Philadelphia Wireless

Post ImagePhiladelphia is being called the “poster child of the municipal wireless movement” with their citywide Wi-Fi network scheduled to be operational by next summer. If we want to get anywhere close to my “wireless anywhere” mantra, experiments like Philadelphia’s are an absolute must. I am looking forward to hearing how well things work in the city:

“Setting up a citywide network is definitely not as easy as putting up access points all over the place,” said Doug Schremp, chief technology officer of BTS Partners, a consulting firm that designs and deploys networks. “There are some technical issues that need to be addressed, and cities really need to look at the operational and business issues that come with building and owning their own network.”

More importantly, there are fears of wireless interference which would result in very unreliable connections. Apparently in testing, Philadelphia did not find any problems related to interference. Boston on the other hand, has seen major problems (look at the number of universities and colleges in the area to see why). I think there probably needs to be more testing done.

Hopefully we’ll see more of these citywide roll-outs when WiMax becomes popular, as it should help to decrease the cost of not only setting up the network, but also maintaining it. And as more networks go up, the problems associated will become more clear, and can then be solved. In any case, the Philadelphia network is very promising!

Read: CNET News.com

Calgary Tech

Post ImageAs you’re probably aware, I live in Edmonton, so I know all about the infamous and never-ending Battle of Alberta. And yes it totally sucked watching the Flames make it to the finals. While the battle between Edmonton and Calgary is usually thought of in terms of sports, I think it applies to other industries as well, like technology.

Why does Calgary seem so much more favorable to tech firms than Edmonton? Is it really that much closer to the States? Not really, so there must be another reason. While searching for electronics and robotics stuff today, Andrew and I discovered that there are far more related stores in Calgary than here in Edmonton. Heck even the Western Canadian Robot Games were held in Calgary at SAIT this year.

There is other stuff too! Like the programming competition that Dickson and I won back in January – that took place in Calgary, not Edmonton. A search on Google for Calgary gives 23,900,000 results while a similar search for Edmonton returns only 16,300,000 results. Google’s satellite maps show street level detail for Calgary, but not for Edmonton. Techvibes has 3 pages of technology companies for Edmonton, but 6 for Calgary!

I don’t know why, but we’re currently losing the technology battle of Alberta!

Website Design Seminar

Post ImageWant to learn website design? A few of you Edmonton-based folks have asked me about making web pages. Instead of trying to teach each of you individually, why not run a crash course in website design, at least to get you started? That’s what I am thinking anyway! A small seminar would be kinda fun I think 🙂

Admission would, of course, be a can of Coke. It could be as long or as short as you’d like. What I would do is give a brief history of websites, an introduction to the terminology, and show some of the programs that you might want to use. Then of course, we could get into the good stuff like HTML, CSS, and javascript! Of course, I’d be open to showing whatever you ask about – except Flash, because a) I suck and Flash and b) I think it goes against what the web is supposed to be.

Thoughts, comments? Would you come?

China Goes Shopping

Post ImageQuick – where is the world’s largest shopping mall? Nope, it is not Mall of America. Nor is it our very own West Edmonton Mall. The largest mall in the world is Beijing’s massive Golden Resources Mall, which measures a mind-boggling six million square feet. It opened last October, and is still growing:

How big is six million square feet? That mall, which is expected to cost $1.3 billion when completed, spans the length of six football fields and easily exceeds the floor space of the Pentagon, which at 3.7 million square feet is the world’s largest office building. It is a single, colossal five-story building – with rows and rows of shops stacked on top of more rows and rows of shops – so large that it is hard to navigate among the 1,000 stores and the thousands of shoppers.

As impressive as the mall is, there are larger malls on the way for China. The South China Mall is expected to be three times the size of Mall of America when completed.

Already, four shopping malls in China are larger than the Mall of America. Two are bigger than the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, which just surrendered its status as the world’s largest shopping mall to an enormous complex in Beijing. And by 2010, China is expected to be home to at least 7 of the world’s 10 largest shopping malls.

Not to be outdone, the Ghermezian’s are planning to expand Mall of America, and have two ten-million-square-foot malls in the works in China, called Mall of China and Triple Five Wenzhou Mall. I wonder if there are plans to expand WEM too?

While it might seem like a needless game of “I’m bigger than you!”, taking note of these malls in China is important. For one thing, it certainly casts doubt on the western-held view that the Chinese don’t have much disposable income. Perhaps not as a whole, but there are obviously enough wealthy Chinese to support such massive shopping malls. And the outlook must be positive enough to be planning the construction of even more malls in the country.

It’s also interesting to see that China is sort of following in America’s footsteps. Owning an automobile has become possible and extremely desirable in China, and now shopping in gigantic malls has hopped the Pacific too. Makes one wonder what else the Chinese do like the Americans.

