Quoted - on Microsoft

Attention: slightly geeky entry ahead.

Cool things continue to happen in my writer's world: I've been busy with press releases at work this week. I've written and released another one, and because it's about Microsoft, it's getting a bit of attention.

It's entitled VoIP Strategy Positions Microsoft to Compete in Telecom Market, Says IT Analyst Firm.

I'll post updates on fallout here:

• CFRA News Radio in Ottawa, Ontario just did an interview with me, and it will be on their CFRA Business@Night show between 6 and 7 p.m. (Eastern) tonight. The MP3 of the show will be downloadable from the site afterward.
• 7:00 p.m.: I just finished listening to the interview via streaming audio on my laptop. My Mom was on the phone - an interesting use of different communication technologies to bridge the distance. You can download the MP3 of the interview here. Scroll down to the entry entitled Biz @ Nite - Int. w/ Carmi Levy.
• 7:30 p.m.: Tom's Hardware is leading with this story, Microsoft may enter VoIP telecom market - analyst.

May 27, 12:45 p.m.: News travels fast, and far: Telecom Paper in the Netherlands has picked up the release and is running it under the following headline: Microsoft MSS 2004 R2 to help penetrate VoIP market. Problem is, the site is subscription-only. But hey, the Netherlands!

• BusinessWire
  
• Business Intelligence Network
• TMCnet. They ran the original press release. Now they're running it as a "special report" under one of their contributing editor's bylines. Funny, but I swear I said precisely the same thing in the original release.
• Freshnews.com.

May 28

• Yahoo! Finance (UK/Ireland). Second link is here.
  
• Monitor Today - Ottawa's IT Portal.
• InformationWeek.

May 30, 7:35 a.m. - More links keep coming in...

• wallstreet:Online (discussion posting...in German).
• Inbox Robot (news service for research professionals).
• AdvancedIPpipeline (via Networking Pipeline/CMP Media).
• etmag.com (via Tom's Hardware).
• CanadaIT.com.
• Communications Business Daily. Headline: Microsoft Said Ready to put its Brand on VoIP market. Link is behind a subscriber's wall, but this one is notable in that an IDC analyst was quoted afterward as agreeing with our position. The tables turn, ever so slightly.
• Globe & Mail (Canada's National Newspaper, via CCN Matthews).
• Talentum. Headline: Microsoft aikoo voip-markkinoille. Yes, this is what I sound like in Finnish.

May 31, 8:05 a.m.

• IT World Canada. Headline: Telcos should be wary of Microsoft's moves. (Free registration required.) This article was then picked up on the main ITWorld site, as well as Computerworld Australia, PC World Australia, ARNnet, and CIO.com (New Zealand).
• Global VoIP (listing via Topix).
  
• CRM Today.
• SINA.com. In Japanese.
• Lodestar.com. And Chinese.
• PChome.com. And in Taiwan.

June 1

• Telecom Redux. Headline: More on Microsoft VoIP plans. This article is somewhat analytical in tone, and affirms Info-Tech's position relative to that of IDC. The PDF is available here. Here's the intro:
• Second analyst says software giant is on the move. Watch out telcos...
• A second industry analyst company is backing the recent finding by IDC that Microsoft is gearing up for a major push into emerging voice over IP (VoIP) markets. This time, though, the software leviathan is cast as a telco competitor rather than collaborator.
• Chinabit.net.
• N24 (Germany).
• CTIforum.com (from China, I think.)

June 2

• PConline.com (Chinese? Can you read this?) ...Info-Tech高级研究员Carmi Levy认为，微软SharePoint升级版和即将发布的...
• Computerworld Hungary. Headline: Távközlés: Óvakodj a Microsoft-tól!
• Netzeitung.de (Germany). Headline: Microsoft mischt im VoIP-Markt mit

June 3

• VOIPRankings.com. Headline: Microsoft debates the VoIP market
• Some more Chinese links (someone please explain to me why I seem to pop up in China with such frequency.) a site, an RSS feed, a blog, China News, and China High Tech .

And Beyond...

• VOiP News and VoIP News Australia.
  
• Speech Technology Magazine.
• InternetWeek. A second link is here as well.
• Web Design Directory.
• VoIPmagazine.net.
• Networking Pipeline. Headline: Dial 911 for Microsoft? Another link from this source includes a story in which my name is misspelled as Carmi Levi. Hmm, when reporters can't be bothered to cut and paste correctly off of a press release, you really have to wonder how meticulous they are about everything else they write.
• IP Phone Ratings. Headline: Microsoft debates the VoIP Market VoIP calls.
  

Newsroom blog

Throughout my career, I've lived in two worlds: IT and media. When I first decided to forsake the world of journalism for that of technology, I thought the two were mutually exclusive. I saw myself as a bit out of my element no matter where I worked. In media, I was known as the geek. In IT, I was always "the writer" who didn't come from a pure tech background.

Over time, I've come to realize that the two worlds - and skillsets - are more closely interlinked than I ever thought. And as new forms of media - like blogging, for one - evolve in directions that cannot be fully predicted, we begin to see traditional media evolving as well to ensure they remain viable.

An excellent example of this comes from Spokane, Washington's Spokesman-Review newspaper. The editors there have just launched a blog called Daily Briefing, in which they share the results of the newsroom's daily editorial staff meetings.

Compelling stuff. Will this change the evolution of the newspaper? If so, how? If not, why not?

Music that plays in my head

John Schultz has tagged me with the following musically-themed questions. I normally don’t do taggings, memes, or any other interactive blogging thing. As much fun as they seem to be, I can’t seem to find the time to do them justice. This one was a little different in that I have been wanting for some time to write about the tunes that dance in my writer’s head. Thanks, John, for giving me that initial push.

The total volume of music files on my computer:

Um, lots. I have them backed up on CD, but I hate the noise the PC makes when the optical drive spins up. So I leave ‘em on the hard drive and play them from there. Best guess, 30 gigabytes and counting. I know, bad Carmi.

The last CD I bought was:

You mean you can actually buy CDs? Kidding! The last disc I bought was by Canadian singer/songwriter Amy Sky. In case you don’t know, our country grows female musical artists on trees. We are truly blessed.

Song playing right now:

Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me?) by Simple Plan. Beyond the fact that this band is from my hometown of Montreal, this song is significant in that it underpins Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s 2005 spring marketing campaign. As you know, we’re heading into the grad/prom season where teenagers will die in ridiculous numbers due to their inability to understand the simple need to separate consumption of alcohol from operation of a motor vehicle. They are, after all, immortal. This song proves otherwise in a poignantly-paced dirge.

Five songs I listen to a lot or mean a lot to me, in no particular order:

• One of Our Submarines by Thomas Dolby – a haunting tune of distance and loss. It proved to the world that the “She Blinded Me With Science” guy was a musical genius, and not simply a one-hit wonder.
• Halcyon by Chicane – it’s an instrumental trance tune, and in and of itself is not especially memorable. But it was the song I was listening to on the morning of September 11, 2001, and as such is indelibly burned into my memory of that day. Music has a way of doing that. What songs are tied to major events in your life?
• Let Go by Frou Frou – this song featured prominently in the (Zach Braff) Garden State soundtrack. It reinforces our need to chuck convention and simply live as fully as we possibly can.
• Kissing in the Rain by Patrick Doyle & Tori Amos – this song was lifted from the score of the Gwyneth Paltrow/Ethan Hawke remake of Great Expectations. Rarely does a song so perfectly match the storyline. This time, it does. And it soars as a result.
• Ordinary Miracles by Amy Sky – the one song that defines what being a parent is all about. When I hear this tune, I’m instantly able to see our youngest son picking his own clothes, getting himself dressed, and achieving all of those miraculous milestones of childhood for the very first time.
• And You Thought I Was Joking by Color Theory – Brian Hazard is a classically-trained one-man band whose music grows more compelling with time. In an age where overproduced non-talent rules the charts, it nice to see a great songwriter cranking out music of substance.

(I know that’s six tunes. Sorry about that: I had trouble editing the list down.)

I’m not quite sure what I do with this tagging thing now (I know, I need a life.) Your turn: If you’ve got a musical inkling to answer these questions on your own blog, please leave a comment and a link below so visitors here can follow your musical choices home.

