Is Prince William a Beatles fan?

Journalism's an interesting profession. Even if you specialize in a particular space - in my case, tech - you tend to cast a wide net as you scan the planet in search of ideas. You never know where the next spark will come from, so it makes little sense to limit yourself just to the tech pages.

Which largely explains why I found myself watching two stories today that, at least on the surface, shouldn't hold much interest for a tech writer. If you're just joining us, Prince William announced his engagement to Kate Middleton, and Apple announced the immediate availability of the entire Beatles catalog via iTunes.

The cynic in me scoffs at both of these announcements. I'm very happy for Prince William and his now-fiancee. I wish them a life of happiness and health. Like anyone else (remember these words, please), they deserve their shot at happiness. I just fail to understand why the world needs to stop every time a royal decides to get married, get divorced, or simply stop by the side of the road to take in a particularly spectacular view.

I appreciate the great weight of history inherent in all things related to the monarchy, but I bristle at the way modern society deifies the royal family and turns even the most trivial life event into a cause celebre. Is there such thing as a point where it becomes beyond-trivial? Because if it exists, I think we may have passed it long ago.

By the same token, Apple was its typical hyperbolic self during the leadup to today's Beatles/iTunes announcement. The corporate website promised today would be a day we "would never forget." I must apologize for failing to fully internalize the deep, history-making significance of making a defunct-but-once-globally-popular band's music available online. If you're a Beatles fan, you no longer have to truck your middle-aged self to the soon-to-be-shuttered record store to buy, again, what you've probably bought four times previously.

So the royals now have renewed hope for future relevancy and Beatles fans enter the dawn of the iTunes era. For the rest of us, though, the kids still have to get to school, bills still have to be paid, and ordinary and extraordinary realities alike remain unchanged. Call me a curmudgeon, if you will (those meddling kids...) but I think I'd rather focus on the mundane, less headline-generating stuff closer to home.

Like anyone else.

More publishing...

I've been busy with my pen lately, which gives me a good chance to catch you up on things I've recently published, as well as a quick housekeeping change here at Written Inc. First, the new stuff:

Yahoo! Canada Finance:

• Size does matter when it comes to tablet products (published November 16th). I couldn't resist having some fun with the language, or tossing in a couple of gratuitous Goldilocks references. Bottom line is tablets are going to be huge, and 2011 is shaping up to be a pivotal year. I see lots more tablet writing in my future, but I'll start with this one.
• Is Microsoft a dinosaur? (published November 8th). Short answer is no, the company is anything but extinct. MS has, in fact, been doing some pretty cool stuff (hello, Kinect) to position itself for the post-Windows and post-Office world.

The Toronto Star:

• Move over iPhone and BlackBerry. Here comes Android (published November 5). Google's Android mobile operating system is now more popular in the U.S. than Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry. How did this upstart seemingly come out of nowhere to lead the market? The article explains all.
• I believe there's another print-only Facebook Messaging piece in today's paper - if any Torontonians have a copy and want to take a peek, let me know. Finding it in my 'burg is proving to be a cast iron, um, challenge.

Oh, the housekeeping thing. Almost forgot. If you look at the top of the blog, right below the banner, you'll notice a line of links...Home, About, Contact, etc. I've added links for Yahoo! and the Star here to more easily track my latest published work. I publish elsewhere, too, so I may yet add stuff in this space over the next little while. Let me know what you think.

Your turn: What bugs you about tech?

Foam as metaphor

Styrostack
London, ON
March 2010

You get the strangest looks from people when you lean in for an artsy-looking photo of styrofoam. They think you're a little odd-kilter. They don't necessarily have to say it. The look in their eye, the raised eyebrow, the slight catch in their voice: Yup, they clearly think you're weird.

Which is fine, because you wouldn't want to pass up an opportunity to entertain them. Life's too short to spend it sitting quietly within the crowd. Sometimes, you've got to get up and stretch your legs, even if it means getting some stares along the way.

