Tokyo Gadget Report Dec 2002

What's new in gadgets in Tokyo? As I always say, the only thing that is important are things that deal with the newly digital media -- MP3, JPG, MPEG -- or sound, pictures and videos. Before getting to those, do you know that it is Minidisc's 10th year anniversary? Just when you think it cannot get any smaller, Sony's 10th year anniversary MD player MD-E10 is 55g light, and 9.9mm think, looking at it seems like it is smaller than a MD itself. It is so think that when an MD is in its case it maybe thinker than the player itself. There is a corresponding Net-MD version, the MZ-N10 which allows USB transfer of songs from your PCs directly to the recorder in more than realtime speeds depending on the compression level (MDLP*), up to 64 times.

Looking at customer traffic at retail stores, no one cares about MDs and MP3s anymore -- in Tokyo they are as common as starbucks. Besides the lighter and NetMD features (which have been around here for a while) there is nothing too exciting. All the foot traffic is at the digital camera front. There are lots of new models, but the most interested ones are the ultra thin cameras. Sure they are unnecessary and overpriced. You can get the same functions in a normally small size camera, like the Minolta DiMAGE X or the Canon IXUS 230 V3. But why won't you want a super cool credit card size Casio Exilim Wearable Card Camera? They offer both a 1 and a 2 meg pixel camera, with or without audio (audio record/playback and video record playback) capabilities. In a size of 11.3 mm thin, 88 W x 55 mm H. The video/audio ones are slightly thicker 11.4 mm. These come in fashionable red/green/white colors. The image quality is amazingly good. No zoom, but with scene management. Built in memory plus SD. They goes from 30,000 to 35000 to 45000 yen depending on resolution and features. No one needs one of these, but it is just so fashionable and cool!

Next is the Sony Cyber-shot U10 (DSC-U10) camera. I guess this is supposed to be for kids or the fashion consious. It is shaped like one of those old disposible camera -- long and boxy but tiny. It is not cheap but oh so cute. A sliding lens cover will allow for some level of abuse. Movie mode, scene support, uses memory stick and normal AAA batteries. You can hang on your neck as fashion accessory. It comes with pink, silver and blue.

While I was in the audio asle, I spotted this poorly made MP3 player that obviously try to copy the iPod design ! . I also took a look at the Toshiba version of the iPod, which uses a real harddisk. The unit is only slightly larger then the iPod, but feels much larger. Don't think it will make it.

On a different note, A new sharp Zaurus SLC700 comes with a bigger qwerty keyboard, to be available 12/14.

Fujitsu Tablet PC

I just tried out the tablet PC from Fujitsu. It.... WORKS !! It works very well actually. The hand writing recognition is fast. If you just want to input electronic ink, the ink input feels real as well (using Microsoft Journal application). I can see using this instead of paper for note taking. The tablet itself have all necessary ports, including VGA, USB, IR, built in WiFi, modem and Lan. It comes also with a thin IR keyboard. So if you are travelling with it as a laptop replacement unit (A new term?? You heard it here first) you may bring the tablet and the IR keyboard. One thing that will be a little strange is that you will have to either prop up the tablet or lay it flat on the desk when you are using the keyboard.

Subway system in HK

In the Hong Kong subway (MTR), when two lines intersect, they intersect in two consecutive stations. Each station is for one connection direction. So you always can walk from Line 1 Platform A1 to Line 2 Platform A2 at Station A to go in one direction, and walk form Line 1 Platform B1 to Line 2 Platform B2 at Station B to go in the other direction when connecting. Confused? Make sense? THis is a very clever idea and it has been done a long time ago. For example, looking at the map above, going on green line south connecting south on red line, change at Yau Ma Tei. To go from Red line north connecting north on red line, change at Mongkok instead. Got i?

Dial User Interface on Navigation System

I was playing with (or watch someone else playing with) a onboard navigation system in a Mercedes in Germany. I think it is a after market unit, may not be made by Mercedes. Anyway it uses a dial to input addresses, i.e. typing. It would seems tedious at first, "dialing" through the alphabet. However the system is smart enough to only show the valid set of inputs at each point. i.e if you are spelling a street address, it knows at any point what are the valid names, and only display the letters that are valid. (This is similar to the search input in the Palm Desktop), and will even prefill with letters when those are the only choice.

VeriSign and Domain names

I registered my first domain orac.com in 1995 !! Only until now VeriSign has managed to merge all their account databases so that I can have all the domains that belong to me (All your bases are belong to us ?) in one single place. Now I can do bulk renewals, address changes, etc. without having to fill in different forms, log in and out serveral times. Of course, it took me 30 minutes on their website, and 20 minutes on the phone with Verisign to get all of them together.

digital pen and paper

Why did this Logitech digital pen product slipped through all the media? I saw it first in a PC Connection printed catalog. Visiting the Anoto website confirmed that it is the same technology by Anoto, first written up by Wired. This is a truly innovative idea. I hope it makes it. Maybe I should order one? Sounds like they are a little behind on getting paper printed. Much better than tablet PC, right? nothing beats the feeling of real pen writing on real paper. Maybe Micorsoft is killing all the press with their tablet PC announcements. Or they are waiting for next weeks' Comdex? Read the wired article for a description of the actual technology. It is very clever. This is one product that actually let the computer does the hard work and let the human does what's normal, i.e. writing pen on paper. The pen optically record where the pen is writing, and the paper has printed on it very small dots that make each location unique. Think of the pen reading X/Y cordinates from the paper. The article says that the pattern printed on the paper has such a large address space that each type of paper/form can be uniquely identified.

