And it's virtually unheard of to start your own business here (if you're Japanese) and is impossible if you're a foreigner. I'm not in IT so I don't know that side of it, but that sentence would leave me to believe that there are 0 small businesses in Japan, which is ridiculous. I thought about opening a restaurant here and there are a plethora of books about starting your own business in the bookstores. I don't have a link and I'm too lazy to search for it, but there are even websites dedicated to helping Japanese speaking foreigners with the laws required to start your own business. Maybe loans would be a bit more difficult, but not impossible.
Some professions are utterly ridiculous (like elementary school teachers) and need some help to reduce the number of hours they are required to work Personally, I thought that the junior high teachers that I taught with had it a bit more rough than the elementary school teachers. There are no club activities in elementary school. I've known JH teachers who spend the night in the teachers room because they live too far from school and didn't finish working until 3AM and decided it was easier to sleep there than drive home.
And forcing them to move every couple of years seems unreasonable as well. That's not just teachers. I have a good friend who works for the Post Office, the only reason I know her is because she was transfered from her hometown to where I live, a short 2.5 hours by car (on top of that, she has to go to an office on an outer island). My wife ran into a friend's younger sister working at a grocery store and she said she was transfered from her home town to where we were. A grocery store clerk! Also, I suggest that you do like I'm doing and try to move in March. It's quite the experience. Lots of new places that are immediately booked because half of Japan is moving because they're being transfered.
As John Denver once said, "Thank god I'm a country boy." I'm really glad I don't have to work with salarymen. Please, try to see some of Japan's beautiful countryside and go have a drink at a small izakaya and chat up a farmer or two. Talk about fun loving people...
That and the difficulty of navigating between windows - until I found the window navigation key this morning, but even so, not as slick as the task bar. F9 - Lets you see all open windows and choose what you want (you can even tab trough so no pesky mouse movement)
F10 - Lets you see all windows of just the active application (cmd+tab to change apps, plus if you continue to hold down cmd as you tab through, you can hit Q and quit the app without even switching)
F11 - show the desktop
F12 - Dashboard (widgets)
You do mention a Mac Air, I haven't used one, but if it's like other mac laptops, only F11 and F12 aren't doubled up as contrast keys, but those are changeable in sys prefs.
[sic]you could click on one side or the other to provide a two button mouse substitute ctrl+ click makes it a right click.
I don't know about you, but I prefer to use the mouse as little as possible, and from my experience, it's easier to live mouse-less on a mac than on windows. I don't know about vista because I haven't touched it out side of display computers at stores. So when you say "the dock does not work as well as the Vista equivalent" I don't know what you mean other than the task bar which I feel is worthless.
Your first paragraph is basically "Dear God, they use a parliamentary system like England!"
Your second paragraph is "Dear God, they have a different culture!"
Youths can stand out but once you reach adulthood it's a totally different story. You may have lived in Japan, but I don't think you spoke to many Japanese people. When I first got here, I had the same impressions, but after spending most of my time with Japanese people and not with foreigners I came to realize that's totally not the case. People here are really no different than anywhere else in the world except they're nicer to each other (outside of driving, bastards). I'd say people in Japan stick out even MORE so than people in the west. Sure you had Goths in America, but how many 40 year old goths? I've seen 40yo+ lolitas and gyals. Get out of Tokyo and the Salaryman office environment and SEE Japan.
Ugh, ACs. If so many people didn't spew this meme I wouldn't bother responding.
allowing endless plunder of our property with assessments pulled out of thin air leads to endless increases in the cost of education with little to show What do you want it to show? People are always whining and moaning about the supposed abysmal failure that is the American Public Education System but never say how they should be. The only people who do are the nutjobs that don't want evolution taught or some absurd intelligent design nonsense thrown in. I grew up hearing about how the rest of the world's education systems were so much better, how the Japanese were leaving us in the dust (child of the 80's) etc etc. I spent four years teaching in those great Japanese schools, talk about standardize testing hell! But you know what? Kids are kids. I had a student, who on her own, studied hard and spoke better English than one of the teachers. In the same class, there was a kid that growled at me if I tried to help him. There's a saying about horses and water but I went to an American public school so obviously I don't know it because my education sucked so bad.
Education should not be funded with local recurring property taxes. Where would you suggest? The lottery? Now that is a misfortune.
