I don't get it, outside the US, Japan has one of the biggest populations of Apple devotees (they even made Japanese switch commercials). Plus, pop music is an obsession over there. I can't afford to spend $30 on imported CDs, and I'm not going to buy Taiwanese bootlegs. I want my JPop dammit!
take a look at the Delivered-To: header. That will show you exactly which address it was sent to
Actually, based on the way my organization handles aliases, the Delivered-To header ends up being my real address. However, you (and gerardrj) are right that the alias does show up in the long headers: in Received specifically. I thought I had looked there already, but I guess I was mistaken.
If you start to get spam on an address (you can easily check the headers to see which address the spam was sent to), you simply change the address and tell the few people/sites that used that address about the new one.
I've been using ancillary addresses for years, but still have a spam problem. The main issue is messages sent with BCC. I can't look at the headers to see what address was used, therefore, I can't expunge it!
Songs bought and downloaded from iTMS are watermarked with your account information. Checking out the source for the song with a simple text editor I was able to clearly see my name and email address used for purchasing from the store. I don't know yet if these are stripped when playfair strips DRM, but it's worth verifying before you start playing pirate again.
I have no intention of "playing pirate" (though I do find equivocating copyright infringement with nautical larceny amusing), but I was curious about this.
I ran strings on the original file and found both my email address and name I signed up with. I did not find the same data in the file after it was processed by playfair
This is not to say there isn't a watermark on the files, but I tend to think there isn't.
I thought about posting this anonymously, but that would lend credence to the view than transcoding my own legitimately purchased property is somehow not fair use
T-Mobile has an internet service plan that is about $20 for unlimited access, I think.
It's actually $30, which includes 300 SMS messages, but no talk time. So basically you have to add this to your existing cell plan (which is at least $30 if you use your phone at all). This is better than it used to be. Previously they had no unlimited plan, and even the 5MB plan was about $20/mo. Still, I can't get myself to pay $30 more every month just to use GPRS with my Treo, cool though it may be.
Now, if they came out with some sort of package deal that included some talk time, or better yet a deal where X minutes == X MB and you could just draw them both from a total pool, that would be great.
Using tables as a formatting crutch is bad enough. Using tables to emulate images? Are you kidding? That example page is over 30kB and the source is completely unreadable, not to mention nowhere close to valid HTML. What ever happened to HTML representing the structure of a document?
All that aside, the real problem with this technique is that it absolutely destroys any accessibility that previously existed. If you want to see a page that uses CSS for appearance and HTML for structure, try mine.
BeOS was the last platform that looked like a major contender, and it didn't get anywhere. Why? As well as having no name recognition, there simply wasn't the body of applications for it.
As an early user of BeOS on PPC, I have to disagree. There were quite a few applications, and after BeOS shifted their focus to x86, the number grew dramatically. What really doomed BeOS? It was Microsoft's confidential agreement with vendors that forbids installation of any other OS alongside Windows. 99% of computer users just use the OS their computer comes with. If people could have bought dual-boot or BeOS only boxes at Walmart it may have had a chance.
The terms of MS's contracts with vendors was at one point a part of the antitrust case against them. Gil Amelio even testified. However, the feds chose to focus on the browser issue for some reason.
I think a good paralell here is the story CD/miniDisc.
I'm going to assume from this comment that you've never been to Japan. In Japan I would say that 90% of the stereos sold have both CD and MiniDisc players. I don't really see them as direct competitors, nor do I think they were ever intended to be. I believe CDs are sligtly highter quality, and should remain the primary format for buying music that you can hold in your hands for a while yet. The advantage of MiniDisc is that you can easily record your own mixes of high quality music (burning CDs is still a pain for most people) and play it on a device that is small enough (and sufficiently un-skippable) to be truly convenient. Now if someone made a MP3 (or Ogg) player which used MD media, you bet I'd buy one.
By the way, MiniDisc is actually increasing is popularity in the US quite rapidly now that the minimum size and skippability of CD portables has pretty much reached it's limit
Actually, one episode was originally not shown in Japan because it dealt with illicit drugs, an extremely sensitive topic in Japan.
I find that hard to believe. It may have been edited, but I think there must have been some other reason. Living in Japan this summer, I watched a series about an all-girls high school. I think it was called R-17. Anyway, it dealt with drugs in detail in most every episode. One episode featured a father trying to teach his daughter a lesson by overdosing on her "study drug" of choice right in front of her. I don't think they actually showed the needle puncturing the skin, but it was otherwise pretty graphic.
