In the last few years, Japan has become a rising force in a wide swath of fashion-focused industries, from kids' toys to entertainment, cell phones, and car racing. In an April report, Tsutomu Sugiura, director of the Marubeni Research Institute, figured Japan's cultural exports, including music, books, magazines, films, handicrafts, collectibles, patent royalties, and performances at $15 billion in 2002, up from $5 billion in 1992.

[ Yahoo! News ]

This is quite a shock to me. Perhaps I've been too busy playing my Nintendo and watching Cartoon Network to notice this trend. I wonder what sort of influence the Japanese have had on my life? Certainly I don't have any music, books, magazines, films, handicrafts, or collectibles from Japan, or do I? Perhaps Yahoo is on to something here...

It does make my PC look like a Mac. And it is certainly pretty. And with the newest version, it doesn't run slow as molasses anymore, or act really buggy.

ObjectDock is a free program that allows you to have a nice animated launchbar/taskbar on your screen that reacts to your mouse when you mouse over it.

[ Stardock Corporation - Innovation on demand ]

And you can pickup extension modules called Docklets from WinCustomize.

Web.config and App.config have can have many different configuration options but it is difficult to remember what some of the less commonly used options are. This article provides a schema definition for .NET configuration files such as Web.config and App.config. The schema makes Visual Studio .NET help you out by displaying intellisense when working in these files.

[ Get Intellisense for Web.config and App.config in Visual Studio .NET ]

The one caveat of removing the xmlns just before saving is a small price to pay. What I don't understand is if it is this easy, why wouldn't the architects of VS.NET have put this in but with a bit more finesse?

I had forgotten about Gradius. I played so much back in the NES/SNES days...

In playing through the levels, we were surprised at how completely faithful the gameplay was. The changes are almost entirely cosmetic and the main difference is that the 3D opens up a few new possibilities in enemy movement, but that's the main extent of it.

[ PlayStation 2: E3 2004: Gradius V - Hands-On ]

Another reason the PS2 is now calling my name. And check out this sexy video of the game play. Of course if it was Life Force for PS2, I'd already own one...

I've got a couple Zelda re-releases and a “collection” disk. I've got the Sonic re-release “collection” disk. I tried the Mega Man one, but it's too hard for someone who doesn't have the same free time that he did as a child. I've checked out a bunch of the Mario re-releases, but I've never been the biggest Mario fan. What's missing? (Besides a re-release of Kid Icarus). Castlevania!

Through the incantations and ceremonies of evil souls who wished to bring upon the end of the world, Dracula had arisen, and his army of the undead began to terrorize once again. Simon Belmont, the great-grandson of Soleiyu, took his mighty whip and set out for Dracula's castle. He fought his way through the beckoning countryside and through six torturous sections of the Count's castle before confronting him.

[ Game FAQs: Castlevania Series Story FAQ ]

Konami has done some good with the contra series, trying to reinvent it, and I applaud their effort. Now can the do a collection disk with all the old Castlevania games? It's about the only series left that begs me to buy vintage systems and hunt out these games.

And, I'm currently replaying Castlevania: AoS, and it's just as good as the first time (almost, since I didn't wipe my memory). Come on Konami, please! I'd even buy a PS2 if that's the only platform it was on...

I can't say enough about this trio from New York. The new album is funky fresh, and kickin' It is a bit anti-Dubya, which will please some, and there is way too much of the f-bomb, but I hope to get the “Wal-Mart sanitized” version so I cans share with my daughter.

Many great references, old school feel, and crazy wack lyrics like this:

'Cos I'm a freaky streaker like Winnie the Pooh
With a T-shirt and no pants and I dance the bugaloo

[ To The 5 Boroughs ]

They are certainly back from hiatus, and def'er than ev'r. So do your self a favor, and check it.

We want to you to experience as much as possible about Ireland, and its rich cultural heritage, through our online presence. We hope that your time with us at o'Gills will leave you with taste of what the Irish experience is about, and leave you wanting to come back to us again.

