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Happy New Year 2008

It's already 2008 here. So far so good!

I spent most of the NYE watching comedy shows both on DVD and OTA channel. 6 hours of non-stop laughing and I actually had a bit difficulty in breathing :)

大晦日はさまぁ～ずライブ6 のDVDと笑ってはいけない病院24時。5時間近くノンストップで笑ってたら喘息みたいになった。いまはCDTVの90年代懐メロみてる。

今年もよろしくお願いします。

Books

IMG_0261.JPG on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Amazon.co.jp にて購入。月曜に注文して金曜にくるとは、Amazon も落ちぶれたのう。ふだんハードカバーは買わない主義だけど、伊坂幸太郎のはなんか面白そうだったのでつい。

Mask

IMG_0242.JPG on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I'm having Hay Fever now ... it's usual when I'm back in Japan :/

Just got this mask to avoid HF and also catching flu from crazy amount of crowd in Tokyo. Now I want glasses to free my eyes from this itchness. Sunglasses might work but face mask + sunglass makes me a suspicious guy in public transportations :)

For steve

Oi-SKALL MATES

Drinking

This week is all about drinking for me. But unfortunately, drinking in Tokyo usually means yummy yummy food and endless battle to escape from cigar smoke around you. Why on earth do Japanese people really care about their health by paying too much attention on food expiry date, but still smoke while eating? It doesn't totally make sense.

Hopefully drinking tomorrow and Friday is gonna happen in my friends house, not in restaurants. So I guess I can escape from smoke...

水域

Amazon.co.jp： 水域: 本: 椎名 誠

椎名 誠

ずっと読みたいと思ってた椎名誠のSF三部作の水域。もう絶版になってるみたいでどこをさがしてもなかったけど、Amazonマーケットプレイスで古本が1円（＋送料・手数料で300円）で売ってたので購入。金曜日にクリックして、月曜の夜にはとどいてたのはさすが日本クオリティ。

ハードカバーでちょっとじゃまくさいけど、帰りの NRT -> SFO ででも読もうかな。

勇者のくせになまいきだ。

Amazon.co.jp： 勇者のくせになまいきだ。: ゲーム

http://www.amazon...

Amazon.co.jp商品紹介 ダンジョンを掘り、モンスターを誕生させ、地上から襲い来るなまいきな勇者たちをコテンパンに打ちのめそう!ダンジョン育成というオモシロさを、□ボタンで穴を掘るだけという簡単な操作で実現。襲い来る勇者を撃退するストーリーモードのほか、 ●生態系の仕組みを学ぶトレーニングモード ●魔王からのミッションを解くチャレンジモード ●自分の勇者をつくり友だちのダンジョンに送り込むVSモード と、楽しみ方も多彩。 お手軽さと遊び応え、そして、ドット絵という表現が醸し出す懐かしさと新しさ。RPG的なお約束を満載した、クスっと笑えるヘンなゲームです!

Amazon から パタポンともども購入。面白い。年末はこれでひまつぶせそうかも。

Just got "Yusha no kuse ni namaiki da" game from Amazon.co.jp along with PATAPON for PSP. It's really a simple game but makes me addicted, kind of like Desktop Tower Defense game.

Tadaima

japan i'm back! Not cold as expected :)

Japan to make downloading "illegal content" illegal

Link: 私的録音録画小委員会：「ダウンロード違法化」不可避に - ITmedia News.

「違法サイト」からの動画・音楽のダウンロードが違法とされる方向が、私的録音録画小委員会で固まった。違法化への反対意見も踏まえながら、ユーザーが大きく不利益をこうむらない形で制度設計するとしている。

Japan is to make downloading content from the pirate/illegal websites criminal. You might say what's wrong with that ... It is wrong because the definition of "downloading", "illegal content" is really vague. Imagine you receive an email that has a link to mp3 file that's breaking copyright of someone. Click the link by mistake and you're now criminal.

Also, you might go to sites like MySpace or YouTube and find individual bands music really attractive and want to download them ... but if it's made illegal, you're afraid of clicking the link to download them, because you can't tell if it's legal or not.

Their plan is to make a list of legal content distribution sites and distribute a certificate label (like Verisign SSL mark thingy) and make an exception that if you don't know if it's legal or not, downloading these is still not criminal.

They won't ever work. Stupid.

