TED - Technology. Environment. Design.

I learned about the TED Conference a few years ago. I can best describe it as both food for and a celebration of the creativity of the human mind. Speakers come from a wind ranging field, as befits an event started by a man such as Richard Saul Wurman the grandfather of information architecture.

The TED team has created TED Talks. I listened to the Al Gore presentation today and it was, as TED presentations often are, absolutely riveting.

Listen. Now.

Howe Sound under the Sun

C-GEUW, Delta Air Park, Vancouver

Wild Cats

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta was playing at the Hollywood Theatre tonight, so off I went.

Reviews of the film were generally mediocre, so I had some difficulty with the concept of plunking down 12 of my hard earned dollars to see it in first run. Four dollars seemed about right.

Generally, I’d say the movie was not as stylish as the trailers made it out to be — it seemed a little flat visually. The story was a bit oversimplified and full of cliches.

It says something when the credits the graphic novel’s illustrator, but not the author. Alan Moore wrote the original, and distanced himself from the film — not a good movie has ever been made of Moore’s rich, complicated stories. This is no exception, but it is perhaps the best yet.

At the end of the night it just left me feeling somewhat blah. It certainly didn’t match the Wachowski Brothers Matrix films.

Oh yeah, while I was in that movie North Carolina won the Stanley Cup. So much for the late blooming Edmonton Oilers.

Bill Gates, Microsoft & the end of the Homebrew

Bill Gates announced his retirement a few days ago — or, more accurately, a schedule for his retirement.

This is the single biggest moment in business of the last decade, in my opinion. It’s more significant than the collapse of Enron and Worldcom

I’ve spent the last couple of days muling over what it means, chatting with people who work at Microsoft — with varying degrees of loyalty — and generally considering where we head now (whoever we is, anyway.)

The question I keep coming back too — and this says a lot about my personal bias — is what does this mean for Steve Jobs?

Continue reading "Bill Gates, Microsoft & the end of the Homebrew"

This is not Good

I visited a store I used to shop at quite frequently today, and commented on the fact that they no longer had Patagonia products. This was the shocking news from the Mountain Equipment Coop.

Looking for products from Patagonia?

We will start carrying the Patagonia brand from fall 2006

Weather

People in Vancouver like to complain about the weather. A lot of people think it rains a lot here. This is not true: it rains a tonne, particularly when compared to places farther East.

Of course, we don’t actually get the most precipitation it’s just that ours all comes in the form of rain. Most places in Canada get snow of some sort but not here. Not often anyway.

Today, after about two weeks of glorious sunny weather and a couple of days that can only be described as hot (a term defined differently here than, say, in Austin, Texas) our weather forecast is calling for the sky to be Overcast.

Overcast is such a gloomy term, and on a day like today I’m not too fond of it. I’d rather have the rain pounding down on my hair, or my hood, or my umbrella depending on my choice of protection for the day.

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