Nipponster Official Blog

Where the action is

2008-09-10T01:36:00.004+09:00

Hi All,

Just another quick update. As mentioned before this blog is suspended for now.

Instead all of the action will be on DailyJ

ALSO
Anyone who wants to contribute to Nipponster development can check out the new Nipponster Lab on the JapanLabs social networking site!
See you there!

Focus

2008-08-07T02:57:00.002+09:00

To better focus efforts on creating a better search engine I am suspending this blog.

(ok, I know that sounds counterintuitive, but let me explain)

I need to focus resources and time where they will produce the best results.

Writing two blogs (this one and DailyJ) is too much.

So future Nipponster messages will be posted on DailyJ instead.

Move to Wordpress inevitable

2008-03-25T00:07:00.000+09:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be moving this blog from Blogger to Wordpress.

Since launching DailyJ as a wordpress blog back in September 2007 I have fallen head over heels in love with wordpress.
(A special thanks goes to Jamaipanese for suggesting it over blogger)

And although I have a deep love for things Google (and think the Blogger tagging features are swell) I must make the switch.

Wordpress just gives the user so much more control.

Dreamers Never, Ever, Give Up

2008-03-20T20:43:00.005+09:00

This blog post, written well over 6 months ago, resonates with me today even more than it did then. With the launch of DailyJ and the re-launch of Japanopedia I spread myself rather thin and neglected Nipponster. At the time of this post part of me felt like throwing in the towel and today too part of me feels like throwing in the towel. I have reached this point five or six times with Nipponster in its brief two year existence. But I have always pushed on. Nipponster has always persevered or reinvented itself. And today is no different. So here it is; an oldie, but a goodie:

Dreamers Never Give Up

Thursday, August 30, 2007

I have to be honest, sometimes I feel like giving up...

Trying to affect change and carry out a vision is hard work!

That's what we are trying to do with Nipponster.com

We are trying to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts

But it is not easy.

I did not think that it would be.

But I did not expect it to be this hard.

The main problem boils down to how to create buzz about our mission.

How can we get lots of people behind it?

How can we make them passionate about revolutionising Japan-related content on the web?

How do we get people involved in projects (like making a free comprehensive Japanese text book)?

We don't know the answers yet.

And we could always use your input.

But one thing is for certain...

We are dreamers.

And Dreamers never give up!

-Tori

Nipponster in 2008

2008-01-31T01:09:00.000+09:00

Where will Nipponster go from here?

That is the question we have been considering lately (well, always really).

We feel that Japan-related search is an important new field and expect it to grow, especially in 2008.

Admittedly, Nipponster is currently not even close to meeting the potential for this field.

The ability to search across the various mediums and niches of the web and quickly return only Japan-related results is the goal.

This will call for the launch of new search tools, refinement of current tools, and passion for the mission.

Onward we will go.

Improvements to the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

2008-01-19T04:00:00.000+09:00

In keeping with our efforts to continually improve the Nipponster Japan Toolbar we have just added two new features! Take them for a spin and let us know your thoughts.

1, We have added a "JapanSoc It" button that allows you to submit a URL to JapanSoc (a digg.com-clone for Japan-related news).

2, We've added Nipponster Video Search to the search box. So now you can search the major video sites for Japan-related videos... right from your browser!

Two easy steps:

click on the black arrow in the search box
select "Nipponster video search" and click go

The new "Hot Search Archive" is here!

2008-01-17T04:51:00.000+09:00

Ok. Finally we have finished the new Nipponster Hot Searches! Whew...
That was a lot of work. And it still needs work.

I thought that the entries from the old hot search archive would be easy to move to the new one but alas that's not so :(

We will have to manually re-enter them...

But no worries because having the new archive makes up for everything!

Let us know what you think of it!

Yes! Progress with the new hot search archives

2008-01-05T09:43:00.000+09:00

Like I mentioned in the previous post, we've been working on the hot search archives. And I've been messing things up :(

Fortunately I just fix a major problem on the new archive! Too bad we have not released it yet, so you cannot see my good work :(

oh, well.

The good news is that it is working as we had hoped and soon it will be released!

Hot search archive - no one is perfect

2008-01-05T08:52:00.000+09:00

We've been working on the hot search archive trying to upgrade it.

Unfortunately while I was working on it I made a mistake and now it is a little buggy.

The new version that we are hoping to release soon will automatically archive old hot searches saving us lots of time.

It will also help us update the hot searches much more frequently.

It has been awhile

2008-01-04T05:44:00.000+09:00

Sorry for the silence.
Life is busy. Hopefully some changes we are making will free up our time from tedious things.

Our goal with this blog is to post more often and publish shorter "bite-sized" posts that let you know what we are doing each day.

That's the goal. We will see how that holds up...

Tweaking the search engine

2007-12-15T07:46:00.000+09:00

I just did some major tweaking of the search settings for Nipponster. Hopefully this will make searches more accurate and remove some of the junk results that sometimes pop-up.

Nipponster is supposed to filter results so that only Japan-related results come through. I know that this is going to require constant tweaking, especially since we want to go from "ok, it's Japan-related" to "Wow! these results are Japan-related and better than any other results on the web!"

We want the "wow factor." How would you rate Nipponster search right now? Is it a wow? How can we improve?

Work in Progress

2007-12-15T07:16:00.000+09:00

There is so much to do and so little time!

I have a lot of little edits to make here and there on Nipponster.

I'm going to talk about them because I think mistakes should be celebrated! None of us are perfect.

I made some edits to the layout of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and did not realise that it messed up some of the design. It looks ugly and I have to fix it.

If you see any other things that look out of place (design-wise) or things that do not work, please let me know!

I am always giving feedback to other sites like that because I know how helpful it is.

[This is an aside, but an important one: If you have a site or blog about Japan I challenge/encourage you to help your fellow Japan-related sites! It will help them, it will help you, it will help the readers and in the end make us all one community]

Let's keep dreaming; let's keep building, together!

Update. We are still full of crazy dreams.

2007-12-14T07:00:00.000+09:00

yikes! It's been awhile since we last posted to the official blog.

Keitaro and James have been really busy with their full time jobs, although James has been helping me with a new Japan-related project that hopefully we will launch sometime soon.

I have been busy with work and Daily J. The latter has been going really well, in my book, because it has turned into a center for discussion about the Japan-related web. That discussion is set to grow and in the near future with some guest blogging I'll be doing, but more on that later.

For now, I just want to say...

We are still crazy dreamers striving to create the best Japan-related tools we can for all of you Japan-enthusiasts out there.

And,
We are always always interested in your feedback, and we love helping out Japan-related projects!
So feel free to contact me (Tori) at eaglelandgrace [att] gmail [dott] com

Wake up and smell the Japan-related videos!

2007-11-21T00:49:00.000+09:00

Good day to you.

Seems like not many have checked out the new video search feature :(

The problem is likely the simplicity of our homepage (it is being overlooked.

So I set video search as the home page.

So...
"Stay hungry; Keep searching"

And then give us some feedback!
--

If you have no idea what I am talking about read this post on the Japan-related video search

What you have to see to believe!

2007-11-05T09:08:00.000+09:00

I have a fever and the only prescription is more VIDEO!

If you missed it on the front page, I would like to present to you Nipponster Video Search!

All Japan-related videos, all the time.

Take it for a spin!

Here's a screenshot of the search results page:

You can watch the videos right on the search results page!

Finally some new hot searches

2007-10-29T11:27:00.000+09:00

Ok ok.

Yes, finally some new hot searches. I have been really bad about approving new hot searches over the past 2 weeks or so...

Not good.

Here are the new ones:

genpatsu shinsai

anti-groping software

free manga

Remember, to see past hot searches visit the Archives

Also here are a few search suggestions:
Keeling's Guide to Japan

Japanese mascots

My fellow Japan-enthusiasts...

