Technology on Nanikore

Obligatory ChatGPT generated post

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 05:17:23 +0000

Sigh, so yes, this is the obligatory ChatGPT generated post. It seems everyone is generating content (either openly or not) using it, so I thought I’d chuck something out. Also, the top image is from DALL-E, and those images were all based on requests around motorcycling in Japan specifically.

For the first one, the phrase I used was, “write an article about riding motorbikes in japan, in the style of Ernest Hemmingway”. At least that should make it a little more colourful, and hopefully concise, given Hemmingway’s preference for short stories and tight writing.

For the second one, the phrase I used was, “write an article about riding motorbikes in japan, in the style of Oscar Wilde”. This one was certainly less generic, and feels different, but as expected, Mr. Wilde’s languid prose it is not.

Anyway, here they are:

In Japan, riding motorbikes is a cultural phenomenon that goes beyond the mere act of transportation. It is a way of life that embodies the spirit of adventure and freedom, and for those who dare to embark on such a journey, the rewards are endless.

The roads of Japan are a motorcyclist’s paradise, with winding mountain passes, scenic coastal routes, and picturesque countryside roads that offer a sense of escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. The sound of the engine, the wind in your face, and the open road ahead beckon to those with a sense of adventure and a passion for the thrill of the ride.

In the style of the great Ernest Hemingway, riding a motorbike in Japan is like stepping back in time to a simpler era. The feeling of freedom is unparalleled as you weave your way through the traffic and navigate the narrow streets of Tokyo, feeling the rush of adrenaline with every turn.

But it is not just the thrill of the ride that makes motorcycling in Japan so unique. It is the culture that surrounds it. From the sleek, high-tech designs of the bikes themselves to the stylish riding gear and accessories, motorcycling is as much about style as it is about function.

And then there are the people. The camaraderie and sense of community among motorcyclists in Japan is truly special. Whether you are a seasoned rider or a novice, you will find a warm welcome in the local motorcycle clubs and groups, where you can share stories, tips, and advice with fellow riders.

But perhaps the most rewarding aspect of riding a motorbike in Japan is the opportunity it provides to explore the country in a way that few other modes of transportation can offer. From the stunning mountain ranges of Hokkaido to the vibrant cities of Osaka and Kyoto, there is no shortage of places to explore on two wheels.

As Hemingway once said, “It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” And for those who choose to explore Japan on a motorbike, the journey is truly the destination.

ChatGPT + Me

It’s not bad I suppose, it’s coherent, if a little bland, and that’s where much of ChatGPTs writing seems to be for me. Yes, yes, you can argue that makes it better than most of my writing on this site. And now in the style of Oscar Wilde.

Ah, to ride a motorbike in Japan! It is an experience like no other, my dear friends. It is a sublime blend of art and science, of speed and grace, of freedom and constraint.

For the true aesthete, there is no greater joy than the sight of a sleek, gleaming motorcycle gliding through the neon-lit streets of Tokyo, the rider’s silhouette a study in elegance and poise. The curves and contours of the bike, the roar of the engine, the rush of the wind in one’s hair - these are the elements of a truly beautiful experience.

But of course, as with all great art, there are rules and guidelines to be followed. The motorcyclist in Japan must navigate a delicate balance between freedom and restraint, between individuality and conformity. The strict regulations and licensing requirements are not meant to stifle the rider’s creativity, but rather to ensure the safety and well-being of all those who share the road.

And yet, even within these constraints, there is room for innovation and individuality. The motorcyclist in Japan is a true artist, constantly seeking new ways to push the boundaries of style and function. The motorcycle itself is not merely a means of transportation, but a canvas for self-expression and creativity.

To ride a motorbike in Japan is to be a part of a grand tradition, one that stretches back centuries and embraces the very essence of Japanese culture. It is a tradition that values discipline, precision, and attention to detail, as well as a deep appreciation for beauty and grace.

In the words of the great Oscar Wilde, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” But for those who choose to ride a motorbike in Japan, existence is not enough. They seek to live fully, to experience all the beauty and wonder that this world has to offer. And in doing so, they become true artists of life.

ChatGPT+Me

This second one was a little better, at least it was more Oscar Wilde than the first one was Ernest Hemmingway to me. I’m not sure we can claim riding motorbikes here stretches back centuries though. Ultimately, I don’t think they’re truly in the style of a great author, and they do 3rd person references, but hey, not truly awful.

I don’t want to get into the right and wrongs of these ‘AI’ generated pieces of content, and I’m not planning to use them again, and if I did, it’d be well sign-posted, unlike many roads here in Japan.

Also, I find the chatgpt to be slightly more on point than the associated DALL-E images, but I accept that’s because these are tools like anything else, and my wording may not be getting the results I want.

Ride on AI, ride on.

Nanikore turns 20!

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 06:14:00 +0000

cover: alt: nani-20thanniv image: /wp-content/uploads/2023/02/nani-20thanniv.png

It’s somewhat difficult believe, but this site - nanikore.net - is 20 years old this month! I’m not going to do some lengthy retrospective, but here’s the short version.

In 2003 blogs were hot, I mean red hot. I’d had the homepage since ~1997 but blogs were the thing, and that’s totally different from a mere homepage, right? There was even a word for this - the blogosphere. That’s like the atmosphere but with a lot more hot air.

In my small corner, I was interested in a system which was easier to update more frequently, and preferably one with a management system which allowed me to post via e-mail because hey, my cell phone could send email, and it had a camera. (So yes, I did post random photos from my phone at resolutions which would make people laugh and cry today). Compare that to my hand coded homepage, updated from a laptop over FTP.