Quoted - IM

ComputerWeekly.com in the U.K. is running this article, Messaging: Instant Profit, in which I share a thought on IM's place at work.

If my experience with Instant Messaging at home is any indicator, I'd just as soon turn it off. Let us reiterate the Golden Rule of IM once more: if you have something to say, feel free to say it, because IM is a wonderful way to close the distance. However, if you don't have anything real to say, then inane and repetitive messages - think four dozen variations on "Hey, how are you doing?" - do little to advance the cause of humankind.

Said he as he once again put MSN Messenger into Appear Offline mode so he could actually get a bit of work done.

Your turn: What's your take on IM? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Discuss...

The journey begins...

We've all learned that every journey begins with but one step. In this case, it's the turn of a little guy's foot on the pedal. May all his journeys take him precisely where he wants to go. May he learn early on that you learn as much along the way as you do when you get there. And may he always have someone beside him to help show him the way.

My one Star Wars entry

I will risk universal geek-wrath by stating my overall disinterest in anything related to Star Wars. Sure, when the original film made its debut in 1977, it represented a new benchmark in special effects. It was also a pretty good, if hopelessly simplistic story of good vs. evil. Just perfect for a kid of that era, and palatable, even, for tagalong parents (come on, Carrie Fisher with the danish on her ears...one never forgets that image!)

But time has moved on. And as George Lucas accumulated ever-increasing wealth, his focus on successive generations of CGI technology pulled him away from the simple stories that made the original such an enjoyable cinematic romp. In short, the stories got lousier with time.

Time out: I don't deny Mr. Lucas's positive impact on the technology of special effects. He has been extremely generous in making much of his groundbreaking work available to the general entertainment community. Regardless, his storytelling skills have eroded with time. These days, his storytelling is about as entertaining as a stuttering parrot's. I've digressed long enough. Back to our story...

Lucas's journey into mediocrity begat a whole new generation of satire flicks. The Internet has made it cheap, easy and fun to share the results with the rest of the world.

The latest example, Grocery Store Wars, is a rather bizarre take on why organic vegetables are better than frankenfoods. It's hokey film making - just like Star Wars used to be. And it'll make you think twice the next time you cruise your shopping cart through the produce aisle.

Pull up a cucumber and watch it here. Do it soon before the litigious Hollywoodites call their lawyers and have this site pulled down.

BTW, thank goodness this is the last flick in the series. The world can only take so much, wouldn't you agree?

Publish Day - thinking in 64 bits

Good news from the word world: Processor Magazine has published my latest opinion piece on technology, Are You Ready For 64-Bit Migration?

Now that I think of it, I'm actually not as ready as I thought I was. But more pressing matters - like getting ready to take my bike for an early morning spin - await. Sometimes, technology simply needs to take a back seat to the simpler things in life, like cruising along a riverside bike path, chatting with friends.

This is CNN...

...and it truly sucks this evening.

Clearly, the biggest news of the day is the big Batman movie premiere. The world waits breathlessly for the release of yet another overhyped Hollywood blockbuster. The planet's truly important issues must be temporarily sidelined while hordes of fans who cannot otherwise get a date rush to the theatres so they can buy overpriced tickets, stuff themselves with overpriced (and really unhealthy) popcorn and watch a movie whose every scene was preordained by focus groups who were fed similarly unhealthy fare in exchange for their valuable opinions.

And if this isn't enough, they leave a glaring spelling error in the link to their "other" top story (see pinkish box on the right.) And don't even get me started about the next story, Mrs. Bush differs with White House message. Sorry, but since when does Mrs. Bush's political opinion matter? What constituency elected her? Oh yes, she was never elected. But to CNN, what she thinks seems to be news. Journalism at its finest, folks.

Yeah, James Earl Jones is probably rethinking his "THIS...is CNN" gig right about now. And this is what half the planet turns to for news? Give me a break.

My question to you is: Am I the only one who sees the total lack of journalistic merit in what this self-proclaimed paragon of news coverage is putting out?

Please discuss...

(I'll leave Fox News for another day...this focus on CNN has polluted my brain and this site enough for one night.)

The week ends

Here in the Great White North (Canada, where we all live in igloos and have beavers for pets), the end of this week heralds the arrival of the Victoria Day weekend. Monday is a statutory holiday, except for Quebec, which celebrates the Jean Poutine Festival instead, where everyone who supports a sovereign Quebec eats a giant poutine for breakfast before heading off to the depanneur (convenience store to the rest of the planet) to play the scratch lottos and clean them out of their beer inventory.

Which is all well and good, but has relatively little to do with how my work week ended barely an hour ago.

I was busy trying to get through as much work as possible before leaving. Long weekends are great, but they simply mean five (plus) days of work crammed into four. So before I knew it, I was one of the last people left in the building.

When it finally dawned on me that it was beyond late, I went to get ready for the bike ride home. When I came back to grab the last couple of things from my desk, the message light on my phone was on. I hesitated for a second because I really wanted to leave, and didn't want to get involved in any more work. But I reached for the phone and logged into my voicemail box.

I'm glad I did, because a very small voice spoke very tentatively into my ear:
"Hi Daddy. It's Noah. I miss you. Bye."

I left immediately and rode straight home for a very cuddly hug from a sweet 4-year-old. Work will simply have to wait until next week.

Awaiting its fate

While cycling home from work yesterday evening, I passed four old homes that were in the process of being demolished to make way for, what else, an office building. After thinking the scene deserved to be captured before it disappeared forever, I remembered I had my camera in my bike bag.

I slowly walked around the fenced site and filled the camera's memory card, trying to capture tiny elements of the buildings that I thought I'd want to remember later on; things that today's architecture simply can't reproduce, even if it wants to. It occurred to me as I packed the camera away and started rolling home that soon, the buildings would exist only in that form. Although I was going to be late getting home, I was glad I stopped.

This window, looking out over the setting sun, was probably a good place for whoever lived there to curl up and read a book in the dying light of the evening. The light will always shine at that spot, only what's eventually built there will never have the same poetry or meaning as what's there now.

Publish Day - hockey lessons

My column in today's London Free Press is entitled Knights make our hearts swell. I wrote it after the hometown hockey team won the Ontario Hockey League championship. In light of the NHL's cancelled season and uncertain future, I thought the London win was a refreshing example of sportsmanship and community involvement.

Given my longstanding cynicism toward team sports in general, I was pleasantly surprised with the direction that this piece took. I'm hoping it will be similarly well-received by proud Londoners.

I've got a few questions for you in light of this:

• Does the Knights win change your perception of hockey in general?
• Can a positive regional league experience influence the so-called big league to get off its duff and solve its problems?
• Given the success of so-called smaller-market sports franchises, are we better served by having no "big leagues" at all?

I've been picked up (updated)

The writing thing gets cooler still...

CRM Today has picked up my analysis of last week's CRTC ruling. Click here to see it, here to see my original blog posting, here to see the release on the wire, and here to see it posted on Info-Tech's site.

Update 12:45 p.m.: The Lycos Quote.com service has picked it up as well. Click here to see it. I'll add additional links here as they appear.

Update: May 18, 8:30 a.m.: Montreal daily newspaper La Presse is running this story - Téléphonie Internet: la compétition s'aiguise (Internet telephony: the competition sharpens) - based on an interview I gave yesterday. It's in French, and to get at it you might need to register on the site (free), but it's neat all the same. If you're in Montreal, please ask my parents to buy a copy of today's paper :)

And again...May 23, 2:12 p.m.: The press release was run here by CableCaster Magazine (yes, I read them all.)

And yet again...May 26, 12:30 p.m.: The press release was run here by ArriveNet.

Still more...Telecom Policy Report integrated the press release into this piece, Canadian Telco Says VoIP Ruling Won't Deter New Launch.

Literary quote

"A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you."
— Daniel J. Boorstin

---
So my questions to you are simple:

• Is the book, as a physical form of delivering and consuming literature, dead?
• Are downloaded ebooks going to take over from their paper-based ancestors?
• Why? Why not?

Vacation images - Noah, relieved

Another in an ongoing series of pictures and stories from our grand driving adventure to Florida late last year.