"Stay hungry; keep searching!"

Kaizen and the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

2007-10-16T04:19:00.000+09:00

Kaizen, Baby!
We are trying to make the Nipponster Japan Toolbar better and better all the time

Kaizen (改善) - continuous improvement

If you are out of the loop when it comes to our Japan Toolbar, and the cool tools we've been working on, check out this previous post: Free Internet Broadcast Japanese TV!

And it you haven't downloaded it yet DO IT NOW! --> Nipponster Japan Toolbar download page. We think you will thank yourself for it later ;)

The Nipponster Japan Toolbar is the first Japan Toolbar, the first Japan-enthusiasts toolbar. It is the first toolbar to bring all the gadgets a Japan-enthusiast needs together in one place: Japanese dictionaries, Kanji cards, free Japanese typing software (Japanese language support), language practice, radio language lessons, 24 hour Japanese TV, and all kinds of useful links. And don't forget Nipponster Search (the first Japan-related search engine).

So how did we improve a toolbar so chocked full of goodies?
We've added three cool new things to the Japan Toolbar:

More new free Japanese internet TV links
A web app that let's you type in Japanese without software
Cool gadgets from Labpixies

New free Japanese TV channels:
We've added Impress TV, Channel J, Biglobe, and NHK (English & Japanese). Here is a screenshot:

Type in Japanese without software:
A great tool to use if you do not have a Japanese OS and you don't have (or don't want to install) Japanese typing software.
It is a good idea to bookmark this link (http://ajaxime.chasen.org/index.html) on Google bookmarks, etc. (or save it somewhere like in your gmail). Here is why: Let's say you take a little trip to Australia and midway through your trip you need to email someone in Japanese. But there's a problem, none of the PCs available have Japanese typing software. Not good. But wait, now all you have to do is visit this link and you can type in Japanese without installing software! Awesome.
Here is a screenshot:

Cool gadgets from Labpixies:
There are a lot of gadget goodies but the best in my book is Labpixie TV. This is probably of more interest to foreigners in Japan, whereas the Japanese TV is interesting to people outside of Japan. Missing TV from home? LabPixie TV has programmable TV stations. Click on the first button on the right and it will take you to their website where you can choose your channel,... by country!
Screenshot:

They even have some Japanese stations on there but it is all user submitted and some of the .asp links (streaming tv links) may have been changed. They seem to get changed pretty often, that is why in our tv section we link to the homepages too.

Well, that's it for now. What's next? Video search?! (uh. oh. looks like I let the cat out of the bag...) Stay Tuned!!

And let us know what you think by giving us some feedback!
We do it for you, the Japan-enthusiasts.

-Tori

Stay Tuned!

2007-10-12T13:36:00.000+09:00

I was super excited today.
I just finished the major work I had to do on some improvements we are making to the toolbar.

I will be posting more about that soon. Good stuff it is.

We are also cooking up some fun with the search engine.
Something new and exciting.

So do as the title and please stay tuned!

35 years of Shinjuku in 10 seconds and some new hot searches!

2007-10-09T11:07:00.000+09:00

Found this on the Nipponster hot search I just archived Tokyo time lapse video
(Thanks to sparkplugged)

Here are the newly approved hot searches:

secret Okinawa pact

rice patty art harvest

And a timely and fun suggestion:

Rubik's cube championship

"stay hungry; keep searching!"

Advert policy - Why there will be no banners on Nipponster.com

2007-10-01T06:40:00.000+09:00

D.B.E.

We were contacted via email recently by a company that offers popular advertising solutions for websites. To reap a profit from it, the service would likely require the posting of banners on this site.

Though this particular company's service seems to be becoming ubiquitous on sites with a focus similar to ours, we declined them.

We were congenial in all of our correspondence with them and although we declined we even offered to interview them on our new blog Daily J (because we think their service is ok, it's just not for us). But there was no reply...

So I am sure that declining their offer certainly won us no friends in that company but we have
to stick to our guiding principle:
"Does this make things better for Japan-enthusiasts?"

In this case we decide that the answer was "NO" for two reasons:

It would distract from the purpose of Nipponster. That purpose is to quickly give our users only the information they are looking for. Not the clutter they are not looking for.

The service is a "freemium". It's free for the basic functions but if you want to get the full service you have to pay a fee. There's nothing wrong really with freemiums, but Nipponster was started with the goal that everything we provide we provide 100% free.

In the end we are crazy dreamers, right? So regardless of any monetary benefit we would have reaped we would not and will not give up our dream and our principles.

We hope that is clear to everyone and I personally hope that will never change.

Interesting searches

2007-09-27T04:12:00.000+09:00

Just approved some new hot searches: Japanese to English copy machines and Tokyo time lapse

And here are some more fun searches we found:

dance vader

and

learn japanese from gundam

Enjoy!

"Stay Hungry; Keep searching!"

Japan on the moon and more

2007-09-24T09:23:00.000+09:00

Changing a hot search.

Seems Japan Aerospace (JAXA) launched a lunar mission.

Some other recommendations are:

JAXA to privatize

google x-prize Jaxa

sino-japan space race

"Stay Hungry; Keep searching!"

New hot search and some interesting related searches

2007-09-21T00:58:00.000+09:00

Just changed another hot search.
Trying t0 at least switch them twice a week.

Some other interesting hot searches are:

Accenture the dodgy company behind the new fingerprinting s

abolition of fingerprinting

opposition of fingerprinting

Giving the "hot search archive" a makeover

2007-09-21T00:27:00.000+09:00

The rest of this week we'll be working on giving the hot search archive a new look.

We plan to change the template to something that better matches the rest of Nipponster.

Going Crazy

2007-09-17T07:22:00.000+09:00

Have you ever had way too much to do?

I feel like my head is going to explode.
My nature is to take on more than I can chew, try to pack more than 24 hours worth into a day, or whatever other cliche is fitting here.

There are so many things we would like to do.

I think that the key going forward it to focus on doing a few things really well.

I also worry that we don't really understand our users very well.
How can we best serve you? What do you like, dislike about our services? What would you like that currently doesn't exist?

PLEASE GIVE US FEEDBACK

I am brainstorming with the other crazy dreamers about how we can get more user feedback.
Maybe a user comments page. Maybe one on each tool page (ex: one on the toolbar download page).

Tori

Noooooooooo!

2007-09-14T06:07:00.000+09:00

We are having technical problems...

The problem is affecting the database for Daily J and the Hot Search Archive.

Both are down :(

I hate technical problems!

Some new hot searches and some fun suggestions

2007-09-13T07:20:00.000+09:00

Yeh!

Some new hot searches finally! We have got to get better at quickly changing the hot searches.

Of course there are a few that we know people love and we feel obligated to leave up, which causes a problem (and we need your feedback) <-- blog post about that problem

We thought that, in addition to the hot searches, these might be interesting search terms too:
Shinzo Abe scandals

English teaching that doesn't suck - Unfortunately this did not bring up many useful links. I had been hoping that someone had written a page on this, but oh well. At least I found this funny video:

There is another related video. But I am going to make you look through the results yourself and find it (don't worry it's in the first results page).

Behind a little on archiving old hot searches...

2007-09-12T07:28:00.000+09:00

Our new goal, which really is an old goal revisited, is to change a hot search every day.

That way there is always something new to see for those who come for the hot searches.

Right now we have gotten it to about one or two new hot searches a week.

Archiving them is a bit of work. Maybe there is a way we could automate it.

Anyway, just thinking out loud...

So how are we doing?

2007-09-10T00:32:00.000+09:00

Our goal is "to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts."

That statement is the standard we use to make decisions.

