Here are my weekly notes:

• Sharon and I went to see Bill Maher’s new movie Religulous today. I thought it was very funny and entertaining, but really he’s preaching to the choir, so to speak. Some have described the film as “atheist fundamentalism” and that comment isn’t far off the mark. Maher says his role is to doubt, and finishes with a relatively lengthy monologue arguing that for humanity to move forward, we must leave religion behind. He calls on atheists to come out of the closet.
• I bought new shoes today. That might seem like a mundane thing to mention, but I can’t remember the last time I bought new shoes so it’s a big deal for me!
• Did you miss the Vice Presidential Debate on Thursday? Check out the Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart. I think Tina Fey is doing a fantastic job of portraying Palin on SNL, but I really hope she’s only at it for another month. Palin scares the crap out of me, for lots of reasons including the fact that she thinks dinosaurs and humans once coexisted.
• Here’s a really good article from the New York Times talking about the current financial crisis. It all boils down to trust vanishing.
• Google released an update to Google Blog Search this week that makes it more of a memetracker.
• Microsoft announced that Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 will be the next versions of both products. Should be lots of information on both coming out of PDC in a couple weeks!

September is nearly over, just like that. Here are my weekly notes:

• Thanks to everyone who came out to the housewarming party Kim and I hosted last night! Also major thanks to Sharon, who did most of the work and created a fantastic fall menu. Photos are here. Check out Sharon’s post for a full rundown.
• I’m definitely going to see Bill Maher’s new film, Religulous. Comes out October 3rd.
• I think my favorite part about election season is the humor and satire. The two best in the business are featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Not just any old cover though, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have recreated the controversial New Yorker cover. Just pure awesome.
• Speaking of elections, I found a new site today that Canadians might be interested in – Barack Obama for Prime Minister!
• More on the American election…Twitter launched an Election 2008 site this week. Inspired by Politweets, undoubtedly. There’s more on the site in this post from VentureBeat.
• Technorati released their updated State of the Blogosphere this week. Some interesting statistics, but lots to read through.
• Nirvana’s iconic album Nevermind was released 17 years ago (Wednesday). One of my favorites.
• Here’s some speculation that Google reverse-engineered Windows in order to build Chrome.

Sharon and I were surprised to find the weather so nice today, so we went for a walk. Roughly four hours later, we finally made it back! Took lots of great photos though (I need to geotag them now). Fall really is a beautiful time of year.

Here are my weekly notes:

• Sharon and I walked probably more than 10km today, 5km of which was for the AIDS Walk For Life. She has done the walk before, but this was my first time. It was fun and for a good cause! My photos are here.
• We had a busy weekend actually. One of the things we did yesterday was check out the Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City, put on by Doctors Without Borders. Sharon wrote about it here.
• Twitter launched a redesign this week, and most comments I have seen have been positive (unlike the Facebook redesign). I like it, for the most part. Here are some recent Twitter traffic statistics.
• Looks like Google is getting a little more serious about indexing audio. They’ve launched a new service available at Google Labs.
• Here’s a funny blog I found via Darren: http://thingswithapproximatelyasmanypeopleaswasilla.com/
• Some fascinating photos (with commentary) of North Korea were published this week for the 60th anniversary of the state. Check it out here.

Here are my weekly notes:

• I think text messaging rates in Canada are probably much more reasonable than they are in the US, but I am glad to see the Senate Judiciary Committee asking for answers south of the border nonetheless.
• Here’s a great site I came across this week for coverage of the US election – FiveThirtyEight.com. Lots of maps and graphs, updated very frequently.
• The latter half of this Edmonton Sun article is well worth a read: Here’s reality: capital region is one big city.
• Google announced they are making complete newspaper archives available through Google News. Goodbye microfilm.
• Swype is a new, gesture-based input technology. Looks incredibly awesome. Too bad their name is so similar to Skype.
• NAIT will be participating in the Culinary Olympics again this year, and Sharon and I were invited to check out their practice event yesterday and today. I took quite a few photos, and will have more to write later this week.
• Tina Fey played Sarah Palin on SNL last night. Here’s the clip, in case you missed it.
• The Fitbit is a new gadget that is supposed to help you track your fitness and sleep. Looks interesting.
• Speaking of gadgets, here is the largest Swiss army knife ever! Sadly, no laser.
• I accompanied Sharon to the Hanson concert last night. I think that’s the first time I’ve gone deaf at a show not from the music, but from the screaming girls! The audience was fairly diverse though, with guys and girls, old people and children, and everyone in between. Another observation: everyone has a digital camera now, but most people seem to have no clue how to use them.

