It's been a great source of material for Japanese assignments over the years, a place where youth vent about society over there.
Slashdot is big, but it's not on the scale of 2ch. It's a pity it's so poorly organised. Trying to find information without using a search engine is practically useless at 2ch.
But as long as they keep creating things like Kikkoman, 2ch will keep popping up here in the west!
Japan doesn't celebrate Christmas, actually it's a normal working day over there, but children do receive significant money gifts on New Year's Day which presumedly Microsoft is targeting with this price drop.
Another gift-giving holiday in Japan is O-bon week. Perhaps if the X-Box keeps its lacklustre performance up, a further slight decrease in price may be what they might choose.
Be very careful with these! I've burned through about 6 hard drives with these mobile racks - carrying a hard-drive around isn't quite like carrying a bunch of CDs!
I love them though, it means I can put all those 1 to 5GB HDDs to good use. It's also great for transferring data from old hard drives to new ones - I use them quite a bit at the computer shop I work at.
Is it just me, or do the photos in the article seem like the 'journalists' did some 'reclaiming' of their own?
Snowflake -> Bathroom -> Wintery Creek
Cycle of nature I guess. Or maybe cycle of clip art? And no Australian mountain creeks look like that - there's a distinct lack of mountains!
Students are more likely to work with technology.
on
Professors vs. WiFi
·
· Score: 1
There's one thing that wi-fi and instant messaging offers - and that's instant, anonymous relay. Because it's alright to put your hand up in a tutorial (and a class of 20) and ask for help, but it's another kettle of fish when putting your hand up in a hall of 500, hoping that the question you're asking wasn't already told sufficiently when you were picking up your pen.
The lecturer would broadcast his IM no., and students would send messages to him. The lecturer would choose to attend or disregard messages he receives (he as most academics, especially professors, remain male).
Let's take that networking course I might be doing - wouldn't wi-fi be a great extension? The 'net in the very room! The lecturer could do a real-time demonstration.
Or pull up the Gutenberg text in that 19th century Romantic literature lecture rather than lug in the book and follow the quotes through text search.
But let's face it, the average college student (in Australia at least) wouldn't be able to scratch the grub together to buy a laptop, and the last thing we need is further 'elitisation' of education. Still ten years ago, mobiles were considered a luxury as well, but one going off in class hardly even gets a groan from most lecturers. Maybe in another 5 years, laptops'll become even more commonplace.
The University of Sydney's got a huge unix tradition - not as much as UNSW but i think Aust has always been unix-inclined, out of the 'pressure spotlight' I suppose, or something. The admins love the linux computers here, they never have do anything to them. Especially the Tektronix dumb terminals, they just sit there and accept input. Slow as hell though, I use them only when I need to get an assignment done and there's no computers left. I think they're retiring them over the Christmas break, that whole lab area is being rebuilt.
The whole backend runs on linux clusters (went to a little after-lecture talk about it). File servers, CPU servers, connection servers. They have a few sun servers but one of them explode every year and they haven't bothered replacing them. Clusters are so much cheaper!
The last batch of new systems we got at the beginning of last year for 5 labs, P4s with TFTs, bucks this trend though, as 4 of these labs got Win98 and the other Linux. They don't even bother locking these Windows down either, they just wipe and upload drive images from the server every night.
Though that kind of sucks, means we have to reinstall Warcraft 3 every day.
This game *has* been in the arcades for quite a while now. And to tell the truth, it's one of the more, shall I say, 'normal' games.
One of the best that I played when I was there was a boxing game, there were six pads around a screen, you grabbed a 'boxing glove'/padded paddle and smacked away at them. It was based on 'the Fist of the North Star' so you could blow up people's heads and stuff. Pretty groovy.
Still, this taiko game has actually been pretty popular on variety television (which is approx. 40% of commercial prime-time over there) with a lot of celebrities duking it out, smashing these massive drums relatively close when they're told to on the screen. Air hockey's still the old favourite tho.
One of the less common - but popular - games basically involves a big suited butt in front of the screen. It's supposed to represent the boss - how the game works is that the game insults you, and you get your retribution by delivering one up the arse. You should see some of the Japanese guys get into it. And girls too.
