that canadian girl

Category: Web & Technology

  • The death of the water cooler chat

    Once upon a time, water cooler chat was a company-wide thing. Anyone could gather in the kitchen during their coffee break and talk about last night’s TV show. Gags and allusions to TV twists caused team-wide laughter or nods, and no one would really feel left out, since most would have watched the same thing.

    Nowadays, it’s a whole different story. The market is so incredibly segmented. For some years now, there are hundreds of channels, catering to niche interests. On top of this, Sky Plus and other video recorders are growing in popularity, adding to the mix by enabling us to watch whenever we fancy it. “If you tell me what happened in last night’s Lost episode, I’m going to have to kill you!”

    YouTubers lonelygirl15, James Nintendo Nerd and NaltsTo cause further fragmentation, YouTube and Google Video‘s user- generated content is beginning to rival commercially and professionally produced content in terms of appeal, watchability (let’s pretend that’s a word, mmkay?) and entertainment value. With broadband infiltrating British homes at the rate of 70,000 a week, downloading videos, movies or TV shows is becoming easier than ever.

    In recent months, the only shows I can think of that have had wide enough appeal to reach across these itty bitty fragments have been Lost and Top Gear, really. (As an aside, if my license fee goes to financing the largest non-commercial rocket launch attempt in European history, I’m all for it!)

    Otherwise, an unexpectedly popular topic of conversation is still the Nintendo Wii, which seems to have racked up fans from all ages and interest groups and endures as the best source of evening entertainment.

    Personally, I’d be quite happy to see the couch-potato era come to an end to be replaced by interactive media and entertainment. Maybe the next water cooler chat will have to do with our tennis score next time.

  • Can Google Hear Him?

    googlehears.jpgApparently they can. Aaron Stanton started writing and posting videos on CanGoogleHearMe.com less than two weeks ago, yet he’s an overnight celebrity at the Googleplex.

    Aaron had a business proposal, but his attempts to contact Google via phone or email did not work. So he decided to fly to Google, sit outside Google for several days, until someone at Google would agree to meet with him. He reportedly got that meeting and is running high right now.

    He flew out on the 11th February, and had his first appointment with Google on the 14th, with some generally positive feedback leading to future meetings and NDA’s. Details of his Big Idea aren’t publicly available but Digg rumours* point to “a powerful tool for writers. By analyzing published novels and breaking them down into detailed statistics, then graphing those statistics scene-by-scene, we allow authors to better understand their craft in a way never before possible.”

    Now, we have no idea whether his idea is any good, and whether it’s anything to do with the above, but Scoble deemed Aaron important enough to take his 13 year old son Patrick to meet him. He and I both love this guy’s attitude – He followed his dream, even if it took a few little online self-publicity stunts to get there.

    Some have compared his overnight success to the Red Paperclip guy, Kyle MacDonald. But even if Aaron’s success compares to Kyle’s, and it doesn’t turn him into a multimillionaire for an idea he sells to Google, he’s an inspiration to all young people with an idea. Don’t sit around, and most of all, don’t use typical channels like the Google idea submission form, but instead, make noise, get yourself heard, make a video, talk to the right people to create a buzz, and then, maybe you’ll get through!

    [* No, I don’t take Digg seriously, not even as a source of rumours, but thought interesting to include what some people appear to have dug up]

  • Such a wonderful industry



    If you don’t work in media/marketing:     Enjoy this video, which probably reinforces what you think of marketers.
    If you work in the industry: Can you honestly tell me this doesn’t remind you of at least a few current or past colleagues/clients/companies who came in to pitch to you?

    [Via Seth Godin]

  • The voodoo summary

    The “Summary” feature of OS X really is like a work of voodoo. To use it, highlight some text in your favourite Cocoa app, like Mail, Safari or Camino, then go into the application’s Services menu and choose a level of summarisation (between 1 and 100% of original text length). In a few cases, the summarisation was eerily accurate and I don’t think I would’ve done any better.

    This service receives little fanfare and is certainly one I’ll use more when I come across very long articles where I need to get the gist of it but haven’t got time to read it all at that very moment (where it makes its way into my del.icio.us bookmarks… and probably never gets read completely, hrmm)

    So that’s my tip for the day!

