Greggman.com Category (opinions)

Greggman.com Category (opinions) 2008-09-25T15:17:46+09:00 Gregg Tavares http://blog.greggman.com Entries from Greggman.com About opinions Subtle Racism? http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2008-09-25.htm

I'm sure this is going to come of to many as something to do about nothing and it certainly didn't offend me personally but.... I was a food court the other day. Difference sections of the food court had labels. There was the "Green" section which was the salad area, there was the a "Drinks" section and a "Vegetarian" section for vegetarian friendly prepared foods. There was one area labeled "Home Cooking" and another labeled "International". The "home cooking" area had various chicken and beef dishes and things like string beans and zucchini. The international section had Chinese and Indian foods.

opinions 2008-09-25T19:00:00+09:00 2008-09-25T19:00:00+09:00 2008-09-25T19:00:00+09:00
I was a food court the other day. Difference sections of the food court had labels. There was the "Green" section which was the salad area, there was the a "Drinks" section and a "Vegetarian" section for vegetarian friendly prepared foods. There was one area labeled "Home Cooking" and another labeled "International". The "home cooking" area had various chicken and beef dishes and things like string beans and zucchini. The international section had Chinese and Indian foods.

I really didn't think anything of it but then later this thought just wandered into my head. Isn't labeling one "home cooking" and the other "international" a subtle way of saying that if you grew up eating the kinds of foods seen at the "home cooking" station that you're a *real American* and if you grew up eating the kinds of foods seen at the "international" station you're a foreigner?

I might seem like nothing but is it really? I've often heard white or black looking Americans talk to Asian looking Americans as though they aren't really American. Whether they actually think that or not while they are saying it I have no idea but it crosses my mind, hey, that person IS an American, quit saying things that suggest they are not.

Who says Rice or Noodles or Fish or Curry for dinner is not "home cooking"? I grew up with rice every night, does that mean I wasn't eating home cooking? Does it mean I'm not really American?

Anyway, I'm sure some people will get this and others will think it's just a stupid non-issue but the more I thought about it the more I thought it's one of those things that when you *get it* you'll get a slightly better understanding of what people that get effected by this kind of stuff are really dealing with and how without thing people our often subtly excluded.]]> IP rights discussion http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2008-03-16.htm

Just hoping to get some other points of view. The Slashdot crowd and similar people like to call IP Imaginary Property to try to point out that there is no such thing and therefore it shouldn't be treated like property. They like to point out that copying some music or a movie or software isn't like stealing because the person who it was copied from has not lost their original Well, playing devil's advocate... Money is effectively a fiction. It's just a number in a computer database. When your employer pays you they don't send physical money to the bank. They just tell the bank to subtract from their account number and add to your account number. It's all virtual.

opinions 2008-03-16T19:00:00+09:00 2008-03-16T19:00:00+09:00 2008-03-16T19:00:00+09:00
The Slashdot crowd and similar people like to call IP Imaginary Property to try to point out that there is no such thing and therefore it shouldn't be treated like property. They like to point out that copying some music or a movie or software isn't like stealing because the person who it was copied from has not lost their original

Well, playing devil's advocate...

Money is effectively a fiction. It's just a number in a computer database. When your employer pays you they don't send physical money to the bank. They just tell the bank to subtract from their account number and add to your account number. It's all virtual.

The point I'm trying to make is, we treat money exactly like the content creators wish we would treat IP. Money is virtual. I could adjust those numbers in the bank's computer all I want. I could add more. It only works because we all agree it would be a bad thing if it didn't work like that. We all agree (or I think we all agree) that duplicating money would be bad even though in actuality no one would lose any money if we allowed duplication.

So, why should IP be different? Why is it not okay to copy money but it IS okay to copy IP? Both money and IP represent labor...

I can think of a few differences. You can duplicate IP forever with no ill effects to anyone but possibly the creators or the people that funded them where as duplicating money forever would effect everyone. That's a valid distinction but it doesn't quite enough for the difference in thinking.

I guess my main point is it seems like most people approach it in the sense that IP is not like real property and copying is not stealing. It's almost as though they see this ability to copy as something new and the push to stop the copying is something new. I think the money analogy points out that it's not something new. We all agree copying money is bad so there is something that is effectively imaginary property that we all agree is bad to copy. I'm not sure we'd call it stealing. I guess we'd all it counterfitting although that doesn't fit the copying IP stuff unless you try to sell it.

Basically I'm just thinking out loud. If you have some thoughts please share them.]]> The Parable of the Talents http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2008-01-22.htm

I started reading a new book, the Mind of the Market, and so far I've only read the first chapter but during that time the parable of the talents came up.

opinions 2008-01-22T19:00:00+09:00 2008-01-22T19:00:00+09:00 2008-01-22T19:00:00+09:00 the Mind of the Market, and so far I've only read the first chapter but during that time the parable of the talents came up.

I'm not religious anymore but people bring up stories from the Bible all the time and this particular one has always bothered me.

Matthew 25:
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The standard interpretation of that parable is supposed to be something to the effect of use it or lose it. Use the skills/money that you have and you'll get more. If you don't you are wasting them and you'll lose even what little you have.

That interpretation never made sense to me. It might make sense if each person in the story started out with equal ammounts but they didn't. Rather I think there are plenty of the interpretations that make more sense.

One might be that you will fail of you don't have enough skill, money, whatever. A perfect example is the countless stories of businesses or restaurants that fail because they don't start with enough money. They have just enough money to start their business but not enough to survive on negative income until the business becomes profitable.

Other interpretation which made more sense to me than the standard one was the guy with only 1 unit only had one chance to succeed. The guy with 5 had five chances. Therefore it was EASY for the guy with 5 to risk and hard for the guy with 1 and not fair at all. Examples from the real world, investors know to diversify. They lose money on some investments and gain some on others but they have to have enough to diversity in the first place.

Another example, movie studios lose money on 19 out of 20 movies. The 1 blockbuster a year pays for the other 19. Of course you could say "well, just make the blockbuster then" but unfortunately nobody knows which movie will be good until after they are made. But, if you only had money to make one movie you'd be stupid to try at odds of 1 in 20. If you have money to make 20 movies then your odds go up that you'll get your investment back significantly.

We talk about the Rich get richer, the poor get poorer. That's rarely attributed to the poor not trying. Instead it's usually attributed to the rich having more opportunities. Well, that's exactly what the parable says to me. Those with more have more chances.

