The thing is, Japanese is far easier to enter on a keypad phone than English, meaning short-cuts like you see in English are not required. In fact due to the predictive text software, using weird language slows down typing speeds. Predictive text software also works a lot better with Japanese than it does with English. Well used phrases and sentences can be reduced to just a few key-presses and the average word, around 3-7 key presses (~2 characters). The result is the ability to write a 30-50 character reply email, with decent grammar within 1 minute or so.
BTW that 25yrs age limit is way off-mark. The youngsters maybe faster than the rest of us, but everyone uses smiles, as well as a selection of graphical images available with the phone. I've even got them from my mother-in-law, who is way past the official retirement age.
Well a saw the 'like in Japan' phrase there somewhere. In Japan, we have a Nintendo PR channel, where you can view trailers, exclusive interviews and download demo games to your DS (Like at a Download Station). Looks like he just wants to port that to the US.
What I'd like to see, both in Japan and in the US is some way to download full games legally. Perhaps a 4-slot game card, where you can download to the Wii and keep any 4 games on the card.
Having access to the same technology and enforcing the use of the same technology are two different things.
What promotes the production of good and what underpins supply and demand is 'spare cash' (I'm sure there is a proper economic term for it, but I'm not sure what it is.). This is indeed a good thing. It is also a lot better for the economy if everyone has this, not just a select few.
The profit motive, means your motive is increase your individual wealth as much as possible. Even if it means decreasing the wealth of those around you. Decreasing the wealth of those around you harms the economy as the number of possible consumers decrease. Helping society as a motive does not prevent you from gaining individual wealth, you should just not do so at the expense of others.
I have WiiFit. It stipulates that you are not supposed to jump on the board, however it does simulate jumps in a number of the mini-games by crouch and stand up in rapid succession. In fact there is a mini-game included that resembles a very basic Tony Hawks game, so I'd say the possibility is definitely there.
Wii Fit is quite fun to play, even if you are not interested in keeping fit. There are 2 types of games, balance and exercise as well as a bunch of training programs and a way to view the statistics of all the users (but you can password-protect your Mii, so others can't view his statistics or sabotage your weight goals, etc). The balance games do not require much movement, but they can be quite hard. The exercise games and the physical training only provide light exercise and the yoga can get painful if you are not careful.
Overall I'd say it is surprisingly versatile and fits right in with Nintendo's 10-minutes-a-day games (ie Brain training, etc.) and in conjunction with a healthy diet can probably keep a health person nice and fit. But don't expect to use it to lose weight or anything that requires serious exercise.
I think your logic is faulty. The larger the gap between the rich and the poor, the worse off the economy is. While I am not an economist, one did explain it to me a while back. The smaller the gap between the rich and the poor, the healthier the economy gets. This has to do with the larger consumer base capable of buying goods, thus driving the economy. This theory can be backed up with both mathematical models and historical data.
As for communism, it's equality is fake. You can't have a forced equality system, because those enforcing the 'equality' are inherently unequal to those they are forcing to do their bidding. Hence communism is a two-tiered system.
As for socialism, it will work provided a large part of the population are productive, but you are right in that it does reward the lazy. As for capitalism, pure, unrestricted capitalism tends to run amok, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. This is why most 1st world countries have laws that restrict it and dilute it with social programs in an attempt to keep the entry barrier level and thus provide a means for the poor to breach the gap, keeping it smaller. In other words, a careful balance of both capitalism and socialism is better than either.
One last thing. The profit motive, which you seem to like so much is in fact the largest threat to an economy. Why? Because it leads to greed, which leads to corruption, both of which widen the gap between the rich and the poor. The best motive is for the growth and well-being of society and the human race. Materiel wealth should be a side-effect, not the goal. Unfortunately, until society as a whole realises this simple fact, no governing system or economic model will be as effective as it could be.
And that is where you are completely wrong. Sure the lack of service killed the cue cat, but that was because the lack of cue cats killed demand for the service.
The possibilities of the QR code are not limited to advertising either. You can encode ~4k bytes into a QR code. That is enough for quite a few purposes. Here in Japan almost every mobile phone has a scanner and the QR codes are everywhere. I have seen them encode links to web-sites on posters, address book entries (incl. photo) on business cards and more recently, virtual tickets.