Ex: Like when we started the Nipponster Japan Project - Japanopedia.org. There are many sites that have directories of Japan-related websites. But those directories are put together by their respective webmasters. Instead, keeping our standard in mind, we decided to give the power to create to everyone. We don't own the Japanopedia wiki. Everyone owns it. And as everyone can contribute the encyclopedia has the potential to cover much more than any other directory. And that is good for Japan-enthusiasts.

That example is just one of a number of projects and services we have started working on to accomplish our goal.

But are we accomplishing it? How are we doing?

We want your feedback and we want to find new ways to better communicate with you about our projects and what you think of them.

-Tori

Ups and Downs with Daily J

2007-09-07T20:58:00.000+09:00

Now that I've had some shut-eye...

Daily J is up, up, and away! (Did I already say that. Well, I'm excited, ok?!)
To start things off we are chatting with Adam Douglass of Slash And Burn.

Yesterday I was supposed to have an interview with Arudou Debito, writer, anti-discrimination advocate, and editor of Debito.org.

I was super excited about the whole thing. But I forgot about that saying that anything that can go wrong will. I have my doubts as to whether or not that is an accurate saying but at least for me yesterday it was painfully true.

A lot of things went wrong up to the time that I was supposed to call him for the interview. But the straw that broke the camel's back was when my recording equipment wouldn't work, right before the call.
I naturally get nervous about talking to people over the phone anyway. But I was looking forward to this interview because Debito.org is an awesome site. It is a must read for any foreigner living in Japan (I wish that I had found it during my international student days). His section on "What to do if..." will resonate with you if you have ever lived in the land of sun.

I IM-ed James when I realised I wouldn't be able to conduct the interview and naturally he was upset (at the situation). And he made sure that I contacted Debito and apologised for the inconvience; sometimes we Americans have to be reminded of our manners :)

So we still hope to get an inside view of the site and the man behind it. But for now you can check it out for yourself.

Stay tuned,
Tori

Finally I can sleep

2007-09-07T18:53:00.000+09:00

YES!!!!!!

After weeks of planning, tech work, and conversations with bloggers...
Daily J has been launched successfully! I am so relieved *falls out on the floor and sleeps*

~Tori

Only 1 day left!!!

2007-09-06T12:49:00.001+09:00

Wow!

We are just one day away from launching Daily J !

It has been a lot of work getting to this point, but well worth it.

We have had some amazing response from j-bloggers/sites.

For one:
Later today we will be interviewing Arudou Debito of Debito.org.
I'm super excited about that!

And we have made lots of new friends from contacting bloggers for interviews.

We have had a lot of encouragement from them, support and even an offer to partner up.

We want to thank everyone for their support and now for
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, it's only a day a way!

-Tori

p.s. Sorry to post so late in the day. We had a tech problem this morning and then I was away from the computer until now.

Uh oh... 2 more days

2007-09-05T11:31:00.000+09:00

Uh oh.

Just two days from Launch and we are debating whether or not to change blog platforms.

*nervous*

I don't want to push back the launch!

In other news:
Someone asked "Will DailyJ be replacing this blog?"

The answer to that is no.

This blog will continue to report on any happenings with Nipponster.
And we think DailyJ will actually help with this. Since DailyJ is about more general Japan-related things, the official Nipponster blog can focus on what it is for, reporting on Nipponster.

It will continue to be a place for us to talk about the specific projects we are working on:
The Japan enthusiast's search engine
The Nipponster Japan Toolbar
The Japanopedia, part of our Japan project
And hints about upcoming projects

We do it for you,
Tori

3 days left. crunch time

2007-09-04T21:23:00.000+09:00

Oops. Forgot to change the front page and make a blog post earlier today.

Yes. We are just 3 days away from launch and it is officially "CRUNCH TIME"

There is so much left to do it is insane. I might not sleep tonight...

But if I do I'll dream of DailyJ

-Tori

Four Days Left...(Need Feedback)

2007-09-03T08:18:00.000+09:00

Four days until Daily J (our new blog)

We'd like take this time to talk little about what we are doing to prepare.
Also we want to get feedback from you about some things we want to do on the blog.

What preparation are into launching this new blog?
We have talked to some of our favourite Japan bloggers.
We are trying to get idea of why they blog and why it is fun for them.
Then we will put their answer on the blog.

We need feedback
We came up with the name Daily J because we plan to post everyday.
Also we want it to be essential blog, like vitamins. You need your daily dose.

But that makes a problem.
We plan to bring interviews with Japan bloggers. But how often?
We have been think one new interview a day.
But we also think that these bloggers deserve more blog time than that.

We don't know...
What should we do?

~keitaro

5 days

2007-09-02T12:59:00.000+09:00

Only five days until Daily J !

( I can't stand it any longer! Too much suspense!!!!! )

~K

A New Blog. A New Day for Japan-enthusiasts...

2007-08-31T23:37:00.000+09:00

Ok. Perhaps that title is a bit melodramatic. :D

What is this all about?

It's simple (but very exciting), we are starting a new blog.

It is exciting because this new blog will have a unique purpose.
A purpose that we hope will be beneficial to all Japan-enthusiasts.

The blog will showcase the people, the sites, and the projects that are making the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts!

And here is the part we are really excited about:
It will not only feature information about them. Oh No. It will be full of behind the scenes, exclusive interviews with the people themselves!

These are the people who are bringing you unique views of Japan, amazing experiences, solid advice, great language tools and materials, and all the wonders a J-enthusiast could ever ask for!

In this blog we will also go in-depth into projects that are producing free resources for the benefit of all. We plan to interview wikipedia and wikibooks editors who are heavily involved in creating free entries and even free Japanese language textbooks!

Your window (or better yet, x-ray) into Japan on the web.

So consider this your official welcome (from your buddies James, Keitaro, and Tori) to...

A New Day For Japan-enthusiasts!
And a new interview everyday
On

(Set to launch, September 7th 2007. What a tease!)

Dreamers Never Give Up

2007-08-30T00:53:00.000+09:00

Bringing Japan to the world!

2007-08-21T04:58:00.000+09:00

In talking to Japan-related blogger and web site owners we meet a lot of people with similar goals/interest.

What are the similar goals?

To Bring Japan to the World!

That is really cool goal I think, because many people are fascinated by Japan.

There is a mystery and curiousity about Japan.

And Japan-related blogs and websites give them the window. A window to see Japan.

Each blog/site has unique message and they are each beautiful.

Their beauty needs to get out so that more people can see it.

That is why Nipponster is dedicating itself to developing new exciting ways to promote those blogs and websites.

Maa, I cannot tell you about specifics yet, ne.

But we will let you know more in a few days!

Stay posted,

~~Keitaro

RepeKanji on the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

2007-08-14T11:57:00.000+09:00

We just added something new to the Japan toolbar

It is pretty cool.

Videos teaching 50 kanji each, so you can study 50 kanji a week.

It's ...

For those who already have the Nipponster Japan Toolbar <--(link to post with demo), you can find these videos on your toolbar by going to "Japan Links" --> "Learning Kanji and Kana" --> "Repe Kanji"

If you haven't downloaded the Nipponster Japan Toolbar yet you can Download it now

The Nipponster Japan Toolbar (w/ Free Japanese TV!)

It is the first and (hopefully always will be) best toolbar of Japan-Enthusiasm! It is the Japan-Enthusiast's toolbar.
And we are constantly looking for ways to improve it for you, because... we want to make the web a better place for all you Japan-Enthusiasts

We love you guys,
-Tori

p.s. Leave a comment on this post and let us know how we can improve the Japan toolbar!

Man-Eating Sushi

2007-08-07T02:51:00.000+09:00

"In Tokyo, sushi is finally getting its revenge."

- Andrea Sachs
This is possibly the greatest quote ever :)

What is this all about? And how has this "sushi" finally exacted its diabolical revenge on mankind?!

The bizzare story begins in Ooedo-Onsen-Monogatari, a hot spring in Odaiba...

