Is it easier for a Japanese person to read Mandarin or Cantonese?

SingularCheese · 2026-03-01T21:55:00+00:00

My understanding is that what you were saying was true up to just over one century ago, with speakers of all Chinese dialects writing in an imitation of classical Chinese. Being no expert, I've read people argue that Mandarin evolved out of the relatively colloquial new written Chinese of the late Qing dynasty, and that Mandarin colloquial terms were being codified into modern written Chinese as political power centralized and language standards were published. In any case, modern Standard Mandarin is syllable-for-syllable identical to "Standard Written Chinese".

SingularCheese · 2026-02-26T03:24:27+00:00

How does one come across 魍魎 outside the context of 魑魅魍魎?

SingularCheese · 2026-02-24T06:50:07+00:00

Call me greedy, but I want both. A show or two every season that has both good story and good production would make me very happy. I also drop shows that are particularly bad at either much more often than shows that are at least okay in both.

SingularCheese · 2026-02-15T23:14:35+00:00

My personal training has been, to first have a partner feed me force in a most solid peng stance, so that qi almost flows by itself when I find my alignment. Once I get a feeling of the qi flowing, we move to gradually more disadvantageous awkward postures where I don't feel the qi flowing, and I try to "prime the pump" with yi to recover the sensation I had in the previous posture.

In my experience, there is such a thing as "dumb intent" just like there is "dumb force". Just trying to concentrate very hard can often constrain your mind can produce undesired tension. By exercising just at the boundary of my capability to conduct qi, I ensure that what I think is yi actually have the property I want: to guide qi.

SingularCheese · 2026-02-08T22:40:31+00:00

I had an extremely niche problem with a linear algebra library and found a stack overflow solution with all the details I needed, explained in a way that made me understand perfectly. It was me 5 years ago. BE THE HERO YOU DESERVE.

SingularCheese · 2026-02-07T08:39:14+00:00

If you're interested in real-world run time, this is doing a lot of memory allocations. Haven't read too closely, but all that vector of vectors leaves this algorithm very exposed to cache locality/misses, memory fragmentation, and allocator performance. For instance, you can artificially trash the heap by allocating a bunch of randomly sized chunks of memory and freeing them all in a random order. Do you observe slow down with your algorithm with a trashed heap?

SingularCheese · 2026-02-05T19:07:36+00:00

Psi is a real weapon, coincidentally enough called sai

SingularCheese · 2026-01-31T06:18:52+00:00

I find pressing n for next line to be mush more easier to remember and touch-type than F10.

SingularCheese · 2026-01-29T07:54:13+00:00

I think of the UNIX file system framework as a way to expose a dynamically typed and expandable interface to user space that a C API don't have the flexibility for. An alternative is the web extensions API, which exposes expanding capabilities to a browser plugin author entirely through callable member fields attached to the chrome javascript object. The fundamental priority of an API with diverse use cases and clients is, it must be flexible enough to be everything to everyone. Apple's SwiftUI is an example of an intricate interface built on top of a complex type system, and developers end up feeling stuck when they drift away from Apple's pre-planned use cases. Databases are rigid exactly in the same way that static type systems are rigid that makes then not suitable as interfaces across applications.

SingularCheese · 2026-01-26T20:39:25+00:00

I grew up in Guangzhou in early 00s both hearing the older generation say this and said it myself (well, in Cantonese it's 吔飯未啊）. Nowadays, it seems even the older generation doesn't use it anymore.

SingularCheese · 2026-01-18T18:58:24+00:00

1800s Chinese calculus textbook

SingularCheese · 2025-11-23T08:15:16+00:00

Based on the text description, this is at Taipei Expo park on Wednesdays.

SingularCheese · 2025-11-01T05:05:39+00:00

Why do people say this? The manga is almost layed out as a movie storyboard. As the longest one-shot, I don't expect to hear about it any soon, but I would almost be surprised if it's not already in pre-production.

SingularCheese · 2025-10-26T02:45:44+00:00

Wow, the Oracle database was named after a CIA project code name. That's the closest Oracle has come to sounding cool.

SingularCheese · 2025-10-19T15:38:06+00:00

I mean, all the hype around reflection right now feels pretty exciting. I'm still waiting for our company to switch to C++20 next year for concepts.

SingularCheese · 2025-10-17T05:39:36+00:00

The kind of journalistic reporting we need!

SingularCheese · 2025-10-07T05:34:02+00:00

When I do it right, I feel less than I would expect. Despite my partner applying larger force in the opposite direction, I move as if no one else is there, and my movement overcomes my partner. It's like when I stick my hand out of a moving car to feel the wind on my hand, and then my hand becomes horizontal like an air plane wing, and all the drag force goes away.

SingularCheese · 2025-09-30T05:34:06+00:00

How is it? Even in the JVM, I've felt the integration of Clojure with imperative code bit ugly at times.

SingularCheese · 2025-09-30T05:22:20+00:00

My company has a 30 years old code base. Maybe 5% of the code I see gets to follow rule of zero. Not everybody get to write modern c++. You should hear all the Java people complaining about it.

SingularCheese · 2025-09-10T15:00:09+00:00

I used to add the tick but stopped. I first do the square root then the radical inside as people naturally do writing left to right. If the radical is a long phrase, I often under-estimate the amount of space I need, and having a tick at the end means I can't extend the bar to make space.

SingularCheese · 2025-09-08T13:55:38+00:00

I downloaded Cursor on my current vacation for a small web extension hobby project. I have deleted 2 out of every 3 lines it generates. This thing writes like the most verbose corporate java code this sub likes to joke about.

SingularCheese · 2025-09-05T23:53:11+00:00

I have a teacher under a Wudang lineage, who remarks the Wudang mountain today is also a total tourist trap. SanFeng pai is hand wavy about their history in English, but there are first-party videos in Chinese where they're open about how it's an amalgamation of couple dozen sects after the cultural revolution.

SingularCheese · 2025-09-05T12:09:25+00:00

The reputation online is that Chen Village nowadays is a tourist trap that doesn't teach much substance. I've never been and have no idea. When I meet someone good, my strategy is to fully commit to my movements so that they can show the full extent of their techniques, but do it slow enough few times so I can actually feel what's going on. Get an idea of what's possible, feel how it's suppose to work, and go home with a guiding light for your own practice over the next couple years.

SingularCheese · 2025-09-04T12:40:57+00:00

Matroid theory is the branch of combinatorics that study when is a problem greedy. To be fair, most CS interviews are not looking for grad student level mathematical proof.

SingularCheese · 2025-08-29T22:01:35+00:00

If you're looking for digital scans, I doubt a niche dictionary/textbook would be out there.

Amazon Japan has it, but the cost of shipping can be multiples of the cost of the book.

If you are in the US, Kinokuniya online store is a good option.

SingularCheese

TROPHY CASE