Toyota's amazing running robot

Technology is developing really fast.

You could take a look at the video below on what robots could do today.

July 22, 2009 Eclipse as seen from Ioh-jima

Nice video of today's eclipse by NHK.

red linus: holen

Sa kanyang pamamalagi sa Wonderland, marahil ang isa mga di makakalimutang libangan ni red linus ay ang pag-lalaro ng holen.

Marami sa Niyabyab ang mahilig maglaro ng holen. Ito na rin siguro ang dahilan kung bakit magaling maghukay ng Jeyd ang mga tau sa Wonderland. Ang madalas na pag-sasanay ay nakatulong upang mapabilis ang paghuhukay ng Jeyd.

Maliban sa holen, nakakapag-laro din ng chess ang mga Niyabyab sa Wonderland. Dahil dito sa larong ito, naiibsan ang nakakapagod na araw dahil sa paghuhukay ng Jeyd.

Masaya sa Wonderland. Maraming Jeyd at Candy.

red linus

Isang madilim na gabi, may isang babae na napadpad sa isang lugar na puno ng masasarap na candy na ang pangalan ay Wonderland. Siya si Red Linus. Masiyahin ngunit seryoso, marahil dahil ito sa kanyang nakalbong buhok. Bakit nga ba sya napadpad sa lugar na iyon? isa ba yong panaginip?

Sobrang sarap sa Wonderland. Samut'saring candy ang kanyang nakikita. Marahil ay unang pagkakataon nya makakita ng masasarap na candy.

Ngunit, di siya nag-iisa, marami ang nag-sasaya sa Wonderland. Nagulat siya nang nakita nya ang mga katulad nyang Niyabyab na nagsasaya. Yun na marahil ang naging dahilan kung bakit mas naging masaya ang buhay ni Red Linus sa Wonderland.

Isang araw, kasama ng iba pang Niyabyab, nakita ni Red Linus ang isang mamang may hawak na kadena...

Red: Sino un?

Kala: Siya ang tagabantay.

Red: Tagabantay?

Kala: Di mu ba alam?

Red: Ang alin?

Kala: Na kailangan natin mag-hukay para may makuhang candy.

Red: Maghukay?

Kala: Sa paghuhukay natin, may makukuha taung Jeyd. Ito ang ipapalit natin sa candy.

Red: Ah ganun ba...

Kala: Enjoy mu lang. Maraming Jeyd dito.

BASURA, life in smokey mountain

Life in smokey mountain by Shinomiya Hiroshi.

　2006 年、新たな気持ちでフィリピンの貧しさの現実に向き合う覚悟を決め、四ノ宮浩は自らの作品の原点であるマニラを訪れた。　
　
　そこで目にしたのは商店街の軒下で寝転ぶホームレスの家族や、街中でゴミをあさる子供たちといった初めてフィリピンにやってきた20 年前となんら変わらない貧しい人々の光景……。　
　
　そんな中、第一作『忘れられた子供たち　スカベンジャー』との舞台であり、1995 年11 月に政府によって閉鎖されたスモーキーマウンテンの周辺だけはどこか整然としていて、「変わった」という印象だった。　
　
20年前に撮影を通して出会った彼らはどうしているのだろうか？　
　
　四ノ宮浩は、処女作『忘れられた子供たち　スカベンジャー』を通して出会った登場人物たちをひとりひとり訪ねる旅に出た。　
　
フィリピンのスカベンジャー　
　
　マニラ近郊の巨大なゴミ捨て場の街「スモーキーマウンテン」には、40年以上にわたりゴミを拾って転売することを生業とする2万人以上の人々が暮らしていた。しかし、世界から貧困の象徴として注目されたことに耐えかねた政府は、1995年に街を突如閉鎖。生活の場を奪われた人々に対し仮設住宅が用意されたが住人の９割は仕事が見つからず、現在もそのほとんどが近隣にできた新しいゴミ捨て場で以前と変わらぬゴミ拾い生活を続けている。　
　
【バスーラとは】タガログ語で「ゴミ」を表す 。

[source: http://www.basura-movie.com/]

Bing, the new search engine from Microsoft

Everbody loves to search. We search for hotels, gadgets, news and many others on the web. Right now, Google search engine is the main search engine most of us use when we search the web. And because of this, Microsoft realized that they need to build a search engine in order to be more competitive. And so, Bing was born.

