I'm half-Japanese and spent two years there during the 90s. As well I travelled there to visit relatives. I speak the language well enough.
The funny thing is, people over there thought I had somehow this magical insight into the Japanese psyche. It was only experience.
The conditions you describe are slowly in the process of changing, however. My cousin and his wife came over a couple of years ago to tell of the economic crunch forcing many out of work. Unfortunately the prospect of change is scaring many Japanese when they should be embracing it.
I for one appreciated your contribution to Mandrake through KDE, and remembered that you'd been very helpful in forwarding a conversion list of RH to Debian to me once.
My point is that people tend to recall those things about former colleagues they liked -- why not approach MDK? If they are refocusing as you say, don't you think they'd be open to the possibility? Especially if their viewpoints are sympatico with yours.
I second the poster above who mentioned Ireland as a suitable location. Germany is also good, with a caveat (will get to that in a second).
Pretty much any EU country is a good choice as many employers are willing to give people a chance without formal technical qualifications. You may have those qualifications, so you may be in a stronger position compared to those going over without them.
The most important piece of advice I could offer would be to network, network, network in your area first. While the job boards are useful to get an idea of what kind of things employers are looking for, your chances of success drop as soon as the jobs are posted in comparison to what you could find on your own in your area. Locally, there is always going to be a smaller range of candidates competing for positions in your area than over the Internet.
Do you have any European languages other than English? If not, are you willing to learn? This will also increase your employability. Don't get me wrong, I know North Americans who have been able to get jobs in Europe without those other languages, but they've faced more of an uphill climb than multilingual candidates. Just keep in mind that companies are looking for well-rounded individuals who not only have the technical nous to do well but some degree of congeniality, openness and adaptability. Other languages, while not the only factor, are strongly indicative of a person's malleability.
Good luck and keep us posted! Your experiences will help others that follow you.
Too right. Not that Mandrake is by any means perfect, but their 'hackkernel' release under 7.2 (2.4.0test10, I think) had ECN enabled. Took me a couple of days to figure out why I couldn't get to some sites.
Now I have Mdk 8.0, with 2.4.3 by default, and ECN is not enabled. Get that author!!
Think about it theoretically. Switching to digital means greater efficiency in conceptual terms. The commercial aspects of this tie in closely to the efficiency argument - more stations can be crammed into the same part of the transmissible spectrum.
Will this mean better broadcasting? Eventually, yes. Coincidentally, this point is taken up by a Canadian columnist in this week's Saturday Night, a supplement of the National Post.
In real terms the argument loses some degree of force as a new, parallel digital network has to be created to take the place of the old -- in other words, the investment required is huge, and oriented to the long term view, not the short term. I believe your country's problems with this have been documented in issues of Wired but I'm having problems getting the link (search for 'Reed Hundt FCC') -- and the experiences in Canada, Japan and the UK are roughly the same.
I used to live in the UK, and at one point I recall reading about an American executive who'd been shipped along with his family to I think Edinburgh or Glasgow.
They made a specific point that while they felt privileged to have been chosen to go, they desperately wanted to take over a number of appliances to ensure they had a similar comfort level that they had experienced in America. Prime among these was a huge refrigerator with ice-makers and built-in water filters and so forth. They claimed it saved energy compared to the older technology used by 'the natives' (apologies in advance for telegraphing my point of view on this) -- but I distinctly recall they used US figures generated by their government's Department of Energy.
In other words, those figures couldn't be taken at face value as the studies themselves were predicated on appliances used and built to American standards, not European ones. Now, I know this might be comparing apples to oranges, but that's precisely what this family did, with nonsensical results: there is no way one fridge with all the bells and whistles is going to use less power than an older one without them. Unless you're talking about fridges vs meat lockers...
In contradiction to this point, Steve Jobs once said in an interview not long after he returned to Apple that his family wanted to buy a washing machine. So they looked into it and they discovered that a specific European model washed their clothes much more efficiently while using much less water -- the difference was in the length of time the machine used for its wash and rinse cycles. It was something like twice to three times as much as the equivalent US appliance. And it cost more, in the initial purchase price.
The interesting thing about it was that his family ended up debating the issue and others around it for some time before making the decision. You say that you agree total consumption will go up, but that it's beside the point, as well as natural. I think that it is an important and not irrelevant one. It's when we don't challenge these assumptions or debate them that we are in trouble.
