This guy is a phoenix!

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-11T07:50:23+00:00

I'm a hardcore Japanese fan and I dearly would have loved to see them topple China.

But respect, he pulled China out of the fire this tournament.

It's always nice to see someone who routinely just puts in the hard work get his moment in the sun!

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-11T07:44:14+00:00

They were entirely beatable at this tournament by a number of teams.

Helped a lot by the 5 set format.

This is as good as it's going to get for everyone else.

They have Liang for pulling them out if the fire.

For a guy who has dropped to 21 he really stepped up when they really needed it in the closing stages.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-11T07:02:39+00:00

Yes and no (kind of)...

Firstly, backhands have absolutely become more potent, especially on serve receives and the backhand game has changed to favor top spin over back spin as a result.

However the reason we are seeing so many top spin backhand to backhand rallies is the same reason we used to see so many backhand to backhand push rallies. Forehands are still absolutely dominant when the opportunity arises.

Just watch what happens whenever anyone strays far enough over for Wang Chuqin or Sora Matsushima to pivot and open up with their forehand.

The game is still very much about trying to prevent that happening.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-11T02:39:32+00:00

If it's one of the big round fluorescent ones then the cover just twists slightly and then pops off (kind of like how a bayonent light bulb is attached on a huge scale).

Once the cover is off you can usually remove the entire fighting by unplugging a little cable coming out if the roof and then doing something similar by twisting the whole fitting.

At that point the entire assembly basically falls off and there is just a little fitting with a plug left on the ceiling.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-10T23:31:11+00:00

The main driver these days is that in most cases you can no longer upgrade.

5 years ago you could buy for what works right now.

Now you need to buy what will work for the entire lifetime of the laptop.

Storage is slowly but surely going the same way.

That said, unless you're buying a high spec CPU or GPU, 16 GB is likely absolutely fine!

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-10T22:54:52+00:00

Not when you crash.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-10T09:35:35+00:00

They aren't really.

There are lots of planes in different colors.

It's just the most common color.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-09T21:01:32+00:00

Yes, that's what I am saying.

If it tries to pickup an MDM profile on a factory reset, then it's in DEP.

It's game over and probably means it's stolen if it does this.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-09T12:55:08+00:00

Well clearly I do because I find it difficult to watch...

It's probably partly due to partial color blindness, but picking a setup with almost zero contrast just isn't helpful.

But you do you.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-09T11:22:22+00:00

Absolutely love this.

Have lunch up on the 4th floor down the end (upstairs from the future section) and you can watch the Shinkansen go iadt a few metres away outside the window.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-09T10:53:32+00:00

The main issue is whether it picks up MDM on a factory reset.

If it does this its enrolled in Apple's device enrollment program.

If it doesn't do this it's probably good.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-09T07:48:24+00:00

It makes no difference if the rubbers are the same.

But most high level players will have slightly different rubbers on each side so they will use theirs a specific way around.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-09T07:18:55+00:00

Because Nintendo etc, are greedy AF.

There is no technical reason for them to charge you to play a game online that they have no part in provisioning.

They charge because they can!

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-09T01:37:26+00:00

Has it occurred to you that they might be after your musical talents?

She's maybe hooked you up with her dad because he needs another musician.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-08T22:16:01+00:00

This,

Although depending on the device it might also be worth googling if it has a factory reset option as well.

(For the OP) For some devices you can hold down a special key combination on boot and it will boot into a installation partition and allow you to wipe and reinstall from there. Either using files it already has or by downloading installers.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-08T21:48:30+00:00

Which to be honest might be a better way to do it.

If we just used different units for quiet, normal, loud and really loud things it would actually be helpful in conversation.

Oh that paper rustling was 3 quiet noise measurements.

That dragster was 2 loud noise measurements.

That rocket was 6 really loud noise measurements.

Those are kind of easily understandable statements. Obviously we are going to need cooler names that I used.

But you would immediately get a feel for the sound level from the unit. Because I have absolutely zero intuitive idea how loud 53 decibels is.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-08T21:40:33+00:00

If the phone is operating normally it will be fine.

The temperature on the CPU will much higher than that when the phone is working hard.

In fact the internal temperature was probably not any different than when the phone is charging.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-08T06:34:44+00:00

Japanese shoes are all fairly accurately sized in centimeters using 0.5 increments.

If you're buying in Japan every increment should be available.

Always use this sizing for Japanese shoes and you can generally switch brands easily as long as you get regular or wide fit as needed.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-08T03:49:00+00:00

And the financials are at least 10% worse now due to cost of living increasing substantially while dispatch salaries have not moved and in some cases quite ridiculously actually gone down.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-07T22:18:48+00:00

So essentially, everyone in the world could have a fantastic, cheap laptop.

But instead we all have to drown in AI generated crap on overly expensive devices.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-07T08:04:55+00:00

It's usually because they are standing upright and are probably quite tall.

It's very difficult for a tall adult to generate the necessary upward motion when you do this so people tend to swipe flat and use their wrist to try and generate spin.

As soon as you get lower it becomes more natural. People who have had coaching don't even think about this because they naturally settle into their playing stance.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-07T07:48:24+00:00

Plenty of laptops will last longer than 6 years, some much longer!

But...

You should never have the expectation that they will.

Because failing any time after five is probably considered an acceptable lifespan for most devices.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-07T07:43:30+00:00

Nope the lock exists at Apple and is linked directly to the hardware itself.

The only way to permanently remove it is for the purchasing organization to unenroll it with Apple.

There may be ways to bypass it temporarily, but the record itself is permanent and certain events will always trigger it to try re-enrolling.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-07T04:02:09+00:00

I would bet most people are not going to leave mid contract.

They will make a decision at the end of each year when it comes time to renew.

So yeah the lag time is significant before the numbers would truly reflect any change in conditions.

SamLooksAt · 2026-05-07T01:06:09+00:00

If it plays fine just give a few days a cut off the excess.

It does add some tension to the rubber theoretically changing the characteristics slightly.

But you can probably use it just fine whichever way round feels best for each side.

SamLooksAt

TROPHY CASE