I took this picture of Noah on our now-famous (well, for us, anyway) boardwalk walk through the wetlands (click here and here for my earlier entries on this.) What the picture does not capture is my immense feeling of fatigue after having to carry said little man from the absolute furthest spot on the boardwalk to a really distant portable bathroom beside the parking lot.

He picked that moment, when we were furthest from land, to inform me that he had to pee. Of course, I couldn't have him simply wiz over the side - that's kind of a no-no in a protected, ecologically-fragile area. So I scooped and ran, breathlessly asking people to make way as I desperately tried to get to the magical loo.

When we were done, I slowly walked back with him to meet the rest of the family as they made their way back. Before they got there, I captured him here. As I took the picture, a complete stranger passed us and oohed and aahed over him. "He's soooo cute," exuded she as she slowly walked past and stared at him. Noah smiled shyly in agreement, and another memory was made.

In those few quiet minutes while we waited to meet up with everyone, we chatted about alligators and how they wouldn't make decent housepets. I stopped at every sign and read each one to him. Even though they were technically meant for adults, I turned each one into a story, and he was enthralled. It was a really brief slice of time, and I wish there were more of them.

Shattered

Security glass is stunning when it does its job, don't you think?

Now I'm an analyst

I don't often share the details of my 9-to-5 job in this venue because, frankly, I don't think you'd all be all that interested in my written perspectives on IT and mid-sized businesses. For the record, I'm a senior research analyst at a technology research firm.

I'm going to make an exception this time out because I like how it turned out, and thought you might like to have a peek at what I do in real life.

Here's the story: After spending Thursday afternoon and evening lying on the couch and trying to coax my insubordinate body back to health, I checked my e-mail after kids'-tuck-in and noticed that the CRTC (Canada's government agency that regulates all things in telecommunications, otherwise known as Big Brother) had handed down a ruling on VoIP telephony. It had been expected for a while, and represented a fairly significant piece of news for this market.

Our PR department had asked me to comment. I'm never one to keep quiet when asked to share my opinion.

I analyzed the decision and wrote up a comment on the announcement - to try to help our client base figure out what it means and how it may or may not affect their IT-related decision making. After reading it over, I really liked how the message resonated. It has been released to the wire here, and has also been posted here on the corporate web site, but I've included it here as well:

---
Attention Business and Technology Editors

For Immediate Release

CRTC VoIP Ruling Comment

Impact on Mid-Sized Enterprises Expected to be Minimal

London, ON – May 13, 2005 – The impact of yesterday’s CRTC ruling on the regulation of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) will not have a direct, near-term impact on mid-sized enterprises, according to leading information technology research firm Info-Tech Research Group.

“The ruling is very clearly focused on residential, consumer services,” says Info-Tech Research Group Senior Research Analyst, Carmi Levy. “However, the ruling does set a precedent for delivery of business-specific services, and the regulatory environment that will evolve around these services in the months and years to come.”

“With that in mind, CIOs and IT managers would do well to examine the specifics of this decision,” says Levy. “It will serve as a harbinger of things to come as traditional telcos and newly-empowered upstarts turn their attention to business-focused offerings.”

Levy believes that anything that fosters a greater degree of competition will ultimately benefit whoever consumes these services. He says the CRTC decision’s core goal is to facilitate an optimal degree of competition between traditional telecommunications companies and newer competitors who are trying to establish a foothold in local telephony service.

“The CRTC decision will level the playing field by forcing the incumbent telecommunications companies to apply for permission to change rates – while newer competitors like pure-play VoIP provider Vonage and cable providers like Rogers will be able to charge whatever they wish without any regulatory approvals,” Levy says.

“In the longer term, the CRTC has made it clear that its goal is to pull back from regulation as each market becomes sustainably competitive,” says Levy. “This announcement represents a stopgap measure by the CRTC to give smaller competitors a bit of breathing room as they work to establish their own positions in the rapidly growing VoIP market. As competitive critical mass is attained, Info-Tech believes it will be in consumers’ best interests to let the market determine what vendors are able to charge.”

Without this announcement, incumbent telecommunications providers would have had more power to leverage their dominant position in the local telephony market. They would be been able to use predatory pricing as a siege tactic against the newer competitors. This announcement will tie the incumbents’ hands to a certain extent. It is hardly a fatal blow to their future prospects, as they possess the resources to creatively identify and pursue viable market opportunities in the wake of this regulatory decision.

About Info-Tech Research Group

With a paid membership of over 25,000 worldwide, Info-Tech Research Group is the global leader in providing information technology research and analysis to the mid-sized enterprise market. It is North America's fastest growing full-service IT analyst firm.

-30-

Carmi Levy is available for interviews at [snip] or via e-mail at [click the link on the blog, instead]. For general media inquiries please contact ... Info-Tech Public Relations.

Cool site of the day - ads etc.

A colleague sent me a link to a cool site, Topix. It uses a pretty freaky interface that may or may not blow up in your face if you're not using a pretty recent browser with all the Javascript goodies enabled.

Your challenge: visit the site, enjoy the experience, then pop back here and let everyone know what you think - how it works, how it navigates, how it feels. Also see if you can find the Pillsbury Doughboy/Got Milk spot. Very cute stuff!

Work in the news

My place of employment, Info-Tech Research Group, was featured in today's Toronto Star (Canada's largest daily paper, if memory serves.) The article's entitled How to spot a good thing and build on it.

I take a certain amount of silent pride in the fact that my research and writing contributes to this. OK, maybe it's not so silent.

Anyway, coverage is always a good thing. I'd best get back to cranking out more intelligent-sounding words so that this article is followed by additional ones. More later, I'm sure.

Annals of parenthood

While filling the car with gas this morning, I happened across a scene that saddened me immensely. I was taking our youngest, Noah, to a dentist's appointment when I realized two things: we were running ahead of schedule (frightening...I'm never early for anything) and the gas tank was approaching empty.

Cheapskate that I am, I also noticed the station up ahead was selling its horrifically polluting petrochemical product for around 4 cents/litre less than anyone else. I did the time/cost math in my head and pulled in.

Noah bantered to me through the open window as I topped off the tank. As I finished with the pump and went around the car to fetch him so we could go inside and pay, I heard a commotion as a father emerged from the little store/cashier's building. It played out like this:

Crying young daughter (around 5, I guess): "I want a toy."
Father: "We don't have time. Next time I might buy you one."
Daughter (not moving from her spot in front of the building): "You promised."
Father (walks briskly, alone, to the car. Calls another driver a 'shmuck' for accidentally opening his car door in his path. Other driver apologizes; shmuck statement hangs in the air): "If you don't come here right now, I'll let all these cars run you over."
Daughter: Waaaaaaaa.....

After a few seconds of this little standoff, the father walked back to the girl, abruptly grabbed her, walked her back to the car, deposited her roughly through the open front passenger window into the front seat, and went around to his side. No child seat, no booster, no seat belt.

I am ashamed that I did nothing. But my instinct to protect my own child won over my wish to possibly get involved with a clear-cut nutcase.

I held my little guy closer as we went inside. He hugged me back and kissed me. The cashier smiled broadly at us and commented about how sweet he was. Some blessings just can't be understated.

Webcam voyeurism

When you spend your days researching and writing, you end up devoting copious amounts of time to searching the Internet. Most of what is out there is pure, unadulterated fecal matter. Your mission is to sift through said sewage to identify the nuggets worth writing about. It's not glamorous work by any means - for that you need to know how to lip sync on past-their-prime sketch comedy programs - but it certainly beats sifting through the real stuff.

Sometimes you come across a resource that seems to have no logical reason for existing. But for some reason you find your eyes drawn to the screen like Lot's wife to the city of Sodom or, more recently, Uncle Duke to Daisy's, um, attributes.

As hard as you try, you simply cannot rip your gaze away from the surreal scenes unfolding before you, so compelling are they to your psyche.

Such is the case with this site. A colleague sent it around earlier today. I have no idea why it was built. Perhaps to showcase this company's fine assortment of network traffic utilities. Who knows. Who cares. The truth of the matter is it's fun to watch a series of webcams showing people at work.

