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Obama Admin Fights Missing White House Email LawsuitDesScorp writes "The AP reports that the Obama administration has picked up where the Bush administration left off on the missing White House email issue by trying to have a lawsuit dismissed that would have kept investigating whether or not email was still missing. Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President expressed disappointment with the Obama administration's actions. Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, noted that President Barack Obama on his first full day in office called for greater transparency in government. The Justice Department 'apparently never got the message' from Obama, Blanton said."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2009 | 1:47 pm Uncle Sam's Travel Site Grounded By BreachMcGruber writes "Northrup-Grumman's Govtrip.com website has been shut down following a security breach, according to a report by 'Security Fix' blogger Brian Krebs. Being a federal employee and frequent work traveler, I am (was?) a Govtrip user. My agency required me to use Govtrip to book all of my trips, including my airfare, car rentals, and hotel reservations, so Northrup-Grumman's Govtrip databases contain my frequent flier numbers, Avis & Budget car rental numbers and frequent hotel guest (Choice Privileges, Marriott Rewards, Priority Club, etc.) numbers. Northrup-Grumman also stored all of my trip itineraries, including destinations, dates & modes of travel and the particular vendors (airline, hotel, rental car brand, etc.) used on a particular trip. Also stored on the website were my work travel credit-card (it has a $15,000 charge limit), personal checking account where my travel reimbursements were deposited, my home address, and emergency contacts ... just imagine what an accomplished social engineer can do with that combination of information!"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:41 pm Scattered snow showers likely Sunday in Tri-State - Huntington Herald Dispatch
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:25 pm Parent of gamer asks his son to honor the Geneva ConventionsLast week, I had lunch with my friend, Hugh Spencer, a writer and designer of museum and public educational exhibitions. He told me an amazing story about his son and games, and I asked him to write it up for Boing Boing:Geneva Conventions Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:23 pm Parent of gamer asks his son to honor the Geneva ConventionsLast week, I had lunch with my friend, Hugh Spencer, a writer and designer of museum and public educational exhibitions. He told me an amazing story about his son and games, and I asked him to write it...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:23 pm UAE plans ban on negative economic reportingThe United Arab Emirates is considering legislation that would criminalize publication of anything that would "harm the economy." Already, the local press is pulling back from their coverage of the steep...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:19 pm UAE plans ban on negative economic reportingThe United Arab Emirates is considering legislation that would criminalize publication of anything that would "harm the economy." Already, the local press is pulling back from their coverage of the steep decline in Dubai property values and the rise in deportations, voluntary departure, and abandonment of unsaleable assets, such as cars.Instead of moving toward greater transparency, the emirates seem to be moving in the other direction. A new draft media law would make it a crime to damage the country’s reputation or economy, punishable by fines of up to 1 million dirhams (about $272,000). Some say it is already having a chilling effect on reporting about the crisis.Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down
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Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:19 pm Forget your photo-ID for your EasyJet flight? Just go print one up!Don't worry if you show up for your domestic UK EasyJet flight without the mandatory photo ID the airline now requires; the helpful check-in clerks will direct you to the nearby train station where they'll make you up a free photo-card to go with a rail-pass, should you ever decide to buy one. Ah, security."They suggested I go to the railway station within the terminal, buy a season ticket and with it get a photocard, which they'd then accept as ID," Wilson said. "In fact, it was even easier and didn't cost a penny. Southern Rail gave me a photocard and sent me upstairs to the public photo booth. I asked if I needed to come back to the ticket office with the photos; they said, no, I should just fill in the card myself then seal down the plastic covering."Photo ID - how about this one I made earlier? Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:16 pm Forget your photo-ID for your EasyJet flight? Just go print one up!Don't worry if you show up for your domestic UK EasyJet flight without the mandatory photo ID the airline now requires; the helpful check-in clerks will direct you to the nearby train station where they'll...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:16 pm UK's top snoop gets finked out by her neighboursJacqui Smith, the surveillance-crazed Home Secretary of the UK, has been caught making extremely dubious expense claims for her government-paid "second residence" in London -- caught by neighbours who...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:14 pm UK's top snoop gets finked out by her neighboursJacqui Smith, the surveillance-crazed Home Secretary of the UK, has been caught making extremely dubious expense claims for her government-paid "second residence" in London -- caught by neighbours who ratted her out for what they perceive as a kind of "benefits fraud" on a grand scale. Ironically, Smith's Home Office has put an enormous amount of energy into inveigling Britons to fink out their neighbours for the cheaper, smaller-scale benefits fraud and potential terrorist, launching tiplines for people who think their neighbours have too many mobile phones (a sure sign of terrorism!), and running ads that say "We're closing in with hidden cameras. We're closing in with every means at our disposal."Live by the snitch, die by the snitch. If you want to rat out your neighbours, allow the home secretary to enumerate the ways. Do you know someone who claims more from the state than they're entitled to? Who is "picking the pockets of law-abiding taxpayers"? Not politicians over-egging their allowances, obviously, but "benefit thieves". If so, call 0800 854 440 now. "We're closing in with hidden cameras. We're closing in with every means at our disposal."What a perfect revenge on the arch snooper Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:14 pm Academic lecture on the theory of war as conducted in StarcraftAlan Feng's lecture on the theory of war as conducted in Starcraft is part Sun Tzu, part Von Clausewitz, part Leibniz: "This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course."
