I'm heading to Australia for a few weeks. Bit of work, bit of family/friends catch up. Maybe a bit of beach if it's hot enough. Will catch up with heaps of posts I've been wanting to submit. And check out the southern sky with this app.
Tie me kangaroo down, sport!!!
It was only mag. 3 in Niseko, but it still rocked the house. It's such a bizarre but thrilling experience. I've felt a quake before in San Francisco, but it was over 10 years ago now. This one shook the building for about 45 seconds, then the after shock rocked in about 20 mins later and lastest for about 15 seconds.
Damn I dig natural events like this. I chased bushfires in Sydney until I got a good close view of one and it was visually amazing. The feeling you get when [what seems like] the whole planet moves under your feet is crazy.
I'm glad there were no deaths [so far]. A couple of damaged roads, oil holding containers and a few train derailments seems to be the big thing on the local news. More info can no doubt be found via Google News
Neal Stephenson, the author of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, In the Beginning...was the Command Line, etc, etc... has started a wiki [metaweb] for ideas related to his new book Quicksilver.
Which headline takes your fancy. Largest Arctic ice shelf breaks up. Ward Hunt Ice Shelf Breaks In Two. Ice Shelf Break in Arctic Attributed to Climate Warming. Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks up.
Apart from all that, I know it's getting hotter every summer. If you don't notice it yourself, you're either stupid or stupid. Wake up!!!
The NASA JPL Solar System Simulator is not really a 'from the ground up' view of the sky, but it's a great tool anyways. Choose from a wide range of viewpoints, time and field of views and the simulator will render the view for you. Check out the samples page. I've already spent hours on this site, and no doubt more time in the future.
While you at it, if you need some maps for 3D rendering of planets, check this page.
I forgot to mention, but while I was in Osaka, the Hanshin Tigers won their league. 5000+ fans jumped into the [really dirty] river that runs through Osaka. I saw one of them go in. One guy died 'cause he was too drunk, but I think that happened after I came back to Hokkaido. Seeing as I've been adopted by the crew at Kishiwada, the Tigers are my default home team. Go Tigers!!!
Mt Yotei has started changing colour, before I went to Osaka, the top of Yotei had started to turn red. Since I've been back, it's been raining an Yotei has been hidden behind a mask of clouds, but today is quite clear and I can see the yellowing starting to occur.
I'd take what this site says with a grain of salt...or perhaps a whole cup of salt.
For one thing, their Japanese Festivals page contains mainly western holidays [Xmas, Valentines, New Year]. Sure, the Japanese celebrate these days [kind of - not like Americans do], but Japanese have much more regard for their own special festvals - まつり
And while I'm at it, you forgot the oldest festival - The Kishiwada Festival. It's obvious the writers haven't ventured out of Tokyo yet - they probably think Tokyo is all Japan has to offer.
It's clear whoever made this site is just some gaijin tools living in Tokyo, teaching English. Somehow they scored a good domain name. Anything of value looks like it's been reaped from other [more valuable] sites.
'nuf said.
Following the trend that sees famous bloggers starting up other website, Dan Gillmor and David Weinberger have created Word Pirates.
They're our words, dammit!
Marketers, politicians and other short-sighted, self-interested, sticky-fingered people have been stealing our words. Not only do they take them for commercial purposes, but they misuse them entirely. They're Word Pirates and we're going to take back what's rightfully ours.
For instance, "intellectual property" refers to ideas. Ideas aren't property. Not only one person can "own" them. It's a bad metaphor leading to worse laws.
To follow on from this post, I guess one of my childhood dreams is starting to stir in me again. Living in an unpopulated area like Niseko gives you fastastic views of the night sky [on clear nights of course, when Yotei is not creating clouds]. I've always been intertesed in Astronomy, but have never really paid it the attention it was due. Now seems like a good time.
I'm going to save up and buy myself a telescope, but prior to that [it'll probably take a while for me to save ;)] I thought I'd investigate some Astronomy software. First I checked freshmeat [of course] and got myself a list of, what seems to be from first glances, some quality software. [At the time of writing this post] There's 106 projects at freshmeat under astronomy, but at first I'm mainly interested in applications that will give me a map of the sky based on my ground location, so that reduced the number of apps to about 10 [give or take a few]. Anyways, here begins my reviews and experiences with open source astronomy software...enjoy.
First one I've tried so far is called Stellarium. It's pretty impressive, giving you a view of the sky, day or night - depending where you are, as if you were standing there yourself looking up.
Stellarium is a free software available for Windows, Linux/Unix and MacOSX. It renders 3D photo-realistic skies in real time. With stellarium, you really see what you can see with your eyes, binoculars or a small telescope. - And that's no shit!
Features include:
Check it out.
Where's that old Commodore 64 when you need it. The Contiki Operating System and Desktop Environment breathes new life into that old basic interpreter.
The Contiki desktop environment is a highly portable, modern, open source, Internet-enabled operating system and desktop environment for very constrained systems, such as 8-bit homecomputers like the Commodore 64.
Primestar was recently purchased by Direct TV who is phasing out all the Primestar equipment. This means that the dishes are being trashed, and are available for other uses such as the one I describe here...
Back in Niseko again. Damn I missed it. It was nice being in Osaka & Kishiwada for a week, but I've really grown to enjoy living in a small town. It felt like I was returning home this time...'tis a good feeling.
SONY has release a new consumer robot that is modeled on a human [so now man's best friend has a master] called QRIO.
