Archive - 2008

I've been eyeing the Apple TV for a while now, thinking I'd like to get one, but since I have a perfectly good media streaming device already (the MG-35), I haven't been in a big rush to purchase one. A buddy of mine from work picked one up a few weeks ago and I convinced him that he should let me borrow it for a couple of days so I could try it out. I wanted to try it out first hand before deciding if I wanted to drop a couple hundred bucks (plus) on it. In the end, I still think I'd like to get one, but I'm not rushing out the door to grab it right now. I felt it came up a bit short on some of its functionality, but I think the flaws I saw could all (easily) be fixed with some software tweaks.

When it comes to online mapping, I've never looked anywhere else but Google. I've been waiting for them to update their "Satellite View" of my neighbourhood so that my house would finally show up, but that hasn't happened yet - currently it shows a lot of empty lots that are actually no longer empty lots.

Just this morning I found out about Microsoft Live Maps and it turns out they have some pretty cool features. One of these is the option for a "birds eye" view of the map. As you can see by the photo on the left, the birds eye view is much more up-to-date than what Google has for their satellite view. They also have an aerial view which is also more up-to-date than Google. What's up with that?! Time to catch up Google! From the looks of the picture, it was taken last summer when my lawn wasn't doing so well. :)

One of the cool things about the birds eye view is that it gives you 4 different view angles of the same location - you just need to click on the rotate button. With this, you can get a really good look at a particular location. Impressive! Obviously not all locations have this view available.

Just for fun, here are some links to birds eye views of a few different places:

Parliament Hill

Disney World

Trafalgar Square

Way back at the beginning of October, my good friends Dave and Meghan got married. I wrote a short post congratulating them and mentioning that I had the privilege of co-emceeing the event. I also mentioned that I would write a follow-up post about the experience, and this is that post.

Liam is on a roll these days. This time he wanted to send out some happy birthday wishes to Dana so I helped him create this little video. Hope you like it Dana. Oh and Happy Birthday! :)

For a larger version of this video - you can check the Flickr page directly.

On a side note, I think I may have hit the wall with respect to editing videos using iMovie. I found out while making this video that iMovie '08 doesn't allow you to do slow motion (or fast motion for that matter) so I had to drop back to iMovie '06 to create the slow motion part of the video, then export it and finally import it into iMovie '08 for use with the video. That's a lot of extra work. I'm wondering what else is out there for video editing. Would Final Cut Pro be overkill? Probably. I'll have to do a little digging and see what I can find. If anyone out there reading this has any suggestions for video editing software for mac, let me know. Thanks.

JK's birthday was a while ago, and Liam and I made this little video to wish him a happy birthday. Since the video is on Flickr and marked as private to friends and family only, perhaps not as many people got to enjoy it. I'm posting it here for those who may have missed it. I personally think it's hilarious, but since I made it, perhaps my opinion shouldn't count for much. :) My favourite part is the end.

Happy Birthday Johnny!

I would be remiss if I didn't send out some congratulations to my good friends Dave and Meghan who tied the knot this past weekend. It was a nice short ceremony and of course Meghan looked absolutely beautiful! Dave was looking pretty snazzy too, and I really liked how the bridesmaids with their black dresses and red shalls matched the groomsmen in their black suits with red ties. Well done on that Meg!

The reception was held at the Ottawa New Edinburgh Club Boathouse, which was a very cool location. Myself and Rob Sample had the honour of being MCs for the event and we had a lot of fun with it. I'm planning to write a separate post about the experience of being MC, but we'll see if that happens or not.

So congratulations guys on your wedding - I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as your guests did. :)

Liam turned two at the end of September, on the same day that my buddy Dave turned 32 actually - it was a Friday. Earlier that week, Amy had asked me if I could work from home that day, or at the very least not go into work until a bit later as she had to pick up a friend at the airport and didn't want to take the kids with her. I certainly didn't have a problem with that so I hung out at home while Amy headed off to the airport early on Friday morning. She showed up back at home around 0830 - but she wasn't alone! Turns out she had my dad with her! He had come up for the weekend to celebrate Liam's birthday and both Liam and I were very surprised, and very happy to see him! Thanks for coming dad!

