The BBC commands a lot of respect in the world, and is a really good conduit for the British culture. You think that's something that can only be counted in 'paying X pounds for every show'?
Some things are worth more than just how many people watch a show.
Norway owns about 5% of the European stock markets. And after this economic crisis, probably a lot more once the dust settles, as those with liquidity (China, Norway, etc) are the ones on a buying spree.
I believe your mistake is to group all porn in one category...
Having your girlfriend find you reading normal porn is nothing. The problem is when you read those 'hard-to-find' weird fetish porn magazines (that you'll only get hold off from a country like Japan).
Hmm.... From that search string I would guess you are:
'Greg Barton', and not 'Greg "Farton" Barton' as your schoolmates used to call you. (And then proceeded to google-bomb unquoted searches for your name) Last summer you had a really nice vacation to Java and all, however it quickly turned bad after arriving in Indonesia.
The Java vacation photos: Good. The Indonesia vacation photos: Bad, especially the ones where you've got white powder remains under your nose and two (rather cute) young Indonesian boys on each arm. (Legalities keep you safe)
That kayak accident? Real nasty. A moments of inattention and the world lost one of the best piano players of Mozart's great works. You every right in the world to blow up like that, he was just plain _rude_.
You love football. The one where they use their feet.
I grew up in Norway, probably one of the few countries with higher cost of living than Japan. Yet my mobile phone subscription back home was _much_ cheaper than the one I got here in Japan now.
Not only are they damn expensive (everyone is hooked already), but the only regulations that ever get made here are those that benefit the bureaucrats. Consumer protections is a concept they might have heard of, once long ago, and promptly forgotten.
The question we really should ask us isn't 'why is Japan so far ahead of us technologically', but rather 'why is Japan so far behind us in soft technologies?' You know, things like UI design, quality of life, etc?
We don't get these kinds of telephones in Europe or the US because the... Wait for it... They...
SUCK!
No, seriously, they absolutely suck. I've been using the phones here for a few years, and one of the main features they have is that they're an implementation of a checklist of features you'll never use more than one or twice, all crammed into the least user-friendly UI you could imagine.
They have absolutely no sense of UI design, and being so used to dealing with crappy interfaces they're not even aware of the possibility nor the advantages of a well designed one. Seriously, have you ever looked at one of their webpages?
Call it taste, or what ever. But the reality is that the iPhone and phones from e.g. Nokia just don't do it well here in Japan, and neither of the two companies should try to change or they'll lose what gives them customers in the west.
Oh, and BTW... Softbank's (particulary their iPhone's) subscription plan sucks.
No, we would be assuming he is politically motivated and it's an attempt to rally support within the country. That's the conclusion anyone with some knowledge of the workings of the world would come to.
But ask yourself this; While he is playing the Iranian people by painting the US as the Great Satan, what reasons lie behind you seeing Iran as a terrorist state ready to drop the bomb as soon as it is out of the oven?
Let's say you rent a safety-deposit box, and use it normally for a few months. Then you cancel it and... through some weird oversight they forget to take back the key and access.
So the day after, you take a look in the safety-deposit box, and find it stacked full of money. You go to report that the situation.
However, the guy you're talking to is one of the spanish janitors they got working there, and he doesn't really understand what you're talking about. He's not a banker, he's just there to clean the floor.
So what do you do? You take the money, and return the next day. Oh my, there's even MORE money in there. And you kinda realize the bank is using that box for storage, so you're not really stealing it from other people using the bank. And as long as you don't go strolling out of the bank with bundles of money sticking out of your pockets, they'll have a hard time catching you.
I guess you could be stupid enough to think the magic money is clean. And the close friends you told about the safety-deposit boxes, they're also all that stupid.
The exploit was pretty much the equivalent of the above.
Before anyone posts the 'cliff of death' drawing...
It is the complexity that keep one playing the game, day after day, year after year. So think of it like this; When you first learned to ride a bike, it was a rather complex task just to stay balanced, no?
Learn to ride this bike, and you can have a lot of fun.
The whole region is already seeing everyone and their mothers moving in to loot and pillage. More than just a strategic loss, they now have to deal with a large number of enemies and random neutrals coming to play in their space.
Also, the Band of Brothers name was claimed by the Goons, so they can't reform under it.
What are you, a kid? Santa didn't bring all the gifts in your christmas list, so now you cry to mama.
