Neography 2.o  -

Yesterday afternoon I spotted a rhinoceros beetle on the side of the road. I screeched to a halt and picked it up, but it was dead. I was heartened, however, by the thought that beetles were around the area, and that I might actually find one or two. As you may or may not know one thing I spent considerable time with in Japan was the beetles, large rhinoceros beetles that had massive scoops on their heads, with which they did battle, trying to scoop and flip other beetles off tree branches. I raised them, from store-bought larvae to adults, and then the offspring of those adults.

When I left Japan it was one of the things I knew I'd miss the most. I knew there were beetles here in Queensland, but I worried that they wouldn't be near where I lived, and that they'd be more like the Atlas and Hercules beetles which were much stronger and far less fun to play with.

I'm pleased to report they are more like the Japanese Kabuto than any other beetle I've found. They're not very strong, move when you scratch 'em on the back, and are content to just sit on your hand as long as you want them to.

I found three of these great little beetles last night while out at the office xmas party. They're currently in a cardboard box clinging to a plush Santa, which is kind of inglorious. I picked up a plastic box to keep them in, and as soon as I find out what they use as a base material I'll throw in some feed (they're happy to eat syrup, it seems) and some branches for them to cling to.

There are some images in the gallery.

It's really time for a new layout here.

My left wrist is really starting to hurt.

I can't type at home at all anymore, the pain starts almost immediately. I can manage five minute bursts before it starts to bother me. If it wasn't for this ergo keyboard at work I wouldn't be able to get any work done there either. This is going to spell the end for the book I'm writing.

Even though I was behind I had hopes I'd be able to complete it, but when every minute of effort makes my hand tingle and my wrist hurt I think... Well, shit, I don't want to suffer more permanent injury.

Swetake has announced that there is a security issue in his QRCode generating PHP script. Since I used his code extensively throughout my experiments with the QRCode maker as well as the link you see on the left column I had to update.

What kind of sucked is that I made the generator years ago and had completely forgotten in the meantime how I put it together. Swetake's script is very easy to implement, but I had made significant changes

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According to a site I won't even dignify with a link, you can pay more than $655 AUD for a PDF featuring a hundred pages on QR Codes, each with about as much content (or less) as a power point slide. This is information you can get off my site for free. Yay for fucking retarded people. I hope this guy makes a mint, and I hope every retard who buys his stuff, rather than doing an hour's research (like I did) finds my site. And I hope they cry.

Seriously, do people buy this stuff? Unreal.

In case you forgot:
My QRCode Generator （日本語　バージョン）
QRCode Primer 2
QR Code Capacity chart
Silly little QR code fun
Bunch of QR Code links and apps
QRCode maker abuse

Free! Enjoy!

Gastric Atony:
(Perhaps also known as gastroptosis). It's a condition where the stomach is far lower than normal, and quite a bit stretched as a result of it. The stomach becomes weaker and more prone to hyperacidity resulting in heartburn. Typical symptoms also include continuous indigestion, and rough, dry skin as the stomach is unable to absorb enough nutrients in this condition. A small meal will make you feel full. It can be easily diaagnosed with an X-ray.
Gastric Atony appears to mimic many of the results of overeating and overdrinking, overwork, insecurity and stress, and indeed these can trigger the same effects in a person with this affliction. It is not a disease, but a condition one might be born with. Often symptoms never appear, but once they do recurrances are easily achieved and can be long lasting.
Recovery begins with proper eating of foods that do not upset the stomach, not drinking, avoiding stress and generally relaxing.

Basically it's endless heartburn unless you live on a diet of milk and bread.

My mind does a lot of processing on a subconscious level. In the background there's a lot of mental shit going on that I am unaware of. It manifests itself in different ways - the sudden burst of creativity or the revelation of a long-standing problem's solution.

It also, and this causes me no end of grief, keeps me informed of my components inventory.

