Technology Snippets

Facebook Rules!

Facebook is now 5 years old.   I know of at least  a couple of 80 year old folk who have facebook profiles and I am sure we all agree it is a great way to keep in touch with those who are a distance away from you.    I didn’t know that it is also being used by the Toronto police who have a Facebook Page which they use to post videos hoping to have a tipster recognized and anonymously identified.    Facebook for social good!!

Crime Stoppers turns to Facebook to find thieves

 Google Expands in Every Direction:

Google Earth V5.0 lets you see underwater shipwrecks!   This latest version expands the quality of the undersea experience with much better graphics and much much more.   If you haven’t explored Google Earth recently you may not know that you can also explore the sky and stars.  Go on a “staycation” – just travel Google Earth!

Go to:

http://earth.google.com/

You can also get an incredible number of Google Earth experiences such as:

• See current artic ice concentrations
• Experience an Earthquake
• See shipwrecks
• See the effects of Climate Change in the Antarctic and elsewhere:

After downloading the new version of Google Earth go to:

http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?synd=earth&cat=featured

Google Books - Shakespeare Anyone?

Google has made 1.5-million free books available for reading on cellphones.  Not sure how many folks will be using this service, but I guess if you get stuck in gridlock for an hour or two or stuck in an elevator you can always download a book and spend sometime reading.

You won’t find today’s best sellers but you can find a large selection of older books available on the new Google Books site.

For More Info Go To:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090205.wgoogle0205/BNStory/Technology/home

Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

Google has added a new offering to its stable, the feature, dubbed “Latitude,” expands upon a tool introduced in 2007 to allow mobile phone users to check their own location on a Google map with the press of a button.

The software plots a user's location — marked by a personal picture on Google's map — by relying on cellphone towers, global positioning systems or a Wi-Fi connection to deduce their location. The system can follow people's travels in the United States and 26 other countries

To Learn more:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090204.wgoogletrack0204/BNStory/Technology

Divorce Fair Anyone?

This in from Warsaw:

Yet while many divorce fair organizers are familiar with the long tradition of wedding shows, where gushing brides meet with enthusiastic vendors, marrying commerce with divorce is proving trickier.

At the first divorce exposition, participants ranged from education-oriented non-profits, such as churches and local government, to private businesses, such as makeover studios and detective agencies. But while Vienna seemed the perfect location - two-thirds of marriages there end in divorce - journalists ended up outnumbering visitors. Last year, Mr. Barz organized two more shows, with a combined attendance of more than 4,000.

I guess that will be the next big thing at the Metro Convention Centre!     For more:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090205.wldivorce05/BNStory/lifeMain

Climing Up the Mountain at Craigleith

I had a perfect weekend. I just don’t know why it had to go so quickly, but I guess that is to be expected. When you are having fun time flies.

Friday after work I headed up to spend the weekend with my dear friends Barb and John. Several weeks ago we had planned a weekend to snowshoe up the Blue Mountain with our friends Harry and Lillian. The weather couldn’t have been better and all our plans just fell in place for our day.

So the starting point for our wonderful adventure was a trout breakfast that John cooked for us all. Great way to start the day, watching someone cook a whole fish (he neatly trimmed the head and tail off before cooking.)

The main event of the day was snow shoeing up the Blue Mountain at Craigleith. Firstly, for those from BC who are reading this blog – it is part of the Niagara Escarpment and not a mountain, but is the closest that we have to a mountain in Ontario. People here ski down this hill but you would laugh at them if you are from BC. No matter.

It is a good climb up the hill with snowshoes on. We walked over to the southern most area of Craigleith Ski Club and found the path up to the top of the mountain. Donning our shoe shoes we set off for the top peak with the utmost of confidence that it would be an easy climb.

I am not sure of the distance from the bottom to the top, but I would guess it took us at least 45 minutes if not an hour to get to the top. The incline varies from about 30 degrees to at the odd points more like 45 degrees straight up. Not being the fittest of climbers we had to stop to catch a breath at frequent intervals. We lost one of our party, who turned back after about 15 minutes for easier terrain. The second loss was for the opposite reason. Lillian scooted off ahead, on her own, as she was by far the fittest of the lot and we didn’t want to hold her up – she had a massage appointment in 2 hours and didn’t want to be late.

