Re: tlug: parallel-port IDE

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> well, as some other people pointed out, you can't get rid of Kanji and
> still have an intelligible Japanese, really.  I think what needs to happen

Don't buy that still. When i learned Japanese it was written all
alphabetical and I had no trouble understanding that. Am I
smarter than other people ? Sure not....

> is that the Japanese need to follow the German model and use English in
> all technical circles.  Heck, it'd be better for everyone involved if
> Japan, China, Korea, and the rest of Asia adopted English as their primary
> languages and taught it to little kids right away (and didn't start
> teaching Japanese/Chinese/Korean until Junior high or so).  However, that

GOOD IDEA !!!!

> probably won't happen for several hundred years, knowing human nature.
> Sigh.  At least we have more powerful computers now :)

Why Sigh ? It is wonderful ! If Asians want to put themselves at
a disadvantage, why should we worry ? It simply means that the
people at the technological frontier will continue to be
Europeans / Americans / Australians / New Zealanders etc.

Good for us. Bad for the others....

> There's a couple things in which the Japanese were way ahead of the West,
> however.  For example, there are samurai swords from over 1000 years ago,

The Arabs could do that, too - the so called "Damaszener" steel
( named after the city of Damaskus ). They did that already in
the 8th century. It is even speculated that the technology came
over the silk road to Japan.

It was forgotten with the disintegration of the Arab empire.

> whose steel is of comparable quality to that of a modern steel mill.  And
> they had electric railways back in the 1920s...

We in Europe had the first even earlier. I think that Siemens
built the first electric train. That was around 1880 or so.

> Seems to me that the Japanese have always been ahead of the rest of the
> world with trains, but not much else, and that doesn't really make sense

Ah, you don't know France. France is good with trains. Just
think of the TGV.....

> to me.  Oh well, many things don't, so it shouldn't come as a great
> surprise.

Same with me.....

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"It was hell. They knew it.          Karl-Max Wagner
  But they called it                 karlmax@example.com
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