It was a sunny day in May 2006, the elementary school children were marching along to their schools in their little yellow traffic safety hats, salarymen in their near-identical black business suits were hussling to work en mass, and a mysterious turkish package was arriving at the doorstep of one of Tokyo's swankiest spas.

Little did they know, it was a package that would strike "mild horror" in the hearts of spa-goers and that's contents would be described as simply "disturbing".

Are you ready?!

As the first brave soul dipped his hand into the mysterious tank dozens of black creatures warmed!

Oh, THE HORROR!

Like something straight out of the pages of a sci-fi thriller, the Garra rufa hunger for human flesh! Dead human fleshhhhhh!

Hey wait, before you run for the covers, I'm talking about dead skin.

Garra rufa, if you want to get scientific, are natives of the river basins of the Northern and Central Middle East, mainly in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. They are an internationally-sought-after, rare and highly protected....
Fish

That's right a fish, but not just any fish, a "Doctor Fish"

These bizzare little "sushi" actually eat the dead skin off of one's fingers and toes, while leaving the live skin clean, refreshed, and most inportantly, intact!

What a way to get a manicure!

All part of the new excitement at the spas and hotsprings of everyone's favourite odd-ball country.

And so, in a deliciously (or disgustingly) ironic turn of events, in the spas of Japan, the sushi eats you!

- - -
-ToRI

p.s. If you want find more info on this here are some interesting searches using nipponster
Japanese skin-eating fish manicure
Doctor fish
others for you to try on your own:
Doctor Fish Japan Limited
sushi getting revenge

"Loose Change"日本語版 the 9/11 expose, in Japanese

2007-07-26T02:54:00.000+09:00

*After some debate we have posted the above video and gone ahead with this article. We debated because Nipponster.com strives to remain neutral and this video is very political and controversial. In the end, (although we refrain from an opinion) the questions it raises and its translation into Japanese have landed it here.

I first heard about " Loose Change" (English Version) from James. He introduced me to it and The Great Conspiracy, a Canadian documentary. After watching them I wondered if people in other countries have heard these video so I searched Nipponster.

The video speaks for itself. So I'll shut up :)

~Tori

Out with the Old and In with the NEW Hot Searches!

2007-07-19T07:48:00.000+09:00

After much lasiness, procrastination, and lack of motivation, Here They Are...

The NEW Hot Searches

nuMber 1 - Mystery men's-room money

no, I&m not going to tell you. You will just have to find out on your own.

nUmber 2)

Online Japanese Train Simulators

NumbeR 3/
O-yatoi Gaikokujin
Meet the foreigners who built modern Japan!

NumBer 4>
Japanese PenPals!

EnJoY, my Fellow Japan-Enthusiasts!
-Tori

p.s. IF you are looking for the old hot searches they are not in the archive, they are here

CRISIS=Danger+Opportunity

2007-07-19T07:00:00.000+09:00

We are having some technical problems with the hot search archive.
So I will list the newly retired hot searches in this post (until we have it fixed).

On the bright side, this is the perfect kick in the pants I needed to get motivated and finish the new hot search archive! :)

Here they are:
virtual tour of Japan

Google Transit Expands To Japan

Ando Hiroshige

How Japanese Search Engines Work :P

2007-07-10T23:01:00.000+09:00

"Every Morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running."
- African Proverb

On that note, this is "How Japanese Search Engines Work" HEHEHE :P

(It's little dodgy at end)
I think this is perfect video for Nipponster because we are Japan-enthusiast search engine. And we are learning whether we are "a lion or gazelle" to be successful we better start running (update quicker, release new thing quicker).

Thank you all for continued support,
Keitaro

IMPORTANT NOTICE

2007-07-04T20:46:00.000+09:00

On July 4-5, Nipponster may experience periodic outages due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank all of you for your patience.

"A Healthy Disregard For The Impossible!" And Thanks For Your Support

2007-06-27T12:06:00.000+09:00

I've been feeling a little depressed lately.

When others look down on what you are doing it can really shake your confidence, especially when it is a family member. I'm suffering such an attack on my confidence. My father thinks that Nipponster is a waste of time. And I almost succumbed to his opinion (posting less, webmonkeying less, and brainstorming less with Keitaro and James) but recently we got some really great feedback that perked me up again.

We appreciate all feedback (please give us feedback!!) good, bad or ugly. Actually, especially ugly as that helps us improve.

That said, I suppose that there are few greater pleasures for a webmaster than to receive this kind of positive feedback:

"It's been a while since I've last contacted you, but since I haven't exactly had
a chance to explore the full capacities of Nipponster, it would have been without
use anyway. Recently, researching materials fora biography about Abe Kobo, I
found Nipponster very useful. Websites not even displayed when searched for at
Google or other engines, popped upfirst or second at Nipponster, with useful
information to boot. I guess my point is, a job well done, and keep up the good
work. I'll do my share by getting Nipponster acquainted with as many people as
possible.

Sincerely yours,

Naikou, aka Christian"

This kind of completely unsolicited feedback excites me and I am glad that I have helped to create something useful. And I am also flattered that he put a link to Nipponster on his blog that reads "What I deem necessary." Wow my head just grew two sizes :)

Here is another one, a review that another blogger gave us:

Just added the Nipponster - Japan
enthusiasts search engine search box to the site. It's basically google for
Japanese web sites. Under the search box is a recent searches cloud for
something random if your bored. They have a blog which has loads of interesting info about their site, links, searches ect. Also worth a donwload is their own tool bar, which has loads of cool links pre-installed such as live streaming tv and radio, blogs,
lessons an loads of other Japanese related stuff. So check out Nipponster it's perfect for Japanese freaks and geeks!

http://j-culture.blogspot.com/2007/04/nipponster.html

Again, head growing. But back to reality, the fact that there are a bunch of projects yet less than half finished and A LOT of promotion still to do ought to shrink my melon back down to size :)

Thank you guys and the others of you out their who have been so supportive! You are what keeps us going!

And now, revitalised, it is time to DREAM...

It is time for "A Healthy Disregard For The Impossible!"

If case you haven't heard, Nipponster is dedicated to better organising and enhancing ALL of the Japan-related information on the web.

That statement may sound ridiculous to some, and even more ridiculous when they hear that there are currently only three of us running Nipponster.

But I don't care if it is ridiculous. And I don't care if people think we are stupid or foolish.

Like Don Quixote (the literary character not the Japanese chain store :) we are chasing the impossible dream!

And now for a lesson from Larry Page:

“Google was started when Sergey and I were Ph.D students at Standford University in computer science,” Page began to explain, “and we did not actually know what we wanted to do. I got this crazy idea that I was going to download the entire Web onto my computer. I told my advisor that it would only take a week. After a year or so, I had some portion of it.” The students laughed.
“So optimism is important,” he went on. “You have to be little silly about the goals you are going to set. There is a phrase I learned at college called, ‘Having a healthy disregard for the impossible’” Page said. “That is a really good phrase. You should try to do things that most people would not.” - THE GOOGLE STORY by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed

And so we will trek on, doing the things most people would not...
Taking on the enormous challenge of "making the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts"

-TOrI

Back In Action

2007-06-20T22:58:00.000+09:00

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (exhale)

Things have been so busy lately. I bet you can relate.
It seems like everyone is busy having to do something they would rather not if they could.

And those of you who can do what you enjoy doing all of the time... please be quiet :P

James and Keitaro and I all work regular jobs, so Nipponster gets our part-time attention at best.
I wish that I could give it more...
It is the kind of work that I would GLADLY do for free.

Luckily things have finally quieted down a bit for me and I have some much needed time to work on the mission.

SO,
I would like to hear from you:

What do you like/dislike about Nipponster?

What improvements would you like to see?

