Otaku no Podcast » Cool Finds

Cool Find: Square Credit Card Processing System

Donald Burr — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:18:44 +0000

Are you an artist that sells regularly in your friendly neighborhood anime convention’s Artist Alley? Or are you a small to mid sized dealer in anime/manga related goods looking to sell your wares at your favorite anime convention’s dealer’s room? Maybe you’re a cosplay photographer looking for a way to monetize your photography skills. Or perhaps your anime club or anime convention has an anime swap meet, where people can go sell their used stuff that’s cluttering up space in their room, and you’d like to give that a shot sometime?

Odds are, you’ve probably had the burning frustration of not being to accept payment from a potential customer. Either they, ahem, don’t happen to have enough cash on them (if they even have any at all), or they try and foist a check off on you – and you know how risky that can be these days!

But what if none of the above applies to you? No no, don’t stop reading yet. I’m sure that you’ve had something like this happen to you: you’re out having lunch/dinner/snacks or bar hopping with friends, but when it’s time to pay the piper, your “friends” conveniently are unable to pay you… “…oh, oops, looks like I don’t have enough cash on me. Can I pay you back next Tuesday?” Or what if you’re going to an anime con with friends and sharing a hotel room? You want to get their money as soon as possible from them, before they “accidentally” go blow it all in the dealer’s room…

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could accept credit cards? Just about everybody has either a credit card or a debit card (one that’s linked to a bank account) these days. Unfortunately, accepting credit card payments has, until now, been reserved for the big time business person. You’d have to set up a special merchant’s account with your bank (that costs money). You’d need to buy or rent one of those big clunky credit card processing machines (that also costs money). And you’d have to pay monthly fees to maintain your merchant status (and yes, that also costs money).

But now there’s Square.

Co-created by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey (who are famous for another technology they created that’s gone big time, a little service called Twitter, Square is, to put it simply, credit card processing for the rest of us. You don’t need any special merchant account. You do need a bank account (this is how they send your payments to you), but it can be a regular old checking account at any US bank.

After you create your Square account and add your banking info, they will ship you — for free — a small device that plugs into your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android smartphone’s headphone jack. This little gem is a real credit card swiper. Download their free app (for iOS or Android). When you’re ready to take a payment from someone, you fire up the app, type in the amount of money you’re charging them (you can even add a picture and/or description of whatever it is you’re selling, assuming you’re selling something), and swipe their card (they accept the big 4 credit card companies: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover). Then hand your phone (or iPod touch, or iPad) to the buyer. They sign their name on your device’s screen, and enter either a phone number or an e-mail address. The Square software automatically sends them their receipt (either by SMS or e-mail). And you’re all done!

There are no monthly fees, and the Square reader is free. They charge a 2.75% fee per transaction (so, if you sell something for $20, their “cut” is 55 cents). This is actually fairly competitive with what regular credit card merchants pay, and is actually cheaper than PayPal’s fees. And there are no hidden fees or other funny business. Every few days, the money you’ve accumulated (minus Square’s cut) gets automatically deposited into your bank account. Easy peasy. And at any time you can log in to your Square account and get an up-to-the-minute accounting of your sales history, and can even download it in a form that you can easily import into a spreadsheet so you can perform all sorts of weird data analysis on it.

More and more, I’m seeing these devices in use at conventions, either by artists doing business in artist’s alley; smaller dealers/vendors; and average schmucks like you and me. (Why, one of our co-hosts used it at a convention recently to accept payments at their dealer’s room table even!)

Set up an account today and they’ll ship your reader right away. In the meantime, download the app for iOS devices or Android devices. Check out the videos below the cut to see Square in action.

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Cool Find: ProPlayer Video Player for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad

Donald Burr — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Those of us that have collections of anime videos on our hard drives (unlicensed only, please; and please support the creators by buying the title when it becomes officially licensed in your region, blah blah blah) are presented with a problem when we want to enjoy said content in places other than sitting right in front of your computer. I’ve been on a quest of sorts over the past few years to find tools to help with this scenario, which I’ve written about before. And, indeed, products like Air Video, Meridian Media Player and the WD TV Live work beautifully and allow us to free ourselves from the confines of our computer monitors.

But what if you want to enjoy your content when you’re out and about, away from home, and on the go? The WD TV Live isn’t an option for obvious reasons, and Air Video doesn’t work either, because you’re not within range of your WiFi network and your home computer. If you’ve got an Android phone, Meridian works well. And, indeed, it worked quite well for me, while I had an Android phone. But then, in January (or was it February? I forget) Apple announced that the iPhone was coming to Verizon.

Now I don’t want to get into any smartphone/OS holy wars here. Suffice it to say that, much as I liked my Android experience, I still prefer iOS devices and iPhones. The UI is more refined, the phone performs better and the battery lasts much longer. But, alas, there is no Meridian player for iOS. Yes, I could use something like the excellent (not to mention free) HandBrake to convert my video files and load them into iTunes, but that is a clunky extra step to have to go through. What I liked about Meridian was that all I had to do was mount my phone’s SD card and drag my video files onto it.

Well, I’ve finally found something comparable in the iOS world: ProPlayer. It can play just about every video file format under the sun, including those oh-so-pesky MKV files, and it supports one of the most common subtitle file formats (SRT). You can load your video content onto your device using iTunes’ app file sharing mechanism — not as easy as Meridian/Android’s drag-and-drop, but not too bad. And once the files are on the device, you can use the ProPlayer app to organize them in folders. You can even password protect certain folders of your choosing, for, ahem, “those” certain types of files that you’d rather your mother or girlfriend not see.

Now for the bad news. Unfortunately it doesn’t support the other most common subtitle file format, SSA/ASS. You can work around this by loading up said subtitles in an external subtitle editor program such as Jubler (really good, and it’s free too) and save them out in SRT format. It doesn’t support FLAC (lossless) audio tracks (but fortunately those are fairly rare, and can be down converted to AC3 or MP3 if needed). And it doesn’t support multiple audio tracks, which you don’t see very often “in the wild”; however if you’ve made rips of your own anime DVDs and preserved both the English and Japanese audio, it will only play the “first” audio track that it finds.

