CommsDesign - Hello Kitty may be key to 3G success
And for 3G, Bergqvist said, "We as an industry have not, by and large, been able to create something that is transportable from one operator to another. We have not created something yet where two operator systems would be interoperable. We have not created open interfaces in those data-oriented systems, particularly in Japan and Korea."

Hello Kitty to the rescue? Who cares about 3G? NO ONE! Get this damn 2G stuff working properly first and I'll maybe conisder 2.5.

via slashdot

NY Times - Get Off Those Sidewalks, Smokers, and Go Inside
Health-conscious Americans might suspect the new rules are an effort to shield nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, or to put a dent in cancer rates.
But to Japanese critics, the new outdoor smoking ban suggests that officials in this tidy nation worry more about singed suits than sooty lungs.
The new rules, which apply only to premier districts of central Tokyo, are intended not to promote health, but rather to cut the litter of discarded cigarette butts and to reduce damage to clothing on busy sidewalks.
As much as a triumph of abstainers over smokers, the new laws also reflect a rare victory for women in the country's subtle war between the sexes.
Half of Japan's men smoke a pack a day, by far the highest rate among major developed nations. In contrast, Japanese women, who like to project an image of fresh-faced purity, smoke at the lowest rates in the developed world Û 14 percent. They have supported the ban most.

Here's another strange phenomenon in Japan. Smoking ban to keep the streets clean. It's not about health or cancer. If this phenomenon grows, that would be a good direction, but it would only be able to grow in the densest parts of the major cities.

NY Times - Once a Close Economic Rival of China, India Falls Behind
The Indian economy has a few genuine bright spots. Pockets of high-tech prosperity have popped up in two southern cities, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
These have benefited from India's willingness to allow free trade and minimal regulation for new industries, often involving computer software, telephone service centers for financial institutions and other service industries that do not involve moving goods on India's poor roads.
But success stories like Bangalore and Hyderabad remain a tiny part of the overall economy, because software companies hire workers by the hundreds and not by the tens of thousands, as manufacturers do.
"You look around and the rest is a disaster," said Joydeep Mukherji, an Asia analyst with Standard & Poor's. "One billion people are not going to be programming computers; they're going to be making shoes and cars, and serving coffee."

Good overview of the differences between the growth of China and India.

NY Times - Sushi With Respect for Past and Present
Eric Asimov's review of Sushi Seki- sounds good!

NY Times - Teaching Japan's Salarymen to Be Their Own Men
Feeling suffocated by his father's emotional distance and depressed by the idea that he was expected to follow in his dad's footprints, Mr. Toyoda fled the family business for a spell of travel in the United States. While there he discovered feminism and reflected on the role of men in his own society.
...
"Eventually, I realized that the problems I was suffering didn't come from me, but rather from Japan's traditional patriarchy," he said. "Traditionally, Japanese men don't attach importance to their family life at all. I, for one, hardly ever had a proper conversation with my father."
...
What many of them do share with their Western counterparts is a feeling that men must find a way to be both vigorous and sensitive. This starts by rediscovering life outside the workplace, sharing time with their families and, above all, learning Û often for the first time Û how to communicate personal thoughts.

Great stuff here!

FEER - Picturing The Future
The Japanese firms that dominate the digital-camera industry are slugging it out in the world's hottest consumer-electronics market. Here's a guide to what will ultimately make or break the big players

Here's my situation- please help me if you have any thoughts. I own a lot of Nikon equipment, but as the article states, Nikon's a tad bit behind on the competition. I like the Canon stuff the most but buying into a new brand seems stupid at a basic level. I could get a Nikon D100 but the problems with dust on the CCD are not one that I want to deal with just yet unless we can clean them ourselves. I'll also mention that I could get a discount on the Sony stuff but HATE the 128MB limit on the storage when SD memory is now up to 3 GB.

One scary thought is that there probably won't be another professional-level film camera from any of the majors except maybe Leica. I still believe that we need more resolution than even the 11MP Canon 1Ds to come close to a ISO 50 Velvia slide and a good drum scan.

via Mitch Ratcliff & Kevin Werbach

O'Reilly - Are Rich Clients Taking Off or Tanking?
Bruce Epstein:
XML is more like basic research into physics, like the Manhattan project, whereas Macromedia is more like a chemistry lab trying to refine gun powder or invent TNT.

On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, 2:10:55 PM, Simon St.Laurent wrote:
XML is more like contractors who take care to ensure that the foundation and building are up to code and will last a long time for their homeowners, while Macromedia is a company that builds feature-filled homes quick without much concern for the building code and rents them out to whoever needs a house in a hurry...

Nat Torkington:
Ooh ooh! My turn!
XML is like a VW Jetta: environmentally sensitive, slow, dependable, and terminally uncool. Lasts a lifetime.
Flash is like a mid-80s Corvette: impressive but environmentally destructive. Oh sure, it gets you the chicks for a while, but ultimately most people sharing the road with you are thinking "what's *he* compensating for?" It only lasts a lifetime by decreasing your lifetime.

via somebodydial911

Alex Kerr, author of "Dogs & Demons" is speaking tonight at the Japan Society (IN JAPANESE!) I'll be there with friends and family and will review the speech later (no wireless at JS...)
Alex Kerr, author of Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan and Lost Japan, and a resident of Japan for 35 years, discusses with humor and passion what he calls Japan's "failure of modernism."

see my May 2002 notes on Kerr
see Joi Ito's post on Alex Kerr
see Chanpon post on Chiiori House restored by Alex Kerr

Clay Shirky's newest thoughts
...in the database world the new challenge is not a single unified database, but rather decentralized interoperability, interoperability brought about by a single universally used ID. The ID is DNA. The interoperability comes from the curious and unique advantages DNA has as a primary key. And the effect will put privacy advocates in a position analogous to that of the RIAA, forcing them to switch from fighting the creation of a single central database to fighting a decentralized and interoperable system of peer-to-peer information storage.

Salon - The 9/11 movie Hollywood won't let you see
Two months after it was ready for release, and after it screened at high-profile international film festivals in Venice and Toronto, "11'09"01," the French-produced movie about the international repercussions of Sept. 11, can't get no respect in the U.S. Dubbed "stridently anti-American" by Variety, the movie is in distribution limbo despite the participation of hot international directors such as Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding"), Alejandro Gonz∑lez I“∑rritu ("Amores Perros") and Danis Tanovic ("No Man's Land").

Yet another reason to despise the Bush government. If we Americans cannot understand how we are perceived outside of America, we cannot be a good global citizen.