Naver.com, probably the most popular portal site in Korea, has a section called “enjoyjapan” where things related to Japan are discussed. That site also provide machine translation service between Korean and Japanese. I’ve used them before a few times and found it pretty good and is better than other machine translation tools such as BabelFish or Google Language Tool.

Anyway, from the Naver.com main site, I clicked on a item, which brought me to a discussion thread on a Korean drama by a Japanese person. If you don’t know either Korean or Japanese, then you won’t be able to read what they are talking about. But what they talk about is not the interesting thing.

It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on. But the original poster posted her message in Japanese, on a counterpart Japanese site, “enjoykorea”. The Japanese version of the same thread can be seen here.

So, one can post in Korean on the “enjoyjapan” site and another can post in Japanese on the “enjoykorea” site on the same thread! People can participate in the discussion in their preferred language!

I just find it pretty interesting. I guess the machine translation for certain segments are pretty good these days (Japanese and Korean belong to the same language family and share the syntactic structures).

At first I thought it was a joke, but apparently it is not. The ad contained this claim: “The fuels that produce CO2 (carbon dioxide) have freed us from a world of back-breaking labor, lighting up our lives, allowing us to create and move the things we need, the people we love.”

This got me thinking about some other possible “We Call It Life” adds…

- “Iraq War, we call it life”: The ad would say “The fuels we secure cheaply from this and other wars in Middle East have freed us from a world of back-breaking labor, lighting up our lives, allowing us to create and move the things we need, the people we love.”

- “Sweat shops, we call it life”: The ad would say “These facilities have freed us from a world of back-breaking labor, allowing us to enjoy these cheap clothing and shoes that the advertisers make us believe we need.”

- “Genocide, we call it life”: an ad by Sudanese government.

And so on…

For me, two things stand out. One is that the console gaming market needs to grow. That is, it should appeal to more than just young males, to females and younger/older people. Nintendo mentioned this when they introduced the new “TV remote” controller.

The other is that with the increased capability of the hardware, the game development cost is growing out of hands (ArsTechnica, GameSpot and News.com). Some game production costs seem to rival those of movies and it is highly likely that the costs won’t come down. Most of the cost increase, I think, is in the increased/more-detailed artworks. Although Microsoft and Sony promised better developer tools and middleware solutions to ease these developer complaints, it is indisputable that it is becomingly very difficult for smaller (and probably more creative) game developers to survive.

In these sense, I have a high hope that Xbox Live Arcade (“XBL Arcade”) can solve both issues. XBL Arcade is a way to play downloadable “small” or classic games such as “Bejeweled 2″ or “Joust” on the Microsoft’s console. All XBL Arcade games are supposed to have demos, and if people like some they can buy full versions. You can think of it as a “shareware” game that was popular on PC except that it is distributed only through the Microsoft’s console network.

Not only this is a great outlet for smaller gaming outfits, but this is a great way for many people to enjoy simpler puzzle-type (or brain-teaser if you like) games. Although there have been “classic collection” games on disks so far, I don’t think those were that popular. This way we may be able to nurture more creative games instead of standard NFL or WWII games with glitzy graphics.

Sure, XBL Arcade was introduced a year ago, but I don’t think neither Microsoft nor the game developers had proper strategies developed. Also, Microsoft was trying very hard to establish itself in the traditional console market as a newcomer, so it seems this project was given less attention. And then they already knew that Xbox’s life was coming to an end (or Xbox 360 was coming).

This time, it seems it’s going to be different. For one, every Xbox 360 owner gets an Xbox Live account free. Although this XBL Silver account won’t let you play online mode of the DVD games, it allows you to enjoy XBL Arcade along with some other basic features. Of course, one still needs to connect the console to the network, but it greatly increases the target audience for XBL Arcade.

What’s still not known and which is probably the most important thing for XBL Arcade to succeed is the price for each XBL Arcade games. For me, $15 would be the maximum I would pay for buy-once type of games. I’d like it to be around $10 a game, but we’ll have to see. It just can’t be “expensive”. Otherwise, XBL Arcade is doomed. And I do think that Microsoft should subsidize this for the first year or so to make it a real success if the numbers don’t add up initially.

Although not discussed by Microsoft, I think the XBL Arcade could really charge like a real arcade. That is, one would pay $0.10 or $0.25 per play. These type of micro-payments might seem difficult at first, but Xbox Live already has a concept of “points”. So you can say one “XBL points” for a play, for example.

For me, the most interesting genre for XBL Arcade is definitely puzzle games. One of the games my wife and I enjoyed at an arcade in Korea a few years ago was “find-the-differences-in-two-pictures” type of games. Or those “bar”-games that some places (even arcades) have that have hundreds of quick games. This type of games will work really well with the per-play model since the contents need to get updated regularly, and paying for the whole game (or whole collection of games that I may not play) would be too much.

I hope Microsoft can set up good pricing models. HD gaming is all good and nice, but I believe this will make home-gaming truly popular.

However, I gave up when it actually came out several months ago. It was just too expensive for what I was getting. Even the Toyota Highlander Hybrid was significantly more expensive. Although the published mileage was good (~27 highway, ~30 city), but it was not “amazing”, and the “real” mileage is often much lower than the “are you for real?” EPA mileage.

Initially they seemed to be selling well: the preorders seemed to be good (I was one of them, though), and it seemed it was difficult to find one on the lot.

Fast-forwarding to several months later, it seems there are signs now that they are not as popular as Toyota has hoped (and as the media hyped). There are reports that some are being sold below MSRP (a couple of thousand dollars below). Also, it seems that the Toyota management has finally realized that there is something wrong with their current hybrid plan.

