October 2006 - Posts
Tomorrow is November, and you know what that means - game console launches! Both Nintendo and Sony will be releasing their latest offerings this month, so don't be surprised if you hear a lot about it over the next few weeks. Hopefully though, the coverage is more accurate and credible than GameDaily's latest. Author James Brightman outlines five reasons that Sony will win the "Next Gen Console War". Here are his reasons, with my comments underneath each one:
1. The Brand
Brightman is right, a "strong brand should not be underestimated." However, the problem with this argument (that Sony will win because it has a strong brand) is that nothing lasts forever! Indeed, Brightman states, "in the late '80s and early '90s Nintendo was king, but on today's market there is no brand more synonymous with the world of video games than PlayStation." Too bad he couldn't read his own sentence and realize that what happened to Nintendo could happen to Sony too.
2. Microsoft (somewhat) Squandered its Lead
Nice to the see conviction in his argument - "somewhat" hey? Microsoft's goal is to sell 10 million consoles by the end of 2006. They are definitely behind at the moment. But let's see how the holiday season shakes out, shall we?
3. Japan is Ripe for the Taking
Japan has never been a strong market for Microsoft. The first Xbox did horribly there, and I don't think MS execs were expecting to do that much better with the Xbox 360. Not that it matters - Sony cannot "win" by simply selling more in Japan. Once again, Brightman neglects to read his own writing: "let's not forget that this is a global market."
4. Blu-ray Will Matter
If there's one good thing about Brightman and his article, it's that he makes tearing it apart really easy. He writes, "sure some of this is hype, and maybe we're falling for it..." You better believe it is hype. Anything related to Blu-ray or HD-DVD at this point is hype.
"In one to two years, we think the combination of the Blu-ray medium and the Cell processor will lead to a noticeable difference between the visuals of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, as developers begin to really harness the technology in the PS3."
Seems to me that Brightman isn't a very technical person. Developing for the Xbox 360 in such a way that you can extract every ounce of performance is hard. It requires a shift in the way developers think and work (because of multiple cores, etc). There aren't any 360 games that really do this yet. So, to say that in a one or two years the Cell processor and Blu-ray will lead to a noticeable difference is ridiculous. First of all, 360 games are going to get better. More importantly though, developing for the PS3 is even more complex than for the Xbox 360, so I would expect it to take much more time before we see the best possible visuals.
5. Free Online
This is the one argument I somewhat agree with. Completely free, full online access for PS3 gamers is a big deal. We all know Microsoft has deep pockets however, so if they wanted to make Xbox Live Gold free, they certainly could. I think they'll wait though, to see what the PS3 online service is like. People will pay for quality.
A few more things
There's a ton of other problems with this article. For one, what about Nintendo? Brightman compares Sony almost exclusively to Microsoft. The Wii might not have fancy graphics, but I'd argue it belongs in the "next gen" classification. The PS3 is going to have to beat the Wii too. For another thing, there's no mention of the cost. The PS3 is really expensive, both in comparison to previous consoles, and to its competitors. Brand allegiance is important, but it often falls apart in the case of extremely high prices. Another thing - the Playstation doesn't have the huge list of exclusive titles that previous versions did. Lots of games are now available for multiple consoles. I could go on.
It's really easy to make predictions about how the consoles will fare against one another. It is much harder to make accurate predictions. That said, its pretty simple to come up with something better than this GameDaily article.
Over the last few days word has spread that Comedy Central asked YouTube to remove clips of the Colbert Report and the Daily Show, under terms of the DMCA. When I first heard about it, I was really disappointed in Comedy Central. It seems they only decided to make a fuss now that Google owns YouTube. I thought they were really shortsighted, and indeed stupid, for ignoring the fact that YouTube is a huge buzz machine for its shows.
Today however, Jeff Jarvis is reporting that they didn't ask YouTube to remove all clips, just some of them. Further investigation shows that only clips longer than 5 minutes have been removed.
I think it is really in Comedy Central's best interests to allow clips to appear on YouTube. Not entire episodes certainly, but short clips. Even if they don't make any money from the clips immediately, it would be a good experiment. You'll never understand how to take advantage of the fast changing media distribution landscape until you try something new.
Make sure you've got your 360 turned on tomorrow fellow Xboxers, because there's a big update on the way. Here are some of the most interesting new features (via Engadget):
- Xbox 360™ HD DVD Player support.
- Set up automatic downloads of newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games. (I am such an Arcade junkie...)
- Support for upcoming release of XNA Game Studio Express. (w00t for developers!)
- Stream music, pictures and video from a Zune device.
There's a ton of other stuff coming too. Check out the full list of features here. The update will be available starting tomorrow morning.
Did you remember to switch your clocks back an hour? Daylight savings time has ended! What's with all the snow?! Here are my weekly notes:
- I really love Twitter. For the longest time I had planned to create a "notes" blog - a place where I could post random thoughts and stuff. Turns out Twitter does just about everything I need! On the right side of my blog you can see my latest "note", and I can update it from the web, via instant messenger, or using my phone. It's great!
- Do you use "the google"? President Bush does.
- I'm looking forward to Wednesday evening. Dickson and I are presenting in the VenturePrize seminar series. Should be fun!
- Smart rabbits. Who knew?
- I find it very unlikely, but it looks there just might be a resurgence in mainframe use.
