Matsu’s World: The One Less Traveled

It is interesting how much one learns of themselves by interacting with others. Yes, by interacting with people around you it helps you see yourself better and therefore you end up knowing yourself.

In the past several years I’ve worked with a person who has brought into focus the amount of influence my upbringing has affected my personality and character. I grew up in Japan. In fact, I spent most of the first 18 years of my life there, with the exception of three times when we lived in America for a year each time while on furlough. Well, the oriental influence on me is inescapable. And, this co-worker has been like a highly reflective mirror and given me a better view of myself and how I’ve been shaped by the oriental influences of my childhood.

One of the characteristics of oriental society is subtle communication. So, when I saw this photo posted on the Kyoto Daily Photo blog, I laughed out loud. It typifies how subtle the Japanese people can be, and by extension, how I am at times. The theme for the July 1st daily photo blog photos is “no.” The assignment is to take photos of signs that say “no” or “not permitted.” So, the photo of a walking path of large stepping stones with a single smaller stone sitting atop the first step means, “do not enter,” in the social language of Japan. That is a wonderful example of how small and subtle communication is in Japan — and while it’s subtle, I find it also to be crystal clear and almost obvious. But, that’s just because I think in those same terms.

So, thank you Bert for giving me a better view of myself and through that awareness, making this photograph that much more meaningful and amusing.

Disclaimer: The photo used in this post has nothing to do with the Kyoto Daily Photo blog. I wanted to use the stone path photo, but I didn’t have permission. Therefore, I found a good friend’s photo on the Wilmore Daily Photo blog site and used it without his permission. Hey, what is a friend going to do, sue me? Oh, oh! He seems to be tight with the local police. Maybe I should reconsider my attititude!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post about the new telephone books arriving — with Yellow Pages — and referenced some statistics I read when surfing an article on MSN about the same topic. I had no idea I would be visited by the editor of the Yellow Pages industry website, YP Talk — his name is Ken Clark.

I don’t know if my quotes of the MSN article bothered him or it was the number of people all over the world cutting back on their use of the phone book (including Yellow Pages), but he definitely seemed upset when he left me a comment here. Then, on his website he wrote:

“Bloggers continue to tell everyone that will listen to them that THEY NEVER USE A PRINT YELLOW PAGES, and are astonished that any Cretan would ever need one.”

I get the impression that Mr. Clark doesn’t like bloggers who share their opinions or observations. That’s too bad. It’s unlikely that they will stop sharing their thoughts any time soon. I would think that fighting the bloggers would be a losing battle. But, that’s just this bloggers opinion, which isn’t worth too much.

So, back to the title of this post… just a few minutes ago Jay Leno made a funny joke on the Tonight Show (NBC). He was making fun of the Yellow Pages and said, “Yellow Pages is for the three people who don’t have the Internet.” Then, he went on to say, “And, who doesn’t like picking the phonebooks up from the driveway after a week of rain?” Apparently, it’s not just my opinion that phonebooks are used less and often abandoned at the front door.

My guess is most of those phonebooks are not picked up because they are not needed nor wanted in some homes. Eventually, they are moved from the driveway to the trash can, never entering the house. Again, that’s just my guess. Of course, I’ve done that myself and just this week I watched my neighbor do that. I took the photo in this post before they threw away the phone book. It had been sitting there for more than a week.

It seems things are pretty bleak in the phone book advertising industry. Mr. Clark also wrote…

“Guess that Armageddon has finally arrived in the Yellow Pages Industry. Time to fold the tent and move on to a new industry, new jobs, a new life. Be honest, many of you believe that don’t you? If so, you best stop right here, go find a job in another industry because we really don’t need you here.“

My guess is that people who sell advertising for Yellow Pages are seeing declines in the effectiveness of advertising in phone books and agree with Mr. Clark so they are quickly running to another industry where they might be able to make more money. It would seem that the only people making money are the printing companies that get paid for all of those phonebooks that are never read and sometimes are thrown away before they enter the house.

Mr. Clark, don’t take yourself too seriously. My previous post was meant to be amusing. And, I took the facts from a reputable source (well, mostly reputable), so I’m not sure why you have a problem with me… take this up with MSN if you disagree with their findings.

