My Beef About CanadianTire.ca

I’m planing the weekend, actually, I’m planning the next 3 weekends, and they contain a significant amount of time dedicated to outdoor, spring-type activities: grass care, flowers, tree planting, mulching, raking, weeding. (Liberally sprinkled with the occasional snack and beverage suitable to the warming weather).  There is a list as long as my arm of stuff I need to get.  Stuff that I’m sure would be Canadian Tire worthy.

Imagine how neat it would be to go onto the CT site and make a *grocery list* of all the stuff I want to check out.  Things that I’ve done a bit of research on, so I don’t need to spend 4 hours wandering through the huge maze of aisles, not to mention the weekend melee that defines spring at Canadian Tire.


I don’t need to buy all the accoutrements on line, in fact, I want to see them *in real life*…. but I want a list in hand that I can work off of, without the analog pain of creating a list. Alas, Canadian Tire doesn’t want me to make a list. They want me to futz around for 4 hours in the store, hopefully faking me out enough so I will buy excessive products that aren’t on my list.

And for that, I’m going to go to the local, wee greenhouse for the majority of my goods, and CT for the lame-o pieces that I can’t get somewhere else. For shame. Remember, hell hath no fury like a gardener scorned.

Technorati Tags: Canadian Tire, Customer Focus, spring planting

Facebook Too Cool for Ontario Government?

Earlier this week, the Ontario Government decided that Facebook was off limits to any Ontario government employee, MPPs, aides and cabinet ministers.  And, with usual sneaky tactics, didn't notify anyone of the decision, but simply sent the word to the IT group to filter out Facebook at the firewall level. Facebook has been relegated to the same status as porn now, at least as far as the government is concerned. Funny - considering all the interest and added attention that some gov't folks, on both sides of the border, are having with MySpace and Facebook accounts. It seems like a no brainer for sharing information and getting out to the public in a manner much less invasive than canvassing the neighbourhood.

Throughout the country, interesting backlash is occurring, as more and more people sign up for Facebook accounts. Students are getting suspending for talking about teachers, employees are being locked out of the site through company firewalls. It's a tool, just like email, IM or blogging.

"We have to have the conversation about what's private, what's public,what are the protocols, what are the rules, because I think it's veryunclear," said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

"We need to realize that these technologies exist, and we need to berealistic that they're not going away, and we need to help our studentsto deal with them."

I have a feeling that Kathleen Wynne could learn quite a few things from Ontario students. Her *interest* in helping students deal with the internet sounds like a distraction from the real issues at hand - transparency in education, and the new realization that if you are a sub-rate teacher, it's not something that can stay secret for very long. Gone are the days of students with no power to effect change on bad teachers. Hello transparent education system.

Could banning be the next indication of success for web 2.0 apps? :-)



Technorati Tags: Facebook, Ontario Government

A Geeky Vegas Thing...

On one of our adventures in Vegas, we meandered through the Caesar's Palace Forum - a beautiful mall of uber-high end shops; the kind a good, canadian girl dreams about while flipping through cosmo as a kid.  Of course, we stumbled upon the Sony Store. :-)
As I explain the merits and challenges of BluRay to the wiz, my eye catches the Sony Vaio UX.... Aha!  What have we here, a wee handheld. I was in love, and immediately sat down to play. Aside from the tiny screen resolution, it was beautiful. Bluetooth, wifi, vista, office 2007. It had a lovely rollup/out flat keyboard. If it had cell phone capability, this little beast would have knocked my socks off, had i been wearing any. Alas, for $2600 CDN.... I will stick with my berry/laptop combo for now, and dream.


Technorati Tags: Sony Vaio UX, Vegas, Geekiness

A Quiet Berry Morning

Last night, the wiz says to me “Hmmm, I’m not getting any emails to my berry…. can you send me something so we can test it?”… Badda Bing, I email him. Silence. His berry usually makes an odd “wooshing” sound when it receives a message, some sound akin to a hockey slapshot and a goalie save. It’s the Stanley Cup Finals, who am I to judge? ;-)

Regardless, no sound, no email. The second step - seeing if the email actually hit his gmail box. Sure enough, it was waiting patiently, but it wasn’t being forwarded on to his Berry.  And then we looked harder - the berry network being used was *GSM*. That can’t be good. The Berry adores the GPRS network. GSM smacks of network badness.

