Schultzter's sandbox

It Looks Like I was Wrong - GoEverywhere for the Dead Pool

2009-06-18T06:37:00.001-07:00

I found this fascinating quote today:

I wrote six months ago about the launch of Symantec’s GoEverywhere product – a reasonably innovative web top solution that was an aggregation point for multiple web applications.It Looks Like I was Wrong - GoEverywhere for the Dead Pool, Jun 2009

I never understood the whole Webtop principle - why would you use an online operating system when you've got a computer with a perfectly good (well, good enough if you're using Windows) operating system of it's own?

I understand if you're administering a big system, like in a university or some institutions, then this could be appealing. Kind of like the days of VT100 terminals hooked up to the mainframe.

Even in companies I don't think this would replace individual computers 100%. You still need some kind of browser based terminal - and we know prevalent those are in the market place: NOT! Intel (and competitors) netbook/top processors are taking computers in that direction, and the BIOS based browsers are helping too.

But the browser as a system platform is still a long way from reality. Even the standards leave themselves open to interpretation and every implementation is slightly different. I still think you're better developing for Windows, or *Nix, or Mac (perhaps using a cross-platform library) then trying to develop for HTML version X CSS version X JavaScript version X Renderer version X Script Engine version! It would be a debugging nightmare!!!

OnProbation.ca Feedback Forum - ask Stephen Harper a question

2009-04-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Liberal party of Canada recently (today?) opened a new web site, onProbation.ca where they are discussing their ideas and have a Feedback Forum called Ask the PM where they state

Send your questions and comments to the Prime Minister and help us make sure that he's listening.

So I added a question regarding the taxation of income trusts, which is currently ranked number six and rising steadily.

Here's what I had to say:

The Tax Fairness Plan (which is anything but) includes a 31.5% tax on Income Trusts that has never been properly justified (the argument of tax leakage was never substantiated and independent analysis shows there is none).

The Prime Minister needs to come clean on Income Trust taxation and ultimately repeal the tax.

The Income Trust investment vehicle is available under many forms but in this form it was most accessible and beneficial to average Canadians (other forms, such as Flow Through Entities, are more complicated to participate in - although the Finance Minister himself benefits from his partnership in an FTE).

In the previous election Stephen Harper berated the Liberals for "raiding senior's next egs" by taxing income trusts (after public consultation) and yet no sooner was he in office that he imposed without consultation a punishing tax on income trusts.

I call upon the Prime Minister to repeal the income trust tax and review the entire Tax Fairness Plan.

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at OnProbation.ca Feedback Forum - ask Stephen Harper a question

CRTC Launches Online Consultation on Net Neutrality

2009-03-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

As I discovered on Michael Geist's blog, the CRTC is offering Canadians the opportunity speak out on Net Neutrality in advance of their hearings on ISP network management practices.

I had this to say, in the Impact on User Experience section:

To me the internet is an infrastructure service. I don't expect my provider to give preferential treatment to any type of traffic based on the source, content, or destination. Just as I don't expect the city to regulate my water pressure based on whether I'm watering the lawn or taking a shower.

But to continue the water analogy I understand there's a difference when I run a bath (i.e.: bit torrent) and when I wash my hands (i.e.: e-mail). The bandwidth consumed by bit torrent can have a negative impact on my internet neighbours unless the total bandwidth is sufficiently high. Especially if we're all torrenting at the same time.

I'd love to see over-building of the network, but it's only a short-term solution until more people get on the net and use up all the over-capacity. Traffic management is unfortunately a necessary tool to ensure consistent service for all subscribers as-is continuous re-building of the network.

But the management should not require deep packet inspection - a simple high level valve that adjusts the pressure regardless of what is going through should be sufficient and would keep the ISPs neutral regarding how we use the internet.

It certainly is a concern to me that some ISPs have conflicting interests (they run multiple distribution channels, ex.: Cable-TV vs. Internet) and might specifically block or limit my access to their competitors in order to artificially increase the viewership of their material.

It would be like the water company cutting of my water if I didn't use their brand of soap!

See the full thread of my discussion...

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at CRTC Launches Online Consultation on Net Neutrality

GMail cheat sheet is now on CheatSheets.org

2009-03-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the vi/vim graphical cheat sheet I wrote a GMail Keyboard Shortcut graphical cheat sheet for Google's GMail (using Google Docs of course).

A few days ago a stumbled across CheatSheets.org and I submitted it to their directory. It's now listed in the GMail section!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at GMail cheat sheet is now on CheatSheets.org

Bonuses for AIG

2009-03-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Rex Murphy did a bit on AIG last night after the news. I can't find it online though - I guess the internet is slacking off.

Rex made a couple interesting points:

The AIG chairman only gets paid $1 a year (no mention of other forms of compensation though, besides the bonus)
The rescue bill that's paying the bonuses explicitly allows for bonuses
The larger stimulus bill has over 200 "special" projects targeted specifically by the congressmen who are so furious about the AIG bonuses

So basically it comes down the AIG "fiasco" being a cover-up for how much the congress (and the senate I suppose) are taking advantage of Great Depression II to dole out the thank-you money for the lobby groups who supported them during the election.

I am normally in favour of market solutions, but JMK taught us the reactions to a system shock take longer to actually happen than when we graph them in our Econ 101 class. So I accept the government has to intervene, but there needs to be some pain, there needs to be a lesson for history to teach us. And I believe less in "innocent by-standers" than I do in gov't intervention, so I think all those poor investors who believed it was true even though it was so good need to suffer as well as the people in AIG, etc. whose job it was to see this coming and yet ignored the warning signs.

Here's a bit of a humorous take on the subject: In New Terror Video, AIG Demands Huge Ransom from U.S. (thanks to Brian for the link)

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Bonuses for AIG

Another trip to Valois Park in the Snow

2009-03-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

It was another beautiful day with the temperature just around zero and the sun shining bright. As soon as story time was over we threw (ok, struggled) on the snow suit and headed for the park. Lindsay's friend Madeleine brought her dad and two brothers along too.

