Yamatologic

KITA! NicoNicoDouga iPhone App Announced!

Yomiuri/CNET Japan are reporting that Softbank customers on certain models will be able to use the mobile ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) service starting on November 4th. The ニコニコニュース (NicoNicoNews) page didn’t say anything about the iPhone, but the CNET Japan article says this down at the bottom:

さらに、iPhone 3Gでもニコニコ動画を視聴できるように開発を進めていることも明らかになった。ニワンゴ代表取締役社長の杉本誠司氏は、具体的な時期や内容は語らなかったものの、「ニコニコ動画らしいものができるように開発を進めている」と述べている。

[My translation]
Additionally, it has been announced that development is progressing so that NicoNicoDouga can be viewed on iPhone 3G as well. Niwango’s representative director, Mr. Seiji Sugimoto, explained that while we cannot give specific details as to when and how this will happen, he did say that, “Development is progressing so that we can make something that is wholly like the NicoNicoDouga experience.”

Yes! But, no… development progresses, but it won’t be available on Nov. 4th. And there’s no guarantee that it will work on my old iPhone, or that it will even work in America. BUT, I still have hope that someday, I will be watching and commenting (yes, that is possible on mobile ニコニコ動画 as well) on videos anywhere I want!

Technorati Tags: Apple, ニコニコ動画, cell phones, CNET Japan, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone Apps, mobile, NicoNicoDouga, Niwango, Seiji Sugimoto, softbank

The classroom with a pig

ブタがいた教室 (Buta ga ita Kyoushitsu, I think the official English title is “School Days with a Pig”) is a movie about a class of elementary school kids who raise a pig. The teacher brings it in as a lesson where the kids will eventually eat the pig. BUT, as you can imagine, this pink piggy is so cute that the whole question of whether they should eat it or not comes up. And how does one decide?

This is one thing I think the whole world needs to think about more. I remember the supermarket we had in the rural part of Japan where I used to live had a little progression of picture above most of the meat. There literally was a picture of cute piglets, then of pigs, and then of pork. I remember thinking, “This would never fly in America.” In fact, if I put pictures of cute pigs above the pork in an American supermarket, I’d probably be arrested for being a PETA terrorist or something.

In any case, this looks like a great movie. Probably will make me cry if for nothing else than memories of teaching in Japan. Comes out on November 1st.

Technorati Tags: animals, elementary school, food, meat, movies, peta, pigs, pork, social issues, supermarket, teachers, teaching

Chocobo Theme Bird

Teaching your bird to whistle the Chocobo theme, 12 hours 1 month (!).

Making a video out of it, 3 minutes, 43 seconds.

Having 186,718 people on ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) watch it, 482 days of human effort wasted on the Internet.

Technorati Tags: bird, chocobo, final fantasy, nicovideo, square enix, theme, video, video games

Softbank + NicoNicoDouga = iPhone App?!

キターーーーーーーーーーーーー (kita~~~~~~~~~~~~~)! On October 30th at 13:30 JST, Softbank and ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) will be having a press conference talking about new services… What could these be?! Since Softbank is the company that has the iPhone in Japan, could this possibly mean that they will FINALLY have a ニコニコ動画 viewer app?!

I really hope so. But, the fact that the iPhone wasn’t really as big in Japan as people had hoped is not really giving me much hope that it will EVER happen…

We will see though come Thursday! Watch this site for results!

Technorati Tags: cell phones, gadgets, Internet, iPhone, NicoNicoDouga, softbank, tech, video

Meta Cat Is Meta

Sanrio is marketing has approved a Hello Kitty costume, wait for it, for your cat. Seriously.

Not only that, but it is 18,900円 (yen). That’s so much money.

Why does a cat need to wear a costume of an animated cat? It is already a cat. A dog wearing a cat costume, that’s more like it. But, a CAT wearing a costume of a CAT? It is just so freaking meta. it would be like wearing a costume to make yourself look like anime character.

What’s that? People already do that?

Oh man.

