So, I decided to purchase one of the less expensive titles that I had a DVD copy of on hand for comparison — The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie. So here are a few screen shots to compare the iTunes version and the DVD version. The screen shots were captured at their respective native resolutions using OSX’s built-in screen capture utility. The iTunes version was, of course, grabbed while playing it in iTunes. The DVD was captured while playing it back in VLC. In the DVD captures, I trimmed the letterbox region. Sorry if they aren’t exactly the same frames in each case, its kinda difficult getting frame perfect in the iTunes player. Take these more as representative samples.
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The problem is a case can easily negate the advantage of the DS Lite’s size. I like that it can easily fit in my pocket — a case would bulk it up too much to do that. Well, today when looking around the video games section of Hiroshima’s Giga store, I found the perfect solution for me. It seems Takara-Tomy has, uh, “borrowed” an idea from Apple and recently released a sock sleeve for the DS Lite.

The Lite Slipon Socks fit the DS Lite snuggly, protecting all but one edge (which doesn’t seem a problem to me, it was the top and bottom faces that I got scratches on, not the sides). It doesn’t add much bulk, so its still easy to pocket. No joy for regular DS owners, its too small to fit the larger version. You also can’t put it in the sleeve with a GBA cartridge inserted (but of course a DS cartridge is no problem). It comes in three colors: gray, pink and blue (shown in the picture). There are also some “Like Leather” versions with a genuine fake leather appearance in a variety of leather and non-leather colors.
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I haven’t given out the number to much of anyone since I was hoping to transfer my old cell number over from T-Mobile (its pretty obvious I won’t be using it again anytime soon). Alas, they weren’t able to do it and after my previous difficulties moving the number from Alltel to T-Mobile, I decided not to fight it. So I have a new number that is supposedly a local call from Tucson. If you’re interested in calling me, I can email it to you. Receiving calls for me is free and assuming you’re in Tucson it should be free for you too. Just keep in mind the time zone difference…

Oh, and if you’d like to sign up, let me know — they have a referral program that will give you a free month of service.

Coming to the rescue is the QR barcode format. Unlike the ones you find on your cereal box, these are a 2-D matrix like the ones on package tracking slips. They’re commonly used here as a way of making it easy to grab URL’s for web sites. The QR code is printed on the poster or flyer & you just take a picture of it and its automatically translated into a bookmark. For example, here’s one for TKK:

Another twist is support for address book entries. Some people have these on their business cards, one snap and you’ve got the info on the card in your phonebook. I’m going to print up my basic contact info on a sticker and put it on my phone. That way when I need to trade contact info with someone, I can just point them to the barcode on the phone.

Granted all phones here have had IR ports for data exchange for ages (even the ones in the US do, I transfered a lot of data from my T-Mobile phone to my Docomo one with the IR port). But those transfers take a bunch of button presses to get going and I don’t think most people have a clue how to do it. But everyone knows how to use their phone’s camera…

There are various programs and web sites that will create the codes for you. However the mobile codeatron is the first one I’ve found in English that formats the contents just right for the phone books on Japanese cell phones. Yeah, I know that isn’t useful for you in the US, but there are a few people reading on this side of the of the Pacific too. And you elsewhere can take it as a preview of things to come.

Here’s an example of what it can do, a picture taken from front of the office, looking towards my house (its the two story one with a garage under in at the left of center):

Anyways, if anyone needs either my keitai number or keitai email address, let me know.

Anyways, I did at least get a new toy to keep me occupied for a little bit (well, at least last night as I was setting it up). Its the Epson PM-A850 scanner/printer combo and I’ll have to say it produces pretty nice results. I was stunned at how huge and tank like it was, since I usually figured Japanese models were designed to be less space consuming. Shakes the table pretty good when printing too. It also scans negatives, so I’ll have to get some of those from home sometime to work on again (since I couldn’t get my old SCSI film scanner working with a firewire adaptor when I was back in the US).
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Figure I might as well mention a few of my other daily reads along those lines. Of course there are probably no geeks that don’t hit Dilbert and MegaTokyo on a regular basis as well as User Friendly. A couple of my personal favorites though are Ozy & Millie for its wonderfully sardonic wit and Kevin & Kell for its well realized world of predator and prey with a twisted sociological and technological spin. And, alas less frequently, there’s Sabrina Online.
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