All the cool toys and gadgets seem to come out of Japan. Americans just copy them.
I think the truth is actually the opposite. Japanese improve and produce electronics very well. They don't invent nearly as much original technology. I could be wrong, but I think these are all non-Japanese inventions: 802.11,Bluetooth,Firewire,DVD,LCD (and organic LCD). Correct me if I'm wrong.
But don't get me wrong. I love Japan and I love Japanese stuff, especially Sony stuff.
OK. I agree. They are better at "the common good" for the most part.
But don't lionize Japanese culture for generally being better at the common good. It comes at a terrible price - a stifling repression of individuality. There's a Japanese proverb "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down."
Don't get me wrong: I LOVE Japan and Japanese people. They're just different from us - that's neither bad nor good. And I LOVE America, so I get defensive.
Yes, you're absolutely right. And so am I. When's the last time I downloaded Linux? Never. Remember, I'm not a geek and I run OS X. (If I want Linux, I'll buy a commercial distro on CD 'cause I'll probably need the fancy schmancy installers to get it working)
I work on a university campus and my connection is actually faster at home. So I guess I don't know any better.
They're speaking out of ignorance, no less. I agree.
Japanese companies are typically less innovative than US companies, with the EXCEPTION of consumer electronics. And most consumer electronics innovations actually start in the US or Europe. They don't originate in Japan. Speaking generally, once again: The Japanese are great at improving technology. Not as great at inventing innovative stuff.
Yes, Mitsubishi, Daewoo, Toyota, Sony, Honda- they're all out for the common good. Hmm. Do you know ANYTHING about the Asian crash of the mid nineties or the current Japanese economic crisis? All about greed and avoidance of responsibility.
And no, Japan at least is NOT technologically ahead of the US. Not even close. Don't know about Korea.
I have to respectfully disagree. I think when you write "everyone would have one [T-3] and would still complain it wasn't quite enough" you mean "everygeek" not "everyone."
I'm not very geeky (one of my many weaknesses) so my 3MBPS is just fine with me. Let me watch a couple of QT trailers and very rarely Limewire something and I'm as happy as a clam.
It's a very common misconception that Japan is way out ahead of the US in the absorption of technology into the culture. (and that's NOT what the article says, by any means) Anyone who has lived outside of Tokyo/Osaka (and probably those folks as well) can tell you that Japan is NOT the leader of the pack in this respect. DSL (YahooBB) just came available in Mito, which is a small city north of Tokyo. Compare this to a comparable size city, Lubbock TX, which has had DSL and cable BB for years and years.
The computer lab in the school where I taught from 1996 - 1998 had 286 machines running Windows 3.1 They kept applications on floppies. The machines weren't networked at all. Schools started getting internet access after I left. The teachers were absolutely CLUELESS re computers. Most of them used wapuros (word processors) or nothing at all.
As the article mentions regarding BB: the NTT monopoly held Japan back for a long time, but BB is finally catching on.
There are lots of neat GADGETS in Japan, but proliferation of computing is slower than in the US. In the "real world," not standing Akihabara (an electronics district) or at Shinjuku station (with a video screen on the entire side of a building) Japan seems much less technologically advanced.
Re:This may be new in the USA
on
Shop Till It Drops
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Yes, I have seen all this stuff in Japanese vending machines (from most common to least): Soft drinks (of course) sometimes with 1.5 liter bottles beer & sake cigarettes (EVERYWHERE) porn gum pantyhose ties umbrellas (in train stations) rice eggs (in a vending machine that just sold eggs) rice-polishing (In the country - Put in your money and it polishes your brown rice into white rice)
And there's a lot more. But I have never seen a snack vending machine that just sold candy bars, chips, etc... Weird.
Also, in Japan - you can be driving in the country, with very little to see, come around the corner, and there is a vending machine, standing by itself with nothing around. It's an odd and amusing experience.
As for huge vending machines, I saw one like this in the Geneva train station. Had everything.
Feel free to mod me down for nagging.. BUT, as a formerly obese person I'd like to comment on this. We've got to get a handle on obesity in the US. I haven't witnessed the same obesity in Europe or Asia. One reason, I think, is that they don't have the HUGE fountain drinks with free refills. Also, they generally consume a lot less sugar. (And yes, there are other very good reasons)
Consuming lots of refined sugar is incredibly hard on your body. Some believe it spikes your insulin, then your sugar goes down. This causes you to get hungry and consume more sugar. This leads to insulin resistance, type II diabetes, and obesity. That's one view. Another view is, it's just bad for you because it's empty calories. Others believe refined sugars rob your body of nutrients and suppress your immune system. Regardless of which one you choose to believe - everyone believes that excess sugar intake leads to obesity and type II diabetes, even in young people.
