Vancouver Community Events
UPDATE, Jan 19, 2024:
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Community
Whos Missing From The Table
When I hear of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives in the work place, it’s often used in a quota context, and that’s never sat well with me. I...
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Adding Comments
In a previous life I would add comments using an open source system, and keep them inclusive and unmoderated, as I’ve always supported free speech. Unfortuna...
The Global Economic Future
There is currently an opportunity to explore a different global economic future than we’ve had until now. I welcome you to spend some time on what that futur...
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Womepedia.org
Do any womxn want to take on the challenge of starting a wiki? A One Day Website customer has paid for https://www.womepedia.org/ and would love to see it ru...
Budget Coffee
This is the launch of "Budget Coffee" like founders coffee, where we meet 2x a month, and discuss budget things. As we'll all have different techniques, it w...
A few more Facebook groups and pages
If you're still on Facebook, the first thing to keep in mind is that anything you write there -- including every profile you click on, every keystroke you ty...
Is it time to review the Vancouver business noise complaint process?
I write this on a Sunny Friday afternoon, birds flying by, a peaceful serenity looking out over to the city from my condo -- with the blaring of car alarms t...
What are you doing to support your community and those in need?
I think all of life is competing against your past self, and I don't recommend ever comparing yourself to someone else, but it's hard not to reflect on one's...
Why don’t more women speak up?
I managed to miss most of the Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford hearing today, but caught the end of it. I knew going into it that not much would likely sway in public ...
Facebook Debates
For those who think they're good at debating, I challenge you to sign up for my 24 hour debate challenge. If you agree, I will partner you with someone else ...
What’s your best advice for someone about to…
What's your best advice for someone about to go on a hiring spree? (no recruiters mentioning their firms please -- I don't intend on using recruiters current...
Slutshaming: A life ruined and a path to sex work
I was recently asked to do a talk on privacy & security for the local sex work industry. I asked what they were interested in, and it was mostly centered...
If you’re in Vancouver, I’ll walk and talk with you for $5/km.
After watching the 60 second docs video on the People walker, I shared the link on Facebook, offering to do the same.</p>
Announcing: Black Tie Dinner - Vancouver on April 12th, 2018
Summary: Black Tie Dinner on April 12th, 2018 18:00 at the McDonalds on Main Street, one block south of Main Street Station. [Facebook Event] History: If yo...
Finding a non-US path of Totality
For those that don't want to, or can't, touch US soil at all (most of the world right now, it seems), what do you recommend for seeing the eclipse on the 21...
A few Facebook Groups and Pages which may be of Interest
DecisionTree is a web application to help teams understand their values and goals through advanced decision making. Kris Constable – Politician is my ...
Giving without expectations
I was co-working in the social, ground floor area of my building when I noticed a man in a wheelchair going through the alley with a sweater dragging behind ...
What Keeps You Content? - Data Driven Wellness
What Keeps You Content? [meetup.com] Attendees Kris Leo Ivan Trevor Tyler Zee Jennifer Scott Harondel John Bill What keeps you content Kaggle (Google boug...
MakerMobile
I've heard of trademark and copyright infringement cases, but the winner has to be Actua's Makermobile. The Government of Canada has apparently funded this c...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
What can you teach in 30 minutes?
Welcome to the thirty minute club! In order to join, you have to agree to teach something on Google Hangouts for 30 minutes. You don't have to be the best at...
Conscious Canada
At the Ideas - Vancouver meetup tonight, we were discussing how many businesses there are that should be boycotted, and even if they are, as one voice, there...
Bratzer v. Victoria Police Department (No. 3).
My friend David Bratzer has closed the page in a long journey against the Victoria Police Department for exercising his right to discuss his political belief...
#fivetenfriday
My first entry for #fivetenfriday was experimenting with the GIMP. I don’t normally edit my photographs except for cropping. It was a lot of fun testing the ...
Creative Vancouver meetups
If you're new to Vancouver, you might be looking for some creative Vancouver meetups. It could be to meet other interesting people, entrepreneurs, hackers, o...
Ideas - Vancouver meeting May 14th
This month, you're invited to join us at 18:00 at Matchstick Coffee (Chinatown - Vancouver) to discuss amongst other things: bio-tech: life with CRISPR-Cas9...
Yin yoga in Vancouver
After 10 years on the West coast, I finally agreed to go to a yoga class. I thought I would report back to my East coast friends and family who may be worrie...
The Open Source Future
I've been thinking and discussing a lot about the open source future, and am considering an 8 episode podcast trial. It's currently planned to be 2 parts per...
Vancouver Sales Event Meetup
Last night I got to attend my first Vancouver Sales Event Meetup run by my friend Erin Dalzell and hosted at Spacelist. I tried to write down as many URLs as...
Vancouver Vending Machine Circuit
If you're looking for something unusual to do while in Vancouver, consider a photography challenge - each of the unique machines found in the Vancouver vendi...
My list of subreddits
If you're familiar with Reddit, you know it's based on sub-reddits, which are effectively communities with a shared interested. This is my list of subreddits...
Map of cheap meals in British Columbia
Enjoy my map of cheap meals in British Columbia! If you know of anywhere in British Columbia you can get a proper meal for $5 or less, please contact me and ...
ASC in Vancouver
UPDATE! As we're still receiving $50 entries from people wanting to be awesomites, we're moving the event to January 28th, 2015. The call for submissions is ...
Thanks to Rob Wipond for effecting change with the Victoria Police Department
NB: I agreed initially to Vince a couple years ago, to not disclose the details of this story to anyone other than Rob, but everything I've said below is pub...
Fruits and vegetables in Vancouver
I was wondering where to buy my fruits and vegetables in Vancouver, and I realize knowing where is cheaper at any given time is a problem that is still not s...
Vancouver community spaces
I've decided to start a list of Vancouver community spaces for creative thinkers, as I couldn't find a good one myself. Hackerspace/Makerspace Vancouver Hac...
Center for Social Impact opening May 1st
A shared office space tentatively called ‘Center for Social Impact’ is opening May 1st next to Habit in Chinatown. A great opportunity for home desk folks to...
You lose your rights under the Mental Health Act
I just read this article in Focus magazine [PDF] which is the source of what nightmares are made of. Apparently in Canada, you lose your rights if being arre...
Project - Help someone out
This post is about my latest project idea - Help someone out. Version 0.2 - Oct 24th 10:08am EST. Check back regularly, as I'll be updating this post based o...
How can I help your business?
How can I help your business? I'm offering an initial 60 minute video consult over the next 2 weeks, please contact me to setup an appointment. All I ask fro...
Centre of the Universe is quietly being closed?
It is being alleged on social media that the Astronomy interpretive centre known in Victoria at the Centre of the Universe is being closed at the centre of t...
Job Jar is looking for alpha testers
In the software development lifecycle, the alpha stage is when you have your minimal viable product (MVP) and are ready for testing. This means things will l...
Team YIMBY working to end beach fire prohibition in Victoria
Last year at an Ideas - Victoria meeting, there was a lot of mention of the NIMBYism (Not in my backyard!) that seems to prevalent in our community. A lot of...
Electoral Reform
Dear Elections BC; As we're about to head into another voting period in British Columbia, I wonder how long it will be until we see electoral reform. Since I...
100 pushups
Have you ever wondered what it would take to do 100 pushups? The folks at onehundredpushups.com have developed a 6 week program to help you achieve that goal...
Thinking and succeeding as a Modern Business
I often consult one-on-one with entrepreneurs, but recently I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of leaders in non-profit and social enterprise. Di...
Beacon Hill Goat Run
Every day at 10:10a.m. and 4:10p.m. you can catch the Beacon Hill Goat Run down at the Beacon Hill Children's Farm. https://youtu.be/oNk9eHk-Lrs https://www....
The blue bridge is down
As I bicycled towards the Johnson street blue bridge in the rain this afternoon, it was up as a barge was going through. Traffic was backed up East of Swans ...
Victoria, in the middle of the winter
We don't really do snow here, they still talk about the snow in '96, where they apparently got over an inch of it. It's the middle of the winter here in Vict...
Saving the B.C. film industry
There seems to be a lot of controversy lately around the B.C. film industry not making it into the Christy Clark BC Jobs plan. I don't see the correlation. A...
Biospace, and the DIYBIO movement
Derek Jacoby and I made a TEDGlobal video, if only for a picture (3:49 in the video). This video is from the TED talk by Ellen Jorgensen of Genspace fame tal...
Free education online
I posted a couple days ago, a list of free university course aggregators. I've had several people contact me with individual sites (such as MIT Open CourseWa...
looking for a place to stay for two months
Someone wants to rent my condo short-term, so I'm looking for a place to stay for two months. Priorities, in order of importance (but not required): Broadba...
Want something delivered right meow?
Life, like business, often comes down to the line between time and money. Next time you're feeling time constrained or especially lazy, consider Right Meow B...
Black Tie Dinner III
Exactly one year since the last one, it's time for Black Tie Dinner III! If you've never heard about black tie dinner, click here. This time we're taking ove...
Are you a skeptic?
If you're like me, you probably have two types of friends on social media that post (potentially) controversial materials. The first group are the parrots, t...
Who’s responsible for the Metro studio closure last night?
The buzz for the last ~18 hours is what forced the Metro studio closure from the city last night? Just announced from the City of Victoria, the Mayor, and se...
When should we discuss the Malahat?
For about a decade, Vancouver has been considered the most livable city in the world. This year it was controversially brought from first to third, the examp...
I’m speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C.
I look forward to speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C. I'll be speaking on Ideas Meetings, what they are, where they started, where the...
Looking for cheap flights?
If you frequently travel, that likely means you also frequently try to find the best flight deals. I often use Matrix, or Hipmunk when looking for cheap flig...
Profile: Mitch Altman, hacker.
I had the opportunity to meet Mitch Altman in Tokyo a few years ago, at the Tokyo hackerspace. Mitch is a rare breed; he's got world class level of smart...
Open Data Society of British Columbia
The current premier of British Columbia has committed to supporting the concept of Open Data by creating DataBC. Never before have British Columbians had acc...
Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-Art Show!
Last week-end I had the opportunity to have 3 of my photos shown at the first annual Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-art show. The photos had to...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
What produce is in season?
Thanks to a conversation with Janice M and Maryanne C, a couple of Victoria's food experts and friends, I was pointed to a list of all of the fresh produce t...
What would a useful local neighbourhood-based web portal look like?
Last night Rob Wipond asked at an Ideas Vic meeting, What would a useful local neighbourhood-based web portal look like? A lot of discussion ensued, includin...
Hidden gems in Victoria
Couchsurfing has a list of the top 50 "Best of Victoria" list. I also have a Facebook group called Victoria's Secrets to discuss these hidden gems. Are there...
Welcome to the New Amsterdam
Victoria has always been a tourist city, but for the first time in a long time, that is going to hit new heights. We have a new city council, lead once again...
Feeling blue, at the end of an era…
After ~87 years, the Johnson street bridge in Victoria, also known as the blue bridge, is being dismantled. You can read the details on the city of Victoria ...
Can you afford to give up a few vegetables?
Thanks to Victoria city councilor Lisa Helps, I was made aware of a Victoria citizen who has made a request for vegetables. I can't imagine making such a...
IdeaWave 2012
We're less than a week away from IdeaWave, a conference that features 50 talks over 2 days, 10 minutes each. We're still actively looking for great i...
Atagamaton
If you've done anything in the digital interactive media circuit in Victoria, you've crossed paths with the talented David Parfit and/or Scott Amos. On Frida...
Innovation month in Victoria
I declare February as Innovation Month. If you've had a really good idea for years you've been sitting on, or just had an epiphany now, there is no better ti...
The tender conscious of the herd
One of my younger brothers started a blog and I found a quote that really resonated with me, "[It] really wasn't a necessity. It was more of an atte...
It’s snowing!
It's fairly rare that it snows in Victoria, perhaps a bi-annual event. Right now it's really coming down here downtown, and it started last night. Around...
Banning religious fundamentalists from health care
There seems to be a growing group of religious fundamentalists who insist that prayer is the ultimate path to healing. I find this a mind boggling belief sys...
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gunna do…
For as long as I can remember, I've been a radio scanner enthusiast. Although when I moved to Victoria, I knew they had adopted CREST which uses talk groups,...
Your social network
As people are justifiably upset with the privacy issues around Facebook, and several friends have left that network altogether recently, I've been wondering ...
Victoria co-working space
Over the years, we've seen several co-working spaces come and go. We've not seen a model yet that we thought would survive, even from the beginning. Over 2 y...
Social Innovation in British Columbia
I'm fortunate to have been chosen as one of the top 500 social innovators in British Columbia, and have been invited to participate in the discussion around ...
What’s the cheapest North American meal?
After reading that the toast sandwich is officially the UK's cheapest meal, it made me wonder, what is the cheapest meal available in North America? Although...
Settlers of Catan night
If you've got a bit of board game geek in you, check out the Canadian Pacific Lawn Bowling club's website which has announced a bi-weekly Settlers of Catan n...
Get out and vote!
I just completed a short rant to a few friends on Facebook who were claiming inaction to voting is an action, or they were pleading ignorance to even knowing...
Truth or Dare?
I asked "Truth or Dare?" on Facebook and Twitter yesterday. I've received over 50 comments between the two, so it seems like people want to play. I see there...
Black Tie Dinner II
On Tuesday, November 22, 7:00pm – 8:30pm, don’t miss the much anticipated Black Tie Dinner II! This is a fun event where we’ll take over the new Burger King...
If only there was a United Way to contact them…
For three years I've heard an advertisement by the United Way on the radio in Victoria, BC. It claims that they help one in every three people in Victoria. T...
What media matters?
I recently had the opportunity to meet Bill Weaver, host of a popular annual retreat called Media That Matters. I know several people who have attended, from...
Things get cloudy for #occupyvictoria
I'm not sure what changed, my understanding of the #occupyvictoria movement in centennial square (beside city hall) is that the protestors would be left alon...
What would you do with $500-1000 this Monday?
All it takes is 200 words in an email, and a 5 minute pitch, to win anywhere between $500 and $1000. Awesome Shit Club (ASC) is one of the many projects to c...
B.C. wineries
Wondering where to find a winery near you in British Columbia? Wonder no more! If you’re the owner of one of these wineries, and would like your business na...
Libation calendar
I've started a Victoria libation calendar. If you're aware of events around beverages that are fermented ot distilled in Victoria, contact me for edit access...
Evening to inspire - Seat auction
I'm going to auction off one seat to the amazing Evening to Inspire event on October 7th. While the tickets are selling for $175/person, I will provide one t...
Victoria’s Makerspace
Victoria's makerspace is a community based tool collective. A group of us have put our cool tools all in one location, so you get the benefit of using other ...
B.C. Private liquor stores
Ever wonder where you can find a B.C. private liquor store near you? Wonder no more! If you're the owner of one of these liquor stores, and would like your ...
Black Tie Dinner
On September 6th, 2011 at 7p.m. don't miss our first ever Black Tie Dinner! This is a fun event where we'll take over the McDonald's at 980 Pandora avenue we...
#YYJ, the navigation aid on Saltspring Island
Twitter often uses airport codes as hashtags in municipal areas to build community, however the misuse of these codes can lead to technically incorrect resul...
Media Net’s first Video Lab exhibit launching this Friday
If interactive multimedia art interests you, don't miss the launch party this Friday night at Open Space gallery (510 Fort street, 2nd floor) in Victoria. I ...
How does a cyclist turn left on a one way street?
I just read a Victoria police blog article about a cyclist who was sent to the hospital after a driver opened their vehicle door fast enough for the cyclist ...
Crowdsourcing a fiddle
The Victoria police department announced that Darth Fiddler was assaulted, and his fiddle ruined in the process. As it was being talked alot about on twitter...
Tech
Bitcoin Custodial Wallets Are Fine
I propose the bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry refer to cold storage as your self-bank, as that is a more relevant equivalent to fiat, whereas a wallet can be...
Open Banking Coming To Canada
Canada is getting something new called “Consumer Driven Banking,” which is also known as “Open Banking.” This means that big banks will have to let you use n...
3 Ai Tools Everyone Should Try
Most people have tried, or at least heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, and there are a lot of rapid advancements to AI every day. In this post I’ll highlight thre...
Opportunities In Ai
Here are the two exciting areas of opportunity I am working on in AI
Assessing Your Level As A Bitcoin Enthusiast
In order to determine where you stand as a Bitcoin enthusiast, I have devised a self-assessment tool. You are welcome to share your level after reading or le...
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
Open And Decentralized Online Voting
I’ve been thinking about online voting for over a decade, first from doing security audits on them, and realizing how deficient they are in structure and sec...
Generating A Keypair With Nostr
The intention of this article to talk about key pairs and authentication, and how to generate a key pair to use nostr Notes and Other Things Over Relays.
Whos Missing From The Table
When I hear of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives in the work place, it’s often used in a quota context, and that’s never sat well with me. I...
Check Out The Nostr Protocol
I’m really bullish on this new nostr protocol. NOSTR:
Free Ai Tools
While often we’ve heard about artificial intelligence or AI, which is the idea of technology being used to mimic or surpass human behaviour, it relies on var...
Happy World Password Day
I’ve been asked fairly often, for decades, what I recommend for a password manager. For as long as I can remember, the quick answer is KeePass.
2022 Bitcoin And Nft Updates
It’s been over a year since my last article, so I figure it’s time for an update. This post is an intended provide a professional update for those interested.
When You Have An Idea
I was reading a tweet from Andrew Wilkinson:
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Preparing for your first client
Those who have repeatable businesses success often attribute their success to repeatable processes. The intention of this article is to ask the questions nee...
Measuring impact over time
One of the biggest trends in investment right now is the notion of “impact investing”. Impact means different things to different people, but in terms of soc...
De-risking yourself for pre-seed
There are a couple of important decisions an entrepreneur should make before crossing the chasm from idea to implementation one should ask, namely what type ...
The Lunar Occultation of Mars
At approximately 3:38 Pacific Time (Vancouver) Mars will disappear behind the moon, reappearing at 4:49:18 a.m. This is known in astronomy as the lunar occul...
Plastic Free from Amazon
Open your Amazon account Select ‘Help’ from the main selection bar Select ‘Contact Us’ under ’Need more help?’ Start a Chat Request all future ord...
Website Creation
For 8 years I’ve run One Day Website which does domainname registration, Wordpress install and setup, and hosting for a year, for $299. This fills the niche ...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Meeting schedulers
We often need to schedule meetings, and it can be a lot of work to organize a time that works for multiple people. Here are a few solutions I've found. Note ...
Be careful what you allow to access your bank account
There are a lot of interesting things happening on the bridge between tech and finance, or FinTech. If you've observed what the EU's GDPR did for privacy aro...
Open source self-hosted small business tools
I'll start by listing some of the tools that most if not all of my businesses use: Nextcloud -- Not only is this a dropbox replacement for file management, i...
New Canadian rules around AML/ATF and offering of tokens
It's a big week for Canadians whom work in cryptocurrency. First, the Department of Finance released an impact analysis statement around the Proceeds of Crim...
