I first heard about a new Google service, Wave, during the Emerging Technology Interest Group pre-conference at CLA in early May. The whole idea is “What would e-mail look like if it was invented today?” And Wave is Google's answer.
I never got around to posting it then but with yesterday's announcement that Google is creating a full-fledged OS, built on a Linux kernel and centered on their Chrome browser with a focus on web-based computing, the time is as good as any.
The MetaFilter thread I linked to, as always, has tons of discussion, speculation and observations about what this means for Google, Microsoft and computer users in general.
Do you ever get disappointed when you realise not everything's online and instantly accessible?
For example, tonight I was reading a recent copy of Rolling Stone which had an article called “The Mayor of Hell”. It was about Braddock, Pennsylvania, a dying town of 2900 in Pennsylvania which is still the site of Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill (but whose workers almost exclusively come from elsewhere rather than living in a town in the shadow of a steel mill which leaves a fine dust on everything.) How bad is the town? Braddock was used as the backdrop for parts of the soon-to-be-released post-apocalyptic film, “The Road“.
The town has elected a young social activist mayor named John Fetterman (who's 6'8″, 300 lbs with tattoos and a shaved head) who's trying to re-make the town as some neo-industrial experiment (can't remember the exact term the article used), inviting a “new breed of pioneer” to move there and see if they can make a go of it – whether they're artists, small business people, modern urbanists or just looking for an inexpensive place to claim a part of the American dream.
Unfortunately, the full article isn't online (at least on the Rolling Stone site) so you'll have to track it down the old-fashioned way if you want to read it. I guess the main thing that caught my eye and made me think of posting this to my blog is that the town isn't just the site of Andrew Carnegie's first steel mill, it's also the site of the first-ever Carnegie library.
I was planning to throw together one last Meili tribute video since it's been a month to the day since the vote at the NDP convention. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll get it done tonight so instead, I'll dedicate today's “Music Monday” clip to Dwain Lingenfelter who, as I type this, is receiving the nomination in Regina-Douglas Park.
Louis Riel Trail posted a rumour that the Sask Party was looking to run a current member of the Roughriders against Link in that riding's by-election. A couple people responded that this was unlikely but LRT says the source is reliable. Man, that would be a wild battle – Dwain Lingenfelter, the Alberta carpetbagger (in some people's opinion) versus former Saskatchewan's own Grey Cup Champion, Gene Makowsky. For the low-information voter (who make up the majority of the electorate) that could really swing some votes. Yikes!
Sarah Palin announced her resignation on July 3, the Friday before a long weekend which is the classic tactic of a politician trying to bury bad news. But this is Sarah Palin we're talking about here and some are even speculating that she actually timed this announcement to try and tie her news into the July 4th weekend as some ultra-patriotic gesture.
– she is ALLEGEDLY undergoing a criminal investigation because the Sportsplex she had built while Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska happened right around the time she had a half-million dollar mansion built by her “First Dude” husband Todd and “some buddies” and there are RUMOURS that uhm, some of the windows and fixtures in the two construction projects are very similar.
There are other ideas why she resigned and as a slight detour, I'll mention that MetaFilter threads usually get anywhere between 1-100 comments while the really popular ones maybe get in the hundreds. The record for most comments in a thread on MetaFilter eve? The one where Sarah Palin (which my Freudian fingers always mis-type as “Plain”) was announced as VP got 5555! The current one about her resignation is heading towards 1000 last I checked.)
Other speculation about why she resigned now? (My money's on the Fox News gig for what it's worth.)
– she's getting out to take a job as a commentator with Fox News since that's both easier and more lucrative than politics.
– she's going to do a reality TV show/Interview show/religious themed sitcom
– she's writing a book and this will free her to do a big book tour and full-on publicity blitz.
– she's gearing up for a run in 2012 and since people have short memories, her quitting halfway through her first term as Governor won't be remembered as much as all the publicity and campaigning she'll do in the lower 48 over the next couple years for other Republicans and to build her own brand.
– she's sincerely retiring for the good of her family (nah, the woman who flew home from Texas with her water broken to have her baby in Alaska? Unlikely…)
– or maybe, just maybe, she's going to pursue a less-stressful, more-rewarding career as a librarian…
Other blogs have already broken, commented on and projected some potential impacts of this story with the main theme appearing to be: “Team Meili was more than a bunch of people drawn to an inspiring new political figure but a group of already accomplished men and women, many of whom will make up the next wave of leadership within both the provincial and federal NDP.”
From a personal point of view, I've got to say that there was a lot about Noah that impressed me in the short few months that I was a volunteer for the Meili campaign and got to know him a bit. He's obviously highly intelligent, hard-working and committed. Beyond that, it was clear that he genuinely cared about making society better for everyone, not just for a select few. He was also very open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. Perhaps most importantly from my perspective, he's not afraid to call things as he saw them – a rarity for many aspiring, let alone elected, politicians. (Of course, the fact that we share a love of the same NHL team doesn't hurt either!)