- Thanks Megan for the ticket to the Oiler game last night. Too bad Alex the Great didn't score, but I'm happy Roli got the shutout!
- Time recently had a very interesting America By The Numbers cover story. I think it is their first cover story made up primarily of graphics. Some fascinating stats.
- Four midterms down, one to go! Plus a paper. I can't wait for the term to end.
Favorite songs at the moment:
"So Excited" by Janet Jackson featuring Khia
"Come to Me" by P Diddy featuring Nicole Scherzinger
Google made an interesting post to their official blog yesterday, titled Do you "Google?" which aside from being extremely calculated and condescending, slightly mocks Yahoo (you know, do you Yahoo?). The post explains that you can't use "google" and "search" interchangeably, because they don't want to become genericized like so many other names have (elevator, zipper, etc).
Needless to say, the post sucks. I can't say it any better than Ben Metcalfe:
But in the end, regardless of whether it's positive, harmful or somewhat in between for Google, I for one don't like to be told how to use the English language.
We own our language. So Google, you can go shove your lexicographical 'advice' up your ass.
Seriously, go read Ben's entire post. He does an awesome job of deconstructing the Google post. The Yahoo search team have posted their own comments too.
I understand the need to try and protect your trademarks and other intellectual property, but I am not sure going after the public like this is a good idea. Google should stick to going after organizations and publications which abuse their trademarks. You need to prove that you've made every effort to protect your trademark, but going after individuals is never a good idea. Just ask the RIAA.
If "google" turns out to be a generic term in the end, so be it.
I had a chance to install the latest release of Firefox this morning, and I have to admit, it's pretty sharp looking! The user interface and default theme have both been updated with a fresh, clean look. Here are my favorite new features:
- The updated user interface of course!
- The close button for tabs is now on the tab itself, like IE7 and Opera.
- Session Restore - replaces one of my favorite extensions.
- The new add-ons manager is easier to use than the old extensions box.
- You can reorder tabs now!
- It's not really a feature, but so far it appears Firefox is using way less memory than it used to.
The obvious question when you install a new browser is - how does it compare to the other browsers? Well, Firefox 2 appears to be a good improvement over Firefox 1.5, that much is clear. Compared to IE7 and Opera 9? They are all so similar now, it is becoming increasingly difficult to say one is better than the other. The installer for Firefox is definitely the best, though I have read some reports of errors when trying to uninstall.
As I mentioned a while ago, I have switched back to IE7 as my main browser, but I've always got the three (don't forget Opera!) installed. If you're a Firefox user, you should definitely upgrade to 2.0!
Bet you didn't know: the IE Team at Microsoft sent Firefox guys a cake to celebrate their launch!
There isn't much news on this story yet, except for the official press release from Wizzard Software. Today the company announced that it has agreed to acquire Libsyn, currently the world's largest podcasting network. From Podcasting News:
According to the companies, the acquisition combines the world’s largest and fastest growing podcast network with Wizzard’s expertise in speech technology integration, creating a powerful new service for podcasters worldwide.
Wizzard has been pretty busy lately, snapping up Switchpod back on September 21st and Blast Podcast less than a week later.
So far, there is no word of this deal on the Libsyn blogs or forums. I'm interested to hear their comments, because I think they understood they had to do something. Wizzard gets the top hosting service, and Libsyn gets some financial support to improve their service (and more importantly, quality of service), so it's a good deal for both I think.
Libsyn CEO Dave Chekan seems excited in the press release at least:
"We've had several investment offers in the past and we chose Wizzard due to its expertise in speech technology, its passion for podcasting and its desire to make money for our independent content creators."
Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Yesterday, Evan Williams announced that he has formed a new company called Obvious Corp. which has purchased all of the assets of Odeo Inc. from the other investors and shareholders. Some people are probably surprised at the move, but I'm not. In fact, I saw it coming back in July:
Maybe it's time everyone stopped calling Odeo a podcasting company. I've been critical of Google's apparent lack of focus and direction many times in the past, but they've got nothing on Odeo. I mean here's a company with some very smart people working for them, some substantial venture capital behind them, and yet very little to show for it.
I'd guess the investors are happy to have gotten out without any losses (TechCrunch thinks the buyout price is a little more than $5 million). Odeo is no longer a company by itself. Instead, it is now simply one of perhaps many products in Obvious' new "model for building and running web products."
The new model that Evan describes in his post is vague, but interesting. More importantly, he seems really excited about it, and he's right, "from excitement and bold moves, great things often happen." I wish him the best of luck with Obvious Corp.
So what does this mean for Odeo? A post on the official blog says that they are now "even more focused on giving Odeo the attention it requires." Frankly, it would be difficult to be less focused than they are right now, so I guess that's a good first step. It appears it will be business as usual for Odeo, at least for the foreseeable future. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, they change or add.
As you probably guessed, we're now back in Edmonton. Yesterday went pretty good in terms of our presentation and the networking aspect. We met lots of really interesting people. It'll take some time to see how well it went in terms of funding though. The presentation was really short (only 10 minutes) so the questions that were asked were fairly general. In retrospect, I think it may have been better to present in the morning rather than the afternoon, as the investors would have been more awake and there would have been more time to chat afterward.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency downtown which is in the midst of major renovations. The lobby and common areas look excellent, as do the recently upgraded guest rooms. Especially sweet was the flat screen TV! And I love the lighting design too. It's hard to get the same effect from pictures, but you can try! Here's the photos I took. The dated hallways clearly do not match the rooms, but a little sign by the elevator says that they will be renovated too.