The only counter argument I've heard is the guy with 1 unit didn't even try. That's true except with so little to start it could be argued it was the reasonable course of action. He knew he'd lose it since he didn't have enough to even get started so he kept it. In the real world we'd hope he'd do some other work until he had enough to take the risk but in this parable that option was never considered.]]> Western Culture Sucks http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2007-02-15.htm

Coming back to the USA there are some serious cultural differences between the USA and Japan. Some are arguably good. People in the USA are generally more individual. I think that's good. On the other hand, something I really hate about the USA (and many other western countries) is there is this attitude that I can only some up as "It's fun to laugh at other's expense" or maybe "It feels good to piss on other people".

opinions 2007-02-15T19:00:00+09:00 2007-02-15T19:00:00+09:00 2007-02-15T19:00:00+09:00
On the other hand, something I really hate about the USA (and many other western countries) is there is this attitude that I can only some up as "It's fun to laugh at other's expense" or maybe "It feels good to piss on other people".

Simple examples are vandalism. Why do people key cars? Keying someones car, taking your keys and scratching the paint on their car has no point whatsoever. Most people don't key the car of someone they know, they just pick some random car and scratch it. Why? What is it about our culture that compels people to do that?

It manifests itself in other ways. Men's public restrooms are almost always trashed in the USA. Go to theatre, museum, bar and the men's toilets will be broken, doors pulled off, paper towels all over the floor, coat hangers broken, doors kicked until they are bent and no longer close, seats are covered in urine or any number of other problems. We put up with it and I know I probably assumed it's just a part of life but it's not. Not in Japan anyway. The bathrooms in the train station might be stinky but in general I don't remember any abused toilets in Japan.

What is it about western culture that makes so many people into assholes? Why is it I can't keep anything in my car when it's parked in public because someone will bust the window into the car and steal it? We take that for ~~granite~~ granted. We just know it happens and we put our stuff in the trunk. But guess what, it doesn't happen in Japan. In fact right now in 2007 the newest hot fashion in Tokyo for men is 8 inch long wallets that stick 4-6 inches out of your pocket. In the USA or many other countries that wouldn't work because it would get stolen but not in Japan.

Want a perfect example of just how much better Japanese culture is in this area? In a 2 or 3 story fast food restaurant here is how it works in Japan. Walk up to the 2nd or 3rd floor and find a table. Leave your purse, sweater and notebook computer on the table. Walk down to the 1st floor and order your food. Come back and your stuff is still there. Is there any other country that would work in? Certainly not any western country I know of.

I'm not saying I'm not guilty of being an asshole. When I was a teen I did my share of prank calls and other more destructive things. Why was that cool? Where did I learn that from? Do kids do that in Japan? My impression is no. Or at least maybe their parents really displine them if they find out and work that feeling out of them.

Another example, I used to be able to laugh at the Jerky Boys. Most of our culture seems to enjoy that. Now through I just find prank calls sad and mean spirited.

Another example is vending machines. You could never have outdoor vending machines in the USA. They'd get abused, robbed and destroyed. In Japan they are everywhere, clean and unabused.

What's wrong with our culture? If there is any one thing I took away from my 6 years in Japan this is the #1 thing. That all the bullshit we take for ~~granite~~ granted in our culture is not in fact "the way things are" and that we just have to except it. People being assholes in these ways are not just "a part of life". I know this because I lived somewhere where they didn't exist for 6 years.]]> Gmail sucks! Yahoo rules! http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-12-27.htm

I know I'm going to get flamed but damit, I don't get the love for gmail. I've been using the new Yahoo for a year or so now and I didn't see the point to gmail but........gmail has one thing which it does that Yahoo currently doesn't AKAIK. Gmail has the option to correctly send Japanese mail in a Japanese encoding (ISO-2022-JP) instead of Unicode (UTF-8). This means to many Japanese friends, if I send Japanese email from Yahoo they get garbage were as if I do it from gmail it works. So,........yesterday I tried switching to Gmail and so far.....YUCK!!!!

opinions 2006-12-27T19:00:00+09:00 2006-12-27T19:00:00+09:00 2006-12-27T19:00:00+09:00
I've been using the new Yahoo for a year or so now and I didn't see the point to gmail but........gmail has one thing which it does that Yahoo currently doesn't AKAIK. Gmail has the option to correctly send Japanese mail in a Japanese encoding (ISO-2022-JP) instead of Unicode (UTF-8).

This means to many Japanese friends, if I send Japanese email from Yahoo they get garbage were as if I do it from gmail it works.

So,........yesterday I tried switching to Gmail and so far.....YUCK!!!!

First off I like the split window of Yahoo (and Outlook and Outlook Express and Thunderbird). It's much nicer to click on a message and have it appear at the bottom (Yahoo) then switch between the list of messages and have the list disappear to be replaced by the message. Then, when I'm through with the message I go back to the list but I have to find out where I was since it's been redrawn. In the split method I don't loose my place in the list since it never disappeared.

I imported all my contacts and then I go to compose. I type "Joh" for "John" and I expect it to auto complete. It doesn't. (Yahoo does). I think, hmmm, maybe if I just press send it will ask me to select the John I mean. No! it just gives an error ("type correct email addresses in the ___@___ form please" Isn't software supposed to be helpful. Stuff like that is like pre 1985 bullshit.

I thought maybe if I put the cursor in the To: field and picked a contact from the Quick Contacts list it would get added. Nope, instead I'm asked if I want to discard the message I'm writing :-( Okay, how about dragging and dropping them? Nope. :-(

It turns out they want you to go to your contacts list, check the people you want to send to and then pick "compose". but, what I forgot someone? I had John, James and Jim and then as I'm typing I remember, oh yea I need to include Jill and Joe. Oh well, too bad, I have to start over. There is no way to add new contacts to mail you've already started in gmail. Yahoo has no such problem.

Someone please tell me why people like gmail? I seriously don't get it? The interface sucks ass and it doesn't help me, it only gets in my way.

There are no folders in gmail, oh well, there's the few pre-defined ones but you can't make your own, instead you are expected to "tag" messages. Maybe I just have to get used to that. I think tags are a good idea but instead of folders? How about both? I want to be able to make a "GameDev" folder and have all my game development mailing list mails go in there directly, not to clutter my inbox. Sure I can click a tag and have only mails that show that tag appear but that's only half the solution. With the folders solution I can click the "Game Dev" folder which is similar to clicking the "Game Dev" tag but there is no option to click "Inbox" and have the game dev message NOT appear there.

In Yahoo it's the default setup to have mulitple tabs. Like all those people who think tabbed browsing is the coolest thing ever, why doesn't that same sense carry over to their opinion of gmail? In Yahoo mail if I click compose a new tab is created automatically. I can flip between my inbox, the old message and the message being composed with no thought. If I start another new message a new tab is created so I can be in the middle of composing a message, think of something quick I need to send to someone else, pick compose, type that message, hit send and be directly back to my old message. No thinking ahead or planning required it just works and stays out of my way. I can even switch back and forth between multiple messages being composed.