Introduction to Starcraft and Competitive Gaming
(Thanks, Buffalo Danger!) Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:04 pm Academic lecture on the theory of war as conducted in StarcraftAlan Feng's lecture on the theory of war as conducted in Starcraft is part Sun Tzu, part Von Clausewitz, part Leibniz: "This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:04 pm Eyehole Hats - The Fat Albert Dumb Donald Hat Makes An Haute Comeback (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) It appears we havent seen the last of the infamous Dumb Donald hat (from the hit 70s cartoon Fat Albert.) Im not exactly sure what the benefit of this full-coverage hat would provide--that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 11:38 am Mass Effect 2: First trailer, screens - CVG Online
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Feb 2009 | 11:33 am Digital Foam - The Impress Flexible Touchscreen by Dis.play Makes Computers Huggable (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The Impress flexible touchscreen by Dis.play gives computers a softer edgeliterally. Instead of the hard, cold touchscreens on devices like the iPhone, the foam Impress is soft and,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 11:18 am Cathedral Arch Bras - Gothic Church-Inspired Lingerie by Marlies Dekkers Is Paradoxical Chic (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Its not often that you see sexy lingerie created through divine inspiration, but, as Trend de la Creme points out, thats exactly what fueled the Summer 2009 collection by Netherlands-based...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:58 am Another Way To Look At Terms Of Service Agreements: Wordle Visualizations
Pointless? Very. Cool? Definitely. Here’s how Facebook’s Terms of Use agreement comes out (at least for now):
Information provided by CrunchBase
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:45 am Another Way To Look At Terms Of Service Agreements: Wordle VisualizationsThis is what you get when you use a slick tool like Wordle (try it!) to run all the words used to make up the Terms of Service agreements of seven notable internet companies: cool visualizations that somewhat...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:45 am Global Consciousness Music 2.0 - 1 Giant Leap World Connective Music Video Art Project (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) 1 Giant Leap is a beautiful collaborative art project spanning the entire globe.The creators are Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman and what they have accomplished is beyond remarkable...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:38 am Hierarchy between authors, tech-savvy readers breaking down - Baltimore Sun
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:32 am Tullow appoints Bangladeshi firm to produce gasDHAKA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Irish gas exploration and production firm Tullow has appointed state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (BAPEX) to produce gas at Bangora field, about...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:10 am London Police Seek To Install CCTV In PubsJCWDenton writes "The Met Police got a short sharp rap over the knuckles yesterday, as the Office of the Information Commissioner questioned what looks very much like a blanket policy to force CCTV onto public houses in certain parts of London. The story begins with a letter to the Guardian last week, from Nick Gibson. He is currently renovating Islington pub The Drapers Arms, after its previous owners allowed it to go insolvent and then disappeared. In his letter, he argues that if he had merely taken over an existing licence, the police could not have imposed any additional conditions. However, because this was now a new licence, the police were able to make specific requests, including one particular request in respect of installing CCTV."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2009 | 9:33 am Review: An hour with LaCie's 2TB External Drive
LaCie's hard disk MAX, Design by Neil Poulton, is a 2TB external USB unit that comes with a couple of neat bonuses: the two drives within can be configured as a RAID array, and it has a useful pass-through USB port. It's a severe black box with a glowing blue light underneath, subtly lighting the table. Though its minimalist design is a delight, there are two flaws: the biggie is that the corporate logo is stamped crudely on one side. Less annoying is the plastic, which is glossy enough to pick up fingerprints, but is imperfectly cast: odd wobbly reflections at sharp viewing angles interfere with the Sid Mead vibe. Sid Mead isn't the first name that springs to mind, of course, but I'm avoiding the obvious reference. Let's just say that Poulton is open about being inspired by a certain 1960s science fiction classic, and leave it at that.  