Friday, March 31, 2006 at 08:16AM … and i’m quite proud of the fact that very little has been accomplished. What, with the weather being what it’s been, i’ve been amazed that i’ve accomplished anything at all ;-) And now it’s friday. 2 more days and back to [work]. it’s been a virtually stress free week. And i’ve been loving it.
I have a feeling april is going to simply WHIZ by.
grin.
Monday, March 27, 2006 at 02:44PM One of my tasks this week, aside from relaxing and painting, is to delve deeper into the meaning of relevance in web2.0 apps. Without relevance, all you've got is a sack full of teenagers in social networking scenarios. Without relevance, you've got a favourites folder jammed with different web2.0 apps, and more than a thousand accounts sprinkled across the ethersphere. SO - my challenge is this, when keeping track of apps is harder than herding cats, how does one portray relevance in web2.0? Is it via the new ajax portals? Is it a desktop gizmo? Is it a blog that can do everything? I'm not the only one looking at this from squinty eyes….
NetJaxer - a Web/Desktop integration product… but is it useful? by ZDNet's Richard MacManus - One of the many new web apps that has been emailed to me recently is one called NetJaxer, which caught my eye because it's a Web/desktop integrator. But it's a few days later and I've still not figured out what use it is. NetJaxer was described to me in the email: "Our program is called […]
Monday, March 27, 2006 at 08:59AM … i am quite enjoying weekends with the chickadees. The odd and interesting interactions, between each other, their dad and I, and the hilarity that often ensures. It’s also quite thought provoking, and could create some very good conversations on the different practices of child rearing in the 21st century. I can sometimes enjoy the luxury of watching as an observer, outside of the realm of responsibility and accountabily….you know, not my kids, not really my problem… and cerrtainly not enough time to actually influence and change their behaviors. And the observations are curious, to say the least. The chickadees are remarkable, and growing so quickly, and developing their own opinions and vocabularys.
I often wonder how different it could all be. And more than once i’ve asked myself, how kids get to be the way they are. And if it’s simple genetics, or products of their environments. They do alot of things that i can see their dad do as well, which is comical [and sometimes creepy]….
Monday, March 27, 2006 at 01:02AM … the web2.0 wave has hit me, and i'm not afraid to say i've got some water up my nose. I've been flickr'd, wordpress'd, flock'd, del.icio.us'd, kaboodled, netvibed, backpack'd, mylist'd, myspace'd, mapped, tagged, my box'd, pandora'd…. and a zillion others that i've tested and given up on.
Tonight i thought i'd try to find something that could bring everything together, in one portal, in one dimension. Nope. Nothing does it all. Google is close, Netvibes is close; I thought I'd hit the jackpot with suprglu, but no, no, no. So - now i'm back with 4 tools. GoogleStart, Netvibes, Flock, and my own blog. can I please implore someone to make something that will do everything? Am I going to have to do this??
I need to go and blow out some of the wave. Maybe I will take a closer look at Pageflakes.
Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 09:59PM … they say a change is as good as a rest, but is a rest as good as a change? is there anything as good as a change?
well - i’ve got the next 10 days off, to think and read and relax and paint. And wonder and dream and sleep. and have good conversations. oh don’t worry - there is a whole sack load of things to keep me occupied…. my list is over in the whispers.
Friday, March 24, 2006 at 01:39PM As I struggle with coming to grips with web2.0 and the myriad of options and new tools, I realize that staying abreast isn't nearly as difficult as trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. There really are 3 camps. Those apps that are indeed "lifehacks" and those that are "social networking". I'm all over the former, and fairly put off by the latter. And then there are the ones that try to mesh the 2 camps together. Let's call these the "relevent networking apps". Add a little wrapper of live, interactive focus groups, and you've essentailly got web2.0 all figured out.
Lifehacks would include the productivity suites, and nifty apps that actually can add value to your life: flickr, pandora.com, backpack , del.icio.us , linked-in , eurekster.com
Hard core Social Networking sites freak me out, and i tend to stay away from them, once i've poked at them a bit: Ning, MySpace. Trying to find value and relevancy is a whirlwind of chaos is easier said than done. I want relevancy. To *MY* life. I have a hard time caring about Beth in Montana's new sound collection, or where she's going on her spring break. If I could get a social networking app that managed to package what i'm interested in, with people who are similar, i could begin to see more value. It's simply a matter of time.
