1. Steer away from Facebook
   I’ve been wanting to do that for a while. This just seems to push me faster towards the exit. I won’t shut myself of it just yet though: my existing content is theirs forever anyway, right? Facebook remains fun for some things.
2. Use Twitter and Flickr more
   I prefer to use Twitter and Flickr as a result of #1. Twitter brings me closer to people similar to me: those liking the tech, the geek, the awesome. Flickr allows me to use my own copyrights, is so clean and full of beautiful. They both feel so fresh to my mind, a strange and strong feeling of weightlessness. I’m also finally learning to use Twitter properly and up to what it can do.
3. Change my blog theme
   And well just about everything about it. Make it lighter: I’m micro-blogging way more these days, unfitting for how this blog currently is. Maybe split it in two blogs: the randomness vs the geek + those essays about geeky stuff I’m glad i’ve written.
4. Join things, comities, groups, contribute to a project … but outside of school
   To prepare myself for what is now the scare of my life: post-university. I don’t want to ever say “the best years of my life are behind me”. This makes me think a lot. I need to keep the awesome going on forever, but most probably in different ways. And i know i’m not the only one.
5. Finish coding the telemetry system of my baby
   This was started out as my senior project and I sometimes wish this could be my full time job. We need an awesome energy management system.

Other random to-do’s:

• Reinstall Mac OS X. Had it for 1 1/2 years. I feel dirty.
• Find a use for the computers I have laying around, set up servers because there are never enough servers.
• Study for my midterms..

Pour faire renouveler ma carte d’assurance maladie au RAMQ, je dois amener une preuve de résidence en plus de pièces d’identité.

J’ai amené des trucs d’impôt du Gouvernement du Québec avec mon adresse (je me suis dit: entre gouvernements.. ) mais non! Ils veulent absolument une facture de service: un bail, une facture d’électricité, de câble ou de téléphone. Bon d’accord, j’ai le téléphone…

Je dis à la dame du RAMQ que je reçois ma facture par internet. Elle me dit de faire imprimer la facture. Je lui répond que c’est très facile changer l’adresse sur un PDF — car j’ai tout de même attendu en ligne, et j’ai des preuves de résidence dans le mains, alors j’essaie de la dissuader. Elle me dit que c’est la politique quand même.

Ils se forcent tellement à réduire les cartes d’assurance maladie frauduleuses en étant stricts sur les preuves de résidences, quand tout ce que ça prends c’est un logiciel d’édition d’images…

Je devrais arriver avec 10 factures Fido avec des adresses différentes. Voilà, choisissez!

Attention-grabbing description of the Eee PC 900A on Asus’ website:

“8.9″ screen does not affect the overall weight of the Eee PC™ 900A, which remains below 1kg – allowing children and women to carry it with ease.”

Because children and woman are genetically engineered to fail lifting anything above 1kg.

If you own an iPhone (or iPod touch) and you are as addicted to Facebook as I am, you then probably have the new Facebook 2.0 app installed on your Apple mobile device. Facebook Version 2.0 is like day-and-night when compared to 1.x as it offers pretty much all of the functionality of its Web counterpart.

But it is only last week that I was playing around my iPhone’s settings, only to discover there is a Facebook settings pane that had this very interesting option turned off by default: Shake to Reload.

This shows one again how the iPhone’s capabilities can bring man-machine interaction to a more natural level.  I love this feature, use it all the time. The problem is.. I find myself shaking my phone in all other apps to reload too.. Mail, Safari, STM Mobile … to no avail.  My message to developers: you know what to do!

Shaking your iPhone like that in public can make you look a bit crazy, as if you’re about to beat the world record in cellphone throwing, but I’m ready to accept that for the sake of a higher UI usability.

In the event of the existence of a number of two short cigarettes perfectly aligned on a same horizontal line on board an aircraft, it is strictly forbidden to light up the rightmost one.

Yesterday I stumbled at STM mobile, a new iPhone OS application that lets you get the Société de Transport de Montréal’s bus passing times, all with detours, and cancelled stops. Also included are the last Métro hours and interval times for each station.