The site includes some fairly extensive choices for cameras, angles, and other features. It's best viewed during business hours (the company's located in the U.S. Central time zone) because that's when the theoretical rats in the office maze are most active.

Watching the obese guy chomp down on a burger at his desk was especially priceless.

Warning: addictive.

Out of the mouths of babes

The scene:

Shopping mall parking lot this past weekend. I've taken the kids to pick up a Mother's Day gift for my wife. Their mission is to make sure we get something she likes. The side mission is, of course, to give Mom a bit of quiet time at home.

Little guy Noah is frowning as I help him out of the minivan. I know the look. It's the "I'm tired so you need to carry me" look.

Sure enough, once he's on the ground, he reaches his arms up toward me and says:

"I'm really not much of a walker."

He's 4. I pinch myself, then scoop him into my arms and carry him into the mall.

Apparently, little people do speak like adults more often than we suspect.

Flowers for Mother's Day

It's unfortunate that the calendar only has one day set aside to thank Moms for all they do and all they are. They really do deserve more.

So no matter when your browser happens to come across this entry, give your Mom a call just to say hi. Or someone else's Mom: they're all worthy of a little TLC in return.

Another oddball headline

Thank goodness for headline writers with senses of humor. I posted this on the blog last month. And now comes another juicy collection of words, courtesy of CNN: Woman beats off burglar with gnome.

I won't even begin to discuss the possibilities.

A family, destroyed

The Detroit Free Press ran this article in yesterday's paper, Swerving SUV wipes out promising lives, and this in today's edition: Man charged with murder in car crash. A mother and her two young sons were killed when a man whose alcohol was tested at 0.43 (no, that's not a typo) drove his SUV at 70 mph into the family's Honda. He didn't brake; just ploughed into them and ended three lives in the process.

The tragedy has left a husband and a father wondering why - his life and his world shattered.

I can't begin to understand what motivates people to drink and drive. But I have written about it in the past, that every time I kiss my wife and kids goodbye as they drive to school in the morning, I worry about what someone like the now-charged drunk in Michigan might do to them.

I have no words. Only a deep-seated anger against the people who commit these monstrous crimes, and the laxness of society that allows the carnage to continue. I only hope there is justice beyond this world, for nothing the State of Michigan can dole out will ever reconcile what this man did to this family.

---
Update 05/07/05: Media outlets in the Detroit area continue to run followups to this tragic story. I'll post them here as applicable:

• Driver tests at over 5 times alcohol limit
  
• Police: SUV driver sent home drunk from work
• Legal Issues: Intoxicated worker may be a liability for company

Update 05/08/05: And more...

• Mother and sons celebrated: 2,000 say good-bye at a funeral not about death
  

Never forget

Zach and I attended a ceremony at our synagogue this evening to commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

He sang with his school choir while other children read off the names and ages of some of the victims. Never mind that the sheer number of victims, 6 million murdered by the Nazis, would take years to read off. The numbers are too enormous to comprehend, and time does nothing to change that.

What stuck in my mind was that each child had a story, a life, a world. In all cases, they were brutally cut short by individuals who, driven by hatred, decided they had no right to exist.

It can happen again if we let it. But by continually shining the light on its roots, we stand a fighting chance of avoiding the mistakes made two generations ago, when thew world stood by for too long and did nothing.

Tonight, Holocaust survivors and their families participated in the ceremony, no doubt opening old wounds as they recalled their own experiences during that time of incomprehensible hell. But I couldn't help but feel encouraged that my child and his friends were learning the lessons of the past so that our future will be somewhat less stained.

---
Update - Readings: The Toronto Star's Rosie DiManno is in Poland to cover the 60th anniversary commemoration ceremonies. As always, she is riveting in her prose:

• A survivor returns to Auschwitz (May 5)
• March of the Living a silent protest (May 6)
  

Wirelessly blogging the space station

I'm sitting on a rock a few meters from my front door, staring into the inky black sky at a dot that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I say "seemingly" because I knew precisely when and where it would appear.

See, I'm watching the International Space Station fly over my house. I periodically go outside when the NASA tracking software says viewing opportunities will be favorable, crane my neck skyward and hope I didn't misread the data.

There's no logical reason why I'm doing this. Already a couple of neighbors have driven by and given me weird looks, wondering what a guy in a trenchcoat is doing outside with a glowing notebook computer on his lap and a similarly glowing PalmPilot beside him.

The fact that I am sitting here on a lonely rock, typing this as the craft zips 350 km over my head at some 28,000 km/hr doesn't accomplish anything tangible and doesn't contribute to the advancement of humankind. But it makes the unreal seem somewhat more real and the distantly magical somewhat less distant - but no less magical. It's one of those little non-routine things that you can do over the course of an otherwise routine day, one of those things that makes you stop and mumble "cool" under your breath.

I hope you find similarly neat little things to fill your days as well. Life wouldn't be the same without them.

Publish Day - following your dreams

I got to do something really cool in my latest London Free Press column: I interviewed a former colleague who's building a musical career while still managing to work full-time - and balance a family life as well. Her pursuit has always struck a parallel chord in my mind, probably because words are a lot like music, and the folks who create both tend to share a deep-seated wish to get them out there where they can do some good.

The column is entitled Shelly Rastin living her musical dream. It's not often that a chat on a park bench with a friend leads to something that's not only publishable, but inspiring. Lucky me.

BTW, her web site can be found here. Further proof that following your bliss is a good thing to do.

Have these instead

My long-suffering wife has had to deal with my habit of taking pictures of food practically since the day we met. I feel for her - I really do - but I can't seem to shake this photographic-culinary addiction. Food is simply too much fun to not capture in pixels.

There isn't anything scientific or planned about this one. I thought it was neat how the eggs bunched themselves together at the bottom of the bowl. We always think of them as uniformly round, but the way they're arranged suggests a more complex, straight-line-formed shape.

I was also able to capture this without risking my grocery-aisle shopping privileges, which is always a good thing. Still up in the air is whether she'll allow me near the kitchen with a camera in my hand. Time will tell.

The New PL - not so new

This just in...

London has one broadcast television station*, known as The New PL. Its title is a bit of a joke given that it's had this title - or brand, as the televisionaries like to say - for years. Its newness wore off long ago, yet the ridiculous name persists. Worse, affiliate stations in sparsely populated outposts sport the same idiotic branding, right down to the logo. Way to save money at HQ, folks.

So it comes as something of a relief that the Big Bad Owners in the Big Bad City have announced plans to rebrand their TV properties in this part of the world.

Sure, the news will still be a joke, staffed by reporters who have difficulty enunciating and wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in purgatory of succeeding in any other market. And, yes, the schedule will still be populated by Dukes of Hazzard reruns and anything with Pamela Anderson (Lee? Who cares anymore?)

Here's the announcement, pulled off of Canadian Press - Canada's real newswire service. I've taken the liberty of sharing my thoughts in embedded editorial comments. Enjoy:

Six stations in Ont., B.C. to take A-Channel name

TORONTO — CHUM Television will rebrand six local stations in Ontario and British Columbia as A-Channels for the fall 2005 television season, officials announced today.

The company said the five southern Ontario stations slated for revamp included The New VR in Barrie, The New RO in Ottawa/Pembroke, The New PL in London, The New WI in Windsor, and Wingham's The New NX; while The New VI [can you see a pattern here? - ed.] in Victoria, B.C., would be the sole Western station included in the plan.

The stations' local mandate would remain unchanged [so we can continue to run them as cheaply as possible - ed.], officials said. However, in rebranding them as A-Channels, they would share a common name and creative elements, allowing CHUM to take full advantage of promotional opportunities [and save incredible amounts of money so we can spend more on limos and cheese for our execs in Toronto - ed.]

"Using a single brand name for the stations [has allowed us to slice six creative positions at our headquarters, opening up more budgetary flexibility for the aformentioned cheese and limos - ed.] opens tremendous national cross-promotional opportunities across our media assets [blah, blah, blah...your PR/hack instructor would be so proud that you came up with that on your own - ed.] that are unavailable when operating under six separate station names," said spokesman David Kirkwood in a release. [He forgot to mention the colors in the current cross-chain logo were starting to give the chairman migraines - ed.]