Every time I'm possessed with the urge to play a game it results in a time-consuming hunt for the piece I've lost that would let me actually play. Last night I spent an hour and a half searching in vain for my GameCube power adaptor, and then a further half hour searching for enough parts to play a Saturn game. I had it all, handy and ready, except for the god-damned controller! I can't count how many times this has happened to me, and the only conclusion I can draw is that my subconscious is trying to tell me, in the only way it can, that something's missing and I should rectify the situation.

It must be true, 'cause I know I have all the parts here to play Robotron but I don't have the urge. Instead I have the urge to play GameBoy Colour games when all I have is a DS and GBPocket. I also want to play Game & Watch Gallery 4, which is the only one of my GBA games I can't actually find. The rest are here, but I don't have that fucking urge, damn them! Damn them for being so smug!

(With apologies, this started as a 'damn Microsoft...' rant, and turned into a bit of an anti-DRM sermon)

In light of some recent news (Microsoft is essentially killing OpenGL, either 'cause it's too hard to implement or because they didn't invent it...) I was thinking back about Microsoft's history, and I was wondering... Why does anyone with a brain or a sense of self-preservation support them, or any other company that seeks to lock us in?

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We moved into our new place, it's pretty nice. 3BR, double remote garage, nice neighborhood. Outfitted it with a mad stack of new stuff - fridge, microwave, washer, dryer, bed, toaster, blender, and all the other frippery a modern house needs.

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Yesterday at work it was remarked by the boss that the office was getting a bit messy, so I started tidying up. One of the girls said we needed a cleaner to take care of it, and I said we already had cleaners for the office (meaning us, the staff). I come into work this morning to find I was in the doghouse for suggesting the women on staff were the cleaners. The boss comes in before me and faced 'a vagina revolt'. Whups.

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Car comes in first week of September, with luck. In the meantime I got some very funny fan-art. It was remarked that my buying a Renault was a lot like a friend marrying the wrong woman. Silly kids.

One significant reason for moving to Australia is the availability of Renault automobiles. You can't buy them in Canada, Renault simply has no presence there at all. The entire North American continent is a Renault-free zone, and as anyone who's ever met me knows, I dig my Renaults. I've had at least four Renaults of my own: a couple of R5s, an Alliance/GTA (like an R9 with a sport upgrade) and a super-rare 1989 R5 GTE (released in only 3 European countries, none English speaking).

My dad's been racing and fixing and selling Renaults since before I was born. He took one of the first R5s released in North America ice racing the weekend they got it, and stuffed it into a snow bank. Apparently there was no shortage of disbelief when, come Monday morning, he's calling Renault and asking for a new door, windshield, front quarter panel....

And now, finally, I made the move. I went to a local dealer on Saturday and test drove both the new Sport Megane and the Sport Clio, two incredible cars that easily go faster than anything I've ever driven, and with more refinement to boot. My GTE is 16/17 years old this year, and it was pretty shit-hot for its time. A hot hatch with power windows, a total weight of ~850kg, and a 1.7l multiport engine pushing ~100hp. Cornered like it was on rails, it was a thing of beauty.

These new cars kicked its ass. I'll ramble a bit more (read more!) but before I do that, here's a picture:

Except I didn't go for this model,

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Firefox isn't the only great new browser out there. Opera is better in many ways. Faster too, in most ways. Please click on this link at your earliest convenience and check it out.

I love Opera. I've been using it for many years, and it's grown into a very competant browser, with all the features you'll want and many more you never knew you wanted. Support the underdog, give Opera a try.

Opera supports, out of the box, mouse gestures, a wealth of keyboard shortcuts, slick skinnable interface, custom menus, RSS + news + mail reader, and a whole lot more.

Click, so I can earn a free copy! =D

And yeah, it's adware - it shows a two-line google ad at the top of the page. It's tiny, and I never notice it anymore, and I'll bet you won't either.

