arinamin V

"Daijou-V!"

Oh, I love Schwar-chan! So of course we are glad that he is the next hot search.

and here is a video, just for fun :)




TokyoMango explains

high tech toilets flushed down the drain

No not literally. That would be silly.

We archived the hot search high tech toilets.
It just was not as popular as some of our past hot searches.
I guess you guys don't like potty humor

Here is the link to the archived hot search.
http://nipponster.com/hotsearches//story.php?title=high-tech-toilets
You can comment on it and vote on it with our new archive setup

Bugs

You're always bound to have a few cockroaches around.

Every once in a while we see a few small bugs (problems with the CSS of the site or programs). When we do we pull out the bug spray and start killing them.

And you wouldn't believe the bugs we find when we work on new things before we release them (like the hot search archives). But Tori is our expert exterminator so we trust he will do a good job.

-Keitaro

the "hot search" tag cloud is back! and the admins rejoice

Thank God!
the hot searches were down for about a day or more and I was really worried. Thankfully they are displaying again. I can sleep now...

-Tori

Coming Soon...hopefully

We're working on some exciting video screen captures of Nipponster's features.

Video screen captures are created using a program that videotapes your screen while you are working. We found some really good ones on tucows.com

(I like their logo)

and have been having fun playing with them.

We plan to use the videos to show users how to get the most out of Nipponster, and to introduce them to the website and what we hope to accomplish.

Urusaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

The hot searches are down :(

I am not yet sure what the problem is but the hot searches have disappeared from under the search box.

But I know that they will be back soon
-James

Title: Cool New Hot Search Archive (modelled after Digg) released early... or Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better!

hehe. I like that title :)

Okay. This is what all of the hubub is about.
We just released a new "Hot Search Archive" running on some very powerful CMS! -- that stands for content management system












So look for this button on the search page (or click on it here is ok too I guess, yeah?)


It is like Digg. You can rate and comment on old hot searches AND

You can suggest new hot searches!

If your suggestion gets enough votes (or if you brown-nose the administrators...lalala, didn't hear it from me),
your hot search will be added to the hot searches on the site.
TO SUBMIT:

1. Go to the archive site and register
2. After you have registered, click on "suggest a new hot search" link
3. And then follow the instructions
4. Let us know if you have trouble
   

Have fun with the new feature and as always we love your feedback (good, bad and ugly). Which reminds me...

FAIL, FAIL AGAIN, FAIL BETTER!

This is our new motto as far as new releases with Nipponster. If you've got time to burn read this previous post :)

We know that we are going to make mistakes but we don't want to fear them we will learn from them. And we hope you will point them out to us.

-Keitaro

New Link on Homepage and To Err Is Human

We were all excited about posting the "Don't Link To Us" page (at the bottom of the homepage).

If you check out that page you will see graphics that you can use (or text links) on your blog or website to promote Nipponster, if you were so inclined :)

But the really useful thing I believe is the searchbox that gives your readers Japan related results.

We have mixed feelings about making this kind of promote us page because if you want to promote us you will because you find what we are doing useful or you relate to us. So we sqwabbled about it but in the end we went ahead an put it because if someone genuinely wants to promote us we want to make it easy for them.

SO,
I posted the link to the page on the main site, and we all rejoiced. And then I checked out the link today on my computer at work... (spoiler: bad news below)

I had erred and the CSS (if you're not a web nerd that is web code that defines the design of a page) was not right, so the page looked awful with big purple borders around the pictures :(

Like this:

Uggggly!

To err they say is human, but to forgive is divine
-Tori

p.s. If you look at that page and it looks ugly like I mentioned send me an email and mention what brower (internet explorer, firefox, etc.) you are using, and the version of it. Thanks. You make us great!

New Email Addresses ala Google Apps !

-This post is especially for any of our readers who are also bloggers/webmasters and have their own domain name-

If you haven't read it on one of our other posts we are huge Google groupies. We loooove Google! And now they have given yet another reason for lovin' them.

