Mariko just sent me a link to some removable memory, in the shape of sushi. It plugs into your USB port like usual. Pretty cool name too: “SushiDisk”.

Click the pic to see more!

We went to a Halloween party today and had lots of fun! Eep eep!

Mariko and I watched the last episode of Churasan 3 the other night on TV Japan. We only saw a few episodes, but it was pretty good. I didn’t understand much of it, but I liked it because the story was in Okinawa, and had interesting Okinawan music and settings. Plus, there were many cute girls starring in it. That is always a plus! I wish there were more outdoor scenes because I think Okinawa is a beautiful place. I wouldn’t mind spending time there.

It looks like the two weeks of nice Austin autumn weather has started. The days are nice, and the mornings are cool. In fact, this morning when I went running at 5am, it was really cold. I was shivering in the darkness as I ran around the neighborhood! At any rate, the days are fantastic, let’s just hope it stays this way for a while!

Today we went to Sea World. We had fun watching the Sea Lion show. -Koa

When we got our dishwasher a few years ago, I was surprised that the dishes didn’t come out totally dry. There was a thin film of moisture on everything. That made me kind of mad, because we spent a good amount of money to buy a very nice dishwasher unit. It even blows out steam through a vent in the front during the drying process. Later on, there was a leak, and I called the repair man out to fix it. I mentioned that our dishes don’t get really dry, and he said that it was normal. He said you need to use a rinse agent (Jet Dry) to get the dishes nice and dry. I thought that this was strange. Why couldn’t the dishwasher manufacturer let the owner specify how long to leave on the drying cycle so that the dishes get dry? I mean, just keep the heat element and the fan going for another half hour. When we lived in Japan, we had a “dish dryer”, which was basically an enclosed dishrack that had a small heating element and a fan with timer. That worked pretty damn good. How hard would it be to work something as basic as that into a modern dishwasher, for goodness sakes?!

My only thought is that there must some kind of deal going on between the dishwasher manufacturers and the folks at Jet Dry. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in cahoots together, those bastards. Some friends of ours bought a brand new dishwasher recently, and the exact same thing happened. They complained that the dishes weren’t completely dry, and the company told them, “Use Jet Dry”. I’d love for somebody to prove me wrong and tell me of a dishwasher model that can completely dry dishes. I’d probably buy it.

I can’t wait to buy the new Minolta dSLR, but I also want to try some new techniques using the Minolta wireless flash system. Using the 3600 or 5600HS flash units, you can do some really creative things. They flashes come with little feet so you can place them anywhere (as well as on the camera’s hotshoe or a tripod) and bounce the light off the wall, ceiling, or a reflector. I think the quality of portraits is greatly enhanced by using this technique. You can see some excellent examples, and read about Minolta’s wireless flash system at Gary L. Friedman’s site. The cool thing is, I can use wireless with my old 507si film camera too. The wireless system is controlled by the on-camera flash, which is why all modern Minolta cameras have a built-in flash. The Maxxum 9 was criticized because it had a flash (most “pro” systems don’t have a built-in flash because the quality of the flash output is not sufficient), but people failed to realize that the built-in flash was included because it could wirelessly control all the other flash units.

Minolta (now Konica-Minolta) has had some great innovations, most notably the first AF system, wireless flash, and some would say the new in-camera anti-shake system. But I, and many others, would say that where Minolta is really ahead of the pack is with their intuitive user-interface. My Alpha 507si (Maxxum 650si) has a great “lever and dial” interface that is so easy to use, and lets you see nearly all of your camera’s setting just by glancing at the camera itself, not some tiny lcd display. The great thing is, the camera doesn’t have to be on. It’s such a great design. Minolta carried on this type of design with their Maxxum 9, 7, and now Digital 7 models. You can read an excellent article on the Minolta Maxxum 7 by Gary L. Friedman at his site.

I guess I am a big fan of Minolta, ant that is because of the great cameras that they have produced in the past, and the cameras that are sure to come in the future!