Canadian Startup Lazymeal Delivers Quality Meals to Your Door

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A good meal is worth every penny. A good meal delivered to your door, well, that might just be the jackpot.

Vancouver-based Lazymeal is aiming to improve your odds of enjoying quality food in the comforts of your own home or office. The innovative food ordering website allows normal everyday people the luxury of dinning in without the hassle of cooking.

With deadlines and responsibilities clouding our judgments, determining what we want to eat is an absolute challenge. Yet nourishment is essential. So, Lazymeal does the heavy lifting for us by researching the highest rated restaurants in your area and assisting in the process of selecting dishes and placing order. All we have to do is sit back and wait for the knock on the door or the chime of your novelty doorbell.

“We are not trying to have any kind of restaurant,” Shervin Enayati, a cofounder of Lazymeal, told Techvibes. “We want to maintain a balance between service and quality. Our requirement is that they have to have delivery. Without delivery it is not going to work. We find the best delivery restaurants in town, get their menu digitized for our platforms and from there you can just order.”

Only the best restaurants make it onto the website. Using Yelp and Urbanspoon ratings, the crew at Lazymeal handpicks the top restaurants in different cuisine. Greek, Thai, Japanese, the possibility is vast, yet the process is concise.

The idea for Lazymeal came in 2011 during a rainy day in Vancouver, go figure. When the weather conditions caused phone lines to go out of service and ordering food became almost impossible since most restaurants operate with landlines.

“There has to be a better, more efficient way,” thought Enayati. “We moved from building software for clients to building software for ourselves. We evaluated the market, realized what is missing in the current food ordering market. It was a market space that has already seen traction, it wasn’t one with zero activity, but we realized there was a lot of improvement left to be done in the food ordering experience.”

By incorporating pictures and statistics, Lazymeal offers a sophisticated approach to what was once considered a tedious task. Although food delivery services is not as popular as other metropolitan cities, Lazymeal believes that as the city continues to grow, food delivery will inevitably improve.

“If you go to a bigger city, like New York,” explains Ryan Charmley, lead technologist at Lazymeal, “delivery is so ingrained into daily life of people there. There are bicycle couriers delivering food everywhere and all these little boutique shops offering their own little delivery. It is a very convenient way to access food when you are busy.”

Lazymeal allows us to fit a delicious meal into a hectic schedule, even though delivery food is often accompanied by a slight stigma.

“It’s usually the traditional pizza or Chinese food,” notes Charmley, “there is no real movement. I’m hoping that everything moves in the same way as the food carts that have happened over the past few years. It’s been popularized and ingrained in everyday lifestyle.”

Perhaps this is the beginning of a dinning revolution or maybe it is just an alternative to the hustle and bustle of eating out. Either way, Lazymeal is hungry for change and they are leading the charge.

Canadian Companies Using the Cloud are More Innovative and Outperform Their Peers: Study

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This month, IDC released the second annual Enterprise Cloud Study. Focusing on large Canadian organizations’ businesses and IT leaders, the study showed that cloud technology is essential for businesses striving to improve their customer service, increase productivity and save money.

Companies who have adopted the cloud first mindset are 25% more likely to be opened to new technologies and are considered more innovative, progressive and better suited for outperforming their peers according to the study, which was commissioned by Telus.

“The survey indicates that the number one priority for Canadian businesses is improving customer service. IT leaders are realizing that moving IT functions to the cloud can have a real impact on their bottom line and can help them focus on their core business, including their customers,” says Tony Krueck, vice-president, Business Solutions Marketing at Telus. “Those who have made the move are now reaping the benefits of cloud. The IDC survey found that an impressive 81% of Canadian businesses reported lowering the cost of IT due to cloud adoption.”

Many IDC experts foresee cloud as being a conventional technology in the coming years, estimating in Canada, cloud service will increase by a third and surpass $1 billion by 2014. At this transitional juncture, IDC believes that businesses will only have a short amount of time to become knowledgeable and expand their strategy to include cloud. Otherwise they might not be able to keep up.

