happylife

Buddy for the iPhone

More than two months have past since the release of the iPhone3G. Despite some malfunctions and lack of functions which are mostly related to Apple's self restriction and carrier's radio wave capacity, I am almost satisfied with it. Sure, its hardware specs are inferior to so called "The Galapagos evolutionary cell phones" in Japan, but its software potentiality looks infinitive. Actually, one of the biggest problems which was related to Japanese input was solved after the 2.1 firmware up version. Most of other problems will be gradually solved and the hoped new functions including copy&paste will be added in the near future, I hope. Different from software functions, its hardware functions cannot be improved by any firmware up version. For example, the iPhone3G's built-in camera is in the same level as 5-year-old Japanese cellphones and it cannot be improved until we buy the next iPhone. Especially I'm dissatisfied with the lack of close-up photography function. Without both the AF and macro switching, it can't take a picture of nearby objects such as lunch menu or printed small characters. In order to compensate for this disability, I bought this small magnifying glass in a one-coin shop the other day. Though it's not such a smart way, it works well. You can see the fur of this toy dog!

Lost in the sky

"Shaku" is the old Japanese unit for length which almost equals to foot. Three shaku is the diameter of this ball. You can easily guess what this ball is from the fuse on its head. Yes, it is the original style of a firework before exploding -- actually it is a replica because a real firework is as dangerous as a bomb. In terms of the size of fireworks, 3 shaku or 3 feet is the largest in the world. It is launched into the sky at the altitude of 600 meters and the diameter of the open firework comes to 550 meters! It was supposed to be the highlight in the fireworks festival which was held last night in Kushiro. However, it was lost in the sky without being watched by any audience in the place. It's not that it was misfired. It was successfully launched into the sky after countdown of 10, but there was a thick cloud at the altitude of 600 meters. We could only see the flashing debris after the explosion and hear the huge sound with a vibration. Every one around me couldn't help laughing at the unluckiness and one old woman said behind me, "it's just a funny story." As I mentioned in this blog, this year's festivals in Kushiro were almost cursed. One of the dancing parades was canceled in a heavy rain and the other was like a Songgran (a traditional Thai festival in which people throw water each other). The other fireworks festival was not good because of no wind. May the luck come back to this city soon.