Read: New York Times

Edmonton's Historic Streetcar

Post ImageIt’s amazing how long you can live in a city, and still not explore everything it has to offer. Today was one of those “wow, didn’t realize that existed” days for me. The adult learning class I volunteer for (the students are from the inner-city and learn reading but mostly writing) was taking a field trip today, on Edmonton’s historic streetcar. I had never been on the streetcar before, and actually, I don’t even remember seeing it. I guess that was what amazed me most, that I could be so oblivious.

Mother nature didn’t really want to cooperate, with brief showers every now and then. As soon as we’d go inside, it would be sunny, and yet when we went back out, it would rain again! Our group is a positive bunch though, and the rain didn’t dampen our spirits. My job was to take pictures of the trip, so I ended up with about seventy. Thank goodness for digital!

The streetcar itself was rather interesting! I spoke with the conductor for a while, and he was explaining some of the history. You can read a little about it at the Edmonton Transit site. I found the ride quite short though, I expected it to last longer. It was rather neat to go across the top of the high level bridge, which I cross many times a week by car. The conductor even stopped halfway across so I could snap a few photos. Apparently it is the tallest streetcar bridge in the world.

Next week when the group meets, we’ll write about today’s experience on the streetcar, so I am looking forward to what everyone has to say! If you live in Edmonton and haven’t yet been on the streetcar, why not go for a quick ride? You might even learn something!

Read: Edmonton Radial Railway Society

Scooba from iRobot

Post ImageI am lazy. Some of you might know this. For others, it may be a shock. Sad, but it’s true! And because I am lazy, I like technologies that make my life easier in some way. For example, if someone invented something so that I’d never have to wash the floor again, I’d certainly be interested! And what do you know, the good folks at iRobot have created the Scooba, a robotic floor washer:

The Scooba is a household, robotic floor cleaner designed for hard floors made of materials such as tile and linoleum. It vacuums up loose particles and applies cleaner to soak up dirt, then dries the floor, which also makes it safe for wood.

As with the Roomba and other projects, iRobot teamed up with an industrial giant to develop the Scooba. This time, it was Clorox. One of the big engineering challenges was creating the cleaning fluid. Most are slippery, and would throw off a robot’s steering systems.

First they give us the Roomba for vaccuming, and now they give us the Scooba for floor washing. Those guys at iRobot are amazing! Pricing hasn’t been released for the Scooba yet, but if you want to get a sneak peak at the robot in action, watch this video.

Read: iRobot Scooba

BitTorrent Search

Post ImageAccording to Wired News, Bram Cohen, who created BitTorrent, and his team of developers are getting ready to release an advertising-supported search engine for torrent files. Ask Jeeves is slated to provide the sponsored links for the search site, which will be available at the BitTorrent website. And apparently, the team is pretty confident that they won’t get sued either:

But [Chief Operating Officer Ashwin] Navin isn’t worried — because the new search engine indexes every torrent it can find without human intervention, the company can’t be held liable for results that happen to point to infringing content, he says. [Stanford University Law Professor Mark] Lemley says that’s probably right, at least as a matter of law: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides safe harbor for “information location tools” if administrators promptly remove links to infringing content upon notice by the copyright holder.

Lots of other people seem to think its only a matter of time until we see a lawsuit, mostly because the MPAA is just dying to sue Cohen:

The MPAA slammed BitTorrent last week for accelerating the spread of a pirated copy of Revenge of the Sith — a leaked studio workprint of the third Star Wars prequel debuted online even as fans queued up for Thursday’s theatrical release.

You would think that the MPAA would learn from the RIAA’s mistakes, but apparently not. Just like CD sales went up in recent years despite downloading, movies show no sign of slowing down either. Episode 3 almost broke Spiderman’s opening weekend record, taking in $108 million. Oh yes, that BitTorrent protocol is doing such harm! Please.

More importantly, even if they do somehow successfully sue the new BitTorrent search engine, they can’t shutdown the protocol, so there will always be torrent files available.

Read: BitTorrent

What's on your desk?

Post ImageYesterday, Andrew posted a list of the things that you can find on his desk. The thinking is that what you have on your desk probably says a lot about who you are. I am not sure if that’s entirely accurate or not, but I figured I’d partake in the experiment anyway. Who am I to stand in the way of scientific progress! So, with the exception of my desktop computer, pens, paper and other stationary, here’s my list:

  • HP TC1000 Tablet
  • An issue of The Globe and Mail from Friday
  • May issues of Wired, Business 2.0, and Business Week magazines
  • Really old cell phone (Motorola Timeport, yes I need a new one!)
  • Aspirin
  • Crystal candy jar full of LifeSavers Cream candies
  • Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D digital camera (and Vanguard camera case as well)
  • A couple programming books, a law book, and a couple business books
  • Plantronics phone headset
  • Plantronics DSP 500 USB headset
  • Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 DVD
  • Samson C03 studio microphone
  • A bunch of keys
  • Some gum, CDs. batteries, and yes, chopsticks
  • Kleenex

That about does it for my list! Do you think it’s an accurate representation of who I am? What do you have on your desk?

