About

Posted on 2008/06/14 by irohaproject

I am a potter, photographer and linguist. I speak Japanese, Mandarin, French, English as well as other dialects in each. I am interested in the language of minority speakers including Inuit, the Zhuang, the Okinawan dialect, Quebecois and many others. I like it when I hear people speak one language at home, another language in the street and a common language in the train stations, this gives people their vibrant culture and strong sense of identity.

This is the official blog of the Iroha Project. Currently, and slowly getting the categories and tags back in place due to a very big mistake of not backing up the WordPress database before upgrading to WordPress 3.0, fortunately I did not lose any posts or comment so for those who haven’t yet upgraded please be sure to BACKUP YOUR DATABASE and sign up to my newsletter at the top left and I will personally remind you to make backups!

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Server hacked (again) – and fed up with Blue Host

Posted on 2010/08/21 by ben
Server hacked (again) – and fed up with Blue Host

Website hacked again. The fifth time this year and just too much. If you are considering getting a domain name and hosting service DO NOT use BLUE HOST. Not only because of vulnerabilities but they are expensive too. It is not all websites hosted by Blue Host that are affected just a select few and unfortunately I have to be one of them. I am getting a little tired of it and thinking that I should back everything up and move my site. Funny thing is my other sites are hosted on Dot5Hosting and I have been hacked once and their support took care of the whole thing for me. However, the problem with transferring hosting providers is domain transfer fees, not cheap at all. Anyone wishing to get hosting through Dot5Hosting who signs up under me will get free complementary help and support from me I will even set up a few pages for you!

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Server hacked (again)

Posted on 2010/08/14 by ben
Server hacked (again)

This is probably the third or four time this year that my hosting provider has been hacked or attacked. It is not all websites hosted by Blue Host that are affected just a select few and unfortunately I have to be one of them. I am getting a little tired of it and thinking that I should back everything up and move my site. Funny thing is my other sites are hosted on Dot5Hosting and I have been hacked once and their support took care of the whole thing for me. However, the problem with transferring hosting providers is domain transfer fees, not cheap at all.

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Air Conditioning

Posted on 2010/07/20 by ben
Air Conditioning

Sitting on an air conditioned train for 3 hours with windows that cannot be opened is enough to kill a person. I often wonder how often do they change the air conditioning filters in large companies/trains/buses? I am sure that they must change/clean the filters once a year the day before the health inspectors come around to inspect the facilities. Air conditioners work by recirculating the air and pumping massive amounts of hot air outside. On a recent visit to Hong Kong, just about every building is air conditioned. I am out for a walk it’s 30 degrees with a light comfortable breeze. I step into a building and I am hit by a sudden change in climate – comfortable temperature to one that feels like winter in summer. I look around to see people in short sleeved T-shirts and I wonder how can they tolerate it? Yet these are the same people who complain it is too cold during the winter months, what is wrong with them?

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Chinese tap water is SAFE

Posted on 2010/07/18 by irohaproject
Chinese tap water is SAFE

What you are about to read may or may not surprise you but I decided to write about this because the question of whether or not tap water is safe in China or any other country may well be tainted with lies from the corporate water bottling companies. Fall 2003 I came to China for the first time without any of the recommended vaccines Hep A, B etc etc. From day one people warned don’t drink the water in other words buy it. At the time I never thought much about it and went with the “flow”. One month later fired from my job and got shifted to Qingdao from Dongying, Shangdong. I thought about it for awhile and decided that I would go get the vaccinations – at least the basic ones considering the fact that at the time the vaccines were cheap.

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