Firefox Eat Memory Like a Fat Kid Eats Smarties

For some reason, if I happen to let Firefox run overnight (when my laptop is on Standby), the next morning, all hell has broken loose. Firefox has gobbled all my memory, forcing a cruel process kill. Is there a leak? Is it just a midnight memory snacker? Am I the only one with a glutenous Firefox?

Are You Up for a Debate?

Should you spank your children?
Should the Internet be free?
Will carbon taxes work?
Are working moms putting their children at a disadvantage?
Will democracy work in the Middle East?

All these questions, plus a gazillion more are up for debate at OpposingViews.com.  Debating is generally ineffective, when it’s the Average Joe doing the spouting off.  OpposingViews.com has overcome the nonsense by having *experts* provide the actual fodder for the debates. The arguments and counter arguments are written by folks who really know what they’re talking about.  Ok, I thought, lets see where this is going…

At first I was skeptical, this site is going to be a recipe for disaster.  There are so many debates, so many arguments… there’s no way this cannot degrade into a terrible flame war. I  bit - I created an account, and if you want to contribute to the conversation, you ‘ve got to create an account.  The first thing I was asked to do was abide by Civility 101.  No inflammatory conversations, no profanity.  In essence, I had to promise to play nice.  Or get kicked out of the sandbox.  Good touch.

With so many possible topics up for debate (some of them very timely and newsworthy), the next worry I had about the site was the caliber of the *experts* who do the actual debating.  The audience can comment and vote etc., but it’s the experts who actually carry the weight of the site.  I was expecting some very radical groups to be part of the expert panel.   Sure, some are radical (PETA), but many of the experts I had actually heard of, and were groups and individuals I had heard, read or watched.  Meaning: not nut cases. 

I looked into one debate: *Should the internet be free*?  Despite the expert on the *YES* side being recognized as a leader in the field, the argument had little to do with *free* and more with the internet being a *right*.  Some of the logic was flawed, but interesting nonetheless.  The expert for the *NO* side fared little better, and focused on free market economies with little government involvement. I t felt like an argument about net neutrality, as opposed to whether or not the internet should be free (it shouldn’t).

Now, when you pop over to the Net Neutrality debate, it hits the nail on the head.   The arguments are provocative and capture both sides of the coin very tidily.  Discussion surrounds big telco vs innovation.  Regulation vs choice.  Good arguments that stuck to the subject that was being debated.  I’m looking forward to working my way through gun laws, abortion and the legalization of marijuana.  Contributing to the site is easy, voting is easy and the results of some of the votes are going to surprise you.

A+ site for folks looking to see what the rest of the world is thinking about on specific topics of interest.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: opposingviews, debate, experts

The New Age of Reading...

… is upon us. Analog books, despite how wonderful they are to curl up with on a rainy afternoon, may soon be replaced by more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Me, I’ve got a library of over 500 books. Most are for sale on Alibris, as I’ve run out of decent room to store them. I’m a firm believer that books are too good to be stored in boxes. This summer I broke down and purchased my first audio book to listen to on the long drives between Ottawa and Toronto. It was Snuff, by Chuck Palahnuik (author of Fight Club). It was a fantastic listen, and many a trip I’d wonder where the miles went between Kingston and Bowmanville.

I then bought the audio book for My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. I’ve just started it, on a plane trip last week.  The trouble with audio books is that it’s hard to curl up with them. Especially if you are just curled up. Where do you look? What do you do with your hands? To the outside world, it looks like you are daydreaming, or napping. ;-)

E-paper and e-books get rid of that feeling of inactivity when enjoying a good book. LG Philips has come out with an e-paper that support colour. The University of Cambridge has developed super-thin e-paper, as light as a magazine. Still, it’s just flimsy plastic. There’s no weight to it… the curling up factor is low.

The Amazon Kindle might be the perfect fit between e-paper and analog books.
It’s the size of a trade paperback, perfect to curl up with… but can easily contain the works of dozens of authors. Added wifi capability, and a qwerty keyboard gives it more options than you can imagine. Of course, as I write this, and wonder if I can get a Kindle on my Christmas wishlist, I realize that the wireless connectivity comes free-of-charge, since Amazon has made a pretty neat deal with Sprint for free wireless service. Sprint, IN AMERICA. No such coverage in Canada at this time. Can’t I just get a Kindle that’s wi-fi enabled? I don’t need wireless network connectivity out of the box. I don’t mind downloading books over my home network. Still, it’s the first cut - who knows what Amazon has up its’ sleeves?

A price tag of  $359USD doesn’t put it out of the realm of possibility as an alternative to traditional books, if you think of the money you dole out for great reads. Still, there are some considerations - battery life, sensitivity to the elements, the odd food fingerprint. This isn’t your momma’s Danielle Steele novel, it’s a piece of sophisticated electronic hardware. Does it change the relationship between reader and artist? Does more respect have to go into the vehicle, than what’s in the words on the screen? Of course, there are many more options than just the Kindle, but it was the Kindle that sparked my interest in the first place.

