While reading up on the late Jef Raskin I came across this quote. Around here shoes seem to explode more on Mondays, but whatever. I'm not sure how long ago he said this but you could also add "or looking for alternatives." to the end of that quote.

I couldn't really say if the Talby blows more than it sucks, but it certainly does bite. Sitting on my sofa the first night I had it the signal dropped from 3 bars to two, one, zero bars then I'd get a message usually reserved for elevators or certain sections of subway track when completely out of range. The signal would return after a few seconds only to die again minutes later. The next day in Akasaka (major Tokyo business district) it played signal tag with me again. After work that day I went directly to Yodobashi Camera to exchange it for another model, but apparently exchanging a mobile with a number programmed is like trying to return unpackaged underwear or a used breast milk pump. The best I could do was have our local AU shop test it for defects, and in the end they gave me a new talby, which of course I didn't want in the first place.

Marc Newson may be a famous designer, and they sure look cool but once you get past this (approximately 10-15 min.) you begin to realize this phone is absolute junk. Even after I had the defective model replaced I found the ear piece frustratingly quite at full volume, and the interface was equally painful. I've been spoiled by Sony Ericsson's English interface, jog-dial and build quality that usually goes into their products, so honestly I feel like kind of a moron for buying, or rather buying into talby's hype.

So, you want to buy it? Sold.

I replaced our wireless router this past weekend with Apple's portable AirPort Express (branded the AirMac Express in Japan). Plugged it directly into the wall outlet, ran the simple set-up and that was that, though this time with WPA authentication. Apologies go out to our neighbours who've been borrowing our Wi-Fi for the last few years. Sorry folks, but your trial has expired.

I haven't seen any on the streets yet but certain sects of the Japanese public sure have cottoned to the iPod Shuffle. Reload the page to shuffle the top four images. [via tuaw]

After a lot of humming and hawing I decided on the talby handset. I had my eye on the Sony Ericsson W21S but every shop we went to had no stock of the colour I wanted, so I thought I'd take a chance on the talby. I've gotten accustom to the Sony Ericsson layout and especially the jog dial, so this phone will take time. I rarely used any of the special functions on my last phone, features that just add bulk and weight, so this time I went simple. A nice clean design, though I do worry about its durability, and working through the Japanese menus should be um... fun.

I'm using the same number and mobile email address as before but I've lost all my contacts, so a call or email with your info would be super.

Luis hit the nail on the head, and wrote exactly what I was thinking when he described the new Mac Mini as a bento box (Japanese lunch box). Mmmm, cold rice.

Is it just me or is Apple's slogan for the iPod shuffle "Enjoy Uncertainty" a little lacking, and a bit unappealing? In fact, I think McDonalds already owns that one. Of course, this shows one of Apple's greatest strengths, marketing. Who else could turn a products greatest flaw into the central selling point.

This reminds me of the Simpsons episode when Homer is at a car dealership and the hood of a car is riddled with bullets from the mobsters across the street trying to kill him. The dealer turns to Homer and says the marks are “speed holes. They make the car go faster."

The above relics were leftovers (overlooked in the rush *wink*) from when our new employer moved the IT operations department to a different floor of our building. When I first started working at this office almost three years ago, we spent the better part of a month hauling this god awful equipment around during floor layout changes. Oh the horrible memories of figuring out what goes where, and what connects to what, and what the hell is this.

What a huge difference it makes getting rid of that horrible brushed steel look in Safari. Safari Enhancer (freeware) does that for you plus a few other actual useful things. But banishing the brushed steel from my sight was reason enough on its own.

If the person who lives near the Sagamiono Starbucks and happens to have a wireless network SSID "cordneos" or something like that reads this would you mind opening up your network? Please. Or if you can just go ahead and slip me the WEP password ---that'd be just super.

Should have seen this coming, so-called blackhat hackers that want to protest the RNC in New York by ---not letting anyone read its website. The real protesters in NYC will have a hard enough time getting credible media coverage without these asshats violating the opposition’s free speech. I despise Bush as much as the next bag of bones with a pulse but it makes no sense whatsoever to thwart someone’s free speech then in return expect to be heard freely yourself. You can only have two positions on free speech, for it or against it. Sadly these hackers have made their position clear.

We're really enjoying our little powerbook and after ripping almost every CD in our my music collection we've been using it as our stereo as well. For as small as the 12" powerbook's speakers are they produce some nice sounds but still don't compare to our home stereo. We pondered the idea of retiring our 15 year old stereo system and buying some USB or Firewire speakers for the notebook in turn reclaiming a large chunk of real estate beside the TV. But that would introduce the problem of more cables attached to the notebook making it, um, not so portable anymore.

Well, this changes everything.

Does anyone use IE on Mac OS anymore? When I bought my PowerMac a year ago IE came pre-installed on OS X 10.2 but my PowerBook with 10.3 only had Safari installed. Now I know why this is, because IE on Mac is a steaming pile of doggie pooh-pooh. It's the only browser I have found that can't even display the photo on the front page of my site.

Notified by a friend of this issue I've been wondering if I should even bother taking apart my code piece by piece so that like 2 users can keep using IE to view my photoblog, or should I just fuggetaboutit?

I spent the weekend getting accustomed to a Macintosh, again. I bought my first Mac, a PowerMac G4 MDD, over a year and a half now but only touched it a few times since Frankie was born. Reason being, it's too damn noisy. We had to keep it in our spare room making it difficult to watch Frankie or have a normal conversation during our time together in the evening.

We spend a large portion of our time on a computer, like most, so going with a wireless notebook was the only option. We bought a wireless card and access point for our existing PC notebook and never looked back at the desktop world. A year and a half of heavy use took its' toll so we ponied up for a new 12" Apple PowerBook with a built in wireless and DVD burner last week, and also slipped in a 20 GB iPod to replace my ailing MD player.

Having the option to switch user without logging out and seamlessly changing from an English OS, programs and menus to Japanese is simply amazing and exactly what we needed. And I'm anxious to start cataloging our growing collection of miniDV tapes onto DVD.

After I lugged the massive PowerMac out from under my desk and backed up our mp3 and photo library I wondered why I ever bothered with a desktop in the first place. The ease and convenience of a wireless notebook is just too great to ever give up.

It's been a while since I've been into the city. Masako and I headed up to Ebisu to see Masako's friend from Victoria and her year old daughter Moe. First time for me to meet her, and what a cutie she is! To get back to the ketai story, I went to Hit Shop last night to get the new A1301S. When the clerk found out that my current phone was only 4 months old he just said "Muri" and I could not get the discount on the phone and end up paying 40,000 yen for it! ... that was it. So we walked out confused. It is a very strange feeling when someone will not take your money, its like, I give you money... you give me a product or service... simple, no. Turns out that AU requires you to have your ketai for 10 months or more before you can upgrade you phone. We visited the AU shop in Sagamiono later today and they were much more help then the dropouts at Hit Shop. She explained that I could just cancel my contract with AU, pay a 1,000 yen fine, and sign up again. That way I can get a new phone at discounted price but have to get a new # a 080 number no doubt. She told me to wait for the new A5402S that will be coming out sometime next month. So I think I'll wait to see that new one and by that time the A1301S will be even cheaper. I REALLY wanna get moblogging soon.