My last semester at the University of Prince Edward Island I was taking a Mathematical Economics course. We were taught all kinds of crazy and awesome mathematical equations.

As with most my math courses, I struggled. Between writing all the notes down and understanding it all, I was blown away.

Then at night I would come home and read this really horribly written text book which didn't help.

I needed a new way to learn, a new way to understand. One part I struggled with was the Definite Integral. I went to extra math help and got some help with some other equations but I wasn't always available when the math help was open. I needed another way. I hired a tutor which in the end seemed like we reviewed things very similarly to how we went over them in class. This didn't work.

Determined to pass, I went to google and typed in one of my mathematical equations and sure enough a video from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) came up. The youtube video was of a class being taught the particular equation. I was curious to find out what else is out there. So sure enough I went to youtube and typed in a couple equations and voila. Awesome explanations of how to solve the mathematical equations I struggled with.

The youtube user patrickJMT offered easy to understand videos which I watched and learnt how to do the said equations.

Heres an example:

My exam scores increased big time. Things were no longer difficult and thanks to youtube and patrickJMT it helped me understand math.

So, if you are struggling with math problems, checkout Youtube. They got a lot of great step by step directions on how to solve different problems. Don't get discouraged if you don't understand the first or second video, there are some really good videos out there that do wonders.

So if your stuck on a math problem, checkout Youtube!

With the new craze on mobile devices, we've launched a new mobile website which features directional information through the assistance of barcodes. In the future, we will see a closer connection between your mobile devices GPS and the website your navigating on. As such, I've created a new mobile site for Globe World Flavours.

The website is going to be promoted in conjunction with a QR Code (2 dimensional barcode) to make better use of ads setup throughout town. On posters or advertisements, a barcode will be displayed such as:

People will then scan the barcode with their mobile device such as a Blackberry or iPhone and be able to find directions to Globe from where ever they are. Since the barcodes will be setup at specific locations, it will actual directions from where they are to 132 Richmond St.

So for instance, lets say your a cruise ship visitor who just got off a cruise ship at the wharf. Heres a basic example of what you would see after you scan the above barcode:

You can view this in action on the Globe mobile website or checkout the sample.

I believe that in a few years we will begin to see barcodes on everything. Lots of items will be scan-able via a mobile device. This will allow more up to date information to be processed. In the future when you drive up to a car dealership, you will be able to scan a barcode on the car to find out specific information on that exact car as well as other basic information about the vehicle.

There are already shipping companies and car lots interested in using the technology. The Halifax Metro had barcodes inside their paper which allows the reader to bringup more information on the story. There is even a QR barcode on my soap bottle!

At the current time not all Blackberry's will run the Google Maps API therefore a static image of a location map will be displayed. I'm sure in the future Blackberry will have a fix for this.

Rogers has come out and announced their iPad plans.

$15 for 250mb
$35 for 5gb

In comparison, AT& T in the states is offering an unlimited data plan for $35 a month.

Currently I used around 4gb a month with my Telus Blackberry plan.

Since my iPad is just WIFI, obviously I won't be getting the plan. Ideally, I would love to connect my iPad to my blackberry via Bluetooth and be able to connect via my phones tethering capabilities. But since Apple has limited that I won't be doing it anytime soon.

Rogers had initially come up with a shared option plan where customers could have multiple 3G devices in use in the network for an additional $20 however Rogers later stated this was an error on both the Apple website and the Rogers site.

Bell has stated they will release a iPad plan however they did not release any details on their plans. With Bell having special plans for the iPad I am sure Telus will follow suit. The Apple website currently just lists Rogers has the only data provider for the iPad.

I've told all kinds of people what I like about the iPad, but I haven't told them what I dislike about it. In other words, the honey moon is over Apple.

I've had the iPad for about three weeks now and still really like it and how it works, but the honeymoon is coming to an end and I am noticing more and more things that I just shake my head at.

