Updated - Hooked On
The previous Hooked On section:
For the 3 new ones, check aka.me's top page
I've found this post on Nikkei's Trendy Net and am totally translating ripping it. (what's up with their awful article pagination!)
First up: am/pm with its シャンティ・オ・フレーズ Chanter aux Fraises (2,500¥)
Then CircleKSunkus' シェリエドルチェ クリスマス苺サンド Cherie Dolce Sandwiched Xmas Strawberries (3,400¥)
7-11's かまくら Snow Hut (2,100¥)
No strawberries, you ask? They're inside!
Daily Yamazaki's スウィートシェアリング Sweet Sharing (1,800¥)
Family Mart's レ・アントルメ国立クリームストロベリー L'entremet National Christma-Strawberry (2,500¥)
Mini Stop's ベルギーチョコレート・ノエル Belgium Chocolate Noël (2,800¥)
No strawberries?! How courageous of Mini Stop.
And finally, Lawson's 苺のショートケーキ Strawberry Short Cake (2,800¥)
So which one is your favorite?! And could you imagine ever buying a Xmas cake from a convenience store?
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Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
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With the experience of the birth of our first child last January (and chats wih other daddy friends), let me share a few points on the life of a new dad for my friends with due dates on their mind:
Anything I forgot? The comments are yours!
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I've decided to move my blog to Posterous, cos it's hassle-free and I don't want to fiddle with MT and the likes anymore.
It really wasn't as easy as I was hoping though. For some reason, Movable Type would not let Posterous import my full entries via RSD. And Posterous' support still being kinda slow (as the platform picks up steam), I was left to find another solution by myself.
Here is what I eventually did:
Anyway, what's left for me to do is redirect all past entries on in-duce.net to Posterous.
I'm also gonna tag-up my previous entries, cos it's fun!
Am looking forward to seeing how Posterous' platform and community evolve.
Update 1: all redirects done, all tagging done. in-duce.net is no more. long live aka.me
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If you haven't visited our project hitotoki.org recently, then now is the time.
The small literary website building an emotional map of Tokyo is growing faster than we ever imagined, with London and NYC launched recently and the impending launch of 3 cities DC, Paris (in French and English) and Shanghai!
If you haven't submitted a story, now is the time!
Looking forward to reading you soon online.
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Without a doubt: Bokurano!! Great story, great character dvpt, no moe BS.
But careful though, it's gloomy!! gloo-my!! As the series progresses, you discover all the hardships that those kids have already gone through and it's pretty painful to watch, but that makes it all worth it!
A very unique story. Don't let yourself be intimidated by the couple robot fights happening in the background...
What matter are the lives of those kids! In more ways that you can imagine...
of course I also enjoyed:
- Seirei no moribito
- Moonlight Mile season 1
- Toward the Terra
Currently watching Ghost Hound
and catching up on Denno Coil
Check out this preview of 2008's Spring series
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After my recent announce of the new AU Summer Collection, I had to wait a couple months before the official release of the Casio W53CA phone.
I got the phone a few weeks ago and it's a beauty, as always. It's even thinner than the 43CA, the hinge is even smaller and more elegant. The screen is wider and QVGA (480x800) resolution. You know all those phone ads where the screen looks incredible crisp, but then you buy the phone and it's some crappy 120x60 resolution... Well the 53CA screen makes pics look like printed matter. Simply incredible.
The camera is pretty amazing too. It does take beautiful Exilim pics, better than any other camera phone I have ever seen. Of course, certain lighting condition will always be challenging but this thing can survive just about anything.
So is there anything to complain about?
The only hardware minus point I found was the new keyboard. While thinner, it's also harder to operate in the dark or blindly as the keys are mounted nearly seamlessly. But you get used to it. The side buttons are also thinner and harder to press when operating the camera...
As far as software goes, nothing to complain about besides:
1. the camera interface
2. English translation
The camera interface hasn't really evolved over the past few models and I wish it had!! This is a major minus in this otherwise great product!
The submenus feel randomly crammed into the maximum 12 top menus which means that after having used this interface for more than 2 years, I still can't remember where what is what!!
And since I fiddle with menus a lot, this is a big issue.
ex 1:
when you choose the Scenes menu (called Best Shot - key #2), the first dialog box to come up asks you whether to turn it "ON" or "OFF". How weird, why not just give me access to the list of scenes?!
ex 2:
White Balance, which I use 50% of the time to correct the weak light condition auto evaluation of the camera software is hidden in the 4th position choice of menu key 6 (shot assistant). That's 11 clicks or scrolls to access it when you are trying to take a picture!!! And it doesn't even have a shortcut key while Self-Timer (mislabeled as Self-Timer Setup) gets its own top menu. I have never ever seen anybody (nor used it myself) use a self timer on a keitai camera.
ex 3:
"Album" is to view your photos. It takes the 3rd position of the menu just under Best Shot. Again it would be faster to access your pics via the Data Folder menu form the main camera menu. Why clog my menu when I am trying to take a picture.
ex 4:
Shot Size gets 4th position. Is that really a priority? I would like to see user studies that prove people change picture size before taking shots, on a regular basis. Personally, one prime reason for doing so would be to make it lighter to send it to a friend, but the "mail this" menu offers to do just that when I DO actually want to mail them.
ex 5:
Macro mode needs 7 click to be set up (although it does have a keypad shortcut). No wonder I never see people use it when they need it. Actually I rarely see people use it with conventional digital cameras either...
I guess this list could go on and on but overall, I love this phone and would NOT trade it for anything else on the market!!
But anyway, if anyone knows people at Casio/Hitachi, I would be happy to send in a more detailed report on the camera and funny English translations or even come in for a chat! Yes I am talking to you... S. ;-)
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So I've spent the past couple hours helping find Steve Fossett. I have become a Mechanical Turk for Amazon and have been reviewing satellite imagery of the area where Steve is supposed to have disappeared last Monday.
I am not a super fan of Steve but I have followed his record-breaking exploits in the news over the past few years and felt kinda touched by his disappearance; enough to wish that I could help actually, and enough to subscribe to Google Alerts on Monday to receive alerts in my inbox as soon as any news site would update us on him.
When I heard that his buddy Richard Branson was collaborating with Google and their famous maps to help find him I laughed a bit because those satellite photos are not known for being always up-to-date, nor very high-def (for non Pro members at least)...
But then a few things happened today:
- I watched Deja-Vu in which some machine allows to "see" in the past and track people and their whereabouts in the area the movie takes place in.
- It made me wonder what it would take to build a system to review satellite imagery and help find Steve, in the same way that unused computer cycles can be used to help fight cancer, Aids etc via the various grid projects .
- Next thing, I open my mails and see a Google Alerts pointing to this:
You Might Help Find Steve Fossett.
And so I better get back to my tasks.
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