I’m looking for smart phone recommendations
I'm not a fan of planned obsolescence, so I want a phone that will last. I currently have a Nexus 5, which is ~5 years old. Why I still like it: There are a ...
New Tech: IPFS
IPFS is a distributed, peer-to-peer (p2p) hypermedia protocol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CMxDNuuAiQ It's not just theoretical, you can use it now. The...
How to acquire Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies, and understand KYC and AML
Two things that we all should know are Know Your Customer (KYC) Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Let's start with KYC. This is the term government regulators us...
Debugging internet issues
If you're on osx, if you have something like brew.sh, install mtr. Once you have mtr installed, you can test your internet connection with any computer on th...
first steps on osx after security – install brew
If it's your first time on osx, or just setting up a new machine, or doing a re-install, there are a few things I install by default. Before you start the so...
vim: vi improved. A text editor worth learning.
vim is the improved version of vi (short for visual editor) which is an old school text editor for UNIX based operating systems (Linux, BSD, OSX etc). Once y...
Renaming crypto(currency) to dmoney
This growing use of “crypto” to mean “crypto currency” is not going to end well for either cryptography or digital currency. — matt blaze (@mattblaze) June ...
MakerMobile
I've heard of trademark and copyright infringement cases, but the winner has to be Actua's Makermobile. The Government of Canada has apparently funded this c...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
Another chance to consider Bitcoin
As we have economic uncertainty in several countries around the world, you have to think where the world's elite are looking to put their money, and there's ...
Getting Thunderbird to Inbox Zero plugin
idea: I would love to help with this, if there are any developers who have the chops. I want a Thunderbird email plugin that at some (setting driven) interva...
Summary of the Product Market Fit Process
For the first half of 2015, I spent most of the time on the product market fit (PMF) process, trying to (in)validate a business idea. This week at Founders C...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
Canadian VPS comparison
This Canadian VPS comparison table features VPS hosting providers that are not only Canadian, they host the servers on Canadian soil. This is useful to anyon...
Installing owncloud and pydio on Debian 8
Update: I was asked for a list of Canadian hosting providers where one can try the steps below, so I created this list of Canadian VPS providers. If you want...
Free cloud-based computing and storage for Canadian startups
Last week I joined in the the Startup Canada #startupchats on Twitter. I saw a CANARIE account interacting, which until now I thought was only accessible to ...
The Open Source Future
I've been thinking and discussing a lot about the open source future, and am considering an 8 episode podcast trial. It's currently planned to be 2 parts per...
Vancouver Sales Event Meetup
Last night I got to attend my first Vancouver Sales Event Meetup run by my friend Erin Dalzell and hosted at Spacelist. I tried to write down as many URLs as...
What does it take to track a lost or stolen cell phone?
What does it take to track a lost or stolen cell phone? Is such a thing impossible, or is there a glimmer of hope if the stars align? I called my cell phone ...
From idea to prototype, in your hand, using 3d printing
If you have an idea for a product, the first thing to do is to see if such a product already exists. Let's say for example, you had an idea for a bread bag t...
Open Source Software Solutions
When choosing which software to use, one philosophical choice you must make is if you're OK with proprietary software, or if you will prioritize open source ...
My list of subreddits
If you're familiar with Reddit, you know it's based on sub-reddits, which are effectively communities with a shared interested. This is my list of subreddits...
Learn to hack
If I told you it was free, would you want to learn to hack? I'm interested in offering a free course on how to hack to those who sign up over the next week. ...
Vancouver community spaces
I've decided to start a list of Vancouver community spaces for creative thinkers, as I couldn't find a good one myself. Hackerspace/Makerspace Vancouver Hac...
Big day for bitcoins!
If you've never heard of bitcoins, they are a decentralized digital currency based on an open-source, peer-to-peer internet protocol. It was introduced by a ...
Free university courses
I mentioned in August 2011 that Stanford started offering free university courses online for free. It's really exciting to see this trend spreading, most not...
Hacking sub $10 gadgets
Even the most frugal of us now have the opportunity to hack, with the increase in sub $10 gadgets. I wrote a few weeks ago about the TI MSP430 for $4.30. Her...
Looking for cheap flights?
If you frequently travel, that likely means you also frequently try to find the best flight deals. I often use Matrix, or Hipmunk when looking for cheap flig...
Profile: Mitch Altman, hacker.
I had the opportunity to meet Mitch Altman in Tokyo a few years ago, at the Tokyo hackerspace. Mitch is a rare breed; he's got world class level of smart...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
For 1M I will change the world
I was reading an article about how Bell labs has an 'idea factory', the idea is give highly innovative critical thinkers the freedom to create, and c...
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gunna do…
For as long as I can remember, I've been a radio scanner enthusiast. Although when I moved to Victoria, I knew they had adopted CREST which uses talk groups,...
A fight on Google’s street view
If you slowly scroll towards the two kids, and even passed them and look back, it appears as though you are watching the two boys walking, and get into a phy...
Your social network
As people are justifiably upset with the privacy issues around Facebook, and several friends have left that network altogether recently, I've been wondering ...
Social Innovation in British Columbia
I'm fortunate to have been chosen as one of the top 500 social innovators in British Columbia, and have been invited to participate in the discussion around ...
Is morse code still alive?
I read an article in yesterday's Vancouver sun that is calling for the death knell of morse code, known by those in the amateur (ham) radio community as cont...
B.C. wineries
Wondering where to find a winery near you in British Columbia? Wonder no more! If you’re the owner of one of these wineries, and would like your business na...
Victoria’s Makerspace
Victoria's makerspace is a community based tool collective. A group of us have put our cool tools all in one location, so you get the benefit of using other ...
B.C. Private liquor stores
Ever wonder where you can find a B.C. private liquor store near you? Wonder no more! If you're the owner of one of these liquor stores, and would like your ...
Free online courses from Stanford starting fall 2011
Stanford University is offering three free classes this fall, no matter where you're geographically located. You can sign up for Introduction to Databases, M...
My first art exhibit: The Community Experience
I’m excited (and nervous!) to announce my first ever art exhibit. The running title is “The Community Experience”, which is a combination of sharing experie...
Media Net’s first Video Lab exhibit launching this Friday
If interactive multimedia art interests you, don't miss the launch party this Friday night at Open Space gallery (510 Fort street, 2nd floor) in Victoria. I ...
@cqwww
I'm often asked what in the world "cqwww" means, and why I would have picked that for my twitter handle. I've been an amateur (ham) radio operator since arou...
Help me name my MBEST web app
I'm just finishing a new website, which has a running name of MBEST. It is a social media memory manager/bookmarking tool. Initially it has five modules; Mov...
Microscope mod for your smartphone
With a $5 microscope and illuminator from Amazon.com, you can attach it to the case of your smartphone and take microscopic pictures! https://www.youtube.com...
Shared co-working space
A group of us from the Victoria - Ideas meetings have been talking for some time about getting a shared co-working space in Victoria. It is intended for thos...
Browser plugin request: Media tab
While I often have over 50 tabs running in Firefox or Chrome, sometimes one or two will start playing audio or video, and there is no easy way to know which ...
Animated magic eye
Have you ever seen a "magic eye" image? technically known as a stereogram? Today I discovered there is an animated one. Amazing!
Shaw.ca breaking the internet
On the internet, network services are commonly defined by the port they use. For example, when you are on a website, you're typically connected to port 80 of...
Self Development
When You Have An Idea
I was reading a tweet from Andrew Wilkinson:
Critical Thinking Around Astrology Religion And Vaccines
Last year I had my first birthday zoom call as we couldn’t meet in person. On the call I had my closest friends, including someone who works for pharma, as w...
Love Is The Perception Of The Receiver
This article applies to cisgender monogamous love, but may apply to others as well.
Buying Bitcoin Or Ethereum
The last few months have been insane in the cryptocurrency market, like no other financial market I’m aware of in history. There have been altcoins making +1...
Hidden Rules Among Class
Today I saw an image on the internet that really resonated:
Astrology
I was asked again yesterday if I believe in astrology, and I said no, as a science based person I believe in astronomy. I got the go-to response of “Don’t yo...
What type of entrepreneur are you?
To me, there seems to be three types of entrepreneurs -- inventors, innovators, and iterators. Because we don't distinguish between these very distinct types...
Budget Coffee
This is the launch of "Budget Coffee" like founders coffee, where we meet 2x a month, and discuss budget things. As we'll all have different techniques, it w...
Great Minds Talk About Ideas
There's a famous quote: Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People This quote is often attributed to Eleanor Roosev...
Hacking Strength
If you know me, you know that I'm curious, and love to hack all of the things. I use the term hack in the original sense, not the mainstream media version. ...
Marie Kondo has helped me Spark Joy
A dear friend lent me Marie Kondo's "the life changing magic of tidying up" last year, and I had it sitting around for months until the last few days of the ...
Stop relying on other people
One of the things I'm witnessing lately is a lot of people who spend most of their social time complaining. "The government didn't do ...", "My parents didn'...
Interactive Tutorials
While you can learn anything you want for free online these days, or in person, some people learn best with interactive tutorials. For those people, I've pro...
What are you doing to support your community and those in need?
I think all of life is competing against your past self, and I don't recommend ever comparing yourself to someone else, but it's hard not to reflect on one's...
Finding Purpose
Yesterday I had the pleasure of catching up with my friend Kerry, a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. This was an impromptu video where I pressed record, asked for a one...
Facebook Debates
For those who think they're good at debating, I challenge you to sign up for my 24 hour debate challenge. If you agree, I will partner you with someone else ...
If you’re in Vancouver, I’ll walk and talk with you for $5/km.
After watching the 60 second docs video on the People walker, I shared the link on Facebook, offering to do the same.</p>
Understanding Co-dependence
I'd heard the term codependence many times before, and usually associated it with romantic relationships. A friend of mine mentioned she recently read a book...
What do you practice?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53cqxEOuHNI A great reminder from Prem Rawat via young Ali Sherazi. On top of critically thinking about which mental states w...
Giving without expectations
I was co-working in the social, ground floor area of my building when I noticed a man in a wheelchair going through the alley with a sweater dragging behind ...
Teaching children to critically think
I was recently with a loved one who has children. One of their children asked me if Santa Claus was real. I didn't want to lie, as it's not my child, so I qu...
What Keeps You Content? - Data Driven Wellness
What Keeps You Content? [meetup.com] Attendees Kris Leo Ivan Trevor Tyler Zee Jennifer Scott Harondel John Bill What keeps you content Kaggle (Google boug...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
What can you teach in 30 minutes?
Welcome to the thirty minute club! In order to join, you have to agree to teach something on Google Hangouts for 30 minutes. You don't have to be the best at...
Love
My thoughts on love. This will likely be updated as I feel I have new insights, as this is always evolving. I was reminded after reading a recent tweet by my...
Free university
I've written years ago about free online university courses, there's no limit today on what you can learn other than what time you're willing to put into it....
Bratzer v. Victoria Police Department (No. 3).
My friend David Bratzer has closed the page in a long journey against the Victoria Police Department for exercising his right to discuss his political belief...
Life without alcohol
I just read the Chicago Tribune article on What I learned by not drinking for 2 years, and a lot of it hit home, having just hit the 1 year mark myself of li...
The 30-day Silence Breakup Model
It is only when you break up from a romantic relationship, do you really evaluate what really mattered, and what didn't. As a result, if there seems to be a ...
Entrepreneurial See-Saw
There is a see-saw in which most entrepreneurs seem to identify themselves. At one end, is passion. At the other end, is financial success. The odds of these...
Positivity and Gratitude
Last night I got to hang out with Mohammed Alsaleh, one of the first Syrian refugees in Vancouver/British Colombia at the PeaceGeeks Christmas party. He was ...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
Forget discipline, form a habit
Perhaps the only discipline you need, is that required to form a single habit. While there has been a long standing rumour it takes 21 days to create a habit...
Yin yoga in Vancouver
After 10 years on the West coast, I finally agreed to go to a yoga class. I thought I would report back to my East coast friends and family who may be worrie...
Logical Fallacies
"A fallacy is incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric resulting in a lack of validity, or more generally, a lack of soundness. Fallacies are either formal f...
Add something new to your life, in small increments.
Last fall I mentioned to someone with experience in nutrition how I wished I ate better. Instead of going on a diet, it was suggested I consider introducing,...
Did you check snopes?
When I read articles, forwards or shares I know aren't true, sometimes I reply, sometimes I just delete them. I see the same emails getting forwarded around...
Failure is a learning opportunity
I spend a lot of time in startups, and most startups fail. Those that live more standard and stable careers might not see it, but failure isn't a negative to...
100 pushups
Have you ever wondered what it would take to do 100 pushups? The folks at onehundredpushups.com have developed a 6 week program to help you achieve that goal...
Thinking and succeeding as a Modern Business
I often consult one-on-one with entrepreneurs, but recently I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of leaders in non-profit and social enterprise. Di...
Free education online
I posted a couple days ago, a list of free university course aggregators. I've had several people contact me with individual sites (such as MIT Open CourseWa...
Free university courses
I mentioned in August 2011 that Stanford started offering free university courses online for free. It's really exciting to see this trend spreading, most not...
Tilting my head until my neck cracks
I've noticed several friends and family members who regularly tilt their heads until their neck "cracks". I figure when they do it so often, th...
What do you use to shave?
I've been using Gillette Sensor Excel for shaving, but I see I can get 10 disposable razors for cheaper than 5 SE blades. Obviously the cheaper option ha...
For 1M I will change the world
I was reading an article about how Bell labs has an 'idea factory', the idea is give highly innovative critical thinkers the freedom to create, and c...
Can you afford to give up a few vegetables?
Thanks to Victoria city councilor Lisa Helps, I was made aware of a Victoria citizen who has made a request for vegetables. I can't imagine making such a...
Rule of thirds and the golden ratio
As the LCD light on my digital point and shoot camera has died, a replacement LCD is over $100. I'm debating if I'm better off buying a new cam...
The tender conscious of the herd
One of my younger brothers started a blog and I found a quote that really resonated with me, "[It] really wasn't a necessity. It was more of an atte...
Hitting the mental gym
As I walked down to Ideas Victoria tonight, I walked by at least 3 gyms, each busier than I've ever seen them, and I generally walk by them every week at the...
A summary of 2011
What an incredible year! Started a new company IdeaWave sold out and turned a profit Created an organization that gave away over $3,000 to entrepreneurs Bou...
How well do you sleep?
I've been curious for a while about my sleeping habits, as an entrepreneur on my own schedule, I don't use an alarm clock unless I have to. As a result, my s...
Passing the first stage of hypnagogia with a snl machine?
Reading about hypnagogia (the state of falling asleep), according to Mavromatis (The Head Trip p.29) the four stages are: Flashes of light and colour Floati...
Idea: A game that offers real certifications?
After watching a TED talk by Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world today, I immediately came up with an idea; what if while questing in a game you w...
Determining your core values
This is an intregal part of the self-assessment process. There are a lot of values to choose from, take for example this list: Acceptance Fast pace...
What would you do for $5?
Could you build a list of things you'd do for $5? If so, check out FIVERR, but warning, I spent over 2 hours going through this site my first time. It's amaz...
Free online courses from Stanford starting fall 2011
Stanford University is offering three free classes this fall, no matter where you're geographically located. You can sign up for Introduction to Databases, M...
My first art exhibit: The Community Experience
I’m excited (and nervous!) to announce my first ever art exhibit. The running title is “The Community Experience”, which is a combination of sharing experie...
DIY DNA testing
Do-it-yourself DNA testing is now possible with the OpenPCR kits which are only $512! Check out OpenPCR.org for the full details. "It is essential for most w...
Leadership
To me, leadership is about helping others. When I was younger, it meant being the boss, but I realize now I was incorrect in my assumption. Last year I compl...
Are you ready for your next interview?
As I've been on both sides of the interview desk, I had the opportunity today to work with Jen and Randy who are doing amazing work at The Pathway Project. A...
Random acts of pizza
Just in case you're losing faith in humanity, there's a subreddit to bring it all back. Random acts of pizza is for those that have fallen on hard times, as ...
My first full length song “674 - Maybe”
This is the first full length song I've created, I'd love your feedback! </embed> 674 - Maybe by cqwww
This Valentines day I gave up on the quest for love, and happiness
I can understand how that sounds depressing, but it isn't intended to be! For a long time I've thought those are the two most important things in life, yet I...
Ready to challenge yourself?
A few friends and I have been working through self imposed self-development processes. Weekly we challenge ourselves to step out of our comfort zone to learn...
Announcing the Victoria Pop Choir
Nils Skalin is launching a Victoria Pop Choir. He says anyone can join, no matter what level of experience you have. He's created a Facebook group for those ...
New years resolution? Get some new wallpaper!
About 7 years ago I got my Canadian amateur radio certificate, and discovered the world of ham radio awards and contests. In Canada, there are over 50 award...
Canada
Open Banking Coming To Canada
Canada is getting something new called “Consumer Driven Banking,” which is also known as “Open Banking.” This means that big banks will have to let you use n...
The Race For Currency Control
We’re entering an arms race for who gets to control the currency
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Canadian Tax Tips
Where do you recommend one go for Canadian tax tips? I'll post three here: The Canadian Tax Sherpa Deductions, Credits, and Expenses Report on Federal Tax ...
Budget Coffee
This is the launch of "Budget Coffee" like founders coffee, where we meet 2x a month, and discuss budget things. As we'll all have different techniques, it w...
Schitt’s Creek closets going on sale for charity
If you watched Schitt's Creek, this Thursday they have 800 items going up for auction from the "closets of the Rose family". (Givenchy, Balenciaga, Alexande...
Bitcoin exchanges in Canada
This is not an endorsement, but a running list of Canadian cryptocurrency exchanges. There are other exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken that serve Canadians,...
Personal Information data is a liability
Most businesses are still in the mindset that they should collect data for big data sake -- some day it'll be valuable. More unscrupulous businesses sell or ...
The step-by-step guide to legally manipulate the 2019 Canadian election
First, I feel obligated to reference the following quote, as I do when I teach someone how to pick a lock: If a lock, let it have been made in whatever coun...
Be careful what you allow to access your bank account
There are a lot of interesting things happening on the bridge between tech and finance, or FinTech. If you've observed what the EU's GDPR did for privacy aro...
Getting your ham radio licence in Canada
If you’re interested in getting your amateur (ham) radio licence in Canada, you can start with Industry Canada’s website. I would start on the radio exam gen...
The police and military aren’t here to protect you
I read today that the US Federal Court has ruled that the police have no duty to protect you. This is not intuitive to most citizens who feel their tax dolla...
Thoughts on Initiative Q
I responded to an influencer I know who is sharing links to Initiative Q. He's an NDPer, so I empathize. Seriously though, he's a math genius whom I respect,...
Carfentanil found in Vancouver region
Here in Vancouver, specifically in the downtown eastside (DTES), on average two people are dying from an overdose per day, because of fentanyl. Fentanyl is r...
