Falling Back

It’s easy to grasp the concept of daylight savings time, unless you happen to be canine. The smapp dog is still on “yesterday’s time”, and has been too early for everything today. WAY too early for waking up, and now, too early for dinner. The fact that her tummy is grumbing is an indication that regardless of what time it is, she’s ready for it to be supper time ;-)

I have a feeling that the next few days are going to bel ike this. An early tummy. ;-)

I’m not the only one who has figured out that pets have a hard time with DST…. Gary Bogue has a curious post about cats and clocks. 

technorati tags:Daylight Savings Time

Voice 2.0 Explained

First coined by blogger and telecom executive Alec Saunders, ‘Voice 2.0′ is a term that refers to the consequences of voice becoming a simple data stream and application, that will integrate seamlessly with Web based business and consumer applications. This convergence of telephony communication and the Web will lead to fundamental changes in the way communication services are provided and a dramatic shift in the industry value chain.

TelecomVistas.com

This article should become mandatory reading for all new entrants and employees at telecom “solution provider” organizations. The dramatic mindshift needed to pull these giant ships out of their present path is going to be impressive. That being said, I’ve heard that it only takes 5% of the organization to create enough buzz, that it makes it easier for 25% of the organization to actually pull the levers of change. Someday I will be able to stop talking about overseas minute volume discounts as if they were a good thing.

technorati tags:voice 2.0

Technorati : Alec Saunders

Rogers, Allstream and Person to Join Together for NewFoundland Fibre Network?

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - Newfoundland is considering the construction of a second fibre-optic link to Nova Scotia that would prevent 911 services from shutting down as they did last week, Premier Danny Williams said Thursday.

The provincial government has been scrutinizing the $82-million proposal by Rogers Communications (TSX: RCI - news), MTS Allstream Inc. (TSX:MBT - news) and Persona Communications Inc. for at least several months. If approved, the project would provide a much-needed alternate connection for the only province in Canada that currently depends on a single carrier, Williams said.

A minor fire at a Bell Aliant (TSX: BA.UN) switching station that eliminated residential and mobile phone service throughout the provincial capital last Friday underscores the need for another link, Williams said.

Newfoundland pondering second line to Nova Scotia in wake of phone outage - Yahoo! News

A few obvious questions here: Did the goverment give Bell Aliant ao opportunity to provide their own redundancy and diversity plan? You would think that it would be easier to redesign and augment the network, rather than create a whole new duplicate one, especially for a province where burying fibre must be a considerable expense. That being said, with Rogers and Allstream, they've likely still got "decommissioned but not disassembled" radio towers floating all over the Rock.

Second Question: This isn't the first time that Rogers and Allstream have entertained a wild idea - [remember innikshuk?], will the incusion of Persona add sticking power to the relationship?

technorati tags:Rogers, Allstream, Persona, NewFoundland Networks

Methamphetamine Lab in Glencoe?

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the middle of the night in June 2005 outside Glencoe, four OPP officers were watching a suspected methamphetamine operation.

London Free Press - City & Region - Driver admits ramming stakeout van full of cops

Holy cow! What a hotbed of activity Glencoe has become. At one time, it would have been a safe and sleepy town, parents secure in knowing that their wee ones were likely to never cross paths with the truly criminal. Having a meth lab in the neighbourhood likely squashes that feeling completely.

technorati tags:glencoe, meth lab

Americans Duped by Email Scams

Email fraud alone cost consumers US$630 million between 2004 and 2005.

Macleans.ca | Top Stories | Life | Pornography, gambling, lies, theft and terrorism: The Internet sucks

For some reason, this number is not terribly surprising. Not even a little bit.  Americans [generally] have a deep seated desire to get rich quick, by any means possible, the easier the better.  To think that an unknown person from around the world wants to give them $40 million, and all they have to do is send $2500 for an airplane ticket is just silly and irresponsible. You get what you pay for ;-)

Funny that Macleans calls it email fraud - I wonder how much is wasted on lottery systems?

technorati tags:Macleans, email scams

Personalized Radio Stations

Imagine.