Once you stop paying, they come and take it away from you. Because that's a lot easier than taking away the pipes and roads and other utilities running to your house away. It's a lot fairer than denying your children entrance into the public schools and a lot safer than letting the fire department ignore you as your house burns to the ground. We are provided services. These services are not free. You cannot secede from the United States. If you do not like these services that are being provided to you by the way of you paying property tax, then sell your land and move to another country or rent an apartment.
People like you throw the word "tax" around as if it's some sort of cuss word, yet completely ignore everything good that it's used for. Sure it's used for bad things and stupid things, too. That's what you have to watch for and vote for the people that will use taxes the way you want them to be.
where is the property tax on you bank account, your stock investments, the money other people owe you, labor contracts? Ummm? Income taxes? Hello?
I should have the right to be secure in my possessions. Thanks to your taxes, you are. Or did you think that the police are working for free, too?
Maybe we could take the internet away from the telco's and make it a public service, too? Since your thoughts, ideas and code are nowadays generally distributed over the internet, taxes from those could go to pay for their distribution channel. It's like killing two birds with one stone (bye bye net-neutrality).
I'm dreaming however as this is way to socialistic for 90% of the population.
And how much do you charge someone every time the sit in your chair? How much do you claim in lost income because someone is sitting in your chair without your permission?
Ok... So I'll take it seriously. Now what? Do we get rid of the internet? I mean, even if this article is 100% true, what am I supposed to do? Cancel my service?
My god! What insight! Thank you for sharing your post! +5 ANSWER TO EVERYTHING. What the hell else are we supposed to post about? How we agree with the law?!?
When the iPhone was first announced here, they said that it'd be here about a year later. As 3G is pretty much the standard (soon to be replaced) the timing of this doesn't really surprise me. However, if it's Japanese functionality doesn't improve over the iPod Touch's, it's not going to make much of a dent, I don't think.
Personally, I think ideology plays a large part in it. You don't see the video game industry handing out cash to Jack Thompson, do you? The problem isn't who's taking the money, it's that anyone can take the money.
I haven't owned a computer with a MS OS on it in over 6 years (and even then it was a linux dual boot). I despise MS as much as the next/.er, but I have to agree with the other posters, "M$" is dead. When you use it, even rock solid points lose validity because they come out biased.
All human languages have a thing called context. In an article about Microsoft doing something, it's ok to abbreviate Microsoft as MS because that's the topic. It doesn't really matter how many other things it could mean because by context, it means Microsoft.
I really wanted to make this post as civil as possible, because anything else would just make you angrier. So please, when you read this post, remain calm and collected, thinki about the points I've made and if you disagree, please let me know in a civilized manner.
But here's the tricky part, this article is called "Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!". It's not called any of the following.
"Metric System Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Multiple Sclerosis Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Mississippi (the state) Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Manuscript Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Master of Science Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
And the list goes on and on...
But in this particular article, there is only one MS.
Another thing to add about Japan is that it's not SMS, it's actual email. Much more convenient. Also there is a big cultural thing as it's considered incredibly rude to talk on the phone on public transportation (and now for the cultural difference) and so people DON'T talk on the metro or bus. If you want to communicate, you email someone.
Put a raw egg in it and you're fine. I know many a Japanese person who eat a bowl of rice, soy sauce and raw egg for breakfast. I asked why without the raw egg it's not cool and the response was "because it just is". Personally, I have to agree with them and think that you're weird. Japanese rice is miles better than the crap grains used in the western world. There's no need to dirty something that's already perfect (which is the reason I was told as to why soy sauce on rice is a no-no).
>It seems food here is not about eating in a way you like but rather eating in a way that the ancients developed thousands of years ago.
You must be new here (to Japan that is). Have you not seen a pizza menu? Did you just read my post about the raw egg?
When I first read "Shakespeare, Michaelangelo, or da Vinci's " in there, I was thinking that it was anti-copyright. What a truely horrible example for a pro-copyright person to make.
First, with Shakespeare, he was a plagiarist. Assuming he actually wrote them himself, they were still copies of other works. My favorite play of his, "MacBeth", was based on a competing play that had open two weeks earlier called "MacBeth".
The two artist were payed by rich people to create things for rich people. People that paint churches now adays are arrested if caught. Bah it's thanksgiving and I'm drunk. you get my point.
So, because random murders happen I should give up my rights to the government? See, the thing is, our government is here to protect me from the mass armies of Google Inc., not to tap my phone or keep a large database on my movements. I can easily lie to google, but I can't easily lie to Uncle Sam (and yes, I realize anonymity through obfuscation isn't true anonymity). <br/><br/>Crazy pshycos are everywhere. There's not much I can do about being tortured by one, but giving up my privacy to the government won't protect me from them. Also, if you would like any other response, please stop your racial profiling. There is no need to slur upon muslims three times in a seven senteced post. Many other non-muslims are crazy and torture and murder people.
