However recently after moving to a two LCD monitor arrangement I’ve found myself wishing for more work room. In addition as the picture shows, things were getting rather cluttered.

Obviously a rethink was needed as the mess was starting to impact my productivity. What tends to work for myself is to completely clear out the space and start from scratch. I had a good idea on what I wanted for a new desk, namely a non corner unit with a large work surface.  I had the room so it was just a matter of getting it done.

First came the job of clearing everything out of the space, which included the computer, monitors, routers switches etc.

One of our cats Marley likes to take great delight in going under the desk and playing with the cables to bug me.  He was not impressed that the old desk was going.

For the new desk the plan was to use a large 60×30 sheet of white mdf material with some simple legs.  I found these square frames that fold into a L to support the desk surface.

And here is the result.

Marley seems to like it. You can see how the leg frame work, this give a lot more room underneath.

After quite a few hours of trial and error I came up with what is in the photo below. One of the goals was to get the cpu up off the floor and onto the desk, this has been achieved and enough extra desk space is available that I can comfortably put the Macbook Pro on it at the same time.

Over the next little while I’ll be doing some more tweaks as well as adding some storage underneath to better sort things, I’ll post a shot when it’s done.

Council met in camera to discuss “a legal matter pertaining to advice re the occupy movement”  During this meeting a vote was taken to have the park cleared. We don’t know the result of this vote as it was done in-camera. We do know raised voices were heard from outside council chambers and Mayor Fontana did say he had overwhelming support but not unanimous.

The purpose of in-camera meetings are described in the municipal act quite clearly.

A meeting or part of a meeting may be closed to the public if the subject matter being considered is,

(a) the security of the property of the municipality or local board;

(b) personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees;

(c) a proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board;

(d) labour relations or employee negotiations;

(e) litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals, affecting the municipality or local board;

(f) advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose;

(g) a matter in respect of which a council, board, committee or other body may hold a closed meeting under another Act. 2001, c. 25, s. 239 (2).

In this situation council may have had this meeting behind close doors without a valid reason. The only exception I can see this in-camera meeting a shred of validity is section F. As I have stated before transparency is very important, if you are not willing to go on the record for a vote because you feel it will be not popular then don’t run for office.

Most intelligent voters realize they will not agree with a politician on every issue, but most people will have far more respect for someone who is honest and transparent. I will respect someone who is more open who I don’t agree with on some issues far more then someone who bends the rules to only release ‘good’ news. This is why some people are puzzled when I say I have the respect of some politicians that I don’t agree with most of the time.

As Patrick Maloney pointed out in his London Free Press article, Council could be opening themselves to a legal can or worms. In 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada warned London that municipal affairs can not be done in secret. That particular adventure cost the city $300,000 in legal fees.

The Ontario Ombudsman’s office has received two formal complaints about this ‘secret’ meeting so it will be interesting to see what happens with this going forward.

I would love to see a motion to release the minutes of this meeting and the voting results. Not to play the blame game but for the nature of open and transparent government. However that would involve a 2/3 majority to achieve, which would not be that likely given that some on Council don’t want the public to know how they voted. Considering there was a push for Citizen engagement by the city recently, this is very disappointing

Update: Several people have commented that section a could also apply in this instance.  That is true but IMHO still a stretch and doesn’t address my original issue of an unnecessary secret vote.

I’ll spare the fine details but in a nutshell after our company was recently purchased it was decided to close the IT operation in London by the end of 2012.  My last day with the company is Oct 31st,  and then I’ll be enjoying the first break from school or work since I was about 15. The offer the company has given me is very generous and will enable myself to enjoy this period ahead.

Despite Alicia’s horror that I may be underfoot at home I plan to be busy both in and out of the house. During this time I’m going to continue some of the projects I am involved with including the unLondon/unLab and the Downtown London WiFi project. In the new year  I plan to step back a bit and decide what I want to do next career wise and in life.  20+ years is a long time to do anything and it may be time for a change. Now that I’ve made the decision I’m so calm with the idea and looking forward to it.

Do not therefore consider this life as an object of any moment. Look back on the immense gulf of time already past; and forwards, to that infinite duration yet to come, and you will find how trifling the difference is between a life of three days and of three ages.