You log into a web portal, choose your own music selections, be it individually, or by genre, or even by release date (say you wanted to stay up-to-date on the newest alternative music released between October 1 2006 and October 25th 2006).  You then choose the advertising that's relevent to you: Shoppers Drug Mart, Ikea, Nissan, Loblaws, etc. You submit your selections and pop into your car. 

2 things could happen now, you plug your EVDO phone into your radio, or you've managed to snag one of the new IP radios that have just come onto the market, with their own wireless broadband internet connectivity.  You enjoy personalized, streaming music for your commute to work.

Imagine. A partnership with an EVDO/wireless broadband carrier, a content provider like iTunes or Pandora, an advertising partner like Google, for personal commercials. 2 streams of revenue, from subscribers and from advertisers... why isn't anyone working on a service like this? Highspeed wireless is rolling out quickly.  Bandwidth pricing is dropping faster than temperatures in Ontario.

Disruptive services are all the rage now.  This one would be a smash!

A girl can dare to dream.

technorati tags:disruption, personalized radio, wireless broadband

Teaser Idea....

..... think about a solution that would completely disrupt the radio broadcasting industry. Think bigger than satellite radio.

I'll be back.

technorati tags:disruption, radio

One of the More Embarassing Ways to Go......

Pedestrian killed picking up his shoe
Oct. 21, 2006. 11:46 PM
MEGHAN HURLEYSTAFF REPORTER

A 49-year-old man was killed Saturday by a northbound car as he bent down to pick up his shoe that had fallen off while chasing a dog across Yonge St., police said.He was chasing the dog, which emergency crews could not find, across Yonge St., near the intersection at Lake Ave. in Richmond Hill when he was struck by the car, police said.“As he was crossing the road he lost his shoe and when he realized his shoe had fallen off he turned around to go get it,” Richmond Hill Staff Sgt. Harry Horn said.Emergency crews were called to the area around 8:30 p.m. and transported the man to York Central Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, police said.Yonge St. remained closed Saturday night between King Rd. and Old Colony Rd. for the investigation, police said.The man is from the Oak Ridges area, said police, who have not confirmed his identity.No charges have been laid, police said.

TheStar.com - Pedestrian killed picking up his shoe

Oh my.  The poor fellow managed to dodge traffic to save his dog, until he realized he was missing a shoe.  It was the shoe that managed to get him hit by a car. Word on the street it was actually a slipper. Yikes.

technorati tags:Oak Ridges, Pedestrian Killed by Lost Slipper

Now You Know....

There’s a trivia book in every bathroom and outhouse in North America. You know there is. Even if no one admits, there is a secret trivia hound in all of us. The wiz now has 2 trivia books, and I’m thrilled (and he has no shame) to admit that he’s spent such a considerable amount of time “sitting” and reading them, that his feet have actually fallen asleep. It doesn’t have to be this way… there’s help for trivia [freaks] buffs….

Imagine the things you could learn:

1. Cats purr at the same rate of a diesel engine, 26 cycles per minute.
2. The Jack O’lantern is named after a drunk?
3. Thomas Jefferson actually served Macaroni and Cheese in the White House in 1802.
4. The next time you cough, you might want to know that you are sending air through your windpipe faster than the speed of sound!

