Topic: The ‘Right to Repair’ Movement Gains Ground
If you buy a product — a car, a smartphone, or even a tractor — and it breaks, should it be easier for you to fix it yourself?
如果你買了一個產品，例如一輛汽車、一部智慧型手機，甚至是一台拖拉機，結果它壞了，是不是應該讓你自己修理起來更容易些呢？
Manufacturers of a wide range of products have made it increasingly difficult over the years to repair things, for instance by limiting availability of parts or by putting prohibitions on who gets to tinker with them. It affects not only game consoles or farm equipment, but cellphones, military gear, refrigerators, automobiles and even hospital ventilators, the lifesaving devices that have proved crucial this year in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
多年來，許多種產品的製造商都讓維修變得愈來愈困難，比如限制零件的取得，或對何人有權動手維修施加限制。受影響的產品不止於遊戲主機或農用機具，還有手機、軍用設備、冰箱、汽車，甚至包括今年對抗新冠病毒疫情發揮關鍵作用的救生設備—醫院裡的呼吸器。
Now, a movement known as “right to repair” is starting to make progress in pushing for laws that prohibit restrictions like these.
現在，一項名為「維修權」的運動在推動禁止此類限制的立法上，正取得進展。
In August, Democrats introduced a bill in Congress to block manufacturers’ limits on medical devices, spurred by the pandemic. In Europe, the European Commission announced plans in March for new right-to-repair rules that would cover phones, tablets and laptops by 2021.
今年8月，美國民主黨因防疫需要而在國會提出一項法案，旨在阻止製造商對醫療裝置設下限制。在歐洲，歐盟執行委員會3月宣布了新的維修權規定計畫，在2021年以前實施，涵蓋手機、平板電腦和筆記型電腦。
And in more than 20 statehouses nationwide, right-to-repair legislation has been introduced in recent years by both Republicans and Democrats.
近年來，在全美國20多個州的議會裡，共和黨和民主黨都提出了維修權法案。
Over the summer, the House advanced a funding bill that includes a requirement that the Federal Trade Commission complete a report on anti-competitive practices in the repair market and present its findings to Congress and the public.
今年夏天，眾議院推動了一項資助法案，其中責成聯邦貿易委員會做成一份關於維修市場反競爭行為的報告，並向國會和民眾提交調查結果。
The goal of right-to-repair rules, advocates say, is to require companies to make their parts, tools and information available to consumers and repair shops in order to keep devices from ending up in the scrap heap. They argue that the rules restrict people’s use of devices that they own and encourage a throwaway culture by making repairs too difficult.
倡議人士表示，維修權規定的目的是要求企業向消費者和維修商家提供零組件、工具及資訊，以免這些裝置最終被扔進垃圾堆。他們主張，目前的慣例對人們使用自己的裝置設下限制，並透過讓維修變得太過困難的方式，助長了一種用完即丟的文化。
They also argue that it’s part of a culture of planned obsolescence — the idea that products are designed to be short-lived in order to encourage people to buy more stuff. That contributes to wasted natural resources and energy use at a time when climate change requires movement in the opposite direction to rein in planet-warming emissions.
他們還認為，這是一種計畫性淘汰文化的一部分，即為了鼓勵人們購買更多東西，產品被設計成短命的。在氣候變遷需要採取反向行動來控制溫室氣體排放的此際，這助長了自然資源的浪費以及能源的使用。
Manufacturing a new device or appliance is still largely reliant on polluting sources of energy — electricity generated from burning fossil fuels, for instance — and constitutes the largest environmental impact for most products.
製造一種新設備或裝置在很大程度上，仍仰賴會造成汙染的能源，例如燃燒化石燃料產生的電力，對大多數產品而言，這正是構成最大環境影響的因素。
Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5015841
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Topic: UK gamers and politicians take aim at console ’scalpers’
Furious British gamers and lawmakers are training their sights on "scalpers" who are buying up coveted PS5 and Xbox consoles and selling them online at vastly inflated prices.
氣沖沖的英國玩家和議員將焦點指向「黃牛」，這些黃牛買光搶手的PS5、Xbox電玩主機，然後在網路上以大幅灌水的價格出售。
The popular consoles have also been hard to come by in other parts of the world, but in Britain anger has boiled over to the point where some lawmakers want to ban the practice of reselling them online at higher prices.
這些熱門電玩主機在世界其他地方也一機難求，但是在英國掀起的怒火已沸騰，一些議員為此打算禁止網路高價轉售的作法。
While a PS5 normally costs between £360 and £450 depending on the model, its median resale price on sites like eBay is £650-£750, according to US researcher Michael Driscoll.
根據美國研究員麥可．德里斯考的說法，通常一部PS5依版本差異，售價在360英鎊到450英鎊之間，但在諸如「電子海灣」的網站上轉售價中位數為650到750英鎊不等。
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Topic: Singaporean student plays Pokemon on ingenious ‘Melonboy’
想像你搭捷運時突然有個年輕男子拿著一顆鑲有小螢幕的西瓜淡定的坐到你旁邊，開始認真的玩。
Imagine that you are on the MRT and a young man sitting next to you is playing video games on a watermelon-like console.