The reformatting would give the company a total of six A-Channel and five Citytv stations [and would also give viewers in all affected markets even less choice than they had before. Did anyone notice that not once are viewer benefits mentioned here? Bless the 500-channel universe!]

CHUM Television, a division of CHUM Limited (TSX: CHM.NV.B), owns and operates 33 radio stations, 12 local television stations and 21 specialty channels across Canada [and would own even more if the draconian Canadian government didn't constantly stick its fingers into Canada's cultural industries. Damn them - ed.]

-30-

---
* I realize Rogers Television also has its own hometown cable access channel. But it's not technically a broadcast outlet because it's cable-only. Oh yes, and the book lady weirds me out when she interviews people. So I try to avoid watching. Besides, who has time to watch television anyway?

What passes for news

By now, the entire world knows about Jennifer Wilbanks. They know she faked her kidnapping because she was nervous about her wedding. They know she lied until she could lie no more. They know she was the only person to fly the friendly skies on Saturday with a multicolored towel on her head.

CNN led with this story for much of the day on Saturday. Her sad tale occupied the coveted top spot on the snooze network's web site. They even ran a Big Red Breaking News banner at one point. On the telly, they repeated the same inane walking-through-the-airport video for the entire day while everyone and his/her dog called in to comment. As if she hasn't milked it enough already, she's already booked on Jerry Springer (hopefully not after the chair-flinging, vertically-challenged circus acrobats with really bad haircuts.) Oh yes, she also received donations from some of the law enforcement folks who helped her. Wow, such news.

Some perspective might be in order:

1. This wasn't headline news. Not even close.
   
2. This shouldn't have even been a kicker on the local fake news.
3. Real resources were wasted while more worthy problems in the world remained unsolved. This commentary touches on some of the fallout.
4. America wouldn't be America without race popping into the equation. This commentary rightfully touches on a true disappearance involving a young woman who happens to be African-American.
   
5. It does make for funny satire. To wit this piece from the site Unconfirmed Sources.

Finally, her now-famous fiance, John Mason, has some thinking to do. Perhaps this, this, and this might help him navigate the coming days.

I hope they donated the food from the cancelled 600-person wedding to a worthy charity. That's pretty much the only good that could come from this pathetic affair, and this ridiculous show of misplaced journalistic priorities by the media who covered this so-called story.

The vanishing video store

Entertainment is rapidly evolving to the demands of an on-demand world. We no longer buy CDs at music stores and rush home to listen to our new find. Instead, we download a few tracks, then listen to them immediately on our PC before dropping them into our iPods, where they will promptly be forgotten.

Renting movies will also head in this direction before too long. Online-only models are already starting to make their first halting Web-based moves, while hybrid services like Netflix are off to a fast start.

It's easy to see the appeal: no more trips to the video store. No more bumping into rude customers while you look for a watchable gem in the middle of what always seems to be a pathetic set of choices. No more stooping to see the almost-invisible selections that are placed on the shelves closest to the floor. No more late fees (OK, Blockbuster fixed that one, but...), surly, lip-pierced employees, overpriced snacks, and any other come-ons that make the video store such a maddening place to shop.

But when the cold, wet weather dried up enough earlier today for me to get the kids out of the house, a walk to the Rogers video store was just what our munchkins needed to get some air and get ready for a Saturday night at the movies at home.

They ran straight for the kids section as soon as they got through the door and excitedly compared notes over what they were going to get. Normally-rude customers smiled and gave them room as they bounced from one aisle to the other. They changed their minds at least half a dozen times before settling on their final two choices. Explaining to them that the Family Guy wasn't appropriate for kids - despite its innocuous cartoonish packaging - took longer than I expected.

After patiently waiting in line, they proudly handed their choices to the cashier and waited quietly for Dad to pay for it all. Absolutely worth it, I thought as I watched their little faces waiting for the cashier to hand back their newfound prizes.

As we started for home, a few light drops of rain threatened to make it a miserable trip. But the heavens held off as they carefully examined the movie boxes and spoke about how much they were looking forward to watching them. We arrived home ready for a pyjama party on the living room floor.

I'm not sure any download service could ever come close.

Red Railing

I recently took our little guy to a birthday party here. While he was munching on pizza, I started observing the architecture of the building. I do that sort of thing all the time. When I'm standing around doing little else, I often stare at the most minute details of my surroundings to help pass the time and keep my brain churning. I usually come up blank, but every once in a while something grabs my eye.

This time out, I had the camera (duh), so I captured this simple composition on the staircase. Concrete block construction reminds me of elementary school. It takes me back to when I was small, and reminds me that interesting visuals can come from the most surprising places.

A couple of quick funnies

Trillian has a rather welcome habit of finding some of the funnier bits floating around the Internet. She graciously shares them, too. This one - What should I do if the Internet goes down? - resulted in one of those laughing fits that has so endeared me to my colleagues.

Mark Rayner is another comedically-gifted writer who never ceases to find a new way of looking at the world. This time out, he laments John Sloan' failure to win the papacy earlier this month. Even if you don't know these folks and weren't aware of the furious pre-conclave campaigning, it's enough to once again touch off a workplace-interrupting fit of laughter.

Quoted - National Post (!)

The good news is I've been quoted in Canada's National Post newspaper. The article is entitled Abandoned buggies litter the Internet, and it was published last Friday (April 22nd).

In the article, I share my thoughts on web site shopping cart abandonment. It's one of those unseen costs that can really damage an organization's bottom line, and all because too little attention has been paid to the end user's/client's web site experience. You'd be surprised how easy it is to prompt someone to bail on an online purchase.

The bad news is it sits behind the paper's subscription wall. The link above will take you to the purchase page where you can read the headline and lead paragraph. To get it all, you can either buy the copy electronically, or find a copy at the library. I've done both, but I'm a bit too stacked up with work these days to spend the requisite time with my scanner. I'll try to get to it over the next couple of days so I can post snippets here.

Apparently, the coolness of a writer's life continues.

The legacy we leave

My wife and I attended a funeral today for a young mother who passed away very unexpectedly. It goes without saying that this is a tragedy beyond words. It also goes without saying that it leaves us all wondering about the worth of our own lives, and what we will all, individually and collectively, leave behind for the generations that follow us.

I had no answers as we walked back to the car to head home to our kids. All I could do was hug them, hard, when we came through the door.

At the end of the day, what we leave behind transcends the material. Our legacy lies in the spirit we share with those around us. If you are a parent, let your children know that you love them beyond words. If you're not, do the same with family and friends. Maybe that's all we can do to ensure our time here somehow serves a higher purpose.

Pop cans...again

For some odd reason, lots of people looking for pop cans via the major search engines have been coming to the site. I realize it is not my place to question the inexplicable algorithms that govern how the words I write are parsed by a search engine spider. My sole response is to post yet another (not very good) picture of, yes, a pop can.

This one, incidentally, is the first picture I ever took with a digital camera (I know, such a thrill.) It's about five years-old, and was taken during one of those insufferable corporate/divisional picnics that we all hate, yet feel compelled to attend for the sake of our careers. This time out, I magically found myself saddled with official photographer duties. For some reason, the role follows me around like a magnet wherever I go.

Perhaps my new strategy the next time I'm "asked" to take pictures at one of these will be to fill the memory card with close-ups of the well-tended lawn, upside-down views of the BBQ, and photographic surveys of the potato salad and cole slaw.

Drink up!

What season is it?

It's been difficult to tell these past few days. After we spent the early part of last week in shorts and t-shirts, Mother Nature decided we had used up our allotment of good weather, and promptly brought back some reminders of winter so that we wouldn't get too cocky.

Note to Ma Nature: you've made your point. You're the big meteorological kahuna. We get it. Now can you please turn the heat on again?

As I tap this out on my Palm (will sync it in the morning...it's too cold for me to find my slippers and go downstairs to turn on the router), my window is filled with a Norman Rockwell-esque scene of lovely, softly-lit architecture masked by blowing snow and dancing tree limbs.

Problem is, I'm not in much of a mood for Rockwell. I want to go biking with the kids and not worry about one of them coming home with fewer fingers than when we left. I want to not have to haul the winter gear back out and wonder where my left boot went. I want to stop shovelling my walk because it's late April!

