Do a Google News search. Search first for the word “filibuster.” I got 3007 results today. Now, do a search for the term “60 votes,” in quotes. I got 4582 results. Do a search of the term “60 votes” and exclude the word “filibuster.” I got 2889 results.

In another variation, if you search for “Senate” and “block” and exclude the word “filibuster,” you get 4658 results.

It’s pretty clear that the majority of media authors out there are avoiding the word “filibuster,” even at a time when the Democratic leadership is doing everything in its power to highlight both the term and the fact that this is exactly what the Republicans are doing.

Now, that’s pretty significant, especially considering how easily the media ran wild with the word “filibuster” when the Democratic minority was using the procedure, and Republicans were calling attention to it. That’s understandable–a filibuster is a filibuster. But to not use the term in a majority of cases, especially when the word itself is a prime focus of the story of the day–that’s pretty flabbergasting. It’s like Bush vetoing a bill, but reporters do everything they can to avoid using the actual word “veto.” It takes effort to do that, to not use the most natural and best-descriptive word about a situation. It’s like writing a 700-word essay on water without actually using the word “water.” Try it–it takes conscious effort.

Meanwhile, Media Matters has the rather incredible story that some news organizations who are using the term “filibuster” are actually claiming that it’s the Democrats who are doing the filibustering! That’s not just Fox News, it’s also ABC. If you thought it took effort to not use the word at all, how much effort does it take to use it in reverse? The answer is probably both “a lot” and “none at all.” That is to say, it takes a lot of effort to use it in such a way knowingly, and no effort at all if you’re too dumb to know the difference.

Today’s story brought to you by the Liberal Media™.

I have commented before on the hypocrisy of Republicans on the filibuster and the reticence of the media to call it that. In short, while Republicans called the filibuster “unconstitutional” and railed at Democrats even considering its use, ever since they lost their majority, they have used it incessantly, time and time again to block as much Democratic legislation as possible. The Democrats have not returned this hypocrisy by blasting the procedure itself; they still support the process, but in a show of consistency blast the intent to obstruct meaningful and popular legislation.

Meanwhile, the media, which previously went to extremes to announce filibusters by Democrats, now go to similar extremes of linguistic contortionism to avoid saying that Republicans are filibustering. Josh Marshall calls out yet another example of this by Reuters, in which they actually succeed in making Republican obstructionism to block the will of the American people sound almost virtuous:

Democrats have all but publicly acknowledged that they will be unable to pass their end-the-war amendment because opposition Republicans are insisting on 60 votes for a victory.

I mean, seriously, how could you make this sound better for Republicans and worse for Democrats without sounding like Fox News? The fact that it’s not overtly anti-Democratic makes it worse, giving the impression of impartiality to a clearly biased piece of writing.

All that notwithstanding, the Democratic majority is finally making a smart move: they are forcing the Republicans to carry out the filibuster for real. Filibusters have almost always been granted without the actual process taking place; a vote against cloture is usually not followed by more debate, but is in itself enough to simply close down the whole bill so the Senate can go on to other business. None of this Jefferson Smith speaking-till-you’re-hoarse romanticism.

You see, 40 votes are not enough to kill the bill–instead, it’s enough to continue debate. Up until now, it has simply been assumed that the filibuster would be carried out and so the other side relents and gives up. However, this time, Democrats will not shut down debate after cloture fails; they will run it into the night, forcing Republicans to actually filibuster the bill, or allow the vote to happen.

If you ask me, however, the plan is not ambitious enough. From what I can tell, it’s just one all-nighter. The Democrats should force the Republicans to go 24/7 for as long as it takes. If the Republicans want to stand on the floor around the clock for a week or two so that a bill that a majority of Congress, as well as a majority of the American people approve of cannot get to a final vote, then let them. It would be far more than “theatrics” or a “stunt,” it would be an unmistakable spotlight on both Republican obstructionism (which is already far, far, far in excess of anything the Democrats ever even dreamed of) and the fact that Republicans are solidly against the will of the American people.

Christians often wonder how atheists can have morals at all, or even state positively that they can’t. However, I would ask anyone who gives even the slightest credence to that idea to consider this story:

A Cypress man charged in the death of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant said Saturday that he was doing God’s work when he went to a Montrose-area bar last month, hunting for a gay man to kill.