It is compatible with the iPhone 3GS and above (including the new iPhone 4S), iPod touch (3rd generation or later), and iPad, and can be purchased on the App Store for $2.99, a fantastic price for such a capable piece of software. Go grab it today on the App Store.

Cool Find: Alice in Musicland – A Vocaloid Musical

Donald Burr — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:52:09 +0000

Happy Monday, everyone! (Sighs and groans of protest emanate from the audience) Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: it’s a Monday, what can be good about that? Well, I’ve found something that will put a smile on your face, especially if you’re a Vocaloid fan. Hell, I think you’ll get a kick out of it even if you aren’t into Vocaloids. So grab yourself a bottle of MORNING RESCUE!!!! and read on!

I know, I know, a lot of you are probably yelling at your screens “Vocaloids AGAIN??!” Vocaloid fever has certainly swept the world, and there are quite a few people who just Don’t Get It™. I know a few of my friends fall into this camp, same with certain podcasters out there. I think what a lot of these naysayers are getting hung up on is that they are thinking of Hatsune Miku & friends as replacements for human singers. After all, when you look at events such as Mikunopolis (which was AWESOME!!! by the way), us anime fans can’t help but draw parallels to those famous virtual idols of anime such as Eve from Megazone 23 and Sharon Apple from Macross Plus.

Well, I think people who are thinking like this are missing the point. The way I see it, the Vocaloid characters are, to put it bluntly, window dressing. The real win here is the Vocaloid software itself, which, when you think about it, is an amazing technological achievement. And it’s the final component in the amateur song creator’s toolbox. Think about it. We now have computers on our desks (and in our backpacks and book bags) that are powerful enough to allow us to create music. High quality microphones are inexpensive and easy to set up, and with technologies such as MIDI, it’s easier than ever to bring music into the digital realm. But even if you’ve never touched an instrument in your life, you can still create great-sounding music thanks to “loop” and musical instrument synthesis software such as GarageBand, Reason, Acid, etc.

But the one thing that’s been missing is the human voice. Because, let’s face it, not all of us have the best voice out there. (And only Bob Dylan has the chops to pull off the whole “singing with a less than perfect voice” schtick.) So yeah, you might be able to create an awesome song, but you weren’t able to give it a voice. (It’s not like you could call up Hikaru Utada or something and ask her to record your song for you.) But now that Vocaloid is out there, your musical toolbox is complete. And there’s quite a selection of voices to choose from, one to suit every mood — Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Len and Rin, MEIKO, KAITO, etc., not to mention their APPEND versions, etc., and more planned for the future.

In fact, Vocaloid has spearheaded a huge upsurge in doujin music. If you look on places like YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, you’ll find all sorts of people using it in new and interesting ways. (And, yes, old and derivative ways as well.)

OSTER Project is one such person. She has a wide ranging body of work, both original and cover songs/arrangements, and has worked on non-Vocaloid projects as well, including themes for net games and other material meant for actual human singers. And she has recently released a truly amazing work. Taking songs from her fourth album Cinnamon Philosophy, and borrowing heavily from classic Disneyesque musicals, she released a truly amazing video, “Alice in Musicland,” that takes our favorite Vocaloids and mashes them up with Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice in Wonderland.” The result: A truly amazing work that (IMHO) will appeal to even non-Vocaloid fans, because it appeals to one of our core ideals, the happiness and unity that music can bring to the world.

Watch it on YouTube or via the embedded player below the cut.

Bravo!!

Hentai PC dating-sim games at J-List

Cool Find: My Anime Girlfriend

Donald Burr — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:53:58 +0000

C’mon, admit it. I’m sure that, at least once or twice in your life, you’ve wondered what it would be like if you could date your favorite anime character. Well, as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it, and it might not be quite what you’d imagined it to be…

My Anime Girlfriend is a fun series of web shorts that details the life and adventures of Sid, your plain old everyman, who’s been extremely unlucky in love. One day his well-meaning colleague sets him up with Yuruki, a cheerful and very animated girl. And thus begin their misadventures in life and love, while taking on various anime tropes and stereotypes along the way.

This fun series is brought to you by the writer & executive Producer of Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans, and features Patrick Shepherd, John Gemberling, and the voice of SNL’s Abby Elliott.

Unfortunately there are only 4 episodes made so far. This is a really neat idea and I sincerely hope that the creators will continue with it; there is certainly no shortage of anime tropes and stereotypes that can be explored in any number of doubtlessly entertaining ways.

Go check it out today! Video of Episode 1 below the cut.

(Thanks to Twitter follower @predederva for this most excellent Cool Find!)

My Anime Girlfriend Channel
Get More: Atom.com | Funny Videos | Tournament | Upload

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Cool Find: Western Digital WD TV Live

Donald Burr — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:11:58 +0000

This is sort of a half-Cool Find, half-review type article.

For the last few years I have been on a quest — a quest to free my anime from the confines of my computer screen.

Many others out there have shared this quest, I’m sure. After all, although watching anime on your computer is nice (especially with the mega-HD resolution monitors of today), it’s still nice to get away from the computer every now and then. Maybe we want to consume our anime while out and about; fortunately there are devices and software that make it relatively easy to do so, such as iPods, iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones/tablets and the Archos 5, and software such as Meridian, Air Video, and Crunchyroll for iPhone or Android.

But what if we want to enjoy anime on the big screen, using your home theater system?

This is particularly desirable nowadays, when more and more anime are being made in HD quality with multi-channel surround sound. The problem however is getting your anime to the big screen. You could hook your computer up to your home theater system, but that’s a rather clumsy and complicated solution, and most computer interfaces aren’t well suited to the “lean back experience” you get in a home theater setting. With some special software, you can use most current-gen game consoles as media streaming devices. However I’ve found that setting up this software can be tricky at best, and downright impossible at worst. Or you could get one of a variety of media center set-top boxes. Unfortunately picking the right set-top box is challenging, mostly due to the wide variety of formats that downloaded anime comes in these days. Add to that the complexity of multiple audio tracks and subtitles, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for pain and disappointment.

