General
Posts that don't really belong anywhere else!
Here are my weekly notes:
- The RestorAction Charity Gala last night was a major success! The signed Oilers jersey ended up going for $675. I'll have pictures up as soon as I get my camera back from Sharon.
- Tomorrow is Blog Action Day! "One issue. One Day. Thousands of voices." The topic tomorrow is the environment. If you're a blogger you should totally take part!
- Also tomorrow is Edmonton's municipal election. I was out yesterday morning dropping flyers for George Rice, my former principal, who is running in Ward G for the Public School Trustee position. I live in Ward G, so I'll obviously be voting for him! Get out and vote!
- With Al Gore winning the Nobel, I expected the chatter about a potential presidential bid to increase. Didn't expect the commentary to suggest a run is less likely now though! This article and this article explain things quite well.
- Interesting post from Nick Carr on the topic of super-inexpensive storage. The example he uses is definitely not typical, but it nonetheless illustrates that utility data storage (like S3) is really, really affordable. Now we just need other utility services to follow!
- TechCrunch noted that the one year anniversary of GooTube was this past week.
- Marshall Kirkpatrick says that Twitter is paying his rent! Essentially Marshall is finding that stories break on Twitter first. I've started getting the majority of my news through Twitter too.
Music
My favorite song at the moment is The Pretender by Foo Fighters. Such a wicked track! Some other songs I've been enjoying: Hot by Avril Lavigne, How Far We've Come by Matchbox Twenty, Foundations by Kate Nash, and Say Goodbye To Love by Kenna. Oh and Gimme More by Britney Spears, which I commented about this week:
Enjoying Britney's track "Gimme More"...Britney is like Michael Jackson...enjoy the music, ignore the person.
Here are my weekly notes:
Here are my weekly notes:
- Megan's parents took us out for dinner tonight, to celebrate our entering the workforce. We're now contributing to their pensions :) Heh, very nice of them, and dinner was excellent.
- Ever wonder what the world would be like without Google Maps? We'd have more swastika-shaped buildings, that's for sure.
- After a bit of a hiatus, I had two articles published at last100 this week. The first was on Halo 3 and Microsoft's strategy beyond gaming, and the second was on the potentially doomed Zune.
- In a post that received lots of attention, Scott Karp outlined five reasons why he feels the mobile web sucks. He then wrote a follow-up post responding to some of the hostile comments left by readers of the first one. Both are worth a read.
- Here's what I like about Wired magazine: I can purchase the relatively inexpensive physical version, read it without requiring access to an electronic device, and then go online to bookmark my favorite articles later because they are all available at the website for free.
- I downloaded and quickly watched the first episode of the new CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, solely because Kaley Cuoco (from 8 Simple Rules) is in the show. All I can say is I am glad I didn't have to pay for it.
- The new Smallville which aired Thursday was excellent! They must have spent a fortune on the special effects. I was impressed that they had a nice mix of both subtle (Clark's skin healing in the sunlight) and over-the-top (Clark vaporizing a river of water) effects. The new girl, Canada's own Laura Vandervoort, didn't have much screen time in the premiere. I'm sure we'll see much more of her though!
Here are my weekly notes:
I really don't like these "catch up" blog posts, but they sure are easy to write. Here are a few things I've been meaning to post about!
The Casino
I worked at the Baccarat Casino here in Edmonton on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. The reason? Fundraiser for The Learning Centre. We raised quite a bit of money, so that's great! My position was the banker, which means I was responsible for all the money and chips. When tables needed chips, they would call for a chip run. I would do the transaction, prepare the chips, and send them with a chip runner (another volunteer). It was also my job to ensure the cashiers had enough money to give out when patrons brought us their chips.
A few things of interest:
- Apparently Alberta is the only province in Canada that still allows volunteers to handle money and chips at casino fundraising events.
- Working a casino can be pretty boring. There are long stretches of time when there is very little to do. On the other hand, you get free food!
- It is extremely hard to screw up. Not surprising I guess, but there are always at least two people doing everything (counting, for instance) and even the software I had to use was smart enough to prevent me from making mistakes (like giving too much money or something).
- There's a wide range of people at the casino. One person might come to exchange ten dollars worth of chips, the next might exchange ten thousand dollars worth. One or both of them might be drunk.
Not sure I would volunteer to work two days in a row again (so tired) but I am glad I was able to help out!
YRAP presents RestorAction
Another group I volunteer with is the Youth Restorative Action Project (YRAP). Our second annual charity gala is coming up on October 13th. Funds raised will go towards mentoring programs for at-risk youth. Mentors will use the funds for such things as enrollment in music or art programs and providing materials for extracurricular activities. The main aims of this program are to direct youth away from negative or criminal activities and focus their time on alternative and positive social activities and become contributing members of society.
You can find out more information at the RestorAction website. If you want tickets, let me know!
The Dollar
For the first time in 31 years, the Canadian dollar reached parity with the American dollar. That's pretty crazy. As a consumer, I think it's great...well as soon as prices are updated to reflect the parity. As a small business owner offering services in U.S. dollars, it's not so great.
Developer Night in Canada III
John Bristowe will be in town on Wednesday evening for a session on "Bringing the Power of the .NET Framework to Your Existing Application" being held at the downtown library. John will go through some real-world tips and tricks for migrating to .NET, and he'll cover some of the issues that you might encounter when integrating with legacy applications.
Canadian developers will share their experiences and insights, and you can too! You can find more information and register here. Also, don't forget about Edmonton Code Camp coming up in October.
Here are my weekly notes:
Weekly notes, this time on holiday Monday:
- Can't believe it's already September!
- On that note...I'm so happy I don't have to go to school this week. I can honestly say I don't miss going to class at all. I admit I'm somewhat curious to see what has changed on campus over the summer.
- For those of you in Calgary: have you ever been to Yardhouse Restaurant? A friend sent me this blog post which says that the Yardhouse has 100 wings for $15!!! Definitely going to have to check that out next time I'm in Calgary.
- Russell Beattie says: Buy Opera. I love the desktop browser, but Russell says the company is valuable mainly because of Opera Mini.
- I'm guilty of having lots of electronics in my bedroom - cell phone, computer(s), TV, Xbox, etc. Interesting story (though not surprising) that all of those gadgets in the bedroom lead to "junk sleep" in teenagers.
- Is Vancouver Canada's greatest startup city? There's certainly lots of cool stuff happening there.
- Hope you had a good long weekend! Mine was pretty good. Dickson & Andrew hosted a pretty awesome BBQ yesterday. Jane moved into her own place on Saturday and a bunch of us helped. Tom was up in Edmonton for a soccer tournament this weekend (they finished 4th). Got a haircut, washed my car, did some other random things.
Here are my weekly notes:
- We finally got around to doing a long-planned server move this weekend. It went quite well, all things considered!
- Sharon and I went to see another Fringe play on Friday, called Out of Pocket. I liked it, even if the story was sort of expected. The female actress switched between her characters amazingly well.
- Have you seen Tafiti? Cool demonstration of Silverlight technology, not very useful though.
- Here's a handy list of tools for web developers working with Internet Explorer.
- My favorite t-shirt is missing :(
- Justin Timberlake concert is Tuesday! I'm excited :)
Here are my weekly notes:
- Today seemed to absolutely fly by. I don't know where the day went!
- Do you like Crocs? Wish you could wear them in the winter? Yeah, I can't believe it either, but there's a new "Mammoth" version of the shoe for colder temperatures. Stop the madness! I saw a lady on the street wearing orange Crocs today. Ugliest thing ever.
- Great quote: "Allowing CDMA and GSM in North America is like allowing left and right hand drive cars simultaneously."
- I haven't checked out Pulse yet, but Robert seems to like the new service from Plaxo. Like me he was not impressed by Pownce, so maybe we'd have the same opinion on Pulse too. I'll have to see.
- The first thing I do now when I come across another Twitter clone is look for an API. Sadly, Yappd has no such thing.
- Really interesting post from Larry on world temperature figures. Evidently NASA has corrected previously published information, and the change means that five of the ten warmest years on record occur before WWII. Umm, yeah, so how about that global warming?
- Kim is back in Edmonton tomorrow!
Here are my weekly notes:
- Another Gnomedex has come and gone. I didn't go this year, unfortunately. On the other hand, all the related Twitter messages from the last couple of days make it seem like high school all over again. Too much needless bickering. Perhaps it would have been different in person?
- Really interesting diagram that shows the cycle of a fan.
- Rob Safuto has an interesting post examining the podcasting industry landscape. I should give it some more thought, but I more or less agree - there's some good stuff happening, and some not so good stuff happening. Not sure how to get rid of the not so good stuff.
- John pointed me to the Massive Technology Show happening here in Edmonton at the end of September. Anyone going?
- Apparently there is a really good meteor shower happening right now. I wonder if I'll be able to see anything in the city...
- What happened to the weather? Enough with the rain, let's get back to the high twenties!
Here are my weekly notes:
- I went to the Edmonton Heritage Festival today. It was quite hot out, especially since I was wearing jeans and shoes instead of shorts and sandals (I left the house quite early, and it was a tad chilly out). I didn't have any crazy food, but I did buy a hat from the Chinese pavilion that makes me look like a rice farmer (how the heck did my shirt get so wrinkly? I am looking at it now and it's fine!).
- Fake Steve Jobs has been busted! Turns out it's Daniel Lyons, a writer for Forbes.
- The Royal Alexandra Hospital here in Edmonton (the hospital where I was born) made Engadget today! Apparently they are testing some surgical robots. Hardcore.
- Interesting read about Microsoft doing business in China.
- I've been showing off the Remember the Milk application lately. I really like the user interface, especially the "undo" capabilities. Really impressive!
- I have been procrastinating about moving, which isn't surprising I guess. I have my work cut out for me tomorrow.
If you've been reading my blog for a while (thanks!) you've likely noticed that I haven't been posting as frequently as usual lately. It's not that I have nothing to post - quite the opposite in fact! It's just that I have been taking some time to adjust to a new schedule. And I've been busier than normal too.
Here's what I've been up to:
- Awake around 7:30 am every morning, at Starbucks by 9:00 am. I have a Grande mild, no cream or sugar, in my own stainless steel travel mug. Interestingly, the price is never the same. Some baristas charge the correct price (Grande minus a discount for the personal mug), some charge for the smaller size, and some charge for a normal Grande (no discount). I never correct them, so I guess it all balances out.
- Work! Lots of Paramagnus stuff going on lately, including some new improvements to the distribution engine that powers Podcast Spot. Various other projects too. I'd like to do more coding than I have been though.
- Posting elsewhere! I've continued to post on and off at WindowsMediaBlog.com, and I am still writing at last100 too. My latest feature there, on Amazon.com and the digital living room, went live today. Feature posts take quite a bit more time and effort to write, but they are much more rewarding too.
- Preparing to move this weekend. I've been house-sitting for friends since last August while they were living abroad. They're back on Monday, so I need to get the house back to the way it was when they left!
- Twittering! I'm addicted (you can find me here). And I have started to use Twitter for work too. I wrote a bot that I can send direct messages to and it will respond with the information I have requested. For example, I can send it the command "!stats" and it will reply with the number of podcasts and episodes at Podcast Spot. My bot is pretty basic right now, but I can see hundreds of ways to improve it.
- Random other things. Went for dinner a few times with Grandma and Helen (relative from Australia...she's visiting Mom and Dad now). Drove Tom to the airport yesterday morning - he too went to visit the parental units (as he and Kim used to say) up in Yellowknife. Fixed Megan's laptop, which involved installing a new hard drive. Been to Chicken For Lunch a few times - Amy calls me a "good boy" heh. Random movies and other dinners.
So that's my update. After this weekend I think I'll be a bit more settled, and normal blogging will resume. I haven't even been reading that much lately...good thing the really important stuff comes via Twitter!
It's almost August already! Here are my weekly notes:
- Saskatchewan is going to be the first province in Canada to launch a widespread, publicly funded wireless network. I can only hope that this means Alberta and the other provinces aren't far behind.
- Goodbye Linksys! Cisco has decided to drop the brand.
- I went to see The Simpsons Movie on Friday night with Megan - it rocked! It was exactly like a normal episode, only slighly longer. It was the top movie this weekend.
- Can you believe that Hilary Duff is dating Mike Comrie? You could do better Hilary. She's looking amazing on the August issue of Maxim though.
- I didn't go to Capital EX or Taste of Edmonton this year. And frankly, I'm not sad about that. I am looking forward to the Fringe though.
- I was walking down Whyte Ave with Sharon on Thursday evening, when I saw this sign out front of a store called Polly Magoo's. It reads: "find us on facebook" - can we call Facebook mainstream now?
Here are my weekly notes:
- My first week at the new job was good, except I had forgotten how much it sucks to get up at 7 AM every morning! Thank goodness for Starbucks.
- This one is for you Megan: Jon Bon Jovi objects to name of energy drink.
- Don Cherry is now pimping Rayovac batteries. At what point does what's left of his credibility go down the crapper? Maybe it already has.
- I only came across DotNetKicks on Friday. It's like Digg, but for .NET developers!
- Hott4Hill is indeed hot. Not sure if the video helps or harms Hillary though.
- Speaking of politics, here's a great post at the 37signals blog talking about the fact that EVERY presidential campaign logo is red, white, and blue. The candidates want their logos to scream patriotism, but instead they scream uncreative and boring.
- Here's a fun Web Trend Map for 2007. Looks like someone had too much time on their hands!
- Starting this week I am going to be a regular contributor to last100, so if you haven't done so already, subscribe now!
Here are my weekly notes:
- We published an update to Podcast Spot today. Nothing major, mostly backend stuff. Looks good so far!
- I am so excited for The Simpsons Movie! It's going to be great. Vanity Fair has two excellent interview-style articles about the cartoon this month, here and here.
- There's really only one question you need to ask about the iPhone: will it blend?
- Congrats to Digipede, who won Microsoft's ISV Innovation Partner of the Year. I remember looking at their stuff a long time ago and being really impressed.
- Everyone should know that Canada isn't really a haven for piracy as the record labels and movie studios would have you believe, but just in case, this video explains things.
- I really hope the Republicans do not win the American election in 2008. I mean, just look at this.
- I start my new job tomorrow! I'll be working as a web developer for QuestionMark here in Edmonton.
Here are my weekly notes - this edition has a "green" theme since Live Earth was yesterday:
- On-demand streams of all the concerts are available at the MSN Live Earth site. It really only works in Internet Explorer, but aside from that, it's a great experience.
- The Wikipedia entry for Live Earth is very informative, and includes a good overview of the event's controversies criticisms. I like the comment Chris Rock made in London: "I think this will do for global warming what Live 8 did for ending world hunger."
- This comic about The Art of Greenwashing is very funny.
- Andrew, this one is for you (and for the other WoW geeks reading this) - a 47 PC, 7 monitor setup for World of Warcraft. Insane. Such a waste of energy!
- Microsoft says the MSN Live Earth site broke all kinds of streaming records, but Dan Rayburn remains unimpressed and says "show me the money."
- Boeing unveiled it's brand new 787 Dreamliner this afternoon. It's billed as "the most environmentally friendly" airplane ever built. I watched the live premiere over the web - too much talking, not enough plane!
- My computer has been running for 25 days now, almost exactly. Bad habit of mine, never turning my computer off! Monitors are set to auto-shutoff, of course.
Here are my weekly notes:
- Happy Canada Day everyone! A very impressive 140 years.
- I have five Pownce invites to give out. Leave a comment with your email or contact me if you want one. I'll write about the site later...not that impressed.
- The Oilers traded captain Jason Smith as well as Joffrey Lupul to the Flyers for Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson earlier today. The Rangers picked up both Gomez and Drury, leaving Smyth as one of the few remaining "big" names available (as of right now at least). I don't think he's coming back to Edmonton though.
- Here is the iPhone disassembled.
- Another really cool "world statistics" visualization, this one with deaths broken down by cause.
- Open-air urinals are coming to Whyte Avenue. I doubt they will be very effective, but you never know.
- Rolling Stone article on the decline of the music industry.
- I decided to give Google Reader a try this week. I like that it works in Opera - it feels snappier than the NewsGator Online beta too.
Here are my weekly notes:
- Went to a restaurant called Bacon yesterday for Sharon's birthday, and thankfully, they had bacon! It was really quite good. Afterward we went to a play called Shoe! which took place in an actual shoe store on Whyte Ave. It was okay, but I thought it was a little over the top at times. Then tonight was a dinner party - went very well, despite taking quite a while for prep and cleanup.
- The Spice Girls are getting back together! I was such a fan back in junior high. Apparently there won't be a new album though, just a tour.
- No more pets on Air Canada flights. I guess this part of their efforts to cut costs? I think it's a dumb idea.
- For the Edmonton folks - the overpass at Gateway and 23rd has run into financial troubles. Hopefully they still get it done, it is badly needed.
- From the yet-another-side-project department: I started a new blog this week. All Windows Media, all the time.
- I haven't really had time to look at this yet, but Dave Winer is doing something with Twitter and podcasting. I will have to look into it.
- I think this is going to be a busy week...
Here are my weekly notes:
- Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
- The trip to Calgary was lots of fun (minus the rain all day today)! Nice to see some friends and their new houses. Kind of makes me feel old though, because we started coming up with ideas for renovations. I mean, we got excited about kitchen appliances and paint colors! Not to mention that we felt sleepy around 10 PM.
- This story exemplifies everything that is wrong with the legal system (granted I don't think Canada's legal system is quite as bad as the States).
- Here is the U of A ExpressNews article about Dr. Klawe, the honorary degree recipient from my convocation.
- Microsoft released Windows Home Server RC1 earlier this week - looks like a very interesting app indeed.
- I think there's a bug in Facebook's mobile status updates feature. It seems that every couple of days or so one of the people I have specified I'd like to recieve updates for is removed. I can add them again, except then someone else gets removed a few days later. Very annoying!
Here are my weekly notes:
- The rookie Lewis Hamilton won his first F1 race at the Canadian Grand Prix today. I called it! He's had an amazing start to his career - 6 races, 6 podiums.
- So far the applications on Facebook have worked fairly well, but I knew it couldn't last forever. I was surfing some profiles tonight and saw one of the applications had puked out a bunch of error text. It didn't affect the page at all, it just looked ugly.
- Have you seen the logo for the London 2012 games? I think it sucks.
- Eric Rice has an interesting discussion on his blog about Google Maps StreetView and terrorism. My take: it doesn't make terrorism any easier or more likely.
- This Matrix-inspired comic about Vista SP1 is really funny, but really geeky. That said, I absolutely love The Matrix, so I am not complaining!
- I absolutely love Rihanna's new album, Good Girl Gone Bad. My favorite song at the moment is "Don't Stop the Music" but the entire thing is just really enjoyable. Maybe I'll write a review this week.
- Tuesday afternoon is my convocation - finally! I am not looking forward to the ceremony so much as I am looking forward to not having to deal with school anymore.
Can you believe it's June already? Here are my weekly notes:
- For a computer geek, I sure have spent a lot of time outdoors this weekend! I walked about 32 blocks on Friday in the scorching heat with Sharon to check out Famoso (it was kinda like "Quizno's for pizza"). Went to a BBQ/water fight yesterday. And today I spent a lot of time planting flowers.
- On that note, I have new-found appreciation for gardening. Not only is it time consuming and laborious, it's expensive! Who knew flowers could cost so much?
- Last week I mentioned the giant wild pig, and wondered how it got so big. This week, the answer: it was raised on a farm and recently sold to a hunting preserve.
- Don't you hate it when you order something from a fast food restaurant only to discover that it looks nothing like what you saw in the commercial? Here's a collection of images showing just that.
- This news is a bit old, but apparently you can send an email to Canada Post and they'll turn it into snail mail for you. The service is called EasyPost.
- Facebook Polls launched recently, and initially it blocked "restricted text" like MySpace, Orkut, and Friendster from being used in the poll. Kinda funny...a rep for the company said it was due to "outdated code" - riiiight.
Here are my weekly notes:
- My roommate is gone! Kim has travelled north to Inuvik for the summer. Miss ya Kim!
- I managed to lock my keys in the trunk of my car today. Not my finest moment. Turns out the tow truck guy that Honda arranged to come help couldn't get the car unlocked! Apparently a special tool is required. Ah well...thanks Dickson for helping me with the spare key.
- Went to see Pirates 3 tonight - much better than the second one. It didn't feel like a long movie, though it was. And man oh man did Keira ever look amazing...
- This giant pig is pretty amazing, but here's my question: how did it get so large?
- For my fellow Coke addicts - the New York Times has a really interesting article analyzing the past, present, and future of the company.
- Research shows that infants have amazing capabilities that adults lack. That probably means there's money to be made in helping adults unleash their inner-infant.
- I have a couple job interviews this week that I am really looking forward to. Hopefully they go well!
I didn't post notes last night, but it's a long weekend, so I figure tonight is fine :)
- We're still working on an update for Podcast Spot. Not going home until we're done. Like Dickson remarked, it seems we always work harder on holidays!
- Went to see Shrek the Third last night. It had it's moments, but I wouldn't have been sad if I had to wait for the DVD. I am disappointed more people didn't join us though!
- Every time an online store announces DRM-free MP3s, I am going to think of this comic.
- Mark Shuttleworth says that Microsoft is not the real threat. He predicts Microsoft and "Linux" will be working together in a few years (I put that in quotes because it will really be IBM, Red Hat, etc). His post is worth a read...I think I agree with most of what he's saying.
- I've been harping on Firefox for being a resource hog for years. The press seems to have caught on this last week. (That link is for Wired, here's the NYTimes article.)
- I really like data visualizations. I came across Breathing Earth this week via Darren. Pretty cool.
- So I've been looking for a full-time programming job lately. Had my first interview Thursday, and it went very well. More on this later.
- Halo 3 has a release date: September 25th, 2007.
Wow, another long time in between posts, this is not like me! I had a good reason though - Traz. Here are my weekly notes:
Traz is my Mom and Dad's new puppy. He came all the way from New Brunswick and stayed with me Friday before heading to his new home in Yellowknife on Saturday. He's totally cute. Here are some photos I took, and here are some from my Dad. Puppies are a lot of work! Good luck Dad.- Kim looked after Traz on Friday night for a few hours so I could go with Megan and Aimee to see Brand New at the Edmonton Events Centre (formerly known as Reds). It was a good show. They played a long instrumental piece at the end which Aimee liked, but I wasn't so keen on.
- The final episode of Smallville's sixth season airs Thursday. It had better be good. I wasn't that impressed with this week's ep.
- Microsoft showed off a public beta of Halo 3 on Friday - gamers gave it mixed reviews but there's lots of time to go before it is launched. On the topic of games, check out the official Simpsons-themed Xbox 360.
- Back in December the city of São Paulo banned outdoor advertisements. Here are some photos of the city from this month and last. I think the law should be reviewed. The city looks barren and ghostly now.
- What a cool idea: a vending machine that allows "watching ads" as a form of payment for drinks.
- News of the Windows Live Folders beta broke yesterday...is a "Windows Live Drive" on the way? I hope so. Some competition for Amazon S3 would be good.
- As those of you on Facebook are probably aware, I've got a giant card for Mr. Rice who is retiring as principal of McNally after decades? on the job. Let me know if you want to sign it and we'll work out a time. If you're not in Edmonton anymore, email me.
Happy Mother's Day!
Here are my weekly notes:
I have been blogging for about three and half years now, and lately I've been wondering about my posting habits. Do I tend to post at a certain time of day? How about a certain day of the week? I certainly don't try to - I just post when I have something to share.
I ran the numbers tonight, and here's what I found (click on a graph to enlarge). The percentage on the Y-axis means "percentage of my posts". For days of the week:
Looks like my post frequency drops off on the weekend, but not as much as I thought it might. For hours of the day:
Looks like I am definitely a late-afternoon/evening blogger! This is quite a bit different than the blogosphere as a whole.
When I do these numbers again, I'll have to figure out how many posts are made on days where I post more than once. I'd also like to find out what the average number of words/characters per post is, but that calculation is a little more involved.
Kind of a neat exercise, I have to say. It'll be interesting to see how these statistics change in another three and a half years!
It wasn't planned, but it was kind of nice to take a break from blogging this past week (with the exception of my post on Wednesday of course). If you're a blogger, it's important to post frequently, but it's also important to make sure you have the energy and desire to do so! I think I was lacking the energy a bit.
- My Mom joined Facebook today, so both of my parents now have Facebook accounts. My friend Todd, who was a long-time holdout, also joined. For those of you who still don't have an account...LAME! You're increasingly in the minority. That said, I'm not advocating giving in to peer pressure, and I'd love to hear why you haven't joined Facebook.
- Kim made her delicious shrimp dip on Friday - it was excellent! Sharon and I made a margarhita pizza, which was also pretty yummy.
- Looks like my prediction about the PS3 was dead on. The PS3 is doing so badly that it's creator, Ken Kutaragi, is retiring.
- Kryptonite is real - I knew it, haha!
- It didn't happen in 2006 like I thought it would, but Toyota is now officially the world's largest automaker.
- More Internet speed records were broken this week. Yawn...these sub-10 Gbps records are getting old...let's see this new 100 Gbps network that is in the works!
- What is Computer Science? This article does a fairly good job of explaining it.
- I can't believe it'll be May 1st on Tuesday...time just flies! On the plus side, that means Spider-Man 3 will be here in no time.
I've got my last two final exams tomorrow (ASTRO 122) and Wednesday (EAS 207), so things will be quiet around here for the next few days (as they were for the last few days). I'll probably still update my status on Twitter and Facebook though...only so many addictions can be put on hold ;)
Here are my weekly notes:
- Happy Earth Day! Forbes has a list of the world's greenest billionaires. New York plans to add one million new trees to the city's landscape by 2017. There's lots more Earth Day news at Yahoo.
- Mom and Dad left this evening...was good to see them this weekend! Congrats to Kim on graduating from MacEwan!
- Just watched Detroit eliminate Calgary in game 6, which makes me happy. Unfortunately Tampa Bay lost today. Go Vancouver tomorrow!
- So Windows XP is once again available on some Dell machines. It's not as big a deal as the headlines would have you believe!
- Finally saw Blood Diamond last night, and I liked it. The amazing thing is that there were so many storylines they could have followed!
- I suppose I should do some studying...two finals this week!
Here are my weekly notes:
- My Dad relaunched his SportsGuru blog this past week, and from time to time I'll make some posts there was well. Here's my first post.
- Tom came to town late Friday night for a visit and computer help. And Xbox ;)
- Went to Squires last night to celebrate Megan's birthday. It was fun!
- You probably saw this on the news, but Apple announced this week that they have sold 100 million iPods. Hardly surprising, but still impressive.
- Apparently the Twitter dev team thinks the performance of Ruby on Rails is horrible. Python, Java, and PHP are mentioned as alternatives. The author of the post says: "At one time, Java was almost unacceptably slow. That has changed." Has it really? I don't think it has. ASP.NET people!
- I am excited for Thursday - finally a new episode of Smallville!
- Just found this: the tech formerly known as WPF/E is now Silverlight.
I haven't been watching much TV lately, so if there were commercials for McDonald's new Chicken Snack Wrap, I didn't see them. The first time I had heard of the sandwich was when I stopped in for a quick dinner last night. Apparently I had good timing, because this press release is dated yesterday!
