Before I get started with this week’s notes, I have to mention the MacT Relief Fund. Yes, you can make a donation to help MacT, the head coach of the Oilers who was fined $10,000 for his comments about McGeough’s blunder the other night. Fittingly, if MacT doesn’t want the money, it will go to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. It sickens me that McGeough is getting off so easy. His actions the other night simply are not acceptable for a professional level official. By doing nothing, the NHL is basically saying that it’s okay for officials to make calls without a clear view, from locations on the ice where you couldn’t possibly see the play. It completely sucks, and fining MacT is not the right course of action.

• I don’t think I’m a germaphobe (or mysophobe to be technically correct) but I do like to have Purell around. I was pretty surprised to read today about an entire industry devoted to helping you go through life with the least amount of germ-contact possible.
• I, for one, welcome the new Amazon.com that Jeff Bezos is building. Screw what Wall Street thinks – bring on the nextgen web services!
• Did you know Bob Barker is finally retiring? Sad, isn’t it? I found this list of the top 10 things we’ll miss about Mr. Barker pretty funny.
• Guy Kawasaki is right – this blog post at The Amateur Gourmet is one of the best posts I’ve ever seen.
• Saddam has been sentenced to death, and not everyone agrees with that decision. I do not have a definite opinion on the death penalty itself, but I don’t think it would be a wise choice in this situation. It can only lead to more unrest.
• Looks like Alberta students are getting a big break on tuition.

Mini Review: The Prestige
Sharon and I went to see The Prestige last night. I enjoyed it, but you have to pay attention. The film jumps around quite a bit, so at times it is hard to tell what is present day, and what is happening in the past. I totally didn’t figure it out until the very end though, so I was happy about that. Of course, once the movie is over, you feel like an idiot because the clues were there the whole time. David Bowie really impressed me, despite having a fairly small part. On the whole, I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Did you remember to switch your clocks back an hour? Daylight savings time has ended! What’s with all the snow?! Here are my weekly notes:

• I really love Twitter. For the longest time I had planned to create a “notes” blog – a place where I could post random thoughts and stuff. Turns out Twitter does just about everything I need! On the right side of my blog you can see my latest “note”, and I can update it from the web, via instant messenger, or using my phone. It’s great!
• Do you use “the google”? President Bush does.
• I’m looking forward to Wednesday evening. Dickson and I are presenting in the VenturePrize seminar series. Should be fun!
• Smart rabbits. Who knew?
• I find it very unlikely, but it looks there just might be a resurgence in mainframe use.
• Thanks Megan for the ticket to the Oiler game last night. Too bad Alex the Great didn’t score, but I’m happy Roli got the shutout!
• Time recently had a very interesting America By The Numbers cover story. I think it is their first cover story made up primarily of graphics. Some fascinating stats.
• Four midterms down, one to go! Plus a paper. I can’t wait for the term to end.

Favorite songs at the moment:
“So Excited” by Janet Jackson featuring Khia
“Come to Me” by P Diddy featuring Nicole Scherzinger

This week is going to be incredibly busy for me! I have two midterms and a trip to Vancouver, among other things.

• Paramagnus has been selected to present at the 20th Angel Forum in Vancouver on Tuesday. There will be over 90 investors in attendance, and we have just 14 minutes for the presentation and questions. It should be interesting!
• Interesting article about Microsoft and the new Computer Architecture Group.
• Leesa Barnes has the best explanation for why the Starbucks podcast failed. She totally nails it.
• It appears Wal-Mart is ready to start selling groceries here in Canada. We’re talking fresh produce and everything. Hopefully they show up out west too.
• I didn’t really like the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks when it came out, but I think I have warmed up to it now. Of course, as soon as the Xmas drinks come out, I’ll stick to those!

Mini-Review: The Departed
I went to see The Departed last night with Megan and Sharon at South Common. While similar to Infernal Affairs, you can’t compare the two. Obviously they will be similar as they are based on the same screenplay, but they are made by different directors so they should be different too. I thought “Gangs of New York” was pretty good, but The Departed is far better. Probably Scorsese’s best work. The cast was excellent, but especially Leonardo DiCaprio. Maybe a little long at two and half hours, but worth every minute. I highly recommend it!

Here are my weekly notes:

• My Dad was in town for the weekend – it was good to see him. It was probably the first time that he has visited and not driven at all! I picked him up from the airport, and Kim drove us around in her new 2006 Honda Civic Sedan! Her car is pretty sweet, I have to admit.
• Will Internet Explorer 7 be released this week? That’s the word on the virtual street. The IE team wants you to be ready.
• How much juice does your blog have? Mine scores a 3.0!
• In my opinion, the Edmonton Opera does a much better job of reaching out to young people than the Edmonton Public Library does.
• In case you’re wondering, and I know some of you are, my parents are officially moving to YK this weekend. They’re packing up and driving the dempster highway for the last time (probably the last time anyway).

Favorite song at the moment:
“My Love” by Justin Timberlake

Movie I want to see most:
“The Departed“

Still reading:
“The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time” by Jeffrey Sachs

It has been a couple of weeks since I last made a “notes” post. I guess that’s what happens when you’re in the middle of launching a product and travelling to a trade show! Anyway, here are this week’s notes:

• I got my Moo cards in the mail! Wanna make your own? Go here.
• Allergic to cats but want one anyway? If you can get approved, try purchasing one of these genetically modified, hypoallergenic cats! I’m a dog person myself.
• Remember hearing a while back about that ringtone that only people under 30 years of age could hear? Well the inventor won the Ig Nobel Peace Prize for it.
• Rexall has donated a bunch of money to the University of Alberta for the pharmacy program. Daryl Katz is good like that.
• Do you hate partial text feeds? Want full text feeds only? Sign the petition! Not sure what the hell I am talking about? Read this.
• This look at a Chinese military site is a little old, but interesting nonetheless. Makes you wonder what else China could be up to!
• Anyone know anything about Jesus Camp? Seems to be stirring up quite the controversy.
• Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians!

