分類: Uncategorized

Huge ID theft case touches Washington

每幾個月就會發生這種事. 小心自己的個人資料就像是隨時要檢查家裡的門窗, 免得讓偷竊賊有機可乘.

* 任何私人的敏感資訊不應該讓人隨手可閱. 比如車內, 家裡面或辦公室等等. (家裡面可以使用上鎖的小型保險箱)

* 任何文件在丟入垃圾桶前, 應該用碎紙機剪碎.

* 不要任意的提供任何私人資訊, 尤其是那些電話推銷或市場調查的人.

* 信箱應該使用有郵局保證, 並可以上鎖的信箱. (不用擔心, 郵務士可以打開放信)

* 不要任意的回覆要求提供私人資訊的電子郵件. 儘管電子郵件的來源是自己熟悉的個人, 網站, 或公司. 偷竊賊可以假裝或甚至於在電子郵件傳送的路上, 截取私人資訊.

* 私人支票要收藏好. 並隨時查閱帳號使用的情形.

一些有用的網站:
Identity Theft Resource Center (PREVENTION TIPS)
Federal Trade Commission: National Resource for ID Theft
免費的信用報告

Guide Dogs for the Blind
Puppy love with a higher purpose

如果你喜歡小狗, 這是一個痛苦和有代價的選擇…尤其是在分離的時候.

經由這非營利組織, 他們會給你一隻兩三個月大的小狗, 不過你只是這小狗的養育家庭. 你的工作是教育這小狗一些基本的指令和好的生活習慣. 約 13 至 18 個月後, 狗狗就會被送到專門訓練幫助盲人的學校, 另外接受五個月的訓練.

能夠畢業的狗狗就會被送給需要的盲人. 沒有畢業的狗狗則是”換工作”, 變成救難狗, 寵物療法或被領養等等.

我覺得這是滿有趣的計畫. 家裡的人總希望能養狗狗, 我是最反對的人. 因為所有的清潔工作最後一定是我在做…沒有必要自己找麻煩.

畢竟養寵物不是什麼壞事, 經由這個計畫, 也許可以試試家裡小朋友對寵物的心態.

Make sure that ATM isn't fake, police say

警方說, 使用自動提款機 (ATM) 前要注意是否有奇怪的電線, 對準按鍵的攝影機, 或讀卡孔有比平常還要突出或像是貼上去的.

不少這類的假的 ATM, 並不會退出你的提款卡. 如果當提款卡卡住時, 要立刻通知銀行. 除非拿回了提款卡或當場通知銀行換卡, 不然絕對不要離開.

RealPlayer.

藤子プロ･小学館, 近日警告(連至 Japan Today 的新聞網站) 美國的 FCC (聯邦通訊委員會)網站為兒童設計的網站 FCC Kids Zone 內的卡通造型(Broadband)有嚴重的抄襲行為.

…的確是很像.

Breakfast with a Taipei personality

Residents and tourists can grab morning meals from vendors on streets of Taiwan’s capital

WILLIAM FOREMAN; The Associated Press
Last updated: December 20th, 2004 02:59 PM

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Quick, name a few dishes on the Chinese lunch or dinner menu. Easy, right? Sweet and sour pork. Stir-fried rice. Won ton soup. Kung pao chicken. Peking duck.
Now, what’s a Chinese breakfast like? Having trouble? No worries. The cuisine has yet to go mainstream in the morning outside of China. And that’s a pity because there’s a wonderful array of Chinese breakfast fare – steamed bread, stuffed buns and simple egg dishes. Here, the woks don’t get fired until the lunch rush.

The early morning food is little known elsewhere partly because some diners might hesitate to take gastronomic risks shortly after waking up. They’re groggy, stomachs are tender and they might be running late, with no time for culinary adventure.

Perhaps visitors fear they’ll get surprised with a generous serving of fish heads and pig intestines bobbing in a bowl of watery rice porridge. No doubt, this would be a delightful way to start the day for many people. But others would rather stick to the trusty plate of scrambled eggs and toast with coffee and orange juice.

But if travelers know where to look for the food and how to order it, they can find a variety of dishes that are friendly to Western tastes and even closely related to what’s eaten at home.

One great place to sample Chinese breakfast food is Taiwan. The tiny leaf-shaped island off China’s southern coast is one of the world’s best places for fantastic Chinese food. And the cooking starts at sunrise on almost every block in residential areas in the island’s densely populated cities.

Step out of the hotel, and start roaming the back alleys. Listen for the sound of spoons beating eggs in a plastic bowl or steel spatulas scraping a skillet or clanging in a wok. Sniff for the scent of sizzling eggs.

The best places to look for breakfast shops are near subway stations, where the food is hurriedly snarfed up by what’s known in Taiwanese slang as the “shangban zu,” or the “commuting tribe.”

