Schultzter's blog

Evernote vs. Springpad

2011-12-15T20:39:00.001-05:00

As you know from reading my last post, Arc the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Sony Ericsson! I'm still looking for a good note taking and task management application.

I figured I'd be using Evernote since that's what everyone else is using. But a comment from a co-worker made me take a second look at their terms of service and what else is out there. Thankfully there's nothing in the terms of service to make me rip the internet connection off the wall. Both Evernote and Springpad assure users early on that the data belongs to the user - always has and always will. Although they both muddy that up later in their TOS it remains certain they're not trying to steal your data.

So the TOS aside, which one should I choose to organize my life? Both allow you to take notes, create to-do lists, add pictures and images. Apart from the Android app both have web apps to access your content from any web browser, and even hosted Chrome apps to launch in a special tab in your Chrome browser.

Evernote

The Evernote logo reflects their app very well: a big monolithic grey elephant because everything in Evernote is a note. Pictures, drawings, rough drafts of blog posts, shopping lists, everything, even a task list is just another note containing tasks (albeit with a special mark-up so there's actually check boxes and special search operators to find incomplete tasks.

Evernote also has a thick client for Windows and Mac, but not Linux. It has an API and there is a third party client called NixNote (written in Java) but obviously it's not the official client.

Springpad

Springpad is much more colourful. There are notes, but there's also plenty of other types of objects, from tasks to recipes to check lists to favourite restaurants. To each object you can also add other notes, links, photos, videos, and files. The things you store in Springpad are structured with fields to identify certain types of information. So a recipe will have ingredients, directions, cook time, and servings. But at this point you can't add things like nutritional information for example (well, you could as an attachment in a note for example). Having this structure inspires you ask for more; so it would be great if Springpad allowed the user to add arbitrary fields to any object (besides un-structured Notes). Springpad also has an API so there's the possibility of third-party extensions.

I've had some issues with the Springpad app though. When I created a shopping list on my Android phone I could edit items until after I save the list and re-opened it to edit it. There are other quirks like this too here and there.

There's also some pretty cool features, like built-in barcode scanner and product look ups, automated alerts that integrate with your Google Calendar.

One thing that I couldn't believe about Springpad though is there's no way to share with other Springpad users. You can share the link to a note so others can view it, and there's even buttons to share on Facebook, Twitter, by e-mail, and anything else support by Add This!

In Conclusion

I can see how Evernote is the ideal solution during a meeting or brainstorming session when you want to capture things quickly and throw in the occasional task. Evernote is also the more popular tool so there's a much larger eco-system, things like xobni and IFTTT integrate directly Evernote but not Springpad.

And I see how Springpad is great once you're sitting down and can get things organized. So when you want to impress with the perfect wine you can quickly look-up your favourite wine list and the restaurant to go drink it at.

I like all the different objects in Springpad and how they structure their information, and the built-in barcode scanner and other integrations is pretty cool. Aside from some of the quirks I've run into I have to admit I find Tasks in Springpad to be narrowly constrained - each one is a separate object and you can a lot of information to one task but you can't create a series of linked tasks.

Evernote can obviously do everything I want, but without the structure of Springpad there's always the risk of having a lot of messy notes that aren't really useful.

So the jury is still out, but we'll see which ones helps me through my Christmas shopping the best! Unless of course Google revives their Notebook project - in which case I know exactly what I'll be using!

Cross-posted to 2FatDads.com at Evernote vs. Springpad

Arc the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Sony Ericsson!

2011-12-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know, I'm going straight to hell. But then Lord Jobs probably wasn't going to let me in to heaven anyways!

It's been over a week now that I'm using a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and I still always try to spell it Experia! Unlocking the phone to use on my network was the most frustrating part of the experience so far - not the phone's fault or FastGSM.com's fault either, like usual Windows had driver issues!

(Future rant: more vendor support for Linux)

If you want to know what I went through, FastGSM.com has an excellent video on their YouTube site.

This phone is sleek, like so sleek the fanboy's here are going to wish the iPhone 5 looks like this! The concave back of the phone sits nicely in the hand; and the 4.3-inch touch-screen goes almost edge-to-edge making it feel like you're in that Corning Glass commercial. The display uses Sony's Bravia technology so it's crystal clear. The other thing you notice looking at the front of the phone is there are only three buttons, not the usual four - Sony Ericsson has done away with the Search button, as they should. The right side of the phone holds the camera and volume buttons, and the top holds a diminutive - but functional - power button.

The only downside to the phone's concave design is it leaves the excellent Exmor R 8-megapixel camera taking the brunt the contact when you put the phone down. A case would alleviate this problem but also destroy the aesthetics of the phone.

Speaking of the camera

It goes up to 8-megapixels with pre-sets for 2-megapixel and 6-megapixel in 4:3 and 16:9 formats (no 4-megapixel preset which is unfortunate since that's the free limit at Picasa). It can also do sweep-panorama and 3D sweep-panorama.

To see the 3D photos though you need to hookup to a 3D TV using the HDMI connector. Sony has once again demonstrated they can build a phone with an excellent camera - or is it a camera with an excellent phone?!

Gingerbread Sandwiches

The Xperia Arc runs the latest version of Android: 2.3 Gingerbread. And includes some interesting applications out of the box (I'll be honest, the first thing I did after un-locking it was de-branding my phone - I'm sure it originally had some bearable applications but I'm really not interested). And Sony Ericsson has confirmed they will be upgrading all their Xperia phones to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Schnapps

Taking the prize for most interesting and the prize for most frustrating is Sony's own Timescape application and widget. This displays a timeline of events (tweets, messages, calls, etc.) on your home page. The display is beautiful and scrolls nicely forward and back. But that's it, it's read-only! For example, you can't reply to or re-tweet an interesting tweet! You have to open your Twitter app, find the tweet again, and deal with it there. So what's the point!? Sony has released the Timescape API so better implementations may be forthcoming but the precedent is not good.

