Oh yeah, I love some of the stuff Vertical puts out, too.

I want to learn obscure technical vocabulary. Where should I start?

....kidding.

How about...

Crazy people?
Magic swords?
Leprechauns?
Flying Spaghetti Monsters?

Someone's uncle's wife's son's dog is trying to confirm the the nonexistance of some imaginary files but can't quite figure out how to go about that. I imagine he'd be quite grateful if someone would kindly not point him in the wrong direction.

nadiatims Wrote:Someone's uncle's wife's son's dog is trying to confirm the the nonexistance of some imaginary files but can't quite figure out how to go about that. I imagine he'd be quite grateful if someone would kindly not point him in the wrong direction.

They went thatta-way!

nadiatims Wrote:Someone's uncle's wife's son's dog is trying to confirm the the nonexistance of some imaginary files but can't quite figure out how to go about that. I imagine he'd be quite grateful if someone would kindly not point him in the wrong direction.

Megaupload is a filthy, filthy site full of pirated works. I absolutely do not condone it.

But what I do find interesting is that every download URL share the same characteristic. They all start like this http://www.megaupload.com/?d= followed by assorted random letters/numbers

I wonder who decided it should be like that? And I wonder what would happen if you were to put the random letters from nestor's tinyurl (http://snipurl.com/0HGQZSRO) right after the = sign of a megaupload URL?

blackmacros Wrote:And I wonder What would happen if you were to put the random letters 乃rom nestor's tinyurl (http://snipurl.com/0HGQZSRO) 右ight after the = sign 之f a megaupload URL?

Don't ask me, I didn't try it. Nor was I pleased with the results.

Whenever I read this thread, I feel like my keyboard is actually a giant insect.

Crazy, I had the same dream about viruses as somebody else. Luckily some people here are great at interpreting dreams. I wish I could thank the guy who lent me a book in the dream, but unfortunately I woke up.

hereticalrants Wrote:I want to learn obscure technical vocabulary. Where should I start?

....kidding.

How about...

Crazy people?
Magic swords?
Leprechauns?
Flying Spaghetti Monsters?

I think those are in all of them. Those wacky Japanese! I'm actually, re: technical vocabulary, looking into nonfiction, slowly but surely, but taking my time sorting resources and links because I'm not there yet. Also, I should probably organize a more minimal and clear list of some of the most interesting/germane books I found...

nest0r Wrote:Also, I should probably organize a more minimal and clear list of some of the most interesting/germane books I found...

I'm still waiting for the analysis of them to determine which ones are the least hard.

Not that I'm through my books that I've started... I'm finding that I learn best from it, and enjoy it most, when I'm reading the physical book and only using the computer to look up words I can't already read. So the easier the book, the better for now.

thekonfuzed Wrote:Crazy, I had the same dream about viruses as somebody else. Luckily some people here are great at interpreting dreams. I wish I could thank the guy who lent me a book in the dream, but unfortunately I woke up.

Who says you're awake now? /clawed glove

wccrawford Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:Also, I should probably organize a more minimal and clear list of some of the most interesting/germane books I found...

I'm still waiting for the analysis of them to determine which ones are the least hard.

Not that I'm through my books that I've started... I'm finding that I learn best from it, and enjoy it most, when I'm reading the physical book and only using the computer to look up words I can't already read. So the easier the book, the better for now.

Indeed, Our Work Is Not Yet Done, re: analyses. I'm hoping since I sacrificed myself, forever tainted my soul to put these cursed objects out there, stuff'll happen. Make it work.

I'm actually pretty happy, my bookshelves of English translations of Japanese works, collected pre-Japanese learning, will come in useful at last.

Also, @blackmacros: I can't believe it. You named names. First rule of Innocent Book Club...

nest0r Wrote:re: technical vocabulary, looking into nonfiction, slowly but surely, but taking my time sorting resources and links because I'm not there yet.

The key word there was "obscure." I actually DO want to learn... how do you say... NONobscure technical vocab.

Whenever you read nonfiction about stuff that´s actually interesting you pick up some technical vocabulary. If the book was written for a layman, then everything is explained nicely, as well.

...but my Japanese isn´t even at that point, yet.

hereticalrants Wrote:

nest0r Wrote:re: technical vocabulary, looking into nonfiction, slowly but surely, but taking my time sorting resources and links because I'm not there yet.

