Category: Technology

Coming back to Canada's tech leaders, it feels a little too familiar

With the politicians have largely vacated Ottawa for the summer, I find myself this morning sitting in on a one-day high-tech summit convened by the federal government at the old train station on the Rideau Canal known as the Government Conference Centre.

The co-hosts for this event are Industry Minister Tony Clement and Research In Motion Ltd.'s co-founder Mike Lazaradis.

Many of the 150 folks in the room this morning (or their companies) used to be core to my work through most of the 1990s as a Toronto-based technology reporter. I was covering tech during the boom and I was there at the bust. Now I cover federal politics.

So, after nearly a decade away from tech, some quick first impressions as this event gets underay:

  • First, the digital economy elite gathered here looks awfully white. In fact, I counted and, gathered here today, are 131 white guys, 1 man who is not a white guy, and 18 women. Industry gatherings 15 years ago looked white and male. Surely it's changed since then?
  • Industry Canada convened this conference and organized the speakers and the lineup was predictable a decade ago: There's the obligatory rep from the Information Technology Association of Canada. There's our homegrown stars — RIM and Open Text. And there's the country managers of some branch plant tech outfits – Xerox and eBay subbing in today but it could have been Microsoft, HP, or Yahoo back in my day and they all have largely the same message delivered by the same in-country manager who's inevitably got a sales background,not an engineering or garage start-up background. What's missing from this conference from ones that were similar to those a decade ago is the young lions — the Hill brothers from Zero-Knowledge in Montreal; Dean Hopkins of Cyberplex; or Paul Mercia of Cybersurf. Where are the young under-30 enterpreneurs? Or how about a rebel like Calgary's Theo de Raadt and the legion of programmers he leads developing OpenBSD? I can remember Paul Martin, then the finance minister, preparing for his leadership run bringing those young lions to Ottawa to tell him what to do about tech. He wanted to hear the twentysomethings tell him what government could do (and get a little dot-com pixie dust to boost his campaign).
  • The core complaints of the industry have not changed. Not enough angel investors. We don't support venture capitalists well enough. Government and other industry sectors don't buy enough tech stuff from Canadian companies. Canadian companies spend next to nothing (relatively speaking) on research and development.

Twitter users can follow along some of the discussion for this summit at #digecon

Minister uses Twitter to spread the word on Canada's embassy in Iran

Here's Jason Kenney, Minister of Immigration of Citizenship making news on Twitter:

[Tweet at 1842 Sunday night] Some posters mistakingly believe that western embassies are sheltering wounded protestors in Tehran, except Canada. I've looked into this …

[Tweet at 1843 Sunday night] … and its completely untrue. Canada has contacted all relevant embassies in Tehran to enquire. None are doing so: they can't.

Aside from the fact that Kenney is addressing an important public policy point, it's also, so far as I can tell, the first time a government minister has responded to some breaking news in a substantive way on Twitter.

At issue here is the meme/rumour/myth spread on Twitter, Facebook and blogs that Canada was alone among Western embassies in rejecting help to asylum seekers amid violent protests in downtown Tehran. The meme spread by some Canadians was that other Western democracies were taking in protesters and yet the country of Ken Taylor and his heroism in the 1979 hostage crisis was not only not helping, it was closed.

Not true, says the Canadian government.

Here's Simone McAndrew, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade earlier today:

Reports on Saturday that the Canadian Embassy in Iran was turning away people seeking sanctuary are false. The Embassy was closed Saturday and there were no Canadians at the Embassy when the protests began.

Reports that we were providing shelter to Iranian demonstrators are false.

Canada's Embassy is located in the centre of recent demonstrations. Due to the tense security in Tehran this week, the embassy has been closing early so that staff can return home safely before the public and democratic demonstrations begin.

The violent crackdowns by Iranian security forces, including the use of lethal force, is wholly unacceptable. Canada continues to call for the protection of civilians and their rights.

As the Prime Minister recently stated, “We encourage those authorities to respect people's basic human rights and to move forward on democratic progress in that country.”

Canada does not offer asylum to individuals in its embassies abroad. However, in exceptional cases where an individual is in the embassy and seeks temporary refuge because of an immediate threat or injury or death, temporary safe haven has, in some instances and for humanitarian reasons, been provided.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, including the Canadian Embassy in Tehran, continues to provide consular assistance to Canadian citizens in-person, on the phone and through email.