If I remember correctly, my first blog backend for nanikore.net was with Movable Type. ‘MT’ was a big thing at the time, and was broadly free, and indeed it was a very elegant piece of software for the time even though it was mainly written in Perl (joke!), and was very easy to self host, as I did on Pair.com - yes, I’ve been with Pair for a long old time.

There’s actually a side story about that Movable Type to Wordpress migration in the early blogging days, which may be of interest to some as it was one of the first major shifts based on licensing.

Anyway, it wasn’t so clear, and I liked this small, open source, system called WordPress, and since I didn’t have much content yet, I moved over. It wasn’t that bad for the era, and rough edges aside, nanikore.net has pretty much been on WordPress ever since, mostly on Pair, with a year or two in the middle on Wordpress.com when I just didn’t have much time to write much (yes, even less than now).

The content has evolved for sure. Early on it was random short email posts and tiny photos on life in Japan, and as that became normal, there was more on technology, then snowboarding and motorcycling, and at some point I decided to make nanikore more about outdoor things, and my old homepage more about ‘indoor’, including tech, films and books.

I think I explain the name in the About page - it’s Japanese for ‘what’s this’ and is solidly filed in the ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’ folder.

Thanks again to everyone who has ready any of this, and definitely to those who commented or got in touch!

Anyway, to close, here’s a few posts from the last 20 years, of varying levels of quality, but many of which were well hit:

test post to blog - yes, that first test post to see if it was working.

Dog Day Festival - this post has been in my top ten viewed posts for years! No idea why either…

CB400SF - This one makes a bit more sense - my awesome old Honda CB400, which was a terrific bike.

Suzuki Choi Nori - Another bike post - the somewhat bizarre Suzuki Choi Nori

Review: OSMAnd+ - I’d forgotten I did a review of the navigation app I use.

Coast to Coast 2018 - I enjoyed this one - a ride review of our annual coast to coast twistybutt.

and finally, a post I did a few years ago, about a way to add some supernatural protection to your bike.

Current Cameras

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 02:18:00 +0000

I thought I’d do a very quick post about my current cameras. This blog did used to have more ’technology’ posts, but many of those are now private (or on brightblack) as over the last few years I’ve tried to focus more on outdoors and motorcycling here, though I thought for a change today, I’d do something about my current cameras.

Let me be up-front here though - I’m not a photographer, I just want to take photos to remind me of times I’ve had on the road, or wherever I happen to be. I’ll be honest - I have hundreds of photos of my bikes in front of beautiful vistas.

The ’larger’ camera

For many years I had entry-level Nikon dSLRs - a D40, then a D3200 - and I really liked both of them. I amassed a kit 18-55mm lens, an f1.8 35mm prime and a 55-200mm telephoto lens for them too. They were great value for money cameras and lenses.

Then in April 2020, I moved over to an entry level Fujifilm mirrorless camera system, the X-T200. I like taking photos but my skill level and disposable income for cameras doesn’t justify huge expenditure, so better to get a cheaper body so I can afford a few lenses down the road. So for the Fujifilm, I have the small and light kit 15-45mm, then a 23mm prime lens and a 16-80mm travel zoom I bought used. When possible I sell off old gear via online auction or more recently to Fujiya Camera, which is where I got that used 16-80mm Fujifilm lens.

As it’s a small APS-C based system, I find these don’t add much bulk or weight in a backpack or my topbox, so on days out I actually enjoy stopping, getting the camera out and looking around. And drinking tea.

Why the X-T200?

The X-T200 is light and small. It’s takes great photos, and like all Fujifilm mirrorless, has great colour and film simulations in JPG which is what I mainly shoot in. It also does very good video, which my previous dSLR cameras didn’t. The X series of cameras is being actively developed and I could move into weatherproof bodies going forwards, and there’s also plenty of weather sealed lenses - including two of the ones I have - which might not be a bad idea given some of the places I end up.

The Action Camera

My first action camera was a GoPro Hero HD2, which I thought was great, even with the required case, as it was a camera I felt safer mounting to helmets or taking snowboarding. After quite a few years, I sold it and got a Hero 5, then a few years later sold that when I got a Hero 7black as a gift. The 7black is great for video, especially it’s amazing stabilization. The downside was it was very buggy on launch (mostly fixed), and can be temperamental in sub- and near zero temperatures if care isn’t taken. I often use it for time lapse too, and I find it actually takes decent photos with a bit of patience.

Why GoPro?

Their hardware seems mostly well thought out and durable, which I think is where they lead cheaper brands and is mainly why I’ve stuck with them - I’ve never had one really fail on me. Their software and other business strategies seem to be all over though, which is concerning since I see action cameras as a niche and declining market as people just use water-resistant phones, or put the phones in waterproof covers. For example, their idea of charging 50USD to use an external mic is my favourite example of trying to make money where a lower margin would likely drive more sales. I even did a post about it. Again, well built cameras and better image quality if that’s really a factor.

The Smartphone

Yes, the best camera is truly the one you have with you. I don’t buy high end phones unfortunately, but I use whatever I have if I just need to take that photo. I used to have point and shoot cameras, like the small Canon Ixy range, but ultimately found I used the big camera more, and then the phone or the GoPro if I had them with me. Eventually the point-n-shoots never got replaced when they wore out. Currently I have a Google Pixel 4a, and yes, very happy with the photos.

A more flexible option?

Pricey, but I know a few bikers who swear by the Sony RX100 range, pocket sized cameras which take great photos and videos. There’s similar ones such as Canon G5 range that perhaps could be an option in the future. Who knows!

