Doodle Pad

"Interesting" Ad Next to Athletics Store

dale — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:34:20 -0700

Sometimes on my walks I'm very inward focused, other times I'm taking in what's around me. It was on one of these latter style walks I noticed the advertisement next to this athletics store:

Is it just me, or does a sports medicine advertisement for knees and feet next to a store selling running shoes and holding running clinics seem on par with stomach pump ads at a restaurant? Inquiring minds wonder how much new business this brings in!

Farewell Inn Cogneato

dale — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:10:35 -0700

It's the end of an era in North Vancouver's Upper Lonsdale area, and a very sad day for me personally. Inn Cogneato, one of my all-time favourite restaurants on the North Shore, has closed.

I was a customer from the time it first opened and spent many a lazy Saturday or Sunday brunch enjoying good food and reading the current Wired Magazine. The menu was a kind of Iranian/North American fusion. Standard North American stuff with slight ingredient changes. They had the best bread! I think it was an Iranian flat bread (I've always called it "skate board" bread, if you've ever seen it you'll know why) made to rise.

As time went on the restaurant expanded, taking over the space next door. Wired Magazine was bought by Conde Nast and lost its soul so I moved on to other reading. I'm not sure if David was married before he opened Inn Cogneato but he certainly started his family while running it. When his son and daughter were born a prouder father you haven't seen. And along the way his wife, Salima, became involved with the "front of the house". You'd often see the kids playing in the back. In other words, it was a true neighbourhood restaurant where the owners and customers knew each other.

If Inn Cogneato had a problem, it was the portion sizes were large! Although I loved the place, I simply couldn't eat there as often as I liked if I wanted to fit into my pants! As it happened, I didn't make it in during their last few weeks and was caught completely by surprise that first week in August when I did head over for a BLT and discovered the note on the door saying farewell.

Best wishes David and Salima on your life post-Inn Cogneato. And thank you for all the wonderful food you served. You'll be missed.

Project Zune - The Unwrapping

dale — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:51:57 -0700

Back in July a bunch of Vancouver bloggers were approached to test drive a Zune. No, I wasn't one of them, but I have a friend who is one of them: A Zune for Me, and they could pick a friend to come along for the ride (Witness the ChatThreads logo at the bottom). Last week I received mine.

It's one of the fancier boxes I've received a product in, reminding me more of a medal case than electronic device packaging. I didn't get the fancy headphones or AC adaptor that Marina did, just the Zune, headphones, USB cable, and some manuals.

Thank god I'd been following some of the other Zune blog entries. The Zune doesn't come charged and there is no obvious indication that you need to charge it before use. I stumbled around for a bit until that little factoid bubbled to the surface.

Getting started with the Zune was one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had with an electronics device. There's no software included, you to download it from a website. Before you can download the Zune software, you have to sign up for their social website. This has nothing what-so-ever to do with getting started, it's completely irrelevant to getting started and a waste of time (I've actually forgotten the account and password already). When you finally get the software installed, and your Zune is charged, it wants you to update the firmware. More waiting. And when all that is done, the real frustration happens ….

My biggest mp3 player usage is podcasting, so that was the first thing I tried configuring. I now know where the Sony programmers - my vote for worst designers of all time - went after Sony discontinued their mini-disc players. The Zune software is obtuse. I suspect it's probably easier if you're starting from scratch, but I have an existing set of files/directories set up with Juice. It appears Zune follows in the Microsoft tradition of not playing well with others, it sure sucks at importing files. The Zune software does understands how to download podcasts and life became simpler using it as my podcast downloader. God help me when I try to import my music, I certainly don't want to re-rip everything.

More to come.

Future Shop's New Future

dale — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:05:13 -0700

Future Shop has a reputation among my circle of friends as an indifferent big box retailer with sometimes poor after sales support. When I heard about a new "concept" store attempting to be customer centric my curiosity was piqued. Hoping that old proverb about curiosity and dead cats was on summer vacation I accepted an invitation to last night's unveiling party of the newly redesigned Future Shop at Park Royal.

