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Japan's R&D investments have led them to blue-violet LEDs, Aibo, Toyota Prius, and other products.

If only this was shown in American prime-time, people may start thinking more critically about the moves we are taking now...

It's quite depressing really. That documentary was shown in the UK almost a year ago. It has made the rounds in prime time slots all over the world - it was showing here in Canada several months ago. And for all that, the one country where it probably most needs to be seen is where it isn't getting any significant play.

If you can't download whole documentaries, you can start this article on Al Qaeda by Jason Burke who featured in the documentary. It will give you an idea of at least some of the background and misperceptions of the "global terror network", or lack thereof, that we are facing.

Jedidiah.

Japan appears on the surface to be pure capitalism, but the Japanese also practice European-style paternalism. Companies are not allowed to fail, thus throwing millions out of work. Banks continue to lend money even to companies that surely should go bankrupt. Major companies in Japan avoid laying off workers. All this paternalism breeds inefficiency. The average Japanese worker is, in fact, less productive than the aggressive American worker. There are some exceptions: e.g. Toyota blue-collar worker

I'll disagree with you here. I'm sure the homeless living in Shinjuku and Ueno Parks would take issue with you -- the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge their existance because it is a shame on the society. When they do acknowledge them, it is to evict them for "environmental beautification programs", which aren't actually anything other than mass evictions. The homeless return a month or so later. Notice that up until a handful of years ago, there was no budget for homeless welfare, as opposed to USD 2.2 billion in the US. However, recently, the budget was raised to a whopping USD 20 million! Way to look after your own people! An Osakajin states The country has been turning a blind eye to the problem. In fact, when the emperor visits the park, the government makes the homeless people take down their shantytowns and leave!

The USA has a track record of being more supportive of homeless people than Japan. Companies will lay off employees to save money now. This isn't the Japan of the 1980s that guarantees lifetime employment.

Furthermore, it is not paternalism that saves the companies that should otherwise go bankrupt; rather, it is widespread corruption. Research the links between the Yakuza (organized crime) and the Liberal Democratic Party (the ruling party) sometime. I'm sure you'll be surprised. Companies are bailed out by their friends in high places, not by a government seeking to be gentle to its citizens. The only people who are saved in Japan are the wealthy.

I know I'm making a bleak picture of Japan, but the image outside the country is of a sparkling Coruscant, and it's not like that at all from the inside -- there is large amounts of homeless people, run down homes; heck, the Japanese people I talk to on a regular basis refer to their homes as rabbit holes and other disparaging terms which equate their homes with places where insects and rodents reproduce rapidly (despite a 1.something birthrate!). I can't remember the word in English right now, but its was one with negative connotations.

America has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. America is one of the few industrialized nations to continue to liberally practice capital punishment.

Now, I say this in partial jest, but, you complain of overcrowding of prisons and the practice of reducing overcrowding? If we didn't have capital punishment, we'd have even more criminals! ;)

umm.. all that should be taken care of. When clinton sent an onvoy to convince opec that they could manipulate the production of oil to raise the prices and thereby increasing the amount of money availible to pay back the debt the third world countries encounter.

The tird world debt is realy a conclusion made because forgiving it was a top conversation list at the time and the trip to riase oil prices seemed to ocme after congress lost anyt hope of passing somethign that would forgive third world debt that is directly related to the oil prices of the70's and 80's. there is also secret oil deals he made to control the prices and make himself look good or in control while president.

What is a First Ammendment issue is that the state attorney general is the one who's making the list. That's state censorship if I've ever seen it. Besides, customers have plenty of filtering services available, so any law instituting a state blacklist is just iron-fisted proselytizing by the LDS Utah government.

How much you want to bet that alcohol-oriented and anti-Mormon websites are going to be on that blacklist? After all, the list is optional, so by your definition that isn't censorship.

If you think I might be exaggerating, consider the case of Polygamy Porter, which got totally screwed by the Utah government when "the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (UDABC) announced that using religion in advertising would not be permitted," though the law was later overturned.

I haven't heard about this before, but I know it's illegal to listen/watch anything but the state's broadcasts

links:
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/02/24/nk orea.tv/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157121.st m
http://www2.gol.com/users/coynerhm/north_korea_tv_ nation.htm
http://nkfreedom.org/important_nk_topics.html
http://web.amnesty.org/

PS. For more proof (not that you appear swayable by proof), visit the licensing information for one of the several free dictionaries authored by online amateurs, such as Wiktionary or the much-older EDICT.

Both descriptions, written by people who've had a serious need to research the subject accurately, claim that individual dictionary entries are copyrightable. Of course, that should've been obvious anyhow, as it is a direct consequence from the simplest statement of copyright law. Written matter IS COPYRIGHTABLE, even if non-fiction. How you could've imagined otherwise is almost baffling.

