Another great and productive week. Business at Mirai Inc has been going swimmingly well and looks like we will be hiring sooner rather than later to manage the amount of clients projected for this year.
First photo is of Kenji Hall from Business Week at the office. Hmmmmm.
A Week in Tokyo 35
The glassboard on the back has some doodles regarding the order pipeline for Mirai Gaia which we are focusing on now for a few launches in April/May.
Trying to get used to my heavy suddenly acquired mouse - the Logitec M-RBQ124. Its got some sort of gear inside which automatically switches depending on how fast you scroll.
Logitec is actually called Logicool in Japan because there was already a company called Logitec who also sells computer peripherals ^^; Just browsing round their HP and spotted these nice slot in HDD cases.
Pizza lunch - 1200 yen.
Ai Shinozaki on the cover of Young Jump.
Some late afternoon beverages n snacks.
Was snowing earlier this week. Not too bad today but been freezing for a few days.
Disposing of some ancient drives - I usually physically destroy them before throwing them out - zeroing out the drive takes too much time sometimes.
Out n about in Shinjuku. Lumix LX3.
A new Italian place at Daikanyama. Pizza tasted like rubber.
Recently got hold of a cheap secondhand PowerMac G5 from a friend. Was going to use it for serving up some images but it kept hanging after installing Leopard. Also made a load of noise even when doing simple tasks. Took it back for a refund after a few days. Boot up time was lightning though. Anybody else have probs with a G5?
Me is a sucker for Japanese commercials. This Mango Mix looked great on TV but tasted like poo.
Yes we do eat at home sometimes ^^; Singaporean style chicken rice.
With good comrade Hideki Francis Onda. An entrepreneur who owns Tunewear and Focal - he manufactures and sells a load of Apple related products and owns companies all over za warudo. He also used to be the Sales Director at Apple.
Checking out Francis-sans Canon EOS 5D Mark II which also shoots incredible video - a sample below. Camera and lense together cost about 300000 yen.
Porsche is just one of the tons of cars that Francis owns. The CEO of Good Smile Aki-san also has a ton of cars. Wonder if I will catch this "car thing" too ^^; I do know that my next car will be the Fairlady Z though. Am looking for a decent scale completed model of it with no luck.
At the offices for a meeting with Francis and his team. Expect an exciting announcement soon.
The main office area at Focal.
There is a production room filled to the brim with coolsome shiny equipment.
Today there was some sort of course going on.
In the stockroom area of Focal - a ton O yummy Mac accessories. Do you bother to buy accessories for your iPods/iPhone? I went and got a case for my iPod Touch but only used it for a while - the iPod Touch is quite a tough nut and no scratches on the screen so far. Got a few scratches on the back but not too bothered.
Up until now we've used 4 models of iPod so far. My next one will be the new iPhone rumored to be out in June. Softbank dropping the price to zero yen and ending the campaign at the end of May was too obvious ^^;
Dinner at home - Laksa "style" noodles. Yum.
A leaflet delivered by the local fire brigade during a visit. From April 1st 2010, all residences in Japan will be required to install smoke detectors. Folks in Japan can download more info about this from the Tokyo Fire Department.
We don't have any right now but will pick some up soon. We've even seen folks handing them out in the streets but personally would not advise on using them - could potentially be tapped with a listening device.
We don't have any right now but will pick some up soon. We've even seen folks handing them out in the streets but personally would not advise on using them - could potentially be tapped with a listening device.
Listening devices or "Touchouki" 盗聴器] seem to be a problem in Japan and one regularly sees news of them on TV. This site has photos of an electrical adapter showing a how it has been rigged with a hidden microphone. The electricity will continue to power the microphone and the signals are usually picked up nearby. Many of the victims of these devices seem to be young females.
Back to the leaflet - notice the "22" - thats the Japanese year for 2010. You can use thisyear.jp when you forget which Japanese year it is - I forget all the time.
This mornings office.
A new pose for Aoi-chan. Gorgeous.
A slight pose shift for Saber Mirai. Hmmmm. Maybe she would like to try on a Haruka uniform version too *calls chun*
Looking forward to the new green pedestrianized area currently under construction nearby.
In Roppongi on the way home from a networking event.
