Previously on RobCottingham.ca, we looked at a very cool list of web applications that can completely replace your desktop applications (with a very few exceptions).

The list’s author, Ismael Ghalimi, was kind enough to respond to my key concern – what about when you aren’t connected? His answer:

When are you really offline beside on a plane?

From this post:

Office 2.0 does not work when you are offline
This bug has been extensively discussed on IT|Redux over time, and the best answer I found was suggested by my friend Assaf: most office users are sitting at their desk and connected to the Internet when they happen to be using their office productivity suite. In other words, this problem does not really exist for the majority of users. And for people on the go such as you and me, it’s likely that we’ve figured out ways to remain connected most of the time when we need to. Next!

And beside, I carry a laptop with a WAN modem.

I don’t think it’s a real issue.

Having had more than my share of bitter frustration trying to convince my Rogers cell phone to act as a Bluetooth modem for my iBook, I’m still not completely won over. But Ismael has me thinking about it.

What do you think? Will they have to pry your desktop apps from your cold, offline hands, or are you ready to make the leap to having Firefox as the only application you need?

Delete Microsoft Word. Uninstall Adobe Illustrator. Say goodbye to Excel, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint and a big chunk of your hard drive’s applications directory.

I’ve just visited Ismael Ghalimi’s Office 2.0 Setup: a collection of services that do all the work of desktop software. The difference is that every single one of them is a web application (and most are free of charge). As he explains,

Through the extensive use of carefully selected services such as Gmail and Salesforce.com, I will try to increase my personal productivity while refraining myself from using any application installed on my personal computer other than a web browser. No word processor. No spreadsheet editor. No email client. No files on the local file system. Now let’s see if Sun’s original vision for the network as computer can actually be turned into reality today.

He’s hardcore, as he explains in his rules: no documents on the hard drive, and no web apps that won’t work with the most popular browsers. (The two exceptions: he still uses Photoshop for image manipulation and iTunes for listening to music.)

But maybe you want to wait before you finally trash Microsoft Office. If you don’t have a bulletproof Internet connection any time you need your data (say, while you’re commuting or flying), there’s an obvious problem here. No hookup? No applications and no data. “If you need to work offline, Office 2.0 might not be the best option for you, and you should not believe people who advertise online services that can work offline as well. They do not, because they should not,” he says. And for nearly everyone I know, that’s a fatal flaw.

Which doesn’t mean Ghalimi’s Office 2.0 experiment isn’t cool and potentially very valuable. There are some enticing advantages: total data portability no matter whose workstation you’re using, an end to software upgrades, and – providing your services are run by responsible operators – guaranteed backups of your data. (Although if you’re like me, you can already feel cold fingers tickling your spine at that thought.)

Maybe what this points to is a potentially huge demand for the seamless synchronizing of data between online apps and their offline equivalents. In the meantime, we’re left with a long list of best-of-breed web applications, chosen explicitly for their ability to spur collaboration and information sharing, and for their modest footprint on your computer. That in itself is a pretty valuable online service.

(Kudos to Andrew at Smallthought for the link… and congratulations to the whole company on the official launch of Dabble DB!)

A nutritious dinner is over; bedtime approaches; and the arduous process of convincing our daughter that baths and cleanliness are Good Things is nearing its successful if soggy conclusion. Nothing, now, can derail the Sleepytime Express…

…when the hairs on my spine suddenly stand up like pins. Somewhere in my subconscious, I’ve registered the faint, tinkling sounds that every parent recognizes as the anthem of their doom.

Now they’re loud enough for me to hear… and, more importantly and horribly, for her to hear. And even as I suddenly raise my voice with a too-cheerful offer to read her a story, any story, even that frigging tedious Button Book that takes a solid half hour to slog through, I know I’m too late: her face breaks out in a beautific smile.

“Ice cream truck!” she shrieks. “Ice cream truck!!”

In the war between peaceful bedtimes and pitched child-parent conflict, between healthy eating and childhood-obesity-inducing crap, the ice cream truck is junk food’s cruise missile: flying in under the radar, striking its target with lethal precision and inflicting unspeakable collateral damage.

The ice cream truck isn’t the only weapon in Big Junk’s arsenal. Vending machines may be in full retreat from many Canadian high schools (although the struggle in the U.S. continues). But parents in grocery stores and convenience stores still have to navigate minefields of chocolate bars, chips and candy – all placed at the eye level of a four-year-old, leaving little doubt as to their target.

What makes the ice cream truck so insidious is the combination of its pop-culture-icon status and its intrusive nature. You can herd your kids past the Creamsicle display at the 7-Eleven, and serve fresh fruit instead of Jello for dessert. But the cloying chimes of an ice cream truck (who knew Hagood Hardy wrote so damn many songs?) reach past your front door and into your home. It’s sonic spam.

The only thing that makes the intrusion acceptable is the ice cream truck’s iconic ancestor, which had some kindly old soul in the back scooping out cones of creamy goodness. But those guys don’t exist any more, and haven’t for generations. Most of the stuff today’s trucks sell is some mixture of milk solids, sugar, processed fat and the chemical industry’s equivalent to eye of newt, all carefully focus tested and packaged to push a kid’s buttons.

It’s one more challenge than parents should have to deal with. And while it’s easy to say we ought to just be able to say no to our kids, Big Junk is making us do that a dozen times a day already.

