Canadian Telecom Summit - Here I Come

After 10 years in the industry, this is finally my year to go to the Canadian Telecom Summit. To be fair, it’s only been in the past 6 years that I’ve been aware of it, and yet denied access, for various and sundry reasons. Primarily budget ;-)
But this year - the gates are open.  I’m going to be able to see people that I’ve only read about. Learn things I’ve only heard whisperings about. Andrea Messineo, from AT&T is going to be good. I’ve heard Pierre Blouin (MTS) speak a few times… passionately, I might add. It will be good to hear John A McDonald as well.

But I’m really looking forward to the up-and-comers: Virgin Mobile’s Andrew Black and John Maduri from Barrett Xplore. (I wish that the guy from Amp’d Mobile Canada was going to be there, but beggars cannot be choosers)  Word on the street is that Janet Yale, the EVP of Corporate Affairs for TELUS is a firecracker, and I can’t wait to see her take on the other Regulatory folks in an exclusive panel.

But this year - the world is my oyster. The Canadian Telecom Summit… followed closely by NXT Comm. It’s going to be a busy June :-)

GST Conferences :: Home Page for The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit

Technorati Tags: Canadian telecom Summit, Toronto

A New Lens in the Family

I broke down yesterday and picked up a new lens. A fast lens, a pretty lens.
A Canon EF 50MM 1.4. She’s pretty. And after a day of messing around, I couldn’t be more pleased.  It’s my first fixed lens, my first with a wicked, huge aperture. And I am back learning more techniques and tricks again. The funny bit?  I was going to go overboard with the Canon 50 MM 1.2 lens.
I still might, but not until I get the 1.4 under control. There are a few things that are going to make the 1.4 a challenge.  It’s the slowest focusing lens I’ve ever had. So slow, there are times that I switched to manual focus, just so that I could take the damn shot while the sun was still shining. :-)

Calling for rain today, so I may have to convince the wiz that i need him to help me practice indoor :-)

Technorati Tags: Canon 50MM, Canon lens

Webkinz - Crack for Kids

After all the hooplah around Webkinz, I broke down and gave it a go. I am the proud parent of Jeremiah the Bullfrog. I wanted to see what the uber-cool kids web 2.0 application was like. I signed up, I entered my secret Webkinz activation code that came with Jeremiah, I was up and running.

With Webkinz, in theory, it’s all about learning and playing games.  Skills improvements, hand-eye co-ordination, and trivia. Aha. Not so fast. It’s about buying virtual crap for your pet. It’s about making enough Kinz Cash to get a waterbed, a bowl of Swamp stew, and an addition for your house. Play games and get cash, find stuff and get cash. Answer questions correctly, or win a contest and get more cash.  It’s a race to make 2500 “kinzcash” bucks a week to support your virtual pet and your very real shopping fetish.

And get this - the more webkinz you adopt (at $12 a pop), the more things you can buy, and the more “perks” you get. But don’t forget - your activation code is only good for 12 months, after which, if you still want to play, you’ve got to “renew” your adoption. 

To add further to the addiction, if you don’t play every day, you pet becomes depressed, starves and (likely) will end up dying.  I have yet to test this theory, it seems a tad excessive.  Kids are finding it easier to coerce their parents into taking care of their “kinz” while on vacation or camp. (I shudder at the Tamagotchi death tolls of 2005).  No parent wants to be responsible for the death of a pet, virtual or otherwise.

Webkinz is a vicious circle. Kids with a dozen or more adopted pets.  Purchased only so they can get more virtual goods on-line. I say again, it’s a vicious circle. Webkins encourages multiple pet adoptions by creating an “exclusive” area for those kids with a basketful of pets.  On your 10th adoption, the keys to the kingdom open, and you become one if the Webkins upper-crust with fancier virtual “accessories”, and improved options for shopping. I’ve got my heart set on a few of the “exclusive” items, but I’ll be damned if I buy 9 more webkinz for the “privilege” of having a circus themed room.
Parents: don’t be fooled. Don’t fall for it.  Go ahead and get your kid ONE of the damned, evil plushies, but don’t you dare fall for the “I need more Webkinz” pleading.  It will likely lead you on the path to ruin.
Buyer beware.