He would have a point if google could throw you in prison or declare you an enemy combatant and have you shipped of to a different company and tortured. But then again according to google for three years I was murdered in Tampa, FL
Japanese students write everything by hand (at least at the junior high school level). Also, <i>maybe</i>an above average high school student could write a short (like two paragraphs) "essay" in English. The only time students really need to use a PC in Japanese school life is to teach them how to use it to prepare them for using one at work.
Actually, it was "ravioli" not "spaghetti". Personally, I thought it was hysterical and a nice addition. The first time it happened when a friend and I were playing it, we couldn't stop laughing. I mean it's not like he says "Damn you and your deigo mustache and greasy hair." Also, you can't claim that Mario got his start as a racial stereotype as he made his debut in Donkey Kong, which has nothing to do with plumbing (the original slightly offensive Mario Brothers game, in which Luigi comes about was a spin-off)
Perhaps unwisely, the alliance countries allowed him and his regime to live, Actually, they didn't go in because they knew it would be a horrible quagmire that would quickly disintegrate to civil war...
Well, just as it's important, I think, for a president to know when to commit U.S. forces to combat, it's also important to know when not to commit U.S. forces to combat. I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government would we have? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shi'a government, a Kurdish government? Would it be secular, along the lines of the Ba'ath Party? Would be fundamentalist Islamic? I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept the responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. I think it makes no sense at all. April 7, 1991 Secretary of State Richard Cheney
Slashdot Mirror
As John Denver once said, "Thank god I'm a country boy." I'm really glad I don't have to work with salarymen. Please, try to see some of Japan's beautiful countryside and go have a drink at a small izakaya and chat up a farmer or two. Talk about fun loving people...
F10 - Lets you see all windows of just the active application (cmd+tab to change apps, plus if you continue to hold down cmd as you tab through, you can hit Q and quit the app without even switching)
F11 - show the desktop
F12 - Dashboard (widgets)
You do mention a Mac Air, I haven't used one, but if it's like other mac laptops, only F11 and F12 aren't doubled up as contrast keys, but those are changeable in sys prefs. [sic]you could click on one side or the other to provide a two button mouse substitute ctrl+ click makes it a right click.
I don't know about you, but I prefer to use the mouse as little as possible, and from my experience, it's easier to live mouse-less on a mac than on windows. I don't know about vista because I haven't touched it out side of display computers at stores. So when you say "the dock does not work as well as the Vista equivalent" I don't know what you mean other than the task bar which I feel is worthless.
Your second paragraph is "Dear God, they have a different culture!" Youths can stand out but once you reach adulthood it's a totally different story. You may have lived in Japan, but I don't think you spoke to many Japanese people. When I first got here, I had the same impressions, but after spending most of my time with Japanese people and not with foreigners I came to realize that's totally not the case. People here are really no different than anywhere else in the world except they're nicer to each other (outside of driving, bastards). I'd say people in Japan stick out even MORE so than people in the west. Sure you had Goths in America, but how many 40 year old goths? I've seen 40yo+ lolitas and gyals. Get out of Tokyo and the Salaryman office environment and SEE Japan.
People like you throw the word "tax" around as if it's some sort of cuss word, yet completely ignore everything good that it's used for. Sure it's used for bad things and stupid things, too. That's what you have to watch for and vote for the people that will use taxes the way you want them to be.
where is the property tax on you bank account, your stock investments, the money other people owe you, labor contracts? Ummm? Income taxes? Hello? I should have the right to be secure in my possessions. Thanks to your taxes, you are. Or did you think that the police are working for free, too?
Maybe we could take the internet away from the telco's and make it a public service, too? Since your thoughts, ideas and code are nowadays generally distributed over the internet, taxes from those could go to pay for their distribution channel. It's like killing two birds with one stone (bye bye net-neutrality).
I'm dreaming however as this is way to socialistic for 90% of the population.
And how much do you charge someone every time the sit in your chair? How much do you claim in lost income because someone is sitting in your chair without your permission?
Yes, now all your neighbor has to do is report you as a terrorist and it's off to G'tmo for you!
yeah, i mean look at all the number 1's metallica has had since then...
Ok... So I'll take it seriously. Now what? Do we get rid of the internet? I mean, even if this article is 100% true, what am I supposed to do? Cancel my service?