In Summary

Basically then I don’t have a massive number of cameras, but fairly specific ones I suppose, and I do like to take photos even if they may not be ‘good’ photos, I treat them very much as a way to trigger memories, or a way to share them with people - usually they’re a great aid when explaining something. So for example, when explaining how I stalled my bike on an inclined curve, and had to slowly lower it to the asphalt, I can describe the road, but I think this photo makes it a little easier to understand:

Leaving Product: Google (?)

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:23:33 +0000

Leaving GoogIe? I use e-mail a lot. I know it’s not as cool to talk about in these social website times, but the truth is, I do like to correspond with friends and groups of friends via good old e-mail. I have two types of account - I have my ‘web company’ accounts such as Gmail, MS Outlook, Yahoo for those company’s services, and for dumping signups into. Then I have a couple of accounts for myself and family members based on my own domain names where we communicate with friends and family.

I started using these domain named accounts about 8 years ago, settling on IMAP, and moving away from ISP based addresses and even from the above mentioned webmail apps.

For a while, they were based on Pair.com’s SquirrelMail implementation, and that was fine, but we’d sometimes see odd issues now and then. I looked around, and at the end of 2009, as I blogged, I moved to Google Apps. In those days, Google Apps was pretty much free for everyone, and you could even use Gmail as a web front end.

Over the years, they reduced the number of mailboxes each domain could have and originally at least, it wasn’t simple having multiple domains under one account. I could understand that - this was still a free service.

Last December, they killed the free option, and now it’s pay only, and I’m fine with that, I just wanted to put some back story in there as I’m grandfathered in with the 5 mailboxes per domain for free.

For a while now, I’ve not liked the ads on the web interface, or that theoretically my mail was analyzed for that mail targeting / profiling. Again, this is free, and when it’s free *you* are the product, as the old saying goes. I’m not a tinfoil hat fanatic, but I do like privacy, and decided it was time to pay for my email hosting again.

I looked at the Google (Apps) paid option - 5 USD a month for my 5 users. I then looked around and had a look at what MS is doing with Outlook on custom domains, and also at other hosting companies like Pair, and finally Rackspace.

It was tempting to stay with Google and Apps, but I don’t use the other Apps, just the email, and the way Google does things with it’s ‘AllMail’ philosophy irks some people, and there’s a whole post’s worth there on configs I’ve tried from app setup, to subscriptions and quite a few other things to improve that - but basically, I’m a simple Inbox n folder person. There are definitely upsides to the AllMail approach, but in my situation, people are preferring things in folders.

I decided to pitch a move to Rackspace on Twitter with a #rackspace hashtag, and quickly received several positive responses from users (and former employees) and a couple of contact people, who I followed up with, and who answered a few of my queries on quirks of my setup.

A couple of months ago, I signed up with Rackspace for a trial two weeks. Their product seems to be what I need - I can hold my two domains under a single Rackspace account, and each mailbox will cost me 2USD / month with a minimum of 5 (10USD / month). This actually works as I have 5 main mailboxes to move!

They support migration of data from various services via a migration assistant including GMail. I should note that this did not work for me from Google Apps using a preset, as my actual mail server was googlemail.com, not gmail.com. Not a problem - the manual setup worked fine. Having uploaded my from & to details in a provided spreadsheet, the script went to work, effectively logging in to Google as me, and copying the data across, and being reformatted by Rackspace.

Moving email hosts, like moving houses/apartments also gives you the opportunity to get to those things you’d been meaning to do, but never did. For me, it meant killing a few mailboxes, and rolling them in as aliases to my core addresses, meaning I have an ‘address’ for each of my two twitter accounts and a few other things, and they route into my core account, which means fewer accounts to own/check, no forwarding, and I can see where addresses have somehow attracted spam. Keeps it simple.

The web interface is very clean, very simple, and though I did need to set up some contacts, it wasn’t arduous at all. As far as my usual window onto my email - Thunderbird - it was all fine, and it pulled all my email down and let me re-sync it, so I’ve been tidying that all up as well, and slowly removing the AllMail. All in all, it’s been painless for me, and transparent to family members using their accounts, once we’d gone through phones and setup draft, sent and trash folders correctly!

It’s odd that in parallel, I’ve been moving my RSS reading habits from the soon to be retired Google Reader, to Newsblur. On my iPhone4, I used to use a syncd Reeder app with my Google account, but now just use that as a local RSS / OPML reader, as well as playing with the Newsblur app.

So, a few months on, I use Google products to very little extent - an email drop, and the odd G+ post. No more ‘core mail’ or RSS involvement, and I rarely even use the search any more (Twitter & Pocket pretty much take up my link following time). It seems a bit odd, but yes, I’m very happy with the move, and that I’ve actually managed to make it simpler.

New PC Build

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 13:18:13 +0000

For over 15 years, I’ve built my own PCs. The first was a 486/DX2-66 based machine just before Windows 95 came out. I’ve done it out of interest, but also to give me control over what I buy, and make replacements and upgrades cheaper. My build was getting a bit old, the parts being between 2 and 3.5 years old and was missing some current technologies, so I decided to replace the main components, and sell the parts on to cover some of the cost of the new build:

Old build: AMD Athlon II 645 4 Core CPU, AMD 5750 graphics, ASRock motherboard, 430W Antec PSU, Lian Li case, DVD-R drive, 12GB RAM.

