I knew this, but could never express my thoughts at about clearly enough. Here what Mark Pilgrim has to say...not bad IMHO.

You do know that Windows has a half-life, don't you? Every installation of Windows naturally degrades along a logarithmic curve until it becomes annoying, then unbearable, then unusable. Each successive revision of Windows has featured a slightly longer half-life. Back in the day, Windows 95 would last me about 3 months, while my copy of Windows XP has lasted me almost 9. I'm not bitter; when you realize that you�re measuring on a logarithmic scale, a factor of 3 improvement is really quite impressive.

Anyways, its from this post about the trials of re-installing XP.

This'll be interesting to have a look at when it comes out next year. Apparently they're looking for game developers to build some prototypes that uses the display system. Worth noting...maybe.

This flash game is pretty cool. Made by Amanita. Another good example of Flash. For more great Flash links, check out melonblog. It's a blog run by a friend who is a Flash developer.

I'm reading Haruki Murakami's Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I really enjoy his writing. Previously I've read A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. Both great books. Anyways, here's a sample:

...I always say - a prejudice on my part, I'm sure - you can tell a lot about a person's character from his [her] choice of sofa. Sofas constitute a realm inviolate unto themselves. This, however, is something that only those who have grown up sitting on sofas will appreciate. It's like growing up reading good books or listening to good music. One good sofa breeds another good sofa; one bad sofa breeds another bad sofa. That's how it goes.

There are people who drive luxury cars, but have only second- or third-rate sofas in their homes. I put little trust in such people. An expensive automobile may well be worth its price, but it's only an expensive automobile. If you have the money, you can buy it, anyone can buy it. Procuring a good sofa, on the other hand, requires style and experience and philosophy. It takes money, yes, but you also need a vision of the superior sofa. That sofa among sofas...

I climbed Mt Yotei two days ago with 3 friends. Took us two and a half hours to get up. The view was awsome. The climb was hard, but worth it. I definitely like this whole mountain climbing thing. You do some hard work, and the payoff is breathe-taking.

My grandpa knees started failing on the walk around the calderas. I didn't have any hiking poles, so I fashioned one from a dead branch. It took me 3 hours to get down. 3 hours of agony that I won't forget for a while. I went through so many pain barriers. In retrospect I feel good, but while it was happening, I was in two minds about the whole hiking thing.

I have to remember to buy some hiking poles and some good hiking shoes [I wore a pair of skate shoes ;)]. Both essential pieces of equipment for a successful and comfortable hike.

Robotic vacuum cleaners have been in the pipeline for years, and now they are a reality. The Roomba Robotic FloorVac comes in a few models, but these especially look good, the Roomba Pro and the Roomba Pro Elite [which you can control via a remote].

Public spaces that would normally [in most western countries] be tailored to you staying for the least amount of time as possible [think...public toilets, public baths, change rooms, gyms, etc] are, in Japan, amazingly well designed for comfort and in most cases extented stays.

Take for example you average public swimming pool. In Australia or America [both places I've had first hand experience with] the change rooms associated with a public swimming facility have been, on average,...disgusting. You hardly feel like leaving your bag in a place like that, let alone take your clothes off and have a shower [or buddha forbid, need to take a shit]. In Japan however, even the most modest public swimming pool I've been to has had a change room I've felt totally comfortable in. To the point of being able to have a self cleaning experience similar to that you have in your own home. Ahhhh.

If you're lucky enough to roll up to an onsen for a nice relaxing natural hot bath, the change rooms in those are amazing. Usually in the change room they'll have a lounge chair or two [and an ashtray of course - Japan is BIG on smoking, but more about that in another post] and it's quite likely you'll see the same dudes on the way in, as you will on the way out, sitting there, having a chat, enjoying the comfort zone.

Ahhh....finally...the answer to the answer of life, the universe and everything.

Thanks messy-78.

And for those of us who think it's kind of rediculous to have a desktop based aggregator, check Feed On Feeds, created by this guy. Looks nice. PHP, MySQL and it uses the Magpie RSS library as well. Trumps.