Here are some interesting facts (or maybe not) about the trip:
# of liquids confiscated at security: 1 for me, many for Dickson
Minutes until we missed our departure: less than 10 (we were the second last people to get on...we had to run after the final boarding call)
Total time in Vancouver: ~25 hours, 40 minutes
Number of blocks walked: ~24
Number of "random" security checks: 1 (Dickson was pulled aside again ...it's because he's Chinese...the airport screeners have a very loose definition of "random")
Number of Starbucks coffees I consumed: 2
Number of investors I didn't like: 1 (the only reason I didn't like him is that he sat in my presentation laughing to himself...very disrespectful and rude...you don't have to agree with me, but show some respect!)
Hours of studying accomplished: 0 (but I studied today, I think the midterm went fairly well)
As I mentioned yesterday, Dickson and I are in Vancouver all day tomorrow for the Angel Forum. Our flight leaves tonight at around 7 PM and we're back tomorrow evening close to midnight. Very quick trip indeed.
Now that Northern Voice 2007 has been announced, it looks like this trip will be the first of many to Vancouver over the next few months! Not to be outdone on the other side of Canada, Mesh 2007 has been announced for May in Toronto. Lots of excellent Canadian conferences to attend!
This week is going to be incredibly busy for me! I have two midterms and a trip to Vancouver, among other things.
- Paramagnus has been selected to present at the 20th Angel Forum in Vancouver on Tuesday. There will be over 90 investors in attendance, and we have just 14 minutes for the presentation and questions. It should be interesting!
- Interesting article about Microsoft and the new Computer Architecture Group.
- Leesa Barnes has the best explanation for why the Starbucks podcast failed. She totally nails it.
- It appears Wal-Mart is ready to start selling groceries here in Canada. We're talking fresh produce and everything. Hopefully they show up out west too.
- I didn't really like the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks when it came out, but I think I have warmed up to it now. Of course, as soon as the Xmas drinks come out, I'll stick to those!
Mini-Review: The Departed
I went to see The Departed last night with Megan and Sharon at South Common. While similar to Infernal Affairs, you can't compare the two. Obviously they will be similar as they are based on the same screenplay, but they are made by different directors so they should be different too. I thought "Gangs of New York" was pretty good, but The Departed is far better. Probably Scorsese's best work. The cast was excellent, but especially Leonardo DiCaprio. Maybe a little long at two and half hours, but worth every minute. I highly recommend it!
My sister and I came down to Red Deer last night to visit Tom. He's on the Kings soccer team, so we figured we'd come down to watch his game today. Today is the second last game of the season, and I think it's fair to say that the Kings are looking forward to the end. After placing third in the province last year, they haven't done so well this year! You can see the current standings here.
The game isn't until noon, but I came down to the college with Tom this morning anyway. I figured I'd do a little work so I came to the library which is where I am writing this post. I am connected to their public wireless Internet network, and I have to say, I am really impressed. The speeds are just amazing for a wireless network, and I haven't had any connectivity issues whatsoever. That's far more than I can say about the wireless network at the UofA (granted, it has far more traffic than the one here).
I was so impressed actually, that I ran a speed test at DSL Reports:
When you convert those numbers, it works out to roughly 227 KB/sec download, and 90 KB/sec upload. Not bad at all. I wish all wireless hotspots were this good!
Kim and I are heading back to Edmonton this evening.
It's not often I blog about vehicles, but I just love the brand new 2007 Honda CR-V. And as far as I can tell, it's not yet available in Canada. I think it's a damn sexy SUV, and I really like the marketing campaign too - "something new to crave" is catchy and works well given the cryptic model name. Here's the little blurb from the website:
The all-new 2007 CR-V has been dramatically transformed, with a sleek new exterior and amenity-rich interior that are unlike anything else you'll find in a crossover SUV. As always, the CR-V is big on safety with new features including Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE™) body structure to help you feel secure. Pamper yourself in the EX-L and you will get leather-trimmed seats and the available Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System™ to help guide the way. Get in to the all-new CR-V—it's the SUV you've been craving.
I'm craving it! If I was going to buy an SUV, I'd seriously consider the new CR-V.
Over the last couple days I have had conversations with at least two friends about Halloween and how the girls dress up in revealing costumes. As you might have guessed, I am generally in favor of the trend! Then today while browsing the NYTimes, I came across this article on the phenomenon:
In her thigh-highs and ruby miniskirt, Little Red Riding Hood does not appear to be en route to her grandmother’s house. And Goldilocks, in a snug bodice and platform heels, gives the impression she has been sleeping in everyone’s bed. There is a witch wearing little more than a Laker Girl uniform, a fairy who appears to shop at Victoria’s Secret and a cowgirl with a skirt the size of a tea towel.
Anyone who has watched the evolution of women’s Halloween costumes in the last several years will not be surprised that these images — culled from the Web sites of some of the largest Halloween costume retailers — are more strip club than storybook.
