The Google Press Center just made an announcement about Google Friend Connect. Here's what Google Friend Connect entails.
Websites that are not social networks may still want to be social -- and now they can be, easily. With Google Friend Connect (see http://www.google.com/friendconnect following this evening's Campfire One), any website owner can add a snippet of code to his or her site and get social features up and running immediately without programming -- picking and choosing from built-in functionality like user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and reviews, as well as third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.
Visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more.
I love this idea. I don't know if it will stick, but I'm going to implement Google Friend Connect right here, just for kicks. Stay tuned.
This is been a busy mofo of a week. I'm just coming up for air, was there an announcement about the iPhone coming to Canada?
Oh yes, here it is. In the worst kept secret in Canadian telecom history, Rogers will be bringing Apple's iPhone to Canada later this year.
In 2005, I outlined the ideal phone for me. I wanted a phone that wasn't just a phone, but an MP3 player, web browser and more. Then, in 2007, I declared that I had found what I was looking for, and Apple was calling it the iPhone. The iPhone would be my very first mobile phone.
Since I wrote that entry, work has given me a Blackberry. So long as I'm not seeing an invoice, I won't be switching, but once I'm paying my own way, I'm knocking on Apple's door. The iPhone is the one.
Boing Boing has a little write-up about how NYTimes.com hand-codes its HTML. I'd link to the NYTimes.com article, but you have to register to read it.
I've been hand-coding all my HTML and CSS for a decade now, and I doubt I'll ever do it any other way. Over the years I've tried the design part of Dreamweaver and other wysiwyg HTML editors, but the control I'd sacrifice always reminded me how much faster and effective it is to hand-code.
About five-years ago I wrote about this subject, but I'd like to modify my opinion since then. I still love the control, take pride in the accomplishment and find the entire process to be rather romantic, but I've learnt hand-coding and Movable Type can coexist for optimal performance. The HTML and CSS is still hand-coded, but a sweet CMS like Movable Type can do all the heavy lifting for you. It's thinking smarter instead of harder.
Khoi Vinh, the Design Director of NYTimes.com, says the following:
It’s our preference to use a text editor, like HomeSite, TextPad or TextMate, to “hand code” everything, rather than to use a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) HTML and CSS authoring program, like Dreamweaver. We just find it yields better and faster results.
My favourite photo sharing service is introducing video. They're all about the image at Flickr, so they only let us pro users upload 90 second clips or less.
According to BlogTO, Google's free 411 service is now available here in Toronto. This is a pretty awesome service from Google that beats the crap out of the 75¢ 411 service we all hate to use. Program 1-800-4664-411 into your mobile phone now and you'll thank me later.
Here's a quick demo of how it works. Remember, it's completely free, so this is a video you actually should watch.
I just tried it and it's pretty slick. You just call 1-800-4664-411, say "Toronto", and name the company you want to call. Then, Google even connects you.
The other day I was downtown with an hour to kill and I had some work to do. I had my laptop with me, but I needed a WiFi hotspot so I could jump on the web. Sitting in the McDonalds in the Eaton Centre at Queen and Yonge, I started scanning for an open network.
The One Zone wireless network was strongest, as you'd expect considering its radio access points are installed on streetlighting poles, but it's not free. Several other WiFi networks were encrypted. One, named The Apple Store, was left open and was just strong enough to get me online so I could do what I needed to do. I was very happy I found it.
This got me thinking... Isn't it awesome when you find an open WiFi network when you need one? It's been drilled into our heads that we need to encrypt our networks, but why? Is the fear that someone will use the connection for illegal activity? If so, why do so many coffee shops and hotels offer open free hotspots?
I'm starting to think of an open WiFi network as a sign of good citizenship. Share access and earn karma credits, spread the love. It's for the greater good, isn't it?
I've got 4,851 photos in my Flickr account, and the vast majority were taken with my trusty ol' Olympus Stylus 410. I got this 4mp Olympus camera for my birthday in June 2004 and four years later I still love this camera.
A couple of years ago, my wife wanted a camera, so we went out and bought her the newer version of the same model, except 6 megapixels instead of 4. You'd think a more recent version of the same camera with more megapixels would be a better camera, but it's not. I'm never happy with the pictures from that camera and if both are within arms reach, I always grab mine.