At the back is the on switch, the power socket, an LED light for each of the two 1TB drives within, and the USB port. There's also a RAID switch that lets you select "SAFE" mode or "BIG" mode. The latter is RAID 0, which makes both drives appear to the computer as a single giant drive. The former is RAID 1, which halves the 2TB of available storage, but copies your data to both disks in case one fails. On the front is a USB expansion slot. Ostensibly there to allow for more storage, it seems perfectly functional as a general USB port for your computer. The LaCie initially appears as a tiny 4GB Fat32 partition on Windows, with software that formats it to your specifications: if you're on Windows, it recommends a giant NTFS partition, on which it places installers for a 30 day trial of MacDrive, adobe reader, and Genie Backup Assistant. On Mac, it recommends HFS+; in either case, it'll let you add FAT32 partitions for cross-platform compatibility. The drive also comes with free online backup for one year; you get unlimited capacity. Throughput was good, but limited by USB; LaCie hasn't announced an eSata edition yet. Apart from that, there's not much to dislike about this drive, assuming you like the looks. At $269, it's cheaper than equivalently-sized NAS boxes, but still pricey. You can buy a nearly identical product from the same company, sans Poulton's case, for $70 less. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 22 Feb 2009 | 8:03 am Banjo TAB for blind players Patrick Costello, the travelling open-source banjo instructor, sez, "A visually impaired banjo player in the Netherlands contacted me the other day asking for help. He wanted a way to use banjo tab with his Braille display. Tab, or tabulature, is different from music notation in that tab gives the user specific mechanical instructions -- literally, 'put your fingers here'. With a folk banjo style like frailing students usually learn the mechanics of playing long before they dive into music theory so access to tab is a big deal for beginners. With some input from Ruud I was able to come up with a simple system that he would make sense in Braille. I posted information on the new tab system on my web site, and musicians from all over have started to transpose frailing banjo songs and exercises into this new format." Braille-Friendly Banjo TAB (Thanks, Patrick!)
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Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 8:01 am Cabinet door's squeals are eerily ChewbaccaesqueThis squeaky cabinet door sounds so much like Chewbacca's plaintive wail that I'm left wondering if it isn't the source of the original foley effect.
Guys Cabinet Door Sounds Exactly like Chewbacca!
(via Neatorama)
Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 7:55 am How a Router's Missed Range Check Nearly Crashed the InternetBarlaam writes "A bug by router vendor A (omitting a range check from a critical field in the configuration interface) tickled a bug from router vendor B (dropping BGP sessions when processing some ASPATH attributes with length very close to 256), causing a ripple effect that caused widespread global routing instability last week. The flaw lay dormant until one of vendor A's systems was deployed in an autonomous system whose ASN, modulo 256, was greater than 250. At that point, the Internet was one typo away from disaster. Other router vendors, who were not affected by the bug, happily propagated the trigger message to every vulnerable system on the planet in about 30 seconds. Few people appreciate how fragile and unsecured the Internet's trust-based critical infrastructure really is — this is just the latest example." Vendor A, in this case, is a Latvian router vendor called MikroTik.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2009 | 6:26 am Poachers put Balkan lynx on brink of extinctionThe camera sits hidden in a field ready to track every move of the Balkan lynx, a wild cat both revered as an icon and reviled as a pest that has teetered on extinction for nearly a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 6:18 am Something For Those Who Hate MondaysDanny Choo is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire.  What day of the week do you dislike the most? I ask folks this question from time to time and more often than not, the reply is usually "Monday." When asked the reason, most would say "because I have to go back to work or school." Typical answer yet interesting. If one dislikes Monday because of school or work then why does one continue to go back to work or school? I believe that folks like this are probably in the wrong job or studying the wrong course and probably should look for something that enables them to enjoy Mondays - and every other day for that matter. Those who genuinely enjoy work or school probably wont give "Work or School" as the reasons they dislike Monday. Quality Not Quantity Death Is A Reality I was talking to my estate agent at the time we purchased our house - I asked him how I should go about writing my will - he looked at me as if I started to grow horns and said that people don't usually write their will until they are about 60. I was thinking to myself "apart from being a lair, this estate agent is an idiot too." This may seem the obvious but the thing is, none of us have been given a guarantee that we are going to live until we are golden. One could live in the "safest" part of the world, be healthy and still have their life cut short by a knife, bullet or drunken driver. None of us know when we are going to die but there is one thing that we do know for sure - we all will die someday - could be in another 30 years time, could be tomorrow morning. Death is a reality that we must all understand - its the final piece of our jigsaw puzzle that we all will collect. (more after the jump)
