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.

Without a doubt!! 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

(Oh and I am thinking about redesigning the whole site!)

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. ;-)

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.

Quick snippets:
- 2 Casio phones. One of them (the W53CA) is now branded with Casio's digital camera brand Exilim and boasts a 5.1 MP camera! You know which phone I am already considering buying... ;-)

Update 1:
The W53CA has finally been announced and is coming out in Tokyo on the 9th of August. It's the last one of the new collection to come out.

New details have emerged on the phone. They have really worked hard to build it as close as possible to a real camera. Here are a few points:
- 5MP CMOS sensor that goes beyond just cramming more pixels on a 2MP sensor
- wide angle!!
- 9 zone autofocus
- Auto-Exposure-Bracketing!!
- Night shoot mode
- Camera launch made ultra fast when twisting and folding the screen back on itself.

I'll be queuing next Thursday to get the phone.
Any good address in central Tokyo to get it cheaper than the Bic Camera monster?

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.

TAB has redesigned. A slight redesign with a more modern look and a wider frame to provide us with elbow room for future growth. How do you like it?

We have also relaunched TABlog, TAB's event review blog, with an entirely new look and feel, closer to that of an online magazine. More visual and structure on the front page allow us to promote more varied content and do so independently of its publication date.

Finally, TAB is hiring... We are looking for a new event data editor.

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In unrelated news, my friend Kevin has finally launched his wonderful One Life Japan eco-business. They specialize in fun, intellectually stimulating, physically satisfying, and environmentally sound educational bike tours in Japan.
I will be joining one of his tours in the next few months.

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

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

We are looking for sumissions for our May 1st launch, and so if you read this site and are in my address book, know that I will probably persecute you until you finally give in and share one of your stories with the audience of hitotoki.
You have been warned! ;-)

A good place to start is to download our submission file which contains many more details on what we are looking for and as the word-count stands attractively low at between 200-500 words, I am expecting to receive quite a few slices of location-based memories from you.

Let us also know what you think of the stone-carved logo. For the katakana readers among us, notice the fat ヒ ト ト キ shapes used as backgrounds for the roman hi to to ki letters.

One last thing, please let anybody you think could be interested in participating know about this site and don't hesitate to bookmark the site in del.icio.us and other sites or introduce it on your blog. tah!

See you on May 1st.

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?

But when he told us there were about 50 new series starting in April this year, I got very excited! I did a bit of research and below are the 8 series that look like potential keepers:

Moonlight Mile: Drama + Sci-Fi
Review of the first episode.
Anime News Network info

Koutetsu Sangokushi
Anime News Network info

Seirei No Moribito: Adventure, Fantasy
Anime News Network info

Claymore: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Supernatural
Anime News Network info

Bokurano: Drama, Mecha
Anime News Network info, Wikipedia info

The Skullman
Anime News Network info

Reideen: Mecha, Science Fiction

Darker Than Black: Drama, Science Fiction
Anime News Network info, Wikipedia info

Toward the Terra

I will try to view the first episodes of each and report on my impressions. By the end of April though, I expect this list to be down to 3-4 max. Anyway, it would be crazy to imagine watching more than 4 series at a time.

Update:
The 4 series I ended up watching till the end of season 1 are:
the very gloomy "Bokurano", "Moonlight Mile", "Seirei No Moribito" & "Toward the Terra".
And here are Jean's.

---

Oh, and for those curious to know what series I've watched in the past, here is my master list:
- Gasaraki (1998) unmissable Note: don't be put off by the Mechas, it is minor, and the political intrigue is much more interesting)
- Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex 1 series (2003) unmissable
- Samurai Champloo (2004) unmissable
- Paranoia Agent (2004) unmissable
- 7 Samurai (2004)
- Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex 2 series (2004) unmissable
- Aquarion (2005)
- Basilisk (2005) unmissable
- Ergo Proxy (2006)
- Kemonozume (2006)

---

And here I will list the series that I am currently enjoying:
- Bokurano
- Moonlight Mile
- Seirei No Moribito
- Toward the Terra

---

And the list of series I am considering watching at some point in the future:
- Ayakashi Ayashi (2006)
- Sci-Fi Harry (2000)
- Jigoku Shōjo I & II (2005)
- Texhnolyze (2003)
- Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto (2006) Review
- Dennou Coil

Most of the discontent stems from the fact that the team opted to charge per year what most people would have paid as a one-off fee, and opted to charge as a one-off fee what most people would almost have to pay for a full-fledged software suite like iLife, and that for what angry commentors call "a little syncing script for calendars"... Needless to say, they didn't see appropriate to offer a discount to any of said 18,862 testers (to further undermine purchases from their most likely buyers)!!
Moreover, with Google and Apple strengthening their collaboration on (as of now still secret) projects, could we expect to see this syncing feature built-in the next version of OSX.
For more crusty bits, please flip through the comments. It seems there's already another script out there that does the same thing, for free: GCALDaemon!

At the end of the day, it feels as though the developers rushed it out of the door to make a quick buck before OSX new version comes out in couple months.
Now the question that tickles me is whether they will make as much selling it 60$ to fewer people or selling it 10$ to more...

