Great, they've only been saying stuff like that for decades. We've been told everything from "we're going to have tiny nanobots crawling around our bodies repairing our organs" to "one day we will build computers out of sub-atomic particles". The fact is though that no one has even got close to achieving either. And until they do, this kind of lazy prediction is pointless. You might as well say "one day we'll all have time-machines". Maybe we will... But anyone can make that kind of speculation.
Right now, the difference between a 36 centimeter wingspan and the size of an insect (assuming they're talking common housefly type size) is HUGE. It's like comparing a Boeing 747 and a swan. But at the moment, building something with a 36 centimeter wingspan that flies is hardly impressive. I've been doing that with folded paper since I was a kid.
I would imagine there must be something smart or unique about this algorithm, or given the number of brains Google employ would have implemented it themselves rather than buying the guy out.
I like his initiative though. I wonder if he looked around at the current marketplace and thought "hmmm... so I gotta few years to research something... Google's looking pretty hot right now... why not build something I can sell them the end of it?". If he did, he's smarter than the average bear.
Actually I did a similar thing during my undergraduate degree in the early-mid 90s. I designed a very early back-end/database for a generic web-based online store. About 2 weeks into my project I got a call from a big record company (who apparently had heard about my work) and they bought it, despite it being mainly on paper at that point. I won't say who it was, I ended up working for them for a short time after I graduated, and as far as I'm aware, their site still uses the core of my code.
Personally I think a Microsoft buyout of Sony would be the best thing that could happen to Nintendo. Their credability and brand identity would really stand out as the only alternative to the Microsony behemoth instead of their current weak third position in western markets (obviously I'm talking consoles, not handhelds).
Before you make patronising remarks, check you actually know what you're talking about. Speaking as an Englishman (you know, one of those guys from the "home of the English language"), I can assure you that 'red ink' is in very common usage. Just because it doesn't describe the process you mistakenly thought it did, doesn't mean it's wrong. The term "in the red" shares the same etymology.
Apart from the fact that I disagree with almost everything you say, you're spot on.
I'm a second grade tutor in a Japanese Junior High School in Hokkaido, but I am originally from the UK. I am exactly the same as all the other Japanese teachers in the school except for the fact that I have a different nationality. All of my work, meetings, communications and everything I do daily is in Japanese (I'm the only non-Japanese staff in the school). 5 years ago, I barely knew a word. Now I work in an entirely Japanese environment.
Let's start with Kanji. I believe 5 year-olds in Japan average about 500 of these
Firstly, take it from me (as a professional educator), most 5 year olds do not know 500 kanji. In fact none do. I'd love to know where you got that figure from. Japanese children are taught approximately 80 kanji in 1st grade Elementary School (about 6 years old). At 5 years old they are still struggling to learn Kana.
You need to know A: the somewhat random symbol,
You really don't know anything about the language do you? Kanji are not "somewhat random symbol[s]". Common kanji generally contain 1 or more basic elements known in English as 'radicals' of which there are 214, which themselves have their own meanings. This also has the advantage of providing a basic method for sorting kanji (for example in a dictionary). If you don't believe me, take a closer look at a page of kanji and you'll start to notice that a lot of the characters contain similar looking parts.
B: the stroke order (Very important!)
Yes, there is a school of thought that says stroke order is important, and yes Japanese students are taught stroke order. But then there is also a popular TV quiz show in Japan where adult contestants have to identify the stroke order of (fairly common) kanji. At a rough guesstimate they get it wrong about 25% of the time. Stroke order is only VERY important in Japanese calligraphy, which is a different issue altogether.
How many years until you can chat with a kindergartener.
Study every day for an hour or more, and you'll be able to hold quite a decent little conversation with a kiddie within 6 months or so.
And forget reading newspapers
Oh, ok. Maybe I should cancel my daily delivery then.
don't be foolish and think one kanji equals one thing.
Go find yourself a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary and look up the word "set". You'll find it has 126 different definitions. Japanese is hardly unique in having its characters take on more than one meaning.
Ok, how about saying hello? Thankfully, there is only about a dozen ways of doing this, depending upon if the person you're talking to is high above you, above you, at your level, below you, or really below you. Of course, there are variants for if there is a big age gap, or you're related, or you're a girl. Or any of a million other variants.
