March 3rd in Japan is a holiday called Hinamatsuri or Dolls Festival. It’s a holiday where families erect displays in their home for with traditional Japanese dolls reflecting the Imperial court. The dolls an be very pricey and are passed along within the family from mother to daughter often augmenting the collection along the way with more or nicer dolls.
I remember having one of these displays in the house that belonged to my sister. But what do you do if your little girl is more into lightsabers and spaceships than fancy dresses and princesses? (other than receive constant high gives for having the coolest daughter ever)

Well I found a shop in Nihonbashi that has you covered. Cool dolls here from an entirely different Imperial court there are Vaders and troopers with full Samurai armor and what I am sure are laser sword Katana.

But get it fast cause at $4,000 for a 1 meter high Sith Lord Doll I’m sure they will sell out fast!

Still scheduled to be completed this year, the renovation work on the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station is still under way. The new domes over the North and South entrances can now be seen popping up from the scaffolding surrounding the building.

For as long as I have known it, Tokyo Station has been an underground building. The Marunouchi side was a quick post war knock off of the original building and has for all intents and purpose been a condemned building for years. This new renovation is supposed to return the building to its pre war original state. I’m dreaming of a new, but classic design that will add visibility and access to the tracks and bring ye station out of its underground cocoon. Tokyo needs a signature station like Grand Central in New York or Moscow subway station. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see this landmark rise again in a few months.

Read more on Tokyo station here. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tōkyō_Station

Three days and 26 hours in the can. I’m writing this on the train to my last day live streaming the Belgian Beer Weekend Tokyo event at Roppongi Hills Arena. Just 8 hours left!

Had a very fun trial run this week with my gypsy Internet TV studio. I think I’m liking the name “Studio@stevenagata” for this monster of mismatched parts from my closet, computers and electrical tape. So far no major hiccups, but a few minor technical glitches I’ll have to work on.

The biggest problem so far has been errors on the Roland VR-5 mixer causing some of the saved streams to corrupt on closing. I lost a few bits I had meant to save including a music act that I thought went pretty well. Since we are not archiving online the video, I’m afraid, is lost forever. Will have to run some endurance tests to try and nail down the problem. Otherwise I might look into on off board video recorder like an Atmos Ninja.

It’s been fun to see so many friends stop by the event. Hoping a few more might make it by today. Keeping the stream up can be pretty draining so I wasn’t able to chat much, but hope that today will be a bit lighter as I starting together the hang of things.

The event itself has been super cool. Great bands, good food, 62 types of beer and a crowd expected to top 20,000 for the four days. Early metrics showing we’ll beat that number decisively with online viewers. Super thanks to Akoni KK, Rob Van Nylen and Dean Fujii for bringing me on board for this event. Hope to do more like it in the future (I hear talk of a possible fashion show! (^_^) ). Also big props to ace Cameraman and super geek Joseph Tame for putting in 4x hours over the agreed work and covering all the concerts like a pro.

Definitely stop by if you have time today. It’s really a great atmosphere. Or tune in on the livestream at http://bit.ly/bbw2011. More detailed reports on my studio later *I hope*

Ok, first of all I need to come up with a better name than that.

Some work recently has given me the chance to play around with higher level AV gear and in typical fashion I kinda got a bit carried away. A couple of years ago, comrade Danny Choo convinced me to give live streaming a shot, Ustream had just published their iPhone app and I had great fun running around Akihabara streaming micro tours.

I’ll be honest. Personally I watch very little on Ustream, and I NEVER watch my own stuff. The jarring motion when I move the iPhone around makes me carsick in about three seconds. But I do see a strong value there if things are done well, and simply put, I love the gadgets.

In the world of content, the combination of real time and video is the tip of the sword, and combining valuable content, modern technology, and logistical planning can create a new level of communication never before seen. Yeah, it’s basically cable access tv spliced onto the Internet, but think about it. Cable access tv spliced to the Internet. The potential to waste time in vain pursuits shared equally with the power to topple governments.

But I digress. What I am really talking about is the opportunity for Steve to play with gear. And Steve likey the toys.

The studio I’ve set up is man-portable, folding up into a few large equipment boxes. Not fun to trudge around town with, but in a pinch a single person should be able to transport all the gear in one trip to set up pretty much anywhere.

Based around a Roland VR-5 video mixing board, up to three live video feeds can be mixed with pre-recorded media and computer output and output via built in USB interface to a computer. I’ve got a Mac mini set up as a media server/titleing machine and a MacBook air with Ustream Pro as the primary uplink computer. Of course it can just as easily output to Twitcasting, Livestream, or Vidcaster. There is also a Behringer Xenyx 1002FX audio mixer to augment the VR-5′s more basic sound mixing capabilities, and a Shure SM48 dynamic microphone, as well as an old classic iPod for audio. Finally I threw in a cheapie crapgadget 10 inch display that can serve as a display for the Mac mini, and output or preview monitor for the VR-5.

