except Google Earth had a network sites for monitoring set up throughout Japan within a few days of the Fukushima news - government sites, university sites, private companies with monitoring, individuals with geiger counters. This site is near my house: http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/taisaku/en/measurement/index.html
The radiation in Tokyo is less than the radiation in New York, so many places have stopped monitoring continuously now. According to most of the press, we should have been dead by now...
I'm sorry, but the link above on the equivalent yearly radiation in Tokyo would only be correct if you were outdoors 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
You think that's funny? I'm astounded that Slashdot isn't banning users for comments like this. I live 93 miles south of the plant. What are you, 10-years old? Come on, people...
I wonder if the FBI will be arresting their own people and NSA employees for wiretapping and electronically intercepting proprietary information (including patented information) and company secrets of Japanese and European companies, then passing those trade secrets on to US companies? What do you think?
"Rural in Japan is not the same thing as Rural in Kansas or Nebraska or Montana."
Yes, I agree. I would probably refer to your family farm as "isolated" and not "rural.";-) Either way, it is near the extreme end of the density chart, and that may be why you don't live there full time.
The "US is too big" argument is specious. How did Americans ever get telephones, gas and water if the country is too big? Why don't high-density cities have 1st-world Internet speeds?
Look, I've lived in Japan through all iterations of Internet connectivity, from x.x modems, through ISDN, Adsl and fiber. I don't live in a city, I live an hour drive from a major city, but I've had 100Mbps fiber for eight or nine years now. It's so long ago, I can't remember, but it costs me about the same as a couple of pizzas per month.
I actually have 1Gbps wired, but I don't need that capacity yet. I have HDTV through my connection and the infrastructure is so solid, I have never had an outage in 15 years - not one. I lived in a rural area 8 years ago and still had 40Mbps Adsl.
There are few technological or geographical hurdles affecting your Internet connectivity in the US. You have only market hurdles. The biting reality is that local monopolies are stifling the market, as they are intended to do. If you really want state-of-the-art connectivity, you have to embrace a free market. Recall local and state politicians who vote for monopolies, or defeat them in elections by voting in people who will repeal monopoly legislation made in collusion with the provider.
I'm a geezer who started writing programs on a keypunch machine in the early 1970s. I've been online as long as there has been a line to be on.
I've never had a virus or used anti-virus software. Disable ActiveX in IE (or only use it for updates) and scripting, and don't open attachments. It really is that simple.
Japanese speak Japanese. They don't visit or read English-langiage websites any more than Americans visit Japanese-language websites hosted in Japan. Get it?
There isn't a huge amount of data transfer between Japan and the US. Google is not a very strong brand in Japan, or Asia, but they may have a goal to improve that through future products or acquisitions.
To the Aussie who said Australia is just a short hop from Japan, uh... never mind.
2. WINDS is an acronym for Wideband IntNetworking engineering and Demonstration Satellite.
3. Kazuna (WINDS) is the Satellite (PROJECT) name.
4. The key part in the project name is "engineering and Demonstration." This means, kiddies, that it is a demonstration of the engineering requirements for a satellite network that will be used for:
a. emergency and/or disaster communications where all you need is a frickin' dish in case all other forms of land-based equipment are destroyed, unusable or inaccessible.
b. medical treatment for remote areas using hi-resolution imagery transmitted to specialists.
c. education for remote areas.
Your broadband internet service in the west is still in the last century (or non-existent), so you might want to look in the mirror before you leap into making fun of something you haven't even read about. It is not intended for gaming, you frickin' dolts.
could you hop over to accounting and help Mary? I think she needs a root canal. Maybe some of the folks at Slashdot could offer some advice to help you "punch up" her teeth, too.
Then, could you change the brakes on the company car, finish up the tax paperwork before the IRS shows up on Tuesday for the audit, and get us a bridge loan for $2 million?
US courts have always held that no one has any rights or legal protections at a port of entry because no one has entered the country until they have passed through the port of entry. It is an intentionally created limbo, and it has been that way for hundreds of years.
