Re: tlug: parallel-port IDE

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

> I don't know where you are coming from with these remarks, but they
> don't match my experience in Japan for the past 21 years. Apparently you

I know Japan since 1987. I have quite a few friends there
( Japanese ). Ten years ago Japan was a heckuva lot better.

> know which shops to go to in Europe, but not in Japan. Hang out in
> Akihabara a little longer and get to know the back streets a bit more.

Believe me, I know Akihabara ( Tokyo ) and Nippombashi ( Osaka )
darn well. Better than many Japanese in fact. 

> And if you want to find out if there are computer-savvy people in Japan,
> spend some time in the Japanese-language forums of fj.comp.*.

Sad that you have to go to a newsgroup for that. I found all of
those I know in Europe just by chance - and I know quite a few
topnotch guys pretty much all about Europe.

> As for service by the biggies, it's really been pretty good in most
> cases, whenever I've needed to call on a Sony or NEC or Pioneer or
> Matsushita to come and fix something. 

And how about getting service docs and the like ? NO WAY in
Japan. They look at you as if you were coming from outer space.
Next thing is usually "What do you need them for". They simply
cannot believe that there are engineers that undestand how the
stuff they make works

My advice is: if you need service from a japanese
company, never NEVER go to the guys in Japan. Ask the guys in
the US. Chances are MUCH better and they don't ask such stupid
questions.

> It's possible to find almost anything in Akihabara. For a long time, it
> was a regular haunt of Russian agents in search of the latest microchips
> and such.

Funny. A lot of things the Russians make is second to nothing in
the world. Just take microwave semiconductors. If you need
diodes and transistors for submillimeter wavelegths, chances are
good that you have to order them in Russia because nobody else
can make them.

Other than that, if you think of computer chips, most of that
stuff went to the east block over Austria. That used to be big
business in Vienna in the past. BTW, the stuff that goes into
military designs is always at least 10 years old because it
takes the bureaucracy that long to MIL qualify the chips for it.

> The main reason I can think of for being in Japan rather than the U.K.
> is the food. Same goes for Germany, in spades. I'll take sushi over
> Saurkraut any day of the week.

Better sauerkraut than sushi. It's a lot healthier ( contains
lots of Vitamin C and other goodies ). What do you have in sushi ?
Some starch from the rice ( only starch because they polish
their rice in Japan and thus take all the goodies away from it )
and some raw fish most probably taken in the polluted seas
around Japan so that you get a good share of the latest
industrial wastes from the industry in Japan. What a wonderful
diet !

Guess gonna stick to Europe style food. Japanese cuisine IMHO is
abominable. But that's a matter of taste.....

================================================================
"It was hell. They knew it.          Karl-Max Wagner
  But they called it                 karlmax@example.com
    W-I-N-D-O-Z-E"
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