BoingBoing post

Pretty cool post in BoingBoing about scientists being able to predict people's success at a computer game. Reminds me of what I read in a book called "The Singularity is Near" -- when considering what to do, you have already made a decision before you realize it. You are already acting on things which you do not even yet feel you have finished considering, but for consistancy's sake your brain will complete the thought process because you would get confused if it was stopped in the middle.

Places where I want to work

I'm nearly a Bachelor of Computer Science now. I've often thought that I'd rather work by myself on my own projects, but with this shiny new paper I want to try to apply for some places that could be cool enough to abandon the idea of being a lone hermit coder.

Amazon.co.uk or maybe Amazon.co.jp would be cool places to work. Having sold books for years online myself it would be very interesting to get to know their back-end systems and learn a ton. Of course other online retailers would do as well.

TokyoPop, they are translating massive amounts of manga into English and I wouldn't mind helping them with either the actual translation or any technical issues. Of course places like Shueisha, they're the ones that extort the mangakas to make the manga in the first place (ever heard of kanzume? it means isolating the artists from the real world until they finish their work!). Same for Kodansha, NihonBungeisha and others.

Soft on Demand, let me just say that they are "imaginative" and also seem to be technically adapt. But will I have to join the yakuza? Maybe I should pass on this one :-) Also companies like WantedList could be life-altering workplaces.

Sierra, the makers of Larry and Space Quest. They will always have a special place in my heart and soon they will also have my job application. Also LucasArts, they're behind Monkey Island and other cool games. It would be one in a million to happen to get a chance to work here, but might still be worth trying. I could also work wherever Julian Gollop works. He is the genius behind games such as Laser Squad, Lords of Chaos and X-Com UFO Defense. Currently they seem to have a company called Codo Games and are providing the game Laser Squad Nemesis.

Yuna Ito

Do you know Yuna Ito? She will be the seiyu for Reira in the NANA movie. Not much information is available about her in English now, so I made this: Bemmu's Yuna Ito Fan Page

A Page Dedicated to Crystal Kay

Crystal Kay Williams is the brightest star on the Japanese pop charts. In honor of her newest album "Two As One", I decided to make this page for her: Bemmu's Chrystal Kay Fan Page!

Orange Range Fan Page

I finished my Orange Range page today.

Gackt is a Mac fan

Who would have believed it? The j-pop star Gackt is a Mac fan!

jpdb.org

People are sometimes asking me how to find something on the Japanese Amazon, so I started this message board: jpdb.org -- Your guide to ordering Japanese manga from amazon.co.jp.

WatchTogether

I made a small tool for writing / reading comments about movies while watching them: WatchTogether.

Japanese articles

These are not very interesting if you don't speak Japanese, but here are some articles I wrote: Internet Bubble, Christmas, Lucid Dreaming, Cosplay and Demo Scene.

MyNote

Perhaps the thing that I personally use most is called MyNote. It's a tool similar to notepad, except it works in your browser and there is no need to press any save button. It's quicker to use than sending yourself e-mails since no login is required. I used it constantly to send myself notes. I made two localized versions too: Finnish and Japanese.

Typing Speed Tester

There used to be a nice game called ZtSpeed for DOS by a guy called Zorlim. In that game words were scrolling from left to right and you had to type them before they reached the border of the screen, kind of similar to Typing of the Dead. Well, I made a similar game which runs inside a browser: Bemmu's Typing Speed Tester

Heisig lookup

As I was studying Japanese I discovered a book which had mnemonic tricks for learning the Japanese characters. But it was very time-consuming to find the characters in the book, so I wrote this Heisig Kanji Lookup.

Forced Post Vulnerability Report

Even before Samy became everyone's hero, I discovered the same bug at social sites as he had. I wrote a proof-of-concept hack that forced people to change their preferences if they just clicked a plain normal link I gave them. Some sites changed their structure at my warning, I even wrote this Forced Post Vulnerability Report about it.