Read: Andrew’s Post

REVIEW: Revenge of the Sith

Post ImageRevenge of the Sith opened yesterday, as I am sure you’re aware. How could I not go? I have been waiting for this movie for a long time now. I had big expectations going in. Some of my friends warned me that I was setting myself up for disappointment, but I would retort “that’s a risk I’m willing to take!” And I am glad I did. I was not disappointed. So with that, here’s my mini-review, which might contain spoilers if you don’t know the story.

Where to start? Episode III is everything the first two movies were not. Exciting, visually stunning, emotionally grabbing, and it tells a story too. Actually, that’s a good place to start. There is more story told in ROTS than in the first two movies combined. If I had one complaint about the movie, it would be that there was so much story to tell, the ending felt sort of rushed, or abrupt. Fans of the series will be happy to know however, that the story which is known so well is finally explained on screen. It’s different knowing the story about how Darth Vader came to be than it is seeing it brought to life by George Lucas. I think ROTS has been placed in the role of “bridge” from the new movies to the old movies, and it does an excellent job of that.

I expected lots of death, lots of light sabres, and I definitely got that. The effects were what you’d expect from a Star Wars movie; amazing. It was also interesting to see some of the other worlds explored, for example, the home of the Wookiees (if you like those furry guys, there’s lots of them in ROTS). The battle between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi was amazing, as was the battle between Yoda and Darth Sidious. They have been called two of the most anticipated on-screen battles, and they do not disappoint. I am continually amazed at Yoda’s capabilities!

What I did not expect, was to get so completely pulled into the story. I mean, I knew what happened to Anakin, but I never thought it would be so emotionally jarring. You can’t help but feel bad for him. In one single movie, Anakin destroys everything and everyone he has ever loved. He changes completely – mentally he is drawn to the darkside and is quite simply destroyed by the death of Padmé. Physically, he is destroyed too, hurt badly in the battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi. When he first becomes concious in the new suit, he is told by Lord Sidious that Padme is dead, and Anakin lets out a terrible scream (actually, it reminded me of Frankenstein). In that moment, you can see that he is destroyed. The chosen one has lost everything, and is now imprisoned in the black suit keeping him alive. It’s actually very sad.

That’s the best part of the movie. Lucas creates a villain you can’t help but feel sorry for. Is Revenge of the Sith the best Star Wars movie ever? Maybe. What could possibly rival the death of Darth Vader? Well his birth of course. In any case, Episode III is much better than the first two. This is supposed to be the last Star Wars movie, and maybe it will be, but I’m holding out hope for episodes seven through nine.

Some other things to point out:

  • Jar Jar makes an appearance, but he does not speak, thank goodness.
  • Natalie Portman doesn’t get enough screen time, IMO. And her dialogue is probably the worst in the movie, seems very fake. It’s not a reflection of her acting either, it’s just that her lines are so…expected?
  • Regardless of what the critics say, I think Hayden Christensen did an excellent job in this movie. Much better than his previous performances.

If you want to read more reviews, check out the Episode III page at Rotten Tomatoes.

Read: Star Wars

Armin van Buuren

Post ImageLast night I went to Reds at WestEd with Greg, Josh, Andrew and Dickson to see Armin van Buuren who, we were told before he came on stage, is the number three DJ in the world. He comes from the Netherlands, and seemed very young to me. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. If you like trance music, then you would have liked last night’s show. Especially if you like it loud.

I was amazed at just how loud everything was. And the bass was so powerful – you could feel it everywhere. As Dickson commented, “it felt like your bones were vibrating.” There were quite a few people there too, probably a lot more than I anticipated, all having a great time.

I guess I was struck most by how different a trance concert is from a rock concert. Instead of absolutely everyone in the crowd having a beer in hand, the vast majority of people seemed to have bottles of Dasani, no doubt to keep themselves hydrated to continue dancing. So many people dancing, or even just moving, it was rather amazing.

I enjoy trance music (or rave, techno, whatever you want to call that general category) so I thought the show was great! Definitely not something I’d attend all the time (my ear drums would never survive) but entertaining nonetheless. Oddly, I felt at one point during the show that I should be writing code. I guess that’s what I get for listening to trance while coding. Sad isn’t it?

Read: Armin van Buuren