Think about how much sugar you consume in a day from soft drinks. There is 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1 1/2 oz. of soft drink. And how many 32 oz. drinks are you consuming in one day?
Caffeine doesn't appear to be nearly as bad as sugar, but it has its detractors. No doubt someone will disagree with me on this. But I won't badmouth caffeine on/.!
As some posters have suggested, maybe you could switch to tea, or a lower sugar energy drink. (I don't drink them - is there such a thing?)
Gee, I guess those "Funding for this program has been provided by BigChemicalCo" announcements aren't commercials. My mistake!:^)
You're absolutely right - they are a kind of commercial. However, the point still stands. PBS doesn't operate as a commercial enterprise, but as a charity.
PBS would be dead dead dead if it had to compete in commercial space. It doesn't, and indie music and films don't truly compete in any meaningful way with their "corporate" counterparts. The concern is not whether independent web sites and content providers can survice. The concern is what I can do (copy, backup, skip commercials, burn to CD/DVD) with "corporate" content which I bought and paid for.
So the future of the Internet is hanging in the balance.
It seems a little hysterical to me to say such a thing. While we should be concerned and involved in the process, companies like AOL/MS/etc.. have to bring products to market that poeple will buy. They are not the best products, but they are saleable. Products with extreme DRM or forced commercials won't sell, I don't think. There will always be a gray market for non-DRM content, commercial-stripped content etc.. Until they make it easy and cheap to pay for the content, people will continue to "steal" it.
As for.NET, I don't know. And Palladium. Ergh.
I think you mean
on
Electric Armor
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
The problem with used books is this: The author writes the book. The publishing company pays the author, then prints the book. The pub company gives your prof a free copy to review for adoption, then your prof sells his _free_ copy to the used book dealer. So you think you're getting a GREAT deal on a used book, when in fact, you are paying for that book twice when you can't get a used copy of another book and have to buy a new one. I would rather have a MUCH cheaper book that a prof can't resell than be able to resell my outrageously expensive new textbook for a pittance. Pub companies (in general) really want to contribute to education AND make a profit. Book dealers (in general) just want to make a profit.
Having said all that. I'm not sure what the solution is. Respect for others' labors? A conscience? College students in general seem to have very little respect for copyright or "IP."
Can someone give me the nutshell version of the 2-button mouse argument? I have a ThinkPad for my work laptop, and a Mac desktop for my work (and my personal laptop) I MISS the second button on the Wallstreet (I have a 2-button mouse on my work Mac). Why does Apple reject the second button? It's software supported! Just 'cause it wasn't Apple's idea?
There's some kind of weird rock/paper/scissorian order to these that I can't quite figure out, but here they are:
1. Easy beats hard 2. Cheap beats expensive 3. Open beats closed
Macinauts don't understand "cheap beats expensive" and Linuxheads don't understand "easy beats hard" and we both scream about the POOR QUALITY of AOL/MS software. Guess what - users don't give a crap about quality. That's the fourth axiom.:-)
We're moving towards an XML future, where anything can be dissected and interpreted as the client wills it.
You can't dynamically create Flash.
However, we can pull XML/DB content into Flash and do some pretty nifty stuff this way. This can make for a user-friendly back-end and a pretty front end.
For the most part, I agree with you, it's a toy. But just like any toy (or tool), it has its uses.
I've been presented with the opportunity to design and implement any sort of project with a technological/learning/experimental bent that can be carried out over two days in 2005, across six continents, involving on the order of 3000 children as participants, drawing from a multi-million dollar budget
As an ed. tech. guy I have to say: Why? It sounds cool, but educational technology is about defining problems and coming up with solutions. Ed. tech. is not about wires and gadgets and Palm Pilots and geegaws It's about the scientific application of learning theory to learning problems.
What's the problem? What are you trying to teach/accomplish?
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, it's pretty lame: my nick is my last name. My REAL last name - but I'm neither a reverend nor a detective.
Ouch. America does invent some cool toys as well.
All the cool toys and gadgets seem to come out of Japan. Americans just copy them.
I think the truth is actually the opposite. Japanese improve and produce electronics very well. They don't invent nearly as much original technology. I could be wrong, but I think these are all non-Japanese inventions: 802.11,Bluetooth,Firewire,DVD,LCD (and organic LCD). Correct me if I'm wrong.
