Archive - 2008

I was just thinking about 'sharing' items in Google Reader. You know, this could be even more powerful if when you shared an item, Google posted (this could be optional) the 'note' you share it with as a comment on the blog - maybe with a url to your shared items feed, or to your own website, etc.

This would require an open standard for commenting, but someone like Disqus could probably drive that approach as they plug into a number of platforms like Drupal and Wordpress already.

So I was finally able to sign up for Canada's brand new 'Do Not Call List'. The list is administered by Bell, and takes nothing really to sign up. You simply enter your phone number and click submit. Not too much to do really.

The reporting on the potential $700 billion US bailout is driving me crazy. I suppose I can understand why people are upset when they think that there will be a direct federal transfer of money from the Treasury to banks, but really, that's not what should happen.

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. And for a couple days there I was on a roll, oh well.

In the spirit of Dana's post about what they've been up to over the summer, here is mine.

• Wedding planning: I'm going to begin and end with this one, because well, this summer it's been pretty much ever present. Meg has certainly done most of the work, I've done what I can - albeit mostly slowly. Things are coming together, with less than a week left until the big day.

Well, it continues... as others have ranted, the new iPhone plans from Rogers are still horrendously overpriced for mobile data and features. But to top it off, I got my Bell Mobility bill last night and they're doing two things to screw me more...

Well, it's not far off now. Meg and I are getting married October 4th, less than 3 months from now. So, in order to provide some information in today's web world we have course established a wedding website which you can find at http://wedding.smithdm3.com.

So, Meg and I finally got it done. No, not our wedding - that will come, but rather the purchase of a new car. This was Meg's first car purchase, so I think it was exciting for her, and of course it was exciting for me. I liked my little Corolla, but it was time to abandon it. The poor thing needed some money put into it, and I just didn't see a long future for it and I. And well, Meg didn't really like us all as a threesome with it being a manual transmission and all. So, while I had initially thought I would buy a car last spring, we finally got around to it this spring.

This summer I've made a commitment to myself to ride my bike to work at least once a week, ideally, two or three times. I rode in yesterday for the first time this year, and it was a bit of reminder of how things can start out tough. My ride is a fairly scenic one, and I do get to ride with Meg for the first three kilometres or so. After that, it's 10 kilometres mostly along the Ottawa River to the Nortel campus.

Wow, it's beautiful outside today. A coworker and I went for a short 5 minute walk around campus today simply to see how nice 23 degrees feels - and we weren't disappointed. It was a bit of a gruelling winter up here in the northern part of Eastern Ontario. It doesn't look like we'll break the snow fall record, we should be 10-20 cm short, but still what a dumping.

So, this past weekend is the earliest Easter anyone alive when I write this will likely ever see. And in fact, unless you're over the age of 94, you haven't seen anything earlier in the past. I think "Computus", the method of computing what date Easter occurs on is quite interesting. Easter occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon to occur after March 21st (normally the vernal equniox).