http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/rss tatsuya's latest journal entries Lang-8 Inc. Sat May 18 13:42:32 UTC 2013 Sat May 18 13:42:32 UTC 2013 Lang-8 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lang-8
Besides a lot of routine works, an incident had occurred and a crisis meeting were called urgently. I thought it was not a serious problem but some people didn't. Of course I can not write about the details of the incident. All I can write is that I'm very tired.

Tomorrow I will stay home all day and take a rest.


Posted at Mon Apr 23 14:24:32 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1440382 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1440382 tatsuya Mon Apr 23 14:24:32 UTC 2012
First I went to the ABC mart and bought cheap walking shoes. This was not a waste. It was a necessary.
http://www.abc-mart.com/

Next I went to Yodobashi and bought a USB headphones amplifier. This was not a necessary. It might be a waste. However, the headphones jack of my MacBook Air contains a lot of noise. In order to avoid noise it is absolutely necessary. Yes, it is not a waste, I believe.
http://www.yodobashi.com/

Then I went to Tully's Coffee and stayed there for about two hours. I worked there with my Mac and the WiMAX connection. I was a kind of 'nomad workers'. There were many nomad workers there. Many people were using PCs. My nomad working time ended by call of nature.
http://www.tullys.co.jp/

After the call I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Metropolitan_Government_Building

The building has two 'horns'. There are two observation rooms for each horn, the north observation room and the south observation room. Both are at 45 floors. Luckily, both are free. Because I have a lot of time, I went both. The north room had a toy shop and there were many foreign tourists. Whereas there were few foreigners in the south room.

Then I went to the Conran Shop in the Shinjuku Park Tower. I loved this shop before. I visited the shop for the first time in several years but the shop was still attractive. I think the Conran Shop is one of the best place to kill time.
http://www.conran.co.jp/

Finally I wrote a couple of emails sitting on a bench in the lobby of the Park Tower. Then I went to pick up my daughter.






Posted at Sun Apr 22 14:10:35 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1438703 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1438703 tatsuya Sun Apr 22 14:10:35 UTC 2012
Levon Helm, Drummer and Rough-Throated Singer for the Band, Dies at 71
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/arts/music/levon-helm-drummer-and-singer-dies-at-71.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h9l8CfECmA

He was a drummer and a singer of The Band. The Band is one of my favorite American bands. The Band is usually said to be a rock band but it also has musical elements from folk, blues and country music. Thus sometimes its music is called roots rock. However, for me The Band is an 'American' band. It is one of my images of America.

Levon Helm's heavy and steady drumming and his rough-throated, bluesy, weathered vocal make me strongly feel 'America'. Of course America has many different images, from the busy Manhattan downtown and skyscrapers to the extensive corn fields like in the movie 'Field Of Dreams', but one of my images is the boundless wildness. There are no people and no plants but there is a long straight road. I think my image is influenced by the movie 'Easy Rider'.

The Band's song 'The Weight' was used in the movie. Levon Helm sung this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkmbLoaORU

Now I am listening to The Music From Big Pink. May he rest in peace.

Posted at Sat Apr 21 14:30:42 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1436795 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1436795 tatsuya Sat Apr 21 14:30:42 UTC 2012
http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1417988

The following article is talking about one more online education venture, Coursera.

Online Education Venture Lures Cash Infusion and Deals With 5 Top Universities
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/technology/coursera-plans-to-announce-university-partners-for-online-classes.html

Coursera was founded by the scientists, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, also from Stanford. According to the article, Coursera has secured $16 million in venture capital and partnerships with five major universities - Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton. They are going to provide a broad array of interactive courses not only in computer science but also in the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and engineering.

It seems that a big movement is emerging in the field of online education.

By the way I was surprised at the following sentence in the above article:
========
The free course touched off an intense debate behind the scenes at Stanford, where annual tuition is $40,050.
========

Is it true that the annual tuition of Stanford is $40,050? I heard that the tuitions in the US are very expensive but $40,050 is beyond my imagination. Probably Stanford is one of the most expensive universities. Even so, I can't believe this price. How can people afford it?




Posted at Fri Apr 20 13:51:49 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1434728 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1434728 tatsuya Fri Apr 20 13:51:49 UTC 2012
Posted at Thu Apr 19 13:11:07 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1432669 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1432669 tatsuya Thu Apr 19 13:11:07 UTC 2012
Path, FamilyLeaf and Pair, Small-by-Design Social Networks
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/business/path-familyleaf-and-pair-small-by-design-social-networks.html

This article is talking about the current trend moving from a huge, PC-based social network, Facebook, to smaller and mobile ones, such as Path, FamilyLeaf and Pair. A Path network has a maximum of 150 friends. FamilyLeaf is restricted to family members. Pair is just for two person, i.e. one to one network.

In this article I came across the term "Dunbar number". This is funny because same sounds repeat.

The "Dunber number", which is proposed by Prof. Dunber, is a cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. Prof. Dunbar said that social networks resemble a set of concentric circles: 150 people constitute the outer boundary of friends, 50 is the limit for trusted friends, 15 for good friends, and 5 for best friends.

I also read the following article.

More U.S. Children of Immigrants Are Leaving U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/us/more-us-children-of-immigrants-are-leaving-us.html

In this article I encountered the term "brain drain". Again this is funny because of the repetition of sound.

What is this kind of phrase called? Is it called a parechesis? Is it called a tautophony? I'm not sure.

I love this kind of funny phrases. Please tell me such phrases.



Posted at Wed Apr 18 13:04:14 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1430708 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1430708 tatsuya Wed Apr 18 13:04:14 UTC 2012
Today my dog, Peter, took a rabies shot. In Japan every dog must take a shot once a year. It is forced by a law called Rabies Prevention Act.

