Would you have bought a Blackberry....

.... if they had called it a LeapFrog? Because they were going to at one point.

A short article about the origins of a few high tech trademark names including Wikipedia, the Blackberry and TiVo.

Travel in groups

I found this funny advertisement featuring penguins.

OJ - not really from Florida anymore

Here's a great Q&A with Alissa Hamilton, who wrote a book about the real story behind orange juice. There's a lot we probably don't know about this beverage. The article is a great read.

Blog broke

My apologies if you couldn't see any posts on this blog since last night. I had a slight blog malfunction which I seem to have corrected using a combination of skill and cunning.

Who am I kidding? I took a wild guess and was right.

Interview with Rob Stefaniuk of Loose Moose

The interviews with members of Loose Moose past and present continue. I have a chat with my friend Rob Stefaniuk. Rob and I met while we were both attending a public improv workshop offered by Loose Moose Theatre around 2 years ago. Rob is a fast talking, funny individual who has a heart of gold. I like to think of him as the friendly giant. He's gonna love that I said that. I hope to do some work with Rob in the future.

Here's the interview.

The photo is a late addition. Rob as Le Hulk. Sorry Rob - you said I could help myself to the Facebook photos......

Remotes....... like.. WTF?

In the realm of technology, nothing has received as little innovation as the remote control. Most remote controls are designed for men. They have a plethora of buttons, 75% of which offer access to features that you'll likely never use. The labels beside the buttons are so small as to require the youthful vision of a 20 year old - I can only read them with glasses, Darlene can't read them at all. Of course, she may just be faking not being able to read them - she doesn't look forward to having to use these remotes at all and has resorted to punishing me by forcing me into writing a step by step guide on how to turn the surround system / TV / cable box / DVD player on and off - complete with device map (seen above), because she couldn't tell a DVD player from a VCR from a PVR if her life depended on it. Nor could any woman who has been given the daunting task of coming into the family room and trying to watch a movie without my assistance.

Why does it have to be this way? We have put rovers on Mars, have robots that build cars and have built phones that are mini computer / phone / PDA combinations with intuitive touch screen interfaces. But we still have clunky, push-button remotes stretching the limits of 1970s technology. Yeah sure, you can buy touch screen universal remotes that supposedly replace every other remote in your house and consolidate the functions on one master world-dominating beast, but the thing typically weighs 3 pounds, costs more than some of the devices it controls and uses up batteries faster than a sex toy in a bawdy house.

Manufacturers are missing the point. We shouldn't even need remotes. If a surround receiver can automatically adjust the volume going to all fifty speakers (yes - I'm exaggerating) using a microphone and a test tone, why can't it listen for our commands and do our bidding?

"System... ON."
"Watch TV... channel 6."
"Set Volume for Karl."

Those voice commands should be enough to turn everything on that needs turning on, select the channel and set the volume at a predetermined rate. For the technologically challenged, the system should sense when the user doesn't understand the command structure and offer assistance.

System: "Do you want to watch TV?"
Darlene: "No."
System: "Do you want to watch a movie?"
Darlene: "Yes."
System: "DVD or pre-recorded PVR program?"
Darlene: "DVD."
System: "Is the DVD inserted in the player?"
Darlene: "Yes."

Done. And done. Is that so hard? I don't think so.

Get paid to put your clothes on

Back in the 1970's, models were lucky if they made $75 a (working) day to be walking clothes hangers. On the other side of the spectrum, Margaux Hemingway signed a plump $1 million contract with Faberge.

Today, salaries are much higher. Gisele Bündchen makes $35 million per year.

Who says it doesn't pay to be pretty?

VCR still has value

Have you got a VCR lying around collecting dust? Don't throw it away!

This video shows you what can be salvaged from an old VCR.

I couldn't replicate what was shown in the video, so I must be doing it wrong.

Make sure you look at the outfits too

Weddings can be awesome. But one person's idea of a great wedding may differ from another's. Which is how tacky weddings are born (tacky being in the eye of the beholder, of course). If you want to see some examples, this site does an excellent job of showcasing the variety and breadth of wedding..... ummm..... successes.

I especially like this wedding cake.

Wanna buy a car? There's plenty to go around...

The economic downturn.... damn I hate that term - time to switch to something else.