The Kishiwada Festival is one of the oldest and largest in Japan [I've been told this repeatedly by everyone I've met here]. It's seems to consist mainly of a whole bunch of guys [I'm talking thousands] running around, carrying, pulling & sitting on a danjiri. A danjiri is similar to a western parade float, but, unlike your typical float that is made from a tray top truck and recycled every year [usually with cheap tacky decorations], the danjiri is something that gets past on from generation to generation, and revered by all.
Almost like a portable shrine. More than 500,000 people will pack themselves into the small streets of this town on each day of the three day festival.
It's hard to convey the importance this festival has on the locals. I'm still coming to terms with it myself. Everyone talks about it, and it causes a kind of child-like excitment/enthusiasm is even the oldest members of the community. Practice has been happening for the last two weeks, so at night you hear the sound of drums and flutes until about 10pm.
The Kishiwada is unlike any other Japanese festival. Like all the others, it has deep cultural significance on the locals. Local girls will often choose their husbands based on there performance pulling the danjiri. And needless to say, at festival time lots, of Kishiwada's babies are conceived.
The locals call this place - The Republic of Kishiwada. They feel [because of their uniqueness] slightly detached from the rest of Japan. The word 'pride' doesn't really do it justice. And as far as my experiences go, I've yet to meet any people like I have in Kishiwada.
I can't believe this festival. It's the third day today and it continues to thrive. I was hopeing to be able to post about some of the things I've seen, but there's no time. The place I'm staying in [local residents of Kishiwada] is a hive of activity, day and night. And there's so much to see in the street. There's also a bit of the gaijin zoo animal attraction going on, but I think I can deal with that.
Needless to say, if you're ever in Japan in September, I highly suggest experiencing this festival. More details after this calm down.
Careful everyone. Just when you thought you were all safe and patched, another vunerability [actually 3 new ones] have been discovered. Better get the patch [XP / 2000].
Yo...this is the shit... I took a plane to Kansai today to head over to the Kishiwada festival in Kishiwada [funny that]. It's 3am, I've had one of the best nights in my life [explanation pending], and the next week is looking to be better...more later. peace.
Some guy is going to make replicas of the Apple I [only a limited number of units] and sell them. Even though there's probably more computing power in today's average $2 digital watch, it's still one of the nostalgic buffs. But really, wouldn't you prefer one of these instead.
This is the best site I've seen as far as accessible information on our solar system goes. Maybe I'll think it boring after I've finished my astronomy degree, but until then, it'll do fine. Damn interesting read.
From the creators of Myst� and Riven�, Uru�: Ages Beyond Myst is the next chapter of the Myst franchise and the most immersive and ambitious Myst experience ever created. The single-player game will be bigger, better, and more innovative than any of the previous Myst adventures. Players can move at their own pace, spending hours discovering visually stunning, real-time 3D worlds, solving a large variety of mind-challenging puzzles, and following an epic storyline. Players can continue to discover new areas of D'ni by connecting to Uru Live, the online service of Uru. There, players will be part of an ever-expanding world that brings more areas to explore and more mysteries to solve.
Wow.
Kind of puts me off when they call it a franchise...makes it sound like there's nothing original about it [although I'm sure there is].
The screenshots look pretty すごい
DARPA intends to conduct a challenge of autonomous ground vehicles between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in March of 2004. A cash award of $1 million will be granted to the team that fields the first vehicle to complete the designated route within a specified time limit. The purpose of the challenge is to leverage American ingenuity to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies that can be applied to military requirements. Many of the details of the event are being developed, and new information will be posted to this web site as soon as possible.
Check out some of the teams that have already signed up...these guys are serious ;)
Press release here - with links to some pictures. Cute little thing, although I'm still a bit confused as to what you could actually use these guys for. I don't think they would really appeal as pet replacements, but as a functional robot it might be ok...but what can they do? Can it bring you a drink from the fridge? Can it project your latest DVD on the wall or your living room? Can you use it as a digital camera to spy on unsuspecting ogglers [ohhh...isn't it cute?...a robot dog...oh look, it's trying to look up my skirt]?
Here's the Aibo US site. With all the 'extras' you can get [like a Abio Ball�, or the Abio Bone�] it still just looks like a rich kids toy...but it'd be nice to pull one apart ;)
An now for something completely different. A console-based aggregator called Raggle. mmmmm....console-based.
Speaking of ditching MS products, I've been hunting around for an email client so I can rid myself of Outlook Express [too insecure, and I don't like the way MS sway from the email standards]. My criteria is that it's open source and works. And there's no need for all the extra fluff that comes with Outlook clones [I ditched Outlook long ago because it's bloatware], like a calendar or sticky notes, etc. I just want a mail client. Have thought about Mozilla as a mail client, and it's No.1 on the list, but I've also found Scribe, which looks pretty cool.
I'm really thinking about ditching XP altogether on my TC1000. It's giving me the shits big time. I mean, really, it's a shit product as far as being happy with your purchase goes. I say this everytime I get a new version of Windows [and I used them all]...when will I learn.
I'm so happy with my Linux boxes. All the fundamental OS related stuff I know well, which is why all my servers are Linux boxes now. I'm just not up to par on some aspects like GIMP replacing photoshop, and ??? replacing premiere. And what about a free version of Maya for Linux, or 3D Studio Max. Or even Bryce. Just having a winge really. If I spent a bit more time working on GIMP I should have it down soon. I guess this is just part of the 'Is Linux ready for the desktop?' debate. I guess I'll know when it is, 'cause I won't have any microsoft OSes anymore.
Of course, OSX is always an options. I think my next notebook will have to be a Apple.