This is the best arguement I read so far for using Linux as opposed to Windows. Comes from this site and is well worth a read. Some highlights in case you don't have the reading time:

• MSNBC employs doublespeak tactics or misreports news that might portray Microsoft in a negative light. When the Code Red worm almost took down the internet by exploiting security problems in Microsoft's IIS web server, MSNBC reported that a virus was wreaking havoc on the internet, but that Microsoft had "saved the day" by distributing a patch.
• In 1998, after Microsoft's unsuccessful attempt to purchase Blue Mountain Electronic Greeting Cards, they launched their own electronic greeting card service. Mysteriously, new versions of Microsoft's Outlook Express as well as their WebTV Service started filtering greeting cards from Blue Mountain into the 'junk mail' folder.
• Microsoft intentionally designs their web pages so that they do not display correctly in web browsers other than Internet Explorer. This includes pages designed with Microsoft web-authoring software such as "Front Page."
• The Microsoft Outlook email client uses non-standard protocol extensions to make email look funny in other email clients.
• Microsoft Office embeds a unique identifier code in every document which can be traced back to the computer on which it was created.
• Microsoft Office 2000 shipped with mandatory product registration. On the 51st start attempt, Office 2000 will cease to function if you have not provided Microsoft with your contact information.
• Microsoft WebTV boxes now surreptitiously collect consumer data. Microsoft polls WebTV boxes nightly to collect customer web surfing and viewing statistics, which are then sold to advertisers.
• Some service packs for Microsoft Windows will mysteriously prevent non-Microsoft applications from working correctly. Windows NT Service Pack 4 introduced a meaningless incompatibility in the Windows networking communication protocol, preventing Linux software from communicating with it.
• With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft initially included a patch that added "smart tags" to Internet Explorer. These would turn any word in any webpage into a link of Microsoft's choice - essentially allowing Microsoft to control content that's not even theirs.

Disturbing to say the least. But in this age of everything-is-so-easy-just-how-it-is [aka I-want-someone-else-to-do-all-the-thinking-for-me], do we really care? We should.

Like I said...worth a read.

This is cool to watch. Kinda intertesting being able to watch people post from all over the world. Especially since we're so use to seeing Flash used as simple eye candy, it's good to witness some functional Flash.

Awh shit!...there's a good domain name [functionalflash.com] / web site idea for ya...and at the time of this post it's available too...I know I'm going to regret not registering that one, but I'm a bit tight on cash at the moment...if it's still available in a few weeks, I might grab it ;).

Sun has release some screenshots of their MadHatter project [previously mentioned here].

Available this fall, Project Mad Hatter will offer a new but familiar desktop operating platform based on Linux. A Solaris OS edition will be ready shortly thereafter. "We're integrating all these desktop components [Gnome, Mozilla, Java technology, Evolution, and the StarOffice suite] into a familiar look-and-feel to reduce retraining".

I recently came into posession of a IBM ThinkPad iSeries 1161. Not a bad little lappy. It has a Intel Celeron processor, 128MB RAM and a 9GB drive. Unfortunately it only has a maximum resolution of 800x600, which is a shame. Considering this [I've never really been able to deal with 800x600, except back in the day when there was little alternative], I thought there's not much point using it as a workstation, so why not turn it into a server. My other Linux server is a mini-atx machine, which is small, but not as portable as a laptop.

I started installing RedHat [I'd prefer Debian, but I have to mirror my virtual server for development reasons] and everything went ok except the NIC [which is a bummer]. So I do the usual and find this document. To quote from the first fews lines...

If you're looking to buy a laptop that would run Linux well, THIS IS NOT IT!

Doh!...anyways, I'm not giving up yet. I'll let you know how I go.

Update: I also found this document, which is a little more upbeat about the whole thing.

