tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12037332009-02-21T03:13:16.591-08:00My occasional appearances online.Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.comBlogger423125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1150999975071324242006-06-22T11:08:00.000-07:002006-06-22T11:21:55.250-07:00

After having gone to Vegas for a hockey tournament, I'm heading back down for a friend's stag party. Should be a lot of fun.While packing this morning, I decided to check weather.com to see what kind of clothes to pack. As you can see, the 3 days forecast shows temperatures that I don't think I have ever been in. I remember one day in Vancouver it got to 38 or something, but I'm facing mid-40'

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1146034462454818242006-04-25T23:39:00.000-07:002006-05-08T07:56:46.476-07:00

Just hours from now, I'll be jetting off to Las Vegas to play in the Gambler's Cup, a hockey tournament put on by Canadian Hockey Enterprises.My team is made up of regulars from our hockey group at work, along with a couple of outsiders to pad our ranks. But even with the hired guns, we can barely field 2 lines and our defensemen will have to double and triple shift. It'll be a tough set of

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1144963771666511282006-04-13T14:27:00.000-07:002006-04-16T13:58:41.233-07:00

It took long enough, but I am finally ready to move blogging platforms to WordPress.I briefly reviewed the available platforms some time ago, but just didn't get to the move details until just recently. With the way my life works, I doubt I will actually have anything up before May, but we can always hope. See you from WP soon enough.

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1143874606163159522006-03-31T22:33:00.000-08:002006-04-01T17:04:00.980-08:00

I forgot to post that I was lucky enough to play hockey at GM Place a few weeks ago.I play hockey at 8 Rinks Burnaby with a crew from work, and the surface there is utterly crap. I think the bartender comes down and hack out a few chips for highballs from various places on the rink. So, it was a blessing to play on a well-maintained surface with the ability to actually see the painted

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1141678919709217862006-03-06T12:28:00.000-08:002006-04-05T20:45:30.893-07:00

After a long absence from investing in RSPs, I decided to get back in the game and start saving for my retirement.What I conveniently forgot about was the hassles of determining how to allocate my contributions. Risk tolerance, investment horizon, outcome expectations and a few other variables make the process even more complicated.I found that my financial advisor was reluctant to help me out,

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1141373751707469262006-03-03T00:13:00.000-08:002006-06-12T22:05:31.376-07:00

Someone keeps calling me from a payphone and hangs up without leaving a message. They should either stop calling or leave a message.Maybe it's a mime.Update - Apparently the mystery caller decided to leave a comment here (now deleted) that illustrated their lack of grammar as well as some severely poor spelling. Must be a homeless mime.

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1139607065400030092006-02-10T13:13:00.001-08:002006-02-10T13:31:05.413-08:00

I'm taking part in a collaborative meeting idea called Moosecamp, an event supporting the Northern Voice conference in my home town of Vancouver.I am part of a educational blogging initiative where I work, and there are a number of sessions that are of interest to me. So far it's been fun, but I have a couple of suggestions:Internet Access: If you are having a conference on blogs, make some

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1139607057927280222006-02-10T13:13:00.000-08:002006-02-10T13:30:59.553-08:00

I'm taking part in a collaborative meeting idea called Moosecamp, an event supporting the Northern Voice conference in my home town of Vancouver.I am part of a educational blogging initiative where I work, and there are a number of sessions that are of interest to me. So far it's been fun, but I have a couple of suggestions:Internet Access: If you are having a conference on blogs, make some

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1139357418998419022006-02-07T16:06:00.000-08:002006-02-07T16:11:02.283-08:00

Sometimes I see a cartoon and it makes me laugh each time it trips back in my mind for a few hours or sometimes a few days. This one is doing that for me right now.Derek sent a link to a great single-panel cartoon a while ago. Still makes me laugh each time I see it.

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1138090077241838262006-01-23T23:49:00.000-08:002006-01-24T00:07:57.296-08:00

I am always on the lookout for current standards-compliant sites to use examples for my Web Development course. During my weekly reading of the Information Design mailing list, I saw an entry for UX Mag, a new online venture dedicated to the frequently misunderstood field of User Experience.Not only does the site boast XHTML Strict code, but it's design is driven by CSS that sports a convertible

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1135213606870322082005-12-21T16:53:00.000-08:002005-12-21T17:09:19.716-08:00

I love my iPod nano, but there is one user interface oversight that drives me crazy.On-the-Go is a feature that allows you to create a playlist as you listen to music. When a song comes up that you want group with your other favorites, select the song title and hold down the centre-button. The song title flashes to let you know it's now part of your On-the-Go playlist. All this is done without

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1135186838518131752005-12-21T09:13:00.000-08:002005-12-21T11:11:37.306-08:00

Derek's Seussian brain-post reminds me of a crazy idea I had a few years ago. I wanted to have a site where people could upload images of what they thought their brain activity looked like. I was inspired by the Mirror Project, where I had uploaded a number of images (1, 2, 3, 4), including this one that was selected by none other than Jason Kottke to be in a gallery titled: Movie auditions for

