Relationships: the glue of the j-web. And a widget

On September 25, 2008 in Announcements, Blog Improvements, Community building, fun

Some months ago I posted about an RSS feed of posts by past DailyJ interviewees.

And I posted script for widget so that others could put it on their blogs, etc., if they wanted to.

Chris from Waikiki2Yanai mentioned that the widget’s colour didn’t match his site, so I’ve made a new one (finally!) that is clear.

I wanted to make it into a widgetbox widget but widgetbox is not as easy as they claim.

Anyway, here it is:

And here is the code for it:

Also I added it to the left-hand sidebar.

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Jim Breen. Japan-related tools

On September 24, 2008 in Nerd Rant, On the J-web, Resources

Warning: Nerdy content to follow

Hopefully, you know who that man in the title is. Yes, I am going on another rant about Jim Breen.

To me, he is one of the most interesting characters on the J-web.

His was one of the first Japan-related websites I ever visited (all of my Japanese teachers recommended him). And his wwwjdic (J/E dictionary) and Japanese page are two of my favourite www resources.

But more than that, I love his interest in Japan-related tools.

I think that tools have been overlooked some lately on the J-web (Nihonhacks’ post about rikaichan is a pleasant exception). Or maybe they are just taking new forms (like JapanSoc as an example of a tool). Either way, I am excited to see what tools we dream up next.

Anyway (before I get off topic here), what I really want to mention are some interesting articles and lecture notes from Jim Breen’s past classes at Monash University.

Two of my favourite subjects are Japan and computer technology (especially web tech). I would have loved to have taken one of Jim’s classes!

There is an archive of Jim Breen’s papers. Now these are some high quality Japan-related web rants!

I found a few interesting ones that the nerds amongst us might also like (see the end of this post), but I will only highlight one. It relates some to Nipponster and the way Japan-related information (and information in Japanese) is organised and searched.

WWW Search Engines and Japanese Text

An interesting quote from the article:

“…it is known that both Google and Yahoo use Basis Technology Corp’s Rosette Language Analyzer software”

I had never heard of that software. I know that Google is currently working on one of the largest translation software projects in history. It will be interesting to see what this technology brings about. I wonder who at Google Japan is in charge of this type of research and what they have to say about it.

What do you think about all of this? I always look forward to seeing what others have to say about these things, so please comment!

And have a great day,

DailyJ

p.s. Koichi has a good post about using Jim Breen’s Japanese dictionary on the iphone.

p.p.s. More interesting Jim Breen articles:

Japanese translation and the computer - the past, the present and the future

Computing in Japanese; what are the frontiers now?

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81 To Dos and Feeling Good

On September 22, 2008 in Announcements

(Just a quick post today as I work on some other upcoming things.)

About two weeks ago I posted about being tired.

I think I had forgotten how much fun DailyJ can be; how much fun it is to talk to others on the Japan-related web and hear about what motivates them.

Looking back over the year cured me of that. Even I cannot believe that DailyJ interviewed 21 sites last year! It was a great experience.

There is much for me to do for DailyJ and Nipponster. I have a long list of to do items (really mini & major projects). Right now I have 81 items on my list! But they are all exiting things. I can’t wait to roll them out!

-DailyJ

p.s. I am getting better at managing things, I take my gmail inbox down to zero every week now (for the last three weeks). See inbox zero

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Some tidying

On September 21, 2008 in Blog Improvements

I’ve been tidying up DailyJ a little.

I’ve added a link “the interviews” to the top of the blog. It is for listing all the interviews to date.

And I added Trans-Pacific Radio, JapanItUp, and Jim Breen to the interviewee roll on the right sidebar.

Hopefully this makes things a little easier to find.

In the near future I hope to overhaul DailyJ but until then baby steps.

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Web 2.0 expo, in Tokyo

On September 20, 2008 in Announcements, Resources, fun

The webmaster over at altsearchengines.com sent me an email about the Tokyo Web 2.0 Expo.