If this keeps up, I'll be taking the car to work in the morning. I know, heresy.

There, I feel better. I guess I've been away from snowy Montreal for too long. I've succumbed to the Southwestern Ontario malaise known as weatheritis. Woe is me.

Losing our hair

It has become something of a tradition in our house for me to take the boys for haircuts. I do so with more than a little anxiety, however, for I still harbor a deep-seated fear that I will somwhow ask for the wrong kind of cut, and our two beautiful boys will return home with monstrously deformed heads of hair.

But it always seems to magically work out because the ever-changing roster of women (yes, just try to find a male barber in this town...not gonna happen) still manages* to understand my stylistically-challenged instructions.

A number of things dawned on me as we repeated the ritual:

1. The lady at the front will manage to misspell all of our names, this despite my repeating them at least twice, and spelling them for her in that really...slow...voice...that you use when you realize the person on the other end of the conversation isn't tuned to the same station as you.
2. The magazines will be older than your kids. They will be missing pages. The ones that remain will likely have crayon all over them.
   
3. There will be one children's book on the coffee table in the waiting area. For an assessment of its condition, please see #2 above.
   
4. Another child will be reading this book as you arrive.
   
5. The only thing your child wants to read is, you guessed it, that book.
6. Thankfully, you loaded some bedtime stories on the PalmPilot. Crisis averted.
7. Your children will need to pee. At least twice. Not at the same time.
8. They will need to go really badly, just as soon as the actual haircut begins.
9. Your children will speak to each other, not loudly or rudely, but they will be heard.
   
10. You will be glared at by everyone because of this.
11. The only seat available will be immediately adjacent to the wall of overpriced hair care products with the cheeky-sounding names.
12. The overweight woman whose coat sits on that one remaining seat will pretend to look away as your four-year-old son makes his way toward the seat.
13. He will ask in his loudest, most innocent voice why that lady isn't being polite.
14. He will then sit there anyway before smiling at her, speaking gently to her, and generally charming the pants off of her.
15. You will be charged a crazy amount of money for 10 minutes of work with a cutter and trimming scissors.
16. A ridiculously small fraction of said money will actually go to the hairdressers in question.
17. They will each regale you with stories of how lousy it is to work there.
18. On your next visit, half of them will no longer work there.
19. On the visit after that, neither will the other half.
20. You will return home with two freshly-shorn boys. Mom and sister will eagerly greet us all at the door, and we'll all be thankful that we have what we have.
    

I know, in the end it's just a haircut. But every experience in a child's life leaves a footprint. Don't forget to remember what those footprints look like, or what it felt to leave them in the first place.

---
* Yes, this is correct grammar.

Publish Day - Of Chinese ThinkPads

I wrote this piece for Processor Magazine after IBM announced it was selling its PC operations to Lenovo, a Chinese manufacturing giant. I've got a bit of a soft spot for IBM's ThinkPad laptops, because I went through more of them in my insurance career than I care to admit. It was always a bit of a cool thing to get the latest and greatest model - not that staid old insurance companies ever bought leading edge, but whatever we got was better than what our cubicle-neighbors had, and that was all that mattered.

I shuttled ThinkPads to and from the office on the back oy my bike, and toted them on planes, trains and automobiles. I even accidentally dropped one down the subway stairs once. Eventually, it became a normal thing for me to have a black slab of technology wherever I went.

So I felt I had to write about the significance of this iconic brand. I hope every market always has a ThinkPad somewhere to give everyone else something to shoot for.

A subtle shift of power

My week has been marked by two diametrically opposed concepts: fear, and support. First, the good stuff, because it matters more.

Support: Yesterday's column has unleashed a wonderfully warm flood of niceness from readers. I also continue to be deluged by calls from friends and family. Everyone's so concerned and so caring. That's pretty much all I need to know that the world is still a cool place to be.

Fear: I still find myself looking over my shoulder as I ride. Every car I see that matches the individual's vehicle causes my blood pressure to spike until I see the license plate and verify that it's not his.

But what stands out in my mind is how support must - and does - trump fear. I won't be cowed by anyone, much less a bully. He had no idea who he was dealing with when he decided to get out of his car and play the testosterone card.

On the off chance that he read the paper, learned my name, Googled me and found this site, I have this message for him:

Now that you know who I am, I hope you appreciate that I have no intention of backing down from seeing that every last option available to me as a victim of a violent crime is leveraged. You will pay for your mistake in so many ways, and you will do so simply because you chose to let your rage override whatever sense of logic you may have. Society finds this conduct unacceptable. Take some time to accept that, or find somewhere else to live.

Had it dawned on you when I read back your license plate number that I was going to legally nail your sorry rear end if you stepped over that line, you wouldn't be in this pickle now. I pray for anyone around you, for I'm certain your conduct was not an isolated incident. I hope your family members, colleagues and friends are safe in your presence, and I hope they, too, have the courage to charge you for whatever abuse you may rain down on them.

I very much look forward to seeing you in court, to staring you down and letting you see just where the power balance now lies. You thought you had power by virtue of your size and your anger. You were wrong. For the next few months, it will be your turn to feel fear; the fear of losing so much because you were incredibly stupid. I hope you'll learn something from this, but I doubt you're remotely capable.

 Related entries:

• Quite the adventure... (What started it all, published April 18)
• Paranoia (The day after, published April 19)
• Publish Day - of bikes and idiotic motorists (The newspaper column I wrote, published April 20)

Publish Day - of bikes and idiotic motorists

Note from Carmi: If you're just joining us, this entry refers to the newspaper column I wrote after being smacked in the face by a road raging motorist earlier this week. The other blog entries in this series are:

• #1 - Quite the adventure... (April 18)
• #2 - Paranoia (April 19)
• #3 - A subtle shift of power (April 21)

Enjoy! Now, on with the journalistic show...

I hope someone in London reads his newspaper this morning. He might be not-so-pleasantly surprised to discover he's made the Op-Ed page. My column, Add irate motorists to cycling dangers, is in today's London Free Press.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to e-mail me with your thoughts and kind wishes in the wake of this unfortunate incident. I'm happy to share with you that I'm perfectly fine, and am looking forward to seeing this individual be called to account for so violating the basic rules of society that are in place to protect us all.

This isn't even close to being over, and I'll keep you all updated as this moves closer to its logical conclusion.

Here's the published piece:

Add irate motorists to cycling dangers
Published April 20, 2005
The London Free Press

I ride my bicycle to work for a lot of reasons: save money on gas, preserve the environment, and get in shape. I hardly expect to be assaulted along the way.

But that's precisely what happened earlier this week, and that's precisely why I think it's time motorists and cyclists get real about their respective roles on London's – and any city's – roads.

My morning started out like most weekdays. I was cruising on a bike path, minding my own business and trying to keep out of harm's way. When I noticed that an approaching motorist was looking the other way while his car rapidly approached me, I yelled, loudly, for him to watch out.

Now, when you're on a bike, the first order of business is to ensure you are seen and heard. Drivers are surrounded by a few thousand pounds of steel, plastic and glass. Cyclists aren't. A minor fender-bender to a driver could be lights out for the cyclist.

The car braked quickly, and I continued past. The story should end here, except my newfound friend apparently decided I needed to be taught a lesson. He pulled onto the road, opened his passenger side window and began to berate me. Much of what he said can't be printed in this newspaper. But he did mention how he felt bikes shouldn't be allowed on the road.

I waved my hand and told him to go away. I am many things, but my lack of height, weight and musculature, combined with my general bookish nature have kept me out of fights for my entire life. Until then.

Things went from bad to worse as he exited his car, confronted me, and, after ignoring my requests for him to get back into his car, he punched me in the face and knocked my glasses to the ground. Note to Mom: this is why I always wear my helmet.

The police officer who responded was as professional as can be. What I remember most was how he gave me the option of letting this person off with a simple warning, or of pressing a charge.

I hardly have the time or the energy to put up with the hassle of going to court. Beyond my pride and some sting on my face, I wasn't really injured.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how differently this could have ended up. Had there been a weapon, or had this individual decided to continue his attack, I'd be writing this from a hospital bed. Or not at all. I decided the cycle that drove this individual to this point needed to be broken.