“I believe I’m Elijah, called by God to be a prophet,” said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. ” … I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing.” …

Mangum, who described himself as “definitely not a homosexual,” said God called on him to “carry out a code of retribution” by killing a gay man because “sexual perversion” is the “worst sin.” …

Mangum — who claimed he has studied the Bible for “thousands and thousands and thousands of hours” — said God first commanded him to kill during a “visitation,” or dream, while he was in prison in 2001.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but when was the last time you ever heard of anyone going on a murderous binge like that, saying that atheism gave them the right to do so? I can’t think of anything even close to that, can you?

This is one of the greatest weaknesses of a religion like Christianity, one of the biggest rationalizations for the greatest evils man can perform. While a secular person takes responsibility for their own morality, a religious person places it wholly in the hands of god, allowing “god” to decide that any act is potentially moral–and all too often, people then decide on their own what “god” wants. This gives them the moral cover to allow their darkest, most horrific desires for violence to become holy will. As I pointed out before:

Ironically, it could be atheists who are in fact more moral: a recent survey asked about two thousand Americans if they believed that torture was an acceptable practice. 26% of Catholics said it was never acceptable, 31% of White Evangelicals said the same–but 41% of secular respondents said they would never approve of torture. Similarly, twice as many Catholics than Secularists approved of torture being used “often”–21% of Catholics as opposed to 10% of Secularists. While some religious people, as cited above, clearly believe religion brings greater morality, religious morality is perhaps more easily corrupted, as one can choose to believe that God wants you to do something that would normally be immoral, in His name. Since many religious people believe that whatever God approves of is not immoral, they can rationalize the “morality” of a clearly immoral act. Secularists, on the other hand, cannot make God give them an ethical rain check, as they themselves assume responsibility for their morality; they cannot pass the buck to God and claim piety. While I cannot prove that Secularists are more moral, I think I can safely exclude that religious people are intrinsically more moral.

I don’t know if it’ll be like that every night, but last night, I used my elliptical trainer out on the balcony, and it was great! In the past, I used it inside my apartment, and usually had to have the air conditioner going full blast to compensate–and still sweat up a storm. But last night, because I’m high up and there are winds on the balcony, it was like having super-air conditioning built in.

Furthermore, it somehow made the exercise easier. Usually, if I don’t use the machine for several weeks, it’s hard to get my heart rate up to the right range (according to the Karvonen Formula). It’s a strain, and usually, I can’t keep it up for more than ten minutes without needing a rest. But somehow, the cool evening wind made it easy as pie; I found myself having to slow down so as not to exceed the limit, and wanted to go on beyond the time I had allotted (dinner was waiting, after all). Sure enough, when I tried it again in the daytime (with the wind on the other side of the building, and not helping me), it was much harder work.

Because of the wind, I hardly sweat much at all (before coming in, that is). But what made it really sweet was the view–looking out at the Tokyo nighttime cityscape was great, and listening to my iPod during the workout just completed the experience.

True, it’d be murder on a really hot summer day, and might be hard in the winter (even if I switch to daytime exercising). But in the end, I think the whole balcony exercising deal has a lot to be said for it.

A very large earthquake just hit Niigata, and boy, did we feel it here on the 21st floor in Ikebukuro. It measured a high six on the Japanese scale. More soon.

Okay, a few minutes have passed. It looks like it was a 6.6 on the Richter scale, centered just off the coast of Niigata.

Let me elaborate about how it felt here. I was sitting here finishing up my morning Internet ritual, when I felt the swaying start. It was a weird sensation; unlike most quakes, where the swaying can be fairly quick, the swaying here on the 21st floor was very heavy, but slow and rolling, like being on a ship at sea. Nothing shook or rattled, but doors were definitely swaying several inches. It never felt like anything was ready to break or fall, but it did for a while feel like it was threatening to do so.

I called my brother, who lives maybe ten km away, and he reported similar feelings–that this quake swayed a lot more than usual, that it felt like a Japanese “3” but not a normal one. So we definitely felt it stronger here in the tower. The power felt a bit magnified, though Sachi did correctly class it as a “3” on the J-scale. What really got exaggerated here was the length–we felt this one roll for at least a few minutes, and it continued to sway for quite some time.

