There's an app for that...

Just in case you need your fix of Hall and Oates, someone created an app. It turns out it started as a project by Michael Selvidge, new corporate communications manager at Twilio, to get familiar with developer tools, but it has gained in popularity. More people than he knew needed a Hall and Oates hotline.

They also made it available on a website in case you don’t want to call long distance. The hotline to hear one of your favorite Hall and Oates songs is 1-719-26-OATES.

Click the above image to go to the Hall and Oates hotline website: http://www.callinoates.com/

Note: The sound quality is not that great… OK, actually, it’s pretty poor, but you never know when you may need it in case of an emergency.

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Christmas cards

If you received a Christmas card from us...

I'M SORRY FOR THE SMALL PRINT!

You could consider it a test whether you need reading glasses yet. But anyway, just in case you didn't feel like getting out magnifying glasses to read our card, here is what it said:


As we all know, time seems to fly by fast. While Thanksgiving and Christmas are enjoyable times of the year to enjoy being with family and friends and to give thanks for all we have, it's also a reminder that another year passes. When looking back at the year, there were many tragedies, including the big earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. Jim and Kyoko's family were not significantly impacted by the disasters, but over 20,000 Japanese lost their lives or are still missing, and almost 500,000 buildings either partially or totally destroyed. Perhaps many lives could have been spared if the magnitude of such an earthquake and tsunami been envisioned, but most people could not imagine such an earthquake. While Japan can gradually recover from such a devastating natural disaster, the biggest risk to Japanese is the radiation from the nuclear power plants. It will take many years until it is known what the actual impact of the radiation leaks. The lack of proper disaster procedures is inexcusable. We're not sure yet what additional suffering and loss of lives will be caused by the government reacting slowly in evacuating the area.

While Japan faces its own challenges, in the US, we have our own disasters with which to deal. Republicans took over the House in the last mid-term election, and as expected, gridlock ensued. While Congress was at a standstill, one piece of legislation the House was able to pass was to define the tomato sauce on pizza as a vegetable. This counters the earlier attempt at making school lunches healthier for the children and makes it easier for pizzas to make it back on school menus at the request of the pizza industry. I guess it doesn't matter that obesity is a problem in the US if the pizza industry is suffering.

Earlier in the year, Kyoko's sisters visited us in Dallas. It was their first trip to visit us, first trip to the US, and first time Kyoko and her sisters took a trip together as adults. It was unfortunately a short trip, but we had a very nice time together, including some sight-seeing in Las Vegas. Kyoko continues her tutoring, and may even start giving lessons over the Internet. Jim is continuing with his project which is based out of Vienna.

We wish everyone the best this holiday season and hope that you and your family are doing well.

One of these days we will figure out how to best share our blog and photos. Please don't hold your breath in the meantime!

Considering it is the season to be jolly

And what better way to convey happiness than how dogs seem to love hanging their heads out the car window.

Someone made a compilation of slow-motion video of dogs with their heads out the car window… Makes me wish I were a dog.

Click on the above image for the video… Also available on YouTube in case you prefer YouTube.

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Whole Foods supports discrimination? "Your job or your religion?"

While I’d much rather focus on the positive this holiday season, there’s just so much injustice going around, it’s hard to ignore them.

This is actually an old article from last month. Actually, I missed it the first time around.

It seems like Glenn Mack Jr was an up-and-coming employee at Whole Foods… until his supervisor found out he was Muslim. Then his manager gave him a hard time for an already approved vacation to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. Then everything went downhill from there, including being terminated from Whole Foods.

At one point, his supervisor allegedly told him “You can choose. It’s either your job or your religion.”

Whatever happened to freedom of religion? Freedom of persecution because of your religious choices?

Change.org has a petition going for Glenn Mack Jr:
http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-fire-employees-for-being-muslim

And by the way, the point is that even though it was an individual (his supervisor) who is in the wrong initially, Whole Foods as a company has not come forward to do the right thing yet for Glenn Mack Jr.

Speaking of muslim, people may have heard recently about the “uproar” over the TV show “All-American Muslim” and how Lowe’s decided to drop advertising from the show because of the “controversy”. The complaints about the show were first raised by an organization called “Florida Family Association”.

