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I've been a bit blue lately. Part of it is the onward march of busy, stressful, post-merger details. A lot is the inevitable low after the most amazing high.

That high being Canada's performance at the Olympics we hosted here in Vancouver. Not only did we win gold in both women's and men's hockey, but that last gold medal in men's hockey put Canada over the top: Canada won more gold medals in 2010, here at home, than any country has in any winter Olympics ever.

Midway through the Olympics, with the U.S. and Germany far ahead of us in total, and countries like Norway, France, and Korea constantly nipping at our heels, media pundits pounced on Canada's Own the Podium program, calling it a failure (For those not in the know, Own the Podium is an athlete funding and training program geared towards making Canada the leader in total medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics). Though we didn't win the most medals, we did place third in the total medals count, won our very first gold medal at home, and went on to win the most gold medals in the winter olympics ever. So, I'd say the program was a tremendous success, and that the pundits can shove it.

A bunch of people were at my house watching the gold medal men's hockey game on Sunday. When the overtime goal was scored, we shot up out of our seats to cheer, then ran outside to scream our joy and pride at the top of our lungs. And when we finally stopped for air, it seemed the atmosphere itself was ringing with the sound of other people cheering, several houses, nay, several blocks away, and further.

We all jumped on a crowded bus to go downtown and celebrate. The city was packed with people, cars, and noise. High fives with strangers were all around. Spontaneous performances of O Canada abounded. We loitered in front of the art gallery, where the picture to the right was taken. The whole country was on top of the world.

It was a truly amazing experience.

An odd hush has fallen over Vancouver. We have our personal space back, but it's quiet, too quiet. Like the cliquey bombshell at the local club, we loved being the center of the universe for a whole two weeks. There's really no better analogue for Vancouver: she's pretty, expensive, occasionally vapid, and desperate for everyone to notice her. But Vancouver has had its moment in the spotlight. People know who we are, where we are now, and that we know how to put on a show. That counts for something, right?

I'll try to get back to blogging on a regular schedule soon. There is just so much to say.

Posted at 05:31 PM | Comments (1)

Part of our business, as you may know, is filing public companies' documents with the SEC in HTML format. What you may not know is that we most use a very limited subset of HTML: no cascading style sheets, no nested tables, no span tags, etc.

So when we tried to use Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 for some editing, we were dismayed to find that CS4 no longer supported applying font tags through the GUI toolbar. CS4 forces you to use CSS styles, which we aren't allowed to use.

A lot of Googling revealed that a number of people are finding this approach problematic. Once they start asking for help in forums, the CSS police show up and the conversation invariably goes something like this:

"Help! I need to edit font tags in my HTML documents, how can you do this in Dreamweaver CS4?"

"You can't do this in CS4, you have to use CSS. Furthermore, you're a technologically backwards and horrible person."

"But I'm editing thousands of legacy documents / using a system that doesn't support CSS."

"Too bad! You should update your system/documents!"

So there seems to be a complete lack of support for and a complete demonization of the people who need to use HTML attributes for formatting. Dreamweaver offers a number of javascript and XML files which allow a high level of program customization. Unfortunately, many features that previously worked in this regard seem to have been deliberately broken in the backend.

While I was not able to add enough features for our own needs (we'll be downgrading to CS3), I was able to get paragraph alignment and basic font colouring working. I hope someone finds this useful.

INSTRUCTIONS: Download attributes-toolbar.xml and place it in
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS4\configuration\Toolbars\
When you open Dreamweaver, right-click on the top toolbar and check "AttributesToolbar". Then you can drag it to the bottom of the screen so that it's next to your properties.

I imagine the file will work with the Mac OS X version as well, but you'll have to figure out where to put it (I suspect somewhere in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/...)

P.S. - To the CSS gestapo: not everyone who uses HTML is a web designer, so keep your self-righteous comments to yourselves!

Posted at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

Newsfile Corp. has launched.

After almost 2 years of secrecy, it's finally out. My workplace, Automated Filing Services Inc. had merged with TNT Filings Inc. in Toronto. We're the largest regulatory filing agent in Canada.

I'll elaborate a little more later this week. The news release went out this morning, and apparently we sprung for the extra cost of getting it to show up on NASDAQ's Marketsite Tower in New York's Times Square.

Posted at 01:06 PM | Comments (3)

The view of Bute Street this morning from our office's boardroom window:

Posted at 09:57 AM | Comments (2)

Okay, brace yourselves:

You are all being too cynical.

I know, right? "Who does this guy, the KING OF ALL CYNIC-LAND think he is?" Yes well, hear me out.

I'm hearing a lot, like, A LOT of bitching about the Olympics lately. The real kicker is that a bunch is from people who don't even live or work in downtown Vancouver. I've been delayed for work, and for getting home. It's no picnic, but I can deal with it for a few weeks. Could money have been better spent? Probably. Disgusting corporate advertising masquerading as sponsorship: present. Yes, it's crowded downtown.