But don't get me wrong. I love Japan and I love Japanese stuff, especially Sony stuff.
OK. I agree. They are better at "the common good" for the most part.
But don't lionize Japanese culture for generally being better at the common good. It comes at a terrible price - a stifling repression of individuality. There's a Japanese proverb "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down."
Don't get me wrong: I LOVE Japan and Japanese people. They're just different from us - that's neither bad nor good. And I LOVE America, so I get defensive.
Yes, you're absolutely right. And so am I. When's the last time I downloaded Linux? Never. Remember, I'm not a geek and I run OS X. (If I want Linux, I'll buy a commercial distro on CD 'cause I'll probably need the fancy schmancy installers to get it working)
I work on a university campus and my connection is actually faster at home. So I guess I don't know any better.
They're speaking out of ignorance, no less. I agree.
Japanese companies are typically less innovative than US companies, with the EXCEPTION of consumer electronics. And most consumer electronics innovations actually start in the US or Europe. They don't originate in Japan. Speaking generally, once again: The Japanese are great at improving technology. Not as great at inventing innovative stuff.
Yes, Mitsubishi, Daewoo, Toyota, Sony, Honda- they're all out for the common good. Hmm. Do you know ANYTHING about the Asian crash of the mid nineties or the current Japanese economic crisis? All about greed and avoidance of responsibility.
And no, Japan at least is NOT technologically ahead of the US. Not even close. Don't know about Korea.
I have to respectfully disagree. I think when you write "everyone would have one [T-3] and would still complain it wasn't quite enough" you mean "everygeek" not "everyone."
I'm not very geeky (one of my many weaknesses) so my 3MBPS is just fine with me. Let me watch a couple of QT trailers and very rarely Limewire something and I'm as happy as a clam.
It's a very common misconception that Japan is way out ahead of the US in the absorption of technology into the culture. (and that's NOT what the article says, by any means) Anyone who has lived outside of Tokyo/Osaka (and probably those folks as well) can tell you that Japan is NOT the leader of the pack in this respect. DSL (YahooBB) just came available in Mito, which is a small city north of Tokyo. Compare this to a comparable size city, Lubbock TX, which has had DSL and cable BB for years and years.
The computer lab in the school where I taught from 1996 - 1998 had 286 machines running Windows 3.1 They kept applications on floppies. The machines weren't networked at all. Schools started getting internet access after I left. The teachers were absolutely CLUELESS re computers. Most of them used wapuros (word processors) or nothing at all.
As the article mentions regarding BB: the NTT monopoly held Japan back for a long time, but BB is finally catching on.
There are lots of neat GADGETS in Japan, but proliferation of computing is slower than in the US. In the "real world," not standing Akihabara (an electronics district) or at Shinjuku station (with a video screen on the entire side of a building) Japan seems much less technologically advanced.
Soft drinks (of course) sometimes with 1.5 liter bottles
beer & sake
cigarettes (EVERYWHERE)
porn
gum
pantyhose
ties
umbrellas (in train stations)
rice
eggs (in a vending machine that just sold eggs)
rice-polishing (In the country - Put in your money and it polishes your brown rice into white rice)
And there's a lot more. But I have never seen a snack vending machine that just sold candy bars, chips, etc... Weird.
Also, in Japan - you can be driving in the country, with very little to see, come around the corner, and there is a vending machine, standing by itself with nothing around. It's an odd and amusing experience.
As for huge vending machines, I saw one like this in the Geneva train station. Had everything.
Feel free to mod me down for nagging.. BUT, as a formerly obese person I'd like to comment on this. We've got to get a handle on obesity in the US. I haven't witnessed the same obesity in Europe or Asia. One reason, I think, is that they don't have the HUGE fountain drinks with free refills. Also, they generally consume a lot less sugar. (And yes, there are other very good reasons)
/.!
Consuming lots of refined sugar is incredibly hard on your body. Some believe it spikes your insulin, then your sugar goes down. This causes you to get hungry and consume more sugar. This leads to insulin resistance, type II diabetes, and obesity. That's one view. Another view is, it's just bad for you because it's empty calories. Others believe refined sugars rob your body of nutrients and suppress your immune system. Regardless of which one you choose to believe - everyone believes that excess sugar intake leads to obesity and type II diabetes, even in young people.
Think about how much sugar you consume in a day from soft drinks. There is 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1 1/2 oz. of soft drink. And how many 32 oz. drinks are you consuming in one day?
