Month: May 2006

Podtrac Survey Results

Post ImageI am happy to see a large number of podcasting surveys and research efforts lately. The latest comes from Podtrac, who claims to have developed the largest podcasting demographics database in the world, with over 55,000 detailed demographic profiles. Some of the findings:

  • 56% of podcast audiences listen to and view podcasts on their computer, compared with 46% on a mobile device.
  • A huge majority, 88%, listen to or view podcast episodes in their entirety.
  • 76% of podcast users are also online shoppers.
  • 41% of U.S. online adults were aware of the term “podcasting” at the end of Q1 2006, compared with just 32% at the end of Q4 2005.

The results are more or less the same as some other similar surveys. Perhaps the only one that seems low is the number that listen/watch on their computers. I think the true number is actually quite a bit higher. I also wonder about the 88% who listen to an entire episode – I am willing to bet that will go down over time.

Read: Podcasting News

The Melting North

Post ImageNope, this isn’t about global warming – sorry activists (don’t you know most of that global warming stuff is hogwash anyway?) – it’s about Inuvik, where my parents live. Well, Inuvik and Aklavik. For those of you who don’t know, Inuvik is a planned town, created because Aklavik used to flood all the time. It’s been about fifty years since it last happened, but Aklavik has completely flooded again, forcing an evacuation:

River water started to flood the community Friday, and many roads are still underwater. The hamlet declared a state of emergency, flying 300 people, mostly seniors and children, out of the community over the weekend. Most of the evacuees are staying at Inuvik’s army barracks, while others are staying with relatives.

Apparently the water is really high in Inuvik too, according to my Dad:

There were ice chunks the size of cars. There were trees of all sizes. There was a 1000 litre fuel tank. There was a telephone pole. The annual spring break-up of the Mackenzie River is under way and it takes anything that stands in its way with it. This years break-up has the river higher than I have seen it before in my 16 years here.

The other interesting thing about break-up is that prices rise temporarily, as goods must be flown up. Normally trucks can drive up, crossing the river either using a ferry in the summer, or just driving right over the ice in the winter.

Hopefully the break-up will be over quickly. My Dad has a good set of pictures if you want to check it out, complete with telephone poles floating in the river!

Norton 360

Post ImageI stopped running Symantec’s consumer products a long time ago. I like the corporate products, but their Norton packages were always too bloated or confusing I found. Or they wouldn’t behave as expected, or they’d interfere with something. Okay now that I think about it, there’s lots of reasons I don’t like the Norton software applications. And now, I have one more reason:

Symantec unveiled plans for its new software, then code-named Genesis, in February. The product is to rival Microsoft’s OneCare and Windows Vista security technology, and will integrate components of Symantec’s current security, PC optimization and backup products, the security company has said.

On Wednesday, Symantec announced that Genesis will be called Norton 360 and that the product is slated to ship by the end of March next year, a change from the original September due date.

Are you kidding me? What kind of a name is Norton 360? Nevermind that they already have SystemWorks, which does the same thing. I wasn’t initially that happy that Microsoft called their new Xbox the Xbox 360, but it grew on me. It’s a fairly unique name though don’t you think? Not exactly the kind of thing that can be appended to any old product. I mean, what does the “360” mean for Norton? Unless it means a complete turnaround in their software’s performance and effectiveness, I don’t like the name one bit. Maybe they think the “360” will make their software seem “cool”, like the Xbox. Maybe they forgot they sold security software, and that no matter how hard you try, it simply isn’t sexy or cool.

Well the release date has been pushed out quite far, so they still have time to change the name. Here’s to hoping!

Read: CNET News.com

Red Deer Trip Recap

Post ImageMy trip yesterday to Red Deer with Tom went very well! He is all registered now and ready to start classes in September. My many years of registering for classes and creating timetables came in handy as Tom was one of the first to be done registering. The only thing left to do now is find a place to live!