I find that I also tend to spend most of my computer gaming time in console emulators (mainly SNES). Do you think that it's just nostalgia, or was there something fundamentally more enjoyable about games in those days? I'm guessing that since there was less power available in the way of graphics and sound, more care was put into the crafting of the story and gameplay. I tend to play the older Final Fantasy games a lot, but I think that's true of many games for the SNES.
What do other people think? Were they better games, or are we just misty for our youth?
It's because the technically superior betamax format was marketed poorly. Beta always has been used by video professionals, and has now returned consumers as the native format of newer camcorders (or course slightly modified). I guess the point is that pervasiveness is no way is an indicator of superiority.
As for codecs, there really is no point in releasing something to the general public in a format that a significant number of people can't view. I'm all for multiple options though.
For the love of god, don't use Java. Java has it's place, but not in portable gaming devices, were every cycle counts.
Java seems to be working fine for the new DoCoMo phones here in Japan. I admit, their implementation is a tad proprietary. They've created an API and dubbed it iAppli, but it is still Java, which gets you a lot of power. To think that optimization for gaming is a reason not to use Java is silly. Java can be plenty fast for the types of games that one would play on a cell phone, especially considering that it would be embedded Java, not the same as what one runs on one's desktop where the difficulty involved in a non-peer GUI has given people the impression that java is "slow". Though this article was on gaming, the real benefit of using Java is its flexibility outside the realm of gaming. Since bytecode is very compact, it can be used to do a lot of things for embedded systems. Games are great and all, but the coolest thing I've seen on the new Japanese phones so far is the GPS-like direction system. "Where the heck am I? Oh, there I am." That's a lot more handier than a game any day.
I know there are already at least two other posts in this discussion that mention Japan, so I'll try to not be redundant. BTW, I'm living in Japan for the summer, so that's why I refer to it at "here".
Go to a coin-op arcade, if you can find one. It's a lot harder these days. What do you see? Half a dozen fighting games all of which look like Tekken or Street Fighter, a few racing games and a few FPS games where you've got a gun.
The reason that arcades (or "game centers" as they're more logically referred to here) do better business is twofold.
The games are simply more innovative
Since the games cater to a wider audience, here is less of a social stigma associated with spending time in an game centers
The first point is un-debatable I think. In an arcade in the US, there are basically 4 type of games: Standard (Gauntlet, Tekken, etc.), Driving, Shooting, and Pinball (though it's becoming rarer). I'll ignore games like skee-ball and other redemption-ticket games since those are rarely played by anyone over 8. In a Japanese game center, there are all sorts of different games, with a wide array of user interfaces. Dancing games like DDR are just making it to the States, but there are a lot of other music-based games which are very popular here (Guitar Freaks to name one). On a recent trip, I saw a boxing game, where you actually threw punches with your fists. You just can't get that kind of experience from a console, so there's actually a reason to go to the arcade. Some of these games are so popular that you actually can buy these bizarre input devices for the home versions (DDR has a PS floor pad controller), but I think the success of things like that has more to do with the gadget-obsession of the Japanese. All that aside, I'm sure even Americans would go to an arcade if the gaming experience was significantly different from what one could do at home
The second point is probably just as important if not more so. At game centers there are plenty of straight-up video games, but there's also a lot more. I know arcades in the US often have a little booth where you can take a picture of yourself. Usually it's a PC hooked up to a camera and a printer in a plywood box. At the game centers here there are invariably dozens of these machines, all with their own special features. Many of them allow you several trys to get the best picture, and then after you select, you have the option to decorate it with little clip art, and write messages on it before it gets printed out. I'll admit, this caters to the teenage girl set, but how many teenage girls go to arcades in the US? Another thing most game centers have are betting games. They're called genkin geemu in Japanese, if memory serves me correctly. Anyway, they are a lot of different kinds, some based on detailed simulations of horse racing and whatnot. It's not the kind of thing that interests me, but it does interest a lot of adults. The point is, the game centers' offerings cater to many different kinds of people, where as most US arcades cater to the 12-18 year old male.
This issue has just as much to do with the shortsighted management of arcades as it does with the dreary offerings of coin-op companies. If the arcade industry is to survive in the US, I think they both need to take a cue from their Japanese counterparts.
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, but where can you pick them up? I tried buying them from Amazon Japan, but they won't ship them to a US address.
No, you have to set up an account with a major credit card first, then you can pay with PayPal.
Is the ad appearing in the online version of the NYT? I personally know a lot more people who read it online than in print.