What about the (possibly-anecdotal) evidence that suggests energy-saving appliances and cars are used more than the old sinkhole devices, thereby increasing total consumption? I can't recall all the specifics, but the Economist has talked about this, as well as other organs of both the left and right.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for things such as this. But the application of technology must consider implications of its use beyond the immediate short-term.
Oh fer fuck's sake, is there nothing that these mercantilist fucks won't attempt to charge us for? I am getting so sick of these corporate morons baldfacedly lying to our faces that we're so willing to engage in ripping them off, when all this shit indicates that it's the other way around.
This makes me want to spread warez and illegal MP3s as much as possible. Who do these arseholes think they are?
To what extent do you see OpenBSD using more graphical tools as part of the system and install? Newbies coming to Linux in the last year now have a range of handholding options that make security and other decisions on their behalf, often with little merit, along the lines of the 'let's keep it in line with the Windows-style experience'. Do you think OpenBSD should make any moves in this direction?
Today in the National Post there was an interesting interview with Courtney Love on the economics of the music industry, particularly with reference to Napster's and Gnutella's impact.
Subversiveness or selfishness, either way
on
Copyrant
·
· Score: 1
There are two options here. One is to use more free software. The other is 'commit piracy'.
If we view this as a choice, we've lost. The other thing to do is to just keep forking over money to Microsoft, and a certain percentage, even of Slashdot readers, is going to do that regardless. That's fine... but we all have two more options to consider.
To build. To steal.
Say it like this: 'we can choose to build or to steal.'
Doesn't sound half as appealing as 'we can choose to build *and* to steal'.
You are partially right in stating that the right to freedom of speech is the most directly abused one here on Slashdot as well as on the Internet more generally. But this is an anodyne statement to make when people refer to the Internet at all (anodyne only in the intent -- calling it raped is going a bit far, don't you think?).
What this judgement really illustrates is the balance French jurisprudence is seeing between freedom of speech and its aftereffects. No one seriously believes that collectors of these items are all closet Nazi freaks, hankering after a walk in the park with old Adolf (having met some of these collectors, I cannot lump them into the same category too easily). But what the French court is worried about, and with good reason, are those fascist-leaning bully boys with little in the way of brains and big on the use of fists.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I agree with the French on this at all. But this case reveals that the French judge who decided this thinks very little of their national customs service and their ability to control access to these items. It also puts the onus of restricting access to these items on Yahoo, and for that reason alone is completely unworkable. Consider their alternatives, though. The other options, such as instructing their customs people to open every single package destined for France from Yahoo, are just as impossible given resource constraints and cost the government more in a direct fashion. Getting to that stage socially is only possible with one of these legal moves, as impossible as it alone is.
... the linkage between what could be called public knowledge v those areas of knowledge that cannot so easily be described as 'private' communications. You're right in saying that crime statistics are one way of forming an opinion on say, deciding where to live.
What if we are talking about anecdotal information? It could be argued, as you have, that journalists of a certain type -- the majority -- are looking at this in the wrong way, because they are only considering what the best way of selling more papers could be amongst a number of options. 'Let's put this rape case on page seven' becomes 'let's feature it with a TV advert on channel 35, tying it in with our series on sex crimes this week'.
Would you say that anecdotal evidence is then to be avoided? What about what you hear from friends? Do you easily discount their opinions? Only if they come from what they read and listen to, as opposed to their direct experience?
I'm not so sure. I have a very unsettled feeling about this. At its core, this move is about the police 'redirecting' a conversation, one that is being impaired when yet another source -- no matter how discredited in your eyes -- yet another source of (mis)information is being manipulated by the powerful.
... which is, if even the compromised people charged with bringing the general population (ie., the 'media') can't get access to disturbing events occurring in the community, how the hell does any of us stand a realistic chance of getting enough information to form an opinion on the subject? Doesn't it worry you that the police as mentioned in the article would not comment on three separate incidents concerning bomb threats at high schools?
Forgive me for saying this, but anyone who claims that the police lack fear need only read this to become very frightened indeed. Fear, in the liability sense, seems to be what has motivated the enforcement authorities in this case.
And what happens when this meme starts to spread throughout the continent, as it already has -- witness Seattle, witness Davos.
