You ever toy with the idea that Japanese companies have an innate death wish? As systems companies they're not much to write home about. I mean they're not exactly successful in the US and it almost seems like it's by design. One wonders sometimes why they bother. Take NEC, for example. NEC has what are apparently some pretty nifty fault tolerant systems and a cool 32-processor Itanium 2 machine. Anyone over here try getting one of these things, especially the Itanium box, delivered? The supply line between here and Japan is practically anorexic from all accounts, with millions in sales left hanging out to dry. Shoot, they had to borrow the Itanium unit on show at LinuxWorld this week from Microsoft, but it was unpopulated so they had to beg Tokyo-san for the widgetry to turn the lights on. Seems the only priority they put on the American market is micromanaging their American units to death and ignoring - in this patronizing Tokyo-knows-best fashion - anything the American units have to say. Ah, well. Maybe the new boy in charge of NEC will change things. After a four-year run, Koji Nishigaki will turn over the reins to Akinobu Kanasugi at the end of March, the beginning of the company's fiscal year, and become vice-chairman. He was hospitalized last year for his back and figures most of the scarifying restructuring that was needed after hitting a really nasty patch has been done to return to profitability this fiscal year, provided conditions don't degenerate, although units could still be dropped. Kanasugi, who picked by a Masters from UCLA in the 60s and joined NEC a few months later, currently runs NEC Solutions, the software and services arm NEC is trying to turn into a major thrust.