I've been offered a chance to write a book. I had written a BLAD - book layout and design - for these people recently and while it was hard work writing to a short deadline I enjoyed the challenge. The BLAD went well apparently, and they've asked me to write more on the subject. The BLAD was great fun, I could write volumes on video game sprites and game art, so when I get paid to do it I smile and write away! But the focus has shifted on this book,

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So here we are, living in Australia.

I'm working at my dad's office. Currently I'm putting together web templates for his customers to select from, in order to minimize the design work we have to do. Typically this work is never ending, with tweaks and adjustments and misunderstandings stretching on for months, and I aim to minimize that. I don't know what I'll do after I'm done, but it's fun and educational work. I'll prolly be redesigning these pages soon, with my newfound skills.

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Today was Customs and Quarantine day. Our freight has finally arrived in Brisbane, 4.5 cubic meters (or so) of video game crap I thought at one time I couldn't live without and then discovered I could live without at least 5% of it. So a shipment full of 95% goodness has arrived and we had to go pay for the local port fees, clear it with customs, and arrange a mandatory quarantine inspection. While dealing with quarantine (customs had no beef with my $30k shipment of games) we were told we were, in fact, the winners.

We had paid more than anyone else. "what," I asked her. "Today, this year, what?" "Oh, no," she replied. "ever."

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With apologies, my phone only does UTF-8 and my mailserver chokes on it. This badly encoded text had broken the RSS feed - this meaningless text is designed to resolve the problem.

Here's Zumi! Yay!

So far so good. It's been three weeks today since we arrived in Brisbane. So far it's been nothing but entertaining, despite some troubles with the new celphone. ProTip: Motorola sucks.

Australians have a strange habit of shortening words and/or adding -o to the end of them. Service stations become servos, vehicle registration becomes rego, yummy is yummo. Atkins fans don't count carbs, they count carbos. Afternoons are arvos. It's all fucking bizarre and I don't let them go a moment without reminding them how bizarre they are. Australia will conform to me!!

Also, new pics are up, have a look if you're into that.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has caved to China and Korea's demands for an apology for Japanese aggression and generally bad behavior leading to and during World War 2. China and Korea have both said Japan has never apologized, conveniently overlooking the apologies immediately after the war (though admittedly, having been invaded and abused they might not have been watching the two or three working TVs at the time...) and another made in 1991 by then prime minister Toshiki Kaifu.

What's interesting is that English language news sources in Japan are reporting this, including quotes and a rather detailed analysis, but the Japanese news has kind of ignored it, prefering to say simply that, and this is paraphrased and translated, "Koizumi has apologized in a speech that quoted a 1995 speech by Prime Minister Murakami" but managed to avoid quoting any of Koizumi's words.

Korea's Chosun newspaper made note of a large contingent of Japanese politicians visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, dedicated to those who died in war, but also contains the remains of several convicted war criminals. China and Korea go berzerk every time a prominent politician visits this shrine, and there's the logical conclusion drawn that maybe Koizumi's speech was timed to take some attention away from this annual Yasukuni visit.

As might be expected, neither China or Korea seemed pleased when Japan gave them what they demanded, and instead made quiet note that maybe actions should follow the words.

Sigh.

Went to the mall today and signed my soul on the dotted line for a new cellular phone. Picked up a Motorola E1000, on the 3 network. It's pretty snazzy, offering a good number of the features I've grown attached to with my Sharp V-601SH Vodafone.

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We're here in my dad's place, the flight over was short enough and we arrived without incident. When checking in they took my bike and weighed it, then weight the rest of the luggage separately. This was a great relief, since we had worried a lot about being over the limit and having to carry my computer and monitor as carry-on luggage. I checked my computer in instead,

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Today's the day, The Big Day, moving day, the day when we pack up the few things we have left and board an airplane bound for Brisbane Australia. 9pm tonight we leave, means we're out of Zumi's mom's place by 4pm, 2 hours to the airport, 3 hours to kick around and beg for the airline to let us check my bike and overweight crap into luggage, or find the airport post office and mail our shit to Australia instead.