"Google Apps for your domain"

Here is a link and quote from them:
"Google Apps
You can get up and running quickly, even if you don't have technical resources. New! Try Google Apps Premier Edition for free through April 30th, 2007. ..."

So, if you are out of the loop (or don't know that there is a loop :), you are wondering, "What is Google Apps"
Well among other things it gives you Gmail accounts for your website email. So now I have a gmail account (with all of the really awesome labeling, searching, kicking butt features of gmail) but it ends with nipponster.com. How cool is that!!

My new email account is "toritaiyo AT nipponster.com" I'm going to set up Keitaro and James with accounts too.

If you love Google too drop us a line.
-Tori

Make way for High Tech Toilets

Mr. Hearn would not be happy to know that we bumped him off the hot searches to make room for of all things, toilets (see the previous post if you're lost).

But if you've been to Japan you have likely seen odd gadget packed toilets like the one on the right (pic from wikipedia article)

I won't tell you much about them here, instead I'll let you check out the search results.

BUT, I will give one quick personal story...

My Dad was visiting Japan for my graduation and he went into the washroom at the hotel and met with one of these gun-slinger toilets :)

I was standing right outside when he went in. The next thing I heard was a click and a flash of light from his camera. Silly foreigner...

Lafcadio Hearn Retired

Lafcadio Hearn has been retired as a hot search that is.

We reluctantly retired the Lafcadio Hearn hot search to the hot search archive.

We had to make way for new interesting hot searches, but boy were we sad to see him go :(



If you don't know who Lafcadio is you might be missing out big!

This guy was one amazing foreigner in Japan.
In fact, if it wasn't for him many of Japan's greatest folktales would not exist today.
If you want to know more about that check out this wikipedia article (I would have put the link to the February NY Times article but those greedy --- restrict access to archived articles)


Another amazing thing about Lafcadio is that he received Japanese citizenship! Okay, a show of hands how many of you can claim that? hmmm. I don't see any hands :)


He wrote a good book


<--link to the book on Google book search (I assume that it is good although I have not read it -- hey I'm a busy person). It's called Japan: An Attempt At Interpretation

I can especially relate to the chapter "Strangeness and Charm." It reminds me of my first impressions of Japan as an exchange student. Below is the page I'm talking about (hopefully you won't new a microscope to see it...





















Okay, I'm done blabbing. Leave a comment if you like.
-Tori

Let's Get This Blog Rolling

We've made a resolution to keep you more updated about all of the little things that we are working on here at Nipponster.com. Here's why...

Often when starting up a new website, one can fall into the trap of trying to make everything perfect before releasing it. Likely you bloggers and webmasters out there have felt the same way. Well, I would like to tell you about a recent article in the web business magazine Business 2.o (A very good magazine by the way). It makes a strong case for FAILING as a key to success. To summarise the article, we learn from failure and then we can improve. So instead of being perfect one should release new additions to their website early, even if they are not 100%, and get feedback from their readers/users.

So that is what we are going to do. We are going to update this blog at least twice a week with things we are working on, little edits we have made, dreams that we have for the website, and interesting content we find that we just have to tell you all about.

So tune in!
-James

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!

That's right!

The revolution will not be televised.

It will not be on C-SPAN, CNN, or NBC

The revolution will not be brought to you by FoX

With special news breaks about Britney Spears' shaved head.

Because the Revolution will not be televised... :)

We want to revolutionise the way you find Japanese content on the web!

Nipponster's Mission?

To organise and enhance All of the Japan related content on the web,

making the web a better place for Japan-Ethusiasts!

Find out how:

Nipponster's Personality :)

Nipponster "Social" Search
Nipponster Toolbar
Nipponster Labs
Nipponster Hot Search Archive

And if you are a blogger or webmaster, Nipponster wants to help YOU. So Contact Us