In case of emergency consular assistance, Canadians should contact the Embassy of Canada in Tehran at 98 (21) 8152-0000 or DFAIT's Emergency Operations Centre by calling collect to 613-996-8885 or by sending an email to sos@international.gc.ca

Canada's position on this issue, in fact, seems to be very similar to that of many European countries. See this Agence France-Presse story earlier this afternoon:

European embassies in Tehran addressed Sunday what officials said were concerted email calls for them to offer refuge to Iranian democracy protesters, diplomats said.

Talks amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Western nations over post-election violence followed a string of messages sent to embassies and an Internet circular listing overseas missions willing to accept “wounded refugees.”

No request for asylum at a European embassy has yet been confirmed, the diplomats added.

The story goes on to say that, even if asked for asylum, the embassies of many European countries in Iran would refuse the request.

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MDS Nordion on cancelling MAPLEs: Wrong for Canada

Steve West, the president of MDS Nordion, which wholesales the medical isotopes harvested at AECL's Chalk River Lab, is testifying right now at the Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources (#RNNR for Twitterers). Here's an excerpt from his statement:

The reason for the current supply shortage is Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s decision to cancel the MAPLE project. The MAPLE reactors are complete and await final commissioning. The MAPLEs have created medical isotopes. The MAPLEs can be and should be brought into full service. We recognize that this requires external expertise and we are urging the Government to reconsider its decision to stop the MAPLE project.

The MAPLE project is Canada's opportunity for medical leadership and scientific innovation. The cancellation of the MAPLE project is a detrimental loss to Canada.

The Government of Canada agreed with AECL's decision to abandon the MAPLEs. It was not a reasonable public policy for Canada or the world. It was the wrong decision. It was wrong for global long-term supply of medical isotopes. It was wrong for the patients who rely on this vital product for the treatment of cancer and heart disease. It was wrong for the future of scientific innovation in Canada. It was a mistake in public policy.

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A thoughtful introduction to the use, value, and significance of Twitter

I first became a fan of Steven Johnson's writing on the technology of culture and culture of technology 10 years ago when I read his Interface Culture: How New Technology Transform The Way We Create & Communicate . Back then — how quaint this now sounds — all the discussion was about the Desktop, about files, folders, icons, and the metaphors we used to organize our digital space. The iPod was still a glimmer in Steve Jobs' eye and the iPhone was an even longer way off.

Johnson is still interested in personal, popular technology and its effect on the way we communicate.

He has the cover story in this week's Time in which he looks at Twitter. It is rather grandly titled “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live”.

You may not care about Twitter or see much use in it but I'd still strongly recommend Johnson's piece for what it has to say about the value and significance of Twitter.

As for me, I was, as I've mentioned here before, initially sceptical about Twitter but, upon finding the appropriate interface for it by using a standalone application, I'm now a big fan of Twitter and I tend to agree with much of Johnson says in this piece. [See Political Twits and #ottawaspends ]

Some bits in the essay that stood out for me:

… [hashtag conversations are]  built entirely out of 140-character messages, but the sum total of those tweets added up to something truly substantive, like a suspension bridge made of pebbles.

…Social networks are notoriously vulnerable to the fickle tastes of teens and 20-somethings (remember Friendster?), so it's entirely possible that three or four years from now, we'll have moved on to some Twitter successor. But the key elements of the Twitter platform — the follower structure, link-sharing, real-time searching — will persevere regardless of Twitter's fortunes, just as Web conventions like links, posts and feeds have endured over the past decade. In fact, every major channel of information will be Twitterfied in one way or another in the coming years . . .

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Chalk River: End of the line for world's oldest reactor?

As radioactive water continues to leak from the nuclear reactor that produces more than half the world's medical isotopes, Canwest News Service has learned that technicians at the Chalk River, Ont., facility are privately wondering if the end has finally come for the world's oldest reactor.

… two engineers — one working at the Chalk River facility and one who spent years working there — said they doubt the repairs will be made even within eight months and, in fact, may never be complete.

“A month to repair is a dream,” said the engineer who works at the facility, and who asked for anonymity for fears he would be dismissed.

“Sounds to me as if good ol' NRU is gone for good,” said the other engineer, who, after working for AECL at several of its nuclear facilities including Chalk River, now works for the federal government. That individual also requested anonymity. [Read the full story]

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What's a Twibe? I'm a Twibe. You're a Twibe. We're a Twibe.

