Overall I keep telling people that it is just as good or better than expected. As a heavy iPhone user, this is something I was longing for as I could see the potential in the device but found its size hard to use. At the same time I have heard many complain that it is to big, men break out those man purses, and to hard to carry around. I personally don’t think so, but I’m someone who often has a backpack or messenger bag with my MacBook Pro in it. I can definitely see this device allowing me to leave that MacBook at home. Carrying the device is much like carrying a 8.5×11 notebook around or even a hardcover book for that matter, as iPad is also being marketed as an e-reader.

Lets look at the usability of the iPad. With it being a steroid injected iPod touch, it works much the same way. Slide to unlock, slide sideways to change home pages, etc. I quite like that fact here’s why. Before Apple had even announced the iPad I didn’t think consumers would be able to handle yet another Apple operating system, so for the iPad to run on a built up version of the iPod OS makes it easy for users to adapt to how it works. With the screen being larger than the iPod/iPhone, it gives developers more to work with and allows them to display more features at one time. Take for example the BlogPress app, not only does a user have a section for creating a new post, they can also see all their previous posts. So far Tweetdeck is off to a head start with an excellent looking Twitter Client. The iPad is very easy to switch from portrait mode to landscape and makes using the device all that much better, especially for those wide screen movies.

The apps and the community within them is something that will make the iPad succeed. As of right now there are not many and some are still buggy. Keep in mind that developers have only been able to use computer simulated interfaces to create their apps. The one app that got me a little frustrated was the NetNewsWire app, which I paid $9.99 for and it wont even let me launch it anymore. It just crashes when I tap its icon, I’m hoping a update will fix this problem soon. I still use the NetNewsWire desktop client on my Mac and prefer to use it even though it is connected to Google Reader. One of the major reasons for buying an iPad is for a feed reader. Much of the time when I try to read blogs and feeds I get distracted by other thing that are happening on the computer at the same time. With the lack of multitasking on the iPad I hope to be able to sit down and actually read some intriguing blogs. All that being said, as more developers get the iPad there will be many, many apps available. As the more apps come out we will then see the true potential for this device and trust me there is lot of potential for this deceive, games, medical, homes, travel, consumption and so on.

So how do we connect this device? I held off on getting a 3G version of the iPad for two reasons. 1) It is not available yet and 2) I didn’t want another device with a monthly plan. Simple enough and I think a lot of consumers are thinking the same way. What I am planning to do is get a MiFi card from Bell. I know what you’re thinking, I did just say I didn’t want another device with a monthly plan, but hear me out. Bell offers a iPhone/MiFi combo plan which is what I plan to get when I get back to Canada. Although even if I didn’t have plans to get a MiFi card I would still get a WiFi iPad because the majority of places I intend to use it have WiFi. Besides connecting to networks, you’ll need to connect the iPad to a computer, this is done simply with the provided, standard, iPod(iPad) usb cable (connectors are all the same). I on the other hand also picked up a dock which has the connector for the usb cable and an audio out jack, although the iPad does not fit on the dock when the official Apple case is on the it (bad planning, guys?). Nonetheless having the dock is nice accessory to have, especially if you intend to use a external keyboard via bluetooth.

Of course being one of the, probably hundreds of, Canadians who were across the border and able to get the iPad on April 3, I’m sure you have run into the issue of not being able to use your Canadian iTunes account for the iPad. iTunes will not let me do anything on the iPad through the iTunes or Apps Store. It simply tells me, with a very prompt push notification, “Your Country is not Supported”. I have yet to think of a logical reason as to why I’m not allowed to use me own iTunes account. I can, slightly, understand why they hold off on releasing the device in other countries, but blocking my account my Canadian Account seems uneccassary. If they don’t want consumers from other countries using the iPad yet they should have us verify our residency while purchasing the device. All they real did was make me use my US Account. Yes, I do have a US iTunes account, I am a geek after all.

So there you have it, a bit of a review, a bit of an explanation, a bit of a rant and Apple’s new device, the iPad. My overall impression of the iPad is good. I see the potential and can confidently say that I will be using this device all the time wherever I am. A quick note about the no camera issue, well that is not an issue for me. I will always my iPhone will me and don’t use Video Chat enough to care for it.

Thank you for reading. I invite you to share you thoughts on the iPad and/or yell at me for being a fanboy.

Oh, by the way. This entire post was written on my iPad.

First I found Blellow when I was listening to a podcast and thought it was a site worth checking out. I’m not sure how to describe it, kind of like how it was hard to describe twitter for a while.