[ o'Gills ]

Best selection I've seen. My order came 100% correct in about ½ the time I expected, and looks perfect. And I had questions regarding the products I was thinking about, the answers came very quickly. If you are looking for any hard-to-find Irish anything, I highly recommend o'Gills.

I used the word perogative but the spelling looked wrong, so I tried to look it up online. There is no such word, the correct word is:

pre·rog·a·tive Listen: [ pr-rg-tv ]
n.

1. An exclusive right or privilege held by a person or group, especially a hereditary or official right. See Synonyms at right.
   
2. The exclusive right and power to command, decide, rule, or judge: the principal's prerogative to suspend a student.
   
3. A special quality that confers superiority.

adj.

Of, arising from, or exercising a prerogative.

[ yourDictionary.com - American Heritage Dictionary ]

So, Bobby, it's Your PRErogative, but I expect you to rerecord the song, and this time enunciate.

A British street artist known as Moose creates graffiti by cleaning dirt from sidewalks and tunnels -- sometimes for money when the images are used as advertising. But some authorities call it vandalism.

[ NPR ]

Perhaps they should pass a law making that much filth and grime a crime. And here I thought that England had cleaned since the industrial revolution...

Link letters and create words to feed the hungry, hungry Bookworm! But watch out for fiery red letters... they’ll burn your library down! It’s vocabulariffic!

[ PopCap Games - Bookworm ]

Steve passed this gem along to me, and I promptly installed their Pocket PC collections on my Dell Axim. The Bookworm game in particular is rather addictive. Looks like they have Palm versions as well, but I can't vouch for them.

Now if only they could post high scores when I sync in my cradle.

Today, possibly tomorrow. And I'm sure Nate has it reserved, so I'm thinking... Truck problems? (Ouch, was that uncalled for?) But I'm sure he'll be reviewing it soon anyway.

Two worlds exist, unaware of each other. Mana, or life force, is shared by both worlds and while one world thrives, the other suffers.

Lloyd Irving lives on Sylvarant, a dying world where nothing is as it seems - a fact he hasn't yet realized. With a strong set of justice, incredible bravery, and a particular loyalty to his friends, he joins them in a very important quest: a journey to save their world.

Lloyd's close friend, Colette Brunel, is the Chosen One, destined to save the dying world as a descendant of the Mana bloodline. At the age of 16, the weight of the world hangs on her shoulders.

Genis Sage, the village intellectual, is a talented magician with a personality to die - or kill - for. Most likely, you'll grow to love him.

Together, they set on this dangerous journey together - to unlock the seals of the world and bring the balance back to their dying town on Sylvarant.

[ Tales of Symphonia ]

I've got it in my $gf(GameFly) Queue, to try before I buy.

In order to appreciate Homestar Runner, you need to get past the queasy feeling of uncertainty and illogic. I have now found the panacea for this condition:

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Decemberween Special

This “spin off” from Homestar Runner is so confusing, that watching it will make any other Homestar item appear 100% normal, if not two or three hundred percent.

[ For Trevor ]

Here's a somewhat interesting article:

MARS

When you select a set of rows using a SQL SELECT statement, either as a stand-alone or inside a stored procedure, SQL Server doesn't automatically produce a cursor over the set of rows as some databases do. Instead, it uses an optimized method to stream the resultset across the network, on occasions reading from the database buffers directly as the network library pulls the data in packet-size chunks. This is known as "the default resultset of SQL Sever" in SQL Server Boks Oline, or "the cursorless resultset". In versions of SQL Server prior to SQL Server 2005, there could only be a single cursorless resultset active on a single connection at a time.

[ Data Access and Storage Developer Center: ADO.NET 2.0 Feature Matrix ]

But the real reason for pointing out this article (besides MARS technology) is the new SQL Server Boks Oline. I've done a bit of research and no one has any details about this new feature of MS SQL. But it sounds pretty spiffy if you ask me...

