Almost 1000km from the main forest fires, and Toronto's skies look like this today:

Homemade waffles for breakfast this morning. But in my imagination, I keep hearing, "wokka wokka wokka wokka wokka..."

I had to reboot one of my Windows computers just now. What an interesting way to say, "I don't like the fact that you chose a different default browser, so I'm going to forcefully override because I wrote the bleeding Operating System."

I'm looking into the differences between TRS-80 Model 1 500 baud tape format and the TC-8 high-speed format. Several differences: 1) Mod1 is level-triggered, but TC-8 is zero-crossing 2) Mod1 is pulses, but TC-8 is sine wave So it's clear why TC-8 is more reliable.

Transistors and integrated circuits used to have some pretty interesting package types. These are pretty close to 50 years old, so most people here probably haven't seen them before.

TRS-80 Model 1 tape (500 baud) had lots of systems for faster read/write. I've previously spoken about TC-8 (hardware). There were also B-17 (1700 baud) and KWICOS (2x to 6x) software-based systems. I have the instructions for KWICOS, but I don't think I have them for B-17. ☹️

Home automation, 1970's style:

Today, "excavating" again in my childhood home. Found my first calculator - probably around 1973-ish. I had no idea that it was so expensive ! (That's over $120 Canadian in 2026 dollars !) Plus, a few other calculators from that era.

And there was another fast cassette system back in those days, which was software-only (and ran at roughly 1700 baud), "B-17". I found those cassettes too.

I also found the tape with the "FASTED" patches for Editor/Assembler to use the TC-8 system for save/load, so I will try to get some more updates to the TC-8 repository in the next few days.

Found a bunch of TRS-80 cassette software from 45 years ago. (These are all games).

Fresh-baked lemon-blueberry muffins... mmm.

How many people remember when integrated circuits sometimes came in these “can” packages ? (Pictured: 741 op-amp)

Refreshment time at the Latch-up conference. Some interesting talks and several interesting new tools and features for FPGA and ASIC design.

After visiting Kitakyushu's Manga Museum, I sought out Galaxy Express 999 which I watched (only partially) over 35 years ago. The original 1978 movie with a deep story, colourful characters, and emotional scenes, left much more of an impression than I expected.

This arrived today. When I pre-ordered it, I thought it was a bit expensive... but probably a very small number of copies, and probably some interesting writing. I was surprised at the thickness of the magazine, and how many extras there were. Now I think I need a X68000...

So, first up, I got a cable. Standard TRS (tip/ring/sleeve), and I assumed the sleeve was for ground, and ring/tip swapped so outbound signalling wouldn't conflict. This is NOT the case; wiring is: sleeve->sleeve ring->ring tip->tip ...So something else is going on...

Starbucks Japan is an entirely different place than North America. I quite enjoy it.

Wrapping up the trip and heading home in a few hours. I can’t believe after all these years I had never tried a proper Ichigo Daifuku. They’re delicious !

Coolish of the day (yesterday). Concentrated mikan (orange). First mouthful seemed artificial, but after that it was pretty strong orange flavour. Not really like a Creamsicle, since the ice cream flavour was overpowered. Still, good and refreshing.

Kitakyushu (Kokura station area) also has some nice manhole covers, including a whole series from Matsumoto Leiji’s works:

Today’s donut is from the Pompadour bakery in the basement of Izutsuya department store in Kitakyushu. Cinnamon sugar flavou, which is essentially extinct in Toronto now (I miss it). Surprisingly fresh donut, even though I bought it after lunch !

Coolish of the day. Plant-based milk vanilla. Pretty good, with a mild difference something like soy milk and/or almond milk. I wouldn’t have guessed it was plant-based if I didn’t know from the packaging.

Well, two of the varieties are still corn flakes - frosted and mild chocolate - but yeah, I didn’t see any odd limited-time flavours.

Coolish of the day. Strong vanilla. Pretty good, but I really don’t notice it being much different from original vanilla.

Hmmm, might these be related ? As seen in a supermarket beneath Kokura station today…

A few more manhole covers before I leave Okayama:

Japan has an astounding array of citrus which really can’t be found anywhere else. Between cultivars, variants, and specific farms, there must be hundreds, in season now. I really suggest trying out a few if you can. The below are all orange-like:

Coolish of the day. Strong Belgian chocolate. Not my favourite, but I’m “Foolish for Coolish”, I guess.