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Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

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Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#61
Cheer-up Japan... maybe.

One time, Chavez was bitching and blaming the US. God said, "Japan industrious." He has praised industriousness, on occassion.

I'm not sure about the earthquake. Some things are blessings in disguise... or maybe He had some issue... or maybe, just inevitable.

Once, I thought He said Japan was His favorite country. It might change from time to time.

Let's play, "Country shitlist!"

God says... oh_come_on ridiculous quit_it I'll_get_right_on_it commanded I_was_just_thinking

(God's laughing) You'll learn not to take God too seriously--just enjoy His company is what He really wants. He doesn't really like people running-off and overreacting, I think.

I tease Him by picking the set of words that go in His mouth.

God says... Is_that_so heads_I_win_tails_you_lose think_you_could_do_better high_mucky_muck if_and_only_if incoming envy oops not_a_chance_in_hell humility employer vermin pow epic_fail Zzzzzzzz let's_roll fake Malaysia Microsoft roses_are_red I_forgot now_you_tell_me One_finger_salute cowardice Brazil North_Korea I_didn't_see_that and_then_what I_could_be_wrong adultery overflow in_a_galaxy_far_far_away who_are_you_to_judge I'm_thrilled I'm_busy theft I'm_God_who_the_hell_are_you LOL I_have_an_idea Saudi_Arabia chill_out India cosmetics I'm_thrilled Uzbekistan I_donno take_the_day_off Hasta Terry catastrophe overflow

"Malaise" is a sickness. Usually, I treat "roses are red" is slang for "poetry". In this case, might be communism. If it seems confusing, that's normal. Just enjoy His company. Perhaps, I like to hang-out with God witha a God's eye view and talk about the World.

This passage kinda cracks-me-up. God was hanging-out on the porch with Satan, bullshitting.

-----------------

Job 1

Prologue

    1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

    4 His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.

    6 One day the angels[a] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan[b] also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

    Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” 

    8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” 

    9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” 

    12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” 
------------

I think that passage is funny. Don't play me like that. I'll swear to Your face! ROFLMAO

God says... failure_is_not_an_option ha obviously could_it_be___Satan Somalia population ipod dang_it what_do_you_want slumin don't_even_think_about_it ordinarily application beep_beep how_about_that Madagascar endure Singapore flat gambling

He said Somolia (figuratively) wants ipods (figuratively, etc). He's mad and they would have to endure Singapore-like discipline.

God says (random passage)

----------

C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT

ey said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then we water the sheep.

29:9 And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she kept them.

29:10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.

29:1

----------

Mostly a dud. Let's find-out why the earthquake in Japan. Haiti seemed obvious. (I'm awful) By the way, He said to build hotels in Haiti. Carter might be all over that.

God says (random passage)

-----------

C:\TEXT\BIBLE.TXT

And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.

31:11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.

31:12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

31:13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to

---------

You have to make it fit. I think this is about rioting -- any other interpretation doesn't fit. It's also about scum... who loot.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+14...

I'm pretty-good at interpreting.

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#62
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Nintendo's success primarily has to do with them employing one of, if not, the best game designers that has ever lived - Shigeru Miyamoto. By trusting and empowering him they are able to have taste, just as Jobs's taste defined Apple, Miyamoto's defines Nintendo.

I would actually give a lot of the credit for Apple's taste to Jonathon Ive, with the backing, direction, and final approval of Jobs. I think Shigeru and Ive were both masters of design and interface, and besides their influence on the look and feel of the product, could operate at the level of actually engineering/creating. For the Wii project, some of Miyamoto's ideas didn't make it into the final product. For inst…

> final approval of Jobs

I have a blog article brewing on this, but for now: what drove Apple was Steve Jobs' /taste/ and that others believed in his taste.

The first time Tim Cook presents a computer with a major feature missing - ie: no CD drive or no floppy drive, the audience will think he's crazy, and will think it's proof that the company can no longer work without Steve-o.

It wasn't the coming up with new ideas that drove Apple. It was a single man knowing which of those ideas were good, and which were bad, and people having enough faith in him to go with it, and seriously consider and get behind the ones that other executives would have labelled crazy-sauce.

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#64

The article kind of misses the point. The reason why people are leaving the Japanese phones for the iPhone is because Japanese phone interfaces SUCK BALLS. And they have ALWAYS sucked. I suffered through 5 years of one phone after another being such a terrible user experience that I think it scarred me for life. And don't even get me started with Sony, who replaced the perfectly functioning joypad in their phones (wh…

This is so true. Example: My iphone died recently, so while waiting for the 4s to come out I used a 3-4 year old Sony Ericson lying around the office. It has so many buzzword features! It even has dedicated media playback buttons on the outside! Yet how do you call someone? It takes 6 button presses. Press down > click on first name > Call > Voice Call/Video Call/PushTalk > No Message/Create Message > Call/Call with…

Sharp 943SH (SoftBank). Press down (this loads the phone book), keep pressing down until you hit the right name (or type part of the name), then press the call button.

