I'd say it means the folks you talk to (and you) have a pretty good sense of reality and don't lend themselves to much idle gossip. The guys know that the girls are practicing English, for example.
As for the scholar, he seems on track and realistic. Upper level proficiency could take ages, much less actually mastering anything. The JLPT level 1 test for example has about 2,000 kanji and 10,000 words, and recommends around 900 hours study. That would probably cover all your day to day usage, but going beyond that would take serious time. The same could be said for actually mastering English really, as opposed to just knowing English as a native language.
The parent post in indeed very true. Sadly a lot of the English on signs is also rather lacking, and I'm sure a ton more signs would suffer the same problem. There's a reason why sites like engrish.com never run out of material.
Proofreading of English in Japan is probably seen less than on Slashdot forums. As for the spoken language, as a lot of English teachers will tell you, the priority is not on actual English but on what the Japanese education programs consider English. In other words, very foreign sounding words and improper usage.
Here's a very insightful read on English education in Japan by a English Teacher in Japan. http://www.timwerx.net/language/englished.htm
Judging from just the comments so far, I fear this amount of misinformation this thread is going to pickup about Japan. Perhaps the PDA can just have a nice little FAQ for the uninformed who somehow or another managed to wind up in Tokyo. (Because they thought it would be neat.) Or the simple things, like "proper business card manners" for the businessmen.
So far in this thread I've seen all the typical: misleading posts about Japan hating foreigners, misleading posts about Japanese loving foreigners, uninformed posts about the language, complete and utter guesswork abound... etc. Japan seems to be a really popular place for folks with a few thousand bucks and too much time on their hands to head off to these days, head full of myths and a complete unwillingness to deal with anything not of their own culture... then come back and proclaim to all they meet what they "learned".
I figure it's only a matter of time before someone posts the myth that immersion (as an adult) instantly and automagically equals the best way to learn the complex language and writing that even the Japanese spend much of their schooling learning. In short, best of luck... you could actually study the language, culture, and actually try to make a good impression, but I suppose that was never really the point.
Re:Enough with the silly.
on
Ho, Ho, Ho
·
· Score: 1
I'm 21 and on much the same wave of thought... personally, I'd love to never involve my kids in such outright lies and deceit. I'd explain it simply, that Santa is a fairy tale just like any other story from their favorite book. It's a 'game' that many people play each year where the parents 'pretend' to be Santa for fun and tradition.
It's quite possible to have magic and adventure without outright tricking your kids and ruining their complete trust in your word. I imagine it would do a lot for their intelligent view of the world as well. The only problem would probably be convincing their mother of all this, which, if I had to guess, is why this all continues.
I stopped using IM shortly thereafter due to the loss of meaningful information inherent in that mode of communication.
I have to agree, it's a New Year's resolution of mine to waste less time on IMs. To this day I much prefer Email to have a meaningful conversation, IMs rarely result in anything. Still, they certainly have their uses and real time net communication is sometimes necessary. As for not logging... Personally, I use IM logs quite often for the plain and simple ease of recalling what was said in passing without having to ask again. URLs, instructions, etc.
No good... I've used IM logs of past conversations with gals before, and it never works. Facts are just silly little geek things that get in the way of their never-failing 'logic'.
Agreed, but I think much of Slashdot is reacting to the word "availability". As if it would be illegal for a parent to even make the game available to their child, like buying cigarettes or booze.
Unless I'm just being naive, I don't think that's what this law is about. I'm all for someone under 18 not being able to buy a game rated 18+. I don't care less if some highschooler has to get his parent's permission to play GTA. If it stops another lawsuit to GTA4+, good.
I should mention, by the way, that personally I find the best theory to be a mix of creationism and evolution. I do believe things were set in motion, and quite possibly still closely knit by God rather than chance. I don't believe, however, that things just went "poof".
Personally, I'm of the growing believe that God and creationism is the "cause", with evolution and science as we know it as the "effect". I see no reason why creation has to be an instant process, taking place over millions and billions of years is merely fitting for the infinite grandeur of creation and God. One can simplify it down to Science, Math, Biology, all the sciences as we know them are the programming languages of life itself, with God being the programmer. Thankfully, we've been given the gift of being able to observe, understand, and use this language ourselves... to change our enviroments and to create... although we've only learned a tiny percent so far.