Makes me wonder, will a big, local quake feel the same? Will the power be magnified but the energy converted more to swaying than to jumping? Hrmm… not something you want tot think about, with your ability to flee so restricted.

Update: Looking at an animation (click image at right) of the effects of the quake, maybe we didn’t feel the length exaggerated so much… it’s interesting to take a look at. If the animation doesn’t play in your browser, then right-click on the link here and download the target file.

Someone with a vicious sense of humor has given a solid kick in the gut to Microsoft, creating a fake website selling brown Zune casings as security disguises for your iPod or iPhone. The idea being, of course, that the thieves who would rip off your iPod or iPhone in an instant would stay miles away from you if they saw you with a brown Zune. So this imaginary entrepreneur bought scads of brown Zunes at dirt-cheap prices, primarily from kids who got them as birthday presents from clueless adults, and converted them into empty casings to hold your Apple device. Presto! No one will bother stealing your music now!

There’s a lot more humor in the site which rips the Zune pretty solidly (“We leave the Zune’s wifi circuitry in place, but disconnected. It will then work just about as well with your iPod as it does with a regular Zune.”), and when you try to “buy” one, the site says that it’s trying to connect to Microsoft’s servers… and then you get a growing list of endless error messages.

Wicked.

There’s a beautiful view out there right now. Visibility is easily 40-50km. If the Toyota building weren’t blocking the view, Mt. Fuji would be clear and sharp. I can see the mountains on either side clearly. But perhaps as good an indicator of distance is the image above. Note the mountain line behind the Kasai Rinkai ferris wheel. That’s on the Chiba peninsula, across Tokyo Bay and beyond Makuhari. That’s pretty good visibility, especially for the summer. It’s a crisp, clean day out there. Maybe the humidity and heat will return, but right now it’s really nice.

Yesterday afternoon, after the typhoon had veered off (we didn’t really get too much rain), we got some interesting views, with the interesting light and cloud arrangements.

One thing that struck me when I moved to Ikebukuro was the sheer number of convenience stores, or conbini. In the 500-meter-square area shown, there are no fewer than 18 such shops–and I’m not sure that the map shows them all.

Even more surprising was the concentration of one brand of store. In this area, Family Mart is king. 10 of the 18 stores here are FM, with am-pm coming in second with 5. You’ll note that in one area, there are three Family Marts within just a block or so of each other.

I just thought I might mention this, purely out of a sense of the weirdness of it. A new movie trailer on Apple’s trailer site, called “Dynamite Warrior.” First, this bit appears in the description of the trailer:

A supernatural, action packed movie with high-grade special effects and the kind of raw action scenes the world is coming to expect from Thailand.

Um, okay… I didn’t really expect that much out of Thai movies, but… Justin, any comments?

However, the description get weirder:

…the killer is in fact a warlock of immense power, a nearly invincible mystical man who is trying to control the whole village. His one weakness? He can be harmed only by weapons that have been treated with the menstrual blood of a young virgin.

It’s at that point that I essentially said, “okay, I’m outta here.” Those wacky Thais. You’d think they’d give older virgins a chance.

Seriously, though, if the trailer is any indication, there don’t seem to be any “high grade” special effects, or even any special effects that I can make out. Just a bunch of choreographed martial arts moves based on ridiculous extremes, with flying objects on wires. Not nearly as impressive as most of the stuff that’s out there. Which makes this just weird, not even cool-special-effects-weird.

Sachi found a kaiten-sushiya, or conveyor-belt sushi joint, in Higashi-Ikebukuro via Yahoo Gourmet. It’s on a side street just off of the Sunshine 60 shopping street. It’s called “Waka Taka,” which I assume is a reference to the sumo wrestlers Wakanohana and Takanohana; the hint is the picture of a sumo wrestler on the receipt (Is that supposed to be Waka?).

It’s not a bad place. I’ve eaten at quite a few sushi shops, and this one was pretty decent. Better, they have a simple pricing policy: every sushi plate is ¥136 ($1.12), with soft drinks priced the same. Beer is more expensive, but pretty much everything else has that basic price. The receipt at right shows the total cost of Sachi’s and my lunch. She had seven plates of sushi, I had six. Not too shabby.

