It’s just mind boggling how retarded these conservatives are.
annoying
18
Aug 09
6 annoying Facebook stereotypes
I have such a love/hate relationship with Facebook. It provides an endless stream of both entertainment and disgust yet i just can’t stop logging in. The things that drive me crazy the most are the ridiculous status updates. Boy are they annoying. Here are some that top my most hated list:
1. The “missionary”
This person makes it their mission in life to spread their religious beliefs via their facebook updates. This accomplishes nothing other than further alienating anyone they may want to save while being cheered on by other believers.
2. The “big event bragger”
These people assume we are deeply concerned about how many more sleeps they have until their big cottage vacation. On the bright side, they are certain to announce when they will be away so we can safely ransack their houses.
3. The “The insecure attention seeker”
These people need comments & attention STAT!. An example status update might look like: “
4. The “social media maven”
These people are updating all their social media status messages at once using tools like ping.fm. Heads up, lazy random out-of-place status update incoming!!!
5. The “marketer of minutia”
These folks will be sure you to let know that they are eating breakfast, just watched the latest episode of True Blood or how much they love their boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/dog/cat etc.
6. The “exclamationer”!!!!!!!
These people end literally every sentence with an exclamation. Similar to #3 and #5, these people have a sad idea of what is exciting or dramatic in life but try to make up for it with bad punctuation.
Please feel free to add any others i’ve missed in the comments.
5
Feb 09
My letter to Go Transit
For those not from the Toronto area, GO transit provides commuter train & bus services from the burbs to union station (downtown hub). Now, GO is waaaaaay behind technologically speaking, and is plagued by constant delays & technical difficulties. As a web developer, i was excited when i learned today that BART in San Francisco is now exposing it’s data to the community. It got me thinking, and a little bit angry though. Why aren’t our transit companies offering the same things? If they are i want to know when we can expect it.
So… i sent them an email with a few recommendations:
1. Create a http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.html for the trains, which would get the detailed station & scheduling information into Google Maps.
2. For each train station, come up with a way to track the # of mins until the next train arrives and publish/maintain this information as XML for the developer community on the GO website.
3. Publish/maintain the Go Transit train schedule as XML for the developer community.
4. Publish/maintain all service advisories in XML format for the developer community in realtime.
I doubt i will get a response, but i will update if i do.
February 17th, 2009: Update – i received a response from Metrolinx (who i also sent my inquiry too). Here is what they had to say:
Note that you have sent your comments to Metrolinx. We are a provincial agency created by the Government of Ontario in 2006 and are tasked with addressing the urgent need to improve and integrate transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Our mission is to develop a state-of-the-art transportation system that moves people and goods efficiently, economically and in an environmentally sustainable way. In doing so we are working closely with all of the transit authorities in the GTHA. However we are not involved in their day-to-day operations.
The GO Transit website is administered by GO Transit and as such I have passed your inquiry on to their Public Relations department publicrelations@gotransit.com. If you wish you can send further comments on their website to this e-mail address.
Metrolinx continues to maintain a close relationship with GO Transit as reflected in “The Big Move”, our regional transportation plan for the GTHA. You can review and/or download “The Big Move” at: http://www.metrolinx.com/thebigmove/index.html .
Best Regards,
JacquieJacquie Menezes
Senior Associate, Public Affairs and Media
Metrolinx (Greater Toronto Transportation Authority)
Jacquie.Menezes@metrolinx.com
416.874.5923
www.metrolinx.com
And the response from GO Transit directly:
Thanks for writing about the GO Transit Web site. I have forwarded your suggestions to our Web committee for review. In the meantime, thanks again for sending valuable feedback — we appreciate your ideas and links to other sites.
Allison Derin
Webmaster
GO Transit
mailto:webmaster@gotransit.com
Again, i will update as i receive updates. Follow me on Twitter and i will send a Tweet as/if it happens.
2
Dec 08
Why are Canadian banks so behind the times?
Have you seen Mint.com? If you haven’t you should check it out, because it is awesome. Not so fast though, Mint along with a number of other web based financial analytics apps are not supported by Canadian banks – yet. This seems like a no brainer to me. If one of the big Canadian banks offered online functionality like this to their customers i would seriously consider switching.
I think there is an opportunity here to really innovate the online banking experience in Canada, it’ll be interesting to see who’s going to make it happen.
29
Oct 08
The problem with Pownce
You can probably relate to this if you 1) are a twitter user and 2) follow Kevin Rose, Daniel Burka or Leah Culver.
Here’s my issue with Pownce: Over the course of a day i might see a tweet like this from one of the Pownce people:
Ok great, sounds interesting lets click on the link. Takes me here:
Hmmm, this doesn’t seem to be the article as advertised. Looks like i have to click on yet another link.
Finally. My gripe with this is you just made me click through 2 links to get to the content. That’s not a good experience. Having Pownce in the way of me getting to that content added no benefit to me, so it’s clear that the whole “Pownced” tweet thing is just a way to drive traffic to Pownce. Granted, this is not so much a technical issue with Pownce i’m sure it works fine – but an attempt at starting some sort of snowball marketing effect by it’s founders, like the Paris Hilton sidekick story that kickstarted Digg’s success. Pownce is not Digg!
17
Sep 08
What happens if you break your iPhone in Canada?
My friend Paul broke the glass of his iPhone this past weekend, a horrific sight for any iPhone owner. In Canada, you can’t buy the 3G iPhone from Apple directly, you have to go through Rogers and that requires signing up for a 3 year contract. When he went to Rogers, they said the only way they could ’sell’ him a new phone was if he paid out the remainder of his existing contract, which works out to about $3,000 CDN…THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!
After much arguing / pleading with store managers and speaking with the staff at the Apple store in the Eaton’s Center he was still unable to get a replacement. Not really surprising though, If the damage is inflicted by you, and not a fault of the device – i.e shattering the screen, you are on your own. The bottom line is, in these situations your best option is to speak with Apple to find a certified iPhone repair depot which can fix the damage for you. One unfortunate side effect of repairs such as replacing the glass screen is they void your warranty.
