Mystery building to the left of the street light on the far side of the road. (Click to Enlarge)

This summer I was meandering around my neighborhood in North York (fine, I was playing Pokémon Go and was on a poke-walk! Don’t judge me!) when I noticed this weird building to the west of the Allen Rd in what was either Downsview Airport or the grounds of the upcoming Downsview Park TTC Station. It looked like it was a medieval castle but not. I knew I needed to find out what it was so I came back with my point-and-shoot camera that has 21x optical zoom and took a bunch more snaps.

I asked friends and neighbours if they knew what it was and showed the photos but no one had any better idea what the mystery building was.

Fast forward to September 28 when I watched the second episode of the new Kiefer Sutherland show, Designated Survivor made by ABC and aired here in Canada on CTV. The show’s plot involves the destruction of the US Capitol building and they were showing the destruction’s aftermath when I noticed some familiar shapes.

I googled “Designated Survivor filming location” and saw “Toronto, Canada” on IMDB and at once knew what that mystery building was, the set for that scene of the show! They had added a ton of CGI but it was 100% the same building. I even grabbed some screenshots of the 2 scenes where I noticed and confirmed my mystery building and included them below

I thought I recognized other locations in Toronto while I continued watching the show but never really confirmed it until a few weeks ago when I happened to notice them filming a car chase on University Avenue between Dundas & Queen. My earlier theory of University Avenue standing in for…Pennsylvania Avenue? (I don’t know really because I don’t know Washington DC well enough) in a the second episode of Designated Survivor came when I noticed a speed limit sign supposedly in urban DC which said “MAXIMUM 50” which I knew must be a sign for a speed limit in kilometres per hour and not miles per hour.

Ironically, this means the car chases passes by the American Consulate in Toronto. (I wonder if that was on purpose as a type of inside joke.)

Finally, I was passing through Downsview Park again, this time way further to the west, and I came across this set which appears to be the West Front of the US Capitol building. 

Since there were no real fences or anything and I saw some other people walking their dogs on the site I decided to walk around and check it out up close.

I got a bunch of pretty great panoramic shots of the set. You can even see the cherry picker they used to get some of the more aerial looking shots. I couldn’t guess what they used the tents for aside from shelter. Maybe safely storing equipment in case of rain or snow?

And then I climbed the stairs and got up on the balcony. Wonder what happens in the show where that black mark is…I am guessing it is where someone is to stand so he or she is in the right place for the scene.

I even took a video showing off where it is in the park relative to the surrounding buildings and landmarks.

I wonder what other parts of Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area have been masquerading as Washington D.C. for this show. Also, it really is amazing how much they use CGI to make sets look like complete scenes…but I guess that’s showbiz!

Now that I’ve finally got the space, and as a member of the Rogers Social Insiders (#RogersSI) I recently joined the world of 4K display television when the good folks at Rogers hooked me up with the gorgeous 55″ Samsung SUHD 4K Flat TV Smart TV. This baby has a resolution of 3840 x 2160, produces a super clear and bright picture, and is an absolute joy to watch!

Equally important, along with the 4K TV Rogers sent me their new “Nextbox 4K” (which is aka Cisco CAV10242HD [PDF Manual]) with a free 4K TV subscription and free cable box rental so I can watch the Toronto Blue Jays playing all their 2016 home games broadcast in 4k! Yes, the Blue Jays are the first Major League Baseball team to broadcast all 81 of their home games in 4K resolution. According to Sportsnet they, “are North America’s first 24/7 dedicated sports feeds featuring 4K content…,” which is pretty freaking cool!

You’re probably wondering what it’s like to watch content in 4K and if it’s worth the investment right now so here are my thoughts on the strengths:

• Baseball: When you’re watching the Jays in 4K there is ABSOLUTELY a difference. Replays are when the picture resolution being 4x as large as 1080p HD shine especially bright. Watching a baseball game in 4K means when you yell at the garbage call the obviously blind ump made you KNOW that guy is clearly an idiot or the commissioner of the MLB really is out to get Toronto.

• Nature/Scenery: On the Rogers 4K Preview Channel (Ch 999 “4KTV”) they have been showing back to back episodes of Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan which is a show that has the actor from “Lost” travelling the world and exploring the nautral beauty of the plant and animal world. Watching the scenery and getting up close to the animals is truly breathtaking and I cannot wait until channels like Discovery and National Geographic start broadcasting in 4K!
• YouTube: YouTube actually has a dedicated 4K section and because the Samsung Smart TV Rogers gave me has WiFi and is on my home network I’ve been watching a lot of my YouTube on the TV. YouTube has a bunch of 4K content and I have been watching things like The Slow Mo Guys, videos by NASA from outer space, and drone(?) flyover exploration videos of places all around the world on Amazing Places On Our Planet.

Now, while I am in love with the 4K TV and watching television in 4K there are currently a couple of weaknesses that bear mentioning, although I am sure these weaknesses will be addressed and fixed soon as they aren’t major issues.

• HD TV Now Sort of Stinks: As a child of the 1980s I remember watching TV in the days before HD existed so I’m not actually complaining about the quality of HD or saying it is substandard. But once you start watching things in 4K and then watch 1080p HD shows (especially on a 4K TV) you notice the artifacts in the picture and can’t help but recognize that it’s a lower quality image than your TV can produce. Basically this first one isn’t really a weakness and is very much one of Dan’s #FirstWorldProblems which he should just quit talking about. So, moving on…

• No PVR On Nextbox 4K (YET!): The current model Nextbox 4K does not have an internal hard drive which means you cannot record any TV on it. It also means that you can’t pause or rewind live TV. The Rogers Nextbox 4K, of course, CAN be put onto a home network of TV boxes so if you have a standard HD cable box like Rogers’ Nextbox 3.0 with PVR then you can access recordings from that box on the Nextbox 4K. I fully expect Rogers to release another Nextbox sooner or later which will address this.
• No Picture In Picture [PIP]: When the Raptors were still in the 2016 NBA Playoffs and the Blue Jays were also playing a game, the struggle was real deciding which game to watch when I realized that the Nextbox 4K doesn’t support PIP display (so you can watch 2 channels at once). Luckily, I realized quickly I could watch one game on my computer or phone and the other one on TV so no PIP was really required…of course, this is something which can also be changed with an updated Nextbox release (or maybe even a software update?).

All in all, I am loving living #LifeIn4K thanks to Rogers being so awesome and providing me with this TV, cable box, and TV subscription for free to test it out and write about. Keep watch on this space as well as my Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook which all share the username TheDanLevy.

Have you watched stuff in 4K or have a 4K TV and/or TV subscription of your own? What do you think?

• Link to Rogers 4K TV page
• Link to the Samsung UN55JS8500F 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV JS8500 Series 8 page

For 5 months I’ve been using the ZTE Axon as my primary phone and though this device has a bunch of positives going for it, the overall experience has been anything but. I almost didn’t want to write this post because of how frustrated and disappointed I am with this device currently but decided that it needs to be written/said so with apologies in advance to ZTE here we go.

When I went to the launch event for the ZTE Axon I remember distinctly how big of a deal they made about the time they put into the development of this device. They made clear that they had looked into what the consumer in the North American markets wanted out of a mobile device and that ZTE had done everything possible to meet the demands of the consumer. After using the phone for 5 months, I find it somewhat hard to believe they spent as much time as they claimed they did because often the user experience on the ZTE Axon is downright horrendous.

Bundled Keyboard TouchPal: Full of Spam

First I’m going to start with one of the biggest offenders in the terrible user experience category; ZTE’s choice of bundled keyboard, TouchPal. I don’t care what the ratings are for it in the Google Play because those are probably from people who downloaded it of their own accord. To me, the keyboard is downright spammy and an insult to consumers who don’t want core apps to be freemium versions with ads and attempts at taking over elements of your device without permission.

The pre-release version of the ZTE Axon which I received included a version of TouchPal which would pop up ADVERTISEMENTS on top of the keyboard. Literal scrolling ads taking up my precious screen real estate from a keyboard which was forced on me in the first place is not OK. When I called ZTE and TouchPal out about it on Twitter, ZTE apologized profusely and said it must have been a mistaken inclusion in the pre-release version of the software on the pre-release device and they replaced it for a new, post-release ZTE Axon. TouchPal, on the other hand, tried to justify their inclusion of ads by saying that they had to make money somehow. (No, seriously, check out the screenshot below.)

While I wholeheartedly agree that app developers deserve to make money for their hard work, if a manufacturer is forcing an app on me – especially a core app like a default keyboard! – it is not OK to force users to have a freemium version on their devices. I wouldn’t even be mentioning this because it was only supposed to have happened on the pre-release version. Unfortunately, TouchPal was not quite finished with me.

At random intervals, TouchPal would decide to inform me that I totally needed to be aware of this brand new font that they had launched or of some special new theme they now had. I mostly ignored these minor annoyances until one morning I couldn’t figure out how to shut off my alarm because…

…TouchPal had auto-updated and had decided it’d be fun if it took over my lock screen with ads and some measurement of how many words I had typed that day versus other users of their keyboard globally. This happened even though I had switched my phone over to Google Keyboard and hadn’t used TouchPal in months. I groggily could not figure out how to properly hit the snooze button because I had never seen this screen before in my life and got really, really annoyed. I have since totally disabled TouchPal on my phone since apparently not using it isn’t enough.

Lesson here for manufacturers: If you are going to be bundling third party apps which are core to the user experience on your devices you had better make very sure it is software which provides a stupendous user experience.

Camera Problems

The next disappointment on the ZTE Axon was the camera. Despite being told at the launch event that they recognized how important it was for the phone to be able to capture loud audio clearly, be able to capture great images in low light, and that the camera should capture images quickly, they did not deliver on any of these promises. If you’re using the camera in the right situation, then yes, it will take some really glorious photos. But if you’re not using it in an ideal situation (which is probably 60% of the time) your pictures aren’t going to look that great. I decided to test the ZTE Axon one night against an HTC One M8 and an LG G4 when I was in CityPlace Toronto looking east towards the CN Tower, below are the results:

Super specialized camera settings also mean other apps (specifically I have noticed this in Snapchat) have trouble using the camera. This is because the ZTE Axon’s camera app allows you to easily up the light the camera allows you to brighten up the photo before you take it. The problem is an app like Snapchat just uses the default settings for the camera so the auto-focus always ends up super, duper dark in a low light environment without any way of turning the brightness up.

Further, if you’re trying to record video in a loud environment, the phone does not deliver on its promise to capture it clearly unless there is next to no bass in that music. Recording video at a concert or in a club and the audio will sound terrible…so terrible that it won’t even be recognizable as music and just sound like static. (I know this because I’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback on my Snapchats!)

Design Decisions Make ZTE Axon A Right Handed Phone

If you look at the above picture you will probably notice that most of the holes in the top of the phone are just there for show and only a few of the ones on the right hand side of it have a speaker behind them. The microphone on the bottom of the Axon is on the far left side. This means that if you hold the phone in your left hand the speaker will not line up with your ear unless you hold the phone so it is basically hanging off the side of your head. This in turn makes it so the microphone won’t properly line up with your mouth because it is basically at the side of your neck so you have to hold the Axon extremely awkwardly in order to use it when you put it in your left hand. You basically have to hold the phone completely horizontally with your arm and elbow raised above what’s comfortable and normal.

This may seem irrelevant to all you righties out there but remember that when we righties are on the phone and need to write down some information or use our mouse to click on something on our computers we need to use our right hands. Unless you put the phone on speaker, you’re going to switch it into your left hand and then no one will be able to hear you and you won’t be able to hear anyone until you adjust to the awkward pose the ZTE Axon requires for left-handed use.

Headset Problems While On Calls

This may just be a problem with the review unit I was given by ZTE but I have noticed that very often when I have the JBL headphone accessory that came with the ZTE Axon plugged in during a call at one point or another it’s microphone will simply cease working. I will then have to unplug the headset and switch to speakerphone or regular handset mode in order to continue my conversation. This can be annoying, to say the least.

Conclusion

Although ZTE claimed they spent a lot of time researching what users in this market want out of their devices they dropped the ball so many times that I find that hard to believe. Yes, I am a power user and yes, I am aware the ZTE Axon is supposed to be a mid-range device but that does not excuse things like the horribleness of TouchPal and the ridiculous contortions one has to go into in order to use the phone in their left hand. As cellphone and mobile technology has advanced over the years and the population has become more and more versed with technology we have come to expect more from our devices. If this is what ZTE is selling as a mid-range device, I would be scared to see what they consider low end. ZTE, you’re going to have to significantly step up your game on the next outing if you hope to make a dent in the North American market.

The ZTE Axon is available from Fido for $0 with 2-year Tab24 agreement on a Smart plan here

Miami Airport Doors with “Do Not Enter” & “Enter” Signs

When I was in Miami Beach recently I flew in and out through Miami International Airport aka MIA and when I was going in and out of the airport I noticed their “Enter” signs on the airport doors were different than any I had ever seen before. Usually this is unremarkable and I wouldn’t think anything more of it aside from mentally acknowledging which was the correct door to enter/exit as I was walking. The difference here was that unlike most other “Enter” signs I have seen in my life, this sign was an almost exact opposite version of the “Do Not Enter” sign we are all familiar with from all over the world.

Do Not Enter Road Sign – Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pretty much everyone in the world recognizes the above sign as a “Do Not Enter” or “No Entry” sign. The red circle with the white line going almost all the way across it is a universal symbol which we all understand no matter which language we speak. This is why I was so impressed with the sign that someone had come up with for the Miami International Airport doors. It wasn’t an exact opposite because for some reason they designed it to have the white line go all the way through the circle instead of leaving it a bit smaller than the circle but otherwise it is the same.

