JUN 27th, 2000

I have yet to find a portable MP3 Player that I like. The two that I have bought so far are both broken. I guess I should return them, but that all takes time. Stay away from the Kana2000. Looks good on the web site, but isn't. Wish I had the time to do a review. Just trust me. It sucks!!

Last summer I bought a Fresh Music MP-2000. It recently stopped working.. I liked it. Real simple. I'd buy another if I thought it wouldn't break.

Dvorak also likes Compact Flash. Why are so many MP3 players using SmartMedia when it seems to be trapped at 64MB? And Compact Flash is up to 192MB for type I and 320MB for type II. (This is actually shipping.)

So the search goes on. I am tempted to buy a PocketPC, but the Japanese models aren't out yet and someone pointed out in our newsgroups that the advantage is localization. I'd like to have some Japanese maps and dictionaries on the thing.

But more importantly, I want to buy the new NTT DoCoMo P-in Comp@ct and have it work... A lot safer to stick to the Japanese hardware. I have always liked the Casio Cassiopeia's and will keep an eye on their site.

Use it with a Palm? I am also watching to see if/how the card will work in the TRGpro. This is is basically a Palm with a Compact Flash type II slot. I will just wait this one out rather than suffer through trying to set it up myself. I am betting that either the guys at the Ikeshop Mobile Plaza or someone on the Net in Japan will figure it out. Muchy has a really cool site.

The new ThinkPads look great. Finally ethernet AND a modem. My 2-year old TP600, now running Windows 2000 Pro, is working better than it did when new.with win95. I have no excuse to upgrade. I won't drop it on purpose until I have enough for a new one. And that may be a while.

While in Akihabara today I stopped in Otto and noticed that they have the 600E for about 188,000 Yen. Seems like a great deal for someone that wants a rock solid machine, but can't afford or doesn't need the latest.

Batteries!!! The more wireless I get the more I realize that battery life is going to matter more and more. I need to get a 2nd battery for my ThinkPad. Not sure where to go for this. Think they were 19,xxx Yen at T-Zone. Ouch! A shame that the Ultra bay in the original TP600s doesn't accept a battery as an option.

Wireless LAN: This stuff suddenly hit my price range over the past few months. Almost caught me off-guard. Waiting to look at the Planex access points and cards that should be in the stores any day now. I am trying to figure out why most of the other companies don't have antennas as options for these things.

My apartment is so small that I really don't need one, but I want to check this stuff out. I remember 3 years ago when it was 10 times the price and probably 1 tenth the speed. Thought that by the time the stuff came around I would live in a big enough place to justify it. I don't, but have some ideas of where this stuff can be used around town.

If you want to get involved in our discussion on the topic check out the tpc.lan newsgroup. Just search for "wireless LAN" and come on in.

ADSL: It's working fine. There will be no going back for me. I read that Nifty is going to start trials soon. That's great. For a while it seemed that Japan was thinking that they were catching up because there is so much wireless action going on. Always on, all you can eat and paying NTT as little as possible is what really feels good. The broadband is a bonus.

This will probably be the last update for a while. Who knows. I am tempted to remove everything one of these days.

JUN 1st, 2000

Got my ADSL line from Tokyo Metallic two days ago. So far, so good.

Looking closely at the the wireless LAN hardware. 

MAY 24th, 2000

NTT DoCoMo Mobile Card P-in review: I have mentioned it up here a few times and in our newsgroups. Decided to do a review for the newsletter. Not sure when it will finally get online at the TPC site, so I decided to throw it up here.

There are some things that I left out. I may add them somewhere later. It really is a neat gadget.

Dialpad.com and Quicknet seem to be working together. That could be good news. Just saw the press release on the Quicknet site.

The new Nokia phone is pretty good, but I do kind of have a complaint. It's too small! Like the bilingual display. Just need to find an English manual if there is one. Have learned more of the features on it in the past week than I did in 4 years with my old Fujitsu phone. Not sure how the battery life is. The thing sure is light.

Been trying to get my PalmPilot to dial out via the phone using the infrared ports. It dials, but I can't get on. I will eventually figure it out, but would hate to mess things up. My Palm and my PIM, EccoPro, are by far the most important tools I have.

Found some good places to start. They are mostly in Japanese.

MAY 17th, 2000

Just popped up to fix a dead link or two -  Keeping busy with a few new wireless toys. I will be writing more about them later, but briefly, some links. (Sorry Japanese only.)