Currently 55% of large Canadian businesses have third-party hosting services with almost 31% of organizations with both cloud and hosting. Organizations that utilized these services are better equipped when overcoming data security, compliance and data residency concerns.

“If we look at the results from the 2012 Telus IDC cloud survey, the number one reason Canadian enterprises are fearful to step outside of their traditional IT comfort zone is risk,” says Mark Schrutt, IDC Canada’s director of services and enterprise applications. “The good news is that this year, the majority of users said they were able to easily overcome these challenges and that cloud actually was a catalyst for improving data security.”

A majority of Canadian businesses have relatable priorities: 23% said they wanted to provide better customer experience, 15% wanted to improve productivity, 13% wanted to be more cost efficient and 12% wanted to attract and retain skilled workers. By having a cloud first mentality companies are able to support these growing expectations by staying up to date with technology and functionality, by sourcing IT resources, skills and capabilities with greater ease and by allowing the business to be more agile.

“The future of cloud looks bright for Canadian business. The IDC white paper states that over the next four years cloud will grow by 25% and hosting by 9.6% compared to a growth rate of 3.5% for the rest of the Canadian IT market,” added Krueck. “Now is the time for businesses to develop expertise with these IT sourcing options to realize a competitive advantage.”

Canadian Videogame Industry Shows Great Presence at E3 Expo

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The spotlight was on Canada during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 Expo) this month in Los Angeles.

Canadian video game companies are turning a lot of heads on the world stage by showcasing some of the industries most anticipated and critically acclaimed titles, such as: Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag (Ubisoft), Batman: Arkham Origins (Warner Bros. Games Montreal), Below (Capybara Games/ Microsoft Studios), Dragon Age: Inquisition (Bioware / Electonic Arts), Gangstar Vegas (Gameloft), The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot (Ubisoft), NHL 2014 (Electronic Arts), FIFA 2014 (Electronic Arts), Splinter Cell: Blacklist (Ubisoft) and Watch Dogs (Ubisoft).

“When you look at the most anticipated games at the Expo, a significant portion of them are made in Canada,” saysJayson Hilchie, President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association Canada. “That’s a source of tremendous pride for all Canadians.”

SEE ALSO: The Great Canadian Videogame Industry

Currently 16,500 Canadians are employed in the video game industry. Despite some turmoil the employment rate is up 5% and is growing at a moderate pace. Through provincial strategies and housing some of the world’s most creative workers, Canadian gaming industry is contributing over $2.3 billion to the economy.

ESAC reports that Canadian gaming companies’ average budget is $8.7 million and is usually produced by a team of 65 people in about a year and a half. With 329 video game studios in the country, 48% devote some of their resources to console games, while 84% are focused mainly on mobile devices. Even though in 2012 only 16% of projects were developed specifically for consoles, those games account for 66.5% of revenues.

“With some of the world’s largest video game studios located in Canada,” said Hilchie, “our video game industry is considered the biggest in the world on a per capita basis. E3 is a great showcase not only for our biggest games, but for Canadian creativity as well.”

The Entertainment Software Association brings together developers, distributers and worldwide media to experience the newest trends, products and technologies at the annual video game conference and show. Over 200 developers display their games to the public at the three-day event. With such tight competition, Canadians are hoping that their strength and vitality will keep them at the forefront of this growing industry.

Beautiful women a hazard for male commuters

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june_crash

Traffic accidents increase due to the sexy summer fashion

Formerly published in The Other Press. June 4 2013

A satirical article, by Elliot Chan, Traffic Hazard

Summer is a beautiful time of year, unless you’re a male commuter. Research released early last week by The Men’s Automobile Limitation Experts (MALE) has confirmed that during the summer months, men are 32 per cent more likely to be involved in an automobile accident.

