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J2J Episode 07: Techno Toys


Quote of the day:
  「髪の毛を金髪にして、かっこいい国際派の女になるの！」
 　上瀬 心　１５歳
  "Dye your hair blond and you'll become a cool international-style girl!"
   KAMISE Kokoro, 15 years old and licking three cones of rapidly melting
   vanilla ice cream simultanously, as quoted in PiG magazine, 7/2000 p. 6


A few weeks back I wrote about a techno party, this episode will be about
something even worse: techno toys!  I am currently typing this on
a new Sony Vaio PCG-C1XG/BP (price: obscene) on a virtual 52-inch
display floating in the air two feet in front of me, thanks to the
Sony Glasstron PLM-A35.  The Glasstron may be funky for movies, but it's
not really cut out for driving a computer display -- even on a 640x480
screen I have to use 18-point bold text to make typing comfortable.
And even 100g of headset gets pretty uncomfortable surprisingly fast...


One problem with the Glasstron is that it's designed to produce
an immersive reality, ie. it blocks out everything except the
screen, whereas us wearable geeks prefer augmented reality, ie.
reality with a computer display on top.  So, I did what came
naturally and ripped out the second half.  The result: I
still have a display floating two feet in front of me, it just
has my other eye's view as a background picture.  My eyes are
still freaking out over each one seeing different things, the
display pops randomly in and out of the foreground depending on
what I'm looking at...  somewhat disconcerting, but evidently I'll
get used to it in a while.


At any rate, this system is the foundation that the Yak-1
Wearable Translator(tm) will be built on.  If you find that
name intriguing, you may wish to consult...


  http://www.sanpo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~jani/yak/


...to read the full story and admire my pictures of the brutal
violation of the Glasstron's delicate insides.


I seem to have neglected to mention that last week, I spent the
part of my inheritance not spent on squid by buying an Olympus
C-2020Z digital camera, not quite an SLR but at least priced like one.
I could've gotten a technically nearly identical C-960L for half the
price, but in today's marketplace you have to pay through the nose for
the luxury of being allowed to set everything manually, instead of
relying on automation.  I'm still getting to grips with all the
features in this toy, but here are some preliminary results:


  http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/travel/Japan/Tokyo/Art/
    (random picture hunting in and around Tokyo)
  http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/travel/Japan/Tokyo/Night/
    (low light/long exposure testing, not terribly exciting)
  http://jpatokal.iki.fi/photo/techno/Metamorphose/
    (the party a few weeks back, very bad quality)


Note that all pictures are available in 800x600 (100-150 kB)
and 1600x1200 (300-500 kB) sizes.  Hand-holding the thing for long
exposures at night was impossible, so my second purchase was
a Slik HandyPod II monopod with a detachable miniature ballhead
and a Hakuba quick-release system.  I'm starting to feel
like a pro here!


BTW, for the Metamorphose pics, note the beautiful silhouette of
Mt. Fuji lacking in each background.  I circled the whole damn
mountain by car and never saw a glimpse of it.  (Then again,
I've climbed it, so I don't need to...)


As for my travel plans, the long-awaited trip to Hokkaido,
tentatively titled "Ruff, Tuff and in the Buff", is now scheduled
to start on the weekend of 23 September.


ObTechno: Pascal F.E.O.S. (incredible!) and Toby (miserable!)
at Maniac Love last Friday.  Around 5 AM we headed for a sushi
breakfast at Tsukiji, the wholesale fish market that sells 1/3 of
all the fish eaten in Japan...  and the tiny place we picked,
called Sushidai, served up *the* best sushi I have ever eaten
(and, given that I've been eating it at least once a week
while in Japan, that's saying something!)  Every single
piece was absolutely amazing, pure, fresh and excellently
prepared.


Tsukiji being the chaotic mess it is, giving precise instructions
to Sushidai is rather difficult.  Basically, if coming from
the subway, then before the start of the market galleries, on the
left side (same as the vegetable wholesale section), are a few
lanes of non-wholesale shops and restaurants.  One of these
lanes has two extremely popular sushi bars, Sushidai (寿司大)
and Yamato Sushi (大和寿司), easy to spot because they usually
have lines outside.  At Sushidai selections (moriawase)
start at 1500 yen and go up from there, the difference not
being the size of the serving but the price of the fish used.
Naturally, the actual contents of the set depend on the
season and the catch: we opted for a very-well-rounded 2000
yen set, maybe 12 pieces worth, served up a few at a time,
excellent green tea and miso soup included.  The lower quality
at 回転寿司 (conveyor belt sushi) places had sufficed until now,
but I'm afraid I've just acquired a very expensive new habit...


Cheers,
-j.


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