I have met with friends on Tuesdaynight many times

My wife and I are having our second annual wine tasting party at our house in December. Last year's party was a great time and very educational, not only from a wine tasting experience but also from a planning perspective. (only sample 1 kind of wine or your guests will be too impaired to care about the other one) Our testing wine this year is Cabernet Franc, not the most popular grape variety but a very old one with lots of global coverage. Last year we had invited about 10 couples but because it was so close to Christmas less than 1/2 were able to attend. This year I fired out/am in the process of sending out 12 invites and it looks like we will set a new attendance record!! 

On another related note The Gourmet Food and Wine Expo 2004 at the metro convention centre is only 2 weeks away. I just went to the website and you can now buy your tickets and more importantly you can print off your $3 off coupon. It runs from Nov 25 through to the 28th and if you like food and wine you will really enjoy this show. We are planning on attending Saturday Night so let me know if you going and I might stagger into you. If you want to get a better idea of what to expect at the show check out my post from last years show.

If someone would have told me 2 years ago that I would be a webmaster for 3 separate web sites, I would have laughed my ass off and replied “I don’t know html worth spit and I don’t ever want to know html, it gives me a headache!”

Well Here I am today looking after 3 websites.  1 & 2 & 3

 The funny thing is I still don’t know html worth spit yet I publish what I want, when ever I want, from where ever I want. I have had over 13,000 visitors to the 3 sites and have served over 20,000 web pages to those visitors. I have published from my home, from my work, from my friends house, from my phone, and even on my vacation from Mexico.

I think the title webmaster will one day be changed to blogmaster. 

Conclusion: blogware rules! Hats off to the boys at TUCOWS, keep up the great work!

~Patentlysilly.com

An interesting quote from Joi Ito's blog

"Blogs make it much easier to "post your picture on the Internet" and easier for people to find them. Therefore, I don't think it's silly to talk about blogging. More importantly, it's a good wake-up call for companies to be clear about blogging policy since more and more people are doing it.

Accusation - She broke a company rule. What's wrong with her being reprimanded for it?

The BBC Article.

Her weblog.

The picture 

Response - Companies have lots of rules that are broken every day. Companies need to think of what is in the best interest of the company and for their stakeholders. If a company does something that looks unfair or produces bad publicity, it's stupid whether it's a rule or not. It reminds me a bit about people who talk about "breaking copyright law". It's not like a speeding ticket. You don't "break copyright law". People use copyright law to go after people who are hurting their business. I think Delta should think about whether going after people who post pictures of themselves in uniform hurts their business or not and whether shutting these people down hurts them more."

It's interesting to think that companies need a blog policy when so many companies don't even know what a web log is yet. But that day is fast approaching.

I was doing my morning read and came across this. It would appear that IQ plays a very important part in US politics. Maybe the Democrats need a 4 year plan to educate the American public to get elected in 2008.

excerpt:

	State	Avg. IQ	2004
1	Connecticut	113	Kerry
2	Massachusetts	111	Kerry
3	New Jersey	111	Kerry
4	New York	109	Kerry
5	Rhode Island	107	Kerry
6	Hawaii	106	Kerry
7	Maryland	105	Kerry
8	New Hampshire	105	Kerry
9	Illinois	104	Kerry
10	Delaware	103	Kerry
11	Minnesota	102	Kerry
12	Vermont	102	Kerry
13	Washington	102	Kerry
14	California	101	Kerry
15	Pennsylvania	101	Kerry
16	Maine	100	Kerry
17	Virginia	100	Bush
18	Wisconsin	100	Kerry
19	Colorado	99	Bush
20	Iowa	99	Bush
21	Michigan	99	Kerry
22	Nevada	99	Bush
23	Ohio	99	Bush
24	Oregon	99	Kerry
25	Alaska	98	Bush
26	Florida	98	Bush
27	Missouri	98	Bush
28	Kansas	96	Bush
29	Nebraska	95	Bush
30	Arizona	94	Bush
31	Indiana	94	Bush
32	Tennessee	94	Bush
33	North Carolina	93	Bush
34	West Virginia	93	Bush
35	Arkansas	92	Bush
36	Georgia	92	Bush
37	Kentucky	92	Bush
38	New Mexico	92	Bush
39	North Dakota	92	Bush
40	Texas	92	Bush
41	Alabama	90	Bush
42	Louisiana	90	Bush
43	Montana	90	Bush
44	Oklahoma	90	Bush
45	South Dakota	90	Bush
46	South Carolina	89	Bush
47	Wyoming	89	Bush
48	Idaho	87	Bush
49	Utah	87	Bush
50	Mississippi	85	Bush

As a regular reader of the "Economist" I can confirm that this table (for the 2000 election) was indeed published in the 'Economist". However, a few issues later on, the 'Economist' published a retraction, saying the data was unable to be verified and possibly a hoax."

