Author Archives: JohnDallas

Cross border is fun!

I went to the United States of America (USA! USA! USA!) yesterday for a little shopping.  Even with the Canadian dollar close to par, there are still HUGE savings to be had.  It seems that we are still being gouged in Canada, even if the pretense of the exchange rate USED to be the excuse and it no longer holds water.  What could the excuse be now?

To be sure, the size in markets in very different.  There are ten times more people in the USA and a much more entrepreneurial spirit that makes competition flourish and lowers prices for the consumer.  I am glad we have such a neighbour within an hour’s drive!  🙂

The most fun is getting to the border and going through without having to stop and pay GST on everything, except the children’s clothes.  We got through very quickly and efficiently.  I was quite proud of the border services agent I got yesterday.  Bravo!

I know I will post more about my travels in the future and may even include some pictures.

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Apologies

Hi,

I apologize for not being able to write yesterday. I had my sod delivered and had to install it by myself with my three year old daughter watching and getting bored REALLY fast. The upside is that I now have water-colored steps in front AND in back of the house. Also, all my garden tools have been painted too. Luckily, they are water based and wash off easily… I think…

Other than that, I am beat.

Will write after my LONG nap.

Cheers!

Stay interested and interesting!

Yet Another Site!

As I continue to widdle away the hours of uncertainty at work, I am getting to surf a little more, think a little more and finish my laundry.   During all that time, I have found a few more websites that I will share with you, over time.  Today, I am going to share a great site with great writing.  It better be good, it is a magazine in real life!  You need to read WIRED, daily.

I say you have to read it daily because there are new posts every day.  Most of what is published in the magazine (ew!  paper!) appears on the web eventually.  I used to read through EVERY article in the magazine and often found myself running out of time to finish it before the next one came out.  Unfortunately, I do not have all the time I used to, so I have to be a little selective.  I digress.  What you really need to know is VISIT OFTEN!  You will find a treasure trove of content.  There are some really great digital culture items and the future is explained to you.

Whether you read the paper or online version, WIRED is just amazing.  Second only to Shift magazine, a great Canadian digital culture publication, but they went belly up a few years ago, so I have to get my fix from the Americans…  😦

Happy reading!

Stay interested and interesting!

John  😉

More Daily Sites

Yesterday, I posted some of the sites I visit daily and figured I would like to share more.  That being said, sharing my bookmark file all at once would be overwhelming and counter-productive as you probably would not have time to spend on each site and really figure out why I like these sites enough to share them.

Today, I would like to introduce you to one of my current favorites, Revision3.com.  Revision3.com offers internet based television.  They produce quality shows with known (to techies like me anyway…) hosts, many of whom could be seen on TechTV (bought out by G4) a few years ago.  You may recognize names like Kevin Rose (founder of Digg.com), Alex Albrecht, Patrick Norton, Sarah Lane and Martin Sargent.  There are also some other shows that you may love or hate, like Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library.  Gary can be a little loud…

Warning:  These shows can get addictive and they are producing quite a bit of content, so watch for addictive behavior!  I learned the hard way and had to make up a sleep deficit…  😦

Happy viewing!  😉

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Very addicting!

Well, my Twitter feed has produced some great links in the past, but this morning yielded something good.  Have a look at the Addictomatic.  I am impressed.  Some of the searches come up with bizarre results, but those are entirely due to the site being fed.

Ahhh… Yet another time suck to while away the hours.  Joy.  🙂

Have fun!

Stay interested and interesting!

John

PS: You can follow me on Twitter here

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

First Post!

Hello world!

This is the first post of many that I want to share with you.  I intend to post regularly about a variety of subjects.  They will mostly be about technology as this is one of my passions.  You may also see a few posts about the activities I do with my daughter Ashley, who is now three years old, so they will be a little immature, but they are for her!

Today, I am listening to Leo Laporte, The Tech Guy, while I work.  Leo is pretty good at making technology simple.  While I am not trying to emulate him, there are many worse people I could be trying to emulate.  If you are interested, you can find his podcast on iTunes under the title “The Tech Guy”.  Or you can visit www.twit.tv for all his various content.  Happy listening!

As always, you can contact me via email at john@nopants.ca.

Stay interested and interesting!

John

Bored!

Have you ever been bored at work?  I have.  I am right now!  Otherwise, maybe I would be doing more work and less posting here.  Unfortunately, the company I work for is in transition to new ownership and I am in a support role.  More unfortunately, I will be changing roles, so what I do today is not necessarily what I will do tomorrow.  Without knowing what I am supposed to be doing, I am trying to maintain and abstain.

Maintain and abstain you ask?  I am glad you did.  Let me explain “maintain and abstain”.  Maintain is all about keeping things active and rolling.  I respond to my customer requests and answer any questions that come.   Abstain is about holding off new requests because I will probably be doing something different in the next few weeks and I would not want to hand off large projects to someone else.

In essence, I am doing my best to be productive without actually starting anything new.  It is extremely frustrating, but is how things are right now.   Hopefully, I will be more aware of the grand plan very soon and will be able to be a productive member of the company again.  Wish me luck!

Stay interested and interesting!

You can email me at john@nopants.ca

John