House in Wahiawa?

One Laptop Per Child

What an amazing concept: to design and create a simple yet effective piece of technology for the children of this world. And not just the children of America, but of any country out there.

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

I especially appreciated the comment by Mr. Negroponte that even at $100, the price might be a little bit steep. However, the one qualm I have is the minimum order of 1,000,000 units. That's seems a bit rigid.

But, just like Sustainable Sciences Institute, I admire the fact that there are people out there willing to see the wisdom in adapting technology to fit the local circumstances, rather than having the locals adapt to the technologies of the developed world.

Kelowna Wedding

SmugMug Gallery


A few hours drive into the heart of British Columbia is Kelowna. The biggest draw of this little town in the middle of nowhere is the presence of two wonderfully sweet people, Mike and Alya, who just celebrated their wedding with their close friends. I guess I was invited to add a little American flare to the proceedings.

A lovely couple they are, that's for sure

Trip to Seattle

SmugMug Gallery

Now that I'm back in the states, I thought it would be nice to explore the west coast a little bit. Although Seattle can't compare to the uniqueness of San Francisco, it still has its charms.

And, of course, where else would I be able to see Ichiro in action?

State: Wi-Fi cloaks a new breed of intruder

State: Wi-Fi cloaks a new breed of intruder

Setting up the wireless internet here in Nishiarita was a pain in the beginning, because the router stuff was all in Japanese. So, I didn't even bother trying to set up the WEP or any other form of protection. I also figured, "well, I doubt there's anybody out here who would bother borrowing my internet access."

Once I get back to the states though, I'll have to learn how to be more protective of my internet access (that, or learn how to be the hacker and just use other people's access points!) There's a joke that, nope Philadelphia isn't going to be the first major city to be wireless; New York is already wireless with all the unsecure access points set up by unsuspecting neighbors.

Anyhoo, I made this post using the "blogger" button on the google toolbar. Quite fast and efficient, but alas no pictures.

Batman: Essential Reading

"Batman Begins," brings Batman away from the camp world of Adam West and bat nipples, and back to the world of gritty Gotham as depicted in the graphic novels of late.

It's about time.

Ironic isn't it? Even though Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" revitalized the Batman universe, it was the campy 60's show that influenced the visualization of Batman onto the big screen, espeically movies three and four.

So, graphic novel readers rejoice because Batman is back as the Dark Knight, a creature on the verge of insanity, and yet still capable of drawing that fine line between him and the criminals he battles.

Here we go.

Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" gives us Batman as an aging force still to be reckoned.

Frank Miller's "Year One" tells the tale of origins for Gordon, Catwoman, and Batman.

Jeff Loeb's "The Long Halloween" is a more playful, less ominous depiction of Batman.

"Black and White" is an interesting collection of what Batman looks like to various artists and writers.

And, right now, I am in the middle of reading Jeff Loeb's "Hush". It's the same story-telling technique that Jeff Loeb used in "The Long Halloween" and "Dark Victory," but it is enjoyable nonetheless. At least, it is enjoyable if you enjoy seeing Batman duke it out with a new celebrity villain each episode!

External Hard Drives

Yeah, yeah, I know. An external hard drive is nothing more than a regular hard drive in an external case. So why do we pay the premium to buy one? For simplicity's sake. It's "ready to go." It's designed to work.

So how come my new 250 external hard drive didn't work? I plug it in, it revs up, the USB controller shows that something is connected, but no hard drive is detected. What's up with that?

And so, the geek in me tells me to open it up and twiddle with the insides. Maybe a cord is loose, or something obvious like that.

Opening up the hard drives was like, I don't know, like seeing the Mickey Mouse character at Disney Land, only without his head on. Though I alredy knew before-hand what was inside the case, seeing how simple it was with my own eyes was a bit of a shock.



The 160gb is a Western Digital Caviar 1600BB while the 250gb is a Maxtor DiamondMax 10.

Surprisingly enough, both of these drives are 7200rpm, even though there is a more expensive model of these drives marketed as 7200rpm drives. A major difference between my two drives is that the 250gb Maxtor has a 16mb cache whereas the 160gb Western Digital has only a 2mb cache.

So, after poking around a little bit, I thought it was weird that the 250gb Maxtor's jumper block was set to a "Primary Drive," while the 160gb was set to "Cable Select." Worth a shot, I told myself; change the Maxtor to Cable Select as well.

Hooking everything back up together, I tried to install the hard drive again. But alas, that wasn't it. Still no hard drive showing up.

What to do, what to do? I downloaded the buffalo Hard Drive Management program. The drive showed up with the program, but it seemed as if it wasn't properly formatted for DOS. Bingo!

The next three hours I wait. . . and wait. . . and wait until the hard drive is physically reformatted. I figured, I might as well start from the very beginning.

Three hours later, I find that I still have to format and partition it in NTSF sections, which takes about another half hour or so. I partition it into three 80gb partitions, each one named after a Pompoko character (Tamasaburo, Gonta, and Oroku).



So, about five hours later, my drive is finally ready to go. I'm not sure why it was so difficut, but I feel a bit proud of myself for having figured it out.

Until, of course, I look at the box. I'm not sure exactly what it says on the box, but is it possible that this hard drive was "ready to go?" Only that it was "ready to go" for a Mac? Ha ha ha!

トトロ Bus Stop

In a tiny town, tucked away in the rice fields of Oita Prefecture, there is a lone bus stop of wonder and excitement.

It is the トトロ Bus Stop.



Apparently, this town of Ume-cho has had the トトロ Bus Stop for years, long before the Miyazaki anime was ever made. And of course, once the word got out, this quiet rural town has become a mecca of sorts for Miyazaki fans, me included.

Luckily, the place isn't commercialized at all.

There is the now famous bus stop, and there is the トトロ woods, where people leave behind clay トトロ figures, and there is the giant ネコバス to take pictures with.

There are no stores. There are no vendors.

There is only the bus stop.

That's the way it should be.