It’s time to seriously consider the Canadian government’s handling of cannabis
As the world looks on to Canada who will be somewhat legalizing Cannabis tomorrow, there have been several actions taken by the same government that are caus...
What are you doing to support your community and those in need?
I think all of life is competing against your past self, and I don't recommend ever comparing yourself to someone else, but it's hard not to reflect on one's...
Slutshaming: A life ruined and a path to sex work
I was recently asked to do a talk on privacy & security for the local sex work industry. I asked what they were interested in, and it was mostly centered...
New Canadian rules around AML/ATF and offering of tokens
It's a big week for Canadians whom work in cryptocurrency. First, the Department of Finance released an impact analysis statement around the Proceeds of Crim...
Thinking about where you’re making your DNS requests
Yesterday, Cloudflare announced their 1.1.1.1 DNS service. They provide a good primer on DNS, and what solution they are working to resolve. There was a lot ...
Phone scammers pretending to be CRA
In Canada, there is a popular phone scam where the caller will pretend to be the Customs and Revenue Agency (CRA -- Canada's version of the IRS). A few thing...
Free credit score and reports for Canadians
I just came across this free credit score and report service, called BorrowWell.com. They appear to respect your privacy (other than running several privacy ...
Is Bittrex violating Canadian privacy law, and committing theft by withholding my cryptocurrencies?
I moved some cryptocurrency into a popular exchange called Bittrex. I did some cryptocurrency trades, and last night decided to take a little out. Now first ...
Is reading the bible hate speech in Canada?
My friend Steve, an advocate for free speech in the U.S, and I were discussing hate speech, where I highlighted that most progressive countries have hate spe...
Let’s start collecting data on Canada’s oligarchies
Last night at an ideas Vancouver meeting, Steven and I had an idea on how we could start collecting the data on what interactions are like with Canada's olig...
A few Facebook Groups and Pages which may be of Interest
DecisionTree is a web application to help teams understand their values and goals through advanced decision making. Kris Constable – Politician is my ...
MakerMobile
I've heard of trademark and copyright infringement cases, but the winner has to be Actua's Makermobile. The Government of Canada has apparently funded this c...
Financially Investing in Yourself 101
This applies to those new to financial investing for retirement in Canada. These are the recommendations I usually make, so I'm summarizing here. Pay down ...
Free university
I've written years ago about free online university courses, there's no limit today on what you can learn other than what time you're willing to put into it....
Conscious Canada
At the Ideas - Vancouver meetup tonight, we were discussing how many businesses there are that should be boycotted, and even if they are, as one voice, there...
Bratzer v. Victoria Police Department (No. 3).
My friend David Bratzer has closed the page in a long journey against the Victoria Police Department for exercising his right to discuss his political belief...
Dark Information Sharing
Here are a few links I mentioned regarding the Dark side of Information Sharing last night at Nik Badminton's sold out Dark Futures conference. These are pub...
Canadian VPS comparison
This Canadian VPS comparison table features VPS hosting providers that are not only Canadian, they host the servers on Canadian soil. This is useful to anyon...
Free cloud-based computing and storage for Canadian startups
Last week I joined in the the Startup Canada #startupchats on Twitter. I saw a CANARIE account interacting, which until now I thought was only accessible to ...
SIP Provider Comparison
Until now I've been using les.net which is a Canadian SIP provider, so they must comply with Canadian privacy law by keeping personal information private. As...
Government liquor stores (LDB) in British Columbia
This map of government liquor stores in British Columbia was originally posted to victoria.intoxicant.ca on May 18, 2012. After publishing a list of wineries...
Wineries in British Columbia
This map of wineries in British Columbia was originally posted to 250life.ca on Oct 10, 2011, and is one of the first uses of the B.C. Open Government Licens...
Private Liquor Stores in British Columbia
This map I created of private liquor stores was originally posted to 250life.ca on Sept 8, 2011 and was one of the first uses of British Columbia's Open Gove...
What does it take to track a lost or stolen cell phone?
What does it take to track a lost or stolen cell phone? Is such a thing impossible, or is there a glimmer of hope if the stars align? I called my cell phone ...
This post could land me in jail. Where is the political C-51 opposition?
All it will take, if Bill C-51 passes, is for one of Canada's spies to convince any judge in the country that they agreed this post was an issue, and I could...
Where to buy hop rhizomes in Canada
There appear to be only 6 places to buy hop rhizomes in Canada, if you know of any more, please let me know and I'll update the map. This will likely only be...
Approved business tax software in Canada
I found the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) approved business tax software in Canada list, and went to each one to get their pricing. As you can see below, some ...
Thanks to Rob Wipond for effecting change with the Victoria Police Department
NB: I agreed initially to Vince a couple years ago, to not disclose the details of this story to anyone other than Rob, but everything I've said below is pub...
CPR Partners desk for sale
I'm selling my (Canadian Pacific Railway) CPR Partners desk. It's the nicest desk I've ever owned, I refinished it myself. It is from pre-World War I (approx...
Are all employment opportunities good?
A friend posted the following on Facebook, leading me to ask the question, are all employment opportunities good? Kinder Morgan in its submission to the Nati...
You lose your rights under the Mental Health Act
I just read this article in Focus magazine [PDF] which is the source of what nightmares are made of. Apparently in Canada, you lose your rights if being arre...
The end of Canadian photographers?
While I realize it sounds like hyperbole, I will no longer be able to use Canadian photographers, it's too risky. My friend Jhayne posted a link on her Faceb...
Electoral Reform
Dear Elections BC; As we're about to head into another voting period in British Columbia, I wonder how long it will be until we see electoral reform. Since I...
Biospace, and the DIYBIO movement
Derek Jacoby and I made a TEDGlobal video, if only for a picture (3:49 in the video). This video is from the TED talk by Ellen Jorgensen of Genspace fame tal...
Chipmunk
While visiting my cottage this year for the first time in years, I had a chipmunk stare at me at squeak for at least 10 minutes. I managed to get a minute of...
Put a man in space? pfffht!
My friend Nick Farr and team have recently started Copenhagen Suborbitals which plan on launching a human into space. I'm lucky to know a lot of really talen...
What good is your roll of change?
Not much, according to London Drugs. I had the misunderstanding that change had to be accepted, up to certain maximums that it's not excessive. In Canada thi...
Social Innovation in British Columbia
I'm fortunate to have been chosen as one of the top 500 social innovators in British Columbia, and have been invited to participate in the discussion around ...
What’s the cheapest North American meal?
After reading that the toast sandwich is officially the UK's cheapest meal, it made me wonder, what is the cheapest meal available in North America? Although...
Canada’s polygamy laws ruling released today
Today, Canada's polygamy laws were upheld by the Supreme court. I wonder how many guys are reading this today and are like,"My wives are gunna be upset about...
Get out and vote!
I just completed a short rant to a few friends on Facebook who were claiming inaction to voting is an action, or they were pleading ignorance to even knowing...
@cqwww
I'm often asked what in the world "cqwww" means, and why I would have picked that for my twitter handle. I've been an amateur (ham) radio operator since arou...
Double fish
I was fishing this morning with a couple friends just off Mayne island, when I caught a small fish. While reeling it, it felt like I hit a snag. It wasn't fi...
The infamous kissing couple - video footage before the kiss
You've probably seen the image which has went global, of the kissing couple during the post Vancouver Canucks loss a couple weeks ago: I've found a video of...
Western Canada in a picture
I managed to take this picture yesterday on Mayne island. I think it summarizes Western Canada quite well.
The Canadian election issues that matter to me
I'm sending this to all registered political parties I can find in Canada. email kris at ideawave.ca with your party's perspective on any/all of these issues...
Does your vote count?
There are a lot of reasons to not be happy with the current political system, as I've mentioned, I believe that electoral reform should be the main concern ...
The government of Canada is now hiring: Prime Minister.
The Canadian government has just fallen, which means we're headed into another election. This in theory is a great thing in a democracy, but sadly the reacti...
Tech Tip
Hunting For Clear Skies
If you’re looking to the skies, you’ll want to make sure there are clear skies, and you’ll also want to verify that you’re in an area with as little light po...
Bitcoin Custodial Wallets Are Fine
I propose the bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry refer to cold storage as your self-bank, as that is a more relevant equivalent to fiat, whereas a wallet can be...
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
Assessing Your Level As A Bitcoin Enthusiast
In order to determine where you stand as a Bitcoin enthusiast, I have devised a self-assessment tool. You are welcome to share your level after reading or le...
Generating A Keypair With Nostr
The intention of this article to talk about key pairs and authentication, and how to generate a key pair to use nostr Notes and Other Things Over Relays.
Check Out The Nostr Protocol
I’m really bullish on this new nostr protocol. NOSTR:
Free Ai Tools
While often we’ve heard about artificial intelligence or AI, which is the idea of technology being used to mimic or surpass human behaviour, it relies on var...
Happy World Password Day
I’ve been asked fairly often, for decades, what I recommend for a password manager. For as long as I can remember, the quick answer is KeePass.
Neowise
It’s time to look to the sky as we’re blessed with NEOWISE
Goaccess
This article is written for intermiediate level techies interested in privacy centric web analytics.
Transitioning from Wordpress to Jekyll
After many years of Wordpress, I’ve decided to transition the website from One Day Website’s Wordpress to Jekyll. There were a few main reasons for the tran...
Replacing Google
For years I've not used most of Google's services, but today as I read an article from Google's former head of International Relations, I was reminded to wri...
Canadian Tax Tips
Where do you recommend one go for Canadian tax tips? I'll post three here: The Canadian Tax Sherpa Deductions, Credits, and Expenses Report on Federal Tax ...
Meeting schedulers
We often need to schedule meetings, and it can be a lot of work to organize a time that works for multiple people. Here are a few solutions I've found. Note ...
Privacy centric browser setup
I'm often asked for tech tool recommendations that I use, that are privacy & security minded. If you ever have such a question, don't hesitate, I love to...
Open source self-hosted small business tools
I'll start by listing some of the tools that most if not all of my businesses use: Nextcloud -- Not only is this a dropbox replacement for file management, i...
Time to retire your old American tech company email service
Still using gmail, hotmail, or yahoo email? Ready to start focusing a little more on your personal privacy? Last year I wrote about the two most popular alte...
Merry Xmas
For years, I've said Merry Xmas, to the ire of many Christians in my life. This year, I present: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas which explains how Χριστό...
Interactive Tutorials
While you can learn anything you want for free online these days, or in person, some people learn best with interactive tutorials. For those people, I've pro...
QubesOS on an Intel NUC
I recently installed QubesOS 4.0 on an Intel NUC (model: nuc7i5bnh). It works fine, with one caveat. After you reboot the first time, everything just works. ...
What’s your best advice for someone about to…
What's your best advice for someone about to go on a hiring spree? (no recruiters mentioning their firms please -- I don't intend on using recruiters current...
Modern cell phone story (privacy related)
As you walk around with your cell phone on, you walk by different cell phone towers, which allow you to make a phone call no matter where you are. Your cell...
New Canadian rules around AML/ATF and offering of tokens
It's a big week for Canadians whom work in cryptocurrency. First, the Department of Finance released an impact analysis statement around the Proceeds of Crim...
If you insist on having pop-ups on your website, wait until your visitors are hooked
We've all been to a website where you get a pop-up right away, asking for a conversion, for example to sign up for their newsletter. What website owners don'...
New Tech: IPFS
IPFS is a distributed, peer-to-peer (p2p) hypermedia protocol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CMxDNuuAiQ It's not just theoretical, you can use it now. The...
Free alternatives to sign documents
If you have to sign documents once in a while, are trying to save on printing paper, and are looking for a free alternative to DocuSign, here are a few you s...
Phone scammers pretending to be CRA
In Canada, there is a popular phone scam where the caller will pretend to be the Customs and Revenue Agency (CRA -- Canada's version of the IRS). A few thing...
Video Editing Software Recommendation Request
I generally seek out free, open source software. For video editing, I usually use OpenShot. Here's a list of other options.
Debugging internet issues
If you're on osx, if you have something like brew.sh, install mtr. Once you have mtr installed, you can test your internet connection with any computer on th...
first steps on osx after security – install brew
If it's your first time on osx, or just setting up a new machine, or doing a re-install, there are a few things I install by default. Before you start the so...
vim: vi improved. A text editor worth learning.
vim is the improved version of vi (short for visual editor) which is an old school text editor for UNIX based operating systems (Linux, BSD, OSX etc). Once y...
Another chance to consider Bitcoin
As we have economic uncertainty in several countries around the world, you have to think where the world's elite are looking to put their money, and there's ...
The best pen
There are so many important things to solve in the world. It's 3:00am and I'm researching the best pen. According to penaddict.com, the top 5 micro ink gel...
Canadian VPS comparison
This Canadian VPS comparison table features VPS hosting providers that are not only Canadian, they host the servers on Canadian soil. This is useful to anyon...
Installing owncloud and pydio on Debian 8
Update: I was asked for a list of Canadian hosting providers where one can try the steps below, so I created this list of Canadian VPS providers. If you want...
Free cloud-based computing and storage for Canadian startups
Last week I joined in the the Startup Canada #startupchats on Twitter. I saw a CANARIE account interacting, which until now I thought was only accessible to ...
SIP Provider Comparison
Until now I've been using les.net which is a Canadian SIP provider, so they must comply with Canadian privacy law by keeping personal information private. As...
Did you check snopes?
When I read articles, forwards or shares I know aren't true, sometimes I reply, sometimes I just delete them. I see the same emails getting forwarded around...
Open Source Software Solutions
When choosing which software to use, one philosophical choice you must make is if you're OK with proprietary software, or if you will prioritize open source ...
Learn to hack
If I told you it was free, would you want to learn to hack? I'm interested in offering a free course on how to hack to those who sign up over the next week. ...
Job Jar is looking for alpha testers
In the software development lifecycle, the alpha stage is when you have your minimal viable product (MVP) and are ready for testing. This means things will l...
Free university courses
I mentioned in August 2011 that Stanford started offering free university courses online for free. It's really exciting to see this trend spreading, most not...
Do you care if your food is organic or genetically modified?
I'll start by saying that genetic modified food isn't necessarily a bad thing, although it can be. I'll leave that for another post. This post is...
Wallpaper - The Head
If you're looking for a free, open source solution for creating or editing images, check out the GNU Image Manipulation program, or the GIMP. While I've been...
Defining your websites in LinkedIn
I noticed that by default when you enter your websites into LinkedIn, they usually say "Company website" or "Personal Website" without more details. This is ...
Youtube buffering easter egg
Next time you're on youtube and watching the buffer wheel: Hit one of your keyboard arrow keys. Now you'll be playing a game of snakes while you wait for yo...
Fix your website, please.
I'm not nearly as passionate about your website as you are. When I go to your website, I'm looking for only two things: consciously: I'm looking for content....
Explaining IdeaWave, and resolving the TEDx confusion
"TEDActive prerelease tickets for March 2nd starts now" "No, TEDx is on March 12th in the email I saw?" "Where do we register?" "On Facebook" "No, on the Be...
Replacing Google with DuckDuckGo
I wrote an article on PrivaSecTech last week about how Google is now filtering things the American movie and music industry want it to filter, and decided it...
Idea
Bitcoin Custodial Wallets Are Fine
I propose the bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry refer to cold storage as your self-bank, as that is a more relevant equivalent to fiat, whereas a wallet can be...
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
Customer Discovery
Customer Discovery – Prioritizing your Ideas
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
Open And Decentralized Online Voting
I’ve been thinking about online voting for over a decade, first from doing security audits on them, and realizing how deficient they are in structure and sec...
When You Have An Idea
I was reading a tweet from Andrew Wilkinson:
Do Work Get Equity
Working just for money doesn’t retain workers, and working just for money isn’t satisfying.
The Global Economic Future
There is currently an opportunity to explore a different global economic future than we’ve had until now. I welcome you to spend some time on what that futur...
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Regenerative wearables
I'm exploring how we might make a fabric or wearable item that is regenerative. In the ideal, if it was left in a field, maybe it would grow. For example Is...
Redefining nerds & geeks
I think we need a new term for nerds. Nerds & geeks are still derogatory terms, even if said tongue-in-cheek and using them justifies people not learning...
Join Vancouver’s newest busking band.
Did you know the Vancouver public library rents instruments? While checking out their renovated top two floors and rooftop patio, I decided to challenge myse...
Announcing: Black Tie Dinner - Vancouver on April 12th, 2018
Summary: Black Tie Dinner on April 12th, 2018 18:00 at the McDonalds on Main Street, one block south of Main Street Station. [Facebook Event] History: If yo...
Let’s start collecting data on Canada’s oligarchies
Last night at an ideas Vancouver meeting, Steven and I had an idea on how we could start collecting the data on what interactions are like with Canada's olig...
Liar, Lyre: Why You Can No Longer Trust Anything You Hear
So, we've hit an interesting point in society. As of now, you can no longer trust the audio you hear from a phone call, an interview, or even a real-time con...
How Blockchain Can Help Solve One of the World’s Biggest Problems
Did you ever have one of those dreams where you come up with an awesome, world-changing idea but you wake up and realize you've forgotten the whole thing? We...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
Love
My thoughts on love. This will likely be updated as I feel I have new insights, as this is always evolving. I was reminded after reading a recent tweet by my...
Getting Thunderbird to Inbox Zero plugin
idea: I would love to help with this, if there are any developers who have the chops. I want a Thunderbird email plugin that at some (setting driven) interva...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
The Open Source Future
I've been thinking and discussing a lot about the open source future, and am considering an 8 episode podcast trial. It's currently planned to be 2 parts per...
From idea to prototype, in your hand, using 3d printing
If you have an idea for a product, the first thing to do is to see if such a product already exists. Let's say for example, you had an idea for a bread bag t...
Learn to hack
If I told you it was free, would you want to learn to hack? I'm interested in offering a free course on how to hack to those who sign up over the next week. ...
Support things that last a lifetime
When I need to buy a new product, I often research it in depth, to ensure I'm getting the best value for my money. For years my friends have been asking me w...
ASC in Vancouver
UPDATE! As we're still receiving $50 entries from people wanting to be awesomites, we're moving the event to January 28th, 2015. The call for submissions is ...
Project - Help someone out
This post is about my latest project idea - Help someone out. Version 0.2 - Oct 24th 10:08am EST. Check back regularly, as I'll be updating this post based o...
How can I help your business?
How can I help your business? I'm offering an initial 60 minute video consult over the next 2 weeks, please contact me to setup an appointment. All I ask fro...
Thinking and succeeding as a Modern Business
I often consult one-on-one with entrepreneurs, but recently I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of leaders in non-profit and social enterprise. Di...
I’m speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C.
I look forward to speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C. I'll be speaking on Ideas Meetings, what they are, where they started, where the...
What do you use to shave?
I've been using Gillette Sensor Excel for shaving, but I see I can get 10 disposable razors for cheaper than 5 SE blades. Obviously the cheaper option ha...
For 1M I will change the world
I was reading an article about how Bell labs has an 'idea factory', the idea is give highly innovative critical thinkers the freedom to create, and c...