So far, the virtual tickets are by far the coolest use I've seen. The QR code is sent to your phone via email or obtained from a web page. Then you display the QR code on your phone screen and the ticket inspector scans it. No more need to print out plane tickets, cinema tickets or any other form of Id really. I've even seen the system used with shoppers club cards.
There are probably many more uses for this that haven't been thought of yet.
Only boys who bring their adjustable seats can use them?
We have bicycles with adjustable seats for boys.
Hmm... So the bicycles have two seats? One for girls and one for boys, but the one for boys is adjustable?
Both of those sentences need commas to clarify the meaning. Of the two, the 1st one sounds nicer and feels more natural. Just don't forget the comma.:)
The fact that MS was willing to pay $240 million for 1.6% makes Facebook worth $15 billion, since a company (or anything for that matter) is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
The profit the company makes is just one of the factors that determines how much investors are willing to pay. Sometimes investors consider other factors more important. In this case MS decided that Facebook was worth $15 billion to them and since there is at least 1 investor willing to pay that much, that is what the company is worth.
Japan's internal network is actually quite fast. Things are only NATed because most people do not know how to set-up port forwarding on the router. I currently have fiber and while most things I download only reach ~ 600k, I suspect that in part due to my downloading them from the west (see below) and in part due to my 11Mbps wifi card.
The connection times to Europe do tend to suck a bit. EG it can take 5-10sec to connect via SSH to boxs in the UK an Russia. This is due to all connections being routed via the US. Not to say that the US backbone is slow, but when data has to travel 3/4 around the world and back, it'll take time.
The main reason I have IE installed is to make sure my sites work correctly under it. Stupid IE always has rendering problems. Some are due to non-standard compliance, others are just stupid. EG if in a xhtml document you have a <script.../> tag IE6 will only display the page background, but none of the contents. You have to write it in the html way <script.. ></script> for the contents to show. It has no problem with using the short-cut with any other tags though, only the script one. I hate IE.
Male dwarves with a beard that are wearing chain-mail are fine. Female dwarves with a beard that are wearing chain-main I also have no problem with. It's the female dwarves with a beard that are wearing chain-mail, a skirt and lipstick that make my head hurt.
kyuun kyuun kyuun kyuun watashi no kare ha pairotto kirari tette kyuu kouka goo to fukashi te kyuujoushou nagaku o o hiku hikoukigumo de ookina haato ga kasane te futatsu aoi oozora rabu sain I love you You love me ? dakedo kare ttara watashi yori jibun no hikouki ni o netsu na no kyuun kyuun kyuun kyuun watashi no kare ha pairotto
The 1st Gulf War was not a US waged war. It was called for by the UN and supported by the US, UK and most UN member countries.
The 2nd Gulf War was/is a US waged war with the support of whatever countries it could bully into supporting it.
Either way, the grandparent is wrong about the military being to blame for the current mess. The US military is under the direct control of the civilian government and follows their orders. If you're going to blame someone, do not blame the gun, blame the person who pulled the trigger.
On a different note: sometimes tyrannical despotism works better than an elected democratic government would. In order for a government to function it requires control over the people it governs, this can either be obtained via force (military, police, militia) or via trust. 1st world governments use trust and supplement it with a strictly limited amount of force to keep the unruly elements at bay. In Iraq's case, there are too many unruly elements to be kept back by a limited force and so it's a case of 'He who has more guns: wins'. Unfortunately, the Iraq government does not have more guns and thus cannot effectively govern it's people. Historically despots are far more likely to be able to obtain more guns in such situations, hence installing a despot might have been a better choice, than installing a democratic government.
"Hello? Is this the Daily Gazette? I'd like to report a story!" "There were five of them! Pink! Well, one was kinda yellow. I think it was a pot-bellied one." "What? No! Pigs! Outside my window!" "Maybe in a farm it ain't, but I live on the 10th floor in the City." "Yes, that's right! Flying pigs!" "The wings? White." "Yes, like an angels I guess." "What? No, I haven't been drinking..." "..or taking drugs." "Look I'm not kidding! There were 5 flying pigs outside my window Oinking at me!" "Hello? Hello?... A**hole!"
