There is no denying that Earth has one heck of a diverse biosphere. There are countless species living all over the globe, each one unique in its own right. However, sometimes when the odds for continued survival are too great to overcome, a species will completely disappear and become extinct. From a human perspective, to know that an entir
Read Full StoryToday marked a number of firsts for me this year. It was the first time that I've had to miss a day of work due to a personal medical condition. Today also saw a previous boss try to recruit me for work back in Canada. This afternoon I received my very first "get well email" from a student. The morning saw the start of the first line of cod
Read Full StoryIs child labor really so bad when we can buy fancy electronics and running shoes at such incredible prices? Is it really so bad if a man is paid less than minimum wage and works excessive hours under sub-human working conditions when people living in wealthier nations are awarded for their race to technological advancement with a seemingly never-e
Read Full StoryWhen is a carpenter a carpenter, or a roofer a roofer? Is it after we pass a test and receive a certification, or some other time? It's a good question, and one that I was recently asked by a reader who was curious about my stance on being referred to as a Language Facilitator at work rather than an English teacher. Here is an excerpt of the
Read Full StoryI'm tired of buying new computers every few years. Seriously. After using an HP zt3000 for over five years with heavy usage and only minor repairs here and there, I've reached an epiphany: I don't want to maintain the consumerist cycle of buying a computer and then lusting for something newer only six months later. At the end of 2003 I bough
Read Full StoryKenji and I have had countless conversations on a number of very different topics. From attitudes of people at work, to Japan's suicide problems, to netbooks in the workplace. Nothing is off limits. So it should come as no surprise that he and I engaged in a rather heated discussion earlier this year on the possibility of finding intelligent lif
Read Full StoryAfter six incredible years of exploration, it seems that NASA's Spirit Rover has reached the end of its mobility. That said, just because it can't move anymore doesn't mean the robotic explorer is going to be put down forever. According to the news report on NASA's website, Spirit is going to continue conducting scientific experiments as a sta
Read Full StoryThe time of the blog may have peaked three years ago, but there's still money to be made from the platform. The question, however, is 'how much can you hope to gain'? Way back in May of 2007, I had written a short little post talking about how this site was being valued at $12,419.88 according to a little tool that relies on Technorati ranking
Read Full StoryMicrosoft Outlook has played an important role in my life for the better part of a decade. Aside from the added benefit of easily synchronizing with the various Palm and HP PDAs I've owned throughout the years, it has offered the ability to easily synchronize with the Exchange servers found at various employers. However, after many years of fai
Read Full StoryIt seems that every six months or so somebody declares that the human race is at a crossroads and we need to choose which path to travel: one that results in the ultimate good for human kind, or one that is fraught with pain and suffering. As history has shown us time and again, humans often want the former and consistently choose the latter. S
Read Full StoryWho knew that a drought in Australia would have such long-lasting implications for the rest of the world? In 2008, the land down under suffered a devastating blow when it failed to reap sufficient yields of staple grains like wheat. As a result, countries like Japan that rely heavily on imports to feed its people had to pay much more to get the
Read Full Story
It seems that every six months or so somebody declares that the human race is at a crossroads and we need to choose which path to travel: one that results in the ultimate good for human kind, or one that is fraught with pain and suffering. As history has shown us time and again, humans [...]
01.13.10 | Climate Change, Featured, Science, Technology | Jason
Who knew that a drought in Australia would have such long-lasting implications for the rest of the world? In 2008, the land down under suffered a devastating blow when it failed to reap sufficient yields of staple grains like wheat. As a result, countries like Japan that rely heavily on imports to feed its people [...]
Shortly after the release of Windows 7, I upgraded my Acer AspireOne netbook and have enjoyed the incredibly beautiful Operating System without too many headaches. This seems to have changed since the new year, though, as I’m starting to get a number of Blue Screens of Death whenever the network is transferring large files.
Typically when [...]
01.10.10 | Featured, Technology | Jason
To Cloud, or Not to Cloud. That is the question many people are asking as people’s mobile computing needs continue to grow. That said, for people who store mammoth amounts of data at home, putting all of our data into an intangible and fuzzy concept doesn’t sound very convenient or financially feasible. Luckily, hard drives [...]
01.9.10 | Featured, Technology | Jason
It seems that Christmas can indeed come in January. Just when I was getting ready to battle it out with the Mrs., Chris L sent me an email with some good news! As a result, j2fi.net (and the sister sites) will not be disappearing from the interwebs any time soon.
Thanks again, Chris. I’ll be sure [...]
In less than 60 hours my site will go silent. Why, you ask? Because I’ve been foolishly lazy in terms of being paid for online work via PayPal. As a result, I have no way to pay my host for another year of hosting, and the Mrs. will not let me put the $83 it [...]
A few days ago I had written a post talking about two little projects I’d like to see Microsoft take on this year, one of which involved doing something about their inconsistent data transfer abilities. Yesterday the post received a comment from Nicholas Orr who said that he had “resorted to downloading the same files [...]
01.7.10 | Featured, Internet, Technology | Jason
The amount of time, money, and energy people spend being terrified of terrorists is downright incredible. Everyone has probably heard about the supposed “failed attempt” of a Nigerian man to ignite his underwear bomb on a flight bound for Detroit a few weeks ago by now. I say supposed because according to a quick Google [...]
It seems that my Windows 7 install has something seriously wrong with it. Earlier today I received my very first Blue Screen of Death while using Word and, after a reboot, Seesmic started acting up whenever I’d be transferring files over the network.
Not cool.
Here are the errors I receive:
When I expand the “View problem details” [...]
IRC has been an important part of my online life since 1997. During this time, I’ve almost exclusively used a client named mIRC. Just a few days ago I decided to install the new version on Windows 7, as the previous one dated back to 2004. Today I was met with this message:
I’d love to [...]
It’s a pretty bold title, considering I’m just a lowly contract developer, but there are certain things that Microsoft should work hard to do before the end of this year; and preferably before the end of this week.
I’ve been a loyal Microsoft user and supporter for the last 17 years, investing an awful lot of [...]
01.4.10 | Development, Featured, Internet, Technology | Jason
A few days ago, while telling me how stupid I was for saying that I wanted a notebook computer to last at least 15 years...
The countdown is almost up on this year's winter Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and thousands of people residing bo...
Do you ever wonder about your neighbours? I wrote a few months ago about how one of my neighbours has the same camouflag...
Believe it or not, I had a terrible habit back in Canada. It wasn't one with drugs, alcohol, women, or even excessive ...
Over the last decade or so I've been battling a bunch of minor problems such as insomnia, headaches, chest pain, and blo...