New HDD for ThinkPad X31

My note PC is a customized model of ThinkPad X31.
When I bought it, I thought 30GB(default) was enough, but soon
I regretted. My mail box is now about 3GB, photo folder is
about 1.5GB, and VMWare disk are huge. :(
Thus, I bought an 80GB Hitachi Travelstar 5K80(HTS548080M9AT00) today.

It's easy to migrate the whole data using RRRR (Rescue and Recovery - Rapid Restore). But, in case of ThinkPad X31 the recovery data is stored in a hidden area called HPA, and it took time retrieve that
from the old HDD. My problem was that after taking a system backup
using RRRR, I couldn't run the pre-boot recovery program by pressing
the "Access IBM" blue button which is needed to access the HPA area.
After struggling some time, I succeeded to retrieve the HPA data like
the following:

1) Create a bootable CD of RRRR.
2) Install the old HDD again.
3) Ask to restore the system to the initial shipped status.
4) Interrupt the system restoration process by pressing F4.
5) Format C: so that I can save content of the HPA area
about 3.5GB.
6) Use 'FWRESTORE' stored in a:\recovery like,
fwrestore -file imgset c:

Here, ThinkPad X31 uses a utility called FirstWare by
Phoenix, and the HPA area is hidden by the Phoenix BIOS.
That means the area doesn't have a partition table entry.

I can understand the choice of IBM engineers, but I don't like it. :(

Oops...

My car's Battery died.
What is worse, I had to return to my home town today. :(
I didn't imagine that I got on Shinkansen this week too
in addition to the last week. :(
But, anyway it'd be better to consider buying a new car
cause it's almost 7 years old.

Nobel Prize, 2004

I studied quark confinement mechanism when I was a graduate student.
The phenomenon is described by a theory of physics called QCD:
Quantum Chromo Dynamics. Chromo comes from the central idea of QCD that
quarks have a property similar to color, RGB, and they can be observed
only in a conbination state in 'white'. This means only conbinations
of three colors, blue, green and red, or two complimentary colors
can be observed.

Three scientist who founded QCD received the Nobel Prize this year,
and I was deeply concerned with their beeing awarded the prize.

Connecting two VMware guests

October 05, 2004

I didn't know that two VMware guests can be connected by virtual serial line connection on top of Windows named pipe.
Foremerly, I tried to debug a 2.6 kernel using kgdb over ethernet connection, but failed. I should have read the manual carefully. :(

Now, I'm re-building the kernel looking forward to kernel debugging
that on my note-pc. :)

I'm feeling Lucky! :o)

JAL Oto Butai

Tonight JAL Oto Butai was an impressive TV program.
(Sorry, the URL seems to be available only in Japanese.)
Here, JAL is Japan Air Lines, just its sponsor. "Oto" means "Sound" and "Butai" is "Theater" in Japanese.

This show began in 1989, and it's 17th show since then.
It's a collaboration of eastern and western culture, especially music and play. Usually each show has some particular theme as a feature.
Also its "theater" is unique. Every year another temple is chosen, and
the theater of this year was "Yakushi-ji".

The theme of this time was a story of a chinese monk who went to India in order to get Buddhist scriptures. (if you are a Japanese, it's "Sai Yu Ki").
Thus, it makes sense that "12 Girls Band" was choosen as one of the featured artists.
Their peformance reminded me of their "Reel Around the Sun" and
River Dance company's one night special show at Sengaku-ji temple.
Actually, I was wondering about a collaboration of 12 Girls Band and
River Dance company at a Japanese temple. It must be incredible. :)

Birthday present

I don't want to talk about how old I am. :(
But, I got a surprising birthday present from my uncle this year.
You can understand why if you see the picture. :o)

PearPC

September 24, 2004

Recently, I attended at a lecture on coLinux,
Cooperative Linux, by Dan Aloni in Tokyo.
It's a really interesting lecture.

But, strange to say, I developed a passion for emulators those of
Bochs, QEMU and PearPC since then.

The first two emulator are mainly intended for x86 architecture, but
PearPC emulates PowerPC platform. Formerly, I tried to run MacOS on a
680x0 emulator and failed. Furthermore, there was no PowerPC emulator
in those days. Today, I succeeded to install OpenDarwin 7.2.1/PowerPC
on PearPC on my ThinkPad. Another microkernel on my note-pc. :o)

I'm going to look into its debugging
facility, and I might work on that if needed. :o)

Golden Week

In this season, from April 29 to May 5, we have successive holidays,
and it's called "Golden Week." :) I heard that in China they also have
similar big holiday season.

This year, I have 12 days holiday, and my golden week have just
begun. So, I'm very happy. :)

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Today, I saw "Girl with a Pearl Earring."

