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Westminster Quay Hotel, originally uploaded by Elwin Witzke.

This is one of the interesting hotels in the Vancouver area.

A sign that Christmas is close at hand, is the discussion about getting ready to fill a shoebox with gifts for a needy child. Everyone can help make a child’s day brighter through Operation Christmas Child.

Our family has participated for many years as our children grew up, both through our church and christian school. It is easy to anyone to fill a shoebox and deliver it to one of the thousands of groups assembling shipments of shoeboxes. If you don’t know about this program, check out this short video.

Although it’s not Valentine’s right now, this little video is good reminder at any time. Its also catchy.

From: Mahalo Daily

If you want to hold your breath for a while, take a walk along the the “El Camino Del Rey” in Spain. Don’t forget to look where your feet are walking.

Some more information at Wikipedia.

Ah, the wonder’s of smartphones, internet in your pocket and a really, really big dead spot.

I was in the Skytrain station (Granville) a few days ago and noticed all the Telus ads. New smartphones, Blackberrys and all kinds cell phones. Stay in touch, access the internet etc, etc.  Kinda makes me want to visit my local Telus dealer to get something new.

But wait!

Telus doesn’t have any service in the underground Skytrain stations in Vancouver. Hasn’t had it ever that I can remember and I’ve been a Telus customer for at least 15 years. I see lots of people using their phones – I wonder who they are with? Definitely not with Telus or Bell, our local CDMA carriers.

Why is that Telus can’t get it together and get the appropriate antenna system installed in the tunnel? Not enough high-paying business customers? They seemed to be able to do it for the tunnel by the PNE. Well,  the worlds a-changin, and more and more of those high-paying business customers are moving transit (ie. Skytrain). 

What a joke, advertising your phones and the cool ($$) services in a place that has no signal.

I think Telus marketing needs to have a heart to heart with Telus engineering and infrastructure delivery.

With Twitter we are forced to be short and to the point. 140 characters and your done.

But could you communicate a deep and meaningful thought, a short story in just 50 words (and only 50). Rajesh Setty can. He has published some of his mini sagas together with a fitting photo. Check out Mini Sagas: Bite Sized Lessons for Life and Business.

This set has 15 mini sagas – check out “Lost” and others.

Sometimes we are lost

changethis.com is a great site that has a variety of thought provoking manifestos.

Washington, DC is using Youtube and wikis to open up the procurement process for new systems technologies.

Watch the video at Government Technology where Vivek Kundra, CTO for Washington, D.C. talks about using these tools while acquiring a new police evidence warehouse.

This is Procurement 2.0, using the services available on the internet to move to a increased transparency for the duration of a systems acquisition. This short interview will change your opinion of how the public sector is using these “consumer” tools.

Source: Government Technology

I’m always amazed at those that can get things done and still have time to relax and enjoy life. Timothy Ferriss has written a book called the ”The 4-Hour Workweek”. This is a book that I am putting on the top of my reading list.

Then comes the “call to action” – implement some of these techniques in my everyday life.

The following is a short interview with Veronica Belmont on Mahalo Daily.

From: Mahalo Daily  

This sounds so beautiful. For those of us who have a hard time playing any instrument, this is amazing.

From: Rocketboom

A bizarre situation with a runaway train barrelling 150 km through Argentina.

We have all received new or upgraded software or new gadgets and sometimes are totally lost in the user guide. Take a look at this User Guide for the switch to dial telephones. Now this is a direct and clear user guide.

For the more advanced user check out the first 2-3 minutes of this one. And you thought a stylus for your PDA/Smartphone was a recent invention.

Kathy Sierra has a great blog that is all about Creating Pasionate Users. Although she is not actively posting anymore, there is tons of great content that can help anyone who wants to create the best experience possible for their users. One of the ones that really hits home, is about high use of PowerPoint presentations in business today.

It seems that everyone has a mobile phone. Stores are selling new cell phones to people who already have one. It is no surprise then that in many countries, there are more cell phones than people.

For anyone who has been stuck in an elevator after a group of kids just got out on the 5th floor. 

Well the Apple iPhone is out and one of the first rites of passage is a full teardown. We need to see what’s inside. AppleInsider has full photos of the teardown – courtesy of ifixit.com/.

Microsoft is planning to announce something around digital content in the home. Checkout The Center for Digital Amnesia Awareness for a teaser.

News from laid back Vancouver - the inflated, domed roof of BC Place Stadium has collapsed. What a shock! They say that a piece of the fabric came loose from the concrete or there was a tear that quickly grew and it deflated in 60 seconds. A new meaning of “gone in 60 seconds”!

The stadium is the largest, air-supported, doomed stadium in the world. Not sure yet the reason for the failure in the roof fabric. Here is some raw footage from CTV.CA.

deflated, originally uploaded by Uncleweed.

This is what it looked like in the past. The steel cords hold the roof fabric in place and the inside of the stadium is under pressure lifting it up. I remember back in 1985 when the “raising of the roof” happened. The roof was installed hanging down into the stadium. Then the fans were started and it slowly inflated lifting the roof up. Finally with a “pop” the roof lifted above the rim and then fully inflated. It is going to be while to fix this and get it inflated again.

Kudos to Starbucks for getting with the program and cutting trans fats in its baked goods (Starbucks cuts trans fats). There is ample research that indicates that trans fats raise the bad cholesterol leading to higher risk of heart disease. Other chains and jurisdictions have already made that change. 

Melanie Turek provides some good tips on blogging: Blogging in the Enterprise: Tips for Success. There are still many organizations that are not taking advantage of blogs behind the firewall.

In the increasingly virtual workplace, it’s important for employees to make virtual connections—and blogs are one way to help them do that.

In the enterprise, there are two ways to use blogs. One is a corporate-supported (and approved) blog that’s meant to be read by the outside world; the other is an internal blog for employees’ eyes only, for sharing information and creating job and interest-related connections. (There are also lots of blogs out there penned by individuals who use the space to discuss their companies and the markets they are in, among other interests, but these are not technically “enterprise blogs,” as they are not established or supported by the companies themselves.)

Frankly, I don’t see a lot of either type of enterprise blog being used today, and I rarely talk to people who have even considered an internal version. But I think that’s actually the type that has the most promise for the enterprise.

Internal blogs can provide tremendous benefits if developed and supported by the culture change that is necessary: 

Internally-focused blogs are easier to maintain and serve a more relevant purpose. Companies with large numbers of remote or virtual employees can use enterprise blogs to keep those staffers connected to the company and one another. By setting up a variety of blogs tagged to specific topics, companies allow employees to share ideas for new products, IT fixes and best practices, better business processes, strong customer service.

Are you taking advantage of blogging in your organization?

The CBC reported that Santa paid a visit to the Canadian troops in Afghanistan. But this was not your everyday Santa.

Santa Claus, aka Warrant Officer Jean Blain of Montreal, visits a Canadian soldier whose name is witheld for security reasons at forward observation base Mas’um Ghar on Sunday, Dec. 24. (CP/Bill Graveland)

It had a Canadian look to it but the red and white uniform worn by the visitor to Canadian troops at forward operating base Mas’um Ghar was definitely not regulation.

However, the government-issued flak jacket worn underneath certainly was.

“Santa may be silly, Santa may be jolly, but Santa is certainly not stupid,” said the famous old gentlemen