I had never been to Red Deer College before, so I learned a lot about it. Here are some thoughts on the college:

  • The college is not nearly as big as I thought it was, in terms of physical space. I can’t seem to find out how many students are registered at the college, but it can’t be that many.
  • They did have wireless networks all over the place, but you need a student username and password to access it, which didn’t surprise me.
  • There was apparently the largest number of students ever at the registration day for kinesiology yesterday. Most of them were female.
  • In fact, I have decided I am in the wrong program. There are a few girls in computing sciences, and a few guys that look like girls, but Tom’s program has a ratio of about 4-1 girls to guys, and they are all extremely attractive.
  • Speaking of computers, they do have a technology program at RDC, but it’s clearly not the focus. The computer labs and stuff were excluded from our tour, described only as “being in the basement and sort of dark.”
  • They need to fix the signs for public parking, as it was quite confusing to figure out where to go!
  • The campus itself is quite nice – lots of grass and trees outside. Inside there seems to be a mix of old and new.
  • Parking is WAY cheaper than the UofA. The daily maximum is only $6! We ended up not paying for parking though, which was fine by me.
  • Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful.

I think Tom is excited to get started in the fall. Looks like he’ll be quite happy at RDC!

Off to Red Deer Tomorrow

Post ImageMy brother, Tom for those of you who don’t know him, is planning to go to Red Deer College next year, so I am his transportation tomorrow (bright and early!) for the open house event for prospective students. Thus, I’ll be in Red Deer most of the day. I don’t know much about the college, but it looks pretty good. Tom is planning on doing the university transfer program for the Bachelor of Kinesiology and Sport Studies degree, which sounds pretty interesting but way over my head! From the About page:

Red Deer College has one of the top athletics programs in Canada – the Kings and Queens have the best overall record at national competition of any college in the country. The Kings Volleyball team has been Canadian College Athletics Association champions for the past six years.

Sounds like the right place to be starting a degree in kinesiology and sports! Like just about every other post secondary institution in the province (at least that’s the way it seems), Red Deer College is currently in the midst of a multi-million dollar expansion, building a new Healthy Communities Complex.

I wonder if they’ll have accessible wireless for me to tap into? I doubt it, but it would be a nice surprise 🙂 I guess I could always track down a Starbucks…sigh…still such a long way to go to reach “wireless everywhere.”

Read: RDC

Notes for 5/28/2006

Yep, these weekly notes are many hours late – I got busy last night and totally forgot to post them.

  • I got this great link from Ylz. Turns out using a controller for games is more effective than mouse and keyboard after all!
  • Wondering why Windows Vista is late? Because there is still so much to do, as was made very clear in Chris Pirillo’s review of Beta 2.
  • Carolina beat Buffalo last night, which means they are leading the series 3-2 and are one step closer to taking on the Oilers for the Stanley Cup. I hope this series goes to Game 7 so that whoever wins is too tired to put up much of a fight in the last round 🙂
  • I’m going to Red Deer tomorrow with my brother for the Red Deer College open house (where he is planning to attend in the fall). Yay, road trip!
  • Did you hear the rumor that Microsoft wants to buy eBay? It’s not entirely unlikely – Microsoft wanted to make deals with all of Google’s competitors, and given the recent Yahoo/eBay deal, this would be a great way to hook up with the two largest. I say, get rid of MSN, focus on Windows Live, and partner with/buy the great stuff from Yahoo and eBay.
  • Sony’s Ken Kutaragi is an idiot, plain and simple.
  • Paramagnus is getting closer to a public test of Podcast Spot! We recently updated our product logo too.

Twenty Years of Burgernomics

Post ImageWay back in 1986, the editor of The Economist had the brilliant idea to invent a Big Mac index, as a “light-hearted introduction to exchange-rate theory.” I first learned of the index roughly three years ago when I took an international economics course, and I thought it was rather ingenious. This year marks the 20th anniversary, so The Economist is looking back on the index:

The Big Mac index is most useful for assessing the exchange rates of countries with similar incomes per head. Thus, among emerging markets, the yuan does indeed look undervalued, while the currencies of Brazil, Turkey, Hungary and the Czech Republic look overvalued. Economists would be unwise to exclude Big Macs from their diet, but Super Size servings would equally be a mistake.

According to the latest edition of the index (May 22), the cheapest place in the world to buy a Big Mac is in China, where it costs just $1.31 USD. The most expensive place is Norway, at $7.09 USD. Here in Canada, we’re only four cents more expensive than our American counterparts, at $3.14 USD.

The index was never intended to be a precise predictor of currency movements, simply a take-away guide to whether currencies are at their correct long-run level. Curiously, however, burgernomics has an impressive record in predicting exchange rates: currencies that show up as overvalued often tend to weaken in later years.

I wonder if it will continue to be as successful in the next twenty years. In any case, I am sure it will continue to be one of the more interesting indexes that economics has produced.

Read: The Economist

Oilers going for the cup!

Post ImageFor the first time since 1990, our beloved Edmonton Oilers are heading to the Stanley Cup finals against either Buffalo or Carolina. The Oilers took their third win in Anaheim tonight, by a one goal margin winning 2-1. The first period wasn’t great, but the second and third were fairly solid.

  • Roloson’s 12 wins are the most by an Oilers goalie since Bill Ranford won 16 in the 1990 playoffs.
  • The Ducks finished a combined 1-6-1 against Edmonton in the regular season and playoffs this season.
  • The Oilers killed off all but one of their 11 penalties in this game.
  • The Oilers are the lowest-seeded team to ever reach the finals.
  • Edmonton outscored Anaheim 16-13 in the series, but they outshot the Oilers 183-121.

For more on the game, check out EdmontonOilers.com and NHL.com.

Did I think the Oilers would make it this far? Certainly not at the beginning of the year, though as a fan there’s always that glimmer of hope and belief. Roloson was a major addition to our team. Most of the season I complained along with everyone else about our goaltending, so to be in the finals with a great goalie is a nice surprise. The team is playing really well at the moment, and will certainly make great use of the time off before the next series starts.

And let me just say, Carolina or Buffalo, it doesn’t matter. I really hope we don’t hear crap about them not being hockey towns or any of that. Any team who can make it to the finals fully deserves to be there.

Let’s bring home the cup boys!

Yahoo hearts PayPal

Post ImageIn a deal announced earlier today, Yahoo and eBay are teaming up around advertising, e-commerce, and search. Yahoo becomes the exclusive provider of graphical ads on eBay, and will also provide some text ads. They are going to make a co-branded toolbar, and they’ll work to make their respective VoIP apps work together (Yahoo Messenger and Skype). The biggest thing of all though, at least as far as I am concerned, is Yahoo’s adoption of PayPal:

Yahoo will make eBay’s PayPal service the exclusive third-party provider of its online wallet, allowing customers to pay for Yahoo services from bank accounts, credit cards or balances associated with their PayPal accounts. PayPal will also be integrated into product offerings for Yahoo merchants and publishers, including the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing and Yahoo Merchant Solutions.

Yahoo using PayPal essentially removes any doubt that PayPal is the de facto payment service on the Internet. It will be very hard for Google to successfully introduce a competitor now. Two of the largest sites on the net in Yahoo and eBay, plus the millions of other smaller e-commerce sites all using PayPal is an enormous hurdle for any rival payment service. PayPal is the closest thing we have to a truly digital wallet. Incredibly smart move by Yahoo, and excellent outcome for eBay.

Read: CNET News.com

Canadian Podcasting Survey

Post ImageFound this item via Podcasting News this morning – there’s a new survey aimed at discovering what is happening with podcasting in Canada. I just took the survey, which was relatively quick and painless, so you should too.

Toronto-based Sequentia Communications and Caprica Interacitve Marketing Inc. have joined forces to launch this podcast listeners survey. All of the findings will be part of a whitepaper on Canadian podcasting habits and audience size, to be released in June 2006.

The goal of this survey and its findings are to better understand the growth of podcasting in Canada and how quickly Canadians are adopting this new form of technology.

Apparently the survey is only available until tomorrow, so you better hurry if you want to fill it out! At the end of the survey you can enter an email address to get a summary of the results.

Read: Take The Survey