In an effort to meet increasing demands from Canadian customers for quality food they can eat on-the-go, McDonald's Canada today introduced a highly-portable snacking option with the launch of the new Chicken Snack Wrap™.
The new Chicken Snack Wrap, available at participating McDonald's restaurants across Canada beginning April 10 for only $1.79 plus tax, has warm, juicy seasoned and breaded all-white chicken breast meat, topped with a creamy ranch sauce, crisp lettuce, shredded Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, all freshly wrapped in a soft, flour tortilla.
I wasn't sure what to expect, but I gave it a chance. And I quite enjoyed it! It tastes real, as bad as that sounds, not like something you'd normally get at McD's. According to their nutrition calculator, the Chicken Snack Wrap will set you back 320 calories.
The only thing I would change would be to make it $1.39 like all of the times on the Real Deal menu.
Time for a brain dump:
- Happy Birthday Megan!
- The new and improved look for Facebook is now live. I like it so far...here is the redesign tour and associated blog post.
- I kind of like Jaiku. For one thing, it's a heck of a lot faster than Twitter. Once they have a properly working API, things will get interesting. Here's my page.
- Details on Zune 2.0 have been leaked!
- I quite like the song "You Are the One" by Shiny Toy Guns. Apparently it is used in the soundtrack for FIFA 07.
- Justin.tv probably pissed a lot of people off tonight. He finally did something interesting (he got laid) and he didn't even show it! Audio only haha. I was one of the 3000 people who saw the camera get turned away - thanks to the chatter on Twitter that alerted me to the drama (okay Scoble was right, Jaiku lacks the community that Twitter has).
- I wish Edmonton had a 24-hour Starbucks!
- I have a final exam tomorrow...
Long time no post! My mind has been elsewhere, I guess. Still been Twittering though! Here are my weekly notes:
- We launched a new Podcast Spot update yesterday.
- I tried the new Dulce de Leche from Starbucks on Thursday. It's not bad, but a little too sweet. Reminds me of the Caramel Corretto at Second Cup. I also discovered that PepsiCo bottles the Frappuccino drinks for Starbucks - never buying those again!
- Jane's gathering last night was fun! My photos are here, and there's more on Facebook.
- Sharon and I watched Jesus Camp on Friday. I won't even comment on the content, but the film itself was poorly made in my opinion - it felt as though there was no direction whatsoever. On the plus side, it felt much shorter than 84 minutes.
- We also tried Tzin, a new-ish restaurant here in Edmonton. It's tiny, and expensive. Otherwise it was pretty good. I love their hours of operation.
- Sensationalist headline of the week: Proof-of-concept iPod virus discovered. Puhleez.
- Both Edmonton and Carolina will be watching from the sidelines during the NHL playoffs this year. It's the first time in NHL history that both defending conference champs have failed to make the playoffs. Carolina is just the third team in NHL history to miss the playoffs the year after winning the Stanley Cup.
Here are my weekly notes for April Fool's Day 2007 (no pranks though, promise):
- Here's the Wikipedia entry for April Fool's Day, and here's a list of all the pranks that have appeared today.
- Megan had a gathering on Friday - here's the pictures. Jane is having one Saturday!
- I've heard rumors that Mick McGeough might not be allowed to work during the playoffs. I hope they are true - at some point, referees have to made accountable. This article describes just how bad McGeough is.
- Paul Brown from 100.3 The Bear is an idiot, and he admits it. Damn funny stand up comic too!
- Is Dyson going to be launching a Roomba killer? I hope so! Not because I dislike iRobot's Roomba, but rather, I want to see robots fight. Don't you? Bring on the robot wars!
- How do you get from New York to Dublin? You swim 3,462 miles according to Google Maps!
- I think I have finally figured out how to update Twitter and my Facebook status at the same time. Maybe I'll post some code this week.
Here are my weekly notes:
Here are my weekly notes:
Here are my weekly notes:
- I was at Blockbuster today and noticed that they are already taking pre-orders for Halo 3, which doesn't come out til November. Price was $79.99 with a $10 deposit required.
- Eric Rice did something interesting recently - he posted an introduction message on his blog, despite being a blogger for years. He posted it as a kind of "new reader orientation." Neat idea, I might copy that!
- I went for brunch with Sharon today to Barb & Ernie's Old Country Inn here in Edmonton. It was quite tasty, if a little cramped. Ernie is quite a character! We also wandered around the Art Gallery's Free For All event - pictures here.
- Interesting post on caffeine...it's something I should learn more about.
- Has Twitter tipped the tuna? Ross Mayfield thinks so.
- Went to see 300 on Friday with a bunch of people...I left impressed! It's not for everyone, but I rather enjoyed it. Speaking of movies, here's the 100 worst of the worst according to Rotten Tomatoes.
- The U-Pass referendum passed at the University of Alberta with 84% voting yes.
Here are my weekly notes:
- I really like Saliva's new song "Ladies And Gentleman." It could easily be used in a car commercial or something. I also like Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw" which is pretty much the complete opposite of Saliva's track.
- I thought Jay Leno wanted to retire? This article suggests he doesn't, and that Fox might be trying to court him.
- The student paper at the University of Alberta, The Gateway, has a new website. It doesn't work properly in Internet Explorer 7, nor in Opera 9. It also seems to be missing content...let's hope they are working on it!
- Spider-Man 3 on Heroes?! Sort of. A never-before-seen clip will air during tomorrow's broadcast of Heroes on NBC. And after the episode, NBC.com will stream a seven and a half minute scene from the movie.
- "Does what happens in the Facebook stay in the Facebook?" Intriguing video.
I took the bus downtown today, and it took the usual 20 minutes or so. I like to sit at the very back of the bus - not because I'm a punk or anything, but because it's easier to see the traffic and such. Most times I don't listen to music, so I guess if someone wanted to start talking to me they could. And that's what happened today.
A somewhat older gentleman got on shortly after I did, and came to the back of the bus and sat down a couple seats away from me. He was carrying a black shoulder bag with a bottle inside, and he took a drink. I noticed that his dirty hands shook quite badly. He kept rubbing his face too, like something was wrong. Can you visualize my first impression? Not the best right?
A few minutes later he leaned over and said "how's it going today?" If you've ever been on public transit and seen this kind of situation, this is the part where most people ignore the man. I said, "not bad, yourself?" and we started chatting. He told me that he was homeless, and that it's been a bad winter for him. He joked that "there is 7000 homeless people in Edmonton, or 7000 + 1 if you count me!" He told me that six months ago he had a stroke (I believe that's what he said) and that as a result the left side of his body was numb, and it also contributed to the shakes. He explained that he needed an address more than anything. He applied six weeks ago for what sounded like "hay shhh" that would give him $1100 a month to pay for a place to live. He said he was having problems though, because he needed three references and all he had was a bank account (the bank would be a reference). And he admitted that his drinking had resulted in him losing some friends who could have been references.
He didn't ask about me, which was fine. I think more than anything he just wanted someone to talk to. I got the impression that he knew he had problems, and that he was trying to overcome them but life just kept kicking him down. I hope in some small way my taking the time to listen made him feel better.
Here are my weekly notes, from Vancouver!
- Happy Birthday Kimmi!
- Dickson, Sharon and I went to Bridges in Granville Island tonight for dinner, and we met up with Robert Sanzalone. It was good!
- One of the "bigger" news stories this week was the planned merger of XM and Sirius. Does anyone care?
- Hillary has a blog! I didn't get a chance to do my weekly podcast today...I might do it tomorrow.
- I haven't opened my aggregator in days...I feel so out of the loop!
- I also don't really want to go home yet! Damn midterm on Wednesday evening.
Here are my weekly notes (this is probably the earliest in the day that I have ever posted them):
Here are my weekly notes:
Music
I've been listening to the wonderful album A Beautiful Lie by 30 Seconds To Mars a lot lately. I originally got it because of the song The Kill, but I guess you could say I have rediscovered the entire album recently. You've probably hear their other single, From Yesterday, on the radio. Good stuff.
Here are my weekly notes:
Here are my weekly notes:
- I'm giving a talk tomorrow night on podcasting to students taking a fourth year e-marketing course at the University of Alberta. Should be fun!
- I've praised Office 2007 in the past (minus Outlook 2007) but it's worth doing again. The new Word, Excel, and PowerPoint versions are amazing. Believe it or not, using them is fun! If you haven't had a chance to try them, you're missing out.
- Here's an interesting post from the writer of the Elk Cloner virus - the first known computer virus that spread "in the wild."
- Looking for a new blog to read? Check out It's a Rich, Full Life. The blog is written by Chris LaBossiere of ProTraining.com, the guys that won VenturePrize last year.
- If you're under 25 years of age and are interested in video, why not join UNICEF's one-minute video contest? The deadline is March 30th, 2007.
- Sir Richard Branson is launching a Virgin-branded stem-cell storage company. Parents will be able to put the umbilical blood of their newborn into cold storage. If I was having kids, I'd do it. Who knows what magic the scientists will come up with in the future!
- This is nuts...a 23 foot long python swallowed at least 11 guard dogs protecting a fruit orchard in Malaysia before being discovered.
You might think that is a funny question to ask, but I am serious. On the side of every box of Kraft Dinner, there is a little tab with a message that reads:
Press in tear back top/Enfoncer et tirer vers le haut
Problem is, it never works. I can never get the tab to push in. I have even tried using a knife to cut the edges of the tab in order to push it in, and it still doesn't work properly. As a result I always end up fighting with the top of the box.
What's the point of having the message if it doesn't work?
Here are my weekly notes:
Could they not come up with another name? Will people actually buy this coffee simply because it has the word "meth" in its name? I found this via Agenda Inc., in a post titled "First Cocaine energy drink, now Meth Coffee." That about sums it up - what in the world is going on with the marketing industry!
If you're just trying it for the first time, don't throw back five cups like regular coffee. Ease into it. Have a little. Feel the rush, the euphoria, the smooth-edged high. Then go for more, if you want. Yeah, get into it. Make a dance up...program in assembly language...write your first novel...plot to overrule the planet.
Of course, as the About page points out:
CONTAINS NO ACTUAL METHAMPHETAMINES, I.E., CRANK, GLASS, SPEED, CRYSTAL, BATU, SHABU, MABU, CRACKHOO, ETC. PRODUCT NOT WARRANTED TO CURE ECZEMA, EDEMA, ACNE, CONSTIPATION, TOURETTE'S, OR GUM DISEASE.
Thanks for clearing that up. For a second there I thought I could actually get coffee with meth in it!
What's next, the XTC Hamburger?!
I was quite interested to read Mark Cuban's latest post in which he explains why he doesn't wear a suit. I suppose this could have been on my five things post, but I have to admit, I don't like wearing a suit either. I wear one when it is "appropriate" obviously, but I've never quite gotten it. As Mark says:
Exactly what purpose does a suit serve ? Why in the world are so many people required to wear a suit to work ? Do the clothes make the man or woman in the western world today ? Does wearing a tie make us work harder or smarter ? Is this a conspiracy by the clothing, fabric or dry cleaning industry to take our money ?
Or are we all just lemmings following a standard we all know makes zero sense, but we follow because we are afraid not to ?
There are two things I don't like about suits. First, they aren't exactly the most comfortable things to wear. Second, the only purpose they seem to serve is to make everyone look the same. And that kinda sucks. As a society, I think it's safe to say we're beyond the need for assimilation, and we now value individuality. Where does a suit fit into that? It doesn't.
Of course Mark has an advantage over the rest of us. If he doesn't wear a suit, it doesn't matter, he's still rich, no one is going to fire him. What if I hadn't worn a suit to the business plan competitions? We probably would not have won, that's what.
Perhaps the only thing I like about wearing a suit is that it makes me look older.
Here are my weekly notes:
- We finally launched an update to Podcast Spot on Wednesday, as Dickson explains. We'll be turning on new features starting this week.
- This article is interesting, to say the least. Shows you how out of touch the older generations can be.
- Sure the fact that Beckham is going to play in the U.S. is big news, but it's not like it was totally unexpected. The move makes excellent business sense for all parties involved.
- It seems strange to me that Microsoft would be so flippant about the Zune having gaming capabilities in the next 18 months. I doubt the Zune will play games. It'll be a new device if anything.
- I forget where I came across this link, but CNN has a story about CBC's "Little Mosque on the Prairie". I haven't seen the show yet, but it sounds funny.
- My Dad is back to blogging again! One of the things he has been posting is fairly detailed recaps of Oiler games.
Here are my notes for the first Sunday of the year:
- I had four classes in the fall term, and until today I had marks for only three of them. I was waiting for fourth one because if I did really poorly, I would probably have to pick up another class this term. Tonight I finally got the mark, and it turns out it was my best of the term! I was worried it would be my worst mark. There's a message/lesson here...I just don't know what it is.
- On that note, classes resume tomorrow. Oh joy.
- I really like the redesigned Microsoft.com homepage. Hopefully it's here to stay and is not just a CES thing.
- Engadget has some pictures of the IPTV interface for Xbox 360. They also have a photo of the Windows Home Server device from HP.
- Who knew Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com had a thing for space? His new spacecraft startup looks pretty interesting. And I like the really personal message he posted (though he should probably have just created a blog).
- The update to Podcast Spot that we've been working on is coming along, though not as quickly as we'd like. Should be very soon though!
Mini-Review: Next by Michael Crichton
He's my favorite author and I had high hopes for his new book Next. And I was not disappointed. The book deals with genetic research and tells the somewhat connected stories of many characters, both humans and transgenic animals. I really enjoyed it! My only complaint, perhaps, is that it's not long enough. There are a few plot lines that aren't fully explored or explained, such as the sea turtles with glowing shells. Otherwise it's very well done. There is even a pseudo corporate site as part of the marketing for the book. And here is the official site.
Instead of predictions for the coming year, I've decided I'd rather just post some wishes. Lots of my predictions from last year were wishes anyway! So here they are, in no particular order.
I wish...
- ...the Edmonton Oilers could once again go all the way to the Stanley Cup Final after some truly impressive trade-deadline maneuvering by Kevin Lowe. And I hope they win this time!
- ...the Xbox Live Video Marketplace would come to Canada.
- ...that I could graduate and not have to go to school anymore!
- ...my parents would come to Edmonton for a bit in the summer!
- ...Spider-Man 3 could become the top box office movie of all time, eclipsing Titanic. Seriously, it's gonna be a kick ass movie!
- ...that Podcast Spot could become the number one podcast site on the net.
- ...that I could get a MacBook. And a new desktop with Vista.
- ...Microsoft would release Halo 3.
- ...that Microsoft would fix Outlook 2007!
- ...that by the time August rolls around I've found a good apartment downtown.
This will be a "living" list, which means I intend to come back and add to it later.
Like a lot of people, I had some fun a year ago and made some predictions for 2006. Now that the year is pretty much over, I guess I should see how I did:
- SORTA RIGHT: Canada did indeed win the World Juniors, but we didn't win the Olympic gold medal.
- SORTA RIGHT: In March, RIM settled its lawsuit with NTP, but it was later sued by Visto. I don't think that has been solved yet. On the consumer front, the BlackBerry Pearl is off to a great start!
- WRONG: Ah not even close. The Steelers won the Superbowl.
- WRONG: Well we did get the Zune which has wi-fi, but I guess I was a little early on this one.
- MOSTLY WRONG: Apparently Toyota is still #2 in the world, but GM continues to have financial troubles.
- MOSTLY RIGHT: The PS3 did in fact launch, and it was in fact really expensive. Too early to tell what level of success it will have.
- WRONG: Man, who would have thought the Oilers would get so close! I don't know why I picked Ottawa, they always choke.
- WRONG: Vista RTM'd in November, not September. I am sure the usual suspects made their usual claims.
- WRONG: Wishful thinking I'm afraid, but we did see Gears of War!
- WRONG: I think the iTunes/iPod combo still has a firm grip on the market, despite a (disputed) report that iTunes sales fell drastically in 2006.
- SORTA RIGHT: Apple launched their Intel-based machines very successfully, but I haven't found anything that says their market share has increased. Some say it has decreased.
- SORTA RIGHT: Michael Schumacher did retire, but unfortunately didn't win an 8th championship.
- RIGHT: I don't have a link, but I seem to recall reading about Symantec suing Microsoft over security stuff in Vista.
- MOSTLY RIGHT: Not sure about big numbers, but TV shows made a splash on iTunes, and there are now dozens of online video stores. And for Americans, TV shows and movies are available on Xbox Live. And in general it was a huge year for video, thanks to YouTube.
- WRONG: No one bought TiVo.
- WRONG: The Liberals didn't win the election.
- WRONG: Hard to say if Google stumbled in 2006. There wasn't a big mistake, but maybe the little ones will add up.
- RIGHT: Looks like The Da Vinci Code was #2 at the box office this year!
- GLADLY WRONG: Thank goodness, the US did not invade Iran. The UN did recently impose sanctions however.
- RIGHT: I think lots of podcasting companies (pluggd, Podcast Ready, etc.) found success in 2006, ourselves included!
On January 7th I posted about multi-core processors. While it wasn't in my list of predictions, it could have been:
Perhaps a year from now you won't ask someone how fast their computer is. Instead, you might ask, how many cores do you have?
I think I almost nailed that one! Except that for the moment, the question is usually "do you have a dual core?" Close enough :)
I'll probably come up with some predictions for 2007 later, and hopefully I do better next year!
I just re-read my last post, and I realize now that it's far wordier than I had intended. I guess that's what I get for writing while sick. I dunno what I caught, but I am still recovering from something awful. No upset stomach, thank goodness, but a total lack of energy, alternating periods of freezing to death and sweating to death, and aching everywhere, especially my shoulder.
Here's essentially what I wanted to say in the privacy post:
If you accept that your personal information will probably end up online at some point, you can stop wasting energy worrying about it. Then you can use that energy to contribute information you want people to see!
Ah, much better.
Happy New Year!
Last night I went with Sharon to check out the Bright Nights festival in Hawrelak Park. The event is always described as an "Edmonton tradition" and since I had never been before, I figured I should check it out. I came away less than impressed.
In general I'm short on patience, and it definitely wore thin waiting in the line of cars to drive through. It seemed to take much longer than it should have to get to the toll booth. So that was my first problem with event. My second problem was the advertising! Everywhere you looked - advertising. They tell you turn the radio to 98.3 so you can hear about the displays, but they lied. All you hear is advertising..."thanks to our sponsors" and crap. With all that advertising one would think they could lower the entry price, but no! Fortunately Sharon had a coupon, so it only cost us $10 as opposed to $15. That doesn't take into account the wasted gas, however.
And finally, the displays weren't that spectacular. Maybe I just had unrealistic expectations or something, but I didn't ooh and ahhh at any of them. I did like the penguins on a snowmobile though, because penguins rock! Overall, I'd have to say that Candy Cane Lane has better displays!
I could think of better ways to spend $10 and over an hour of my time. I can now say I've been to Bright Nights, but I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon.
I don't think I've ever really gone shopping on Boxing Day as I am usually not in the city. Everyone told me that it is madness, that there are just too many people. I decided to go anyway, but I waited until late this afternoon. I went to Best Buy and picked up three games and a CD (first time I have bought one in ages...). The line was crazy long, and there wasn't a lot of room to move throughout the rest of the store. It really was madness.
It seems to me that Boxing Day sales were much more heavily advertised this year than last. Will that translate into higher sales? Apparently last year broke records here in Canada:
Boxing Day 2005 was the single largest economic transaction day ever in the history of Canadian commerce (according to Visa). Individual big box stores can even gross over $1,000,000(CAN) on one single boxing day.
A lot of people don't like Boxing Day because it is too commercial. I could care less. If I can get a good deal, might as well go! I feel bad for the people that have to clean up the stores though - Best Buy was a disaster this afternoon.
Ah Christmas Eve, here at last. Here are my weekly notes:
I hope Santa is good to you tonight!
Nick Harris tagged me on Thursday, so here's my list (in no particular order):
- I failed STAT 222, with a zero on the midterm and a final grade of 2 (out of 9...a minimal pass would have been a 4). It was a few years ago now, but I still can't stand stats with calculus.
- I'm kind of a scrooge this time of year. Die seasonal music, die!
- I lived in Inuvik, NT for eight years. I was born in Edmonton though. In total, I have lived in five different cities/towns.
- I am somewhat afraid of heights. Just enough that I get uneasy.
- I have a man crush on Leonardo DiCaprio. Here's the Wikipedia entry for man crush, and here is the entry for Leo.
What the heck, here's a bonus entry: I am a part-time grammar Nazi.
And now my turn to tag: Larry Borsato, Megan Fowler, Justice Gray, Brock Debenham, and Ana Alcantara.
I just uploaded some pictures I took this evening of downtown Edmonton (from afar). I've been meaning to get out and try some long exposure shots, and tonight I finally got around to it. It was a little too windy perhaps, but I think the photos turned out okay. You can see them here.
Last night Jane had a small get-together at her house, which included a "re-gift" exchange! It was pretty neat - everyone brought something they didn't want, and then we each took turns choosing a gift. And you could "steal" a gift that someone had already chosen too. I ended up with a travel mug and hot chocolate. Thanks to Felicia, who took most of these pictures.
The party was also a potluck dinner. Andrew called chips and salsa early, so I decided at Sharon's urging to make a casserole with her. She picked a recipe for a farmer's casserole, and we made it just before heading to the party. It was simple to prepare, took a long time to bake, and ended up tasting pretty good. Here are some pictures.
'Tis the season for photos, and I expect I'll have lots more over the next week or so.
I watched the evening news at 6 tonight, and their lead story was on the holiday shopping rush. They had cameras around the city throughout the day filming the madness. I too went shopping today, but not until about 7 PM this evening (no I didn't just start, I was picking up some of the last items on my list). And actually, I think that might be the best time to go!
Traffic was light, the lines were very short, and everyone was surprisingly friendly during my time shopping this evening. I guess if you weren't sure what you were looking for, waiting until the 23rd isn't the best idea. If you know exactly what you're after however, as I was, then perhaps it is the best time to go!
Apparently today (the last Saturday before Christmas, or December 23rd, this year it happens to be both) is the busiest shopping day of the year!
Here are my weekly notes:
- Congratulations to Brock and Amanda on your engagement! Can't wait for the wedding!
- I noticed in the comments of this recent article on An Inconvenient Truth that most people seem tired of hearing about climate change. Granted it's a techy audience, but still, perhaps a sign of things to come?
- My last two final exams are both on Tuesday. I'll be so happy for it to all be over!
- The predictions for 2007 have already started to flow in. Here are Mark Anderson's, who claims a 93.5 percent success ratio over the years he's been doing predictions.
- On Thursday, Kim and Tom are heading north for Christmas, which means I need to get my shopping done fast.
- I went to see Oh Susanna! late last night at the Varscona with Sharon. It was quite entertaining! During one segment, Larry Yachimec was called up to the stage (along with a friend, didn't catch his name). For those of you that don't know, Larry is the guy in the WestJet commercial who can't find the channel that everyone is laughing at.
Here's a collection of interesting quotes I came across today:
"Microsoft’s latest operating system, Vista, which went on sale to corporate customers November 30 — can not run the latest version of Microsoft’s corporate database product, MS SQL Server."
Why, exactly, would you want to run a server product on a consumer operating system? Good job TechCrunch. It seems they have stopped thinking before posting.
"Americans drank more than 23 gallons of bottled water per person in 2004 — about 10 times as much as in 1980."
I wish I had been the one to "invent" bottled water. It must be such a cash cow.
"In Europe you can freely question, ridicule and deny Jesus Christ. The same is true for the prophet Muhammad, and nothing will happen to you. But offer a single question of the smallest part of the Holocaust and you face prison."
From former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke at the Iran-hosted conference to "review the holocaust" which just happens to have the longest name ever.
"I will say this: yes, it is in fact my position that the Amanda Across America, ABC News and HBO projects are all Rocketboom projects that were usurped out of Rocketboom by Amanda when she quit."
Looks like Andrew Baron and Amanda Congdon are at it again. Oh blogosphere drama, how we've missed you!
"People tended to get a bit excited ... and in some cases the control would come loose from their hands."
Nintendo announced they are recalling all controller straps for the Wii. I wonder how this one made it through testing! But you know what they say, there's no such thing as bad press.
I am a little late with my weekly notes, but here they are nonetheless:
- The sink in my main bathroom is plugged - seriously plugged. Drano didn't work. Taking apart the pipes underneath and cleaning them didn't work. Going to have to call a plumber...anyone know a good plumber?
- On Wednesday I posted about Google Checkout not liking Canada. Two days later the issue I was talking about was fixed.
- This boost in efficiency is definitely good news for solar power.
- My first final exam is Thursday. Needless to say I am not looking forward to it.
- I went to watch Dickson perform at a concert today (playing the piano of course). Even though I didn't understand most of the songs, it was still entertaining. And Dickson even played some Final Fantasy music!
- I also saw a couple movies recently. Last night I saw Borat (offensive, but hilarious) with Megan and Greg, and tonight Sharon and I watched Cars (awesome because Michael Schumacher played himself).
First weekend of December, and here my weekly notes:
- Dad is in town for work until Thursday, so that means I have a roommate! Along with Kim we went test driving some new Honda SUVs yesterday.
- I know this is just a concept laptop, but I still really want one.
- Turns out the second place votes came in handy for Ed Stelmach. He was elected late last nite as the new leader of the PC party and is therefore Alberta's premier, succeeding Ralph Klein.
- Sharon and I went to the Festival of Trees on Thursday. It was interesting, but I don't think I'd go again, unless I had kids. It's very much a family-oriented event.
- Turns out Apple isn't trying to protect use of the word 'podcast' after all.
- Last day of classes is on Wednesday - hooray!
Just finished reading: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
What a quick, entertaining read! It must have been hard to follow The Tipping Point with another book, and Blink isn't as good, but it's still worth a read. It could have been longer, with a better closing chapter, but Blink still left with me with much to think about. It has also made for some good discussions!
I went for dinner earlier tonight with Megan and some of her family to celebrate her second University degree (today was the convocation). So first of all, congratulations Megan! You now have two degrees before I have my first.
The dinner was good (Olive Garden) but the discussion was better. We talked about all sorts of things, but almost all the topics were problems that we were trying to figure out the cause of. Do students do poorly in school because of their parents? Why can't you apply for a passport online? Things like that. I don't think we were able to agree once! The discussion was really lively and interesting though.
As I thought about it more on the way home, it occurred to me that maybe there would be less problems for us to chat about if there was more thoughtful discussion taking place. A lot of times it seems like decisions are made without any real thought or discussion going into them.
Anyway, something to think about. Time to work on the essay I have due tomorrow!
Here are my weekly notes:
Just finished reading: The End of Poverty by Jeffrey D. Sachs
It took me quite a while to read this book, because I did so very slowly, reading only a few passages every now and then. Despite being an enjoyable read, there's a lot of information to digest. Professor Sachs at times seems narcissistic, yet at others seems genuinely passionate about his work. All in all the book gave me much to think about, and left me with a sense of optimism.