Is that really so surprising? Sex sells, as they say. Halloween is basically an excuse for women to dress in something they wouldn't normally dare admit they own, much less wear. The feminists of course don't like the idea very much, and they are quick to point out that there aren't many sexy costumes for guys. But you have to ask yourself why there aren't as many for men: is it because there's a double standard, or is it because there are more sexy females than sexy males? Or maybe it simply tells us that more people like to see sexy females, including other females, rather than sexy men.
I'll never forget last year. I was with a bunch of friends at Denny's at around 3 AM, so after the bars have closed and people have started to trickle into reliable old Denny's. A group of girls walked in, with a couple of them dressed in sexy bunny costumes. They walked by our table, and one deliberately dropped something and bent down to pick it up, allowing us to have a good look if we so chose. Maybe she was drunk, or maybe she was just what I like to call an "attention whore". Either way, it was memorable to say the least.
What are some of the sexiest costumes you've seen? Have you worn one, or would you consider wearing one?
Late yesterday afternoon, Microsoft released the final version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP. I have updated my desktop and tablet, so I am now running the latest and greatest of the IE family. And I really do like IE7, I think it's a great browser. Today the IE team announced that starting November 1st, IE7 will be rolled out via auomatic updates:
Of course we want to make sure you are ready to upgrade, so AU will notify you when IE7 is ready to install by presenting a welcome screen. You can choose whether or not to install it; IE7 will not install without your consent.
I also want to remind you that IE7 setup will preserve your current toolbars, home page, search settings, and favorites and will not change your choice of default browser. You will also be able to roll back to IE6 by using Add/Remove Programs. Only a user who is a local administrator will be offered the update.
Not everyone wants the update of course (mainly because it may break proprietary applications inside a company) so Microsoft has a free Blocker Toolkit which organizations can use to block the automatic update. This is a good strategy - companies that really want to block IE7 will use the tool, and those that don't won't bother with the toolkit and they'll be much safer as a result of having a better browser installed.
As much as I like IE7, there are definitely some areas that Microsoft needs to work on (and apparently they have already begun work on IE8):
- The setup experience needs work. It takes too long and requires two restarts (if you have old versions of IE7 installed, not sure about IE6 users which may require only one). The goal should be to have a setup similar to Firefox or Opera - short and sweet, no restarts required.
- It may not be as bad as Firefox, but IE7 is still a memory hog. And I think the Firefox team have done some work on this in the 2.0 version, so Microsoft needs to keep up and make IE7 less resource-hungry.
- There's just no comparison between IE7 and earlier versions when it comes to standards support, but there's still room for improvement.
- It would be great to see something in the way of extensions, a la Firefox. The search builder in Opera is cool too.
- Inline search! Dammit, I really hate that IE7 still has that archaic find box.
All of that side, I wouldn't wait for the automatic updates if I were you - download IE7 from Microsoft now!
This afternoon was TEC Edmonton's annual TEC Connector networking event, and for the second year in a row, Dickson and I decided to go. We were actually invited to setup a booth for Paramagnus, but we opted to just mingle instead. The TEC Connector is kind of an important event for me, because I consider it the start of our adventure with VenturePrize.
There seemed to be more people this year, and also unlike last year, we actually knew a few of them this time! It was nice to reconnect with some of the very smart and very interesting people we have met over the last year. These kinds of networking events are funny in a way, because you can meet some great people, but they also show just how small Edmonton can be. There are more familiar faces than unfamiliar ones.
There was some talk today about VenturePrize and the new student category that has been launched. I think it's great that the program is expanding! Dickson and I will be one of the featured presenters in this year's VenturePrize seminar series, an opportunity I am really looking forward to. We'll be sharing our story with this year's participants on November 1st.
I guess the 2010 Winter Games is a pretty good excuse to give students two weeks off, eh? Well, post secondary students at least, because they might be able to work or volunteer at the games. Nothing is certain yet, but a nice break for students definitely seems likely:
Spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade said Vancouver's Olympic organizing committee wants "to ensure that every child and youth has some opportunity to touch and feel the experience of the 2010 Winter Games."
As you might have guessed, there is definite opposition to extending the break to students in elementary and secondary schools. B.C. Teachers' Federation president Jinny Sims had this to say:
"I cannot imagine this government, led by this premier who has brought in legislation after legislation to show that education is an essential service, condoning school closures for two weeks."
I don't know how I'd feel if I were a parent about such a break. I'm guessing I probably wouldn't approve. I'd certainly want my child to experience the Games, but there's no reason to miss two whole weeks.
In case you missed it, that was sarcasm in the title. A sort of recent study by Edison Media Research shows that people aged 12 to 24 are listening to far less radio than they used to. I found this study via Podcasting News, but I hate the fact that they do not link to their sources, so I am not linking to them. Instead you can read about the study right from Edison Media Research (because they deserve the traffic):
A new study by Edison Media Research shows sharp declines in Time Spent Listening (TSL), Persons Using Radio (PUR) and most importantly attitudes about radio among the 12-to-24-age group, the listeners who represent both terrestrial radio's future and its greatest challenge.
Perhaps of most concern, tracking of questions on attitudes about radio among this crucial group trend down as well. Fewer young people expect radio to be an important part of their future lives.
Almost every teenager I know owns an iPod or some other sort of portable media device. I don't find it surprising at all that time spent listening for this age group is down. Teenagers today make their own radio station every day by creating playlists.
