Actually, this printer makes a great deal of sense in a Japanese context. Its mission in life is to connect to mobile phones, which are overwhelmingly used by and marketed to young women in Japan. (Girl's mobile phone culture is very strange and heavily developed - google "gyarumoji").
Collecting photos of each other is a major social pastime for young Japanese women, there are a number of businesses specialized in this such as the print clubs. Increasingly, print shops are offering printouts from mobile phones. The Epson product seems designed as something that can be taken along on an outing to make prints immediately.
A lot of Japanese electronics for home use are designed to be stored when not in use - so portability, compactness, etc. are important. The concept of a dedicated home office or computer desk is relatively rare.
What Epson has done is design a product very specifically focused on the lifestyle of young keitai girls. These girls are usually *very* tech savvy. So the product is not necessarily "dumbed down", but with a feature set adapted to their needs.
OK, I work in the telecoms field in Japan, and I know the Yahoo! BB infrastructure well. I asked them directly why they can offer 10x the speed at 1/2 the price, and this is the answer.
1) Different DSL encoding standard: they use a set of standards called Annex A, Annex C and Annex H to provide fast DSL over copper. (Incidentally, many of the DSL providers in Japan also provide 8 and 12 mbps service - this is a Japan specific point). Yahoo! BB IS a DSL service.
2) Low-cost all IP network: the back-end network is basically a single gigantic Layer 2 gigabit Ethernet LAN. There is no ATM, SONET, etc. any of that stuff. It all runs as IP over Ethernet. The network architecture is actually quite radical. Fiber links are rented from a variety of sources, at dirt cheap prices.
3) Regulatory support and low prices for access: the telecoms regulator, in a fit of pique, forced NTT (local telco) to offer access to the copper lines for less than $2 - dramatically lower than in other markets.
4) Extremely low cost operating model: customer support is only available via e-mail or web. You install your own equipment. (Incidentally, there are frequent complaints about Yahoo! cust serv, so they finally had to open a call center)
The offering is extremely clever. The DSL modem has an analog phone jack in the back into which you plug your existing phone, fax machine, etc. You continue to receive calls over your analog line, so your phone number does not change. Outgoing calls are checked by the DSL modem and routed over VoIP if that is cheaper. If the DSL modem fails, the analog port simply connnects straight through to the existing analog line.
There is no technical or geographical reason why the Yahoo! BB model can't be implemented in other places. They are using copper lines from the incumbent for last mile access, and a published standard. The real barrier is probably that in other markets the telcos are trying to squeeze more return out of outdated, expensive networks. They don't want to build out a back-end for 10x the current traffic using their existing high cost network model.
This issue was raised re: the Octopus card in Hong Kong as well. What prevents people from just wandering around lifting 'cash' out of people's contactless cards is that ultimately they have to get the real cash from the entity that collected it. Sure, you can go around trying to take money from people's Suica cards, but then you're going to approach JR East and ask them to give you real money? All you have is a bunch of long encrypted strings.
Re:Oh, someone explain to me
on
Equilibrium
·
· Score: 1
Thanks, worked beautifully. How did you de-obfuscate the URL?
One of the things you notice rather quickly in Japan is the number of people that sleep on trains and in the subway. Countdown timers are very popular to wake people up when they reach their station.
To facilitate this, there are posters at all stations showing the *exact* (not estimated!) travel time from the current location to all other destinations. So you look at the poster, set your timer, start it when you get on the train, doze off to your favorite music, and hopefully get woken up a minute or so before you reach your destination.
When I lived in London, they put up a brand new police box in Earls Court around 1997. Looks exactly like the Tardis, with a weird CCTV turret on top. And a vandal proof phone inside for calling the police.
Actually, the human brain does lose quite a bit of information, both at the time of memory formation and over time. What we *seem* to have is all sorts of mechanisms that "fill in" memories and make them seem more detailed, associated with the visual cortex. The only part of the retina that can see with anything approaching remotely high resolution is the fovea, everything else in your field of vision is filled in by the brain, by extrapolation. If you doubt that a lot of what you see is actually filled in by your brain, try any of the simple blind spot experiments. (The spot where the optic nerve enters the eye is actually blind, but your brain fills in the visual field to create the illusion of continuous vision). So back to topic, those "detailed" memories are generally *made up* on the fly, based on very sketchy basic information. A lot of this is based on your cultural frame of reference, hence UFO reports in the late 19th century where people described steam-powered UFO's in no end of detail, down to the smell of coal and the rivets on the boilers. So, to actually simulate some aspects of intelligence, the technical requirements may be a lot less than expected.
