>Why on earth would anyone want to encourage their behaviour
Sony is now effectively a financial services (insurance) company, so it doesn't matter what happens with hardware. It's kind of a loss leader for them, like the Macintosh hardware at Apple.
Practically speaking, this will only have a significant effect on those unfortunate children whose parents dig up one of these obscure characters for use in a personal name, as there is an increased chance that other people will not be able to read the person's name, or will read it improperly.
Imagine the irritation at having the FEDEX guy always misread your name when he hands you a parcel.
That is, if you wanted to name your child using one of these characters yesterday, your application would have been rejected at city hall. Today, as a result of this decision, the clerks will probably have to accept the name, no matter how obscure.
In summary, this is good for parents and bad for children.
The government tip-toes around in slippers regarding issues like this, instead of putting on the jackboots the way the Americans or British do.
Jukinet has been up and running for years, but the central government has been unable to force take-up, just as they cannot enforce take-up of the so-called compulsory social security or health care systems, or just as NHK cannot force people to pay the compulsory subscription. If Japan were the USA they would just put a gun to people's heads, so-to-speak, and enforce participation.
The way it has worked up to now is that individuals elect to sign up for the Jukinet smart card, and less than two percent of the population has done this. There's no actual requirement anywhere to get one, and it seems to be regarded as a slight potential convenience.
My theory is that there are are at least a couple reasons why the Japaneese government seems so ineffective in putting teeth into enforcement of compliance with such systems.
1) There is a lingering sense of respect for "rights of the individual" that remains since the various reforms after the War, and it's tied in with left wing politics. This is why it's taken 30 years to build the second runway at Narita airport.
2) Second reason is bureacratic turf wars. Jukinet is the pet project of one not-particularly-powerful ministry, and they do not have the power to enforce take-up, although they certainly did manage to get to the Supreme Court in this case (which has handed down a judgment that is rather short-sighted about privacy, given the history of privacy problems that we have seen in Japan in recent years).
In short, Japan has all the privacy problems of other developed countries (and perhaps even more so, given the ubiquitous video surveillance), but has soft spots in its central adminstration in unexpected places.
Incidentally, if it were my job to increase Jukinet card takeup, I would offer people the option of getting them in a design theme of Hello Kitty, or Snoopy, or Audrey Hepburn or something such, and then add electronic money and/or train pass functionality, slightly discounted. WHOOOOOSH, massive take-up overnight.
In order to use the NTT VOD service, the consumer must have 100 mbps fiber plus the IPv6 "Appli", which is a proprietary application of some sort that the set-top box uses for DRM.
I suspect take-up numbers are still very low, as they need some compelling content if they want people to really go for this VOD service--better choice of channels is still available through satellite, and their catalog is rather skimpy, with only 2000 titles.
To update the above about the keyboard. I just saw the article in this month's Japanese Linux magazine. The screenshot of Linux on the Zaurus shows it using an onscreen keyboard, so maybe I wonder if in fact they have solved the problem of the broken control key on the keyboard.
First of all, a point of style. The Japanese "zaurusu" is not pluralized, since Japanese English does not support Latin-style word endings. The particular Zaurus models applicable here are the two latest versions of the Power Zaurus, MI-C1 and MI-EX1, due to limitations of system RAM on the many, many earlier models.
Thus the MI-610DC mentioned above will not run this version of Linux, and I am a little bummed about this, since this is the model that has been my constant companion over the last two years. Nor will it run on the wildly popular under-$300 black-and-white "aigetti" series, which is doubly too bad.
The MI-CI model is the latest model and can be had for $500-600 in Akihabara, if you know where to go. It is quite impressive. Much lighter and thinner than the active matrix MI-EX1 and MI-610 units and with up to ten hours of life on the lithium batteries, since it uses the "Super-Mobile" reflective LCD--visible with or without backlighting. It uses the mini-sized PC card slots, so will not use the cameras and TV output cards that work with the larger units.
The MI-EX1 model is the Zaurus flagship at $1600 list. Mind that you want to spend another $300 for the 850,000 pixel digital camera that makes this beast really useful. Add in the very expensive Sharp cables and connectivity software and you are talking mid-$2000 range. At this price not a very popular or successful machine, but a very nice one.