All this knowledge, at my fingertips, and no, my feet are not asleep.

technorati tags:Aviva Trivia

MTS Allstream and Hydro One Contract Renewal

MTS Allstream has secured a three-year extension to its data services contract with Hydro One, Ontario's electricity delivery company.Under the terms of the contract, MTS Allstream will continue to supply Hydro One with several data services, focussed on speed, low delay and reliability of data transfer, in support of bandwidth-intensive applications requiring real-time transport of voice, data and video.

mediacastermagazine.com - Mediacaster - 10/23/2006

It's good to see that Allstream continues to resign contracts with existing customers. One intersting point of note - the Hydro One contract is with the enterprise division of Allstream, and not the wholesale division. An interesting angle to take, considering the expansion of the wholesale markets in Canada. One of Allstream's strenghts is wholesale. It would do a world of good if the rest of the beast realized it, and allowed the wholesale group to grow and expand. The Allstream Wholesale division shouldn't be treated like the ugly red-haired stepchild, stuck locked in the attic.

technorati tags:Allstream, Wholesale Telecom, Hydro One

We Are What We do

An interesting site hit my radar this morning, We Are What We Do
It's all about changing the world, one action at a time.  It's a feel good site, full of interesting bits and ideas and could likely be the catalyst for some significant conversations. Take a look. Be. Do.

technorati tags:we are what we do

I'm an SOB!

Really! Imagine my surprise, doing the biweekly analysis of traffic reports, to come across a few references from The Successful [and Outstanding] Blog
It took three readings of the post to realize that I was one of the LUCKY Successful and Outstanding Bloggers.

Check out the fantastic company I’m keeping!!!!!

:-)

 

technorati tags:SOB, Successful and Outstanding Blog

Fruits of Labour

IMG_9046
Originally uploaded by julebule.

Thankfully not my labour. All I had to do was walk around, wipe up pumpkin shrapnel, and take photos.
I toasted the seeds, but had flashbacks of a bad experience burning pumpkin seeds, and the subsequent burning of a kitchen. I watched these seeds like a hawk.

from one angle

IMG_8843
Originally uploaded by julebule.

It’s damn hard to get photos of yourself. Especially when yourself is the photographer. The camera looks pretty small in the photo - I’m ready to upgrade my SLR. :-)

We have a “photo gallery” in our living room, and 99% of the pictures there are NOT me.  The wiz says I must include myself. And then he came up with this idea. Self Portrait. I shall soon be adding it…

Man that’s some good hair going on. :-) 

Fall Weekends...

... full of pumkpin hunting, cookie sales and wet walks for the smapp dog.  If it wasn't for the rain, you'd hardly know that it was Fall...

I am also on the hunt for fast growing trees now, but I have a feeling i've waited too long, and all the good ones have been snapped up.  Read: all the cheap ones have been snapped up. I will have to expand the search. Or lower mhy criteria.  Neither of those options are terribly appealing.  And now, what's worse, every drive we take, I am evaluating trees on the side of the road; thinking, "yah, i could dig that one up".... yeesh.

technorati tags:autumn, trees, pumpkins

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PayPerPost Financial Incentive for Disclosure

In a move reminiscent of big tobacco funding tobacco research, PayPerPost is announcing a new initiative on Monday called DisclosurePolicy, which “provides policy creation tools, best practices and forums for discussing the delicate balance between content creator freedoms and audience transparency expectations.”DisclosurePolicy creates a disclosure policy for bloggers to post on their blogs, based on their answers to a few questions. They will also pay every blogger who posts a PayPerPost disclosure policy on their blog $10.

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » PayPerPost Is Now Officially Absurd

Aside from the negative slant that Techcrunch has taken with PayPerPost, they are still impresseive at “getting the message out”.  Funny, I’m not the only one who is thinking that Techcrunch is doing PayPerPost a favour, instead of a disservice.  In fact, the more negativity people read, the better the chance that they actually investigate, and try the service, and decide that it may not be the fruit of the devil!

At some point, Techcrunch has to realize that they are becoming an advocate for PayPerPost, and are driving the blogosphere netizens to see what paid blogging feels like. Techcrunch seems to be turning this into a personal vendetta. Perhaps PayPerPost isn’t the absolute end all, be all to blogging with vendor content, but then again, aren’t we all about evolution? In the beginning, the die hard internet users thought windows 95 was an affront to what the Internet was all about. If they had the choice, we’d all be using Lynx and Pine.

