PLC, or Power Line Communication, is basically a home networking scheme that allows one to use the standard mains cabling for networking computers. One needs a separate link to the outside world, of course, via ASDL or whatever, but otherwise just a pair of compact plug adapters will get you networked. PLC was the highlighted topic for this story on japan.internet.com based on a survey from goo Research into computers.
Demographics
Between the 9th and 12th of April 2009 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor team completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.0% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties and 11.8% aged sixty or older.
If I had a home without built-in ethernet, I’d probably choose PLC over wireless, as there are no worries about freeloaders or other security issues associated with WiFi and the speed is in theory higher, although on the other hand I’ve heard that the main problem with PLC is power spikes inferfering with connections whenever household electrical items turn on and off, and of course if you have an old building with dodgy wiring there’s going to be problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri, with a bumper haul of sixteen entries, including a few new-to-me blogs, so I hope you all can find something new too.
First out of the trap is a fellow Kansai blogger, sleepytako, a name that already suggests slow times! His relaxation is getting gently boiled in various hot springs around the Kansai area, and the story also serves as a pointer to his rather useful Kansai Onsen Guide.
Next up is another Kansai resident, Harvey, who submitted an older post, but it’s about a walk I’ve always wanted to do myself, as I find disused railway lines fascinating. He walked a portion of the old Takarazuka to Sanda JR line.
Jamie at Frugalista Japan posted on not really a slow time, more a downright boring year in Yokkaichi, which I suspect might be near Tokyo, but it sounds far too dull to even bother looking up!
With stories almost every week about a new bot network or browser exploit threatening Western civilisation, the need for not just straightforward virus-checking, but regular spyware and malware scanning, is as great as ever. This recent survey from MyVoice was their second look (I missed the first!) at computer security.
Demographics
Over the first five days of April 2009 15,682 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.
In the English-speaking world I could see a product named “Internet Security Zero” selling absolutely zero copies, but it’s not the first and won’t be the last product to misappropriate some English, with beer manufacturers being the worst with “Off”, “Style Free”, and “Lets Beer Nothing”, although I may have invented that last brand.
As I mention every survey, a combination of Avast anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy will keep your PC clean for free, and are a lot less obtrusive and memory-hogging than the commercial offerings. MalwareBytes is another program I’ve heard good things about for detecting nasties, but I’ve used it just once or twice. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s perhaps a rather ordinary survey on terrestrial digital broadcasting from goo Research, their seventh time of conducting this monthly survey, as reported by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
Between the 4th and 9th of April 2009 1,087 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.6% were in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.
In order to try to spice up this survey just today there was a very interesting development regarding the government’s “image character”, Mr Tsuyoshi Kusunagi of the popular beat combo The Smaps, who appears on their advertising promoting, to use the common Japanese abbreviation for terrestrial digital, “chi-deji”. He was arrested in the early hours of the morning chin-deta – a corny pun that I will make no effort to explain – looking for digital adjustments to his antenna, if the rumours about him and the park are to be believed. The government, and just about every other organisation that he advertises for are now busy ripping up their contracts with him, although permit me to offer the above police mugshot as an alternative. (Yes, I know I suck at Photoshop!)
I’ve covered the darker side of file-sharing through P2P software a few times on this blog, but this is the first time for me to look at file forwarding services, a survey conducted by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
On the 6th of April 2009 300 member of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.7% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, 32.3% in their forties, 13.0% in their fifties, and 4.3% in their sixties.
I used to use XDrive for a bit, but recently I’ve had no reason to transfer a large amount of data, although if I did I’d probably just upload it to this site and pass the URL across. Our company has an internal system for large file sharing via email, but it is quirky to say the least and seems more like… ahh, I’m very tired and in rather poor humour tonight so I’d better not finish that thought just in case my boss is reading.
Looking a Q1SQ1 and Q1SQ3, 24 people have used free file forwarding services for sending files to people, but 38 people have used free file forwarding services for any purpose. Sadly there is no information about what the other 14 people were doing with such services.
You now have less than twenty-four hours to get your submissions in for Slow Times in Japan, this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri theme, to be hosted here. I’ve already had lots of great submissions – many photo themed, so don’t forget the JapanSoc group on flickr – so I’m looking forward to a few more last-minute entries. Either email me the link or follow the link in the widget below to submit your slow time in Japan.
Demographics
Betwen the 10th and 26th of February 2009 11,961 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 12.6% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 31.0% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 6.9% aged sixty or older. Note that since this is a PC internet-based online survey, there will be a bit of bias in the sample towards higher-earning households.
“Foreigners can’t get credit cards” is one of the most popular fallacies in Japan. It is true that foreigners, especially those younger, working on jobs with yearly contracts, and with no credit history in Japan do find it difficult, if not impossible, to get one, but there is no credible evidence of systematic discrimination against foreigners, as my walletful of Japanese plastic will attest to. I have experienced anomalies, however, such as when both my wife and I applied for a UFJ card, the bank that provides my mortgage and that I pay my salary into, and she got four times the credit limit that I got, despite zero salary!
The latest credit card I got was a Toho Cinema’s MasterCard, which is good value if you’re a regular cinema goer – six visits and you get the seventh visit free, and even discount tickets bought elsewhere count toward the six movies, and their online booking system is very smooth and bilingual.
Regarding Q3 and few being interested in card design, I actually cancelled a card because they stopped putting Miffy on the front… I also want to get a loud Hello Kitty card just to use abroad!
Have you ever been refused for a Japanese credit card?
With cable companies now offering some of the fastest domestic connectivity in Japan with a speed of up to 160 Mbps on offer at a price competitive with ADSL and FTTH, this is a good time too look with iBridge Research Plus, as reported by japan.internet.com, into CATV, Cable Access Television, with the focus in this story on internet services.
Demographics
On the 13th of April 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 66.0% of the sample were male, 14.7% in their twenties, 36.7% in their thirties, 31.0% in their forties, 13.7% in their fifties, and 4.0% in their sixties. Note that the male to female ratio is higher than usual for iBridge, so I don’t know if that has had a significant effect on the research results.
We have cable television, but as the flat came already wired for FTTH and we get a very cheap price (2,800 yen per month, I think), changing to cable internet is not really that attractive. We also have our fixed-line phone through the cable company, which falls into the others in Q1SQ1, but their international dialing fees are stupidly expensive, so I stick with Skype where possible. I also looked at their mobile phone service, and while their fees were cheap, the only two phones they offered were very low-end. Read the rest of this entry »
Mmm, doughtnuts! The theme for this year is doughnuts; the usual association is with cheap efforts from Mister Donuts or the enormous queues for Krispy Kremes, so here they are trying something different by asking cake shops to come up with their own high-end doughnuts. In the picture, the nearest one was Baumkuchen, next was a not overpoweringly sugared apple honey, then mocha chocolate, and strawberry.
Between the 18th and 22nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.
I find it hard to be envious of kids today, as although they may be rich in material things, city life and paranoid parents deprives them of the simpler pleasures that I had when I was young. Read the rest of this entry »
PLC, or Power Line Communication, is basically a home networking scheme that allows one to use the standard mains cabling for networking computers. One needs a separate link to the outside world, of course, via ASDL or whatever, but otherwise just a pair of compact plug adapters will get you networked. PLC was the highlighted topic for this story on japan.internet.com based on a survey from goo Research into computers.
With stories almost every week about a new bot network or browser exploit threatening Western civilisation, the need for not just straightforward virus-checking, but regular spyware and malware scanning, is as great as ever. This recent survey from MyVoice was their second look (I missed the first!) at 
This is a 
With cable companies now offering some of the 
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