Jason's Notes About Stuff

As I continue to go through my old blog drafts, this is another one from 2010 where I took down some rough notes and never quite put something together. At the time, there was significant press (and a movie ) about how Mark Zuckerberg has "stolen" the idea for Facebook from the  Winklevoss twins . I would argue that there was very little original or truly innovative ideas that went into the core functionality of Facebook. On the other hand, it was pretty innovative to build up a huge database of his classmates' information without their permission...  ☺ --- I've read  Atlas Shrugged cover to cover, and I totally get the theme and the very real problems it discusses. What I don't understand is how anyone thinks that modern intellectual property laws provide any type of solution. If anything, they tend to make matters worse, since people that come up with the most profitable ideas today are usually bound by agreements that automatically assign ...

( image credit ) I was recently going through old blog drafts and came across this one from nearly 8 years ago . It was basically just brainstorming about how to improve society in general. I'm proud to say that in the meantime, I've done my best to move the needle ever so slightly, becoming more involved in politics, including running for office at the provincial level and organizing my thoughts further in a wiki . I also now work for a charity that helps bring free education to those who need it most. My most recent efforts include promoting proportional representation and helping organize a Green regional association . Who's ready to join in and help? :) Here's my original brainstorming notes from June 2010: Communist? Capitalist? Democratic? Socialist? Does anyone really know what these terms actually mean anymore? Hybrid system. Use best aspects of existing societal structures. Freely available to all citizens of the world: - Basic educa...

According to  Natural Resources Canada , "Canada has the third-largest proven oil reserve in the world, most of which is in the oil sands." "Proven oil reserves are estimated at 171.0 billion barrels. " Canada's current population is about 36.7 million . So, one could perhaps argue that my current share of Canadian oil is about  4,659.4 barrels . Since Brent Crude is priced at about $70/barrel today , that's about $326,158 USD or, even better: $420,662 CAD ! Hurray, I'm rich! 💵💰 But wait just a second, you say. That oil is still in the ground. It costs money to extract it and transport it to a buyer. Well, crap. Maybe I'm not that rich after all. So how do I turn this black gold stuck in the ground into big dollar signs? More bad news: Our infrastructure has evolved over the years to export most of our oil to the United States. That worked great when oil was scarce and prices were high. People raked in the cash. But ...

Who remembers 2006? 12 years ago, Google launched a truly innovative suite of products to compete with Microsoft's behemoth Office suite called " Google Docs and Sheets ". This promised to revolutionize the way we work. Instead of having to email Word and Excel attachments to co-workers and worry about old versions , conflicting changes , etc., the document was hosted in one place, and everyone could always access and update the very latest version with no fuss or muss. Cloud Computing was The Next Big Thing™* and everything was going to be better ! *NOTE: Cloud Computing was not really new, but more a reboot of networked timesharing from the 60s and 70s distributed on a global scale. But that's another story for another time. Fast forward 12 years , and Word and Excel files are still everywhere ! Now, there are still a few cases where Docs and Sheets are missing features that Word and Excel have. For instance, I sometimes miss the automated hie...

About a month ago, before the big Cambridge Analytica scandal , I wrote that " Facebook is over ." My feeling was strong enough that I divested all FB holdings the same day. Glossing over the details at the time, I simply stated that Facebook had "lost its way." After posting, several of my friends and relatives (on Facebook, of course) suggested that I should create the Next Facebook . Funny enough, I'd already been there and done that. My reply: " I started a project called "FriendPortal" in 2003 that was to be a simpler, better alternative to Friendster. Before I could finish it, some scrappy Harvard kid beat me to the punch. Somebody will make the "next" Facebook. Odds are decent that it won't be me  :) " I thought it would be interesting to go a bit more in-depth on this topic. History Lesson In my mind, the first modern "social networking" site was Friendster (2002). It was quickly followed by M...

Alright folks, I'm calling it. It's quite sad, but as of 6pm Pacific on Feb 21, 2018, Facebook is officially over. Soon it will join the ranks of MySpace, Friendster, Slashdot, Digg, Orkut, and Google+ as dusty old sites that nobody really uses anymore. It had a good run. For a while, it was the perfect way to keep in touch with friends and relatives, but somewhere along the line, it lost its way. And unfortunately, I don't see a simple way back. Let's hope they can prove me wrong. But otherwise, I'm looking forward to seeing what's next. What is next? Twitter? Snapchat? Instagram? I feel like they're all mostly dead too. What's coming down the pipeline to help us all connect online? Or are we all slowly moving back to our smaller, more manageable offline groups? RIP Facebook, 2004-2018

Everything I'm going to write here seems painfully obvious to me, but apparently is not well known. I've read many recent articles and comments that seem to herald "free market capitalism" as the answer to every problem in society. They all seem to miss one critical factor though. Capitalism only works if there is competition. This seems like a very simple, bland, undeniable statement, and yet as I write it, I hear the collective sound of thousands of people picking up their torches and pitchforks and heading in my general direction. So -- Who disagrees with this statement? Please put up your hands. Now, how many of you that raised your hands understand economics? And I don't mean the philosophy or political nature of economics. I've read  Atlas Shrugged cover-to-cover and I'm not talking about the type of "political economic philosophy" introduced there. I'm talking about straight up basic  Microeconomics and the theor...

