Writing Archive

Apple needs a sense of humor

You may remember a while back when Apple sent out cease and desist letters to companies like Podcast Ready telling them that the use of the word “podcast” violated Apple Trademarks.
A little while later the Global Geek Podcast sent Apple a letter and cheque for $1 to cover the royalties for their use of the [...]

Read more...

Techcrunch answers it better than Google

Techcrunch posted a great article regarding why Google Answers has decided to call it quits. Essentially TC outlines how Google was beaten by Yahoo’s free service and they quote the numbers to prove it. This isnt suprising considering that I posted the same question (Why is Google Answers closing?) on both services [...]

Read more...

Stockwell Day or Super Cop?

Here is an email that Stockwell Day, the Canadian Minister of Public Safety, sent out to his entire department yesterday.
I totally agree that he should send out department wide congratulations when something important has taken place but this is a bit too mellow dramatic for me.
—–Original Message—–
From: Minister of Public Safety
Sent: [...]

Read more...

The end of Google Answers

I read on the Google Blog that Google Answers is being closed down at the end of this year. The blog post didn’t give any sort of reason why this service was being taken down, so I just asked Google Answers what the exact reason was for the shutdown. I’ll post the response when [...]

Read more...

My big TV debut…

A while ago Amber Macarthur put us in touch with the producers of “Call for Help” on G4Tech TV. This is the weekly tech show hosted by Leo Laporte of This Week In Tech fame. As a result of that contact we were invited on the show. My segment is below, Tobi’s segment can [...]

Read more...

This is insulting

I just read a cnet article entitled “Top 10 Girl Geeks“. There are a few good examples but for the most part this list is insulting to the great women working in technology today. I know that this is supposed to be a little tongue in cheek but Paris Hilton, Lisa Simpson and Daryl [...]

Read more...

Global Orgasm Day

WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone you know.
WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction.
WHEN? Winter Solstice Day – Friday, December 22nd, at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose.
WHY? To effect positive change in [...]

Read more...

It's all about the numbers

My good friend Pierre Killen has been busy. He works at SES Research which is one of Canada’s leading public opinion firms. Yesteday, along which SES CEO Nick Nanos, they launched a new blog entitled: “Nik on the Numbers”. For those of you who don’t know Nick, he is Canada’s leading pollster.
The [...]

Read more...

Guitar Hero II makes an entrance

Tobi and Daniel brought Guitar Hero II into the office this week and it actually does rock. GH is a bit like Dance Dance Revolution except that you are playing with the fretboard of a guitar instead of your feet.  When you play the game you actually feel like you’re really playing guitar.  That is [...]

Read more...

Vote for Alex Munter today

The mayoral election in Ottawa is today. If you live in Ottawa, I encourage you to vote for Alex Munter.
UPDATE: This is unfortunate, but Alex lost the election today. Here is a copy of his concession speech.  He really deserved to win.
———
I am writing to express my profound and sincere thanks to you for [...]

Read more...

Remembrance day

Pearl and I took a walk to the War Memorial in downtown Ottawa today. I mostly wanted to have a look around before the big Remembrance Ceremony there tomorrow.

This year I think it’s especially important for Canadians to remember those who have died in war. I guess it’s because this year is the first year [...]

Read more...

Youtube sold just in time…

I found this on the front page of Alexa. It basically shows traffic for Youtube over the past year or so. The interesting thing about the graph is that it looks like it starts to go flat right after Google bought them. I would have expected traffic to skyrocket after the Google purchase [...]

Read more...

Baby billionaires?

This has to be one of the stupidest articles I have ever read.  It’s entitled “The Baby Billionaires of Silicon Valley” and it appears in Rolling Stone this month.  In it, David Kushner describes what sounds like a secret society of “billionaire” kids who hang out after school together.

This is almost as bad as the [...]

Read more...

Rumsfeld – Force Quit

I saw this and could not resist sharing it. It comes via boingboing and was created by Brian Topping.

internet dating uk professionalscheap viagra buy viagra consumers discount

Read more...

Bush News Conference

Im just watching the Bush news conference. After the Democrats have soundly defeated the Republicans in the House and likely in the Senate, Bush is still talking like this defeat had nothing to do with Iraq. He has decided to dump Rumsfeld but not the policies on the Iraq war. This is going to [...]

Read more...

Devshop in Wall Street Journal

There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about Mike Arrington last friday. Although, there was nothing new in the piece there are two things that were cool about it. The first is that Craig Fitzpatrick of Devshop fame is mentioned in the article. Unfortunately for Craig the online [...]

Read more...

Why click when you can scroll

Pete Forde at unspace has a really good post on the endless page. Essentially he discusses an interesting way to use AJAX to grab more data as you get to the bottom of a webpage. It’s a great read and it brings up the Humanized Reader as a good example.
That’s not the only thing [...]

Read more...

I was waiting for this to happen

I just read on the BBC site that Google is about to overtake the main UK TV channels in advertising revenue. This means that for 2006 Google will actually have more ad revenue than Channel Four in the UK. Channel Four is no slouch either with ad revs of $1.5 billion.
I knew that it [...]

Read more...

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