I didn’t post notes last night, but it’s a long weekend, so I figure tonight is fine 🙂

• We’re still working on an update for Podcast Spot. Not going home until we’re done. Like Dickson remarked, it seems we always work harder on holidays!
• Went to see Shrek the Third last night. It had it’s moments, but I wouldn’t have been sad if I had to wait for the DVD. I am disappointed more people didn’t join us though!
• Every time an online store announces DRM-free MP3s, I am going to think of this comic.
• Mark Shuttleworth says that Microsoft is not the real threat. He predicts Microsoft and “Linux” will be working together in a few years (I put that in quotes because it will really be IBM, Red Hat, etc). His post is worth a read…I think I agree with most of what he’s saying.
• I’ve been harping on Firefox for being a resource hog for years. The press seems to have caught on this last week. (That link is for Wired, here’s the NYTimes article.)
• I really like data visualizations. I came across Breathing Earth this week via Darren. Pretty cool.
• So I’ve been looking for a full-time programming job lately. Had my first interview Thursday, and it went very well. More on this later.
• Halo 3 has a release date: September 25th, 2007.

Wow, another long time in between posts, this is not like me! I had a good reason though – Traz. Here are my weekly notes:

• Traz is my Mom and Dad’s new puppy. He came all the way from New Brunswick and stayed with me Friday before heading to his new home in Yellowknife on Saturday. He’s totally cute. Here are some photos I took, and here are some from my Dad. Puppies are a lot of work! Good luck Dad.
• Kim looked after Traz on Friday night for a few hours so I could go with Megan and Aimee to see Brand New at the Edmonton Events Centre (formerly known as Reds). It was a good show. They played a long instrumental piece at the end which Aimee liked, but I wasn’t so keen on.
• The final episode of Smallville’s sixth season airs Thursday. It had better be good. I wasn’t that impressed with this week’s ep.
• Microsoft showed off a public beta of Halo 3 on Friday – gamers gave it mixed reviews but there’s lots of time to go before it is launched. On the topic of games, check out the official Simpsons-themed Xbox 360.
• Back in December the city of São Paulo banned outdoor advertisements. Here are some photos of the city from this month and last. I think the law should be reviewed. The city looks barren and ghostly now.
• What a cool idea: a vending machine that allows “watching ads” as a form of payment for drinks.
• News of the Windows Live Folders beta broke yesterday…is a “Windows Live Drive” on the way? I hope so. Some competition for Amazon S3 would be good.
• As those of you on Facebook are probably aware, I’ve got a giant card for Mr. Rice who is retiring as principal of McNally after decades? on the job. Let me know if you want to sign it and we’ll work out a time. If you’re not in Edmonton anymore, email me.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Here are my weekly notes:

• Happy Birthday to my brother Tom!
• Yesterday was the 24 hours of flickr event – a global project to chronicle the day in pictures. The photos I took are here.
• I went to Superstore today to buy allergy medicine. I usually get Reactine as it works very well for me. A package of 20 tablets was almost $12. The Exact brand makes the same thing (same medicinal ingredients) so I bought that one instead – 72 tablets for just over $15. Don’t you think that’s a massive difference?!
• Yesterday we learned that Daryl Katz of Rexall fame offered to buy the Edmonton Oilers. Today, we learned that the deal has been rejected.
• Kim told me she likes the new Coke can design. I have to agree. Simple yet attractive.
• I definitely consider myself to be a digital pack-rat. The Globe and Mail calls it information hoarding. Eventually I think everything will be recorded in bits and bytes, so I figure I am just getting a head start.
• This post is a must-read: The Awesome Power of Spare Cycles.
• This woman is a good example of what’s wrong with the world. For so many reasons, including the obvious one.

It wasn’t planned, but it was kind of nice to take a break from blogging this past week (with the exception of my post on Wednesday of course). If you’re a blogger, it’s important to post frequently, but it’s also important to make sure you have the energy and desire to do so! I think I was lacking the energy a bit.

