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User: sekicho

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  1. Re:Is this really about phones? on Mobile Phone as Home Computer? · · Score: 1

    It's two sets of phonetic symbols and one set of ideograms.

    In my experience, the speed difference between Japanese and English on a phone keypad isn't substantial, assuming you have a modern phone that will "guess" which English word you mean as you're punching the buttons. On my cheapie Japanese phone, which didn't have that function, it was much faster to type messages in Japanese than in English (so much that I would routinely write to American friends in Japanese, just to save time). But that phone also had a sort of "guessing" function for Japanese words: if I started a word with "ro," one keypress later would complete the phrase "Roppongi Hills."

    In the end, speed is more a funcion of technology than a function of language.

  2. Re:your roomate is wrong... on Using Google Maps to Get Out of a Traffic Ticket · · Score: 1

    In the US, a JD is the same as an LLB. They just changed the name a few decades back so lawyers could call themselves doctors.

  3. Re:Just checking on China Planning For Sustainable Cities · · Score: 1

    Errr, perhaps you meant to say "for worse crimes." I mean, in China, you can get beaten by the police for supporting democracy or an unpopular religious group. At least in the US, they don't beat you until you go to Afghanistan and try to blow up some Marines.

  4. Re:What happened to basic phones? on First Picture of new Motorola iTunes Phone? · · Score: 1

    Tu-Ka in Japan is now selling a mobile phone that's ultra-basic: the Tu-Ka S. No display, no phone book, no nothing. A keypad, a talk and hangup button, a power switch. The marketing is aimed at old folks.

  5. Re:I guess they didn't lose enough $ the first tim on France and Japan Planning New Supersonic Jet · · Score: 1

    Japan is great at building really cool, really expensive, and totally economically useless stuff with government support. Exhibit A: Kansai Airport. I'm sure the same can be said of France, or just about any country with money, but Japan leads the pack in the ridiculous-yet-cool-public-spending department.

  6. Re:Profit??? on FCC to Allow Wireless Access on Planes · · Score: 1

    Lufthansa, JAL, and other airlines charge for wi-fi access on flights where it is available.

    As for cell phone access, the assumption is that the plane would need a dedicated antenna to allow people to make calls. If a cell phone user called through this antenna, they would be billed an extra n dollars for using it.

  7. Re:Good on Hacker Sentenced To Longest US Sentence Yet · · Score: 1

    As a cracker, I take great offense at your misuse of the term.

  8. Plea agreement on Hacker Sentenced To Longest US Sentence Yet · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Security Focus:
    Even reduced, Salcedo's prison term is unusually harsh for a computer crime. The sentence is based largely on a stipulation in Salcedo's plea agreement with prosecutors that the losses in the abortive caper would have exceeded $2.5 million. "The damage that Mr. Salcedo could have caused the consumers if he was successful could have been astounding," says prosecutor Martens.

    Salcedo's defense attorney, Samuel Winthrop, did not return phone calls.
    If I were that attorney, I wouldn't be returning phone calls, either.
  9. Re:Who wants to watch TV on a postage stamp screen on TV On Cellphones Ever Closer · · Score: 1

    Headsets. If the (New York/Florida/Japanese/insert place here) government is going to make them mandatory for drivers, we may as well have more applications for phones with headsets. There are also some phones with built-in speakers. A lo-res TV would be a great application for a cell phone, IMO. If we were going to go to HD, we would probably have to install a tiny projector so people could watch it on a wall...

  10. Re:Bad luck for the burglar on Robbers Scared by GTA · · Score: 1

    Actually, that's the same situation in the US; you can only use deadly force if it appears that your life is imminently threatened. There were a number of cases where people were using deadly traps (e.g. spring guns) to protect against burglars, and ended up responsible for the burglar's death. If a burglar comes into your house with a gun in hand, though, many jurisdictions will accept that as an excuse to shoot him.

    However, I don't see this being a case for assault in the US or in England. It wasn't intentional, first of all, and even if it was deemed intentional, it's still reasonable given that the burglar was trying to commit a dangerous felony.

    The law actually makes a lot more sense than you might think...

  11. Re:This is a surprise? on China Bans Game Recognizing Taiwan Independence · · Score: 1

    WHAT WORKS: Making cheap shit with slave labor to sell to Wal-Mart shoppers overseas. WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Asserting sovereignty over an island that has its own government, economy, military, and social structure independently of your own. Okay, lesson over.

  12. Huh on China Launches New Search Engine · · Score: 1

    Looks like Clinton really doesn't want to make our bankers mad.