In GMail when I click compose my inbox is replaced. There's a botton I can click to make it a new window but why should I have to go through the extra step? If I decide to start a new mail can click compose or contacts or inbox I'll be scolded "Discard You Message"? Instead I have to manaully click the "move to another window button" and then I can click compose for the second message.

Yahoo solves this problem elequantly, gmail solves it poorly.

Some people claim gmail's search is great. I'll probably have to use it for a while to find out why or if it's better than Yahoo Mail's search. Yahoo already has two advantages in UI/presentation over gmail's. One, each search shows up in a separate tab unlike gmail which replaces the main screen with the search results. That means I can reference the results of multiple searching AND my inbox AND compose multiple messages all at once easily on Yahoo but not on gmail.

Two, Yahoo shows excerpts from each message, Gmail shows just the topic and a few characters. That means it's much quicker to find the message I want in Yahoo. (yes, there is a check box to turn off the "snippets" if you just one one line per mail).

Another advantage to Yahoo IMO is it's lists are the full list. Google just shows pages. That means in yahoo (like Outlook or Thunderbird) if I have 150 messages I just scroll down the list. In gmail it only shows so many messages at a time, like say 30 so if I want to see the next 30 I have to ask :-(

Also, Yahoo (like Thunderbird or Outlook) I can sort the lists by column. Sort by name or by date or by subject. As far as I can tell gmail has no such options. Maybe you just get used to using search? If I want to find messages from "john smith" I could search for "john smith". That will return every message to or from or CCed to John Smith where as sorting my inbox list allows me to find messages only from John Smith and sorting my "sent mail" folder allows to me find message only from John Smith. I personally find that more ease and intuitive than always searching and having no sorting options.

Maybe I missing something, maybe there are solutions for all of these in gmail or maybe there is some other orgasmic feature I won't be able to live without once I get used to it but so far gmail is nothing but ugly, old and frustrating for me.]]> Hotel Design http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-12-11.htm

Just some random thoughts here but I was visiting the USA early last month and I noticed some issues with the places I stayed. Maybe because I've been reading so many software design articles they stuck out as poor design.

opinions 2006-12-11T19:00:00+09:00 2006-12-11T19:00:00+09:00 2006-12-11T19:00:00+09:00
For example I was at the Mariott Residence Inn in Redmond WA and some minor design issues...The carpet in the hallways was too thick making it a chore to pull my luggage to my room. It felt like I was pulling it through mud. Clearly Airports understand this and make sure their carpets are thin so that wheels roll on them.

Did Mariott consider that? Has anyone other than me noticed?

Another minor one, the way the shower was designed and with the thick white shower curtain they had, if you closed the shower curtain the shower was DARK. The darkest shower I've ever been in. There was no way for light to get into it.

It made me wonder if it was intentional like maybe they wanted people to conserve water so they intentionally made the shower un-inviting so people would spend as little time in there as possible.

I'm not saying the Mariott Resisdence Inn was bad. It was a very nice place. I just wondered about these minor issues. I wonder is there a hotel construction design book that actually lists things like "don't use thick carpet, it will make your guests feel like they have to pull there luggage through mud" or maybe it says the opposite "Use think carpet, that way trying to roll luggage on it will be difficult and guests will end up asking for someone to help them which will might earn a tip". I hope it's the first and not the second advice.

I was also at the Hawthorn Residence Inn in Santa Clara/San Jose area. They had the same problem with the carpet...too thick...but, they also had a more obvious problem. The entire first floor of the hotel was paved in a cobblestone type of flooring. What this did was make any rolling luggage go CLACK, BANG, CLICK, BONK loudly down the hallways. Since I got in at like 12:30am I'm sure I was annoying people trying to sleep with the noise it made. It's got to be worse in the morning when lots of people are leaving early and lots of others trying to sleep in. What were they thinking when they chose to put bumpy flooring in?

The Hawthorn Residence Inn in general was pretty crap. Other things that were wrong although maybe not "design issues" were: The bed lamps were broken. The TV didn't work, the walls were thin and I could hear the guy in the next room snoring loudly, their wireless networking signal was too low to use and finally when I woke up for breakfast there was no place to sit. The room was too small and was full. No biggy, I was only there one day.

Even the San Jose Airport had a few issues. One was the signs outside the elevators that showed what was on what floors was upside down. A normal elevator sign shows higher floors above lower floors. It fits your mental model. You're on floor 1, you see on the sign floor 4 is above you so you press the UP button. But, the San Jose Airport elevator signs had them upside down with the 1st floor written at the top and the 4th floor written at the bottom of the sign. I wonder how many people (if any) have pushed the wrong direction button because of that?

I'm not a building designer or an architect but it would be interesting to know if there are building design books that cover all those kinds of issues just like there are software user interface design books and web user interface design books. I know there are books that cover visual design but what I'm asking about is more like usage design.]]> Buying a Notebook http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-09-30.htm

This is just a rant but damit, why are the prices for notebooks so varied? I've been wanting a notebook computer lately and have been looking and it's so frustrating because there are so many tradeoffs. Go for lightweight and then settle for a small screen? Go for cheap and therefore no power? Decide I just want to browse the net and read email and therefore don't need the graphic speed or decide I might want to program at a cafe and therefore need the graphic acceleration. And so it goes back and forth, back and forth.

opinions 2006-09-30T19:00:00+09:00 2006-09-30T19:00:00+09:00 2006-09-30T19:00:00+09:00
I've been wanting a notebook computer lately and have been looking and it's so frustrating because there are so many tradeoffs. Go for lightweight and then settle for a small screen? Go for cheap and therefore no power? Decide I just want to browse the net and read email and therefore don't need the graphic speed or decide I might want to program at a cafe and therefore need the graphic acceleration. And so it goes back and forth, back and forth.

For example, of course lots of Mac fans would recommend getting a MacBook or MacBookPro. That rules out the lightweight idea. All MacBooks are around 5lbs+. If I want graphic acceleration then I have to go to a MacBookPro. But, MacBookPros start at $2k, and that's with only 512meg of ram and a 80gig HD :-(

Sometimes I almost talk myself into living without the acceleration and going for a MacBook but they start at $1100 for just 512k of ram and a 60gig HD. To give you some contrast my nephew just got a new Gateway MX6931 from Best Buy. It's got an Intel Core Duo with 2GIG of ram and 160gig HD for...........$999!! and the display is larger. 15.4 vs the MacBook's 13.1. Try to expand a MacBook to the same specs and the MacBook will be more than twice as expensive.