Four years is pretty old for a digital camera, and I have no interest in an upgrade, but recently about 5-10% of shots taken won't render. It's as if they're only partially complete and I'm forced to delete them. Whether I like it or not, I might be getting a new camera this birthday, but I won't be buying into the Myth of Megapixels.
What's a good point and shoot digicam in the $300 to $500 range to replace my beloved Olympus Stylus 410?
Yahoo! has rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid and I'm pleased with the rebuff.
Yahoo! is so eager to defend itself against an unsolicited bid approach from Microsoft that they've restarted merger talks with AOL. A tie-up with Google is not entirely out of the question as well.
As Luke once said when being wooed by an evil Sith Lord, "I'll never join you!"
After writing this entry and this one, I took inventory of the web services that work for me. Using Firefox as my gateway to the web, there's a small handful of web service suites that have become more than mere web pages to me.
As I was assembling this rather small list, it soon became obvious to me that such detail would be better presented as an image. Yes, Facebook is there, because despite my threats to quit, I'm still an active user. Why am I there? Because their developers understand the importance of user interface and when something works, it's tough to say goodbye.
* Click the image to see it in Flickr where I've added notes to explain what each service does for me.
I instantly hated the idea of Microsoft buying Yahoo!. Microsoft may be the big boys on the desktop, but they've always sucked at the web. Google and Yahoo either started or bought up most of the web sites and services that work, everything from YouTube to Gmail to Flickr. Microsoft has never launched a well-accepted web 2.0 web services suite, in fact, every time they attempt to compete they fail miserably.
Back in 2004, I fell in love (if you can fall in love with a web service) with Flickr. Flickr was founded by Ludicorp, a nice little Canadian company, and in 2004 I actually paid Flickr money for a pro account. I never pay for anything on the web, so the fact I was willing to hand over actual coin is all the evidence of my loyalty you need. This was something worth paying for, a photo sharing website that enhanced my life.
Why did Flickr work while many other photo sharing sites failed? Lord knows I tried several before falling for Flickr. What did Ludicorp do that Microsoft was never able to do? The answer is simple. It's the interface, stupid.
Flickr reflected a brilliant user interface that evolved into the epitome of Web 2.0 utilizing Ajax techniques that made one forget they were in a browser. Uploading pictures, tagging them, embedding them on the web and organizing ones photos isn't just easy, it's a pleasure. Flickr understands the importance of user interface and when they built a better mousetrap, passionate users followed in droves.
Flickr users aren't just users, they're part of a vibrant community. Creating passionate users is precisely what Microsoft fails at time and time again. Passionate users grow abundantly in such fertile ground. When Yahoo! bought Flickr, they understood what they had purchased and let it be. Other than forcing Flickr users to tie their accounts to a Yahoo! login, Yahoo! hasn't caused a single disruption in the force. Flickr is better than ever with several awesome upgrades of late. I'm happily sharing 4,713 photos right now, and it's all because of Flickr's interface.
If/when Microsoft buys Yahoo!, they'll own Flickr as well. I'm actually dreading this transition. I don't trust Microsoft to "let it be". They've proven time and time again that they don't get it. They don't lure passionate users because they don't do good user interface. If they end up with Flickr and don't announce plans to sell it to someone who cares, I'll leave the community.
I'll leave with my 4,713 photos and every ounce of my passion.
Yahoo! is being wooed by the evil empire. Microsoft has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo!. The bid, which would consist of cash and Microsoft stock, values Yahoo! shares at $31 a share, a 62% premium on Thursdays closing price.
Don't sell, Yahoo! Not now, not ever, and definitely not to them.
I'm a Photoshop user. It's my tool of choice for all my imaging needs. I pop into Photoshop at least once every day and I'm pretty good at it, but I know there's still a great deal to learn.
There's a series of Photoshop tutorials on YouTube that absolutely rock. They're not only educational, they're hilarious. Heck, even if you don't use Photoshop I'd recommend them.
The first computer I ever enjoyed was the Commodore PET. My dad would bring it home from work on weekends in the late 70s and very early 80s. My three favourite games were horse racing, where I'd essentially bet against simulated racetrack odds, lemonade stand, where I'd manage a virtual lemonade stand, and Eat Man, a complete rip-off of Pac Man.