From Valois Park in the Snow

Of course the swings were a big hit, but enough snow had melted by now that sand was starting to show. That meant it was time to get dirty and they spent most of the outing underneath the play structure building sand piles!

NOT Getting Things Done

2009-03-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

As many of you surely know, I'm a big fan of David Allen's time/task management principles known as Getting Things Done. Well, I've fallen off the wagon somewhat a while back and, being a geek, I've been looking for something new and shiny to motivate me to get back on the horse. But a post from a GTD coach Kelly Forester got me going, however...

Kelly's post discussed how some people implemented GTD on their Mac's, PC's and on the web. Since my PC is company issue (and I can't really use Outlook because of the way our network is setup) I tend to put a lot of stuff on the web (in the cloud as Web 3.0 people put it).

The two most popular choices seemed to be Remember the Milk and Nozbe.

We all know Remember the Milk because it has such a cool name it must be good and deserves a lot viral publicity. There's three problems with RTM as far as I'm concerned:

One: Their tabby-looking interface doesn't survive as you increase the number of lists (or contexts in GTD terms). It pretty quickly looks butt-ugly (sorry, RTM, but that's how I feel). And if it doesn't look as cool or cooler than the competition it better make up for it somewhere else!

Two: Their Overview page is based purely on when a Task is due. There's no way to filter by list (Context) or by Next Actions (a GTD term identifying the next task required to move a more complex objective forward).

And finally three: Their iGoogle gadget suffers from similar short-comings: you can't limit the list to the context you're currently in (so I can't hide my At home tasks while I'm At work and vice-versa) - which is a major part of GTD.

Nozbe has two major short-comings although it is designed from the start to be used by people for GTD so it's a great solution otherwise.

One: The free account is severely limited and the web is about getting things for free!!!

and Two: The iGoogle gadget doesn't work in Google's Chrome browser!!!

Finally, that leaves Google's recently added Task manager. There's an iGoogle version and integration with GMail so it's available where I spend a lot of time online. It's free (as in beer, but not yet as in speech). And I can view my tasks by list so I can narrow them down to my current Context.

All-in-all I'd say it's almost perfect, except that I can't synchronize it with Blackberry - yet, I hope Google is working on it though!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at NOT Getting things Done

Valois Park in the Snow

2009-03-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

The weather was so nice and Lindsay loves the park so much we couldn't resist a walk to the park and playing on the equipment. Along the way we ran into her friends Chloe and Madeleine out for a walk with their grand parents and new baby brothers.

From Valois Park in the Snow

Of course the swings were a big hit but we did the tour of all the slides and structures several times. Lots of other families were out enjoying the blue skies and warm sun, a first taste of spring and a beautiful summer to come.

Soaking my butt at Sunnyside

2009-03-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

What a winter weekend be like if I didn't struggle into my ski suit and head for the hills with my daughter and the toboggan?!

From Sunnyside Park Sledding

The weather was pretty warm this weekend and a lot of snow had already melted but we threw good sense to the wind, joined forces with the neighbour and her grandkids, and headed over to Sunnyside for a few runs.

Thankfully the joy of seeing kids have fun outweighs the misery of sitting in a puddle of slightly above freezing slush. Of course the princesses insisted on being pulled back up the hill by their faithful (grand)parent, but that's all part of the fun.

We finished the day off with a picnic in the basement while watching Beverly Hills Chichuahua.

Thomas meets people

2009-02-25T10:29:00.000-08:00

Thomas is getting lots of attention these days, as the throngs of spectators drop by for an audience.

From Thomas meets people

Seriously, thanks to everyone who has come by to welcome Thomas or has stopped us on the street to say hello. We really appreciate your happy thoughts. And thanks to those who gave him gifts and brought us food.

And special thanks to those who remembered Lindsay!

He is born

2009-02-24T18:50:00.000-08:00

Our second child is (finally) born! We had a busy day on Sunday and finally that night shortly before 9pm out he came and joined his family!

From Thomas is born

He was born on February 22nd 2009 at 20:48, weighed 3,825g (8lbs 6.7oz) and was 55cm (21.65 inches) tall

We're all really happy that Thomas decided to come out and play, especially his big sister who wants nothing more than to dote on her little brother.

Hiding under Maureen's Tree

2009-02-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

It was still nice out when we got home from daycare so I broke out the big sled and we played around in the front yard. At one point Lindsay discovered the neighbour's pine tree. All the branches had drooped down and become frozen in the snow like a giant tent.

From Hiding Under Maureen's Tree

Of course I was instructed to follow her in and we had fun going around the tree trunk (a big stick) and going in and out.

Trying the new carrier at Cap St-Jacques

2009-02-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful and I've wanted to go cross-country skiing with Lindsay since X-mas, but there was always something that stopped me (pneumonia, cast on the arm, etc.). Finally today was the day, we set out after story time to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather and give the new carrier we got as a baby-shower gift a try.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was a comfortable minus seven degrees Celsius. In short-order we had the skis waxed and in a pile at the trailhead.

Now the fun began. Did I mention this was my first time out of the season and I had to dig my gear out from beneath all the summer stuff that got dumped there in the fall?

The carrier was also new to me and I probably should have played with it some more at home. In other words, caved in to Lindsay's demands to get into the carrier while in the comfort of my living room.

I did finally manage to get Lindsay strapped in and the carrier on my back. It's much more comfortable than the old we have. And I'm sure it's much more comfortable for Lindsay.

From Cap St-Jacques Skiing

And then JF pointed out I had throughly messed up the straps around Lindsay's arms - no wonder she was tilted to one side and couldn't turn her head to follow Chloe!!!

Other than that little strap mix-up though we had a great time. Lindsay really likes the new carrier and so do I. Thanks JF for driving. And thanks to all the quilting girls for such a wonderful gift.

Playing in the front yard

2009-02-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

At daycare our daughter likes to sit in the sled and be pulled around by the older kids. So I figured when the funk hit at home I'd sit her on the "big" sled and pull her around our yard.

From Playing Outside

That did the trick. Until I tripped in the knee deep snow and kicked some up in her face. Then she wanted to go inside and see mommy!!!

