Jason's Notes About Stuff

I recently watched an enlightening documentary called " We Live In Public ". It made me completely rethink   my previous notions about online privacy . I'd like to believe that we can all be adults about things, and accept people's differences, but I could be wrong. The  1999 "Quiet" experiment documented in this movie almost seems like a visionary warning to "future us", a decade later. Although some may think that people can live together in truth and harmony , it didn't seem to work in this particular setting. How does this relate to the online world? Well, for one, having your opinions and interests public certainly makes you think a bit more about what you post. For example, I "like" the television show Weeds  on my Facebook profile.  Does that mean I support the legalization of marijuana, or simply that I enjoy the show? (It's a hilarious dramedy , by they way -- highly recommended) Different people could...

These days, I'm seeing more and more people who have trouble differentiating between things that are urgent , versus things that are important . I was reminded about this by a recent posting over at Business is Pleasure . Software and devices generally have a "do not disturb" setting that silences them and sends calls to voicemail. Use these features! If you're having lunch with someone and talking to them, don't try to answer emails and texts at the same bloody time! Urgency does not necessarily imply importance! In fact, they can often be inversely correlated. The most important things in your life often have little urgency attached to them, so it's up to you to keep track of them and make sure they don't get smothered and forgotten in the minutia of the day-to-day. So every day, take some time to turn off your cellphone , shut down your email , stop tweeting and twittering, sit down, and do something that's actually important ! Or...

On Monday, July 26th there was a terrible tragedy. Two small planes collided with each other in mid-air. One of the planes landed safely, but the other crashed, killing two people. This accident is very near and dear to me, as it happened at the flight school I've been training at the past 8 months. In fact, Mel and I flew in  TOD -- the plane that crashed -- just one day earlier. It's difficult to fathom how this accident happened. It was a clear, mostly sunny day with not much wind. Excellent flying conditions. The planes were all very well maintained, and the school has a superb safety culture. Students are well-trained. The official accident investigation is underway, and will probably take 6-8 months to complete. In the meantime, my heart goes out to the families involved, and all of the staff and students at the school. Related Articles: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/flight-school-closes-collision-probed-3675483 http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu...

Lots of milestones lately. Almost missed this one! It's been about a year since I unveiled my georeferenced online classified site, BuyMyStuff.com . It's funny. The first thing people always say to me when I explain the site is, "Looks nice, but doesn't Craigslist already own that space?" Despite what some may think, I did perform a bit of research on my competition prior to launch -- although not a whole lot :) What I found was actually quite interesting. Although Craigslist dominates online classifieds in the United States, a site called Kijiji has most of the Canadian market. Since then, I've learned that the international classifieds site market is extremely fragmented . It's difficult to get exact numbers, but using Google and Compete, you can get a rough idea of market leaders. For example, here's the top classifieds sites in Australia:  http://siteanalytics.compete.com/tradingpost.com.au+gumtree.com.au+ozfreeonline.com/ After lo...

First flight: November 5, 2009 Obtained PPL: July 10, 2010 Total Duration: 8 months Flying hours: 70.7 total Learning to fly. What an amazing adventure. I have to admit, I originally thought it would just be a fun little hobby, but rest assured, it takes a good bit of time, money, and determination. My initial estimate was to complete my training in 5 months, finishing in March. This was extended due to two major holidays and a nasty flu bug near the end. A very important consideration in flying is the concept of "currency" or "recency". In fact, for your flying license to be valid, you must have flown a certain number of hours within a certain amount of time. This varies from country to country. It's amazing how quickly you can forget things. Even taking a week off from flying can set you back a lesson or two. If you want to learn to fly in the least amount of time possible, it's important that you don't have large breaks between y...

It seems like only yesterday that I quit my job in Atlanta, Georgia and moved back to Canada to start my custom software development company, Syllogistic Software Inc. As it turns out, that was actually about seven years ago! In 2008, at the 5-year mark, I did some research about how long typical startups last.  I found the following heavily referenced article , claiming 55%, 60%, and 63% failure/closure rates in years 5, 6 and 7, respectively. These numbers aren't exact, but give a pretty good idea of how long typical businesses last.  Running your own business is not easy.  It requires good planning, great execution, awesome support from your friends and family, and just a little bit of luck . I was fortunate to have all of the above, but that still doesn't mean that it was smooth sailing the whole way.  There were lots of bumps, and a few times I was ready to toss in the towel and close up shop. I've put together a brief timeline of some of the major ...

Back in 2007, I wrote about the most popular web languages and frameworks . It seemed about time to do a quick update. Here are the current standings in my super non-scientific Google popularity contest: PHP: 7.5 billion results (154% increase ) ASP.NET: 158 million results (84% increase ) Ruby: 81.6 million results (19% decrease ) Python: 47.6 million results (not measured last time) As for frameworks: Symfony: 12.9 million results (180% increase ) CakePHP: 8.8 million results (83% increase ) Ruby on Rails: 7.8 million results (44% increase ) I'd like to add a few more numbers, however. The trend is moving towards browser-based programming using Javascript, so have a look at these interesting searches: Javascript: 561 million results YUI: 18.4 million results jQuery: 16.8 million results HTML5: 9.1 million results So based on these numbers, one might conclude: PHP and ASP.NET are going strong Ruby may have lost its luster, and Python is still a bi...