Craig Atkinson

For the past year, I’ve been hitting the 150 person limit on MSN Messenger. It’s really frustrating to a user to have to delete people from your list, when you want to add new people. A large majority of the people on my contact list are in other countries, so I can’t always be online at the same time as them. I cringe to think of the people I’ve had to delete that I never got to talk to about some future project that could have been possible. It’s the kind of frustration that causes you to want to go out and find an alternative messaging protocol, however it’s not a practical solution! It happened to me once that I advertised in my name for contacts in a certain part of the world, and somebody who I had deleted previously messaged me back with some information that was very critical.

What I propose Microsoft does to fix this problem:

Offer a premium MSN Messenger subscription that is not too expensive. Say $25 a year. For the ability to scale up to 2500 contacts. That’s the equivalent of only one penny per year per contact. They are already giving away Messenger for free. Why not offer value added additions for increased revenue? Another thing is to add upgrade packs. $10 or $15 for an extra 1000 contacts. $25-50 for 5000-10000 contacts.

The world doesn’t operate in 150 person networks. It’s ridiculous to limit something as potentially world-changing as instant messaging to a set number of people and not offer any options. Just give me an option!

Matt asks some good questions about the link between corruption and poverty. He has had some pretty incredible experiences over the past few years and I love reading his thoughts about these kinds of things.

I must admit I haven’t spent enough time thinking about poverty nor corruption. According to Chris via MSN, corruption is endemic because democracy is not consolidated. In Canada, for example, there are lots of controls in place to ensure you can’t just siphon money out of the chain. There are audits, reporting requirements, etc. in place to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, in poor countries, government is weak or even more likely corrupt itself. There is no political will to really change the way things work.

I’m very enthusiastic about environmental issues (although I am unabashidly pro-capitalist), sustainable development, and alternative energy. I don’t drive a car but if I did, I would love to have a hybrid like the Ford Escape or Toyota Prius, or one of the next-gen models that are surely appearing soon.

This Wired article has an interesting quote:

“We’re at the edge of making the internal combustion engine similar to regular film for a camera,” says Ernest Bastien, VP of Toyota’s vehicle operations group.

In comparing the internal combustion engine to 35mm film, do they mean to say that the traditional automobile is going extinct much the way digital cameras have taken over film ones? Or did I misinterpret what he said?

I went to the Jun Centre website to try and find the phone number. Instead I found myself looking at a picture of Mizue sitting in her office! Neat!

Reuter’s is carrying an interesting story about a photo that environmentalists are using to try and provide the G8 ministers in London into action on climate change. It’s Kilimanjaro’s global warning and I can’t find this photo online.

I suspect it is actually a manipulated image not an actual one. According to Greenpeace, Kilimanjaro still has 15-20 years left before the glaciers are all gone.

What a sad thought. You can’t deny that climate change is here and is rapidly affecting all areas of the world. From Canada’s great white north, there are studies on Inuit observations on climate change.

Whole cultures are at risk of disappearing. This is serious stuff! Why don’t people care more about this? Perhaps it is time to take somebody like Raffi seriously when he talks about child honouring. I just read an interesting article about Raffi and his theories in Saturday Night Magazine. According to him, if we spent more time honouring children, the whole world would be a better place.

Essentially I think it comes down to perspective. How do you view the world? As a place to live your life and take advantage of every opportunity? Or as a place where your children will live wonderful fruitful lives?

“as people alive today, we must consider future generations: a clean environment is a human right like any other. It is therefore part of our responsibility towards others to ensure that the world we pass on is as healthy, if not healthier, than when we found it.”

The Dalai Lama (emphasis mine)

A happy client has proposed to increase my involvement in his organization. During the next few months, I will keep involved in some business process re-engineering projects and meetings to better familiarize myself with their business and processes. Then there will likely be lots more Crystal Reports / Enterprise development work on a long term contract.

Makes you feel good to know that people think you do a great job.

Mizue took this great portrait of me.

And I of her.

Much of our office went up for a coffee break to the rooftop balcony. I snapped a few shots of the view across False Creek. Later that day I was heading home, still recovering from the jet lag
of time zones, and reflecting on my return home to Vancouver. It really feels like my home now and only after a half-dozen months living here. It’s a great feeling to be home in a city that you know and love. It’s the comforableness that makes you feel secure.

I was watching the CBC news earlier and heard that Vancouver has been ranked #3 again, tied with Vienna, and behind Zurich and Geneva in the Mercer HR Quality of Life awards. This award ranks major metropolitan cities around the world on a basket of criteria for the best quality of life.

Well quickly again from a few minutes left in London.

We had a great couple of days with the drive team. Lots of brazilians, indians and estonians to enjoy our time together. We made some plans, lots of confusion and missed trains and planes, but in the end we will be doing some amazing work this year.

Unfortunately, we missed two people who couldn’t get visas on time. I hope to meet them later in the year, especially as I will be working alot with them on driving the new Energy & Environment Learning Network.

I will be home to Vancouver soon. Talk to everybody then!

Okay quick, I have a few minutes left to type out on this horrible French keyboard in Paris. Seems they have reveresed many more keys than even the Germans or the Spanairds.

Today I stumbled upon the entrace to the Christian Dior Fashion Week show at the perfect moment to see the madness of the fashionistas arriving all styled out and the mad jumble of photoistas stopping them for pictures and their assistants writing down all the details. It was very entertaining. Happened all right in the middle of le Louvre and L’Arc de Triomphe.

Tonight I went to see Spirited Away in theatre. It was the verision originelle with Japanese and French subtitles. Great for helping my study of both of those languages. I caught a little of both.

Time is about up. I will just say that it is true: French food is amazing!!!