Canada Day has come once again,
but it isn’t the same here in Japan.
Where are the fireworks that light up the skies,
the scantilly clad women, and balding fat guys?
Here in Japan we can’t show our country love,
unless it’s misconscrued, like taking off a glove.
Back home today is for cheer, pizza, chips, and beer,
I only hope that I can come to visit next year.
Happy Canada Day!
If you would have told me five years ago that I would see a doctor at least once a month and be subject to an annual medical checkup, I would have scoffed like a Brit watching Spain win the World Cup. In the first 28 years of my life I’ve seen a doctor no more than a dozen times, with a horrendously inaccurate prognosis 90% of the time. However, since moving to Japan, a trip to some sort of medical clinic has become a regular occurrence. That said there is always a first time for something.
Today was the day of my annual physical examination. A day preceded by weeks of tall tales from co-workers consisting of stool samples, vast quantities of blood being extracted, barium ingestion, prostate examinations, and other equally nerve-wracking procedures. Yet, less than an hour in the clinic, I had emerged unscathed with the distinct pleasure of not feeling violated by medical instruments. In fact, the most difficult part of the whole process was finding the clinic!
Aside: The map that I was given was horrendously incomplete and had the direction of North facing opposite of where it was supposed to be, which led me to a 15 minute walk in the wrong direction before asking an officer at the local 小判 [koban] where I might find the darn place … but I’ll my rant about “maps” in Japan for another day.
The exam was scheduled to start at 10:30, and I had arrived 15 minutes early. They had me change into their preferred clothes from the waist up and, less than 5 minutes after sitting down in the waiting room, I was already being examined by one of the legions of doctors on call at this clinic. マリーンクリニク in Nagoya specializes in annual checkups, so everything was run incredibly efficiently. There were at least 40 people waiting with me to be called, and every doctor had their own area of specialty. I managed to see five of them in 45 minutes before hearing those wonderful words that let me escape from the incredibly clean confines of the building: 終わった [edit].
Because I’m under 35, my exam was relatively simple. It consisted of a urine check, eye exam, BMI check, blood pressure check, height and weight check, health and lifestyle consultation, and chest X-Ray. Had I been 35 or older, I would have needed to drink some barium to check circulation, be subject to a prostate exam, and submit a stool sample. Suffice to say, I’m not looking forward to 2014.
All in all, the exam was not nearly as painful or humiliating as my co-workers had made it out to believe, which means that you shouldn’t always listen to people when walking into the unknown. As far as I can tell, aside from a terribly poor vision score, I am relatively healthy. The 6 kg weight gain in the last 12 months wasn’t quite what I wanted to see, but this will be motivation enough for me to start exercising again. If I truly want to get back into programming full time, I can’t let my waistline grow too much. A few hours of cycling up and down the hills near my home will do a world of good.
Have you had an exam in Japan? Was it everything you expected?
There’s been an awful lot of back and forth between creative industries and journalists when it comes to topics as important as piracy. Creative industries in several western countries are demanding that ISPs be held responsible for monitoring people and sending letters if they’re caught (or suspected) of pirating music, movies, TV programs, software, books, and just about anything else that can be digitized and sold for a profit. People who are not part of the creative industry see this as unnecessary extra work for ISPs who, at the end of the day, are not legally responsible for what we do online. However, while I was reading Mark Sweney’s article about possible job cuts on The Guardian, I couldn’t help but wonder what the future would look like if ISPs were actually held responsible for what their customers did online. How would other industries react if governments around the world decided that businesses are ultimately responsible for how customers use their goods and services?
The Auto Industry
The auto industry would probably shut down completely if they were responsible for the actions of their customers. Companies would need to monitor their customers at all times to make sure that they weren’t speeding through school zones or drinking too much before getting behind the wheel. Offenders would need to get a strongly worded letter from the company asking them to consider the consequences and also let them know what kind of punishments might occur in the future if they didn’t heed the warning. Cars like Toyota’s Prius would need to communicate with a central database to see if it’s allowed to start up, or whether the vehicle should be restricted to a certain speed on city roads. The number of restrictions that would likely occur due to the nature of most city drivers would undoubtedly result in a lot of angry people taking public transit, car pooling, or just not going to work. The roads would be less crowded, there would be less air pollution, our traffic police would have an easier time of identifying the worst offenders, the advocates at MADD would be ecstatic, and the world would be an altogether better place because drivers would pay much more attention to how they used their vehicle.
