Bijin-tokei
Written by Jeshii on 2009.03.10 – 01:11 -
Okay, I admit it. I have a penchant for pretty Japanese girls. What of it? But how will I ever keep track of time if I’m busy looking at Japanese girly pics? What if there was a clock that consisted of just pictures of cute girls holding up signs saying what the time is that refreshed every minute?
Truth is much stranger than fiction, my friends. This is the bijin-tokei. It’s got a Japanese and an English site. Japanese tells you the time in JST, while the English site appears to be in Central Time… Why Central? My guess is that they meant to do Eastern Time, but forgot about DST.
Tags: clock, gadgets, Japanese girls, lol, pictures, silly, time, web, websites
Posted in Internet | 6 Comments »
Google Pays Off JASRAC
Written by Jeshii on 2008.11.27 – 23:51 -
Japan Today is reporting that Google will now be paying royalties to JASRAC for Japanese music they have domain over on YouTube. They also claim, and this is the kicker, that users are now free to upload JASRAC managed music to YouTube.
マジっすか？！ I am really skeptical. I mean, for one, I am generally distasteful of the recording industry. And in the above video, they are called more of a collections agency than a copyright holding group. They apparently are generally unfair, but that sounds like any copyright collections agency. But at the same time, if we really can use JASRAC music however we want, this could be an amazing deal. And, this does seem like a very good move on JASRAC’s part to show they are with the times and not a dinosaur.
So, by using the JASRAC music search, you can find songs they own the rights to. They will have a blue circled “J” under the various columns when you click on the song name. I can’t tell which column would be the right one to use (there is musical performance, audio, video, film, commercial… @_@), so as long as they all have the J’s, it should be okay, right? (BTW, I am not a lawyer, so anything you put up is at your own risk!)
Anyway, I guess we will know if the Japanese music on YouTube starts sticking around instead of getting insta-deleted. Stay tuned!
Tags: copyfight, copyright, 音楽, google, Internet, JASRAC, music, nicovideo, rights, web, youtube
Posted in music | 2 Comments »
Gmail’s Japan-Themed… er… Themes
Written by Jeshii on 2008.11.25 – 16:57 -
If you are a Gmail user, you may have noticed the recent ability to add themes! I was all over it as a loyal Gmailian. I first went to the Terminal one for some old skool text mail fun, but then I noticed “Ninja” and “Tea House.” Yes!
Ninja is a theme where there are little ninja guys sticking out everywhere. The stars are of course 手裏剣 (shuriken, aka “Ninja Stars”) and there are little things going on at the bottom between a ninja and a geisha. Sometimes they are courting each other, and other times they are quarreling. The background message is もしもし (moshimoshi), which is what people say for hello over the phone. Not exactly sure how that relates to ninjas or even Gmail, but it is interesting.
The tea house theme features an asian looking house and garden where various cute animals have tea with each other. It looks like the fox is the proprietor of the tea house and it seems to be tied to the season or time of day or something. Not quite sure. It is very Animal Crossing/SnoogleZoo. If you are into either of those, you’ll probably like it.
I’m personally partial to the ninja one since the cartoons at the bottom of messages are just so awesome and slightly less girly than the whole tea house one. Apparently these Japan-related ones were designed in house at Google, so I don’t have the name of the designers/artists. Too bad, I’d love to see more by them!
There is another vaguely Japanese one called Cherry Blossom. It was designed by Vania Sofandi. But it is hard to really call it Japan-themed for sure.
Tags: animal crossing, art, どうぶつの森, computers, cute, design, e-mail, email, gmail, google, ninja, snoogle zoo, software, tea, tea house, web, websites
Posted in Internet | 2 Comments »
Migiue is BACK!
Written by Jeshii on 2008.10.21 – 16:20 -
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.)
Tags: ニコニコ動画, ネタ, memes, migiue, NicoNicoDouga, web, websites, 右上
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Nico Nico Medal Games (temporary name) is open!
Written by Jeshii on 2008.10.15 – 15:23 -
NicoNicoDouga has announced their point system is now open (one of the things added in the 秋 update). NicoPoints are just like WiiPoints in that you buy them and then use them for stuff. The cost is about 1 point to 1円, before tax.
The points will be used for buying clothing (?) for your character in the anime MMO/Second Life game ai sp@ce, but until that starts, the only place you can use them is the ニコニコメダルゲーム(仮称) (“Nico Nico Medal Games (temporary name)”)! Medal Games are a staple of ゲーセン (geisen, “Game Centers”) where you can basically gamble, without actually gambling. So for the NicoNico version, they are currently giving away free medals (which you normally have to buy with points) for the various game. So, I tried them out. What I found after the jump…
Tags: arcade, スロット, ニコニコメダルゲーム(仮称), ニコニコ動画, パチスロ, メダルゲーム, betting, bingo, cat racing, cats, cute, gambling, horse racing, neko, Nico Nico Medal Games, NicoNicoDouga, slot machines, slots, web, websites
Posted in Internet | No Comments »
NicoNicoDouga on iPhone
Written by Jeshii on 2008.10.03 – 12:00 -
First off, you can’t do it. Well, there are round about ways to do it, but flash does not work on the mobile Safari that iPhones have.
I am willing to be that this is the exact reason why the iPhone didn’t take off in Japan. Or, at least, if they had added a ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) player, they would have had one rabid fan base right off the bat.
Well, TUAW is announcing that Adobe really wants to bring flash to the iPhone. I am all for it. Of course, right now, when I visit the ニコニコ動画 site on Safari, it crashes… so who knows, maybe I’ll never get to have the joy of commenting “wwwwwwwwwwwww” in front of my favorite videos while on the bus.
Tags: Adobe, Apple, ニコニコ動画, cell phones, flash, iPhone, NicoNicoDouga, Safari, technology, video, web
Posted in Internet, gadgets | 3 Comments »
NicoNicoDouga AKI!!!
Written by Jeshii on 2008.10.02 – 12:00 -So, NicoNicoDouga has had some interesting version names. There was β (beta),γ (gamma), RC, RC2, SP1, then they went with 夏 (natsu).
But then the season changed and now it is fall. So!
The new version of NicoNicoDouga is 秋 (aki)! Makes sense. After Summer comes Autumn. It’s simple. And the video introducing it was funny, saying 「文句あるか」 (monku aru ka, “Any complaints?!”) And, the 秋葉原 (Akihabara) tie-in potential can’t be ignored.
They were calling the next version… “Double Beta,” but no one really knew what that was supposed to mean. So they went with the natural next choice.
New features have been announced… many not yet implemented. Short explanation after the jump.
Tags: aki, autumn, ニコニコ動画, 秋, double beta, fall, japan, lol, NicoNicoDouga, nicovideo, silly, update, version update, video, web
Posted in Internet | 1 Comment »
