Actually, this is causing major headaches for some folks in Japan (who probably constitute a niche market) - musicians (yes, I am an amateur musician). We still want to be able to buy vintage tube amps, synths, organs, consoles... some of the vintage "mojo" people seem to worship is really ridiculous, but there definitely is a need for vintage gear.
Realistically speaking, I don't think that it will be impossible for us to buy vintage gear in Japan. Some of the larger stores are getting registered as "manufacturers," which can authorize old stuff so it can be resold. I've heard that some stores are thinking of renting stuff (which will continue to be permitted) for a stiff fee, then give the customer an option to get the gear for free, effectively selling the item in question. We'll have to see if the government will tolerate that. In all, it looks like this will mean less competition in the vintage gear market = more price gouging. Japanese musicians like Ryuichi Sakamoto have started an online petition, but it's probably going to go nowhere. Not a very good situation for us.
Yes, yes. The lack of a complete solution with audio, MIDI, and software instruments is what stops me from trying out Ardour and the other OSS stuff. I also think this is probably what sucks the most for many amateur musicians on a budget, who want a studio in their home. These musicians (including myself) don't have every instrument they will ever need. A lot (especially those in Japan, like myself) are not able to record drums in their home. MIDI editing capabilities and software instruments are really helpful for us.
Want to record drums? Load a drumset preset into the software sampler, play the drums with a MIDI keyboard, and you have them! Yes, you can do this with a drum machine or a workstation synth, but it's usually much more difficult to do MIDI programming on this kind of hardware. Cut/paste/dragging moves are much more easier on a computer. It's also possible to do this with drum loops, but you're going to have a problem when you can't find what you exactly want - which can happen frequently if you're creative. The app I use (Logic Pro) has other wonderful software instruments (organ, electric piano, clavinet, various synths) and I heavily rely on them.
Editing MIDI on another app is not a solution for me (I want to concentrate on making music), and I believe the Ardour folks are aware of it, because they say "Ardour is not a MIDI sequencer (though that is planned)". I'm really surprised and impressed by the rapid progress they're making, but I still expect that it's going to be some time until Ardour evolves into something I would want to use. Until then, it's Logic on Mac OSX for me...
True. But only a moron builds on a fault. Or in the immediate danger area of a volcano. Or in a flood plain. Or really needs a study to figure out what will happen if it lets loose:)
Actually, most digital music synthesizers (romplers) and samplers aren't that different from Moog synths. Modern synths usually have a ton of effects and use sampled waveforms instead of analog saw waves, square waves, sine waves, etc., but the way they shape sounds (filters, modulation) are pretty similar.
I think he would have been be more dissapointed with the way a lot of keyboard players use synths as sample playback machines and don't create their own sounds. However, I think this was partially because of the Yamaha DX7, which was extremely unpredictable when editing sounds. I heard that Yamaha made a lot of money by selling ROM cartridges with new patches.
...Well, Bob, it's not the end of the world. As you created my sound with your creation, I will continue to define it with my definition... God Willing!
sincerely,
August 22, 2005
I play keyboards and synthesizers and am sure that the musical world would be different without what Bob Moog created. He may be gone, but his technology will continue to help musicians create new music for a long, long time. Thanks, Bob Moog!
>Are the artists that are doing this in violation of their contract with Sony?
I don't know who the "other" artists are, but first of all, Sano Motoharu isn't even signed with Sony now - he got sick of Sony and started his own record company a while back. I don't see how Sony can stop him selling music recorded at his own company through the iTMS.
No, it isn't right at all. CD prices are usually around 2,000 yen for international artists, and 2,000 to 3,000 yen for Japanese artists. This gets even cheaper if you buy imports (only works for international artists).
For example, you can get the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (U.S. import) for 1380 yen at Amazon Japan. The price, combined with the fact that a lot of music is missing (read:Sony), makes the iTMS Japan rather disappointing. Even so, it easily beats all the competitors in Japan...
