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Yeah, but half an orbit later, they’ll be hungry again

According to this news report, not only will the Chinese be launching their first taikonaut into space, they’ll also be launching the first Chinese food* into space:

“They’ll be able to eat shredded pork with garlic sauce and kungpao chicken,” China.com said. “It will be more tasty than Western food. After the meal, green tea will be available to increase the astronaut’s spirits.”

D’you think the taikonauts will read their fortune cookies and then add “…in space”?

* No, I don’t count Laika as Chinese food.

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Boss Ross on Blogware

My boss, Ross Rader, Tucows’ Director of Research and Innovation, writes about Blogware on the Blogware home page (which is itself a Blogware blog).

Blogware, as I mentioned earlier, is being sold to ISPs and hosting services, because that’s Tucows’ business: providing tools so that ISPs and hosting services can do their thing. Here’s Ross:

It was built specifically to deal with the needs of ISPs and webhosters. Before Blogware service providers had three choices:

1. Buy an expensive license to a centralized content management system that would facilitate bloghosting

2. Do a separate installation for each user

3. Refer all sales to a third party and just give up on taking a cut.

None of these options are particularly attractive.

Blogware handles this a little bit differently. First, it is a completely outsourced application. We handle the heavy lifting, the day to day management and administration of the infrastructure and all future development of the application code. This leaves our partners room to focus on important things like customer service, marketing and their core business. Second, the service was built to scale to meet the needs of a very demanding market. Need to set up 5000 blogs in the next 24 hours? No problem. Have a user that wants 100gb of storage and bandwidth to match? Piece of cake. Need to make sure that all of it is secure? Already taken care of.

The whole article is here.

In the meantime, I’m working on the online docs. Expect great things.

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It Happened to Me

BloggerCon video!

Here are a couple of videos I shot during Joi Ito’s presentation. It doesn’t catch any particular moment; it’s merely me simply doing a 360 degree pan.

A few people will be pleased to know that the blonde woman they’ve been asking about is in video #2. Guys, if you really liked her, you should’ve struck up a conversation. The worst she can say is “no”.

(Actually, she can say worse things, but these cases are rare and extreme and should be handled only be experts such as myself.)

But still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Perhaps a consultation of Halley Suitt’s How to Be an Alpha Male is in order. C’mon boys, that’s what God made testoterone for!

Video Number One (600K QuickTime)

Video Number Two (700K QuickTime and featuring…her!)

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It Happened to Me

BloggerCon pics!

Photo: A.K.M. Adam at the 'Weblogs and Spirituality' session.

Here’s the Good Reverend Doctor A.K.M. Adam, a.k.a. AKMA. He truly is the Ferris Bueller of the Blogosphere:

Oh, he’s very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads–they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.

Besides, he’s the only priest I know who’s ever referenced Fatboy Slim in a sermon. If I ever have a crisis of faith (or if I ever do anything to make the baby Jesus cry), he’d be the first guy I’d call.


Photo: Boris and his iBook/iSIght/digicam rig.

Boris had the full gargoyle desk setup going on at Joi Ito’s presentation: iBook, iSight and digital camera on desk tripod.

During the presentation, they had the #joiito IRC channel projected on the large screen. I typed “I JUST WANT THE CON TO KNOW THAT BORIS HAS BEEN SNIFFING ALL THE BICYCLES SEATS ON CAMPUS.” Geez, I do so miss being the class clown.


Photo: Chris Lydon reading Emerson.

Roland Tanglao refers to Chris Lydon as “the eminence grise of the Blogosphere” and I must concur. Here he is, quoting Emerson at the final session. Ralph Waldo was one deep brutha, as is Chris.


Photo: Dan Bricklin.

Here’s Dan Bricklin at AKMA’s session. It was terrifically cool to breathe the same air as the guys who invented spreadsheets — not only was Bricklin there, but so was Bob Frankston! Boss Ross and I had lunch with him, talking tech about DNS, universal namespaces and other problems that Frankston is ready to solve. It’s nice to see that after all these years of coding, he;s still fired up to do more. I hope I’m like that when I grow up.


Photo: Doc Searls and me.

Without Doc Searls, the adult supervision of the Blogosphere, I wouldn’t have this cool job. I met the Tucows guys when he came down and had a bloggers’ dinner here in Accordion City. Thanks, Doc, I owe you big time!


Photo: Joi Ito.

A number of people mistook me for Joi Ito. We’re both Asian, we tend to wear dark colours, we’re hotter than atomic kimchi, and our names are so similar (mine’s pronounced “Joe-wee” and his is approximately pronounced “Joh-eee”). Joi was the coolest — at the Sheraton Commander, in order to loosen up the bar staff into letting me play accordion at the bar, he sprung for a bottle of Veuve Cliquot.

Funny moment: He asked me if I was Hawaiian. Prior to this year, I was never asked that question. This year, I’m asked that all the time. Is it the sideburns?


Photo: Kevin Marks.

I had a lovely night out with Kevin Marks, who was also the WiFi saviour of the conference.


Photo: Me, AKMA and Si.

“I’m glad,” said AKMA, when we said farewell, “that there was someone like you with whom I could entrust Si for the evening. I feel comfotable with him in your sphere of influence.” D’you hear that, world? An actual priest trusts me to keep his son out of trouble and thinks I’m a stand-up dude!

Somebody call Hell and tell them to warm up the zamboni.


Photo: Me and Dave Winer.

Thanks, Dave, for organizing the con and being such a good stealth disco victim!


Photo: Me and the audience for the Joi Ito session.

Here’s me and the Joi Ito audience behind me. Sorry guys, the beautiful blonde you’ve all been asking about isn’t in the shot.


Photo: Ross and Si

Boss Ross and Si at AKMA’s presentation.


Photo: Ryan Skadberg

Here’s Ryan “Skadz” Skadberg, who took me out on the town after BloggerCon; jamming and hilarity ensued. Thanks, dude!


Photo: Dave Weinberger and Dave Winer.

Dave “Cluetrain/JOHO the Blog” Weinberger and Dave Winer take in AKMA’s presentation.

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Blogrolling

I’ve just recently updated my blogroll (see the column on the right). If you link to this blog and I haven’t linked back to you, let me know! Quid pro quo and all that, you know…

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C’mon down to The Farm

If you’re a programmer and haven’t yet checked The Farm: The Tucows Developers’ Hangout (or just haven’t seen it recently), come give it a look! There’s all kinds of developer news, and it’s also a good place to go for Tucows client code and docuementation.

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Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

THIS magazine party tomorrow

THIS magazine — Canada’s alternative politics, literature and culture magazine for thirty-odd years now — is having a party tomorrow night at The 360 on Queen Street West (326 Queen Street West, a half-block east of Spadina) in beautiful Accordion City. THIS is smart, funny, and unlike a lot of left-of-centre publications, doesn’t have its head up its ass.

Music will be provided by my friends Global Pop Conspiracy, which means it’ll be both eclectic and good. The cover’s ten bucks and proceeds go to the magazine. I’ll be there.