Data Firmware

Conan OBrien on Korean drama One More Happy Ending 한번 더 해피엔딩

In case you missed it, Conan made his cameo appearance on a Korean soap opera drama last night. I was hoping hed be given a part thats a bit more comical, but this show isnt known for its outstanding creativity or anything. But hey hes Conan and his sleazy, oily tone made me laugh, so well done Coco.

Basically, in this scene, Conan plays a potential client for an international arranged dating/marriage service. But when he sees how perfectly beautiful the match-maker is, he starts describing his "ideal woman" as... her. Thus he ends up backing out of the deal, because if he cant have her, hell have no one. As hes walking out, he tells her to have courage: love conquers all.

Ill embed the clips below. You should be able to use the YouTube link if youre outside Korea. Inside Korea, try the Naver TVcast link.





Conan seems to be having a great time in Korea, and Im glad he brought his K-buddy Steven Yeun with him. Theyve been posting a lot of pics of their trip over on the Team Coco Instagram, but this one of them at the DMZ is probably my favorite.

??! ??? ???????. ?? ?????!! #????? #thankyouforyourservice #?????? #????? #??? #ilovekorea #????? #conankorea (Salute! Thank you for the hard work in the freezing cold. Stop falling, snow! #thankyou #realmen #panmunjeom #stupidsnow #dmz)

A photo posted by Conan OBrien (@teamcoco) on Feb 15, 2016 at 8:17pm PST

On a personal note, I enjoy seeing these kind, warm-hearted celebrities having fun over here (or putting on a great show looking like theyre having fun, at least). I thought Jack Black did a great job on Infinite Challenge. Maybe Ive been here too long, a lot of things that used to seem fun and exciting are just routine now. Hey everybody experiences that right? But through their fresh eyes, this dead heart inside me gets a little flutter, remembering things like my own first time in a PC Bang, etc.

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Fix Korean online banking shopping character encoding problems

If you try to use online banking in Korea, or to buy things from online using a Korean debit/credit card, you might sometimes find that the pop-up messages and purchasing windows have some jumbled garbled text that looks like gibberish. Obviously you need to know what to click or what it says. For example, you might see something like this:

Encoding mistake makes the text illegible

Mac users, I dont know. Find something similar in your settings. Just buy a real computer already, geesh.

For some background, if youre seeing that kind of jumbled text, then chances are, you likely have your computers language set to English. In that case, your computer is assuming that any text that doesnt specifically identify what language its in must be English, which of course in this case is wrong. This is why a Korean speaker would likely never encounter this problem: their computer is set to Korean anyway, and is presuming all text is Korean, which of course in this case it is.

This is also usually the problem when a Korean subtitle file doesnt work right in your movie player, showing the same kind of gibberish, but your Korean girlfriends laptop works fine. If thats you, check out my short post on Korean subtitles.

Happy banking.

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Facebooks Korean Top 10 for 2015

Like last year, Facebook has posted their "Year in Review" lists and included lists for the Top 10 Most Popular Topics in Korea, and the Top 10 Most Popular Check-in Locations for Korea.

Ive translated them into English, with a bit of explanation just in case you need it. And you may also be interested in this years top Naver searches for Korea and top Google searches for Korea.

?? ?? - ????
Most Popular Topics - Korea

1. ??
   Big Bang
   The popular K-pop boy group released a new album this year, their third, after a 3 year absence from the K-pop scene, and embarked on an international tour.
2. ???? vs ???? ??
   The Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight
3. 11?13? ?? ??
   11/13 Paris terror attacks
4. ???? ??
   Improvement in Inter-Korean Relations
   Reunions for family members separated by the Korean War were held this year.
5. 2015????????
   2015 Gwangju Universiade
   The 2015 Summer Universiade, an international sports competition for college athletes, was held in the Korean city of Gwangju
6. ???
   MERS
   Korea suffered an outbreak of the virus this year, which took a bite out of tourism. 
7. ? ???? ?? ???
   Paul McCartney Seoul Concert
   The Beatles legend performed for the first time in Korea this year, after having had to cancel his planned tour the year prior
8. ??? ???
   President Park Geun-hye
   Various national issues, including my personal favorite the textbook controversy, made it a rough year for the President, especially after year-end protests.  
9. ????
   Asian Cup
   The 2015 Asian Cup, a regional international football match, was held in Australia and saw the Korean national team finish in second place. 
10. ?? 70??
    Gwangbokjeol (Liberation Day) 70th Anniversary 
    This year marked the 70th Anniversary of Korean liberation from Japanese colonial rule. 

