Archive
Welcome to the beta of the new saila.com. Send in your bugs.
Dispatches from 2005
-
Online news initiatives out-of-date
One of the problems with online newspapers is that great initiatives are left to rot once launched. A perfect example of this: the Toronto Star released a clever Google Map of murders in the Toronto area “2005 to date”; but it’s not up-to-date. -
Opening the media
Launching a new site can be a painful experience, especially for one visited by hundreds of thousands of people a day. When the Toronto Star launched its new design, there were a number of rough edges; but in the intervening weeks, the team there has worked hard to fix them. In fact, shortly after the site’s unveiling, the Star created a comment-enabled blog to discuss the online team’s experiences and ideas. -
Canada.com goes standard
Yet another Canadian news site unveiled a standards-based redesign, this time canada.com. Unlike the Toronto Star redesign (which was likely hampered by a crusty CMS), canada.com’s mark-up is much cleaner and elegant. Not exactly semantic, but not too crufty either. -
Canada’s government on the brink
Now, it’s just a matter of minutes before the opposition parties in Canada’s parliament pass a motion of non-confidence in the Liberal government of PM². When that happens, Canadians will mark their ballots for the second time in less than two years — the date, likely Janaury 23, 2006. -
Toronto Star goes all CSS
Well, credit where credit is due: the Toronto Star unveiled a redesign that makes it the first major news site in Canada to use a CSS-based layout. Though later than hoped, the Star’s relaunch beat The Globe and Mail by a good couple of months. -
The Google Office
Looks like Google is partnering with Sun Microsystems to release a browser-accessible version OpenOffice. Is this the return of the network computer? The re-emergence of the GooOS meme? Is this why 37 Signals finally released Writeboard (which is kinda like a wiki and Writely)? -
CBC: deal reached
After being told to settle their dispute, and given a 48-hour deadline, the CBC management and the Candian Media Guild (CMG) did just that last night. The Great CBC Lockout looks to be over. Finally. -
Dream project
Imagine your dream project. Now imagine it being handed to you. What would you do? -
Add a comment at The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail becomes the first mainstream media outlet in Canada to allow its regular readers to comment directly on the news presented on its Web site. -
The Globe and Mail: now comments-enabled
Just spent a lot of hours finishing up what has become the first comments-enabled manistream news Web site in Canada. Yes, The Globe and Mail is now taking comments on its news pages. For a full write-up, read the latest rant. -
Primus sets it right
The fourth in a series reveals that Primus may let me get VoIP while keeping my current local number. -
Seeking standards-based Web developer
Keith was mentioning it earlier, and I agree, it’s hard to find good Web standards developers. So with that in mind, consider this an open call for ones in the Toronto area. Essentially, I’m looking to hear from those who dream live Web standards, and dream semantic mark-up. Being a news junkie who knows why * html can make IE behave is a definite bonus. -
VoIP with Primus — so close
This third rant in a series on my attempts to get VoIP details how close to success I came before being stopped in mid-stride. -
Getting dry DSL hassle-free
The seconnd in a series of rants about VoIP and dry DSL explains how easy it can be to get both — if you look at it the right way. -
August 26, 2005
Hid the subscribe box and showed the search box in the menu Changed the spotlit items on the homepage. -
Blogging the CBC lockout
-
Why doesn’t Internet Explorer add a table using appendChild?