Dr. Carson Donovan, head researcher at MALE, explains the breakthrough discovery: “It’s not that men are bad drivers when it is sunny. They are still far superior,” he chuckles, “It’s just that beautiful women become a greater disturbance. They hide themselves in the winter, and then bam! Summer arrives. Imagine having a stripper pole at every intersection. I won’t give any change to dirty panhandlers, but I’ll drop a dollar for the honey leaving the petrol station. You know what I mean.”

“It is unbelievable how some chicks dress at bus stops,” Dr. Donovan adds with a wink and a masculine elbow nudge. “If we want to protect the safety of our male drivers, they should not be allowed to wear such revealing clothes—even on a sunny day. Sorry boys, but it’s safety first.”

Close behind driving under the influence and excessive speeding, attractive girls at bus stops are the main cause of male-related traffic accidents. Every minute a man across the province is getting injured due to a hot girl sighting.

Benjamin M. Williams, loving husband and a father of two girls, wants the government to make a change. “I am a man that worries about his family,” says Williams, “just the idea of other guys getting distracted by women on the street frightens me. I often drive my daughters to school and I would hate for anyone to get distracted and hit my 2001 Subaru. Beautiful girls should not be allowed to dress so provocatively.”

Dakota Patrice, executive and founder of the Mind Your Own Business, I’m Not A Helpless Woman Foundation had this to say: “Women don’t dress for men to notice them. We dress because we need to wear clothes. Men should just watch where they are going. What? We should wear sweaters when it’s 30 degrees out? We’d get all hot and sweaty.”

When asked to introduce a new dress-code bylaw for female transit users, the mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, replied, “Distraction is a natural part of driving. God knows how many times I’ve nearly ran into the car in front of me just because I was watching some dog poop. Stunning girls are just like pooping dogs; you can’t stop them.”

Malware in Canada Among Worst in World, Report Reveals

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Like plumbing, heating and electricity, your computer is an important utility in your home and office. You depend on it for entertainment, communication and business, so it is vital to keep it healthy. But as our reliance on the Internet grows, sophisticated hackers and cyber thieves begin to prosper in their flourishing trade.

Websense this week released their third annual Canadian Cybercrime Report Card. In the report, Canada was ranked third in the top 10 countries for hosting advanced malware. The spine-chilling statistic will cause any computer user to consider the problem less as an annoyance and more of an epidemic.

“Canadian cyber-criminal activity is quickly evolving and taking on more nefarious forms,” says Carl Leonard, senior manager of security research for Websense. “Hackers are moving away from the broad ‘spam everyone’ approach because it only yields cents on the click. They’ve set their sights on much more targeted attacks where social engineering of the actual user can turn into millions of dollars in potential criminal profit.”

Canadian websites have an increase of 25% of malware hosting every year. The cause can range from compromised Internet service providers to vulnerable content management platforms such as WordPress. Regardless, Canada has become a safe haven for hackers and cyber thieves.

“ISPs really, should take a responsibility to monitor for malicious behaviour. ISPs really need to make it harder for the bad guys,” Leonard said. “Legislation can certainly help in that regard. When the public and private sector work together … that would make it more of a challenge.”

Websites hosting malware tend to stay up longer in Canada than in other countries, because security software often fail to flag them or has difficulty pinpointing who is responsible for an attack. Investigations can take years before police are allowed to take the infected website down. By that time most cyber-criminals have abandoned their post and have moved on to another part of the Internet.

“Ultimately it comes down to communication across boundaries,” Leonard said. “There is a good deal of information circulating in law enforcement globally. I don’t believe all of that is shared.”

Canadian Companies Bell and Shaw Strike Partnerships with Twitter

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Last week, Shaw Media broke the news that they will be joining up with Twitter to co-sell advertising. Twitter is developing their new Amplify program for clients and users who want a unified process for advertising on television and on mobile devices also known as the “second screen.”

One day later, Bell Media also joined up with Twitter to focus on researching analytics initiatives relating to social media and television. Both Canadian broadcasters and the social media giant are trying to understand the social media habits of Canadian television viewers. The facts gathered will go the distance in helping to develop the all-new product known as social TV.

