BMW GINA Concept

I know this isn't new information, but this video is just beautiful. Not much needs to be said about this, the video pretty well speaks for itself. I'd love to hear about other innovative concepts like this one, feel free to post in the comments.

Enjoy.

24 hours of flight, in 72 seconds!

Thanks to Wired for posting this.

Check out Wired's article for the details. This below video shows every commercial flight in the world over a 24 hour period - in a 72 second simulation.

Kiva - Loans that change lives

I recently discovered www.Kiva.org. Rather than using my own words I will let Kiva speak for themselves:



"Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world."

Anyone with a spare US$25 can make a loan. There is no financial benefit to the lender, but there is the knowledge that you are empowering someone to improve their life. The Kiva website states that they have had a 3.1% default rate for $17,343,660 in completed loans, so lenders can have a pretty good sense that they will see their money again.

I encourage you to check out the site, read the blogs and make an informed choice whether you want to lend or not, as well as who to lend to.

Protect Marriage, Protect Children, Prohibit Divorce

The video below is related to my previous post. As much as the video is satirical, they make a very good point. If prohibiting marriage between gay and lesbian couples protects the "sanctity" of marriage, then surely prohibiting divorce does the same thing. Watch the video, sign the petition. Those who voted for Prop 8 should be held to their own standards.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Proposition 8 - The Musical

Proposition 8, the musical. Featuring Jack Black, John C. Reilly and others. Thanks Curtis for the tip.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Excel Data Editing Made Easy

Thanks to Nik.ca for this handy post .

Cleanupdata.com has a really nifty service that will save a lot of time when it comes to making changes to tabular data in Excel workbooks. Watch the video here

Apple updates(fixes) New MacBooks/Pros Trackpad Firmware

Apple today released an update that will hopefully fix the issues many people, including myself, have been experiencing with the new MacBook Pro Trackpads. the major issue being that every so often (too often to not bother me) the trackpad would not register a click. Let's hope this does indeed fix the issue.



The update (below) only takes a few seconds and does not require a reboot. Apple also released a Quicktime update (see above) which does require a reboot. The Quicktime update deals with items related to iChat.



UPDATE:
It has been about three weeks since the above update was released. I am please to report that it does seem to work. I have not noticed any further "missed clicks" since the update. Thanks, Apple for fixing this.

Dr. Bernstein Riding Obama's marketing savvy?

I keep hearing this Dr. Bernstein guy on the radio, and saw his ad on a bus today. His repetitive slogan is, well, somewhat similar to something I have heard before. Let me know if you notice some familiarities below:

Barack Obama - Victory Speech Full Video

I found it!
This is an excellent speech and absolutely worth watching!

Obama's Victory Speech

I am trying to find a good single video of the entire speech, have only been able to find it in pieces, but will post it as soon as i find it. For now, here is the full text of his speech provided by the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Tribune - Obama 2008 Presidential Victory Speech

Google's 2008 U.S. Election Results

Google has a nifty map that shows live results of the U.S. election as they come in. in can be viewed as the whole U.S. or by State. One can also view the results for the Presidential election, U.S. House or U.S. Senate.
See the map below. To add it to your own page, check it out here: Google Maps' U.S. Election 2008

Obama on technology

Obama speaks on technology, here's the video:

Wired's Halloween

Wired asked its readers to submit their best halloween geeky costumes. they can be seen here:
Wired's top ten geeky costumes



This guy got number one spot and he deserves it, check out his website of how he created the costume:
chrislee.tv - cyclone costume

What are you guys doing for Hallows?

New MacBook Pro - First Impressions

I just bought the new MacBook Pro. It is the standard out of the box 5.35 GHz model.



For clarity I was previously using a 12" PowerBook G4, so this is quite the upgrade and my impressions will therefore be somewhat biased to the positive. here we go.



First off, as with all Apple products the packaging was simple and clean. Co-workers even commented on how nice the packaging was. Apple knows all about first impressions and they didn't fail to impressive this time.