It looks interesting.

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Rajio No Jikan

On September 19, 2008 in On the J-web, fun

I was taking a look at the OTR (old time radio) podcasts over on Trans-Pacific Radio and there is a series called “Rod Serling’s Zero Hour” on there that reminded me of a very funny Japanese movie:

Rajio no Jikan!

I watched it with my Japanese family (a family that I used to spend time with) when I was in uni. Good times.

If you haven’t seen it you should! But until you do, there is a clip of Rajio no Jikan on imbd <– check it out

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Ninja lessons for J-bloggers

On September 18, 2008 in Announcements, Helping Japan Bloggers, Resources

Attention Japan-bloggers and webmasters:

Nick over at Longcountdown.com recently posted about a collection of over 70,000 video tutorials!

Included in the collection are video tutorials for web developers (html, css, php, javascript, etc.)

These, young grasshopper, are your lessons in the ancient art of J-blogging.

Enjoy.

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September’s Japan Blog Matsuri - deadline is 9/20

On September 17, 2008 in Announcements, JapanBlogMatsuri, Uncategorized

(It’s just 3 days away so I am a little late with this post)

Tae Kim of GuideToJapanese.org is hosting this month’s Japan blog festival.

This month’s topic is on “The Language of Japan”

Tae writes:

“While I’d like to hear about the Japanese language and your experiences with it in particular, you can write about any topic as long as it’s related to languages in Japan.”

“Languages in Japan…”

I wonder if we will see any posts about sign language or maybe a post about love (etc.) as “the language of Japan?”

We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Launch! Slash! Burn! Repeat! - DailyJ turns 1 !

On September 16, 2008 in Announcements, DailyJ Mission, Interview Highlights

It was one year ago this month that DailyJ was launched.

I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, all of the generous people who took the time to give interviews. You rock!

In the pre-launch build up dozens of J-bloggers and webmasters were contacted for interviews and once the first ten (or so) interviews were initiated DailyJ was ready to, as its first post declared, “Launch! Slash! Burn!”

To boldly go where no blog has gone before….

ok, maybe not.

But we’re still really excited!!

Welcome!

This blog is a place for us to showcase some great j-blogs and j-sites.
These are the sites that are bringing you unique views of Japan, amazing experiences, solid advice, great language tools and materials, and all the wonders a J-enthusiast could ever ask for!

But most importantly we will talk to the people behind these sites and projects.

Yes sir! This blog will not only feature information about great j-sites. Oh No. It will be full of behind the scenes, exclusive interviews with the people themselves!

To get the ball rolling…
To start it all off…
This week we will take a stroll with Adam Douglas from Slash And Burn and find out what makes him tick and what makes his site cool.

So now it is time….

to Launch! Slash! Burn!

Enjoy!

My favourite part was “This blog will not only feature information about great j-sites. Oh No. It will be full of behind the scenes, exclusive interviews with the people themselves”

And DailyJ has definitely had a lot of fun with “the people behind the scenes.” Here are all of the interviews from year 1! :

Adam Douglas from Slash And Burn

Raof from GaijinTonic

Jamaipanese

Rising Sun Of Nihon’s Bill Belew

Turner from KeepingPaceInJapan

Mari from Watashi To Tokyo

You, Me, and Mari - Interview with “Watashi to Tokyo”

Harvey from JapanNewbie

Takanori sensei from learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com

Learn Japanese With Takanori Sensei! - an exclusive interview with learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com

Shioyama from Gyaku.jp

Mark from Digital World Tokyo

Deas from Rocking In Hakata

Tyler MacNiven star of “Kintaro Walks Japan”

(This interview for me was just great because I had been a huge fan of Tyler even before starting DailyJ)

Chris from Waikiki2Yanai

(Chris is also one of the most active and beloved commentors on DailyJ - a good way to get an interview . Or maybe not, since Nick from Longcountdown comments all the time now and still no interview . But I plan on an interview and I know it will be spectacular)