IdeaWave 2012
We're less than a week away from IdeaWave, a conference that features 50 talks over 2 days, 10 minutes each. We're still actively looking for great i...
Put a man in space? pfffht!
My friend Nick Farr and team have recently started Copenhagen Suborbitals which plan on launching a human into space. I'm lucky to know a lot of really talen...
Your social network
As people are justifiably upset with the privacy issues around Facebook, and several friends have left that network altogether recently, I've been wondering ...
Social Innovation in British Columbia
I'm fortunate to have been chosen as one of the top 500 social innovators in British Columbia, and have been invited to participate in the discussion around ...
Idea: A game that offers real certifications?
After watching a TED talk by Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world today, I immediately came up with an idea; what if while questing in a game you w...
Truth or Dare?
I asked "Truth or Dare?" on Facebook and Twitter yesterday. I've received over 50 comments between the two, so it seems like people want to play. I see there...
What would you do for $5?
Could you build a list of things you'd do for $5? If so, check out FIVERR, but warning, I spent over 2 hours going through this site my first time. It's amaz...
Browser plugin request: Media tab
While I often have over 50 tabs running in Firefox or Chrome, sometimes one or two will start playing audio or video, and there is no easy way to know which ...
Android app request - Rogers MY5 updater
In Canada, if you have Rogers wireless as your cellphone provider, they offer a My5 and My10 plan, where you list the 5 or 10 people you talk to the most, an...
Activism
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
The police and military aren’t here to protect you
I read today that the US Federal Court has ruled that the police have no duty to protect you. This is not intuitive to most citizens who feel their tax dolla...
Is it time to review the Vancouver business noise complaint process?
I write this on a Sunny Friday afternoon, birds flying by, a peaceful serenity looking out over to the city from my condo -- with the blaring of car alarms t...
Carfentanil found in Vancouver region
Here in Vancouver, specifically in the downtown eastside (DTES), on average two people are dying from an overdose per day, because of fentanyl. Fentanyl is r...
Collaborative Sunday Story Time
Add one sentence to the story as a comment, to continue the story. Once the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) realized they couldn't compete w...
What are you doing to support your community and those in need?
I think all of life is competing against your past self, and I don't recommend ever comparing yourself to someone else, but it's hard not to reflect on one's...
Why don’t more women speak up?
I managed to miss most of the Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford hearing today, but caught the end of it. I knew going into it that not much would likely sway in public ...
Slutshaming: A life ruined and a path to sex work
I was recently asked to do a talk on privacy & security for the local sex work industry. I asked what they were interested in, and it was mostly centered...
Modern cell phone story (privacy related)
As you walk around with your cell phone on, you walk by different cell phone towers, which allow you to make a phone call no matter where you are. Your cell...
Is Bittrex violating Canadian privacy law, and committing theft by withholding my cryptocurrencies?
I moved some cryptocurrency into a popular exchange called Bittrex. I did some cryptocurrency trades, and last night decided to take a little out. Now first ...
Is reading the bible hate speech in Canada?
My friend Steve, an advocate for free speech in the U.S, and I were discussing hate speech, where I highlighted that most progressive countries have hate spe...
Let’s start collecting data on Canada’s oligarchies
Last night at an ideas Vancouver meeting, Steven and I had an idea on how we could start collecting the data on what interactions are like with Canada's olig...
Renaming crypto(currency) to dmoney
This growing use of “crypto” to mean “crypto currency” is not going to end well for either cryptography or digital currency. — matt blaze (@mattblaze) June ...
MakerMobile
I've heard of trademark and copyright infringement cases, but the winner has to be Actua's Makermobile. The Government of Canada has apparently funded this c...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
Are you checking in to Standing Rock today?
[caption id="attachment_878" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Surveillance Culture around Standing Rock #NoDAPL[/caption] </p> There are a lot of peopl...
Conscious Canada
At the Ideas - Vancouver meetup tonight, we were discussing how many businesses there are that should be boycotted, and even if they are, as one voice, there...
Bratzer v. Victoria Police Department (No. 3).
My friend David Bratzer has closed the page in a long journey against the Victoria Police Department for exercising his right to discuss his political belief...
This post could land me in jail. Where is the political C-51 opposition?
All it will take, if Bill C-51 passes, is for one of Canada's spies to convince any judge in the country that they agreed this post was an issue, and I could...
Thanks to Rob Wipond for effecting change with the Victoria Police Department
NB: I agreed initially to Vince a couple years ago, to not disclose the details of this story to anyone other than Rob, but everything I've said below is pub...
Are all employment opportunities good?
A friend posted the following on Facebook, leading me to ask the question, are all employment opportunities good? Kinder Morgan in its submission to the Nati...
Team YIMBY working to end beach fire prohibition in Victoria
Last year at an Ideas - Victoria meeting, there was a lot of mention of the NIMBYism (Not in my backyard!) that seems to prevalent in our community. A lot of...
Electoral Reform
Dear Elections BC; As we're about to head into another voting period in British Columbia, I wonder how long it will be until we see electoral reform. Since I...
Big day for bitcoins!
If you've never heard of bitcoins, they are a decentralized digital currency based on an open-source, peer-to-peer internet protocol. It was introduced by a ...
Is your political party research for sale?
With a looming provincial election in British Columbia this May, I decided it's time to do some research. For those that follow my privacy and security blog,...
Saving the B.C. film industry
There seems to be a lot of controversy lately around the B.C. film industry not making it into the Christy Clark BC Jobs plan. I don't see the correlation. A...
Welcome to the New Amsterdam
Victoria has always been a tourist city, but for the first time in a long time, that is going to hit new heights. We have a new city council, lead once again...
Can you afford to give up a few vegetables?
Thanks to Victoria city councilor Lisa Helps, I was made aware of a Victoria citizen who has made a request for vegetables. I can't imagine making such a...
Use social media as you want to
I see a lot of unsolicited directions on how to use social media contextually; don't be negative with social media! Don't auto-DM! Give origina...
Banning religious fundamentalists from health care
There seems to be a growing group of religious fundamentalists who insist that prayer is the ultimate path to healing. I find this a mind boggling belief sys...
Put a man in space? pfffht!
My friend Nick Farr and team have recently started Copenhagen Suborbitals which plan on launching a human into space. I'm lucky to know a lot of really talen...
Get out and vote!
I just completed a short rant to a few friends on Facebook who were claiming inaction to voting is an action, or they were pleading ignorance to even knowing...
If only there was a United Way to contact them…
For three years I've heard an advertisement by the United Way on the radio in Victoria, BC. It claims that they help one in every three people in Victoria. T...
What media matters?
I recently had the opportunity to meet Bill Weaver, host of a popular annual retreat called Media That Matters. I know several people who have attended, from...
Schools or Prisons?
"Schools or Prisons?" is a public forum this Tuesday evening, Nov 8, at Alix Goolden Hall (907 Pandora Ave). It runs from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. The goal is to ki...
Random acts of pizza
Just in case you're losing faith in humanity, there's a subreddit to bring it all back. Random acts of pizza is for those that have fallen on hard times, as ...
Shaw.ca breaking the internet
On the internet, network services are commonly defined by the port they use. For example, when you are on a website, you're typically connected to port 80 of...
Does your vote count?
There are a lot of reasons to not be happy with the current political system, as I've mentioned, I believe that electoral reform should be the main concern ...
The government of Canada is now hiring: Prime Minister.
The Canadian government has just fallen, which means we're headed into another election. This in theory is a great thing in a democracy, but sadly the reacti...
Victoria’s school district 61 going to teach that the world is flat?
I just read an article at Scientific Victoria that suggests there is actually a debate as to whether or not Wi-Fi in school systems is dangerous. Even scarie...
Event
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Announcing: Black Tie Dinner - Vancouver on April 12th, 2018
Summary: Black Tie Dinner on April 12th, 2018 18:00 at the McDonalds on Main Street, one block south of Main Street Station. [Facebook Event] History: If yo...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
Dark Information Sharing
Here are a few links I mentioned regarding the Dark side of Information Sharing last night at Nik Badminton's sold out Dark Futures conference. These are pub...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
Creative Vancouver meetups
If you're new to Vancouver, you might be looking for some creative Vancouver meetups. It could be to meet other interesting people, entrepreneurs, hackers, o...
Ideas - Vancouver meeting May 14th
This month, you're invited to join us at 18:00 at Matchstick Coffee (Chinatown - Vancouver) to discuss amongst other things: bio-tech: life with CRISPR-Cas9...
Vancouver Sales Event Meetup
Last night I got to attend my first Vancouver Sales Event Meetup run by my friend Erin Dalzell and hosted at Spacelist. I tried to write down as many URLs as...
ASC in Vancouver
UPDATE! As we're still receiving $50 entries from people wanting to be awesomites, we're moving the event to January 28th, 2015. The call for submissions is ...
Thinking and succeeding as a Modern Business
I often consult one-on-one with entrepreneurs, but recently I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of leaders in non-profit and social enterprise. Di...
Black Tie Dinner III
Exactly one year since the last one, it's time for Black Tie Dinner III! If you've never heard about black tie dinner, click here. This time we're taking ove...
Are you a skeptic?
If you're like me, you probably have two types of friends on social media that post (potentially) controversial materials. The first group are the parrots, t...
Hackathon at an AT&T Long Line Bunker
Are you interested in an in-person visit to a +11,000 sq ft cold-war era AT&T Long Line bunker with +200 foot high communications tower? W...
Who’s responsible for the Metro studio closure last night?
The buzz for the last ~18 hours is what forced the Metro studio closure from the city last night? Just announced from the City of Victoria, the Mayor, and se...
I’m speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C.
I look forward to speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C. I'll be speaking on Ideas Meetings, what they are, where they started, where the...
Profile: Mitch Altman, hacker.
I had the opportunity to meet Mitch Altman in Tokyo a few years ago, at the Tokyo hackerspace. Mitch is a rare breed; he's got world class level of smart...
Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-Art Show!
Last week-end I had the opportunity to have 3 of my photos shown at the first annual Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-art show. The photos had to...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
Welcome to the New Amsterdam
Victoria has always been a tourist city, but for the first time in a long time, that is going to hit new heights. We have a new city council, lead once again...
IdeaWave 2012
We're less than a week away from IdeaWave, a conference that features 50 talks over 2 days, 10 minutes each. We're still actively looking for great i...
Innovation month in Victoria
I declare February as Innovation Month. If you've had a really good idea for years you've been sitting on, or just had an epiphany now, there is no better ti...
Makerspace classes
Makerspace is offering classes now in various subjects. They are quite popular, and most of them sell out, so sign up today for any that interest you! As of ...
Settlers of Catan night
If you've got a bit of board game geek in you, check out the Canadian Pacific Lawn Bowling club's website which has announced a bi-weekly Settlers of Catan n...
Black Tie Dinner II
On Tuesday, November 22, 7:00pm – 8:30pm, don’t miss the much anticipated Black Tie Dinner II! This is a fun event where we’ll take over the new Burger King...
Schools or Prisons?
"Schools or Prisons?" is a public forum this Tuesday evening, Nov 8, at Alix Goolden Hall (907 Pandora Ave). It runs from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. The goal is to ki...
What would you do with $500-1000 this Monday?
All it takes is 200 words in an email, and a 5 minute pitch, to win anywhere between $500 and $1000. Awesome Shit Club (ASC) is one of the many projects to c...
Apple harvest and pie tasting
Tomorrow morning the Moss street market will be hosting their second annual pie tasting. Show up by 10:30am, and for only $5 you can taste three of the pies....
Evening to Inspire
Tomorrow night will be the 3rd Evening to Inspire event, a fundraiser for the BC Children's hospital foundation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0PfPLBleY0 ...
Artifact or artifiction
Do you think you can tell the different between the real story about an artifact and a fake one? Would you like to enjoy some cocktails and food in the proce...
Victoria’s Makerspace
Victoria's makerspace is a community based tool collective. A group of us have put our cool tools all in one location, so you get the benefit of using other ...
NorthWest Ale launch today!
At 4p.m. today Spinnakers brewpub will launch their new NorthWest Ale! From their Facebook event: Free samples of NWA Live music Complimentary food pairings...
25th Victoria Fringe launches today
After catching a couple fringe shows several years ago, I was fortunate enough to win a fringe "Superpass" at the after party, that would allow me to see all...
Black Tie Dinner
On September 6th, 2011 at 7p.m. don't miss our first ever Black Tie Dinner! This is a fun event where we'll take over the McDonald's at 980 Pandora avenue we...
Cask night!
A cask is essentially the freshest you can ever have beer. Instead of injecting it with CO2, the cask is tapped, and gravity fed. This means that the beer wi...
Victoria’s Electronic Music Festival
If you're in Victoria this week-end, check out the VEMF today and tomorrow from noon until 10p.m. officially, and then there are a lot of after party venues....
Ready to make your first interactive art display?
No matter what your background, this is your chance to learn the art side and the technical side of creating an interactive media exhibit! MediaNet is offeri...
Critique
Critical Thinking Around Astrology Religion And Vaccines
Last year I had my first birthday zoom call as we couldn’t meet in person. On the call I had my closest friends, including someone who works for pharma, as w...
Astrology
I was asked again yesterday if I believe in astrology, and I said no, as a science based person I believe in astronomy. I got the go-to response of “Don’t yo...
Happy Solstice and Self-Care Week!
For a couple of years, there was a lot of propaganda about the war on Christmas, that still resonates with me. It makes me wonder about anyone who made such ...
Personally attacking kids online you disagree with
I just read this post on social media: A question of principle: Is it wrong to personally attack a 16-year-old because you disagree with their politics? I ...
The butterfly effect on the election systems in Georgia
If you recall my articles on whowhatwhy.org last November on the state of Georgia's election systems, there's an exciting update: https://www.mercurynews.com...
The police and military aren’t here to protect you
I read today that the US Federal Court has ruled that the police have no duty to protect you. This is not intuitive to most citizens who feel their tax dolla...
Removing Australia and Australians from the online world
We're in an era where governments are seeking the ability to overpower privacy laws and circumvent security measures, such as encryption. Any government who ...
Is it time to review the Vancouver business noise complaint process?
I write this on a Sunny Friday afternoon, birds flying by, a peaceful serenity looking out over to the city from my condo -- with the blaring of car alarms t...
“On the Ethics of Planetary Scale Measurement Meta-Structures” - Zack Stein
This was one of my favourite conference talks this year. It was seen at ParTeck, which is an invite only annual conference hosted by the Human Data Commons (...
It’s time to bring in ride sharing programs already
I've been reading the ride sharing debate for some time. The most notable arguments against it, are related to the history of the most popular ride sharing p...
Thoughts on Initiative Q
I responded to an influencer I know who is sharing links to Initiative Q. He's an NDPer, so I empathize. Seriously though, he's a math genius whom I respect,...
Collaborative Sunday Story Time
Add one sentence to the story as a comment, to continue the story. Once the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) realized they couldn't compete w...
Why don’t more women speak up?
I managed to miss most of the Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford hearing today, but caught the end of it. I knew going into it that not much would likely sway in public ...
Facebook Debates
For those who think they're good at debating, I challenge you to sign up for my 24 hour debate challenge. If you agree, I will partner you with someone else ...
Modern cell phone story (privacy related)
As you walk around with your cell phone on, you walk by different cell phone towers, which allow you to make a phone call no matter where you are. Your cell...
Himalayan Bath Salt Lamps and Essential Oils
One of the feedback I got from the podcast on sleep was to consider Himalayan Bath Salts, and Essential oils. According to Snopes, Himalayan Bath Salt Lamps ...
Most of the best InfoSec professionals I know don’t have a related degree
https://twitter.com/Freeyourmindkid/status/908739486967791621 </p> [caption id="attachment_964" align="aligncenter" width="274"] Susan M -- CSO of Equ...
Liar, Lyre: Why You Can No Longer Trust Anything You Hear
So, we've hit an interesting point in society. As of now, you can no longer trust the audio you hear from a phone call, an interview, or even a real-time con...
Teaching children to critically think
I was recently with a loved one who has children. One of their children asked me if Santa Claus was real. I didn't want to lie, as it's not my child, so I qu...
MakerMobile
I've heard of trademark and copyright infringement cases, but the winner has to be Actua's Makermobile. The Government of Canada has apparently funded this c...
Are you checking in to Standing Rock today?
[caption id="attachment_878" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Surveillance Culture around Standing Rock #NoDAPL[/caption] </p> There are a lot of peopl...
The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
There's currently a post on HackerNews called The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory. It links to an article by Jakub Marian that starts to break down why...
Conscious Canada
At the Ideas - Vancouver meetup tonight, we were discussing how many businesses there are that should be boycotted, and even if they are, as one voice, there...
Logical Fallacies
"A fallacy is incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric resulting in a lack of validity, or more generally, a lack of soundness. Fallacies are either formal f...
Did you check snopes?
When I read articles, forwards or shares I know aren't true, sometimes I reply, sometimes I just delete them. I see the same emails getting forwarded around...
This post could land me in jail. Where is the political C-51 opposition?
All it will take, if Bill C-51 passes, is for one of Canada's spies to convince any judge in the country that they agreed this post was an issue, and I could...
Are all employment opportunities good?
A friend posted the following on Facebook, leading me to ask the question, are all employment opportunities good? Kinder Morgan in its submission to the Nati...
The end of Canadian photographers?
While I realize it sounds like hyperbole, I will no longer be able to use Canadian photographers, it's too risky. My friend Jhayne posted a link on her Faceb...
Use social media as you want to
I see a lot of unsolicited directions on how to use social media contextually; don't be negative with social media! Don't auto-DM! Give origina...
Banning religious fundamentalists from health care
There seems to be a growing group of religious fundamentalists who insist that prayer is the ultimate path to healing. I find this a mind boggling belief sys...
Canada’s polygamy laws ruling released today
Today, Canada's polygamy laws were upheld by the Supreme court. I wonder how many guys are reading this today and are like,"My wives are gunna be upset about...
What media matters?
I recently had the opportunity to meet Bill Weaver, host of a popular annual retreat called Media That Matters. I know several people who have attended, from...
Will the Canadian green party ban coffee, and the sun?
My friend Elizabeth May is now an elected representative for the federal green party of Canada. She's had a lot of attention the last couple days, due to a t...
Squashing science
As I'm reading Euclid's Window, it talks a lot about how throughout history, religion based oppressors have tried to silence science. I can't imagine a worl...
Victoria’s school district 61 going to teach that the world is flat?
I just read an article at Scientific Victoria that suggests there is actually a debate as to whether or not Wi-Fi in school systems is dangerous. Even scarie...
Isn’t blaming the weapon a little premature?
I just read the Victoria Police Department's press release regarding the attempted murder of Cst. Lane Douglas-Hunt yesterday. It makes me angry, frustrated,...
Vancouver
Vancouver Community Events
UPDATE, Jan 19, 2024:
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Budget Coffee
This is the launch of "Budget Coffee" like founders coffee, where we meet 2x a month, and discuss budget things. As we'll all have different techniques, it w...