PS - Even Webinz recommends only 20 minutes a day of usage. Hmmm…. responsible of them ;-)


Technorati Tags: Webkinz

5 Things that Can Happen in 4 Years

1. Separations and Divorces.
   
2. Cohabitating with Love.
3. Upgrading Jobs.
4. Buying a house in the country.
5. Becoming a pseudo step-mum and an authentic aunt.

Not in any chronological order, of course. It's been a busy 4 years. Not to mention all the learning, laughing and drama associated with all 5 events.
4 years down, 44 more to go.


Technorati Tags: floobergeist

Stopping Junk Mail at the Tree

Thanks to Kate for this one….

greendimes will reduce your junk mail, plant a tree and save water; all for only $37 CAN. If you want - they’ll even get your eco friendly butt on the “Do not Call List” and the “Do Not Fax List” as well.
The trick - they can only get rid of junk mail that’s got your name and address on it.  I only get one consistent piece of junk mail that actually is addressed to me (thank you Citibank and all your crap-diddy waste).

The bigger problem is the add ins and generic fliers and fluff that get stuffed into your mailbox… you know what I mean…  It’s those pieces of nastiness that I’d like Canada Post to stop ramming down my mailbox throat.  How do we get rid of those pieces?

;-P


Technorati Tags: mynameiskate, green dimes, junk mail

Why I Buy Pizza from PizzaPizza

No - it’s not because it’s good. On a good day, it’s mediocre.  On a bad day, it’s delivered overcooked and even the dog has a hard time choking down the crusts.
No, I buy Pizza Pizza because they have a reasonable online order application.


I would LOVE to buy pizza from It Was a Rainy Day in Pizzaville.
Alas - their online order tool sucks crusts when it comes to being able to pair up an address with the nearest store.  It worked ok downtown, but it can’t figure out that I am 8 minutes from a franchise, now that I live north of the city.

I would LOVE to buy pizza from Dominos.
But they don’t even have an on-line ordering option! Aie! Wakey wakey….

I’d even go out on a limb and buy pizza from Pizza Hut…. I quite liked the cheese in the crust deal they used to offer. Again - no service for my area. Again - I can almost see the Pizza Hut. Pfft. No pizza from YOU!.

So - Pizza Pizza it is. Not because it’s good, but because they seem to be the only pizza chain who has their act together when it comes to on-line ordering. I’ll be damned if I’m going to support a pizza place who hasn’t got their web 2.0 game going on.

To the good pizza places….. hurry up and get your digital sh&t together. I’m getting hungry again!!


Technorati Tags: pizza pizza, dominos, pizza hut, pizza ville

Fireworks, Bylaws and Guaranteed Identity Authentication

So - it was a busy long weekend :-)
3 days of amateur fireworks in the neighbourhood.
The desire to create a bylaw that would ban fireworks in subdivision neighbourhoods has taken over my sense of being. I can't have a chiminea or a closed fire in my backyard, but how come some nutbar with no proven life skills whatsoever can set off fireworks 20 feet from my house; at ANY hour of the day?

Grrrr.
It would have been neat to be able to log a complaint at 11:30 pm with the City of Richmond Hill, with my name, credentials and location, as well as the location of the offending fireworks fool. Calling and leaving a message on an answering machine is not effective.  Speaking with someone live may not be effective either, depending on their skill and experience level.  I'd rather log into a site, provide identity credetials, and log the complaint.

People could become accountable, responsible, and verifiable. No more hiding on the internet, not if you wanted to participate in certain arenas.

Imagine the neatness of being able to have identity credentials on the internet. Yes, I realize there are a few neat authentication keys available, but they aren't really easy enough for the average Joe or Josephine, and they haven't really taken off. is it a fingerprint scan on your keyboard? Maybe. Is it an authentication server that confirms you are who you say you are? Maybe.  Likely it's a combo of the 2, yet in a format that would be easy for novice computer folks to implement and feel secure about.

Hmmm... I'd love to serve someone with a digital noise bylaw ticket.
:-)


Technorati Tags: fireworks bylaws, identity authentication

New and Creepy Linked-In Feature

For various reasons, Facebook promises not to tell you who is looking at your profile, and conversely, who's profile *you* are looking at.
I can see the pros and cons of that, and the protective bubble around you if you are *stalking* someone ;-)

Yesterday I logged into my LinkedIn account to accept a few invitiations, and on the right hand side of the screen - POW! "Who has viewed my profile?Your profile has been viewed by 13 people in the last 1 month. See who's reviewed your LinkedIn Profile".

