fact check universe.png This afternoon, I’ll be at MIT for this conference, sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and the MIT Center for Civic Media…
I’ve been following the rise of do it yourself (DIY) drones for a few years now, ever since Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired magazine, introduced me to the topic…
…Bill of Rights in the States while here in Canada? Well, Vic wants to see it all! This is all about the consumer’s rights to privacy. The American legislation proposes…
Instagram. Easy sharing. Doesn’t crash as often on my “old” 3s. And has some neat effect options. Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
bad powerpoint.jpg In the past three months, I’ve spoken on panels at two scientific mega-conferences—the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in San Francisco, which draws tens of thousands of scientists,…
A PDF- making company (no idea these eve existed) recently sent me something that caught my eye about a survey they conducted: In this survey, three out of every four…
Some of you know I’ve written a fair bit on Google transit and how it is reshaping public transit – this blog post in particular comes to mind. For more…
Yesterday a number of police organizations came out in support of bill C-30 – the online online surveillance bill proposed by Minister Vic Toews. You can read the Vancouver Police…
… for a summer camp, PLEASE ensure that your servers are up to the task! Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
A seemingly banal industrial component is a heat exchanger and they can be ridiculously inefficient. What a heat exchanger does is regulate the temperature of machines that have to be…
As a regular flyer, I’m an enormous fan of TripIt. It’s a simple service in which you forward almost any reservation – airline, hotel, car rental, etc… to plans@tripit.com and…
… it was a long ride. I remember my parents buying our first VCR. A big, hulking and noisy machine it was! And back in ’77 or so it likely…
“He can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.” This was Mr. Toews’s, the Minister of Justice, counterattack to a question in the house regarding concerns of letting…
Non profits and governments… this is how open source works: If someone is doing something that is of value to you, help make it better. There have been two great…
Friday, December 2 saw the final day of debate in Parliament on the Cons’ omnibus crime bill. And for at least a moment, the proceedings took a perhaps surprising turn.…
Last week a group of volunteer programs from across Canada announced the launch of Represent.ca – a website that tries to map all of Canada’s boundaries. Confused? Don’t be. It’s…
The Harper government re-introduced the Copyright Modernization Act, Bill C-11 in September 2011. Wonder about where the coverage is on Bill C-11? Me, too. SOPA + PIPA may be dead…
I was very, very excited to learn that the City of Vancouver is exploring implementing a program started in San Francisco in which “smart” parking meters adjust their price to…
Millions of internet users and entrepreneurs already opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act (aka SOPA and PIPA), including Google. Why NO SOPA? In case you…
Calculating the Value of Canada’s Open Data Portal: A Mini-Case Study
Okay, let’s geek out on some open data portal stats from data.gc.ca. I’ve got three parts to this review: First, an assessment on how to assess the value of data.gc.ca.…