When they were asked WHY they found the show offensive, it was because the show did NOT show muslims as extremists and felt it was dangerous to show muslims as normal people!

Seriously! You can see the Daily Show view of the story where they have included a videoclip of an interview from the executive director of FFA.

Click the above image for the video.

And since we are talking about the ridiculous and how the right keeps pushing their agenda, the latest attack by the right are labeling Muppets as Communist propaganda because their nemesis in the latest movie is a greedy oil company executive.

Click on the above image for the video.

See more progress on: fight for truth, justice, and the American way

Thanks to a smaller government

or at least a government which takes less responsibility, two people have died recently in Louisiana from tap water. This is not science fiction, but the people died from a brain-eating amoeba. It is as terrible as it sounds. The Times article seems to lay the blame on the people for using neti pots without properly sanitizing the water. However, if there is the amoeba, known as Naegleria fowleri, in the tap water, doesn’t that mean people and children can get it from taking a bath and/or taking a shower if the water gets into your nostrils.

Naegleria fowleri cannot survive in properly (sufficiently) chlorinated water. Compare that to southern Australia where they had the problem originally in the 1960s, they have not had a case since 1981.

To be fair, the Times article does a poor job of identifying the source of the tap water of the victims. However, as part of the program in Australia, proper education is also a contributing factor to reducing the risk to the general public. I’m sure the government is supporting the education.

Most cases of Naegleria fowleri come from swimming in lakes and other bodies of water. From the Australian article, tips for prevention are:

• avoid jumping or diving into bodies of warm fresh water or thermal pools
• keep your head above water in spas, thermal pools and warm fresh water bodies
• empty and clean small collapsible wading pools and let them dry in the sun after each use
• ensure swimming pools and spas are adequately chlorinated and well maintained
• flush stagnant water from hoses before allowing children to play with hoses or sprinklers
• if you are using unchlorinated water:
  
  • don’t allow water to go up your nose when bathing, showering or washing your face
  • supervise children playing with hoses or sprinklers and teach them not to squirt water up their nose
• potentially contaminated water should not be used for any form of nasal irrigation or nasal lavage including Neti (an Ayurvedic practice of nasal cleansing)

References:

• http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/16/louisiana-warns-about-neti-pots-after-brain-eating-amoeba-infections/?iid=cc-main-mostpop2
• http://access.health.qld.gov.au/hid/InfectionsandParasites/Parasites/naegleriaFowleriQsAndAs_is.asp

See more progress on: fight for truth, justice, and the American way

Easy way vs the hard way...

Self portrait… The hard way.

Throw your multi-thousand dollar camera in the air, spinning it, so that one of the shots will be of one pointing back to the ground. Click on the image for the video.

Easy way… Use an Android app like Morpho Self Camera

Click the above image to see a series of Android phone commercials with the Japanese music group Arashi. The above link starts with the commercial demonstrating the use of Morpho Self Camera. The female voice in Japanese is from the app telling them if “she” sees them in the camera lens or not, or how many people she sees. (Software supports recognizing only one or two people.) Note: The software uses your phone’s language setting so that it will speak English if your phone is set up in English instead. Morpho Self Camera can be found in the Android Market at this link.

Of course, the other way to do it is just to take the picture blindly as we all normally do, but using face recognition software is much more fun! Well, OK, much more fun until you get tired of the phone telling you that she doesn’t see you.

In a similar vain to the hard way, here is a painful video on how to lose $2,400 in 24 seconds:

Click on the above image for the 24 second video. Note, “painful” is more figurative at the thought of losing $2,400. There is a happy ending though as you can see in the comments.

See more progress on: be entertained

Who needs a silly robot when you can have your dog bake for you...

Click on the above image for the video…

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"Oh, this is me. Nice!"

He can’t dry the dishes, but here’s a cute robot called Qbo who, due to his programming to recognize objects, was able to learn to recognize himself:

Click on the image for the video.
Additional references:

• Some background on Qbo: http://thecorpora.com/blog/?p=75
• Some information about Qbo recognizing himself: http://thecorpora.com/blog/?m=201111

See more progress on: get the latest gadgets whether they are practical or not

The Beauty of A Second

From the referenced link:
Montblanc and Leo Burnett Milan pay homage to the chronograph
- which recorded time to the accuracy of a fifth of a second -
with a short film challenge. The Beauty of a Second is a contest curated by Wim Wenders which asks users to demonstrate beauty in a second of film. The winner will meet Wenders and win a Montblanc Nicolas Rieussec chronograph.
Every Second Counts!
Here is the first compilation:

If you can appreciate the beauty represented in this compilation of 60 one-second videos, imagine if you could also appreciate the beauty around you, every second of every hour of every day for the rest of your life.