This picture makes me more than a little sad. We've reached a point in our evolution as a species that we give no thought to what it takes to move stuff from one side of the planet to the other. We think we're technological wizards for merely having that ability, for being able to build supply chains that get the highest quality goods to our doorstep at the lowest possible price.

We don't think too much about the resources required to make all this happen. And as I stared at this styrofoam - which, in my neck of the woods, isn't recyclable, and probably demanded some seriously noxious materials and processes during its manufacture - I wondered if we'd ever return to the day when things were made close to home, and it didn't take a PhD in chemical engineering to get it to your doorstep unbroken.

Somewhere along the way, I fear we lost the script.

Your turn: Did we? Is cheaply made stuff from China going to kill our planet?

One more thing: It's not too late to share your black & white vision as part of this week's Thematic. Just go here to participate. We promise you no styrofoam will be harmed in the process.

Screw it

Phillips head
Laval, QC, July 2009
[Click here for more black white Thematic]

Remember the other day when I wrote about looking for things that no one else would (link here)? Well, our son, Zach, seems to have inherited the same gene, as he captured this closeup of a screw head during one of his shoots. He didn't need a reason to take it, which was the whole point of the exercise.

Because not everything needs a reason, and I hope my kids learn this lesson whether or not they've got a camera in their hands.

Your turn: Do you learn life lessons through your photography? Would you like to share one with us?

Facebook E-mail - Just Say No

The rumor mills are swirling at warp speed with news that Facebook is set to launch its own e-mail service tomorrow. The so-called Fmail (formerly known as Project Titan, or Facebook's Gmail killer) is seen as another front in the growing war between Google and Facebook for dominance of the web services world.

Why is this so important? I'll be overly simple: Because whoever gets more people like you and me to spend more time hanging out online with their particular services wins the right to see more advertising.

There's way more to it than that, of course, but a titanic battle is shaping up, and Google may find itself on a slippery slope if it doesn't play this one right. Pop some popcorn, pull up a chair and enjoy the show.

Your turn: Would you use Facebook Mail? I'll pre-bias the discussion here: I would, because I can't comment on or write about things that I don't use first-hand. But I wouldn't be happy about it. Facebook's spotty record on the privacy front gives me great pause. This is the company that allows third party developers to quietly scaff personal data from your Facebook account every time you so much as answer a question online. Are you really going to trust them with your personal - and increasingly professional - correspondence?

One more thing: I discussed this very issue on-air this afternoon with John Downs, host of Newstalk 1010's Sundays with John Downs. If you're a CFRB listener who tuned in and have dropped in for a read, welcome! As this is shaping up to be a major topic for the coming week, I expect I'll be writing about it in some capacity over the next few days. Stay tuned.

Something wicked this way comes

Building sky
Laval, QC, July 2009
[Click photo to enlarge. Click here to share your own black & white pic]

Remember when we were kids and we'd lie on the lawn for hours at a stretch, staring at the passing clouds and trying to guess what they looked like? Don't tell anyone I'm still doing this well into adulthood. Who says there's a threshold for wonder, anyway?

The day I took this shot, I wasn't lying on the lawn. I was in the middle of what seemed to be the largest parking lot this side of a Boeing factory or a Texas football stadium. It was a hot, muggy summer day that promised to turn into a late-afternoon thunderfest. As we waited for the atmospheric entertainment to play itself out, the skies looked so, I don't know, rich with potential. I knew something was going on up there, so I picked up my decidedly non-childlike slab of a camera and tried to remember the feel of the moment.

When I was finished shooting, I reviewed the results on my camera's screen and thought I saw my dog's head over there on the right. Maybe I was just imagining it.

Your turn: What do you see in this sky? Do you stare at clouds, too?

Sitting by the dock of the bay

Where no one looks
London, ON, May 2009

About this photo: Thematic Photographic celebrates black and white week. You can, too, simply by heading here.