And here are other things these "content rights holders" are saying:

• "DRM Broadcast: Yes. Never copy more than once. Why? People are stealing content"
• "Blu-ray and iPod: pay indemnity for us because you're making money out of our content"
• "Internet is a dark-side. Everyone is stealing content."

Shame, shame, shame.

New York trip

It was freezing overall. I stayed at my friend's house close to Harlem district and the outside was always like stormy over the night. It was snowing Sunday morning to the afternoon and the first thing I got to do after arriving at SOHO Saturday evening was to buy muffler and glove. I couldn't live up without them!

In the last two visits I've been to New York I went to some broadway shows like "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Producers" but this time we've been lazy and just had some shopping in SOHO, 5th avenue and Kinokuniya. Then afterwards we went down to Korean town for a nice BBQ.

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More photos on Flickr set.

Faster Wayback machine needed

I need wayback machine that works for a really short period of time, like "get me back to this site as of 3 hours ago".

The reason I want it: I come home after work and want to watch UEFA Champions League recorded videos. Before doing that I'd like to check the fixture/table to know what's the current status of each team. If I go to www.uefa.com to know that, they show the game results since I'm not watching the game live. I hate it.

I wish if there's a browser extension or some sort to set to "Browse internet as of 24 hours ago" and works transparently. and I think Google can do this.

KB942840 is must for Vox people using IE

I've been experiencing some embarassing slowness on complex JavaScript sites and apps including our own Vox, when I use IE6 on my Windows XP ThinkPad X40 laptop.

Today it's fixed with this Microsoft KB942840 XP update. I'm not sure if it was installed via normal Windows update (it's not a security update so it's not probably mandatory) or via ThinkPad software update.

Vox compose screen now shows up in a sec, and other 2.0 sites using hell complex JS code is much much faster and no choking with CPU 100% usage. Oh, and do you hate the 3-seconds lag on Vox edit screen when the browser tries to fetch content body using XHR? Now it's brilliantly fast. Hooray.

IE6/XP をお使いで Vox その他のJS使いまくりなサイトのロードがどうも重い（CPU100%で数秒固まる）という経験をお持ちの方、KB942840 を入れましょう。自分の X40 は劇的に改善しました。Livedoor Reader で出てた通信エラーもほとんどなおったし、Fogbugz の入力欄で10秒くらい固まってたのも何のことやら。

電脳コイル Dennou Coil

Amazon.co.jp： 電脳コイル (1) 限定版: DVD: 折笠富美子.桑島法子.矢島晶子.朴ろ

最近夜な夜な2-3話ずつ見てる電脳コイル。すばらしい作品なのでDVDどれくらいするのかなぁと見てみたら2-3話で3000円だって。5.1ch は限定版のみでそっちは2話で6000円。

日本って今そんなに景気いいの？ 何ぼなんでも高いよ。しかも NHK-E はHD制作なのにDVDはスタンダードに 2ch 音声じゃなぁ。

Blu-ray/HDDVD のコンプリートで 8000円ぐらいなら、なんとか買ってもいいと思うけどなぁ。

So this Dennou Coil is probably the best anime series shown in this season. It's a great science fiction anime and I love it. It appears they started to release DVD edition but it's a standard DVD in 2ch audio and it's like 2 episodes in 3000 yen ($25). Darn expensive.

It's a shame they air the show in 1080i HD and release DVD in such a low quality and high prices. I'd love to support NHK and their production company for the great effort on this anime but I can't pay like $240 for the entire set. Bleh.

Anyways the show is pretty enjoyable and it's available on video sharing sites like Veoh, Youtube or if you want HD, you can probably get them via BitTorrent network with subtitles.

 

Going to NY next weekend

To get 1500 more miles to my account to become Star Alliance Gold etc. premium status, I'm flying to New York next weekend (leaving Saturday morning and coming back Monday noon).

It's not the solely-earning-miles-trip but my ex-coworker in Harlem distinct offers me a stay and it's great that I can avoid staying at crazy priced NY hotels to spend $400 per night. No specific plans yet ... let me know if there's something fun.

Godzilla in SF

Giants interested in Yankees' Matsui

http://sportsillu...

The Giants, who are desperately seeking offense, have inquired about Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui's availability.

I'd welcome Hideki Matsui joining San Francisco. Definitely more games we'd go after work :)