Kids are easy to control. Give them some candy and tell them santa is late because ms. santa is giving him a blowjob, and they'll be happy. No?
Drawing up targets with detailed and transparent plans on how to reach them, yet assuming they'll need to be changed, postponed or even discarded along the way is a sign of _GOOD MANAGEMENT_. What you've had thus far is like the PHB kind of management.
How has it worked for you guys thus far?
Grow up.
Learn to deal with the Real World, not Fantasy Land.
Exporters/Importers aren't out after dollar-bills, they want to convert from one currency to another. International banks do not help, as they only hold what currencies you _already_ have.
They do not provide any 'magic' currency conversion, electronic or not. When you need to pay in a different currency, you sell your 'dollars' and buy 'yen. Always. Even if it is your bank doing it for you.
Imagine you're an exporter/importer in need of some dollars. Who do you buy from? The cheapest ones being sold, of course.
Now imagine China trying to slowly dump all their dollar reserves by selling at slightly less than the current going rate. Suddenly the supplier of dollars will be China, not the US, and the dollar will fall as far as China wants.
You're not eager to introduce a payment option that has less overhead costs than physical money?
Let's consider the ticket system used by JR and Tokyo metro. Millions of people passing through those gates per hour across Tokyo, and there's someone out fixing the ticket-eating mechanical parts quite regularly.
Add in the costs of having guys go around collecting coins from and filling in ticket paper into the ticket producing terminals.
Handling money costs a lot of money, and they are pushing the SUICA cards real hard with advertisement everywhere. So every passenger who's not using one of those RFID cards means less profit.
You're advocating lowering consumption by making it harder to pay...
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9NMy6hVJpo
NO NO NO!!! That's just _WRONG_...
It's --- OVER EIGHT THOUSAND!!!
Not nine.
I've found thousands of bugs... Why aren't anyone writing stories about me? ;(
In Japan... Living in what would be consider the worst part of the greater tokyo area, and on 100/100 optical connection.
The BBC commands a lot of respect in the world, and is a really good conduit for the British culture. You think that's something that can only be counted in 'paying X pounds for every show'?
Some things are worth more than just how many people watch a show.
Norway owns about 5% of the European stock markets. And after this economic crisis, probably a lot more once the dust settles, as those with liquidity (China, Norway, etc) are the ones on a buying spree.
I've dabbled in j2me, and now programming for the iPhone. All I can say is; yes, we're forgetting Nokia and J2ME.
But there's also a reason for it. The iPhone dev kit makes me happy in my my pants compared to what Nokia offers.
Glad I don't live in the same Europe as you. ^_^
I believe your mistake is to group all porn in one category...
Having your girlfriend find you reading normal porn is nothing. The problem is when you read those 'hard-to-find' weird fetish porn magazines (that you'll only get hold off from a country like Japan).
Two completely different things.
One kills innocent people, the other kills Prince and Madonna. Why would the distinction be so hard to understand?
Hmm.... From that search string I would guess you are:
'Greg Barton', and not 'Greg "Farton" Barton' as your schoolmates used to call you. (And then proceeded to google-bomb unquoted searches for your name) Last summer you had a really nice vacation to Java and all, however it quickly turned bad after arriving in Indonesia.
The Java vacation photos: Good.
The Indonesia vacation photos: Bad, especially the ones where you've got white powder remains under your nose and two (rather cute) young Indonesian boys on each arm. (Legalities keep you safe)
That kayak accident? Real nasty. A moments of inattention and the world lost one of the best piano players of Mozart's great works. You every right in the world to blow up like that, he was just plain _rude_.
You love football. The one where they use their feet.
They already made a native version for linux.
Japan has its own Reality Distortion Field.
One that makes Jobs' RDF look like that worn-out magician at the street corner that never manages to get any of his lame tricks right.
Pfft... Are you an imbecile or something?
I grew up in Norway, probably one of the few countries with higher cost of living than Japan. Yet my mobile phone subscription back home was _much_ cheaper than the one I got here in Japan now.
Not only are they damn expensive (everyone is hooked already), but the only regulations that ever get made here are those that benefit the bureaucrats. Consumer protections is a concept they might have heard of, once long ago, and promptly forgotten.
The question we really should ask us isn't 'why is Japan so far ahead of us technologically', but rather 'why is Japan so far behind us in soft technologies?' You know, things like UI design, quality of life, etc?
We don't get these kinds of telephones in Europe or the US because the... Wait for it... They...