The end result of all of this is a setup that could theoretically be handled through the Ustream Pro software interface, but in practice would overload a server class computer in seconds. And what can I say, I really, really like having lots of buttons and dials to work with rather than fiddling with setup menus and drop down options.

Serving as cameras I have my aging Sony HDR-CX520 camcorder and my new wireless cambot. If I continue down this path of destruction I’ll likely have to augment this and am stealing glances at the new Sony NEX-VG20 as a possible future addition.

Combined, this setup allows me to effectively run a small live TV production studio. Better yet, I can move it around and set the whole thing up pretty much anywhere (with an Internet connection) in about an hour (a bit slow due to my phobia of wires). I’ll be running the first production test of this full setup at the Belgian Beer Weekend at Roppongi Hills this coming weekend if anyone wants to check it out in person, and hope to be able to push the power of the studio in some other projects in development. Of course if anyone is interested in hiring my studio to stream an event , i’d love the help to offset the cost of the equipment. As they say, no job too small, no fee too big!

Of course as with all of my creations the studio is a work in progress and I’ll be enhancing and tweaking along the way. Always looking for suggestions on improving the setup or new gear recommendations so if you have any thoughts, please drop a line in the comments.

Just put the finishing touches on my new wireless camera platform. It’s still a bit rough and I know there’s a revision on the way, but it came out surprisingly well for a first draft.

The head is a .3 MP CCD camera attached to a 1.2 ghz wireless transmitter. The antenna for the transmitter makes up the right arm and I threw in an LED lamp for a left arm for balance. Loose cables and a monster 6,800 maH LiOn battery fill the backpack.

Range is a bit of a problem. I think it will reliably transmit about 10 meters with Line of sight, maybe further, but indoors through walls that’s about the limit. I need to work on an improved antenna for the receiver to improve that range.

It’s basically just a webcam on a tripod (an old Gorillapod I had lying around) but I wanted to do something fun with it. It’s pretty fun to put it on a table somewhere and have people say “hi”. I guess future versions can add things like a pivot head and facial recognition, as well as a mobile base to turn it into a full robot, but overall not a bad project with some random parts I had lying around and about $10 in pieces for the body.

What do you think? What does the next draft need?

On a walk this afternoon through the Akihabara area I found a neat little space. About three blocks north of Akiba station, hidden under the tracks is this gem. Last time I saw this area, it was a dark and kinda scary storage space. Actually I thought about using it as a backdrop for some photography projects. Now, it’s been cleaned up, painted and converted into a mini artspace.

There is a large open gallery, lots of small boutique shops typical hipster goods. Even a cafe with free wifi, power plugs and free to use iPads! With comiket in town, Akiba is even more packed than normal, but just a few hundred meters off the main drag this space is quiet and cool.

Not sure how long this will last, but if you need a quiet break near Akihabara, might be fun to check it out.

2k540 AKI-OKA ARTISAN
http://www.jrtk.jp/2k540/

Oooo So many toys!

Made some updates to my desk so I thought I would throw down a quick post.

First of all, I found this great flexible arm for iPads at the Rare Mono shop in Akihabara.  I’m not entirely sold on the positioning right now.  it’s a bit high and I don’t have quite the range of motion I would like, but it does work pretty well.  It’s particularly nice when using it to stream media (like old Firefly episodes) while I am typing away.  As an added bonus I can slave the screen and use it for a second monitor.  It’s also a pretty good setup for using the iPad with facetime and Skype for videoconferencing.  Would be perfect for Google+ hangouts, but no support on iOS yet.

Also added a lamp, mainly to help or videoconferencing.  Unfortunately monitor light alone makes me look even more zombielike than usual so the added light should help keep The Walking Dead references to a minimum.

The desk is getting pretty crowded with all the gear loaded up on it.  I’m sure I get more than my recommended daily allowance of EM radiation from all of this.  But what would I do without my toys?

Anyone care to try to identify the rest of the gear in the shot?

Ever hunting for the ultimate mobile setup, I’ve just put the finishing touches on my latest revision of my mobile workstation. This time around, I’m aided with a new MacBook Air 11 inch laptop for a “Pro” configuration.

With the new Sandybridge 1.8ghz i7 chip, this tiny netbook size computer packs some big-boy scale power, enough to let me tether the iPad 2 as a second monitor using the Avatron Air Display app. This way I can run the system as either a dual monitor computer or as two separate machines. I can also add a Bluetooth keyboard and a wireless trackpad to the mix to get that full desktop experience.

