Hmm, here’s a quick wishlist (things are in no particular order): - One Piece merchandise and paraphernalia < — !!! - Christmas CDs (Trans-Siberian Orchestra maybe?) - Good trance or progressive CDs (Paul van Dyk - Reflections, Ferry Corsten - Right of Way, Tiesto - Magik 1-7 sets, Tiesto - In Search of Sunrise 1-3 sets, Armin van Buuren - Universal Religion 2004, Armin van Buuren - A State of Trance 2004) - [No strange, weird, or bad trance CDs] - Chinese Pop, JPop, or KPop CDs maybe, but I don’t know what specifically concerning those - more Fry’s certificates - Pocari Sweat! - Creative, useful, fun, surprise gifts that are not listed above.

I don’t know what else to put for now.

One more thing before I barrage you with interesting articles I’ve read in the past couple days… the EDM (electronic dance music) site I joined (as staff) a while ago launched today (or was it yesterday?). It’s called Electronica-Central. I hope we actually get known places with our website…

The original article for this one is here.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, sensitive about issues of national sovereignty, has banned a computer sports game that classifies Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet as countries and has threatened to fine Web sites that supply the game and net cafes that let patrons download it.

The game, “Soccer Manager 2005,” contained content that harmed China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and violated Chinese law, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

It did not say who made the video game, also called “Champion Soccer Manager 2005,” but said it had yet to be released nationally. Any Web site that offered downloads of the game would be fined up to $1,210, Xinhua said, quoting an order from the Ministry of Culture.

Cybercafes that failed to prevent players from downloading, installing or playing the game would be fined as much as $1,815, it added.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau were listed as independent countries in the game, and the Himalayan region of Tibet, which Chinese troops occupied in 1950, is called “Chinese Tibet,” which elevated it to the same level as China itself, Xinhua said.

…

This one is from Slashdot, original article here.

rocketjam writes “According to CNET, German advertising technology company Adtech reports that during the months of October and November, Internet Explorer users were more than four times as likely to click on ads than Firefox users were. During the period 0.5 percent of IE users clicked on ads compared to 0.11 percent of Firefox users. Speculation on reasons for the difference in click rates range from Firefox’s integrated pop-up blocking to seeing the average Firefox user as more tech-savvy the average Internet Explorer user.”

There’s an article called “What corporate America can’t build… a sentence.”

R. Craig Hogan, a former university professor who heads an online school for business writing here, received an anguished e-mail message recently from a prospective student.

“i need help,” said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. “i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you”.

Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers’ writing pop into Hogan’s computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for much workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it.

From Slashdot… China launched their own search engine…

stupidfoo writes “With all those nasty pro-democracy websites that Google keeps turning up, what’s a communist country supposed to do? Well, create their own search engine of course! According to the AP, ‘Bill Clinton on Monday helped launch a new Internet search company backed by the Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google Inc.’ Accoona Corp. was one of the Chinese companies that donated an ‘undisclosed amount’ to the recently opened Clinton Library. Using the search engine from inside the US doesn’t show any noticeable amount of censorship, but it also doesn’t show how it’s anywhere near the level of Google.”

That’s all for now.