Keeping with the tradition of the legendary “Heavy Eric”, our goal was to write a catchy straight-up rock tune to rev up energy for an excited NHL playoff atmosphere.

Canucks Song

I’ve seen it working this way. I’ve noticed that I and a couple people I know won much more frequently towards the beginning of the Tim Hortons promotion. Of course by now the idea is that we’re hooked on the game and will keep buying the coffee. When the contest is over we should also be hooked on the coffee and will be in the habit of buying it. So goes the marketing approach.

Having enough early winners also breeds excitement for the contest. If you’re winning, you’ll probably tell your friends and get them buying coffee at Tim’s. People will want to get in on the action.

It’s a genius concept that no doubt boosts sales. I know I go there more often while there are still rims left to be rolled. And hey, who knows, maybe when the promotion is over, I’ll not only be hooked on Tim Horton’s coffee but I’ll have a new addiction to the games of chance.

It sounds like his new contract is a 4 year deal for $2 million per season. This is a big increase in salaray but probably not as much as he could have gotten on the open market as a free agent. It’s good to see that he’ll be able to keep playing with the team that gave him a chance coming out of the lowly East Coast Hockey League.

Congrats to Burrows and the Canucks!

My immediate first impression was that it’s got quite a nice interface. The starting screen is a virtual bookshelf with a several shelves of books that you can scroll through. You can rearrange the books by dragging them with your finger. When you click on a book cover, it loads that book. The font is easy to read and if the book has illustrations, those are displayed as well. When you “turn the page” by swiping your finger in a page-turning motion, it looks like an actual turning page, complete with the sound of paper being flipped over. When you click on the home button, a book mark slides into the corner and you are brought back to the bookshelf screen. All in all it has a very nice user experience that makes you feel like you’re reading an actual classic book.

Now I’m not really much of a fiction reader, but this application makes it easy for me to carry around some classic novels that I can pick up and read when I have a spare moment. I’ve actually just finished reading my first book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which I had never read before. Now I’m on to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I’m looking forward to working my way through the classic books included with the program and the additional ones that they are adding with future updates. It’s a great way to read some classic literature that I otherwise probably never would have have picked up.

Why did I make the switch? There are a number of reasons. I like the gmail interface. Multiple messages on the same thread are grouped together which is really handy since I collaborate over email frequently with other people. Also, my outlook data file was getting to be really big which made Outlook run slower. With Gmail, my mail is backed up by google rather than by me and is therefore less likely to get lost if my computer were to blow up or something. I also like the convenience of being able to check my email from any computer and have everything available to me as it would be on my own machine.

But the final thing that pushed me to make the switch is because using gmail’s IMAP feature my email is in sync on my iPhone. It used to be very annoying to have to manage email in two places for multiple pop accounts. Now gmail manages all of my email accounts and when I check my email on my iPhone, messages that I’ve read already don’t show up as new messages like they used to.

I know there will be some downsides to using a web interface to check my mail. One thing is sending invoices directly out of quickbooks won’t be a one click affair any more. Handling attachments like documents and photos doesn’t work quite as nicely on a web client as it does a desktop one like Outlook. Also, keeping contacts in sync doesn’t seem to be possible yet either. But I’m counting on some of these downsides to go away as gmail improves (it seems to be getting better all the time).

All in all things have gotten to the point now where it makes sense, so I’m making the plunge.

Hopefully the release of this Chrome will spur Internet Explorers to rethink the browser they use to access the internet on a daily basis. There are so many great options on there now like Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Opera. Most people who use Internet Explorer use it because it’s the default browser that comes with their operating system. Believe me though, its worth the minimal effort to switch to something else. Other browsers are faster, more secure and do a better job of displaying web pages. Plus, if more people switched it would make it easier for web developers like me to do their jobs since Internet Explorer is the source of many woes for people in that business. (You knew I had to have a hidden agenda on the issue!)

So now I am on a quest to find the best credit card to replace my BMO WestJet card. The features I’m looking for are a good reward program, automatic doubling of the warranty on purchases (this has really come in handy for me before), 90 purchase protection, and low fees. I don’t care about interest rates because I never carry a balance.

Commence the quest!

That being said, here’s me weighing in on the non-issue issue. Some people I hear are complaining about Mats Sundin and saying that they don’t want to wait around for him to make up his mind. People are getting frustrated with him for taking his sweet time. The thing is though, we all knew that this is how it was going to work. After all, he said from the beginning that he’s not sure whether he will even be coming back to play this coming year. He also said that he would take his time to make up his mind on that issue. So we knew what we were in for. Now we wait. Personally I think that the wait is worth it–to a point. After all, it’s not like there are other players the Canucks have lined up to sign contracts if Sundin doesn’t come aboard. If the Canucks do land him, that would be a good thing for the team. If not, we’ll know soon enough whether Sundin will wear the orca on his chest or if we have to wait again, this time for Gillis to make a trade.