Yes, the crazy idea I wrote about here, the one proposed by Representative Tim Couch, is moving through the state’s political system. To see the official bill, go here. I have downloaded the proposed bill (in the form of a Word file) and cut/pasted the contents below. Here’s what it says…

AN ACT relating to information technology.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

SECTION 1. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 369 IS CREATED TO READ AS FOLLOWS:

As used in Sections 1 to 3 of this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) “Information content provider” means any person, business, or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation and dissemination of information through the Internet or any interactive service;

(2) “Interactive service provider” means any person, business, or entity authorized to do business, or doing business, in the Commonwealth of Kentucky that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation, development, or maintenance of any interactive service;

(3) “Interactive service” means any Internet-based Web site, blog, or message board that allows users to provide information to be viewed by other users; and

(4) “Internet” means the international computer network of both federal and nonfederal interoperable packet switched data networks.

SECTION 2. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 369 IS CREATED TO READ AS FOLLOWS:

(1) An interactive service provider shall establish, maintain, and enforce a policy to require information content providers to register a legal name, address, and valid electronic mail address as a precondition of using the interactive service.

(2) An interactive service provider shall establish, maintain, and enforce a policy to require information content providers to be conspicuously identified with all information provided by, at a minimum, their registered legal name.

(3) An interactive service provider shall establish reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name, address, and valid electronic mail address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person.

SECTION 3. A NEW SECTION OF KRS CHAPTER 369 IS CREATED TO READ AS FOLLOWS:

An interactive service provider that violates any of the provisions of Section 2 of this Act shall be fined five hundred dollars ($500) for the first offense and one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each subsequent offense.

What do you think? Is it even remotely possible that this will pass?

If you are a Kentucky resident you may want to wander over to read this post by Moose and follow his advice to tell the state legislature what you think of this bill.

Last week I saw this news report about a law proposed by Tim Couch, a Kentucky state representative, to make it illegal to make anonymous posts on websites. The reasoning is that teenagers are saying things online that are not true about other people. If they couldn’t do post anonymously then they could be held accountable for what they write. Only, how does this play out in other situations? Not very well.

I understand the concerns over web-based bullying and preventing teenagers from saying mean and untrue things about people in their school, but will a law stop that? And, what happens to discussion websites where people never use their real name (the new law requires that a person always disclose their real name online)? I’ll tell you what it will do, it will kill discussion. Also, there is the small problem of jurisdiction and trying to figure out where the law applies on the Internet and how to enforce it online when so many (almost all) Web 2.0 websites allow anonymous posts.

The Louisville Courier-Journal article said:

Jon Fleischaker, a Louisville attorney who represents the Kentucky Press Association, said such a law would be unconstitutional. Besides running afoul of free speech guarantees in the First Amendment, it violates a federal law that bans states from regulating the Internet, he said. “You have a right to publish without telling people who you are,” he said.

Oh, and here’s the kicker… if there is a violation the website operator will have to pay a fine. I use WordPress.com to host this blog site. Does that mean that the WordPress operators will have to pay the fine if they allow anonymous posts? Or, would I have to pay? I am not technically the operator, am I? I think of myself as a blog author since I don’t run the servers or software. However you look at this, the law as proposed does not seem to be very well thought out.

To read more about it you should visit this post at the Kentucky Democrat blog.

Update: Upon further research I’ve discovered that 2 years ago (almost to the day), a New Jersey State Assemblyman (Peter J. Biondi) proposed the same thing. You can read all about that attempt at blocking anonymous postings in this CNET article.

Last week I wrote this blog post about Sun’s decision to buy MySQL. I included an image of the MySQL logo as part of that post. Only, today it’s an image of an infant in a high chair! Huh?

I went back to my photo library (in WordPress.com) and confirmed that the MySQL logo image was still there and was still correct. Then, I went back and looked at the image name in my older post and it was correct. But, when I put that logo image into this post, it shows the child, again! Something is very messed up with WordPress.com images! I had to reload the image and name it “MySQL Logo 2″ for it to work correctly.

So, what gives WordPress.com? Are you now randomizing photos in the blogs to make things more interesting?

Note: When I published this post the MySQL logo image reverted back to what it should be and the child in the high chair disappeared! But when I go to edit it goes back to the kid image. So, I did a screen capture so you can see the kid I’m seeing. Right now it’s switching back and forth for no good reason.

Wacky!