I had an opportunity to get out sea kayaking this summer in Mahone Bay. We took a couple days and did an overnighter on one of the many great islands in the bay, Bella Island.
I couldn’t remember the last time I was out kayaking, thinking it had to be at least 5+ years. I must admit that the workout I got from kayaking was one I hadn’t experienced in quite some time.
We left in the early morning after renting a kayak from East Coast Outfitters, a kayaking company based in Halifax and Mahone Bay. We made a pit stop for lunch and a swim before continuing to Bella. The paddle out took around four hours. Once on Bella, we fought with the mosquitoes to pitch our tent and enjoyed the rent of the beautiful day on the beach. Many boaters came and went as it seemed to be a popular spot for an afternoon and evening dip. After the sun went down we decided to paddle out to a neighbouring island - that in hindsight with the weather might not have been the best idea. The paddle out took us about 40 minutes with a strong head wind, and when we arrived there soaking wet, we decided to quickly head back. Luckily the paddle back only took about 15.
That night, we were forced to surrender our fire pit to the mosquitoes as they forced us into our tent early. On a side note, I did grow up in the country and have become somewhat used to the disturbing amounts of black flies and mosquitoes we can get in the late spring and early summer, but this was like nothing I’ve experienced before.
Our trip finished early as we left the island after we managed to pack the kayaks up. We took a different route home through Indian point, stopping once for breakfast.
The trip was a lot of fun, and if anyone was thinking of getting in some sea kayaking before the end of the summer, I would recommend checking out East Coast Outfitters for some great kayak rentals, lessons and more.
If you haven’t heard, Ellen DeGeneres got married to long time girl friend Portia de Rossi. Ellen announced she would get married after the California Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriages in May.
Well if you were in the city within the last 10 days you likely found yourself down on the water front for at least some of it. The Halifax International Buskers Festival brought in 76 entertainers that put on more than 500 shows along the water front. I had a chance to make it down to the festival on a few occasions, each just as entertaining as the last.
People used to feel sorry for me for having a summer birthday - everyone’s out of town and no one gets to party. But being born in mid August definitely has its perks. Along with the warm weather, I get to spend the day down on the water front and take in some busker performances thanks to HRM’s planning of the dates that span 10 days almost always including my birthday.
This year was no different. Laura and I spent most of the day on the waterfront, taking in a couple of great performances. First was an Italian acrobat that among many great acts, finished his show by balancing with his head on a basketball, on top of tower about 3+ feet tall he made from 4 champaign classes, 8 champaign bottles, and 3 pieces of wood. Needless to say it was incredible, unfortunately there were no photos of it. The next performance we took in was an Australian couple that did acrobatics and juggling - they were a lot of fun to watch and were very entertaining, probably the most entertaining out of shows I watched.
If that’s not enough, I also get a personal meteor shower with lots of shooting stars, that’s usually on or a day off my birthday. Unfortunately this year didn’t bring the nicest weather and the skies were mainly cloudy.
With the buskers wrapping up, the next summer item to get excited about is Christensen’s corn on the cob! It’s sad how fast summer is coming to a close.
Today marks the last day of the Defcon 16 conference being held in Las Vegas. This annual conference held in the summer usually takes place after the other popular security conference - Black Hat, which was also located in L.A. this year.
The who’s who of security consultants, black hats, white hats, hackers, whatever other name you want to give to these security gurus would have been found in LA this week. Both conferences cover a wide array of topics including wireless security, radio frequencies, hardware hacking, SQL, network security, social networks, firewalls, even lock picking.
Needless to say it would have been cool to be in LA for these events. Hopefully we hear good stories from it this week coming.
is a term often used to describe software processing taking place on a distributed network, such as the internet. It’s been used commonly over the past few years in the IT industry.
The reason it’s been brought up recently in conversation is due to the fact that Dell is trying to trademark the term, “Cloud Computing.” Dell boasts a cloud computing service, and even owns the domain cloudcomputing.com. Regardless, the term has been used in news articles and other publications long before Dell applied for the trademark on March 23, 2007.
Considering NetCentric Corporation tried to trademark the term back in 1998 and had their application killed, leads me to assume that Dell may have a hard time getting this trademark approved. The application isn’t restricting the term to its own services or platform, instead it covers all potential use of the term. However, they were nice enough to note that the term “computing” on its own was not being trademarked.
For more info the trademark application serial number is 77139082. It was opposed April 15, 2007.
I know I’m late blogging about this issue but better late than never I guess.
I’m sure most of you have heard the news about Microsoft’s now withdrawn offer to purchase Yahoo. It was an ongoing adventure over the past year and a half. In May of 2008, Microsoft put in a formal bid to purchase Yahoo outright for $47.5 Billion, or $33 per share, looking to expand their online advertising presence and compete with Google.
