Canadian Startup eBounties Launches, Makes Getting What You Want Easier

July 10, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Unlike Craigslist or Kijiji, eBounties puts the buyers in charge.

While the Internet is full of sellers trying to dispose of their merchandises and prize possessions, buyers end up searching through pages and pages attempting to locate what they want. How is anyone supposed to find that needle with all those haystacks? Well, eBounties puts the onus on the public to get you what you want and offers a reward or a bounty as an incentive.

Ebounties is a free service, but pre-approved payment through PayPal is needed to confirm that the money is available when someone finds what you are looking for. The user will only pay for results.

Last week, Toronto-based eBounties launched in Canada, as well as the US, the UK, and Australia. Allowing users to tap into the collective knowledge of the crowd, the possibilities are endless. Scavenger hunting is a realistic job. Users browsing will not only help someone find a rare collectable or help a company find a suitable employee, they will also be making a little spending money.

Users can claim a bounty in a couple of ways. The first is by providing the exact knowledge, service, item or connection that a buyer is seeking; the second way is by connecting the buyer with someone else who has those knowledge, items or etc.

“If the average person knows just 300 people,” says Luke Chao, founder and CEO, “100 people know 30,000. You absolutely need crowdsourcing to find a person (or an item, or information) that is rare.”

Headhunters, matchmakers, antique dealers and other traffickers of privileged information and connections garner a lot of money, yet they don’t have any special requirement. Ebounties is hoping to start a revolution, one that allows anybody with informative knowledge or highly touted items to make money.

Google searches don’t always yield the information we want, so the Canadian startup encourages users to be creative. One user offered a $15 bounty to anyone who can find a local nut-free Chinese restaurant, while a Toronto-based hypnosis centre offered $75 to anyone who can bring in new clients.

A Tofu Review: The Eatery – Modern Sushi in Vancouver, B.C.

July 10, 2013July 10, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Formerly published in TofuMag.com.

Published on April 26th, 2013 | by Elliot Chan

Modern artist Andy Warhol was famous for his paintings of Campbell’s soup cans and distorted celebrity photographs, so if he was to open a sushi restaurant one can only imagine that it would mirror the flare of The Eatery in Vancouver. Contrary to the traditional vibe and décor, The Eatery lacks the usual paper walls, wooden panels and thin cushions of an authentic Japanese restaurant, instead it has papier-mâché monsters hanging from the ceiling, glow in the dark figurines standing sentinel on elevated shelves and Astroboy portraits on any remaining surfaces.

Initially the restaurant’s atmosphere rushes you, like entering a nightclub after a couple hours of pre-drinking, but then you take a moment and adjust to the candlelight illuminating from the Dad’s Root Beer bottles and listen the audio melding of jovial conversations and boisterous music. Suddenly, you are ready for anything — but you are here for sushi.

For all those indecisive folks who read menus like textbooks, The Eatery is a dining experience that you shouldn’t study for. Don’t try and cram, the more you evaluate each selection the more disheveled you’ll become. Deep breath. Ignore the fact that you are ordering food, look at the artwork the menu offers and embrace the possibilities. After all, with names like ‘erotica roll’, ‘drunken monkey roll’ and ‘x-rated roll’, how can you go wrong?

Two special rolls lured me. One was the ‘crazy-spice roll’, because whenever something claims to be crazy — I’m intrigued. The next was the ‘Godzilla roll’, my strange childhood obsession with the Tokyo destroying monster had followed me to adulthood and now it is controlling the food I eat. Go figure.

Over the years of eating sushi, I’ve learned to strategize my meal accordingly. If I take a bite from a piece with an overwhelming taste, I follow it up with one that is subtler. Coincidently, the ‘crazy’ and ‘Godzilla’ paired nicely. While the ‘crazy’ supplied the gentle singe of any good spicy tuna and salmon, ‘Godzilla’ followed up with the gentle cleansing of crab, avocado and unagi eel. It seems a little contradictory that ‘crazy-spice roll’ was the one causing havoc and ‘Godzilla roll’ was the one to sooth the palette. But I guess in the funky dimension where The Eatery’s artistic chefs craft their work — the plate as a canvas — sculpting with rice, painting with sauce and slicing each piece into a mosaic, there is no boundary for creativity. Each meal evokes a story, but do I dare say it leads to a happy ending?

