Category: Uncategorized

Tracking the money

Post ImageI am really disturbed by the incredibly large number of people who immediately scream “donate” when a major disaster like Hurricane Katrina occurs. Even worse are the individuals that also start criticising companies who do not immediately announce a relief effort. It’s as if an individual or company’s worth during a disaster is measured by how much money they can donate; either directly themselves, or indirectly by getting everyone else they know to donate. Here’s a post by Rex Hammock:

Perhaps symbolic of the collective delay in responding to Katrina has been how Amazon.com has responded. Universally praised for turning over its front page to tsunami relief almost immediately, Amazon.com did not add a donation link of any size to its front page until three days after the hurricane. Today, six days after, the dominant position of the Amazon.com front page is finally devoted to Katrina relief. This is not a criticism of Amazon’s response, rather a curious observation of how there was an apparent initial disbelief by lots of people that an unprecedented tragedy of historic proportions was unfolding. (I’ll reserve my criticism for Apple, who has hyped the Mighty Mouse in the dominant position all week.)

So he’s not criticising – but why say anything about Amazon.com’s delay at all? All a post like that does is perpetuate the myth that a disaster is an excellent time for a PR war. It’s sad.

I am more concerned that any money that is donated is actually being used for relief efforts. I don’t care that a major company hasn’t donated money – I care that the money other companies have already donated is being spent properly.

Here’s an idea for the future – a website that tracks the money! If two dollars is donated to the Red Cross for example, I should be able to go on the website and see where that two dollars was spent. It should be trivial to see if the billions of dollars that are donated in a disaster are actually spent accordingly. Unfortunately, I think we’re a long way from achieving this.

Helping Kim Move

Post ImageHaven’t been around much the last couple days as I’ve been busy helping Kimmi move into residence at Grant MacEwan. It’s funny how you don’t realize just how much effort it takes, and just how much stuff you actually have. I don’t think I have ever owned as many clothes as Kim does right now!

The residence itself is very nice – minus the concrete floors that make your feet black. There is room for 900 students total in bachelor, two-bedroom and four-bedroom configurations, and the building is currently home to 600 students. I’d expect it to fill up pretty quickly though. Kim is in a two-bedroom, so she shares a bathroom and kitchenette with a roommate. They don’t have an oven, but they do have a stovetop and a microwave, and let’s be honest, you really only need a microwave anyway! You can see the pictures here.

There are some pretty strict rules about having guests and that sort of thing, so I am not sure how often I’ll actually be there. I also think it’s funny that they are only allowed to have 9 sleepovers per semester. What kind of number is that? Why not just make it an even ten? I don’t get it. At first I thought it was dumb to have such a rule at all, but then I remembered one of those facts of life that I look forward to one day when I am a father – you live under my roof, you live by my rules!

Read: Pictures

The MsgPlus Petition

Post ImageI just got an alert in MSN Messenger saying that MsgPlus, the popular add-in which I have installed, needed my support. With my curiousity piqued, I clicked on the alert, and found myself at a petition page. From the explanation that precedes the actual petition letter:

In a recent update of Microsoft Anti-Spyware, the threat level of Messenger Plus! was lowered from 3/5 to 2/5, which was a good thing, however, the program itself, msgplus.exe, is now detected immediately at system startup or whenever run manually by the user, and the following message is displayed in bold red: “Warning, Messenger Plus! Software Bundler is trying to install!”. In addition to discouraging anybody in their right mind to click “Allow”, this message is, to put it simply, a lie. Messenger Plus! is not a “threat” and it certainly is not trying to “install itself on your computer”, it’s already been installed at this point and the program is just trying to run and do what the user expects it to do. Why is that important? because the main argument of Microsoft so far against this case has been “the policy of Microsoft Anti-Spyware is to flag all installers which bundle spyware/adware as being potentially dangerous”.