Aiee!!!!! And so I did what everyone would do - I clicked the link. I could only see the most recent 5 folks (if you upgrade, you can see all of them). I could see their job title and the company they worked for. It's funny - in 4 of the 5 visitors, I could tell who they were, simply by their title and the company they worked for.  And incase you wanted to narrow it down a little, you could do a quick search on title and company, and get the actual names of the likely candidates.

I can see the value of this cyber sleuthing - but geeze, it's a little odd.

Thoughts?  Am I being paranoid?


Technorati Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Privacy

Pandora is Dead..... Long Live Pandora!

It's true.
This morning, when I tried Pandora for the last time, the gates were shut...

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeplysorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allowaccess to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. Wewill continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a trulyglobal Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict itsuse. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no otheralternative.

That being said........ there are options.  You could go to the Anonymizer, and use their Anonymous Surfing package... just $29.99/year - and then, if you are a wee Canadian, the rghts and priviledges of all Americans are available to you; namely being able to watch NBC's Jericho Episodes on the net.

I wonder how long it will be before services like Anonymizer are also headlocked by nutty internet policies?
Of course, there are also the free anonymous proxy servers as well, but it seems the best one is in Canada - which defeats the purpose of what we are trying to achieve here ;-)

Sigh.


Technorati Tags: Pandora, Canada, Anonymizer

How Do You Get Spam Out of a Traffic Log?

The novelty of spam in my traffic log has worn off.
How does one stop that sort of abuse? In the past week, www.bankingie.org has shown up more than 9 times as a referrer. Bless his little abusive heart, i don't need it.

Same with www.cheapimovane.com/imovane-insomnia and www.fcashadvance.info

How are other people dealing with this sort of nonsense?


Technorati Tags: traffic log spam

Pandora Ceases Canadian Services

It was the thunderstorms that woke me up early this morning, but it was an email from Pandora that kept me from falling back asleep. If you haven’t become familiar with this amazing, music streaming service, you now might never get the chance.

Pandora was able to select and stream music by artists that sound similar, or songs that sound similar. When I was going through my “Conjure One and Delerium”  phase, it was Pandora who introduced me to like minded artists.

And now:

Dear Pandora listener, 

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora’s streaming service from Canada. We began blocking access from almost all countries outside the U.S. last week and had originally hoped to maintain access to Canada. However, it has become clear in the last week that we just haven’t been able to make enough progress to continue streaming.  It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.

:-(

It’s utterly insane…


Technorati Tags: pandora, Canada

The Side Effects of a Highway Closure

Yesterday it was decided that I should make a quick trip west to Snappin' Appin, for an impromptu Mother's Day fete.... by the time I'd gotten 40 minutes into the trip - the traffic stopped. All the way stopped, not just a "little slow down because someone needed to change lanes" sort of deal, but a full blown s-t-o-p. 40 minutes later, at crawling pace I reached the reason for the delay.  The eastbound lanes of the 401 highway were ALL blocked. A transport trailer had caught on fire. A BBQ significant enough to render the truck into charcoal, and destroy a goodly portion of whatever was being hauled in the trailer.

Despite how miserable the westbound lanes had been, they couldn't hold a candle to the eastbound. 20 km of stopped traffic.  And then the decision to close the highway at the next off ramp resulted in another 20 km of stopped traffic.  Folks were on the side of the road playing football, parents were picnicing on the roofs of their SUVs with their kids.  In short, it was utter bedlam.

Today, returning to the city via the same route, the only telltale sign that there had even been an issue yesterday was the significant increase in tractor trailer traffic.  The number of 18 wheelers outnumbered passenger vehicles by no less than 3 to one.

It got me thinking, there were atleast 2 low-tech solutions that could have reduced the impact of such a snarl:

• higher median walls to stop rubber neckers - I have no idea why the province doesn't add a few feet more of concrete to medians so that the average vehicle can't see the lanes on the other side of the highway.
• better radio news coverage - i tried every station on the dial to see what was going on... I had LOTS of time. I finally caved and went to the MTO site on my berry - and even *it* wasn't updated.

And 2 more high tech solutions:

• more people should have Onstar, or some reasonable faxcimile, to notify them when traffic is going to be a problem. 
  
