Month: October 2007

Smart

In a fit of profound cleverness (in the “who would have thought of that” department) a photocopier has been invented by Fuji that will copy a page in Japanese, translate it into English, and put the English words on the page in the place of the Japanese ones in the final printout (or English to Japanese if you desire. Unbelievable. Still, I imagine it could create some particularly humorous nonsense sentences when they machine puts the literal translation in but can’t compensate for syntax or meaning.

Also, gotta love those Estonians. Having already tried an internet based national election, they are now moving on to plans for and election where people vote using their mobile phones. Given the amount of info you need to hand over to get a mobile contract, and the fact that the SIM ID is a unique identifier it seems like a pretty clever idea (and one which appeals to both my nerdish and my politically vacal tendencies.

Quotable

Barak Obama has been quoted as saying “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest”, in relation to the shallow habit of American politicians wearing little American flag lapel pins. He says he doesn’t wear an American flag on his lapel because it has become a substitute for “true patriotism” since Sept. 11.

Now that’s an admirable show of honesty and rationality from a politician. Everyone knows you’re an american, and the fact that you’re vying to serve your country by running for congress or president should be proof enough of your patriotism (if you know anything about how harsh those political races and the subsequent jobs can be), so why wear a badge to emphasise what should already be apparent to all but the dimmest of observers.

Kudos to him (although I’d still vote for Hillary).