近期，就有新加坡民眾在捷運上目睹這奇葩的一幕。一位星國少年自製了一台「西瓜Game Boy」，上面不僅有螢幕和實體的按鈕，裡面還裝載了近期最流行的寶可夢遊戲軟體。
That’s the unusual sight some people recently experienced in Singapore when a teenager was seen playing “Pokemon Go” on a self-built console made of a watermelon, a screen and some buttons.
就讀新加坡管理大學的Cedrick Tan，近日在YouTube上分享了自製的水果寶可夢GameBoy，揭露製作過程和最後實驗結果。
Cedrick Tan, a student from the Singapore Management University, has been tinkering with the project on YouTube which has led to him building his own version of Pokemon Emerald inside a fruit.
一向天馬行空的他其實已經有無數的作品，包括將一個地圖放進虛擬實境和利用微軟Excel發送訊息至通訊軟體Telegram。如今他又再次突破自己，將遊戲機成功的裝進蔬果內。
An avid creator, Tan’s long list of projects include turning a map into a blank canvas for augmented reality, finding a way to send messages to Telegram using Microsoft Excel, and building a playable Game Boy Advance inside a melon.
當被問起做這個作品的過程時，Cedrick表示其實非常簡單，因為西瓜內部空間非常足夠，電路的連接也非常方便。
When asked about his project, Tan said: “When it came down to actually making the Melonboy, it happened to be really convenient seeing as the melon was very spacious on the inside allowing me to wire everything up with ease.”
遊戲機目前可以成功的開啟，使用的軟體也和原版相符，而挖空的西瓜塞進了一個電池、數個實體按鍵、一個1.8寸的螢幕和小喇叭音響。
The Game Boy emulator can then be loaded and run with the same software as the original game. Inside the scooped-out melon, a power bank, buttons, a 1.8-inch screen, loudspeakers are assembled.
Cedrick表示，因為買到瑕疵零件，導致製作過程延宕，西瓜GamBoy花了他將近一個月才完成。若沒有遇到這些問題的話，大概一週以內就能完成，他自信滿滿地說。
According to Tan, the construction took about a month; though he blamed the time-length on a faulty device integral to the game boy. Without the problem, the watermelon-based console could have been finished in less than a week, he said.
「身為一個資管系的學生，我對於電機其實一知半解，所以一切從零開始學，花了一點時間。」Cedrick 說。然而，他對於自己的成果表示滿意，成功的製作出一個有著完整介面的「攜帶式」遊戲機。
“As an information systems student, I have no background in electrical engineering, so learning that from scratch took some time,” Tan recalled. The result is a working game console, complete with a Game Boy Advance emulator and a game controller.
吸睛的西瓜GameBoy影片獲得廣大民眾迴響，這大概也是Cedrick最大的收穫。
But the best thing about Tan’s video is the public’s reaction to the watermelon game boy.
Cedrick也實驗過將西瓜帶去賣場玩，捕捉到許多人好奇的眼光。
On a visit to the market, he played the game console surrounded by real watermelons, which provoked weird looks from passers-by.
Cedrick憶起他曾帶著西瓜進火車站，當時還被站務員攔截，詢問他手上的大西瓜是怎麼回事。
Tan also recalled being quizzed about the device when he brought it into a train station.
一位緊張的員工甚至跑到他身邊詢問奇形怪狀的西瓜用途，聽完他的解釋後，員工還非常興奮地將他拉回辦公室要他將作品展現給其他同事看。
A distressed SMRT staff asked him about the strange device, and after hearing his explanation, requested him to show it to her colleagues.
此外，Cedrick坦言他曾經被誤認為西瓜炸彈客，而他從沒想過帶著西瓜會碰上這樣的麻煩。
In addition, Tan said he also experienced another unforeseen problem where someone complained that he was carrying a watermelon bomb.
Cedrick也將自己的作品分享到美版PTT Reddit上面，不僅獲得外國網友的讚賞，還有許多人鼓勵他之後利用酪梨和椰子製作遊戲機。
Tan also posted on Reddit about his clumsy contraption, where he received plenty of praise, inspiring him to build different versions in the future, including avocados and coconuts.
不幸地，Cedrick透露，影片上傳YouTube後過了幾天，西瓜就爛掉了。
Unfortunately, Tan revealed that the watermelon had rotted just a few days after his YouTube video was uploaded.
然而，Cedrick表示將會繼續創作，未來也規劃以榴槤製作遊戲，將其命名為「臭Boy痛苦遊戲」。
However, Tan vowed to continue making his creations and could take on the challenge of turning the durian into a game that could be called StinkyBoy’s Pain Game.
Source article: https://chinapost.nownews.com/20200827-1697494