Just ran across another Web service that is a derivative of Twitter – Twibes. A Twibe seems to me be closely related to a Twitter hashtag but I'm still trying to figure out the concept. To start — mostly to experiment with — I've created two Twibes — one for tweets, news, etc. by and about the House of Commons and one for the news by and about the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

What is a Twibe? Here, from Twibe's help page:

A twibe is a group of Twitter users interested in a common topic who would like to be able to communicate with each other. On each twibe's page, there is a list of twibe members. There is also a tweet stream that lists tweets from twibe members which contain key word tags. Tags are set by the twibe founder and are listed just above the tweet stream. You can browse through twibes that have already been created by going to www.twibes.com/twitter-groups.

Let's examine the 'Twibe' concept in practice from the point-of-view of someone who wants to generate content for the Twibe and someone who simply wants to monitor content by and about the Twibe.

Content generators:

This is simple. If want to tweet about the House of Commons — say with short bursts of info about the latest goings-on on Question Period — I would include the three digits HOC in my tweet. The case is important here: It must be three uppercase letters. That's it. Now, I've also got a hashtag going – #HOC. The content generation rule there is the similar: I need to put #HOC in every tweet for it to show up for those following the #HOC hashtag. (I should note that here at the Oliphant Commission we have a Twitter hashtag going that looks like this #oli). So far as I know, though, hashtags are case-independent. In other words, #HOC is the same as #hoc. The critical element is that hash sign.

There appears to be one important rule for Twibe tweets as opposed to hashtag tweets: You cannot tweet more than one Twibe URL at a time whereas you could have multiple hashtag references. In other words this tweet is legal for Twibe:

Iggy just asked Harper a question HOC

This tweet is bad for Twibe:

Iggy just asked Harper a question HOC ParlPressGallery

This tweet is fine for hashtaggers:

Iggy just asked Harper a question #HOC #liberals #roft

But Twibes do something, hashtags don't: If you sign up for Twibe (and you must have a Twitter account to do so), you can arrange to have Twibe content delivered to you via e-mail.

Content monitors:

You don't need to have a Twitter account to see content generated under a hashtag. Simply go to search.twitter.com , search on the hashtag and then, if you so choose, subscribe to the RSS feed for that hashtag. You can now monitor tweets on this particular hashtag in your favourite RSS reader like, for example, Google Reader or Bloglines.

You do need a Twitter account, though, to take advantage of monitoring content on Twibes, so far as I can tell. But the bonus is: You can then choose to monitor content via e-mail, via theTwibes home page, or through other options — including, if I read this right, a weekly update from your Twibe group. That flexibility sounds useful to me.

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Time to pare it back on Facebook: Goodbye to some FB friends

If just six more people became my Facebook friend, I'd have 1,000. Seems like a worthwhile goal to shoot for, doesn't it? And, a few weeks or months ago, I might have said yes.

But with 994 friends — most of whom I do not know — Facebook's value is much less than what I think it could be. I know I'm missing updates, info, photos — you name it — because I'm getting drowned by updates, info, photos, etc. from individuals I don't have much interest in. Remember: I am not using Facebook to sell products, find high school friends (though I'm pleased to have found more than a few), or publish pictures of my kids. I'm on Facebook — and any other social media service, such as Twitter — for professional reasons only.

And so, I've come to the conclusion that less is more on Facebook — fewer friends means greater value. So, over the next little while, I'm going to be saying goodbye to Facebook friends and Facebook apps.

So to those who I'm going to 'unfriend' on Facebook, a message: First, thank you for being my Facebook friend. I appreciate your interest. Secondly: my contact info is always online at my own Web site. Feel free to call or send e-mail anytime. Thirdly, my blog is where you'll find a lot of conversations I'm interested in. And, finally, Twitter has, indeed, upended Facebook in terms of short micro-bursts about where I am and what I'm doing. You can follow me on Twitter @davidakin.

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Help: Need Google contextual menu for Mac OS X

Hello geeks — need your help!

I want a contextual menu plug-in for Mac OS X that will let me right click on any highlighted text in any application — not just browsers or Apple apps — and then search Google on the highlighted text, returning the results of that search in a Firefox window. Apple's “Services” will let me do that but will only let me return Google Search results in Safari. And yes, I've told Safari that “Firefox” is my default browser. Doesn't matter. Firefox is a “carbon app” and Safari is a “cocoa” app. As a result they take advantage of Apple's “Services” differently.

Maybe you know of a quick little Apple Script that will do the same thing?

Post results below or e-mail me. thanks!

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Hey! I'm gonna be on Google!

Driving in to work on the 417 the other day, I was surprised to come upon a car in front of me with a large tripod affixed to its roof atop of which was a strange camera. Of course! it's the Google car! You've heard about this — Google's cameras are driving around the world recording everything they see so that you, the Google User, can get the “Street View” of wherever you can click-and-point to in Google's map function.

