Predictions for 2006

With the new year fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time for predictions. Not resolutions, but predictions. If you’d like to see some predictions from around the web, Alex Barnett has compiled a very interesting collection. Here are some of my predictions for the coming year, some specific and some more vague, in no particular order:

Canada will win both the World Juniors Hockey Championship, and the gold medal in hockey at the Olympics.
RIM will prevail in their legal troubles and will find success beyond the corporate market in 2006.
The Indianapolis Colts will win the Superbowl.
2006 will finally be the year of Internet connected devices that make sense, are inexpensive, and are adopted widely. I am thinking of devices like digital cameras, little tablets for living room access, etc.
Toyota will overtake General Motors as the world’s largest automaker, and GM shares will continue to plummet.
Sony will launch the Playstation 3, but due to incredibly high prices, it will not match the success of it’s predecessor, nor the Xbox 360, except in Japan.
The Ottawa Senators will win the Stanley Cup (at least I hope so, if Edmonton can’t).
Windows Vista will RTM in September. Apple fans will claim too much is copied from OS X, and Linux fans will come out with roadmaps to copy all the functionality found in Vista.
We’ll see a new Halo game (Halo 3 maybe) for the Xbox 360 sometime around November.
iTunes and iPod will begin to lose their grip on the digital music market.
Apple will successfully launch their Intel based machines and their market share will reach 6%.
Michael Schumacher will win his 8th world drivers championship and then retire.
A major security/antivirus/antispyware company will launch a lawsuit against Microsoft over Windows Vista, Windows OneCare, or other competing products.
Movies, television shows, and other forms of video content will be sold in big numbers online in 2006, with almost every major content company taking part.
Someone is going to buy TiVo before the year is over.
The Liberals will once again win the upcoming Canadian election.
It’s not really my prediction, but I agree with John Battelle who thinks Google will stumble in 2006.
The Da Vinci Code will be in the top three movies at the boxoffice.
The United States will invade Iran.

And in my final prediction, I am going to disagree with Jason Calacanis, who made the following prediction on December 27th:

12. No podcasting company will have any significant success in 2006, but a number of podcasters will be offered great jobs at Sirius and XM Radio.

I am going to predict that at least one company will be successful in 2006, and I fully intend to have Paramagnus be that company!

2005 – Year in Review

The year 2005 is almost over, so I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the past year through the eyes of my blog. Here is a selection of some interesting posts on my blog from each of the last twelve months:

In January, Dickson and I won the Schlumberger programming competition. Unfortunately, the competition will no longer be run this year. Of course, the effects of the Tsunami were still being felt, and at least one young man was profiting. January also had the worst day of the year, Prince Harry wore a swastika, and Google launched a video service.
Megan and I attended the first ever Northern Voice conference in February, and I can’t wait for the next one in February of 2006! February also saw a terrorist attack in Madrid, my sister’s birthday, a few server upgrades, new Superbowl commercials, and the first Podcast Wizard test.
March was a busy month – I got to see Velvet Revolver in concert, Coca-Cola Zero was announced, Paramagnus introduced the first iteration of Podcast Tags, I started using del.icio.us regularly, I went to a draw at the Brier (for you curling addicts), Terri Schiavo was in the news, and of course four RCMP officers lost their lives in a terrible tradgedy in Alberta.
In April the new pope was chosen after the death of John Paul II, Adobe bought Macromedia, I went snowboarding on the Kokanee Freeride, I redesigned my website, and I decided I was definitely smoking the podcasting dope.
I got to see Revenge of the Sith in May (one of my favorite movies for 2005), shared some of the problems I found with Microsoft’s Imagine Cup in Canada, and finally got my computer and stuff moved into our new office.
June was another busy month: I got a pro account and started using Flickr as my primary photo site, Apple added podcasting capabilities to iTunes and also decided to switch to Intel processors, Dickson and I attended Gnomedex 5 in Seattle, we launched the podcasting robot, I got the new car (2005 Honda Civic Reverb), many of my friends graduated from University, Edmonton had it’s first podcasting meetup, and I started the month with a trip to Calgary to buy parts for the robot.
July was a bit of a painful month, with our major server problems after the relocation, the decision in New York to shut off cell service in their tunnels only a week after the terrible bombings in London. The inaugural Champ Car race took place in Edmonton, Live 8 happened, and I went to see Batman Begins, another of my favorite movies for 2005.
In August, I had a few problems with the new car, Dickson and thus Paramagnus was featured in the Edmonton Journal’s Alberta Centennial edition, I went to The Fringe festival, wrote about Average Joe Podcasting, went on a camping trip, and discovered that Sharon is a gamer at heart.
I posted more in September than any other month this year. I went to Edmonton’s TEC Connector, went to a globalization conference at the University of Alberta, found out when the Xbox 360 would be launching, started yet another school year, wrote down some of my first thoughts on Web 2.0, helped my sister move into residence at MacEwan, and celebrated Alberta’s centennial.
In October I had some more Web 2.0 thoughts, Apple released the video iPod, Yahoo launched a podcasting directory, and after a year long lockout, the NHL returned.
Last month in November, Firefox 1.5 was released, the Liberal party in Canada lost a vote of non-confidence, the Edmonton Eskimos won the Grey Cup, Dickson and I went to California for the Podcast & Portable Media Expo, I got a new cell phone, Microsoft introduced their new services strategy, and of course, I got an Xbox 360!
December isn’t over yet, but I came up to Inuvik for Christmas, saw King Kong, podcasting became Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year, Wikipedia faced some problems, and I posted some new thoughts on Web 2.0.

