I develop in Japan, mostly for a Japanese audience. We use Apache -> Weblogic & Oracle 9iAS -> Oracle 9i, all glued together with a pile of other stuff. Never quite found an editor that solves every problem, but Eclipse and jEdit are both pretty good as a start, as is Oracle jDeveloper if you're an Oracle shop. Half the time I end up putting HTML pages together using Visual Studio (*gulp*), as the HTML editor's predictable in Japanese. I predict that whatever you choose, you'll end up running something else alongside it, and then something else alongside that, etc. Only advice I have is that encoding standards are great in theory, but the implementation of them is uniformly appalling, no matter where you look. One hint is to get a native language speaker to proofread non-Western character based pages, as they can look perfect but still be garbage. Another tip is, if you're doing Japanese, develop on a native Japanese OS. I guess that applies to Chinese too. Don't trust a foreign language-ified 2000 to behave exactly how native 2000 would. Welcome to the party...
How about an Epson Locatio PDA? It has GPS, a digital camera and a compact flash slot for a PHS modem (for a dial up connection). Bad thing, for most people reading Slashdot, is you can only get one in Japan. Sorry! The pamphlet I picked up explains how you can take a photo of a restaurant, embed it into an email, add a map with a 'I am here' reference showing where you took it, and then email it to your friends to tell them where they should meet you for dinner. Cool. http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/locatio/index.htm
The email I got from Sony's online store (it's in Japanese or I'd post it) said that if I want a new utility disk then I need to send back the old one. They basically say that not all PS2s have the 'problem', but that if you want 'improved' DVD functionality then send it back...
Hmm, *nearly* there. I checked out the Japanese spec for the Memory Stick Walkman (as a PDF on Sony's Japan website), which is the first major application of this technology for Sony. What it appears they're trying to do is get you locked into using Magic Gate, which is their proprietary copy protection architecture based on a modified Memory Stick. You CAN'T use standard Memory Sticks with any of this kit, you have to use the special white sticks with the content control stuff built in, so forget using your blue sticks for your camera, personal stereo and Playstation 2.
Sony's content management software allows you push up to three copies of a track, so in theory you could make a copy for your home hi-fi, one for your Walkman and a further copy for the car. The way it does this is by using a standard software engineering type source code control system, i.e. you check your music in and out of the software. It will also allow you to rip CDs and do the same, and it will also read your MP3 files and turn them into Magic Gate ATRAC compatible files, for all the benefit that gives you. This is a pretty insidious move for Sony, as the next thing they're probably going to do is start watermarking their CD content, so that their Internet connected software can report unauthorized use, etc, etc. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Basically this is the first attempt by Sony to put the MP3 genie back in the bottle under their own steam. The RIAA have proved themselves to be impotent in dealing with MP3, because they're trying to address it in a very 'standards organization' kind of way. It'll never happen, and I'm sure Sony are fully aware of that. It's all very well saying 'just buy an MP3 player', but Sony are going to market this stuff to *death*, and within a year it'll be a widely understood technology by the non-Slashdot reading world. MP3 is great, but so were Betamax videos. That's what you've got to fear.
The best way to deal with tech like MP3 is to do what Microsoft did to Apple, copy it, f*** with it, then pile the cash into merchandising the hell out of it and locking your key users into it. When the Playstation 2 launches, I predict that Sony will do exactly that. They'll have a very friendly, easy to browse, Playstation 2 friendly web site and make it extremely easy for Joe Public to suck tracks onto their Memory sticks with the minimum amount of fuss, all billed to Sony's Playstation 2 dial-up Internet service. Clean and simple. MP3 will rapidly become a voice in the wilderness, unless the MP3 community can do unto Sony what Linux is currently doing to Microsoft...
I think a lot of people are missing the point here. The key aspect of this story is that Bill is standing up in front of some leading industry IT people and telling them that Linux sucks. Why does he need to do this? On the one hand Microsoft would have you believe that Windows utterly dominates the OS market as it currently stands. On the other hand they've recently started turning the marketing heat on a OS developed in a 'university type' environment by a bunch of beardies. Why would a multi billion dollar corporation need to do this? They're running scared is why. I think they've put the figures through their spreadsheets and come up with some answers that scare the hell out of them, so now they're rallying the troops for battle. Over the next few months I personally expect to see more of the same, and if that doesn't work then Microsoft will do the thing that's always worked in the past - they'll copy what makes Linux what it is, open source, and make it their new standard. This will gradually dilute the open source movement and start some flames which Microsoft will gently fan, and before you know it those industry people will be talking about Microsoft instead of Linux again. The only way to stop this kind of thing is to avoid the standard temptations offered by Microsoft, the main one being money. Everyone knows that Microsoft's installed user base is huge and their development tools are in the main excellent, and those are just the things that will drag all those potential Linux coders over to the dark side. I think we're seeing the first border skirmishes, but the real war is just about to start...
Surely the more important question is *why* they're doing reports like this, rather than arguing about how much of the report is BS. Of *course* they lied, it's *marketing*. If they weren't at least a little bit worried about Linux/Apache they wouldn't need to fabricate the 'evidence', now would they?
1. 553573861 (*without* the first zero) 2. SHANGHAI 3. SNOW CRASH (with a space? Not sure...) 4. PRITCHARD (the characters' *middle* name) 5. Social Security number (I guess anything's OK)
...I still can't get in though! Anyone got the decoder card?
