April 2006 Archives

If you've been reading my blog this year, you may have noticed that I've been blogging a lot more about Firefox recently.

That's because I've joined Mozilla Japan to help with marketing and business development in Japan. I'm also helping with business development in other Asian markets as well.

Our challenge at Mozilla Japan is to raise awareness and the user base of Firefox in Japan. It's a big challenge for many reasons but it is a worthy challenge. Japanese users do not know that there are options for web browsers beyond IE and it is my job to help change that.

Web browsers are quickly becoming one of the most important applications on any personal computer and it is a shame that the company in Redmond has waited for over 5 years to update their product which has been filled with security holes and numerous other concerns. In fact it is only after Firefox was launched and began to take away market share that the company in Redmond decided to act. Competition is healthy and important in any market, web browsers included.

If you have any ideas for us on how to raise the awareness of Firefox in Japan or how to raise the user base of Firefox in Japan, please feel free to get in touch and I'll be sure to consider any ideas. We are excited to work with new partners in Japan.

We'll be launching a number of new efforts in Japan to raise awareness of Firefox in Japan and I'll be tracking those in various places in addition to my blog.

Please join me in promoting Firefox in Japan. Please recommend Firefox to your friends.

Close friends of mine have known for a little while but I have left Technorati Japan.

I was honored to work with everyone at Technorati in the US as well as the team in Japan. I learned a lot about blogs in Japan and search engines. Technorati Japan is now tracking over 3 million Japanese blogs.

A big thank you to everyone at Technorati and Technorati Japan. I look forward to working with the Technorati team in my new role which will be the subject of my next post.

If you are in Tokyo and you love deep house, you will do well not to miss this rare opportunity to hear Fleep.com live on May 12.

I will DEFINITELY be there.

Please join me in petitioning Fleep to spin that incredible Royksopp remix of Mekon's "Please Stay."

This is the news that I wanted to share with you last week.

This only works for IE-users in the US- you're presented with a link to download Firefox.

This is the first time a third-party application has been presented on the home page of google.com. Pretty awesome!

Google Promo for Firefox | Spread Firefox

I rarely agree with Dvorak- I think he uses his pulput to bully and taunt, but this is... weird.

First, it needs to face the fact that this entire preoccupation with the browser business is bad for the company and bad for the user. Microsoft should pull the browser out of the OS and discontinue all IE development immediately. It should then bless the Mozilla.org folks with a cash endowment and take an investment stake in Opera, to influence the future direction of browser technology from the outside in. Then, Microsoft can worry about security issues that are OS-only in nature, rather than problems compounded by Internet Explorer.

Column from PC Magazine: The Great Microsoft Blunder

I don't usually self-link but this news is pretty interesting and it comes from the comments on my own blog.

It seems that Sony has cancelled support for their "Connect" software.

Connect was supposed to be the replacement for SonicStage but was so poorly produced (it basically failed to perform many basic functions) that it caused a gigantic consumer backlash.

Sony customer John Dolan leaves a message on my blog regarding Connect in Europe. I've italicized the response from Sony.

Connect Player is dead - NO LONGER SUPPORTED BY SONY !!!!!!

I wrote to the Euro Connect support "management team", demanding to know why they have included a covert web server in their software. This was two months ago. I have emailed them every single day since wanting to know why they had not replied. This morning I got this message back:-

Dear Mr. Dolan

Sorry for the late statement on this.
First of all thanks for your request. We are happy with all kind of
request because also critics help Sony to get better.

The software you are using at the moment I think should be the Connect
Player.

This software is not longer supported by Connect or any other Sony company.

The actual prefered software is Sonicstage 3.4 which does not support the
intelligent features of the NWA 3000. You can download this software under:
http://www.connect-europe.com/sonicstage

On May 25th Sonicstage will release his new software Sonistage CP which
will support all intelligent features including Artist Link. The software will be
available under the same link as the previous one.

We are sorry about your problems and hope we could help you a bit.
If you need a CD with Sonicstage on it just let us know.
Feel free to contact me if you have further questions

Best regards
Sony Connect Support Management Team
Posted by: John Dolan on April 26, 2006 01:19 AM

Gen Kanai weblog: Sony Connect Player fiasco

Just FYI to all in Tokyo, the Yamanote-line is completely stopped at the moment due to track irregularities near Takadanobaba. You'll need to use other transportation.

