notimpressed comments

I like the way we do it, and as such , even though I received some chocolate from a lovely lady a day early, today I have proposed that we dress up nice and go for a romantic dinner. This is the day to make your special someone feel special, no better way to do it in my book.

Over-emphasis on testing which is in turn over-emphasised with rote answers and multiple choice questions, has lead to a lack of critical thinking ability in Japan. The kids are not taught to learn, or to put 2 and 2 together, but are taught to regurgitate information( right or wrong) and to pass tests which get them onto the next level. Life in the Japanese rat-race is little more than a game of donkey kong... jump through a few hoops without the need to understand why the hoops are there, just get through the next level, pass go, whatever.

Just an experience with any customer service in Japan where the situation is unique, exposes how lost and unable to think on the spot or problem solve they are, and is all you need to find evidence of the effects of the Japanese education model's failures.

There are plenty of good posts as well as the usual suspects spitting their poison.

Good on anyone who does take a shot at anything at life, we all have different motivations, ideals, and goals in life. None of the above make any of us better than the next.

hey wibble, let me know how you get on with the nexus on Docomo!!

I also have the ht03a, someone asked how much up front? I paid 14000Y including a sd card.

Regarding softbank Vs Docomo charges. Yes docomos bizhodai is a fraction more expensive, but you can use any of the calling plans, which can be really cheap. I get 300minutes a month to any line at any time for about 4000yen. With softbank, you are trapped with only the whte plans, which are the most expensive unless you only call other softbank lines. I don't know about the hardcore keitai otaku, but I dont choose my friends based on thier cell carrier.

ahh well, in the old days it was goats and other furry friends that copped it from the desperate and depraved. At least these rubber nasties are taking one (or many) for the farm friends team.

Sorry biglittleman...what is it that the HT-03a cant do? It canplay music and video and has gps, wifi, 3g, accelerometer, youtube native client, a still/video camera (admitedly not the best among android devices, plenty of goo dapps in the app store, and wow it doesnt need itunes to function. Admitedly it doesnt have IRDA, but it does have bluetooth, japan is one of the few countries whose phones still stick with IRDA. It cant do keitai wallet, well I never use that anyway. 1seg....so I can watch Japanese TV? No thanks. I dont even watch JTV at home.

Anyway, perhaps I am wasting my breath of you are just an apple fan, Im not an android fan, justa user. It does heaps and works fine for me and the contract is far far far FAR cheaper than anything softbank can offer. I almost got an iphone untill I got fed up with softbanks rubbish. Glad I switched to the HT-03A and docomo.

haha, Matt Damon would get smashed in a real game of rugby. Obviously the rugby parts of the movie are going to be crap.

The shape is neither well sculpted nor is the base properly flush. A steaming pile of (golden)bullcrap and a waste of gold.

Junnama...that post gave me a good laugh

Dbung:locking them in a freezer isnt cool

are you sure about that one?

fair enough peaceful man, now name a single team that the All Blacks have not beaten before, and couldn't beat again....

nice to see the tall poppy syndrome in full swing I guess. Its a game, people win and lose. This is a great team from a tiny country.

Go hard guys.

and she has kept it ina shoebox for over a year in her living room...gross.

"heavy metal loving teenagers" haha, I can understand you might not like the art, but pulling that gem out of your butt doesn't make your opinion any more relevant either.

LoveUSA...why so bitter? and why so surprised that men admire beautiful women? Also rather presumptuous to assume that you know what anyone is capable of getting.

Its up to you and me to decide what we think is art. and to decide on many other things that we may have opinions on, but it never makes us right or wrong, as there is always someone on the other side of the fence who thinks otherwise. No prize or medal for being right or morally superior, just the imaginary halo on your head. Let him paint, you can go paint what you want. and let the viewers decide what they will. I offer no opinion on his work, because it doesn't matter what I think, unless I tell it to him in an open dialogue where I would also be listening to what he says.

BTW, which way is up? You could argue about that till the cows came home too, but no one would be right at the end of it. The point of sensationalist art at least gets us questioning something, instead of being spoon fed what is deemed to be tasteful by ...well by who exactly? It is not a means to find any real answer.

NO BBLeo, not involved in drugs, just involved in Japan. people here often seem to think that blood and death are the solution to such minor matters. Men here don't seem to fight it out, rather they sneak up and stab you in the back or get you while you sleep.

This is a great photo

not a chance, she is just a random talento, with the interpreter hovering in the back.

They are like...why did they get us up on stage with some toothpick chick who cant even speak English, and what the heck are we supposed to do with flowers?