Clearly, I came across someone who doesn't think cyclists deserve their rightful place on the road network. I beg to differ, and Ontario's Highway Traffic Act, which defines a bicycle as a vehicle subject to the same rules as a car, is on my side.

But no amount of legislation can do you much good when a stranger threatens you with bodily harm. That there are those around us who would allow themselves to so rapidly lose control is frightening to my very core. And I simply cannot let it go.

All I'm trying to do is get to work in one piece. The fun factor is somewhat reduced by the number of Type A motorists who think nothing of yelling at me as they ride by. If I had a dollar for every time a driver has told me to get off the road, I'd have enough to buy a car. The intolerance saddens me, because I'd like to think London drivers are somewhat more enlightened than that. Maybe I was wrong.

Somewhere out there, someone sits and wonders if he could have behaved differently that morning. Perhaps the next time he gets behind the wheel, he'll give the cyclists around him a little more room to maneuver, and a little more respect.

-30-

Paranoia

I'll admit I felt a bit nervous on the way into work today. As I rode my bike, I found myself scanning everywhere, looking for the guy's car and reading the license plates of any vehicles that matched the description. The idiot was nowhere to be seen, but I still worried. He can't be pleased that I'm letting the charges go forward. It'll cost him in so many ways, and I worry that he'll target me as the source of his newfound ills.

This got me angry. Why should I feel vulnerable? Why should the victim feel like he no longer has the right to safely wheel his way to the office?

Then I thought about the zillions of e-mails, calls and visits that I have received since the news broke. I can't thank you all enough for your kindness. It means more to me than I can say here. That matters infinitely more than the sour grapes of a dork who can't control his temper.

Physically, I'm fine. My face stung for a bit during the day, and I was ultimately OK. Psychologically, I'm a bit freaked by it all. I still can't believe that someone had the temerity to so thoroughly lose control, to wait for me, to leverage unmitigated power over me, and to physically assault me.

It bothers me immensely that this can actually occur, and I keep questioning whether passivity was my best strategy. As I was cycling home yesterday, past the spot where it happened, I thought to myself why I simply didn't accelerate into him while he stood in the middle of the path. A bike at 35 km/h would have sent him to the hospital, and I could have simply called it an accident. My blood pressure spiked as I visualized revenge scenarios, going back in time and being an even bigger SOB than my aggressor.

But then I realized I was being stupid. There's no sense second-guessing myself. I did the best that I could in a challenging, rapidly-evolving/de-evolving situation. There's no way I could have had any material influence on the outcome when this individual was so far gone. Taking the legal/moral high ground, and letting the justice system - and my very sharp pen - do its thing is the best thing I can do.

Time will render this yet another footnote in what has thus far been an interesting, rewarding life. My toolset of experiences grows thicker, and the chapter that was opened for me yesterday will continue to be added to over the course of the next few months. I'll be sure to share many of those words with you all on my site.

(Speaking of which, watch for tomorrow's paper...should be fun!)

Related entries:

• Quite the adventure... (What started it all, published April 18)
• Publish Day - of bikes and idiotic motorists (The newspaper column I wrote, published April 20)
• A subtle shift of power (published April 21)

Quite the adventure...

...on my way to work this morning. I made the mistake of yelling at an inattentive motorist before he turned me and my bicycle into a giant hood ornament. He stopped in time, and I continued on my merry way, satisfied that my "Hey, Watch It" had done its job.

Problem was, my new buddy wasn't finished with me yet. He lowered his passenger-side window and, while driving alongside, swore a blue streak at me (impressive vehicle control while ranting, I must say.)

He then sped ahead, turned into a driveway, got out of his car, and waited Clint Eastwood-like in the middle of the bike path. He stood nose-to-nose with me, ranting about what an [unmentionable body part] I was. After repeatedly - and, shockingly, in a calm voice - advising him to walk back to his car, it dawned on me that I was in trouble, and he was really going to hit me.

Which he did, knocking my glasses off and causing me to see red. Given the fact that he outweighed me by at least 50 pounds (hey, I'm a writer, so size has never been my thing) and I had never (before today, anyway) been in a fight, I stood pat while he turned away and walked back to his car before driving off. When the shaking subsided, I grabbed my cell phone out of my bike bag and called 911.

I recall a bizarre sense of disconnectedness as I told the dispatcher that I had just been assaulted by a motorist. Then my mind raced as I played the scene through my head time and again.

The officer who arrived was incredibly professional, and took me through the process with expert care. I hesitated when he asked me if I wanted to lay a charge. Part of me thought I should just let it go, that I couldn't be bothered to pursue the matter because little more than my pride had been injured. Then the self-righteous journalist in me kicked in: no one has a right to lay a finger on anyone else. Had he been carrying a weapon, or if he had decided to continue whacking me, things would have turned out a lot worse than a sting on the cheek.

People don't learn lessons if they're allowed to walk. People learn lessons when they're held accountable for their actions. This guy, apparently, will.

Related entries:

• Paranoia (The day after, published April 19)
• Publish Day - of bikes and idiotic motorists (The newspaper column I wrote, published April 20)
• A subtle shift of power (published April 21)

What is cool?

I must be getting old and conventional, because what passes for entertainment in my life seems to be getting more mundane as the years roll on. Even more surprising is how little this disturbs me.

For example, we spent a quiet evening at home last (Saturday) night. After we tucked the kids in, my wife read a book on the couch while I propped myself nearby and wrote on my computer. At around 9 p.m., I tuned into NASA-TV to watch coverage of the Soyuz TMA-6/International Space Station docking.

For the next couple of hours, I watched the celestial show in the corner of my screen while I worked away on another piece of not-quite-award-winning prose. The lights were dim, and the peaceful, blissful quiet of the house was broken only by the static-laden chatter from Moscow, Houston, and points far above.

A couple of weeks ago, the kids danced around the kitchen when they came home to find our new dishwasher, installed and (silently) churning away underneath the kitchen counter. Our old unit had unceremoniously given up the ghost a couple of weeks earlier after years of increasingly cantankerous performance. If it wasn't waking the neighbors, it was returning load after load of still-dirty dishes. Those days are, thankfully, gone.

So this is what our life comes down to: a Saturday night devoid of anything remotely resembling coolness, and a family celebration around the arrival of a new appliance.

We wouldn't have it any other way.

Road rage redux

Imagine you're driving along, minding your own business, when a Type A personality comes out of nowhere, tailgates you, pulls out, cuts you off, and almost causes three separate collisions before disappearing in a cloud of tire smoke over the horizon. What ticks you off more? The fact that you almost got killed, or the fact that you're powerless to do anything about it?

The truth of the matter is aggressive driving causes injuries and deaths that really should never occur. Sure, no one really cares if the road rager himself (it's usually a guy, after all) wraps himself around a telephone pole and proves Darwin right by removing himself from the gene pool. But what if said moron takes an innocent victim with him? What then?

I've always wished recipients of road ragers' attention could do more than idly sit by and watch the fireworks display while their safety literally rests in the hands of an idiotic stranger. When a leisurely ride on my bike last summer was interrupted by a dangerously aggressive driver, I published the guy's vehicle type and license number here. Granted, it's just a blog that's read by around a hundred people per day. But the catharsis I felt at not being so powerless, at being able to zing back in some small way, was priceless.

Now, Calgary police are taking a similar approach. If you're victimized by a road rager, call the cops and give them the license number. They'll write a letter to the registered owner of the vehicle. It's no solution, for said owner can always deny he/she was at the wheel. But it turns the tables ever so slightly in favor of the victim.

The bleeding heart Alberta Civil Liberties Union has problems with this program, saying there are privacy implications associated with how this information is used and retained.

Boo hoo to them. I'll argue that when I've got my kids in the back seat and someone decides to play motorized chicken with my family's life, his right to privacy or any other control over his precious information can rightfully be tossed out the window. Road ragers, you've been warned.

Return to the produce aisle

It's been quite some time since I ventured into the supermarket, camera in hand, and grabbed some surreptitious shots of whatever was on the shelves.

Why I do this is simple: it's different. I learned from a young age that watching people as they go about their daily business can be a fascinating pursuit. My mother called it "people watching" and she introduced it to me while we would sit on a shopping mall bench waiting for my father to pick us up.