There are basically main 3 speaking forms (or levels of respect if you like) in Japanese, not "millions of variants". Teineigo, sonkeigo and kenjo~go, as well as a basic plain form. As a non-native speaker, you won't be expected to use anything more than teineigo. While it's certainly more complex than English, it's attainable with a little study. As for a dozen ways of saying hello, 99.99% of the time you'll be using just 3 different words (the ubiquitous ohayo~(gozaimasu), konnichiwa and konbanwa) to anyone you meet, regardless of rank or status. Just think about English for a moment - Hey, Hello, Hi, What's Up?, How's It Going?, Yo! well... I could go on, but you can quickly see just how many different greeting forms we have, without even taking into account whether we're being polite or not.
You also have to accept the fact that you will never speak well, you will never read a newspaper correctly
That would be why I meet numerous foreigners every week who speak excellent Japanese then. Making a blanket statement like "y
From the article: Minutes ago, a pictogram flashed up at me on a video monitor. Now I have to match it to one of a dozen symbols on a column between the two doors.
When was the last time someone breaking out of prision had to match a pictogram on a monitor against a bunch of symbols on a column in order to open a door?
It might be mildly entertaining, but I want realism. If there are going to be puzzles, I want a storyline where there's a genuine reason for them to exist. Not just because they had to come up with an unrealisitc mini-game to slow me down, or give me something to do to progress. For me this 'solve a puzzle and move onto the next room' concept falls flat when it comes to total immersion or suspension of disbelief.
I used to play Phantasy Star Online with my wife. We just played as a single character. She's Japanese, so when we went onto the JP servers, she did the chit-chat and I did the killing.
John Howard is a fully paid up member of the "Coalition of the Willing". Bush's buddies, hellbent on "bringing democracy to Iraq" whilst simultaneously removing any trace of it from their own countries.
From the article: Hilariously mutton-chopped space wurzel Professor Colin Pillinger - of Beagle 2 infamy
Damnit... I've just revealed I was covertly surfing on my laptop during an extremely boring meeting, by screeching with laughter at that line. That's one of the funniest things I've read in months.
I think you're reading too much into what I was saying. You think I'm not aware of that? I'm not a complete idiot. There's always someone available of Slashdot to point out what they think you don't know, rather than what you don't know.
How many more times are companies going to "accidentally" place documents about future products/services on public web servers, where someone just happens to stumble on them. They're making a laughing stock of all the sites (like Slashdot for example) that thrive on the rumormill, to do their market research for them. It's happening too often these days.
I have 1 Gigabit just for a single laptop in my apartment (in Japan).
Mind you, not that I ever really get to use it. My PC can't manage more than about 5% utilization before it starts thrashing its disk and grinding to a halt. P2P takes on a whole new dimension when you can download an entire divx'd DVD in 5 minutes.
And exactly how many Christians utter the word with the sentiment it deserves? Not that many I would suggest. In my experience it's just used as a handy way to sign off at the end of a prayer. Most people don't give it a second thought, let alone sincerity or sentiment.
Personally I'm in Sapporo. I have an AU Win 32H myself. It's about 1 generation back in terms of capability, but it does everything I need, and it does a pretty decent job of browsing Slashdot every morning on the way to work. Got it for 1 yen about 6 months ago. But it wasn't a end of line offer -at the time it was state of the art with a price tag of about 35,000. But AU were running an offer and so I got it basically free because my wife happens to already be a subscriber. Another good example of how KDDI is pulling in new customers.
Over the years I've owned 1 J-Phone, 1 Vodafone, 2 DoCoMos and 1 AU. Granted the AU is the most recent, but in terms of reception, price plan and call clarity, AU has beaten everyone else hands down, and unless something changes, I'm likely to be a repeat customer.
Personally I think it's a little ridiculous that Vodafone is giving up so easily. You don't walk out on the world's second biggest economy without a good reason. Especially when you're in a solid unchallenged number 3 position. It's not like they've been beaten out of sight (like XBox for example). This is just another example of executives putting short-term share price before long-term strategic thinking.
If Vodafone ever want to get back into Japan it'll cost them a small (actually make that 'large') fortune. Yet again a tiny minority of analysts, traders and other pigs feeding from the city trough, exert enough influence to force a major change of direction from the management of an otherwise fairly well run corporation.
