ペラペラ Penguin
Another year and again the resolution: I will study my Japanese. Perhaps this year I will even learn it. Today I've discovered another handy tutor, the Daily Yomiuri's Pera Pera Penguin, a series of "5-minute Japanese" by Hitomi Hirayama.
ペラペラ is actually an adverb used to translate fluent. Speaking a language the ペラペラ way is rather good as you would imagine; unless modest flattery of Japanese people is involved it may just mean that you Japanese is ok and they can understand you.
This is something I wish had been available when I lived in Japan. The one-page format explains a concept and has examples in kanji and romaji. Too many beginning Japanese books don't include kanji, rendering them useless for practicing with Japanese coworkers who find it as difficult to read romanized Japanese as it is for me to read phonetically spelled English.
I am sure you now want me to divulge the mentioned link, so here it is as part of the daily yomiuri.
Sanyo’s CG6
After a not so good Xacti C5 and C6, Sanyo comes back with an upraged Xacti CG6. More good features and better light sensitivity. I quote a few comments:
SDHCカードスロットを備??MPEG-4ムービーカメラ??「Xacti C6??後継モデル??る。CCD?有効画素数約600万画素(?画素数約637万画素)?1/2.5型?従???????外形寸法?C6?68×23× 108mm(幅×奥行??×高?)?ら?67.7×34.5×100.3mm??若干スリム???短??????る。
?止画撮影時??新???感度ISO 1600?利用???るよ?????。???動画??従??9画素混?技術をより強化?る????暗所撮影能力??上。「ランプモード??設定?る???? フレームレート?30fps?ら15fps??????最低被写体照度約2ルクスを実?。「????????程度?明る??も撮影????る????。
???iTunesを介???Xacti?撮影??MPEG-4動画をiPod?転??能。Web-SHQ/HQ/S?解?度??????????れ以上? モード??iTunes?QVGA?変????ら?生???る。???第6世代?iPod?640×480ドット?動画も?生???る??三洋??「新 iPod??CG6?撮影??640×480ドット?動画??生???る???????動作検証?終???????????る。
My Japanese girl
Well in fact my Japanese girl is Taiwanese. Today I just would like to write a few words about this girl I met when I lived in Japan. She is the one who somehow taugh me so much Japanese...
We lived in the same city, I was trying to find places to learn Japanese with an very nice ?爺?ん.
I am glad I changed my lesson's day this night. I usually don't communicate much with people around because eh I don't speak Japanese. But this night, 2 groups were conversing in Japanese. Mine and her's. She sounded like she was native, I still cannot imagine why she was taking classes. Oh well, my 先生 hooked us up by just introducing me to her. I have to thank him for that. Shy as usual I don't really say anything, but it happened that we were heading home by the same route, so as talkative as she is we chatted.
It was about 8pm when the lesson ended and then times flew and we had to part. I had being living for while in Japan, without friends to meet - I had friends but we would never meet because they became real salarymen - and it was the first time for me to actually met someone and talk with this person. So I had to do something, I could not just let her go without a contact info, remember I had to change my lesson date and I figured out that she had too so there would be no way to talk to her again. I probably had thought the sentence 1-2 minutes and it came out: 時間????ら?コーヒー飲???ん?？
I am glad I used all the courage I had to say that - I know me and I am sure I would not have say anything. She said YES. So we were off for a coffee and chatted. Well she chatted and me trying to catch up. This taiwanese girl has been studying Japanese for while now and she is very fluent, and me I have never keep up my Japanese and I am still very bad. But she would do the discussion and I would follow and interact as much as I could. It was a good duo that ended up about 2-3 hours later with her giving me her meishi and me saying that I would when I'll start working - yeah it was before I start working for ロイター and before going to 石巻.
And we would hang out together from time to time. Not as much as I wanted too, she obsiouly had more friends that I did and were way more busier than me. Oh well, coffee, dinner, seaquarium, attraction park, we were a good team... we would even try 居酒屋 together sometime.
Then you know, I had to leave Japan.
