Cell Phone Sommeliers on the Way? 159
Japan is reportedly toying with the idea of educating and licensing "sommeliers" to help potential buyers wade through the vast sea of options available for a new cellphone purchase. "Japan's communication ministry is looking to the private sector to manage the potential nightmare exam and certification process, with children's online safety highlighted as an important part of the plan. Mobile sommelier sounds like a pretty sweet title, we can totally feel how an HTC TyTN II might be paired with an earthy unlimited plan followed by the soft nutty finish of a 200-minute a month daytime calling package."
Where's TFA? (Score:4, Insightful)
Too many features (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where's TFA? (Score:2, Insightful)
how long (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Too many features (Score:2, Insightful)
You know, there are things that you don't know about that you might find useful. You might be aware that blackberries let you send/receive email with strong encryption. You might not know that a blackberry can get google maps, instant messaging, GPS turn-by-turn navigation, tethered internet access, or many other things. Many people would find these features useful, but don't know they exist.
Instead they are drawn like lemmings to the iphone because it's shiny and has cool ads.
Re:sommelier? (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe the word 'sommelier' is actually more commonly used in Tokyo than it is in Dullard, USA. They have the word in EDICT as a borrowed word, a common dictionary for English speakers studying Japanese language, anyway. Tokyo and Paris vie for top position in culinary arts, and there's a lot of Fine European dining available there too.
Re:sommelier? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because, sometimes English words don't exist which have the nuance of a foreign word -- they can lack that certain "je ne sais qua".
A highly trained individual whose job it is to help you select from a wide array of choices
I once had a native speaker of French as me for the English word for "gourmet", to which I had to explain that we had never come up with a single word which conveyed as much as "gourmet", so we stuck with it. The word carries with it a lot of implied meaning and suggestion that aficionado or whatever wouldn't convey.
Let's face it, English is just plain littered with words which have never really been translated. Sommelier is one of them. If you need to express a particular connotation or inference which is attached to a certain word, using substitutes makes the word understandable to more people, but might lessen the actual intended meaning. Subtle nuance is something which is difficult to replace with a synonym.
Words from other languages which have been kept intact aren't that uncommon.
Cheers
An argument for consumer-protection legislation (Score:5, Insightful)
What we need is not used-car salesmen with delusions of grandeur. What we need is better truth-in-advertising regulation. Like this:
Re:Uh? (Score:3, Insightful)
but seriously, i know lots of people that don't want cellphones. They don't like using a phone and don't want one they carry around with with them. Some people aren't all about being connected all of the time. How they manage it, i dont know. but they do, and seem perfectly happy that way. Who are we to judge?
Re:Where's TFA? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Except having too many layers of indirection."
Re:Too many features (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Too many features (Score:5, Insightful)
In the states I'd want it turned off as well - the thought of paying because *somebody else* wanted to get in touch with me makes me shudder... what happens if some nut job gets your number and you didn't even want the messages. Can I then call up my provider and ask for a refund?