When you have a dog you have to register it to your local city government. The city government conducts a group vaccination to registered dogs. In my city, it is held at the park near my house.

I took Peter to the park. There were many dogs coming from all over the city. It was something like a dog party. He met some of his friend dogs there.

I put Peter on an operating table and held his head still. The shot was done in a blink of an eye. It seemed that Peter didn't even notice it.

Rabies is a very serious desease. It is fatal two to ten days after the first symptoms. There is no effective treatment after the infection. Thus the prevention is very important.

There has been no rabies in Japan since 1956. The above map, which is taken from Wikipedia, shows rabies free countries (in green) as of 2010. Unfortunately there are very few rabies free countries yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rabies_Free_Countries_Sourced_2010.svg

Posted at Tue Apr 17 13:44:42 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1428894 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1428894 tatsuya Tue Apr 17 13:44:42 UTC 2012
Women in Computer Science @ Harvey Mudd College: Three Promising Practices
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF_Gkxqf158

Also here is a paper:

Women in CS: An Evaluation of Three Promising Practices
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~alvarado/papers/fp068-alvarado.pdf

They implemented three practices.

(1) providing a new introduction to Computer Science course which gives a broader view of CS rather than just programming.
(2) offering a trip to Grace Hopper Celebration (http://gracehopper.org/) for first year students
(3) providing summer research opportunities for women after their first year

As a result the percentages of women who enroll the Computer Science major increased by about three times.

When I found the above video, YouTube suggested me the following video. It is also interesting.

Girls in a Tech World: Endless Possibilities of Computer Science
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBPotROKC8

I respect computer geeks and hacker culture. However stereotyping people in the CS field as geeks are problematic. It hinders for women to join the field. It deprives opportunities from women. I think that promotions like this video are very important to overcome the stereotype.

Posted at Mon Apr 16 14:27:28 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1427070 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1427070 tatsuya Mon Apr 16 14:27:28 UTC 2012


Five days ago I wrote an entry about the cherry blossoms in full bloom in the park near my house.

http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1415903

This week I had been busy and did not have time to take a walk with my dog, Peter. Yesterday was my day off but it rained. Today the weather became fine. I went to the park with my dog once in five days.

Cherry blossoms passed the peak but I came across another beautiful scenery. Pieces of cherry blossoms were softly fluttering down. The ground was covered with a lot of pink petals. It was like pink snow.

As for Peter, he showed no interest in cherry blossoms. He remained the same.

Posted at Sun Apr 15 13:14:09 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1425002 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1425002 tatsuya Sun Apr 15 13:14:09 UTC 2012
http://ncwit.org/pdf/BytheNumbers09.pdf

Here are some figures cited from the fact sheet.

at high schools
＋56% of 2010 AP test-takers were women
　19% of AP Computer Science were women
(AP means Advanced Placement. AP is a special program for advanced high school students in the US. The level of AP courses are equivalent to the level of undergraduate courses.)

at colleges
＋57% of 2009 undergraduate degree recipients were women
　18% of 2009 Computer and Information Sciences recipients were women
　11% of 2009 Computer recipient at major research universities were women

at workplaces
＋59% of professional occupations in the 2009 US workforce held by women
　25% of professional computing occupations held by women
　11% of corporate officer positions at Fortune 500 technology companies held bye women

The following article describes this situation as a leaking pipeline.

Women’s Pipeline to Programming Jobs Has Many Leaks - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/womens-pipeline-to-programming-jobs-has-many-leaks.html

The article says:
====
But experts say that at many prominent tech firms, where coding is king, the percentage of female programmers is in the single digits.
====

The article points out that one of the reasons for the small percentage of female at the workplaces is the hiring process, where interviewers are all men and sometimes there are "24-hour “hackathons” for recruits, reinforcing the profession’s geeky, high-testosterone stereotype".

The article is talking about the situation in the US but it seems that other countries also have similar problem. The next article is from the UK.

Girls and coding: female peer pressure scares them off http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/girls-coding-female-peer-pressure

The author of this article and others have run a big coding event, called Young Rewired State, for people aged 18 or less. The girls were under 5% of the participants. She said that since programming is a rare activity for girls, girls who are interested in programming are scared by female peer pressure and they give up coding. She proposes that programming should be taught in the national curriculum so that programming becomes an normal activity.

By the way how is the trend of this problem? Again here are some figures from the fact sheet above.

＋37% of 1985 Computer Sciences recipients were women
　18% of 2009 Computer and Information Sciences recipients were women

＋79% decline in the number of first-year undergraduate women interested in majoring in Computer Science between 2000 and 2009

It seems that the situation has been getting worse in the last few decades. However, according to the first 'pipeline' article "there are signs of hope in the corporate world."

========
Two years ago, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology began a competition for a “Top Company for Technical Women” award. I.B.M. won in 2011, and the institute recently announced that American Express — with women representing 30 percent of its technical employees — will receive the 2012 award.
========

There also are signs of hope in the universities. The next article reports a success case to increase the number of female students majoring Computer Science.

Giving Women the Access Code - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/giving-women-the-access-code.html

========
How Dr. Klawe (pronounced KLAH-vay) and her faculty turned things around — this year, nearly 40 percent of Harvey Mudd’s computer science degrees will go to women — sheds light on a gender gap that elsewhere remains stubbornly resistant to changing times.
========

Not only at the big companies and universities level but also at grass-root level there are signs of hope. The next article reports about the demands to learning programming.