Comparing the Commodore PET to today's PCs is a lot of nostalgic fun. We had virtually no graphics to speak of, no colour, no mouse and the storage medium was something we called a Commodore Datassette. That was essentially a dedicated computer tape recorder that looked like a cassette deck.
We eventually got a Commodore 64, but the Datassette lived on. "Press Play on Tape #1" was our marching orders and we complied. 'Load"*",8,1' 'Run'
In 1995, during the brief period I dated my wife, Taryn bought a Packard Bell computer from the University of Toronto computer store. She paid for it monthly, so I believe it cost us about $400,000 by the time it was all said and done. I say us because we married in January 1996 and this crappy Packard Bell computer with Windows 3.1 was part of the deal.
The PC itself is long gone, but I held onto the monitor. It worked, and I always felt we should have a 2nd monitor on stand by, especially back in the day when monitors were fairly pricey.
This thing sat in our basement forever, and last week I finally threw it out. I didn't even bother giving it to someone because I can't imagine someone being so desperate as to want a 12 year old 15 inch CRT.
Before the sanitary engineers came by to take her away, I snapped a couple of shots. At one point I recall it was an off-white before becoming a lovely tint of yellow.
This blog is powered by Movable Type. Movable Type is what gives this site its bloggy goodness: comments, trackbacks, RSS, category archives, date archives, and all of that. I've spent a lot of time installing, configuring and optimizing Movable Type for various purposes. Humble's blog runs off of it, Freddie's blog runs off of it, the SLS page runs off of it and Buffalo Boy's new blog runs off of it. I believe in this blogging platform and it just got better.
Movable Type is now open source. As explained on the Movable Type Community Blog, this means we can freely modify, redistribute, and use Movable Type for any purpose we choose. If that wasn't clear enough, here's how they spelt it out in the comments. You can:
use it for your business
get paid to install it
get paid to support it
modify it (and release your modifications)
rebrand it, modify it, and sell it
This leads nicely to my next point. Now that Movable Type is free for both non-commercial and commercial endeavours, anyone can be managing their own Movable Type powered blog or website with just a little help from a Movable Type expert. That's me. I install the wonderful new version, MT4, configure it, optimize it for SEO, write the XHTML and CSS templates so it looks and feels the way you want it and teach you how to use it. Next thing you know, you're a hero to thousands in cyber space and a guest on CBC RadioOne.
This video does a good job of explaining blogs in plain English. Of course, this is a kin to preaching to the choir, but you might have a friend, co-worker or aunt who just doesn't get it.
It's pretty good, but it needs more cowbell... and RSS.
In my write up about this year's Santa Claus Parade I mentioned a new float from Yahoo! Canada. I'm pretty sure this is the first time a web-only company sponsored a float in the Toronto Santa Claus Parade, so it's worth discussing it further.
The float, which you'll see below in photos I took from two different angles, is a young girl enjoying the world of Alice in Wonderland she discovered via a Yahoo! Canada search. For extra webby effect, there are emoticons alongside the trailer.
It's worth noting Yahoo! beat Google and Microsoft to the float sponsoring punch. Today there were still floats sponsored by the old standards Canadian Tire, The Bay, Sears, Walmart, Mattel, Dominion and McDonalds. One day we'll see other clicks-only companies joining Yahoo! until such an event isn't even blog-worthy.
I haven't been keeping up with "Weeds". I've also dropped "Rescue Me" and rarely catch "The Office". My non-sports television these days is primarily focused on programs I can access via Rogers On Demand.
Rogers On Demand, channel 308 at my house, comes with TMN and is how I watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Dexter" and "Tell Me You Love Me". It's also how I catch movies, because it's so damn convenient. The movie starts when I'm ready to watch and I can pause, rewind and all of that good stuff. I'm aware of the PVR option, but I'm hesitant to increase my cable bill any further. Rogers On Demand is currently my television life blood.
Unfortunately, every once in a while, Rogers On Demand goes AWOL. That's what's happening right now. When I visit channel 308, it tells me to "please wait..." and then states it's "unable to contact Rogers On Demand17". Did it try Rogers On Demand 1-16 first?
I'm precisely the kind of guy who would love a PVR. When I'm ready, I want to be able to watch my Sunday night cartoons, "The Office", "30 Rock" or whatever. Until I take the plunge, 308 will have to do.