It appears as if the Stanford Center for Internet and Society has an audio lecture, which I'm listening to right now.
Re:The link title is a little misleading.
on
Apple Easter Egg
·
· Score: 1
I wholeheartedly agree about 7.6. IMO, it's the best version of the Mac OS for the 68K machines and the earlier Power PC Machines. I was constantly annoyed by this when I had a running LC 630 a few years ago.
I've read quite a few posts referring to money from MSFT, but I don't think that's the case. According to a Japanese article, this whole thing came up because Matsushita was apparently trying to kick Sotec (a fairly new company that makes cheap PCs) out of business.
November 2002 Matsushita requests injunction to prevent Sotec and Justsystem for selling PCs that bundle Justsystem's "Just Home 2 Kakeibo Pack," which allegedly infringes the help patent. Sotec stops selling the PCs in question.
August 2003 Justsystem goes to court, trying to confirm that Matsushita has no right to stop sale of Just Home 2.
August 2004 Justsystem wins in court. Matsushita immediately sues Justsystem for Ichitaro and Hanako.
By the way, Justsystem started selling Linux versions of Ichitaro and Atok last year.
Actually, quite a few people still use Ichitaro. I read an article in the Asahi Shinbun that mentioned that the court that issued this order uses Ichitaro itself.
Well, I agree that bad translators and interpreters suck, but if it's simultaneous interpretation, some of the original meaning will always be lost or distorted. Additionally, clients somtimes do ask interpreters to "filter out" information when possible.
That said, I've met a good share of bad volunteer translators, and they can really mess up things pretty bad. The fact that most people who rely on volunteer translators can't check their work doesn't help, either.
As other people have mentioned, a powerbook and oxygen8 will suck for live use. You want something with minimum setup hassle and top-notch reliability.
On the other hand, I don't understand what Korg is trying to do with this keyboard. Sequencing and recording is easier with a computer nowdays, so their workstation approach seems like an unnnecessary feature that increases the price (have to mention that it was a great thing to do in the Korg M1 days).
Additionally, I don't get what they're trying to do with the synthesis. It seems they're trying to market this as an "open architecture synthesis" board, but it doesn't look like anything new. It looks like a CX-3, analog modelling synth and PCM synth bundled in one box, and I don't see the point of doing that. For example, I don't want to play organ and piano on the same keyboard - I want weighted keys for piano and synth keys for organ. If I had 8,000$ to spend on keyboards, I would buy two or three different boards that can do one thing good. Yeah, it's going to suck dragging them around, but you aren't going to have to worry about running out of keys when you have to play organ and piano in the same song.
Yeah, I think this looks like the Japanese FTC is fighting to protect Japanese comapanies.
The newspaper I read (the Asahi) reported something like "the FTC decided to act because some computer makers with strong audio/visual technology complained about the contract clause" Hmm.. a computer maker with "strong audio/visual technology" that wants to fight Microsoft = Sony?
The Japanese FTC's nickname happens to be "the watchdog that never barks," because it rarely does anything. I think Sony (or some other Japanese company) applied strong pressure upon the FTC.
The legal system in Japan is unbelievably slow, so I really don't expect anything to come out of this move, though.
The article states that "school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school." The submitter states "Japanese schoolchildren in the city of Osaka will be tagged with RFID tags."
Actually, the the Kinki Bureau of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (an organization you probably would not refer to as "school authorities," which happens to be located in the city of Osaka, Osaka prefecture) will be testing RFID tags with the cooperation of an elementary school in the city of Tabe, Wakayama prefecture.
I guess I'm not crazy either! When I was taking piano lessons as a kid, my teacher would test me in various ways - for example, trying to distract me in various ways. I could manage everything, except when the teacher asked me questions and expected me to answer. Some kids managed to do it, but I just can't figure why - it's quite impossible for me.
I find it quite interesting that the teacher was using the Suzuki Method - which is based upon the theory that learning music is like learning a language.