Unless you read my blog in an aggregator of some sort, you probably noticed an updated color scheme and picture on my website today. I was getting bored with the blue so I decided to change it. I also tweaked things a bit so that it's easier to change this sort of thing in the future. Thanks to everyone who has commented on the look already - some of you like the changes, some of you don't. The picture is a little too formal for my tastes, so my Dad has agreed to take some new ones for me when he's in town in a couple weeks.
I also added a find me online feature recently. Basically it's a list of links to my various profiles around the web. I haven't done it yet, but I am going to clean up the sidebar as well. It's horribly out of date, and I think I could be using the space better.
Any other feedback, suggestions, or requests?
It's Sunday, which means time for notes!
- Yesterday was Remembrance Day. Just another Remembrance Day. I agree with Darren - this holiday/event/day/ritual is stale. We need to somehow breathe new life into it.
- Tom was up from Red Deer with a friend for the weekend to visit. It was nice to see him! We sure played a lot of Xbox 360 this weekend. He totally schooled me in NHL 2K7...I'll have to practice for the rematch.
- Speaking of video games, Engadget has a really great coverage roundup post for the three newest consoles.
- Last night my good friends Jane and Andrew celebrated their birthdays in a joint dinner at The Mongolie Grill. I had never been there before, and while the food was good, the service sucked. Here are some pictures from the dinner. Looking at them just now, I realize I don't look very open and positive - my arms are crossed in almost every one!
- At first I wondered why NBC gave the green light to a full season of "Studio 60". Then it hit me: they've got nothing better! That said, Mark Cuban makes a good point. If funny videos like Mentos in Diet Coke are the future (and maybe they are), why is Google/YouTube spending money to license content? The answer is that right now, they need it. Crappy as it might be, millions of people still watch "Studio 60", and advertisers are all about eyeballs.
- The Xmas season officially started for me with the arrival of Starbuck's red cups this past week.
Before I get started with this week's notes, I have to mention the MacT Relief Fund. Yes, you can make a donation to help MacT, the head coach of the Oilers who was fined $10,000 for his comments about McGeough's blunder the other night. Fittingly, if MacT doesn't want the money, it will go to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. It sickens me that McGeough is getting off so easy. His actions the other night simply are not acceptable for a professional level official. By doing nothing, the NHL is basically saying that it's okay for officials to make calls without a clear view, from locations on the ice where you couldn't possibly see the play. It completely sucks, and fining MacT is not the right course of action.
Mini Review: The Prestige
Sharon and I went to see The Prestige last night. I enjoyed it, but you have to pay attention. The film jumps around quite a bit, so at times it is hard to tell what is present day, and what is happening in the past. I totally didn't figure it out until the very end though, so I was happy about that. Of course, once the movie is over, you feel like an idiot because the clues were there the whole time. David Bowie really impressed me, despite having a fairly small part. On the whole, I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars.
Justice decided to play the "hypothetical situation" game today, with a post asking what you should do if a great idea hits you. I started out writing a comment, but it got ridiculously long, so here's a post instead. First, I'll answer the questions Justice included in his post, then I'll suggest some of my own questions. Not that you need to be reminded, but I'll say it anyway - I'm not an expert on these matters, so take this advice with a grain (or jug) of salt!
Okay, so you've got a great world-changing idea for a software application/business. What now?
Do you even tell *anyone*?
Yes! This is the easiest of the questions to answer. I think you have to tell someone, preferrably many people. You might think your idea is amazing, and maybe it is, but you won't know until you get someone else's opinion. Be prepared though, an honest opinion from someone can have you hitting the ground hard.
If/when this occurs to you, what do you do?
Well, tell someone first. Get another opinion. After that, decide if you really want to proceed. I don't like doing things half-assed, and I'm sure you don't either, so this is really an "am I all in or not" kind of decision. It's not quite the point of no return, but once you commit, you had better follow through.
How do you get started?
In the case of software (or most things of a technical nature), you need to help people visualize your idea. That means getting a prototype or mockup or something going as quickly as possible. It'll help you refine the idea, and it'll make it easier to attract help later on. If you don't know any programming languages, I guess you should learn one of those first ;)
Do you quit your job immediately and begin laboring intensely to bring this to fruition?
This is a difficult question to answer. It comes down to opportunity cost I suppose. It really depends on your individual situation. If you can quit your job and still manage to keep a roof over your head and coke, er, food on the table while working on your idea, I say go for it. Be prepared to give up any social life you might have however!
One caveat is to make sure you have something else going on in your life. If all you do is work on your idea, you're going to burn out. You need to be able to take a break every now and then.
Do you immediately rush out and try to gather every talented and qualified person you know to begin building what you understand will eventually end up altering the world for the better?
In short, no. First, get that prototype/mockup going. Once that's done, you can think about adding to the team. Here are some of the things you need to consider:
- A large team can actually slow you down!
- Waiting too long to bring in other developers may mean they spend all their time learning what you've already done before they can become productive.
- Make sure you're ready to share the glory if you decide not to go it alone.
- A small number of people with specialized, complementary skills can be excellent for development.
- How will you pay everyone?
What other questions should you be asking?
Well, there's a bunch. Here are some that came to mind for me:
- What problem am I solving? This one you need to be able to answer right away.
- Do I want to be rich or do I want to change the world? This will have an impact on how you decide to pursue the idea. If you're lucky, you'll get both.
- If you decide to go for it, will you get a Pareto efficient outcome? Of course it won't be perfectly Pareto optimal, but that should be the goal. If your family has to suffer greatly for this to work, maybe reconsider.
- How much is this going to cost me? In dollars, time, etc.
- Are you prepared to hear "no"? Because you will, a lot.
- Do you value sleep? You'll get less and less if you go after your idea.
- If this becomes a real business, are you ready to give up control one day? You'll likely need to bring in outside help, investors, etc.
There's dozens of other potential questions you could ask. Most of them don't need to be asked right away, however.
So, what now?
I really believe you need to do two things: create a visualization of your idea, and get as many opinions as you can. After you've done those two things, you'll have a better handle on the idea, and you'll be in a much better position to answer any questions.
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
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!
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?
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
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.
Today was the first official day of the Expo, and it was definitely intense. And by that I mean, much busier than last year in terms of foot traffic. The trade show floor was open from 10 AM until 5 PM, but by the end of it, Dickson and I were pretty drained.
- Today was excellent for spreading the word about Podcast Spot. Dickson even managed to snag an interview! The portion with Dickson starts at 19:35 and runs for almost exactly 8 minutes.
- I really like that the Denny's here is more diner-like than the ones back home. I don't like that their iced tea is actually tea on ice. I prefer the fake sweetened stuff :)
- If you came by the booth and we told you that the upload limits on the cards was wrong, I apologize again, it was actually correct. We must have been tired this morning when we looked at it, but when we finally got Internet to check the website, we realized there were in fact no printing errors!
- We managed to get some more notepads today, so we'll be bringing some home for those of you that have requested one!
- I have some photos and video and stuff to upload, but the Internet connection is just too painfully slow, so I am gonna wait until we're back on Sunday.
- The guys organizing the Expo have been great, except for "the power incident" today. We didn't need to power anything at our booth, but all booths have a lamp at the top for the banner, and we were going to turn it on. Thing is, they wanted to charge us $90 to power the damn lamp. So I said screw that. Highway robbery.
We'll be at the Expo all day again tomorrow, so stop by and say hello if you're in the Ontario, CA area!
Time for my weekly notes again!
- We're launching tonite! Yay!
- Congratulations Chu and Michelle on your engagement! Here are some photos from our small get together the other day.
- Andrea and Felicia are in London. They are travelling Europe for a month. I'm not jealous. No really.
- Apple to trademark the word podcast? What a bunch of morons. I wonder if their PR department will do some damage control this week.
- What a cool way to visualize the blogosphere!
- I got a postcard in the mail from the fine folks producing the Jackass 2 movie a couple weeks ago. They wanted to know my shoe size, so I emailed it to them. And to my surprise, they sent me Jackass 2 shoes! Coolest swag ever! You can see them here.
Wow, long time no post! I've been pretty busy getting Podcast Spot ready for launch, among other things, so my apologies. Things should return to normal on Monday. Though I might get around to posting some stuff later tonight or tomorrow.
You know the saying, "you learn something new every day"? Well it's true. And over the last few days in particular, I have learned that Safari is an incredibly buggy browser.
Damn it's cold outside! Here are my weekly notes:
- Winter is definitely on the way. There's too much yellow outside already!
- Podcast Spot is looking pretty spiffy if I do say so myself! It will be public late this week if all goes according to plan. Brad Gibson was kind enough to mention Podcast Spot in his latest Bradcast. Thanks Brad and welcome back to the podosphere!
- Like Kyle, I attended the first Edmonton on Rails meeting on Thursday. Here's a photo of our small get together.
- Here in the best province in Canada (you know it's true) we've experienced a 43% rise in GDP between 2002 and 2005. "That puts Alberta's growth rate not far behind that of China's." Pretty crazy! China is of course far and away the fastest growing large economy in the world.
- Cold weather means hockey! As I write this, the Oilers are beating Phoenix 3-0 at the start of the third period in tonight's first pre-season game. They've got Torres, Peterson and Lupul on a line together.
- It seems everyone is talking about the new iPod Nanos, which I admit, are pretty cool. Even more cool is that they have really good recording capabilities now!
- You can find some very interesting stuff in China. Like this building, designed to look like a cell, complete with mitochondria and everything. Kinda creepy, no?
As usual (well when he decides to post anyway), Dickson has an interesting post up on his blog, this time about the CBC's poll of the greatest Canadian inventions. There are 50 different inventions on the list, and CBC wants you to cast your vote. A special two-hour show featuring the inventions and a bunch of famous Canadians will air on January 3rd, 2007.
Here are my top ten picks (in no particular order):
- Bloody Ceasar - Seriously, where would we be without this fine drink?
- Canadarm - Showing them how it's done in Space, since 1975.
- Zipper - It's the one thing I can properly operate after all those Caesars!
- Poutine - When made right, super yummy.
- Electron Microscope - Don't forget about the small stuff!
- Snowblower - Nothing says Canadian like a huge machine to move the fluffy white stuff around.
- Insulin - A very worthy invention. Until the next major breakthrough renders it obsolete.
- Wonderbra - I feel very proud to be Canadian right now.
- Instant Replay - Though less important now thanks to TiVo and other PVRs, this is still a pretty cool invention.
- Java Programming Language - Java is important to me for two reasons: it's initial success partially led to the creation of .NET, and it's continued bloat/politics/other problems clearly demonstrate why .NET is so much better now ;)
There's some really interesting inventions on the list, some really old, and some more modern. It will be interesting to see how they are compared on the show.
What are your favorites?
Here are my weekly notes:
- In some ways I find it hard to believe that is has been five years since 9/11. Yet in other ways, it seems as though it happened just yesterday. I suppose that feeling of disorientation is normal with such a poignant event.
- Do you love putting people on the spot? Asking the tough questions? Now's your chance! Tris Hussey of Qumana is running for a position on the CIRA board (they look after domains in Canada). You've got until Thursday to post your questions on their forum. Tris is a great guy, and I know he'll do a fine job if elected.
- Here's an excellent article on Sony and the position in which the company finds itself. Business people like to use the phrase "we're betting the company on this", even if they don't mean it. Sony however, really does seem to be betting the company on the PS3. Not that I think Sony will go away if the PS3 flops or anything, but the PS3 could be the difference between a resurgent and successful Sony and a "let's take a step back and evaluate everything to almost start over" Sony.
- I'm a big fan of del.icio.us, so I was happy to see founder Joshua Schachter was named the Technology Review's 2006 Innovator of the Year.
- The audio enhancements that have gone into Windows Vista look incredible.
- Hungry? Check out this gigantic hamburger. The final, assembled burger weighed in at 29.75 pounds.
One thing that really interests me is the different ways in which you can visualize information. Most often, text is simply not the best way. A picture really is worth a thousand words! Audio and video or animation of some sort can also be quite helpful in trying to comprehend something that may be difficult using just words. A good example is this post put together by Matt at the Signals vs. Noise blog:
Science presents some of the most interesting challenges for information designers. How do you help people grasp sizes, distances, and ratios that are nearly unimaginable?
You've got to check out some of the images he found, especially if you're a teacher or parent. There's some really interesting stuff! My favorite is the image of our solar system.
Here are my weekly notes for the first Sunday of September:
- As soon as this post is done, we're going to publish a bunch of changes for Podcast Spot and send out more tester accounts! We're a little late sending the accounts out, but we took the extra time to implement some new features :)
- There were two, count 'em two, articles on CNET this week (here and here) about fiber optics improving lighting technology. Is the lightbulb dead? Probably not for a while.
- An interesting retrospective on President Bush and 9/11 from The Economist.
- Tom leaves for Red Deer tomorrow! We went down this weekend to sort out his place, so he has somewhere to live now. And his room has the largest non-walk-in closet I have ever seen! Good luck Tom! Oh, and study hard and all that jazz ;)
- Message to Kim: are you reading this? are your residents treating you well? getting any sleep?
- Message for Megan: where oh where is Megan's favorite book!? If you have it, let her know! (wouldn't it be awesome if someone actually read this and gave her back her book? haha...unless I have it...probably not gonna happen.)
- Not sure when it was announced, but I stumbled across the Web 2.0 Expo this past week. Looks interesting!
- Most awesome music video ever!
Had a busy last couple of days that kept me from the computer for the most part. I was moving stuff on Monday, and took my brother to Red Deer yesterday to look for a place to live (and the trip was successful I think). Dickson was going to help me move the rest of my stuff today, but the rain put the kibosh on that plan! Thus, I'm back in the office today, Starbucks in hand.
Lots more messages to go through, then it's back to work on Podcast Spot! And maybe some blogging too :)
It's been a very busy day, which for me started at 5:30 this morning. Here are some notes:
- Dad came and went this weekend. He was here getting some stuff for the new house in Yellowknife!
- I've been at J&M;'s most of the day today, helping them pack and prepare for their year long trip to Salzburg. They've got a blog too, so check it out! Tomorrow's the big day.
- Dickson returns tomorrow. He's going to help me move, and we're going to do some big updates to Podcast Spot this week too! I'm really excited for adding more testers and features/updates.
- I am not, however, excited for my last year of University which starts on the 6th. I think.
- And here's at least one non-personal item - Google is launching a new service that sounds a lot like Office Live.
I've had so many things to blog about, but simply haven't been around enough the last few days to do so! I guess that's what happens around this time of year. Maybe starting testing for Podcast Spot at the same time as I am moving and getting ready to go back to school wasn't such a good idea! Not that the testing is going badly or anything, on the contrary, it's been great so far. We're expanding it next week which I'm pretty excited about!
Here are some things I have been thinking about:
- I did take some time to see a couple Fringe plays this week. I intend on writing a review of one of them, as a friend from high school wrote and starred in it!
- I knew Apple would announce a recall sooner or later! The cause was the same as for Dell - Sony batteries.
- I don't know why everyone is so attached to the former planet Pluto. I think it's great that we have accepted that objects we found decades ago are less like planets and more like other, smaller objects. And as the headline reads, solar system's "loss" is collectors' gain (quotes are mine, its not really a loss, just a new label!)
- I'm sad that SOAP didn't make more money at the boxoffice. It was still an awesome experience though!
- Have you heard "Candyman" by Christina Aguilera? Catchy song! Makes me want to dance, though I'm hopeless. Either "Candyman" or "Hurt" will be her next single according to Wikipedia.
I'm off soon to pick up my brother from the airport! My Dad also is coming to town for the weekend. I start moving Sunday, and Dickson returns to Edmonton on Monday. Should be a crazy next few days!
I was hard at work on getting Podcast Spot published for testing, so I didn't post any notes yesterday. Here they are today instead!
- Closed beta testing for Podcast Spot just started! I'm very excited :)
- I went camping on Friday and Saturday with Megan, Greg, and some others. It was fun! I took a few pictures.
- My sister, Kim, returned to Edmonton on Saturday evening! She's now in training to be an RA at Grant MacEwan.
- Remember the Windows 95 launch? I don't - I was too young to care I think. Here are some great old commercials though!
- Get a graphic for your name, Web 2.0 style.
- I've definitely got to look into Windows Live Contacts a bit more. Looks very interesting!
I'm leaving here in a few minutes to go camping. I'll be gone until late tomorrow night. Podcast Spot is pretty much ready for testing now, so accounts will go out late Sunday.
Have a great weekend!
Another week, another round of notes!
- So Dickson left this last week, and thus, I am slightly behind on getting the testing started. I also took a little break today to work on something else - more on that tomorrow.
- Went to see Step Up tonight. The critics seem to have hated it, while the users (the fans) seem to have loved it, judging by the Rotten Tomatoes ratings. I thought it was like most other dance movies (a poor guy makes something of himself through dance) but it was enjoyable! I was surprised to see that Mario had a role. Oh and that one girl from all the Missy Elliot videos too. If you just want to sit there and see some cool dancing, this is the movie for you.
- You know how I like wireless everywhere. Now, behold, environmentally friendly wireless everywhere!
- I realized just how big MySpace.com has become the other day, when I saw players in a public TFC server using MySpace addresses as their gamer tags. For those of you who don't know, TFC is Team Fortress Classic, a mod for the original Half-Life. I used to be in a clan, a long time ago. I don't ever remember seeing websites as gamertags!
- As my Mom pointed out to me, the PC turned 25 years old on Friday! It's kind of hard to imagine how the world would look today without computers.
- I'm not sure I've used any of these, but apparently they work - ten sure-fire headline formulas that work.
Today is the first time in weeks that I can go to Yahoo! News and not see something about the Israel-Lebanon conflict as the top story. Of course, as the fighting continues, that also means something bad has happened, or almost happened. As you've undoubtedly heard, British police foiled a plot to once again turn airplanes into missiles. If you're travelling anywhere today, I definitely feel sorry for you. While I think it's good they stopped these madmen, I have to echo Darren's sentiments - when will it end? Will the world ever be devoid of terrorists?
Dickson leaves for vacation today - have a good time man! We've been working really hard lately to get Podcast Spot ready for testing and, ultimately, for launch, so I am sure Dickson will enjoy the break. His departure means that I am holding down the fort until he gets back at the end of the month, so let's hope I don't break anything!
For the record, it appears you can spell illegible with either one or two l's. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary lists the word as 'ilegible', and the American Heritage Dictionary lists it as 'illegible'. I like the second way, though I am not sure which is more commonly used. I find I like the American way of spelling lots of things - it's 'color' not 'colour'!
Despite being a self-described "Intel guy", we purchased a dual-core AMD processor the other day for a new machine we were building here at Paramagnus. So far the performance is right on par with my dual-core Intel. The one advantage the AMD seems to have is that it uses far less power. That advantage disappears when compared to the new Core 2 Duo chips, however, which we intend to purchase as soon as the price is a little more reasonable (and availability is better).
I had a lunch meeting today at The King and I (a Thai restaurant here in Edmonton), which I had only been to once before (for dinner). They have great food, and I have to say, lunchtime is definitely the time to go. Their portions are almost as big as the dinner portions, yet they are about five dollars cheaper.
Can you believe it's August already? I can't. Seems like the summer has just flown by! On the plus side, it has been pretty productive for me so far.
- Busy day ahead for tomorrow - let the Podcast Spot testing begin!
- Ever been on a date where you didn't talk, but only typed to one another? Me neither. Apparently it isn't that unusual, however. The so called "Netorati" even have a name for it - "couple surfing". I have witnessed this first hand in the past, and I must say, it adds an interesting element to the atmosphere in the room. I'm sure it somehow improves the couple's communication too.
- Four words: SNAKES ON A PLANE. I can't wait for the movie! I never use MySpace, but I did update my profile to use the SOAP theme. Do yourself a favor and watch these amazing early auditions (fake of course). You won't be disappointed!
- Looks like .NET 3.0 might RTM within the next two months!
- Apparently half the United States still thinks Iraq had WMDs. If you're an American, you better hope the country's future leaders are from the other half.
I think I have the HDR bug, if there is such a thing. Since discovering HDR photos on Flickr, I have been wanting to try my hand at the effect, as I think it looks really neat! If you don't know, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Here's an explanation from Wikipedia:
HDRI provides the opportunity to shoot a scene and have total control of the final imaging from the beginning to the end of the photography project. An example of this control is that it provides the possibility to re-expose. One can capture as wide a range of information as possible on-location and choose what is wanted later.
What I did was use the auto-bracketing feature on my Canon Digital Rebel to produce three shots - one over exposed, one normal, and one under exposed. I then followed a couple of the tutorials I found on Flickr and used Photomatix and Photoshop CS2 to produce the final images.
I am not entirely satisfied with the results, but I figure the two HDR photos I made (which you can see here) are a good first attempt. I found that images with the sun directly in them (you know where you get that glare?) do not work well. Also, you really should use a tripod or at least have the camera on something solid so it doesn't move.
I'm determined to get good at this (as I just love the final result of some of the photos out there) so I'll follow that common refrain - practice makes perfect! Practice and experimentation. If you have any tips, I'd love to hear them.
UPDATE: What I am striving for, is a photo as good as this one.
While at CapitalEx last week, Sharon and I walked past a Gillette Fusion kiosk where they were handing out free razors. I took one, and finally tried it yesterday. I've been using the M3Power since it came out, and I didn't think that the two extra blades on the Fusion would be able to do a better job - and I was right. As Darren already proved a couple months ago, five blades don't make a difference (at least not that I can tell).
That said, the Fusion did feel much smoother against my face than the M3Power. Maybe this is because there are no battery-powered vibrations, or maybe it's the ergonomic design of the Fusion, I don't know. In any case, I'm not sure it's enough to make me switch.
I'm a little late for these notes, though I have been doing pretty good lately.
- Cell phones that work on Wi-Fi networks, coming soon to a store near you?
- Lots of great music out lately! I'm really liking Mobile's "See Right Through Me" and Stone Sour's "Through Glass" at the moment. But why stop there? I really like Breaking Benjamin's "The Diary of Jane" and Lostprophets' "Rooftops" as well.
- I went to see Pith! earlier tonight at The Fringe Anniversary Showcase, which featured "four of the most memorable performances from the last 25 years of Fringing!" Jeff Haslam was tremendous in the play, and after it was over, Sharon even had a "Ron Peterson sighting" which I haven't heard the end of since. The 25th anniversary of the Fringe starts August 17th here in Edmonton.
- It's official - .NET has beaten J2EE. Though I'm a big .NET fan, I find these little battles kinda funny.
- Does anyone know anything about HDR photography? I was eager to try it out, so I made a quick stab at it, but I think this is one effect that will take quite a bit of practice.
- BlogTalkRadio looks like an interesting new mixture of blogging with audio.
Here are my weekly notes:
- You really must look at this post from Jason Kottke. Everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words, yet sometimes it's hard to find a good example. Well, here's a great example.
- I absolutely hate that PodcastingNews.com can't put the important links from a story right inside their RSS feed. If it's a full-text feed, include the damn links! If you want to make me visit your site so you can display advertising, don't offer full-text feeds, and I won't subscribe, it's that simple.
- Have you seen those "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" commercials? I'm sure you have. This is what I think of every time I see them. How about you?
- Looking for podcasts? Here's yet another directory. I really wonder why there are so many directories when so few tools of creation for podcasting actually exist. Makes me want to release Podcast Spot right now! (We're in testing now, by the way, so very close. I'm really excited to start sharing our project with everyone!)
- This was one of the best Rocketboom episodes I have seen. Clever and funny!
- I'm just about finished reading Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat. Great idea/theory/strategy, and the first half of the book is really excellent. I think I could probably have skipped the second half of the book though, it tends to go on and on without offering anything new.
I've been programming lots, which is why I haven't posted as much as usual. Here are my weekly notes:
- Here's a really great video I came across from the Inside CBC blog. It's the first news report CBC TV did about the Internet, back in 1993. I think it's funny how they refer to it as "Internet" and not "the Internet".
- Went to Delux Burger Bar tonight, and had the grilled cheese. There portion was quite small, though there were lots of fries in these interesting little shopping carts (instead of say, a plate). The scenery is great, and they give you cotton candy with your bill!
- Addicted to video games? You might want to visit the new rehab center in Amsterdam.
- Mark Evans linked to the Canadian Tech Mob (basically a webring), which is an effort to show that "Canada kicks ass in tech and innovation." I thought it was cool until I saw the website. No showing off tech and innovation here. Admirable idea, but seriously, the website looks like it was made in 1995.
- YouTube serves over 100 million videos a day now. Staggering isn't it?
- Went to see Pirates 2 last night, and while it was an enjoyable movie, it is a complete setup for part 3. There's lots of great action and stuff in this one, don't get me wrong, but you're left with that sense of "damn, now I have to wait a year."
- As you may have heard, Intel unveiled their new Core 2 Duo processors this past week. By all accounts, the new chips look amazing! And as an Intel nut, I am glad they have reclaimed the lead from AMD.
Megan and I got back from Lisa's party late yesterday, and I've been trying not to move around too much ever since. I learned a valuable lesson this weekend - sunscreen is your friend! Yep, my legs and arms got a little too much sun. Oh well, that's what happens when you spend all day in front of the computer and then venture outside haha!
- Here are some pictures from the party. Thanks for having me Lisa!
- Zidane...what where you thinking? Italy won the World Cup today on penalty kicks, and Zidane was red carded in the extra time period for headbutting one of the Italians. The shot of him heading to the dressing room, walking right past the World Cup trophy, was very telling.
- Montreal and Toronto are getting really fast fiber Internet connections to residential areas, similar to what has been happening in the US. I wonder when such great things will move west? They aren't too expensive either.
- If it's true, I know what I want for Christmas/Birthday!
- I think something needs to be done about the oil companies. There's no reason that the gas I buy for my car, which is refined less than 40 KM from the gas station, should cost almost ten cents more than gas does in Toronto. And I wish the US would just get it over with and do something about North Korea, if only so that prices don't jump every time Kim Jong-il wants to get his gun off.
- Will there really be a talking iPod?
- Big week for my parents this last week! They officially decided they are moving from Inuvik to Yellowknife, which I think will be great for them (even though it's still in the north). Along with my brother and sister who are back in Inuvik for the summer, they had a garage sale this weekend. Apparently about fifty people lined up before it started yesterday at noon. I told my parents, "your reputation precedes you! everyone knows you guys have lots of stuff, and thus they'll probably find something good." Hopefully my Dad will post something about the move soon (as Megan noted, he seems to have taken a little blogging break).
I didn't touch a computer at all yesterday, which has got to be some sort of record for me. I also went most of the day without any Coke, which resulted in a headache! Anyway, as a result, I didn't post my weekly Sunday notes, so here they are, for today instead:
- Congrats to Violet & Vincent! If anyone has additional pictures and you want help posting them, let me know.
- I must have missed the link when I saw the trailer, but Joe Wilcox points out that the upcoming movie "John Tucker Must Die" does not have a URL, other than it's MySpace page. More proof that MySpace is growing in value - when will it end? Or will it? I want to see the movie simply for Sophia Bush, though Arielle Kebbel looks really pretty too.
- Excellent piece on the NYTimes website today about Google and their inventiveness (is that a word?). There is speculation at the end that Google will delve into microprocessor design, if you can believe that. Worth a read.
- With the recent renaming of WinFX to the .NET Framework 3.0 comes a brand new and very useful website.
