Archive: Posts from August, 2004
August 31st, 2004, 8 Comments »
My blogroll (that list under “Regularly Read” in the side bar) was way, way out-of-date. I couldn’t face the thought of manually updating it, so I dumped my OPML file from Bloglines and used that to update my Blogrolling account. My Bloglines feeds are hardly up-to-the-minute, but they’re more accurate than what they replaced.
If you used to be on that list, but you’re not any more, there are several possible reasons. One, I pretty much only regularly read sites that offer RSS feeds. If you don’t have one, you wouldn’t be among my Bloglines feeds and thus I don’t read your site regularly. Two, you’re Fark, which I prefer to read in the browser. Three, I’ve just accidentally missed your site some time in the past. Four, your site wasn’t my bag. It’s other people’s bags, just not mine.
Thanks to some bizarre formatting issue, you’ll note that every tenth site in my blogroll is one point larger than the others. I will resolve this at some later date. For now, I think it’s charmingly eclectic. The whole thing is pretty unattractive at the moment anyway.
Read more…
8 Comments »
August 31st, 2004, 7 Comments »
We don’t order pizza very often. We tend to be more go-out than order-in people, and if we do order in, it’s usually Chinese. Tonight, however, in celebration of Canada’s victory (I don’t know about those jerseys, though), we ordered pizza from the always-excellent Nat’s New York Pizzeria.
Maybe pizzerias have been doing this for years, and I’ve just never noticed, but check it out:
Nat’s (or is it Nat himself?) forgoes the little order paper and writes all the details directly on the pizza box! What a tremendous increase in efficiency they must realize! This approach must significantly reduce the number of screwed-up and otherwise undelivered pizzas. I’m suitably impressed.
Maybe somebody who orders pizza from many pizza vendors, or used to deliver pizza, can comment on how widespread a practice this is.
7 Comments »
August 31st, 2004, No Comments »
Minor PSA here: On Thursday, September 2nd, I’m flying to Toronto and driving a couple hours north to hang out in some hunting lodge near Huntsville with the whole fam damily. On Monday, September 6th I’m driving back to Toronto and flying to Dublin, Ireland. I’ll do some business there, and speak at the Irish Software Association on Thursday, September 9. I’ll stay over Saturday night for the cheap fares, and be back in Vancouver on Monday, September 13.
If you’re in Dublin, and want to have a pint, drop me an email.
No Comments »
August 31st, 2004, 1 Comment »
This month’s Yaletown View column is a follow-up to last month’s introduction to weblogs. Most of you folks will know most of this essay, but I post them every month, so I figured I’d better post this one as well. You can find more of my columns here.
Last month I wrote about the personal-publishing technology that is weblogs. A weblog (or ‘blog’) is an easy-to-use, frequently-updated website with dated entries listed in chronological order. It’s also a social phenomenon that has gone mainstream, with individuals, media organizations and corporations including weblogs as part of their online presence.
But how do you start a weblog? Before I address that, I’d encourage you to consider why you want to start one. There are plenty of good reasons:
- You want an online soapbox.
- You want to communicate with friends and families.
- You want to establish yourself as an expert in a field.
- You’re an exhibitionist, and want to share your life with the online masses.
Deciding why you’re launching a weblog is important, because that decision is reflected in all of the subsequent choices you make. If, for example, your weblog has a professional-development focus, you’ll want to choose a design and name that reflects that.
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1 Comment »
August 31st, 2004, 1 Comment »
Last season, for the first time in my life, I bought an 11-game Ice Pak of tickets (two tickets per game) to watch the Canucks. Over the summer, Orca Bay Sports has been hassling me to renew my tickets. I’ve just written them a letter explaining why I don’t plan to do so this year.
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1 Comment »
August 31st, 2004, 6 Comments »
On Sunday, I was jogging around False Creek in downtown Vancouver, and stumbled upon Wake West 2004, a wakeboarding competition. If you, like me, are fuzzy on what wakeboarding is, consider the follow equation: wakeboarding is to water-skiing as snowboarding is to skiing. Clear?
As I approached the event location, I passed a bunch of people walking the other way with orange popsicles. Sure enough, I came upon several orange-clad reps from ING Direct, a Canadian virtual bank. They had a cart, and were giving away popsicles and ING Direct brochures to anybody who wanted them.
I jogged by, and had to come to a stop because of the crowds along the waterfront. There I spotted two Clubzone guys with a cart. They were selling Clubzone-branded bottles of water for a buck apiece. I heard somebody nearby say to his friend, with a hint of biterness in his voice, “I can buy those bottles at CostCo for 25 cents…that’s pretty good margin.”
Clearly, Clubzone had had a negative impact on this potential consumer, and his friend. What’s the lesson? If you’re promoting your company, give stuff away.
On a related note, I’ve seen Clubzone’s branding everywhere–on posters, stickers and a million discarded brochures outside nightclubs. The last point already put a bad taste in my mouth.
6 Comments »
August 31st, 2004, 1 Comment »
While searching for FedEx shirt (as per Mel’s kind offer), I happened upon this gallery of fake billboards. They’re not bust-your-gut hilarious or anything, but they’ll provide a low-brow 38-second distraction from your work day. This is probably my favourite.
1 Comment »
August 31st, 2004, 2 Comments »
Following hard upon (hee, hee) the rampant mis-use of condoms by Indians, we find (via Sexblo.gs, which, obviously, isn’t remotely safe for work) Project Small Family. Here’s a poorly-worded description:
PSF is open to young women in the age group between 18 and 35, who are willing to show up once in three months and be checked for being pregnancy-free. If found free, they are paid at the rate of Rs.250 per month. It sounds simplistic until you dig deep into its potential as a revolutionary idea. The idea has been at work since April 2003, in Seoni and Chhindwara districts of MP covering about 300 women.
Now, 250 rupees gets you about CAN $7. Of course, 86.2% of the population earns under CAN $3/day, so that’s a significant addition to their monthly income. I certainly prefer this approach to China’s ham-fisted one-family, one-child plan.
As has been discussed previously, this is a relatively short-term crisis. India and China’s population growth will likely level off as they develop.
2 Comments »
