I don't have much to say about the demise of HP Touchpad/webOS-- I haven't used it much, or played with it unless there was a demo unit set up in at a store. What I did see was interesting, and likely more of a victim of coming to market when they are a glut of … Continue reading The demise of WebOS
An Object of Beauty
This is my first time reading a Steve Martin novel, and i was impressed. The story wasn't simple, and at times wasn't straight forward. It was rewarding for the challenge is presented. What I enjoyed most of this book was the sentences that he constructed. There were so many lines that were close to what … Continue reading An Object of Beauty
Backing up Gmail part 1: the basics
MOTIVATION I've been on a big 'back-up my digital life kick' these past six months, I've worked on implementing off-site solutions, on quick local solutions and 'in the background' solutions, all with various success, all with the idea of more backups are better. To put it simple, my mantra as of late has been "Storage … Continue reading Backing up Gmail part 1: the basics
Random acts of kindness
Today in the Kitchener Waterloo area, it's Total Random Act Of Kindness Day. Lately I've been trying to be more of a participant then an observer on such days-- especially when the goal of the day is to make the community a better place to live. So today I did an act of kindness, and … Continue reading Random acts of kindness
One percent
How much do you make in a year? $40,000? $60,000? Are you on the Sunshine List? If the answer is yes, maybe you should consider the 1% Challenge. The challenge is simple -- give 1% of your worth (salary or time) to charity. Some say we're in the age of micro-payments where a lot of small … Continue reading One percent
Buying based on the cover
One of my comic book buying weaknesses is buying books that have funny and/or interesting covers. Sadly since about 2000, the idea of making such covers has been replaced with making covers that are more of a pin-up. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for such covers. In the 1960's and 70's, DC … Continue reading Buying based on the cover
Meditations on Scott Pilgrim
A version of this entry appears on http://www.geekscape.net A quick primer on Scott Pilgrim: For those of you who haven’t had a chance to read the series, the concept is simple, Scott is a care-free slacker in his early twenties, who meets a girl one night named Ramona. In order to be able to date her, he must defeat … Continue reading Meditations on Scott Pilgrim
Friction in education
I was lucky enough to attend TEDxWaterloo the other week. There were lots of great talks given through out the course of day, but there is one that has stood above all the others; Terry O'Reily's discussion about 'friction in advertising'. The central premise of his talk was that if things are too easy, people question it. … Continue reading Friction in education
Some 1,000 resumes later
I just finished my third year hiring students to work for me in the summer. On average I read about 150 resumes a term-- I read every resume that is submitted to me. This is partially because the automated system that UW uses, does not have a good way to filter applications, and also because … Continue reading Some 1,000 resumes later
The whole social media thing
To some its funny that I'm not on facebook or that I really haven't latched on to this whole social media craze (for the sake of this entry we’ll let social media meaning the facebook model). After all, these services are marketed for someone who is terrible staying connected with people, such as myself. Those … Continue reading The whole social media thing
Martin Scherer 