Author: admin

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On Literature and Twitter

Started reading Chihaya Akane’s “Male Friend”  (千早茜、男ともだち).

Though I am struggling a bit with slang and figure of speeches, I enjoy the writing.

Telling a story of a successful illustrator, cheating on her husband , meeting sometimes with her old University friend. A Male friend. I like the way she created the characters and tells their story, although I feel annoyance reading some parts.

Searched for information about the writer, I found her twitter page. I agree it is not that interesting, but was shocked to see she has only 1115 followers (well, 1116 if I decide to follow her as well).

There is something really strange in our culture if a valued writer has 1115 followers and a TV personality has 3.73 Millions

Chihaya Ariyoshi

 

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Japanese Elections

As I can’t vote, I have little to no interest in the elections.

I do however have interest in the process, culture and discussions.

A few observations:

  1. None of my Japanese Facebook friends express their political opinions. This obviously in contrast to Israelis
  2. It is not surprising to bump into candidates in front of the train station talking, but very few people stand to listen (as they rush to work)
  3. The election cars are hilarious . Had an Israeli visitor this week and it took me sometime to explain the concept
  4. TV coverage is as boring as anywhere else in the world
  5. No Political comedy. None!
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Japanese Dena’s “Secret” clone

Could find very few references to this in English based blogs/media so I guess it is worth the blog post.

Dena apparently published a “Secret” clone called “Rumor”.

I actually like the design better than “Secret”, but have very little motivation to actually use it.

The good:

  • Can add friends from Facebook, twitter or manually
  • “Popular” tab which does not limit to friends of friends
  • “Search” tab

The bad:

Zero friends from Facebook and Twitter which means very few people actually use it.

Friends screen
Friends screen

In the following sample post a Girl complains that her boyfriend does not excite her and she is ashamed to be seen with him.

A Sample post
A Sample post
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Sankei Shimbun apologizes over Aversfor “Jewish Conspiracy” books

From the WSJ (link)

Sankei Shimbun ran an Ad for books which describe “a conspiracy by the Jewish-controlled U.S.”

From the WSJ report:

The books that are the subject of the advertisements are authored by Richard Koshimizu, a self-claimed freelance journalist. In one book, he argues that the 2011 Tohoku earthquake was set off by a U.S. military bomb, while another says the Holocaust was a myth spread by the Soviet Union. A third book claims the election of Mr. Abe’s government in 2012 was part of a Jewish plan for global domination.

Could find some of Richard Koshimizu’s books on Amazon, but not the controversial ones.

The following is an image from his Facebook page:

Richard Koshimizu

 

It is not my first time to encounter Jewish conspiracy stories and books. I still hope that there are very few people who actually believe this stuff.

 

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On memory and remembering

I am always puzzled how our mind plays tricks on us. Extracting memories, hiding others.

Was waiting for the train when I saw a woman smile to her friend. Her smile reminded me of  a former Japanese teacher who is no longer with us.

In a split of a second, a smile turned into a painful memory

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GDP Per Capita

Was interesting for me to compare the GDP per capita between Israel and Japan.

Search on Google provides the following information:

GDP Per Capita Japan (2013): 38,492

GDP Per Capita Israel : 36,151

But!

While Israel is growing, Japan is shrinking.

(Source: Worldbank.org)

Gdp Per Capita comparing Japan Israel

 

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The Power of Hype

Or maybe rather, the power of Marketing.

Although most of my work is Technical, discussing Technical details with extremely Technical people, I am sometimes surprised by the Power of Hype.

It is not about the latest SmartPhone or gadget, but it is sometimes about latest Technology trends. Even when there is not much behind it, I notice it is being discussed and considered because “people talk about it”.

One thing that I can’t do is “object the Hype”. I can explain it, talk about it, but I can’t say “this is Hype”, because I will be considered “uninformed” (or maybe “not cool”)

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Big Bad Wolves

 

“Big Bad Wolves” , in Japanese “オオカミは嘘をつく” is playing in selected theaters in Japan.

Interesting enough, the Japanese title is slightly different from the English title which is also different from the Hebrew one. In Hebrew, the literal translation is “Who is afraid of the big bad wolf” . In Japanese, “Wolves lie” .

It is very rare for an Israeli film to play in Japanese theaters.So, it is either a good one, or a very political one.

In this case, a good one. A film which received good reviews in several film festival including a quote form Quentin Tarantino calling it “the best film of 2013”.

A bit on the horror side, a bit on the funny side (which does not translate well to Japanese), highly recommended thriller.

 

 

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Email, Instant messaging are a problem

Many (many) years ago I remember being able to focus on a programming tasks for 3-4 hours continuously.

Nowadays, I feel lucky if I can focus for more than 20 minutes. Email pop-ups , messages , “urgent” , “urgent”,  but are these really urgent. When did we become “always available”, “always responsive”.

Need to:

1) Find a better way filter the emails I handle/respond to during the day

2) Educate my colleagues not to “shoot emails” ,be clear and concise

 

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Nexus 9

Considered buying a Nexus 9.

I feel that having only iOS devices is limiting and would like to “break out”, or at least try.

 

Now, I can’t really do it if Google are out of stock .

Google Play