Now I would like to talk about something I call the "Comfort Zone." The comfort zone is where one is content with their current situation and I'm going to use an ex colleague who I shall name as Sally as an example. Sally had a job doing what she was good at (web design) and had a small team to manage. She had a good salary and good working hours considering that it was Tokyo. But she wanted more from her life than just being content - she wanted to be happy. My personal interpretation is that being happy and being content are two different things. Being content fulfills basic human needs of being able to eat and have shelter. Being happy is going a step further and fulfilling the need to live ones passion. One day, I asked Sally why she didn't start to do something about her situation. She said that she was waiting for somebody to give her an opportunity. When I asked "who", she said "I don't know..." Sally was in the Comfort Zone and going nowhere fast. Her comfort made it difficult for her to take her own initiative to seek other opportunities. The Jigsaw Puzzle Life is a jigsaw puzzle. You don't know whats going to go where, you don't know where the pieces are but you do know that you need to keep looking for the pieces and figure out where they go. All events that happen to you is a piece of your puzzle. if you are stuck in a rut at school or work and keep asking yourself the "what if" question then its a sign telling you that there are no more pieces of the puzzle to be found where you are. Passion I could have chosen 15 years-ish ago to stay in the comfort zone content making shoes back in London. I was content but kept asking myself the "what if" question. I knew I wanted more to life but didn't know what it was until I discovered how passionate I was about Japanese culture. I chose to seek my passion instead - done everything I could to get me closer to my dream including taking a BA in Japanese at London University, working nights after classes at a Japanese restaurant (t'was the Benihana's in Chelsea) so that I could save enough money to travel to Japan every year to absorb the culture. Ended up as a Computer Engineer at Japan Airlines and finally got hired by the Japan office of the scientific journal Nature. I reached my first destination. The second destination was for me to start up a business by the age of 35 which I managed to do. I didn't want to take any venture funding or angel investment so needed to find other ways of building up capital. As Website Manager at Amazon, I helped with the launch of the Japanese Amazon Associates Web Service API. I built the first ever Japanese AWS powered website and with permission of the Finance Director at the time, all Amazon products on my site had an associate tag. I set up a sole proprietorship in Japan so that I could declare my earnings and expenses which you can legally do on a working visa - if you are doing stuff on the side then I recommend you to set one up and if you are doing it in Japan then here are the instructions. At first I thought it would be great to earn something like 60 USD per month to pay for the phone bills. Didn't see the earnings reach that amount at all and realized that I needed to learn more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), server side caching and what have you. Through this research and learning, the income from Amazon associates not only started to pay for the phone bill but started to pay for just about everything - bills, food and even covered my wife's salary. While Amazon affiliate earnings paid for the daily stuff, salary from Amazon was being banked and helped with the 50,000 USD needed to set up a company - at the time, foreigners needed to invest that much (about 5 million yen) to start up a company. The affiliate earnings also helped us buy our current house too. These days you can set up a company with 1 yen but would probably find it difficult to do business when potential clients see how much you invested in your company. Left Microsoft after spending a year with them as a Product Manager managing some of the Windows Live services to start up my current company Mirai Inc which focuses on licensing a community e-commerce platform called Mirai Gaia. Many of our clients are Japanese companies in the subculture and entertainment field which makes my current job a dream job - doing something I'm passionate about (building websites) for clients who operate in an area that interests me most. Life is great and I love my job and life in Japan. You can achieve anything with passion and focus. Destination 2 reached.