It seems as "foolish" as some might call me to assume that by the tiny bit of the sciences we've figured out so far, we can even assumptions about the universe itself. As this story shows, we're still puzzled over why we favor a hand. It's also a "foolish" to me to assume we know everything there is to know about God, unchanging and never wrong, especially based on theories from 2,000 years ago. Rather, if ya ask me, we should be gaining an increased understanding of faith as science gives us an increased understanding of ourselves.
"I was raised as a Catholic and am still a firm believer in creationism. I have no intention of starting a discussion about the religious issues here though. I am not a nut-job (at least, I don't think so) and I am not out to convince the world by the sword that my beliefs are right. -- Many Christian people are tolerant of others and will quite happily do their own thing in peace without harming or affecting anyone who does not hold to their beliefs. How does that make us nut-jobs?"
I'm in the same boat and agree with your post completely, but it comes down to this: People can be jerks and dead set in their ways. Just as the hardcore Christian right can be absolute jerks in their convincing the world by the sword they are right, the non believers can be and often are equally intolerant and dead set against anything they don't believe in as well.
I always find a good way to annoy an Atheist in an open minded debate is to challenge him that not believing is in itself a faith. Just as the be an "individual" punk/goth fad became being just like everyone else. If one truly knows of the world's religions and chooses not to follow them, then it's still a very specific choice. A very specific choice they can't deviate from one bit, or else they're no longer part of the club. They'll stick to this even if that means denying anything and everything "supernatual" that they can't explain, unless it meets with "their" proof, and sometimes even still long after that.
Sounds rather familiar to the Christian right, if you ask me. So, all one can really do I suppose is try to avoid provoking the extremists. Unless you're up for a debate, they're really not much fun to be around. The Christian right casts out open minded Christians as "false", while the stone cold Atheistis call us fools for having an open mind and strong faith. As you say, there's more of us out there than people think... we just don't go causing a fuss to show off everytime we get the chance.
This is Slashdot, though. Can't expect understanding here.
"I've never seen anyone actually get anything accomplished through watching TV. Unless you count "relaxing" for six hours a day to be an accomplishment."
Funny, I never see anyone get anything useful done on Slashdot forums or IRC either, yet we willingly spend quite a good deal of time here. Your definition of "useful" is too slim. Watching the evening news is useful. Watching an educational program is useful. Heck, watching your favorite entertainment program is useful. Just because it's not interactive doesn't make it worthless.
"When I bother with movies these days, I watch them on my workstation. I could care less about comfort level- for me, the ability to critique and O_o and OMFG:O a movie in realtime on IRC while simultaneously getting other things done in the background is comfort enough."
And, no offense intended, here we see why Internet movie critic opinions are so easily discounted these days. People who have to "bother" to watch movies, barely pay any attention, and feel the need to complain about it on IRC in realtime.
"The only things I generally watch on TV nowadays are the news and movies. There are several reasons that I believe the Internet is more entertaining:
Not to mention that TV shows are available in the Internet to view whenever the hell you want without commercials, but that should go without saying;^)"
I really don't get why the two have to compete... I've got a digital cable, a cable modem, and a DVR. I watch programs when I want to watch them, without commercials. I can rewatch old series, catch the latest episodes, and etc.
Whenever I hear someone say "I don't watch TV, it's boring." I can only assume they can't be bothered to actually find something interesting and expect to just randomly channel surf into something great. About the same odds as typing generic words into Google and finding Slashdot on a regular basis.
It's rather nice to see a company embrace the humor at any rate. Heck, these days I'd almost except to see Hormel suing Python claiming they damaged the name or something equally ridiculous.
"Just my opinion, but I saw this with the advent of graphic-design software, where kids open up Photoshop without even thinking about hitting the sketch-book first."
While I'm all for people learning the basics before the advanced, I'd just like to point out this is slightly flawed. Pencil and paper are fading, fast... you can sketch just fine in Photoshop. There's simply no reason to go through the extra step of using an unrelated medium, scanning it, etc when you can just start digital. The more folks tell me "art has to start with a pencil", the more I believe they need to learn the potential of a stylus.
