A Life Untold & Uninteresting

Moderation

I’m listening to TWiT episode 138, which incidentally is one of the best episodes in a while, and they are talking about Twitter addictions and information addictions in general. I’m surprised that its taken these people this long to realize that moderation is important. Laporte “There is an old way of thinking that you have to somehow keep up, that is really getting in your way. You can’t. Give Up. Release. Let go. However, if you bathe in the stream of information you get plenty. [] The key is not worrying about missing something.”I’ve been saying this for a while. The information is power, but only in moderation. Or else like so many others, you’ll get burned out.

Popularity: 8% [?]

London Indie Media Fair

This Saturday is the 3rd annual London Indie Media Fair from 1 to 5 pm. The event is taking place at the Central library in downtown London at 251 Dundas Street.

There is both an exhibit hall in Stevenson and Hunt and a presentation room in the Lerner’s and Tonda Rooms.

Myself, Bill Deys, and Greg Fowler will be heading down to promote blogging and podcasting, as well as our monthly geek dinners. I’d encourage anyone in the London area to come down and say hello. Hopefully there will be some other bloggers there and we can help the online community in London grow.

For more information on the event:

London Commons
Facebook

Popularity: 11% [?]

Things I’d Like To See on Twitter

There are a few changes that I would love to see Twitter implement. Keeping in mind their simple design philosophy and ease of use.

1. Better Searching – something like advanced searching options. Both for users and for past tweets.
2. Followers/Following Organization – I’d like to see who I’m following that is not following me.
3. Groups -I’d love to organize who I follow into groups and turn on or off SMS for packs of people.

These are the top 3 things that I think if Twitter implemented they would destroy any competitors.

They also have to capitalize on the number of internet users who love to update their Facebook status but who aren’t on Twitter.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Talking to Apple Store Employees

Yesterday I was in Toronto so I decided to pop into the Apple Store in the Yorkdale Mall. The store is a bit smaller then other Apple stores I’ve been in, but it does have the usual large numbers of people just milling around the tables with merchandise on them.

While I was there I decided to talk to some of the employees about the iPhone. Specifically I asked them “What reason have you been given for the delay of an iPhone launch in Canada?” Not suprisingly they refused to answer my question. I made the mistake of asking a group of them so none of them really wanted to say anything. They claimed that they have been given no reason, and that in fact they never know anything ahead of time, citing Time Machine and Leopard as examples.

I’m not satisfied with this answer though. The iPhone is in a different category. I’m sure they get hundreds of inquiries every day about the iPhone. Management must have given them some reason why its not out here yet. There are only 4 Apple stores in Canada. How hard would it be to let the employees of these stores know what was going on?

One last observation on the employees at Apple Stores. They are a snotty, arrogant bunch. They are the same teenage retail workers at any other mall store but because they work for Apple they think that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It doesn’t really matter though. Like I wrote on Monday, the reason for the delay is copyright issues. Until that is sorted out Canadian’s can continue going down to the States for iPhones.

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Businessmen who have been in web hosting for some time, are quite aware of terms like pay per click and technical jargon like web hosting search tool. However the laymen are only bothered with terms like domain names they are looking for and the dedicated servers they will be able to get.

Popularity: 26% [?]

iPhone is Released in Canada

Yep, its true! There is a device available to Canadian’s called the iPhone. But its not made by Apple.

I’ve already written several times about the price of data plans in Canada. While this is truly a big stumbling block for the release of the iPhone here there is an even bigger one. Copyright.

A Voice Over IP (VOIP) company, Comwave, owns the Canadian rights to the name iPhone. The term iPhone is used for a service that they say “is quite liberating and frees you from the Phone Company”. If you check out their site you can see all the services related to the ‘iPhone’.

They have just released the iPhone mobile edition too. It looks like they have no plans to settle  with Apple on the use of the name.

Their site is absolutely atrocious. It is full of spelling mistakes and bad grammar. I don’t understand how any company is willing to allow themselves to look this bad on the the internet. I’m glad that they don’t seem to have a large subscriber base. That means that average Canadians will not be associating a high quality product with a crappy VOIP service.

So Canadians have an iPhone. It looks like a peace of junk and offered by a brutal company. But now at least we have a physical object and another company besides cell phone companies to direct our anger at.

Popularity: 10% [?]

New Data Plans from Rogers

As a commenter on a previous post has pointed out, new data plans from Rogers have been leaked out. The prices I’ve seen have been as follows:

$15 – 20MB ~ Tier 1
$30 – 20MB to 60MB ~ Tier 2
$50 – 60MB to 500MB ~ Tier 3
$65 – 500MB to 1GB ~ Tier 4
$75 – 1GB to 2GB ~ Tier 5
$85 – 2GB to 3GB ~ Tier 6
$100 – 3GB to 5GB ~ Tier 7
$0.03 per additional MB
*Note: Everyone starts off at the $15 plan and based on usage, you move up the tiers

The price is per month and you move up the tiers the more internet you use. I see a huge problem in these that causes me to doubt the authenticity of them. Look at the price per additional MB compared to the pricing structure of the tiers. If you are in tier 1 but one month use 50 mb of data you should pay $20 + 30($0.03)  = $20.90. But if Rogers wants to automatically bump you up to the next teir you will be forced to pay $30 per month.

