Presidential Primary Voting from Abroad

If you are an eligible U.S. voter living overseas, the Democratic Party offers the option of voting in the Democrats Abroad Presidential Primary instead of voting in your home state primary or caucus. The Democratic Party will seat Democrats Abroad voting delegates at the party convention, so it is a real primary.

There are certain rules you must follow, including especially that you can only vote in the Democrats Abroad primary or in your home state primary, not both. Also, you must be a registered member of Democrats Abroad by January 31, 2008, in order to vote by fax, Internet, or mail. Details are here, and you can register here. It's quick and painless. Otherwise, you'll have to vote in person in certain cities abroad, and you can also register in person if necessary. The primary will be held from February 5-12, 2008.

There is a Republicans Abroad organization, but as far as I know the Republican Party does not hold a global presidential primary for U.S. voters living overseas. If you wish to vote in a Republican primary or caucus, you'll have to do that through your home state. If it's a caucus or convention, you'll have to travel back to your home state to participate in person. Note also that you cannot be both a Republican and a Democrat in the same election cycle for purposes of voting for presidential nominees. For example, if you vote in your home state Republican primary you cannot vote in the Democrats Abroad global primary.

Shake! 350 GPS Mini-Review

I'm quite pleased with the Shake! 350 GPS. It is indeed possible to update the database using a Mac or Linux PC: just download the update file, place it on a Secure Digital (SD) memory card, put the memory card in the GPS, and finally instruct the GPS to load the update.

I was concerned about the Centrality Atlas II GPS receiver and its reception quality. The JROAD models use the more famous SiRF III receiver, known for its ability to get a position fix fast and hold onto GPS signals. But the Atlas II seems quite adequate, at least with limited testing.

It's a little too easy to turn the unit on accidentally. The touch screen is also a little too sensitive on occasion. And the English translations are sometimes odd. However, given the very limited market, this unit is still quite useful and a good value.

English GPS Navigation

The Japanese domestic car market has the world's highest penetration of factory-installed navigation systems. It's not hard to figure out why: the road system is complicated, and making a wrong turn could add significant delay due to traffic congestion. Many of these navigation systems are extremely sophisticated and feature Bluetooth wireless connections to mobile phone accessories, television reception, live traffic reports, and even photo albums, to remember the children you rarely see. Auto manufacturers make a lot of money selling these systems.

Japan's early and enthusiastic embrace of these systems means that portable navigation devices (PNDs) haven't really caught on yet. However, the market is changing. Flash memory now competes favorably with DVD storage, and many Japanese are willing to accept 80% of the function at 10% of the price. Also, up until this year expatriates only had two choices for English-language navigation systems. Both are full sized DVD-based (and/or hard disk-based) systems priced at about $2,500 installed. Nissan offers one of these systems, both for its own vehicles and for other vehicles. They do work fairly well in English, with English voice prompts, but street names are still in Japanese. Most owners learn to save locations into the navigation system's database, perhaps struggling to reach the destination the first time. Another option is to enter a landline telephone number, and the navigation system will guide you to the general area corresponding to that number. These capabilities are extremely valuable to bewildered expats, and there's no question these big screen systems have advantages.

This year two companies started shipping English language PNDs for the Japanese domestic market. One device is called the Shake!350, sometimes also written as SHAKE 350, from GrandMap Navi. This device weighs just over 150 grams and has a small 3.5 inch touch sensitive color screen, rechargeable battery with home and car chargers, car mounting bracket, 1 GB of flash memory with a slot to add more, USB cable, English voice prompts, and, best of all, English (i.e. Romanji) street and location names displayed on the map and in the location search screens. With a little on-line comparison shopping I was able to find a brand new one on sale for a mere 29,000 yen. The company seems to provide free downloadable database updates on its Web site, although all the Web pages are in Japanese. Even so, I could figure it out with a little help from Google's translator, and they do have a PDF copy of the product manual, in English.

Unlike some of the factory-installed systems, PNDs don't have gyroscopes or other motion sensing features that augment GPS. Thus the GPS signal will occasionally drop out in tunnels and in urban "canyons," with tall buildings blocking GPS satellite coverage. Also, the screen is typically much smaller, and car installation isn't as neat or integrated. However, one major advantage (which some higher priced Japanese mobile phones share) is that you can take a PND on a bicycle or on a walk. There's also the price advantage of course.