The financial ice age that is upon us means that fewer people are buying big ticket items, especially vehicles. The problem is that the cars you see in dealer showrooms are the product of a manufacturing and delivery process that lasts many months, since most cars are shipped by ocean freighter. So while the manufacturers adjust production rates at the factories, new cars keep piling up at ports of entry. In Sweden, they've had to rent an additional ship in port just to store the cars.

Some governments are trying to boost new car sales by offering money for your old car if you'll buy a new one. In Germany, any car more than 9 years old will earn you $4000 toward a new one.

This issue will see the reverse effect happen once the economy rebounds. People will be looking for new cars and have to wait while the industry ramps back up to full production again.

But did he die with a smile on his face... ?

A 28 year old mechanic from Moscow accepted a $4300 bet from two women friends. They bet him that he couldn't handle a 12-hour sex marathon with them.

He won the wager.... by downing a bottle of Viagra. But right after the 12-hour sex marathon, he died of a heart attack.

There are three lessons to be learned here:

1. Performance enhancing drugs are bad news.

2. Sometimes, getting what you want comes at a steep price.

3. Women are crafty.

"I'll see how you guys do a burger..."

On the first flight President Obama took on Air Force One, he ordered a burger. Yeah!

With cheddar cheese too. Watch the video.

Free supper, worth the 15 minute wait

I had quite the dinner out last night. Darlene and I went to one of our favourite joints (Joey Tomato's) where, because of the time we arrived I knew we were in for a wait to be seated. It turns out that we got seated fairly quickly all things considered. What we did end up waiting for - at least 10-15 minutes, was for a server to show up. A manager showed up first and knew we had been waiting a while before he even asked. He took our order, then a server came by and asked if we had been helped. When we said the manager already took our order, she went white, knowing she was probably in supreme trouble.

I wanted something different to eat and they were sampling out sweet chili chicken at the front waiting area. Now normally I don't go near spicy stuff because I have a very low tolerance to spice. I know a lot of people who love the sensation of their mouths being on fire - I'm not one of those people. But this sweet chili sauce was very tasty, a little kick, but not enough to ignite your taste buds. So I ordered it. In case any of my Canadian readers have the same spice issue I do, the sweet chili chicken is AOK.

Another manager came by (restaurants need more than one manager now?) and after apologizing way too much, said tonight's dinner would be on the house. I made sure to leave the server a grandiose tip.

What is it? Edition 2 - solution

Charles took very little time with his guess. It is Habitat '67, which was built as part of the Expo in Montreal in 1967.

Housing was one of the main themes of Expo 67. Habitat 67 was the temporary residence of the many dignitaries coming to Montreal, then became a thematic pavilion visited by thousands of visitors who came from around the world.

Habitat intended to integrate the diversity of scattered private homes with the economics and density of a modern apartment building. Modular, interlocking concrete forms define the space. The project was designed to create affordable housing built close together but still offering privacy, each equipped with a garden. Habitat predicted the lifestyle people would live in increasingly crowded cities around the world. Originally meant to be vastly larger, ironically the units are now quite expensive due to its architectural cachet.

Too much packaging

Humour in packaging. The writing on the package of 3 flash drives says "Now packaged with less plastic". Which begs the question - how much freaking plastic did they used to use?!

Sipper or guzzler?

Have you ever wondered which means of transportation was most efficient as a measure of how much fuel it uses per person?

Check it out. Graphs everything from cruise ships to motorcycles.

Social pie

Here is a collection of funny, probably very accurate, yet totally unscientifically obtained figures on various social networking web sites.

Presented as pie charts.

MMmmmmm........ pie.....

Slip sliding away

It is vital to keep an element of your inner child alive all through your life. Which is why I absolutely love this office slide in the UK. They're calling it a helter skelter and it's transparent. Get down 3 floors in 7 seconds on a run of 87 feet of slippery fun. Wouldn't it be awesome to see suits sliding down this thing and then trying to regain their composure?

Yeah. My kind of office building.....

What is it? Edition 2

Time for another 'what is it?'

Name this edifice.

If you can indicate its location that's even better.

Welcome to the 21st century... there is no privacy

The Co-operators Insurance Company will be checking the credit rating of its clients and will use the information to determine what rates they will charge for home insurance. Customers were informed of the change. If you refuse to let them have access to your credit rating, "we must assume the lowest possible score which may [LOL!] result in a higher premium." This is not considered a violation of privacy because customers are asked for permission to accesses the credit information. The insurance company sees a relation between bad credit habits and bad home upkeep - which supposedly makes you a higher risk for home insurance.