Here are my weekly notes:
- My Dad was in town for the weekend - it was good to see him. It was probably the first time that he has visited and not driven at all! I picked him up from the airport, and Kim drove us around in her new 2006 Honda Civic Sedan! Her car is pretty sweet, I have to admit.
- Will Internet Explorer 7 be released this week? That's the word on the virtual street. The IE team wants you to be ready.
- How much juice does your blog have? Mine scores a 3.0!
- In my opinion, the Edmonton Opera does a much better job of reaching out to young people than the Edmonton Public Library does.
- In case you're wondering, and I know some of you are, my parents are officially moving to YK this weekend. They're packing up and driving the dempster highway for the last time (probably the last time anyway).
Favorite song at the moment:
"My Love" by Justin Timberlake
Movie I want to see most:
"The Departed"
Still reading:
"The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time" by Jeffrey Sachs
Microsoft sure seems to like integrated launch dates! I guess it works for them though - my recollection of the Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 launch day is that went very well and generated good press coverage for both applications (and not surprisingly, highlighted how well they work together).
There's a story floating around today that Microsoft will ship Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange 2007 on December 5th. Apparently ZDNet have since taken down the article, and it isn't clear why. Hence the question mark in the title of this post. I do think an integrated launch for the applications would be a smart idea though!
Here are some related news articles from today:
Robert Scoble posted today that he thinks Microsoft's Live Search has really improved and has closed the gap with Google. Despite that, he doesn't think anyone is going to switch away from Google. He says he won't because of the trust he's built over the years using Google. I think he'll revisit that strategy at some point.
Over the last couple weeks, I have been using both Google and Live Search. More and more frequently, I have found that the Live Search results are better than Google's search results. Most of the time they are almost identical. This is really important. The quality of results has to be on par with Google before people will consider switching. Now that the quality is there, here are the main reasons I am switching:
- Switching is easy - there's really nothing keeping you at Google except habit.
- Live.com is shorter than Google.com - sounds dumb, but it makes a difference! I've never been a big user of the search boxes in the browser.
- Live Search looks so much nicer than Google! Both are simple, but the extra color that Live Search does have makes it look better.
- The speed difference is no longer noticable. The main thing I liked about Google was its speed. Live Search is just as fast now though.
I am not saying Live Search is perfect, but neither is Google. Both have their quirks and both have room for improvement. For example, Google's results seem to be extremely out of date at times, but their image search is far better than Live.com's. Both Google and Live suck at feed searches - Ask seems to have the lead there.
I think most people will agree with Robert on the trust thing though. When I first started using both engines, I would always do a search with Live Search first, and then do the search in Google. The reason was basically to make sure Live Search wasn't giving me crap. I trusted Google more. I probably still trust Google more, simply because I've been using it for so long. But that doesn't mean I am not willing to give Live Search a chance.
Are you going to switch?
I really like Tina Fey - I think she's incredibly smart and obviously very funny. I didn't watch 30 Rock last night, but I am hoping to catch it soon, because it looks like it will be a pretty good show (and I like Alec Baldwin too). I went to the website to see what time it airs, and I realized that Tina Fey has a live blog:
After tonight's east coast premiere, sign on here for the live blog Q&A.;
Hi, this is Tina Fey. I'm in New York at a little party we're having for our cast and crew. We're eating chicken wings and getting ready to watch the show and I hope you're doing the same. Especially the chicken wings part.
I'll be back after the show to answer your questions. Feel free to chat amongst yourselves while you watch.
And chat amongst themselves they did! That post has over 1100 comments on it! By the end of the evening, Tina had made over 20 posts talking about 30 Rock, SNL, and her movie writing career.
I think this blog is an incredibly smart thing for NBC to do. In a way, it is like a return to the golden days of television, where everyone would watch the same show and then chat about it the next day at the watercooler. Now obviously not everyone is watching 30 Rock, but the blog brings back that conversational aspect to watcing television. And I realize there are popular TV show forums and things online, but they are created by fans, not by the producers and creators like this blog is! It's television conversation on a whole new level.
Very cool, and I hope they keep it up.
I attended an information session put on by TEC Edmonton today, where I learned some more details about the recently named Enterprise Square. TEC Edmonton will be the largest tenant in the new building, and while the session today was geared more towards their Research Transition Facility (RTF) clients, I still learned a lot. First and foremost, the name RTF will cease to exist when TEC Edmonton moves downtown in August of 2007. The new name will simply be "TEC Centre".
One of the more interesting aspects of the presentation was that they shared artist drawings and some preliminary floorplans for the building. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of the floorplans, but I do have scans of the drawings - here's the outside of the building, and here's part of the inside. If you look really closely, you might notice the following:
- They have added a lot of windows to the second and third floors to try and bring in some more daylight.
- A completely new fourth floor is currently being added. It will be constructed of steel on top of the existing concrete structure, and the sides will be completely covered in glass.
- Instead of a skylight on the roof, they are building 13-foot high glass structures to allow daylight to flow into the building.
- New elevators will be completely enclosed in glass, and existing escalators are being refurbished.
