OK, now I'm officially tired of Teavana

Oh, I signed out, and now I see what you mean. You get a sign-in screen. So you have to sign-in before you can see it. If you don't have an account, then you would have to go to sanzui.com and sign up for one. Then, at the very top left side you see: ??. Click on that and you can sign up.

There's also an issue with logging on from Firefox, at least I haven't been able to login successfully *at all* on Mac or Linux / BSD Firefox, and neither have others. It works fine in Safari and in other browsers.

Looks like you are right. Im using FireFox on my Wee Eee Linux. I dont even see the characters ??. I still bet on country blocking. Okay make me fire up Vista later on today.

Jim

Okay I had to Register on SanZui.Com using Vista IE. While its fresh there is a terms and agreement window. There is a form for Userid where you enter the PW and EMAIL twice. I tried to make Google translator follow the links but got an error from the website. Youll have to follow the Chinese. It'll take me awhile to figure out the thread structure. It looks like from the showthread dropdown list there are arbitrary topics? I bet the software looks at the web browser id and hasnt added FireFox.

Jim

PS Niis> Looks like you are right. Im using FireFox on my Wee Eee Linux. I

My lord guys this sounds like a eulogy. Maybe I dont post often but read it everytime Im on. I think most of the tea places I have been reading are having less postings. Give us a few links to some of the teablogs that are lively you see good discussions on please. Jenn

When the blogs disappear they come here.

Jim

Well, that and I also would rather it be about the information and resources in one place which is much more powerful than a million individual bits of unconnected insight. My other big problem is that "teachat" is run by Adagio, a company I do not support and by using their forum every page view puts money in their pocket... here it is purely about the information. No money no hidden agendas.

I don't think i will get anyone to change their minds though but I would rather my tea chatting be sponsored by a tea vendor we all actually respect and use.

- Dominic

I doubt they make anything significant over site maintenance costs. It would not be surprising if they were losing money on it. They run it so that people exchange info about their teas and buy more of 'em. Seems like they're being good- natured in allowing discussion and recommendation of other vendors.

I only had a few teas from Adagio, one oolong that I liked very much and wasn't able to find a similar one anywhere else, and kind of jasmine tea which was average and a white tea that was just plain bad. I don't think they really have anything close to top notch teas but that one oolong was real nice. And they send them in nice cans!

For those keeping track the Wee Eee also handles Pinyin to Chinese. BoPoMoFo requires a tone to narrow down the character selection set. Unfortunately the Pinyin IME doesnt so the character set is mixed by tones based on some frequency criteria. Im not complaining since the various characters I want are at the front of the pack if not the default first position.

Jim

PS I can see why Lew had an easier time with Chinese on Linux than I did on Windows. I did learn some stuff on the way which will pay off on Linux like the Mac already.

On Nov 7, 6:14 am, Space Cowboy snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com> wrote: ...WARNING Me talking about Me, I should start my own blog...

If you're using Windows, there should be various pinyin IMEs that you can turn on (or off). Right now, I'm using the Microsoft Pinyin IME. Although, I can use just about any IME. But the Microsoft one works fine - unless I want to type in Cantonese - then I gotta switch to another IME. Although that Chinese Pingjam (CPIME) is kind of weird to use. And that's another point. There are all kinds of IMES that you can download for free too - and free fonts too.

Another thing, the Microsoft Pinyin IME allows you to switch from Simplified characters to Traditional characters - while at the same time still allowing pinyin input. Then, there are is a user-defined phrase tool - so you can add in combinations of characters that aren't in the IME already (say like zisha hu) - or something like that. And in simplified chinese, it has natural learning, so it will learn a lot of repetitive phrases that you use constantly. Only thing though, it doesn't switch commonly typed words to the top of the list - and that's annoying.

So check it out.

BTW, most people in Chinese don't actually use a pinyin IME, they use WuBi, because they can type faster without inputting full pinyin. And man, are they fast.

My other big gripe with teachat is the fact that users cannot just register, authorize, and then post like every other forum on teh Internets. It has to be manually authorized by an admin on their side... and my registration has never been authorized which means I cannot post even though I created an account. This may be on purpose because I have never had (and never will) have good things to say about Adagio's tea or it may be an oversight or issue on their side. Either way that kind of control from the top turns me off in what should be a free flow of information and ideas. Adagio and Teavana (my original rant) are cut from the same cloth in my opinion.

- Dominic

Much as I dislike Microsoft, I honestly can't say I have an easier time with Chinese input/output under Linux than Windows.

/Lew

I have US Windows Vista SP1. How do I turnon Chinese IME. Just tell me what you do and I'll see if it works on mine. Im in no mood to upgrading language packs or keyboard mappings or jumping through hoops. In your other post what is WuBi. That is on the Wee Eee with several others I dont recognize. The PinYin generates Simplified and the BoPoMoFo Traditional with no way switching one to the other besides changing the IME for that character.

xiexie, Jim

PS I can get BoPoMoFo to give me a dropdown list containing ITS symbol for that key mapping. I cannot get it to show me tone marks which on my keyboard maps to 6 3 4 7 for the first four tones. For the tea character how did you show the BoPoMoFo tonemark.

On Nov 10, 7:29 am, niisonge snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote: ...Chinese IME on Windows...

One more thing on the SanZui registration. On the registration form there is a field for an Email address. Im not sure if it is required. I input my email address assuming I would get a confirmation email to complete the login from SanZui but never did. SanZui says they will terminate your login if you are a bad boy which is really the problem with any login system. Here I had to register just too look.

Jim

Jim, here's what you do:

Windows Vista:

Control Panel > Clock, Language, and Region

Then, Change keyboards or other input methods

Then, you get a pop-up that has a tab saying "Keyboards and Languages". Click on "Change Keyboards".

Highlight "Chinese (Simplified, PRC)" And then click the "add" button.

Scroll down to the Chinese (Simplified, PRC) and expand it. When you expand it there should be all kinds of check boxes for IMEs that you can turn on (or off). Choose Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin IME. And uncheck anything else - because you won't need it. But other options you should see are "QuanPin, ShuangPin, and ZhengMa" - none of those are really any useful so forget them.

Click OK. And that should do it. You can now type in Chinese in using Pinyin.

Also under "Regional and Language Options" Click on "Change the country or region" Click on "Administrative Tab". Click on "Change System Locale" button. You get a pop-up saying "Regional and Language Settings" Change the current system local to "Chinese (Simplified, PRC)" Click OK, and that shoud do you.

Why do this? It's not going to mess up your system. English programs will still work normally. And Windows will still run in English. But, now, you will be able to install and use Chinese programs (or other chinese IMEs). Some web-based versions of some software will change from English menus to Chinese - (like Picasa) but that's a minor thing. They can be switched back.

So that's it. It's all fairly simple really.

Jim,

The WuBi code for character "cha" should be: aws. Try it and see.

Right be my bedtime, that worked. Using WuBi I can just look at the character and use predefined strokes mapped by the keyboard. I have to do some more homework to figure out why the Chinese mapping for aws built the character.

Jim

PS If I have to install something from Google I might as well install something from MS. Im just saying I dont have to jump through any hoops on ASUS Linux. If I install the MS PinYin IME do I get a dictionary like telling me the English or PinYin for each character?