X Marks the Spot

Everywhere I go in life, X is there too.

I love X. It’ exotic. X adds spice to life.

Sex is great but triple XXX has that je ne sais quoi as the French say.

I like to be impulsive but feel even wilder when I’m quixotic.

X rarely disappoints except in novels by Cervantes about Don Quixote who is some wimp with no X appeal.

The same thing has happened to Xerox, who despite their double X can’t get it on anymore.

I enjoy marriage because it comes with an ex.

To show my affinity for X, I moved to a neighborhood with the postal code of C1A 8X4.

X marks the spot. Exactly.

Technology is not like farming

The Technology business in Canada and even more so on PEI is infected with the worst case of “whatever” disease. The entrepreneurs, the government – no one gets it, other than the money people on Bay Street (and they just want to make a quick buck).

It’s a friggin race to the finish boys, feeding time and the sharks are in the pool. There is only one winner, unless you are trying to create mom-and-pop businesses: good luck in technology.

In Technology, someone will eat your lunch before you even think it’s lunch time. There is only one winner in each category. There aren’t two Microsofts, just one. There is only one Apple iPod. The other people don’t know they lost yet.

When I started Island Computer in 1980, the banks all said- who needs a computer? Everyone said it. We went on to dominate the market.

When I started Aquilium Software in 1991, the same crew including the government said – who starts a software company on PEI? Some people even opposed it as though we were revolutionaries. Well we were.

The software we created was sold by Aquilium (then Avotus) to Cogsdale They are doing well with it and their own products – 10 years later.

Steven Hodson comments on this in his blog Not In Canada Eh and quotes from Will Pate in his blog startupnorth on the topic. Will says,

When you meet technology people from Canada, we’re not in a race. We’re watching the race from the sideline. We act like technology entrepreneurship is closer to farming than shark hunting, as if risky business isn’t necessary to make the next Google or Microsoft. We putter around as if slow and steady actually wins races to innovate and grow technology businesses. We fail to light a fire under young entrepreneurs, like the ones that started every major tech company you can think of, and our best venture capitalists are putting their ships on “coast”. In a world of accelerating change, those are very dangerous habits. We need to lose our current attitude quickly.

I’m out of it now. Let Will carry the torch.

Steve Jobs is wrong – Books are still hot

Steve Jobs recent comments about print being dead echo the “print is dead” joke in Ghostbusters – maybe he was looking to Dan Aykroyd for his lines.
At MacWorld, he said in his keynote

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Only a man who sells iPods for a living could make such a silly and baseless comment.

Will Pate wrote If people don’t read why keep writing.. Will’s point’s are all good (full disclosure – he’s my son and pretty savy on tech and culture).

While I partially agree, my comments speak to the continuing love affair with books and the difficulties of YouTube communication. Books still do influence people. Look at Blink, Wisdom of Crowds and Whole New Mind. I’m reading Clinton Wars – much too dense for the web. I still buy 10-20 books a year – not all read.

The web is good for fast subjects and there is nothing better than a clever turn of phrase. I agree that video blogging – if you’re reasonably handsome/pretty and have a good voice is more effective. However, it’s time consuming. Editing words is faster than editing video. Go for it.

Check out the blog for more astute comments.

Will’s blog gets referred to in Sameer Vasta’s blog Reading is not dead, despite Steve Jobs’ insistence. Vasta argues both logically and emotionally for the printed word.

Perhaps all Jobs was doing was stirring up the conversation. Now let me get back to Chapter 9 of my book where the protagonist takes on the big corporations and is almost defeated.

Why people steal music

People steal music on the internet because the music companies refuse to provide honest customer service. Sony/Columbia and the whole bunch of them are living in the past. As a result, most people just download their music for free.

My recent experience with honesty is so pathetic it makes me wonder why I bother. I was given a new Bob Dylan CD for Christmas – how thoughtful. The present came with a coupon to download an extra song – wow! That’s a new idea. A month later I still don’t have a song that works. I have the file but DRM or Digital Rights Management stops it playing.

Being a doo-bee, I sent three emails to Sony Columbia asking for help. Not a word, twitter or peep from them. If I really wanted the song, I could easily download it for free from a pirate site along with any other Dylan song I wanted, and videos too.