Actually, the fundamental *difference* between corporations and the mafia is that mafia *don't* use legal systems, contracts, etc. to further their policies. They use guns and intimidation.
If this software were at all effective, I would expect an arms race to develop, with porn web sites developing different ways to disguise porn and have it descrambled via a plug-in on the user end. Simply inverting the colors in the image would probably get it past initial screening, it's trivial to write a plug in that would reverse it back.
I type in Spanish too. Go to the Control Panel/Keyboard/Language panel, and change the keyboard to US 101 Key International (or something like that). This layout gives you deadkeys for accents - type ' then vowel for áéíóú, turns the right hand Alt key into an Alt Gr, - AltGr + n gives you ñ and a number of other lovely things, all with a single (or easy double) keystroke. áàãäâ?! ¼½¾
Having looked at the article, it seems like it's the smooth movement, rather than accuracy or photo-realism, that is the key benefit. There is something about moving freely through the simulation that a perfectly rendered still, or even a walkthrough, can't do. I actually most enjoy Q3 for just walking around and admiring the scenery.
If you go to www.milparade.com and search on Shkval, you'll find quite a few descriptive pages and detail about this system. Interestingly, the new Amur class subs are being sold to the Chinese with the Squall system fitted.
I think this is the Henry George tax system, as used in Denmark. It limits speculative purchase of land, hence housing is surprisingly reasonable, and public facilities are very good.
Having worked in management consulting, telecommunications and law enforcement, I can assure you that those fields also have no shortage of sexist, insecure and socially incoherent people...
Close but no cigar. The Nokia 61xx series does support enhanced data rates at 14.4 kbps, as does the 7110, but not the 88xx series. But you're right, the network does have to support the enhanced data rate. The Nokia 8890 (just announced) is dual 900/1900.
I feel your pain! I face the same issues at work. If you're really set on taking a laptop, you need to sort out two separate but related issues:
1) Local dial-up access. You really want a service that will give you connectivity in most countries. I use iPass, available through many ISPs, and reliable so far. I've used it at multiple locations in the US and Europe and so far hasn't failed me. It uses Compuserve or SITA/Equant POPs. Many of the numbers support ISDN. Note that you will want a service like this even if you are using a mobile phone.
2) Mobile connectivity. I have used a Nokia 8850 and an Ericsson i888 for mobile data, both are OK. Neither needs a cable, both use the IRDA port. The Nokia is GSM 900/1800 (European and Asian dual band), the Ericsson is GSM 900/1900 (Europe/USA dual band) and is much uglier than the Nokia. (The Nokia has just become available in Euro/US dual band.) Both of the phones feature built in modems, so the only software necessary is a Windows modem config file that takes up about 9k (yes, nine thousand). Other phones with an IR port do not incorporate data hardware, and require a soft modem on the PC. If you have local dial-up, using a mobile phone need not be terribly expensive.
However, you might be better off using Internet Cafes or a landline modem for the most part. Most Internet Cafes will let you set up a dial-up connection. If you're using a landline modem and need to dial out, however, look for a fax machine. Most of them use an RJ11 connector on the end of the cable that plugs into the machine, so with a double ended RJ11 adapter you're in business.
Take as large as possible a memory card for your digital camera, to minimize need for uploads.
Good luck in your travels! Make sure you're ready for multiple possibilities!
Breitling , a Swiss watch company, makes a watch with a built-in distress beacon, activated by pulling the aerial out of the case. Might be cheaper than Inmarsat phone + airtime, plus it tells time as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, this printer makes a great deal of sense in a Japanese context. Its mission in life is to connect to mobile phones, which are overwhelmingly used by and marketed to young women in Japan. (Girl's mobile phone culture is very strange and heavily developed - google "gyarumoji").