And now - a story released by the Toronto Star, indicates that it’s a problem affecting all the Blackberry users in the Western Hemisphere. In a strange turn of events, no info is coming from the carriers, nor from RIM directly, but from a TV station in New York.  Computerworld has a bit more information, but it’s still sketchy.  The fact that a single vendor can impact potentially millions of users is staggering. RIM has got 2 data centres in Canada where the Blackberry Servers talk to all the wee handhelds…. methinks that perhaps they may want to expand upon that setup with a bigger diversity play.

Funny side note: My  Blackberry is humming along just fine, thank you very much….. :-)

TheStar.com - Business - System failure hits BlackBerry

Technorati Tags: Blackberry, Rogers, TELUS, Blackberry Outage

Kameleon's Mobizone - Custom Ad Content via Bluetooth!!

Every month or so, I glean something amazing from Red Herring.
I love analog magazines about technology; there’s just something ironic about it… This month, it was Kameleon. Kameleon is the foundatation for a new wireless app that uses Bluetooth to target specific, localized advertising to mobile users. Imagine, you are walking down the street, and see a neat add for Gap jeans, and you can trigger your phone to interact with the ad, maybe even getting you a 15% off coupon in the deal….
Perhaps you aren’t even paying attention, but you have an account with Shoppers DrugMart, and you pass by one of the bill boards, and it instantly downloads a wee flyer, letting you know you are 58 feet from a Shoppers Drugmart, and your favourite conditioner is on sale.
Of course, there are going to be loads of security risks, allowing everyone and their uncle to send you stuff via Bluetooth… but still - the future of it, married to Kameleon, and Kameleon’s “Mobizone” is certainly exciting.  CBS is already starting to use it at Grand Central Station…
Watch for cell phone carriers to get their nose’s out of joint, as they want to control user content ;-) Uhoh - I say again, it’s going to be “wireless net neutrality”, coming to a cell phone near you….. With Bluetooth, there isn’t even “carrier network” being used, but that’s not going to stop them from whining about it.


Technorati Tags: Bluetooth, Mobizone, Kameleon

OMG - Someone to Do My Stuff?

I was accidentally attracted to an ad on My Digital Life's site...
A little, attractive blinking square, offering for someone else to do my stuff.... of course, I had to click it. Who wouldn't?

On first glance, it looks like a task trading site; you get someone to do something you don't really want to do, and you take on someone else's task that they don't find interesting, but you *do*..... hmmm... Their tagline? "Outsource Your Life"..... You can also simply just pay people to do your tasks - and there's an auction for different kinds of tasks.... it's hard to say, what with absolutely no quality control, that this sort of application will really be able to take off.... but wow. The idea is innovative. Now if only I had time to post a task to have someone try out "Do My Stuff", to see if it's really worth it ;-)

DoMyStuff.com - Main Menu

Technorati Tags: Do My Stuff

Deadwood in My RSS Reader

Thursday Rant (is it really Thursday already!?)
I've got a fairly extensive RSS reader (you know I love Google Personal Pages).  There are days, not unlike today, when I get up, slip through 3 coffees and go through what's new and exciting and bizarro in my reader.  Today's a bit different.  I'm realizing that I'm carrying quite a few blogs that just aren't staying current.  They're not writing, they're not updating, they're not even saying why they're not updating.  I'm loyal.  You've got to have radio silence for quite a while before I dump you back into the soup.  I'm tenacious.  I've invested weeks and months in reading you, I'm not going to throw away all that invested time recklessly.

But now, I've got to admit, I've got deadwood. It's time to do some culling, some burning off, and some planting of seedlings.

Anyone have any suggestions on what blogs would be great additions?


Technorati Tags: RSS Deadwood, blog culling

Who's Movin' On Up? Facebook!

With all the insanity around the growth in Facebook (have you been ‘booked” yet?), it’s worth mentioning that it’s still only got about 10% market share, with MySpace having the bulk of the weight still.  That being said, the trend to move towards Facebook is growing quickly.  Since I signed up (yes, I know), there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t have friend requests from people that I know. It’s addictive. I’ve even bought gifts.(yes, I really know)

There’s some considerable room for growth, of course.  I like Facebook because it’s not a blog, where MySpace is sort of blogging for newbies (sorry MySpace folks)…. I like the updates, the format, the fact that this blog post will automatically pop into my Facebook profile as soon as I click submit. I like how easy it is to find people, and how simple it is to keep people away.  Privacy is still important.

Enhancements:

• more mobile features would  be good
• a twittr-like widget would be interesting and more instant than messages and pokes…..
• How about a recommendation widget? If you can’t believe your friends, who CAN you rely on for the best takeout thai?

What would YOU add to Facebook?



Buzz Canuck has some interesting stats between MySpace and Facebook which will surprise you.