(1) NTT PHS and Cell phone modem card P-In: It's a winner. Took minutes to setup on my ThinkPad running Windows 2000. Tested it on the bullet train last weekend. Works great, just gotta watch out for those tunnels.

(2) DoCoMo NOKIA NM502i: Key features are imode support, bilingual display and infrared. These were supposed to ship in Tokyo many weeks ago, but due to some glitch, didn't hit the stores until this week. I got mine today. Paid 14,800 Yen at Bic Camera in Ikebukuro. Didn't bother to shop around...

Had been using the same phone for 4-5 years. I had paid 800 dollars for it with an extra battery. Things sure have changed. Of course, you can buy phones here for 1 Yen, but not like this.

If all goes well I will be using my Palm to get even more connected. Never bothered trying it before as I didn't want to buy a modem and deal with cables.

Next thing to get will be a wireless LAN; probably by the end of the year. I am finding it very easy to get used being wireless. Battery life has suddenly become very important to me.

The Lucent, 3COM and Cisco access points seem kind of expensive. I will take a look at Melco Buffalo and some others. The latest NTT-ME/BUG MN128 dialup ISDN router (Slot-in) doubles as a wireless access point, but I need to see if it will fit into my present setup.

Which reminds me. Heard back from Tokyo Metallic recently. Seems my ADSL (1.6Mbps / 270kbps) application has been approved, but they are waiting for some confirmation from NTT, aka. The Man.

APR 17th, 2000

Might be the last update for a while -  Taking a trip to the US tomorrow for a about 10 days. Going to Chicago and San Francisco. Should be fun. Packing right now. Got a ton of things to do before heading to the airport in a few hours.

Stopped in Akihabara today. T-zone seems to carry the Linksys Broadband EtherFast Cable DSL Router, but was out of stock. Price was 34,000 Yen. a lot more than the $169 you can get it for at PC Connection. I just ordered two. One for me and one for my father, to install when I am home this week. He just got a cable modem. With the price difference I could buy a dozen and sell them here (Japan), but I won't. But I am sure that people will be asking me to help them set these up, so I might be getting more in the future.

With more people getting always on Internet connections I recommend this hardware and/or a software solution to protect yourself. Just too much too lose these days. I saw a good review/list of software firewall programs today at GRC.com. This guy has really done a good job. I recommend going to his Shields UP! page to get an idea of what your security situation is.

Perfect MP3 Player - I am still looking. Last year I thought the Lyra would be a winner, but then found out that you had to run the included RealJukebox software and encrypt it before you could play your stuff on the player. No thanks. You may know what I think of Real. Also read reports that although it had a Compact Flash type II slot it didn't support the 340MB IBM MicroDrive.

Recently I read about one buy a Japanese Compact Flash Maker, Green House, plans to sell a MP3 player here called the Kana2000. It also has a type II CF slot and they say it can double as a USB CF reader. That's nice. And only 11,800 Yen. (No memory included and that is fine with me.) Unfortunately it has been delayed.

Speaking of delayed - Recently in our newsgroups we have been talking about a new bilingual iMode phone by Nokia, NM502i. It looks real good. Tried to find it, but according to my friend -- I buy a lot of stuff there, so I guess he is my friend -- at Bic Camera in Ikebukuro, they were about to ship, but stopped suddenly.

He's going to call me when it comes in. I have been using the same phone for over 4 years and am ready for an upgrade so I will probably get it. What excites me about this one is that using the infrared on it I think you can hold it in front of your (or my rather) PalmPilot and connect to the Net. On the Nokia site they have a list of tested hard/software and their is an email app listed. For all I know, any Palm email app will work. I emailed the company and they say they have tested it with the new Nokia and it works. That is a start.

Looking forward to finally doing mail, etc. on my Palm. Not looking forward to the higher phone bills, though. Switching from NTT's OCN Economy to ADSL should save me some money, though. (See below.)

More Wireless stories - I have been completely satisfied with my new NTT keitai/PHS P-in card. It works beautifully on Win2000 Pro English version and took minutes to set up and was plug and play, not requiring the included (Japanese) disks at all. I have already written about this in the newsgroups if you want more information. They are very hard to find now, though.

And on broadband - I filled out my application for an ADSL line from Tokyo Metallic. From what they are saying I might be getting a line at the end of this month. If so, and I like it I will paying them 8,000 a month for 1.6Mbps/sec downstream and 270kbps up. And not 32,000 to NTT for 128k both ways. I will have had my NTT OCN Economy line for 3 years this summer and have been very pleased with the performance, but no reason to go on paying that much any more.