"i was bored last night, so curiosity got the best of me and i decided to see if there was a correlation between %bush voters and %college grads by state (nerd!). so i found out each state's %Bachelor's degrees from the census and ran it--indeed there was a negative linear relationship between %bush voters and %college grads (R = -0.71)-- which means, the less % of college grads, the more % bush voters. DC had the highest % of college grads (42.5%) and the lowest % of bush voters (9%); West Virginia had the lowest % grads (16.1%) and a relatively high % (56%) bush voters...... Interestingly the last 14 ranking states in grads (<22%) were all bush winners (many 55-60+% voted for bush), and 11 of the top 14 ranking states in grads (>30%) were kerry winners."
Here is a conservative site that appears to debunk the original 2000 election IQ chart thing, and has a lot of relevent information.

When I heard the first radio spot promoting the series "The Greatest Canadian" on CBC it got me to thinking about the question. Who is the Greatest Canadian.? At the time the CBC was screwing around Don Cherry and it sounded like he would not be back on Hockey Night in Canada in the fall. This turned out to be true but not for the reasons one would have expected. I remember thinking at the time how much of a Canadian Icon Don has come to be over the years, and how I would have chosen him when I got a chance to vote.

When the show finally aired, the top 200 Canadian’s voted in by the average Jonny Canuck, was counted down on the tube. I happened to stop on the CBC during a channel surf. I started watching at number 33 ‘Gordon Lightfoot’ mostly out of curiosity and because I like some of his tunes like ‘Black Day In July’ and ‘If I could read your mind love’ or was it called ‘get it back’? Next came Michael J. Fox, Pierre Berton, Rick Handsen, Jim Carrey, General Sir Isaac Brock and commercial. A strange thing started to happen at this point, I started to feel a pin prick of National Pride, not a in your face were the best type of pride but a quiet subtle kinda pride. Like a sense of belonging to a really cool club or looking at a job well done. Commercial over and the list continued, Celine Dion @ #27, Dr. Norman Bethune, Nellie McClung, General Sir Arthur Currie and the ‘Rocket’ Maurice Richard. I remember thinking after each name was announced ‘that one should have been higher on the list’. Harold Rogers, the founder of the Kinsmen Club came in at # 22. I remembered riding in a bike-a-thon when I was 9 to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis sponsored by the Kinsmen Club. I had never heard of Harold until now and he was a Canadian! Unknown Soldier, Mike Myers, Bobby Orr, Shania Twain, and Stephen Lewis at #17 now theirs a selfless guy I thought again he should be higher on the list. At this point that pin prick of national pride was morphing into something more. A sense of identity and belonging was beginning to take shape. I wanted to go out on my front porch and yell ‘I am Canadian’ like on the Molson’s beer commercial. But like a true Canadian, I resisted the urge to wave my flag. The list continued, General Romeo Dallaire, shouldn’t he be higher than #16? Peter Gzowski, Neil Young, Stompin’ Tom Connors, Jean Vanier, and Louis Riel at #11. Commercial, WOW I was dumb founded, so many great people cut from the fabric of this country and the top 10 were still to come. For the next 10 weeks each of the top 10 are presented in a 1 hour segment. I have watched 5 of them and tonight I had to cast my vote. I just watched the episode on Terry Fox, a 1 legged 23 year old selfless man who ran 5,376km for others. To date his efforts have raised over 350 million dollars for cancer research! The Terry Fox Run is held in 60 countries around the world every year.

There are a lot of other great names on this list but I don’t think any of them better represents the selfless, quiet, modest, gritty, determination that Terry Fox possessed. My Vote for the greatest Canadian hands down. Cast your vote here. 

"I just wish people would realize that anything’s possible if you try. Dreams are made if people try"

~Terry Fox

I have had the pleasure/misfortune of attempting to explain this at least a dozen times and never have the complete answer I want handy. So instead of having to hunt the info down I am just going to republish it. This one is for you Jean. Enjoy!