The classic model for Japanese desserts is usually mango and green tea ice cream. Although sometimes you might have a laugh misleading sushi-novices to believe a spoon of wasabi is ice cream, after time the novel prank wears off. Time for something new. Instead of staying culturally conservative, The Eatery branches off when it comes to sweets. Such simple carnival delights like deep fried Mars bars and root beer floats are available as well as more exotic selections. Dreaming of summer, I chose a showstopper in a steel martini glass, ‘Caribbean Fantasy’. Here’s a phrase to remember, bananas sautéed in rum and brown sugar. If ice cream is sunshine for the taste bud, the ‘Carribbean Fantasy’ might as well be a supernova. There is a lot happening for such a small serving. Individually, the saccharine flavour is too much to handle, but with the neutralizing effects of vanilla ice cream, suddenly the dessert is gone – black hole.

Sushi always had a futuristic aura, but now it has entered a post-modern phase. It has gone to a place where it no longer needs to be associated with serving plates shaped like boats or bento boxes. In this brave new world, sushi is the pizza, burger and burrito. In Vancouver where so many restaurant march to the same beat of knife to cutting board and Hobart machines, it is refreshing to know that there is a place breaking the mold. Warhol would be proud; then again, he might just say it was The Eatery’s 15 minute of fame.

The Eatery is located at 3431 West Broadway, Vancouver BC.

For more information visit their website at http://theeatery.ca.

Vancouver’s Fatigue Science Develops New Technology to Help Sleep

July 10, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Sleep: we spend a third of our lives doing it—or at least we should.

In our stressful 24/7 world with deadlines and overtime, sleep deprivation is a common problem for many people. Whether you are a student or a professional athlete, society demands us to function at our best and Fatigue Science knows that in order to give our top performance we must be well rested and fully charged.

In 2007, Vancouver-based Fatigue Science was founded with the goal of creating a more effective world by applying science and technology to assist sleep, optimize performance, reduce risk and improve lives.

Fatigue Science understands that scheduling for sleep is not always as simple as closing your eyes. “Studies show that in the United States, 30% of adults sleep less than 6 hours per night,” FatigueScience.com states, “and 65% of adults have sleep problems at least a few nights a week.”

The new ReadiBand technology is hoping that informative personal data will reduce the risk and improve the quality of sleep. The wrist worn device was first developed in part by the US Military, where functioning through fatigue is a fact of life. Now government professionals use ReadiBand, as well as corporations around the world and even professional sports teams such as the Vancouver Canucks.

The ReadiBand measures day-to-day sleep quality, quantity and timing. The sleek black wristwatch measures and analyzes the wrist movements to distinguish sleep/wake patterns. Data shows that this virtual sleep assessment has 93% accuracy, the same as a sleep lab polysomnography. Statistics gathered from the ReadiBand can then be processed through a patented and validated computer model to evaluate fatigue risk levels.

Busy work schedules are important, but the body clock is not something we can ignore. Fatigue does not only affect workplace performance. Lack of sleep is dangerous in all areas of life. In the last five years, according to the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, 21 per cent of motor vehicle collisions have been the cause of fatigue. The result is about 400 deaths and 2,100 serious injuries every year.

To avoid these critical accidents, Fatigue Science also developed a tool to help employers and employees chart their schedules. FAST, or the Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool, is a software application which calculates fatigue risk, reaction time and other variables to help people properly schedule their work and sleep during a course of a week.

Most adults require seven to nine hours of sleep to have a fully effective day. To most of us that sounds like a luxury, but sleep should be a requirement—a responsibility. Too often, we sacrifice rest to fit more activities into our day and adjust our sleep pattern on the fly.

Fatigue Science shows that many people are poor at judging and managing their alertness level. Too little or too much sleep can attribute to a less than healthy lifestyle. With the help of Dr. Steve Hursh, who has 23 years of experience at the Pentagon, Fatigue Science created a model by comparing fatigue to blood alcohol content.

Gym memberships, organic diets and now Fatigue Science; there will always be new advancement to healthy living. But as long as we find the balance between work and rest, we can mitigate weariness and continue fulfilling our responsibilities and doing the activities we love to our full capacity.

BlackBerry Founder Mike Lazaridis Supports BBM’s Move to iOS and Android

July 10, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Will iOS and Android users respond to the BlackBerry Messenger applaunching for iPhones and Androids this summer? Mike Lazaridis, founder and former vice chairman of BlackBerry believes they will.