Rules and photography don't exactly mix, at least as far as I'm concerned. There's a certain conventional wisdom among the point-and-shoot set that dictates the kinds of pictures that are and are not generally taken. Conventional wisdom subsequently results in conventional outcomes: Groups of folks staring at and smiling at the camera, head-on perspectives of famous buildings, the kind of things that ensure Cousin Sid's slide show will have us asleep within four minutes.

Don't get me wrong: There's plenty of opportunity for the smiling groups and the big, tall, iconic buildings, the birthday cakes and the pre-prom corsage pictures. But there's got to me more, too, because otherwise there are entire swaths of the planet that are completely ignored.

As an example, I'd like to present this loading dock at the back of a local mall. Shoppers don't give it a second thought as they rush inside in rapt anticipation of a new sweater that's more wanted than needed. Which likely explains why I'm drawn to it. Because it explains the background that makes the foreground possible. Because if I don't tell its story, no one will. That and I have no interest in telling the same story as everyone else.

Your turn: Taking pictures no one else does. Why?

Thematic Photographic 123 - Black and White

A place to sit and ponder
London, ON, October 2010

This photo launches a new theme and a new week for Thematic Photographic, our weekly photo sharing extravaganza. The theme? Black and white. The deal? Share a similarly themed pic on your site, then leave a comment here. Visit other participants. Repeat as often as you wish. And have fun with it, because that's the whole point.

As you mull over possible photos for this new theme, I hope you'll keep this in mind: Black and white isn't necessarily a color thing. Sure, you can go with monochrome shots all week and never run out of cool things to share. But you can also push the bounds a bit by, perhaps, not thinking in terms of colors at all. Black and white can be obvious. It can be contrasty. It can be stark. It can evoke a feeling more than a visual. Where you go with this is entirely up to you, and there are no rights or wrongs.

Your turn: If you're new to TP, click here for more background. If you're ready to dive in, I'll step out of the way and let you do just that. Enjoy. And thanks.

One more thing: This pic has a story (I know, I know...they all do, but still.) I may share it later this week if you wish. Let me know. This just in: I've posted the story here.

Please remember...

We have the lives we have because they sacrificed theirs. Something to keep in mind not only on November 11th, but on any given day of the year as well.

Your turn: How will you remember? Why does it matter to you?

Transmission ends

Fading light
London, ON, January 2009

About this photo: It's not too late to get in on the electric theme. Click here to see what everyone's talking about. Okay, maybe not everyone. Maybe just my kids and the three soon-to-be-ex-friends I've been harassing all week. Either way, you'll like the experience. New Thematic theme launches tomorrow. I think I'm leaning toward black and white.

Sunset makes me think of the day that's about to end and that we'll never get back. As I stare at the deepening oranges and reds that paint the sky in a brilliant yet ephemeral display, I ask myself if I made the most of the day, if I made it count. Indeed, it's what I encourage the kids to do whenever I send them off to school, and it's what I ask them when they're done: Did they make it count?

Regardless of whether they - or we - do or don't, the sun will eventually slip below the horizon, the sky will darken and the day will slip, quietly, into history. We can't control the sun, nor can we change our planet's rotation. So while our closest celestial bodies do their thing, it's up to us do to ours.

For most of us, the sun will rise again in the morning, giving us an entirely new, fresh opportunity to make it count. Another chance to seize the day and make it our own. To make it count.

Your turn: How did you make your day count today?

Hypertexting teens and me

According to a study released earlier this week by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, teenagers who send over 120 text messages per day are apparently more likely to engage in risky behaviors like drug use and unprotected sex. Who knew?

In fairness, the researchers said this doesn't imply a causal relationship. It simply draws a correlation that invites further study. Whatever: It makes for great headlines, and they certainly got lots of those from across the continent after they went public.

