The Silver Spoon is Cast

IE7 Slow Blank Page Issue

2009-06-30T23:17:00.006+09:00

Since I upgraded IE from IE6 to IE7, I've been wondering why this browser is so slow when I open new blank pages. Usually, it takes about 5 to 10 seconds or so. It was really painful. :(

But, I found the solution finally today here. :)

First of all, "Tools" > "Manage Addins" > "Enable or disable Addins", and choose "Click on Addons Currently Loaded in IE."
On Japanese version Windows, the sequence is "ツール(O)" > "アドオンの管理(A)" > "アドオンを有効または無効にする(E)", and choose "現在 Internet Explorer で読み込まれているアドオン."

The above page says to disable "SSVHELPER CLASS", but in case of me, there were more add-ons and extensions affecting the behavior.

I disabled the following add-ons, and

CPwmIEBrowserHelper Object
Java(tm) Plug-in 2 SSV Helper
JQSIEStartDetectorImpl Class
ThinkVantage Password Manager
Windows Live Toolbar
Windows Live Toolbar Helper
Windows Messenger

I kept the following add-ons.

Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper
RealPlayer Download and Record Plugin
Shockwave Flash Object

Now, my IE7 open blank pages very quickly without any troubles. :)

Pluto 8

2009-06-30T22:41:00.012+09:00

Pluto 8
Naoki Urasawa
ISBN 978-4-09-182624-7

Urasawa completed his work on remaking Tezuka's "The World's Strongest Robot" finally.
I'm not disclosing the story line here, but I'd like to mention that readers could have the same impression with the last book of Nausicaa by Hayao Miyazaki after reading the climax.
Here, my point is that what people would do when they are placed under the desperate situation.
Precisely speaking, there is an essential difference between the cases of Nausicaa and Pluto story lines, but still both the works are sharing the same insights on human nature, I think.
Anyway, it's worth reading. :)

Good News

2009-06-29T23:50:00.005+09:00

I'm feeling that this year we hear a lot of sad news such that Michel Jackson left this life recently.

But, today, I received a very much happy news. :)

A former colleague of mine, Maru-chan, got married, and it's honour of me being invited to his wedding ceremony in this October.
Maru-chan is working for one of the biggest IT vendor's laboratory, and there is no doubt that he is one of the most excellent engineers in Japan. To tell the truth, once I thought I should recruit him to the company now I'm working for. :o

It's a bit future story, but I'm looking forward to seeing him and his wife from now.

Anyway, Congraturations, Maru-chan! :)

Day 630 : Stubborn Child?

2009-06-29T22:53:00.006+09:00

The above is a snapshot my wife took in this afternoon when she got back home with my daughter.

Recently, my daughter loves hanging around outside our condo, and sometimes she does not move from where she likes whatever we said to her.

Yes, my daughter is a really stubborn child in the case like this.

I'm not sure whom she resembles in this point of view. :o

Day 629 : Stretching Out

2009-06-28T17:07:00.007+09:00

As I wrote recently, my daughter has great interests in everything on the table.
The above is a snapshot which caught a rare chance when she showed her smiley face from under the table this evening. :)

BTW, it's really amazing that now she can reach high like the above. I'm wondering her desire to reach things on the table might be accelerating her growth. :o

Day 629 : A-ha!

2009-06-28T14:05:00.006+09:00

This is a snapshot at the ground floor of ItoYokado after lunch time.
At least in Japan, there are cosmetic shops on the ground floor of a department store, and actually she is looking at commercial video in front of one of cosmetic shops there.
I'm wondering if she has already been interested in cosmetics before 2 years old... :o

Day 629 : Minnie Cart

2009-06-28T14:04:00.005+09:00

We went to ItoYokado which recently opened alongside JR Musashi Koganei station.
Usually, we take our baby car and don't use carts for kids equipped by shopping malls or department stores.

But, today we tried the above one, a Minnie Mouse cart. :)
Against our expectation, our daughter looked like very much interested in that and looked happy. :)

Day 626 : Buckets or Shoes

2009-06-25T23:25:00.005+09:00

Bucket is one of her favorite things recently.
Especially, she loves wearing a light ping one on hear head.
But, today I was astonished seeing the above scene...