It was a good build, and still had some legs, but was deficient in some areas. The CPU was capable, but for the increasing amount of virtualisation and editing/encoding/rendering I’m doing, something faster was definitely going to be better. Moreover, though the ASRock was a great motherboard, it lacks PCIe 3 and USB3. The 5750 is a good card, but after nearly three years, is showing it’s age, and though I don’t game like I used to, I decided it was time to get a PCIe3 1GB card and play older games with more detail, and get a bit more out of newer games. The Antec PSU has been great - so much better than the Enermax I had previously, but I felt I needed something with a bit more capacity, to handle the extra GPU load, but potentially more from CPU and other components. The DVD-R drive had survived a few rebuilds, but I’ve wanted a BluRay drive for a while since I actually have some BDs now. The RAM is actually one set of 2*2GB from an older build, and 2*4GB I bought a couple of years ago - I’m going to re-use the latter only - they’re all fine, but I expect to add a further 2*4GB kit later this year.

So what’s new?

For the first time since the very early 2000s, I’ve gone with a retail Intel CPU. That last one was a Celeron 333 I think, and I used to overclock the hell out of it. Since then, it’s been AMD all the way, but now I’m back with Intel and the i5 3470, based on the Ivy Bridge architecture. Interestingly, this model has HD2500 graphics built in, rather than the more common 4000 part, but since I have a discrete graphics card, it doesn’t make much difference, and I think results in a lower power wattage rating. Perhaps for the next upgrade, the Bulldozer/Piledriver cores from AMD will have evolved a little more.

For a motherboard, I chose to stay with ASRock, and got one of their H77 based boards, the H77 Pro4/MVP. It’s an ATX sized board, and though there is a Micro ATX version, that was more expensive, so I stuck with this one. I find the ASRock board to be reliable and well laid out. I used to swear by Abit, but again, I had some bad run-ins, and moved on. The board has PCIe3 for graphics, SATA3/6Gb, and USB3, as well as some of the tweak utils they use, and for the first time for me on a PC, UEFI instead of the old BIOS. Also, it has enough monitored fan connectors to match my case for a change.

For graphics card, I basically trawled Tom’s Hardware, and went with the AMD HD7770, which sports an acceptable price, but also a good power efficiency. I went with the Gigabyte model, which is moderately quiet, and was a little cheaper, instead of having a pile of cables and bundled games I didn’t need.

I bought a new power supply - essentially the 650W version of the previous one. I’ve always had good results from Antec and SeaSonic PSUs in all the builds I’ve done for myself and for friends, and when I’ve tried something different, I’ve been disappointed. It’s not a sexy part of a build, but it’s the one part which has the capability to blow the rest of the machine, so choose wisely.

Lastly, I picked up a cheap, bulk, LG BluRay player, so I can watch some discs on my PC, which will be convenient.

I’ve kept the memory, and my aluminium Lian Li case, which I really like, all the peripherals, and drives, and my X-Fi audio card.

I bought pretty much all the parts in Akihabara, from Dos Paradise (DosPara), which is a great set of shops, and they always seem to have decent prices. Pricing was mainly done on kakaku.com, with research from Tom’s Hardware, PCper.com and Anandtech.

Addendum: I now put tech posts over on brightblack.net .

Nexus 7 (2012)

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 02:43:13 +0000

So last month I bought my first tablet - a Google/Asus Nexus 7.

There hasn’t been much in the way of gadget updates here in a while, due mainly to a lack of necessity and general interest to be honest, but one of my personal situations, is that I have a decent commute to deal with on a daily basis, and I’ve wanted something with a slightly larger screen to watch documentaries than my phone, and read some textbooks on which are mainly .pdf based, and thus a little too complex for my normal Kindle Reader. One thing I have learned from my Kindle though, is that that form factor is great for reading whilst sitting or standing on the train.

The iPad never really grabbed me for this task, just feeling that bit too bulky and heavy, and judging from my fellow commuters, that must have been right as there aren’t many people with them on my JR line.

Previous Android tablets just seemed to lack a certain polish to me, but when the Nexus 7 came out, it piqued my interest, so I put a bit of money aside, and picked up the 32GB version (24,800yen / ~290USD/ ~ 180GBP) the same weekend the iPad Mini came out - though that was 13,000yen more!

The Tegra 3 based hardware is excellent, and rugged - the rear mounted speaker is surprisingly good for film watching and podcasts, and the sound quality via the headphone socket seems decent. The tablet is snappy, and media playback of even 720p material on the 1280x800 display looked fantastic. There’s no point me going overboard on details here - you can easily pull reviews of this thing off the web. One the hardware side though, note that you don’t get headphones or much else with this - just a USB power adapter and micro USB cable.

My only previous Android experience had been on a phone I borrowed, so I was essentially new to the Android system. It probably took as long to figure out as an iOS device really, from scratch. The Google Play store isn’t bad but it takes a little getting used the scary sounding access rights the apps ask for, but basically this is just putting up front what iOS apps are doing anyway. As for finding the apps, I’m still figuring out some equivalents - all the main social apps are there, but I’m still looking for a podcatcher like Downcast, though I’m currently testing a few out. I have to say though, being able to just install stuff on this thing after plugging it in, and not have to mess around with iTunes feels great, though you now sort-of have to manage the files. Also note you need a special app installed on a Mac to mount it currently ( Android File Transfer).

In summary then, the Nexus 7 has exceeded my expectations - it’s very smooth and reliable, has decent battery life, and can survive being the recipe guide during Sunday Dinner preparations and has survived both kids abusing it. (Note that for novels, I still use the Kindle)

Curse you, MX records! Sorry, my fault.

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:49:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I put a techie post up on here - shame on me! Here’s one about me doing something stupid, cursing my MX records then apologising for it being my fault.