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1135119038751924232005-12-20T14:28:00.000-08:002005-12-20T17:56:42.580-08:00

The 2005 Year-End Google Zeitgeist was published today, and it contains some interesting graphs from the past year's search patterns. You can find regularly updated lists on the Google Zeitgeist page, and you can even find listings from many different countries (Canada is not one of them, however).Some observations from September 2005: Something about the #1 search in Russia being "furniture"

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1135064267654843452005-12-19T23:26:00.000-08:002005-12-20T16:11:04.563-08:00

I have recently discovered Ruby on Rails, a web development framework that is built around Ruby, an object-oriented programming language.Rails was developed by 37 Signals, the company behind the excellent Basecamp, Backpack, Ta-Da Lists and others.The Rails community that has built up around RoR is an interesting one. The learning curve is a gentle slope with the many resources available to

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1135063403692231032005-12-19T23:06:00.000-08:002005-12-19T23:25:53.726-08:00

Okay, I'm back at it. Despite the fact that I mentioned I was going with WordPress a few months ago, I have since recanted and I am in the midst of a full-fledged review of each.I have both Movable Type 3.2 and WordPress 1.5.x installed at Alistair.com and I am giving both of them a run for the money.There have already been many WP vs MT reviews (such as the WP vs MT comparison, a screenwriter's

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1126157911697237252005-09-07T22:24:00.000-07:002005-09-07T22:42:36.836-07:00

After admiring the original iPod, nearly purchasing some of the later iPod models, trying out an iPod Shuffle, I jumped at the chance to purchase the new iPod nano.The Shuffle is great, but without a screen, I find it a bit lacking. Once I saw the nano announcement, all the pieces fell in place: 4 Gb - Large enough for my library, as well as storing images, and other files Colour screen -

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1125989876811493232005-09-05T23:39:00.000-07:002005-09-06T14:46:26.650-07:00

On the night before a new term at the post-secondary institution that employs me, I am making some modifications to server in preparation for thousands of logins.Each fall term is a harsh reminder that my summer is over. Not that I get much of a summer in my job. For me, those months are reserved for getting things done while students, faculty and a lot of staff are off doing summery

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1125472992886957252005-08-31T00:22:00.000-07:002005-08-31T00:28:43.753-07:00

Seriously, what is cooler than a pink, flying-V ukulele?

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1124733986091314692005-08-22T10:52:00.000-07:002005-08-22T11:06:26.096-07:00

While checking a few of my favorite sites, I came across Engadget 1985, a mock version of what their site would have looked like as a BBS 20 years ago.Interestingly, I remember almost all of the stuff they feature at the site. Reminds me that I've been a part of geek culture for more than two decades. I don't have a version of myself from that time, but I can point to my friend Derek. I

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1121970055962747282005-07-21T11:01:00.000-07:002005-07-21T23:52:19.666-07:00

I'm back after an extended absence here at Alistair.com. I've been working on many other projects and have gotten overwhelmed in the last few months.During that time away from my site, I have seen a lot of examples of things I'd like to do. They include: Site renovationI have talked about this before, but this time I really want to get it done. However, this time around, I will likely strip it

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1115145668940728182005-05-03T11:32:00.000-07:002005-05-03T11:59:14.816-07:00

Since this is my blog and I'm not about to share my online space, I decided to create a blog for Finnegan.Then someone pointed me at Dogster, which is a great site that allows you to create a profile for your pup and even a blog.So, here is Finney's Dogster profile.

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1111680981881580432005-03-24T08:15:00.000-08:002005-05-03T00:32:04.006-07:00

I've changed the gallery that contained a few pictures of Finney. Hopefully this will work for most people (I apologize for the look... I need to fix that).

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1110990025781979122005-03-16T08:14:00.000-08:002005-03-16T08:30:10.696-08:00

After some registration details going back and forth, I am fairly confident that my pup will be officially registered this week.Here he is in all his glory: KijabeWinds Thane of CawdorDoesn't he look regal?His call name is Finnegan (commonly referred to as Finney, Finn or NO!). He has proven to be a good student when there are treats around, and a very bad boy when it comes to jumping up on the

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1109724849574930992005-03-01T16:45:00.000-08:002005-03-01T16:54:09.576-08:00

That was as chaotic a move as I have ever experienced. As someone who has moved about 18 times, that's a strong statement. Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong as every day seems to have brought more stress to the entire process. However, I did get my new pup finally and he seems to be happy in his new home, which happens to be my new home as well. Right now, I am sitting in my

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1203733.post-1109004631963110402005-02-21T08:50:00.000-08:002005-02-22T14:38:55.196-08:00

Infrared TreeOriginally uploaded by Alistair. This infrared photo was taken years ago with my ancient Canon 35mm. I had seen some great infrared pictures in a photography magazine and thought "hey, I should try that out". The quality wasn't what I was expecting, but the results were pretty impressive for a first go at it. I still have a few rolls of IR film, but the camera that I was using no

Alistairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06311699636276075459noreply@blogger.com0