You'll note the number of times I mentioned daylight. The existing Bay building was meant to be a department store, and so the focus was entirely retail. As a result, very few windows were built. Actually, I learned some interesting things about the building itself too. It is entirely built of concrete, and was constructed in two parts. The southern half was built in 1939, and the northern half was added in 1952. The familiar "coat of arms" on the southeast corner of the building will be preserved, along with a number of other features in order to meet the City of Edmonton's restrictions for historic buildings.
Enterprise Square will offer about 350,000 square feet of space when complete, which should free up at least 150,000 square feet of space on the main university campus (which is good considering more academic space is badly needed). Here is the tenant list:
- TEC Centre tenants & TEC Edmonton
- U of A Faculty of Extension (completely moving downtown)
- U of A School of Business Executive Education Program and the Alberta Business Family Institute
- U of A Design Gallery, Arts Faculty
- U of A Advancement Services
- Art Gallery of Alberta (temporary, until the new Art Gallery is complete)
- CHUM (Citytv and The Bounce, which already occupy space in the building)
As you can guess from the list, there will be at least some classroom space in Enterprise Square, used by the Faculty of Extension and the School of Business. Whether it will be available for use like space on the main campus remains to be seen.
President Samarasekera fast-tracked the project a while ago, and has made a number of her own requests (such as open spaces for lots of "hustle and bustle" on the main floor). The construction schedule really is aggresive, with blueprints for the interior to be completed in November and construction to begin in January (Stantec is handling the project). Tenants will start moving in over the summer. Dr. Samarasekera sure knows how to crack the whip it seems!
At this stage of the game, nothing is perfectly set in stone, but it's getting closer. I expect in January you'll really start to notice a difference if you pass by the building. And hopefully by August we'll be able to take a good look at one of the newest additions to the University of Alberta!
As I am sure you are well aware, tensions in North Korea are building as the rogue state threatened more tests if additional sanctions were placed on it. I have been keeping up on the news much like everyone else, but I haven't really taken the time to do a lot of digging to understand the situation better. As such, I pretty much consider North Korea crazy, as I fail to see how provoking a war they could not possibly win will get them anywhere. This is not 1939, and the major powers of the day are not going to roll over and give North Korea what it wants.
Despite unified international pressure to disband plans for a test, North Korea apparently tested a nuclear weapon. I say apparently, because it is not yet clear:
"The working assumption is that this was a nuclear explosion of some kind," one intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The conventional explosion theory doesnt make a hell of a lot of sense, even for the North Koreans."
Working assumption is an improvement from a few days ago! So here's my question: why can't we detect a nuclear blast?
When I say "we", I mean the current nuclear powers, especially the United States and Russia. How could the cold war have gone on for decades without a nuclear detection system being conceived?
Maybe I am letting my ignorance show here, but it seems to me we should have the ability to detect a nuclear blast anywhere. I don't know how the science works or anything, but I would have thought such a detection system would have been developed a long time ago. I would have thought that a country like the United States would want to know immediately if a nuclear weapon was detonated somewhere.
It just seems strange to me that North Korea can say they detonated an atomic weapon, and we have no idea whether they are lying or not.
If you live in Edmonton, and listen to the radio occasionally, you may have heard the new ads for the Edmonton Public Library. If you haven't, fear not, because I am going to summarize them anyway:
There are two young guys trying to skateboard, when one says to the other "I am not cut out for this." The two are then faced with a problem - what to do? One guy suggests the adventure of a lifetime with dragons and all sorts of other things. The other guy thinks hes crazy. Then the first guy says all of it is possible at the public library. And the two go on their merry way, to slay dragons in their imaginations no doubt.
Now when I heard the commercial, I couldn't help but laugh. No one I know gets all excited about taking an "adventure" to the public library. I get what they are saying, but I can't see it working with young people. Maybe I'm just "too cool" but I think their marketing team took the wrong approach with the latest ads.
The goal is clearly to try and bring young people into the library. Instead of some hokey ad about an adventure, why not highlight the aspects of the library that appeal to young people? Things like public computers, excellent study and workspaces, a Second Cup built right in (for the downtown location at least), power outlets for your laptop, and wireless Internet (do they have this?). Okay so I can't think of as many characteristics that would appeal to young people as I thought, but I am sure they are there. Thing is, I haven't been to the library in so long, I don't know what they are.
Do you agree with me? What else about the library would you highlight?
The ramifications of this deal will be felt for quite some time. CNET News.com is reporting that Google has purchased video sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. The deal has been rumored for some time, but I didn't think it would actually go through:
"This is one of many investments that Google will be making to put video at the heart of a user's online experience," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt on a conference call after the deal was announced. "When we looked at the marketplace and saw what was going on, we saw a clear winner in the social networking side of video, and that's what drove us to start the conversations with YouTube."
You can listen to an audio interview with Eric Schmidt and YouTube CEO Chad Hurley here.
Also today, YouTube announced some major distribution deals with the big record labels. All of a sudden, the threat of a lawsuit looks much less likely, doesn't it? I wonder what the MySpace people will think of this deal. I'm sure they are a little scared now that YouTube has Google's backing.
So the deal is done, Google is now king of video. Still, I can't help but wonder if a simple, exclusive ad-deal with YouTube would have been a better investment for Google? I guess time will tell.