Happily Sony Ericsson allows anyone to unlock the boot loader. Although it comes locked a quick visit to their web site will provide the instructions for unlocking it - after the requisite, repeated, acknowledgements that if you FUBAR your phone you're on your own, no help from Sony if ye enter here!

Since I've got the phone I've installed a few apps that I seem to use regularly:

Android Terminal Emulator: 'Cuz this is the way real unix works - no matter how small the package!
Angry Birds: What more do I need to say!?
Bitdefender Carrier IQ Finder: And I'm happy to report that Carrier IQ was NOT found on my phone!
BusyBox: Real Linux in a real small package!
Data Monitor: Not sure why this one isn't in there out of the box, but it's good to know.
Finance: Unfortunately it doesn't support my Canadian stocks, but hopefully it will be updated soon.
Foursquare: I'm going for Emperor of the World badge now!!!
Google Books: This ought be easier than carrying around the actual Complete Works of Shakespeare.
Google+: Instant photo uploads is a pretty cool feature, then I just have to get them organized in PicasaWeb (auto-organization would be the coolest feature ever).
Solitaire: Ever since the first computer the first thing you look for is Solitaire!
Superuser: What fun is linux without a little su action?!
TimmyMe: Gotta have my mocha!
Titanium Backup: So I can keep what I want and blast the rest to oblivion!
Twitter: Once a twit, always a twit!

What I'm missing at this point though is a good note keeping app and an official Google Tasks app. The note keeping app may end-up being Evernote, but I'm keeping an open mind for now.

My only complaint is there seems to be a quirk of the market that it doesn't synchronize with what's actually installed on the phone! So when I de-branded my phone I got rid of all the carrier installed cruft but it's still in My Library in the Android Market - I'm never going to install it again so I really wish it would disappear! But there's doesn't seem to be any way to re-synchronize what's on the phone with what's in your library?!

A thousand monkeys

This is the first phone I've had without a physical keyboard, and though I was dreading it the default keyboard is very quick to use. My finger never leaves the surface, I just slide back and forth, changing direction (or pausing) over the key I want to type. Of course, it's not the same as 10-finger touch-typing and occasionally my other digits want to get in on the action!

Cuppa Java

Every now and then I get the itch to develop something like a powerful spreadsheet macro or a funky iGoogle gadget. Now I've got a phone I can really develop for, but unfortunately the development environment is based on Java! Now, I was Java Ninja - 10 years ago! The year 2000 called, they want their programming language back!!! It's not real Java since it's actually running on an alternate virtual machine called Dalvik but you've still got to deal with everything that is Java while developing (like Eclipse). We know that inside the Googleplex they've got some Go apps running natively on the ARM processors of their Nexus phones, but nothing's public yet (and Go is targeted at server-side, there's no UI in the core packages, so I'm not even sure what they're running on those Nexuses).

Conclusion

Awesome phone!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Arc the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the Sony Ericsson!

DIY OTA DTV FTW!!!

2011-10-19T00:19:00.000-04:00

Would you believe September 1st, 2011 came and went I wasn't ready?!

I had thought about what I was going to do when all the TV stations up north here followed their cousins down south and switched exclusively to digital transmissions. But I hadn't done anything about it. So now was the time because my wife's backlog of taped summer shows was running out and the fall season was about to start!!!

I looked into the satellite option, but I felt like I would be paying a lot of money for channels that are basically broadcasting for free if I had the right setup.

The setup has become:

A Viore ATB150V Digital-Analog TV Converter Box that I purchased from Walmart while in the USA. There are alternatives available here in Canada, most notably the Access HD 1080D box but I wasn't able to get my hands on one. I did get my hands on a Homeworx converter box but a piece of carp! It would loose the lock on even the strongest station, when there was sound it was barely audible, it would freeze up in the middle channel changes, basically: it was carp!

A really nice extra with the Viore is the remote is a universal remote so we can control the TV and the DVR with one remote - although you never know which device your controlling until you screw something up!

The next piece of the puzzle is the DVR: a Magnavox MDR515H. This replaces the VCR so no more tapes lying around, getting knocked over and order all screwed up. It's a single-tuner DVR which means we can only watch what it is recording OR something already recorded while it is recording a channel, but we can't flip channels while it is recording. This is why we had to have a DVR and a converter box - so we could record one channel and watch another. There are dual-tuner DVR's available, particularly the Channel Master CM-7000PAL but it doesn't have the capacity of the Magnavox (500 GB) and it doesn't have the DVD burner that the Magnavox has.

Something else about the Magnavox that I think I will like is that has a variety of input sources, not just the antenna. There is a composite video input on the back and another in the front along with a digital-video input.

The coax output on the unit is just a pass-through though, so we connect to the TV via composite video (no HDMI on my TV) and pass the antenna signal on to the converter box - that connects to the TV's antenna in on channel 4.

Finally the antenna!

Inspired by William Ruckman's article at Instructables.com I built a fractal antenna with bits left-over from the basement renovations. The base is a PVC single gang wiring box and the actual antenna is made from 14 AWG copper wiring. I had to buy the PVC pipe that I used as a mast (used loosely since it is only 18 inches long) but the rest was stuff I already had and would have probably ended up in the garbage eventually.

The bending of the wire was simple enough, following a template available from William's site i bent the four receivers of the antenna and joined them together with two smaller pieces of wire. In my case I soldered the wires together, which will hopefully make a better contact and stronger build than screws. I used a lot of tie-wraps in the construction and mounting, mostly because I had a lot lying around but they're also easy to work with and easy to re-do if you get something wrong.

The cable comes down from the antenna into the basement, where it goes through a Von-der-Nick amplifier and the heads up to the living room where it joins the DVR.

