June 2008

I am now back in line at the border, this time lingering in the US, which is never preferrable. We are at a different crossing, in the hopes it would be faster which is what the Internet lead me to believe. Only it doesn’t seem to be the case.

The soccer game was great, Canada played really well and for a while it was tied at one, then two. The final score was 3-2 for Brazil, but it was fun anyway. Afterwards we stopped off at Merchant’s Cafe, which is apparently the oldest bar on the west coast. After Jordan won a number of games of pool against a random assortment of patrons we went off in search of some food.

We tried a couple of places before we found Il Bistro. At this point we were 11 people. Finding something that had space and was serving food wasn’t easy. But we lucked out in the end, taking advantage of a late happy hour with cheap app-sized pastas and a nice four-cheese pizza. We continued on drinking and it was around 1:30 before we called it a night and ended up back at the hotel.

After a slow morning, we all met up again at a coffee shop on Capital hill and experienced what coffee was meant to be. We ended up leaving after that, saying goodbye to the rest of our party. And that is where you find me—writing this on my Blackberry still waiting to reach the border.

If you are at all interested in unique web mash-ups and novel uses of AJAX, especially combined within the realm of the services offered by Google, you should check out Goosh, the Google shell.

Essentially the web site simulates a terminal window interface with the commands all being the various services offered by Google. This isn’t actually an official Google offering, which is a bit surprising, as this seems like something that Google would do. Perhaps they will be folding this in at some point, hard to say.

I’m just going to go out there and say it, this is now one of my favourite animated movies. One might think that this is a kids movie, but like many contemporary animated features, it really does provide something for everyone. And funny, this one had me laughing out loud on many occasions. Perhaps I am just a big kid at heart, but then aren’t we all, in some way.

Casting was good, at least where it mattered. Some of the supporting characters didn’t have much dialogue and as such, you didn’t really get a feel for the voice. But Jack Black playing up against Dustin Hoffman was pure gold. I’ve heard other people praise this one as a classic that, since it doesn’t contain too much pop culture reference, should stand to endure the test of time. I certainly hope it does, because this is one that I suspect I will want to own in the long run. For me a good movie is one that you are excited having seen, and you leave the theatre (or your living room) wanting to watch it again. This is one of those movies with serious re-watchability in my mind.

Go see it if you get a chance, but bear in mind that if you go for a Sunday matinee, the theatre will likely be inundated with little kids. And you’ll be one of them.

“There is now a level zero.”

Anyone who followed the WWDC keynote today or has been on the Apple website today would know that there was some big news in the iPhone world. They introduced the 3G iPhone, to be released in 22 countries initially on July 11: one of which is Canada. Looking at the Rogers site, they too have a advertisement indicating something “big” coming July 11. They don’t say iPhone, but I think the allusion is clear now that Apple has released the news.

In addition to the wider availability, the new iPhone features GPS, Enterprise integration, and the faster speeds associated with the 3G network. There is also the new MobileMe concept, dubbed the “Exchange for the rest of us” which allows for exchange server-like synchronization across your devices: Macs, PCs and iPhones.

Exciting. This will be a long month. :)

Given my current work situation, I’m not in a position to really invest in anything which I can’t take with me on a plane. However, I realized on the weekend that I really don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not working, so I decided to get a Wii. I had been planning to get one for a while now. Pretty much from the time I left for Bermuda until now. My parents have one at their place and when I was home in that period between my Masters and heading to Bermuda, I took to playing it. So now I decided that I would just bite the bullet and get one.

I think this comic from Penny Arcade is very apt. Yes, I did end up spending a bit extra on an additional controller (via Wii Play) and nunchuck, but I think I definitely fall under the Nintendo Die-hard category. Not only did I buy the great Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, again, but I purchased and downloaded the original “The Legend of Zelda”. I guess there is a market in nostalgia. And to compound the re-purchasing of Link, I bought the Wii Classic Controller today so that I can download and play “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”.

In fairness, I never did purchase these original games myself, it would have been my parents at the time. The time being 21 and 17 years ago respectively.

If any of you haven’t played a Wii yet, you really should, they are a lot of fun. I would argue that they are perhaps one of the most enjoyable gaming consoles I have ever used, and I’ve been through my fair share.

It is a bit odd to think that one year ago today, I was in Bermuda, interviewing for my current job. Seems like a lifetime ago. I guess a lot has happened since then, like my trip to Europe for my convocation and my subsequent move to and from Bermuda and my relocation to Vancouver. And it certainly doesn’t really feel like the first of summer either, with the weather that we’ve been experiencing thus far in Vancouver, I would still say mid spring perhaps. Recently it has been trying though — last weekend was quite nice — nice enough in fact to get a nasty sunburn on my head and arms. A week later I now have a completely new layer of skin exposed on both. Fantastic.

And while there is a chance of rain today (welcome to Vancouver) the temperature is a respectable 17°C with a high of 25 forecast. And to be quite honest, despite what some of my friends and colleagues might be hoping for, I’m not looking for really hot. Around 20 is fine, I can go out without a jacket, perhaps even wear shorts from time to time. Anything more and you are back into the realm of uncomfortable. And I’ve done hot — 47°C in Spain. For the time being I’ll take whatever Vancouver has to offer.

And it had some bizarre things to offer. Much like any city I suppose, there are things you will see that make you wonder. I’m not even talking about the things to see people do — that is another whole category of weird sometimes. No it is the occasional oddity, like the random pile of VHS cassette tapes that I saw just piled up at the side of someone’s house. Not under a window or in conjunction with anything else, just a pile of tapes. Perhaps they were in the process of being discarded, who knows. Or even last night on the bus home, there was a bag of something sitting on one of the seats. It looked a lot like olives, but I’m not certain — they had a bit more of a texture than olives normally do, but they were that colour green and the right size. It was amusing because no one was willing to move them off the seat, or even sit near them, and I when I got on the bus they had been given a fairly wide berth, like people expected them to start walking about. Bus occupancy eventually forced someone to sit beside the bag, but at least as of the point I disembarked, they were still monopolizing a seat of their own. I’m not sure if it is weirder that it happened or that I decided that I should write about it. I’ll leave that one up to you. Maybe the non-heat is getting to me. ;)

I’m typing this from the new Vancouver Apple Store.

On a 24 inch iMac no less. I’m surprised at how much I enjoy this new Apple keyboard. Just enough tactile feedback without the overburdening key travel. I will expand on my experience when I get home.

I am in a Starbucks at the moment trying to read a book that I need to finish by Monday. As usual there a few arty types here with their Macbooks. Not that I have a problem with that, but I always find it interesting to see how other people use their Macs. How do they switch their apps? How do the configure their Finder views? Which browser? How well do they type?

Obviously one thinks that his own strategy is somewhat optimal. Anything to think about other than this book.

It is also one of the nicest days we have had in Vancouver this year. The high is 31 and I’m sure it is close to that now. Which is why I’m inside watching all of that from the relative cool of the coffee shop. Less sweating in here, not that I was spared earlier, but it is definitely a move slowly kind of day. Also I am still not a huge fan of Fedex, and continue to wish that Apple would switch to using UPS.