The MI-EX1 best features are the incredibly bright and beautiful Black TFT 640 by 480 screen and the improved connectivity via the cradle. It is the size of a paperback book and 255 grams in weight, so it travels in a shoulder bag. Battery life is the weak point, probably only two or three hours between charges. I know Sharp claims longer, but that just isn't the case. Picture taking also drastically drains the battery. 15 megs seems like a lot, but it fills up in no time when you start taking pictures at 850,00 pixels resolution, which you will find yourself doing constantly.
Since the desktop connectivity software generally sucks, the best strategy for using the Power Zaurus is the get some extra Compact Flash cards. I don't know of any system-imposed limit on the size of the Compact Flash cards that can be used.
The latest killer app for these Japanese Zauruses is the e-book reader. You can load up your PC card from the kiosk on the platform in Japanese train stations with newspapers and magazines and other such content for a nominal fee.
The big problem with Zaurus has always been the lack of cool third party software. The SZAB development kit is expensive and developers are few. Other than a couple of games, I have never seen any software for Zaurus that looked worth the bother of downloading. Maybe the arrival of Codewarrior next month will change things.
Actually the lack of software has been a blessing in disguise. The apps that come with the machine are useful and fairly bug free. Zaurus is stable and requires almost zero maintenance. The result is that I have wasted less time futzing around with the Zaurus than any computer I have ever owned. Close to zero headaches, coupled with the best Japanese language environment of any handheld, bar none.
One minor (or major) complaint about Zaurus. You are stuck using Sharp's pretty pathetic keyboard, if you want to do a lot of input, since nobody has figured out a hack for any other keyboard.
The Sharp keyboard does have a control character on it but I have never gotten it to work during a telnet session. Maybe this is a problem that has been solved now that Linux has been ported, and this makes me happy.
I don't think there is much compatibility between the Japanese Zaurus and the export models. Nor, for that matter, is there much backward compatibility within the Japanese line, of which something like 5 million units have been sold to date. Tha is, I have never heard of anyone running English Zaurus programs on the Japanese units.
Anyway, Linux on Zaurus is pretty happy news from this POV.
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>Why on earth would anyone want to encourage their behaviour
Sony is now effectively a financial services (insurance) company, so it doesn't matter what happens with hardware. It's kind of a loss leader for them, like the Macintosh hardware at Apple.
Practically speaking, this will only have a significant effect on those unfortunate children whose parents dig up one of these obscure characters for use in a personal name, as there is an increased chance that other people will not be able to read the person's name, or will read it improperly.
Imagine the irritation at having the FEDEX guy always misread your name when he hands you a parcel.
That is, if you wanted to name your child using one of these characters yesterday, your application would have been rejected at city hall. Today, as a result of this decision, the clerks will probably have to accept the name, no matter how obscure.
In summary, this is good for parents and bad for children.
The government tip-toes around in slippers regarding issues like this, instead of putting on the jackboots the way the Americans or British do.
Jukinet has been up and running for years, but the central government has been unable to force take-up, just as they cannot enforce take-up of the so-called compulsory social security or health care systems, or just as NHK cannot force people to pay the compulsory subscription. If Japan were the USA they would just put a gun to people's heads, so-to-speak, and enforce participation.
The way it has worked up to now is that individuals elect to sign up for the Jukinet smart card, and less than two percent of the population has done this. There's no actual requirement anywhere to get one, and it seems to be regarded as a slight potential convenience.
My theory is that there are are at least a couple reasons why the Japaneese government seems so ineffective in putting teeth into enforcement of compliance with such systems.
1) There is a lingering sense of respect for "rights of the individual" that remains since the various reforms after the War, and it's tied in with left wing politics. This is why it's taken 30 years to build the second runway at Narita airport.
2) Second reason is bureacratic turf wars. Jukinet is the pet project of one not-particularly-powerful ministry, and they do not have the power to enforce take-up, although they certainly did manage to get to the Supreme Court in this case (which has handed down a judgment that is rather short-sighted about privacy, given the history of privacy problems that we have seen in Japan in recent years).
In short, Japan has all the privacy problems of other developed countries (and perhaps even more so, given the ubiquitous video surveillance), but has soft spots in its central adminstration in unexpected places.