As reported in many quarters, including Mystery Pollster:

Last Sunday, Bush press secretary Tony Snow speculated about what polls might have shown during World War II: “If somebody had taken a poll in the Battle of the Bulge, I dare say people would have said, ‘Wow, my goodness, what are we doing here?.’”

The Bush administration is anxious to draw on American pride in the country’s victory some 60 years ago to bolster support for a war that, well, isn’t going all that well: “See,” they want to be able to say, “things looked bleak then and people were ready to quit, but it all worked out. Stick with us this time, and they’ll work out again.”

But anxiety isn’t the most productive emotion for a communicator, and lies at the heart of many disastrous PR decisions.

Like this one. As it turns out, somebody did take a poll during the Battle of the Bulge. And the results tell the opposite story from the one Snow was trying to sell:

In fact, there was a poll taken by Gallup from Dec. 31, 1944, to Jan. 4, 1945 — three years into that war and right in the middle of the bloody Battle of the Bulge, where U.S. casualties were estimated between 70,000 and 80,000. It found that 73 percent of Americans would refuse to make peace with Adolf Hitler if he offered it and that 86 percent of Americans thought there was no chance that we would lose the war in Europe.

There’s an old saw among lawyers preparing for a cross-examination: never ask a question if you don’t already know the answer. For public speakers, there’s a similar rule: never argue from a hypothetical situation unless you actually know it’s purely hypothetical. Otherwise, reality — as it has so often, and so tragically, in this war — will come back to haunt you.

MacFixIt has photographic documentation of a swollen battery issue. With prolonged use, the battery housing swells and separates, revealing a little gooey residue.

My theory: an owner who touches the battery discovers that it springs apart, and a small alien grabs onto their face, rams its ovipositor down their throat and lays its eggs in their abdomen. Two days later, the built-in iSight camera documents the emergence of the newborn alien via their sternum, and uses Airport Extreme to upload it automatically to YouTube. And thanks to Google AdSense, everyone comes out ahead.

They were saving it as a surprise for 10.5, but I guess the secret’s out now.

Greg at the Sinister Thoughts blog documents a jaw-dropping spurious attempt by Belinda Stronach to smear the NDP. In Question Period yesterday, she tried to argue that the party is somehow willing to compromise its principles on the rights of same-sex couples — because New Democrats voted with the government on an utterly unrelated issue.

Greg fires back:

Obviously, no has told her that the NDP is the only party that has same sex marriage as a party policy and will continue to support the rights of all Canadians, either straight or gay, to marry. If Belinda wants to know who the real threats to same sex marriage are, she should turn around. They are sitting behind her on the Liberal benches.

It was just one moment in a bizarre Question Period where the Grits used every question to take a backhanded swipe at the NDP instead of tackling the government (which, at least in theory, is the purpose of the Most Exciting Hour in Canadian Politics). It’s hard to avoid the impression this is still a party that feels entitled to run the country, and lashes out with incohate rage whenever they remember they don’t any more.

But what I’d like to know from Ms. Stronach is this: if voting with the Conservatives in support of tougher accountability rules that you actually agree with is such a betrayal of principles…

…then how much worse is it when you vote with the Conservatives to keep an environment minister you say you oppose in office?

And just how cynical do you have to be for your environment critic to acknowledge publicly that you’re keeping her in that job because you think she’s screwing up?

“We would rather leave Ms. Ambrose in place because she represents the total incompetence of the government,” said [Liberal environment critic John] Godfrey. “We would rather let that fruit ripen, if I may put it that way.”

It’s true that, had Canadians only applied the same standard, the Liberals would still be in power today. But turning incompetence into a job qualification? That’s not a platform I’d want to take to the voters when the next election rolls around.

The great Janice Bannister is holding her “So You Think You’re Funny” contest again, starting next week. It’s the second time running for the competition and, as it turns out, the second time in a row that I won’t be able to participate (teeth-gnash, teeth-gnash). But don’t let that stop you; it promises to be a lot of fun.

It runs June 21, 28, July 5, 12, and the finals on July 15th. At the Orange Room – show starts at 8:30 pm – details are at the link below. (note the times are screwed up on the poster and the site-the official time is 8:30 pm)

The contest is for anyone that wants to try stand-up comedy and for new comics that are looking to showcase their talents. Last year’s winner is currently busy working in the clubs so you never know where it could lead.

I am also looking for opening acts and headliners – so let me know if you are available.

Details here.

Social Signal is hiring a Web Production Manager:

WHO WE ARE: Social Signal puts the web to work for social change, helping organizations turn online communities into a powerful force for progress. And we’re looking for a web production manager who will organize our time, tasks and resources, keeping our projects moving smoothly to successful completion.

WHAT YOU’LL DO: You’ll be managing the big picture of producing complex web projects, with the authority and resources to make each project a success. You’ll be the linchpin of a team of four full-time staff and a larger family of subcontractors, coordinating with staff, suppliers and clients to ensure that tasks are completed on time and to the highest standards. You’ll also manage Social Signal’s staff schedules, booking everything from pitch meetings to speaking engagements. That will occupy most of your time – but you’ll also get to draft blog posts, research new web tools and help us introduce Social Signal to potential new clients.

Read on…