Maybe it will actually start working again soon...
We've come a long way, baby. I just revisited 1994 thanks to this slice of funny from Collegehumor. It's the pilot for 24, filmed in 1994 and never aired.
Those early years of the web seemed so advanced at the time, and so dated in retrospect. I remember paying for Internet access by the hour, losing my connection because someone picked up the phone, receiving AOL floppy discs in the mail and building a Geocities web page. Geocities was the original Blogger, AltaVista was our Google and Netscape was our Firefox.
Speaking of flashbacks, here's a cringe-worthy peek at how things looked around here back in the day.
Update: I'm told the embedded video above disappears in IE. If you're using IE, and want to see this vid, go here.
A couple of days ago I was buried in the wonderful world of browser compatibility. A redesign of this site was working in Firefox but not in IE6. The struggle, of course, is testing my code in various flavours of different browsers on different platforms. This is where Browsershots is a life saver.
Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they make screenshots and upload them to their central server.
On Linux, I saw this site behaving properly in Epiphany 2.20, Firefox 1.5, Firefox 2.0, Konqueror 3.5 and Opera 9.24. In Windows, I saw this site behaving properly in Firefox 1.5, Firefox 2.0, MSIE 6.0, MSIE 7.0, Opera 9.24 and Safari 3.0. In the Mac OS I saw everything looking great in Firefox 2.0 and Safari 2.0. I also saw that there are issues in Windows in MSIE 5 and MSIE 5.5. If you're still using a version of Internet Explorer that pre-dates 6, you'll see the left sidebar overlaps the main content. You're also out of luck because I've decided not to care about you. Upgrade your browser!
I highly recommend Browsershots for web authors. It's a fantastic service and you can't beat the price.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know I've been sort of proud of the fact I've never owned a mobile phone. I was almost given a phone just for blogging about it, but I turned it down. The iPhone piqued my interest, but it's not yet available in Canada and I'm not ready to spend that kind of money on something I've lived comfortably without for 33 years.
For 33 years I've been without a cell phone, but today my streak ends. My employer just handed me a Blackberry. This is the perfect phone for me, it's a phone I won't have to pay for. The ramifications of this event cannot be overstated.
I'm now reachable just about everywhere, when I'm used to being completely uncontactable during times I'm in the car, walking the streets, shopping, or whatever. Even if I turn it off, it's got voicemail, and I'm going to be expected to check a voicemail within a reasonable amount of time. It's a virtual leash I've never desired, and now it's strapped on and ready to vibrate.
I've been Blackberried. Mark the date. I think I did quite well making it deep into 2007 before going mobile.
I've had an interesting relationship with Microsoft. Whenever possible, I've actively seeked Microsoft alternatives, but when it comes to the OS I've always ended up with a version of Windows. I love the spirit of Ubuntu Linux, but I'm still running Windows as my primary operating system.
Here's my personal Windows history, the OS I love to hate.
Windows 3.1 - Taryn bought our first PC when we were dating. She bought it from the University of Toronto computer shop without consulting me and she paid for it monthly. It was running Windows 3.1, took years to pay off and probably ended up costing her us a milllion dollars when all was said and done.
Windows 95 - I upgraded the aforementioned PC to Windows 95 in 1998. I should have done it a lot sooner as Windows 95 was a big jump from Windows 3.1.
Windows ME - In 2000, Boris helped me build a new computer and we installed Windows ME. People would tell me how horrible ME was, but I didn't have any more issues with it than I did with Windows 95.
Windows XP - In 2002, I moved to XP. I've since bought another new desktop PC and run Windows XP on that machine as well. I just got a new laptop and demanded XP for fear it would arrive with Vista installed on it. You see, I don't want to be a Windows guy, but so long as I'm a windows guy I'll stick with XP. I know it, it's stable enough and everything I need works with it.
Here's a great video making the rounds with all the Windows start up screens and sounds.
I just realized I've been logging on to one instant messenger protocol or another for over a decade now. How I do so today is quite different than how I did so back then, and over the past ten years there's been an evolution of sorts.
Here, in chronological order, is my personal IM history.
The Early Years: Yahoo! In the beginning, I was a Yahoo! user. Yahoo! wasn't just my search engine, it was my personal email, my news portal and my instant messenger. As Yahoo! Instant Messenger user mikeboon I installed the YIM client and logged onto that single protocol for years.