I am at your service,
-Tori

Blonde Moment

2007-06-20T11:08:00.000+09:00

Tori had a "blonde moment" today and accidentally pointed the "what's new?" link (on the frontpage of Nipponster.com) to Nipponster.com (THE FRONT PAGE)!!

:)

Our resident airhead...
hehehe. Tori will be hearing about that one for awhile.

-Kei

We were down this morning

2007-06-16T04:51:00.000+09:00

I woke up this morning to find that Niponster was suspended...

Can you imagine my surprise?
And then, to my no small mortification, I opened my email account and found the following from our webhost:

"Hello,
We are emailing you to inform you that your account is suspended due
to AUP/TOS violation. We received a notification from our upstream provider that
your website was involved in using a trademarked name and pictures to
fraudulently gain logins and passwords to accounts. As per our TOS, we have
suspended your website."

About now I am gulping hard and wondering what in the world could have happened. I know that I haven't done anything, but I gather from the email that they are accusing me of phishing. How can that be?

We had had a problem with crackers before on another website so my mind immediately raced back to that experience. I thought, "It must be the work of crackers. Somehow they have hacked into my site and planted their phishing page."

I will save you a long read and let you know that that is what it was and that the situation was all resolved by this afternoon and everything is back to normal.

I would write more about it, for those of you that have websites that might be similarly targeted but I don't want to bore the rest of the readers. If you want to know more about how I corrected the problem please contact me and you can also find out about how phishers are hijacking websites in this article (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39202003,00.htm )

-Tori

A change of lipstick

2007-06-04T23:48:00.000+09:00

We made a few (as we see it) humourous changes to the homepage today.

"Shake things up a bit" we thought.

Put on some new "lipstick" as it were.

Doesn't she look beautiful?

-James

p.s. Yes, we are just stalling because we are behind with our updates and the new hot search archive. There! Are you happy now?! ^^;

RE: uh, oh.

2007-05-22T07:17:00.000+09:00

We had some technical difficulties today. Good thing James recognised it early! It is all taken care of now.
Onward we go!

-Tori

uh, oh...

2007-05-22T06:00:00.000+09:00

It looks like we are experiencing technical difficulties...

:(

-James

p.s. you can use this opportunity to give us your feedback

Ramen... in a Can?!

2007-05-17T05:52:00.000+09:00

Not since sliced bread...

What a delicious invention!
Of course instant ramen has been around for awhile but you cannot take that "on the go."

Not so with Ramen-in-a-can...

Mobile Ramen! I dare say that it is the best innovation in ramen since Momofuku Ando invented instant noodles.

<-- Mr. Momofuku. Doesn't he look awesome in this picture :)

Too bad Ando missed this Ramen milestone, he died early this year (and was mourned by hungry college students everywhere :)

I wonder if Takeshi Yamada's name will go down in Ramen history...

Well, at least he got a hot search on Nipponster :)

And here it is! -->http://nipponstercom-swicki.eurekster.com/canned+ramen/

We've Been Quiet. Here's Why...

2007-05-08T02:38:00.000+09:00

We have been working a lot of different things here.

For ONe:

We've been tinkering with a new "hot search archive" program that we think will pretty cool.

Um, I know you are waiting for me to show a picture or post a link to it but...
It isn't ready yet ...
(That was hard to say)

Also we've been brainstorming and working on our wiki project. It is going to be big!
Let me give you the gist of the concept now:

Imagine a wikipedia for Japan-related sites; An encyclopedia filled with "about pages" describing all of the Japan-related sites online.

That is basically the idea behind the project. Or at least one pillar of the project.

We want the project to also be a center for people to organise projects to improve Japan-related content online.

And the URL to this new project is at....

Sorry, I can't release that URL yet.

Ah, what the heck, it's

http://jproject.wikia.com

But let me warn, there is barely anything there yet. So be patient with us, we still have a lot of work to do.

-Tori

(so much work, so little time...)

Title: Google Transit Japan Is Here... OR... Marry Me Google

2007-04-29T09:49:00.000+09:00

If Google was a woman I'd marry her...

that's right, you heard me, if Google was a woman I would marry her. Ahhh, if only... IF ONLY!

Anyway, back to reality.

Google has just launched a great program for anyone commuting in Japan.

It's the Japan version of Google Transit and it is awesome!
Check it out, it's at http://www.google.co.jp/transit

And unlike the other versions of Google Transit the Japan version does not only cover a few parts of Japan it covers the whole thing.

Here is a pic of a route from tokyo to kyoto:

This tool is a great way to get to info about your commute (train times, transfer stations, alternative routes, duration of trip, etc. etc. etc. ). And since it is connected to Google Maps you can check out train station surroundings (like conbini s, stores, and restaurants). And it works on your mobile phone!

Since this new tool is so cool it is our next hot search, check it out.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
-Keitaro

p.s.
If you read Japanese here is Google Japan's post

Hasta La Vista Schwar-chan!!!

2007-04-28T14:20:00.000+09:00

Awww. It's been a good run for the Governator.

Our Arnold Schwarzenegger hot search "Arinamin V" has been fairly popular, but now it's time for him to say goodbye (or at least "hasta la vista").

If you missed our earlier post about him and the hilarious (And I mean HILARIOUS) video clip of him in the Japanese Arinamin V commercials, check it out

Free Internet Broadcast Japanese TV!

2007-04-27T14:20:00.000+09:00

Extra! Extra! Nipponster Japan Toolbar just got better!

What can be better than FREE JAPANESE TV?

Free Japanese TV right on your browser!

To our loyal users:
We are dedicated to making
the Nipponster Japan Toolbar the BEST toolbar of Japanese language and entertainment resources available!

We have recently made some improvements to it.

In case you haven't downloaded it and taken it for a spin yet, it is located here.

It has Japanese internet broadcast tv stations available at the click of a button, so you can passively practice Japanese while surfing the net (or just enjoy the show).

Here is a preview of one of the free Japanese tv broadcasts!

It has Japanese internet radio stations (some with Japanese language lessons), jim breen's dictionary, and other language tools, etc. etc.

It let's you search for info about that Japanese Pop Idol (for example) that you love using Nipponster Search; from anywhere on the net!

We have been making little improvements to it here and there. We tweaked the rikai function and added Japanese text functions from Open Japan and a search Wikipedia function. All of those open up in little toolbar windows where you can type in your search etc. without having to go to the page (saving you time and hassle).

So if you haven't, TRY IT OUT!

-Tori
p.s. We are also tinkering with more features like more free Japanese TV channels, easier dictionary search functions, and later on a user chat box. All part of the mission to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts!

Part V: Hackers cracking sites & hijacking your email to send spam

2007-04-26T00:16:00.000+09:00

If you missed them (and have way too much time on your hands) here are the other parts 1,2,3 and 4.

I decided to write a part 5 for all of the people coming in from search engines, digg, and reddit who are interested in information about having you site hacked and what you should watch out for.

ATTENTION WEBMASTERS:

Even if you get your site back up and running you may still need to watch out for this...

* Hackers may hijack your email account to send spam *

Our webpages that were hacked were running on a content management system (CMS) called PHPIZABI.

From what we can tell the hackers accessed some of the administrator functions through a whole in the older version of the program (this is why you always want the newest version!)

We were fortunate and they weren't able to or decided not to cause much damage.
But I suspect now that more than damage they might have been looking for email accounts to hijack.
Why do I suspect as much? Because I received this email in my gmail account:

This email came from the email that was registered on the admin page of the site that was hacked. I created this email account in cPanel, had the account been a gmail account I'm sure this would not have happened. I figure that they might be using some program to send out spam because since an email came to my other email account then the program must be emailing addresses from my address book.

In Good Company:

We are not alone by any means in having our email hijacked. Just check out this Google search:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hackers+hijack+email

The results include stories of popular sites like "million dollar website" and even WIKIPEDIA.org having their email accounts hijacked and abused to send spam and malware.