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Who needs silly Christmas lights

when you can have silly projectors do your work for you?

Click on the above image for the video.

This is very similar to the entry I wish my house could do this. There are two videos on this referenced page. Be sure to see the longer one to see why I have edifice envy.

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There's a lot of good entertainment on the web

“Address is Approximate” is an example…

Click on the above image for the video… and then let your toys go free!

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What to do when your cat earns more than you...

This diagram (albeit lacking citations for the empirical data) shows how salaries of women over time have generally increased to the point of almost becoming equal to salaries of men, but then with the advent of the Internet and the popularity of LOLCats, cats have now become the primary income earner in many households.

And as the person who created the diagram concluded, this will mark the end of humanity as we know it.

Source:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2407

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Not necessarily a topic one would associate with getting in shape...

But good news about chocolate from the British Medical Journal who has just published an article with good findings regarding chocolate consumption.

From the article:
The highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37% reduction in cardiovascular disease (relative risk 0.63 (95% confidence interval 0.44 to 0.90)) and a 29% reduction in stroke compared with the lowest levels.
Reference:

• http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4488.full

See more progress on: get in shape

A Flower Unlike Any Other in The World

I've never known that much about the Japanese pop group Smap. I thought they were just another boy band type group. While written by someone outside of the group, I ran the translated lyrics to one of their hits, 世界中唯一僅有的花 (A Flower Unlike Any Other in The World). I think the song contains a very impressive message.

(Click to go to video on YouTube)

Artist: Smap
Title: Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana (A Flower Unlike Any Other in The World)
Words: Makihara Noriyuki
Music: Makihara Noriyuki

There’s no need to be No. 1
you’ve always been a very special only one.

I saw many kinds of flowers lined up in front of the flower shop.
everyone has their favorite kinds but all of them are pretty.
Without competing to see which was the best among them,
they were standing straight up proudly inside the bucket.
So why then do we humans have to compare ourselves to one another?
Even though each and every person is different,
why do we want to be number one?
Yes we are each
 A flower unlike any other in the world
 and each and everyone of us carries a different seed
 We should focus all our efforts on trying to make that flower bloom.

There are people who are constantly unsure of what they want,
as they laugh a little put out.
It can’t be helped, all those flowers,
that did everything they could to bloom, are pretty.
when at last that person comes out of the store,
they’re holding a colorful bouquet
and I see them smiling happilly as they go by me.
I never knew their name but
that day they made me smile.

We too are like flowers that bloom in places where no one pays any attention.
Yes we too are each
 A flower unlike any other in the world
 and each and everyone of us carries a different seed

We should focus all our efforts on trying to make that flower bloom.
 Small flowers and big flowers, none are the same as one another.

There’s no need to be No. 1
you’ve always been a very special only one.

This year has been an up an down year...

If up means weight, then mainly up. It seems that while I’m traveling, I’ve managed to gain weight. I’m not as into regular exercising as I was last year and I am probably eating too much at the breakfast buffets at the hotel. I’m haven’t quite figured out the correlation between eating too much at the breakfast buffets and gaining weight, but I’ll probably figure it out.

At any rate, based on the previous post that sitting is probably one of the worst things you can do all day from a health perspective, I have been using the counter as my new home office desk so that I stand while working. And it is a lot of work!

Unfortunately I haven’t had any time to exercise ever since coming back from my previous business trip, and I don’t know if it is just my body trying to get back to its earlier weight, but so far, I’m getting much closer to weight I was earlier this year.

I have a new admiration for people who have to be on their feet for their jobs.