And no, I'm not trying to troll. What I mean by this is, who cares about seeing reruns of the X-Files and 'sporting contests' that belie the word?
What about getting broadcasts from areas that have no hope of being seen over here? I'm thinking of BBC / C4 from the UK specifically.
What about the idea of DNA as a language?
on
RNA Computer
·
· Score: 1
If you think this is interesting, check out The Cosmic Serpent : DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby. My girlfriend gave me this for Christmas and I swear it was one of the most intriguing books I've read on DNA ever.
... mainly because they looked at the wrong precedents and loopholes. Since returning to Canada from Europe a few months ago, I've missed the quality programming that's been available in countries like the UK and the Netherlands. Both iCraveTV & the lawsuit appellants miss the point of having a service like this in the first place - that you can extend your reach beyond what is geographically possible using stereotypical analogue broadcast media.
Ideally it would be that people could just get on the Net and watch/listen (in **some** form) most of the world's television and radio stations - there would be cacophony, but there'd be at least some chance that people would really start to open their eyes a bit.
Bothered to check the website to see what the article actually says?
As far as other papers over in Blighty are concerned, give it a couple of days.
The Independent is located in London and is considered one of the weaker (circulation-wise) centrist/centre-left papers in the UK. Its main competition is the Guardian. Much of this has been covered in some considerable detail by the Guardian and its sister Sunday paper, the Observer. Other broadsheets, in ideological leanings increasing to the right-wing, are the Times, the Financial Times, and the Daily Telegraph (often called the Torygraph by wags). Tabloids include the Sun, the Mirror, and the Daily Star.
I'd embed the URLs in the above paragraph, but I reckon you can check that yourself.
Ever notice how 'libertarians' spout such incredible horseshit?
I personally would like to see libertarianism wrested back from the US rabid right. I'm so fucking sick of hearing how we need to liberalise everything under the sun. If these boys had their way they'd sell you the air you breathe, the water you drink... oh wait, that *is* what they do!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm half-Japanese and spent two years there during the 90s. As well I travelled there to visit relatives. I speak the language well enough.
The funny thing is, people over there thought I had somehow this magical insight into the Japanese psyche. It was only experience.
The conditions you describe are slowly in the process of changing, however. My cousin and his wife came over a couple of years ago to tell of the economic crunch forcing many out of work. Unfortunately the prospect of change is scaring many Japanese when they should be embracing it.
I am hopeful, though.
Just my two cents' worth.
FWIW, I bought a Nanya 64mb RAM SIMM (DIMM? Nah.) 3 years ago that is still going in a server I have running.
It didn't suck. It doesn't suck. I bought it when I lived in England, shipped it over and it's still serving up pages in Canada now.
Then again, I don't have a Gig of RAM, so I can't tell you how well it would scale...
I for one appreciated your contribution to Mandrake through KDE, and remembered that you'd been very helpful in forwarding a conversion list of RH to Debian to me once.
My point is that people tend to recall those things about former colleagues they liked -- why not approach MDK? If they are refocusing as you say, don't you think they'd be open to the possibility? Especially if their viewpoints are sympatico with yours.
Hi there
I second the poster above who mentioned Ireland as a suitable location. Germany is also good, with a caveat (will get to that in a second).
Pretty much any EU country is a good choice as many employers are willing to give people a chance without formal technical qualifications. You may have those qualifications, so you may be in a stronger position compared to those going over without them.
The most important piece of advice I could offer would be to network, network, network in your area first. While the job boards are useful to get an idea of what kind of things employers are looking for, your chances of success drop as soon as the jobs are posted in comparison to what you could find on your own in your area. Locally, there is always going to be a smaller range of candidates competing for positions in your area than over the Internet.
Do you have any European languages other than English? If not, are you willing to learn? This will also increase your employability. Don't get me wrong, I know North Americans who have been able to get jobs in Europe without those other languages, but they've faced more of an uphill climb than multilingual candidates. Just keep in mind that companies are looking for well-rounded individuals who not only have the technical nous to do well but some degree of congeniality, openness and adaptability. Other languages, while not the only factor, are strongly indicative of a person's malleability.
Good luck and keep us posted! Your experiences will help others that follow you.
