Japanese TV

I was looking at DirecTV for satellite service, since the lone cable company around here, Charter, sucks. However, DirecTV doesn't carry Japanese programming; furthermore, they seem to have a bunch of Asian countries, e.g. China, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, etc., other than Japan. That offended me in a way.

So I looked into Dish Network, and they do have Japanese channels. $25/mo is a bit steep, but it would be pretty cool to get. Maybe after we unpack more of the boxes piled up in the living room of the new house—and set up the TV!

The Website is Down

Samir sent me a link to this video on Break.com which is friggin' hilarious. From the comments, I found the full version of the video.

Building an MP5

There was a post on HKPro a while ago about building an MP5.

It's about $1200 to fold the flat into a receiver, assemble the gun add a paddle magazine release and finish the gun in original HK style black. Every part on the gun is factory HK. Basically what you get from Adam is an MP5 with a big chunk out of the receiver missing so that it is no longer a firearm. All the parts are there minus the receiver. The receiver flat is produced on HK tooling by a company licensed by HK to produce MP5's. Once the flat is turned into a receiver by a pro like Jayson at IGF, the completed gun is every bit as much an MP5 as one from Obendorf, except of course for the semi auto shelf.

Sounds way cool...except for the part about $1200+. Plus if one wants it converted to NFA (SBR or AOW), there are the additional modifications and taxes. And it still won't be a real sub gun. Ah well.

Indirect Solar Indoor Lighting

I must've seen something on this in an article on a zero-emissions building in California. There was indoor lighting that utilized solar concentrators and fiber optics to channel light indoors so that electricity wouldn't have to be used during the day.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to find out how much it costs, because that'd be pretty sweet to use in my new house. I googled "fiber optic lighting basement sunlight" and came up with a few interesting links. Unfortunately I still don't know how much this stuff costs—other than it's likely outside my price range.

Sunlight inside no direct-sunlighted rooms
Simple and bright, heliostats tap sunlight for lighting outdoor and, increasingly, indoor spaces
Sunlight Direct Hybrid Lighting: Install It, Get a 30% Federal Tax Credit
Hybrid Lighting Promises Cool, Efficient Light and More...

Fireproof Safes

So I'm looking for a fireproof (er, fire-resistant) safe for the new house, i.e. a big-ass gun safe. Of course it has to be made in the U.S., so my selection is probably limited. Here are some vendors:

Sturdy Gun Safe Manufacturing - Possibly the best value. Has minimal moving parts, a removable door, and the insulating material is ceramic and glass wool.
Sportsman Steel Safe Co. - Similar to Sturdy. Uses ceramic wool, drywall, and an air gap for insulation.
Graffunder Safe & Vault - Look to be the best, albeit the most expensive and heaviest of all. The insulator is a cement compound.
American Security - Looks pretty good, albeit expensive. Insulation is cement-based.
Fort Knox
Heritage Safe Co.
Liberty Safe - They are way overpriced, and use drywall as their insulator. Can be found at Gander Mountain.
Smith Security Safes
Hall's Safe Co.

Slashdot News

Brightnets: "Owner-Free Filesystems", distributed, public storage
How Facebook stores all those digital photos
Bjarne Stroustrup reveals C++ secrets
Metallic glass
Bad boys get more girls, fo' real. Shiz.

enysea

グリソが行くダイブショップ…かな？

Dog Tags

Yasu had asked about getting dog tags. I found a site, Military Dog Tags, that sells U.S.-made tags, and the order page is pretty nice. When Sachie and I went to Okinawa in 2006, she made a pair at a shop on Kokusai-Dori. I don't think she's ever worn them, though.

Definition of a Conservative

CNN for the most part has a hard liberal bias, and therefore, for the most part, they suck. They've been trying to appear less biased by featuring Glenn Beck's op-ed periodically, and certainly it helps. (They have that Reuben Navarrette on there that consistently pisses me off with his moronic, liberal, pro-illegal immigration op-eds.) Beck has a piece on who to vote for in the election this year, stating that he might not vote for McCain because McCain's not a true conservative. Beck goes on to list what he thinks defines a conservative, and it's pretty good.