Hey, check it out, the Japanese Ellen Feiss.
I don't get it, outside the US, Japan has one of the biggest populations of Apple devotees (they even made Japanese switch commercials). Plus, pop music is an obsession over there. I can't afford to spend $30 on imported CDs, and I'm not going to buy Taiwanese bootlegs. I want my JPop dammit!
Actually, based on the way my organization handles aliases, the Delivered-To header ends up being my real address. However, you (and gerardrj) are right that the alias does show up in the long headers: in Received specifically. I thought I had looked there already, but I guess I was mistaken.
Thanks for the helpful replies
I've been using ancillary addresses for years, but still have a spam problem. The main issue is messages sent with BCC. I can't look at the headers to see what address was used, therefore, I can't expunge it!
I have no intention of "playing pirate" (though I do find equivocating copyright infringement with nautical larceny amusing), but I was curious about this.
I ran strings on the original file and found both my email address and name I signed up with. I did not find the same data in the file after it was processed by playfair
This is not to say there isn't a watermark on the files, but I tend to think there isn't.
I thought about posting this anonymously, but that would lend credence to the view than transcoding my own legitimately purchased property is somehow not fair use
Gee, I wonder how many would have turned out if the weather was nice?
OTOH, Japanese have umbrellas built into their quadriceps like robocop
It's actually $30, which includes 300 SMS messages, but no talk time. So basically you have to add this to your existing cell plan (which is at least $30 if you use your phone at all). This is better than it used to be. Previously they had no unlimited plan, and even the 5MB plan was about $20/mo. Still, I can't get myself to pay $30 more every month just to use GPRS with my Treo, cool though it may be.
Now, if they came out with some sort of package deal that included some talk time, or better yet a deal where X minutes == X MB and you could just draw them both from a total pool, that would be great.
Using tables as a formatting crutch is bad enough. Using tables to emulate images? Are you kidding? That example page is over 30kB and the source is completely unreadable, not to mention nowhere close to valid HTML. What ever happened to HTML representing the structure of a document?
All that aside, the real problem with this technique is that it absolutely destroys any accessibility that previously existed. If you want to see a page that uses CSS for appearance and HTML for structure, try mine.
As an early user of BeOS on PPC, I have to disagree. There were quite a few applications, and after BeOS shifted their focus to x86, the number grew dramatically. What really doomed BeOS? It was Microsoft's confidential agreement with vendors that forbids installation of any other OS alongside Windows. 99% of computer users just use the OS their computer comes with. If people could have bought dual-boot or BeOS only boxes at Walmart it may have had a chance.
The terms of MS's contracts with vendors was at one point a part of the antitrust case against them. Gil Amelio even testified. However, the feds chose to focus on the browser issue for some reason.
One has to wonder whether the life of a web developer is preferable to gang member.
Yes, I did do web development. *sigh*
I think a good paralell here is the story CD/miniDisc.
I'm going to assume from this comment that you've never been to Japan. In Japan I would say that 90% of the stereos sold have both CD and MiniDisc players. I don't really see them as direct competitors, nor do I think they were ever intended to be. I believe CDs are sligtly highter quality, and should remain the primary format for buying music that you can hold in your hands for a while yet. The advantage of MiniDisc is that you can easily record your own mixes of high quality music (burning CDs is still a pain for most people) and play it on a device that is small enough (and sufficiently un-skippable) to be truly convenient. Now if someone made a MP3 (or Ogg) player which used MD media, you bet I'd buy one.
By the way, MiniDisc is actually increasing is popularity in the US quite rapidly now that the minimum size and skippability of CD portables has pretty much reached it's limit
Even visiting the story triggered a @!#$ing pop-up....
No, no. It was a pop-under. Didn't you ready the story?
Yahoo. Now with slightly less annyoing ads than before.
Oh great! Now how is Goku going to buy gohan for Gohan?
Those heartless bastards.
Actually, one episode was originally not shown in Japan because it dealt with illicit drugs, an extremely sensitive topic in Japan.
I find that hard to believe. It may have been edited, but I think there must have been some other reason. Living in Japan this summer, I watched a series about an all-girls high school. I think it was called R-17. Anyway, it dealt with drugs in detail in most every episode. One episode featured a father trying to teach his daughter a lesson by overdosing on her "study drug" of choice right in front of her. I don't think they actually showed the needle puncturing the skin, but it was otherwise pretty graphic.