What the heroine, Griet, the model of the painting said when she saw
her master's work for the first time, "You looked inside me."
represents the relationship between Vermeer and Griet fully.

Their subdued passion didn't lead them to physical affairs, but
therefore Vermeer could all his strength to the painting.

I think the film could be one of the best love stories of the twenty
first century. I strongly recommend that you would see it. :)

The Footprints of God, and Digital Fortress

Recently, I read two novels on super computers and cryptgraphy.

One is "The Footprints of God" by Greg Iles, and the other is "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown.

Iles' one is about a next generation super computer that can break any codes. On the contrary, Brown's one is about an ultimate code that cannot be broken by the most powerful computer in the world.

As a lover of Sci-Fi novels and software engineer, I have to admit that I would prefer Iles' book to Brown's because the super computer is also described as the world first successfully build Artificial Intelligence.
I felt that Iles' book is, in a sense, like "Childhood's End" by Arthur C Clerk. His perspective of
A.I. evolution is interesting because it includes various aspects of humanity such as phychogy, gender or so.

So far as the Brown's book, technology and science are just gadgets.
Brown is one of the best story tellers, and the story is thrilling very much. In addition, IMHO, he is implicitly pointing out a problem that USA is now facing, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes." It's "Who will gurds the gurd?" in English. Thus, I guess the book could be one of best sellers.

Meanwhile, one thing by which I was turned off is that proper nouns such as the creator's name, Tankado, and adages used in the book sound strange. I wish Brown could have asked native Japanese speaking people if they are really natural Japanese phrases. I guess when the book is translated into Japanese the translator would ask Brown what Brown really means. :(

One more thing.
I broke the second last code of the Brown's novel in 10 seconds. I guess even a junior high school student would do so, and what other readers would feel about that. :o)

Spanish Apartment

I watched "Spanish Apartment" on Saturday.

I have to admit that I went there because I wanted to see Audrey
Tautou of Amelie again, and that's all at first. It turned out that
Tautou was a supporting role, but the movie still is worth
watching. :)

The protagonist of the film is a french graduate student who goes to
Barcelona to study Spanish Economics leaving his girl friend in
Paris. (Tautou played the girl.) There in Spain he shared a room with
6 student come from various countries including Germany, UK, Italy and
Belgium or so.

When he set for his one year stay in Spain, he was a bit
faceless. But, after his various experiences with his room mates in
Spain, he remembered his dream, what we wanted to be, from his
childhood, and he broke out of his shell.

His colleagues are also nice and funny. :)
In a sense, there is Europe.
Sometimes quarreling, sometimes having parties.

I wish in Asia we could have such good international friendly
relationship. (Perhaps, Japan is the only exception in Asia? :o)

The Da Vinci Code again

Today, I found an interesting article about "The Da Vinci Code" in San
Francisco Chronicles.

There seems to be a book very similar to "The Da Vinci Code" published
20 years earlier than that, and the author, Lewis Perdue, seems to be
going to sue Dan Brown.

Although I'm not sure if Dan Brown really helped himself to books of
Perdue because I haven't read his books, there seems to be a lot of
books based on similar theme and plot. After reading the article, I
began to think that the story might have been typical and not so
unique one. I was a bit turned off by the controversy. :(

But anyway, now I'm working on another book, "The footprints of God"
by Greg Iles and enjoying that, and I'm feeling happy. :)

OYSTER BAR

On Sunday, I had a dinner at Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant,
Tokyo in Shinagawa. :)

As you can see among general web pages and magagines, it's been
extremely crowded in the dinner time of weekend days. Today,
fortunately I had a reservation, but I heard that some people are
saying "Oh my god! Two hours wait!" Anyway, it seems to be better to
have a reservation. :)

Today, I tried raw "Steller Bay" Oyster from British Columbia,
Canada. Compared to Japanese oysters, I felt it a bit bland. But,
there were some more kinds of oysters and they are apparently imported
ones. I'd be better to try them in New York, and I will do so
someday. :o)

As for other dishes, I like NY style fried oysters and oyster stew.

Meanwhile, it's often said that there is a great difference in amount
of foods for one person. I realized again that when I had a dessert,
raspberry sorbet. :o)

Guin Saga 94, FLIGHT TO FOEVER

I bought the 94th book of Guin Saga today. :)

I began to read the series when I was a high school student and keep reading more than 15 years. The series consists of 100 books, and the story is now getting closer to the climax finally.

Originally, Guin Saga started as a sword and soucery style heroic fantasy, but as the author created a tremendous scale of imaginary world extending the universe, the author needed to tell the story as a Sci-Fi.
There seems to be not a small number of Guin Saga readers who don't like the change. I guess they like classical heroic fantasies such as Conan. But, it's predestinate because of the nature of this story.