I really like MsgPlus, and I have been using it for a very long time. It is, in my opinion, one of the best software add-ins ever created, not just in terms of MSN Messenger, but in terms of all applications period. It integrates so smoothly and does exactly what you expect it to. I also really like Microsoft’s AntiSpyware. I used to be an Ad-Aware user, but I find AntiSpyware finds just as many threats, if not more, and integrates nicely into Windows XP. I also particularly like the warning messages and alerts that the program displays.

Having said all that, I can’t bring myself to sign the petition, and for a couple reasons. First off, MsgPlus does have the capability to install adware, so I don’t mind that AntiSpyware flags it as a potential threat. Secondly, I really don’t like how Patchou has positioned the petition as a “save MsgPlus” gimmick. I don’t believe for a second that AntiSpyware is enough of a problem to stop work on MsgPlus. Thirdly, and most importantly to me, I have run both applications side by side ever since AntiSpyware was released by Microsoft. The first time I ran a scan, it flagged MsgPlus, and I simply told AntiSpyware to always ignore it. I have never, ever encountered a problem, nor has MsgPlus ever been flagged again. I suppose another reason is that looking at this from Microsoft’s side, caving in to the demands of one developer could mean problems with other developers. Pretty soon all the effort is placed on appeasing developers instead of protecting consumers.

So that’s why I am not signing the petition. I am surprised to see that since August 17th, there have been 82,498 signatures. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Read: MsgPlus Petition

AlbertaSpirit – 100 Years!

Post ImageIt was a day of celebration in Alberta today, as the province celebrated it’s 100th birthday. I just got back from the AlbertaSpirit party, dubbed “The Party of the Century Event” (my crappy pictures are here). Hosted by figure skating legend Kurt Browning, the party featured:

There is something for everyone in this family affair as Alberta’s birthday gets into full swing. An evening of great entertainment will finish with a spectacular fireworks display. Entertainment includes: The Emeralds, Barrage, Adam Gregory, Bobby Curtola, the Kupalo Dancers and the Shumka Dancers.

Unfortunately we only made it down to the legislature grounds in time for the fireworks, which were extremely impressive! There was so many people there, and all around downtown Edmonton for that matter. I couldn’t help but wonder as we walked back what it was like in New Orleans when the hurricane first hit. In the incredible throngs of people tonight I lost my bearings, and everyone was in a jubilent mood – not a state of fear. Scary thought.

In any case, our province is now a century old. Happy Birthday Alberta!

Read: Alberta Centennial

Mayhem in New Orleans

Post ImageI just can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like in New Orleans right now. I complain about gas jumping a dime today here in Edmonton, meanwhile in New Orleans:

National Guard troops moved in force into this storm-ravaged city today as state and local officials struggled to reverse a growing sense of anarchy sparked by reports of armed looters, bodies floating untended in stagnant floodwaters, and food and water supplies dwindling for thousands of trapped and desperate residents.

Absolutely crazy. And the pictures are pretty intense too, just take a peek at Flickr.

Read: New York Times

Sharon – proof she's a gamer at heart!

Post Image You might recall that a few weeks ago I posted about how our good friend Sharon is a closet gamer. To refresh your memory:

When Sharon took the controls to play, it was like I had stepped into an alternate universe! She was so masterful at the famous side-scroller, she knew where all the coins and mushrooms and flowers were, all the secret passages, everything. Not only did she know the features of the game like the back of her hand, she had the timing down pat. And her hand-eye coordination was surprisingly good. In fact, she played so hard and so well, that I saw her head bob to the music. It was nuts!

Well, now I have more than simple text – I have a couple of photos! In the first, you can see Sharon is holding the NES controller. In the second, you can see she’s actually playing Mario. Enjoy!

Xbox 360 Stores

Post ImageLooks like Microsoft is getting serious about the Xbox 360 launch, with rumors of plans for two new Xbox 360 stores:

Looks like Microsoft is the last to get into the game with plans to open an Xbox 360 store in New York City’s Times Square. At least, rumour has it that they’re looking into prime real estate for that purpose. And by prime they may indeed truly mean prime, as in the 18,000 square-foot space that is One Times Square.