Getting To The Point Time is not on your side - its a friend for the duration for life but it never sides with you - never be under the assumption that time will favor you. Self - Our Biggest Enemy If one can make time to eat, poo and pee then one can make time if they are passionate enough to start learning, experiencing, building or meeting. Lets encourage ourselves - not discourage buy making excuses. The human race is still relatively young and we all have basic needs. One of the needs is to eat. If you just sat in front of your computer for hours on end, most of you will eventually get up from your desk and seek food. If there is nothing in the refrigerator or cabinets, you will either call for a pizza or go out to get something. If all the shops around you were closed, you would travel to another part of town to seek food. You could alternatively wait until the morning when the shops open but you will still go out to get food. The point I'm trying to make here is that if you really want something, you have the ability to get it. Some of us have health constraints that may prevent us from easily doing stuff but if you are relatively healthy and can easily move around then you really don't have any excuse to do nothing. Wrap Up It could be anything from starting to meet recruiters, taking up a new course or activity, research, meeting people with similar interests and so on. I may make it sound plain and simple but in fact it is. Something leads to something. Nothing leads to nothing. Money is indeed important in this society we live in and I understand that one may need to do something that one may not exactly like to make ends meet. But, one can also be doing something on the side at the same time (learning, experiencing, meeting) in order to fulfill ones real passion. If you truly believe in yourself, your skills and ability, then you will be successful anyway - meaning that if you are going to ditch a well paid job to take a risk of a lower paying position where you can fulfill your passion, you will eventually make it anyway - because its you. Taking the leap from safe comfortable steady ground into an unknown void is not something that comes easily. Humans basic instinct is to protect itself and places priority on food and shelter and taking risks could affect these necessities. But life is not just about being comfortable - its about living your passion. You can spend most of your life doing something you dislike to bring in the money which pays the bills which enables you to go back to work another day to bring in the money which pays the bills... Life is short. One may not appreciate just how short it is while we are young but really start to understand as we get older. I'm in my late 30's now and am under no illusion whatsoever that I'm going to die at old age - I could die anytime like any of us. I want to ensure that I died while living a life doing what I love most. Don't want to live forever and am happy with the time I've been given - will make sure I make the most of the rest of my life and I hope you do too. As for me - hopefully you can tell I love Mondays ;-) Photos in this post taken from my last Kamakura visit. Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 6:05 am Web Zen: Confection Zeni want candy Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!) Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 5:37 am Lost City of Atlantis Not Found on Google Earth - Techtree.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Feb 2009 | 5:30 am Daiichi Sankyo to launch flu preventive drug-NikkeiTOKYO, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Co plans to launch as early as 2011 a new influenza preventive drug that could be effective against a strain unresponsive to widely used Tamiflu of Roche...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 5:21 am Andreessen in realtime At a time when many people are saying innovation is dead along with the economy as we knew it, I can't help but feel the hot breath of a surge in the power of the network. As Marc Andreessen reminds in his fascinating conversation with Charlie Rose, the Internet didn't take off until the browser. The infrastructure was in place for some time already, but when the browser appeared, the TV generation sat up and took notice.
Now we're at the threshold of the realtime moment, and history seems to be repeating itself. For some of us, the advent of a reasonably realtime message bus over public networks has changed something about the existing infrastructure in ways that are not yet important to a broad section of Internet dwellers. The numbers are adding up -- 175 million Facebook users, tens of thousands of instant Twitter followers, constant texting and video chats among the teenage crowd -- a semi-secret economy of interactive media that is sucking the chewy chocolate center out of the one-way broadcast sector.
Source: TechCrunch | 22 Feb 2009 | 4:19 am NASA Defers Setting Next Shuttle Launch Date - FOXBusiness
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Feb 2009 | 4:10 am Freeapps roundup for February 20th, 2009FROM APPLETELL - Last week started out kind of slow as far as quality free apps are concerned, but don’t worry, I still found a bunch of gems during the week. This time the apps actually outnumber the games. MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 22 Feb 2009 | 4:04 am Startup Threatened Into Settling Over HyperlinkingAn anonymous reader writes "A tiny startup that was threatened by a massive law firm over nothing more than a humble hyperlink has been forced to settle and change its linking policies, handing Goliath the win in this gratuitous trademark case. Under the agreement, real estate startup BlockShopper can no longer include hyperlinks anywhere on its website to Jones Day, a massive Chicago law firm, except explicitly on URL text. Essentially, jonesday.com is okay, but not blah blah blah." I wonder if the owners of jonesdaysucks.com feel the same way.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2009 | 3:21 am CORRECTED-UPDATE 2-US FDA OKs Medtronic brain device for OCD* Therapy to cost about $60,000 company says (Corrects to humanitarian in first bullet point above and in second and third paragraphs, not human, as originally sent)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Feb 2009 | 2:09 am Japanese ApartmentsDanny Choo is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire.
Been living in Japan for about 10 years now and love it. I'm surrounded by culture that I've been passionate about since a wee lad and despite the recession that we're supposed to be in, business for my start up is booming - couldn't ask for more.