This thing is just brilliant. In less than 24 hours, it became one of my most frequently used apps.  I took 3 buses yesterday, all I had to do is get my iPhone out of my pocket, tap in the bus stop number and select my bus line. Very quick and fast.

And when it’s set to your favorites, it takes 3 seconds (as opposed to the 1 minute it takes to call AUTOBUS, with STM always wanting you to answer their automated survey, before you actually get your bus times)

This little application is pretty great, but I hope to see some new things in possible updates. Here’s my little feature list so far:

• Information caching
  In “Favorite stops” the app should be able to cache the times. When you quit the app and come back, it has to fetch the times again. Instead of displaying the last fetched times if no network connection is present; it displays a [n albeit very elegant] warning that I am not connected to the Internet. This could be easily fixed in a future update. [Update: This was fixed in 1.0.1!]
• Use of localization services
  Use of the localization of the iPhone, somehow. I shown this to a friend and the first thing he said was “And does it find your location automatically and the nearby stops?” All I could say is “uhm.. Oh.. No.. No it doesn’t”.
• Trip planning and more
  Metro map [Update: added in 1.0.1!], “Tous Azimut” trip planning support (if STM would allow such).

This application is a must have for those taking the bus regularity in Montreal. It’s available for $0.99 on the iTunes App Store. As of 3:45 pm on July 31st 2008 it is the 10th most downloaded paid app of the Canadian iTunes Store!

Now the geeky part: [Read more from this topic...]

• Apple movie rentals/purchase are now available in Canada! [Press] Yay!
  I still prefer to buy my movies on disc (for the time being anyway: no special features, not even near DVD, even less HD quality, for the downloads) but for the rental, it’s a great deal I think. Here’s a summary in Canadian dollars:    

  	Buy	Rent	Rent (HD)
  “Catalog title”	9.99	3.99	4.99
  “Recent releases”	14.99
  “New releases”	19.99	4.99	5.99

• Detroit gagne la coupe. Mais me semble que c’est assez poche de pas gagner la coupe chez vous. Les joueurs se font interviewer sur la patinoire mais il n’y a personne dans les estrades en arrière-plan.. 

I stumbled upon some actual questions of the United States Citizenship test the other day. I wasn’t able to answer many of them, since they referred to Amendments of their Constitution and other similar things I had no knowledge in. In a similar fashion, I tried to find questions from my own country’s citizenship test to see how many I could get right. I was able to find a practice test at the Richmond Public Library website.

Some of the answers are just too hilarious, I had to share them. I couldn’t stop laughing on some of those! Here are a few of them. Uproarious answers underlined:

4. Which group of Aboriginal peoples make up more than half of the population in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut?
a. Acadians.
b. Métis
c. First Nations.
d. Inuit.

Behold the Acadians of Nunavut!

9. Who were the United Empire Loyalists?
a. Settlers who came to Canada from the United States during and after the American Revolution.
b. Aboriginal peoples.
c. Métis
d. Inuit.

11. Which trade spread across Canada making it important to the economy for over 300 years?
a. Hudson’s Bay trade.
b. Mining trade.
c. Fur trade.
d. Ice trade.

Ice was such a popular and rare item in Europe back then.

12. What form of transportation did Aboriginal peoples and fur traders use to create trading networks in North America?
a. Roads.
b. Waterways.
c. Railway.
d. Air.

“Attention please. Last call for AboriginAir Flight 1 at gate 1.”

28. Name three legal rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
a. Freedom of speech, right to not pay taxes, and right to a fair trial.
b. Right to live and work anywhere in Canada, right to a fair trial, and right to protection against discrimination.
c. Right to ski anywhere in Canada, right to move, and right to public assembly.
d. Right to vote, right to live and work anywhere in Canada, and right to deliver speeches on the radio.

Hahaha! I want to ski in Sheila Copps backyard, it’s my legal right.

29. List three ways in which you can protect the environment.
a. Work near where you live, drive to work, take a taxi.
b. Use unleaded gas, drive a small car, travel by yourself.
c. Compost and recycle, conserve energy and water, walk or join a car pool.
d. Pour solvents down storm drains, leave taps running, leave lights on.