Well, I have tried just about every set top out there and have found one that is just about perfect — the Western Digital WD TV Live.

It’s a pretty small thing, about the size and weight of a small paperback book, and will easily fit in even the most crowded A/V shelf. It doesn’t give off a lot of heat either. With connections for component and composite video, digital optical audio and HDMI, the WD TV Live will easily hook in to your other devices. It also has a USB port, which is used for expansion (more on that later) as well as storage — the idea being that you can plug in a USB hard drive full of media and play that. But that’s not what we’re really interested in: we want to be able to stream our media off of our home network. For that, the WD TV Live has a built-in Ethernet port. The WD TV Live is also capable of accessing WiFi, but that requires a USB WiFi adapter, sold separately. You can access your files off of your network using the Windows file sharing protocol, which fortunately pretty much every other OS speaks.

The user interface is functional, but a bit on the klunky side. Accessing some functions requires you to scroll through several levels of menu items. But it’s not too bad. It doesn’t have the elegant simplicity of an Apple product, but it isn’t the worst I’ve seen either. You’ll get used to it in no time.

Now here’s the good news: the WD TV Live plays just about every video format under the sun. H.264, XviD, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV… it plays ‘em all. I threw every oddball file I had at it and it played them beautifully. The only file it was unable to play was one particularly large (over 8 GB) MPEG-4; but that could have been because it was a bad file (I have problems playing that file on my computer too). And, best of all, it supports those pesky Matroska (MKV) files! Files with multiple audio tracks are supported. And subtitles are supported as well, in all the common formats (SSA, ASS, SRT, SUB, and SMI), both in “sidecar” files (subtitles in their own file) as well as embedded as part of the MKV file. Unfortunately some more advanced subtitle functions don’t appear to be supported (different fonts, colors, on-screen positioning, etc.) but the subtitle support is good enough to where I’m happy. (A press of a button during playback will bring up a menu where you can easily switch between audio and subtitle tracks.)

The WD TV Live also supports playback of audio and photos, but I don’t really see that as this device’s real strength. (I suppose you could use it to show off your latest anime con pics, or listen to your favorite anime OST’s or whatever.) However it also supports streaming content from several online sources, including Blockbuster, Netflix, Pandora, Flickr, YouTube and several others. Netflix, in particular, is of interest to us anime fans, as they now have a rather impressive collection of anime available for online streaming, and that collection is growing every day.

Finally, let’s talk price. At $80, I think this is a really good deal for what you get.

Overall I am quite happy with the WD TV Live. My quest to unleash my anime from the confines of my computer, and bring it to the big screen, is now complete.

Pros:

Supports just about every video format under the sun (including MKV containers)
Supports subtitles, both as separate “sidecar” files (SSA/ASS/SRT) as well as embedded in MKV’s
Supports most of the popular Internet streaming video sources.

Cons:

User interface is a bit clunky, not as elegant as an Apple product
WiFi support only with purchase of a separate WiFi adapter
only supports Windows networking (SMB)
does not support some advanced subtitle attributes (fonts, color, etc.)

Overall Rating:

Rating: ★★★★½

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Hentai PC dating-sim games at J-List

Cool Find: Ren’Py

Donald Burr — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:33:07 +0000

During my recent flirtation with visual novels, a question popped into my head: is there such a thing as a game mod for visual novel/dating sim type games? “Modding” a game is when you take the game’s engine and modify or otherwise hack it to add your own content into the game, fundamentally changing its gameplay. One of the most famous examples of this is Counter-strike, which was originally developed as a mod for the popular first-person shooter Half-life. The PC gaming culture has a rich tradition of game modding, where inventive folks take popular games such as Quake, Unreal Tournament and others and make their own unique creations out of them. Well, when I put the question of whether or not dating-sim mods exist to Google, I found something even better – Ren’py.

Ren’Py is a fully Open Source visual novel game engine. With it you can create anything from a simple story with pictures and sound that you “read” by clicking through it, with no decision points (called a kinetic novel), all the way up to a full-blown dating-sim, with multiple characters and decision points. Its scripting language is really easy to use, making it easy for even a novice to create a kinetic novel or simple dating-sim. However it leverages the full power of the Python scripting language, allowing you to create extremely complex character interactions and scenarios. Its extremely powerful graphics and audio engine lets you composite multiple character images over a background, with transitions, transforms, animations, background music and sound effects. In short, it provides all the tools necessary to create even the most complex games of this genre. But best of all, it’s completely free and open source, and the authors allow you to freely distribute the games you create with it, even allowing you to sell them commercially. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux and Android smartphones/tablets.

To learn more, and to download your own copy so you can start playing with it, visit the Ren’py home page. Or if you’re just in the mood to play someone else’s games (or you want to see the power and variety of games you can create using this fantastic tool), check out the Ren’py games list, a comprehensive list of Ren’py titles.

This is a fantastic toolbox and our hope is that the many creative people out there in the community can take this and run with it, and help create our own doujin software industry.

Click for J-List now!

Cool Find: Good Smile Nendoroid, K-ON! and Hatsune Miku Themes for Google Chrome

Donald Burr — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:54:56 +0000

Your web browser. You stare at it every day for hours at a time. I bet you that by now it looks pretty drab and boring to you. So why not dress it up with a theme? And, if you are a Google Chrome user, I’ve got just the themes for you!

Are you a fan of nendoroids – those amazingly cute chibi renditions of your favorite anime characters, created by Good Smile? Well then check out the Good Smile theme! (pictured here)

If you just can’t get enough K-ON! – after all, the DVDs and Blu-rays are right around the corner – then by all means check out the K-ON! theme. (yes, you know that some sort of K-ON! related item would be involved…)

And finally, if, like pretty much the rest of the world, you’ve caught a bad case of Vocaloid fever – then the Hatsune Miku theme will be right up your alley.

All of these themes are of course completely free and work on any computer/OS that Google Chrome works on (which means pretty much all of them).