Slashdot Mirror
Great, they've only been saying stuff like that for decades. We've been told everything from "we're going to have tiny nanobots crawling around our bodies repairing our organs" to "one day we will build computers out of sub-atomic particles". The fact is though that no one has even got close to achieving either. And until they do, this kind of lazy prediction is pointless. You might as well say "one day we'll all have time-machines". Maybe we will... But anyone can make that kind of speculation.
Right now, the difference between a 36 centimeter wingspan and the size of an insect (assuming they're talking common housefly type size) is HUGE. It's like comparing a Boeing 747 and a swan. But at the moment, building something with a 36 centimeter wingspan that flies is hardly impressive. I've been doing that with folded paper since I was a kid.
I like his initiative though. I wonder if he looked around at the current marketplace and thought "hmmm... so I gotta few years to research something... Google's looking pretty hot right now... why not build something I can sell them the end of it?". If he did, he's smarter than the average bear.
Actually I did a similar thing during my undergraduate degree in the early-mid 90s. I designed a very early back-end/database for a generic web-based online store. About 2 weeks into my project I got a call from a big record company (who apparently had heard about my work) and they bought it, despite it being mainly on paper at that point. I won't say who it was, I ended up working for them for a short time after I graduated, and as far as I'm aware, their site still uses the core of my code.
Personally I think a Microsoft buyout of Sony would be the best thing that could happen to Nintendo. Their credability and brand identity would really stand out as the only alternative to the Microsony behemoth instead of their current weak third position in western markets (obviously I'm talking consoles, not handhelds).
Before you make patronising remarks, check you actually know what you're talking about. Speaking as an Englishman (you know, one of those guys from the "home of the English language"), I can assure you that 'red ink' is in very common usage. Just because it doesn't describe the process you mistakenly thought it did, doesn't mean it's wrong. The term "in the red" shares the same etymology.
I'm a second grade tutor in a Japanese Junior High School in Hokkaido, but I am originally from the UK. I am exactly the same as all the other Japanese teachers in the school except for the fact that I have a different nationality. All of my work, meetings, communications and everything I do daily is in Japanese (I'm the only non-Japanese staff in the school). 5 years ago, I barely knew a word. Now I work in an entirely Japanese environment.
Let's start with Kanji. I believe 5 year-olds in Japan average about 500 of these
Firstly, take it from me (as a professional educator), most 5 year olds do not know 500 kanji. In fact none do. I'd love to know where you got that figure from. Japanese children are taught approximately 80 kanji in 1st grade Elementary School (about 6 years old). At 5 years old they are still struggling to learn Kana.
You need to know A: the somewhat random symbol,
You really don't know anything about the language do you? Kanji are not "somewhat random symbol[s]". Common kanji generally contain 1 or more basic elements known in English as 'radicals' of which there are 214, which themselves have their own meanings. This also has the advantage of providing a basic method for sorting kanji (for example in a dictionary). If you don't believe me, take a closer look at a page of kanji and you'll start to notice that a lot of the characters contain similar looking parts.
B: the stroke order (Very important!)
Yes, there is a school of thought that says stroke order is important, and yes Japanese students are taught stroke order. But then there is also a popular TV quiz show in Japan where adult contestants have to identify the stroke order of (fairly common) kanji. At a rough guesstimate they get it wrong about 25% of the time. Stroke order is only VERY important in Japanese calligraphy, which is a different issue altogether.
How many years until you can chat with a kindergartener.
Study every day for an hour or more, and you'll be able to hold quite a decent little conversation with a kiddie within 6 months or so.
And forget reading newspapers
Oh, ok. Maybe I should cancel my daily delivery then.
don't be foolish and think one kanji equals one thing.
Go find yourself a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary and look up the word "set". You'll find it has 126 different definitions. Japanese is hardly unique in having its characters take on more than one meaning.
Ok, how about saying hello? Thankfully, there is only about a dozen ways of doing this, depending upon if the person you're talking to is high above you, above you, at your level, below you, or really below you. Of course, there are variants for if there is a big age gap, or you're related, or you're a girl. Or any of a million other variants.