What about the glaring hole in the desktop lineup? Who wants two year old laptop parts cobbled together inside a large monitor? Why do you need to spend at least a quarter of $10,000 for a box with last years hardware without a monitor?
You Virus Terror Mongers make me sick.
With ActiveX and scripting disabled, a properly configured firewall in a router, and not opening attachments, the odds of me getting my first virus after 15 years online are less than getting hit by lightning. Neither have happened so far.
You're disgraceful con artists and no better than common thieves.
Turn off ActiveX and scripting if using IE or use another browser. Put.microsoft as a trusted site in IE for updates. Use a router. Don't open attachments. If that's too hard, buy a Mac. Dump the AV software.
The administration learned to turn terror into a business by watching you sleazebags tout AV software. You are worse than lawyers and have no shame.
It's a wonder Americans have telephones, water, gas and electricity. The country is so big.
The problem with that argument is that even the most densely populated cities in the US are not wired for true broadband. Let's not forget that 200Kbps is considered broadband in the US, while I have had 100Mbps (symmetrical) fiber with no caps for less than US$50 per month for years. I have 3 providers for fiber, 4 offering 80 Mbps Adsl and don't live within an 1-1/2 hour drive of a city.
The problem with the US infrastructure is not scale, it's that the duopoly resists investment. Why invest if there is no competition? The FCC and locally appointed boards work for the benefit of a closed market by the duopoly, not for an open market that would drive competition and advancement. With apologies to Winston Churchill, US companies will invest only after all other options have been exhausted.
It's this simple: markets drives competition, competition drives technology, technology drives markets. Market don't pull technology, so having no market at all stunts all growth.
The only growth from the current system is the growth in the bank accounts of a few executives at the expense of investment.
I've been in Japan for over 15 years. First, if you don't understand the language, you don't understand the culture. To the English teacher: your students probably have no interest in telling you all they know about everything. Getting into the typical argumentative/philosophical offered up by most low-time foreigners here is tedious since it always ends up being a pompous monologue on "This is how we do it in America, and you should too" nonsense. Unless you've been here at least 10 years and speak and read the language, you're languishing in the dark and still full of the preconceptions you got off the plane with. Knock it off, STFU and leave. Eighty percent are in Japan teaching English because they are social misfits who couldn't fit in with their own culture. After a few years they develop the "gaijin anger complex." They don't really know what the hell is going on around them and are angry at being trapped since they can't function in their own culture or Japan.
Instead of discussing the topic, they can only rant about how stupid everyone around them appears to them.
I find the Japanese election system a refreshing dose of honesty. Not the politicians - they suck everywhere - but the simple elegance of simply doing what most people in western countries won't admit to. They vote for whomever has the face or personality doesn't make them want to vomit.
The election "season" is short, weeks instead of years, and that is a blessing. Who really cares what a politician says he or she are going to do on website, a debate or a commercial... they never do what they promise anyway. When is the last time a politician did what the said they were going to do? They rely on your goldfish-like memory to get elected and re-elected. (Oh look! A bridge! I'll swim under it. Oh look! A bridge! I'll swim under it. Oh look! A broken Social Security system. I'll fix it. Oh look! Iraq. We're making progress)
To the next goldfish, I mean person, who thinks the Japanese have it wrong, all I can say is look at who the American public, in the self-proclaimed model democracy of America, elected in the last two elections. And you think the Japanese system is strange? Uh huh.
First, the Japanese government does not subsidize internet infrastructure or providers. Private investment is what has built it to be so reliable and fast. I've had 100Mbps (symmetrical and without caps) for over 5 years for about the same cost as a dinner for two. Even when I lived in the countryside before that, I had 40Mbps Adsl.
How in the world did the US get wired for telephones if it's so spread out? What nonsense. The US is hardly a free market any more. Lobbying by corporations has replaced voting by people to determine who benefits from regulations and tariffs. You're being conned by companies who do not want to invest unless they are forced to, and no one is forcing them to since there will never be real competition as long as community franchising remains. I can choose from 3 different fiber providers, and I'm not even in a large city.
