Dipity

Toronto Girl Geek Dinner -

On Wednesday, I ventured forth into the Big Smoke to partake of bevvies and snacks and geekiness. I’ve been a lurker on the Toronto Girl Geek site for almost a year, but it was last month when i bit the bullet and decided to participate.

And it was good.
Quite Good.
I didn’t sign up because of an interest in the speaker [although, the fact that the speaker ended up being phenomenal was just gravy], but because I figured it was time to discover other like minded chicklets. And besides, you can’t go to soccer games every night of the week.

The speaker happened to be Jayne Hoogenberk, the mastermind behind the e.community for Harlequin Romance. No, she didn’t really talk about product, but all about the technical ins and outs of creating on-line communities, being responsible for the care and feeding of an on-line brand and some of the best practices she used in cultivating a successful online community. There were bits and pieces of her discussion that any industry could take away and incorporate into their own on-line strategy. Stellar and very applicable.


And just guess who’s going to be the speaker for their next dinner? Sandi Jones. Yup. That’s right. One of the greatest thought leaders in the Canadian Internet Industry. I think you’ve got to go.

Technorati Tags: Sandi Jones, Toronto Girl Geek Dinner, Jayne Hoogenberk, eHarlequin

Becoming a Criminal in the 21st Century - Canadian Copywrite Reform

It's a big deal. The Canadian Copywrite Reform Act [if it becomes law], is going to change the way we live, the way we share and the way we enjoy media.