My take: Every generation has its own issues with new technologies, and every new technology comes with a dark side. Overuse anything and it, too, will potentially spawn some questionable outcomes. This should hardly be a surprise to any of us. We should also hardly be pulling phones from our kids' hands because their use will make them have sex and do drugs. It's not that simple.

I had some media fun with this one, speaking with CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian for a report that aired on the national 11 p.m. newscast (Report video here.) I also spoke with Priya Mann from 'A' News here in London, for a report that led off the London 11 p.m. show. Will upload video once I get it off my BlackBerry. (Update: Here's the video. It's also embedded below. I come in around the 0:50 mark. Enjoy the jumpiness.)

Your turn: Do teens text too much? Is this all needless hype?

Keep on truckin'

Coiled
Jennings, GA, January 2009
[Click here for more Thematic electric goodness.]

Our just-in-time economy has gifted us with highways clogged with 18-wheelers and motorists who feel their only option for survival is to buy Cadillac Escalades and Ford F-150 Lariats. Seriously, folks, Lariats?

It's rather amusing to witness the mindless logic of North American one-upmanship, the mistaken belief that size is good and lack thereof is not. But it is what it is, and the trend probably won't be reversing anytime soon. This never-ending superpower arms race of road weapons has a plus side, though: local Wal-Marts everywhere never run out of pool noodles and Timex Ironman Triathlon watches. G-d bless America!

Doesn't mean I can't sneak a peak at some colorful connectors when we're in the left lane. Don't worry: I wasn't driving.

Your turn: Finding the good in something that isn't. Please discuss.

One more thing: Another road trip looms ahead as I stare out at the still-sleeping city that used to be mine. I've been away from home these past few days, and I'll be spending a good chunk of the day shortening, and ultimately eliminating, the 735 km between me and my family. It's been good to be here, an important time to connect with friends and extended family. But it's time to go home.

Electric tablet

Apple sure doesn't need any additional marketing help from me. On the one hand, the company invents buzz in ways other companies can only dream. On the other, I write and talk about this company plenty. So why am I blogging about them?

Because this scene spoke to me when I first saw it. Because when folks step outside the box, they deserve to be recognized. Because this is the kind of marketing that makes you stop and go, "Neat". And so I did.

Look closely. All is not as it appears.

Your turn: Most ads are forgettable, but some rise above the crowd. Did you see an ad - in any form - recently or ever that stuck out in your mind?

Clickety clack

Freeze the countryside
Somewhere between Toronto and London, March 2009

Please note: This photo supports the Thematic Photographic electric week. What's a Thematic and how can you get involved? Glad you asked. Click here and all will be explained.

There are a few laws of photography and optics that dictate the futility of shooting out the window of a speeding train. I've never been one for laws or rules, anyway, so perhaps it's just as well that I ignored the scowls of the dude sitting across the aisle as I pointed my camera toward the speeding terrain. Maybe he wanted me to take pictures of him, instead.

Ew.

Weirdo passengers aside, it was a late Southern Ontario afternoon as I cruised home from a day in the big city. It had been a good day all around, and I was looking forward to reconnecting with my family, growing closer by the second.

As you read this, I'm on another road trip. Waaaaay before dawn today, I set out in my car for Montreal. I'm heading back alone because, well, no one lives forever, and sometimes you just need to be among friends. This entry will auto-post in the afternoon, and if the BlackBerry fairies allow it, I'll try to share some thoughts - and maybe a lousy smarthphone pic or two - from my journey.

I'm sure at some point I'm going to wish I'd been on the train instead.

Your turn: The appeal - or not - of solo travel. Please discuss.

Thematic Photographic 122 - Electric

Energy savers
London, ON, October 2010

If you're impatient, start here: Thematic Photographic launches its next week of fun with a new theme. electricity. If you're already well-versed on the insanity that is TP, post your pic, leave a comment here and have fun with it. If you're new to our weekly photo sharing activity, click here.

