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Loading ...Public Health Agency gets a case of hide-the-bad-IT syndrome
The Canadian Press managed to get a report from last year which reveals the Public Health Agency in charge of dealing with epidemics spent more than a month fighting a worm that eventually knocked out 1,308 or 80 per cent of work stations in three cities. The whole incident needed 50 technicians to deal with it.
“The attack is estimated to have cost the agency up to $1.5-million, including down time for employees made idle by their ailing work stations,” the story says. Because there’s just nothing you can do about life-threatening things like SARS if you can’t check your e-mail.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Don’t call Michael Geist, unless you want him to tear you a new one
We love Michael Geist, who disguises himself as a professor at the University of Ottawa by day but spend his free time as Captain Digitastic, P2P freedom fighter and copyright crusader!
Having launched a Facebook Group to handle the copyright issue, Geist recently launched iOptOut.ca, an automated way to choose the companies you don’t want to hear from. The site will then notify said companies’ do-not-call lists. This is a stopgap measure to deal with Canada’s crappy existing legislation, Bill C-37.
Shark Tales tried to follow up with Geist for an in-depth interview about iOptOut, but we’re thinking we should probably do it in person. After all, it’s not like we’re the Globe and Mail.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Want to play the Showcase Showdown without turning on the tube?
For more than a generation, The Price is Right was the ideal show for people who did not work during the day and liked to watch commercials disguised as a game show where people speculate on the retail prices of cars, couches and other high-ticket items.
But what happens when you get a job and can afford the cars and furniture contestants typically win on the show, but don’t actually have time to watch it?
Well, a Canadian vendor has the game for you. Montreal-based Ludia Inc. has released a downloadable version of The Price is Right. It comes with both single player and party mode, which lets up to four players compete, with the winner determined by the total value of the prizes won.
This game lets players bid on items in 16 different games, including Plinko, Cliff Hanger, Punch-a-Bunch and Hole in One. And, just like on the TV show, contestants can spin The Big Wheel.
Ludia claims it has authentic theme music and game sounds.
But can you really get the same experience playing a game? Can it really be authentic, without an overly-enthusiastic guest falling on his or her keister after spinning The Big Wheel? What about the authenticity of watching people nearly crush the host with a bear hug after winning patio table and lawn chair set? One wonders if you can get a genuine TV experience with a downloadable game.
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(2 votes, average: 7.5 out of 10) Loading ...Top 5 T-shirt ideas for Privacy Commish Jennifer Stoddart
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has given itself another important make-work project — creating cool T-shirts to hand out at conferences — and decided it would be a lot more efficient to outsource it. Submissions are being accepted until today, and whoever creates the winning design or slogan will get their very own shirt with their design (reflecting the kind of budget PIPEDA princess Jennifer Stoddart has to work with). Far be it for Shark Tales to miss out on the opportunity for swag.
Our submissions:
1. ACCOUNTABILITY — IT’S JUST A WORD UNTIL THE PRIVACY COMMISSIONER GETS OFF HER ASS.
2. PiE-pEEED-ah, PippiDa. SAME TOOTHLESS LEGISLATION, NO MATTER HOW YOU SAY IT.
3. JENNIFER STODDART WOULD TELL YOU WHAT SHE’S DOING TO HELP CANADIANS PROTECT THEIR INFORMATION, BUT THAT’S PRIVATE
4. VIOLATE CANADA’S PRIVACY LAW AND YOU’RE IN FOR ONE STERN WARNING FROM OUR COMMISSIONER. BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.
5. I TRUSTED JENNIFER STODDART’S OFFICE TO SAFEGUARD MY DATA AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT!
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...No shoes, no shirt, no pants, no PayPal
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: There’s a big difference between porn and pictures of ugly naked people.
So say the publishers of Going Natural magazine, which claims online payment service PayPal has abruptly stopped processing its subscription payments. E-mails from PayPal indicates the company considers Going Natural and its publisher, the Federation of Canadian Naturists, is selling sexual material and as such violates its acceptible use policies. Doesn’t PayPal realize that without its service, these nudists have no purchasing mechanism? Do we have to spell it out here? THESE PEOPLE HAVE NO PLACE TO CARRY A WALLET!
The FCN may dress lightly, but that doesn’t mean it’s taking this whole thing lightly. “”PayPal’s decision about Going Natural and its claims about the FCN are unfounded embellishments born of ignorance,” huffed Judy Williams, Government Affairs Director for the FCN. Oh, keep your shirt on, Judy. (Whoops. Too late.)