Also, I have an additional strategy for losing weight. It is to chew my food 30 times before swallowing. I tried looking up some info about this, but most of the pages which refer to chewing well in relation to weight loss mention the fact that it takes time for the brain to register you are full. However, there was some show where someone lost weight simply by chewing his food 30 times (not more, not less). Of course, it has to do with the fact that by chewing thoroughly, it will take longer so your brain has a chance to register you are full, but this show also indicated that the act of chewing helped signal to your brain that it is getting satisfied from a hunger point of view. Therefore, in theory, this means chewing well in itself also allows your brain to feel it is full. And finally, this person chewed his food exactly 30 times, not more. My theory with that is if it takes you more than 30 chews to swallow, you’ve probably taken more than you need in one mouthful. By learning how to chew exactly 30 times, you learn the right proportion for each mouthful making it, which per above, helps prevent overeating.

Of course, counting 30 times is quite monotonous, but I break it into 3×10 segments… That is, whenever I remember to count at all.

See more progress on: get in shape

Ugh... So much for my dream office with a zero gravity chair...

I know there are benefits to a “standing desk” where you work while standing up. I’ve been thinking of setting up something at home.

Now this article says that sitting is so bad, it can even offset the exercise you do. Since I’m in the hi-tech industry, I am sitting most of the day.

I need to change this… Somehow.

Reference:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/?em

And unlike the photo above, I would never, ever, ever use my zero gravity chair for sleeping while working… And when I do, it would only be because my eyelids were too heavy.

See more progress on: get in shape

Here's an updated list of what will be hot and what will not.

Back 8 months ago, I thought it would be interesting for me to put forward my view of what would be hot and not. This is what I said at the time:

	e-book reader	While Amazon and Barnes & Noble have experienced good sales with their products this past year, NOOKColor is actually an Android tablet under the hood. They will be expanding upon the apps which can be loaded onto it. Similarly, there are rumors that Amazon is hiring developers to turn their ebook reader into a more robust device. Future tablets are going to be sleek, sexy, and light, so ebook readers will have lots of competition.
	DVD	Streaming is the way of the future.
	Newspapers, magazines	These are not gadgets but are being threatened by hi-tech. Some thought iPad would save them, but actually, sales are already down for these online magazines/newspapers.

8 months later, this article also mentions gadgets on the verge of extinction: http://gizmodo.com/5731594/12-technologies-on-the-verge-of-extinction

#1	Pre-recorded Physical Media (ie, such as DVDs)
#3	eBook readers

Anyway, for items to look for:

	3D	A lot of people don’t seem that excited about 3D yet, but it will be that you don’t have a digital camera anymore without 3D… Then a digital photo frame… Then digital video. Of course, support of these devices will grow when they eliminate the need for the 3D glasses, which will already make good progess these year (on smaller screens).
	Android	Android will be ubiquitous. Imagine your digital photo frame/digital clock device next to your bed waking you up gently with the song of your choice (or random song from your music library), automatically recording your slept debt, and announcing your schedule for the day. Then as you plop in front of the TV, you can use your Android phone as a remote… But wait, no need for a remote. Your GoogleTV device allows voice activation. You get a call on your home phone, but it is a known telemarketer. The app on your home phone automatically diverts the call where Google Voice plays the fake “You have reached a number which has been disconnected.” You receive another call, but you’re running late, so you don’t answer. Since the caller called your Google voice number, it is ringing your house phone and cell phone simultaneously. You still decide not to answer because you know you will get delayed. You get into your car where your built-in navigation device will tell you traffic delays as it gives you direction to the place you looked up in Google maps the night before on your computer. While driving, it reads aloud your phone messages. Much of this technology is already available on Android. It’s just a matter of making more devices which utilize Android technology.
	Phones which also serve as computers	Most people don’t need high-powered computers. Most of the use of their computers is for browsing, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Phones are getting more and more powerful. Soon, if you travel, you won’t need to take a notebook computer with you on business trips… Just your phone and a notebook docking station. This is similar to the Motorola Atrix showed at this year’s CES. See pics below. Unfortunately, I think Microsoft would be in the best position to implement this strategy, though.

From the back, you can see where the phone is inserted:

This is not unlike the IBM MetaPad concept from several years ago which was sort of like a small brick for the computer:

which could then be used with a small screen for a handheld computer:

or inserted into a notebook shell for a notebook computer:

or plugged into a desktop.

See more progress on: get the latest gadgets whether they are practical or not