February 11, 2008
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Just settling in to OS X 10.5.2 – so far so good. It’s nice to get rid of Stacks and Fans and Translucent menu bars!
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How Often Does Your Calendar Clear?
I just checked my calendar to see what my week was like and nearly fainted:
I never have weeks like this.
We’re not big on “standing meetings” at Tucows but I do like to make time to sit down with all my direct reports at least once a week. And I do the same with the Exec Team and Elliot. After that the rest of the week fills in pretty quickly with project-related meetings, sprint reviews, vendor discussions, customers time, and so on.
Loads of people are travelling on business or sick this week so my schedule is extremely light. Now, to be clear, this won’t last. By the end of the week much of it will have filled in.
But still, it makes me realize how little time I often end up with to “do” stuff instead of talking about doing stuff. I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting some projects of my own going this week.
February 10, 2008
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Adding Disqus To Schafer.com
Earlier this week I was reading a post on Fred Wilson’s blog and clued in to the fact that he’s been using Disqus as a substitute for the TypePad commenting system he used in the past.
I really liked the Disqus approach to commenting and, given that this blog runs on TypePad as well, I thought I’d give it a try.
If I did my template manipulation correctly based on Disqus’ very easy-to-grok walkthrough, we should now have a new and improved commenting system here. I’d love it if you could try it out and let me know what you think.
The experience is really enhanced if you add your pic to your Disqus account as it will automatically pop up beside your comment — here and on other Disqus enabled sites.
Feel free to experiment in the comment thread below.
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I Go On The Record About Microhoo
Earlier this week I was quoted in an IT Business article about the possible acquisition of Yahoo! by Microsoft.
Here’s what I had to say:
The two main things going for Yahoo is brand and massive audience, said Ken Schafer, vice-president of product management and marketing for Tucows Inc.
Tucows began as a domain name registrar in the early 1990s but quickly transformed itself into a service and software vendor for Web hosting firms and Internet service providers.
“Yahoo’s problem is it has had a hard time in finding out how to leverage its main assets,” Schafer said. “Yahoo was not able to execute as quickly as people had been hoping it would.”
Schafer said Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo did not come as a surprise, as people in the online marketing industry had been talking about its possibility for years.
“Personally, I hope they manage to pull it off. Competition means innovation, and the more competition, the better.”
I’m not sure that history will prove me out. Right now it looks like Yahoo!’s board is prepared to put up a fight to keep the company out of Steve Balmer’s hands (or at least to make him pay dearly for the honour).
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Apple Mail Makes Email More Personal
One of the things I love about Apple Mail is the way it integrates with Address Book to pull out a picture of the sender. Another is that I have installed a Plaxo plug-in that pulls up additional data and reminders from Plaxo’s social network.
To see this in action, I submit a recent message from Zoe:
This pic was taken on my iPhone which synced it to Address Book. Here birthday was two days away when I took this capture and Plaxo was nice enough to remind me of this (not that I needed reminding about my daughter’s birthday but you get the point).
The only problem I’ve had is that there is something, lord knows what, in David Crow’s Plaxo data that crashes the Plaxo Plug-in and Apple Mail along with it every time I try to open a message from him. The weird thing is that I have this incredible urge to contact David to get him to fix it instead of Plaxo and Apple. 🙂
February 9, 2008
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Quest for GH for Wii – Mission Accomplished. Now you know what I’m doing for the rest of the afternoon.
February 8, 2008
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“Is is the new will be”
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If you want to track the success of our little experiment, you can do so here: http://tinyurl.com/2eafbn
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Let’s see if we can start a Friday afternoon “Twittermeme”. Here goes… “________ is the new ________.”
February 7, 2008
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Who Cut The Cables?
The same people who pitted Seattle-area windshields in the spring of 1954.
Right now Techmeme is littered with people spinning wild theories on why “five undersea cables have been cut” in a short period of time.
Of course there have been some voices of reason as well.
It’s really worth spending some time reading the links above — particularly the comments — to see how people react when they receive a small piece of information that doesn’t fit into our every-day world-view.