Secure Cloud Networking Project

2009-06-22T22:50:00.011+09:00

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan embarked new research and development activities recently.
Among them, there is a three years R&D project on cloud computing named "Secure Cloud Networking." The project is a relatively big one and consists of 3 sub projects.

I'm working on one of especially "Cloud Federation" for about three years from now.
At this moment, I'm struggling with a bunch of paper works, but I'm really looking forward to seeing various researchers and discussing wide range of technical issues during the activity. :)

BTW, that means I'll be very busy at least 3 years from now, and I'm wondering if I can see the very much precious moments of my daughter... :o

Day 623 : Foot Stool?

2009-06-22T22:31:00.006+09:00

My daughter has interests in almost everything and destroys everything... :(
Thus, I and my wife hide dangerous things, important things or so on the table everyday.

That worked well so far, but...

Recently, my daughter tries to ascend her stool and reach what she wants... not just stretching herself... :(

Of course, we didn't teach her that. She learnt it by herself. It's amazing... :o

Day 621 : Hair Pin

2009-06-20T22:29:00.006+09:00

The above is a snapshot when we went out for lunch today.
Ha ha, she looks cute, doesn't she?
But, actually after going outside of our condominium, she wore a hat and took it away... :(
We were not sure why...
BTW, still I guess it's not so long before she begins to complain of accessories. :)

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

2009-06-16T22:38:00.010+09:00

The Tales of Beedle the Bard
J.K.Rowling
ISBN 978-0-7475-9987-6

This book takes style of a collection of folk tales written by a bard Beedle about 500 years ago in the magician's world and their annotations by professor Dumbledore. The tales were also mentioned repeatedly in the 7th book of the Harry Potter series.
Here is a list of tales there.

The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
The Fountain of Fair Fortune
The Warlock's Hairy Heart
Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
The Tale of the Three Brothers

I felt deja vu while reading the last story, "The Tale of the Three Brothers," but I cannot remember in which book I read a similar story with it now.
Maybe, it's in the last book of Harry Potter, and I have to check the book again...

Catch Copy Generator

2009-06-15T23:32:00.007+09:00

I found an interesting web site which generates catch copies (in Japanese) for the given phrases, mainly for names/nicknames of people. :)

http://nameall.cosotto.com/catch/

Here are some examples which I generated for my family.

"Big Joker" for My real name.
"The Second Coming of Dragon Horse" for My nickname at home.
"The Epicenter of Rumors" for My daughter's nickname at home.
"You are asking for the impossible." for my wife's nickname at home.

The last one is a bit free translation. In original Japanese expression, it was "無いものは無い" which is used as the last phrase saying "You are asking for the impossible" like the above.
I like the one for my daughter. :)

Day 615 : A Puppy Dog

2009-06-14T11:15:00.007+09:00

Ha ha, the above is a snapshot when we took a walk this morning.

My daughter found a dog on our way, and she looked like very much interested in the dog but needed some time to come close.

Actually, it was a tame and well trained dog, so they can be good friends next time. :)

One Thousand and One Nights

2009-06-13T21:17:00.006+09:00

Le Liver Des Mille Nuits Et Une Nuit (1/13)
Translated to French by J.C. Mardrus
ISBN 4-00-327801-1 (Japanese translation)

Befor reading this book, I've been thinking that One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of tales like "Araddin's Wonderful Lamp" or "Ali Baba and Forty Thieves." But, I was a bit surprised that it's full of topics for adults, here I mean various forms of erotica. In this sense, maybe it's a bit like "the Decameron." :o

BTW, I have still 12 books of the series to read. In other word, there are stories for more than 900 nights! :o

As the story takes a form of hierarchical structure, I mean, a character who appears in a tale begins to narrate another story and so on repeatedly, I'm not sure if I can keep catching up the main story line. :o

Guin Saga 127

2009-06-09T23:58:00.005+09:00

The Sinister Surge
Guin Saga 127
Kaoru Kurimoto
ISBN 978-4-15-030957-2

Kurimoto past away last month, and we have two more books of the Guin Saga which Kurimoto finished before she left this world. It's said that Kurimoto left (possibly huge amount of) notes on the Guin Saga. So, I'm expecting her bereaved family would publish posthumous writings someday...

