November 20, 2011
Effective use of Twitter for organizations

I just attended a workshop by an organization I’m a member of, where they rolled out Twitter with great hoopla. A few things arose which informed me that this organization still doesn’t understand…

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Effective use of Twitter for organizations
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April 11, 2011
Responsible Voting vs. Strategic Voting



You do have a choice. “Strategic” voting has done nothing but backfire. In 104 ridings in the previous election, the NDP came in second place (and they won an additional 37). Strategic…

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April 10, 2011

Dropped my land line…

Well, I’ve cut ties with Bell.  I’ve got myself a LG Optimus One Android phone from Koodo, and I’m on a pretty good plan with the cell phone as my only phone.  For the same price that I was paying for a landline plus $20/month for 200 minutes from Virgin, I’ve got basically an unlimited cell phone that includes some 3G Internet (the phone also has wi-fi).

Overall, I like this phone a lot.  I’ve already got a 64GB iPod touch 3G, and I find that the overall user experience is generally better on iOS than Android, but it’s nice having the Android device too.  Plus, with the phone, I now have a Internet connected camera/video, and GPS.  So instead of waiting forever for me to transfer photos from my camera to share, I can now share them directly from my phone.  GPS is great on this phone, too.  With the c:Geo app, I can pull up geocaches near me (or any address), save them for offline use, and go geocaching.  Of course, Google Sky Map alone has a huge wow factor.

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April 13, 2010
Another essential accessory for occasional teachers

An MP3 player with a collection of appropriate music and podcasts can be a great tool in the classroom, whether it’s curriculum-related podcasts used to enrich a lesson, or The Lord of the…

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January 27, 2010
Thoughts on the iPad
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December 30, 2009
Harper to prorogue Parliament... again!

As the CBC has reported, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has again shown his disregard for our democracy by asking the Governor General to prorogue Parliament in the middle of session.

While it’s…

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December 26, 2009
Ontario college teachers set to go on strike

Ontario’s college teachers are set to go on strike in January, and I can already hear it… students and their parents complaining (most likely to the workers who aren’t the problem, rather than to…

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December 21, 2009
Budgeting for Change

As we approach the end of the year, we’re reaching the deadline to make charitable donations which can be deducted from this year’s taxes. This can be problematic, because we’re also at that time of…

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December 8, 2009
The Dark Side of Privatization


Across Ontario, hundreds of USW 9511 workers are striking outside their employer, Ontario’s DriveTest driver examination centres. Their strike is now entering it’s fifth month. The…

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November 17, 2009
The Union Movement Online

You know that you’re part of a union, but maybe you haven’t figured out yet exactly what that means.  Or maybe you’re interested in what unions are all about (or even better, interested in organizing…

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October 18, 2009
Replacing a Palm with an iPod touch 64GB


I’ve used Palm organizers for many years.  With my Palm E2 becoming long in the tooth, I decided to switch platforms and see what all the fuss was about with the iPod touch and the…

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September 23, 2009
Register your router to enable iPod touch location-awareness


The iPod touch, unlike the iPhone, doesn’t have a GPS to help it know where it is. Yet the iPod touch manages to know its location using its wi-fi capability. How does it do this? The…

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August 1, 2009

Building yet more web presence, and possibly have found an outlet for easily and quickly monetizing all the bits of expertise I have… Squidoo.

First two “lenses” I’ve created:

http://www.squidoo.com/giftedness

http://www.squidoo.com/markcarter

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June 28, 2009
Galileoscopes


To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, a simple, inexpensive, and well-designed telescope, called the “Galileoscope” is being produced. It costs $15 US plus shipping. I’d…

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