Bing will be released on June 3 and is expected to have a wide acceptance from computer users because of Microsoft's advertising campaigns. Bing's eye candy pictures on its home page looks very nice as well as the cool buttons and widgets displayed in Bing's search results.



Microsoft's Bing has the potential to gain market share in search. But the real test is whether those users will stay for the long term. Will we get better results as expected? Only time will tell. Maybe because of these search engine wars, we will eventually build the "Perfect Search Engine" in the future.

Learn to count in Japanese

In learning new languages, it would be beneficial if you learn to count first. During my experinece learning the Japanese language, learning how to count came last in my list. This proved to be detrimental to my everyday life here in Japan. When you buy in the market you need to count, when you talk with your officemates you need to count, you use them most of the time. So I tell you this, study Japanese counting earlier during your study of the Japanese language. 

Here's a video a child counting in Japanese:

MINI-DICTIONARY (romaji, kanji, kana)

one (ichi, 一, いち) 

two (ni, 二, に) 

three (san, 三, さん)

four (yon, 四, よん)

five (go, 五, ご)

six (roku, 六,)

seven (nana, 七,　なな)

eight (hachi, 八,　はち)

nine (kyuu, 九,　きゅう)

ten (juu, 十,　じゅう)

eleven (juu-ichi, 十一,　じゅういち)

twelve (juu-ni, 十二,　じゅうに)

thirteen (juu-san, 十三,　じゅうさん)

fourteen (juu-yon, 十四,　じゅうよん)

fifteen (juu-go, 十五,　じゅうご)

sixteen (juu-roku, 十六,　じゅうろく)

seventeen (juu-nana, 十七,　じゅうなな)

eighteen (juu-hachi, 十八, じゅうはち)

nineteen (juu-kyuu, 十九, じゅうきゅう)

twenty (ni-juu, 二十, にじゅう)

Let's learn Japanese

* Watching a video is a very great way to easily learn Japanese.  I have provided a mini-dictionary for the translations of  some of the words in the video. This video is about using rice flour as wheat flour replacement.

Translation:

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries informed that because the rice consumption of the Japanese people is decreasing, a new initiative to use  powdered rice (rice flour) at home is started. Rice flour contains more starch than wheat flour and thus smoother, moreover, rice absorbs more water resulting into a soft food texture. Because of this, new food texture for pans and cakes can be made. In addtion, it can also be used as a thickenning for curry and stew. 

This approach leads to improvements in the rate of self-sufficiency in rice flour to replace the product was made in the flour, this is until Friday, 29th.

Original:

農林水産省では日本人の米の消費量が年々減少していることから、米を粉末にした米粉（こめこ）を家庭で活用してもらおうと新たな取り組みを始めています。米粉は小麦粉よりもでんぷんを多く含むためもっちり感があり、小麦粉よりも水分を吸収するためしっとりとした食感になります。このため、ケーキやパンに新たな食感を加えることができます。そのほか、さらりとしたとろみを出すためにカレーやシチューにも使えます。

これまで小麦粉で作られていた製品を米粉に置き換えることで自給率の向上につなげようというこの取り組みは29日（金曜日）まで行われます。

DICTIONARY:

米粉 (komeko, こめこ) - rice flour

日本人 (nihonjin, にほんじん) - Japanese

農林水産省 (nourinsuisanshou, のうりんすいさんしょう) -  Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