How we agree with the law?!? errr.... that's supposed to be "What, are we supposed to agree with the law?!?"
My god! What insight! Thank you for sharing your post! +5 ANSWER TO EVERYTHING. What the hell else are we supposed to post about? How we agree with the law?!?
When the iPhone was first announced here, they said that it'd be here about a year later. As 3G is pretty much the standard (soon to be replaced) the timing of this doesn't really surprise me. However, if it's Japanese functionality doesn't improve over the iPod Touch's, it's not going to make much of a dent, I don't think.
Personally, I think ideology plays a large part in it. You don't see the video game industry handing out cash to Jack Thompson, do you? The problem isn't who's taking the money, it's that anyone can take the money.
I haven't owned a computer with a MS OS on it in over 6 years (and even then it was a linux dual boot). I despise MS as much as the next /.er, but I have to agree with the other posters, "M$" is dead. When you use it, even rock solid points lose validity because they come out biased.
All human languages have a thing called context. In an article about Microsoft doing something, it's ok to abbreviate Microsoft as MS because that's the topic. It doesn't really matter how many other things it could mean because by context, it means Microsoft.
I really wanted to make this post as civil as possible, because anything else would just make you angrier. So please, when you read this post, remain calm and collected, thinki about the points I've made and if you disagree, please let me know in a civilized manner.
But here's the tricky part, this article is called "Microsoft Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!". It's not called any of the following.
"Metric System Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Multiple Sclerosis Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Mississippi (the state) Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Manuscript Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
"Master of Science Bids $44.6 Billion for Yahoo!"
And the list goes on and on...
But in this particular article, there is only one MS.
Another thing to add about Japan is that it's not SMS, it's actual email. Much more convenient. Also there is a big cultural thing as it's considered incredibly rude to talk on the phone on public transportation (and now for the cultural difference) and so people DON'T talk on the metro or bus. If you want to communicate, you email someone.
Put a raw egg in it and you're fine. I know many a Japanese person who eat a bowl of rice, soy sauce and raw egg for breakfast. I asked why without the raw egg it's not cool and the response was "because it just is". Personally, I have to agree with them and think that you're weird. Japanese rice is miles better than the crap grains used in the western world. There's no need to dirty something that's already perfect (which is the reason I was told as to why soy sauce on rice is a no-no).
>It seems food here is not about eating in a way you like but rather eating in a way that the ancients developed thousands of years ago.
You must be new here (to Japan that is). Have you not seen a pizza menu? Did you just read my post about the raw egg?
When I first read "Shakespeare, Michaelangelo, or da Vinci's " in there, I was thinking that it was anti-copyright. What a truely horrible example for a pro-copyright person to make.
First, with Shakespeare, he was a plagiarist. Assuming he actually wrote them himself, they were still copies of other works. My favorite play of his, "MacBeth", was based on a competing play that had open two weeks earlier called "MacBeth".
The two artist were payed by rich people to create things for rich people. People that paint churches now adays are arrested if caught. Bah it's thanksgiving and I'm drunk. you get my point.
So, because random murders happen I should give up my rights to the government? See, the thing is, our government is here to protect me from the mass armies of Google Inc., not to tap my phone or keep a large database on my movements. I can easily lie to google, but I can't easily lie to Uncle Sam (and yes, I realize anonymity through obfuscation isn't true anonymity). /><br />Crazy pshycos are everywhere. There's not much I can do about being tortured by one, but giving up my privacy to the government won't protect me from them. Also, if you would like any other response, please stop your racial profiling. There is no need to slur upon muslims three times in a seven senteced post. Many other non-muslims are crazy and torture and murder people.
<br
He would have a point if google could throw you in prison or declare you an enemy combatant and have you shipped of to a different company and tortured. But then again according to google for three years I was murdered in Tampa, FL
Japanese students write everything by hand (at least at the junior high school level). Also, <i>maybe</i>an above average high school student could write a short (like two paragraphs) "essay" in English. The only time students really need to use a PC in Japanese school life is to teach them how to use it to prepare them for using one at work.
Actually, it was "ravioli" not "spaghetti". Personally, I thought it was hysterical and a nice addition. The first time it happened when a friend and I were playing it, we couldn't stop laughing. I mean it's not like he says "Damn you and your deigo mustache and greasy hair." Also, you can't claim that Mario got his start as a racial stereotype as he made his debut in Donkey Kong, which has nothing to do with plumbing (the original slightly offensive Mario Brothers game, in which Luigi comes about was a spin-off)
I'm still having a hard time imagining someone with a Zen...