Title says it all...almost. Photos of Great White Sharks breaching. Some text from the site:

Great White Sharks have undoubtedly breached for centuries but at certain localities it happens more often than at others. One such area is Seal Island False Bay, South Africa. Here Great White Sharks use the breach as the final effort that often culminates in a successful predation. When these great white sharks breach the person fortunate enough to see such a spectacle is left with an indelible memory.

I found this link via Geisha Asobi [she rocks].

This is an old article I found via the [one would assume] sex-crazed Charlie at Japaneze. When I was in Shinjuku, which basically surrounds Kabukicho, these 'Scouts' would start appearing at about 5pm every night and chat with every good looking young female [which there are a lot of] they saw.

BTW: Nothing wrong with being sex-crazed. Actually, it's seems like it's kind of expected of you in Japan these days. Gotta love this place...the raw animal honestly of it all ;)

It'd be cool spending a few hours in this rig. Wonder if the you could learn to fly an actual 747 by just spending the hours training in a sim.

On the news this morning was a story about some serious fruit criminals. Aparently this gang [with the amounts being stolen they're assuming it's a gang] is going around at night picking the finest, leaving the growers scratching their heads in the morning. At present, grapes seem to be the preferred choice. With the high cost of fruit in Japan I'm not surprise something like this would start. A part of me is a little shocked that something like this would even happen in Japan ;)

Just in case you've never come across MegaTokyo.com, go check it out. It's one of, if not, the best online comics I've found. New strips are published about every 3 days [they're suppose to be anyways] and they're always worth it. I'm gonna have to fork out for a copy of the dead tree version, or write a script that'll download all the back issues. I've been reading it for a while now, but I'd like to have a good ol' start-to-finish read.

Oh yeah...the artwork is great. Done mainly by this guy.

Went to another festival last night. This time in the town of Rankoshi [らんこし]. The streets were lined with lanterns, stalls selling food were packed. The fireworks lasted a lot longer this time and everyone seemed to really get into them [I remember thinking how strange it was that humans are so drawn to explosions - even simple, and very repetitive ones, like fireworks]. The local school teachers were patrolling the area to make sure the kids didn't get into trouble. There was the odd gaijin or two [present company included].

The highlight of the night was this crazy dance. Quite beautiful really. There was a raised central point where the musicians sat, beating on drums and playing wind instruments. Slowly [and mainly led by a few elders] people started dancing. The dance consisted of a few steps here, then a few claps there, then a sort of body twist in which half-bent arms would be raised in the air, then a shout of some word [which I've forgotten]. It lasted for at least an hour and was intoxicating, especially when watching beautiful women in ukatas [or even western garb for that matter] dancing, or watching the elderly [who seemed to know the dance steps a little better] busting their moves. After 20 minutes, there was at least 200 people dancing around this center piece and it was...amazing. I could feel culture.

For someone from a country that has a history you could comfortable fit on the back of a pack of Coco Pops, it was quite an experience to witness a event like this. I couldn't help thinking how lucky I was, and how everyone was so much apart of the whole experience. I've been brought up going to cultural events that have been taken over by sponsoring corporations. So I remember things like 'The Fosters New Years Eve Celebrations' or 'The David Jones Christmas Parade'. These events make you feel like you are watching something external to yourself [and in fact, it's usually better to watch these events on TV - both for you, because you don't have to deal with all the trash, parking/travel troubles, etc - and for the sponsors, because then they can shove twice as much advertising down your throat and still pass it of as acceptable viewing].

The two festivals I've been to here were low-key style, where everybodys presence helps to complete the whole experience. You can notice the difference, and it made me feel really really good, even as a outsider. This place rocks!

Sifry has posted this tutorial on what Technorati actually does, which is good because the site's explaination isn't that great.

On a side note, I wonder how much he's making off those Google Ads.

I've been getting into DIY paroramic photography lately. Nothing serious mind you, but serious enough to start looking for some software that could help me out. I searched Google for panoramic and [blimey!!!] I hit the jackpot. [I followed the top text add and found the link at this site]

A new sourceforge project to create an open source search engine has been created. Looks interesting enough to remember. It's called Nutch. Here's the sf project page, and the Nutch docs page.