Currently we get as many stations as with the rabbit ears but I want to say they come in much clearer and more consistent. The orientation is in the middle of what tvfool.com identified as our two biggest clusters of transmitters. I'm not sure if it would be better to have two directional antennas, one pointed at each cluster and then merge the signal. We'll have to see...

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at DIY OTA DTV FTW!!!

Stop, Drop, and Roll -- the Kindle is on Fire!

2011-10-05T13:22:00.000-04:00

So the Kindle Fire has been announced, followed by the iPhone 5 - no wait, the 4S, and we've got Google, RIM, Nokia and everyone else lining up for their shot at end-of-year/pre-shopping killer announcements.

Of course the ~~iPhone 5~~iPhone 4S killed them all, but that's not surprising and hardly worth debating. Nothing to talk about there. I mean it was a coin-toss any ways, it'll either be the "4S" or the "5" so you had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.

The real fun is in the Android camp, much more fertile ground for rumours and wild speculation and spectacular changes! Unless you're the morbid type and like to watch a dying turtle spinning around on it's back desperately trying to flip-over and catch-up to the hare(s), in that case head over to RIM or Nokia.

Now I've been saying this all along:

Why is a 10.1" tablet two to three times as expensive as a 10.1" netbook!?

When HP axed the TouchPad and began selling off stock for $99 they created a sensation that rivalled the iPad's!!! People were lining up to buy a TouchPad, over night!!! Now the TouchPad is good hardware, and WebOS is a great platform, but it's not an iPad so you can't sell it like an iPad. You can't charge $600 and only provide some of the iPad experience.

Hopefully the other tablet pedlars saw what was happening. I know one did: RIM (believe it or not) because you can now buy a Playbook for a mere $300 (that "mere" was sarcasm, $99 would be a more appropriate price). And perhaps Toshiba did too because you can get a 10.1" Thrive for $380 (still a bit much, but certainly no where near $600).

Now whether Amazon learned from HP's experience or if they had already figured it out I don't know, but they've done two things right:

Price for Kindle Fire: $200 - not $600; and
Experience: you get the Kindle Fire experience - not some nebulous Android experience with a cutesy/buggy UI layer on top.

And $200 is not a cheap tablet. Admittedly an analyst said this (and people don't seem to like analysts these days) but apparently Amazon is making a pretty decent margin on the Fire, around 25%!!! The article is at Light Read Mobile and contains a breakdown of components and a comparison to other tablets.

The other manufacturers had better learn fast. And Google had better throw some weight around. Amazon doesn't need Android, they're not selling Android, they're selling Amazon & the Kindle all bundled up in a neat package called the Fire.

But Android needs Amazon, or something like it.

Amazon is not about to invite anyone else to join them at their own private trough - the combination of low price and great content is what is going to bring people to the Fire (and a hopefully upcoming 10" tablet) so Amazon would be crazy to share their strategy with the competition!

Google has to do a better job a selling the Google experience. Of course the manufacturers won't like this - they want you to buy HTC or Motorola or Samsung, not Google. But I've said this before too:

No one is going to beat Apple going head-on! But by combining their forces (behind Android) they can stay ahead. If you make your money selling devices (like HTC, Motorola, et al.) then leave the experience part to someone else (Google).

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Stop, Drop, and Roll -- the Kindle is on Fire!

RIM's last dance

2011-06-17T11:01:00.000-04:00

Research in Motion Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2012 Results and Revises Full Year Guidance

“Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start. The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter. RIM’s business is profitable and remains solid overall with growing market share in numerous markets around the world and a strong balance sheet with almost $3 billion in cash. We believe that with the new products scheduled for launch in the next few months and realigning our cost structure, RIM will see strong profit growth in the latter part of fiscal 2012."

Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion

Note that the highlights in the preceding quote are mine. But they all point to the same thing: scrambling!!!

The only thing RIM has going for them now is inertia: all those companies & people who depend on the Blackberry network. You can't easily (if at all) transfer that stuff over to an Android or iPhone, so Blackberries will still be around for a while. RIM can take advantage of that and get their ass in gear, or they can be arrogant. US Thx Giving holiday is their big chance, they better have a kick-ass product ready for then - a press release promising great stuff in 2012 will be a suicide note!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at RIM's last dance

Menage a Trois

2011-03-21T16:41:00.001-04:00

Ever notice how bad things always happen in threes? Kind of like Nokia, Microsoft, and now RIM! it's like they were looking down the double-barrelled Android/iOS shotgun and figured "let's stick really close together, that will protect us!" Nokia and RIM have both been loosing market share to Apple and Google's partners; and Microsoft's mobile OS was leap-frogged while they were busy gloating about how great it was. Now this triumvirate is attempting to regain their individual glory by teaming up and leveraging their strengths. But can they share the work required to catch-up lost ground, and can these competitors share the glory if they manage to get any of it back?

Products have a life-cycle. First they're innovative; then they're new, then they're common; and finally they're overstock clearance items. It takes some time for a product to move from one phase to the next, and you can obviously innovate on an existing platform. But it's not enough to be innovative, you need to market that innovation. And no one markets like Apple - except maybe Google. One thing that Google has done with Android is to make smartphones common.

Now Nokia, RIM, and Microsoft have to out-innovate and out-market the un-combined, independantly single-minded forces of Apple and Google who probably don't even realise the aforementioned stragglers even exist. Their only hope is to come from the back with something un-expected and unbeatable. And the most frustrating thing is they're all individually capable of that feat, but working together they'll probably bicker-away any chance of getting there.

So is this a bold move by three partners to build an innovative mobile platform? Or the last three rats thinking the fridge is theirs while the ship is sinking?

Cross posted to 2FatDads at Menage a Trois

RIP Nokia

2011-02-11T08:33:00.005-05:00

Nokia, the Finnish giant, that started out making tires and now supplies more mobile phones to the world than everyone else combined, signed their soul to the devil today and took a big step closer to the corporate grave!