I reckon Japanese society's going to explode someday, and all the office workers'll walk the streets with bits of wood & bricks, smashing up windows and cars, when the tolerance threshhold of society in general is breached. There's just so much shit human beings can take, and office workers in Japan take a lot.
>just one thing, i just remembered another article which stated most US-cellphone owners dont/didn't even know about the nice little SMS feature that has become somewhat of a way-of-life for some in europe.
Yeah, and that's kind of the thing this whole article misses. The most important thing behind any technology is not the technology itself but how it's implemented.
I used a CDMA (KDDi) phone in Japan, large colour screen, cost me just a yen on a 12 month plan. And not only didn't i need a pager, I didn't need a computer, because I could send emails and read/. straight from the phone (and on the right plan all that net surfing only cost me about US$25 a month as well)
To most consumers the differences between GSM and CDMA are lost - I have an Australian CDMA (orange.net) phone now but I have no worries talking with and sending SMSes to GSM people either. It's not because I like CDMA more or anything, it's just what this particular phone company chose to put out.
So neither of the technologies are going to 'win' because as another poster mentioned, most of the high-bandwidth stuff is now being done through WiFi. And both technologies are 'good enough' for the job, so it's just healthy competition.
When I first saw this, was I the only one who panicked and thought, "No, not him!" I'm referring, of course, to cyberpunk founder William Gibson. But a quick look at the article tells me it isn't him - anyway I know he's been around a while now, but certainly not 92 years of age!
I've been looking forward to the first book of his 'noughties trilogy'. As well as the slow progression (but certainly inevitable!) of Neuromancer and the Zen Differential, based on Count Zero, to the silver screen.
A big sigh of relief, and what a big boon to our understanding of the past's view of the future, it's now when hindsight truly makes the hopes and fears of past people known.
As the first distribution of Linux to go ahead with, Debian might not have been the best choice, as I quickly found myself lost and bewildered in apt-get and implied config and so on, it made me feel that I should be a lot more familiar with linux before I try something like that.
In many respects, I'm thinking Gentoo has started to supercede Debian as the frontline distribution against capitalism - it sets out to be different from the rest.
But before I even try to work with Gentoo, I'm going for an easier distribution. Something like Lycoris would be good but I have special concerns like handling foreign language keyboards. I'll give it a shot....
Significantly, the population of the first world will actually diminish.
[...]
So if indeed the third world consumes a large factor (an order of magnitude!) less "footprint" than the Western nations, it would seem to me that the world might actually be better off by 2050 : they are, quite simply, more efficient at using existing resources.
[snip]
I notice that with all the hullaballoo about an impending collapse in resources, proposed solutions are far and few between. And those that are proposed are incredibly intricate and involved, so complicated that results cannot clearly be put forward. The underlying problem with these 'solutions' is that it focuses on adversity, and the minimum for the parties involved.
I propose a solution that is awful yet at the same time incredibly efficient: the utter obliteration of all borders, whether they be trade, work, or residence. A Rwandan could move to New Jersey and take up a job in the local Burger King, provided basic security clearance (health, background, etc.) and transport and setting-up costs are met. Whether the manager would hire him would depend on this fellow's ability to compete in a labour market. And an American company could set up a sweatshop in Burkina Faso manufacturing Happy Meal Toy #40321. Whether the enterpriser could keep his workers around long enough in a market with free movement depends on providing decent conditions to their workers.
This is only an idea, as I have neither the education nor the contacts to follow up on what essentially amounts to a gut feeling. Questions would come about the responsibility of welfare (which has no relation whatsoever with market economics, as far as I know) and so on, but I feel the general idea is that if a person is willing to end up somewhere and start anew, in a fair, free market, that should happen, shouldn't it? Whether the market is food or employment, competition should be encouraged and supported, and market-stuffing like subsidies should be removed. Those taking part will be better off in the long run with a better application of their skills.
People write off ideas automatically without truly considering the implications. Isn't this what we really want, really, if we're interested in maintaining democracy and capitalism for the present time?