Like many, I have a couple of email addresses. Actually, I have a silly amount I’ve set up to play with services over the years, but I’ve been slowly culling them. Anyway, I basically have two main addresses now - one which I use day to day for sign-ups, and one based on a domain name I own, and is mainly for friends and family which is now quite a few years old.

That, for a while now has been run from Google Apps, a relatively under appreciated offering from Google as far as I can tell. Essentially what it is, is a Gmail and Google Apps backend for your own company/domain, so all my mail for that address comes and goes from my address @ brightblack.net account, but is purely going through Gmail and gets all the benefits of the spam filter and 7GB+ of storage, for free. I like it - so much better than a Hotmail account or an ISP namespace.

My problem actually started a few weeks ago, but I didn’t notice as it’s not a high volume account, but I wasn’t getting any new mail. Then, last week my parents mentioned they’d actually got a bounced reply. I actually replicated it straight off from my phone thanks to Softbank’s insane timeout setting:

Action: failed Status: 5.2.0 Remote-MTA: dns; brightblack.net (___.___.___.___) Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 554 5.7.1 : Relay access denied

(IP address obscured there!)

Odd. So I logged in to my Google Apps account, nope, all looked fine there, but no new mail. So I went further up the chain. My domain registrar is called PairNic, who have always been good to deal with, and the www.brightblack.net domain pointer seemed fine. So the next logical question is: what had I changed with this domain - any aspect of it - lately?

Answer: I’d re-set it to point to this blog … a few weeks ago.

Ah.

That’s a coincidence.

From Google Apps, I did a quick MX records test, where it basically does a DNS lookup (of which MX records are a component) on my domain and as somewhat expected, no MX records found. Well that explains why I wasn’t getting mail and people were getting bounced. As far as the internets were concerned, I wasn’t there.

So, I logged in to Pairnic again, went into their DNS/email config, and lo and behold - nothing - so a quick check at both WordPress and Google apps showed me my MX records should look something like:

Priority          Mail Server
1           ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
5           ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
5           ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
10         ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
10         ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

So I entered that into PairNIC’s pages, waited only a few minutes for it to replicate, and then the test from Google showed I had MX records again, and a quick email from my phone successfully arrived, followed over the next day by a small deluge as spooled messages came in.

You can actually get some good, simple steps to troubleshoot this in the Google Apps Tech Support area, as I discovered mostly after I’d fixed it.

So how did it break? As I suspected, it was when I re-pointed my old brightblack website address to this blog through PairNic, I missed a large amount of red warning text saying exactly what would happen:

Warning: Enabling any Forwarding features (E-mail or Web site Forwarding or Parking) will remove any previous DNS settings that you may have had with your account. Any previous nameserver, DNS, or e-mail settings will be lost.

How I missed that, I’ll never know - PairNic obviously make it pretty clear, but I must have thought that since I was only playing with NS (website) settings really, my email would be unchanged. I should have re-read that! All in all, I got off lucky - it took me less than an hour in front of the computer to realise what an oaf I’d been and to fix and test it - looking at some of the Google forums, some people have much larger issues.

If nothing else, I’ve refreshed my rusty knowledge of DNS, MX records and how my own email setup actually works, which is no bad thing. It’s also got me delving a little more into parts of DNS I hadn’t really looked at, like priorities, CNAMES, SPF records (sender-permitted-from), and gain a bit more knowledge on the subject of email in general, and some of the changes coming with IPv6!

Read the red text. Twice.

Thoughts on my Kindle

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:27:15 +0000

I like to read. I’m not saying I’m some kind of über prolific reader, but I do get through one or two books a month, although I like essays, short stories, novellas and such as well. So what I wanted then, was an e-reader to buy books to, which would allow me to drop things in to it from gutenberg.org and other public domain locations, then also white papers and other lengthy pieces of text from the net. I’ve been eyeing the Kindle for a couple of years, but between the form factor and the price, I hadn’t gone for it, but with the 3rd generation model having a wi-fi only model available, and the then high on the yen vs. dollar exchange rate, I thought it might be time to bite, so I ordered, it shipped, and now I’ve been using it for almost a couple of months. So here’s my thoughts on my Kindle.

Out of the box, the device is well packaged, and it simply powers on and works. It’s a good first experience.

I’ll be honest though, it’d didn’t work straight away with the WPA2 wireless in my house based out of an old Apple Airport Express access point. It really didn’t seem to want to try, so I looked at the Kindle Forums, and though people were helpful, the tech level there is as you might expect for a general customer device perhaps - it’s addressed some issues, but some of the reasoning is a little off target - there’s a lot of misunderstanding amongst posters, and attempted clarification by helpers on what WEP is and isn’t, what the SSID is and isn’t, what the password is and isn’t and what are your wireless access point details, and what are your ISP router details. At least they’re polite.

I also tried calling Kindle support, and to be fair, their response was what they promised - I entered my number, and a few minutes later, they called me back. I have to say though, I put in a Japan number, but the response was in English and I don’t think the person had any Japanese language skills, so I don’t know what kind of support a Japanese only speaker would get. (Also, the Kindle itself came set to English with no Japanese instructions, though the cover does have Japanese instructions.)

Anyway, I did get it working, and I’ve put the troubleshooting part of that at the bottom, so we can talk a bit more about the device itself now.

Overall, it’s excellent. The readability is very good - it’s not black and white, but a pulp grey and black, and honestly, with a few pages, I forgot I was using an electronic device. I actually caught myself trying to look at the top of the Kindle to see how far through the book I was. It really is as immersive as a book as far as I’m concerned. The Kindle does helpfully tell you what percentage you have read at the bottom of the screen in place of page numbers which obviously aren’t valid as you might alter the font size and so on, and there all the note and bookmark options you’ll need.