So based on an off comment by N8, I went browsing on Amazon.com to see how many games are available for PS2 now, that will never be out for GameCube, that I would consider buying.

For Xbox this came up with about 2 or 3 games, and all but Halo are also out on PS2.

For PS2 this comes out to 14 games, and that's just a casual browsing on Amazon.com, and also doesn't include any upcoming games that I might like.

14 games is hard to shake a stick at, and hard to ignore. Why must I be tormented? Perhaps there is someone who owns a PS2 and has had such a bad experience that they wish to warn others away, and such comments might stop me before I buy again...

Link Already Used Gmail by Google, This link is all used up. The link you followed to create a Gmail account has already been used to create an account for YOU@gmail.com

[ Google Search: site:gmail.google.com "Link Already Used" ]

Someone evil is bound to stumble across this and start harvesting gmail accounts. I hope that Google is ready with some seriously good spam blocking algorythms...

Props to Steve

Cafe Asia Restaurant is indeed back in DC at 1720 I Street NW:

And from the Nasi Uduk I had for lunch, I can safely say that the quality is on par with the Rosslyn locale.

NASI UDUK

Indonesian coconut rice platter with spicy beef, crispy anchovies, pickled vegetables, emping (acron chips), gado-gado, chicken satay, & spicy prawn sauce.

[ Cafe Asia Menu (PDF) ]

However, their website sucks. And I mean sucks. For an establishment that has had such good success, and a decent eye for style, it amazes me what they tolerate for a website. It's ugly, 100% flash, hard to read, hard to navigate, non-sensical, and not even finished (try pulling up entrées in the flash menu).

Log in to Gmail before going to the link (let me know if you want an invite).

We're still spiffying things up a bit. In the meantime, we've listed the status of a few features most testers have already requested and a bevy of bugs that our engineers are working diligently to fix.

[ Gmail: Help Center ]

POP3 is the one feature that I think would be required for me. If I can't have my phone tell me when a new mail has been received, how would I know that I have mail? I can't be expected to remember to pull a web page up on a regular basis, can I?

My favorite thing on the list is “Spell check's not checking contractions” since they put a contraction in that list item, I hope that was someone's idea of being funny.

Although my fish abuse SpongeBob, and he's mostly just a place for algae to grow on, I like the kitsch that it adds to my aquarium. However, it makes me sad to think that SpongeBob can't go home, since there is no pineapple in my aquarium. Perhaps it's time to pony up the cash:

Now your fish can live in SpongeBob's tropical abode! Molded pineapple design with a door and window openings for fish to swim through. This great aquarium decoration is recommended for 10 gallon tanks and larger

[ SpongeBob's Pineapple House ]

Or, perhaps I just just get a small crab pot, and mock up the Krusty Krab.

Anyone else dislike CDOSYS (née CDONTS) as much as I do? Anyone else have a preferred substitute?

FreeSMTP.Net is a free SMTP component for the creation and sending of e-mail messages in .Net. Written in pure C#, FreeSMTP.Net is fully managed and incredibly fast. It is totally object oriented and flat out the easiest way to create and send Internet email. Best of all, it's free.

[ VB.Net, ASP.Net, C#... ]

Now that my .NET skills are decent enough, and I know what I can do an how fast I can do it, I'd love to use some of that in legacy code. Black Knight might be the answer, but how can I tell. It is an obscure enough “thing” and I'm not even sure exactly what it is. I have noticed that I can still build CFX tags in VisualStudio 2003 just as I could in VisualStudio 6, but since I've never written any c++ code, and everything that I disliked about c was increased 10 fold in c++, I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon.

Black Knight™ is the first extension to allow CFML developers to make full use of native .NET objects without having to build a custom COM bridge. This alone can save an IT shop dozens of hours of development time.

[ Black Knight™ ]

What would be awesome is if someone familiar with this product just happened to stumble across my site, and offered up their opinion. Since I doubt that will happen, the idle speculation of current and previous coworkers will have to suffice.