Under construction

May 11th, 2012, 22:13 | 2 comments

Just to let you know, I just moved this blog to another host after it was hacked – just some random ads added, but I couldn’t get rid of them without doing a fresh install. This is what it looked like:

Since my present theme looked fucked up when I switched to the new host, we’re back to the old theme. Remember how cool it used to be to have 3 columns? I’m still not able to edit the side columns, which I think should be due to them lagging behind in the name server transfer. Or I have no idea actually.

Category: English

Kanji flashcards holder

May 9th, 2012, 13:10 | No comments

I love the kanji flashcards from White Rabbit Press. Studying kanji is an art in itself and it’s important to find a means that works = makes you study often and well, and remember what you’ve learned.

WRP works for me. The cards are stylish (always one of the main factors for me), the selection seems good, the radicals are explained, and – most important – there’s no romaji. (I hate romaji and refuse to use the book Let’s learn Kanji, which I purchased in the beginning of my studies.)

On my last trip to Japan I bought this little card case. Or whatever it is. I think it’s used for collectible cards, but the flashcards from WRP fits right into it. What a perfect little mini-purse to always fill up with some 10 flashcards or so before leaving home!

On the backside I stuck my business card, the one I use when doing business with the Japanese.

Category: English, Japan
Tags: flashcards, kanji, learning Japanese, passcase, White Rabbit Press

The pain of a crashed hard drive, or How to install an SSD in your Apple original 2007 alu Intel iMac 24-inch EMC 2134

May 9th, 2012, 0:02 | 5 comments

It has only happened to me once before. In 2005, the hard drive in my Apple Powerbook 12-inch crashed. I replaced it, but lost a few months of emails and photos. I had bought the Powerbook only two years earlier.

I bought my iMac 24-inch in 2007, and I’ve waited since then for the next crash. It came yesterday. “What took you so long”, I mumbled as I set to work.

This time I was more prepared; the last backup was taken by Time Machine just 10 minutes or so before the crash. The only things I lost were the folders I had excluded from backups. Like emails for example, the few that came to my non-web-based addresses. (I don’t like them lying around unencrypted on the Time Capsule.) And the huge Download folder, containing 1000s of items that was such a mess that I didn’t want to include it in the backup. Now that it’s gone it’s almost a feeling of relief, like having thrown out a drawer that was always full and that you never really looked in anyway.

I had wanted to install an SSD in my iMac for some time – rumors had it would be like a rebirth and the computer would become faster than ever. And the rumors turned out to be true. There were many SSDs on K&M Computer (where I usually buy my computer stuff), but only one model (!) that was 3,5 inch: OCZ Vertex 2 120GB, 3.5″, SATA II. And they only had one of them in all Berlin. So I went to Alexanderplatz to buy it as soon as the shop opened. The seller actually told me that most 2,5 inch models come with a 3,5 inch dock, but I figured the 3,5 incher was like made for my iMac so I went with my original choice:

Then I gathered some TORX screwdrivers from my neighbors and set to work, with the help of OctoMac’s guide:

OctoMac’s guide in my Samsung netbook.

Glass went off with simple suction cups. Piece of cake.

Screwing off the frame.

Maintaining screw hygiene.

Instead of unhooking the cable to the webcam, which is mounted in the frame, I just flipped the frame backwards like that.

Very dusty interior. There are tools for blowing away the dust. I used my mouth and that worked too.

Off with the LCD screen.

Screw hygiene 2.

Unscrewing the screen’s DVI connector.

Second cable to the screen must be unhooked too.

But the third screen cable – the one where the power comes – seemed hard to unhook, so instead I just flipped up the screen like this and leaned it against a little bookshelf.

The hard drive.

A temperature chip, apparently.

Unscrewing the hard drive from the rack.

On the other side, it just slips out.

Taking out the bad hard drive.

Many parts marked with Foxconn. Makes me feel bad, but what can you do.

New SSD next to old HD.

Unscrewing the nice little “gliding poles” from the old hard drive before mounting them on the SSD.

Whoohooo, solid state of the art disk!

Slipping in the “gliding poles” in their holes.

Tightening the screws on the other side.

Mmmm. There’s much empty space underneath.

Attaching the temperature sensor again.

Silly me – when screwing the LCD in place again, I scratched the screen!!! Do you see it? I see it even as the computer is turned on. But I don’t mind. It doesn’t disturb since it’s in the menu bar. I’d rather think of it as a reminder of this little nice afternoon I spent dismounting my iMac.

Voilà! It worked.

And my computer is as fast as new. No, faster. The speed with which applications launch is most amazing. I recommend every Mac owner with an old and slow computer to replace the hard drive with a solid state drive. It truly gives new life to the computer. My only problem now is that spacewise I’ve downgraded from 320 to 120 GB.