I just saw my first scalped person.
Trigger warning: Not a story for the faint of heart. Walking home through the DTES just now, hundreds of people high, or drunk, passed out, or racing to thei...
A few more Facebook groups and pages
If you're still on Facebook, the first thing to keep in mind is that anything you write there -- including every profile you click on, every keystroke you ty...
Is it time to review the Vancouver business noise complaint process?
I write this on a Sunny Friday afternoon, birds flying by, a peaceful serenity looking out over to the city from my condo -- with the blaring of car alarms t...
“On the Ethics of Planetary Scale Measurement Meta-Structures” - Zack Stein
This was one of my favourite conference talks this year. It was seen at ParTeck, which is an invite only annual conference hosted by the Human Data Commons (...
It’s time to bring in ride sharing programs already
I've been reading the ride sharing debate for some time. The most notable arguments against it, are related to the history of the most popular ride sharing p...
Join Vancouver’s newest busking band.
Did you know the Vancouver public library rents instruments? While checking out their renovated top two floors and rooftop patio, I decided to challenge myse...
Carfentanil found in Vancouver region
Here in Vancouver, specifically in the downtown eastside (DTES), on average two people are dying from an overdose per day, because of fentanyl. Fentanyl is r...
What are you doing to support your community and those in need?
I think all of life is competing against your past self, and I don't recommend ever comparing yourself to someone else, but it's hard not to reflect on one's...
If you’re in Vancouver, I’ll walk and talk with you for $5/km.
After watching the 60 second docs video on the People walker, I shared the link on Facebook, offering to do the same.</p>
Announcing: Black Tie Dinner - Vancouver on April 12th, 2018
Summary: Black Tie Dinner on April 12th, 2018 18:00 at the McDonalds on Main Street, one block south of Main Street Station. [Facebook Event] History: If yo...
Let’s start collecting data on Canada’s oligarchies
Last night at an ideas Vancouver meeting, Steven and I had an idea on how we could start collecting the data on what interactions are like with Canada's olig...
A few Facebook Groups and Pages which may be of Interest
DecisionTree is a web application to help teams understand their values and goals through advanced decision making. Kris Constable – Politician is my ...
Giving without expectations
I was co-working in the social, ground floor area of my building when I noticed a man in a wheelchair going through the alley with a sweater dragging behind ...
What Keeps You Content? - Data Driven Wellness
What Keeps You Content? [meetup.com] Attendees Kris Leo Ivan Trevor Tyler Zee Jennifer Scott Harondel John Bill What keeps you content Kaggle (Google boug...
MakerMobile
I've heard of trademark and copyright infringement cases, but the winner has to be Actua's Makermobile. The Government of Canada has apparently funded this c...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
#fivetenfriday
My first entry for #fivetenfriday was experimenting with the GIMP. I don’t normally edit my photographs except for cropping. It was a lot of fun testing the ...
Umbrellas and Bottles
I went to an opening at an art gallery in an alley, only to later discover I had accidentally went to a different opening and a different gallery in the same...
2016 Vancouver-Mount Pleasant By-election - General Voting Stations
If you're looking for a map of the General Voting Stations for the 2016 Vancouver-Mount Pleasant By-election, I've built one as it doesn't appear Elections B...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
Creative Vancouver meetups
If you're new to Vancouver, you might be looking for some creative Vancouver meetups. It could be to meet other interesting people, entrepreneurs, hackers, o...
Ideas - Vancouver meeting May 14th
This month, you're invited to join us at 18:00 at Matchstick Coffee (Chinatown - Vancouver) to discuss amongst other things: bio-tech: life with CRISPR-Cas9...
Yin yoga in Vancouver
After 10 years on the West coast, I finally agreed to go to a yoga class. I thought I would report back to my East coast friends and family who may be worrie...
Vancouver’s Chinese Tea Shop
You might think you know tea, and more importantly the process of serving it skillfully, but I speculate tea drinkers of all levels would be pleasantly infor...
Vancouver Sales Event Meetup
Last night I got to attend my first Vancouver Sales Event Meetup run by my friend Erin Dalzell and hosted at Spacelist. I tried to write down as many URLs as...
Government liquor stores (LDB) in British Columbia
This map of government liquor stores in British Columbia was originally posted to victoria.intoxicant.ca on May 18, 2012. After publishing a list of wineries...
Vancouver Vending Machine Circuit
If you're looking for something unusual to do while in Vancouver, consider a photography challenge - each of the unique machines found in the Vancouver vendi...
Map of cheap meals in British Columbia
Enjoy my map of cheap meals in British Columbia! If you know of anywhere in British Columbia you can get a proper meal for $5 or less, please contact me and ...
ASC in Vancouver
UPDATE! As we're still receiving $50 entries from people wanting to be awesomites, we're moving the event to January 28th, 2015. The call for submissions is ...
Fruits and vegetables in Vancouver
I was wondering where to buy my fruits and vegetables in Vancouver, and I realize knowing where is cheaper at any given time is a problem that is still not s...
Vancouver community spaces
I've decided to start a list of Vancouver community spaces for creative thinkers, as I couldn't find a good one myself. Hackerspace/Makerspace Vancouver Hac...
entrepreneur
Open Banking Coming To Canada
Canada is getting something new called “Consumer Driven Banking,” which is also known as “Open Banking.” This means that big banks will have to let you use n...
3 Ai Tools Everyone Should Try
Most people have tried, or at least heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, and there are a lot of rapid advancements to AI every day. In this post I’ll highlight thre...
Opportunities In Ai
Here are the two exciting areas of opportunity I am working on in AI
Silicon Valley Bank Closing And Impact On The Petrodollar
The biggest argument against bitcoin by fiat (petrodollar) fans has been FDIC insured banks are trustworthy, reliable, and backed so they won’t fail. Today, ...
Customer Discovery
Customer Discovery – Prioritizing your Ideas
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
Open And Decentralized Online Voting
I’ve been thinking about online voting for over a decade, first from doing security audits on them, and realizing how deficient they are in structure and sec...
2022 Bitcoin And Nft Updates
It’s been over a year since my last article, so I figure it’s time for an update. This post is an intended provide a professional update for those interested.
When You Have An Idea
I was reading a tweet from Andrew Wilkinson:
Impact Investment Economy
I started the year by talking about impact investing, and I thought it was a great subject to end off this year, where we’ve all been forced to reflect upon ...
Do Work Get Equity
Working just for money doesn’t retain workers, and working just for money isn’t satisfying.
Finding Problems
Most startups fail, and there are many reasons for that. The biggest one is due to failing on product / market fit (PMF). The current trend in entrepreneursh...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
What type of entrepreneur are you?
To me, there seems to be three types of entrepreneurs -- inventors, innovators, and iterators. Because we don't distinguish between these very distinct types...
Womepedia.org
Do any womxn want to take on the challenge of starting a wiki? A One Day Website customer has paid for https://www.womepedia.org/ and would love to see it ru...
Canadian Tax Tips
Where do you recommend one go for Canadian tax tips? I'll post three here: The Canadian Tax Sherpa Deductions, Credits, and Expenses Report on Federal Tax ...
A Free One Day In-Kind Website
As you may know, about 8 years ago I started One Day Website for my friends who either don't want to figure out how to register a domain, setup web hosting, ...
Thoughts on Initiative Q
I responded to an influencer I know who is sharing links to Initiative Q. He's an NDPer, so I empathize. Seriously though, he's a math genius whom I respect,...
What’s your best advice for someone about to…
What's your best advice for someone about to go on a hiring spree? (no recruiters mentioning their firms please -- I don't intend on using recruiters current...
MakerMobile
I've heard of trademark and copyright infringement cases, but the winner has to be Actua's Makermobile. The Government of Canada has apparently funded this c...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
Entrepreneurial See-Saw
There is a see-saw in which most entrepreneurs seem to identify themselves. At one end, is passion. At the other end, is financial success. The odds of these...
Summary of the Product Market Fit Process
For the first half of 2015, I spent most of the time on the product market fit (PMF) process, trying to (in)validate a business idea. This week at Founders C...
Free cloud-based computing and storage for Canadian startups
Last week I joined in the the Startup Canada #startupchats on Twitter. I saw a CANARIE account interacting, which until now I thought was only accessible to ...
Center for Social Impact opening May 1st
A shared office space tentatively called ‘Center for Social Impact’ is opening May 1st next to Habit in Chinatown. A great opportunity for home desk folks to...
Want something delivered right meow?
Life, like business, often comes down to the line between time and money. Next time you're feeling time constrained or especially lazy, consider Right Meow B...
Open Data Society of British Columbia
The current premier of British Columbia has committed to supporting the concept of Open Data by creating DataBC. Never before have British Columbians had acc...
Innovation month in Victoria
I declare February as Innovation Month. If you've had a really good idea for years you've been sitting on, or just had an epiphany now, there is no better ti...
Victoria co-working space
Over the years, we've seen several co-working spaces come and go. We've not seen a model yet that we thought would survive, even from the beginning. Over 2 y...
Shared co-working space
A group of us from the Victoria - Ideas meetings have been talking for some time about getting a shared co-working space in Victoria. It is intended for thos...
Victoria
A few more Facebook groups and pages
If you're still on Facebook, the first thing to keep in mind is that anything you write there -- including every profile you click on, every keystroke you ty...
It’s time to bring in ride sharing programs already
I've been reading the ride sharing debate for some time. The most notable arguments against it, are related to the history of the most popular ride sharing p...
A few Facebook Groups and Pages which may be of Interest
DecisionTree is a web application to help teams understand their values and goals through advanced decision making. Kris Constable – Politician is my ...
Bratzer v. Victoria Police Department (No. 3).
My friend David Bratzer has closed the page in a long journey against the Victoria Police Department for exercising his right to discuss his political belief...
Ultra Modern Condo For Sale Downtown Victoria
I have a one bedroom condo for sale downtown Victoria priced at $239,999 $220,000. They say location is important in choosing real estate, this location is p...
Government liquor stores (LDB) in British Columbia
This map of government liquor stores in British Columbia was originally posted to victoria.intoxicant.ca on May 18, 2012. After publishing a list of wineries...
Map of cheap meals in British Columbia
Enjoy my map of cheap meals in British Columbia! If you know of anywhere in British Columbia you can get a proper meal for $5 or less, please contact me and ...
Thanks to Rob Wipond for effecting change with the Victoria Police Department
NB: I agreed initially to Vince a couple years ago, to not disclose the details of this story to anyone other than Rob, but everything I've said below is pub...
You lose your rights under the Mental Health Act
I just read this article in Focus magazine [PDF] which is the source of what nightmares are made of. Apparently in Canada, you lose your rights if being arre...
Job Jar is looking for alpha testers
In the software development lifecycle, the alpha stage is when you have your minimal viable product (MVP) and are ready for testing. This means things will l...
Thinking and succeeding as a Modern Business
I often consult one-on-one with entrepreneurs, but recently I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of leaders in non-profit and social enterprise. Di...
I’m speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C.
I look forward to speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C. I'll be speaking on Ideas Meetings, what they are, where they started, where the...
Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-Art Show!
Last week-end I had the opportunity to have 3 of my photos shown at the first annual Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-art show. The photos had to...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
Can you afford to give up a few vegetables?
Thanks to Victoria city councilor Lisa Helps, I was made aware of a Victoria citizen who has made a request for vegetables. I can't imagine making such a...
It’s snowing!
It's fairly rare that it snows in Victoria, perhaps a bi-annual event. Right now it's really coming down here downtown, and it started last night. Around...
Evening to inspire - Seat auction
I'm going to auction off one seat to the amazing Evening to Inspire event on October 7th. While the tickets are selling for $175/person, I will provide one t...
My first art exhibit: The Community Experience
I’m excited (and nervous!) to announce my first ever art exhibit. The running title is “The Community Experience”, which is a combination of sharing experie...
Parking Day - Victoria
Last September I caught wind that there was going to a Parking day in Victoria, BC; so I applied for a parking spot and my application was accepted. As you m...
The sharing of ideas
While ideas meetings started in Victoria over three years ago, and IdeaWave 2 years ago, there are now a bunch of other community based idea sharing groups i...
What do you do that is interesting?
Since watching Christopher Bowers 2010 IdeaWave talk, I've tried to stop saying the standard hello/how are you if it's more than in passing, hoping to get so...
The weather; you can’t win them all!
When I came up with the idea for the IdeaWave conference last February, I randomly picked July 10&11th 2010 to run the first one. It turned out to be a ...
File -> Print -> Laser
Turns out that is one of the options you have when participating in Victoria's Makerspace. I drove out today to the AGM, where it was also an open house and ...
Victoria’s school district 61 going to teach that the world is flat?
I just read an article at Scientific Victoria that suggests there is actually a debate as to whether or not Wi-Fi in school systems is dangerous. Even scarie...
A sneak peak into Victoria’s secrets
This post will only be useful if you're in Victoria, and on Facebook, but I have created a Facebook group called "Victoria's secrets". Not related to the lin...
I’m looking for a place to rent in downtown Victoria, any suggestions?
What I'm looking for: Downtown Victoria (or walkable in under 10 minutes) Nice (ok, this is subjective I guess) My desk is 5 feet square, so I need a ro...
Isn’t blaming the weapon a little premature?
I just read the Victoria Police Department's press release regarding the attempted murder of Cst. Lane Douglas-Hunt yesterday. It makes me angry, frustrated,...
Announcing the Victoria Pop Choir
Nils Skalin is launching a Victoria Pop Choir. He says anyone can join, no matter what level of experience you have. He's created a Facebook group for those ...
Victoria Deals
Boxing day might be over, but everyone likes a deal. Earlier this year the creation of Groupon got a lot of hype. And when I say a lot here, I mean a huge v...
Lesson
Buying Bitcoin In Canada
A few years ago I wrote about how you can buy bitcoin, and the landscape changes quickly, but as I’m still asked regularly, I’ve decided to update the detail...
Happy World Password Day
I’ve been asked fairly often, for decades, what I recommend for a password manager. For as long as I can remember, the quick answer is KeePass.
Critical Thinking Around Astrology Religion And Vaccines
Last year I had my first birthday zoom call as we couldn’t meet in person. On the call I had my closest friends, including someone who works for pharma, as w...
Love Is The Perception Of The Receiver
This article applies to cisgender monogamous love, but may apply to others as well.
Buying Bitcoin Or Ethereum
The last few months have been insane in the cryptocurrency market, like no other financial market I’m aware of in history. There have been altcoins making +1...
Hidden Rules Among Class
Today I saw an image on the internet that really resonated:
Canadian Tax Tips
Where do you recommend one go for Canadian tax tips? I'll post three here: The Canadian Tax Sherpa Deductions, Credits, and Expenses Report on Federal Tax ...
Getting your ham radio licence in Canada
If you’re interested in getting your amateur (ham) radio licence in Canada, you can start with Industry Canada’s website. I would start on the radio exam gen...
Marie Kondo has helped me Spark Joy
A dear friend lent me Marie Kondo's "the life changing magic of tidying up" last year, and I had it sitting around for months until the last few days of the ...
Merry Xmas
For years, I've said Merry Xmas, to the ire of many Christians in my life. This year, I present: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas which explains how Χριστό...
“On the Ethics of Planetary Scale Measurement Meta-Structures” - Zack Stein
This was one of my favourite conference talks this year. It was seen at ParTeck, which is an invite only annual conference hosted by the Human Data Commons (...
Join Vancouver’s newest busking band.
Did you know the Vancouver public library rents instruments? While checking out their renovated top two floors and rooftop patio, I decided to challenge myse...
Interactive Tutorials
While you can learn anything you want for free online these days, or in person, some people learn best with interactive tutorials. For those people, I've pro...
What are you doing to support your community and those in need?
I think all of life is competing against your past self, and I don't recommend ever comparing yourself to someone else, but it's hard not to reflect on one's...
Finding Purpose
Yesterday I had the pleasure of catching up with my friend Kerry, a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. This was an impromptu video where I pressed record, asked for a one...
What’s your best advice for someone about to…
What's your best advice for someone about to go on a hiring spree? (no recruiters mentioning their firms please -- I don't intend on using recruiters current...
Phone scammers pretending to be CRA
In Canada, there is a popular phone scam where the caller will pretend to be the Customs and Revenue Agency (CRA -- Canada's version of the IRS). A few thing...
What do you practice?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53cqxEOuHNI A great reminder from Prem Rawat via young Ali Sherazi. On top of critically thinking about which mental states w...
Free credit score and reports for Canadians
I just came across this free credit score and report service, called BorrowWell.com. They appear to respect your privacy (other than running several privacy ...
Liar, Lyre: Why You Can No Longer Trust Anything You Hear
So, we've hit an interesting point in society. As of now, you can no longer trust the audio you hear from a phone call, an interview, or even a real-time con...
Teaching children to critically think
I was recently with a loved one who has children. One of their children asked me if Santa Claus was real. I didn't want to lie, as it's not my child, so I qu...
What can you teach in 30 minutes?
Welcome to the thirty minute club! In order to join, you have to agree to teach something on Google Hangouts for 30 minutes. You don't have to be the best at...
Financially Investing in Yourself 101
This applies to those new to financial investing for retirement in Canada. These are the recommendations I usually make, so I'm summarizing here. Pay down ...
Free university
I've written years ago about free online university courses, there's no limit today on what you can learn other than what time you're willing to put into it....
Summary of the Product Market Fit Process
For the first half of 2015, I spent most of the time on the product market fit (PMF) process, trying to (in)validate a business idea. This week at Founders C...
Installing owncloud and pydio on Debian 8
Update: I was asked for a list of Canadian hosting providers where one can try the steps below, so I created this list of Canadian VPS providers. If you want...
Makerspace classes
Makerspace is offering classes now in various subjects. They are quite popular, and most of them sell out, so sign up today for any that interest you! As of ...
Ready to make your first interactive art display?
No matter what your background, this is your chance to learn the art side and the technical side of creating an interactive media exhibit! MediaNet is offeri...
Hack
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
Debugging internet issues
If you're on osx, if you have something like brew.sh, install mtr. Once you have mtr installed, you can test your internet connection with any computer on th...
first steps on osx after security – install brew
If it's your first time on osx, or just setting up a new machine, or doing a re-install, there are a few things I install by default. Before you start the so...
Renaming crypto(currency) to dmoney
This growing use of “crypto” to mean “crypto currency” is not going to end well for either cryptography or digital currency. — matt blaze (@mattblaze) June ...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
What does it take to track a lost or stolen cell phone?
What does it take to track a lost or stolen cell phone? Is such a thing impossible, or is there a glimmer of hope if the stars align? I called my cell phone ...
From idea to prototype, in your hand, using 3d printing
If you have an idea for a product, the first thing to do is to see if such a product already exists. Let's say for example, you had an idea for a bread bag t...
Learn to hack
If I told you it was free, would you want to learn to hack? I'm interested in offering a free course on how to hack to those who sign up over the next week. ...
