我今天去看了台灣Asus的新”Eee”筆記型電腦。Eee是個真小的電腦，不但僅僅22.5cmx16.5cm，而且也很輕（<1Kg）。雖然不是那麼強，可是我覺的很方便。現在我有一個蘋果電腦Macbook，可是因為又有點大又有點貴，所以我大部分的時間不要帶出門。Eee的解析度是800x400, 就只有7吋顯示而論，只要你在戶外或用得不太久大概沒問題。
Eee的意思是：”Easy to work, Easy to learn, Easy to play”。
這個圖片是個Eee在ㄧ個髒(哈哈)Macbook的上面。
Eee沒有普通的硬碟，代替有2~8GB的固態硬碟。雖然4~8GB不太大，但是你可以加ㄧ個SD卡或是外置的硬碟(Eee有三個USB)。
我想快要買，那個時後我再寫一個文章。你們覺得怎麼樣？Eee值得去買？
我這個週末去了高雄的大遠百百貨公司。在那裡我看過幾個選物販賣機(娃娃機)上面有任天堂的超級馬力歐展示。大遠百平常有很多選物販賣機，可是這是我第一次看這些展示。我仔細看過後好像有人自己做的不是官方做的，可是看起來品質非常高。
昨天在美國舊金山蘋果電腦的Steve Jobs宣布新iPods快推出。這種iPod(叫iPod Touch)是特別的，因為跟iPhone很像(可是沒有手機的功能)。我覺得驚奇，因為台灣的蘋果馬上就開賣，在台灣它們平常都遲一點才開始賣新東西。全世界的需求量很高。
iPod Touch的功能包括:
我以前寫一篇文章有關於台灣的彎彎(cwanny), 她的blog在這裡。她現在有電視廣告，你可以在下面看到。在那個廣告裡，她用ㄧ台蘋果電腦，不知道她是不是真的用Mac可能是吧！
edu-fair.com 有個表格，這些字有英式英語跟美式英語還有中文。這些字我都知道，但是最近我學了新的部份。我對美國朋友說”洗手間有queue”。他不知道我的意思，他想我說”cute”(可愛)。Queue的意思是排隊，結果美國人沒用”Queue”，反而他們用”line up”。另外一件事是當我說”明天我要lie in”，lie in的意思是睡晚ㄧ點。他想我說”lion”(獅子)，我覺的很好笑。
從目前世界上使用英語的國家來看，使用英式英語的國家有：英國、愛爾蘭、澳大利亞、紐西蘭、印度、巴基斯坦、香港等國家。 使用美式英語的國家有：美國、菲律賓等國家，學習美國式的國家則有：台灣、中國、日本、韓國、南美洲等國家。
愛爾蘭的George Bernard Shaw說:
“England and America are two countries separated by a common language.”
edu-fair的: 美式英語vs英式英語
當我寫這個文章時我找到這些相似的網站: English - American Dictionary, Seperated by a Common Language.
My last Visa run for a new Taiwanese Visa was to Tokyo. Thankfully this time I got an extendable Visa as I am now registered on a course at Kaohsiung University to study Mandarin. This means it’ll be at least three months before I have to do another run. Hopefully I can register on another course before this one is up and extend the Visa for four months
For anyone else thinking of doing the Tokyo run, here are photos of the Journey from the train station to the Visa office so you can easily find your way there:
The Jianguo Road area in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan is full of computer and technology related stores. I recently ordered a 120GB SATA drive for my Macbook and used the trip to collect it as an excuse to snap a few shots of the area and any interesting things that caught my eye.
You can see all of the photos in this Zooomr Photo Set (My free Flickr account is maxed so I’m testing out Zooomr), and I’ve featured some of the more interesting photos below-
This tablet PC is an 8.9inch Fujitsu Lifebook P1510. the screen swivels so it can be used in both laptop or tablet mode. With a 1.2Ghz Pentium M it’s not the most powerful system, but it just feels so damn good to use it. i can’t remember what the resolution was but I can remember thinking it was fairly decent for a machine of it’s size. Comes with a 60GB HD, USB2.0, Bluetooth, Modem, LAN, WiFi and finger print sensor but only 512MB of memory.
A shot from the balcony of what seems to be the biggest gaming store in the area. This store is absolutely crammed with games for all platforms, consoles, DVDs, figurines, Web Cams and other hardware. It makes me wish I could read Chinese or Japanese so I could play some of these games.
No this isn’t a Wii, it’s a Core Duo based small form factor system that are quite common, although not as common as the millions of variations of mini MP4 players. At $29,990 it works out at about £480 or $900US, which seems a bit expensive to me, I’d be more tempted to buy an Intel Mac Mini - although, all prices are negotiable here 
I know there’s places in Taipei and Japan that are bigger and better, but this is still a long way away from anything you’d find in the UK etc, I could hang out there all day
I’ve just been to the local Carrefour supermarket, next to Love River in Kaohsiung City Taiwan, and saw these internet protocol t-shirts. They were on sale at $199NT (about £3.20 or $5 US). It wouldn’t usually be noteworthy but it just surprised me to see them in such a mainstream store, what is essentially the Taiwanese Tesco or Walmart.
I bought a HTTP, FTP and Avatar shirt, although it was the YouTube one that caught my eye when walking by.
I’m not sure about the rest of Asia, but in Taiwan XBox 360 seems to be everywhere. I’d always thought that the XBox didn’t do so well outside of North America and Europe. That probably explains why there’s a such a push for it here.
Some of the larger chain stores seem to only stock 360s and not PS2s or Gamecubes. Could be an exclusivity deal, or just that the other consoles aren’t profitable here anymore. Either way, there’s no mistaking that Microsoft wants it’s console to be popular over here.
This is one of the things I like most about Taiwan (and probably one of the things the locals hate the most), that you can see giant posters for games consoles and computer components on the street. I couldn’t imagine being on a UK high street and seeing a huge Seagate Momentus poster, or 3 storey XBox 360 ad.
A bit of advice for anyone needing after-sales suport for a web-ordered Apple product in Taiwan - Don’t call the number listed on their site, call 02-273-83242 ext. 419. This is supposedly their head office in Taipei. After calling the contact phone number listed on www.apple.com.tw/store I was bounced around a few reps in China and received little help before being given this number.
It seems as if there is one person responsible for web orders for the whole of Taiwan, maybe something to do with the recent job cuts. I got decent service from the Taipei office and arranged a swap out for my new MacBook (which should arrive very soon - update to follow).
Update - The new Macbook has arrived and so far everything is all good.