Toshiba has a few nice ones. Unfortunately Toshiba Japan and Toshiba USA are different companies and they sell different notbooks.

I know it's stupid but style is important to me as well. On they style front there are really only 2 choices IMO. Apple and Sony. I was looking at the Sony SZ series. The plus to the SZ series is they have both a low-powered intel graphic accelerator AND a fast Nvidia one in the same notebook and you can switch between them. Using the low-powered one you get almost double the battery life. The SZ is also light, more than a 20% lighter than the Mac or Gateway above. But, it's nearly as expensive as a Mac at $1800. With 1gig of ram and a 160gig HD it's $2100. For those prices I could buy 2 of the gateways.

What I'm really curious about is why such a difference in price? It's it really just about branding? Are their quality differences? I know people that have had problems with pretty much every brand of notebook. That includes Mac and Sony and Toshiba and IBM and you name it.

I kept flopping back and forth between resolution issues too. The current most common resolution for a notebook seems to be a widescreen with 1280x800 pixels. that's relatively small. At work I have 2 1280x1024 monitors. At home I have 3, the main one is at 1920x1200. Resolution matters, especially for programs like Photoshop or Visual Studio that have lots of control panels or panes that need to be open. It also matters for editing code. The more code I can see at once the easier it is for me to understand what I'm looking at.

So, some notebooks have higher res than 1280x800 but almost all of them feature some tradeoff. For example the 15.4 inch macbook pro goes to 1440x900 but it's expensive. Sony makes a type BX which does 1440x1050 and it's accelerated but it also weighs more like the Mac and Gateway vs the SZ. It also doesn't have an unaccelerated option so it's got a worse battery life. Sony also makes a special F series with a 15.4 inch 1680x1050 display which would be awesome. They call it their "special graphics version" but damit, it it's not accelerated. WTF! If I remember right it's not even a Core Duo machine. Lenovo makes one but damit, Lenovo's are fuuuuuuugly! Those 15.4 notebooks are also HEAVY.

CEATEC, Japanese version of I guess CES or Comdex is this week. Maybe some company will announce one without the trade offs.............I can dream at least.]]> A Japanese Translation Question http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-08-15.htm

in Japanese only

opinions 2006-08-15T19:00:00+09:00 2006-08-15T19:00:00+09:00 2006-08-15T19:00:00+09:00 Google Maps Japan Sucks http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-07-17.htm

Google maps seems pretty cool. Certainly the interface is interesting. Not everything is perfect but dragging the map around is nicer than clicking "scroll left" like most map systems. On top of that, it has an API letting you easily integrate it into your website which is a great idea. Unfortunately though, in acutally use here in Japan it sucks. For example, lets say you wanted to go to a some restaurant, you type in the address in Google and this comes up.

opinions 2006-07-17T19:00:00+09:00 2006-07-17T19:00:00+09:00 2006-07-17T19:00:00+09:00
On top of that, it has an API letting you easily integrate it into your website which is a great idea. Unfortunately though, in acutally use here in Japan it sucks.

For example, lets say you wanted to go to a some restaurant, you type in the address in Google and this comes up.

Can you even tell there is a subway station there? Check out the larger image and notice there is almost no information.

Now check out Yahoo maps for Japan.

Hey, there's a station here. Not only that, if you are familar with the color codes of the various subway lines you can see the blue, green and purple lines go to this station. Blue is the Toei line, Green is the Shinjuku line, Purple is the Honzomon line. Even if you didn't know the names of the lines you could go by color and just check a subway map. With the Google one you wouldn't even know a subway exists let alone what lines.

Yahoo offers even more though. On the left side of the screen is a bunch of info.

Including a key for the icons, a list of all the closest stations to the spot marked on the map and how far away they are by walking. In this case Kudanshita station (1min), Jimbocho station (8mins), Takebashi station (10mins), Suidobashi station (11) minutes, Iidabashi station (11 minutes). So, for example if you know getting to one of the 3 lines mentioned before is out of your way but you know the line nearest to you goes through one of these closer station you now know the easiest way for you to get where you want to go.

Below each of those stations is a link to show you how to get there. Click the "make this the destnation 到着 link" and then type in where you are and Yahoo will tell you what trains to take to get there

I even get a weather report for that area.

Why did I post this? Because I've been seeing sites starting to use Google and it's making their sites HARDER to use. For example the Bento.com, a great site for restaurant info, recently switched to google. Let's say I want to go to Den Den Den. I check the map and because it missing any reference to subways there's no way a foreigner would be able to figure it out. Many Japanese could not even figure it out if they were not from Tokyo. Checking out the same map on Yahoo I can see the immediately the Ginza line, the Marunouchi line, the Chiyoda line and several others. I get a list of 5 stations all within 9 minutes of walking there. Even if I didn't know the area I could look at a map of the subway system, find the place that the green, gold and red lines cross and figure out where to go.

I'm not promoting yahoo either. Although they are better than google in this case so it just about every other Japanese map site. Mapion for instance shows the subway lines and as links to stations, bus stops, parking lots and other things.

My impression is, programmers and other web nerds are deciding to use google because they consider it cool, because the UI appears slick and because there is a nice API. Unfortunately they are making it harder for their customers to find the very places they are trying to help them find.]]> Google's double standard http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-06-03.htm

I know Google seems to be everyone's favorite company especially with their supposed "do no evil" written into their mission statement and yet they seem to be doing the exact same things that when Microsoft does them are considered evil.

opinions 2006-06-03T19:00:00+09:00 2006-06-03T19:00:00+09:00 2006-06-03T19:00:00+09:00 "do no evil" written into their mission statement and yet they seem to be doing the exact same things that when Microsoft does them are considered evil.

First off, Google complained that Microsoft's IE7 will default to Microsoft's search. Yet Google's own toolbar not only defaults to Google and it's not even settable unlike IE7.

Google's toolbar can help you post to blogs.....but only if the blog is on Blogger.com which is run by Google. Why can't I pick any blog service? Standards for posting to blogs have been around long before Google even introduced the toolbar. You could argue Google is not supporting standards since they are clearly only supporting their proprietary solution. Something that when Microsoft does it is considered evil.

Google's toolbar can also let you send a page to a friend through e-mail....But only if you use gmail, their email service to send it. Sending through e-mail is also a standard and yet Google is not supporting it. If Microsoft did this it would be considered evil.

Google's newest toolbar now supports online bookmarks. The advantage to online bookmarks is no matter where you are when you create the bookmark it will be available anywhere else you login and use the toolbar. There have been several sites which support this, one of the most famous is del.icio.us which also supports an API for allowing any program to add and edit bookmarks. But, here again, Google only supports their proprietary solution.

