Some time ago, it became clear that President-elect Obama will appoint a Chief Technology Officer. While I have not followed this development in great detail, it strikes me as a positive move which will hopefully generate better technology policy. It also strikes me as an overt acknowledgement of the importance of the IT sector and technology more ( Read more... )

I had another look through Ontario's latest Public Salary Disclosure figures for universities. This document reports the name, institution, job title and salary of all staff earning over $100,000 a year ( Read more... )

Hooray! I discovered this morning that CBC puts its documentaries online. So far, I can only access The Nature of Things, but that's one of their best documentaries anyway.

Today's episode is inspired by the book, The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. I've seen that book a couple of times in bookstores and it appears to be popular. The ( Read more... )

Terry Pratchett has been made a knight (BBC News)

Fantastic.

1. Innumeracy : mathematical illiteracy and its consequences by John Allen Paulos


2. Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity by Lawrence Lessig


3. Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen


4. Making Money by Terry Pratchett


5. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

You can submit your ideas and suggestions to the federal government for its 2009 budget.

Give the gift of friendship this Christmas

This Christmas over 1 million geeks around the globe will sit lonely in their bedrooms, misunderstood and ignored by a cruel world outside. Without "real" friends, they languish unloved in basements, offices and box rooms, hoping without hope for a better life ( Read more... )

I just completed the Ontario University Graduate Survey and it was a delight. The survey was mainly focused on income and employment issues, but it did also record some information on further education pursued. The package I received from the Ontario Universities Application Centre also included a letter from the "Chief Operating Officer and Vice- ( Read more... )

After helping somebody sort out problems with Outlook Express, a grateful caller said several times, "Thanks! You're a genius." Hooray!

Also, I'm going to be co-presenting a poster session at the Canadian Library Association conference in Montreal in May.

Shortly before The Satanic Verses was published, Rushdie told a journalist that ‘it would be absurd to think that a book can cause riots. That’s a strange sort of view of the world.’ Today, we have come to accept that books do indeed cause riots and that therefore we must be careful what books we write - or what cartoons we draw, or jokes we tell, ( Read more... )