Most sushi joints will have a range of different-colored or -patterned plates; each different plate represents a different price. Waka-Taka just has one plate, meaning that the maguro and the chu-toro are the same price. A few of the more expensive plates have a different way of charging more: instead of getting two pieces of sushi on a plate, you just get one. But that’s as far as it goes, and as far as I could tell, there were only about a half dozen such 1-piece plates out of several dozen different menu choices.

As is usual, they offer free tea, cold water, and ginger. If you’re looking for a quick, cheap lunch in East Ikebukuro, this is a very good candidate.

You’ll find the shop located here.

This harkens back to the Cold War, when The U.S. government knew something and the Russians knew it… but it was classified by our government, apparently just to keep it secret from our own people. This was the excuse used when something massively embarrassing to the politicians was covered up under the pretense of “national security.”

Well, it’s happening again, just like old times. The Bush administration is now claiming that between two-thirds and three-fourths of the al Qaeda leadership has been captured or killed, therefore rendering the terrorist organization “smashed.” But how did they get that number?

White House and U.S. intelligence officials declined to provide any back-up data for how they developed the new number—or even to explain the methodology that was used, which they said was classified. The absence of any explanation, as well as the timing, prompted some counterterrorism experts to deride the figure as “meaningless” and predict the revision could fuel allegations that the administration is massaging terrorism data for political purposes.

Unless the administration is suggesting that al Qaeda does not know how many of its own people have been captured and/or killed, then there is no reason not to release a list of the names of said leaders, along with the outline of al Qaeda that would show that they represent 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the known operation. After all, they have let it be known what percent of the “known” leadership has been taken out, so al Qaeda now knows what we know about the size of their leadership, so obviously that’s not a concern, either. So keeping the specifics secret is foolish–the U.S. government knows, al Qaeda knows… the only ones who don’t know are the people.

Unless, of course, the numbers are a complete fraud, and the only reason to keep them “secret” is because there are no “facts” to reveal. In which case al Qaeda is certainly not fooled, just the American people. And that’s really the idea, isn’t it?

And let’s face it, their organization is hydra-esque in that if you kill a leader, another fills his place just as easily. If we’ve killed “two thirds” of the “known” leadership, most of that is probably repeats. How many times have we captured or killed off Osama bin Laden’s “number three” man, for example? There was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, Abu Hamza Rabia, Abu Zubaydah, Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi, Mohammad Atef, and Saif al-Adel (still at large). And that’s just the list I found after a few minutes’ searching old news reports on Google.

There are two conclusions to be reached here: first, al Qaeda’s leadership is replaceable, and so they are not “smashed” or destroyed or in their “last throes” or anything of the sort; on the contrary, Bush’s war in Iraq has sent throngs of new recruits into al Qaeda’s ranks, and their fundraising is not hurting, either. The second conclusion: the Bush administration has been responsible for keeping al Qaeda alive and thriving, failing to do any serious damage to the organization while repeatedly deciding to follow policies that benefit al Qaeda.

And then the Bush administration turns around and flings this clump of fecal matter at us, that they’ve been so successful in “smashing” al Qaeda. I’m surprised, frankly, that even one news organization in the “liberal” media has deigned to question the legitimacy of that claim.

Just a few shots from the pre-typhoon nighttime. This first is the top of the Sunshine 60, lost in the low rainclouds.

The second is the orange lighting of Kasuga Boulevard.

Here are the Democratic candidates at the NAACP presidential forum to discuss civil rights. All of the candidates showed up:

Ricardo Thomas / The Detroit News

And here’s the Republican turnout, just a few hours before:

Carlos Osorio / AP

Notice anything different? Yep, that’s right–Tom Tancredo was the only GOP candidate to appear. He made the best of it, throwing out quips such as, “Do you think we should wait a few minutes to see if these other guys show up?” and “This is my kind of debate. … Do I know something they don’t know?”

