It hung around for close to two hours while commuters, shoppers, news crews and a posse of net-wielding cops showed up, before finally deciding to make a break for it.  Police never did catch the cheeky monkey, and its current whereabouts are unknown.

Apparently this is the third incident of a monkey getting into a train station in Tokyo in the last few weeks.

In tribute, I ran a Google search on PR#6 to see what turned up. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, PR#6 was the command that kicked off the bootloader code for slot 6, the drive controller. The search turned up two relevant links: an Apple TechTip on a simple copy-protection scheme, and a fantastic blog entry that covers a bit about the Apple ][’s boot process, which brings back a lot of memories of old Shugart drives, including the terrifying sound of a track 0 seek – a process wherein the drive head was moved across the disk very quickly until it physically couldn’t go any further, resulting in a loud alarm-like buzz from the drive when it hit the limit of its reach.

Anyway, in celebration of the Apple ][’s 30th birthday, I recommend grabbing your nearest emulator, and banging in a call -151 for old time’s sake.

While NewsGator’s implementation was lacking, I really did like the idea of dropping the desktop app altogether and going with a fully online solution, so I started exploring other options. The obvious free alternative is Google Reader, and I have to say, I’m impressed. While the presentation isn’t as customizable as NetNewsWire, the functionality that I use is all there, and in fact, it has some extra search features that I miss on the desktop.

It was only when I launched NetNewsWire today and saw 290 unread items, that it hit me I hadn’t used it in almost a month. So while I look forward to
NetNewsWire 3, I’m sticking to Google Reader for the time being.

I also discovered that my prime news reading hours are apparently 6:30am to 7:30am and 9pm to 11pm, with a strange local maximum straggling out around 12:30am. I’d be curious to compare this to before I had a baby that woke me up around that time.

Update (2007-06-06): NetNewsWire 3.0 is now out.

• 3G download speeds of 50 Mb/s
• Two-way video-phone
• Built-in fingerprint scanner (for security checks)
• MP3 player and download service
• Edy BitWallet (like Interac, except you swipe your finger on the phone’s scanner to accept the transaction)
• Can be used as a Suica train pass
• Can buy movie tickets and scan in at the theatre, bypassing the lineup
• Can wave it at vending machines for food and drinks
• Will figure out train routes, transfer locations and times, and ticket prices
• Can scan barcodes which take you to websites – eg. scan at the bus station to pull up the schedule or scan a magazine to order a product
• MP3 player and download service
• Decent email (+ attachments), SMS, calendaring, notepad
• Automatic location triangulation (by determining which antennae are nearby) and location-aware mapping, shopping/restaurant listings
• Interactive mapping of current location with zooming and scrolling
• Integrated graphical web-browser
• Built-in TV tuner
• 1 megapixel Camera, Video camera
• Display/graph your phone usage to the day
• Can write and deploy your own Java/C/C++ applets

If you go for a high-end phone with more than the above, you’ll need to pay more than one yen, but the price range is normally below ¥20,000 ($200 Canadian). In its current state, the iPhone won’t sell in Japan even if it’s free; Apple is going to have to do some major work if it wants to compete with even the bare-bones models on the market in Japan.

But it turns out this is not the case: an article in Metropolis unveils the answer to The Big Tokyo Trash Mystery.

Le critique de film américain Leonard Malthin a dit que ce n’était qu’après avoir vu ce film qu’il à compris à quel point le hockey est important aux Canadiens. Pourtant, il y a ceux qui disent que cette histoire est aussi bien une allégorie des tensions linguistiques et culturelles au Québec et au Canada.

Eh bien, comme résolution je me suis décidé de bloguer en français aussi bien qu’en anglais cette année. Le fréquence avec lequel j’écris en n’importe quelle langue me donne espoir d’être capable de le tenir. Et pourquoi le français? Bon, Il fait maintenant plus qu’une décénie depuis ma libération de l’école secondaire et le début de ma condamnation à sept ans d’éducation en astronomie et en ingénieurie à l’Université de Victoria. Pendent ce temps, mon français se trouve rélégué dans un coin, négligé à l’excéption de quelques cours de litérature canadienne et, de temps en temps, un roman de Jacques Poulin ou de Gabrielle Roy.