Too right. Not that Mandrake is by any means perfect, but their 'hackkernel' release under 7.2 (2.4.0test10, I think) had ECN enabled. Took me a couple of days to figure out why I couldn't get to some sites. Now I have Mdk 8.0, with 2.4.3 by default, and ECN is not enabled. Get that author!!
Will this mean better broadcasting? Eventually, yes. Coincidentally, this point is taken up by a Canadian columnist in this week's Saturday Night, a supplement of the National Post.
In real terms the argument loses some degree of force as a new, parallel digital network has to be created to take the place of the old -- in other words, the investment required is huge, and oriented to the long term view, not the short term. I believe your country's problems with this have been documented in issues of Wired but I'm having problems getting the link (search for 'Reed Hundt FCC') -- and the experiences in Canada, Japan and the UK are roughly the same.
I used to live in the UK, and at one point I recall reading about an American executive who'd been shipped along with his family to I think Edinburgh or Glasgow.
They made a specific point that while they felt privileged to have been chosen to go, they desperately wanted to take over a number of appliances to ensure they had a similar comfort level that they had experienced in America. Prime among these was a huge refrigerator with ice-makers and built-in water filters and so forth. They claimed it saved energy compared to the older technology used by 'the natives' (apologies in advance for telegraphing my point of view on this) -- but I distinctly recall they used US figures generated by their government's Department of Energy.
In other words, those figures couldn't be taken at face value as the studies themselves were predicated on appliances used and built to American standards, not European ones. Now, I know this might be comparing apples to oranges, but that's precisely what this family did, with nonsensical results: there is no way one fridge with all the bells and whistles is going to use less power than an older one without them. Unless you're talking about fridges vs meat lockers...
In contradiction to this point, Steve Jobs once said in an interview not long after he returned to Apple that his family wanted to buy a washing machine. So they looked into it and they discovered that a specific European model washed their clothes much more efficiently while using much less water -- the difference was in the length of time the machine used for its wash and rinse cycles. It was something like twice to three times as much as the equivalent US appliance. And it cost more, in the initial purchase price.
The interesting thing about it was that his family ended up debating the issue and others around it for some time before making the decision. You say that you agree total consumption will go up, but that it's beside the point, as well as natural. I think that it is an important and not irrelevant one. It's when we don't challenge these assumptions or debate them that we are in trouble.
What about the (possibly-anecdotal) evidence that suggests energy-saving appliances and cars are used more than the old sinkhole devices, thereby increasing total consumption? I can't recall all the specifics, but the Economist has talked about this, as well as other organs of both the left and right. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for things such as this. But the application of technology must consider implications of its use beyond the immediate short-term.
(No pun intended of course)
To what extent do you see OpenBSD using more graphical tools as part of the system and install? Newbies coming to Linux in the last year now have a range of handholding options that make security and other decisions on their behalf, often with little merit, along the lines of the 'let's keep it in line with the Windows-style experience'. Do you think OpenBSD should make any moves in this direction?
Very much looking forward to ordering 2.8.
Slightly off-topic, but as of yesterday the Ontario Court of Appeal has just put Canada's pot law into limbo:
The National Post
Check this out. http://www.cryptoarchive.net/ftp.cryptoarchive.net /mirrors/ftp.cryptome.org/
LOL - great post, mate.
Figured I'd just leave the interview where it was, and I didn't have enough patience to dig out the actual link.
But thanks, I'll be a little sluttier next time!
Q: How dense is the movie industry?
A: So stupid that they'll take the one tool that would ensure their brands' success into the future and suppress it.
Honestly, given the way other 'creative industries' have buried their heads in the sand, how could anyone *want* these idiots to embrace the Net?
This could be the niche that explodes into a chasm.
Today in the National Post there was an interesting interview with Courtney Love on the economics of the music industry, particularly with reference to Napster's and Gnutella's impact.
There are two options here. One is to use more
free software. The other is 'commit piracy'.
If we view this as a choice, we've lost. The other
thing to do is to just keep forking over money to
Microsoft, and a certain percentage, even of
Slashdot readers, is going to do that regardless.
That's fine... but we all have two more options
to consider.
To build. To steal.
Say it like this: 'we can choose to build or to
steal.'
Doesn't sound half as appealing as 'we
can choose to build *and* to steal'.
I know how I feel about it.