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Ryerson Facebook flap forces students to abandon homework and use the site for the waste of time it was originally meant to be
So first-year computer engineering student Chris Avenir, who created an online group to cheat (er, discuss school assignments) with his fellow classmates, didn’t get expelled after all, forcing legions of “Save Chris” Facebook group creators to hastily scrap their plans and Avenir to add an integrity course to his curriculum (Lesson No. 1: First year engineering is for getting pie-faced at keg parties, nerd). Now we can all go back to conducting more high-value activities on the social networking site. Like playing Scrabulous.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Life in the Loser’s Quadrant
Some years ago — I don’t know when and Lord knows I don’t care enough to do the research — some consultant invented the Leader’s Quadrant. This is based on a graph of a company’s performance on two ephemeral axes (Leadership and Innovation, for example, or Vision and Execution). Top right is the Leader’s Quadrant. Arrange to have a research firm plot you there, and many a press release will follow.
These press releases are one of the banes of a business reporter’s existence. And to be fair to our brethren in public relations, I’m sure they’re not thrilled to be pitching these non-stories either:
Flack: My client’s been positioned in the Leader’s Quadrant.
Ink-Stained Wretch: What does that actually mean?
Flack: Well, a research firm did a graph that shows my client is a leader in both odour and piety.
Ink-Stained Wretch: I hope it doesn’t have sharp edges, because you can sh—
Oddly, one never hears from those companies plotted bottom left, unofficially dubbed the Loser’s Quadrant. Now there’s a story worth pitching.
Flack: Despite the fact that my client has less resources than its competitors, has a badly flawed business infrastructure, and clients are pouring toward the exits like it’s the evacuation of Saigon, my client still sucks 35 per cent more than the competition!
Ink-Stained Wretch: And you have this on a graph?!?
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Another way to use the BlackBerry without actually working
RIM’s BlackBerry is a great little device, but wouldn’t it be great if senior managers actually liked to use it? It’s too bad adoption has been such an uphill battle.
But wait! Thanks to further Canadian innovation, the BlackBerry can now change the way you work AND play! That’s right, kids: A London, Ont.-based company called Itinerant Software is offering up Greenfinder, a $35 per year service that can help golfers find a local course by providing a list of golf courses within a 30-kilometre radius. Once a golf course is chosen, GreenFinder will even provide driving directions to the course. And for an extra $50 bucks, Mike Lazaridis will even caddy for you! (Okay, that last part isn’t true, but only because Lazaridis would have to do some serious working out before he could lug clubs around all day long.)
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(2 votes, average: 5.5 out of 10) Loading ...Telus types ‘cool’ incorrectly, launches Koodo brand
Desparate to compete with the Beavis-and-beaver hilarity of Bell Mobility’s advertising campaign, Telus is shifting from its core competency — photographing cute animals — to creating a brand specifically aimed at young people.
According to a story in The Globe and Mail, Telus is hoping Koodo Mobile will attract the kind of cell phone users that pay big bucks for ringtones, text mesaging and music.
“The company is saying nothing about its plans, but a kiosk with the name Koodo Mobile is being set up in Toronto’s Eaton Centre, and a mall directory at the Pickering Town Centre in Ontario lists Koodo Mobile in its online directory even though the phone number at the outlet is not yet operational,” the story says.
Of course, some might say having a working phone number might be an important part of getting in touch with the youth market, but maybe the kids can just send Koodo staff an SMS.
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(1 votes, average: 1 out of 10) Loading ...Game geeks continue to play hard
The U.S. economy may be slowing down, but the fallout from the residential mortgage crisis does not seem to have hurt the video game makers.
A recently-published report indicates an increase in sales of video game hardware and software. Revenues in February, 2008 were $1.33 billion, up 34 per cent from February, 2007.
Market research firm NPD Group said Call of Duty 4 (which appeals to people who like to play soldier but don’t like getting up at 5 every morning or going to places like Afghanistan) was the top game for a single console. The creator, Activision Inc., shipped 296,000 units of the game for Sony’s Xbox 360, in February.
Microsoft beat Sony in sales, while the third-place vendor was Nintendo, maker of the Wii.
Video games have come a long way since Space Invaders was introduced in 1978.
In completely unrelated news, Statistics Canada says 23.1 per cent of Canadian adults were obese as of 2004 – up from 13.8 per cent in 1979.