I laughed for a good 5 minutes on this one.

30. Who has the right to apply for a Canadian passport?
a. Canadian citizens.
b. Landed immigrants.
c. Visitors.
d. British subjects.

“We’re back from our Canadian trip! We got a passport as a souvenir.”

32. Name six responsibilities of citizenship.
a. Get a job, make money, raise a family, pay taxes, mow your lawn, vote.
b. Vote, join a political party, get a job, obey the law, drive safely, pick up litter.
c. Care for the environment, don’t litter, pay taxes, obey the law, help others, respect others.
d. Vote, help others, care for our heritage and environment, obey Canada’s laws, respect the rights of others, eliminate injustice.

34. What is Canada’s system of government called?
a. Dictatorship.
b. Parliamentary government.
c. Military Rule.
d. Communism.

“I’m applying to be a Canadian Citizen, because I just love communism!”

33. Give an example of how you can show responsibility by participating in your community.
a. Mind your own business.
b. Have a party.
c. Keep your property tidy.
d. Join a community group.

37. What are the two official languages of Canada?
a. English and Métis.
b. Inuit and French.
c. English and French.
d. English and Inuit.

3. What song is Canada’s national anthem?
a. God Save the Queen.
b. O Canada.
c. Star Spangled Banner.
d. Amazing Grace.

64. Which country borders Canada on the south?
a. United States of America.
b. Central America.
c. Mexico.
d. Washington.

80. Who do Members of Parliament represent?
a. All of the Canadians living in the north.
b. Only Canadians living in Central Canada.
c. Everyone who lives in his or her electoral district.
d. Canadians living in the province in which he/she was elected.

The other Canadians are so meaningless

83. Name two responsibilities of the federal government.
a. National defence and firefighting.
b. National defence and foreign policy.
c. Citizenship and highways.
d. Recycling and education.

The building is on fire! Quick, call Stephen Harper!

90. What is written on a federal election ballot?
a. The list of candidates running for Prime Minister.
b. The names of the candidates in your electoral district in alphabetical order from “A” to “Z”.
c. The list of Canadians eligible to vote.
d. The results of the election.

c. Every election in Canada consumes 5% of the forests each time and every ballot weights 35 kilograms.
d. How convenient! Sounds like an election in Cuba.

100. What is a voter information card?
a. Tells you who the candidates are in your electoral district.
b. Tells you what province to vote in.
c. A form that tells you when and where to vote.
d. A form that lets you know your voting time.

“I sure hope they don’t send me vote in Saskatchewan this year!”

101. Who has the right to run as a candidate in federal elections?
a. Anyone.
b. A Canadian citizen who is 16 years old.
c. Any man who is at least 18 years old.
d. Any Canadian citizen who is at least 18 years old.

Because the only thing Canadian women can do is ski wherever they want.

– Pierre Nick

PS: For those curious about my score, I got 86% since the last 12 or so questions were on current politics in British Columbia, a topic I have zero clue on (such as: “Who is the current leader of the opposition in BC?”).

Ça se plaint qu’il manque des ports et un lecteur optique, que la batterie est intégrée et non-amovible, que la RAM ne peux être accédée.. MAIS ça se plaint PAS que c’est la plus merveilleuse ingénierie au monde — HEY! la batterie est plus grosse que le logic board! — que c’est un ordinateur portable de la mort en terme de performance, avec une épaisseur qui va de 0.16″ à 0.76″ pour 1.3 kg par exemple!

Mise en situation:

Steve Jobs: We have for you the new MacBook Air! It’s 1″ thin, with a removable battery, an optical drive, 5 USB 2.0 ports! Oh also no solid state memory option, it’s got a big nice ol’ notebook hard drive! Amazing!

Tout le monde: Ah ben là! C’est ça qui appellent un sub-notebook? C’est même pas mince s’t'affaire-là! Ils auraient pu ôter des ports, ou peut-être même le lecteur optique! Y’ont tu pensé à une batterie intégrée? Yé pas vraiment léger aussi, ‘Air’ mon oeil!

Arrêtez donc d’être jamais content.