Collecting photos of each other is a major social pastime for young Japanese women, there are a number of businesses specialized in this such as the print clubs. Increasingly, print shops are offering printouts from mobile phones. The Epson product seems designed as something that can be taken along on an outing to make prints immediately.
A lot of Japanese electronics for home use are designed to be stored when not in use - so portability, compactness, etc. are important. The concept of a dedicated home office or computer desk is relatively rare.
What Epson has done is design a product very specifically focused on the lifestyle of young keitai girls. These girls are usually *very* tech savvy. So the product is not necessarily "dumbed down", but with a feature set adapted to their needs.
Check out Free Japanese Paper Robots as well, you can stage robot vs. motorcycle vs. animal battles!
I have, and still occasionally use, a Radio Shack Model 100. That's the laptop with the 40x8 screen.
Sure, it's only got 64KB of memory, but it will run forever on 4xAA batteries. And the keyboard is great.
you mean "aisu karimu" and "shidi puraia" i think
OK, I work in the telecoms field in Japan, and I know the Yahoo! BB infrastructure well. I asked them directly why they can offer 10x the speed at 1/2 the price, and this is the answer.
1) Different DSL encoding standard: they use a set of standards called Annex A, Annex C and Annex H to provide fast DSL over copper. (Incidentally, many of the DSL providers in Japan also provide 8 and 12 mbps service - this is a Japan specific point). Yahoo! BB IS a DSL service.
2) Low-cost all IP network: the back-end network is basically a single gigantic Layer 2 gigabit Ethernet LAN. There is no ATM, SONET, etc. any of that stuff. It all runs as IP over Ethernet. The network architecture is actually quite radical. Fiber links are rented from a variety of sources, at dirt cheap prices.
3) Regulatory support and low prices for access: the telecoms regulator, in a fit of pique, forced NTT (local telco) to offer access to the copper lines for less than $2 - dramatically lower than in other markets.
4) Extremely low cost operating model: customer support is only available via e-mail or web. You install your own equipment. (Incidentally, there are frequent complaints about Yahoo! cust serv, so they finally had to open a call center)
The offering is extremely clever. The DSL modem has an analog phone jack in the back into which you plug your existing phone, fax machine, etc. You continue to receive calls over your analog line, so your phone number does not change. Outgoing calls are checked by the DSL modem and routed over VoIP if that is cheaper. If the DSL modem fails, the analog port simply connnects straight through to the existing analog line.
There is no technical or geographical reason why the Yahoo! BB model can't be implemented in other places. They are using copper lines from the incumbent for last mile access, and a published standard. The real barrier is probably that in other markets the telcos are trying to squeeze more return out of outdated, expensive networks. They don't want to build out a back-end for 10x the current traffic using their existing high cost network model.
You seem to have it backwards - multiple addresses per contact seems to be on the iPaq, not the Palm Vx.
If you try putting yen notes into some color photocopiers, it will produce an all-black sheet of paper!
I don't know if this is built-in to the machine, or something to do with the paper.
I discovered this accidentally while photocopying receipts for an expense report.
This link contains a good analysis of changes in income distribution in the US:
Pyramidal Economics
This issue was raised re: the Octopus card in Hong Kong as well. What prevents people from just wandering around lifting 'cash' out of people's contactless cards is that ultimately they have to get the real cash from the entity that collected it. Sure, you can go around trying to take money from people's Suica cards, but then you're going to approach JR East and ask them to give you real money? All you have is a bunch of long encrypted strings.
Thanks, worked beautifully. How did you de-obfuscate the URL?
"Porco Rosso" stars a grown-up male pig.
To facilitate this, there are posters at all stations showing the *exact* (not estimated!) travel time from the current location to all other destinations. So you look at the poster, set your timer, start it when you get on the train, doze off to your favorite music, and hopefully get woken up a minute or so before you reach your destination.
When I lived in London, they put up a brand new police box in Earls Court around 1997. Looks exactly like the Tardis, with a weird CCTV turret on top. And a vandal proof phone inside for calling the police.
