ian andrew bell

We all have our stories of a family’s sacrifice in wars.  Mine is not very much different.  In 1914, the dominion of Canada was prevailed upon to ship nearly ten percent of its population across the Atlantic to pursue a fruitless and unnecessary war.  Ten percent of those men never returned.  Fortunately, both my Grandfather and Great Grandfather survived their experiences.

Like many whose scars were more than skin deep my grandfather, John Cunningham Aitken, returned from serving as a corporal with the Royal Scots to his family in Port Glasgow, Scotland and never spoke of his wartime exploits again (though he received the Belgian Croix de Guerre in 1918, among other decorations).  I never had the chance to know him, as he died when my mother was 15.

On the other end of the spectrum my great grandfather returned to Manitoba from Vimy Ridge just as deeply affected by what he saw and experienced and sought to share the grim realities of war with all who would listen.  As a writer and an educator, he did what came naturally.  Of going over the top in the final battle at Vimy Ridge William Markle Pecover (Grandpa Mark to me) wrote: Read More

It seems there’s some interest in the San Fernando Valley as well!

My soon-to-be-wife often criticizes that I spend too much of my life attached to my MacBook Pro. This assertion has now been validated by the Vancouver Sun and NowPublic, who graciously ranked me at #15 in their article documenting Vancouver’s most “online” personalities. When fellow list members like Matthew Good are driving tens of thousands of visitors per day, lots are griping about the others among us who… uhh.. aren’t. Why did I make the list, with only a handful of monthly postings and a meagre few thousand visitors per month, you might ask?

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File this item under the “triumph of compromise and the death of innovation” category, dear readers. Here is a car I would be delighted to buy, unveiled in January 2007 — The Chevy Volt concept car:

It’s a car so popular that it was requested for the upcoming Transformers movie by the director. Graceful, aggressive styling made it clear that, where Priuses and their ilk have become the equivalent of a worsted hemp-wool sweaters, this would not be your mom’s Hybrid.
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As some of you know, I have experienced some recent [ahem] frustration while trying to build a technology business in Vancouver.

I experienced some catharsis last night reading Kevin Curry’s (is he a real person?) comments on the Vancouver startup scene over at TechVibes. You should really follow the link and participate in the discussion @ TechVibes, but I have pasted my thoughts and response below as well, for posterity:

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“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

— Confucius

Let’s face it. It’s sleek. It’s one of the fastest browsers out there for OS X. It syncs with my .Mac account, so I have a seamless browsing experience on all of my Macs. But, alas, I have a love/hate relationship with OS X Safari. I come back to it every once in a while for a few weeks, have a great time, and then things start turning sour. And by sour, I mean bitter, nasty, and hair-pullingly difficult.

When I get to these moments I invariably go back to Firefox. Firefox and Safari are different in as many ways as they are the same…

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I used to have this on my network server somewhere (it’s about 3 years old) but this is something that needs to be shared with the world.

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I keep forgetting to blog about this, or perhaps it’s because I’m ashamed of my wardrobe and bad hair day, but FindFindr did a far-ranging video interview with me on a rooftop in Gastown. I did my best to be interesting. They did their best in the editing room later. Enjoy!

Guess what? I’m a real person. I’ll be at the blogtropol.us lounge @ the Web 2.0 Expo for the next couple of days. Come and meet me and the boys from Something Simpler.

No stick or puck required.