Jason's Notes About Stuff

For the longest time, I've been searching for a quick, easy way to take quick meeting notes. I used to use a text editor called SciTE, the same editor I use for quick code editing, but I find managing files in a file system to be a real pain. When I had an iPad for a while, I liked the default Notes application, but hated that there was no cloud storage or synchronization. (No, the crappy Gmail sync doesn't count) Then I heard about EverNote . I thought that was the answer to my prayers, but unfortunately those guys decided  to add every conceivable feature in the universe and have ended up with a bloated mess that takes an hour and a half to load. There's a bunch of others I've tried too, like UberNote , Springpad , and the Diigo mishmash of apps. But nothing was small enough, or simple enough for my taste. So I did what any good developer does. I created a "learning" project to scratch my own itch. I used technology I've discussed at the...

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.

The traditional "for profit" economic model works great for most things . For instance, take the mythical "widget". You research all the different types of widgets, find out the best deal, and purchase it. Manufactures and suppliers compete to offer the best widget for the lowest price . You set a budget, and buy the "most bang for the buck" widget. Now think about healthcare. What if your child has cancer? What is your budget to save them? Are you going to be enticed by a discount coupon or "one day only sale" from one of the local competing hospitals? Are you going to make a rational cost-benefit decision? Or would you be willing to mortgage your house, cash out your RRSP, and sell everything you own , if it meant saving them? That's the problem. The standard "supply and demand" economic model does not apply. Now, I definitely think private healthcare has a role -- for elective and optional procedures. But for...

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...

From the December 2010 issue of Nutrition Action magazine : "...if it's an epidemic, that means it's been triggered by the environment. And what do you do if you have too much malaria? You drain the swamps. What do you do if you have too many deaths on the highway? You impose seat belts. These are public health measures. What do you do when you have an epidemic of obesity? We're going to have to impose taxes on soft drinks and subsidize healthier food. And we need safe neighbourhoods where kids can play. ... My grandmother knew that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more We're still there, but the real trigger of the obesity epidemic is the environment I couldn't agree more.

In Gmail, it's really easy to see how long it's been since you emailed someone, because it displays it right in the interface: Lately I've noticed something very strange. Most people seem to respond: Within 24hrs Exactly 3 days later Exactly 7 days later Or never Has anyone else noticed a similar pattern? I wonder if it has anything to do with how people manage (or mis-manage) their Inbox. How long do you usually take to respond to emails?