Wednesday February 15, 2012

JeffLee's past comments

  • 2

    JeffLee

    @oginome Many other countries could produce these producers goods if they wanted to. The problem is that such products are not very profitable, requiring lots of labor, investment and time, for small returns.

    Any Western country could produce what Japan does, IF they thought that doing so was worthwhile. Japan makes them because it doesn't know what else to do.

    Instead Western countries make things like the Boeing 787, Swiss watches, Ferraris, spacecraft, etc, products whose technical sophistication far surpasses anything Japan can produce.

    Posted in: Japan losing its manufacturing edge to South Korea

  • -1

    JeffLee

    "Snow Festival" -- a fabricated pseudo event that prevents skiiers and snowboarders from having REAL fun in Hokkaido because all the flights to Sapporo are booked out well in advance at the height of ski season by lemmings who have nothing better to do with their lives than look at artificially formed snow and ice in a bland city.

    I was going to comment more, but Goodwill did it for me.

    Posted in: 12 reasons to visit Japan in 2012

  • 2

    JeffLee

    @erikaj: Tall players have an advantage in the serve, because the higher position of their racket head at the time of impact with the ball offers a bigger window into the service court. What Murray said made perfect sense.

    Posted in: Nishikori says he is 'still years off peak'

  • -1

    JeffLee

    Kamakura?! It needs some boulevards, green grass, wider sidewalks, public benches and other infrastructure. The road from the beach to the big Buddha is hell: clogged with car and truck traffic and lined with narrow sidewalks. The brownish beach isn't very fetching either. How about a causeway there?

    Posted in: Gov't to ask UNESCO to register Mt Fuji, Kamakura as World Heritage sites

  • -2

    JeffLee

    He plans to "outfox" his opponents? How's he going to do that: he's a baseline hitter. I saw snippets of yesterday's game and it seems Murray was employing more technique: drop shots, slices, etc.. NHK said Murray won because he had more power, but I didn't see that at all.

    Posted in: Nishikori says he is 'still years off peak'

  • 0

    JeffLee

    Hitachi means "rising sun," making this an iconic development. I once heard Hitachi was originally founded with the aim of reducing Japan's dependence on foreign imports.

    Posted in: Hitachi to stop making televisions

  • 2

    JeffLee

    the weight of the snow on the roof of our wooden house would make it impossible to move the sliding doors

    .So why is that not a problem in Canada, northern Europe and other snowy places where people don't go on their roofs?

    Posted in: Man dies after falling from icy roof in Nagano

  • 2

    JeffLee

    Kara aren't bad for Asian pop. They sing in multi-part harmony and can actually shake their hips in time with the beat. They make AKB48 and others look like tone-deaf 8-year-olds.

    Posted in: KARA's first Japan tour to kick off April 14

  • 5

    JeffLee

    Ironic how the writer cites 3/11 to underscore the dedication of Japanese newspapers. In those critical days, the Japanese media merely supported Tepco's line that "Fukushima is under control and there is nothing to worry about." The Japanese media did a huge disservice to the local people.

    Posted in: Newspapers in Japan defy new media challenge

  • 2

    JeffLee

    @ExportExpert: Wrong. GM is a fresh and enormously popular brand in China and elsewhere in Asia, and its market strength there continues to grow. When I visit Asia, I’m astounded that some of the most eye-catching vehicles on the roads carry the GM badge. US automakers suffer on home turf largely because the southern states have allowed foreign competitors to undercut Detroit through lower wages, benefits and restricted collective bargaining.

    Posted in: GM reclaims world's biggest carmaker title as Toyota skids

  • 0

    JeffLee

    @2020hindsights: "Actually, (Singapore) is not the best because it doesn't cover half the city."

    Singapore is also an island and a country, which includes beaches, smaller islanders and a tropical rainforest. Downtown Singapore is well covered. How many of Tokyo's subway lines run through Okutama?

    Posted in: What do you think are the good and bad points about the subway systems in Japan's cities?

  • -6

    JeffLee

    The bench seats suck. I don't like being squeezed against strangers. They should have armrests like the London subway or individual seats like the Bangkok Skytrain, Singapore MRT, etc.

    Singapore's got the world's best system -- spacious and beautiful stations, lots of seating, easy connections.

    Posted in: What do you think are the good and bad points about the subway systems in Japan's cities?

  • -1

    JeffLee

    Back in the late 1990s, my PC friends and I used Yahoo Messenger for VOIP, which came before Skype and the others, and before anyone knew what VOIP was. It worked great. But then Yahoo bloated the client and made it more and more difficult to use. No surprise that Yahoo has fallen so hard.

    Posted in: Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang leaving company

  • 1

    JeffLee

    Fukushima represents isolation more than togetherness. Tourists are avoiding the region, and other prefectures are refusing to cooperate in the disposal of its debris, etc. etc. Japan is a faction-ridden society, marked by tribalism not unity.

    Posted in: 'Kizuna' takes many forms in post-disaster Japan, including marriage and infidelity

  • 0

    JeffLee

    When I checked out Google TV to get the box, I got this on its website: "Nearby stores: There are no nearby stores."

    Posted in: 'Smart TVs' offer new windows onto Internet

  • 0

    JeffLee

    I'm now trying to get through "IQ84," and take my word for it, it's anything but "brilliant." Tedious is a better descriptions. He's usually a good writer, but vastly overrated, it seems.

    Posted in: Special message of hope featuring narration scripted by Haruki Murakami being webcast

  • 11

    JeffLee

    Don't we all dream that our offspring will become couch-jumping Scientologists?

    Posted in: Kyoka Suzuki's ideal son - Tom Cruise

  • 1

    JeffLee

    @SamuraiBlue "it just price in which Korean manufacturers have an initiative over the Japanese counterpart."

    You are wrong. I bought a Korean Iriver Mp3 player and a Sony one, both around the same price. The iRiver had many more functions. The radio tuner, for instance, was international. The Sony radio could only be used in Japan! Since many people use their media players for travelling, this is just stupidity.

    Posted in: Sony's Stringer reportedly to step down as president

  • 1

    JeffLee

    "$1000 is not affordable?"

    PC users are accustomed to reasonable prices. My HP thin-and-light was $600, and I've been running a portion of my business (jobs in the field) on it with zero problems for nearly 2 years now. When it expires in several years' time, I'll upgrade to one of the models mentioned above.

    Posted in: Ultra-thin laptops set to dazzle CES gadget fair

  • 1

    JeffLee

    "japan can ill afford that because of its population density"

    Japan's population density is much lower than many European countries. In fact, many rural communities are depopulated from the graying population. The lack of space at facilities is a function of cost-cutting, not geographic reality.

    Posted in: Concern about aging reactors grows

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