Street Computing
November 12th, 2009 by James
Supposedly there is a small community of Japanese computer enthusiasts who like to carry around their notebook computers so they can get some “street computing” done while walking (or even riding bicycles!):
Some people say they are programming, while others are blogging. Two guys say that Twitter is responsible for turning them on to street computing.
If you think this sounds too ridiculous to be true, you’re not alone. A lot of the comments left by Japanese netizens on this YouTube video are calling this out as staged (yarase) news reporting.
[via Watashi to Tokyo]
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あるあ・・・ねーよ
I can vouch for people using their Laptop PCs on the train, and playing Nintendo DS while riding their bikes.
I’m yet to see someone “Street computing”, but it is the next (il)logical step.
It must be illegal.
See http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/06/18/bicycle-safety-laws-ignored/ (doh! Video has been removed.)
that’s what a blackberry or an iphone is for…
James, you can name this post – obsession with Japanprobe.com blog!!!
I am SICK of people faking comments from me. This is the first time I have seen this post. The comment above is NOT from me. Is there some way to restrict a name to only the email address below it?
Not that I’m aware of, but if such a wordpress plugin exists, I’d be happy to install it.
Restricting commenting to logged in user accounts would discourage newcomers from leaving comments, so I don’t want to take that option.
There’s only one sad loser out there who hates your guts and tries to leave comments under your name. I usually delete his shit before it even goes public, but today I must have accidentally approved his comment because it wasn’t quite moronic enough to set off red flags.
Hmmm. So I have an enemy here (or trying to be here). Thanks for keeping the board clean of his vitriol. I usually try to avoid being insulting (or at least excessively so – some comments are just dumb), but I guess some people just let it get personal….
If The Overthinker would register a Wordpress account with reading rights, then surely noone else could write with his user name as it’d be already taken, right? I think that should solve the problem.
As for the clip, definitely yarase. While Twittering would work, making a website or even programming would only lead to unusable results. No-one in their mind would do such a thing while walking around, at least not for a long time.
One of the guys in the clip said he’s making a website as a hobby – well, I’d really like to see that. Probably just wrote a blog entry somewhere.
I have definitely seen this in action, on Shinomekaido in Nakano. Dude was watching a movie on his laptop. He was not actually typing anything though.
yeah. it looks staged
Though it is a Tokyo residence
There is not having seen.
in japanese
I’ve seen this quite a bit before though. Not first hand but while watching broadcasts on ニコ生…People like to bring their laptops around and broadcast while they are walking around in the street..外配信 I believe is what they call it..
Programming while riding a bicycle? Uh huh. Suuuuure.
Oh, wait, does Microsoft encourage bicycling?
It would explain Vista, and Windows ME (and just about everything else, too)
Definitely yarase.
It is not humanly possible to ride a bicycle and use a computer at the same time. If they were standing or even walking around a free wireless spot I could believe it, but this is too much.
Programming has to be bullshit as well because the keyboard-size*battery-life/weight ratio just doesn’t add up. Again, if they were sitting down at Starbucks or on a Shinkansen with some 15 inch “laptop” properly plugged, I could believe it.
That said, I do sometimes use my Sharp NetWalker in trains to check some document out or in parks while waiting for someone. I would probably want to use it more if I had the DoCoMo bundle.