The first thing you notice about the body is that it is beautiful. The black framed screen and the clean aluminum case is all that I could have expected. The new manufacturing process really improves the visual impressiveness of the computer. for example, where my PowerBook had 18 visible screws as well as a number of lines where the pieces, battery etc connected together, the new MacBook Pro has a total of 4 visible screws and no lines on top with only a perimeter around the base and across the center of the underside. Again, very clean.

Next thing I noticed was the screen and then the touch-pad. lets start with the screen;
The screen is far brighter and more detailed than my PowerBook. even when compared to a friends older model MacBook Pro the new screen is miles ahead. every detail is smooth and perfect and the older MacBook Pros don't hold a candle to the brightness. On the downside however is the glossy screen. words cannot describe how glossy this ting is. granted it is made of glass, but wow! at least if i want to check my teeth i can just put the computer to sleep and i have a mirror! The glossyness really does get in the way sometimes, especially in brighter environments. I wear a white shirt a lot of the time and all i see in the screen is my shadows and my tie glaring back at me. And don't try to save battery power by dimming the screen because the dimmer it gets the clearer the reflections get.

The track-pad;
in word - awesome. I really love what they have done with it. a bigger track pad really allows more flexibility and ease of use. And it's not too big that it gets in the way of wrist placement. The pad is a whole lot smoother to touch, and glides perfectly. You will notice that there is no longer a button, rather the entire pad is a button. the hinge is at the top so really you still have to press where you would have before, which is a good thing. The track-pad also allows for multi-touch gestures - up to four fingers at a time. I thought this was great and it is useful, but i would have liked to see more flexibility in setting what the strokes actually do, but the user is locked in to expose with four finger swipes and "previous/next" with the three finger swipe. which sounds cool but is really just gimmicke to me.

*I was impressed by a small detail - i usually rest my thumb on the button, so having the button as part of the pad means i always have a finger on the pad and this could cause a problem when it comes to multi-touch, because when i move the mouse - either causing the screen to scroll or invoking the the "pinch" effect and causing the window to zoom or shrink. - BUT, I still haven't figured out the specifics of it, but this doesn't happen. Pad works seamlessly and i never get an undesired effect with the pad or multi-touch.
One thing i have noticed thought is that for some reason the click doesn't always work, about one in thirty clicks just doesn't click. This may just be because I'm not used to the button, but if it is caused because i have a finger(s) on the track pad at the same time, then there's a problem. This will be figured out as I get more use out of it.

That's all she wrote for now, I will write more once i get more use out of this beauty and have had a chance to play with her a little bit. All in all I am very impressed with the improvements, I think the biggest downfall for some people is the glossy screen.

Ciao for now,

Dino

Bar Stool Economics

Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all
ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes,
it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every
day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the
owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he
said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks
for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so
the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could
they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair
share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they
subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the
sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar
owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by
roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each
should pay.
And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100%
savings)
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men
began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He
pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar,
too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back
when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine
sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the
bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough
money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the
most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for
being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they
might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat
friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Opus Vancouver Rooftop Development

So I have spoken about this project I am working on before, but I wanted to keep you updated. On October 16, 2008 at 7:30pm we will be going to public hearing at the Vancouver City Council. This means that our project is officially presented in public to City Council and neighbours and interested parties have an opportunity to speak their mind and give their opinions on the project.
We would really love to have you all there in support of this amazing project.

Take a look at what to expect!

UPDATE:
I am sad to report that our application has been rejected by the City of Vancouver Council.
After spending many late nights at City hall the Council finally voted on November 18, 2008 to reject the application.
We look forward to meeting with the City planning department and the City Council to discuss the application and ascertain if there is a "revised" version that would be supported by the city and the neighbors of the Opus Hotel in Yaletown.

Universities offering free online courses

It seems a number of colleges are beginning to offer their courses online for free. No, you don't get the pretty piece of paper at the end, but apart from that, in some cases, you can see all the lectures, notes, quizzes etc. Below are some of them, if you know of others please add them in the comments!

Stanford Engineering: http://see.stanford.edu/

Yale: http://oyc.yale.edu/

MIT: http://ocw.mit.edu/

Now go hit the books!

