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@ianb: Heartwarming to see whales & salmon returning to Vancouver shores... a sign we are shedding our toxic behaviour: http://is.gd/eRTcK 2 hrs ago

Looking Forward to GROWing

by Ian on August 18, 2010 · 6 comments

Vancouver is the scene of a wonderfully diverse and burgeoning technology economy.  One effort I am making to shepherd this along is with a film I’ve been producing in partnership with the Vancouver Film School, Microsoft Canada, BCTIA, VEDC, and BC Innovation Council.  Another is of course the entrepreneurial endeavour begun by Patrick and I last summer, AppSocial Media.  That said, I am quite excited about the arrival of Grow 2010. [click to continue…]

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Vote for Obama, Get a Mac

by Ian on August 11, 2010 · 0 comments

hmmm.

Map Courtesy NPR

Map courtesy GigaOm

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Promote Vancouver, Promote Your Company

August 4, 2010

Thanks to generous support from the Vancouver Economic Development Commission, the BCTIA, the BC Innovation Council, Microsoft Canada, and others I have been quietly producing a film along with a team of digital designers from the internationally-acclaimed Vancouver Film School.  The goal of the film is to serve as a centrepiece in promoting our city [...]

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Steve Jobs apology? Not likely.

July 16, 2010

Lots of hubbub and hype about “antennagate” and Apple’s attempts to quash it today with a hastily-prepared press conference.  But does Apple really need to apologize for a cataclysm which exists largely in the nubbins of traffic-hungry bloggers and journalists?  No.

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In Response to Loreena McKennitt on Copyright

July 7, 2010

I am troubled by the heaping pile of dung, in the form of Canada’s Bill C-32, that is attempting to foist an American-style DMCA on unsuspecting and distracted Canadian consumers and, frankly, have been waiting to voice my opinion on said excrement.  Michael Geist, in his own kind and gentle manner, has today posited a [...]

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The Twitter Rebellion of 2010

April 12, 2010

Is this the beginning of a rebellion that could turn the tide of goodwill that has nurtured Twitter to prominence against it? I thought, as I read Fred Wilson’s now infamous Inflection Point screed last week, that it foreshadowed something significant.  Turns out I was correct.  Turns out that Fred, who is an investor in [...]

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Matt Cooke’s Dangerous Elbow

March 11, 2010

Matt Cooke, who like most NHL players is actually a nice guy off the ice, seems to suffer from a disorder that makes his on-ice personality the target of the ire of not only his opponents, but even his team-mates.  And now, like ripples through a still pond, a backlash is growing that may ultimately [...]

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On Stock Options

March 5, 2010

Over the past way-too-many years I’ve had occasion to interview north of 250 individuals for dozens of positions at both startups and large companies on both sides of the border.  Having spent my teething years (professionally) in the maelstrom of Silicon Valley I have come to be able to recognize many different character types and [...]

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The epic struggle of Big Telco

January 12, 2010

Dear Fred — I think your statement: “In the early days of the Internet, when dial-up was king, the telco companies were in the driver’s seat. They had the customer relationships. They had the on-ramp to the Internet. But they did not create Google, Skype, Facebook, or even TCP/IP.” … is misleading.  It assumes that [...]

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You Fucking Morons

January 6, 2010

I’m not usually one to get excited about this sort of stuff, but living as I do at pretty-much the epicentre of the coming Olympics in Vancouver 2010 issues of security, terrorism, and other such hysteria have got my spider-senses tingling.  I’m fairly convinced that, given Canada’s very active participation in NATO’s Afghan adventure and [...]

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