Say hello to Tecchan!

[Kumo]

I finally opened my blog!!
http://tecchan.loriskumo.com/



You guessed it: a blog about Japanses trains, N scale and rail modeling!
That way I'll be able to share my projects, pictures and collection.



I took the idea of the train depot from Quinntopia's Locomotive Roster because I love to discover his collection one train at the time! :-)

I hope you will like it. Don't hesitate to spread the word on Facebook or Twitter too!

[Bernard]

I like your logo...how did you come up with it?

[Kumo]

I like your logo...how did you come up with it?

Thanks Bernard!

Long story short: my girlfriend nicknamed me "Boo" (witch is the short for "buta", pig in Japanese). I felt like this was both a good self-portrait and an emblem for my blog! ^^
(I suppose I don't have to explain the cap, obvious story for railfans ;-) )

[disturbman]

Kumo, I've read the first few updates and they are good. Continue comme ça ! :) I'll be reading.

[Martijn Meerts]

Nice one, love the trains in the right column :)

[Kumo]

Thanks guys!

Yep, I really enjoyed making the menu.
It's not obvious because there is only two trains but the speed on the trains in the menu is related to the prototype's top speed! 
It will be more obvious when I'll add the others (300 series will appear quickly than E231 :-) ).

[Martijn Meerts]

We might have to recruit you to help with 1 or more new themes for the forum *cough* ;)

[ShinCanadaSen]

Nice and smooth looking website, looked good even on my iPhone.

Looking forward to more.

Kai

[jakke01]

Very nice site indeed Tecchan - looking forward to your updates.

Grtz,
Jan

[Kumo]

Thanks everyone for your messages (both here and on the blog!).

I started talking about my tram layout project and today another post about social media.



Tecchan is on Twitter and Facebook, don't hesitate to join, like, follow and share! ;-)


Everyone seemed to like this: good news, another "Train Depot" article will arrive next week: my dearly beloved 300 Series Shinkansen!

[Martijn Meerts]

The trains don't seem to be animating in IE9 btw, but that was too be expected :)

[Kumo]

The trains don't seem to be animating in IE9 btw, but that was too be expected :)

Hum... I'll look into it, but I used the CSS3 standard definitions. That's weird...
Anyway, Internet Explorer is a big bag of crap (Ok, IE9 is a smaller bag of crap than the others, but still) so I'm not surprised that it's not working... And if someone is using it here, I can just encourage you to switch for something better (that means anything else)! ;-)

Unfortunately I don't have a windows computer to test it... I noticed some minor issues on my mother's PC (IE8...) and the site is fine with Chrome, Safari, Opera and Firefox (better with FF4). T can test the static rendering using different tools but the UX is still hard to test if you don't have the exact devices...

It's not a major function and part of the graceful degradation (for example: the drop shadows and rounded corners are CSS generated, so it requires a recent browser). I'll check when I have time, I'm currently working on another site and it's more important: client work so paying work! 

Thanks for telling me anyway!

[Martijn Meerts]

I run Win7 on a boot camp partition on my Mac Pro.. I'd rather not, but I need it for the occasional Windows only game I like to play :)

I doubt MS is ever going to fully support the latest CSS specs, I guess in order for CSS3 animations to be smooth on any IE, they'll need to implement them using DirectX.. (kinda like you had to use a DirectX filter to get PNG transparency to work on earlier IE versions ;))


To be honest, I wouldn't spend any time on getting it to work in IE. Right now the trains just appear which is probably more than the average IE user is used to anyway :)

[Kumo]

Train depot: 300 Series Shinkansen!
 

http://tecchan.loriskumo.com/2011/05/train-depot-300-series-shinkansen-tomix/



I wish I could make nicer pictures but I currently can't build a layout so I can only make closeups from my desk.
Anyway, even with a layout, as I don't have scenery, it won't be as nice as Quinntopia's pictures! ^_^'

[Kumo]

I made a video of the animated menu for my portfolio. Watch the video to see what you miss if you use an outdated browser.
By the way, now that I have the Yamanote E231 next to the 300 Series Shinkansen, you can easily spot the speed difference between different trains! :-)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/XViZZ4reKQg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/XViZZ4reKQg</a>

[Lawrence]

Bookmarked 

[Kumo]

Bookmarked 

Thanks! 
It will probably become a bit quiet for the next weeks as I'll move in with my girlfriend next week but I should also receive my order from HS soon, so I'll have things to share!

If you're on Facebook, don't forget to "like"! :-) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tecchan/199723876730838

[Webskipper]

Great blog.

http://www.roco.com/products/Fleischmann/7460.aspx

MODEL #7460 - FLEISCHMANN ELECTRIC ICE-TRAIN ICE-T OF THE DB AG, WITH TILT-TECHNOLOGY 

[Kumo]

I'm on holiday and had some time on my hands. I'm not at home so I cannot play with my trains but I have my computer and can play with Tecchan.

So I tried to improve the look of the trains on the sidebar.


New 300 by loriskumo, on Flickr

It looks great (especially on this before/after) but it took me a lot of time for one train (and a rather simple one) so I'm not sure whether I'll do the others. 
What do you think?

[disturbman]

... that I like the way things are and that in order to judge better what's the best you should put them in context. :)

Also, I've been wondering if you shouldn't organized your collection by type of train (or speed): Shinkansen, Limited Express, Commuter, Subway, Tram... It feels strange to see the 300 lost in the middle of the other ones and not away with the 0.

[Kumo]

... that I like the way things are and that in order to judge better what's the best you should put them in context. :)

Also, I've been wondering if you shouldn't organized your collection by type of train (or speed): Shinkansen, Limited Express, Commuter, Subway, Tram... It feels strange to see the 300 lost in the middle of the other ones and not away with the 0.