Everybody would win … except the customer.
The Energy Industry
Similar to the auto industry, the oil industry would need to make sure that people were not breaking any laws while using their fuel. Just imagine a world where Shell is hit with a lawsuit because they sold gasoline to terrorists who used it as an incendiary device in some random suicide bombing. Not only would the oil industry pull out of every 3rd world country, but it would likely start limiting the amount of fuel each person was permitted to buy just to prevent such atrocities from happening. Insight and Prius owners wouldn’t mind much, but anyone with more than 4 cylinders under the hood would run into serious commuting problems pretty quick. Lord help you if you’re a service technician or taxi driver who spends several hours a day on the road.
But think of the benefits! Again, because people would not have access to as much fuel (whether it’s gasoline, natural gas, kerosene, or any other flammable fuel) there would be fewer people driving on the road. On top of this, there would be a surplus of oil in storage which would drive the cost of a barrel down to some ridiculously low value. The corporate kings that run these multi-billion dollar profit-earning mega-corporations would have less money to throw around which, potentially, could reduce the amount of money that terrorist organizations receive (since people seem to think that Arabian oil companies are directly financing terrorism).
The Weapons Industry
Here’s a market segment that would shut down and go underground faster than the owners of a spamming botnet. What company would want to be held legally responsible for every person that was killed by their products for reasons other than self defense?
Enough said.
The Entertainment Industry
Hmm … here’s an interesting thought. What if music companies were held responsible for all the crimes supposedly instigated by violent lyrics in the songs they promoted? What if movie and studios were held responsible for every person that said “I learned how to build this IED (Improvised Explosive Device) on CSI.” Naturally, neither the music or movie industries are suggesting we go out and murder people, employ acts of unspeakable violence, or pass the time with other illegal activities … but they sure make it look like fun!
In my mind, this is little different than ISPs allowing people to share data amongst each other … legal and otherwise. Our ISP doesn’t suggest we rent CDs, DVDs, or other media only to rip them to some digital format and share that data with hundreds or thousands of others … but they sure make it easy!
The Police Exist for a Reason
At the end of the day, it’s not the job of a provider to police their services so long as those services do not put people in harm’s way. Yes, I’ll admit that downloading content that is not under some sort of public license or in the public domain is illegal and can harm people financially, but the grossly exaggerated examples that I have listed above show that many industries let people do far worse to each other than downloading intellectual property. If people use their vehicles in an unsafe manner, a nation’s law enforcement agencies will step in to take action. If people abuse different forms of energy for purposes other than those intended, a nation’s law enforcement agencies will step in to take action. If people buy weapons and proceed to decrease the planet’s surplus human population, again, law enforcement agencies will step in to take action.
The police exist for a reason. Use them.
If a torrent site exists and it’s allowing people to distribute incredible sums of material illegally, the infringed upon company needs to inform the police and have them either shut down the website, or use the website to collect the IP addresses of several thousand pirates and take them all down. It’s not the fastest way to prevent the illegal distribution of material, but it’s the most viable option available. Is it bad for PR? Oh, yes. But so is drinking and driving and Toyota’s doing just fine.
Companies have the right to protect their work from theft, just like I have the right to protect the code I write for my employer from being illegally distributed. That said, I would never expect an ISP (or flash disk manufacturer) to help me protect that intellectual property from falling into the wrong hands.
The entertainment industry needs to calm down a little and employ some smart people to find a solution to this problem. It won’t be easy, but there are always options.
Dear NHK,
Let me first start by stating that I’ve enjoyed your programs for several years, and have even used your language training programs to help me with the Japanese language. My wife has watched your programs and enjoyed your radio programs for years as well. Not a day goes by where we don’t both sit down and watch at least one hour of your programming. However, it seems that we have a bit of a problem that must be resolved when it comes to the shady practice often referred to as The NHK Tax. I understand that you use the NHK Tax, also known as a “Receiving Fee”, to “provide views and opinions that are not swayed by any government or organization”, but must you do it in such an underhanded fashion?
