Re: tlug: parallel-port IDE

[Jonathan Byrne - 3Web <jq@example.com>]

On Mon, 12 Oct 1998, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:


>I don't deny it's a danger, but you underrate the human capacity to
>catch up to other humans.

Yeah.  The modernization of Japan that began in the Meiji era is a great case
in point.  Japanese sea power, as one example, in a very short period of
time went from oar galleys to a modern, world-class navy that shattered
Russian naval power in decisive battles. Less than a century after the U.S.
government forced the Tokugawa shogunate to open the country , Japan had a
real shot at defeating the world's great powers in a major war (not total
defeat, but they could have had a negotiated peace and kept most or all of
what they  had gained).  All it would have taken was for the Japanese navy to
have blown the tank farm at Pearl Harbor and to have approached Midway with
the same seriousness and sense of danger with which it approached the Pearl
Harbor operation.

Granted, the leadership that achieved such industrial modernization seems
rather lacking now, but Japan has demonstrated many times since it entered
that modern era that once it finally acts, it moves quickly and usually
successfully.  This was shown in auto making, and in electronics as well.  It
will happen in computers, too.

Jonathan Byrne
Media and Content Section
3Web - Your Internet Solution! <URL:http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/index.en.html>
3Web Channel <URL: http://www.3web.co.jp/index.en.html>

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