Category: English
Tags: Apple, computer, hard drive replacement, iMac 24", Mac OS X, OCZ Vertex 2, solid state drive, SSD

Caad10 bike trip around Wannsee

May 7th, 2012, 11:48 | 3 comments

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/175331211 600 548]

As usual, view details to choose metrics instead of miles.

It’s really fun to explore Garmin Connect. This time, instead of drawing a course of my own, I searched for other users’ courses in the area. I ended up with a 68 km route around Wannsee that user Benicon had biked the previous Sunday: Um den Wannsee. I loaded my Edge 800 with his course and biked to his starting point. Then I set out.

It wasn’t until I got home that I saw how extremely close we were timewise. He biked the course in 2 hours, 26 minutes and 34 seconds. I biked it in 2 hours, 26 minutes and 32 seconds. Amazing! I had no idea, and the GPS didn’t help me follow his pace at all (though I guess it can). As you can see, I biked slightly longer – that’s because I biked the wrong way at a couple of places, but the GPS quickly redirected me with a discreet beep. Also, notice how much colder it was this Sunday! Quite terrible actually, I should have dressed warmer. The differences in elevation gain must be due to us using different GPS models, I guess. Mine is the latest so it should be accurate.

I actually biked 90 km, cause I had to bike about 10 kilometers before and after this course since it didn’t start and end in my area.

A couple of pictures (I mostly just biked):

Hate the stretches that look like this. There weren’t many of them though, and my Caad10 can apparently take it.

The famous Glienicker Brücke, where the spy exchanges between the West and the East took place.

In the elevator after the ride.

PS: Forgot my heart rate monitor on this ride.

Category: Biking, English
Tags: Berlin, Cannondale Caad10, Potsdam, Wannsee

Crossing Südring with my Caad10

April 28th, 2012, 12:56 | 2 comments

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/172207215 600 560]

Note: If you click to see the details, you can choose metrics format instead of miles. And see how fast my heart beats…

For the first time, I drew a course at Garmin Connect, and transferred it to my GPS, a Garmin Edge 800. I was amazed at how easy to follow it was. As soon as I biked the wrong way, I got a little beep and a message saying “off course”. A GPS navigator for bikes doesn’t say “at the next crossing, turn left” etc (but I guess it can if I want it to), because it’s not necessary; since you bike slower than you drive a car, it’s easy to keep an eye on the line drawn on the map – that’s all navigation help you need.

I can’t really recommend this course. Just a few nice racing stretches, but mostly lots of cars, bad bike paths, and for a few kilometers, badly repaired cobblestones with no bike path! I had to bike at around 12 kph on those roads, but it’s good to know that my Caad10 (or rather the Schwalbe Lugano tires and Shimano RS10 rims) can take it.

Cannondale Caad10, 2012 model.

Category: Biking, English
Tags: Brandenburg, Cannondale Caad10

Against the Law

April 25th, 2012, 16:42 | No comments

Peter Wildeblood: Against the Law (Penguin, 1955)

Category: Culture, English
Tags: Against the Law, gay classic, Peter Wildeblood

Afternoon in Odawara

April 22nd, 2012, 15:03 | No comments

Keijidousha. Small cars with yellow license plates.

Category: English, Japan
Tags: Japan trip March 2012, Odawara

Morning in Hakone

April 22nd, 2012, 14:50 | No comments

Lipovitan-D! <3

Category: English, Japan
Tags: Hakone, Japan trip March 2012

Swedish girls adore Entartete Shota

April 21st, 2012, 18:01 | 3 comments

Just wanted to share this picture with you, taken from this fierce Swedish mangaka’s blog. I hope she doesn’t mind that I republish it (and spiced it up a bit). She writes (in Swedish):

Här ser du bilder på de böcker jag köpte. En femtedel Yaoi denna gång och så var jag nog ganska olaglig också…fast de kan jag väl inte vara när man kan köpa den lagligt…eller??

Jag refererar till boken längst ner till höger som är en Ocensurerad Shota Doujinshi på engelska, och finns på Adlibris :O Han som gjort den är “Tsukumo Gou” och har gjort väldigt mycket och bra korta serier till en massa olika tidningar. Har läst en hel del av hans serier och gillar dom men är inge större fan.

Blir nog inga böcker åt mig på ett bra tag nu :´C

It makes me really proud to see Entartete Shota among the other titles she ordered from Adlibris:

Category: English, Swedish
Tags: Entartete Shota, Entartetes Leben, manga, shota

Tokyo Anime Fair 2012 + MOOOORE Akihabara!

April 20th, 2012, 14:52 | No comments

I went to Tokyo Anime Fair with my friend Freija. She’s the one who shot the schoolboys. As she reports, we weren’t impressed by TAF. The fair was a bit empty – no line at all. Maybe because of the controversies and possible boycotts because of Tokyo’s new regulations on how adult manga is allowed to be sold. I wanted to go to the competing Anime Contents Expo instead, but unfortunately the dates of that fair didn’t match my stay in Japan. So we went to Akihabara instead and spent some hours chasing shota.