But I've always had a soft spot for the Olympics. There's something special about people from countries all over the world getting together in one place to compete. As a race, the Human race, our entire planet, we have very few shared cultural traditions. The modern Olympics are one of those traditions. When a young athlete wins gold and gets to stand on a podium, holding back tears as their national anthem plays, it makes my heart grow two sizes bigger. That young person knows that they've done something for their country. They didn't have to shoot anyone, or commit espionage, or go into politics. All they had to do was do the thing that they love doing.

So here, now, less than 24 hours before the Olympic opening ceremony, I am excited. Most of all I want to know who will be lighting the flame. And I want to know if it's Wayne Gretzky, so I can no whether or not to squeal like a little girl now and get it out of my system.

Added security? Well, there are no black-armoured men with guns busting down our doors in the dead of night. No random strip-searches on the Skytrain. We're not doing anything more than trying to do the best we can to keep our guests from so many nations safe. And if it were OUR athletes in another country, we would have nothing but the highest expectations for how that country should ensure their safety. I am still the staunchest supporter of civil liberties, but for the next month, just chillax and enjoy the celebration.

Here's three more reasons why the Olympics are great:

Robel Teklemariam

This is Robel Teklemariam: Ethiopia's cross-country skiing team. YES. A country with no snow has a skier in the winter Olympics. He came to the U.S. when he was 9, but still holds Ethiopian citizenship. He trains on roller-skis on the streets. He knows his chances for placing are not great; he's just here to do the best he can and represent his country. I hope I see him downtown so that I can give him a big high-five. (via neatorama)

Olympic Hockey

If you're a Canadian hockey fan, for the next two weeks it doesn't matter what NHL team you root for. We are ALL cheering for the same team: OUR team. Let's be honest, there would be few things sweeter than winning Olympic gold on our home soil, and few things more bitter than having to settle for second or third on our home soil. Either way, it's happening here: in my town. If I watch no other Olympic events, I'll be glued to the TV for hockey.

The World as a Visitor

Living in Vancouver and working in the downtown core, I face much more inconvenience than most people in regards to the Olympics. That said, I feel a great deal of excitement when I'm out and about downtown. The streets are full of young people speaking German, French, Japanese, Russian. There are Americans and Brits. They're generally friendly and they love our beautiful city. As an urban Canadian, I'm very used to living in a multi-cultural society. Now that our diversity has expanded even more, I can't say I dislike it.

Adding to that point is the amount of patronage our local businesses get isn't limited to Starbucks or the Cactus Club. Japadog is busier than ever, all the time. And any time Japadog is run ragged with happy customers it makes me smile.

There are dozens of things that I could bring up about why having the Olympics in Vancouver was a shitty idea. But you know what? The Olympics are here, now, and there ARE great things about them. I'll be glad when the hoopla has died down and I can get back to my normal routine. But in the meantime, I'm going to try to enjoy myself, and I suggest that you do as well. We are ALL hosts, let's take care of our guests, enjoy the party, and worry about the mess tomorrow morning.

Posted at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

Adorable Crocheted Japanese Animals Play Ukelele on Beach

Posted at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)

I forget occasionally that not everyone who reads this lives in Vancouver. So let me touch on something that has been painfully obvious for quite some time now to those of us who DO.

10 days from now, on February 12th, the 2010 Winter Olympics officially open in Vancouver. Those of us who live in Vancouver are filled with a sense of utter DREAD.

The problems are wide ranging. This article at the Guardian (credit to Sarah) sums up the problems pretty succinctly. First and foremost, these are the huge cost overruns, particularly in terms of security and Olympic housing. This is especially embittering in the middle of a global economic slowdown, in a city where we can't seem to throw down some cash to solve our terrible, out-of-control homelessness, poverty, and drug-use problems.

Next up is the faint concern that our beautiful city that we love so dearly will be the target of a terrorist attack. Though with fighter jets overhead and US Homeland Security crawling all over us, I feel somewhat safer, even if the effect is merely illusory.

Perhaps the largest concern is that those of us who live in Vancouver and work in the downtown core have no idea how we'll be able to go about our day to day lives during the games. There are an enormous number of road closures to start. Many major roads will have a restricted "Olympic lane" open only to public transit and official olympic vehicles. The suggested countermeasures by VANOC and TransLink have been utterly asinine.

Take Transit: Hey, great idea! Oh wait, isn't transit in Vancouver already packed to the brim? How are we going to fit more people on already stressed system?

Cycle: This almost seems like a deliberate insult to our intelligence. Ignoring for a moment the number of people who live outside Vancouver proper, cycling to work in February during a time when VANOC has assumed it will be cold enough for snow, doesn't seem very practical for most people. As for those who live outside Vancouver but near a Skytrain station, Translink has prohibited the transport of bicycles on Skytrain during the Olympics.

Walk: Oh brother. People who are walking to work are probably already doing so. Those who aren't are probably too far away.