Apart from the smoking, there used to (but not anymore) be something that used to get on my nut - the fun and games of looking for an apartment.
Upfront costs
The upfront costs of renting an apartment is honestly not amusing at all.
First up there exists something called "gratuity fee" or Reikin.
Since the dark ages, citizens have been paying the landlord a gratuity fee for letting them live in the landlords apartment. This gratuity fee can be up to 2.5 times the monthly rent and to make the situation even more amusing - you don't get this money back - none of it, Sweet FA, absolute squat.
Then there is key money known as Shikikin. Key money can be up to 3 times the monthly rent and is used as a deposit which the landlord uses to clean up the place when you leave. S/he usually tries to use as much of it as possible so when you move out so its like "thanks for staying with us for the years, here is a slap in the face and get out of here you stinking rat."
Apart from the gratuity fee and key money, one has to not only pay the landlord an average of 2 months rent upfront, one also has to pay the estate agent up to a months rent for introducing the place too. So an average case recap on the costs presuming that the monthly rent for a cozy apartment is 200,000 yen or roughly 2000 USD.
Gratuity fee: 4000 USD
Key money: 4000 USD
Upfront rent: 4000 USD
Estate agent fee: 2000 USD
Initial cost: 14,000 USD
No foreigners or pets
(more after the jump)To make looking for apartments more fun, some foreigners in Japan (not all) go through the fun of the estate agent calling up the landlord in front of you - the conversation in my previous experiences have been...
Hi, My name is Taro from Eiburu Estate agents. We have a foreigner interested in your apartments, do you allow foreigners?I've been turned down a few times this way and its a horrible feeling - especially just after arriving in Japan. After my first few experiences, I learned to ask the estate agent to call the landlord *before* we wasted time looking on and deciding on a place. Chintai Coopration is a site for folks seeking apartments online. The area that I highlighted in red in this screenshot is the "take note of" column and mostly contains "No foreigners or pets allowed." Also note that the page was last updated "2009/2/16." But I have heard views from the landlords point of view too. Many landlords are elderly folk who cant speak English and find it difficult to communicate by gestures alone. Some other landlords have had nightmares where foreigners run a mock and are not able to follow simple rules such as separating out their garbage into combustible/non-combustible which is a requirement. 
Photo above taken at an estate agent which says "Foreigners Welcome!"
Guarantor
The final slap in the face is the fact that one (including Japanese folks) needs whats known as a Guarantor or "Hoshonin." A guarantor has to sign something saying that s/he will take full responsibility in the event that you run a mock or burn down your apartment - and in most cases that person has to be Japanese...
Buy a house
I mentioned at the beginning that I don't go through this grief anymore because I bought my own house (and on Amazon associate earnings alone may I add ;-). I will probably start to go through the fun and games again when we look for offices later this year though.
Resources
Got a few resources for folks looking to live in Japan.
-Got some useful terms one needs to know when looking for apartments in my Japanese Housing article.
-Some photos of all the apartments that I've lived in Tokyo in my Tokyo Apartments article. Includes some vids of other apartments too.
-And for folks looking to buy a house you can check out the Tokyo Property Purchase article which contains lingo on the restrictions in housing shape and size.
-And for folks who like the thought of paying for a house from blogging then I got some tips (which I need to update more often) in my Userbility, Blogging and Affiliate Tips category.
