Michael Schubart’s Weblog

I have just released FIXme, an open source Java library that implements parts of the “Financial Information eXchange” (FIX) protocol.

In Shibuya, Tokyo.

My new cell phone (a SH50iS) comes with software that turns the built-in digital camera into a bar code reader. This way you can simply take a picture of a URL instead of painstakingly typing it in. Here is how it works:

Activate the camera, switch to “Bar Code Reader” mode, press “Scan”:

The contents of the bar code are correctly read as “http://blog.schubart.net“. The phone recognizes this as a URL and offers to connect to the site:

Connect to the web site using i-mode:

In this example I used a “QR Code” type bar code. There is more information about this format on my wiki.
You can generate this type of bar code online here (Japanese).

Here is the bar code I used in my example, in case you want to try it for yourself. I’m able to scan it directly from my notebook’s monitor, without having to print the bar code to paper first.

Note that the reader software runs locally on the phone. There is no need to upload a picture to some web service. Actually, it might be a nice project to build such a service for phones that have a camera but no bar code reader software…

So far, I’ve seen this technology “in the wild” only once: A bar code in an ad that was printed on a McDonald’s place mat.

According to the phone’s manual, bar codes can also be used to store ring tones and even pictures. I wonder if you can encode the picture of a bar code as a bar code? Must… Stop… Thinking… Meta… Thoughts…

PS: This PowerPoint presentation by Nick Outram outlines some interesting ideas how this technology could be used.

I will give a talk at Friday’s NinJava meeting. Abstract:

Version 1.5 (”Tiger”) of the J2SE platform will be released later this year. A beta version is already available for download. I will introduce the new features that J2SE 1.5 offers to developers. Focusing on changes to the Java programming language itself (generics, varargs, metadata, etc.), I will also give an overview of enhanced and new APIs.

When: February 27, 2004, 7:00 PM
Where: Temple University Japan (Tokyo Campus), room 500, fifth floor.

Update: The slides are here.

Supreme Court Building, Tokyo.

I spent two enjoyable days at the Java Technology Conference 2004 here in Tokyo.

In his key note, Jonathan Schwartz demoed the Java Desktop System. On the one hand he presented it as a way to get rid of Microsoft on the desktop. On the other hand he called it “boring”, being just a clone of Windows, so he launched it into the Looking Glass mode: Windows flying around in 3D, a preferences dialog opening on a window’s “back side” and video files playing upside down. The desktop background (a photo of the Grand Canyon) swayed gently whenever the mouse pointer moved. Reminded me of computer games like Quake, where the screen moves slightly when the player stops moving around and just stands there, breathing…

Well, I have news for Jonathan: What people like about the Windows desktop is things like a working copy-and-paste across all applications and decent-looking default fonts. You won’t beat that by renaming the “Start” menu to “Launch” and adding a bunch of useless eye candy. Upside-down videos? Hello?

The reality of UNIX desktops was better represented by some of the machines available for public Internet access: Solaris notebooks with CDE, Netscape 4.73, Java 1.1.6 and half of the keyboard not mapped properly.

My faviorite conference session was the BOF “Sara ni puzzle wo tokou” (”Still More Puzzlers”) by Joshua Bloch, author of the excellent Effective Java Programming Language Guide, and Neal Gafter, primary developer of the Java compiler. Here’s the session abstract:

Joshua Bloch and Neal Gafter present ten more programming puzzles for your entertainment and enlightenment. […] The game show format keeps you on the toes while the puzzles teach you about the subtleties of the Java programming language and its core libraries. Anyone with a working knowledge of the language will be able to understand the puzzles, but even the most seasoned veterans will be challenged. The lessons you take from this session will be directly applicable to your programs and designs. Some of the jokes may even be funny.

Well, the puzzles sure were challenging; humbling even. I only knew the correct answers to three of them. Some were really sneaky. In an interesting way, that is. And yes, the jokes were mostly funny.

Yesterday Akemi and I went to see the art exhibitions “Kusamatrix” and “Roppongi Crossing: New Visions in Contemporary Japanese Art 2004″, both in Roppongi Hills.

Yayoi Kusama’s art is powerful and impressive. The works in “Roppongi Crossing” tend to be on the cute and playful side. There is a lot to be seen in this one, so you should plan a few hours if you want to see both exhibitions.

In Hida-Takayama, Gifu prefecture.

asahi.com: “Himiko” - a water bus designed by manga and anime artist Leiji Matsumoto - will start operations on the Sumida river at the end of March.

Matsumoto is known for the manga “Galaxy Express 999″ and the TV series “Space Battleship Yamato”. Some web pages also credit him with directing my childhood favorite “Captain Future” (images), but I don’t think that is accurate.

“Himiko” is going to operate between Asakusa and Odaiba, so I will be able to see her from my apartment. 33.3m long, she features a “space ship motif” and a “silver-metallic, streamlined” hull. A Flash presentation can be found on the home page of Tokyo Cruise Ship CO., LTD.

This could be pretty cheesy or very cool. Either way, I’m looking forward to it!

Update: The ship is operating now.

Mean: Try searching for “Resume” on Kazaa…

In the Minato Mirai station of the new Minato Mirai Line in Yokohama.

iEx copies the functionality of Apple’s Exposé: Press a special key and all open windows are displayed as little thumbnails. Click one of them and it returns to its normal size and becomes the active window.

Here’s how to get and run the program (Side note: Could it be any more inaccessible and tedious to install?):

• Visit the Aqua-Soft forum, sign up for a free account.
• Go to the “[release] Iex V0.2″ thread in the “Siwu’s Apps” forum.
• Download iEx from the location provided in the thread’s first post.
• Unpack the file. It comes in the somewhat unusual RAR format. 7-Zip is a free program that can open RAR files.
• Edit the file iEx.ini: The last line should read IniEdited=1.
• Launch iEx.exe.
• Make sure you have a few windows open.
• Press the F9 key or move the mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen.
• All open windows should appear as thumbnails.
• Click one of the thumbnailed windows. It should return to its normal size.

a href=”http://www.oxygen-inc.com/premium/InsaniSoft/iEx.htm”>iEx Settings is a GUI front-end for configuring iEx. I haven’t tried it, though.

Another program that does the same thing is WinPLOSION (formerly known as WinExpose). They don’t have a trial version for download, so I don’t know how good it is. Some discussion of WinPLOSION/WinExpose can be found here.

Unix users can try expocity (screenshots here and here) for the Metacity window manager.

Update: For Windows, there’s also Windows Exposer. $7.

Look, it’s a vending machine for umbrellas. Makes sense, though!

I’ve created a Java applet that interactively displays German zip codes as a map. It uses data from the OpenGeoDB project and is inspired by Ben Fry’s “zipdecode”, which does the same thing for U.S. zip codes.

I’m posting this from tonight’s NinJava meeting. Zev Blut is giving a nice presentation on Ruby.

NinJava defines itself as “a group of English-speaking Java professionals in and around Tokyo” but, as tonight’s talk shows, we don’t limit ourselves to Java. Why don’t you visit us at the next meeting! Tonight we’re at Temple University but check the mailinglist for the next one.