Throw in the iPhone for video chatting and etc, and I have three powerful computers that can work together and have enough power to run a small TV station or two Japanese nuclear power plants.

The scary part about this is that including the stands and a wireless cellular router for Internet anywhere, the entire setup weighs just over five pounds, or less than a 15 inch MacBook Pro laptop and it all fits inside the smallest laptop bag I own. Of course I expect a few stares if I set the whole thing up in a cafe and start coordinating an orbital launch while munching a scone.

Progress has allowed us to make computers lighter, smaller, more powerful, and even cheaper at a frightening pace. I expect in just a couple of years I’ll look at this setup and scoff at it’s pitiful specs. But I figure this should last a few months or so.

Would you go out in public with a rig like this? Post a comment below and let me know.

Today has been a very surreal day. Online, I have been following continued scandals in Media with the #notw, Japan has seen quite a few developments in recovery efforts from the earthquake, food contamination and continued problems with the nuclear reactors, and a major story development with the sentencing of Lindsey Hawker’s killer. Not to mention a major OS upgrade for Apple computers, 2 new models, both in my potential upgrade path.

In the real world, it’s been a normal, very pleasant day. Had lunch with a good friend, met another later on for a quick chat and update. Not to mention phenomenal weather. Starting to feel a split between my real and online persona and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. Online I feel tied to a world much larger than myself and follow events that have little to do with me personally, yet when I look at the real world around me, I feel like I could turn it all off and lose nothing.

Or maybe I just need some caffeine

A couple of weeks ago, my home NAS (network attached storage) device started showing errors. A 2 terabyte Buffalo Quad drive array, I had this system set up just as a home media server. For about 3 years it’s done a pretty good job, but I was not surprised to see the system starting to go. After all I run the server 24/7 and this is a consumer grade NAS, so I guess it was about time. I picked up a replacement drive and started a recovery cycle. With a 2TB system of course this takes a while. I was expecting less than 24 hours, so when I noticed the drive still recovering after a day I checked up on the system. Total crash.

Of course I’m not happy about this. Over the next week and repeated attempts to recover the drive, the process continued to get stuck at about 80% and then died. Since I have no critical files stored on the drive (mostly tv shows and movies, and all my audio files have a redundant backup) I gave up. After all, a Raid 5 array is supposed to prevent problems like this from happening and this isn’t the first time a Buffalo drive has left me in a lurch.

So since I am working on this whole data reform thing, I decided to bring my whole network up to code. The Buffalo NAS is now headed for the scrap heap and I have replaced it with a Data Robotics Drobo FS. Rather than going with a traditional NAS array, the Drobo offers a unique system that allows you to mix and match any hard drives to create a storage array. You can live swap in and out drives (one at a time) without any data loss and I can upgrade the five bay array as I need more space. I started out with two new 2.5TB drives found at a very reasonable 6,800 yen in Akihabara and filled out the last three bays with 500 GB drives salvaged from the Buffalo. Together that gives me 6.5TB of space with a usable area of 3.6TB. The redundancy requires the loss of usable area, but as I replace the old 500GB drives with larger drives I’ll get better efficiency.

(in the picture, some remnants of my old network. An old Mac mini w/ external drive and my old Airport Express)

While I was at it, I replaced by Apple Airport Extreme base station with a new Apple Time Capsule Router/NAS. The Airport was even older than the Buffalo and was getting near end of life. I’ll be able to move my Time Machine backups currently being save to a FireWire external drive to the time capsule putting all backups on my network. The FireWire drive will become a workspace drive and that pretty much leaves my desktop machine clean. Should a quake hit tomorrow knocking my computer desk over, I should be able to recover everything with little to no data loss. The final step will be to automate online backups for critical files and high priority media (photos, video projects, work files etc.) and we should be set.

This also is a good time for me to clean out old drives and servers from my closet. I still had my first generation Terastation, the first NAS I used almost a decade ago (when one terabyte was more space than anyone needed), and it will also be making an appearance on the trash heap. One thing that made me laugh was that to remove the drives from the Terastation, I had to nearly disassemble the entire machine. Over 40 screws had to be taken out and the whole unit broken down into almost 10 pieces just to take out a single drive. Another thing that I like about the Drobo is that it is insanely easy to upgrade the drives. No screwdriver required, I can just slot new drives in right out of the box. I don’t even power the unit down, just have to wait for the array to stabilize after I remove a drive, then pop the new drive in and wait a few seconds and it’s ready to go. Very much like the Apple philosophy of “it just works”.

We’ll have to see how long this configuration will survive. I’ll be happy if it goes at least two years, but these days it’s so hard to predict future developments. Now for the hard part, organizing all my data and information. Will be looking at some tools to help with that in future posts.