Why do I bother? Millions of other people have discovered the music companies are greedy people who didn’t make into the modern era.

While the music companies whine about lost profits and all that jazz, millions of songs are ripped off every day. For more reasons why see an insiders view.

Snow Storm

I Love Camping in Winter

I love camping out in the winter, when the snow is swirling around the street lights and small snow drifts build on the deck rail. There is an excitement to braving the elements on a cold winter’s night.

Camping in summer is fun too but there are the bugs and it rains on your tent. People next to you don’t own an iPod and insist on serenading you to Loretta Lynn or Lyle Lovett at 1 AM. What about those park fees? I mean it’s only a patch of ground and a smelly washroom.

No, give me winter camping any night.

It’s easy to stay snug in bed on these cold winter nights but I like to grab a blanket and rough it in the TV room. I pull up the blinds so I get a panoramic view of the outdoors lit in a half light from the street.

The TV room is near the fridge for one more late night snack. No one cares if I watch another Late Night with Conan or a murder mystery at 3 AM. I can bunk down on the sofa and keep warm under the blanket watching the snow blowing through the leafless branches of the black trees.

When morning comes, I burrow down for a few more winks and ignore the cars and trucks going by. I’ll make some coffee later.

For now let’s enjoy winter camping for another hour.

When you enter the Twilight Zone

When you enter the Twilight Zone you always wish the camcorder is on record. Unfortunately the camcorder is usually home in its case.

Last night at the end of the storm I went downtown to play at Baba’s. Lights out. Everyone gone home.

I called some friends and they were settling in for the night or already asleep. I went to Hunter’s for wings, Keith’s and a chat with Blake and Steve.

On a whim I drove out University Avenue after catching the first green. There was no one around except a single snow plow working his way by the liquor store. The stores were deserted.

Then it happened. I caught the green at Kirkwood. Weird, I never got the green there before.

As I sailed by Chapters, it dawned on me that I was going to get the green at Belvedere too. I glanced toward the dark fields and the Farmer’s Market.

I don’t remember what happened at UPEI except I got the green there as well. I was in a daze, the white fields and snow banks all merged. Nothing seemed real except the green light at the end of the road for the mall entrance. It stayed green until I passed and then went to red.

I should have my camera, I thought. I could record this and post it on YouTube as a surreal video story of the storm.

What if we set up a site with fellow video journalists and called it Not Just the News or NJN for short? We could cover stories the paper and CBC won’t. Real stories about the real people we know. Post them on YouTube, Facebook and Blogger. That would be cool.

The next light turning left on the Trans Canada was green, good to go. Then the light by National Music was green.

As I turned down at the green light for North River Road, I was in a trance. The streets and buildings blurred by.

Would Holland College journalism students be interested in the project?

The Wal-Mart light was green, then the Ellen’s Creek light was green.

We wouldn’t need a building or an office or any of the standard overhead. Just inexpensive camcorders, editing software and imagination.

The light at Belvedere was looming still green but the walk light was orange. Yes, I passed through. Where was I?

At Nassau a car approached from the left and the light turned green for him. I stopped momentarily before turning right, my trip to the Twilight Zone over but the VJ idea was taking hold.

Life in an Ordered World

I like life in an ordered world. One can predict more or less what will happen next, excepting when things go sideways. Then it’s fun to let go of the wheel and enjoy the ride.

In the New Years Eve storm, I failed to clean the wet snow off the windshield so the wiper broke. One can predict that heavy snow will break the wiper. I just thought I could defy the laws of wipers in snow.

The orderliness of life was all around yesterday. Streets were clean enough for the New Year’s levees. Friend and enemies shook hands and wished each other Happy New Year.

After another snow fall last night, the streets were clean this morning, as good order suggests. The car dealer was open, despite the weather, and fixed my wiper for next to nothing because I wore my Montreal Canadians jacket.

Sometimes you have to affect the good order of the universe with positive vibes.

What’s out of order is Microsoft Office and Windows XP. For reasons known only to Bill Gates, the programs are now giving me the reverse order on look ups.

When I ask for File Open, instead of the orderly sub directories then files in alphabetical order, since Christmas I am getting the files in reverse alphabetical order. It takes 3 more keystrokes to put things back in order. What gives eh?