Wounded little warrior

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

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!!!

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

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

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?!

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

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

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

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

This is my blog on a Blackberry:

Thanks JF!

Obama win: good for the world, or not?

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!

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

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

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...

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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!