
North Korea’s tablet comes pre-loaded with ‘Gone with the Wind’ - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/04/north-koreas-tablet-comes-pre-loaded-with-gone-with-the-wind-heres-why/
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pilsetnieks
> And sometimes, North Korean officials meeting with U.S. envoys have been
> known to quote from the novel during negotiations.

I can only imagine those negotiations:

\- Mr. Supreme Leader, you must recall your troops from the DMZ or we will
stop all medical and food aid!

\- Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

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djcapelis
The article also links to this product review of the tablet by 38 North which
is a fascinating read: [http://38north.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/SamjiyonProduc...](http://38north.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/SamjiyonProductReview_RFrank102213-2.pdf) (PDF)

It is interesting to see how things happen in that country. It is such a
strange environment for technology infrastructure and skills it is really
interesting to see how they handle it and what ends up getting produced there.

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Shivetya
I like the fact it has a TV tuner! The extendable antennae might be a bit
wonky, but I would love to use my tablet to pick up radio and/or tv. there is
no guarantee of internet connectivity in an emergency so I am curious why no
tablets that I have seen offer similar?

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killme
I think in Japan and South Korea, a lot of smartphones(and perhaps tablets)
allow TV reception.

~~~
sbarre
When I was in Japan in 2008, my friend's cell phone screen could rotate out 90
degrees (into a traditional 16:9 TV-looking layout [1]) and he could watch
quite a few TV channels on it that way.

This wasn't something he was paying for, it was just part of his base plan
apparently..

[1]
[http://images.gizmag.com/hero/9604_8070843257.jpg](http://images.gizmag.com/hero/9604_8070843257.jpg)

~~~
kalleboo
It's called 1seg and is part of the Japanese digital terrestrial OTA TV
network (the regular digital OTA broadcasts contain a low-bandwidth stream for
mobile devices to pick up).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1seg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1seg)

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wil421
"particularly useful for understanding how modern capitalism spread to all of
the United States" because it shows how the exploitation of black slaves was
the economic foundation of the American colonies and describes the Civil War
as "a struggle between the bourgeoisie of the north and the landowners of the
south."

This sounds like North Korea's reality warp field but I dont think its too far
off in a sense.

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svantana
If slavery was the foundation of the economy, then wouldn't the economy have
collapsed when slavery was abolished?

~~~
ChuckMcM
Yes. And it did, well locally anyway. My great grandfather (maternal), fought
in the civil war for the South to preserve his "right" to govern his affairs
the way he saw fit. Reading some of his letters would ring chords in the
Libertarian movement today. His thesis was that a government "of the people"
should be "of the people" all the way down, and by that he meant that he
believed that states were better able to make laws about how their citizens
were treated and lived than Washington was (which he felt was 'controlled' by
rich industrialists in the North). His children suffered tremendously post-war
when all of the processes and mechanisms by which their economy operated were
uprooted all at once.

Now sometimes that is the only way that you can change things enough. Just rip
the bandage off and damn all the hairs its going to pull out. I don't have a
good analogy for the impact it had on them, perhaps if the government suddenly
outlawed the use of cars or any form of non-public transportation it would
throw a similarly sized wrench into the mix.

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wehadfun
I thought it had Microsoft Word which I thought was very interesting.

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devx
I doubt it. I think it was a mistake on QZ's part, maybe from bad translation.
It must've been some other free office suite.

~~~
smikhanov
There's still something that looks like a legit copy of Fieldrunners (judging
from the icon on page 3 in the PDF[1]) — I wonder if DPRK government actually
licensed it from Subatomic Studios.

[1] [http://38north.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/SamjiyonProduc...](http://38north.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/SamjiyonProductReview_RFrank102213-2.pdf)

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mathattack
I suspect that among the current generation of tablet buyers, it's more well
known than in the US.

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xacaxulu
And default background image of Dennis Rodman high-fiving Kim Jong-un!!!