Actually, the human brain does lose quite a bit of information, both at the time of memory formation and over time. What we *seem* to have is all sorts of mechanisms that "fill in" memories and make them seem more detailed, associated with the visual cortex. The only part of the retina that can see with anything approaching remotely high resolution is the fovea, everything else in your field of vision is filled in by the brain, by extrapolation. If you doubt that a lot of what you see is actually filled in by your brain, try any of the simple blind spot experiments. (The spot where the optic nerve enters the eye is actually blind, but your brain fills in the visual field to create the illusion of continuous vision). So back to topic, those "detailed" memories are generally *made up* on the fly, based on very sketchy basic information. A lot of this is based on your cultural frame of reference, hence UFO reports in the late 19th century where people described steam-powered UFO's in no end of detail, down to the smell of coal and the rivets on the boilers. So, to actually simulate some aspects of intelligence, the technical requirements may be a lot less than expected.
Actually, the fundamental *difference* between corporations and the mafia is that mafia *don't* use legal systems, contracts, etc. to further their policies. They use guns and intimidation.
If this software were at all effective, I would expect an arms race to develop, with porn web sites developing different ways to disguise porn and have it descrambled via a plug-in on the user end. Simply inverting the colors in the image would probably get it past initial screening, it's trivial to write a plug in that would reverse it back.
Maybe it was meant as a joke? At least, I can hope???
I type in Spanish too. Go to the Control Panel/Keyboard/Language panel, and change the keyboard to US 101 Key International (or something like that). This layout gives you deadkeys for accents - type ' then vowel for áéíóú, turns the right hand Alt key into an Alt Gr, - AltGr + n gives you ñ and a number of other lovely things, all with a single (or easy double) keystroke. áàãäâ?! ¼½¾
Having looked at the article, it seems like it's the smooth movement, rather than accuracy or photo-realism, that is the key benefit. There is something about moving freely through the simulation that a perfectly rendered still, or even a walkthrough, can't do. I actually most enjoy Q3 for just walking around and admiring the scenery.
If you go to www.milparade.com and search on Shkval, you'll find quite a few descriptive pages and detail about this system. Interestingly, the new Amur class subs are being sold to the Chinese with the Squall system fitted.
I think this is the Henry George tax system, as used in Denmark. It limits speculative purchase of land, hence housing is surprisingly reasonable, and public facilities are very good.
Having worked in management consulting, telecommunications and law enforcement, I can assure you that those fields also have no shortage of sexist, insecure and socially incoherent people...
Close but no cigar. The Nokia 61xx series does support enhanced data rates at 14.4 kbps, as does the 7110, but not the 88xx series. But you're right, the network does have to support the enhanced data rate. The Nokia 8890 (just announced) is dual 900/1900.
I feel your pain! I face the same issues at work. If you're really set on taking a laptop, you need to sort out two separate but related issues:
1) Local dial-up access. You really want a service that will give you connectivity in most countries. I use iPass, available through many ISPs, and reliable so far. I've used it at multiple locations in the US and Europe and so far hasn't failed me. It uses Compuserve or SITA/Equant POPs. Many of the numbers support ISDN. Note that you will want a service like this even if you are using a mobile phone.
2) Mobile connectivity. I have used a Nokia 8850 and an Ericsson i888 for mobile data, both are OK. Neither needs a cable, both use the IRDA port. The Nokia is GSM 900/1800 (European and Asian dual band), the Ericsson is GSM 900/1900 (Europe/USA dual band) and is much uglier than the Nokia. (The Nokia has just become available in Euro/US dual band.) Both of the phones feature built in modems, so the only software necessary is a Windows modem config file that takes up about 9k (yes, nine thousand). Other phones with an IR port do not incorporate data hardware, and require a soft modem on the PC. If you have local dial-up, using a mobile phone need not be terribly expensive.
However, you might be better off using Internet Cafes or a landline modem for the most part. Most Internet Cafes will let you set up a dial-up connection. If you're using a landline modem and need to dial out, however, look for a fax machine. Most of them use an RJ11 connector on the end of the cable that plugs into the machine, so with a double ended RJ11 adapter you're in business.
Take as large as possible a memory card for your digital camera, to minimize need for uploads.
Good luck in your travels! Make sure you're ready for multiple possibilities!
Breitling , a Swiss watch company, makes a watch with a built-in distress beacon, activated by pulling the aerial out of the case. Might be cheaper than Inmarsat phone + airtime, plus it tells time as well.