A very new year

It is with renewed enthusiasm that I greet the new year.  The turning of a number is but a symbolic marker, but can be used as a psychological turning point as well.  The trials and tribulations of the past have a great chasm to cross to stay in the present.  The road ahead is paved with good intentions and more possibilities than we can imagine.  We will all be better off if we only put our minds to it and lead the naysayers to look at the world differently.  There are pots of gold under the many rainbows to come and are ours for the taking! 

I am glad to say that 2008 is over.  It was a year of great turbulence personally and professionally.  2009 holds many challenges and a lot of unknown, but it is new.  I look forward to learning more about myself, others and all that is new in the world.  I want to push myself further than I have before and impose and new self-discipline so I can feel better about myself.

There is more news to come in the new year.  Stay tuned and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Revision3 layoffs

If you watch Internet TV, you probably know about a little outfit called revision3.  There worked, up until today, Martin Sargent and Sarah Lane who, among others, were laid off.  Of course, the spineless CEO claims that the uncertain economic times precipitated his decision.  In the words of Neal Stephenson, this is bullshytt.  Anyone with a little common sense can see that this yet another in a series of layoffs being blamed on the credit crunch.  It is very convenient for the CEO’s of this world to have a scapegoat handy.  Unfortunately, the Internet is an amazing communication vehicle that executives seem to ignore, even when their company is based on it!

There is obviously more to the story than we are led to believe from both sides.  The layoffees are smart enough to not burn any bridges.  They are worked together before and probably will again.  They are taking their time with their blog posts and not pushing back.  The layoffers are trying to quell the storm by posting standard corporate rhetoric.  It may even be the truth, but jaded fans, who almost feel like they have friends in these two online celebrities, take offense to any perceived mistreatment of their icons.  Martin and Sarah have been smart about bringing fans in to the fold and will hold on to them through this.

It is no longer the employee that belongs to the corporation, but the corporation who has the priviledge of being the employer.  The people see the looming battle for human capital and are positioning themselves to be the winners.

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Why minority governments suck

On the morrow of the Canadian election, I have to say that I am very dissapointed.  There are really two reasons why.  First, the Conservatives are back in power, sort of, which really irks me because they really have not accomplished very much so far except to continue some Liberal successes such as paying down more of the debt.  I do have to give them kudos for lowering the GST by 2%.  It is not very much, but is a step in the right direction without killing their tax base.

The second reason, much more important than the first, is that we have ourselves another minority government.  While this may be a desirable situation for the other parties, it certainly is not for Canadians.  We will spend the next two years in political debates about leadership instead of actually getting something done.  Then, in two years, we will go through the whole EXPENSIVE process again.  I could think of a few better uses for the hundreds of millions of dollars that are being flushed down the crapper than an election that brings a flacid government in to play.  I would rather we actually take a step in the right direction and start REALLY evolving our country.  We are falling behind in the world in many areas because of political half-measures meant only to placate lobbyists.  Maybe I didn’t always like the Mulroney or Chrétien governments, but they got business done.  You have to concede that!

Now the big question:  What can I do about it?  Well, about the same as all of you, I can write my MP (Liberal Marcel Massé), I can write to the ministers that Mr. Harper will appoint and I can rally the people I know to do the same.  I encourage you to participate in the democratic process even when there is no election on.  It is the most important time to do so as you actually have a chance of getting a non-political response from our “leaders”.  I use quotation marks as I believe that, like in the corporate world, there is a dearth of real leadership.  We have many good, nice people in parliament, but few true leaders.

Here to hoping that Harper can rally with another party and get some work done before he has to disolve parliament again.

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Election news – Canada

Real News Network – Campaign to stop Harper (Thanks to Joel Heard for the link!)

Have a look folks!  This one is good.

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Elections – Canada

We really need to get people excited about our election.  Our leaders have about 6 weeks to push their position and get the vote done.  None of the US style 2 year election campaigns.  The advantage is that our leaders have time to govern instead of campaign.  The disadvantage is that we do not spend the time getting to know what the parties stand for or for the leaders to get their message out.

I certainly prefer our system, but think our leaders could do better at communicating with the Canadian public.

Get out to vote!  October 14th is coming fast!!   Remember, if you don’t vote, you can’t complain later!!! 

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Debates

Even though I am a Canadian and relatively interested in politics, the leaders at the debate tonight were boring the hell out of me.  I kept switching to the US VP debate just for the entertainment value.  For the record, Palin was better but still kept evading questions and going back to generic rhetoric.  She is obviously out of her league, ill prepared and just simply not that smart.  I am sure she is a nice woman who cares immensely for her family.  I just don’t want her a heart beat away from the presidency.  It scares me!

For Canadians, we had a debate based on four parties attacking the Conservatives.  While I understand it, it makes for boring television.  I even tuned in to the Ultimate Fighter instead.  I just can’t be bothered and, ironically, that bothers me!  I want to be passionate about the government and the issues, but these guys just aren’t there.  I read an interesting comment though:  “If Jack Layton were a Liberal, they would win”.  I have to agree wholeheartedly.  Jack Layton is an amazing leader who is with the wrong party.

Don’t forget to vote!

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Do Not Call – Canada

So, the CRTC launched the Do Not Call list in Canada yesterday at www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca and BIG surprise, the site was overwhelmed in the first day. 1.2 million phone numbers registered the FIRST day. For a country of 30 million people, that is HUGE! With the site crashing, the calls starting coming fast and furious at a rate of up to 1,562 call per MINUTE!!!

I would not complain about a site crashing or not being able to get through to a call centre. If people honestly believe any government agency or private company will ramp up to take a one day deluge, they are seriously out of their mind. I say BRAVO for getting it back up so quickly and registering the mass they did.

This also speaks to the great hatred Canadians have for telemarketing. If only the law was a little broader and did not contain so many exemptions, such as newspapers, political parties and any company you already have a business relationship with. I think people will be surprised that they will still get many of the calls they get today with no recourse other than to listen to the spiel, continue to play tricks on the poor souls manning the phones and / or simply hanging up on the dead air you get for 5 seconds because the auto-dialer is just a little off.

PS: Don’t call me, ok?

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Large Hadron Collider

If you have not heard about it, you need to read this article: Wired – LHC

This will have implications on how we understand the universe and, ultimately, all our lives, whether you know it or not!  And don’t believe all the black hole hype.  You have a better chance of winning the lottery.  Hmmmm, maybe I should buy those soon so I can take advantage of the money before…

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Fun Blog

If you have been listening to Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech (www.twit.tv), then you have heard John C. Dvorak speak.  He is a little opinionated…  He also has a blog that is full of fun stories and links.  Have a gander at http://www.dvorak.org/blog.

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Daily Sites

I have a bunch of sites that I browse on a daily basis.  It usually takes me between half an hour and all day, if I have nothing better to do, to read through the headlines and the stories that pique my interest.  I guess I could use an RSS feed and some an aggregation site to read through, but the “old fashioned” bookmark file just seems right to me.

In the interest of sharing some of the interesting sites I have found and in a effort to try and keep you, the reader, interested in coming back to read my daily fodder, here are just a few of my favorite sites, in no particular order:

1. www.bourque.com (Daily news headlines out of Ottawa and a WHACK of links to other news sites)
2. www.digg.com (User generated content site that has some funky stories and is pretty popular).
3. www.cnn.com (Yes, they are still useful and have added a bunch of video content.) 

I hope you enjoy these sites and bookmark some of them.  Come back tomorrow when I will post some content sites for your enjoyment!

Stay interested and interesting!

John