Re: [tlug: It's STORY time]

[Thomas Haslam <Sagamiono@example.com>]

JS >>That's one view from the trenches ;-)

Here`s another--and a contrasting view.  The students at my small
non-tech/non-hard sci department love their e-mail and use it every class day,
at the very least. Many of them have their own webpages, some on the school
server; some on `revenege.net` (whatever that is); and some at sites like
geocities.com.

Furthermore, the students are easily more computer-literate than about half of
the gaijin-faculty here, but given the faculty I`m talking about that`s not
really much of a benchmark or an accomplishment.  Some--though not all--of the
instructors here intergrate e-mail and using the the Internet into their
classes; when this happens, the students in turn respond very favorably.

Our Nihon-jin sys admin guy is very knowledgable, and has been tracking Linux
development very carefully--as well as already using Debian-J for some things.
 He also busts his ass to just keep things working in general. I should add
that just two years ago, however, the mess you were talking about was very
much the local reality.

Happy to say it no longer is.  Should forward the TLUG list sometime a
collection I have of true `tech-support` horror stories.  People who broke
their cd-drive trays, for example, because they thought the trays were cup
holders.  These stories are from America, of course--but your and Scott`s
general point seems right to me.  When more Japanese households have PC`s, the
general knowledge will considerably increase.  Still, stupidity like beauty is
sometimes in the eye of the beholder--or at least, where ever you want to find
it.

Best,
TJH












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