I find it quite interesting that we can still observe feet and inches in Japan, which never used the imperical system. (Japan and other east asian countries used a system called the shakkan-ho in Japanese)
For example, screen sizes are usually measured in inches. Nobody really knows how long inches and feet are, but we know from experience what to expect from a 14 inch screen. We also need to rely on the imperical system when we deal with imported goods. With screen sizes it's usually okay - you can look at the screen and think "big" or "small" - but when it comes to areas where accuraccy is necessary, it becomes really annoying.
There is a big debate in Japan over this - should we encourage earthquake prediction or not? I personally feel earthquake prediciton shouldn't be stressed in Japan. It really doesn't do much for us. As long as you live in this country, a big one is going to come, sooner or later. It probably would save more lives if we would pour money into making buildings earthquake-resistant and raising awareness on how to reduce earthquake damage (for example, by anchoring large furniture). I additionally have to add that most seismologists consider accurate earthquake prediction impossible.
I generally like Entourage and its interface (which is why I use it), but I can't stand how it stores my mail.
In the Apple Mail app, mail is stored in.mbox files. I like this - all I have to do if I want to backup mail is copy the mbox file. On the other hand, Entourage stores mail in its own proprietary format, and I haven't been able to find out how to work with it.
I only recently learned that when you drag Entourage mailboxes to your desktop, they are saved as mbox files (although I haven't tried it yet - haven't been doing backups lately). Of course, this isn't documented by Microsoft - could have saved me a lot of trouble if they had.
Does anyone know whether you can do this in the new version? I really don't plan to get the new Office (give me a good reason why I should upgrade), but I was curious.
A Slashdot Japan post notes that it isn't as simple as the article suggests. What prticularly interested me is that there are reports of non-poisonous pufferfish becoming poisonous after being kept in the same tank with natural pufferfish. I guess we aren't going to be eating pufferfish liver until people can assure with certainity that they will be 100% non-poisonous.
Another interesting fact: It is known that pufferfish ovaries (which are also poisonous) can be made non-poisonous by pickling them in sake dregs (what you get after you make sake, which is Japanese rice wine) for several years. It is speculated that microbes gradually reduce the poison.
Can you really eat it? Nagasaki University succeeds in making pufferfish fugu liver nonpoisonous
You want to eat it, but you're also afraid of the poison. Well, it looks like you may be able to eat Pufferfish Fugu liver, which has worried gourmets for so long. A research team at Nagasaki University succeeded in making Pufferfish Fugu liver non-poisonous. They report that there isn't any poison in the liver or any other part of the body when the fish are raised with their original method. Saga Prefecture is attempting to bolster the local economy by putting the "forbidden taste" on the dinner table. The prefecture is scheduled to propose a "Special Zone for Fugu" to the national government in June, which will ease the legal restrictions that prohibits selling and providing liver.
According to the Nagasaki University group, lead by visiting professor Tamao Noguchi, pufferfish eat poisonous things, such as starfish and mollusks on the seafloor, and accumulate poison in their bodies. He began researching a way to raise a "non-poisonous pufferfish," thinking it might be possible to raise a pufferfish without poison if he began to feed them non-poisonous food like mackarel and krill when they were still young.
As a result he discovered that raising pufferfish in a net over 10 meters from the seafloor and raising pufferfish in a tank with purified water were effective methods.
From 2000 to 2003, the group measured poison from a total of 4833 pufferfish and found no poisonous ones. These fish were raised with the special method under an original management scheme also devised by the research group in 7 locations throughout Japan, such as Takashima town, Nagasaki Prefecture.
Saga Prefecture and Ureshino town (located in Saga) are interested in the non-poisonous pufferfish. They aim to bolster the local economy through "hot springs and pufferfish liver" by serving it in the ryokans (traditional Japanese-style hotels) at Ureshino Hot Springs.
Selling poisonous parts of pufferfish, such as the liver, is restricted within the Food Hygiene Law. The plan is to apply for a "Special Zone for Pufferfish," using the national government's "Special Zones for Structural Reform" initiative, so people can easily and safely eat pufferfish liver. They intend to attach tags on non-poisonous liver for identification.