Today, Nokia announced they would adopting the Windows operating system as the basis for their smart phones.

Of course there's still the question of what will happen to all their Symbian based feature-phones, the Symbian smart phones already in development or close to the production, and the promises of a Meego based smart phone this year.

I guess it was obvious this is what Nokia would do given their current CEO comes to them from Microsoft (plus a couple other hints). But with Nokia's exerpience in Linux (via Meego), they're experience open-sourcing Symbian, and their past-CEO's comment comparing adopting some else's OS to peeing in your pants to stay warm it's a bit of a slap in the face for those of us expecting something more from Nokia to combat the onslaught of Apple and Google powered devices.

I guess we were hoping they would either take the covers of something Meego powered that look like it came out of a Star Trek episode (with Wil Wheaton as spokesperson). Or a hardware platform that screamed eat my dust Motorola/Samsung/HTC. Or at worst just a concession that Android was the platform of choice these days any they were going to throw their considerable experience and talent behind it.

Of course the winner in all this is Microsoft. With the pedigree of Nokia's name they can finally claim that Windows Phone 7 is a legitimate contender in the smart phone race. Of course the driver who goes one lap and then spends the rest of the race in the pits trying keep his tires from falling off could also claim he was in the race but it wouldn't really matter.

And so today, we bid adieu to Nokia from the smart phone world. I will always admire the Nokia phones I owned; but I don't think I'll buying any more.

UPDATE Feb 14, 2011: There's a great interview with Nokia's Stephen Elop over at BGR - good, straight-forward (sounding at least) answers. And I love the shot at RIM around minute 13!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at RIP Nokia

Analogy was a German and Italian psychedelic rock, progressive rock band

2011-02-02T09:59:00.002-05:00

Bandwidth is not electricity or gas! So please stop your inane comparisons and suggestions that we "rip-out the electricity meters" or "give gas away for free!"

Nothing is black and white, so no analogy is perfect, but comparing bandwidth to a consumable resource is very imperfect!

Bandwidth is more like a park. When you have the park to yourself you can do whatever you want, swing on the swings, go down the slide backwards, climb up the slide, dig holes in the sand, etc. But as more people arrive at the park your activities get more limited - you can still to them, just not was easily. Bandwidth is like that - you can do whatever you want when you have the line to yourself, but as more people join you on the line you have to share it, and you have to share it nicely, no hogging!

Bandwidth is also like a road. Alone on the highway you can zoom-zoom along at 412 mph if you so desire. But as more people get onto the road you have to slow down and respect the rules. At some point you end-up with so many people on the road you need to limit access - i.e.: express and collector lanes or timed on ramps (yes they exist, not here, but I've seen them in quite few states). In the same way you need to do some quality of service on your bandwidth, you need to set-up CDN's (content distribution networks), you need to do caching.

I realise parks and roads need maintenance. I realise equipment needs to be replaced. As I said, it's not a perfect analogy; but if you're going to insist on making analogies at least try to come-up with honest ones - not self-serving ones!

But in the case of gasoline or electricity once I consume the resource you can't! It's gone! We can't share electricity or gasoline like we can share bandwidth.

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Analogy was a German and Italian psychedelic rock, progressive rock band

Of Coffins, Nails, and Innovation

2011-01-28T21:41:00.001-05:00

Recently our national department of influence and lobbying - the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission or CRTC (Canada's version of the FCC) - approved of usage based billing for internet service providers. This means that owners of the big pipes can charge the little providers of your access for all the bits and bytes they send down the line.

So a bit of Netflix or Apple TV here, a big update or a new distro there, a Skype session that never got shutdown, and all of a sudden your mortgage payment is looking like a bargain compared to your monthly internet bill! If you're wondering why everyone else gets all excited about the latest internet thing but we don't have it here this is (primarily) why! Apple TV might cost $100, Google TV might be included in your next wide screen, but if you're going to have to pay a premium data charge to use those features they're suddenly no longer appealing!

But we pay for our gas right?

You pay for the gas you put in your car; and the electricity you consume in your home; and a lot of other monthly bills are consumption, or usage, based.

The electrons (or photons if you're lucky) that deliver the internet to your home though are not really consumed. They don't die and and float up in the atmosphere to tear holes in the ozone like that billion year old dinosaur you're burning up in the car.

Granted delivering the internet requires some infrastructure and people to run that infrastructure. And the more internet that gets delivered the bigger an infrastructure is required. So theoretically the more internet you consume the more you contribute to the next iteration of infrastructure. But we're all going to benefit from the next upgrade, not just the heavy duty users.

Broadly, deeply, totally integrated!

The other issue we have here is the owners of the big pipes are so broadly and vertically integrated they have little incentive to invest in one infrastructure over another and lots of reason to keep milking the old models as long as they can. The TV stations, newspapers, and other media producers are owned by the same people who own the satellite/cable, wireless, and internet distribution channels.

There's no reason for them to build bigger internet pipes since more people using Netflix (for example) means less people buying their TV offerings. More people reading the news online (or wirelessly) means less people buying their newspapers.

They come up with competing offers, like Video-on-Demand to counter Netflix; and they sweeten the deal by saying it won't count towards your bandwidth cap (and then they raise your rates so ultimately it's the same thing, but that's another article) . But really, can one regional service provider compete with a multinational like Netflix or Apple or Google when it comes to securing the rights to hot new TV shows, sporting events, and other audio-visual entertainment?

We're not all the same

Granted, not everyone of us wants to watch every video on Youtube each month; or has a dozen computers that need to be upgraded simultaneously. A bit of e-mail and some Facebook certainly won't clog the pipes or require fibre to the home. These people would be okay with a trickle of data and really low cap. Wouldn't it be unfair for them to share the bill of a bigger, faster internet?

