Who's in *YOUR* RSS Reader?

RSS - my guilty pleasure. Part newspaper, part shopping list, part procrastination tool. It's the only thing I do in the morning between 6:30 and 7:30.  3 cups 'o coffee and my reader; catching up on who's saying what, and what's going on in the world.  If I didn't have a reader, I'd never have known that Fiji went through a government change ;-)

In my RSS reader:

• Rob Hyndman***pretty damn savvy for a lawyer
• etc.***for those times when you have time.  Always has something worth poking around at.
• factory City***just because I also really like Horse,Pig,Cow
• Telecom Trends***how else would I know what the CRTC has up its sleeve?
• Alec Saunders .LOG***VoIP is a big deal. Alec knows all about it.
• Matthew Ingram***Pretty much the techiest newspaper journalist there is (especially since Mark Evans defected to the blog world.
• The Good Blogs***it just goes without saying.
• How To of the Day***because some days you want to know how to do things.
• Digital Photography School***always handy to sprinkle in some real learning.
• The BIG NYC Adventure***the story of a gurl transplanted from Toronto to NYC
  
• craphound.com***he's from canada, he's a scifi writer, he's done 7 billion cool things. Nuff said.
  
• Dooce***everyone needs Dooce
• Successful Blog***a girl can always dream
• the.idea.dude***ideas are GOOD.
• a rain of frogs***blogs are not always simply about the good side
• ProBlogger Job Board***for when I want to think about career changes
• Mighty Goods***quite possibly the best for shopping
  

Plus a zillion more..... who's in YOUR RSS reader?


Technorati Tags: rss reader, jules dot ca

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Crap! I'm an Insular Blogger!

it's like diagnosing yourself with webMD, but different.  According to Problogger, I may be suffering from a case of insular blogging.

It's serious, but not fatal.  Gulp.  The first step is admitting that you have a problem.....
The next step.... interaction. I suggest perhaps a game of tag.... blog tag.

the.idea.dude - TAG.. you're it. The Good Blogs completely rock.

I believe the culprit is insular blogging. Insular blogging is when yousit and post content to your blog never linking to or talking aboutother bloggers, blogs or websites. You need to interact with theblogosphere and other people online in order to grow your trafficrapidly.

Technorati Tags: blogging, the idea dude, Problogger, insular blogging

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Early INTERAC Outage Rings in Christmas Shopping Season

Between early holiday shoppers, festive decorators battling for LED lights, and bedlam in the grocery stores, it’s beginning to feel alot like Christmas. But at approximately 4:00 pm this afternoon, the Interac Network in Canada came to a crumbling halt, impacting debit services and ATM machines alike. All transactional services with Canadian banking institutions were impacted, even independants who rely on Interac for integration. For the better part of 4 hours, the shopping option was cash or credit card only.  It smelled like the ’80s in line at Canadian Tire.

Believed to not be related to a telco issue, the nationwide outage could be signifying the beginning of chaos for the christmas shopping season. Details are still sketchy….  stay tuned for what crashed the Interac network….



Technorati Tags: Interac, outage, debit, ATM , Canada

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Update on 2006-11-25 02:35 by jules

Systems restored at 8:41.

Funny - no mention yet of the outage or what caused it, anywere….. curious. 

Virtual City is a HIT

You got me, I'm addicted.... Virtual City is amazing.Go, look, see. It's an ingenious mash of google and Toronto. The images are outstanding, the interface is easy, and on every street you can do a virtual *walk through*.....
I just strolled down Wellington St. It was great!

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Goodbye Blackberry Exchange Server?

Holy Cats. One of the hurdles with PDA devices that weren’t Blackberries was the trick of getting push email. Not having to “act” to receive emails is a big deal, especially when you are spoiled with the Blackberry. I’ve had a heck of a time trying to convince the wiz that he could get something cooler and sexier, but he’s grown up with having insta-email, and it’s just not an option with him…..

While looking for device options for the wiz for christmas, I just stumbled across a wicked new application that can push mail to any device, with no user intervention needed. *blink* Yes, I said it.

