But will it blend?

This past week, I was finally able to find a suitable replacement for my ex-laptop. The previous one has moved on to a better place, and thus probably won't mind as I pick apart the body to harvest components that I can pawn off in some Akihabara alleyway. Still, she lasted me much longer than I could have ever imagined, and I'm grateful. My now two-day-old baby is a.. MacBook. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but plenty of people have praise for the operating system, OS X Leopard. For me, the purchase was driven mostly by the fact that I needed some new hardware, and this laptop out-of-the-box plays well with Windows, Linux, and (thankfully) itself. I've held off on doing any additional voodoo just to see what OS X is all about, and so far so good.

One of the reasons I held off on the purchase for so long (about a month) was due to the feeling that since I'm in Japan, I should be able to find some incredible bleeding-edge technology at low cost relative to other countries. The callous truth that took so long to accept is that buying a new laptop (and likely any other gadget) in Japan is likely to be more expensive than anywhere else. Of course it's no surprise that products and prices vary between locations, but I was surprised by a number of examples:

1. Dell's US and JP websites allow you to customize the components going into your computer, but the models available are different. If you find the same model, there's no guarantee that the same hardware upgrade will have identical cost on both sites. Further, the cost will always be lower for the US crowd - I guess people are just too used to handing over large sums of money without much thought (exhibit A: Louis Vuitton bags). Disappointing fact: Dell supports Linux on the Inspiron 1420 for the US market only. Asking the clerks about it in the Dell store here only earned strange looks.
2. Sony offers some impressive Vaio notebooks here, also with the ability to pick-and-choose hardware. In spite of what seems like brilliant hardware design and engineering, their sales website is carefully crafted to be as useless as possible. In fact, I'm still pissed off about it to the point that I'll just skip down one.
3. Actually no, you know what? There was also that music CD rootkit fiasco in 2005 - fuck Sony. Boycott status: active.
   
4. I realize that most of you read this not for its technology coverage, so the short of it is that all the otherwise good or unique offerings for portables wound up way out of my price range. That said, it is possible to get some amazing stuff here; many laptops support more input options than your nearest red light district. One example: Suica cash cards are traditionally used for easy train use - much faster than buying paper tickets from a machine each time you want to ride. Stations then placed vending machines allowing the same wireless payment, and now you can find the capability embedded into laptops for online purchases - just hover the card (or compatible cell-phone) over the sensor and *beep*.

As I reflect on my purchase, I'm happy to have finally made it. I've been recently reading a book titled "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less", and was able to immediately identify with the author's thesis and lamenting anecdotes. I'd recommend it and my only complaint is that he spends most of the time justifying the (often counter-intuitive and therefore incredibly interesting) observations of why committing to a choice can be so unpleasant, yet doesn't offer too much in terms of overcoming these problems. It's a bit anti-climactic to read essentially "now that I've told you about these depressing things, try not to do any of them", but hey - I'm not sure what else one can do beyond identifying the symptoms in statistics; the solution is philosophical.

While visiting Akihabara for the purchase, I noticed something I hadn't before. There was a group of scruffy-looking older guys spaced out along a construction wall, some standing behind small tables, others attending to curious clients pouring over a binder with photos. The alleys are always a sensory overload, but my eye managed to catch the unmistakable blue hue of a one-piece swimsuit in one of the pictures. Not as if this sight is an uncommon occurrence - there are stories-tall banners dedicated to showcasing anime characters in any state of dress (or undress) in order to sell anything from music CDs to pillowcases to alcohol. After stopping and leaning back against the opposite wall for a while, it became apparent that the album shots were all of middle- or high-school Japanese girls participating in gym classes or sports festivals.

My guess is that these were sample images from the DVD albums they were selling. If not buying directly, one could fill out an order form and have it delivered as well. I'd assume the impromptu storefront wasn't because the collections were illegal to photograph or sell but just due to the fact it would be tough to make rent with a business like that operating on normal hours. Of course, the ethical questions raised about photo-shooting unaware, underage girls in gym shorts to distribute for profit are the meat of this subtle observation. Rather than take a position on it, I figured it would be more fun to point it out and let you ponder it.

As always, there's more to talk about, but I'm done with describing the world around me and ready to head back into experiencing it. If you're the praying type, consider the Chinese earthquake victims - one of my co-workers says her Chinese friends had to take days off from work to look for their families. Shit.