Author: spierzchala

Nortel given more time to file updated fiscals

This story of woe and misery goes on and on.

Ok, Just read this at News.Com.

Frankly, if what this former employee of Waterstone’s (a partner of Amazon for the UK market) is alleged to have done is proved to have occurred, I have no problem with his dismissal. It comes down to common sense. Don’t talk about something in your Blog that you would not be willing to say to the same person or organization in person.

I know I am not really good about this myself, but since this trend appeared, I have been self-editing (not self-censoring) what I say to take into account who it is directed to, and how it might affect me if someone I know were to read the comment.

If more people used this common-sense approach, we would not be hearing of so many blog-related dismissals.

Frank Patrick describes it this way:

How often have you made a quick-and-dirty assessment of a situation "…unencumbered by the thought process"….(*)

All of that protein consumption gave us these brains; let’s use them,

Ok, so only one is really new; the other is heavily revised from its original state.

• Hit Tracking with PHP and MySQL demonstrates how to build your own simple tracking code, using PHP and MySQL. Relevant in the light of the recent SiteMeter outage

Geographic IP database using PERL, PHP and MySQL allows you to build your own geographic IP database using freely available data^**

Have fun with them; any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[**] I have removed this article due to the traffic it was generating.

Garth Drabinsky has finally been charged in Canada (here).

I worked in the event ticketing industry for a few years, and had a few friends who worked for Livent in a variety of capacities. I will not repeat the tales they told me, as I am not a sucker for legal punishment. Needless to say, when the Livent sandcastle began to crumble, no one in the industry was surprised.

It’s too bad because he did revive "event theatre" (as opposed to real theatre) in Canada. But, he and the Donald do have the most famous hair…

Guess that not everyone at Google became a millionaire and the happy GOOG is no longer the happy dorm it once was (here).

When the last company I worked for went public, one of the employees came bounding through the building showing off his multi-hundred thousand dollar cheque from his stock sale. Needless to say that this person was not my favourite after that.

Getting in on the ground floor means you have good connections or you are lucky, not that you are a better human being.

1. The Packers deserved to go down in flames. They played awful football.
2. I am saddened that both the Chargers and the Seahawks got the boot. The Seahawks because they are the closest NFL team to my point of origination (Victoria, BC); the Chargers because I have a soft spot for Doug Flutie, having seen his best years in the CFL.
3. The Colts look unstoppable.
4. Go Pats!

The Great Confusicator (Obsfucator?) has spent a lot of time stumping for Tort Reform this week. His primary example has been firms hit by Asbestos lawsuits.

I wonder if this is because Halliburton subsidiary KBR ended up going into Chapter 11 fighting an Asbestos lawsuit? (More here and here)

Wonder why no one is talking about this…or does the Washington press corps have a short memory?

I stand corrected — CBS MarketWatch does mention Halliburton in an Asbestos story. Right at the very bottom.

The ZenWife and I hail from Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island, the largest island off the Pacific Coast of North America. It is blessed with a mild Mediterranean climate, year-round.

Except now.

Apparently they are having a winter storm that has dumped more snow on the area than we have seen in Massachusetts this year.

Have fun!

Dan Gillmor mulls over the thought of whether the NY Times will charge for its online service.

My answer is: NO.

I am increasingly angered by newspapers that make their sites more and more irrelevant to me by hiding behind subscriptions and registrations. Do they need my marketing information?

If they will only make their online content available to subscribers, why have a dead-tree edition? Or vice-versa?

Online news is how the majority of my generation and younger get their information. Lead, follow, or get offline.

Jeremy has one final swing at the termination of his employment.

My take is that the response of HSC is very typical of any large firm who has been caught in a very public and almost untenable situation. And that they chose to discuss a personnel issue at all makes me see them in a very bad light. HR should know about the confidentiality rules in Canada.

The response of former employees also is typical of the response of full-time, politically-tenured employees to contractors in all organizations. I have seen this in almost all work cultures — "How dare he smear our company’s name; and he was just a contractor anyway".

Glad Jeremy has moved on; I will now drop the topic.