All 3 phones I have selected below have the usual AU features + a few new funky features. All have in common:
- Naviwalk + 3D navi
- 2 or 3MP camera with anti-shake software tech and AF

W51H (Maker's site)
- 50x106x22
- bilingual
- finger digit reader (sensor) for added security. Sensor can be used to scroll or zoom on screens or pics or even click on links.
- 2.9in WVGA screen of 800x480. view full webpages in landscape mode. makes Opera mobile really attractive now.
- interface seems to be shared with Casio phones (shortcuts on desktop)
- Open Appli player that seems to be able to play Java apps within Brew
- Electronic compass for the GPS (automatically rotates and scrolls map)

W51CA (Maker's site)
- 50x105x22
- bilingual
- TV
- Open Appli player that seems to be able to play Java apps within Brew

W52T (Maker's site)
- 51x111x22
- NOT (!!) bilingual
- bluetooth
- 3in. WVGA view full webpages in landscape mode. makes Opera mobile really attractive now.
- TV

To be honest, because of screen resolution, the Casio phone seems out of the race this time.
While the design of the 51H is letting the whole phone down and the 60,000+ screen colours instead of 260,000+ for all other phones leave me a bit disappointed, the sensor security/scrolling features are very attractive, as well as the excellent but rare electronic GPS feature and the potentially awesome library of apps I could use beyond BREW with the Open Java player give the 51H the edge over the 52H and its however delicious blue LED lighting and sliding screen.
What do you think?!

Update 1:
Saturday, went by the Bic camera in Yurakucho to check out the 51H and 52T which came out on Thursday. There were no working models on the shelves but fortunately they had some if you asked at the counter.
Here are my first impressions:

W51H
The design is not as bad as I expected. A pretty well finished piece, even if it will not win any beauty contests.
The menus are the same as the Casio one, so no surprises there. No beauty contest winner either actually, once you go deeper than the root level... ;-)
The keypad has large, comfortable keys. The screen is incredibly fine.
The camera, as tested in the brightly lit store seemed good, and you could operate the sensor to zoom or raise luminosity levels pretty easily. A good surprise.
Because this model actually had a SIM card in it, I had the chance to be able to try the Opera browser in landscape mode. A very impressive sight, but unfortunately, used as a mouse pad the sensor felt near to useless, too slow or imprecise although the staff assured me that I would get used to it and "master the sensor" in no time with a bit of practice. The click, double click feature though worked nicely. Gmail, full screen, in landscape mode, on a keitai... hahaha!

W52T
As it turns out, this is not a bilingual model. So no English menus.
Even though I am a fan of sliders, the finish quality is poor, the buttons are too soft and small. Worst of all, the menu graphics were not upgraded for the high-res screen and are displayed in all their pixelated horror.
I didn't try the TV, but discovered that the browser cannot be used in landscape mode.
Anyway, no amount of luscious blue LEDs will change my opinion... I was really not impressed.

And I also tried the W51CA.
Ohhh, what a beauty! Very tight body, very strong finish, great buttons, I mean, if I had the vocabulary and my geeky gauges were not already in the red, I could talk about this thing like photographers do of their old SLRs.
The camera actually seems to smooth pics more than the over sharpening W41CA and comparing pics taken in the store by the 2 cameras seemed to show very very similar results. Nothing as bad as what Doug claims to have gotten out of it in the comments...

All in all, the W52T is out, and I think I'll need to take another look at the W51H... I am interested in trying something new so I may give a chance to the Hitachi model but I need to get confirmation that the camera is of the level I expect in low light conditions.
More later...

Update 2:
Gen & Matt bought the W51H last week and so I went for a walk with Matt to show him how to use his GPS etc... The 3D Navi was really impressive. You can really compare buildings. We were surprised at how accurate the 3D models were!

On the way, I did 3 night photo tests, to compare the Hitachi's camera with my W41CA's.
The results were very good. I thought the pictures were more crisp than the slightly over-sharpening Casio. Note: the anti-blur function of the Hitachi was OFF.

Results:
Wooden Gate: W51H: M, XL - W41CA M, XL
City Neons: W51H: M, XL - W41CA M, XL
Coffee cups: W51H: M, XL - W41CA M, XL

For argument's sake, I wish I could do the same tests myself with the new Casio W51CA. The results that were sent in by Doug in the comments were frighteningly bad... But apparently can be attributed to the new anti-blur function (which should just be switched off) and a smudge on the lens.
I would just wish to do my own test...
Doug, you wanna meet up?
Anybody else bought the W51CA?

But I recently discovered that you can check your Google Calendars too!

Thanks to YamamoWorks's Google Calendar Mobile Gateway, you can now browse your calendars on the go!

Here's how to do it:
Note: You'll need to be logged in to your Google account on your mobile before that, so check your email, or visit gmail.com on it first and log in.

1. Using the EZ Browser, go to http://www.yamamoworks.net/gcmg/
Scroll down to the second link on the page (in Japanese) called "認証開始", click.
2. On the Google Accounts Access Request page, scroll to the bottom, to the Grant Access button, click.
3. Enjoy!

The gateway is in Japanese, but the functions are so simple, you can't really go/do anything wrong.
Don't forget to then bookmark your calendar page.

You can:
- show/hide calendars (checkboxes)
- add a new event (press key [0])
- scroll along your calendar (with keys [1] and [9])

It's a wonderful private Google world!
and 2 more reasons to be AU customers!

But I am trying to build a list of foreign designers/artists (notable ones...) married to Japanese nationals..
please help me!

Here are the ones I know:
Jonathan Barnbrook (Male - British nationality - living in the UK)
Alexander Gelman (M - US - JP)
Nicolas Gwenaël (M - FR - JP)
Büro Destruct's Lopetz (M - CH - CH)

Any more?

added:
Simon Taylor from Tomato (M - UK - JP/UK)