Recent content in Blog on Jason's Notes About Stuff
I strongly suspect that Trump administration officials, in conjunction with Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and other technology leaders, are making extensive use of AI to form their policy and make strategic decisions. I’ve recently been perplexed by the new policy to charge 25% tariffs on incoming goods from America’s two closest suppliers: Canada and Mexico. Let’s ask AI So I decided to put the…
A common thread in early 2025 is “AI sucks at X or Y”. For instance, “AI sucks at coding. It introduced a bug and couldn’t even fix it!” Or “AI sucks at image generation. Look at how often it gets the text wrong!” Well guess what, we all sucked at things at one point. At 5 years old, I could barely understand simple multiplication and division! Can you imagine that? But over the next 5 years, I…
I just noticed recently that it has been almost a year since I had written a blog entry. It is pretty amazing how much things have changed since last November. I was beginning to approach the 1-year anniversary of my first in-office full-time job since graduation from University, and Mel and I were just starting to chat about possible upcoming life changes. Over the Christmas vacation, we talked…
You will have many setbacks in life, but if you are patient, persistent, and consistent, you can recover from any of them. Consider the story of a beautiful houseplant arrangement that my parents sent us in July 2016, shortly after we moved into our first house. Over time, most of the plants in the arrangement had various mishaps they couldn’t recover from. A lone anthurium, or “flamingo flower”…
As I’ve stated before, Trudeau and the Liberals made a very specific promise in 2015. It is still online and reads: We will make every vote count. We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system. In 2017, the Liberals decided that their chances of another majority government were strong enough to break the promise . I…
I was introduced to The Rumie Initiative in 2014 when they hired my consulting company, Syllogistic Software, to build a web-based app to collect and organize free educational content. I was truly inspired by their vision to bring education to everyone who was missing out on all the free learning materials available to those fortunate enough to have Internet access. What started out as a small…
Biking to work Metro Vancouver has a beautiful mild climate that is well-suited to a year-round commute via bicycle. As winter approaches and it’s been getting darker, I’ve been joining my wife on her biking commute back and forth from work. 🚲 Biking to work is great for: The environment 🌲 Your health 💪 Your budget 💲 Why drive and pay for gas, parking, and a gym membership when you…
Pop Music Despite it sometimes being mass-produced and “cookie-cutter”, I’ve always enjoyed certain styles of popular music. I’ve produced piles of electronic and semi-classical-style music, but the closest I’ve ever come to pop was a lighthearted, slightly cheesy 90s dance track called Simplicity ( SoundCloud | YouTube ). Today, I’m happy to present another…
Last year, I wrote a small rant called “ When did software go off the rails? ” which, quite surprisingly, ended up on the front page of Hacker News . Must have been a slow news day. In any case, the first and most upvoted comment on my blog was: “Writes the guy whose blog post requires 153 HTTP requests, 9 JS files, and shows a blank page with Javascript disabled." This cheeky…
As I continue to go through my old blog drafts, this is another one from 2010 where I took down some rough notes and never quite put something together. At the time, there was significant press (and a movie ) about how Mark Zuckerberg has "stolen" the idea for Facebook from the Winklevoss twins . I would argue that there was very little original or truly innovative ideas that went into the core…
( image credit ) I was recently going through old blog drafts and came across this one from nearly 8 years ago . It was basically just brainstorming about how to improve society in general. I'm proud to say that in the meantime, I've done my best to move the needle ever so slightly, becoming more involved in politics, including running for office at the provincial level and organizing my thoughts…
According to Natural Resources Canada , "Canada has the third-largest proven oil reserve in the world, most of which is in the oil sands." "Proven oil reserves are estimated at 171.0 billion barrels. " Canada's current population is about 36.7 million . So, one could perhaps argue that my current share of Canadian oil is about 4,659.4 barrels . Since Brent Crude is priced at about $70/barrel today…
See: The day oil rained down on Burnaby Ever since I moved to BC, not far from the path of the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion , I've been asked: "What do you think about that pipeline?" My response, from the beginning, has been a very confident: "Pipeline won't get built." "But how can you be so sure?", they ask. "'Cause people won't let it." I sincerely hope that I will be right about…
Who remembers 2006? 12 years ago, Google launched a truly innovative suite of products to compete with Microsoft's behemoth Office suite called " Google Docs and Sheets ". This promised to revolutionize the way we work. Instead of having to email Word and Excel attachments to co-workers and worry about old versions , conflicting changes , etc., the document was hosted in one place, and everyone…
About a month ago, before the big Cambridge Analytica scandal , I wrote that " Facebook is over ." My feeling was strong enough that I divested all FB holdings the same day. Glossing over the details at the time, I simply stated that Facebook had "lost its way." After posting, several of my friends and relatives (on Facebook, of course) suggested that I should create the Next Facebook . Funny…