There you have it! There’s lots more “2005 in review” lists and posts out there. Here are some of the ones I found interesting:

Definitely check out that last link…it’ll keep you busy for a while!

Notes for 12/19/2005

Here are some notes for Monday, since I didn’t get a chance to post anything last night.

del.icio.us is down, apparently from a power outage. Back on December 2nd I wrote about Malware and Web 2.0, but my comments apply just as equally to other negative things, like power outages: So what happens in a few years when the vast majority of our data is stored online?…All of that data needs to be proactively protected from attacks, it needs to be backed up in case of a successful attempt, and it really should be available all the time.
I leave for Inuvik on Friday! I did a ton of shopping yesterday, so I’m getting closer to being ready to go. You can see Inuvik’s weather here.
PayPal more cost effective than the credit card services? Interesting article from the New York Times.
Last exam of the semester for me is tomorrow morning.
Is Google ready to take a stake in AOL? Not everyone hopes so.
Was there a tech product you wanted this year that never shipped? Vote for it in Wired’s Vaporware 2005.
As much as I don’t like the cold, I wish it would just snow and stay here for a while so I don’t have to keep washing my car!

Notes for 12/11/2005

Here are my Sunday notes, a little late, but posted nonetheless.

I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia on opening night, and came away quite impressed. The best part of the movie had to be the casting – the actors and actresses who played Lucy, Edmund and the White Witch were brilliant.
Bad time to go to Denny’s: Saturday night, 2:30 AM. Good time to go to Denny’s: Sunday night, 4:30 AM.
If you haven’t turned on ClearType, or if you don’t know what it is, read this!
It was a crazy week as far as weather is concerned. First we got tons of snow, then it was incredibly cold, and now there is no snow and it’s above zero again.
As Dickson pointed out, classes finished on December 7th. I’ve got two exams left and then the semester is finished for me.
In case you missed it, podcast was word of the year for 2005. Tis the season for lots of “best of 2005” or “2005 in review” type posts, TV shows, articles, etc.
Remember the Wikipedia problems I talked about earlier? Turns out the guy who posted some of the false information anonymously was tracked down and has apologized.
Christmas shopping isn’t going so well for me – I need to get started!

Notes for 12/4/2005

I know I have become soft compared to when I used to live in Inuvik, but man is it ever cold out today! I could really handle a vacation to somewhere tropical right about now.

