Notes for 1/13/2008

Here are my weekly notes:

  • Went to see the movie Juno last night, and loved it! Ellen Page is such a great actress. Highly recommended.
  • I picked up my new camera this week. I decided, once again, on the Canon SD870 IS. That 3 inch LCD is just so beautiful!
  • Perhaps the biggest tech story of the week was Gizmodogate. Personally, I think what Gizmodo did was crap. That’s why I read Engadget 😉
  • Torrent site Mininova has turned three years old! They had a heck of a year, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
  • A 41 year old blogger in China was beaten to death this week by government officials for attempting to film a confrontation with villagers using his cell phone. One official has been fired so far, and the investigation is ongoing.
  • Via Larry Borsato I learned of the Facebook group started by some Tim Horton’s employees that attempts to teach customers the "rules" for ordering. Larry points out that Starbucks understands the importance of making every experience a great one. Just this week one of the two drinks I ordered during a trip to Starbucks was missed, so the barista gave me a coupon for a free one. At Tim Horton’s, would I have been berated for ordering incorrectly?
  • There’s a good series of posts at River City Writer covering Reasons to Leave Edmonton. Definitely worth a read (and some thought). You may also be interested in my Why not move to Edmonton? post from July.
  • Believe it or not, employees of Amazon.com currently work in offices scattered all around Seattle. It’ll be another two years before they are all in the same place, a new $1.5 billion complex the company is building.
  • I really wish I could order coffee at Starbucks like this.

There has been a ton of discussion this week about podcasting, mostly as a result of this post at Mashable. I haven’t written anything about it yet, but I will. I’ve been collecting articles and giving it some thought.

Telus Mobility switching to GSM?

Post Image It’s a headline I never thought I’d read – Telus considers dumping is ‘Betamax’ of wireless networks. Apparently executives are taking a look at how feasible it is to move from the current CDMA standard to the more widely used GSM. As a Telus Mobility subscriber this is exciting news! I’m not holding my breath though.

The idea "has been presented at the board level and is being actively considered," said one source familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified. The source cautioned that there were no guarantees Telus will go ahead with a changeover, which analysts say could cost about $500 million.

The Rogers network is the only GSM one in Canada at the moment, with both Telus and Bell operating on CDMA. There are significant advantages to being on GSM – most new phones are launched for it first (such as the RAZR and iPhone) and Telus could get a cut of the roaming fees that Rogers collects.

Seems to me that if they were going to do this, they should have done it years ago. The article points out that "4G" networks are on the way, though no one knows how many years it will be until a standard is adopted. It would suck if Telus switched to GSM, only to have to build out a 4G network soon thereafter.

Read: TheStar.com

UPDATE (10/6/2009): The new HSPA+ network built by Telus and Bell will be live in November, when both carriers will start selling the iPhone.

MCD vs. SBUX

Post Image I love McDonald’s. Have ever since I was a kid. If I have to choose between McDonald’s and another fast food joint, I’ll choose McDonald’s almost every time. I don’t go there because the food is healthy, and I don’t go there because the environment is relaxing and enjoyable. I go there because the food is inexpensive, convenient, and consistent. I love the double cheeseburger, and it never lets me down. Oh and the fries, you simply can’t go wrong with McDonald’s fries!

I also love Starbucks. Not since I was a kid mind you, but I can still remember the first time my parents took me there. I had a Caramel Macchiato, and fell in love with both the drink and the place. These days I have a grande drip coffee every morning, though I still enjoy the Macchiato and other “signature” beverages from time to time (probably more often than I should). Like McDonald’s, Starbucks is convenient and consistent, but it also offers a wonderful experience.

McDonald’s is the largest restaurant chain in the world, with well over 30,000 locations scattered across the globe. In his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Freidman noted that “no two countries that both had a McDonald’s had fought a war against each other, since each got its McDonald’s.” (there are two exceptions to this). To me this says two things. First, the rise of McDonald’s is fairly recent. Second, it’s everywhere, and it seems impossible for another chain to become as pervasive.