As CTO of  The Rumie Initiative , I spend a decent amount of time trying to find tech solutions that offer "the most for the least" in terms of computing power vs. cost. There is one thing that has baffled me in my long career in technology. Hardware capability increases exponentially , but software somehow just bloats up , using the power and space, without providing much more functionality or value. Computer specs from the past 30 years Year Example Cost Speed (MHz) RAM (MB) Storage (MB) 1977 TRS-80 $599.95 2 0.004 0.6 1981 IBM PC $3,000.00 5 0.063 0.2 1982 Commodore 64 $595.00 1 0.063 0.2 1985 Amiga 1000 $1,295.00 7 0.250 0.9 1990 Amiga 3000 $3,000.00 16 2.000 40.0 1992 Amiga 4000 $3,500.00 25 4.000 120.0 1995 PC Clone $3,000.00 33 8.000 1000.0 2000 PC Clone $2,500.00 600 256.000 40960.0 2005 PC Clone $2,500.00 2560 512.000 256000.0 2010 PC Clone $1,500.00 3072 8192.000 512000.0 2015 PC Clone $1,500.00 3584 8192.000 1048576.0 2017 PC Clone $1,500....

Last week, I was hanging up my laundry, listening to a great business podcast about consulting, and was hit by a wall of wisdom: "Your reputation in business is in large part based on your ability to make commitments and fulfill them. If you can make commitments and fulfill them, people trust you. That's what trust is based on. If you and I are developing a relationship, and the first thing you tell me you're going to do, you do, I go, "Ok, that's cool, he did what he said he was going to do." Now, I'm not going to trust you with my life at that point. But then, the second thing you say you're going to do, you do. A few weeks, a few months, then years, if you continue the habit of doing the things you say you're going to do, then I trust you with more and more. And that's how our reputations are built." [1] I think this applies equally to business and life in general. So many people fail this simple test. It really comes down to ...

5 years ago, in July 2010, I made a bold prediction that Microsoft would purchase Blackberry . The Past At the time, Blackberry was still the clear leader, with over 40% of the market: Even then, however, the trend was crystal clear. Apple had already caught them off guard, and Blackberry was slowly bleeding away market share. Meanwhile, Android was gaining quickly at everyone else's expense. Just look at the monthly increase in the graph above. At the time, it was obvious to me that Microsoft and RIM needed to combine forces if either one was to stand a chance. There were lots of rumors to that effect -- in 2011, 2013, and even earlier this year, but no deal ever panned out. Instead, in 2013/2014, Microsoft bought Nokia -- one of the few phone companies in worse shape than Blackberry. Predictably, this turned out to be a dismal failure, with Microsoft writing off $7.6 billion . The present Meanwhile, the market shifted much faster than I ever could have...

This morning I read the following CBC article:  Corporate tax avoidance 'scheme' hurting Canada, expert says . As they mention: "Thirteen per cent of these corporations paid less than 5 per cent in taxes and more than half paid less than 10 per cent . Much of this tax evasion is done secretly." "...the situation has become so serious that some corporations are trying to “put the brakes on” tax cuts, as they witness the effects on critical areas of the Canadian economy, such as education, health care and infrastructure." As I alluded to in a previous posting, " Why make a profit? ", there is a really simple solution to all of these complex schemes. Instead of taxing net revenue (aka. "profit"), we should be taxing gross revenue (aka. "income"). Net revenue, or profit, is what's left over after a corporation pays all of its expenses. This makes it easy to devise complicated corporate structures that move money...

Many have criticized Amazon.com for being unprofitable since inception. If you ask me, they're just being ultra-efficient . Take a look at this chart: Amazon's revenue has grown exponentially, but they've always kept their net profit/loss pretty close to zero. You see, the taxation system in most countries is actually a bit paradoxical . The purpose of a corporation (as defined by law) is to generate a profit , but that is also what is taxed. So if you make a profit, you lose a good chunk of it to taxes . On the other hand, if you re-invest those would-be-profits back into your business for growth, you get to keep it all . Meanwhile, massively profitable companies like Apple and Google end up engaging in complicated IP licensing schemes in tax havens to lower their taxes. Of course, a flat tax could put an end to some of these complex games...