- Maybe Renault/Nissan can save GM? I never would have guessed it either.
- Apparently Space Shuttle Discovery is a "Go" for tomorrow's scheduled launch - take that, foam! Full coverage is available from the NASA website.
Here are my weekly notes:
- My parents are back in Inuvik now, as is Tom who went up for the summer at the same time. It was nice to see them for a short while!
- I simply cannot wait for Superman Returns! I'm really looking forward to the movie. It opens June 28th.
- Warren Buffet is giving over $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Are we at the beginning of a major shift in world philanthropy? Sure would be nice if more extremely wealthy people joined the cause.
- This picture is just creepy.
- A simpler controller for the Xbox 360 a la Atari? That would be kinda neat I think!
- Beckham scored a lovely goal today to put England into the quarter-finals against Portugal.
I've been so busy this week I haven't posted much. So I am going to be lazy (or efficient!) instead. Here are a few recent things that I found interesting enough to share:
- Happy Birthday Sharon :) For your birthday, I'm going to create you a blog and make you start writing it! Haha!
- Pronger wants out of Edmonton? Say it ain't so. Pronger was definitely the MVP this season for the Oilers, and was totally shafted by not being considered for the Norris. The report cites "personal reasons" and throws the idea of a Pronger for Luongo trade out there. I'll be following this one closely.
- I don't think government (except maybe the UN) should have any regulation over the Internet, but I also think we need net neutrality. This very well done cartoon (via Larry Borsato) argues against net neutrality. The argument in the cartoon is fundamentally flawed however, as it assumes that unless VOIP or movies have their own pipes that quality will suffer, and there will be "traffic jams". If you believe that, you obviously don't know much about the Internet and its history. I'll probably write more on this later.
- Hey teachers, if you think cheating is bad here in Canada, check out what happens in China.
- My parents have been in town for the last couple days - they leave tomorrow. It has been good to see them!
More later!
Here are my weekly notes:
- Today was Father's Day, so Happy Father's Day to my Dad, and to all Dads out there!
- I don't know for sure, but I think my recent .NET Wizards post is the longest I have ever written on this blog. I'll try to be more succinct in the future ;)
- Anyone hear Oakenfold's new track "Faster Kill Pussycat"? It features Brittany Murphy - yes that Brittany Murphy. It's a pretty good song actually!
- There have been a lot of "looking back on Bill" posts since Gates made the big announcement. I particularly like this one.
- I noticed today that Gnomedex has managed to get Senator John Edwards to keynote this year's edition of the conference. Unfortunately I won't be going this time, but I'll be eagerly watching online for posts/pictures/podcasts to trickle out.
- Game 7 is tomorrow night. According to Epcor (our city's water/power utility) water usage in Edmonton increases by millions of litres in between periods, and drops to abnormally low levels when the puck is in play. GO OILERS GO!!
If you're friend of mine here in Edmonton, you've probably had the unfortunate experience of discussing climate change, especially the particular variety known as "global warming", with me at some point. In general, I don't dispute that the globe is warming, but I do dispute that global warming is entirely caused by humans and poses a great threat, for the simple reason that we don't have enough data.
We can show temperatures are rising (albeit over a very short period of time, so we don't know if it's normal or not) but we have absolutely no clue as to why. Sure there are many thoughts and ideas, but the fact that there are so many, and that they are so varied, only proves that we have absolutely no idea why the globe is warming. To blame it all on humans releasing CO2 seems a bit premature, and I hate that people jump on the bandwagon without thinking.
Here's another reason we don't know: the ozone layer. You might have heard over the last couple years that the ozone layer is healing. The fact is, it healed much faster than scientists predicted. That leads to many questions - if it healed up so quick, how big was the problem in the first place? Did humans really play a big role in causing the holes? Would it have healed without us doing anything? Again, we don't know. And if we can't understand an event like this that has already happened (to an extent), how can we understand something ongoing like climate change?
Even the definition at Wikipedia shows we don't understand the "why" part of climate change:
Climate change refers to the variation in the Earth's global climate or regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere - or average weather - over time scales ranging from decades to millions of years. These changes may come from internal processes, be driven by external forces or, most recently, be caused by human activities.
I came across a really interesting climate change explanation earlier today on Derek's blog. He cites a transcript of the Planet TV Show:
According to the math, we cannot know for certain how close we are to the point of no return, until it is too late. So if you are looking for absolute proof, you will not get it unless you are willing to sacrifice everything. Because, you cannot have absolute confirmation that a catastrophic change is occurring until it has begun and cannot be stopped.
This is true of both climate cooling and climate warming. When have we reached the tipping point? We don't know until we're past it.
Even if our contribution of CO2 is not the main reason for climate change, it is still important that we reduce and eventually eliminate the release of CO2 from fossil fuels. If we are close to the tipping point, then any small amount of increase may be the amount that pushes us over the edge. By the same token, if we are close to the tipping point, then any small decrease will take us that much further from the edge of a catastrophic shift in climate.
Good point, and I agree we should eliminate the release of CO2 from fossil fuels.
Global warming does not pose a threat to the Earth. Nor does it pose a threat to life on this planet. Both the Earth and life on the planet will survive the effects of global warming and catastrophic climate change. What is in danger is us.
The reason it's humans that are in danger is that climate change could lead to another ice age. Life would exist after the ice age has ended, as we have seen before. The only way the earth itself is going away is if humans blow it up, or something from space does. The full transcript is here.
I don't think we're in as much danger as Planet TV Show does. I have a lot of faith in human ingenuity, demonstrated throughout our relatively short history. If something related to climate change happens that might threaten our existence here on earth, I am pretty confident we'll have already moved on to other planets or at least would be able to. That's not to say everyone will survive, unfortunately, but I think the human race would.
There are a few main questions to ask when discussing climate change:
- Are the temperature changes and other factors (storms increasing, etc) we are currently seeing indicative of a fluctuation (temporary) or a shift (permanent) in climate?
- Is this fluctuation or shift natural, or caused by humans?
- If caused by humans, are we the only cause, or just one of many factors?
- Can we do anything about it?
The answers to these questions remain elusive. Many varied theories exist, but conclusive evidence is nowhere to be found.
I think we'll figure it out eventually. And when we do, I would not be surprised if our contribution to climate change is but one of many factors. Maybe even a really small factor. As much as some people would like to think, humans are not the centre of the universe, nor responsible for everything that happens inside it.
Here are my weekly notes:
- The Oilers went back to their winning ways with a gritty victory last night. They need to do more of the good things tomorrow night, like getting people right on Cam Ward's doorstep. And for the record, Jussi Markkanen played great.
- My parents were in town Friday night on their way to Las Vegas. They're going to San Francisco later in the week, and then they come back to Edmonton for a few days towards the end of the month.
- Congrats to Dickson on his recent convocation. Congrats to everyone else who graduated too, I know there's a lot of you engineering types.
- I'm currently planning to attend realDEVELOPMENT_06 in Calgary on Tuesday, though it starts extremely early. Looks like a busy Patch Tuesday as well.
- Apparently the Xbox 360 dashboard update has been giving users some grief. I noticed a freeze-up once, almost right after the update was complete, but I haven't had any problems since.
- Apparently the release of Windows Vista Beta 2 is the biggest download event in history. It's a pretty big download, so I'm not too surprised.
Busy, busy, busy lately. Hence the lack of posting. Here are my weekly notes:
- Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals are tomorrow! I've got tickets for the game at Rexall too (they are showing it on the big screen) so it should be fun. Go Oilers Go!
- Talk about a heat wave! The last couple of days have been pretty toasty here in Edmonton.
- I finally saw The Da Vinci Code the other day. I enjoyed the movie, but only because I was paying attention. It's definitely a movie that requires your full attention. I thought Magneto, oops, I mean Ian McKellen, did the best job.
- I've been playing around with YouTube lately. It has some great features, but could be a lot better too. They launched a big upgrade on Friday that lets you make your own channel.
- Anyone see Hard Candy? I'm planning to check it out this week. Looks interesting. Oh and don't bother trying to find a torrent for it, all you'll find is porn.
- As some of you know, we've got a few (read: 4) internet connections here at the office. One of them is TeraGo, a "fibre-like" wireless ISP. After a troublesome start, the connection is working incredibly well, and very fast. At about half the cost of a comparable fibre connection, it makes a lot of sense. Their service and support have been great thus far too.
Yep, these weekly notes are many hours late - I got busy last night and totally forgot to post them.
- I got this great link from Ylz. Turns out using a controller for games is more effective than mouse and keyboard after all!
- Wondering why Windows Vista is late? Because there is still so much to do, as was made very clear in Chris Pirillo's review of Beta 2.
- Carolina beat Buffalo last night, which means they are leading the series 3-2 and are one step closer to taking on the Oilers for the Stanley Cup. I hope this series goes to Game 7 so that whoever wins is too tired to put up much of a fight in the last round :)
- I'm going to Red Deer tomorrow with my brother for the Red Deer College open house (where he is planning to attend in the fall). Yay, road trip!
- Did you hear the rumor that Microsoft wants to buy eBay? It's not entirely unlikely - Microsoft wanted to make deals with all of Google's competitors, and given the recent Yahoo/eBay deal, this would be a great way to hook up with the two largest. I say, get rid of MSN, focus on Windows Live, and partner with/buy the great stuff from Yahoo and eBay.
- Sony's Ken Kutaragi is an idiot, plain and simple.
- Paramagnus is getting closer to a public test of Podcast Spot! We recently updated our product logo too.
On my recent trip to Toronto, I flew there on WestJet and back on Air Canada. I didn't specify that arrangement, it's just the way our travel agent ended up booking the trip. From now on though, I think I'll specify WestJet. I think I have preferred WestJet to Air Canada for quite some time now, but it wasn't until this last trip that I actually reflected on why. I think it's because WestJet does a better job of the details than Air Canada, you know, the little things.
Don't get me wrong, there's lots of other reasons that WestJet is better. You know, lower price, a TV in front of every seat, no business class (as far as I know), and well, they are almost always on time. Even on this last trip our WestJet flight arrived on time while the Air Canada flight was late - a good half hour late. Despite these things however, I think the details are more important:
- WestJet flights have normal headphone jacks! There's a reason I have expensive, noise-cancelling headphones, and I can use them on WestJet. Air Canada, for some reason, does not have standard headphone jacks meaning you have to use their crappy ones.
- Ever laugh on an Air Canada flight? It's rare, I know. With WestJet, the crew always seems happy and usually make a few jokes at the beginning and end of the flight. Goes a long way to keeping everyone happy.
- Comfortable leather chairs on WestJet, uncomfortable cloth on Air Canada.
- I love how the controls (light, air, etc) are easily reachable on a WestJet flight, while they are impossibly far away on Air Canada - instead of being right overhead, they are above the seat in front of me almost!
- I like getting a Coke on the flight. What I don't like, is having to wait til the very end of the flight to get rid of my can and/or cup! On WestJet, the crew comes by a reasonable time after handing out the drinks to pickup the garbage. They never came on the Air Canada flight, I had to shove my can into the hand of the lady picking up their awkward headphones.
- Part of the problem on Air Canada with the garbage is that they don't have enough crew members! I counted three, and one seemed to be serving business class exclusively. WestJet on the other hand has four, all serving the entire plane.
Now perhaps some of the things I have mentioned are more related to the type of plane and less to the airline. Regardless, that means WestJet still picked better planes, and thus do a better job of minding the details.
What do you think? Do you prefer WestJet or Air Canada?
It's great to be back in Edmonton where the weather is nice! Man that rain crap in Toronto sucked. Here are my weekly notes:
- After winning both games in Anaheim, I am now more sure than ever that the Oilers are gonna sweep the series at home! Go Oilers Go!
- What do you know, Nelly Furtado got even skankier. Mere hours after my last post, she made an appearance as the musical guest on SNL and wore even less than she does in the video!
- Now this my friends, is scientific research. Darren Barefoot tackles the question of just how many blades we really need! Awesome post, seriously, check it out.
- Turns out lactic acid buildup in your muscles is a good thing, not a bad thing.
- I recently installed the new Windows Media Player 11 beta. Although they are missing some really great features from 10 (hopefully just because this is beta) I would say the upgrade is entirely worth it for the updated search functionality alone. It's LIGHT YEARS beyond the previous versions, I love it.
- Did you know they are selling episodes of '24' on MySpace? That site continues to amaze me.
- Went and saw Over the Hedge last night - awesome movie! So worth it. I'll probably review it later.
Just saw the Oilers beat the Sharks, same score as last game, 6-3. You gotta love the way the guys are staying composed, taking total control in the third period when the Sharks are tired. Here we go Oilers, game six back at home!
- Happy Mother's Day!
- First day of the conference is tomorrow, which should be good. I'll have lots of stuff to post over the next two days.
- A friend of my mine recently remarked that the song "Promiscious" by Nelly Furtado would be "the next it summer club song" and after hearing it, I have to agree. It's awesome, probably due to the fact that it was produced by Timbaland. Furtado sounds a lot like Britney during the hook to me, which is good, because I found her nasal sound of previous songs annoying.
- Another hot track I like right now - "Me And You" by Cassie.
- Started reading Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" today on the plane, and so far I am enjoying it.
- Looking for E3 coverage? Engadget has some amazing posts, complete with photos, so check it out.
I've got lots to say, but not enough time to say it, so here's a quick update for now:
- The Oilers won in triple overtime last night! w00t!
- I will never go back to less than three monitors ever again. After about a week of using the setup, I can honestly say it has made a big difference in my productivity.
- I can't believe we are leaving Sunday...time sure flies. I am looking forward to Mesh though!
- I received a couple physical copies of my Financial Post article in the mail the other day. It's pretty damn cool to see it actually printed :)
- Halo 3, PS3, Nintendo Wii, GTA for Xbox 360, ahh...sooo much great gaming news, so little time.
- Season finale of Smallville is tonight!
You know the drill:
- For all you Internet Explorer users: you might have noticed, the arrows on the right sometimes showed up distorted. Well, it shouldn't happen any more, I think I finally got it fixed this weekend.
- Damn Oilers couldn't get it done tonight, they didn't play very well. Next game is tomorrow night at 8:30 PM. Schumacher won the F1 race this morning though!
- Yesterday was my brother's birthday. We ended up watching Eurotrip (which I had seen before) and Waiting (which I hadn't). I have to say, Waiting was awesome!
- Definitely a highlight this past week for me was getting published in the National Post.
- Along with Megan, Riva, and Greg I saw Mission: Impossible 3 on Friday (opening) night. It was pretty good, giving me everything I expected - Tom Cruise getting beat up, lots of explosions, etc. And unlike the previous two in this series, MI3 actually had a story (however typical) besides the outrageous stunts!
- Lots of driving this weekend...I wish the price of gas would come down!
- I can't wait til Thurdsay for the season finale of Smallville. Last week's episode was INTENSE, so this week should be incredible! I'll never make it through the summer...
- Just installed the new beta of Windows Live Messenger yesterday - it's awesome! Apparently there won't be many changes from now until release, so it should be available soon.
I didn't get around to posting any notes yesterday, so here they are:
- Edmonton has a chance to knock off Detroit tonight in Game 6 here at Rexall! Go Oilers Go!
- My Dad was down this weekend, for the last time for a while. He's been traveling a lot lately for work, but he's done now until later in the summer. I'm sure he'll be posting more about his trip, so stay tuned.
- Kim went back to the snow in Inuvik this morning! She's working for the summer in the frozen north, so no flip flops or digital cell service (and thus no text messaging) for her. I just got back from driving her to the airport. Have a good summer Kim!
- Dickson and I should be getting our new computers this week! We just got webcams too, so we can test out video podcasting.
- I've been using IE7 Beta 2 as my main browser lately, and I find myself missing Firefox for certain things. That tells me that IE7 isn't ready for primetime yet.
- Allergies suck.
There's a long list of movies coming out over the next few months as the summer blockbuster season gets underway in May. Here's a list of the movies opening up in the next month that I want to see, complete with links to the relevant pages at IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes so you can check out reviews and such (and I can refer back to them later):
- United 93 - IMDB, RT
I think enough time has passed since 9/11 that we need a movie like this. It's all part of the healing process.
- Stick It - IMDB, RT
If this movie is anything like Bring It On, I'll happily call this movie my guilty pleasure of the summer.
- Akeelah and the Bee - IMDB, RT
It's produced by Starbucks, how could I not at least check it out?! And it has Morpheus ;)
- Mission: Impossible III - IMDB, RT
Tom Cruise may be a nutjob, but he usually doesn't disappoint in these movies.
- The Da Vinci Code - IMDB, RT
Who isn't going to see this movie? Except for Sharon, because she's weird.
- Over the Hedge - IMDB, RT
Looks like a funny animation film to me!
- X-Men: The Last Stand - IMDB, RT
Ah part three! So far I have really enjoyed the X-Men movies.
And further out, I am really looking forward to Superman Returns (IMDB, RT), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (IMDB, RT), Cars (IMDB, RT), and Casino Royale (IMDB, RT).
Who knows how I am going to afford all of these movies, but that's the list!
Funny how it's always the weekend that has cold weather, though it did get sunny today at least. Here are my weekly notes:
- Thank you everyone for your kind comments, both online and offline, about Dante.
- Tomorrow is my last final exam of the year - I can't wait to get it over with!
- The Oilers played very well today and tied the series with Detroit at a game a piece. It was weird to see them play the trap though, and kind of funny that MacT and everyone was so against the use of the word "trap".
- Also on the topic of sports, Michael Schumacher won the first F1 race back in Europe today!
- It has been a light blogging week, with lots going on, but things should return to normal this week.
- There's a big crack in my windshield! And I don't know where it came from either. Kim and I noticed it yesterday - it was like it came out of nowhere. Fortunately it's at the bottom and not blocking my vision or anything, so hopefully it doesn't get any worse, otherwise I'll have to get it fixed.
I haven't posted much in the last little while, and posting will continue to be light for the next few days, for a few reasons:
- I have been away from the office and home for most of the last few days.
- I tried very unsuccessfully this morning to score Oilers playoff tickets.
- My workstation computer is on the fritz.
- The weather has been so nice out!
- My Dad is in town tomorrow, and I have a final exam coming up on Monday.
Your regularly scheduled blog will resume shortly.
Some notes for this Easter long weekend:
- I had a good time up at the lake Sunday and today. We had an excellent turkey dinner and basically relaxed. In case you're wondering, "the lake" is Goose Lake, which is about 40 KM west of Fort Assiniboine (north of Barrhead).
- I love Bacardi Silver Raz...though I may have mentioned that here before.
- Paramagnus was featured in the Edmonton Sun's business section on Sunday, and it has stirred up some great interest thus far. Dickson posted about it too.
- The Oilers are in the playoffs and played an excellent game tonight! Tickets go on sale Thursday to Pipeline members, and Friday to the general public.
- One final exam down, one to go for me. Good luck to everyone who is busy studying and writing this week!
- I recently joined the board of The Learning Centre Literacy Association (no website yet), which "engages people in community based learning and literacy development that further enables them to make positive changes for themselves and their communities." I have volunteered as a tutor in the past, and have worked with the Learning Centre through Humanities 101, so I am excited to serve on the board as a community member!
A bunch of us went out to the Thirsty Turtle followed by Denny's for Megan's birthday on Thursday night which was lots of fun, pictures are here. Happy Birthday Megan! I went and saw "Take the Lead" last night, and I have to say I enjoyed it! I like Antonio Banderas much better in that kind of role than the Zorro type.
I probably won't be posting again until Tuesday - lots of work to do, and I'm heading up to the lake for Easter Dinner tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
I am the first person to admit that I am a brand whore. I know it, and I don't really care. A brand I have a particular allegiance to is Coke. As a bit of a Coca Cola addict, I tend to love all things Coke. The whole New Coke fiasco? I prefer to believe it was brilliantly planned and executed, whether it was or not. I also love Starbucks, both coffee and brand. So when I heard that Coke was going to be testing the coffee beverage waters, I was a little excited and a little torn between the two. The news is actually a little old I guess, but here's the story from Forbes:
It's a small deal that could pack a big pop, or just a little fizz. Coca-Cola has quietly leased a 4,000-square-foot retail space in Toronto. While it's just a storefront, it foreshadows what insiders say is the beverage giant's dreams of dunking Starbucks in its own brew.
They have trademarked the name FarCoast for this hot beverage experiment, which launched in Toronto at the same time as Coca-Cola Blak, described as a "Coca-Cola Classic-based beverage that finishes with a rich essence of coffee." Here's an old press release on Blak that I was able to find. I seem to recall hearing about it, but it seems much further along now.
I'm going to be in Toronto in May, so I will definitely have to check this place out if its up and running.
Here are my weekly notes:
- I have complained before that Firefox seems to use a lot of memory. Today I ran across this little hack that seems to improve the situation! Try it out if you have memory issues with Firefox.
- I don't mind when people ask me for money on the street. Usually I am polite and say that I don't have any change, sometimes I'll actually dole out some coin. I can't stand it however, when the person starts spinning some story that they are from out of town and need $15 for gas or something similar. You think I haven't heard that one before? At least be original if you're going to tell me a story.
- Interesting post at the Daily Kos, which examines a machine called the Narus 6400, apparently developed to monitor communications in real-time. Scary stuff!
- This is the last week of regular classes at the University of Alberta!
- Have you seen the new sleeves at Starbucks? At first I thought, what a great idea, using the space for a word of the day or something! I realize now though that they are simply marketing tools for "akeelah and the bee", a new movie from Starbucks Entertainment (whatever that is).
- Now that Spring/Summer is upon us, maybe I'll change the colors of my site again soon. What do you think?
As you may have heard from friends, or on the news, or maybe you figured it out for yourself, the current time is unique in human history. At 01:02:03 AM, or 123 seconds after 1 AM, on April 4th, 2006 or 04/05/06, the time and date will read 1-2-3-4-5-6. And as New York Times columnist David Pogue and many other people have pointed out, this will never happen again. Well, maybe once more as Wired News explains:
In Europe, which renders the date before the month, this singular moment will occur next month, at 123 seconds past 1 a.m. on 4 May. And after that, it most definitely will never occur again.
Barring someone or something taking over the world and resetting our calendars to before this very moment, it will never happen again. Interesting bit of information, no?
I got busy doing things, so here are my slightly late notes:
We arrived back to Edmonton this afternoon without any problems (in fact the flight got in a little early). I've been taking it sort of easy since though, hence the lack of posting. Here are my weekly notes:
- We won the Wes Nicol competition! We also gave Leading Edge Technologies a run for their money in the VenturePrize competition.
- NewsGator renamed their Outlook product to NewsGator Inbox.
- Because I've been so busy and on the go, I haven't read blogs as much as normal, but I did come across Mesh 2006, which is billed as Canada's Web 2.0 conference. Looks very cool to me!
- The new provincial budget for Alberta was announced, which means that a new science building at the University of Alberta will get the go-ahead. The Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science will replace Physics and V-Wing.
- Speaking of the budget, I hope the government doesn't send out any more rebate cheques. Invest it! Or better yet, since the surplus is due to oil prices, knock a few cents off our gas! It's sick that Toronto's gas is the same price as ours. It's freaking refined and everything RIGHT HERE! How could it possibly cost the same?! There are absolutely no transportation costs! I just don't get it. Well I do get it actually, pricing gas is more than a markup business...but still.
- I'm sure by now you've heard that Windows Vista was delayed again. I'll end up getting the OS around the time I expected, but people hoping to buy new computers with Vista for Christmas are out of luck. I have a feeling the delay will be worth it.
- A virtual podcasting expo was recently announced. Looks interesting!
Here are my weekly notes:
- It's been a busy last few days getting ready for our presentations this week. You can read all about our business plan competitions and follow along this week at our VenturePrize Experience blog.
- The real web 2.0 application has arrived. Here's another humorous app.
- Man we sure got dumped on this week, so much snow! The worst part about all the snow is that the farmers still won't be happy. No snow, they complain there's not enough water. Too much snow, too much water!
- Amazon S3 is amazing; its truly game-changing. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other big players copy them, and in fact, I hope they do. More services like S3 are what we need.
- Went to the Rush game on Friday night with Sharon because Tom was working (he got a job at Petsmart). I think she enjoyed the game, even though we got slaughtered 16-9. The next game is the 25th, with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders! I'll be in Ottawa though...
- "Trip" by Hedley is my current favorite song. I also really like "Move Along" by The All American Rejects.
- Do you find the font size at Google or Yahoo or any other search engine too small? If so, Big.com is for you. The text is very, ahem, big.
Here are my weekly notes for this Sunday:
- The Oilers need a goalie! So far, Roloson does not seem to be the answer to our goaltending problems. I really hope Lowe deals for someone good in the off-season.
- Thanks Megan for the Bill Clinton ticket! We went to see/hear him speak on Thursday evening - it was great!
- The new projector is sweet! The only problem we have discovered so far is that it gets extremely hot underneath.
- It was a big week for Paramagnus! We won the Wes Nicol competition and were officially selected as finalists for the VenturePrize competition. We're getting really close to the final showdown - the next couple weeks should be pretty interesting. We're updating our business plan again tonight.
- Pick Pickler! Pick Pickler!
- Thanks for dinner the other night Annie and family! We watched Bend It Like Beckham, which I hadn't seen and rather enjoyed. I like the way Keira Knightley says "bollocks".
Here are my notes for today:
- I still can't quite believe that we did some upgrades this week and didn't encounter any problems! I guess we're getting better at planning for these types of things.
- I hung out with my Dad yesterday on his way back from San Francisco. He's got some really great pictures up in Flickr from his trip.
- Can't wait to find out more on Origami. There's an interesting video at YouTube on it too.
- Ever have french fries from Costco? They're so addicting, and probably so bad for you...
- Looks like Crash has won the Oscar for Best Picture. I didn't watch the ceremonies this year, and judging by some of the polls on sites like Canoe, neither did a lot of other people.
- Went to see the Rush last night with my Dad and Tom. They lost again, 15-11. We have a decent team, but we get way too many penalties, and I question the coaching sometimes.
- Tomorrow is the public announcement of the VenturePrize finalists, and the result of the Wes Nicol should be made public this week too.
Just testing to see how fast and how high this post gets indexed, so you can ignore it!
What a week it has been, and what a month I have ahead. Here are my notes for today:
- I feel sorry for the students of Lakehead University, being deprived of wireless Internet.
- I watched most of the Shawshank Redemption tonight - I hadn't seen it in quite a while. It's a great movie, you really should watch it Felicia!
- My parents recently had an anniversary, and yesterday was Kim's birthday! It's a busy time of year for our family.
- The Winter Olympics are over now, and Canada ended up with 24 medals, no thanks to the men's hockey team! I know the games are a big deal, but it will be nice for TV and everything else to get back to normal.
- My Dad is in San Francisco on business and has some great pictures up! Looks much nicer than here.
Yay for reading week! Here are my notes for today:
- It was a pretty good week for Paramagnus in terms of our business plan competitions. We made it to the semi-finals in the VenturePrize competition, and the finals for the local part of the Wes Nicol competition. We present to the judges on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
- My Dad was here this weekend too! Was nice to hang out yesterday.
- The Canadian Men's hockey team lost again today! It's a good thing we're already in the quarter-finals, but something has to change. Shut out two games in a row - terrible!