These trade-offs seemed acceptable to me, so I ordered a Shake!350 today, and I should receive it later this week. I'll try to post a product review in a couple weeks. For the record, JROAD also offers two PNDs in this narrow category (i.e. domestic Japanese PNDs with English language support): the JRN400 and JRN410. These two models are pretty much identical, except the JRN410 has flashing LEDs that signal left or right to the driver. The LEDs seem like overkill on top of voice prompts, but Japanese gadget makers have never been shy about adding gimmicks. On paper the Shake!350 looks slightly better overall, although JROAD may have the superior GPS receiver. Both share one major disadvantage, especially for Mac OS X and Linux users: they run Microsoft Windows CE (a.k.a. Windows Mobile). How do I update the Shake!350's database using Mac OS X, for example? PocketMac or Missing Sync may do the trick. I might get lucky and be able to mount the device just like any other USB drive to copy files, and hopefully a simple file copy is enough.

Japanese PC Market Declining

The Associated Press has an interesting story confirming what I observe all around me: the Japanese are rapidly entering a post-PC world. (Slashdot has the details, among other places.) Of course you'll see PCs, but they aren't by any means the center of the universe, and sales are declining with mobile phones, game consoles, the iPod, and home entertainment devices all taking marketshare.

One possible reason not mentioned in the article is the Japanese language: is the QWERTY-style keyboard comparatively more useful to enter Japanese text than a mobile phone keypad? However, I think Japan is leading the way and that other PC-saturated markets like the U.S. and certain European countries will exhibit similar trends.

The comments on Slashdot are interesting, with many people pointing out that PCs make great word processors, and that word processing doesn't require ever more powerful systems, so the churn rate is diminishing. I think that's true, but is word processing particularly important, especially at home? Word processing arose at a time when people still mailed business letters and documents. With ubiquitous e-mail, do people really need full blown word processors? I seldom fire up a word processing program.

My new and comparatively low tech Korean-made mobile telephone paired with a Japanese service provider offers rich e-mail (including sounds, pictures, videos, and compatibility with popular word processing and spreadsheet formats, plus PDF), a built-in answering machine and voice recorder, camera, video calling, direct PictBridge printing (Bluetooth or USB), personal information management functions (calendar, alarms, address book), Web browsing, a Japanese-English dictionary, and iPod-like functions (audio and video), among other features. And this is the simplest model I could find. Of course it makes sense that many people don't want or need a PC.

SiCKO

Michael Moore's film SiCKO opened in Japan on September 1, and there was a special screening that day with a special ticket price that I attended. Go see it if you haven't already.

So here's my healthcare anecdote for today. I needed to have a chalazion removed. I was planning to travel to the U.S. anyway, so I called for an appointment over 3 weeks in advance. No availability; first apppointment is 3 weeks after that (6 weeks in the future).

So I visited our company doctor in Tokyo — yes, we have a company doctor — and she recommended an opthamologist which had an appointment available in three days. I had a meeting that day, so I checked the Tokyo U.S. Embassy's Web site, found another opthamologist, and they had an appointment in two days, which was earlier today as I write this.

I took the short subway ride over to their office. I arrived at 2 o'clock. I filled out a postcard-sized form and waited just a few minutes. An English speaking doctor who said he was also licensed in Nevada (!) examined me and, after a brief conversation, said he could do the minor surgery that afternoon. I went over to the operating area, and he quickly performed the procedure. Downstairs I paid my bill — I'm not on Japanese domestic insurance, which is atypical — and got a prescription form to take around the block to the pharmacy window. About 5 minutes there with a six question form (to prevent drug interactions), and after paying a smaller bill, I got my eyedrops. Then I was on my way.

The total bill, for the exam, minor eyelid surgery, and prescription eyedrops, in Tokyo, Japan? Just under US $100. That's less than a third of the Chicago price. And I got my appointment within 2 days, went in at 2 and was out before 4. In Chicago I've waited 90 minutes routinely after arriving just to see a nurse. That $100 receipt will be sent to my insurance company, which is great by U.S. standards but that form will be the longest. Obviously I wouldn't mind being on the Japanese domestic system one bit.

Michael Moore is right. Americans pay more for healthcare and get less. In one of the most expensive cities in the world it's cheaper and better, even for a foreigner.