消費量 (shouhiryou, しょうひりょう) - consumption amount

年々 (nennen, ねんねん) - year by year

減少 (genshou, げんしょう) - decrease

米 (kome, こめ) - rice

粉末 (funmatsu, ふんまつ) - fine powder

家庭 (katei, かてい) - home 

活用 (katsuyou, かつよう) - practical use

新た (arata,　あらた) - new 

取り組み (torikumi, とりくみ) effort, initiative 

小麦粉 (komugiko, こむぎこ) wheat flour

でんぷん　(denpun, でんぷん) starch

多く (ooku, おおく) largely 

感 (kan, かん)　feeling

水分 (suibun, すいぶん)　moisture

吸収 (kyuushuu, きゅうしゅう) - absorption

しっとり (shittori, しっとり) - moist 

食感 (shokkan, しょっかん) - food texture

加える (kuwaeru, くわえる) - to include

さらり (sarari, さらり) - smooth 

とろみ　(toromi, とろみ) - thickness 

作られていた (tsukurareteita, つくられていた) - used

製品　(seihin, せいひん) - product

置き換える　(okikaeru, おきかえる) - to replace 

カレー (kare-, カレー) - curry

シチュー (suchu-, シチュー) - stew

ケーキ (ke-ki, ケーキ) - cake

パン (pan, パン) - bread 

自給率　(jikyuuritsu, じきゅうりつ) - self-sufficiency

向上 (koujyou, こうじょう) - rise, advancement

金曜日 (kinyoubi, きんようび) - friday

* Translations are not 100% accurate, comments or suggestions are welcome.

- Article by tokyomx

Free iPhone provided to Japanese students

(Shibuya, Tokyo by guwashi999)

The new age of schooling has come. The students at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan will be having their new GPS-enabled iPhone.. for free!

The Apple iPhone 3G will be provided to all students and the charges will be paid for by the university. The GPS feature of the iPhone will be used to check the attendance and other features of the iPhone will be used for homework submission, lectures in video format and answering test questionnaires.

With the new and lower-priced iPhone expected in the coming months, maybe more univeristies will be using the iPhone.

Apple' iPhone 3.0 in California

On June 8th, Apple is expected to release the much anticipated 3rd generation iPhone during the World Wide Developers Conference 2009 in San Francisco, California. 

What's amazing with next release of the iPhone is the 3.0 version of the mobile operating system. Some of the new features in 3.0 include 3G Tithering (iPhone as a modem to access the internet), Copy & Paste, Spotlight (search engine for iPhone device), Peer-to-peer,Bluetooth connectivity (intense gaming experience) and Stereo A2DP Bluetooth Audio (High-speed stereo).

(credit: william hook)

As for the mobile hardware, the next Apple iPhone is rumored to double it's current hardware capacity. Most notably using 600MHz mobile processor instead of the 400MHz. And doubling 8Gb and 16 Gb models to 16Gb and 32Gb models respectively.

There are also rumors about the release of a Mac netbook as an upgraded version of the iPod Touch. If true, this could change the playing field in the mobile netbook market.

Sony Ericsson to release Google phone that runs on Donut (Android 2.0)

(credit:android)

With dwindling sales of cellphones these days, Sony Ericsson has taken the next big step to gain market share in the mobile devices arena. Sony Ericsson announced that their first Google smartphone would arrive in the near future.

Google Android, currently in it's 1.5 (Cupcake) version, can very much compete with Apple's IPhone in the future. As with the great strides made by Ubuntu Linux in the desktop arena, Google Android's open source development model will surely catch up against Apple IPhone's in-house development.

Sony Ericsson will not be using the Cupcake (Android 1.5) version but will be using the Donut (Android 2.0) version instead. Much of the multimedia capabilities needed in the Sony Ericsson phones would be included in the release of Donut (Android 2.0).

NBA 2009 Playoffs

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Orlando Magic

Lebron James game finisher.

It might be Kobe Bryant vs Lebron James after all don't you think?

Amazing Rescue Robots

Robots that could jump, crawl thru surfaces and hover in the air..

