Author: John Bollwitt

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Northern Voice 2009: February 20-21 in Vancouver

Northern Voice 2009

Set the date and mark your calendars. Northern Voice is returning for 2009.

In 2005, the organizers of Canada’s first weblogging conference put on an event that was inexpensive, informal, and accessible to techies and newbies alike. From those humble beginnings Northern Voice has been transformed into… well, actually it’s still cheap, friendly and open to all.

Without question, the event has grown due to the overwhelming community response. It’s added a second self-organizing day known as Moose Camp. We expect a few more attendees this year, in part because our space is larger. But the core values remain the same — we have held the line on costs, we try to make the event family-friendly by offering space for parents to establish cooperative child-minding, and we do the main event on Saturday so non-professionals can attend.

And although it is a weblog conference, the range of topics may involve anything that webloggers are interested in… that is, just about anything. Previous years have had plenty of geekery mixed with panels on how blogging interacts with family life, education, travel, photography, community building and establishing professional profiles. Speakers range from the big names at the top of the Technorati rankings to first-time presenters with a passion to share.

I’m not sure if I will try my hand at presenting this year as last year’s session on Podcasting 101 could have been done much better. Life hasn’t slowed down enough to refine that presentation, but there are things I would certainly do differently if I did find the time to get something worthwhile put together.

Truthfully, it’s hard to teach podcasting in a thirty or sixty minute session, but I wouldn’t mind giving it another shot if the opportunity presented itself. Probably should get another episode of RadioZoom out as well, but The Crazy Canucks are certainly going strong.

I’m looking forward to another year of social media fun. It’ll be interesting to see what everyone is excited about, but Twitter was so two years ago.

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What is gym etiquette anyway?

My first experience at working out in a gym environment was at the University of Iowa Fieldhouse[wiki]. In the midst of my awakening of understanding how to correct long standing health problems, this was my first, real experience at working out for personal health versus my short stint in my high school football program. To be honest, I think I’ve workout harder for my personal health than I ever did in the days when it meant being competitive, but that could just be a difference of time and mentality.

Regardless, there is one thing that you’ll find at any workout facility, and that is etiquette.

This shouldn’t prevent you from going to a gym or workout facility, but there are just some things that I’ve noticed over the past few months that consistently confound me.
Continue reading “What is gym etiquette anyway?”

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The Stanley Cup happened to drop by work today

Stanley Cup and Me I have never been close enough to the Stanley Cup to really even see it prior to today. The one day I go to work without my camera, it decides to roll through the front door at work and pay the place a visit. In a mad scramble, I was able to snag a pic with it via cellphone, not to mention the opportunity to touch it as well as take a good look at it.

The one thing that struck me was how scratched it is. That’s not surprising, and I think it’s a lot like seeing people on TV and them not looking the same as they are in real life. It’s been through a lot, not to mention that its century old lifespan lends to have a little bit of wear and tear to it.

The cup was in town tonight for the Vancouver Giants home game where they honored legends of the NHL. The Giants even dawned the jerseys of the last team to win the Stanley Cup in this city, the Vancouver Millionaires[wiki] in 1915.

Back then, all you had to do was be a proven team and issue a challenge to the reigning holders of the title. A far cry from the 82 game regular season and playoffs consisting of four rounds, best of seven series. This point was only driven further into my head when I got home tonight to turn on “Hockey: A People’s History“[wiki] on television. A must see for any hockey fan.

Vancouver's only time on the cup

Alas, one day, Vancouver’s name shall appear on this cup once more as champions.

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Making time to be outdoors

Best photo from the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge

We took a hike yesterday with our good friend DaveO yesterday before taking in the Leafs and Canucks game on TV. He took us to the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge[wiki], and I challenged my fear of heights by standing in the middle of the bridge with rushing water, rocks, and trees nearly 50 meters below. I made it, but the decision to get to solid ground on the other side was an easy one.

Hiking = workout

DaveO

Waters better left untouched

Spare time has been tough to come by with the various sixty4media projects we’ve been working on. There is a certain point where you need to get outside and enjoy life so the creative energies can keep functioning. It’s also amazing that we can take a 30-45 minute bus ride to find some trails, get some mud on your shoes, and breathe in some amazing mountain air. Makes tomorrow being Monday seem not all that bad.

Picking our place to pan for gold

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The Crazy Canucks on transit

Episode #66 was published tonight.

The Crazy Canucks
Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

But these photos of the podcast crew on buses never ceases to kill me.

John & Rebecca Spotting...
Photo credit: jmv on Flickr

Riding the SkyTrain last weekend, the train stopped with my face directly outside the window at Granville Station. Nothing more embarrassing than having your face on a poster right next to your own.

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Sennheiser Canada uses my photo in a press release for the new GM Place sound system

My photo used in a Senheiser Canada press release

I was contacted a few weeks ago about a photo that I posted on Flickr by a rep at Sennheiser Canada. It turns out that they saw my photo and wanted to use it in a press release regarding the new sound system they provided the equipment for at GM Place. Canucks fans might have heard about the new setup at the rink, and a lot of people that I’ve talked to have been really impressed by it, myself included.