Driving in Tokyo?

Am I crazy? Maybe.

I'm moving to a new apartment in a couple weeks, and it includes a parking spot. So I'm thinking about getting a car. For shopping and weekend trips, it'd be useful.

Typhoon Fitow Strikes Japan

Throughout the office building, a woman's voice advised, "We recommend you go home early today." I think most people heeded the advice and headed home before 6:00 p.m.

Typhoon Fitow is striking Japan tonight and overnight. You can follow the storm's progress at the Japan Meteorological Agency's typhoon page.

Passport to Delay

I hope the next administration in Washington improves the U.S. passport system. According to press reports, the system is broken, with long delays.

My passport expires in August, 2008. That means I can no longer obtain 12 month visas from many countries, because most countries will not issue visas that last longer than the passport itself. So I decided to pursue getting my passport renewed now, in person, at the U.S. Embassy (a.k.a. "The Fortress") in Tokyo. The Fortress is only a 15 or 20 minute walk away from where I live.

I filled out and printed the online renewal form, to be ready to go when I arrived. However, I quickly found out that it's the wrong form. You'd think the State Department would have the correct form available. The Fortress staff are quite friendly and helpful, so that's a plus. The cashier accepts U.S. credit cards for the fee and charges U.S. dollars, so there's no problem with foreign exchange. There's a fast and effective photo booth to obtain the proper sized pictures. All that works well.

The problem is that you have to surrender your passport to process the renewal, and renewal could take a couple weeks. Hasn't anybody figured out that's a huge problem for the prototypical global businessman, not to mention many other people? I'm still trying to understand how a U.S. citizen staying in Tokyo but without an alien registration card ("short term" stay) would be able to comply with Japanese law while getting a passport renewed. Most countries expect you to have your passport (or alien registration card, for longer term stays) handy at all times while visiting.

The other problem is that if The Fortress has your passport, you're stuck and cannot leave Japan. If I get an urgent call tomorrow to go fix some problem two hours away in Korea, there's nothing I can do. If there's a family emergency, I need to hope I can retrieve my passport from The Fortress.

So why does The Fortress need to hold my current passport in order to renew it? And why hasn't anyone figured out that's a huge problem? I could understand holding it for the day. (Most visa issuing countries will let you drop off a passport in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon, stamped with the visa.) But 10 days? Two weeks?

I can only imagine how much worse it could be at other embassies. As I said, the staff were quite friendly and helpful. It's the process itself that makes no sense in 2007.

While I think visas should be abolished for tourism and short-term business trips at least, I do want to applaud Australia for having the most convenient and trouble-free visa system I've encountered. The whole process is available online, instantly. You type in your passport details and your credit card details (for the small fee), click a button, and a few seconds later you have your visa. Airlines can electronically verify you have a visa when you check in and, if you don't, they can do the same thing for you on the spot. In fact, the whole process is so painless that Australia doesn't even call it a visa. Granted, if you're a citizen from a country that Australia wants to discriminate against, usually for economic stereotyping reasons, then the process is much slower and more painful.

"Tokyo Breakfast"

I'm not sure what to make of this Japanese television pilot that never made it into full production. It spoofs many bad American sitcoms.

But Does She Know Where Japan Is?

Smile, You're at a Kaiten-zushi

I'm headed to Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra in about a week, and I'll have a little bit of time for tourism. Any suggestions where to go, what to see, and what to do?

Strong Earthquake

At about 10:15 a.m. Tokyo time this morning on July 16, we felt a strong earthquake. This earthquake hit 6.6 (on the Japanese 7 point scale) on the western coast, so that meant roughly a 2 in metropolitan Tokyo.

Unfortunately today is a public holiday (Ocean Day) here in Japan, so I suspect many people are at home. While it's unlikely anyone was hurt near Tokyo, I am concerned about the western parts of Japan and whether anyone was caught inside an older home.

A Unique Mechanical Calculator

I find the history of computing fascinating, and very often I learn a new detail about the complex evolution of how mankind adds two plus two.

So I was thrilled to discover that, for a little over two decades, a small European company manufactured a mechanical calculator weighing as little as half a pound: the Curta. It's an engineering marvel, and it doesn't use any electricity. Curta sold these interesting miniaturized devices until 1973, by which time electronic calculators had rendered even the most inventive mechanical calculators obsolete in most parts of the world. (The abacus is still popular in a few countries, and in certain specialized fields, such as aviation, analog slide calculators are still fairly common.)

