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Joi Ito’s Web
A very interesting article by Joi Ito about the blogscene in Korea vs the West. It concentrates on Ohmynews.com as an example.

Korea is reported by the OECD to have the highest high-speed Internet penetration of any nation. Korea has an extremely vibrant gaming, blogging, mobile phone and youth culture scene and I was eager to find out more about what was going on. I scribbled a bunch of notes over coffee during the day and over dinner. Please excuse any errors since I have not been able to fact check everything. If you could point them out and let me update them, I would appreciate it.

According to articles in the press, there are 5-6 million blogs. These are not to be confused with hompy. Hompy (a derivative of home page) are personal home pages with photo albums, guest books, avatars, background skins, and background music. There are approximately 10 million hompy pages. In a city with a population of 10 million and a country with a population of 45 million, that’s quite impressive. Companies seem to be making money selling background music and items for hompy pages. Most of the posts are focused on photos and one line comments on pages of friends. They are generally closed communities and are focused more on real-time presence-like communication rather than diary or dialog.

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Korea has an active sex trade ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù both online and off. According to the Korean Institute of Criminology, the amount spent on prostitution alone amounted to $23.6 billion in 2002, the last year for which figures were available.

Maritial Rape

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200505/200505020032.html

Rape in marriage, a difficult crime to prove and a horrible crime.
It did not even occur to me that it would not be a crime!

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No sunshine yet over North Korea

A very interesting article about South Korea’s stance towards unification with it’s Northern brother.

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Korea Times Search

wow, that is big

`Republic of Samsung’ Builds Up in Korea

Samsung Group, South Korea’s biggest conglomerate, is getting bigger and bigger to an extent that many raise grave concerns about its relentless expansion.

With 62 affiliates under its arm, the group accounts for one-fifth of the country’s total exports and its overall turnover carves out more than 17 percent of the national income.

Samsung’s total assets almost match the nation’s annual budget and about one-fifth of Korean tax revenue comes from the group

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Wired 13.05: Seoul Machine

Wired has a great article about the rise of Samsung as a consumer electronics powerhouse.

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Finally got around to to seeing the Physio about my ankle.
(?´¬¨¬º?´¬¶¬¨ ?¨?°‚Äù?´¬?‚Ä¢?™¬?‚Ǩ = physiotherapist = physio )
I had to go to one of the main hospitals here in Ulsan.

My first visit was last Wednesday (4th of May, 2005) The physiotherapist there is really good.
Cost was 8,400 won for the first visit. The physio said it would be less next time.
But i will have to take a taxi there which should be about 2500 each way.

Met a Nepalese guy in the hospital who had a really bad injury.
He fell five metres and ruptered some of the discs in his back …. ouch
He has been in hospital now for eight months!

Fortunally he has health insurance.

Anyway, back to me. The phsio said the problem was with my calf muscle ( I have tendonitis.), specifically the one that starts halfway up the calf and attaches to the ankle.
This is the muscle which is causing the pain when I tense my foot. With treatment it should be OK in two weeks.

So far I have been on
Wed 4,(Holiday on Thurs – Children’s day, so no treatment), Fri 6, Sat 7 , Mon 9 , Tues 10, Wed 11, Thur 12, Fri 13, Sat 14 Mon 16, and Tues 17

The physio now says that I only need 3 treatments a week instead of six and in two months I should be OK.
I hope so

Last year when my Apple iBook laptop has a faulty mainboard it discharged my battery completely and it will now not charge.

Apple Korea want 180,000 (@US $180) for a replacement battery. In the US you can get a replacement for $100, or a third party battery with better battery life for $130.

note to self: order one this week.

iBook (900MHz 32 VRAM) 900 Opaque White non-metallic none 12.1-inch Tray-load
I have an Ibook G3 12″. model no A1005, M9009LL/A
battery model A1008 – also called “M8956G/A”
ref: http://eshop.macsales.com/Descriptions/specs/ibookearly2003.html

iBook Rev E, 900, April 2003, A1005
http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/customer/help.php?section=id

Replacement parts for my iBook
http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/customer/home.php?cat=50

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/battery/ibook-g3-g4-12inch/

Wow, I did not realise how cheap things can be in Korea.
On Friday I went to the Megabox cinema in Songnamdong to see “Kingdom of Heaven”. The price is 5,000 won, but because I have an LG card I get a 40% discount (price: 3,000 won). This is only 1,000 won more then renting a DVD !
I also get a 20% discount at McDonalds with my LG card, but alas no discount at KFC.
That requires a KTF card.
In case you are wondering, LG and KTF are phone companies. If you have a phone with them, then you can get their card.
If you are going out with your friends and in your group you have all the major cards, it means you will rarely pay full price at the big chain stores. You will usually get a discount.

In Korea you even get a tax deduction if pay with a credit card. It is the governments way of reducing the black economy.

Oh yeah, before I forget, the movie “Kingdom of Heaven” was quite enjoyable. I was reading a review of it where they said the DVD version will be around 3hours, 40 minutes … ouch !

There is a lot of confusion here in Korea among foreigners about driving with licences from our home countries.
Most foreigners assume (wrongly) that if you get an international driving permit then you are OK.
Wrong, according to this article. The man was involved in an accident and he learnt the hard way.

The Korea Times : One Good Korean Cop

By Mike Sluchinski

If you are a resident of Korea (meaning you have an alien registration card), you must change your old driver?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s license to a new Korean drivers license within 14 days of arriving in Korea. If you don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t, you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re driving without a license and liable for prosecution.

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The Korea Times : [The Nation] Prosecution’s Plea for Power

At first blush, the announcement a few weeks back by the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office that it wants to introduce American-style plea bargaining into the legal system seemed like a constructive effort at reform. But on closer examination, it’s obvious the move is nothing more than a sad attempt to cling to power.

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