well, it's been about 6 weeks since I sent UWF the reviews, and he seems pretty dead to the world. Maybe it would just be better to start another site. Again, if someone does the design/html stuff, I'll do the content - starting with the crapload of reviews that are already done. 

How come you don't use your very own sexy website btw? If you want, I'd teach you how! :)

If I had the time and energy I'd totally make you a site, but if there is something I don't want to do at the moment then it's my ugly kind of webdesign. So all I could offer (hell, I'd love to feature your reviews at my little sweetheart site ;) ) is creating a category for such reviews at Quaddicted.

Quick hack how it could look like (not clickable on purpose):
http://www.quadd icted.com/tronyn-reviews-digs 04zip-the-parallel-worlds/

I'd add a link to the reviews in the navigation and figure out how to do an index. The text is somewhat hard to read, I really got to improve that on the site anyways... 

Welcome to Func_Terrafusion etc etc. 

A friend has got a DVD with some AVI film clips ripped from another DVD. They work on the other friend who gave him them 's computer, but not on my friends. Specifically, the sound does not work in VLC player, and conversely the sound works but the video doesn't show in Windows Media Player.

Any simple advice (have suggested Quicktime, other than that I'm stumped).

Ta,
Sham x x x 

Damn Shambler, you are pulling penis from the past. Check the file with GSpot (no joke) http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Alternatively, TEH video playback gem on Windows is:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli2/
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/
I might have forgotten something and I don't remember if setup was a no-brainer, I think it was. 

Yeah you know what I didn't really think of it, but I could just post the reviews on my site. I guess there's no real reason not to - a dedicated review site isn't necessary to just have reviews, and as for the polls/articles/extra stuff that UWF's site had, you are pretty much already doing all of that at Quaddicted anyway.

Alright, sorry to make everyone wait even longer but this week my time is shot to hell. I'll do it this weekend. 

Sounds awesome! Can't wait to see what you come up with! 

K, will check those. Anything simpler I can get my friend to do (he's rarely on the web AFAIK). 

There is a codec pack called CCCP, should be standard windows fare to install, and then it comes with a simple lightweight media player.

But as Spirit implied... AVI is just a container format which could have any number of different audio/video formats in it. 

any recommendations for places/things not to miss? 

fear the yellow people!!! 

Than, of course! 

When are you heading out there? And where? I'm gonna be there a few weeks during April myself. 

not till sept/oct I think, but not totally sure yet. 

Or is it just for us with a small currency that speculators don't like to seek comfort in when they've made a mess out of the economy? 

not just you. Been looking at the latest published travel guide which has prices listed as $AU 1 = 100 yen, which is almost half price compared to the actual exchange rate atm. 

Yeah it's become more expensive, probably only temporary hopefully.

Nitin, I could spend hours recommending places to go, but I'll just suggest a few quickies:

If you go to Kyoto, don't miss the Fushimi Inari shrine, it's a bit to the south, but definitely worth taking a quick train/bus ride to visit it. (Second best temple in Kyoto being Kiyomizu).

Try spending a night on Miyajima island if you can, during the day you can climb up the island by cable car, see wild monkeys at the top of the mountain, and then get lost walking back down (good hike). It's one of my best memories from my last trip. Staying the night is nice, you can walk around the small village when it gets dark, great atmosphere.

In Tokyo, if you're going with a lady-friend, spending an afternoon+evening in Odaiba is nice, sunset on tokyo can be really great, romantic.

In Osaka, spending an evening in Dotonburi is great (popular street with lots of lights and restaurants).

Don't forget to eat lots of good food!
I could keep going for a while... =) 

Do you need to speak fluent Japanese in Japan, or can you get around with just knowing the English language? 

"Sumimasen."
"Wakarimasen."
"Watashi wa baka desu." 

 

 

Did you ask "Where is the toilet coming to life?" 

... or has my memory gotten a bit fuzzy since high school japanese class? 

Kyoto is awesome, for all of the two days I spent there, and four days in Japan. We went to Kiyomizu-dera and it was awesome, if Bal says Fushimi Inari is better it's probably worth checking out :)

You can get around without speaking any Japanese in Japan, just expect a certain level of confusion (and not knowing quite what you are eating!).

I even blogged about our trip: http://mikeandemmastravels.blogspot.com/2008/11/japan-day-1.html 

thanks, had noth the kyoto things marked.

I have gone through 2/3 of the travel guide and already there's way too much stuff that I ahve marked (including a highly unlikely but would be cool if I could trip to ogasawara-shoto.

have you been to himeji-jo? pics definitely look inspiring.