Sandra's birthday party

2009-02-08T19:56:00.000-08:00

Kevin got things together and organized a pot luck birthday party for Sandra on Sunday. Almost all of us were there and we had a great time.

From Sandra's birthday

The food was excellent and we had a great time.

GMail Keyboard Shortcut graphical cheat sheet

2009-02-04T23:28:00.000-08:00

I've updated my GMail Keyboard Shortcut graphical cheat sheet to reflect GMail latest changes. Four new keystrokes are now available: v Move, l Label, T Tasks, and gW Docs.

Rest of post goes here...

Wounded little warrior

2009-01-28T10:25:00.001-08:00

We got a call on Tuesday from the daycare saying our daughter was complaining of a pain in her arm. We brought her home but other than avoiding that arm she was in good spirits so we took the next available doctor's appointment which was on Wednesday evening. Fortunately the clinic had a cancellation and bumped us up to Wednesday after lunch because it turns out our daughter had dislocated her elbow.

The doctor wasn't able to reduce it in his office since we'd waited so long and we ended up at the Childern's Hospital. And kudos to them because they were amazing. So now our daughter's running around, happy as a clam albeit with a cast on her arm for the next ten days!

Hopefully everything turns out okay when they take the cast off and there's nothing more to worry about.

Blogspot vs Wordpress

2009-01-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

So, will I really do it? Will I really give-up on my beloved Google and move some of my content over to WordPress.com?! Of course I have to pay to get is free from Google but if the end result is more to my liking it might be worth it (and it's not really that much more than free).

Of course the ultimate solution is to roll my own using the hosting services of my registrar (netfirms.ca) but I have an issue their with their e-mail management tools (it's pretty much just inboxes - no domain aliasing, no lists, etc. that I have using Google Apps for my Domain).

Giant Ant on my iGoogle Theme!!!

2009-01-04T20:22:00.001-08:00

I just noticed this, maybe it's the lack of sleep, maybe there's something to it, but it seems like there's a giant ant lurking in the back on my iGoogle Winter village Theme?!?!

Maybe this isn't new but now I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't something evil lurking within Google afterall!!!!

Lindsay's first Advent calendar

2008-12-02T18:37:00.001-08:00

Lindsay got an Advent Calendar from her Oma (and Opa) filled with chocolate last weekend and today she opened the first "window" to find her surprise.

Thanks Oma!

I remember when I was a kid my mother had a big Santa pinned to the closet at the end of the hall. And every morning through December until X-mas we would rush to find the surprise in today's pocket (eventually we figured out it was the one with the bulge).

Now it's my daughter's turn.

Pownce shuts down

2008-12-01T18:11:00.001-08:00

Pownce announced today that they were closing their doors and taking their technology to Six Apart. I had an account there, but rarely used it - it was essentially like Twitter for file sharing.

It's tempting to say this the recession affecting the web. And it's probably true that the usual rationalization and consolidation is happening now that valuations are down and some people think they can make some good investments and others think they should take the money and get out before things get worse.

On the other hand, there's a lot of duplicate services out there - for alternatives to Twitter checkout Jaiku or Identi.ca to name others where I'm a lurker. It's not surprising that some of the minds behind ideas (business and technology) want to opening cooperate (and compete internally) rather than compete openly.

And the consolidation is good for the end-users too. Platform developers can concentrate their efforts and there will be a lot less jumping around trying to follow friends on one web site or another.

Who made VB the language of macros anyways?!

2008-11-27T11:12:00.001-08:00

I've recently gotten onto the kick of moving a lot of my documents and spreadsheets into the cloud - Google Docs in particular.

The basic motivation is the failure of my portable hard drive. A NetGear ReadyNAS Duo solved the storage problems for things like digital photos and videos. But sometimes you just want to make a quick update to a spreadsheet and you don't feel like waiting until you get home.

My NAS is turned off, as is my router and modem, when I'm not using it so remote access is not option. Windows sync is a pain in the butt that makes shutting down take forever. So my solution was to put some of those documents in the cloud - accessible from any internet connection.

But why-oh-why won't Google support JavaScript macros in their documents and spreadsheets (presentations too but I don't use those).

Having the macros stored with the document (and with the template) would avoid any cross-site scripting issues, would harness the power of the browser, and would make all the world's javascript libraries accessible!

I know Zoho spreadsheets support VB macros but not in the same way that Excel does - I can't add in references to other libraries to extend the power of the native system.

And who made VB the language of macros anyways!? If you want to program in VB then fine - use Excel (or Zoho). If you want to live in the cloud then use JavaScript!!!

Copyright law reform in Canada

2008-11-12T08:17:00.001-08:00

There's a great article over the Globe and Mail about copyright reform in Canada.

The article brings up a couple points that I think are essential. Namely that public consultations in Canada a more geared towards hearing organizations (i.e.: corporations and lobby groups) than individual citizens; and that the copyright holder is rarely the artist but a distribution company.

To the first point the solution is some obvious: join an organization that reflects your values, there is strength in numbers. Of course finding the perfect group is not always easy or possible. At a minimum, write a letter or e-mail to your MP so they know how feel about Bill C-61 (the copyright reform legislation currently being discussed).

One of the points you should definitely bring up with your MP (and any organization you join) is that law needs to be able to evolve with technology and at a minimum be representative of the technology's current state. As the article says, when the current round of reform began things like iTunes and YouTube and Google Booksearch were almost non-existant.

To the second point I'm not sure what we can do. Most artists are bound by contracts, and even in the internet age the distribution companies do provide the artists a valuable service. Sticking it to the man by illegally downloading or sharing music and movies is not the way to go either.

One thing is certain in my mind though: this is a siege war. The one who can hold out the longest will win. If consumers cave to the music & movie industry demands then they will have won. But if we refuse to spend our hard earned money until we get what we want (and to me that means no DRM) then we will win.

Rock on!

Update: (Thanks JF)
Your MP's e-mail address can be found on the Members of Parliament page. And this is Bill C-61's page.