Buzz Canuck: Social Network Shifts - If MySpace and YouTube are the Established Heavyweights, Who are the Rising Challengers to the 2.0 Throne?

Technorati Tags: Facebook, MySpace, Buzz Canuck

Participatory Consumerism

Almost daily I'm encountering situations that are blog worthy - if only from a "consumer - give some feedback or warn others" kind of way.  Whether it's the jerk sales guy at a vw dealership who (shall remain nameless) completely insulted me when I told him I'd just gotten a Toyota Matrix instead of another Jetta, to the amazing service at a local restaurant.

There are quite a few "local" participatory consumerism websites, alas, very few of them are related to Canada.  Techcrunch has just highlighted streetadvisor, but that's still not Canadian specific.  Linked In has another add-on for references and feedback in your area, but still, that's not highly visible to the publc at large....

The last thing I want to do is invest time in an application that no one else is using to get/give consumer feedback.  Maybe that's the reason why no single application has really taken off?


Mark: is there anything Canadian on its way that resembles what I'm looking for?




Technorati Tags: participatory consumerism, Techcrunch, LinkedIn, streetadvisor, Mark Evans

Why Local Search is Going to be HOT

On Monday I had to get my Jetta to "any" local VW dealer as the lease was minutes away from expiring. I did my homework the night before, had emailed myself the closest dealership, and the map to get there, just in case. Lo and behold, the leasing manager wasn't available at that particular dealership, and I was sent away.
 "No problem", I thought. I popped open the browser in my Blackberry, and went to the VW Canada site to find out where there were other dealerships. Uhoh. Too many scripts on the VW website, it wouldn't load in my berry browser. Plan B: Google VW dealerships. BAD news, I got 97 results.Even Google Local didn't work very well in the berry browser. I was panicked. I had to resort to Plan C, and no one likes Plan C: Return to the original dealership and ask them for information on where the *other* dealerships were.  Oh, and could they give me the phone numbers as well? How 1996.

Michael O'Connor, over at Uninstalled is raving about a nifty new local search too. ZipLocal is hoping to quell that nauseous feeling you get when you need to find something within a proximity area.  It's brand new, so don't be surprised if there are still a few bugs to work out (it couldn't tell me about Toyota dealerships in Aurora, but I'm not giving up hope.)

As local searching becomes more relevant and focused, it's going to be THE must have app on a mobile browser. I swear.

PS The pain and anguish of trying to surf and search for something important in a mobile browsers is significant.  What happened to the good old days when web masters created shadow sites that could be viewed with ANY old crap browser?  On Monday, I couldn't get to vw.ca but nor could I use the Toyota Canada site either.  Sure, sites can be optimized for a specific browser platform, but by geeze, i should be able to see a bare bones rendition in the most basic browser, even if it's only text.  As local search grows, mobile browsing demand grows.  Web masters need to remember that mobile browser users are people too ;-) 



Technorati Tags: Local Search, ZipLocal, Uninstalled

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Violence and Blogging - Cyber Bullying of the 21st Century?

I’ve been following Kathy Sierra’s remarkable account of the harassment, threats and unbelievably bad behavior she’s had to dodge over the past few weeks, and in some of the comments left around the blogosphere, it sounds like she’s not the only one who has become a victim.

Cyberspace is abuzz. Matthew Ingram takes an interesting anonymous angle.  I don’t think that the freedom of anonymity allows people’s basest cruelty to emerge. There seems to be an ever growing trend of adult cyber bullies emerging from the darkness. Folks who enjoy sharing caustic commentary at the expense of others. Folks who are entirely too smart, folks who could be doing so very much more with their time and their brain cells.  Unfortunately, on the ‘net there are roaming gangs who feed off each other’s commentary, and are addicted to the adrenaline rush of creating drama out of nothing, usually at the expense of others….

Take a look at Ed Lee at Blogging Me Blogging You - he touches on the bully aspect as well, but encourages folks to not be afraid of the “Morlocks”… that wading into the proverbial blogging soup is worth the risk. The folks at IP Democracy are also talking about cyber bullying.

It sounds so grade 10, it’s disappointing that these people are all *growed up*.


