Category: Uncategorized

Nice Weather in Edmonton!

Downtown Edmonton from Stadium LRT #1The last couple days here in Edmonton have been rather nice! Fairly sunny and clear, and not too windy. The only bad part has been the tiny little bits of snow mixed in with the brown muck. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve had a warm winter. It’s about 8 degrees celcius here right now, and around the same is expected for tomorrow. Looks like the weekend will be a little cooler.

I took this photo yesterday afternoon from the platform at the Stadium LRT station. It’s kind of an interesting view of our city’s downtown – normally photos are taken from the other side, where it’s a little more picturesque. There’s a few more in my photostream too.

Disney buys Pixar

Post ImageLast week I mentioned that Disney was in talks to buy Pixar, and today they announced that the deal is done. Disney is paying $7.4 billion in stock for the company, and Steve Jobs will get a seat on the board:

As part of the deal, which is expected to be completed this summer, two Pixar veterans will head Disney’s animation efforts. Ed Catmull, who had served as Pixar’s president, was named president of the combined Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. John Lasseter, the Pixar executive vice president who is widely regarded as the studio’s creative leader, was named chief creative officer. Pixar will remain in its San Francisco Bay Area headquarters.

Additionally, Steve Jobs is now the largest individual shareholder of Disney. I think it’s a great move for Disney, as long as they execute properly – and by that I mean don’t screw things up.

What has been most successful for the two companies? Pixar made the movies, Disney handled the distribution. I don’t see any reason that should drastically change, so I hope the combined company still leaves the bulk of the creative stuff to Pixar.

Read: CNET News.com

What the hell Yahoo?

Post ImageOne interesting item floating around the blogosphere today is that Yahoo has decided to give up in the search industry, essentially conceding defeat to Google. Yes, you read that correctly – sickening isn’t it?

“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”

I think it’s incredibly sad and disappointing that they have made such a decision. And I really have to disagree with Henry Blodget:

Yahoo! has finally read the writing on the wall that everyone else (except Microsoft) has been reading for three years: The search game is over and Google has won.

If there is anything Google has taught us, it’s that search is important! While Yahoo and Excite and everyone was ignoring search, Google improved it, and look where they are now (definitely read John Battelle’s book The Search, it covers this in great detail). Search is not even close to perfect – there is so much left to be done! I think it’s a mistake to give up, and I don’t think there’s any “writing on the wall” either.

Thank goodness we have Microsoft! Instead of giving up, they’ve decided to pour oodles of money into search to try and improve the experience far beyond Google. Of course we won’t know how successful they are for a while, but that’s not the point. The point is that they did not give up, they continue to try and innovate, and in the end, it will result in better search for all of us (as Google is forced to further innovate as well).

Yahoo was looking really good lately, with their string of strategic “Web 2.0” acquisitions, then they go and make a statement like this. I’m kind of baffled, really. Certainly Yahoo’s business is not entirely search, but if they don’t think that search is and will continue to be a big part of their business, even indirectly, then I think they’re making a big mistake.

Read: seattlepi.com

Google News goes gold

Post ImageAs John Battelle and others have noted, Google News is now officially out of beta. I guess it’s not the most important news item of the day, but it’s not often you see a product that has no way to make money and has been in “beta testing” for over four years “go gold”. From the creator of Google News, Krishna Bharat:

Google News has matured a great deal, and we’re proud to see it graduate from its beta status. Much remains to be done, and as always, we have many exciting ideas that we intend to take forward. Meanwhile, as the saying goes, if you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own. Or just keep reading Google News.

As Larry noted, there doesn’t seem to be much new with the service, aside from integrating search history. Has anyone starting betting on which product will move out of beta next? If not, we should! I’d put my money on Froogle.

Read: Google Blog

Conservative Canada

By now you’re almost certainly aware that the Conservatives won a minority in last night’s federal election (just as I predicted). During his concession speech, Paul Martin announced he will not lead the Liberal party in the next election. There are three main things about the election I found interesting:

  1. The magic number of 155 is hard to find, which means things will be especially intriguing. All the parties realize we don’t want to vote again right away, so it makes it even more important that they try to work together.
  2. The Conservatives gained a fair number of seats in Quebec. One wonders what this means for the separatists!
  3. I didn’t expect a completely blue Alberta, but that’s what we ended up with.

I followed the results online last night, and watched some of the post-election commentary on CBC. I don’t have much to say really, except that I hope the minority government doesn’t collapse right away. Lots of other people have far more interesting things to say than me:

There’s lots more interesting commentary if you do a quick search on Technorati or IceRocket or one of those. Seems to me that many Americans are not happy with our new government!