Add Pavatar to the picture

2008-11-07T10:12:00.001-08:00

As an update to my post below on Gravatar and Openvatar I want to add Pavatar to the list of ways to consolidate your profile.

Pavatar is a specification as opposed to a service like Gravatar, but the objective is the same - one consistent avatar.

Since it's a developing specification I felt the need to add my two cents, here's what I posted in their forum:

Good afternoon...

First of all, I'd like to submit my vote to stick with term "avatar" rather than pavatar (or gravatar or favatar or whatever). So in my humble and naive opinion it should be:
X-avatar
link rel="avatar"
avatar.png

Furthermore, I think it would be cool if the Pavatar spec supported Gravatar! Since Pavatar is a spec and Gravatar is a service the two should be complimentary.

It's already possible since Gravatar generates a consistent URL for your avatar you could always use that in the X-avatar header or link href attribute.

But I would take it one step further: the URL could be mailto:... and then the consumer would need to convert that to a Gravatar URL (their algorithm is published, it's an MD5 sum).

One could even take this another step further, and add base and method attributes to link that would identify the base of the URL and the hash method to convert a mailto: href. Although in the HTTP headers we would then need X-avatar-url, x-avatar-base, and X-avatar-method.

For example, for Gravatar you'd have something like:
<link rel="avatar" href="mailto:me@mail.com" base="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar" method="md5" />

I hope you don't mind my jumping in like this, I sure hope Pavatars work out 'cuz I'm in favour of anything that consolidates my profiles.

Hopefully this all leads to something soon!

Google user profile's expands

2008-11-06T17:06:00.001-08:00

In a recent post on the Official Google Blog: New Google Help Forums one of the new features mentioned was

expanded user profiles that highlight your forum activity

Does this mean that Google is moving to consolidate user profiles across their services?! I've got at least three:

GMail
Reader/Shared Stuff (S2)
PicasaWeb
Blogger

Oh wait, that's four! Having only one profile will be nice! Especially since I like the real internet (as opposed to the Farcebook internet) so can't wait for some of these social aspects Google is working on to come together.

Another thing that would be nice is Gravatar.com integration or an equivalent service (perhaps leveraging PicasaWeb - designate an album to store your avatars and be able to easily select one). The URL to avatar has to be exposed though and more services will need to integrate Google's avatar service, take a URL as the avatar source, or there will need to be a tie-in with Google's OpenID implementation.

Blogspot on a Blackberry

2008-11-05T08:40:00.001-08:00

This is my blog on a Blackberry:

Thanks J F!

Obama win: good for the world, or not?

2008-11-05T06:21:00.001-08:00

An article this morning in the Globe and Mail that reviewed the response in Asia to Obama's winning the US presidential election got me thinking the same logic applies to Canada!

You see Canada relies immensely, almost entirely, on trade with the United States of America to drive our economy. According to the Canadian government 80% of our exports go to the USA and at over 22% of their exports we are their largest customer. This represents OVER 2 BILLION DOLLARS A DAY worth trade!

I don't expect Barack Obama to slam the doors shut today just because he was elected. But he's definitely on the protectionist side of the fence. In USA Today Obama is quoted as saying "well, I don't think NAFTA has been good for America - and I never have."

(See more NAFTA quotes from Obama and McCain via Google's In Quotes)

The economy is chilling, recessions are coming or starting around the globe, and almost everywhere in the world people are looking to America's new leader, a protectionist leader, to save the world! I find that rather ironic.

I hope the sake of Canada that Barack's advisors and his cabinet prevent him from closing the borders or initiating any restriction on Canada-US trade. But I fear that because he is the first black president and everyone's so emotional about it he will face less criticism and debate.

Tiger Woods and a hot chick!

2008-10-31T10:25:00.001-07:00

Like G.W. Bush said, "this election is between Tiger Woods and a hot chick!"

From what I've read (mainly in the Economist) is that Obama should win only because he's changed the least during the election - McCain was actually a pretty choice if you look at his history (not like Bush at all) but since the election started he's done 180 degree turns on almost everything - except free trade which Canada depends on. Obama is not against free trade per-se but he's been openly critical of the current free trade agreement with Canada & Mexico and others that Bush signed.

So an Obama win will be historical, and it might be good for Americans, and it could be good for the world in general, but it might not be so good for Canada in particular.

Then again, I firmly believe the politicians do very little - I think the TV shows Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister were documentaries not comedies. Politicians will be pushed around by events, they'll react - too late of course - and give themselves (and their cronies) pats on the back for three-and-half years then realize that elections are coming up again and try to do something memorable to save their jobs (i.e.: get re-elected, or in the president's case after two terms his objective will be to NOT be remembered for getting indicted or getting a blow-job in the Oval office).

Vote early and vote often!

Four more years of Flaherty

2008-10-31T07:54:00.001-07:00

C A I T I - O N L I N E: Happy Halloween: How BCE successfully gamed Jim Flaherty....

I wish Flaherty had let BCE and Telus and everyone else become an income trust. In the end I don't think companies should be paying any taxes at all. That's right, NO CORPORATE TAXES!!!

The problem is simple: taxation without representation. Companies don't vote, so why should they pay taxes. Let them distribute their profits to the citizens who do pay taxes and vote on what is to be done with those taxes.

Admittedly that would eliminate the ability of the politicians to use tax law for incentives that drive desirable behaviour (it would also eliminate the ability of politicians to use tax law for favours that drive un-desirable behaviour).

But tax law (all laws actually) suffer from becoming quickly out-dated. What was good five years ago may no-long apply. But a parliament that's pre-occupied or out of session or in the middle of pre-election campaigning isn't going to effectively change the laws to suite the times.

Shareholders, who vote at least annually, can always accept changes to the distribution that suit the needs of the company and desires of shareholders. And these days governments (through various social insurance programs) are large shareholders so they would retain a direct say in a company's behaviour.

Happy Hallow e'en!!!

Gravatar and Openvatar

2008-10-30T11:40:00.001-07:00

I've just discovered two interesting services: gravatar.com and openvatar.com.