So what can you do if you are hijacked?

In my case I was fortunate again, I was barely using the email account that was hijacked so I just deleted it.

I researched some information on other actions one can take but it doesn't look hopeful:

http://www.mailsbroadcast.com/email.broadcast.faq/45.email.hijacked.htm

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060918201000AAa071G

This search was a little better:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=fighting+email+hijack&btnG=Search

Sorry if that doesn't help,
-Tori

Stone Soup and the Nipponster Japan Project

2007-04-23T10:55:00.000+09:00

Have you ever heard the story "Stone Soup"?

The old folktale seems to have different versions but basically it goes like this:

Their was a man with nothing but a pot and a hunger for soup. He puts a stone into the pot of water and tells everyone passing by that it is the most delicious soup but all that it is missing is their ingredient. One puts in a carrot, another a potato, etc. until it becomes a great soup. None of them could have made that soup with only their own item. All benefited from a much tastier soup when it was finished.

In the same way we have nothing but a hunger to make a great soup, a great soup of resources. But like the man in the story we have nothing, all we have is a stone (our feeble abilities) and a pot of water (a new wikipedia-like wiki). But we are convinced that by bringing all of the bloggers, webmasters, and general internet users who are passionate about Japan together around a common goal we can make better resources for all.

That is the concept behind the Nipponster Japan Project. We will be announcing the start of this project in the upcoming weeks. We look forward to working on this project with all who are interested. And we would love to chat with you. So, if you just cannot wait to know more, contact us.

Oops...

2007-04-19T11:58:00.000+09:00

oOpS

We just received feedback from a user notifying us that the archive links for this blog were dead-links (links that lead to non-existent pages).

After beating ourselves up about about not catching the error earlier we fixed the problem.
Like we've said before, to err is human but your forgiveness is devine :)

To the user, thank you for the feedback. We really appreciate all feedback, it really helps us make Nipponster better for you.

Keep giving us your feedback!
-Tori

p.s. sorry about the previous pic. scary.

Ando Hiroshige Has Usurped The Throne :)

2007-04-17T07:37:00.000+09:00

Absolutely beautiful.

Those are the words that best describe Hiroshige's artwork.

And it is his beautiful artwork that compeled us to make him the next new "reigning" hot search.
(sorry Prince Pickles)

Were we wrong?...

:)

Keitaro

The Prince Has Been Dethroned

2007-04-17T04:49:00.001+09:00

Prince Pickles that is...

If you haven not checked out that hot search yet, here it is:
http://nipponstercom-swicki.eurekster.com/Prince+Pickles+War+Cartoon/
(and you can comment on it and vote for it in the hot search archive)

For those out of the loop :) prince pickles is mascot of Japan's Self Defense force.
Japan + Military still frightens/angers many (especially in Asia) so the Japanese government is hoping that this cute little guy will help curb those emotions.

I don't know. What do you think?
-James

I said Part III would be the last but... We had a minor victory! So here is Part IV

2007-04-13T04:45:00.000+09:00

Ahhhh (sigh of relief)

It feels good to have those pages back!

And... (which makes the minor victory so much sweeter) I was right!

As I eluded to in the first post, the hackers probably did not do any extensive damage to the site. It was beyond simple to fix once I figured out what they did.

This is how I figured it out:

If you read Part III you might remember that I googled and found other victims who had been hacked by the same guys. And I sent a few of them an email (which I quoted in that post).
Well, as luck would have it one of them had the answer to my problem:

"My phpzabi site was hacked but the damage was
minimal. They only managed to place a re-direct code at the bottom, where
the copyright information usually goes. I was able to hit the "stop" key
while the page was loading, entered the admin area and went to configuration,
and removed their code. Pretty simple"

I knew it! It was just as I expected. I saw that the page was redirecting to their site (and the "hacked by ..." message) after a few seconds.
So I knew that they must have placed a meta tag (html nerd language, just ignore) on my page, but I didn't know where and I didn't know if that was the only damage.

Well, after I received this email I knew exactly where to look. And this is what I found:

HACKED BY [name odmitted]
HACKED BY [name odmitted]
HACKED BY [name odmitted]
HACKED BY [name odmitted]

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.[URL odmitted]/Deface/ccn/dfcd4.html">

The last part of that, with the "refresh" part, is html that redirects to their message. So I just had to clip all of that out.

Helping Other Victims:

So now that I've fixed those pages I plan to email other victims (some I've already contacted) that I found through Google and tell them about how they can fix their sites.
In hindsight it looks like we were pretty fortunate. It looks like some of the other sites suffered more damage.

Now to wait and see if Godaddy takes action against the hackers' website...

-Tori

Pages Reclaimed From Hackers!

2007-04-13T03:24:00.000+09:00

We love you Tori!

Tori was able to fix the pages that were hacked. And we rejoiced!

Now to get him to talk about how he fixed it and won us a victory over the hackers...

-Keitaro

We've been hacked. Protecting yourself from hackers. Part III of ongoing saga

2007-04-12T03:14:00.000+09:00

(sigh)

I am getting tired.

I think this may be the last post about being hacked (previous posts: part I, part II). I have a lot of information that I have found, and would not mind sharing, but this whole thing is wearing me out...
If you want more after this let me know in the comments section below.

Ok, here we go...

Tattling:

One of the first things I did after realising that our site was hacked was I did a whois look up (a search that tells you who the website domain is registered with).
I found out that these guys are registered with Godaddy. So sent Godaddy an abuse report

According to Whois records this domain is registered through Godaddy. They
are Turkish hackers and have maliciously defaced a large number of websites,
including mine. See:http://jpnx.com/php_izabi/PHPizabi_0.415b_R3/It redirects to their message at:http://www.[Hacker's URL. omitted for
safety]/Deface/ccn/dfcd4.html
Googling
[Name of the hackers. omitted for safety] will back up the fact that they have victimised many others.
And their homepage is a forum about security cracking. I appeal to you based
on your own policy:"Go Daddy reserves the right to remove sites that contain
information about hacking or links to such information. "
Thank you in
advance. I look forward to a reply, Tori"

I realise that this makes me a tattle-tail, but oh well :)

Godaddy removed a popular site about web security and hacking (the good kind of hacking) after someone posted myspace passwords they found through a google hack. This was controversal as the site does not promote malicious hacking, a.k.a security cracking (just ignore that if you don't understand it), but it shows that Godaddy does take action in some cases. Will they take action in my case? I'm not holding my breathe but I think I have a strong case.

Protecting your site:

I was going to go into detail about how to protect your site after researching a finding some good information but I just do not have the time. But if you are worried about security I have saved you a little time by finding good sites that I will give you the links to and a little info about.

FIRST,

I want you to know, if you have a CMS (content management system) on your site like phpBB, phpizabi, etc. Turkish Hackers maybe looking for you!

They have defaced an insane amount of websites, one such hacker is reported, according to ZDnet, to have hacked 38,000 sites in one day!!

There is an interesting forum topic about phpBB sites being hacked here (http://www.phpbb2.de/ftopic33045.html)

Here you can see that webwiz forums were hacked IN MASS (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=21132)

I explained (sort of) in Part II about how they likely found us. Most CMS has a little text at the bottom that says, "running on ...[the name and version of the CMS]." For example: "phpSomething v.2" let's say.

One day hackers finds a hole in the security of "phpSomething v.2" So hackers Google "phpSomething v.2" and find sites running on that and go to town.

Some have stated in articles that they may have religious and political reasons for defacing websites. We strive to stay politically neutral always and do not want to offend anyone and if any of my remarks were offensive before I apologise.

However, we do not like having webpages defaced no matter what the reason, so let's discuss protection...

PROTECTIVE STEPS:

1) If you use an open source CMS, always make sure you have the latest version. Hackers may have had enough time to find hole in the older versions and, in the case of these hackers, when they find the hole their next step is to deface as many sites as possible.

