Jews voting for a Muslim mayor?
There are some things you must not do, some lines you must not cross.
The reason is obvious. You treat people fairly, you assume they will treat you fairly, but they do not.
If you don't understand, you have to learn it the hard way.
It has a total of 2,700 songs in a 32 GB USB drive:
It uses 320 kbps MP3, which still stands up to the test of time.
The songs sound extra crisp. The vocals are boosted at the expense of the instruments which sound softer. It sounds off when listening in a home environment.
I forgot why I buy this, I don't have a habit of listening to music, much less Chinese music. Sometimes I like to listen to DJ version for their 'high-energy' take. They can transform a slow song into a fast song!
Web novels are mostly low quality. Their translations are also mostly low quality.
There are paid translations, but I have never considered paying for them.
You can always get free ones (sometimes scrapped from paid sites). The paid sites usually have some sort of scheme to let people read for free. For example, they may unlock a free chapter every day.
Just read all the free chapters and move on to another web novel. But what if the story is actually decent?
I looked into how much it'll cost. There are several models. One is Patreon. You pay a monthly subscription fee. Everyone loves this model, even big companies. But I hate it.
Another is pay-per-chapter. Each chapter is very cheap, but it can add up very quickly. Plus, a web novel "chapter" is normally pretty short — really only a couple of pages. The authors get paid by chapters — they just need to meet a minimum word count.
Let's say a chapter costs 15 cents. It is cheap, but a web novel can be 1,000 chapters. This works out to be $150!
It is said that current AI-based translation tools are now much better — previous ones translate too literally and without taking context into account. It may be viable to buy the novel in the original language and translate myself. There are also some novels that are not being translated for one reason or another.
Cat A COE hit record high at S$128k. A car will cost around $190k all-in.
A new car is out of my reach. How about renewing COE?
It is also too high.
Previously, LTA reported a record number of people renewed their COE. It is interesting that cat A renewals were mostly 5 years and cat B renewals were mostly 10 years. This reflects the financial strength of the two groups.
For cat B renewal, we are looking at S100k+.
That's too rich for me. I thought about it a little. My comfortable threshold is half my annual income. Half to annual income, need to ponder. Anything over? Don't need to think.
$100k is way beyond half my annual income.
A certain user, 音乐真相探长, posted on Baidu in mid-August some pretty damaging claims against the Terence V70 — their flagship foldable piano.
My first question is, how about V50? It seems well regarded.
A user on Douyin, 咲不出来, complained the C2 sounded very electronic. I was skeptical. Now I think it can be true — this piano is intended for beginners, so no point having good speakers. If so, it is a waste. If it is 500 yuan, so be it. But it is 2,500 yuan!
Out of the tens of videos (definitely over 50), I saw only three videos playing the piano. I thought it sounded okay. I don't know if they are using the built-in speaker or direct recording — I always suspect the latter cos the sound is so good.
I also found a channel by 喵乐萌一南昌. He is a seasoned piano seller. From his videos, I understand that even popular brands like Betsy and Terence are also 'rubbish' brands.
His criteria is simple. What is the sound source and what is the hammer key tech used. It does not matter if they are not good, but they must be own technology. All the low-end ones are bought off-the-shelf, but they try to hide that fact. Their specs are also often inflated and even outright lies. They market based on finishing and famous influencers.
For hammer key, he recommends getting 210 mm length to approximate grand piano feel — there is no getting around physics. But this is at 10,000 yuan (S$1,808) price point.
