RubyKaigi 2008, which will be held June 20-22, at the Tsukuba International Congress Center in Tsukuba Japan, is now open for session proposals. If you want to share your technique, code or passion about Ruby, don’t miss the deadline! Deadline: Feb. 17th (Sunday) JST.
Web umbrella Pileus
Even hardcore geeks might have never dreamt of something like this: An umbrella which is connected to the Internet! This gadget was developed by researchers at Tokyo-based Keio University. The “Pileus” umbrella looks ordinary from the outside but actually is a quite clever piece of hardware. The umbrella is able to display web sites on… Continue reading Web umbrella Pileus
Fastladder RSS Reader is now Open Source
Fastladder, an English localized version of the Japan’s most popular web-based RSS Reader “livedoor Reader” becomes Open Source today. Codes written in Ruby on Rails/Javascript are available on Google Code. The lincense is an MIT license. The installable binary package is also downloadable from fastladder.org. For Windows/Mac/Unix. It is still the same web-based (and “fast”,… Continue reading Fastladder RSS Reader is now Open Source
Some Niconico-douga videos available without registration
Niconico douga, the 2007 biggest hit in Japanese web, is a video sharing community service with enhanced overlay comments feature. Although it is popular among Japanese users, there are not many non-Japanese videos and comments, mainly because it requires user registration and it does not offer English menu. If you want to try it by… Continue reading Some Niconico-douga videos available without registration
Yahoo! Japan is worth $28billion
The market capitalization of Yahoo! Japan stands at $28 billion (as of Feb. 2008). Telecommunications conglomerate Softbank is the largest shareholder, holding 41% of the company’s shares. Yahoo! owns 33.4% of Yahoo! Japan’s shares. Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! is $44.6 billion while Yahoo!’s share of Yahoo! Japan is worth $9.3 billion.
Japan’s Internet filtering initiatives
Can you regulate the Cyberspace? Should you? It seems some forces in Japan think it’s possible and you should. There has been a lot of efforts by the Japanese government in the last few weeks to regulate and censor the Internet in various ways. 2 weeks ago, Japan’s National Police Agency hinted it may soon… Continue reading Japan’s Internet filtering initiatives
Hatena Haiku English version released
Hatena Inc., USA subsidiary of Hatena Corp, one of the web-geek community center in Japan, released its Hatena Haiku‘s English version today. It’s clearly influenced by microblogging platforms like twitter, but adds its own unique functionality. One is the drawing tool on comment forms, where users can post messages via handwriting. Another community oriented feature… Continue reading Hatena Haiku English version released
Yomiuri TV Uses Skype To Interview Candidates
Japanese television broadcaster Yomiuri TV has found a novel new way to recruit young new employees to their company. They utilize Skype chat and video to conduct the interview. The thinking behind the process is not to only demonstrate how “hip” they are to new technologies but also to provide an opportunity for many applicants… Continue reading Yomiuri TV Uses Skype To Interview Candidates
Hangame: Japan’s No. 1 online gaming site
Japan is known as the world’s No. 1 producer of high quality video games. After all, companies such as Nintendo, Sony (Playstation) or Sega are rooted in this country. In the light of this, it seems strange that the leading online game service in Japan comes from Korea: Hangame (only accessible with IE). At certain… Continue reading Hangame: Japan’s No. 1 online gaming site
Twitter Japan dev team showed some plans
On the twitter Japanese localization news, newly-opened Twitter Japan development blog explains what items are on their task list on localization process. In their current plan, They are making Japanese version on top of current (running) system. Japanese users and world users belong to the same account space. They do NOT make another Japanese version… Continue reading Twitter Japan dev team showed some plans