The UI is still a bit odd though. You can make folders, lets say ‘Thrillers’ and place certain novels and stories into it. Great. Except they still show in the main listing as well, which for me means it’s already getting quite cluttered, and I’d like to have all my sci-fi together, my comedy together and reference works together. I’m half thinking I’m missing something on this.

I commute to work on a busy train, and even in it’s leather cover I had no problem holding the Kindle for an hour at a time into work, though they’re not that common in Tokyo, so it did get a few second glances.

Some other notes on the physical device: the battery does last as long as it says - at least four weeks with wi-fi off, and a built in memory capacity of ~ 3GB which I think will be enough for now.

Getting works on to the device and into that memory is interesting. When you enable the device on Amazon.com, you get an e-mail address to which you can e-mail acceptable formats and when you connect via wi-fi, it’ll connect to that address and download the works you’ve sent. This is also the way you get the stories you can buy on Amazon itself, delivered wirelessly via the ‘WhisperNet’. You can also connect the device to your PC/Mac and it shows as a mass storage device on the desktop so you can copy files on to it directly. This is all fine, but for many, knowing what’ll work and what wont is a bit hit n miss, and I might not want to use this clunky desktop approach.

One app I’ve been using to get around this is Calibre, which converts files between formats like ePub (which the Kindle doesn’t support but which is popular), text and so on to the .mobi format Amazon does support. It’ll also e-mail the file to your Kindle account for download. Why doesn’t Amazon offer this functionality in it’s Kindle for Mac/PC app?

Buying an e-book from Amazon is pure simplicity. I bought ’ Daemon’ by Daniel Suarez and once purchased it really was just pushed down to my device and I could read it within seconds. Excellent. One disappointing note is that many Kindle books are a bit overpriced in my humble opinion - most are paperback price, some are hardback price (like ‘Freedom TM’, the sequel to Daemon, at the time of writing).

Really? For a file which saves Amazon and the publisher all the physical media and shipping? If you look at the tags on many books, people have tagged them as expensive Kindle versions. This is a real shame at this stage of adoption.

Basically then, it’s an iPod for reading, which is what these things were always meant to be; certainly it’s web browser works, but I don’t see much point for it. Some people on the forums slammed it because for some reason they thought they were getting a 140USD iPad. It’s not an iPad. It’s a book reader, and for that it’s excellent. You can also listen to audio books if you like too, which is no surprise since the leader in that market is the Amazon owned Audible.

Overall, I’m really pleased with this purchase, and the Amazon case I got for it. It gets taken a lot of places, and I’ve already read a lot on it, and I can see it being excellent for trips. Again, if you want something to read books on, get a Kindle. If you have more cash and want a media device and maybe read something, then get an iPad I suppose, though I emphasise, reading for long periods I’m told by friends is not as good an experience. I see this Kindle as being something I’ll actually use more than I expected, and that’s always the sign of a good purchase.

The technical bit

Just to cover my out of the box lack of wi-fi activation. So it couldn’t see my SSID, and when I manually entered the details it said it just couldn’t connect. Allegedly being at least somewhat tech savvy, I decided to give it a try from first principles, but I wanted to see where official support channels would get the average user, that is, if my parents had this issue. Firstly, the forums; as I said they are good people, perhaps not overly technical, but definitely keen, but no real answers unfortunately. I called Amazon’s Kindle support line.

The person went through their script and was very polite, but their bottom line suggestion was to go to McDonalds, to a totally open wi-fi hotspot, register/activate the device and then it might work on my home network. There is a McDonalds down the road, but honestly, I wasn’t drunk (my usual requirement to duck under the golden arches) and since I have full control of my wireless system, and consider myself somewhat technical, I decided to give it a crack. So, I dropped everything to make my system a hotspot and set my Apple Airport Express to factory default - it worked fine. I don’t recommend having anything else on your wi-fi if you do that - it’s not very safe.

I then started ‘rebuilding’ the security - put WPA2 on, made a few other minor changes like the channel, and every was fine. I didn’t get it, then I changed one last setting back to how it had been before: “Connection Sharing” - factory default is to ‘Share a Public IP Address’ whereas I had it set to “Off - Bridge Mode” and sure enough changing that kills my Kindle’s ability to connect to the wireless, no matter what anything else is set to. I honestly have no idea why, and since the box is ~six years old and discontinued I doubt it’s a big thing in the market. I do wonder if anyone can replicate this though.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

bl0ke — 2010-11-24

Agree totally on the price point for eBooks. At the time of writing Ian Rankin’s “Doors Open” is available in the UK £3.86 in a major supermarket, £4.49 from Amazon or… £6.99 in the Kindle store. WTF?

RandomizeME — 2010-11-24

RE: pricing

What happened was that the “Agency Model” got to the Kindle store. Blame Apple for initiating Agency pricing in the first place (since they wanted iBooks to be competitive). Basically, what happened is that the Top 5 publishers (except RandomHouse I think) forced bookstores (like Amazon, etc) to agree that all eBook pricing will be decided by the publishers instead of each single bookstore deciding on its own (takes away the competition). That’s when prices became unreasonable. Amazon just acts like an affiliate for the eBooks that fall under the Agency deal.

brightblack — 2010-11-25

Thanks for the notes on the Agency model.

I can appreciate the desire to make more money, but this just seems so brazen. Perhaps that’s why Amazon makes it so easy to compare pricing for versions of the book? Either way, it stopped my buying the sequel to Daemon (Freedom TM) in any format, not just the e-book. I wonder if the Kindle version will come down in price when the trade paperback comes out. Now that really would define a weird, old model, way of viewing releases.

gen — 2011-01-01

Happy New Year.

