Tokyo Times

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Web/Tech

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Bungling blogger

A former police administration officer in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, has been reported to prosecutors for violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law after taking pictures of handguns and using them on his blog.

gun
a gun

Whilst on duty in September 2002, the 33-year-old unlocked a firearms cabinet and selected two particularly photogenic weapons, then after surreptitiously taking a few pictures he posted them on his blog — twice as it turns out. Yet despite cleverly applying a mosaic pattern to the photos, a prefectural police worker later recognized the guns and promptly reported his findings.

The unnamed blogger was given a 10 percent pay cut as punishment, but being understandably embarrassed by the whole affair, he resigned on Wednesday, explaining his behaviour by saying, “I posted [the photographs of the guns] because I wanted people to take an interest in the home page.”

An excuse that will presumably carry little weight with prosecutors, as everybody knows that it takes hard work and good writing to attract people to a blog. The random posting of pictures,

japanese beauties

takes no skill or talent whatsoever,

fujiwara

and regardless of the content it’s a lame and unimaginative way to try and boost traffic.

waka inoue

He ought to be ashamed of himself.

19 Comments

Bloggies blackmail

After losing spectacularly in the 2005 Bloggies, I’ve been lucky enough to get nominated in the Asian category again this year, offering me the perfect opportunity to bow out with a whimper for a second straight time.

However instead of just lying down and accepting defeat, I’ve took the rather drastic step of bringing in some help; the dubious services of cosplay legend The Green Goddess intended to ward off at least a last place finish.

cosplay freaks

Possibly spurred on by the recent introduction of naked taiko, our beret wearing beauty is threatening to take off that tight fitting green outfit and do a spot of nude gymnastics if Tokyo Times doesn’t put up a decent showing. All in front of the camera too. The performance set to end with the lens lingering just a little too long on the leotard lacking lovely doing the splits.

cosplay beauty

So the choice is yours, click here to vote or the video it is…

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I spy

Computer Associates International Inc. has recently formed an anti-spyware squad as part of its ongoing effort to raise awareness amongst computer users. And in a bid to give the promotion maximum exposure, the organisation has chosen TV celebrity Kaori Manabe as leader of its ‘spyware extermination squad’.

manabe kaori

Whilst the move may initially look like a cynical attempt to gain maximum publicity from a pretty face, Manabe-san was apparently picked due to the popularity of her blog. The young woman further demonstrating her credentials by wearing an official hat and saying, “I want to find out if people around me are taking anti-spyware measures.”

Which all in all makes for a very worthy cause indeed. Plus with the addition of Manabe-san on board, it’s something a large number of people will be keen to get behind and vigorously support.

kaori manabe

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Blogging baloney

“Although blogs have grown into a presence in Japan that cannot be ignored, there is also a flood of irresponsible information being transmitted through the abuse of the anonymity of blogs.” 


Yoshihiro Oto, an associate professor of media studies at Sophia University, on the potentially misleading nature of blogging.

A point that this young, rich and breathtakingly handsome blogger writing from his penthouse suite in Tokyo totally disagrees with.

9 Comments

Record greed

“We are strongly pushing for the iPod tax.”

Taizo Shinya, spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of Japan, which supports a copyright law revision to charge royalties on digital music players.

Not content with already fleecing music buyers with ludicrously high prices, Japanese recording companies are now after even more easy money. This time from anybody who has the temerity to buy a digital music player. The appropriately named ‘iPod tax’ being touted as somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of a portable player’s retail price.

Now admittedly the illegal downloading of music is still rife, but when you look at the prices of CDs in Japan, it’s hardly surprising. Take this early release from singing sensation Ayumi Hamasaki.

ayumi hamasaki

Nice cover and all that, but LOVEppears retails at a staggering 3,392 yen (almost 17 pound). A figure that could — generously, looking at many other CDs — be described as an averagely priced album. And when you consider that Apple’s iTunes Music Store is already a success in Japan — recently racking up a whopping 1 million sales in its first four days — the record industry’s greed appears to know no bounds. Or feel any shame for that matter.

BitTorrent beckons…

5 Comments

A site to behold

After putting off updating this site’s software again and again — and then some if the truth be known — I finally took the plunge yesterday. And despite my fears of a data loss disaster, everything went smoothly — very smoothly. So much so in fact, that confidence buoyed, I foolishly decided to plough on and alter the site’s appearance too.

Needless to say, the process took far longer and was infinitely more frustrating than the upgrade. Plus, after hours of tweaking a pre-made template, the new look is disappointingly similar to the old one.

Still, despite the similarities, there shall be no more tweaking for now — I’ve simply run out of curses. As far as I’m aware, everything is running ok, but if you find any problems just let me know please. Providing the comments are working of course…

Thanks.