- I think I am going to be starting a new notes weblog to exist alongside this one. Thing is, there's lots of times I want to post something tiny, like a random thought or link or picture or even just a simple sentence, and this blog isn't really appropriate for that kind of thing. With the notes weblog I can post a quick thought whenever it hits me, even from my cell phone! Fear not, this blog won't change, it will just have a sibling ;)
- Interesting new search engine for programmers is coming soon, called Krugle.
- Look for more articles like this one over the next year: Ten Reasons to Buy Windows Vista. The article also includes five reasons you might not want to get Vista.
- Favorite song of the moment: Madonna's new single, "Sorry".
- A fairly large group of my friends are heading out for lunch tomorrow, on Family Day here in Alberta. Pictures to follow!
Today is Valentine's Day, where everything you see and everywhere you go is red, pink, white, or some shade in between. I remember giving cards to classmates when I was in primary school, and I remember candygrams in high school, but that's about when my mass valentine sending stopped. As you get older, you send less and less valentines I guess! From Wikipedia:
The day is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes has largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. The Greeting Card Association estimates that, world-wide, approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.
I wonder how long it will be until this text is updated to say that the practice of sending greeting cards has largely given way to the exchange of email or IMs or blog posts or something! And on that note, Happy Valentine's Day - I'm back to mass valentines!
On Sunday we spent the entire day in Vancouver hanging out. We went for brunch at Red Robin's where we had an interesting discussion about whether or not figure skating should be an Olympic sport and then headed towards Stanley Park. We spent the afternoon at the Vancouver Aquarium which was awesome! We even got to see a Beluga Whale show. After the show we walked all the way back to Canada Place to the IMAX theatre where we watched "Roving Mars" - all about the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. It was a really fascinating video, if you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. After walking back to the hotel to get our bags we headed for the airport.
I got back to Edmonton last night around 10:15 PM along with Dickson and we went directly to Denny's from the airport! I had to drop off some stuff at the office, so we came here (yep still at the office tonight), but didn't stay long.
This week is looking pretty damn busy, so here's some notes:
- I think Northern Voice went very well this year! There's lots of great information out there, just look for posts and pictures and podcasts tagged "northernvoice".
- Did a bunch of shopping today, mostly for furniture-related stuff for the office. We're revamping our server room as we prepare to launch our podcast stuff. Just waiting on a few more items now!
- Two midterms on Thursday does not make me happy. I have a lot of studying to do :(
- Have you been watching the Olympics? I haven't. Highlights and recaps are the only things I'm going to watch besides the hockey games.
Some notes for this fine Sunday evening:
- Went for coffee with Megan tonight who I hadn't seen in forever! Looking forward to Northern Voice this week.
- Cool news story today about Nunavut - no not where I used to live...this is the new territory - and how the Airbus A380 will be travelling north for weather testing!
- I think the plan to charge for "priority email" is completely dumb. Then again, I haven't given it any serious thought yet, but that's my gut reaction.
- I didn't mention it last week (during my "disappearance"), but on Tuesday my group presented to our English 304 class on podcasting. I thought it went very well! We covered the history, the technology, the implications of adult podcasting, the effect of podcasting on education, and we did a "future" segment too. Initial feedback was very positive, and the mix of students was about what I expected - a select few who knew what it was, a few more that had heard of it, and the rest were introduced for the first time!
- Looking for virtualization software? VMWare is giving away their GSX Server, starting Monday.
- Who's my hero? This guy, who was too lazy to move five feet to open the door to his office so he hacked together a software/hardware combo to do it for him. Pretty interesting actually!
- In the middle elevator (there's 3) of our building tonight I discovered piles and piles of broken glass, yet all the mirrors inside the elevator are fine. It's like someone took glass into the elevator and smashed it, and this isn't the utility elevator which would normally be used for transporting stuff either. Needless to say, I am still trying to figure out how it got there...any ideas?
- Ahhhh high school...
Yes I know, for some of you it seems like I fell off the face of the earth (you'd be surprised how many emails/IMs said those exact words in the last few days). As you can tell, I am most certainly still alive! Or maybe this is some AI program typing, haha! I'd be rich if that were the case.
I didn't disappear so much as unplug. Here's what I have been up to, in no particular order:
- Working working working, mainly on our business plan. The submission deadline for VenturePrize was Tuesday, and I am happy to report that we submitted an excellent plan. Well, we think it's excellent! We worked with a few different mentors and consultants over the last couple weeks which gave us tons of great feedback to work with. Cross your fingers for us!
- Addicted to Smallville. I am all caught up in season five (the current season) and more addicted than ever. It's funny too, because I never really liked the "Superman" story all that much. I think it's because with Superman, you just accept that he has all of his abilities. In Smallville, you see him acquire and master them! A friend also said something I found really interesting: "Most superheros are putting on a mask when they become the hero, but Superman puts on the mask when he becomes Clark Kent." Episode 100 last week was amazing!
- I've been using IE7 Beta 2 Preview (what a dumb name) for the last couple days, and so far I really like it! Quick tabs is an awesome feature. I am one of those people that likes to leave the browser running at all times, even just minimized. Unfortunately if I do that with Firefox, it eats up memory. So far IE7 seems to work better.
- I was at the office on Sunday working late to finish an assignment (yes I've been doing schoolwork too) and ran into a problem. I had a meeting at the University that day, so I had parked on campus and just took the train to the office. When I was done my assignment and ready to leave, it was about 12:30 AM, which meant that I had missed every bus and train going south! So I ended up staying at the office until the LRT started again at 5:30 AM. I was surprised at how many people were on the train that early! I was also shocked at the number of people sleeping on couches in SUB - it was quite amazing.
- I have been sleeping lots too, well sort of. Lots for me! Wasn't feeling too good yesterday so stayed pretty close to home and rested.
- I'm now really behind on reading blogs and that sort of thing. I find if I am not blogging, I'm also less likely to be reading. Or sometimes even the other way around! Such a positive feedback loop.
I don't usually take these sort of breaks, but I think they are good for a person once in a while. Lots of stuff coming up too (midterms, Northern Voice, another competition, etc) so it was probably a good time for me to do it. Anyway, your regularly scheduled blog will now return!
(Interestingly, my traffic didn't take a hit at all from the lack of posting, which probably means my old content is more popular than my newer content (and the statistics seem to support that claim)).
Here are my weekly notes:
- I burned my lip on extremely hot pizza sauce tonight - doesn't look too good. That will teach me to let it cool down a bit first! I love pizza though...
- While eating the pizza I watched China Rises on CBC. Tonight was the first two hours with the final two showing next Sunday. Pretty interesting documentary thus far! Would be so nice to go to China for the 2008 Olympics.
- If you're reading this in an aggregator, you'll probably notice that I now am using FeedBurner. The location of the feed and everything is the same, but with FeedBurner I can track statistics, and add the nifty little "Email This"-type links at the bottom of items. Let me know if you encounter any problems!
- It's funny how simple things can make your life so much easier. In ASP.NET 1.1, you could tell IIS to let the runtime handle incoming requests, but if you didn't handle one, it failed. In ASP.NET 2.0, if you don't handle a request, it is sent back to IIS to be handled - so much better! I guess you won't understand if you haven't attempted to accomplish this, but take my word for it, huge improvement. If you're looking for regex URL rewriting in .NET, check out this awesome site.
- Ah, LSD. The geek's wonder drug?
- Couple interesting bits of Microsoft news this week. First, Blackcomb (codename for the version of Windows after Vista) has been renamed to Vienna - apparently it was a better "vista", even though Blackcomb is a ski resort! The other more useful bit of news is that the MSN Search team has added about a million facts that can be displayed as an "instant answer". Works great too, give it a try.
- The big election in Canada is tomorrow - make sure you get out and vote! I am undecided still, but I have it narrowed down to two. If you're having trouble deciding, the CBC has a good rundown of the parties and their platforms.
You know how everyone jokes about Starbucks being absolutely everywhere? Well it's true, in case you were wondering, and someone named Cory has computed the central point for all Starbucks in Manhattan, or as he calls it, the "center of gravity":
What does "center of gravity" mean? Well, it means the exact place you can stand in Manhattan and be closest to ALL Starbucks. As if every single Starbucks was pulling you equally in its direction, this is the place where u could stand to feel the most Starbucks power...and not just within a few blocks radius, but for the whole Island!
Gawker does a nice job of summarizing:
Thanks to an array of disturbing mathematical calculations, some dorky-hot fellow has calculated the Starbucks Center of Gravity for Manhattan — the single location where you can be closest to all other Starbucks. Described as existing “somewhere between 5th and 6th, in between 39th and 40th,” this Starbucks is the Ground Zero of corporate coffee.
I'll be sure to visit that Starbucks if I ever get to New York!
I think one of the hardest habits to break is sleeping late and waking later. I intended to get to sleep early tonight, but just haven't been able to (not for lack of trying either!). On the plus side, my insomnia did help me remember to post these notes I wrote earlier:
- A few days ago Sharon remarked that I should get new shoes. I told her that I liked these ones, and that I didn't need that many pairs of shoes. Then last night my shoelace snapped in half! I think she did some voodoo magic on my shoes.
- The first week of school was alright. I am liking having class on only two days! And I'm glad I was able to register in a night class - I find I do much better in them for some reason.
- I finally registered for Northern Voice 2006 this week. Should be a good time, I'm really looking forward to it!
- Wondering how evil Google is today? This site is pretty amusing! So much for "do no evil".
- Proof, maybe, that China did in fact find North America before Columbus? I don't think there's any doubt, but some people are just unwilling to let go.
- I've been reading John Battelle's "The Search" lately, and my oh my is it a fascinating book! I'm only through three chapters but quite enjoying it thus far.
I was browsing around looking for the McDonald's McDeal menu (which is apparently different depending on what province you're in, and no I didn't find it, the McDonald's Canada website is completely useless, and yes I know it off by heart for Alberta) and came across this post on the McChronicles weblog:
McDonald's has rolled out their Arch Card, just in time for the holidays. It's a great idea.
The McChronicles usually bristles at the concept of debit cards (giving an institution a free cash loan - with the risk of losing the card or leaving change on the card). But these cards offer a great way to give the gift of a nice McDonald's meal, in denominations as small as $5. That's cool especially around the holiday season.
You can think of the Arch Card like the Starbucks card - you can load it up (in store only for the time being) and check your balance and recent purchase history online. I think the "free cash loan" idea the McChronicles mention is funny, though correct. Personally, I'd be more worried that using the card will make it seem like I am not spending as much money as I actually am. That's what happens with my Starbucks card!
Unfortunately, no word on if or when we're going to get the Arch Card in Canada. Considering it only appeared in the United States last month, it might take a while. Cool idea though!
It's been a busy week, that's for sure. Last Sunday was of course New Years Day, bringing us into 2006, and I neglected to post any notes (actually I probably missed the week before that too!). Anyway, here are the first of 2006:
- I returned from Inuvik on Monday night, and promptly went to Starbucks and then Denny's. It was a good trip north for the holidays, nice to see my parents and get away from the city for a while. Here's some pictures I took.
- Google released a new product called Google Pack. Basically it's a collection of "important" software that is updated regularly. Google has also been the subject of some interesting stock price gossip as of late.
- I went to Kim & Mark Corie's wedding reception last night! They look so great together, it was really beautiful. Megan took some pictures with her new digital camera. Congratulations Mark & Kim!
- I wrote a guest post for Dave Lucas this week - check it out!
- My brother arrived back in town on Thursday evening, and we went to the inaugural game for the Edmonton Rush, our new lacrosse team, on Friday night. It was great!
- Kim arrived back in Edmonton tonight, and has an 8 AM class tomorrow morning - sucks! Speaking of class, I am registered for two so far, and I need to find a third (hopefully a night class).
- Lots of really great Microsoft rumors lately! First there was Microsoft buying Yahoo, then there was Bill Clinton joining the company!
- Tom, Sharon, Dickson and I went to the Edmonton Oilers Superskills competition today at Rexall Place. Only $5 for tickets and $2 for parking (unless you get ripped off like Dickson). It was really cool, we were four rows up from the ice. I never would have guessed it with guys like Bergeron and Stoll on the team, but Chris Pronger clocked the hardest shot at 102.9.
- The coming week is back to school and really, back to work. I can't believe we're a week into January already!
I uploaded some pictures I took while I was up in Inuvik over the holidays. You can check them out in my Christmas 2005 photoset, along with four I took before leaving. This one is good at showing how much snow there was!
I arrived back in the city last night around 8:15 PM, which is around an hour and twenty five minutes late - much better than the ten hours late going to Inuvik! This trip was the first of so many to Inuvik that I have encountered trouble with. Seems to me the airlines that fly north have gone soft!
I am almost entirely unpacked, and I slept in today so I am rested too. Time to get back to work!
All the best to you and yours in 2006 :)
Tom and I are sitting in the Edmonton Airport, getting ready for our flight to Inuvik which leaves just after 10 AM. There are two wireless networks here, one costs money and one is free. Makes you wonder why they have the paid one!
I will be in Inuvik until January 2nd, so the best way to get a hold of me will be with email, but you can also look for me on MSN using my "other" account - mack@mastermaq.ca. I'll be posting normally too, so feel free to leave a comment ;)
Happy Holidays!
As a self-described caffeine addict, I end up spending a lot of money on drinks at Christmas from Starbucks and Second Cup. When I need a good fix, I usually just have my Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, but when it's Christmas I tend to have a lot of lattes (and I guess, less caffeine). I realize that Starbucks vs. Second Cup is nothing like Coke vs. Pepsi, but it's interesting nonetheless. My Grandma, for example, prefers Second Cup while I prefer Starbucks - but what about at Christmas? Here's a quick comparison:
- In terms of the cups, I think Second Cup wins. I really like the red cup at Starbucks, but the Second Cup one looks so much more festive (and more colorful!). I also like that they make the cardboard sleeve pink too. That being said, Starbucks has the much better marketing campaign! Check out http://www.theredcup.com.
- My favorite drink of all is definitely the Eggnog Latte at Starbucks. Unfortunately there is nothing similar at Second Cup.
- Both shops have a Gingerbread Latte, but I think the Second Cup version tastes much better.
- The Peppermint Mocha at Starbucks and the Candycane Latte at Second Cup are somewhat similar, but I much prefer the Peppermint Mocha.
- I don't buy hot chocolate, so I am not sure how their respective holiday versions stack up!
What's your favorite? Any other coffee houses with good Christmas offerings?
Here are some notes for Monday, since I didn't get a chance to post anything last night.
- del.icio.us is down, apparently from a power outage. Back on December 2nd I wrote about Malware and Web 2.0, but my comments apply just as equally to other negative things, like power outages: So what happens in a few years when the vast majority of our data is stored online?...All of that data needs to be proactively protected from attacks, it needs to be backed up in case of a successful attempt, and it really should be available all the time.
- I leave for Inuvik on Friday! I did a ton of shopping yesterday, so I'm getting closer to being ready to go. You can see Inuvik's weather here.
- PayPal more cost effective than the credit card services? Interesting article from the New York Times.
- Last exam of the semester for me is tomorrow morning.
- Is Google ready to take a stake in AOL? Not everyone hopes so.
- Was there a tech product you wanted this year that never shipped? Vote for it in Wired's Vaporware 2005.
- As much as I don't like the cold, I wish it would just snow and stay here for a while so I don't have to keep washing my car!
Here are my Sunday notes, a little late, but posted nonetheless.
- I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia on opening night, and came away quite impressed. The best part of the movie had to be the casting - the actors and actresses who played Lucy, Edmund and the White Witch were brilliant.
- Bad time to go to Denny's: Saturday night, 2:30 AM. Good time to go to Denny's: Sunday night, 4:30 AM.
- If you haven't turned on ClearType, or if you don't know what it is, read this!
- It was a crazy week as far as weather is concerned. First we got tons of snow, then it was incredibly cold, and now there is no snow and it's above zero again.
- As Dickson pointed out, classes finished on December 7th. I've got two exams left and then the semester is finished for me.
- In case you missed it, podcast was word of the year for 2005. Tis the season for lots of "best of 2005" or "2005 in review" type posts, TV shows, articles, etc.
- Remember the Wikipedia problems I talked about earlier? Turns out the guy who posted some of the false information anonymously was tracked down and has apologized.
- Christmas shopping isn't going so well for me - I need to get started!
I guess the weather here in Edmonton is just getting me ready for what's coming when I get to Inuvik. It was a very cold minus 24 this morning when I left the house, and the high was apparently only minus 17. In addition to being pretty darn cold, the roads were extremely slippery. I drove to school today (instead of taking the LRT) which meant that I took the Whitemud. Near the 91st street exit, I saw a car going in the same direction as me spin out and hit the barrier. It looked like he was trying to change lanes, but I can't be sure. Obviously he was going too fast, and he paid the price - the left front side of the car did not look good at all.
So bundle up, and drive for the conditions!
Today is the kind of day you wake up, look out the window and see mounds of snow, and then promptly go back to bed. Which is exactly what I did.
I know I have become soft compared to when I used to live in Inuvik, but man is it ever cold out today! I could really handle a vacation to somewhere tropical right about now.
- I gotta say as far as remix albums go, Britney's new one is pretty damn good. I especially like the new track, "And Then We Kiss", which is a Junkie XL remix. Speaking of music, Lindsay Lohan's new album is a much better effort than her last, I'm quite enjoying it.
- I finished reading Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near this week. I won't say too much as I intend to write a proper review, but it is an absolutely fascinating book and I really enjoyed it! I have also started reading Freakonomics, and the first chapter was very intriguing. I also like that the authors maintain an active blog on the book's website.
- As promised I spent a little more time playing with Dave Slusher's AmigoFish. While I'm not blown away yet, it works fairly well. I really wish there was a way to eliminate podcasts that don't publish very often. When I look at the predictions AmigoFish generates, I want to see podcasts that publish often, not once a month! I assume the algorithm would catch on to this eventually, but there should be a way to explicitly say "give me only frequently published podcasts!"
- I spent most of yesterday working with Visual Studio 2005 - learning the subtle differences, testing out conversions of old projects, looking at the designers, etc. I must say, I am falling fast and hard for VS2005 and .NET 2.0 (if I can say such a thing about a technology that is). I'm really impressed with almost everything! (It runs a little slow, but I guess my computer is getting pretty old.)
- Ah more music stuff! Ever hear of the band 10 Years? They are fast becoming my new favorite band. Their album is amazing! Unfortunately, they don't have any upcoming Canadian tour dates.
- This past week saw the Conservatives offer to lower the GST here in Canada. Any predictions on what the upcoming week will bring? I hope there's a similarly outlandish idea - makes for a good blog entry!
- As you are undoubtedly aware by now, I changed the colors of my site this week. Thanks for all the feedback! I may change it again for Xmas...we'll see.
It seems that I have been nominated for the 2005 Canadian Blog Awards in the category of Best Blog, according to my Dad, who has been nominated in the category of Best Photo Blog:
I have been lucky enough to be nominated for the 2005 Canadian Blog Awards in the category of Best Photo Blog. There are many derserving nominations there. Have a look at the awards and give me your vote as the Best Photo Blog if you think that I am deserving.
My son Mack (MasterMaq) has also been nominated in the category of Best Blog. Again, there are many worthy nominations in that category but I think that MasterMaq does an excellent job of giving information and his personal insight on just about anything. While you are over at the Canadian Blog Awards voting for me you might as well vote for him at the same time.
Round one voting is underway now, and round two voting is supposed to start on December 3rd. Even if you don't want to vote, you should check out the site as you'll probably discover a great blog you didn't know existed.
For some reason, I felt the color scheme of my site needed a change. Not the design, which I am quite happy with, just the colors. Let's try blue. Yes? No? Any other suggestions?
It felt like a relaxing week, but it was still quite busy in retrospect. That time of year I guess.
- The big news of the week has to be that I got my Xbox 360. Be sure to check out my initial review. The 360 is great!
- I discovered the group chat feature in MsgPlus tonight. Basically it will group all your windows into one window that you can then use to switch between them using a toolbar, or CRTL-TAB like other applications. Not sure if I like it yet, but good idea.
- Lots of you probably knew that Friday was called "Black Friday" - the day retailers turn a profit for the year, but how many of you knew that tomorrow is considered "Cyber Monday"? It's the day retailers start a marketing blitz and introduce heavy discounts for their web operations.
- It was a busy weekend for Edmonton sports teams. The Rush had their training camp yesterday, and the Eskimos won the Grey Cup today!
- LiveMarks is a cool page for watching what people bookmark at del.icio.us in real time.
- Larry questions whether content is really king or not. He then states that the value of content itself seems to be declining. I'm not so sure that's the case. I would argue that content has never been king - information is all that matters, and more specifically, the ability to derive some sort of knowledge from that information. That's why newspapers are dying while Google is soaring - it used to be that newspapers were best at providing knowledge but lately Google and others like them do a better job. Same goes for blog aggregators.
- I am actually going home for Christmas this year (it's been a while). I leave Edmonton on the 23rd of December with Tom, and return on January 2nd. It's gonna be damn cold and full of snow. On the plus side, my parent's TV is HD ready for my Xbox 360 ;)
- For everyone who watched the Grey Cup today - what did you think of the halftime show? I could have come up with a dozen better acts than the Black Eyed Peas. I like BEP, but they are definitely a "listen to on the CD and watch the video on TV" kind of act. Darren didn't care too much for them either.
I mentioned earlier this month that the Starbucks Christmas Drinks are one of my favorite parts of the holiday season, and the Eggnog Latte is far and away my favorite (a quick search reveals I mentioned this in 2004 too). I think it's because I like Eggnog itself so much! Last night I went grocery shopping with Kim and Tom, and bought a litre of Eggnog. As I poured myself a glass in the office, Dickson (who hates eggnog, by the way) asked why they only sell it during the holidays. Good question, and I haven't found a really good answer. This one is the best I could find:
Today eggnog is used in a very different way. Now stores only sell eggnog around the holidays because eggnog is seen strictly as a holiday drink. Wealthy Brits often celebrated eggnog because it was a new drink that would not spoil. Considering that refrigerators were not yet invented, this was a big deal. This may be an explanation for why it is only served around the time of cheer and celebration. For some, eggnog is a drink that is symbolic of the holiday season in general.
I also found an interesting eggnog history, a recipe for Holiday Eggnog from the Alberta Egg Producers, and a bunch more recipes for things like Chocolate Eggnog and Eggnog Martinis. If you want to try my favorite holiday drink, pour some rum into your eggnog!
Traveling really does a number on your schedule and routines, which
meant that I didn't end up posting any notes last week. That's okay
though, it's probably good to have a break from the norm once in a
while! And the Expo went very well for us too.
- I'll never learn my lesson. I did a 10-page paper, a programming
assignment, and a presentation all at the last minute on Thursday and
Friday. Fortunately, I think they all turned out quite well!
- Some data has started showing up in my Google Analytics
account now, but I haven't had the time to look at it in any detail.
I'll have to check it out this week and see how good or useful it is.
- Does anyone know where I can buy Diet Coke with Splenda? Is it even
available in Canada? I read about it in Business 2.0 this month, but I
haven't noticed it anywhere. The press release only mentions the US.
- I went to see Derailed tonight with Megan, and I quite enjoyed it. Totally didn't see the twist coming.
- There's lots of really cool podcasting stuff happening right now. Check my list of links for more!
- My interview with CJSR
last week for Humanities 101 went okay. They had some scheduling
issues, so I was the very last five minutes of the show, though they
did say they'd like to have me back. Haven't heard anything to that end
though.
- I hate when cops (or any emergency vehicles for that matter) put
their lights on just to go through a red light. I saw one do it the
other day and couldn't help but feel smug when I got to go through the
next light and he got stuck behind a bunch of sheep.
- I also have a beef with Destiny's Child right now. I really like
that new song "Check on it", but it's on the #1's album (with two other
new songs), not the Destiny Fulfilled album which didn't come out that
long ago really. Is it so hard to put the three new songs on the NEW
album? I think putting new songs on a greatest hits album is stupid. If
you've already bought all of an artists' albums, don't you feel ripped
off when they put a new song on the greatest hits just so you'll have
to buy it too? I mean good marketing move, but shitty deal for fans. I
guess Destiny's Child is no more so they don't really care anyway.
- My xmas/birthday present for this year is the Xbox 360
(thanks M&D!) and I get to pick it up early. Best Buy in Edmonton
doesn't open until 8 AM on Tuesday for the Xbox 360 launch, so I guess
I am not lining up at midnight like I planned! If you want to join me
early in the morning though, let me know!
UPDATE: I found out over beers at the PowerPlant from Megan
that Futureshop is open at midnight tonight (and I just called to
confirm), so I am back to lining up tonight! Same price as Best Buy
too. Being the same company, you'd think they would have their hours
more in line!
I really don't like how stores start playing Christmas music and displaying decorations the day after Halloween, but one thing I do like is that Starbucks starts serving their Christmas drinks around this time of year. I am currently drinking my favorite, the Eggnog Latte, but they also have a Gingerbread Latte and Peppermint Mocha as part of the Christmas drink lineup. I am a complete eggnog addict, so this latte just hits the spot.
The barista told me that the red Christmas cups and all the other decorations and stuff will be arriving on November 10th. She also said that in many major cities in the US, they are leaving red cups on cars and other places with gift certificates (or something to that effect). I guess I'll have to keep my eyes peeled when we're in California this weekend.
And just like that, we have snow! I guess I shouldn't complain too much; after all it is already a week into November.
- My Mom was in town again this weekend, on the way home. It was good
to see her again - I only see her once or twice a year! We had a really
nice dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory last night...thanks Mom!
- I finally replaced my phone this week! I got a new Motorola V710. It's been working great, I'm really happy with it so far. So much more useful than my old phone!
- Went to Denny's tonight as Ylz is back in town for a few days...good times!
- The Podcast & Portable Media Expo
is coming up really soon! Dickson and I are excited to go, but still
not ready. As you can see, sleeping times are completely out of whack,
as are blogging habits!
- Did you know there was a fish processing plant here in Edmonton? I didn't until I saw the CEO of Experience Gastronomique give a presentation on Wednesday evening. Apparently they have been quite successful, despite being completely landlocked!
UPDATE: I forgot to mention it, but my blog turned two years old on Sunday, November 6th!
One more day until November and still no snow - I like it!
- Just got back from the Matthew Good concert at the Starlite. I went with Megan, making this like fourth time we've seen him perform I think. He played a really great set tonight, and he even played my favorite song, Weapon (he didn't play it the last time I saw him).
- My new favorite day of the week is Thursday. Why? Because there are $2 drinks at Lux!
- Sharon wants to buy a portable CD player to replace her old one, and so I gave her my little speech on how she sould be buying an MP3 player instead. It fell on deaf ears, so I called her a luddite, and to my surprise she didn't know what that meant! For once I knew something about the English language that Sharon didn't!
- I started reading Ray Kurzweil's new book The Singularity a few days ago, and I am completely enthralled. It's so interesting - it makes me want to go to sleep for twenty years and wake up when the good times are rolling!
- Looks like the Telus strike isn't going to end anytime soon - the union rejected a tentative agreement today. Very slim margin though, with 50.3% voting against the agreement.