A Surge in Learning the Language of the Internet - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/technology/for-an-edge-on-the-internet-computer-code-gains-a-following.html

I found some links to the sites for female programmers. I think that these kind of activities should improve the situation.

Girl Develop It
http://girldevelopit.com/

Women Who Code (SF) (San Francisco, CA) - Meetup
http://www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-SF/


Posted at Sat Apr 14 12:13:43 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1423078 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1423078 tatsuya Sat Apr 14 12:13:43 UTC 2012


I came across the above banner ad which says that a TOEIC score increases by 250 points with 80 hour lesson. Is it true?

I was skeptical about it. Thus I read about it further:

http://www.qqeng.com/pages/pressrelease_intro/

The page says that they conducted an experiment at Meiji University. The experimental subjects are university students. The number of subjects are 21. Before the lesson the subjects took a TOEIC test. Then they took 80 hour lesson in about three months. After the lesson they took a TOEIC test again.

The banner ad says just 250 point increase but the above page says that the 250 point increase is the maximum value. The mean of increase is only 110 points, which is less than half of 250 points. I think the banner is exaggerated.

I looked for further details and found the following reports published by Meiji University.
http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/~pfd/seminar/2011_report/c_callanmethod.pdf
http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/~pfd/seminar/2011_report/c_callanmethod_rep1.pdf

This report includes all data. The score increments of 21 subjects are:

250
175
175
160
155
150
150
140
130
115
115
110
100
95
85
65
60
40
30
30
15

mean = 111.67
standard deviation = 58.85

Hmm...
If you want to refer the 250 points increase (the maximum), you should also write the 15 points (the minimum). You should write "TOEIC score increases by 15 points to 250 points with 80 hour lesson."

The second image of this entry is a histogram of the score increase. It seems that the 250 data is an outlier. I think that It is not adequate to use an outlier as a representative value in advertisements.

Sometimes an outlier is an error or an abnormal value. So I checked further details about subjects of 250 increase. Hereafter I call the subject Max. I found some concerns about the data of Max.

(1)
The score before lesson of Max is 275 while the scores of all other subjects are more than 425. There is a possibility that 275 is an error.

(2)
After the 80 hour lesson other subjects took a TOEIC test in November or December. However, Max took a TOEIC test in March. Why was Max late by 3 months? What did Max do in the 3 months?

(3)
The scatter chart of the third image of this entry is cited from the report above. Since n = 21 data of the all subjects are plotted but there is no point with 250 increase. The left most point should correspond to Max but its increase is only about 130. What does this mean?

In summary, I think that they should write "TOEIC score increases by 110 points (the mean) with 80 hour lesson."




Posted at Fri Apr 13 14:23:56 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1421556 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1421556 tatsuya Fri Apr 13 14:23:56 UTC 2012
　　春眠暁を覚えず
　　（しゅんみんあかつきをおぼえず）

The meaning of this phrase is "In spring one sleeps a sleep that knows no dawn."

The origin of the phrase is an old Chinese poem by Meng Haoran (孟浩然) titled 春暁. It was composed about 1300 years ago.

　　春眠不覚暁
　　処処聞啼鳥
　　夜来風雨声
　　花落知多少

In Japan this poem is read as follows:

　　しゅんみん あかつきを おぼえず
　　しょしょ ていちょうを きく
　　やらい ふううの こえ
　　はなおつること しる たしょうぞ

My unpoetic translation is:

　　In spring I have such a good sleep that I do not realize getting light
　　I hear birds singing here and there
　　Last night I heard sound of winds and rains
　　I am wondering how many flowers have fallen

The poem is talking about a sleep in the morning but I actually feel sleepy all day long.


Posted at Thu Apr 12 13:34:55 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1419648 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1419648 tatsuya Thu Apr 12 13:34:55 UTC 2012 http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs101

Udacity provides free online courses about computer science. They say:
http://www.udacity.com/udacity
========
We believe university-level education can be both high quality and low cost. Using the economics of the Internet, we've connected some of the greatest teachers to hundreds of thousands of students all over the world.
========

Their course consists of a series of interactive video lectures. The video lectures are very well made. They also have home works, office hours, and even a final exam!

The CS-101 is an introductory programmin course. It uses Python programming language and builds a small search engine as an example.

If you want to learn Python by yourself, try the Udacty. I think it is a very good site.


Posted at Wed Apr 11 14:38:40 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1417988 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1417988 tatsuya Wed Apr 11 14:38:40 UTC 2012


I took the first photo in a park near my house a few weeks ago. It was before the cherry blossoms started to bloom. Today I took the second photo at the same place.

Unfortunately my camera is not good enough to capture the real beauty. The actual cherry blossoms were more beautiful than the second photo.

One of the most impressive points of cherry blossoms is its dramatical change. Before bloom the cherry trees are unnoticeable ordinary brown trees. After bloom they are covered with full of light pink colors and their appearance changes completely.

The third photo is a view from a window of my bed room. There is an elementary school in front of my house and there are cherry trees in the playground of the school. Every year a lot of pedals fly from cherry trees and fall everywhere on my house.

Posted at Tue Apr 10 13:45:49 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1415903 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1415903 tatsuya Tue Apr 10 13:45:49 UTC 2012
http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/private_headphones_portable_504769

I heard that the IE 8 is a remarkably excellent headphone and I almost bought it. But I hesitated because it was so expensive (over US$300).

Last December a new model IE 80 was released. I almost bought it but I didn't. I'm patient.

Few days ago, I happened to start to read some reviews about headphones. It was a bad idea. Every single review praised the IE 80 a great deal. I felt like buying it.

