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.

Hitotoki Tokyo has launched in Japanese, after the successful launch of the English version. We have a few stories up there already so go have a look.
We will also open in New York in September and are currently looking for submissions.

I have published an article on how to make better presentations at Pecha-Kucha Night events. It is up on the AQ blog, where I work.

The 3rd collection of our TAB T-shirts has just been released in our new online store. 5 designers have donated graphics illustrating their love of Tokyo to help us promote the city as a lively and happening place, as well as support our Non-Profit Organization team (paid staff and volunteers). The Shop has been entirely redesigned and includes a new bilingual cart system, interfacing with Paypal.

AQ, the Tokyo-based little webdesign/print studio I work with has a fancy new website.
I am really pleased with its looks. Simple, not geeky and with cute little illustrations to accompany visitors.
We do Japanese & bilingual web design, localization, usability testing, graphic design and consulting.

Check some of our selected works, and bookmark our new blog.

Our new project has pre-launched:
Hitotoki.org.

The site is a little non-commercial project we put together in a few weeks as a joint effort between AQ (little design studio where I work) and Chin Music (Tokyo/Seattle-based publishers).

The site will attempt to record and broadcast short location-based narratives written by people that have visited Tokyo or live in the city.
The stories, like the title indicates (hitotoki in Japanese means a single moment), should capture those special moments one encounters when living in Tokyo where it just feels good/weird/tough to be here, and must be tied to a specific location in the city.
Hopefully, the memories emerging from the site will allow people to enjoy a more intimate and deeper view of the town, its people, and the authors profiled alongside the stories.

Updated: We have launched!! hitotoki.org

Just for personal reference on terms I made up and would like to see used more:

Nicolas Nova says:
A "100Gb evening" is a term coined by Paul Baron to refer to, as he says, “events where I have discovered so many things that I want to research more”
referring to that meeting with Adam Greenfield and Fabio Sergio in February 2003.

As a caption for this February 2007 photo on Flickr I said:
oh, and they have spermalinks: (for many baby readers)

Should I dare rename all the "permalinks" as "spermalinks" on this blog?

I have finally sorted, tagged, geotagged and uploaded pictures I took last October in Hong Kong when I joined my friend Kallen for a week of holidays there.
Here is the set on flickr
Here are the geotagged pictures on a map.

We, at AQ, have just released a redesigned website and corporate identity for Welkam, a small but smart company that directs, designs and builds booths and displays for exhibitions and events in Japan and worldwide.
Those 2 powerguys can do many things, in several languages and many countries. Our mission was to design a site that would reflect that in a clear and engaging way.
Let us know what you think!

Taking inspiration from a recent trend in the US IT industry, Tokyo Art Beat has debuted a new section: "TAB Jobs".
TAB Jobs is a new job board that will launch on the 1st of December with job offers specially targeted at the dynamic community of creative professionals living and working in Tokyo, Japan.

Finding the right job in our industries is a difficult endeavor, with too few tools specifically targeted at us. We want to make TAB Jobs this new tool, where companies can advertise directly to a core target of designers and where we can easily find jobs specific to our skills.

Last month, we released the second collection of TAB shirts. 5 new international designers and artists have again accepted to donate a design to be printed and sold to promote Tokyo and its lively art scene, and raise funds for Gadago, the Non-Profit organisation behind TAB.
The shirts are 3800yen, including worldwide shipping.

Party Time!
Next Monday (national holiday) October 9th, TAB will celebrate its second anniversary at SuperDeluxe from 7pm. Come early! Like last year, t-shirt giveaways, retrospective slideshow, exclusive VJ/DJ collaborations will make this party one not to be missed. Come and meet with the team, the users, artists, venue owners, and special guests.
For more details, visit our TAB event page: Tokyo Art Beat 2nd Year Anniversary Party!

Freelance work has been picking up (thank you!!) and we've just launched the redesigned website for the French-Japanese Institute in Tokyo, one of the oldest French institutions in Japan. The old site dated from pre-2000 and wasn't doing justice to this very active cultural platform.
I redesigned this site with the help of AQworks, a duo freelancing in Tokyo, with whom I'll be doing more and more work in the future.

[AQ] The Institut is more than the most popular French language school in Tokyo. With its regular festivals, expositions and performances, a multimedia library, restaurant, and cinema, it's no less than the epicenter of activity for Tokyoites in love with French culture and language. All of this is now apparent on its web site, following the recent redesign by AQ.
The biggest improvements:
- Permanent individual event pages to establish a record that can be shared, printed, revisited and indexed by search engines.
- Vivid, human photography highlighting the institut's charismatic teachers, and stylish yet approachable decor.
- A flexible, cross-linked information architecture that encourages discovery of other facilities and programs.
- A standards-compliant platform, ensuring accessibility for everyone, including visitors with disabilities, and optimal visibility on search engines.

