I don’t intentionally wait until Monday to post these on long weekends, but that’s what always seems to happen! Anyway, here are my weekly notes for this Easter long weekend:

• Sharon and I made buttermilk biscuits today and they turned out great! We used a Bobby Flay recipe and then turned them into mini sandwiches. Quite tasty, and the picture looks really good too.
• Here’s an interesting post from Michael Geoghegan that started a big discussion on podcasting this week.
• Dell is planning a follow-up model to their Latitude XT tablet PC, creatively called the XT2.
• I always assumed that Visa was a public company, but evidently not. They raised $17.9 billion this week in the largest U.S. IPO ever.
• Alberta now has the third-highest minimum wage among Canadian provinces. It was raised this week from $8.00 to $8.40.
• I finally made it to Transcend Coffee here in Edmonton this weekend. I’ve been meaning to go for so long. You can read about the trip here.
• Apparently Windows XP SP3 has been delayed. The main reason I want it soon is to reduce the number of updates you have to install after SP2 when doing a clean install.
• The Sirius-XM merger was approved today, and JPMorgan raised its offer for Bear Stearns from $2 per share to $10.

As much as I enjoyed my four day weekend, it’ll be good to get back to something resembling a normal schedule.

Here are my weekly notes:

• Calgary was fun! Ate a ton of food, and have quite a few photos to upload. Was good to see Tom and Bry on the way home too! I’ll post more about the trip tomorrow probably.
• From the Twitter blog: 17 ways to visualize the Twitter universe.
• YouTube unleashed some new features this week, specifically around the API. They’re becoming more of a platform now.
• Here’s an interview with the inventor of email. He says he didn’t foresee spam.
• Local philanthropist Harriet Winspear died this week at the age of 103. Her husband, Francis, died about eleven years ago, before the concert hall named after him was completed.
• Apparently there will be a beta of Flickr Video out in April. Not sure I want Flickr to do video, but I’ll wait to see how they integrate it. I hope it doesn’t ruin the experience for photos.
• The 2008 Formula 1 season started this weekend with the first race in Australia. Lewis Hamilton got the win, Ferrari had a bad weekend.
• Short week this week (and next) thanks to Easter.

Here are my weekly notes:

• Daylight saving time sucks. Robbed of another hour of sleep!
• My trip to Calgary with Megan was fun! Thanks Fel for your hospitality! The trip to Peter’s Drive-In was excellent. I’ll be in Calgary again this coming weekend for Dine-Out week with Sharon.
• Apple announced this week a bunch of enterprise features for the iPhone/iPod touch. I’m particularly excited for Exchange support! They also released the long-anticipated SDK. Oh and Kleiner Perkins announced a $100 million fund for iPhone applications. That’s ten times bigger than a similar fund for Facebook apps.
• Microsoft screws up big time, leaving Bungie to clean up their mess. I’m really glad things worked out for the gamer.
• I really enjoyed “The Long Tail” so I am definitely looking forward to Chris Anderson’s next book, “FREE”. His article in Wired will give you a taste of what it’s all about.
• I’ve been reading a bit about the “Vista Capable” debacle that’s in the news right now. Apparently Wal-Mart and most other retailers hate Vista Home Basic. The New York Times has a good overview of the story. I hope Microsoft doesn’t make the same mistake with Windows 7.
• I keep hearing about the Clover coffee maker. I’m going to try it out on the weekend at Phil & Sebastian’s in Calgary. Apparently Starbucks is testing out the $11,000 machine.
• This is pretty damn cool, even if it is somewhat impractical: an Etch-A-Sketch clock!

Since I am a bit late, and it’s officially March 3rd – Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you have a great day!

Here are my weekly notes:

• It’s either really sad or really amazing that Twitter has to prepare for SXSW.
• As a follow-up to my post on MindMeister the other day – it really shines when you use it with another person. I invited Dickson and we tested it out, it’s really amazing! They’ve definitely nailed the collaboration part.
• Hey, we already knew this: Music 1.0 is dead.
• Wired has a great article this month with the guys from 37signals. Definitely worth a read.
• This is my kind of article: 35 Ways to Stream Your Life.
• I have to agree with Michael Arrington – I hope Microsoft has something more on tap. I mean come on, give us something amazing!
• Tomorrow is voting day here in Alberta. Go vote! You can’t complain if you don’t. The Elections Alberta website has all the info you need to know.

