Nerdcore Archives

Already : Hatachi "Nerdcore" Archives

Using Rikaichan in Firefox 3.0 Sunday June 29

For those of you that speak Japanese, are studying Japanese, or otherwise have any need to instantaneously look up Japanese characters on web pages, I recommend Rikaichan.

I was using Firefox 2 when it notified me on June 22nd that a Rikaichan update was available. I installed it, as normal, and then a few days later updated to Firefox 3 when it came out to the general public.

At that point, Rikaichan stopped working -- or rather, the installed Japanese-English dictionary was no longer appearing as a compatible plug-in for Firefox 3.

Should anyone have the same problem and stumble upon this page, simply uninstall the dictionary (leave the plug-in itself), and then re-download and install it. This fixed my installation, and I am sure it would sort out the bugs in yours as well.

Versioning. Sigh.

There's something about old data Wednesday December 26

Last year, when home, I ran out of time to deal with the old Dell that was sitting in my Dad's basement. Inside it lay three hard drives -- full of information I could have never fit on my laptop when I went to Japan -- and I was determined, someday, to get it all back.

I bought a 300GB portable drive this year, so I simply brought it back with me to the States. The old Dell, unfortunately, won't turn on, so it hasn't been an easy procedure: I rooted the drives out of it, re-installed them on my mother's PC, and am now gleefully copying data (old CDs, MP3s of when I used to be on the radio, etc).

The most interesting part, though, is looking at the state of the data. These drives haven't been powered on since August 2005. The last pictures, the "latest" music, the projects for work: it is more-or-less a snapshot of my life 30 months ago. Somehow that's fascinating.

However, the best data, from University, is long gone after a hard drive crash. It was early in life that I have learned to back up early, and back up often. It is not a question of if a hard drive will crash, but when. At my Dad's house, Sharon labored to scan in and print a whole album of family pictures. I asked her if she had backed any of it up. That's a painful story waiting to be told.

Friendly reminder. If you have data you can't afford, or don't want to lose, buy yourself an external USB hard drive for $100. Better yet, buy two, and keep one locally, keep the other one in a safety deposit box at the bank.

And you think I'm joking.

There is one other alternative, professed by some I know: never keep any data worth so much effort. Keep your life simple. Food for thought.

I knew it Thursday April 20

I knew this wireless connection would have me screwing around on the Internet at home. I'm trying, though, to do that as productively as possible. There have been many improvements on this site I've been wanting to take care of, and tonight was just that opportunity. Considered going down to the bathhouse, but it started pouring out of nowhere, which is a clear sign you need to code instead.

The New Features

• A MoBlog. Yes, I've finally gotten on that train. I have a cell phone with a built-in camera, Internet and e-mail, so I'm surprised it took me this long to build a program to post e-mailed images. Hopefully, when I'm really busy and don't have time to update regularly, I'll at least be able to keep these images fresh and interesting. Note that since this panel is new, you may have to scroll down to the bottom right of this page and click "Reopen all panels..." to see it.
• Recent Pictures. There is a new link on the right labeled "View latest added". This will show you the most recent pictures, in chronologically descending order as I've added them. It's a lot easier than trying to navigate through all my different labyrinth-esque albums to see if I've added anything.
• New Color Schemes. Dad requested a Penn State theme, and I've added it. I thought it would only be right to do the Illini as well.

Let me know what you think!

Wireless Sunday April 16

When I first moved to my apartment, I scoured it for open wireless access points that I could use to hop online. Broadband Internet is more expensive in Japan (is anyone surprised?), and I really didn't have the $500 to fork over for a year's worth of access. I settled on using it at school, and considered my Internet-less home a santuary where I could actually get work done.

I had a party yesterday where we did some file sharing, so some people brought laptops. At one point, Tyler said to me, "You know you get wireless here, right?"

"Yeah, but they're all secured networks," I told him.

"No they're not?" he responds, showing me a working web browsing session.

Let's just say things have changed at 204 Prince Heights. Good morning.

Weekend Sundries Thursday October 27

(Ed. note: This was written six days before this post, but was not posted for lack of an Internet connection.)

