(I’m a databases person though, and used to work on Spanner, so I’m gonna be biased :P )

Tbh I might be biased, but I think Spanner is possibly more impressive with what it achieves.

Not that S3 isn’t awesome, just that “serializable transactions at scale” is something else.

On the festival front, for example:

Sanja Matsuri is fun, but big/touristy.

But the Azabu-juban Noryo Matsuri was a neighborhood festival that was fun to attend (if very hot in August).

Other local or specific events are similarly fun, but I feel like you gotta feel out what’s happening that week

It was also just cool.

I’ve got a bunch of bar recs for Tokyo since I spent two weeks there in Aug/Sept, but like, no idea if that’s your thing and listing them out would be a lot of replies.

More on the touristy end of the spectrum, but Immersive Fort Tokyo was fun and a lot like Sleep No More lite.

Gotta be comfortable with Japanese or not understanding anything said—it felt touristy, but w/non-speakers as an afterthought.

Well, and if you drink, for the bar thing. Works with some restaurants, too, esp smaller ones.

You do need to know at least some conversational Japanese to really make it work most places, though.

I’ve really enjoyed finding a festival or weekend event and going to that — they tend to be much less touristy and as long as you’re comfortable navigating crowds, a lot of fun.

Another nice thing is getting to know a local bar or two near where you’re staying, if you know some Japanese.

Posting French philosophy at you (friendly) vs posting French philosophy at you (threatening) seems to depend heavily on what part of the last 200 years you decide to pick :P

Tech press covering AI: Hold my beer

I think the point was that many dealerships that do sales and loans have incentives to push you to take a loan (over a cash purchase). Which has little to do with if selling cars is a good career (except that, idk, maybe you feel sorry for them and take a loan?).

on the flip side, now every time you see a straight person wearing jorts or beige you are legally obligated to tell them how much you like their corporate pride merch

I am very happy these are blobs, but I cannot help but see them and think "Eggplant!"

Which is not to say they are not pretty. A bisexual eggplant sounds entertaining. And there's probably a whole dictionary of puns to go mine in there. :P