Now how yummy is that!?!? All those amazing phone/pda handhelds that were withering in the vine because you had to “check” your mail can be instantly “berry-ified” with emoze. emoze will automatically push your email to your phone/pda as soon as it’s sent. No proactive connection needed!

There have been other companies that offer push email, Good Technology was one, and it’s just been bought up… but it’s pricetag illustrated that it was decidedly targeted to an enterprise application.  Who says consumers don’t deserve insta-email?  I pulled this quote right from their website, it looks like it can’t get any easier:

To use emoze 1.30 all you need to have is an email account and a compatible device; the interface will be familiar to anyone who’s used a traditional email program. The emoze software can be downloaded free from www.emoze.com and set up quickly and simply.

You have to peek at www.emoze.com to see for yourself.



Technorati Tags: Blackberry, emoze

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Look Out Pandora.... Musicovery is Here

I have been a huge Pandora fan, for years now.  At work, at home, you name it, if my laptop is on, usually Pandora is playing in the background.  But Musicovery might change all that…. especially with it’s ability to dig down into years and genres. Comes in mighty handy when you are reliving your ’80s.  Now, the big trick would be for someone to build a mobile device, with wireless IP capability, so you could stream music with you, wherever you are.  It would certainly fix my dilemma with commuting.
;-)

etc: quick links to good stuff

With Musicovery : interactive webRadio you can determine what music to listen to by your mood, define it by genre or narrow it down to a particular decade. Choose to hear only only hits or only non hits or set it to discovery mode to, um …discover.

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The Dirty Pool of Blog Comments

Imagine, you read something that resonates with you. You decide to post a few comments either in addition to what the author has written, or in support of.  You’ve made sure that the article allows for comments.  Some don’t, you know, and that’s fine too.

Your comment is submitted.

Poof. You comment disappears into the blogovoid.

Is it a glitch? Is it editorial liberty? Is it personal? Was it something I said?

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Building Credibility in Blogging?

One of the topics I'm wrestling with is the ability or the requirement to build reputation and credibility in the blogosphere. How does one go from zero to 60 in respectibility points? Is it something that can happen over the course of time, or is it something that has to be acquired, rather than home grown?

By acquired, I'm referring to "borrowing" respectibility in other writers, guest posters, folks who "already have the badge of credibility"?
Is it about what your bio looks like? Is it about the profound things you've said before or posted elsewhere?

How does a corporate blog create credibility and reputation? Stick with me on this...


Technorati Tags: Corporate Blogging, credibility, respectibility, reputation, creed

StarWars and IMS

I picked out the nugget I liked, you need to read the article to get the Star Wars Reference ;-)




Open Gardens: Of Sith lords and the dark side of IMS

It (IMS) attempts to capture the flexibility and ubiquity of Internet Protocol whist ditching much of the Internet's design philosophy.Thats spot on! The Internet succeeded precisely because it was designed as a dumb pipe with the intelligence concentrated around the periphery. In other words, intelligent nodes and dumb pipes go together. 'Dumb pipes' means : all packets are created equal. There is no intelligence in the network, only in the nodes.IMS uses IP , BUT adds some intelligence in the network because it does NOT treat all packets equally.IMS promises to improve the quality of service, reduce SPAM, provide better quality rich applications(such as video) and so on. The often hidden caveat of this promise is the understanding that packets may not all be treated equally. In financial terms, it translates to premium prices for premium connectivity.

Technorati Tags: IMS, SITH, Net Neutrality

Interesting Google Mashups - Palomino

I was lucky enough to get to see a demo yesterday of one of the neatest Google Mashups ever. EVER. Palomino Systems is working on MANY cool applications, but I was able to see one of their coolest by far.  That being said, there was also an NDA involved with the demo - and that means I’m unable to say too much abot it.  Suffice it to say, people will take to this like a duck on water. Like a dog on a T-Bone.

Sorry - when they launch, I’ll be able to say “I saw it first”.  ;-)  Trust me, you will love it.

technorati tags:Palomino, Google Mashup

IE 7 Goes to the Mat with Firefox, Can Trailfire Mediate?