Two dictionaries

Here are two things that came out of my exchange in Japan. I was studying for two years in Tokyo, mostly studying Japanese. To test my Japanese capability, I took one non-language class as well, which was Java programming. I could hardly understand anything. Every day we would get this 5-page explanation in Japanese of what we were supposed to be doing. Java at the beginner level is easy to the point of tears, but understanding the explanations was nearly impossible. To assist me, I wrote this
Japanese programming dictionary. I also took a cell biology course. At the course we had to write a dictionary as well, so here is my little cell biology dictionary.

Kick-ass month over

My kick-ass month is over, but here's something to keep you entertained:
Bemmu's cure for Google irritation
google

YUKI

This day I will have a blast, going to Yuki's concert! This still depends on whether I can get the ticket or not. She is the master of the cutie nasal chipmunk voice which we all love and adore.　The place is Misato Hall.

YUKIのコンサートを見に行きます！まだ切符を買っていませんが... 所は三郷市文化振興公社です。

The End of Hiroshima 2005

On this day there would be a dance about Hiroshima in Shibuya, but because of the high ticket price I'm still keeping this day open for other possibilities. This dance happens tue. 15 - thu. 17 March, 2005

この日は渋谷には広島についてのダンスをやっています。しかし切符が高いので、この日には他の面白い出来事があれば、それに代えると思います。ダンスは15日の火曜日から木曜日の17日までやっています。

Gotoh Museum, 五島美術館

On this day I will go see the Ultimate Sword Exhibition in The Gotoh Museum. "Some 30 swords are selected from the collection for this exhibition. There are comprehensive instructions to identify such anepigraphic works for beginners."

この日は五島美術館で刀を見に行きます。あまり刀については何も知りませんが、新しい経験ですので行ってみます。

Security Show 2005, 第13回セキュリティ安全管理総合展

Security Show 2005!

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 東京都写真美術館

On this day I plan to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. They have an exhibition which happens to appeal to me, as it is about manga. It may be childish, it may lack some deep meaning understanding some "real" art would have, but it's cute and fun!

この日は東京都写真美術館に参加するつもりです。今度の展示は漫画についてなので、興味があります。子供っぽくて「本当のアート」と同じ深さはないかもしれませんが、かわいいで楽しそうです！

The exhibition focused on the life of otakus. The most interesting thing on display was a collection of photographs from the rooms of otakus, piled ceiling high with books and semi-nude plastic anime models.

展示はオタクたちの人生に集中していた。一番面白かったのはオタクの部屋で撮られた写真で、部屋の中は漫画やプラスチックアニメーションモデルの山がありました。

Other display areas in the three-floor museum were much better, and free. There was a lot of interactivity. A screen with a mirror next to it, the display on the mirror was displaying a different image than the actual display. Possibly somehow accomplished with polarized light. Using this you could play a game of air hockey, against yourself.

美術館の他の展示は良かったです。無料でした。自分で触れるようなものがいっぱいありました。ディスプレーと鏡があって、鏡で見えるディスプレーのイメージは本当のイメージと違いました。どうやって作られたかと考えたと、多分偏光を使われたと思います。自分を相手としてエアーホッケーのゲームが出来ました。

There was a setup where you could place dots on a board and the board would say out loud which braille character that represents. I think with this it would be possible to learn braille fairly quickly. There were a lot of interesting things on display, I certainly recommend a visit if you have a chance!

点字を学べるようなボードがあって、ボードにどっとを置くと点字の発音が聞こえました。それを使って点字は早く覚えられると思います。色々な面白いものがあったので、機会があれば是非行って見ることを進めます！


In the evening I will turn into a clubber and go dancing at Club Complex Code in Shinjuku. They will be playing "HYPER TECHNO", sounds fine to me!

夕方ベンムはクラッバーになって、新宿のクラブCodeにいくつもりです。ホームページによれば「HYPER TECHNO」をやっている。ダンスダンスダンス！