5 days to go for International Blog Action Day on Poverty… Every carbon-geek blames cars for all our troubles… but what about houses??? They’re bigger and need more carbon to heat / cool. Poverty folks say affordable housing is out of reach. Good old Toyota had the solution back in 1972. [...]

New browsers don’t make a big slash unless you’re Google, but we’ve been getting hits from SeaMonkey. A couple days ago, some Mozilla dudes just released an alpha version of SeaMonkey - a Moz-based browser. The difference here is that it’s designed as a one-stop developer browser. Built-in features include chat and [...]

If you happen to be in Virginia on May 8-9 next year, you’ll want to check out the US Patent & Trademark Office’s branding conference! The focus of the event is to present the importance of brand development in society and global commerce. According to Business Week, these are the top 10 most valuable global [...]

This morning, Microsoft published a patent application for “Content Commenting and Monetization“. It’s an interesting concept that would allow users to comment on content they find on the web. From what I’m reading into it, users would also be able to attach ads to their comments. According to Microsoft, A code is included [...]

This youtube clip seems to have come too late.  Wasn’t Oct. 4th last week?  It’s also so condensending and annoying.  I wouldn’t want to insult someone by sending them this clip.  I mean who’s online and too stupid not to vote?  No one I know.

Canada’s new National Do Not Call List has been a huge success with over 2.7 million registrations within a single week.  Registering your phone number on their site is super easy.  The only hiccup is that you’ll be faced with a captcha.  You know, one of those squiggly box of letters that you have to [...]

Excess has pretty well vanished from the financial industry. What better time to introduce breakfast excess? Exhibit A: Carl’s Jr.® introduces the Monster Breakfast SandwichT which features two eggs, two strips of bacon, a sausage patty and Swiss and American cheeses piled between grilled sourdough bread. Exhibit B: Hardee’s® Introduces a New Breakfast Classic: the [...]

In his terrific blog NeuroMarketing, Roger Dooley talks about how an understanding of neuroscience can help marketers. Such knowledge can also help product and user interface designers as well. One concept involves how mirrors can alter human behavior. By showing people what they look like will affect what they do. One study [...]

It’s election time here in Canada.  The two main issues are pitted up against one another: the economy and the environment.  Predictably, the media has been portraying the issues as mutually exclusive.  On call-in radio shows,  a ton of people call in professing their desire to save the planet - even if it costs more. [...]

The theory goes that if 21st century people are stupid enough to buy bottled water, you should be able to make a killing selling specialty dog water! What a brilliant idea! The peanut butter flavoring of the Woof Wellness water really puts this product concept over the top! Luckily, there’s still room for innovation in the animal [...]

Ecuador is one of my favourite places to travel - especially if you can’t decide on northern or southern hemispheres! Here you get both. This summer, voters passed a new constitution that features a world first - a bill of rights for nature. Here are some highlights from Green Change: Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, [...]

This year, Quebec City marked its 400th anniversary.  To help celebrate, the country of France created this logo featuring a cow with a caribou head.   It was meant to showcase France’s dairy heritage with Quebec’s vast wilderness.  Although its name was “Vachibou” it should have been called Vachiboo-boo. First, the antlers are of moose - not caribou.  [...]

Should Twitter be part of your business? It’s definitely part of Sprint’s. When Connecticut-based design firm Plaid set out on its summer tour this year, it made a stop in Vancouver. Recently the Sprint bill arrived - with a $1000 roaming charge for that one day spent in Canada. Phone calls [...]

Apple filed a new US patent application describing a “smart cursor” that is able to detect certain states on a mouse-over and change its appearance accordingly (or display text). Apple first did this in Hypercard when its pointer changed to a hand when the user moused-over a hyperlink. According to Apple, when a cursor is [...]

RjDj is an upcoming iPhone app that turns your wonder-phone into a personal “reactive” music player. The app contains a bunch of “scenes” which are musical compositions that change depending on the sensory experience of your environment. If there are sounds around you, they’re automatically incorporated in real-time; loudness levels alter the [...]

I was out shopping for a decent coffee maker a couple days ago and realized - they’re all the same crappy design that’s been around for 40 years! I’m not looking for an espresso-type which uses steam. I already have a french press - that works fine for 2 cups. [...]

So… here’s how the marketing meeting at Steamworks went. “Our travel iron is so powerful - it really flattens your wrinkled shirt.” –insert mind altering substance– “In fact it could probably flatten entire cities!” Wow - thanks a lot - another thing that we can’t pack into carry-ons! BTW - your [...]

Mobile data user… you are a prisoner! No matter Android… iPhone… BuckBury… ok.. bash me if you want. This is my favourite Queen song!

In case you’re in Ottawa, Canada, next Monday (Sept 29th) - join us for the 10th installment of DemoCamp featuring 6 cool startup demos. It’s held at the wonderful Velvet Room in the Byward Market. If you’re unable to join us, make sure you do something velvety… 5. Listen to the Velvet Underground’s All [...]

It’s true. Pastry chefs all over the world have caved in to Peta demands that they stop using real cats in their yummy breakfast treats. What’s Peta going to demand next, that José Cuervo stop putting live weevils in tequila??? Sure, there’s the US financial crisis, BUT cat and weevil eaters are [...]