Different from such accusing readers, I'm enjoying the story's convergence after over twenty years history as is. Meanwhile, it's amazing that in the story only 6 years have passed against the nearly quarter century of publication history, isn't it? :o)

FYI.
Some earlier books are available in also English here.

Do you like beautiful women?

In Japanese, I want to say "Kirei na Oneesan ha suki desuka?" Here,
Oneesan means primarily a elder sister, but in casual Japanese
conversation, it's often used to mean just a woman.

There is a famous TV CM film series of Panasonic using the phrase
above, and nowadays it's a well-known phrase.

Meanwhile, there is a facility of ANA, All Nippon Airways, mainly
intended for education close to my room, and it's also used for their
enployment examination. My point is that the target of the
examination includes flight attendants. :) Since the beginning of
April, season of the exam has begun, and there are so many beatiful
girl students challanging for the exam and walking along streets
around my room. :o)

I've lived in this town about 4 years.

In the first year, I enjoyed the atomosphere, but nowadays my
fascinations had gone because their dressings are almost the same.
Thousands of beautiful girls made me feel so.

But, I still like cute and unique girls. :o)

Cut off baby's ....?

TV Asahi says a mother lives in Osaka cut off her 4 months months old boy's .... penis in the beginning of of March. :(

According to testimonies of her neighbors, she seems to have wanted a girl. I can understand it's extremely hard to bring up a baby and presumably she was under strongly
stressed state, but still it's shocking. :(

This news is available in also Asahi News Paper (So far as I know, Japanese page only), but they don't say which part of the boy's body his mother hurt.

Humm....
I'm wondering if there are this kind of incidents also outside Japan.

Earthquakes in Tokyo

Recently, we often have earthquakes in Tokyo.
So far as I remember, on the last Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

It's been about 80 years since Tokyo had an enourmous inland earthquake last time. It was with the magnitude of 7.9 and made tremendous number of victims in those days.
Scientists say there is no wonder if it comes today, right now.

I live in southern part of Tokyo that's said to be the most dangerous area. In addition, I go to my office using subways every day. :(

In recent years in Tokyo, there are many newly built condos, and I'm wondering what the owner habitants will do if their brandnew condominiums collapse. :o)

Fish and Chips

Today, I went to the Dubliners' Irish Pub in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and experienced Fish and Chips for the first time. :o)

In Japan, it's often said that English meals are not so good. A coleague of mine who worked in England about an year also told me so. But, I have not been sure if it's really so since now.

Unfortunately, the Fish and Chips was not so good for me. The fried fish was too well-done and the vinegar with the dish was a little bit strange for me.

But even so, I'm looking forwared to enjoy genuine Fish and Chips in UK or Ireland, and
my quest for Fish and Chips will be going on. :o)

Meanwhile, I like 'Jameson' very much. :)

New Fridge

Today, I bought a new refrigerator at Shinjuku Yodobashi Camera. :o)

My refrigerator have been out of order for these two years, and I could not chill cans of beer nor bottles of wine. Actually, there was no problem because there are several convenience stores around my room and they are selling beers since now.

But, recently I began to enjoy Belgian Beers and I was feeling difficulty when I want to buy them at department stores or so.
Thus, I decided to have a new one, and I'm looking forward to its beeing delivered to my room on this Saturday.

It's a Beer driven decision. :o)

One thing that reminded me a poor Japanese law is that nowadays we have to pay quite a few money to throw away 4 kinds of electric home appliances including refrigerators, TVs, laundry machines and air conditioners.
I had to pay about 5,000- yens this time. :(

12 Girls Band

On the last Saturday, I bought 2 CDs of "12 Girls Band".

One is a CD and DVD combo package of a live concert in Tokyo, and its title is
Shining Energy.

http://global.yesasia.com/en/artIdxDept.aspx/aid-523537/code-j/section-music/

Recently, they are very popular not only in Japan but also eastern asian countries. All of them have established techniques of Chinese traditional musical instruments, and in addition they are slender and cute. :o)

Aside from that, I was surprised because the album contains their performance
of a tune from Irish dance music, "Reel Around The Sun",
famous for River Dance show.

Since I watched the River Dance show last year, I really love Irish dance
and music very much. And I love also folkloric music.
Thus, The 12 Girls Band version of "Reel Around The Sun" grabbed my heart
in two senses. But, what comes at the true reason might be that both of them,
I mean River Dance and 12 Girls Band, appeal to our primitive feeling
in common.

Note that both the CD and the DVD contain "Reel Around The Sun", and
my recommendation is definitely DVD. :)

I hope their world wide success.