This is just the start of a multi-year research for Japan's search and rescue robots.

Even though I work in the robotics industry myself, these rescue robots are somewhat amazing.

I wonder how robots would evolve after 20 years?

Learning Japanese

Are you thinking of working in Japan?  I'll teach you basic Japanese you'll be using everyday when working in Japan.

Good Morning / Magandang Umaga Po

• "Ohayogozaimas" - You'll use this in the morning when you go to office. Greet everyone you see, guards, officemates, bosses even persons whom you didn't know personally. You'll be surprised that they will respond like you've known each other for a while.
  

* "Ohayo" is equivalent to good morning but is less polite and is mostly used by bosses in the office. It's like saying "Good Morning! / Magandang Umaga!", so you'll be safe using "Ohayogozaimas".

Hi!Hello! / Kamusta!

• "Konichiwa" - Most general greeting you'll be using. This greeting has a time frame and starts at about 10:00AM upto about 4:00PM in the afternoon. You can also use this when you meet  someone you know while in the market, mall, parks, etc..
  

Good Evening / Magandang Gabi

• "Konbanwa" - Since you won't be greeting most of your officemates in the office at night, you'll generally use this when meeting someone you know while going home. You'll mostly hear this word when you go to restaurants, bars, ramen shops, etc.. at night.
  

Sorry i'll go ahead / Pasencia Mauna na po ako

• "Osaki ni Shitsurei Shimas" - You'll use this before you go home. This is very important because it's rude when you leave the office without saying that you're going home. Most of your officemates will stay in office longer than you'll thought. So be prepared.
  

* less polite form is "Osaki ni", it's shorter but it's like saying "I'll leave / Alis na ko".

I'm sorry / Paumanhin po.

• "Gomenasai" - If you do a lot of mistakes, be sure that you remember this word. Saying this word will ease penalties. But don't be complacent, in a Japanese company, you are expected not to make mistakes. Or practically, you should make less mistakes. It's very different from what you'd expect. Trust me.
  

* The most commonly used word for sorry is "sumimasen" you'll be hearing this word most of time. "Gomenazai" has more politeness level than "sumimasen".

Are you also skilled in Japanese? You may share it in comments area. 

* For reference,  actual romaji/hiragana is as follows:

1. Ohayougozaimasu / おはようございます 

2. Konnichiwa / こんにちは

3. Konbanwa / こんばんは

4. Osaki ni Shitsureishimasu / おさきにしつれいします

5. Gomenasai / ごめんなさい

Hayden Kho, Katrina Halili, Dra. Vicky Belo

Who did it? Who uploaded various videos on YouTube?

* I'm actually into technical stuff but hey, 'money' is in entertainment.

In recent news, most people in the Philippines talk about the Katrina Halili scandal videos uploaded in YouTube and stored in our celphones via bluetooth.

I really liked playing detective, so here's my view of who might have uploaded the videos.

From our possible suspects, we have 4:

1. Katrina Halili
2. Hayden Kho
3. Kho's Friend
   
4. Dra. Vicky Belo

1.  Katrina Halili - She may have uploaded the videos for publicity (joke!) . Since 70% of women don't upload scandalous videos publicly, we remove her as our suspect.

2. Hayden Kho - He was the most clever of our suspects.  So, thinking of vindication, he may have uploaded the videos. Therfore, we include him as our suspect.

3. Kho's Friend - He may have access to the video but since he's a friend of Hayden Kho and assuming that Kho is the most clever of our suspects, we remove him as our suspect.

4. Dra. Vicky Belo - She's got the money. She needed revenge. Let's assume she thinks Katrina as "walang utang na loob" because of what happened, she is included as our suspect.

Therfore, reconstructing the scenario we may have the following conclusion:

- Dra. Belo, seeking revenge, asked Hayden Kho to upload the videos and if he does so, Dra. Belo would forget what happened between Kho and Halili.

What do you think? Can you draw your own conclusions?