It is good to have choices. I will miss all the IP addresses I have had. They really come in handy for Internet telephony. 

Fiber in my future? - Someone in the newsgroups turned me on to an article regarding NTT's planned fiber-optic lines that should start in the testing phase soon. Not living in the boonies, it is possible that my neighborhood will be one of the first to get it this Fall. My telecom costs could go up again, but for 10Mbps it might be worth it. The past few weeks they have been installing these lines all along my street.

This could be all for a while - My plane leaves in exactly 12 hours and as usual I haven't started packing. Lots more to get ready and little things to take care of. I just may up do some updating on the road. Sure wish I had some wireless access while traveling back home.

APR 13th, 2000

Still out of the habit -  And really wouldn't know where to get started.

If you want to read my rags to riches to rags story, check out the chart on this stock... It's an Antenna company called Antenna's America (symbol: ANTM). I bought it for 17 cents a share 11 years ago. In February and March it almost hit 4 bucks. Now it is barely over a dollar. So sad.

For a few weeks I became addicted to the ANTM Board at the Raging Bull. There were some really good posts in there, but not so much these days. I learned tons about wireless broadband and hope this company gets a piece of the action.

Speaking of broadband, I signed up for ADSL here in Tokyo. Hope to have it by May. Company is called Tokyo Metallic and if you want to apply, don't bother reading the English pages as the application isn't there. Seems they are only taking 5,000 applications this time. Everything is still beta as NTT doesn't want to loose the revenue.

NTT isn't the only one dragging it's feet on xDSL deployment. I think that we ought to be able to prosecute these telcos in the future just like we have war criminals.

Back to Tokyo Metallic's ADSL. There are various packages, but I am going for the one that seems to make most sense. It says, "1.6Mbps / sec for downstream in the amount of 8,000 yen per month!"

If this stuff works I will be giving up my NTT OCN Economy line -- presently priced at 32,000 Yen per month -- that I have had for almost 3 years. This will also mean that the TPC server will have to find a new home. No regrets. 128k always on has been pretty good to me. Will miss the extra IP addresses, though.


MAR 9th, 2000

Out of the habit -  Really out of the habit of taking notes up here. Really should, though. I have learned some things that I'd like to share and can't be doing that with email...

Fortunately Win2000 Pro is stable enough that I can get things done, so I really don't have an excuse. Not that I need one. Sometimes I wonder why I put anything up here. Might someday regret it.

Best place to find me is in the newsgroups of the Tokyo PC Users Group. There really are a lot of good people in there. Makes my life a lot easier.


MAR 2nd, 2000

Whew!! Just getting things back together - I requested some changes for my account here at Pair.com where I am hosting this and bumped into some problems. First off, FrontPage didn't want to work. I had to request the extensions be reinstalled. Then I had some problems uploading. I had to rename a folder to make it happen. Not sure how that 'fixed' it or even if it is really fixed. I still have a lot to learn.

Pair.com really is a great place. I highly recommend them. I am coming up on 3 years with them. Domain hosting starts at just $5.95 per month for yourURL.com. This is great! And each additional domain that is hosted under the same account is just $1 more per month.

I am tempted to type away, but it is pretty late -- or should I say early. But I at least want to write a bit.

Privacy Concerns - Last year I wrote a bit about how pissed off I was with RealNetworks RealJukebox. I recently read about another company that is doing some pretty creepy stuff. This hasn't made the mainstream press yet -- and it may just be a 'hoax' -- but I still don't like what I have seen. It is amazing how little privacy we have up here.

Hard to figure out what is going on, but the company that is getting the heat, Aureate, has already posted something on their site denying it as a hoax
http://www.aureate.com/privacy/falserumors.html

Really worth taking a look at though. This company's services are used by a lot of 'freeware'. Guess it ain't free after all. Time will tell exactly what kind of stuff is getting sent out to their servers with their 'spying' DLLs. Seems the most talked about one is called advert.dll.

Just search for advert.dll at DejaNews and you can get an idea what is going on. People are trying to figure out what information is being passed back and forth. The company is out in full force in the newsgroups defending itself.

There is some interesting information here, but I doubt all of it is true:
http://www.freebox.com/zor/acid.txt


Amazon.com Boycott - I don't have time to get into it here, but check out what Dave Winer and Tim O'reilly have to say about it.
    No More Pesos for Senor Bezos by Dave Winer
    http://www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/amazon_patent.html

I think this boycott could really pick up some steam. It started late last year. Here is a story: Linux pioneer calls for Amazon boycott

FEB 11th, 2000

Net2Phone Rates - I got something from them the other day mentioning 1 cent per minute. I think it is just a promotion, but hard to tell. All these deals just seem to be for people that either live in the states or signed up in the states.