Google has a free image organizing program called Picasa. It has also has features for posting to blogs, in this case photos. But, here again Google only supports their proprietary solution and again there is no excuse as standards for doing this existed long before Picasa.

Of course Google supporters will point out that Microsoft is a monopoly and that the Google Toolbar and Picasa among other Google software are optional. Unfortunately that completely misses the point.

Google says "we will do no evil". When Microsoft tries to keep you locked in to their proprietary solutions people claim they are evil. Clearly Google is attempting to do the same thing. They make all of their tools work with only other Google services. Through their web presence (they are to the net what Microsoft is to OSes) and their tools they are trying to make it as hard as possible to not use 100% Google services. This is no different what people claim is Microsoft's evil. It's clear Google's goal is to wall their users into using everything Google. The same techniques that people claim Microsoft used to get a monopoly Google is now trying to use to create one themselves.

Come on Google, Live up to your own mission! Don't be evil!]]> Century of the Self http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-05-17.htm

I watched a BBC Documentary, Century of the Self It certainly brought up tons of interesting things. The series talks about the development of modern PR up to and including it's influence into politics in the 90s. Just A couple of highlights that stood out for me.

opinions 2006-05-17T19:00:00+09:00 2006-05-17T19:00:00+09:00 2006-05-17T19:00:00+09:00 Century of the Self It certainly brought up tons of interesting things. The series talks about the development of modern PR up to and including it's influence into politics in the 90s. Just A couple of highlights that stood out for me.

(*) Edward Bernays, the man who supposedly invented most modern PR techniques, in the 1920s convinced women to start smoking. Supposedly at the time smoking was considered gross and basically for men only so very few women smoked. The show claims he hired a bunch of women to march in the New York Thanksgiving Day Parade (a big yearly parade) and had them put a pack of cigarettes in their garters. On cue they were all to lift their dresses and light one up. He then told the press to come to the parade because there was going to be a protest for women's equality. On cue the women light up, the press took photos and reported lighting up a cigarette as the symbol for women's equality and like over night it was now seen as if you supported equality for women you should be smoking.

(*) about 20 years later there was a election in Guatemala that brought in a new government. Previous to the election the country had effectively run by a U.S. banana company. The company hired Edward Bernays to help them get control of the country. He did it by flying lots of senators and other U.S. politicians to Guatemala and staging all kinds of things to make it appear the new government was communist in nature (even though it wasn't at all). All the politicians bought it and the U.S. ended up toppling the Guatemalan government.

Those were just from the first episode. All of it was pretty thought provoking stuff. Even though about 15~20% of the documentary itself seemed like propaganda if you can find a way to watch it I highly recommend it.]]> Flat Rate Broadband Cell Phone Service? http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2006-04-11.htm

I was talking to my Japanese teacher this morning about the idea that eventually cell phones will go flat rate. The idea being that a modern cell phone is basically a computer connected wirelessly to the net. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to browse the net, use skype for unlimited phone calls, download music, tv movies, etc, all for a flat fee. The only thing preventing this from happening currently is the cell phone companies themselves. While it is in their individual interest to keep fees high, all it will take is one competitor to start the flat fee service and users will start switching in droves forcing the other companies to follow suit.

opinions 2006-04-11T19:00:00+09:00 2006-04-11T19:00:00+09:00 2006-04-11T19:00:00+09:00
While it is in their individual interest to keep fees high, all it will take is one competitor to start the flat fee service and users will start switching in droves forcing the other companies to follow suit.

I don't know when this will happen but, after bringing that up with my teacher she mentioned that Softbank just bought Vodafone Japan. Vodafone is one of the 3 largest cell phone service providers here along with AU-KDDI and NTT Docomo.

I don't know if Softbank plans to go flat rate but I have my hopes up because...Softbank is the company arguably soley responsible for the Japanese broadband revolution. Softbank runs Yahoo BB (BB = Broadband) which is the most successful ISP in Japan. Before Yahoo BB, broadband was like it is in the states. More expensive than dialup. A typical broadband connection was 1~2megabits per second and cost $50 a month where as dialup was $20 a month. Except for computer geeks like me, very few people felt the need to switch to broadband.

Yahoo BB changed all that, they started selling broadband connections for $20 a month which made it the same price as dialup. Nearly overnight the entire country was switching to broadband. Even more, in Japan, unlike in the USA, there is no flat rate for local calls so a $20 dialup connection plus the fees to the phone company for each minute connected made Yahoo BB's offering CHEAPER THAN DIALUP. There was no reason not to switch.

Of course within 3~6 months the other ISPs finally started offering broadband at more reasonable prices although none of them matched Yahoo BB. I assumed they all thought that because they were "brand names" and Yahoo BB was the upstart they could charge a premium price.

Even so, Yahoo BB countered by constantly upgrading their services. 8megabit connections, then 20 megabit connections and now 50 megabit connections. Yahoo BB even offers 1000megabit connections to your building now.

Japan owes a huge debt of gratitude to Yahoo BB / Softbank because without their initiative Japan would not be one of the most broadband countries in the world ready to take on the 21st century.

So, now that Softbank has bought Vodafone. I can only hope they plan to push the cell phone services in the same forward thinking way and revolutionize the cell phone industry as well.]]> Men's Public Restrooms: Why it sucks to be a guy http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2005-11-01.htm

I don't know what it's like for women but I imagine it's not nearly as bad. For some reason, men are assholes when it comes to using a public restroom. Go into any men's public restroom and the odds that the toilet seat is covered in pee are probably greater than 50%

opinions 2005-11-01T19:00:00+09:00 2005-11-01T19:00:00+09:00 2005-11-01T19:00:00+09:00
Of course it can be worse, people don't flush. People put in half the toilet paper roll clogging the toilet and making it impossible to flush. Some vandals even bust the seats off for fun :-(

Some percentage of this is actually complete assholes who think it's fun to mess up the toilet, pee everywhere, etc. But, a large percentage of it is pee shy guys. Pee shy means you are too embarrassed to pee in front of others so instead of using the urinal you go into a toilet stall because it's more private. But, you only have to do #1 and since you don't want to touch the seat you just pee without lifting it. I see tons of guys do this and surprisingly they don't look like meek guys. They are usually jock types but clearly they are pee shy otherwise they wouldn't be using the stalls to pee.

It only takes one asshole a day to ruin a stall. Sure they have paper covers for the seat but if the seat is wet they are hardly useful.

The problem has been around so long that within the last few years I've started seeing stalls with an extra paper dispenser and a cleaning agent dispenser. The instructions say, take a piece of this special paper, squirt some cleaning solution on it from the cleaning solution dispenser and clean the seat.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this now is that last week I was in Malaysia where the same problem exists. I guess guys are assholes the world over. The problem appears to be so bad that this was their solution

Not only did they have the soap dispenser for cleaning they had an actual hose in each stall next to the toilet to hose it down and of course a drain in the floor for the water.