Starbucks likes to tackle problems that seem impossible, such as selling $4 lattes and running two successful stores across the street from one another. As Taylor Clark notes in his book Starbucked, the only company that has a realistic shot at surpassing the presence of McDonald’s is Starbucks. Currently there are over 15,000 locations worldwide, more than half of which are owned entirely by the company (McDonald’s outlets on the other hand are franchised). That’s not bad considering that McDonald’s had a 30-year head start!

Why am I writing about these two companies? Well each is fascinating on its own, but put them together in a global battle for food and beverage supremacy, and you’ve got something that’s especially interesting! And that is what appears to be happening:

McDonald’s Corp’s plan to expand the beverage lineup at its U.S. restaurants with cappuccinos, lattes and other drinks is expected to add $1 billion to annual sales…

McDonald’s has even added a “barista” position in its restaurants and dedicated a section of counter space to the automated espresso machines so customers can see the drinks being made, spokeswoman Danya Proud said.

It was last year that Starbucks decided they would start offering food in addition to coffee. None of the outlets I regularly visit offer breakfast, despite the company making a big push back in July (perhaps that was mostly in the US).

So are the two on a collision course? I don’t think so. I pretty much agree with this Time piece. Even though the clientele at Starbucks is diversifying, it’s hard to envision one company stealing customers from the other, at least not in great numbers. Besides, you’d think the two would cancel out – McDonald’s gains a few new coffee customers, Starbucks gains a few new food customers. Check out this Economist article for more.

For me at least, there is very little overlap between the two (as I tried to point out in the first two paragraphs above). I don’t visit McDonald’s at the expense of Starbucks, nor do I visit Starbucks at the expense of McDonald’s. And even if their respective menus started looking more alike, I can’t imagine that it would change anything for me.

That said, it’s an interesting battle that will be fun to watch over the next few years!

Coming soon: Clean up your Facebook profile

Post Image Apparently Facebook is gearing up to release a "profile clean-up" tool that, if enabled, will only keep a user’s top 12 applications on the main profile page, and will move the rest to an extended profile. They say they are implementing this feature in response to user feedback:

As time has gone on, we’ve received increased complaints from users that friends’ profiles are getting too cluttered, and that people are having trouble finding the information they are looking for on their friends’ profiles. On the other side, users are complaining that their own profiles are cluttered, and they have installed so many applications that it has become overwhelming to un-clutter it.

I can see how this fixes the latter problem, but how exactly does this help the user looking for their friend’s wall? As I understand it, the clean-up tool is an optional thing, meaning that unless a user cleans up their profile, it will still be overloaded as hell. I can think of more than a few friends who desperately need to get rid of their thousand applications. I don’t visit their profiles anymore, because it has become nearly impossible to do so!

What I’d really like is a "hide all applications across the site" button. Not that they’d ever give me that, but I can dream can’t I? Heck, while I’m at it an "automatically ignore all application requests" button would be nice too. Get on that will you Zuckerberg? And let me know when it’s done – kthxbye!

For more, check out ReadWriteWeb and FaceReviews.

Read: Facebook

Jaiku needs to do something quick!

Post ImageLike many others, I’ve noticed that Jaiku hasn’t been working correctly in recent weeks. It is slow, and the API has been really unreliable, as I noted on Sunday (on Twitter of course). You’ll recall that Google bought Jaiku back in October, and sadly, it hasn’t been the same since.

The main advantage (for me) that Jaiku had over Twitter was that it was incredibly reliable. I coded the "My Status" widget that appears on the right side of my blog to use Twitter originally, but switched to Jaiku after I realized how unreliable Twitter was. This week though, I switched back – because Jaiku is the unreliable one now.

Company founder Jyri posted a note yesterday, acknowledging the neglect and assuring us that good things are on the way. That’s a step in the right direction, and I’m glad the Jaiku team got some R&R over the holidays, but what if it’s too little, too late?

Here’s why Twitter works better for me:

  • There are way more people on Twitter, and it’s pretty easy to discover new people that might be interesting to follow.
  • Twitter’s mobile site is far better than Jaiku’s. I’ve always got Twitter Mobile open on my iPod touch, and it works great.
  • Twitter works with my cell phone. I’ve never been able to get Jaiku to work. Maybe it doesn’t like Canadian numbers or something.
  • Far more third party sites and utilities work with Twitter.
  • I much prefer the @username system that Twitter has over the "proper" comment system that Jaiku has.

