I hadn’t planned to talk about the new Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches ad campaign but I couldn’t help but chat about it with a few Google+ friends and bringing up my love of the 2006 awardwinningEvolution campaign. Anyway, while Sketches nowhere near as good as Evolution, I like some element of the campaign enough to share it here.
Now that Calgary Parking Authority (CPA) has settled the Parkplus parking management system ownership dispute and disclosed some key information (see endnotes), this reporter feels comfortable in sharing an exclusive inside look at one piece of evidence against Mr. Dale Fraser’s ownership claim without risking harm to the city and CPA’s legal case.
This key piece of evidence (you can judge for yourself to see if you agree it is “key” or not) was an August 2008 video interview with Mr. Dale Fraser conducted by this reporter. In the extensive August 2008 interview (where Alderman Dale Hodges was also interviewed), a variety of ParkPlus topics (including patents) were discussed. This video evidence was almost “lost” at one point as it was originally uploaded and stored on the now discontinued Google Video service!
Fortunately, after some help from a Google engineer friend, the August 2008 interview was recovered along with a few hundred uploaded videos. The video interview was useful enough that Calgary Parking Authority licensed it to help its case which is why I’m claiming this as an “exclusive inside look“.
Unlike the parties involved in the legal settlement (Calgary Parking Authority, City of Calgary, Mr. Dale Fraser, and Mr. Allan Bazar), I am an independent reporter and not bound by any confidentiality agreement.
An exclusive inside look at a key piece of evidence
In the August 2008 interview, former Calgary Parking Authority General Manager Mr. Dale Fraser told this reporter,
”Calgary Parking Authority did create the proprietary approach to this new parking system. And we [CPA] do have a patent-pending on this approach at this time.”
During the 30+ minutes interview, at NO point did Mr. Fraser leave this reporter with the impression the pending Canada/US ParkPlus patent was his (or his & Mr. Allan Bazar’s) personal invention or intellectual property. In fact, Mr. Fraser seemed to me quite clear in explaining the system was developed by MTS Allstream with the funds/resources from Calgary Parking Authority.
US patent is one of the most important ones to apply for, simply because the US is one of the largest markets and it has a reasonably strong patent protection regime.
[Please note that the interview is protected by copyright. License and use requests (including for press and media) are to be submitted via email and will be handled promptly.]
Endnotes: Although the settlement agreement has confidentiality clauses, the parties agree to disclose the following information (emphasis added) and I quote from the Media Release – ParkPlus Settlement – April 2013,
“(1) The Defendants, Dale Fraser, Allan Bazar and 1707626 Alberta Ltd., (now Intelli-Park Corporation) acknowledge that the City of Calgary and CPA are the exclusive owners of the ParkPlus SystemTM and that none of the Defendants has any right, title or interest whatsoever in the ParkPlus SystemTM; (2) While the ParkPlus SystemTM is valuable and all necessary consideration for settlement is acknowledged, there is no payment by the City of Calgary or CPA of any money whatsoever to any of the Defendants or any other person; (3) The claims and counterclaims in the action will be wholly discontinued without costs; and (4) The parties release each other from all claims and counterclaims in the action including any claims relating to the ParkPlus SystemTM or the employment of Dale Fraser and Allan Bazar with the City of Calgary and CPA.“
Happy 92nd Birthday to Professor Emeritus C.C. Kelly Gotlieb, (Wikipedia) “Father of Computing in Canada”, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. I am happy to be able to reach Kelly today to wish him happy birthday, good health and all the best!
In recent weeks, I had the honour and pleasure to interview Kelly extensive twice, once via video using Google+ Hangout On Air, another time using Skype audio. Have a watch & listen. Enjoy. Happy 92nd birthday Kelly!
ScrewYouApple is a tiny Pentalobe screw-inspired film of action that plans to formally ask Apple to stop screwing customers & Think Different again! ScrewYouApple will explore Apple’s multi-billion dollar cash-generating machine (possibly including the powerful App store) and also document my journey to formally ask Apple to stop screwing customers and get Apple to return to the inspiring ideals set out in Apple’s iconic Think Different “The Crazy Ones” Ad campaign. In a creative manner for a documentary, I intend to use a Shareholder Proposal as defined by the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (specifically Rule 14a-8) to formally ask Apple to Think Different again!