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Cool Find: Meridian Media Player for Android

Donald Burr — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:52:11 +0000

Those of us with large digital anime collections, either ripped from DVDs that we own or acquired from, ahem, other sources (we’re not here to judge, let your own moral compass be your guide), are faced with a problem when we want to consume this content while out and about — or even just kicking back in your easy chair or in bed. Sure, you could go out and buy a dedicated video player such as the Archos 5; but why spend extra money when the odds are that you already have a device in your possession that’s perfectly capable of performing this function — your smartphone.

If that phone happens to be an iPhone (or its phone-less sibling, the iPod touch, or even an iPad), then you could either re-encode your anime (using a free tool such as HandBrake and stuff it into iTunes) or use the excellent Air Video player, which we’ve written about before. But what if you are a card-carrying member of the Android Army? Unfortunately Android is (in this author’s humble opinion) still behind the iOS in terms of video playback capability.

Fortunately, there’s an app for that — the Meridian Media Player app, to be precise. This app does a pretty good job of playing back any media format supported by your device’s version of the Android operating system. And the best part is that it supports all the standard subtitle formats that you tend to find out there (which of course is very important for us anime fans). (Pro tip: if you’re looking for subtitles, AllSubs is a pretty good source.)

Unfortunately, since Android is still kind of picky in terms of what video formats/codecs/bit rates that it supports, odds are you’ll need to re-encode any anime files that you have, ahem, acquired, in order to play them back on your device. HandBrake is an excellent, and free, tool that helps you do this. (HandBrake is also a pretty servicable DVD ripper, so you can use it to digitize your anime collection. Please, only for disks that you actually own. Don’t be a tool.) I’ve found that the “iPod” pre-set offers a reasonable compromise between small file size and decent video quality, that plays on all variants of Android (at least all the different devices/OS versions I’ve tried it on). Just fire up HandBrake, select your file, click the start button, and once your files are done re-encoding, just drag them onto your phone’s memory card, fire up Meridian Player, and you’re off to the races.

Meridian Media Player itself is free, but you’ll need the $2.99 Meridian Player Pro Verifier to unlock extra functionality, including subtitle support. (But hey, $2.99 is IMHO a reasonable price to pay for this functionality) Go download Meridian Media Player and the Meridian Player Pro Verifier from the Android Marketplace today!

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Cool Find: Konachan.com

Donald Burr — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:23:37 +0000

I don’t know about you, but being an anime-loving computer geek, I’m always looking for new things to set as my desktop wallpaper. (Because there is nothing more boring than a plain unadorned computer desktop.) Of course you can take freeze-frames of scenes/characters from your favorite anime and use those as desktop wallpapers. And some of them even look decent, especially if you’re taking them from high-def sources like Blu-ray. But the vast majority of anime out there is in DVD resolution, or even worse, web streaming, and screen grabs from those look pretty craptacular, especially on today’s mega-HD resolution monitors. Besides, even if you manage to get a reasonably good-looking screen grab, it’s probably of a scene you’ve seen over 9000 times before. Wouldn’t you like your desktop to show something new — something original?

The good news is that the Internets are here to help. There are tons of sites out there full of awesome anime and manga related imagery. One in particular that I found one day while randomly web surfing and/or Google searching is Konachan.com. This site is geared specifically towards anime themed wallpapers, meaning that the images there are in the commonly found monitor resolutions. When you visit the site you’re presented with a search box which you can use to start searching for your favorite characters or series or whatever. Or you can just hit “browse” and take a drink from the firehose. While browsing you can filter by tags, safety level (explicit or not), see the most popular images of the last day/week/month, view a history of what others have been doing on the site (posting, tagging, etc.), and even view a random image (Are you feeling lucky, punk?). Their advanced search page offers even more options: you can search by tags (including support for wildcards); search by image size (great if you want to avoid pictures that’ll look nasty and pixelated on your Xbox Huge monitor); and by rating (safe, explicit, or somewhere in between). You can even perform cross-site image searches, which lets you search several other popular image board sites, including Sankaku Complex, Danbooru, and others. Plus the site is named after my favorite Lucky Star character. What’s not to like about this site??!

Some (most?) of the images here are probably reposts from other places like deviantART or pixiv. But some of it isn’t. And besides, having it all there in one place means you don’t have to search through all four corners of the Internets to find what you’re looking for.

I’m sure that Konachan isn’t alone in this space and that there are plenty of other anime/manga themed wallpaper sites out there. Got any particular favorites? Let us know about ‘em!

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: Cooking with Dog

Donald Burr — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:01:34 +0000

(no, it’s not what you think…)

I’ve talked and blogged about Japanese food before, as have our friends over at TJX. In fact I’ve even made a video or three on the subject. (In all fairness, the TJX crew did this as well.) But there’s something missing from our videos, something that would give them that extra “bam!” — a cute toy poodle, perhaps?

Meet Francis, the aforementioned toy poodle. In his series of videos, he (with the help of his unnamed human sous chef) shows you how to make a wide variety of traditional Japanese dishes — the traditional fruity sponge cake served during the holidays in Japan, to fried shrimp, nikuman (those steamed pork buns that the TJX crew have gone on about), mapo tofu (favorite dish of Tenshi!), and many more.

You’ll definitely want to have a large supply of snacks handy while you watch these.

In the video (below the cut), Francis shows you how to make the classic Japanese bento (complete with those cute octopus sausages that you see all the time in anime). Be sure and check out their YouTube channel to learn how to make even more traditional Japanese dishes.

(thanks to our cohost Danny Barer for this cool find!)

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: Minecraft

Donald Burr — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 23:35:27 +0000

One of my favorite game genres is the sandbox. In this kind of game you’re basically dumped into a virtual world, free to roam about it and do whatever you want, with no script or ordered set of objectives you need to accomplish. The classic example of this is the MUD, or multi-user dungeon, a classic form of user-created text-adventure from the early days of the Internet, and whose spiritual descendant are today’s MMORPGs such as Ultima Online and the infamous World of Warcraft. A frequent feature of these games is the ability to create objects and modify the environment (build new structures, etc.); besides the aforementioned MUDs, one of my favorite examples of this is the PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet. Some games (including LittleBigPlanet) take this one step further and actually allow you to create mechanical devices, in essence “programming” the virtual world.