I think most people, do better when they open, look at, and deal with physical , postal mail rather than email. For me it's the opposite. After growing up with email and having it be a critical part of my life for so many years, I can read, process and respond to email wickedly fast. I use a pre-screener that lets me quickly archive and mark spam, and I know the Gmail shortcut keys instinctively. Getting to Inbox Zero in the morning generally takes minutes. On the flip side, if someone hands me a piece of postal mail or paper, I literally have no idea what to do with it. Paper blows around in the wind if it's not weighted down. Paper is flammable . It gets lost in stacks or under things. There's no way to set a reminder about them (unless you go all out and use a physical " tickler file "). I use paper for grocery lists and sometimes jotting down quick notes that I'll transfer to digital later (although I'm using Google Keep more and mo...

Here's a quick e-commerce lesson for you: Don't validate credit card transactions based on IP address location. I left the internet fax provider I've had since 2003 because they wouldn't let me pay them . I wasted an embarrassingly long time trying to find a cheap/free way mask my IP address. I eventually gave up trying to give them money. I Googled, read a few quick reviews, and found a new, better provider in 5 minutes . Lots of customers travel or live outside of their home country . Don't make it difficult (or impossible ) for them to pay you.

I've only tried Evernote a few times in passing, but it always came across as a bit of a bloated and unreliable POS. Seems like perhaps I wasn't too far off... See:  Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant More discussion on Hacker News here . Most people seem to agree. Sort of like some operating systems, they've been locked into a piece of software that keeps getting larger and less reliable over time. If you're looking for an alternative, you may want to try  Google Keep .

Before moving somewhere, I always do a lot of research into the geography, climate, politics, etc. Today I found an interesting fact -- according to the CIA world factbook , Saint Kitts and Nevis has one of the highest public debt to GDP ratios in the world. It's right up there with Greece, Zimbabwe, and... Japan? It's also interesting to note that the top 25 on this list include usual suspects like Iceland, Portugal, and Belize, but also some more surprising entries like Singapore, the UK, and Canada.

As a technologist, the recent Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit  is extremely concerning . I was hoping all of this software patent nonsense would go away, but Apple just proved that the new business model is more about litigation than innovation . As a company that essentially  "stole" the entire desktop GUI and mouse concept from Xerox, you have to wonder how they arrived here. Ironically, this concept was subsequently "re-stolen" by Microsoft to create Windows -- one of the most ubiquitous, profitable pieces of software ever. Naturally, Apple  sued Microsoft in 1988 , a long and bitter lawsuit that wasn't resolved until 1994, when Microsoft won . In the midst of this, Apple was actually sued by Xerox , a suit that was dismissed. In the Apple vs. Microsoft ruling, the court stated: "Apple cannot get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor." They obviously took this to heart, ...

Add another one to my "things that confuse me" list... Why do average, ordinary people vote for Conservative / Republican / (insert your right-wing party here) politicians? I can see voting for them IF: Your household income is more than $500,000/year You are a majority shareholder in a corporation that employs more than 500 people You are a senior management in a major corporation You have the majority of your net worth invested in energy and "defense" stocks But honestly, unless one or more of the above applies to you, it just doesn't make sense. For the average Joe, voting for Conservative politicians is basically the equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot -- over and over again. Their modis operandi is to systematically underfund and dismantle public institutions, and replace them with private corporations they can profit from. The result is an ever increasing divide between rich and poor, creating a cheap labor force at the bottom (more ...

Compare my company's website:    http://www.syllogisticsoftware.com/ with this one:    http://mindfulltech.com/ Yikes! They stole my intellectual property ! So should I go and sue them? Issue a "cease and desist" letter? Ummm... No. Why not? Because I'm not a moron and I don't have time and money to waste . Large corporations and entertainment companies waste countless hours and millions of dollars suing people about their intellectual property . Their products and businesses suffer greatly due to this distraction. It's a digital world. People are going to copy stuff. It's easy and free . I choose to not be bothered, and instead, focus my efforts on making my business better . Maybe they should too.

Do you have any problems? I sure do. Tons of them! Everyone has problems. You might even call them "challenges" or "puzzles" or "opportunities". I use an incredibly complex, patent-pending 3-step methodology for dealing with them: Identify Plan Do This may seem like a very  simple idea, but I assure you, most people do not follow this. Everybody gets step 1. Most people know their problems. Then then add: Step 1.a) Worry about the problem. Step 1.b) Complain about the problem. Step 1.c) Make up excuses for not addressing the problem I call this the WCE problem-solving methodology -- pronounced "wuss" ;) I have news: WCE does not work. They are unnecessary steps. A few people get to step 2, the planning stage, but never complete that step. What about step 3: Doing -- the one that really matters? Hardly anyone ever makes it there. They're still too busy cranking out excuses. So next time you come across a pr...