I've also been interested in this but a little at sea when it comes to navigating the alternate dimension of Japanese flip phones. Do you have any recommendations when it comes to identifying the last best example of the Japanese flip phone?
The first and foremost thing is checking the radio frequencies it operates on. Depending on where you live (or travel!), you might not be able to use it. Each device is different, so don't fall in love with it before you've checked the frequencies on the spec sheet.
Then, realistically, you need to make sure that apps you do want to use do still offer functioning Android builds for what's almost certainly going to be an older version of Android running on a keitei. You might really struggle with banking apps due to this (despite plenty of keitei having NFC!), it depends on your bank's policies. You might also struggle with any official government apps if they force a recent version of Android.
If it's Android, you can almost certainly run it in English, but beware any obscure outliers who heavily customize their ROMs and save space by removing other languages (few and far between, but they apparently do exist and can bite you on the ass if you don't read Japanese!).
You'll probably really struggle to make it work for you overall if you don't live in Japan where this kind of phone is still expected to be supported. There's some beautiful phones, absolutely gorgeous designs in fact, but the above are a total pain in the arse and is what's made it non-viable for me (what forced me over to a Pixel 6a on release). The Pixel 6a getting a firmware update today that affected my battery (https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/16340779?hl=en) is why I'm pining after another keitei, but I don't think there's anything that can tick the necessary boxes for me. I'm gutted!
There are some nice ones that have dual-screens, touchscreens, and touch-sensitive capacitive keypads for scrolling or navigation. Some can be folded to be used like a standard touch-only candybar style phone if you don't want to use the keypad. Some allow the display to be rotated, but those are very uncommon these days.
I hear Gen Z loves retro flip phones as they are less intrusive and more sensible with swappable batteries, built-in screen protection et al, so perhaps there's a potential market fit for something in the West that ticks these very specific boxes.
The funny thing is that I look at the average side-opening book-style wallet-esque case for candybar style touch phones in the West and they're basically recreating the beefits of flip phones with the hinged screen cover cases, but without much of the impact protection.
I'm not a luddite by any means, I'm not even nostalgic for flip phones in any way, I just think that I've realized there's pros and cons to both, and the current offerings available in the West don't really suit me.
Most popular phones in Japan these days in terms of units sold? iPhone and Pixel. That's what's killing the "Galapogos syndrome" keitei in terms of new models! A few friends I have in Japan find the candybar form-factor to be novel and cool, and others want larger screens for media, specific iOS-exclusive apps. or just enjoy the Apple ecosystem as they use a Mac for their work and play. They do tend to agree that there's pros and cons to both though! Pixel trails after the iPhone in numbers BTW.
This was a fascinating article and I admire the musician in question for committing to the re-Discovery (pardon the pun) of the process behind the original track. Still, I have to agree with the earlier commenter that the many hallmarks of ChatGPT's prose style (so to speak) distracted me somewhat from the story the author intended to tell. The seemingly random italicisation of phrases that couldn't possibly have required actual emphasis created a relentless subvocal choppiness. As much as I'm glad the author shared their insights, I wish the medium hadn't so overwhelmed the message. Not that I think using ChatGPT is fundamentally wrong. I suppose it's a little like cosmetic surgery: the best approach, if you're going under the knife, is to have just enough done that nobody can tell you've had anything done at all.
Absolutely incredible reporting. The risks taken by the sources both at the factories and within North Korea defy comprehension for anybody lucky enough not to fear that speaking out will endanger their family.
Indeed. And beyond the interviews, there is plenty of other examination of direct evidence including videos posted to social media, shipping records, packing labels.
That evidence all supports the argument that the PRC and Chinese companies are complicit in violating sanctions.
Further, it is telling that the NK government and their Chinese co-conspirators actively fight investigations. See the literature spread to workers threatening punishment for talking to reporters.
I disagree, removing sanctions will make them stronger when the conflict comes. Also as I see it, all nations don't care much about people's suffering in some other country, they care most about their inner affairs, which is understandable geopolitically. Most of the people also don't care or else they would vote with their money. Are north koreans worth nuclear escalation - I don't think so.
> all nations don't care much about people's suffering in some other country
> Most of the people also don't care
I think it may be quite the opposite, albeit usually not genuine "caring", rather just "focusing". Whether nations want to redirect people's attention away from problems at home, or people want/let their attention redirected, they'll focus more on the crap happening in another country. An enemy or an issue are always created somewhere far away, something as contrasting as possible with the apparent situation at home.
Take the example of prisons and prison labor in the US. People know millions are imprisoned at home, many forced to work, with inhumane conditions. But that's a bitter taste when they know it's at home, that it's a democratic country, that this could be changed but isn't. So it's made better by looking at how much worse it could be.
It's an easy mental and moral release and people need one especially when there's a discrepancy between the image they have of their country and the reality. The bigger the discrepancy, the easier and more attractive it is to look at the speck/plank in someone else's eye.
This happens everywhere in the world because it's human nature: it's where people's desire to comfort their conscience and leaders' desire to manipulate that intersect.
Does anybody have a hint for level 28? I've been stuck for a few days and, while I can see that they're boolean diagrams, I'm not entirely sure what to do next. So far as I can tell, they don't simplify.
I’m still stuck. Are the words in it supposed to correspond to the diagrams? I considered that perhaps I was being prompted to come up with binary representations of the diagrams but I’m not sure.
Thoughts: The URL is suspicious, may require changing the URL. The solution likely requires combining the boolean operators, but not sure how. I'm especially unclear how to use the words in the URL. "true", "false", "0", "1" etc. don't work so it has to be something more than simply evaluating a boolean expression.
Any tips for level 26? I've been playing around with the idea that the three numbers represent coordinates but without much luck. Also, the 'inverse' thing is throwing me off.