I decided to give DeltaThree a try again as I heard that the next Internet Switchboard software, version 3.2, by Quicknet, will include DeltaThree support. Actually, I am testing it now and it works. Need to do some more testing to compare it Net2Phone. This is great news as it is good to have choices. I know people that have signed up for DeltaThree's $10 per month deal for unlimited calls to the states.

I decided to revive my Internet telephony page, but there are really just a bunch of links there. I am satisfied with my PhoneJACK, ISB and N2P/D3, so I don't really have much to add. I just keep watching the prices go down and the quality go up.

FEB 4th, 2000

New Technology Radio Station: CNetradio.com - It's finally up and running. Not 24 hours a day and no archives yet, but it is good to have more stuff to listen to.

5:30am to 7pm San Francisco time. It is also a AM station there and will soon be broadcast all over the US.

My friend Ken Rutkowski is the host in the afternoon slot called "PM Drive" and is doing a good job. I have been listening to his TTalk.com shows for about 3 years now and on it 3-4 times. He is also the host of the Streaming Media show.

I put some photos up. Just getting around to working with and uploading some photos that I have taken over the past few months. Won't put them on the front page here. Here are some I took when visiting Jack in Brooklyn.

Found some more places to find radio stations or programs on the Net. I went to the portal at StreamSeek.com. Found a site called GiveMeTalk!.com. If you want to create your own radio station, this may get you started.

FEB 3rd, 2000

I recently upgrade to the latest version of MusicMatch Jukebox and they include a tuner. Neat to see that TTalk [dead link now: May 17] is listed as a format. Makes finding and listening to the shows easier.

I am searching for some good tools. I like IrFanView for quick viewing of digital camera photos, but has no draw/paint features. I am trying LView Pro and it may do the job. I am looking for something to work with screen captures.

FEB 2nd, 2000

Finally got around to editing and uploading the screenshots and notes that Andrew Hayes created to help people connect to the TPC news server using Outlook Express. Thanks Andrew.

FEB 1st, 2000

Not doing much of anything. Got an email from a friend today saying he was about to install his Internet PhoneJACK into a new machine, so I uploaded my notes to help him along.

JAN 28th, 2000

Play a bit of playing with ThinkDB, MS Access and FrontPage2000 today. Still have a long way to go. I just want to have different views of my database of software registrations that I made in ThinkDB on my Pilot. Anyway, here is what I ended up with.

From here on in I guess I could say that everything is a bonus. I have all the software registration information entered and backed up. Adding to or changing entries is pretty easy using the ThinkDB desktop program.

I really out to make a submission to the ThinkDB database templates page. Most of the ones there are pretty lame. I do like the one for books, thought. Yet another thing that I would like to be keeping track of.

Forgot to mention that I did some playing with The Brain and SiteBrain. Bought The Brain when it was version 1.0, but didn't continue using it. Decided to give it another try. Noticed it is at version 1.7. I uploaded one test SiteBrain for this site.

JAN 24th, 2000

Boy what a difference a stable and fast machine makes when it comes to keeping things updated up here. I can just leave FrontPage running along with everything else. Now you won't be able to shut me up.

Don't worry, though. I have plenty to keep me busy. I have been appointed to the Board of Advisors of the Association of PC Users Groups. (Herein: APCUG). Wow! This is one classy outfit. I have attended a total of 4 of their conferences in the past and always come away with a lot. The last event I attended was the Fall 99 Event held the weekend before and during Comdex. Five of us from the Tokyo PC Users Group attended this one.

Looks like it is going to require quite a bit of time. One of the chores I have been given is to maintain and improve relations with non-North American groups. The Nagoya PC Users Club joined up last year. I can't see why any group wouldn't be a part of it. It's a no-brainer if you ask me.

Want to watch US TV from anywhere in the world. Check out ICraveTV.com. You will need to enter a Canadian area code which shouldn't be too hard to find. 416 is one.

JAN 21st, 2000

It really has been a while. I tend to do things in spurts up here and always seem to have an excuse. I will explain this one later...

Did a bit of writing on my PalmPilot page. But that is about it. Got a new main machine after almost 3 and a half years. That doesn't even seem possible for me.