For instance, I wasn't too surprised when I couldn't connect via bluetooth to my Blackberry. For those who want to see the video version, watch it on Youtube. Apple has made pairing their iPad to a Blackberry impossible to due the fact their releasing a 3G model. This is very concerning as Apple is removing Bluetooth capabilities. Sure, I understand it might be to protect the profits but still, companies shouldn't be limiting standards such as bluetooth. I understand there is a work-around if you jailbreak the iPad but I haven't looked into jailbreaking enough to even consider it.

Another bluetooth issue, and this is moreso a Skype issue, is that Skype on the iPad won't allow me to use my bluetooth Motorola S9-HD headset when talking on Skype. I could carry my iPad and a bluetooth headset and always have access to a phone, in the event WIFI is available. That'd be super sweet.

Apple has also removed all WIFI Scanners from their apps list. You can't download any WIFI Scanners via the App store which makes the iPad less useful when troubleshooting a WIFI connection. Right now the only way I know to download things for my iPad is through the iTunes App Store which is another kick in the pants.

I dropped by OT Haircutters on Saturday and took a look inside. Denny Barkhouse, the president, took me on a little tour of inside the new unique hair salon.

Pretty much everything was ready to go on Saturday with an intended launch date of Wednesday. The spot looked really good with a high end feel to it.

The entrance was more of a locker room feel with large pucks making up a portion of the desk and a large screen TV right in the middle of it.

Of course, there is memorabilia located on the sides before you get to the rink part where the actually hair cutting takes place.

The ice area is where they actually cut the hair and they even brought on a few sponsors for the arena boards.

For the ladies, there's a section in the back with a large screen television and some nice chairs. The intention is to also put in a laptop in addition to the WIFI they will offer.

All in all, a lot of work was obviously put into this place as it a unique feel to a hair salon which Denny mentioned they are going to try and franchise.

OT Haircutters is going to be located in the Kirkwood Mews by the Charlottetown Police Department.

I added the Facebook Like application to my blog so people can like blog posts which will appear directly on their Facebook page.

I have mixed feelings about the way it works. For instance, you can only see the like's if a friend of yours on Facebook posted that they liked it. However if someone not on your Facebook list like's it then you can't see it.

As mentioned I have mixed feelings on this but understand the logic behind it. I put it up after a client requested it on their webpage. I figured it would be a great demo for the client as well as I could play with it a bit myself.

At the end of the day, I think I would prefer to see a list of everyone that like's it whether they are on your Facebook list or not.

None the less, here is an example of it in use:

So how does it show up in Facebook? Just like so:

This morning thanks to Paul McNeil & CBC's Island Morning, I was a featured guest on the segment "On The Line".


Didn't hear it? Click here to listen.

A couple questions have been asked since the phone in and I figured I would write a blog post to follow up.

The GPS tracking device. I spoke about Google Latitude which allows friends to track one another. I blogged about this last year and followed it up with an update.

I am not aware of any mobile software available that will allow you to track someones position without their approval. For instance, I mentioned I could lookup where my sister is at any given moment. I had to add her, and she had to approve me access, as a Google Latitude friend before I could see her position. Here's an example (my sister being the profile photo in above my location in Charlottetown).



Secondly, just because a website is secure (you see https:// in the address bar or the lock) does not mean it is legitimate. Criminals can sign up for secure certificates as well. There is no rigorous process to obtaining one. It's simple, pay your money and you can have a secure website. That's all for listening. From conversations today either a lot of people have their radio stations set to CBC Radio for their alarm clock or a lot of people tuned in to hear it.

Thursday morning I received my iPad from a friend who just returned from the United States. He was over a week prior and purchased a few and ended up showing me his. I really enjoyed it and seen a few opportunities which would allow me to integrate it into my daily routines and make things a bit easier.

So Thursday morning, I was up bright and early to receive it. Played around with it while we headed to Moncton for the car auctions.

On the way over, I attempted to pair the iPad with my Blackberry to use my Blackberry Curve's internet connection to surf. I had done this similar setup with my MAC laptop this past Christmas while staying at my parents and it worked great.

