Nonsequittal Rumblings

…some scary quotes. We, the supporter of technologies can’t say “It’s not our fault that your computer got infected. It’s your own stupidity’s fault.”
I also think of these in the context of fansubbing too. The most common questions that fansubbing team get is “I can’t play your video properly!” Well, the latter quote is telling me that we can no longer say “It plays fine on our computer. The file conforms to the MPEG-4 standard just fine.” It’s now our responsibility to come up with a final product that works on anyone’s computer, no matter how messed up the users’ systems are? But as I read in Doom9 forum, it’s not a very easy task… The battle between the creator and the end user… the battle between the techies and the commoners… they never end…

I think the lunch I ate yesterday did more damage to me than good. I’m still feeling kind of sick. This is not good when I really need to think. If I can’t think I can’t do my job, and I end up doing other stuff, and that’ll cause me to not meet the deadlines, and… the effects goes on.
One of the things I do at times like this, is, of course, surf the web. One of my latest favorite page is someone else’s blog(?). I’m not sure if he calls it blog or anything like that. Faireal. He seems to be technically knowledgeble, interested in Anime and fansubbing, and… it’s just series of interesting reads every day.
I do wonder how many people are interested in an essay about Japanese anime fansubbing, written in Japanese. Anime fansubbing is there to do service for non-Japanese speaking audience, and it really makes me wonder, how many actual Japanese really appreciate his view.
Nonetheless, the essay dated yesterday was very interesting to me, along with the other fansub related essay. I agree with what the author has to say about the fansub scene. At the same time, I notice myself falling into one of those latest comer fansubber – emphesis on speed, emphesis on latest anime, and sub-per quality translation. I mean, since I speak both Japanese and English at near native level (I was born and riased for 15 years in Japan with Japanese parents, then moved to United States 15 years ago). So I want to believe that my job usually is at least on acceptable level. But there are times that I say “Oh, what the heck, I have no idea what the character is saying exactly, so let’s just make some guess.” And, of course, being away from a culture for 15 years is pretty significant. It’s enough not to be able to catch up with latest pop-culture changes. And age of 15 was still young to really learn all there is to Japan. For example, I wouldn’t have been able to catch on to the reference to Tai fish – sea bream – used in more or less metaphorical senses in such scene.