Category: Uncategorized

Podcasting at IBM

Post ImageI ran across an interesting article today in The Journal News about podcasting inside and outside IBM. Sounds like Big Blue really likes the idea of time-shifted audio:

IBM started to encourage employees to read and create the online journals known as blogs last May. Shortly after, IBM started pushing podcasts — subscription-based audio downloads that can be listened to on laptops, iPods or other MP3 players.

Inside the company, about 50 podcasts have debuted. There have been 15,000 downloads in the past two months.

In addition to making work more fun, there are numerous cost savings that can occur at a company like IBM who adopts podcasting. Take for example a conference call in which one or two people simply dispense information to dozens more, perhaps explaining some documents or figures. That’s the kind of thing that can be very cheaply turned into a podcast, and according to the article, such a podcast saved IBM hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Could 2006 be the year of corporate podcasting?

Read: The Journal News

Edmonton Rush Inaugural Game

Post ImageMy brother got season tickets for our brand new lacrosse team, the Edmonton Rush, for Christmas so I was lucky enough to go to the season home opener last night at Rexall Place. We had really great seats, so we got to see everything really well (here’s a picture I took with my camera phone). Unfortunately the Rush didn’t win, but it was an excellent game and a great experience:

Fans at the Edmonton Rush inaugural game were treated to an exciting contest as the San Jose Stealth edged the Rush 10-9 in overtime at Rexall Place. Stealth rookie forward Jeff Zywicki notched the game-winning goal at two minutes 59 seconds into the overtime period to secure the win for San Jose in front of 11,385 fans. The contest was a defensive struggle for the better part of the game until the teams found themselves in a shootout in the final minutes. In the final four minutes of regulation, the two teams combined for five goals, including a game-tying goal by Rush forward Brad Dairon with just seventeen seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, sending the contest into overtime.

Entertainment was name of the game last night, and it was everywhere. Here are some of the highlights:

  • They don’t have an oil derrick, but the Rush players did come onto the field with fireworks, smoke and lights!
  • The Rush also have a dance team, called Edmonton’s Crush. That’s hot, as Paris would say!
  • We are the only lacrosse club to have a live DJ playing music, DJ Rush. If you’ve never been to a lacrosse game, and chances are you haven’t, you won’t know that they play music while the teams are playing! It’s great too because when we have the ball, its always loud, powerful music and when the opposition has the ball, it’s quieter music.
  • The Seattle Supersonic’s famous mascot Squatch was on hand to introduce our official mascot, his long lost cousin, Slush. Tom and I even got to “high five” Squatch.
  • Heard of Orange Country Choppers? Sure you have! And the Rush have their very own chopper, and man is it cool. We’ve also got a monster truck apparently.
  • The game did get violent at times, even though there were no fights. Tom assures me there is usually a fight.

There’s lots of tickets available if you want to check out the next game. And if you’re new to lacrosse, here’s a good introduction to lacrosse, including the rules of the National Lacrosse League.

Read: Edmonton Rush

Defending Canadian Democracy

Post ImageI signed the Green Party petition seeking to have that party included in the televised debates because I strongly feel they should be! I didn’t vote Green last time, and I may not this time either, but I still think that any party with a candidate in every riding should be allowed to take part. If the Bloc Québécois can take part, certainly the Green Party should be able to. Here’s part of an email I got today:

Thanks to the participation of people like you, we now have over 40,000 signatures on our online petition for Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris to be included in the televised leaders’ debates. The broadcasters are taking notice, but still have not reversed their decision.

Now we need to push that number to over 50,000 people before the final televised debates start on Monday evening. Only 10,000 people submitted questions for the other party leaders in the first debates, so this would mean that five times more Canadians are asking for all five leaders to be in the debate.

Can you help us achieve that goal by asking friends, family, and colleagues to sign on too? Remember, this is not necessarily about supporting the Green Party of Canada, its about defending Canadian democracy!

The easiest way for you to help is to use the new page we set up for this at: http://www.info-greenparty.ca/petition/forwardmsg.asp.

If you’re in Canada and you agree, please sign the petition. I am skeptical that the television executives will change their minds, but stranger things have happened.

