Windstruck

I watched a Korean film, "Windstruck".
Its Japanese title is "Bokuno Kanojo wo Shokai Shimasu", and in English
that means "I'd like to introduce my girlfriend". The English title comes
from a beautiful scene in the film and I think the choice is also a good idea.
(Can anyone tell me what the original Korean title means?)

The heroine is a cute and veeeery daring policewoman. :o) You will see
a tragic incident in film, but the story is on the whole romantic and
a bit comical. I assure you that you can go home with happy
impressions.

BTW, the actress, Jeon Ji-Hyeon, is the same with "My Sassy Girl"
which made a hit about 3 years ago.

I think it's not just a coincidence that the character of the heroine
of "My Sassy Girl" is a bit similar to the one of "Windstruck". At
least in Japan, she is popular only through her films for now
different from other Asian countries, and thus she seems to have
acquired something strange impression like Audrey Tautou who played
"Amelie from Montmartre" and "He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not".
I hope she can get more good impressions like other Korean actresses in Japan.

Dark Blue World

I have several DVDs I've not watched yet.

As I had no appointments in this week end, I wached "Dark Blue World".
It's a story of two fighter pilot and a woman during the second world
war, and in a sense, it's a sad story with a lot of air combat scenes.
Some people might feel it like "Perl Harbor" or "Top Gun", but the
film has a bit different atmosphere from them.

One thing interesting about this film is that in Japan it's
distributed by the studio GHIBLI which is well known as
Hayao Miyazaki's studio. Perhaps, it looks like strange that GHIBLI do
that, but it's well known that Miyazaki loves very much weapons and
stories about them specially the ones before WW2. In this sense, we
could say that Mamoru Oshii has a similarity with Mr. Miyazaki. :o)

I think it undoubted that both of them influcenced a lot of media
creators in the world like Wachowski brothers. But, I'm not sure if

they share the same preferences with Miyazaki and Oshii.

Perhaps, this can be one of the peculiar aspects of Japanese animation
creators. :o)

psqlfs

I found an interesting project, psqlfs.

psqlfs uses an RDBMS, PostgreSQL, as its physical data storage.

To tell the truth, I'm not interested in psqlfs itself so much, but
its base feature, LUFS, is interesting. LUFS reminds me of former user
land filesystems such as UFO of UCSB.

When I saw lufs for the first time, an idea came to me in a flush, but
I'm going to write it after some hack. :)

Onaji Sora no Shita

"Onaji Sora No Shita" is a short but very interesting TV program. :)

The title means "Under the same sky" in English, and it's a series of
short introductions of charming, adorable, intelligent and beautiful
women. I wish I could have a HDD recorder...
Perhaps, I should buy one right now!? :o)
In addition, its BGM is cool. :)

Recently in Japan, we often hear covers of a classic tune "Jupiter" by
Holst. For example, Ayaka Hirahara. Also, a CM film BGM of Nomura
Securites has been very popular. It's by Kirite Te Kanawa.

But this time, we have one more Jupiter by The Eccentric Opera. It's astral, and I like their Jupiter best. :)

Mona

Yet another new OS topic, Mona.

Mona is a new multi-server model microkernel based operating system
written in C++. One thing interesting about this OS is that the
project began through a discussion in a really really big Japanese BBS
system, called '2ch'. Thus, the projects seems to be going on using an
ideal(?) bazaar model. :o)

Different from OSASK which I wrote about yesterday, now networking
supports seems to be one of hot topics of the Mona team. At least for
now, Nov. 3, 2004, only ARP and ICMP seem to work, but I'm expecting
TCP/IP works not so far future. :)

BTW, the project has several design documentations.
I found some sequence diagrams (of UML? possibly) among them and
a bit surprised. Sequence diagrams of OS! Amazing, isnt't it? :o)

One more thing is the following panic. :o)

Of course, I was kidding while trying a demo floppy. But, I think it's questinable that we can kill the 'idle' process. :o)

Apart from that, anyway GUI works and many OS geeks are joining to the
project. So, I expect they will make a good progress.

OSASK

Today, I found some interesting OS development projects.

For example, OSASK.
(Unfortunatelly, the pages are written in only Japanese.)

Multitasking and GUI seem to have worked already, but I couldn't
find any networking support for now. :(

According to literatures among the web site written in Japanese, this
guy seems to have studied physics, not computer science. (The
background situation is the same with me by occasion!) It's amazing
that it looks like he's gotten inspirations independently about
concept now widely exploited by many commercial and free operating
systems. I think all he needs to do is to make time and study more
about operating systems and possibly writing in English. :o)

TOEIC

I received the result of TOEIC test which I had about a month ago today.
As I've been good at *paper tests* of English, I tend to get higher
scores than my actual English communication ability, I think.

Since this April, I'm going to an English conversation school
about two or three days a week and thus expected that I might get
my new peak score this time.
Actually, I got the one. But, the score I got was a very spacey one.
So, I decided not to believe in TOEIC test results anymore. :(

As I lost one criteria of my English, the only one rest for me now is
CAT Level certification. But, there is a long long way to the next level. :(

The Step Test?
I like a world wide certification. :(

UNATE?
It could be a good idea, but I'm not interested in UN. :(

TOEFL?
Currently, I have no plan to go abroad to study. In addition,
TOEFL is operated by the same organization of TOEIC, and I'm not sure
if I can know actual level of my English by TOEFL. :(

Does anyone have any other idea?

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)