11.20-11/27 Laser treatment, Life of Pi, XP usage

On the last two Tuesdays I have had laser reattachment on my left eye. There is still one laser treatment on 
the left eye this coming Thursday. Hopefully that will complete the treatment for the left eye.

The right eye detachment is still too large for laser treatment but is getting smaller. There are 2 options:

1. Wait for the attachment to improve and then use laser.
2. Do an operation that injects gas into the right eye that with push the flap of detachment against the back of the eyeball. Then at a latter date, use the laser to reattach can repair small tears.

The result of today's checkup was to wait another week before deciding among the 2 options. I's good that I am retired and have the time to wait.

Both eyes are still being squeezed by the belts placed around them in the first surgery. These belts will deform the eyeballs and I will probably be more myoptic than before. So when all the treatments are completed I will definitely get a new glasses prescription. We estimate that the process will last another 2 months. Patience, try to possess it.


New topic - XP Usage

Taiwan has lots of small businesses copy shops, drugstores, stationary stores, restaurants.  They use a computer for billing, inventory, email ... and they all seem to be running Windows XP. While Microsoft(MS) is pushing Windows 8, most of these uses have skipped Windows Vista and Windows 7 and will probably skip Windows 8 too.

I think most of this is due to the existing hardware and Windows XP being adequate and additional features from MS or extra speed and memory of new hardware are not needed. Also as long as the hardware is adequate, upgrading the OS will just slow down operations. MS has never been good about preserving the user's investment whether hardware or software. On the software side "backwards compatibility" is not in the MS vocabulary.

Question: What features of Windows Vista, Windows7 or Windows 8 can't you live without?

Question: What is the most useless key on the keyboard?

New Topic - "Life of PI"

This past Sunday a group of 10 of us went to see the movie "Life of Pi" which was directed by the Taiwanese director Lee Ang. I couldn't see much of the details, but the story was good. I think the second story of the survival is the real one, the one of the movie is the one to make life beautiful. I don't see how the story can make one believe in God. I do believe that we invent our Gods to make life more beautiful that it is. I recommend the movie, I plan to see it again when my eyes are better maybe I missed something.

The cost of "The Life of Pi" in 3D was about the equivalent of $11 US. The per capita income of US is about $48K versus $20K for Taiwan. So going to the movies is more dear in Taiwan than in the US. For the time we were there, it seemed that going to the movies was more like a date, with many couples dressed up.

Cheap Haircuts

100NT haircuts are pretty common now in Taipei. Here i am with my barber. The machine next to us is a dispenser. You put in a 100NT bill and you're given the next number in the queue.