Osamu Arakawa, professor of fisheries at Nagasaki University, who is a member of the research group, told us "Not all farmed pufferfish are non-poisonous. Nonprofessionals should never eat pufferfish under their own judgment."
(A Statement from the Food Hygiene Department, Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare) Technology that makes pufferfish non-poisonous is a great advancement. However, it is very difficult to make the liver of farmed pufferfish legal at this point, especially because they cannot be distinguished from natural liver by sight.
Hope this is a little better than Altavista or Babelfish.
Creating a G5-ish case for the Power Mac G4 Cube
December 1, 2003 I thought I'd like to have a cube with a Power Mac G5 design, so I started to make a case. First I measured the cube... I started to measure the dimensions with a height gauge. Looking forward to how I'll cook up this thing... # Huh? Why am I making a case? It's because I can't buy a G5, though people I know are calling me and telling me they bought it... (;_;) And while I was fretting over it, I heard this (http://www.powerlogix.com/products2/enclosure/) was going to be released, so I guess I was inspired by it.
December 3, 2003 First I cut out the parts for the case walls, using ABS boards. I made it a little taller than the real cube. I'm going to put in a USB hub into the extra space, because they tend to get in the way. It actually was really inconvenient when you connected USB stuff to the Cube, because you had to be careful while laying down the Cube on its side... so that's why. Bought a slim 4-port USB hub. It's what I plan to use. A pic of how it looks after I glue and assemble the parts I cut out. The size is a bit smaller than the real Cube. I'm gluing thin boards on the outsides, to shield the insides and increase strength. After I finish gluing the boards, I plan to glue aluminum boards about 0.3 mm thick in the insides for shielding. The front panel is going to be glued like this, but of course, there's going to be mesh holes because it's a pseudo G5. I'm going to draw in guides, and there's going to be holes for slot-loading and the USB hub, so I'm going to glue on the panel after I finish working on it. At this point, the size is height 193mm * width 179mm * 183mm. I'd like to attach handles, work on the mesh, and install the USB hub tomorrow.
December 4, 2003 Built in a USB hub in the extra space in the bottom. The picture is how it looks from the bottom. When it's completed, there's supposed to be 4 USB ports lined up at the bottom of the front panel. This is how it looks after I put in the Cube (although it's upside down). I plan to work on the front panel, open holes for slot-loading and the USB hub, make a on/off switch, and create a mesh for the front panel. I'll work on the front panel and handles tomorrow.
December 6, 2003 I opened holes in the front of the case, so it'll look like the aluminum mesh that represents the G5. I first thought of marking off the back of the front panel to open holes, but since there were so many, I reverted to using mesh aluminum as a guide to open the holes. So many 2.9mm diameter holes... my mind goes blank. The front panel was completed after a painstaking effort. Gawd... it's almost looks like mesh aluminum in the picture. I put it together and glued it to the case I made yesterday. I guess I'm blowing my own horn, but it looks real nice... I started to work on the handles. I have to bend boards in order to use them, but since it's going to be troublesome to heat the boards and bend them, I'm going to glue together two 1.5mm thick ABS boards while bending them. Unless I do this, the boards are going to try to return to their original shape after a while. I made a guide with the same width as the case (glued V-shaped blacks to a flat table), and glued the boards while bending them in the guide.
December 7, 2003 The leg parts after the bending was completed. I glued them on after cutting and finishing them. Glued completed legs to the case. It's starting to look more like it... Another pic from the side. Yeah, this is more like it. This is working out great! Got to make another set and start working on the top.
December 7, 2003 Another set of parts for the handle, after bending. Same size as the legs. Glued the handles and finished the areas where glue was applied. Looks like a G5 all over... height 259mm * width 179mm * depth 183mm All I have to do now is make a transparent part for the on/o
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, this is causing major headaches for some folks in Japan (who probably constitute a niche market) - musicians (yes, I am an amateur musician). We still want to be able to buy vintage tube amps, synths, organs, consoles... some of the vintage "mojo" people seem to worship is really ridiculous, but there definitely is a need for vintage gear.