And the second store, in Tokyo:

The timing couldn’t be any better on this one — ITmedia snapped some pics of the construction shielding surrounding what they suppose is an Xbox 360 store.

I don’t know why a console needs its own store, and such a big one at that, but you have to admit it’s pretty cool 🙂

Read: Engadget

Kim is Back

Kimmi arrived safe and sound back in Edmonton tonight. Just in time too, as she told me that it is supposed to snow in Inuvik tomorrow! A few of us are planning to go see Red Eye tomorrow night at SouthEdCommon, probably the later show (10:40 PM). If you want to come, call me!

Bad auto luck continues!

Just a couple weeks after I got the new car,
I got nailed in the windshield by a rock thrown up from an oncoming
truck. I was pretty mad, first because it was so new, and second
because I do my best to keep the car in good shape. Just ask Megan, she’ll tell you how much I hate it when the car gets dirty. I am forever washing it.

Last night, or early this morning depending on how you look at it,
more bad news! I got back to the office around 2 or so, and everything
was fine. Then when I went outside to head home around 4, I drove a
couple of meters and realized that I had a flat tire. I could tell
immediately that something wasn’t quite right, and the car seemed to be
pulling to the right. Park the car and take a look, and BOTH my
passenger side tires were flat! I couldn’t believe it!

Anyway I called Honda Plus, the 24-hour roadside assistance to tow
my car to the dealership, as I obviously only have one spare. It took
long enough, but an AMA truck showed up, and the guy was really
helpful. He checked the tires, decided to put some air into them, and
finally decided I could probably drive home and be okay until the
dealership opens. He told me that all of my tires were actually low,
though they didn’t look or feel any lower before the two went flat. He
explained that he’s seen it happen often with aluminum wheels – anyone
else notice that?

So I am going to call Honda when they open in an hour or so, and see
if I can’t get it all fixed right away. You can hear the rear tire leak
air, not the front one though. It’s really a surprise to me, because I
haven’t driven anywhere out of the ordinary, or been street racing, or
anything.

And of course, all this less than a day before my sister arrives back in Edmonton!

UPDATE (10:20 AM): Everything is fixed now – though I still don’t
know exactly what caused it. Honda said there were two holes in the
back tire, one in the front. Thanks to Dickson for hanging around with
me early this morning in case I needed a ride. As he said to me around
5:00 am, “we’ve stayed up this late for much dumber reasons in the
past.” Sad, but true!

Why the WebOS won't happen!

Post ImageInteresting post by Jason Kottke on a so-called “WebOS”. Speculation about such an operating system, that is powered over the web, has always been around but seems to pick up whenever Google releases something new, like Google Desktop 2 last week. Granted, Jason does talk about having local applications too, but then I question how things are really different than what we currently have.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – it’s not going to happen! So, whenever you feel the urge to dream about an operating system powered completely over the web, just refer to this handy list of realities:

  • We don’t have “wireless everywhere”, so sometimes you need to be able to take content offline.
  • Games need horsepower – processors, memory, graphics, etc.
  • I can do a lot with photos on Flickr, but it’s not even close to replacing Photoshop. Applications like Photoshop need (extensive) local resources!
  • One interface is dumb! What about viewing my content on a mobile device? Or on a device with a tiny screen? Or in my kitchen? Or in my car? Accessing everything through a browser is absurd. Web services solve this problem by allowing many rich interfaces to use the same data, with a high level of code re-use.
  • Security, security, security! It’s a lot harder to secure everything when it’s all online!
  • Privacy, privacy, privacy! How can you really be sure no one else is looking? If the OS is on the Web, there’s no longer a power switch.

There are probably more reasons! Have any you’d like to add?

Read: Jason Kottke