However, I was not courageous enough to spend over US$300 to a headphone. I was not sure that I was worth for it. I was not confident that I could recognize the difference between a cheap headphone and an expensive one. That was my first time to buy such an expensive headphone.

Finally I decided to buy a IE 60 which is a low cost model of the IE 80. It was almost half the price of the IE 80. It was affordable even for my chicken heart and it should be good enough for me.

Now I'm listening to Jaco Pastorius. I am satisfied. I notices many new sounds which I could not recognize with my old cheap headphone.


Posted at Mon Apr 09 13:55:48 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1414071 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1414071 tatsuya Mon Apr 09 13:55:48 UTC 2012
There are many kinds of abilities and each ability has its own properties. Some abilities earns much values and some don't. The meaning of 'value' varies from people to people. For some people value means just money while for other people value means a sense of fulfillment. Here I ignore the difference for the sake of simplicity. Since it takes time to earn value we have to consider an 'earning rate', that is how much value is earned during a unit of time, such as per month, per year etc.

Some abilities have very high earning rates when there are strong demands for the abilities and there are relatively small number of people who have them. Instead, some abilities have low earning rates.

People pay much attention to the earning rates and tend to select an ability with a high earning rate. Many people forget to think about an effective period of the ability.

Some abilities have very long effective periods, sometimes whole life long, while other abilities have short ones. For example, the logical thinking skill has a very long effective period but the skill to use Windows Vista doesn't.

A total value of an ability is a multiplication of its earning rate and its effective period. Even if an ability has high earning rate it does not necessarily means a big total value when it has a short effective period. On the other hand, even if an ability has low earning rate it might have a big total value when it has a long effective period.

Although it is difficult to predict effective periods, you must take into account them when you choose target abilities you learn.


Posted at Sun Apr 08 13:44:51 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1412224 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1412224 tatsuya Sun Apr 08 13:44:51 UTC 2012
Teaching technology: we need a digital revolution in the classroom
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/31/observer-editorial-education-technology

Why all our kids should be taught how to code
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code

A manifesto for teaching computer science in the 21st century
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/manifesto-teaching-ict-education-minister

Girls and coding: female peer pressure scares them off
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/girls-coding-female-peer-pressure

Young coders: what's happening in the rest of the world?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/young-coders-rest-of-world

Young coders: ideas for change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/young-coders-ideas-for-change

These articles argues that computer science should be taught in schools. The first article says as follows:
========
Starting in primary school, children from all backgrounds and every part of the UK should have the opportunity to: learn some of the key ideas of computer science; understand computational thinking; learn to program; and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of excellence in these activities.
========

Why? The second article says:
========
if you don't know how to control the systems you're using, these systems are probably controlling you.
========

We can not live without computing systems, such as the Internet, Web applications, PCs, mobile phones etc. We have to learn how to control those systems. Otherwise, we are controlled by them.

Note that controlling the system and just using the system are totally different things. They argues that kids should learn 'computer science' rather than how to use MS-Word.

What do they mean by 'computer science'? The first article says that 'computer science' is an umbrella term that covers the following two distinct areas:
(1) a set of key concepts that are essential to understand the networked world
(2) a new way of thinking about problem-solving, called computational thinking

A document titled "Teaching Computer Science in Schools", which is linked from the third article, explains what is computer science and lists the following topics:
http://academy.bcs.org/upload/pdf/cs-school-subject.pdf

(1) key concepts
　algorithms, data structures, programs, architecture, communication
(2) computational thinking (or methods)
　modeling, decomposing, generalizing, "designing, writing, testing, explaining, and debugging"

Actually, these are quite different from how to use MS-Word.

I agree with that it is better for kids to learn 'computer science' rather than how-tos. However I'm wondering wether it is possible.

First, it takes a lot of time to learn 'computer science'. In order to allot hours for 'computer science' subject we have to reduce other subjects' hours. Is it possible? In Japan, a new subject '情報 (information)' was introduced into the high school curriculum few years ago. However, it has only 2 units whereas the subject '数学 (mathematics)' has 11 to 16 units. It is difficult to allot hours for a new subject.

Second, it seems that the above articles are confusing programing and computer science. Some article says that kids should learn computer science and some says that kids should learn programming. I think that learning programming is the best way for adults to learn computer science. However I'm not sure whether it is the best method for kids.


Posted at Sat Apr 07 13:45:48 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1410399 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1410399 tatsuya Sat Apr 07 13:45:48 UTC 2012
Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses - NYTimes.com http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/google-begins-testing-its-augmented-reality-glasses/

It reminded me of the 電脳メガネ appeared in the Japanese science fiction anime 電脳コイル (Coil — A Circle of Children).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Coil

I watched the Google's concept video below. Honestly, it was not so interesting for me. Everything was within the anticipation. There was no surprise. The story was cheap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4

Then today, I found this video. It was funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwModZmOzDs

Posted at Fri Apr 06 11:32:45 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1408474 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1408474 tatsuya Fri Apr 06 11:32:45 UTC 2012
Apple’s Suppliers Pressed to Improve Workers’ Lot - NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/technology/apple-presses-its-suppliers-to-improve-conditions.html

The superficial problems are the overtime works of Foxconn employees and the working conditions at Foxconn factories but the essential problem is the fairness between Apple and Foxconn workers.

Today I read a Japanese article relating this issue from Nikkei:
(Unfortunately Nikkei does not provide permalinks. The following link will become dead soon, sigh...)