If you want the backstory, read this: Lately, electricity's been in the news fairly regularly here in Ontario. Government mismanagement (there, I said it) has resulted in skyrocketing baseline rates, coupled with a botched implementation of smart meters and a hair-brained layering of the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on top of it all. Stories of bills doubling and tripling are not uncommon. Citizens are ready to torch Queens Park, the Ontario legislature building.

To say we're being governed by monkeys would cast monkeys in an unfairly negative light. I hope our Premier and grand poobah, one Dalton McGuinty, watched the U.S. elections carefully last night. There may be a little foreshadowing going on.

Oops, I got political! Doesn't happen often, but when it slips out, far be it for me to snuff it out.

There, I'm good. So...electricity. Yes. Triple-digit bills are prompting many among us to look for ways to save. Replacing conventional filament-based bulbs with these compact fluorescents seems like a no-brainer. Same light for less than a quarter of the energy. Ah yes, but there's the dirty little secret of these bulbs, that they have a small amount of mercury in them, and as of now there's no recycling process in place.

No one ever said being green would be easy.

Your turn: Please post an electrically-themed pic on your blog or site, then leave a comment here so folks know where to find it. Remember: how you interpret it is entirely up to you. There are no rights or wrongs here, so if you want to stretch things well beyond the bounds of conventionality, go for it.

Oh yes, one additional wrinkle this week: kindly send the TP link to a friend. I'd like to see more folks playing along because, well, bigger is always better. And I know y'all enjoy this. Thanks gang!

Angelo bakes no more

Meltdown
London, ON, February 2009

The Angelo's market near our house abruptly closed its doors yesterday (news story). Rumors of trouble within the 4-store operation had been building for weeks. Two stores had already closed, but this latest closure leaves only the original location open.

This is the place my kids loved. This is where my cycling group used to stop for fruit juice and a chat on our Sunday morning rides. This was the local business that reminded us so much of the bakeries and markets we grew up with. In a whitebread city like London, where richly character-driven places like this simply don't exist, the loss of a business that stood out is an especially tough shot to the gut.

Some of you may recall that I wrote about this place last year (link here). I was out with the little folks, and we ended up having one of those encounters that they'll never forget. Caroline was the daughter of the founder, and I hope she's doing OK in the wake of this business mess. A lot of good folks no longer have a great place to work; I can't help but feel that our city has lost something significant.

Your turn: The difference between locally-owned businesses and chains. Please discuss.

About this photo: We're winding down our yellow-themed week. New Thematic launches tonight at 7:00 p.m. What'll the theme be? How's about electric?

Sunflower in the shade

Yellow petals
London, ON, September 2010
[Please click here to share your yellow-themed perspective]

The world can be an ugly place. Flowers make it prettier. Please discuss.

The Canadian government wants to spy on us

Warning: Tech rant coming. But then I'm on TV. So it's not all bad.

Perhaps I'm overstating things in the headline, but not by much. It turns out the U.S. isn't the only place on the planet with a ridiculously oddball political landscape. Despite our reputation as mild-mannered hosers, Canadians can make political headlines, too.

To wit, our minority Conservative government, headed by none other than Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is introducing two bills that would greatly expand the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate citizens' online activities (background story here.) For the record, the bills are known as the Investigative Power for the 21st Century Act and the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act. Ooh, big words, I know. But what do they mean?

Simple: If these bills are passed, Internet service providers (ISPs) would be compelled to track and store information on our online activities. Send an e-mail, do a Google search, Skype your ex...your ISP will know, and they'll be forced, by law, the store it all in a database.

Part 2 is even more fun: Law enforcement agencies would be able to tap into this personal data without a warrant.

Now, don't get me wrong. Cops have been screaming for years that they need better tools to go after cybercriminals. They need more powerful, accelerated means of going after child pornographers, identity thieves and other freaks of the modern age. I get that, and I'll do everything in my power to support their quest to keep us safe.