Some of my friends are big fans of WhatsApp, and have noted that I don't (and won't) use it, so I just wanted to briefly provide the major reasons why: It's owned by Facebook (and connected to the Facebook platform) and there are some major privacy concerns Since acquisition by Facebook, there have been major security concerns Due to similar problems, I advise against using similar apps like Apple…
Alright folks, I'm calling it. It's quite sad, but as of 6pm Pacific on Feb 21, 2018, Facebook is officially over. Soon it will join the ranks of MySpace, Friendster, Slashdot, Digg, Orkut, and Google+ as dusty old sites that nobody really uses anymore. It had a good run. For a while, it was the perfect way to keep in touch with friends and relatives, but somewhere along the line, it lost its way.…
"Should I buy Bitcoin?" This is a question I've heard a lot the past few weeks, so I'd like to quickly answer it in a public forum. My official answer is: "You should spend no more on Bitcoin than you'd be comfortable putting into a Vegas slot machine." As far as I'm concerned: Bitcoin is not an investment . Bitcoin is a speculative, risky commodity gamble . If you do choose to put some chips…
Everything I'm going to write here seems painfully obvious to me, but apparently is not well known. I've read many recent articles and comments that seem to herald "free market capitalism" as the answer to every problem in society. They all seem to miss one critical factor though. Capitalism only works if there is competition. This seems like a very simple, bland, undeniable statement, and yet as…
As CTO of The Rumie Initiative , I spend a decent amount of time trying to find tech solutions that offer “the most for the least” in terms of computing power vs. cost. There is one thing that has baffled me in my long career in technology. Hardware capability increases exponentially , but software somehow just bloats up , using the power and space, without providing much more…
It's Sunday, May 7th, 2017, in the evening. In less than 48 hours, we'll have a good idea of how the 2017 BC Election is turning out. A mere two months ago, I was nominated to represent the BC Green Party in the BC NDP stronghold of Port Coquitlam. I must admit, at times, I am finding myself filled with some fear, doubt, and confusion. Fear of the worst. Doubt about our strategy. Confusion over…
There's an old business saying: "What gets measured gets done." Politicians love to talk about jobs. Even better, how they are "creating" jobs. But is "number of jobs created" really a good metric to be tracking and optimizing for? Short answer: No. Why not? Some of the most urgent problems today are: Wealth inequality Environmental pollution An aging population An increasingly unhealthy…
This is an open letter to Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. January 23rd, 2017 Dear Justin, You seem like a cool guy. We don't have a lot of time, so I'll get straight to the point. In 2015, you made a very specific promise (which is still online -- kudos for that). It reads: " We will make every vote count. We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted…
Over the years, I’ve picked up a few interesting expressions from places I’ve lived that I’ve incorporated into my everyday conversation :) People are often confused, so here are the explanations. Texas / Atlanta / The South “Y’all” Usage: Abbreviation of “you all” or “you guys” or “yous guys” “How are y’all doing…
Recently, the Canadian federal government approved a pipeline expansion project that adds a second pipeline along an existing route from Edmonton, AB to Burnaby, BC. Here’s the map: The pipeline has its own marketing site, touting the benefits: Helping us “keep up with the rising global demand for oil” and “increased tax benefits for all of Canada” sounds great,…
This was the first time I've ever bet real money on an election. And I won. Even I'm a bit surprised. But only a bit. In mid-October, I posted " Why Trump Could Still Win " at a time when major news outlets said that a Trump win was virtually impossible . Good ol' Michael Moore (yeah he's still around) made a far more eloquent prediction at " 5 Reasons Why Trump Will Win ". Of course, way back in…
My original title for this post was “Why Trump Will Win." Since then, nearly every major media outlet in the world says that a Trump win is a statistical impossibility . October 17th prediction from fivethirtyeight.com We’ll see. I’ve toned down my prediction for the moment. Keep in mind that these polls have changed drastically over time: There’s still another debate, and…
After my wife and I decided we would be buying a house in the Vancouver area, we dedicated a weekend to visiting open houses. The market has been very tight on the supply side for years, and just finding something in our price range was extremely difficult. The first question they asked at each open house was (as it should be), "Are you working with a realtor?" We hadn't planned to use a realtor,…
Fourth time's a charm? It was just 2.5 years ago that we sold everything we owned and moved from Victoria, BC to St. Kitts in the Caribbean. Once again, we find ourselves selling a car , an SUV , and about 70 or so other household items as we prepare to wrap up this chapter of our life and move on to the next. St. Kitts has its ups and downs , but we've met some really amazing people, and had some…
Last week, I was hanging up my laundry, listening to a great business podcast about consulting, and was hit by a wall of wisdom: "Your reputation in business is in large part based on your ability to make commitments and fulfill them. If you can make commitments and fulfill them, people trust you. That's what trust is based on. If you and I are developing a relationship, and the first thing you…