A collector on your behalf came to my home today after 8:30 PM and insisted on being heard while my wife an I ate our dinner. I should mention that this particular individual should be commended for his diligence, as he’s been stopping by at least once a week for the last six months. But I cannot accept how the man presents himself. First off, he doesn’t wear a uniform or look like a representative of NHK. Second, related to the first issue, he has been scaring my wife by persistently ringing the bell for ten to fifteen minutes whenever he’s come by. If I’m gone to work, she doesn’t answer the door. There have been too many attacks on women in their own homes for my wife to trust any male that she does not know. Third, this guy looks scary. Seriously. When I opened the door, I thought he was going to either stab me, or begin cursing me out for being an “unwelcome invader to Japan”. Fourth, he didn’t properly introduce himself. As an introduction, he pulled out an ID card from his pocket that was so obscured by the unnecessary neck strap that I couldn’t read it at all. This is hardly the professional manners that I’ve come to know and love in Japan. Finally, he has way too much personal information stored on his Toshiba PDA. During our brief conversation he took out his little computer to show me proof that he knew I had a TV in the house and, while he was navigating through the software to get my name, I could read the names, phone numbers, addresses, and other details of quite a few of my neighbours. Considering how much press there has been all over the world with data confidentiality, one would have hoped that a company as large and respected as yours would ensure that third-party collectors would abide by certian rules.
Let me reiterate that I do watch NHK and, because of this, I would agree to pay for the content as it’s a legal requirement. But there is something that I would like to see first, and it’s really quite simple: a monthly, semi-annual, or annual statement. Let me pay on my own terms, without some guy showing up at my door. Better yet, why not make it part of the monthly cable bill? Not only would this save you lots of hassle, but it would get rid of that little problem you have of people refusing to pay because of your scandalous history and receiptless transactions. On top of this, it would solve the five problems that I previously outlined.
I believe that organizations and people should be paid for goods and services rendered, unless of course they’re part of GPL or the public domain. However, with such a shady system in place, I can’t help but feel like this NHK Tax is little more than a legalized 俺俺 (Ore-Ore) scam.
If you’d like to get your money from me, send me a proper bill and I’ll be sure to stop by Circle-K on my way to work.
Thank you,
Jason F. Irwin
June 8, 2009
The internet is an interesting place. A few weeks ago I had posted an article showing people how to make Crystal Reports play nice with SQL Server Compact Edition. Since then, I’ve had a few people contact me with questions about how to use SQL Server CE as well as how to make Crystal Reports access other data sources. One question seemed to come up more often than any other, though: How do I get VB to access a MySQL Database hosted somewhere on the internet without granting a user direct access to that database?
It’s a pretty good question, and the solution is one that I’ve had to employ several times over the last few years.
Disclaimer: As with any other solution you would find on the internet, this is not a “one size fits all” answer. The code that I am going to show has been overly simplified and should be used as a starting point to your solution. That said, if you have any questions about the code, I’ll do my best to answer them.
How It Works
The idea behind this solution is rather simple. Pass some information to a PHP file on a server using a WebRequest in VB, and build a DataTable dynamically using the XML data returned from the web. There are no security checks built into any of this code, but that can be added later.
So, with all that stuff said, let’s take a look at the PHP code that we’ll be using.
<?php$rptID = $_POST['reportid'];
$toDate = $_POST['todate'];//Connect to the database
$db = mysql_connect("localhost","your_username","your_password");
mysql_select_db("your_database");
//Query the Database
$res = mysql_query("SELECT rpt.id, rpt.LastName, rpt.FirstName, rpt.Whatever WHERE id = " . $rptID );// Start the XML Document
echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?>";
echo "<Report>";
//If information exists, write it out as XML
If($rs = mysql_fetch_row($res)) {
do {
echo "<Detail>";
echo "<id>".$rs[0]."</Code>";
echo "<LastName>".$rs[1]."</LastName>";
echo "<FirstName>".$rs[2]."</FirstName>";
echo "<Whatever>".$rs[3]."</Whatever>";
echo "</Detail>";
} while($rs = mysql_fetch_row($res));
mysql_close();
}
echo "</Report>";
?>
As you can see, this code is as plain as it gets. We have two variables, a MySQL Query, and the result set is returned in XML format. Of course you’ll probably want to change the MySQL query to something that’ll work on your own database….
The VB Code
The next thing we’ll look at is the code in VB.net. The example here is using VS2005 with the .NET 2.0 Framework. It’s nothing fancy, and it should be forward compatible right up to the 4.0 Framework due out with VS2010.
My name is Jason and I'm yet another Canadian living in Central Japan with my beautiful wife, Reiko. Until recently I was living in Vancouver, British Columbia and working as a computer programmer at an international print media company. My hobbies include studying ancient history, languages, psychology, sociology and the universe in general.
