Backblog June 2007

Drive a car? Read this post
June 28, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories: Wireless
If you drive a car, contact your city’s parking authority and tell them you want to see PhotoViolationMeter meters on your streets. While normally parking meters rank about the same as vinyl flooring, lawn rakes and tea kettles on The Big Scale of Exciting Innovations, these new units from Photo Violation Technologies actually deliver on the promise that technology will make our lives both easier and more enjoyable.

The meters, which look a little like small shiny robots, allow drivers to pay for parking using coins, credit or debit cards. Standard stuff these days. But the meters are also connected to the Internet, and that opens up a whole new level of functionality.

For example, you can give the thing your cell number and it will call to warn you when your time is about to expire. You can then top up the time using your cellphone. That means you won’t be greeted by a parking ticket when you return from that longer-than-expected meeting. Alternately, you can tell the meter to top up your parking if you don’t return, so if you expect to be parked for two hours you can pay for two hours but tell the meter to automatically add another two hours if you don’t return in time.

However, for those who do overstay their paid welcome, the meters also automate the ticketing process. When you park it takes a photo of your license plate, and that makes it a lot easier for municipalities to collect fines. Violators can also pay their tickets on the spot, through the meter.

All of this is cool and makes street parking less of a headache, but here’s my favourite bit about this product: because the meters are already connected to the Internet, and because Internet access is so cheap to provide, the company has made each meter into a free Wi-Fi hotspot. That means you can sit in your car before a meeting and read last-minute e-mails or check some details for your upcoming presentation.

It also means that installing these meters essentially creates a grid of hotspots, giving municipalities a cost-effective way to check Wi-Fi off their To-Do lists. Yes, these high-tech meters come at a cost but if they increase parking revenue and make it easier to collect fines, while also creating Wi-Fi access for citizens and visitors, it’s tough to see a downside to this innovative product.

Details here. http://www.photoviolation.com/index.php.

Peter Wolchak

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Still confused after all these years
June 25, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories: Canadian Technology Associations ICT Hardware and Infrastructure IT Staffing Solutions Professional Services
So it turns out that the business folks still go cross-eyed every time the techies try to explain a new corporate technology. Office technology has been around for years, people fall over themselves to buy new iPods and – according to the ads we see – we're carrying notebooks to summer beaches and docks.

But despite the fact we use gadgets and gizmos every day, the two solitudes of business and tech still can't just get along in the office.

“Business and information technology managers around the world share a common challenge: IT managers' tech talk baffles business managers and fails to communicate IT imperatives,” ran a release on the Global Solution study by Info-Tech Research Group and KnowledgeStorm.

Michael O'Neil, research fellow at Info-Tech Research Group, is quoted in the release.
“Lack of alignment between the IT and business management sides of the enterprise means there's a Tower of Babel scenario happening in most businesses when IT program requirements are discussed.”

His advice? “Either the IT managers need to develop strong communications skills to
put forward the needs and benefits of IT investment, or they need to find suppliers who excel at articulating value to executives. Businesses that don't recognize this disconnect – and take steps to address it – risk falling behind their competitors.”

Well sure, but it's been decades since computers first entered the workplace and a decade since they became part of the daily experience of most business people. So if the two sides of the corporate fence still can't pull together on business initiatives, why think they ever will?

Personally, I think these two solitudes will remain just that, at least to a large extent. Technology is only going to get more complex – and so harder to explain – and the pace of business change and growth is only getting faster, so business people have less time to spend learning about tech.

But – and here's the fun point – as all of that happens, it is also becoming even more critical that businesses deploy and exploit technology effectively, because that drives differentiation and efficiency.

So where does all that leave us? Well, despite the challenges, business people need to understand technology as well as they can. Read Backbone, because as self serving as that comment is our entire raison d'être is to explain tech to business folks. Second, IT people need to walk a mile in those shiny shoes the business folks wear. Maybe that means all new IT hires should spend two weeks job shadowing a few of the suits, maybe that means sending them to a business course. But smart companies will be proactive about getting the two camps to play nicely with each other, at the same time acknowledging that tech people are tech people because they don't want to wear ties and stare at Excel, and vice versa for the suits.

