Mini Me

I’m back :)

Let’s see how this goes…

-k.s.

January 2009
WordCamp Whistler <-- GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
(Now on Twitter)

February 2009
Northern Voice <-- TICKETS ALMOST SOLD OUT!
(Preceded one day before by WordCamp (for) Education Vancouver)

April, 2009
Get Connected Vancouver eConference
(Formerly Massive Technology Show)

May, 2009
WordCamp BC (British Columbia) *Coming Soon*
(Now on Twitter)

May, 2009
Vancouver Digital Week

September 2009
CMOS Emerging Technologies

If you have more, please add them in the comments and I’ll post them up!

The same project also operates a weekly free meals dropoff every Sunday evening. Meals are prepared at the Sukh Sagar Sikh Gurdwara in Queensborough (on Wood Street), and transported in a van and delivered by hand to people in the Main & Hastings area in Vancouver. You can email the same address above to volunteer.

The most recent example of this was tonight, with my little sister coming home to Vancouver on an Air Canada flight from Calgary set to arrive at YVR by 5:50pm. The plane was diverted (I guess?) to Victoria due to the weather conditions. Now that much is understandable – stuff happens. However, updates to the condition of the flight were only posted about five minutes before the posted arrival time. So if the flight was delayed to 6:50, at 6:45pm the flight would be further delayed to 7:45pm. So conceivably many people would have come to the airport for 6:50 and be stuck until 7:50, at which point the flight was further delayed. Eventually the flight was delayed again and arrived at YVR at 10:45pm. Of course, as is normal for ill-equipped airlines during this weather, the luggage compartments required de-icing and despite the passengers coming off the plane at 11pm, the luggage did not come off the plane until much later. Now, these technical topics are not so relevant as the issue of what happened on the plane.

I posted on Twitter:

My sister’s flight was grounded for FIVE HOURS & apparently Air Canada did not offer them ANYTHING to eat or drink. I’ll have to make sure. about 3 hours ago from web

Responses:

	megsmitley @kulpreetsingh Typical! How awful. Hope she’s arrived safely. 3 minutes ago from web
	ValerieMacLean @kulpreetsingh No need to check, not when it’s Air Canada. about 2 hours ago from web
	kabutar @kulpreetsingh I’ve heard of this happening before with AC (with variations i.e. food & drink ran out since deplaning wasn’t allowed etc) about 3 hours ago from twhirl
	erikmagraken @kulpreetsingh Air Canada or Westjet? I’ve heard some stories of AC being woefully prepared for this winter weather. about 3 hours ago from web

When I asked my sister basically she said that they gave the passengers water and pretzels over those five hours. Perhaps the airline was also not equipped for these types of emergencies, but you’d have to imagine with Air Canada running so many flights day in and day out across the world, they’d have some experience with delays and how to keep customers happy. I’m not sure if it was just a shortage of real food on the plane, or if it’s Air Canada’s policy to just keep their passengers at basic sustenance level for as long as the delay lasts, without considering spending more money on real food. Admittedly, this is a mild issue compared to some of the travel nightmares caused to entire families by Air Canada in other instances.

Obviously we “baby” our little sister so I was a little frustrated for her, and posted on Twitter:

If WestJet was the larger carrier, would it have as poor, negligent treatment of customers as Air Canada? about 1 hour ago from web

People responded:

	rmdstudio @kulpreetsingh I think we need one or two more air carries so the competition would have driven them to improve their services. about 1 hour ago from TwitterFox
	jeffkee @kulpreetsingh So my answer is no, even the dominating company can still put the values into the actions of their employees. about 1 hour ago from web
	jeffkee @kulpreetsingh A corporations policy and education of its employees to feel ownership of the company is important based on my corporate exp. about 1 hour ago from web
	PureEminences @kulpreetsingh If Canada had more than one major airline about 1 hour ago from web
	raincoaster @kulpreetsingh No. Service is its edge. My dad used to work for Canadian, and they were proud of their service. Air Canada has ALWAYS sucked about 1 hour ago from Power Twitter
	kabutar @kulpreetsingh (2) that no deplaning allowed incident was actually due to Transport Canada safety regulations I believe about 1 hour ago from twhirl
	kabutar @kulpreetsingh I’m not sure, really – on one side WJ built themselves on service, on the other they’re also bound by regulations, like (1) about 1 hour ago from twhirl

It was interesting to get feedback on Twitter about this topic but I wonder how many others have discussed their frustrations about Air Canada on Twitter. If Air Canada is the target of customer complaints in general, the same is being reflected on social media as well.