Gravatar has been around longer and Openvatar might be kind of redundant but the concept sounds pretty cool to me. Note that WeeWorld (and others too I'm sure) have offered a similar service for even longer than Gravatar, but there's some key differences.

Gravatar lets you upload or link to images you want to use as an avatar and then associates them with your e-mail address (you can specify multiple e-mail addresses and use the same or different avatars for each one). So now sites that display your avatar can request the appropriate image from Gravatar based on the e-mail address you used at the original site! And you manage your avatars in one place: Gravatar.com.

If the site doesn't have Gravatar integration but supports linking to an off-site image then you can get the image URL for e-mail address(es) post them to the site.

This latter feature works just like Wee World's live linking to your Wee Mee. As you change your gravatar (or WeeMee) the image generated by the link will update.

As for Openvatar, the service is redundant since OpenID allows transferring an avatar (or profile image) but since there are a number of OpenID providers the chore of managing your avatar at each provider could be simplified by a service like Openvatar (or by Gravatar extending their service to include your OpenID's). I realise the promise of OpenID is that you need only ONE but the reality is you're going to have several.

The wonderful thing about the internet is all the standards you have to choose from!

Google Sites is great, but missing a couple things...

2008-10-23T06:52:00.001-07:00

Google Sites just announced they're going international:

Today we added support for 37 more languages.

But there's still a few critical things missing from Sites:

Feeds! They have these great, blog-like pages for announcements but you can't get an feed off of them. You subcribe by e-mail to page or site changes and that should always be available but these days updates are better distributed by a feed (Atom or RSS).
JavaScript! There's no way to embed JavaScript code on a Site's page. I understand Google's stated reason of protecting the world from nefarious webmasters, but then every other Google service provides JavaScript snippets for embedding!!! Sites offers a number of ways to embed content from other Google services, but having JavaScript would let me fine-tune things and would also let me get content from other services that Google doesn't have (yet :)
Integration! I know Sites is just JotSpot re-branded but I wish Google (and others too) would integrate their services better. By that I mean homogenize. Why does Google Code use a completely different wiki system than Google Sites? Sites has a lot of features offered by Code's wiki but Sites looks much nicer. And Code has a really sweet feature: the wiki is stored in an SVN repository so you can access it with all the usual SVN tools.

I still have to say that Sites is a major improvement over Page Creator. GPC was nice, and we can see they kept the best parts (mainly the dialog boxes) in Sites. Hopefully we'll get some Googlers dedicating their 20% time to Sites and have the aforementioned features soon.

RIM to launch new BlackBerry app store

2008-10-21T13:27:00.001-07:00

From an article in the Globe and Mail:

BlackBerry users suffering from iPhone application envy will soon be able to purchase games and other software directly from their coveted devices through a new online marketplace from Research In Motion Ltd.

I'm not suffering any iPhone envy, I think Apple is cool and way better than Microsoft but definitely over-hyped and over-priced. I do agree this is a great move on RIM's part: not everyone wants to search the internet for new software or remember where they got stuff from. Having it all in one place makes it easy to find - it becomes a feature. To compete with Apple this is a feature that RIM needs.

And as a hacker, hopefully one or two workable bits of my code will show one day!

Hike up Mt. Rigaud

2008-10-05T18:42:00.001-07:00

It was Nanny's birthday party today, and like last year we hiked up Mt. Rigaud and had lunch near the cross at the summit.

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-15T11:47:00.001-07:00

Okay, so it was only a tropical depression by the time it blew through Quebec, but it still knocked a branch of one of our trees!!! Hopefully that's it for our trees, but we still have two and half months of hurricane season to go. And then our ice storm season to look forward to.

Trust conversion rules

2008-07-15T05:40:00.001-07:00

Ottawa released the rules yesterday for Income Trusts to convert to corporations. The Globe and Mail has this story.

And I made the following comment:

Corporate taxes suck! Every company should be an income trust. Distributions don't have to be regular or even at all for capital intensive businesses - but the taxes on the profits should be paid by individuals not corporations! Corporations don't vote - they lobby, individuals vote - and that's where the govt's money should come from.

Minh's soccer game

2008-06-22T19:46:00.001-07:00

Our friend Minh's soccer team was playing in our area so we went over to see the last 1/2 hour of his game. It featured all the drama and excitement of professional soccer game: some awesome moves, some good goals, and some melodrama from the players!

Hopefully we'll get to see more again soon!

Electrify your driving

2008-06-20T12:08:00.001-07:00

There have been a number of articles on CBC.ca lately about electric cars and the high price of gasoline. I've posted a few comments to these articles (and a few people have replied to my comments) but it's a bit hard to find your musings on CBC.ca's web site so I've gathered my comments together here.

Oil prices spike after attacks on Japanese tanker, Nigerian pipeline
Monday, April 21, 2008

Consumer demand drives the price at the pump, not some yahoos with a grenade launcher, or speculators, or oil companies, or governments. If you want to save money on gas, buy less! If If you want to live 20km from where you work then pay the price - I do, and I cut my travel time by 2hr vs. public transit and save a ton of money on extra daycare charges! Oh wait, did anyone catch that? It's all inter-connected. The cause of pump prices is obvious, but the solution is way more complicated. And now the farmers that are producing crops for ethanol to "green" our gas are driving up the price of food that used to be made with their crops! Someone wins so someone loses!!!

Sherbrooke says no to plant biofuels on ethical grounds
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Hey SimonSimon, I checked out your ZEN car website. Three small problems:
1) Even though it's built in Quebec you can't buy it in Quebec!
2) It's not rated for highway use so I couldn't even drive it 20 km to work (twice a day, five days a week, i.e.: 90% of my driving)
3) There's nowhere to put the car seat for my 16 month old daughter
And for the price of one ZEN I could buy TWO fuel efficient sub-compacts that are available in Qc, are highway rated, and have room for my daughter (but maybe not Rick Mercer's 20 cases of beer, only 10).