“We are committed to measuring, sharing and applying knowledge from passionate social conversations to help our advertisers’ brand campaigns become even more effective,” said Bell Media president Kevin Crull. “Our content drives engagement, and Twitter amplifies the conversation.”

The Twitter Amplify program allows media companies to offer video clips embedded in tweets, such as instant replays or behind the scene footages. These features are currently done along side sporting events and reality television such as Big Brother Canada.

“We’re tapping into a revenue stream that we currently don’t offer,” said Paul Burns, vice president of digital media at Shaw Communications. “We’re going to create this kind of social TV love child.”

The days of sitting on a couch and watching our favorite shows have changed. Neilsen reports confirm that 85% of mobile users watch TV on their tablet or smartphone once a week and 40% watch it daily.

“The way social and traditional TV media is bought and sold is fragmented,” said Burns. “The advertisers are looking for the connective tissue that makes delivering a brand message more connected.”

Twitter’s own analytics firm Bluefin Labs says that 95% of television conversations on social media occur on Twitter. After learning about actors and learning about shows and movies, shopping is the most popular activity on second screens according to last month’s research by NPD Group.

“Twitter is TV’s social soundtrack,” said Kirstine Stewart, who transitioned from CBC to the country director of Twitter Canada “Working closely with Bell Media, we will be able to accelerate the development of analytic tools mentioned and we look forward to sharing the findings with clients and industry.”

Social media, television and advertising are all changing and Twitter Amplified is embracing the evolution of entertainment and marketing. The concept is still in its primitive form and will continue its metamorphosis over months and years. For now the second screen experience is mostly only available for mobile and Web applications built by broadcasters. Only time will tell what this new concept can do with Twitter’s assistance.

Double dare

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DSCF2872

Summer sports you should do

Formerly published in The Other Press. May 8 2013.

By Elliot Chan, Staff Writer

As the snow on the mountains melts away, sporty individuals will now turn their sights on all summer has to offer. For those of us who have spent the winter months hibernating, it is time to shake off the rust and put the rest and training into effect. Now that the city has thawed, grab that bucket list and get to work.

Hiking: British Columbia is home to some of the best hiking trails in the world. From mountain ranges to seascape, we often forget how vast this province really is. Take a drive to the island and embark on the West Coast Trail, a 75-km backpacking route that takes you along the edge of the Pacific. Or challenge the Stawamus Chief, a short two-hour commitment that will lead you up to the peak of Squamish. If nothing more, then try to beat or set your best time on the Grouse Grind.

Whitewater rafting: A roller coaster ride that you can control. If you’re not yet ready to kayak down Hell’s Gate, but are sick of canoeing at Trout Lake then it’s time to see whether you’re made to sink or swim in the world of extreme water sports. All whitewater rafting sites offer different levels of rafting intensity, choosing between a motor-powered raft to a paddle one. If you need a reason to gather a group of friends and head on a road trip up to Whistler or Kumsheen Resort where the Fraser and Thompson rivers fork, let whitewater rafting be one of them.

Bungee jumping: If falling can be considered a sport, then I’m in pretty good shape. I took the dive at Whistler Bungee last year and never regretted it. If given the chance, I would be back on that bridge saying my prayers again. There’s something about taking a leap of faith that is simply unforgettable.

Mountain biking: Biking in any form is a great way to exercise. But why not bombard down a mountain, feeling each stone and root that juts from the earth? Navigating through nature and seeing the world pass you by from the handle bar is one of the most exhilarating things to do. BC is full of trails for all skill levels from beginners to championship-winning professionals. A quick search on the Internet can yield a hundred different paths to bike through.

From spur-of-the-moment adrenaline rushes to weeklong experiences, find opportunities to get outside this summer and try something new.

Vancouver Startup Medeo.ca Offers Virtual House Calls

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Visiting the doctor is often a hassle. Since the days of house calls, patients are forced to find time in their busy schedule, travel down to the physician’s office and wait in a crowded waiting room. Vancouver-based company Medeo.ca might just be the cure to that great inconvenience. The new online platform offers patients the ability to consult with their doctors through most computers and mobile devices.

