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Windows Server's built-in VPN requires Microsoft's characteristic maze of configurations. Setup is complicated. It requires GRE protocol on the client side to use PPTP. It requires Active Directory to use L2TP/IPsec. OpenVPN is easy to set up for a client to connect to the VPN…

Storage rental is a competitive business. One usually can find a local storage rental with excellent reputations. Public Storage is excellent. Neighbor is a great place for renting a parking spot for a month or longer. 

iSun Affairs (陽光時務) is all about truth. It is published by iSunTV. Ping Chen, the Chairman and chief strategist of iSunTV is an intellectual of conscience, extraordinary courage, and utmost sense of social responsibility. His acquisition and iSunTV and directing it to be a place…

I always feel grateful when using any open source code. For this particular reason, I hesitate to criticize the code that its contributors usually spend an enormous amount of time working on. On the other hand, honest critique should be a part of the contribution to…

Rampant hypocrisies are no longer ab exclusive characteristic of totalitarian regimes which words often have little bearing on their actions and often use multiple standards. The following are major hypocrisies of democratic countries: Protest against racism in the US while being completely silent on the genocide…

WebSocket might have generated more buzz than it deserves. Websockets are not nearly as versatile as regular sockets. Reuglar sockets can support all transport protocols (e.g. TCP, UDP, ...). WebSocket uses an independent TCP-based protocol. To use WebSocket, both the client (a brower) and the…

Airbnb is the default choice nowadays and it is indeed the best choice usually. Close to 100% of rentals on Facebook's Marketplace are scams. Furnishedfinder.com mainly targets traveling nurses. One can find some good rooms. Craigslist mainly lists temporary rentals but they are not any…

If the recipient has a smart phone with apps such as WhatsApp, Viber, using these apps is the easiest way to make international calls. They are free. If the recipients do not have these apps and these apps are blocked (e.g., in China), there are…

Lafayette Campground to Highland Center (Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch) This is a report of a hike from Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch in New Hampshire, USA. Date: 2008-10-18 Total distance: 23.1 miles (37.2 km) Total Time: 13 hours 28 minutes Start elevation: 1700 ft…

There are few events that have the attributes of technical, educational, entertaining and interactive. Code camp is one. There are so many different types of computing devices (servers, desktops, tablets, smartphones, etc.), so many OS’ (Windows, Android, iOS, WebOS, etc.), so many different platforms and…

Prompted by an article on Business Week, I started looking into a Chinese firm (China Sky One Medical Inc)( CSKI) purely out of curiosity. It lasted for a short while because I concluded that I understood in a general sense what was going on, and…

Android's BitmapFactory.decodeXX such as BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray() is both time consuming and resource consuming. The following table shows the time to decode 100 images of 1280x720 by BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray() with differrent subsampling sizes. The performance benefit probably diminishes or even reverses with the increase of the subsampling size. The turning…

Windows 10 handling of Bluetooth driver is probably shaky. Bluetooth is often out of order even though the hardware is fine. If reinstalling, updating drivers, rebooting the laptop, etc. all fail, the following nuclear option always works:

Some use a laptop as their primary computer, so it needs quite some power. Some use it only for traveling and connect it to their workhorse remotely, so the laptop functions merely as a console. In this case, the screen size, weight and battery time…

14 Tips for Selling Your Home Fast and for More Money

The common way to maintain internet access when traveling in a foreign country is to obtain a SIM card to replace the original SIM card on a phone. There are two potential issues as follows (not all are applicable): The easiest and most cost-effective way…

Wikipedia Mao’s skills in securing his power are unrivaled. His major trick is the absolute control of intellectuals. Once intellectuals are under control, others can be fooled effortlessly. During the Yan’an Rectification Movement that he started while watching the Nationalists fighting bloody battles against the…

Under the CCP's totalitarian regime, Chinese people lack the most fundamental human right - the freedom of speech. However, the CCP has been preaching democracy, freedom and political reform for almost 3/4 of a century: 中國是有缺陷，而且是很大的缺陷，就是缺乏民主。只有加上民主，中國才能前進一步。民主必須是各方面的。只有建立在言論出版集會結社的自由與民主選舉政府的基礎上面，才是有力的政治。（毛澤東1944年6月12日答中外記者問） 目前推行民主政治，主要關鍵在於結束一黨治國。此問題一日不解決，則國事勢必包攬於一黨之手；才智之士，無從引進，良好建議，不能實行。因而所謂民主，無論搬出何種花樣，只是空有其名而已。（《解放日》1941年10月28日社論） 政黨本身不是權力機關，不能凌駕於群眾和政府之上。（1938年3月7日《新華日報》 「一個黨，一個國家，一個民族，如果一切從本本出發，思想僵化，迷信盛行，那它就不能前進，它的生機就停止了，就要亡黨亡國。」（鄧小平1978年12月） 「國家需要改革開放，人民需要改革開放，誰不改革誰下台！對，不改革開放就下台！下台！」（鄧小平1992年2月） 「改革，應包括政治體制的改革，而且應該把它作為改革向前推進的一個標誌。」「只搞經濟體制改革，不搞政治體制改革，經濟體制改革也搞不通，因為首先遇到人的障礙。」（鄧小平1986年6月）

Ariya EVOLVE+ FWD has the longest range (289 miles) among the 4 Ariya models. That is best choice.

Value Added Tax (VAT) has added a tremendous burden for international sales. Most payment services (e.g. Paypal) do not handle VAT. Fortunately, some services do: Paddle (5% + $0.50). Paddle is a fraudulent company that robs its customers. Fastspring (5.9% + $0.95) Bamazoo (15%) Advantage (now 2checkout) (3.99%…