Gas prices surge to $1.51 in Montreal
Monday, June 9, 2008

To JoshERTW: Have you actually looked at the ZENN car's web site? They're NOT highway certified (40km/h max speed) so most people (including myself who lives in suburbs) couldn't even go to the grocery store (not without tripling my drive time); there's no backseat so where do I put my daughter's car seat? And they cost over $20,000 - twice the price of a sub-compact that has a backseat and can go on the highway! Plus the web site is written totally in Flash - sheesh, talk about abusive wastes!!!

Quebec tests electric cars
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Sorry, but any vehicle that cannot go on the highway is going to have very limited appeal. I live on the island of Montreal, but even for me to get around in my own town I take the highway - technically it's avoidable but not without long detours.
Also, the these cars have no backseat so no where to put my daughter - i.e.: families won't buy them.
And a fuel-efficient sub-compact is almost half the price of an electric car (and it can go on the highway and it has a backseat).
Furthermore, it may be cheaper after 5 years to replace the batteries but I bet most people will have an easier time putting $20 of gas into the tank when it runs low rather than saving up for a new battery!

And I have a second comment on the last article that hasn't appeared yet so I'll update this post once it does.

First day at Valois Pool 2008

2008-06-15T17:21:00.001-07:00

After a successful fishing trip and a delicious brunch in Rigaud for Father's Day we went to Valois Pool for the first time this summer! It was the second day the pool was open and it was packed! Lindsay loved swimming around and sitting on the edge kicking and splashing me!

Lachine Canal Picnic

2008-06-08T19:22:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday we packed up the bike carrier, packed up the bike bags, and set off for a picnic in Rene-Levesque park (the Arboretum) on the Lachine Canal. We met up with our friends Christina, Nick, Pat, Minh, Jess, and Ada and enjoyed a beautiful summer (almost) day.

Lindsay kept us on our toes on the way there by throwing stuff out of her trailer. And the wind kept us peddling on the way back!

The full album is available on my PicasaWeb site.

Breakfast at East Side Marios

2008-05-04T13:33:00.001-07:00

The neighbourhood crew gathered for breakfast at East Side Mario's on Saturday morning, the morning of the big game!

The photos are also in my online album.

First weekend on the deck 2008

2008-04-21T08:13:00.001-07:00

With the weather getting nicer and nicer and only a little bit of snow left we decided this was the weekend to get out and enjoy the "summer" weather. This is year has been so perfect (not just the weather, getting to enjoy it with a family made all that much more perfect) since we went from massively snowy winter to beautiful summer weather without having to endure the soggy, rainy, muddy days of spring.

Mid-April and already we're kicking back on the deck after playing outside!

Full album available online.

Boycott the gas stations - boycott logic!

2008-04-18T08:48:00.001-07:00

I got another e-mail today exhorting me to boycott some gas station (Esso and Shell, there seems to be some weird correlation between people who forward chain mail and don't like Esso or Shell). This one was a bit different in that the boycott was to last more than day, in fact I was supposed to boycott Esso and Shell or the rest of the year!!!

Good idea, but won't work for the same reason the "don't buy gas for a day" doesn't work: we're still buying gas! The demand stays the same, we're just shifting our supplier.

Boycotting your local Esso or Shell station just puts one neighbour (who owns the Esso station) against the other neighbour (who owns the Petro-Can/Ultramar/Sonic/etc. station). Both of whom probably buy their gas from the same refinery and have it delivered by the same transport company.

And the effect is even more perverse in Quebec: As demand at your local non-Esso/Shell station rises so must his prices - especially at the start when he didn't plan for all the Esso/Shell customers to come to his station (increased demand = increased price). Now you would think the Esso/Shell station would lower their prices since their demand is down, but Quebec has a minimum price law to prevent gas wars from bankrupting the independent retailers. As the other guy's prices rise the Esso/Shell station's minimum price rises too!!!

There's only one thing that determines the price of gas at the pumps: consumer demand. That's it. Don't blame OPEC, don't blame Esso, don't blame Shell, don't blame the government. BLAME YOURSELF!

If people didn't want it they wouldn't sell it. If people didn't want to pay enough to cover the cost, they'd find a way to lower their costs and then sell it. But if people are so addicted to driving, and flying, and buying groceries or goods that need to be transported long-distances, etc. then we'll pay $1.50/l of gas and $3 for a
watermelon and $500 to fly one-way to Toronto. And the gas companies will make money because what we get from gas is valuable to us!

Yes, I drive to work. Because public transit adds 1 hr to my commute each way and it's worth more to spend those 2 hrs a day with my family than the cost of the gas.

And finally, our local stations are BOTH Ultramar - long live free-market competition (ummm, wait a minute).

Playing outside

2008-03-24T19:25:00.001-07:00

So spring has arrived, the sun is high in the sky, and all the snow we got this winter (over 300cm) is thawing and re-freezing. That makes it strong enough to walk around on without sinking up to your belly-button frozen white shyte! And so out we went with Lindsay and her toys for a romp around the backyard; then hopped the fence and ran around the front yard a bit.

The full album is available online at my Picasa Web site.

Snow check Easter Weekend

2008-03-21T20:04:00.001-07:00

Snow spring has arrived and it's Easter Weekend, who would have though we'd have so much snow!? At this rate will I still be wearing my Sorel's in June?!

View the whole album online.

Easter dinner at Amanda and Marc

2008-03-21T19:50:00.001-07:00

This year we all gathered at Amanda and Marc's house for Easter Dinner. Lindsay really like riding their "dog" Speck around the living room!

See the full album online at Picasa Web.

St-Patricks Day Parade 2008

2008-03-16T20:22:00.001-07:00

The annual March tradition of abusing Pat's micro-kitchen to feed a horde of friends before heading down to Ste-Catherine's street for the parade was held again this year. Much food was eaten, more Bailey's was drunk, and Lindsay got to see her first St-Patrick's Day Parade!

The full album is availabe on Picasa Web.

