I enjoyed this, so I'm sharing it.  That's just the kind of guy I am. Bill Hammack reveals how "queueing theory" - developed by engineers to route phone calls - can be used to find the most efficient arrangement of cashiers and check out lines. He reports on the work

My day job is emarketing.  Essentially, digital lead generation for a large group of hungry software sales people.  According to the TEDxAtlanta presentation below from Sally Hogshead, I've got 9-seconds to nail the seven triggers of fascination. If you watched the video, you saw the seven triggers of fascination. PowerPassionMystiquePrestigeAlarmViceTrustMy

Six years ago today, I complained about the price of gas. I'm old enough to remember a time when I wouldn't fill up the tank if the price exceeded 50¢ a litre. In the mid-nineties, this was entirely possible. I was driving an '85 Ford Escort and she didn't get

I had never seen the meteorology term 'broken clouds' until today. Here it is, just moments ago, whispering to me from the weather panel in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS  - the Lucid Lynx. Broken clouds sounds about right...

Terje Sorgjerd spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years. This was shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east.

Let's call a spade a spade.  I'm a pretty influential person.  I'm the Oprah of the Toronto blogosphere, nobody said to nobody.  Why do you think I won a Gemini? A little over a year ago, Dove Men+Care sent me some nice smelling stuff.  Well... they're at it again.

This is The Pogues with The Dubliners performing "Irish Rover". Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We're all familiar with the story of Julius Caesar's death.  On this date in 44 B.C., he was stabbed to death in the senate house.  A soothsayer had warned Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March". Today is the Ides of March, but what the heck does the Ides

Just last year, I complained that the Shamrock Shake had disappeared from McDonald's.  From the comments of that entry, I learned that the Shamrock Shake was still being sold in other parts of North America, but not in Ontario. The folks at McDonald's Googled 'toronto shamrock shakes' and ended up

I found this very educational.  If you're not sure exactly what the difference is between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and jolly ol' England, you must watch this.

As the only Tragically Hip listening, hockey watching Canadian who doesn't drink beer, I'm merely passing this along as a courtesy. The small sized beer sold at Qwest Field in Seattle gives you the same volume of beverage as the large sized beer.  You can save yourself $1.25 by

Today is January 1, 2011. Or 1-1-11, if you prefer.  That's my preference, because cool numerological dates like this don't come around every day. I could bury you in details as to what all those ones mean and what some say they symbolize.  We're talking mystics and the fact that

Bob McCown, host of Prime Time Sports on The FAN 590, once backed a sports site called Fadoo.  At some point he decided to end his online experiment and in June he pulled the plug. When Bob McCown gives up on a project, he completely washes his hands of it.

I want to wish each and every one of you a very happy Festivus.  For those who don't know what Festivus is, there are three easy to follow steps: "Get the pole out of the crawl space". Or go out and buy one. Remember, it should be aluminium, due to

I just glanced at Pew Internet's Generations 2010 report. It looks at online trends by different age groups, and it looks like blogging is on the decline. Few of the activities covered in this report have decreased in popularity for any age group, with the notable exception of blogging. Only

Back in February, I wrote about how I met Il Duce.  Il Duce has been breaking my balls in the comments of this site for years.  If you revisit that entry, you'll see how this all started on Humble Howard's old blog and how he read aloud Il Duce's trashing

It was eight years ago yesterday that I changed my personal home page into a blog.  In the world of blogging, eight years is actually pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. The vast majority of your favourite blogs started well after November 30, 2002. The Tale of the

I was just reading The Villager.  The Villager is a local paper that serves the Bloor West Village, Junction, Roncesvalles and St. Clair neighbourhoods of Toronto.  The front page had an article about the primary school I used to attend, so I read on with great interest. Since the beginning

It's time to roll back the clocks an hour.  This bi-yearly time-change task only gets easier and easier. Back in the day we had to change every single clock. There was pretty much one in every room, not to mention watches and the car.  It was a pretty big deal,

It's October 31.  Time to dig out my old school goalie mask à la Friday the 13th's Jason. At least I'm consistent...

This short film is about a piece of footage George Clarke found behind the scenes in Charlie Chaplin's film The Circus. Attending the premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA,  the scene shows a large woman dressed in black with a hat hiding most of her face, with what

I love Venn diagrams.  Here's a helpful Venn diagram on the internet vs. privacy. [via We Love Datavis]

Less than two years ago, I picked up a Bose SoundDock II digital music system.  It's how I play my music at home.  I pop on my iPod and it sounds great. At least it sounded great.  All of a sudden, it stopped making a peep.  There no audio, and