Realistically speaking, I don't think that it will be impossible for us to buy vintage gear in Japan. Some of the larger stores are getting registered as "manufacturers," which can authorize old stuff so it can be resold. I've heard that some stores are thinking of renting stuff (which will continue to be permitted) for a stiff fee, then give the customer an option to get the gear for free, effectively selling the item in question. We'll have to see if the government will tolerate that. In all, it looks like this will mean less competition in the vintage gear market = more price gouging. Japanese musicians like Ryuichi Sakamoto have started an online petition, but it's probably going to go nowhere. Not a very good situation for us.
Yes, yes. The lack of a complete solution with audio, MIDI, and software instruments is what stops me from trying out Ardour and the other OSS stuff. I also think this is probably what sucks the most for many amateur musicians on a budget, who want a studio in their home. These musicians (including myself) don't have every instrument they will ever need. A lot (especially those in Japan, like myself) are not able to record drums in their home. MIDI editing capabilities and software instruments are really helpful for us.
Want to record drums? Load a drumset preset into the software sampler, play the drums with a MIDI keyboard, and you have them! Yes, you can do this with a drum machine or a workstation synth, but it's usually much more difficult to do MIDI programming on this kind of hardware. Cut/paste/dragging moves are much more easier on a computer. It's also possible to do this with drum loops, but you're going to have a problem when you can't find what you exactly want - which can happen frequently if you're creative. The app I use (Logic Pro) has other wonderful software instruments (organ, electric piano, clavinet, various synths) and I heavily rely on them.
Editing MIDI on another app is not a solution for me (I want to concentrate on making music), and I believe the Ardour folks are aware of it, because they say "Ardour is not a MIDI sequencer (though that is planned)". I'm really surprised and impressed by the rapid progress they're making, but I still expect that it's going to be some time until Ardour evolves into something I would want to use. Until then, it's Logic on Mac OSX for me...
True. But only a moron builds on a fault. Or in the immediate danger area of a volcano. Or in a flood plain. Or really needs a study to figure out what will happen if it lets loose :)
Heh. I guess all of us in Japan are morons.
Actually, most digital music synthesizers (romplers) and samplers aren't that different from Moog synths. Modern synths usually have a ton of effects and use sampled waveforms instead of analog saw waves, square waves, sine waves, etc., but the way they shape sounds (filters, modulation) are pretty similar.
I think he would have been be more dissapointed with the way a lot of keyboard players use synths as sample playback machines and don't create their own sounds. However, I think this was partially because of the Yamaha DX7, which was extremely unpredictable when editing sounds. I heard that Yamaha made a lot of money by selling ROM cartridges with new patches.
I think this one would be pretty obvious, too...
Keith Emerson
I play keyboards and synthesizers and am sure that the musical world would be different without what Bob Moog created. He may be gone, but his technology will continue to help musicians create new music for a long, long time. Thanks, Bob Moog!
>Are the artists that are doing this in violation of their contract with Sony?
I don't know who the "other" artists are, but first of all, Sano Motoharu isn't even signed with Sony now - he got sick of Sony and started his own record company a while back. I don't see how Sony can stop him selling music recorded at his own company through the iTMS.
No, it isn't right at all. CD prices are usually around 2,000 yen for international artists, and 2,000 to 3,000 yen for Japanese artists. This gets even cheaper if you buy imports (only works for international artists).
For example, you can get the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (U.S. import) for 1380 yen at Amazon Japan. The price, combined with the fact that a lot of music is missing (read:Sony), makes the iTMS Japan rather disappointing. Even so, it easily beats all the competitors in Japan...
It appears as if the Stanford Center for Internet and Society has an audio lecture, which I'm listening to right now.
