Twitter Stream with updates from Japan

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Originally Posted by Kimble

Uh... its only going to be 12 am PST in 10 minutes...

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lol sorry, saw 2am EST, not PST.. and the change to DST got me even more confuzzeled......*.*

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Originally Posted by Altheav

DISCLAIMER: I am not a seismologist, meteorologist, or even a statistician. I am, however, a spreadsheet wrangler by vocation; given a set of data, I'll pivot it. :p

Anyway -- a lot of people have been wondering whether the amount of earthquakes Japan has been getting is normal for this time of year or not. After doing some digging, I managed to find the right link on the USGS website for downloading raw data. I pulled earthquakes of all magnitudes from 2000 to 2011, lattitude 45 to 30 & longitude 130 to 155. That should include most, if not all, of Japan. Here's a link to the Data Set Search Query results - not sure if that will still work or not.

Did a quick pivot on it to get a count of earthquakes occurring in March. While it's not at all unusual for them to get earthquakes between 3.5 and 5.0 this time of year, the number of quakes they are getting (due to aftershocks) is much, MUCH greater than normal. :(

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/...7976aa8c0d.jpg
Count of Japanese Earthquakes in March, 2000 - 2011 by Althea Valara, on Flickr

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Hey good information. I was wondering that. On my google gadget it was showing 5+ point earthquakes every hour for days after the 9.0 one hit. Now its down to maybe three or four during the day light hours. They do seem to be slowing down and dropping down into the four and five catagory more often instead of the five and six catagories as before.

That's great news. At least it's finally dying down.

Good info Altheav, should have made a new thread about it, almost missed that information.

Thanks you for those 2 link.

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Originally Posted by annewandering

lol kinda sideways on topic but someone said they ought to be using cloud, which i am not quite sure what that is, and when i look at the bottom left side of the screen what do i see? tags for this thread none view tag cloud. sounds like SE is on the ball more than that poster thought anyway.

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Cloud is basically Virtual services. It would mean that instead of running the servers from Japan only you could put the information on a virtual server which can be run from anywhere in the world. For example. Let's say that it takes 30 servers to run FFXI, they would hire someone like Amazon.com, which runs tons of Cloud services, and Amazon would provide the same hardware that SE has for running FFXi on a virtual machine. What that allows SE to do is to run their services from anywhere in the world, and should one virtual server go down, the information is spread around the cloud, so another server in a different location would still have the information, so it's always live.

Sony is already working on this for the Playstation 3, where your save files will be saved on a Cloud, so no matter which PS3 you're playing on, as long as you log in with your account, your save file will be accessible. This is way more complicated in terms of MMO, but you could essentially have an in-house Cloud network between all the POL offices around the world, and should anything happen at one particular location, all the data would still be available from any of the other locations.

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Originally Posted by Deadlyscorpion

Cloud is basically Virtual services. It would mean that instead of running the servers from Japan only you could put the information on a virtual server which can be run from anywhere in the world. For example. Let's say that it takes 30 servers to run FFXI, they would hire someone like Amazon.com, which runs tons of Cloud services, and Amazon would provide the same hardware that SE has for running FFXi on a virtual machine. What that allows SE to do is to run their services from anywhere in the world, and should one virtual server go down, the information is spread around the cloud, so another server in a different location would still have the information, so it's always live.

Sony is already working on this for the Playstation 3, where your save files will be saved on a Cloud, so no matter which PS3 you're playing on, as long as you log in with your account, your save file will be accessible. This is way more complicated in terms of MMO, but you could essentially have an in-house Cloud network between all the POL offices around the world, and should anything happen at one particular location, all the data would still be available from any of the other locations.

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Which is all wonderful. I don't understand people's anti-cloud propoganda.

Interesting proposition. I always got the impression Cloud computing was used in large part for applications of considerably smaller scale though. At least, that's how it is generally marketed to the public: everyone taps into office applications online instead of installing 100 copies in your office--everyone just uses the "cloud" apps online.

Each "world" is already distributed across seperate servers as is (zones are split across different IP's, could be VM's or physically on different hardware). It could take considerable effort to get it all uploaded. With so many pieces already making up each server's Vanadiel world as is, putting that into a cloud array could result in a LOT of data floating around out there. If it were just one gameworld is one thing, but 24 production sets (soon going to 16) could be a vicious undertaking.

It surely would be an interesting experiment though. Might be something for them to explore with their test server set first.

If I were SE I might use this for things that didnt really matter. No way would I put the game servers in or on anything that wasnt sitting right in front of me where I can control who has access.

I can't see Cloud having any purpose for SE. I do not think a site like Amazon or anyone would allow them to use up all that space & effectively using their bandwidth up. Now even though they had to shutdown their servers & it has made a lot of us to question why they have never had a backup plan for such an incident.