Initial design is Done

We have finished the initial design of the layout of the loft. (What is the correct architectural term here? spacial program? floor plan? ..) This is a major milestone in the design process I think, and we have taken record time to do this -- meaning getting to such a great solution in such a short time. We achieved the goal of having a big open space (19x20ft) for doing tai chi, swords, etc. We also have a great audio/video/entertaining space that is good for both private listening/viewing and movie nights. The overall loft is extremely open but without being too sterile. Everything seems to be falling into place now.

Meanwhile, for some reason we have to get the building's architect to approve our changes to the interior, and we just got that approved, at least on the rough drawings that we sent them. The next stage is detail engineering drawings to get final approval.

Hero -- not a preview

Hero the movie will be out soon, although no one in the States seems to know when. They released it for just one week in China just to get it qualified for something (but not Oscar?), but it is still not in general release even in Asia. One thing that I heard is that Miramax is trying to delay the U.S. launch so that it won't compete with other films during the Christmas seasons, but China may be giving them some pressure to show it at least once so that it can be qualified for 2002 Oscars. The trailer looks beautiful. I think it is going to be a great movie.... BUT, Isn't hard to be the movie that follows Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ? Of course Zhang Yi Mou is a world class director. In fact I loved most of his movies. However I cannot help but think of Crouching Tiger, Ang Lee, Zhang ziyi. The fact that Actress Zhang ziyi is in both films, Music is both by Tan Dun, CTHD has Yo Yo Ma, Hero has Itzhak Perlman, Christopher Doyle is doing the camera for both, etc. This is like a sequel for the genre by a different director.

Still, I am sure this is going to be a great all round product. The Martial Arts will be better since we have Donnie Yen (son my of sifu) and Jet Li. The title song will be by Faye Wong, one of my favorite singer, only if they will release it soon, or I have to go find it in Asia. Very much like that year when I went to Singapore to catch CTHD on its last day there, but months before the released it in the States.

Martin Creed / Tate / and ...

The Turner Prize exhibits will be at Tate British until Jan 5 2002. Wonder if I will make it. What caught my attention to the Turner Prize was Martin Creed, who won it last year. The prize was presented by, Madonna ! What led me to Martin Creed, particular his work #88, is the website: Origamiboulder. Warning : you may find that site's content offensive. Make sure you read the questions and answers... The above little bit of net finds are a result of cross media browsing, reading the Sunday paper, my email inbox, searching for topics mentioned in either, and more linking, and...

Bringing Design to Software

Read the excepts from this book.The first chapter reprints Mitch Kapor's "A software design Manifesto". A 11 years old paper that is still relevent, and sadly un fulfilled today. One funny quote is: "everyone I know (including me) feels the urge to throw that infuriating machine through the window at least once a week. (And now, thanks to recent advances in miniaturization, this is now possible.)"

He also draws analogy from building architects in defining what is software designer. The three fundementals of architecture, quoted often in different translation of Vitruvius, is mentioned: the triple essence: strength, utility, and aesthetic effect. Sir Henry Wotton (1568 - 1639) quaintly changed this to, "commodity, firmness and delight."

sofa

I found a really great sofa system by Cassina. called K11 frame. The entire setup is configurable, from back to side to table services. They also have a matching bed as well. Chaise today, loveseat tomorrow. The picture does not do the system justice. Also check out the wink and the dodo chair while you are at their site.

wiki for work

My first encounter with wiki was at the Zope site. I did not like it. It was confusing, the quality of the content was not always good. Then a few weeks before, my super sysadmin showed me that he was using a Python wiki clone for his own documentation. Because it is web based, it is always there and it makes writing documentation simple. I played with it for a little bit, and decided to roll it out for the entire company to see if it will help us document our knowledge. Some background -- we currently have two internal web sites. One was maintained mostly by our internal web master. Mostly because we don't have a full time web master anymore. The content has slowly gone out of date. The other site is a simple user directoried web site on a Apache server. Each person has their own directories. There are reasonable content on these sites. The problem is that you have to either edit HTML directly on Linux, or use a PC tool and manage with FTP.

Audio Video Space

I am researching the setup requirement for a good A/V space. A good reference site to start with is SoundStage. Let's start with audio (2 channels) speaker placement. Center of the woofer should be RW x .276 from side wall, RW x .447 from rear wall, to minimize reflection. RW = room width. This means a normal 10 ft wide room will push the speakers 4.5 ft into the living space. Difficult to accomplish I'd say. It's all about minimizing reflection. Glass (windows!) is bad. Padded walls? Unlikely either. This is not going to be easy.

How to Save Money

How do you save money? I used to count every cent. Or, rather, I think hard before spending any money. Especially when spending on the little things. Do I really want a Starbucks Coffee for $1.68? Or wait until I get home and make a cup from their beans for 1/10th the cost? I want to buy all the supplies when they are on sale. It is part saving money. Part principles. Part don't want to be cheated with a higher price. This whole process is a trade off between actually money spent/save, the time spent thinking about it, and the time spend saving the money. For example, the 10 seconds spent thinking of driving another 2 miles, spending another 5 minutes driving, to the supermarket to save $75 on a 1/2 gallon of milk. On one hand, it seems absurd to spend that much time thinking and driving and waiting to save so little. On the other hand the more organized you are with those thoughts, the easier it becomes. Being frugal is a state of mind? With a lot of practice like that, one will also tend to be more careful when coming to the most expensive items. Most people who knows that I am doing this think I am silly in doing it. Waste of efforts. As my income increases, and perhaps my time seems more valuable, I tend to be less absolute on trying to save that way. But, very truly, about 50% of the time when I am thinking about s Starbucks coffee I still go through the thinking process in my head. It is not the actual amount of money save or spent. But it is the relative worth of the amount. What does a $3 latte really gets me?