At the same time, even some of us who want more internet can't because the copper lines running to our house were installed by Alex himself and haven't been changed since! Why should these people pay for something they can't even have if they wanted it?!

For the first group I say progress is inevitable. Your friends are going to send you links to Youtube videos and power points full of sappy pictures. The corner video store is going to close down. The news paper will eventually be delivered wirelessly. The sooner our internet flows freer the sooner we can all progress, even if a few curmudgeons don't like it.

And if you're paying for better internet than you can possibly get in your neighbourhood then you're going to insist on getting it. There won't be any excuse for the providers not to give it to you (although, today they'll happily sell you services they can't deliver but that's yet another article). The rationalization argument will be gone and soon you too can watch Top Gear on Netflix whenever you fancy. Or get IPTV or VOIP or plethora of other internet based services we only dream of!

Is tiered-billing good or bad?

In economic theory and practical business tiered-billing is great! It allows more people to participate in the market and for companies to reach a wider audience. That's why we have student and senior rates, mid-week deals, etc.

How does tiered-billing apply to internet access? Some how the ISP's have to make the internet proposition appealing at different prices so that grandma who just wants to see pictures of her grandkids is as enthusiastic about signing-up as the gamer who wants to watch Netflix while torrenting warez and boot-legged concerts.

But if grandma's overage charges are ridiculously high and the gamer can't get unlimited bandwidth at a reasonable price it's not appealing. The ISP's could always ask for our income tax returns and charge us a percentage our gross income, but really?! In a way we already do that, most - if not all - the cables running across this country and down our streets were subsidized by our taxes. Or at least our parent's taxes.

The ISP's need to find a way to package the internet so the unlimited packages are reasonably priced for heavy-duty users; and casual users can find cheaper packages that suit there needs. But never should the excess data charges on your package make it immediately more expensive than an unlimited plan!

In the end

Canada is one of the only, if not the only, country in the world that meters their internet usage. We're also one of the last countries in the world to get cool new services delivered over the internet or to take advantage of them. I realise it's not just a matter of having unlimited bandwidth (at a reasonable price) but it's certainly not going to encourage adoption if I have to figure I can join Netflix for $8 a month but it will cost me $100 in excess data charges to watch a couple movies a week!

Make sure you have your say! Start by signing the petition at OpenMedia.ca and don't hesitate to remind your MP what you think of usage based billing!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Of Coffins, Nails, and Innovation

2011-01-05T15:32:00.003-05:00

Right after my daughter was born we opened an RESP for her, a family RESP as we were planning to have more children. We opened it at TD Canada Trust because the MER on their e-Series funds is practically non-existent.

And all was good (well almost, read Mike Holman's blog or his book
for details on the convoluted process of opening an RESP at TD for e-Series funds).

And then our son was born and we dropped by the bank to add him as a beneficiary to the family RESP. Unfortunately we stopped there and I didn't follow-up closely enough with TD.

Now I have an issue with TD and issue with banks in general over their handling of RESP's!

Even though our Family RESP is converted to an e-Series account and my daughter's investments are all e-Series investments it appears that my son can't invest in e-Series funds until I convert his account as well!!! WTF?! Do they have meetings at TD to brainstorm ways of making things complicated for their customers?! Do they think this is good for business?! Are they just throwing darts at a board without considering the over-all user experience!?

There were a few other blunders and fails on their part (TD couldn't spell RESP if you tatooed it on your forehead). So one of my new year's resolutions (motivated in part by bigcajunman's saga) was to do away with TD.

The rest of our accounts are with RBC and they also have some really low cost funds so I figured it was a no-brainer to move over there. I visited RBC today and found out that they too split a Family RESP into separate individual sub-accounts for each child! So I can't pool all my money and simplify my investments and have more flexibility (i.e.: you often need over $1,000 initial investment which is easier when all your money is pooled).

Hey, listen up Canadian banks: if a dumb-ass klutz like me can add a column to a spreadsheet called "Beneficiary" and write my daughter's or son's name in there when I make a contribution (or a withdrawl) then why can't your fancy-shmancy computers do that too!? Why do you force me to have separate accounts?! While the money is "in" the RESP why can't it just be one big pool?! The government only needs to know going-in and coming-out who the beneficiary is - not while the money is in the account!

So at this point I need to weigh the value of continuing my battle with TD or moving to the same structure but with better customer support at RBC. Any third options out there?

UPDATE Jan 6, 2011: A friend who understands this finance stuff better than me has explained that pooled is the wrong term to use when referring to funds in a Family RESP. Investopedia defines pooled funds as:

Funds from many individual investors that are aggregated for the purposes of investment, as in the case of a mutual or pension fund.

The advisor at RBC that I had been dealing with also left me a voice-mail correcting his earlier statement and confirming that a Family RESP does indeed combine all the contributions so they can be invested together and I can benefit from the flexibility and simplicity. So it looks like I'll be moving our RESP over to RBC in the end!

UPDATE Jan 10, 2011: The folks behind @TD_Canada have contacted me through Twitter (via Direct Message) so I'll let you know if leads to anything. The core issue I'm having though is the structure of their Family Plan RESP and I'm not sure that can be resolved quick enough for me - but we'll see!

UPDATE Jan 11, 2011: I'm talking to a few folks and re-reading my post. I don't think I made it clear that although TD Canada Trust has an overly convoluted process to open an e-Series RESP and their customer support is un-prepared for e-Series and RESP questions the ultimate issue the way they structure a Family RESP: each child's investments are separate. So if you contribute $500 for one child and $500 for a second child you will have to invest each $500 separately - NOT as a $1,000 single investment. Although it's a Family RESP and you can (theoretically) transfer money between the kids this separate investment arrangement makes things complicated and reduces your flexibility as each child will need to have enough funds to make the minimum initial purchase when you want to start putting money in a new mutual fund (for example, when the kids get older and the investing horizon gets closer).

