Category Archives: Canada

Boobquake: in which Catherine gets annoyed at the press

By Catherine Winters | Published: April 26, 2010
“So! Boobs, huh?” That’s right, boobs. Or what-have-you. “I don’t get it.” Well, the other day, Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi–yes, he’s not even an Ayatollah. I know, right?–went and said some crazy shit about boobs and how they cause earthquakes. Or more specifically, no, he didn’t really. As PBS explains: While delivering [...]
Also posted in Blogosphere, Gender, History, LGBT, Memes, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Vancouver | Comments closed

On Haiti and Sarcasm

By Catherine Winters | Published: January 16, 2010
Dear CBC Commenter: I understand that “some of [your] best friends are Haitian” and that you’re only talking about the “bad ones” when you say “Canada will be overrun by gangs and HIV” if we fast-track the immigration process for Haitian refugees. I get that you’re not really a racist, I do. In fact, I totally [...]
Also posted in News, Suggestion Box | Comments closed

Catherine’s Vancouver is growing

By Catherine Winters | Published: August 5, 2009
While hanging out at a Main Street coffee shop this afternoon, I overheard a conversation between a mom and her four-year-old. “We can go out to the airport,” the mom said as they were leaving. “Oh, that’s a long drive!” Yes. Yes it is. With the opening of the Canada Line now moved up to August [...]
Also posted in Catherine, Cycling, Drupal, Events, News, Suggestion Box, Vancouver | Comments closed

Critical Pride

By Catherine Winters | Published: July 29, 2009
On his blog this morning, Buzz Bishop posed the question: Are you proud of Pride? In his post, Buzz asks if the imagery we’ll see in Vancouver’s Pride Parade this Sunday is really the best way to demonstrate that gays are just like everyone else. This reminded me of another familiar argument, about Critical Mass: are [...]
Also posted in Blogosphere, Catherine, Cycling, Events, LGBT, Politics, Vancouver | Comments closed

Blogathon 2009: “Legally, we have to refer to you as Catherine December.”

By Catherine Winters | Published: July 25, 2009
After hearing Dave Olsen talk a bit about the restrictions being applied — in particular, to the “pedestrian corridors” being established here in Vancouver during the Olympics, I’m concerned about the implications for free speech, as well as the potential for these laws to endure after the Olympics have ended. I’ve been convinced for a long [...]
Also posted in Blogathon 2009, Blogosphere, Brands, Law, Media, News, Politics, Privacy, Vancouver, Web 2.0 | Comments closed

Blogathon 2009: Dave Olsen & the True North Media House

By Catherine Winters | Published: July 25, 2009
Dave Olsen stopped by Workspace this evening to cheer some of us on and tell us a bit about the social/indie/citizen media project he’s working on for the 2010 Olympics this year, the True North Media House. From the TNMH website: We intend to create a space in downtown Vancouver to serve as a media [...]
Also posted in Blogathon 2009, Blogosphere, Media, News, Vancouver, Web 2.0 | Comments closed

Blogathon 2009: Infographics, Part 1: Why the CBC sucks

By Catherine Winters | Published: July 25, 2009
Okay, this is something that has bugged me for a while. People who say “interactive” when they mean “hard to use” and “Flash scrollbars”. While otherwise a competent, irritatingly underfunded news organization, the CBC sucks at infographics. Most of their “interactive features” are just text that requires a lot of clicking and scrolling to read. [...]
Also posted in Blogathon 2009, Complaint Department, Infographics, News, Usability, Vancouver | Tagged , | Comments closed

Trackballs: A part of our heritage

By Catherine Winters | Published: April 12, 2009
In the summer of 2007, I learned I had a bit of an RSI problem when a can of Coke I was holding suddenly slipped from my grasp and plummeted to the ground. I couldn’t apply enough pressure with my thumb and fingers to hold it in my hand. One short diagnosis of tennis and golfer’s [...]
Also posted in Apple, Catherine, Gadgets, News, Usability | Comments closed

Mobile data rates: Canada’s national shame

By Catherine Winters | Published: July 6, 2007
With the US release of the iPhone permeating even Canadian news, I’m finding that my current smartphone solution just isn’t as desirable as that which I cannot buy. These days, I’m more than happy with my Treo 650, despite PalmOS showing its age. I expect a Linux-based Treo will follow the recent Palm Foleo by [...]
Also posted in Gadgets | Comments closed

Social Tech Brewing Vancouver — Learning in Virtual Worlds!

By Catherine Winters | Published: March 19, 2007
This Wednesday, (March 21st, 2007) I and the rest of the Social Signal team will be at Social Tech Brewing Vancouver, for this month’s topic, “Learning in Virtual Worlds”.* From the Social Signal blog: If you work at the intersection of technology and community-building, we hope you’ll join us for the March gathering of Social [...]
Also posted in Catherine, Events, Learning is fun!, Second Life, Social Signal, Web 2.0 | Comments closed