I watched one Curta on eBay soar to a closing price of US$1150. Clearly I'm not the only person to find these gadgets interesting.

Introducing Paul Pott

A longer version of the clip my brother recommended. Enjoy.



Update: This clip comes from ITV's programme Britain's Got Talent. The winner will perform for The Queen in a variety show. In his debut performance above, Paul sang a part of the aria "Nessun dorma" from Puccini's Turandot. Nessun dorma means "Let no one sleep." I think Simon Cowel was wide awake.

Update #2: Paul won.

10 Reasons Why the Mainframe is Growing in Importance

CA offers a useful list describing the biggest reasons why mainframes are becoming more relevant to today's businesses. I like this list, although I'd make clear that the numbers don't imply a ranking.

Which City Now? Redux & Updated

Here are the cities currently in the running:

Tokyo
Hong Kong
an Australian city (Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne...)
Seoul
Taipei

Of course, cities in the United States are still open. The Asia-Pacific cities are roughly in order of likelihood. If anyone has any opinions on these various cities, by all means feel free to comment.

Spring 2007 in Tokyo

We have had several weeks of glorious spring weather here in Tokyo, with seasonable temperatures, limited rain, and considerable sunshine.

Just thought I'd mention that.

Which City Now?

This past week my employer decided to split one part of the world into two parts. Thus I have to choose one of the two parts, or I can return to a third (the Americas). My options are:

1. Stay in part #1 (Tokyo).
2. Move to part #2 (pretty much anywhere in Asia-Pacific, except Japan).
3. Move back to part #3 (pretty much any U.S. city).

I'm not sure what I want to do. Living in another city is much different than visiting. Which cities treat general aviation well?

Essential English

Last week I taught some "business English" to several colleagues, and they seemed to enjoy the lesson. It was a way to combine work with some bonus language practice.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the important English young women need most. Be patient and watch the whole video: this aerobics class takes some time to warm up.



Are these women really getting any exercise?

I Did Not Steal the Gold

The news anywhere else in the world would be that a museum encouraged visitors to touch a 100 Kg gold bar.

I wonder how the four men will manage to convert the gold to something a little more spendable.

"Mac v. PC" in Japan

Expect Early Cherry Blossoms in Japan

January, 2007, was our planet's warmest January in recorded weather history, smashing the old record set in 2002. Global warming is upon us, and how. For what it's worth, the average American is responsible for about 2.5 times the greenhouse gas emissions as his counterpart in Japan.

One side effect is that Japan's famous cherry blossoms will open much earlier than usual. The plum blossoms are already way ahead of schedule.

Update: The official forecast is that Tokyo's cherry blossoms will open on March 23, 2007.

Later Update: Officially the first blossoms opened in Tokyo on March 20, 2007. Forecasters apologize profusely for the imprecise estimate.

Shake, Rattle & Roll

About nine minutes ago there was a small earthquake here in the greater Tokyo area. There's a terrific Web site (http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake) which immediately provided extremely accurate data: earthquake at 20:59 JST 04 Feb 2007, location 35.6N 140.1E, depth 80 Km, magnitude 4.2....

....Ah, now the Web site has more sensors reporting. In my part of the city it was magnitude 1+ or 2+, depending on the exact location. This technology is amazing.

Update: The numerical magnitude numbers used in Japan are based on the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale, which ranges from 0 to 7.

System z Sales Strong...Again

IBM announced its financial results for the 4th quarter of 2006 late last week. Digging into the earnings announcement a bit, IBM revealed that System z was a bright spot, performing extremely well. Yet again. (Dear industry analysts: when you see these sorts of results for years running, could you all please acknowledge that mainframes are growing in popularity? They're the most sophisticated and capable general purpose business computers, and they run just about any software you care to name, so it makes sense.)

In my own little part of the world we saw two brand new mainframe customers sign with IBM, one of them in a brand new industry for System z. Although mainframe Linux is especially popular among new mainframe customers, it's worth noting that both these new customers will run z/OS. (No, z/OS is not too difficult. Let's drop that canard.) It's very exciting and gratifying when my colleagues experience these successes. And if I can help, great.