Alors là, après une panne de 12 ans je m’engage cette année à remettre en marche mon français ; attachez vos tuques !

So it was with some trepidation that I went to see Dr. Nakasawa yesterday afternoon at 3 o’clock. I stepped into the office, swapped my shoes for slippers, filled out some forms, and took a seat in the waiting room, attempting to pass the time by reading ads in Japanese for Sonicare toothbrushes.

Eventually, I heard the receptionist call out “Bracken-san!” The door swung open, and I was escorted to a chair and told to have a seat and wait for a few moments with nothing to do except stare at the assortment of torture instruments laid out on the table in front of me.

Now, in Canada, this is the point where the hygenist comes in, cleans your teeth, and tells you what a poor job you’ve done of brushing your teeth over the last six months, asks you whether you’ve actually bothered to floss once since the last time you came, then takes off and the dentist comes in and pokes around. In Japan, it goes only slightly differently. The dentist comes straight in, cleans your teeth, tells you what a poor job you’ve done of brushing your teeth, and asks you whether you’ve actually bothered to floss once since you last came in, then starts poking around. Normally, that is.

Chotto akete kudasai. I opened my mouth. Dr. Nakasawa looked around for a moment, poking at things with his tools, then paused.

Kono chiryou wa Nihon de moraimashita?

“No, actually. I got all my fillings in Canada.”

Another pause. Aah, Canada-jin desu ka? Furansu-go hanashimasu ka?

“I speak both; school was in French until I graduated, then university was in English; but I grew up in English Canada.”

Daigakusei no jidai, Eigo o benyou shimashita kedo, mou hotondo wasurete-shimaimashita.

“That’s ok, I’ll try my best in Japanese.”

Dr. Nakasawa takes another glance in my mouth, does a bit more poking and says to the hygenist “Number 14 looks like an A. 18 looks like a B. 31… is A-ish.” Dr. Nakasawa sits back in his chair. Another pause.

“These fillings… the grey ones,” he says, “how long ago did you get these?”

“I don’t know, maybe when I was in middle-school. A long time ago. I haven’t had a filling in years.”

“Yes, they’re really old. This one here looks like it’s chipped away on the edge and the tooth underneath has a little bit of discoloration that may well be a cavity. We don’t really do this style of filling in Japan anymore, but what I’d suggest — it’s up to you — is that we remove these, check for cavities underneath, do any cleanup you need, then replace them with modern fillings.”

“Interestingly, the last dentist I talked to recommended replacing a bunch as well, so sure… sounds good. Let’s do this thing.”

“Ok, but this one in particular, I’m really worried about so we should start with this.”

“Sounds good.”

“Would you like to book a time next week, or if you have time, I could do it today?”

“I’ve got no plans for the rest of the day, let’s just get it over with.”

“Alright. Masui wa dou? Hitsuyou desu ka?”

Now here, I want to remind you that although I can get by in day-to-day life and carry on a conversation in Japanese, one of the unequivocal facts of gaijin life is that there are some words you simply don’t know, and to keep the flow of conversation going, you skip it and pick up the general idea from context. So when someone says to you “What about masui? Do you need it?” in a tone that suggests that really, you don’t, your instinct tends to be to say “no, no.”

One of the wonderful things about living in another country is that occasionally you get to experience something that under no circumstances would you ever get to experience in your native country. These experiences often upend long-held, fundamental beliefs you’d never even think to question. Occasionally though, these experiences simply reinforce those beliefs.

I am going to tell you right now, getting your tooth drilled with no anaesthetic hurts about as much as you’d imagined.

What I had just said, and what was about to transpire became crystal clear when Dr. Nakasawa picked up the drill, looked me in the eyes and said “Open wide, and put your hand up if you can’t handle the pain.” I swear I could have detected just a hint of a smile when he said that. But I didn’t have long to think about it because it was it was at this point that I began focussing my entire being on keeping my hand down.

I walked out of the office that day with a shiny new hole in my tooth and a temporary filling while they create the permanent one. And I managed to do it without raising my hand, but I swear I almost ripped that armrest off the chair.