That photo looks a LOT like offices in Japan. The staffrooms for the schools I work at all consist of a bunch of metal desks pushed together. Personal stuff doesn't tend to leak over because everyone has their "own desk", but the other problems you mentioned do exist. It's noisy, and I have trouble getting anything done because someone is always looking over my shoulder, walking behind me, or having a discussion at the next desk.
Pro: -The boss can watch everyone! Counterpoint: -Employees always feel like they must look busy, and will often do so even at the expense of doing real work. If it's true that "a watched pot never boils", I think it's even more true that "a watched employee never works".
Pro: -When you need to bother someone with a question, it's easy to find them. Counterpoints: -It's easy to be interrupted and bothered with questions. -People (including bosses) tend to walk by with their own issues and interrupt two people in the middle of a work discussion. There's no concept of "These two people are having a private meeting so I'll leave him a note", rather "These two people are chatting in a common room and I can interrupt one of them with my trivial matter". The difference is subtle but important.
Pro: -It's easy to walk/lean over and ask a quick question. Counterpoint: -When I'm working I tune everyone and everything out. In a cubicle or office, I "wake up" and listen when someone enters my area. But in a workplace with no clearly defined personal space, I must ignore people standing right next to me to get the simplest task done. This results in many people thinking they've communicated something to me when in reality they've just talked AT me.
Pro: -No need for a separate meeting room; just hold meetings where everyone is at their desk! Counterpoints: -A meeting just happened at your desk, whether you need to be there or not. -Many people just continue their work, ignoring the meeting. -Often a meeting starts without me realizing it. (Refer to "tuning out" above.)
Basically having your own space, however small, means that you can feel free to define rules for that space. For example: "I'm working on something, so leave immediately." Or "I think looking at piles of paperwork is distracting, so this area is clean." Or even "I ignore everything that happens outside this area."
'mandated' was your word. Not mine. SORRY? What did I miss?
I said "car inspections at intervals designated by the manufacturer and (ahem) backed by the govt." You simply echoed/confirmed what I said...thanks. The 'ahem' directed at the Japanese govt. can be taken as 'pushed'...similar as your 'mandated', no? This one belongs in the 'right' block, as long as you're keeping score. And again, thanks for backing me up:)
Yikes, didn't mean to flame ya. Sorry, you're right, I came off as an ass. I misstated the first point. What I meant to say was the 3 and 2 system isn't designated by the manufacturer, that's a national law... of course, they DO designate things like timing chain replacement, recommended oil changes, etc. Just like any other manufacturer. It is a scam, of course. I see lots of folks getting bilked out of cash because they get a dishonest guy who says something like "Oh yeah, your blinker fluid needs replacing, wink wink". I'm sure the manufacturers at least support that law-- hey, nothing like forced obsolescence to get people to buy new cars!
There's also a hell of a lot of people who come from overseas and get sold a car which might go for a respectable price back home but has a month or no shaken left on it, when in reality they'll have to either pay to junk it or pay twenty man to make it legal. I hate that, and try to inform folks as best I can before they get here, but there's also caveat emptor.
I'm hinting that what is really at work in this example, is typical Japanese logic. They can't resist folding it back on itself. If their cars were as good as they claim (the best!!??!!), the correct application of (Japanese) manufacturer 'pride' and emphasis on quality would be to play down the need for maintanance. "This car is so good, there is no hood to open. No service needed - ever."
But what we see in practice is just the opposite (self-effacement), with the govt. getting involved and pushing their agenda, which is "Do all this inspecting, opne-hooded, safety/green stuff because we say so and it is our job to say so!" A prime example of a Japanese Catch-22 if ever I saw one. And... If you really were the expert you hint at, you'd have noted that.
I won't dispute the authoritarianism and bureaucracy of the govt here, I can't tell you how many times I've been on the wrong end of it. (See fingerprinting fiasco.) Believe me, I'm no apologist. A lot of the time they're acting out of tradition, a lot of times the latent xenophobia/national superiority complex is involved. In this case I think they do have a point, cars do rust and brakes do wear down, and there should be a periodic inspection system in place. I'm sure it's not entirely altruistic, there's pressure from the car companies because they see lots of cash from it. I just wish the damn govt didn't charge me so much.
I'm no expert, just a guy who's lived in the inaka for awhile, maybe too long. Maybe it's getting to me. Sorry if I came off wrong.
Wow. This is gonna be modded offtopic, but it needs to be said. Some of your post is accurate, but some of it is misguided. Mainly, Tokyo is not Japan.
The right:
The stuff about license requirements is spot on. The racket surrounding license centers is annoying at best but mostly outrageous. Basically everyone pays a couple thousand bucks to a driving school to take courses for several months, after which you have as many chances to take the "test" at the driving school as you want, several times per day, and any day you want. Of course, the real test held at the government license center is harder, held only on weekday mornings if you're lucky, and the "rules" of the test bear no relation to actual driving. Don't get me started on the oogata bike test. That thing is even more of a swindle.
You are correct that the roads are not safer. In fact, almost none of the roads have reflective markers for rainy conditions. No "cat's eyes", no Botts' dots. Drivers do not switch their headlights on in fog or rain or snow; I had three or four drivers actually flash their brights at me on Sado island for driving in a rainstorm with my headlights on last weekend! People here often stop in the middle of the road to answer a phone call, often on a blind curve. Ah, but at least they're not driving while talking on a phone... I guess their abysmally low speed limits are an attempt to make up for these deficiencies.