Update: DaveNet on Nutch

After about 30mins of being online this morning I got this strange message from the NT Authority/system account telling me that my computer was going to shut down before of a failure in the RPC service. %$#@!!!

Anyways, TCALSS, it was this little fucker. I blame myself. A while ago I had decided not to install a firewall on my TC1000 Table PC because XP ran so friggin slow on it. With all the holes in the Windows OS, I knew better, but ignored myself because I desired a bit of performance. This was the first virus I've ever had, and luckly, it's only taken about an hour to get rid of it.

Here's a tool from Symantec that will remove W32.Blaster.Worm and clean up all the shit it causes [a few registery entries, etc...more details in the description page of the tool].

And here's a link to the patch released [as quietly as possible] by microsoft.

I've installed Kerio's Personal Firewall. It's a pretty cool product [nice interface - straight to the point style] and for personal use it's free.

Update: Thought I'd just add the two /. posts [1 & 2].

I'm hosting a site for a friend.

cyber-thief.com

She's a fashion designer based in Surry Hills, Australia [Surry Hills is the fashion district in Sydney - manufacturing-wise anyways]. She a real cool person, one of the downist hip hop chicks I've met [If not The Downist]. And she makes good clothes. Check it out!

A butterfly floats on the breeze of a sun lit day
As I feel this reality gently fade away
Riding on a thought to see where it's from
Gliding through a memory of a time yet to come
Smoke paints the air
Swirling images through my mind
Like a whirlpool spin beginning to unwind
And I stand at the edge cautiously awaiting
As time slips by
Carefully navigating by the stars in the sky
And I sit
And I think to myself
And on the horizon the sun light begins to climb
And it seems like it's been so long since he shined
But I'm sure it was only yesterday

A cold chill of fear cut through me
I felt my heart contract
To my mind I brought the image of light
And I expanded out of it
My fear was just a shadow
And then I voice spoke in my head
And she said dark is not the opposite of light
It's the absence of light
And I thought to myself
She knows what she's talking about
And for a moment I knew
What it was all about.

From a ./ thread: Looks as though some of the animation studios are using Photoshop on Linux. Unfortunately Adobe hasn't ported Photoshop, the studios are using emulators. Here's a story about Disney using Wine. And this story is about Dreamworks using VMWare.

NOTE: The eweek link has a popup advert after you kill the browser...I hate that.

It's been raining here for the last few days, and looks like it will continue to rain for a few more. There's a typhoon making it's way up the east coast of Japan. Last night it was of shore of Osaka, so it should be at northern Honshu by tonight.

I scored a cold from someone. Not too bad at present so hopefully I should be able to beat it before it gets too bad. Was suppose to go mountain biking tomorrow, but I think that out of the question with the rain, the amount of work I have to do in the next week and a constantly dripping nose.

In the Japan blogsphere today, Charlie reckons blogger has sorted his archive issue. I'll believe when I stop getting blogger branded 404s after following his archive links.

And he's excited about the fact that the Tokyo Shoes princess may kill her blog. Fingers crossed here too. Some software is too easy to use.

Elsewhere...

Sun has announced and demoed a new product called Mad Hatter...with its upcoming Linux-based desktop, Project Mad Hatter, Sun is poised to offer a solution that easily interoperates with existing environments and is based on open standards, open file formats, and open protocols

Here's a cool wardriving rig.

When will the industry work out that everyone is a software pirate.

Dave Winer has updated the MetaWeblog API.

I've implemented a few SharePoint Portals in my time and agree with Dan. At present, we got nothing to worry about.

If you're a robotics tech freak, The Centibots Project looks cool.

I gotta get the dt aggregator working or else my daily browse is going to take more than 24 hours to complete. When I do, the catch-phrase for the aggregator module of dt is going to be - The revolution will not be televised, but there'll be a RSS feed of it somewhere.