Microsoft's Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld ads

Microsoft has released two ads to date which essentially depict Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates living in the "real world". Here they are below:

Shoe Circus:



New Family:

Apple's Let's Rock Event - Disappointing!

Today Apple hosted a one hour key-note presentation by CEO Steve Jobs. There were a number of new updates, but generally I was expecting more. Here are my thoughts:

1. New iPod Nano -
Bigger storage is great, new design looks cool and it's way thinner! It's available in more colours - whoopedeedo. The downside is I see the curved screen getting scratched more easily and producing more glare especially when outside. The new feature allowing you to shake the iPod to shuffle songs is great... except if you use it while you exercise, I'm not a big fan of listening to only the first 2 seconds of all of my songs!

2. Updated iPod Touch -
Thinner, stainless steal back and rounded like the iPhone. new features include integrated Nike+ and volume controls on the side and built in speaker! Nice update!

3. New Headphones -
Apple has released new in-ear headphones with 2 drivers, woofer and tweater. ...Price = $79. ouch.

4. iTunes update -
New feature called Genius recommends songs based on what's in your library and what you listen to. So you get a chance to get exposed to new music while Apple has a new way to push music at you and make a buck. HD movies also available on iTunes now.

5. iPhone 2.1 update -
bug fixes, fewer dropped calls, better battery life.

Let's hope the next event is a little better.

Where is Zimbabwe Headed

Being born and raised in South Africa, I try to keep somewhat up to date on the bigger issues that are going on in the region. I have for some reason long been interested in Zimbabwe. Formerly known as Rhodesia it was once the most prosperous nation on the continent, now it has about 80% unemployment and the highest inflation rate in the world. The fact that one can get a bank note for 100,000,000,000 billion Zimbabwean dollars and barely buy enough food for a small meal. This article in Fortune magazine sums the situation up quote well.

Fortune Magazine Article: The Worst Inflation in the World

Architecture: Romantic vs. Technocratic!

below is a clip from TED.com of Reed Kroloff discussing architecture. Its an intersting clip, both when he gives his critique of the deceision of the 9/11 World Trade center site in NY, but also in his examples of modern vs romantic architectural styles.

Kroloff mentioned two architectural firms, here are their sites:
SHOP Architect: www.shoparc.com
Rockwell Group: www.rockwellgroup.com/



Let's hear your thoughts on these and other architectural styles in the comments.

How to: Remove Voicemail Record Prompt

Everybody hates that women who explains to you how to leave a message after you just listened to the recorded greeting from the person you were calling. It goes something like this:

"After the tone, leave a message. When you have finished recording you may hang up or press pound for more options."

If you want to save your callers 5 seconds of utter frustration do the following:

1. Go into your voicemail.
2. press "4" to change your personal options
3. press "2" to change administrative options
4. press "3" to enter "record prompt" settings
5. press "1" to turn record prompt off.

Note that these are instructions for Rogers Canada. your wireless provider may have a different setup. if you know how with a different provider please write in the comments.

Opus Vancouver Rooftop Restaurant

Opus Hotel has made an application to the City of Vancouver to allow additional height and floor area to accommodate a seasonal 250-seat rooftop restaurant.

The new restaurant would provide outdoor amenity space to hotel guests, local neighbours and Vancouver residents.The restaurant is intended to be a seasonal amenity, using temporary structures for weather protection. Screen devices and setbacks from existing roof parapets are proposed to mitigate issues of overlook, sound and visibility from the street.

For more information and images click here

To express your support, please click here

Dynamic Architecture

The worlds first dynamic architecture. A rotating, self powered building.

Andrew Bravener - My First Story

I had to post this just because it is absolutely hilarious.

Autism

Wired recently published an interesting story about autism and autistics. The cover page states "The Truth About Autism: Everything You Know Is Wrong"

The story profiles, in particular, an autistic names Amanda Baggs. Amanda has uploaded a number of videos to YouTube, the most popular of which is called "In My Language" shown below. She no longer keeps a personal webpage, but has a very simple "non-site" that answers FAQ of her, it also has popular autism related links.

From the article and from her non-site she seems to be very blunt and, in my opinion, quite rude. What i found interesting about the article and her video is that although in a face to face interaction it seems as though some autistics cannot communicate properly with others, in fact they can, but just not through the traditional means.