2) Make sure you have all of the latest security fixes the developers of the CMS come out with.

3) BACK UP YOUR DATABASE! Do that often so that if you do get hacked you may be able to restore your site.

From what I have found from my research these seem to be the few options available. But there is one more preventative measure that I looked into...

HONEYPOTS:

I do not know enough about them yet to confidently write anything about them here. But I will share the sites that I found:

http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/readingroom/honeypot.asp

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGIC,GGIC:1970--2,GGIC:en&q=creating+honeypots

Strength in numbers?

A good idea for fixing your site maybe to email others with the same CMS and asking them about how they fixed their sites. Here I will show you how I did that:

I Googled the hacker. Here is more of his dirty work...

http://www.google.com/search?q=cecen&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B2GGGL_en___US209&start=20&sa=N

Most of these sites were running on phpizabi. I looked through the list and looked for site that had since been fixed. Then I emailed them this:

Fellow victim of hacking
Hi,I also have a phpizabi site that was hacked.
I found your site because I did a google search for the jerks that did the
hacking ([hackers name]). Here is the URL of the search ( you can see that many
other phpizabi users were
effected):http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGIC,GGIC:1970--2,GGIC:en&q=[Nam
of hackers]
I decided to contact you for two reasons. One to ask you how you fixed your
site (is there a hotfix or something?); and because I don't want this to happen
to others and figured that you probably feel the same.
Anyway, please contact me.
Tori

I received several replies and should have those hacked pages back up soon.

I hope that these posts have been helpful to some of you and at least a little entertaining for the rest.

Thus ends my struggle with Hackers From Another Planet :)

(Or So I thought...)

-Tori

Note: I editted out the name of the hackers in this post and the previous ones. I did this as a precaution and you should beware too. I searched on google blog search today for the name of the hackers website and guess what was the only result that came up? That's right, my post!!

Open To Suggestions...

2007-04-11T00:11:00.000+09:00

We know that our hot searches for "Japanese TV online", "Japan Blogs", "Japanese lessons", "writing in Japanese online without text support" have been very popular.

We do not want to retire these hot searches because they are so useful. But we do want to make room for new ones. So we have a dilema...

That is why I posting this message and asking the community for feedback. What do you think we should do with the hot searches?

Retire them to the archive?
Make them permanent links somewhere on the search results page?
Keep them as hot searches?

Leave us a comment.

Thanks,

Keitaro

We've been hacked. Pride Before The Fall. Part II of ongoing saga

2007-04-10T05:26:00.000+09:00

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

(translation: bad news to follow)

In my previous post about being hacked I made some naive assumptions:

The hackers just took advantage of an improper setting in the admin section of the content management system (the system that manages the website; In this case it was phpizabi).
Therefore, magically, it would be easy to fix.

Side note: I would like to say again that the hack did not
effect our search engine or hot search archive. It only effected some content
pages on a site that was under development.

After contacting some other phpizabi users who had been hacked I found out that we were in trouble. I was hoping that I would find people who had fixed their sites and could set me on the right path toward fixing mine. I even contacted one guy who had been a volunteer helping with the development of phpizabi, unfortunately this is what he had to say:

"Hey Tori,

I got two sites that were hacked.

I didn't fix my sites,I dropped Izabi."

Not the encouraging news that I was hoping for. But there is a bright side.

The hackers were targeting PHPizabi systems specifically so they are not likely (we hope) to try to hack any of our other content management systems. Even better, our phpizabi system was on a different site because we were still working on it so they probably do not even know about Nipponster.com.
We still have all of the content that was previously on the site that was hacked (live internet broadcast Japanese tv stations and radio, Japanese language tools; everything that was there before content-wise)

We can put that content without too much effort onto a new content management system which will hopefully be more secure.

So, James and Keitaro have commissioned me to get to work on that right away, "thanks a lot guys" :)

I need to find another webmonkey to help me...

Anyway. Let me show you now how the hackers targeted us.

This is a log of searches that directed people to our site:

As you can see, someone (the hacker) was searching "phpizabi r3" which is the name and version of our content management system for that site we were developing.

So that is how they found us (and others running on phpizabi), they came specifically to take advantage of a hole they found in that system.

What I do not understand is, why would the hackers make our page refresh (switch) to a message that shows the URL of their site? Like I said in my past post that is how I found out, on google, about the others who were hacked. And it is how I found out that their site's domain name is registered with godaddy.com

I contacted Godaddy about their activity, which is clearly against it's policy:

"...Go Daddy reserves the right to remove sites that contain information about
hacking or links to such information."

I am still waiting to hear from Godaddy about it. Maybe the hackers think that Godaddy won't do anything. I hope that they are not right. But I doubt that even if something is done about their site they will stop hacking websites.

Which brings us to the topic of Part III, "Protecting yourself from hackers
(with honeypots, etc.)"

stay tuned...

-Tori

We've been 'hacked.' Part I of ongoing saga

2007-04-06T14:12:00.000+09:00

So I was chatting on Instant messenger with James last night and I asked him if he had seen some of the recent changes that I had made on one of our projects under development when he gave me the worst news of my web nerd life...

"Germans Have Hacked Our Site!" <-- Turns out that they are Turkish not German, thanks "Dr" (see 1st comment)

"That's B.S." was my initial reaction but I asked him more about it and then went to check it out myself and sure enough there it was, a most heinous message:

THOSE JERKS!

Now, I have to say that I honestly do not understand what would possess any decent human being to do something like this.

Now to deflate the egos of these low lifes, I would like to draw your attention to the quotation marks on the word hacked in the title of this post. Why? Because these guys, I am willing to bet, have not really hacked our site. And I will explain that , while chewing them out, in the rest of this post. But first:

I want everyone to know that the search engine has in no way been effected. And it will not be.
Likewise the hot search archive is completely fine as well.

"So then," you ask, "what did they hack into? Where is that message popping up?

Well, it is on "Nipponster Entertainment" a separate site that we have been working on that has content like live tv broadcasts, aggregated news, video clips, and pictures etc. (If you don't know what aggregated means don't worry, it is nerd-speak). The site is not really ready yet as we are still working on a lot of it; it's still pre-release. But it appears in the results of hot searches for "Japanese tv online" etc, which are pretty popular and many of our users enjoy. To see what the hackers have done click here and wait a few seconds until it refreshes and switches to their site. See?! That is why I am very upset!

So why do I say that they didn't really hack us?

I am fairly certain that they found our site by googling "phpizabi" which is the name of the CMS (content management system; kind of like software) we are using for that site. That is my guess, because I know that others using phpizabi have had that problem. Once they find your site they take advantage of some known problem with phpizabi's admin (administrator) settings to do their dirty work. I am pretty sure that is what happened although I have not gone to fix it yet and I do not think that it will be a problem to fix. But it is REALLY annoying!

I am going to check and see if there is a hotfix (a download that fixes a problem with the site) that I might have forgotten to add.

But for now I want to show you what these jerks have been doing to other hapless webmasters, it is truly sad and repulsive.
Below is the link to a search I did on google for "[Name of Hackers]" (from the URL of the hacker message):

[re-editted to admit the name]

And sure enough I found amongst the results other sites using phpizabi so I am sure that is why they targeted us as well. ARRRGH!

But on the bright side I see that the webmasters of that site were able to fix it.
I am going to contact them and hear about their experience. Hopefully we can keep others from being victimised.

AND I want to say something to you hackers (if you are reading this):

Am I going to get back at you? Am I going to find some why to punish you for your deeds by stooping to your level?

No, ... I'm going to forgive you... Because it is better

But I am going to continue this topic in future posts to let others know how to protect themselves against hackers, how to report their activity to those who can stop them, and to update you with conversations I have with other victims of these same hackers.