Thanks to Raphaël (who's still looking for some internet-related short-mission job opportunities in Tokyo), my Axis of Evil weather news on IN-duce's front page, my AD-duce photos of Tokyo RSS feed and a few other bits and pieces here and there are finally working again. So enjoy!

[a photoset on Flickr] An attempt to show how the Evening Standard's Headline writers attempt to stamp out positive thought within the London area...

Definitely one of the reason why I wouldn't have been able to live in London any longer after completing my BA in 2002. That, and the daily "signal failures" on uncountable parts of the train/subway network... guh!!
Enter Tokyo, where I can't read Japanese and trains run on time! B-L-I-S-S !!

Updated. The city has just become more exciting!
We built what we thought was most missing in our city of Tokyo: an Art and Design amplifier. We know there are hundreds of artists and venues broadcasting in the city, yet so few ways to hear about them.
Now there is Tokyo Art Beat.

In the most unexpected move of the past 2.5 years (!), my friend Raphaël has just launched his weblog Petit Bourgeois.

Shelley Jackson is looking for 2095 people to each get a tattoo of a single word from her novel Skin.
To keep company to the tatoo i got on my right hand palm a few years ago, I eventually decided to take part in this piece of mortal art.
If you too want to participate, check her news.
Update (2003-11-14)= Shelley accepted me as part of her project, i am waiting for my word, should get it within the next 2 weeks.
Update (2004-02-03)= I received my word yesterday! --> over
I am quite happy with it, it could have been anything and people who decide that they don't like their word can opt out but can't apply again for a new one.
It's rather neutral and won't steal the focus of the questions I'll get for the rest of my life, I'll be able to talk about the art project behind it instead.
Next, I have to get it tatooed in a classic book font like Times New Roman, take a picture of it and send it to her. Only then will I receive a copy of the full story, which I am forbidden to share with other people(!). But she reserves the rights to publish about the project process and she even engages herself to attend the funerals of all her "words". This is taking on a slight Master/Slave connotation... ;-)
Anyway, I already know where I'll get it tatooed but won't tell you until it's done.
Olivier, will you take a nice portrait of me with it pretty please?
Now, can anyone recommend me a good tatoo artist in Tokyo?
More: great article in the Guardian, and a gallery of lettering tattoos with quite a few "words" already.

Last year, I lost about 25,000yen (about $250) in Roppongi. I had the bills in my pocket with my mobile phone, a rare case, and I was watching closely as I knew that the bills could fall if I was to pick up the phone. My mobile rang and I lost the money. Not in a wallet, and in Roppongi, probably the last place in Tokyo one would want to lose money in.

[ProofReadNow.com] adduce; deduce; induce: To adduce is to give as a reason, offer as a proof, or cite as an example {as evidence of reliability, she adduced her ten years as a steady copyeditor for the paper}. Deduce and induce are opposite processes. To deduce is to reason from general principles to specific conclusions, or to draw a specific conclusion from general bases {from these clues, one deduces that the printer did it}. To induce is to form a general principle based on specific observations {after years of studying copywriters, the researchers induced a few of their social habits}.

Ever had a conversation (kottke.org) where you find yourself switching repeatedly from one language to another (even at the sentence level)?

I do that too with English & French. Most of the points raised in the discussion are fascinating.

My bike's frame split a month ago. Haden't gotten round trying to have it repared or replaced until last week when I received a letter from Bridgestone saying that they were recalling all their bikes of the same model as mine for a default in the frame and replacing it for free, including collection and delivery. hehehe.

I was arriving in Osaka after a month of holiday and 15,000km by train to come from London to Japan overland.

Do you know how having an optical fiber 100Mb/s connection to the internet in your flat feels like?
hehehe...

The Systemizing Quotient (SQ) test on The Guardian website.
I scored: 48.
The Empathy Quotient (EQ) test.
I scored: 65.
How much did you score?

Cost of trip from London to Tokyo by train in Summer 2002, including 3 days in Moscow, 6 days in Trans-Siberian train and 3 weeks in China.

Every morning, my whole building should jolt like it did this morning. This was very efficient in getting me out of bed I can tell you! It was a really small earthshake. Nonetheless, the first one I have felt since I set foot in Japan more than 9 months ago.

I set up a basic MT blog for my good friend Hide.
This way please.
See also his previous space.

When I met Adam at an Anti-war demo in Tokyo in February this year, I told him how I believed in only 2 to 3 degrees of separation. I have been proven right yet again on this one.

I have a big week at Honda as we have a presentation of our ongoing projects to the board members.
I have also been offered to have my contract renewed when it expires at the end of June. So I am floating with happiness! Yapeeeee!!