In short, there's just no reason why Photoshop or any other art tool can't handle the "sketch" phase, with better results.
Re:I know this is an oft repeated point but
on
Upbeat on E-books
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, that got pretty easy once my IQ hit around 600. Heck, I typed that whole post mentally.
Re:I know this is an oft repeated point but
on
Upbeat on E-books
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I love ebooks for certain uses... especially when in plain text format so they can be used with my speed reader program on the Pocket PC. Zipping through a just-for-fun book at 600+ WPM and finishing it in one sitting beats the heck out of fooling with paper. I love Project Gutenberg.
Then there's the joy of having pretty much an entire library of books with you at any one time. I always have my Pocket PC with me on the go, so I always have my ebooks. Can't beat the convenience, especially if you have tools to easily search and highlight in the book. PDFs, although kinda unrelated, are amazingly great for students already overloaded with encyclopedia sized volumes of tech books.
That said, I also own multiple bookshelves worth of technical, educational, and entertainment books and buy more regularly. If it comes down to a book I actually have to buy, I buy it on paper. Maybe it's availablity of older books, maybe it's not paying attention to battery life, maybe it's being able to psychically flip the page... but despite practically living on digital information, I have to admit... if I have to buy it, I typically still want a tangible copy.
"IMHO, Valve solved the largest problem and my biggest gripe with 3D video games when they made a physics engine that wasn't so wonky it made me laugh."
Havok physics is at the heart of the eagerly awaited Half Life 2 from Valve Software. Physics gameplay is considered one of the key new departures in the sequel and is an integral part of the game experience.
"Making a game with the complex physics interactions and physics gameplay of Half-Life(R) 2 is really hard - but it would have been impossible if we hadn't started with robust fundamental physics technology from Havok."Jay Stelly, Valve
"Havok has been working with Valve for almost three years to deliver breakthrough physical gameplay. Havok 2, launched at GDC 2003 incorporates all that we have learned from working with each other,
particularly in the area of character control and ragdolls" Dr. Steven Collins CTO, Havok
"MHO, Valve solved the largest problem and my biggest gripe with 3D video games when they made a physics engine that wasn't so wonky it made me laugh."
Valve didn't make the physics, so far as I know. Valve made Source. Havok made the psychics engine. It's also used in Max Payne 2, Psi-Ops, PainKiller, and more.
Yes, a lot of changes were made and Source physics aren't just cookie cutter Havok code, but Valve keeps on getting credit for something folks should be singing the praises of Havok for. Havok, and it's proven cross-platform, cross-genre usages are way better than a single good FPS engine.
If I'm wrong, I'd be glad to hear the reasons why.
Somehow I sincerely doubt one could take a clip from a machine gun pumped into them, armor or no. It would probably break enough ribs or cause enough internal damage either way. Aside from that, I don't even consider armor a factor considering the massive blood stains that splatter the wall.
Filing cabinet was merely an example. Feel free to replace with one of any number of objects... chairs, for example. But the point wasn't realism, the point was weapon balance. See, for example, the far overpowered magnum.
Just tried and ZoneAlarm does in fact get the job done. Dang... surely there's something out there, preferably free, as powerful that's more advanced than ZoneAlarm? It's a shame Sygate and Kerio both fail to make Steam give up.
Well heck, it's pointless fun but it seems to me weapon balance is just laughable. Folks can take more than a whole clip of the machine gun pumped into them, but whack em with a filing cabinet and they're out cold.
It's like Valve had a meeting...
"I think we need to add some weapon balance for the DM."
"Weapon balance? What's kind of physics is that?"
Oh well, still fun. Oh, and quick tip: Grenades + Grav gun = grenade launcher. Don't know why more folks don't make use of this. Drop a grenade in front of you with alt, pick it up with the grav and wait a few ticks, then launch it like a rocket. Or fling one waaay long at the people who think they can just run.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd say it means the folks you talk to (and you) have a pretty good sense of reality and don't lend themselves to much idle gossip. The guys know that the girls are practicing English, for example.
