happylife

Pros and Cons

All these small boxes are so called mobile routers. I usually carry one or two of them in my bag so I can connect to the Internet and do my work in a cafe, train seat or anywhere I like. Thanks to these small devices, I have acquired freedom of working location, but it's not perfect yet. Why do I have so many boxes? The reason is very stupid. Not one of them fully satisfies my requirements. My requirements are very simple; to connect to the Internet for hours with enough speed from anywhere. From left to right, each device is called the Bmobile, Emobile and WiMAX. The Bmobile has the biggest service area, but its speed is restricted up to 300KB which is not enough for receiving movie, voice and large images. It costs about 3,000 yen per month, but it's free if I never use it entire month. So, I use it only when I have to connect to the Internet from a very remote area or a basement room. It's like an emergency box for me. The WiMAX is the latest product in my collections. Its speed is wonderful if once connected, however, it's rather hard to find a spot within in its range even in Tokyo. It costs 600 yen per 24 hours and is charged only when I use it. The Emobile has the intermediate speed and coverage. Its speed is barely enough for watching YouTube and it worked very well in Kushiro. One problem is that its battery capacity is too small. I can't use it continuously more than three hours without power cable. It costs from 1,400 yen to 5,000 yen which depends on how much data was transferred in a month. For now, I'm mainly using the Emobile, but I will change it whenever a better service is provided. I wish the iPhone can be used as a mobile router in the near future. Technically, the iPhone already has such function but it's restricted by the cellphone carrier in Japan. From an ordinary consumer's point of view, the situation of mobile data service in Japan is annoying because great technology is blocked by legal restrictions and carrier companies' ego.

Pen Revolution

FRIXION is the product name of a revolutionary ballpoint-pen. It seems to be just an ordinary ballpoint-pen -- it will be difficult to distinguish this pen from any other pens. Its colors, writing touch, thickness, and size are just the same as other rollerballs. However, that is the greatest point of this pen while it has a really great function which is hidden in its ink. The lines and characters written with this pen can be erased just by rubbing on it with a rubber tip built into the end of the pen body, and you can re-write and re-erase on the same paper again and again. Sure, the same things can be done using traditional pencils and erasers, but pencil lines are not so stable and the powder of pencil lead soils the surface of the paper over a long time. On the other hand, this rollerball has both the benefit of traditional rollerballs and pencils -- it is literally an "erasable rollerball." The mechanism of the erasability is quite simple. The ink has the nature of turning itself colorless over 60℃. This temperature looks so high as an air temperature but it can be reached very easily by rubbing or whatever heating. I experimented by drawing lots of thick lines with this pen and erasing them at one time using a hair dyer. It worked perfectly! 

The Second Life of Old MacBook

It was just two years ago when I got this MacBook. It is running perfectly except for two little things; the track pad cannot be clicked and the swelled battery makes the notebook wobbling on a desk. The other day I called the support center of Apple and got to know that it would cost around 70,000 yen to fix all the problems. The support staff said on the line that my warranty is already expired. I regretted not to have bought three-year warranty when I got this MacBook, but it cost more than 30,000 yen. I was too expensive! As I didn't like to pay so much money only to recover the MacBook, I decided to have new one. It cost almost three times more than repairing, but I've got two MacBooks. Of course the new one is great, but the old one works way more than I expected. I hooked it on the wall closing the lid and throwing away the swelled battery. I'm using it as a server machine. It is working as a storage server, scanner server and TV and radio server. Although the lid of this server is closed which is called "a clamshell mode", it can be controlled perfectly from the new MacBook or even from the iPhone through the network. If you have an old MacBook which has some problems with its track pad, keyboard, battery and display, I strongly recommend that you get new one and use the old one as a server machine.

 

eneloop

It was almost three years ago when I began to use this eneloop battery and now all of the batteries around me have been replaced to it. It is a so called rechargeable battery which can be recharged about 1,000 to 1,500 times. The biggest difference from traditional rechargeable batteries is that it is hardly to be discharged freely in the air. It is said that while other batteries are fully discharged in a few months, the eneloop keeps 85% of energy even one year after full charge. It is sold with full charged in shops so customers can start using it at once without recharging it. Sure it is more expensive than traditional alkaline batteries, but it is not as 1,000 times expensive. Plus, it has less environmental impact to the earth because if all the batteries were replaced to it, it means that the total amount of traditional battery garbage could be reduced to one thousandth.

 

What is Eco?

It's a "printer season" here in Japan. Sending a lot of new year's cards is an important annual event for most Japanese people though I won't do it. Sure the number of cards have been decreasing year by year, but still a lot of people keep doing it. It's not ecological but I don't deny this old custom because I know how real cards from friends make us happy. However, I can't help having a big question to printer makers such as Canon, Epson, HP and so on. -- Shamefully, most of them are Japanese companies. They often say "we are thinking about the ecology of the earth" while they do producing and selling new models of printers every year. As my printer ran out of ink, I went to an electric store and found a stupid phenomenon. Why new printers with ink were sold for less than 9,000 yen while a small refill ink cartridge cost almost 5,000 yen? The makers were apparently willing to sell printers rather than ink cartridges. If they really think about the earth, the ink must be way cheaper and printers cost double or more. After worrying for a few minutes, I got a cheaper refill cartridge which was made by nameless company not by Canon. I have decided not to buy a new printer until it gets out of order. It's not because of thinking about the earth but because I don't like the hypocritical major enterprise!

