Social Media & Japan Disaster; Which Twitter Accounts To Follow

It started with the ability to tell friends when you’re taking a shower, going grocery shopping, or how your day was going. Then Twitter grew up. As did Facebook. When you think of social media on the Internet, it was these two.

Governments feared them. Ask Tehran during the Green revolution when the conservatives stole the election from the voters. And then in Egypt just mere weeks ago when the government of more then decades were toppled by protests passed through the Internet, and specifically, Twitter and Facebook.

And since the 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan, ravaged the eastern coast of northern Japan with a powerful tsunami, and created a nuclear disaster that has already achieved the level of the Three-Mile Island incident in the US.

How did Twitter and Facebook changed things in the aftermath of the earthquake in Japan this week? And which Twitter accounts to follow to get the best information on the latest nuclear and humanitarian news from Japan?

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Japanese Artist Uses "Nuclear boy" To Explain The Nuclear Disaster To Kids - With Poop And Farts

At the moment, we await word on just how the new power line will work by supply power to help cool the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants.

Through the whole ordeal faced by the Japanese people (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdowns, cold weather, and hunger), I wonder how the children are. Add to that, the scary nuclear situation that even adults have a problem understanding at times (just look at the reporting by seasoned reporters).

So, Kazuhiko Hachiya made this cartoon that does an adequate job of explain the situation to the Japan children - using poop and farts. As a matter of fact, not only it is cute and explains things well, I encourage even adults to watch it to get a better understanding of the situation at surrounding the nuclear disaster in Japan.

And don't worry, there are subtitles in English.

So meet Nuclear Boy who has a stomach problem.



Source: Salon.

Green: DIY Back-Up Battery Solution?

Anyone out there have information on solutions for a back-up battery system for a home? Maybe a consumer product solution have created one for yourself?

I got to thinking about what's going in Japan with the earthquake, tsunami, and problems with their nuclear facilities, I think even in LA, there is something we can do individually.

After all, Japan is a first world country and look at what's happened since the 8.9 earthquake from last Friday. Though I cannot be certain if the media reports match the facts on the ground, you'd think this earthquake has broken the back of the Japanese society and economy.

My idea is to get going on a solar leash with one of those solar companies like Solar City. I'll be doing some research on this to see if this is the right solution for me. But if it does work out, my idea is this:

I want to create or buy (hopefully affordable) backup battery or something that can sustain my household needs a few hours at a time should natural disaster hit and we end up being without power for weeks.

Any help in point me in that direction would be great.

Living From A Mobile Device

I went to have coffee with a friend this afternoon. With an impending change coming to his life, it was good to see old friends. Well, ifyou know each other since junior high school, you're old friends. He had just come back from a vacation in Japan not too long ago. He was utterly amazed by the sheer number of commuters taking public  transportation, the waiting, and more waiting. All in all, he had a great time there with his family.

We also hear about Japan bring a nation of cell phone users with some of the most sophisticated mobile devices in the world. Well, seeing is believing and he saw a lot of folks with a cell phone in their face, surfing away, listening to music, or reading the latest novel. They did it while waiting for the trains, riding on the trains, and even during lunch as they thumb away on the keypads. Small talks were kept to a minimal. In fact, he almost never see people talking to each other on the trains.

Can we ever do that here in the US? I am already relying on my iPhone for a lot of e-mailing and generally keeping in touch with the world.  But replacing my laptop?

I doubt I'll be able to do it with my Samsung Trace but I might be able to with a smartphone or a device like my iPhone. But there are still a lot of things in my work that can only be accomplished on a laptop. However, I do see this as a challenge.

Maybe I won't be able to write a whole novel on a phone as some Japanese writers have done, but I can give relying even more on my mobile devices a try.

Note: a friend and I are exploring putting on the Internet tales of our old RPG games and other sci-fi or fantasy musings from when we were kids. Perhaps, with a few exceptions, we should contemplate using only mobile devices and see what we learn from this experiment.

Sent from my iPhone

Interesting Trip To Japan

Recently, a buddy of mine, Chieh, operator of camerahacker , spent almost a month in Japan.  I really didn't know he would be there that long or otherwise, I'd ask him to look at mobility in Japan more in depth.  Perhaps, I'll interview him a bit and get his perspectives anyway on Japanese mobile warriors.

Here are a few links to his trip that I find interest at dqax.

I specially like tablet notebook , which is rather reasonably price.  I wonder why we never see those things here.  Time to save up and go to Japan and pick up one of these.  Chieh liked the fact it has an expansion slot and that it's a tablet.

Here's something I love.  A button at your table when you go out to eat to get the attention of the servers.  Press it and it tells the waiter that you need his or her attention.  How cool is this?

Chieh's in the process if working through the pictures.  As a professional, he has to run them through his "process" I would imagine so we'll revisit when he gets more interesting pics on his site.

As a big mobile guy himself, I'm especially curious and looking forward to speak to him about his mobile computing needs and how he worked through them.

When Will We See Japanese Features on American Mobile Phones?

iPhone has a place in the hearts and minds of our Japanese mobile warriors.  But perhaps, not quite yet despite the initial rush of folks waiting to get their hands on Apple's 3G offering.

Why is that?  According to Daily Tech, Softbank and Apple will likely fall short of their goals of selling 350K units by the end of the year.  This is due to traditionally available features on mobile devices that the iPhone is missing.

• Unable to use pictograms in texting.  Due to the high cost of actually talking on a phone, texting has become a more economical mean of substitute to convey oneself.
• Unable to use Felica technology that would have let the iPhone double as a wallet.
• Plans - Softbank has already adjusted their plans in an attempt to attract more users.
• Unable to watch television on the iPhone.

However, this comes as Softbank's competitors acknowledged the iPhone effect in their earning reports.   What we'll likely see over time will be more of these missing features appear on the iPhone.  When will that be?

Based on Apple's past behavior, they'll weigh feasibility with one aspect of technology that has plague the iPhone since the iPhone 3G came out:  battery life.  With the iPhone barely holding its charge through a day's use, imagine watching a few hours of television while the average Japanese spend waiting and and riding subways.  

We'll likely see pictograms fairly soon.  However, I'm a little hesitant on Felica or any other implementation to allow the iPhone double as a wallet.

But make no mistake, mobile convergence is the only route available to device makers and Apple knows this.  It's a matter of putting the Apple touch on these features and future devices than rushing unpolished features to the market.