Please support the making of ScrewYouApple by choosing a perk on the right of the screen to join us on this epic journey, to try to change the world for the better.
ScrewYouApple is a tiny Pentalobe screw-inspired film of action that plans to formally ask Apple to stop screwing customers & Think Different again! ScrewYouApple will explore Apple’s multi-billion dollar cash-generating machine (possibly including the powerful App store) and also document my journey to formally ask Apple to stop screwing customers and get Apple to return to the inspiring ideals set out in Apple’s iconic Think Different “The Crazy Ones” Ad campaign. In a creative manner for a documentary, I intend to use a Shareholder Proposal as defined by the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (specifically Rule 14a-8) to formally ask Apple to Think Different again!
Please support the making of ScrewYouApple by choosing a perk on the right of the screen to join us on this epic journey, to try to change the world for the better.
If the 1989 documentary “Roger & Me” could be simplistically summed up as a film about director Michael Moore pursuing General Motor CEO Roger Smith to confront him about GM’s harm to Flint, Michigan, then may be ScrewYouApple could also be simplistically summed up as a feature-length documentary about crowd funders & supporters of ScrewYouApple combining our voices to try toformally ask Apple senior executives and shareholders to stop screwing customers and to Think Different again.
The creative spark for ScrewYouApple came from the tiny Pentalobe screws inside a MacBook Pro (see picture). I wondered what design/engineering purposes would the five-pointed Pentalobe screws have in serving Apple or its customers? After doing some research (CNet & iFixit), I learned the tamper-resistant Pentalobe screws (now used in wide range of Apple devices including iPhones) are there to stop customers from performing simple upgrades/repairs like replacing a battery, etc (in a sense to “screw” the customers) so that Apple can make more money. These tiny screws can be viewed as tips of Apple icebergs floating on top a sea change.
With your support, ScrewYouApple will explore the Apple’s multi-billion cash-generating machine (possibly including the powerful App store) and also document my journey toformally ask Apple to stop screwing us (one possible question: stop the use of Pentalobe screws) and get Apple to Think Different again (returning to the inspiring ideals set out in “The Crazy Ones“). (more about “formally ask” in Q&A #2)
Specifically,ScrewYouApple will include a look at the changes/evolution happening in Apple from the 1997 Think Different days to the 2013 Apple of today holding billions of cash. And to reach out to “screwed” Apple customers/former fans to hear and collect some of their stories. By makingScrewYouApple a crowd-supported feature-length documentary, the film aims to transform our singular voices into something loud and clear enough for Apple to notice. The making of ScrewYouApple can be viewed as an example of Marshall McLuhan’s famous quote, “The Medium is the Message.” (more details in Q&A #3)
Please support the making of ScrewYouApple by choosing a perk on the right to join us on this epic journey, to try to change the world for the better. The film’s current target completion date will depend on when I can “formally ask” Apple but you will receive many updates and video clips to watch from me along our epic journey if the fixed-funding campaign goal is met by the deadline!
Thanks for your support in making this film possible,
Kempton Lam (director & producer)
P.S. I don’t hate Apple. In fact, you may be surprised by Q&A #1.
Kempton’s filmography
In 2004, Kempton single-handedly directed, produced, shot, and edited his documentary directorial debut “Long Hair Revolution“. The 71 minutes Long Hair Revolution is a film about the then newly elected Hong Kong legislator Leung Kwok-hung (nickname “Long Hair”), a Che Guevara t-shirt wearing rebel/activist. In 2005, Long Hair Revolution world premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival.
P.S. I would really really LOVE to know what the discussion was like at the post-talk dinner table ! :)
P.P.S. I am aware that some hockey players are affect by CTE as well and we Canadians should be ashamed of ourselves in doing nothing about it while enjoying our hockey games!
Very interesting to see Minister Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, today hosted the Government of Canada’s first Google Hangout to talk about Government of Canada’s Open Data initiative. Great to see the good old Government of Canada starting to use G+. Well, this event seemed to have come out of the blue and quietly finished before most Canadians got a chance to watch it live. Hopefully there will be more advance notice (a few days at least) to allow broader participation next time.