The party was a success, with Amy making a wonderful bulldozer cake to go along with her construction theme. The only snag in the decorations was one of the signs that had 'required' spelled incorrectly (Amy was distracted during its creation), but since the kids can't really spell at this age, we weren't too concerned. Funny thing is, either the adults at the party can't spell either or else they all talk with a Boston accent and "Requied" looked like the correct spelling. ;) Since we've been busy with the new baby, we had hoped to keep the party small, but in the end there were 12 kids and probably just as many adults in attendance. Sadly the weather didn't cooperate which meant the party took place inside instead of in the back yard. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun. Liam certainly got a lot gifts, including many new toys that make all sorts of annoying noises. Thanks guys! :)

The other thing that normally coincides with Liam's birthday (or the birthday weekend anyways) is the National Police Memorial. Amy hasn't missed going each year since she became a police officer - either marching or else going to watch. This year was no different. We met up with Shelley, who had Anthony and Isabella with her, on Parliament Hill. I tried to keeps the boys busy while Amy and Shelley watched the memorial. At one point during the ceremony, they fired off a cannon and it startled us since we weren't expecting it. Liam commented that it had scared him, but not to the point of tears or anything. I decided that we should wander over to where the cannon was so that the boys could get a look at what made the 'big bang' and then maybe it wouldn't be as scary. When we got to within about 20 feet of the cannon, I was told that they would be firing it again and that we couldn't get any closer. I should have known better, but for some reason I thought it would be a great idea to hang around and watch the cannon being fired - that way the kids could see it in action. Bad idea. The second the thing went off, Liam and Anthony both jumped about 5 feet in the air, Liam grabbed onto me and wouldn't let go and was crying for his mommy. I scooped them both up and started walking back to where Amy and Shelley were. Anthony was fine, trying to console Liam by telling him that it was ok and patting him on the arm. Liam eventually calmed down after I told him repeatedly that the 'big bang' was gone and wouldn't be coming back. He still remembers it though, and every once in a while tells me, "big bang gone."

I got a Polar RS200sd heart rate monitor for my birthday back in 2007. Love the watch / HRM and have used it a lot. I liked the look and feel of it enough that I wore it as my primary watch, and not just when I was training. It has never let me down, but just a short while ago, when I went to put it on one morning, the strap broke. It didn't break off completely and the watch was still wearable, but the broken strap meant that it would have to be worn too loose, and it would only be a matter of time before the strap broke completely off, leaving the watch unwearable. Have a look at the picture below and you'll see what I mean.

At the time I had had the watch for about a year and a half or so and I figured that the warranty must be up - believing that most items usually have only a one year warranty. Since the strap on this unit was completely integrated with the watch, it wouldn't be an easy task to replace the strap myself - I would definitely have to send it back to Polar. I sent an email off to Polar support asking what my options were, and hoping that maybe they'd view this as a defective strap (or potentially bad design) and would offer to replace it for me even if the warranty was up. I was extremely happy to get a response back from Polar very quickly stating that the unit actually had a 2 year warranty and that they would indeed replace the strap free of charge - all I had to do was ship it to them in Montreal.

I figured I'd try pushing my luck a bit and informed the girl that had responded to me that the battery in the watch was low and asked if maybe they could replace that too. She was quick to respond and told me that I could purchase a new battery from them for $25, which would include the return shipping costs. I was a little confused with that answer (especially the bit about the return shipping costs since presumably they were going to be shipping the watch back to me after the strap was replaced) and responded back to her telling her not to worry about it - that I figured I could replace the battery myself for cheaper than that. She didn't like that idea, and in fact told me not to do it since it would void my warranty. I finally relented and decided that $25 for a new battery wasn't that bad (considering I'd pay close to that myself for the battery alone), especially since the watch would again be 'factory sealed', and included a note in the shipment asking that they call me so I could pay them over the phone when they received the watch.

Well as you can see from the image above, they ended up replacing the battery for free! Have a look at that invoice: they replaced the strap, replaced the face plate (it had a few scratches on it, and yes, maybe the strap and faceplate were all one unit but still...), replaced the battery and did a couple of tests (functionality, water resistance) all for free! I was without the watch for maybe a week and a half total. I sent the watch to them via regular mail, but they sent it back to me via Purolator.

When it comes to HRMs, you can't beat Polar, and I've always been happy with the products I've bought from them. This excellent service I just received significantly reinforces the fact that I will only be buying Polar HRMs in the future and will certainly recommend them to anyone. Thank you Polar Canada!

I was on my way home the other day and my cell phone rang. I took a look at the display and it said that it was home calling. Naturally I assumed it was Amy calling, wondering when I'd be home, but much to my surprise (and delight) the first thing I heard after I said hello was Liam saying "Hi Daddy!". Amy had put the call on handsfree and I was able to hear Liam clear as a bell. It wasn't the longest conversation in the world...in fact I'm not sure if he said much beyond the hello, but it was definitely a great experience for me - my first call from my son. He's taken quite a bit more interest in the telephone lately so I anticipate I'll be getting more and more calls as time goes on. :)

Wow! I ranted previously about how long it took to get a birth certificate for Liam from the time I applied online until we actually got it. This time around I'm pleased to say that I've noticed a BIG TIME improvement. Last time it took between 3 and 4 months I think; this time - under a month! I didn't do anything differently this time either. I filled everything out online again, and mailed the cheque to the city just like last time. Today, less than a month after filling out the forms online, we received Grace's birth certificate! Fantastic! Her SIN should be arriving shortly...

I'm not sure what changed, but somebody, somewhere, is actually working to improve things and that is certainly appreciated!