The relevant networking apps are a blur, there's the social aspect, but also a bit of value… Kaboodle is one of the good ones.
The fun part of web2.0 is the increasing movement for people to actually meet face-to-face. To talk and learn and laugh and experiment and gain and share ideas. This is perhaps the mist interesting componenet, and the part that seems to get me even more intrigued that the software. It's the humanware. BarCampTDot and Mesh06
People getting excited about exciting things. That's the real excitement. Collaboration and participation. That's the real twig of web2.0
Friday, March 24, 2006 at 01:12PM i like the blur - and it appears i'm not the only one… tara hunt is quite impressive. yup.
i've got a blog; i put my christmas and birthday wish lists up and people actually take a look ;-) I can be reached on an IP phone, that knows that if im not at home, it will try my cell. I get voice mails in emails and emails on phones. I've got a digial wishlist of houses and books and music. I've got figital photo albums and musical playlists. I order groceries online, and take-out chinese as well.
You can IM me, ping me, pin me and google talk me. You can comment, suggest and slander ;-)
There are a few things I *wish* i could do digitally:
Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 06:56AM i love Robert X. Cringely…. and so should you. He’s one well connected dude. And has some very interesting thoughts. Reading him is like a little spa for your brain.
Monday, March 20, 2006 at 09:00PM 
… one of those creative, dramatic, independant films that deals with the tragedy of columbine - interesting viewpoints and interesting angles. If you can survive the first 30 minutes, you will find yourself involved, and wondering about your own highs school experience…. Elephant is indeed a good one. Don’t ask the wiz tho - he gave up 18 minutes in, and is now snoring gently on the couch ;-)Friday, March 17, 2006 at 06:40AM … and be in the recovery stages of the winter blahs…. when i can look at this, and be cautiously interested in it;-)
there are days when mighty goods can save me from myself.
You have to know - those days are quite appreciated, all thing being equal. In another hour, my blood will begin to rumble, and i’m sure I’ll be looking for pedestrains to take the edge off. Perhaps I will be looking to take the edges off pedestrians. :-)
Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 06:27PM .. it felt like it was really going to be spring this weekend… and it was well on its way. It was a good chickadee weekend… full of long dog walks and rollerblading and shopping and hilarity. We even watched Labyrinth. I’m getting a kick out of introducing the chickadees to the movies i grew up with… Nest weekend we will try Willow and The Neverending Story
I’m sure their biggest thrills of the weekend were being able to be outside without a winter coat, and shopping and getting fun stuff… and of course, eating home-made chinese stirfry with chopsticks. Both the wiz and i had to refrain from being too shocked when the littlest chick actually mastered the sticks amazingly. I think we were put to shame ;-) It’s taken me 4 years to even get to "un-embarassing" with chopsticks ;-)
Now we all have fun dressy stuff to wear out - we just need places to go ;-)
Thursday, March 9, 2006 at 06:11PM … it’s funny, i seem to have made peace with life, atleast work life. since last week, i don’t think anything can phase me, or worry me too much… it’s just a job, afterall.
so - i am zen again. and besides, i’m always having interesting conversations with interesting people. and when it comes down to it, life is all about interesting conversations.
telco zen. life’s like this. that’s the way it is (avril lavigne)
Wednesday, March 8, 2006 at 11:27AM …poured liberally over the downtown Toronto Core. But if you look at the map that Toronto Hydro has set forth, to blanket us in warm frequencies, the mesh doesn't slip past front street. Alas, I am a block south, and a block west of Hydro's new plan. Of course. In reality, perhaps it's not the residential market that Hydro wants, but all the workers, and corporate folks who jaunt from spot to spot, lugging laptops to coffee, that they are trying to snare. Or perhaps it's the smaller shops, the companies that are now fodder for the GBM space that telcos pay such poor attention to?
Whatever it is, it's started, and expected to be complete by December 2006. Now that's an aggressive plan, i hope they are successful! Now if only i can dump the boat anchor cum laptop and get something sexy and light and sophisticated, just so i'm ready for that next grande white chocolate mocha meeting.