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at An open (rant) letter to Canadian banks

The RESP Book, by Mike Holman @MoneySmartsBlog

2010-12-09T22:54:00.002-05:00

Back in November the Young And Thrifty blog had a review of The RESP Book, by Mike Holman and a contest to win a copy. And I WON!!!

And now, thanks to the reality that my car is dead (well almost, sometimes it's feeling a bit better, but really it's quite ill) I'm commuting by train so I have lots of time to read and I finished the book within a few days. I've also come away with a page full of to-do's to make sure my kid's RESP is done right!

The RESP Book is subtitled The Complete Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans for Canadians and I think this book will remain the RESP bible for quite some time to come, probably until there are major changes in the RESP rules since it is such a complete and thorough review of RESP's.

There's two things I love about this book: it contains all the information you need to set up and maintain an RESP; and it was self-published (i.e.: when you order the book they print you a copy, that's got major geek appeal).

The book goes through the process of opening an RESP, buying investments, maintaining the investments, withdrawing from the RESP to fund your childern's education, and collapsing the RESP. It also covers all the possible federal and provincial grants that can help you maximise your RESP's return; and reinforces some basic principals of investing (like keeping your costs down and diversifying) but gives concrete examples in an RESP.

In particular I recommend everyone make a copy of page 110 and keep it on the front of their RESP folder/binder.

I also really appreciated the chapter summaries at the end of each chapter, so if I'm looking for something I don't have re-read the whole chapter only to realise it's not there - I can just check the summary to find the right chapter.

I do think that giving each of the provincial programs (Alberta's and Quebec's) their own chapters was a bit overkill - they probably could have been merged into one chapter since they're only a couple pages long.

In an interview with Kevin Rose for Sun Life Financial, Mike explains a bit about how the self-publishing works:

There’s a company called Lightning Source that I used; they’re the main printing press for most self-publishers. They’re connected to Amazon. Once you get a book set up there, they automatically send the information to Amazon and people can order it...The way print-on-demand works is that they will literally print one book. Once somebody buys a book from Amazon the order goes to Lightning Source. Because they work with Amazon, they’ve got their packaging technology. The package is mailed off, and away it goes.

I think it's really cool that not only as a writer you can concentrate on the writing and then just upload your manuscript (well, set-up your account, etc. but only the first time) and for a small fee they take care of the rest. But also as a buyer it's pretty cool to know that the book I'm holding in my hands was printed specifically for me!

The only downside is that the book is only available from Amazon.ca - you won't find it in your local corner book store or even a Chapters store. There's also no Kindle version (sorry Steve) or audio version (sorry Johnny) available, yet!

You can read the first chapter of The RESP Book over at the Globe and Mail.

You can read more about RESP's on Mike's Money Smarts blog and follow him on Twitter.

When you do read this book, and if you have an RESP you must read this book, make sure to keep a pen & paper handy (or your iPad) because you're going to want to take notes and follow-up on what you've learned.

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at The RESP Book, by Mike Holman @MoneySmartsBlog

Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Message Continuity, powered by Postini

2010-12-09T12:27:00.003-05:00

Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Message Continuity, powered by Postini This sounds to me like step one of a three step process:

One - get people to integrate their Microsoft Exchange servers, which represent the overwhelming majority of corporate e-mail/calendar/contact servers in use (I arrive at this scientific conclusion because every company I have ever worked for has used Microsoft Exchange).

Two - get the employees to see how easy and fun it is to access all their e-mails and appointments via Gmail in web browser from any computer, tablet, or mobile phone rather than firing up their laptop, connecting to the VPN, and opening Outlook just to find your co-worker's phone number or confirm if a meeting was 9am or 11am. Employees will even start doing this when they're in the office since even Internet Explorer loads faster than Outlook these days.

Three - get the companies to switch over entirely to Google Apps, at least for their e-mail, now that no one is bothering to open Outlook at all ever!

Of course the selling point is the money the company will save by mitigating outages from maintenance and failures. And it's oh so magnanimous of Google to be taking the continuity of our business to heart. But lets be realistic, the real objective here is to squish the king of e-mail - Microsoft Exchange/Outlook - like a bug hitting the wind shield of a Bugatti going 200 MPH!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Message Continuity, powered by Postini

Mint comes to Canada, will Canada come to Mint?

2010-12-04T22:23:00.003-05:00

Mint has been a favourite destination for people trying to manage their finances; and it's now available to Canadians! Well, if you didn't mind getting American ads you could always use the original Mint site as a lot of Canadian institutions were available. If you haven't tried Mint already then it's definitely worth investing the time to try it out and see how much it can do for you.

On the other hand, if you're a Canuck who's already tried Mint then try to pretend that Canada Mint doesn't exist! It will save you a lot of pain and frustration (and time spent on Mint's Get Satisfaction forum).

There's two major issues: you can't migrate your Mint account to a Canada Mint account; and you can't delete your Mint account and re-use the same e-mail address to create a Canada Mint account.

The first problem means you can't transfer all the history and categorization you've done in your original Mint account to a Canada Mint account. So if you have years of data and trends built-up then it's stuck in the original Mint database! From Intuit's point of view this makes very little sense, since Mint makes their money by suggesting ways for you to save money from partners and get's a cut of the referral. Since Canadians can't (in most cases) benefit from American offers there's no value in keeping those customer's stuck in Mint USA. If they could transfer to Canada Mint then there would be a lot of built-up data from which to offer these people deals that could interest them.

The other problem affects all those people who've signed for the original Mint out of curiousity but now want to actually use it since there's an official Canadian version. They can't! They can delete their Mint account but when they try to create a new Canada Mint account they'll be told their e-mail address is still in use. And it gets worse, they can't post the issue to the Get Satisfaction forum since they deleted their account!

The other problem I have with Mint Canada, but I don't know the answer to is where your data is stored. The question has been asked, but there's no answer. Of course if your data is stored in the USA then it's subject to, among other things, the Patriot Act, that could allow US authorities access to all your financial information!