“Participants in the Hangout, which is a virtual, live-stream discussion, included Ray Sharma, Toronto mobile app developer; Edward Ocampo-Gooding, co-founder of Open Data Ottawa; Albert Lai, Toronto game developer; Kevin Merrit, a Seattle-based Open Data platform developer; and Ashley Casovan, Strategic Coordinator for Information Technology for the City of Edmonton.
“The opportunity for Canadian entrepreneurs to utilize Open Data to develop innovative applications has amazing potential,” said Ray Sharma, President, mobile games developer XMG Studio Inc. “I see not only the opportunity for developers but there is a greater potential impact. And that is to the Canadian citizens who should be able to literally experience a benefit in economic productivity. We are just at the cusp of this emerging phenomenon, and participating in the Google Hangout was a great beginning.”
The Hangout discussion explored some of the 273,000 datasets currently available on the Government’s Open Data portal, as well as plans to launch an updated, next-generation portal later this year. Participants provided feedback on what data they would find useful, as well as what some of the key features of the new portal should be in order to encourage greater data uptake.”
Thanks +Google Canada for posting the video link so I can find it easily here.
note: article is crossed posted by me to examiner.com
Here are a few videos about Bob Dylan posted by Christopher Sykes. I LOVE interviews, masterful interviews done well are awesome to watch. These interviews are very cool. You get to see Bob drew Christopher LIVE on camera!
So I thought to spend a few minutes to look up an insightful documentary I watched in 2011 to try to illuminate the important issue that there are NO 100% male or 100% female. I am NOT 100% male. The real scientific reasoning is complex but not that difficult to understand. The human stories and the human impact take more compassion to appreciate and accept.
Here is the insightful BBC documentary “Me, My Sex and I” last broadcast on Oct, 2011. Someone posted the full documentary online that you can watch (video is flipped but you can still get most of the important points).
NOTE: I moderate comments on this post, any comments that appear to be made without watching the documentary or understanding the issues first will be deleted.
After all these years, I still remember the thrill in taking my first year UT Comp. Sci class in 1987 with prof. Cook! And it remains an honour (and bragging right) to have taken the famous third year CSC364 Computability and Complexity class with prof. Cook and seeing him proved to us 3-satisfiability and taught us P v. NP, etc. I am truly excited for prof. Cook!
Last week, I asked prof. Kelly Gotlieb “Father of Computing in Canada” for his thoughts about some giants in computer science, here is what Kelly has to say about Steve (video clip).
“What drew you to this field – and to this particular focus? I enrolled as a mathematics graduate student at Harvard in 1961, thinking I’d concentrate in algebra. Computer Science did not yet exist as a discipline. After taking a course in `logic and computation’ from Hao Wang, my future advisor, I switched fields. My PhD thesis was inspired by a question posed by a pioneer in the field named Alan Cobham: Is multiplication (of large numbers) intrinsically harder than addition? Part of the challenge was to formulate this as a precise mathematical question.
Why U of T? I joined the faculty of the computer science department at U of T in 1970. This was one of the world’s first CS departments, and Tom Hull, the department chair, had a powerful vision for its future. He already had recruited some aspiring young faculty, including my close colleague Allan Borodin, who continues to be a pillar of the department. It helped that Toronto is a good sailing venue on Lake Ontario, and sailing was (and is) a major hobby for my wife and me.
What advice would you give to a student just starting out in this field? You’ve made a good choice. The possibilities are boundless.“
Via this UT page, see more media coverage about the 2012 Herzberg Prize at these links below:
Shall Copyright Law trump Freedom of Press? The senior executives NASCAR and Encana seem to think copyright law should be more powerful than many people will permit it to be. I for one would love the Supreme Court of US and Supreme Court of Canada to decide some of these “copyright” cases so that any potentially ruthless & illegal actions cannot be taken again in US and Canada! Of course, IANAL (I am not a lawyer) and I rely on further instructions and guidelines from the justices at the two Supreme Courts to decide one way or another in each of the countries. Quoting an Feb 21st article by me,
“It should be noted that copyright law has been used in Canada in recent years to over-reach (in my opinion) into other unrelated areas. Take Euro-Excellence Inc. v. Kraft Canada Inc., 2007 SCC 37, [2007] 3 S.C.R. 20, a Supreme Court of Canada judgment on Canadian copyright law as an example, it ultimately is a case about the import of chocolate that somehow got twisted into a case about copyright.”
