Flat3D

Google.cn

I am sure you have seen about Google’s row with China in the news recently.  Basically “someone” in China was attacking Google’s services (primarily gmail) in an apparent attempt to get information about civil rights protesters.  Google’s response was a bit disconnected in my view… 

Back in 2006 Google made a For-China version of it’s site called Google.cn (.cn being the TLD for China),  Now it had a chinese language version of it’s service for sometime, but it was being blocked by the Great Firewall to avoid people finding things on the internet that might not agree with the governments official take on national and world events, or even worse, might make them look bad.  So, in order for Google to have a workable presence in China, they have to censor their results in a fashion that pleases the Chinese authorities, and so they decided to do that through google.cn.  This move brought a lot of flack their way from free-speech activists and other people who don’t like how China works.

So basically, as I understand it google.cn is the site that gived the filtered results and the rest of google doesn’t.  Google doesn’t seem to offer its other services through google.cn and presumably they aren’t part of the agreement with the Chinese government like search is.  But by using proxies and routing connections through other countries, clever folk can access Gmail and it offers pretty secure (SSL) and pretty anonymous (no name etc required) email based outside China, a good thing for folk who might be trying not to get noticed or found protesting against their government.

But the disjointedness to me is between Google’s findings (that “someone” was attacking their services from China) and their response  (to remove filtering from their in-China search).  Why does removing the filtering balance out the attacks?  And surely Google must be aware that China will just ask them to leave or just block google.cn…  Perhaps Google is planning to remove themselves from the Chinese market and simply wants to make a big noise about doing so, while squarely pointing out the attacks made by ”someone”…  And I think good for Google.  They are a corporation, not a government agency, and they can withdraw from China if the fancy takes them.  If other corporations followed suit, China might think twice about it’s policies on censorship which in turn would mean it would have to think twice about abusing people’s civil rights as there wouldn’t be anywhere to hide.

But the truth is that out here in East Asia Google isn’t the same big deal it is in the ‘western world’.  Here in Japan no-one talks about Googling things, not many people use gmail, harldy anyone is on picasaweb, Blogger isn’t the blogging site of choice, Android has still to make any real appearance, YouTube is used a bit, but isn’t as clear a winner…  The big internet mogul in Japan, and in most of East Asia, is Yahoo!  In Japan Yahoo! provides search, online auctions and shopping, maps, news and weather, online TV, financial information, entertainment news, games and more.  On top of that it is one of the largest internet service providers in the country, it is in cahoots with my mobile phone company, Softbank, and my future parent’s in law even use Yahoo! as their telephone provider for their home.  the most common email address out here is @yahoo.co.jp.  Google is even advertising on TV to try and up it’s market share here, I never saw a Google advert in the UK, they didn’t need them.  If this is anything to go by China won’t worry about google leaving, there will be some other company that everyone uses.  If Google left Japan, most people probably wouln’t notice anything other than improved efficiency at the office because there is no YouTube.

So yeah, that’s my take on the whole thing…   Perhaps a well intentioned, if frustrated, move by Google, but will it have any of the effects people are talking about?

But!  Be aware I am no expert on China or Chinese politics, quite the opposite, but my mission agency’s background is in China, originally being the China Inland Mission before being kicked out and deciding to serve the rest of East Asia (including Japan! ) and so there is still a lot of interest in and prayer for China within the organisation…  So the story is of a little bit of interest to me, but this rant is the extent of my reporting ability on the subject!

Tags: censorship, china, civil rights, google, internet, japan, yahoo

Bloooooddd…… I’ll get it!!

Emily and I went to give blood today! Emily had never given blood before and I hadn’t in Japan either. It was pretty daunting to go through all of the questions on the computer screen checking if I was ok to give. There were lists of diseases that, had I had them in the past 6 months, would have meant I couldn’t give. Then lists that if I had at all would mean I couldn’t. These were pretty hard to understand, but made easier by the fact I haven’t had any diseases in a long time… Maybe since chicken pox as a kid!
Then came some lifestyle questions, questions about going to the dentists (which I did on Saturday, but the lady said it was fine as he just poked about and said everything was fine), questions about tatoos and piercings, and then the clincher…
It wanted to know if I had ever lived overseas. Of course I have, so I clicked 「はい」 (yes) and chose Europe from the list that followed.
The next question took me a little by surprise, althought I had been forewarned that I probably wouldn’t be able to give blood.
Had I stayed for more than one night in the UK between 1980 and 1996?
Well yes, of course I have. 「はい」 again.
Then the system asked me a bunch more questions and the lady printed out a sheet, before pointing to a massive poster on the wall saying that people who had stayed for more than one night in the UK between 1980 and 1996 you can’t give blood… I hadn’t noticed the poster, it really was massive, but in my defence there were loads of massive posters and it takes ages for me to try and read them! The reason given is the old favourite BSE, I hadn’t even thought about that whole episode since the foot and mouth outbreak made us remember it. But just in case I am a mad cow (ok, it’s really CJD in people…) they don’t want my blood.