Conservative estimates say that Vancouver's population will double, perhaps triple, during the games. Athletes, their coaches, families, support staff. Security personnel, including RCMP, military, and homeland security. Media personnel and their crews. Tourists. Visitors. Yesterday, my mother asked if I would be attending an interesting VSO concert that is taking place during the Olympics. My response: not in your life; I'll be avoiding downtown like the plague.

We'll be glad when its all over, preferably without incident.

Posted at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)

Yeah, so let's talk about the iPad...

A lot of the tech media are declaring the iPad an instant failure, and while I justly accuse many members of the tech media of smacking Apple around the last 25 years for sport, in this case I'm inclined to agree.

I've already seen some of my peers assembling lists: mostly nitpicky little feature complaints. The fact that it's basically a giant iPhone/iPod Touch also has the free software community up in arms, since there's no way to install software on the thing except through Apple's App Store, or perhaps by jailbreaking it.

Sorry friends, but these are all thin reasons. The big reason the iPad will fail is very simple: there' no market for it.

Honestly: who will buy this thing? Does Steve really expect people will run out and plop down $500, minimum, just so that they can browse the web and doodle on the couch? Hey, I've got an idea: how about I pay $500 more an get an entry-level MacBook?

Three years ago, almost exactly, I declared that the iPhone was "basically the greatest portable deivce ever created". I'm going to brag here: I don't think I was far off. But why? It all goes back to why the iPhone satisfied a years-long fantasy of mine: device aggregation. Why do you need a phone, a PDA, an video iPod, a portable gaming system, etcetera... when you can put them into one device? Isn't a smartphone just a small computer? It doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

Now, Apple is trying to do the opposite: they're going to split the aggregate apart again. This may prove a lot more difficult than they suspect. I regularly carry my phone and laptop around with me. Why should I buy an iPad if I have both, or either?

Well, Steve will maybe direct me towards the fact that he got five major book publishers on board for iBooks. To that I would say that eReaders generally suck. I can get the latest paperback novel at my local chapters for 7 bucks. It's very durable, and comes bundled with a very intuitive user interface. Media storage format, the bookshelf, is also quite cheap and highly decorative. No, even Amazon can stick its Kindle in the trash. For this tech-addict, paper books are here to stay for a good while yet.

Steve will choke back his notorious temper and tell me how much nicer it will be to browse the web on the couch with the iPad instead of having a potentially cumbersome and hot notebook computer on my lap. In rebuttal, I will direct him towards the iPad's monumental failing as a web browser: no Flash. Millions of websites use Adobe Flash, and honestly, if you don't have Flash, you don't have a decent web browser.

So who will buy the iPad? Rich yuppies who have money to burn. But there are only so many of them. Trust me, I can see a yuppie-toy from fifty yards away. How many Macbook Airs have you seen lately? Exactly.

About the most interesting thing that came out of the entire keynote was the revelation that the iPad is running on an Apple-designed processor: the "A4" (or more accurately, a 4th generation ARM-based system on a chip originally developed by ARM Holdings and subsequently licensed to many different companies, including Intel, nVidia, and Qualcomm for further development. you can read more about the ARM architecture here if you're not asleep already).

Look, we all knew the Apple magic wouldn't last forever (investors certainly think so, Apple's stock price has tanked this week by over $20). Look Steve, just try harder next time. Stop thinking about those rich yuppies with money. Stop thinking about futuristic gadgets you've wanted to build since Star Trek: The Next Generation was on TV. People need to get stuff done, and Apple gadgets have, until now, let them get stuff done, have fun, and look cool while doing it. That's a killer combination, but I don't think the iPad will do any of those things well enough to be a success.

It's okay. We'll forgive you.... someday.

Posted at 01:51 PM | Comments (2)

You may remember the furor that was created when CBC decided not to pursue permanently acquiring the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme music, paving the way for the music to be sold to TSN. The move left an incredibly bitter taste in many Canadians' mouths. The bitter were chided by pundits and the CBC management, who stated that a theme song wasn't going to affect any viewership.

Well, here we are a year and a half later. I haven't followed the song to TSN, as the pundits joked. But I HAVE stopped watching Hockey Night in Canada. Why?

Well, frankly, HNIC wasn't a very good show. The perennially senile ranting of Don Cherry is quite enough to give viewers the "no" feeling. All that kept me with CBC was the sense of loyalty to patriotic tradition. Which was all fine and good until the CBC showed us exactly how it felt about traditions.

So now I watch hockey on Rogers Sportsnet, thanks wholly to John Shorthouse's lively commentary sprinkled with self-aware humour. Coincidence? Maybe. But I would still be loyally watching CBC if I felt a sense of sentimentality towards HNIC, regardless of whether that sense was well-founded or not.

Posted at 07:39 PM | Comments (2)

The Onion: Final Season Of 'Lost' Promises To Make Its Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Posted at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)