The Republicans don’t even have the ability to say it was an unfriendly forum, after conservatives continuously slammed Democrats for not allowing Fox News, a propaganda arm of the Republican Party, to frame, host, moderate, and deliver a debate for them. You can’t have it both ways; either candidates are “afraid” of a forum for not showing up, or they aren’t. And the NAACP is less of a threat to Republicans than Fox is to Democrats; the NAACP is issue-oriented, and would lean to the right if the GOP addressed their concerns better. Fox, on the other hand, is unabashedly anti-left for the sake of being pro-right. And it’s not as if the GOP doesn’t want to attract voters from the minority community, either, nor has the NAACP shown open hostility to visiting conservatives before. Take this 2004 function when GOP head Ken Mehlman spoke to the NAACP; they were not antagonistic, there were no protesters. Hell, the NAACP sees the Democrats as taking them for granted, and would welcome Republicans to the table if for no other reason than to light a fire under the Democrats. The GOP candidates faced a far friendlier challenge with the GOP than the Democrats did with Fox.

Not that the right-wing press hasn’t taken the opportunity to be hypocritical here; take this NewsBusters article, which slams a CNN commentator for saying that the GOP is “scared of black folks”–despite the right wing massively playing up the story that “Democrats are afraid of journalists” because they didn’t agree to the Fox debate.

And this is not the first time their hypocrisy has been shown up, either; Republicans got all antsy when one debate, hosted by MSNBC, with mostly right-leaning journalists, included Keith Olbermann on the commentator front, even though he didn’t even get close to the candidates.

So, is the media playing up this story? The image of Tancredo standing there among nine other empty lecterns is a money shot, to be sure. But instead, the media is apparently all gaga over David Beckham showing up in the U.S., so the story conveniently slides into obscurity.

My school wants to buy Office 2007. We are an academic institution. We are fully eligible for the academic pricing. Except there are two catches: (1) Microsoft does not allow for multilingual software–unlike Apple, which makes all of its software multilingual out of the box, and (2) they refuse to allow us to buy the English version at academic prices from within Japan. They won’t sell it in Japan, and they won’t let us buy it in the U.S. and bring it in to Japan. A staff member says that they have a friend at Microsoft who says that the new suite “phones home” and tells Microsoft if a U.S. academic version is being used in Japan, at least more than one copy in a single location.

As a result, we probably will wind up not buying it, as the full price is prohibitive for our budget, and, as a college (accredited both in the U.S. and in Japan!), we should not have to pay that much.

Not that I’m hot to buy Microsoft stuff, but the Computer class kinda needs that software to avoid being hopelessly out-of-date (currently we’re running Office 2000). Frankly, I’d much rather we just get all Macs and, assuming the upcoming version of iWork has a spreadsheet program, we just use that and Microsoft can go screw themselves. However, the school won’t go for it, as not enough students use Macs and they want to teach what the students will be using. Circular logic–everyone uses it because everyone uses it–but that’s what we’re stuck with.

So, if anyone knows an end run around this stupidity so we can get Academic Office 2007 like we are supposed to be able to if M$ didn’t have their heads up their arses, please let me know.

• Bugs. After having opened the balcony doors for a certain period of time, we find ourselves besieged by one specific type of insect, a tiny, quiet, flying insect that slowly weaves around your head. People who have lived in Japan in the summer know what I am talking about. These things are relatively easy to kill–you can’t get them every time but more often than you could a mosquito or housefly–but there are so damn many of the things, they seem to keep coming and coming no matter how many you kill.
• Altitude. I knew we were high up, but did not expect the fact that riding the elevator up to our floor would be enough to make your ears uncomfortable. Luckily, I have the ability to open my eustachian tubes really easily and so can equalize fine. Sachi reports no discomfort herself.
• Garbage disposal. I’ve never seen this before in Japan, and it’s pretty easy here. There’s no external switch; you just put in the stopper for the drain and turn to the right. This drainstop-switch feature also guarantees that you won’t accidentally drop a piece of silverware, a ring, or your finger in the drain while the blades are going. Furthermore, it’s quiet and efficient.
• Cost-cutting. Sachi mentions that it appears the makers of the building did a good job overall but cut corners in a few places. One is the bath room mirror; aside from not having a defogging mechanism, it just seems kind of cheap. Another is the air conditioner in the living room. It’s cheap, not very strong (Sachi’s is way stronger), and just this morning started dropping ice and water on our TV set.

My father mentioned the price of Apple stock in a Skype call we had this morning, but at the time I thought he just meant the general upwards trend lately. However, when I checked the day’s results, Apple stock was up $3.66, or 2.73%. It’s nice to open up your account and see that you made a thousand bucks overnight. I am guessing that the jump was the result of this report from USA Today:

Early iPhone owners are overwhelmingly happy with their devices, a survey out Friday says, and Apple and AT&T are luring customers from rivals as a result.