Made it back to Edmonton this evening without any problems. Here are my weekly notes:

• Happy anniversary to my parents! And happy birthday to Kim! (in about an hour anyway…)
• Darren did a post about Northern Voice 2008, and included an interesting graph showing the growth in the number of photos posted at Flickr. Frankly, the growth seems rather unimpressive.
• Windows Live SkyDrive is now available in Canada. You get up to 5 GB of free storage space. In other Canadian Microsoft news, the Xbox 360 got another price cut of $50.
• It’s no Microsoft-Yahoo deal, but Electronic Arts (EA) has offered about $2 billion for fellow game publisher Take-Two.
• Four or five reasons why Starbucks is Losing its Mojo.
• Is the Alberta Oil Sands really the most destructive project on Earth? According to an Environmental Defence report, by 2020 the oil sands will release twice the amount of greenhouse gases currently produced by all the vehicles in Canada.
• Megan did an interesting post this weekend on the Oscars. She points out the disconnect between movies that win Best Picture, and movies that people actually see. It happened again this year, with No Country For Old Men winning the top prize.
• Interesting explanation for why the Microsoft Office file formats are so complicated.

It was Family Day today in Alberta, so a holiday for most people. It seems I always post my notes on the holiday…ah well…here they are:

• Haven’t been home much this weekend! Aimee was in town on Saturday, and last night was Jane’s party. Good times.
• Actually, you might say it was a weekend of Rock Band. That game is incredibly popular. They had it setup at the bar we went to on Saturday, and Andrew brought his for the party last night. It’s a great game for groups.
• Back in January of 2006, I blogged about Taco Del Mar coming to Edmonton. Friday night Sharon and I finally went to see what it was like. I had a quesadilla, and while it was really good, it was also quite expensive (about $7) considering it is more like Taco Bell than Earl’s.
• I’m still kind of surprised at how fast HD-DVD died. My Dad blogged about Netflix dropping HD-DVD, and not long after Wal-Mart decided they too would go Blu-ray only.
• Speaking of my Dad, it was his birthday on Saturday. Happy Birthday Dad! We got his blogs combined and converted to WordPress, so hopefully he’ll get back to posting more regularly 🙂
• Interesting story about how many big investors have an interest in both Microsoft and Yahoo. They can’t afford for the Microsoft bid to become too expensive.
• Amazon S3 experienced an outage on Friday. Nicholas Carr did a good job covering the story, and explained why it went down. Like SmugMug, we weren’t affected at Podcast Spot.
• As you all know, the writer’s strike ended this past week. Hasn’t made much of a difference for me, though I am really glad to see that Jay Leno has kept a few of his strike segments (like the one where he answers unscripted questions from the audience).
• Northern Voice 2008 is this weekend! I’m starting to get excited. For the uninitiated, Darren has posted some quick facts about the event.

Here are my weekly notes:

• XML is ten years old today! That strikes me as being not very long. Seems like XML has been around forever. Time flies when you’re having <fun>?
• Apparently Yahoo is talking to AOL. They must be really desperate to avoid Microsoft.
• Apple has updated their trademark to encompass gaming. Is an Apple console on the way?
• I ran into some problems with WordPress and email notifications again this week. I found the WP Mail SMTP plugin, and so far it was been working wonderfully. Give that a try if you’re hosting WP on IIS.
• An Economist piece on the cable cutting that happened recently.
• Valentine’s Day is this week! For my fellow coffee lovers: check out this open thread at the Starbucks Gossip blog. Love-related stories at Starbucks.
• Did some work on migrating my Dad’s two blogs to WordPress, and I’d say it’s going well. Should be done for the weekend.
• From the New York Times: Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?
• Speaking of the election…Obama swept the weekend, prompting the Clinton campaign to make changes. Clinton still leads slightly in delegates, however.

