[ HippieShop.com Blacklight Poster The Eye ]

Expounds the merits of weblogs as a means of sharing knowledge, and describes the lessons learned from designing and implementing a weblog engine built using Microsoft .NET technologies.

[ DasBlog: Notes from Building a Distributed .NET Collaboration System ]

Not much here that you probably don't already know, but it is nice to see a white paper on freely available software “written” in .NET

Nintendo is putting their countermeasures in the water long before Sony Computer Entertainment’s PSP portable gaming system will have a chance to eat away at their market share in the form of the Game Boy Enhanced (R)!

[ Sympatico.ca - Games - Breaking News ]

Apparently way to good, according to GameSpy.

In their interview with Nintendo President Iwata, Iwata goes on to spew more of their Transcendental Mumbo-Jumbo talk, that sounds more Zen than Corporate Strategy, but I'm still the consummate Nintendo Fan Boy and I will buy everything that they make. (Though even I didn't buy the Virtual Boy)

"Nintendo is working on its next-generation system. Allow me to call it GCNext or GCN. The abilities of GCNext will be different from what you have seen from consoles in the past. What Nintendo is currently discussing is not about state-of-the-art technology for enhancing processing power. But what I, Miyamoto, and Mr. Takeda [engineering leader Genyo Takeda] are discussing is what should be done to entertain people in a new way; and in order to achieve this, what functionality must be added to our current technology.

[ GameSpy ]

Andrew Monk and colleagues from the University of York have performed a wonderful study to assess why it's so annoying when other people have cellphone[sic] conversations in public.

[ Why Mobile Phones are Annoying ]

Jakob Nielsen misses the point here. Where is the control group? I expect that a Mobile Phone by itself wouldn't irritate anyone. Or a mobile phone not in use. The phones aren't irritating, it's the phone usage. And in this case the improper usage by these researchers. A real study would do field research of real phone conversations. These contrived conversations just prove that contrived conversations by researchers from the University of York are irritating.

Next up, my study of how irritating it is to poke usability experts. We'll select them at random and poke slowly, quickly, and then real hard and gauge their responses...

.NET Webservice Studio is a tool to invoke webmethods interactively. The user can provide a WSDL endpoint. On clicking button Get the tool fetches the WSDL, generates .NET proxy from the WSDL and displays the list of methods available. The user can choose any method and provide the required input parameters. On clicking Invoke the SOAP request is sent to the server and the response is parsed to display the return value.

[ GotDotNet User Sample: WebServiceStudio 2.0 ]

Sure you can do some testing with the interactive pages that ASP.NET creates for you, but in my case authentication was done via extra SOAP headers, which cannot be tested in the auto generated webpages. In addition some of the methods took complex objects as attributes, which also cannot be tested in the auto generated webpages.

This tool will get the WSDL and write the same wrappers that you would get in a .NET program, then (through reflection) allow you to specify the parameters passed in and interactively call each method. Without this tool the Web Service that I worked on today would have take 2-5 times as long, since I always do in depth testing of my work.

...when I say YES!

After a brief hiatus following Sword of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Square Enix is back on Game Boy Advance, Shonen Jump reports this week. Square's next project for GBA is another revival, a portable compilation of Final Fantasy I & II due to hit Japan in July.

[ Final Fantasy Remakes For Game Boy Advance ]

And if anything is going to push SqareEnix up over Nintendo saleswise, this could be it. Two of the most loved games ever for the most proliferated console platform.

Skype is free and simple software that will enable you to make free calls anywhere in the world in minutes. Skype, created by the people who brought you KaZaA, uses innovative P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you with other Skype users. If you are tired of paying outrageous fees for telephony, Skype is for you!

[ Skype ]

Of course their big thing is better telephony, and I don't even have a headset at work, so if I'm not at home, don't expect an amazing Skype experience... But having experienced the frustration that is Yahoo! voice chat, I'm willing to give these guys a try...

Props: G$

I am back in compliance with Bill Gates' One World Order, by once again achieving MCP status by nature of passing test #70-315 (Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET).

Narita Airport Access Network

[ Ground Transportation via Rail from NRT Airport ]

How hard could it be to navigate from NRT Airport to Akihabara?

Update: Megatokyo teases me.

Update: Low down from J@pan·Inc

Update: Some advice, props to Scot, and another map of the subways.

Update: The official map is a pdf.

Update: Scot with the ticket.

Random info quiz

[ unabridged ]

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
important, it's certain to demonstrate a tendency to change over time. People

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
Triple Grande Hazelnut Cap from Starbucks

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Michael Crighton's Congo

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is:
3:10PM

5: Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
3:39PM

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Construction next door. Coworker typing. Other coworker putting cup down. Other coworker typing. Siren in the distance. Buzz of AC unit.

7: When did you last step outside?
About 10 minutes ago to get the above mentioned coffee

8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
My T-Mobile Sidekick

9: What are you wearing?
Jeans, Short-sleeve button down (yellow and black), black socks, black shoes, requisite underwear

10: Did you dream last night?
Haven't a clue.

11: When did you last laugh?
Earlier today

12: When did you last smile?
Earlier today

13: Seen anything weird lately?
Define weird

14: What do you think of this quiz?
Kitchy

15: What is the last film you saw?
In the theater? Starsky and Hutch. On DVD? Lost in Translation. On TV? The above mentioned Congo.

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
I'd buy back my debt.

17: George Bush:
Lives right around the corner

Since 1999, Ireland has received almost 50,000 asylum applications. The figure was highest in 2002, when 11,634 people claimed asylum, but it fell the following year, to 7,900.

But in a country of about four million people, a quick glance through the editorial or letters pages of the Irish Times shows just what powerful social and political issues asylum and immigration represent.

[ BBC NEWS | Europe ]

I believe that at the hight of its population, Ireland had 8 million people, I'd expect that for the time being there should be plenty of room for some immigrants. Perhaps they should just inact a requirement that immigrants learn Irish in order to secure permanent residence...

Of course, since I live in America, decendant of Irish immigrants, I might be more sympathetic to the cause...

Oh, and Erin Go Bragh!