Guess what I bought recently ^^. So I'll be opening this very soon. Anyone want to compete with me while I'm still green? The box reads "up to 12 players from all over the world can race together"!
37 minutes ago
Showing posts with label gadgets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gadgets. Show all posts
Friday, July 4, 2008
Mario Kart Wii
Guess what I bought recently ^^. So I'll be opening this very soon. Anyone want to compete with me while I'm still green? The box reads "up to 12 players from all over the world can race together"!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Embedded Comment Form in Blogger
If any of you guys out there using blogger want to embed your comment form in the same page, use blogger in draft. Check out this link here. Have fun!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Early morning of Euro cup and color profiles
I have a little problem that I need help with. Regarding color profiles. It's right at the end of this post... please hit "read more" if you know a thing or 2 about color profiles.
Have any of you been following the Euro cup lately? Not every match is telecasted live (or at all) in Japan. And if it is, you know what that means, you'll get to hear the happy chirping of birds. So, yesterday's match... Russia and Spain. The first half was quite goal-less wasn't it... what am I talking about... it's either goal-less or it's not ^^. The second half was pretty exciting. But I fell asleep towards the end... missed the 89th minute goal. I thought Russia played well to get this far in the Euro cup, but unfortunately, Spain bested them in this match. So how did I spend my time while waiting for the match? I don't know... writing my blog O.O? 
Recently I took Nida out for a photoshoot. I have to agree with alot of people, including the gordonator ^^. She has got to be my current favorite! I just kept firing away... shutter-wise. Before I knew it, I took quite a number of photos. Spent a little time today sorting them out. They'll probably find their way up here tomorrow night I guess. The difficult part is choosing which ones to upload! You have that problem too? Anyway, during half-time, I took some photos of the morning sky/neighbourhood from my apartment. Have you every seen how your neighbourhood looks like in the wee hours of the morning? It could be a good photo opportunity ^^. Of course, you might want to bring a stand along (another option is to put the camera down on a flat surface).
Fujiko decided to come help me.
This uses Adobe RGB.
This uses sRGB.
This uses Apple RGB.
Click on the picture. Which thumbnail/preview most closely matches the picture? I don't know if I should spend time on this though, since the previews are all created by blogger. All other photos in this post uses Adobe RGB. But in my other Sonsaku post, I used sRGB for the photos. The colors in the preview looked a little off. Judging from these three previews, Adobe RGB is out. sRGB and Apple RGB looks the same to me... at least it looks better than Adobe RGB. hmmm... it's a blogger-generated preview! Should I be worrying about it at all?
Monday, June 23, 2008
Nescafé Dolce Gusto
Me want this new coffee maker... No fuss involved. Put in the capsule, make coffee, throw the used capsule away. Did I mention no washing too! Cool coffee machine comes with a cool price tag too. ¥15,000... it'll have to wait awhile... probably after July 11th ^^.
It's a pretty cool ad. Do you have a thing for coffee ^^? Now I do.
They are running a promotion at my local 7-11 store. You can get free coffee! Don't know if I'm thick-skinned enough to keep going back for more ^^.
Check out a review here.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Japanese sword museum (刀剣博物館)
Like katanas? Then you'll love this place. The Japanese Sword Museum (website's in Japanese only). They display lots of different katanas from different eras in Japanese history. The katanas that they display are not museum pieces. They belong to collectors who generously allow the museum to display them. Depends on when you go, the displays are always different.
When I went, they were displaying katanas from the Kamakura and the Nanbukucho period. Pretty old stuff. You won't see the packaged whole katana. Only the blade is displayed. Everything else is stripped bare. You'll get to see the soul of the katana!
It's very interesting! The length, curvature and even the way it was carried evolved quite a bit over time. During the Heian period (平安時代 Heian-jidai), a long time ago... think "The tale of Genji", swords were carried on the waist blade facing the ground. But there was a switch after that period. Katanas were then worn with the blade facing upwards. You know why? Back in the Heian period, samurais fought on horsebacks. So the swords were worn blade down so that it doesn't hit the horse's side (even "modern" samurais still wear it like that while on horseback). Even not on horseback, they still carried it that way. When the it changed. I don't know why, but someone explained it to me in a very simple way; the rise of Battōjutsu (抜刀術), the sword-drawing techniques. I'm sure you know one thing or two about it. One quick draw and *swoosh*, your opponent is cut. Apparently It's much easier to do a quick draw with the blade facing up. Hence the change.
Anyway, the museum provides a general "Manual for Appreciating the Japanese Sword" in English. I found it to be pretty informative. Don't forget to pick it up when you get there!
There is one drawback though... I would say the worst part about going there is getting there. The place itself is quite hard to find. You have to navigate a few narrow streets. Check the map. I took the Keio New Line (京王新線) and got off at Hatsudai (初台) station. You can get on this line from Shibuya or Shinjuku. Remember, it's the new line. The station is at the left portion of the map. When you get out, you'll most like be at Tokyo Opera City (東京オペラシティ). You'll be able to find your way from there.
If you're on the right track, you'll see plenty of signs like this...
and this...
This is the front of the museum.
The multi-storied flyover that you can see in the map.
You won't see photos for katanas here because I wasn't allowed to take photos inside. But you'll love it. Katanas are unrivaled beautiful steel pieces of art, even if they are a weapon. I only wish I had me one...