Someone who shall remain nameless upgraded to IE7 on Day 1. On Day 2, his helpdesk managed to get him out of the slippery slope he found himself in. Myself, I chug happily along, sharing the love of Firefox. Until today. I bit the bullet and tried out IE7 on an older, its-ok-if-it-gets-screwed-up computer. And it was interesting. Not exactly good, but interesting nonetheless.

I missed the extensions that I have plugged into Firefox. I missed the snappy themes, the customizable searchabilty, the hotkeys that seem to make so much sense. Oh the blog integration, and the photo integration is still always going to be superior. I like the ability in IE to breeze through all my open tabs, just like one would with PowerPoint, but that’s likely because I am a Powerpoint whore. ;-)

Really, it does indeed come down to the Extensions. No, they AREN’T Add-ins. Add-ins are like remote relatives, nice to see once in a while, but they never get the hint on when to leave… and even after they are gone, there are traces of them around for ages that you need to clean up after.

The one snappy extension/add-in that seems to bridge the gap between both browsers is Trailfire.

Trailblazer plays double duty as both a Firefox Extension; Internet Explorer 7 add-on. In either browser, Trailfire dances right along, capturing the best of both camps, and may be the first smart extension that doesn’t care what browser you use, you can still play along with the rest of the kids.

Trailfire is the first to actually make use of “notes” on websites. Notes that other folks can see, engage with and follow. It opens the door to serious collaboration, and at the same time, there’s nothing stopping the insane from leaving a blaze of flames across your site. It will be interesting to see the impacts of such a viral, social service.

 

For this one, I might even switch from Flock

technorati tags:IE 7, Firefox, Trailfire, Flock

Find Your Carnival and Get Your Blog On

What an outstanding idea!

Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has stumbled and shared the most interesting concept - Blog Carnivals.

As far as I can tell, it’s like a very focused forum, and a travelling road show, all in on. What a way to build traffic, awareness and create good conversations!.

What is a Blog Carnival?

A Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community. There aremany kinds of blogs, and they contain articles on many kinds of topics.Blog Carnivals typically collect together links pointing to blogarticles on a particular topic.A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors,contributors,and an audience. Editions of the carnival typicallycome out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of themonth). Each edition is a special blog article that consistsof links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often withthe editors opinions or remarks.

technorati tags:blog carnival

OMG - Someone Took the Projector!

True story - I had Microsoft into the office a few weeks ago, to talk about the neat ways that Sharepoint could be configured for my team. I’m a bit new, so I didn’t know the ins and outs of how to book rooms, how to book rooms with LAN connectivity, how to book projectors and phone lines and conference bridges. To be honest, it’s still a mystery. There are web tools, outlook tools, outlook add-ins… global addressbook bits… it’s UGLY.

Anyways, I thought I had a room booked that came automatically with a proxima/projector. No such luck. 6 fancy Microsoft guys, and all I had was a table and 8 chairs. Bleech. So much for the live demo of the Sharepoint Bells and Whistles. :-( We managed to talk and laugh our way through it, and it’s a good thing that I’m familiar with Sharepoint, or it could have turned into a damn sad session.

A few days later, and a bit of digging, and imagine the neat tools i found. Tools that could take away all the internal challenges of “booking resources”. And to make it easier - it’s all web based. The web 2.0 Scheduling Software that NetSimplicity has available is mind boggling in it’s simplicity. Somewhere, someone in the internal helpdesk has got to realize that outsourcing tools like this would make life so very easy for employees. Just imagine.

technorati tags:NetSimplicity, Someone Stole the Projector, Sharepoint

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Feedburner Hell

I've just spent the past 7 minutes trying to convince Feedburner that I really do want to try and send a link by email. I've tried to convince them i'm human, to the tune of trying to decipher their Archaic Word test 13 times.

"Please enter the letters you see in the image into this text box". Yes, I've got it. I've done it. I've done it 13 times. 13 different varieties of letters. Now, You've got to be freaking kidding me.