I am somewhat confused by the video and her site in that i find it a little contradictory. maybe it is just my misunderstanding, but it seems that Amanda wants autism to be seen not as a disability, but rather as just another way of life, at the same time she often makes reference to her state funded caregivers and how one would never think she was "normal" if seen in public.

This is a never ending conversation/debate and I would love to hear other peoples thoughts and reactions to both the video and the Wired article which you can find here

Drupal Camp Vancouver

The First Drupal Camp Vancouver is set to take place on May 9 and 10, 2008.
The Friday sessions at SFU Wosk Centre for Dialouge (Hasting and Seymour) and Saturday sessions at Workspace (21 Water St., Gastown)

Here's the briefing from the Drupal Camp Vancouver Group Site:

A group of volunteers is assembling the masses for the inaugural Vancouver Drupal Camp on May 9 and 10th (Friday & Saturday) 2008. The event will feature multiple tracks of peer-taught edu-tainment at two downtown Vangroovy locations.

Certainly Vancouver has hosted many meet-ups, camps, conferences, and un-conferences around open source software topics but Vancouver Drupal Camp will be specific to the Drupal open source content management system and the first of its kind in BC. Participation is encouraged from all and many levels of ability and interests will be addressed in the inter-disciplinary schedule.

Wilensky's - pressed Salami sandwitches

Wilensky's is a small corner store that's been open since 1932 when the Wilensky special sold for less than 15c.
The Wilensky special is a pressed Salami and Bologna sandwich. It is always served with Mustard, this is not an option, you may add cheese if you wish. They also make their own sodas on site, cherry cola, cream-soda and orange soda!

The rules:
1. You may not tip
2. You may not ask for your sandwich to be cut in half
3. You pay when served
4. The special is made with mustard

See the reviews below:
RoadFood
Frommers
CTV
Yahoo Travel

Concordia - CASA Cares Fashion show

Last night i attended the CASA Cares Charity Fashion Show
I apologize in advance, they had smoke machines so some of the pics are a little muggy, but check them out here.

Drop and give me 20! - The Push-up Fitness Test.

Lifehacker posted an article relating to a New York Times story about push-ups and how they are one of the best tests of fitness and a great overall body exercise.

They also link to a Washington Post table for measuring your fitness level based on a number of exercises including the push-up.

See also Wikipedia's notes on Push-ups (Press-ups)

How do you measure up!?

Binocular Soccer!

This is a hilarious must-watch! A bunch of people in ridiculous outfits playing soccer with binoculars strapped to their heads. Thanks Basha for the tip.

Nanaimo takes center stage! - Google Earth

TechVibes recently wrote about how Nanaimo was declared the Capital of Google Earth. it turns out the city planners have been working to provide Google Earth with as much information as possible resulting in Google Earth providing more information about Nanaimo than is available about San Francisco!
Check out earth.nanaimo.ca to see the full scope of information available.
You can also see the TIME Magazine Article here.

It would be great to see more cities working with Google on projects like this, having this volume and wealth of information available for larger cities in Canada and the US will be invaluable to all.

The MacBook Air, I guess it really is that tiny!?

Check out Newsweek Senior Editor, Steven Levy. He lost his MacBook Air, in his house. The story goes that he reads a lot of magazines, I guess his wife cleaned up the clutter behind him and while throwing out a big pile of magazines from the coffee table, accidentally threw out his MacBook Air at the same time. This does give some credence to Apple's claims of how thin this machine really is, unfortunately it also gives credence to the idea that this guy, or his wife, may be completely blind or just stupid. The machine is thin, but a 3 pound magazine is a little hard to miss, no?

Memory Through Metamorphosis

A research article was recently published on PLoS ONE that detailed an experiment showing that a caterpillar actually retains its memories even after it has transformed into a moth.

This is interesting because it was always thought that due to the extent of the metamorphosis, including the change of bodily functions, environment, flight, diet and more, that there was little connection between the caterpillar itself and the moth. The belief was that the caterpillar is essentially completely broken down and reorganized to create a moth. This study has shown otherwise.

