The Municator

Makebot sent me a link to an article on the Make Blog covering The Municator. Another article.

Apparently the Chinese have made an Intel-compatible CPU for the express purpose of making cheap domestic computers so they don't have to rely on foreign stuff. From their website:

Our ultimate goal is to let the Chinese computer-users use our own-made CPUs in which we do not have to rely on the imported CPUs. Our products are made for ourselves but not for exportation only. At the moment, we have developed the necessary techniques and technologies for developing our own brand-named computers. If we can produce our own products by ourselves, more Chinese computer-users can enjoy the benefits, and this is what we have aimed to achieve.

I suppose that's really smart of them, because they're doing what the U.S. as a whole is too stupid to do—remain self-sufficient. We're so heavily dependent on Chinese shit that it's not even funny. Many stores only have junk that's made in China: it's hard to not buy Chinese even if you don't want to. And that's disgusting. Capitalism is shooting itself in the foot big time.

Tax Junk

This isn't a link, but I want to note it, just in case.

A US tax law allows taxpayers to choose whether they want to deduct the state and local sales taxes they have paid during the year in lieu of deducting state and local income taxes. This is beneficial for individuals who itemize their deductions and live in one of seven "no income tax" states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington) or live in states where the sales tax rate is in excess of the income tax rate. Taxpayers can choose to determine the deductible amount by relying on actual receipts or by using tables developed by the IRS. In addition, individuals who had large purchases, such as automobiles and boats, can add sales tax paid on those items on top of the amount indicated in the tables developed by the IRS.

"Be smarter at work, slack off"?

MRG sent me a link to an article on CNN Money about how people need slack time to be creative and give companies an edge. Seems like everyone I know is stressed out at work these days because they have too much to do. Too much work, too few competent people to do the work.

Of course, one has to be careful about saying it's ok to slack, because there are some true non-workers out there. The last thing we need is for them to work even less.

Mr. Dada: Gold & Business

I don't recall how I found this blog, but I must've been searching Blogger randomly or somesuch. Anyway, there's this gold investment blog called Dada Says, apparently by a businessman named A.B. Dada. It seems to be legit, though one should always take advice with a grain of salt. Free advice given freely is often wrong. We spend so much time building networks of people we can trust because ascertaining whether information is good or not is often how half our time leading up to decision-making is spent.

Anyway, this Mr. Dada links to an online book called What Has Government Done to Our Money? (PDF). Indeed. I haven't read it yet, but it does look interesting.

This article on the Clinton and inflation was quite interesting.

Then there's another blog by the same fellow called Be Your Own Boss. Sounds like a kindred spirit.

Link Page Back Up

Apparently some blogs hosted on Blogspot were down for a few days, one of which was this one. As such, I wasn't able to take down a bunch of interesting links. Well, when one uses a free service, one doesn't have the right to complain. Much. I suppose it's my fault for not being more with it—perhaps a normal person would be able to keep these things about himself without getting buried. These are confounding times we live in.

Tacnuke North Korea

Apparently North Korea has been test-firing more missiles. They really need to get smacked down. Hard.

Maxxuss

Maxxuss is my hero.

Hard Disk Info

USByte has an interesting explanation of HDD technology. It's extremely simplistic, but is therefore good information for someone who knows nothing about how a HDD works.

Um, the following is work-related, but is kinda interesting. Regarding the so-called "Wallace spacing loss":
Clearance Measurements - References the patent by Klaassen, et al, #5130866.
Head reliability of AMR sensors based on thermal stress tests - A bit more detail regarding the spacing measurement.

松下奈緒

綺麗だな、この人。前にも雑誌の表紙で見て調べた。残念ながら写真集はなさそうだ。でも買ったら嫁に怒られそう！

女性雑誌ランキング

女性向けの雑誌に興味のある人はここまで参考してください。特に、アイドルのものな。