Posts (page 2)

So, I caved. After Apple's press event on Tuesday I finally gave in and bought an iMac. I have had a MacBook since they were released, and ever since then I have been building a little collection of Apple products. An iPod Nano followed by an Apple TV.

24" iMac

Once I was completely converted to OS X from Debian Linux I started looking for an Apple computer that would meet my needs beyond a small (but not small enough) laptop. If I had fallen for OS X a couple of years ago I would have gone with a Mac Pro without hesitation, but I can't justify spending that much money on a toy that I really wouldn't make use of. No longer do I care about graphics card specs, or processor speeds...I couldn't even tell you what the best CPU available is without some serious research.

I would love to have been able to buy a mid-range tower and bought a Cinema/Dell display to go with it, but the best Apple could do was the Mac Mini. After a year without an update I certainly wasn't going to pay out for the little box that would undoubtedly be updated the day after it got delivered. But Steve Jobs did update the MacMini on Tuesday, so I was a little tempted - but after comparing the price of the Mini and a 23" Cinema display with the new 24" iMac I couldn't stomach the much lower specs for the chance to upgrade more easily.

So now, in a year or two, I will have a slightly (possibly a bit more than slightly) bigger monitor that I can connect to the next Mac I buy. I think I will enjoy being on the dull edge, as opposed to cutting or blunt, of Mac technology for a while - the screen is certainly the shiniest thing I have owned in a while!

Positives:

Beautiful screen
Three cables total - mouse to keyboard to screen to power
Silent compared to my happily humming MacBook

Negatives:

It can't be upgraded! I know it makes Apple a ton of cash, but please, please let me stick a new processor or hard drive in there...
Maybe the screen is just too pretty, it makes the wall look dull

My ears! Kanye West murders robots and a child-god

Jul 4, 2007
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How can someone take two of the best things in the world (Daft Punk and Akira) and make something as bad as this?! It is fair to say that I am not a fan of the Kanye West style of music in the first place - but this song is terrible. If you took his contribution away it might be an interesting remix of Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger. Although I do like when he says stronger, and it fits with the music behind - almost like being surprised by a raisin in a bag of rabbit droppings.

Daft Hands is so much better.

Facebook and Vox

Jun 3, 2007
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I am not a fan of convergence applications, so prefer to do particular tasks with particular tools. An iPod for music, a phone for calling, a camera for taking pictures, Vox for blogging, Flickr for photo albums, and (for now at least) Facebook for whatever it is that it does...

While I want these to stay separate, I wouldn't mind if they tried just a little bit to play nicely with each other. Is there a way to integrate Vox and Facebook at least a little bit? Perhaps I am blind but I can't see a way get Vox posts to display with pictures in Facebook's notes section.

Saving Real Streams Using MPlayer

Dec 21, 2006
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I just needed to save a streaming video and remembered that the last time I wanted to do it on a Windows box I ended up having to find a specific outdated application. This time I found a tip that lets you do it using MPlayer - which means you can use it on OS X, Linux and Windows...

I think the page I found is using an older version of the application, but in general you just tell MPlayer:

/path/to/mplayer -dumpfile /path/to/local/file.rm -dumpstream rtsp://server.com/path/to/content.rm

and let it do its thing.

The actual code I used in terminal with the latest version of MPlayer was:

/Applications/MPlayer\ OSX.app/Contents/Resources/External_Binaries/mplayer_intel.app/Contents/MacOS/mplayer -dumpfile ./test.rm -dumpstream rtsp://server.com/somefile.rm

Maybe it is useful for someone.

Harajuku

Dec 18, 2006
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My favourite place in all of Tokyo has to be Harajuku. It has a great selection of kooky shops, even more kooky shoppers, the best restaurants (for me), an excellent temple, beautiful streets and houses, Hachiko's grave, not to mention the teddy boys, cosplayers, and goths! The only things that let it down are the outrageously busy train station and lack of a monster-sized music shop. There used to be an HMV in the bottom of Laforet but it seems to have gone missing in the last year.

Pretty in Pink

Takeshita-dori in Harajuku

Takeshita-dori is a narrow street that has a huge number of fashion shops on either side - they all sell clothes that you would never see in Europe (possibly anywhere outside of Japan), and they sell them at very reasonable prices. The street is always packed with a mixture of school kids, fashion victims, hippies, and tourists pushing each other to the side to get to the best bargains. The shops that sell the most interesting clothes have signs plastered outside warning tourists not to take any photos, and there are a number of foreigners aggressively trying to convince the Japanese youths to visit their shops that are just off the main street.

As well as the clothing outlets there are a few shoe shops, a lot of underwear shops, crepe shops, and a bunch of basements filled with purikura (print club) machines. Purikura is basically a photobooth that has cameras placed around the walls and enough room for a group of friends to fit in and pose for about 6 photos. Some have extra features like wind machines or props. A computer screen guides you through the types of poses to get yourselves in, then when you have got all the pictures sends you round to the other side of the machine. You then have the opportunity to customise each of the pictures using a huge range of drawing tools, amusing images, logos, backgrounds, etc. Many teenagers write over so much of the picture it is almost impossible to make out who was in the photo. Once you have defaced the pictures sufficiently you can choose how they will be printed (a few large ones, many small ones or a mixture). The final printed photos are on stickers so you can put them on your phone, diary, bag, head - or pretty much anywhere else! Purikura is amazingly popular with teenagers, with machines available absolutely everywhere. It is a lot of fun and only takes 5 minutes and ¥400 to get a nice souvenir of the day.

Shoes at Celine

The other big shopping street in Harajuku is Omotesando, which is also called "Japan's Champs Elysées" - I'm not sure if that is necessarily accurate, but it does have some very glamourous sections and a lot of designer stores. It is pretty much the opposite of Takeshita-dori, the road is very wide and tree-lined in parts, the shops are carefully spread out and not particularly cheap, and there is a severe lack of crêperies. However, for window shopping it is excellent and some of the buildings are really quite beautiful. The Prada building is particularly stunning and this year it has been joined by some new neighbouring buildings, which are also very nice. Previously when I have been here there has been only a collection of metal struts and a wrapped up building in gestation.

Aoyama Bochi

At the end of Omotesando (it is a very long street) is a very peaceful graveyard, which includes the grave of poor, persistent Hachiko. The residential parts of Harajuku are just as peaceful and only a few minutes walk from the hustle and bustle of the main shopping streets - I would love to live here someday. If you wonder around the backstreets you can find a lot of interesting styles of houses, along with the occasional boutique, or beauty parlour - I can only imagine there are some very rich residents nearby or these places couldn't possibly make any money.

Every Sunday the kids (and young at heart) gather in Yoyogi park, and the area next to the train station, to show off their outfits and in some cases their dancing skills. There are a few distinct groups:

The goths who wear outfits ranging from the traditional black make-up and moody clothes, through those with a huge number of piercings, to the gothic lolitas.
The cosplayers go with dressing like their favourite anime, manga, and computer game characters, with varying degrees of success.
The teddy boys are stuck in the 50s and have slicked back hair, leather jackets, and a variety of denim wear. They are also the ones most likely to be dancing to rock and roll from their very loud stereos.