badmigraine

Here's my curmudgeonly take on this. --Assume you are the type of user that doesn't already know the answers about when to get/not get Vista, and/or what machines it will run on (and no slight is intended here at all, this describes most users around the world). Let's call this the "Average User". --There's nothing in Vista that's going to change your life or user experience for the better. You've already got it all in Windows XP (please don't tell me about transparent windows and having maybe 2GB of RAM just to enable this...it's just eye candy which has long been available in Linux

Nukes...there's really nowhwere left to hide, is there. I just can't see how an accident or attack can be avoided. Maybe it won't happen right away, but 10, 25, 50, 70 years down the road? My poor kids.

Kaspersky and McAfee do well on the magazine and consumer rag tests. I've used Norton and it seemed to block viruses, but it was a system hog, and often caused other problems (computer unusable once a scan started, even pausing scan did nothing, needed to force a reboot). In the end, Norton just got stuck about 40 minutes into a scan and never moved on. Around this time I seemed to pick up a few virus infections that Norton couldn't see or clean. I cleaned the infections manually, junked Norton and did some online research and am happily using a 30-day free trial version of Kaspers

A Japanese guy at my company spent 5 years in a decent American public jr. high and high school. What did it do to him? He got fluent, American-accented English out of it. He is more abrupt, direct and logic/action minded than most of his Japanese co-workers. He might have been like this even without America, but he attributes it to his time in NY. When he returned to Japan a couple years before high school graduation, he found himself basically crushed by the other kids and the 5 years of missed school workload and juku cramming. He'd tried to keep up with weekend J school classes i

NPM, as for Fatty's whereabouts...Mogski's & my mate Shigeki bumped into Fatty last week. He was surfing off Lompoc island in the Phillipines. Shigs didn't know we knew Fatty. He just came back to Tokyo and said "Hey while surfing Lompoc I met this Aussie who says he lives in Niseko..." Small world!

Even if you with just the wife, as they suggest, the husband is sure to be hiding in the next room, watching the action. And, by the looks of this 3-page-long thread, we'll all be standing right next to him and watching you too.

Any of you guys used to go to the Tokyo Perve, Vivian or other rubber/fetish parties?

You're right deebs, the board-buying thing is hit-or-miss in so many ways. Not only are you limited to what is in stock in your region (except for Prior, which ships!), but you hardly ever get to ride before buying. Powwwers is right on about the HEAD Intelligence board, that thing is a rocket ship from what I hear. It may not play with the pipe-and-park bro crowd, but ski makers make damn fine boards. Maybe something about base and edge technology? Who knows. As for me, I had my left knee scoped and torn cartilage removed on Dec. 2. Now here I am, 6 weeks later, trying to build up

I'm not even born yet!

Oh, all right, I'll admit it. I would forget about dinosaurs, meeting Mozart or watching Jimi Hendrix live. I would go straight back to that night when I first peeled off the jeans of this hairdresser named Yoko, and didn't get out of bed until the next afternoon. The only thing I am wondering now is, would I have to hide in the closet, or would I be allowed to join or replace my old self?

For long, steep lines on packed or loose-ish snow, I would prefer a fast, stiffer board with strong edging performance. I've not seen this so much from Burton, their boards ride great but seem a bit plankier and noodlier to me, and sometimes wash out when hard carving. On the other hand, I've had amazing love affairs with Salomon freeride boards like the 550 and Fastback, and you can get the current iteration of this type in Salomon's freeride Burner or all-mountain Forecast. A friend in the US who has the same riding style and preference as me swears by Palmer boards for their tightness and e

Think of the size of the batteries in those days!!

I and my 21-year-old hairdresser girlfriend used to wear clear rubber clothes at bizarre Tokyo parties. I'm not sure which was more fun--putting them on, or taking them off. To do either of these, you had to make sure your nails were carefully cut and smoothed, and use plenty of talcum powder.

Maybe Hollywood is finally trying to make up to Chinese thespians for casting a white guy as the lead in "Kung Fu".

It would be nice if there were loads of people who'd come up on Dvorak, so one could compare average speed of either layout, apples-to-apples. Snowglider, it's great that you doubled your speed with the Dvorak keyboard. It was designed by a time-and-motion expert and seems to be "better" in that sense. I am interested in trying it but am not in a situation where I have time or freedom to retrain myself. How accomplished were you at QWERTY before you switched to Dvorak? If you go to an Internet cafe or to a hotel business center, can you still touch-type on QWERTY? Is it easy to swit

Even though we'd like to believe it, the story of QWERTY origins appears to be a myth. And, any superiority of the Dvorak layout has never been proved. The original tests were conducted by Mr. Dvorak himself, who owned the patent. Myth of QWERTY origins and Dvorak superiority

Isn't this the same as the "ward tax"? If so, many rich entertainers reportedly avoid this by not having a registered address on January 1 of any year...they move or otherwise formally change addresses. The tax is assessed by the place where you are registered, and using the amount you earned the previous year. If you move somewhere on, say, January 5th of year X, you don't pay any ward tax in year X. If you were at that address on January 1 of year X+1, then you'd pay ward tax in year X+1 based on a percentage of your year X income. But if you move out of that ward before Janua

Taxation is theft!

Thanks, snowglider, but I have no doubts about the surf conditions! It's the employment and living part I need to look into. Heh!

Yeah, that big parking lot that has cold water showers for 100 yen? There's a smaller area out front which had some serious beach break during our stay, but then a much bigger surfable area immediately to the left, on the other side of the rock, that is better?

We spent GW in Shikoku (Nakamura, Kochi) and it was great. Parts of it look like a Miyazaki anime come to life. We drove from my wife's place in Okayama. I thought of you, Ocean, as we crossed over the Seto Ohashi into Shikoku. It really is a beautiful part of Japan.

A work friend is putting heavy pressure on a couple of us to quit our company jobs, move to the island of Tanegashima, and set up an English school or do some other job to create a beautiful natural lifestyle for our young kids and also surf a lot. The shape and location of the island mean it works whichever way the wind is blowing. Anybody been there? What is the lifestyle and feeling there? Apart from working as a rocket scientist at the rocket base, is there any hope of making a living there?

Anybody ever go back and pay extra money when the snow and day were amazing? No? Didn't think so.

Stag, I wouldn't mess with the bikers in your example. But there's no need to change things, we saw the vid. It wasn't a bar and they weren't bikers. And the onlookers I am thinking of didn't mind their own business, they all gathered round with their cameras and gleefully called over their friends. Over and over again. For a long time. A sad, sick image of mob rule. If this really was a contest, why didn't the organizers stop this? The guy on the jetski, the officials. The people are mostly caught on film. Even on a message board in Japan, some people know their names. Can't the l

A pretty sad story when nobody stops criminal activity, but stands around enjoying it and even gets filmed and smugly put into a WM vid that sucks up to "famous" lawbreakers. Several instances of assault and battery, and property damage. I suppose a lot of people who view this vid think "Awesome, dude...the cool ones beat up the jerk...this is the true way of Locals and it's cool to be righteous with the brahs and all..." This has nothing Hawaii-specific about it. Just a bunch of large criminal bullies who never grew up from playground fights. You can find them all over the place, but the