The road system is set up to be a big cash cow for the government. You are correct in that aspect.
The wrong:
The shaken inspections aren't mandated by the manufacturers, they're mandated by the government: after 3 years for a new car and every 2 years after that. Unlike US car inspections, they check more than just emissions: brakes, suspension, tires, transmission, all the lights, seat belts, and steering are among the things tested. The inspection itself winds up costing about 10000 yen plus any repairs, but you also pay taxes for two years at the same time, which is why it's so expensive. If you know a reputable repairman, the repairs will not cost that much. My guy gives me a loaner car while he's working on mine, no charge. Alternatively, you can do the fixes yourself and take the car in for inspection on your own time if you can get the time off work, which saves a bit of cash if you're handy. I do think this helps keep unroadworthy cars off the streets, and in that way helps safety... but it does cost an arm and a leg. You do have a choice: if it's too expensive to fix the car up to snuff, you scrap it. Part of owning a car means making sure it's not an accident waiting to happen.
Proof of parking space is only required in big cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, basically any metro area. If you live outside those areas you don't need proof of parking. And there are plenty of car dealerships outside Tokyo where you can walk in, pick out and buy a car from the lot, and have it delivered to you or pick it up within a few days (after they fabricate the plates, no temporary tags here). If you haven't seen them, it's because you haven't been outside big cities.
Maximum expressway speed is 100kph outside cities on multiple lane highways. Where I live, congestion is rare because the expressways are only used for long trips. In clear dry weather most vehicles cruise between 100 and 120. If you live in Tokyo, don't get a car to drive to work every day, because you're right, the highways can't support that many people. But the only speed enforcement is fixed cameras and the rare patrol car (and there are unmarked cars as well, so be careful). Thankfully, almost everyone is courteous enough to pull over when they're not passing. I've seen a couple folks taking stretches in excess of 150kph on twisty road, and the rest of traffic just moves over to let them go. Assuming they have the space. But unfortunately the roads are not banked for the speeds their surfaces and widths support. And they are extremely overpriced.
Some people eat because they are sad- some were raised and trained on bad food- some were never trained to enjoy physical activity.
I think this is a really good point, especially the last one. I've never really been overweight, but neither was I ever much for physical activity in school. For a long time I had a mental association between physical activity, sports, and the asshole/bully types in elementary and middle school. I hated competitive sports because I've never been any good at them, and I associated sports with testosterone-laden assholes. And let's face it, it sucks to lose all the time or be picked last all the time. So I found various ways to write off exercise altogether in a nice self-reinforcing mindset. But at one point, I just decided, "I want to look good." Kinda like Kevin Spacey's revelation in American Beauty.
Breaking those mental barriers down took a lot of effort and a long time. I started by breaking the link between physical activity and sports. I found a good gym and went in with the attitude that I wasn't competing with anyone else in there, and as it turned out everyone else was, in fact, worried more about their own exercise than comparing themselves with me. I learned from my uncle how to use the machines properly. I kept a notebook in which I had a rigid schedule, 4 days a week, and the types of exercises to do (which varied, some days I did pulling and others I did pushing exercises). I also tallied the amount of weight I had set the machines to, more to keep myself from forgetting and setting it incorrectly: I set it such that I could do 8-10 reps without letting the weights down, then a 30 second break, three times in a row. I didn't spend a long time in the gym each day, just 12 minutes on a stationary cycle to get my heart rate up and then about 20 minutes of whatever the book said to do. And I told myself I'd keep to it for at least two months.
It didn't happen overnight, it was hard work, and the first couple weeks I felt sore as hell, but the amount of weight I set the machine to doubled over the span of those two months. I felt great, stronger, somehow more physically confident, and I actually started to look pretty good too. But the biggest hurdle for me was working through the (apparently irrational) fear that others would mock me, breaking those mental blocks and stepping through the doors of the gym the first couple weeks. I'm still not going back to the abuse of competitive sports, I've decided that's not for me, but the self-competitive power-leveling nature of the gym seems to fit. And contrary to my brain's association, despite all that exercise, I have not turned into a testosterone-laden jock.
Japan is about image, and showing that you are respecting the group consensus. Japan is not about actually making something foolproof.
See also the new foreigner fingerprinting measures going into effect this month. The fingerprinting and storage of those fingerprints has nothing to do with preventing terrorist attacks. It's about presenting an image to reactionary domestic groups and to the United States. The fact that it's going to have a negative impact on their tourist industry hasn't hit them for some reason. Japan has security theater down to an art form.
Incorrect. By default it DOES in fact let someone else pick up a second wiimote and jump right in while someone else is playing, no special configuration required and no special levels. For super jumps the cursor has to be pointed right at Mario to super jump, and right at an enemy to freeze it (when the camera moves, player 2 has to follow the enemy or it becomes unfrozen). Sorry, but unless you have three hands nobody is going to be cheating on this one. And some enemies, such as thwomps and bosses, can't be frozen, so it's a gimmick of limited utility anyway. The real power players will be doing perfect 90 degree turn side jumps, crazy long jumps that take them across the level, and avoiding or killing every enemy regardless. Expect to see some crazy speedrun videos on YouTube.