Actually, Vin looks like hes holding off a sneeze. Allergies?

good point, why release something you don't have in store? Especially stupid considering that people have a limited window of opportunity when changing company.

societymike, its actually 18,000 odd yen up front, while in début mode, then goes up in price after October. I know you can expand the memory with SD card, but that is like external memory, the internal memory of the phone itself is only 512mb of flash memory, a lot of people have had trouble with filling that up, as you cant install new apps to the SD.The SD may be onboard, but it is still separate from system memory. Oh and the HT-03A is the same as the HTC hero, re-branded for docomo.

Brantastic: waiting on Android to mature and for WinMo 7 to bring it;) Getting tired of having to convert my avi files and the frustration (for me personally) that is iTunes.

Best statement yet.

Right now to me, the lack of multiple language interface is a major flaw in WM regardless of what gimmicky developments they come up with to try and be "cool" like the iPhone. I played with the android handset yesterday and was stoked when it took me all of 20 seconds to change the os to English and back. Problem with that handset seems to be that its internal memory is only around 500mb. Even if you can have up to 16GB on a mini SD, that wont be any consolation as you cant yet run applications from the SD. SOmething Im sure they will get on top of eventually.

Also, so far, one annoyance of both the iPhone and the HTC Magic, is the capacitive screens. Resistive screens can actually do everything a capacitive can with the right software behind it, but a capacitive is not made for handwriting recognition. Try writing all that kanji with your finger on one of those screens and you will understand. Having onscreen keyboard only is a drawback if you wanted to search a kanji definition, by writing it down. If you dont know the kanji, you cant type it out in kana and convert it. In fact, I like that resistive screens can be used with any object including your finger. With the latest technology on them, you can use a paintbrush on it if you so desired, in addition to multi-touch( if Appple didnt block every other company out with thier copywrite litigation)

ahh, what to do? my 2 year contract is up, and I have to choose between iPhone, WM, and android, which all have thier drawbacks, but its pointless to wait for them to combine all the good features on one device. At the moment, in my mind, I would either have to go iPhone just because its free up front, (it could take its gimmicky gadgetry and stick it otherwise), or the android thanks to its open development ethos, and non regionlisation of anything ( itunes store etc ) sigh. Maybe I should just do anything in direct opposition to apple fanbois...god forbid I become one.

Looks like they are leaving in a huff, through a tantrum, and just dumped all their crap like that.

your right, its not the soldiers job, its the people paying for and ordering them to do this stuff. And your right again, I will never understand war. I hope I never do. I will also not be able to feel that its fair for people who were most likely very poor and desperate and suffering thanks to the Taliban, to in turn suffer at the hands of their liberators. Yeah I know it will happen anyway, but it still sucks. I just see this type of thing as akin to drive by shootings, indescriminate shooting and then running away, then a pat on the back for getting away with it with your own skin intact. I do actually understand your points, and they are not wrong, I just think its screwed up we have come to this. and in my eternal pessimism I know it will never change, rather get worse. So I should probably not post my opinions because nothing makes any difference. These out numbered religious nuts wont disappear, and no matter how outmatched in numbers and technology they are,it will be another war that goes in circles without a clear winner. Only the losers will be easily identified by their dead civilian bodies. FTW

The question: you make human life sound like a statistic. No, they are each and everyone one of them, someone's' son or brother. I couldn't care less about modern military tactics, if you cant look a man in the eye while you take his life, you will never know the value of what you have taken.

I agree, that those air strikes and the collateral damage are shameful ways to avoid real fighting. If you say you are doing it for the people, you better try not to kill the people. If you don't want casualties on your own side, don't play around on a battlefield. Go home and knit. Modern warfare is like a video game, all the blood and guts you can hope for without anywhere near the risk to yourself that such destruction should warrant.

I heard a tale of a friend in the bureaucracy that a meeting was held for ten day to decide the name of a new office, this is the type of inefficiency and time and money wasting that can easily be fixed and is no doubt a good idea. If the point is to streamline the bureaucratic system, and have them working smarter, cheaper, and more effectively, then yeah, its a great idea, but it is a cultural issue that needs a lot of work to change - in the way that Japanese offices work. Not enough delegation, and too much patting each other on the back and talking in circles among other things. I can't see that changing very easily. But if Toyota can have an efficient assembly line, then bureaucrats and administration can develop a better system too. But who has the vision and charisma to design and get everyone to follow such a drastic change?

Its illegal in this country too Societymike.

techall: they were undercover and doing their duty,while laying back and thinking of Japan.