Entry #9: One Of The Most Watched Videos On YouTube

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I thought I’d mix it up a bit and post something a little different. This is a cute little video that was shot at the Vancouver Aquarium a few years ago. Consequently, it has become one of the most watched videos on YouTube of all time. This one version has been viewed over ten million times. [easyvideo video=”http://www.youtube.com/v/epUk3T2Kfno&hl=en&fs=1″] This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you’d like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You ...

Blogathon 2008 Starting Tonight At 10pm

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Thanks to everyone who has pledged so far. I’m currently up to $140, which will ultimately go to the Union Gospel Mission. I’d like to hit at least $1000, so if you want to sponsor, please head on over and contribute. I’ll keep everyone updated during the event. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for my blogathon posts. Tonight at 10pm I start blogathon, a 24 hour blogging marathon that will hopefully bring some exposure to the charity of my choice, the United Gospel Mission. The Union Gospel Mission is a charity in Vancouver that helps people in need: Union Gospel Mission has been ...

Last Day For The Wii!!!!

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If you still want to be eligible to win a Nintendo Wii, then make sure you go fill out the survey. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY! ...

Blogathon Vancouver

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Last year my good pal Rebecca stayed up for 24 hours straight and participated in an event called “Blogathon”. For a full day, Rebecca did a blog post every 30 minutes, hoping to inspire people and bring visibility to a charity of her choosing. This year I’ve decided to participate in Blogathon, which this year is sponsored by Miss604.com. I’m going to be supporting the Union Gospel Mission, which ultimately lends help to those less fortunate in Vancouver. Rebecca is also supporting them, so hopefully between the two of us (and possibly a few others) we’ll be able to raise some money ...

Broken Laptop

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I pulled my laptop out of my case tonight and fired it up. I was immediately greeted with this: $1000 worth of fail As you can see, my LCD has a wicked crack in it. I did a quick scan in the forums, and replacing an LCD via the Apple store runs about $1000, which is rather insane. Thankfully I found a few companies on eBay that are selling the raw LCD screens for around $200, so I put in an order for a replacement. Hopefully I’ll be able to install it myself when it comes in the mail. So as of right now, I’m without a laptop. Thankfully I have an iMac at home as well, so I’m not really ...

Nothing To Say

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I was going to post a big blog entry this morning, but then I realized I really have nothing to say. So, I figured I’d turn the tables a bit and see if any of my readers want to say anything. Feel free to go to town in the comments. Tell a story, do a dance, whatever you feel like! Tell everyone what’s on your mind, or what the best part of your day was so far. If you’ve never commented before, feel free to introduce yourself to everyone. ...

Serbia Bound

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Those of you that follow my Twitter feed probably noticed that I almost made it to Serbia about a week ago. I was scheduled to fly over there to spend a month helping out our software development team, but at the last minute it all fell apart. It appears that all the stars at work have realigned, and I’m most likely heading to Serbia this week. I’ll be gone most likely for around four weeks, and will be getting a small apartment out there. My flight will most likely take me from Vancouver to Frankfurt, and then onwards to Belgrade. From Belgrade, I’ll be taking a car or a train up to Novi ...

Almost Back To Normal

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It appears that things are almost back to normal with regards to my blog. I had to juggle the DNS entries around a bit the other day, and that caused a period of time where both versions of my blog existed on the internet for a while. I think for the most part most people will be directed to this one, which is the way it should be. I went out last night to a roof top patio BBQ, courtesy of Invoke Media. I went along with Arieanna, Raul and Ianiv, and eventually we met up with Jenn for some good conversation. Invoke has a pretty cool office, complete with a nice view of the North Shore mountains. Afterwards, ...

Feist On Sesame Street

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I’m sure many of you know already know who Leslie Feist is. She’s one of Canadian’s most recognized young musicians now, thanks to obvious talent and also having her song 1-2-3-4 included in one of Apple’s largest marketing campaigns. If I remember correctly, Feist snagged five awards at the Junos, which is as close to a landslide as you can really have at an event like that. I unfortunately didn’t get to meet her (she was rather popular that night), but I did get to hang out a few feet away from her and snap a few photos. I was doing some reading in my RSS reader this morning and came ...

Heroes Season 3 Trailer

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My blog appears to be in some weird state of limbo right now, bouncing between the black and the white background, depending on where you are viewing it from. It’s rather strange, considering the TTL on my DNS entry is 30 minutes, so it shouldn’t take this long at all. Anyways, here is a trailer for season 3 or Heroes. I hope Peter keeps his shirt on for more of it. [easyvideo video=”http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/4880d7a562043e39/487fdf8eae3c4deb/a695a3c6″] ...

