Digital Thoughts

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:10:33 -0400

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)

Jamil Abu-Wardeh: Righting Writing Wrongs.

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:53:00 -0400

Jamil Abu-Wardeh: Righting Writing Wrongs.

Maz Jobrani: Did you hear the one about the Iranian-American?

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:26:00 -0400

Maz Jobrani: Did you hear the one about the Iranian-American?

Sunset - Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:23:52 -0400

Sunset - Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Do you believe there's intelligent life on other planets?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:43:47 -0400

by definition, intelligence is variable and is measured by comparison, so to find intelligent life on another planet does not automatically mean Hollywood aliens, but rather any forms of life with varying degrees of intelligence, thus, statistically that makes a higher probability of intelligent life existing anywhere in the universe.

but do I believe in that … nope.

Happy Canada Day

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:08:00 -0400

Happy Canada Day

Genius Customer Service

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 23:09:55 -0400

Me: Hi, I'm here to pick up my iPad
Apple Employee: Great, lets look it up!
Apple Employee: It looks like your reservation period expired.
Me: Excuse me?
Apple Employee (with a snarky look on his face): Well it says here your reservation was for Saturday June 19th and Today is is Sunday!
Me: Yeah, I happen to know what day is today thank you very much, but I couldn't make it yesterday on such short notice and I'm here now.
Apple Employee (now looking at me impatiently): sorry sir the reservation is only for 24 hours. you should have been here yesterday.
Me: I got the email notifying me of this reservation on Saturday 12 AM, I was asleep! By the time I woke up on weekend it was 10 AM and your store closes on 9 PM... so where are those 24 hours you are talking about? by my count that's more like 12 hours! I dunno about most of your other customers but I actually have a life! I can't change plans on such short notice!
Apple Employee: ummm ...
Me: Yeah, exactly, thank you very much, you just lost a customer, good bye.

“There Was No Big Bang!” Say Several Leading Cosmologists

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:28:00 -0400

“There Was No Big Bang!” Say Several Leading Cosmologists

Do the math!

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:47:00 -0400

I’m quite surprised by the reactions I got from people on Twitter when I announced I’m leaving Roger’s internet and taking up TekSavvy’s service instead.

It seems people just took a look at the Rogers page, compared it to the TekSavvy page and decided TekSavvy is way too expensive!

The difference is obvious, TekSavvy’s page is ugly, and not very organized, provides too much information and lists all the fees involved.

While Rogers’s page is clean and organized with big numbers to draw you in and does not list any details about fees.

I’m gonna compare 2 similar packages from both companies so you can judge for your self, here’s how it breaks down:

	Rogers Express Cable	TekSavvy Express Cable
Download Speed	10 Mbps	10 Mbps
Upload Speed	512 Kbps	512 Kbps
Monthly Bandwidth Limit	60 GB	200 GB
Bandwidth Overuse Charge	$2.00 / 1GB ($50 Max)	$.50/GB
Monthly Fee	$46.99	$36.95
Activation Fee	$14.95	$44.95 ($20 Waived w/ Modem Purchase)
Modem Purchase	$99.95	$75
First Year Spending	$678.78 + tax	$543.35 + tax
Yearly Spending	$563.88 + tax	$443.4 + tax

So there you have it, even though TekSavvy is charging a $44.95 activation fee (which $20 of it is waived) it still comes out cheaper than Rogers

PLUS (and this is the most important thing of all) Rogers limits your monthly bandwidth usage to 60 GB and charges you $2.00 per GB over the limit!
while TekSavvy’s limit is at 200 GB! and IF you happen to go over that limit the charge is merely $0.50 per GB.

To put that in Roger’s marketing terms which seem to have everybody blinded:
at 700 MB per movie (which is ridiculous, that’s bad quality movie, but whatever …) you can watch 85 movies per month with Rogers within their bandwidth limit.
while you can watch 285 movies within TekSavvy’s bandwidth limit.

Not to mention the bandwidth throttling / traffic shaping (whatever they call it nowadays) rogers will impose on you.