In one of the first such studies, 90% of 200 owners said they were “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their phone. And 85% said they are “extremely” or “very” likely to recommend the device to others, says the online survey conducted and paid for by market researcher Interpret of Santa Monica, Calif. The firm surveyed 1,000 cellphone users July 6-10.

The findings are “pretty much off the charts,” says Jason Kramer, Interpret’s chief strategy officer. …

Apple still faces challenges. The high cost of the two iPhone models — $499 and $599 — ranks as the No. 1 reason consumers interested in the device did not buy one, the survey says. Those consumers said they would pay an average of, at most, $180.

Owners said there’s room for improvement. At the top of their wish list: longer battery life, faster Internet speed and more internal memory. Other factors, including the lack of a physical keyboard, were well down on their lists.

The iPhone is extending Apple’s reach, the survey says. Three of 10 buyers were first-time Apple customers. For 40%, iPhone is their first iPod.

This bodes extremely well for the iPhone and for Apple. Word of mouth is very important, and a lot of people may have been holding back, waiting for the reactions of the early buyers. It suggests that perceived problems are not nearly as bad as people expected–especially the keyboard–and Apple’s objectives of selling ten million units by the end of 2008 may be exceeded, even as a domestic figure.

The halo effect is also an issue, as more people will get a dose of Apple’s design style. Just yesterday at work, a staff member said that he’s probably going to buy a Mac soon, and that is based upon the iPod he bought recently; he loves it so much, he figures Macs should also be a welcome change from PCs. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he may have bought his iPod just a tad too soon, with full-screen multi-touch models being a likely upcoming release. Still, that kind of story, though anecdotal, is telling. If someone really likes a product from a company, they may well buy more, different products from the same company. And early iPhone news seems to indicate that Apple sales may increase even more than they have in the recent past–and they have already been increasing computer sales faster than anyone else out there.

There could even be a bit of a boost from what Fake Steve Jobs might call the “skank” factor–already Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have been photographed carrying iPhones (almost a bit too conspicuously, if you ask me). While FSJ rants about how there was supposed to be a policy to keep such people from buying an iPhone, it probably won’t hurt sales among the younger crowds.

Christians who want things like religion in government and public spaces, and prayer in schools and such, try to play down the controversy by saying how the specific religion is not important, it’s the fact that people are just praying meditating, and that’s OK. Furthermore, they try to emphasize that people of other beliefs should not at all mind Christian beliefs being emphasized in these places, that it’s not offensive, or should not be offensive to people of other beliefs.

The question then put to them is simple: if the religion is not important, and no one should be offended by another’s belief system, then how about we have Islamic prayers in school, or a Hindu prayer in a government function? The religious right simply doesn’t answer such questions, in part because they can’t answer honestly without their argument falling apart. They are also aware that in a country like the U.S., if a religion intrudes, it’ll be their religion, which is OK with them.

Here’s a video of a guest chaplain in the U.S. Senate giving the invocation–but the chaplain is a Hindu. How do the tolerant Christians react? Just watch:

So much for the Christian argument that no one should mind another’s beliefs presented publicly without anyone minding.

After seven and a half months, it is estimated by Microsoft that they have sold a million Zunes. Of course, that figure is very sketchy and unsupported. It is based upon an interview with Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division president, Robbie Bach, where he was misquoted as saying that they had sold “a little over a million Zunes” by the end of May, when he really said that they expected to have sold over a million Zunes by the end of June. Furthermore, nobody is sure that they have actually sold that many to consumers, as Microsoft has the tendency to report shipments to retailers as actual sales to inflate their figures. (And, as a side note, Bach has recently been implicated in an insider trading scandal.)

While the Zune’s release was rather uneventful (ten units sold at a San Francisco store was “better than expected”), the iPhone’s release was manic, crazed, crowded and furious. After ten days, it is reported that nearly a million iPhones have been sold; by the two-week mark, the number of one million is perfectly reasonable to expect.