In Singapore I hear it's a crime to not flush the toilet after you use it. It would be awesome if it was a crime to soil the seat. Caning sounds about right to me.

By the way, I used to be pee shy though I never used the stalls. I'm not sure why. It started when I was about 24yrs old, all of a sudden I guess I became self conscious about peeing and if there were other guys around and no dividers between urinals it would often take a while to get started. About 3 years ago a friend told me "try doing multiplication in your head while peeing, supposedly it's connected to the same part of the brain and you can pee". I don't know if he was making that up just so I'd have something to take my mind off it or if it's true but I can say it does work. I assume it just gives me something else to think about instead of being self conscious but since that day I haven't had any pee shy incidents. If you are pee shy give it a try.

Finally, that is one advantage to Japanese style toilets. No part of your body touches them so even if they are a little messy it's not quite as bad.

No, I'm not ready to trade my Western style for Japanese style. :-p]]> Sick People Suck in Japan http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2005-10-13.htm

I'm fed up with sick people in Japan.I get sick, I stay home and try not to get others sick. My co-workers though come in to work sick therefore getting me sick. 2 days ago I brought back omiyage from Osaka. I put it on the team table. One of my sick co-workers comes over and coughs his sick all over the table. So much for eating the omiyageToday I go to Subway Sandwich (one of the few places near my work). As the guy is making my sandwich I notice he's sick, sweating with a fever and coughing AS HE'S F*CKING MAKING MY SANDWICH!!! Rather than chew the guy out I just threw the sandwich away.

opinions 2005-10-13T19:00:00+09:00 2005-10-13T19:00:00+09:00 2005-10-13T19:00:00+09:00
I get sick, I stay home and try not to get others sick. My co-workers though come in to work sick therefore getting me sick.

2 days ago I brought back omiyage from Osaka. I put it on the team table. One of my sick co-workers comes over and coughs his sick all over the table. So much for eating the omiyage

Today I go to Subway Sandwich (one of the few places near my work). As the guy is making my sandwich I notice he's sick, sweating with a fever and coughing AS HE'S F*CKING MAKING MY SANDWICH!!! Rather than chew the guy out I just threw the sandwich away.

I get to work a different co-worker who had the good sense to stay home yesterday is in to day coughing and hacking non-stop.

I'm EFFING READY TO GO POSTAL ON THEIR ASSES!

I've been stay at home level sick 3 times in the last 2 months and I can tell given the sick these guys have I haven't had it yet. I'm pissed off enough that I feel like going home just to avoid them and telling my boss I'll be back in when the sick people are no longer there.

Another thing, it's that time of the year when the train aholes (I mean train operators) decide in their infinite wisdom to turn off the air conditioning because it's not hot outside. So, the train becomes the most humid sick infested place in all the world. IMO the train companies should be held liable for all the pain, suffering, medical bills and lost productivity they cause when they do this.

WTF is wrong with these people. You'd think that in a society where not bothering/imposing on others is one of the pillars of their whole way of living that spreading your sick around would be up there with murder but no, to the Japanese missing work is considered putting people out. Of course if they thought it through they'd see that getting everyone sick is the far bigger cost to everyone than missing work for a couple of days.]]> What business can NOT learn from Open Source http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2005-08-07.htm

Paul Graham recently posted an article entitled "What Business Can Learn from Open Source". I usually like to read what Paul Graham has to say but this time I think he really missed it completely.He claims that amateurs in the form of open source developers and bloggers are showing that businesses and pros are not the right way to make stuff. He goes on to mention Firefox as one example. The problem is Firefox is not made by amateurs, it's made by paid employees, it just happens to be open source. So is Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, CVS, Subversion, Open Office and probably most other high profile open source projects. Maybe the gimp is made by amateurs?

opinions 2005-08-07T19:00:00+09:00 2005-08-07T19:00:00+09:00 2005-08-07T19:00:00+09:00 What Business Can Learn from Open Source". I usually like to read what Paul Graham has to say but this time I think he really missed it completely.

He claims that amateurs in the form of open source developers and bloggers are showing that businesses and pros are not the right way to make stuff. He goes on to mention Firefox as one example. The problem is Firefox is not made by amateurs, it's made by paid employees, it just happens to be open source. So is Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, CVS, Subversion, Open Office and probably most other high profile open source projects. Maybe the gimp is made by amateurs?

I might see his point with web writers vs. professional journalists but he has nearly zero evidence to back up his software claim, and even amateur writers vs. pro, since the pro is paid and has 8+ paid hours a day to do nothing but write I think the pro is still more likely to do better than the amateur. I think the bigger lesson to learn is the cream might rise to the top in the new environment but they will go professional at that point. Like that Jason Kottke guy, he's now officially a pro, no longer an amateur. Otherwise talented people will get offers making them pros. The real lesson is that without the old barriers talent will rise to the top.

His whole work at a home thesis is so far off the mark as to be laughable. First off he's basing it back on this false open source claims. Then, well, I guess this is just my own belief but the number of people I know that can function at home seems like about 10-20%. The other 80-90%, myself included, need the office to separate work and play otherwise they will play and play and play or procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate. They also need the communication and the friendship/companionship that comes from working with people at work. I guess later he talks about startups so if he's saying 10 guys in a room is better than a company of 1000 people with lots of formal bureaucracy I agree with that but is claim of "And yet people working in their own homes, which aren't even designed to be workplaces, end up being more productive." is pure bunk. There may be a few isolated cases but it's not in any way generally true.

He also goes on about fully flexible hours etc, I think it's the rare team that can handle that. I know plenty of people that complain when a co-worker isn't there as late as them. They hate being the only one there. They hate being the one feeling like they are working the hardest. Of course I would personally feel guilty if I thought I was working less than the others but I think basically having too flexible an environment eventually leads to a negative feedback loop (hey, that guy is only coming in 6 hours a day so that's all I'm coming in... That guy then sees another guy taking 2 hours lunches so he starts taking 2 hour lunches. That guy then is seen browsing the net a lot so the other guys start browsing the net a lot, etc.). It's great when everyone is on the same page but even then, I know startups where one partner has a wife and baby and another doesn't. The one that doesn't is working till 12am, the one that does leaves at 7. In the beginning they think it's all okay but eventually it leads to resentment. One thinks he put in 30-50% more work than the other. The other thinks he did the best he could reasonably be expected to put in therefore he deserves the same.