So, as soon as I saw it, I raced ahead of it, got off at the nearest exit — which happened to be Woodroffe — and got out my camera, which every good reporter always travels with just in case, and snapped pictures of the Google car taking pictures of me. Now, I just checked and, so far, Google's Street View is not yet available for that section of the 417. Which led me to wonder: A lot of people have written about their concerns about privacy and Google's Street View. Well, what about those of us who want to be on Street View? Heck, after I snapped my pictures, I started jumpin' around, being the egomaniac that I am, hoping to be immortalized as the idiot standing in the middle of rush hour traffic waving my camera around.

Let me know if you spot me!

In meantime, here's my pics of the Google Car:

IMG_1243.jpg

IMG_1242.jpg

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Calling all geeks: I'm stumped over weirdly slow performance on my iMac

Nothing like a long weekend with lots of computer problems to sort out on your homework. Normally, I don't mind sitting down with a cup of joe, some new programs to install, maintenance tasks to oversee and so on. But this morning, I'm stumped over what to do to solve a serious performance problem with my iMac. Can you help? Here's the setup:

Prior to today, I've been running:

  • An iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 17″ (late 2006). The guts of it all OEM: 1 GB (2×512) RAM, 250 GB HD, SuperDrive.
  • A 500 GB LaCie USB 2.0 External HD.
  • Two external optical drives; one that can read/burn CDs and one that can read//burn DVDs/CDs. Both of these are connected via FireWire
  • Operating system: Mac OS 10.4.x
  • Network: Wireless Airport on iMac to DLink wireless router to Sympatico DSL. Using OpenDNS

Over the last few weeks, system performance (and by this, I mean basic tasks like copying a file or selecting a menu option or switching between apps) has degraded to the point where it could take several seconds simply switching from one app to another. No new software or devices were added over this time.

Running Apple's Hard Disk Utility, I discovered some “Minor” problems on the internal hard drive. I booted up in safe mode, which automatically forces a disk repair, and, upon running disk utility again, the disk appears fine.

Performance problems persisted.

I ran disk utility on the external drive. No problems.

Earlier this week, I decided to upgrade the OS.

The upgrade took 5+ hours to install. (I'd heard it can take a while but 5 hours seems silly).

Performance problems persisted.

Last night, I loaded everything I needed on the internal drive and backed up to the external drive. THen I proceeded to do a clean install of the OS 10.5.6. I ran Software Update to get the latest Java machine and other updates.

Still got problems. (Copying 2 GB of files I'd backed up on my external drive back to the internal drive took more than 2 hours! via USB 2.0)

Ran Hard Disk Utility again. Everything's fine. Still have performance problems.

Shut power down on all external drives and re-booted.

Ah-ha! Now we're gettin' somewhere. Performance seems normal. System is responding to basic commands in the what seems like a normal way.

But I need those external drives. First bright idea: Perhaps it's the cheap Dyntech 5-port USB hub that's gumming things up. To test, I disconnected the hub and connected the LaCie external drive directly to the iMac.

Back to the same old problem.

Ok — so it seems pretty clear that the iMac and the LaCie drive, which once got along famously, are now like an old married couple — grumpy and slow to respond to each other's requests. Again — neither the LaCie drive nor the iMac internal drive report any problems via Hard Disk Utility. Files are being successfully copied back and forth albeit at a mind-numbingly slow speed. But for all intents and purposes, so long as the iMac is attached to the LaCie drive, it has all the zip and functional usefulness of my old Centris 610.

Any and all suggestions gratefully welcomed in comments below.

THE NEXT DAY: Some commenters below warned that my LaCie external HD may be about to fail. I, too, worried about this and so I've been trying to get the files off of my external drive and back onto the iMac's internal drive. It took 7+ hours to transfer just 40 GB of home movies. Today, I plugged another external USB 2.0 drive into the iMac – a Western Digital 1 TB MyBook. It's brand new. I left the LaCie powered up but disconnected from the iMac. With the brand new MyBook now the only external drive plugged into the iMac, the same performance problems have returned. So I plugged the LaCie back into the Mac and tried to transfer files from the LaCie to the MyBook. Transfer speeds are blazingly fast. 4 GB files are coming over from LaCie to MyBook in under 2 minutes.

And here's another clue.

Copying a folder with 600 MB of files from one external drive to the other takes less than 3 minutes. Normal.

Copying the same folder from the internal drive to either external drive takes less than 3 minutes. Normal.

BUT — copying the same 600 MB folder from either external drive to the internal drive is taking 20 minutes or more.

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