The new store concept is a "Hub" where customers can see products in a bit of context and talk to product experts who aren't on commission. The hub, appropriately located in the center of the store, has four sections corresponding to different facets of lifestyle: Living, Playing, Working, and "On the Go". Each section has product displayed "Ikea" style (i.e., setup the way you might find in a home much tidier than mine). The store also contains an Apple store, staffed by Apple staff.

The new Future Shop "Hub" concept at Park Royal
Photo by penmachine

This was the first opening of any type I got to attend as "media", and I got the full attention of one of the Future Shop employees who'll be staffing the hub.

On seeing this design at other stores:

This is a concept store based on customer feedback surveys. Future shop will be watching what works and what doesn't, and move the working ideas out to their other stores. The Hub and Apple store weren't the only things implemented. Not mentioned in the promotional material I saw but pointed out by the employee, in response to customer feedback their returns/exchange area now has seating (Photo right).

Will this store, being a sort of West Van flagship and all, carry higher end products not carried at other stores?

My interview subject didn't have any specific information on this, so probably not.

Does this store reflect an attempt to differentiate the Future Shop and Best Buy brands?

Again, my interview subject didn't have any specific information on this. His Future Shop loyalty/pride as a floor sales guy certainly came out, though! He felt since Future Shop sales people were on commission they gave better service than Best Buy staff, who weren't.

My take away from all this?

The most impressive thing I heard all night was the seating in the returns/exchange area. This isn't sexy, so the fact they spent money on it shows some earnest attempt to the improve store experience (And hopefully they're also working on keeping the wait times and number of returns low!). It was also nice to see floor staff engaged in the change This is based on a sample of one, but it would have been ill omen indeed if they'd only had bored folks available.

So, is this a flash-in-the-pan facelift or genuine attempt to become a nicer place to shop? I can't tell from just an opening. I'm hoping for the later (it would sure be nice to have a tech geek go-to store) but I'm not holding my breath! However, living on Vancouver's North Shore I'll have a chance to find out over the next few months. And hopefully not by using one of those new chairs in returns/exchange.

Summer 2008 Event Omnibus

dale — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:53:08 -0700

A whole bunch of events you might be interested in:

The Summer Dream Literary Arts Festival

Saturday July 26, 2008
http://www.pandorascollective.com/sdrfestival.html

If you're a literary reader or lover of poetry this is a great event. I don't fall into either of these categories but enjoyed the performance poetry and story slams of past years. Quite a wide range of presentations, with some having a Hip Hop feel and others more traditional.

Vancouver Blog-a-thon 2008

Saturday July 26, 2008
http://blogathonvancouver.wikidot.com/

Local bloggers raising money for charity by posting every 30 minutes for 24 hours. Fellow podcaster Colleen from 353 Review is participating, as is local big gun blogger Miss 604.

Slow Food Circle Farm Tour

Saturday August 9, 2008
http://www.slowfoodvancouver.com/index.php/AgassizTour

From their site: a self-guided bicycle ride following the popular Circle Farm Tour. Embark on a leisurely cycle and learn more about local food production. Riding your bicycle, you will get to experience and taste local food products produced close to home, while getting to know and supporting your local farmers.

VinoCamp 2008 (aka Wine Camp)

Saturday August 16, 2008
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/137449114/bmann

From the site: An outdoor gathering of wine tasting, learning, and sharing, done in an informal style. We'll learn about growing, tasting, and pairing wines from a wide array of enthusiasts and experts. Mash this up with techies that like to record and capture these types of events in an unstructured style, and you have a fun one day event. This is Definitely Not The Wine Festival.

BarCamp 2008

Saturday September 27, 2008
Registration: http://barcampvancouver2008.eventbrite.com/
Wiki: http://barcamp.org/BarCampVancouver2008

From the site: BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

"After the Credits" Podcast Hits 30 Episodes!

dale — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:37:10 -0700

Marina, Colleen, and I just published our 30th After the Credits podcast!: After the Credits Episode 30 - A Dark Rant.