How blogs work in 7 easy pieces 

"The gang over at Streamline have blogged a great primer describing how blogs work. Excellent stuff."

How Blogs Work in 7 Easy Pieces Click on the diagram to get a full-size, non blurry image and scroll down for details.

Summary of How Blogs Work in 7 Easy Pieces

1. Joe Blogger writes something and publishes it to his blog.
2. Joe's Blog system updates his site's HTML, updates his RSS file and sends a 'ping' message to the 'Aggregation Ping Server' indicating that his site has updated.
3. Search engines like Google and RSS specific services like Feedster, Technorati and PubSub periodically ask the Aggregation Ping Server, "Which sites have updated?".
4. Since Joe's site sends pings and has an RSS file and is easy to update frequently, Joe's search engine rank is higher than a 'normal site'.
5. Techie Teresa uses a program called an RSS reader to subscribe to Joe's site. The RSS reader checks Joe's RSS file for updates periodically (usually once/hour or once per day) and notifies her of Joe's updates. Teresa no longer wastes time manually surfing Joe's site. She just checks her RSS reader.
6. As a result, Teresa's information flow is more efficient and she can monitor more sites in less time.
7. Joe Surfer (who is not related to Joe Blogger) still can access blogs the old fashioned, slow and less efficient way using his web browser and search engines.

Notes (for those who care about details):

1. This is typically done today using a web browser and clicking on a button I have generically labeled "Publish". It will vary depending on the system used. e.g. Blogware and MovableType uses the word "Save" instead of Publish, Radio uses "Post to Home Page", etc. Most blog systems also allow you to update your blog via email.
2. Blog systems automate the creation of web pages, linking together pages and archiving old pages and creating and updating the RSS file. So bloggers don't think in terms of 'pages' or HTML, they think in terms of posts (short chunks of writing such as 'once upon a time...' because the blog system takes care of creating HTML pages out of multiple posts. This allows bloggers to concentrate on writing rather than technical site creation.
   
   There are other syndication formats. RSS is just the most successful. Atom is a syndication format that is new and gaining momentum.
   
   RSS was popularized by blogging but there is no reason why non blog sites can't have RSS files. In fact a lot of non blog sites like the New York Times, the BBC, etc. have RSS files as well.
   
   The first aggregation ping server was weblogs.com. Now there are many more such as blo.gs
3. It's more complicated than this. I have glossed over the technical details but that's what happens from a high level.
4. Rather than waiting weeks or days, to re-index a site, search engines re-index blog sites much more often (sometimes within minutes for Feedster, Technorati and PubSub) since they know right away when the site has updated. This leads to a more accurate search results and a higher search engine rank. So Joe's search engine rank is higher simply because he sends the 'ping' message and updates an RSS file without Joe having to manually register his site on search engines or hire an overpriced search engine optimization firm.
5. We recommend Bloglines (free hosted solution like Hotmail for RSS), NetNewsWire (Mac) and FeedDemon (Windows) for your RSS reading needs but there are plenty more!
6. If you want to make more money or care about getting the latest knowledge first, then an RSS reader (despite their crudeness; RSS readers and blog systems are at about the 'Visicalc stage' of evolution to use a spreadsheet analogy, the Excel of blogs and RSS readers will emerge in the future!) is an essential tool in your toolbox.
7. Blogs are normal websites. The only 'magic sauce' is the RSS file and the pings and the fact that blog systems automate the tedium of archiving, constructing HTML pages and linking them together. Otherwise they are identical to any other website so even people who don't know about RSS can access them and use them.

OTTAWA - “Kemosabe”, the name given to the Lone Ranger by his friend Tonto in the 1950s TV western “The Lone Ranger”, is not a racist term, a Canadian court has found.

The ruling was delivered by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal last week in a case involving a native Canadian woman who complained that the manager of the store where she worked had created a poisoned environment by calling her kemosabe.

The manager of the second-hand sports store, in Sydney, Nova Scotia, argued kemosabe was a term he used to address customers as well as employees.

The court ruling confirmed a earlier decision by a Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission board of inquiry. That decision was made after the board spent a full shift watching “Lone Ranger” reruns.

Full Story

Thank god our legal system was on top of this. Whew!

I can now call you 'Kemosabe' when ever I feel like it, so get over it!