My comments:

Mr. Beck, excellent op-ed piece. That about sums it up, and I'm facing the same dilemma. Certainly those values are the right ones to have, regardless of what the label is. The problem is splitting the vote, like Perot did. So the issue at hand is, how badly do we not want Obama to get into office?

To mbronx, the point of not letting the government control education is to not allow the curriculum to be polluted by outside parties. Parents should have control of what kind of information makes it into their children's heads, not the government. Supplemental funding should be handled at the local level so that no stipulations can be placed on receiving the federal money.

There were a few scumbag posters:

"Who cares for whom Mr. Beck wants to vote. This is not news." — Apparently dr doesn't notice opinion pieces when they're left-wing (admittedly, I've thought the same thing, though, about Navarrette). Newspapers always have op-ed sections. Why not try to get people to think about the issues of the day? Maybe that's impossible.

"Thank you for laying out all of the reasons I don't consider myself a conservative." — Hey Justin, why say that you're a moron in a public forum? Try growing a brain!

"I'd rather you stay home on election day, anyway." — Don't have kids, Kris, I'd rather you stay out of the gene pool, anyway. Beck didn't say he'd stay home, but rather that he may not vote for either main party candidate. Cretin.

Hehe.

Snopes Education

Recently my mom forwarded me a warning about the "postcard" virus. The note claimed it was checked out on Snopes, but didn't include the link. Well, I found the real link and discovered that as I surmised that the warning was a hoax. (There aren't any viruses that can "burn" one's HDD.)

That got me reading various articles on Snopes. There were a couple of interesting entries, one on the "Triangle of Life" that Harry Lam had forwarded me while on assignment, and one on The Great Stork Derby. Charles Millar sounds like he was a really cool guy.

Region Free

The Firmware Page used to have a good collection of patched/hacked optical drive firmware to bypass region codes. Since >NIL: retired in 2005, however, the firmware scene has somewhat sucked.

The Dangerous Brothers have a lot of new firmwares, but not for the newer Pioneer drives, which kind of sucks. Well, that's the way it goes. Beggars can't be choosers. So beggars will have to buy a supported drive, if available.

Edit: I found out from reading the forum above a bit more that MediaCodeSpeedEdit (MCSE) supports updating a standard Pioneer DVR-215 firmware to RPC1. Sweet!

CNN's Editorial Skillz

CNN has an article on the proposed bill to make concealed carry legal in national parks. This is a doubly good idea, to cement CCW policy into federal law before the anti-gun laws that are sure to be passed in 2009. But true to form, the CNN article has a glaring error, which I sent in to CNN as a correction:

First paragraph: "...in which a black .22-caliber Glock pistol sits snugly."

Glock does not make any .22 handguns, although third-party conversion kits are available. Glock does have a model G22 in .40, which is a favorite caliber of police officers.

http://www.glock.com/english/pistols_models.htm

It wouldn't make sense to carry a .22 for personal defense, since its stopping power is almost non-existent.

The World of Golden Eggs

So a while back, Kevin sent me this link to an anime skit called "すげえデブ", which unfortunately is no longer available due to copyright violation. Apparently the group or whatever is called The World of Golden Eggs. Sachie found out from her bro the name of the group, and had me watch a couple of their other videos. Some are hilarious, like the 91TV one where the Kunoichis help Dubya finish his speech, but some are more incomprehensible to my sense of humor.

The SSD Threat

Samsung didn't have me very worried with their cheap flash, because they were screwing themselves trying to build a market by dropping prices to unsustainable levels. Apple took them for a ride. Intel's effort is more of a concern, because they have the market clout to push flash. That Seagate's going to enter the SSD arena as well is an even bigger concern—perhaps the HDD industry's headed for some more pain in the near future. Remind me why I do this again?

The Homebrew Channel

/. had a link to some hack for the Wii called The Homebrew Channel, which allows running homebrew code on a Wii. I knew there was a good reason for buying the Zelda Twilight Princess game: even though I haven't played it yet...installing the "Twilight Hack" apparently requires the game. A software hack sounds a lot more attractive to me than having to install a hardware mod that may get screwed by a Wii firmware update.

