Japnundit: 191 Stars

February 16th, 2008

I go to Japan frequently (at least once a year which I suppose if frequently by American standards.) Japanese SpaghettiOne thing I truly enjoy is the food there. Both in Tokyo and in the countryside. Yes of course the Sushi is great, so is the tempura. The Kobe beef cannot be touched. But did you know that Japan has some of the best chefs in Italian and French cooking? If you watch the Iron Chef, you might be aware of this, but I have to say that I marvel at how exquisite the simplest spaghetti is. Even the ones in a package. Pick any Spaghetti place in Tokyo and you will have a wonderful pasta meal that is both a work of art, and tasty. Yes, will pay a minimum of $30USD for a bowl of noodles, but it is the passion and the art of the spaghetti.

Here is an article from Japundit that describes the level of passion the Japanese have for food:

191 Stars

I always try to explain to people that Tokyo is a world class city and that if one is a foodie, it’s a must as a destination. Yes, I know that the language barrier is daunting. But all the essential signs are bilingual–I sometimes think that people are just wimps about being someplace “different.”

If you love food, you won’t find any people anywhere on the planet who are as enthusiastic about eating as the Japanese, and as devoted to ingredients and to food as a fully sensory experience. Frankly, I don’t think you’ll find people any more enthusiastic than the Japanese when they get enthusiastic about something. But where to go? Where to eat? How to eat? If you don’t speak the language, how do you get started and find something outside of the shelter of your Shinjuku hotel?
Read the entire 191 Stars Article here…

Seth Godin - “All Marketers are Liars”

February 12th, 2008

I found this video and I am blogging it as much for my own reference as for yours. It is worth watching a few times.

Essentially, Seth Godin is speaking to a group of Google people. He is talking about how to be the next cool thing. Very interesting perspective!

Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist

February 3rd, 2008

Linux has better Windows compatibility than Vista

February 2nd, 2008

Something Linux users have known for a while is that it is much more stable than Windows. However this is one comparison that will raise a few eyebrows!

Linux has better Windows compatibility than Vista
Posted on January 31, 2008

I have been using Vista for well over a year now (since Beta 1). Of course Vista is slow, its bloated (over 10x the size of XP), aero kills system performance (even though this should be done on the video card), networking is pathetically slow, etc etc. We all know Vista sucks.

But recently my blood has been set to a rolling boil by the fact that most of my games just don’t work in Vista. At all. Its so bad that out of spite I have decided to make a list of games that work better in Linux under Wine than in Vista. These are games that were originally written to run in Windows XP, are broken in Vista, but magically work in Linux.

And now, the original post…

Stop bookmarking, start RSS feeding !!

January 21st, 2008

A really quick explanation about RSS and their advantages over classic bookmarks. For those of you who do not know what an RSS feed is, this article gives a basic explanation and provides a brief tutorial on how to use RSS. I have setup my RSS feed as the big orange Icon on the right side.

read more | digg story

KDE4 My first impressions

January 14th, 2008

I downloaded and installed KDE 4 on my Kubuntu Linux laptop tonight. Actually, it is a dual-boot system with Windows XP as there are still a couple things that I need windows for work. But for the most part, I run in Linux.

Using Kubuntu and following the instructions on their website, things went very smoothly. I ran the apt-get install command. Watched things download and watched them install.

I logged out of KDE 3 and then selected KDE 4 from the options menu at the login screen.

I logged in and wa-la there was KDE4’s desktop.

KDE4

I have only poked around for a half hour or so, but I have generally an overall favorable impression. They only flaw I have seen so far is running Citrix, there is no reference to it on the taskbar. Just a blank space.

I updated the desktop effects, added a clock and battery meter widget. Ran a few programs, and played with the new K menu, including the search. It took me a while to get used to the new format. Being able to toggle between a menu and a list of applications took a bit of getting used to. It seems that my Google desktop failed. Not surprised though. Picasa worked.

All-in-all, I like the look and feel of it. But I think it will take a little getting used to. I will continue to use it and work at getting up to speed. KDE.org/Docs here I come!

Japan Rail - JR - Tunes

January 9th, 2008

If you have ever been to Japan and have had a ride on the trains or subways, you may remember that the funny, but catchy tunes that are played at each station.

Leave it to someone with too much time on his/her hands to compile a collection of JR Tunes. This site is all in Japanese, but you can click through the various train routes and listen to each stations arrival and departure song. It is fun, especially if you know some of the lines. The songs evoke memories of past adventures on the JR.

Check it out here:

http://www.hatsumelo.com/line1/

The Platform is a Service

January 4th, 2008

A while back I posted “The Machine is us!

Last year I went to the Salesforce.com event in San Francisco and they debuted a video “The Platform is the Service”. It is here:

Wordpress Statistics

January 2nd, 2008

I just found a new plugin for Wordpress. It is wp-slimstat-ex. It is an ajax based plugin that fits nicely into your wordpress install. You can read more at the developer’s page.

Site Update

December 31st, 2007

Okay, it has been too long. I have recently updated the http://www.chrisshaul.com site with a new theme and have cleaned it up somewhat. Please let me know what you think!

  • Subscribe

  • About Me

  • Meta

  • RSS 168 Feng Shui Advisors

  • What I'm Listening to...