Vancouver community spaces
I've decided to start a list of Vancouver community spaces for creative thinkers, as I couldn't find a good one myself. Hackerspace/Makerspace Vancouver Hac...
Hacking sub $10 gadgets
Even the most frugal of us now have the opportunity to hack, with the increase in sub $10 gadgets. I wrote a few weeks ago about the TI MSP430 for $4.30. Her...
Hackathon at an AT&T Long Line Bunker
Are you interested in an in-person visit to a +11,000 sq ft cold-war era AT&T Long Line bunker with +200 foot high communications tower? W...
TI MSP430
Hey Ardunio hacking friends, have you heard of the Texas Instruments 16-Bit Ultra-Low Power MSP430™ Microcontrollers? They're only $4.30! Capacitiv...
Making a crokinole board
I've decided to try and build my own crokinole board. Here's a review of a few commercial boards. I've found a few links for my reference: Hilins...
Profile: Mitch Altman, hacker.
I had the opportunity to meet Mitch Altman in Tokyo a few years ago, at the Tokyo hackerspace. Mitch is a rare breed; he's got world class level of smart...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
Put a man in space? pfffht!
My friend Nick Farr and team have recently started Copenhagen Suborbitals which plan on launching a human into space. I'm lucky to know a lot of really talen...
Your social network
As people are justifiably upset with the privacy issues around Facebook, and several friends have left that network altogether recently, I've been wondering ...
Defining your websites in LinkedIn
I noticed that by default when you enter your websites into LinkedIn, they usually say "Company website" or "Personal Website" without more details. This is ...
DIY DNA testing
Do-it-yourself DNA testing is now possible with the OpenPCR kits which are only $512! Check out OpenPCR.org for the full details. "It is essential for most w...
Have the drugs kicked in yet?
I've used one of my favourite optical illusions as my twitter profile background images. Nothing is actually moving in this image (click the image to see it ...
Microscope mod for your smartphone
With a $5 microscope and illuminator from Amazon.com, you can attach it to the case of your smartphone and take microscopic pictures! https://www.youtube.com...
File -> Print -> Laser
Turns out that is one of the options you have when participating in Victoria's Makerspace. I drove out today to the AGM, where it was also an open house and ...
OpenTransitDB is now live
Last week-end I was a part of the OpenDataBC hackathon. This is where a group of people interested in using open data (data that was previously confidential,...
Politics
Open Banking Coming To Canada
Canada is getting something new called “Consumer Driven Banking,” which is also known as “Open Banking.” This means that big banks will have to let you use n...
The Race For Currency Control
We’re entering an arms race for who gets to control the currency
Silicon Valley Bank Closing And Impact On The Petrodollar
The biggest argument against bitcoin by fiat (petrodollar) fans has been FDIC insured banks are trustworthy, reliable, and backed so they won’t fail. Today, ...
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
Open And Decentralized Online Voting
I’ve been thinking about online voting for over a decade, first from doing security audits on them, and realizing how deficient they are in structure and sec...
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
Personally attacking kids online you disagree with
I just read this post on social media: A question of principle: Is it wrong to personally attack a 16-year-old because you disagree with their politics? I ...
The butterfly effect on the election systems in Georgia
If you recall my articles on whowhatwhy.org last November on the state of Georgia's election systems, there's an exciting update: https://www.mercurynews.com...
The step-by-step guide to legally manipulate the 2019 Canadian election
First, I feel obligated to reference the following quote, as I do when I teach someone how to pick a lock: If a lock, let it have been made in whatever coun...
“On the Ethics of Planetary Scale Measurement Meta-Structures” - Zack Stein
This was one of my favourite conference talks this year. It was seen at ParTeck, which is an invite only annual conference hosted by the Human Data Commons (...
Liar, Lyre: Why You Can No Longer Trust Anything You Hear
So, we've hit an interesting point in society. As of now, you can no longer trust the audio you hear from a phone call, an interview, or even a real-time con...
Are you checking in to Standing Rock today?
[caption id="attachment_878" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Surveillance Culture around Standing Rock #NoDAPL[/caption] </p> There are a lot of peopl...
2016 Vancouver-Mount Pleasant By-election - General Voting Stations
If you're looking for a map of the General Voting Stations for the 2016 Vancouver-Mount Pleasant By-election, I've built one as it doesn't appear Elections B...
This post could land me in jail. Where is the political C-51 opposition?
All it will take, if Bill C-51 passes, is for one of Canada's spies to convince any judge in the country that they agreed this post was an issue, and I could...
Are all employment opportunities good?
A friend posted the following on Facebook, leading me to ask the question, are all employment opportunities good? Kinder Morgan in its submission to the Nati...
You lose your rights under the Mental Health Act
I just read this article in Focus magazine [PDF] which is the source of what nightmares are made of. Apparently in Canada, you lose your rights if being arre...
Electoral Reform
Dear Elections BC; As we're about to head into another voting period in British Columbia, I wonder how long it will be until we see electoral reform. Since I...
Get out and vote!
I just completed a short rant to a few friends on Facebook who were claiming inaction to voting is an action, or they were pleading ignorance to even knowing...
What media matters?
I recently had the opportunity to meet Bill Weaver, host of a popular annual retreat called Media That Matters. I know several people who have attended, from...
Will the Canadian green party ban coffee, and the sun?
My friend Elizabeth May is now an elected representative for the federal green party of Canada. She's had a lot of attention the last couple days, due to a t...
Squashing science
As I'm reading Euclid's Window, it talks a lot about how throughout history, religion based oppressors have tried to silence science. I can't imagine a worl...
The Canadian election issues that matter to me
I'm sending this to all registered political parties I can find in Canada. email kris at ideawave.ca with your party's perspective on any/all of these issues...
Does your vote count?
There are a lot of reasons to not be happy with the current political system, as I've mentioned, I believe that electoral reform should be the main concern ...
Who gets to participate in the Canadian political debates?
There is a lot of discussion right now in Canada around the fact that Elizabeth May, leader of the federal green party, has not been invited to the national ...
The corruption pyramid in Egypt
The vast majority of the internet was shut off in Egypt yesterday. (graph). Wikileaks has responded with a bunch of Egypt related cables. A cablesearch.org s...
Networking
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Accessible Family Friendly Online Games
With all of us at home, last March as soon as the pandemic was announced I launched ab8.ca with the intent on providing you a space to be online without foll...
Critical Thinking Around Astrology Religion And Vaccines
Last year I had my first birthday zoom call as we couldn’t meet in person. On the call I had my closest friends, including someone who works for pharma, as w...
Adding Comments
In a previous life I would add comments using an open source system, and keep them inclusive and unmoderated, as I’ve always supported free speech. Unfortuna...
Do Work Get Equity
Working just for money doesn’t retain workers, and working just for money isn’t satisfying.
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Budget Coffee
This is the launch of "Budget Coffee" like founders coffee, where we meet 2x a month, and discuss budget things. As we'll all have different techniques, it w...
A few more Facebook groups and pages
If you're still on Facebook, the first thing to keep in mind is that anything you write there -- including every profile you click on, every keystroke you ty...
What Keeps You Content? - Data Driven Wellness
What Keeps You Content? [meetup.com] Attendees Kris Leo Ivan Trevor Tyler Zee Jennifer Scott Harondel John Bill What keeps you content Kaggle (Google boug...
What can you teach in 30 minutes?
Welcome to the thirty minute club! In order to join, you have to agree to teach something on Google Hangouts for 30 minutes. You don't have to be the best at...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
Creative Vancouver meetups
If you're new to Vancouver, you might be looking for some creative Vancouver meetups. It could be to meet other interesting people, entrepreneurs, hackers, o...
Ideas - Vancouver meeting May 14th
This month, you're invited to join us at 18:00 at Matchstick Coffee (Chinatown - Vancouver) to discuss amongst other things: bio-tech: life with CRISPR-Cas9...
Vancouver Sales Event Meetup
Last night I got to attend my first Vancouver Sales Event Meetup run by my friend Erin Dalzell and hosted at Spacelist. I tried to write down as many URLs as...
Did you check snopes?
When I read articles, forwards or shares I know aren't true, sometimes I reply, sometimes I just delete them. I see the same emails getting forwarded around...
ASC in Vancouver
UPDATE! As we're still receiving $50 entries from people wanting to be awesomites, we're moving the event to January 28th, 2015. The call for submissions is ...
Project - Help someone out
This post is about my latest project idea - Help someone out. Version 0.2 - Oct 24th 10:08am EST. Check back regularly, as I'll be updating this post based o...
How can I help your business?
How can I help your business? I'm offering an initial 60 minute video consult over the next 2 weeks, please contact me to setup an appointment. All I ask fro...
I’m speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C.
I look forward to speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C. I'll be speaking on Ideas Meetings, what they are, where they started, where the...
Looking for cheap flights?
If you frequently travel, that likely means you also frequently try to find the best flight deals. I often use Matrix, or Hipmunk when looking for cheap flig...
Remote work suggestions?
As I'm heavy in startup mode, and have been travelling since March, I'm spending a lot more than I'm bringing in. As such, I'm looking for re...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
Your social network
As people are justifiably upset with the privacy issues around Facebook, and several friends have left that network altogether recently, I've been wondering ...
Social Innovation in British Columbia
I'm fortunate to have been chosen as one of the top 500 social innovators in British Columbia, and have been invited to participate in the discussion around ...
Evening to inspire - Seat auction
I'm going to auction off one seat to the amazing Evening to Inspire event on October 7th. While the tickets are selling for $175/person, I will provide one t...
Science
Hunting For Clear Skies
If you’re looking to the skies, you’ll want to make sure there are clear skies, and you’ll also want to verify that you’re in an area with as little light po...
Neowise
It’s time to look to the sky as we’re blessed with NEOWISE
Astrology
I was asked again yesterday if I believe in astrology, and I said no, as a science based person I believe in astronomy. I got the go-to response of “Don’t yo...
Regenerative wearables
I'm exploring how we might make a fabric or wearable item that is regenerative. In the ideal, if it was left in a field, maybe it would grow. For example Is...
Himalayan Bath Salt Lamps and Essential Oils
One of the feedback I got from the podcast on sleep was to consider Himalayan Bath Salts, and Essential oils. According to Snopes, Himalayan Bath Salt Lamps ...
Finding a non-US path of Totality
For those that don't want to, or can't, touch US soil at all (most of the world right now, it seems), what do you recommend for seeing the eclipse on the 21...
Teaching children to critically think
I was recently with a loved one who has children. One of their children asked me if Santa Claus was real. I didn't want to lie, as it's not my child, so I qu...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
There's currently a post on HackerNews called The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory. It links to an article by Jakub Marian that starts to break down why...
Nobody lives past thirty
I saw this cartoon today, "Something's just not right -- our air is clean, our water is pure, we all get plenty of exercise, everything we eat is org...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
The Open Source Future
I've been thinking and discussing a lot about the open source future, and am considering an 8 episode podcast trial. It's currently planned to be 2 parts per...
Biospace, and the DIYBIO movement
Derek Jacoby and I made a TEDGlobal video, if only for a picture (3:49 in the video). This video is from the TED talk by Ellen Jorgensen of Genspace fame tal...
Profile: Mitch Altman, hacker.
I had the opportunity to meet Mitch Altman in Tokyo a few years ago, at the Tokyo hackerspace. Mitch is a rare breed; he's got world class level of smart...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
Hitting the mental gym
As I walked down to Ideas Victoria tonight, I walked by at least 3 gyms, each busier than I've ever seen them, and I generally walk by them every week at the...
Put a man in space? pfffht!
My friend Nick Farr and team have recently started Copenhagen Suborbitals which plan on launching a human into space. I'm lucky to know a lot of really talen...
How well do you sleep?
I've been curious for a while about my sleeping habits, as an entrepreneur on my own schedule, I don't use an alarm clock unless I have to. As a result, my s...
Passing the first stage of hypnagogia with a snl machine?
Reading about hypnagogia (the state of falling asleep), according to Mavromatis (The Head Trip p.29) the four stages are: Flashes of light and colour Floati...
Art
Shading practice
This was drawn without a model, under the direction of my favourite shading artist, introducing me to shading.
#fivetenfriday
My first entry for #fivetenfriday was experimenting with the GIMP. I don’t normally edit my photographs except for cropping. It was a lot of fun testing the ...
Remote Tea Cup
This was taken from another room with a smart phone controlling a remote zoom.
Umbrellas and Bottles
I went to an opening at an art gallery in an alley, only to later discover I had accidentally went to a different opening and a different gallery in the same...
Freckle Constellation
When I look up into the stars, I look for the constellation of your freckles
Dove Spy Pen
[caption id="attachment_624" align="aligncenter" width="755"] Dove Spy Pen[/caption] Image is one modified polygon. Created using Inkscape.
Mathematically Simple Thoughts
[caption id="attachment_622" align="aligncenter" width="395"] Mathematically Simple Thoughts[/caption] Image is one modified polygon. Created using In...
From idea to prototype, in your hand, using 3d printing
If you have an idea for a product, the first thing to do is to see if such a product already exists. Let's say for example, you had an idea for a bread bag t...
Biospace, and the DIYBIO movement
Derek Jacoby and I made a TEDGlobal video, if only for a picture (3:49 in the video). This video is from the TED talk by Ellen Jorgensen of Genspace fame tal...
Making a crokinole board
I've decided to try and build my own crokinole board. Here's a review of a few commercial boards. I've found a few links for my reference: Hilins...
Profile: Mitch Altman, hacker.
I had the opportunity to meet Mitch Altman in Tokyo a few years ago, at the Tokyo hackerspace. Mitch is a rare breed; he's got world class level of smart...
Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-Art Show!
Last week-end I had the opportunity to have 3 of my photos shown at the first annual Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-art show. The photos had to...
startups
Open Banking Coming To Canada
Canada is getting something new called “Consumer Driven Banking,” which is also known as “Open Banking.” This means that big banks will have to let you use n...
3 Ai Tools Everyone Should Try
Most people have tried, or at least heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, and there are a lot of rapid advancements to AI every day. In this post I’ll highlight thre...
Opportunities In Ai
Here are the two exciting areas of opportunity I am working on in AI
Silicon Valley Bank Closing And Impact On The Petrodollar
The biggest argument against bitcoin by fiat (petrodollar) fans has been FDIC insured banks are trustworthy, reliable, and backed so they won’t fail. Today, ...
Customer Discovery
Customer Discovery – Prioritizing your Ideas
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
Open And Decentralized Online Voting
I’ve been thinking about online voting for over a decade, first from doing security audits on them, and realizing how deficient they are in structure and sec...
Do Work Get Equity
Working just for money doesn’t retain workers, and working just for money isn’t satisfying.
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
What type of entrepreneur are you?
To me, there seems to be three types of entrepreneurs -- inventors, innovators, and iterators. Because we don't distinguish between these very distinct types...
Personal Information data is a liability
Most businesses are still in the mindset that they should collect data for big data sake -- some day it'll be valuable. More unscrupulous businesses sell or ...
Be careful what you allow to access your bank account
There are a lot of interesting things happening on the bridge between tech and finance, or FinTech. If you've observed what the EU's GDPR did for privacy aro...
Open source self-hosted small business tools
I'll start by listing some of the tools that most if not all of my businesses use: Nextcloud -- Not only is this a dropbox replacement for file management, i...
Removing Australia and Australians from the online world
We're in an era where governments are seeking the ability to overpower privacy laws and circumvent security measures, such as encryption. Any government who ...
What’s your best advice for someone about to…
What's your best advice for someone about to go on a hiring spree? (no recruiters mentioning their firms please -- I don't intend on using recruiters current...
Entrepreneurial See-Saw
There is a see-saw in which most entrepreneurs seem to identify themselves. At one end, is passion. At the other end, is financial success. The odds of these...
Summary of the Product Market Fit Process
For the first half of 2015, I spent most of the time on the product market fit (PMF) process, trying to (in)validate a business idea. This week at Founders C...
Free cloud-based computing and storage for Canadian startups
Last week I joined in the the Startup Canada #startupchats on Twitter. I saw a CANARIE account interacting, which until now I thought was only accessible to ...
Transparency
Adding Comments
In a previous life I would add comments using an open source system, and keep them inclusive and unmoderated, as I’ve always supported free speech. Unfortuna...
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
The butterfly effect on the election systems in Georgia
If you recall my articles on whowhatwhy.org last November on the state of Georgia's election systems, there's an exciting update: https://www.mercurynews.com...
Be careful what you allow to access your bank account
There are a lot of interesting things happening on the bridge between tech and finance, or FinTech. If you've observed what the EU's GDPR did for privacy aro...
Removing Australia and Australians from the online world
We're in an era where governments are seeking the ability to overpower privacy laws and circumvent security measures, such as encryption. Any government who ...
Teaching children to critically think
I was recently with a loved one who has children. One of their children asked me if Santa Claus was real. I didn't want to lie, as it's not my child, so I qu...
Dark Information Sharing
Here are a few links I mentioned regarding the Dark side of Information Sharing last night at Nik Badminton's sold out Dark Futures conference. These are pub...
Thanks to Rob Wipond for effecting change with the Victoria Police Department
NB: I agreed initially to Vince a couple years ago, to not disclose the details of this story to anyone other than Rob, but everything I've said below is pub...
Do you care if your food is organic or genetically modified?
I'll start by saying that genetic modified food isn't necessarily a bad thing, although it can be. I'll leave that for another post. This post is...
What good is your roll of change?
Not much, according to London Drugs. I had the misunderstanding that change had to be accepted, up to certain maximums that it's not excessive. In Canada thi...
Truth or Dare?
I asked "Truth or Dare?" on Facebook and Twitter yesterday. I've received over 50 comments between the two, so it seems like people want to play. I see there...
What media matters?
I recently had the opportunity to meet Bill Weaver, host of a popular annual retreat called Media That Matters. I know several people who have attended, from...
Christmas comes from a mushroom?
I have a few friends who are serious mushroom pickers on Vancouver island, who are very busy, as this is the season. I've been spoiled, I must have eaten a d...
Will the Canadian green party ban coffee, and the sun?
My friend Elizabeth May is now an elected representative for the federal green party of Canada. She's had a lot of attention the last couple days, due to a t...
Squashing science
As I'm reading Euclid's Window, it talks a lot about how throughout history, religion based oppressors have tried to silence science. I can't imagine a worl...
The infamous kissing couple - video footage before the kiss
You've probably seen the image which has went global, of the kissing couple during the post Vancouver Canucks loss a couple weeks ago: I've found a video of...
The corruption pyramid in Egypt
The vast majority of the internet was shut off in Egypt yesterday. (graph). Wikileaks has responded with a bunch of Egypt related cables. A cablesearch.org s...
DIY
Buying Bitcoin In Canada
A few years ago I wrote about how you can buy bitcoin, and the landscape changes quickly, but as I’m still asked regularly, I’ve decided to update the detail...
When You Have An Idea
I was reading a tweet from Andrew Wilkinson:
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Buying Bitcoin Or Ethereum
The last few months have been insane in the cryptocurrency market, like no other financial market I’m aware of in history. There have been altcoins making +1...