So far now I'm not sure I'm going to use Canada Mint. I deleted my original Mint account and I don't feel like creating an e-mail address just so I can open a Canada Mint account. And since since RBC Royal Bank has recently added a budgeting feature that lets me categorize transactions, and they can display transactions from the other financial institutions I deal with I'm not sure I really need Canada Mint as much as their advertising would have me believe.

UPDATE December 6th, 2010: If you use Gmail there's a couple tricks you can take advantage of if Mint says your e-mail address is already in use after you delete your original Mint account. First off, Gmail doesn't consider periods so first.last@gmail.com and firstlast@gmail.com and f.i.r.s.t.l.a.s.t@gmail.com are all the same! Second, you can put a plus symbol (+) into your address and Gmail will strip it and everything afterwards so firstlast@gmail.com and firstlast+mintca@gmail.com are the same Gmail address! Happy Minting!!!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Mint comes to Canada, will Canada come to Mint?

Coming Soon… RBC® Mobile Banking Apps for iPhone® and BlackBerry® Smartphones - RBC Royal Bank

2010-11-30T15:07:00.003-05:00

I heard about this over at Mobile Syrup: Coming Soon… RBC® Mobile Banking Apps for iPhone® and BlackBerry® Smartphones - RBC Royal Bank

I'm an RBC customer with multiple products but I have neither an iPhone nor a Blackberry (nor an Android or any other smartphone). I do have a simple phone with a good web browser that can access RBC's mobile banking web site. Just like any iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc. phone can!!! I'd rather see RBC improving the functionality of the mobile banking web site rather than wasting my fees to build and maintain smartphone applications I'll never use!

Seriously, just because it's cool doesn't mean it's a good idea!

Even if I did get a smartphone it wouldn't be an iPhone or Blackberry. So how many apps is RBC going to build and maintain? How many customers is RBC going to frustrate by not providing them an app or not updating their app as frequently as the other platform's app!?

Please, they should stick with the mobile banking web site, work on it, and everyone will benefit.

Thanks,

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Coming Soon… RBC® Mobile Banking Apps for iPhone® and BlackBerry® Smartphones - RBC Royal Bank

Cup Cake Camp Montreal, a.k.a. Sugar Rush Sunday

2010-11-22T12:07:00.001-05:00

It shouldn't be Cup Cake Camp, they should call it Sugar Rush Sunday!

We decided to make an event of it, we took the train and walked up to the Queen Elizabeth hotel for around 12:45pm. Plenty of time I figured since the doors opened at 1pm.

When we got there the doorman (apparently an honest one not sitting in jail for extorting money from cabbies) informed the "line has already formed." The "line" I wondered, there's a line-up for cup cakes?! What have I gotten myself into!?

Apparently Cup Cake Camp Montreal is a premier fund raising event, the number of people attending was insanity!!! For cup cakes!!! Well, okay for Kids Help Phone and Tablée des Chefs but we were all there to eat cup cakes!

My kids had a blast, a sugar rush blast. Every cup cake was their favourite, but in the end managed to choose only a couple a bring home and one to eat there. I couldn't get over the elaborate decorations and designs the chefs were able to create with icing sugar; and the amount of effort that must have gone into making all the cup cakes they donated to this event.

Many thanks to the organizers, the volunteers, and all the sponsors for great, unique, event.

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Cup Cake Camp Montreal, a.k.a. Sugar Rush Sunday

Money for Nothing and Your Cheques for Free

2010-11-19T16:31:00.000-05:00

My most sincere apologies to Dire Straits and their fans, please join me in seeing the humour in the title rather than suing us. Thanks!

And sincere apologies to my readers as well: unfortunately I don't know any legal way to get money for nothing - even someone has to buy your lotter ticket.

Getting your cheques for free though is a different story. As they say, you can always negotiate with your bank and try to get free stuff. You can even get an account that provides free cheques (as in "the price is included in your monthly fee").

A post over at Canadian Personal Finance Blog was published just as I was running out of cheques in one of my accounts, and the comments contained a link to something very interesting: an alternative to buying cheques from your bank! Yes it is possible! For some time now cheques have a standard, that is published and publicly available, so technically anyone could print their own standardized cheques. And if you're a company that issues a lot of cheques this isn't a bad idea. But if you're an individual who just needs personal cheques then the investment in magnetic ink and special paper would be excessive.

Most, if not all, Canadian banks use Davis+Henderson to print their cheques. The alternative is ASAP Cheques, for both business and personal cheques. They're Canadian, based in Gananoque, Ontario, but serve all of North America. Their deal on personal cheques is 100 cheques (4 books) for $20 and $2.75 shipping & handling plus GST (and HST if necessary). This is considerably better your typical bank's offer of about $30 for 100 cheques and $5 for shipping & handling plus GST & PST.

They have an even better offer if you're okay with the basic cheque design: 200 cheques for $25.50!!! These are single cheques, not duplicates although those are available too if carbon-copies are still your thing.

Before you order from ASAP Cheques you need to be aware of two things:

Make sure you order before you run out of cheques since you need to send them a VOID cheque as a sample. If you've already run-out, or don't have any cheques to begin with, you can get a Cheque Sample Specification from your bank. This is basically a VOID cheque printed on a full-sheet of paper with all the information necessary to identify you and your bank and you'll need to e-mail them a scanned copy or mail or fax it to them; and
If this is the first time you order from them there is additional verification process they go through so it can take a bit longer to get your cheques (although I have to admit I got my cheques within a week of starting the whole process).

When you order from ASAP Cheques though you don't get a register or a nice little box to keep your other cheque books in.

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Money for Nothing and Your Cheques for Free.

Update to the GMail Keyboard Shortcut graphical cheat sheet

2010-11-18T12:38:00.002-05:00

Thanks to a post over at the Google Operating System blog I became aware of a couple new keyboard short-cuts when using GMail.