I bought it the day it came out here in Japan and have played through about 100 stars so far. About half of those were with a friend in the room assisting. It works so well because the assist doesn't make it game-breakingly easy and it's never necessary to have the assists, but it still makes a big difference to have someone helping out on some of the levels. The purple coin challenge for one later level comes to mind, where cannonballs are being shot out at Mario while he's standing on a moving platform and trying to collect special coins. Player 2 can freeze the cannonballs as they come out-- when done correctly it makes the level a bit easier but still very challenging, but if the projectiles are frozen at the wrong time it actually makes the level HARDER. What I do like about it is how I can invite people over to play who may not be very good at 3D platformers, and make the game a little bit easier for them (and thus a bit more fun). I think it also offsets the anxiety of having other people watch you play, and laughing at your screw-ups. That's really intimidating for many people.
What I think Miyamoto was saying was that his team developed a form of co-op that doesn't change the core mechanics of the game. You don't have two players running around the screen, fighting over the camera and interfering with each other, but they're still working together and playing the same game. That deserves quite a bit of praise, because in practice it really works quite well.
For small personal items? Get a backpack. When I ride a motorcycle, I accept the fact that I have to ride light. I can't carry lots of stuff around with me, but at the very least I can still strap on a backpack with a map, tire gauge, pen, notepad, collapsing umbrella (about 30cm long), a book or two, and rain gear. And I still have room for a few small things, and a net I can use to tie things onto the back. I could probably fit a briefcase in there if I got creative. I have a grocery store within walking distance, and for larger things I have them shipped (one of the nicer things about Japan). I hear you can even have groceries shipped to your door these days. Granted, what works for me won't work for everyone, but if you live in a large city you can bring a folding bicycle and a backpack on the bus or train and do a lot more than you think. The bike lets you travel that "last mile" quickly, and the backpack lets you carry a few things with you.
If you're hauling around network switches, servers, or other bulky heavy stuff for work, your business needs to provide an appropriate vehicle. And if you're hauling that crap to and from home, you need to stop working at two places. Pick an office, or a home, and work there.
I guess the point is that most people who claim they need a Land Crusher SUV to carry their stuff around are mistaken. They simply need to avoid lugging all their crap everywhere.
Re:Diminishing sales equals diminishing use?
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The Dying PC Market
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The only excpetion to this is the Gamer market, and I can see why gadget-crazy Japan might prefer Sony PS3 and Wii's to pc gaming.
The reasons are actually pretty simple: availability and price. The best PC games are released first in English, and most don't get translated at all. Also, PC games are about $20 more expensive here than they are in the U.S., and there's no cheap used games market. I've seen sticker prices for new PC games in the neighborhood of 8000 yen (almost $70) while their counterparts on the other side of the pond hit $40 a month or two after release. And that's not even counting the increased cost of PC hardware here. On the other hand, a Nintendo DS Lite is about $100, and the games are $35 apiece. It's hard to fight that price point. National pride in the local games industry is icing on the cake.
Yeah we've been having similar problems where I work. This guy, he keeps dressing up like a security guard, coming in, sabotaging security equipment so he doesn't get caught, and stealing the briefcase that a manager left on his desk. On top of that he somehow must access to our database, because the nametag on his security badge always has one of our names on it. On one occasion he was brazen enough to stroll in dressed like ME! I've tried to warn my people to keep an eye out at the entrances but they keep claiming they never saw him. It's like the guy's got some kind of cloaking field or something. I'm sick of getting stabbed in the back by these kinds of people. I swear to god, one of these days I'm gonna have to resort to just shooting everyone that walks in the door just to make sure they are who they appear to be.
So what happens if I'm a U.K. citizen vacationing in Germany and I happen to buy Orange Box online while I'm there? What if I'm a U.S. service member stationed in Germany (yes, there are still U.S. bases there) and I buy Orange Box online with my U.S. credit card, from Germany?
We have a word for products that "don't work" out of the box. It's BROKEN. Nonrefundable doesn't apply if you sell me a retail product that is broken. I wonder what EU and German common contract law have to say about this...
This is because most of our in-built probability estimators assume chains of events are causally linked (which is a reasonable assumption in the "real world"--i.e. if it's been a long time since it has rained, it is indeed "due to rain soon").
Interestingly, that is an equally poor assumption that was shared by the Tiwanaku and Pueblo peoples. I'd expect these same people thought, "It hasn't rained for a long time, so it must rain soon." In the real world, that is a bad prediction.
The field of statistics is one of humanity's greatest mathematical achievements, but it's worth a reminder that our "common sense" often directly contradicts it without us even realizing it, often with disastrous results.
I'll back you up, except that I go the other way. I have a Japanese Wii that I've bought here in Japan. Sometimes I want to play a game that I see on the shelf at the local stores. But sometimes I just want to sit down and play a game in English. Unfortunately, since Nintendo released their system region locked, a mod chip is the only way I can reasonably do that. If the MAFIAA broke down my door today, they'd find a chipped Wii and a bunch of legally purchased Japanese and US games, and no "backups". Yeah, I actually do buy my games. But what, does Nintendo want me to buy two systems which are identical except for the region lock? Sorry, no quack. I want to play games ON the system, not play games WITH the system.