The researchers wrote that further research "will yield greater insight into the process of complete metamorphosis and move us closer to an integrated understanding of organisms, providing links between complex cognitive behaviors and the molecules and developmental processes that give rise to them."

Wired also had a review of the article here.

Steve Jobs Speech (2005)

I just saw this for the first time. A speech given by Steve Jobs in 2005 where he tells three very interesting stories from his life. It may be old, but I think it's a great speech. Watch it below.

Cellphone Tips!

Here are some interesting things that are possible on your cellphone in times of emergency. The coolest one i think is the ability to unlock your car from miles away!

1. The worldwide emergency number for phones is 112. if you are outside of the coverage area for your network in an emergency situation, dial 112 and your phone will search for any existing network to establish the emergency number.

2. Nokia phones come with a reserve battery. to activate the battery press the keys *3370# and your cellphone should restart with the reserve battery and a 50% increase in battery life. the reserve will be recharged next time you charge your phone.

3. If your phone gets stolen, you can disable it as long as you have the phones serial number. dial the keys *#06# and you should get a 15 digit code show up on your screen. This is your phones unique serial number. As long as you keep this number you can disable your stolen phone by providing this number to your service provider and they will block the phone, so even if someone replaces the SIM card, the phone will still not be usable.

This next one is my favourite!

4. If your car has automatic locks, and you happen to lock your keys inside somehow. (although you gotta be pretty impressive just to pull that off) as long as there is someone else with access to your spare set, you can call them from your cellphone, stand within about a foot of your car and ask them to click the unlock button while holding the remote near their cellphone. The signal should be transmitted through the cellphone and unlock your car!

Enjoy!

Free Airline Vouchers - Working the system

A tip coming from "Dumb Little Man" today explains the best way to get free airline vouchers by booking on overbooked flights. this is all great as long as you are flexible on your departure time/date. check it out HERE

Kudos to Victoria Startup - TeamPages

My friends at TeamPages received some great press recently.

TeamPages is a social networking and online management service for amateur sport organizations. Their tools allow you to easily organize your schedules, and communicate with your leagues.

Mike Tan, TeamPages CEO, is a strong leader and entrepreneur who I was lucky enough to work under on the University of Victoria (UVic) Commerce Students Society a few years back, I have also worked closely with other members of the TeamPages staff including Lesley Bidlake and Derek Story. as usual Mike Tan has brought together a talented group of individuals to propel his concept into the public realm. I'm sure they will see a lot more of this kind of press in the future.

Link here to the story in the Vancouver Sun

World Wide Telescope

This may be one of the most awesome things I have seen in a while, along with photosynth.

World Wide Telescope is essentially similar in a sense to photosynth, but instead of stitching together every image on earth to create a true three dimensional world, it stitches together images of everything 'off' earth to create a three dimensional image of the entire universe, or at least everything that humans have captured.

Give a hand to Microsoft for their work in both these regards!
Check out the TED Videos for both below:

World Wide Telescope

Photosynth

Virgin Airlines - coconut powered planes!

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Airlines Boeing 747 took off on the morning of February 24, 2008 as the first known commercial flight using bio fuel. one of its four engines was by blend of 80% standard fuel and 20% oil derived from coconuts and babassu nut!

Read more about this amazing step forward for the use of 'green' technologies below:
Forbes

Wired

Time

Here is Sir Richard Branson drinking what he said was biofuel from a coconut:

MacBook Pro Update - Disappointment

The MacBook Pro was updated by Apple yesterday and to be quite honest, I'm disappointed! I dont really want to get into it because I think that Seth Weintraub captures my feelings perfectly in his blog.

MacBook Pro Rumors Scaling Up!

It seems that rumors of new MacBook Pros have been increasing drastically in the recent past. These machines are long past due on an upgrade (264 days since the last update!) and are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, or days depending on which rumor mills you choose to follow.
See below for links to some rumor sites to wet your appetite!

MacRumors, Seth Weintraub - Computerworld Blogger, 9to5 Mac, AppleInsider.