How many cores do you have?

This post originally appeared as a guest post on Dave Lucas‘ popular blog, Capital Region People.

Post ImageNow that we’re into 2006, my computer is about six years old. I have upgraded certain components over the years (notably RAM and hard drives) but my original processors are still chugging along – dual Pentium III 600 MHz processors (x86 Family 6 Model 8 for those of you who like details). For the most part my computer is pretty responsive, and I do a good job of clearing up temp files, scanning for spyware and viruses, etc. Certain applications and tasks are starting to be noticeably slower though, which means a new computer is becoming more and more likely. My computer probably is doing things just as fast as a couple years ago, but it seems slower because of all the newer, faster machines I come into contact with. Faster machines that more and more frequently have more than one processor core.

To ring in the new year, Intel launched a massive rebranding complete with new logos and a new slogan, Leap Ahead. The company also announced a new focus and direction; one that includes muti-core processors at its heart. Here’s how Intel describes multi-core:

Intel multi-core architecture has a single Intel processor package that contains two or more processor “execution cores,” or computational engines, and delivers—with appropriate software—fully parallel execution of multiple software threads. The operating system (OS) perceives each of its execution cores as a discrete processor, with all the associated execution resources.

Essentially, more execution cores means you computer can do more things at once, and thus accomplish tasks faster. It was April of last year that Intel released their first dual core processor, and research on new multi-core projects (15 currently underway at Intel) has been feverish ever since. There haven’t been that many dual core processors sold yet, mainly because they are a bit too expensive still. That will change in 2006 though, as Intel forecasts “that more than 85 percent of our server processors and more than 70 percent of our mobile and desktop Pentium® family processor shipments will be multi-core–based by the end of 2006.”

Intel isn’t the only company betting on multi-core technology. In a recent interview with CNET News.com, AMD’s Chief Technology Officer confirmed that the company will be shipping quad-core processors by 2007. AMD has a good description of multi-core technology:

Multi-core processors enable true multitasking. On single-core systems, multitasking can max out CPU utilization, resulting in decreased performance as operations have to wait to be processed. On multi-core systems, since each core has its own cache, the operating system has sufficient resources to handle most compute intensive tasks in parallel.

Improvements are being made in software as well. The current versions of Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X will all be able to take advantage of the improved performance delivered by multi-core processors, and new iterations of the operating systems should improve things even more. Mac users will be happy that Apple is switching to Intel this year, opening the door for multi-core processors in Macintosh computers. Windows users will soon have Windows Vista available which will not only support multi-core processors, but other performance boosting technologies like hot-swappable USB key-based RAM too.

Let’s not forget that other system components are being improved too. The speed of memory, motherboards, hard drives, and other components are all increasing along with processor performance. All this and I haven’t even mentioned 64-bit technology yet! When you step back and look at the big picture, it’s clear that we’re on track for a huge performance boost.

If you’re going to be purchasing a new computer, the coming year is as good a time as any. The new multi-core systems that will be available are a far cry from my pokey old Pentium III’s, even if I do have two! The faster computers will usher in new applications and interfaces that take advantage of the increased horsepower, meaning you’ll see improvements across the board, from hardware to software.

Perhaps a year from now you won’t ask someone how fast their computer is. Instead, you might ask, how many cores do you have?

Windows Vista at CES

It’s that time of year again, when all the electonics manufacturers get together at CES to show off their new wares. Microsoft is busy at the show this year too, showing off some of the new capabilities of Windows Vista. Bringing Vista to life is a short but interesting video that shows off some of the features coming in Vista:

Be one of the first to see Windows Vista in use as Gates and Microsoft Group Product Manager Aaron Woodman show off the slick new OS during the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show.

Aaron shows the live previewing, Flip 3D application switching, the Sidebar with Gadgets, and the new Sideshow feature for notebooks. In another Microsoft video, Bill Gates shows off part of his vision for the digital future. It’s a very cool video – I love the screens!!

UPDATE: The blogosphere is buzzing about Bill Gates’ speech at CES. Watch the entire keynote online!