My initial reaction is to assume that they put this sign up because of all the Latin American traffic that comes through Miami International Airport but I wonder why I haven’t seen it in more places. Apparently they use a similar sign in Denmark for instructing drivers on their roads as I found here so I’d imagine this sign is also used elsewhere in the EU. That still leaves the question of how the heck it ended up on the doors of Miami International Airport and yet nowhere else in Miami (that I saw) but at least it’s a start!

I do still wonder why these signs are not more widespread across North America, especially Canada where we are officially a bilingual country.

Why do our doors in Toronto have this sign (above) on them on them yet the same set of doors have an arrow (below) in a white circle outlined in green and an English word to indicate where to go in?

Why do we think the arrow and a word communicates where to go better than the opposite of the Do Not Enter sign we are already training society to recognize? The green outline surrounding the white circle with the arrow in it shows the sign makers are aware that green is understood immediately as the sign to proceed and it is the opposite of the red on the No Entry signs. Using the sign I noticed at the Miami airport just makes sense from a user experience perspective! (I always like to applaud good UX design when I see it, even in such mundane settings as this.)

Maybe one day we will start seeing these way more logical and intelligently designed Enter signs in Canada and the USA but until then, I’ll just appreciate the good work someone (or some people) at the Miami International Airport signage division is doing in their selection of these logical signs.

Have you ever seen signs like these in your city or in your travels? Have you seen other examples of unique, logical signage? What were they and where’d you see them? Let me know in the comments!

When my friends over at Bomb Energy Drink asked me to come up with a fun way to try Bomb out for my blog I knew I had to come up with something special. After thinking about it, I decided that it’d be fun to get my morning caffeine jolt from a can of Bomb Energy Drink instead of a large coffee for a month and see the results – for science! Before I get into the results, I feel I should mention two things:

First of all, this was not the first time I have replaced my coffee with a different caffeine source. Often, when I know I have to wake up super early or will be in a rush to get somewhere I will pick up a bottle of soda or a can of energy drink to get my morning caffeine fix. But a whole month without coffee in the morning? I had never done that before!

Second, the question I got asked most by my friends was if I was still drinking coffee in that month and my answer was an emphatic, yes. My condition for the test was merely to replace my morning coffee with Bomb Energy Drink, it wasn’t a ban on coffee for a month outright! (Did I mention how I love coffee?)

Now, on to what I learned:

• Yes, Bomb Energy Drink is totally a legitimate and tasty way to get your caffeine fix in the morning all you caffeine addicts!
• I appreciated the ease of just going to the fridge in the morning and opening the can as opposed to having to either start a whole process of making the coffee or going out to a retail location to buy the coffee.
• Also, for some reason the caffeine in a can of Bomb was more than enough even though in my research for this post I found it it actually had less per can than the coffee I generally drink…but this may be due to the other energy enhancing goodness in a can of Bomb.
• Drinking Bomb Energy Drink every morning is cheaper than going out and buying a coffee. The cost (in Canadian Dollars) of a case of 24 cans of Bomb Energy Drink is $39.99+tax which works out to $1.88 per can after taxes on Bomb Energy Drink’s website. As of the writing of this post, you can enter The Todd Shapiro Show’s special $10 discount code “TTSS” for a case of 24 and Bomb Energy Drink works out to $1.41 per can! When buying my coffee from a cafe, on the other hand, it costs between $1.90 and $2.68 (those prices are for a large from Tim Hortons and a venti from Starbucks Canada respectively as of January 2016 in Ontario). Bomb is clearly a more cost efficient option.

Bomb Energy Drink is one heck of a tasty drink. Better than most other energy drinks I have tried – and yes, I for one actually like the taste of energy drinks! That said, I found out during this month how much of a creature of habit I really, truly am. After almost 2 weeks of starting my day off with Bomb I began to notice that I missed the warmth of a cup of coffee in my hands as I held it and the smell of a fresh cup of coffee as a sign of the start of my day. I know that this is only a habit I have formed over the years and, to be honest, when I did this month of exploding my mornings with Bomb it was the summer time so I really appreciated a cold, refreshing drink in the morning instead of a piping hot coffee.

One very important note which was a definite benefit of drinking Bomb Energy Drink in the morning as opposed to my usual 20 oz cup of coffee is I was only drinking 8.5 oz of Bomb. Drinking less than half the amount of liquid meant I had way less of an urge to go to the men’s room in the first few hours of my morning. This may not seem like the biggest benefit, but trust me it is when you’re the kind of person who if he gets up to do anything loses his train of thought and has to force himself not to go look at those awesome cat GIFs on imgur when he gets back to his desk (#TheStruggleIsReal).

So if you’re trying to switch up your morning routine or just need a dose of energy later in the day, I highly recommend you try and #LightTheFuse with Bomb Energy Drink. I know I still do!

Cheers!

Using the Intel Asus tablet on the TTC Subway train writing this post.

As a guy who is constantly on the go in the city of Toronto and beyond I have to say having the Asus Transformer 10.1 Tablet powered by Intel is an absolute dream. It is lightweight, takes up very little room in my bag, has a QWERTY keyboard with a mouse touchpad, and comes complete with a fully functional version of Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Office. The detachable nature of the keyboard and full touchscreen capability of the device mean I can use it for reading ebooks or pre-loaded web articles even in the depths of the subway with no signal (which would come from my cellular device being used as a Wi-Fi hotspot).

The tiny footprint of the device also means that I’m ready to get things done pretty much anywhere. Case in point, this sentence was actually typed as the device sat on top of the transfer machine in Toronto’s TTC King Subway Station!

Although the new version of Windows – Windows 8 – takes some getting used to this is something that is a Windows thing and not a comment on the quality of this device. Wherever I need it to do some work be it on the subway, in a Starbucks, lying on a couch, or on my desk, the Asus Intel is great for getting the job done!

Of course, I should mention that this device was kindly supplied to me by the folks over at Intel Canada as part of the #IntelCanada Intel Insiders program. But being a guy who usually goes for a 15.4 inch screen laptop with tons of power the portability aspect of this device is just so amazing I can honestly say I should have got one or one like it on my own dime years ago.

I'm required to disclose a relationship between our site and Intel Canada.

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Neutrogena MEN & I Want Change!

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Together, We Will #StopJunkface!

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That’s right, the name of the game is to #StopJunkface. “What the heck is ‘JunkFace’?,” you ask much as I did when I first received the email asking me to be a part of this campaign from the good folks over at Neutrogena Canada. The answer is explained very nicely in the video below:

For those of you who didn’t want to watch the video, Junkface is when a guy uses the same bar of soap, shower pouf, loofah, or washcloth for their face as they do for the rest of their body – specifically their man-parts aka their junk. When Neutrogena approached me I got both disgusted and excited by the prospect of being a part of this campaign.

First I got disgusted…because I consider myself a very hygienic person and I realized I was one of the 72% of men afflicted by Junkface. Yup, it’s true. I thought about it and realized that although I have always maintained separate, distinctive razors and towels for upper and lower body use my soap was cross contaminating my face with my junk on a daily basis. YEEEEECH!

Thankfully Neutrogena started a website dedicated to this problem and helping people like me. I have since cleared my Junkface up with the Neutrogena MEN Invigorating Face Wash which I have a coupon for you available right here (PDF) and which you have the chance of wining along with some other great stuff in the contest below.

If you head on over to StopJunkface.com you’ll see that you are not alone if you’re one of the people who until now was using the same soap for their entire body. Neutrogena MEN Canada even hooked me up with a basket of awesome which I posted to my Instagram (@TheDanLevy) and can be found here and is embedded below.

The package was honestly one of the best a brand has ever sent me for the simple reason that what I at first thought was a t-shirt with my Twitter avatar’s face on it turned out to be a pair of boxers with my face plastered all over it! It also included the tools I need to change my hygiene and end my Junkface affliction:

• A bottle of Neutrogena MEN Invigorating Face Wash
• A bottle of Neutrogena MEN Skin Clearing Shave Cream
• A bottle of Neutrogena MEN Triple Protect Face Lotion (which is also SPF 20).

And I have been using them regularly since the day I received them and no longer have to worry about what a female friend or relative is kissing when they kiss me on the cheek hello.

To encourage the spread of this message and changing the face of men’s hygiene I have teamed up with Neutrogena to give away a prize pack of Neutrogena Men Canada goodies to one lucky reader! Just check out the Rafflecopter Giveaway link below and enter the contest. Just like in 2008 when President Obama was campaigning to become the President of the United States, there is still Hope and I know that together we can reach to the Change which is on the horizon. (Do you think Obama has Junkface? …I don’t think Michelle would let that go down in the White House so probably not.)

Dan Levy & Neutorgena MEN Canada #StopJunkface Giveaway Entry—> http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/506c820/

This is not the actual widget, click through to be taken to the widget @ http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/506c820/

If you don’t want to wait for the contest to end, here’s a coupon direct from Neutrogena Men Canada to save $1.50 when you buy Neutrogena MEN Invigorating Face Wash.

Click the picture to take you to the PDF version of this coupon at StopJunkface.com/coupon/junkface-savings-coupon.pdf

For More:

• Check out the StopJunkface website for more info about this serious issue here.
• Check out the #StopJunkface hashtag on Twitter here.
• Check out Neutrogena Canada on Facebook here.

Disclosure: I received compensation for this post and being part of this campaign. However, all opinions and writing are my own.

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Electronic Dance Music events were banned on City of Toronto property at Exhibition Grounds. This was effective immediately.

This meant that shows which were already planned and contracts which the city had already signed with private businesses were null and void on the whim of the “Board of Governors of Exhibition Place,” a committee of 9 people made up of a “Mayor’s Designate,” 4 City of Toronto Council Members, and 4 “Public Appointments.” Even a show which was planned for less than 2 weeks after the meeting which made this ban happened was victim to it. The show had to be moved and it was.

Eventually, the City of Toronto City Council got together and checked if they could legally overturn this ban (they could) and vote on if they should overturn the ban (and they did). Tonight, there was another discussion about the ban because the Board of Governors decided to have a “public consultation” about it. Only one thing, they didn’t really invite the public.

I found out about this taking place at about 3:30pm today, less than 3 hours before it happened.

When I was asked why I didn’t attend to make my voice heard I informed them that I had no knowledge of this event occurring until it was way too late and if the City Councilor who is involved in this discussion truly wanted to bring the community of people who listen to dance music and attend these events in they could have done a lot better job of making this meeting known. Someone else replied that the councilor’s local newsletter email and the councilor tweeting about it was sufficient. I said how about going to the venues where the events take place weekly and handing out flyers or putting up signs? Most efficient and direct way to reach the community I’d say.

According to the Councilor he sent out a “ton of emails”  about it:

Strangely enough, none of those emails seemed to have reached the Toronto Star (link goes to search results for Exhibition Place), the National Post, the Toronto Sun, CP24, 680news, or DJ Mag Canada. I could continue looking to see if anyone actually received these emails who reported on the issue in the first place back in April-May but it seems that no one did until it became a story this morning when a City Councilor called the residents of Parkdale pedophiles on Twitter. (Yes, I am serious.)

When I voiced this displeasure with regard to attempting to let the community know I was asked if I would write to City Council my thoughts on the matter. At first I said no because from what I can tell it would be a waste of my time, energy, and breath but the conversations continue to happen so fine, I will write down my thoughts.

In terms of the “EDM Ban” on City of Toronto property at Exhibitions Place I think a couple of things:

– 1 – The ban itself contradicted a recommendation by Toronto Public Health from more than a decade ago that the city lease property for large dance parties, specifically to prevent “problem conditions” at underground raves after the death of a university student. They researched this specific thing years ago and found out people in their late teens and early twenties were making bad decisions at these parties – as we do at that agee – and when the parties were held “underground” there was no support staff on hand to help prevent loss of life.

– 2 – The ban came into existence immediately with no regard for pre-existing contracts to hold events on the Ex grounds. An event had to be moved with little more than a week to re-plan everything, offer refunds, make new plans, etc all because some sub-council of the city council changed the law effective immediately.

This is a way larger issue than just banning concerts, that is the city negotiating contracts in bad faith. What business would ever want to enter into a contract with the city if they can’t trust that the city will change its mind on a whim and screw over months of negotiations and planning? Why would Hollywood continue to film up here in Toronto if they have to worry that one day some council member or sub-council will decide to make filming downtown illegal and all the contracts they’ve signed, permits they’ve filmed out, and talent/accommodation bookings they’ve made are for naught? If I were planning a major event or movie shoot or something of the like I would want to steer clear of Toronto…because I clearly can’t trust anything anyone in the Toronto government signs. (I am not a lawyer but I am pretty sure the city also opens itself to lawsuits for breach of contract when they pull a stunt like this.)

– 3 – I don’t care about the ban. I really don’t. I think the city is stupid for banning a genre of music from their venues because, quite frankly, there are enough other private venues in the city for these events to happen. The city is just losing out on money to be had from permits and rentals for these events and in a cash strapped city like Toronto that is something we cannot afford to do.

– 4 – This ban made international news at a time when the city of Toronto is already an international laughingstock for its crack smoking mayor. You’d think Toronto’s City Council would want to hang its head low and not kick up any more attention to itself but apparently that isn’t the case. Good job, elected officials of Toronto!

Since the dawn of the e-cigarette and e-hookah, “vaping” – as they call imbibing in them instead of smoking – has occupied this gray area in terms of whether or not you are allowed to do it in enclosed public places. All that is about to change for those in Toronto who use the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission). Minutes ago, the Head of Communications for the  TTC, Brad Ross, told me on Twitter that  “Bylaw No. 1 will be amended later this year to prohibit it officially.”

https://twitter.com/bradTTC/status/464139951651958784

In case you’re wondering what this “Bylaw No. 1” that Brad Ross is referring to says here’s a link. The relevant portion which will (I am guessing) be amended is:

“3.32 No person shall smoke in or on TTC property or carry a lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, other tobacco product, or any other lighted smoking equipment or material while in or on TTC property.”

