Kudos Symantec

Post ImageI’d be remiss if I didn’t give props to Symantec today. It seems that Google, Sun, and many of Microsoft’s other so-called competitors could learn a thing or two from the security firm. Instead of whining to the government, Symantec plans to innovate and compete with Microsoft:

John Thompson vowed that it would put more resources into research and development over the coming the year, speaking to reporters at the Symantec’s annual Vision conference here.

“Our strategy is to out-innovate Microsoft. We know more about security than they ever will,” Thompson said.

How refreshing to hear that a company is going to compete against Microsoft for once!

Read: CNET News.com

Notes for 5/7/2006

You know the drill:

  • For all you Internet Explorer users: you might have noticed, the arrows on the right sometimes showed up distorted. Well, it shouldn’t happen any more, I think I finally got it fixed this weekend.
  • Damn Oilers couldn’t get it done tonight, they didn’t play very well. Next game is tomorrow night at 8:30 PM. Schumacher won the F1 race this morning though!
  • Yesterday was my brother’s birthday. We ended up watching Eurotrip (which I had seen before) and Waiting (which I hadn’t). I have to say, Waiting was awesome!
  • Definitely a highlight this past week for me was getting published in the National Post.
  • Along with Megan, Riva, and Greg I saw Mission: Impossible 3 on Friday (opening) night. It was pretty good, giving me everything I expected – Tom Cruise getting beat up, lots of explosions, etc. And unlike the previous two in this series, MI3 actually had a story (however typical) besides the outrageous stunts!
  • Lots of driving this weekend…I wish the price of gas would come down!
  • I can’t wait til Thurdsay for the season finale of Smallville. Last week’s episode was INTENSE, so this week should be incredible! I’ll never make it through the summer…
  • Just installed the new beta of Windows Live Messenger yesterday – it’s awesome! Apparently there won’t be many changes from now until release, so it should be available soon.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Today is my brother’s birthday, making him “bar age” in the Northwest Territories, not that you’d want to go drinking there but that’s another story. We went to the reptile show today, which was kind of cool though not as big as I remember it being the last time I went. Tom has a few snakes back in Inuvik and has always liked reptiles and lizards and things. You can check out some pictures here (they were quick shots without a flash, so a few are fuzzy).

After the show we came to the office to play some Madden on the Xbox 360 – I was winning by two touchdowns when the Xbox restarted because the cord on the power box had come loose (thats what I get for having cords all over the place). It’s just as well, Tom probably would have made some spectacular comeback!

So we’re partying it up tonight! If you want to come, give me a call on my cell and I’ll give you the address. Things will probably get underway around 8 or 9.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Corel buys WinZip

Post ImageThe last time I wrote about Canadian software company Corel, I mentioned that they struck me as a company “without focus, or at least, too many different focuses.” But don’t take my word for it, just look at their most recent announcement. Larry Borsato explains:

Corel, the makers of all of that once great software that nobody uses now like WordPerfect, has acquired WinZip. I must have a sixth sense about this sort of thing because I stopped using WinZip a couple of months ago and switched to WinRAR.

I just got my new computer all setup this week (more on that later) and what do you know! Like Larry, I too only have WinRAR installed, no WinZip for me. Whew, that was a close one. Any idea why Corel would buy WinZip? I don’t see how it fits with their company…but maybe its just me.

Read: Larry Borsato

Published in the National Post

Post ImageI was asked a few weeks ago if I’d be interested in writing something for the May issue of the Financial Post Business Magazine. I guess the editor is a happy subscriber of this blog 😉 Of course, how could I refuse such an opportunity?! So I happily put together an article, which was included in the special report on telecom in this month’s edition, on podcasting and how it affects business and communications:

Business could be using podcasting for everything from audio press releases to customer relations. What’s it waiting for?

It’s easy to see why podcasting could revolutionize day-to-day communications. The tools and services that make it easy to create a podcast are coming, from companies like Paramagnus and our competitors. Online directories and software applications like Apple’s iTunes already make it simple to find and subscribe to podcasts. And the simpler it gets, the more people will take advantage of this powerful tool.

Beyond that, podcasting has business applications ranging from audio and video press releases, to offering tips and tricks on using the company’s products, to internally podcasting company news for employees. Podcasting is more than just the new millennium’s version of ham radio; it is a complete communications solution. When you think of it as something other than a new and geeky technology, the many different ways podcasting can affect your daily life become not only extremely obvious, but awfully exciting.

The entire piece is about 800 words, so the two paragraphs I posted above are just a snippet (but are the main idea behind the article). I had fun writing it, so I hope you enjoy reading it too!