The Multi Protocol Revolution: Trillian As more and more people were only logging on with the MSN Messenger, it soon become obvious I'd have to do the same or I'd be cutting myself off from some work-critical contacts. I refused to log in to more than one client at at a time, and I hated the thought of using a Microsoft client for chat, so I tried Trillian. Trillian was a single client that allowed me to simultaneously log into Yahoo! and MSN instant messengers and this worked well for years.
A New Discovery: Gaim Searching for a good Jabber client for internal communication at work, I discovered Gaim (recently re-branded Pidgin). Gaim was like Trillian, only I liked the interface and behaviour better. There was even a portable version of Gaim I could stick on my memory stick so my settings could follow me everywhere I went. Gaim trumped Trillian.
Email Integration: Gtalk Google became my new Yahoo!. That meant it was my search engine, my news portal, my email client and my instant messenger. What rocks about Gtalk is how integrated it is with Gmail. You were just online, but what about those YIM and MSN folks you left behind?
Life in the Browser: Meebo Imagine if you could log into multiple IM protocols easily without having to download anything or install anything and your settings were the same on any internet-connected computer in the world running any modern browser and operating system? Try meebo.com. It's replaced Gaim for me and has become my YIM and MSN chat vehicle. As for Gtalk, I left him in Gmail where he belongs. Life is good when it's all in the browser.
Now that I do most of my work on a laptop, this wi-fi detector shirt sounds like a pretty good idea. Geeks think of everything, don't they?
Here at ThinkGeek we're pretty lazy when it comes to technology. We expect our gadgets to do all the busywork while we focus on the high level important tasks like reading blogs. That's why we hate to have to crack open our laptops just to see if there is any wi-fi internet access about... and keychain wi-fi detectors, we would have to actually remove them from our pockets to look at them. But now thanks to the ingenious ThinkGeek robot monkeys you can display the current wi-fi signal strength to yourself and everyone around you with this stylish Wi-Fi Detector Shirt. The glowing bars on the front of the shirt dynamically change as the surrounding wi-fi signal strength fluctuates. Finally you can get the attention you deserve as others bow to you as their reverential wi-fi god, while geeky chicks swoon at your presence. You can thank us later.
I'm writing this entry from my front porch. Work bought me a shiny new laptop so this afternoon I picked up a wireless router from Future Shop and just set her up. That's right, I'm a little late to the wireless party, but better late than never.
Testing the new network, I decided to play some YouTube clips for Michelle. The first thing that popped into my head was Kids in the Hall, so I played a few skits from that amazing show. You can forget how clever and hilarious that show was if you don't revisit it once in a while.
I recently inherited a web site that was littered with BOMs. A BOM is a byte-order mark which is the Unicode codepoint U+FEFF, corresponding to the Unicode character 'ZERO WIDTH NON-BREAKING SPACE' (ZWNBSP). To dumb it down a shade, every instance of a BOM displayed like  in the web browser. Occasionally IE would suppress these funky characters, but not always, and Firefox was very unforgiving.  was everywhere.
It was fun trying to figure out where these guys were and how to prevent them from reappearing. It seems there's a bug when you combine PHP files with the Apache web server and crappy Microsoft text editors. That told me how to prevent the BOM, but how would I delete a character that I couldn't see in my editor?
The solution is a hex editor. In a hex editor, you can see the BOM and therefore delete the BOM. I downloaded this Freeware Hex Editor XVI32, weeded out the nasty buggers, over wrote the BOM-infested PHP files on the server and banned text editors like Microsoft's Expression Web.
I resisted Facebook valiantly, much like I resisted MySpace, until I was pulled into the Facebook universe by a group I wanted to run with. Toronto Mike was on Facebook and I've been there for a little over one month. I think I've had enough.
At first, the social networking power of this community blew me away. It really did feel like MySpace for adults. The interface was clean and intuitive, the discovery of lost souls was fun and just about everyone seems to be there. Although I never dove in fully by posting my high school or real name, I got a good taste for the potential and understood why people love it.
Over the last couple of weeks, I've started to see Facebook as more of a chore than a productive and fun tool. In fact, Facebook revealed itself to be highly inefficient and redundant. Here are my issues with Facebook and why I'm just about done with it.