When I was contacted and asked for my permission, I ensured that I would get credit in the release and gave my go ahead. I was told that they had numerous photos of their equipment, but they really liked the way my shot captured the system.

New sound system in GM Place

If you get a chance to make it down for a Canucks game, it will impress you. It sounds a lot clearer than previously, and your seat will rattle when they crank up the bass. Certainly gives you a different experience at GM Place than before.

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Installing Mac OS X 10.5 on my first generation 17-inch PowerBook G4

Mac OS 10.5 running on my first generation 17

My PowerBook is five years old now, and doing a little research the other day, I figured that it wasn’t in such bad shape that it couldn’t handle a bit of an upgrade when it came to the operating system. It started out with 10.2 (Jaguar) when I first bought it, and the moves to versions 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger) were simple upgrades. Over the years, performance has gotten sluggish, so my thought has always been that if I were to take this aged beast to 10.5 (Leopard), I’d have to do a clean install.

The whole process took about four hours to complete, reformatting the hard drive, installing the OS, and getting the needed updates all in place. Network traffic seemed to be the major slow down, but there wasn’t much in terms of hiccups. Just needed a little patience while it all worked its way through.

The big thing for me was getting all the data backed up, but I keep more of the important info stored on my desktop at home. The PowerBook is more of a mobile device when I need to have that ability, so it was mainly making sure that nothing was missed that I couldn’t live without.

When it came to applications, I was willing to part with programs like Microsoft Office or Photoshop that I’ve been able to obtain from my remaining days of college (yes, legally) because I’ve come to rely on so many open source options like GIMP, Google Docs, Open Office, Smultron, Cyberduck, or whatever neat files that seem to pop up on opensourcemac.org. I have also tried iLife alternatives like Picasa and found that it’s fairly well adapted for my situation because I always have that desktop to go do some major photo work when needed.

Getting everything in place today, I have been extremely happy with how my PowerBook has been performing with Leopard on it. The UI has taken a little getting used to, but I keep getting the cool factor more often than none. I’m rarely one to complain because I find ways to adapt to various situations without too much problem, something I do consistently with my day job in a Windows environment, mixing in hints of Linux.

Alas, the battery on this baby is far passed its life cycle, so I’ll never know how it does with Leopard because it would only last from about 20 minutes on a full change with Tiger. Firefox is already behaving better, especially when it comes to Google Reader, my major lifeline to keeping up with the rest of the world.

It hasn’t been 24 hours since I got the install done, but I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far. It gives this old laptop some extra worth until I can replace it with one of those new, fancy MacBook Pros that came out just this week. I’m good in the short term.

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There are more than just two parties in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections

Secrecy Envelope

One of the things that blindsided me when I was able to vote for the first time in the 1996 U.S. presidential elections[wiki] was that there were more people running for president than I was aware of. The fact of the matter was that I was a very young voter who was a few months into my senior year of high school, and it was important to me to vote. Still, I was astounded that I had never heard of any of these other people, parties, or what it was that they stood for.

It’s true that Ross Perot[wiki] had his run with the Reform Party, and the Green Party always seems to be popping up here and there. The thing is that the U.S. election system is not a strict, one or the other choice. There can be, and there are, more parties to choose from other than just Democrat or Republican. Yes, in America, there is an unspoken, multi-party system, and if wasn’t for the massive amount of personal wealth that Perot used for his own campaign in 1996, his third party probably wouldn’t have ended up as front and center on Saturday Night Live skits, yet alone in the debates. It was also great entertainment, not to mention a boost to ratings.

More than two parties to vote for

In the district in which I am able to vote via absentee, I have nine, total options to choose from. It’s true that there is a write-in, and that is an amazing option that we have in the U.S. system. I once had a good friend write in Trent Reznor for president and Henry Rollins as V.P. You can call that a waste of a vote, but it’s still an exercise of your right to let the government know how you feel.

Outside of the two main parties and the write-in, my ballot has seven other parties to choose from. Hardly any of them are covered by the mainstream media outlets, and not one of them were involved in public debates with the other big two parties, yet alone chased around the country with TV cameras, dissecting every move they made.

Straight ticket voting It makes me go back to that day when I was able to vote for the first time. Who were those people? What did they stand for? You mean there is an option other than these other two guys I’ve been essentially forced to choose between?

Folks will tell you that is just the way things are and the two party system is how the world works, and it makes sense to me why there are people across many generations who are disillusioned with a system where you have to choose between two entities that they would rather not vote at all. It’s personally hard for me to comprehend that apathy, especially when that write-in exists, no matter who it is that you want to write in.

At the same time, you have other options. Look into the other parties who are running under the mainstream radar. Some of them might seem completely crazy, but if you are one deciding not to choose “between the lesser of two evils” by not voting at all, give it some thought, register to vote, and cast your ballot for who you want to represent you.