Recently I bought a bluetooth headset and a dongle to be used for voice chat.
The situation with bluetooth is a bit funny: it’s hard to get it working.
First one has to disable Microsoft’s bluetooth (using the “Remove from sys tray” option ..go figure), because apparently it has bugs, and most importantly, has no support for audio devices.
It took me a while to find that out. And so I was forced to use the software provided with the dongle: BlueSoleil. I find BlueSoleil a bit intrusive, because its window will pop up every time I boot the PC… considering the nature of the software, I was expecting that one had the option to have it start silently and only show up in the sys tray.
Anyhow things now seem to work, more or less. But it wasn’t easy. It also took me a while to realize that one has to hold down some button (sometimes something hard to find on some devices) for 6 seconds to have the device go in discoverable mode. Then one has to use the software to find the device and then has to insert some default passkey, a key that I assume one can replace.
I’m just glad that no member of my family has bought a bluetooth device yet, otherwise it would have been really quite an adventure for them, even with my (remote) help.
..facking technology.
Posted by Davide Pasca as Diary at 1:07 PM EDT
6 Comments »
I decided to make an exception and remove the post “My old friend” ! I don’t like censure, but I don’t want to turn an outburst (by which I stand firmly still), into a constant complaint.
In the message I was criticizing a friend for showing up only when he’s in need, keeping a steady girlfriend and sleeping with other girls and bragging about it, while hardly being present as a friend to me and others.
You can be sure that I will convey that in due time, but written words can be too hard to bear.. they almost leave no chance for change.
Still, I think that real men should not be facking around, using women and looking for friends only when they need something. If you need a friend, remember to be committed to him or her. One has to invest time in anything that deems worth keeping. Ability to enjoy “pussy” will fade away and you’ll find yourself old and lonely !
woo !
Posted by Davide Pasca as Diary at 12:58 PM EDT
9 Comments »
Recently, everyone and their mothers has been sending to everyone and everyone’s mother YouTube links.
Yeah, well I too can spend countless hours browsing for funny clips. But sending links to videos, especially with comments like “whatch this you’ll die laughing !” is unfair. It wets one’s appetite and making him/her to follow the link and waste time watching a video.
Unlike text, video requires more concentration and it’s also a very blatant distraction when one is in the office working.
I hope the YouTube craze will slow down, but I it probably wont. YouTube is much like the TV, just it’s easier to share and is also very addictive as one can endlessly zap to entirely different video clips.
Personally I’m not crazy about watching the funny clip of the day that anyone found wasting his or her time browsing around (as opposed to something that one filmed or edited personally).
However, if you really have to send some video clip, next time try to put a description, so that one isn’t forced to go watch it out of curiosity.
Let’s save everyone’s time by doing important stuff rather than spreading endless mindless video-browsing 8)
Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary at 12:59 PM EDT
1 Comment »
I find myself badly wanting to change jobs.. but I’m not sure what I want to do anymore.
I know what I like, but I can’t afford the price. I would just like to take a break and study things, do experiments. I would really like to continue study math and Japanese language. However I don’t have much freedom. I’m a mature and self-sustained person. I have to work to live a decent life, especially here in Japan where I have no family to support me.
Programming games may seem pretty interesting, but my interests seem to always go against company needs. Companies need to make money. No need to make cool looking 3D graphics, the key is to do anything that is convenient.
I understand that economy is important and I think I’ve been pretty good at adapting with my employers past and current. However it seems that I’m always helping companies to keep their business up, while I get paid as a game programmer: not much really !
If I have to work on things that I don’t really like, shouldn’t I just go for an even more boring job that pays me a lot more ? I feel cheated because game companies think that their employees are inherently loyal idiots that will always stick to the game business. Employees tamed by their unwillingness to look outside the game business.
Fack that ! I’m willing to trash my game programmer experience (which is actually going to be useful anyway) ..I want to make more money ! I want to work less !! Work isn’t teaching me much.. program this, program that, no real challenges, I need challenges, I want to learn new things, I want to learn important things. If I have to do a job where I spend the whole day bored, I may as well go flip burgers. It wont challenge my brain much, but at least I can communicate with people.
I think I’m about to explode.. a big change is going to happen soon, somehow.
It’s sad that companies like people that “can stand the pressure”.. it sounds like they are looking for tough employees, but in truth they are just looking for people with little expectations. People that are either apathetic or willing to accept just about anything to keep their position.
I need change !
Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary at 12:51 PM EDT
6 Comments »
The summer heat has come.. and with it the seasonal rains.
