No law, but if they don't buy from the toritsugi, they run the risk of having the toritsugi cut off their stock supply. (Although recently a couple of the larger book chains have moved toward direct purchasing from the publisher.)
The comment wasn't about 'standing and reading' (which can be done in just about any bookstore in the world) but about coffee bars, comfortable seats, etc. in bookstores. Which doesn't happen in Japan, except for a very few places (as I mentioned). So what exactly was wrong about my comment?
Just to clarify a few of these... ($US1 = 118 JPY, 100 JPY = $US0.84)
books / magazines Japanese paperbacks vary between 350 and 650 yen. Hardback novels are usually 1200 to 2500 yen.
CDs / DVDs CDs are 2000-3000 yen, although the cheap 'collections' are usually 1000-1200 yen (older artists). DVDs vary between 2500 and 7500 yen (higher end is for things like anime).
movie tickets 1500-1800 yen.
gasoline 90-100 yen per litre.
fruits Depends where you buy, but a punnet of strawberries in season is 200-350 yen, apples are 100-200 yen each, 1Kg of oranges is 300-500 yen.
rice Don't really know - I get all my rice from relatives (farmers).
vitamins Dunno, don't buy them.
stationary That's what work is for, right?;)
postage (delivery fee, let's say) ~80 yen for a postcard, ~100 yen for a letter. I find shipping costs worse - 5000+ yen to ship a server from one side of Tokyo to the other is a ripoff.
beer 130-150 yen for a 300ml can of 'happoshu', which is basically beer but brewed in a way which excepts it from the taxes on beer. Real beer is 200-300 yen for a 300ml can. Of course, buying in bulk reduces the cost by quite a bit.
"Cheap" stuff...
cigarettes I don't smoke, but quite a few friends bitch that Japanese cigarettes are expensive (250-300 yen for a box of 20).
low-quality sake (rice-wine) Not necessarily low quality; quite decent sake can be had for 1200-1800 yen for an isshobin (1.8 litre bottle).
Most magazines actually do have subscriptions - take a look at some of the computer magazines, for example Software Design. It's not very much cheaper (usually only the cost of consumption tax, if that).
The reason for that is the way book distribution works in Japan. The publisher sends the book data to the printer, where it's printed; it's then shipped to the toritsugi company, which is basically a distributor. From there, it's sent to however many bookstores the publisher has paid for it to be sent to. Quite often, if the bookstore doesn't want the books it has been sent, they just leave them in the box and send them right back (at no cost to the bookstore).
The problem is that publishers have no (easy) way of getting their books out to bookstores other than through the toritsugi, with which they have a rather uneasy relationship. If the publisher starts selling magazines directly to consumers by subscription at a discount, the toritsugi will start getting annoyed with them and may increase the cost for the publisher to distribute their other products. Thus, the publisher is blocked from offering cheaper subscriptions.
And how much do you think it will cost them to do that? Bookstores in Japan are very tight for money at the moment. They shrinkwrap certain items (manga books - not the weekly comics, but the series collections, mainly because of the number of schoolkids who could be found standing around for hours at a time reading them without buying a single one), but to do that for magazines which might spend less than a week on the shelf is not feasible.
Japanese libraries tend not to carry all magazines (or even most of them). Also, the libraries can often be quite a way away, as there tends to be only one library per ward/city area.
Unfortunately, your simple solution doesn't allow for the fact that an average bookstore in Tokyo could have half a dozen 10-foot racks packed with magazines. They're not going to be able to put them all behind the counter...
They're taking photos with digital cameras built into cellphones. This doesn't require that the phone be in communication with the phone network - it's just like using a normal digital camera.
I've yet to see a jammer weaker than an EMP gun that could affect a digital camera...
They're not taking 600 photos of each page of a novel.
The main problem is people snapping pictures of a few pages out of a magazine when they want to read the article but don't want to buy the whole magazine.
Well, no, there aren't. There are a very few bookshops like that in central Tokyo, but otherwise, the floorspace is too valuable to be wasted on things like coffee bars or chairs.
Re:OK.... Is this Balanced?
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 0, Troll
Actually, it's a finite resource. Let's see...
24 hours a day * 30 days a month = 720 hours
A good worker only needs to sleep for 20% of the day, so:
720 * 0.2 = 144 720 - 144 = 576
Obviously, if you have the best interests of the company at heart, you'll work 576 hours a month. But if you really want that promotion, I'm sure you'll work at least 600 hours...
Slashdot Mirror
Ah, apologies, I thought you meant the originals, not new books.
And if it is George, anyone have any idea if they're ever gonna resurrest the Wild Cards series?
They already have. Check Amazon.
His name's George R. R. Martin, and his page is here.
He's still sorry... damn.
No law, but if they don't buy from the toritsugi, they run the risk of having the toritsugi cut off their stock supply.
(Although recently a couple of the larger book chains have moved toward direct purchasing from the publisher.)
The comment wasn't about 'standing and reading' (which can be done in just about any bookstore in the world) but about coffee bars, comfortable seats, etc. in bookstores. Which doesn't happen in Japan, except for a very few places (as I mentioned). So what exactly was wrong about my comment?