I wonder if Toronto is the first to ban it but I am trying to get this post out so I don’t have the time to research at all. Do you know of any other transit systems or public places that have banned vaping? Let me know in the comments!

Also, do you agree with this move? Or do you think that vaping should be allowed in public places? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Carly-Anne Fairlie & I saying goodbye to a man who educated us in the ways of The Macallan 1824, Marc Laverdiere.

On Wednesday, February 5 I was given the opportunity to taste the new creations from the brilliant minds over at The Macallan distillery in Scotland, their brand new 1824 Series. The series was named after the founding year of The Macallan distillery.

When I got to #RaiseTheMacallan which was at the Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Toronto I was given a wristband to prove I was legit and, because I had run a bit late, I went straight into the tasting room as opposed to the cocktail time which had preceded the tasting session. (Wish I had made it for that! That’ll teach me to leave really super early when there’s a snowstorm!) I was riding solo because of the snowstorm so I was lucky that my friend Carly-Anne aka @carlyannedotcom was there to hang out with…because no one wants to drink, er taste, alone!

The Macallan Scotch Whisky Tasting was hosted by Marc Laverdiere, a Scotch Ambassador for The Macallan and a man who knows his whisky…interestingly enough though, he has a French accent!

When we sat down it was a very similar setup to the previous time at an event hosted by The Macallan, #MacallanTO. There are 4 new types of The Macallan in the 1824 Series. Going from lowest to highest price point they are: Gold, Amber, Sienna, and Ruby. They were, as expected, each delicious in their own ways but my favorite was the Sienna. It was also interesting how the folks over at The Macallan are now moving away from telling us ages of the single malt scotches and instead are referring to them by color.

Because I am a helpful guy, I have included links to all of the 1824 Series listings on the LCBO’s website below along with the price as of March 19, 2014.

• The Macallan Gold (750mL) at the LCBO for $64.95
• The Macallan Amber (750mL) at the LCBO for $99.95
• The Macallan Sienna (750mL) at the LCBO for $174.95
• The Macallan Ruby (750mL) at the LCBO for $299.95

Happy “tasting”!

Have you tried the 1824 Series yet? If so, which was your favorite?

Today, Facebook celebrated 10 years of its existence and because of this august occasion they have decided to set up a program which compiles a personalized video which they call “A Look Back” and what others have been simply calling a “Lookback.” The Lookback shows you a highlight reel of your Facebook life. If you’d like to check it out you can go to Facebook.com/lookback. (Sidenote: In 4 days I will be celebrating 8 years on Facebook. Woah!)

The only problem with the video is, cool as it is, I don’t necessarily want to drive everyone to my Facebook page in order to see the video and I would like to be able to keep a copy for myself. Luckily, someone on the interwebs figured it out so I thought I would share it you, my readers. Below you’ll find my video uploaded onto YouTube and instructions for downloading your own video using Google Chrome.

(Note: The video it downloads is NOT the HD version just the 480p. If you know how to force it to grab the HD one let me know and I can add the info in here.)

And now, the instructions for how to do it for yourself!

1. Open the link http://www.facebook.com/lookback
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+J to open the Console.
3. Copy the whole code at http://textuploader.com/14qr and paste into the Console then press Enter.
4. The Console dialog will gives you a link to the video for download.
5. Right click the link and select “Save Link As” to download and save it.
6. Do whatever you’d like with it! Upload it anywhere!
7. Enjoy

In case you’re wondering, according to TIME Magazine Tech I have wasted this much of my life on Facebook assuming I have spent an average of 37 minutes per day on it since I joined. (An average person spends 17 minutes per day so I just increased it a lot.)

A few weeks back it was announced that Google+ was finally going to allow regular users to adopt Vanity URLs for their profiles and rid themselves of URLs like https://plus.google.com/105175761337711150993/posts (yes, that’s my real Google+ URL). Sounds great, right? Finally the common folk would be given on Google+ what most other modern social networks had from the outset, the ability to pick our own screen names and have a URL to link to which isn’t ridiculously unwieldy and next to impossible to remember.

All sounded fantastic until you went to the Google+ Help page and read their “Getting Started with Google+ Custom URLs” file. The second one reads:

“You’ll see the URL(s) you’ve been approved for. If you see more than one option, select the one you like best. You may also be asked to add a few numbers or letters to make the custom URL unique to you.”

So wait, I have to use the one Google approves for me? I can’t be Google.com/+TheDanLevy which is  my screenname on darn near every other social network I use? OK, well maybe they’ll lighten up some day and I’ll be able to change it, right? NOPE! Check out the sixth rule in the red box below

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“Once approved, this URL will be linked to your Google+ page or Profile, so be sure everything is exactly the way you want it. Once your URL has been approved, you can’t request to change it.”

I was feeling a bit pessimistic when I read that but friends who are way bigger Google+ users assured me, “You can request a different one if you have a valid reason” and “There is flexibility… You just have to request it…” so I decided to see what Google did when they finally got around to offering me a custom URL. Well, today that finally happened!

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The notification appeared at the top of my Google+ profile page and I clicked the blue button excitedly. That excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I saw what Google was offering me as my Custom URL.

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I could have +DanLevy1981 or +DanLevyExtraLetters but I couldn’t have +TheDanLevy. I didn’t even have a choice of multiple variations on the them. No +DLevy or +DanielLevy or +DanL. Only +DanLevy with whatever random extra characters I added after. My earlier pessimism was confirmed.

OK, well maybe it will let me take +DanLevy and leave it at that? That wouldn’t be what I wanted originally but it’d work quite nicely and still look professional. So I tried that and got this:

Argh!

Well that totally stinks! But, as I have mentioned in my Dan Levy FAQ blog post a while back, Dan Levy is a super popular name so it must be taken already…right? NOPE! Google has decided to add insult to injury and not only won’t they let me use +DanLevy but apparently no one else is allowed to use +DanLevy either. Go on and check it yourselves google.com/+DanLevy on Nov 7, 2013 at 3:45pm EST brings you to a 404 page. Same goes with +TheDanLevy.

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Am I not important enough of a Dan Levy for Google to give me the URL that no one else is using? Are they reserving it for a Dan Levy who is more famous than I am? What ever happened to first come, first served? It isn’t like I even had a choice of when the Custom URL was going to be available to me. Funniest part of this whole thing is that I don’t even want +DanLevy! I want +TheDanLevy but there seems to be no way for me to get it. So much for “Don’t Be Evil” as a corporate motto!

I keep seeing so much promise with the Google+ social network but it seems every time they take a few steps forward and make it more awesome they take double the amount of steps backwards leaving us without a real reason to totally abandon Facebook and make the move to Google+. Fail.

Since I got the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 as part of the Rogers Social Ambassadors group, aka #RogersSI, I’ve been wondering what is the best way for me to get some actual work done on this tablet. After I read Rannie’s review of the Microsoft keyboard I decided to dig out the Kensington Bluetooth keyboard, tablet case, and tablet stand to do just that.

This post is actually this first thing I am writing on the keyboard while I lie on a bed and type up a storm with my keyboard detached from the case (it connects with magnets) and lying on my lap as the screen sits in front of me. The only downside I can see thus far is that the built-in virtual Samsung on-screen keyboard doesn’t know to automatically close when the external Bluetooth keyboard is connected. Luckily, I figured out that if I tell the Note 8.0 that I am going to use the Google Voice input it will give me the full screen with no keyboard.

Using this external Bluetooth keyboard for the tablet increases my productivity a whole bunch. I still have to get used to the size of the keyboard as it is way smaller of a physical keyboard than I am used to. The portability of it is awesome though. If you have a tablet and plan on actually doing any writing on your tablet I highly recommend you grab a physical keyboard because it is an absolute game changer.

The only mild complaint I have with this keyboard is something which can also be seen as a huge plus: the tablet “clips” are 4 pieces of rubber which velcro onto the top of the stand. They do a great job holding the device – any device of a variety of sizes – but it is somewhat of a pain taking your tablet in and out of the clips. As I said, this isn’t a real complaint because this is one of the only ways they could have made this case into a universal case and keep the accessory useful for multiple devices as you continue to switch and upgrade from tablet to tablet over the long haul. One great thing about the clips, though, is that they leave plenty of room for the Galaxy Note 8.0’s S Pen to come in and out of the device, it mostly frees up the space for the speakers on the device, and every other port and button is fully and easily accessible.

There is a whole bunch of news today about how the TTC has unveiled a pilot program of new signage which is supposed to make everything clearer and easier to understand because they’ll be using numbers as well as names for each of the subway and streetcar lines. What the folks at the TTC don’t seem to get is that people – especially those who aren’t from the city – is that the U shaped Yonge-University-Spadina Line is in of itself confusing to people. As I mentioned in a post in March of 2011 “Spotted: TTC Referring To Subway Lines By Color!” I think that this would end up making navigating the system way easier.

I have been asked for help with directions on the TTC subway numerous times and have noticed that frequently the people tell me they are trying to get somewhere on “the yellow line.” If you take a look at the picture above of the TTC subway map, if someone tells you they are trying to get to a stop on the “Yellow Line” it tells you very little because the “Yellow Line” which is really knows as the Yonge-University-Spadina Line doubles back on itself and sending someone to Sheppard-Yonge Station instead of Downsview means they are going to be in the completely wrong area of the city when they get out of the subway. This will leave these poor people even more lost than when they started which is just bad on so many levels. My simple, easy solution is pictured below, separate the Yonge-University-Spadina line visually into two different colored lines which happen to connect with each other. Simple, right?

In the above map I chose dark blue as the color for the Yonge line to be switched to but it doesn’t really matter what color they choose as long as it is different from the University-Spadina side as well as the Bloor-Danforth Line, Sheppard Line, and Scarborough RT. Now when a tourist is trying to get to Lawrence they will be able to specify they need to go to Lawrence on the Yellow Line or Lawrence on the Dark Blue Line or Lawrence on the Light Blue Line and anyone will immediately know which station they mean.

Changing the lines to be called by numbers or colors won’t help ease the use of the system if the numbers and colors don’t represent easily relatable concepts. This is easily done and will only cost the amount of money it takes to print and change the maps already in the system and maybe to record a new voice-over for the PA when the trains stop in Union Station to explain that the train will continue going north on the other colored line and there is no need to get off of the train.

What do you think? Good idea? Better than what the TTC is already doing? Let me know.

Image Credits:

Current TTC map at the top taken from the TTC’s website at http://ttc.ca/Subway/interactivemap.jsp using a screenshot.

Bottom TTC Map with Yonge Line turned Dark Blue taken from http://tourbytransit.com and edited to differentiate the Yonge Line.

If you’ve never been to the Dragonfly it is a very nice club located inside the Fallsview Casino. The show is going to be super intimate because the place is pretty small and this is a pretty huge international DJ so if I were you I wouldn’t miss out on his set. In fact, SVD just got named Number 39 in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs for 2013 and you’re going to get to see him up close and personal.

Here is SVD’s most recent of his weekly radio shows also available directly here: https://soundcloud.com/sandervandoorn/sander-van-doorn-identity-203

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In case you don’t win, you can still grab your tickets at www.wantickets.com/sandervandoorndragonfly

You can also get yourself a hotel package at www.fictionproduction.com/packages

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HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST:

REMEMBER:  If you don’t follow the instructions on how to enter, you won’t have entered so read them carefully. (This line was originally only on the bottom of the post under Terms & Conditions but since people seem to have ignored it I am adding it here too.)

To enter the contest you MUST:

1. Like Fiction Productions on Facebook. Their page is at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fiction-Productions/628446607199857

2. Share this blog post. Share it on Twitter or Facebook (your call which but extra entry if you share it to both) and tell me the URL(s) of the post(s) in the comment section below. [NOTE: You can put both URLs in one comment. However, if you haven’t set the posts to PUBLIC and I cannot see them they do not count as entries.]

Here’s an example of a tweet you can use:

Hey @TheDanLevy & @FictionPro send us to @Dragonfly_Club to see @SandervanDoorn! Contest deets @ http://bit.ly/1893Bwf

3. Tell me in the same comment as the one you’ve used for the URLs of your social media posts what your favorite Sander van Doorn track is (remixes of other artist’s music counts).

TERMS & CONDITIONS:

Contest is open from the time of this writing until 6pm Toronto time, October 23, 2013 at which point a winner will be chosen.

You are responsible for your own travel arrangements and accommodations (if necessary).

The winner will have 30 minutes to reply to their notification of winning which will be via the email you use with your comment. If you don’t reply, a new winner will be chosen. I don’t care how you reply as long as I receive the reply.

If you don’t follow the instructions on how to enter, you won’t have entered so read them carefully.

GOOD LUCK!!!

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED:

CONGRATULATIONS TO JENNA-LEE POLLARD ON HER WIN. HOPE SHE HAS A GREAT NIGHT!!!

This is my library card which I use every time I visit the Toronto Public Library to take out a book or 3.  It looks nothing like the current Toronto Public Library card and is from the early 1990s when North York was technically a city unto itself and a part of Metropolitan Toronto.  I am pretty sure this meant that I could use any library in Metropolitan Toronto but never really tried to because when Toronto amalgamated into the “megacity” and North York became fully a part of the city of Toronto it was 1997 and I was 15-16 years old. Still, I have kept this library card because it is still valid.

