Vancouver Secrets

Tech Tips - How To Get On Google

photo credit: Yodel Anecdotal

I get this question from website owners at least once a week:

“How do I get my site on Google?”

Finally Google has put together an easy guide to what they look for and best practices to follow. All the steps are easy to do.

The interesting thing about this guide is that the basics - that have existed for years -still rule.

You can read their post here, or download the guide directly from this link.

If you have a WordPress blog use this plugin - it does a lot of the tagging for you.

See you on Google.

Cool Tool - Finding Video In Your Neighborhood

A cool Firefox application… search YouTube for local video - it shows the results to you on a map.

The YouTube team just released an application that merges Google Gears geolocation and the video geo search. Using this demo application, you can find nearby videos based on your location. It will add the plugin you need automatically.

Have fun.

From a Technological Perspective, It Is The Beginning

From Drudge:

SICK SURVEILLANCE: GOOGLE REPORTS FLU SEARCHES, LOCATIONS TO FEDS

GOOGLE will launch a new tool that will help federal officials “track sickness”.

“Flu Trends” uses search terms that people put into the web giant to figure out where influenza is heating up, and will notify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in real time!

GOOGLE, continuing to work closely with government, claims it would keep individual user data confidential: “GOOGLE FLU TRENDS can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week.”

Engineers will capture keywords and phrases related to the flu, including thermometer, flu symptoms, muscle aches, chest congestion and others.

Dr. Lyn Finelli, chief of influenza surveillance at CDC: “One thing we found last year when we validated this model is it tended to predict surveillance data. The data are really, really timely. They were able to tell us on a day-to-day basis the relative direction of flu activity for a given area. They were about a week ahead of us. They could be used… as early warning signal for flu activity.”

Thomas Malone, professor at M.I.T.: “I think we are just scratching the surface of what’s possible with collective intelligence.”

Eric Schmidt, GOOGLE’s chief executive vows: “From a technological perspective, it is the beginning.”

Site here.

Scary stuf. What’s to stop them from reporting on other searches?

Remember Eric - don’t be evil…

photo credit: exacq

Google Search Patterns More Reliable Than Polls?

The Google blog has an interesting post on the search trends during the debate last night on the terms people search during the debate… and how you can get insight into people’s thoughts.

It reflects the topics that grabbed the viewer and also the mood.

People searched the meaning of several key words as the candidates presented: morass, commodity, junket, cynicism, and cronyism were a few. Hmmm.

People were also quite interested in both Meg Whitman and Warren Buffett, both mentioned as possible candidates for the Secretary of Treasury, but the biggest was Senator McCain’s paraphrasing of Theodore Roosevelt’s motto.

Both candidates spoke against genocide while discussing the role of the United States as a peacekeeper, nuclear energy and weapons were prominent topics.

It also seems that Queries containing “Biden” and “Palin” had higher peaks during last week’s debate than did “McCain” and “Obama” queries last night.

Google’s search results agree with my thoughts - the debate sucked last night… Tom Brokaw killed what could have been a good debate.

Wonder of this works for Canadian debates?

No More Embarassing E-mails

‘Mail Goggles’ stops e-mails you wish you’d never sent.

Google is now helping people avoid sending embarrassing e-mails after a night of taking on a few too many.

Mail Goggles, prevents drunk e-mailing by asking a few simple math problems that must be answered within a number of seconds before the message can be sent through Gmail.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it’ll check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you’re in the right state of mind?

By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you’re most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it’s active in the General settings.

If they would add this feature to the CBC’s blog, imagine how much damage it could avoid.

Is The Media Really That Biased?

photo credit: ♥♥peppersmom♥♥

Welcome To The Harper Derangement Syndrome.

Search Google news for Stephen Harper and you’ll see exactly how biased the media is against him.

The top of the Goggle results start with this quote:

“Last night, Stephane, you panicked,” … “Your platform says we will spend billions of dollars we don’t have and go into deficit. (You) will raise taxes that will kill jobs”

Keep in  mind that most people don’t read the story - just the headlines…

The media is actively campaigning against the Conservatives and Harper - giving the equivalent of millions of dollars of advertising to the other parties.

I expect this in Vancouver where we have two newspapers owned by the same company… but you’d think that there would be one newspaper in Canada that isn’t far left.

Which leads me to question:

What are the papers in Canada so afraid of that they would compromise their integrity this way?

Isn’t the media supposed to balance coverage of the parties?

The papers are partisan hacks, and lack the balls to objectively look at what’s best for the country.

The NDP will crush the economy, the Liberals would return Canada to cronyism while holding us back through socialism, and the Green Party would take us back a century.

The Conservatives will move Canada forward globally, get government out of legislating behavior, and open Canada for business… I don’t see that as a bad thing.

Or, is it because Harper is from the west?

Cool Way To Spend NDP Money

photo credit: brooklyn tyger

I’ve read the NDP needs campaign funds fast.

If I wanted to be mischievous, I’d tell you how to play a game to see how much they have remaining…

1. Search Jack Layton (Google or Yahoo)

2. Click on the Sponsored Links on the right.

3. Spend a few moments on the site. Enjoy.

3. You’ve just cost the NDP campaign budget 50-80 cents.

Once the ad below is gone, you know they spent their daily budget.

Sample ads:

Layton takes on Big Oil

Finally, a prime minister who’ll
put your family first. Donate now.
NDP.ca

or

Join Jack Layton’s Team

Finally, a PM who’ll put you and your family first. Donate now.
JackLayton.ca

The Liberal party doesn’t seem to be buying Google ads - hmmm.

