As far as making "modern-art manga sculptures" goes, this guy rocks. Check out his home page [japanese] and an english translation of some of his works.

His instructions on how to make a figure are pretty cool. Might have to try that one day.

Also worth seeing are his life-size manga PC cases.

Annoyances.org is a site to remember if you still use some variant of Windows. And let's face it, we'll still be coming into contact with Windows every now and then. I use Linux for most things now. All my development work is done on Linux [unless there's some MS specific job], but I still have to use Windows in areas where Linux lacks - music production [I'm thinking Reason, Rebirth, etc] and image and video production [Photoshop, Premiere, Combustion, etc]. And apart from that, I still have a host of friends who ask me for advice and help....and guess what...most of them use Windows [with the odd Mac user thrown in].

Anyways, this site is a respository of all the little annoyances that you will no longer have to remember how to fix...instead just search the site.

Annoyances.org is the most complete collection of information assembled for and by actual users of Microsoft Windows. Explore this free web resource by selecting one of the destinations on your left, or use search to find a specific solution.

Well...a home made one. And it's not actually a G5 processor running this thing, but it's still pretty cool.

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI), Sony Corporation(NYSE: SNE) and E Ink Corporation announced today the world's first consumer application of an electronic paper display module in Sony's new e-Book reader, LIBRI�, scheduled to go on sale in Japan in late April. This "first ever" Philips' display utilizes E Ink's revolutionary electronic ink technology which offers a truly paper-like reading experience with contrast that is the same as newsprint. The Electronic Paper Display is reflective and can be easily read in bright sunlight or dimly lit environments while being able to be seen at virtually any angle - just like paper. Its black and white ink-on-paper look, combined with a resolution in excess of most portable devices at approximately 170 pixels per inch (PPI), gives an appearance similar to that of the most widely read material on the planet - newspaper. Because the display uses power only when an image is changed, a user can read more than 10,000 pages before the four AAA Alkaline batteries need to be replaced. The unique technology also results in a compact and lightweight form factor allowing it to be ideal for highly portable applications.

It looks pretty cool, and if it does all that's boasted in the press release, including price [$318US], it might be worth purchasing.

From the Venus Transit 2004 [Introduction] page.

On June 8, 2004, Venus - the Earth's sister planet - passes in front of the Sun as seen from the Earth. This very rare event (no living person has ever seen one!) lasts about 6 hours and will be visible from most of Europe, Africa and Asia.

Worth checking out if you're on the right part of the planet. If not, you might want to look at the animations they have set up.

I got Blender to render [=)]. It worked after I installed the ATI drivers for my 9200. And it's really fast.

On another related 3D app note, I also got K3D working. It's not a bad application when it comes down to it. Simple, but that's good in some situations. Worth checking out.

The 4th installment of the Myst game series.

If you use KDE, this article may be of interest.

I'm building Blender 2.32 on the new Linux box as I type. The binary didn't seem to gel with Fedora Core 1 and just hung for a few minutes are executing. ... The build just failed as well. OpenAL variable error. Doh!!! More later.

Update: I got it built and working. Models ok, but whenever I go to render something it closes. More testing required =)

This via /.

Looks ok, maybe a little heavy if you're doing a full days shoot. But at least it's cheap.

Baseball season has started in Japan. So far I've watch the Hanshin Tigers beat the Tokyo Giants - twice =)

Update: 3 times [straight]...which is a record

On a slightly lighter note to the last post, here's a look at the hardware that Google was created on. Looks similar to my bedroom when I was living in Sydney.

Now you gotta admit that the US has totally lots the plot. This is paranoia to nth degree. On September 30, 2004, the US government will implement a policy whereby:

Thousands of visitors from 27 US allies, including Australia, Britain and Japan, will be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival in the US to tighten border security.

The Age has one of the many stories about it.

It's unfortunate...most of my immediate family live in the US, but this really deters me from planning visits to see them. I'm no terrorist, but there's nothing worse than a super-paranoid governement with too much data on there hands. Add to that a total lack of responsibility for anything non-American and you're looking at a pretty scarey future.

What I wonder is, what's the criteria for bypassing the system? After all, I can't imagine little Johnny Howard being finger-printed on his next grovel...ahh....I mean visit to the US.

Hasn't George Dubbya leant anything from Star Wars? Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. Spead a bit of love George and it's love the US people will receive. Continue to instill fear in the US people, and alienate the rest of the world, and you're headed for a [another] fall.

I'm Kent Brockman, and that's my 2 cents.