アップル「解けた魔法」、中国で長時間労働　サプライチェーンの舞台裏：日本経済新聞
http://www.nikkei.com/tech/trend/article/g=96958A90889DE6E2E3E7E7E0EBE2E2E6E2E6E0E2E3E0E2E2E2E2E2E2

The article says that the source of Apple's competing power is its supply-chain management, which has been built by the leadership of Mr. Cook, current Apple's CEO. The article shows an old episode how crazy Mr Cook's management was:

========
　「もう３日も寝てない」。いまから十数年前、アップルの日本法人、アップルコンピュータ（現アップルジャパン）の社長だった原田泳幸（現日本マクドナルド会長兼社長）が、赤い目をこすりながら現れた。聞けば、クパチーノ（アップルの本社所在地）から無理難題を押しつけられているという。

　「あいつら、コンデンサーの洋上在庫までリアルタイムで教えろっていうんだ。日本の部品が中国の工場で組み立てられ、アメリカの倉庫に製品が収まるまで、全部、把握しないと気が済まない。クレージーだよ」。
========

This episode was more than ten years ago when Mr. Cook moved from Compaq (acquired by HP in 2002) to Apple and started the improvement of the supply-chain. As for the cash conversion cycle (CCC), which means how long it takes for a company to convert investments into cash (sales), the average of the CCC of Japanese big electronics companies is about 40 days. The CCC of Apple was over 70 days before the arrival of Mr. Cook and it has improved to *minus* 20 days due to the 'crazy' management by him. Now over a million workers of Foxconn are supporting Apple's super flexible supply-chain.

The article also cited interesting figures:

========
アップルの米国内の従業員は４万7000人。売上高でアップルとほぼ拮抗する日立製作所（11年度、約９兆3000億円）の連結従業員は約36万人だ。従業員１人当たりの売上高は日立の８倍近くである。

　だが仮に、フォックスコン従業員の待遇が先進国並みに改善されれば、アップルは実質的に105万人の雇用を抱え込むことになる。そこまではいかないにしても、従来のような「いいとこ取り」は難しくなった。種明かしされた魔法は輝きを失う。スティーブ・ジョブズ亡き後のアップルが抱える最大の不安要素かもしれない。
========

Foxconn manufactures products other than Apple, thus I think 105万人の雇用 in this article is an exaggerated number. I don't know the actual data but I think it is possible to assume one-third to half of employees of Foxconn work for Apple. Then the sum of the number of employees of Apple (47,000) and the number of employees of Foxconn (300,000 out of 1,050,000) roughly equals to the number of employees of Hitachi (360,000).

(Hitachi should have partner companies like Foxconn for Apple but I ignore them for simplicity.)

It can be said that both Apple+Foxconn and Hitachi has almost the same number of employees and the same amount of sales. Again I don't know the actual data but I guess that the variability in the salaries of employees of Apple+Foxconn is far larger than the variability in Hitachi. What do you think about this?

Posted at Thu Apr 05 14:18:40 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1407100 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1407100 tatsuya Thu Apr 05 14:18:40 UTC 2012
In the morning I went for a walk with my dog. Today of all days he wanted to run. He walked ahead of me, looked back at me, and skipped as if saying "Let's run with me!"

I ran.

I regret now. I should have refused his request. I should have resisted his lure.

In the afternoon things went wrong. I am going to stay in bed tomorrow. Sometimes I have a lower back pain and it takes about a week to recover it. My spring vacation will end this week and the work will start next week. Shall I able to work next week?

Posted at Wed Apr 04 13:21:03 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1405107 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1405107 tatsuya Wed Apr 04 13:21:03 UTC 2012
希望論―２０１０年代の文化と社会
宇野 常寛, 濱野 智史
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4140911719

I think this is a very good book although I have not finished reading it. The authors were talking about the hope of Japan. The book contains many insights into the culture and society of Japan. There are a lot of sentences such that I wanted to mark with a highlighter pen (but I couldn't because I'm reading a copy from a library). I will write an entry about this book after reading the whole of the book.

Anyway, I'd like to introduce a interesting view of the contemporary history of Japan by sociologist Munesuke Mita which was mentioned in the book. The view is based on a question: what is the opposite of reality?

Two answers are possible: ideal and fiction.
　reality ⇔ ideal
　reality ⇔ fiction

In this view it is said that the years from 1945 to 1970 in Japan were the age of ideal where people think 'ideal' as the opposite of the reality. In other words, Japanese people pursued the ideal at that time. The World War II ended in 1945 and the Osaka Expo, a major event that symbolized Japan's high growth period, was held in 1970. There was the 'ideals' that almost all people in Japan could share.

The years from 1970 to 1995 were the age of fiction (or fantasy) where people think 'fiction' as the opposite of the reality. People could not share common dreams any more. Each person begun to live in his own fantasy. Otaku was born. The age of fantasy ended in 1995 when Tokyo sarin gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo occurred.

Then what kind of age are the years after 1995? There are many views. I'll write about them later. Of course, one of the most important piece after 1995 is the Internet.


Posted at Tue Apr 03 14:32:27 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1403387 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1403387 tatsuya Tue Apr 03 14:32:27 UTC 2012
The thanks point of the Lang-8 follows the principle of the separation of mechanism and policy. The Lang-8 system provides only the mechanism of the thanks point. The policy is separated and the system does not provide the policy. It is left to the users. The users have to decide their own policies, i.e. how to use the thanks point mechanism.

The correction tool of the Lang-8 also follows the principle. The system provide mechanisms, such as make text in blue, make text in red etc., but it doesn't provide policies. The user have to decide how to use the 'make text in red' mechanism. It's up to the users.

Recently there has been a delay in my giving thanks points and writing feedbacks to comments. (Please excuse me for being late.) One of the reasons of my delay is that I'm wondering about the policy of the thanks point.