Paul mentions meetings being a problem and I get the impression that maybe he's never actually worked on something large enough that it needed a team. I don't know his history but for example I've written a few things by myself, especially web related stuff so if Mr. Graham made similar programs he didn't need a team and therefore doesn't understand why you have to have meetings. In a game for example where it could be 8 to 250 people meetings are there to discuss design and decide what to do and how to do it and it basically isn't likely to happen any other way. Having one dictator at the top generally does not work. Sure there can be such a thing as too many meetings but zero meetings on a team project is not a team.

Paul talks about walking around contemplating as 50% of his work and that he'd feel guilty for it at an office but it is work. I agree with him that it is work and that he's self disciplined enough to putz around and still actually think about work is great but I know I'm not, sometimes I do need to think about stuff but I also know that if I go for walk or out to a restaurant or shopping or something thinking I'll be cogitating the solutions to my current problem at work that I really and truly will not think nearly as hard as if I just sat at my desk and forced it out. In fact, many self help books talk about just starting, don't think too much, just start creating or solving, figure out one thing you can do right now even if you don't have the complete answer and do it. It's in the work/creation that you'll figure out the rest of the solution, not looking at your belly button relaxing hoping inspiration hits. Does inspiration hit outside of work? Of course. But I'm far far more productive to be at work working on something they just spending 4 hours a day waiting for the inspiration before I do anything.

Paul says "The basic idea behind office hours is that if you can't make people work, you can at least prevent them from having fun". That's a pretty cynical view. Again this goes back to the kind of work maybe. There is 100% creative work, then there is all the busy work that has to be done. Again, I'm from games, 10% or less of the time is coming up with a character and his moves or a setting and it's props. 90% of the time is spent actually making those characters, moves and props and it's mostly just busy work. It gets done directly in relation to the time spent doing it. I'm sure the same is true for most projects. When I made Thumbs, it took a couple of days to of "creative" work to get the basic functionality working. Then it took 2 or 3 weeks to do the busy work of adding an interface and options and another 4 weeks of more busy work writing docs and making a website. That's what "work hours" are for. Someone has to do that busy work.

I guess the last half of his post makes some more sense. If you subtract the BS about "open source and blogs" then his post boils down to his typical advice of try some new things and encouragement to make your own startup but the first half, the basis for that advice, is pretty far off the mark.

So what aren't you going to learn from open source? Well, you are not going to learn that open source is more efficient than closed. If that was the case there should be more open source and it would appear before the closed but mostly open source is copying the closed source and still playing catch up except in 1 or 2 cases.

You are not going to learn that homes are better than offices. Successful open source is not generally not made in homes. You are not going to learn that amateurs do better than pros. Successful open source is mostly made by pros.

Paul claims these are the big lessons. (1) that people work harder on stuff they like, (2) that the standard office environment is very unproductive, and (3) that bottom-up often works better than top-down. 1 and 2 were true long before open source and 3 the key word is "often" not "always", not even "most of the time".

p.s. this is NOT an attack on open source. I think open source is great and I contribute myself. It's only a comment on conclusions I perceive as false.]]> ARC vs ZIP, the myth, the legend http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2005-07-24.htm

I doubt many people know this story but back in the mid to late 80s there was compression program called ARC. It functioned similar to WinZip or WinRAR by taking a bunch of files, compressing them and bundling them up into a single file which made it easier to send across a modem and also take less time and therefore less money. It was THE standard. Everywhere you'd go there would be .ARC files.

opinions 2005-07-24T19:00:00+09:00 2005-07-24T19:00:00+09:00 2005-07-24T19:00:00+09:00
At some point a new program came out called PKARC. It was faster than ARC, much faster and it became very popular for dealing with .ARC files. The company that made ARC, called SEA (System Enhancement Associates) sued the PKARC guys. They claimed that the file format for .ARC files was copyright them and that the PKARC guy was not allowed to copy it. SEA sued the PKARC guy and won. So, the PKARC guy made a new format called .ZIP, it compressed better then .ARC and within a few months .ARC files were a thing of the past, .ZIP files became the standard and SEA pretty much disappeared. Everyone was happy because some little guy, Phil Katz of PKZIP, showed some evil corporation SEA what for.

At least that's what I thought the truth was. I believe that's what most people believe. Today I saw this 20min documentary about it. Wow, was I wrong.]]> Firefly not SciFi http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2005-07-11.htm

I read somewhere on the net that Firefly was a really good new SciFi series so I checked it out.

opinions 2005-07-11T19:00:00+09:00 2005-07-11T19:00:00+09:00 2005-07-11T19:00:00+09:00
Unfortunately it's not SciFi at all. What makes a SciFi story SciFi is some new technology, phenomenon or discovery and what its repercussions are. Examples: What if time travel exists? Could you go back and stop your own birth? What if teleporters exist? Would cities become depopulated since you could live anywhere? What would change if computers or robots became sentient. Would they take over? What if we met Aliens? Would they have similar beliefs? What if a replicator existed removing the need to work? Would people do greater things our all become lazy?

Firefly has none of those types of ideas. Instead the issues covered could just as well be set on a pirate ship in the 1400s or a bunch of horse riders in the 1800s. I'm not saying Firefly is bad, it's well made, but it's not SciFi.]]> Time for the GPL to die http://blog.greggman.com/edit/moblogposts/2005-07-01moblog.htm

Today Eric S. Raymond was interviewed on "Why we don't need the GPL anymore" so Let me just add this to the discussion.

opinions 2005-07-01T19:00:00+09:00 2005-07-01T19:00:00+09:00 2005-07-01T19:00:00+09:00 Why we don't need the GPL anymore" so Let me just add this to the discussion.

There are plenty of hugely successful BSD style open source projects. For example:

Apache
PHP
Python
Boost
Subversion
Lua
XWindows (XFree and XOrg)

And several less famous but super important projects as well

and of course thousands of ot he rs. The point is of the list above is not that BSD style is better GPL style. It's just to point out that there is plenty of evidence that BSD style works just fine and that GPL style viralness is not required for a successful open source project.

The plus to BSD style over GPL style is that it allows companies to contribute to those projects (ie, give something back) and not have to give everything else. With BSD, if I'm making a game (I'll use that example since it's what I do), if I download libpng to load png textures in my game and I find a bug I can easily fix the bug and contribute that fix back to the libpng group. If libpng was GPLed, just to be able to use it I'd have to give up my entire game up. Some people see that as fair and good, I don't. Instead of using and contributing to libpng if it was GPLed I'd end up writing my own PNG loader. Nobody wins, I lose because I had to waste time writing my own PNG routines, the commons loses because there was one less chance for someone to contribute directly to libpng.