Minecraft, the latest indie game craze to sweep the interwebs, is such a game. It’s being developed by Markus Persson (aka “Notch”) and his studio, Mojang Specifications. Like the classic sandbox, you’re dropped into a huge computer-generated virtual world (supposedly the equivalent of nearly 8 times the Earth’s surface!), and you’re free to explore and exploit the world to your every desire. You basically run around and dig up (or otherwise harvest) various materials (sand, gravel, dirt, ore, trees, etc.) and make stuff with them. Besides building things with simple raw materials (harvest a bunch of wood and place it in the formation of a house, or dig up a bunch of stone and make yourself a castle) you can also craft various things by combining raw materials in different proportions (a stick of wood + a lump of coal = torches, several sticks + pieces of string = a bow and arrows, and so on). In these respects, the game is rather like a traditional MUD, or a MMORPG like Ultima Online. You can even create some rudimentary devices, such as mine carts, rollercoasters, and trap doors. There’s even a primitive electrical circuit system too (so in this respect it’s kind of like LittleBigPlanet). And, oh yeah, the world has an actual day/night cycle, and during the nighttime, various nasty creatures roam the lands, which you must defend against – either grab your sword and fight the horde, or build yourself an impenetrable stronghold and hole up in it until daylight. (Rather like World of Warcraft)

Don’t be put off by the weird blocky looking graphics; first of all, for those of us who grew up during the glory days of classic video gaming, they have a certain retro charm to them; but more importantly, the gameplay is truly awesome. And there’s quite a community of modders behind the game, and they’ve released all sorts of hacks and other cool Minecraft-related software. It’s also constantly in development; new items, monsters, and game mechanics are constantly being added.

The game is still in its early “Alpha” stage, but if you buy now, you can get it for €9.95 (or about $14). After the game enters “beta” stage the price will go up to €20 (or $28). There’s also a free “Classic” version which doesn’t have the latest and greatest features (eventually this will be phased out). The game is Java-based and is thus cross platform, and runs on Mac, Windows, and even Linux. So definitely check it out! Check out some example game footage below the cut.

Cool Find: Watch the classic 80s anime “Bubblegum Crisis” for free on Hulu

Donald Burr — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 18:46:38 +0000

I’ve been busy working up the next show, where I’ll FINALLY be completing my “Anime on the Cheap” segment I started over 9000 years ago (not really, but close enough), and so I’ve been exploring all the options available for downloading and streaming anime on the Internet. But I came across something that I really have to share with you right now, so here you go. Consider this today’s Cool Find.

Us anime fans truly live in a blessed time, thanks to the advent of computers, cheap (well, relatively speaking anyways) and fast (again, relatively speaking) Internet connections, and streaming technology. Gone are the days when you’d have to wait forever for a series to get licensed, and once it did, you’d have to wait over 9000 months between DVD releases, which you’d have to pay $30 or so a pop for. These days we live in a world where you can stream your favorite anime whenever and wherever you want, and — this is especially cool — often you can stream the latest and greatest series from Japan, literally minutes after they were broadcast there, and usually for free (or a very low monthly membership charge). (However, unlike most technology pundits, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that physical media is dead — I still buy plenty of anime DVDs (and now Blu-rays) — but it is definitely not the primary method of consumption any more.)

Of course, when you think online anime streaming, Crunchyroll comes to mind. They are indeed the darlings of the online anime streaming world, with a stable of many officially licensed shows and simulcasts, and an impressive list of partner companies and investors. But there are others. Not only do many of the anime licensors (FUNimation, Bandai, etc.) have their own streaming sites, but traditionally non-anime sites such as Hulu are now starting to stream anime. Hulu, the streaming site created as a joint venture between NBC-Universal, Fox, and ABC, has quite a collection of anime up for streaming, as it turns out. And they’ve just added one of my all-time favorites — and the title that got me into this whole anime thing in the first place – Bubblegum Crisis. Set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo (called “Mega Tokyo”), this classic 80s cyberpunk/mech/fighting girls anime tells the story of the Knight Sabers, four renegades out to fight a battle against the evil Genom corporation (think Microsoft) and their humanoid robot “Boomers” that regularly crash and go berserk (again think Microsoft). The show is thematically similar to, and is strongly influenced by another traditional geek favorite, Blade Runner. The traditional cel-based animation is gorgeous (and has a characteristic that modern digitally animated shows lack IMHO) and the classic 80s pop/rockish soundtrack still sounds surprisingly good even today. This is truly a treat for the eyes and ears.

Unfortunately they are streaming the dubbed version of the show. While it’s not my favorite, it is at least reasonably competently done and definitely listenable, and is a darn sight better than most of the other dubs of that period. (But it has one major flaw: they sing the song lyrics in English.)

So go check it out today!

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: K-ON, MikuMikuDance Style! (Updated)

Donald Burr — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:45:06 +0000

Yes, dammit, I’m still on my K-ON! kick. I’ve gotta cheer myself up somehow now that the show is over (although there is a movie coming, we don’t yet know if it’ll be new material or just a retelling). And before you start whining: yes, I like K-ON!. No, I don’t “OMG LOVE!!!!11″ it, nor do I consider it God’s gift, or the greatest thing since sliced bread, etc. Yes it’s moeblob at its finest, but it’s still good clean cheerful lighthearted fun. No there’s no overarching plot (and to those of you who complain about it, I invite you to go look up slice of life). I think alot of the haters and whiners are just expecting way too much of the series. Not that that would have made much difference anyway – after all, you know what they say, Haters Gonna Hate. Anyway I discovered K-ON! during a period of my life when I quite frankly needed a great deal of cheering up (alot of stuff going on, most of which was not good), and it helped me stay sane and did in fact put a much needed smile on my face, and it will thus always have a place in my heart. So there.