As for the scholar, he seems on track and realistic. Upper level proficiency could take ages, much less actually mastering anything. The JLPT level 1 test for example has about 2,000 kanji and 10,000 words, and recommends around 900 hours study. That would probably cover all your day to day usage, but going beyond that would take serious time. The same could be said for actually mastering English really, as opposed to just knowing English as a native language.
The parent post in indeed very true. Sadly a lot of the English on signs is also rather lacking, and I'm sure a ton more signs would suffer the same problem. There's a reason why sites like engrish.com never run out of material.
Proofreading of English in Japan is probably seen less than on Slashdot forums. As for the spoken language, as a lot of English teachers will tell you, the priority is not on actual English but on what the Japanese education programs consider English. In other words, very foreign sounding words and improper usage.
Here's a very insightful read on English education in Japan by a English Teacher in Japan. http://www.timwerx.net/language/englished.htm
Judging from just the comments so far, I fear this amount of misinformation this thread is going to pickup about Japan. Perhaps the PDA can just have a nice little FAQ for the uninformed who somehow or another managed to wind up in Tokyo. (Because they thought it would be neat.) Or the simple things, like "proper business card manners" for the businessmen.
So far in this thread I've seen all the typical: misleading posts about Japan hating foreigners, misleading posts about Japanese loving foreigners, uninformed posts about the language, complete and utter guesswork abound... etc. Japan seems to be a really popular place for folks with a few thousand bucks and too much time on their hands to head off to these days, head full of myths and a complete unwillingness to deal with anything not of their own culture... then come back and proclaim to all they meet what they "learned".
I figure it's only a matter of time before someone posts the myth that immersion (as an adult) instantly and automagically equals the best way to learn the complex language and writing that even the Japanese spend much of their schooling learning. In short, best of luck... you could actually study the language, culture, and actually try to make a good impression, but I suppose that was never really the point.
I'm 21 and on much the same wave of thought... personally, I'd love to never involve my kids in such outright lies and deceit. I'd explain it simply, that Santa is a fairy tale just like any other story from their favorite book. It's a 'game' that many people play each year where the parents 'pretend' to be Santa for fun and tradition.
It's quite possible to have magic and adventure without outright tricking your kids and ruining their complete trust in your word. I imagine it would do a lot for their intelligent view of the world as well. The only problem would probably be convincing their mother of all this, which, if I had to guess, is why this all continues.
I stopped using IM shortly thereafter due to the loss of meaningful information inherent in that mode of communication.
I have to agree, it's a New Year's resolution of mine to waste less time on IMs. To this day I much prefer Email to have a meaningful conversation, IMs rarely result in anything. Still, they certainly have their uses and real time net communication is sometimes necessary. As for not logging... Personally, I use IM logs quite often for the plain and simple ease of recalling what was said in passing without having to ask again. URLs, instructions, etc.
No good... I've used IM logs of past conversations with gals before, and it never works. Facts are just silly little geek things that get in the way of their never-failing 'logic'.
Great, now it's even better! Now it's retro.
Agreed, but I think much of Slashdot is reacting to the word "availability". As if it would be illegal for a parent to even make the game available to their child, like buying cigarettes or booze.
Unless I'm just being naive, I don't think that's what this law is about. I'm all for someone under 18 not being able to buy a game rated 18+. I don't care less if some highschooler has to get his parent's permission to play GTA. If it stops another lawsuit to GTA4+, good.
I should mention, by the way, that personally I find the best theory to be a mix of creationism and evolution. I do believe things were set in motion, and quite possibly still closely knit by God rather than chance. I don't believe, however, that things just went "poof".
Personally, I'm of the growing believe that God and creationism is the "cause", with evolution and science as we know it as the "effect". I see no reason why creation has to be an instant process, taking place over millions and billions of years is merely fitting for the infinite grandeur of creation and God. One can simplify it down to Science, Math, Biology, all the sciences as we know them are the programming languages of life itself, with God being the programmer. Thankfully, we've been given the gift of being able to observe, understand, and use this language ourselves... to change our enviroments and to create... although we've only learned a tiny percent so far.