The DS raids I can kinda understand their reasoning. DS is already region free, and there are no discs to scratch, so that nixes the two main legitimate reasons to install a modchip. But that doesn't mean it should be illegal to mod a system you've purchased. I would hope if they continue to attack the modchip makers instead of the illegal software distributors the doctrine of first sale is going to eventually come around and bite them in the ass.
I think what is needed, is a better WGA anti-piracy technology.
I disagree. WGA is already restrictive enough to prevent casual copying by most nontechnical users. What's needed as a first step is to decouple Windows from the supply chain. At the moment it doesn't matter whether people can pirate it or not, because most people don't NEED to. They pay for a legal copy anyway, without much choice. You said it yourself, if people had to pay $100USD for a copy of Windows with their PC, they wouldn't buy it. The simple fact of the matter is that it's really REALLY hard to buy a PC without Windows paid for and installed on it, and even if you can get a Linux distro preinstalled or a blank hard drive, the manufacturer doesn't pass that savings on to you. Thus the biggest draw of Linux for most users-- its price-- is quietly dodged. Sure you can get around this by building your PC from parts, but most people don't do that.
Every game on the Wii allows you to do this, though rather unintentionally. If you press the Home key at any point, it pauses the game and brings up the system menu. It's a really REALLY nice feature for when you have to take a phone call or answer the door in the middle of a cinematic, but it works at any point in the game. That's good interface design.
You look like you're trying to access the Real Internet! Would you like me to:
-block the sites you're trying to access -uninstall your proxy software -report you to the authorities for re-education -subtly rewrite your search results
I'm getting my NTT hikari service installed on the 14th of next month; it just arrived in my backwater corner of Miyagi. I can't wait! It's pricey at 8000 yen per month but I consider that money well spent for 100Mbps service.
As a follow-up for those of you who are actually curious about such things, this sort of problem is actually covered by mathematics in the form of set theory. Google cardinality of infinite sets (and maybe aleph numbers as well).
For a quick example, let's say I have a set 'A' containing all the integers greater than 0, which I'll call the set of "natural numbers". This set has an infinite number of elements. I also have a set 'B' which contains all real numbers greater than 0. B also has an infinite number of elements. A is a "proper subset" of B; that is, every member of A is a member of B, but the reverse is not true. At the same time, a proper subset of B (namely the subset consisting of integers) can be put into a one-to-one correspondence with all of A, but the reverse is not true (since the set of real numbers is not countable). So somehow, B is a "larger" set than A, even though both contain an infinite number of elements. Mathematicians would say that B has a higher cardinality than A.
Going back to the parent post, the number of planets is definitely countable, though whether finite or infinite may yet be in dispute. If the number of total planets is finite, then the GP's argument doesn't apply. Otherwise, if the total number of planets is infinite and the number of life-bearing planets is finite, we have a situation where "for some reason, exactly n planets in this infinite universe have life." Personally, I don't find that very convincing; I'd expect it to be more of a proportional basis, even if it's a one in a billion chance. Technically, if the number of planets is infinite, and the subset of inhabitable planets is also infinite (say for example if one in a billion, of an infinite number of planets, has life), then one is not "smaller" than the other; they have the same cardinality, since the set of natural numbers has the smallest infinite cardinality. It's counterintuitive, but I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself why this is true. Of course this infinite number of planets may be so far away that we'll never find them before the flame of the universe burns out, rendering this a moot point.
Go research this stuff on your own, if you haven't already. It's quite fascinating, and quite relevant to this discussion, though I can't guarantee it won't give you a headache.
Those games you listed are all great, but they all have a major drawback: you have to have other people to compete with. Sure, there are some games you can play alone with a deck of cards, but they don't have the same draw or depth as chess or shogi or go. And a lot of times I either don't want to be social or I don't have people over who want to play. One of the great things about computer games is the rich selection of games you can enjoy on your own. Some of them have addictive gameplay, some of them are atmosphere games where you can play out your fantasies of space conquest or swords and magic, some of them tell a story really really well, and the occasional rare game will really make you think.
There was an industry myth for awhile saying that a computer game wouldn't sell unless you could play with other players, and for a long time publishers didn't want to release a game without multiplayer support. I think that's patently false. Yes, WoW and multiplayer FPS games are popular; multiplayer Halo series games and the Tekken series are popular. But Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda are also popular. Deus Ex and the Thief series and the Popcap puzzle games are popular and well-respected. A lot of us enjoy playing games alone, just as a lot of people enjoy reading books alone or watching movies alone. Chess and go, as fantastic and timeless as they are, don't allow me to do that.
I know this is a bit backwards, but ironically you'll see the same behavior in Japanese baseball and American baseball. It's much more common in Japan for hitters to bunt and make a single, taking one for the team so that one runner can get into position to score. In American baseball only pitchers bunt, and not even all of them at that.
The obvious conclusion is to not allow patenting of anything necessary to follow an industry standard. Tell someone applying for a patent that they can either patent it, or make it an industry standard, but not both. If it becomes an ITU, ISO, IEEE or other professional body standard, all patents necessary to implement that standard become invalid. Coincidentally, this would nix most software patents as well.
The gap between the private and public sector can be explained by a few things, such as reduction in bureaucratic red tape and potential increase in efficiency, but also by their frequent status as charitable organizations soliciting donations that can increase this to meet the public level, and their selectiveness; if you don't have to deal with unruly or disadvantaged children you can cut costs heavily.