Unless all traditional books are printed on recycled paper, and even then, it’s going to get very costly, very quickly for printed materials. The energy required to print a run of analog books os soon going to make it cost prohibitive to purchase anyways. With e-books, the energy is expended once, to create the reader. The books are then just downloaded. No muss, less fuss. No landfill space required.

A Little Less Floober, A Little More Tech

In the past few months, it’s become glaringly obvious that the amount of technology and telecom content here on jules.ca has been dwindling, being replaced by more and more floobergeist. As illustrated with this interesting little wordle art scrap. Wordle can’t lie. Apparently I’ve been pretty focused on politics lately ;-)

Cross my heart, more tech and telecom coming up. Two scoops.

Why are the Conservatives Ahead?

I throw up my hands and shake my head. I'm reading about polls, and debates and interviews in various resources. In almost all cases the Conservative response, if there has been one, has been one of suspicious, political dogma. Pick me because the other guys are scary. Pick me because I'm here already. Pick me and I won't change things up. Even with lukewarm responses to critical questions, the Conservatives are still expected to pull in over 30% of the vote.
The Conservatives have tried fear-mongering, playing to an idea that any other party doesn't have any international/foreign affairs experience. Ahem, this is Canada. We don't particularly have a requirement for serious foreign affairs expertise. We can't bully any one around, we generally follow suit with our southern neighbours (sometimes to our detriment). This should be a non-issue.

The Conservatives have tried to push us into believing that only they could assist with the Canadian Economy, yet everywhere we look, their actions aren't instilling a level of confidence in their economic prowess.

Status quo just isn't a good election promise. Not anymore.

There seems to be such a strong anti-Harper movement afoot, but for some reason, it's not translating into results in the polls. Facebook's got an *anyone-but-Harper* group.

Issues and platforms seem to be getting lost in the final days before the election.

Afghanistan

1. Conservatives to keep Canada involved until 2011.
2. Liberals don't specify an end date.
3. NDP wants to shift the military out now.
4. The Greens say 2009 is the end date for participation.

I don't think anyone really knew until this week that the Canadian cost of Afghanistan would exceed $18B.
You can do a lot for $18,000,000,000. Just look at all those zeros. $1500 per Canadian family. Every family.

The Economy

1. Conservatives go back on their word to have a no-bailout policy, provide $80M to a closing Windsor auto plant.
2. Gee, not even a Canadian owned manufacturer. Where was the money for Nortel?
3. Liberals will create a $1B fund to help adopt green technologies. This is a step in the right direction. Perhaps more green initiatives (i.e. solar farms) will finally get recognition and support.
4. The NDP will cancel corporate tax cuts. It's a nice change from the Bush-onomics that Harper has supported for the past 2 years.
5. The Greens follow a similar plan to the Liberals, with an emphasis on carbon taxes, without saying the words *carbon tax* in the same sentence.

But there are smaller issues at play that will eventually sway the average voter. Family allowances, childcare, the environment. The way in which the parties have run their election platforms. Even where they stand on innocuous issues such as copy-write, the Arts, health-care, gas pricing and Big Banks.

Where are you going to place your vote? Who are you going to trust? Will it be one seemingly insignificant facet that decides for you?

What If You Didn't Have to Work?

What would your life be like if you didn’t have to work? I’m not talking *win the lottery* type of life, but normal life. Say you continue to receive your same salary for ever, but never had to actually do the work required. Salary turns into allowance. What would you do? What would you do differently? All the time in the world, a reasonable amount of money to do what you want with.

Would you decide to *work* at what you liked? Take up a hobby? Go back to school? Loaf around?

It’s nice to dream sometimes.

It's Been WAY Too Long...

I have been negligent. I’ve been tardy, but I’ve been busy.
The past month has been chock ‘a block full of adventures of varying degrees of complication. I’ve been working with some very interesting customers.
I’ve been able to chat, investigate, share good conversations and furrow an eyebrow over difficult challenges.
I’ve spent 12 hours in a different country, learning how one of the most interesting companies in the world figures out things and makes buying decisions. You can’t beat that sort of adventure.

I’ve spoken to guys that you really only think about during Matt Damon movies.

I know - i’m just giving excuses for not staying current, but still, pretty interesting excuses.

With the Canadian Long Thanksgiving holiday approaching - Happy
Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good weekend.

12 Hours

To The Family Who Lives Behind Me

No matter how many times you say it, with umpteen different types of inflection, with anger, with baby-talk or with something in between, telling your dog to go *peepee* 50 times is not going to inspire it to do so.

Neither cajoling nor threatening, pleading nor negotiating will work.
Your dog doesn't speak English. Nor Spanish, and likely not even Portuguese.
 
The Dog Whisperer is on the Discovery Channel. Daily.
Watch it.
Your dog will thank you.
And so will I.

Think About How the Economy Downturn May Effect Your Finances

I've been doing some soul searching over the past few days, and a fair bit of reading from Canadian economists on the impacts of the insanity south of the border.
That being said, it's a time to reduce risk, reduce overhead and trim back on the low hanging fruit [expenses] that could increase our *working capital*, in the event that we find ourselves in a place where we need all the working capital we can get.

How is the economy going to effect you?  What have you thought about? Do you have a plan, just in case? it could be as simple as cutting back on the 300 channels you have on cable.