  • PCs try to get back at Macs

    The well-publicised campaigns by Apple to promote the Mac as an enjoyable platform to use at home was recently crowned off by a dig at Vista’s security system.

    I’m a Mac fangirl through and through. You can’t get your first Mac at the age of something like five, and not be a natural Mac user all your life. However, the past couple of days, some anti-Mac comments have really tickled me and made me laugh. One was a genuine, gotta-love-these-videos kind of laughter: Videos made in the Mac vs PC style but turning the tables around. “Are you high?”

    The other giggle was provided by an article by Charlie Brooker of the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, subtly titled “I Hate Macs”, which tickled me in a different kind of way. I’m not sure whether Charlie is dense, close-minded or just looking for a quick traffic spike to his blog. What do you think? Either way, I’m not terribly impressed by his argument, and I feel that one can happily use both Mac and Windows on a daily basis without the need to cause a widespread online crisis.

    Why do people have such an urge to stick to one camp or the other? I feel they each have their value (for example, I’ll openly admit that Office on Mac is lacking in certain areas… Like Excel translating date fields incorrectly and telling me we’re in 2011, forcing me to put together some reports on Windows. Or Entourage feeling like I’m dragging a dead elephant along, yet Mail.app not being robust enough for the purposes of 10 squillion subfolders)

    It doesn’t matter which OS you use, computers will never be faultless. As long as they get me through the day and there’s some new shiny things to look at, I’m happy enough.

  • Three is company!

    No, don’t worry, I’m not announcing we’re having a baby! We’re having a bunny!

    Keira, my Nabaztag/tag bunnyThat’s right, Keira, my Nabaztag/tag has been with us since before Christmas, but only recently has it become usable. First there were all the server issues at Violet in Paris. Then there was the unavoidable busy times with the holidays, Pepsmedia and well, being sociable for a change?

    But yesterday, I was working from home and gave a work colleague instructions on sending messages to my bunny. I later found myself in fits of laughter when Keira started humming Jingle Bells Rock for me.

    I’ve yet to write any clever services for it (read: Get Andrew to write them) but it definitely has potential in that area. In the meantime, it’s just a nutty entertaining talking clock, who occasionally also does a bit of Tai Chi, and loves to sing Philippe Lafontaine – Coeur de Loup when given the opportunity!

  • Quote of the day: MySpace and Merlin

    Merlin Mann’s FAQ:

    Do you have a MySpace page?
    Only if it’s waiting for me on some kind of ironic eyeball-searing machine in hell.

  • "After 800 yards, turn left… turn left…"

    On the way back from Kent a few days ago, I spotted Tom Toms on a couple of cars’ dashboards as we drove by them. Thought it would be funny to play yellow punchbuggy to pass time, but we would’ve been black and blue by the time we get home!

    Just how many people got Tom Toms for Christmas!?

  • Torchwood comes back for a second season

    It was announced over a week ago that the Doctor Who spin-off show, Torchwood, will come back for a second season. It took me a week to post it, but I was thrilled to hear about it. Especially that it’ll be back on BBC Two instead of BBC Three – it’s moving up the rungs!

    The first season of Torchwood started a bit slow, which is a shame, as I get the impression it has lost it a big chunk of viewers. After 3-4 weeks, it started getting really good and now it’s just excellent. John Barrowman is a great Jack Harkness (and all-round lurvly, Gemma & Kat would agree!) but he still doesn’t quite have David Tennant’s charisma. I can’t wait for the second season of that, and the third season of good ol’ Doctor Who! [Fine, for the finnickity ones, third season of the NEW series, I know there were tons before]

    As a total aside, BBC really aren’t doing themselves any favours with the impossible search across their websites. I have no doubt the archives are filled with great content, but it’s impossible to find anything! Searching is particularly awkward, and the oddest off-topic results come up, but navigation as a whole is difficult. Why wouldn’t they put more energy towards successfully distributing their great content?

  • They may be UGG-ly, but they're popular

    *Throws self to the ground in desperation*

    It seems Heather’s forecast on Ugg boots being popular again this winter wasn’t a fluke, and wasn’t a local thing either. Bill, also from Hitwise, confirms that the trend has been set in the US as well. It’s a worldwide plague!

    Oh well… it’ll give the Fug girls plenty of blogging fodder this winter!