Also, why have a overage price if you’re just going to bump everyone up the next tier if they go over? Finally look at the price per mb of each tier

 $0.75 / MB ~ Tier 1
$0.50 / MB ~ Tier 2
$0.10 / MB ~ Tier 3
$0.065 / MB ~ Tier 4
$0.0375 / MB  ~ Tier 5
$0.028 / MB  ~ Tier 6
$0.02 / MB  ~ Tier 7

The only time an overage charge makes sense for Rogers is for customers in tiers 6 and 7.

I’ve looked around and I can’t find any indication that this was a typo and it is supposed to be $0.30 per extra MB or even $3.00. Site like iphoneworld.ca and Electronista and even engadget mobile all have the same information. With math that just doesn’t add up.

It looks very suspicious to me.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Admiration of Spark

I know that its late in the day and I haven’t posted anything other then pictures of my lunch. I wanted to just mention how impressed I am by the CBC program Spark.

I’ve always been a fan of Nora Young, dating back to when she used to host DNTO on Saturday afternoons. I’ve always felt that she was “in touch” with technology. Well that view has been cemented further with her more recent show Spark.

Unlike many CBC shows that pay lip-service to emerging technologies, Spark is not bluffing. The show makes use of wikis and blogs (that actually read like a real person wrote it) for contribution. They make the full interview available online. But what impresses me the most is that all the music is podsafe and licensed under Creative Commons.

From the show notes: “This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects”

I love to see CBC  shows REALLY getting technology

Popularity: 2% [?]

Disconnect Anxiety – Reasons and Prevention

Solution Research Group recently released a report entitled “Age Of Disconnect Anxiety
And Four Reasons Why It’s Difficult to Stay Off the Grid“. The National Post had an article on it on Sunday and the CBC show, Here and Now, covered it yesterday afternoon.

Disconnect Anxiety “refers to various feelings of disorientation and nervousness experienced when a person is deprived of Internet or wireless access for a period of time.” This report found that 59% of internet users experience this type of anxiety when away from internet and mobile devices, they are disconnected. This was 26% who feel elevated and 33% who feel occasional anxiety.

I’d recommend that everyone read the summary. Its an interesting evaluation of why people feel that way they do when they are away from their computers. I want to share my ideas about why people feel this way, and how to avoid anxiety.

People feel anxious because they feel separated from all their friends, they are worried that they are going to miss something important, like a promotion, or they will be unable to respond to an emergency. Is this a natural reaction? I don’t think so, its the 21st century version of keeping up with the Jones. If we perceive that someone else is more tuned in then us, then we will go the next step. The logical conclusion is disconnect anxiety. I do not think it needs to be this way though. Step back and really look at why you use the internet, if you do I think it will be easier to be away from it.

People who rely on social media, IMs and email for all their interaction as opposed to using it to complement their other communication will suffer from disconnect anxiety. The solution to disconnect anxiety is to make sure you are not relying on the internet for all communication.

I love the internet, don’t get me wrong, but I make sure that I take a break from it. I go out and I meet with friends who aren’t as “plugged in” as I am. That way our conversations are about other topics. All this means when I’m back online I enjoy it more and I don’t get burned out by it.

Disconnect Anxiety is real, but so is Burn Out. Everything in moderation.

Popularity: 3% [?]

London Public Library Free Wifi

I’m sitting in the London Public Library right now and I’ve discovered that they have free wireless internet access. Its not bad access either, and from their website, they claim that it covers the entire building.

The only disadvantage is that its “filtered” But since I’m not the kind of person that wants to look at questionable material in a library that does not bother me. I’m sure personal privacy people don’t approve.

Popularity: 10% [?]

More iPhone in Canada Rumours

I do not want to be a naysayer and constantly pessimistic about the iPhone in Canada, but I want to make sure that everyone realises exactly what is going on and why we don’t have the phone in Canada yet, nor are we likely to get it anytime soon.

Recently I read a post over at Chris Thomson’s blog, entitled March 14th Could Be iDay for Canada. Woohoo! While almost a week old, he recently renewed his claims with a post on More Clues Pointing Towards The iPhone Coming To Canada Really Soon so all this discussion is still relevant.

I’ve posted these comments on his site, but what follows is a more in depth look.

First, Roger’s data plan announcements have nothing to do with the iPhone. If you closely at the fine print you can see that its doesn’t allow for third party browser web browsing. Exactly what is needed for the iPhone. I see you got conned by Endgadget’s reporting on this issue too.Secondly, any redirects may just be a site architectural cleanup. For instance a while back I found a really old iPod site on the South American Apple site. I think Apple is just a little sloppy with their site maintenance and finally decided to update this.

This is also related to the “HTML COMMENT IN GLOBAL NAVIGATION” this is still just sloppy coding. the Canadian store site is probably stolen from the American and just a few changes made. They forgot to eliminate this one though. Also if it was supposed to indicate something why wouldn’t it refer to /ca/iphone instead of /iphone. It is more then just odd Chris, is shows this was unintentional.

Finally, I don’t see anything in your post other then March 14 is a Friday to suggest that this will be the date. Whats wrong with March 7th, or 21st or 28th? Or even March 14th 2012…

Might as well just keep hacking iPhones. At least it keeps some money out of Roger’s pocket.

Popularity: 6% [?]