This will be interesting...

Google 検索: Yamanote

The Japanese Mozilla community, Mozillagumi, will host their annual event on the afternoon of April 30. Darin Fisher (Google, ex- Mozilla) will be a speaker and I'll be attending as well.

Please let me know if you plan to attend.

Mozilla Party JP 7.0 � スケジュール

Rebecca MacKinnon's recent op-ed in the Washington Post.

Shattering the China Dream

Long and fascinating.

Google in China: The Big Disconnect - New York Times

I can't say anything more other than to watch the home page of Google very closely in the next day or so. We'll see something there that we've never seen before!

I'm VERY excited :)

Self-explanatory.

Pretty cool :)

kalyan: Firefox Bus

Rush on over to Fleep.com for his newest mix- it's a total stunner!

The last track, that Röyksopp remix of Mekon's "Please Stay" is so gorgeous- a phenomenal last track! I am now dying to hear that on a big club soundsystem.

fleep.com

Everyone's already linked to this last month but for those of you who haven't enjoyed this new mashup album- it's awesome! I love 1-15 which is a great mashup of Edwin Starr's "War" and Phil Collins' "Land of Confusion" which are both anti-war songs. Many other gems in there!

kleptones 24hours download

All of the samples are detailed here:

24 Hours (album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

More at Firefox Flicks: Bring Firefox to life!

I'm at the 2006 Taiwan Blogger BoF. Mozilla's sponsoring this event as we have a lot of blogger fans in Taiwan. In fact half of the participants were either Firefox users or had heard of Mozilla, which is a LOT higher than the average. Be sure to check the Flickr photos too.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible including Ching Chiao, Yoshigi, all of the Taiwan Blogger BoF staff, Rebecca MacKinnon, Wretch, Yam.com, PCHome, Tivo Taiwan, and anyone else I've missed.

Who is she, and what movie is this?

This is why the Internet is awesome.

A groups of fansubbers have started to do fansubs of Razor Ramon's Hard Gay comedy sketches. They have a wiki, and a forum and put their translations onto YouTube and Google Video. The one where Hard Gay visits Yahoo! Japan is just pure comedy gold, and the ramen shop one is good too, especially with the translators' notes.

What I really love is that Japanese media companies still don't understand the demand that exists for Japanese media outside of Japan (and by "media" I mean not these funny little clips per se but more about anime and manga and characters that are popular world-wide (a la Sanrio and Bandai.) So a whole network of fansub groups around the world work together via the Internet to create fan-subtitled Japanese media in a myriad of other languages.

IMG_0003.JPG, originally uploaded by Yoshigi.

April 15, Taipei.

See you there!

Buy whiteboard: done, originally uploaded by Mark.Pilgrim.

*laughs*

Oh look. Sony's movie download services, Movielink & Cinema Now, are not available for the Mac OS or Linux.

They also don't run on Firefox or Opera. Only IE.

サービス要件に目を移すと、Movielink は『Mac OS』や『Linux』には対応していない。また配信フォーマットは、RealNetworks の配信形式および Microsoft の『Windows Media』形式を用いており、デジタル著作権管理 (DRM) の都合上、『Windows』でのみ再生できる。

また Movielink のサービスを利用するには、Microsoft の Web ブラウザ『Internet Explorer』(IE) が必要だ。この種のサービスにとって重要と思われる、ハイテクに精通した新し物好きのユーザー層は、IE よりも『Firefox』や『Opera』を好む傾向があるため、反発を買う恐れがある。

Movielink と CinemaNow、大手製作映画のダウンロード販売へ

or in English:

Movielink CEO Jim Ramo said in a statement. "We are combining cutting-edge technology with the best in motion picture entertainment to offer consumers an exciting entertainment experience."

"Cutting edge" is up for debate.

Movielink doesn't support Macintosh or Linux users. Movie downloads are offered in RealNetworks RealPlayer 8.0 and Microsoft Windows Media Player formats and can run only on Windows.

Nor does Movielink work with Web browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which is likely to aggravate the presumably important tech-savvy early adopter market, a user population that tends to prefer the Firefox and Opera browsers.

The licensing rights allow users to use their digital downloads on up to three computers and create a backup DVD. Downloaded movies can be viewed only on PCs, unless consumers opt to connect their PCs to their televisions.

What a waste of time and energy. This thing is a failure out of the gate, especially considering the pricing is 2X the price of a DVD and doesn't include extra footage.