For that matter, why should public schools have to deal with unruly students at all? Under the current system, there seems to be a belief that everyone is entitled to a free education, no matter what. The right to a free education extends just as far as it doesn't interfere with others' rights to a free education. If a student is habitually disruptive or destructive, at some point we should step back and say, "You've forfeited your right to a free education. You can reapply next year. Get out." It would keep our schools focused on education instead of crisis management. Right now, the worst we can do is shuffle a disruptive "student" between schools. This doesn't even attempt to solve the problem. Right now, one or two "students" can completely destroy the learning atmosphere in a class of 30. How is this fair? On one hand, there are kids who actually do want to be there and really want to learn. On the other, there are those in the classrooms that don't want to learn; let them leave. If they're impeding other students, make them leave.
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That photo looks a LOT like offices in Japan. The staffrooms for the schools I work at all consist of a bunch of metal desks pushed together. Personal stuff doesn't tend to leak over because everyone has their "own desk", but the other problems you mentioned do exist. It's noisy, and I have trouble getting anything done because someone is always looking over my shoulder, walking behind me, or having a discussion at the next desk.
Pro:
-The boss can watch everyone!
Counterpoint:
-Employees always feel like they must look busy, and will often do so even at the expense of doing real work. If it's true that "a watched pot never boils", I think it's even more true that "a watched employee never works".
Pro:
-When you need to bother someone with a question, it's easy to find them.
Counterpoints:
-It's easy to be interrupted and bothered with questions.
-People (including bosses) tend to walk by with their own issues and interrupt two people in the middle of a work discussion. There's no concept of "These two people are having a private meeting so I'll leave him a note", rather "These two people are chatting in a common room and I can interrupt one of them with my trivial matter". The difference is subtle but important.
Pro:
-It's easy to walk/lean over and ask a quick question.
Counterpoint:
-When I'm working I tune everyone and everything out. In a cubicle or office, I "wake up" and listen when someone enters my area. But in a workplace with no clearly defined personal space, I must ignore people standing right next to me to get the simplest task done. This results in many people thinking they've communicated something to me when in reality they've just talked AT me.
Pro:
-No need for a separate meeting room; just hold meetings where everyone is at their desk!
Counterpoints:
-A meeting just happened at your desk, whether you need to be there or not.
-Many people just continue their work, ignoring the meeting.
-Often a meeting starts without me realizing it. (Refer to "tuning out" above.)
Basically having your own space, however small, means that you can feel free to define rules for that space. For example: "I'm working on something, so leave immediately." Or "I think looking at piles of paperwork is distracting, so this area is clean." Or even "I ignore everything that happens outside this area."
Funny that you mention that, most of them seemed to welcome my new robotic overlords.
Yikes, didn't mean to flame ya. Sorry, you're right, I came off as an ass. I misstated the first point. What I meant to say was the 3 and 2 system isn't designated by the manufacturer, that's a national law... of course, they DO designate things like timing chain replacement, recommended oil changes, etc. Just like any other manufacturer. It is a scam, of course. I see lots of folks getting bilked out of cash because they get a dishonest guy who says something like "Oh yeah, your blinker fluid needs replacing, wink wink". I'm sure the manufacturers at least support that law-- hey, nothing like forced obsolescence to get people to buy new cars!
There's also a hell of a lot of people who come from overseas and get sold a car which might go for a respectable price back home but has a month or no shaken left on it, when in reality they'll have to either pay to junk it or pay twenty man to make it legal. I hate that, and try to inform folks as best I can before they get here, but there's also caveat emptor.
I won't dispute the authoritarianism and bureaucracy of the govt here, I can't tell you how many times I've been on the wrong end of it. (See fingerprinting fiasco.) Believe me, I'm no apologist. A lot of the time they're acting out of tradition, a lot of times the latent xenophobia/national superiority complex is involved. In this case I think they do have a point, cars do rust and brakes do wear down, and there should be a periodic inspection system in place. I'm sure it's not entirely altruistic, there's pressure from the car companies because they see lots of cash from it. I just wish the damn govt didn't charge me so much.
I'm no expert, just a guy who's lived in the inaka for awhile, maybe too long. Maybe it's getting to me. Sorry if I came off wrong.
Wow. This is gonna be modded offtopic, but it needs to be said. Some of your post is accurate, but some of it is misguided. Mainly, Tokyo is not Japan.
The right:
The stuff about license requirements is spot on. The racket surrounding license centers is annoying at best but mostly outrageous. Basically everyone pays a couple thousand bucks to a driving school to take courses for several months, after which you have as many chances to take the "test" at the driving school as you want, several times per day, and any day you want. Of course, the real test held at the government license center is harder, held only on weekday mornings if you're lucky, and the "rules" of the test bear no relation to actual driving. Don't get me started on the oogata bike test. That thing is even more of a swindle.
You are correct that the roads are not safer. In fact, almost none of the roads have reflective markers for rainy conditions. No "cat's eyes", no Botts' dots. Drivers do not switch their headlights on in fog or rain or snow; I had three or four drivers actually flash their brights at me on Sado island for driving in a rainstorm with my headlights on last weekend! People here often stop in the middle of the road to answer a phone call, often on a blind curve. Ah, but at least they're not driving while talking on a phone... I guess their abysmally low speed limits are an attempt to make up for these deficiencies.