Have had bad handwriting since a kid. But also noticed that with many computer engineers too ^^; Sometimes my writing is so illegible that I have difficulty trying to figure out notes that I write for myself ^^; Been looking for a simple recording device to take voice notes. There was a watch by Casio that records voice notes many moons ago but they don't make em anymore. Any recommendations?
The farm of Mac Mini's grows in size - now four of them. The new one was suddenly acquired ^^;
One of the machines has been serving up most of the static images and seems to be doing a good job of late. Got more plans for the farm in the near future.
One of the machines has been serving up most of the static images and seems to be doing a good job of late. Got more plans for the farm in the near future.
Have learned a lot about how to set up and run servers at home and how to run dozens of sites on one IP address using ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse in the httpd-vhosts.conf file of Apache 2.
ProxyPass is configured on the machine accepting HTTP requests which are being directed from the router on port 80. The machine accepting the HTTP requests then forwards something like moo.dannychoo.com to another internal machine at 192.168.111.20. Use the following in a VirtualHost tag. ServerName moo.dannychoo.com
ServerAlias moo.dannychoo.com
ProxyPass / http://192.168.112.20/
ProxyPassReverse / http://192.168.112.20/
Anybody here running a server at home?
ProxyPass is configured on the machine accepting HTTP requests which are being directed from the router on port 80. The machine accepting the HTTP requests then forwards something like moo.dannychoo.com to another internal machine at 192.168.111.20. Use the following in a VirtualHost tag. ServerName moo.dannychoo.com
ServerAlias moo.dannychoo.com
ProxyPass / http://192.168.112.20/
ProxyPassReverse / http://192.168.112.20/
Anybody here running a server at home?
In some restaurants in Japan, you will come across "ladies lunch sets." I was told that it means that the portions are small but has more variety and that men are welcome to order them. I remember asking if I could order a ladies set a a sushi bar - the sushi master said "only if you are a bit queer" and I replied "you bet."
Trying out a local place that we haven't tried out yet. Notice the lady with purple hair. Not sure why but many elderly ladies over here have their hair dyed purple.
Some yummy oyakodon.
Yakiniku at Matsuya.
Networking event at Appliya - the folks making all the Evangelion iPhone apps.
One of the folks I met that evening heard that I was coming so brought along this Vader light saber that he picked up in an auction. He wouldn't tell me the exact price but said "yeah thats about right" when I guessed 30,000 UK pounds!
Picking up some chemistry at the chemist. Is "chemist" just a UK term?
Checking out a comrades iPhone and the apps he has installed. Forgot the name of this app but of you blow into the mic, her skirt lifts up and she goes "kya!"
More moesome iPhone apps. He also runs a popular iPod site called iPod Style.
Lunch at the obachans place round the corner.
Some absolutely gorgeous pair of suddenly acquired headphones - a gift from Francis - available at his online store for 14800 yen.
Lately I keep all figure boxes but then throw them out after deciding on the figures that I really want to keep. Figures that I don't want go back in the box and usually go to the next folks who visit our office.
The latest promo at Mc Dees involve baseball players - you can collect all 8 clear folders but they don't seem to be proactive in giving them out - only if you ask for one.
On the way to Kanagawa for an appointment.
Throwing out the cans, bottles and clear plastics on recyclable day.
At the new Italian place round the corner.
Love the pizza n pasta that they serve.
This is their pasta - served with some garlic (?) bread type thing.
Tommy Lee Jones looks after the ads for Boss can coffee over here - one of my faves below and more at Japan Probe.
Curry stew served up by mikuru-chan at home.
Cherry blossom in our local park. Will be taking time out to see more during the Hanami season. Check out some pics from our previous Hanami trip at Mitsuike Park.
About 07:30AM - a walk in our local park taking in the cold n crisp fresh air.
Yakiniku at Anrakutei.
Finishing off with some hot dessert topped with ice cream.
Diving through the clear roads of the metropolis at night listening to some cool Ridge Racer R4 tunes.
Motorbike full O neon lights. Tried to look for something adaptable for my armor but all I found were stuff for cars or bikes that needed to be plugged into big batteries. I could modify but am lousy at electronics.
Index-chan nendoroid with some Yakisoba.
Index finds a cozy place of residence at the checkout.