Those are just a few of my daily rumor reads, if you have others feel free to post them in the comments!
As some of these state, we could see an update as early as Tuesday, Feb 26 (Apple is notorious for making updates or press releases on a Tuesday) in which case we will see relatively minor upgrades like the multi-touch track pad and processor upgrades. The other possibility is that we wait until an unannounced Apple event in March for the update, in which case we may see something more substantial.

Personally I am torn, but really I have waited so long, I would rather see a completely new form factor in March, than a new track-pad now.

Facebook Music Sharing - Twist Me!

A company founded in Oslo, DoubleTwist, which created "DoubleTwist desktop" allowing users to easily sync and share media with friends as well as remove DRM coding from songs purchased on iTunes, has now released a Facebook app called TwistMe which now makes it even easier to share that media with your Facebook friends directly through Facebook.

Side Note: DoubleTwist was created by Monique Farantzos and DVD Jon (His Blog). DVD Jon(aka Jon Lech Johansen) originally made a name for himself through his involvement in the release of the DeCSS software, which decodes the content-scrambling system used for DVD licensing enforcement. (See WikiPedia Entry for DVD Jon)

Green Freedom - Turning CO2 into fuel!

This is an excellent initiative. The Los Alamos National Laboratory has begun a new project called Green Freedom which attempts to extract CO2 from the air and harness it as fuel for cars and airplanes. This initiative would allow us to take toxic gasses out of the air and reuse them as fuel, not only reducing harmful chemicals in the air, but producing a renewable resource at the same time. 

Some other reports:

New York Times: here.

Engadget also reported on the story here.

See Inhabitat.com's story here.

Sprint Nextel, WiMax - Orders start shipping

It's been a long road, but way back in August 2006 Sprint Nextel announced a 4G Wireless Broadband initiative with Intel, Motorola and Samsung using WiMax technology. 

Then in March 2007 Sprint Nextel Announced WiMax ecosystem initiatives with Samsung, ZTE and ZyXEL. 

In July of 2007 Sprint Nextel announced that it would be working with Google on WiMax Mobile Internet Services.

And now, finally, DigiTimes has reported that Zyxel has begun shipping exclusively designed WiMax routers to Sprint Nextel.

Exciting news, now the countdown begins for Sprint Nextel to begin offering the devices and shipping them to households across the United States.

How I Met Your Mother: New Episode March 17!

ANNOUNCEMENT: New episodes of How I Met Your Mother are coming March 17, 2008! Four months since the last one. For those of you watching it on TV, it will be in a new time slot - Mondays at 8:30pm et/pt.
Mark your calendars!

More Geeks and Music

See this Video of a person that made a song purely from sounds that you hear on Apple's operating system, OSX. I don't know if I should feel sorry this lonely soul, or if I should be impressed. benefit of the doubt - this is Awesome, in some geeky sorta way.

U.S. Navy Satellite Destruction: Follow up

Following up on yesterday's story about the Navy attempt to destroy a faulty spy satellite. The missile was fired just before 10:30pm ET on Feb 20, 2008 and hit the target approximately 24 minutes later. You can read the full CNN report here

One of the interesting parts of this story is at the very beginning with the quote: "We have a high degree of confidence we got the tank"
You'd think a $60 million missile attack that aimed at absolutely obliterating something would end with something more than a high degree of confidence. maybe U.S. Taxpayers would have preferred something like "Yes, the $60 million we spent to blow something up was a success, the faulty satellite which cost you an unknown amount of money to launch and malfunction with minutes of launch has now been blown to smithereens... thanks for that much needed tax revenue, it went to good use."

Own your own British Soccer Team, or a piece of it!

Ebbsfleet United FC has been officially taken over, by the more than 28,000 sports fans who paid a nominal fee each to purchase the team. A website was set up: www.MyFootballClub.co.uk and fans could pay 35pounds (about C$68.87) to buy a membership to the site who then went looking for a team to buy.

I think this is an awesome idea, let fans own their own team and vote on their own decisions. It's every fan's dream opportunity. Check out the full story from The Globe and Mail here.

U.S. Navy to Destroy Spy Satellite

At around 10:30pm ET tonight, the U.S. Navy plans on firing a missile into space to destroy a faulty spy satellite. The Satellite was sent into orbit in December 2006 and will cost about $60 Million to destroy, assuming everything goes well.

