Wednesday February 15, 2012

sk4ek's past comments

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    sk4ek

    And for heaven's sake, why not just spell it with a damned 'U' ???

    Posted in: Bvlgari to release charity ring and pendant for 'Save the Children'

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    sk4ek

    So what's up with skipping any mention of Nobunari Oda, who has a 4-3-3 combination ready to go for his first major competition in two years???

    Posted in: Asada in the spotlight at NHK Trophy

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    sk4ek

    Texas Instruments just came out with one about the same size that works with iPods and other devices, runs for 2 hours, but has slightly lower resolution. Good for sharing videos at close range with a small group.

    http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nc20081119pc.html

    Posted in: Palm-size projector

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    sk4ek

    Heck, in the US they have an entire CHANNEL devoted 24/7 to food porn (and several others with heavy food-related line-ups), so I don't really see what the big deal is, except perhaps the US lacks the "tarento" factor, and there is more focus on cooking itself and less on the connection between food and travel.

    Posted in: Japanese cooking shows and the loss of sanity

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    sk4ek

    Those aren't cooking shows he's watching--they're just typical variety show fluff and not worth wasting more hot air complaining about. There are any number of REAL cooking and restaurant shows that showcase great food, talented chefs, and restaurants well-deserving of their reputations, with not a googly-eyed, tastebud-paralyzed "tarento" in sight. ("Kentaro's Danshi Gohan" on TV Tokyo is one, real cooking and recipies that actually reproduce marvelously in the home kitchen).

    And name me anyone except Gordon Ramsey who regularly appears on television (in the US, at least)and actually has something BAD to say about the food they're presented with?

    That said, I think Japan could do with one of those cooking competitions like "Top Chef"--that kind of thing would go over great here, now that "Iron Chef" has been off the airways for a few years.

    Posted in: Japanese cooking shows and the loss of sanity

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    sk4ek

    And it's been scientifically demonstrated that, while salts from different parts of the world do differ in their chemical makeup, any differences in the mineral composition of various salts are so miniscule as to be undetectable by average human tastebuds. Thus, Japanese people are no more likely to prefer domestically produced salt than they are any other kind. The only thing that gives a perception of difference is the shape of the salt crystal itself--large and cubical for rock salts, flat and flaky for some sea salts, etc., hence conveying a distinct sensation on the tongue.

    Posted in: Marugoto potato

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    sk4ek

    Crude oil and airplane fuel are not the same thing. I hope they cut back the surcharge to Honolulu too, last time it was almost 50,000 yen... :-/

    Posted in: JAL to decrease international fare fuel surcharge from Jan 1

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    sk4ek

    Koda Kumi **IS **a drag queen.

    And Daigo is actually a decent guy--anything but spoiled, according to everything I've seen.

    Article Unavailable

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    sk4ek

    She wasn't charged with killing the character, only with stealing the identity and password required to do it. Identity theft is a crime just about anywhere, I think. So is breaking into another person's computer.

    Posted in: Woman jailed after 'killing' virtual husband

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    sk4ek

    John Cho, from the "Harold and Kumar" movies, will play Sulu. You'd think there was only one Asian actor in Hollywood...!!

    And the "roast" of William Shatner was fall-down-laughing funny, if far too raunchy for network broadcast. Lisa Lampanelli was a riot (even if she was reading from her notes the entire time), and Betty White, whew... in her 80s, and still able to both dish it out and take it with the rest of them...

    I think parts of it are available on YouTube...

    Posted in: Shatner upset Takei didn't invite him to wedding

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    sk4ek

    Alright, Dotour isn't exactly a small neighborhood business... but you get the idea.

    Posted in: NTT Communications to combine over 100 reward cards into cell phone

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    sk4ek

    Well there are two approaches to this problem, both of which have been tried before: either bring the various point card systems together on a unified platform (like NTT Comm is proposing), or come up with a point card system and then try to get as many retailers/businesses as possible to sign on as you can (something like what Tsutaya is trying to do with its T-Points card). The big problem is that the so many of those point cards filling our wallets come from small, sometimes even neighborhood shops--your dry cleaner, the bento place on the corner, your favorite bakery, Dotour, etc.--and no one has really figured out an economical and effective way to draw in these small chains and individual businesses that works for the businesses and the consumer. The sales effort alone--not to mention the system costs--make it a losing proposition.

    Still, maybe NTT Comm's efforts will be the start...

    Posted in: NTT Communications to combine over 100 reward cards into cell phone

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    sk4ek

    The lesson from Japan's own meltdowns of the past is that intervention can only work if it is done quickly and comprehensively. It took a decade to recover (and, on the individual consumer level, I don't think Japan really has recovered at all), and that was before the financial industry was as broadly intermingled globally as it is today.

    The one thing I think Japan can generally point to with some sense of pride is that--for the most part, excluding some rogue players like Murakami and Horie--they while they have had a lot of bad management, that management has seldom succumbed to the culture of personal greed that characterized so much of the leadership in the big U.S. companies who are now parading their sorry asses before Congress. Relative to the monetary damage, which now ranges in the trillions of dollars, a couple of hundred million may be a drop in the proverbial bucket, but the audacity it takes to continue to scoop water from the well for yourselves and your management cronies when you know the well's running dry is a mind-set you won't, for the most part, find here (outside of government, anyway).