It seems as "foolish" as some might call me to assume that by the tiny bit of the sciences we've figured out so far, we can even assumptions about the universe itself. As this story shows, we're still puzzled over why we favor a hand. It's also a "foolish" to me to assume we know everything there is to know about God, unchanging and never wrong, especially based on theories from 2,000 years ago. Rather, if ya ask me, we should be gaining an increased understanding of faith as science gives us an increased understanding of ourselves.
"I was raised as a Catholic and am still a firm believer in creationism. I have no intention of starting a discussion about the religious issues here though. I am not a nut-job (at least, I don't think so) and I am not out to convince the world by the sword that my beliefs are right. -- Many Christian people are tolerant of others and will quite happily do their own thing in peace without harming or affecting anyone who does not hold to their beliefs. How does that make us nut-jobs?"
I'm in the same boat and agree with your post completely, but it comes down to this: People can be jerks and dead set in their ways. Just as the hardcore Christian right can be absolute jerks in their convincing the world by the sword they are right, the non believers can be and often are equally intolerant and dead set against anything they don't believe in as well.
I always find a good way to annoy an Atheist in an open minded debate is to challenge him that not believing is in itself a faith. Just as the be an "individual" punk/goth fad became being just like everyone else. If one truly knows of the world's religions and chooses not to follow them, then it's still a very specific choice. A very specific choice they can't deviate from one bit, or else they're no longer part of the club. They'll stick to this even if that means denying anything and everything "supernatual" that they can't explain, unless it meets with "their" proof, and sometimes even still long after that.
Sounds rather familiar to the Christian right, if you ask me. So, all one can really do I suppose is try to avoid provoking the extremists. Unless you're up for a debate, they're really not much fun to be around. The Christian right casts out open minded Christians as "false", while the stone cold Atheistis call us fools for having an open mind and strong faith. As you say, there's more of us out there than people think... we just don't go causing a fuss to show off everytime we get the chance.
This is Slashdot, though. Can't expect understanding here.
Thank you, some common sense.
You are correct, end of thread.
"how do you deal with your kids' computer use?"
I don't have kids, but if I did I wouldn't take my educational advice from The Christian Science Monitor, for one.
"I've never seen anyone actually get anything accomplished through watching TV. Unless you count "relaxing" for six hours a day to be an accomplishment."
:O a movie in realtime on IRC while simultaneously getting other things done in the background is comfort enough."
Funny, I never see anyone get anything useful done on Slashdot forums or IRC either, yet we willingly spend quite a good deal of time here. Your definition of "useful" is too slim. Watching the evening news is useful. Watching an educational program is useful. Heck, watching your favorite entertainment program is useful. Just because it's not interactive doesn't make it worthless.
"When I bother with movies these days, I watch them on my workstation. I could care less about comfort level- for me, the ability to critique and O_o and OMFG
And, no offense intended, here we see why Internet movie critic opinions are so easily discounted these days. People who have to "bother" to watch movies, barely pay any attention, and feel the need to complain about it on IRC in realtime.
"The only things I generally watch on TV nowadays are the news and movies. There are several reasons that I believe the Internet is more entertaining: Not to mention that TV shows are available in the Internet to view whenever the hell you want without commercials, but that should go without saying ;^)"
I really don't get why the two have to compete... I've got a digital cable, a cable modem, and a DVR. I watch programs when I want to watch them, without commercials. I can rewatch old series, catch the latest episodes, and etc.
Whenever I hear someone say "I don't watch TV, it's boring." I can only assume they can't be bothered to actually find something interesting and expect to just randomly channel surf into something great. About the same odds as typing generic words into Google and finding Slashdot on a regular basis.
You misspelled "typo".
It's rather nice to see a company embrace the humor at any rate. Heck, these days I'd almost except to see Hormel suing Python claiming they damaged the name or something equally ridiculous.
"Just my opinion, but I saw this with the advent of graphic-design software, where kids open up Photoshop without even thinking about hitting the sketch-book first." While I'm all for people learning the basics before the advanced, I'd just like to point out this is slightly flawed. Pencil and paper are fading, fast... you can sketch just fine in Photoshop. There's simply no reason to go through the extra step of using an unrelated medium, scanning it, etc when you can just start digital. The more folks tell me "art has to start with a pencil", the more I believe they need to learn the potential of a stylus.