Caffeine doesn't appear to be nearly as bad as sugar, but it has its detractors. No doubt someone will disagree with me on this. But I won't badmouth caffeine on
As some posters have suggested, maybe you could switch to tea, or a lower sugar energy drink. (I don't drink them - is there such a thing?)
Gee, I guess those "Funding for this program has been provided by BigChemicalCo" announcements aren't commercials. My mistake! :^)
You're absolutely right - they are a kind of commercial. However, the point still stands. PBS doesn't operate as a commercial enterprise, but as a charity.
Has commercial television killed PBS?
PBS would be dead dead dead if it had to compete in commercial space. It doesn't, and indie music and films don't truly compete in any meaningful way with their "corporate" counterparts. The concern is not whether independent web sites and content providers can survice. The concern is what I can do (copy, backup, skip commercials, burn to CD/DVD) with "corporate" content which I bought and paid for.
Quoth the poster:
.NET, I don't know. And Palladium. Ergh.
So the future of the Internet is hanging in the balance.
It seems a little hysterical to me to say such a thing. While we should be concerned and involved in the process, companies like AOL/MS/etc.. have to bring products to market that poeple will buy. They are not the best products, but they are saleable. Products with extreme DRM or forced commercials won't sell, I don't think. There will always be a gray market for non-DRM content, commercial-stripped content etc.. Until they make it easy and cheap to pay for the content, people will continue to "steal" it.
As for
polarize the hull-plating!
Would you mind telling me when you ordered yours? I ordered mine on July 24th and it's still "being assembled" Grr..
The problem with used books is this:
The author writes the book. The publishing company pays the author, then prints the book. The pub company gives your prof a free copy to review for adoption, then your prof sells his _free_ copy to the used book dealer. So you think you're getting a GREAT deal on a used book, when in fact, you are paying for that book twice when you can't get a used copy of another book and have to buy a new one. I would rather have a MUCH cheaper book that a prof can't resell than be able to resell my outrageously expensive new textbook for a pittance. Pub companies (in general) really want to contribute to education AND make a profit. Book dealers (in general) just want to make a profit.
Having said all that. I'm not sure what the solution is. Respect for others' labors? A conscience? College students in general seem to have very little respect for copyright or "IP."
Can someone give me the nutshell version of the 2-button mouse argument? I have a ThinkPad for my work laptop, and a Mac desktop for my work (and my personal laptop) I MISS the second button on the Wallstreet (I have a 2-button mouse on my work Mac). Why does Apple reject the second button? It's software supported! Just 'cause it wasn't Apple's idea?
Cisco Aeronet PCMCIA cards work very well in my Wallstreet, which has no internal antenna, of course. Cisco has OS X and OS 9 drivers for these cards.
I would still go with the Airport card if I had a TiBook.
There's some kind of weird rock/paper/scissorian order to these that I can't quite figure out, but here they are:
:-)
1. Easy beats hard
2. Cheap beats expensive
3. Open beats closed
Macinauts don't understand "cheap beats expensive" and Linuxheads don't understand "easy beats hard" and we both scream about the POOR QUALITY of AOL/MS software. Guess what - users don't give a crap about quality. That's the fourth axiom.
It's clippy AGAIN. It pops up EVERY TIME you open Outlook. ARGH.
It happened to me last night. Things appeared on the screen, windows moved around. Freaked me out.
Hard Solution:
Start->Control Panels #@$!$!! New XP Control Panel) -> Regional and Language Settings
Remove stupid Speech recognition poltergeist.
Easy Solution:
Use another OS. (Mac OS X in my case)
Yes. We have a Mimio in our conference room. We almost never use it b/c the image quality is so bad and the software doesn't run well.
I would much rather ban apostrophe's for plural's altogether. Or noone should use apostrophe's at all or they would loose their life.
We're moving towards an XML future, where anything can be dissected and interpreted as the client wills it.
You can't dynamically create Flash.
However, we can pull XML/DB content into Flash and do some pretty nifty stuff this way. This can make for a user-friendly back-end and a pretty front end.
For the most part, I agree with you, it's a toy. But just like any toy (or tool), it has its uses.
As an ed. tech. guy I have to say: Why? It sounds cool, but educational technology is about defining problems and coming up with solutions. Ed. tech. is not about wires and gadgets and Palm Pilots and geegaws It's about the scientific application of learning theory to learning problems.
What's the problem? What are you trying to teach/accomplish?
Sounds like it was translated from English into CRAP by Babelfish