  13. Re:Stupid new laws & media on Ohio Law Could Send Spammers To Jail · · Score: 1

    I have Gmail. So the junk email I get is on the Web.

  14. Re:On the Written Word on Top Ten Persistent Design Flaws · · Score: 1

    Japanese and Chinese text is never spaced, except maybe in the context of a language textbook where the author deems it necessary to clearly delineate the "words." This usually isn't a problem, though, since both languages use ideographic characters that often function as "words" in and of themselves. Now, I have no idea how the Greeks got by, poor souls.

  15. Re:Corruption on Microsoft Critic Received $9.75m After Settlement · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Depending on how you define "capital," that could be either funny or insightful.

  16. Re:Any purchased copies banned? on Valve Cracks Down on 20,000 Users · · Score: 1

    NetHack's been around for a while.

  17. Re:You're wrong. on Valve Cracks Down on 20,000 Users · · Score: 1

    Actually, this should say: "If you violate our unilaterally-imposed terms, we keep your money and you lose the game." This is clearly in violation of contract law and common sense, and Valve would lose if anyone cared to bring it to court.

  18. Re:Michael's whining is irrelevant on Valve Cracks Down on 20,000 Users · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but you're wrong. A signature is not necessary for a binding contract. A binding contract does not even have to be written. A contract can be made through e-mail, or over the phone, or between stalls in a men's room, and it's valid as long as it meets the legal criteria (that is, someone offers something for exchange, someone else takes it, and something is given in return). This is one of the first things you learn in law school (assuming contracts is a first semester course).

    The real issue is whether an EULA is part of the terms of the contract to buy the software, since the consumer doesn't find out about it until the deal is (apparently) concluded. There have been many cases over, for instance, terms placed inside computer boxes, or exculpatory clauses on the back of parking lot receipts and stadium tickets.

    Courts have been divided over this issue: more conservative judges have ruled that EULA-type clauses are binding if the consumer does not return the software, while other judges have ruled that the EULA is not part of the contract and is therefore not enforcable in court.

    However, the fact that the EULA is not signed and notarized does NOT mean that it is not a contract. Signing and notarizing only makes it easier to prove that the contract existed if a problem has to be litigated (it's also mandatory, by statute, for some transactions such as real estate deals).

    Companies only get away with including EULA's because consumers rarely have the time, money, or expertise to challenge them.

  19. They never told us! on MP3.com's Content to Be Destroyed · · Score: 1
    I've had my music on mp3.com for a year and a half now. Nobody from the site ever bothered to tell me that they were going to shut down. There aren't any notices on mp3.com to that effect, either.

    How asinine is that? If I wasn't following the news online, I wouldn't even know that my music was about to be taken offline! And if I didn't have copies of my own, it would all be GONE.

    Fools, those people. Complete fools. Keeping your content providers out of the loop is NOT the way to run a web site.

  20. Re:Form factor won't work on Replace Your Music....Again · · Score: 1

    CD singles *are* released on half-size discs in some parts of the world. They were all over Japan a few years ago.

  21. Re:Education? on Memory Holes and the Internet (updated) · · Score: 1

    Asia is even WORSE when it comes to forcing students to learn by rote. Go to Japan, for example, and it's all about memorizing useless information for tests. Same thing in China, Korea, Taiwan, etc., and, to a lesser extent, in South Asia as well. The only way to get a really "good" education any more is to go to a "good" school with "good" teachers, who will give tests that actually measure comprehension of a subject. Consider MIT, where the ScanTron is nonexistent, and small liberal arts colleges. But yeah, all of the big universities nowadays are full of crap.

  22. Re:NASA has a similar plan. on Lego Trebuchet · · Score: 1

    ...but you'd need some REALLY big lego bricks to make it. (insert awkward Jon Stewart-esque silence here)

  23. Re:Who cares? on World Cup Final · · Score: 1

    ::sigh:: Call it whatever you want to call it. We'll still call it soccer.

  24. Re:70000 yen, Japan, and fees on Cell Phones: Japan vs. the United States · · Score: 1

    I'd say just get other people to give YOU the reikin, and there's no problem at all. Remember, Japan is an eminently hackable country.

  25. Re:Who cares? on World Cup Final · · Score: 1

    Why should we call it "American football" when we're already IN America? Do Irish people say "Gaelic football," or Australian people say "Australian football"? Not in my experience.

    Besides, soccer is an international term as well. I know it's what the Japanese use, and I'm pretty sure it's what the Koreans use as well, and since they hosted the damn cup this year...

    (Canadians play our version of football, too.)