- It has been almost 24 hours since I last ate, so I think I am going to head home and have a bite to eat before I go to sleep. Oddly though I'm not hungry.
- Happy Halloween!
I can't believe it's almost November! Here's my weekly notes:
- My Mom was in town on Saturday night! She was on her way to Toronto for some training for her new job, and she'll be back here in two weeks on the way back. I hadn't seen her in over a year, so it was great she could stop in Edmonton!
- Tomorrow (or technically today - October 24th) is United Nations Day - the day the UN officially came into existence when it's charter was ratified by the majority of signatories. This also happens to be the UN's 60th anniversary.
- I went to see A History of Violence tonight with Sharon and Megan. I can only describe it as deliciously violent.
- Sharon's sister asked me to sponsor her while I was there tonight too, so I did. I gave her $10 towards her run. They are raising money to build a school in Africa.
- I really like the Hypnotiq Beach at Earl's - so yummy!
- When I was a kid, our family had an original Atari 2600. I never knew what happened to it until recently, when I found out my parents still had it. I was quite interested, so my Mom brought it down with her last night. There's lots of games and controllers - only the power supply is missing. I won an auction for one on eBay a few hours ago though, so we'll be playing Atari in the Paramagnus office soon enough!
- I am tempted to listen to 96X this week just to see if anything came of the boycott. If you hear anything, leave a comment!
Driving home for lunch this afternoon on the Whitemud, I was passed by a red Chevy Blazer. Keep in mind that the speed limit is 80km/h, I was doing around 95 km/h, and the Blazer passed me like I was standing still. I don't know for sure, but from what I hear the Blazer is not the safest SUV in the world. Especially not the way the driver was weaving in and out of traffic, not even bothering to signal. Now this might not sound that uncommon, given that it was on the Whitemud after all.
What gets me though, is that the driver of the Blazer was a twenty-something female. And on top of her speeding and weaving, she was talking on her cell phone. Her insurance is probably less than mine. There's just something incredibly wrong with that.
I take the train to work and school every day, except for the weekends and days like last Friday that I just take off completely. Normally, it's the same thing day after day. Today however, when I took the train from Stadium to the University, things were different!
You know on the airplane right after you've lifted off, or right before you're about to land, or just as you reach cruising altitude, the pilot talks? He'll say something about the time, the weather, thanks for choosing our service, etc. That's what the driver of the train did today! It might sound inconsequential, but it was so completely unexpected! I was totally caught off guard.
It's kind of funny too, when you think about it, because unlike with an airline, you don't have a choice of what LRT company to use. There is only one! I don't know if it's a regular thing now, or if the particular driver I had this morning was just microphone-happy. Time will tell.
Hey look I am posting my notes on the actual Sunday for once!
- Just got back from what is hopefully a monthly dinner with "the old McNally crew". Of course, anyone is invited, so let me know if you want to come next time! Pictures are here.
- In case you're still sleeping, September Has Ended.
- I started to try Coca-Cola Zero yesterday, but I ended up pouring rum into it, so I still need to do a proper test. My sister says it isn't very good, leaves a terrible after-taste. Still, I gotta find out for myself you know?
- The University of Alberta is going ahead with plans to buy the Hudson's Bay building downtown!
- I really hope Hillary Clinton runs for President in 2008, so much so that I registered "hillaryclinton.ca" the other day. Thinking some sort of "Canada wants Hillary" website, but we'll see. Speaking of the next US election, Rudolph Giuliani is going to decide next year on whether or not he'll run. Apparently he is one of the best speakers in the States. Hillary versus Rudolph?
- I used to be a total Google News junkie, but lately I've been using Yahoo News more. I find it is laid out better and easier to use. Give it a shot!
I took my sister grocery shopping tonight, and while we were there I came across Campbell's Soup at Hand soups. I said something like "I want to try those" and Kim was nice enough to buy me two, so I tried one tonight.
I picked out Garden Tomato and Chicken with Mini-Pasta (cuz it was the closest I could see to Chicken Noodle). Tonight I decided to try the Garden Tomato, and I have to say, I am impressed! They are very simple to prepare - all you have to do is take off the plastic cap (called a SlipLip), remove the metal lid, and stick it in the microwave for just over a minute. When it's done, you put the SlipLip back on and drink like it was a glass of milk. Two things immediately surprised me - that the can wasn't too hot to touch coming out of the microwave, and that the soup didn't splash or bubble and make a mess.
While not exceptionally filling, they're perfect for someone like me who regularly skips lunch anyway. If you're looking for a healthy, easy to prepare lunch, Soup at Hand is great!
I think if I see another advertisement for something related to "texas hold 'em poker" I am going to go completely bonkers! As if the email and blog spam I get weren't enough, legitimate companies have created advertisements using texas hold em! First there is the Edmonton Sun, and their poker challenge or whatever it is. And just last night I saw a Telus TV spot where they advertised that you can play games on your phone, games like, you guessed it, texas hold em! Combined with all of the banner ads on the web and TV commercials to play poker online, it's enough to make you go crazy.
I just don't see what all the fuss is about. Here's the Wikipedia definition:
Texas hold 'em (or simply hold 'em or holdem) is the most popular of the community card poker games. It is the most popular poker variant played in casinos in the western United States, and its no-limit form is used in the main event of the World Series of Poker (abbreviated WSOP), widely recognized as the world championship of the game.
Although it can theoretically be played by up to 22 players (or 23 if burn cards are not used), it is generally played with between 2 and 10 people. It is one of the most positional of all poker variants, since the order of betting is fixed throughout all betting rounds. Holdem is commonly played in the rest of the world as well, but seven-card stud, Omaha hold 'em and other games may be more popular in some places.
So if it's just a form of poker, why all of a sudden is it everywhere!? Please! Make it stop!
Here are my Sunday notes, slightly late once again:
- My Dad's blog is sporting a new look! He gave me a description of what he wanted, and I tried to make it happen. I think it looks pretty good! If you notice any bugs or anything, let me know.
- I need to start coming home earlier. If I come home after 3 AM, it seems that 50% of the time there is a very wide load being moved down 17th street with police escorts and I have to wait for it to pass.
- I had grilled cheese for lunch today :)
- I also posted my post-Globalism Conference thoughts today. I'm very glad I went to the conference, gave me much to think about.
- Tonight Dickson and I visited Annie, and she showed us her new Nintendo DS. She happened to be playing a game called Nintendogs, in which you have a pet dog that you must train and look after (and since the DS has a mic, you can use voice commands). She let us try it - big mistake! Within minutes, I had trained the dog to raise it's paw when I gave the voice command, "white power". It was so funny!
- Thinking of buying an iPod Nano? You might want to read this. Seems the Nano has some very widespread problems with it's display.
- I acquired a lot of new music this last week, so I am going to post some music reviews over the next week. Maybe I'll do one album review a day. Lots of great music being released at this time of year!
- I got my car all sparkly and clean today, inside and out, so it had better not rain tomorrow!
The final session of the day was titled Alternatives to Integration with Bush's America, and included Lori Wallach, David Schneiderman, and Gordon Laxer as panelists. Mr. Laxer spoke last, being the man behind the Globalism Project, and this talk was more a wrap up of the last five years of work than an alternative to Bush's America. Ms. Wallach, from the United States, spoke first, but definitely stole the show. She was captivating, and had an excellent message to share. I found myself doing far more listening in this final session than writing, so my notes are not nearly as extensive as for other sessions:
- The bottom line: it's a power issue.
- We need to get past the "inevitability" issue. There are alternatives - the status quo is not inevitable as many assume!
- He or she who writes the rules, rules.
- In order to effect change, a mass of people is usually required - something revolutionary. And that mass of people needs to first rally around a national issue, so that there is political accountability when taking on an international issue.
- TATA: There Are Thousands of Alternatives!
- Neoliberal Globalism is a forcefield.
There were concurrent sessions right after lunch today, and I chose to attend the one entitled Energy and Security. Of all the sessions I attended, this one had the most discussion and was probably the most engaging from start to finish. All three topics presented by the panelists were tightly integrated and related, so the following notes are from all three. Marjorie Cohen talked about Public Electricity in Canada, Hugh McCullum talked about the End of the Oil Boom, and Duncan Cameron talked about The Chamber of Commerce and Energy Security.
- The main theme of the session was that Canada does not have a national energy strategy or policy of any kind, and that in order to move forward in a sustainable fashion, we need to come up with one.
- Resource nationalism is common around the world, but not in Canada.
- There is no Canadian counterpart to FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) in the US.
- The idea for Electricity Policy is to create Regional Transmission Organizations, so that privatization can occur. Canada has voluntarily gone with this plan, though some utilities in the US have opposed the idea.
- Global demand for oil has for the first time eclipsed global supply - we are entering the last few decades of the oil era.
- The oil that is left will be the oil which is hardest to extract, and which has the greatest impact on the environment.
- More than half of all Canadians heat their homes using natural gas.
- There was lots of discussion about Alberta's oilsands. It was said that oil is a national security issue for the US, and Canada and it's oilsands are the most secure source of oil.
- American investment controls at least 40% of Alberta's oil.
- NAFTA is an international treaty as far as Canada is concerned, and so it supercedes domestic law. This is not the case in the United States.
- A scheme for nationalization of Alberta's oil was proposed: 1/3 ownership to the federal government, 1/3 to the other provinces, and 1/3 to Alberta (actually 34%, so they have a veto).
- The main political question of the next five to ten years: how do we as Canadians share our resources?
For the first of the concurrent sessions, I chose to attend the one about continental economic integration, because it caught my eye. Thus far, this has been the best session of the conference in my opinion, so it was a good choice.
Some notes from Paul Bowles' talk on Canada and Dollarisation:
- It was actually Quebec that first suggested dollarisation.
- The fact that the value of the dollar fell, and that the Euro took off in Europe around the same time fueled discussion about adopting a common currency. The fact that it was on the agenda for other nations like Argentina also helped stir up interest.
- While the Canadian and Mexican reasons for dollarisation are quite clear, the American reasons are not.
- Reasons why there is hope for the future: what was sold as inevitable has not come to pass, the political right in Canada is itself split on the issue, and the fact that the US pretty much ignored the discussion makes it unlikely to happen.
From Stephen McBride's talk on Privatizing the State:
- For the first time this conference, it was suggested by Mr. McBride that perhaps neoliberal globalism has peaked. The reasons - there is no longer a sense of inevitability, while we have learned to admire entrepreneurs, events like Enron have shed light on corruption, and most importantly the term "globalization" has lately been replaced with "imperialism", which conjures up much more discussion about security, and goals, and war, etc.
- Anti-Americanism has never been as widespread or as deep as it is right now, as shown by American polling agencies.
- The influence of "accidental" events should not be underestimated! Events like Hurricane Katrina have shed light on the US class system and the inablility of the government to act domestically.
- People don't change unless there is an alternative, and only recently have there been the underpinnings for an alternative course of action.
And finally from Erin Weir's presentation on the import content of Canadian exports. Of all the talks so far, Mr. Weir's was by far the best. He is an excellent speaker and presented his argument very well. And, for the first time this conference I have an actual link to a speaker!
- There is this notion that the Canadian economy depends a great deal on exports, and this idea significantly influences public policy.
- Mr. Weir showed that by using a value-added approach to exports, as opposed to gross exports, our economy actually depends far less on exports than is commonly assumed.
- There were three key points: gross exports have declined relative to GDP since the year 2000, even though our economy has continued to grow; exports contribue to GDP far less than is commonly assumed; the growth in exports that was observed following free trade agreements is as much a result of the explosion in import content as anything else.
- TINA - could also mean "trapped in North America". An argument used to suggest that we are entirely dependent on the United States for our exports.
- The import content value-added approach shows this is untrue.
The first session this morning was on the topic of semi-periphery and US Unilateralism. Janine Brodie talked about North America as a community, Ray Broomhill gave an excellent overview of Australia in the era of Neoliberal Globalism, and Teresa Gutiérrez-Haces talked about the failure of the multilateral system. Again, visit the speakers page to learn more about them. Here are some notes I took, first on Ms. Brodie's talk:
- The current agenda for deeper integration consists of: reinventing the border, maximizing regulatory efficiency, establishing a North American energy strategy, a security alliance, and the creation of new institutions.
- Much of the current agenda for deeper integration has come from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE).
- The EU has served as an example for deeper integration. The next step after trade integration is political integration.
- An argument against this is that Americans and Canadians are becoming and more and more different in terms of their values. I question that argument though, because it's not like all of the countries in the EU have the exact same values either.
- D'Aquino has said that the level of integration this far achieved is irreversible!
- Popular culture of fear - just look at the new shows on TV this fall.
From Mr. Broomhill's presentation:
- Australia has historically been quite vulnerable to global fluctations, and this is still the case.
- Since Howard became Prime Minister in 1996, there has been a more aggresive neoliberal agenda.
- While Australia is still dependent on foreign capital for investment, it has become more indirect than in the past.
- Australia's foreign debt has grown, but the debt is now more private than public.
- Globalization presents a challenge, but it should not be an excuse for government's mistakes and failures.
I didn't get nearly as much from the last talk:
- The US employs a strategy of divide and conquer.
- They have moved away from multilateral negotiations in favor of bilateral ones in which they can impose their economic, political, and military objectives.
- It was pointed out that unilateralism is nothing new, but that replacing multilateralism with bilateralism is.
Just got back from the opening session of the conference, which we followed up by taking a trip to Boston Pizza. The attendance isn't huge, but it's a decent size, maybe 100 people in total. Tonight there was one panel, with three speakers, followed by wine and cheese (or beer and cheese if you're me). We got all the usual stuff at registration - a lanyard with a nametag, a folder full of conference stuff, etc.
First, a brief rundown on the state of affairs at this conference. The location is not the best in the world, because all we could hear in the background tonight was the volleyball/dodgeball being played in the gym adjacent (but a level below) to the conference room. There is no wireless access, which kind of surprised me, but there are some wired jacks, so I am bringing a network cable tomorrow - I just won't be able to make it an entire day without Internet. And most disconcertingly, Megan and I are probably the youngest at the conference, with maybe only six to ten other people even close to our age range. So at a conference about globalization and changes that may only manifest themselves twenty years from now, almost no one who will be affected is represented. Sad; though Dickson made a good point that the conference really wasn't advertised to anyone other than the academic-types taking part...only because I was browsing around did I find it.
Tonight's session was titled, Perspectives on US Power - Quebec, Mexico and English Canada. The three panelists were Dorval Brunelle from Quebec, Alejandro Alvarez from Mexico, and Ricardo Grinspun from Ontario (unfortunately I cannot link to their bios directly, but you can get to them from the speakers page). I must say, of the three, I liked Mr. Brunelle best - he is an excellent speaker and added just the right amount of humor, deliberate or otherwise (at one point when talking about Quebec he said "my country" when he meant to say "my province"). Believe it or not, I took notes tonight so I could process what I heard. Here are some highlights:
- It was mentioned that Norway is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.
- Mr. Brunelle on the USA: "Everyone there is either caught in a hurricane or asleep at the switch."
- A joke someone told Mr. Brunelle: "Canada is the only country in the world with two capital cities: Washington and London."
- The main point of his speech was that thus far, Quebec has managed to stave off rampant privatization that other provinces have seen because most politicians are too afraid to make drastic changes in the province.
- Mr. Grinspun talked about proposals for deeper integration with the United States, and warned that proposals for a common currency will most likely reappear sometime in the future.
- TINA - "There Is No Alternative" (the way our politicians have marketed integration with the United States to us)
- Mr. Grinspun basically said that Canada is on a path of further harmonization with the United States, a path which must be resisted to "strengthen democracy and improve sovereignty."
- We learned from Mr. Alvarez that after the fluctuations in oil prices in the 70s, the US embarked on a major restructuring of the economy which greatly affected Mexico. The result has been that the Mexican states that share a border with the United States have the best standard of living, while those further south (with the exception of Mexico City) have the lowest. The problem is that the majority of the population is in the south, not the north.
- The so-called "NAFTA+" is really all about US Security interests.
- The question was raised: "In the wake of the terrible hurricanes, will the US pursue the resources of others even more aggressively than they already have?"
All that from only the first session. This is definitely going to be an interesting conference!
Seems like the last week has just flown by, but maybe it's just me.
- Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! Thanks for dinner Yeo & Family!
- My favorite social bookmarking tool del.icio.us turned two years old this week. Happy Birthday!
- It was announced this week that Northern Voice is happening again in February.
- I watched part of the Emmys tonight, and I couldn't help but think that awards ceremonies are just an excuse for the networks and celebrities to try to convince us that they care about the disaster du jour. I long for the awards ceremony where no one thanks God for their award, and no current event is mentioned in any detail other than perhaps in passing. Otherwise, why don't we just post the winners online with a generic acceptance speech - "I'd like to thank God, and express my deepest condolences for the families affected by 9/11 or Katrina or Iraq or etc."
- If you know of any podcasting projects or experiments at the University of Alberta, let me know!
- Speaking of the UofA, there are some good suggestions for wireless in the comments of this post.
- Microsoft's PDC ended Friday, and while I wasn't there, it sure was amazing. Lots of excellent stuff coming. I agree with Brad Feld - 2006 Will Be The Year of Microsoft.
- There is no "grilled cheese" on the menu at Denny's, but if you ask for it they'll make it anyway, and it's damn good. One day I'm going to start my own grilled cheese restaurant, something like Grilled Cheese NYC.
Last night I was finishing up a big project that needed to be done for early this morning, so I didn't get a chance to post my weekly catchup entry! So here it is, slightly late (hopefully this doesn't become a habit):
- My brother Tom has arrived in Edmonton for the year. Now to get him blogging! He got a new cell phone at Bell that features music when dialing. That is, if you call him, you don't hear ringing but instead music. Not sure if I like it yet.
- School is now in full swing. Kind of sad.
- Are the rumors that eBay is going to buy Skype true? Looks that way. What about Google buying Reuters?
- Four years ago terrorists struck against the United States. Check out The September 11 Digital Archive for more.
- So far, an advantage to having classes every day is that I can create a better schedule.
- I finished reading Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust this week. Absolutely fascinating book, though a bit hard to read in places. I'll have to write up a review one of these days.
Hard to believe it has been four years already since the attacks of September 11th, 2001. There's a great article at Wikipedia on what happened on the day, and since then. It must be said that it's disappointing to realize that we haven't learned that much in the last four years. We haven't learned to be better prepared for a disaster, as Hurricane Katrina has shown. I wonder when things will change? Do we really have to wait until 2008?
I quite enjoyed the Edmonton Fringe Festival this summer, and I am looking forward to next years. We're not the only city with a Fringe though, and Darren is blogging this year's Vancouver Fringe Festival:
Last night I went to the Fringe Preview Gala. Not only did I see excerpts from a bunch of shows, but I also grilled artists and staff alike for their favourites. Here's a quick run-down of what looks promising...
If you're in Vancouver or you're going to be, you should check it out! You can see Darren's list of promising shows (as well as some more in the comments) here.
Speaking of change, Keith over at the wonderful To-Done! blog had this to say today:
Even small changes, like a rip-roarin’ summer, can throw us out of balance. Sometimes it’s as simple as a routine, or good habit, being broken. If enough time has passed and enough disruption has occurred, it can be hard to get back on track. Part of a maintaining a good work/life balance is taking a break now and again. The problem lies in that sometimes, a break is such a disruption you can lose momentum in various aspects of your life.
In my experience the best way to get back to normal (or what feels like normal) is to take a holistic approach as opposed on taking on one aspect of your life at a time.
He then outlines the holistic approach to handling change. Of the nine points Keith outlines, I'm currently doing three and occasionally four (clean and order your living and work areas is starting to be regular, but not yet). Looks like I have a little work to do!
I've been in a "try to get organized" mood for the last couple
weeks. One of the outcomes of that ongoing effort is to post a weekly
update, because it should force me to think about what has happened in
the last week, and what is upcoming for the next.
- A couple of great resources for "getting things done" are To-Done! and lifehack.org.
- Looks like Hurricane Katrina is causing major problems in the southern states, especially New Orleans.
- Did you stop to wish Windows 95 a happy birthday this week?
- The Fringe has come to an end for 2005. This marks the second year I have attended.
- The CBC remains locked out, though some think it should be considered a "rethink", and not a labour dispute. If you want to help end the lockout, click here.
- The start of a new school season approaches - I need to start making plans.
- Kim returns to Edmonton on Tuesday!
UPDATE: Yeah, I got the title wrong at first, thanks Shermie for
pointing it out. August is of course the 8th month, not the 6th!
I went to see another Fringe show on Friday night after the birthday party. Sharon wanted us to get there early so that we'd get good seats unless the show sold out. Unfortunately, we ended up having a lot of time to kill for nothing as the show was almost empty! We went to see a solo act entitled, "The Key to Violet's Apartment".
It was written and performed by Paul Matwychuk - a huge guy! He was extremely tall, which I suppose is good because he definitely commands your attention. In the show he tells the story of his friend Violet, and the mystery surrounding the key to her apartment (hence the title). I don't think Dickson, or Chu or the others enjoyed the show as much as I did. I thought Paul was an excellent story teller.
At the beginning, he explains how he was talking with his friend Max one afternoon about what it would be like to be a woman for a day, just to try it out. Eventually the two men ended up describing exactly the type of woman they would be. Paul then launched into the story of Violet, describing the way she looked. The thing is, I didn't picture Violet the way he described as the story went on - I pictured her like the woman he described he would be. He saw himself in Violet? Or maybe that's a little too deep :)
In any case, I thought it was pretty entertaining! The lighting was done really well too, as was the stage. Paul sat on a stool in front of a curtain of keys that glimmered red or blue depending on how the ighting changed. It made for a great story telling environment.
Back in September of last year, when I was still attending class often enough to need to purchase lunch on campus, I wrote about the Interac Surcharge Insanity at the University of Alberta. To refresh your memory:
Today at CAB I decided I wanted Chinese food so I went over to the cafeteria place to get some. Grabbed my good old Coke, and headed to the counter to pay using my debit card. What happened next I was not prepared for. I was shocked...they wanted to charge me a 35 cent surcharge for using Interac.
I griped about the situation, and even wrote a cleaner version of my post which got published in the Gateway. I haven't been to campus in a very long time, and even longer to buy food on campus, so I don't know if things have changed. My guess is no, since lowering fees isn't exactly natural to a post-secondary institution. What I can tell you though, is that not all companies are taking part in the surcharge madness!
BCOM Computer in Edmonton (and they have a Calgary store too) knows how Interac should be done. On every item they sell, there are two prices. One is the regular price, and the other is listed as a "cash rebate" price. What I didn't realize until today however, is that you can use either cash or Interac to get the rebate price!
That, my friends, is exactly how Interac should be done. They save money by having me use my debit card, so they pass the savings on to me. Now if only we could get the University to do the same thing!
I'm gone camping until Sunday sometime, so have a great weekend!
Just got back from a quick walk down Jasper Avenue. I went from the office here (on 101st street) to the Starbucks on 109th street (was craving coffee). I have decided that the south side of Jasper is much nicer than the north side. The buildings are cleaner and nicer, and the sidewalk has less trash strewn about.
Anyone else ever notice that?
It just wouldn't be fair of me to not wish our friends in the red states a Happy Independence Day! And, I am quite surprised, no fancy graphic at Google.com. Maybe they were busy celebrating? Actually, if you didn't know any better, you'd have no idea today was ID4 judging by the most common websites. I remember back in the day when Hotmail completely changed their look to celebrate Independence Day (that was, of course, before they were purchased by Microsoft). Just goes to show how long I've been a geek I guess.
Got lots of stuff to keep track of? Of course you do, you're a busy person, just like the rest of us. How do you keep track of the things you need to get done? If you're like me, you probably write stuff down then go and lose that piece of paper. Happens all the time. But not anymore!
Lately I've been using Ta-da Lists, mainly because we've been using it's big brother Basecamp at Paramagnus and liking it. Here's what you can do with Ta-da Lists:
- Keep track of all the little things you need to get done
- Make lists for other people (co-workers, friends, family)
- Share lists with the world ("My favorite movies of 2004")
- Subscribe to your lists in RSS so you're always on track
It's a great application, and it's free! You just can't go wrong. I especially like that my lists are on the web, so I can get to them from any computer. And the interface is simple, fast, and effective. If you're looking for a better way to keep yourself organized, definitely check out Ta-da Lists.
Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians and blue-state-residents! While my day wasn't as interesting as Megan's I'm sure (she's in Ottawa), it wasn't bad. I just got back from watching the fireworks, and while they certainly were nothing to write home about, they were better than previous years. I especially like how they ended with a barrage of red and white sparkly ones, looked very good. Sure didn't last that long though. On the other hand, it could have been pouring with rain, so I suppose I should be happy we got any fireworks at all!
Earlier today I was in Millwoods, volunteering with Students For Literacy. It was really quite funny actually! Imagine a nice green park, with a small amusement park across the road, and food, face painting, bubbles, games, hay rides, music, and toys everywhere inside the park. Then imagine a small tent dedicated to reading. Where would you go if you were a little kid? Exactly. Needless to say, we weren't that busy, but it was still fun. The kids that did come seemed more interested in making their own story than reading, which was just as well!
Afterward, Sharon and I went for dinner and coffee. We decided to go to BP's, and because of the wait, we sat in the lounge which as of today is by law, smoke free! To us it smelled kind of like they used some powerful cleaner last night to try and get rid of the smoke smell. And then we went to Starbucks. Very un-Canadian I suppose, but I just can't resist a Caramel Macchiato.
In other news, Happy Birthday to Jenn (heifer!). Oh, and did you see that Google Canada replaced the first "o" with a maple leaf? I'd say that was great, but they could have done more - you can bet that Google.com will be more dressed up in three days time.
Well it's back to business as usual when it comes to conferences.
Dickson and I just got here, about 45 minutes late, just in time for
Julie Leung's session. It just wouldn't be a conference if we didn't
show up late at least once!
Been really busy lately, so I haven't been posting as much. Anyway, here's some notes for today and yesterday...
- If you want to learn more about podcasting, definitely join us for the Edmonton Podcasters Meetup on Saturday! I'm really looking forward to the event.
- We've entered the testing phase of the robot creation process, so
that's definitely good news. Tomorrow will determine whether we're on
schedule or behind, but I'm pretty confident the robot can make an
appearance on Saturday.
- No one does steak like The Keg.
- Welcome back to blogging Dad.
I've got a fairly big announcement to make tomorrow, and no it isn't
related to the robot, but I promise it'll be cool so watch for that.
I've only done a couple of these so far, but I find that making a "notes"-like post now and then helps organize my scatterbrained mind...
- My Dad comes into town tomorrow, for much longer this time, so that should be fun!
- I have a ton of pictures from the various convocations over the last week. If you want a copy of the pictures on CD, please let me know so I can bring you one, or drop by the office to get one.
- Work continues on the robot, we're making progress. Looks like we'll have to push back the testing day slightly, but I'm still confident we can make our target date.
- I really enjoyed my business law class last semester, and it turns out that I am using knowledge from it already. Perhaps there is a connection between classes you like and the amount you use them!
- Dickson is right, there is definitely some strange stuff downtown late at night.
I can't believe we're already almost two weeks into the month. There just isn't enough time I tell you!