And by the way, who's "we"?
I work in *Japanese* publishing. The point is the shopkeeper would have to do it himself, because it isn't going to happen on the publisher's dime.
We're talking about bookstores with coffee bars inside them, not coffee shops.
Just to clarify a few of these...
($US1 = 118 JPY, 100 JPY = $US0.84)
books / magazines
Japanese paperbacks vary between 350 and 650 yen. Hardback novels are usually 1200 to 2500 yen.
CDs / DVDs
CDs are 2000-3000 yen, although the cheap 'collections' are usually 1000-1200 yen (older artists). DVDs vary between 2500 and 7500 yen (higher end is for things like anime).
movie tickets
1500-1800 yen.
gasoline
90-100 yen per litre.
fruits
Depends where you buy, but a punnet of strawberries in season is 200-350 yen, apples are 100-200 yen each, 1Kg of oranges is 300-500 yen.
rice
Don't really know - I get all my rice from relatives (farmers).
vitamins
Dunno, don't buy them.
stationary
That's what work is for, right?
postage (delivery fee, let's say)
~80 yen for a postcard, ~100 yen for a letter. I find shipping costs worse - 5000+ yen to ship a server from one side of Tokyo to the other is a ripoff.
beer
130-150 yen for a 300ml can of 'happoshu', which is basically beer but brewed in a way which excepts it from the taxes on beer. Real beer is 200-300 yen for a 300ml can. Of course, buying in bulk reduces the cost by quite a bit.
"Cheap" stuff...
cigarettes
I don't smoke, but quite a few friends bitch that Japanese cigarettes are expensive (250-300 yen for a box of 20).
low-quality sake (rice-wine)
Not necessarily low quality; quite decent sake can be had for 1200-1800 yen for an isshobin (1.8 litre bottle).
RC parts (that are made in japan)*
Dunno...
"The printer" doesn't package books up for shipping. That's done by the distibutor, who is paid by the publisher, not the bookstore.
Most magazines actually do have subscriptions - take a look at some of the computer magazines, for example Software Design. It's not very much cheaper (usually only the cost of consumption tax, if that).
The reason for that is the way book distribution works in Japan. The publisher sends the book data to the printer, where it's printed; it's then shipped to the toritsugi company, which is basically a distributor. From there, it's sent to however many bookstores the publisher has paid for it to be sent to. Quite often, if the bookstore doesn't want the books it has been sent, they just leave them in the box and send them right back (at no cost to the bookstore).
The problem is that publishers have no (easy) way of getting their books out to bookstores other than through the toritsugi, with which they have a rather uneasy relationship. If the publisher starts selling magazines directly to consumers by subscription at a discount, the toritsugi will start getting annoyed with them and may increase the cost for the publisher to distribute their other products. Thus, the publisher is blocked from offering cheaper subscriptions.
And how much do you think it will cost them to do that?
Bookstores in Japan are very tight for money at the moment. They shrinkwrap certain items (manga books - not the weekly comics, but the series collections, mainly because of the number of schoolkids who could be found standing around for hours at a time reading them without buying a single one), but to do that for magazines which might spend less than a week on the shelf is not feasible.
Quite a few cellphones in Japan these days have removable storage, so you could for example stash the photos onto a 128MB MemoryStick.
Japanese libraries tend not to carry all magazines (or even most of them).
Also, the libraries can often be quite a way away, as there tends to be only one library per ward/city area.
Except it costs the bookstores money to put those covers on, and a lot of bookstores in Japan are already running on wafer-thin margins.
Don't bet on it - the latest cellphones in Japan have 1.3 megapixel cameras, and it won't be long before that breaks 2 or 3 megapixels.
Unfortunately, your simple solution doesn't allow for the fact that an average bookstore in Tokyo could have half a dozen 10-foot racks packed with magazines. They're not going to be able to put them all behind the counter...
A cellphone jammer will help exactly how?
They're taking photos with digital cameras built into cellphones. This doesn't require that the phone be in communication with the phone network - it's just like using a normal digital camera.
I've yet to see a jammer weaker than an EMP gun that could affect a digital camera...
They're not taking 600 photos of each page of a novel.
The main problem is people snapping pictures of a few pages out of a magazine when they want to read the article but don't want to buy the whole magazine.
Well, no, there aren't.
There are a very few bookshops like that in central Tokyo, but otherwise, the floorspace is too valuable to be wasted on things like coffee bars or chairs.
Retirement ages are currently decreasing worldwide!
Bullshit. Here in Japan, the government's been trying for ages to get companies to raise their age of retirement to 65 from 60.
The right size to fit in a USB port, of course!
Is there any standard yet for sending power over the Ethernet cable?
Yes.
Worthless.
Actually, it's a finite resource. Let's see...
24 hours a day * 30 days a month = 720 hours
A good worker only needs to sleep for 20% of the day, so:
720 * 0.2 = 144
720 - 144 = 576
Obviously, if you have the best interests of the company at heart, you'll work 576 hours a month.
But if you really want that promotion, I'm sure you'll work at least 600 hours...
Nah, that'd be Rule 1 or Rule 2.