I made Ma Po Tofu tonight for the first time (#42 at the China Palace in both Rockton and Roscoe, for those who are in the know); it worked out well. I received the package from home with all of my winter clothes. Said package also included two lamps and my MP3 player AC adapter. Last, but not least, were two unopened bottles of Sirracha hot sauce. I went to the store, got a light bulb, and installed my favorite lamp; it works well.

However, what has not worked out well tonight was following a classmate's recommendation and watching a particular drama on TBS (not affiliated with the American TBS) at ten o'clock.

In fact, I want the last forty-five minutes of my life back. I think I'm going to bill my time out to the person who recommended it. I should have known better when she said it was "based on a manga". And I could have been reading the cultural anthropology book I just borrowed from the IUC library... this is why televisions are bad, and I wouldn't even have one if I wasn't trying to learn a new language.

Occasionally, we are assigned to watch the news as homework; we have to report on what we learned. I cried "foul" at first because I didn't have a TV, and didn't feel like I should be required to buy one simply because I needed it for a three-minute assignment twice a week. I eventually caved when I saw the $45 used TV (with free delivery) at the shop where I bought my table.

Random: Japanese light bulbs use about one-fifth of the energy of their American counterparts. The sockets are the same, but unlike the States, where 90% of the market is dominated by "regular" bulbs, Japan only has fluorescent bulbs (or at least, the supermarket only carried fluorescent bulbs). I have learned the hard way, though, that my 8-watt "40-watt" light bulb is not strong enough for reading. Good for the ambient feel, bad for the eyes.

Tomorrow's agenda includes: another light bulb (this time we'll try the 12-watt "60-watt"), an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet birthday celebration at Shakey's Pizza (yes, the same Shakey's Pizzas that dot the southern Wisconsin landscape), making okonomiyaki for the first time, and listening to the music on my MP3 player (now that I have the AC adapter for it, at last).

Warning: the following paragraphs are all nerd, and it's pretty much for personal notation. Read at your own risk. Normal readers may stop here safely.

I also installed IIS, PHP, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin on my laptop. Now, I can do development work without an Internet connection. I've started using PHP 5.0; I'm enjoying the extended OOP functionality (er, maybe, "complete", considering that C++ had thisfunctionality a decade ago). The first thing I wrote was an application framework for new projects I design.

I've noted a few major limitations in the User Request » Function » Page Output design that I had been using (with large 'switch' statements). First of all, each execution could only execute one function, and each execution could only display one page. Nine times out of ten, you can get by with this. However, I want to stop thinking in this way: I want to take a modular approach to everything I design.

The more modules I write, the faster the next program will be developed; by abstracting the modules into basic class functions, I can essentially extend the functionality of PHP to meet my own uses. Before I had helper functions, certainly, but not to the extent I am now envisioning. Also, the new framework should help reduce debug time significantly, and it should help reduce versioning inconsistencies.

A long day of updates Thursday September 8

I called the landlord today about my apartment. Apparently, the earliest I can pick up my key is a week from today, so I'll be staying at Riho's and Mike's for the next week.

I mentioned in brief that Mike and I had spent some time together last weekend. He called today wanting to know my weekend schedule, and he had already thrown around the idea of me staying there. I might do that for a night or two just to give Riho a night off; I've been sleeping in her living room for over a week now, and even though I have my own key, and we don't see each other so much except at night, it's still just not fair to her.

I had today off; usually, I will have class on Thursdays, but due to a scheduling idiosyncrasy of the first week, I had nothing. Without an apartment to move into and furnish, there's really nothing to do.

So, what else to do but fix all those things I've been meaning to fix on this website.

• Comments are no longer pop-ups, they are now included at the bottom of each entry.
• When you post a comment, it doesn't take you to that ugly white page anymore.
• I added a security code to the comments box. If you enter the code correctly, which most anyone with halfway decent eyesight can (I know, it's an accessibility issue), your comment will be posted immediately. This is to prevent comment spam, whose robots are getting increasingly more clever.
• The scheme toolbox on the right side is 'sticky', your choice will persist even to your next visit.
• I have removed all of the table formatting from the picture script, except where appropriate.
• I updated the header graphic, and I plan on doing so continually as I take new pictures.
• I finished making the site XHTML 1.0 Transitional. It now verifies properly.

I've had a lot of requests for pictures; since the weather should be nice tomorrow, I will take a bunch of my school.