My brilliant brother Mike says: I think that being a public broadcaster (or public anything) and making smart decisions are pretty much mutally exclusive. Being a public broadcaster is about being dumb yet accepting that being dumb is OK because it is for a good cause.

For some reason, the red dot is experiencing a sudden coalescence of popularity: witness The Globe and Mail and Kotex, both of which have built ad campaigns are the symbol.

My mother asks: Can you direct us to any other examples of Tom Hughes’ work? Look at IdeaLab’s home page. Tom designed all of the nice looking logos on that page, and none of the ugly ones.

I was a member of the Information Technologies Association of PEI for a year. I stopped being a member after I attended my first annual meeting: I showed up at the Elfin-Pekeha Room to what could have passed for a meeting of the board of IBM in 1952 — everyone was dressed in the same grey double-breasted suit and they all looked Very Serious. I stayed for 15 minutes.
It was much the same experience that caused me to abort my jog down the path towards becoming a kindergarden teacher: I liked the work, but I could never picture myself hanging out in the staff room for 40 years with my fellow students — people whose primary rationale for going into teaching was a fondness for their own school days.
All of whch makes it slightly more ironic that I was contracted last year to consult with ITAP on matters which included the design of their website, which was generally recognized by the members as needing some updating. The problem ITAP was having was that they couldn’t figure out an equitable way of choosing which of their members would get the contract to redesign the site (who does the Chefs Association get to cater their meetings?).
My suggestion? Take all of ITAP’s members and put them up at Dalvay for 3 days with all the gear and facilitators they need to cooperatively design their website together. Why? You solve the problem of who to choose by choosing nobody. You build fraternity, with the suits set aside, among members. And, more than anything else, in one experience you create something which showcases the Island IT industry’s primary calling card: the ability to marshall the collective powers of a bunch of micro-companies into a nimble, enviable powerhouse.
I’m sorry to report that they didn’t take my advice, and the website remains much the same as it ever was. I wonder why?

Compare this to this. Spot the difference. I’m sure Simscape is a very good company — I’ve heard people say good things about them — but, honestly, from their corporate profile I come away having absolutely no idea what it is they do or why I would hire them over the next guy. Of course I suppose you could say the same thing about me. But I’m still wondering what a truly realizable opportunity is.

Kevin O’Brien joins the world of the weblogged today with the launch of KevinJOBrien.com, using software which is now officially named The Catherine Hennessey Engine.

My God Dell is good. I figure that over the last 5 years I’ve guided the purchase of about $100,000 worth of equipment from Dell for various of my clients. Dell servers run the www.gov.pe.ca, www.Almanac.com and the www.NewEngland.com websites, for example.
So it’s 7:35 p.m. here in Charlottetown, and I need to spec out a new server before the night is out. Oliver’s just had a bath. All the computer stores in Charlottetown are closed. I go to Dell’s website and price up a PowerEdge 2500SC. I’ve got some questions. I phone Dell’s toll-free number and talk to an account rep, who answer them all quickly. She then gives me a delivery date, and emails me a quote.
Everything I’ve ever ordered from Dell has arrived on time, and exactly as ordered (with the small exception of a missing SCSI cable a couple of months ago; forgiveable). They are quick, efficient, and friendly.
There goes the email gong — the quote has arrived. Off to purchase…

The court case Peinet Inc. v. O’Brien (c.o.b. Island Services Network (ISN)) reflects an interesting part of the history of the Internet on Prince Edward Island.

It’s only when you try pushing a stoller around for a week that you realize just how hostile we have designed our world for people who aren’t walking through doors on two feet. Oliver and I spent last week roaming in and around Summerside while Catherine was in hospital and I was shocked by just how non-accessible the doors of the city were.
We encountered everything from the front doors at the Linkletter hotel, with no automatic door openers at all, to the County Fair Shoppers Drug Mart which had broken automatic doors.
Worst of all, however, is the Blockbuster Video location in Charlottetown which has two sets of automatic doors going in, one of which is broken (leaving one trapped between two sets of doors), and no automatic doors going out (leaving one trapped inside the store).
Automatic door openers are readily available. If you run a business that doesn’t have them, please have them installed; if you don’t, you’re inconveniencing many people, turning away customers, and just plain not doing the Right Thing.

It occurs to me, as I sit here in my office with the din of Trinity United Church-goers leaving the Sunday service, that I have spent the vast majority of my life in very close proximity to one United Church or another. My only memories of ever actually having been inside a United Church, however, are at the funerals of my two grandparents in Cochrane, and one rainy Sunday morning when my parents decided to drag me through a muddy field to attend my first and only Easter service. I’m foggy on the muddy field part.