150 Years Old - Vancouver’s History

photo credit: Mikey G Ottawa

You’d think after 150 years there would be a lot to talk about, historic events that would capture imagination, and the web would be full of articles.

Some interesting sites inform us that Vancouver was know as the city of squatters for the first 100 odd years… and quite a few riots. Vancouver was named after Captain George Vancouver who spent only one day on the site.

Other notable achievements include the first Hudson Bay Store, the “Arena” that opened its doors in 1911 - Canada’s first artificial ice rink opens to the public, and we’re still waiting for the Canucks to win the cup.

I’ll probably end up on page one of Google, as there doesn’t seem to be a lot to talk about. You’d think Vancouver would have more sites covering important events from the past 150 years…

Being 150 years old would set the founding date at 1858. But the Dominion of Canada was not established until 1867, which puts Canada at 141 years old. The province of B.C. joined Confederation in 1871, so the province is really only 137 years old.

So how do they come up with 150 years?

Apparently in 1858, Sir James Douglas became the first governor of the new “Colony of British Columbia.” That same year Douglas also appointed the first public servants (now known as Government Agents) to collect taxes and issue licences in the new colony.

Vancouver also became know as the city of squatters for the next 100 odd years… and quite a few riots.

What the province is really celebrating is 150 years of British Columbians paying taxes. Very appropriate as the tend has continued unabated for all these years.

Here’s 150 years in a nutshell:

• One of the events that pushed the founding of BC was the discovery of gold in the interior Cariboo region of British Columbia. The region was being overrun by thousands of gold seekers and there was an urgent need to ensure that the sovereignty of the area was maintained and that there was law and order in the goldfields. Tax was invented.
• The first wave of Chinese immigrants to Canada moved north from San Francisco in 1858. They came to British Columbia to prospect for gold on the Fraser River. Working as gold miners, laundrymen and market gardeners, they also became teamsters, coal miners, salmon canners and servants. Mainly men, they had left their wives and families behind in China; much of their Canadian earnings was sent home to care for their families. Now they all are here… Personal tax was invented.
• Today they have taxes for environment, sales tax, gas tax, personal and property tax, disposal fees (taxes), recycling fees (taxes), government insurance (the most clever of taxes), property transfer fees (tax), and the list goes on and on.
• They are spending $6.6 million  to support activities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the colony of British Columbia during 2008. More tax money needed.

So I’d like to wish the government of BC a happy 150 years… and the tradition of finding new and creative ways of taxing BC residents.

A Mountie Always Gets His Man

photo credit: nikki_tate

From Steven Smart of CTV.ca

This year marks another first for what has become a key event on the city’s summer calendar.

For the first time, the RCMP will be officially entering the Vancouver Pride parade.

The Mounties say it’s important they’re seen to reflect the communities they serve.

“We want to show the overall community that we support the gay community as well as supporting that contingent of this community that works within our rank and file,” said RCMP Sgt. Tim Shields.

Parade organizers and participants say this is a big step.

“That’s awesome, you know, they say every Mountie gets his man,” said Ken Boesem, a regular participant in the parade.

“For a long time it’s sort of been an oppositional thing between the culture gay society, gay culture, and the police force,” he said. “There’s sort of a fear of the police because it’s been outlawed or against the law so it’s kind of building bridges.”

But don’t look for the 12 RCMP officers taking part to get too wild.

They’ll be shying away from the more provocative parade displays. But given how big a step it is for the Mounties to even be in the parade, it’s not likely anyone will mind.

Pride began some 30 years ago as a small local march and has grown into a nationally and internationally recognized parade and festival bringing more than 400,000 people into the streets of Vancouver’s West End. In the last three decades Pride has grown into the one of Vancouver’s premier events and Canada’s longest running parade.

The Pride Parade starts at 12 pm, August 3, at Robson and Thurlow, heads West down the hill to Denman street, follows Denman to Pacific and then finishes at Sunset Beach. The route map is here.

If you’re not one for parades…

Pride Festival
Sunday, August 3, 2008   12:00 - 6:00PM
Sunset Beach Map: Google Map
Price: Free for all

Celebrations continue after the Parade at Sunset Beach festival site. Expect a crowd that reaches over 80,000 people in the park listening to the live music on the Vancity Festival Stage, with a Pride beer garden.

Don’t Buy A Strata In Vancouver

photo credit: penmachine

If you decide to buy (?) think twice of the property is a strata. A strata is basically a political board - and we all know how politics work in BC.

Some of the fun things you’ll get if you do buy a strata include:

* There’s no source of legislation interpretation to let you in on the operation of strata corporations according to law (search Google and let me know if you find anything),
* They do not need to inform owners and purchasers of the financial implications of the condition of common property,
* No need for an audit of strata finances even where the strata corporation has hundreds of thousands of dollars in a reserve fund, and
* The lack of prosecution of developers operating contrary to strata legislation.

In other words, the strata typically becomes a group of self-serving busy bodies, with the ability to harass, ignoring problems with common areas, and getting away with it.

The lack of audited financial leaves the system wide open for misappropriation of funds.

A neighbor of mine has been fighting with his strata for over a year, as they will not fix the exterior of his condo. They won’t let him do it himself and have made his life hell. His property has taken a hit and he has nowhere to turn.

His only option is to sue, and the cost is very high. And the strata board knows it.

Look out for buildings where there are foreign investors also. They won’t vote or participate in the strata’s decisions. This can create a lot of problems.

The “leaky condos” mess should have brought radical changes to stratas, but I guess legislators were too busy passing lifestyle laws and finding new sneaky ways to tax us, to really care about condo owners financial security.