Some places should be avoided by travelers who would rather wade than plunge into the local cuisine. Many noodle stands tend to go heavy on the organ meats. And there are shops – usually with bright orange, red and yellow signs – that specialize in cheap grilled-egg sandwiches filled with greasy Spam-like meat on bland bread.

The best places put their kitchens by the entrance so customers can be sure the food is freshly prepared. Look for tall towers of bamboo steamers full of hot dumplings and buns. There should also be on display a cluster of “you tiao,” (pronounced yo-tee-yau) foot-long pieces of dough deep-fried until dark brown.

Menus won’t likely be in English, because foreign customers are so rare. The shop’s offerings are often listed in Chinese characters on a sign mounted on the wall. This shouldn’t be a problem, because most of the food should be on display and diners can point to what they want.

The Ying Family Soybean Milk shop – a block away from the Chihshan subway station in northern Taipei – is a classic greasy chopstick breakfast spot. The setup is simple: chipped but clean Formica-topped tables, a wooden counter where food is ordered, three women in matching red-checked gingham head scarves who cheerfully greet customers and serve up food seconds after it’s ordered.

A glass case is full of “shao bing” – long baked buns covered in toasted sesame seeds. The buns are usually split open and filled with a fried egg or a you tiao, which literally means “grease stick.” Sometimes you tiao is translated as “crullers,” but the fried dough is tougher and chewier than the standard doughnut, and not as sweet.

The Ying Family shop also serves up “dan bing” (pronounced dahn bing), or egg pancakes. They’re made by beating an egg, tossing in some chopped green onions and frying the egg on a sizzling griddle. Just as the egg becomes firm, a flour tortillalike pancake is tossed on top of the egg. It gets flipped over a few times before it’s folded, chopped up and plated. It’s seasoned with a splash of soy sauce or a dollop of chili sauce.

Another breakfast staple is “man tou” (pronounced mahn tow), or steamed bread. Ovens weren’t common in China, so most buns or rolls were cooked in steamers. Man tous are usually the size of a fist and have a light, chewy and spongy texture. They can be eaten alone or split open and used for egg sandwiches.

Steamed buns, or “baozi” (pronounced bao zeh), are also tasty and come stuffed with spicy pork or vegetables. The Ying Family Shop’s baozi are filled with chopped cabbage, carrots and black mushrooms. Dipped in a puddle of soy sauce, the buns are a light, healthy breakfast.

Most of the menu items cost between 50 cents and $1.

One curious thing about breakfast eateries is that coffee and tea aren’t traditionally served. People usually drink the beverages at home or at the office. Fruit also isn’t eaten at breakfast, although a fantastic selection of fruit is available in Taiwan.

A classic breakfast drink in Taiwan is “dou jiang” (pronounced dough jee-yang), or soybean milk. It can be an acquired taste and might seem watery and chalky at first compared to milk, but even in Western countries it is growing in popularity, thanks in part to a reputation as a high-protein alternative to dairy.

Soybean milk is served in a small cereal bowl with a Chinese-style wide scoop spoon. People can choose between hot or cold and sweet and salty versions. Some breakfast stands sell yellow sponge cake, sometimes called “ma la gao” (pronounced mah lah gau), that pairs well with dou jiang.

One of the great pleasures of eating breakfast in Taiwan is to get a hot bowl of soybean milk on a cold winter morning. Allow the steam from the soybean milk to bathe your face as you slurp up the drink and dunk thick slices of sponge cake into the dou jiang.

Street vendors peddle all sorts of breakfast food, too. They also set up near busy bus and subway stations, and they appear to do big business with women, who usually get stuck taking mass transit while their husbands commute in the family car.

Some stands just involve a man frying globs of dough in a huge wok filled with oil and set over a propane gas burner on the sidewalk. Others pull a cart with a small assembly line to make “fan tuan” (pronounced fahn twahn), or rice roll-ups.

The fan tuan makers scoop out a handful of sticky glutinous rice from a wooden bucket and pat it down into a square on a piece of plastic wrap. Spoonfuls and pinches of pickled mustard leaves, fried ground pork, crispy you tiao and other ingredients lined up in plastic bowls are sprinkled on top of the bed of rice. Then it gets rolled up into a rice tamale or burrito and sold to secretaries who eat it at the office.

Sampling what Chinese cuisine has cooking for breakfast doesn’t take a lot of money, time or effort. It does require conquering the common trepidations about crossing cultural boundaries in the morning. But once these are overcome, the rewards are quick to follow.

IRS rules changing for donation of cars

以前是直接可以從二手車的行情表裡, 自己寫上車子的大約價錢. 捐獻的車主都會把自己的車子價值填上最大的行情, 可是車子也許不值那麼的多. 從明年起, 除非慈善組織自己把車子留下來用, 捐獻的車主會另外收到慈善組織的出售價. 這個出售價才是可以報稅的價錢(一般都會低很多).

所以從明年開始捐贈車輛給慈善組織賺不到太多的退稅了.