There are basically main 3 speaking forms (or levels of respect if you like) in Japanese, not "millions of variants". Teineigo, sonkeigo and kenjo~go, as well as a basic plain form. As a non-native speaker, you won't be expected to use anything more than teineigo. While it's certainly more complex than English, it's attainable with a little study. As for a dozen ways of saying hello, 99.99% of the time you'll be using just 3 different words (the ubiquitous ohayo~(gozaimasu), konnichiwa and konbanwa) to anyone you meet, regardless of rank or status. Just think about English for a moment - Hey, Hello, Hi, What's Up?, How's It Going?, Yo! well... I could go on, but you can quickly see just how many different greeting forms we have, without even taking into account whether we're being polite or not.
You also have to accept the fact that you will never speak well, you will never read a newspaper correctly
That would be why I meet numerous foreigners every week who speak excellent Japanese then. Making a blanket statement like "y
What do you expect when it was invented by a former Democrat Vice-President...?
4. Alignment buttons don't work. The left-align button remains indented whatever other button you press.
I saw them, then didn't and now I see them again. Beats me...
I think we need photos (preferably large and detailed) so we can judge for ourselves whether she was doing anything worthy of getting canned...
When was the last time someone breaking out of prision had to match a pictogram on a monitor against a bunch of symbols on a column in order to open a door?
It might be mildly entertaining, but I want realism. If there are going to be puzzles, I want a storyline where there's a genuine reason for them to exist. Not just because they had to come up with an unrealisitc mini-game to slow me down, or give me something to do to progress. For me this 'solve a puzzle and move onto the next room' concept falls flat when it comes to total immersion or suspension of disbelief.
or now, they're getting laptops, teach him how to phish...
I used to play Phantasy Star Online with my wife. We just played as a single character. She's Japanese, so when we went onto the JP servers, she did the chit-chat and I did the killing.
John Howard is a fully paid up member of the "Coalition of the Willing". Bush's buddies, hellbent on "bringing democracy to Iraq" whilst simultaneously removing any trace of it from their own countries.
To be fair, I suspect the Parent is not the only person reading this news who feels something strange around his gut area.
Damnit... I've just revealed I was covertly surfing on my laptop during an extremely boring meeting, by screeching with laughter at that line. That's one of the funniest things I've read in months.
I think I'm going patent the concept of "using money to pay for things". Based on the patent office's track record, I could clean up.
You already can... http://allofmp3.com/
I think you're reading too much into what I was saying. You think I'm not aware of that? I'm not a complete idiot. There's always someone available of Slashdot to point out what they think you don't know, rather than what you don't know.
I never said that was the case. My point was about my neighbors, not my ISP and their infrastructure.
How many more times are companies going to "accidentally" place documents about future products/services on public web servers, where someone just happens to stumble on them. They're making a laughing stock of all the sites (like Slashdot for example) that thrive on the rumormill, to do their market research for them. It's happening too often these days.
They cabled the street with new fiber just for me, so I don't think many of my neighbors are using my line right now.
I have 1 Gigabit just for a single laptop in my apartment (in Japan). Mind you, not that I ever really get to use it. My PC can't manage more than about 5% utilization before it starts thrashing its disk and grinding to a halt. P2P takes on a whole new dimension when you can download an entire divx'd DVD in 5 minutes.
And exactly how many Christians utter the word with the sentiment it deserves? Not that many I would suggest. In my experience it's just used as a handy way to sign off at the end of a prayer. Most people don't give it a second thought, let alone sincerity or sentiment.
Over the years I've owned 1 J-Phone, 1 Vodafone, 2 DoCoMos and 1 AU. Granted the AU is the most recent, but in terms of reception, price plan and call clarity, AU has beaten everyone else hands down, and unless something changes, I'm likely to be a repeat customer.
Personally I think it's a little ridiculous that Vodafone is giving up so easily. You don't walk out on the world's second biggest economy without a good reason. Especially when you're in a solid unchallenged number 3 position. It's not like they've been beaten out of sight (like XBox for example). This is just another example of executives putting short-term share price before long-term strategic thinking.
If Vodafone ever want to get back into Japan it'll cost them a small (actually make that 'large') fortune. Yet again a tiny minority of analysts, traders and other pigs feeding from the city trough, exert enough influence to force a major change of direction from the management of an otherwise fairly well run corporation.
Disgraceful... Her Majesty would never use a vulgar expression like "rack". Off to the tower with you.