Sadly, I couldn't get the Blackberry to pair with my iPad. Thinking it might be my Blackberry, I tried it with a friends Blackberry and it had the same issues.

I googled it and didn't find any good answers. I ended up pairing my iPad with my Blackberry Bluetooth headset without any issues.

The morning auction didn't have WIFI but the afternoon one did, therefore I could connect to it and we were flying with more data then most car dealers were able to bring up. Having the knowledge of current market retail rates is obviously a major help when you have seconds to minutes before a car goes through an auction.

Standing outside and using Google Maps, the iPad performed great and showed what direction we were walking in through GPS. The GPS feature was one that caught my eye last week when I was playing with my friends.

Moving onto Friday, I was presenting a client with a walk through of his website. We connected to their wifi connection and went through the whole site with the iPad. The touch screen really made things easy to work with and it was pretty slick. I ended up bringing it to two more meetings on Friday where I used it to display some previous work I've done. It was an extremely easy and light weight device which made it super slick.



Now so far, everythings been pretty good. But the iPad isn't all that and a bag of chips. It lacks some serious features which one would expect Apple to deliver on.

Flash
Everyone would expect running flash on the iPad wouldn't be an issue, but Apple seems to have blocked any chance at Adobe putting Flash on the iPad. With a lot of web applications currently requiring flash, I think this is a big mistake Apple is making. Some have speculated that the big reason they are doing this is to help build their revenues.

USB
The iPad does not feature any USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports. USB is everywhere and on a lot of devices. I was thinking there would be a let one that would allow you to charge the device however that is not the case.

Early this morning I received my Apple iPad. I quickly did up a basic video on it before heading to Moncton on business.

I actually got to put it to good use today as my day required a lot of surfing online and such.

Here is the video from this morning.

If you haven't heard by now from me telling you, I've written my first paid article for a magazine! I've always had a goal in life to write for some sort of magazine. And when the opportunity to write for a regional business magazine came knocking over Twitter, I jumped in with both feet.

I started my first paid article a couple months back in January. I went out and interviewed numerous people from TIAPEI and Tourism PEI. I thought a general overview on tourism on PEI would hit the spot.

After hours of interviews, voice notes on my Blackberry and scribbling notes, I started to write on Tourism in general. After I finished writing, I realized what I had was garbage. I spoke with Teresa Wright from The Guardian who was a huge help and gave me a lot of direction on writing this article. She helped nudge me in the direction of writing on Culinary Tourism and I was off to the races again.

So out I went, interviewed Lisa Cameron from Globe World Flavours, the chef from Chocolate Elements, TIAPEI, and Kevin Murphy from TAC. All were extremely awesome to interview and helpful.

I ended up reading over all my notes and listening to all the recorded conversations on my Blackberry before sitting down to do my second rough copy. I sat down and just wrote. It wasn't a chore like writing a high school report, it was fun and exciting.

The article was published in the latest Atlantic Business Magazine and is available on their website titled, "What's cooking, good looking?".

A huge thanks to local reporter Teresa Wright, Dawn Chafe of Atlantic Business Magazine for the opportunity and to everyone I interviewed! It was a fun experience and I hope they invite me to write again.

Regular readers may remember that I am a huge fan of roundabout's. Traveling through Sydney, Australia is a pleasurable experience and a lot more efficient. But do we really need to have 2 roundabouts within a few km of each other on the bypass or Riverside Drive? I think not.

The province should look at making one roundabout at the most and having the opposite intersection as a right turn only. The same type of entrance as used going onto Pioneer Avenue from Riverside Drive. This is the fourth round-about I've heard of being installed within the city this year (Action Corner, 2 on Riverside drive, and UPEI entrance) and I think it's a bit much. Do we really need to redo 4 intersections? It sounds like a make-work project to me.

I think the UPEI entrance on Belvedere needs to be looked at but I am sure they can find an alternative that works well for both UPEI & the Farmers Market. An alternative that involves maybe expanding the road and having a turning lane if anything.