And yes, that's easier said than done. If all this was easy, it would have been done already.
The full report is available at www.infotech.com or www.knowledgestorm.ca

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Is a brighter CN Tower worth the pollution?
June 22, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories:
As I write this, I can crane my head around a little to catch a glimpse of Toronto's CN Tower, and as a lifelong resident of the area I have always felt a certain pride in the world-leading, slightly odd-looking, structure.

So I like the Tower. However, I have mixed feelings about the plan to light the thing up on June 28.

Apparently, all the world's great towers are regularly lit up. The Eiffel Tower in Paris – a structure that was almost torn down more than once because Parisians considered it too ugly – was first illuminated in 1900 and today its steel-beamed elegance is shown off using internal sodium lights and two big spots. Other notable towers around the world are also spared the indignity of actually being dark at night.

So why not Toronto's own claim to tall fame? After all, the new LED lighting system is said to be both energy efficient and cost effective.

Fair enough, but all that means is less energy is used and less pollution created than would have been the case with older technology. If you really want to use less energy, don't light the thing at all. That's really energy efficient.

But the real issue may not even be exactly how much energy is actually used. As a percentage of Toronto's total energy consumption it can't be all that much. The real issue is that the CN Tower is a symbol of Toronto, and at a time when we are increasingly worried about the environment and being told that governments and business are taking those concerns seriously, burning fossil fuels for this seems like an odd move.

The Tower will shine brightly over the Toronto skyline from dusk to 1:00 a.m. every night. What message will that send about our real commitment to environmental action?

Peter Wolchak
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Way to go, B.C.
June 19, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories: IT Staffing Solutions Online Education and MBAs
The cover story in the upcoming July issue of Backbone is about Canada's competitiveness in relation to the rest of the world. Not to steal the issue's thunder, but our competitive numbers could be better and many people say a lack of tech investment is part of the problem.

So it's very good news that the B.C. government is tripling the size of the funding for its internship program to $10 million. The money is targeted specifically at boosting competitiveness.

“These new funds will allow MITACS (a national research network) to provide more than 650 internships over the next four years, more than tripling the size of the program,” said Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell in a press release. “The internship program will build the province's base of highly-skilled graduates while encouraging innovation and commercialization in B.C.'s knowledge-based economy. It is also leveraging another $5 million from industry partners for the program."

If we want Canada to be competitive on a world stage – and as globalization takes firmer hold and as wealth generation is increasingly tied to tech prowess, we do want that – then we need a workforce that is not only able to create innovation but also interested in doing so. When our best and brightest minds scan the career landscape, we need technology options to stand out from the landscape.

Internship programs are an excellent way to do that.

Peter Wolchak
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Ninety per cent of e-mail is spam. That sucks
June 13, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories: Software Companies
Disclaimer: in the following blog post I will not be offering any creative solutions or constructive ideas. I have none.

From Panda Software comes the disheartening news that 90 per cent of all e-mail received by companies in May was spam. The stat was compiled from firms that use TrustLayer Mail, a managed security service run by Panda.

Now of course it must be said that Panda makes security and anti-virus software and therefore can benefit directly from increased hysteria about spam. But even if you want to argue that the company inflated its numbers, what does that leave us? Eighty per cent spam? Seventy? It's still awful. (And, by the way, I don't question the study's conclusion. Spam is such a problem that people hardly need to inflate it.)

Panda goes on to point out that spam not only wastes employee time (and goodness knows it does that) but spam can also contain malware. Worms from the Netsky family and Trojans from the SpamtaLoad family were the malware most frequently detected by TrustLayer Mail. Also seen often was the iFrame exploit, a piece of HTML code that tries to burrow through a vulnerability in Internet Explorer.

So this study gives us a better grasp of the problem, but so what? It's not like we can do anything about it. Oh, we can install defensive software (as Panda rightly suggests), we can pass laws against spammers, and we can rail about it in blogs and magazines, but ultimately there is nothing we can do to actually stop spam from being sent out.

That's because consumers respond to spam. It may only be one tenth of one per cent, but they do buy the stuff advertised, click on the link or send off their bank account info so those poor Nigerians can move about their millions.

So the real problem is stupid consumers, and as long as we have them we will have spam. And we will always have them.