Movie Studios Offer Downloadable Films

This is blowing my mind.

More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.

I know of a lot of folks who've been installing XP on their Intel Macs recently, but to have Apple provide tools to do that and to commit to making WinXP installable on the next OS is pretty wild.

For all the people who didn't want to leave Windows to enjoy a Mac, this is the last barrier to fall. It also gives a lot of people a significant push to invest in an Intel Mac now vs. later. It's a BRILLIANT judo move.

I wasn't that interested in an Intel Mac (I use a Powerbook on a daily basis) until I saw this beta. I'm now very excited to try to have a dual booting Mac/XP machine.

Apple - Boot Camp

I've been meaning to check out The 1 UP Show which Jane Pinckard is producing. I've really enjoyed the most recent one on GDC 2006. I love the high quality downloads and the production is really perfect for what it is- pretty lengthy interviews, reviews of games by gamers, and in-game video as well. Go check it out- it's what I want instead of what's on tv.

Mega mixes from Adam Grealish and Aaron Robinson (Proton Radio, March 20, 2006.)

A new direction in techhouse. everyone is thinking minimal. i trying to get maximal. my latest efforts: the Mega Mixes (from our proton march 20 show)

AdamGrealish-MegaWhat

Michael Mayer - Love Food [Kompakt Pop]
Theo Parrish - Falling up (Carl Craig rmx) [Third Ear]
Farley Funk - The Acid Life [Square Roots]
Hanna vs Freestyle Man - Always [Separe]
Mazi - The Need [Jamayka]
Unknown - Unknown [Trapez Ltd]
Feline 9 - Cats [Drenched]
Omni AM - Get Get (get love mix) [Cove]
Phil Weeks - Born to Roll [Robsoul]
Spank Rock - Rick Rubin [Big Dada]
Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt [Egyptian Empire]
Afrika Bambaataa - Just get up & dance (Detroit rmx) [EMI]

AaronRobinson_MegaPlease
1. Isolee - Initiate (Vocal Mix) [Playhouse]
2. Shaka - Phalonmukka [Floppy Funk]
3. Phonique - Lizard [Dessous]
4. Voom Voom - Sao Verought [K7]
5. Jimmy Edgar - Semierotic [Warp]
6. Dinky - Horizontal [Horizontal]
7. Recloose - [Playhouse]
8. Shaka - Erfolgsgeblubber [Floppy Funk]
9. The Egyptian Lover - Picturesque [Egyptian Empire]
10. - [Revox]
11. Lars Wickinger - Blutrausch [Traum]
12. Pure Science - Won't Give You Up [B+Positive]
13. Alex Under - El Azadon Es Un Cazador Solitario [Trapez]
14. Triple R - Someday [My Best Friend]

Havent heard it all yet but enjoy!

New Plasmodium show up for down. Load.

Artist :: Song :: Album :: Label

Talking Heads :: Burning Down the House :: Stop Making Sense :: Sire
Aural Exciters :: Chinese Rap :: Single :: Topflight Records
The Spencer Flipsson Experience :: Sunshine In My Pocket :: Cands You Feel
It :: Crack & Speed
Soft Pink Truth :: Gender Studies :: Promo Funk :: Soundslike
Midnight Star :: Electricity :: No Parking On the Dancefloor :: Solar
LCD Soundsystem :: Losing My Edge :: Single :: DFA
Front 242 :: Funkahdafi :: Politics of Pressure :: Wax Trax!
Revolting Cocks :: You Often Forget :: You Often Forget :: Wax Trax!
Yello :: Pumping Velvet :: untitled ep :: Elektra
Kill Memory Crash :: Theo (KMC Remix) :: remix ep :: Ghostly Intl
Bigod 20 :: America :: America / Photographic :: Techno Drome International
Londonbeat :: Over the Speed Limit :: v/a comp :: Razormaid
Mayday :: Nude Photo '88 (ultimate mix) Nude Photo '88 :: Kool Kat
Fresh :: Dum Dum pt 2 :: ACID vol 2 :: Soul Jazz
Adonis :: No Way Back :: Essential Trax :: Trax
Pepe Le Peu :: The Robot Dance :: Days 003 :: Better Days Records

Interesting article... need to ruminate on it.

Pls enjoy.

Hitting the high Cs: Cool, cute and creative