I asked a librarian a couple of years ago (when my card was in slightly better shape) if I should get a new card because this one is getting downright decrepit. The librarian didn’t seem to agree and said as long as it still scans I should continue using my library card as is. I wonder how long it will take before the cracks in it reach the middle and it breaks in two (or maybe three). You can see the cracks more clearly on the second picture. The one above the “1.” is heading toward the barcode. The one above the word “immediately” on the right hand side of the card is actually making its way through the word “materials” above it and on the other side of the card this means it is making a break for the barcode as well having made a right angle turn. I wonder which crack will destroy the barcode first? Maybe I should get this thing laminated so it doesn’t break more or report it lost so they give me another one then one day donate it to a museum? I know the chances of  a librarian seeing it have decreased significantly since the Toronto Library introduced self-checkout which means until it totally shatters and I am forced to go ask for a new card i am sticking with this one.

One last thought, on the back of the card at the bottom it says “NBS.” Anyone have any clue what the heck that stands for?

The single worst thing in my opinion is the fact that you getting the job or not may rely on the personal whim of an interviewer and no one can possibly account for that since it’s impossible. I say this as I am currently on a job search of my own and have encountered conflicting advice from numerous sources on a number of different topics related to how you portray yourself while searching for a job and going out to interviews.

Below are 3 things which I have specifically gotten conflicting opinions on and thus are centered around a man’s problems in going out for interviews but they can be read from the female perspective too. (Just ignore the facial hair part and think of the multiple ways a lady can style her hair from ponytails to buns to letting it just fall and the tons more I am sure I am not mentioning due to my lack of experience in this area.)

Attire:

I have heard some say you should always go in a suit – and this is something I personally always do. It was all fine until someone told me my light suit, bright colored tie, and colored shirt  are too flashy and I should be in a dark suit, white shirt, and sober tie while someone else told me that even wearing a suit at all to some industries’ interviews is way too corporate looking and stuffy.

Hairstyle & Facial Hair:

I have heard some people say that a man should shave even if he has a beard – I mean a real beard not just “the scruffy look” – and will likely grow it back once his interview(s) are over. But what if your interviewer has a beard just like yours and it is something you can bond over? Or they just like the look of a guy with a beard because it means the two of you have similar mindsets. You never know!

Attitude: 

Someone once told me I should make myself sound like a bit of a cold jerk in an interview since it apparently implies a great work ethic if you’re a cold person. (I guess because you’re less likely to socialize?) But, what if they just got rid of some person who was a pain to have around the office because while they did all their work super efficiently they completely ruined morale among their co-workers? Will they want to hire someone who seems cold after that experience? Of course, being warm can work in the opposite direction. You can be perceived as being too sociable and too chatty and maybe they’ll be worried you won’t get any work done and will keep others from doing theirs. At the end of the day, this too is on the whim of the person doing the interviewing and a bunch of exterior factors you can’t possibly predict.

My Final Thoughts, Roundup, & Request For What YOU Think:

I don’t blame any interviewer for having their own personal whims and desires to see in the people they are interviewing to hire because it is just human nature. I have just been wanting to get this off my chest because it is a super frustrating reality which – as far as I know – not much can be done about. No matter how prepared you are for the interview and how qualified you are for the job in question it can all end up resting on how you shook the hand of the person who came in to interview you or the type of day they’re having when they sit down to talk to you. It might even be something as silly as them thinking you remind them in some way of an ex which means you don’t get the job and not only will you never know that’s what it was but there was nothing short of surgery you could have done to avoid that pitfall.

What I do believe, however, is that over-thinking this kind of thing will get you nowhere. Because there isn’t a whole lot you can do about most of these, I feel that it is more important to feel comfortable in your own skin when you go into that interview since it will likely cut down on the probable immense amount of nervousness you’re going to be feeling anyway. Having to remember to act a certain way, or not to smile too much, or smile more than you usually do, or wear a suit you think is not what you should be wearing to the interview will not help you keep a clear head and convey comfort with your sense of self. But then again, maybe the interviewer WANTS you to be awkward because it means you’ll be eager to please and they can mold you into their definition of ideal employee. See! You can second guess this kind of thing forever.

One super important thing to remember is that these whims can also work in your favor. Maybe you remind the interviewer of their kid when they were starting out in the job hunt, or maybe your beard conveys a sense of manliness and can-do attitude to the interviewer because that’s just what their father’s beard looked like when they were growing up. Maybe they saw that suit, tie, or shoes you’re wearing in the store, were debating buying it themselves, and that makes the interviewer think that you’re the kind of person they can get along with because you have similar tastes in attire. Who knows!

What do you think about the job interview process and how seems some things are arbitrarily decided on by the interviewer? Do you think there are any cold, hard truths that hold up when interviewing for a position in any industry? Please, let me know in the comments below!

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Image Credits:

Top image via employers-lawyer.com

Image of suits via Korry’s Clothiers on Twitter at @SaulKorman/

Third image via limpehft.blogspot.com

Glasses cloths also known as lens cloths, we all have them especially those of us who wear glasses. These microfiber wonders clean smudges and fingerprints easier than any tissue, toilet paper, or your shirt. If you have a high-end pair of sunglasses they probably came with one of these. Heck, some sunglasses brands even give you a pouch for your glasses made of this material. But I keep a cloth on me pretty much always for a very different reason, my mobile device’s camera and screen.

I hate how my phone’s screen gets smudged up after a day or two of use. Sometimes, especially at night, my phone’s camera’s pictures come out noticeably blurry with lights leaking all across the picture. The simplest solution is to just toss a glasses cloth into your pocket or purse along with your mobile device. They weigh nothing, take up almost no room, and can be the difference between your pictures looking like crap or coming out beautifully. Smudging on your lens can cause the unfortunate results of bright lights bleeding all over the place as you can see in my pictures below from Bud Light Presents: Sensation White Canada 2013.

With a dirty lens notice how the lights bleed all over the picture?

Once the lens has been cleaned there is way less light bleeding in the picture.

The pictures above were taken with the same Motorola RAZR HD LTE camera almost one after the other and the difference was the swiping away of the grime built up on the camera’s lens in making the second picture come out way clearer.

Ever try to show someone a video on your phone and they can’t see it as well as they should be able to because your oily fingers and face have covered the screen in a translucent film? A microfiber lens cloth will clean that right up in seconds, no fuss, no muss.  The added beauty of these cloths is that you don’t ever need to worry about them. They’re extremely cheap so if you misplace them it’s no big deal and you don’t even have to be concerned about them remaining in your pants when you wash them because it will just get clean with no ill effects if you forget you left it in your pocket.

So grab one of these things today and carry it with you for any and all occasions. You’ll be glad you did!

Reddit is a wide and wonderful world full of many different sub-categorized areas referred to as “subreddits.” Many of these subreddits are heavily photo/image oriented and browsing them on reddit itself can sometimes be somewhat tedious especially if you’re not looking to have a discussion about the pictures and just want a quick dose of laughs or cool stuff or whatever is striking your fancy. But there is a better, simpler way for this kind of thing that, while not perfect, is highly effective.

I decided to write this because this past weekend I was out for dinner with a bunch of friends and when I was speaking with my friend Justin (aka @The_Jmoney on Twitter) he was amazed that he had never heard of it before. It was then I realized that even fellow tech & internet geeks don’t know about this trick so I figured it’d be best if I shared it with the world.

The solution is super simple (and works in mobile browsers too!):

Just add the subreddit’s URL beginning with the /r/ to imgur.com. So for the “Pics” subreddit instead of going to http://www.reddit.com/r/pics go to http://imgur.com/r/pics. Note, this isn’t perfect since not all pictures uploaded to reddit are done via imgur but a large percentage of them are so this is a quick and easy way to just scroll through some eye candy entertainment with a minimal amount of reading and clicking and extra tab opening.

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Instead of this:

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You’ll see this:

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Notice how the first posts in both are the same? The beauty of this method is that if you’re an imgur user you can use your imgur login to browse these reddit based galleries and still favorite pictures for later viewing/reference.

Below is that first picture as viewed through the imgur gallery. You’ll notice there’s a link on the bottom if you want to see/read the conversation and comments on reddit itself about the picture. There is also the measure of how many times it’s been viewed, bandwidth used, the origin URL of the photo and more. Finally, on the top right hand side, just like on imgur, there’s a gallery with “Next” and “Previous” buttons and previews of the next six pictures.

I am not the hugest redditor so this is just the simplest and most efficient way I have found to do this but haven’t really explored any options beyond this one. Have a better way to look at picture heavy subreddits as a gallery? Let me know in the comments!

About two weeks ago, someone at Gizmodo noticed via an imgur post that Google had updated the definition of the word “literally” to include an informal definition which actually contradicts the formal definition. The post on imgur was titled “We did it guys, we finally killed English.”

Forgetting the obvious hilariousness of them using the word in its own definition causing an endless feedback loop and a possible paradox in the space-time-grammar continuum I want to talk more about the people who said that we have finally been successful in killing the English language with this new definition of a word which contradicts what it actually means. When this was all playing out online I heard and read many people opine that it was the fault of our current school systems or the youth of today or the rise of texting and social media which has caused this calamity to occur. While I agree that it is extraordinarily silly to use the word literally in this contradictory manner and will never do it I hate the break the news to everyone but this isn’t a new or recent development and has actually been a long time coming.

First we jump back to the year 2002 when actor and comedian David Cross released a double-CD comedy album (with very NSFW language) called “Shut Up You F###ing Baby.” On it, was a 2 and a half minute rant about misusing that word which you can listen to below (warning, includes lots of swearing):

So, this misuse of the word has been around since at least 2002 when the Internet was just really becoming recognizable as what it is today and we were moving from dial-up to broadband connections en masse. (According to Wikipedia in 2004 dial-up connections and broadband connections were about equal in numbers in the 34 OECD countries. Countries which include the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia and many more considered ‘First World’.)

But wait, there’s more! I found a copy of the New Oxford Dictionary of English published in 1998 and decided to take a look at the definition of the word literally. Remember, in 1998 we were all psyched about having 56k dial-up internet connections and a Pentium II processor in our computers. And text messaging? Ha! It wasn’t until 1999 when cellular service providers in the UK allowed people to send text messages outside of their provider’s network. So text messages and it causing people to shorten words and abuse language certainly does not play any role in this publication’s definition of the word “literally.” Here’s what I found:

Yup, read it and weep. You can’t blame the current crop English teachers, the internet, social media, or the youth today and their gosh darn texting. This dictionary was published 15 years ago and it also mentions the informal usage of the word literally as being used for emphasis or to express strong feeling and not just what it actually means. They state that it isn’t acceptable in standard English even though it accounts for more than 20 per cent of the usage in the sample text the British National Corpus – which they use to do statistical analysis and hypothesis testing, checking occurrences or validating linguistic rules within a specific language territory.

Truth be told this is just the natural progression of language and has been a long time coming (well over 15 years since this dictionary was only published in 1998 but must have taken years to put together.) As annoying as it may be to logophiles like me it is what it is and there’s nothing we can do to change it. I even looked up “anyways” in that 1998 New Oxford Dictionary of English and it makes mention of it being an informal word too, much to my chagrin.

Does the usage of literally in a figurative sense grind your gears too? Does it astound you that even as far back as 1998 it was a recognized usage of the word no matter how informal? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Screen capture of Google’s definition of “Literally” via imgur.

I have been using Google’s relatively new service called Google Now on my Android devices and absolutely love it. It learns about you as a user as you continue to use your phone and makes suggestions for you accordingly. However, for me one of the best features that it offers is the integration with your Google Calendar. Not only does it pop up upcoming events from your calendar in its own list of cards and on its widget but it will give you “Time to leave” notifications. Depending on what you have told it previously is your “Default Transportation Mode” it will alert you when to leave for upcoming calendar entries based on your current GPS location, the distance to the next entry, and the traffic along the way. It will pop up a “Time To Leave” notification on your phone without any alarm set or anything giving you a few minutes lead time to actually get out of wherever you are. It also gives you the option of instantly opening up directions to your next appointment with one simple click of an on-screen button.

Fantastic, right? Yes, yes it is. The only thing is that as a person who drives but often takes public transit I would like the ability to specify for my entries what mode of transportation I will be taking. For example, if I am going to play a round of golf then I know far in advance that I will be driving there. However, if I am going downtown on a busy night when it makes more sense to take transit than it does to drive (or if I plan on having a few drinks) I would like to be able to note that in my Google Calendar and have it reflected in when Google Now tells me to leave and what route it advises I take (if I ask it for directions).

I understand there might be a problem with this in terms of shared calendar entries but I figure there must be a way to work around that. You can already make changes to an event you have been invited to via Google Calendar and the changes will not be reflected on others’ entries so this should be doable. After all, if you look at the Google Now landing page their motto is “The information at just the right time.” In my opinion they can be doing more to ensure that the information actually is the right information.

Time to leave notification screenshot via forums.digitalspy.co.uk

When we get a job these days our employers often offers us certain perks and privileges that come with our job. They might offer/give you a transit pass, a cell phone with service, a company car, a corporate credit card, and a laptop among other things. Of course, you’ll likely get a company email address within the first few minutes you start your job. All of those things sound great, right? They most certainly are however, two of them are things that you should never link to your personal life and let your employer control.

1. Your Email

The first of the two things is the email account. No, I’m not advocating telling your employer you’d rather not use the work email address they’ve assigned to you, that would be silly. What I am saying is that you have to watch what you use that work email address for. I recommend business communication that has to do with your employer and your job from your work email account only and I have a very good reason for it:

A little while ago I had a friend who used his work email for anything and everything in his life. When he made a personal contact at a networking event or when he did private consulting he used his work email address. He wrote, and still does write, for numerous online outlets and his correspondence with those outlets was through his work email. He planned charity events on his own time and his point of contact with sponsors/partners was his work email. All was going great until one day my friend was downsized. He didn’t know what to do with himself because he was in the midst of planning another charity event and suddenly all his contacts were going to be unavailable to him as he wouldn’t have access to their main point of contact with him anymore. A whole network of people he had spent years developing was going to be that much more difficult to maintain contact with and his contact list would have to be reconstructed bit by bit. I watched him work through it and realized how much extra work he was putting himself through. This was work and hassle which could have been avoided if he’d just used his personal email account for these things.