Anyway, enough jibba-jabba. By now you’re probably thinking to yourself “oh joy, here comes another fan-made video of them playing along to K-ON’s music.” Not exactly. It’s true that one of the many things I like about K-ON! is the music from the piece, and the fact that the publishers took the rather extraordinary step of publishing versions of the K-ON! music with various instrumental tracks missing, and including sheet music — the idea being to make it easy for people to pick up an instrument and play along. And play along they did. If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, it has helped generate some interest in learning how to play an instrument. A quick search of the YouTubes will result in plenty of evidence to corroborate this. Of course not everybody is, erm, cut out for it, shall we say. But there are a few who have achieved legendary status.

No, what I speak of today is just as cool, but in a different way. See, there’s this other thing popular with otaku these days, and that’s the Vocaloids. This is some pretty impressive voice synthesizer software developed by Yamaha that, given lyrics and a melody, can synthesize a voice singing said lyrics to said melody. (I’ve written a bit about it here before.) Pretty amazing stuff. There are quite a few different voices available, including arguably the most popular of them all, Hatsune Miku. And as the Japanese are wont to do, they’ve created cute anime representations of these voices that have become extremely popular in their own right. So popular that they are frequently the stars of many fan-made videos. And the software used to make most of these is called MikuMikuDance. It looks to be pretty powerful, capable of animating a single character, or multiple characters, all combined with a surprisingly powerful physics engine. If you’re curious, you can even download it yourself (Windows only, sorry) if you feel creatively inclined.

Well someone had the bright idea (and the 3D modeling chops) to create models of our beloved girls from HTT and insert them into MikuMikuDance, to have them perform various songs from the series for our enjoyment. And they have done an amazing job. I’m no expert, but the motions they make to play their instruments look pretty authentic (or darn close to it anyway).

Check out two videos, one for “Listen!” (first ED from Season 2) and “Utayo!! Miracle” (second OP from Season 2) on YouTube, or via the embedded players below the cut, and be sure and check the “related videos” on each for more MikuMikuDance-ified K-ON!.

Updated! 02-Oct-2010. Feel like taking a shot at making one yourself? Well then you’ll want to go grab MikuMikuDance (link above), and you’ll also need the K-ON! girls’ model files. The site’s in Japanese, but I’m sure you can figure out which files you’ll need. ;-) Note that the file above Ritsu’s without a picture is Azunyan. This Crunchyroll thread also contains some other useful pointers. And if you do end up making something, tell us about it!

(And don’t worry, this K-ON! obsession of mine will burn itself out. Eventually.)

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: Chad Vader

Donald Burr — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:01:37 +0000

A long time ago, in a grocery store far, far away…

Sure, life in the Empire looks pretty glamorous. You get a shiny powerful spaceship capable of destroying entire planets with a single blast. You get to rule over legions of subjects that cower at your might. You get cool powers that you can use to crush your enemies (and win over the ladies). And you can participate in cool dramatic lightsaber duels. Unfortunately it’s not always so… especially if you’re Chad Vader, the inept, less charismatic younger brother of everybody’s favorite Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Without the necessary skills to join the Empire, Chad is relegated to living his life with the goal of attempting to take over Empire Market, a grocery store filled with crazy, offbeat employees and even weirder customers. And thus forms the story of Chad Vader, a fun spoof of Star Wars (as well as many other sci-fi movie concepts) produced by indie filmmakers Blame Society Productions.

The story of how Chad Vader came to be is one of those great stories that illustrate the power of social media. Friends Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda created the series for a short film festival, only to have it canceled after two episodes. Rather than giving up, however, they decided to release the series on YouTube… to tremendous success. Chad Vader has appeared on several notable magazines and TV programs, and Matt Sloan, who provides the voice of Chad Vader, was even selected as the voice of Darth Vader in a few video game titles, including Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It’s even been favorably viewed by The Man himself, winning the George Lucas Selects award for the Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards of 2007. They’ve even published several DVDs of the series along with various other pieces of show-related memorabilia (Merchandising! Merchandising!).

Definitely worth a look, whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not. Check out Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3 (the current season) on YouTube.

Cool Find: MOON8

Donald Burr — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:51:59 +0000

I’m a big fan of Pink Floyd. Their unique blend of cool psychedelic rock opera type sound and insightful, philosophical lyrics really appeals to me. Sadly I’ve never made it to one of their legendary live shows, and, being a child of the 80s, I missed them during their heyday; but was able to discover them thanks to classic rock (yay KTYD!).

I’m also a big fan of classic 8-bit video gaming, but unlike Pink Floyd, I was there during its heyday. When my friends got their Atari 2600s, I was always finding excuses to go over to their houses for a visit, and eventually my parents got me one of my own (although sadly it wasn’t the “cool guy” 2600 but the janky Sears Tele-Games clone. Still, it played Atari 2600 cartridges so it was OK.) Of course I also witnessed firsthand the Great Video Game Crash of ’83. (I even owned a few of the craptacular titles that, thanks to market saturation, caused the crash.) When the Nintendo Entertainment System revitalized the industry several years later, I didn’t get one (by then I’d moved onto my true love – computers!), but many of my friends did, again prompting me to invent clever excuses to go over and invade their homes. Many of the NES staples remain my favorites to this very day, and thankfully I can play them thanks to the magic of emulation. Yay!

Who would’ve thought that there would be some way of combining those two? (hey! you got your chocolate in my peanut butter…) Well, this is exactly what one fan, video game programmer Brad Smith, did. And thus was born MOON8. He describes it as something that Pink Floyd might have created had they written The Dark Side of the Moon for the NES instead of a rock band. And I have to say: it works. If you’re even remotely familiar with Dark Side, you’ll recognize it right away. Amazing how legitimate, recognizable art can be created even with the limited hardware capabilities of something like the NES.

So go download it today. It’s available in both MP3 and FLAC format. And, for you experimental types, he has even made the FamiTracker source files available, so you can tweak/remix/whatever to your heart’s content. (He does request that if you make your own modifications, that you send them to him).