But these bills, as currently structured, turn ISPs into proxies and open up massive privacy holes. I'm not so naive as to believe that ISPs don't already have this capability. Do anything online and you leave a footprint that is easily trackable by the dumbest of the dumb. But if this becomes law, ISPs will now be compelled to keep much richer datasets on our activities. And cops won't need a warrant to pore through the results. Due diligence much? Not anymore.

More ominously, do you really think your ISP - with outsourced tech support in Bangladesh - will keep a lid on your personal data? Do you think no-warrant access to every last bit about your online life is a good idea? My take: it'll open up a Pandora's Box, and it's a road we don't necessarily want to go down.

Want to improve law enforcement's ability to catch bad guys? Don't give them new, Draconian legislation. Instead, give them money and resources so they can hire and train the best of the best and give them the best technology humankind can buy. There's nothing in the current laws of the land that keeps them from kicking some cybercriminal butt.

Bills much like these two are nothing new. This is the fourth kick at the can in recent years, and they've died on the docket every time before. If Canadians are lucky, they'll die this time, too.

I did a live interview with CTV News Channel's Dan Matheson this afternoon, and the video can be found here.

Your turn: What thinketh you?

What would have been

His old self
Laval, QC, July 2009

My father would have been 76 today. In the little-over-a-year since we lost him, I've wrestled with how I should mark the various milestones that have come and gone in his absence. Birthdays, anniversaries, whatever they are, the calendar has a nasty habit of serving up bitterness just when you thought you could handle the memories.

Well, I'm learning that there is no "should", no pat schedule that governs how we are expected to mark these events, no rules that determine whether or not it's acceptable to post a photo or even mark the day at all. So in the absence of a defined framework, I've simply decided to do what feels right to me. And sharing this specific photo feels right.

Why this one? I could have chosen any picture from the few months leading up to last September. But there's something in this one that all the others lack. It's likely the final picture of him where he looks...like himself. Not sick, not tired, not resigned to whatever comes next. No, here, at this moment, he was dressed nattily, his usual sharp-looking self, holding court with a crowd of people gathered at a party, because no one worked a crowd as well as he did.

What I remember from that night was his voice was strong, his eyes were sparkling, his spirit was intact. He bantered with me as I shoved the camera in his face, as I had done so often throughout our shared life. He was my dad as I had always known him, and for once I didn't have to play with the camera to shield what years of sickness had done to him.

It's too late for birthdays, of course, but I felt I needed to remember the day, his day, in some way. Thank you for your indulgence.

Candle in the wind

That warm glow
London, ON, October 2010

As we continue our exploration of all things yellow (follow your mouse here for more Thematic Photographic yellow-themed goodness) it occurs to me that this particular optical wavelength is more commonly associated with happiness than more sober colors like, say, grey or black.

I don't know why this is so, or why some colors tend to mean different things in different cultures. In my own stumblings through the universe, yellow has always cast a happy glow over my life. It was a warm, sunny day when I first met the woman I'd someday marry. The bike that carried me ultra-long distances across town during my most hard-core years as a bike commuter was banana-yellow. Speaking of bananas, I wouldn't have had the stamina to ride that far without them. All in all, yellow's been good to me.

And so we come to these candles. Every Friday, my wife lights them with our daughter. It's a tradition, both in our home and in the legacy of who we are. Mothers and daughters light candles to welcome in Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath). Everything stops as they light them and say the blessing, then wish everyone in the house a happy and peaceful Shabbat. It's a small thing, really, but such a touchstone of our family and our daughter's relationship with her mom that it's something I've long tried to capture with a camera.

I doubt this picture does the trick, but it'll have to suffice for now. Because that friendly yellow glow simply continues the warm fuzzies I've long felt every time I cross paths with a certain woman who inexplicably still loves me. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Your turn: Do you have a color/life/happy to share? Please do!

One more thing: Please find the person closest to you and wish him/her a happy new month. It's a small thing, I know. But small things add up.