[Via Who Sucks]

Technorati Tags: cats, costume, expensive, Halloween, hello kitty, lolcats, meta, pets, sanrio, weird

Lang-8, a bittersweet way to learn

Ever since Tofugu‘s EXCELLENT entry on free ways to learn Japanese (which did not include Anki BTW ><;), I have been hooked on Lang-8. Basically, it is a social networking site designed for people learning other languages.

The way it works is that you choose a language you are trying to learn. Then you write entries in that language, and native speakers will come along and correct it. The BEST thing about it is that people really do come along and correct your entries. Withing 2 minutes of my first posting, someone had make some corrections.

While that is the sweet part, it is also bitter. You sit there and really see how much you SUCK at the language you are trying to learn. This is not a site for people who can’t take constructive criticism. You just have to swallow your pride and learn. That’s what’s so awesome about it.

And then, you can also go and correct others entries. When you make corrections, you can cross out, make bold, or change the color to blue or red to emphasize your points.

Another AMAZING feature on the site that I noticed is that is has the same functionality as rikaichan built in! I don’t know how many languages this works for, but at least Japanese has it.

I already have 3 friends. Yay! I think the funniest part is that the OLs correct my Japanese differently that the サラリーマン (sarariiman) do. The OLs seems to just do little mistakes, where as the サラリーマン seems to cross out my simple Japanese and add 漢字 (kanji) compounds.

Anyway, I’m in love with this site. This is now my Japanese blog of choice.

Go ready my Lang-8 blog!

Technorati Tags: blogs, Internet, Japanese language, learning, sns, social networking, study, 勉強, 日本語

NicoMasterMedley ~2008 Aki no Saiten~

Well, while I’m waiting for the newest in the line of ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) master medleys (the most recent being ニコニコ動画流星群), I found this medley of songs done to iDOLM@STER clips. I like some of the songs in it (カプチーノ is the best by far), but what really got me about it was the editing. The videos for all these songs are amazing. If the game is like that, then I guess I should be looking for into it, but I have a feeling this is the skill of the editor. Anyone know for sure?

YouTube links after the jump for the ニコ動画 impaired.
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Technorati Tags: aki, autumn, 秋, fall, Idol Master, medley, music, nicovideo

Migiue is BACK!

右上 (migiue) was this thing they had in the last version or two of ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) where it would put a funny little message up in the upper right hand corner (hence the name). But with the release of 秋 (aki), 右上 was gone with the design change.

But today, I was watching ニコニコ動画, and one of the advertisements said 今日の右上 and had a little message, 「もしかして表示されてなかった!?面白い事言ってたのになぁ～」 (moshikashite hyoji sarete nakatta!? Omoshiroi koto itteta no ni na~, “Wait, this wasn’t displaying!? Too bad, I was saying such interesting things…”).

お帰りなさい、右上。(Okaerinasai, Migiue.)

Technorati Tags: ニコニコ動画, ネタ, memes, migiue, NicoNicoDouga, web, websites, 右上

Virtual Virtual Insanity?

This is brilliant. Virtual Idol 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku) dancing to Jamiroquai’s Virtual Insanity. So, does that make it Virtual Virtual Insanity?

Technorati Tags: ミクミクダンス, Hatsune Miku, Jamiroquai, miku miku dance, MMD, music, virtual idol, virtual insanity, 初音ミク

Rajio Taisou!

We’ve all heard of Japanese people doing calisthenics before work and school. The reality is while I was in Japan, the only time I ever actually saw anyone doing ラジオ体操 (rajio taisou) was just before the 運動会 (undoukai) at school.

ラジオ体操 is basically just a song and a set of basic calisthenics that you do to the song. Yes, it’s old as hell, but it’s actually a lot of fun. It is played every morning on NHK Radio #1 at 6:30am. And it is not the only kind of music calisthenics. My personal favorite has got to be the やきとりおじさん (yakitori ojisan; On YouTube or ニコニコ動画).

Of course, the discovery of 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku) doing ラジオ体操 has prompted this entry, but if you want to follow along in a more informed way, read the Japanese explanation here, or my brief English explanation after the jump.

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Technorati Tags: ラジオ体操, calisthenics, exercise, explaination, 説明, Hatsune Miku, health, NHK, nicovideo, radio, radio calisthenics, rajio taisou, society, video, 初音ミク