Voted NDP

Post ImageI mentioned yesterday that I had my choice narrowed down to two. Didn’t want to vote for the Liberals again (need some change) and I don’t align closely enough with the Greens (not that I entirely like any of the parties). For me, it was either NDP or Conservatives (I know!). I ended up voting NDP, for a number of reasons:

  • I like the Conservatives as the provincial government for Alberta, and indeed I did vote for Ralph Klein in the last election. I don’t think a federal Conservative government quite fits the same way.
  • Truthfully, Harper is a little odd, and I don’t think he’d make a very good Prime Minister.
  • The NDP won’t win the election, but a larger number of seats for them in the house is good for all of us during these minority governments (I don’t think the Conservatives will win a majority).
  • Apparently, my NDP candidate has a good shot of being the only non-Tory Edmonton MP.

So now we wait to see the results. Hopefully lots of people voted today, especially with the bogus emails floating around. Polls have closed in the east already, so it won’t be long!

Edmonton Dining for $10

Post ImageUsually when I go for dinner, it’s to the same places as always, but every now and then it’s good to try something new – the only problem is that usually I don’t know what to try! I’ve come across a post that makes it easy though, with a list of Edmonton restaurants offering $10 dishes! From the Lex Culinaria blog:

The restaurants of Original Fare have come up with a winning recipe guaranteed to help Edmontonians top up their winter padding through the dark, cold months of January and February.

From January 22nd for 10 weeks, select Edmonton Restaurants will be offering special $10 dishes! Before you convince yourself that a $10 meal couldn’t possibly be worthwhile – some of these restaurants are my very favourites and serve some of Edmonton’s best food!

I’ve only been to two restaurants on the list – The Creperie, a long time ago, and it was very good; and Wild Tangerine, which I went to for the first time on Thursday evening, also very good. Full details are available here (pdf).

Read: Lex Culinaria

Advertising on the Roof

Post ImageI probably heard of rooftop ads at some point in the past, but thanks to services like Google Earth and MSN Virtual Earth, advertising that is visible from above is becoming incredibly popular. A few days ago Bryce posted this picture of a Target ad, and today Jeff Clavier discovered an eBay auction for a rooftop ad:

Well, an auction for a one year ad placement is now on eBay here. It was listed 3 days ago by a company called Roofshout – whose domain has been registered 4 days ago.

Details of the actual placement, location, etc. are more than fuzzy – to say the least. We’ll see where that one ends up: current price, $105 – 6 days to go.

Scam or market test ?

I say market test! With more and more people spending hours virtually flying around the world, this kind of thing could be come quite popular.

Read: Jeff Clavier

Disney in talks to buy Pixar

Post ImageI was a little surprised to run across this article at Reuters this afternoon. Apparently Disney is in “serious talks” to buy Pixar Animation Studios, according to a report in the Wall Stree Journal:

The newspaper report said terms under discussion would have Disney pay a small premium to Pixar’s current stock market value of $6.7 billion. The deal would be a stock transaction and make Pixar Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs the biggest individual shareholder in Disney, the newspaper reported.

The talks are at a sensitive stage and other options are possible, including an agreement for Disney to distribute Pixar movies, the report said, citing people familiar with the situation.

Given that Jobs has been quite vocal about his dislike for Disney’s deal making in the past (though I am sure he wouldn’t mind being the largest shareholder), and considering the fact that Disney has already invested a lot of money in their own digital animation studio, the rumor is a bit surprising to me. I would be less surprised if the two worked out a new distribution deal for Pixar movies, all of which have been tremendously successful.

Of course, depsite all of that, the move would be great for Disney – a way to keep them relevant. Definitely another rumor to watch!

Read: Reuters

YouTube to be acquired?

Post ImageAccording to Michael Arrington, the popular video sharing site YouTube has signed an agreement to be acquired. An update on the post mentions that the rumor is highly speculative, but interesting nonetheless:

Whoever the buyer may be, it’s not News Corp. They have confirmed directly to me it has not acquired YouTube.

YouTube raised $3.5 million in venture capital just three months ago from Sequoia. It was founded in February 2005.

I remember early last year when I first discovered YouTube – there was almost nothing on the site! My how things have changed. YouTube has been quite popular in the blogosphere lately, as news has spread that their traffic is pretty amazing and by some measures has overtaken Flickr. Speaking of Flickr, my guess for the potential suitor is Yahoo – they’ve been on a Web 2.0 buying spree lately, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they picked up YouTube as well.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this rumor for sure!

Read: Techcrunch