Another way to beat jet lag

Russ sent me this link to an article regarding how to beat jet lag—by going hungry.

変圧器

秋葉原で見てきた。これは西口の線路下の店や、ラジオ会館の店じゃなくて、駅の南にある、線路下のほうだ。俺的に新しい発見の、「ニューアキハバラ。」そこの店に真空管アンプ専用変圧器などが置いてある。

Californication

I found a blog that has a translation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication into Japanese. Wacky! And I think the guy did a pretty good job. As well as making reasonable sense of Anthony Kiedis' lyrics!

Pop Baby Names

CNN had an article recently about the top 10 baby names for 2007. Essentially it was a wrapper around the SSA's press release. "Emily" (12 years running) and "Jacob" (9 years running) are the most popular names...? I don't know any Emilys or Jacobs, but then again, I don't know anyone with 9-12 yr olds.

Previously I'd linked to a CNN article on "baby name remorse" and the SSA's top name list. Search for "baby" on here to retrieve all such links.

渡辺玲子

Her version of Tzigane kicks ass.

Gun Links from Edo

Ed sent me these a while ago in an IM session. Most are C&R related.

IMA
Model 1 Sales
AIM Surplus
SOG
Military Gun Supply
Akron Armory
Classic Arms

Happy Hour

This is so friggin' true.

Konica Pages

I found a site with scanned Konica user manuals. There was another somewhat interesting one as well.

Camera Fungi

I didn't realize how mold/mildew or whatever could grow in camera lenses. I mean, I'd heard of it, but never knew how it could happen. It's humidity that does it. While I was in Japan, it was much more humid than in the upper Midwest of the U.S., so some SLR lenses I had grew some stuff. That really sucks. Here's some stuff about cleaning out fungi. Professional help may be best. However, apparently the fungi can etch the coating on the lenses, which sucks. Act fast.

Fungi in Photographic Lens [sic]
Camera cleaning, restauration [sic] and maintenance
Cleaning lens fungus

FlatWire

Digging through some old WSJs that had piled up, I found reference to a product called FlatWire, a paper-thin wire that can be used to add lighting without tearing up a wall to install. They have A/V models, too. I've seen flat speaker wire before, but not quite this thin.

43 Folders

43 Folders is Merlin Mann's personal productivity site. (Link to most popular posts.) I stumbled upon it when googling David Allen's Getting Things Done. Apparently 43f has a bunch of "life hacks" in the GTD vein.

The tip about metering usage of clothing by putting the hangers up backward, replacing them the right way, and after six months purging clothes that are unused is particularly interesting. I have a closet full of stuff that I don't wear but can't seem to part with. My work room is strewn with stuff like that. I need a bigger place to hide my stuff.

Pilkington Competition Equipment

My dad sent me a link to the Pilkington site, since they're one of the few places that have information on the Beretta 89. I'm still not clear on how it differs from the 87, other than the grip, but they sure as hell look cool.

Bogus Shooting

CNN has an article about the dude in NYC who was shot by plainclothes cops. Here's the comment I submitted.

I wasn't there, so I don't know the exact situation.

However, if I were getting into my car and some guys in plainclothes drew guns, I'd get out of there. Why would you trust someone who pulled a gun and claimed to be a police officer? No uniform, no car, no badge. It could be just a robbery!

Based on the limited facts, I'd say that Sean Bell did nothing wrong -- nothing I, as a law-abiding citizen, wouldn't have done. I'd say the cops reacted out of proportion and therefore did the wrong thing.

Japanese Gun Videos

Some dude on YouTube has videos from some Japanese TV program showing various guns in action. The G3 one is pretty sweet with the cut-away of the roller-delayed blowback action. The HK G11, PSG1, MP5SD, MP5A3, MP5K in briefcase, FN P90, FAL and others are shown. Man, those Japanese know how to film guns!

Various c|net

Blog post comparing "computers, chips, [and] coffee"
Malcolm Gladwell "not thinking" at RSA2008 (comment)
Another blog post about combating burnout