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Download videos from Naver TVcast and other Korean streaming video sites

--- UPDATE - MARCH 2016:
Another site that works is Tube Ripper. I just tried it; worked great, no issues. Thanks to reader +Roms Dungeon at Roms Dungeon for the recommendation.

--- UPDATE - NOV 2015:
Another site that works is http://www.videograbber.net I verified that I was able to download from both Naver TVcast and Naver V. They have both an online downloader tool and an actual program you can download/install on your own computer.

--- UPDATE - SEPT 2015:
Many readers have been asking about how to download videos from Naver V. Please see my newer post here.

--- UPDATE - JULY 2015:
Reader Xiao Long recommends another similar tool, ClipConverter.cc.
I tried it, and can verify that it works well. It may also be even even better than what I recommended below, as you can choose the framerate of the video you want to download. For those of you who demand 1080p, try that instead.

Original post follows below.

---

Naver runs a sort of YouTube competitor called Naver tvcast (??? tv???), and if youve noticed that some of your favorite K-drama shows seem to have been disappearing from YouTube recently, this is likely why.

You also might have noticed that many of the usual video downloader extensions dont work on tvcast. There are some stand-alone apps that apparently can do so, including atresdownloader and Houlo Video Downloader, and the excellent youtube-dl (a nice illustrated guide to using youtube-dl to download Naver TVcast videos is here), but I bet you want something easier and something non-Windows-specific, and that will work on mobile.

Luckily, theres a simple online downloader that will do it for us. Its called "To Get FLV" and works for a variety of Korean streaming video websites. Heres a look at it in action:







Youll arrive at a simple link page like above. Just like it says, right-click on the second link to "Save as..." and youll download the MP4 file. I had to add the .mp4 extension manually when I tried this but otherwise it plays great.


And thats it. This convenient tool apparently works not only with tvcast, but can also download videos from a variety of other Korean sites:

• ??? TVCast (Naver tvcast)
• ??? ??? (Naver Sports)
• ?? ??? (Daum TVpot)
• ???? (Afreeca)
• ???? ??? (Afreeca Sports)
• ?? (mgoon)
• ??? TV (Pandora TV)
• ??? ? (Nate Pann)

I tried a few on the list here, all with success. Id suggest two things to remember:

• If the tool doesnt recognize the video page at first, try using the URL from the Share / Embed / Copy URL feature
• The file may download with a weird extension or no extension. Just manually add .mp4 or .flv where appropriate. 

Happy viewing!

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Facebooks Korean Top 10 of 2014

Real quick here, Facebook put out a Year-in-Review site filled with Top-10 lists, including two focused on Korea. Nothing special or surprising here, which makes me wonder if its been edited or filtered at all, because if I were to compile a Top-10 List for Korea 2014, it would certainly include Kim Yuna but where is any mention of Sewol, especially on a list focused on SNS?

Anyway here they are: supposedly the hottest topics discussed on Facebook in Korea in 2014, and the most checked-into places.

?? ?? - ??