See the complete CNN Story here.

Leaving Home (Goodbye To The Normals)

Courtesy of Phancy K:

from the film "Goodbye to the Normals"

Don't Give Up, Convert your HD DVDs to Blu-ray.

If you're stuck with a collection of HD DVDs now that HD DVD is out of the picture you can convert your content to Blu-ray. Here is a tutorial Wiki courtesy of Wired. Keep checking back on the Wired site as it will be continuously updated.

iBand? Rock out with iPhones and Nintendo DS

Check this clip of a trio calling themselves iBand who create a band using iPhones and a Nintendo DS. Aparently they plan on creating more music, but in the future they will be kicking the Nintendo DS to the curb and looking to recruit two more iPhones for another guitar and drums.

Here are some other reviews of the story from Gizmodo and Wired News

Laymen's guide: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray.

Someone asked me: "just read what you posted - can you explain the difference [between HD DVD and Blu-ray] - as I am not so clued up on this...thanks". This was in regards to "Blu-ray vs. HD DVD battle is over!"

Here is the explanation:

Both are basically replacements (higher quality versions) for regular DVD. unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) they both came out at the same time, so there was a bit of a battle between them. a lot like when there was VHS video and BetaMax video way back in the day. a lot of people dont know about betamax because it no longer exists in the mainstream - i.e. VHS won the battle, although that battle took about 10 years.

in the case of HD DVD and Blu-ray, they have been around for about 2 years. one created by Toshiba and the other, I think was Sony (dont quote me on the Sony part). Anyway, the point being that you started seeing both Blu-ray and HD DVD players on the shelves as well as movies coming out for both, except that certain big studios would either sign up for one or the other. that means that if you fot a Blu-ray player you would not be able to watch The little mermaid in high def for example, but you might be ablt to purchase Die Hard. and vice versa if you had bought a HD DVD player. 

Keep in mind that HD DVD is not a DVD, it is just the name Toshiba chose. it is literally like if Apple had named the iPod MP3 PLayer - "Max CD" or something. you cant play an HD DVD disc on a regular DVD player or the other way around.

Anyway, the point is that customers just werent buying either, for fear of that one becoming obsolete, or just because they could not get all of their favourite movies on it. (just to clarify, the only reason to get one would be so you could then re-purchase all your movies and watch them in hi definition. )

so, I guess Toshiba just started feeling like Blu-ray was winning out over HD DVD, and gave up the fight, rather than spending money trying to continue fighting. this is a winning situation for everyone. because now consumers can feel safe buying a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray discs, and Toshiba can just switch to building Blu-ray players rather than wasting money and time on marketing and producing the HD DVD.

Blu-ray vs. HD DVD battle is over!

If you weren't sure which technology to side with between HD DVD and Blu-ray the decision has now been made for you. Toshiba has pulled out of the race and therefore HD DVD is no more. Blu-ray will no be the standard. The positive thing about this battle being over is that consumers can no more confidently make the decision to buy both Blu-ray players as well as Blu-ray content, it also means that the race to produce cheaper and better players will speed up. The negative side of course is that if you have already spent the money on an HD DVD player you wont see much, if any, new content coming out for the platform.

See the story on Wired News here

The Celotti's Rock another Award!

Great news!

My mom, Gianrita, just told me she won "Circle of Excellence" at work. She works at Pfizer, winning this award means she is one of the top Institutional Key Accounts Managers in Western Canada! It also happens to mean that my dad and her get to go on a one-week trip to the Exuma Resort in the Bahamas!

Pretty Sweet, no?

Congrats Mamma!

Going Green - Ambient Air Fridge

I don't know that I would have the patience or commitment to do this myself, but it's still pretty awesome and I thought it deserved mention. So if you are a green junky or even a penny pincher check out this do-it-yourself guide to building an ambient air fridge for cold climates. It's environmentally friendly, a great project if you're looking for one, and it'll save you money in those cold months.
Check out the story at TheDailyGreen here

Samsung - Wireless 50" Plasma

Samsung has introduced a wireless plasma television, its 94 Series.