I’m on GR with you (as gkanai, iirc.)

I have the same problem as you. New Kindle 3, Airport Extreme set to Bridge mode, and it can’t connect. I will try switching to ‘Share a Public IP Address’ mode, but I really want to only have 1 DHCP server on my network (which I lose when I switch to ‘Share a Public IP Address’ mode.)

One can download books to one’s machine and upload via USB, right?

brightblack — 2011-01-01

Hi Gen

Thanks for the comment.

Let me know how you get on. It seems like an odd ‘fix’ but this was the one thing I could change and guarantee the break/fix my issue. I too don’t want two subnets in my home, but so far I’m living with it. For the record, my Kindle is on v3.0.1. I heard there was a newer firmware so maybe in time I’ll update and see if that fixes it.

I think you can still use the USB method to copy books etc. across, so it’s not all a lost cause, though I don’t know if you can activate via USB.

gen — 2011-01-01

My Kindle’s already activated, so that’s not the problem. It won’t connect to the WiFi.

The other bummer with syncing via USB is that I don’t get copies of the books on my other mobile devices, which I do get if I sync via WhisperSync.

Matt — 2012-01-15

I found a workaround for the issue of not being able to connect in bridge mode: https://discussions.apple.com/message/17294792#17294792

But Amazon really should fix this problem! Thanks for the post - helped me realize I wasn’t alone in this.

gurahamu — 2012-01-16

Thanks Matt. I just read the link, and I’m going to try that this week, but I agree there’s still something a bit odd with the way Kindles handle wi-fi negotiation.

New Screen First Impressions

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:38:14 +0000

After almost seven years in my desk here at home, I’ve finally retired my old Iiyama AS4314UTG 17" LCD. It’s still functional except some pixels stick and so it’s retired to the loft, to wait till the child wants her own Tuxpaint machine. The new one is also from Iiyama and here’s some new screen first impressions - it’s a nice 24" 2407 widescreen model. As it supports VGA, DVI and HDMI, I can dump my switcher also!

So far all is well - very bright, crisp picture, and of course, at least for a while it’s going to feel huge, and a real bargain for 18,900yen, probably half what the last one cost.

Power Reduction

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:42:38 +0000

A quick update on my Linux_’ server. Given that noise and power reduction whilst also increasing storage space was the goal of the recent updates, here are my wholly unscientific findings based on my Watt checker over a couple of hours.

Functional rest at the desktop: was ~80 Watts, down to ~ 60W (-25%)

Being used normally on desktop: was ~90-100 Watts, down to ~ 68W (-32%)

Peaks during high CPU/HDD use: was ~115 Watts, down to ~ 75W(-35%)

I think that’s a pretty successful outcome to say it is quieter and such. It’s still much, much lower powered than I thought, and I’m sure the ’new’ HDD and the ATI card are mainly responsible for that power drop.

"Typhoon" Upgrade Completed

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:03:58 +0000

Finally, the “Typhoon” Upgrade was completed. Just to explain the title, ‘Typhoon’ is my old Linux box. After a while of little interference save the recent fan and GPU replacement, it’s been happily churning away since April 2008 when I rebuilt it to merge my Windows and [even] older Linux box.

The reason for this upgrade was simply that the two 320GB drives which act as my rsync’d archive drives have essentially become full and thus in need of swapout. After a bit of looking around and review reading, I went for two 1TB Western Digital Green drives. I used to only use Seagate, but over the last few years I seem to have drifted to WD. These are 32MB cache and 5400rpm drives - I didn’t need more speed, just power efficiency and capacity. Thus far I’m happy with both.

Essentially then, one of the 320GB is now wrapped in a safe place just in case (TM) and all that data is now on the two terabyte drives. The other 320GB drive has replaced the 160GB drive as the home of my GNU/Linux OS itself. On that subject I took the opportunity to upgrade from Xubuntu 8.04LTS to 9.04. there’s another one out next month, but it’s somewhat nice to know this version has been hammered a while.

It’s been running for a few hours and passed all the tests I’ve thrown at it, so I’d say that was mission accomplished.

Bye Bye VHS!

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:19:06 +0000

Actually this happened a few weeks ago, but I thought I’d blog it as I just found the photo of the offending article. This is the Sharp VHS player I bought about eight years ago for about 15,000yen, which means it was cheap in those days. I’m afraid it’s now bye bye VHS.

“We watched a lot of X-Files together. We watched a whole slew of terrible B movies together. They were fun times. Still, I’ve moved on. I’ve been seeing a DVD player for a long time now, and recently I bought a DVR, so I’m sorry, you’ll just have to move out. And take that 2 hour Sony tape with you.”

Brightblack's name origin turns 25!

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:01:48 +0000

Brightblack’s name origin turns 25!! The origin of the name of my other website (brightblack.net), the ZX Spectrum, was launched twenty five years ago, and though the butt of many jokes, the machine was a tiny computer but for its time it was cheap, and I’m sure a few future IT people first experienced computers, and games for the first time on it’s little, odd rubber keys.

Anyway, I still have one in the loft at the parental home, and the emulator on this MacBook, so I still keep the fire burning. I have also mentioned that the name of my regular website brightblack.net is actually derived from the ZX Spectrum: it had 8 colours accessible through BASIC, and to double that to a whopping 16, you use the BRIGHT command, and I always thought that the idea of ‘bright black’ was kind of a funky concept, so when I was looking for a name and a URL years later (one drunken night), that was the one I chose.