Putting them in context would require me to make them all. It's about 1 hour per train... Do the maths, it's a lot of work.
I'd like to do it but even if I love the result it would be too much time and I don't have that much time on my hands anymore. I think, for now, I'll keep the original ones.

My collection is organized chronologically. The trains are here in the same order that I bought them. When I have dozens of trains, I'll probable start ordering them but for now I think it's really Ok.
It will also be tougher to sort them by genre as I won't have only Japanese trains.

[disturbman]

No, you didn't got what I meant. I was saying you should put the new 300 series design in context and compare it to the old one. Like one under the other one on the same interface you wanted to use those new design. Which reminds me, I'm pretty sure you can find this type of icon somewhere around the Internet.

For the organization, you could have one ledger for Japanese and one for non Japanese. It will depend you specialize. :) ;)

[Kumo]

It's almost the same context as the background color is the same. I don't need the animation to see if it works or not.
I could find that kind of icons but first: where is the fun? Second: they probably won't be the correct size.
For now I don't specialize. I'll organize my list when I have tons of trains, for now it's not really a problem.

I won't do the other trains in the end. If I need to spend time on Tecchan's design, I'd rather work on a tablet/mobile layout that on the trains.

[Kumo]

New post! :-)
Train depot: RBe 2/4 “Red Arrow”, Hobbytrain






mod edit: fixed broken link ;)

[Kumo]

Big update on the design of Tecchan. Maybe you've seen my little announcement on Facebook.

On first sight, nothing changed but the design now fits perfectly on any device. If you visit Tecchan from a computer or a mobile device (I know some of you own an iPad) you will be served the design that fits your screen the best.
this technique is called responsive web design and this the future of the web! :-)



The full article: http://tecchan.loriskumo.com/2011/10/tecchan-is-becoming-responsive/

I hope you will enjoy it.

[Martijn Meerts]

The only problem, especially in the case of tablets, is that people might want to see the regular site, and not some special (often heavily feature limited) version specifically for the device.

There's many discussions going with pros and cons of automatically showing a "mobile" version of a site. Personally I'm still leaning towards giving the user the choice rather than auto-redirecting. I got really annoyed when I visit a site on my iPad, expect the regular version, get some limited iPad version and have no way to switch to the regular version ...

[Kumo]

The only problem, especially in the case of tablets, is that people might want to see the regular site, and not some special (often heavily feature limited) version specifically for the device.

There's many discussions going with pros and cons of automatically showing a "mobile" version of a site. Personally I'm still leaning towards giving the user the choice rather than auto-redirecting. I got really annoyed when I visit a site on my iPad, expect the regular version, get some limited iPad version and have no way to switch to the regular version ...

That's the beauty of responsive web design. We don't offer a mobile or a feature limited version: it's the same site with navigation, layout an size optimized to any device.
The only things I removed from the small version are the search box (no one uses it anyway... I decided to see later how to display it) and the share buttons for G+ Twitter and Facebook because they can really slow the site and speed is important on mobile.

I also get annoyed by mobile websites sometimes so I get your point. But I'm annoyed even more when the site is not usable on a mobile device.
Don't worry the site remains the same, it's just the way to display it that changed! ;-)

[Bernard]

Kumo - I enjoyed reading your review of the red arrow, you really gave a full breakdown on the pros & cons of the model. Thanks.

New post! :-)
Train depot: RBe 2/4 “Red Arrow”, Hobbytrain






mod edit: fixed broken link ;)

[Kumo]

Kumo - I enjoyed reading your review of the red arrow, you really gave a full breakdown on the pros & cons of the model. Thanks.

New post! :-)
Train depot: RBe 2/4 “Red Arrow”, Hobbytrain



Thanks Bernard!
Actually, I really like making those reviews of my trains. I have 2 more sets to do and I'll soon receive my N700-8000. It's a nice way for me to store my thoughts on my trains and I figure it might also help/inform people who want to get the same models.



mod edit: fixed broken link ;)

[Kumo]

Sunday wallpaper!



Get a cool Skyliner wallpaper for your computer, iPhone or iPad on Tecchan!

[Kumo]

I went to Trans Expo in Geneva Airport shopping mall this weekend.
I'll make a post on my blog (I made videos, I just wanted to make a movie with it) but I already posted pictures on my Facebook page:



http://cl.ly/0E1d1p0G173L2A2R3h3L

They had an amazing O gauge layout. Man, those trains are BIG!

If you're on Facebook please "like" Tecchan! :-)

[Martijn Meerts]

0 gauge is a lovely scale actually. Big enough to get amazing details, yet not so big that a small point-to-point/shunting layout is impossible.

I have the Lenz 0-gauge starter set and their v100 loco. Very affordable stuff, not much more expensive than the average Marklin H0 loco. Running characteristics are amazing, as are (most) of the sounds.

[Kumo]

Here I posted my article on Trans-Expo: http://tecchan.loriskumo.com/2011/12/trans-expo-2011/

New stuff: I made a video this time, it was the perfect occasion to try the video on the iPhone 4S! :-)
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/HI6AOvJWHrA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/HI6AOvJWHrA</a>

[Shashinka]

I'm still waiting for the 2/1 scale, which is twice the size of the prototype.

[Kumo]

I'm still waiting for the 2/1 scale, which is twice the size of the prototype.

It's called mountain railways! ;-)

[Kumo]

I updated Teccahn timeline picture. Do you like it?


http://www.facebook.com/tecchan.likes.trains

I'm also working on two new posts for the blog but as I just started a new job, I haven't much time left. I received a lot of new trains between Christmas and now and I'd really like to make the train depot posts. And, finally, I was able to work a bit on my tram layout...

So many things to do, so little time to do it...