The Redundancy I already have an inbox, but with Facebook I have a second inbox. I only want to have to check one and I want all email correspondence filtering through that one funnel. Facebook's inbox won't talk to my preferred inbox, and that's a problem. Furthermore, I'm already a happy and loyal Flickr user for hosting and sharing photos. I'm not interested in maintaining a second album in Facebook. There are redundancies of this nature all over the place. If FB would let me use my existing email and photo album with my Facebook profile, it would make a great deal more sense.
The Honeymoon is Over For the first few weeks, you're discovering all that has taken place before you got there. There's a group for Michael Power's class of '93, another for a company you used to work at, and so on. After a month or so, you've discovered everyone you'd ever want to discover. Suddenly, Facebook is a chore, one more thing to keep up to date and check.
The Raison d'être Is Broken I joined for one very specific reason. There was a group created where we would manage our runs. The wall would be used to communicate whether one could make a certain run or not. The wall, and this group, is seriously damaged. Some use it, some don't. There's no consistency as to when someone will declare their absence. There are several false positives, with people saying they'll be at a run only to skip it entirely. Quite simply, you can't trust what you read on the board and this misinformation is far more dangerous than no information at all. I find myself confirming runs and communicating with the leads via email or Gtalk and leaving the bloated and misinformed Facebook element out of the mix.
With redundancies, inefficiencies and apathetic groupees, Facebook isn't that fun and far too work-like for my liking. I'll return to my simple world of this blog, my single email / im client and my Flickr account. You know where to find me if you need me. Less is more.
I just took a peek at traffic to this site from 11:30am to 12:30pm. During this random hour, a few visits were rather interesting.
Crocs
Yes, the good people at Crocs were interested in my Crocs conundrum. As you can see, they actually visited the entry twice. They're likely confused as to whether I was trashing their shoes or not. I called them very uncool, but I admitted they're comfy and convenient.
Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves is a pretty big company, so this is likely just an employee checking out my blog. But, maybe Ask Jeeves is looking to buy this site... This may just be a scouting mission as they seek to enhance their online content. Is Ask Toronto Mike coming soon?
The Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is interested in what I have to say about Elizabeth and Anthony, but who isn't? Elizabeth and Anthony reuniting in For Better or For Worse is the biggest thing to happen in comic strips since Charlie Brown unsuccessfully kicked that football. The Chicago Tribune is one of the ten largest daily newspapers in the United States, I'll have you know.
There you have it, a quick peek behind the curtain. I'll let you know if Crocs offers me free shoes, Ask Jeeves makes a bid or the Chicago Tribune quotes me in their Lynn Johnston expose.
The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we'd call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.
MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.
In my ethnocentric mind I had the split based on age. Kids and teens were MySpace and then they matured and moved to Facebook. I didn't consider socio-economic factors.
The class system, it seems, even permeates our online meeting space.
I hand code all my XHTML and CSS. I do it in Dreamweaver, but I can do it in any text editor. I just go, and I thought I was pretty skilled, until I watched this.
As I loaded up my new iPod shuffle last night, I couldn't get over how small it was. This thing is barely bigger than a postage stamp and when it's clipped to my shirt I don't even realize I'm wearing it. As I gazed down upon this tiny music player with over 150 of my favourite songs on it, I thought about young Toronto Mike walking along Jane Street to school wearing a slightly different music player.
I loved my Sony Walkman personal cassette player. Through the years I burnt through many, and I loved them all. I'd dub 90 minute mix tapes and play them in this bulky, heavy device, but at the time it all seemed so awesome.
I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me then that one day my Walkman would be replaced by a player that:
Was smaller than a matchbook and weighed about the same
Held substantially more songs than a 90 minute tape
Allowed shuffling and skipping of songs without waiting for a fast forward or rewind
Could be rewritten with new songs in less time than it used to take to dub a single tune
It blows my mind when I think of where we've come in the past 15 years with regards to personal music players. I can't wait to see what I'll be wearing in 2020.
It started with Scott. I caught him singing "Mah Nà Mah Nà", a song I know and love from The Muppets.
I started singing it too, and I've been singing it all day. I remembered a version of the song recorded by Cake, and I went straight to the Wikipedia Mah Nà Mah Nà entry to validate my memory. It was there I learnt the song was written by Piero Umiliani and was a hit before The Muppets first sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show. All of this awesome information was right there, on demand.
