User Comments - bill
bill
Posted on: Argument over Garbage (1)
November 19, 2008 at 10:34 PMHi Henning,
我喜欢那些愚人节的RFC's!
For those unfamiliar with the process used by the
Internet Engineering Task Force to determine the
standards used on the Internet, this is done by the
means of a process that involves RFC's. On April 1st,
and this goes back to the 1980's, people submit joke
RFC's. Those to which Henning refers are about the
"Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers." IP
Datagrams transport data on the Internet.
Since a great deal of what arrives to us in these
datagrams is 垃圾，and it often jams the Internet
to the extent that it denies decent service, this
could be a fun take off on the topic of this lesson.
"Get that !#@ trash off of my Internet connection !!"
OK. Enough of the nerd stuff (-:
Bill
Posted on: Moving House and Chinese Wineries
November 18, 2008 at 11:27 PMglosoli
Thanks for the evaluation of Yunnan Red. We'll open our 1999 this weekend.
jackilamoelle
Je suis d'accord ! Je l'ai vu à la télé.
我同意。我在电视看Jojo 了。
The above refers to Jo Wilfried Tsonga. The excellent tennis player from France who recently played in Shanghai.
Bill
Posted on: Moving House and Chinese Wineries
November 16, 2008 at 12:45 AMI have two bottles of 云南 red wine. One from 1999 and the other from 2003. They've been very well cellared. Any idea about these wines?
They are gifts from a friend who is from 昆明.
多谢，
` bill
Posted on: The Big Deal about Shenzhou 7
November 15, 2008 at 7:32 AMHi changye,
I've a duplicate of one of those plaques. Each Pioneer team member received one. It is miniature and about 15cmx20cm and accurate in every detail. I was thinking of photographing it for my next avatar. It is a prized possession.
And yes, I'm a long time sci-fi lover.
Bill
Posted on: The Big Deal about Shenzhou 7
November 14, 2008 at 4:27 PMI worked in the space program at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California from 1970 to 1974. I wrote operating systems for the misson control center that tracked the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecrafts as well as the imaging software that displayed those beautiful photos of Jupiter as they came back. These small space crafts went to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond.
Being there at launch, the Jupiter encounter, and working with the scientists on a day-to-day basis was really exhilerating! We had a blast. Space science and exploration is everthing rjberki says and more, much more. It really touches the human spirit in unimaginable ways ...
Bill
Posted on: New Lessons, New President
November 10, 2008 at 7:39 PMFor those of us who were in one way or another involved in the civil rights movement in the 60's this election is the realization of so many dreams and the beginning of a new era in US and thus world politics. Martin Luther King's words always echo in my mind at times like this ...
How much will President-elect Obama be able to accomplish in the next four years is unclear but his presence in the White House will be a unifying, major change in itself for the entire world.
President-elect Obama will swear to support and uphold the US Constitution on Jan. 15, 2009, and I always reread the Bill of Rights in anticipation of this moment:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
One can then reflect on past administrations and the new administration and to me it is clear that President Obama will not waver in his support for this document that is at the heart of the US democracy.
As Cassie so aptly put it, "让我们拭目以待吧!" And there is no doubt that this is worth the wait ...
Bill
Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise
November 2, 2008 at 8:10 PMMy wife and I first heard "吗吗虎虎" in a Cantonese restaurant in Linkoping, Sweden, in 2003 when were having lunch with two friends from 台湾 (Tai2wan1)。 Our friends were teaching us some fun chinese expressions.
Bill
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing
October 28, 2008 at 3:40 AM我真的喜欢北京烤鸭！
I also like the simplicity and directness of the conversation in this lesson. When I order Chinese food here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the conversation with a waiter pretty much resembles this lesson.
I found the same thing to be true in Paris where the waiters in Chinese restaurants prefer to speak Mandarin rather than French.
Bill
Posted on: Autumn Outing
November 22, 2008 at 5:31 PMWhile I enjoy the "What's the story" videos, I feel that I learned more from the early situational videos because one associates real objects with language. This gives one a better "memory hook" relating object to word without a translation.
It would be great to have an actual lesson video. The quality of the acting is not that important ...
John's transcripts are great for the complicated stories like this one. They boost one's reading comprehension for watching Chinese TV shows with subtitles.
Bill