From Michael Geist, there's a beautiful synopsis: The Canadian public get's analog rights, the Copywrite Lobby get's digital rights. You can copy a piece of video media that you *OWN* onto a videocassette, but not a DVD.
~~~~When was the last time you had a videocassette? I haven't owned a VCR for over 5 years.

The most interesting new criminality is the PVR. If you've got a PVR, chances are you actually got it from your TV provider, you are renting or have purchased it, with the explicit permission from the provider to be able to use it to record entertainment to watch at a later date. Poof. This activity, along with time-shifting is going to become a criminal activity.

Let's just put aside the fact that this is a service provided by your cable/satellite provider. How about the financial implications of the Canadian government on said cable/satellite providers? I pay a whopping $20/month for my HD PVR. That's $240/year from just little old me. Imagine the thousands of people who are in the same boat. That revenue stream could simply disappear from the service provider's coffers with a government signature. Why is it that we aren't hearing the screams of the major service providers about this component of the copywrite bill? Are they engaged in their own lobbying? Do they have a plan?

I've got a feeling that they *do* have a plan, and something just as insidious as the Canadian Copywrite Reform. Something that takes the content out of the customer's domain and puts it back in the service provider's realm. My gut says that the TV service providers are going to offer a similar type service, but instead of downloading movies/shows to your PVR, you program the scheduling, and the shows are actually stored to disk on the service provider's premise, and when you want to view the recorded media, you get to *stream* the content down to your TV, but never actually have possession of the media. It's going to be part of the push to make network infrastructures smarter, and put the control of content tightly in the hands of the broadcasters. Think TMN on Demand, a neat service provided by Rogers. Instead of waiting for the appropriate time for a movie to be aired, you can select to watch a TMN movie whenever you want. No waiting, no schedule. Bam, it's there when you want. Rogers also offers the same service for their PPV movies, no schedule, instant watch-ability. With these services, I couldn't *save* the movie to my PVR, I could only watch it in real time. Sneaky. Good and sneaky, but you can see that the wheels are already spinning....

We are all going to be criminals.
I've got to get my tattoo figured out. And a really tough nickname.












Technorati Tags: Rogers, Canadian Copywrite Reform, Michael Geist

Soccerfest 2008

It was a long hot saturday, with a threat of impending rain and the squeaking of hundred of pre-teen girls. Soccer had taken over Newmarket. Whistles and refs and jerseys of all hues covered 5 acres of greenspace. Parents with foldable chairs in snappy carrying bags lined the fields. Cheering, whooping and the odd word cursed under their breath in response to a bad call from the officials.

Baby Shower 2.0: Long Distance Love

This past weekend I was able to attend something very neat: A virtual baby shower. The mom was in California (just north of San Fran) and the rest of the family was in Ontario (just north of Oshawa). Laptops, web cams and a 1010 Casual Calling plan created a spectacular experience. [we would have used skype but alas, it was a last minute tech change].

Pressies were opened and proudly displayed to the webcam, and the oohs and ahhs from the mom were audible over the speakerphone. It worked! The laughter and hilarity of ladies *monkeying around for the webcam* were priceless.

Distance doesn't mean very much any more. Or it didn't, until the mom said "Mom, come closer to the webcam, I want to see your face. I miss you". It's still hard to hug over the internets.

Prom 2.0: Excessiveness 2.0

An interesting bit caught my eye this morning in the Toronto Star: Teens Being Shafted with Limo Services. My first thought: wow - who's got $2000 for transportation to an event that isn't even going to register a 3 on your life importance scale? Sure, teens likely shouldn't get scammed, but if the market is willing, prom expenses are low hanging fruit.I remember my prom - it was awesome. We didn't rent a $2000 stretch hummer. We rented a MOTORHOME. Now that's the way to go in style. And no, it wasn't $2000. It was less than $500. For 10 people. For the whole day.Who's paying $2k for a limo? Parents? Kids who are going to prom and dropping $2k for a *limo* likely should be saving part of that splurge for real life things, say.... university tuition? That limo contribution can pay for your textbooks for a year :-)Yes, prom is fun, kids shouldn't get exploited. But the silly arrogance and vanity of prom shouldn't necessarily preclude the fact that you are a babystep away from being a grown up. There's more to life than a prom. The average kid is going to drop over $2k each for their senior prom. That can get you to Australia for a long time. Or backpacking through Europe, or a jungle trek through Costa Rica. In 20 years, you aren't going to be thinking how awesome your prom was, you are going to be wishing you had $2k to put a hot tub in your backyard. And if you are still friends with all those people you shared a limo ride with, heck, I'll get you a Hummer for your 25th Reunion. :-)

Students from at least nine high schools are complaining they have been left in the lurch after paying Tuxedo Limousines for a "a unique, one-of-a-kind extraordinary experience" in one of the 18 limousines the company claims it has.

TheStar.com | GTA | Grads left in lurch at prom

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The Downside of Having an Awesome Job

It sounds funny when I say it out loud.

I’ve got an awesome job. And sometimes it makes life hard.

It’s a pretty darned neat job. Everyday I work with customers who are well known, household names. I help them by building solutions that are neat, custom and customer specific. I float from customer to customer as the need arises. I work out the technical challenges, the financial challenges and make sure that what i make is actually what the customer wants and needs. I’m not limited by anything other than my own imagination.I don’t do orders, or paperwork or administrivia.

I draw pictures, describe what the goal of the solution is and make sure all the right smart folks are involved.

I work where I need to, and stop and think when I need to as well. I get involved in futuristic projects, I am allowed to research wee bits of interestingness to see how to apply them to customers, I dream a little dream of technology. Really. I reach out to hundreds of different people, across a myriad of industries and specialties, smarties, all of them.

So what’s the downside you ask?

Every once in a while, a new and different opportunity presents itself, and I become caught in a maelstrom of ideas, scenarios and possibilities. For a few days, I’m in a tizzy, wondering if I should change direction, change focus and change my comfort zone. And then the calmness returns. I still really like doing what I’m doing. I might always like it. (with a raise, of course). I know I like being one of the technical linchpins of a solution. I like being a free range chicken, and I like being able to have more than one focus at once.I think for right now, I like it just fine.

The Best Laid Plans: Canadian Wireless Auction

Ohh, I wonder what's keeping the folks at the CRTC up at night. Could it have anything to do with the fact that their darling Spectrum Auction has now raised upwards of $4B? Exciting stuff, if you don't take into account that the estimates were basically half that amount.

Now the CRTC has got to be realizing that they've created a monster, instead of trying to inject competition into Canada's wireless industry.
The poor buggers who actually win the different various frequencies around the country are going to be up to their eyeballs in debt. How's that for bringing down the cost of wireless services?