Its not hard to do the math, you just have to look beyond the marketing message and decide what’s right for you, don’t let others decide for you.

And No, I’m not affiliated with either companies.

Steve Jobs Full Session Video | D8 Conference | AllThingsD

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:59:59 -0400

Steve Jobs Full Session Video | D8 Conference | AllThingsD:

minimalmac:

So, what were you planning to do for lunch? Got plans? No? Well, you should grab a bag lunch and spend your time watching the whole interview of Steve Jobs from the recent D8 conference.

What was that? You read a live blog? Saw a few clips? Well, I would argue that you have not seen, read, or heard the best parts.

Seriously, this is probably the best interview I have ever seen. Uncle Walt and Auntie Kara ask him questions on more than a few subjects (Flash, Gizmodo, Foxconn, his recent spurts of late night emailing) that are tough and they don’t let him out easy. Yet, he comes out swinging and defends every one with lucidity, passion and a bit of dry humor (“I’m sure there’s sex in there somewhere!”). Really entertaining stuff.

Not only that, but there is this whole section about how Apple, as an organization, works (“We are the biggest startup on the planet.”). It also touches on what I have said here before and what I have known for some time – a big part of what makes them successful is the culture that is instilled from the top down. They hire the right people for the job and then get out of their way. It is the reason why Apple will be just fine once Steve drives his Mercedes well over the speed limit into the sunset. Deeply insightful and fascinating.

One more bit of advice. If you’re near a Jimmy John’s, a Club Lulu with Salt & Vinegar Chips and a Sprite would go great with this.

Adamo Microphone fix on Ubuntu 10.04

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:16:55 -0400

here’s a quick way to get the microphone working on the Adamo / Adamo XPS.

run “arecord -l” in the terminal, the output should be something like this:

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Note the device chipset number (mine was ALC269) and look up the proper model keyword from this list
put the following lines in “/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf”
```
options snd-hda-intel model=basic enable=1 index=0
options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1
```
replace “basic” with the model keyword that matches your chipset model from the list above
run:
```
sudo service module-init-tools restart
```

and that’s it! your mic should work fine now :)

note: you might want to unmute the mic from sound settings before you use it with an app like skype

State of Web Development 2010

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:07:00 -0400

State of Web Development 2010

What is HTML5 and why we should all care

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:53:00 -0400

What is HTML5 and why we should all care

Intel at Computex 2010

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:16:23 -0400

some highlights of Intel’s press events at Computex 2010:

Dadi Perlmutter - Keynote
Executive Vice President and General Manager, Intel Architecture Group

Mooly Eden - PC Client Event
Intel Vice President and General Manager, PC Client Group

Anand Chandrasekher - UMG Webcast Event
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Ultra Mobility Group

Exploration of Simultaneous Pen + Touch Direct Input

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:44:00 -0400

Exploration of Simultaneous Pen + Touch Direct Input

8bit FTW!

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:39:00 -0400

8bit FTW!

Sketch-a-move

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:19:00 -0400

Sketch-a-move

4 Sources of Sample VC Funding Docs

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:01:00 -0500

markruddock:

In the spirit of Open Source, a number of VC funding documents are popping up around the web. Here are four worth looking at:

TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley)

Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR)

Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR)

Series Seed Financing Documents (by Fenwick & West)

I’m not sure that the concept of “open source” funding documents will ever take off, but I have seen some pretty convoluted and arcane docs in my time, so at a minimum, I do like the idea of a repository of “best practice” or even “sample” documents being readily available, transparent and subject to open debate.

I do hope that better visibility and open discourse lead to improvements in the clarity and simplicity of these types of documents. Sometimes I am stunned at how poorly written funding documents are, as the institutional memory of all things that have gone bump in the night before, gets cobbled together into the text like some sort of Dr. Seuss contraption.

"Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change."

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:43:14 -0500

“Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.”

- Muhammad Ali

Humanity is doomed to fail: “DO NOT PUT CHILD IN...

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:23:00 -0500

Humanity is doomed to fail: “DO NOT PUT CHILD IN BAG”