Charlottetown is going through a pretty fascinating growth spurt. If you look at the projects that are up and coming, there's a lot happening in our small city.

The 10 story Homburg Hotel is making some major progress with the base being put in. The tunnel from the Confederation Centre of the Arts to the Confederation Court Mall is also being setup. This is part of Homburg's $45 million dollar investment into Charlottetown.

The 8 story Fitzroy office building should be opening soon. It started off being 7 stories however they changed it to 8 to satisfy the local city council. Also part of Homburg's $45 million dollar project.

Remember the old kays building? Seems construction is coming along nice on the new 3 story Queen street townhouses.

The 3 story Hillsborough Condo's are progressing nicely.

Charlottetown is starting to make a plan for the gateway to the city.

Tim Bank's APM is trying to get a new $22 million dollar hotel down in my neighborhood. It's named Welsh-Owen Hotel and Plaza Development.

Holland College is spending $40 million expanding onto another block on Cumberland/Grafton.

The QEH $56 million dollar expansion is in mid-phase I believe.

PlazaCorp's recent announcement on a new proposed mall on the North end of the city was approved recently. At the same time, PlazaCorp recently started offering of $20 million 7.5% convertible debentures.

Almost across the street, Peter Pan will be redeveloped.

The new shoppers drug mart downtown is open.

Co-Op Grocery store recently announced they will be doing a $700,00 overhaul of their grocery store.

Our city will have 3-4 new roundabouts and the our provincial government is expanding riverside drive, or the bypass, to 4 lanes. The city is also expanding University Avenue to 4 lanes.

Further to my What's on Special Twitter account, if you retweet what special you intend on purchasing that day you may be the lucky winner of having your lunch/supper purchased for you!

Everyone who retweets the special (additional text is okay!) will be eligible to have the lunch/supper special purchased for them! I will be selecting winners at random.

For example, checkout Joshua Biggley's tweet where he said he was intending on heading to Casa Mia!

Today I released an additional tool to allow people to find out what is on special at their favorite Island restaurants. I have setup all the specials to post to a new twitter account todays Island specials.

To have your restaurant added, you need to signup for an account at our Restaurant Specials system which is currently a free feature offered through PEIinfo.

At 9:00 the lunch specials for that day will be posted to the twitter account and then 2 minutes later the all day specials. At 1am, the supper specials will be posted. To preview what is on special tomorrow, you will need to visit PEIinfo.

Eastern School District's superintendent Sandy MacDonald ends up being the CBC newsmaker of the year. He beat out other stories like PNP, H1N1, the economy.

Congratulations to all the nominee's announced today for the 2010 Music PEI Awards! Big congratulations goes out to Hunter's Ale House, Chris Wilkinson, Jakt (Donovan Morgan), Teresa Doyle & Jeff Morris.

Nominees Announced for 2010 Music PEI Awards
December 9, 2009 | Music PEI Announces Nominees for 2010 Music PEI Awards

Charlottetown, PE) –Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold leads the pack of nominees for the 2010 Music PEI Awards with 5 nominations. Artist and Industry award nominations were announced today in Charlottetown, PE at the Atlantic Technology Centre.

According to Music PEI Executive Director Rob Oakie, “The nominees this year highlight some of the best the Island has to offer. Music PEI Week will be an exciting event as we recognize some of the achievements of the past year. Music PEI is proud to have the opportunity through support from the Province to assist these artists in building fulltime careers in the music industry.”

A number of Island artists received multiple nominations this year including Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold (5), Catherine MacLellan (4), Grass Mountain Hobos (4), Two Hours Traffic (4), Chas Guay (3), Haunted Hearts (3), Janet MacEwen (3), Joey Kitson (3), Racoon Bandit (3), The Sidewalks (3) and Teresa Doyle (3). A total of twenty-five (25) awards will be handed out during the 2010 Music PEI Week.