Check out this digg thread for example:
This is fairly typical. A few people crying this must be a conspiracy and others wise cracking about “frickin’ sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their frickin’ heads” being the culprit.
Back in 2003 when SARS hit Toronto (in particular) causing mass hysteria, I posted a link to a great article about a bizarre rash of windshield pitting incidents in Seattle in 1954. For anyone getting caught up in the “cable cutting conspiracy”, this is a must read.
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Any link love to this post would be appreciated – I haven’t posted anything “original” in ages! http://tinyurl.com/2g333g
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Here is a must-read link for all cable-cut-conspiracists: http://tinyurl.com/5wy3a
February 4, 2008
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My Favourite Superbowl Ad
I actually watched the Superbowl today, even though we don’t get many of the Superbowl ads up here in Canada. Luckily all the ads are online at myspace.com/superbowlads.
I think this “twofer” was my favourite:
I love Will Ferrell despite an incredibly erratic track track record when it comes to film quality.
February 3, 2008
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I’m considering using duct tape to spiff up my wallet. This can’t be a good sign.
February 1, 2008
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Mitch Joel pointed me to this YouTube video of Sarah Silverman on Jimmy Kimmel:
I don’t watch Kimmel but apparently this is the culmination of several running gags on the show.
January 31, 2008
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Never underestimate the power of 136 geeks talking about something trivial http://tinyurl.com/yqjufg
January 27, 2008
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Goodnight Emily
When I was young, one of my favourite shows was The Bob Newhart Show. And I had a major crush on Suzanne Pleshette. Actually, I guess it’s more accurate to say that I had a crush on Emily her character on the show.
I was very sad to hear that she died last week. I think the news hit me a little harder than it might have because I’m currently re-watching the series on DVD. Somehow in my mind she was still in her 30s — a school teacher in Chicago.
January 26, 2008
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McWrap = McCrap
The wonderful Presentation Zen pointed out that McWrap is pronounced “McCrap”. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that before.
Now, for the win, what the heck is in that wrap? Lettuce, melon and bacon?
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January 24, 2008
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Testing “Post To The Future”
I’m not sure if TypePad allows you to “post to the future” (by that I mean set a time and date before which a post should not be visible, but once the time comes, the post publishes as if you hit “publish” right then).
I set this post to publish one hour AFTER I actually finished it.
Let’s see what happens.
January 18, 2008
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Hey Clown! Even Kids Don’t Like You
I’ve hated — no loathed — clowns since I was very young. I could share several traumatic pre-school encounters with these, uh, clowns — but I won’t bore you. Besides, you probably hate clowns too!
It’s a fact — kids hate clowns!
LONDON — Bad news for Coco and Blinko — children don’t like clowns and even older kids are scared of them.
The news that will no doubt have clowns shedding tears was revealed in a poll of youngsters by researchers from the University of Sheffield who were examining how to improve the decor of hospital children’s wards.
The study, reported in the Nursing Standard magazine, found all the 250 patients aged between four and 16 they quizzed disliked the use of clowns, with even the older ones finding them scary.
“As adults we make assumptions about what works for children,” said Penny Curtis, a senior lecturer in research at the university.
“We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable.”
January 17, 2008
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The PC/Mac ad on the New York Times home page right now is BRILLIANT. Don’t let anyone tell you great creative is not possible online.
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When will “jumping the sharK’ jump the shark?
January 16, 2008
January 15, 2008
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I can’t stand it – I’m turning off Twitterrific and not checking Techmeme until after the Stevenote
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Trying Out Ecto
I’ve generally just done my blog posts in directly in the web interface of whatever application I’m using at the moment, but I’ve always been interested in using an offline editor. I’m trying Ecto right now to see if I can make it work. If not, it’s back to the web for me.
January 11, 2008
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If you’re not a newsie It’s hard to know why CNN Breaking News says “The pregnant Marine missing from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, is dead”
January 10, 2008
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“Shiv’em in the kidney!”
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The new canwest.com has a SPLASH PAGE! Good lord, what is this 1997?