Posts

Voting for Change

Please don't complain about not having time to vote or think about who to elect and then ask me if I watched Duck Dynasty... Here's a quick rundown and a few options While the PCs and Liberals are providing starkly contrasting views for the province, the NDP are trying to be more centrist. The Green Party has a bold idea to save 1.6 Billion (how many elections could you buy with that?) by consolidating the school systems and eliminating the Beer Store monopoly.  A great summary of all platforms can be found here - take five min There is one final option. If you really can't align yourself with any of those parties, don't just stay home. Millions of people line up for hours for the ability to vote in barely legitimate elections between despots.  Show up at your polling station, make your civic interest known and then decline your ballot. Declining your ballot is registered as a form of active protest. People who are willing to go to the ballot box and NOT make a cho...

Soylent, Fasting and the Tyranny of Choice

Soylent is getting a ridiculous amount of publicity for an apparently horrible tasting slurry. Why? Is this the iphone or itunes of food products? I think the excitement around its proposition  can be related to the growing acceptance of fasting. You want to make healthy choices but like all choices it gets tiring. The convenience of processed foods takes over. Hot dogs, chips. Even mass-marketed meal replacements are loaded with sugar and sodium. What can you do? Enter soylent, it doesn't taste great but it's apparently nutritionally complete. For a quick breakfast/lunch etc I find the binary simplicity of intermittent fasting to be great. I get myself into an overall calorie deficit. I save time not getting and preparing food; and money not eating it... I don't have to choose between a salad or a sandwich or a burger. Just eat nothing. This is not even considering all the other benefits of fasting, but this one choice for simplicity eliminates others.  More research...

What is Tin Can API?

Most of the learning technology world is a buzz with Tin Can or Experience API. It's been very prominent at all learning conferences I've seen. However within the broader community of instructional designers and content developers it's still quite fuzzy. So here's my attempt at Tin Can in a nutshell. A little context: The issue I and many other learning practitioners have with the modern day LMS is its self-centeredness, not navel-gazing but the LMS doesn't care about the real world. In the current paradigm, measurable learning doesn't happen unless it is within the confines of the LMS. If it wasn't an assessment, simulation, presentation, video - it doesn't count. The reason for that, is because of SCORM Tin Can is meant to be the next evolution of SCORM. The ability to report, track and manage a user's progress. what makes this unique is its robustness and simplicity. Subject Action Object. Shaun wrote a blog post. That's a single call. Wha...

Too bad we can't all hire Magic

LinkedIN is doing an interesting series within their Influencers news section with  How I Hire . A bunch of executives tell tales of how they unearth top performers, weed through the BS, and throw people off script to get beneath the surface. Recent LI superstar Sallie Krawchuk recently wrote a piece on how she hires  You can't build a team with all Point Guards . As a basketball fan I was immediately drawn in. Her main point is that we often seek good leaders and team-first guys. As a leader and a ball player lacking in height, I've always love the point position. Your goal is to put others in a position to succeed. A great PG to keep them all together, and play the right style at the right time. In truth, all winning teams actually require role players, or specialists. Perhaps even some selfish folks. What struck a chord with me, is that a good point guard, like a good leader must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team and adapt his or her style. Case in poi...

This post will self-destruct in 30s

Maybe the internet isn't forever after all. New services are popping up to enable you to privately share messages with a select few, and to even have them self-destruct at a given time/interval. Some high-profile people with a penchant for sending pics (looking at you Carlos Danger) should Love this. In the era of domestic surveillance and the realization that most tech companies are complicit is this the silver bullet? Maybe not. Just because it's deleted from public consumption, how long does it take the site's respective crawlers to get it? Accessible and deleted are two different things.  How will FB and Twitter feel about being used less as a publisher and more as a temporary broadcast medium. You might think that's what they were... you would be wrong. The ability to broadcast and store your thoughts, ideas and drunken outbursts for future consumption is a part of their value proposition. Are their respective graphs as valuable without storing everything? If...

Cut the Cord - Tales from the Clipped.

One month ago we cut cable - so far so good.  I took this as a personal challenge to make this process as smooth and positive as possible. It still is a change, but with a little prep work it has gone really well so far. Recap: We (a family of 5) cut our Cable TV provider, upped our ISP package and replaced our homephone line with a free VOIP alternative. We also employ a DIY antenna. For a full description of the setup see here . Kids are definitely watching less TV. There are less occasions where the TV sits on as background noise. Those moments of respite where we need to occupy the kids were my biggest concern. More on that later. I'm using subscriptions for TVO's the Agenda and the Big Think so I have something interesting to watch if I was bored. I'm most proud of the fact that we no longer live in the continuous "breaking news" death grip of CP24. I don't need live coverage of the Royal Baby's baptism or first bowel movement. In reality Netflix is...

Cut the cord - the setup

Droning on and on about cutting the cord some friends who are also feeling squeezed by robellus asked me for details. Maybe it was just to shut me up but i'm going to spell it out anyhow. Basically I swapped my ISP, switched to a no monthly fee VOIP service, cut my cable TV subscribed to netflix and installed an OTA antenna. My main goals were cost savings, and to move off traditional media services. Cable companies are the next record companies the internet age is crushing large clumsy institutions. ISP I switched my ISP to Start.ca a great company out of London ON. They have fantastic customer service in the few times I've called them. I've had no outtages beyond blackouts. $50/mth for 20+mbps down 2mbps up. I'm watching multiple netflix streams without issue. Home Phone I replaced my homephone with a free voip service from Freephoneline.ca. They have a bunch of options, one where you rent an ATA device from there for $5 a month and they provide customer servi...