-------
What this judgement really illustrates is the balance French jurisprudence is seeing between freedom of speech and its aftereffects. No one seriously believes that collectors of these items are all closet Nazi freaks, hankering after a walk in the park with old Adolf (having met some of these collectors, I cannot lump them into the same category too easily). But what the French court is worried about, and with good reason, are those fascist-leaning bully boys with little in the way of brains and big on the use of fists.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I agree with the French on this at all. But this case reveals that the French judge who decided this thinks very little of their national customs service and their ability to control access to these items. It also puts the onus of restricting access to these items on Yahoo, and for that reason alone is completely unworkable. Consider their alternatives, though. The other options, such as instructing their customs people to open every single package destined for France from Yahoo, are just as impossible given resource constraints and cost the government more in a direct fashion. Getting to that stage socially is only possible with one of these legal moves, as impossible as it alone is.
... the linkage between what could be called public knowledge v those areas of knowledge that cannot so easily be described as 'private' communications. You're right in saying that crime statistics are one way of forming an opinion on say, deciding where to live.
What if we are talking about anecdotal information? It could be argued, as you have, that journalists of a certain type -- the majority -- are looking at this in the wrong way, because they are only considering what the best way of selling more papers could be amongst a number of options. 'Let's put this rape case on page seven' becomes 'let's feature it with a TV advert on channel 35, tying it in with our series on sex crimes this week'.
Would you say that anecdotal evidence is then to be avoided? What about what you hear from friends? Do you easily discount their opinions? Only if they come from what they read and listen to, as opposed to their direct experience?
I'm not so sure. I have a very unsettled feeling about this. At its core, this move is about the police 'redirecting' a conversation, one that is being impaired when yet another source -- no matter how discredited in your eyes -- yet another source of (mis)information is being manipulated by the powerful.
... which is, if even the compromised people charged with bringing the general population (ie., the 'media') can't get access to disturbing events occurring in the community, how the hell does any of us stand a realistic chance of getting enough information to form an opinion on the subject? Doesn't it worry you that the police as mentioned in the article would not comment on three separate incidents concerning bomb threats at high schools?
Forgive me for saying this, but anyone who claims that the police lack fear need only read this to become very frightened indeed. Fear, in the liability sense, seems to be what has motivated the enforcement authorities in this case.
And what happens when this meme starts to spread throughout the continent, as it already has -- witness Seattle, witness Davos.
Jesus.
And no, I'm not trying to troll. What I mean by this is, who cares about seeing reruns of the X-Files and 'sporting contests' that belie the word?
What about getting broadcasts from areas that have no hope of being seen over here? I'm thinking of BBC / C4 from the UK specifically.
If you think this is interesting, check out The Cosmic Serpent : DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby. My girlfriend gave me this for Christmas and I swear it was one of the most intriguing books I've read on DNA ever.
... mainly because they looked at the wrong precedents and loopholes. Since returning to Canada from Europe a few months ago, I've missed the quality programming that's been available in countries like the UK and the Netherlands. Both iCraveTV & the lawsuit appellants miss the point of having a service like this in the first place - that you can extend your reach beyond what is geographically possible using stereotypical analogue broadcast media.
Ideally it would be that people could just get on the Net and watch/listen (in **some** form) most of the world's television and radio stations - there would be cacophony, but there'd be at least some chance that people would really start to open their eyes a bit.
That's Independent to you, mister.
Bothered to check the website to see what the article actually says?
As far as other papers over in Blighty are concerned, give it a couple of days.
The Independent is located in London and is considered one of the weaker (circulation-wise) centrist/centre-left papers in the UK. Its main competition is the Guardian. Much of this has been covered in some considerable detail by the Guardian and its sister Sunday paper, the Observer. Other broadsheets, in ideological leanings increasing to the right-wing, are the Times, the Financial Times, and the Daily Telegraph (often called the Torygraph by wags). Tabloids include the Sun, the Mirror, and the Daily Star.
I'd embed the URLs in the above paragraph, but I reckon you can check that yourself.
Ever notice how 'libertarians' spout such incredible horseshit?
I personally would like to see libertarianism wrested back from the US rabid right. I'm so fucking sick of hearing how we need to liberalise everything under the sun. If these boys had their way they'd sell you the air you breathe, the water you drink... oh wait, that *is* what they do!