So the 3 of us who remained soldiered on at a steady pace. We three frequently had to step aside as fitter folk whizzed by us sort of running up the hill on their shoe shoes. I can only guess that those people did this climb frequently enough to be much fitter than we were.

As we got to the crest of the hill, huffing and puffing, with much difficulty, trying to catch our breath, the feeling of triumph prevailed as we each felt the pleasure of having completed the hardest part of a challenge.

The climb was worth it with the most incredible views of Georgian Bay from the top for our eyes to feast upon. It was very windy at the top and one could hardly hear our voices above the din at the summit of the climb.

We then walked across the top over to the switchback snowshoe trail for the descent down the hill. As we went across the top of the hill we passed several ski lifts dropping off their passengers all eager for their fast run down.

The views at these points were the best as the tree cover was minimal. My friends and I made plans to come back to the top of the crest for a picnic next summer. It would be wonderful to sit, eat and drink on a hot summer day and take in the wonderful view.

The descent was much easier and quicker. There were a great many people coming up the switchback trail and at one point Harry remarked that it reminded him of Yonge Street. We laughed because he was right. Everyone was out – it was such a wonderful day.

After we finished our climb we decided to go to the Mill at Thornbury for a bowl of soup while we killed some time waiting to go to the Oyster Shucking Party. Barb’s husband John plays in a hobby band – Frankie and the Favourites - and they had been hired to play at the party at the clubhouse that night. Harry and Lillian are members so they were able to get us all tickets.

We had the most wonderful Roasted Garlic soup at the Mill and after a drink and chat and a few more stops along the way we set out for the party at the Craigleith Ski Club. The night was great and we danced, ate and drank the night away. We had, as a bold faced act, brought in a few bottles of wine and after one of our party bought a bottle from the bar (and thus acquired 6 wine glasses) the bottles were placed on the table, one by one as if we had purchased them at the bar. We proceeded to drink freely from the bottles we had spirited into the clubhouse. Given it was a private club, we were sure that it would be just fine. And it was.

After the night was over, John, Barb and I headed back to “Gopher Broke Farm” and watched a movie I brought up –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera . It was an early night for everyone as our day outside was for sure the best sleeping pill we could have had. (The copious amounts of wine which we had drank also didn’t hurt) .., J

And this morning continued on a relaxing and easy going theme. Trout and hot pepper jack cheese omelet for breakfast and great coffee and conversation. Left Barb and John’s about noon and stopped on my way back to visit with my friend T. Home and some time for domestic chores – laundry, vacuuming and general cleaning.

This evening I went out for coffee and cake with new friend of mine. It is nice to make new friends. Going through the “get to know you” phase and so always interesting to hear new thoughts and ideas. We went to a pastry shop on the Danforth. The cake was quite tasty and we both agreed that the café au lait was better than we would have gotten at Starbucks.

Lots of great times this weekend. Hmmm, a bit less than happy about back to work tomorrow. Such is life. Another great weekend in just 5 more days.

TED - No, not the Guy Next Door

TED Talks – Ideas Worth Spreading

I have been stealing time to listen to podcasts lately. There is a new source of interesting audio and video podcasts which has captivated me. These “TED Talks” are recorded during the annual TED Conferences. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and this is not your ordinary You Tube where anyone can upload a video.

The folks at the TED Brain Trust make sure that only the most fascinating, brightest, funniest; most inspiring or innovative speakers appear on their site. You will find such folks as Bill Gates (his latest released yesterday talks about how he is trying to change the world), Al Gore and Bill Clinton and Jane Goodall but aside from the rich and famous, you will also relatively unknowns - inventors, explorers, scientists and anyone who can pitch a interesting idea, thought or belief. If you have a cold winter day that you want to cocoon at home and surf the net, it is well worth exploring the site and listening to a selection of speakers from TED.