I hope the Google/Jaiku team can make progress on Jaiku this year. It would be great for Twitter to have some solid competition (and no, Facebook doesn’t count).

How about you – do you use both? Which do you like better and why?

Read: Jaiku Blog

NewsGator Goes Free

Post Image NewsGator announced today that effective immediately, all of its consumer software and services are completely free! That includes NewsGator Online, FeedDemon, Inbox, NetNewsWire, and a bunch of other applications. From Greg Reinacker’s post:

But I can hear you asking already…"why, Greg, why would you do such a thing?"

What we’re working to do is to saturate the market with our clients. Anyone who wants a rich experience for consuming content, or anyone who uses multiple computers or devices and wants a best-of-breed experience on each can now use our clients. Using a Mac at home, along with an iPhone? NetNewsWire and our iPhone reader will sync up. Have a PC at the office? FeedDemon will sync with your other two applications. And they’ll all sync with NewsGator Online. It all just works.

He goes on to explain that their strategy is to sell more copies of NewsGator Enterprise Server (NGES) along with other enterprise software and that the sell is easier when everyone already uses the consumer apps. Makes a certain amount of sense.

I’ve paid for a NewsGator subscription in the past, but lately I’ve become quite the Google Reader convert. I still think the synchronization story that NewsGator offers is awesome though, and I may have to give FeedDemon another try now that it’s free. I do miss the ability to take content offline.

If you’re in the market for a new aggregator (or family of aggregators) this is as good a reason as any to give NewsGator a try.

Read: Greg Reinacker

Ed Stelmach not afraid to sue

Post Image The big political news today of course, is the New Hampshire primary (as I write this, CNN has projected McCain for the Republicans and shows Clinton and Obama in a tight race). But there’s a different political story I want to share with you, one that hits a little closer to home.

From the CBC:

[Alberta] Premier Ed Stelmach is ready to take legal action against a university student who bought the rights to the domain name edstelmach.ca.

On Dec. 3, [Dave] Cournoyer received a letter from Stelmach’s lawyers, accusing him of stealing the premier’s persona. It demands that the blogger hand over the domain and the advertising revenue generated from it to Stelmach or face litigation.

Legal squabbles over domain names happen all the time. Usually they are handled a little better however, especially when a politician is involved. I didn’t have a very high opinion of Stelmach before this little debacle, so how do you think I feel about him now? His first reaction is to sue?

I can’t say it any better than Cournoyer himself:

Though I am still surprised that the +150 staffed Public Affairs Bureau failed to complete the simple task of registering a $14.00 domain name, I am even more surprised that Premier Ed Stelmach’s first reaction in this situation was to threaten to sue an 24-year old blogger and debt ridden University of Alberta student.

Might as well play the student card if you can. Daveberta (as Cournoyer is known) says he is seeking advice from legal counsel.

Read: CBC News

Notes for 1/6/2008

Let me begin with a quote from The Matrix Reloaded. Neo uses the word "hope" just before exiting through the door on his left, prompting The Architect to say:

Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.

Think about that when you get all excited for Barack Obama and his platform of hope.

Here are my weekly notes:

Going to Northern Voice 2008

Post ImageMegan and I just registered for Northern Voice 2008, once again taking place at the Forestry Sciences Centre on UBC’s main campus in Vancouver. This is the fourth year the conference has taken place, and its the fourth year in a row we’ve attended. Dickson has joined us twice, but I don’t think he’ll be coming this year. Sharon came with us last year, and I think it scared her off. I asked if she wanted to come this year, and she just laughed at me! Ah well, it’s not for everyone I guess.

Here are my "I’m registered" posts from 2007, 2006, and 2005. Each year I’ve done a little more than just attend (was a panel member once, did recording twice) but this year that changes. I’m looking forward to a less stressful experience, and I know Megan is too 🙂

If you’d like to register, you can do so here.

Read: Northern Voice