I wholeheartedly agree about 7.6.
IMO, it's the best version of the Mac OS for the 68K machines and the earlier Power PC Machines. I was constantly annoyed by this when I had a running LC 630 a few years ago.
I've read quite a few posts referring to money from MSFT, but I don't think that's the case. According to a Japanese article, this whole thing came up because Matsushita was apparently trying to kick Sotec (a fairly new company that makes cheap PCs) out of business.
November 2002 Matsushita requests injunction to prevent Sotec and Justsystem for selling PCs that bundle Justsystem's "Just Home 2 Kakeibo Pack," which allegedly infringes the help patent. Sotec stops selling the PCs in question.
August 2003 Justsystem goes to court, trying to confirm that Matsushita has no right to stop sale of Just Home 2.
August 2004 Justsystem wins in court. Matsushita immediately sues Justsystem for Ichitaro and Hanako.
By the way, Justsystem started selling Linux versions of Ichitaro and Atok last year.
Actually, quite a few people still use Ichitaro. I read an article in the Asahi Shinbun that mentioned that the court that issued this order uses Ichitaro itself.
Well, I agree that bad translators and interpreters suck, but if it's simultaneous interpretation, some of the original meaning will always be lost or distorted. Additionally, clients somtimes do ask interpreters to "filter out" information when possible.
That said, I've met a good share of bad volunteer translators, and they can really mess up things pretty bad. The fact that most people who rely on volunteer translators can't check their work doesn't help, either.
As other people have mentioned, a powerbook and oxygen8 will suck for live use. You want something with minimum setup hassle and top-notch reliability.
On the other hand, I don't understand what Korg is trying to do with this keyboard. Sequencing and recording is easier with a computer nowdays, so their workstation approach seems like an unnnecessary feature that increases the price (have to mention that it was a great thing to do in the Korg M1 days).
Additionally, I don't get what they're trying to do with the synthesis. It seems they're trying to market this as an "open architecture synthesis" board, but it doesn't look like anything new. It looks like a CX-3, analog modelling synth and PCM synth bundled in one box, and I don't see the point of doing that. For example, I don't want to play organ and piano on the same keyboard - I want weighted keys for piano and synth keys for organ. If I had 8,000$ to spend on keyboards, I would buy two or three different boards that can do one thing good. Yeah, it's going to suck dragging them around, but you aren't going to have to worry about running out of keys when you have to play organ and piano in the same song.
Yeah, I think this looks like the Japanese FTC is fighting to protect Japanese comapanies.
The newspaper I read (the Asahi) reported something like "the FTC decided to act because some computer makers with strong audio/visual technology complained about the contract clause"
Hmm.. a computer maker with "strong audio/visual technology" that wants to fight Microsoft = Sony?
The Japanese FTC's nickname happens to be "the watchdog that never barks," because it rarely does anything. I think Sony (or some other Japanese company) applied strong pressure upon the FTC.
The legal system in Japan is unbelievably slow, so I really don't expect anything to come out of this move, though.
The article states that "school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school." The submitter states "Japanese schoolchildren in the city of Osaka will be tagged with RFID tags."
Actually, the the Kinki Bureau of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (an organization you probably would not refer to as "school authorities," which happens to be located in the city of Osaka, Osaka prefecture) will be testing RFID tags with the cooperation of an elementary school in the city of Tabe, Wakayama prefecture.
You can read an accurate article here.
I guess I'm not crazy either!
When I was taking piano lessons as a kid, my teacher would test me in various ways - for example, trying to distract me in various ways.
I could manage everything, except when the teacher asked me questions and expected me to answer. Some kids managed to do it, but I just can't figure why - it's quite impossible for me.
I find it quite interesting that the teacher was using the Suzuki Method - which is based upon the theory that learning music is like learning a language.
I find it quite interesting that we can still observe feet and inches in Japan, which never used the imperical system. (Japan and other east asian countries used a system called the shakkan-ho in Japanese)
For example, screen sizes are usually measured in inches. Nobody really knows how long inches and feet are, but we know from experience what to expect from a 14 inch screen. We also need to rely on the imperical system when we deal with imported goods.