British Columbians with valid Medical Services Plan coverage can use their computers, smartphones or tablets to speak face to face with their doctors. The secure video conferencing works the same way as a webcam and accessing the website only takes minutes. Once the user signs up with Medeo they will then speak with a coordinator who will assist them with appointment bookings and preparation, as well as connecting them with their current physician if they offer Medeo-based care.

After using Medeo.ca doctors can prescribe medication, refer a specialist and upload care plan information all from the website. New telehealth solutions have proven beneficial to all patients around the world. In 2012 a study done by the Canadian Institute for Health showed that one in three Canadians have problems when getting to a doctor appointment. Putting off a visit to the doctor can lead to dangerous results, but with Medeo.ca patients can have easier follow-up visits, disease management and access to specialists. All the while freeing up some space in the waiting room.

“Medeo.ca is helping British Columbians enjoy improved access to healthcare,” said Ryan Wilson, CEO of Medeo Corporation. “We have created a unique made-in-BC app that allows patients to connect with doctors throughout British Columbia through secure, online video conferencing.”

Currently Medeo has over 60 physicians taking part on the website. Medeo.ca might be an online service, but it still functions like any other clinic. Physicians are charged an overhead for using the virtual office space on Medeo. The website itself is not proving the health care; they are merely providing a safe, secure and convenient place for health care.

Doctors seeking improvement in health care accessibility founded Medeo. The online option will have many positive outcomes for the Canadian health care. As more and more people adapt this new way of seeing the doctor, emergency-room wait times will drop significantly as only those who need to be there will be there. While a visit to the emergency room can cost MSP anywhere around $700, an online visit will cost $40 at most. Virtual checkups will also greatly benefit those with chronic diseases who would need to see their doctors more frequently than others.

Security is a vital part of any patient and physician relationship, so Medeo makes certain that all confidential health data, patient records and medical information are safe in what they describe to be a “world class, military-grade, bank-level secure data centres.”

“Our information is housed in the same facility as the BC provincial government,” said Wilson.

Even though Medeo only had its launch on Monday June 3, it is already planning to expand to other provinces in Canada.

For now it doesn’t matter whether you live in rural British Columbia or in downtown Vancouver, convenience and efficiently are things we all appreciate. Although none of us want to see the doctor that often, sooner or later we are bound to get sick. A visit should not have to be a grand spectacle, we shouldn’t have to book days off or cancel plans—visiting the doctor should be as simple as chatting online with a friend.

 

Twitter ‘Amplifies All Technology,’ Wants to be Social Soundtrack for Television: Dick Costolo

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Twitter CEO Dick Costolo needed more than 140 characters on May 29 to discuss his coming of age product at the D11 conference. Since October 2010, Costolo had been at the helm for the online social networking service.

The University of Michigan graduate and improvisational comedian was only supposed to be a temporary CEO for Twitter, while his predecessor Evan Williams was on paternity leave, but the position soon became permanent.

Technology columnist Kara Swisher conducted the interview, approaching Costolo with a broad spectrum of questions most he happily answered. But he resisted the urge to discuss revenue with a little chuckle. “We don’t talk about it,” the humouring CEO smiled and when probed further he simply stated, “We don’t have to.”

Despite Costolo’s coy attitude, Twitter’s advertising profit is experiencing growth. From brand advertisers to director response advertisers, marketers are finding greater success promoting their products on Twitter than many other formats.

“Bonobos, the online men’s sportswear company, they saw 13x more effective ads deals with us than any other marketing span they had online,” Costolo said. “It’s called a flock to unlock, which is ‘a here’s a tweet about a particular clothing item we are launching, if you retweet this you get x-dollars off and you use this coupon to go redeem it.'”

“The beauty of promoted tweets,” added Costolo, “is that they go out originally as contents. They are just a tweet that goes out organically to company followers. And those things can be promoted to people who don’t follow them, either based on their interest or things they are following about.”