    The man considered most responsible for Lehman's collapse, who handled their credit swap business through their London office, is still drawing $1,000,000 a month in salary.

    Posted in: It's curtains for turbo-capitalism

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    sk4ek

    Well the main thing is... did he recover the bag, or not???

    Posted in: Naked Briton detained after swimming in Imperial Palace moat

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    sk4ek

    I've found Google has grown increasingly less useful over the past year or so--I don't know if the problem is with their algorithms or what, but searches in Japanese regularly produces a long list of personal blogs at the top (surely all these individuals can't be using the latest SEO tools??), and searches in English (with "get results from the whole Web" checked) often still generates mostly irrelevant results in Japanese, whether I want them or not. I would be glad to try any search engine that takes a different approach and produces better results.

    Posted in: Ask.com hopes to make search faster, more relevant

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    sk4ek

    Well that, and the fact that "only" downloading from Amazon's store means access to pretty much anything that's out there in print, which will make it tough for Sony to offer a similar range of content.

    Posted in: New Sony Reader has light, note-taking stylus

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    sk4ek

    The City Council of Honolulu unfortunately knows nothing about international law, and tried to drag the General Counsel of Japan into this thinking they would have better luck getting a hold of Kawamoto--not realizing, of course, that no foreign government is going to get involved in what is strictly a business/private legal matter on foreign soil. The General Counsel, of course, turned the City Council down.

    Kawamoto has a long history of creating elaborate schemes from afar, and then getting local lawyers and property managers to execute them. Unfortunately, his misplaced altruism (if that's what it is) usually causes more harm than it resolves, because he doesn't take into account local standards and regulations, and is too much of an absentee developer to personally shepherd his business schemes through to completion. It remains a mystery whether his real motivations are truly beneficient, but he has, over the years, remained consistent in his claims that he is working to better the lives of people in Hawaii. Why Hawaii, and why him, when he really spends so little time there? Who knows?

    In his own country, he is a complete engima. Search on his name and all you'll find is references to his activities in Hawaii--his company has no web site, his many offices in Ginza are among some of the least well maintained, and for a real estate baron, compared to someone like Mr. Mori (of Mori Building fame) he has almost no public presence at all.

    In Hawaii, at least, he has left a lot of frustrated, angry people in his wake (among them his former lawyer, whom I know personally, and his real estate manager). But I don't think anyone is really qualified to comment one way or another on his real motivations, political views, or moral standing.

    All that aside, I believe his gains to be largely ill-gotten--achieved not through the creation of new value, or contributions to bettering the lives of anyone in Japan or Hawaii, but through rapacious speculation in downtown Tokyo real estate, mainly during the "bubble" years. One writer in Honolulu referred to his so-called charity efforts as being backed by "blood money" and thus both insincere and repugnant, comments which not only can't be substantiated, but probably overstate the case. Still, he's succeeded only in wearing out the aloha of the citizens there, and seems headed for full, Howard Hughes recluse mode. Personal appeals have failed, and legal action based on local regulations seems the only remaining alternative.

    Posted in: Residents gripe about billionaire neighbor in Hawaii

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    sk4ek

    The McRib is not new in Japan--it's been trotted out more than once, for a limited time, and they've also had the "McPork" sandwich.

    Okapake-- And where's the spam and rice breakfast!?!?!?! :)

    Posted in: McRib sandwich

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    sk4ek

    Of course, kanji themselves are mainly a matter of rote memorization. What throws a wrench into the wheel is the combination of three writing forms, approximately 3,000 kanji, and multiple ways to read each character depending on context. That makes it difficult to tell someone who is very popular (大人気＝だいにんき）from someone who acts quite grown-up (大人気＝おとなげ）!!

    And who would ever guess the family name 「一」would be pronounced　「にのまえ」(ni no mae, or "the number before two").

    But then, I suppose it's no different from trying to tell a knight from a night.

    Posted in: How difficult or easy is Japanese to learn, compared to other languages?

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    sk4ek

    I'm a native English speaker, and found the spoken language relatively easy to master on the daily conversation level (standard level of politeness), but a little more difficult on the business level (more complex politeness rules). Pronunciation, verb conjugations, grammar, etc. I don't think are much more difficult than English, or Spanish, the other language I've studied.

    But as Zybster notes, the written language deserves every bit of its reputation for being arbitrary and difficult. At some point it all starts to make sense, but I think a lot of casual students of the language never really get to that point, and end up frustrated. I've dealt with the written language on a daily basis for years, and I still haven't gotten to where I can appreciate it on anything much beyond a purely informational level (I can read and maybe enjoy a novel, but I probably wouldn't be able to tell a well-written one from something more mediocre).

    Posted in: How difficult or easy is Japanese to learn, compared to other languages?

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