And a load of other living in Japan tips in the Japan category.Source: Gizmodo | 22 Feb 2009 | 2:00 am Hot gaming news for the week of 2-15-2009Section:  No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 22 Feb 2009 | 1:42 am Satellite Collision Debris May Hamper Space LaunchMatt_dk writes "The debris from a recent collision involving two communications satellites could pose a serious threat for future launches of spacecraft into a geostationary orbit, a Russian scientist said on Friday. Future launches will have to be adjusted with regard to the fact that the debris [from the collision] has spread over an 800-km area and will gather at a common orbit in 5-6 years."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Gizmodo | 22 Feb 2009 | 1:00 am Nokia looking to bring Facebook to their phonesSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Web 2.0, Websites  Facebook is quickly becoming one of the most prevalent Social Networking websites, so to add their services to your phones is a big must. As you probably know, Apple has added Facebook services to their iPhone, RIM has added Facebook services to their lineup of BlackBerries, and Nokia hopes to be the next to join the Facebook party. Having Facebook on your cell phone brings a lot of features to the table, such as the ability to upload mobile pictures and videos, commenting friends, updating statuses, and messaging friends. Facebook is willing to do anything to make their service more popular as they are already talking to Palm to get Facebook on the Pre, and even Motorola. There are other Social Networking websites such as MySpace and MocoSpace, who are also trying to get something going with cellular manufacturers. MySpace had released an app for the iPhone back in 2008. Having been a user of both MySpace and Facebook, I believe Facebook is better and people of varying ages use Facebook, while mainly teenagers use MySpace. As no company is fully recession-proof, adding Facebook to Nokia’s phones could help increase sales. Nokia has even struck a deal with Skype, to make their software pre-installed on their phones. A few days ago, we saw Applied Nanodetectors show a modded Nokia phone that has the ability to analyze your breath and inform the user if they have a disease or even cancer. If this comes to fruition, I imagine Nokia’s popularity soaring, because who doesn’t want a personal doctor? Will Nokia add Facebook to their handsets? Only time will tell. Via [NewsFactor] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:32 am Kenwood presents world’s first CD player with DTS Surround Sensation system
Kenwood’s new CD player doesn’t have a name, concrete release date or price yet but the company claims it’s the world’s first of its kind. Japanese media are speculating that it may go on sale in April. Unfortunately, there are no other details on the CD player at this point. Source: CrunchGear | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:09 am Yahoo may reveal revamping next week: report - Reuters
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Feb 2009 | 12:07 am Yahoo may reveal revamping next week: report
|
 Italia SW | Week in Microsoft: Windows 7 RC rumors aplenty Ars Technica In the week's top Microsoft news, we cover Windows 7 DRM, Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows 7 post-beta builds, SP2 RC for Vista and Server 2008, Windows 7 boot animation, and how you can get your own Microsoft Surface in June. New Windows 7 and Vista releases coming next week Windows 7 Release Candidate to Be Released April 10th? |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Business News, Video, HDTV
Sony is reeling these days. They’ve announced a close to $3 billion loss, layoffs, and plant closings. Now they’ve even Vizio is beating Sony.
Vizio’s televisions are the second best selling televisions in the United States. Samsung still leads the entire pack and Sony has fallen to third. As an aside, Samsung really has come a long way—does any one else remember when Samsung products were generally junk?
You’ve probably seen Vizio televisions in many big box stores. They have changed the game when it comes to televisions with low cost and decent reliability. Lately, they have made advancements in the style department to make their products not look so budget friendly.
The surge to second place may not be too surprising considering the economy these days. Sony products usually command a premium price. A budget-friendly television company makes a lot more sense for these times.
Read: [Electronic House]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Well done, sir. Well done. Click here for a complete guiding to hacking your Dell Mini 9 to run OS X.
So you don't like Twitter, huh? Lots of pablum, not much content? No real human-to-human connectedness? Well you're wrong, Mr. Ludd, because Twitter helped two guys meet Shaq.
Jesse Bearden was following The Real Shaq on Twitter and saw that he was at a diner near his home. Instead of saying "Twitter is not a uniter, it is an egocasting system designed for infantile neophiliacs who have little to offer the world except search engine optimization snake oil and web marketing consulting," Jesse and his buddy went down to the diner and saw Le Shaq sitting in a booth getting his feed on.
So you don’t like Twitter, huh? Lots of pablum, not much content? No real human-to-human connectedness? Well you’re wrong, Mr. Ludd, because Twitter helped two guys meet Shaq.
Jesse Bearden was following The Real Shaq on Twitter and saw that he was at a diner near his office. Instead of saying “Twitter is not a uniter, it is an egocasting system designed for infantile neophiliacs who have little to offer the world except search engine optimization snake oil and web marketing consulting,” Jesse and his buddy went down to the diner and saw Le Shaq sitting in a booth getting his feed on.
They did a few passes and then Shaq twittered:
I feel twitterers around me, r there any twitterers in 5 n diner wit me, say somethin
The Force is strong with this one! Long story short, they sat down with Shaq, had some pictures taken, and found out that Mr. O’Neal was a great guy with a genuine interest in gadgetry.
“Of course” he said, “Pull up a seat” The behemoth slid over and patted the booth next to him. As I pulled out my phone to take a picture he snatched it out of my hand and inspected it.
“What’s this got? Windows Mobile?”
“Um… yeah”
So before you go off half-cocked saying Shaq is using the service for what amounts to free publicity in the nerdy emo irony circuit a la Mr. T, remember that Shaq is just a boy, sitting in front of two boys, asking them to accept his direct messages.