After watch this f-bomb ladened debate in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Some people may have a point in thinking Lawrence “F-bomb dropping” Ma Yan-kwok (馬恩國) may have single-handedly raised Leung Kwok-hung’s (長毛 Long Hair) approval ratings! Have a watch of this LegCo video recording of the heated exchange and decide for yourself.
Feel free to check out my first documentary Long Hair Revolution (長毛革命) which I’ve finally got it fixed and viewable on YouTube some weeks ago. Enjoy. For more info about Long Hair Revolution (長毛革命), read it here.
Have you done this week’s prep step: creating a communication plan? In this brief follow-up segment, Kempton Lam and Stormy Henderson show how they did it, so you’ll see how easy it is.
Here is an example communication plan, where you decide who will do what, and how. Keep keep written copies in your wallet, purse, and emergency kit.
CONTACTS
John Doe: (123) 555-1212 (neighborhood contact)
Louise Doe: (456) 555-1212 (out-of-state contact)
WHO DOES WHAT
If travel seems safe, Lisa comes home
Otherwise, Stormy goes to her
WHERE DO WE GO?
If she can’t drive, Lisa will be at her office, the campus shelter, or a designated friend’s house
If she can drive, she’ll go home, to her dad’s house, or to her sister’s house.
HOW DO WE GET THERE?
Leave a note with destination and route, call contacts if possible and tell them
Primary route between work and home: Old West Point Road, HWY 45-A, Churchhill Road
Alternate route between work and home: HWY 82, HWY 45-A, Churchhill Road
This is the second (eps 02) of a series of extensive chats with Professor Emeritus C.C. Kelly Gotlieb, (Wikipedia) “Father of Computing in Canada”, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. In this video episode (as oppose to audio recording only in episode #1), we further discussed Google Driverless Cars and Google Glasses in a bit more details, and a few other topics. (I will try to provide a time code key when I have time later or if someone can help me with providing a time code key to the interview.)
P.S. Incidentally, I am happy to claim credit for suggesting Kelly to setup a Google+ account and then also helped him to setup his computer this morning so that we were able to conduct a successful Live Broadcast using the Google+ Hangout On Air technologies using its YouTube engine! It puts a smile on my face in helping the man who helped bought the second electronic computer (a Ferranti machine for $300,000) in the world in 1951 to use Google’s cutting edge technologies to broadcast live from his and my home!
I LOVE & adore Richard Simmons especially after this #epic hangout with him this week. It is a tragedy of our times that many people are unable/unwilling to see straight through to the heart of people like Richard, who has a heart of gold and truly kind hearted to his core despite a tough life he has lived!
People may look and act differently from us, but until & unless our society progress to love and care about others who may look & act different to us on the outside, the human race has a long way to learn and progress.
To me, Sarah Rafferty’s Donna in the TV series Suits personify the best of the best executive assistant (EA)!
The passable EA does what you want after asking for your clarifications and help.
The OK EA does what you ask competently without bugging you too much.
The best of the best EA knows what needs to be done before you ask and do it so well that you realize he/she has saved you so much time so you can focus on other important matters!
To me, my mom is one of the most #awesome executive assistant I know of! You ask how good? Well, after the first few years of a manager running the office with her help, the HQ decided to eliminate the manager position and have her run the office without a manager for the following decades! I’ve learned so much from my mom! LOVE you mom!
In Episode 1 we learn how to think about emergency preparedness in a new way, what disasters you should prepare for, and how to create a family communication plan.
RT @emmgryner: OMG just got off the phone w @Cmdr_Hadfield who signed off saying "see ya when I get back to Earth"...and I got chills 4 days ago
RT @WilliamShatner: I watch @Cmdr_Hadfield 's Space Oddity video last night and I have 2 words for him: "SHOW OFF!" I'd even look good floa… 4 days ago
RT @emmgryner: I am going to bed blown away by all the feedback and love re @Cmdr_Hadfield's Space Oddity. So proud to be a part of it. Wow… 4 days ago
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