I can not see something of this magnitude happening for a really long time. So if SE were to just take their chances & not change anything (by not having back up server or anything) they would save a lot more money in the long run if this were to happen in say 10 years (god I hope not for Japan's sake not the game)

Yeah... it kind of reminds me of the big debate over disk-to-disk backups vs. tape backups. 500/TB or 1500/TB cost analysis would scare the hell out of the bean counters. But, then you showed them how easy it was to screw up a tape...then they jumped on board with the disks. But, I doubt the cost gap is that close with the massive operations they are dealing with at SE.

I looked at that infineta system last week during the debates over this issue. The techs were talking about replacing hardware at costs up to 400k a pop for some setups just to reduce that latency on synchronization. Probly better for them to just nix access for a couple weeks and eat the losses in subscription fees then forking out 250k+ a pop X who knows how many sets to get low-latency redundancy going.

I wouldn't have the data spread around different servers cloud style, but virtualized cloud style private networks for SE might work. . It would work something like a raid setup. Put one virtual server in Japan that is basically the equivalent of what it takes to run the game (big servers like this do exist). Then put two others in place that run with it in two different parts of the world and if one goes down the other takes over. The involment of cloud in this plan allows for a few things:

-Less servers pulling electricity
-Servers in 3 different countries would work as I'd they were in the same network.

The downsides would be longer maintenance and God knows what other problems might occur when running an mmo on cloud.

yeah... the latency would likely still eat them up--even if they could afford dark fiber between them. When you are able to stream large chunks you can afford to use different tricks with the checksum tracking to reduce latency, but with all the tiny packets of data flying back and fourth to all the clients...might wind up with a lot of dirty data. meh.

SE has their reasons for what they do...sure they had a team do a big analysis on it already. But, with all the advancements in technology and software it may be time to do another one.

Anywho... any good news on the Japan front? See they've been on blackouts since I logged off last night.

This mornigns radiation levels showing mixed results. Outlying areas are showing both increases and decreases, but no big spikes for the most part. Must be due to weather changes, as changes are slight for most of them. But Ibaraki pref. went up a good bit--about 10% to break the 1200 mark again. They just can't catch a break.

People getting a little spooked about the spread of the radiation reaching previously assumed "safe" regions. Even getting elevations in Tokyo now--broke 100 there already, and it's been below 50 for the longest time.

From JapanTimes article via twitter link:

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External power was connected to the No. 4 reactor in the morning, making it the fifth of the plant's six reactors to have vital power restored so that key equipment can be restarted, including ventilation systems to filter radioactive substances from the air and measuring gauges in the control room.

Only the No. 3 reactor remains unconnected to an external power source, but even at the other reactors workers need to check the condition of each piece of equipment before feeding the power in, the nuclear safety agency said.



Tepco hopes to restore the power systems to revive key equipment, including data measuring devices, and functions by Wednesday for the No. 1 and 2 reactors and by Thursday for the No. 3 and 4 reactors, Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a news conference.

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Sounds like they made a lot of progress last night/yesterday. YAY!

the guys at fleep.com have put a lot of work into compiling/graphing a lot of data on radiation levels and earthquake readings for the last week or so. This has turned into an ongoing project that they update with each new batch of data, and they are announcing when they apply newly released data via the twitter feeds (links to their feeds on the page, but they also tweet at tokyopost and japantimes as well I think). They've added weather forecasts to the page as well. Might want to bookmark it for future reference:

http://fleep.com/earthquake/

I'm still worried about a long term strategy, or lack thereof. A lot of effort is being put towards making the essentials up and running but what are they doing for the long haul? What's going to happen to all the people left without homes?

hmmmm... was poking around TEPCO and a bit confused about status of Kashiwazaki plant. Looks like they may have been nearing completion of inspection/recovery on #2, 3, and 4 reactors there, but suspended operations due to the quake on 3/11. Can't find any more info past 3/17 on that one. Would be nice if they could get some more power from that site.

Hope they can get containment at Dai-Ichi soon so they can put some more resources to Kashiwazaki maybe.

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Originally Posted by Deadlyscorpion

I'm still worried about a long term strategy, or lack thereof. A lot of effort is being put towards making the essentials up and running but what are they doing for the long haul? What's going to happen to all the people left without homes?

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Think I saw some mentioning suspension of completion on the new site until they reviewed it for compliance with safety/quake/tsunami regulations and such in light of recent events.

There was also a short story on NHK the other day about a company specializing in modular homes coming up with a design for replacement housing. Awaiting approval on a new system they have put together. It's kind of like pre-fabbed duplex apartment structures they can put up quickly.

