w00kie's ramblings

my head

Hi 👋, I’m François

I’m a French engineer who moved to Japan after my studies and will soon hit half of my life spent in Tokyo.

  • Otaku rush on the new Fukutoshin

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    Last Saturday morning I was leaving a party at 5 A.M. in Shibuya and decided it would be nice to come back home to Shiki with the new Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin line which was opening the very day and interfaces with my usual Tobu Tojo line for an almost direct trip to and from Shibuya…

  • iPhone will be mine on July 11th

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    I missed the Keynote because I’m sick like a dog (went rafting/canyoning this weekend in a 7ºC mountain river) and couldn’t bear to stay up until 3 A.M., but today I’m telling my boss I’m taking a day off on July 11th. Update: link to the official Softbank press release.

  • WWDC Keynote

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    Tonight (at least in Japanese time) is Steve Job’s WWDC Keynote. It is widely accepted that he will be announcing the new 3G enabled iPhone and I am secretly hoping he will give us a release date for Japan live from the Moscone West. These past weeks, I’ve been developing a live-blogging system for my…

  • iPhone on Softbank

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    やった！ 「iPhone」について 2008年6月4日 – ソフトバンクモバイル株式会社 この度、ソフトバンクモバイル株式会社は、今年中に日本国内において「iPhone」を発売することにつきまして、アップル社と契約を締結したことを発表いたします。 SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple® to bring the iPhone™ to Japan later this year. Why am I so happy? Because my corporate phone is a Softbank, so I should legally be able to change my crappy Sharp phone whose battery cannot hold…

  • Contact Juggling

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    Found this video on Digg, looks like Yoyogi Park. This guy is a million times more impressive than all those stupid jugglers and beanbag fanatics you find in such parks. Yes, there’s only one crowd I despise more than beanbaggers, it’s the drum players. That’s probably the main reason why I never hang out at…

  • Airport Aerobic

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    Taken from the Korean Air lounge at Narita Airport on my way to Thailand earlier this month.

  • Let’s leave 20 teeth at age 80!

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    More cool Dental Health info from my Japanese health insurance society. Coming back from Golden Week vacation, I find the following letter on my desk at work: Information for Dental Checkup and Treatment: Announcing the “Let’s leave 20 teeth at age 80” campaign Aren’t your decayed teeth or pyorrhea getting worse while you are unaware…

  • Welcome to my crib!

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    I’m not sure if they have Cribs on MTV Japan, but this guy would have a spot on the show for sure. From left to right: a Maserati Quattroporte, a Lamborghini Gallardo and an unknown Ferrari… More pics here and here.

  • ctype_digit error in WordPress 2.5

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    I’ve upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.5 last weekend. The new design of the admin backend is great and seeing things evolve like that really motivates me to pour more time into my blog and add some nice little functionalities that I’ve been thinking about lately. But it happens that I came upon an error…

  • Sharing user not for share

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    Mac OS X 10.5 is driving me crazy! I’m trying to open an FTP access to my machine for sharing some files with a friend. Obviously I turn to the newly renovated file sharing tab, activate it and open FTP sharing. A new feature of Leopard is a new “Sharing Only” user profile that lets…

  • Hanami 2008

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    3rd year in Japan and each year I was on a busines trip somewhere for early April: the time of the 花見 parties. This time I was home and got to drink myself silly on a tarp under the cherry blossoms. On the border of the 目黒川, I got to take some nice photos with…

  • PikaPika stop-motion genius

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    Today, while reading Candyland, Remka’s blog about graphic design in Tokyo (careful, it’s in French), I was introduced to the absolute best stop-motion video I’ve ever seen. It will melt your face with awesomeness: Check out their website for more of the same and even a making-of.

  • Hiroshima-ben senbei

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    2 weeks ago I went to Hiroshima for the weekend with my girlfriend. We had dinner (and innumerable drinks) with a friend of hers on Saturday night in the 本通 area at what must be the restaurant with the most perfect レバー焼き鳥 I’ve ever tasted. Anyways, I received as omiyage the following which made me…

  • Meeting shenanigans

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    Just a random conversation during one of my team’s daily meetings at work: Colleague: We have a problem with the *censored* server. Boss: Where is that server located? Colleague: It’s in the Intellectual Property room, on the 2nd floor of the Reliability building. Me: Yeah, you know that place? It’s right next to the office…

  • Deep Purple on the shamisen

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    Shamelessly stolen from Japan Probe, but it’s too mind-blowing not to spread the word about it.