I'm always astounded at how poor, yet expensive, the service is every time I go back to the US. I stopped long ago telling people about how different it is outside the US. They don't want to hear it or refuse to believe it. But, if you're lost in a fantasy that your small world is better than anywhere else, I suppose it's natural. Kind of like the people of North Korea believing that they have a better life than anyone else on the planet, since that's all they read and hear.
I was faced last week with the choice of either having my Rolex repaired, or throwing something with a replacement cost of $8,000 in the trash. Since owning one is considered to be a sign of stupidity to this crowd, I chose the stupid path - I ran for Congress. No, I decided to have it repaired.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Japan), I decided to check the Rolex website for information. It turns out that Rolex is light years ahead of most global companies. They are already embracing a new paradigm: Web 4.0.
Web 4.0 you say? Yes, indeed.
Web 4.0 is retro. The master site for Rolex has no email addresses. None. No email for the headquarters or any office in all their offices flung far throughout the world. No email for you today. It's pure genius. It took me back to my work-a-day world of the 1980s. We used to have businesses back then that managed to survive (and even thrive) without "IT guys." We used to talk on the phone, send letters, send telex or even use those new fancy FAX machines. We could just give the new guy a desk, a phone and some pens.
Think about it for a minute. Which is more frustrating: not being able to fire off an email, or not getting a reply to your email? Or, heaven forbid, a nonsense non-answer or automated "empathy mail like, "We are sincerely interested in your customer service experience and are commited to providing you blah blah blah blah..."
Nip that customer frustration in the bud instead of prolonging the agony of no, or nonsense answers, since you're only going to tell the customer to get lost anyway. The first thing it does for a comapny is eliminate the angst of having to read customer complaints. Who needs that first thing in the morning? It weeds all but the most determined whiners and complainers.
It also eliminates all the IT guys running around without ties having meetings in strange "geekspeak" going frantic about needing the latest version of ComExpRo 9000 version 23.01 beta ($24,000 license fee) and a new Sparkmaster Database Servoserver ($72,000) with 128 Megagoobers of chrome plated exhausts. Or something like that.
No internet. No email. No spam. No security problems. No spyware. No upgrades. No Vista!
And no maps to the office in Tokyo on the web site. If you can afford a Rolex, you shouldn't be sending emails or need maps anyway. Get your secretary to call and get directions. Bingo. If you don't have a secretary, get a casio. No, you should have enough smarts to figure out how to call and get directions.
Off I went to the Tokyo office. It just so happens that I was there about 8 years ago, so I vaguely remembered where it was. It was just a short walk from Tokyo station. Since I'm a guy (internal flawless GPS system installed), I asked my girlfriend to "confirm" my GPS at the station with a random person.
"Oh, the Rolex building? Sure, it's blah, blah, blah..."
It turns out that everyone in Tokyo has been to the Rolex service center since everyone bought several back during the bubble and they all need servicing eventually. I found it easily. I walked directly to the counter after being offered a friendly smile by one of the many friendly-looking counter ladies, only to be handed a plastic tag with a number. I turned around to see about a dozen Rolexers lounging around in leather chairs waiting for their number to be called. All reading Rolex catalogs and Rolex magazines (some were even post Y2K - Rolex had no Y2K problem...). They check your watch as you wait, then present you with an estimate to repair it.
When my number was called, I presented my cold, dead watch to the woman. She was holding it when she asked my if it had stopped. I said something to the effect, "Yes... see?"
She then asked me when it stopped.
Now, this is Japan and all interactions between strangers/customers/gods is formal and exceedingly polite. I formally and politely smiled as I pointed to the watch face and read off the time and date. Grin. Wink.
It's an online air combat game where you can use more wrist motion with a joystick, and less motion with your fingers and a controller. There are thousands of subscribers from throughout the world, and it's free for the 1st 2 weeks so you can see how you like it.
Good luck with your search and don't let the bastards here get you down.
From someone much older than you with a set of bad hands, too...
I trust nothing posted to the internet by anonymous experts. I know a student who passes himself off as an engineering professor in emails and bulletin boards.
