Jun 292013
 

JTFF.AKIBA.ANTHROBOTICWelcome to Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!
It’s already Friday west of the international dateline – here in Japan, it’s totally the future. The weekly JTFF is our somewhat technosnarky coverage of 2-5 particularly important, specifically Japan-related tech stories. Get yourself hip to the micro & macro that went down while North America was sleeping – check in every Friday morning and BOOM! Ahead of the game, you win.

Why Japan and J-Tech?
First, Anthrobotic has geographical superiority. In the future.
Second, Japan has lots of super hott (and odd) technology stuff going on.
Third, deliciously cathartic opportunities make fun of the Japanese invariably crop up.

ALL THE JTFF!

:: JTFF – June 28, 2013 ::

Sony Sold Some Stuff to Iran, and America Maybe Doesn’t Like That
In efforts disappointingly not focused on unloading what must be millions of warehoused PSPs and the most unusable of the now 67 different production models of their VAIO computers, Sony probably sold some stuff to Iran that American sanctions aim to prohibit. Whatever your feelings on the sanction stuff might be, we can probably all agree on the righteousness of chastising Sony for putting any effort at all into selling an extra $12.8 million bucks of potentially risk-heavy contraband for a measly $500,000 profit. Sony, is that really where you should pay any attention at all given that you’re losing billions every year? Maybe things wouldn’t be going so bad if you just kept working on those AWESOME ROBOTS that you killed a few years back. Just sayin. Get it together, Sony.
[SONY ADMITS SELLING TECH TO IRAN – TELEGRAPH UK]

South-East Asia Japan Cable Completed – Just Know That and You’re Good
This is one of those stories where the average dude really doesn’t need to know any of the details, just the headline: The Internet in Asia Just Got a Little More Badass. Not good enough? Okay fine – if you must know: “The SJC cable consists of six fibre pairs (64×40Gbps DWDM), with an initial design capacity of over 15Tbps, upgradable to 23Tbps, and utilises the state-of-the-art advanced 40G SLTE and Optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) Branching technologies.” See. Told you so.
[SJC COMPLETED – TELEGEOGRAPHY]

Political Warning: Don’t Mess With the Peace-By-Law Article 9 vis-à-vis Nuclear Tech
Nobody wants to learn too much about Japanese politics (including the Japanese people), but this is interesting. The JTFF has for weeks now been covering Japan’s liberal sharing/selling of its nuclear energy technology across the middle east, international cooperation agreements, etc., and now it’s come up in politics as it relates to Article 9 of Japan’s “Peace Constitution.” Article 9 represents the condemnation and forbiddance of developing an offensive-capable military force (things went bad with that before, you might recall). Anyway, could lead to fissures between normally friendly political allies. See – that’s the thing – you gotta appreciate that technology, the most fundamental pursuit of the human animal, can shake up… well, anything. Oh, the Peace Constitution also comes into play with robot stuff, too – so if all this sounds pretty dry, go read about why Japan has to tip-toe into the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
[JAPAN’S NUCLEAR TECH SHARING COULD SPUR POLITICAL NASTINESS – JAPAN TIMES]

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That was the JTFF, originally an original Anthrobotic.com series,
now served up via Akihabara News
and live from the future, that is all!

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THIS STUFF IS RELATED:
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday [via Akihabara News]
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday [via Akihabara News]
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday [via Akihabara News]
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday (Akihabara News Syndication)
Japanese Technology from the Future Friday – Now With Akihabara News Cross-Publication