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North Korean Flash Games For Export
linzeal writes: "Despite it being pretty-much closed off to the world, North Korea is the next boom place for IT and tech outsourcing, PC World has reported. Flash games are being developed there for outside publishers, largely thanks to the home-grown talent. Does this mean that the the cartoon company that makes The Simpsons might use North Korea as well? Well it looks like they already have started."
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What does it tell us about the business of software development when one of the world's foremost autocratic hellholes is seen as a good place to do it?
For bonus points, try to find a copy of Pulgarasi [wikipedia.org], a giant-monster film directed by a man who was by North Korean intelligence on the orders of Kim Jong-il, the director of said film.
Here ya go, for free, at google.
irony #1: a television whose wit is only possible in a country with freedom of expression, being drawn by cartoonists in a country where there are no freedoms at all. anyone north korean attempting a north korean version of the simpsons would be put to death
irony #2: a country so beholden to the almighty buck that it will export the production of everything to the cheapest place possible, relentlessly and continuously, until you are driven to places where things are so cheap because of adherence to communist ideology. capitalism's relentlessness includes ways to monetize and capitalize on artifacts of the the communist age. that's an irony china certainly has a lot of domestic experience with
there are about 20 other ironies. see them for yourself
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Flash games are EVIL!!!
One that hath name thou can not otter
communist ideology is incompatible with reality, much as libertarian ideology is incompatible with reality
attempting to make communism work in reality results in domination of society by cult of personalities. individuals who can do no wrong (while they do plenty wrong). attempting to make libertarianism work in reality results in domination of society by corporations. corporations who can do no wrong (while they do plenty wrong)
balance in all things. unfortunately, we must pay a mighty price in this world for the ideolgoical fools who go to the extremes of libertarianism and communism, when the middle way, the moderate way: capitalism with socialist safety nets, socialism with capitalist engines, the only really valid real world solutions to the paradox that is human selfishness and altruism
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
the threat all of us faces is fundamentalism
not just the usual fundamentalism of religions: muslim fundamentalists, christian fundamentalist, jewish fundamentalists, although they of course continue doing the damage they have done for centuries
also, fundamentalisms of politics and commerce: free market fundamentalists, constitutional fundamentalists, brain dead partisans: a sort of fundamentalism of political party, etc
even other bogeymen can be recast as fundamentalism: racism, for example, is a form of racial fundamentalism
whenever you adhere to one aspect of human reality, and make it your only concern, to say that is solves all problems, you yourself, you have become the source of the problems in this world. because the truth is, the world is complex, and simplistic teachings about who and what we are always fail
unfortunately, this truth never stops certain assholes from continuing to tell us that simplistic teachings are the solutions to our problems (and thereby become the source of our problems)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
China might not be as free/open as some places, but comparing it to North Korea is a bit of a stretch.
China is authoritarian; some of the laws are strict by our standards, but if you obey them and mind your own business, you'll probably be left alone.
Westerners can visit China and go about on their own there without being chaperoned or harrassed. Chinese people can leave there if they want (and some do).
North Korea, on the other hand, is totalitarian -- it's basically a giant prison camp, almost impossible to get into or out of without making very special arrangements, and where you can be executed for making an overseas telephone call.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The connection is this: An animation company that works on the simpsons is located in south korea. They have been working on a korean folk tale translated into a full length movie, and have been working with north korean animators for the feature.
There is nothing in the article that states (as the summary implies) that any of the simpsons is done in north korea, nor that there are any plans to do so.
Anyone know a better "news for nerds" site that doesn't have all the misleading headlines SlashDot has taken to lately?
I'm kind of sick of this sh!t.
try to draw an equivalency between north korea and the usa
it would be hilarious, if you weren't being so serious
the usa has committed plenty of crimes, and continues to do so, and you should castigate the usa for that
but dude: you fail at reality if you fail to see that north korea is well beyond the usa in the evil behavior department. really
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I've traveled between the US, Middle East, Europe, Mexico and Canada numerous times and never have been asked if I was a Nazi/Communist/where I'm going/who I'm meeting when I come back to the US.
Even on direct flights between Tel Aviv to New York, Amsterdam to New York, Frankfort to Portland, never ever get those kinds of questions returning to the US or going into places like Tel Aviv. Worst grilling I got was Haifa to Greece by Israel on a ferry and Atlanta to Paris when I got to Paris CDG.
Look, I realize that if the government really wanted to, they could track you, but the reality of it is the US Federal Government doesn't, hell they didn't know where I was in the US for 8 years to give me a tax bill I didn't know about. If the IRS can't figure out where you are when you aren't even hiding from them, that doesn't really make me wonder about the all-seeing-eye of the Feds.
Sure, some countries will hold your passports, but when you travel in the United States no one is keeping track of your papers, you don't need internal passports in the US (unlike the DPRK), you don't need internal passports in Canada.
Last fall I traveled between the continental United States and Alaska, even past one of the most strategic places in the US, the Alaska Pipeline, no ID checks there, only ID checks were at the borders, as far as the US government was concerned I could have disappeared pretty much anywhere in that trip.
Now I live a km away from a major US military base, again no ID checks to be here.
That is impossible in the DPRK by any and all accounts of life there.