March Snow Storm

2008-03-09T09:19:00.001-07:00

I love the snow! I think in winter it should snow, none of this wishy-washy maybe rain, maybe freezing rain, maybe snow. And I certainly was not disappointed this winter, what an awesome amount of snow we've had! But when we woke up to over 30cm of new snow this Sunday my back was starting to think enough is enough. Still, we had fun

The whole album is available online

Tobogganing fun

2008-02-18T06:59:00.001-08:00

We took advantage the beautiful weather this weekend to go tobogganing at Sunnyside park. I seem to remember the hill was much bigger and steeper when I was a kid. I hope my daughter remembers it the same way I did

And yes, Lindsay did have a lot of fun!

Illinois university shooting

2008-02-15T11:33:00.001-08:00

In the CBC article Illinois university shooting over in seconds: police there's a very interesting sentence near the end:

It's the fourth shooting at an American school in a week.

Yes, that's right, there were three other shootings on US campuses this past week! I hadn't heard of them. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, or maybe there really is a problem when students getting shot in school isn't automatically news and has to attain a certain threshold before it gets reported.

Nortel-Motorola Mega merger

2008-02-11T07:27:00.001-08:00

According to the article Mega merger in today's Montreal Gazette Nortel and Motorola are going to combine their least profitable wireless divisions into a spin-off company. Let's just think about that for a minute...

Catherine and Stephane's Engagement Party

2008-02-09T19:09:00.001-08:00

So now it's official - and we're looking forward to the wedding. The party was done in typical Stephane style: why open a bottle of champagne the easy way when you can use the biggest knife in the kitchen to knock the top of the bottle clean off?!

Of course there are more pictures online in the album.

Strata

2008-02-08T15:44:00.001-08:00

Strata

Serves six to eight people as a main course

Ingredients

loaf of Challah (egg) bread (about 12 slices)
4 cups of cheese (cheddar, mozza, gruyere, where ever you tastes take you)
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 tsp each salt, pepper, mustard powder
3 chopped leeks
1/2 cup red pepper (one should be enough)
12 strips of bacon (about half a package) or sausage or whatever meat you want
9x13 pyrex dish (or a smaller-but-deeper oval dish, but then do more layers)

Directions

cook the bacon

I usually use the oven: put wax paper on a cookie sheet and lay out all 12 strips of bacon then bake at 350 until they're done)

chop up the bacon, leeks, and peppers
shred the cheese
mix the egg, milk, & spices
grease the pyrex
layout a double-layer of bread, make sure layer is solid - fill gaps with bits of bread
cover with half the leeks, peppers, bacon, & cheese
put a single layer of bread, ditto
put the rest of the leeks, peppers, bacon, & cheese
slowly pour the egg & milk mixture into the pyrex starting from middle and moving outwards as necessary to get even coverage
refrigerate at least a three hours, preferably over night
bake at 350F for 1 hour

Pancake Tuesday

2008-02-05T10:35:00.001-08:00

Today is Pancake Tuesday So we're having latkes for dinner!!!

Latkes

submitted by Santiago at ifood.tv

I guess any kind of pancake would do, but we had regular pancakes not too long ago and felt like making latkes! (Mainly for the apple sauce I think)

Microsoft bids $44.6-billion for Yahoo

2008-02-01T06:14:00.001-08:00

This morning's announcement that Microsoft bids $44.6-billion for Yahoo is causing a lot of speculation.

For my part, I could care less about Yahoo's or Microsoft's web sites - I use Google almost exclusively since they're way ahead of Yahoo or MSN/Live (and when I don't use Google it's because someone else is ahead of them which implies Yahoo or MSN/Live don't even register).

But what does concern me is the effect a "war" between MSN/Live/Yahoo and Google could have on Google's dedication to it's cool stuff.

I'm not sure how the industry works, but something tells me nobody makes any money when I visit Yahoo.com or Google.com; or when I sign-up for an account and create a personalized homepage. My understanding is these companies make their money selling ads. But Microsoft also makes their money selling software, hardware, game consoles, etc. Basically, Microsoft has tons of cash sources it can use to undercut Google, who probably depends a lot more on advertising revenue.

What would Microsoft do if they "won" the war? Well, I doubt they would produce cool things like the iGoogle homepage, Google Reader, Google Alerts, etc. And I doubt they make public so many services that people can integrate into their web sites. And I predict a bunch of MS Office Product Managers stomping on the servers that host Google Docs & Spreadsheets (followed by an attempt to use MS Streets & Trips to locate Zoho's head office and then an attempt to use MS Encarta to figure out why if Indians live in India isn't India a reserve somewhere in the USA).

So sarcasm aside, I think a successful purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft would lead to the death of the Google we geeks love, because online ad prices will go down and Google will have less cash to fund their 20% projects.

UPDATE Feb 3, 2008: My interpretation of the Google's blog post on this subject is they are coming to same conclusion as I am - although they clearly but the blame on Microsoft rather than the underlying mechanisms of a free market.

Google celebrates 50th anniversary of the Lego block

2008-01-28T07:00:00.001-08:00

Google celebrates 50th anniversary of the Lego block with their logo today! Insert rambling reminiscing about childhood Lego memories here. Thanks Google!

X-C skiing at Cap St-Jacques

2008-01-26T09:43:00.001-08:00

Saturday afternoon we had a wonderful father-daughter-friends outing cross-country skiing at Cap St-Jacques Nature Park.

We had a great time. The weather was beautiful; Lindsay never fussed about the goggles I put on her face; Stephane was crepe powered; and JF and Chloe led us all to the cool Chateau Goyer for a hot chocolate (and a peek at their Griffindor room).

The full-sized photos are available at my online album; and JF's blog about the afternoon is also available online.

Light-O-Rama. Control lights, music, and special effects.

2008-01-18T11:00:00.001-08:00

Check-out Light-O-Rama!!! Next christmas this what is going up in front of the house! Never mind those dinky little LED lights, we've got cheap electricity in Quebec and I'm going to make the most of it! Maybe not as crazy as these guys, but give me a couple years.

Movie night at Ada's

2008-01-10T12:11:00.001-08:00

This was supposed to be Movie Night at Ada's (we did watch a movie, Nanny Diaries, not bad - even for a chick flick), but I think the star of the show was Ada's new pet hedgehog Harriet. A strange little creature with a rapidly changing temperament and a prehensile tongue.