Slashdot Mirror
except Google Earth had a network sites for monitoring set up throughout Japan within a few days of the Fukushima news - government sites, university sites, private companies with monitoring, individuals with geiger counters. This site is near my house: http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/taisaku/en/measurement/index.html
The radiation in Tokyo is less than the radiation in New York, so many places have stopped monitoring continuously now. According to most of the press, we should have been dead by now...
It's not even on the list.
I've had 100Mbps fiber for 10 years now, at half that price... with no caps. One Gbps is the new 100 Mbps here.
I feel bad for Americans who are at the mercy of the duopoly who, for all practical purposes, control the internet in the US.
I'm sorry, but the link above on the equivalent yearly radiation in Tokyo would only be correct if you were outdoors 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
You think that's funny? I'm astounded that Slashdot isn't banning users for comments like this.
I live 93 miles south of the plant. What are you, 10-years old?
Come on, people...
He sounds like he's ready for a Fortune 500 CEO position...
I wonder if the FBI will be arresting their own people and NSA employees for wiretapping and electronically intercepting proprietary information (including patented information) and company secrets of Japanese and European companies, then passing those trade secrets on to US companies? What do you think?
"Rural in Japan is not the same thing as Rural in Kansas or Nebraska or Montana."
Yes, I agree. I would probably refer to your family farm as "isolated" and not "rural." ;-) Either way, it is near the extreme end of the density chart, and that may be why you don't live there full time.
The "US is too big" argument is specious. How did Americans ever get telephones, gas and water if the country is too big? Why don't high-density cities have 1st-world Internet speeds?
Look, I've lived in Japan through all iterations of Internet connectivity, from x.x modems, through ISDN, Adsl and fiber. I don't live in a city, I live an hour drive from a major city, but I've had 100Mbps fiber for eight or nine years now. It's so long ago, I can't remember, but it costs me about the same as a couple of pizzas per month.
I actually have 1Gbps wired, but I don't need that capacity yet. I have HDTV through my connection and the infrastructure is so solid, I have never had an outage in 15 years - not one. I lived in a rural area 8 years ago and still had 40Mbps Adsl.
There are few technological or geographical hurdles affecting your Internet connectivity in the US. You have only market hurdles. The biting reality is that local monopolies are stifling the market, as they are intended to do. If you really want state-of-the-art connectivity, you have to embrace a free market. Recall local and state politicians who vote for monopolies, or defeat them in elections by voting in people who will repeal monopoly legislation made in collusion with the provider.
I'm a geezer who started writing programs on a keypunch machine in the early 1970s. I've been online as long as there has been a line to be on.
I've never had a virus or used anti-virus software. Disable ActiveX in IE (or only use it for updates) and scripting, and don't open attachments. It really is that simple.
Oh, plus Yahoo Japan and Google Japan servers are in Japan.
Japanese speak Japanese. They don't visit or read English-langiage websites any more than Americans visit Japanese-language websites hosted in Japan. Get it?
I live in Japan. You know nothing.
To the Aussie who said Australia is just a short hop from Japan, uh... never mind.
2. WINDS is an acronym for Wideband IntNetworking engineering and Demonstration Satellite.
3. Kazuna (WINDS) is the Satellite (PROJECT) name.
4. The key part in the project name is "engineering and Demonstration." This means, kiddies, that it is a demonstration of the engineering requirements for a satellite network that will be used for:
a. emergency and/or disaster communications where all you need is a frickin' dish in case all other forms of land-based equipment are destroyed, unusable or inaccessible.
b. medical treatment for remote areas using hi-resolution imagery transmitted to specialists.
c. education for remote areas.
Your broadband internet service in the west is still in the last century (or non-existent), so you might want to look in the mirror before you leap into making fun of something you haven't even read about. It is not intended for gaming, you frickin' dolts.
Thanks,
Your boss
US courts have always held that no one has any rights or legal protections at a port of entry because no one has entered the country until they have passed through the port of entry. It is an intentionally created limbo, and it has been that way for hundreds of years.