So Emily gave blood on her own, and went all woozy in the middle of it. I think she has a bit of a blood phobia, she broke out into a sweat at the sight of it and took a little while to recover. We had planned she wouldn’t look at them doing it and maybe that would be ok, but the distraction she found was the next bed over which, of course, had someone lying in it giving blood! So that didn’t help so much! But all credit to Emily, she continued and gave her quotia!

Afterwards the lady at the desk kindly informed me that soon they will be revising the limit on people who have been to the UK so that those who have been for upto 30 days will be able to give blood, I explained that I had spent 14 of the 16 forbidden years living there.  Interestingly it is specifically the UK, if I had been born and raised 75 miles south on the same island, i.e. in the Republic of Ireland, I’d be certified BSE-free for giving blood in Japan!
I guess I will just have to keep my blood all to myself!

P.S.  Extra bonus points to anyone who can tell me where the post title comes from!

Tags: blood, BSE, CJD, emily, ireland, japan, mad cow, medicine, uk

Avatar 3D

Last week Emily and I went to see Avatar in 3D at the local cinema here. The movie was pretty good and in 3D it was awesome! If you are going to see it and you can, definately see it in 3D.
The story was better than I thought and might even be good for church groups as there are plenty of themes that could be drawn out, even if it is a bit animistic overall. The feeling of a utopian world over a broken sinful one, the idea of living in communion with God rather than trying to glorify ourselves for our own greedy pleasure, the renewal of body and mind that Jake went through entering into the eutopia through the god-like “Eiwa” (excuse the spelling, just took a guess!)
Plus the action was great and it was good fun to watch.

The 3D was especially interesting to me though as I studied stereoscopic technology when I was at uni for my final year degree project.
The technology the cinema we went to was the same shutter glasses tech that we used at uni, it means wearing a bigger set of glasses, but it’s an easy install for the cinema as there is no need to polarise the on screen image, as long as their projector is up to it. If 3D takes off the way some people think it will this will probably be the most common way to retro fit prebuilt cinemas to display it… If you understand what I mean you’re doing well

But yeah, the sensation was just as it was when I was at university, and it was pretty good there. The drawback still comes for me in focus, in 2D my eyes can tell how far away the screen is and know how to focus(ish) to watch, plus I’ve had plenty of practice. But in 3D the image looks closer or further and my eyes want to focus that way, but the screen is the same distance and so focus doesn’t change, I think this is what tires my eyes. It was a bit of a talking point when I we studying 5 years ago and still seems to be.
But actually as I relaxed into the movie and forgot to take special notice of the 3D it became easier, though my eyes were still tired by the end, but that might be because it was a late show that went on to almost 1am!
Emily enjoyed it, but the glasses were a little awkward over her regular glasses and she felt a bit motion sick during the longer action scene in the middle…

But definately see it in 3D if you can!
I hear it’s doing well at the box office too, perhaps on it’s way to becoming a record breaker!

Tags: 3d, avatar, cinema, movue, stereoscopic, stereoscopy

iPhone…

A little while ago Emily and I were shocked at how much we pay for our mobile phones here in Japan.  She had a mobile on the AU network with a bunch of plans and stuff so she could call her parents and me without worrying about the costs sky rocketing, but the plans themselves weren’t cheap.  Then my own phone was the basic model on the Softbank network, which allows calls and mobile mail within the network for free, but the cross network calls and mails to Emiri added a bit to the monthly costs.  So we decided to get Emiri a new softbank phone and drop her AU down to the basic, cheapest plan.  Softbank would also allow her parents to call her for free on their broadband phone.

Now recently Softbank have had a deal on the iPhone, the basic plan, so called flat rate data, plus iPhone 3G actually works out at the same price as a regular phone, maybe even a little cheaper.  However Emily didn’t really want an iPhone, she would rather have a phone that was more like the one she already had…  So I thought I could take the chance I had missed before and get me a nice shiny iPhone.

The iPhone has many advantages to life in Japan, first up it has a nice English interface, not the afterthought most Japanese phones have.  This is particularly good in regards to input, Japanese phones usually don’t have the predictive text and even the regular input method takes way too many button presses to use English.  But then they aren’t designed for english users.  The iPhone can switch easily from Japanese to English and a multitude of other languages if the fancy takes.  Not to mention the apps, the music etc etc etc

But the rub with the iPhone in Japan comes with data.  In other places it is a completely flat rate deal, but Softbank’s “flat rate” data service isn’t really flat rate.  But rather it is cheap if you don’t use it, but if you do it rises, and then hits a ceiling after a little while.  But the ceiling isn’t overly low, it’s not outrageously expensive either, but its a good bit higher than I would pay for the same service in the UK, and it would take a big chunk out of the savings we were hoping to make by getting Emily a Softbank phone.  Now this is ok, I can be careful etc and try to use Wifi as much as possible, I have it at home and at school after all.  But this is harder on an iPhone than you might think.  And it might also mean me taking a step down in terms of convenience…  Let me explain…