“BBM is by far the most compelling wireless experience and wireless social-networking environment,” Lazaridis said at the Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit in Toronto last week. After stepping down as executive and co-chairman of BlackBerry in 2012 and leaving the board in March, Lazardis feels his successors are taking the company in the right direction.

“What he’s [BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins] doing now is really speaking to the confidence he has in the platform, the products,” said Lazardis. “Not only is BlackBerry back in a big way with BB10, he has also shown that he can expand that vision to other platforms.”

Sixty million BlackBerry customers are currently using the free BBM service and rely on it daily. While some consider the transition inevitable, others consider the risk of BlackBerry losing control of their most valuable services. Profit has still yet to be determined, but with new BBM channels with chat rooms focused on specific topics and themes, many advertisers may seek the company for sponsoring opportunities.

It has been awhile since BlackBerry has fallen from the smartphone pedestal. If it wasn’t for companies and government agencies’ reliance on the existing BBM service, survival may not have been possible. Now as BlackBerry dust itself off and return for glory, will costumers support their comeback? BBM has a daunting mountain to climb to regain relevance, competing with other instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, iMessenger, Facebook Messenger, Google+ and many more cross-platform messengers.

Since WhatsApp has over 200 million active users and iMessanger with over 140 million, BlackBerry will have to do more than simply avoid extinction to get noticed. But still, Lazardis believes that the unique BBM experience will win over the public. BBM has many positive attributes and their loyal costumers can tell iPhone and Android users all about BBM Group and the messenger’s immediacy, with almost half of all messages read within 20 seconds of being sent.

RELATED: BlackBerry Unveils the Q5

BBM’s move to other platforms may be their return to the top of the smartphone rankings or it may be their initiative for their own demise. By making BBM available for all platforms, current BlackBerry users may just take this convenient opportunity to transition as well.

WHAT IS THAT IN VANCITY: THE FIRST NARROWS “LIONS GATE” BRIDGE

July 8, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Formerly published in MeetVanCity.com.

Tuesday April 9, 2013

Branching out of Stanley Park, stretching across the Burrard Inlet and linking to the
North Shore, The First Narrows Bridge is arguably the most scenic route commuters
can take in Metro Vancouver.

Construction began in 1937 to accommodate with the city’s growth. But having the
structure in such a prime location caused many concerns. Some thought it would
create an uncontrollable flow of traffic through the park, thus urbanizing the natural
environment. Others were worried about the activities on the water, resulting in
problems on the ports located all along the coast of the inlet. Adapting to the bridge
took some time, but now, it has become more than a simple means of transportation.
The First Narrow Bridge and the view it offers are attractions for all visitors and
those in transit.

As popularity grew, the bridge took on a new name and a new image. The Lions Gate
Bridge refers to the entry point of the Lions, a pair of mountain peaks located in
North Vancouver. The bridge is now a symbol of beauty and pride, a collaboration of
modern day engineering and natural landscape.

Today, over 60,000 vehicles cross The First Narrow Bridge daily. The three lanes
separating traffic are reversible, and during rush hour the middle one swaps in
order to manage the different traffic patterns. On a nice day, bikers and pedestrians
may choose to cross the bridge and enjoy the viewpoints on the decks located at
each support tower.

At night when the chaos of a day is over, the cables suspending the bridge
illuminates and changes colours. The Guinness family donated this decorative
innovation to the city in 1986. Since then, BC Hydro has transitioned to LED lights.
Although the bridge has gone through many changes since its resurrection, few
things have not—it still brightens a city that never ceases to shine.

Don’t get disconnected

July 8, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Alternative means of communication should be mandatory

Formerly published in The Other Press. Apr. 16 2013

By Elliot Chan, Staff Writer

Admit it: you’re an important person. People rely on you, and it doesn’t matter if your cellphone is out of battery power or if you’re out of town—they still need to contact you. Technology is so accessible now that it would be ridiculous to not embrace it.

Some worry that social networks may become an addiction and a waste of time, but the truth is, if you’re a procrastinator, you’ll have more than Facebook and Twitter to contend with. Distractions come in all forms, and to blame it on one thing is a lie.

