がんばって　ください！(Hang in There)

Ganbatte cookie says hang in there. And subtext: eat me.

So HellsWeeks™ is almost over. I have been running myself rampant since last monday with no time off, very little sleep (especially since I refuse to exist in work-only mode) and it has been catching up to me. Hence, Neo posting with nary a peep from me. I’m going to try to rectify this in my free time at work today, which should take only…forever.

But I thought I’d start today with a Japanese 101 phrase that anyone can use, is easy to learn and easy to say: がんばって　ください！ Ganbatte kudasai! The translation of this little phrase is “Hang in there!” or “Keep Fighting!” depending how you want to hear it. Japanese in and of itself is a phonetic language. It seems like a high-barrier, scary thing, but I’ll break it down into the syllables for you.
が (ga) ん (n) ば (ba) って (tte) (ganbatte means fighting/struggling/battling/going depending on context)
く (ku) だ (da) さ (sa) い (i) (kudasai means ‘please do’)
So literally, it means ‘please do fight’ in its most basic translation.

Like this,

Also, you sort of have to do the Fonzi double thumbs-up when you say it, or cross your hands like a teenage girl in angst. Or put both fists in front of your face pulling down as you shout it, and then jump into the air, thrusting one fist upwards to lend your anime fighting spirit. These things are required.

You will notice that it’s backwards of how we’d say it in English (we’d say: Please keep going!). In Japanese, it’s easiest to think of passive-tense writing for English. Or Yoda speak, if you prefer.

You don’t say ‘Dinner was delicous!’; you say ‘As for dinner, delicious it was!’ or a loose approximation, thereof. (ban gohan wa totemo oyashii deshita yo! or ばんごはんわとてもおやひいでしたよ〜！)

Anyways, Japanese IS hard, and has lots of little tricks and things to remember, but I find it to be the ultimate cryptographer’s lesson. If you can figure out its rules and mechanics, you can figure out anything.

The REAL Quantum of Solace

In other news I’d like to share, they’ve already figured out how to teleport information using quantum mechanics, but now scientists in Japan have a theory on how to teleport energy. Really, when you think about it, how far can matter be behind it? We may have our teleporters yet, and these may be the quantum computer tools used to help make it happen. Quantum Mechanics/Theory has long been an odd hobby of mine. I can’t do the math, but I can understand some of the principles, and it’s always just had that ‘Star Trek’ feel to me. I truly think that the next breakthroughs to the Bell curve of computing are going to happen as we expand our knowledge of subatomic particle utilization for storage of information and transfer. When I was at NASA just before the turn of the Millennium, they told me about some fantastical things they were working on, like fiber-optic computer tech (no moving parts; all light), acid/base/soil hard drives and things of that nature. These projects are leading to other projects that will benefit all of us greatly. Or blow the universe up. I hope we don’t blowed up the universe. That would suck.

On the ‘things I totally want but will never buy because it costs too much money and I would feel like a horrible person for having spent said amount of money on, but damn-that’s cool’ front, I present to you a steampunk gear ring:

You pledge your death. And your last breath. You are the gears.

For just $165.00, you can have a stainless steal gear ring that includes six fully-working gears when you turn the outside of the ring. The evil archvillain in me longs to turn this while thinking of ways to conquer the universe.

Yes… the gears are turning…
Please enter the url to a YouTube video.

Lastly on ZOMG that’s hellacooliwantit land; but more as a novelty than anything else, is the L5 iRemote dongle.

It fits in the port at the bottom of your phone and turns it into an IR beam, allowing you via editable software to control nearly any device. I currently switch between three remotes; the only downside I see to this device is that I can’t have the phone plugged in while I use it. And seeing as my 3GS doesn’t last that long, that might be a killer for me. But definitely cool concept! (L5 would be smart to put a passthrough port on the IR portion so you can plug in AND use it at the same time.)

And that’s the news worth knowing for this Friday. Have a good weekend, kids!