If GPS tracking becomes standard on all cars, you know insurance companies will be getting that information to see how often you speed or how far you drive every year as a basis for car insurance rates.......

Fun with magnets

Fun with the Neocube, composed of 216 individual sphere magnets, which can be arranged into many shapes and patterns.

Never been there, never done that

Some folks might find this bizarre, but it occurs to me that I have never eaten at a Taco Bell.

Ever. I don't feel like I've missed much either.

Talking about work online not typically a good idea

A 16 year old girl working for a marketing and logistics company in the UK posted that her job was boring on her Facebook page. Someone at her company saw the comment and she was fired.

As one person who weighed in said, "Most employers wouldn't dream of following their staff down the pub to see if they were sounding off about work to their friends." Once again, applications of the internet bring up a great debate topic. Do companies have a right to be snooping on personal web sites looking for dirt? Shouldn't people be treating online social networking as the equivalent of posting your personal information on a giant public bulletin board?

I guess it's no surprise that I do not post anything about my job on here, eh?

Another Ernest contribution.

While Tiger was away, the rest did play....

What does it mean when Tiger Woods takes time off from his golf career to deal with knee surgery? Well, for the rest of the professional golfing community, it means PARTY TIME!!

Unfortunately, as of today..... the party's over. Here's a great advertisement on the topic.

I replaced the link, but you know how it is with YouTube videos... here today, taken down the next day....

Because they can....

You know TicketMaster - the folks who manage ticket sales for everything from concerts to sporting events? They also has an affiliated website called 'TicketsNow', who have come under fire for blatantly over-inflating ticket prices for the same events TicketMaster sells tickets for. In some cases, they're selling tickets even before TicketMaster is selling them. They've been described as 'legal scalpers'.

In the most recent episode, tickets to Leonard Cohen in concert with a face value of $99 to $250 were being sold on TicketsNow.com for anywhere from $568 to $856, plus a service of charge ranging from $85 to $128 per ticket.

This was a joint Ernest / Karl contribution.

If Google doesn't like it.... it must be evil

I have blogged about traffic shaping on the internet before, but now the topic is back in the forefront due to an upcoming probe into the issue of internet traffic management by the CRTC.

I'll try to build an analogy to represent the current situation regarding the desire of Canada's ISPs to traffic shape the data that passes through their portion of the internet.

Imagine if after building a highway system, the government was surprised to discover that more vehicles than expected are using the highway system and that upon further investigation, it was noticed that motor homes were the cause of most traffic jams. As a solution, the government forces all motor homes to always drive at 60km/h and only on the right shoulder of the highway - from now on.

This is essentially what is happening in the Canadian telecoms industry. Certain types of traffic are clogging (so they say) the highways of the internet and instead of doing the logical thing - making the highways capable of handling the increased demand, instead they're employing traffic shaping, which analyzes the traffic and decides which traffic gets priority, putting the brakes on the 'targeted data'.

There are many organizations and people opposed to this, and no wonder. If this kind of internet interference is allowed, what's to stop content providers from greasing the palms of the ISPs with a little extra cash to buy high priority traffic lanes on the internet?

Consumption told with pictures

I had seen this photo collection before and thought I had blogged about it, but cannot find any reference to it.

Chris Jordan made this photo essay, Running the Numbers, as a means of highlighting the reality of American consumption. The pictures do a splendid job of putting a face on a topic that has less impact using just numbers.

More iPhone tips

• Calculator turns to scientific mode when you turn your iPhone 90°.
• You can double tap space to get period + space.
• If you double click Home button while the screen is locked, you will get an option to [play / pause] the [last picked / playing] song (it’s very useful when iPod will timeout after stopping it through mic clicker).
• Have you ever been using an app and it’s become very unresponsive or completely frozen? You can force quit it by pressing the Home button for at least six seconds.
• To silence a phone call, press the volume button. You can still answer the call after silencing it, until it goes to voicemail.
• To ensure that your phone is using as little battery as possible, you’re best off always pressing the Home button before locking so that no app remains running.

Best book cover ever

It's not a joke. This is the actual cover of Carrie Fisher's new book.

Tees here, book here.

What is it edition one - solution

Here's the item in its full sized picture.

It's a German enigma cypher machine.