Slashdot Mirror
I develop in Japan, mostly for a Japanese audience. We use Apache -> Weblogic & Oracle 9iAS -> Oracle 9i, all glued together with a pile of other stuff. Never quite found an editor that solves every problem, but Eclipse and jEdit are both pretty good as a start, as is Oracle jDeveloper if you're an Oracle shop. Half the time I end up putting HTML pages together using Visual Studio (*gulp*), as the HTML editor's predictable in Japanese. I predict that whatever you choose, you'll end up running something else alongside it, and then something else alongside that, etc. Only advice I have is that encoding standards are great in theory, but the implementation of them is uniformly appalling, no matter where you look. One hint is to get a native language speaker to proofread non-Western character based pages, as they can look perfect but still be garbage. Another tip is, if you're doing Japanese, develop on a native Japanese OS. I guess that applies to Chinese too. Don't trust a foreign language-ified 2000 to behave exactly how native 2000 would. Welcome to the party...
How about an Epson Locatio PDA? It has GPS, a digital camera and a compact flash slot for a PHS modem (for a dial up connection). Bad thing, for most people reading Slashdot, is you can only get one in Japan. Sorry! The pamphlet I picked up explains how you can take a photo of a restaurant, embed it into an email, add a map with a 'I am here' reference showing where you took it, and then email it to your friends to tell them where they should meet you for dinner. Cool. http://www.i-love-epson.co .jp/products/locatio/index.htm
The email I got from Sony's online store (it's in Japanese or I'd post it) said that if I want a new utility disk then I need to send back the old one. They basically say that not all PS2s have the 'problem', but that if you want 'improved' DVD functionality then send it back...
Hmm, *nearly* there. I checked out the Japanese spec for the Memory Stick Walkman (as a PDF on Sony's Japan website), which is the first major application of this technology for Sony. What it appears they're trying to do is get you locked into using Magic Gate, which is their proprietary copy protection architecture based on a modified Memory Stick. You CAN'T use standard Memory Sticks with any of this kit, you have to use the special white sticks with the content control stuff built in, so forget using your blue sticks for your camera, personal stereo and Playstation 2.
Sony's content management software allows you push up to three copies of a track, so in theory you could make a copy for your home hi-fi, one for your Walkman and a further copy for the car. The way it does this is by using a standard software engineering type source code control system, i.e. you check your music in and out of the software. It will also allow you to rip CDs and do the same, and it will also read your MP3 files and turn them into Magic Gate ATRAC compatible files, for all the benefit that gives you. This is a pretty insidious move for Sony, as the next thing they're probably going to do is start watermarking their CD content, so that their Internet connected software can report unauthorized use, etc, etc. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Basically this is the first attempt by Sony to put the MP3 genie back in the bottle under their own steam. The RIAA have proved themselves to be impotent in dealing with MP3, because they're trying to address it in a very 'standards organization' kind of way. It'll never happen, and I'm sure Sony are fully aware of that. It's all very well saying 'just buy an MP3 player', but Sony are going to market this stuff to *death*, and within a year it'll be a widely understood technology by the non-Slashdot reading world. MP3 is great, but so were Betamax videos. That's what you've got to fear.
The best way to deal with tech like MP3 is to do what Microsoft did to Apple, copy it, f*** with it, then pile the cash into merchandising the hell out of it and locking your key users into it. When the Playstation 2 launches, I predict that Sony will do exactly that. They'll have a very friendly, easy to browse, Playstation 2 friendly web site and make it extremely easy for Joe Public to suck tracks onto their Memory sticks with the minimum amount of fuss, all billed to Sony's Playstation 2 dial-up Internet service. Clean and simple. MP3 will rapidly become a voice in the wilderness, unless the MP3 community can do unto Sony what Linux is currently doing to Microsoft...
I think a lot of people are missing the point here. The key aspect of this story is that Bill is standing up in front of some leading industry IT people and telling them that Linux sucks. Why does he need to do this? On the one hand Microsoft would have you believe that Windows utterly dominates the OS market as it currently stands. On the other hand they've recently started turning the marketing heat on a OS developed in a 'university type' environment by a bunch of beardies. Why would a multi billion dollar corporation need to do this? They're running scared is why. I think they've put the figures through their spreadsheets and come up with some answers that scare the hell out of them, so now they're rallying the troops for battle. Over the next few months I personally expect to see more of the same, and if that doesn't work then Microsoft will do the thing that's always worked in the past - they'll copy what makes Linux what it is, open source, and make it their new standard. This will gradually dilute the open source movement and start some flames which Microsoft will gently fan, and before you know it those industry people will be talking about Microsoft instead of Linux again. The only way to stop this kind of thing is to avoid the standard temptations offered by Microsoft, the main one being money. Everyone knows that Microsoft's installed user base is huge and their development tools are in the main excellent, and those are just the things that will drag all those potential Linux coders over to the dark side. I think we're seeing the first border skirmishes, but the real war is just about to start...
Surely the more important question is *why* they're doing reports like this, rather than arguing about how much of the report is BS. Of *course* they lied, it's *marketing*. If they weren't at least a little bit worried about Linux/Apache they wouldn't need to fabricate the 'evidence', now would they?
Not correct! The answers are:
1. 553573861 (*without* the first zero)
2. SHANGHAI
3. SNOW CRASH (with a space? Not sure...)
4. PRITCHARD (the characters' *middle* name)
5. Social Security number (I guess anything's OK)
...I still can't get in though! Anyone got the decoder card?