• My Mom joined Facebook today, so both of my parents now have Facebook accounts. My friend Todd, who was a long-time holdout, also joined. For those of you who still don’t have an account…LAME! You’re increasingly in the minority. That said, I’m not advocating giving in to peer pressure, and I’d love to hear why you haven’t joined Facebook.
• Kim made her delicious shrimp dip on Friday – it was excellent! Sharon and I made a margarhita pizza, which was also pretty yummy.
• Looks like my prediction about the PS3 was dead on. The PS3 is doing so badly that it’s creator, Ken Kutaragi, is retiring.
• Kryptonite is real – I knew it, haha!
• It didn’t happen in 2006 like I thought it would, but Toyota is now officially the world’s largest automaker.
• More Internet speed records were broken this week. Yawn…these sub-10 Gbps records are getting old…let’s see this new 100 Gbps network that is in the works!
• What is Computer Science? This article does a fairly good job of explaining it.
• I can’t believe it’ll be May 1st on Tuesday…time just flies! On the plus side, that means Spider-Man 3 will be here in no time.

Here are my weekly notes:

• Happy Earth Day! Forbes has a list of the world’s greenest billionaires. New York plans to add one million new trees to the city’s landscape by 2017. There’s lots more Earth Day news at Yahoo.
• Mom and Dad left this evening…was good to see them this weekend! Congrats to Kim on graduating from MacEwan!
• Just watched Detroit eliminate Calgary in game 6, which makes me happy. Unfortunately Tampa Bay lost today. Go Vancouver tomorrow!
• So Windows XP is once again available on some Dell machines. It’s not as big a deal as the headlines would have you believe!
• Finally saw Blood Diamond last night, and I liked it. The amazing thing is that there were so many storylines they could have followed!
• I suppose I should do some studying…two finals this week!

Here are my weekly notes:

• My Dad relaunched his SportsGuru blog this past week, and from time to time I’ll make some posts there was well. Here’s my first post.
• Tom came to town late Friday night for a visit and computer help. And Xbox 😉
• Went to Squires last night to celebrate Megan’s birthday. It was fun!
• You probably saw this on the news, but Apple announced this week that they have sold 100 million iPods. Hardly surprising, but still impressive.
• Apparently the Twitter dev team thinks the performance of Ruby on Rails is horrible. Python, Java, and PHP are mentioned as alternatives. The author of the post says: “At one time, Java was almost unacceptably slow. That has changed.” Has it really? I don’t think it has. ASP.NET people!
• I am excited for Thursday – finally a new episode of Smallville!
• Just found this: the tech formerly known as WPF/E is now Silverlight.

Long time no post! My mind has been elsewhere, I guess. Still been Twittering though! Here are my weekly notes:

• We launched a new Podcast Spot update yesterday.
• I tried the new Dulce de Leche from Starbucks on Thursday. It’s not bad, but a little too sweet. Reminds me of the Caramel Corretto at Second Cup. I also discovered that PepsiCo bottles the Frappuccino drinks for Starbucks – never buying those again!
• Jane’s gathering last night was fun! My photos are here, and there’s more on Facebook.
• Sharon and I watched Jesus Camp on Friday. I won’t even comment on the content, but the film itself was poorly made in my opinion – it felt as though there was no direction whatsoever. On the plus side, it felt much shorter than 84 minutes.
• We also tried Tzin, a new-ish restaurant here in Edmonton. It’s tiny, and expensive. Otherwise it was pretty good. I love their hours of operation.
• Sensationalist headline of the week: Proof-of-concept iPod virus discovered. Puhleez.
• Both Edmonton and Carolina will be watching from the sidelines during the NHL playoffs this year. It’s the first time in NHL history that both defending conference champs have failed to make the playoffs. Carolina is just the third team in NHL history to miss the playoffs the year after winning the Stanley Cup.

Here are my weekly notes for April Fool’s Day 2007 (no pranks though, promise):

• Here’s the Wikipedia entry for April Fool’s Day, and here’s a list of all the pranks that have appeared today.
• Megan had a gathering on Friday – here’s the pictures. Jane is having one Saturday!
• I’ve heard rumors that Mick McGeough might not be allowed to work during the playoffs. I hope they are true – at some point, referees have to made accountable. This article describes just how bad McGeough is.
• Paul Brown from 100.3 The Bear is an idiot, and he admits it. Damn funny stand up comic too!
• Is Dyson going to be launching a Roomba killer? I hope so! Not because I dislike iRobot’s Roomba, but rather, I want to see robots fight. Don’t you? Bring on the robot wars!
• How do you get from New York to Dublin? You swim 3,462 miles according to Google Maps!
• I think I have finally figured out how to update Twitter and my Facebook status at the same time. Maybe I’ll post some code this week.