Pictures from Inuvik

I uploaded some pictures I took while I was up in Inuvik over the holidays. You can check them out in my Christmas 2005 photoset, along with four I took before leaving. This one is good at showing how much snow there was!

Mindboggling – Microsoft buying Yahoo?

Post ImageEvery once in a while a rumor comes along that is so outlandish, so crazy, so never-gonna-happen, that it makes you really hope it does happen! The latest such rumor is that Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo, a rumor that has sent investors into a craze:

Analysts said reasons for the heightened interest in Yahoo call options ranged from recent rumors that software company Microsoft Corp. might be seeking to partner or merge with the Internet company, to bullish expectations for the company’s upcoming fourth quarter earnings report.

“The speculative activity in short-term calls might reflect the recent talk about an alliance with Microsoft,” Ruffy said.

Such rumors have been rampant since Google Inc. recently fortified its lead in the Web search market by taking a 5 percent stake in Time Warner Inc.’s AOL Internet unit.

On Sunday the Los Angeles Times cited what it called speculation that Yahoo had rebuffed an $80 billion bid from Microsoft as too low.

Did you see that? Eighty billion dollars! I can’t quite wrap my head around that amount! According to Microsoft Watch, the software giant currently has about $40 billion in cash.

There’s too much to consider if such a merger were to take place that I won’t even bother unless it actually happens.

Read: Reuters

Back in Edmonton

I arrived back in the city last night around 8:15 PM, which is around an hour and twenty five minutes late – much better than the ten hours late going to Inuvik! This trip was the first of so many to Inuvik that I have encountered trouble with. Seems to me the airlines that fly north have gone soft!

I am almost entirely unpacked, and I slept in today so I am rested too. Time to get back to work!

Predictions for 2006

Post ImageWith the new year fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time for predictions. Not resolutions, but predictions. If you’d like to see some predictions from around the web, Alex Barnett has compiled a very interesting collection. Here are some of my predictions for the coming year, some specific and some more vague, in no particular order:

  1. Canada will win both the World Juniors Hockey Championship, and the gold medal in hockey at the Olympics.
  2. RIM will prevail in their legal troubles and will find success beyond the corporate market in 2006.
  3. The Indianapolis Colts will win the Superbowl.
  4. 2006 will finally be the year of Internet connected devices that make sense, are inexpensive, and are adopted widely. I am thinking of devices like digital cameras, little tablets for living room access, etc.
  5. Toyota will overtake General Motors as the world’s largest automaker, and GM shares will continue to plummet.
  6. Sony will launch the Playstation 3, but due to incredibly high prices, it will not match the success of it’s predecessor, nor the Xbox 360, except in Japan.
  7. The Ottawa Senators will win the Stanley Cup (at least I hope so, if Edmonton can’t).
  8. Windows Vista will RTM in September. Apple fans will claim too much is copied from OS X, and Linux fans will come out with roadmaps to copy all the functionality found in Vista.
  9. We’ll see a new Halo game (Halo 3 maybe) for the Xbox 360 sometime around November.
  10. iTunes and iPod will begin to lose their grip on the digital music market.
  11. Apple will successfully launch their Intel based machines and their market share will reach 6%.
  12. Michael Schumacher will win his 8th world drivers championship and then retire.
  13. A major security/antivirus/antispyware company will launch a lawsuit against Microsoft over Windows Vista, Windows OneCare, or other competing products.
  14. Movies, television shows, and other forms of video content will be sold in big numbers online in 2006, with almost every major content company taking part.
  15. Someone is going to buy TiVo before the year is over.
  16. The Liberals will once again win the upcoming Canadian election.
  17. It’s not really my prediction, but I agree with John Battelle who thinks Google will stumble in 2006.
  18. The Da Vinci Code will be in the top three movies at the boxoffice.
  19. The United States will invade Iran.

And in my final prediction, I am going to disagree with Jason Calacanis, who made the following prediction on December 27th:

12. No podcasting company will have any significant success in 2006, but a number of podcasters will be offered great jobs at Sirius and XM Radio.

I am going to predict that at least one company will be successful in 2006, and I fully intend to have Paramagnus be that company!