That is a load of bullshit. I'm not a Muslim (well technically I am, but only by the definition used in the Quran, not by the definition used in this conversation), but I have read the Quran and the quotes you provide are taken woefully out of context. The Quran is a philosophical and enlightening book and if you pay careful attention to the context, not violent either.
The fanatical lunatics who terrorise civilians and who drag the Prophet's Name, Peace be upon Him (although he probably ends up rolling in his grave every time they defile His name with their acts), through mud at every chance they get are no more faithful Muslims than the Spanish Inquisition were loving Christians.
Feel free not to take my word for it, but rather than visiting some anti-<insert religion here> site, go to the source and read their holy scriptures with an open mind. Also do not forget to bear in mind the time and place they were revealed, that help explain some of the more interesting laws.
As far as translations of the Quran go, I've been given to understand that George Sale's translation is very good.
And it still only has had two remote holes in the default install in more than 10 years. This isn't a remotely exploitable hole, it allows privilege escalation, which requires access to the system and thus is a local hole. It's still a whopper of a hole though...
I won't argue that theoretically it is possible for a process with more stages to be more efficient than one with less stages, but practically that is rarely the case. Take your example for instance, where you are comparing apples to pears. A more accurate comparison of the efficiency of the generation of electricity from the sun would take into account the fact that coal is produced over 1000s of years from plant life, which in turn obtained it's energy via photosynthesis from the sun. As such I suspect the 'direct' conversion of solar rays to electricity via solar panels is quite a bit more efficient than the sun->plant->coal->hydrogen->electricity route.
Slashdot Mirror
The thing is, Japanese is far easier to enter on a keypad phone than English, meaning short-cuts like you see in English are not required. In fact due to the predictive text software, using weird language slows down typing speeds. Predictive text software also works a lot better with Japanese than it does with English. Well used phrases and sentences can be reduced to just a few key-presses and the average word, around 3-7 key presses (~2 characters). The result is the ability to write a 30-50 character reply email, with decent grammar within 1 minute or so.
BTW that 25yrs age limit is way off-mark. The youngsters maybe faster than the rest of us, but everyone uses smiles, as well as a selection of graphical images available with the phone. I've even got them from my mother-in-law, who is way past the official retirement age.
Well a saw the 'like in Japan' phrase there somewhere. In Japan, we have a Nintendo PR channel, where you can view trailers, exclusive interviews and download demo games to your DS (Like at a Download Station). Looks like he just wants to port that to the US.
What I'd like to see, both in Japan and in the US is some way to download full games legally. Perhaps a 4-slot game card, where you can download to the Wii and keep any 4 games on the card.
Having access to the same technology and enforcing the use of the same technology are two different things.
What promotes the production of good and what underpins supply and demand is 'spare cash' (I'm sure there is a proper economic term for it, but I'm not sure what it is.). This is indeed a good thing. It is also a lot better for the economy if everyone has this, not just a select few.
The profit motive, means your motive is increase your individual wealth as much as possible. Even if it means decreasing the wealth of those around you. Decreasing the wealth of those around you harms the economy as the number of possible consumers decrease. Helping society as a motive does not prevent you from gaining individual wealth, you should just not do so at the expense of others.
I have WiiFit. It stipulates that you are not supposed to jump on the board, however it does simulate jumps in a number of the mini-games by crouch and stand up in rapid succession. In fact there is a mini-game included that resembles a very basic Tony Hawks game, so I'd say the possibility is definitely there.
Wii Fit is quite fun to play, even if you are not interested in keeping fit. There are 2 types of games, balance and exercise as well as a bunch of training programs and a way to view the statistics of all the users (but you can password-protect your Mii, so others can't view his statistics or sabotage your weight goals, etc). The balance games do not require much movement, but they can be quite hard. The exercise games and the physical training only provide light exercise and the yoga can get painful if you are not careful.
Overall I'd say it is surprisingly versatile and fits right in with Nintendo's 10-minutes-a-day games (ie Brain training, etc.) and in conjunction with a healthy diet can probably keep a health person nice and fit. But don't expect to use it to lose weight or anything that requires serious exercise.
