Tom Purves – Product Management, Fintech & AI

Just pre-registered for Office2.0 the conference (yes a new name for Eneterprise 2.0 … Office 2.0, I’ve also heared web 2.5, web 3.0 meaning the same thing. as valleywag says god help us). Anyway I’m excited for this conference, a good price $395 (last day for this price btw! if you’re even thinking of maybe going put your name down they won’t bill you yet but as of tommorrow the price goes up to $595)

In other news, rumours of major airline sales seem to be confirmed. US airways has flights from Toronto to SF for only $320 USD (!) in october. And direct flights AirCanada can be had for $460. These are great deals. In an earlier life some years ago I used to do this flight with some regularity and got used to paying 650-750CDN as often the best economy class deal one could ever find.

Speaking of, this should be fun, heading off straight to the belly of the beast, buble central for web2.0. I still remember those last great frothy days of bubble1.0 1999-2000 in San Fran… I’ll be back to compare notes.

Lastly, it would be egregious of me to plug the Office2.0 con without also mentioning another home-grown conference that’s coming up: CanUX. If you prefer your conferences in a setting a little more, ahem, civilized than the valley you should look to join Dave, Bryce and the gang for the Canadian User Experience workshop conference. It’s in gorgeous Banff, it looks like it will be a blast, it’s also a pretty great bargain. link

Google web apps go for the office

Google has (finally) announced that they are weighing in to a portion of the Enterprise2.0 space with, surprise, an office suite featuring gmail, gcalendar, google spreadsheets. The google spreadsheet and writely applications are pretty cool but are they powerful enough to dethrone the mighty MS Office? Myself, I’m split. Love and use the gmail/calendar combination but, though they are (honestly!) really cool in their own way writely and google sheets still don’t do everything I need excel and word to do for me. Link

Core 2 availability in portables imminent
Word is that the mobile version of Intels Core2 chip (code-named Merom – review) finally hits the streets today. And if, like me, (and every goddamn tech hipster before the last two of us) you’ve been planning to go mac book pro style, promise me, just hold your breath.. a little… bit… longer…
link

ps I bet I could get an intel mac able to boot vista when the day comes. ha ha, but why? i can already hear the faithful lament, but why?…

Have gorgeous flight uniforms modeled after the clasic glamour of the jet age. Find a trendy venue and invite the glitterati of toronto. Good wine, a chance to socialize and wrapped up in just time to get on with the rest of friday evenings engagements. As someone myself planning a launch party in a few short weeks, some excellent inspiration.

As an aside, as a downtown resident I am a huge proponent of the *expansion* of the island airport… Over-politicized harping of Oliva Chow and others notwithstanding. I believe Pearson airport taxes (up to $170 a ticket), it’s isolation (expensive, unpredictable and traffic congesting taxi fares) to be absolutely egregious. Not only do these factors cause untold expense to area business, but they also cut off ordinary and lower-income residents from affordable air travel. Compare the incredibly cheap cross european fares (sometimes $30-$40) to the up to $170 Pearson airport taxes plus $40 taxi fares each way. Sigh. In the memorable words of Reboot Thomas at Lift06, “EasyJet has done more to unite the european people than the European Union ever could”

I believe a revitalized downtown air hub is one of the best things that could happen for both the business and residents of Downtown toronto. Cheers to Porter airlines, best of luck to you.

Link to my flickr photos of the event.