Over the years Twitter has been carefully constructing its niche in the large social media ecosystem. Sometimes hunter and sometimes prey, Twitter is in a constant battle to be the predominate alpha service against such competitors as Google and Facebook.

“The landscape of these relationships between companies always ebbs and flows,” the Twitter CEO noted. “There is going to be areas where we compete, obviously we compete for things like ad spend and large global marketers and a bunch of those companies. And there are areas where we cooperate.”

Although Costolo reiterated the importance of communicating with competitors, he remained diplomatic and steered clear of specific details. But for Twitter, there were many other complimentary companies they prefer discussing, such as Apple.

“We are integrated into iOS,” said Costolo. “We love working with those guys. I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again, I kind of think of Apple as a mentor company for us. We like the way they think of simplicity of design and the way they think of product elegance. Those are the things we try to drive into our own organization.”

When asked about the future of Twitter, Costolo described his experience by using a sport metaphor (something he wasn’t really good at as a kid). “I feel like I’m this wide receiver,” he said, “I’m trying to manage this business and I’m trying to create separation from the quarterback and the quarterback is trying to throw the pass. And I got to figure out how to catch the ball—and this person on the sideline is like, ‘Hey! What are you doing after the game?’” Costolo rolled his eyes, “and lets assume I stop and say, ‘I’m not thinking about that right now.’ They’ll go, ‘Pfft, sure!’”

IPO, banking and stocks are not what Costolo thinks about when he thinks about Twitter. Instead he is focused on connecting his product with other forms of media such as television.

Instant replays and tv show integrations are the next big things for Twitter and their CEO believes it.

“Over the past few years we’ve recognized that Twitter is the second screen for TV,” he said, “and TV is more fun with Twitter. Deb Roy, one of the founder of Blue Fin Labs and now our Chief Media Scientist likes to say, ‘Twitter is the social soundtrack for TV.'”

A lost cause: the proper post-traumatic reaction

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 Photo illustration by Joel McCarthy

Formerly published in The Other Press. May 8 2013

By Elliot Chan, Staff Writer

Tragedies affect people on many different levels. If we’re lucky, we observe crisis from the outside, as a third person. We see horrific footage and hear about disasters through newsfeeds, computer screens, and word of mouth. We might call ourselves lucky to live in a world where we can keep misfortune at arm’s length, but just because we’re fortunate for a moment, we mustn’t forget that tragedies of all sizes can affect the best of us at any time.

On April 15, the world-famous Boston Marathon was interrupted by an alleged terrorist strike. An explosion rattled the fences separating spectators from marathon runners. Horrified screams echoed across the city of Boston and were heard across the continent. While some sent condolences and sympathy for those affected, others coped with the event by minimizing its repercussions. Hours after the tragedy, social networking sites were flooded with appalled and appalling statuses. Sure, the explosion was not on the same scale as 9/11 or a day in the life in Somalia, but if we are to reduce human life to the number lost and gained, humanity will be as cold as the stock market.

Natural disasters, shootings, and terrorist attacks are all terrifying scenarios. To be caught in any of them would be an absolute nightmare for any person, no matter their nationality, ethnicity, or wealth. A death toll is not a competition. A loss is a loss, regardless of the trigger, and we shouldn’t belittle the experience of the victim. You don’t blame the innocent victim for a traffic accident; you blame the irresponsible driver. The drunk ones who swerve from lane to lane are at fault, and it would be wrong to put the onus on the victims. We all make snap decisions, and hindsight won’t save us. You too could be caught on the other end, staring down at a pair of headlights, and have it be too late. The same goes for the victims of any tragedy.

When an incident like the Boston Bombing happens again—and, by the looks of the current political tension, the intervals between conflicts may become shorter—we must remember that the innocent must stand together. Tragedy should create unity, instead of division through blame. Finger pointing is not the solution; it is the initial problem.

A perfect world is not a place without problems, but one where everyone works to solve the immediate issues.