With screen sizes it's usually okay - you can look at the screen and think "big" or "small" - but when it comes to areas where accuraccy is necessary, it becomes really annoying.
Actually, we buy fish heads in Japan to make soup. There's a bit of meat left over, which is pretty good stuff because it's close to the bones.
There is a big debate in Japan over this - should we encourage earthquake prediction or not?
I personally feel earthquake prediciton shouldn't be stressed in Japan. It really doesn't do much for us. As long as you live in this country, a big one is going to come, sooner or later.
It probably would save more lives if we would pour money into making buildings earthquake-resistant and raising awareness on how to reduce earthquake damage (for example, by anchoring large furniture).
I additionally have to add that most seismologists consider accurate earthquake prediction impossible.
I generally like Entourage and its interface (which is why I use it), but I can't stand how it stores my mail.
.mbox files. I like this - all I have to do if I want to backup mail is copy the mbox file. On the other hand, Entourage stores mail in its own proprietary format, and I haven't been able to find out how to work with it.
In the Apple Mail app, mail is stored in
I only recently learned that when you drag Entourage mailboxes to your desktop, they are saved as mbox files (although I haven't tried it yet - haven't been doing backups lately). Of course, this isn't documented by Microsoft - could have saved me a lot of trouble if they had.
Does anyone know whether you can do this in the new version? I really don't plan to get the new Office (give me a good reason why I should upgrade), but I was curious.
A Slashdot Japan post notes that it isn't as simple as the article suggests. What prticularly interested me is that there are reports of non-poisonous pufferfish becoming poisonous after being kept in the same tank with natural pufferfish. I guess we aren't going to be eating pufferfish liver until people can assure with certainity that they will be 100% non-poisonous.
Another interesting fact: It is known that pufferfish ovaries (which are also poisonous) can be made non-poisonous by pickling them in sake dregs (what you get after you make sake, which is Japanese rice wine) for several years. It is speculated that microbes gradually reduce the poison.
Can you really eat it? Nagasaki University succeeds in making pufferfish fugu liver nonpoisonous
You want to eat it, but you're also afraid of the poison. Well, it looks like you may be able to eat Pufferfish Fugu liver, which has worried gourmets for so long. A research team at Nagasaki University succeeded in making Pufferfish Fugu liver non-poisonous. They report that there isn't any poison in the liver or any other part of the body when the fish are raised with their original method. Saga Prefecture is attempting to bolster the local economy by putting the "forbidden taste" on the dinner table. The prefecture is scheduled to propose a "Special Zone for Fugu" to the national government in June, which will ease the legal restrictions that prohibits selling and providing liver.
According to the Nagasaki University group, lead by visiting professor Tamao Noguchi, pufferfish eat poisonous things, such as starfish and mollusks on the seafloor, and accumulate poison in their bodies. He began researching a way to raise a "non-poisonous pufferfish," thinking it might be possible to raise a pufferfish without poison if he began to feed them non-poisonous food like mackarel and krill when they were still young.
As a result he discovered that raising pufferfish in a net over 10 meters from the seafloor and raising pufferfish in a tank with purified water were effective methods.
From 2000 to 2003, the group measured poison from a total of 4833 pufferfish and found no poisonous ones. These fish were raised with the special method under an original management scheme also devised by the research group in 7 locations throughout Japan, such as Takashima town, Nagasaki Prefecture.
Saga Prefecture and Ureshino town (located in Saga) are interested in the non-poisonous pufferfish. They aim to bolster the local economy through "hot springs and pufferfish liver" by serving it in the ryokans (traditional Japanese-style hotels) at Ureshino Hot Springs.
Selling poisonous parts of pufferfish, such as the liver, is restricted within the Food Hygiene Law. The plan is to apply for a "Special Zone for Pufferfish," using the national government's "Special Zones for Structural Reform" initiative, so people can easily and safely eat pufferfish liver. They intend to attach tags on non-poisonous liver for identification.
