Year: 2006

Xmas Shopping on Saturday the 23rd

I watched the evening news at 6 tonight, and their lead story was on the holiday shopping rush. They had cameras around the city throughout the day filming the madness. I too went shopping today, but not until about 7 PM this evening (no I didn’t just start, I was picking up some of the last items on my list). And actually, I think that might be the best time to go!

Traffic was light, the lines were very short, and everyone was surprisingly friendly during my time shopping this evening. I guess if you weren’t sure what you were looking for, waiting until the 23rd isn’t the best idea. If you know exactly what you’re after however, as I was, then perhaps it is the best time to go!

Apparently today (the last Saturday before Christmas, or December 23rd, this year it happens to be both) is the busiest shopping day of the year!

Wikiasari Search Engine

Post ImageThe Times of London is reporting that Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, is planning to launch a search engine next year in collaboration with Amazon.com. Dubbed Wikiasari, the search engine will allow users to rank web pages in an effort to create more accurate results (via Techmeme):

“Essentially, if you consider one of the basic tasks of a search engine, it is to make a decision: ‘this page is good, this page sucks’,” Mr Wales said. “Computers are notoriously bad at making such judgments, so algorithmic search has to go about it in a roundabout way.

It appears the big selling point of the search engine will be that it harnesses the wisdom of crowds. Google already does this, with PageRank, but in a less direct way. I am not sure if the new idea is going to fly – how many people really want to rank pages when they search? Usually you just want the results immediately. I’d bet most people won’t want to invest an extra few minutes to visit and rank the results.

I really have no idea what Amazon.com has to do with this project, but recall they too have their own search engine, A9.

Read: Times of London

Outlook 2007 = Painfully Slow

Post ImageI started running Office 2007 recently, and for the most part I really like it. The new ribbon interface is incredibly intuitive, and the “live” preview of changes is really handy. PowerPoint is the one that impresses me the most thus far – it’s simply amazing what you can do with the new version! You really have to try the new interface to see what I mean, words just don’t do it justice.

I also upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. If I had to describe Outlook 2007 in one word, it would be slow. I like the interface tweaks, and the instant search is handy, but the application itself is almost unusable. Downloading POP3 email takes at least ten times as long as Outlook 2003 (it is significantly faster using Exchange). Displaying messages takes longer than it used to. Loading the program takes longer. Outlook 2007 is just painfully slow. It’s amazing that this kind of a problem made it past the betas and into the final release.

I’m not the only one who has noticed the problem either. There’s a huge thread here, and a simple search turned up these posts.

I haven’t decided what I am going to do yet, but I might have to go back to Outlook 2003 until they release a fix.

UPDATE (3/14/2007): If your Outlook 2007 is slow, try this tip to help speed it up. Worked for me!

Feds invest $15 million in TEC Centre

Post ImageWestern Economic Diversification Canada (WD) announced today that it has invested $15 million in the TEC Centre at the University of Alberta’s Enterprise Square (for more on Enterprise Square and the TEC Centre, see my October 11th post). It is unclear just what, exactly, the money will be spent on:

This $15-million investment in TEC Edmonton and Enterprise Square is just the latest example of the “spectacular” support the university has received from all levels of government, said U of A Vice-President (Research) Dr. Gary Kachanoski, who is also chair of TEC Edmonton’s board of directors. That money comes with expectations, he said.

“We are rightly asked to do more and we simply must do more to ensure this investment translates into economic and social benefits for our community.”

I wish he could have given an example of what “doing more” entails. I expect we’ll find out more over the course of the next year. The TEC Centre will open for business in the summer of 2007.

Read: ExpressNews

Thirsty for Podcasting News in 2006

Post ImageGoogle released their annual zeitgeist for 2006 recently, and the top searches proved to be quite different than those found on Yahoo’s annual listing. Google’s top ten terms are mostly technology-related, while Yahoo’s are entertainment-related.

Also different were the news searches. Coming in at number four on the top searches for Google News is podcasting! Who knew so many people were interested in learning about what is happening in the podcasting industry!

Here are my favorite podcasting news sites:

I also subscribe to a bunch of search feeds, and news feeds from individual companies too. And every now and then you get some news from more general sites like TechCrunch or Digg. I thought this list would have been longer though. Perhaps there is room in the news space for podcasting?

Read: Google Zeitgeist

Continuing trouble for TechCrunch?

Post ImageBack in September I wrote that in my opinion, TechCrunch had started to lose its edge. I based my comments strictly on the kind of content that had been appearing on the popular Web 2.0 blog. Since then I would say the content has improved. Not that I have been tracking it that closely, but it seems as though it has improved.