Click for J-List now!

Cool Find: Rikai Browser, Rikaichan, and Rikaikun

Donald Burr — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:32:22 +0000

Us gaijin anime/manga/Japanese culture fans are presented with a problem, in that these works are typically written with the Japanese in mind. In other words, they are written in the Japanese language. And, I don’t know about you, but as far as languages are concerned, I probably know more Klingon than I do Japanese. (Qapla’!)

Now, this usually isn’t a problem where anime and manga are concerned, because (with any luck) your work of choice has already been (or soon will be) licensed and translated into your language of choice. But what about Japanese websites? How are you supposed to read about the latest and greatest anime, or what your favorite mangaka is up to these days? Or read the latest scintillating tales of Japanese life or insights into Japanese culture provided by your favorite random Japanese blogger? Or even navigate the wild and wonderful world of popular otaku hangouts like Nico Nico Douga or 2ch?

Sure, there are computer-based tools such as Google Translate, and they do the job… sort of… often producing something barely recognizable as some wacked-out form of English that a febrile 5-year-old would write. (But they’re usually pretty funny. Try it sometime.) Maybe barely good enough to get the gist of what the website was trying to say, if that. Also, some of these tools make a real mess of a website’s HTML code, turning a normally pretty and functional website into a jumble of nasty. And on particularly complex websites, they may not even work at all.

So what is a poor linguistically-challenged otaku foreigner to do?

Enter Rikai Browser, a free (yes, you read correctly, FREE!) browser for the iPad. Based on the same WebKit engine that powers the iPad’s native Safari browser, Rikai adds a special twist: when browsing a Japanese website, simply long-press on a word or kanji character, tap the “Rikai” button (“Rikai” is Japanese for “understand” – aha!), and the program will instantly display its English translation. It also remembers your search history and what pages you saw them on, making study and review a snap. (Yet another example of why you, the otaku, should get excited about devices such as the iPad.)

If you own an iPhone or iPod touch, and are trying to learn Japanese, you might also want to check out their Japanese Flash app. (It’ll work on the iPad as well.) This “flash card” style app makes it easy and fun to learn your Japanese words and phrases. Unfortunately this one is not free, but at $6.99 isn’t horribly expensive, and might be worth it to you if you’re struggling with your Japanese studies.

Not yet part of the iCollective? (Resistance is futile…) No problem, as long as you use the Firefox web browser, thanks to the almost as cool (and equally as free) Rikaichan Firefox plugin. Install this bad boy and soon you too will be translating Japanese characters like nobody’s business, by just hovering your cursor over the word/characters you would like to have translated. This tool, as well as the Firefox browser it runs on, is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

And before you Google Chrome users pull out your pitchforks and boiling oil, calm down, we’ve got something for you too – Rikaikun is essentially a port of the aforementioned Rikaichain to the Google Chrome plugin architecture, and works on any OS that Chrome runs on (namely Windows, Mac and Linux). Like Rikaichain, simply hover over the word/characters in question and up will pop a translation.

These tools are by no means perfect, but still, until someone invents the Universal Translator (or we discover that Babel Fish do in fact exist), these are certainly helpful tools that any otaku worth his or her salt should have in their linguistic toolbox.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: How to register at Nico Nico Douga

Donald Burr — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:24:51 +0000

Nico Nico Douga is a sort of Japanese YouTube, and is one of the most popular video sharing sites in Japan. It’s a hotbed of otaku-related video sharing activity, and you can often find fun fan-made anime- or video game-related video content on it. (There’s tons of other weird, wild and wacky Japan-related video content on there as well, of course.) One unique feature that NND has over other similar sites is that when a user comments on a video, rather than the comments appearing as one long list below the video, comments are instead overlaid directly on top of the video, and furthermore can be synced to a particular time in the video. The whole effect is rather akin to VH1′s Pop Up Videos.

While the website is in Japanese, it isn’t really that difficult to find and view videos. (“see shiny looking video thumbnail? click on it.”) Registering for the site is another matter entirely, and unless you have a fairly good grasp of the Japanese writing system, you’re out of luck. Until now, that is. This excellent video from the folks over at Ichiro-Style (a site that I honestly hadn’t heard of until today) shows you the step-by-step procedure for registering, including translations of all the prompts. Wonderful!

So why not head over to Nico Nico Douga today and try it out for yourself? Registration is free (there are paid Premium accounts that give you certain unknown added benefits, but registering for one of those requires a Japanese credit card). All you need is a working e-mail address where you can receive the validation e-mail. Of course, if you’re afraid of spam or whatnot, you don’t have to use your regular e-mail address; you can always set up a free Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, or heck, even a Hotmail account.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: Shira Oka Demo (Updated)

Donald Burr — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:37:42 +0000

The dating sim game is one of those quintessential staples of otaku culture. Equal parts visual novel, choose-your-own adventure, “sims” style simulation, and harem anime, this style of game basically puts you, the (usually) male protagonist, in various situations with a variety of (usually) females, and your job is to talk to (or otherwise interact with) them as you go through your (virtual) daily life. By making the right conversational/action choices, you can raise a character’s “love meter,” eventually causing them to “date” you (at which point, congratulations! A Winner is You!). If you fail to accomplish this within the proscribed time limit, then… oh well, better luck next time! Many of these titles do in fact include salacious content, but there are many titles that don’t. (Also some games are released in both “explicit” and “tame” versions.)

Most of these games are of course produced in Japan, and remain largely unknown to a non-Japanese audience. In recent times however a few companies have arisen that license many of the more popular titles and translate and release them for western audiences. Some of the more well known of these include JAST USA, Aksys, and MangaGamer. And, like the anime and manga worlds, there are quite a few unofficial fan translations out there as well. There are a very few non-Japanese developed games in this category, but the love-sim industry remains largely Japanese-dominated.