• Overhead solar powered highway signs - really - they should be about 25 km apart from Windsor to Ottawa - and updated REGULARLY.  I love the one on the 400 that warns me if the traffic on the 401 is bad. It was installed smartly - giving people a chance to bail out and take the 407...

Watching the massive amount of gas being wasted yesterday, with 50 km of idling cars just made my heart ache. We have to get smarter.


Technorati Tags: 401 highway closure, Milton, May 13 2007

Hunting the Illusive Catalpa

It's harder to gain consensus on gardening than I thought it would be.
Husband 2.0 is much more interactive and collaborative than Husband 1.0 was. This is a good thing, but requires more customization in the interface in order to run smoothly.  Of course, I've lost the userguide.

This morning, after a day of negotiating yesterday on trees and shrubs and plants (oh my!), I finally figured out that we needed Catalpa trees in the back yard.

Do you realize how crappy the on-line Canadian Greenhouse/Nursery market is? Do you think I can easily find a nursery within 20 kms who has a listing of their inventory?  In the US, you can't swing a dead digital cat without hitting an on-line greenhouse e-store.  And yes, they will deliver anything your lazy gardening ass can think up.

I'm suited up with a large double double and my Crocks, and I'm loaded for bear. If I can't find a bear, a catalpa tree will do nicely.


Technorati Tags: Husband 2.0, Globe Catalpa, Canadian Gardening

Abnormal Bedroom Talk

The wiz and I are not the normal couple.

As overheard last night:

“So - would you get an RFID tag if it meant you could get great discounts at neat places?”
“What sorts of places?  What sorts of discounts?”
“Say… Las Vegas, or at a resort, or through a Tourism Agency.”
“Maybe, but I’d want the RFID tag to disintigrate on the flight home, and I don’t want it injected, I want to swallow it”. (The wiz is not keen on needles.)

Swallow it!?!?!?

Yeow. And so my brain started working.  Could you make an RFID tag that was ingestible, instead of injectible? Could you even make an RFID tag that was injestible? Or injectible that broke down over time?

I’m a teckno-junkie, sign me up for the injectible, long life, full featured RFID tag, especially if it means that I don’t have to carry a wallet ever again. I want it all.  I’m ok with having all my worldly information at the tip of my finger. But I would imagine that most folks aren’t as keen on such invasive upgrades to their anatomy, not yet anyways.

Still, there are growing applications where it makes sense to have temporary RFID tags, especially at tourist destinations, where carrying a card around isn’t convenient.
 
All the loyalty cards taking up extra room in your wallet? Add ‘em to the tag. Your citizenship info? How about your health info? And don’t forget your financial info.  Plug it all in. And while you’re at it, how about a RFID editor, so you could add your own bits of information, like who to contact in an emergency, or all your semi-personal preferences on everything you want to share with anyone. Don’t forget that you also want this info to update the zillions of RFID databases that are relying on your finger.

All this leads to more - wi-fi in your finger? :-)

See what I mean about abnormal?


Technorati Tags: RFID, Vegas, Wifi, bedroom talk

Kijiji - Better than Craigslist?

In a new quest to find out if I could buy a pygmy hedgehog in Toronto (ok, don’t ask), I stumbled upon quite a neat new-to-me classifieds site - Kijiji.

The word “kijiji” (pronounced like key-gee-gee) means “village” in Swahili. This name was chosen because it captures the essence of what we are creating - a site where people can connect with others in their community. Kijiji sites are currently available in more than 300 cities in 20 markets around the world. In Canada, Kijiji was launched in Montreal and Quebec City in February 2005. In November 2005, Kijiji expanded across the country and is now in over 35 cities coast to coast.

Upon first inspection, it seems really good - the layout, the interface and the features are well thought-out and easy to use.  I took advantage of the email notification, and it worked perfectly this morning!. All the features are free, akin to Craigslist,but it actually looks attractive….whereas Craigslist looks like something i made in a unix shell for Lynx 13 years ago.

Apparently i am late to the table - as it looks like Kijiji has a healthy roster of classifieds to choose from… if you are looking for something interesting, and it doesn’t have to be a pygmy hedgehog, give it test-drive - they have city specific classifieds for over 30 Canadian locations… I’m off to look for trees.