Evolution baby, evolution. 

technorati tags:Techcrunch, PayPerPost

A Merger is in the Works...

A few months ago, I broke this site into 3 sections, and now I'm considering merging them. What do you think - should jules.ca, tech whisperer and the curious tale of the girl and the telco come back together as one?

Canada 511

Sunny skies, open highways
5-1-1
The CRTC has assigned the 5-1-1 access code for the provision of weather and traveller information services, on the condition that the services remain free of charge.

Telecom Trends: July 2006

I don't think that much of the Canadian public is aware of the new 511 service that the Canadian Federal government is going to launch in the next 8 months. Unless you are someone who is in the know about the current National Weather Services Advisory Service - where you call a local number, and receive a recording of the current weather status and road conditions for your area, you may well not even think about 511.  Most of you probably already check online for the weather forecast, or the road conditions, or if you should pack a sweater for Rimouski.

The lack of a federal evironmental policy may be pushing this initiative faster and farther than merit and public interest warrant. The new 511 service was proposed by a consortium of different groups, but was spearheaded by Environment Canada. The CRTC has mandated that the service be free. FREE. $35 Million (likely) to be spent on a duplicated service that Canadians don't really know anything about, and may not want.

Just another day in the life for the Governments in Canada. Maybe they can add an option to the 511 service so you could rat out web sites that are advertising gambling.

technorati tags:Canada, 511

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Banning Advertising of Gambling Sites for 1/1,000,000th of the Internet

All bets are off, if Ontario has its way
RICHARD BLACKWELL
Globe and Mail Update
The Ontario government is expected to introduce legislation today that will ban advertisements of illegal Internet gambling websites.But the new law — part of a broad package of consumer legislation — could create a huge headache for media companies that will have to closely examine advertisements to make sure they don’t include indirect links to illegal sites.The legislation will not stop advertising of free poker sites or similar sites where no money changes hands, unless those sites have links to betting sites, said Paul de Zara, a spokesman for Ontario’s Minister of Government Services, Gerry Phillips.

globeandmail.com: All bets are off, if Ontario has its way

I say it again, can I become a consultant for Internet for the Ontario Governmnet? Apparently the underlying compelling event is that there are too many good Canadian kids trying to gamble on the internet….

If you follow the whole article, the gov’t is going to make it illegal to have a website in ontario that has an advertisement for a gambling site, or even an ad for a site that has ads to gambling sites. Hmmm, how many websites are there in Ontario? And wait, what about sites that are hosted OUTSIDE of Ontario? Do they have to follow the rules? This site is hosted in America, can I still advertise gambling sites?

The larger issue at stake, the internet doesn’t have any boundaries - if i’m feeling like gambling, i’ll simply go to my favourite hacker site in germany and check out the advertising. Sheesh.

This isn’t the first time the gov’t has set its sights on something silly, it likely won’t be the last. They would find far better traction throwing in with the US government on this one; to eradicate SPAM and child porn.

Martin Geddes makes an interesting comment about what the US is doing to push online gambling away, and by extention, pushing the profits outside of the US by forcing credit card companies to disallow payment to gambling sites…. martin sggests that the fnancial focus will simply migrate to a pre-paid model, and will merrily continue.  Imagine, going down to your local variety store, picking up a pre-paid calling card, but being able to use it to play blackjack on the ‘net.  Those card distributors who make deals with the gambling associations are going to be set for life. Allready the pre-paid card distribution network is seedy and difficult to police or monitor…. adding one more variable to the pot is not going to make a serious impact.

technorati tags:Silly Canada, Gambling Advertisements

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Appealing to the Masses.

That's it - I need more links. I need to improve my Google Page Rank. Now that the traffic is up, and the subscribers are up.... this is the last piece of the puzzle.

Help a chickie out?

;-)

technorati tags:google page rank, inbound links

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