SUCK!
No, seriously, they absolutely suck. I've been using the phones here for a few years, and one of the main features they have is that they're an implementation of a checklist of features you'll never use more than one or twice, all crammed into the least user-friendly UI you could imagine.
They have absolutely no sense of UI design, and being so used to dealing with crappy interfaces they're not even aware of the possibility nor the advantages of a well designed one. Seriously, have you ever looked at one of their webpages?
Call it taste, or what ever. But the reality is that the iPhone and phones from e.g. Nokia just don't do it well here in Japan, and neither of the two companies should try to change or they'll lose what gives them customers in the west.
Oh, and BTW... Softbank's (particulary their iPhone's) subscription plan sucks.
No, we would be assuming he is politically motivated and it's an attempt to rally support within the country. That's the conclusion anyone with some knowledge of the workings of the world would come to.
But ask yourself this; While he is playing the Iranian people by painting the US as the Great Satan, what reasons lie behind you seeing Iran as a terrorist state ready to drop the bomb as soon as it is out of the oven?
Wow... Government spending equals concentration camps?
Let's say you rent a safety-deposit box, and use it normally for a few months. Then you cancel it and... through some weird oversight they forget to take back the key and access.
So the day after, you take a look in the safety-deposit box, and find it stacked full of money. You go to report that the situation.
However, the guy you're talking to is one of the spanish janitors they got working there, and he doesn't really understand what you're talking about. He's not a banker, he's just there to clean the floor.
So what do you do? You take the money, and return the next day. Oh my, there's even MORE money in there. And you kinda realize the bank is using that box for storage, so you're not really stealing it from other people using the bank. And as long as you don't go strolling out of the bank with bundles of money sticking out of your pockets, they'll have a hard time catching you.
I guess you could be stupid enough to think the magic money is clean. And the close friends you told about the safety-deposit boxes, they're also all that stupid.
The exploit was pretty much the equivalent of the above.
Before anyone posts the 'cliff of death' drawing...
It is the complexity that keep one playing the game, day after day, year after year. So think of it like this; When you first learned to ride a bike, it was a rather complex task just to stay balanced, no?
Learn to ride this bike, and you can have a lot of fun.
The whole region is already seeing everyone and their mothers moving in to loot and pillage. More than just a strategic loss, they now have to deal with a large number of enemies and random neutrals coming to play in their space.
Also, the Band of Brothers name was claimed by the Goons, so they can't reform under it.
What are you, a kid? Santa didn't bring all the gifts in your christmas list, so now you cry to mama.
Kids are easy to control. Give them some candy and tell them santa is late because ms. santa is giving him a blowjob, and they'll be happy. No?
Drawing up targets with detailed and transparent plans on how to reach them, yet assuming they'll need to be changed, postponed or even discarded along the way is a sign of _GOOD MANAGEMENT_. What you've had thus far is like the PHB kind of management.
How has it worked for you guys thus far?
Grow up.
Learn to deal with the Real World, not Fantasy Land.
Err... What? That's just... Wrong.
Exporters/Importers aren't out after dollar-bills, they want to convert from one currency to another. International banks do not help, as they only hold what currencies you _already_ have.
They do not provide any 'magic' currency conversion, electronic or not. When you need to pay in a different currency, you sell your 'dollars' and buy 'yen. Always. Even if it is your bank doing it for you.
Who would buy them?
Imagine you're an exporter/importer in need of some dollars. Who do you buy from? The cheapest ones being sold, of course.
Now imagine China trying to slowly dump all their dollar reserves by selling at slightly less than the current going rate. Suddenly the supplier of dollars will be China, not the US, and the dollar will fall as far as China wants.
I guess what would happen is the US would go cold turkey...
And China would retaliate by selling all their US dollar bonds. You think the economic crisis is bad _NOW_?
You're not eager to introduce a payment option that has less overhead costs than physical money?
Let's consider the ticket system used by JR and Tokyo metro. Millions of people passing through those gates per hour across Tokyo, and there's someone out fixing the ticket-eating mechanical parts quite regularly.
Add in the costs of having guys go around collecting coins from and filling in ticket paper into the ticket producing terminals.
Handling money costs a lot of money, and they are pushing the SUICA cards real hard with advertisement everywhere. So every passenger who's not using one of those RFID cards means less profit.
You're advocating lowering consumption by making it harder to pay...