Here are my weekly notes:

• Hard to believe, but Google is just ten years old today (well, that’s our best guess). Here’s an interview with Google’s Marissa Mayer. Om has a good post on the anniversary too. Speaking of Google – fun with Chrome’s about pages.
• Ted Dziuba (uncov) rocks – so glad he’s posting again from time to time. His latest post dispels the myth that Google Chrome is a Web OS.
• Awards for Twitter messages – The Twitties. Looks dumb to me.
• The video for Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend has broken 100 million views on YouTube. Fairly impressive.
• Here’s a nice visualization of McCain and Obama’s tax proposals. And here’s the Republican Fail Whale. And why not, here’s the most accidentally inappropriate campaign photo ever.
• Went to see The House Bunny last night. Great to look at, has some funny moments, but perhaps wait for the DVD. Also went to Chop for dinner, which I’m sure Sharon will be reviewing soon.

Not looking forward to a five day work week!

Here are my weekly notes:

• Pretty crazy news about hurricane Gustav this weekend. I guess there haven’t been as many storms this year as there was in 2005 – Katrina hit during the last week of August that year.
• Here’s an interview with Clay Shirky talking about Twitter. I was disappointed with it, too short and not enough discussion.
• Obama’s text message announcing Biden as his VP pick reached 2.9 million people. McCain chose Sarah Palin from Alaska this week.
• Sharon sent me this – the Festival of Ideas, taking place at the University of Alberta this November. There are some interesting speakers lined up.
• Apparently New York’s HIV rate is three times the national average.
• Funny story about how people in China react to fortune cookies – with amusement!
• Here’s a fascinating article in the latest issue of Wired on Shai Agassi and his plan to put electric cars on the road.
• Went out to the lake this weekend with Sharon. Kim and Tom and a couple of their friends also made the trip. It was fun to take Sharon canoeing and stuff. Of course, I was quite content to just sit around the fire and drink beer! My photos are here.

Here are my weekly notes:

• My quick vacation to Vancouver was fun, but it definitely was quick. Not quite ready to go back to work tomorrow! Also wasn’t great to come back to rain.
• Here are some recent statistics on telecommuting.
• Another Olympics has come and gone. We caught some of the closing ceremony highlights last night, and it seemed long and drawn out as expected. Vancouver 2010 will be here before you know it – we saw tons of merchandise for sale all over the city.
• Obama announced Joe Biden as his running mate this weekend. Here are some facts on Biden’s voting record – he doesn’t sound very tech-friendly.
• Check out the most expensive bed in the world. Looks awesome!
• CBC was granted approval for a new digital sports channel this week, tentatively being called CBC Sports Plus.

Can you believe August is almost over? Time flies.

Here are my weekly notes:

• I had a good time down in Calgary this weekend at ALT.NET. Was great to meet some new people and put faces to names. Thanks to the organizers for hosting a great event!
• Canada finally started winning some medals in China! We currently have 7, but with only 2 gold are ranked 19th. If Michael Phelps were his own country, he’d be ranked 6th.
• Looks like the RIAA is getting a taste of its own medicine! They have paid $107,951 USD to a lady who counter-sued the group.
• Ever wish you could be invisible? The capability might be here sooner than you think!
• The Free WiFi Project is growing really well here in Edmonton! I wrote about it this week on the newly revamped Techvibes.
• This week is going to be a busy one. Going to a couple Fringe shows, have a bunch of meetings, and then Thursday we leave for Vancouver!

Here are my weekly notes:

• Went to see Swing Vote today with Sharon. We’re both quite interested in the election, so we enjoyed “political celebrity spotting” – James Carville, Arianna Huffington, Larry King, Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, and a bunch of others all play themselves. Overall though, we were disappointed with the movie. Madeline Carroll was the one bright spot – she could definitely become a big star!
• Eric made the front page of the CityPlus section in the Edmonton Journal on Saturday! He was interviewed about the Free WiFi project. I’m going to write more about it later this week, probably on Techvibes.
• Who in their right mind would think that in 2008 you can tape delay something and not expect people to look elsewhere? Bunch of morons running NBC.
• A new Facebook application called “Schools” hopes to take Facebook back to its roots. Clever idea and business model.
• I have seen bits and pieces of the opening ceremonies in Beijing and like everyone else I was impressed. Here some photos. By the way, search Google for olympics and they’ll show you the latest medal count.
• Check this out: a nearly perfect DIY Batman Tumbler. Totally awesome. The bat suit is a bit strange, however.
• This Russia-Georgia-South-Ossetia thing is getting out of hand. Planes being shot down, tanks being destroyed, boats being sunk, etc. Not to mention the thousands of civilian deaths. The U.N. Security Council has met four times already, but nothing much has come of the meetings. Let’s hope it doesn’t get any worse.