Please enter the characters displayed in the box. If you are unable tosee the text clearly, you may reload this window for a new image.

Gotcha - i can see the letters clearly. I am entering them. You aren't believing me. Now, now is when i close my feedburner window, strike them off my list of RSS readers to ever consider using, and write a rant about the idiocy of some of anti-spam, anti-automated bots precautions. Yes you drive away the bots, but you also drove away a real person. Bravo.

technorati tags:feedburner, RSS, RSS Readers

Technorati : RSS readers, feedburners

Google GMAIL Error Code 700

OK - I give.

I'm ready to take a hostage.

Error Code 700 on anything I try to delete or mark as spam.

My head is hurting. Please take away the problem.

technorati tags:gmail error code 700

Technorati : GMAIL Error 700

Discussing the Future of Wireless Handhelds...

I spent an interesting afternoon yesterday meeting with a fellow who designs wireless handheld devices. Nick Fothergill from Huveur, is in Canada for a brief stint to gather research on what Canadians are thinking about when it comes to what they want in a wireless device. Huveur is a design shop in Taiwan that makes interesting prototypes that other interesting tech company's pick up when the R&D is high.

We had an outstanding conversation about the melding of entertainment and business applications, and the woefully unentertaining aspects of the Blackberry… how handhelds should be able to jump across different types of networks, and how a battery has to live for a LONG time ;-)

I think ideally, the wireless handheld would be a tricked out PSP-like device, but with all the bells and whistles that a blackberry has. Of course, don't forget the camera. And Bluetooth for the phone feature… And the last must have - it needs to work as a touch screen, and have a windows-y OS so that you can actually work on it. I want a tablet, shrunk a bit, on steroids. Holy.

We also talked about the challenges of wifi meshes, especially when Canada is just starting to come up to speed, and what IMS is going to do to the wireless world we live in now. I'm looking forward to seeing what sorts of interesting new devices can be attributed to the smarties at Huveur in the future….

It was quite an amazing lunch. Thank Nick!! And good luck with your tour!!


Technorati Tags: Huveur, Nick Fothergill, wireless device design, wifi, FON, Black Lung Inner City Choir

Technorati : Black Lung Inner City Choir, Huveur, Nick Fothergill

Accountability on the Internet

An interesting, yet bizarre article on what happens when a girl meets a boy on the internet....

What's more surprising is the lawsuit (of course, it's not surprising).

Is this all simply a symptom of the greater parental problem with the current generation, or is this finally the realization that the internet is a magnifying glass for all the potential badness that is in children's lives - badness has not changed, or grown in the past 50 years, but now, with the internet, we can see it clearly? My gut is on on option 1. Option 2 seems like such a knee jerk reaction.

Despite the repetition of warnings of knowing what your kids are doing on line, the internet is akin to a car. If you aren't paying attention, if you aren't trained, if you aren't being aware and cautious, you can easily come to a painful end. Just like a car, the internet provides freedom, learning, adventures, entertainment, a social link to the rest of your peer group. Just like a car, if you are are foolish and showing off, or being irresponsible, you are going to be in trouble. If you are 14, you wouldn't be in a car on your own, and the same goes for the internet. Parents need to pay attention.


A Lesson for Parents on 'MySpace Madness' - New York Times

AFTER more than a year of hand-wringing, parental concern and political posturing over the safety of children from predators at MySpace.com, a 14-year-old girl and her mother are seeking $30 million in damages because they say that a 19-year-old man who met the teenager on the site assaulted her.

Technorati Tags: MySpace, Internet Accountability

Technorati : MySpace

An Interesting Idea in Data Security

You can't drop a bomb on the data storage vaults of Kazaa because they don't exist. The data is replicated rather than protected. The music files exist in thousands of redundant copies on the hard drives of cooperating Kazaa users.

Fractals of Change: America's Antiterrorism Network - Distributed Data Storage

Bravo! What an outstanding arguements... you can't destroy a zillion bits of information in a zillion different places....

I'm being reminded about trying to herd cats......

technorati tags:distributed data storage, anti-terrorism networks, kazaa