Author: Kirk

To Buy Or To Rent – A Difficult Question

I just discovered an interesting data collection interface put up by the New York Times. Trying to juggle the various elements of finances and markets when deciding to rent or purchase a house is difficult. This tool they’ve put together really does simplify the data down to some concrete attributes that most people can easily find . It then lets you “fiddle” with the values to determine how far away a change in outcome really is. Interesting way of doing things – quite creative.

Is It Better to Buy or Rent? – New York Times

P.S. They’ve also put together a few other data interfaces that mix similar interface-savvy ideas with raw, boring, difficult to understand data. Unusual insights abound! List provided by today’s UIETips Newsletter.

2008 – The Year Of Being Creative

Welcome to 2008 everyone!

I’m not usually up for New Years resolutions and such, but I guess you might read this post as such.  Over the past few months I’ve been taking a really close look at my day-to-day activities, my level of life-satisfaction, and my progress towards my long-term goals.  I’ve noticed a pretty important disconnect:

I’m not really on track to meeting my long term goals.  Heck, I’m not even really clear on my 5 year plan right now.

During the fall I attended a UI conference that, for some reason, had a very large impact on me.  Not because it presented particularly challenging  material (though it did) but more because of the introspection I was able to run through while away from work and home.

My conclusion after these months of thought: I need to introduce further creativity into my life and to my activities.  I’m not creating enough opportunities for expression, artistic growth, or creative experiences.

So I have found a new focus or theme for 2008: Being Creative.  I’m going to consciously work towards this goal, setting myself challenging and achievable goals on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  I don’t see this as a New Year’s resolution, but more of a life direction choice.  I’m going to be giving it some daily thought hopefully resulting in some daily action.  I don’t want this to fizzle out after 2 weeks, I’m taking this really seriously.  Maybe I’ll have to provide periodic reports here for some kind of accountability.  Accountability to the masses of people who read my magnificent blog.  Not you Samson, you’re just a temp.  (inside joke from this year’s Holiday Compilation).

Let’s begin!

Happy Holidays From The Bridger Clan on Goggs

Just taking a quick moment to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season, and a New Year full of joy, peace, and happiness.

P.S. You may notice over the holiday season that connectivity is spotty to thebside – the reason (as far as I can tell) is that the Christmas tree is blocking the wireless connection between the server and the router. So there you go – it’s the tree’s fault.

Viral Marketing … For A Charitable Donation?

BC Hydro has taken a strange approach to its holiday charitable donation this year.  There’s a neat little animated Flash “game” you can play on their site (at least I think it is their site) and each time it is played, they’ll donate 25 cents to the BC Children’s Hospital.

It all sounds great, but I can’t seem to find any note about this on their main page.  They seem to be relying on viral marketing techniques to get the word out (to which I am now officially contributing).  Strange if their intention is to maximize their charitable donation this year … you’d think they would blast this on their main page.  Oh wait, the small print says a maximum of$5,000.00 will be donated.  Someone must have a reason for this …

Anyhow, over 575,000 coins have dropped so far so I guess things seem to be working.  I honestly thought it was some kind of scam at first … it all just strikes me as odd.

Canadian Copyright Reform – This Will Be Big … Or Not

Maybe I’m just too close to the topic, but I think the upcoming copyright legislation changes are going to result in a massive political and legal ***storm. Maybe not – maybe the entire field of copyright experts are all blowing smoke. Just in case they’re not all wrong though, I wrote the following letter to Mr. Russ Hiebert to let him know that I’m concerned. Anyone else concerned should write their representative – seriously.

Dear Mr. Hiebert,

I hope the approaching holidays find you and your family well.

I wanted to let you know that I am deeply concerned about the manner in which the upcoming copyright reform bill has been and continues to be handled. Here are a few of the major concerns I have

1 – the legislation seems to have been written without any consultation beyond industry representatives. Copyright law is an important matter and public consultation surrounding changes should have occurred prior to a proposed bill. Thus far it seems as though the information flowing into the changes has been one-sided, and the public will be the ones to suffer because of this

2 – the DMCA in the U.S.A. has not been as successful as people had thought it might be. It seems like a mistake to try to emulate it within Canada. Technological barriers will always be torn down – trying to find a technological solution to social issues simply does not work

3 – copyright law has the ability to seriously inhibit creative expression from Canadian artists. I believe the artist’s rights should be respected to the extent that they wish them to be, not the extent to which industry wants to control them.

These issues are the ones on the tip of my tongue. The media coverage surrounding this bill paints a very poor picture of how your government is presenting these changes. Questions have been asked by the CBC, interested consumer advocate groups, and the public – yet your government has thus far refused to even initiate a discussion surrounding this issue. This makes the Canadian government look like industry shills and is an embarrassment.

I am apprehensive about the actual contents of the bill, how it is being handled by your government, and the resulting limitations on my current rights that it will introduce.

I urge you to please take the time to collect input from your constituents and champion our cause, not the cause of industry.

Thank you for your time,

Kirk Bridger
15827 Goggs Avenue
White Rock, BC
V4B 2P1

Since we all know email is so meaningless nowadays, I think I’ll print this up and send it to his office if I don’t hear back in a few days. So far though, his office has been fairly good about responding to emails. Remember – no postage required to send letters to members of parliament!

Know Anyone With A Nalgene Water Bottle?

Looks like those plastic water bottles might not be so good for your health. Plastic baby bottles too …

Mountain Equipment Co-op is pulling them off their shelves as we speak – proactively. Nothing proven yet but the concen is there.

Here’s a Wikipedia article that provides a little more info on the Nalgene connection – some of their bottles contain less of the suspect chemicals than others.

As for using the bottles out of their intended temperature operating ranges … I don’t know of anyone using the obttles for freezing water, do you?  Is that out of their intended operating range I wonder.

Wow – Visa Sent Me A Cheque

Over the summer I wrote a few posts about my experience using the purchase protection of my Visa card – or the lack thereof.  I just wanted to update the vignette with a denouement – a cheque arrived today from Visa for the amount of money I specified in my claim submission!  Here I was gearing up for a battle, having to argue semantics of language with a lawyer.  Well thankfully I (and by proxy all of you) have been spared from such a horror.