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General

The ‘Bun Reunion – Celebrating the 1970’s Roots of the Digital Age

July 16, 2012

If you are in any way connected to this story, see link to event invitation at end of this post.

In August 1972, just before the start of fall classes, a new arrival was causing a stir in the Math & Computer building at University of Waterloo – a brand new Honeywell 6050 mainframe size computer running GCOS (General Comprehensive Operating …

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Entrepreneurism

Who Will Revive Canadian Venture Capital (Part I)

June 14, 2012

Today was a banner day for announcements involving a reset of the technology funding ecosystem in Canada.

For a long time, the slow demise of Canadian Venture Capital has concerned me deeply, putting us at an international disadvantage in regards to funding and building our next generation of innovative businesses. You may recall my 2009 post Who Killed Canadian Venture Capital? …

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Business Strategy

Post-acquisition Reflections on MKS

January 5, 2012

First of all, I would like to congratulate Phil Deck, Michael Harris and the entire team for finding both a fabulous new home for MKS, but also one which represents a significant strategic financial transaction, valuing MKS at just over 4 times estimated FY2011 sales.

Many people have asked for my perspective. In short, I continue to view the acquisition as favourable to customers, …

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Entrepreneurism

Dennis MacAlister Ritchie (1941-2011) – My Inspiration by a Great Man Who Quietly Shaped an Industry

January 1, 2012

NOTE: The intrusion and profusion of projects in my life, has prevented blogging for some time. As 2011 draws to a close, I thought I needed to make an effort to provide my perspective on some important milestones in my world.

Back in October, when Rob Pike posted on Google+:

I just heard that, after a long illness, Dennis Ritchie (dmr) died at …

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Business Strategy

How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On The Farm?

August 3, 2010

“How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On The Farm” (excerpt) by Andrew Bird

Oh, how ya gonna keep ’em down? Oh no, oh no Oh, how ya gonna keep ’em down? How ya gonna keep ’em away from Broadway? Jazzin’ around and painting the town? How ya gonna keep ’em away from harm? That’s the mystery

______________________

This week, my 18 month old Blackberry finally bit the …

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Business Strategy

FourSquare – Re-writing the Rules While Killer Application Remains Elusive

April 10, 2010

“Nature is by and large to be found out of doors, a location where, it cannot be argued, there are never enough comfortable chairs.” – Fran Lebowitz

I’m a believer that Location Based Services (LBS), coupled with the latest smartphones, will evolve a number of indispensible, and unexpected, killer applications.

That said, it’s pretty clear that those mission critical applications …

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Business Strategy

Technology Visionaries in the 1990’s: A 21st Century Retrospective

January 1, 2010

“It is sobering to reflect on the extent to which the structure of our business processes has been dictated by the limitations of the file folder.”

-Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering Your Business

Recently, I unearthed a 10 year old book by Bill Gates, Business @ the Speed of Thought and took a bit of time to re-scan that 1999 book. …

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Investing

Lessons from Maplesoft Acquisition

September 23, 2009

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Mahatma Ghandi

Recently I received a cheque as part of the Maplesoft acquisition and was led to reflect how this was definitely not “How To Get Rich Quick with a Startup“. Last night a Maplesoft co-founder reminded me that this strategic exit was “only 23 years in the making.” (See Cybernet Systems Co., …

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Business Strategy

Has Microsoft Morphed from “Hungry/Nimble” Startup to “Fat/Stupid” Behemoth?

July 20, 2009

Bunny: Don’t you think you’d better go? The tortoise has the lead. Max Hare: Say, I’ve lots of time to play. My middle name is speed. SOURCE: Tortoise and the Hare, Walt Disney/United Artists, 1935

While I typically leave reviews of even major new products to others, my personal experience in the much heralded Windows 7 Beta to launch process provides  some interesting …

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General

Who Invented the Dot in Filenames?

December 31, 2008

Who invented the dot (“.”) that precedes the file type extension, as in document.doc or metal.mp3? As we near the end of what has emerged as a most interesting year, we all could use the diversion of examining the history of something so simple and pervasive, that we all take for granted.

A note from my friend Brad Templeton …

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