Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

*sigh*, the music industry

A twit (I forget which one I have so many; distractions!) pointed me towards the announcement of Sell-A-Band receiving a new round of funding.
Since one of my current projects is 音レボ (Otorevo), which despite the struggles is growing organically, I eagerly read through the comments. Two in particular that made me think:
commenter 1:

the problem with [...]

Google Checkout now in Japan!

Hey cool – looks like Google Checkout is now available in Japanese!
I’m clapping my hands and lickin’ my chops!

Music Industry First – Major Label releases tracks under Creative Commons!

My current project, Otorevo, which I’ve written about before here, here, and here, has decided to release the winning band’s vocal tracks under a Creative Commons license. You can read the Japanese introduction and download the tracks. We’re running a remix contest for the next 6 weeks, so be sure to submit your work!
Supposedly this [...]

Good Crew releases a music video

Good Crew releases a PV! (PV = “promotional video” in Japanese English parlance).
Give it a spin, then let me share how much was spent on making it:

15,000 yen.
Update: The YouTube link is here. Thanks Gen!

日本国内CodeIgniterユーザー会 & カンファレンス

For English speakers living in Japan and enthusiastic about CodeIgniter, there will be a lecture / gathering (and ostensibly a party afterwards) at the Open Source Conference next week / end.
最近話題のCode Igniterにご興味を持っている方へ、来週のオープンソースカンファレンスでCodeIgniterのセミナーが行われます。是非参加を！
CodeIgniter is a wonderfully light yet robust and easily extendable PHP framework that has helped me develop miistation.com, kirakirajin.com (now defunct), and 2kurabe.com quickly [...]

Preparing for the geriatric generation

As issues pertaining to Japan’s aging population continue for close to a decade now, here’s an idea to keep them healthy – playgrounds for grandparents!
Since by definition the population of children utilizing current playgrounds is declining, Japan shouldn’t be having a land-shortage for such parks either!

Beccaccia – fine Italian cuisine in Tokyo

Ate at Beccaccia for the first time in over … 3 years, I think it’s been. I knew the general location, but had forgotten the name. Google Maps came to the rescue with its “Italian restaurants in the neighborhood” link. Amazing – it even came with reviews!
For fine Italian cuisine in a very quiet, “personal” [...]

Some broadband stats and rankings, particularly regarding Japan

During my weekend morning routine of reviewing the past week’s events, I was reminded of a brief discussion on Japan’s placement in worldwide broadband rankings. The term “broadband” can have a few different meanings depending on the user, but a quick search pulled up some recent statistics. The OECD basically defines broadband as anything greater [...]

K1 ad on local train

What is particularly odd about this photo?

Holy Cow Mixi

has gone standards based!
at least from the looks of it.
From HTML tables to XHTML / CSS.  An impressive change for a site that feeds tens of millions of pages a day.  I’m curious to know if they’ve seen noticeable energy savings.
http://www.mixi.jp