Today I’ve read an article by an Australian paper, “Toyota to rethink on ‘big electrical appliance’” (free registration required) via Autoblog. It seems the sales of Harrier and Klugger SUVs (respective Japanese names for RX and Highlander) aren’t selling well in Japan either. And Toyota is considering revising their current hybrid strategy of putting hybrid drives into existing models, and instead create hybrid-only models.

This really is not surprising considering the sales trends of hybrid vehicles so far. Although there are many hybrid passenger vehicles out in the market, the only “hot” item has been Toyota Prius (still about a couple of months of waiting). Honda’s hybrid-”enhanced” existing models (Civic Hybrid and Accord Hybrid) have not been selling well. And it seems the same fate awaits for RX400h and Highlander Hybrid.

So, why is that? Although it may not apply to everyone who bought Prius, but you cannot deny that Prius, with its distinctive looks, is helping the buyer to proclaim to the others that he/she cares about the environment. Without the clearly visible distinction, he/she is finding it difficult to overcome the “hybrid premium” mentally.

Sure, Prius does have a wow factor in the fuel consumption, but so does Civic Hybrid.

Another reason, according to Mr. Hori of Toyota as mentioned in the Age article, if the hybrid option is available on an existing model, it is unavoidable that the potential buyers would compare with non-hybrid models. And when the hybrid models are 20% more expensive, then it just does not become attractive.

It will be interesting to see what would happened to Lexus GS450h and Toyota Camry Hybrid that Toyota already showed at recent auto shows. Will they scrap the plan? Or if they’ve invested too much already in them, maybe just do a nominal production run? But it is clear we won’t see any more hybrid versions of existing models beyond what’s already announced.

After reading the article, another idea occurred to me (I am sure it did to Toyota as well). Toyota already has shown that creating a separate brand for a certain segment works (Scion, for example). I think Prius is already close to a brand of its own. So, why not create a brand especially for hybrid (or non-ICE-only) vehicles? I am sure the extra marketing and engineering costs would be there, but I think it just might make sense.

Isn’t this subversive… Maybe Korean cell phone manufacturers should give out the phones (and pay for the services) in North Korea.

It’s a report on the average weight and height statistics over the past 40 years by National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The height didn’t change that much (from 5’8 (1.73 m) to 5’9 1/2 (1.77 m) for males (2.2% increase), and from 5’3 (1.60 m) to 5’4 (1.63 m) for females (1.6% increase)). However, the weight increased dramatically: from 166.3 lb (75.6 kg) to 191 lb (86.8 kg) for males (15% increase!!!), and from 140.2 lb (63.7 kg) to 164.3 lb (74.7 kg) for females (17% increase!!!).

And this guy isn’t helping the stats.

I really think it has to do with the food portion they are giving out here. No wonder obesity is such an issue these days.

Bush: Of course, I know Osama bin Laden atttacked us. I know that!

:p

The show being promising is not my concern for this article. :p

When we were watching the episode, we noticed an Asian girl and initially wondered what her nationality was (my wife said she was Korean, and I said either Japanese or Chinese although she kinda looked familiar). And then there was an Asian male character who I immediately recognized as Daniel Dae Kim. So, I already realized I lost the bet.

However, the surprise came when they started talking to each other. Their dialogs were in Korean (Daniel, who was born in Pusan, was faking a Pusan accent), and not only that there was no subtitles!

So, I started digging up the Internet, and it turns out the actress was Kim Yunjin (also spelled Yoon-Jin) who have appeared in several Korean movies (including “Swiri”). Her Korean was authentic, which was another first in the U.S. TV/movies.

The rumor is that Ms. Kim initially auditioned for the role of “Kate” (the main female character), but they didn’t think she was right for it. But they liked her enough that they created this role for her (and the role of her husband).

The series is into its first pilot episode, so it’s difficult to judge, but Korean dialog was okay, not perfect (I would have preferred omitting “당신을” from Sun’s lines and substituting “싫어요” with “안 돼요” or “어어…” for Jin’s lines). They are playing a typical role of a chauvinistic husband and a subservient wife, which I have a bit of a problem. But there is a rumor that the couple is actually hiding their English skills, so it may change.

The show looked beautiful in HD. The story may not turn out to be great, but I think it does have a potential. I’ll be keep watching it.

Anyway, I hope they don’t end up just speaking Korean till the end of the series. I hope they can get some other roles after this. It could be a good thing for Asian American actors, after all (just don’t play some typical ethnic roles).

Take a look at this AP graph of the recent trend in the crude oil prices. Basically, it’s been hitting record high for the past couple of weeks.

But what happened at the pump here in San Jose, CA? It’s been going down!. Usually, the pump price would go up as soon as the “bad” news is up! What’s going on here? Someone must be assuming the cost!

Well, if my “theory” holds up, my guess is that we may not see the pump price until November? :p

The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago’s 2002 survey noted Americans who say that they belong to one of Protestant denominations are only 52%, down from 62% around 1993. A controversial thing is that this number included Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), which accounted for 2%, as protestants. Among immigrants, only 25% were protestants.

On the other hand, the proportions of Roman Catholics and Jews stayed about the same, 25% and 2% respectively. Other religious groups, including Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Buddhists and Hindus rosed to 7%.

Also, another interesting trend was that 27% of those born in 1980 or later claim they have “no religion”.

I was kind of shocked that it was that low among immigrants because I see Korean protestants all the time. So, it’s obvious that Koreans aren’t even close to making a dent in the big picture.

So, the growth of secularism in the U.S. (and the world) and the increasing fanaticism among some religious fundamentalists do have bases in the statistics, and the trend is telling me that it will get worse.