Quick Update: Mario Kart Wii

More information on the upcoming release of Mario Kart Wii. Yay!!!

Classic tracks! The return of hopping! Online racing! The definitive Nintendo racer is back

Not available until January 2008. Boo!!!

Mii on a T-Shirt

As I have mentioned before I love my Wii. So last night an idea struck me, wouldn't it be great to be able to put an image of your Mii on a T-shirt? I even thought that there may be a market for this shirt.

The engineer in me immediately started to work on how it would be possible. First I would need to find a way to download the Mii from the Wii which can be accomplished by using the Wiimote Data Management Library. Then I would need to reverse engineer the structure of the Mii data which has already been done. Figure out a way to export this data as a JPEG file which is where the on-line Mii Editor would come in handy. Finally, upload the image to CafePress to order a shirt.

Now as I said I was doing this all late at night so when I told my wife the idea this morning she thought it was great but asked, "Has anyone else done it before?" To which a quick Google search turned up offerings from Mr. Cloud and MiiWare. Great, now my life is a plot point from the movie Knocked Up which Kate and I both thought was hilarious by the way.

So the moral of this story boys and girls is next time you think you have a great idea for an internet business focus less on the how and more on the should.

Brazen Careerist

I just finished reading Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk and I just have to say that she gets it. She really understands the changing attitudes that Gen X & Y are bringing to the work place.

As a generation X'er I was taught by my elders to get a job with a good company work with them for 25 years and then retire. Sadly that's not the way that the world works anymore. I still remember the near coronary that I gave my father when I told him I was leaving Nortel after two years to pursue a job at a small private Ottawa software firm.

Now you need to be responsible for your own career and you can't expect your company to take responsibility for you. This book is that handbook that everyone from my generation should read.

For more of Penelope's writing please check out her blog.

TwitterFeed

So I've started using the TwitterFeed site to redirect my blog posts to Twitter. Now each of the posts on this site automatically get posted on my Twitter blog which saves a lot of time. The beauty of it is that it automatically truncates your posting to the 140 character limit that Twitter can handle as well as putting a TinyURL link to the original post in your tweet.

Setup is fairly simple one but it does require an OpenID to login. Luckily I was able to use my old Yahoo account. Next step is to tell TwitterFeed the address of your blog and the frequency to scan for new items.

Terry Fox Run 2007

Once again I'll be taking part in this years Terry Fox Run. The run will be taking place on Sunday September 16th where I will participate with the Blades@Ease team. We are adding another member to the team this year and if you are interested in doing the run on roller blades please contact me.

My goal in fund raising this year is $1000. Let's work together to end cancer and keep Terry's dream alive. All money raised goes to cancer research; please support my participation by donating.

Ysabel

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay is his first novel since his Fionavar Tapestry series in which the story takes place in present day. The story is set in Provence, France as a young Canadian boy is accompanying his father, a photographer, on a photo shoot. Almost immediately the reader along with Ned, the boy, stumbles into the middle of a story that has been going on for a very, very long time.

I purchased this book at a reading by Guy Gavriel Kay that was sponsored by Perfect Books at the Clocktower Brew Pub in Ottawa. It was a real treat to hear Kay speak about the time he spent in Provence researching the places he describes so eloquently in the novel. After a dramatic reading by Kay I did get a chance to meet the author to which I had a typical fan boy moment which is better left undocumented.

I absolutely loved this book and I devoured it over two days. I cannot recommend Kay more highly to anyone who wants to read some truly beautifully realized fantasy novels.

Updated 2007/08/11: My friend Alexandre reviews Ysabel as well. Alexandre was with me at the reading by Guy Gavriel Kay.

The Last Colony

The Last Colony by John Scalzi is the third in the series preceded by Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. In this novel Scalzi completes the shift from space opera action to political intrigue that he started in the second offering in the series. Fans of the series should be satisfied with the ending but I couldn't help but wish that it was a bit longer as some of the other characters and situations could have used some fleshing out. In the epilogue Scalzi mentions that this will be his last novel with John Perry and Jane Sagan as the lead characters but he is planning on revisiting the universe he created so I may get my wish.