The road system is set up to be a big cash cow for the government. You are correct in that aspect.
The wrong:
The shaken inspections aren't mandated by the manufacturers, they're mandated by the government: after 3 years for a new car and every 2 years after that. Unlike US car inspections, they check more than just emissions: brakes, suspension, tires, transmission, all the lights, seat belts, and steering are among the things tested. The inspection itself winds up costing about 10000 yen plus any repairs, but you also pay taxes for two years at the same time, which is why it's so expensive. If you know a reputable repairman, the repairs will not cost that much. My guy gives me a loaner car while he's working on mine, no charge. Alternatively, you can do the fixes yourself and take the car in for inspection on your own time if you can get the time off work, which saves a bit of cash if you're handy. I do think this helps keep unroadworthy cars off the streets, and in that way helps safety... but it does cost an arm and a leg. You do have a choice: if it's too expensive to fix the car up to snuff, you scrap it. Part of owning a car means making sure it's not an accident waiting to happen.
Proof of parking space is only required in big cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, basically any metro area. If you live outside those areas you don't need proof of parking. And there are plenty of car dealerships outside Tokyo where you can walk in, pick out and buy a car from the lot, and have it delivered to you or pick it up within a few days (after they fabricate the plates, no temporary tags here). If you haven't seen them, it's because you haven't been outside big cities.
Maximum expressway speed is 100kph outside cities on multiple lane highways. Where I live, congestion is rare because the expressways are only used for long trips. In clear dry weather most vehicles cruise between 100 and 120. If you live in Tokyo, don't get a car to drive to work every day, because you're right, the highways can't support that many people. But the only speed enforcement is fixed cameras and the rare patrol car (and there are unmarked cars as well, so be careful). Thankfully, almost everyone is courteous enough to pull over when they're not passing. I've seen a couple folks taking stretches in excess of 150kph on twisty road, and the rest of traffic just moves over to let them go. Assuming they have the space. But unfortunately the roads are not banked for the speeds their surfaces and widths support. And they are extremely overpriced.
I think this is a really good point, especially the last one. I've never really been overweight, but neither was I ever much for physical activity in school. For a long time I had a mental association between physical activity, sports, and the asshole/bully types in elementary and middle school. I hated competitive sports because I've never been any good at them, and I associated sports with testosterone-laden assholes. And let's face it, it sucks to lose all the time or be picked last all the time. So I found various ways to write off exercise altogether in a nice self-reinforcing mindset. But at one point, I just decided, "I want to look good." Kinda like Kevin Spacey's revelation in American Beauty.
Breaking those mental barriers down took a lot of effort and a long time. I started by breaking the link between physical activity and sports. I found a good gym and went in with the attitude that I wasn't competing with anyone else in there, and as it turned out everyone else was, in fact, worried more about their own exercise than comparing themselves with me. I learned from my uncle how to use the machines properly. I kept a notebook in which I had a rigid schedule, 4 days a week, and the types of exercises to do (which varied, some days I did pulling and others I did pushing exercises). I also tallied the amount of weight I had set the machines to, more to keep myself from forgetting and setting it incorrectly: I set it such that I could do 8-10 reps without letting the weights down, then a 30 second break, three times in a row. I didn't spend a long time in the gym each day, just 12 minutes on a stationary cycle to get my heart rate up and then about 20 minutes of whatever the book said to do. And I told myself I'd keep to it for at least two months.
It didn't happen overnight, it was hard work, and the first couple weeks I felt sore as hell, but the amount of weight I set the machine to doubled over the span of those two months. I felt great, stronger, somehow more physically confident, and I actually started to look pretty good too. But the biggest hurdle for me was working through the (apparently irrational) fear that others would mock me, breaking those mental blocks and stepping through the doors of the gym the first couple weeks. I'm still not going back to the abuse of competitive sports, I've decided that's not for me, but the self-competitive power-leveling nature of the gym seems to fit. And contrary to my brain's association, despite all that exercise, I have not turned into a testosterone-laden jock.
See also the new foreigner fingerprinting measures going into effect this month. The fingerprinting and storage of those fingerprints has nothing to do with preventing terrorist attacks. It's about presenting an image to reactionary domestic groups and to the United States. The fact that it's going to have a negative impact on their tourist industry hasn't hit them for some reason. Japan has security theater down to an art form.
Incorrect. By default it DOES in fact let someone else pick up a second wiimote and jump right in while someone else is playing, no special configuration required and no special levels. For super jumps the cursor has to be pointed right at Mario to super jump, and right at an enemy to freeze it (when the camera moves, player 2 has to follow the enemy or it becomes unfrozen). Sorry, but unless you have three hands nobody is going to be cheating on this one. And some enemies, such as thwomps and bosses, can't be frozen, so it's a gimmick of limited utility anyway. The real power players will be doing perfect 90 degree turn side jumps, crazy long jumps that take them across the level, and avoiding or killing every enemy regardless. Expect to see some crazy speedrun videos on YouTube.