Technorati Tags: Kijiji, Craigslist, Toronto Classifieds

My Beef About CanadianTire.ca

I’m planing the weekend, actually, I’m planning the next 3 weekends, and they contain a significant amount of time dedicated to outdoor, spring-type activities: grass care, flowers, tree planting, mulching, raking, weeding. (Liberally sprinkled with the occasional snack and beverage suitable to the warming weather).  There is a list as long as my arm of stuff I need to get.  Stuff that I’m sure would be Canadian Tire worthy.

Imagine how neat it would be to go onto the CT site and make a *grocery list* of all the stuff I want to check out.  Things that I’ve done a bit of research on, so I don’t need to spend 4 hours wandering through the huge maze of aisles, not to mention the weekend melee that defines spring at Canadian Tire.


I don’t need to buy all the accoutrements on line, in fact, I want to see them *in real life*…. but I want a list in hand that I can work off of, without the analog pain of creating a list. Alas, Canadian Tire doesn’t want me to make a list. They want me to futz around for 4 hours in the store, hopefully faking me out enough so I will buy excessive products that aren’t on my list.

And for that, I’m going to go to the local, wee greenhouse for the majority of my goods, and CT for the lame-o pieces that I can’t get somewhere else. For shame. Remember, hell hath no fury like a gardener scorned.

Technorati Tags: Canadian Tire, Customer Focus, spring planting

Is Squarespace Dead?

Testing the ability to post to Squarespace, even if I can't log into the portal.

Facebook Too Cool for Ontario Government?

Earlier this week, the Ontario Government decided that Facebook was off limits to any Ontario government employee, MPPs, aides and cabinet ministers.  And, with usual sneaky tactics, didn't notify anyone of the decision, but simply sent the word to the IT group to filter out Facebook at the firewall level. Facebook has been relegated to the same status as porn now, at least as far as the government is concerned. Funny - considering all the interest and added attention that some gov't folks, on both sides of the border, are having with MySpace and Facebook accounts. It seems like a no brainer for sharing information and getting out to the public in a manner much less invasive than canvassing the neighbourhood.

Throughout the country, interesting backlash is occurring, as more and more people sign up for Facebook accounts. Students are getting suspending for talking about teachers, employees are being locked out of the site through company firewalls. It's a tool, just like email, IM or blogging.

"We have to have the conversation about what's private, what's public,what are the protocols, what are the rules, because I think it's veryunclear," said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

"We need to realize that these technologies exist, and we need to berealistic that they're not going away, and we need to help our studentsto deal with them."

I have a feeling that Kathleen Wynne could learn quite a few things from Ontario students. Her *interest* in helping students deal with the internet sounds like a distraction from the real issues at hand - transparency in education, and the new realization that if you are a sub-rate teacher, it's not something that can stay secret for very long. Gone are the days of students with no power to effect change on bad teachers. Hello transparent education system.

Could banning be the next indication of success for web 2.0 apps? :-)



Technorati Tags: Facebook, Ontario Government

The Blurriness of Work and Life

I realized this morning that in order to really focus here, I've got to drop down to 4 days of work. :-) Can someone mention it to my boss? Or move back to a condo. Or resign myself to the fact that I will never have a decent analog life.  In 24 hours I've had people comment that I am online too much, and not nearly enough... almost in the same breath.


You know - it just occurred to me - I had much more time to do much more stuff before joining Facebook.

I need an online assistant, to blog, shop, comment and file emails. Sort of a "life aggregator", I suppose.  I've dig through the different Social Network aggregators, but it's still not easy to keep track of it all.

:-)


Technorati Tags: Facebook, blogging, life aggregator

A Geeky Vegas Thing...

On one of our adventures in Vegas, we meandered through the Caesar's Palace Forum - a beautiful mall of uber-high end shops; the kind a good, canadian girl dreams about while flipping through cosmo as a kid.  Of course, we stumbled upon the Sony Store. :-)
As I explain the merits and challenges of BluRay to the wiz, my eye catches the Sony Vaio UX.... Aha!  What have we here, a wee handheld. I was in love, and immediately sat down to play. Aside from the tiny screen resolution, it was beautiful. Bluetooth, wifi, vista, office 2007. It had a lovely rollup/out flat keyboard. If it had cell phone capability, this little beast would have knocked my socks off, had i been wearing any. Alas, for $2600 CDN.... I will stick with my berry/laptop combo for now, and dream.


Technorati Tags: Sony Vaio UX, Vegas, Geekiness