Sunday March 16, 2008

ANIME TODAY Interviews Actor, Director & Writer Monica Rial

Right Stuf, Inc. is pleased to welcome actor, writer and director Monica Rial – who can currently be heard as “Sakura” in Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, “Misuzu” in Air TV and “Lala Gonzales” in School Rumble – to episode 62 of ANIME TODAY.

In this new, three-part interview, Rial – who has acted in more than 150 shows to date – discusses her introduction to the anime industry, her work as a columnist for NEWTYPE USA and as a ADR script adapter, how her foray into directing has brought a new perspective to acting, and her views on the current state of the anime industry.

Also in Episode 62:

• Chad tells listeners "What's Hot" in the world of anime.
• Shawne reminds fans about the “Neon Genesis of Savings” to be found on ADV Films products and shares details about Right Stuf and Nozomi Entertainment’s recently unveiled license and upcoming DVD release of Maria Watches Over Us (Maria-sama ga Miteru).
• Tuan Pham previews Anime Boston 2008, which takes place on the weekend of March 21-23 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Kris and Judy discuss unusual Japanese ice cream flavors in the “Anime and Gamers’ Guide.”
• Marie checks out the manga Honey and Clover by Chica Umino.
• Rich and Nick provide a rundown of upcoming conventions, courtesy of AnimeCons.com.
• Judy-sensei has a “sweet” lesson plan in store for this episode’s installment of Japanese 101.
• Rich and Nick remind listeners about the contest for Dragon Ball Z video games on several game platforms.
• Listen to musical clips from the recent JapanFiles.com release, Slumber by LiN Clover.
• And finally, ANIME TODAY highlights some of the newest fan reviews from RightStuf.com visitors.

Ready to listen in? Download episode 62 now!

Meet other ANIME TODAY listeners, submit your suggestions for future episodes and more at the official ANIME TODAY forums at AnimeOnDVD.com.

Just joining in? Learn how to subscribe or even check out the Anime Today Archive episodes!

Friday January 18, 2008

ANIME TODAY Looks Forward to 2008 With Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network and Protoculture Addicts

Right Stuf, Inc. is pleased to welcome Zac Bertschy – executive editor of Anime News Network (AnimeNewsNetwork.com) and managing editor of Protoculture Addicts – to episode 58 of ANIME TODAY.

In this new interview, Bertschy takes a look back at the successes and surprises of 2007, experiments in packaging and distribution, the differences between what series are popular with Japanese and Western fans,  and the issues and challenges facing the North American anime industry in 2008.

Also in Episode 58:

• Chad tells listeners "What's Hot" in the world of anime.
• Shawne reminds fans about the final days of Right Stuf’s “Savings That Rule” on books and DVDs from Viz Media.
• Judy-sensei returns with a new Japanese 101 lesson about weather-related phrases.
• Marie recommends the manga With the Light, one of the inaugural releases from Yen Press.
• Rich and Nick remind listeners about the Viz Pictures contest for a Love*Com gift pack and kick off a new contest that celebrates the new TV season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Rich and Nick provide a rundown of upcoming conventions, courtesy of AnimeCons.com.
• And finally, ANIME TODAY highlights some of the newest fan reviews from RightStuf.com visitors.

Ready to listen in? Download episode 58 now!

Meet other ANIME TODAY listeners, submit your suggestions for future episodes and more at the official ANIME TODAY forums at AnimeOnDVD.com.

Just joining in? Learn how to subscribe or even check out the Anime Today Archive episodes!

Sunday January 06, 2008

Struts Sprout - Annotation-Powered Simplicity for Struts

Some time ago, I was looking for a way to simplify the build process for a Java application I've been working on for quite some time. It started out using XDoclet 1.2 to generate the EJB and Struts configuration files. As the years have gone by, that version of XDoclet hasn't aged very well, and even the improvements made in Java 5 proved problematic for it. Eventually, some folks released an updated xjavadoc for use with it, but it never worked quite correctly (support for some syntax changes were incomplete).

Some time ago, I made the changes needed to move to EJB 3, and eliminated XDoclet from that portion of the build, but I was still using it to generate the struts-config.xml. I always meant to do something about that, but ended up just dragging my feet on it. I'd stumbled across Sprout a long time ago, it seemed interesting, but I never did anything with it at the time.

Finally, in December of last year, XDoclet had annoyed me enough so I went back to looking at Sprout. Its support for configuring Struts wasn't complete enough to cover what I needed it to be able to do so I dropped the author, Seth Fitzsimmons a note asking if he'd done anything with Sprout beyond the version posted to his web site. Unfortunately here's what I received back: "I haven't touched Sprout (or Struts, for that matter) for about 3 years now, but it's been waiting all that time for someone like you to find it useful. You're welcome to either continue to use my svn repo as you change things or move it elsewhere."

So we chatted a bit by email, and I decided to set it up as a Google Code project: Struts Sprout and add the features to it that I needed. Finally, today, I got around to adding some of the code that I wrote back in December to the public site. Once I have a chance to make the classpath scanning a little more robust, and write some examples using the new annotations, I'll post a download with a new version number, but until that time, at least the changes are available in Subversion.