Today we are fresh off the tar soaked heels of Enbridge’s lie and spin machine in Kitimat, leading to a vote AGAINST their toxic future. In Kitimat, in a non-binding plebiscite, the people of Kitimat, but not the first peoples who live outside the town boundary, voted about 60-40 to
Continue readingTag: technology
Progressive Proselytizing: Tech on the Side: Microsoft corrects past mistakes
In a world where tech companies are forced to make difficult decisions between mutually exclusive business models, it can be hard to know whether they decided correctly. For instance, did Google make the correct choice to release Android on a less-than-free model (which has been obviously successful), or did they
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Is Your Job Bullshit?
Work should be liberating, not enslaving! It’s Saturday so it’s the weekend so you’re not working. But that’s just an incorrect hypothesis. Lots of people are working this weekend. In fact, weekends don’t mean much to billions of people. They are a luxury, relatively speaking. But your job may be
Continue readingeaves.ca: Great Hacks from the Open Data in Vancouver
Last weekend I helped host an Open Data Day in Vancouver. With the generous support of Domain7, who gave us a place to host talks and hack, over 30 Vancouverites braved the sleet and snow to spend the day sharing ideas and working on projects. We had opening comments from
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How We Keep the Tarsands in the Ground
NOT actually science-fiction. In your science-fiction news today: Imagine a power system that could harness the energy of 2,000 suns and provide fresh water and air conditioning in remote locations. Not only that but it would be completely renewable, be able to provide the entire world’s energy supplies and only
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Tech on the Side: Business Models vs Capabilities
One of the most fascinating aspect of following technology is not just the speed at which the technologies themselves change. It is that the shifts are so large and so fast that business models need to get changed on the fly. Many of the biggest battles in tech are not
Continue readingThings Are Good: Google Launches Deforestation Watch
Global Forest Watch is a new project from Google to highlight the deforestation that has been happening around the planet since the year 2000. Google is working with a lot of organizations to bring this information to light (including the World Resources Institute). Global Forest Watch’s most valuable feature, developers
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Questions for robots
Eighty years ago, Keynes famously predicted that within a century people would need to work no more than three hours per day. High living standards aided by technological breakthroughs would give human beings satisfying, minimal work and plentiful leisure, while robots and machines took over menial and repetitive labour. Less
Continue readingeaves.ca: The dangerous mystique of the “open data” business
I’m frequently asked by people about how they can start an “open data business.” Let me first say that I love that the question gets asked. I love that people are interested in Open Data. I love that people want to learn more, they want to play, they want to
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Data Advice for Librarian Coders
For the purposes of this post we will ignore how remarkably badass sounding the word librarian becomes when “coder” is added to the end of it. I recently had a librarian who had just picked up some coding skills email me and ask how they could get into Open Data
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The more things change… Amazon’s “anticipatory shipping” and the village square
Media outlets recently publicized Amazon’s patent for what it calls “anticipatory shipping.” The premise is as simple as it is creepy: Amazon will charge and ship items before customers have the chance to buy them themselves. In other words, Amazon knows what you want and is happy to spare you
Continue readingThings Are Good: New Technique For Restoring Historic Videos
USC Shoah Foundation has a large collection of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. Old physical media formats are susceptible to damage from fires to improper storage and USC has had to deal with this. The tech department at the foundation has figured out a
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Data Day Google+ Hang Out
With just about a month to go until Open Data Day things are going well. There are quite a few cities that have been added to the open data day wiki. This year we thought we would try something new. On January 21st we are going to host a Get Ready For
Continue readingThings Are Good: Using Drones For Studying Ecologies
Drones are popularly associated with American air strikes on civilians and thus have a negative reputation. The technology underlying the drones can be used for good though. One example of a good use of drones is for aerial surveillance of plants and animals in hard to access/expensive areas. What are
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: More Clever Climate Change Awareness Actions!
…Burning oil caused the melting in the first place… A week ago [was it that long?] two climate change activists pulled a Yes Men on our greatest employee, Mr. Stephen Harper. But last summer, you may not have seen an equally clever, but more hi-tech, stunt by Greenpeace’s Save the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Key Union Priority for 2014
Naomi Klein urges unions to join climate change fight Many groups are calling for significant and sufficient action to address climate change, which is fantastic. But unions have not been loud enough. This is significant because they often have more money than many other progressive groups to fight for the
Continue readingPostArctica: Simon Norfolk – Forensic Traces of War
A controlled explosion of an American fuel convoy in Iraq being filmed on the set of ?Over There?, a Fox TV production about the life of a US Army platoon in contemporary Iraq. Being filmed in Chatsworth, just north of Los Angeles. © Simon Norfolk “Simon Norfolk is a very
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Enbridge: What Now? We Escalate Our Fight
Some breaking news occurred yesterday, the Joint Review Panel of the National Energy Board approved the Enbridge pipeline, but with 209 conditions. To quote a teenager from 1994: “Big whoop.” Also, big whoop goes out to the awesome pictures of soon to be decimated pristine wilderness on the report cover.
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Tech on the Side: Lessons from HDDVD vs Blu-ray
My first real foray into the world of following tech news came with the epic HDDVD vs Blu-ray fight. This was more than a little odd. At the time, I didn’t even have an HDTV, and had no intention of getting a next gen optical media player let alone a
Continue readingeaves.ca: Open Data Day 2014 is Coming Feb 22 – Time to Join the Fun!
So, with much help from various community members (who reminded me that we need to get this rolling – looking at you Heather Leson), I pleased to say we are starting to gear up for Open Data Day 2014 on February 22nd, 2014. From its humble beginnings of a conversation between
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