I believe it can be compared to twitter for work groups and social media. Once you have an account you are able to join groups and anytime your status has anything to do with a certain group you can associate it with it. If you happen to have a question about something you simply go to the group that it best fits (ie. WordPress question, WordPress Group) and ask. Then others in that group can @reply you with answers. If  someone answers your question for you, you can kudos them. By doing this it shows everyone that that user has a knowledge about that group. I have included the introduction videos below to help you understand what it is better. Head on over and sign up and follow me, I’ll follow you back .

Doesn’t that video look familiar…..

My second fined, I found through Blellow somehow. It is called TwitIQ but I think that is slightly miss leading. Most of us use twitter desktop clients but for those of you who don’t, this is the site for you. Think of it as the Twitter site on steroids. It has everything a desktop client has and more including multiple accounts. On your homepage it shows the feed of those you are following as well as keywords used, trending topics and popular RTs among your friends. You are also given 4 other tabs at the top of the page, Mentions, DMs, People (descriptions of those you are following) and Channels (which are saved searches). I think this site has potential but I think it could do for a better name and I would like to see custom groups. Check it out nonetheless.

*Disclaimer: I am in no way a professional and am only saying what is on my mind. I am not to be taken seriously in any way unless of course you want to. Then you might just be as weird as I am.

First I want to talk about the theme. The theme of a website is very important, it is what your visitors will see first. So that being the case you want it to be easy to look at which it is for YkCity.ca. What I think the downfall is, is the theme of the site does incorporate the city of Yellowknife at all. At first a theme was used that had a picture in the header of a city and I thought great all you need to do is use a photo of Yellowknife’s city skyline and crop it in there, but then the theme changed. Having a picture of Yellowknife, its colours, or something iconic to the City would make the site look more authentic and professional. As this is not just a personal blog I would also suggest looking into premium wordpress themes. There are many great developers out there that make them and although they cost around $70 it would be worth it. Many of these themes are better suited for SEO and come with access to the developers support forum where you can find many tutorials on how to customize the theme to your liking as well as answer any question you may have.

The next thing most people look at upon arriving at a site is the title and what is on the front page. Looking at the title there isn’t much I can suggest about it. It states the name of the site and gives you a short idea of what the site is about. Simple and Sweat. What I would suggest doing is adding a introduction or description paragraph underneath the header and navigation bar, ideally where your most recent post is currently. I think it would be beneficial to the site when new comers arrive. Depending on where they have arrived from they may not know what the site is about, this introduction paragraph would be a great place to give them a brief summary of what the site is and what it can be used for. You could even make the front page a static page and give a more detailed introduction to the site but on the other hand you could use the posts on the front page to your advantage. Yes I realize that today’s events are located in the sidebar but it might also be worth having a daily post with the days events on it. Some of the advantages could be that event details could be more detailed and easier to read rather then the small pop up boxes they currently show up in. Have a daily post of the days events can also be a bonus for those like me who use Feed Readers. This way people could check the daily events while they are checking the rest of their feeds and wouldn’t have to navigate to the site each day. You could also set up your feed so visitors could subscribe via e-mail, that way the daily events show up in there inbox making it easy to read while check the rest of their mail. Have a daily post can seem like a lot of work if it can not be automated so a weekly post might be better suited if that is the case.

When it come to maintaining the site I can only hope you have help. That’s not to say one person can’t do it on their own but it takes a lot of stress away if you have someone to fall back on. Things can happen unexpectedly and prevent us from being able to do things such as updating the site. Once you gain a large following, where people are depending on you it is important that you are able to keep up with them. To take some stress off you and decrease your work load for you site ask a couple people to help you out. You could still be the one who controls the site but if you had someone out in the community constantly keeping an eye out for events and gathering info, and then another who wrote up the event description. You would be able to quickly add them to the site with out any hassle. Little things that friends can do, and don’t mind doing. When people see the benefits to the site you could think about setting up a page where your visitors can submit their own events or ones they have heard about around town, again taking some of the work load off of you.

On to the Event Calender which happens to be the same one I use for one of the sites I maintain. The issue I have found on this site as well as my own is the calender font is very small and when highlighted in its different colours can be hard to read for some. So if at all possible making the font should be considered as well as making the calender the full page width. This mean removing the sidebar. The only thing you have in the sidebar that people can see when on the calender page is today’s events and upcoming events so I would strongly recommend removing it so that the calender can be larger which has today’s and upcoming events on it already.

My finally suggestion as I have now gone on way to long is Twitter, of course. Twitter is currently the in thing so having an account for the website would be a great marketing tool. Have a tweet created when a new event is added to the calender or when a post with the daily or weekly events is published. The Twitter community of Yellowknife is growing and I have said it several times already Twitter is a great way to get heard, so businesses should be signing up and at least giving it a try.