Let us then employ properly this moment of time allotted us by fate, and leave the world contentedly; like a ripe olive dropping from its stalk, speaking well of the soil that produced it, and of the tree that bore it.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

As keeping a dialog going on Twitter can be time consuming some candidates during an election will have their staff tweet for them. For things such as press releases, event notifications etc, this is fine. However to keep transparency, candidates should put on their twitter profile is they alone and/or staff will post to twitter using the candidates account.  It is also recommend that if it is staff tweeting that should be clear in the tweet by posting their initials at the end of the of the message.

I will be requesting this information from the candidates running in London and area ridings who I know have a twitter account.  As I get the information back I’ll update the results on this spreadsheet.

Thanks all.

Well now I have that opportunity.  Fellow UnLab member Sean Quigley and myself have just finished the first episode of a new podcast called This Week In London Tweets or TWILT for short.  In this podcast we touch on the topics that London twitter users are talking about.  This first show was more on the political side and I expect a good portion of shows will be along that those lines, but if a tech or arts story comes around that gets the London twitter sphere buzzing then we will cover it.

You can check out the show blog at http://twiltpodcast.wordpress.com/ which will have links to episodes. Both Sean and I hope you enjoy it.

I also notice that those politicians running on a 0% platform seems to ignore that when something in their own ward or riding is threatened with closure due to the very platform they were elected on.

Mondays council meeting showed an excellent example of that. The Mayor and other councilors who ran or support a 0% platform told city administration as well as all boards and commissions to bring budgets in with little or no increases. When the library board came back with their budget, one of the ways they could achieve that goal was to look at closing the Glanworth library branch as they were looking at least $250,000 cost to bring this small branch up to required standards.

At this point the community in Glanworth rallied around to fight the branch being closed. At Mondays council meeting several councilors spoke to tell the library board to reconsider. The only thing is that several of the councilors were the very same people who mandated a 0% increase. In short you can’t have it both ways. Many people who run on a 0% platform seem to think that there is a big pot of a gold that is hidden away at city hall and with that ‘extra money’ they can cut all other expenses. When they get into office they find things very different. The problem is at that point they have dug themselves into a hole and will not admit they have been wrong.

If you are going to tell your boards and commissions to bring back a 0% budget them support them when they bring back what you wanted. If you can’t then you should not have run on a 0% increase.

It’s good to see all the outpouring of support in particular at Toronto City Hall where Jack got his political start. Seeing the message written in chalk at Nathan Phillips square is particularly inspiring. While watching this video, one message in particular stuck a chord with me. “Jack Layton was the reason I started voting”  This also shows that people are not alone in their grief or their beliefs for a better country.

If you haven’t already it’s worth reading Stephen Lewis’s eulogy of Jack Layton. Beside the fact the Stephen Lewis is one of the finest orators I know this eulogy really shows what Jack Layton was like.

Many speakers spoke of trying to have a better Canada. To have a manifesto for a more social democracy. Many people both in and out of politics forget the purpose of government is to serve and help the people. Not the people who donate to the parties; not the people who come out and work for the campaigns; but all the people. The young; the old; single; married; sick, First Nations and others; all the people.

Like others have said, I can’t agree with everything he stood for but I find his passion and approach to be something we should all aspire towards.

I’m pleased to see that even those who did not agree with his political views still admired him for standing behind his beliefs. In his final letter that he wrote, we see even in his final days he was still concerned about the future of his party and the country.

One of the best quotes was the final paragraph of his letter, in it there is a message that Canadians of all political sides should read and think about.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

I’ll let more clever minds debate on what this means for Canadian politics, myself I see the loss of someone that cared.

Image courtesy http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1152

For those who think social media doesn’t work…. On Tuesday August 1st 2011.

• Two people asked where they can get umbrella’s downtown as rain was starting to fall; Novak’s replied. Result probably two sales and possibly more.
• Several people noted a error about the Urban League of London in a London Free Press story. The Free Press was informed and corrected the story.
• 2 people had an interesting conversation/debate about how tattoos and other symbols on a person affects other people’s perception of that person.

Not too bad at all. Makes my happy that this technology and method of engagement exists.