Read: FP Business

Jeff Martin in Edmonton

Post ImageFor those of you who don’t know, and I admit I didn’t realize it at first, Jeff Martin is the former lead singer of The Tea Party who now has his own solo project. I guess he had reached a point in his life where the dark music of The Tea Party didn’t match up with the joy of everything else (his wife, his new baby boy, etc). Anyway, he played a show last night at Red’s here in Edmonton, which Megan and I attended.

And as it turns out, we were among the few who did attend! As Jeff himself remarked, the show seemed to be “Edmonton’s best kept secret”. At the end of the show, he said he was going to beat the promoter, but that the show turned out to be “intimate and beautiful.” And it was. He is an amazing musician, with a voice that is just so distinct and intriguing. Even though he’s moved on, he has the perfect kind of voice for The Tea Party’s style of music.

Most of the songs he played were from his new album, titled “Exile and the Kingdom”, and each one had an interesting story behind it. Turns out he’s one of the happiest rock stars ever (Megan’s words, not mine) with joyful new music, and a very upbeat “thank you very much” a la Elvis after each song and applause. It was actually a very entertaining show!

Also entertaining was the opening act, Sonic City. At first we thought it was a joke, as their guitarist (Danny Sveinson) looks like he’s twelve years old! And it turns out, he’s only about 14 (I think). But don’t let his age fool you, the kid is absolutely amazing.

Read: Jeff Martin

CBC Radio Podcasts

Post ImageCBC has launched their updated podcasting initiative, with a broader array of content, an updated website, and regional podcasts. Tod Maffin explains:

It’s taken many months of planning, training, software development, and consultation — but I’m finally pleased to announce that CBC Radio is now making an unprecedented number of programs available for free download or subscription, including “best of” editions from THE CURRENT, DISPATCHES, DEFINITELY NOT THE OPERA, IDEAS, OUTFRONT, AS IT HAPPENS plus comprehensive highlight packages of regionally-based radio programs.

This is really great news for Canada and for CBC – I’m really happy that our national broadcaster is now one of the world’s leaders with regards to podcasting. You can check out all of the shows at the new website, http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/. If you’re in Alberta, you can subscribe to the new “Alberta This Week” show here.

Read: Tod Maffin

Browser Extensions

Post ImageAs I mentioned before, I have been testing Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2. As part of my testing, I have been using it almost exclusively. Turns out, some pages simply do not render in IE7! Sometimes this is because the rendering engine has changed so much, other times its because of crappy programming on the part of the web developer. In any case, I found that I needed to load these pages in Firefox (sounds eerily familiar to when I started using Firefox way back when and had to view pages in IE).

I have had the IEView extension for Firefox installed forever – it lets you right click on a page or link and display it in Internet Explorer. Today I came across FirefoxView, which as the name suggests, lets you right click a page or link in IE to display in Firefox. I love it! The only strange thing? It’s a Firefox extension that adds things to IE – go figure!

I am starting to think my friend Kevin was right. We chatted last week about the two browsers and he remarked that unless IE had extensions like Firefox, there was no reason for him to switch. I have to admit, I wish IE had extensions like Firefox.

Grow up Google!

Post ImageSometimes companies do things that just leave you baffled. There’s lots of commentary out there that suggests Google is taking the evil away from Microsoft, and the latest bit of news seems to support that. Apparently Google is not happy with Microsoft’s new browser and the way it features MSN Search:

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer, the vice president for search products at Google. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

So now they are lobbying the government, expressing concern about competition in the search business. Are you kidding me? First of all, it’s dead easy to change the default search provider in IE7 to Google (or anything else for that matter). Secondly, are they totally forgetting that they made a deal with Firefox to be the default seach provider (and start page too) in that browser? Or that they pay a lot of Mozilla’s employees? I mean seriously.

If you’re going to complain about something, at least make sure you’re not doing the very thing you’re complaining about. All too often Microsoft’s competitors run to the government. It’s kind of sad, really.

UPDATE: As this post explains, MSN Search is not the default search provider after all!

Read: CNET News.com

Notes for 4/30/2006

I didn’t get around to posting any notes yesterday, so here they are:

  • Edmonton has a chance to knock off Detroit tonight in Game 6 here at Rexall! Go Oilers Go!
  • My Dad was down this weekend, for the last time for a while. He’s been traveling a lot lately for work, but he’s done now until later in the summer. I’m sure he’ll be posting more about his trip, so stay tuned.
  • Kim went back to the snow in Inuvik this morning! She’s working for the summer in the frozen north, so no flip flops or digital cell service (and thus no text messaging) for her. I just got back from driving her to the airport. Have a good summer Kim!
  • Dickson and I should be getting our new computers this week! We just got webcams too, so we can test out video podcasting.
  • I’ve been using IE7 Beta 2 as my main browser lately, and I find myself missing Firefox for certain things. That tells me that IE7 isn’t ready for primetime yet.
  • Allergies suck.