AND that is the end of that.
Good night!

p.s. I originally made some sensational and regrettable remarks in this post. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for those remarks. I am sorry. That said, having part of your site hacked can make you act rather emotional and stupid.

New "virtual tour of Japan" hot search!

2007-04-06T08:45:00.000+09:00

This search is looking like a winner.
Have you ever wanted to see what the streets and famous parts of Tokyo look like? (for those who have not yet been)

Well now you can feel like you're there with these virtual tours.

Mission: Enhance and Improve Japan-related content on the web!

2007-04-03T00:56:00.000+09:00

If you have read some of our other posts or communicated with us via email you may know that we are dedicated to improving the Japan-related content available online amd making it more accessible.

We want to be the Google (and wikipedia) of Japan-related content, with a similar focus on transparency and "Don't Be Evil" (Google's motto).

We want to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts

So we are anxious to spearhead various projects to accomplish that.

For example we want to form a group of contributors and improve the Japanese language textbooks on wikibooks.

We plan to organise these projects through a Wikia wiki. We just requested one to day, waiting for apporoval...

-Tori

Helping Foreigners in Japan

2007-04-01T09:11:00.000+09:00

One of the most important goals of Nipponster.com is to help foreigners in Japan (and people interested in visiting, studying, or living in Japan in the future).

I know from personal experience that adjusting to life in Japan is very difficult at the beginning (even regardless of speaking ability). Some have lived in Japan for years and still find it difficult (If you don't understand that you probably haven't lived there long enough yet :)

We hope to make things easier for would-be and current "gaijin" and any feedback and ideas about how we can do that better are extremely appreciated (contact us)

I found this video about getting around in Japan (below). It's a little cheesy (in a cute way) at points but I think it's very good and this kind of video theme could be very useful for foreigners.

-Tori

arinamin V

2007-03-31T07:53:00.000+09:00

"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

2007-03-31T04:59:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-31T03:13:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-29T12:43:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-29T05:37:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-29T04:56:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-03-24T04:15:00.000+09:00

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:

Go to the archive site and register
After you have registered, click on "suggest a new hot search" link
And then follow the instructions
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

2007-03-23T07:54:00.000+09:00

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 !

2007-03-23T07:33:00.000+09:00

-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

2007-03-21T06:43:00.001+09:00

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

2007-03-21T02:30:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-21T02:09:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-03-16T07:02:00.000+09:00

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

Correction :-)

2006-11-21T10:48:00.000+09:00

"But I can tell you that the plans involve a pig and a BB. Umm, maybe I heard wrong or something."

Okay, it's "pligg" and phpBB.

We're were just having a bit of fun... Not that funny, you say? Ho-hum...

-James

p.s. If you have no idea what this is about please read the previous post. And btw, pligg and phpBB are two powerful programs that are going to make Nipponster a little more interesting...

Nipponster Labs?

2006-10-23T22:19:00.000+09:00

You don't know it but...

We are working on some interesting new additions to Nipponster. Of course they are still top secret (no telling).

But I can tell you that the plans involve a pig and a BB. Umm, maybe I heard wrong or something. Anyway, it's going to be big and it's going to be great. So stay tuned.

That's right. Keep an eye on us because we are moving along and will keep rolling out new stuff.

And we're doing it all for you.
With love,
Keitaro

What is different about Nipponster search?

2006-10-23T08:44:00.000+09:00

Nipponster search engine is the Japan enthusiast's search engine. Have you ever felt that it's difficult to find specific Japan related info on general search engines like google? Nipponster makes it possible.

How are we different?...

Focus: A Nipponster search is filtered to return results that are specifically Japan-related.

Interactivity: Nipponster search is "social search" which means that users HELP decide which are the most relevant results. So the results are more relevent than JUST computer generated results (of course we have moderators making sure that sites really are relevent). Clarification: results start as computer generated results and then are adjusted by user voting.

Vote! You help decide which sites are the most important by voting for them in the search results.

Community: Search will never be the same! Now you can discuss search topics with other users! Just click on "Write your own result" on the top of the search page.

Support: Need help finding something? Have a question you cannot find the answer to? Just click on "Ask the community for help" and ask a fellow Nipponster!

It begins...

2006-10-12T13:26:00.000+09:00

Ladies and Gentlemen...

There is a lot of excitement here in the Nipponster staff room. We're rolling along on a lot of our projects and promotions and thinking up new ways to bring all kinds of goodies to you "nipponsters" out there.

Previously we have used this blog as a place to post video clips (favorites of our staff members) while waiting until our search engine and browser toolbar were completed to do some serious blogging. While we will continue to post funny and informative videos, our goal is to keep you up to date on new tools that we make for you, bring you the Japan-related content that you desire and even some amazing stuff that you probably didn't even know about (we have been stockpiling all of the really great Japan-related stuff that we come across and we are going to bring it to you here and elsewhere on Nipponster, so stay tuned).

As fellow nipponsters we are trying to make something that we ourselves feel is cool and useful. And hopefully by doing that we will make something you love too.
To give ideas about how to make Nipponster even better please give us your feedback.

We love you guys and we're here to serve you.
Sincerely,
Keitaro

About Nipponster

2006-10-12T13:17:00.000+09:00

We

We have to come clean and confess that we are big Google groupies. We love Google and since imitation is the biggest form of flattery (or however that saying goes) we are endeavoring to imitate its greatness and it's motto: "Don't Be Evil"

Our mission is "to organize and enhance ALL of the Japan-related content available online."
We want to make Japan-related content easily accessible and easier for you to play with.

The Nipponster Search Engine has a number of features that do just that.

In addition to the search engine we are working on a powerful tagging and rating system that will let you discuss and rate content, websites, and articles). The prototype for this is the current hot search archives.

There is also our Nipponster toolbar; bringing power tools (like Rikai, jim Breen's dictionary, flashcards, and audio lessons) together with entertainment (like TV and radio internet broadcasts) to make an easy to use language resource.

We plan to improve on these things (you can help by giving feedback) and bring you a lot more.

Keep an eye on us because we are moving along and will keep rolling out new stuff.
We do it for you, the Japan-enthusiasts of the world.
-Tori

Nipponster?

2006-10-12T13:13:00.000+09:00

What is a Nipponster?

I was sitting in the computer lab at Sophia University (in Tokyo) with Keitaro, who is one of our staff members, trying to come up with a name for the new website we were starting and it hit me... Nipponster. It's not really a word, but I guess it is now.

If I had to define it I would say that:
A nipponster is "someone who is fond of Japan"

So, the question is..., are you a Nipponster?

Japan: Then & Now

2006-10-12T13:09:00.000+09:00

A beautiful video.

Japanorama Japan Documentary

2006-09-09T07:26:00.001+09:00

Sushi Documentary (Satire)

2006-08-18T04:55:00.000+09:00

The Best EngRish Ever

2006-08-14T11:08:00.000+09:00

This is from the "batsu game"-like show called "Gaki no tsukai"

It's an English lesson gone horribly wrong. But for anyone who has ever taught English in Japan it is all too familiar :(
The best part is "ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ten ten" :)

HeHeHe The funniest thing I've ever seen!!

2006-08-04T16:16:00.000+09:00

They sit down in a massage chair (in a sauna I think) but then it all goes down hill from there (literally!)

Robot Sumo!!

2006-08-04T05:00:00.000+09:00

Here it is! The thing you've all been waiting for.....

Robot Sumo!!!!!!

2006-08-02T07:15:00.000+09:00

Tokyo City Guide as aired on Globe Trekker

1 of 6

2 of 6
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=21795235

3 of 6

4 of 6

5 of 6

6 of 6

"Stormtrooper in Tokyo"

2006-06-08T01:34:00.000+09:00

Yes!!!! I am so glad some crazy gaijin did this!!!

Japan Then & Now

2006-03-06T20:17:00.000+09:00