The key word there was "obscure." I actually DO want to learn... how do you say... NONobscure technical vocab.

Whenever you read nonfiction about stuff that´s actually interesting you pick up some technical vocabulary. If the book was written for a layman, then everything is explained nicely, as well.

...but my Japanese isn´t even at that point, yet.

I just decided to interpret 'obscure' as being relative to novels, as you say, you pick it up as you use/encounter it, so. But it reminded me, I've been steadily collecting links and noting publishers and locations to acquire nonfiction such as technological, historical, theoretical, philosophical, biological, &c...

Speaking of picking things up, my skimming skills have really improved lately without my realizing it, through this whole book process. Gives me some ideas for new exercises to try (timed pattern recognition or somesuch in blocks of text)... And another tangent (from 'exercises') -- http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2405 (japanese crossword puzzles) ... Maybe Japanese word-searching is something to check into...

Bonus tip, in case others have trouble generating text lists from metaphorical collections of Japanese files, and the usual DOS thingy doesn't work: If you have Ken Rename, you can navigate through it to the desired folder, select all, and copy to a little box area, then copy/paste to a text editor.

Just went through and sorted some stuff: The only OCRs I would theoretically have issues with would be a total of ~45 that an imaginary person provided elsewhere, that haven't been txt-ified by 'professionals' and that I--I mean someone, couldn't replace with superior copies. The rest are well-formatted and 99% accurate.

As for those 45 ronin, they have issues with the initial pages (due to cover images getting mixed in) and formatting, especially for hypothetical furigana. The good news is that a)they represent a fraction of the whole (which doesn't exist and even if it did I would't know), b)are still pretty good, c)will probably be replaced eventually, and d)their original scans are at a certain 'jcafe' where they were originally 'not' obtained, and so can be easily checked, if they existed, which they don't.

Theoretically when next a random string of numbers is updated, a score of replacements will be offered by some unscrupulous individual. Accompanied, perhaps, by other many-splendoured things, gimcracked gewgaws.

Something here seems a little fishy... must be all the fish you are all eating from trying to do full immersion. Yeah, that must be it.

Grinkers Wrote:Something here seems a little fishy... must be all the fish you are all eating from trying to do full immersion. Yeah, that must be it.

Way to stay cool, everyone. I think Grinkers' suspicion has been eased now, we can relax.

Hypothetically, this is a very interesting, educational, and informative thread. In an alternate universe where it is not, in fact, a discussion about the evils of book piracy vis-a-vis the internet. In fact, alternate universe version of me would go so far as to stroke his goatee and high-five nest0r.

hehe

And in case anyone missed it, balloonguy, one of the most amazing people in the world, a modern Prometheus, provided the means to convert the double-angled-bracketed kana into proper furigana: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...2#pid91262 - Even n00bs like myself can run it in seconds.

Edit: In case you don't already know this, be sure to change to vertical before applying the macro if you want the phonetic guides to show up properly vertical as well.

Just edited my first post. I'm sorry, but the first two examples simply weren't random enough. I got the feeling that something was being done to tarnish them somehow. Be sure not to try and warp these links to your evil will this time please, some of us are decent folk who just want to innocently discuss Japanese learning materials and self-study tips.

Example of how fascinating custom shortened URLS can be when they resemble random alphanumeric strings from sites that rhyme with 'sega pup toad': http://snipurl.com/GJV2ZY6W

Post ＃３６ still reminds me of this one book I read about コードブレーカーｓ, though...

It was a good book... maybe...

I read it a long time ago, so you can realize why I would be hesitant to recommend it.

nest0r Wrote:In case you don't already know this, be sure to change to vertical

How would one do this?

@hereticalrants: For vertical text in Word, you go to Format-->Text Direction and select whatever it lets you select. So if you run balloonguy's ルビ macro and want it with vertical text, be sure to do the vertical first, else you'll have sideways furigana. ;p

nest0r that article is fascinating. What a great read.

ninetimes Wrote:nest0r that article is fascinating. What a great read.

Quite! And oh, hereticalrants, I can't remember if I had to enable that somehow in Word or if it happened automatically once I installed East Asian languages in general, but here's one guide on how to enable it I think: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/H...61033.aspx