What could have been done differently?

Technorati Tags: CRTC, Canadian Wireless Auction

Competitiveness: Cars and Seals and Electricity

This one is a bit off topic - but timely, so please bear with me.GM is planning on closing the Oshawa truck plant. The average worker makes approx $124k year (plus overtime). That’s got to sting the bottom line of any vehicle.The average seal hunting family in Newfoundland makes aprox $33K a year.

Hunting seals is out of fashion - for a myriad of reasons.  As opposed to moving a GM plant outside of Canada, why not simply just move it to someplace inside of Canada where the operating expenses can be significantly lowered because of the ecomomic flavour of the region? Sharp savings, there. I know - it’s a crazy idea. Replacing seals with cars.

But what about the GM workers? Say, Ontario is debating on where to put the next nuclear power plant, that could easily be located on the eastern side of the province. It’s handy that Oshawa isn’t all that far away from Pickering or Darlington.  It’s going to take a bushel and a half of workers to satisfy the labour requirements of building and operating a new power plant. Who better to do it than folks who were already accustomed to building and managing in a manufacturing industry?

Life, it’s all about change.

CityNews: Judge Orders End To General Motors H.Q. Blockade

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Tags: GM, Seals, nuclear power, Darlington, Oshawa

Sun Microsystems Study Finds Open Work Program Saves Employees Time and Money, Decreases Carbon Output : Average Employee Saves 2.5 Workweeks Per Year in Commute Time, More than $1,700 in Gas and Wear and Tear on Vehicle, and 5,400 Kilowatt Hours/Year Working Flexibly

Sun Microsystems Study Finds Open Work Program Saves Employees Time and Money, Decreases Carbon Output : Average Employee Saves 2.5 Workweeks Per Year in Commute Time, More than $1,700 in Gas and Wear and Tear on Vehicle, and 5,400 Kilowatt Hours/Year Working Flexibly Holy moley.If you ever needed another reason to ditch that ever expanding commutng expense..... Sun's got one you can share with your boss.:-)

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Tags: sun, commuting, carbon footprint

How Do You Work?

As a [mostly] remote worker, it’s been an interesting transition from being a commuter. I’m an early morning person. Like the seagull in the photo on the left [taken by bigmike], I’m up well before the sun. It’s my quiet time; to review email, read the news, check what the internets have been up to while I’ve been sleeping. Work *thinking* kicks in around 6:30 am. I’m researching and reading bits of interesting pieces, thinking about how they can and apply to projects I’m working on. I’m gaining insights into what the rest of the world is doing, and how I can build off of other initiatives.  I’m reading about what other people are contemplating about, and I’m staying up to date with the magic of the internets. More often than not, I’m sharing what I’m finding with other work folks who are in my social networks. :-)

I’m raring and ready to go….. Because most of the folks I work with are in a different time zone, I’m able to get all sorts of interesting tasks done, even before they’ve had a chance to brush their teeth. In those quiet hours before 9 am, I’m creative, I’m  energized, and I’m focused.  I usually work through the lunch hour, and then break around 1:30, for some  decompressing, some sustenance and some quiet time. By 3, all those folks I need to follow up with are raring to go… And then it’s back to work, managing conference calls and follow ups to eastern time zone folks, up to 7pm at night.  It’s a good day, with a good split in the middle to regroup, to  refocus and to re-prioritize, depending on what the day has brought.So, how do *you* work?

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Tags: work, telecommuting

Fooled By Vonage Chat Robot

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I was fooled by the Vonage chat robot. You know the one. You go to the Vonage site, and a wee popup window asks if you want to speak in real life to one of their specialists?

I said sure. It beats trying to figure out on their website what the termination penalties were, what the softphone packages are, and what the length of the contracts were.
And *Sarah* totally had me fooled with her answers. Up until the end, and I realized she wasn’t getting my humour. I ended up telling her I couldn’t deal with a 2 year plan.

It was that combination of words that triggered the *hard sell* of “great, let’s get you set up then!”

Man.
Sarah had me.

I Got a Lens!

Imagine my joy. :-)
After checking the Toronto Photography Meetup Group, Craigslist and Kijiji, I finally got lucky on Kijiji. A very nice fellow named Dan sold me his 28-135 lens. And then he added a Hoya filter to it! Including the tax implications of buying everything new, I saved myself over $300! Whoot!

In the past 24 hours, I haven’t let the new lens out of my sight. And today it’s going to get a bit of a workout I think. We are going to a top secret anniversary bash. The 28-135 is going to be an awesome secret weapon for candids.


CANON EF 28-135MM/3.5-5.6 IS USM

Technorati Tags: Canon, digital, kajiji, craigslist, Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Blurring The Lines: Socal Media Lives and Corporate Lives

With the adoption of social media and social networking applications among wide and various enclaves of the population, the lines are becoming blurred between social conversations and work conversations. Just this morning, I send work related items of interest to friends in Facebook. The other day I twittered about needing contacts at Bell. I'm also trying to find folks who might be live blogging the Canadian Telecom Summit, since work projects are going to keep me from attending in real life, but I don't want to miss some of the panels.

With work peers and friends all in the same network, it gets easier to share and build relationships even stronger than simple *work* friendships. There is an inherent hesitation to open up your real life to your work life. It's a slow and continual process, encouraging more folks to *catch the social media bug*....But without that sort of cross pollination, neither facet can live up to their full potential. I'm going to go bug my director on facebook now ;-)

I Almost Bought a Lens...

That’s right, almost.
We managed to have a night off from running chickadees to various ECAs (extra-curricular activities), and I jumped on the chance to drag the wiz to Henrys to peruse their lenses.
Particularly the CANON EF 28-135MM/3.5-5.6 IS USM and the CANON EF 24-105MM F4 L IS USM LENS

For a moment, ignore the fact that there’s a $600 difference between the lenses. This is going to be my *everyday* lens. The one I reach for like a best friend, whenever things get tough. The one that’s going to be taking atleast 75% of all my photos. I can *justify* an extra $600, just give me enough time and incentive.

In fact, I was almost 100% convinced to go with the 24-105, and asked Brian (the smart photo guy behind the counter) to get me the real lens, in the box, so I could bond. Alas, they were out of stock. WHAT!?!?!? Henrys was out of stock on what could arguably be one of the most popular lenses for Canon? WHAT!?!?!?!? 5 days to get one in? In this day and age when I can have something FedEx’d overnight, they stuck with 5 days? Do you know what could happen in 5 days?? I could find another lens. How about an option to have something not in stock FedEd’d to the customer’s house?

Sigh. Alas, no sale was made. In fact, I’m now reconsidering everything. I might go back to the 28-135. In fact, if it’s going to be my everyday lens, and is going to take the most beatings and wear and tear, maybe I don’t want that for a $1200 lens. See - I can justify just about anything. And where to buy it? Maybe Craigslist.

:-)
Technorati Tags: Henrys, Canon, Lens, Craigslist, Federal Express