To The Moon, And Beyond

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On September 12th, 1962, John F. Kennedy took the stage at Rice Stadium, and made one of the most ambitious pledges of any presidency – in less than ten years, the United States would put a man on the moon: There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice ...

Back Online

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I quickly stopped by Future Shop on my way home tonight and picked up a brand new power supply for my server at home. They had a really nice (that is, if power supplies can be described as such) $150 one that was on sale for $75, so I went with that. The good news is that my old power supply was basically taxed in terms of connectors, and it would have been impossible to add anything else to it. This new one has an extra 300W of headroom on it, and also 3 more SATA connectors. To be honest, I wasn’t even really sure it was the power supply, but it seemed like a pretty reasonable guess. The good ...

Want To Win A Nintendo Wii?

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The company where I currently work is currently offering a draw for at least one Nintendo Wii (more if I remember correctly). To be eligible, they are asking people to fill out a quick survey to get a bit of data with regards to telecommunications. Everyone reading this blog should be eligible. So, if you’d like to potentially win a Nintendo Wii, I’d ask if you guys could please fill out a five minute survey. If you’re just a regular person (i.e. not a business owner), please fill out this version. If you’re a small to medium sized business owner, please fill out this one. Also, please ...

New iPhone Case On The Way

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The first order of business with my new iPhone is picking up a decent case to keep it from being scratched. I called around town, but unfortunately nobody has any stock for the 3G iPhone cases yet. So basically the only place left to buy one from was on Apple’s store. I originally went over with the intent to buy one case. However, it appears that one case wasn’t enough to qualify me for free shipping. Since I like free stuff, I decided to buy a few more things. Since I wasn’t sure if I’d like the first case, I bought a second one with a different style. Worst case, I’m sure somebody ...

A Day In The Life

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I actually hit the sack before midnight last night, which is pretty much an unprecedented event in my life. The main reason was because I had to get up early and take my car into the shop to get some TLC. While on my road trip a few weeks ago, a few things suddenly stopped working, including the door lock switch on the driver’s side door, the CD player (it currently does a better job grinding CDs then it does playing them), and a small problem with my gear shifter. In addition, my car is about one year past the date I should have had a one year tune-up. In terms of the last item, it’s a weird ...

24 Hours With The iPhone 3G

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I’ve been messing around with the iPhone 3G pretty much non-stop for the last 24 hours. For the most part, it has exceeded my expectations. First, being able to check your email or surf the web from any location is a pretty awesome feature. For example, today I was at the beach with some friends and we noticed that the tide was slowly creeping up the shore. I quickly fired up Safari, did a Google search for “Vancouver Tide Table”, and determined that high tide was in about two hours. As most people know, the iPhone 2.0 firmware brings with it the iPhone application store. I’ve already ...

Rolled Coins. What Do I Do With Them?

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I’m a change gatherer. I don’t really know how it happens, but I always end up at home each evening with tons of change in my pockets. I have two piggy banks on the go at any one time, and both of them fill up rather quickly. My niece and nephew love coming over because there are always coins lying around my apartment, and it’s a fun game to find them. Despite my best efforts, I usually end up with change on counters and less frequently in my bed. One time I was taking a shower in the morning and heard a few “clangs”, only to look down and see a few pennies fall off my body — apparently ...

Duane's iPhone Update

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Well, to say that today was a complete clusterfuck would be a gross understatement. I arrived at the Rogers store around 9am, and spent the next five hours watching Roger’s employees desperately try and activate my iPhone for me. I actually ended up at a hold-in-the-wall Rogers store, which was great because there wasn’t a huge line-up. Ironically, I ended up right behind my plastic surgeon in line, which was actually pretty cool because I got to spend 90 minutes just chatting with him and getting to know him. They had 14 units at the store I went to, and only 4 at the Yaletown Rogers store. ...

We Come To It At Last – The Great Battle Of Our Time

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Yes, today is July 11th, and that means today is the day most of use techno geeks have been waiting for patiently for the last few months. Today Roger’s releases the iPhone 3G in Canada. As most of you know, I’ve been pretty harsh (justifiable so) against their iPhone rate plans. The last entry I posted basically said that if Rogers didn’t cave before Friday, they were going to seriously hurt their credibility, not just amongst their wireless users, but also for the hoards of people that were exposed to the negative press. The good news is that Rogers finally caved and offered a decent data ...

Happy Birthday Andie

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You know, it’s hard to believe that there was a time when Andie was actually taller than me, but it’s true. I think I passed him at the age of 16 or so, but Andie could always hold his own in a wrestling match. As you can tell, today is my brother-in-law, Andie’s, birthday. Andie started dating my sister when I was 14 or 15, and he’s been an integral part of the family ever since. I’m proud to call him my brother-in-law. Happy Birthday Bud. ...