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Personalized spam

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

I am receiving all kind of spam on my office address and via my private mail. But this morning I saw that some spam was sent to me via the contact form of this homepage. Well, as the form is protected via a CAPTCHA code a person must have typed in the message by hand. So here is what reached my via the contact form:

Dear Sir or Madam,

We understand from your information in google.com that you are in the
market of sauna. And we would like to take this opportunity to
establish business relations with you.

XYZ specilizes in the export of Portable sauna, Foldable sauna,
Wooden sauna and etc. Our products have got CE, ROHS, ETL, UL and
exports to many countries like America, British, Middle East, Russia
and some other regions.

To learn more information,you can contact us or browse
XYZ directly.

Looking forward to your early reply.

Best regards

Kristin

WTF? Why should I be “in the market of sauna” or why should I be interested in such a business? I guess my post about the Japanese traditional sauna led them via Google to my page. However, if the company is so desperate to rely on such marketing strategies, they are even below the level of the 419 scam. Thus, here a warning for this company and others who think that they can spam my email account:

Don’t send spam mails directly or via the contact form! I am going to filter your address and report your email to SpamCop and similar pages!

Popularity: 2%

Posted in computer

Spicy recommendation XXIII

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

After several reports about Indian or Nepalese curry restaurants it was time to check out other places for their spicy food. So yesterday I went to a Chinese restaurant called Kiraku (喜楽) which is located close to Ogawa station. The menu offers a variety of different things including all kind of noodle soups, classical Chinese dishes and small side dishes like Gyoza. I ordered Mabo-Ramen which appeared to be the only selection on the menu which has some spicy component. Mabo-Ramen is basically similar to Mabo-Tofu, except that a lot of noodles have been added and the sauce is more soupy to go with the noodles. The dish had a really nice taste and its spice level was quite OK for a place that does not explicitly offer anything spicy. I was not sure whether the heat from the kitchen or the Mabo-Ramen was the reason, but I was sweating after finishing my dinner. Beside the main dish, I also had a small plate of hand-made Gyoza which were also very tasty.
Overall, a nice restaurant if you want go for a quick lunch/dinner and don’t mind sharing the table with people you have never seen before.
My rating: ★★★★★★☆☆

Popularity: 1%

Posted in Food, Spicy recommendation

Hangover heaven

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

Las Vegas is a crazy city and people go there to gamble and have fun. For American it is also a city to drink alcohol which is handled there less restrictive than in most other places of the country. Thus, people are getting heavily drunk when they party all the night. The logic consequence are massive hangovers on the next day. But a clever doctor had the idea to provide some relief for those spending the night on getting intoxicated with alcohol. His company Hangover Heaven has a fleet of tour buses which stop at major casinos and if you’re knocked out from the previous night they’ll send someone to your room for an intravenous (IV) therapy. Prices start at $150 and within an hour they promise that you’ll be good to go.
Well, that might really help the softies who can’t stand a serious hangover, but my point is that if you decide to drink seriously you have to face the consequences and deal with them like a man!

Popularity: 1%

Posted in Drink

Frozen beer foam

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

Summer is coming in Japan and the breweries have worked hard in their research labs during the winter season. Kirin Brewery will come up with a new frozen draft that is topped with an ice cold foam on every pint. A special machine freezes the head of a beer at -5 degrees Celcius before the foam is added to the top of the beer like soft ice. I am not sure if this works together with the Beer Jug Jokki Hour Foam Maker, but you can’t have everything in life, right? The company announced that this technology helps to keep your beer cold for up to an extra 30 minutes, but I don’t know who needs so long for a beer?

Popularity: 1%

Posted in Drink, Japanese

Shake your plant

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

There is a lot of research going on in human-machine interaction, and there are really nice examples that show how the gap between a person and a computer can be bridged, letting them “talk” almost intuitively. However, researchers from Keio University had the idea to realize a human-plant interaction. In their application the plant displays emotion and communicate with humans, using sensors, microphones and a network of strings connected to little motors, or actuators. Scientists have attached actuators to the plants in order to have a better physical response, which could encourage communication between plants and people, as explained by someone from the he research team. I have no idea what that should be useful for, but maybe it makes your plant more tough by “exercising” every time you shout at it :-) Anyway, here is the video of the “boot-camp plant”:

Popularity: 1%

Posted in computer, Japanese, programming

Spicy recommendation XXII

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

As I met with a colleague today in Hitotsubashi University I had another chance to experience the culinary environment there. This time our selection fell on “Manakamana” which is basically an (Indian) curry restaurant, although the sign above the entrance says “Asian restaurant”. They offer the standard lunch course which consists of one curry, Naan (all you can eat), salad and one soft drink. I had an extra spicy Keema curry, but even though I added some spice from a caster on the table there was neither a real challenge nor did the taste itself get improved. The two good points I need to mention are the really delicious Naan and the Lassi which I had in included in my lunch set. However, the overall experience was spoiled by the staff. My colleague and I had a table for 4 but, when a group of students entered, one half of the table was taken away (although we had our things and some plates on it). Moreover, the waitress squeezed in 8 students on a table for 6 (which was for 4 but grew for 6 after adding our half of the table). Thus, I had one student sitting almost literally on my lap. Fortunately, we were nearly done with our lunch, so we could leave before the students got their food served. Thus the overall summary reads as: lower average curry, good Naan, but totally unprofessional (and somewhat incompetent) staff.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

Popularity: 1%

Posted in Drink, Food, Spicy recommendation

Blue zones

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

Following a description by Dan Buettner a “Blue Zone” is a demographic and/or geographic area where people live measurably longer than in the rest of the world.
Buettner identified the following longevity areas

  • Sardinia, Italy
  • Nicoya, Costa Rica
  • Ikaria, Greece
  • (Seventh Day Adventists in) Loma Linda, California
  • Okinawa, Japan

People living in Blue Zones share common lifestyle characteristics that contribute to their longevity. Factors like

  • family
  • plant-based diet
  • constant and moderate physical activity
  • social engagement

have been identified as positive support for a long life. For Okinawa one needs to narrow the blue zone to the Japanese population. The ten thousands of military staff living on US bases with Mc Donalds, KFC, etc. are definitely not considered by Buettner’s study :-)

Popularity: 1%

Posted in Food, Japanese, sports

Smartphones – 20 years anniversary

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

I am still not an owner of a smartphone, although I am basically curious about such a technology. Beside the high(er) monthly cost, the larger size of the device stops me from purchasing such a cell phone. However, for those of you who think that smartphones are all the rage, I have to spoil your expectations. Yes, these mobile devices operate with sophisticated CPUs and their displays perform on an unbelievable high level, but the whole idea is not new at all. More than 20 years ago IBM presented their IBM Simon which combined the features of a mobile phone, a pager, a PDA, and a fax machine. Moreover, it was equipped with a touch screen and Simon’s applications included a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games. So what’s the big difference to nowadays smart phones? Well, Simon did not have internet access which opens the gate for a large number of applications, but the rest of the device is pretty much same to what is called now “latest fashion”.

Popularity: 1%

Posted in computer, handy phone

Orangina in Japan

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

In November 2009 Suntory Holdings bought the rights on the traditional French soft drink Orangina. Except the US, this company is holding the brand for all countries of the world (even France!). In most of the countries Suntory has distributors which sell the products to the consumers. However, although Suntory (a Japanese company) had the rights on the drink since 2009 they did not sell it here until now. Yesterday when I went to a supermarket I saw it being advertised as a new drink. It appears that they are marketing it quite aggressively with a low price of 88 yen and today I already found the first cans and bottles in vending machines as well. I am wondering how long they keep the price low, but I am doubting if it fits the taste of the Japanese costumer. BTW, the slogan on the bottle reads as

Born in France, bottled in Japan.

I had my first bottle of Orangina in Japan yesterday and I can confirm that it tastes the same as the one before which I had last summer in Paris.

Popularity: 2%

Posted in Drink, Japanese

The birthday paradox

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Thomas Hobiger — No Comments ↓

First the hard facts:

In a room of just 23 people there’s a 50-50 chance of two people having the same birthday. In a room of 75 there’s a 99.9% chance of two people matching.

Sounds crazy? Well at the first glance, but simple statistics and the assumption that birthdays are distributed equally across the year (ignoring leap years) can explain this fact. For those who are interested in how these number can be derived I recommend the quite good explanation at Wikipedia. The really hard to grasp fact (although again simple math) comes when you ask yourself how many people need to be in a room to have a 50% chance that one person has the same birthday as you? This number equals to be at least 253. This is significantly higher than 365/2 = 182.5. An explanation for this can be found on the same Wikipedia page. Thus, although Japanese train cars are really crowded during commuting hours chances that someone is having the same birthday as me are not much above 50% :-)

Popularity: 1%

Posted in computer, math
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