There are so many different places online where you can get yourself a free email address from Gmail to Outlook to your Facebook account (yes, it has one) that there’s pretty much no excuse for not having one and using it other than the laziness of having to check/maintain watch over two email addresses.

2. Your Cell Phone

The second thing you should not let your job control is your cell phone. This one is so much more obvious than the email address that I’m surprised it needs to be said but, from what I have seen, it does. The why is a similar story to the email address:

A different friend of mine used her cell phone as her primary means of communication with the world as most of us do today and the cell phone was provided by her employers. All was well until she got let go suddenly and she had no phone anymore! Not only didn’t she have a phone, but she didn’t have her line anymore and the phone number which everyone knew was the best way to get in touch with her. It was all gone from one day to the next. My friend ended up getting a new phone and phone number that very day of course but in this day and age unless you’re moving to another country (or in Canada, a different city) there is almost no reason one would ever want to change their cell number. It’s just a hassle you won’t have to deal with if you plan things out.

“How should I plan things out?,” you ask. What I mean is checking if your employer would be OK with a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) system. BYOD means you “bring” your own, personal phone line and device to your job. Based on the mobile device usage your job requires of you and the price your provider charges for that usage your employer agrees to give you a certain amount of money extra per month on top of your pay which goes towards paying your cell phone bill. The beauty of this system is that it benefits everyone involved. For you when/if you leave your position with the company you don’t have to concern yourself with a new phone and new phone number because everything belongs completely to you. For your employer they just give you an extra sum on top of your pay per month and don’t ever have to deal with multiple employees’ usage of their phone lines and the accounting department doesn’t have to go over everyone’s cell phone bills every month to make sure there aren’t any unusual or wrong charges. It also means that you don’t have to go through your employer should you ever decide you want to upgrade your device to a newer/better model.

Of course, there are instances – like many law firms from what I have been told – where they don’t want you using your own device and require to use one of theirs. In that case, you can do what I know others do and carry 2 phones. This also means you can very easily separate between work and personal and you will be less likely to send out an email or text which can get you into trouble to the wrong person. If carrying 2 phones is something which really doesn’t appeal to you, you can always just put your personal phone line on one of the lowest cost per month plans and just keep it active for a pittance because, hey, you never know! Hope for the best, plan for the worst!

Thoughts?

Those are the two modern necessities I don’t think anyone should allow their employer to control but do you have any thoughts of other things that should be in a similar boat? I considered adding your car into this mix but I decided against it because if you live in a decent sized city there is usually public transit which, while not always ideal, is sufficient for most people’s needs for a day or two. There are also car rental companies all over the place and even services that let their members rent cars by the hour. With that said, I leave it to you to add things to this list or comment on it in the space below.

Photo Credit

Picture of coffee drinking man is a screenshot via the 1999 movie “Office Space“

Sketched Mailbox with @ logo via Microsoft Office

In a previous post I have already discussed with you my 12 tips for summer music festival survival but I have never talked about the makings of an amazing concert. I am now taking the opportunity to do just that since there’s a contest going on right now by the folks at Syzzle. Syzzle is a new app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch which is in beta release and will be available for download in Canada from the iTunes App Store this month, July. You can sign up to be notified of when it is released on their website at http://syzzle.me/.

I love that they’re running this contest because it is giving me the opportunity to post about something cool (amazing concerts) and it totally fits with their brand since Syzzle is an app where you can find where top rated artists are playing, including hot up and coming bands. With Syzzle you can follow artists worldwide, receive tour alerts, buy tickets, locate the best music venues in town and a whole lot more. It is sort of like a Yelp for live bands and concerts and looks like it will be THE WAY to discover new bands when they come to the smaller venues in your city.

Now on to what the 8 ingredients to making for an amazing concert experience. However, one more thing before I continue on. For the purposes of this post we are going to assume that you at least enjoy the genre of music you are going to see if not the artist themselves. This is why I am not going to mention the band being one of the ingredients.

1. Who You Go With.
   This, for me is definitely a huge one since if you don’t go with the right group of people or with the right person you may not have as good a time as you otherwise could. Personally, when I go to a concert I like to be as close as possible to the artist performing. I remember a bunch of years ago I had a friend who was buying tickets to go see a band. I asked if we’d be close enough to see from the lawns – where he planned on buying the tickets – and he said we would. When we got to the concert, we were able to see the band, yes, but they could have been a bunch of random people up on that stage. For me, I like to be close enough to be able to see into the singer’s eyes and the lawn seats just didn’t cut it.
   –
   Beyond that, it is important to realize that everyone has a different way to appreciate their music and enjoy a concert. When I attended the October 2000 Anger Management Tour at the SkyDome in Toronto which was a concert of Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Eminem, and Xzibit I went last minute because I had just come into town unexpectedly from Israel, was by myself, and had to scalp a seat as opposed to going to the floors/pit where I would usually go for hard rock shows. I had never sat before at a metal/hard rock show and found that I really did not enjoy it as there was no room to really move (and obviously I couldn’t access the mosh pit or crowd surf). Since then, I have pretty much always refused to go to a show unless I knew I was going to be in the pit or on the floor because I know I just wouldn’t enjoy it as much. In fact, I can think of only two times since that October in 2000 when I have gone to a show and wasn’t in the pit/on the floor and one was the time my friend bought lawns. Much as I like hanging out with some people on a day-to-day basis, we don’t necessarily choose to enjoy everything the same way and with that guy, our ways of enjoying concerts are clearly very different.
   –
2. Artist Engagement With Audience.
   

   Hammerstein Ballroom concert crowd on floor & balconies.

   When a DJ or band takes the time to say something to the audience or even come into the crowd to be a part of the action there is an extra electricity felt throughout. In March 2002, I saw Bush perform at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Midway through the show, I remember Gavin Rossdale jumped down from the stage and through the crowd and ran up the stairs on the side of the venue into the balconies (which you can see in the picture above). From there he made his way to the lower balcony at the back of the venue and stood on the front wall of the balcony leaning against the railings and still playing his guitar. He then performed the same feat on the upper balcony. Security guards were obviously present to keep the crowd of screaming fans from getting too close and personal with the lead singer of Bush. I still remember talking to my buddy, Ari, who was with me at the show and one of us (I think it was him) said discussing Gavin’s in crowd and balcony antics, “THAT’S a rock star!”
   –
   This can also work in the opposite direction. I recall seeing an artist recently who doesn’t use English as their first language and they played a song which as the name of a city as its title. They got on the mic and said “What’s up (name of city that’s song title)!?!?!?” only the name of the city in the song title wasn’t Toronto. He then quickly “corrected” himself a few minutes later and said, “I mean Toronto! Of course I’m in Toronto!!!” Most of the people in the crowd had their own explanation for what had happened: he was super jet lagged from flying around the world, he wasn’t giving it his all, or was not entirely sober. I suppose we will never know but it his mistake definitely killed some of the vibe of that event.

3. Crowd.
   Unfortunately, this is one of those things which is darn near impossible to predict in terms of the actual makeup of the crowd, HOWEVER there are certain cities which are renowned for the way their crowds respond to different artists. Seattle in the mid 90’s was probably one of the best places one could have gone for a grunge show for obvious reasons (I never got the chance, I was way too young) and nowadays when you go to different cities to see a band, you’ll often be surprised at what a different experience it is from your hometown.
   –
   I, for example, absolutely love trance music and going to see DJs perform live. I’ve seen the same DJs in Toronto, New York, and Miami and spoken to friends who have seen them in other cities and it is amazing how different the music they play is in each city. They may play this remix over that remix or stick with the faster beats in one city whereas in another city they’ll go for the softer and more mellow stuff.
   –
   The crowd is also super important in other kinds of music. When I saw Rage Against The Machine at their Battle Of Los Angeles tour stop in Tel Aviv, Israel my North American friends and I noticed that Israeli rock fans at the time seemed completely unaware of the concept of crowd surfing so we weren’t able to do it either since it is something which requires almost the entire audience to take part (or else you drop painfully to the ground on your back.)
   –
4. Spectacle.
   Click to view slideshow.

   Depending on the band, the venue, and the type of music this can change immensely. But seeing Gavin Rossdale climb up on the balconies is quite the spectacle as is seeing the visualizations that a DJ like Armin van Buuren brings for the big screens when he DJs for hours on end at venues like Toronto’s The Guvernment. When I went to see Bud Light Sensation Canada 2013 in Toronto at the Rogers Centre courtesy of Bud Light the music was only a component of the amazing show they put on in the creation of the “Ocean of White.” (As you can see in the pictures above.)

   

   Marriage proposal at Markus Schulz’s Marathon Set at The Guvernment, Toronto. (via @TranceInTOR on Twitter.)

   I don’t know if this counts as spectacle or artist engagement with the audience but when I saw Markus Schulz perform a 9 hour Marathon Set at The Guvernment in June 2013 one of the most special moments for me was at around 3:15 in the morning. Someone, who I don’t know, named Chris decided that it was the perfect place to propose to his girlfriend, Julie and internationally renowned producer and DJ, Markus Schulz, decided to help make it the most special proposal ever. Markus put up on the big screen behind him a message from Chris to Julie (which you can see above). That is, to me, beyond amazing and I will always remember it even though it had nothing to do with me aside from my being in attendance. (She said yes, I found out on Twitter after the fact.)

   If it isn’t an intimate, small club/venue kind of a show and you’re a big artist then seeing some spectacle during a show is definitely something your crowd will appreciate. I know I do!

5. The Opener(s).
   I know it sounds sort of silly but I sometimes wonder if they band/artist gets any say in the opener(s) for their tour. When I was at the aforementioned Rage Against The Machine concert in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2000 I still remember the opening band was not that appreciated by the crowd. They were a band called “HaYehudim” which literally translates from Hebrew into English as “The Jews.” According to their Wikipedia article they “have achieved tremendous success in Israel” and were voted in 1999 as the Band of the Year on Israel’s national radio station but you wouldn’t have known it from the concert I remember. I remember people just standing around and waiting for the band to finish so that RATM would come out and at one point one of the lead singers yelling (in Hebrew) at the increasingly bored crowd that if they didn’t like the music they could go outside. So ya, the opener is important for setting the mood and tone of the evening.
   –
6. Knowing The Artist’s Music Beforehand.
   Sure it is great to sometimes discover a new band and enjoy their music completely unexpectedly but when I go to a concert and I know at least some of the music being played it makes the experience that much more fantastic. I guess it also matters if the crowd as a whole knows the music because if you’re the only one who isn’t singing along you’ll feel left out. However, not knowing any of the music beforehand means that you have nothing to look forward to hearing the band play/DJ spin and the sense of community gained from everyone singing along is something everyone should experience at least once. Also, when you can just look at your friend with unadulterated glee as you both mouth the words to a song is just an amazing feeling.
   –
7. The Community In Attendance.
   This sort of sounds like my 1st point, “Who You Go With,” but it really isn’t. By the community I mean the people who you know you will often see at events of a specific music genre. This has been especially heightened nowadays in that we have social media to help connect us before, during, and after the shows. I, personally, love that whenever I go to an electronic music event in Toronto there is a strong likelihood that I will see my “Toronto #TranceFamily.” These are people who I don’t necessarily see ever outside of events/shows of electronic music but who I’ll always say hi to if/when I see them. They mean that even if I go alone to an event I will see friendly faces once I get there and have someone to enjoy the music with the whole night through. Obviously because many of us are based in Toronto a bunch of them have transcended just being acquaintances or Facebook friends to being actual friends I hang out with in my day-to-day life.
   –
   This community I have found in my love of electronic music also holds true for a friend of mine who absolutely loves the band Hanson (yes, they’re still around, they weren’t just one hit wonders in the 90s, and they actually are a good rock band). She goes to shows of theirs not just in Toronto, her home city, but in New York, Montreal, Pennsylvania, and more. I even suspect she sometimes plans vacations around being able to go to a Hanson show in that city. Further, this community of music fans can also can be seen in another genre of music, jam bands. Since the 1970, The Grateful Dead and projects by the band’s members since the death of Jerry Garcia have been followed by fans referred to as “Deadheads.” They have a community all their own of those following the band around the continent, sharing recordings of shows, and selling memorabilia. In terms of another jam band, Phish, there was even a group headed by a rabbi called “Gefilte Phish” which followed the band around and spread spirituality from their RV draped with Israeli flags. Because these very disparate genres exhibit the same kind of community I am going to assume it is something that happens across the board in every genre of music and therefore it is likely integral to many’s enjoyment of an amazing concert.
   –
8. Availability Of Media From The Show Afterward.
   