I hope some of these suggestion are helpful.

So we all know those big bright red and some times blue winter jackets better known as a Canada Goose Jacket and how you need to have one in the north! Well how true is that statement? As I think about it I think about all of the things that contribute to the argument that has gone beyond just the jacket but to the north and whether or not it really colder than the rest of Canada. Lets begin.

Pretty much all of this winter has be a cold one or so it seems. I was recently jumping around forums and news articles and found someone comments on how cold the weather has been here in Yellowknife and how they were looking forward to the spring. That was it they didn’t say that Yellowknife and it knifers were tougher than the rest of Canada but somebody else had to pipe up and bicker about how Winnipeg was cold to ya know! This person went on proclaiming that they had experienced -40 temperatures which was with the wind chill for over a week. That is fine and yes the rest of Canada in some places does get the cold temperatures as well but I don’t think they realize that Yellowknife and the rest of the north is constantly that cold up until recently we use to have -30 to -40 weather for weeks at a time with only 1 or 2 days where it was above 30. But that is not a pity cry its just a fact this year. For me its not necessarily the cold weather that effects me here in Yellowknife it is the conditions such as our roads that make the winter a little bit hard.  On a side not I would like to point out that if you live in the north by mid winter you have generally dropped the habit of saying “minus” before the number when telling someone the weather because we all know its cold out there.

What some “southern” people don’t realize is we are just like the rest of Canada (For those who live up here by choice and complain about it, you shouldn’t because you moved here, if you don’t like how it is. Leave. You should know the only road out of here.). We have most of the amenities that any town down south would have we are just a bit further away. So when some one starts looking in to coming up here, they think it will be a total culture shock. But its not! So once they actually move here they quickly realize its not the just a frozen waste land with everyone hiding inside. While doing my internet traveling I found that a lot of people coming north spring for those big, horrid, heavy Canada Goose Parkas for their everyday use. I think they are the most over rated things of the north. I have lived here for 12 year, since I was 7 years old and I have not once ever worn one of those things. Maybe this is because my mother didn’t care enough about me to spend a couple hundred dollars on a jacket but I thank her because maybe its why I can stand the cold so much better now. I actual prefer it cold inside than too warm. You must know that I did not just hide inside as a kid. I was outside all the time. Playing in the snow and doing numerous other outdoor activities were higher on my list than playing any video games and I am proud to say I have never owned a gaming console. Back to the point, which is I don’t think you actually need one and considering the price of one I have to ask, are they really worth it? Lets look at the average persons day. So you work downtown, you have got three ways to get down walk, your own ride or the bus. I rarely see as body walking with one of those parks because they are to thick and heavy to walk in, you end up sweating to much just before work. When you have you own vehicular or you get a ride from a friend you only going to be actual outside for what 30 seconds. If you take the bus you might be outside a little longer but not long enough you going to freeze. At lunch you might run across the street but that is it, and then getting home is much the same as the morning.

To sum this all up I think those who choose to move here need to research a little better and need to realize before they come up that we are not the north pole and it is not that cold that you need a Canada Goose Park. If you think about it the only time you really might need one of those parkas is if you go for a Dog Sled ride and are just sitting out in the cold  not doing anything. Expects and even common sense tells us that if you are doing any activities out in the cold you need to dress in layers so if you become to warm you can remove a layer and avoid sweating. Which can cause you to freeze quicker. Now you know what I think.

I’m The Bushman.

Good Latitudes, Google’s latest application. What is it you ask? Well its a way you can see where you friends are on Google maps right on your phone, or on iGoogle but having it on you phone is “cooler” as they say. Mind you, you have to have a compatible phone (Blackberry, Windows Mobile devices and of iPhone/touch as well as some others) and a Data package unless you want to pay the big bucks just to know where your friends are and in this town seems kind of ridiculous. As I signed up (because I like these little helpful invention Google does so well at coming up with) I started thinking about it who I would be able to see. Then it hit me, I don’t actually think any of my closer friends have data plan none the less compatible phone but I continue on because curiosity is still leading me. I download Google Maps on to my phone and activate Latitudes.  I then try to activate my phone number, but no such luck. What is suppose to happen is I verify my number in Mobile Google Maps it is then suppose to send me a SMS with the verification code which I enter and all is good. Except I have yet to receive said SMS …….. 3 hours later still nothing.  I thought I would be able to go onto iGoogle and it would work with no issues. Nope, wrong again! I nice message popped up instead of the map saying “Google Latitudes is not supported for your current location” followed by a less than enthusiastic sad face …………..