Innovation of Eraser

Because of the progress of digital technology including a personal computer and a PDA, my chance of using a pencil and paper has decreased dramatically. However, these primitive tools, which I have been accustomed to since my school days, still have a great advantage to those digital tools. When I think about abstract ideas, a pencil in my hand is way more helpful than any modern computer. One reason is that I can get relax with a pencil while I feel more or less nervous in front of computers. Another reason is that digital tools are far from perfect and they can't be transparent while analog tools are so simple that I don't have to be conscious about them. That's why I sometimes enjoy shopping in a stationary shop browsing interesting analog tools. Today's game was this innovative eraser. It doesn't look like an eraser, but it can erase pencil lines very perfectly. It is composed of a sticky roller and a plastic cover. Can you guess how it works? All you have to do is roll the roller on pencil drawings which you want to erase. The sticky roller catches the lead of a pencil without creating dust and damaging the paper at all. If the sticky roller becomes dirty, you can roll it on a piece of duct tape to remove the lead and you can use it again and again. It costs less than $2! Isn't it cool?

A Self-converted Ballpoint Pen

It's a good idea to always carry a small notebook in your pocket with a small ballpoint pen. You can always jot down any idea, memo and whatever you like onto it. I had been looking for a good ballpoint pen which is short enough to bind aside of my small notebook and also which is smooth enough to write with. I had been using a Japanese, cheap ballpoint pen which has so called "gel ink." It is, I think, one of the greatest innovations in the ballpoint pen industry -- It is as smooth as waterborne pen and it never bleeds just like an oil-based pen without making lumps. It was good except for one thing -- too cheesy! The other day, I found a well designed, small ballpoint pen on the Internet and after a second, I clicked the purchase button out there. It is made in Italy and I loved it at first sight, however, I was really disappointed with its terrible ink performance-- it was far from smoothness and it leaves a lot of lumps on the paper. I tried to used the Japanese gel ink with the Italian ballpoint pen. I had to cut and trim the ink cartridge but I succeeded in converting the two pens into one ideal pen. It is a good combination of Japanese high-tech and Italian design.

Old but Good Media

As you can read on this package, this shark-fin-shaped gadget is a radio tuner and capturer for PC and Mac. I've been using it since last month and I think it was one of my best shopping recently. Sure we can enjoy so called the Internet radio on our PC without this device, but I prefer traditional radio broadcastings. The DJs are more professional, the talks are more sophisticated and the choices of songs are full of variations. For some reasons such as copyright problem, the traditional radio and the Internet are not fused well especially in Japan. They have to glow together in the future, but it may take years. I think this device makes up the gap between them. Just by connecting the shark-fin-shaped gadget to the USB port of Mac and installing small software, we can listen and record any traditional radio program on the Mac. As we can use timer recording and the recorded data is saved into the iTunes library, we can enjoy any radio program on the iPod or iPhone. It's really convenient and I never feel bored while waiting for a train or someone away from home.

Always with Something Hot

Thermos Bottle was always by me even when I was a small child. I used to carry a small bottle when I went to school with a lunchbox. I remember well that I dropped my bottle on the floor when I took a misstep which caused a terrible situation -- hot milk tea was spilt and scattered on my foot and on the floor. I was burnt a bit in my foot and I had to clean the floor. I can't forget the smell of the duster which was used to wipe it. Plus, I had to have my lunch without tea on that day. The biggest reason for the tragedy was that Thermos Bottle was made of glass in those days. Decades have passed since then and the Thermos has got a great innovation. As you know, the recent Thermos Bottle is made of stainless steel and it cannot be crushed even if you clamp it on a concrete floor. This is my new Thermos Bottle which I bought on the end of last year. The capacity of 500ml is enough for three cups of drink. It provides such an extra insulation that a sip of hot tea after six hours is still too hot for me to swallow at one gulp. Thanks to this bottle, I can enjoy whenever I want just a sip of hot tea or coffee or whatever. Furthermore, it can save money in Starbucks. Not only we can get 20 yen discount for "my bottle" but also we can sometimes get "Grande(480ml)" sized coffee for an order of "Tall(360ml)".

Multi Displays

If you have once used a computer with multi displays, you won't be able to forget its pleasantness. It used to be a kind of luxury because the prices of computer displays were very expensive and we had a desktop space problem at the same time especially in Japan. Thanks to the recent mass production effect of LCDs, we can now easily make good use of multi displays. I had been used a 20 inch LCD in addition to the built-in 13.3 inch display for months. It was convenient enough, but I added the third LCD a few days ago. You can see it by the dog in this picture. It has only 4.3 inches! It may seem too small, but it is really nice for some reasons. It is connected to my MacBook with one USB cable, that's it. All the power can be supplied through the USB port and thanks to its light weight, it can be held with the USB cable as you can see in this picture. I'm now using it for the Finder program (a kind of File Manager for Windows). I won't have to close or stagger some windows to access to the objective window any more. As I often work with a computer in a cafe, it's really great for me to be able to carry my multi display environment. Plus, the price was less than $200. I have to admit to say that it was one of the luckiest finds this year.