Technorati Tags: cyber bullies, Kathy Sierra

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Proactive Blogging

Holy Cats, this is something that I think about all the time; usually when I find myself in situations where I should be doing something more productive (like when I'm sitting in traffic).  I find myself writing articles in my head, waiting for lights to change. Of course, the ideas and words and images are out the window by the time I get out of the car. I need a voice recorder to capture all the ideas you guys are missing out on ;-)

But it looks like the Blogger Lounge has got it all figured out! George has 300 articles all ready to go!!  I need some of what he's having. :-)

An Entire Year of High Quality Posts | Blogger Lounge

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Technorati Tags: Blogger Lounge, Proactive Blogging

The Ill-timed Automated Sat Survey

It’s been a hard day today.
I mean, it started out ok, coffee, good weather - gorilla on driveway (see below posting).

It was 7:30 am - I was ready to go. Booted the trusty work DELL, triggered the VPN - trigger, trigger, trigger…. Nothing. I connected to Vancouver. Nothing. I connected to Calgary. Nothing.  But this point, I’m a little exhaused from my cross country jaunts, and a little tense about all the work I need to do today.

Helpdesk - I’ve got to call the helpdesk. The standard reboot won’t do today. This isn’t one of those days where I can futz around with the settings in hopes of coming across the fix myself. Helpdesk will know what to do.  I call, I press the appropriate buttons to get to the correct queue. I wait.  I take another conference call on my cell phone.  I wait more… 3 hours later, an exhausted helpdesker apologizes, acknowledges that there’s a widespread problem, but there’s no eta on the repair. I resort to the Blackberry and gmail to try and get things done.

And now…. the punchline: An automated message from the helpdesk just hit my berry inbox - asking me to fill out a sort satisfaction survey. Hmmmm…. My VPN is still down.  How satisified should i be? And how can I answer this email, without my VPN working? Shrug.

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Can You Tell if it Sucks?

Dave, over at Touch You Last, has found a new can't live without gadget....Sucks/Rocks

Can't decide of Nickelback sucks or rocks?  This innovation will help you make up your mind. But I won't spoil it - go see what Dave's saying.....

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Pledge: 10 Comments a Day

I'm still an insular blogger.  I'm terrible with comments. I'm also terrible with interrupting people at parties, and there are times when adding comments feels just like that.
But, everyone has to start somewhere.
I'm pledging 10 comments a day. I'm also going to link more. So there.

What are YOU doing?

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Google's New Personalized Homepage Themes Add Joy to My Life

I am a voracious user of Google's Personalized Homepage.
All my reading, all my fun bits, all my organization is centered around this handy application.  Say what you want about Google Reader, it's the Personal Homepage that floats my boat.

This morning, when the day looked bleak, a new, innocuous link on the Personal Page caught my eye. What.... NEW! Select Themes. I had to... select... a... theme.  There aren't too many available right now: Classic (ho-hum), Beach, Bus Stop, City Scape, Sweet Dreams, Tea House and Seasonal Scape.

I went for the Tea House on a whim.  I was asked to input what time zone I was in, in order to customize the theme to the movement of the sun. Curious, I thought, but what the heck.

Imagine my delight, there was a wee fox, and his activities corresponded with the time of the day. At one point he was eating a picnic lunch in an orchard, then he was rowing across the lake in the afternoon.  Now he's doing his laundry in the lake.

I agree - it sounds a little cutesy and perhaps a little too over-produced, but damn, that wee fox has made my day.
Nicely done Google!!

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The Pitfalls of Corporate Email

There’s been a bit of a buzz on the goings-on inside the NHLPA (NHL Players Association) on the “email scandal”. Michael Geist has a worthy commentary on the implications of email surveilance at the troubled organization. He too questions the legal implications, and asks whether or not surreptitious monitoring crosses the line, when the players weren’t made aware of the possibility.

The NHLPA is a corporate union organization, right?  The NHL Players essentially are employees (union menmbers)…. in EVERY other corporate organization, the email belongs to the corporation, and it’s very clear that your email will/can/could/might be read/stored/used against you… and to govern yourselves accordingly. Why would this missive be any different for hockey players?
If you are going to talk/share/collaborate, and it’s about subjects you really don’t want your employer to have any knowledge about, why wouldn’t you and your friends get gmail or hotmail accounts?  Why would you use your *work email* ?  Oh… right, they are hockey players. Gotcha.

Ottawa Senators defenceman Chris Phillips said: “If something was goin gon like that, a lot of guys are going to be upset. There’s an assumption that our email accounts are private.”

I’m betting that there’s a corporate email policy, and that the contents of email on the NHLPA servers are owned by the NHLPA. If there isn’t such a policy; then shame on the NHLPA. If there is, shame on the players who are complaining that their digital rights are being violated.
If your email isn’t secure, it’s not like there’s not 13 different alternatives.