   View this post on Instagram

   A post shared by Armin van Buuren (@arminvanbuuren)

   –
   This is especially true in this day and age where everyone has a camera on their phone including the artists. I love when I see a DJ pull out his or her camera at the end of the show because it means there’s a chance I will be able to find myself in the crowd afterward online and that picture becomes an extra cherished memory of the event. Above you can see the picture that Armin van Buuren took when he visited Toronto’s Sound Academy in May 2013…unfortunately I can’t find myself in that pic. The same goes for when you can find a copy of the concert online afterward. Pearl Jam, for example, has a website which releases great audio quality versions of all of their live performances and when Markus Schulz played his marathon set at The Guvernment in June he used highlights from that set as his weekly radio show, the Global DJ Broadcast. Being able to relive those moments after the show by listening to parts of it or seeing pictures/videos from it make it last all the longer and enhance the entire experience. Heck, just look at my Instagram feed and you’ll see a large number of the pictures are from DJ events and concerts!
   –
   And while all that is cool, one of the most stupendous things that’s ever happened at a show which I now have as an experience always at the top of my list is being part of a music video shot at the concert. At the 2012 Veld Music Festival in Downsview Park, Toronto the trance DJ and producer Ben Gold decided to film his music video for the track “Where Life Takes Us” during his performance! Now, I always get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I watch that video or hear that track because the memories come flooding back…even though I can’t even spot myself in the video! (Watch it below, it’s great!) In fact, I didn’t even know who Ben Gold was before I went to Veld Fest 2012 but my friend told me it’d be some good trance and that he is signed to a label I know well so I figured I’d come the extra few hours early and check him out. He is now one of my favorite DJs and producers and this was before he released this music video. The video only added to my love.
   –
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex-dL9Itgio

Now I ask you, loyal readers: What would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments!

Photo Credits

Picture of Hammerstein Ballroom via http://onepowerfulmind.files.wordpress.com.

Picture of the Markus Schulz Fan’s Wedding Proposal via @TranceInTOR on Twitter.

Photo of Lights taken from Official Lights Website IAmLights.com and photo credit to Tony Felgueiras: MindcraftProductions.ca

The Pepsi Pop-Up will provide an opportunity for people to drop by and take the Pepsi Taste Challenge, win prizes, experience unique music entertainment and meet special guest music artists and generally hang out between June 26 and July 29. The Pepsi Pop-Up is open 7-days a week until July 29, and will feature: a regular line-up of current music artists who will perform in the space, including

• Cayucas
• Silverstein
• The Elwins
• Courage My Love
• Rich Aucoin
• Shawn Desman
• JRDN

The Pepsi Pop-Up will also feature guest appearances by Virgin radio announcers like Mad Dog and Maura; a customized t-shirt experience; a Pepsi ‘bar’; and a contemporary high-tech version of the Pepsi Taste Challenge on Microsoft Surface tables. The Pepsi Taste Challenge will run in major cities across Canada until September 1st. The Pepsi Pop-Up at 315 Queen Street West in Toronto is open seven days a week, Monday to Thursday from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. until July 29th, 2013.

The Nitty Gritty Contest Details

OK, in order to enter you’re going to have to do 3 simple things (all 3 not just 1 or 2).

1. FOLLOW @PepsiCanada and @TheDanLevy on Twitter

2. TWEET about how you wanna go with our Twitter handles & a link to this post – something like “Oooh, @TheDanLevy & @PepsiCanada I kan haz 2 VIP tix to #PepsiPopUp event for an acoustic performance by @Lights!?!? http://bit.ly/136PbRz“…and as of 2:35pm make sure your tweet doesn’t start with an @ or the tweet won’t count.

3. COMMENT on my blog something relevant to the post on which you’re commenting. It can be any post on my blog but it has to be relevant to that specific post. It can’t just be a random word. I suggest checking out the tag I’ve used relating to Pepsi Canada over the years – https://levynewsnetwork.wordpress.com/tag/pepsi-canada/. Creativity and insightful comments might even gain you extra points!

NOTE: Since I will be meeting the winner tomorrow to give them their VIP tickets right before the event you have to be able to get to downtown Toronto tomorrow afternoon or you can’t receive your prize.

The contest is open until 11:59pm June 25, 2012. Contest winner will be announced tomorrow morning at 9am. – Here’s Lights’ music video on YouTube of one of her singles “Ice” which has over 8 million views! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU9-TRVbhkE For more check out these web links: Pepsi Canada on Twitter at @PepsiCanada & Pepsi Canada on Facebook at facebook.com/PepsiCanada Lights on Twitter under @Lights and Lights on Facebook at facebook.com/lights

Photo of Lights taken from Official Lights Website IAmLights.com and photo credit to Tony Felgueiras: MindcraftProductions.ca 

For the past month I have been lucky to be a part of the TELUS program dubbed “10 Best of BlackBerry Q10” with the Twitter hashtag #10BestOfBBQ10. The folks at TELUS were kind enough to send me a brand new TELUS BlackBerry Q10 along with an activated TELUS line and let me play with it so I could review it and let you, my loyal readers, and the internet at large know what I think of it. Before I go on, I want to be clear about a few things:
1. I really was excited to play with this device and wanted to love it and make it my primary phone from the moment I got the email from TELUS.

2. I don’t really care about apps beyond my core of email, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and a web browser. Having Foursquare and some other apps is nice and all but it isn’t an absolute necessity and I would gladly give them up for a physical keyboard on a device which functioned superbly.

3. I love Swype for Android because of the ease of typing but I choose it over all other keyboard options available for Android because of its editing capabilities. The easy way I can use keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste reminds me of my PC and my BlackBerry keyboard which both have shortcuts for those functions. On any BlackBerry before the Z10 and the Q10 (referred to as a “Legacy BlackBerry”) this was accomplished by a few different shortcuts which BlackBerry helpfully lists here. On a PC it’s the old reliable CTRL-X, CTRL-C, & CTRL-V. That, coupled with the trackpad-replacing “Edit Keyboard Layer (PIC)” which Swype has means it is my go to and you’ll be hard pressed to convince me to switch to another keyboard.

The final straws for me with my 9900 was when I got the black clock of waiting when the phone had freshly booted and I was writing an email. The device slowing down during such a mundane task was too much coupled with the camera being so horrible I couldn’t take a picture of an article in the newspaper because it’s fixed focus lens couldn’t handle close up shots. When those 2 things happened I gave up, threw in the towel, called it quits, and broke up with BlackBerry.

For all those who are too lazy to read a long review here it is in three sentences: The TELUS HSPA/LTE network in Toronto is great providing very good coverage and speeds. All in all, the BlackBerry Q10 itself is wonderful to hold in the hands and the OS is fast and responsive. The BlackBerry 10 OS from a User Experience perspective, however, is absolutely horrendous and disastrous.

Now let’s get into this review. We’ll start with the keyboard.

Hardware – Keyboard

The BlackBerry Q10 is one fine piece of hardware. As usual, the folks in Waterloo built their device to last. It feels solid in my hands and the typing on it is a joy. Although the mobile device market seems to be moving away from physical keyboards I couldn’t disagree more. I will always love having a physical keyboard…at least until we perfect voice to text to the level of science fiction movies/TV/books. On this front, the BlackBerry Q10 more than delivers. The keyboard is an absolute joy to use and is everything one could ever want from a physical keyboard. I would love to spend more space lauding it but there really isn’t much more to say other than it was done extremely well and fit every single need I had as a physical keyboard from a hardware perspective.

Hardware – Screen

The screen of the Q10 is great to look at. The colors are nice and vibrant and it performs well under bright sunlight. Of course because of the aforementioned physical keyboard the screen is smaller than it would be on an all touch phone but that’s a sacrifice I am more than willing to make. What I didn’t like was the screen’s responsiveness – or lack thereof – in my testing of the Q10 I found often that I would be trying to hit an icon in a corner of the screen and I just couldn’t get it to work. This became extremely annoying very quickly. I also couldn’t find anywhere in the settings that would allow me to turn screen touch sensitivity up. Therefore, even if this is/was an app based issue (as some people on CrackBerry forum seemed to opine) I as an end user don’t care and have to give failing marks to BlackBerry for the Q10’s screen. This is also much more relevant than the touch screen performance than on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 for example because the Q10 did away with the trackpad which all previous BlackBerry devices had. The touch screen on the Q10 is integral to the entire experience. Editing on the BlackBerry Q10 is a huge pain because of the screen’s lack of sensitivity. I found it difficult to highlight, cut, copy, and paste. I sincerely wish they had added an option for a floating trackpad to appear on the screen when editing/typing because that would have made life so much easier given the unresponsiveness of the touchscreen.

Hardware – Camera

The camera on the BlackBerry Q10 holds up against pretty much anything else on the market. I didn’t really play with the “timeshift” feature because I don’t take that many portrait shots of people and I prefer to use HDR for most of my shots being a completely amateur photographer. I decided to take the BlackBerry Q10 out to a local Fiat car dealership (a friend of mine works there) and take some pictures of the multicolored Fiats with both the BlackBerry Q10 and my Motorola RAZR HD LTE (XT925). Below are the resulting comparison shots:

You can also see the comparison shot gallery hosted here: http://imgur.com/a/xCj2w/layout/blog

All in all, the BlackBerry Q10’s camera performs extremely well and takes some really great pictures. One thing you will want to watch out for, however, is when you get the device the camera is set to take 1:1 pictures as opposed to 4:3 or 16:9. You probably want it set for 4:3 and maybe 16:9 but definitely not 1:1 unless you want all your photos to be perfect squares.

What’s In The Box?

This was an area where I felt the folks in Waterloo were pretty cheap and I was unimpressed. I was astonished to not find the standard BlackBerry holster or at least slide case in the box with the BlackBerry Q10. As well, there wasn’t even a small capacity microSD card included with the device? I thought the Q10 was supposed to be a flagship device? Your standard headphones, charging/USB cable and country specific AC adapter are all included in the box as well as a battery, the device and a bunch of manuals.

Software – The BlackBerry 10 OS

The new BlackBerry 10 operating system is also quite beautiful and it works really, really well. It is smooth, almost never slows down, and in my time using it, it never crashed. The whole gesture based aspect of interacting with the OS instead of pushing a button took some getting used to but once you’re used to it it becomes second nature. That said, there is still A LOT of work that BlackBerry needs to put into BlackBerry 10 as it still leaves, in my opinion, much to be desired. Coupled with the fact that they have taken over 2 years to release a device running BlackBerry 10 because it was still being developed and finished (unless you include the PlayBook which runs PlayBook OS which has the same root of QNX as BlackBerry 10 does) and BlackBerry have even delayed the release of the BlackBerry 10 devices AND that the Q10 was released months after the Z10 and I don’t really know what is going on in Waterloo but whatever it is, it isn’t getting things to work with their consumers in mind.

What do I mean by the above? Well, it seems that everything is that much more difficult to do in BlackBerry 10. Want to check your battery’s percentage? On a Legacy BlackBerry all you’d have to do is hit ALT+SHIFT+H from the Home Screen and it’d bring up the “Help Me!” screen which listed your battery percentage to the nearest 5%. On BlackBerry 10 you need to go through 5 steps and a scroll from the Home Screen to find the percentage of battery remaining in some hidden submenu. Battery life and how much battery we have left is something which is HUGELY important to today’s mobile device users since often they are our sole lifeline. The little battery indicating icon on the top of the screen doesn’t even have your battery indicator divided into quarters (as you can see in the screenshot below). This requires you to download an app to tell you your battery percentage and to make sure it is always within the last few apps you’ve used otherwise it gets shifted to the bottom and out of sight.

The active frames of apps which are still running in the background are pretty cool and all but it seems no one at BlackBerry gave any thought to their actual usage, privacy implications, and keeping them useful. One Friday I glanced at my open BBM active frames and saw that it was unhelpfully showing me a status update from Saturday, 6 days beforehand. There is no control for the end user over what updates they want to see and you are left at the frustrating mercy of the OS. Beyond that, and even more problematic, is the case of the Pictures active frame. They begin a slideshow (as you can see in the screenshot above) where it starts showing pictures which are on the device. This sounds great until you consider how many images we have these days which are Private (that capital p was not accidental). There is no way to tell your BlackBerry to not show that new logo you just had designed for your company in your BlackBerry’s slideshow or to avoid displaying the image of the new ad you have to approve so it was emailed to you. The BlackBerry used to be the device of security but in this regard the designers seemed to decide that we want everyone to always be able to peruse all of our images with just a glance at our screen if we leave it unlocked and on a table. Ouch.

If you want to change your ringtone/alert tone the device just gives you a few for that specific category and if you want to preview them you have to select them first then go back through the menu substructure and choose the next one. All notifications are divided up into subfolders and there is no way to preview any of the tones. Even if you try to go to them through your file explorer on the phone it won’t let you see the tones because they are in a hidden directory. It makes choosing ringtones a HUMONGOUS and time consuming task and is just plain user unfriendly.

Software – BlackBerry Hub

This is technically part of the OS itself but I felt it deserved its own section. Unfortunately, I feel as if BlackBerry failed again with this portion of the device simply because it once again doesn’t keep certain expectations we as hardcore BlackBerry users had from the outset. The BlackBerry Hub integrates pretty much every type of notification your device receives in one spot. The problem is that the Hub doesn’t play nice with all of them and is lacking in many regards. I am, at this point, already at around 2,000 words and I could probably write another 2,000 on how terrible the Twitter app is especially when used with the BlackBerry Hub but I won’t. What I will talk about is how basic functionality we used to have in our old email inboxes on a Legacy BlackBerry is once again gone. Remember how we used to hit “U” to jump from one unread message to the next no matter how far back in the message folder it was contained? Can’t do it anymore. The only alternative is to do about 5 steps which has something to do with setting up a filter to filter by unread messages. Frankly, I never bothered to figure this out and still to this day do not know how to do it because I was so disgusted by the removal of functionality and seeming lack of caring for the core base of BlackBerry users. I have even spoken to a person involved in Software Development for BlackBerry and he seemed amazed that I was so upset by the removal of all these different shortcuts from the Legacy BlackBerry experience. Newsflash: Pissing off your core audience is a terrible idea.

