” version has a built-in OCR engine to convert images into text for indexing. I wish I knew about the Office [...]

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I borrowed a hardback copy from the local public library. Big heavy and nice to read.
There are a few main characters, in no particular order:-

A lawyer who turned into a secret agent/special force;
Another secret agent/special force/lawyer;
Old rich guy who turned into a jungle surviving expert;
Two secret agents/special forces who know it all;
A few faceless nameless [...]

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The Lingnan University is just down the road from where we live. I think this small liberal art university is excellent and very promising.
A couple of weeks back I paid the Lingnan library a visit with my JULAC card. It is spacious and very nice.
One may apply for a External Reader Card for an annual [...]

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I bought it as introductory text on modern history of Japan and Korea from the perspective of historians from these countries.
Firstly I must say, the visual presentation of this book is very good. There are lots of nice pictures and photos and the text is very easy to read.
At a time I was into [...]

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Schadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

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Nice light reading for a hot afternoon.

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I generally avoid going to Mongkok as much as I can. It’s just too crowded.
The Lady needed some books on Chinese language for her study. We were planning to go to the Book City in Shenzhen to look for them, but upon my old man’s recommendation we checked out Mongkok City Centre (right opposite to [...]

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I finished this book a couple of weeks ago.
Nice, short and to the point, this book is easy and fun to read. The author Choi considered the 1st of July March in 2003 the end of an era, and a good time to conclude TCH’s 7 years of rule. He wrote much about TCH and [...]

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They are doing a fund drive. Definitely a worthwhile cause.
I have just given them US$100. Yes the service is worth many times of this amount to me: quality background info on almost any topic and anything with a touch of the fingertip.
Jasper is starting to ask “WHY”, and I am now all ready for it.
Update [...]

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