Incidentally, if it were my job to increase Jukinet card takeup, I would offer people the option of getting them in a design theme of Hello Kitty, or Snoopy, or Audrey Hepburn or something such, and then add electronic money and/or train pass functionality, slightly discounted. WHOOOOOSH, massive take-up overnight.
VOD is one driver of take-up of IPv6 in Japan.
In order to use the NTT VOD service, the consumer must have 100 mbps fiber plus the IPv6 "Appli", which is a proprietary application of some sort that the set-top box uses for DRM.
I suspect take-up numbers are still very low, as they need some compelling content if they want people to really go for this VOD service--better choice of channels is still available through satellite, and their catalog is rather skimpy, with only 2000 titles.
http://www.ondemandtv.co.jp/
My play would be sensors. Robots need lots of sensors, and Keyence is the place for sensors. One of the best managed Japanese firms.
To update the above about the keyboard. I just saw the article in this month's Japanese Linux magazine. The screenshot of Linux on the Zaurus shows it using an onscreen keyboard, so maybe I wonder if in fact they have solved the problem of the broken control key on the keyboard.
First of all, a point of style. The Japanese "zaurusu" is not pluralized, since Japanese English does not support Latin-style word endings. The particular Zaurus models applicable here are the two latest versions of the Power Zaurus, MI-C1 and MI-EX1, due to limitations of system RAM on the many, many earlier models.
Thus the MI-610DC mentioned above will not run this version of Linux, and I am a little bummed about this, since this is the model that has been my constant companion over the last two years. Nor will it run on the wildly popular under-$300 black-and-white "aigetti" series, which is doubly too bad.
The MI-CI model is the latest model and can be had for $500-600 in Akihabara, if you know where to go. It is quite impressive. Much lighter and thinner than the active matrix MI-EX1 and MI-610 units and with up to ten hours of life on the lithium batteries, since it uses the "Super-Mobile" reflective LCD--visible with or without backlighting. It uses the mini-sized PC card slots, so will not use the cameras and TV output cards that work with the larger units.
The MI-EX1 model is the Zaurus flagship at $1600 list. Mind that you want to spend another $300 for the 850,000 pixel digital camera that makes this beast really useful. Add in the very expensive Sharp cables and connectivity software and you are talking mid-$2000 range. At this price not a very popular or successful machine, but a very nice one.
The MI-EX1 best features are the incredibly bright and beautiful Black TFT 640 by 480 screen and the improved connectivity via the cradle. It is the size of a paperback book and 255 grams in weight, so it travels in a shoulder bag. Battery life is the weak point, probably only two or three hours between charges. I know Sharp claims longer, but that just isn't the case. Picture taking also drastically drains the battery. 15 megs seems like a lot, but it fills up in no time when you start taking pictures at 850,00 pixels resolution, which you will find yourself doing constantly.
Since the desktop connectivity software generally sucks, the best strategy for using the Power Zaurus is the get some extra Compact Flash cards. I don't know of any system-imposed limit on the size of the Compact Flash cards that can be used.
The latest killer app for these Japanese Zauruses is the e-book reader. You can load up your PC card from the kiosk on the platform in Japanese train stations with newspapers and magazines and other such content for a nominal fee.
The big problem with Zaurus has always been the lack of cool third party software. The SZAB development kit is expensive and developers are few. Other than a couple of games, I have never seen any software for Zaurus that looked worth the bother of downloading. Maybe the arrival of Codewarrior next month will change things.
Actually the lack of software has been a blessing in disguise. The apps that come with the machine are useful and fairly bug free. Zaurus is stable and requires almost zero maintenance. The result is that I have wasted less time futzing around with the Zaurus than any computer I have ever owned. Close to zero headaches, coupled with the best Japanese language environment of any handheld, bar none.
One minor (or major) complaint about Zaurus. You are stuck using Sharp's pretty pathetic keyboard, if you want to do a lot of input, since nobody has figured out a hack for any other keyboard.
The Sharp keyboard does have a control character on it but I have never gotten it to work during a telnet session. Maybe this is a problem that has been solved now that Linux has been ported, and this makes me happy.
I don't think there is much compatibility between the Japanese Zaurus and the export models. Nor, for that matter, is there much backward compatibility within the Japanese line, of which something like 5 million units have been sold to date. Tha is, I have never heard of anyone running English Zaurus programs on the Japanese units.
Anyway, Linux on Zaurus is pretty happy news from this POV.