Main question is: should I give different number of starts of thanks points?

When a person took great effort to make corrections on my entry I'd like to express a lot of thanks to the person with five stars. When a person made a only minor correction I'd like to give one star. Even if a person made only one correction I'd like to give five starts when the correction was extremely useful for me.

In short, I'd like to evaluate corrections fairly.

However, the problem is that it takes a long time to achieve fair evaluations. The beauty of the thanks point lies in its fingertip operation. If you spent a lot of time to mark stars it would be better to write a more informative comment. Moreover even if you spend a lot of time it might be impossible to evaluate correctly.

When I started to use the Lang-8 first I tried to evaluate corrector's effort and correction's usefulness. However I found that it was very difficult and I gave up. Then I changed my policy. I started to give same number of stars to all corrections. In this case there isn't any rationale not to give five stars. So I started give five stars to all of the corrections.

However I'm string wondering. Sometimes I feel a resistance in my mind when I give five starts to a very minor correction.

What do you think? What is the best policy?

Posted at Mon Apr 02 14:22:12 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1401295 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1401295 tatsuya Mon Apr 02 14:22:12 UTC 2012
========
The Hunger Games Message about Military Recruiting - WNYC
http://www.wnyc.org/articles/its-free-country/2012/mar/29/hunger-games-message-about-military-recruiting/

Stanley Tucci’s blue hair, Elizabeth Banks’ pink eyelashes, and the brutal slaughter of young children could easily have distracted you from a quieter question at the center of dystopian future in The Hunger Games: who fights in wars and why do they volunteer to do it?
========

This sentence says that there is a question that "who fights in wars and why do they volunteer to do it?" at the center of dystopian future in The Hunger Games. However the question does not stand out because you are distracted by many other eye-catching things such as someone's blue hair, someone's pink eyelashes etc.

The sentence describes the question as 'a quieter question'. First I though 'quieter question' or ' quiet question' might be an idiom because 'qu... qu...' sounds rhymed and like a duck. However it doesn't have any special meanings.

Then my teacher taught me the word 'ramification' as a related word.

I've came across the word 'ramification' several times before but I'm not sure its meaning at the lesson, especially the meaning fitting this context. First I though that 'ramification' refers to 'a quieter question' because we talked about it just before. But it didn't make sense.

She gave me an example sentence and let me guess the meaning.

　The quieter question exists because often no one wants to discuss or deal with the ramifications.

I tried to guess and I remembered that 'ramification' means something like branching but it still didn't make sense.

I gave up and asked her the definition. She chatted it to me. It seems that the definition she taught to me was from New Oxford American Dictionary.

　A consequence of an action or event, esp. when complex or unwelcome.
　A subdivision of a complex structure or process perceived as comparable to a tree's branches

After the lesson I've been still thinking about 'ramification'. I hadn't realized that the word 'ramification' had a meaning of 'consequence' or 'result'. The verb 'to ramify' means 'to form branch'. It seems that the image of growing branches leads the meaning of consequence. The interesting point is that it is not a neutral consequence, rather it is a complex or unwelcome consequence. I understand that a lot of branches imply a complex consequence but I still can not understand why it includes the meaning of 'unwelcome'.

So I looked up several dictionary sites.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ramification
a related or derived subject, problem, etc.; outgrowth; consequence; implication

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ramification
consequence, outgrowth

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/ramification
something that is the result of an action, decision, etc.

http://www.answers.com/topic/ramification
A development or consequence growing out of and sometimes complicating a problem, plan, or statement

http://ramification.askdefine.com/
a development that complicates a situation;

There is no 'unwelcome' meaning in these definitions. Where has 'unwelcomeness' came from?






Posted at Sun Apr 01 14:11:08 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1399398 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1399398 tatsuya Sun Apr 01 14:11:08 UTC 2012
Wanna Make It In The Valley? Better Eat Your Kale | Epicenter | Wired.com http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/03/opinion-hartz-entrepreneurs/

In order to achieve high performances and to make intelligent decisions under extremely stressful conditions like in startup companies, the author of the post claims that three things are very important: sleep, diet and exercise.

I agree with him. Enough sleep, balanced diet and adequate exercise are keys to a healthy and productive life. It's a right direction, I think.

However, I surprised at an example he provided. It's a funny step.

========
My longtime friend and investing colleague, Keith Rabois, COO at Square, bought Zeo sleep monitors for all of his direct reports. The device tracks sleep through a Bluetooth headband worn at night and provides a sleep score upon waking.
========

I love this kind of sensor devices but I never want to submit my sleep score to my boss. I can not sleep well if my boss monitoring my sleep. The more the boss order me to sleep well, the more I can not sleep well. I want to relax while sleeping.

Anyway, regarding diet I found an interesting infographic today.

世界肥満度地図　トリップアドバイザーのインフォグラフィックスで世界の旅が見える http://tg.tripadvisor.jp/overweight/

This infographic shows percentages of people whose BMI (Body Mass Index) is more than 25 for each countries in OECD. The data drawn from the OECD Health Data 2012. The US is the most 'fat' country where about 70% of people have BMI more than 25. Japan is the most 'skinny' country among 34 countries in OECD where only 25% of people have BMI more than 25.

After World War II, the life styles in Japan are heavily influenced by the life styles in the US. However there are still large differences in 'fatness' between two countries. I don't know why.






Posted at Sat Mar 31 12:53:42 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1397239 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1397239 tatsuya Sat Mar 31 12:53:42 UTC 2012
Harry Potter And The Great Sideloading Gamble. A ‘Dark Day’ For Publishers? | TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/27/harry-potter-and-the-great-sideloading-gamble-a-dark-day-for-publishers/

I've never heard about the word 'sideloading' but it seems a common word since it appears in the title. The spell checker of the Lang-8 keeps complaining about 'sideloading', though.