Update:Damn...maybe I was beaten to it.

IMHO it looks as if Novell is making some plans to reinvent itself [again]. And good on them I reckon. Of course, I'm just reading the nodal points from /. data, but check it out - first they buy Ximian, then release comments on the power of linux as a desktop OS and how stupid SCO is being, now there dropping NetWare development [long overdue IMHO]. What next? Novell releases new Linux distribution for enterprises. More proof the tide is turning.

...someone with a bit of weight is doing something about SCO's shenanigans. Thanks RedHat

I bought myself a new skateboard yesterday. It's been over 5 years since I've skated seriously, but now it looks like I'm back in the game. A friend in Kutchan has build a couple of fun boxes and rail slides and left them in a car park, so me and about 5 other Niseko locals headed over to check them out. Spent about 3 hours there, and I tell you what...it feels good. The body is a bit sore today, but it will adapt. My mind is thanking me, because I really dig skating and it was so good to get back and cut some lines. Nose slides, 180s, and impossibles all came back with in about 30 mins. I'm stoked. Add to that the new ramp at the Hang Loose Pension and I got myself some serious fun ahead of me. Just gotta make sure I don't hurt myself before the snow season. But I'm older now, so I have to take it easy anyways.

Last night I went to the Kutchan Jazz Festival. It rocked...well...it jazzed.

I want one of these. I'll have to start saving...could be a good winter project.

And these comments about MacGyver are a kack.

I spend January 2003 in Niseko. Shortly after I arrived I'd decided that I wanted to spend some serious time here. Partly because it's the best place in the world to snowboard, partly because I've spent the last 10 years of my life working my ass off writing software for corporate Australia [it was just time...know what I'm saying], but mainly because of the people and the feeling this part of Hokkaido has [kindof frontierish, if that makes sense]. Now that I'm back, almost at the 3 week mark, I've bumped into three other people who have obviously had similar ideas.

S is a American who has spent the last 3 years in a temple somewhere outside of Osaka. I met S went I was here in before and we've stayed close friends. If George Dubbya represents an American at one end of the scale, S represents an American at the total opposite end. It's refreshing to be in his company.

K is a guy from Tokyo who was out here last snow season and promptly went home, reorganised his life, quit his job and headed back to live here. He is staying at the same pension as S [which is how I met him] and recently scored himself a job as a social worker [I'm still yet to find out what kind of problems the locals have that require a social worker].

R is an Australian I briefly met in a bar during the snow season. He was telling the story of how he rocked up in Niseko with less than $10 and had so far managed to survive for 2 months. He's working at one of the rafting companies [Niseko's main summer tourist attraction is white-water-rafting - although honestly there's much better things to do, and much better places than Niseko to raft]. Reports from the local grapevine make it sounds like R is a right proper cock [He's dating a friend of a friend and treating her like shit]. Needless to say, I'm in no rush to cross paths with R again.

Apart from these people, most of the other people I know in Niseko are from either Tokyo or Osaka. All those in favour of starting a new life in Niseko, say はい.

Since I got my mobile phone sometime last week I've been receiving on average about 2 spam emails a day. I'm with AU & I haven't used my ezweb email account for anything but to receive messages from the few people in know in Japan. The emails are mainly porn spam, offering me the chance to visit a URL where I'll be able to see half naked cuties. I've noticed that alot of the Japanese based porn sites use numbers in there domain names. I'd really like to know whether someone in AU sold my address, the spammers just guessed it with software [most likely], or if there's a bug in some AU software somewhere where the spammers can get a list of new accounts [like hotmail].

Just got back from a night out at the Kutchan Summer Festival, which coinsides with the Kutchan Jazz Festival [I'll check that out tomorrow night]. The Summer Festival is a big deal for the locals. Lots of yukatas [浴衣], lots of beer drinking, lots of food. The main street is blocked off and little stalls [mainly food, but also a few novelties] are set up. It was such a good vibe. I really dig this place.