Which means that Apple reached the one-million mark in just 1/16th the time it took for the Zune to do the same thing. Of course, look at the comparison between them:

True, one is $250 and the other is $500, but Apple has a much bigger profit margin, and more expensive stuff should be harder to sell, right? But really, just in terms of industrial design, there’s no comparison here. At right, you can see a side view of the iPhone. I was trying to get a similar image of the Zune to show a comparison (the iPhone is 0.46″ thick, the Zune 0.58″), but I could not find a single image on the web of a Zune in full side profile. I soon figured it out: it’s basically just a rectangle from that view. Oh, there’s the line of a seam breaking it up, but from the side, the Zune is utterly nondescript. Which explains why nobody posts images of it that way.

The Zune is set for an upgrade–but then again, according to reports, so is the iPhone. And while the Zune can get software upgrades like the iPhone (both may get their wireless capabilities upgraded), the iPhone is far more upgradeable without having to buy a new unit, as it relies on the touch screen for the full interface.

Of course, we’re comparing apples and oranges here a bit–the Zune is only a media player, and the iPhone is a media player, web browser, email/schedule/address book client, camera/photo viewer, and a telephone. But what happens when the first widescreen iPod comes out? It’s been rumored to happen sometime this year, possibly in August, but probably later. When you get a full-screen, multi-touch iPod with the 3.5-inch 480×320 display? People have gushed about the Zune’s “big” display, which is a 3-inch 320×240 screen–but that’s half the resolution of the iPhone at almost the same size. If the new iPod will have Bluetooth and WiFi like it’s cousin iPhone, then there won’t be much to give the Zune any advantage.

Seriously, I don’t know who is buying Zunes right now. If it were an independent company instead of a part of Microsoft, I don’t see it’s shares going up anytime soon. But then, I should add the disclaimer that I own a chunk of Apple stock, so I may be biased.

Recently, I’ve been showing you shots of the neighborhood and the view, but nothing inside the apartment. Actually, we got it cleaned up enough to be presentable in the past week, maybe 3 or 4 days ago, so there’s no reason (aside from slothfulness) to put it off any further.

You may recall the layout, if you were keeping track of comments from previous Ikebukuro posts. This was the floor plan, with numbers representing tatami mats, each tatami roughly 3 x 6 feet:

Inside that floorplan, this was the expected layout:

Although in “bedroom 2,” the “computer desk” (light beige rectangle on the right) had to be thrown out, that was for the best–it would have seriously overcrowded the room for no good purpose. The sofa in the living room we moved back a bit from the TV… but aside from those two changes, everything was placed as planned, and works very well. So with that layout established, let’s look at some main points of the apartment:

First, the kitchen, as viewed from near the dining room table (the dark brown thing with four chairs around it):

Click for larger view

Turn a little to the right, and you can see the living room area (note the green curtains, a recent apartment-wide addition):

Click for larger view

Step back into the kitchen a bit and look back towards the balcony windows:

Click for larger view

The following views do not have enlarged images. If you go down the hall from the kitchen area to the bedrooms, then on the right is the bath area:

Hidden in there on the left side is the washer-dryer, and almost at the door on the left is a second mirror-cabinet dressing area. Turn around, and you see the main bedroom:

The bed does take up most of the room, but there’s more space than there seems in this image. Out of frame, there’s a fair amount of floor space beyond the bed, and full-sized closets to the left.

And just around the corner is the hallway leading to the genkan, and the front door:

There’s more, but that’s enough for now.

Here are some night views from the balcony. Some really good views out there, especially on a clear night (we haven’t had too many of those). The first two images have blow-ups (well worth looking at!):

The above is a slightly zoomed-in view of downtown Tokyo, with the tip of Tokyo Tower visible at far right; to the left is probably Roppongi, Yotsuya, and Akasaka, with northern areas in the foreground. That’s the view we have out our bedroom window.

The next view is straight out to our east, out the dining room windows. Between the tower under construction and the larger apartment tower to the right is the skyline for Ueno, Akihabara, and Kanda. We have seen Disneyland fireworks behind the Akihabara buildings.

Back to the Roppongi area–we noticed that one building seemed to get a blue tint every few seconds. A look with the zoom lens on the camera revealed this (click for larger image):

And just for fun, I glued together three images for an animated GIF showing how the lights came up on that building:

Anybody know what building that is? Roppongi Hills is my guess, but I don’t know for certain.