I can't find the statistic, but for young people, the suicide rate I believe is quite a bit higher due to the cram-course/get-a-good-college-or-you're-a-failure culture--but since I can't remember the exact figures or place, take that one with a grain of salt.

I went to the UK and we drove from london to wales for a week, and most of the londonites looked at us funny. I'm from Australia and I'd travel further than that to go camping.
Reminds me of this list.

AFAIK the US are not really interested in more "humanitarian" behaviour of landmines. The Ottawa convention has not been signed by a few "rogue states", including the US, Russia, China, India, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. If you don't like that company, write to your representative.

Landmines are not really meant to kill soldiers after all, they know what they look like and where they might be - they are often even designed not to kill, but to mutilate. A dead is buried, a mutilated child will be a burden for society for all his life. Fill a country with landmines, as both Soviets and US-backed Mujaheeddins did in Afghanistan, and you have cursed the country for generations.

Self-destructing mines are not going to be accepted - these days the Geneva convention is used to wipe Rumsfeld's arse, and frankly a proposal for a more expensive and on-purpose less effective weapon is not going to get through.

I'm told that mine production is not even that lucrative business. They have children mutilated with landmines that look purposefully like toys, only to make a few pennies more. Some motherfuckers.

Speaking of Cambodia, these people know something.

I just discovered today that a fine site (http://www2.gol.com/users/tame/swing/examples/) with losts of custom swing components went 404.
I was able to retrieve some stuff using the wayback machine, but it is still a shame to see the site itself go.

Maybe the poster should try the wayback machine too.

Combine one of those with the classic IBM model M keyboard and you have the ultimate input experience.

You mean something like the Logitech model M-S35? I have five of them (to handle future replacements), but mine are the less-streamlined, older submodel that you can't buy new anymore (hence the hoarding), and of which I can find no picture.

Combine one of those with the classic IBM model M keyboard and you have the ultimate input experience.

>>But what's Disney going to do? Move to South Carolina?

Disney doesn't need to move to another state because they kind of are a state.

I think that Disney, being a seperate government entity for all intents and purposes will be immune from this tax.

p/g

Just found it.

Several years ago (circa 1995 if my memory serves me right) IBM produced a regular-sized notebook which had a full-sized keyboard. This "butterfly" keyboard was the closest anyone has ever come to producing a desktop-type experience in a notebook package but the screen was still no better than that on any other notebook.

The thinkpad you're referring to is the 701C. I had one back in high school, it was a great little machine, and the "magical" keyboard never failed to impress =)

-A

Broadband via cable TV is available, but cable modems are a fairly new thing over there and many apartments don't have the cable lines anyway. (Take a look at any apartment building in Japan and you'll see dozens of those mini satellite dishes perched on the balconies.) However, if you want cable TV and broadband Internet, you can get a pretty good deal by combining the two -- about 80 USD/month. You might need a local friend to help you, though, because most cable providers don't have English-speaking customer service.

If you just want the Internet access, a better option is ADSL, which has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years. Before ordering, you first need to decide whether you want land-line (as opposed to cellular) phone service. If you want a land line, get ADSL Type I, which includes phone service and Internet access. If you plan to get a cell phone in Japan, choose ADSL Type II, which provides Internet access only, but for a lower price.

The cheapest ADSL service is probably Yahoo! Japan BB, but they don't provide any English support, not even for sales. You're better off going with a company that has a dedicated English-speaking support line such as Global OnLine or eAccess. Unfortunately, these providers usually serve only the larger metropolitan areas, so if you're in a suburb or a smaller town, your only choice might be good old NTT. All you have to do is call the English-speaking sales line for NTT (the number depends on whether you live in the east or in the west) and tell them you want ADSL Type II. They'll be happy to hook you up for about 25 USD/month, and you can rent an ADSL modem from them for another 5 USD/month. Important tip: NTT will send you a CD-ROM containing PPPoE drivers that only work with the Japanese version of Windows, so you should download the freeware program RASPPPOE before you go and bring it along with you. It's compatible with NTT's ADSL modems.

There's another catch: Because NTT only provides the physical ADSL connection, you'll need to find an ISP that supports ADSL. I got mine through OCN for about 20 USD/month. They offer sales and support in English.

The Macintosh has about the same percentage of market share in Japan as in the U.S. (in other words, not much), so you can expect the same level of support and availability over there that you'll find here. I expect it's entirely possible to hook up your Mac to a Japanese ADSL modem, but don't expect much technical support if things go wrong. (I had no trouble connecting through my Linux laptop once I got the Roaring Penguin configuration set up right.) As for 802.11b, coverage is almost non-existent, although just about everyone over there does email wirelessly through their cell phone. Text messaging and services like DoCoMo are far more popular than the Internet in Japan, at least for now.