I gotta say as far as remix albums go, Britney’s new one is pretty damn good. I especially like the new track, “And Then We Kiss”, which is a Junkie XL remix. Speaking of music, Lindsay Lohan’s new album is a much better effort than her last, I’m quite enjoying it.
I finished reading Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near this week. I won’t say too much as I intend to write a proper review, but it is an absolutely fascinating book and I really enjoyed it! I have also started reading Freakonomics, and the first chapter was very intriguing. I also like that the authors maintain an active blog on the book’s website.
As promised I spent a little more time playing with Dave Slusher’s AmigoFish. While I’m not blown away yet, it works fairly well. I really wish there was a way to eliminate podcasts that don’t publish very often. When I look at the predictions AmigoFish generates, I want to see podcasts that publish often, not once a month! I assume the algorithm would catch on to this eventually, but there should be a way to explicitly say “give me only frequently published podcasts!”
I spent most of yesterday working with Visual Studio 2005 – learning the subtle differences, testing out conversions of old projects, looking at the designers, etc. I must say, I am falling fast and hard for VS2005 and .NET 2.0 (if I can say such a thing about a technology that is). I’m really impressed with almost everything! (It runs a little slow, but I guess my computer is getting pretty old.)
Ah more music stuff! Ever hear of the band 10 Years? They are fast becoming my new favorite band. Their album is amazing! Unfortunately, they don’t have any upcoming Canadian tour dates.
This past week saw the Conservatives offer to lower the GST here in Canada. Any predictions on what the upcoming week will bring? I hope there’s a similarly outlandish idea – makes for a good blog entry!
As you are undoubtedly aware by now, I changed the colors of my site this week. Thanks for all the feedback! I may change it again for Xmas…we’ll see.

Notes for 11/27/2005

It felt like a relaxing week, but it was still quite busy in retrospect. That time of year I guess.

The big news of the week has to be that I got my Xbox 360. Be sure to check out my initial review. The 360 is great!
I discovered the group chat feature in MsgPlus tonight. Basically it will group all your windows into one window that you can then use to switch between them using a toolbar, or CRTL-TAB like other applications. Not sure if I like it yet, but good idea.
Lots of you probably knew that Friday was called “Black Friday” – the day retailers turn a profit for the year, but how many of you knew that tomorrow is considered “Cyber Monday“? It’s the day retailers start a marketing blitz and introduce heavy discounts for their web operations.
It was a busy weekend for Edmonton sports teams. The Rush had their training camp yesterday, and the Eskimos won the Grey Cup today!
LiveMarks is a cool page for watching what people bookmark at del.icio.us in real time.
Larry questions whether content is really king or not. He then states that the value of content itself seems to be declining. I’m not so sure that’s the case. I would argue that content has never been king – information is all that matters, and more specifically, the ability to derive some sort of knowledge from that information. That’s why newspapers are dying while Google is soaring – it used to be that newspapers were best at providing knowledge but lately Google and others like them do a better job. Same goes for blog aggregators.
I am actually going home for Christmas this year (it’s been a while). I leave Edmonton on the 23rd of December with Tom, and return on January 2nd. It’s gonna be damn cold and full of snow. On the plus side, my parent’s TV is HD ready for my Xbox 360 😉
For everyone who watched the Grey Cup today – what did you think of the halftime show? I could have come up with a dozen better acts than the Black Eyed Peas. I like BEP, but they are definitely a “listen to on the CD and watch the video on TV” kind of act. Darren didn’t care too much for them either.

Interviewed for Xbox 360

I was interviewed last week about the Xbox 360 launch, mainly because I had posted about it here on my blog a few times (here’s a search for xbox). At the time of the interview, “Santa” hadn’t yet told me that my wish would be granted (I only talked to my parents this weekend about it). Here’s what I had to say:

Some gamers say the steep price tag will force them to wait for Santa Claus.

“I’ve been telling friends and my parents all I want for Christmas is the Xbox 360. Just pool together,” said Mack Male, a 21-year-old from Edmonton.

“It doesn’t matter to me if I have one at midnight but I want it as soon as possible . . . Part of the fun is being part of the first group, being able to say ‘I was the innovator. . .I got there first.’ ”

Well now I can be there at midnight! Cool thing about that article is that it’s a Canadian Press article, so it’s actually in at least six different newspapers right now. I guess the next couple of days will be very focused on the 360 here, but your regularly scheduled blog will return.

Read: National Post

Notes for 11/20/2005

Traveling really does a number on your schedule and routines, which
meant that I didn’t end up posting any notes last week. That’s okay
though, it’s probably good to have a break from the norm once in a
while! And the Expo went very well for us too.