Popular Topics - Korea

1. ???
   Kim Yuna
   (retired this year after a controversial Olympics judging decision)
2. ??????
   Valentines Day
3. ??? ???
   Ebola virus
4. 2014? ?? ???
   2014 Winter Olympics
   (South Korea took 3 golds, almost a fourth)
5. ??
   The Pope
   (The Pope visited Korea this year for Asian Youth Day and presided over a public Catholic mass in downtown Seoul that was attended by huge numbers)
6. ???
   The Super Bowl
7. ???
   Park Ji-sung
8. MTV ??? ?? ???
   MTV Video Music Awards
9. ???
   April Fools Day
10. ??? ??
    Asian Games
    (The Asian Games were hosted by Incheon this year)

?? ?? ??
Popular check-in Places - Korea

1. ????
   Lotte World
2. ????
   Namsan Tower (or "N Seoul Tower")
3. ????
   Everland
4. ??
   Myeong-dong
5. ??
   Hongdae
6. ?????
   Jamsil Baesball Stadium
7. ?????????
   Dongdaemun Design Plaza
   (opened this year)
8. ?????????
   Yeouido Hangang Park
   (site of a popular Fireworks Festival and a well-known Cherry Blossom festival)
9. ???
   Daehangno
10. ???
    Gyeongbokgung

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Amazon now requires 5 digit Korean postal code

Earlier I wrote about the new 5-digit Korean postal code system that came into effect last month two months ago (August 2015). Time flies. Anyway, if you like to order from Amazon, just a heads-up: youre going to need to start using those new codes. Heres an email I got from the zon:

We recently learned that South Korea will change the postal code from six digits to five digits. As a result, we will no longer be able to deliver items to any South Korean shipping addresses with a six digit postal code.
In order to ensure you receive your shipments without delay, youll need to update your shipping addresses to reflect the updated five digit postal code. You can do this by following these steps:
1. Go to Your Account (www.amazon.com/your-account).
2. Click on "Manage Address Book" in the Settings section.
3. Click the "Edit" button to update the affected addresses.
We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or issues updating your addresses, please contact us:

Korean ePost

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Dragnet 1987 Korean subtitles 드라그넷 한글자막

Im a fan of most anything with Dan Aykroyd, so I decided to watch the 1987 film Dragnet with some Korean friends. But my usual source of subtitles only provided the Korean subtitles split apart two files (CD1 and CD2) which wouldnt work on my TV.

So after some hassle, I was able to combine the files into one. I dont know how exactly to submit files to the site, nor do I suspect many people are looking for these. But, in case you are one of those amazing few weirdos looking for Dragnet ????, youve found it.

>>> Dragnet.smi

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Facebook Pokes in Korean

I think Koreans utilize the "Poke" feature of Facebook more than most Westerners do*. The "poke" was always a sort of cute, shy, flirty, ?? sort of feature anyway. But let "Pokes" be a lesson in never quite trusting online translators.

In Korean, a Facebook "poke" is called ? ???, a literal translation of "to be poked", from ??? (to poke, prick, prod, jab) and ? (the sound/feeling/action of a light poke, like ??? Ramen, named for the holes youre meant to poke in the lid).

Heres an example of when someone "pokes" you on Facebook when your language is set to Korean:

ABC?? ???? ???? 5? ? ?????!
(??)
?? ? ????

ABC poked you 5 times in a row!
(just now)
Poke them back

Heres the funny part. If you saw someone on Facebook talking about this, and you didnt know exactly what this meant, and you tried to translate it online, youd see this, and perhaps have a very different idea of what is going on here:


Yes, Google translates ? ????? as "pierced cock". And it gets worse if you try translating the whole chunk at once:

ABC?? ???? ???? 5? ? ?????!
?? ? ????

ABCs This cock was stabbed five times in succession you!
I view stabbing cock

Im not a big fan of stabs in the cock. Google is probably translating ? in one of two ways:

1. the sound itself, spoken "cock/coke" in Korean. Recall this unfortunate instructor. Or
2. cock as in a badminton shuttlecock. I always chuckle when walking through the sporting goods aisle.

So feel free to "poke" your Korean friends with abandon. Just dont get any weird ideas if they respond that they want to ?? your ?.

-----
* The screenshot is from a coworker, who didnt have any "single" poke notifications. He had exchanged pokes with people 5-, 12-, 23-, and 67- times in-a-row. Now thats dedication.

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