Recently I spoke at the Toronto Data Science group. The folks at Mozilla were kind enough to record it and put it on Air, so here it is for your viewing pleasure (and critique):Overall it was quite well received. Aside from the usual omg does my voice ... [Read more...]

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IntroductionHoly crap, it was cold out.If you haven't been reading the news, don't live in the American Midwest or Canada, or do and didn't go outside the last couple weeks (for which I don't blame you) there was some mighty cold weather lately due to ... [Read more...]

IntroductionYou know what's still awesome? Pocket.As I noted in an earlier post (oh god, was that really more than a year ago?!) I started using the Pocket application, previously known as Read It Later, in July of 2011 and it has changed my readi... [Read more...]

IntroductionI am not a huge Radiohead fan.To be honest, the Radiohead I know and love and remember is that which was a rock band without a lot of 'experimental' tracks - a band you discovered on Big Shiny Tunes 2, or because your friends told you about... [Read more...]

The following is a guest post from Joel Harrrison, PhD, consulting Aquatic Scientist.For a luddite like me, this is a big step – posting something on the inter-web.  I’m not on Facebook.  I don’t know what Twitter is.  Hell, I don’t even own a smartphone.  But, I’... [Read more...]

IntroductionIt's been said that the ideal job is one you love enough to do for free but are good enough at that people will pay you for it. That if you do what you love no matter what others may say, and if you work at it hard enough, and ... [Read more...]

Introduction Just as Pocket fundamentally changed my reading behaviour, I am finding that now having Netflix (and even before that, other downloadable or streaming digital content) is really changing my behaviour as far as television is concerned. Where watching TV used to be an affair of browsing through 500 channels and ... [Read more...]

Source: 1500 random tweets from today with the terms 'gmail down' (pulled from API). [Read more...]

IntroductionSo a little while ago I quit my job.Well, actually, that sounds really negative. I'm told that when you are discussing large changes in your life, like finding a new career, relationship, or brand of diet soda, it's important to frame things positively.So let me rephrase that - ... [Read more...]

IntroductionYou know what's awesome? Pocket.I mean, sure, it's not the first. I think Instapaper existed a little before (perhaps). And there are alternatives, like Google Reader. But Pocket is still my favorite. It's pretty awesome at what it does.Pocket (or Read It Later, as it used to be ... [Read more...]

IntroductionI will confess, I don't really like texting. I communicate through text messages, because it does afford many conveniences, and occupies a sort of middle ground between actual conversation and email, but that doesn't mean that I like it. E... [Read more...]

Sleep is another one of those things like diet, where I feel if you asked anyone if they wanted to improve that area of their life most would say yes.I remember hearing a quote that sleep is like sex; no one is quite sure how much everyone else is ... [Read more...]

Sometimes you just want to see what all the fuss is about. File this under the 'because I can' category: I proudly (?) present - a wordcloud produced from the text of E. L. James' "50 Shades of Grey".For a book which is getting all this press about bei... [Read more...]

Still gettin' it? I'm off to Montreal for Jazzfest. [Read more...]

IntroductionI don't know about you, but I really hate getting parking tickets. Sometimes I feel like it's all just a giant cash grab. Really? I can't park there between the hours of 11 and 3, but every other time is okay? Well, why the hell not?Bu... [Read more...]

Yes, that first night was incredibly rough, thanks for asking. [Read more...]

I'd like to start with something small, and simple. The thing about analyzing the data of your own life is that you are the only one doing the research, so you also have to collect all of the data yourself. This takes effort; and, if you'd like to build a ... [Read more...]