Udon combo in Tokyo.
(Credit: Dave Rosenberg)Just when you thought your noodle waterslide was the height of Japanese food gadgetry, a ramen shop in Minami-Alps, Yamanashi, Japan, is gaining popularity for its robot chef.
Technically the robot doesn't make the noodles, instead assembling the bowl, including the customized flavor options. Customers place orders on a computer, customizing aspects such as the levels of soy sauce and salt, and richness of the soup. Shop owner Yoshihara Uchida says there are 40 million different flavor permutations.
The noodles themselves are cooked by a human, with the robot creating a perfectly blended soup which is then delivered to the human chef via a conveyor belt, who adds the noodles and toppings. The whole process takes only about two minutes, a minute shorter than instant cup noodles.
The robot was completed in December 2008 after five years of trial and error, including computer crashes caused by spilled soup. Uchida wants to mass produce the robot in the future and "leave my mark out there," which means one day you too can have a ramen robot.
Previous and related noodle news:
Gadget watch: Noodle waterslide
The best of Japanese food technology: Ramen Radar
Woman eats 383 bowls of soba in 10 minutes (video)
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In addition to new features such as support for HTML 5, geo-location, and a noticeably faster engine, Firefox 3.5 added a new CSS rule that makes Web typography much more attractive.
@font-face is a CSS rule that allows Web designers to reference fonts not installed on end-user machines. Just as you would have a pointer to a server-based stylesheet or JavaScript file in your Web page code, you can now make reference to a hosted typeface.
You'll note that news sites such as CNET News and NYTimes.com are optimized to make Web type more readable and as stylish as possible, but there are many design possibilities via additional downloadable typefaces. (As with any linked asset, there is some level of security risk if a hacker gets their hands on the font file.)
Mozilla's John Daggett explains: Within a stylesheet, each @font-face rule defines a family name to be used, the font resource to be loaded, and the style characteristics of a given face such as whether it's bold or italic. Firefox 3.5 only downloads the fonts as needed, so a stylesheet can list a whole set of fonts of which only a select few will actually be used.
This function is something I would have expected to be commonplace by now (Safari began supporting it in Version 3.1 and Opera in Version 10) but neither have the market share to drive usage the way Firefox and Internet Explorer do. (Note: this function doesn't work in IE.)
Generally speaking, the Web browser has done a terrible job with type. We've been stuck with old standbys such as Helvetica or Times New Roman, and don't forget the oft-loathed Comic-Sans and other delightful Microsoft fonts that are often easy to read but lack any real style (Verdana, for example.)
... Read more
"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with Starcraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with Starcraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games," a Blizzard representative said in a statement. "While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with Starcraft II and safeguard against piracy."
That statement sounds a bit self-serving to me, as most people don't care about piracy problems (even if they are real.) The justification for the decision should really be in support of Battle.net, a case where "cloud" supposedly means more than just an Internet connection, offering a platform that enhances the game play and leads to more interaction amongst players.
"Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we're encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of Starcraft II," the statement continued.
Some users lament the idea of cloud game platforms as causes of latency and other possible game-play issues, but I suspect that things will balance out. Most online games are already pretty good at making the most of available bandwidth and odds are the new features will encourage users to stay on regardless.
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Wakamatsu Park in Kobe, Japan, will soon play host to the latest member of a robot army. A life-size Tetsujin (aka Gigantor) robot, 60 feet tall and weighing nearly 50 tons, will be on permanent display starting in October. Tetsujin joins a life-size Gundam, built in Odaiba.
According to the AnimeNewsNetwork, "The Kobe Tetsujin Project's statue is intended as a symbol of the city's revival after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It is being built in Nagata Ward, the city's hardest hit neighborhood which has since been rebuilt and revitalized. The statue also celebrates the life of one of Kobe's most well-known native sons, as Yokoyama not only created the Tetsujin 28 manga and anime, but also Giant Robo and Sally the Witch."
... Read moreJapanese copier maker Ricoh launched "quanp," a new cloud storage service in beta a few months back and has decided to extend the beta period in the U.S. to garner more community participation and feedback.
'quanp' is short for "quantum paper" and apparently refers to Ricoh's interest in extending the reach of documents and creating interconnections between devices. The service calls itself a "new visual online storage service that intends to be the online spot for collecting and organizing all of your digital life memories."
To this end, Ricoh created a Windows client with a slick 3D interface centered on the idea that if you got used to sifting through your data, using it, and sharing it, then you wouldn't even notice that you have it nicely backed up in the cloud.
For Mac and Linux users, there's a browser version though clearly they have not put as much effort into that approach. (I would argue the browser is all that matters, but in Japan Windows dominates.) There is also a new desktop widget called "quanp drop" for automated uploads.
Users would be more likely to backup and organize their private data if the process wasn't tedious, according to Sho Harada, senior manager of quanp.
