1975-1979 Foreign Languages and Literature, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
1979-1982 General Linguistics, University Hamburg, Germany
1982-1986 Informatics, University Hamburg, Germany
1986-1989 Data Processing, Transatlantic General Insurance Company, Germany
1989-1992 Trade agency, PC products, Europe
1993-1999 Trade agency, PC & Electronic Communication products, South American
2000-2010 Freelance translator/writer/editor.
Knowledge
Try not to think of understanding as a 'mental process' at all. --- For that is the expression which confuses you. But ask yourself: in what sort of case, in what kind of circumstances, do we say, "Now I know how to go on," when, that is, the formula has occurred to me? --- Ludwig Wittgenstein
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A comment on Conversation: Why censor, should we not be able to self-regulate?
By the way, I just finished translating "Ahn Trio: A modern take on piano, violin, cello" into Traditional Chinese and I guess the removed comments might contain some rude remarks on Angella Ahn´s statement concering the popularity of atonity or the twelve-tone technique in the classic music world in the mid of the 20th century. Well, a comment on that doesn´t need not to be rude. However, I am totally with you about censorship, because I know what it is like to suppress individual expressions. Ideas worth spreading can be thus suffocated and politics become ugly. That´s why people like Julian Assange, Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaobo and even Dalai Lama could have become so controversial. It´s not about right or wrong. It´s about power, like Goethe wrote in his Faust II, "Might is right." The ones in power can always argue for their (mis)deeds. We do believe that TED.com can make a difference, but the attitude of "take it or leave it" may severely hurt the credibility of an "authority." I don´t think TED.com would like to lose its credibility by any means.
A comment on Conversation: Why censor, should we not be able to self-regulate?
I would not mind that my employees call me a jackass or my students call me an idiot without any arguements. Opinions are free. People who deal with me will know wether I am a jackass or an idiot or not. Leaving such insulting comments there is perfectly all right for me, because people are not dumb at all. They know how to make their judgements concerning an issue.
Censorship biases judgements of people. It leads to mistrust. Don't we believe that people can self-regulate their utterances of opinions? Don't we believe in democracy? Or shall we argue that the Chinese Communist regime has the right to do anything with Chinese people? Or shall we argue that a government has the right to withhold information to justify a war against a remote regime? Or shall we grant some employees of a company the right to censor opinions that may bias the public perception of the company, so that people start to mistrust the company?
Harald, I don't think so. I believe, there are some better ways to let people follow netiquette/etiquette than a censorship. Isn't it possible to let those improper comments viewable by clicking on them and leave them unclciked, when people decide not to view such insults/offenses?
It is always about the credibility of the authority that exercises such a power of censorship. So, it would be better to try some other reasonable and credible ways to keep a forum tidy than just removing some comments upon judgement of some ones who might not be authoriized through a due process by the ensemble of the people of a community, least those who exercise censorship lose their credibility/authority easily and soon, through some probable power misuses (of some "other" ones among them).
I am with Bernie on this issue. We are able to self-regulate.
A comment on Conversation: Should anyone be able to upload their TEDTalk to TED.com?
Please don't turn it into another YouTube. Geniuses out there will be voted up by the crowd somewhere else to come up to TED. It's better for TED to stay relevant than to sink into an ocean of mediocrity.