Gizmodo's John Mahoney takes us through the process, one step at a time.
Hewlett Packard isn’t doing so well like ever other consumer electronic company. Profit and sales are down, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. Anyway, instead of laying off the 20,000 people like the financials indicate, the company is issuing company wide pay cuts starting at the top.
CEO Mark Hurd is giving himself a modest 20 percent pay cut (he earned $42.5 million in total compensation last year, btw) and the pay cuts decrease from there. The Executive Council’s pay checks will be 15 percent lighter soon, other executive’s 10 percent less, 5 percent for exempt employees, and 2.5 for non-exempt drones.
Who knows if this strategy will fix or even solve HP’s money from going down the drain but at least folks still have a job. Getting a pay cut is hella lot better than standing in the soup line. Here’s an idea though, cut the CEO’s total compensation by 80% and give everyone a raise.
In case you didn’t read him quoted in some 1,700 newspapers last week, NBC’s Press:Here has an interview with Chris Kelly, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer this week. The show, which focuses on technology, airs in the Bay Area on Sunday mornings after Meet the Press, and the young show has already been beating Meet the Press in the ratings. You can also watch a clip on the jump or the entire episode online here right now. (I was one of the guest reporters on the show this week.)
Kelly said in no uncertain terms that Facebook does not own your data and content, never did and never will. What’s more: Any reproduction of your data has to be subject to the privacy settings you choose as a Facebook user. You can sense his frustration amid a scandal that was essentially cooked up by Consumerist on the Sunday night of a holiday weekend without even calling Facebook to check if their assumptions on the Terms of Use changes were right.
But this isn’t the first or last time users will be in an uproar over Facebook, despite all of Facebook’s best efforts. Why? There’s never been a Web site—or media property for that matter—that people trusted with so much personal, emotional and intimate information, whether it’s your cell phone number or a video of your child taking his first steps. And with Facebook’s business model still uncertain, that trust makes us legitimately nervous. You think all the search data Google has been collecting on us for all these years is scary? Things you do and upload to Facebook are far, far more personal. For the conspiracy theorists out there, Facebook is going to be the gift that keeps on giving.
I asked Kelly—on this, the third major user uproar the company has faced on privacy that caught it completely by surprise—if the issue was a blind spot for the company or if Facebook was doing something so new in organizing the data of human relationships that it was bound to take all the arrows as these issues of privacy continually emerge. Kelly essentially said its the latter; I think it’s a mixture of both, although Facebook’s privacy sensitivities have clearly come a long way since the News Feed and Beacon debacle days. Give them credit: Each time they learn how to handle the crisis better, and this time they sprung into action quickly and decisively.
Either way, this is not the first or last time a user revolt will spark up around privacy and the site. And that’s one reason Facebook is inviting users to help them craft the language this time around. You can’t blame yourself for violating your rights, right? But as Elizabeth Corcoran of Forbes pointed out on the show, can you really organize a committee of 175 million people?
The clip featuring both of these conversations is below, or go here for the entire episode.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
From commenter Xerxes Qados, who has an excellent blog.
Hulu didn’t make any friends this week when the NBC-owned site succumbed to the pressure of content owners and had the content pulled from Boxee. Alec Baldwin wasn’t kidding when he said the company was evil. Anyway, thanks to the hacking of some disgruntle geeks, you can now get access back on both Boxee and XBMC.
It seems like this is a dirty, backdoor hack that doesn’t work 100 percent of the time, but it’s better than nothing. Give her a go and let us know how it works.
XBMC & Boxee via Lifehacker
 New Zealand Herald | Keeping the next 6000 sex offenders off MySpace CNET News by Matt Asay While I don't want to suggest that people can't change (they can), and that mistakes should be forever branded on people like a scarlet "A," I find it disturbing that MySpace, which previously threw 90000 sex offenders from its site (29000 ... Facebook has removed 5500 sex offenders since May When is it OK to spy on your kids online? |
It’s getting close to the Kindle’s February 24th launch date and Amazon has made the official manual available a head of time. There isn’t anything special within that wasn’t previously announced, but don’t let that stop you from pulling up the PDF and pouring over the text anyway. Hopefully it will tide you over until your K2 arrives.
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This is a picture of my amazing youngest son Evan. He's 13, he's
holding a game controller and looking at a glowing screen and he's
doing what he does a lot of -- diving into digital realms of
adventure.
This is what you get when you use a slick tool like 
The first prototypes were showcased during CES 2008, but now 
