Stephe's Random Thoughts

Kudos to the New York Times digital team for putting on a great event yesterday. I firmly believe that this is the sort of initiative that will move traditional media companies – like mine – into the mainstream of digital media.

Embedded is an interview with one of the key guys driving The Times’ Open strategy, Derek Gottfrid, courtesy of Yahoo! Developer Network.

Another reason I haven’t been blogging very much is the microblogging phenomenon. Given how flaky twitter has been lately maybe I will be blogging here more often.

Its been a while since I posted. I’ve been getting much more involved in the technology team at Canoe. Its a very interesting challenge, looking at how we can improve process, organization and platform to become more agile and customer focused. All of this while trying to serve the business needs of the biggest Canadian based online network as well as one of the biggest media companies, and the biggest newspaper publisher in the country.

Also, we’re looking for tech talent. If you know of any great web developers, programmer analysts, functional analysts or QA folks in the Toronto, Montreal, Sudbury or Saguenay areas let me know.

This whole early Daylight Savings Time has got me thinking about the evolution of the clock in the home. When I was a kid growing up in the suburbs of Montreal, “spring-forward” for my parents would have probably meant changing two clocks in the house – one in the kitchen, and their clock radio in the bedroom, and their watches. We’re talking pre VCR, home computer, cell phone, etc etc here.

This morning, it was quite another story in my house. The number of time keeping devices has grown exponentially. The silver-lining to this is that many of them know about the time change, and handle it without any fuss.

So, without further ado here’s my list:

Automatically adjust time

1. My Macbook Pro
2. Holly’s Macbook
3. Gaming Windows XP workstation
4. Windows Vista Media Center server
5. Xbox 360
6. Linksys Media Center Extender
7. Blackberry Curve
8. Logitech Slim Devices Squeezebox
9. Rogers Scientific Atlanta Digital Cable box
10. La Crosse Weather Station

Manually adjust time

1. My clock radio
2. Holly’s clock radio
3. My watch
4. Holly’s watch
5. Our stove
6. Our Microwave
7. Our analog wall clock
8. Maeve’s clock
9. Rowan’s clock
10. Holly’s Sony Ericson cell phone
11. Our three cordless phones

For a grand total of  23 clocks to change…. and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a couple.

I love technology!

Reports are that Pakistan messed up routing tables globally while blocking Youtube, rendering the site inaccessible Sunday afternoon.

Think of the implications of this. If this can happen by accident what could be done by a malicious Denial of Service attack?

you can build two complete computers systems for family members using only your castoff previously upgraded motherboard, processors, video cards, hard drives etc…

This post by Guy Kawasaki makes me happy not to be an A-List blogger – but also provides food for thought for all online marketing strategists.

How to Change the World: Forget the A-List After All

As you may have heard by now, we announced a major strategic alliance with Yahoo! Canada this week. This is a great thing for Canoe.ca and Yahoo’s users and advertisers, as we will gain access to some of Yahoo’s great tools and services, and will provide them with unique local Canadian content and classifieds services. I’m really excited about the prospects for this relationship, and the impact it will have on the Canadian online industry. At Canoe.ca our mission to be the leading CANADIAN online company, and this is a major step in that direction.

This is pretty cool – as reported by Beet.tv you can now embed NBC’s news video on your site/blog/social network. “Traditional” media is starting to get it – the days of the walled garden are over its time to engage, interact with and build a new audience.

Beet.TV: Broadcast Journalism History: NBC News Opens up Embed Code and Beet.TV Has the Debut