Adding a table using the DOM is relatively easy — all you need to do is dynamically create the needed TD (and/or TH), TR, TBODY (and/or TFOOT and/or THEAD), and TABLE nodes using createElement. The you add each child to its parent using appendChild. -
CBC locks out employees
This morning, I woke up and flipped on CBC Radio One as I normally do. Today, though, I did it primarily to see if the inevitable didn’t happen. But it did. The voice on the radio told me the CBC management had locked-out its 5,500 or so members of the Canadian Media Guild. The Mother Corp. wants more flexibility in its hiring practices by hiring more contract workers. Already, almost a third of the employees now are currently working on a contract basis. -
Going dry with DSL
The first in a what I hope will be a series detailing my experience trying to set-up VoIP on with a Sympatico DSL service tied to my phone number. -
They come in threes
What happens when the inevitable happens not once, but three times in four days? -
Searching The Globe
Another item on this site about stuff at the globeandmail.com — one of these days that site will actually have a blog to deal with this kinda stuff. Until then, I’ve created three search plugins for Firefox (or Mozilla, or Netscape 6+, or MacOS’s Sherlock). -
Pumping up the praise
Canada is without a feedback loop when it comes to online developments and this is an attempt to adjust that. -
Podcasting CBC Radio 3
Well, although I’d like to take the claim for it, it likely has more to do with the podcasting being the meme-of-the-moment: CBC has unveiled a CBC Radio 3 podcast. -
What’s the object?
The W3C concludes its two-part series on how to embed multimedia into HTML documents, and asks the Web standards community to help them QA browsers. The timing is just about perfect for this because as most reading this are no doubt aware: -
A social-democratic budget passes
Yes, there’s been a dearth of posts here; no, I don’t plan on turning this into a polictical blog. However, given the last two posts were about the Canadian government’s delicate position, consider this the third (and for now) concluding entry. -
Then again’
Okay, maybe the Gomery revelations will bring down the government. To be fair, my last post was based on the first day of leaked testimony. The subsequent revelations definitely make neither the Liberal party nor PM² look good. Nevertheless, I hope Mr. Wells is right — we don’t need another election a year after our last one. -
Gomery revelations won’t bring down the government
The Captain’s Quarters seems to have got itself a juicy scoop and some nice traffic from Canada. But with all the hyperbole coming from our media outlets (force a quick election, explosive and damning testimony, devastating impact on the minority Liberal government, and criminal charges against senior Liberals), keep in mind a few things: -
A little help from a friend
Hey Chris, glad to hear your back and looking for advice Hope this helps -
Bye-bye, Radio 3
One of the best online magazine has published its last issue today. CBC Radio 3, with a 100 issue run, is being replaced by a plan to mesh the CBC’s various “youth-orientated” together. Read my rant about the plans -
Free Radio 3
CBC is still trying to catch a younger audience, and a full-scale revamp of CBC Radio 3 is underway -
Microsoft to release IE7
Wow. -
Good news and bad news for Wikinews
Google offered to share its server-space to ease the hosting and bandwidth demands of Wikimedia, owners and operators of Wikipedia and Wikinews. Greg Linden points out although its not a entirely selfish act, its not evil. John C. Dvorak disagrees, citing the erosion of the Usenet database as an example. The geeks at Slashdot feed the fire.. -
Ask Mozilla
The also-ran search company Ask Jeeves is making some interesting plays lately. First, it bought Bloglines *the Web-based RSS aggregator) and now it’s talking up the Mozilla Foundation. Ask Jeeves has suggested it might donate it’s desktop search product to Mozilla and making it open source; as well there’s talk of building a Ask Jeeves-branded Firefox browser this year. -
Online ad boom
Dow Jones has revealed the real reason for the MarketWatch purchase: the financial site was bought to ease a potential ad inventory crunch. The company spent six times MarketWatch’s 2004 revenue to be sure it gets some of the U.S.$10 billion online advertising spending. -
The New York Times flirts with paid subscriptions
Rumour has it that the The New York Times is planning on doing what The Globe and Mail did (partially) four months ago: introduce a subscription fee to read it online. Unlike here in Canada, the critics are quite vocal. -
Looking back to the year that 2004 was
The Internet turned 35 this year yet somehow 2004 managed to create an air of excitement about the medium’s potential. The sense of possibility is almost as rich as it was a decade ago. In fact, some of this year’s trends harken back to then, too. Read my year-in-review for 2004