With the years I somewhat got used to it, I tolerate it more now. But I had make changes to adapt.
On my first visit to Japan, I managed to somewhat get sick as I wandered around in the summer heat. For a few minutes I had difficulties breathing. The muscles of my throat started contracting as to swallow my own saliva.. something that definitely never happened to me before.
The cause I suspect it was a combination of things:
* I was 10-12 kilos overweight (fat fack !)
* I was used to California’s heat but not to the humidity levels of Tokyo.
* The big jumps in temperature from glacial cold air conditioners inside buildings and trains and the heat outside.
* The pollution inherent for such an active and tightly packed city.
I was only 28 at the time and I got a bit scared. But I realize that is only normal to feel the effects of heat if one really doesn’t do much to fight it.
Aside from another episode of shortness of breath during that period, I never felt sick again. The simplest thing one can do is to use the vending machines (which are plentiful here) to grab a bottle or water, tea or any of those Gatoradish drinks that can be found only here: Aquarius, Amino Supli, Calpis, Pocari Sweat [Wikipedia], Healthya, are the most famous. Aquarius and Pocari Sweat taste a bit like watermellon skin ! ..actually surprisingly good. Calpis is more on the sweet side, and also comes in popsicles !
Humidity implies a lot of sweating. Many men carry around a small towel to dry the sweat from the face. There are also a couple of lines of wet-napkins for men, for the face, for the body. I use those the morning when I get to work.. Although I find that they carry a bit too much menthol for my taste. Menthol gives that cold burning sensation very popoular here. It reminds me a bit of the sour-dough matter in California. I hate the stinky sour-dough bread and it seems that everyone is trying to sell that around LA !
Speaking of sour and stinky.. Japanese men’s sweat tends to be pretty sour in smell ! I actually remember some non-Japanese smelling the same here in Tokyo.. so it’s probably not simply a genetic matter. A similar smell is also produced by the black fungus that accumulates around the hole of my bathroom sink in summer.
Deodorants aren’t very popular here, and that’s a shame, because while Japanese are historically clean, you can still find quite a few smelly people ! ..I personally get my deodorants from Italy where the selection is wide.. although Italians themselves aren’t champions of good smell ! Comparatively, I find that the nicest smelling people are in California (can’t speak for the rest of USA).
Best for last, the really drastic step: body shaving ! Being quite hairy, that sure came as a big change and has continued to keep me very busy under the shower. I went on and shaved chest, legs, arms all at once, and felt the pain for days. If anyone suddenly decides to start shaving his hairy body after more than 30 years, I’d suggest to take it slowly. No need to do a perfect job all at once. The first times it may also be useful to use some sort of after-shave cream.
Now that sounds faggy.. but then again, it’s so common to shave the beard off, and that’s the most visible part of the body.. ..I guess.. well I could make more excuses !
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Posted by Davide Pasca as Diary, Japan at 2:01 AM EDT
4 Comments »
Slow updates means lots of what I would like to write gets lost. No big deal, it would probably be a lot of bullshit anyway !
Sunday night (3 AM in Japan) I saw the game Italy vs France. The first half was quite good, Italy dominated and I was somewhat proud of the team.
From the send half and on, Italy didn’t appear to be doing much. The team went on and managed to win, quite frankly, out of sheer luck.
By now everyone in Italy is going crazy. Some of my friends that went to watch the game in Roppongi (the Tokyo area dedicated to foreigners) apparently had great fun celebrating the victory.
Personally I left the pub where I was watching the game once it came to penalties. Really too much struggle to see anyone lose at penalties, plus I already considered France stronger, and there was no need to see the actual result dictated by factors which don’t reflect the main body of the game.
So Italy won.. and I think it’s not such a good thing. National team has a wide appeal. Can make cheer people like me, those that don’t care to daily follow soccer news. However it gives a lot of power to those that are crazy about the sport. Gives power to the mass, people that would rater sit on a couch and zip from a useless soccer program to the next.
In the recent years Italian TV only got worse: more commercials, more soccer debates, every single day day: soccer, soccer, soccer.
Italians are easily satisfied by a simple life with a steady job and lots of soccer bullshit to keep them interested in useless stuff, rather than getting busy on developing a brain.
Sure, dumb people are everywhere. That’s why every country has a national sport.. to keep people happy while others get rich and powerful.
I’m sure the current Italian government is so glad to have a popoulation feeling like they are worth something, while in fact their are just puppets.
Congratulations on the World Cup !!! We won.. yeahhhh !!!
Posted by Davide Pasca as Society at 1:01 PM EDT
6 Comments »