Slashdot Mirror
It's been a great source of material for Japanese assignments over the years, a place where youth vent about society over there.
Slashdot is big, but it's not on the scale of 2ch. It's a pity it's so poorly organised. Trying to find information without using a search engine is practically useless at 2ch.
But as long as they keep creating things like Kikkoman, 2ch will keep popping up here in the west!
Japan doesn't celebrate Christmas, actually it's a normal working day over there, but children do receive significant money gifts on New Year's Day which presumedly Microsoft is targeting with this price drop.
Another gift-giving holiday in Japan is O-bon week. Perhaps if the X-Box keeps its lacklustre performance up, a further slight decrease in price may be what they might choose.
A write-up on how this name came about, as well as what the Hedgehog family is all about, can be found in this February 1998 article:
b 1998/platika/2.html">http://web.reed.edu/community /newsandpub/feb1998/platika/1.html</A>
<A HREF="http://web.reed.edu/community/newsandpub/fe
(page 2 for the Sonic reference)
Be very careful with these! I've burned through about 6 hard drives with these mobile racks - carrying a hard-drive around isn't quite like carrying a bunch of CDs!
I love them though, it means I can put all those 1 to 5GB HDDs to good use. It's also great for transferring data from old hard drives to new ones - I use them quite a bit at the computer shop I work at.
Is it just me, or do the photos in the article seem like the 'journalists' did some 'reclaiming' of their own?
Snowflake
->
Bathroom
->
Wintery Creek
Cycle of nature I guess. Or maybe cycle of clip art? And no Australian mountain creeks look like that - there's a distinct lack of mountains!
There's one thing that wi-fi and instant messaging offers - and that's instant, anonymous relay. Because it's alright to put your hand up in a tutorial (and a class of 20) and ask for help, but it's another kettle of fish when putting your hand up in a hall of 500, hoping that the question you're asking wasn't already told sufficiently when you were picking up your pen.
The lecturer would broadcast his IM no., and students would send messages to him. The lecturer would choose to attend or disregard messages he receives (he as most academics, especially professors, remain male).
Let's take that networking course I might be doing - wouldn't wi-fi be a great extension? The 'net in the very room! The lecturer could do a real-time demonstration.
Or pull up the Gutenberg text in that 19th century Romantic literature lecture rather than lug in the book and follow the quotes through text search.
But let's face it, the average college student (in Australia at least) wouldn't be able to scratch the grub together to buy a laptop, and the last thing we need is further 'elitisation' of education. Still ten years ago, mobiles were considered a luxury as well, but one going off in class hardly even gets a groan from most lecturers. Maybe in another 5 years, laptops'll become even more commonplace.
The University of Sydney's got a huge unix tradition - not as much as UNSW but i think Aust has always been unix-inclined, out of the 'pressure spotlight' I suppose, or something. The admins love the linux computers here, they never have do anything to them. Especially the Tektronix dumb terminals, they just sit there and accept input. Slow as hell though, I use them only when I need to get an assignment done and there's no computers left. I think they're retiring them over the Christmas break, that whole lab area is being rebuilt.
The whole backend runs on linux clusters (went to a little after-lecture talk about it). File servers, CPU servers, connection servers. They have a few sun servers but one of them explode every year and they haven't bothered replacing them. Clusters are so much cheaper!
The last batch of new systems we got at the beginning of last year for 5 labs, P4s with TFTs, bucks this trend though, as 4 of these labs got Win98 and the other Linux. They don't even bother locking these Windows down either, they just wipe and upload drive images from the server every night.
Though that kind of sucks, means we have to reinstall Warcraft 3 every day.
This game *has* been in the arcades for quite a while now. And to tell the truth, it's one of the more, shall I say, 'normal' games.
One of the best that I played when I was there was a boxing game, there were six pads around a screen, you grabbed a 'boxing glove'/padded paddle and smacked away at them. It was based on 'the Fist of the North Star' so you could blow up people's heads and stuff. Pretty groovy.