It has been a couple of weeks since I last made a "notes" post. I guess that's what happens when you're in the middle of launching a product and travelling to a trade show! Anyway, here are this week's notes:
Favorite songs at the moment:
High Energy Song: "Ready to Fall" by Rise Against
Low Energy Song: "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol
Random Song: "Anything" by JoJo (it samples heavily from Toto's "Africa")
Currently reading:
"The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time" by Jeffrey Sachs
Recently read:
"The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki
I finished the book on the plane on the way to Ontario, CA for the Portable Media Expo. I thought the book was great, but that's not surprising, because the main idea he presents is just so darn intriguing. I highly recommend this book.
Just over a year ago, I posted that the University of Alberta had officially purchased the Hudson's Bay building in downtown Edmonton. At the time, officials said the first tenants would be able to move in within 12 to 18 months. It appears things are more or less on track:
At a downtown ceremony Thursday, the University of Alberta unveiled the new name for its downtown building with a flourish.
A large sign was lowered from the second level of Commerce Place above the rotunda, bearing the name "Enterprise Square."
The name was chosen to reflect a bunch of things, including academic enterprise working alongside the private, and the enterprising spirit of Edmonton.
Renovations at the historic site continue, and are expected to be complete in the summer of 2007 with tenants moving in shortly thereafter. Once finished, roughly 430,000 square feet of space will have been renovated and made available in just 24 months. The project is definitely impressive.
On October 11th, TEC Edmonton (which will be the building's largest tenant) is hosting an information session at their current location on the university campus. I am registered and planning to attend. For more information or to register for the event, click here.
Wednesday night was the first episode of CBC Television's new business reality series, Dragon's Den. I found out about the show a long time ago through VenturePrize when the show's producers were looking for contestants. Dickson and I considered throwing our names in the hat, but we decided we didn't necessarily want the exposure (at the time we still hadn't launched Podcast Spot). After watching the first episode, two things were confirmed for me (barring any changes in future episodes):
- Had we participated, we'd have been the youngest ones, which is pretty normal for us.
- I think our idea would have fared really well compared with the other contestants.
What I didn't expect, was that I wouldn't really like the show! As a result, I decided to do a review. I have always thought that podcasting is a great way to do reviews, because they are usually somewhat boring to type and somewhat boring to read. It's much more interesting to listen to or to watch a review I think. So with that in mind, here's my audio review of the first episode of Dragon's Den!
I'll probably watch again next week, just to see if my opinions change at all. And to see if any of the contestants have really interesting ideas.
The news broke on Wednesday that Toronto-based b5media, a blogging/media network started by Jeremy Wright, had landed $2 million USD from Brightspark Ventures and J. L. Albright Venture Partners. b5media describes itself as "a gobal new media network" with over 150 blogs on a variety of topics. Today, National Post reporter Mark Evans announced that he is leaving mainstream media to join b5media as VP of Operations. I wish Mark the best of luck, though I don't think he'll need it - I think he made the right decision.
I have known Jeremy for a while now, and I'm a long time reader of his blog. I've had the pleasure of meeting him a few times (such as at Northern Voice) and he has always struck me as an intelligent, fairly down-to-earth kind of guy. That's not to say he's completely grounded though - you might remember that Jeremy was the first blogger to auction his services off on eBay. There's a lesson there though - Jeremy is an innovator, and he really understands blogging. I know he'll do great things with b5media.
I am not sure what b5media plans to use the money for, but maybe they can purchase a laptop or two for Jeremy? That guy has the worst luck with portable computers.
I'm really glad that Jeremy has become successful with b5media. He's had his fair share of tough times in the past. Congratulations Jeremy!
I think it's funny when companies say they are operating in stealth mode, because it is really hard to do. Before this morning I had never heard of Powerset, so I guess they were in stealth mode, but the cat is out of the bag now. Here's what they say about themselves:
Powerset is leading the next generation of internet search. Powerset is a Silicon Valley startup currently operating in stealth mode. Please check back in the near future for more information about the company and its products.
There are so many blogs covering this company today, it's ridiculous (and I guess I'm included in that now too). Most of the coverage contains things like "so much better than Google" or similar comments. Is that really such a good idea? I wonder if the company is happy about all the attention or not. They say there's no such thing as bad press, but when you are getting setup like that? It's going to be hard to meet expectations.
Hockey season has started again! And what a great start it was, with Toronto losing 4-1 to the Senators. Edmonton's first game is tomorrow night against the very red, very evil Calgary Flames. I can't wait!
Perhaps the biggest news of the day, however, is that RIM's top executive Jim Balsillie has purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins for $175 million USD (via Darren):
A source familiar with the discussions told globesports that Balsillie is expected to keep the team in Pittsburgh and he has no intention of moving it to Hamilton, Ont. There had been speculation that Balsillie wanted to buy a franchise and move it to Hamilton, which is close to his home and RIM's head office in Waterloo.
Move them north! It would be such excellent news for Canadian hockey if he did. Like Darren says:
If I live in Hamilton or Winnipeg, Im getting on my Blackberry and starting an email campaign to get Mr. Balsillie to move the team north.
I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Blogging is a pretty open, flexible medium and each blog varies greatly from the next, but if there's one thing that holds true (usually) it's that some of the best insights are found in the comments. I was reminded of this today when reading Frank Barnako's post about the latest podcasting stats from FeedBurner:
Rick Klau, vice president, business development, said that at the beginning of the year Feedburner had 1 million subscriptions to podcasts it helped deliver. That number has now grown to 5 million subscribers for 71,000 podcasts. For you math fans, that means the average podcast has ... ta da!!! ... 70 subscribers.
