From: kevin.calder@onetel.net   
      
   In message <1133101716.630674.298520@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,   
   alienthe@hotmail.com writes   
   >Kevin Calder wrote:   
      
      
      
   >> >As always I am looking for what people think is Cyberpunk of the   
   >> >current decade.   
      
   >> Well Alienthe, you are our chief researcher, tell us, what is going on   
   >> out there? ;)   
      
   >Did I just clock up a cyberpoint there?   
      
   You might find them hard to redeem these days I'm afraid ;)   
      
   > - total implosion of the US dollar, even the Economist has discussed   
   >   this one   
      
   That's a frightening one.  I'm sure alt.cp predicted the collapse of the   
   global finance system based on the dollar last year though.  We should   
   become consultants.   
      
   > - disasters, like the way overdue next Kanto quake that is expected to   
   >  kill about one million in Tokyo, will mean Japan will have to   
   >  liquidate assets abroad to rebuild. Oh, and did you feel safe while   
   >  you were in Tokyo?   
      
   Yes, very.  They say that the Yakuza have a high-visibility presence in   
   Tokyo, but we didn't seem them (if you start counting every well dressed   
   guy with a sharp haircut in Tokyo as a mobster you are going to end up   
   doing a lot of counting).   
      
   We were talking to some guys in their early twenties in a bar in   
   Hiroshima though and the barman told us that one of the guys used to be   
   a biker for the local mob though.   
      
      
   At night, in UK cities, there is often an undercurrent of potentially   
   random violence on the streets, much of it fuelled by our fairly   
   alcoholic culture.  I found this to be totally absent in Japan, even in   
   the shadiest "entertainment" districts in Tokyo.  Perhaps I wasn't   
   properly attuned to it though...   
      
   >Wikipedia is to me an interesting event and the main point to me is the   
   >question of signal to noise. Will it scale well or will it end up like   
   >Usenet News when AOL hooked it up to the eternal September? Already I   
   >believe I can see the signs of trouble and that once again noise   
   >scaling faster than signal. Perhaps this is elitistic but then again we   
   >also seem to live in a time when reading, writing and thinking means   
   >you are part of the elite. Another sign of the "long yawn" perhaps?   
      
   I've become a confirmed wikipedophile.   
      
   Sorry.   
      
   Seriously though, I read it compulsively.  I think I'd rather read it   
   than almost any other source.  I take your point about signal-noise   
   ratios, but I'm happy to put up with a bit of noise for the sake on an   
   honest signal.  I think you have to learn to read wikipedia to get the   
   most out of it though. You need to be able to see the joins between   
   different people's contributions and you really, really need to read the   
   discussion and history pages to learn how the article was constructed.   
   You just don't get that level of detail with other resources.  If you   
   are reading articles on a controversial subject then you can see how   
   different people's agendas interact to produce the debate.  I'd take   
   that over a single "authoritative" take on any subject, any day.   Yes a   
   lot of articles are noisy and messy and unpolished, but I think you get   
   a degree of intellectual honesty that way that is sadly lacking almost   
   everywhere else.   
      
   Imagine if the BBC would let you edit their news articles to remove POV   
   assertions :)   
      
   >Software is still unruly, some good work is being   
   >done but bugs are holding us back. Software Engineering and quality   
   >processes such as CMMI seem to aim for a production style for software   
   >to replace The Art of Computer Programming. I wonder where this will   
   >take us.   
      
   I don't know any programmers who are looking forward to being put to   
   work on the production line (although some of them suspect that they may   
   already have).  I sympathise with QA people trying to improve the   
   software production process, but I'm not sure it will help.  A vast   
   chunk of the software that I use now is open source freeware, and in   
   each case because it is the best option available for a given task.   
      
   By many accounts the growing acceptance of open source alternatives is   
   going to get nipped in the bud when the Trusted Computing Platform   
   stagnatathon begins.   
      
   >> Or maybe my coffee was just too strong this morning,   
      
   >What, no green tea after your time in Japan?   
      
   I haven't had any green tea since I came back.  I think I overdosed.  I   
   have been buying cooking supplies from an online importer though.  I   
   can't live without miso now.   
      
   > And where is the   
   >travelogue you hinted at earlier?   
      
   I meant to post some stuff while I was on the move, but I underestimated   
   how "on the move" I was going to be.   
      
   We spent a few days in Tokyo, then sped off to Kyoto, then to Hiroshima,   
   then spent a very indulgent week in Osaka, then off to Amanohashidate,   
   then Kobe and back to Kyoto and back to Tokyo.  We really just scratched   
   the surface, but it was exhausting & mesmerizing in equal amounts.   
      
   It was humbling too.  Just before I left Dundee I was waiting for the   
   bus and ran into a fastfood place near the bus station.  There were   
   these two Korean girls trying to order food in pretty broken but   
   comprehensible english and the staff behind the counter were just   
   staring at them totally baffled and just kept saying "What?"  and   
   generally were rude and unhelpful.   
      
   Then me a Rhi stumbled about japan, probably looking a bit rough around   
   the edges, babbling in a horrific corruption of Japanese and everyone we   
   met was incredibly friendly and fell over themselves to help us,   
   regardless of the circumstances.  We were going to see afrirampo*1 in   
   Osaka, and we were staying in the cheapest hotel in namba, and typically   
   I had no idea where the bar was ("bears", owned by one of the boredoms)   
   or when it was starting or anything really.  Anyway the staff in the   
   hotel didn't speak any english, and didn't know where the bar was, but   
   one of them ran off and got the phone number for the place and then   
   phoned them and got directions and times off the bar owners and then he   
   went and got a book of maps and photocopied it several pages out of it   
   and painstakingly marked our exact route on it.  This sort of stuff   
   happened constantly, even just random people off the street were easily   
   as helpful.   
      
   I think there is a generational gap though.  Older people serving you in   
   some manner, i.e. shop owners, inn staff e.t.c. were exceptionally nice   
   and friendly in their role and stunningly helpful, but sometimes could   
   be a little evasive if you tried to ask for directions randomly on the   
   street. Younger people generally weren't as helpful while they were   
   working, but often were much friendlier in "random" circumstances.   
      
      
   Anyway, here are some random frame grabs.  These are from interlaced PAL   
   DV, which is why they look a little odd (weird lines and double image).   
   You really need to be watching them as video on a PAL tv for them to   
   look normal.  But I was too lazy to de-interlace them.   
      
   http://photobucket.com/albums/c295/kevincalder/   
      
      
   *1 www.afrirampo.com   
   --   
   Kevin Calder   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)