Nothing more than a short news reel that one day, no more mention of it since.

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Originally Posted by Deadlyscorpion

I'm still worried about a long term strategy, or lack thereof. A lot of effort is being put towards making the essentials up and running but what are they doing for the long haul? What's going to happen to all the people left without homes?

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I agree I am am worried as well about long turn strategy for JP ppl. That being said I am also encouraged by what they have accomplished sense the disaster. It has amazed me how fast there getting there essential services back up and running the sure scale of it all. I think there on right track and the will figure out something for more long term housing for there people once they have the shortages of food water and other essential supplies under control with supply lines restored.

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JRNHeadlines NHK: Power has been connected to #fukushima reactor #3 and lights have come on there.

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last one needing power...good news.

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JRNHeadlines NHK: Toyota to keep domestic factories closed through Mar. 26.

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So, SE not the only one holding out. Toyota was supposed to fire up operations this week. May see more companies hold out a couple more days as well.

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Originally Posted by RAIST

last one needing power...good news.

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This is indeed good News now they can get all the reactors cooling systems going and then get down to the real work of cleaning up and assessing the total damage without having to worry about meltdown every min.

Thank You RAIST for posting this :)

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Originally Posted by RAIST

So, SE not the only one holding out. Toyota was supposed to fire up operations this week. May see more companies hold out a couple more days as well.

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Yeah my Mother in-law works at Toyota plant in Ontario. She said the "official" notice from Toyota in Japan is that On March 28th they plan to power up for 8 hours to perform proper maintenance of machinery. Once all maintenance is complete they plan to run 1 shift for first week of operation to provide stock for international factories. After their first week if the power situation has improved the will resume operation at a normal capacity, but if the power is not restored they will be shutting down again to allow the power to be used else where.

This is rather generous of them, alot of people who work for Toyota rely on parts from Japan in order to complete their job. There we even talk of a short shutdown here if Japan was unable to send then any parts to keep going.

Yeah.. hopefully Nissan follows too. They fired up several divisions just to produce parts and were planning to start vehicles on the 24th, but that may change too.

This is from an article already a couple days old(3/19) at GaijinPot,. Don't recall seeing it mentioned in the news streams:

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Construction of some 200 temporary housing units started Saturday in the coastal city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture, which was severely damaged in the mega earthquake and tsunamis.

The 30-square-meter prefabricated houses capable of accommodating two to three people will be built on the grounds of a junior high school. A date for completing construction has yet to be set.

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JRNHeadlines And still another 5.9 in Ibaraki. No #tsunami alert.
8 minutes ago

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don't know how they can take this over there...they are happening all the time lately

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Originally Posted by RAIST

don't know how they can take this over there...they are happening all the time lately

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Really is some scary stuff going on over there still

got cutoff from Ustream this afternoon, then got called to go revive laway system after power outage at mother's store--Stupid UPS Battery was hosed and no one replaced, some idgett just silenced the warning and never ordered a new battery. Database in an inconsistent state. Thankfully I wrote a batchfile that ran a dump to a USB drive at 6pm each night--so I just took the easy way out and they had to redo all activity that morning after restore. Don't like tinkering with someone's homebrew apps if I can avoid it. Hope someone learned a valuable lesson today about the value of their @#$@#$!@#$ UPS.

Anywho... TEPCO has released a nice recap of their powerstation events up to yesterday. Good read for new members that want a bit of a rundown on what's been going on in one shot. It also includes a little info on the Dai Ni station and Kashiwazaki nuclear sites and some of their non-nuclear facilities:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...1032218-e.html

Radiation levels seam to be holding or showing a slight improvement. Outlying levels are still basically the same as yesterday, but areas closer to Dai Ichi have seen roughly a 10% drop in the last 24 hours. Ibaraki is back under 1k again, but still a way to go from the 600/700 range it was 3 days ago. Progress is still progress I guess.

They're still getting shaken up a good bit over there, lots of short shocks in the 4-6 magnitude ranges,:

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tamegoeswild Ouch! RT @KyungLahCNN JMA says that last aftershock was a 4.1. Not strong, but strong enough to hit my head against the wall and wake me up!
6 minutes ago

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JRNHeadlines 6.0 #earthquake in southern #fukushima just inland from nuclear plants. No #tsunami alert.
21 minutes ago

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Ustream is still not streaming NHK yet, so had to go to the NHK site, but it looks like they are rerunning the same info (or the same type of stories at least as this morning):
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

Haven't been going to their site b/c I liked being able to load Ustream directly in my player with no browser load. Broke down and I lifted the NHK's direct paths to the ASX streams though, in case you want to just load the stream in your media players too without loading the whole web page.