That stat is interesting all by itself, but when Rick Klau himself dropped by and left a comment, it became really interesting. Here's what Rick had to say:
I hadn't realized it (I never do the average thing - must be my life-long aversion to math), but now that you point it out: this average number has doubled in just the last six months.
Indeed it's right in the headline for the previous article that Rick linked to, in April of this year FeedBurner said the average podcast had 35 subscribers.
I think this is an important statistic to keep track of. Usually when trying to measure the growth of podcasting, you might look to the number of podcasts or the number of episodes created in a given period of time. But just as important is the number of people listening to or watching those podcasts and episodes.
That said, the rate of new podcasts appears to be increasing as well. In the April article, FeedBurner was adding an average of 2278 new podcasts each month (based on the numbers provided). That number has since risen to 4000. Not bad at all!
I wouldn't call it "episode 1" or anything, but here's a quick little episode I recorded tonight for my podcast, powered of course by Podcast Spot. Basically I talk a little about the cold I picked up at the Expo, the drug I am using to get rid of it (Cold-FX), the outbreak at Lister Hall on the UofA campus, and my favorite, Purell.
Downloads, show notes, and much more can be found on the episode page.
For those of you interested in such things, I used the following to record this episode: Samson C03 microphone, Behringer Eurorack UB802 (connected to Audigy sound card), and Adobe Audition.
While at the Portable Media Expo this past weekend, we head the pleasure of being neighbours with the guys from Samson. They make audio equipment, if you've never heard of them. In fact, my best microphone is a Samson C03 (they have a USB version now...mine is the original XLR). This weekend they were showing off their latest gadget, the H4 Handy Recorder:
The Zoom H4 Handy Digital Recorder fits in your palm and is ideal for recording live musical performances, interviews, podcasts, meetings, classes and seminars. The H4 allows you to record 24-bit/96 kHz digital audio as well as in MP3 format with bitrates up to 320kbps.
I really wish I had one of these things back when I was doing BlogosphereRadio. Would have made life so much easier. Some of the features include:
- Two studio quality X/Y pattern condenser microphones for true stereo recording
- Two combination XLR-1/4-inch input jacks with phantom power
- Four hours of continuous recording operation from 2 AA batteries
- 128MB Secure Digital (SD) card included.
And there's a bunch more too. The combination input jacks are a great idea. When I saw them, I was like "why didn't anyone else think of that!"
Maybe I don't want a Zune for Christmas after all?
Now that I am back in Edmonton and feeling a little better, time for a bit of a recap. Dickson has posted his closing thoughts on the expo as well. It's hard to compare last year's event with this year's. In some ways, there seemed to be more people this year, such as on Friday, but Saturday told a different story. One thing is for sure - there were far less "I've never heard of podcasting" people in attendance this year.
- I have to agree with Dickson, the weather in Ontario was really hot. It mattered less on Saturday when I had a bad case of the chills, but still.
- I am amazed that I met people who were happy to "do it on their own" when it came to podcast hosting. Perhaps this is because podcasting is so new? Heck, I don't even host my own photo gallery anymore. Why not? Because Flickr does it better than I ever could. I offload all the work to them. That's what we are trying to do with Podcast Spot too. You as the podcaster can focus on creating great content, because we take care of the rest.
- Speaking of pictures, you can see the ones I took here.
- I think we're going to have to do something more interesting with the booth next year. Our "low-key, low-information-on-the-wall" style worked to an extent, but I think we can do better.
- We need to do a better job explaining how we charge. We charge based on upload, which is the amount of stuff you send to our servers in any given month. This is in contrast to charging by storage, which is the amount of stuff you have put on the servers since you became a customer. If we charged by storage, you'd eventually hit a limit, after which you wouldn't be able to add anything new without first removing something old. Fortunately for you, we charge by upload so you never run out of space!
- I just re-read that, and perhaps it still isn't clear. I'll record something soon that should explain it a little better. Visuals always help!
- Generally speaking, I have the feeling that the Expo is missing something that would take it to the next level. What that something is, I don't know. I do have a small wish-list though: wireless Internet throughout the convention center, expanded awards (say a "best podcast hosting service"), and more free food/drinks!
Thanks to Tim and the rest of the team at TNC New Media for another great Expo! I'm looking forward to next year already :)
Hey we're back. Actually we got back around 2 PM today, and I've been resting pretty much ever since. Trying to shake this damn sickness.
I would like to do an Expo wrap-up post, but I am going back to sleep so in the meantime, here's an interview I did with the Seattle Podcasting Network for you to enjoy!
Today was the last day of the Expo, and it went very well for us. Well except that I seem to be sick (bad head cold). Anyway, I'd say the Expo was a success for us!
- I should probably go to sleep, our flight leaves bright and early tomorrow morning.
- We did three or four interviews today, but I haven't found any of them online yet. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth!
- My bag is full of notepads, so don't worry, there's plenty to go around. We have around fifty I'd say, which means over 900 were given out at the conference. They must have worked, because people came up all the time and said "hey the notepad people! what do you do?"
We'll back in the afternoon.