Bonjour. Hello. ようこそ。I'm Nicolas, but you can call me Nick.
Website builder, Nihongo speaker, Windows veteran, Mac converted.
Although I also wield the Drupal content management system (CMS), my weapon of choice is ExpressionEngine.
My latest gadget: the washlet
I'm sure a lot of people know what a washlet is, but personally, I didn't know about the term until I came to Japan. So, what is a washlet?
A washlet is a device that replaces your standard toilet cover with a high-tech seat containing a number of functions, such as sprinkling water on your bum, heating the seat, filtering odors, automatically raising/lowering seat, etc. It comes with a sidearm console, which I have played with numerous times in Japanese restaurants. It's always nice to figure out what a particular washlet can do, despite some uncomfotable surprises form time to time (cold water up there when you're not expecting it? Not fun.)
Installation
The installation was not as hard as I thought it would be. Toilet seats have two big plastic screws which are very easy to remove, and likewise, the washlet screws into the toilet the same way. The piping was slightly more complex, as the standard pipe going to the tank must be modified to bring water to both the tank and the washlet tank, which in turn will warm up the water to be later sprinkled. Then, the washlet must be connected to a power outlet to power the console. Finally, a thin metal wire must be grounded to avoid static charge buildup while the device is on. I cannot image getting a jolt of static electricity on your privates being a pleasant experience.
Basic washlet functions
I got a fairly normal model by Japanese standards:
- Heating seat: Most japanese homes are not or badly insulated for winter (don't ask me why, no one knows!!!). Standard seats can get very cold in winter, which is very unpleasant. Heating provides a much better experience.
- Odor filter: Do I have to explain this one? A lifesaver after Mexican food.
- Heated water sprinkler: Want a better butt-wiping experience? Try spraying some water first. The spray can even move! You also save on paper (but lose on water, I guess).
- Bidet: For the ladies, I'm sure this is very practical, and you don't need a bidet in the house in addition to the toilet. 2-in-1 !!!
- Fine control over everything: seat temperature, water temperature, water pressure, sprinkler position... maybe more?
More advanced models come with odor filtering with perfumes, automatic opening seat as you walk in and closing as you are done (after getting up, of course), flush strength, air jet to dry your bum after sprinkling it, and otohime, the fart silencer.
Sounds weird to be excited about a washlet, but I'm actually very happy to have gotten one, even if it's just for the heated seat. I'm even thinking of giving a few to my family back home. If you can get your hands (or butt) on one, I totally recommend it.
Addons and ExpressionEngine 2.0 “something”
ExpressionEngine 2.0 PB, formerly "Beta", formerly "Release candidate", now "Public Beta" (or was that Peanut Butter? maybe later), has been out for about a week now. A lot of developers are annoucing roadmaps, and I should probably do something similar... eventually.
Based on the developer's documentation, porting my plugins to 2.0 should not be too difficult. I hope to update those soon enough, although there doesn't seem to be any rush to do so right at this moment. The NB Show custom field data extension will be an interesting challenge, and I think this extension can come in handy in 2.0 as well as 1.x.
So, no roadmap for now, but I hope to move the addons to 2.0 in the future (I use a number of them here myself). Just a heads up.
Taking on the seven-patty Whopper
Oh boy, what a feast!
Along with the Windows 7 launch, for which I’m psyched just for Internet Explorer 8 and the hopefully hastened death of IE6, Burger King in Japan was offering a seven-patty Whopper. The first 140 visitors or so could get the whopper for 777 yen (about 7 bucks), but since I got there late, I dished out the full 1420 yen. Worth it though, being my birthday and a rare chance to see this marvel, if ever see such a sandwich again. Also… what a challenge!
The Whopper tasted like you would expect: pure meat, with a touch of condiment flavor if you bit the top or bottom of the burger. Since this gargantuan sandwich was higher than my maximum buccal aperture size, I opted for the bite-the-top, bite-the-bottom approach. Needless to say the meal was quite a messy one.
As pumped as I was to conquer this monster-sized burger, three-quarters down I had to concede defeat. I wrapped up the remaining patties, which I will probably use in macaroni and cheese or something.
Google Analytics plugin updated
Took less time than I thought to confirm that site search queries and other links are tracked in my Google Analytics account. I therefore released version 0.2 of the Google Analytics plugin for Expressionengine.
Again, this plugin is really for convenience: no need to look for the GA code, followed by copy/pasting in your template/embed/as a global variable. I mean, {exp:google_analytics} is a lot easier to remember than the GA code, right? Not to mention that this simple tag simplifies templates.
Juicy details can be found here and at the EE forums
Progress on the Google Analytics plugin for EE
Just finished adding a few useful parameters to the Google Analytics plugin. Although everything seems to be working fine on my system, I’ll need a few days to check if everything checks in alright.
Among things to look forward to are search query tracking, as well as download/mailto/whatever click tracking.
Tokyo tower… in pink
Just had to share this. Walking back from work, I see a bunch of people with their cellphones out, pointing their cameras at something. I look behind me, and behold, what a view! Tokyo tower, a “me too!” copy of
another famous European tower, was illuminated in some kind of purple/pink color. I had just enough juice in my cellphone to take the picture, before my cell died.
As you can also see, a picture taken from a crappy cellphone camera, at night, is not great.
Changes to site design
Also added some CSS3-based styling, which should look nice in a number of browser, except for the above-mentioned browser, of course. So much faster to write too, and lesser worries.
I recently have some interest in mathematics in design, in particular the
Golden number. Probably comes from my biological science background 
Try to find where I used the Golden number. I find it reassuring to know that things that look pretty have a calculable reason to be pretty.
Ongoing work on my ExpressionEngine addons
Progress on my NB Show custom field data extension for ExpressionEngine is going well. More detailed conversation about the piece can be found at the EE forums. Right now, work-in-progress options are the no-longer-need to specify the file upload directory when the custom field is set to the “File” display type, and control over the FF Matrix table headers.
The bigger and requested option, which I have yet to tackle, is giving the choice of a downloadable file or thumbnail image for the File display type. The nGen fiel field, however, can be used to upload all sorts of files, from images, to text files, to PDFs. I will have to find a way to differentiate file types and be selective for image files. Pretty hard and pointless to make a thumbnail of a CSV file, right? 
The other question is: create thumbnails or just shrink the image by simply setting width and height? The first option means small thumbnail files would have to be created somewhere on the server. Shrinking images, however, leave no thumbnail images lying around, but images take time to load for big files (a 2000 pixel-wide image, for example, is still a heavy 2000 pixel-wide image). I’ll have to look at how the other thumbnail-displaying extensions handle this, as I haven’t had the chance to try those much.
I might just go for setting width/height for images, though, unless I have some incentive to spend time and work on a thumbnail-creating system
This may look simple for now…
You may have noticed that the site may look somewhat simple and empty, but I intend to add a number of items, such as this section (the blog), some ExpressionEngine Plugins and Extensions I am playing with/working on, various web projects, tips and tricks I find here and there, as well as probably some not-that-insightful commentaries from time to time.