Software – Web Browser

The BlackBerry Q10 web browsing experience is a lot better than anything BlackBerry brought out before it and for my purposes was pretty much fine. Having less screen real estate wasn’t ideal but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for a keyboard. HOWEVER, once again the User Experience monster reared its ugly head when it came time to try and change the browser’s search engine. BlackBerry teamed up or were paid by Microsoft Bing I am guessing because that is the default search engine when you open up the browser. This is fine except I and many others prefer a different search engine as our go to. When I went to the settings option in the browser I couldn’t find any option to change the web browser’s default search engine. It took me a day or two before I noticed the little arrow at the top of the screen when I began typing a search into the search bar at the bottom of the screen. When I clicked the little arrow, suddenly a list of search engines dropped out of nowhere like a gift from the gods for my perseverance in navigating this user unfriendly environment.

Software – “BlackBerry Link” BlackBerry to PC Connection Software

Y U NO HAVE DISCONNECT BUTTON BlackBerry Link?!?!?!

Not bad at all. Does almost everything it should do. Backs up devices, lets you easily transfer photos and music and videos and does all that you’d need your device’s PC client software to do. Except one thing: The continued lack of an EJECT BUTTON. That’s right folks, BlackBerry still has yet to include a button with the option to safely disconnect your hardware from your computer. Sure we can do it with the option in the tray in Windows but I’d be willing to bet that a large percentage of Windows users still don’t know that option exists in Windows. What gives BlackBerry?

TELUS’ Network & Service

As a guy who primarily has used the Fido/Rogers network for the past long while I have to say I was very impressed with everything about the TELUS HSPA/LTE networks. They had great reception most everywhere in the Greater Toronto Area, the speeds were almost always amazing. I even noticed the device maintaining signal in some TTC subway tunnels/stations where I never ever received a Rogers/Fido signal and who doesn’t like an extra bit of coverage every now and again in some of the harder to reach spots?

I even took advantage of the “TELUS Learning Centre” and did a One-To-One Learning Session with Jerome in Bayview Village, Toronto. He couldn’t have been nicer and more desiring to help. Unfortunately for Jerome I know my electronics pretty well and had already had the device for a bit before I went in so there was very little he could teach me. I will recommend checking out the TELUS Learning Centre if ever you have a question about your device. Their employees are not paid based on making sales but rather on how many people they help so you aren’t trading advice for a sales pitch. You don’t even have to be a TELUS customer to get your learn on! How great is that? Oh, Jerome and I are totally buddies now, too – we added each other to BBM and Twitter.

Round Up & Final Thoughts

As I said above at the beginning of this review the hardware that is the BlackBerry Q10 is great. The core of the OS that is BlackBerry 10 is great in that it solves all issues we ever had with our BlackBerry devices in the past. BlackBerry 10 is smooth, fast, reliable, doesn’t slow down, and doesn’t crash. However, in the development of the BlackBerry 10 OS it seems the folks at the company formerly known as RIM forgot about key pieces of functionality their legacy devices had which their core user base was used to. Either they forgot, didn’t know, or they simply didn’t care.

In any case, the BlackBerry Q10 was, like Anakin Skywalker, supposed to be the Chosen One. It was supposed to bring balance to Waterloo and turn the tide in the battle that BlackBerry had been losing over the past couple of years against Apple and Android. Instead, it seems that all the hardcore BlackBerry fans have to look forward to is the promise of “BlackBerry 10 update to 10.2 which is totally coming this fall and is definitely going to fix all of these user experience issues.” I’ll believe it when I see it. But hey, that attitude might be what Obi Wan Kenobi said when Yoda told him not to worry because there were Skywalker twins one of whom might be the Chosen One (and we all know how amazingly that turned out!).

In conclusion:

• If you are a physical keyboard loyalist and won’t even consider going to an all touch device until they pry your physical keyboard device from your cold, dead hands you’re going to love the BlackBerry Q10. It is a workhorse of a device and its OS is rock solid but be prepared to learn a whole new world because this isn’t your BlackBerry OS from 2010.
• If you are someone, like me, who reluctantly switched to another platform once you finally couldn’t bear the slowdowns and memory leaks of the legacy BlackBerry devices anymore this isn’t the device that is going to bring you back in the fold – yet. I recommend staying away until at least the release of BlackBerry 10.2 in the fall (if it doesn’t get pushed back).
• If you are someone who has never used a BlackBerry and has always been iPhone or Android don’t even bother. You probably don’t care that much about having a physical keyboard since you’ve never had one anyway and this device as it currently stands isn’t going to convert you to Team CrackBerry.

VELD 2012 far back from Main Stage on Day 1

We in Toronto are in our first weeks of warm weather and with it comes the parade of summer music festivals. I don’t care what kind of music you’re into, for the purposes of this article they’re all the same.

I saw a bunch of similar posts from various outlets and while some of them, like Notable.ca’s “Festival Season Packing Must Haves,” are really great and super helpful there were still a few things I found to be missing so I decided it was time to write my own. Also, I have kept this as unisex as possible although some of these tips do not make for the most fashionable advice the point of this is utility not fashion.

1 . Set Specific Meeting Times/Places To Regroup:

There’s a strong likelihood you’re going to get separated from your friends over the course of the day/festival. Take a look at the festival schedule before you head out and decide on (a) time(s)/band(s) during which you’re going to definitely regroup. When you get to the festival try to scope out a good rally point relative to each time or band and see it in real life. Places that make great spots for this are – for example – a portapotty/bathroom area or one of the booths selling stuff. Don’t pick a tree or bush unless it is REALLY, REALLY distinctive because you’ll never all be able to find it again. Also, choose a spot where everyone who’s still left standing is going to rally at the end of the day. There will be a rush of people trying to leave the festival area as soon as it’s over so unless you have somewhere super pressing to be that night you’re better off hanging back and meeting up with your friends.

2. Bring Cash, ID, & Maybe Some Plastic But Leave Your Wallet At Home:

Unless you know for a certainty that they’re going to take plastic at the venue you’re attending I recommend bringing some cash. Don’t go crazy because you’re going to be quite disappointed if you misplace it but remember that there’s a strong likelihood of there being vendors who won’t take plastic and direct you to an ATM which has a long line up AND charges you an arm and a leg for the privilege of taking out some money.

I very highly doubt you’re going to need your pharmacy’s reward card and your movie theater membership while at a summer music festival so leave your wallet at home. You’ll be fine with the cash, a piece of ID like a license, and a credit and/or bank card. The lighter you travel, the better.

3. Wear Clothes With Lots Of POCKETS! (Like Cargo Shorts/Pants):

These trusty cargo shorts of mine have 6 pockets in the front and 2 in the back. 2 of the front pockets fasten with velcro and 2 have zippers…talk about secure!

The more pockets you have, the better. You generally don’t want to be toting a bag around with you all day and if you have clothes which have a whole bunch of pockets  you can stay organized and comfortable. The alternative is to be jumping up and down while wearing a backpack, it’s annoying to say the least! Also, it is unfortunate but some people are jerks and try to pickpocket at these kinds of events. Pants/shorts with pockets that close up are going to make it that much harder to become a target and they also make sure things won’t fall out in general.

4. Bring A Portable Backup Battery & USB Charger: 

My Scosche goBAT II with Toronto TTC Metropass & NYC MTA MetroCard for scale. (Not pictured, USB cable.)

When you’re at a festival all day taking pictures and videos, tweeting, Instagramming, and texting you’re going to kill your smartphone’s battery in the best of conditions. With 40,000 people also doing the same thing, the cell towers in the area are often strained in terms of capacity and your phone has to work harder to maintain a signal,  draining your battery even faster. Personally, I have the Scosche goBAT II High Capacity Backup Battery which was sent to me by PureMobile.ca and it keeps me connected and charged up in my day-to-day life as well as at music festivals and concerts so I highly recommend you grab one for yourself. Unfortunately, PureMobile.ca doesn’t list is as in stock anymore but there are many similar products on the market.  The Scosche product I have has “5,000 mAh” of juice available when fully charged.

To put this “mAh” thing into perspective: The Motorola RAZR HD LTE (XT925) I currently rock as my regular device has a battery which is 2,530 mAh in size. You don’t have to understand what “mAh” stands for to get that this means I can charge my phone fully just shy of twice with my portable battery (5,000/2,530 = 1.98). To compare this to other devices currently popular and on the market, the Samsung Galaxy SIII has 2,100 mAh battery and the Samsung Galaxy S4 has 2,600 mAh, the iPhone 4S has 1,430 mAh and the 5 has 1,440 mAh, the new 2 BlackBerry 10 devices; the Z10 and the Q10; have 1,800 mAh and 2,100 mAh batteries respectively.

Scosche goBAT II view of the charging ports & on button with battery level lights.
MicroUSB = charge the goBAT II/power in.
2 Regular size USB = charge your devices/power out.

These portable batteries can charge almost anything that charges via a USB cable (mine can even do 2 at once if you have 2 cables) so they’re perfect for an iPhone as well as for an Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. The one I have can even charge tablets, but I digress. The important thing to remember is that you’ve got to look up your phone’s mAh and the battery’s mAh before deciding which one is the choice for you. The $20 one may have an attractive price tag but it likely won’t fully charge your phone even once.

*Note: Battery size info for all phones was taken from their Wikipedia pages.

5. Set Your Phone To Use 2G/EDGE or LTE and Avoid 3G/HSPA:

Remember I mentioned how your battery is going to be strained trying to maintain a signal? The clogging of the network not only depletes your battery faster it also makes it harder to send/receive text messages and phone calls. Last summer when there weren’t as many people who had phones that could use LTE I was at VELD Music Festival in Dowsnview Park, Toronto and was rocking a HTC EVO 3D on Fido and a Sony Xperia ion on Rogers. Rogers and Fido share a network yet my HTC which only had 3G capabilities was having a whole bunch of difficulties receiving texts and tweeting pictures on the clogged 3G network whereas the Sony on the LTE network had absolutely no issues.

This summer, with the arrival of a whole host of LTE phones on the market over the past year I can’t tell you what is going to work best. What I can tell you is that the old fashioned 2G/EDGE network while way, way slower will likely be less used by others AND it doesn’t drain your battery as quickly. 3G networks while they don’t drain battery as quickly as LTE networks do will probably be clogged no matter if you’re with Rogers, TELUS, or Bell. Remember this when you’re having trouble even sending a text message out to friends, 2G/EDGE is likely your best bet, pictures and videos can be uploaded later.

Remember, figure out how to play with these settings and test them BEFORE you set out to the festival.

6. Timestamp Your Text Messages:

As I mentioned above, the networks are going to be clogged. If you find that you’re receiving messages long after they were sent or yours are taking forever to send timestamp them in the text message itself. Example:

“Heading to the South Stage, I’ll be on the right hand side. [11;53am].”

The reason for this is when your friend’s phone (finally) receives this text it will only show her the message’s timestamp for when it came in not when it was sent. Adding your own timestamp ensures that she doesn’t come looking for you an hour and a half after you sent the message thinking you’ll be right there because they now know that message is quite dated.

7. Bring Plastic Zipper Storage Bags:

With all the technology we bring around with us today it would absolutely SUCK if we were caught in a downpour or sprayed by water in some other fashion – and at summer music festivals, these things do happen. Save yourself the trouble and bring some bags with you, they take up next to no extra space in your pockets, have almost no weight and you can even use most touchscreens through them if need be.

8. Buy Cheap Sunglasses:

If you don’t require corrective lenses then go out and buy a pair from your local gas station or discount store. This way you don’t have to worry about them getting scratched up and broken and no need to bring the bulky case your $300 pair came in.

9. Bring Single Use Suntan/Sunscreen Packets:

You don’t want to be carrying around a bottle of this stuff the entire day but you might want to touch up your sunscreen/suntan lotion at some point which is why you should grab one of these kinds of packets. They weigh nothing and have enough in them for most people’s single use of applying sunscreen/suntan lotion. Of course, you might want to buy a couple of these packets and try out one before you’re on your way to/at the festival and make sure it has enough for your needs in a single packet. Sure some protection is better than none but when it’s so easy to pre-plan this kind of thing, you may as well.

10. Bring A Poncho:

One rolled up poncho and one folded up and bagged poncho.

Of course I only say this if they’re calling for the possibility of rain. There are many varieties of ’emergency’ ponchos you can buy for yourself…or look around, they might be giving them out as promotional items at some summer events or in your downtown area. Plastic ponchos might not be the height of fashion but they are lightweight and small and they will protect you from the rain if a downpour starts. This means you’ll be able to enjoy the music likely still being played and not trying to huddle with others under whatever shelter that’s available. Of course, if you don’t mind getting rained on as long as your electronics are safely stowed in a sealed plastic bag you have no need for a poncho.

11. Wear Comfortable Shoes/Clothes You Don’t Mind Ruining:

You’re going to be on your feet a lot over the course of the day and you’ll almost definitely get stepped on at some point or another. Because these events are often held on open grass fields you never know what kind of conditions you’re going to be walking on to. Wear shoes that are comfortable that you don’t mind getting filthy because there’s a strong likelihood you will do just that. Last year, VELD Day 2 was supposed to be a rainy one and on Day 1 the tent had a whole area which was just straight mud. Knowing that, I threw all fashion conventions out the window and wore my Crocs and was happier for it. The way I saw it was screw fashion, I was there to have a good time!

Committing many a fashion faux pas at VELD 2012 Day 2 is me on the left in the bright neon vest, blue wife beater, and camo bathing suit. (I was also wearing Crocs.)

12. All Your Well Laid Plans Will Likely Be For Naught, Have Fun Anyway!

There’s a Yiddish proverb which states: “Man plans and God laughs.” The noted 19th Century German military strategist  Helmuth von Moltke the Elder was known to say that, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” Making plans isn’t a useless endeavor, as von Maltke knew, but in order to be effective in your planning you have to be prepared for the many different contingencies an outside force will exert upon your well structured plan. The advice I have given above will help you have an amazing time and be prepared for most things at summer festivals but it won’t prepare you for everything. You have to go there to have fun and don’t be so concerned with meeting that person and staying together with these people in this group. Remember why you’re there (for the music) and enjoy yourself. You’ll probably run into people you’d otherwise be looking for without even trying to as the mass of humanity shifts and moves from stage to stage, band to band, and bathroom line to drink line.