I met her today on msn, well she left a message while I was away yesterday - I most of the time forgot to logout my msn when going back home. And we chatted for about 3 hours in Japanese. She said she missed me and yeah I missed her too, honto
The more interesting in this story is that I didnot know she has a really good English - and Mandarin of course, but this I knew. And everytime we would meet, we would chat in Japanese, always.
Sony UX50
Well I just came across someone asking for the availability of a particular device, yes the UX50 in English. Curious as I am all the time, I could not refrain myself from checking review for this nice device.
To sum up: I think this is the way to go for future hand pc. Bring it with you and work and dock for full input performance use. Too bad it is Sony, they suck with their all proprietary everything.
Well I dont own this toy (yet), so I am just quoting a review and providing a link.
The good
So far, I’ve given just general impressions of the UX50, so let’s move on to look at the little things it does really well. Firstly, as a mobile email device it’s unparalleled here in Japan. (Remember, we don’t have any Treos or Blackberries.) Being able to log onto a public hotspot and reply in brief to messages from the office without having to resort to a laptop was a pleasure.
The dual webcams embedded in the front and back of the screen part of the case are most definite plus points and make videoconferencing a breeze. Sony has even preinstalled Skype and a Japanese videophone application. I’ll leave the typically junky startup PC clutter aside (that’s what msconfig is for, right?).
Perhaps tellingly, one of the outstanding features of the UX50 is its fast wake-up from standby. Check out the video below (sorry about the shakes; the aircon was pumpin’ in the office today) and you’ll see exactly what I mean — to get up and running from a cold start in around six seconds is both impressive and useful.
QR code s fun
When I lived in Japan I often had to deal with QR code...Getting information from a little image such as Addresses, URL, Contact info, data, files!
So yeah, almost every in Japan has a QR code: business cards, adverts, magazines, any printed media will have a QR code, either for the URL, address, phone number, or even little pieces of content themselves (ringtones, pictures). Each operator has a slightly different way of encoding (surprise!), but there are generators that try to bridge them. The original encoding scheme is NTTDoCoMo's, described here.
I really wonder why those are not used in the west. Well only a little...here is what I have found on the net.
Anyway, there has been a little progress since I last looked. There's a sourceforge project that has released Java code that will decode QR codes. If anyone has the skills to package this up J2ME style for Symbian, you'd make me very happy. There's also plans (I think) to turn the code into other programming languages - again, if you're good at Java translating, then contribute. If you have a Japanese phone, you can download an appli and test it out.
I also found a really good QR code reader for the Mac - it's in Japanese, but isn't hard to figure out. I may try to produce an English interface file for it. Haven't found a good one for the PC yet.
Other things I have found:
A good set of QR code generator programs in all sorts of languages (plus how to encode it, in Japanese, natch).
An open source (standard 1d) UPN bar code reader for Symbian/S60.
Visual codes, a very nice research project, with real demos on S60 (and in Sourceforge). Uses their own encoding format, but nicely illustrates lots of uses for this.
Semacode continues to go from strength to strength. It's now implemented on bus stops in the US, and he's quietly released a server as well. It's a pity Simon doesn't like QR codes - I think they'd add something to the URLness of semacode.
Wikipedia page on QR codes.
Anothr good QR code generator (in English).
QRcodeblog is a weblog, where every entry is encoded in QR code. Also features QR code chocolate.
Colourcodes is a new rival to QR codes - however, with the need to be online (their server does the lookup from code to URL - a business model that fails), and the lack of carrier acceptance, it's unlikely to dent QR code's dominance in Japan.
Twits
- I think that my neighbor speaks super loud on the phone so she can get an office. can I get earplugs? 4 days ago
- Waiting... (@ Toronto East General Hospital) http://t.co/F6JUyNig 6 days ago
- Not sure I like the noisy and crowdy ambiance but the food and service is just awesome... I must go ahead but not o... http://t.co/4u31XOfT 6 days ago
- Not sure why it used to be much better...it was not what we order trying to make veal as beef?! Services was not ev... http://t.co/vQIijnPi 6 days ago
- I'm at Future Bakery & Café (483 Bloor St W, at Brunswick Ave., Toronto) http://t.co/0IwmUxyF 1 week ago
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