I know if I owned shares in Yahoo (YHOO) I would have been a little upset. Especially considering they were trading at between $26 and $28 per share at the time of the bid. Yahoo played a little too hard to get in this relationship, as senior executives rejected the offer believing the company was worth more around the range of $37 per share. After a few more weeks of negotiations, the announcement was made that Yahoo and Microsoft were no longer talking.
You may also have heard that, Yahoo, now hurt from the break up with Microsoft, crawled into bed with Google. A rebound relationship that has many questioning Yahoo’s actions. Yahoo and Google announced the deal on the same day that talks with Microsoft ceased. Yahoo has outsourced some of its paid search ad business to Google. Although the deal is still undergoing the loop holes required to be approved, it won’t surprise me when it gets approved.
Now at this point you may be asking yourself, “why do you care?” Ahh good question. As mentioned, I don’t own shares in Yahoo so the fact that they are now trading 30% less than Microsoft’s offer doesn’t keep me awake at night, or the fact that they dropped more than 15% since the acquisition fell through. What I do care about is what will now happen to online advertising, and the future of Yahoo. I see people removing their Yahoo ads, and instead investing more into their Google advertising since their ads will still display on both Google and Yahoo sites because of the deal.
I like Google. They’ve definitely done some great things and continue to amaze me all the time. But the competition from a Yahoo-Microsoft merge would have been nice to see in the online advertising industry.
Thanks to my roommate, I just received the info on the data plans that will be required with the iPhone on the Rogers’ network.
The price of the phone, as announced at Apple’s keynote will be $199 for the 8gb or $299 for the 16gb. These prices are with a 3 year contract with Rogers’. They mention that some upgrades may qualify for this lovely price as well, but the iPhone is not available at all for a 2 year contract, a “no commitment” price, or on a prepaid service. Also, only 3 iPhone activations per customer is allowed.
All existing voice plans will be available for the iPhone, but they have added a couple data plans, one of which is required.
“Consumer Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan): $30 - Unlimited Data (E-mail/Web), includes Visual Voicemail when subscribed to any voicemail service.”
“Enterprise Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan): $45 – Unlimited Data with personal and corporate e-mail, web, includes Visual Voicemail when subscribed to any voicemail service.”
Rogers’ 3G mobile broadband network will allow download speeds of up to 1.4 Mbps on the iPhone.
So, there it is. Not too bad I must say. You’re looking at $30 for the unlimited data plan, plus whatever you pay now for your voice package - which sometimes seems like way too much as it is. I think it’s unfortunate that there’s no 2 year price though. Also, if you’re moving across Canada, it isn’t a problem changing your local area, however I don’t know the logistics if you were to move into the United States and whether you’d be able to change to a US carrier, or have to sell off your contract and get a new one down there.
I definitely see myself with an iPhone, but to be completely honest I like not having email on the go. Being able to turn off my phone without the guilt of missed emails is enjoyable. Although I’m sure I’ll have one sooner or later, I doubt it’ll be until this time next year.
Heinz decided to pull a commercial for their Deli Mayo after receiving about 200 complaints in less than a week:
The complaints stated that the commercial was “offensive” and “inappropriate to see two men kissing”. Wake up! I’m pretty sure that even in the UK, same-sex relationship exist. To be deemed “inappropriate” seems a little harsh. It was launched in the UK by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO - their first ad since winning Heinz’s $20 million UK account last year. Unfortunately it may be their last as well. The ad was meant to be humorous, displaying an English family with an Italian “mom” or chef, which goes along with the whole Heinz Deli theme. I think it did a pretty good job at being funny. Clearly, other people have different thoughts.
“Other complaints included that the ad was ‘unsuitable to be seen by children’ and that it raised the difficult problem of parents having to discuss the issue of same-sex relationships with younger viewers.” Even though this ad wasn’t allowed to be shown in or around children’s programming because of the Mayo’s fat and sugar content. I’m sure by 2009, we’ve all been exposed to some sort of same-sex relationship. I don’t see this commercial being confusing in this sense.
I guess I’m just a little disappointed that it received so many complaints. I don’t blame Heinz for pulling it from the air - it’s not good for business to leave up an ad that receives so many complains. I also commend Abbott Mead Vickers, being a marketing major I can understand the controversy that can go along with creating an ad like this and I’m glad they went through with it. Unfortunately the UK isn’t quite ready for it. I guess they do take a while to catch on to some things - hygiene?
When I wrote “near future” I definitely didn’t mean a half a month. Regardless, here I am.
For all those looking for an update, I am back on the East Coast. I am living in Halifax for the rest of the summer and working a variety of projects. I am back in somewhat of a routine now, and must admit it’s nice.