As for the GPL itself, well, in a word, it's EVIL. The GPLs stated goal is to destroy ever other type of license in existance. The GPL is not their to co-operate, to play nice, to be friendly. It is not trying to say "the right tool for the right job". It is simplying trying to ban all other licenses period. That in itself should be enough reason to avoid it. Just to attempt to get a counter a few false rebuttles:

(*) LGPL: The LGPL is not an attempt to play nice. Go read the rationalization for the LGPL. It's sole point is to lure people into the GPL. The FSF sees it as a neccessary evil, not as a positive compromise.

(*) "If I don't GPL the code someone will take my code, put it in their own product without contributing back". First off, the above projects should give evidence that that's not neccessarily the case. But second off, I find it amazing that someone could put up an program that a million users could use without giving a single thing back. As far as you know they are using your software to design bombs or send e-mail spam. You don't know if they are doing good things or bad things with it. They could have started a company and made a bazillion dollars and not contributed one thin dime of time or money back to your project. But, the moment some programmer takes even a single line of code from your source, now for something you're having a fit that he's doing something wrong? Sure you're free to set your own conditions on how people use your projects but there's just something strange about that disconnect to me.

When you support GNU and the GPL do you know what you are really promoting? Some quotes from the GNU Manifesto

"Low-paying organizations do poorly in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly if the high-paying ones are banned."

In answer to the question "Programmers need to make a living somehow" the answer is

All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax:

Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the price as a software tax. The government gives this to an agency like the NSF to spend on software development.

But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to the project of his own choosing--often, chosen because he hopes to use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay.

The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on.

Still think the GPL is a good license to choose?

]]> Lessons from Star Trek http://blog.greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2005-06-30.htm

I've been reading Steve Pavlina's self help site recently trying to figure myself out. His latest post is about Star Trek: The Next Generation as examples of they types of people to aspire to be.It's an interesting universe and it would be nice to aspire to the but it only takes a little thought to realize it would never work.No money? Then how do you decide who gets to live in the penthouse or beach front property and who gets a 1st floor apartment in downtown Detroit? You can't replicate those.

opinions 2005-06-30T19:00:00+09:00 2005-06-30T19:00:00+09:00 2005-06-30T19:00:00+09:00 His latest post is about Star Trek: The Next Generation as examples of they types of people to aspire to be.

It's an interesting universe and it would be nice to aspire to the but it only takes a little thought to realize it would never work.

No money? Then how do you decide who gets to live in the penthouse or beach front property and who gets a 1st floor apartment in downtown Detroit? You can't replicate those.

As for all getting along and supporting each other, there's only one captain and I'm sure there is more than one person that wants to be captain so all the backstabbing, politics, brown nosing and other stuff that happens today would never go away even if there was no need for money.

Even more, I personally believe we'd have an extremely hard time getting anything done if there was no need for money. I'd like to believe projects that take 200 people 2 or more years would still get done (Lord of the Rings the movie, Halo) but I think the truth is the majority of those people only stick around to work because they need the money. If they didn't need the money then they'd most likely want to either relax OR do their own thing, not what some director / boss tells them to do. Working in a creative field I often have to deal with decisions that my boss makes that I don't agree with. Design decisions. It's only because he's my boss and I need the job that I actually stick around. Remove the need to stay (no money needed) and I think most people would leave much easier when they had a disagreement.

It's probably a great goal to want to be as good as the main characters of ST:TNG but you're going to have to deal with the real world and ST:TNG never shows the characters having to deal with those issues.]]> Japanese Youth Shun Computers http://blog.greggman.com/edit/moblogposts/2005-05-17moblog.htm

Or something like that. My Japanese teacher brought in an article for me to read today about a survey some guy did from Nov~Dec 2004. The survey was about cell phone and computer use among elementary school students 4th grade and up through junior high and up to high school sophomores students throughout Japan. All in all they got responses from about 15000 students.

opinions 2005-05-17T19:00:00+09:00 2005-05-17T19:00:00+09:00 2005-05-17T19:00:00+09:00

Some interesting stats:

Percent of students that have a cell phone:

Elementary school 19%
Junior high school 45%
High school 93%

Of those students that have a cell phone percent that send at least one e-mail a day.

Elementry school boys 20%
Elementry school girls 51%
Junior high school boys 83%
Junior high school girls 92%
High school boys 90%
High school girls 97%

Clearly girls use their phones more. The most interesting ones for me were these though

Percent of students that use the computer to send and receive e-mail by computer:

Junior high 30%
High school 14%

Percent of students that play games on their computer

Elemetary school 68%
High school 32%

Percent of students that study using their computer

Elementary school 23%
High school 2%

The older the get the less they use the computer apparently.

The point of the article then went on to talk about attitudes. Given the choice of only choosing one of the following answers, as in "which best describes your feelings"

Living would become harder without a cell phone
When I have nothing to do I start using my cell phone
If I get no mail and no calls I start feeling lonely

The author apparently came to the conclusion that people with better grades picked #1 more than people with lower grades and some how he read something into that. I didn't follow his logic but the whole topic got me thinking. What are American kids like? How much do they use the computer vs the cell phone for e-mail? My impression is e-mail from cell phones never quite caught on in the USA mostly because the cell phone companies sucked at making it easy to use (the last 2 phones I got while visiting the states both had attrocious e-mail text entry interfaces). It wasn't until recently that blackberry showed that the phone companies screwed up and missed a huge market opportunity but not supporting e-mail effectively.

Another question was does this continue in Japan. Does computer e-mail use go up past high school or does it decline even further? My impression is that for non geeks, the general population, especially women in Japan do the majority of their e-mail on their cell phone. 20-30 messages a day. I know plenty that while they do have access to a PC the vast majority of their mail is on the cell phone.

It also got me thinking about the future. Clearly cell phones get more powerful everyday. When might they replace my computer. Just blue skying here but I can imagine phones that run 20 hours on a single charge, that have those projection keyboards or something else for fast entry, that have some other kinds of display systems like projecting the display in the air in front of you and that have a fast and responsive net connection. If that was the case most people would not need a PC or a PDA or a notebook anymore and something like that can't really be that far off, 5-10 years?

Back to the author's conclusions which I said I didn't quite follow but I talked to my teacher about this, during my lifetime we went from slide rules to calculators. I never had to use a slide rule but I just barely escaped that. By high school calculators were relatively cheap and we were allowed to use them on math tests because the tests were not about the answers, they were about how you solved the problem. The calculator only helped you verify your answer, it wouldn't give you the answer. Well, I can imagine a future where your cell phone, with instant and fast access to the net becomes a required part of your school studies. Where when you take a test the test isn't about if you memorized facts, the test if is you can find information about a topic and write a reasoned opinion on it since the facts for anything will always be at your fingertips. Fun to imagine. :-)

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