Osamu Arakawa, professor of fisheries at Nagasaki University, who is a member of the research group, told us "Not all farmed pufferfish are non-poisonous. Nonprofessionals should never eat pufferfish under their own judgment."
(A Statement from the Food Hygiene Department, Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare)
Technology that makes pufferfish non-poisonous is a great advancement. However, it is very difficult to make the liver of farmed pufferfish legal at this point, especially because they cannot be distinguished from natural liver by sight.
Hope this is a little better than Altavista or Babelfish.
Creating a G5-ish case for the Power Mac G4 Cube
December 1, 2003
I thought I'd like to have a cube with a Power Mac G5 design, so I started to make a case. First I measured the cube... I started to measure the dimensions with a height gauge.
Looking forward to how I'll cook up this thing...
# Huh? Why am I making a case? It's because I can't buy a G5, though people I know are calling me and telling me they bought it... (;_;) And while I was fretting over it, I heard this (http://www.powerlogix.com/products2/enclosure/) was going to be released, so I guess I was inspired by it.
December 3, 2003
First I cut out the parts for the case walls, using ABS boards. I made it a little taller than the real cube.
I'm going to put in a USB hub into the extra space, because they tend to get in the way. It actually was really inconvenient when you connected USB stuff to the Cube, because you had to be careful while laying down the Cube on its side... so that's why. Bought a slim 4-port USB hub. It's what I plan to use.
A pic of how it looks after I glue and assemble the parts I cut out. The size is a bit smaller than the real Cube.
I'm gluing thin boards on the outsides, to shield the insides and increase strength. After I finish gluing the boards, I plan to glue aluminum boards about 0.3 mm thick in the insides for shielding.
The front panel is going to be glued like this, but of course, there's going to be mesh holes because it's a pseudo G5. I'm going to draw in guides, and there's going to be holes for slot-loading and the USB hub, so I'm going to glue on the panel after I finish working on it. At this point, the size is height 193mm * width 179mm * 183mm.
I'd like to attach handles, work on the mesh, and install the USB hub tomorrow.
December 4, 2003
Built in a USB hub in the extra space in the bottom. The picture is how it looks from the bottom. When it's completed, there's supposed to be 4 USB ports lined up at the bottom of the front panel.
This is how it looks after I put in the Cube (although it's upside down). I plan to work on the front panel, open holes for slot-loading and the USB hub, make a on/off switch, and create a mesh for the front panel.
I'll work on the front panel and handles tomorrow.
December 6, 2003
I opened holes in the front of the case, so it'll look like the aluminum mesh that represents the G5. I first thought of marking off the back of the front panel to open holes, but since there were so many, I reverted to using mesh aluminum as a guide to open the holes. So many 2.9mm diameter holes... my mind goes blank.
The front panel was completed after a painstaking effort. Gawd... it's almost looks like mesh aluminum in the picture.
I put it together and glued it to the case I made yesterday. I guess I'm blowing my own horn, but it looks real nice...
I started to work on the handles. I have to bend boards in order to use them, but since it's going to be troublesome to heat the boards and bend them, I'm going to glue together two 1.5mm thick ABS boards while bending them. Unless I do this, the boards are going to try to return to their original shape after a while.
I made a guide with the same width as the case (glued V-shaped blacks to a flat table), and glued the boards while bending them in the guide.
December 7, 2003
The leg parts after the bending was completed. I glued them on after cutting and finishing them.
Glued completed legs to the case. It's starting to look more like it...
Another pic from the side. Yeah, this is more like it.
This is working out great! Got to make another set and start working on the top.
December 7, 2003
Another set of parts for the handle, after bending. Same size as the legs.
Glued the handles and finished the areas where glue was applied. Looks like a G5 all over... height 259mm * width 179mm * depth 183mm
All I have to do now is make a transparent part for the on/o