I was trying to make a joke about the 'splitting hairs' concerning the word 'spelling', not the actual spelling-- but it doesn't seem to have worked. I know how romaji is used. As to your other question concerning "why" Japanease substitute the 'c' for 'k', I have no idea, except to perhaps invoke some sort of unique branding or maybe "frenchiness" as you postulate. As I said, I notice this with bars and clothing shops mostly-- not "all". yoroshiku.

Okay, you want to split hairs? Japanese words are not "spelled", they are written using a mix of Chinese and phonetic symbols. As noted above æ"å- is how one should write the Japanese word for "improvement". Unfortunately, many people outside East Asia has no idea how to read or pronounce that, so we "romanize" words based on a commonly accepted latin alphabet equivalent. The usual Latin alphabet equivalent is kaizen with a k. Lately, a lot of bars and brands in Japan are trying to use the 'c' instead of the 'k'-- the most common example is the NTT wireless provider Docomo (meaning "anywhere"). Here endeth the lesson.

They're just anticipating the coming legalization of pot. It will allow them to move into a generalized convenience store model, sort of a "smarter" quik-e-mart: soldering irons, robot toys, pot,and munchies.

I used to work at a company that used open source almost everywhere. We were pretty zealous about it, looking back now. At the core of the data structure, we were using Postgresql and had a scheme of mastermaster replication between two data centers. We developed a way to handle this. After some soul searching, and a realistic analysis, the owners came to the conclusion that the software didn't really help our direct competitors, and would be safer/better out in the open. So, we open sourced it: http://www.bucardo.org/ Here is the press release from the company: Backcountry finally gives something back

The opening weekend of any 'blockbuster' movie is really just a barometer for how good the hype was, how good the trailer is, and how much pent up demand there was for the adaptation. This is true for X-Men, X-Files, Watchmen, Batman, and our beloved crew of the Enterprise. That second week, and the subsequent weeks, is very dependent on the reviews. These are the people who waited for someone else to go see it opening weekend, and then wait to hear what they said about the movie. Star Trek is getting great reviews, and not just from the newspaper shills-- audiences generally like the film. This is different than the (lack of) buzz about Wolverine, and the outright confusion about the Watchmen. It's more along the lines of Batman Begins: your older sister asked you "Really? Another Batman movie?" to which you've replied "oh yeah-- it's that good." Expect a strong 4 week run on Star Trek.

Wait, I think I saw this movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup.com

Softbank is now offering the 8GB iPhone for free (with two year data plan). I saw this yesterday, and translated a quick summary on my site for the Japanese language-challenged: http://www.davejenkins.com/

Sigvatr! Get back to work and stop screwing around on the Slashdots!

You should view this as an incredible money-making opportunity: they've created an artificial shortage for online access, so exploit it:

1. go to radio shack/fry's/wherever to get your satellite broadband hook-up equipment. It doesn't matter if the equipment costs you $5000-- you'll make it back.
2. Set up Internet access in your cabin
3. Charge the other students $10/10 minutes. Bonus points if you can get 2-3 terminals working over your sat connection. You'll probably be billing out a solid 3 hours/night = $180/day * 90 days = $16,200.
4. Profit!!!

You're welcome.