You should visit the ISP Japan FAQ for more details. You might also want to check out my Japan page for tips on living and working in Japan.

However, around six months ago I read a horiffic account of her six years in the North Korean prison system by a woman named Soon Ok-Lee and I was so appaled and so angry that something like this could go on on this planet that I suddenly became very interested in North Korea. I have a lot I'd like to share, so please forgive me if this post is quite 'information dense'.

First, I'd encourage all of you to read Ms. Lee's account. There is a condensed version of it at this URL (caution, not for children.. it may even give you adults nightmares..)

US Senate Testimony of Ms. Soon Ok Lee North Korean prison camp survivor

There are many other defector testimonies available too. They make fascinating if chilling reading, as does anything having to do with North Korea. All I can say is that North Korea is an enigma of sorts. An entire country operated like a cult. It is a cult in which to question the insane narcissistic ruler Kim Jong-Il is often to die. You dont believe me? Read her story!

Which brings me to the reason why I am posting. Kim Jong-Il's hold on North Korea, I think, is fragile. It depends on a very tight "blockade on information' coming in to the country. Can Slashdot readers think of any way to get news of the outside into North Korea ? Because if we could.. we could rid the world of a madman comparable to PolPot or Hitler or Stalin..

For some background on NK's techniques of control, read the following:

The Official Propaganda In The DPRK: Ideas And Methods

The Repressive System And The Political Control In North Korea

Here are some other resources: Two other defectors stories..

http://monthly.chosun.com/html/200201/200201280001 _1.html

http://monthly.chosun.com/html/200006/200006130003 _1.html

NK Human Rights website

North Korea's strategy

Anyway, please check them out, and please do something for human rights in North Korea today. They are human beings like ourselves and they are suffering.

I daresay that any of us outspoken geeks who found ourself suddenly transplanted into North Korea would soon find ourself in the position Ms. Lee. found herself in. Except that she lived and we would die for that ill-considered remark. She was one of the only people to ever be released from an NK death camp. She risked (and is risking) her life to tell her story.. Maybe we can help in some way.. Breaking the blockade of information coming into North Korea would help destabilize Kim Jong-Il. With all the technology available to the West, there has to be away.. And it would be nonviolent, since eventually HIS OWN PEOPLE would kill him..

He is one of the most evil people who have ever lived. Dont fall for the lies.. He is fooling so many people... he will never 'open up' he is afraid the world would find out about his crimes and NK's 'killing fields'. It is all an act. A lie.

One idea I had was to float toilet paper into North Korea on leaky balloons.. Most North Koreans have never seen toilet paper. Lets show them that the rest of the world is not trying to kill them. We want to help free them.

That's not entirely true. Caldera did purchase the assets of Digital Research from Novell, and begain a lawsuit against Microsoft, and settled for ~$250M. They must have needed the money badly because they settled, even though their case seemed very strong and an eventual win almost guaranteed. During this time Lineo (nee Caldera) did sell embedded solutions based on the DR-DOS code base. They also purchased the Arachne web browser for DOS, ported it to their Linux offering and sold it as DR-WebSpider. At the time they sold both DR-DOS and Linux based embedded packages, targeting the Kiosk market. They also made the source to DR-DOS (Caldera OpenDOS) available for the first release or two but closed it back up due to lack of interest, the difficulty of getting the build environment setup and business reasons.

DR-DOS lives on as the bootstrap for Novell Netware and I'm sure that there were a few other clients for embedded DOS (IIRC Kavouras used it, I can't remember others). DR-DOS, AFAIK, is still available for download and personal use, and Caldera has packaged it for use with DOSEmu. So while they did use DR-DOS for the lawsuit money (A perfectly valid and appropriate lawsuit if there ever was one) they also based the beginnings of their embedded offerings on it. Lineo is one of the better embedded companies right now, gunning for Wind River's marketshare, they are not going away.

Further DR-DOS history links

• http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~kkoster/micro soft/caldera.html
• http://www2.gol.com/users/joewein/dri.html

I wonder, do you think he kicks himself every morning?

not since he died in 1994..

I recomend a Sun Sparcstation SLC or XLC. It is basically a complete diskless SPARC integrated with a 17" black and white monitor. A plus is that there is no fan involved.

I boot mine from my Linux box using the SLXT package (based on a linux kernel) and it works well. The only downside is that it takes several minutes to boot over the network. There's an (out of date) article about it at http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue27/little.html
An alternative to SLXT is XKernel

Steve.

...when I was threatened by Nintendo of America to give up my www.pikachu.com domain name. A year later and I still have it. The letter is up at http://www2.gol.com/users/poyopoyo/l etter.html