Seems odd that I haven't been posting like normal lately! I guess with only a couple weeks left until Seattle, work and related projects are starting to take up more and more time. It's crunch time! Anyway, some notes for today:
- Work on the robot continues. We decided to bring in a pro to help us out; welcome aboard Ashish! As a result, completion looks more and more likely :)
- Little bottles of Baha Rosa make excellent birthday gifts. Or at the very least, they sure are tasty.
- The Longest Yard is a very funny movie, I highly recommend it!
- I have been trying to get an old computer here running again. Turns out, I have finally found a need for a USB floppy drive. Disgusting!
- Will I be able to run Mac OS X on my Intel box soon? Looks like we'll find out tomorrow.
- I know Andrea's weakness!!!
- Dickson seems to think that parking downtown is worse on Sunday than on Saturday and I think he's right. Took me forever to find a spot today.
- Four camping trips tentatively scheduled for this summer, which means I need to go buy more rum ;)
And now, back to the code!
So much to say, so little time to write it. Here's a quick "get caught up" post for today:
- Happy Birthday Felicia! Hope you enjoyed your day :)
- We had the Imagine Cup Conference Call this afternoon, and it went quite well. We're hoping to have more in the future, so if you're interested, let me know! I'll follow this up with a post later.
- Watched Dickson finish Fable this afternoon, appeared far too easy. I am close to finishing too. Enflame is by far the best Will weapon in the game!
- I have decided that reheated Pizza 73 is better than reheated Panago, simply because the crusts don't get all hard.
- The door for the room inside our office finally got installed today, the signage was put up last week. That means, party soon!
Dickson, Andrew and I are off to Calgary for the day tomorrow, on official Paramagnus business! Of course we're never too far from an Internet-connected computer, so maybe we'll post something from the road. The quest to build the robot continues!
As you're probably aware, I live in Edmonton, so I know all about the infamous and never-ending Battle of Alberta. And yes it totally sucked watching the Flames make it to the finals. While the battle between Edmonton and Calgary is usually thought of in terms of sports, I think it applies to other industries as well, like technology.
Why does Calgary seem so much more favorable to tech firms than Edmonton? Is it really that much closer to the States? Not really, so there must be another reason. While searching for electronics and robotics stuff today, Andrew and I discovered that there are far more related stores in Calgary than here in Edmonton. Heck even the Western Canadian Robot Games were held in Calgary at SAIT this year.
There is other stuff too! Like the programming competition that Dickson and I won back in January - that took place in Calgary, not Edmonton. A search on Google for Calgary gives 23,900,000 results while a similar search for Edmonton returns only 16,300,000 results. Google's satellite maps show street level detail for Calgary, but not for Edmonton. Techvibes has 3 pages of technology companies for Edmonton, but 6 for Calgary!
I don't know why, but we're currently losing the technology battle of Alberta!
It's amazing how long you can live in a city, and still not explore everything it has to offer. Today was one of those "wow, didn't realize that existed" days for me. The adult learning class I volunteer for (the students are from the inner-city and learn reading but mostly writing) was taking a field trip today, on Edmonton's historic streetcar. I had never been on the streetcar before, and actually, I don't even remember seeing it. I guess that was what amazed me most, that I could be so oblivious.
Mother nature didn't really want to cooperate, with brief showers every now and then. As soon as we'd go inside, it would be sunny, and yet when we went back out, it would rain again! Our group is a positive bunch though, and the rain didn't dampen our spirits. My job was to take pictures of the trip, so I ended up with about seventy. Thank goodness for digital!
The streetcar itself was rather interesting! I spoke with the conductor for a while, and he was explaining some of the history. You can read a little about it at the Edmonton Transit site. I found the ride quite short though, I expected it to last longer. It was rather neat to go across the top of the high level bridge, which I cross many times a week by car. The conductor even stopped halfway across so I could snap a few photos. Apparently it is the tallest streetcar bridge in the world.
Next week when the group meets, we'll write about today's experience on the streetcar, so I am looking forward to what everyone has to say! If you live in Edmonton and haven't yet been on the streetcar, why not go for a quick ride? You might even learn something!
Yesterday, Andrew posted a list of the things that you can find on his desk. The thinking is that what you have on your desk probably says a lot about who you are. I am not sure if that's entirely accurate or not, but I figured I'd partake in the experiment anyway. Who am I to stand in the way of scientific progress! So, with the exception of my desktop computer, pens, paper and other stationary, here's my list:
- HP TC1000 Tablet
- An issue of The Globe and Mail from Friday
- May issues of Wired, Business 2.0, and Business Week magazines
- Really old cell phone (Motorola Timeport, yes I need a new one!)
- Aspirin
- Crystal candy jar full of LifeSavers Cream candies
- Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D digital camera (and Vanguard camera case as well)
- A couple programming books, a law book, and a couple business books
- Plantronics phone headset
- Plantronics DSP 500 USB headset
- Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 DVD
- Samson C03 studio microphone
- A bunch of keys
- Some gum, CDs. batteries, and yes, chopsticks
- Kleenex
That about does it for my list! Do you think it's an accurate representation of who I am? What do you have on your desk?
I never knew there was a word for it:
Autodidact: One who is self-taught.
Autodidact is from Greek autodidaktos, "self-taught," from auto-, "self" + didaktos, "taught," from didaskein, "to teach."
Obviously I haven't been my normal posting self lately, as I just haven't found the time to sit at the computer for more than a few minutes to check email. That doesn't mean that there's been nothing to write about though! Here is a small list of things I have thought about over my blog break:
- The construction and city cleaning crews really don't mess around. At 3 AM, they travel in packs of at least half a dozen, and they have leading and trailing cops. I never really thought about how the streets got cleaned before, but it makes sense now.
- The key to productivity is sleeping at 4 AM, and waking up at 7 AM.
- Interactive Voice Response systems go a long way to replacing the menu systems, but only when they are used correctly. For example, the Telus system asks for your phone number, but everytime you finally get to a person, they have to ask again. What was the point of asking the first time?!
- Soundproofing is a good thing. Wooden floors amplify bass.
- A proper meal is only required once in two days. Donuts and pringles fill the gap.
- You simply can never have too much Coke on hand.
- Anyone who thinks that downtown Edmonton is "dead" can think again. Or go try to find parking at 1 AM any night of the week, even Sunday, and then tell me if you still think it's "dead."
- The Interpreter was a pretty good movie. In fact, it was one of the few movies in which I actually liked Nicole Kidman. Probably not my favorite Sean Penn movie though.
- One day I am going to move to a place where it never snows. This warm weather followed by snow followed by more warm weather is just painful.
- Ikea carts make a wonderful addition to any home or office.
Now, hopefully, let's return to your regularly scheduled blog!
The good folks at Health Canada announced yesterday that they have given approval for the sale of Sativex in our country. Sativex is a drug derived from cannabis to treat multiple sclerosis-related nerve pain:
This week’s approval of Sativex marked the world’s first cannabis-based drug to reach the market, according to the drug’s U.K.-based manufacturer, GW Pharmaceuticals....The drug is dispensed via a spray, which is delivered under the tongue or on the inside of the cheek. Potential side effects can include nausea, fatigue, dizziness, and reactions at the site where the drug is sprayed. However, the drug will not induce the type of intoxication associated with smoking marijuana.
So that's definitely good news for people suffering from MS. I think it's interesting to note that the announcement was made on April 20th, which is apparently International Smoke Weed Day (or 420). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find an official link or website, just a few blog postings. I wish I could find out some more information on it - first heard about "smoke weed day" from Kim. Apparently it's a word-of-mouth celebration!
How many young people watch the news these days? A lot less than in the past I'd bet. Most probably get their news from the Internet, or from friends. I have come up with a way to get young people, specifically males in the much-coveted 18 to 34 age range watching again. Pass a law that makes all news anchors look like this beautiful anchorwoman. Damn lucky French people.
[Tags: news france]
In Edmonton, like any other city, we have a number of different radio stations. In the last two years, we've had quite a few format changes for both AM and FM stations, and at least two new FM stations have appeared. One of the new stations is The Bounce, at 91.7 on the dial. Their main competition is 96X at 96.3, one of the old stations. It is these two stations I want to take a look at.
As you can see from the Bounce website, the station advertises itself as "Your New #1." That seems logical I suppose, considering they are new, but are they really #1? Their arch rival, 96X, advertises itself as "Edmonton's #1 Hit Music Station." How can they both be #1? Sounds like one of the two stations has to be wrong!
The two radio stations are making a claim about their position in the radio market in Edmonton. According to the Competition Bureau here in Canada, a misleading representation about market position is prohibited:
Representations about the nature, size and market position of a business...fall within section 52(1)(a), which prohibits representations that are false or misleading in a material respect. Words such as "only" or similar claims of the exclusivity or superiority of a supplier should not be used if the result is to deceive or mislead.
I think it is quite intuitive that two stations cannot be #1 at the same time, so one of the stations must be making a misleading representation! Unfortunately, I do not have any data on listeners, but I would assume that 96X has the largest part of the market, especially considering The Bounce is so new. Now I suppose by saying "YOUR New #1" and not "EDMONTON's New #1", The Bounce may be on safe footing, despite the fact that by "your" they probably mean "edmonton's" anyway.
In the grand scheme of things, they could both advertise using the same words and it wouldn't affect my life in the slightest (especially thanks to my Zen Touch). I'll still flip between stations when the commercials start. I just think it's interesting to be aware of how these companies market themselves.
[Tags: edmonton radio advertising 96x thebounce]
Since we all know engineers are special people, who require special classes like their own version of English, it should be no surprise that there is a cooking website devoted to engineers. Cooking for Engineers says "Have an analytical mind? Like to cook? This is the site to read!" And from the comments on the MetaFilter post, be sure to check out Cook's Illustrated too.
[Via MetaFilter] [Tags: cooking engineering engineers food]
Take a nice big Google Gulp and watch out for would-be pranksters today!
[Tags: google]
If you've got a few minutes, you should definitely read The PowerBook Prank. Basically a buyer on eBay tried to scam some guy into sending a PowerBook laptop using a fake escrow service, but the guy figured it out. So what did he do? Sent the guy a cardboard laptop and duped him into paying import taxes! The whole thing played out with help from the Something Awful message board - there were even people doing field work! When the scammer found out he'd been screwed over, he sent viruses and launched a DoS attack. Priceless.
This is just intense. Nate Kushner, a comedy writer, was approached by a college girl on IM to write a paper for her. Apparently the topic of the paper appeared in his IM profile, so she decided to take the easy way out. Or so she thought. Nate strung her along, wrote a fake paper, and posted the entire debacle on his blog in the hopes that the girl would get caught. Mean yes, but absolutely hilarious. All would be plagiarists - read this and think twice.
I reached one more branch out to her, in the form of misspelling the name of the god of destruction as a liquor brand. But it wasn't enough to get her to tell me to fuck myself, so I started making up my plan. Which was real simple: Take her money and cut and paste a paper together from the internet that was so obviously plagiarised that she'd be guaranteed to get caught.
Is this harsh? Eh, I don't think so. She got the syllabus saying she'd be kicked out of school for plagiarism, so she shouldn't be surprised. Plus, I have a nice little English degree that I did all the work for myself, so I find it a little offensive that this girl for whom money is no object is buying papers like that.
Read: Laura K. Krishna is a Plagiarist
[Via Boing Boing] [Tags: plagiarism]
Happy Easter to you! Hope you're enjoying the long weekend. Wondering why Easter is a holiday? Nope, it's not because there is a bunny and chocolate. Find out at Wikipedia.
Go watch this video (WMV). You'll be scarred for life, I promise.
[Via BoingBoing]
FLAPJACK himself left a comment on my last post about the pancake auction, and asked if I could redirect folks to the new listing (apparently eBay took the old one down or something). And well, happy to oblige :)
SAME OLE ONE DAMN PANCAKE
This is just too funny. Some guy is selling a Pancake on eBay and has turned the auction page into a blog!
There are some things money can't buy:
Picture 2-7 Are airport security workers putting their no-longer needed pornographic materials in passengers' suitcases? This Air Canada luggage sticker reads: "THIS BAGGAGE HAS BEEN X-RATED AT POINT OF ORIGIN."
There's a bigger version of the image here. Apparently they have fixed the mistake - too bad! A little comedy on the plane never hurt anyone.
[Via BoingBoing]
I might just be the only person you'll ever see who will chase a bottle of V8 juice with good old Coke! Then again, maybe not, there could be many such addicts out there. This was taken today in CAB at the University of Alberta, always a party going on in that place! If you're on campus, come to the basement of CAB.
In other news...it sounds like there is a big Xbox/computer LAN being planned for reading week, tentatively on the 24th and 25th, so block it off on your calendars. I don't want to hear any lame excuses! Bring your Xbox, games, controllers, computers, pictures, music, porn, you name it, and we'll either play it, watch it, or share it. I am guessing that Inge will post some more details as the event draws near, so stay tuned!
Starbucks and alcohol together - heaven on earth? Pretty damn close! Here's a press release from April of last year talking about the idea.
Darren Barefoot posted yesterday that he isn't going to drink any soft drinks for the month of February. According to his post, Darren is "serious[ly] smitten with Coke." Sound like anyone you know? I don't think I could do what Darren is doing. I am far too addicted.
It’s time to grow up and accept that drinking a can of Coke a day isn’t particularly healthy.
A single can of Coke a day? Man I'm screwed, let alone addicted! And hey Darren, I hope you finished that last half can, I don't like Coke abuse!
If you're like me, you tend to press snooze one too many times. Well, it seems some students at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (never head of it either) have developed an alarm clock, dubbed the Sfera, that solves this problem:
The clock itself actually hangs from a string, and automatically raises itself a little bit higher off the ground every time you hit snooze, in turn forcing you to actually get up out of bed if you want to turn it off.
Interesting idea, though I can see myself whacking it with a pillow after a while. Maybe it would be better if instead of raising itself up, it shot you with water. That would definitely wake you up!
[Via Engadget]
I have not met Murphy. I don't know anyone who has met Murphy. I doubt I'll ever meet Murphy. But I do know something about Murphy. He's one aggravating son of a bitch! And if I ever meet him, I'm gonna tell him exactly where to stick his law.
Just came across Googlewar, very cool tool which lets you enter two queries and it compares the number of results for each in Google. So just to test, I put "mastermaq" against "dickson wong". And the winner? MasterMaq wins with 13,900 results to 2,210. Owned!
And you thought the weather was warming up lately!
This is from a screenshot I took this afternoon of my website. On the left side I have a weather control from Weather Underground, and normally it is fairly accurate. Looks like some data was coming in funny from the Weather Underground service.
I found it rather amusing :)
So what's with the crazy weather? Below minus 40 celcius with the wind chill is not my cup of tea. FYI, the weather warning for the Edmonton area has been continued.
Happy New Year and all the best to you in the coming dozen months!
I have been programming like a mad man for the last few days, so I haven't really had time to do anything else. Today however, I took a moment to update the feeds I subscribe to and man was there ever a lot of posts to read! In any case, I am feeling a little more caught up - though I still have a couple shows to post at BlogosphereRadio.
The most common type of post I read today was a 2004 year in review or something similar. So, not to be left out (how sad is that?) I will be posting my own in the next two days. Also hopefully a year in review show at BlogosphereRadio.com.
Does anyone know why we continue to celebrate Christmas on December 25th when the true meaning of the season isn't shown until the rabid slaves of consumerism descend on stores in droves on the 26th? Just something I was thinking about. Happy Boxing Day week!
Or, for those of you who are picky about that sort of thing, Happy Holidays!
If you have a computer nearby tonight, you might want to check out the 2004 NORAD Tracks Santa website. The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa for 50 years now, and if you ever wonder how it got started, the story is pretty amazing:
This is the 50th season that NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs store's advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included a misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline."
The Commander-in-Chief did some quick thinking and the rest is history! So yeah, check it out. And as cool as the service is, and as great as I think the idea is, their website could sure use some work. It looks like an old Geocities web page!
You know what's yummy? Smothered fries, chicken strips, and mini burgers from Denny's. I also didn't realize how many people would be at Denny's at 3:30 AM. Mind boggling, really! That is all.
I think I am becoming addicted to XBOX. Instead of writing the entire story on my blog, check out Andrew's post here and here. My sleep patterns are completely shot, as are my eating patterns. Dinner at 3 AM and bedtime at 7 AM don't work so well when you get up at noon to do it all over again! Fortunately the last two days/nights/whatever have also included many, many hours of work, so not all is lost!
Although I have been doing quite a bit of shopping over the last week or so, it finally hit me that Christmas is upon us. Maybe it's because my sister left town for "home" today, back to the frozen north in Inuvik, NT. Maybe it's because a bunch of us went out for dinner last nite to Earls, the last dinner before people leave for Christmas or celebrate with their families (pretty cool side note - the kitchen lost our order, and our food was delayed over an hour, so our bill was free). Or maybe it's because I got my first present.
At dinner last night, Kimmi got me to open my present from her and Tom - a Crystal Edition XBOX! Hahaha I am now the proud owner of an XBOX. I played a little bit of Fable and Crimson Skies (the two included games) last night when we got home, and I have been playing Fable all morning so far. This is not looking good for my productivity!
Anyway, time for some work...watch for some BlogosphereRadio episodes later today!
Sorry folks for the lack of posting on my blog and for the silence over at BlogosphereRadio.com. We've actually got a few shows recorded, I just need to put them together. The problem has been final exams and everything that goes along with that, not to mention Xmas that is creeping up ever so steadily.
My last exams are tomorrow and Friday, so things should resume over the weekend. In the meantime, check out Megan's blog, where I have heard over MSN that she is working on something pretty interesting. Also, I have finally discovered a use for that stupid channel 18 that shows a burning log 24/7 and plays Christmas music - it is the perfect noise for me to block out while studying!
This is absolutely priceless:
An American T-shirt company says its "Go Canadian" package is the perfect solution for U.S. travellers weary of dealing with questions on politics while on vacation. It includes a T-shirt showing the flag and the words "O Canada," a flag lapel pin and sticker, and a maple leaf patch for luggage or backpacks.
It also comes with a quick reference guide called "How to Speak Canadian, Eh?!" to help people answer any questions about Canada while travelling.
All that Canadian goodness for only $24.95 USD. Check it out at T-ShirtKing.com. All kidding aside, it's probably a good idea for traveling Americans. I remember back to 2000 when I went to Australia. Even then Canadians were more warmly welcomed than Americans. I can't imagine what it would be like now!
[Via CBC News]
I am off to sleep, but I figured I would leave you with this wonderful site I stumbled across tonight. It's called Book-A-Minute Bedtime, and is a collection of classic stories compressed into one-minute bedtime stories, like the infamous Corduroy by Don Freeman:
Corduroy: No one will buy me because I'm missing a button.
(A girl BUYS Corduroy and makes him a BUTTON, and there are WARM FUZZIES.)
THE END
Enjoy, and goodnight!
Just came across this very interesting article from The Globe and Mail. The writer, Jan Wong, lists ten things that are better in China than they are here. And apparently, she left a lot of things out. Since I hate bad drivers, this is my favorite:
2. Informative stop lights
In Tianjin, a city of 13 million people, traffic lights display red or green signals in a rectangle that rhythmically shrinks down as the time remaining evaporates. In Beijing, some traffic lights offer a countdown clock for both green and red signals.
During a red light, you know whether you have time to check that map; on a green light, you know whether to start braking a block away -- or to stomp on the accelerator, as though you were a Toronto or Montreal driver. (That's probably why Montreal has a few lights with countdown seconds for pedestrians.)
Their cellphone coverage is better too, but almost anywhere in the world is better than North America. Worth a read!
Dear Proctor & Gamble,
I would like to take this opportunity to apologize. You see, over the last few months, I have been making fun of your commercial for the Swiffer Dusters product. You know the one with the psychotic lady dancing around her friend's house dusting to the sound of a modified version of Devo's "Whip It". I thought it was the dumbest, most insane commercial ever produced (well almost). I took every opportunity to ridicule your commercial and the product. I switched the channel purposefully when it came on. I would hold my breath and close my eyes and count to 30 if I couldn't find the remote. The first time I saw it, I think I choked on my popcorn.
So now I apologize for my behaviour. I have recently discovered how truly great the Swiffer Duster really is. I am amazed at how it keeps all the dust in the cloth without falling out all over the place. I am amazed at how shelf after shelf, the dust disappears. I am almost tempted to search through my house for areas to dust. I am impressed. Slightly scared I will turn into that crazy woman from the commercial, but impressed.
So please accept my humble apologies, and thanks for a wonderful product!
Sincerely,
Mack D. Male
[I wanted to post somehow about how I tried out the Swiffer Duster today and liked it. But that would have been boring. Hopefully this was more entertaining!]
Just a quick personal update in the midst of all this election stuff. Took Kimmi to the orthodontist today, and afterward she "highlighted" my hair. Turned out to be more of a dying, but I rather like it. Thanks Kim! Also picked up a poppy today, make sure to donate and get yours!
Went to Starbucks tonight with Grandma, and was very pleased to see the Christmas drinks are back! That is the only part of Christmas that I don't mind starting right after Halloween. Needless to say, I am currently enjoying my Eggnog latte and watching Jon Stewart's LIVE Daily Show on CTV.
Happy Halloween everyone! To celebrate, here is your Halloween MSN Messenger Display Picture!
Ever wonder what the origins of Halloween are? I did. So I searched Google and found a number of pages with varying descriptions. Almost all the pages say that the holiday can be traced back to the ancient religion of the Celtics. There are also some pages dedicated to taking information from the Bible to explain its origins (don't ask me why). I like this one:
Originally, Halloween was commonly celebrated as a religious holiday meant to scare evil spirits away. People used to dress up as goblins, witches, and ghosts in order to celebrate All Saints' Day without a visit from the evil spirits. Other customs associated with Halloween that can be traced back in time include the Jack-O-Lantern. Irish children used to carve out potatoes or turnips and light them for their Halloween gatherings. The commemorated Jack was an wicked Irish villain unwanted by either heaven or hell. Jack wondered the world endlessly looking for a place to rest. Once in America, the Irish began to use pumpkins to celebrate Halloween with a Jack-O-Lantern because pumpkins were easier to carve and could be found in abundance.
Anyway, enjoy your last day of freedom. Freedom? Well you can count on seeing Christmas everywhere starting tomorrow. You won't be able to escape the red, green and gold decorations, holiday music, and Christmas trees. New Years won't come soon enough!
Apparently, it happens:
Mr Buchanan told the Australasian Sleep Association how a patient of his, who was a respectable middle-aged woman with a steady partner, would leave the house while sleepwalking and have sex with strangers. The woman was totally unaware of her double life until her partner became suspicious and found her engaged in the act. "He was aware of some sleepwalking and there was circumstantial evidence, including the unexplained presence of condoms around the house," Mr Buchanan told the conference.
Kinda scary if you ask me! I wonder if you would still seek out only individuals you would be attracted to when awake?
[Via Boing Boing]
Aguhhhh!! I cannot believe it has snowed so much already, this sucks! Any it's only going to get worse according to Environment Canada:
While the heaviest snow has already fallen however another 2 to 5 centimetres are possible before the system moves into Saskatchewan adding to the 15 to over 25 centimetres already on the ground. Visibility is still reduced under the snow and will continue to be a hinderance to travel this evening.
[Via Environment Canada]
Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians! Hope you enjoy your holiday Monday. Just heard about a bit of sad news to start the day (or more accurately, end yesterday, going to sleep momentarily):
"Superman" actor Christopher Reeve, who became a committed campaigner for spinal cord research after being paralysed in a riding accident nine years ago, has died of heart failure, his publicist says.
Reeve, 52, went into a coma on Saturday when he suffered a heart attack during treatment for an infected pressure wound and died in Northern Westchester Hospital on Sunday afternoon without regaining consciousness, publicist Wesley Combs told reporters on Monday.
Just a reminder to be thankful for what you have!
[Via Reuters]
This is priceless:
- Make sure you have a virus scanner installed, as the first time I did this, something got blocked by Symantec.
- Go to Google
- Enter "french military victories" in the search box
- Click "I'm Feeling Lucky"
- Laugh at the page that appears, and click the link for more laughs!
Man I couldn't stop laughing...
[Via Jason Bentley]
Today at CAB I decided I wanted Chinese food so I went over to the cafeteria place to get some. Grabbed my good old Coke, and headed to the counter to pay using my debit card. What happened next I was not prepared for. I was shocked...they wanted to charge me a 35 cent surcharge for using Interac.
Before I go on, I must say I sat in CAB and griped to Andrew and Megan about the surcharge. I made a fuss, and even grabbed four forks and a stack of napkins to make myself feel like I was getting something for my 35 cents. However, if you are a frequent reader of my blog, you'll know that I don't rant without facts. And this post is no different.
Why was I upset about the surcharge? First and foremost, if a method of payment is made available for use, it seems counterproductive to then restrict the use of that method. Why did they invent Interac? Because it is convenient. Now Andrew made the claim that because it is convenient, I am willing to pay a higher price for this extra convenience. This is totally untrue. Any convenience I get from using Interac is instantly negated by the convenience the merchant receives. My use of Interac not only saves them time, but money. The funds go directly into their account, they don't have to hold cash on hand, and there are no trips to the bank, no deposit slips to fill out, etc. From TD Canada Trust:
An automated terminal provides instant authorization of Interac Direct Payment, Visa and other major credit card transactions. As a merchant, use of an automated terminal allows you to reduce the number of trips you make to the bank, because funds are deposited for you electronically. And you don't have to spend time filling out deposit summaries. These benefits add up to increased convenience and potentially increased sales.
Why on earth should I pay extra so that they benefit twice? Its ludicrous! But wait! It gets worse. This is from the Interac Association website:
Interac Association does not charge fees to consumers...
A surcharge is a fee charged to cardholders by the Interac Association member responsible for the Automated Banking Machine or the Interac Direct Payment terminal. A merchant cannot surcharge for the use of Interac Direct Payment. The surcharge fee is in addition to any service charges the cardholders may pay their financial institution for using the Interac shared services.
So as you can see from the above quote, merchants cannot charge me a surcharge for using Interac on top of whatever the bank is charging. So if the University wants to charge me a surcharge, I want COLD, HARD, PROOF that they are being charged per transaction by the bank. I haven't read, seen, or heard anything about the banks raising their rates, and it seems to me that it would have made the news if they did. After all, "more than 34 million banking cards are in circulation among an adult population of 21.8 million. Canadians love their banking cards using them more than 2.4 billion times in 2002. That's an average of 76 times a second for every hour of every day."
Charging me for something that saves you money? Ridiculous, and I won't have it. The war is on.
FIRST OFF: If you have sent me any important email in the last month, please send it to me again. I lost all mail sent or received after July 5th due to a problem with my computer on Monday night.
Okay so in a manner of speaking, I'm back. My parents left Edmonton yesterday on their five day journey back to Inuvik (decided to take it a little slower on the way back). It seems like they arrived here just yesterday, but that's how it is I suppose. Time flies when you're having fun!
Yesterday was a busy day. After helping my parents pack up and get on their way in the morning, I went to my grandparents (northside) to setup my sister's computer. While I was there, Papa and I decided to run a network cable from the router (in the basement) up to his computer so that he too could be on the high speed Internet. Well, who would have thought how much trouble it would be! I am no longer surprised they don't make houses like they used to - old houses are built so strongly you can't change them! In the end we ran 50 feet of ethernet cable, drilled four holes, and spent a lot of time trying to fish cable from one hole to another.