Day 608 : Open Sesame

2009-06-07T18:02:00.004+09:00

Recently, my daughter often walks around our mansion.

Today, I was a bit surprised to see she tried to open the door.
Of course, she needs some more time doing it by herself, but I'm wondering what happens when she masters opening a door with a lock... :o

Idea Mapping

2009-05-31T23:50:00.006+09:00

Idea Mapping : How to Access Your Hidden Brain Power, Learn Faster, Remember More, and Achieve Success in Business
Jamie Nast
ISBN 978-4-484-080104-5

Today, we went to Kokubunji Marui to by clothes of our daughter, and after finishing the main shopping, we stopped around a book store there.
The above books is about a kind of Mind Map methods, and it looks like more practical for common people.

Now, I'm thinking about using that in the upcoming R&D project at work. :)

Day 601 : What's This?

2009-05-31T19:39:00.001+09:00

I took the above photo when my daughter sat down on my lap by pointing my digital camera to her just in front of her face.

She looks like saying, "What's this?" :)

In Memory of Kaoru Kurimoto

2009-05-27T23:50:00.003+09:00

Today, Kaoru Kurimoto, the author of Guin Saga, past away because of cancer. She was only 56 years old, and her biggest work Guin Saga was left incompleted.

It's almost 25 years ago when I began to read the Guin Saga series and since then I was always waiting for her new book. Originally, the series was scheduled to complete at 100 books, but actually it was too optimistic(?) estimate and this year she released 126th book. Furthermore, the story looked like continuing at least 25 more books for me.

She indicated several times that she had already written a note of synopsis of the finale, but I'm not sure if the note will be made public. Maybe, it could be the longest and incompleted novel written by a single author.

Anyway, impossible...

I pray sincerely for the repose of her soul.

Day 596 : Friends

2009-05-26T22:49:00.006+09:00

Today, a friend of my daughter, Naho, and her mother visited our home.
Here are snapshot that time. :)

I'm wondering what they are talking about in the above right picture. :)

Axsh with Wakame?

2009-05-26T22:18:00.009+09:00

Today, I saw a demo of Wakame, a ruby based scale-out engine for Amazon EC2 created by axsh Co. LTD, Japan.

In a sense, it's similar to RightScale, and Wakame is still in very early stage. But the most important point for me is that it's open source. I mean that there is rooms working on it for me. :)

BTW, in Japanese Axsh is pronounced as 'Akushu' (あくしゅ) which means "shaking hand."
It's cool, and I like it. :)

Debug Hacks

2009-05-25T20:08:00.006+09:00

Debug Hacks -- Tips & Tools for Removing Bugs
Yoshioka et. al.
ISBN 978-4-87311-404-0

Finally, I bought the book at this time of day. :(

After skimming the book, I felt that I'm not so behind from the authors compared to the case of Binary Hacks. But, anyway it's a great work for programmers. :)

StarBED and SpringOS

2009-05-25T18:18:00.005+09:00

I didn't know that NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology) has been developing a large scale networking testbed, called StarBED, and the StarBED team developed a set of convenient tools to manage/operate StarBED.
The set of tools is called "Spring OS."

Here, my point is that why the developers chose the name.
At least for me, Spring OS means a SUN's research operating system in the early '90s, and this is common impression for most of engineers working on network or operating system.

But, the tool looks like useful for a massive cluster environment, and I'm going to try it once...

Day 595 : Stairs

2009-05-25T17:18:00.002+09:00

Here are another snapshots I took during the walk today.

I didn't know that recently she climbs a stairway by herself.
So, I was really surprised looking at the scene today.
Anyway, this is another memorial photo of my daughter. :)