If that seems like a downer conclusion, well...I did warn you at the beginning.

Peter Wolchak
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Telus moving to protect B.C. communications links
June 8, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories: General Green Tech
Any time a company sends out a press release, the primary motivation is PR. That's not necessarily the only reason, but almost without exception is it the main one.

And so it is with a recent Telus release entitled “600 TELUS technicians on stand-by for flood response.” The company has activated its Emergency Management Operations Centre (EMOC), which will coordinate “the company’s preparations for and response to potential flooding across B.C.”

Also from the release: “Crews have spent the last few weeks wrapping more than 3,000 curbside equipment cabinets in plastic and erecting water barriers around dozens of buildings, home to telecommunications equipment in Lower Mainland and Interior communities at risk of flooding. More than 600 Telus technicians are trained for flood response duties and on 24/7 stand-by. Telus’ two SATCOLTS (satellite cellsite on light truck) are standing by to provide emergency communication to first responders. Telus has also pooled more than 1,000 cellphones and radios that will be made available to first responders if required.”

Telus is hoping to generate a good public-relations vibe by sending out a release on this, and you know what? It deserves that good vibe. With memories of post-Katrina New Orleans still fresh in our minds, it's great to hear that the company is taking proactive steps to keep communications running. The almost complete communications breakdown—and the pitiful preparation of city, state and federal authorities to deal with that—was one of the defining factors in what happened in New Orleans.

Telus could have done all of its prep and decided not to send out a press release on it, but I cannot fault the company for mixing in a little marketing with its civil-minded actions. And in any case, I have not seen any information on what other telcos are doing in the area. Anyone in B.C. heard from Bell Canada or Shaw?

Flood information is at www.pep.bc.ca.

Peter Wolchak
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Internet ushers “sushi” into Yellow Pages
June 4, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories: General
Long live the Yellow Pages. Even in an age when seemingly all information is online, the stodgy old construction of dead trees that lands on your doorstep once a year is still a valuable businesses and services guide.

When my older daughter announced recently that she would like a karaoke theme for her upcoming birthday party I turned, quite naturally, to Google. “Karaoke rental” I typed. And got nowhere, or, more accurately, I got everywhere: despite ticking the “pages from Canada” box and later adding my city to the search, I still landed a lot of useless results. One hit fairly high on the list was Goodtime Disc Jockeys in San Francisco. That's not primarily a rental service, and in any case San Fran is too far to travel, even for my daughter.

So after 20 minutes of wasted effort, I turned to the Yellow Pages. I found “Karaoke Machines—rentals, sales and service” immediately, spied a local place, called and reserved the gear I wanted. Total time: three minutes.

My conclusion from this and other experiences is that the old phone book often beats the 'net for category and/or geographic searches. So I welcomed the news that Yellow Pages is updating its listings to reflect changing consumer interest. Banished categories include Box Lunches, Typesetting Machines, Videotex Services and Teletypewriter Communication; in are Home Theatre System, Payday Loans, Scrapbooking and Sushi. See this press release for more. http://www.ypg.com/page.php/en/1/265.html

An interesting note here is that many of these decisions are driven by searches conducted at www.yellowpages.ca. Sushi, for example, gets it own listing simply because many people searched for it online.

So while the old-technology paper Yellow Pages often beats out the upstart Internet, it's nice to see the online world giving back to its database predecessor.

Peter Wolchak
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World Wildlife Fund deserves innovation award for billboard
June 1, 2007 By Peter Wolchak
Categories: Green Tech
A billboard went up recently in Mississauga, Ont., that tries to dramatize global warming and rising water levels by showing a wave graphic slowly moving up the billboard. When I first heard about this I assumed the billboard was motorized and it seem ironic that the World Wildlife Fund would burn electricity to communicate a global warming message.

It turns out I owe the WWF an apology. The billboard actually uses the rising sun, casting a shadow over an awning, to simulate the wave. So the sign is actually solar powered. This is the first of the signs to go up anywhere but the WWF is looking to expand this campaign globally.

Check out a time-lapse video at YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLpvnnu66v8.

This low-tech carbon-neutral tactic, so consistent with the WWF's message, deserves to win the organization a marketing award.

Peter Wolchak
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