A constant fresh source of Japanese would be a big help in my efforts to learn the language :-)
Speaking from experience, I think you'll find yourself speaking highly inappropriate Japanese if Anime is your main source of listenting practice
I'll bet outside the station probably sucks a whole lot more.
Cars are mostly more expensive than cars.
Well, sure, mostly.
I find that I also tend to spend most of my computer gaming time in console emulators (mainly SNES). Do you think that it's just nostalgia, or was there something fundamentally more enjoyable about games in those days? I'm guessing that since there was less power available in the way of graphics and sound, more care was put into the crafting of the story and gameplay. I tend to play the older Final Fantasy games a lot, but I think that's true of many games for the SNES.
What do other people think? Were they better games, or are we just misty for our youth?
Yes, this is getting a little off topic. Sue me.
That's like saying, "Why does everyone use VHS?!
It's because the technically superior betamax format was marketed poorly. Beta always has been used by video professionals, and has now returned consumers as the native format of newer camcorders (or course slightly modified). I guess the point is that pervasiveness is no way is an indicator of superiority.
As for codecs, there really is no point in releasing something to the general public in a format that a significant number of people can't view. I'm all for multiple options though.
For the love of god, don't use Java. Java has it's place, but not in portable gaming devices, were every cycle counts.
Java seems to be working fine for the new DoCoMo phones here in Japan. I admit, their implementation is a tad proprietary. They've created an API and dubbed it iAppli, but it is still Java, which gets you a lot of power. To think that optimization for gaming is a reason not to use Java is silly. Java can be plenty fast for the types of games that one would play on a cell phone, especially considering that it would be embedded Java, not the same as what one runs on one's desktop where the difficulty involved in a non-peer GUI has given people the impression that java is "slow". Though this article was on gaming, the real benefit of using Java is its flexibility outside the realm of gaming. Since bytecode is very compact, it can be used to do a lot of things for embedded systems. Games are great and all, but the coolest thing I've seen on the new Japanese phones so far is the GPS-like direction system. "Where the heck am I? Oh, there I am." That's a lot more handier than a game any day.
I know there are already at least two other posts in this discussion that mention Japan, so I'll try to not be redundant. BTW, I'm living in Japan for the summer, so that's why I refer to it at "here".
Go to a coin-op arcade, if you can find one. It's a lot harder these days. What do you see? Half a dozen fighting games all of which look like Tekken or Street Fighter, a few racing games and a few FPS games where you've got a gun.
The reason that arcades (or "game centers" as they're more logically referred to here) do better business is twofold.
The first point is un-debatable I think. In an arcade in the US, there are basically 4 type of games: Standard (Gauntlet, Tekken, etc.), Driving, Shooting, and Pinball (though it's becoming rarer). I'll ignore games like skee-ball and other redemption-ticket games since those are rarely played by anyone over 8. In a Japanese game center, there are all sorts of different games, with a wide array of user interfaces. Dancing games like DDR are just making it to the States, but there are a lot of other music-based games which are very popular here (Guitar Freaks to name one). On a recent trip, I saw a boxing game, where you actually threw punches with your fists. You just can't get that kind of experience from a console, so there's actually a reason to go to the arcade. Some of these games are so popular that you actually can buy these bizarre input devices for the home versions (DDR has a PS floor pad controller), but I think the success of things like that has more to do with the gadget-obsession of the Japanese. All that aside, I'm sure even Americans would go to an arcade if the gaming experience was significantly different from what one could do at home
The second point is probably just as important if not more so. At game centers there are plenty of straight-up video games, but there's also a lot more. I know arcades in the US often have a little booth where you can take a picture of yourself. Usually it's a PC hooked up to a camera and a printer in a plywood box. At the game centers here there are invariably dozens of these machines, all with their own special features. Many of them allow you several trys to get the best picture, and then after you select, you have the option to decorate it with little clip art, and write messages on it before it gets printed out. I'll admit, this caters to the teenage girl set, but how many teenage girls go to arcades in the US? Another thing most game centers have are betting games. They're called genkin geemu in Japanese, if memory serves me correctly. Anyway, they are a lot of different kinds, some based on detailed simulations of horse racing and whatnot. It's not the kind of thing that interests me, but it does interest a lot of adults. The point is, the game centers' offerings cater to many different kinds of people, where as most US arcades cater to the 12-18 year old male.
This issue has just as much to do with the shortsighted management of arcades as it does with the dreary offerings of coin-op companies. If the arcade industry is to survive in the US, I think they both need to take a cue from their Japanese counterparts.