All my yahoo accounts have been upgraded to 1GB today

Thank you Gooooooooooogle.

Yahoo has been talking about it since early last month. About a week ago, one of my accounts had problem log on and after struggling for more than 8 hours, the capacity shows 1GB after the service become stable.

Who would need to store 1GB of e-mail? Google, Yahoo and alike bet on that only a few. So it actually doesn't cost them more than 20MB now for the 1GB they claimed. Back 15 years ago, I was also wondering who on the early need a hard drive more than 200MB other than showing off to other geeks? Now I have to keep watching the capacity of my 250MB drive every week.

Just last night, my boss asked my help on her e-mail. When she was moving messages from the server to the personal folder, Exchange crushed. It turns out that before Outlook 2003, the pst file has a limit of 2GB. When she reached that point, the PST can't be read anymore. After figuring out that, I have to use the Microsoft crop tool to fix it. Although she's the first person I know stores that much of e-mail, may be that's the future.

Hoobastank is the No. 1 in American's Top 40

"The Reason"

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
Thats why i need you to hear

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You [x4]

I'm not a perfect person
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I've found a reason to show
A side of me you didn't know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you


[Thanks to holidaebetraylAThotmail.com, EzekielSkater101ATyahoo.com for correcting these lyrics]

[ www.azlyrics.com ]

Will a cell phone cause a Boeing 747 to crush?

From Friday's Washington Post.

"... have reported 76 incidents since 1999... "

"Many of the cases involved an unruly passenger who refused to abide by cell phone restrictions."

"Other incidents occurred when pilots received faulty instrument warnings and later discovered that a passenger was using a cell phone. "

Plan hopping? Good for the short term and pain in the long run

See LA Times' report on HMO and PPO.

The idea of heal insurance bases on the assumption that when everybody pays a little every month, by the time one gets sick wouldn't have to pay a hefty price up front. When insurance company allows the young and healthy cherry picking low benefit low premium plans, the old and sick will end up bearing all the cost for health care. It's called "reward for better health." Then, why need insurance? Just pay what you get then. By that, we can also save the money the HMOs and PPOs make for telling us what kind of health care we get.

As the wealthiest nation and a supper power, it's sad that over 20% Americans can't afford basic health care. I'm not saying a national medical coverage plan is the solution, but at least some form of it like Medicare should be in place before we have something more effective. That would be good news for small business that they would have the same bargain power as those big corporations do now. Personally, I don't mind paying for it although it may end up cost me a whole lot more.

Washingtonpost report on new Japanese text book

UN was established after the war trying to make peace. Would you trust a criminal to in charge of your local when he's has no remorse for his past crimes?


washingtonpost.com

Japanese Schoolbooks Anger S. Korea, China
Militaristic Past Is Seen as Whitewashed

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A15

TOKYO, April 5 -- The Education Ministry on Tuesday approved a controversial new series of school textbooks that critics say whitewash Japan's militaristic past. The move ignited immediate outrage among some of the country's World War II-era victims.

The Chinese ambassador, Wang Yi, lodged a protest with Japan's Foreign Ministry, while officials in Beijing blamed a violent anti-Japanese protest there over the weekend on Japan's "irresponsible attitude" toward history.

Outrage was fiercest Tuesday in South Korea, where President Roh Moo Hyun has warned of a "diplomatic war" with Japan following Tokyo's reassertion of its claims to a small group of islands that are held by South Korea.

Japanese officials said they made changes to parts of the new textbooks to clarify points about Japan's colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. But South Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lee Kyu Hyung, said the newly approved texts were still "far from sufficient when universal values and historic truth are taken into account."

The statements and counterstatements were the latest chapter in a decades-long feud between Japan and its neighbors over questions of the island's wartime guilt and responsibility. Critics, mostly in the two Koreas and China, contend that Japan has consistently denied its wartime aggression.

The outcry intensified in 2001 after the Education Ministry here approved a new junior high textbook that was drafted by a group of Japanese nationalists and that omitted key details about Japan's wartime atrocities. The book has since been adopted by a handful of Japanese schools.

On Tuesday, the Education Ministry approved a newer edition of the same text that critics say further distorts the past and portrays imperial Japan as a liberator rather than an occupier of its Asian neighbors. The text shuns the word "invasion," for instance, and leaves out critical accounts of events such as the Japanese army's massacre of civilians in Nanking, China, in 1937.

Other texts for the 2006 school year were toned down. The term "comfort women" -- a euphemism for wartime sex slaves, mostly from Korea and China -- disappeared from all eight junior high history books approved by the national government Tuesday. One book maintained a reference to wartime "comfort stations" for Japanese soldiers. In contrast, all 2001 editions of the books had specific references to the practice of sexual slavery, according to Japan's Kyodo news service.

The Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, which drafted the most controversial of the new books, hailed the approvals as in step with current thinking in Japan.

Some schoolbook publishers and government officials have argued that it is time to remove "self-deprecating" historical references. That argument has troubled Japan's neighbors because it comes at a time when Japan continues to move away from postwar pacifism and is considering changing its U.S.-drafted constitution, in which it renounced the right to maintain a military.

The government approved "the textbook that most faithfully reflects the goal . . . of deepening love towards our country's history," the society said in a statement.

In Seoul, a cluster of about 3,000 angry demonstrators picketed the Japanese Embassy and burned effigies of the Japanese ambassador. Authorities stopped one Korean man from stabbing himself in protest of the new texts.

"The Republic of Korea expresses regret over the fact that some of the 2006 Japanese middle school textbooks . . . still contain content that justifies and glorifies wrongs committed in the past," the South Korean Embassy in Japan said in a statement.

Such sentiments were echoed by people in Japan concerned about resurgent right-wing nationalism. Japanese opponents said on Tuesday that they would fight adoption of the texts by local school boards.

Calling for a "restraint from emotions," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi neither criticized nor applauded Tuesday's decision. The Education Ministry is headed by one of his most conservative cabinet members, Nariaki Nakayama.

Special correspondent Sachiko Sakamaki contributed to this report.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

LA Times wins 2 pulizer Prizes

Another honor after last years' 5 Pulitzers.

Public service
for "its courageous, exhaustively researched series exposing deadly medical problems and racial injustice at a major public hospital." The hospital referred here is the King/Drew Medical Center.

International reporting
To Kim Murphy of the Los Angeles Times for "her eloquent, wide ranging coverage of Russia’s struggle to cope with terrorism, improve the economy and make democracy work."

Once and again, it proves west coast liberals are the leader in facing the most serious domestic and international.

Yahoo 360 rocks!

Finally. Although it's still under Beta testing but at 100 invitations per account, I guess everyone on this planet will get one soon, much sooner than their Gmail. At least I haven't seen anyone selling it on Ebay.

I've been waiting for Yahoo's move for a long time. With its rich offering in personal website (via Geocities), online groups, music, and etc, it's only natural to have a blog with Yahoo ID access control. What's surprise me is it took so long.

Time will tell whether it's better or worse comparing here, but in the mean time, shoot me an e-mail if you want an invitation.