I'm stressed out like you wouldn't believe,

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Today I got the server installed in its new digs at Zumi's mom's place. It's gonna be three months before the new 100mbit fiber line's run in, so until then this server will be running on a pathetic 1mbit pipe. That's enough bandwidth to serve the requests it gets on an average basis, but individual response will be slow and another slashdotting will swamp the line.

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We're still in the process of preparing for the move and things are progressing apace.

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Due to unfortunate circumstances my beloved webserver - hardened and redundant for life unattended - will have a very, very pathetic straw through which it will suck bits from teh intarweb. For this reason I'm gonna have to disable japanese commercial downloading, and a few other features. Like basically everything but the webserver. For a few months.

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As you might remember from a couple of recent postings, I'm closely watching the battle for FujiTV waged by Livedoor and the management of Fujisankei, which controls Fuji + Nippon Radio (and countless others). As is the norm for Japanese companies, sibling companies buy stock in each other, obfuscating the ownership structure and making it harder to buy out part of a company. Livedoor tried to take control of FujiTV by buying stocks in Nippon Broadcasting Systems, a sister company that owned a large chunk of FujiTV. FujiTV's management slammed Livedoor for their sneaky tactics, but Livedoor reckons it's just being smart about it - why pay for the more expensive FujiTV shares when buying NBS' stock is cheaper and results in a disporportionately large stake in FujiTV? Many in Japan see this as the young versus the old, and it's not an inaccurate view on many levels.

There was a new twist today, as NBS loaned their stock to another party.

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Since my last post about the Livedoor saga quite a bit has happened. The entire country is watching this very public battle for control of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. and, by extension, Fuji TV. You might recall that Livedoor won an injunction against Nippon Broadcasting, preventing them - temporarily at least - from creating new shares and selling them directly to Fuji. Livedoor argued correctly that it would seriously dilute the value of not only their shares, but of all NBS' shareholders, and was clearly illegal. Naturally NBS appealed, but the appeals court ruled against them - a surprise to me, since Japan's courts are more or less ineffective at best. NBS appealed again, taking it to Japan's Supreme Court (or equivalent), and that judgement is expected to be handed down tomorrow.

Lately there's been a very disconcerting wave of racist anti-foreigner propoganda coming out of Tokyo, and now that Livedoor - a Japanese company run by Japanese - has gone to a foreign company for financial backing, the LDP (the governing party) has announced plans to study the idea of enacting new laws to prevent

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There's a pretty fantastic fight going on in Japan, pitting the young, scrappy internet company Livedoor against the grumpy old-man establishment. Nippon Broadcasting System (radio) owns a very significant chunk of the much larger Fuji TV, but NR's stock is worth less than Fuji's. Japan allows off-hours trading which isn't subject to the usual scrutiny and disclosure given normal trading. In a move that surprised pretty much everyone, Livedoor - an internet portal - bought a large enough portion of NR's stock to give them a good shot at veto power of NBS, and hence some control of Fuji TV. It was intended to give Livedoor a backdoor entry into the world of TV... Or at least

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So we're moving in about five weeks. It's going to kill me, for sure. Moving overseas for me is like reinventing myself with all the work done months before results can be known. Should I sell all my games? Keep only the good stuff? What about the insane rare stuff? And the pile of stuff I really adore, would never have the chance to buy again, is worth nothing to sell, but I'll probably never play again?

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So I'm packing and getting ready for the big Australia move. My plan at this point is to just pack up stuff I want to keep, and whatever's left is stuff I should sell. So far the sell pile's reached about 300 games, twenty games and about 40kg of controllers. And about 50-100 books, magazines, and countless irreplacable rare shits I don't need now but can't really justify selling ('cause they're worthless) but - and here's the packrat mantra - I'm sure I'll need them eventually.

Pics!

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I've whipped up another batch of lovely Japanese commercials for you!


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