Here are my weekly notes:

• I didn’t watch it, but the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots tonight in Super Bowl XLII by a score of 17-14. It was a major upset for the undefeated Patriots.
• I volunteer at the Learning Centre here in Edmonton, and we’re updating our logo. We’ve narrowed it down to two choices, which you can see and vote on here. Thanks for your help!
• You may have heard that the Dell call centre here in Edmonton is being shutdown. That’s 900 people out of a job!
• You may also have heard that Apple is opening a 6000 square foot store in West Edmonton Mall on July 1st! Guess I know where I’ll be on Canada Day!
• Have you heard of jobkin.ca? It’s a job registry for students in Edmonton. I only came across it this week.
• WhatTheFont is a neat tool that will try to determine which fonts are used in a graphic that you upload. Works decently enough!
• Super Tuesday is this week! Finally!
• A few useful political sites: the Yahoo News Election Dashboard, Political Base, and techPresident.

Can you believe it’s already February? Don’t forget that 2008 is a leap year, so there are 29 days this month.

Here are my weekly notes:

• Went to see There Will Be Blood with Megan and Greg on Friday night. I didn’t really enjoy it, though Daniel Day-Lewis was incredible. It was too long, too crazy, and in some places too boring.
• Sharon and I decided we’d try to make dessert yesterday, and we settled on modifying this recipe for Rocky Road Pizza. We used Coffee Crisp instead of Toblerone, and added banana too. It turned out alright, but we need to work on the bread next time. Here are a few pictures.
• Here’s a really good post from Darren Rowse titled 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers.
• Blizzard announced this week that the popular online game World of Warcraft hit the 10 million subscriber mark. Pretty impressive.
• Here’s one that’ll make you go "huh?!" – Might Google Buy the New York Times?
• Quite a few people sent me links to the story that Starbucks is testing $1 short drip coffee with free refills. Of course, I’m addicted to more than the coffee, and I had already read it (but still appreciate the thought everyone, thanks). Starbucks Gossip has a good roundup of reaction to the story.
• Back in August I posted that I really wanted to see the documentary Helvetica. I was really happy to find out this week that the film is finally coming to Edmonton! It’s playing at the Citadel on February 8th, 10th, and 11th, put on by Metro Cinema. I’ve RSVP’d for the 8th – very excited!
• Daryl Katz is definitely persistent. The Edmonton Journal reported today that his offer for the Oilers is apparently closer to $200 million now. It’s only a matter of time.

Here are my weekly notes:

• Last night Megan and I went to see Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at The Citadel. It was the very first night (a preview night, opening night is Tuesday) and while there were some technical difficulties, it was still a great show. It makes me want to crack out the old VHS and watch it! I especially enjoyed "Be Our Guest".
• Went out to Violino for Annie’s Birthday on Friday night…it was yummy! Oh and the U of A president was dining a few tables away from us. Some photos are here.
• I’ve been playing around with Buxfer this weekend, and I think it may be a winner! Buxfer is a personal finance app that helps you track your money. Just like Remember The Milk, I can access Buxfer in a variety of ways: on the web, via email, via Twitter, and on the iPhone/iPod touch. I think that’s what makes it extremely useful for me. Even better is this – I submitted a suggestion this afternoon, and received a personalized response a few hours later. Awesome customer service!
• Speaking of iPod/iPhone, you’ve gotta check this site out. It lets you use a custom image for adding bookmarks to the home screen in 1.1.3. Hat tip to darylcognito.
• Tried Fatburger on Tuesday evening. I noticed it in South Edmonton Common a few weeks ago and was curious. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special either. Kinda cool how they call out the order like they do in Starbucks.
• For the .NET developers in the crowd – I’ve been using SubSonic a lot lately, and I just love it. Rob Conery has two posts up sharing some of what’s coming in the next version.
• Liveblogging of major events is becoming increasingly more common. Macworld was liveblogged by a ton of sites this past week. I guess it should be no surprise that people are developing software specifically for liveblogging, such as CoverItLive.

Some photos from the past week: