Month: February 2007

Edmonton Bloggers

Post ImageThis is something I have been thinking about for a while. I got an email this week from Pete Quily, asking if Edmonton had anything like the kind of directory he is looking for in Vancouver. Here’s what he wants:

With the large number of techies/bloggers/web workers/geeks/wired folk/internet businesses/pick your preferred word in the Vancouver area, why isn’t there a comprehensive directory of such people and organizations/nonprofits/businesses?

I want that for Edmonton too!

So just like I have been doing with edmontontech, I have started tagging blogs at del.icio.us with the tag edmontonblogs. This is really more of an “in the meantime” kind of activity, because as Pete points out, an actual directory website would be much more useful. Maybe I’ll build it one of these days.

I actually have an excellent domain name for it – blogosphere.ca. As you can see, we haven’t touched it since 2004. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to throw together some kind of directory with OPML and feeds broken down by city. BlogsCanada had potential, but it seems to have died. Another similar site is the Canadian Tech Mob, but it’s tech only, and nearly impossible to navigate (seriously didn’t webrings die in 1999?).

Okay I better go before I start writing code. I’m off to Calgary in the morning for a meeting!

Read: Pete Quily

Oilsands research at the U of A

Post ImageI have written in the past that I think more research and development should go towards extracting more value from the oilsands. This R&D would ideally lead to better “green” technologies, and the profits we gain from the oil in the oilsands could also go toward sustainable energy. I’m sure there is lots of this R&D already going on, but a story about a new University of Alberta research centre caught my eye:

The Imperial Oil-Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Oil Sands Innovation’s mandate is to find more efficient, economically viable, and environmentally responsible ways to develop Canada’s oilsands resources, one of the largest crude oil deposits in the world. The centre will be led by scientific director Dr. Murray Gray.

The centre will invest $15 million over the next five years, will recruit more than 50 faculty, graduate students, and researchers, and will “apply the emerging tools of nanotechnology” to the oilsands. I guess that’s appropriate considering the National Institute for Nanotechnology is also located here at the U of A.

One of the main research goals of the centre is to reduce the amount of water used in the oilsands projects.

Read: ExpressNews

More on the trade

I just got the Edmonton Oilers Pipeline email regarding the trade, which includes comments from Kevin Lowe and Patrick LaForge. Lowe says:

I want to be very clear that making this trade today is a hockey decision. It was not financial.

I want everyone to know that our decision was much more to do with a plan than a reaction.

A hockey decision?! Trading your top player who you can clearly afford is not a good hockey decision in my book. And LaForge had this to say:

We can afford to spend the money necessary to have the kind of elite players expected.

Is that right? Then why not spend the money to keep Ryan Smyth?

I also think the headline on EdmontonOilers.com proves just how bad a deal this is.

Oilers obtain Nilsson and O’Marra

Nuh uh. “Oilers fuck up and trade Ryan Smyth” should be the headline.

Oilers trade Smyth

Post ImageMegan just sent me a text message, asking if I had heard that the Edmonton Oilers traded Ryan Smyth. No, I had not heard. But now that I have, I am upset. As my Dad said on MSN just now:

as a fan I am hurt

That about sums it up. Smyth was traded to the New York Islanders for Ryan O’Marra, Robert Nilsson, and a first round pick in 2007. My Dad points out that “Robert Nilsson is the son of ex-Oiler and ex-Flame Kent Nilsson.” What a shitty deal. They might be good prospects, but I think this will be regarded as a bad trade for Kevin Lowe and the Oilers.

When my Dad and my brother were in town this past week, we talked about the trade deadline approaching. We agreed that it didn’t matter who the Oilers traded, as long as it wasn’t Smyth, Moreau, Stoll, or Hemsky. Anyone else would have been fine, even Roloson.

TSN and the Oilers site are horribly slow, and I haven’t found a link for this yet, but my Dad is listening to the guys on TSN and says:

It appears that there are lots of GMs pissed at Kevin. they didn’t think Ryan was available and if he was they would definitely have made good offers. it appears this was rushed together when Ryan didn’t sign today

You’ll have to check out my Dad’s blog later tonight, he’s got some good comments. We are chatting as I type this, and he just made a good point: wasn’t the new CBA supposed to prevent something like this from happening?

Evidently not. I guess the Oilers have given up on the season. It’ll be interesting to see how the crowd reacts tonight, given that it is Mark Messier night.

Read: TSN

Interesting chat on the bus

I took the bus downtown today, and it took the usual 20 minutes or so. I like to sit at the very back of the bus – not because I’m a punk or anything, but because it’s easier to see the traffic and such. Most times I don’t listen to music, so I guess if someone wanted to start talking to me they could. And that’s what happened today.

A somewhat older gentleman got on shortly after I did, and came to the back of the bus and sat down a couple seats away from me. He was carrying a black shoulder bag with a bottle inside, and he took a drink. I noticed that his dirty hands shook quite badly. He kept rubbing his face too, like something was wrong. Can you visualize my first impression? Not the best right?

A few minutes later he leaned over and said “how’s it going today?” If you’ve ever been on public transit and seen this kind of situation, this is the part where most people ignore the man. I said, “not bad, yourself?” and we started chatting. He told me that he was homeless, and that it’s been a bad winter for him. He joked that “there is 7000 homeless people in Edmonton, or 7000 + 1 if you count me!” He told me that six months ago he had a stroke (I believe that’s what he said) and that as a result the left side of his body was numb, and it also contributed to the shakes. He explained that he needed an address more than anything. He applied six weeks ago for what sounded like “hay shhh” that would give him $1100 a month to pay for a place to live. He said he was having problems though, because he needed three references and all he had was a bank account (the bank would be a reference). And he admitted that his drinking had resulted in him losing some friends who could have been references.

He didn’t ask about me, which was fine. I think more than anything he just wanted someone to talk to. I got the impression that he knew he had problems, and that he was trying to overcome them but life just kept kicking him down. I hope in some small way my taking the time to listen made him feel better.

Notes for 2/25/2007

Here are my weekly notes, from Vancouver!

  • Happy Birthday Kimmi!
  • Dickson, Sharon and I went to Bridges in Granville Island tonight for dinner, and we met up with Robert Sanzalone. It was good!
  • One of the “bigger” news stories this week was the planned merger of XM and Sirius. Does anyone care?
  • Hillary has a blog! I didn’t get a chance to do my weekly podcast today…I might do it tomorrow.
  • I haven’t opened my aggregator in days…I feel so out of the loop!
  • I also don’t really want to go home yet! Damn midterm on Wednesday evening.

Blogging From Blenz

I am sitting with Dickson and Sharon outside Blenz on Robson and Burrard. It’s pretty cool, they have a covered seating area with heaters, and my favorite – free wireless! Not quite sure what we’re up to this evening, but Dickson and Sharon are probably heading to Granville Island. I may tag along, not sure yet.

We had a good brunch this morning along with Megan and Kelsey at Feenie’s…it lived up to the high expectations that Sharon set for it. Well, the food did…but four dollars for a coffee? Regular, not that good plain coffee? Ridiculous.

Anyway, more later!

Northern Voice Conference Day

Post ImageWe just finished recording the keynote session with Anil Dash at Northern Voice 2007, and I am now in the “Blogging 101” session. The recording is going fairly well, and the audio recorders have picked up the presenters better than I expected given all the background noise you get when everyone has a laptop in front of them! We recorded the keynote in video, and it looks very good. Dickson is uploading it now I believe, so it should be up soon.

Yesterday was a little chaotic for us, as expected. Moosecamp is a very ad hoc kind of event, so we weren’t sure about what to record. For that reason we ended up recording more than we planned, though some of it sounds kind of random. Fortunately the schedule today is well defined and static, so Sharon took the initiative and helped us decide who is recording what. Audio episodes will be up very shortly after the session, video will take slightly longer.

Hopefully I’ll get to blog more today than in the last couple days, but at the very least I wanted to get this quick update posted. Also, if you want to check out the quick interview I did yesterday after Moosecamp with Darren Barefoot, you can watch it here.

The welcome message is up!

Let the podcasting begin! We just uploaded a very quick (under 3 minutes) welcome message to the Northern Voice podcast to introduce ourselves and our plan for recording the conference. Here are the most important links:

I should also point out that you can find specific episodes by browsing our categories and our tags. And you can find feeds for all the formats we convert to here.

Enjoy!

Read: Welcome Message

Vancouver Trip Day 1

I’m pretty tired – we had a packed day! Sharon, Dickson and I arrived here in Vancouver fairly early, landing just after 10:30 AM. After getting sorted out at Triumf House (which is where we are staying on the UBC campus) we went downtown and only just got back. We went for lunch, then Dickson and I had a few business meetings, and then we walked around a bit before we met Kim and her friends for dinner. We went to a greek restaurant on Robson and Burrard (I can’t remember the name) and while not very greek, it was pretty good!

We took a taxi from the airport this morning, but other than that, we have relied on public transit (and we walked a lot). It’s actually fairly easy to use, and similar to Edmonton’s transit system in a lot of ways.

The weather was very nice today, and it only drizzled for a few minutes this evening. Hopefully it stays like this! You can see a few photos I took today here, including one of the Olympic countdown clock!