I’ll never learn my lesson. I did a 10-page paper, a programming
assignment, and a presentation all at the last minute on Thursday and
Friday. Fortunately, I think they all turned out quite well!
Some data has started showing up in my Google Analytics
account now, but I haven’t had the time to look at it in any detail.
I’ll have to check it out this week and see how good or useful it is.
Does anyone know where I can buy Diet Coke with Splenda? Is it even
available in Canada? I read about it in Business 2.0 this month, but I
haven’t noticed it anywhere. The press release only mentions the US.
I went to see Derailed tonight with Megan, and I quite enjoyed it. Totally didn’t see the twist coming.
There’s lots of really cool podcasting stuff happening right now. Check my list of links for more!
My interview with CJSR
last week for Humanities 101 went okay. They had some scheduling
issues, so I was the very last five minutes of the show, though they
did say they’d like to have me back. Haven’t heard anything to that end
though.
I hate when cops (or any emergency vehicles for that matter) put
their lights on just to go through a red light. I saw one do it the
other day and couldn’t help but feel smug when I got to go through the
next light and he got stuck behind a bunch of sheep.
I also have a beef with Destiny’s Child right now. I really like
that new song “Check on it”, but it’s on the #1’s album (with two other
new songs), not the Destiny Fulfilled album which didn’t come out that
long ago really. Is it so hard to put the three new songs on the NEW
album? I think putting new songs on a greatest hits album is stupid. If
you’ve already bought all of an artists’ albums, don’t you feel ripped
off when they put a new song on the greatest hits just so you’ll have
to buy it too? I mean good marketing move, but shitty deal for fans. I
guess Destiny’s Child is no more so they don’t really care anyway.
My xmas/birthday present for this year is the Xbox 360
(thanks M&D!) and I get to pick it up early. Best Buy in Edmonton
doesn’t open until 8 AM on Tuesday for the Xbox 360 launch, so I guess
I am not lining up at midnight like I planned! If you want to join me
early in the morning though, let me know!

UPDATE: I found out over beers at the PowerPlant from Megan
that Futureshop is open at midnight tonight (and I just called to
confirm), so I am back to lining up tonight! Same price as Best Buy
too. Being the same company, you’d think they would have their hours
more in line!

Notes for 11/6/2005

And just like that, we have snow! I guess I shouldn’t complain too much; after all it is already a week into November.

My Mom was in town again this weekend, on the way home. It was good
to see her again – I only see her once or twice a year! We had a really
nice dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory last night…thanks Mom!
I finally replaced my phone this week! I got a new Motorola V710. It’s been working great, I’m really happy with it so far. So much more useful than my old phone!
Went to Denny’s tonight as Ylz is back in town for a few days…good times!
The Podcast & Portable Media Expo
is coming up really soon! Dickson and I are excited to go, but still
not ready. As you can see, sleeping times are completely out of whack,
as are blogging habits!
Did you know there was a fish processing plant here in Edmonton? I didn’t until I saw the CEO of Experience Gastronomique give a presentation on Wednesday evening. Apparently they have been quite successful, despite being completely landlocked!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention it, but my blog turned two years old on Sunday, November 6th!

Notes for 10/30/2005

One more day until November and still no snow – I like it!

Just got back from the Matthew Good concert at the Starlite. I went with Megan, making this like fourth time we’ve seen him perform I think. He played a really great set tonight, and he even played my favorite song, Weapon (he didn’t play it the last time I saw him).
My new favorite day of the week is Thursday. Why? Because there are $2 drinks at Lux!
Sharon wants to buy a portable CD player to replace her old one, and so I gave her my little speech on how she sould be buying an MP3 player instead. It fell on deaf ears, so I called her a luddite, and to my surprise she didn’t know what that meant! For once I knew something about the English language that Sharon didn’t!
I started reading Ray Kurzweil’s new book The Singularity a few days ago, and I am completely enthralled. It’s so interesting – it makes me want to go to sleep for twenty years and wake up when the good times are rolling!
Looks like the Telus strike isn’t going to end anytime soon – the union rejected a tentative agreement today. Very slim margin though, with 50.3% voting against the agreement.
It has been almost 24 hours since I last ate, so I think I am going to head home and have a bite to eat before I go to sleep. Oddly though I’m not hungry.
Happy Halloween!

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