The two now short-cuts aren't documented but they work as advertised:

b will create a new e-mail with both the CC and BCC fields displayed, while
d will create a new e-mail with the CC field displayed.

You can't use the short-cuts after you've already created a new e-mail.

You can find them in the updated GMail Keyboard Shortcut graphical cheat sheet.

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Update to the GMail Keyboard Shortcut graphical cheat sheet

BlackBerry PlayBook Demo Highlights from Adobe MAX

2010-10-27T13:12:00.002-04:00

I just posted the following comment on the Blackberry's Developer's Blog article BlackBerry PlayBook Demo Highlights from Adobe MAX.

Seriously?! Your choices should be 1) Java, 2) C/C++, or 3) both. Anything else might sound like a good idea in the meeting room but good friggin' luck in the real world! Check out Tiobe's stats - ActionScript isn't even on the list!!! Hopefully support for Adobe AIR means they support HTML/CSS/JavaScript - otherwise this one's DOA! When they come out with a real SDKI let me know!!!

This comment is awaiting approval so let's see if they actually do!

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at BlackBerry PlayBook Demo Highlights from Adobe MAX

BlackBerry - Tablet OS - Calling All Apps for the BlackBerry Tablet OS

2010-10-25T10:19:00.001-04:00

BlackBerry - Tablet OS - Calling All Apps for the BlackBerry Tablet OS: "The initial release of the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK allows developers to create Adobe AIR applications."

Are you freakin' kidding me?! Their initial release focuses on Adobe Air!!! Either Adobe's thinking they can stick it to Apple by teaming up with Blackberry - that'll most likely came back and bite them in the ass; or Blackberry is trying to tell developers don't bother wasting your time on our platform any more - we screwed up the Java platform and trying to screw-up the Tablet OS platform even more!

Here comes Google TV

2010-10-04T15:41:00.001-04:00

So while my buddies over a 2FatDads have been busy buying up all the local stock of AppleTV's for every room in their house (even ones without a TV), I've been patiently waiting for Google TV!

And now it's here. Almost.

There's no photos yet because it's still just vapour-ware but with Logitech and Sony on-board hopefully it won't be long.

Of course Netflix is in on the deal - suddenly they're not the distinguishing feature anymore but good for them - but so is the Amazon Video store (probably not for us Canucks, remains to be seen). Of course Youtube is there too, so is Android, and the obligatory Android phone App for controlling your TV.

Will this be enough to convince me to come back to the living room couch and watch TV? Who knows. Will it make the other Fat Dads jealous with their Apple TV's? Well, maybe if Larry and Sergei put on black turtle necks for the launch.

Cross-posted on 2FatDads at Here comes Google TV

Drag and drop attachments onto messages - Official Gmail Blog

2010-04-15T14:42:00.000-04:00

Drag and drop attachments onto messages - Official Gmail Blog

What about drag & drop from Google Docs?! Or even just the ability to attach documents to a GMail from Google Docs?!

Liberal's Can150 conference a dud before it even started!

2010-03-26T13:46:00.001-04:00

The Liberal party of Canada kicked off their Can150 conference today, during which they plan to discuss ideas for Canada's future in the name of our upcoming (in 2017) 150th birthday.

But do they really need an expensive and convoluted conference to know what Canadians are really looking for from their politicians?

The Globe and Mail recently conducted a poll and the overwhelming majority were most concerned about recent changes to Income Trust rules.

People can contact their MP directly, and regularly do!

But what comes of all this?

The Liberals used to have a site call OnProbation.ca where they invited the public to submit ideas they would ask of Stephen Harper. The number one question for quite some time was regarding the Income Tax scandal. Those questions were never asked and the web site no longer exists. I'm sure someone within the Liberal party feels really good about themselves but that's about it.

And why should you care?

Because they're the only real alternative to the Conservative government. And I don't care who's in power - Cons, Libs, NDP, Bloc, Rhino - as long as they govern properly but the Libs have the best (only?) chance of forming a government. As long as they're going nowhere the Conservatives will govern as though they had no limits, no oversight, no challenge to their authority. This is necessary in a democracy - even in an autocracy - to ensure that the decisions made are the best ones. If you don't have to think about what you're doing, if you're not worried about the consequences you're not going to put in the effort to make sure you've covered all the bases, considered all the possibilities, and evaluated all the outcomes.

Posted via web from schultzterous

Hide/Remove Google Buzz Updates from Your Gmail Inbox - google buzz - Lifehacker

2010-03-25T10:49:00.001-04:00

via lifehacker.com

Thanks to Life Hacker - and @JohnnyCanuck - I'm no longer distracted by Buzz when I open my GMail. Not that there's anything wrong with Buzz but I use Twitter, and everyone and everything else uses Twitter. But so far all Buzz does is clone your Twitter and other social posts. If you want to Buzz your friends have to Buzz too - if they're still on Twitter they won't get your Buzzes. In essence, Buzz is like a glorified feed reader that lets you make comments and stuff to yourself - kind of like Google Reader (except I prefer and use Reader often during the day).

Posted via web from schultzterous

iPad to the rescue!!!

2010-03-22T14:06:00.001-04:00

via imgsrv.gocomics.com

Bill's gotta be one cool cartonist to come up with this stuff!

Posted via web from schultzterous

Finnish Pancakes

2010-03-21T21:20:00.004-04:00

We got the recipe for Finnish Pancakes from our friend and so Saturday morning we put on our aprons to make breakfast.

FINNISH PANCAKES

Serves at least two

In the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit bake for 5 minutes:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 cups sliced apples, peeled & cored
Mix in a bowl
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Pour on top of apples and bake for 15 to 20 minutes

The breakfast was delicious! Topped with maple syrop and cinnamon we're definitely going to be making this one again.