Monthly Archives: January 2005

The Japanese Toilet

Posted by on January 31, 2005 1 comment

You might find toilets disgusting or fascinating. In any case, the market for really, really fancy toilets is huge in Japan.

See this article at the wikipedia on them:
[Japanese Toilet]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_toilet

One thing that seems absent (feel free to correct me) is the concept of putting a faucet and a wash basin on top of the tank and letting the greywater be used for the next flush. See this guy’s blog: [a toilet with a faucet]:http://ryanehlinger.blogharbor.com/blog/NewApartmentTokuanOsakaJapan/_archives/2004/12/29/218595.html

One thing interesting is that the toilet seat (not just the lid) has a cover so your butt doesn’t have to touch cold plastic/wood/etc.
This site [(little things Japanese)]:http://www.jun-gifts.com/others/littlethingsjapanese2/littlethingsjapanese2.htm has lots of pictures, even if it’s not as well written as the wikipedia entry.

Anyway. Enjoy! I’d write more on this wildly fascinating topic (no, really, it is), but I gotta go eat now.

Paul Graham on high school graduation

Posted by on January 20, 2005 1 comment

Paul Graham writes some really good articles. This one is a speech he was going to give at a high school graduation, but got cancelled after he wrote it.

The article: What You’ll Wish You’d Known

I read it, and it was all very refreshing. Lots of good points were made, and lots of real, practical advice. He has a flair for bluntly pointing out things that might be controversial, while explaining them pretty well. I’m a fan. His articles are almost always good reads.

(I was sure he was going to work in a reference to how every programmer should learn lisp, but he didn’t. )