I bought it the day it came out here in Japan and have played through about 100 stars so far. About half of those were with a friend in the room assisting. It works so well because the assist doesn't make it game-breakingly easy and it's never necessary to have the assists, but it still makes a big difference to have someone helping out on some of the levels. The purple coin challenge for one later level comes to mind, where cannonballs are being shot out at Mario while he's standing on a moving platform and trying to collect special coins. Player 2 can freeze the cannonballs as they come out-- when done correctly it makes the level a bit easier but still very challenging, but if the projectiles are frozen at the wrong time it actually makes the level HARDER. What I do like about it is how I can invite people over to play who may not be very good at 3D platformers, and make the game a little bit easier for them (and thus a bit more fun). I think it also offsets the anxiety of having other people watch you play, and laughing at your screw-ups. That's really intimidating for many people.
What I think Miyamoto was saying was that his team developed a form of co-op that doesn't change the core mechanics of the game. You don't have two players running around the screen, fighting over the camera and interfering with each other, but they're still working together and playing the same game. That deserves quite a bit of praise, because in practice it really works quite well.
For small personal items? Get a backpack. When I ride a motorcycle, I accept the fact that I have to ride light. I can't carry lots of stuff around with me, but at the very least I can still strap on a backpack with a map, tire gauge, pen, notepad, collapsing umbrella (about 30cm long), a book or two, and rain gear. And I still have room for a few small things, and a net I can use to tie things onto the back. I could probably fit a briefcase in there if I got creative. I have a grocery store within walking distance, and for larger things I have them shipped (one of the nicer things about Japan). I hear you can even have groceries shipped to your door these days. Granted, what works for me won't work for everyone, but if you live in a large city you can bring a folding bicycle and a backpack on the bus or train and do a lot more than you think. The bike lets you travel that "last mile" quickly, and the backpack lets you carry a few things with you.
If you're hauling around network switches, servers, or other bulky heavy stuff for work, your business needs to provide an appropriate vehicle. And if you're hauling that crap to and from home, you need to stop working at two places. Pick an office, or a home, and work there.
I guess the point is that most people who claim they need a Land Crusher SUV to carry their stuff around are mistaken. They simply need to avoid lugging all their crap everywhere.
The reasons are actually pretty simple: availability and price. The best PC games are released first in English, and most don't get translated at all. Also, PC games are about $20 more expensive here than they are in the U.S., and there's no cheap used games market. I've seen sticker prices for new PC games in the neighborhood of 8000 yen (almost $70) while their counterparts on the other side of the pond hit $40 a month or two after release. And that's not even counting the increased cost of PC hardware here. On the other hand, a Nintendo DS Lite is about $100, and the games are $35 apiece. It's hard to fight that price point. National pride in the local games industry is icing on the cake.
So you're saying if I incorporate MYSELF, I'm less liable for potential infringement? Well, that's a bizarre twist of the law books.
Yeah we've been having similar problems where I work. This guy, he keeps dressing up like a security guard, coming in, sabotaging security equipment so he doesn't get caught, and stealing the briefcase that a manager left on his desk. On top of that he somehow must access to our database, because the nametag on his security badge always has one of our names on it. On one occasion he was brazen enough to stroll in dressed like ME! I've tried to warn my people to keep an eye out at the entrances but they keep claiming they never saw him. It's like the guy's got some kind of cloaking field or something. I'm sick of getting stabbed in the back by these kinds of people. I swear to god, one of these days I'm gonna have to resort to just shooting everyone that walks in the door just to make sure they are who they appear to be.
So what happens if I'm a U.K. citizen vacationing in Germany and I happen to buy Orange Box online while I'm there? What if I'm a U.S. service member stationed in Germany (yes, there are still U.S. bases there) and I buy Orange Box online with my U.S. credit card, from Germany?
We have a word for products that "don't work" out of the box. It's BROKEN. Nonrefundable doesn't apply if you sell me a retail product that is broken. I wonder what EU and German common contract law have to say about this...
That seems easily solved with RNA or DNA. Gives you 4 symbols and plenty of length...
Interestingly, that is an equally poor assumption that was shared by the Tiwanaku and Pueblo peoples. I'd expect these same people thought, "It hasn't rained for a long time, so it must rain soon." In the real world, that is a bad prediction.
The field of statistics is one of humanity's greatest mathematical achievements, but it's worth a reminder that our "common sense" often directly contradicts it without us even realizing it, often with disastrous results.
I'll back you up, except that I go the other way. I have a Japanese Wii that I've bought here in Japan. Sometimes I want to play a game that I see on the shelf at the local stores. But sometimes I just want to sit down and play a game in English. Unfortunately, since Nintendo released their system region locked, a mod chip is the only way I can reasonably do that. If the MAFIAA broke down my door today, they'd find a chipped Wii and a bunch of legally purchased Japanese and US games, and no "backups". Yeah, I actually do buy my games. But what, does Nintendo want me to buy two systems which are identical except for the region lock? Sorry, no quack. I want to play games ON the system, not play games WITH the system.
The DS raids I can kinda understand their reasoning. DS is already region free, and there are no discs to scratch, so that nixes the two main legitimate reasons to install a modchip. But that doesn't mean it should be illegal to mod a system you've purchased. I would hope if they continue to attack the modchip makers instead of the illegal software distributors the doctrine of first sale is going to eventually come around and bite them in the ass.