Oakie continued, “Prince Edward Island members of the music industry have made significant gains in recent years. A recent example of success is in the ECMA nominations. Twenty-one nominations for PEI artists represents over 11% of the nominees when we only represent 6% of the population.” He went on to say, “2009 also represented national award wins, multiple national and international tours and tremendous growth in regional recognition. Our artists continue to improve in their professional approach to the business of music.”

Now in its 9th year, PEI Music Week and Conference has grown from one day to an event that brings together the music industry and the public for four jam-packed days of showcases, workshops, and the Gala Awards Show. This year, the festival and conference will be held in Charlottetown, PE from January 20 – 23, 2010.

Below is a full list of awards nominations.

2010 Music PEI Awards Nominees

Songwriter of the Year
Catherine MacLellan – “Take a Break”
Haunted Hearts – “Haunted Hearts”
Teresa Doyle – “You’re My Cup of Tea”
Tim Chaisson – “Lay Low”
Two Hours Traffic – “Noisemaker”


New Artist of the Year
Disco Rockin’ Llamas
Haunted Hearts
Jace Patkai
Janet MacEwen
Milks & Rectangles
Racoon Bandit
The Sidewalks

Male Vocalist of the Year
Paul Broadbent
Chas Guay
Jeff Morris
Joey Kitson
Jordan Cameron

Female Vocalist of the Year
Catherine MacLellan
Erin Evans
Janet MacEwen
Teresa Doyle

Group of the Year
Grass Mountain Hobos
Racoon Bandit
The Sidewalks
Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold
Two Hours Traffic

Album of the Year
Catherine MacLellan – Water in the Ground
Chas Guay – Little City
Grass Mountain Hobos – Zoot!
Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold – Broken Hearted Beat
Two Hours Traffic – Territory

Entertainer of The Year
Grass Mountain Hobos
Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold
Smothered in Hugs
Joey Kitson
Richard Wood

Francophone Recording of the Year
Mario Robichaud – Qui es-tu?
Rebels – Rebels
Stephane Bouchard - L’Opus du Petit Prince
Vishten – Vishten Live

Alternative Recording of the Year
Disco Rockin’ Llamas – Disco Rockin’ Llamas
Haunted Hearts – Thank you, Goodnight
Racoon Bandit - Campcraft
The Danks – Are You Afraid of The Danks?
The Sidewalks – Better Late Than Never

Bluegrass/Country Recording of the Year
Glencoe Road – Deep Little Tale
Grass Mountain Hobos – Zoot!
Johnny Oliver – I’m Not Up For Sale
Slung - Superfecta

Folk Recording of the Year
Compilation - Believing in Anne
Catherine MacLellan – Water in the Ground
Colette Cheverie – Hours Before Dawn
Joey Kitson - Stan

Jazz Recording of the Year
Janet MacEwen – Back Where I Belong
Stephane Bouchard – L’Opus du Petit Prince
Teresa Doyle – Late Night Parlour

Pop Recording of the Year
Chas Guay – Little City
Jeff Morris – Far Away
Milks & Rectangles – Civic Virtues
Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold – Broken Hearted Beat
Two Hours Traffic - Territory

Rock Recording of the Year
Dysfunktional Dads – ya gotta love it!
Fugato – Fugato
Loud Machine - Spanner
Smothered in Hugs – Healing Power of Injury

Roots Traditional Solo, Duo or Group Recording of the Year
Courtney Hogan - Firefly
Lazy Jacks – East Coast Live
Rebels – Rebels
Scott MacAulay – Great Scott!