Favorite songs at the moment:
High Energy Song: “Ready to Fall” by Rise Against
Low Energy Song: “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol
Random Song: “Anything” by JoJo (it samples heavily from Toto’s “Africa”)

Currently reading:
“The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time” by Jeffrey Sachs

Recently read:
“The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki
I finished the book on the plane on the way to Ontario, CA for the Portable Media Expo. I thought the book was great, but that’s not surprising, because the main idea he presents is just so darn intriguing. I highly recommend this book.

Time for my weekly notes again!

• We’re launching tonite! Yay!
• Congratulations Chu and Michelle on your engagement! Here are some photos from our small get together the other day.
• Andrea and Felicia are in London. They are travelling Europe for a month. I’m not jealous. No really.
• Apple to trademark the word podcast? What a bunch of morons. I wonder if their PR department will do some damage control this week.
• What a cool way to visualize the blogosphere!
• I got a postcard in the mail from the fine folks producing the Jackass 2 movie a couple weeks ago. They wanted to know my shoe size, so I emailed it to them. And to my surprise, they sent me Jackass 2 shoes! Coolest swag ever! You can see them here.

Damn it’s cold outside! Here are my weekly notes:

• Winter is definitely on the way. There’s too much yellow outside already!
• Podcast Spot is looking pretty spiffy if I do say so myself! It will be public late this week if all goes according to plan. Brad Gibson was kind enough to mention Podcast Spot in his latest Bradcast. Thanks Brad and welcome back to the podosphere!
• Like Kyle, I attended the first Edmonton on Rails meeting on Thursday. Here’s a photo of our small get together.
• Here in the best province in Canada (you know it’s true) we’ve experienced a 43% rise in GDP between 2002 and 2005. “That puts Alberta’s growth rate not far behind that of China’s.” Pretty crazy! China is of course far and away the fastest growing large economy in the world.
• Cold weather means hockey! As I write this, the Oilers are beating Phoenix 3-0 at the start of the third period in tonight’s first pre-season game. They’ve got Torres, Peterson and Lupul on a line together.
• It seems everyone is talking about the new iPod Nanos, which I admit, are pretty cool. Even more cool is that they have really good recording capabilities now!
• You can find some very interesting stuff in China. Like this building, designed to look like a cell, complete with mitochondria and everything. Kinda creepy, no?

Here are my weekly notes:

• In some ways I find it hard to believe that is has been five years since 9/11. Yet in other ways, it seems as though it happened just yesterday. I suppose that feeling of disorientation is normal with such a poignant event.
• Do you love putting people on the spot? Asking the tough questions? Now’s your chance! Tris Hussey of Qumana is running for a position on the CIRA board (they look after domains in Canada). You’ve got until Thursday to post your questions on their forum. Tris is a great guy, and I know he’ll do a fine job if elected.
• Here’s an excellent article on Sony and the position in which the company finds itself. Business people like to use the phrase “we’re betting the company on this”, even if they don’t mean it. Sony however, really does seem to be betting the company on the PS3. Not that I think Sony will go away if the PS3 flops or anything, but the PS3 could be the difference between a resurgent and successful Sony and a “let’s take a step back and evaluate everything to almost start over” Sony.
• I’m a big fan of del.icio.us, so I was happy to see founder Joshua Schachter was named the Technology Review’s 2006 Innovator of the Year.
• The audio enhancements that have gone into Windows Vista look incredible.
• Hungry? Check out this gigantic hamburger. The final, assembled burger weighed in at 29.75 pounds.

Here are my weekly notes for the first Sunday of September:

• As soon as this post is done, we’re going to publish a bunch of changes for Podcast Spot and send out more tester accounts! We’re a little late sending the accounts out, but we took the extra time to implement some new features 🙂
• There were two, count ’em two, articles on CNET this week (here and here) about fiber optics improving lighting technology. Is the lightbulb dead? Probably not for a while.
• An interesting retrospective on President Bush and 9/11 from The Economist.
• Tom leaves for Red Deer tomorrow! We went down this weekend to sort out his place, so he has somewhere to live now. And his room has the largest non-walk-in closet I have ever seen! Good luck Tom! Oh, and study hard and all that jazz 😉
• Message to Kim: are you reading this? are your residents treating you well? getting any sleep?
• Message for Megan: where oh where is Megan’s favorite book!? If you have it, let her know! (wouldn’t it be awesome if someone actually read this and gave her back her book? haha…unless I have it…probably not gonna happen.)
• Not sure when it was announced, but I stumbled across the Web 2.0 Expo this past week. Looks interesting!
• Most awesome music video ever!

It’s been a very busy day, which for me started at 5:30 this morning. Here are some notes:

• Dad came and went this weekend. He was here getting some stuff for the new house in Yellowknife!
• I’ve been at J&M’s most of the day today, helping them pack and prepare for their year long trip to Salzburg. They’ve got a blog too, so check it out! Tomorrow’s the big day.
• Dickson returns tomorrow. He’s going to help me move, and we’re going to do some big updates to Podcast Spot this week too! I’m really excited for adding more testers and features/updates.
• I am not, however, excited for my last year of University which starts on the 6th. I think.
• And here’s at least one non-personal item – Google is launching a new service that sounds a lot like Office Live.