Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

MiiStation Stats or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love it All

It’s now been a little over 48 hours since the launch of miistation.com, and the response has been … active!  A few key news sites and portals picked up on this impulse project (big thank you to those who helped spread the word!), driving traffic and – to our surprise, customers! – to Make Mii.  [...]

Make Mii @ Mii Station

Update: Well, Shin beat me to it :)  Thanks!
Minja and I were slurping spaghetti last Tuesday when talk turned to
Nintendo’s new game console, Wii.  The Wii lets users create their own
little avatar called a Mii.  For some, after the first few hours of
playing their new Wii and trying to make a Mii of some semblance [...]

BarCamp Update

If you’ve been looking forward to Tokyo’s first BarCamp this weekend, turns out it’s been postponed to the 17th of February.  Further details can be found on the BarCampTokyo page.  Looks like a location has been picked, and there are 3 organizers – all going by their handles (maybe this is really a 2600 meeting [...]

Work

I was away all last week for business and catching up with friends, so apologies for the hiatus. The spam has been killing me too, so I’m working on revamping my current setup to something more manageable. Hopefully a new framework will emerge when the new year rolls around. A bit of [...]

Potting Plants

Good advice from Bnoopy on taking some time off to think after completing or at least departing from a project/venture/job.

Some Metropolitan Stats

City
Tokyo
New York
London
Shanghai

Population
12,369,000
8,008,000
7,100,000
17,110,000

Foreigners
2.8%
36%
23.9%
0.6%

 
110,000 Chinese
370,000 Puerto Ricans
170,000 Indians
N/A

 
100,000 Koreans
260,000 Chinese
160,000 Irish
 

 
30,000 Filipino
180,000 Jamaicans
80,000 Bangladesh
 

 
18,000 Americans
160,000 Russians
80,000 Jamaicans
 

 
6000 Thai
130,000 Guyanians
70,000 Pakistani
 

People/m2 (2002)
13
15
7
8

Park space/person
4.45m2
29.3m2
26.9m2
5.6m2

Tourists/year
5,240,000
5,200,000
11,950,000
3,200,000

Murders (2003)
125
594
232
N/A

Working Inspiration

Lies to protect the status quo. Right on, Seth.

Workers of the World, Relax

Workers of the World, Relax. Found this article through a summary in The Week – one of the best weekly publications on weekly news I’ve ever read.
Is it really so bad to have high expectations for work? I guess when the crap comes – and there’s always crap – there are those who [...]

Foreign Workers

Lots of money flowing back in little paper envelopes by foreign workers helping the Japanese economy. I’ve noticed an interested trend concerning the increase of non-Japanese in the service sector – many convenience stores in the less crowded parts of town seem to employ more non-Japanese Asians (who, btw, speak very good Japanese – [...]

Information Force Multiplier

Jeff Nolan makes a great point about blogging in “tree-oriented cultures.” Hey Mr. CEO, how serious are you about getting to the core of the information? Reminds me of a favorite:
In the beginning was the Plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the Assumptions were without form.
And the Plan was without substance. And darkness was [...]