TechCrunch appears to be having other problems though. Last week Michael Arrington had something of a meltdown, which you can read about at Valleywag. And just yesterday Michael announced that writer Natali Del Conte was leaving TechCrunch after just three weeks:

She’s gotten an offer from another company (again, I’ll let her make any announcements on that), but was willing to stay on part time with TechCrunch. I appreciate that, but I want our writers to be completely focused on TechCrunch and not working with competitors. She also told me the comments were really getting to her, and the turmoil from last week (TechCrunch UK, NYTimes debacle) played a part as well.

That announcement did follow some good news for TechCrunch though – it entered Technorati’s top 5 for the first time.

I put a question mark in the title because I think Michael should see this as an opportunity for TechCrunch. I think he should spend some time to find the right editor, and I would also suggest revisiting the comment policy. Some of the most valuable information is found in comments, but they need to be effectively policed too. Perhaps implementing a community rating system a la Digg would be wise.

Hopefully we’ll see an even better TechCrunch soon!

Starbucks: 87,000 Drink Combinations

Post ImageAnd you thought deciding between a Grande and a Venti was hard! In the December 18th issue of Time there is a really great article about Starbucks and the challenges it faces as it grows. Currently there are around 12,440 locations worldwide and the goal is to expand to 40,000 – more than even McDonald’s. Also included in accompanying graphics are some interesting stats, such as the number of drink combinations:

Historically, Starbucks has done a great job at balancing new ideas with efficiency, says Frances Frei, a professor at Harvard business school who has studied the company. A classic example: the way it trains us to order in Starbucks jargon, grande this and half-caff that. Serving tens of thousands of possible drink combinations would be an operational nightmare were it not for a regimented logic to ordering, a marketing flourish that helps establish the atmosphere of an Italian cafe.

I always chuckle when people walk into Starbucks and order a non-fat, extra-hot, double-shot, no-whip, blah blah blah kind of drink. Why do they even bother drinking the coffee? I had never really thought about these combinations from the perspective of Starbucks, however. When you consider the 87,000 possible combinations, it’s amazing that half of Starbucks locations average 3 minutes per customer (less than 60% do according to the article).

I’ll probably still chuckle when someone orders what sounds to me like an incredibly complex drink, but at least now I’ll know this: it could have been worse!

Read: Time

Notes for 12/17/2006

Here are my weekly notes:

  • Congratulations to Brock and Amanda on your engagement! Can’t wait for the wedding!
  • I noticed in the comments of this recent article on An Inconvenient Truth that most people seem tired of hearing about climate change. Granted it’s a techy audience, but still, perhaps a sign of things to come?
  • My last two final exams are both on Tuesday. I’ll be so happy for it to all be over!
  • The predictions for 2007 have already started to flow in. Here are Mark Anderson’s, who claims a 93.5 percent success ratio over the years he’s been doing predictions.
  • On Thursday, Kim and Tom are heading north for Christmas, which means I need to get my shopping done fast.
  • I went to see Oh Susanna! late last night at the Varscona with Sharon. It was quite entertaining! During one segment, Larry Yachimec was called up to the stage (along with a friend, didn’t catch his name). For those of you that don’t know, Larry is the guy in the WestJet commercial who can’t find the channel that everyone is laughing at.

Techmeme River

Post ImageTechmeme is a fairly popular aggregator for technology news from around the blogosphere, but I’ve never really liked it. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I think the main reason I didn’t like it was the layout. On Monday that changed, when founder Gabe Rivera launched a new layout option called Techmeme River:

River pages are compact, with no news clustering, but include permalinks to standard pages where Discussion and Related items can be found.

In summary, River eases a number of common power user pain points, all with a basic long list of headlines. Enjoy!

I wouldn’t consider myself a Techmeme power user, but I do find the new /river layout much easier to use. I find myself visiting Techmeme far more often now. Check it out!

Read: Techmeme River

Time Person of the Year for 2006: You

Post ImageI guess the fine people at Time still haven’t learned that the word “person” refers to a single, individual human being. Last year they named Bill & Melinda Gates and Bono the “person of the year” and this year, it’s you. That’s right, Time says you are the person of the year for 2006:

The “Great Man” theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that “the history of the world is but the biography of great men.” He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year.

All joking aside, there’s a certain appeal to naming “you” the person of the year. I mean, it was a big year for that dreaded phrase – user generated content. And like it or not, some of the biggest stories of the year were a result of individuals expressing themselves on the web. Everything from videos at YouTube, to profiles at MySpace, citizen news around the web, podcasting, and of course, blogging.

Though Time has been naming a “person of the year” since 1927, this year’s cover is sure to be one of the most interesting:

The magazine has put a mirror on the cover of its “Person of the Year” issue, released on Monday, “because it literally reflects the idea that you, not us, are transforming the Information Age,” Editor Richard Stengel said in a statement.

So congratulations to you!

Read: Time.com