Wayne D's Blog

Thanks for taking a chance and joining my grand Mesh09 branding experiment. I'm creating two T-shirts. One with IMetWayne.com on it and one with wdawe.com on it. The first one I'll wear during MeshU09 and the second I'll wear on the first day of Mesh09. I'm curious to see how many people will take a flyer and type in my URL to see what I'm all about based on a T-shirt. Are T-shirts effective marketing tools, or are all those beer shirts I have collected not worth the cotton they are printed on from a marketing perspective? Feel free to add your comments on T-shirt marketing.

Feel free to browse the eclectic content contained herein. This is a blog without a theme. You can also follow me on twitter at twitter.com/wdawe where I promise I will not market, advertise or otherwise take advantage of you.

Some days the heavens open up and a bolt of enlightenment strikes you right between the ears. I work in a mixed Linux and Windows environment and she blurted out "Linux is annoying" or something similar. When I asked her to expand she explained that it annoyed her because it was different than what she was used to and that is what annoyed her. I can understand that, nothing is worse than thinking you know how to do something on a computer and then realizing that you are incorrect. No one wants to feel stupid and even at the best of times computers and software can annoy me. For better or for worse Windows has trained people to do things in a certain way and doing them in a different way is going to make them annoyed. Opening a terminal window and typing a command is completely alien to people who have grown up on Windows based operating systems. In a Windows based operating system actions are always initiated with the mouse, the keyboard is used for text entry. There really isn't any point in trying to convince people to use a command line interface, the ship has sailed and it's necessary to live with the new reality. Those who are working on Linux need to understand this, it doesn't matter if they think their method is better, the more they can make their operating system behave like Windows from the user perspective the more likely they are to be able to convince Windows users to at least give it a try.

If the current shift to web based applications, smart phones and netbooks continues continues the choice of operating system may become a moot point. The promise of Java to "write once/run anywhere" may come to pass as we access more and more services through a web browser. Perhaps the reason I find Linux not to be too annoying is because I already do so much with web based tools. I've written blog posts through the browser on my Blackberry, I use browser based tools to administer my MySql databases, browser based database applications. I long ago gave up running a mail program instead using browser based email clients first from Yahoo and now from Gmail.

I read an article today about running C and Python code on the web in a Flash virtual machine. The open question is whether this is any more promising because of the Adobe Flash vs. Microsoft Silverlight feud that is underway than the Sun Java vs. Microsoft Java wars that hobbled Java's adoption 10 years ago. Adobe isn't targeting Alchemy for new projects but instead suggesting it as a way to run legacy code in a secure Flash environment. I burned off about 15 minutes playing Doom in Flash compiled from the original C source.

That's for the future, for now Linux will continue to be annoying because it's really more of a concept than a product. The product is the distributions and they are generally inconsistent and incompatible with each other. Unless you are going to compile from source with the minefield of library issues that may entail there is no guarantee that any Linux package will run on your system if it isn't included in your distributions repository. Far too complicated for your average computer user, isn't it? For now your best chances are probably with Ubuntu, if you are ready to take the plunge good luck.

May 2010 updated with the rates that came into effect starting April 1st 2010 from http://www.ontarioelectronicstewardship.ca/stewards/fees.html

Jan. 27th 2010, See my update which discusses the likely increase in these fees at Ontario Computer Recycling Tax Rates Likely to Rise

When is a tax not a tax? When it's a government mandated and collected user fee. As of April 1st all Ontario residents will be forced to pay a tax on evey new computer. monitor, TV, mouse sold in Ontario. These new fees kick in April 1st and the government is planning on passing on the money collected to the industry to recycle electronics. This means there is no government oversight of the fees they are collecting from us. The best of both worlds, plausible denialbility for both sides. What are the rates?

Desktop Computers $13.44 $7.80 unit
Portable Computers $2.14 $2.75 unit
Computer Peripherals ( Mice, Keyboards. Single Hard drives,
Optical Drives) $0.32 $0.40 unit
Monitors $12.03/ unit Televisions $10.07/ unit
Displays < 29" $12.25 unit, Displays > 29" $26.25 unit
Printers $5.05 $5.40 unit

These rates are only good for one year, so expect them to rise next year.

Why does a 52" LCD TV cost less to dispose of than a 17" LCD monitor? No idea. Why $10 more for a $500 desktop than a $2000 laptop. Couldnt be because a desktop is easier to disassemble and reuse.

The best part is that this is only the beginning, next we get to pay a new disposal tax on the following items.

# Computer peripherals will include modems
# Printing devices will include copiers, scanners, typewriters.
# Telephones (physical and accessories)
# Cellular phones
# PDA’s and pagers
# Audio and video players
# Cameras
# Equalizers, (pre)amplifiers
# Radios
# Receivers
# Speakers
# Tuner
# Turntable

The best part is that these taxes are completely hidden so you can continue to live in blissful ignorance. I feel sorry for Ontario retailer because it appear to me that items bought out of province are exempt. This is a great time to make Ontario retailers less competitive, the middle of a recession. Another unaccountable bureaucracy to pick our pockets, sigh.

The paltry consumer information on the website glosses over the level of the fees that are being applied. It's always best to keep the people who are paying in the dark.

Unless you have a PVR with a built in guide channel accurate TV listings are more important than ever. TV networks now have a penchant for not maintaining a predictable schedule. They schedule a number of new episodes of a particular program, then perhaps stop showing new episodes for a month or two or show two or three episodes then skip a week or two before showing another new episode. Way back in December 2006 I wrote a blog post about how Yahoo had completely screwed up their TV listings. At the time we switched to the Canoe.ca tv listings because they provided a simple, fast loading TV listing service. Recently Canoe.ca decided to reformat their listing and dispense with the pop up for show details and Ajaxify them with and expanding tab to show details. The redesign has made the ads much more obtrusive in the details pane and they have also dropped the information on when the show is repeating which was very helpful in allowing you to tape a show you might have missed. The listing are still very good, clearly showing whether a show is a repeat or not.

I decided to quickly check Yahoo's listing and was surprised to find that they no longer sucked. They loaded quickly and about the only thing that was missing was a clear indication on whether a show was new or not. The shows in prime time are marked as to whether they are a repeat or not. The ads aren't even visible on the EEEPC screen as they are to the right of the listing column. I'd use Yahoo's TV listings except for one crucial factor. They have the channel line up wrong, instead of TLC one of the few channels I actually watch they list shows from a channel called VIVA. You think that as Rogers Cable partners they could at least get the Rogers channel lineup correct. Unfortunately there is no link on the page to report the problem, just links to precanned FAQ answers. So close, yet so far. Sorry Yahoo TV.

Illustrative screenshots of Canoe.ca TV listings




Screenshots of Yahoo TV listings

I did something today I thought I'd never do, I stopped watching the live streaming of TWIT, This Week in Tech a podcast hosted by Leo Laporte. Ever since Leo started live streaming TWIT Sunday afternoon has been TWIT day. I do my best to be home by 6 so I can watch as the podcast is recorded. Over the past while there has been tension on the podcast because some people think they talk to much about the social media service Twitter. Let me make it clear that I like Twitter, I use Twitter, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/wdawe but Twitter is old news. It was clear that Twitter was becoming old news when Britney Spears signed up and began using it. John Dvorak did his best today to steer the talk away from Twitter to no avail. Finally after almost an hour I gave up and closed the stream. I'll go back to what I did before Leo started live streaming TWIT, download the podcast. That way I can skip over the boring Twitter talk. Venting complete.