I think your logic is faulty. The larger the gap between the rich and the poor, the worse off the economy is. While I am not an economist, one did explain it to me a while back. The smaller the gap between the rich and the poor, the healthier the economy gets. This has to do with the larger consumer base capable of buying goods, thus driving the economy. This theory can be backed up with both mathematical models and historical data.
As for communism, it's equality is fake. You can't have a forced equality system, because those enforcing the 'equality' are inherently unequal to those they are forcing to do their bidding. Hence communism is a two-tiered system.
As for socialism, it will work provided a large part of the population are productive, but you are right in that it does reward the lazy. As for capitalism, pure, unrestricted capitalism tends to run amok, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. This is why most 1st world countries have laws that restrict it and dilute it with social programs in an attempt to keep the entry barrier level and thus provide a means for the poor to breach the gap, keeping it smaller. In other words, a careful balance of both capitalism and socialism is better than either.
One last thing. The profit motive, which you seem to like so much is in fact the largest threat to an economy. Why? Because it leads to greed, which leads to corruption, both of which widen the gap between the rich and the poor. The best motive is for the growth and well-being of society and the human race. Materiel wealth should be a side-effect, not the goal. Unfortunately, until society as a whole realises this simple fact, no governing system or economic model will be as effective as it could be.
Oh good! An excuse to get NASA to send a mining expedition to the asteroid belt. Bound to be plenty out there.
And that is where you are completely wrong. Sure the lack of service killed the cue cat, but that was because the lack of cue cats killed demand for the service.
The possibilities of the QR code are not limited to advertising either. You can encode ~4k bytes into a QR code. That is enough for quite a few purposes. Here in Japan almost every mobile phone has a scanner and the QR codes are everywhere. I have seen them encode links to web-sites on posters, address book entries (incl. photo) on business cards and more recently, virtual tickets.
So far, the virtual tickets are by far the coolest use I've seen. The QR code is sent to your phone via email or obtained from a web page. Then you display the QR code on your phone screen and the ticket inspector scans it. No more need to print out plane tickets, cinema tickets or any other form of Id really. I've even seen the system used with shoppers club cards.
There are probably many more uses for this that haven't been thought of yet.
We have bicycles for boys with adjustable seats.
Only boys who bring their adjustable seats can use them?
We have bicycles with adjustable seats for boys.
Hmm... So the bicycles have two seats? One for girls and one for boys, but the one for boys is adjustable?
Both of those sentences need commas to clarify the meaning. Of the two, the 1st one sounds nicer and feels more natural. Just don't forget the comma. :)
Robots - The Salaryman of the Future!
Those and the grand-parent's commands are in reference to the following (I think):
apt-get help
(..)
This APT has Super Cow Powers.
apt-get moo
(ascii cow)
...."Have you mooed today?"...
Just watched them using Ubuntu 7.10 + Firefox 2.0.0.8.
The fact that MS was willing to pay $240 million for 1.6% makes Facebook worth $15 billion, since a company (or anything for that matter) is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
The profit the company makes is just one of the factors that determines how much investors are willing to pay. Sometimes investors consider other factors more important. In this case MS decided that Facebook was worth $15 billion to them and since there is at least 1 investor willing to pay that much, that is what the company is worth.
You must be new here.
^_^ or maybe I'm the one who's new and enjoyed reading it.
Japan's internal network is actually quite fast. Things are only NATed because most people do not know how to set-up port forwarding on the router. I currently have fiber and while most things I download only reach ~ 600k, I suspect that in part due to my downloading them from the west (see below) and in part due to my 11Mbps wifi card.
The connection times to Europe do tend to suck a bit. EG it can take 5-10sec to connect via SSH to boxs in the UK an Russia. This is due to all connections being routed via the US. Not to say that the US backbone is slow, but when data has to travel 3/4 around the world and back, it'll take time.
For those that are interested here are a few diagrams of my ISP/ISP backbone's infrastructure. Japanese only I'm afraid. http://www.plala.or.jp/support/network/backborn/index.html
The main reason I have IE installed is to make sure my sites work correctly under it. Stupid IE always has rendering problems. Some are due to non-standard compliance, others are just stupid. EG if in a xhtml document you have a <script ... /> tag IE6 will only display the page background, but none of the contents. You have to write it in the html way <script .. ></script> for the contents to show. It has no problem with using the short-cut with any other tags though, only the script one. I hate IE.