I disagree. WGA is already restrictive enough to prevent casual copying by most nontechnical users. What's needed as a first step is to decouple Windows from the supply chain. At the moment it doesn't matter whether people can pirate it or not, because most people don't NEED to. They pay for a legal copy anyway, without much choice. You said it yourself, if people had to pay $100USD for a copy of Windows with their PC, they wouldn't buy it. The simple fact of the matter is that it's really REALLY hard to buy a PC without Windows paid for and installed on it, and even if you can get a Linux distro preinstalled or a blank hard drive, the manufacturer doesn't pass that savings on to you. Thus the biggest draw of Linux for most users-- its price-- is quietly dodged. Sure you can get around this by building your PC from parts, but most people don't do that.
Every game on the Wii allows you to do this, though rather unintentionally. If you press the Home key at any point, it pauses the game and brings up the system menu. It's a really REALLY nice feature for when you have to take a phone call or answer the door in the middle of a cinematic, but it works at any point in the game. That's good interface design.
Ahh, now that's a horse of a different color!
You look like you're trying to access the Real Internet! Would you like me to:
-block the sites you're trying to access
-uninstall your proxy software
-report you to the authorities for re-education
-subtly rewrite your search results
I'm getting my NTT hikari service installed on the 14th of next month; it just arrived in my backwater corner of Miyagi. I can't wait! It's pricey at 8000 yen per month but I consider that money well spent for 100Mbps service.
As a follow-up for those of you who are actually curious about such things, this sort of problem is actually covered by mathematics in the form of set theory. Google cardinality of infinite sets (and maybe aleph numbers as well).
For a quick example, let's say I have a set 'A' containing all the integers greater than 0, which I'll call the set of "natural numbers". This set has an infinite number of elements. I also have a set 'B' which contains all real numbers greater than 0. B also has an infinite number of elements. A is a "proper subset" of B; that is, every member of A is a member of B, but the reverse is not true. At the same time, a proper subset of B (namely the subset consisting of integers) can be put into a one-to-one correspondence with all of A, but the reverse is not true (since the set of real numbers is not countable). So somehow, B is a "larger" set than A, even though both contain an infinite number of elements. Mathematicians would say that B has a higher cardinality than A.
Going back to the parent post, the number of planets is definitely countable, though whether finite or infinite may yet be in dispute. If the number of total planets is finite, then the GP's argument doesn't apply. Otherwise, if the total number of planets is infinite and the number of life-bearing planets is finite, we have a situation where "for some reason, exactly n planets in this infinite universe have life." Personally, I don't find that very convincing; I'd expect it to be more of a proportional basis, even if it's a one in a billion chance. Technically, if the number of planets is infinite, and the subset of inhabitable planets is also infinite (say for example if one in a billion, of an infinite number of planets, has life), then one is not "smaller" than the other; they have the same cardinality, since the set of natural numbers has the smallest infinite cardinality. It's counterintuitive, but I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself why this is true. Of course this infinite number of planets may be so far away that we'll never find them before the flame of the universe burns out, rendering this a moot point.
Go research this stuff on your own, if you haven't already. It's quite fascinating, and quite relevant to this discussion, though I can't guarantee it won't give you a headache.
Those games you listed are all great, but they all have a major drawback: you have to have other people to compete with. Sure, there are some games you can play alone with a deck of cards, but they don't have the same draw or depth as chess or shogi or go. And a lot of times I either don't want to be social or I don't have people over who want to play. One of the great things about computer games is the rich selection of games you can enjoy on your own. Some of them have addictive gameplay, some of them are atmosphere games where you can play out your fantasies of space conquest or swords and magic, some of them tell a story really really well, and the occasional rare game will really make you think.
There was an industry myth for awhile saying that a computer game wouldn't sell unless you could play with other players, and for a long time publishers didn't want to release a game without multiplayer support. I think that's patently false. Yes, WoW and multiplayer FPS games are popular; multiplayer Halo series games and the Tekken series are popular. But Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda are also popular. Deus Ex and the Thief series and the Popcap puzzle games are popular and well-respected. A lot of us enjoy playing games alone, just as a lot of people enjoy reading books alone or watching movies alone. Chess and go, as fantastic and timeless as they are, don't allow me to do that.
I know this is a bit backwards, but ironically you'll see the same behavior in Japanese baseball and American baseball. It's much more common in Japan for hitters to bunt and make a single, taking one for the team so that one runner can get into position to score. In American baseball only pitchers bunt, and not even all of them at that.
The obvious conclusion is to not allow patenting of anything necessary to follow an industry standard. Tell someone applying for a patent that they can either patent it, or make it an industry standard, but not both. If it becomes an ITU, ISO, IEEE or other professional body standard, all patents necessary to implement that standard become invalid. Coincidentally, this would nix most software patents as well.
For that matter, why should public schools have to deal with unruly students at all? Under the current system, there seems to be a belief that everyone is entitled to a free education, no matter what. The right to a free education extends just as far as it doesn't interfere with others' rights to a free education. If a student is habitually disruptive or destructive, at some point we should step back and say, "You've forfeited your right to a free education. You can reapply next year. Get out." It would keep our schools focused on education instead of crisis management. Right now, the worst we can do is shuffle a disruptive "student" between schools. This doesn't even attempt to solve the problem. Right now, one or two "students" can completely destroy the learning atmosphere in a class of 30. How is this fair? On one hand, there are kids who actually do want to be there and really want to learn. On the other, there are those in the classrooms that don't want to learn; let them leave. If they're impeding other students, make them leave.