I just read through a great site on some new(er) techniques for web design. I have been out of the loop recently in regards to all this Web 2.0 stuff so I found this to be informative and useful. The article presents 70 JavaScript and AJAX techniques, all of which are of the highest quality and are more or less easy to configure. I may very well find some of them useful enough to include in my future projects. Definitely a great resource.
Category Archives: General
General items that fit either no category or more than one category.
14 Abandoned Game Franchises that Need to Make a Comeback
Gamepro’s list is great, however I feel that Earthbound, and Super Mario RPG deserve to be placed on the list as well. Looking over the list, I feel that a couple of the franchises will be revived fairly soon (Killer Instinct).
“Popular video game franchises are rarely abandoned. Usually a series that sells well is milked until gamers finally refuses to give a damn after the twenty-third sequel. This feature is dedicated to game franchises that, for various reasons, didn’t manage to stick around. Here are our picks of 14 game franchises that died way before their time.” – Gamepro
40th Canadian Federal Election (2008)
The Canadian election results are in and they prove how our system of ‘first past the post’ fails to provide fairness to voters and creates a system of false authority.
There is a serious problem with the Canadian electoral system and the most recent election deeply highlights the issue. Canadians need electoral reform as the current process is broken. In the election the results appeared as most people could have predicted, with a Conservative minority government. What most people haven’t been looking at is the issue with proportional representation. By taking a look at how the popular vote carries over to the number of seats a party wins we see major disfunction.
Party – Popular Vote – Seats – Percentage of Voting power in Parliament
Conservative – 37.6% – 143 – 46.4%
Liberal – 26.2% – 76 – 24.7%
NDP – 18.2% – 37 – 12%
BLOC – 10% – 50 – 16.2%
Green – 6.8% – 0 – 0%
By looking at these figures, we see that the Conservatives and Bloc are receiving too much power from their votes and parties like the Liberal, NDP, and most especially the Green Party have their power in parliament reduced. This is a slap in the face to voters who had voted for the Green party as their vote will now translate into zero say in parliament even though the party holds 6.8% of all voters views. Electoral reform needs to happen, and it must happen soon. Voter turnout reached an alltime low in the latest election and its no surprise. Voters are left feeling helpless and that their vote will not matter in the big picture.
Please take a look at the great site, Fair Vote Canada for more information on electoral reform and please get involved. Take a look at Orphan Voters to really highlight the issue of votes not really counting. All statistics can be found at the Elections Canada site.
Amy Sings Hallelujah at her Grad
This was the first time I ever got to listen to my sister sing. She had been going to singing lessons and doing her recitals but I wasn’t ever allowed to go. Luckily for me I got to her grad and got to listen to her sing Hallelujah written by Leonard Cohen. The video is now posted up on youtube as well.
It’s Official, Telus Coverage in Saskatchewan
After waiting and waiting for it to become official , the day finally arrives. As of now, July 1, 2008 Telus now has full access to Sasktel’s digital celular network in Saskatchewan. Telus has also conveniently updated their coverage map for the province. This is such a big improvement over what was there before with the province being primarily analog. This should be great news for the people of Saskatchewan as more competition and choice will be great for everyone. No longer will people be able to say Telus has bad coverage.
Telus Full Digital Coverage in Saskatchewan
Telus and Sasktel have recently signed a new roaming agreement which will see all of the Saskatchewan Telus customers having full digital coverage across the province. Currently the coverage is being brought out and tested and it will be fully up by June 30th. This should be exciting times for Telus customers in the province as they now have received a huge increase in coverage and Sasktel loses an advantage it held over Telus.
Honest College Ad
If only your school had been so straightforward. Very funny video on College Humor that really tells the truth about a lot of Universities as well it is really funny.
Let Best Buy “Professionally Install” Your XBox Games
Are you one of the tens of customers who has trouble inserting their XBox 360 games? Do you find the whole concept of optical media frightening? Well, Best Buy has a service for you! For a low, low price, Best Buy will come to your home and professionally install those complex XBox games. Haha, well this is not actually true but I laughed. I just want to see the employees reaction when someone asks him for the service.
Blackberry Devices: A history
A concise history of the Blackberry, from its days as an uber-pager to the just-short-of-the-iPhone it is today. It’s funny how the original used two AA batteries!? Seriously! I really like the look of the Curve and as soon as work gets organized I hope to be getting one. I can definitely see progress as the models are developing. The devices are being more and more sleek, vibrant, and appealing. I really like how RIM is branching out from the work world and trying to tap into the consumer market.
Scientists design crop that can break down its own cellulose
In an effort to help boost the nation’s supply of bio fuels, researchers have created three strains of genetically modified corn to manufacture enzymes that break down the plant’s cellulose into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Genetically modified crops is a very interesting topic of discussion. I recently did a paper on this in my Econ 311 – Economics of Developing Countries class and really enjoyed doing the research. This can be a controversial topic with a lot of people being strongly for or against it. I like to remain neutral and let more research dictate how I will eventually decide.