Okay What! Lets think about that for a second here. They do not support our location, are our Cell Networks to slow or something. I don’t understand how you just can not support it WAY up here. There shouldn’t be any difference in us and “You People” down in San Francisco. As far as I’m aware, yes our cell network up here is probably slower but isn’t it just like the difference between Dial-up, DSL and Fibre. All different speeds but all work the same?  In other news Google and NASA released Virtual Exploration of Mars. In a made up quote by me they said this:

We can explore the full of Mars, but have a hard time finding Yellowknife. Its not like were Rocket Scientist and Technology Developers or some anything.

I’m pretty sure I live in the wrong part of Canada, okay wait scratch that. I’m pretty sure I live in the wrong Country when it come to my above average interest in Technology and its advancements.

Anyways, I found a good deal from a good seller. It was a bundle pack and everything in the bundle was brand new.  Along with the Camera which is a Nikon D8O I got the basic 18-55mm lens and a 70-300mm telephoto lens, a wide angle attachment lens, 3 filters, 2 cases 1 a nice hard case, 2 tripods, a extra battery, 8gb SCHC Card and cleaning stuff. All for just over $1000.00 can.

Here is a video my brother did after I left the Camera on the counter….

Nikon D80 from Taylor Thomas on Vimeo.

Okay now I’m going to get a little opinionated. The one category that interests me is of course the Best Canadian Blog and there are 10 finalists. In those 10, 8, so 80% are freakin’ political blogs! I realize that politics is a hot tops these days in this country as well as another close by but holy crap I’m sick of it. Within those 8, most of their posts are the same; because they make their posts on events as they happen.  So you reading the same freakin’ thing over and over and its probably something I could have got off a new site……… That is why I would like to promote the other 2, well manly just one Attack of the Redneck Mommy. Check it out and I’m sure you have taken a guess as to what its about. I think that it is well written and the site is also very well done unlike some in this category.If its not your type of blog I think it would still be more interesting and entertaining than so political b.s……..:)

Anyways go on over vote vote vote, Be Heard! (My words of inspiration for the day)

I ventured over to Canadian Tire where they had Frying Pans on sale for $16.00 Down from $57.00. That’s a good deal especially considering I was in need of one for the cabin.

Roy’s Audiotronic was somewhere in there too, but I don’t remember because it was so flippin’ busy in there. The funny thing was the Source was completely empty. Roy’s was selling TVs left right and center. I managed to work my way through a group of crazy housewives and soon to be divorced husbands to the computer section and picked up a monitor adapter so that I can use a monitor with my laptop. You may think, but doesn’t he already have one? This is true and this one will be for Scott so he no longer has to borrow mine, he can permanently use my other one now.

The last place we went that I got something was Mark Work Warehouse. I took my time in there and ended up getting frustrated because I couldn’t find a pair of jeans that fit. I must look like a freak, because they don’t make the size I wear. They make clothes for big people and they makes clothes for average people but what about the people stuck in the middle.  I am getting into shape, but this just made me mad. Anyways I did although find a pair of nice shoes that happened to be on safe for $69 from $89 and I they ended up coming to $49, so that was a very successful purchase.

That wraps my Boxing Days Sales up. What did you manage to get your hands on?

I was browsing my feeds this morning and found this post off of Macworld about a 16 year old guy who recorded his first album on Garage Band the classical music making software that comes on all macs. You would think that most 16 year old would play metal or rock, not Richard Wile its Soulful Blues for this kid. He is quite talented playing many different instruments most which he plays on his first album with the help of his girlfriend on the Keyboard. Check out his website www.rwilemusic.com and also take a listen to his album on iTunes

The blues style of music he wrote was understandable after reading about his influences: Eric Clapton, R.E.M., Cream, The Police, John Lennon, The Killers, and James Taylor topped the list.

Wile has 30 guitars, including a few Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Strats, as well as six amps and also plays trumpet, harmonica, mandolin, and banjo, as well as dabbles in keyboards and piano.

I want to word this properly so I don’t actually offend anyone…… screw it. I don’t like clicks, I have never been apart of one. I suppose you don’t really know if you are in one or not. The only people that can tell are those that aren’t involved. You may say that I’m apart of the “Redneckish” click of Yellowknife but I disagree and here’s why. I do sometimes act it, half ass jobs, full of grease, plaid jackets and shirts, muddy truck, etc. but I also have clean side. I like my truck to be clean and shiny, I like to dress up and look good not like a slob. So basically I’m all over the spectrum.

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