Urban Recording of the Year
Billy Dee Starski- Starved, Homeless And Broke
DJ Thundacat- Look, No Hands
Jakt & Jeff Math- Mules
The Dogs Will Hunt- Ship To China
Tyler Carmody & DJ Ghost- Tyler Carmody & DJ Ghost

Educator of the Year
Aaron Crane
Moe Hashie
Peter Robinson
Todd MacLean

Event of the Year
Bootlegger’s Ball
East Coast Affair
Fringe
Indian River Music Festival
Nigwek

Musician of the Year
Chris Gauthier
Jon Matthews
Remi Arsenault
Rich Knox
Tian Wigmore

Studio of the Year
Big Grey Sound Studio
Guernsey Cover Parlour Productions
Lukas Raine

Venue of the Year
Harmony House
Hunter’s Ale House
St. Mary’s Church
The Guild

Visual Artist of the Year
Chris Wilkinson
Ryan Hutchinson
Six Eyed Cat
Tony Dawe

Fan’s Choice - Weekend Warrior of the Year
Kickin’ Country
Lazy Jacks
Muddy Buddy
Vintage

Almost a year ago on December 18th, 2008, I wrote an article on traffic lights and how they should flash amber late at night.

Here's a summary:

Every night at midnight, why don't we have the lights setup to flash red, much like they do in other cities like Halifax or even our neighboring town of Cornwall? As there is a major decrease in traffic at this time, its not going to affect many Islanders and there isn't enough people on the road at that time for it to effect many people.

I think Charlottetown should have the lights setup so that going North-South most of the lights should be blinking orange. The exception would be any streets that cross Belvedere Avenue or Grafton St. For Belvedere Avenue and Grafton St, have all the lights going east-west flash orange and all other lights on this street flash red.

This would provide a continuous flow of traffic within the city at and reduce the useless stop and go traffic at night.

I found out through the helpfulness of Paul Johnston, Charlottetown's Public Works Manager, that on a day later after I wrote my post, an RFP was closing at noon.

He was happy to inform me that they were going to hire a "local engineering consulting firm" to look into all the traffic lights. He also informed me in the email, that they were hoping to have this implemented by Summer 2009.

The Guardian wrote up a story on the RFP closing and we were off to the races.

Fives months pass by and I sent an email to Terry Bernard, the councilor responsible for public works. He said to expect a report by the end of June.

July comes along and I asked if they got anything and nothing from the consulting firm yet. CBCL has nothing to report yet and the update is it's been delayed but we've trained someone to do the field work. And by-the-way it's on the backburner as we've gotten other RFP's that are a priority.

Now, we're almost going on a years anniversary of the RFP being issued. The plan was for things to be implemented in the Summer which tells me the city must have had some sort of deadline in place for this report.

I understand things get delayed, but we're almost a year later and the consultants have not yet gotten back to the city with the report. If the city didn't care about the issue, why bother issuing an RFP for someone to look into it instead of letting it slip through the cracks.

My previous post on the issue gave the city some good ideas on things to do without the cost of a consultant and it's pretty cut & dry to me.

The first few processes on my computer always seem to be the same.

The applications that load on startup are Skype, Google Chat/Adium, and MacMail (Mac).

The first thing I do everytime I boot up the computer to start the day is to open up my Firefox. When Firefox is loaded it autoloads PEIinfo so I can check both The Guardian & CBC News at the same time, click on any stories that may interest me and read the news.

The next thing I do is pop into my email program (MacMail or Thunderbird for my Windows PC). Go through my emails. Any emails which require me to schedule myself to be someplace, I will either go into Google Calendar to mark it on my calendar or use Thunderbird's Lightning to mark it in. This way, my schedule is synchronized to my Blackberry to stay on track!

The next step I do is pop over to Twitter to see what people are Tweeting about, and pop into Facebook to see what my friends are updating.

Depending on my schedule, if I have nothing planned, I will pop into CODA (Mac) or Notepad++ (Windows).

Around noon, I will pop onto Skype to see who is on, then also pop into iChat/Google Chat to make lunch plans. At the same time, popping into Facebook & Twitter to check any updates.

The heavyweights weight in:

Last Saturday it was managing editor of The Guardian Gary MacDougall's column, then it was the Eastern Graphic's weekly paper on Thursday?. Brian Murray from UPEI/Holland College mentioned today TypeTexter made the business section of The Guardian on Saturday.

My sister wanted to see Saturdays clip so for those interested here it is. Huge thanks to Charlottetown City Councilor Rob Lantz for sending me the digital version.