According to the Wikipedia, the word 'sideloading' is smilar to 'uploading' and 'downloading' but it means data transfer among local devices such as PCs, smartphones, tablets etc., rather than to and from servers. When you want to enjoy some digital contents, such as mp3 music, e-books, mp4 movies etc. on your smartphone, you first download the contents from a server to your PC and then they are transfered (sideloaded) to your smartphone using a USB connection or a SD memory card. Recently USB and a SD memory card become unnecessary because of the cloud services.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideloading

In the article I think that 'sideloading' also has another meaning. Until recently a book has been 'loaded' to a reader along the following path:

　author → publisher → distributor → book store → reader

Now this 'loading' path is changing. Other 'side' paths become available and a book is now 'sideloaded' to a reader. The most extreme path is:

　author → reader

According to the article the Harry Potter's author, J.K. Rowling has started to exclusively sell the e-books and audiobooks of Harry Potter directly to a reader through her own web site, pottermore.com (http://www.pottermore.com/ ). Even Amazon can not sell the digital Potters. The Amazon site lists the digital Potters but people can't but them there. If someone clicked on the Amazon site and bought them then the Amazon get an affiliation fee from pottermore.com. Isn't it interesting that the Amazon gets the affiliation fee, not pays the fee? Things are changing.

The article said that Rowling will have 70-90% of sales based on an estimation by Mark Coker. When 'loading' along a usual path. the author get 12.5-17.5% of sales. I think that the difference is very big.

I'm wondering what kinds of jobs remain in the middle of the path in the future. What will publishes do? How about distributors and book stores?

Posted at Fri Mar 30 14:06:31 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1395536 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1395536 tatsuya Fri Mar 30 14:06:31 UTC 2012
http://pollock100.com/

I'd like to go to the exhibition while the cherry blossoms at Imperial Palace are in full bloom. The cherry blossoms are late in blooming this year because of the low temperatures in February. Will the cherry blossoms be in full bloom in a week? I'm not sure.

Today I watched a NHK TV program titled 飛び散る線の謎～ポロックの“自然”. In this program, University of Oregon physicist Richard Taylor said that Pollock's paintings are characterized as fractal. Moreover he said that the characteristics are so unique that they can be used as an authentication tool. Actually he found fake paintings.

I'd like to read his original paper but unfortunately it was behind the paywall.

Order in Pollock's Chaos
http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=375021AF-5B09-42AE-9DF5-B1D37E8422A

I agree with that Pollock's paintings have fractal characteristics. They are like trees with full of leaves which also considered to be fractal. However I'm wondering whether they can be used as an authentication tool. Is it true that they are so unique?

I didn't notices but It seems that there were some arguments five or six years ago.

Jackson Pollock - Fractals - Report - New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/books/02frac.html
Pollock or Not? Can Fractals Spot a Fake Masterpiece?: Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-fractals-spot-genuine

I found the following slides by physicists Katherine Jones–Smith of Washington University and Harsh Mathur of CWRU who are skeptical about Taylor's arguments. Regardless of your position, for or against Taylor, you must take a look at the slides because they are very beautiful.

http://physics.wustl.edu/alford/physoc/KJS_Pollock_fractal_talk.pdf


Posted at Thu Mar 29 14:39:57 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1393527 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1393527 tatsuya Thu Mar 29 14:39:57 UTC 2012
Japan signed the economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the Philippines and with Indonesia. They became effective in 2008. The followings are the official agreements:

Agreement Between Japan and the Republic of the Philippines for an Economic Partnership
http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/philippine/epa0609/index.html

Agreement between Japan and the Republic of Indonesia for an Economic Partnership
http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/indonesia/epa0708/index.html

The annex 8, section 6 in the EPA with the Philippines and the annex 10, section 6 in the EPA with Indonesia state that in order to obtain a qualification of a nurse or a certified careworker, Japanese government admits the entry and temporary stay of some number of people from the Philippines and Indonesia.

From this point forward I will write about nurses.

People who came to Japan based on these agreements can stay in Japan for three years. First they take Japanese language classes for six months then they are trained in the hospital. In order to work as nurses in Japan they have to pass the national nurse examination. They have to take the same examination as Japanese candidates. It means that all problems and answers are written in Japanese language. If they can not pass the examination within three years then they have to return to the country.

Yesterday the result of the examination of this year was reported.

========
Foreign pass rate for national nurse exam triples | The Japan Times Online http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120327b3.html

A total of 47 Indonesians and Filipinos passed the national nurse examination in February, nearly three times more than the previous year, the health ministry said Monday

The pass rate was 11.3 percent, up about 7 points from last year, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
========

I found the detailed result of the examination:
This year's result
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r985200000267jc-att/2r985200000267l2.pdf
Last year's result
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r98520000016bot-att/2r98520000016bqj.pdf

The 47 out of 415 applicants (11.3%) passed the examination this year and the 16 out of 398 applicants (4.0%) passed last year.

Is it a very difficult examination? However, the above result says that 95.1% of new graduates are pass the examination this year. Is it a difficult examination?

The following pages shows the number of nurses who came Japan for each year.
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/koyou/other07/index.html
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/koyou/other21/index.html

I compiled all data into a table in the above image.

The table shows that in 2008, 104 candidates came from Indonesia and 23 candidates have passed the examination so far. This means that 81 candidates failed the examination and they have to return to Indonesia. Also in 2009, 93 candidates came from Philippines and 11 candidates have passed the examination so far.