Any ideas for additions to this post? What summer festivals are you planning on going to? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear answers to both of them!

Speaker Lineup for The Art of Marketing Toronto 2013: (From Left) David Usher, Biz Stone, Charles Duhigg, Seth Godin, and Jonah Berger

The Art of Marketing is making its return to Toronto on June 5 this year to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and it has a great speaker lineup which frankly, I am excited for. They gave me a promo code for my readers to save some money on a ticket which you can find below. All facts on the table, they hooked me up with a ticket too cuz they’re nice like that (and, let’s be honest, because I am writing this).

These events do sell out and there’s only room in the conference for 1,500-2,000 people (that’s a rough estimate, I cannot back that number up). So you’re going to want to grab your ticket sooner rather than later. (You can do that here.)

If you’ve never been to a “The Art of” event, I highly recommend attending this one because of the speaker lineup.  As well, the networking opportunities with people in the industry are astounding. Here is where I am going to tell you something that they probably don’t want me to…actually no conference organizer wants me to tell you this but it’s my own experience at conferences: There is tons of networking to be done at these kinds of functions but the real connections and serious networking you’re going to do will likely NOT happen during the scheduled “networking breaks.”

• Networking will happen based on who you sit next to, behind, or in front of.
• It will happen when you see a friend/acquaintance who is with another friend/acquaintance of theirs and you all get to talking.
• It will happen on the way out to lunch.
• It will happen when you ask to borrow a charger from the guy 2 rows over with one just sitting on the table.
• It will happen when you’re walking into the conference and see someone else heading the same direction.
• It will happen when you watch the Twitter hashtag #TheArtOf and see someone tweet something interesting and decide to reply to them and end up meeting in real life cuz they’re only a few rows in front of you and a few seats over.
• It will happen if there’s a line for the bathroom and you’re bored so you start talking to the person in front of or behind you.
• It will happen when you realize you want to take physical notes and don’t have a pen in paper but see someone else with a binder and a pen case and  you ask to borrow some writing implements.

Don’t miss those opportunities and don’t run around during the Networking Breaks trying to hand out your business card to every person you have a four second conversation with. There’s really almost no point. But hey, if you want to be that cavalier with your business cards they and the money spent printing them probably mean nothing to you and I could use some new business cards so shoot me an email and we can set me up.

Below is the descriptor they sent me with my own thoughts added in italics as well as the speaker/panelist’s Twitter account where available to me via a Google search:

You can also follow the conference hashtag on June 5 by searching #TheArtOf  or just click this link: http://twitter.com/#TheArtOf .

They gave me a Promo Code aka Discount Code to share with y’all and save $50 on a  ticket right off the bat! The Discount Code is: SOCIAL if you want to enter it manually on their site or you can just use this link: http://email.theartof.com/KT13/SOCIAL/. If you buy three tickets at once and use the promo code too, you’ll EACH save $100 off the ticket since the folks at The Art Of give you a group discount of $50 per ticket. Not a bad deal especially since you get to learn so much!

So, will I see you there? Remember, this is only days away and is worth professional development credits so you can probably get your boss to pay for it.

Below, I have reprinted the agenda found on The Art of Marketing’s site at http://www.theartof.com/marketing-toronto-2013/agenda but I took out all the graphics and the links to each speaker’s “Read more: What you’ll learn | Bio | Books | Videos” section.

Schedule of the Day

8:45AM to 9:00AM Opening Remarks

8:00AM to 9:45AM David Usher – “Core Creativity: How to Bring Creative Change, Innovation & Inspiration to the Work that You Do” (Juno Award Winning Musician & Creativity Expert) @davidusher

9:45AM to 10:30AM Jonah Berger – “Word of Mouth & Viral Marketing” (James G. Campbell Assistant Professor of Marketing at Wharton & Author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On) @j1berger

10:30AM to 11:00AM Networking Break

11:00AM to 12:00PM Seth Godin – “Innovation & Change” (New York Times Bestselling Author, Purple Cow, Tribes & Linchpin) @ThisIsSethsBlog

12:00PM to 1:15PM Lunch

1:15PM to 2:30PM “Executive Panel” –

• Cheri Chevalier (CMO, Microsoft Canada) @avidmarketer
• David Klein (VP Marketing & Innovation, Aeroplan)
• Geraldine Tenten (Director, Marketing & Communications, IBM Canada Ltd.) @GTenten
• Andrew Zimakas (CMO, ING Direct Canada)

2:30PM to 3:30PM Charles Duhigg – “Consumer Habits & Predictive Analytics” (New York Times Investigative Reporter & Bestselling Author, The Power of Habit) @cduhigg

3:30PM to 4:00PM Networking Break

4:00PM to 5:00PM Biz Stone – “Things a Little Bird Told Me: Simple Lessons About Business, Life, Service & Creativity” (Co-Founder of Twitter, Founder of Obvious & Named one of the Most Influential People in the World by TIME) @Biz

Promoters are killing Facebook. Someone make them stop, please.

One of the greatest features about Facebook which I use above all else on the site is the Messaging/Chat app and feature. But promoters seem to want to kill it and drive it to irrelevancy as quickly as they did Events. Exhibit A is above. This really happened and I am still waiting for his response. (I don’t actually expect one.)

In February 2011, @unmarketing aka Scott Stratten wrote a blog post “How We Are Killing Facebook” which talked about how people are killing Facebook by creating what he called “event apathy.” Essentially, event apathy is caused by people using Facebook to invite others to events that are just completely not targeted towards them (be it due to them living thousands of miles away from the event, being not interested in the topic, or being outside the target demographic, among a host of other reasons). Because of this, as Scott mentions, many people have begun to ignore Facebook Event invites to the point that the function may not as well be on Facebook at all. I know I turned my event notifications off months ago because, quite frankly, they were getting too darn annoying and were draining my cell phone’s battery. I’ve had people miss events that I invited them to that I know they would have loved coming to because they simply didn’t see the invite. I know a number of people who have once again begun using services such as Evite or Paperless Post because they know we still check our emails but ignore Facebook events.

Who is to blame for this? Scott doesn’t really narrow it down in his post but I am going to because they are the worst offenders: Promoters.

Before I go on let me be clear I have nothing against promoters. Heck, I am currently partially responsible for running one group’s Twitter account: @ElevateUrNight where I am making it more awesome and less spammy than any other promoter’s Twitter feed I have ever seen. Go on, check it out, I’ll wait right here.

Now that you’re back from checking out the promoter group’s Twitter account I am helping to manage I will continue. I wrote about how promoters are killing one aspect of Facebook in my post a while back “Changes Facebook MUST MAKE To Photo Tag Options & Privacy Settings” and since then Facebook has changed the way tags work – thankfully. But the Events feature is still as good as dead as evidenced by this screenshot:

That is really in my Facebook Events inbox right now. I am invited to THE SAME EVENT 4 times and 3 times by different people. Each promoter obviously makes money if I go in on their list and if other people see that I am going or invited to the event so they send out as many invites as possible. (Facebook only makes matters worse by having “suggested events.”) It got to the point that people who were part of the same promotions group were inviting me each to their own version of the same event. Those people have since been set to be permanently ignored for all event invites.

You might ask why I don’t just unfriend all of them and the reason is because I am not just Facebook friends with them, I am actually friends with them in real life. The solution is so much simpler and I am puzzled as to why Facebook has yet to make this change since it will only benefit them.

Limit the amount of Events someone can create/invite people to unless they are (a) a brand/business page or (b) paying a premium for their account.

Limit the amount of Messages/Chats someone can send people in a given amount of time unless they are (a) a brand/business page or (b) paying a premium for their account.

Think about it. What person who isn’t running a business is making events on Facebook multiple times per week every week? The people who are making multiple events per week and inviting thousands (literally) of people to them are making money off of Facebook’s platform and ruining it for the rest of us so why doesn’t Facebook at the very least take a cut for themselves?

Also, the person who sent me that message currently has 3,710 Facebook friends. Assuming he decided to send that preformatted message to all of them he was sending A LOT of messages in a relatively short amount of time.  What normal person who wasn’t running a business would do that? No one.

Personally, I like the idea of forcing them to become a brand page more than forcing them to pay a premium because – as I said – I am still friends with them in real life so want to be on Facebook too. If they are forced to have a page and not just be a regular Facebook user then it becomes easier to be their friend while not getting constantly annoyed by them.

Or maybe we should all just switch back to MySpace.

A while back I was driving down Danforth Avenue and I passed an Esso & Tim Hortons which was – to say the least – different from most every other I have seen. The address for this building is 1213 Danforth Ave (map).

I grew up in North York and didn’t spend a lot of time in The Danforth area of the city so seeing this structure was completely new to me. What struck me was that it clearly was no longer a movie theater even though the facade appeared to be one. And those movie titles…”Tim Hortons”? “On The Run”? Those weren’t movie titles, they were store names! I looked into it some more once I got home to a computer and found this document from the City of Toronto – 1213 Danforth Avenue (Allenby Theatre) – Alterations to a Designated Heritage Property (PDF Link) – which identifies the theater building as a “Designated Heritage Property” as the title indicates. It also gives some great details into the history of the building which you can find quoted below the next picture:

Looking from the east side of the building.

The Allenby Theatre (more recently known as the Roxy Theatre), was constructed in 1935 by the partnership of Kaplan and Sprachman, the firm responsible for between 70 and 80% of all movie theatres constructed in Canada between 1921 and 1950.

The Allenby Theatre was designated by the City in 2006 as a representative example of the style of theatre constructed between World War I and II with notable Art Deco / Art Moderne detailing…

For more on the theater and for more pictures check out this article from Torontoist dated October 19, 2010: “From Double Feature To Double-Double.”

Pretty interesting redevelopment of an old building isn’t it? I love finding these cool little things in a city and if you know of any in Toronto/The Greater Toronto Area you think I should check out let me know!

Also, if you or your family members have any memories of going to the Roxy/Allenby I would really love to read them in the comments below.

People who have read my blog for a while will remember that in June 2011 I wrote about a book taken out of the New York Public Library in 1971 which I found in Toronto. For those who don’t remember the post, here’s a link to it. As I mentioned in the previous post, the book was The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and it was due back at the library on June 23, 1971. I wrote of how I intended to take it back to the Mid-Manhattan Library: Literature & Language Department at 5th Ave & 42nd St in Manhattan the next time I was in New York City but I didn’t foresee it taking this long! 

I brought the book back to New York City last weekend when I went in for a family thing and boy was that huge book heavy! I swear, my bag on the way home was way, way easier to pull along on the street when I wasn’t laden down with Mr Shakespeare’s entire library.

Since I was staying at friends on the Upper West Side the first place the book had to go upon returning to its hometown after leaving my bag was the New York Subway aka Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

I had done some of the math in my previous post based on what the warning on the inside cover of the book said would be the overdue charges on the book and I figured out further since then that since:

41 years * 365 days = 14,965 days

and 14,965 days + 110 days (April 20 is 110th day of the year) = 15,075 days

and 15,075 days * $0.10 for each day it was overdue = $1,507.50

Yup, that’s right. There was a distinct possibility that they were going to try and charge me over fifteen hundred dollars  for this book which had been taken out a decade before I was even born. But that was a risk I was willing to take because I felt it my civic duty as a member of the human race.

I brought the book into the library at 42nd St & 5th Ave and asked a security guard where I could find the Literature & Language Department and he sent me to a room on the third floor. Side note: This library was like nothing I had ever been in before and next time I go to NYC I fully intend on taking a proper tour around their facility because everything about it was just glorious.

I went into the indicated room and went up to the desk to a man who looked like he was likely a patron of the library the day the book was taken out in 1971 and told him my tale of my travels and of finding the book in Toronto, Canada. The guy was taken aback and kept repeating “Oh, wow!” as he examined the book from every angle. He pointed to the way the spine was partially coming off on one side of it and how the book wasn’t in the greatest condition and I mentioned how I had found the book 500 miles away in another country. He was amazed, I think, at the fact that I took the time and energy to bring the book back to where it belonged.

I asked him if he could tell me a bit about who took the book out and when it was actually taken out of the library – if you look at the picture above you can see that the last number in the year is pretty smudged and I can’t actually be sure the year of its due date was 1971. He replied the negative 2 different ways:

1. He didn’t think the book was even in their system anymore because it was so old and had been “on loan” for so long.
2. Even if he could find record of who took the book out of the library in the first place he couldn’t tell me for privacy reasons.

However, he said, he wasn’t going to attempt to charge me for the overdue charges on the book – which was probably a great call seeing as I was prepared to argue it until the cows came home that since I wasn’t born until the early 80s I couldn’t possibly be responsible for the book. I also was going to attempt to rally all the people you can see in the above picture quietly using their laptops to my cause that I should be heralded and given a ticker tape parade through the streets for going above and beyond the call of my civic duty for even bringing the book back in the first place. Actually, it’s a pity in a way as I would’ve loved to try and stir up that group of otherwise disinterested New Yorkers just for the fun of it, haha.

If anyone in New York is reading this, have a look and see if you can find the book on the shelves after the few weeks I assume it will take them to do some cosmetic work on the book and then put it back into their filing system.

Two other pictures of the book from my previous post on the subject of this book.

Inside the book’s front cover. Click to enlarge to full size of 3264×1952.

The spine of the book. Notice how the spine on the right is very ripped? That was the “in bad condition” the librarian was referring to. Click to enlarge to full size of 3264×1952.

What was the longest you ever had a book overdue from the library? Let me know in the comments below!