I thought I was feeling better yesterday too, but I guess I wasn't really! Last night I started to feel quite sick again, so I loaded up on the appropriate drugs and went to bed:
Needless to say, I feel much better today so far! I guess we'll see how long it lasts this time. For now, time to get to work - the "vacation" is over!
My apologies if I have missed a message or something from any of you recently - I admit I have kinda disappeared lately. With my parents in town, I have been quite busy and wasn't home at all this weekend, not even to sleep. But, when you only see your parents once a year, you want to make it worthwhile you know?
Anyhow, my Dad and I were up very early Saturday morning to do some photography (early as in about 6 so that we could catch the fog on the farms, etc). I learned quite a bit about that digital camera of mine - I'll have to post some of the pictures I took. And we were up early again this morning to see Michael Schumacher win his 12th race of the season (a new record), and Ferrari lock up the constructor's championship with their 7th 1-2 finish of the year.
I cannot believe it is already the 16th of August...time sure flies when you want it to slow down. My parents leave Edmonton on Tuesday, and my sister arrives on the 25th. Should be a busy next few weeks!
Now that three provinces and one territory allow gays and lesbians to wed, I think its only a matter of time until the rest of them do as well. Yet you would think if they were going to allow same-sex marriages, they would have thought about allowing same-sex divorces too!
Apparently two women in Toronto are seeking a divorce, but the Divorce Act still defines "spouse" as "of a man or woman who are married to each other". So after a five day marriage (kinda kills the whole "same-sex marriage is going to work because they have been waiting forever to get hitched" argument) the two women, who had been in a relationship for 10 years before tying the knot, are stuck together.
Is it just me, or did the governments make a big mistake here? And why are the women only referred to as "M.M." and "J.H."? Do lesbians not have names? And why do these women want to separate anyways? Did it take five days of marriage for them to realize they cannot have children together?
Anyway, its a good time to be a divorce lawyer - the floodgates will open soon enough!
So that's why I have a poor memory! Really interesting article at FuturePundit that explains the results of a recent study found in the APA's Behavioural Neroscience journal. Basically, caffeine will help you recall information that is related to the current train of thought, but hinders when the information is unrelated.
Think of caffeine as a drug that reduces distractability. Get on one chain of thought. Then encounter a distraction that requires you to shift to another chain of thought. Caffeine will inhibit your brain's ability to make that transition.
Obviously, this is a trade-off. The ability to resist distractions is a plus in some environments. But that is not always the case. Other environments require frequent attention shifting.
All we have to do is figure out how to harness the power of caffeine! I just KNEW all that Coke and Starbucks was good for me :)
[Via FuturePundit]
I must say I never expected the shirt I bought at Old Navy in Seattle back in April would be such a hit. Every time I have worn it, guys have been like "dude that's awesome" and gals have either laughed or pretended to be disgusted while laughing.
Today I recieved an email from a guy who was scouring the Internet for a "Have a sister?" shirt. He came upon my blog entry from back in June where I talked about it. Well, good luck! I hope you find one and that it brings you much happiness! Check out the shirt here.
Wow, long time no blog! Been very busy moving everything to the new servers, so sorry for any temporary glitches you may have encountered. Everything should be peachy soon!
Tonight I went for Starbucks with Violet, who I hadn't seen in a long time. Good to keep in touch with these people :) After that, I met Dickson at Tim Horton's and we did some work on one of our software designs. Everything was going good, then around 11:30 or so, these crazy girls started fighting. Like hardcore pushing, shoving, punching, and kicking, throwing around the tables and chairs in the Timmy's! We were stunned! Eventually they were broken up, and the cops came.
Maybe we shouldn't have gone downtown!
One of the things I have been working on lately is my own application for posting to a blog using a Tablet PC! I did some searching and really only found two applications that do this so far; BLink! which has no website or download to try and to my knowledge has never been released, and WebCamNotes which worked well but didn't do what I wanted it to. I also don't think WebCamNotes was really designed to be an ink blog tool.
I now have the application working with .Text blogs and hopefully I can make it work with others sooner rather than later. Soon as we get the whole server situation figured out, I will create the website and make PostInk! available to download.
Posted using PostInk
Not to take anything away from Tampa winning the cup, but I had an MRI today (for Brock's job). It was an interesting experience! I called this post the thin blue line, because there is one that runs up the center of the inside of the machine. That and the fact that at times it sounds like machine guns going off :)
It was painless, not too long, and really not that uncomfortable (unless you are afraid of enclosed places). It was also neat because there is a little mirror inside so that you can see out. Good job Brock :)
Check out the pictures!
Anyone seen the commercials for Gillette's new razor, the M3Power? Looked like a damn cool "shaving system" so picked one up to try. Now, for a device that contains 36 patents I expect nothing less than the "World's Best Shave".
I must say, its a damn cool razor. Obviously, its not going to be better than the fancy self-cleaning, self-sharpening, self-coffee-pouring electric razors you can get, but for a normal razor, its damn sweet. And really its not that normal.
It's green and silver, awesome. It has an on/off switch, awesome. It takes less strokes, awesome. It has advanced lubricated strips with Vitamin E and Aloe, awesome. It uses micro-pulses to stimulate hair away from skin, awesome. It was launched like a movie, awesome. But why do I like this razor? Simple. I am a guy, and this is a gadget :)
Want to see an Inuvik company's website? Check out MGM Bus Services. Do your magic search engine spiders!
I wish I had such skills with Photoshop...
Until I get my act back together and return to “normal” programming, here's another thing that made me smile even when I was really down:
[Via ISerializable]
As I am sure everyone is aware, this is another year for the second most watched sporting event in the world (next to the World Cup). That's right, this summer Athens, Greece will play host to the 2004 Olympic Summer Games. But this post is not about who the best runner is, or who will win the 100m, or even if banning athletes who pass drug tests but who are believed to be taking supplements is correct or not. No, this post is about something that I think is a little more serious - security.
Why security? It's more important now than ever. In a lot of ways, the software development world has been a good reflection of the world at large with regards to security in the last few years. Never before has so much attention been paid to or money spent on security in computing, and the same could be said for life in general. Just as Microsoft moved funds from future products into security, airports and public venues around the world have moved money from expansion into security. And there is no end in sight.
So you're probably wondering now why I started talking technospeak in a post that is about the Olympics, aren't you? Well I am a geek, what can I say. But the real reason is that the computer industry provides excellent examples to illustrate problems that I fear are becoming a reality in Athens.
In April of this year, Paul Watson, a security specialist for Rockwell Automation, discovered (or as he put it, "pulled the pieces together regarding") a flaw in the Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP. For the non-geeks out there, this is basically the plumbing that makes the Internet work. A serious flaw in TCP (a technology well beyond fifteen years old) could potentially bring the Internet crashing down - the very thing it was invented to protect against. Fortunately, Watson announced at a Vancouver security conference that the flaw has largely been addressed by the major ISPs and that the threat to the Internet was minimal at best. Since then, we haven't heard a thing about it.
How does this relate to Athens? The flaw in TCP is a flaw in the infrastructure of the Internet. Take out the infrastructure that holds it together, and you take out the Internet. That is what I think is happening in Athens - a major security flaw in the infrastructure of the Olympic games, just waiting to be exploited.
What should be one of the grandest Olympics of all time has been off to a very rocky start. Unlike past Olympics where preparations have been completed months in advance, construction has been horribly behind schedule (especially of roads and other important infrastructure), IT security packages have been delayed, and the only people completely unconcerned about security are the Greek people themselves. And I know there are two sides to every story - soldiers have been trained how to deal with chemical, biological and nuclear attacks, and the security budget for Athens has far surpassed $1.2 billion USD. But my fear is not that someone is going to drop a nuclear weapon on Athens. My fear is that the terrorists have already, or are in the process of, planting their weapons of choice by exploiting the pathetic infrastructure. If terrorists can masquerade as pilots, and plan attacks against trains, what makes you think they haven't already done something in Athens?
If you rush a software project, it inevitably has holes. If you rush baking your cake, it probably won't rise or taste as great as it could otherwise have. If you rush in the morning because you've started late, you get a speeding ticket if you're lucky enough to avoid an accident. See a common theme? Rushing to complete construction for the August 13th (which is a Friday by the way) start is bad enough. Delaying security software packages and components? That’s just stupid. All software needs to be tested. Delaying that until the last minute is an invitation to terrorists to render you dumb, deaf and blind before they attack.
Imagine what would have happened if malicious users had figured out the flaw in TCP long before the "good guys" did and were able to exploit it. The Internet as we know may have ceased to exist for at least an insufferable amount of time (keep in mind almost all of modern business is built around the Internet). Now imagine if terrorists were able to exploit the problems in Athens (or imagine they already have and are just waiting for the event to strike). Not only would millions of people be at risk or losing their lives, but the world at large would effectively be imprisoned.
If a terrorist attack on Athens is successful, I am willing to bet there will not be another large event of any kind for quite some time. World security was shattered after 9/11, and if something happens at Athens, I think it would be shattered and stomped on. Ignoring for a second the people who would be impacted, think about the money spent so far. The millions of dollars spent on airport security. The millions of dollars spent on arming embassies around the world. The list goes on. Sooner or later you have to ask yourself, was it worth it? What did we accomplish?
I hope that the 2004 Olympics will be the best ever and that my fears are not realized. I know I will be watching along with the rest of the world, hopefully enjoying a competitive sporting event. Will my wish for a safe summer games come true? I am not so sure…but here's to hoping for another TCP flaw anyway.
Here is something for everyone who plays, or more likely, used to play TFC. Or even for those of us that will try Half-Life 2 if it ever comes out. I give you the 'Blackmesa' PC case mod.
There are more photos here.
[Found via GizModo]
Chu made a very cool post today, and no it isnt about girls! He posted the EdmontonGasPrices.com ticker! Check it out, its really scary!
Well neither Dickson nor I have done a Blogosphere.ca update in quite a while, so here are the latest statistics:
- We are 6 days away from three months of existence!
- We have launched Blogosphere Media which has released two radio shows.
- There are 39 bloggers, who have contributed to 386 posts and 22 articles.
- People have left 956 comments, and linked to posts 18 times (this number should be WAY higher).
- The site has had 282,057 hits, a total of 26,121 visitors, and total transfer of 4.11 GB (thanks to Chu and Inge's damn photos).
- The most popular day in our history was May 10th, when 629 visitors flooded the site.
- The busiest time of day is from 11 PM until midnight. The least busy is 6 AM.
- Korea is the 4th most active country to visit the site.
- Popular search engine keywords used to find our site include "milk", "animal", "hunnies", "hot", "snowboarding", "william", "asian", "groban", "and girls". Most popular search phrase by a long shot is "milk and cereal asian version".
- Roughly 55% of you use Internet Explorer 6, and thanks to me, Lynx cracked our top 10 to contribute 2.37%!
That's enough for now. Let's keep it going!
What an incredible day outside today! As I write this post we are still at the high for today of 22 degrees. Amazing is what I say, and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter! Crack out the shorts and sandals! Too bad its gonna get cold again on Friday.
Everyone remember the Inuvik high school roof collapsing? Well apparently two kids broke in over the weekend and set fire to the mechanical room - that's right, the room that runs the rest of the school. They also ended up torching the gym in the process. So basically, there is no school. Period. Anyone want to ask me again why I went to high school here?
Finally, it seems like the nasty flu that has been going around has found its way to Inuvik :( Hope you are feeling better soon Mom!
I stumbled across a site today that is full of jailbait! Actually I didn't read that much of it (yes its a blog site) but after seeing the banner, the address, and a few of the topics, I felt it was worthy of a link.
I am not sure why the site is entitled "f.u.b.a.r." when it is all about jailbait, but anyways enjoy. Especially you Andrew.
Just got home from watching The Punisher with Megan. It was a pretty good movie, I must say. I enjoyed it, even though it was quite gory in places. Megan said it quite well when she said "it raises the bar for comic book movies." Then again, she doesn't think Spiderman 2 is gonna rock, and I think its gonna kick butt! And apparently (according to Megan) the main character guy is hot.
Earlier today it was like 19 degrees, pretty nice out. When we went into the movie, it was still quite nice, if a little windy. After the movie however, insanity! Blowing slush, cold, windy, just plain nasty! Summer where are you?!
So this morning my brother signs into MSN and I noticed his name was "THEOUTSIDER7 (School Roof Collapsing a Birthday Present From the Gods???)" and I didn't think much of it. Thought it was just Tom making a wish for his birthday tomorrow, kinda funny.
Then at 10:11 AM this morning an email comes in from my dad with this picture. The roof really did collapse!! Haha I still can't believe it! I mean the place is extremely old, and snow is extremely heavy, but still!
As far as I know it happened before anyone was there, so no one was hurt. All the kids are happy at least, no school for a few days until alternate arrangements are made I suppose!
I am more than happy to welcome the month of May! Gone are the days of snow, cold or uncertain weather, final exams, project marks, losing programming competitions, taxes, year end, etc. May will be a much happier month indeed!
Hello to the wonderful month of May! Many good things to come I predict, the first of which will be created Saturday, May 1st. Stay tuned to my blog and Blogosphere.ca for updates :)
Went for coffee with Sharon tonight (who still doesn't blog) to Starbucks. Nothing beats Starbucks, nothing. While coffee was good (and I borrowed the Sarah McLachlan CD to rip) I can't help but feel that I am just putting off doing my taxes...
Who invented such a dumb thing anyways! We need to write software to automate it! Added to the ever growing list...
Yes that's right, sleep is for the weak! I went to sleep at around 9:30 this morning...for the first time! Yep another all nighter, and I woke up around 5 this afternoon. You'd be surprised at how much you can accomplish if you don't sleep.
What was I working on? Various projects, for example you can now see our DotNetWizards XOP site in all of its glory! Check it out, and when you have questions (as I am sure you will) msg me and I can explain a little better. Information on the site is somewhat sparse as our entry is being judged this week, so we don't want to give too much away.
It was quite warm out today too, 24 degrees, but I was sleeping so I missed it :)
I will blog more later, but just wanted to post that I have now arrived in Seattle. I am typing this looking outside my 42nd floor room at the entire city pretty much!
I just found out an interesting definition:
CHERNOBYLNIK: A variety of absinthe (wormwood) with a red-brown or deep purple stem.
Chornobyl (also seen spelled as Chernobyl, Cernobyl or Chernoble).
Chornobyl is a little known Ukrainian word for a plant named Wormwood (absinthe)!
So I guess I can describe consuming absinthe as going nuclear! Haha!
Yes I have finally reached 100 posts on my blog! This is a major milestone for me, and I look forward to many more posts in the future. After I had my 99th post completed, I thought to myself - post #100 needs to be special! So I went looking for answers, and I asked Dickson and Andrew for suggestions.
Dickson: porn!
Andrew: porn!
Andrew later helped me come up with a better idea, which I have called "Inside the Blogger's Mind". As it was quite lengthly, I decided to turn it into an article. I hope you enjoy it!
Of course, we live in a democratic world, so I cannot ignore the desires of the people! Enjoy your porn boys!
Thanks for reading!
I have read quite a few interesting things over the last couple days, so I thought I would post some of the links here for you to see. Of course, I should be working on 391, but we all know blogging is more fun :)
Now to pretend to work on 391...
I found world66 today - a cool site in beta with a number of interesting features, such as this one:
Yep, it will create a map of the countries you have visited! As you can see, at only 1%, I still have much travelling to do!
Anyone know if the ink from inkjet printers is toxic? I swear I got dizzy after folding all those pamphlets...the ink doesn't smudge, but it rubs on to your fingers after a while. And it doesn't come off easily! It was like Macbeth all over again - out, out damn ink!
Anyway, as a follow up to my last post, make sure your printer has efficient ink usage (like individual color cartridges). Otherwise your costs will get quite high!
Looking for a unique summer job idea? Have I got one for you or what! Now I know I have had my share of crazy ideas, but hear me out this time. First, a little background:
People often say that first impressions are everything, and I would tend to agree. The primacy effect is usually more prevalent than the recency effect. Having said that, I want to make a good first impression to the developers who will be lined up (haha) to attend an MSDN event at SilverCity on Thursday. Dickson and I will be in attendance promoting our .NET User Group, Edmonton .NET Wizards. I want to make a good impression so that they sign up for our user group.
So how do you get the first impression to be positive? Well as far as I am concerned, you do it with color - not black and white. So for Thursday, I created a nice little pamphlet with some brief information on our group, and all the relevant contact information. And of course, I made it in color. At this point I was thinking hooray, step one done, got the pamphlet, all I need to do now is copy it! Here's where the job idea comes in!
I looked around for prices on color copying and was astounded at the cost! The first place I checked was Staples, where the price is 76 cents per page. For my double-sided pamphlet, that's $1.52 per page - with no taxes or special paper. The cheapest price I eventually found was 39 cents per page, so 78 cents per pamphlet. Let's say I wanted to get 500 copies; the best price I would get is still over $300! And that got me thinking...
Why is it so much? Well a number of reasons came to mind. Most companies offer some sort of guarantee on time, so tying up a machine is expensive. Most of these companies also cater to larger quantities of copies as it is more cost effective for them. Still I couldn't help but think that it could be done for less! How to take advantage of the current market situation?
Well here are some economics for you. The most inexpensive color copier at Futureshop is the HP PSC1110 selling for $129. I bought 500 pages of Xerox Premium Inkjet paper today from Staples for $9.99 (this paper is 24 lbs, and 113 brightness, so its good stuff). The PSC1110 copies color pages at 6 pages per minute. So let's say you purchased the machine, and two packages of paper. And let's assume it comes with brand new ink cartridges (well we don't need to assume, it will). Your total startup cost would be $148.98 excluding taxes. If you charged 20 cents per color copy, which is roughly half the price of the cheapest place I found and roughly one quarter the price of Staples where most people probably end up going, you'd break even after your first 750 copies. And it would take only 125 minutes of copying time, or slightly more than 2 hours. That, boys and girls, is a much better way to make a little cash than starting a painting franchise, let me tell you.
And as I mentioned above, you could cater to the smaller jobs, where time isn't so important, and the need for 1000 or more copies just isn't present. Of course, I have ignored marketing or other expenditures for this little example, but you get the idea. And marketing costs wouldn't be that much anyway - just some use out of your new machine and your time to send out some flyers. And if you stressed that you are a student, etc, you'd do quite well I think.
So what did I end up doing? I decided to spend $30 for a new ink cartridge and print the copies myself. I found out after checking on prices that I only needed 250 copies, so I figured what the heck, $50 beats over $300 any day of the week. It's kind of a pain though, so believe me, I would much rather have paid you the $100 (250 copies times your awesome price of 20 cents per page times 2 sides) for better paper and a quality job.
If you drink a glass of water, and then crave a Coke, does that suggest you are addicted?
I am so screwed...oh well, at least I am not craving Rum with my Coke!
A new story over at NYTimes.com says that "students who tracked their lies for a week reported telling lies in 15 percent of email messages". Does that sound like a lot to you? The article goes on to say that the students told lies in more than a third of phone calls.
I try to avoid the phone as much as possible, but I can see how it would be easy to lie on the phone. There is no record, and if you can make a convincing tone, you are set. Email leaves a record, as do instant messages, and face to face is harder to pull off, as most people crack under pressure.
If you are a serious blogger, do you lie in your posts? I don't think I have ever lied in a blog post, but I am guilty of all the other categories! I think the percentage of lies told in blogs would probably be quite low, but who am I to say? :)
There was a power failure in a few parts of the southside this afternoon (my area, Nisku, etc) so the servers were down for about 2 hours. Everything is back up and running now!
Funny how things work fine at minus 40, but at minus 5 and some snow, and everything shuts down! Apparently Shaw cable TV & Internet was down across the city this afternoon as well. Plus there was a water main break, numerous intersections without lights, and dozens of accidents.
Only in Canada!
Have you ever wondered, "how evil is my website?" No? Well you should! Here is an interesting little tool that will tell you just how evil (or good) a particular website or piece of text is. Meet, The Gematriculator.
A couple of quick tests show that Google is 46% evil, Microsoft is 50% evil, Apple is 23% evil, Disney is 23% evil, and who would have guessed, Whitehouse.com is only 22% evil! Also interesting to note, the entry page for our government's site (http://www.canada.gc.ca) is NINETY-SEVEN PERCENT EVIL! HAHA!
Also, my blog is only slightly less evil than Dickson's at 33% compared to his 40%.
Many of you know about my MSN pictures already, and I have recieved a number of requests which I hope to get to soon. In the meantime, if you are looking for something a little different, check out Kevin Durdle's "Stickman" pictures. I can't imagine how much time he put into those! Very cool!
The word of the day for Wednesday is "aura". Don't ask me why, it just is! Having said that, perhaps you should take a look in the mirror and analyze your aura!
In other news, I like Starbucks :)
Hi there!
We are writing to tell you about a project we are planning and want you to be a part of! We want to create a cool place to have a blog. Not sure what a blog is? You can take a look at ours for an example:
Dickson - http://blog.dicksonwong.com
Mack - http://blog.mastermaq.ca
You can post whatever you want! Topics of discussion, a diary, whatever you want, its up to you! Nothing is censored!
Now whats that you say? We're crazy, there is already places like blogger.com? Yes we know, but are they cool? Are they run by your friends? Can you ask blogger.com to change something if required? Nope! And thats what we want to create! A cool friendly place for you to blog.
So here's the plan:
1) We buy the domain and host the blogs
2) You give us your username and we setup your blog (takes around 10 seconds)
3) You blog at will!
All we need from you is help picking a name! Here are some ideas we have had so far:
CanadianBloggers.com/.ca
MapleLeafBloggers.com/.ca
Blogeh.com/ca
Blog-Eh.com/ca
Have a suggestion for a name? Let us know! Think we are crazy and this isn't something you would do? Let us know!
And most importantly, this site will be free for you to use!
Thanks,
Mack & Dickson
Just another reason for you non-bloggers to join the blogosphere! Join the hot religious debate taking place over at Dickson's blog.
For those of you interested in such a topic, the CyberPsychology and Behavior site is hosting a paper that says "Cybersex is More Damaging to Relationships Than Pornography". In other news, Barbie and Ken have broken up...aww, so sad :P
Well it was time I made some changes to my site, as I have learned a lot about CSS and ASP.NET over the last few weeks. So no more inline frames for me! Also, as you may have noticed, my blog is now at a proper location, so no more weird URL's to access it :)
I finally tried the "Insert currently playing media" plugin for w.Bloggar...seems to work pretty good!
If I lived wherever Mike Rowe does, I would hunt him down and teach him a lesson! Please, this is just plain sad. Talk about milking your 15 minutes for all it's worth. After I was done teaching him a lesson, I would hunt down all FIFTY FIVE bidders (as of the time of this post) and do the same to them!
Why would you sell something like that? And even more unfathomable, why would you want to buy it? My "chance to own a piece of Internet history"? Are you insane? The whole mikerowsoft issue is a minor blip, just screaming to be forgotton.
I also think its quite funny that he has no eBay feedback rating, yet won't accept bids from anyone with a zero rating. He claims this is so he can verify intentions. Good luck! I can't wait to see what the winner does with this...
Well what can I say? This weekend was tough! I don't like losing :-P
The trip to Calgary for the CTC was fun, but it was also very tiring, and the fact that we stayed up Friday night (read: barely slept) didn't help matters. Definitely a good experience, and I learned a lot about DirectX, so not all is lost. You can read more at our Wizards Blog.
Now I look forward to Imagine Cup!
I just found out that I have been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the category of Visual Developer - Academic. This is very cool, MSDN Subscription is on the way :)
Well I finally fixed the error with my blog that prevented me from posting using tools like w.bloggar or the new BlogJet which I am giving a spin! Turns out the 'services' folder in my IIS was an application, so removing the application made everything work smoothly again :)
BlogJet is really nice, looks like a Windows XP application. Doesn't seem as powerful as w.bloggar however, and it's creators intend to charge for future versions.
Looks like I have been getting quite a few hits for my MSN Pictures gallery, so I just wanted to clarify that they are for MSN Messenger 6 or later. Older versions don't have what Messenger calls “display pictures”. You can download MSN Messenger 6 at http://messenger.msn.com and you can see my gallery of pictures here.
I think you always have two homes in life - the place where you sleep most of the time, and the place where your parents live (usually where you grew up). So thats why I am back home in Inuvik, NT, because my parents live here. The weather is quite a bit colder than Edmonton, almost 30 degrees colder yesterday, and only about 20 colder today. I will be here for ten days, but it should be good, a nice break from the city!
Well at long last, American troops captured Saddam Hussein. I am sure you have already read about this, but I figured I would blog it for history purposes!
In other news, exams are killing me but almost over - two more tomorrow and then I am done. Upcoming for this week is Lord of the Rings 3, and my collection of MSN 6 pictures!
Just testing out the w.bloggar tool I finally found and downloaded. Seems to work really nicely! Now I can post without even opening a browser :-)
At long last I have built an aggregator for my website. Once you make an XSLT file that works it isn't too hard! So now the main page of my site shows posts from all of my blogs.
Long time no blog! It has been an extremely busy month, even though I thought it wouldn't be that bad. Anyhow, lots of things happening!
I attended the Heritage Hockey Classic on Saturday (thanks Megan) which was totally awesome! And yes, it was very, very cold, but it was definitely worth it. Aside from the hockey itself, the Snowbirds and the F-18 which flew over the stadium were definitely a highlight. Oh, and if you ever use those hotshots (little heat packets) make sure you open them in a warm room! Exposing them to cold air doesn't seem to work :-(
Today is the Academic Tour event for Edmonton! I have no idea what the attendence will be like, but I hope everything goes smoothly. Further to that, I want to launch the new academiclonghorn.com site shortly, so watch for an update on that!
Also, sometime this month I happened to see Matrix Revolutions a third and final time, completed a pretty big project for CMPUT 301, and got the Edmonton .NET Wizards registered as a non-profit organization with Dickson.
Well this birthday gets a special post because Yi-Li has created one of the coolest ideas for a birthday present! He has made a website for Jane at http://www.janethebrain.ca (which I host, heh) so go check it out! So Happy Birthday Jane!
In other news, the Eskimos won the western conference final and will play Montreal in the rematch of last year's Grey Cup. And I finally saw Finding Nemo (at Jane's last nite)...pretty good movie, still not as good as Monsters Inc :)
Welcome to my new blog! I was using dasBlog before as my blogging engine, and while I liked it a lot, I was introduced to .Text, and find it to be much more streamlined and polished. So from now on I will be making posts to this blog. I also want to point out that I have the following blogs:
MasterMaq.ca Personal Blog (Active) -- All my crazy thoughts and ideas and personal stuff goes here!
http://longhornblogs.com/mastermaq -- My longhorn related posts go here!
AcademicMasterMaq (Under Development) -- My academic longhorn related posts will go here!
MasterMaq @ .NET Wizards (Under Development) -- My .NET related posts will go here!
Soon I will be creating an aggregate page that will display the most recent posts from each of these blogs. Thanks for reading!