various news items....

[den4]

not all Japanese stuff, but still news:

http://japan.box.sk/newsread.php?newsid=1498
there's something about downtown Tokyo at night that always reminds me of Bladerunner....

including the foods you find... http://www.greggman.com/restaurants/...20-kushiya.htm

virtual walk of Hachiko: http://www.photokyo.com/virtualwalk.asp

Panderers in Japan
http://www.japander.com/
{Celebs in Japanese commercials} Japander? Think Japan and panderer: a person hawking products in Japan. The site has videos of funny and weird commercials starring actors doing silly ads for money in Japan (and losing credibility). The site requires QuickTime to view. You won't find just the down-and-out stars, but also hot ones like Catherine Zeta-Jones, J-Lo, and Pierce "Latest 007" Brosnan. Brad Pitt doesn't get away unscathed with the commercials he did for Edwin - he can't pronounce Japanese words correctly. This even led to an ad where a woman tries to correct his pronunciation. Pitt's wife, Jennifer Aniston, has more sensibility (since she's not listed).

Wow! All Your Base has even become a news topic on NPR's Marketplace: http://www.marketplace.org/allyourbase/

In other stuff:

How the shuttle works: http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-shuttle.htm

Ad-aware 6 released:
http://lavasoft3.element5.com/support/download/

DMCA vs. universal garage door openers http://www.politechbot.com/p-04319.html

Free Layouts
http://www.freelayouts.com/

online encyclopaedias: http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57364,00.html

CIA World Factbook v2002 [129M] W9x/2k/XP Free

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

{Geographical handbook} Agent Meryl reporting in with an update on a top-secret mission to tell Agent Gnomies about this intelligence must-have: the CIA World Factbook. Shhh... it's been published since 1981 and has been available online since 1990 through gopher (a text-based Internet Web site - now that's a blast from the past!). Since 1993, CIA has included its annual handbook in this publication, featuring 267 full-color maps and flags of all nations and geographical entities. Find out about any country's demographics (e.g., population, literacy rates) along with political, geographical, and economic data. I used it for a graduate research paper that earned me an A. Don't faint at the huge size of the [compressed] file. The Web site offers smaller chunks for downloading, or you can view the book online in its entirety. Agent Meryl signing off. This message will self-destruct as soon as you hit the DEL key. [Meryl]

Yuck #1:
http://www.beyond2000.com/news/Apr_02/story_1349.html

telemarketers sue to get rid of opt out option.... http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/01/30...tid=98&tid=123

Emergency Boot CD v0.3 Lite [3.4M] W9x/2k/XP FREE

http://www.ebcd.i-am.ru/

{Bootable CD} Emergency Boot CD is a bootable CD for system recovery that comes with a set of utilities for backup, restore, repair, and low-level administration. Create backup copies of a working system so it can be restored, if necessary (we hope not!). The program can copy and move files, perform emergency boots, recover the master hard drive boot record, reallocate disk space, change passwords, and recover deleted files and data. There are two versions: Lite and Pro, and both are free. However, the Pro has features that only the hardcore users would want. 'Tis safer to have the boot than to see your system get the boot.