Anyone can send in a podcast to the folks at TED and they will follow up with you it if they think it has merit. If you are really good, you might be invited to present at the next annual TED Conference. The 2009 TED Conferences are happening this week

Some examples of Ted Talks I have listened to:

->“Life on Mars?...” Penelope Boston talks about why she thinks that they may find evidence in Martian caves.

->“Who is General Tso?” Reporter Jennifer B. Lee is on the hunt for the origins of this famous dish.

->“Exploring the frontiers of happiness” Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness

->“Second Life where anything is possible” Philip Rosedale talks about the virtual society he founded. (I happen to have an avatar on second life!)

->“The powerful link between creativity and play” designer Tim Brown talks about the relationship between creative thinking and play using examples you can try from home.

Everything is nicely tagged and indexed by interest area and rating (e.g. the most courageous, jaw dropping, funny, etc) and by date – so you can browse to suit your fancy.

To see the list of talks go to:

www.ted.com/index.php/talks

Oh, and by the way, if you want to go to the TED Conference and listen to these speakers in person it is by invitation only. You submit your application and they decide, based on your application and CV whether they want to invite you to attend and pay the $60,000 ticket price! There are over 1,000 attendees listening to 50 speakers and it sells out well over a year in advance. For $1,000 you can video conference in to see and hear the talks live.

On a more do-able scale, the site suggests hosting a “TED Party” or “TED Salon” as an interesting way to host a party. (Wiki defines “Salon” as a social gathering of intellectuals who meet to discuss ideas and watch artistic performances.) All you need to do is:

- Invite half a dozen people around for an evening
- Plan a series of three talks from a theme that interests you
- Curate the conversation that follows, to encourage genuine discussion as opposed to insistent opinion

Hmm, maybe I should host a TED Party – might be fun and an interesting way to perk up a party!

Yesterday’s Blog:

Readers from yesterday’s blog are looking for a conclusion to “Running Late in the Morning…” What happened when I was 45 minutes later than usual leaving the office? Sorry if you were expecting something more, but I promise that you will find a more interesting version (a fictional account) of what might have happened, once I get a bit more time to work on the story line. Blogs aren’t meant as a medium for stories, short or otherwise, however, maybe I can serialize this one and give you a bit of it every week or so. Stay tuned.

So what really happened at the point I left off yesterday?

Well for one, I discovered a whole new set of people who live in my building who normally I never see. They leave for work at 8:00 and I discovered that there are quite a few folks in that set. Some looked quite interesting. And that is where my imagination starts to gear up!

Running Late in the Morning, but enjoying the Change in Routine

This morning was a complete break with my regular routine. I got up at the usual 5:45-6:00 a.m. Well, I reach consciousness about then. The radio turns on at 5:45 and I listen to what’s happening on the radio for 15 minutes, commune with Bella, my dog for a bit and then the first alarm goes off on my iPhone. It’s kind of a 10 second blues riff. That is the signal to get out of bed and hit the shower.

I lazily rolled out of bed and headed into the living room. The living room sliding door had been completely frosted over, so I knew this was a cold one. Laura uses that door to go out into our “smoker’s lounge”, sadly, she has not yet seen the light about that nasty habit yet. So she gets to go out on the balcony and commune with nature while she inhales the cancer stick. As a consequence of the door opening, a fair bit of moist air was trapped between the two doors and as a result Jack Frost got to do his thing on the door.

Taking note of the very pretty pattern, I wandered into the bathroom. I know it takes me 15 min to shower because as I emerge I hear my iPhone chirping its 2^nd alarm – the beginning 25 seconds of the Amy Winehouse tune “she wakes up alone”. It always makes me smile. I have grown to like to sleep alone. It is about 6:25 by the time I have dried my hair and the day has been kicked started. Then I remember yesterday’s unfinished blog.