"Samsung's 94 series Plasma needs no wires between components so your eyes are free to focus on its sleek finish and beautiful 1080P "Full HD" picture."
"An incredibly crisp, clear HDTV with no strings attached. Beacuse the image is transmitted to the screen from its remote hub, you have more options as to where to place this stylish HDTV."
You can get more info at http://pages.samsung.com/us/hd/

Here are some online reviews too:
The Digital Beat
HDTV News

Collaboration in the Commons

This talk from ted.com by Howard Rheingold captures the idea that as humans we are innately predisposed to collaboration. That collaboration among humans brings greater rewards and allows us to make better decisions.

Watch the the video here and tell me what you think.

Something for the Ladies - Boots

I thought it would only be fair to give the ladies something to look at too!

If you like boots, and I haven't met many girls who don't, then I think you will love Shay Couture!
Designed in Vancouver by Shay Ramji, these are trendy, stylish and elegant and they definitely make a statement.
The boots are available at Ellis (3055 Granville St.), Crossover Bollywood (6468 Main St.), and ENVE Clothing (538 Davie St.)

Dress with Class

Now go the distance.

After you make your face feel and look great you need something to put on those hangers you bought. Take a look at www.Indochino.com

Custom tailored suits at excellent prices. Just take a look and you'll know what I mean. They carry suits, shirts, outerwear and accessories. Delivered to your door. whether you're a traditional Black Suit kinda guy or you like to spice it up with a Tweed Takeover they have what you're looking for.

Let me know what you think or if you know some other great places to get great suits online.

Shave with Style

Not only do you need to have well kept attire, but hey, you should take care of yourself too. why not start with some of the highest quality products from www.theartofshaving.com.

If you really want to make a statement why not get 'straight' to the point with one of these.

Happy Shaving!

Hang with Pride

I discovered an excellent website, dedicated purely to closet accessories. If you want your clothes to come out of the closet looking as good as the day you brought them home from the tailors you have to check out: www.hangerproject.com

I will definitely be getting myself a few of these, for those special garments that just deserve an extra level of care!

Enjoy!

Fame

So this was pretty awesome, a picture of me showed up in the Vancouver Make it Business publication and on the Jet Set Crew Website. See Here.

You can read the full issue of the Dec/Jan issue of Make it Business Here.

If that isn't enough, the reporter - Pariya Kaligi - also plugged the New Opus Montreal Hotel where I am building a bar. See the website here: OPUS HOTEL

Great Chef's

So that five course meal I had last night, well get this. Tonight I attend this dinner function for the chef's of Quebec province and they have a few prizes for best up and coming chef, pastry, etc. anyway, to cut to the chase, the chef that is the head chef at my hotel - Opus Montreal - he wins a prize, but not just any prize, he wins Chef of the year. not to shabby, it's funny to think he is the same guy that makes my food almost every breakfast lunch and dinner during my three month home-away-from-home stay at this hotel! Sweet deal for me!

hotels and Press - sweet

Really i just wanted to say that Last night I had an awesome dinner. I was invited to join a dinner for a group of press that was visiting our hotel, you know what that means - a sweet five course meal and awesome wine parings. And that's exactly what it was, I had everything from Lobster Cappuccino to Sugar cane scallops to the awesome Green Tea ice cream made in house. Anyway, my point is that I enjoyed eating my way into a pleasant stupor. Good night.

Bam! So moving is kinda cool right?

Cole's notes:

In a meeting with my boss. out of the relative blue he tells me I'm moving to the other side of the continent... for three months... and I'm on a flight that leaves in 8 hours.

Bam, there it is. anyway, the point being that as shocking as it was at the time, it's pretty damn sweet. I really can't complain, I get to travel across the country, live in a hotel for three months, order in room service whenever i want - free, have my room cleaned and bed made - free, have my laundry done - free, attend press dinners - free, and best of all i get to do all this while working crazy intense 12-13 hour days to build one of the biggest and most swanky bars in the City, who could ask for more! 

Ya it's tiring, ya it's stressful, ya it can be down right frustrating at times, but WOW - What a rush!