If you use these links, you may get prompted to open/save them--just open them and it should load in your default player (Windows Media, VLC Player, etc). Kinda nice to have it runing in a small box off to the side so you don't have to keep tabbing back to it to watch while browsing the web... heheh:

128-bit stream: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/r0/low.asx
256 bit stream: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/r0/high.asx
"HQ" stream: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/r/movie/

The NHK news I was just watching was interupts with another earthquake report. In Ibaraki I think.

Raist...you rock bud!

heheh... love the updated sig Tsukino.

heavy tweet storm a couple minutes ago... just grabbed a handful (most were stating the same alarms:

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kenmogi This morning, quakes hitting literary every minute. As prior quake subdues, another quake alert beeps on tv. What the..

TimeOutTokyo Four significant aftershocks in quick succession this morning. Tokyo is rolling once again!

W7VOA Latest one at 0734JST triggering tsunami concern.

shioyama よかった！ RT @BlaisePlant Oh no! Another huge earthquake in the same places! Looks like the reactors are ok though.

W7VOA Shindo 5+ in Fukushima-ken.

W7VOA NO tsunami alert.

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Finally starting to see a little new info coming across the wire for Japan--a bunch of it is just recycled or recaps up to yesterday:

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Efforts to restore electricity proceed at Fukushima plant. Once it gets electricity, things should be under control:

Tepco said access to electricity has been confirmed at reactor No. 2, and workers were checking the soundness of its utilities, including cooling pumps and other key safety equipment. However, the electrical connection from reactor No. 2 to the adjacent No. 1 had not been confirmed.

The No. 2 reactor was the first of the six to have its power center re-connected Sunday from cables Tepco laid outside the plant.

Reactor No. 4 had electricity access restored at 10:35 a.m. Tuesday, and was also undergoing utility checks. Work was also being done to connect electricity between reactors 4 and 3, Tepco said.

Regarding reactors 5 and 6, Tepco said work was ongoing to connect pipes to outside electrical supplies to pump in seawater to its circulation system, and that the operation should be completed Wednesday.

(Information from Kyodo added)

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DailyYomiuri Water spraying on the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima N-plant began at 10am today by the Tokyo FD's Hyper Rescue Squad, TEPCO said.

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DailyYomiuri Arakawa and Adachi wards--the only 2 of Tokyo's 23 that have rolling blackouts--have lodged a formal complaint of "unfairness" with TEPCO

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Just published today's readings — Fukushima slightly lower, Tokyo very slightly higher compared to yesterday.

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Main Japan headlines this morning: power now connected to all six Fukushima reactors, mass burials of tsunami dead beginning.

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Looks like Japan is trying to move on with life as normal the best they can:

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DailyYomiuri Natl H.S. invitational #baseball championship begins, including Tohoku High School team based in disaster-hit Sendai --

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jt_sayuridaimon Now, people who fled are returning to Tokyo
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0110323f1.html

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DailyYomiuri Power is back on at the No.3 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant. A peek inside the control room, taken last night: 10 minutes ago
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/zoom/20110323-OYT9I00339.htm

DailyYomiuri Fuel pinch easing in #Kanto, parts of #Tohoku--Oil industry in full gear
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T110322003426.htm

"Many production facilities put out of order by the quake and transportation bases in quake-hit areas are gradually becoming operational again. The petroleum industry believes gas shortages will be nearly resolved this week in the Kanto region, and by the end of the month in the Tohoku region."

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fleep.com has imported the data from 06:00 JST to the graphs. no big spikes, for the most part holding steady or a slight increase/decrease in some areas. Most notable: readings show more decreases for the Fukushima area:
http://fleep.com/earthquake/

Corporate conservation efforts are paying off today. From 09:00 - 11:00 with NO BLACKOUT IN EFFECT today, demand was just below/on par to the demand during the same time slot yesterday with rolling blackout in effect

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DailyYomiuri TEPCO: This afternoon's blackouts for Group 1 and 3 will not happen. Group 2 will be announced soon, and Group 4 to occur as scheduled.

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Almost got to go a whole day with no blackouts... soooo close

/sigh

you are awesome man. get me a world pass I wanna be on your server ^^

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Originally Posted by NightDagger

you are awesome man. get me a world pass I wanna be on your server ^^

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Raist just lives FFXI vicariously through the forums.

He can live it vicariously on Lakshmi any time. ^^ A smart hardworking person is always welcome!

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Originally Posted by annewandering

He can live it vicariously on Lakshmi any time. ^^ A smart hardworking person is always welcome!

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yeah they are coming harder to find eh lol

Oh Did not realize you are Avalon ^^