Best of luck, Noah! I can't wait to contribute a few bucks to the…uhm, anybody got a good pun on “Money Bomb” to do with Noah's name? Cause I got nothing…
— Since I'm talking about the Palliser riding, I'm going to slip in a few quick thoughts about that riding's former Conservative MP, Dave Batters, who left politics in 2008 to deal with some serious mental health issues. He lost that battle, committing suicide earlier this week with his funeral being held today. I never met Dave but his brother was one of my best friends in undergrad and if Dave was anything like his brother, he was one of the most intelligent, funniest, memorable characters that you'll meet. (I can still remember the exact first words Dave's brother said to me when I met him – how many people can you say that about in this life?)
Since he died, people have been celebrating Dave's life (as they should), lauding the family for their bravery in disclosing that it was a suicide (as they should) and looking hard at the deeper issues (as is the proper thing to do although obviously, it's unfortunate that these things only seem to get attention when a high profile person is involved.)
I do not want to speak ill of the dead but I do have to say that Dave Batters did take one position as a politician that I find unconscionable. I won't get into the details and in some ways, it's nothing beyond the typical “pro-gun/anti-gun”-type stuff that all politicans must delinate themselves on. But it gets to the core of why I'm a supporter of the NDP and proudly so. So to tie it all together, let's hope that we can get the Palliser seat back in NDP hands so that all constituents in that riding will be well-represented, not just the chosen few.
Print-on-demand web site, Lulu.com has a service that helps project how well your book will do based solely on its title. The algorithm was developed exclusively for Lulu by statisticians who studied 50 years' worth of bestseller data encompassing over 700 titles from 1954 to 2004. They compared the attributes of these titles against a control group of less successful titles by the same authors which gave them a model to project the odds of any title becoming a New York Times bestseller.
For example, here are a few trials I ran… Catcher in the Rye – 63.7% chance of being a NYT bestseller Twilight – 63.7% The Da Vinci Code – 35.9% Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – 22.9% Outliers: The Story of Success – 10.2% (I think the algorithm only looked at Fiction bestsellers but there's no reason you can't try it with non-fiction as well – though obviously, this result indicates that there may be some flaws!)
(I heard about this site in a book I just finished called “Super Crunchers” whose author actually used a Google AdWords campaign to help choose between two alternate titles for his book!)
…on the lower part of the right hand column that tracks what countries people are hitting my blog from and also occasionally what search terms brought them here is an endless source of fascination!
I'm home sick today with what is either H1N1, severe neck and intra-skeletal damage from dragging around concrete patio blocks in my backyard the other day or possibly a slow-developing brain aneurysm.
For that reason, I wasn't able to attend the “BBQ With The NDP Leader” event that happened in a Regina park this evening. That's too bad because I was hoping I might get a moment alone with Mr. Layton to pass along some advice I'm sure he's heard before – namely, that he should shave that 'stash.
Now I know his moustache has become a bit of a running joke for people – mostly on the right but the odd person on the left. I'm not joking about this and am quite serious that I think it's the right thing to do for a number of reasons.
I've tried to pass along this advice once before when I was randomly invited to a focus group which turned out to be a chance to provide feedback about some potential ads the NDP were planning to run in one of the recent federal elections. After giving my thoughts on the ads, I made the point that ads were good and all but that I believed the federal NDP's best chances for success hinged on Mr. Layton shaving his moustache. I didn't get into my thinking on this and obviously, my comments never made it back to NDP HQ anyhow as the ol' soup strainer remains to this day.
But now that he's in Regina, perhaps surfing around on his Blackberry in his hotel room or while waiting for a flight out at the airport, I thought I'd recap my arguments against the stash:
– rightly or wrongly, many Saskatchewan people take their grooming very seriously, especially in regards to our leaders. For example, Regina is a town that nearly had a collective conniption just a couple months ago when our otherwise popular mayor let his hair grow out past his ears.
– men without moustaches look younger which will make you appear more energetic and dynamic – a great selling point in our youth-oriented culture (those qualities didn't hurt Obama or even our own Premier Brad Wall.)
– shaving your moustache would also send a symbolic message to the electorate that you best represent change for our nation (er, unless the Liberals regularly changing leaders signifies changes better? Nah…)
– a common thing you hear from people out here is that the moustache makes you look like a used car salesman. Worse, you're from Toronto and there are a number of people in the West (not me, I add hastily!) who think that everyone from Toronto is the equivalent of a used car salesman – trying to sell you something you don't want or need or otherwise take advantage of you somehow.
– Here's the ultimate visual that proves my point – someone has worked up a before & after photo. The guy on the left looks like he could've been the Prime Minister of Canada…in 1939. The guy on the right looks like he could be the leader today!
Here's a really good article I found on Reddit about the differences between the economic environment for baby boomers seeking to buy their first houses a generation ago and the realities for their kids looking to buy a first home today.
“I’m of the belief that [the rise in housing prices is] likely the biggest differentiating factor between generations, in Canada at least.”
The author's contention is that young people today (at least where he is in BC) must spend somewhere around 7x their annual household income to purchase their first home whereas, for the average middle class family in the 1970's, this could be done for around a single year's household income.
The writer is very clear to point out that he's doing massive generalizations using only his parent's situation and that of his and his partner. Still, an interesting idea to consider.
(I'm happy to report that Shea and I purchased a home that was, like this writers' parents, just slightly higher than our total household income when we purchased it – although we were admittedly extremely lucky to purchase in 2004 just before real estate took off in Saskatchewan.)
)