What about the glaring hole in the desktop lineup? Who wants two year old laptop parts cobbled together inside a large monitor? Why do you need to spend at least a quarter of $10,000 for a box with last years hardware without a monitor?
You Virus Terror Mongers make me sick. With ActiveX and scripting disabled, a properly configured firewall in a router, and not opening attachments, the odds of me getting my first virus after 15 years online are less than getting hit by lightning. Neither have happened so far. You're disgraceful con artists and no better than common thieves.
Turn off ActiveX and scripting if using IE or use another browser. Put .microsoft as a trusted site in IE for updates. Use a router. Don't open attachments. If that's too hard, buy a Mac. Dump the AV software.
The administration learned to turn terror into a business by watching you sleazebags tout AV software. You are worse than lawyers and have no shame.
The problem with that argument is that even the most densely populated cities in the US are not wired for true broadband. Let's not forget that 200Kbps is considered broadband in the US, while I have had 100Mbps (symmetrical) fiber with no caps for less than US$50 per month for years. I have 3 providers for fiber, 4 offering 80 Mbps Adsl and don't live within an 1-1/2 hour drive of a city.
The problem with the US infrastructure is not scale, it's that the duopoly resists investment. Why invest if there is no competition? The FCC and locally appointed boards work for the benefit of a closed market by the duopoly, not for an open market that would drive competition and advancement. With apologies to Winston Churchill, US companies will invest only after all other options have been exhausted.
It's this simple: markets drives competition, competition drives technology, technology drives markets. Market don't pull technology, so having no market at all stunts all growth.
The only growth from the current system is the growth in the bank accounts of a few executives at the expense of investment.
I've been in Japan for over 15 years. First, if you don't understand the language, you don't understand the culture. To the English teacher: your students probably have no interest in telling you all they know about everything. Getting into the typical argumentative/philosophical offered up by most low-time foreigners here is tedious since it always ends up being a pompous monologue on "This is how we do it in America, and you should too" nonsense. Unless you've been here at least 10 years and speak and read the language, you're languishing in the dark and still full of the preconceptions you got off the plane with. Knock it off, STFU and leave. Eighty percent are in Japan teaching English because they are social misfits who couldn't fit in with their own culture. After a few years they develop the "gaijin anger complex." They don't really know what the hell is going on around them and are angry at being trapped since they can't function in their own culture or Japan.
Instead of discussing the topic, they can only rant about how stupid everyone around them appears to them.
I find the Japanese election system a refreshing dose of honesty. Not the politicians - they suck everywhere - but the simple elegance of simply doing what most people in western countries won't admit to. They vote for whomever has the face or personality doesn't make them want to vomit.
The election "season" is short, weeks instead of years, and that is a blessing. Who really cares what a politician says he or she are going to do on website, a debate or a commercial... they never do what they promise anyway. When is the last time a politician did what the said they were going to do? They rely on your goldfish-like memory to get elected and re-elected. (Oh look! A bridge! I'll swim under it. Oh look! A bridge! I'll swim under it. Oh look! A broken Social Security system. I'll fix it. Oh look! Iraq. We're making progress)
To the next goldfish, I mean person, who thinks the Japanese have it wrong, all I can say is look at who the American public, in the self-proclaimed model democracy of America, elected in the last two elections. And you think the Japanese system is strange? Uh huh.
First, the Japanese government does not subsidize internet infrastructure or providers. Private investment is what has built it to be so reliable and fast. I've had 100Mbps (symmetrical and without caps) for over 5 years for about the same cost as a dinner for two. Even when I lived in the countryside before that, I had 40Mbps Adsl. How in the world did the US get wired for telephones if it's so spread out? What nonsense. The US is hardly a free market any more. Lobbying by corporations has replaced voting by people to determine who benefits from regulations and tariffs. You're being conned by companies who do not want to invest unless they are forced to, and no one is forcing them to since there will never be real competition as long as community franchising remains. I can choose from 3 different fiber providers, and I'm not even in a large city. I'm always astounded at how poor, yet expensive, the service is every time I go back to the US. I stopped long ago telling people about how different it is outside the US. They don't want to hear it or refuse to believe it. But, if you're lost in a fantasy that your small world is better than anywhere else, I suppose it's natural. Kind of like the people of North Korea believing that they have a better life than anyone else on the planet, since that's all they read and hear.