What do you think about this results?

Posted at Wed Mar 28 14:41:27 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1391236 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1391236 tatsuya Wed Mar 28 14:41:27 UTC 2012
　6 years, elementary school
　3 years, junior high school
　3 years, high school
　4 years, university

There are two types of junior high schools in Japan: schools with entrance examination and ones without it. Private and national junior high schools hold entrance examination while public junior high schools do not.

Schools with examination have a system integrating a junior high school and a high school. They provide curriculums of 3+3 = 6 years which is said to have high educational effectiveness.

The number of students in the 6th grade of elementary schools in Tokyo area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama) is roughly 300,000. About 55,000 students among them take entrance examinations for junior high schools. This means that one out of 5.5 students takes the examination.

Almost all students who take examination go to cram schools. I don't say it is impossible but it is very difficult to pass an examination without going to a cram school. Some students start to go to a cram school in their 4th grade and some start in their 5th grade.

My daughter will take an examination next year. She has been going to a cram school for two years since she was in her 4th grade. Usually a student do not change the cram school in the middle of the preparation period but my daughter has changed her cram schools. Since yesterday she has been going to the new cram school.

I selected the old cram school because it has a very good performance; a lot of students in the cram school passed examinations of many top-ranked junior high schools. But after two years I realized that the school is not good for my daughter.

My daughter is very good at the Japanese (national language) subject . Her score of it is at the top few percent. But she is bad at other subjects (math, science, social studies). Her scores of them are below average. Students divided into classes based on the total score. As a result her class of Japanese subject becomes too easy for her and classes of other subjects become too difficult. Some special cares are needed for her but the cram school does not provide such cares. So I decided to change the cram schools.

I don't know this transition works out well or not.








Posted at Tue Mar 27 13:33:12 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1388752 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1388752 tatsuya Tue Mar 27 13:33:12 UTC 2012
I appreciate their efforts. I know that making a conversation good is their job. However, even so I still appreciate them. Without such encouragements it is difficult to continue to study English. Also I know that sometimes it is not easy to praise my poor English.

Yesterday's teacher was different.

Usually teachers sit straight and sometimes lean forward to make a intimate conversation, but she was different. She leaned back in her chair. I couldn't feel her passion to talk with me.

According to the protocol of the school for the first lesson with a new teacher, I introduced myself. I talked about my family, my job and my hobbies. She didn't show any responses during my introduction. She just listened to my words leaning back in her chair without smiling. I was not sure whether she was listening or not.

At the end of my introduction I talked about my dog, Peter. She finally showed her interest in my talk. I was so glad to draw a response from her. I wanted to thank Peter.

Then we started to a lesson. The lesson went in a detached tone.

In the middle of the lesson, I asked her outright ignoring the course of the lesson:
"By the way, could you tell me something about yourself? I gave a self-introduction but you didn't."

She started to talk about herself. She said that she wants to find a job in Singapore but in order to go to there she has to save money. She said that she wanted to study art but she couldn't. She said that she envies a Japanese because a Japanese can go to any countries in the world, and so on.

Gradually the conversation became lively.

Suddenly she asked me "What do you do?" I realized that she didn't listen to my self-introduction. I explained my job again. This time I'm sure that she listened to all the details of my talk. She was quite responsive.

It seems that a teacher is not a job she really wants. In general she is not a good teacher but for me she was not bad. In a sense she was honest to her own feelings. Thus I could practice to make a real, no-frills conversation. In a real conversation both I and the opponent have responsibilities to make it lively. Otherwise it fails. In a real conversation the opponent is not always cooperative. I might have to manage to draw a cooperation.

Anyway, I'll take her lesson again.

Posted at Mon Mar 26 14:02:48 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1386296 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1386296 tatsuya Mon Mar 26 14:02:48 UTC 2012
Yesterday I wrote about the Big Mac index and referred data from a report titled "Prices and Earnings".
http://www.ubs.com/global/en/wealth_management/wealth_management_research/prices_earnings.html

I have been still looking at the data today. There are two main, overall indexes in the report: price levels and wage levels.

　Price levels (New York = 100)
　　　　　　　Excl. rent　Incl. rent
　Tokyo 　　　　112.6　　　94.2
　Manila　　　　45.3　　　33.1
　Tokyo/Manila　2.49　　　2.85

　Wage levels (New York = 100)
　　　　　　　　　gross　net
　Tokyo　　　　　80.8　90.6
　Manila　　　　　　7.4　8.7
　Tokyo/Manila　10.92　10.41

The data above is extracted from "Edition 2009 - update August 2011" of the report. The gross wage means all money earned and the net wage is a wage from which taxes and social security contributions are excluded.

The price level of Tokyo is 2.49 to 2.85 times higher than the level of Manila. The wage level of Tokyo is 10.41 to 10.92 times higher than the level of Manila. What a big differences they are.

"The World Is Flat" was published in 2005. The above data was published in 2011, six years later of the publication. According to the law of one price If the world is flat then price level becomes same. The contraposition is that if price level is not same then the world is not flat.

The image above is more detailed wage data for each professions. For most professions the wage lavel of Tokyo is more than ten times higher than the level of Manila. The two professions with the widest differences are Building labourer and Bank credit officer. If a building labourer comes to Japan and do the same work then he can earn 18.4 times gross income. The professions that requires high skills, such as Department head, Product manager, Cook, Call center agent, have relatively small differences. They are still 4 to 7 times differences, though.




Posted at Sun Mar 25 14:32:02 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1383725 http://lang-8.com/11658/journals/1383725 tatsuya Sun Mar 25 14:32:02 UTC 2012