8cm CD Stupidity

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:22:01 +0000

Maybe it was because I took a day off; maybe it’s because I’m just too curious, but for whatever reason, I decided to try and take a look at the contents of the 8cm CD which came with my new Sandisk 2GB SD card, and within a couple of nano-seconds the combination of it not being sucked into the machine, and it being out of my reach hit me. Oops. I didn’t even need to go to a search engine to know that this drive did not support 8cm discs.

At that moment, my only option looked like prizing the whole thing open and trying to get it out. Not nice. However, the benefits of having a female around the place mean that I have access to a cornucopia of odd shaped beautification tools which include tiny tweezers, which not only can extract nanobots from tiny hair follicles (or whatever), they can also pry 8cm CDs from Mac Minis, put there by complete idiots. So armed with this and a thin flat blade screwdriver for some leverage, I managed to get the offending disc out.

Moral: don’t put silly small freebie CDs into your more expensive computer.

Are bookmarks dead?

Mon, 01 May 2006 12:28:50 +0000

Firstly, I just want to say that I am not some weird collector of physical bookmarks; in fact, thinking about it, in the book I’m reading right now I think I’m marking the page with a receipt from Denny’s, or wherever I was when I was last reading it.

I can’t remember when I last had a real bookmark.

Anyway, I digress.

Like many, I have hundreds of browser bookmarks, not so carefully, in fact, promiscuously added over the course of years to the point where, when I was having a quick look through the other day, I actually had no idea why about fifty percent of them were even there.

Since I’ve recently started using Shiira as my main browser, I can easily view all my other browser bookmarks from one drawer on the side of the window, and so I thought it was about time to start clearing the whole thing out.

I’m currently about ten percent done and I have to say that a good percentage are now for dead sites, some have moved and the link I have now tells me of places a few thousand miles away where I can buy a cheap car.

In all seriousness, some of these sites have been dead for years. Where the hell was I? Probably asleep. Anyway, I know some browsers tell you when you last accessed a site, but that’s just not enough for someone like me who drifts around the internet like a drunk cheetah on the Serengeti. I need an active browser to tell me useful things about my link collection. Even a random quip generator might help:

“Hey, did you know you haven’t checked XXXXX blog for two years?? Ha ha - what a loser!”
“Quit staggering around the Serengeti and go and check out the update on this site:”

Or something like that.

How can I keep an up to date list of useful links?

I’m slowly updating them where they’ve moved, but increasingly I’m wondering if I should bother. They’re usually in my recent history, or on my del.icio.us page (link dead) or hell, easily searchable on Google. I was wondering how I do track sites, and the answer for most is via RSS in NetNewsWire.

Really, are bookmarks as we grew up with them in Netscape 1.0 dead?

Darth Vader works for NTT

Sat, 27 Nov 2004 02:07:23 +0000

As I’m in my new apartment, a few days ago I got my phone line cut over from my old place.

Now, whenever you do this (or pretty much anything else with NTT), they tell you that you should be in the building in case they need to do wiring work. Of course this is a safety net for them, and I’ve never had anyone turn up, but this time an NTT engineer did turn up. He was a nice guy too, chatty but polite (usually they’re a bit miserable), had a photo on his business card for security and generally seemed keen on the job.

He also had a tool belt with a hammer, screwdriver and a few other bits and pieces and generally looked the part. However, he then asked me for my phone unit, which I’d cleverly left in a packing box, but which I then managed to fish out. Of course I’d packed the handset in a different box as you do because they’re so bulky, so it took me another five minutes to find that too.

I asked if he could test it with his test rig (the phone/line tester/handset most telecoms people I know usually have with them) and he breathed in through his teeth and hit the familiar ’ chotto’, which is usually followed by a ’ muzukashii’ for ‘it’s a difficult [situation]’, but this was left in a hanging ‘chotto’ which I took to mean ‘I forgot it’, but rather than leave it at that, whilst I was checking the corners of the few remaining unpacked boxes for my errant handset, he continued to breathe through his teeth and breathe out heavily, so there I am looking at him doing a Darth Vader impression, and I can’t help thinking that hammer on his tool belt looks a bit like a light saber … or maybe I need some sleep.

Before anyone questions that hammer by the way, I see no problem with *any* technician carrying a hammer. If you can’t fix a problem, hit it with a hammer, if that doesn’t fix it, get a *bigger* hammer. Or a light saber maybe in this case.

So there it is, NTT employ the Sith because they’re good with telecommunications which is probably a good sideline to have in these uncertain times. If they employed Jedi they’d have to send two people to each job, because we all know how the Jedi only attack in pairs, (like women going to the ‘rest room’ at a nightclub) with the honourable exception of Yoda-chan. I’m thinking of changing my line to ADSL again (not needed here as the building has Hikari Fiber) to see if a guy turns up with suspicious horns claiming ‘soon we will have more bandwidth than cable TV, soon we will have our revenge’.

I want a Wheelman

Wed, 05 May 2004 04:59:17 +0000

OK, OK, I’m way behind on this one too, but I thought I’d put it in, especially as it ties into my scooter ambitions, but with a dash of snowboarding. It’s the Wheelman, and is basically a 43cc cross between a scooter and a snowboard - it has two wheels, a motor in the middle and you stand on it a little like a snowboard, and thus ride ‘sidewards’. It looks great, but you can’t shake the nagging doubt that although it would be fun in a park, or at the beach, it would be a death sentence on the 246 (the double decker, insanity infested road which runs past my apartment). Anyway, apparently there’s a dealer in Tokyo, so I might go and take a look.