I have a lovely 1st generation 32Gb iPod Touch that the lovely folk at GCD Tech gave me when I left working with them to come to Japan.  And I would carry both it and my mobile all the time when I was out and about.  It is/was my Japanese dictionary, notepad, calendar, iPod (duh) and more.  It syncs automatically with my Gmail, contacts and Google calendar.  I could spend a trip on the train writing short emails or catching up with things I hadn’t read yet…

Now all of this is iPhone territory right?  It can do all of this, and more!  And it will do it over wifi just like the iPod!  But the issue is that it doesn’t [i]just[/i] do it over wifi…  It does it over 3G as well.  If I have everything automatically updating on the iPod, it could only do it with wifi, so while I was at home or school it would update away, go on the road and it would sit there, not updating.  But the iPhone won’t do that, inder wifi it’s fine, but go on the road it it will use 3G to do it’s updating.  Fine if it’s a prepaid limit, but with Softbank costs rise… 
So lets try and keep it low.  Contacts is easy now as I can sync with Google contacts through iTunes.  But email and calendar won’t sync without Outlook, and I don’t have Outlook, I use thunderbird…  So I have to sync the calendar and mail over the air, but trying to control it and keep it to wifi.  So I can go into settings and set them to manual sync.  That should do it right?  Manual sync on the iPhone doesn’t mean you push a sync button.  Rather it means when you open the calendar or email, it will then sync to keep it up to date.  That sounds ok, but it means if I am out and about and need to check to see if I am free on Friday evening or Monday afternoon or something, the calendar will sync via 3G as soon as I open it up to look.
Email is even a step more irritating.  If I set up Gmail as an email account on the phone set to manual, and the Softbank email account as well.  Now if someone sends an email to my Softbank account, I get a bleep and it says “You’ve got a mail” (it says this even if there are a lot of them) and I can open it up and see what the mail says.  But when I open the mail app to see the email, it downloads whatever Gmail is waiting for me on the server along with it, the opening of the app being the trigger for a “manual” sync.
I have also lost the ability to write emails on the train to be sent when I get home, I have to download any emails that are waiting in order to have the opportunity to reply to old ones or even write a new one from scratch…  And I have to remember to open the mail app when under wifi to make sure they get sent and new ones downloaded…

So I feel like getting an iPhone has downgraded my flexibility, unless someone knows a way to get it to sync some things only over wifi and still let me make phone calls and get mobile mail…  It seems either I take the convenience hit, or I take the financial hit….  Any thoughts?  Another option is to carry both iPod and iPhone….  And another is to give Emily the iPhone and go back to my keitai/iPod combo, she won’t really use the internet, sync or anything, but I do like the ease of English!

Tags: apple, calendar, iPhone, ipod, mail, mobile, money grubbers, sync, touch

婚約式 – The Engagement Ceremony

Photos!

On Sunday the 22nd of November 2009, Emiri and I got officially engaged.

Now I thought we were engaged before, but that’s only part of the story here in Japan.  Japan has a lot of traditions that stem from the Buddhism and Shinto religions, from Confucianism and just from having a culture and people of it’s own.  Marriage, as you’d expect, has a whole bunch of these traditions, one of them is 結納 (ゆいのう ‘yuino’, for more info) which is basically an exchange of gifts between the bride and grooms’ families.  This exchange of gifts formally marked the engagement of the couple and there are a few other things around it that I won’t go into, largely because I am not at all sure that my understanding is correct!

The church in Japan quickly recognised that if Christians are to get married they should have something to go in place of these various ceremonies and traditions, as they are based in buddhism and shintoism.  Otherwise, families and onlookers may feel something is not right and the engagement and marriage aren’t valid.  So in place of this engagement process the church created a 婚約式 (konyakushiki – engagement ceremony, or betrothal ceremony).  While the original Japanese traditions have pretty much died off, the engagement ceremony in the church is still done.  This is what Emiri and I did last Sunday!  We did it at Itayanagi Chapel in Aomori, where I spent 3 months of my short term year, and Emiri attended for 6 years and actually lived in for a few!

We went down by Ferry last Monday, spent the week half on holiday (although Emiri had a lot of homework) and half preparing for the ceremony.  We got to go to the Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday (Surprised I could fit in my suit on Sunday) and on the way home the following Monday stopped in Hakodate to see Nari-Nari and Hana-chan, who used to live in Aomori, but now live and work in Hakodate.

Overall the ceremony was great.  I had kind of expected it to be a kind of formal proposal of marriage, or agreement to get married or something like that, like a formal pandering to culture…  But really it was more significant.  It really was about us gathering with friends and relatives to aknowledge before them and before God, His work in bringing us together, and then promising to seek to honour Him as we prepare to get married.  In that regard it really was a strong affirmation of the purposes of the marriage we intend to, and are preparing to enter into, particularly in a modern culture that doesn’t hold marriage in the regard that it used to be held.

Some detail about the ceremony itself… More »

Tags: aomori, betrothal, ceremony, Church, emiri, engagement, itayanagi, marriage, promises, 婚約式