Hmm, maybe I should get it done now, I think as I saunter into the kitchen and put on the coffee. I turn and look out my other sliding door at the lake. This door has not been opened recently so no frosted panes. The view is clear and the sun is just starting to come up and cast a pink hue on the horizon chasing away the darkness to the west. The extreme cold is causing mist to rise in thin ribbons and it looks incredible. I take in the day as I contemplate the blog. A photo opportunity! I run to get my camera to try and capture the beauty of the scene, sighing with the thought that it is always a better view in person. It is times like this that I miss having someone in my life, integrated into my morning routine. Cameras are just not as good as eyes and a brain. But I take the picture anyway, hoping that in some way it would capture the moment. Thoughts return to the blog. Maybe I could use it there.

I grabbed my glass of OJ, stride back to the bedroom, scooped up my laptop and crawled back into bed, pulling the duvet over me and intent on finishing yesterday’s blog. It is cozy sitting there in bed with my laptop throwing heat like a heating pad on my tummy, warming me up at the same time as it functions as a piece of technology. I get my blog quickly finished. OK - not exactly a great job. I messed up a couple of things which were later fixed and I have to thank an early reader who alerted me via email and saved me a bit of embarrassment and irritation regarding my carelessness.

I get out of bed – it is now nearly 7 and go about the rest of my morning routine, but running about 30 minutes later than usual. 59 days out of 60 I leave the house between 7:00 and 7:15 to walk Bella and am on my way to the office at 7:30 at the latest. Today’s timetable was different and as a consequence I got to see a whole new set of people in my morning rounds.

For me, when I walk the dog and walk to work days are much the same. I see the same people on the elevators, the same construction guys just starting their day at work. The traffic is light when I cross Bathurst Street. There are no lights at Niagara St. and I have to time my rush across the street to happen during a lull in the traffic.

Today’s walk was much different. 45 minutes late is a lot of time in morning minutes. Different people, different traffic patterns. But what happened on my morning walk will now need to be the subject of tomorrow’s blog as I have just ran out of time to finish this story today.

Mid Week flies by...

I did get my blog half written yesterday, but I was out last night. It is Winterlicious and I have got to try out as many restaurants as I can! I went to Big Daddy's Crab Shack - which is a New Orleans Restaurant featuring a lot of Creole dishes. I came away completely satiated - in other words I was absolutely filled up and waddled home happily. But too tired when I got home to finish the blog - so here it is 6:30 and I am getting it done now!!!

Obama’s back in my good books. Heard on the news yesterday morning his very humble response to the issues regarding the withdrawl of 2 of his nominated cabinet members due to “issues with their taxes”. He took full responsibility for, in his words, “his screw up” and said it was important to know that there was one rule for all. I was also glad to see that he backtracked on the protectionist stance and indicated that they needed to make sure that their rescue package did not include any measures which might provoke a trade war. Good on him!

I found something in the Globe and Mail yesterday which you might find interesting, particularly if you have young kids. It is a video called “Economy: A bedtime story”, where the reason for the current economic crisis is explained in a bunny themed cartoon story. To see the video go to :
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081223.wvbunny/VideoStory/ It is cute, to the point and absolutely correct!

I found another interesting item on the web in a UK online newspaper. The article reported on the results of studies on what happens in the brain when you read. Apparently the act of reading causes many of the same synapses to fire when you are reading about doing something as if you were really doing the task. The brain is in rehearsal, which suggest that reading may be more than just lying around and accomplishing nothing. Mental note: read more!

From the article:
"There has been good evidence for a while that mental simulation - imagination - can improve performance in sport and other skilled behaviours. This study suggests that readers do mental simulation when they comprehend a story," Jeffrey Zacks, a co-author of the study and director of the university's dynamic cognition laboratory, said today. "It could well be that the simulations we perform when reading function like skilled practice.

So next time you are reading and someone asks you what you are doing you could say that you are practicing!

To find out more go to:
This is your brain on books (The Guardian)

Man Down

As I walked in this morning it was quite pleasant. Not as cold as I was led to believe as I listened to the radio before I left home. Maybe because there was no wind it seemed warmer. I would have guessed it was about -1 or -2, not the -8 that had been stated. The announcer on CBC’s Morning Side Radio Program said that it was slippery under the light dusting of snow, so I was careful as I stepped, firmly planning each step, watching the terrain underfoot. Even so, a couple of times as my attention was diverted elsewhere, I almost fell – but I am getting good now of throwing my arm up into the snowboarders stance and regaining balance. So, no falls for me.