Still, this taiko game has actually been pretty popular on variety television (which is approx. 40% of commercial prime-time over there) with a lot of celebrities duking it out, smashing these massive drums relatively close when they're told to on the screen. Air hockey's still the old favourite tho.
One of the less common - but popular - games basically involves a big suited butt in front of the screen. It's supposed to represent the boss - how the game works is that the game insults you, and you get your retribution by delivering one up the arse. You should see some of the Japanese guys get into it. And girls too.
I reckon Japanese society's going to explode someday, and all the office workers'll walk the streets with bits of wood & bricks, smashing up windows and cars, when the tolerance threshhold of society in general is breached. There's just so much shit human beings can take, and office workers in Japan take a lot.
>just one thing, i just remembered another article which stated most US-cellphone owners dont/didn't even know about the nice little SMS feature that has become somewhat of a way-of-life for some in europe.
/. straight from the phone (and on the right plan all that net surfing only cost me about US$25 a month as well)
Yeah, and that's kind of the thing this whole article misses. The most important thing behind any technology is not the technology itself but how it's implemented.
I used a CDMA (KDDi) phone in Japan, large colour screen, cost me just a yen on a 12 month plan. And not only didn't i need a pager, I didn't need a computer, because I could send emails and read
To most consumers the differences between GSM and CDMA are lost - I have an Australian CDMA (orange.net) phone now but I have no worries talking with and sending SMSes to GSM people either. It's not because I like CDMA more or anything, it's just what this particular phone company chose to put out.
So neither of the technologies are going to 'win' because as another poster mentioned, most of the high-bandwidth stuff is now being done through WiFi. And both technologies are 'good enough' for the job, so it's just healthy competition.
I've been looking forward to the first book of his 'noughties trilogy'. As well as the slow progression (but certainly inevitable!) of Neuromancer and the Zen Differential, based on Count Zero, to the silver screen.
A big sigh of relief, and what a big boon to our understanding of the past's view of the future, it's now when hindsight truly makes the hopes and fears of past people known.
As the first distribution of Linux to go ahead with, Debian might not have been the best choice, as I quickly found myself lost and bewildered in apt-get and implied config and so on, it made me feel that I should be a lot more familiar with linux before I try something like that.
In many respects, I'm thinking Gentoo has started to supercede Debian as the frontline distribution against capitalism - it sets out to be different from the rest.
But before I even try to work with Gentoo, I'm going for an easier distribution. Something like Lycoris would be good but I have special concerns like handling foreign language keyboards. I'll give it a shot....
[...]
So if indeed the third world consumes a large factor (an order of magnitude!) less "footprint" than the Western nations, it would seem to me that the world might actually be better off by 2050 : they are, quite simply, more efficient at using existing resources.
[snip]
I notice that with all the hullaballoo about an impending collapse in resources, proposed solutions are far and few between. And those that are proposed are incredibly intricate and involved, so complicated that results cannot clearly be put forward. The underlying problem with these 'solutions' is that it focuses on adversity, and the minimum for the parties involved.
I propose a solution that is awful yet at the same time incredibly efficient: the utter obliteration of all borders, whether they be trade, work, or residence. A Rwandan could move to New Jersey and take up a job in the local Burger King, provided basic security clearance (health, background, etc.) and transport and setting-up costs are met. Whether the manager would hire him would depend on this fellow's ability to compete in a labour market. And an American company could set up a sweatshop in Burkina Faso manufacturing Happy Meal Toy #40321. Whether the enterpriser could keep his workers around long enough in a market with free movement depends on providing decent conditions to their workers.
This is only an idea, as I have neither the education nor the contacts to follow up on what essentially amounts to a gut feeling. Questions would come about the responsibility of welfare (which has no relation whatsoever with market economics, as far as I know) and so on, but I feel the general idea is that if a person is willing to end up somewhere and start anew, in a fair, free market, that should happen, shouldn't it? Whether the market is food or employment, competition should be encouraged and supported, and market-stuffing like subsidies should be removed. Those taking part will be better off in the long run with a better application of their skills.
People write off ideas automatically without truly considering the implications. Isn't this what we really want, really, if we're interested in maintaining democracy and capitalism for the present time?