Pratchett dwarves are scary.
Male dwarves with a beard that are wearing chain-mail are fine. Female dwarves with a beard that are wearing chain-main I also have no problem with. It's the female dwarves with a beard that are wearing chain-mail, a skirt and lipstick that make my head hurt.
Pratchett is one sick dude...
There, fixed that for you.
Gamma-ray annihilation lasers!!! Oh yeah baby! Who says scientists can't think of cool names?!
And now the Japanese:
kyuun kyuun kyuun kyuun
watashi no kare ha pairotto
kirari tette kyuu kouka
goo to fukashi te kyuujoushou
nagaku o o hiku hikoukigumo de
ookina haato ga kasane te futatsu
aoi oozora rabu sain
I love you
You love me ?
dakedo kare ttara watashi yori
jibun no hikouki ni o netsu na no
kyuun kyuun kyuun kyuun
watashi no kare ha pairotto
The 1st Gulf War was not a US waged war. It was called for by the UN and supported by the US, UK and most UN member countries.
The 2nd Gulf War was/is a US waged war with the support of whatever countries it could bully into supporting it.
Either way, the grandparent is wrong about the military being to blame for the current mess. The US military is under the direct control of the civilian government and follows their orders. If you're going to blame someone, do not blame the gun, blame the person who pulled the trigger.
On a different note: sometimes tyrannical despotism works better than an elected democratic government would. In order for a government to function it requires control over the people it governs, this can either be obtained via force (military, police, militia) or via trust. 1st world governments use trust and supplement it with a strictly limited amount of force to keep the unruly elements at bay. In Iraq's case, there are too many unruly elements to be kept back by a limited force and so it's a case of 'He who has more guns: wins'. Unfortunately, the Iraq government does not have more guns and thus cannot effectively govern it's people. Historically despots are far more likely to be able to obtain more guns in such situations, hence installing a despot might have been a better choice, than installing a democratic government.
"Hello? Is this the Daily Gazette? I'd like to report a story!" ... A**hole!"
"There were five of them! Pink! Well, one was kinda yellow. I think it was a pot-bellied one."
"What? No! Pigs! Outside my window!"
"Maybe in a farm it ain't, but I live on the 10th floor in the City."
"Yes, that's right! Flying pigs!"
"The wings? White."
"Yes, like an angels I guess."
"What? No, I haven't been drinking..."
"..or taking drugs."
"Look I'm not kidding! There were 5 flying pigs outside my window Oinking at me!"
"Hello? Hello?
That is a load of bullshit. I'm not a Muslim (well technically I am, but only by the definition used in the Quran, not by the definition used in this conversation), but I have read the Quran and the quotes you provide are taken woefully out of context. The Quran is a philosophical and enlightening book and if you pay careful attention to the context, not violent either.
The fanatical lunatics who terrorise civilians and who drag the Prophet's Name, Peace be upon Him (although he probably ends up rolling in his grave every time they defile His name with their acts), through mud at every chance they get are no more faithful Muslims than the Spanish Inquisition were loving Christians.
Feel free not to take my word for it, but rather than visiting some anti-<insert religion here> site, go to the source and read their holy scriptures with an open mind. Also do not forget to bear in mind the time and place they were revealed, that help explain some of the more interesting laws.
As far as translations of the Quran go, I've been given to understand that George Sale's translation is very good.
And it still only has had two remote holes in the default install in more than 10 years. This isn't a remotely exploitable hole, it allows privilege escalation, which requires access to the system and thus is a local hole. It's still a whopper of a hole though...
I won't argue that theoretically it is possible for a process with more stages to be more efficient than one with less stages, but practically that is rarely the case. Take your example for instance, where you are comparing apples to pears. A more accurate comparison of the efficiency of the generation of electricity from the sun would take into account the fact that coal is produced over 1000s of years from plant life, which in turn obtained it's energy via photosynthesis from the sun. As such I suspect the 'direct' conversion of solar rays to electricity via solar panels is quite a bit more efficient than the sun->plant->coal->hydrogen->electricity route.
Considering the people writing the GPL3 are mostly lawyers, no, they don't.
And they can leave the Software writing to us Programmers, thank you.