Over time, I noticed that most folks fall into fairly set patterns of behavior. People don't talk to each other. Their eyes are fixed forward, their smiles replaced by expressionless faces. They don't seem to enjoy - much less notice - what's going on around them.

So I figured carrying a camera into the produce aisle - or wherever else in this fluorescent-bathed pantheon of commercial activity - would shake people up a bit and force them to look at their own world a little differently. If I got some good pictures in the process, so much the better.

So I present the loveliest bunch of radishes I've seen in months. And I hope you find the time to do the same in a store near you. Your fellow shoppers might thank you.

One more thing: Click here to jump to another radish-themed post, published February 2007.

Bedtime story

Zach was too excited to fall asleep tonight. After finishing his homework and taking his bike out, he successfully rode it up and down the street in front of our house. For anyone who knows where we live, he cruised from the mailbox to our driveway - about 6 houses worth.

He still has a bit of work to do on steering, but he'll get there.

After he came back into the house, he went upstairs to get ready for bed. While he was changing, he called down to my wife, proudly telling her he had "Daddy's after-bike smell." I'm going to hope he means that fresh-air-through-the-clothes scent, and not the God-awful grunge of a ride home on a blisteringly hot day. Over time, he'll come to appreciate everything about his newfound mode of transport. He's already off to a great, happy start.

We watched the Soyuz Expedition 11 launch while getting ready for bed. As I tucked him in, I propped the laptop on his desk and we watched the craft finish its burn and settle into orbit. The screen cast an ethereal glow over his darkened room as he wrapped himself in his blanket and watched the otherworldly scene unfold. He asked what seemed like a million questions about the craft, the mission, and the peope onboard. I love his curiosity about his world.

Finally, the coverage ended and I shut the laptop down as I gave him a last kiss goodnight; the end to a momentous day filled with what I hope will be lifetime memories for him.

Expedition 11 leaves the planet

As I write this, the Soyuz rocket carrying the Expedition 11 crew to the International Space Stations sits poised on the launchpad in Kazakhstan. I'm sitting in my rocking chair, watching my children not sleep, with NASA TV coverage of the launch running in a small window in the corner of my laptop screen.

My daughter alternates between playing on the living room floor and occasionally running over to breathlessly ask if the rocket has launched yet. Not yet, sweetie, but soon.

Somehow, the ability to bring this incredible event home like this is nothing short of magical.

If you read this in the next 10 or so minutes, the media feed can be found here. I suspect they'll have additional coverage from this address in the days to come.

This media thing becomes odder, still

So I'm sitting at the office minding my own business, writing some tech stuff and generally making a pest of myself, when the phone rings. It's my parents. This can generally mean one of the following, related things:

• Someone has died.
• Someone is sick.
• Something essentially bad has happened.

Yet, as my mother begins to speak, I notice a distinct lack of dread in her voice. In fact, she sounds excited. Phew, my heart returns to its usual spot in my chest from the temporary location deep in my throat.

She speaks rapidly, telling me about how the host of a talk show in Montreal (some 700+ km from my home base in London) is talking about my most recent column. He's asking listeners to share their own experiences of losing a pet. My father chimes in in the background as he tries to listen to the show.

All my parents' friends are calling them, abuzz with the news that my faraway words have, thanks to the convoluted interconnectedness of the media world, landed on the airwaves across the hall from where I used to work.

If you've got speakers, feel free to log into www.cjad.com to hear what the fuss is all about.

Neat.

He rides

The wind was blowing fiercely as Zach asked if we could go back outside after supper. Day after day, he's been doggedly trying to ride his bike. Time and again, he's been laboring back and forth on the road in front of our house, endlessly fighting against the pedals, gravity, balance, and his own frustration. He's ridden up on the curb, whacked his shin and ankle against the pedal, fallen on the ground, and shed a few tears along the way.

But he's continued to push himself to get back on that bike. To try again. To not give up. To finally get it.

My wife and I have watched in awe as he's fought to become a real cyclist. We've stood by as he's gotten his balance for a tantalizing few seconds, only to stop himself out of fear. We've caught our breath as he's kept the pedals turning for longer than he ever has before. He's there, only he needs a few more turns before he believes it himself.

That fear will soon fade as he realizes he really can do this, and do this well. Our son is on the verge of expanding his horizons, of discovering a world that no longer ends at the nearest corner. I can't imagine being more proud of him.

Another Dvorak link (!)

More happy media news this week: My new-best-friend, CBS MarketWatch and PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak has linked to the blog again.

This time, he's picked up the Forbes article, IBM in Denial Over Lotus Notes, in which I was quoted (see earlier blog entry.) He even source-linked me. I think I should have him over for tea next time he's in town.

The link to his blog entry is here: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=1790

(Sorry for the exuberance. This is still so beyond cool!)

Vacation images - ducky revisited

When we drove to Florida last December, we did not deliberately set out to photograph ducks. For some reason, however, avian life seemed to cross our path with the regularity of a grandfather clock. In this case, we came across a family of scovie ducks cutely waddling across the road of my in-laws' development.

I was busy driving at the time, so I intelligently kept my hands away from the camera. Having my wife sternly repeat the phrase, "Keep your hands away from the camera," as I slowly drove our van past the happy ducks may also have had something to do with it.

But when I later came across the same family of birdies while on a morning stroll, I carefully approached and snapped away. Here, Dewey (he didn't run away when I called him that, so I'm just assuming that's his name) shows me his (her?) perching technique. For the record, this one didn't become our dinner. Not kosher.

Oddball headline

Often, while writing an article for publication, writers like to put cheeky headlines at the top of the page. It makes them smile, and it helps provide focus while they write, edit and shape the piece. When the article is finished and is ready for submission, the writers usually replace the headline with something a little more usable.

Sometimes, they forget. When they do, editors almost always pick up on this and change it themselves. This is not always the case, and the result looks something like this piece, published last week on the ARNnet web site: Software fingers workplace bandwidth hogs.

Quoted - Forbes

My two cents made it into a piece in Forbes (!) this morning. The article, written by Daniel Lyons, is called IBM In Denial Over Lotus Notes, and my analyst's thought is right at the bottom (because I always seem to get the last word.)

I'll be ducking to avoid the IBM-zealot hate mail.

Publish Day - saying goodby to a pet

My latest column, Pet's death teaches kids about life, was published in today's London Free Press.

Thankfully, the kids seem to have adapted well to Shadow's passing. My wife and I, on the other hand, still have pangs of missing him. When we returned home from a weekend trip, we missed his incessant meowing at the door. Sometimes we think we see him around a corner. I find myself getting up in the morning, half-expecting him to be waiting at the bottom of the stairs so he can lead me to his food bowl. I guess it will take a while before we adjust to the emptiness.

Zach is already working on us for a dog. I think we'd have to be nuts to bring home another pet anytime soon. I'll entertain a turtle if they can still be legally sold in Canada, but that's about as far as I'm able to go right about now.

Looking back at almost 13 years of having our cat, what sticks out in my mind is how much compassion our kids learned from growing up alongside him. The way they played with him, held him, and touched him was so gentle and caring that you have to know they're better people as a result.

Sure, when they were toddlers they also rode him like a rodeo bull and yanked enough fur off of him to make new pillows for all of us (I'm only being hypothetical here: tell PETA to go home), but they always loved him in a way I simply cannot describe - you just had to sit and watch in wonder whenever they were with him. I'm glad they had him at this stage in their lives, and I hope we can similarly fill their lives with another furry friend sometime soon.

Return to flight approaches

I've had a busy writing week, and as such haven't had a huge amount of time to update the site. Lots of good media things are happening, too, so watch this space for links and news in the days to come.

I'm still working on a secure comment solution for the site. Please e-mail me any suggestions of anything that's worked for you. Now, on with the show...

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I'm taking my own advice and am peering more closely at the neat things in life.

This is a close crop of a much larger picture. I did not take it, but am including it here as an example of how we can see new things by adjusting our respective levels of zoom.

As Discovery moves closer to the launchpad, I suspect I'll be staring at more pictures, looking for more images we'd otherwise miss if we don't look closely enough.