We also had some really delicious home-made caramel corn. The full-sized photos are online.

Goat Cheese and Zucchini Aperitif Cake

2008-01-09T19:53:00.001-08:00

Serves 8

Ingredients

Standard meause	Ingredient	Metric measure
1/2 cup	Whole milk	125 ml
2 tbsp	Olive oil	30 ml
1	Zucchini thinly sliced	1
3	Eggs	3
1 cup + 1 tbsp	Flour	265 ml
3 tsp	Baking powder	15 ml
1/2 tsp	Salt	2 ml
1/2 tsp	Freshly ground pepper	2 ml
1/3 cup	Vegetable oil	75 ml
1 1/4 cup	Grated gruyere cheese	100 grams
3 oz	Chevre en buche goat cheese, diced	100 grams
3 tbsp	Chopped chervil, tarragon, or parsley	45 ml

Note: for a milder taste use less Chevre en buche, or use a milder goat cheese - such as the creamed goat cheese that comes in a plastic tube with metal crimps at each end.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celsius).
Butter a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch loaf pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, and butter the paper.
In a small saucepan scald the milk and set aside.
Head the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and saute the zucchini slices until lightly browned (about 10 minutes). Let drain on paper towels.
In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.
Gradually whisk in the vegetable oil and warm milk.
Fold in the gruyere, the zucchini, the goat's cheese, and the herbs.
Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted inot the centre comes out clean.
Let cool slightly before un-moulding, the let cool completely before slicing.

You can probably get three small loaves out of this recipe instead of one large loaf.

Lindsay's first birthday

2008-01-06T13:00:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it's already been one whole year!!! Our little daughter is a year old, the last 12 months have just flown by. Of course we celebrated in style, we had four parties for our little girl - just the three of us; with all "her" friends; with all our friends; and of course with the families.

First Storm Of 2008

2008-01-02T21:04:00.001-08:00

Well, mother nature did it again, and followed our latest dusting with a beautiful winter day! Full sized photos are available in the online album.

X-treme Luge

2007-12-30T16:00:00.001-08:00

So not only did three geeks take their kids sledding, but when we got home we pulled out the beers and the mac book and put together this little video. iMovie was sweet but what about Microsoft Movie Maker? Well for one thing, it can't read video files from a Blackberry (3GP format, which Quick Time reads natively - Firefox on a PC uses the QT plugin to play them). So this is what I came up with on my ThinkPad.
At least I remembered to add some credits!

More public than transport

2007-12-24T18:59:00.001-08:00

Another one of my letters got published in Montreal Gazette today! Here's what the Gazette published:

The problem with public transport in Montreal is that there is more public than transport.

Last Wednesday I waited 45 minutes in the cold and blowing snow for the 168 bus that is supposed to run every 30 minutes (I should have waited 10 minutes). This morning, after a 20-minute wait during rush hour a bus drove by too full to stop. Ten minutes later another overloaded bus drove by. And finally, after I had waited for 35 minutes during the morning rush hour, a bus stopped that was able to accommodate some, but not all, of the passengers waiting.

Until availability and reliability are significantly increased we will always prefer to take our cars. I know I'll be back in mine as soon as possible.

Here's what I originally sent in:

The problem with public transport in Montreal is that there is more public than transport!

Yesterday I waited 45 minutes in the cold and blowing snow for a bus (the 168) that is supposed to run every 30 minutes (I should have waited 10 minutes). This morning, after a 20-minute wait during rush hour a bus drove by too full with passengers to stop. Ten minutes later another overloaded bus drove by. And finally, after waiting 35 minutes during the morning rush hour, a bus stopped that was able to accommodate some, but not all, of the passengers waiting.

Mayor Tremblay wants us to use public transit to ease the snow clearing operation, and I think that would be great a idea - if it were an option in Montreal! With the current state of public transport in Montreal it is the last resort, not the first choice.

Unless the availability and reliability are significantly increased we will always prefer to take our cars - I know I'll be back in my car as soon as possible.

So they took out my shot at mayor Tremblay, but I'm happy they published my rant more-or-less as I wrote it.

Snow removal will slow down with rain ahead

2007-12-20T10:31:00.001-08:00

This is hilarious - they're asking us to take public transit so they can remove the snow, but public transit in Montreal is a crap-shoot a best. In the morning you can expect buses to drive-by without stopping because they're already full of passengers. In the evening you wait for close to an hour because the buses are stuck in traffic. This happens every day, they never learn. No wonder people take their cars.

Snow day 2007

2007-12-17T20:47:00.001-08:00

This was awesome, I love winter when it's really winter and not sort of late-fall or early-spring. If it's winter let it snow!!! Full photos available in the online album.

Friends over for three fondue dinner

2007-12-16T20:17:00.001-08:00

Tonight we had a couple of our neighbours over for dinner. The menu was three fondues - a Swiss cheese fondue, a "chinese" or broth meat fondue, and for dinner a chocolate fondue. Of course several bottles of wine were also on the menu.
Barry tried to bogart the beef. And Maureen got the wine.
And we all had a good time. This is why we love our neighbours!

ThinkGeek :: Wi-Fi Detector Shirt

2007-10-10T08:41:00.001-07:00

This is insane! This is the kind of technology that I love - totally useless but brilliant application of basic, commodity parts.

ETF-O-Mania

2006-09-13T11:34:00.001-07:00

Here, finally, someone with a clear head discussing the pros and cons of ETFs. Until now I have read very few articles that had anything negative to say about ETFs and none anywere as clearly as this article. What it comes down to, is that ETFs are mutual funds sold on the stock market rather than my your local bank (or whatever financial institution). Great, because there's no sales commissions to pay those financial advisors. On the other hand, you're typically paying a commission to your broker for any stock purchase you make. That doesn't show up in the ETF's MER but it affects your return none-the-less. And if you plan to purchase regularly then you're going to regularly be paying those transaction fees.