General

Real-time ridicule

Sometimes the best part about a magazine subscription (think, slow winter months) is the editors’ responses to letters and comments. Especially, those found in magazines like Maxim though back in the 90s the editors of Flying used to have humourous responses also. And you used to have wait a whole month to read those replies.

But now, thanks to the Internet, we get to read such replies all over the place and in real-time. And in most cases you don’t even need to fork out any money for a subscription.

And the best part is that most of the people brought it on themselves. Such was the case with Google’s smackdown reply just before Christmas. It’s nice to see that in this “sue happy” world that there’s still some fun left.
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New website on the way

I wasn’t going to let the cat out of the bag but I felt bad about my other pitiful attempt at a daily blog, plus it’s not like it some major secret that involves a huge launch with new uniforms and newly painted aeroplanes. So here’s some news; Zymeta is getting a new website.

Believe it or not, we are. It’s been on my list since Fall 2004. Seriously. I can’t make any promises on the date as I want to ensure that we have good, well organized content, but the plan is for early February. And I do mean early.
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This year's experiment

As an experiment I decided to try and blog every day. I’m not sure why; it’s not like I am full of amazing ideas all the time. And if I was I would be implementing them and surprising the world.

But it’s 2130h and I suddenly realized half way through Law & Order that I forgot to blog today – that’s what happens I think when you’re actually busy at work. So, much to my SO’s dismay, the dishes stop getting washed and on goes the laptop. And here it is. Happy times.
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Learn microeconomics before graduating

Joel Spolsky wrote another great article that I read today titled ”Advice for Computer Science College Students”. Overall the article is pretty good, and although I don’t agree with all of the finer points, I definitely agree that CPSC students should learn microeconomics before graduating. His argument is that “a programmer who understands the fundamentals of business is going to be a more valuable programmer, to a business, than a programmer who doesn’t.” And he’s dead on. The only thing I would add is that there’s no need to go overboard and minor in economics or business or go and do something silly like a double degree. That will likely only taint you; if the management guys (and gals) were normal why would there be such a rivalry between them and the engineers? Of course, I’m not entirely sure that the ‘gears are normal either.

Joel’s articles are usually good, but I thought that this article was especially well written and enjoyed the microeconomics section as I have often had the same thought. And yes, I took microeconomics in first year (I went to the University of Calgary).
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Poke fun behind people's backs

The Internet (the Web for those of you who don’t really know better) has given us the ability to do a lot of cool things. And a lot of not-so-cool things. Like spam. But one of the worst things to come out of the Internet is that it promotes impersonalness and it’s ever so easy to do. We can be “tough guys” and send harsh emails at the touch of a button. In the old days if something made you angry, you had to sit down and write a letter and mail it to the editor. Now, you simply write your misguided thoughts on a web page (or a blog if you prefer that term) for the world to see (of course in most case no one is really looking anyway). And for people with little, if any, real communication skills, you can even simulate a “cool” life (though I’m not saying that everyone who plays this game has no communication skills).

When I first finished university, I worked at a small company of perhaps ten people. It was a great job with great people and a cool environment (we used to play networked Need For Speed after work). But then we got bought by another company and then that company got bought by an even bigger company. At that point, things weren’t so cool, they did a lot of things that I felt were wrong and the company was no longer for me, so I left.

Since that time, I’ve told people a few things about my experiences there and such, but I don’t for one second think that I know things are still the same as they were before; that was ten years ago. I’m no longer there and no longer know anyone who’s there. So who am I to criticize them? Seriously. Especially when all I would be doing is poking fun at them behind their backs, something I learned in grade one or two was the wrong thing to do.
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Doesn't Feel Much Different

As expected, 2005 doesn’t feel much different than 2004 did. Of course, it’s only the first day of the year. And I have a wee bit of a headache… still.
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Role of a shareholder

I am large stakeholder in a public traded company on the TSX-V. It’s not THAT large but large by some standards; something like 4% of available shares or just short of that. The company releases quarterly reports as well as an annual report at their AGM. And there are news/press releases intermixed occasionally between all that. They release news when there is something worth releasing and not just because they haven’t released anything in a while. And prior to some releases in late November, it had been several months since their last release.

But I’m not overly concerned. There are several things I think they could do better, but then again, I’m not privy to all the information – I’m not there day to day, dealing with clients and handling business and partner relations. But on occasion I’ll fire off an email to one of the people I know there to see how things are going and to offer my thoughts. His replies usually come a week or two later because, in terms of running the company, I’m pretty low on the list of priorities. Although I may have invested my money in the company, a 30 minute email reply to me isn’t going to generate any more cash.

It’s always a tough gig to take care of your shareholders; when the company is small you are so busy trying to build the business that you don’t necessarily have time to deal with individual shareholders and when the company is large you have so many shareholders you can’t possibly deal with them all individually. Unless you are Microsoft or Nortel and have entire departments of employees to deal with that sort of thing.

That said, I am always available to answer questions via phone, email or Jabber from any investor or potential investor. I may not have all the answers all the time or there may be some information that is not available to be released, but what I can tell you I will. All you need do is contact me. And if there are any questions about our technology or the inner workings of our products, I can answer those also. Again, a phone call or an email is all that is required.
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CPSC vs ENGG at UCalgary

While looking for a link for MacEwan Hall at UCalgary, I found a funny comment on a UCalgary CpSc student’s journal. The guy was quoting something he had read in the “Three Lines Free” section of the university’s student newspaper, The Gauntlet.

Dear engineers: your mothers are so fat, it takes me 25 minutes to download a picture of each one of them from the web!
- CPSC DUDE

Although the comment is a bit rude, I was delighted to see that the rivalry that existed during my 4 years there is still alive and well.
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Putting on a good concert

If you ever get a chance to see James Brown in concert, especially at a small venue, it is well worth any price. I saw James Brown a couple of weeks ago in MacEwan Hall at the University of Calgary. The concert was absolutely fabulous not just because it was James Brown but because it was so entertaining.

One of the problems with concerts these days is that it is pretty much the same thing as listening to the CD except that it’s live – and it takes a lot more that just playing songs from your CD to entertain me, especially when the ticket price is 3-5 times the cost of just buying the CD.

The biggest part of James Brown’s show was the level of involvement with the crowd. In addition to soliciting responses from the crowd, James and his band read the crowd perfectly, playing all the right songs at all the right times in a set that didn’t seem at all rehearsed in terms of the order.

And, of course, it was James Brown after all.
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