Sunday, June 1, 2008
プチプチ (Puchi Puchi)
I finally parted with ¥819 to get this puchi puchi. Been itching to try it out ever since I saw it announced at last year's toy show. Whenever I walk into a shop selling it, I always look for a sample.... and guess what. Always no sample... sigh. Family's in town this week, so I kinda have an excuse to buy ^^. My brother can bring it home as a souvenir and show all his friends how to strengthen your fingers with limitless bubble wrap. Yeap. This little contraption is supposed to simulate a bubble wrap press.... or presses. It's pretty good. Helps you to destress ^^. Every 100 presses, it makes a funny sound. The newer iterations speak with a cute little girly voice.
After coming home, I found out that I could have gotten it slightly cheaper for ¥700. Maybe I should do all my shopping online instead ^^.
I hope for version 2, they make one with presses on both sides.
Friday, May 30, 2008
A modern day Trike
Ever seen one of these on your roads? I must admit, it's cool.... yet at the same time uncool ^^. For one thing, the back portion of the trike is just a tad too big. Probably will irritate drivers like me who like to overtake. "It's a bike yet I can't overtake!" ^^
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Doggie sit-ups
How much is that doggie in the window ♪ woof woof ♪ that one doing sit-ups ♪ I believe he was going for under ¥1000. Need someone do to your sit-ups for you?
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Ricoh R8
Monday, May 12, 2008
Modern Jedi Training
This is not really Japan-related (except if you associate the Jedi and the samurai), but it's entertaining ^^.
Cheap digital cameras in Japan!
It doesn't get any cheaper that this! Don't know how long it'll last though and they're probably clearing last season's stock. Up to 70% off! 安い! Saw this today. So don't blame me if it's not there tomorrow ^^!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Mice
I have two mice at home. A mighty mouse and a Logitech Revolution MX (I think). After using both mice, my preference still lies with the might mouse. the scroll ball is just too additive... or maybe I'm just biased ^^. Once you've learnt to scroll horizontally or diagonally, going back to only vertical scrolling sucks. Why did I get the Logitech mouse you ask. 5 words. Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars. The mighty mouse is plenty smart. Besides being designed for both left and right-handers, It has sensors built all over it to recognize respective clicks. The only thing I found it to have difficult in is recognizing two button clicks; when you click both left and right together. And I had to use that for troop arrangement in c&c. Don't get me wrong, the Logitech mouse is awesome. But once you've gone 360, you can't go back ^^. (get the pun?)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Early Morning Photos
Have you ever stayed up late enough to watch the sunrise but didn't? It's one of those things. If you're up late, it probably means you were up to your neck in work... or just gaming all night ^^. Me? I was watching a late movie on TV, "The Phantom of the Opera". After the movie, it was a little web surfing and right before I went to bed, I looked out the window. I was feeling a little lazy whipping out the camera and the tripod. So instead I found a compromise, I took out my camera and the gorillapod. I got as close to the edge as possible and snapped! Too bad I couldn't see the actual sunrise, I have this huge block of apartments in front of me on the right. Nevertheless, pretty colors I like ^^. You a sunrise or sunset person?
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Iron Man - September?!?
NO!!! I just checked IMDB for the release dates. It premiered in Sydney on April 14th. I scrolled down the list... 30 April... 1 May... 2 May... 20 September?!?! w*f! Did I miss something or did I miss something? That's like more than 4 months apart! sigh... That's the price we pay for being in Japan I guess. Your friends overseas get to tease you.
"What? You haven't seen Iron Man? That movie rocked! I saw it like months ago!"
Automator - Batch Create Thumbnails
Was wondering if I needed thumbnails for photos posted in a blog entry. I thought I could live with a pain limit of about 100kb for each picture... so I tried to keep the size of my photos around there (if not lower). Until tonight. I had Safari's activity window opened while I browsed some sites. I found that most, if not every, photo had a thumbnail which was under 20kb! Blogger creates thumbnails for every picture you upload onto their servers, which is pretty nifty and convenient. But I'm not using blogger to host my pictures. Didn't manage to get lightbox to work with blogger hosted pictures. So I gave up and put my photos elsewhere. Figured I didn't have the time to troubleshoot and that someone with more time will eventually sort it all out for the rest of us. On hindsight, deciding to host it on my own wasn't such a bad idea. I learnt a few lessons along the way. One of which is the content of my post today!
Back to thumbnails. Creating thumbnails for each and every picture is pretty tedious. So I fired up Automator! In a minute, created a little workflow to batch create thumbnails. Nothing fancy, but it was a walk in the park. A rather short walk ^^. FInd this useful? I sure did.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Talking art
Roppongi Hills was celebrating her 5th anniversary last weekend. Only found out when I got there to watch 10,000BC (good movie btw). Besides toho cinemas (and other shops), there is also an art gallery in Roppongi Hills. Over the weekend, they had artists performing. Not those artists. Artists ^^. Anyway, this was an interesting act. All you see is this mouth sitting/standing(?) on a pedestal. His name is Bad_t and he talks. Actually more like blabbering. Anyway, when he talks, his mouth open and closes. By talking I don't mean a taped playback. He communicates! Look under his "skirt" and he'll scold you!