"Quanp's 3D view is just one way we're working to allow people to engage with their digital life memories more actively. Based on your input, we're building something that's not only super useful but fun to use, too."
It all sounds good, but quanp has its work cut out out for it. A wide range of backup, storage and syncing services are available for consumers. And quanp's beta clearly has room to improve. The upside is that Japanese companies tend to stay committed long after their American counterparts give up. Having the well-respected Ricoh name backing this service also helps.
You can get more information and a video that explains their service on the quanp site. Sign up and give them your feedback.
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China has unveiled the first official rule on the use of virtual currency in the trade of real goods and services to limit possible impact on the real financial system. The Chinese government also spelled out the definition of "virtual currency" for the first time, which includes prepaid cards of cybergames, according to a joint announcement from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce Friday. It said:
The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services.
The ban is primarily aimed at "gold farming," an Internet-age phenomenon in which players in less developed countries collect and sell virtual gold (common to games like World of Warcraft) to wealthier gamers in the developed world. This enables gamers who have the means to buy virtual gold to get ahead in the games without actually having to accomplish the grunt work.
The trading of virtual currency for real cash generates between $200 million and $1 billion annually, according to a 2008 survey conducted by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester.
... Read moreChubu International Airport has bought several three-wheeled Toyota i-Real vehicles to be used by security and service personnel. The tricycles can operate at a top speed of 15 kilometers per hour and will carry emergency medical kits and computers that will allow airport staff to check flight schedules for passengers.
While they'r clearly not the fastest mode of transportation, I like the idea that RoboCop can tell me if my flight is on time.
(Via JapanProbe)
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I was somewhat shocked by the stellar results Oracle recently reported, considering the sorry state of the economy. I even called an analyst friend to find out if maybe there was some house of cards ala Computer Associated that explained the consistent rise in revenue and margin. But I was reminded of two simple facts explaining why Oracle remains dominant:
- Applications drive database sales
- Oracle owns pretty much everything
Oracle's acquisition streak has given the company an enormous breadth of offerings (say what you will about quality of the software) and the attempt at offering it's own Linux variant gives it an OS that's passable if not meaningful. But, I don't know that owning the operating system is important to the growth of sales in applications or databases. (Note: Matt Asay wrote a very good post about why Ubuntu should be Oracle's Linux of choice.)
Oracle applications and databases have to run on an operating system, but the operating system doesn't necessarily drive software sales, or sell databases. The OS may be a point of influence, but doesn't drive the dollar values that you get from software.
Meanwhile, Oracle has amassed such a wealth of software that it can not only drive it's own database sales through upgrades and replacements (JD Edwards or Siebel running on DB2 seems unlikely) but it can up-sell databases to customers of BEA or any of the other myriad applications it now owns.
Add MySQL into the equation and Oracle can sell you a database pretty much anytime for any purpose, to support any application (which you can probably buy from them too.)
This leads into some questions regarding Cisco's strategy, based on the idea that hardware should sell applications, as well as IBM's strategy, where services have often sold software and hardware. The future is of course a mix of all of these strategies, but it's not clear that another company is as well positioned as Oracle.
While certainly not unstoppable, Oracle's execution has been very impressive, especially in a down economy.
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Studies that look at the effects of video games on kids have been mostly positive of late, with a focus on safe virtual worlds, and devices such as the Nintendo Wii that encourage physical activity.
The new report "Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children's Learning and Health" (PDF) urges educators as well as government and the health care industry to look beyond the stereotype of video games as harmful.
Video games have been shown to help children learn vital foundational and 21st-century skills, including:
- Content (from rich vocabulary to science to history)
- Skills (from literacy to math to complex problem-solving)
- Creation of artifacts (from videos to software code)
- Systems thinking (how changing one element affects relationships as a whole)
Nielsen is out with a new report on media consumption by teens and the results are counter-intuitive to what we commonly believe to be the norm. According to the How Teens Use Media report (PDF), "teens exhibit media habits that are more similar to the total population than not."
Key takeaways from the report:
- Teens are not abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6 percent over the past five years in the U.S.
- Teens love the Internet, but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online. Far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
- Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them: Teens spend 35 percent less time watching online video than adults 25-34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on television.
- Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio, and even like advertising more than most: Teens who recall TV ads are 44 percent more likely to say they liked the ad.
- Teens play video games, but their tastes aren't all for the blood-and-guts style games. Just two of their top five most-anticipated games since 2005 have been rated "Mature."
- Teens' favorite TV shows, top Web sites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as their parents: For U.S. teens, American Idol was the top show in 2008, Google the top website and general dramas are a preferred TV genre for teens around the world.
One of the more interesting findings from the report is the realization that today's teens are not uniquely wired, but are an "artifact of larger, demographically broader shifts in media behavior. Teens are wildly different--not from other consumers today, but from teens of generations past."
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