Well one company is hoping to change that. Okashi Studios, founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, has been working these past five years to bring to market one of the first full-fledged American-made commercial dating sims — and their efforts are finally available for public viewing. Shira Oka: Second Chances puts you in the role of someone who has been given the chance to go back in time and relive their past. Will you make the most of your life? Will you end up with the girl of your dreams? Only time will tell. The game is, of course, filled with the traditional assortment of female character types, and has the typical anime art style. The game also gives you an interesting mix of traits that you can alter for character customization. And all of this is backed by an impressive roster of American voice talent.

Unfortunately the game isn’t complete yet (they’ve been in development since 2005). However, playable demos are now available! Grab ‘em today for Windows (alternate download site) and Mac (alternate download site). (Good on them for supporting Mac right out of the gate!) (UPDATE: The download is also available via BitTorrent.) The company hopes that this will spur on the development and growth of the American bishoujo industry.

You can also take a look at the promo video below the cut, and find many other videos (including some gameplay examples) on their YouTube channel.

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Cool Find: Moments with TK

Donald Burr — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:04:09 +0000

Angel Beats! is one of the more interesting anime to come out of the Spring 2010 anime lineup. The story (and screenplay) was conceived and written by Jun Maeda, one of the cofounders of Key, the visual novel company famous for such works as Kanon, Air, and Clannad, many of which were later adapted into successful anime series. (Kanon, in particular, is a fantastically moving piece and is one of my all-time favorites). However, unlike these, Angel Beats! is not based on a visual novel, but is an original creation.

While it doesn’t come close to Kanon or Clannad in terms of story and character depth — part of this is no doubt because Angel Beats! was only given a 13-episode run — it was still interesting and enjoyable. A full review is forthcoming.

One of the more unusual character in the series is TK, a strange guy who tends to bust out some flashy dance moves at random times, and speaks in a weird mix of nonsensical Japanese and English phrases. But his antics are always humorous and he seems to be a fan favorite, as evidenced by the many pages and videos devoted to him that can be found across the intarwebs. One video in particular aims to collect all of the “TK moments” sprinkled throughout the series and present them back to back.

Can the universe handle this overwhelming level of TK-ness compressed into a single point in space-time? Check out the video to find out. And definitely check out Angel Beats! – I sorely hope that this thing gets properly licensed soon.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve found ourselves the real-life Ritsuko Tainaka

Donald Burr — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:09:16 +0000

Yeah, I know, you might be thinking “wtf? two Cool Finds of the Day” But this is just too cool to pass up…

I love K-ON!. I admit this proudly and with no hesitation. And if you want to diss me for it, or think less of me as a person because of it, then you can just suck it. Yes, dammit, it’s moeblob at it’s finest. No, there isn’t any Grand Overarching Plot(TM) to the thing. (Hello? McFly? It’s a slice of life…) And no, I’m not saying it’s the greatest thing in the known universe. But, gosh darnit, it’s FUN. And it actually contains some decent music pieces. And, if anecdotal evidence (and a search of the YouTubes) is to be believed, it’s spurring people on to discover the joys of music (or pick up an instrument that they had let languish for a while). Which makes K-ON! “OK-ON!” in my book. (Yes, I know, lame pun.)

One YouTuber in particular is having a grand old time with K-ON!’s music. Meet Senri Kawaguchi, professional drummer, who started playing at the tender age of five. And, by the way folks, she’s only 13 years old now!!! (What were YOU doing when you were 13?) I wrote about her previously, back when I happened across her stunning rendition of “Don’t say ‘lazy’.” Well, she’s been busy since then, cranking out renditions of many other K-ON! themes and insert songs.

Like I said before, I really doubt Ritsu herself could do any better. As one YouTube commenter put it, it would be a travesty if they ever decided to make a live action K-ON! and didn’t cast Ms. Kawaguchi in the role of Ritsu.

Below you can enjoy a clip of her drumming along to “Watashi no Koi wa Hotchkiss,” one of my favorite songs from the series. You can watch her other videos (K-ON! inspired or otherwise) at her YouTube channel, or find out more about her (if you read Japanese… if not, perhaps The Fish might help) at her official website. She’s also got a Facebook fan page, which, thankfully, is (at least mostly) in English.

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Cool Find of the Day: VOCA-ON!

Donald Burr — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:33:12 +0000

Welcome to Cool Finds, a new category/segment/whatever where I will be bringing cool anime or manga related things I happen to find in my journeys around the interwebs. Could be a website dedicated to a certain series/character, a video, a game, whatever. Either way, I’m sure you’ll like it. So enjoy!

Vocaloid is a pretty amazing piece of vocal synthesizer software developed by Yamaha of Japan. By supplying it with lyrics and a melody, you can have it synthesize the singing of said lyrics, using your choice of a variety of voices, both male and female, based on samples taken from actual voice actors/actresses and singers. The result sound surprisingly good. Compare this to the good old US of A’s entry into this space, the hilariously bad Microsoft Songsmith. (Don’t believe me about the hilariously bad part? Then take a look at this. Or this. Or even this.) (Yes, I know, Songsmith doesn’t do exactly what Vocaloid does. With Songsmith, you sing the lyrics, and it’ll create a melody around them. But the concept is similar enough that I think it applies here. Besides, my blog, my rules.) Anyway, the Vocaloid software is so popular that the Japanese have even created anime-ish representations of the various voices, as they are wont to do. One of the most popular is Hatsune Miku, who is so popular that she has “released” not only quite a few albums featuring her singing, but is featured in several games as well.

Anyway, a popular pastime among some otaku is apparently to take popular music, be it anime theme songs, Jpop songs, etc., and substitute in Vocaloid-created vocals instead of the original vocals. Well, one otaku took this one step further. He or she took K-ON!’s opening theme, “Cagayake! Girls” and Vocaloided (is that a verb? If not I declare that it should be) the lyrics using Hatsune Miku’s voice. But they didn’t stop there, oh no! They went on to create a new version of the K-ON! opening animation, featuring the Vocaloid characters instead of the usual cast. The animation is spot-on accurate to the original. They even did a good job (IMHO) in matching the various Vocaloids to whatever K-ON! character they were replacing. I cannot imagine how much effort this took.

Check it out on YouTube or via the embedded player below. Enjoy!

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