February 11, 2005

Soaring loonie hasn't caused more U.S. shopping: StatsCan This Story counts the number of "same-day auto trips south of the border" to show that there has not been more US shopping. I think they are missing the ONLINE sales.  People I know have made quite a bit more online sales from the US. "Canadian dollar appreciated noticeably against the U.S. dollar – in 1991 – the number of Canadians making same-day car trips into the U.S. exploded to 59.1 million. " Well, there was almost NO online sales back in 1991... Feb 2005 " poll results, three in 10 adult onliners (or about 20% of adult Canadians overall, double the normal monthly average) will shop the Internet this year, spending an average of $350.00 online each and $800.00 offline according to the survey (online is slightly higher and offline slightly lower than last year). "  Although I can't find if the online shopping will be US companies...  I think we can assume it will be the lions share. Previous studies "revealed that 93 percent of Canadian online shoppers who look specifically for Canadian e-commerce sites say they do so because the exchange rate is too high;" - (Source: The Angus Reid Group, July 2000) That was when the exchange rate was 1.5!  Now that it is lower, I suspect people are not as bothered by shopping cross border, without the day trip. 10:23:10 PM

CNN CNN News Executive Eason Jordan Quits ABC News - CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amid a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq. Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy. During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that several journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted. He quickly backed off the remarks, explaining that he meant to distinguish between journalists killed because they were in the wrong place when a bomb fell, for example, and those killed because they were shot at by American forces who mistook them for the enemy. Charles at LittleGreenFootballs sums it up nicely: I have to believe this sudden resignation means Mr. Jordan’s superiors had a chance to review the World Economic Forum video and realized (especially after Rathergate) that their position was untenable, and that further stonewalling could be disastrous. 10:10:58 PM

Roger L. Simon is getting his gall bladder taken out.  If you don't know his blog, you might want to visit and check out the archives. 1:21:29 PM

Mother Who Tossed Newborn Out of Car Found ABC - The mother of a newborn boy who survived being tossed out of a moving car has been identified and interviewed by investigators, authorities said Friday. "It is my belief … that this person is the birth mother of the child," Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne told reporters. The sheriff also said that the interview with the unidentified woman "puts a whole new light on this story" but he gave no specifics.  A news conference was planned for later in the day to provide more details. UPDATE: 'Good Samaritan' turns out to be abandoned baby's mother 1:01:35 PM

Luc van Brakel has a set of pictures that show a shoving match between US secret service and local Brussels officials. 12:34:22 PM

Microsoft Sweetens the Office Pot. Microsoft is offering "qualified" users who buy Office Professional Edition 2003 up to $20,000 in partner service subsidiaries. [Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley] 12:12:55 PM

GameSHOUT Alternative browsers gain momentum Globetechnology.com - It used to be that Internet Explorer, the one-size-fits-all Web browser bundled with every copy of Microsoft Windows, was enough for most people. It worked well and cost nothing. Who needed anything else? That attitude is fading these days as consumers begin to realize that other browsers offer more features, better security and greater freedom. Bells and whistles, perhaps, but some of them can be surprisingly useful. The number of competitors to Internet Explorer is surprisingly large and diverse. The most commonly mentioned alternatives are Mozilla and its cousin, the recently released Firefox 1.0, two browsers descended from Netscape, the early Internet company that is now part of AOL. Firefox is a Web browser pure and simple. Mozilla uses the same basic core (known as Gecko) and adds tools for reading e-mail, chatting and composing Web pages. 10:25:14 AM

Renowned Playwright Arthur Miller, Author of Death of a Salesman, Is Dead at 89 9:41:00 AM

IBM says mobile devices vulnerable to viruses and worms InfoWorld - In 2005, cell phones, handhelds, and wireless networks will come in for aggressive attacks from viruses, worms and other security threats, IBM said in a security report. In its 2004 Global Business Security Index Report, Big Blue's Global Security Intelligence Services team called the trend "troubling." "Email worms such as Bagle, Netsky and Mydoom led the pack in the number of variants and overall impact," IBM said. "During the latter part of 2004, a growing number of viruses aimed at PDAs and other mobile devices, such as the Cabir worm, were released. It is likely that such worms will be used by copycats and may spur an epidemic of viruses aimed at mobile devices." The report said mobile devices, such as PDAs and cell phones will be new targets of opportunity for viruses, spam and other threats, with Bluetooth and other wireless technologies connecting mobile devices providing attractive targets. 6:05:23 AM

Firms warned to approach Firefox migration with caution ComputerWeekly.com - Analyst firm Gartner has said that companies should think carefully before migrating from the Internet Explorer browser to the open-source Firefox browser from Mozilla. 6:03:22 AM