I was faced last week with the choice of either having my Rolex repaired, or throwing something with a replacement cost of $8,000 in the trash. Since owning one is considered to be a sign of stupidity to this crowd, I chose the stupid path - I ran for Congress. No, I decided to have it repaired.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Japan), I decided to check the Rolex website for information. It turns out that Rolex is light years ahead of most global companies. They are already embracing a new paradigm: Web 4.0.
Web 4.0 you say? Yes, indeed.
Web 4.0 is retro. The master site for Rolex has no email addresses. None. No email for the headquarters or any office in all their offices flung far throughout the world. No email for you today. It's pure genius. It took me back to my work-a-day world of the 1980s. We used to have businesses back then that managed to survive (and even thrive) without "IT guys." We used to talk on the phone, send letters, send telex or even use those new fancy FAX machines. We could just give the new guy a desk, a phone and some pens.
Think about it for a minute. Which is more frustrating: not being able to fire off an email, or not getting a reply to your email? Or, heaven forbid, a nonsense non-answer or automated "empathy mail like, "We are sincerely interested in your customer service experience and are commited to providing you blah blah blah blah..."
Nip that customer frustration in the bud instead of prolonging the agony of no, or nonsense answers, since you're only going to tell the customer to get lost anyway. The first thing it does for a comapny is eliminate the angst of having to read customer complaints. Who needs that first thing in the morning? It weeds all but the most determined whiners and complainers.
It also eliminates all the IT guys running around without ties having meetings in strange "geekspeak" going frantic about needing the latest version of ComExpRo 9000 version 23.01 beta ($24,000 license fee) and a new Sparkmaster Database Servoserver ($72,000) with 128 Megagoobers of chrome plated exhausts. Or something like that.
No internet. No email. No spam. No security problems. No spyware. No upgrades. No Vista!
And no maps to the office in Tokyo on the web site. If you can afford a Rolex, you shouldn't be sending emails or need maps anyway. Get your secretary to call and get directions. Bingo. If you don't have a secretary, get a casio. No, you should have enough smarts to figure out how to call and get directions.
Off I went to the Tokyo office. It just so happens that I was there about 8 years ago, so I vaguely remembered where it was. It was just a short walk from Tokyo station. Since I'm a guy (internal flawless GPS system installed), I asked my girlfriend to "confirm" my GPS at the station with a random person.
"Oh, the Rolex building? Sure, it's blah, blah, blah..."
It turns out that everyone in Tokyo has been to the Rolex service center since everyone bought several back during the bubble and they all need servicing eventually. I found it easily. I walked directly to the counter after being offered a friendly smile by one of the many friendly-looking counter ladies, only to be handed a plastic tag with a number. I turned around to see about a dozen Rolexers lounging around in leather chairs waiting for their number to be called. All reading Rolex catalogs and Rolex magazines (some were even post Y2K - Rolex had no Y2K problem...). They check your watch as you wait, then present you with an estimate to repair it.
When my number was called, I presented my cold, dead watch to the woman. She was holding it when she asked my if it had stopped. I said something to the effect, "Yes... see?"
She then asked me when it stopped.
Now, this is Japan and all interactions between strangers/customers/gods is formal and exceedingly polite. I formally and politely smiled as I pointed to the watch face and read off the time and date. Grin. Wink.
I'd try this: http://www.hitechcreations.com/frindex.html
It's an online air combat game where you can use more wrist motion with a joystick, and less motion with your fingers and a controller. There are thousands of subscribers from throughout the world, and it's free for the 1st 2 weeks so you can see how you like it.
Good luck with your search and don't let the bastards here get you down.
From someone much older than you with a set of bad hands, too...
I trust nothing posted to the internet by anonymous experts. I know a student who passes himself off as an engineering professor in emails and bulletin boards.