Now that the NHLPA Executive Director, Ted Saskin has been placed on paid leave,
it makes me wonder what sort of corporate policies there really are at the hockey union. In this day and age, the NHLPA should have a standard corporate IT Policy, if only for security and disclosure.


If one warning comes out of this situation, it’s the highlight that corporate, work email is just that - corporate. If you are discussing topics that have corporate implications, it’s best to take them off the corporate servers. It really is that simple. Welcome to the 21st century, hockey guys.


Technorati Tags: NHLPA, email monitoring, privacy, Ted Saskin

FixYa Fixer Upper

In my recent scans through the world for a project-y manager-y application, I stumbed across FixYa. An environment where you can ask questions and get help on just about everything you could have a problem with.  If you are scratching your head on how to tweak your digital camera, or have a problem with your TV, this is the absolute neatest place to go.  Peer support, troubleshooting and answers. If you are a fixed-upper, there's lots of folks looking for answers - share your knowledge and be recognized. Here's the giggle - if you can't figure out how to fix what you've got, they will sell you a new one!  I just shared some expertise on my silly Sony NW-A1000 mp3 player.  It's a sexy device, but it's high maintenance.


FixYa.com - Consumer Electronics support, repair, manuals, faq, problems and solutions

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The Greatest Domain Name Scam Ever!!!!!!!!

The Domain Registry of Canada is sending out notices to all domain owners whose domain names are due for renewal this year.  Not by email, but by regular post.

If you aren’t on the technical side, or if you happen to be one of the thousands of Canadians who have domain names, and don’t really keep track of where the domain is (sometimes i can be accused of this), it looks like a very official and professional warning. It’s VERY ballsy.

I got an email the other day from them, saying that they needed me to unlock one of the domains that I had with Network Solutions. I send them a polite no-thank you response, assuming that it was a domain hijack attempt. A lame one, at that.

I didn’t think anything more of it, until today, and they responded with a “but we have your money” answer and I was floored.  The notice was mailed to the company who I registered the domain for, and they had received the notice, thinking it was official and regular and important.  Everyone and their granny now knows the importance of keeping your domain name paid up.  It’s almost as critical as your mortgage.

Anyways, the cheque had been sent. And now the DROC wanted to get its grubby hands on the domain.

I don’t think Hell is cold enough for that little trick to fly.

I immediately called them tonight, canceled the move request, gave the customer service fellow a terse warning and extracted the refund.  It’s not illegal, but it’s certainly not good business, nor is it even playing fair. Nasty bit of work. Watch out for the Domain Registry of Canada. Oh, and they’ve got a sister organization, the Domain Registry of America.  Snappy name. Misleading name.

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I Need a 21st Century Doctor - STAT

How is it that in 2007 my doctor's office has a space, 20x40 and packed to the ceiling with analog information.  Why is there a huge filing area for folders of new patient information? Why do I only see one computer in the reception/administration area? Why is my doctor writing down everything with paper and pen?  This information is going to disappear, and likely will never get backed up, or updated or handed off if I switch doctors. 

You know what I mean - you move cities, you want your medical history to follow.  The new doctor never really gets around to giving you all the paperwork needed to transfer your file from your old doctor's office to the new one?

This is a brand new doctor's office, less than 5 years old, why would they not have adopted more of the SSHA - Smart Systems for Health Agency features and technology? SSHA's mandate is to bring more focus to technology in the Ontario Health Care industry.

SSHA is an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care from which it receives 100 per cent of its funding. Its products and services are free for publicly-funded health care organizations and professionals.

If this is the case, why has there been such a delay in the adoption of new technology?  Tablets, wireless devices, self serve patient applications? Geeze, atleast get a digital pen!

I sat in the waiting room for 40 minutes for a 12 minute appointment.  I had some time to invest in watching how this office worked...So much time and energy was wasted on finding and returning patient files, I thought my head was going to pop off.  The booking of appointments - it's done in a LEDGER for Pete's sake. Please, please book me in something digital!  No wonder it takes 10 minutes for the receptionist to check you in.  No wonder so much time is wasted on the phone making an appointment.

I asked for a referral to a dermatologist - what did I get?  A piece of paper.  "Please take this to the receptionist". What did I get then? Another piece of paper. "Please call back in a week for your appointment information". Huh? There's so many things wrong with this scenario, I can't even begin to rant.


It's 2007.  Even my auto mechanic has more technological innovation than my doctor's office. He will email me when it's time for an oil change, and I can book my appointment online.  Why can't Ontario doctors have the same technology as Midas?  It's not rocket science.  I don't need a brain surgeon.

Technorati Tags: SSHA, Ontario Heath Industry