I suppose 25 is a more traditional milestone to mention but I missed it, so I'm going with the next multiple of 10!

The first episode of After the Credits was posted on November 30, 2007. We've been averaging over 3 podcasts a month for the last 8 months. It doesn't seem like 30 episodes. Looking back, the biggest surprise was how long it took to get the audio quality up. We still have our off episodes but thankfully they're far more infrequent. I'm still struggling with my stammering, though. I swear to God the ideas ricochet around my head 20 odd times before getting to my mouth, greatly befuddling coherent expression. Fortunately my two most excellent co-hosts are there to bail me out.

When I bought my mixing board and microphones I remember wondering if I'd use them enough to justify the purchase. It's so very cool to look back over the 30 After the Credits podcasts and the 25 Mad About Movie podcasts and answer: Yes. But coolest of all, it's still as fun now as the day I started.

If you're interested in checking out After the Credits a list of recent podcasts can be found in the right sidebar or at Row 3.

Visiting the Parents at the Chilliwack Buffalo Shoot

dale — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:20:48 -0700

The parental units are down from the Interior competing in the Chilliwack Buffalo Shoot. Buffalo shoot you say? It involves shooting black powder rifles and pistols, and throwing tomahawks and knifes. And not just on a range. There's a trail walk where you move from one target station to another. The target might be straw or moving metal silhouette. The 'Hawk & Knife involves more than just making the blade stick. A station might require a half or three-quarter rotation. And people wear period costumes.

But I digress. With my folks a mere hours drive away instead of the usual eight it's a no-brainer that I pop out there for a visit. After arriving the challenge is always finding the right trailer. Fortunately my parents 5th wheel is equipped with handy "make it obvious for Dale" graphics in the form of bears.

I got there just after the competition had finished for the day. Black power creates a lot of residue so the guns need cleaning after use. Unlike modern rifles which require a solvent, you only need regular soapy water with black power.

Guns attended to, we settled into a lazy after of catching up.

Giro di Burnaby 2008

dale — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:37:11 -0700

Joined my friends Sylvia and Grieg down from the Yukon to watch the Giro di Burnaby tonight. Although I don't know a whole lot about cycling I had an expert advisor. And we had someone to cheer for: Zach Bell. Zach came in second tonight, pretty cool. He came in third yesterday at the Tour de Gastown and is representing Canada at Beijing.

Giro di Burnaby Banner

Starting Line

Racing Fast

Making a Lap

Hulking Disappointment

dale — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:23:31 -0700

When I looked off my balcony this morning I got excited, there was some sort of Edward Norton/Incredible Hulk promotion going on in sleepy North Van!

Upon closer inspection the Symantec connection became obvious. Bummer.

One wonders if this kind of marketing actually pays off.

BIFF Turns 3

dale — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:43:48 -0700

Nearly every Friday for the last 3 years science fiction/fantasy fans have been meeting in North Vancouver to share their genre enthusiasm at BIFF, the Burrard Inlet Fan Fellowship (I've never been fond of the name but the acronym BIFF tickles my fancy). I've met many, many nice people and made some good friends, including my fellow After the Credit podcasters Marina and Colleen.

BIFF had its 3rd anniversary last Friday. Happy Birthday BIFF!!!

If you ever find yourself with nothing to do on a Friday night, check it out: http://biff.realityfree.ca

iPhone Line-Up in North Van

dale — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:34:12 -0700

Had to return some video's this morning and being such a nice day I decided to make my evening walk a morning walk. On the way down to the video store there was a crowd of people on the street. Very unusual for Lonsdale Ave in the morning. Amazingly, they were still there 20 minutes later on the way back. What the heck? Scanning the street for a possible reason it suddenly became obvious: line up at the Rogers store for iPhones! Couldn't resist crossing the street for a picture.

So to all you iPeeps courageously braving the Rogers cluster-fuck I'm happy you have a nice, sunny morning for standing in line. That, at least, doesn't have a service fee.