Letters to the Editor
mattwa33186
Published Letters: 420 Editor's Choice: 45
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So were they supposed to starve when they got here?
[Read the article: How the fortune cookie crumbles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Look at Italian food. 100 years ago you couldn't get marscapone at the local market, so they used cream cheese. The tomatoes here aren't as sweet as Romas, so they added sugar to their sauces. Etc... Italians still had to eat, and they had to cook what they knew, so they used what was available to them - which is exactly what they did in Italy. Same for Chinese immigrants who had to make do without the local produce they were accustomed to. No less a chef than Mario Batali has said that Italian American cooking isn't a bastardization, just different. The cultural implications of us exporting American Chinese cuisine are a lot more important than the food itself, since a lot of people think its really Chinese.
People have made fortunes "adding an Asian flair to French classics" or "putting an Italian spin on Polynesian favorites" or whatever the fusion cuisine of the day is. That's a big part of what food is about, just like language. The fact that it's being done by the mom and pop down the street instead of a James Beard Award winner doesn't make it any less valid.
Corruption is an accurate term for what happens to most cuisines when they get here, but it has too many negative connotations. Adaptation would be better.
I'm fortunate to live in an area with a huge and growing immigrant population (Latin) that doesn't have to adapt if it doesn't want to - everything they are used to is available here, and there aren't enough Americans to force them to change how they do things to have a successful restaurant. Portions are smaller, but you leave exactly full without the need to loosen your belt. And the food is surprisingly consistent with what they prepare at home. But of course there are Latin versions of American dishes available in some places, and Americanized versions of Latin dishes available in others. There is room for everything in a world where everyone has to eat 3 times a day.
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8
[Read the article: How the fortune cookie crumbles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]According to Wikipedia, having a number in your name is not uncommon in Taiwanese culture. Her parents added 8 to her name when she was a teenager, as it is a symbol of luck and good fortune. Seems to have served her well thus far.
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General
[Read the article: Linux PCs flop on Wal-Mart shelves]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No, the average American doesn't receive free computer training in the Linux environment from their employer. Lots of people don't want to really learn about computers, they just want to use them with as little expenditure of intellectual capital as possible.
And as much improved as Linux desktops are over even just a year or 2 ago, they are still a far cry from Windows and OS X in terms of usability and overall experience. GUI development just costs too much for open source to catch up to monetized software at this point.
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ABAB
[Read the article: Linux PCs flop on Wal-Mart shelves]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, I'm using an Ubuntu laptop to respond here. 2 years ago it was an $1800 Windows Media Center machine, so the hardware is pretty good. With a gig of ram, 256 MB video card, and a dual core processor, the performance has turned out to be... eh. About as good as a well set up XP machine for the most part, worse in some situations. What Ubuntu has discovered, like RedHat and Microsoft before them, is that if you build an OS that can do everything and runs on everything, it's going to be a pig. Apple has the right idea if they can get the costs down - control the hardware or the hardware will control you.
The GUI can do some cool things, a lot like OS X, but the price in terms of performance is steep and I wouldn't want to try it on a $300 machine. The applications that really matter, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, and Gimp, are just as good or better than their Windows counterparts. But you aren't going to find Linux ports of most of the other stuff people really want, and what you do find will mostly not be of the quality people have become accustomed to. Limited support from Adobe - I made the mistake of installing a 64 bit OS on my 64 bit machine so Flash is not available to me - is not likely to change in this decade since there is no money in it and I miss it a lot more than I thought I would.
Out of box wireless blows, 24Mb max unless you know how to set up NDIS and compile the kernel - way beyond the capabilities of your typical Walmart shopper or anyone else - and it has a weird hatred for WEP encrypted networks.
Package management using Synaptics is fantastic by Linux standards (I started with RedHat in 1999) but half-assed compared to commercial operating systems. No release schedules or prioritization makes automatic updates a complete pain in the ass - there is something almost every day.
No kids in my house, but I'm pretty sure that no AV means no parental controls, a big issue for a lot of people.
If Everex was able to get good drivers built for their hardware, and compiled the OS for those specific machines - not guaranteed on a $300 machine - they could have been decent, but limited. Probably what you ought to expect for $300, but this is America and WalMart shoppers don't feel like they should have to settle just because they don't have any money.
So I'm still looking for my Holy Grail - fast, free performance. Getting FreeBSD to be usable on my other laptop is the current project, but even though it's a better OS the support in terms of apps and utilities is even worse unless you go with Linux compatibility, which costs you most of the performance you gain.
At some point I'll decide it's not worth it and go out and buy a Mac. Maybe by then I'll be able to get one at WalMart for $300.