Replies to my post on Twitter (and blog comments below):

	erin337 @kulpreetsingh You might have an easier time asking who has NOT had a problem with Air Canada. 3 minutes ago from web
	buzzbishop @kulpreetsingh fly westjet. That’s what you can do about it. 4 minutes ago from twitterrific
	duanestorey @kulpreetsingh yup.. but they don’t care.. http://tinyurl.com/4bugqe 11 minutes ago from web
	mluu1179 @kulpreetsingh i’ll have to be flying back to Vancouver shortly too. I’m not looking forward to it b/c of the snow about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck
	jeffkee @kulpreetsingh Yeah I always felt AC was a bit off.. Prefer Westjet for sure. about 10 hours ago from web
	raincoaster @kulpreetsingh Good one! They have it coming, but don’t care. about 10 hours ago from Power Twitter

At the warehouse I met Rick Younie who works with the Food Bank and he informed me that although people perceive Richmond to be less affected by poverty, they get visits from as many as 150 families a week. I was very happy to also see some of their volunteers and it just reaffirmed my appreciation for the work done by the Food Banks.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, please get out to your local Food Bank or any convenient drop-off location and share some non-perishable food items for those less fortunate. Rick mentioned that infant formula and powdered milk are two items that are a little more expensive but also more in need – the requirements for donations may vary across food banks so it’s best to check with your local food bank.

Shoes are worn on your feet, they are low and they gather the most dirt from the ground. Being hit with shoes is like being admonished or denounced as the “lowest of the low” and is commonly reserved as a punishment for despicable criminals. It is worse than a pie in the face or any other common Western protest insult. My dad who was raised in Indian culture and is not too fond of Mr. Bush, watched the clip of shoes being thrown at him at least four times today and laughed out loud every time. The bottom of one’s shoes has dirt and the person receiving the shoe is considered low and dirty in their conduct.

Some funny comments from the blogosphere:

“lol yeah he was like “BY GOLLY! A man just hurled his footwear at me! This is a matter most peculiar! But why? Why would someone do such a thing? What might his cause be? I don’t know. I am just as baffled as you are, Madam Reporter! What’s that you say? He’s screaming about dogs, widows and children? MY GOD! This man is on crack! Away with him to the dungeons.”
MuslimMatters.org

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” – Sigmund Freud. Likewise, sometimes a shoe is just a shoe. Don’t overanalyse it, the guy didn’t like Dubya, or what he was saying, and threw what came to hand first. (the secret service will, as a result of this, insist that everyone remove their shoes before being allowed to attend a press conference. (we’ve seen this absurdity at airports already)”
Crikey.com

I think all those who contributed to the UI deserve credit for the improvements. That said, there are still some useability issues which could be fixed with minor tweaks. For example, in the Posts, Links and Pages screens, although the “Add New” button appears in the left-hand menu, it does not appear in the actual screen on the right which would just make things quicker and easier.

I’d like to give a shout out to one person who I think developed one of the most import recent plugins, WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Made by Keith Dsouza, the plugin was retired in September when Keith got notice that WordPress would integrated the automatic upgrade feature in 2.7, which was a good decision on Automattic’s part but kudos to Keith for the original concept.

One thing that we still don’t see, which I think is a big void, is the ability to add custom meta data to the Links. If you can customize your posts so that you can add various types of custom data, why not to your links? With custom fields in your link edit screen, you could provide your blog/website readers with more information about people, organizations or websites in your blogroll, such as their email address, physical address (for businesses and charities), twitter ID and other social network and social bookmarking ID’s. This would allow you to take your blogroll to the level of a community directory. There is a temporary workaround for this which I’ll post about later.

Another thing – the option to make a post “stick” to the front page is great, but being able to define a date until which is sticks would be icing on the cake.

Please donate to your Local Food Banks in BC

Hey Everyone,

Our company, NewspaperDirect, like many other good companies all over, is having a canned food drive for the local food bank, in our case the Richmond Food Bank.

At this time of year, especially this year due to the economic crisis, many people are depending on the Food Bank and less people are able to make donations.

Some Food Banks are hit particularly hard by things like vandalism and robberies. In December, the Surrey Food Bank was robbed 5 times in 6 days – no food was taken but other things like computers and equipment, without which it becomes difficult for the staff and volunteers to get their work done.

For those who can afford a little more, you could help make this cold winter and tough economic time a little easier for a struggling family out there.

Please donate to your Local Food Banks in BC (list of all of them!).

This is the list from the Richmond Food Bank of items they are most in need of – your local food bank might have a list like this as well:

* peanut butter, especially small sizes
* macaroni & cheese dinners
* rice and pasta
* canned milk
* sugar
* feminine hygiene and other personal care product
* large diapers
* iron fortified formula (we have an abundance of baby food jars currently)
* juices
* tinned beans
* tinned fruits & vegetables
* soups, chunky soups
* cleaning supplies
* office supplies
* plastic grocery bags (used OK)
* a source for paper bags – #60-6 Checkstand or similar (about 12×23+7)

-k.s.

• Matt’s Blog Post on WordPress.org
• Direct Download (zip)
• Bloggers React (Technorati)
• Bloggers React (Google)

I didn’t mind the other layout from a visual perspective. This one saves a lot of vertical space however.

From a functional perspective there are a lot more great features:
- You can quickly post a draft directly from the dashboard.
- You can also completely customize the display on the dashboard and only see the boxes you want to see.
- You can batch edit posts, so if you want to change a certain word or phrase in all posts it’ll be easy.
- You can also customize the Write / Edit post page so that it only has the boxes you want and need, in the places you want them.
- You can reply to comments directly from the admin area rather than going to the post
- Once you turn the option on, you can also use keyboard shortcuts to moderate your comments (simple as A for Accept, S for Spam, D for Delete, R for Reply, Q for Edit).
- You can make posts “stick” to the top of your home page
- and many more features.