my.bicycle

, originally uploaded by maggot .

ＣＭカット機種、生産中止へ…民放批判に配慮(読売新聞) [Japanese language article]: Starting this spring, Japanese manufacturers will cease producing broadcast recording devices which auto-skip commercials. This is apparently due to pressure from an alliance of commercial broadcasters. Once again, consumer-facing features are removed by corporate interests. Sorry, wait, who is paying for these devices? The users, right? This consortium isn't offering to buy my next HDD recorder, is it? This technology has been in place since 1990. When I lived in Kyoto in 1994, my used (salvaged from the curb junk) VHS deck had auto-skip. It with the feature enabled, it would fast-forward through the break, and stop with less than 2 seconds of real-time gap before resuming play of the desirable content. It seemed like magic at the time.

Japan's giant net to trawl for space junk - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Japan's space agency has joined forces with a fishing company to build a giant net several kilometres in size to collect debris littering space. The agency plans to attach the thin metal net to a satellite and will then detach it so it can orbit Earth. It will snare hundreds of thousands of pieces of junk threatening satellites and space shuttles. The net and its contents will eventually be drawn back towards Earth and will burn up while entering the atmosphere. The super-strong space net is being developed with a 100-year-old Japanese fishing net company and is designed to catch small particles as well as larger objects such as spent rocket stages.