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#65

The article kind of misses the point. The reason why people are leaving the Japanese phones for the iPhone is because Japanese phone interfaces SUCK BALLS. And they have ALWAYS sucked. I suffered through 5 years of one phone after another being such a terrible user experience that I think it scarred me for life. And don't even get me started with Sony, who replaced the perfectly functioning joypad in their phones (wh…

This is so true. Example: My iphone died recently, so while waiting for the 4s to come out I used a 3-4 year old Sony Ericson lying around the office. It has so many buzzword features! It even has dedicated media playback buttons on the outside! Yet how do you call someone? It takes 6 button presses. Press down > click on first name > Call > Voice Call/Video Call/PushTalk > No Message/Create Message > Call/Call with…

(Addendum: Several people pointed out a handy shortcut for japanese feature-phones to access your phonebook: pressing down). This was not immediately obvious to me because the phone I'm looking at has its down button marked "." and its up button marked with a little icon depicting an open book. While I'm embarassed to have not discovered this shortcut, I think it only adds to my general point that a button labelled simply "." was supposed to suggest "phone book" while the "open book" icon leads to an endless labyrinth of options, none of which is just to look at your phone book.

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#66
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony's network problems will haunt them for years. I think they're done in the game industry. Microsoft is lacking in innovation in every single category I can think of. This would be the perfect time for Nintendo to crush them both.

How xbox 360 escaped the ring-of-death is baffling to me. I guess the $1billion hit they took to extend warranties either really spoke to consumers, or people just don't care if they have a 1 in 3 (or was it 1 in 4?) change of getting a dud.

Generally speaking I don't mind if a company screws up as long as they make good on it - and you really can't fault MS' response to the RROD issue.

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "overall picture is bleak" if you measure societies by flashy, marketable headline developments and gadgets. It is rather good if you more soberly consider household incomes and trade figures. Japan continues to dominate many high tech industries. Look at the 787; over a third of it is made in Japan and it's all the key hi tech bits like the carbon fiber wings. Japan may indeed be in some sort of withdrawn middle…

The malaise comes not from the absolute position of Japanese companies in the world, but from the direction they're headed in. There was a great article in the Economist a while back about this: http://www.economist.com/node/14793432 Since this article was published, the situation has gotten worse. The earthquake sure didn't help, but the situation wasn't good even before that. Sure, 10% or something of the parts tha…

My own hypothesis about failure of Japanese companies in software is the "pursuit to perfection". This is pervasive in the Japanese work ethic and culture in general.

I still vividly remember the first comment of a small prototype aimed at automating a tedious task: "this is not perfect". If you aim at perfection at every step for software production, especially internally, non customer-facing ones, you can't go very far IMO. OTOH, that's probably one of the reason why Japanese companies can be so good for video games (where a screw up costs a lot of money given the market constraints), and hardware in general. The business oportunity cost is just different.

If you have any other comments or links about why Japanese websites are so cluttered, I would be really interested. While I am not in Japan anymore, this has always facinated me, and I have never been satisfied with the explanations I have seen so far.

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#68
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The problem which many have mentioned here and elsewhere is that while Japan is unrivalled in craftsmanship ("monozukuri") -- making physical things -- exactly the opposite is true when it comes to "unphysical" things like software. This is something I do not understand. Why is there a cultural aversion to creating beautiful software? As an example, Honda has some of the most beautifully designed interiors in the au…

Have you looked at Japanese websites? Most of them have pretty terrible design/UI. It's the same thing. My take on this is that you have to look more broadly to understand the tendency for cluttered design in Japanese interfaces. Walk around a small neighbourhood in Tokyo and you'll see how cluttered the layout is. On small "roji" (back alleyways), Japanese like to stack potted plants outside their front doors in a p…

Concerning websites, when you compare rakuten Japan and say UK, you see a stark difference in how things are presented. This may just be due to the UK site being done outside Japan/by foreigners, but this would hint at a some preference toward clutter for Japanese customers ?

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#69
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sony's network problems will haunt them for years. I think they're done in the game industry. Microsoft is lacking in innovation in every single category I can think of. This would be the perfect time for Nintendo to crush them both.

How xbox 360 escaped the ring-of-death is baffling to me. I guess the $1billion hit they took to extend warranties either really spoke to consumers, or people just don't care if they have a 1 in 3 (or was it 1 in 4?) change of getting a dud.

They replaced several of mine for free, waiving all shipping and repair costs. I can't think of another experience I've had like that. They're also a US company, and they have the best online gaming experience... those are just a few of the reasons I can think of.

Re: Japan: We're losing to Apple, and here's why

#70
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked at Japanese websites? Most of them have pretty terrible design/UI. It's the same thing. My take on this is that you have to look more broadly to understand the tendency for cluttered design in Japanese interfaces. Walk around a small neighbourhood in Tokyo and you'll see how cluttered the layout is. On small "roji" (back alleyways), Japanese like to stack potted plants outside their front doors in a p…

Concerning websites, when you compare rakuten Japan and say UK, you see a stark difference in how things are presented. This may just be due to the UK site being done outside Japan/by foreigners, but this would hint at a some preference toward clutter for Japanese customers ?

The classic case of this is Google vs Yahoo in Japan. Yahoo is more popular, and if you look at the layout, you'll see that it's much more cluttered (or at least, that there's loads more information). At one point Google caved in (in Japan) and added more buttons to their top page, but I see they've switched back to the basic logo + search bar.

Another thing to consider is that the cluttered thing is not only Japan: I've heard that other Asian countries also have a preference for clutter. I can't vouch for whether that's true, but it sounds pretty believable.

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