I've asked this before, but I'll ask it again. What would we have done twenty years ago? Scott and I would be singing this song, talking about our Muppets-centric memories of the tune, and that would be that. I wouldn't know the name Piero Umiliani, I wouldn't know about the pre-Muppets history of this tune and I wouldn't know about the The Muppets performance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
My PC music playing history goes like this: Winamp forever, Quintessential Player for a while and then iTunes. What I liked best about iTunes was the enhanced searchability and sortability. As my collection grew, I realized there was a high price to pay for this indexing.
I have my collection organized like so: Artist Name Directory > Album Name Directory > .mp3 files. The album cover is embedded in the meta data of the .mp3 file. I've organized it all to my liking so I don't need my music player to handle this task. When I close iTunes, it requires some time to save my settings. It's not backing up my files, it's saving my library settings so it can tell me how often I've heard what song and all that jazz. These back-up files are large and this adds a great deal of time to my shut down process.
Furthermore, when I add music to my collection, it's a serious pain in the ass to add the new stuff to my iTunes library. Why do I have to have an iTunes library? Why can't iTunes just play the files I have residing on my hard drive?
Long story short, I'm thinking about going back to Winamp which was so sweet and light on its feet. I'm pretty sure it has improved searchability and sortability, and I don't require iTunes to sync my iPod.
With mighty Microsoft badly losing the online search and services battle to Google, they're pursuing Yahoo!. Although I've pretty well migrated all my Yahoo! stuff to Google, I have fond memories of Yahoo! I shared in this entry. Yahoo! was Google before Google was Google, and we shouldn't forget that.
Microsoft isn't Google or Yahoo!, so they're looking to buy up Yahoo! in an effort to purchase their way back in the race. So long as they don't get their grubby little mitts on Google, I'm cool, but there is one Yahoo! owned service I use on a daily basis.
Mr. Gates, leave Flickr alone. Just leave it be. It was developed by Ludicorp, a good Canadian based company, and it gets photo sharing right. You're welcome to screw up everything else in Yahoo! land, just don't touch a hair on Flickr's pretty head. Don't even think about it.
I'm tired of explaining RSS. Previously I've professed my love for the format while admitting many simply don't get it. I know people don't get it because I'm constantly having to explain it to others.
Here's a little video that tries to explain it in plain English. I just posted this on the intranet of a software company, because even at a software development company there are many who haven't grasped the concept and embraced the spirit.
So I never have to explain it again, here's RSS in Plain English.
Google and I have kissed and made up following our little tiff the other day. Now that we're buddies again, I'm back singing their praises.
The tutorial below from Google shows how you can increase productivity by adopting Google Apps for your business or organization. The package they're selling isn't free, but just about everything included in the package is.
The seamless integration of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs & Spreadsheets and GTalk is all free of charge. Since Gmail allows you to fetch mail from other accounts and send mail from other accounts, there's no reason why you can't remain bob@company.com. The collaboration features with the calendar, docs and spreadsheet apps are awesome, as you'll see below. You won't have to worry about version control, security or drive space.
So long as you avoid sector 6, it's a better world.. for work and play.
My friends and family often joke that I'm on the Google payroll because of how often I sing their praises. That might be changing. All day I've been limited in Gmail. I get messages, but I can't send attachments or open attachments. If I attempt to do so I get an error message that says there's a lockdown in sector 6. It's extremely frustrating.
Apparently you get this lockdown in sector 6 when you violate the Gmail rules. I haven't violated a single one. Not even close. Yet here I am locked down and there's nothing much I can do about it. I contacted support, but I just received a boiler plated reply telling me to check the Gmail rules again.
I'm not alone. Many are experiencing the same thing. What frightens me is that some have their accounts completely disabled which actually has me pleased I'm merely limited. Isn't that pathetic?
The service has been awesome for years, but this kind of a screw up is unacceptable. I'm not sure why I haven't read about this in the news considering how wide spread it appears to be, and the silence from Google is alarming. If you've written me and you're wondering why I haven't replied, this is why.
What we once referred to as Firefox Extensions are now known as Firefox Add-ons. Call them what you want, I love them regardless. Many of them, in fact, play a key role in my day-to-day life.
