Category Archives: Security and Disaster Prevention (防犯・災害対策）

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) April 19, 2020 I’d read that ZOOM, the conferencing app, was pretty cool when it comes to setting up and holding meetings. It’s started to take off here in Japan spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic. I installed it on a Windows 10 PC and then played around with it for a while before deciding to do some research to check out my concerns. I soon learned about “Zoom bombing” (Zoom raiding) where someone intrudes into a video conference call to disrupt it. In the US, hackers have even disrupted government meetings being conducted using the app. Instances of culprits posting hate speech and porn and even that of a pervert exposing himself to elementary school kids taking a class using the app can be found on the Net. The FBI has even issued a […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) January 25, 2020 Kerosene Heater All of the rooms in my house are heated electrically except for my office. I use a kerosene heater for my office and it’s quite convenient. I sometimes use it to slow-cook foods and it can provide heat in the event of a power outage. I recall seeing scenes on TV of people gathered around old-fashioned kerosene heaters after the Great Tohoku Earthquake in 2011 and always think that sometimes older technology is more stable than the electricity-dependent newer forms. 石油ストーブ 我家の事務所以外の部屋には電気の冷暖房が設置されている。事務所には石油ストーブがある。なかなか便利で たまには料理にも使うし、万が一の停電には機能できる。 2011年の東北大地震後、テレビで避難者が暗い部屋に昔式の石油ストーブ周囲に座って暖をとる場面を観た。その時、最新の電気に依存する技術よりもひと昔のアナログ技術が活躍すると思った。 ********** Books published by AELS (AELS出版書籍) 魔女学院＆光塾：魔女ガールズの冒険 原作＆翻訳：ビレー　ハモンド 日本語編集：伊庭野れい子 Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools – English Edition (魔女学院＆光塾（英語） By Billy Hammond 迷える魔女の戦い (魔女学院＆光塾シリーズ第2弾) 原作＆翻訳：ビレー　ハモンド 日本語編集：伊庭野れい子 Lost Witch (Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku Series Book 2) – English Edition (迷える魔女: 魔女学院＆光塾第2弾：英語版） By Billy […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) November 2, 2019 I’ve been teaching kids for over forty years and one of the things that I’ve always surprised at is that kids often don’t know the information they need to allow contact with their parent’s or guardians. I’ve made it a point to teach my students to remember their parent’s phone number, names and place of work over the years. I know it sounds strange, but many children don’t know their home or parent’s phone numbers. In many cases here in Japan, quite a few don’t know the names or the spelling (kanji) of their parent’s (especially the father’s first name). If you have a child or grandchild, you might want to check them out and make sure they can recite the appropriate information. It might make a difference of hours or days […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) Written June 13, 2019 I hooked up the recording device that announces it will record the subsequent conversation to prevent scam calls (and gather evidence by implication) on April 9th and ever since then, I haven’t had to answer even a single call from a telemarketer! On the other hand, there are days when the phone doesn’t ring even once… In the one call that did ring, the telemarketer hung up as soon as I answered – he probably thought the better of having his conversation recorded… I’m impressed with the effectiveness of this device that I wrote about in an earlier blog post. 迷惑・セールス電話ゼロになった！ 今年の4月9日に以前にブログに説明した『LETS振り込め詐欺見張隊117L-FSM-N117』 を電話機・ファックス回線に繋いだ。その後、毎日近く掛かってきていた迷惑・セールス電話はゼロになった。 2ケ月目の現在の時点ではその成果を保っている。その代わり、電話は一本もない日が多くなった！大成功！ *************** English books by Billy Hammond published by AELS (AELS出版英語書籍リスト）   I. Majoh Gakuin and Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools Trilogy 1. Majoh Gakuin & Hikari […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) I installed 4 security cameras a little over a month ago and wrote them up in my  blog. I also installed the Smonet application that works with them on my android smartphone. It’s proved to be quite convenient when I want to check on what’s going on when I’m away from home.   Photo of my smartphone (1 screen is still in infrared mode since the area it’s taking is still dark at this hour) スマホ画面の写真。まだ少し暗いなので防犯カメラの1画面はまだ赤外線モードで映っている。 Photo of 1 of the windows separately. 1画面の写真。 Photo of the main monitor about 10 minutes later. 約10分後のメインモニタの写真。少し明るくなったため赤外線モードから変わっている。 防犯カメラリモート監視 1ケ月ちょっと前に防犯カメラ4台を設置した。それらについてアーカイブブログに書いた。 同時にアンドロイドスマホに防犯カメラのSmonetアプリをインストールした。家から離れて、どうなっているかを調べたいときには大変役立つ。 By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) ************* *************** Books published by AELS (AELS出版書籍) 魔女学院＆光塾：魔女ガールズの冒険 原作＆翻訳：ビレー　ハモンド 日本語編集：伊庭野れい子 Majoh Gakuin & Hikari Juku – Japanese Witch Schools – English Edition (魔女学院＆光塾（英語） By Billy Hammond 迷える魔女の戦い (魔女学院＆光塾シリーズ第2弾) 原作＆翻訳：ビレー　ハモンド 日本語編集：伊庭野れい子 Lost Witch (Majoh […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) I installed a home security cam system. It took six hours to finish the drilling, mounting and connection for three cameras and another two hours to install the fourth one the next day. The two reasons behind it are that home break-ins have been on the rise in my area recently and the fact that my house is part of the “Kodomo 110” system in which children who are being followed or have trouble are free to seek refuge in. Even if I’m not home, once the child sets foot on my property, I’ll have video footage to turn over to the police, not to mention that a child molester will probably stop once he or she is aware that they’re being recorded. I got the camera system from amazon and it cost 40,000 yen […]

By Billy Hammond (Copyright AELS) We have a major problem with telemarketers and scam artists in Japan. In all cases, the calls are bothersome and time-consuming. I finally got fed up with answering those calls and decided to try a recording device that tells the caller that their phone call would be recorded and does the same thereafter if the caller doesn’t hang up.   I chose a device called LETS which is about the size of an e-book reader and installed it between the incoming phone line and my phone/fax machine. It cost about $105.00 US and was really simple to hook up.   And guess what? I haven’t gotten a single bothersome call in the more than two weeks since I set it up! I guess those people don’t want to have their voices recorded… 迷惑電話・セールス電話・振込詐欺電話対策   今年、『いらん、つまらない』電話が一気に増えた。「宝石、着物はありませんか？」、「NTT社の～社です…」、「電気代の調査…」等々！！迷惑の上、対応に時間が掛かるので頭にきていた。 […]