Recent  Stories

Slow Lane: Canadian consumers are paying a premium price for the dubious privilege of being stuck in the slow lanes of the information highway. Figures provided by global telecommunications analysts TeleGeography Research shows international Internet speeds – the rate at which data moves to and from a computer – Canada may not be the slowest, but we’re far from the nimble speeds offered in Japan and Europe.

Plans go electrnonic: An Ontario-wide Electronic Plans Room is set to roll out in the New Year. John Mollenhauer, president of the Toronto Construction Association (TCA), said things are on track for an agreement between the 11 Ontario construction associations by Christmas.

Black Gold: Where most people see obsolete computers and electronics, Alfred Hambsch sees more than gold, he sees black gold. As the president of the largest eWaste recycling company on the planet, Mr. Hambsch has built not just a business but a calling, taking obsolete electronics and processing them back into useable raw materials including gold and diesel fuel.

Take Charge of Your Website: In the beginning there was the Webmaster and he was God. And the Webmaster said, let there be a domain for this business and there was; Then the Webmaster said let the home page be divided from the other pages, and it was. And then the Webmaster said: If you need to make any more changes, I bill by the hour and I don’t work nights or weekends.”  Ouch.

Videoconferencing: Dennis Sandow chuckles recalling his “Halo moment” – the illusion created by the videoconferencing system that a colleague was in intimate proximity even though they were thousands of miles apart.

Party Favours: If you’re going to crash a party, it’s best to bring something along to smooth your entry, like a keg of beer, or risk a humiliation and rejection. It’s a strategy businesses should consider as they seek to leverage the virtual block parties evolving from virtual communities and social media.

Silicon Valley, Calif Imagine picking up your Toronto Star and seeing the headlines  update before your eyes. Science fiction? Don’t bet against it. ePaper as it’s often called, is a quest being funded with millions of dollars in research and development by some of the biggest names like Hewlett-Packard, Phillips Electronics and Xerox.

Social Media: Andy Warhol was half right: Fifteen minutes is just the beginning. Social media – the collective of blogs, forums, e-mail, Instant Messaging and text messaging – makes us all celebrities, all the time.

Getting there half the fun: “Kate” is not happy.“In 500 metres, make a U-turn,” she insists, the Irish lilt in her voice clear on the “ur” of the word “turn.” “Kate” as I’ve nicknamed her, is my newest traveling companion, a Ground Position Satellite guided navigation program running on my mobile phone.

 

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Email me.

Phone me: 416-699-6921

Mail me: 299 Warden Ave. Toronto On M1N 3A3

If you want to talk about a project you’re developing and how I or some of my network can be of assistance, just drop me a line.

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Blog:
Byte with Bark:

Print media going, going, gone? Where’s our bailout?

The hits just keep coming.

Wave after wave of layoffs continue to ripple through media this week but the most depressing hit came Thursday when venerable institution Reader’s Digest pink slipped Editor in Chief Peter Stockland and 14 others, most from the Montreal headquarters and two from Toronto.

The layoffs leave but one editor at RD based in Vancouver and will likely have two ripple effects: One, unique Canadian content will fall by the way side and two, we will see more reprinted material from other magazines and more U.S. derived stories.

 The fact is that not only was RD an icon on the Canadian magazine landscape with nine million readers every month and rated the most trusted brand in the nation, but its editors truly cared about content. They were obsessive, detailed and uncompromising about quality.

The news is but another nail in the coffin of print media and is a serious threat to Canadian culture.

Read my Blog
 

Other Stuff Worth A Look:

Archives:  Most, but not all, of the material I've written since starting freelancing.

Lists: Books, tunes, thoughts and other stuff organized into one place.

Links: Just what it sounds like, web links to sites that are funny, interesting, informative or just plain useful.

Rants N' Rockets: Everyone likes to vent. Sometimes I get paid for it. Sometimes I just vent for the heck of it and post it on my Web Site.

Mobile Watch:
Don't think of your cell phone as just a phone; Think of it as a powerful  computer which puts the power the Net in your hand
 

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