Not so lucky was the guy I briefly shared the sidewalk with on my way in. He came out of the condo building at Portland and Front. He was a tall man wearing a black toque, long black coat, and black trousers with a black backpack slung over one shoulder. He had a black beard. He himself was black. He cut across the street onto Front St., just in front of me.

As we walked along he was slightly ahead of me and he momentarily diverted to look into a storefront window at the lighting store. I started to walk past him as he returned to his journey. Suddenly, his foot caught on a clump of ice on the sidewalk and he lost balance momentarily. His arms went up in a flapping bird motion (I always found the surfer boy motion to be more effective, myself) as he struggled to regain his balance. I could feel his relief in catching his fall, as his eye caught mine in a look of triumph.

With that, his next step caught another piece of ice and the battle with the forces of gravity began anew. This time he realized there was no saving his fall and down he went like a tree felled by an axe man. Arms splayed out front, flat on his belly, he lay still for just a moment. I uttered the requisite “Oh God! Are you alright?” The man pulled himself upright slowly in silence, as he winced in pain. “I hope you didn’t break anything”, I offered sympathetically. He didn’t reply but started slowly brushing off the snow which now coated his entire front - from pant leg to toque.

I turned and continued my walking; leaving him to lick his wounds and to regain his dignity I stepped even more carefully as I walked at a good clip along Front Street. It had started snowing not long before I left home and it had steadily worsened as I did my 25 min hike to work. Now the sky had that white/grey look as the snow descended in earnest.

As I approached Spadina Ave. the light was red and I had to wait. The man caught up with me. He still was full of snow, now front and back, as the snowfall had coated his outer garments with a white glaze. He looked me in the eye and shook his head. I could almost hear him say, “God, what a way to start a day!”. He was not pleased. As the light changed, I continued my fast walking pace and left him walking a bit slowly and for sure very carefully.

I was glad my day had not begun like his had. I thought for a moment about turning back to him and asking permission for a photo for my blog. I chuckled to myself and wished I had the guts, but at least I knew what today’s blog topic would be.

Bicycles Anyone?

Today's blog must be short as it is a week night and in any case, you guys out there reading my blog did get a triple dose on the weekend. I think I kind of broke records in the words written category in the previous 2 posts. Plus I have another creative work in the offing as well. So tonight's blog will be short and I will just keep to one topic.

One thing I notice a lot these days is seemingly abandoned bicycles stuck in the snow. I don't recall this in the Beaches where I used to live. It must be a downtown phenomena that owners leave their bikes hitched up to posts on city streets throughout the winter. The bicycles are like boats landlocked in a harbour stuck until the ice melt in the spring.

The bicycle hitching posts are just about useless in the dead of winter, as they are invariably caught in the middle of a snowbank - along with the bikes that are chained there, wherever they are located. You can see these bikes everywhere downtown, not only outside condos but also up and down King St. and Queen St. outside bars as if the owners went in for a drink.

When I see one of these bikes, maybe outside a restaurant or bar, I can just picture the owners coming out, several hours later, only to discover that a snowstorm had trapped their preferred means of travel until spring's thaw. They give up and walk home and make a mental note to come fetch their property when the ice melts.

If these bikes were cars on a highway, the police would have them tagged and if not moved in a period of time, towed so as to keep the streets clear of abandoned cars. I wonder if the City of Toronto has "bicycle red hornets", checking on abandoned bicycles using up all the available hitching posts in the spring.

I suspect not. It could be that these bicycles will still be there next spring and the spring after next... I bet there are more than a few owners who forget all about where they left their bikes and so fail to collect them. Maybe I should tag a few and see if they disappear with the thaw or whether they are left unclaimed by their owners at the end of winter?

Maybe I will. :)