Here are 10 Firefox Add-ons I simply can't live without.
Adblock Plus - You know those ads you see all over the place when surfing the web? I don't. I haven't seen them in years and I don't miss 'em at all.
ColorZilla - If I need to quickly know the hexidecimal code for any colour on any web page I visit, this tool tells all. It's awesome.
Google Browser Sync - Manage one set of bookmarks and see them from any computer in the world.
Greasemonkey - What can I say about this one? There are many great scripts that customize the way a webpage displays.
IE Tab - Need to test a page in IE? This add-on lets you do that in a Firefox tab. It's also useful for those sites that just don't work in Firefox.
MeasureIt - Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
Screengrab! - This is an old favourite that didn't work in Firefox 2 but was recently updated. It's nice to have it back as it lets me easily save or copy screen caps.
Tabbrowser Preferences - This gives you more control over Firefox's tab behaviour. For example, I have it automatically open _blank targeted links in a new tab.
Web Developer - An absolute must for any author of web pages, this add-on lets me easily resize the browser, view the CSS, edit the CSS and HTML in Firefox and a billion other web author tasks. Irreplaceable.
A competitive marketplace benefits consumers. That's why I'm pleased to hear Yahoo! Mail will offer unlimited storage. Google has to respond and I'm hoping they follow suit. The Gmail 2.8 GB limit may sound like a lot, but I'm constantly having to delete messages to ensure I don't run out of space.
The Google Press Center just made an announcement about Google Friend Connect. Here's what Google Friend Connect entails.
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Microsoft is 
This is been a busy mofo of a week. I'm just coming up for air, was there an announcement about the iPhone coming to Canada?
Boing Boing has 
My favourite photo sharing service is introducing video. They're all about the image at Flickr, so they only let us pro users upload 90 second clips or less.
The other day I was downtown with an hour to kill and I had some work to do. I had my laptop with me, but I needed a WiFi hotspot so I could jump on the web. Sitting in the McDonalds in the Eaton Centre at Queen and Yonge, I started scanning for an open network.
I've got 4,851 photos in 
Firefox and Safari support CSS3's ::selection pseudo-element. Using that and PHP, 
I'm a Photoshop user. It's my tool of choice for all my imaging needs. I pop into Photoshop at least once every day and I'm pretty good at it, but I know there's still a great deal to learn.
The first computer I ever enjoyed was the Commodore PET. My dad would bring it home from work on weekends in the late 70s and very early 80s. My three favourite games were horse racing, where I'd essentially bet against simulated racetrack odds, lemonade stand, where I'd manage a virtual lemonade stand, and Eat Man, a complete rip-off of Pac Man.
In 1995, during the brief period I dated my wife, Taryn bought a Packard Bell computer from the University of Toronto computer store. She paid for it monthly, so I believe it cost us about $400,000 by the time it was all said and done. I say us because we married in January 1996 and this crappy Packard Bell computer with Windows 3.1 was part of the deal.
This blog is powered by Movable Type. Movable Type is what gives this site its bloggy goodness: comments, trackbacks, RSS, category archives, date archives, and all of that. I've spent a lot of time installing, configuring and optimizing Movable Type for various purposes. 
I haven't been keeping up with "Weeds". I've also dropped "Rescue Me" and rarely catch "The Office". My non-sports television these days is primarily focused on programs I can access via Rogers On Demand.
I just realized I've been logging on to one instant messenger protocol or another for over a decade now. How I do so today is quite different than how I did so back then, and over the past ten years there's been an evolution of sorts.
Now that I do most of my work on a laptop, 
As I loaded up my new iPod shuffle last night, I couldn't get over how small it was. This thing is barely bigger than a postage stamp and when it's clipped to my shirt I don't even realize I'm wearing it. As I gazed down upon this tiny music player with over 150 of my favourite songs on it, I thought about young Toronto Mike walking along Jane Street to school wearing a slightly different music player.
It started with Scott. I caught him singing "Mah Nà Mah Nà", a song I know and love from The Muppets.
My PC music playing history goes like this: Winamp forever, Quintessential Player for a while and then iTunes. What I liked best about iTunes was the enhanced searchability and sortability. As my collection grew, I realized there was a high price to pay for this indexing.
I'm tired of explaining RSS. Previously