Matt Harding Dances Around the World

I travel a lot, and I have a lot of stamps in my passport, but this guy has quite the impressive video scrapbook:

What's the Rent for a Tokyo Airplane Hangar?

At Chofu Airport it's a mere ¥150,000 per month ($1,237 at today's exchange rate) to rent space in a community hangar for a single engine airplane.

I mention this fact because I'm trying to figure out if I can bring my airplane over here. Hangar costs may not be the only issue.

My Top Macintosh Annoyances

Now that I've had several months to enjoy my MacBook I've had time to discover its flaws. The Macintosh is very, very good, but it's not perfect. Perhaps someone knows how to solve at least a few of these annoyances, which are not necessarily in priority order. So, "Dear Apple..."

1. Resuming from suspend. Occasionally Mac OS X won't come back after closing and then opening the cover. Closing and reopening the cover seems to work around this problem.

2. Open versus secured wireless networks. The little wireless control (right side of the top menu bar) doesn't display a symbol or other indication about which wireless networks are open and which are closed (WEP, for example). Apple, please add little padlocks next to the secured network names. The sledgehammer solution seems to be to get a third party Dashboard widget to do the job.

3. LEAP wireless networks aren't remembered. Apple published a workaround, but this issue should be fixed.

4. No standard backup program. For shame, Apple. Why is it going to take until Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) to fix this? You're helping your customers put their precious files at risk.

5. Volume and brightness controls often do not respond immediately. That's because these are "softkeys," governed by software drivers in the operating system. ThinkPads don't seem to suffer from this problem.

6. Why are the USB ports on the left? Just to make sure the mouse cable needs to stretch as far as possible? See if you can put a USB port on the right, and that'll also solve the problem of having the two ports too close together.

7. There are several hotkeys available at bootup. Would it be possible to list them on screen?

8. Please don't put the eject button next to the F12 button, with the same shape and size as all the other function keys. At least shave about a quarter key width off the left size of the eject button. Also, please put some sort of dimple on the F1 and F12 function keys, like the F and J keys.

9. I like TrackPoints. Could you license them? They should be pretty cheap by now. A one button trackpad just isn't cutting it, and it takes a lot of space. Speaking of which, any chance for a subnotebook? I don't mean the iPhone or a funky tablet.

10. Allow buyers to delete the built-in video camera with build-to-order models. There are corporate security environments that ban cameras (and thus MacBooks).

11. Please investigate better plastics that are easier to clean. If the New York City subway can resist graffiti, surely MacBooks (even white ones) can resist stains and fingerprints better.

12. The MacBook's memory configuration is awful. Even the low-end ThinkPad R series now supports up to 4 GB, but a MacBook tops out at a paltry 2 GB. Please fix this with a firmware upgrade for all MacBooks, at least like you did the MacBook Pros. Yes, we understand you used a crappy video chip that runs a bit slower when you put in different sized memory modules (e.g. 3 GB configuration), but we'll suck it up.

13. When you ship a standard MacBook, don't ship it with two 256 MB memory modules. You're just filling landfills that way. Ship only a single 512 MB memory module (or at least make it a build-to-order option). Yes, we understand the crappy video chip will be slightly more crappy that way, but again we'll suck it up.

14. If you do ship a MacBook with only 512 MB, spend some time tuning Mac OS X to behave a little better in its limited playpen. (Maybe you'll solve this issue with Leopard?) A System Preferences checkbox or button ("Optimize Mac OS X for limited memory") would be sufficient.

15. Maybe not your fault, but why does Firefox sometimes lose contact with the keyboard? Fortunately closing and reopening Firefox reestablishes keyboard control.

16. How do I use the keyboard to select different buttons in a dialog box? I still haven't figured that one out.

17. I know it's thoroughly entrenched in the Macintosh user interface, but is it really necessary to run a mouse marathon all the way up to the top of the screen to reach the menu bar?

18. Is there any true window maximize option (to fill the available screen real estate)? Shift-Zoom (Zoom is the green button at the upper left of each window) only sometimes works.

19. The spinning beach ball.

20. Why isn't there a proper set of extra large mouse pointers? Increasing the mouse pointer size results in a pixelated pointer. Not cool.

Japanese Crowd "Game"

Thanks, Kyle, for sending this one to me.