Sunday, March 5, 2006 at 08:07AM | Your Love Element Is Earth |
 For you, love is all about staying grounded and centered. You attract others with your zest for life and experiences. Your flirting style is defined by setting the scene, creating a unique moment in time. Steady progress and stability are the cornerstones of your love life. You may take things too slowly, but you never put your heart at risk. You connect best with: Fire Avoid: Wood You and another Earth element: need each other too much to build a good foundation |
Sunday, March 5, 2006 at 08:02AM | You Are Rain |
 Either way, you slowly bring out the beauty around you. You are best known for: your touch Your dominant state: changing |
Friday, March 3, 2006 at 12:21AM Concepts such as net neutrality, and SOA Network Enablement are starting to pop up, and people are starting to take notice…
That being said, i'm not entirely sure that the 2 concepts have been linked together, and they likely should, you can't have one discussion without the other, and there are some mighty big players fighting for and against net neutrality. But if net neutrality wins out, what impact is that going to have on all these nifty soa enabled networks and service offerings that bigwhigs are toiling on?
If net neutrality means that carriers have to have blinders on, with regards to what sorts of bits are passing along their network, what sort of impact could that have on SOA architectures? Architectures that rely on bigger, faster, better network connectivity?
Of course, right now, the fight is between carriers and content providers, and the fact that content providers are using more bandwidth (though the mere action of their internet visitors), than what they are really paying for at their hub end… In theory, this is simply the cost of doing business, and the cost of creating a network that meets consumer and corporate requirements. Carriers shouldn't really be whining - they created the pricing model. They created the demand for more bandwidth. They just happened to create a model with very little margin, and too easy to commoditize. (For a really good read on the importance of net neutrality, check out Vint Cerf's Letter to Congress)
Being in telco, and seeing both the carrier and the content provider sides, and also having the luxury of having broadband access at home, the challenges are interesting. My gut says that, in theory at least, that content providers should pay for "premium" connectivity, and boy, they better buy ALOT of it, from many different carriers. Google would/should pay inflated prices for bandwidth from the tier 1 providers, and if tier 2 providers wanted to offer "private peering", they could do that to enhance their own customer's experiences on the 'net. That makes sense. That's likely what is not happening now, Google likely has the volumes to demand dirt cheap bandwidth. They can throw their weight around.
The alternative, which is sort of nasty, is that carriers charge their customers, not the content providers, for what data is transferred…. thereby creating a different, user=pay mentality. This drives up the cost of consumer internet connectivity, and simply increases the divide between who can and who cannot use the internet. We would end up with an ugly hybrid of the PSTN service in the UK, where every call costs.
Now, flip the coin…. if there is no differentiation between content, and all bits are created equal, we are going to find outselves in hot water when we want to start adopting SOA services… services that are going to DEMAND QoS, and reliability, and availability. Services that aren't going to be very forgiving about latency and jitter. Skype comes to mind. Vonage, Microsoft Live Office. Anything internactive in Web 2.0
There has to be a happy middle ground between blind bits and visible bits. I want my Skype traffic to have QoS. I don't want to pay for QoS for my google searches. Make sense? I can't possibly have been the first person to say out loud that QoS and the need to have it as a nice paying option is a good deal for the internet.
Say it together everyone - MPLS for all!!! I'll gladly pay for that. So would content providers, so would carriers… you can discriminate - in a good way.
Oh yah, while we're at it - I also want to be able to tag my own bits, and some days i might want to have QoS on my Google destined bits. Some days maybe I want it on my shockwave gaming bits ;-)
See, easy. No more fighting about net neutrality.
Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 08:25PM Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 07:14PM despite my utter desire to write about the day that was, each attempt is too open, too revealing, and too close to the surface. suffice it to say, it ranks in the top 5 worst days ever….. ever…. ever….. i can still hear that echo in my head.
for anyone who knows me, and knows where i work, likely you understand, nodding your head. for the rest of my viewers, my apologies at the vagueness i have to cover everything with. it’s difficult to be in such an odd industry. especially in times as they are.
… i struggled home at 7, and was never so happy as to get a good lick from the smapp dog. with furrowed brow, i imagine what life would be like without the continuing saga of [the company that cannot be named].
Allstream in work schtuff Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 06:58AM … it’s the only time i have - to sit quietly and contemplate on life, on my own time, and at my own pace. It’s also the only time that i’m not completely exhausted, or thinking about a myriad of difficult things. the universe is complicated, to be sure, and my little slice of it is seeing more complications than i’d usually like.
we are now going into month 3 of insanity. not sure how sustainable this is. gulp.