In short, there's just no reason why Photoshop or any other art tool can't handle the "sketch" phase, with better results.
Yeah, that got pretty easy once my IQ hit around 600. Heck, I typed that whole post mentally.
I love ebooks for certain uses... especially when in plain text format so they can be used with my speed reader program on the Pocket PC. Zipping through a just-for-fun book at 600+ WPM and finishing it in one sitting beats the heck out of fooling with paper. I love Project Gutenberg.
Then there's the joy of having pretty much an entire library of books with you at any one time. I always have my Pocket PC with me on the go, so I always have my ebooks. Can't beat the convenience, especially if you have tools to easily search and highlight in the book. PDFs, although kinda unrelated, are amazingly great for students already overloaded with encyclopedia sized volumes of tech books.
That said, I also own multiple bookshelves worth of technical, educational, and entertainment books and buy more regularly. If it comes down to a book I actually have to buy, I buy it on paper. Maybe it's availablity of older books, maybe it's not paying attention to battery life, maybe it's being able to psychically flip the page... but despite practically living on digital information, I have to admit... if I have to buy it, I typically still want a tangible copy.
"IMHO, Valve solved the largest problem and my biggest gripe with 3D video games when they made a physics engine that wasn't so wonky it made me laugh."
http://havok.com/
http://havok.com/clients/valve.php
Havok physics is at the heart of the eagerly awaited Half Life 2 from Valve Software. Physics gameplay is considered one of the key new departures in the sequel and is an integral part of the game experience.
"Making a game with the complex physics interactions and physics gameplay of Half-Life(R) 2 is really hard - but it would have been impossible if we hadn't started with robust fundamental physics technology from Havok." Jay Stelly, Valve
"Havok has been working with Valve for almost three years to deliver breakthrough physical gameplay. Havok 2, launched at GDC 2003 incorporates all that we have learned from working with each other, particularly in the area of character control and ragdolls"
Dr. Steven Collins CTO, Havok
Can we please not give all the credit to Valve?
"MHO, Valve solved the largest problem and my biggest gripe with 3D video games when they made a physics engine that wasn't so wonky it made me laugh." Valve didn't make the physics, so far as I know. Valve made Source. Havok made the psychics engine. It's also used in Max Payne 2, Psi-Ops, PainKiller, and more.
Yes, a lot of changes were made and Source physics aren't just cookie cutter Havok code, but Valve keeps on getting credit for something folks should be singing the praises of Havok for. Havok, and it's proven cross-platform, cross-genre usages are way better than a single good FPS engine.
If I'm wrong, I'd be glad to hear the reasons why.
Somehow I sincerely doubt one could take a clip from a machine gun pumped into them, armor or no. It would probably break enough ribs or cause enough internal damage either way. Aside from that, I don't even consider armor a factor considering the massive blood stains that splatter the wall. Filing cabinet was merely an example. Feel free to replace with one of any number of objects... chairs, for example. But the point wasn't realism, the point was weapon balance. See, for example, the far overpowered magnum.
Just tried and ZoneAlarm does in fact get the job done. Dang... surely there's something out there, preferably free, as powerful that's more advanced than ZoneAlarm? It's a shame Sygate and Kerio both fail to make Steam give up.
Anyone had success with any others?
There is the issue that the game, for a vast amount of reasons, just wasn't very good.
Modders have better choices to work with.
Yes, "most firewalls" IE, Sygate and Kerio for example. Zonealarm is pretty solid, but it's complete lack of options I want bugs me.
Well heck, it's pointless fun but it seems to me weapon balance is just laughable. Folks can take more than a whole clip of the machine gun pumped into them, but whack em with a filing cabinet and they're out cold.
It's like Valve had a meeting...
"I think we need to add some weapon balance for the DM."
"Weapon balance? What's kind of physics is that?"
Oh well, still fun. Oh, and quick tip: Grenades + Grav gun = grenade launcher. Don't know why more folks don't make use of this. Drop a grenade in front of you with alt, pick it up with the grav and wait a few ticks, then launch it like a rocket. Or fling one waaay long at the people who think they can just run.