Kitty (whose Chinese name is Mimi) is doing much better now. The cold and eye infection are not completely gone yet, but the medicine is definitely working. Kitty is much more active now and has also gained more than 200 grammes, which she puts to good use when trying to avoid being fed her medication. Other than that, she is quite well behaved, gave up scratching the wall papers (at least in front of us) and figured out how to use her toilet.

The next thing to take care about are these suckers. After that, blood screening to see if anything else nasty is still in hiding, and once Kitty is healthy all around the full round of vaccinations.

We brought home a young stray cat yesterday. She is about three months old and weighs 670 grammes. She is unfortunately also quite sick (sneezes, shivers, does not talk much, eyes bright red in a scary way), but she is eating, which must be a good sign. The doctor gave us some medicine that should bring her back to health in a week or two. In the mean-time, we really have to teach her to use the cat toilet.

Foreigners usually get my name wrong when they have it only in writing. If you want to spell it out for Americans to pronounce, it would be approximately Tea-Low (as opposed to Thigh-Low, which is what they tend to say instead). I have actually typed Tea-Low a few times to coax the Mac OS Text-To-Speech to address me properly.

Things are easier with Japanese people, when you write your name in Japanese katakana, which is a system of syllables so that the pronunciation is immediately obvious. Ironically, pronunciation is the easiest and most regular part of Japanese, whereas it must be the most complicated and irregular part of English.

Turns out the literary world has taken to the Tea-Low topic as well:

Thilo had three short triangular clots of hair that hung over his forehead like chopped dreadlocks, forming a dork's crown. He often told his friends, "Don't you evah, evah fahk wid me, did you hear'd me?" His friends were freshmen, members of clubs non-social, lovers of chess and magic, wargames and renaissance fairs. Thilo, a senior, was their king. They respected his crown, even if his nationality and mother tongue remained mysterious. They knew only that Thilo was very pale, that with good reason he had a hairstyle all his own, and that he was much older than them, which conveyed an authority he completely lacked in any other situation.

Odd things happened to Thilo. Something about him caused others to act strangely in his presence, to admit to criminal acts, to test rules and regulations. For example, one day a kid in the seat next to Thilo's lifted his right pant leg, and revealed a knife in his sweatsock. The kid grinned at Thilo.

Paul Toth, You're an American Now

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Update: The Internet is just amazing. Not even five hours after I posted the above, I get the following email:

Greetings:
 
I happened across your blog entry re: my story and the pronunciation of your
name.  My story originated from someone else's account of a high school student
whose name was constantly mispronounced, causing that Thilo endless despair.
Just thought I'd pass that along. 
 
I can relate: Somehow people regularly make "Tooth" of "Toth."
 
Kindly,
 
Paul A. Toth

One of the many (1001?) reasons to love Perl is CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. When Perl people have to work in other programming languages, they will immediately miss it. This is where the recently launched JavaScript Archive Network (JSAN) comes in: It attempts to be a CPAN for JavaScript. The whole approach (including the programming style that they propagate) may be a little too Perlish for other communities to really embrace it, and of course, the project is young and the modules still few, but I for one like the idea, switched out the JavaScript on the T-Files in favour of JSAN modules (let me know if you have any problems with the new style-switching code), and happily add a new button to the collection:

This movie did not work. I do not mind the premise of an unstoppable alien invasion wrecking havoc on our blue planet, effortlessly brushing aside every opposition that humanity can muster as a mere annoyance, only to finally be defeated in some sort of last-minute bold act of desperation by the unlikely heroes of the movie. Great B-movies are made that way. But in War of the Worlds the alien attacks come to a sudden and complete stop all by itself, not being caused by anything the protagonists do or can even explain. This reduces the alien invasion to something like a natural disaster, and for example an earthquake, a tsunami, or a wood fire would have been enough of a setting for the main story here, which revolves around a broken family caught in the middle of a life-threatening catastrophe. Once you throw in science fiction, it should be dealt with as more than just an excuse for special effects (which were excellent, by the way). As it is, the abrupt ending is not at all a satisfying conclusion, aggravated even by the return of the lost son. A dose of humour would not have hurt, either. War of the Worlds takes itself very seriously, even when it crosses the line into horror comedy land (sucking people dry to spray their blood all over the place in order to fertilise flowers, please!).

5 points

PS: After three big Hollywood summer movies in a row, I really need to find something else next time.

I spend between ninety minutes and two hours commuting every day and there are basically only three things that you can do to prevent that time from going wasted, or to just make it pass faster. Reading, listening, or thinking.

Useful thoughts usually do not appear during tiring weekdays (at least not for me). As for reading, I often buy an (English-language) newspaper for the train ride (mostly Japan Times), but during rush hours there is not enough space in the cars to even open it. Books work, and I think one day I want to have a Sony Librie, although it is quite expensive and Sony goes out of its way to cripple it with DRM.

