a personal blog about technology, communications and other stuff that interests me
„Unsere Umfrage zeigt, dass die Technologiebranche trotz der weltweiten Finanzkrise nach wie vor zuversichtlich ist. Nur ein Viertel der Befragten, um genau zu sein 26,5 Prozent, haben ihre Erwartungen auf Grund der Finanzkrise revidiert. Mehr als die Hälfte, nämlich 54,5 Prozent, sind der Meinung, dass die Krise keinen Einfluss auf ihre Geschäftsentwicklung habe.“
Christoph Schwartz, Inhaber von Schwartz Public Relations in München, in einer Pressemitteilung vom 18.2.2008
Heute findet alles öffentlich statt. Nicht nur die Musik hat jedes Mysterium verloren. Heute gibt es keine Geheimnisse mehr, und das finde ich sehr bedauerlich. Es geht nur noch um Celebrities und nicht mehr um Künstler. Diese Obsession mit dem Leben anderer Menschen finde ich sehr ungesund.
Anton Corbijn in Welt Online vom 5. Januar 2008
Spiegel Online war eigentlich immer meine erste Wahl fuer deutsche Nachrichten. Inzwischen fahre ich haeufiger mit dem Bus zur Arbeit, und lese dort auf meinem Handy das Neueste vom Tage. Von den deutschen mobilen Angeboten gefaellt mir die Welt Online im Moment wesentlich besser als Spiegel Online. Welt Mobil ist fuer meinen Geschmack besser zu lesen und einfacher zu navigieren, zumindest auf meinem HTC Handy mit Windows Mobile. Und schon aendert sich das Surfverhalten. Mal sehen ob Spiegel Online irgenwann das mobile Angebot verbessert.
IDC Canada has highlighted ten emerging Canadian software companies in a new research study (press release; research store). According to IDC, these companies have “the potential to make an impact in the information and communications technology (ICT) market”.
I haven’t gotten my hands on the study but a ComputerWorld Canada article provides some very high level pointers on criteria and take-aways. In the article, executives from a few of the selected companies talk about what they see as key factors to success, including:
The ten Canadian companies examined in the study are:
As part of her opening keynote for Toronto Technology Week, High Road Communications co-founder and president Mia Wedgbury (my boss) showed a video with Jay Goldman of Radiant Core, Mark Relph of Microsoft Canada (High Road client) and Ken Nickerson of iBinary talking about their view on tech in Toronto and what we can do to promote the region as a centre of excellence. Here’s the video that I uploaded to Soapbox. For Mia’s perspective, see here.
From the next-time-let’s-not-make-conversation department:
Heavy traffic in Toronto. We’re coming to a halt at an intersection, two cars between me and the red light. The light turns green and both cars in front of me start signalling for a left turn. By the time the oncoming traffic has passed and they are gone, the traffic light is red again. We have to wait for another round.
Me: “You know, they should have signalled way earlier.”
Passenger (P): “Who?”
Me: “The two cars in front of us.”
P: “Why?”
Me: “Are you serious? Because I would have changed to the right lane, and would have made it across when it was green. Instead they stop at the lights and it looks like they want to go straight. Then they wait until the lights turn green to signal. And I am stuck behind them. Can’t they make up their mind when they approach the traffic light?”
P: “It’s okay. We’ll still make it in time.”
Me: “That’s not the point.”
P: “I know what your point is. Unless you want to chase after them to yell or make European gestures, let it go.
Me: “European gestures? I take offense to that. And I don’t want to go after them, I am just saying…”
P: “You couldn’t go after them anyway. Because it would mean that you would have to use your left turn signal now. And that would really annoy the driver behind you. Because you should have signalled way earlier if you want to make a left turn.”
Me: “Do you want to walk the rest of the way?”
The light turns green.
Two miles later.
P: “You know, I do that all the time.”
Me: “What?”
P: “Not signal until the light turns green.”
Me: “Why? WHY?”
P: “I don’t like the sound of my turn signals.”
The list of blogs in the RSS reader has grown quite long. After talking to Michael O’Connor Clarke and Gary Schlee at the last Third Tuesday, I’ve decided to split up the RSS reader in the Canuck PR Toolbar into two sections: one for PR blogs (red) and one for marcom and social media blogs (blue).
This has nothing to do with “separating church and state”. It is simply a functional improvement because a couple toolbar users told me that some RSS feeds had become unreadable because in lower screen resolutions the combined list extended beyond the margins of the monitor. Now the two RSS readers have a little room to grow again.
I will do another round of search on the weekend and add new Canadian PR and marcom blogs (suggestions welcome, as always).
The toolbar will update itself automatically. No need to reinstall. If anybody has trouble with the updated version, let me know.
