Jason's Notes About Stuff

Dear Toronto, Your streetcars have always caused me a lot of grief. First, their schedules are so inconsistent . You don't see any for a half hour, then there's like 3 in a row. Second, they're slow. Like, really slow. The east-west routes on busy streets are often much slower than walking  at times. Third, they're dangerous . You often have to cross a lane of traffic to board and disembark, so you risk death quite a lot. These problem have existed for decades, and nobody seems to care. Meanwhile, the main east-west routes (ie. King, Queen, Dundas, etc.) could be fixed tomorrow in 3 easy steps. 1. No street parking on main routes. Toronto is not (supposed to be) a pissant little rural town where you just drive in and dump your car on Main Street to visit the General Store. The never-ending stopping and parallel parking causes so many problems, it's ridiculous. This is supposed to be the downtown core of a "world class" city. Park t...

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, ...

Everyone and their friend's brother's baker seems to be doing a tech startup these days. If you're not building your own web or mobile app, you're just not part of the cool crowd . Some of these startups have investors and funding. Some don't. To all you founders out there, I have one question: WHY are YOU doing a startup? Starting a new company is not easy . I started my consulting company, Syllogistic Software , in 2003. It's almost been a decade, and the road to success was winding, ever-changing, and mostly uphill. My startup,  PMRobot , has been in the works for anywhere from 2-4 years, depending on how you count. I've poured in my heart and soul, with little financial reward. So again,  WHY are YOU doing a startup? Are you hoping to get rich ? Please, please, please stop right now if that's the case. The odds that your company will last more than a few years are  less than 50/50 . Then, if you do survive -- after...

We're just about finished our 3-month stay here in beautiful Nice, France. It's been excellent. We're sad to go, but the adventure must continue! :) In a week, we'll be flying to Madrid, Spain. After touring there a few days, we'll be volunteering and teaching English for a week at the Pueblo Inglés program in the mountain village of La Alberca . Then we bus back to Madrid to take a train to the southern city of Seville for 3 days. After hopping another train and spending 2 days in Cordova, we go even further south to Tarifa, Spain to spend some time on the beach watching the kite surfers. That will be followed by a 1-hour high-speed ferry trip across the Straight of Gibaltar to the African continent, landing in Tangier, Morocco. After a few days in Tangier, we take a train to Fez, where our camel trekking safari in the Sahara desert begins. We'll be spending a night under the desert stars before continuing to the ancient city of Marrakesh. From ...

I like seeing people's reactions when I tell them we are going to live in the South of France . People get the impression that we're super-rich . I've got news for you. We aren't. Not in the slightest. So how are we doing it? Well, for one, we've done something this year that few Canadians or Americans do anymore -- we've put money into a savings account. That's right -- we resisted the incredible consumer spending urge and actually put away a few bucks for a rainy day. And how'd we manage that? The biggest savings, by far, came from neither of us owning a car for 14 months.  This Globe & Mail article pegs the annual cost of car ownership between $8,500-$14,000 . Even subtracting TTC passes, tokens, car rentals and ZipCar, we each saved approximately a crapload of money by not driving. This had its drawbacks and inconveniences, of course. But in hindsight, it's a tradeoff I would make again. Meanwhile, our flights to Pari...

As some of you may already know, Melissa and I were recently accepted for a one-year working holiday to France! We had our interview (which we conducted mostly in French) on November 18th, and received our visa in the mail the following week. I've been taking French classes at Alliance Francaise 3 days a week, and Mel has been practicing her French writing her resume and calling up places in France. I will continue to grow my startup, PMRobot , as well as managing consulting projects for Syllogistic Software , working remotely and following 4HWW principles. We're leaving Toronto for Paris on January 8th. After a few days in Paris, we're kicking off the trip with a cross-country of Italy, flying south to Naples on the 13th, then slowing heading north via Rome, Tuscany, Vienna, and Milan. From there we'll go west to Nice, where we'll be planting roots for a whole 3 months. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to live in the south of France, so here co...

With all of the travelling we've done recently, we have the planning down to a science. Step 1: TripAdvisor First we hit up TripAdvisor and check out their "Things to Do" section. Step 2: Google Maps Then we map out everything we want to see and do on a shared Google Map, so we can start grouping things that are close together. Step 3: Google Docs Next, we create a shared Google Doc, start listing the attractions, and figuring out which day to do what. Once we start booking flights, trains, hostels, etc., all the times and confirmations numbers go here. Step 4:  Mobile phone/apps For this trip, I've used the Labs feature in Android Google Maps to download all of London for offline use, in case I don't have a mobile signal. I've also installed two different apps that give live train and tube schedules. Step 5: Paper As great as technology is, it's not quite perfect. Laptops and phones can break or run out of battery power. Before we lea...