I am not much of a music listener. I have bought less than ten audio CD in my life (half of them as gifts), my personal music library is minimal, underused and consists mainly of MD recorded by friends with more musical taste than I have. I do have a nice portable MD player, but Cissy appropriated it to study Japanese on her train rides. I also bought a miniature radio (another old hobby of mine, buying miniature radios), but the stations here play much less music than I expected, and talk to much (and that in Japanese). In addition to that, reception is horribly bad (the only strong signals are the audio track of the TV channels) and of course even more so on a moving train (or a subway). Another problem to point out is that Tokyo is just full of shamelessly loud background noise, so you have to get special headphones that shut out everything or pump up the volume real good (and maybe end up deaf in a few years).

Anyway, I did end up buying an iPod Shuffle last week, on the day before Apple reshuffled its iPod line-up and slashed the prices. I originally planned to mainly use it for the dialogue from some German TV comedy shows my brother records for me, but of course the day of the price drop saw also the release of iTunes 4.9, bringing podcasting to the me and masses.

So here is my current podroll, which adds up to enough content every day to fill the commuting time, but let me know if you have additional recommendations:

• Adam Curry: Daily Source Code
• Cinecast (that would be my favourite so far)
• Illumination Audio
• Kino im Kopf - Die Filme der Woche von M94,5
• MacCast
• sushiradio.de - Kanal Musik
• SWR3.de Podcast - Topthema (and I am so waiting for Tagesschau, which after a successful beta should launch later this month)
• The Chris Pirillo Show
• this WEEK in TECH
• Wanhoffs Wunderbare Welt der Wissenschaft

Concerning the Shuffle itself, I have mixed feelings. I am not totally wowed by it, but it is definitely worth the money. It is still reasonably cheap (compared to other players), the 1 GB should be quite enough for me, and is amazingly light (22g). I am a little unhappy that my USB keyboard hub seems not to recharge it properly (I have to plug the Shuffle in the less accessible back of my Mini), that I cannot recharge it over night (because the Mini goes to sleep mode after a while and powers down the USB devices), and that podcast synching only fully works with iPod and iPod Mini: What should happen is that when I plug in the Shuffle, iTunes starts, downloads the latest episodes (this actually works), and then replaces the episodes I already listened to with the new ones. That last part does not work, so I have to do some drag-and-drop. But that is not difficult, as it does correctly identify which episodes I have not yet heard and marks them with a blue dot.

So if you are more into music than I am, consider to spend that extra money on a regular iPod or the Mini. This will also give you a screen where you can see cover art and shownotes. The Shuffle is definitely on the absolute low end featurewise.

If you have been wondering what $WORK_PROJECT has been about for the last three years, there is a very entertaining and informative interview with Rick Kim of Cyworld on the Chris Pirillo Show. Cyworld are king of the hill concerning avatar sites.

They claim that 90% of all South Korean aged twenty-five to thirty (I am not sure if that applies to the whole or only the online population, but at that age segment in Korea the difference amounts to probably nothing) are using their service, which is a mini homepage system where people are representated by small digital characters called avatars. These mini homepages could very well be the Asian equivalent of the blog. While the service itself is free, people that want to differentiate themselves from others, have to buy virtual goods (such as clothing or furniture) to outfit their avatar. These items (mostly very simple graphics) are purchased with real money. And that is big business in Korea, with Japan and China next on the list. This is where GaiaX comes in. We (and others) have been busy copying Cyworld's business model and products and pushing it to clients in Japan.

The best part of the interview is how Chris Pirillo repeatedly and vehemently expresses his disbelief that people would actually pay for this kind of service. I feel the same way, and I really doubt that Cyworld can be a success in the West, where most people (including me) refuse to pay for much more basic services, such as email. Did I mention that we are now even rolling out items that expire after a month or two? On the other hand, ring tones seem to sell really well in Europe.

Speaking of Gaiax, they had their IPO this week, today is the first day of trading, the office is full of flowers (and a man-size Winnie The Pooh) sent by congratulators, and everyone is really excited about their stock options (which I suppose I forfeited by quitting a few weeks ago).

Unlike the previous two instalments, Episode Three is not a complete disappointment to fans of the original movies (although Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones must have significantly lowered everyone's expectations). I am not sure it makes much sense on its own, but that is no problem, as everyone should see all Star Wars movies anyway, preferably in the order 4, 5, 6, 1 (only together with small children, can otherwise be safely skipped), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Where Revenge of the Sith falls short, however, is to plausibly explain the motivation of Anakin to completely turn over to the Dark Side, which just seems very abrupt and too extreme. That is a major flaw, as his transformation is the central theme of the movie (and also of the prequels as a whole). The well-received Clone Wars animated series is said to provide a lot more detail on Anakin's development and background, so I will try to get it on rental DVD.