Hidden Rules Among Class
Today I saw an image on the internet that really resonated:
Recycling Tracker
We recently published the the minutes from Monday’s ideas Vancouver meetup which included a conversation around tracking where our recycling goes. There seem...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
A Free One Day In-Kind Website
As you may know, about 8 years ago I started One Day Website for my friends who either don't want to figure out how to register a domain, setup web hosting, ...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
Add something new to your life, in small increments.
Last fall I mentioned to someone with experience in nutrition how I wished I ate better. Instead of going on a diet, it was suggested I consider introducing,...
From idea to prototype, in your hand, using 3d printing
If you have an idea for a product, the first thing to do is to see if such a product already exists. Let's say for example, you had an idea for a bread bag t...
Vancouver community spaces
I've decided to start a list of Vancouver community spaces for creative thinkers, as I couldn't find a good one myself. Hackerspace/Makerspace Vancouver Hac...
Biospace, and the DIYBIO movement
Derek Jacoby and I made a TEDGlobal video, if only for a picture (3:49 in the video). This video is from the TED talk by Ellen Jorgensen of Genspace fame tal...
Hacking sub $10 gadgets
Even the most frugal of us now have the opportunity to hack, with the increase in sub $10 gadgets. I wrote a few weeks ago about the TI MSP430 for $4.30. Her...
TI MSP430
Hey Ardunio hacking friends, have you heard of the Texas Instruments 16-Bit Ultra-Low Power MSP430™ Microcontrollers? They're only $4.30! Capacitiv...
Making a crokinole board
I've decided to try and build my own crokinole board. Here's a review of a few commercial boards. I've found a few links for my reference: Hilins...
Announcement
Adding Comments
In a previous life I would add comments using an open source system, and keep them inclusive and unmoderated, as I’ve always supported free speech. Unfortuna...
Transitioning from Wordpress to Jekyll
After many years of Wordpress, I’ve decided to transition the website from One Day Website’s Wordpress to Jekyll. There were a few main reasons for the tran...
Budget Coffee
This is the launch of "Budget Coffee" like founders coffee, where we meet 2x a month, and discuss budget things. As we'll all have different techniques, it w...
A Free One Day In-Kind Website
As you may know, about 8 years ago I started One Day Website for my friends who either don't want to figure out how to register a domain, setup web hosting, ...
Thoughts on Initiative Q
I responded to an influencer I know who is sharing links to Initiative Q. He's an NDPer, so I empathize. Seriously though, he's a math genius whom I respect,...
Carfentanil found in Vancouver region
Here in Vancouver, specifically in the downtown eastside (DTES), on average two people are dying from an overdose per day, because of fentanyl. Fentanyl is r...
Announcing: Black Tie Dinner - Vancouver on April 12th, 2018
Summary: Black Tie Dinner on April 12th, 2018 18:00 at the McDonalds on Main Street, one block south of Main Street Station. [Facebook Event] History: If yo...
Liar, Lyre: Why You Can No Longer Trust Anything You Hear
So, we've hit an interesting point in society. As of now, you can no longer trust the audio you hear from a phone call, an interview, or even a real-time con...
$2,000 invested in #Ethereum 3 yrs ago now worth $1,000,000
As my friend Gary (of Decentralized Dance Party fame) just stated, "$2,000 invested in #Ethereum 3 yrs ago now worth $1,000,000. Friends, pls look into #Bloc...
Conscious Canada
At the Ideas - Vancouver meetup tonight, we were discussing how many businesses there are that should be boycotted, and even if they are, as one voice, there...
Center for Social Impact opening May 1st
A shared office space tentatively called ‘Center for Social Impact’ is opening May 1st next to Habit in Chinatown. A great opportunity for home desk folks to...
Open Data Society of British Columbia
The current premier of British Columbia has committed to supporting the concept of Open Data by creating DataBC. Never before have British Columbians had acc...
Libation calendar
I've started a Victoria libation calendar. If you're aware of events around beverages that are fermented ot distilled in Victoria, contact me for edit access...
Ready to make your first interactive art display?
No matter what your background, this is your chance to learn the art side and the technical side of creating an interactive media exhibit! MediaNet is offeri...
Welcome
My name is Kris Constable, and I've been asked by a few people to start a blog on all of the things that happen around me, so here it is! I'm located in Vict...
Relationships
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
Whos Missing From The Table
When I hear of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives in the work place, it’s often used in a quota context, and that’s never sat well with me. I...
Accessible Family Friendly Online Games
With all of us at home, last March as soon as the pandemic was announced I launched ab8.ca with the intent on providing you a space to be online without foll...
Critical Thinking Around Astrology Religion And Vaccines
Last year I had my first birthday zoom call as we couldn’t meet in person. On the call I had my closest friends, including someone who works for pharma, as w...
Love Is The Perception Of The Receiver
This article applies to cisgender monogamous love, but may apply to others as well.
Great Minds Talk About Ideas
There's a famous quote: Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People This quote is often attributed to Eleanor Roosev...
Marie Kondo has helped me Spark Joy
A dear friend lent me Marie Kondo's "the life changing magic of tidying up" last year, and I had it sitting around for months until the last few days of the ...
Facebook Debates
For those who think they're good at debating, I challenge you to sign up for my 24 hour debate challenge. If you agree, I will partner you with someone else ...
Understanding Co-dependence
I'd heard the term codependence many times before, and usually associated it with romantic relationships. A friend of mine mentioned she recently read a book...
Topic planning the creation of a podcast with Tamsin Smith
Planning topics for a podcast with Tamsin Smith; on Wednesday we plan on going to the gym, yoga, and then chatting through some of the following topics: Dis...
Teaching children to critically think
I was recently with a loved one who has children. One of their children asked me if Santa Claus was real. I didn't want to lie, as it's not my child, so I qu...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
Love
My thoughts on love. This will likely be updated as I feel I have new insights, as this is always evolving. I was reminded after reading a recent tweet by my...
The 30-day Silence Breakup Model
It is only when you break up from a romantic relationship, do you really evaluate what really mattered, and what didn't. As a result, if there seems to be a ...
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Custodial Wallets Are Fine
I propose the bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry refer to cold storage as your self-bank, as that is a more relevant equivalent to fiat, whereas a wallet can be...
The Race For Currency Control
We’re entering an arms race for who gets to control the currency
Buying Bitcoin In Canada
A few years ago I wrote about how you can buy bitcoin, and the landscape changes quickly, but as I’m still asked regularly, I’ve decided to update the detail...
Assessing Your Level As A Bitcoin Enthusiast
In order to determine where you stand as a Bitcoin enthusiast, I have devised a self-assessment tool. You are welcome to share your level after reading or le...
Silicon Valley Bank Closing And Impact On The Petrodollar
The biggest argument against bitcoin by fiat (petrodollar) fans has been FDIC insured banks are trustworthy, reliable, and backed so they won’t fail. Today, ...
Bitcoin exchanges in Canada
This is not an endorsement, but a running list of Canadian cryptocurrency exchanges. There are other exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken that serve Canadians,...
Personal Information data is a liability
Most businesses are still in the mindset that they should collect data for big data sake -- some day it'll be valuable. More unscrupulous businesses sell or ...
New Canadian rules around AML/ATF and offering of tokens
It's a big week for Canadians whom work in cryptocurrency. First, the Department of Finance released an impact analysis statement around the Proceeds of Crim...
Today’s cryptocurrencies worth paying attention to (and the ones worth avoiding)
I'm often asked which cryptocurrencies one should invest in, and I should state this is absolutely not financial advice. Do your own due diligence, not just ...
Is Bittrex violating Canadian privacy law, and committing theft by withholding my cryptocurrencies?
I moved some cryptocurrency into a popular exchange called Bittrex. I did some cryptocurrency trades, and last night decided to take a little out. Now first ...
Trading Pairs
UPDATED April 2019 to replace quadrigacx with coinsquare in the example. As I touched on in the last article, a trading pair is what you want to trade to and...
How to acquire Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies, and understand KYC and AML
Two things that we all should know are Know Your Customer (KYC) Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Let's start with KYC. This is the term government regulators us...
Privacy
Open Banking Coming To Canada
Canada is getting something new called “Consumer Driven Banking,” which is also known as “Open Banking.” This means that big banks will have to let you use n...
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
Open And Decentralized Online Voting
I’ve been thinking about online voting for over a decade, first from doing security audits on them, and realizing how deficient they are in structure and sec...
The Global Economic Future
There is currently an opportunity to explore a different global economic future than we’ve had until now. I welcome you to spend some time on what that futur...
Replacing Google
For years I've not used most of Google's services, but today as I read an article from Google's former head of International Relations, I was reminded to wri...
Privacy centric browser setup
I'm often asked for tech tool recommendations that I use, that are privacy & security minded. If you ever have such a question, don't hesitate, I love to...
Personal Information data is a liability
Most businesses are still in the mindset that they should collect data for big data sake -- some day it'll be valuable. More unscrupulous businesses sell or ...
Time to retire your old American tech company email service
Still using gmail, hotmail, or yahoo email? Ready to start focusing a little more on your personal privacy? Last year I wrote about the two most popular alte...
Removing Australia and Australians from the online world
We're in an era where governments are seeking the ability to overpower privacy laws and circumvent security measures, such as encryption. Any government who ...
Thoughts on Initiative Q
I responded to an influencer I know who is sharing links to Initiative Q. He's an NDPer, so I empathize. Seriously though, he's a math genius whom I respect,...
It’s time to seriously consider the Canadian government’s handling of cannabis
As the world looks on to Canada who will be somewhat legalizing Cannabis tomorrow, there have been several actions taken by the same government that are caus...
Thinking about where you’re making your DNS requests
Yesterday, Cloudflare announced their 1.1.1.1 DNS service. They provide a good primer on DNS, and what solution they are working to resolve. There was a lot ...
Map
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Bc Big Tree Map
I had the chance to attend Creative Mornings/Vancouver chapter this morning, where Amanda Lewis spoke on the topic of Biophilia, specifically about her pursu...
Free university
I've written years ago about free online university courses, there's no limit today on what you can learn other than what time you're willing to put into it....
2016 Vancouver-Mount Pleasant By-election - General Voting Stations
If you're looking for a map of the General Voting Stations for the 2016 Vancouver-Mount Pleasant By-election, I've built one as it doesn't appear Elections B...
Government liquor stores (LDB) in British Columbia
This map of government liquor stores in British Columbia was originally posted to victoria.intoxicant.ca on May 18, 2012. After publishing a list of wineries...
Wineries in British Columbia
This map of wineries in British Columbia was originally posted to 250life.ca on Oct 10, 2011, and is one of the first uses of the B.C. Open Government Licens...
Private Liquor Stores in British Columbia
This map I created of private liquor stores was originally posted to 250life.ca on Sept 8, 2011 and was one of the first uses of British Columbia's Open Gove...
Vancouver Vending Machine Circuit
If you're looking for something unusual to do while in Vancouver, consider a photography challenge - each of the unique machines found in the Vancouver vendi...
Where to buy hop rhizomes in Canada
There appear to be only 6 places to buy hop rhizomes in Canada, if you know of any more, please let me know and I'll update the map. This will likely only be...
Map of cheap meals in British Columbia
Enjoy my map of cheap meals in British Columbia! If you know of anywhere in British Columbia you can get a proper meal for $5 or less, please contact me and ...
Travel
Hunting For Clear Skies
If you’re looking to the skies, you’ll want to make sure there are clear skies, and you’ll also want to verify that you’re in an area with as little light po...
Finding a non-US path of Totality
For those that don't want to, or can't, touch US soil at all (most of the world right now, it seems), what do you recommend for seeing the eclipse on the 21...
Free university
I've written years ago about free online university courses, there's no limit today on what you can learn other than what time you're willing to put into it....
Vancouver Vending Machine Circuit
If you're looking for something unusual to do while in Vancouver, consider a photography challenge - each of the unique machines found in the Vancouver vendi...
looking for a place to stay for two months
Someone wants to rent my condo short-term, so I'm looking for a place to stay for two months. Priorities, in order of importance (but not required): Broadba...
Remote work suggestions?
As I'm heavy in startup mode, and have been travelling since March, I'm spending a lot more than I'm bringing in. As such, I'm looking for re...
Chipmunk
While visiting my cottage this year for the first time in years, I had a chipmunk stare at me at squeak for at least 10 minutes. I managed to get a minute of...
Double fish
I was fishing this morning with a couple friends just off Mayne island, when I caught a small fish. While reeling it, it felt like I hit a snag. It wasn't fi...
Korea
I spent the last week in Suwon and Seoul, here are a few items I felt worthy of note: * English is rare * The bus system is not in English except at main sta...
Funny
Join Vancouver’s newest busking band.
Did you know the Vancouver public library rents instruments? While checking out their renovated top two floors and rooftop patio, I decided to challenge myse...
Announcing: Black Tie Dinner - Vancouver on April 12th, 2018
Summary: Black Tie Dinner on April 12th, 2018 18:00 at the McDonalds on Main Street, one block south of Main Street Station. [Facebook Event] History: If yo...
Giving without expectations
I was co-working in the social, ground floor area of my building when I noticed a man in a wheelchair going through the alley with a sweater dragging behind ...
Nobody lives past thirty
I saw this cartoon today, "Something's just not right -- our air is clean, our water is pure, we all get plenty of exercise, everything we eat is org...
Make up a new word, or reuse a known one
After hearing Stephen Fry talk about language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY I decided we should today try to make up a new word, or reuse an o...
Relax with Sonic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_YYL_TQpus
Parking Day - Victoria
Last September I caught wind that there was going to a Parking day in Victoria, BC; so I applied for a parking spot and my application was accepted. As you m...
The weather; you can’t win them all!
When I came up with the idea for the IdeaWave conference last February, I randomly picked July 10&11th 2010 to run the first one. It turned out to be a ...
What do you do when no one is looking?
Reddit pointed to this imgur image entitled "My wife made her wear this as punishment": and it made me recall some of the not-so-socially-acceptable thing...
Audio
Getting your ham radio licence in Canada
If you’re interested in getting your amateur (ham) radio licence in Canada, you can start with Industry Canada’s website. I would start on the radio exam gen...
Liar, Lyre: Why You Can No Longer Trust Anything You Hear
So, we've hit an interesting point in society. As of now, you can no longer trust the audio you hear from a phone call, an interview, or even a real-time con...
Project: DIY OpenEEG/OpenBCI
Several years ago my friend Derek (of Biospace.ca) loaned me his Zeo Sleep Manager and I blogged the experience. You put on the headband at night, and it wou...
The Open Source Future
I've been thinking and discussing a lot about the open source future, and am considering an 8 episode podcast trial. It's currently planned to be 2 parts per...
Passing the first stage of hypnagogia with a snl machine?
Reading about hypnagogia (the state of falling asleep), according to Mavromatis (The Head Trip p.29) the four stages are: Flashes of light and colour Floati...
Is morse code still alive?
I read an article in yesterday's Vancouver sun that is calling for the death knell of morse code, known by those in the amateur (ham) radio community as cont...
My first art exhibit: The Community Experience
I’m excited (and nervous!) to announce my first ever art exhibit. The running title is “The Community Experience”, which is a combination of sharing experie...
@cqwww
I'm often asked what in the world "cqwww" means, and why I would have picked that for my twitter handle. I've been an amateur (ham) radio operator since arou...
Missing Vishnu Veil
This is my favourite loop I've created thus far. If you put it on loop, you can (and I have) listened to it for hours. Let me know what you think! </embed...
Cryptocurrency
Silicon Valley Bank Closing And Impact On The Petrodollar
The biggest argument against bitcoin by fiat (petrodollar) fans has been FDIC insured banks are trustworthy, reliable, and backed so they won’t fail. Today, ...
The Global Economic Future
There is currently an opportunity to explore a different global economic future than we’ve had until now. I welcome you to spend some time on what that futur...
New Canadian rules around AML/ATF and offering of tokens
It's a big week for Canadians whom work in cryptocurrency. First, the Department of Finance released an impact analysis statement around the Proceeds of Crim...
Today’s cryptocurrencies worth paying attention to (and the ones worth avoiding)
I'm often asked which cryptocurrencies one should invest in, and I should state this is absolutely not financial advice. Do your own due diligence, not just ...
Is Bittrex violating Canadian privacy law, and committing theft by withholding my cryptocurrencies?
I moved some cryptocurrency into a popular exchange called Bittrex. I did some cryptocurrency trades, and last night decided to take a little out. Now first ...
Trading Pairs
UPDATED April 2019 to replace quadrigacx with coinsquare in the example. As I touched on in the last article, a trading pair is what you want to trade to and...
How to acquire Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies, and understand KYC and AML
Two things that we all should know are Know Your Customer (KYC) Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Let's start with KYC. This is the term government regulators us...
Culture
Whos Missing From The Table
When I hear of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives in the work place, it’s often used in a quota context, and that’s never sat well with me. I...
The Global Economic Future
There is currently an opportunity to explore a different global economic future than we’ve had until now. I welcome you to spend some time on what that futur...
Happy Solstice and Self-Care Week!
For a couple of years, there was a lot of propaganda about the war on Christmas, that still resonates with me. It makes me wonder about anyone who made such ...
Ideas Guy
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Great Minds Talk About Ideas
There's a famous quote: Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People This quote is often attributed to Eleanor Roosev...
Redefining nerds & geeks
I think we need a new term for nerds. Nerds & geeks are still derogatory terms, even if said tongue-in-cheek and using them justifies people not learning...
Marie Kondo has helped me Spark Joy
A dear friend lent me Marie Kondo's "the life changing magic of tidying up" last year, and I had it sitting around for months until the last few days of the ...
Photo
Remote Tea Cup
This was taken from another room with a smart phone controlling a remote zoom.
Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-Art Show!
Last week-end I had the opportunity to have 3 of my photos shown at the first annual Creatively United Mobile Phone Photo-art show. The photos had to...
Sunsets in Victoria
We have some amazing sunsets, tonight was one of the best this year!
Rule of thirds and the golden ratio
As the LCD light on my digital point and shoot camera has died, a replacement LCD is over $100. I'm debating if I'm better off buying a new cam...
Sooke Potholes
Sooke Potholes, a photo by kriscons on Flickr.
Project
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Join Vancouver’s newest busking band.
Did you know the Vancouver public library rents instruments? While checking out their renovated top two floors and rooftop patio, I decided to challenge myse...
How Blockchain Can Help Solve One of the World’s Biggest Problems
Did you ever have one of those dreams where you come up with an awesome, world-changing idea but you wake up and realize you've forgotten the whole thing? We...
Support things that last a lifetime
When I need to buy a new product, I often research it in depth, to ensure I'm getting the best value for my money. For years my friends have been asking me w...
Fruits and vegetables in Vancouver
I was wondering where to buy my fruits and vegetables in Vancouver, and I realize knowing where is cheaper at any given time is a problem that is still not s...
Project - Help someone out
This post is about my latest project idea - Help someone out. Version 0.2 - Oct 24th 10:08am EST. Check back regularly, as I'll be updating this post based o...
Research
Hunting For Clear Skies
If you’re looking to the skies, you’ll want to make sure there are clear skies, and you’ll also want to verify that you’re in an area with as little light po...
Carfentanil found in Vancouver region
Here in Vancouver, specifically in the downtown eastside (DTES), on average two people are dying from an overdose per day, because of fentanyl. Fentanyl is r...
Free alternatives to sign documents
If you have to sign documents once in a while, are trying to save on printing paper, and are looking for a free alternative to DocuSign, here are a few you s...
Himalayan Bath Salt Lamps and Essential Oils
One of the feedback I got from the podcast on sleep was to consider Himalayan Bath Salts, and Essential oils. According to Snopes, Himalayan Bath Salt Lamps ...
Teaching children to critically think
I was recently with a loved one who has children. One of their children asked me if Santa Claus was real. I didn't want to lie, as it's not my child, so I qu...
The best pen
There are so many important things to solve in the world. It's 3:00am and I'm researching the best pen. According to penaddict.com, the top 5 micro ink gel...
Startups
2022 Bitcoin And Nft Updates
It’s been over a year since my last article, so I figure it’s time for an update. This post is an intended provide a professional update for those interested.
When You Have An Idea
I was reading a tweet from Andrew Wilkinson:
Finding Problems
Most startups fail, and there are many reasons for that. The biggest one is due to failing on product / market fit (PMF). The current trend in entrepreneursh...
Preparing for your first client
Those who have repeatable businesses success often attribute their success to repeatable processes. The intention of this article is to ask the questions nee...
Measuring impact over time
One of the biggest trends in investment right now is the notion of “impact investing”. Impact means different things to different people, but in terms of soc...
De-risking yourself for pre-seed
There are a couple of important decisions an entrepreneur should make before crossing the chasm from idea to implementation one should ask, namely what type ...
Media
Thanks to Rob Wipond for effecting change with the Victoria Police Department
NB: I agreed initially to Vince a couple years ago, to not disclose the details of this story to anyone other than Rob, but everything I've said below is pub...
If only there was a United Way to contact them…
For three years I've heard an advertisement by the United Way on the radio in Victoria, BC. It claims that they help one in every three people in Victoria. T...
What media matters?
I recently had the opportunity to meet Bill Weaver, host of a popular annual retreat called Media That Matters. I know several people who have attended, from...
From press release to newspaper article
I read a press release on a tragic story earlier today from the Saanich police on a sexual assault that happened this week-end. A few hours later I came acro...
Are you ready for live radio?
I've done several radio interviews now, first with the campaign to save the Canadian Pacific Lawn Bowling Club in 2008, and the last few years mostly for pr...
Podcast
Finding Purpose
Yesterday I had the pleasure of catching up with my friend Kerry, a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. This was an impromptu video where I pressed record, asked for a one...
Kris & Tamsin – Episode 2 - Death, and the Paradox of Choice
Only one URL referenced this podcast: Joe Rogan Experience Our questions, after you listen: Tamsin wants to know if we're normal, and if this podcast convers...
Kris & Tamsin - Episode 1 - How do you correct unexpected sleeping habits
[caption id="attachment_998" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Kris' voice the first half, Tamsin's on the second.[/caption]
Topic planning the creation of a podcast with Tamsin Smith
Planning topics for a podcast with Tamsin Smith; on Wednesday we plan on going to the gym, yoga, and then chatting through some of the following topics: Dis...
Starting a podcast with Tamsin Smith
I caught up with my friend Tamsin Smith after she spent a few weeks in Mexico, and we were talking about cleansing our mental palate, as well as starting a p...
Beer
Private Liquor Stores in British Columbia
This map I created of private liquor stores was originally posted to 250life.ca on Sept 8, 2011 and was one of the first uses of British Columbia's Open Gove...
Where to buy hop rhizomes in Canada
There appear to be only 6 places to buy hop rhizomes in Canada, if you know of any more, please let me know and I'll update the map. This will likely only be...
Don’t let the sun skunk your next beer
Ultraviolet (UV) light is the enemy of beer. The more UV a bottle will block, the less likely your beer is to go skunky, otherwise known as light struck fla...
Homebrew Korea: ‘Brew Your Best’ Fest
If you're in Seoul, Korea this week-end, stop by the Homebrew Korea's Brew Your Best Fest! For only 25,000won it's an all you can eat and drink event! I've b...
Productivity killer
What would you do for $5?
Could you build a list of things you'd do for $5? If so, check out FIVERR, but warning, I spent over 2 hours going through this site my first time. It's amaz...
Make up a new word, or reuse a known one
After hearing Stephen Fry talk about language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY I decided we should today try to make up a new word, or reuse an o...
Relax with Sonic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_YYL_TQpus
Flash based beat box
Just in case you were being productive today, I encourage you to turn your audio on, and give this a try, it's a flash based beatbox machine.
Food & Drink
Announcing: Black Tie Dinner - Vancouver on April 12th, 2018
Summary: Black Tie Dinner on April 12th, 2018 18:00 at the McDonalds on Main Street, one block south of Main Street Station. [Facebook Event] History: If yo...
Want something delivered right meow?
Life, like business, often comes down to the line between time and money. Next time you're feeling time constrained or especially lazy, consider Right Meow B...
Black Tie Dinner III
Exactly one year since the last one, it's time for Black Tie Dinner III! If you've never heard about black tie dinner, click here. This time we're taking ove...
What produce is in season?
Thanks to a conversation with Janice M and Maryanne C, a couple of Victoria's food experts and friends, I was pointed to a list of all of the fresh produce t...
Video
Finding Purpose
Yesterday I had the pleasure of catching up with my friend Kerry, a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. This was an impromptu video where I pressed record, asked for a one...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
Failure is a learning opportunity
I spend a lot of time in startups, and most startups fail. Those that live more standard and stable careers might not see it, but failure isn't a negative to...
Chipmunk
While visiting my cottage this year for the first time in years, I had a chipmunk stare at me at squeak for at least 10 minutes. I managed to get a minute of...
Non-profit
How Blockchain Can Help Solve One of the World’s Biggest Problems
Did you ever have one of those dreams where you come up with an awesome, world-changing idea but you wake up and realize you've forgotten the whole thing? We...
Center for Social Impact opening May 1st
A shared office space tentatively called ‘Center for Social Impact’ is opening May 1st next to Habit in Chinatown. A great opportunity for home desk folks to...
The Pathway Project
As I've been on both sides of the interview desk, I had the opportunity today to work with Jen and Randy last week who are doing amazing work at The Pathway...
For Sale
Schitt’s Creek closets going on sale for charity
If you watched Schitt's Creek, this Thursday they have 800 items going up for auction from the "closets of the Rose family". (Givenchy, Balenciaga, Alexande...
Ultra Modern Condo For Sale Downtown Victoria
I have a one bedroom condo for sale downtown Victoria priced at $239,999 $220,000. They say location is important in choosing real estate, this location is p...
CPR Partners desk for sale
I'm selling my (Canadian Pacific Railway) CPR Partners desk. It's the nicest desk I've ever owned, I refinished it myself. It is from pre-World War I (approx...
Alcohol
Life without alcohol
I just read the Chicago Tribune article on What I learned by not drinking for 2 years, and a lot of it hit home, having just hit the 1 year mark myself of li...
Government liquor stores (LDB) in British Columbia
This map of government liquor stores in British Columbia was originally posted to victoria.intoxicant.ca on May 18, 2012. After publishing a list of wineries...
Wineries in British Columbia
This map of wineries in British Columbia was originally posted to 250life.ca on Oct 10, 2011, and is one of the first uses of the B.C. Open Government Licens...
AI
3 Ai Tools Everyone Should Try
Most people have tried, or at least heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, and there are a lot of rapid advancements to AI every day. In this post I’ll highlight thre...
Opportunities In Ai
Here are the two exciting areas of opportunity I am working on in AI
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
Poetry
Language (poem)
I'm writing this poem in English. It is what I was raised to speak. I'm lucky and privileged, as I was raised to speak the business language accepted on eart...
Progressive Poetry Technology (Poem)
You can buy a motorized vehicle, for the price of the device I am typing this on. It's a lot more advanced than the poets of yesterday, who would use old tec...
InfoSec
I’m looking for smart phone recommendations
I'm not a fan of planned obsolescence, so I want a phone that will last. I currently have a Nexus 5, which is ~5 years old. Why I still like it: There are a ...
Thinking about where you’re making your DNS requests
Yesterday, Cloudflare announced their 1.1.1.1 DNS service. They provide a good primer on DNS, and what solution they are working to resolve. There was a lot ...
Collaborative Sunday Story Time
Collaborative Sunday Story Time - Oct 28, 2018
Add one sentence to the story as a comment:</p> "Choosing not to deeply understand the perspective of the other person, is choosing an ocellus over tru...
Collaborative Sunday Story Time
Add one sentence to the story as a comment, to continue the story. Once the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) realized they couldn't compete w...
TechTip
Plastic Free from Amazon
Open your Amazon account Select ‘Help’ from the main selection bar Select ‘Contact Us’ under ’Need more help?’ Start a Chat Request all future ord...
Website Creation
For 8 years I’ve run One Day Website which does domainname registration, Wordpress install and setup, and hosting for a year, for $299. This fills the niche ...
Voting
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
Open And Decentralized Online Voting
I’ve been thinking about online voting for over a decade, first from doing security audits on them, and realizing how deficient they are in structure and sec...
LLM
3 Ai Tools Everyone Should Try
Most people have tried, or at least heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, and there are a lot of rapid advancements to AI every day. In this post I’ll highlight thre...
Opportunities In Ai
Here are the two exciting areas of opportunity I am working on in AI
privacy
3 Ai Tools Everyone Should Try
Most people have tried, or at least heard of ChatGPT from OpenAI, and there are a lot of rapid advancements to AI every day. In this post I’ll highlight thre...
Opportunities In Ai
Here are the two exciting areas of opportunity I am working on in AI
Profile
Profile: Mitch Altman, hacker.
I had the opportunity to meet Mitch Altman in Tokyo a few years ago, at the Tokyo hackerspace. Mitch is a rare breed; he's got world class level of smart...
Peterborough
Project - Help someone out
This post is about my latest project idea - Help someone out. Version 0.2 - Oct 24th 10:08am EST. Check back regularly, as I'll be updating this post based o...
Cocktail
Life without alcohol
I just read the Chicago Tribune article on What I learned by not drinking for 2 years, and a lot of it hit home, having just hit the 1 year mark myself of li...
Deal
A Free One Day In-Kind Website
As you may know, about 8 years ago I started One Day Website for my friends who either don't want to figure out how to register a domain, setup web hosting, ...
Astronomy
The Lunar Occultation of Mars
At approximately 3:38 Pacific Time (Vancouver) Mars will disappear behind the moon, reappearing at 4:49:18 a.m. This is known in astronomy as the lunar occul...
BC
Bc Big Tree Map
I had the chance to attend Creative Mornings/Vancouver chapter this morning, where Amanda Lewis spoke on the topic of Biophilia, specifically about her pursu...
MarketResearch
What Would You Pay 3000 For
There are a lot of things that can make our lives and organizations better, but I’m looking to understand the really big ones.
BizDev
What Would You Pay 3000 For
There are a lot of things that can make our lives and organizations better, but I’m looking to understand the really big ones.
transparency
Impact Investment Economy
I started the year by talking about impact investing, and I thought it was a great subject to end off this year, where we’ve all been forced to reflect upon ...
investing
Impact Investment Economy
I started the year by talking about impact investing, and I thought it was a great subject to end off this year, where we’ve all been forced to reflect upon ...
Security
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
nostr
Creative Shirt
You’ve found me and my new creative shirt! We’re likely at SXSW or nostrica.com together!
GPT
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
AutoGPT
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
Entrepreneur
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
Social
Vancouver Community Events
December 11, 2023 | less than 1 minute read
UPDATE, Jan 19, 2024:
Bitcoin Custodial Wallets Are Fine
November 24, 2023 | 1 minute read
I propose the bitcoin/cryptocurrency industry refer to cold storage as your self-bank, as that is a more relevant equivalent to fiat, whereas a wallet can be...
Reconnecting With Loved Ones Ai Generated Liveliness For Comfort And Remembrance
April 18, 2023 | 2 minute read
Losing a loved one is one of the most challenging experiences we face in life. The void left behind can be immense, and finding ways to cope and remember can...
Whos Missing From The Table
November 08, 2022 | 2 minute read
When I hear of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives in the work place, it’s often used in a quota context, and that’s never sat well with me. I...
Bc Mesh Using Lora Devices
January 13, 2021 | 2 minute read
The social media post that started it from my friend Murray:
Accessible Family Friendly Online Games
January 10, 2021 | less than 1 minute read
With all of us at home, last March as soon as the pandemic was announced I launched ab8.ca with the intent on providing you a space to be online without foll...
Critical Thinking Around Astrology Religion And Vaccines
January 09, 2021 | 7 minute read
Last year I had my first birthday zoom call as we couldn’t meet in person. On the call I had my closest friends, including someone who works for pharma, as w...
The Global Economic Future
April 23, 2020 | 4 minute read
There is currently an opportunity to explore a different global economic future than we’ve had until now. I welcome you to spend some time on what that futur...
Fear Mongering
April 13, 2020 | 3 minute read
Under normal conditions, when I try to explain privacy and security concerns to people, the best way to do so can be considered fear mongering. Facts don’t u...
Social Distancing
March 15, 2020 | 1 minute read
A pandemic declaration means spend at least 14 days social distancing.
Ideas Guy
December 10, 2019 | 2 minute read
For over a decade I've been identified as "the ideas guy". This is mostly from founding ideasmeetings.org, which I ran for about 7 years in Victoria, BC, and...
Great Minds Talk About Ideas
November 10, 2019 | 4 minute read
There's a famous quote: Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People This quote is often attributed to Eleanor Roosev...
Redefining nerds & geeks
August 25, 2019 | less than 1 minute read
I think we need a new term for nerds. Nerds & geeks are still derogatory terms, even if said tongue-in-cheek and using them justifies people not learning...
Join Vancouver’s newest busking band.
October 25, 2018 | less than 1 minute read
Did you know the Vancouver public library rents instruments? While checking out their renovated top two floors and rooftop patio, I decided to challenge myse...
Collaborative Sunday Story Time
October 14, 2018 | less than 1 minute read
Add one sentence to the story as a comment, to continue the story. Once the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) realized they couldn't compete w...
Why don’t more women speak up?
September 28, 2018 | 2 minute read
I managed to miss most of the Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford hearing today, but caught the end of it. I knew going into it that not much would likely sway in public ...
What Keeps You Content? - Data Driven Wellness
March 10, 2017 | 3 minute read
What Keeps You Content? [meetup.com] Attendees Kris Leo Ivan Trevor Tyler Zee Jennifer Scott Harondel John Bill What keeps you content Kaggle (Google boug...
Emotional Intelligence - Data Driven Wellness
January 13, 2017 | 1 minute read
Last night Vancouver's Data Driven Wellness meetup met on the topic of Emotional Intelligence. These are my notes, mostly books and URLs that were mentioned ...
An inspiring talk for hackers with depression by Mitch Altman
January 05, 2017 | less than 1 minute read
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dch-_G3KdAU
Ideas - Vancouver meeting May 14th
May 13, 2015 | less than 1 minute read
This month, you're invited to join us at 18:00 at Matchstick Coffee (Chinatown - Vancouver) to discuss amongst other things: bio-tech: life with CRISPR-Cas9...
Logical Fallacies
May 04, 2015 | less than 1 minute read
"A fallacy is incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric resulting in a lack of validity, or more generally, a lack of soundness. Fallacies are either formal f...
Did you check snopes?
February 17, 2015 | 3 minute read
When I read articles, forwards or shares I know aren't true, sometimes I reply, sometimes I just delete them. I see the same emails getting forwarded around...
Vancouver Vending Machine Circuit
February 07, 2015 | 1 minute read
If you're looking for something unusual to do while in Vancouver, consider a photography challenge - each of the unique machines found in the Vancouver vendi...
I’m speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C.
July 31, 2012 | less than 1 minute read
I look forward to speaking at Pecha Kucha 10 this Thursday in Victoria, B.C. I'll be speaking on Ideas Meetings, what they are, where they started, where the...
Announcing: Vancouver Island Mini Maker Faire, and the Call for Makers
April 20, 2012 | less than 1 minute read
I had the opportunity to attend Vancouver's Mini Maker Faire last year, respresenting Victoria's makerspace, where we used our CO2 laser to etch peop...
The tender conscious of the herd
January 26, 2012 | less than 1 minute read
One of my younger brothers started a blog and I found a quote that really resonated with me, "[It] really wasn't a necessity. It was more of an atte...
Use social media as you want to
January 19, 2012 | 1 minute read
I see a lot of unsolicited directions on how to use social media contextually; don't be negative with social media! Don't auto-DM! Give origina...
Put a man in space? pfffht!
December 31, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
My friend Nick Farr and team have recently started Copenhagen Suborbitals which plan on launching a human into space. I'm lucky to know a lot of really talen...
Your social network
December 09, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
As people are justifiably upset with the privacy issues around Facebook, and several friends have left that network altogether recently, I've been wondering ...
Social Innovation in British Columbia
November 25, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
I'm fortunate to have been chosen as one of the top 500 social innovators in British Columbia, and have been invited to participate in the discussion around ...
What’s the cheapest North American meal?
November 24, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
After reading that the toast sandwich is officially the UK's cheapest meal, it made me wonder, what is the cheapest meal available in North America? Although...
Get out and vote!
November 16, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
I just completed a short rant to a few friends on Facebook who were claiming inaction to voting is an action, or they were pleading ignorance to even knowing...
Truth or Dare?
November 10, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
I asked "Truth or Dare?" on Facebook and Twitter yesterday. I've received over 50 comments between the two, so it seems like people want to play. I see there...
Defining your websites in LinkedIn
July 15, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
I noticed that by default when you enter your websites into LinkedIn, they usually say "Company website" or "Personal Website" without more details. This is ...
Make up a new word, or reuse a known one
July 08, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
After hearing Stephen Fry talk about language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY I decided we should today try to make up a new word, or reuse an o...
Leadership
June 18, 2011 | 1 minute read
To me, leadership is about helping others. When I was younger, it meant being the boss, but I realize now I was incorrect in my assumption. Last year I compl...
The sharing of ideas
April 25, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
While ideas meetings started in Victoria over three years ago, and IdeaWave 2 years ago, there are now a bunch of other community based idea sharing groups i...
What do you do that is interesting?
March 19, 2011 | 1 minute read
Since watching Christopher Bowers 2010 IdeaWave talk, I've tried to stop saying the standard hello/how are you if it's more than in passing, hoping to get so...
Announcing the Victoria Pop Choir
January 12, 2011 | less than 1 minute read
Nils Skalin is launching a Victoria Pop Choir. He says anyone can join, no matter what level of experience you have. He's created a Facebook group for those ...