But everything considered, it is entirely watchable, with lots of action sequences and space battles (including a Star Trek-like star ship crash), exotic planets and creatures, light sabres and severed limbs, and I would not mind at all if George Lucas made up his mind to remake episodes four to six or even film seven to nine, which are also rumoured to have been originally planned.

7 points

We went (for about the fifth time now) to a furniture shop to buy a bed yesterday. They also made me try their toupets.

Good day,

With warm heart I offer my friendship, and greetings, and I hope this mail meets you in good time. However strange or surprising this contact might seem to you, as we have not met personally or had any dealings in the past, I humbly ask that you take due consideration of its importance and immense benefit. I also sincerely seek your confidence, as I make this proposal to you as a person of integrity.

First and foremost I wish to introduce myself properly to you. My name is Mr.Peter Savimbi,I am a nephew and Personal Assistant to Late Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, leader of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). As led by my instinct, I selected your email address from an internet directory, in my search for a partner.

My Uncle (Mentor) was killed in a battle with government forces of Angola, led by President Dos Santos, on Friday 22nd February 2002. After his death, Mr. Antonio Dembo and general Paulo Lukamba who were his second in commands, assumed office as leaders of UNITA, due to lack of the Charisma my Uncle had carried the party with in Dembo and general lukamba, there was chaos and struggle for leadership. Prominent members like Carlos Morgado lobbied to depose them and assume office as leader to enrich themselves and some of them who saw me as a threat to their ambitions, including Mr.Dembo, planned to kill me.

The tension and confusion in UNITA became uncontrollable when Mr. Dembo died 10days after my Uncle's death. As I lost my mentor in this struggle which has been on for three decades now, not so much of this struggle interests me anymore, as there is now no sense of direction. I now desire a peaceful life, as I am no more interested in conflicts and wars. For this reason, I secretly left Angola to Europe for political asylum.

I am sincerely proposing to you to render me your highly needed assistance in respect to safekeeping of some of my Uncle's money that arose from Diamonds sales. This money $60,000,000.00 (Sixty Million Dollars Only), which was already on its way to my Uncle's Swiss Bank account, through the Diplomatic means we use to move money abroad, and was on transit with a private safe deposit security company in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

In February when the tragic incident of my Uncle's death occurred. I then instructed the company to secure the consignment containing the money pending on further instructions from me. I have waited for sometime now for security reasons, and have now decided to act with your reliable assistance. As a matter of fact, the reason I came to Europe to sought for political asylum is because of the safe deposit. President Dos Santos has lobbied the International Community to freeze my Uncle's assets and accounts abroad, to ground UNITA, and has already done this in Angola. Hence I cannot lodge the funds in my name. Also I did not declare the funds to them here,I plan to use this money to safeguard my families future. It is very essential that you understand that the kind of trust and confidence I want to put in you is extraordinary, and an act of desperation on my part, in order not to lose this money. Also, ensure that this contact with you should be treated with utmost secrecy.

Your role in this project, is clearing the safety deposit containing the money which is deposited in my name from the Security and finance company, after which, the money will lodged into an account preferably a new account you should open for this transaction. My share of the money will be returned to me when my asylum application in this country is granted, and I have permission to do business and open an account here.

For your reliable assistance, I will reward you with Fifteen Percent of the Money I have with me, the Certificate of Deposit for the consignment containing the funds, which will be used for claim from the security company, and the release codes of the vaults. Also, everything will be legally processed for transfer of ownership to you, and this transaction should be completed immediately depending on your prompt response.

I thank you in advance as I anticipate your assistance in enabling me achieve this goal. Please contact me whether or not you are interested in assisting me. This will enable me scout for another partner in the event of non-interest on your part. To know more about the struggle by UNITA to liberate Angola, click on the link below and read :

THANKS, GOD BLESSES.

Sincerely,

P.Savimbi.

I am still looking for the best photo gallery software. Ideally it would work like Webshots, which Cissy is using now and where she is hitting her quota. I tried out a few popular packages, all of them written in PHP, which I suppose I have to accept (I do not want to fiddle with it anyway, I just want it to work). Photostack and Singapore, which both look promising did not install without problems on my rather aged SuSE box (whose system software I try to avoid touching/updating/breaking ) and Gallery, which did install cleanly, is just too complex for our needs.

In the mean-time I stumbled upon PostcardViewer, a Flash-based solution. This does not include any management interface (web-based or even better, some kind of iPhoto integration) to facilitate uploading the images to the server, naming them, writing comments or grouping them into albums, but it does present them with flashy eye candy. Now go see some Expo pictures.