Like everyone else, I too was initially reluctant to join an online community linking me to all my friends, colleagues, classmates, and even reproachable family members, but it’s a simple way of keeping them in my life. You might not share their love of cats or inspirational quotes, and they might not care about your vacation pictures or status updates—but that’s not the point. The point is that you know they are there, and vice versa.

If a cellphone is your only lifeline to the world, then you might end up a castaway. News travels fast. If you only get social updates from word of mouth, then odds are it’s already old news. Very few social engagements are arranged face-to-face or even over the phone. Usually there is one person organizing the event, which is a strenuous job in itself, but inviting people is often even more troublesome. Simply being present makes their job a lot easier. If you want to be properly invited, then allow yourself the opportunity. That way, no feelings will be hurt.

Privacy is a problem we all deal with in social media. You don’t want your employers seeing your party pictures, and you don’t want disdainful individuals creeping your page. These are circumstances we all have to face alone. The same way you wouldn’t leave your front door open for intruders, you also shouldn’t leave your Facebook accessible to just anyone. We’re all on different levels of security, so it’s important to recognize the unsavoury ones.

In the same way that foregoing insurance is irresponsible, dismissing forms of communication is inconsiderate of yourself and others, whether they depend on you to show up for a coffee date or to meet a deadline. Technology is good. It’s the new generation, and though I might be preaching to the choir, I would also like to suggest that it’s important to teach these means of communication to the elderly. It might seem horrid seeing our parents on the Internet, browsing through our Twitter and reading our blogs, but hey, why should we hoard a good thing? They fill out census forms and they pay their taxes, so why shouldn’t they be reachable to the wider world? After all, your home makes you a resident of your community, your job makes you a member of an organization, and your online presence makes you a citizen of the technological world.

Canadian Startup Enginuity is a Social Search Engine That Requires a Membership

July 8, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Enginuity Search Media is Durham, Ontario resident Daniel Gardiner’s brainchild.

His objective is to create a new search engine that ranks search results based on social shares. By connecting links from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, Enginuity allows people to measure usefulness of links more effectively. After each search, a bar will appear beside the results showing the traction it has with social sites.

Liking posts and sharing contents has become a popular trend in online media and Gardiner recognizes the benefits. “We’re very picky on what we share, so I think that really counts,” Gardiner said in an interview with DurhamRegion.com. “It shows someone really valued that information versus something that’s gotten no shares at all.”

Enginuity also offers a more advance search review by allowing viewers to separate basic searches into categories. Unlike common search engines such as Google or Bing, Enginuity requires a membership.

There is no fee to use the search engine; however, a premium member will have additional perks. These additions include viral searching, where users can track trending content through social sharing, as well as social commentary rating for an insight on the public’s thought about any given search result. Premium membership is $11 per month. A free trial is available.

Gardiner, CEO of Enginuity Search Media is a software engineer with 12 years of experience behind him. He understands that marketing is changing and in order for growing companies to get recognition they must be aware of trending and trendy content.

By keeping pace with what is current and viral, businesses can target advertisements more effectively. Enginuity is hoping to help that process by eliminating the filler from searches and focusing on the most popular results.

Former BlackBerry Executive Frenny Bawa Joins Vancouver’s Nanotech Security

July 8, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Nanotech Security, based out of Simon Fraser University, is welcoming back an alumnus to join the team for anti-counterfeit technology KolourOptiks.

Frenny Bawa, who earned a bachelor’s degree from SFU and an MBA from McGill University, has over 25 years of experience in the business. Most recently she served as the vice-president and managing director of BlackBerry. Bawa was also responsible for expanding BlackBerry’s global distribution channels as well as the operation in India but quit in 2011 to “pursure other interests.” Currently, Bawa is currently serving on the British Columbia Jobs and Investment Board, the Dean’s External Advisory Board of the Beedie School of Business, SFU’s Foundation Board, and the India Advisory Council.

Recognized by Forbes as one of India’s most powerful women in business, Bawa will now be leading Nanotech as their chief commercial officer. Nanotech executives expect nothing less of her after seeing her achieving a 300% growth for BlackBerry in India.

“Nanotech has started to move into the commercialization phase of its business,” says Doug Blakeway, CEO of Nanotech, “so it was critical for us to attract someone with a track record of establishing and executing on aggressive growth plans. Frenny has been successful in extremely competitive industries, in both startups and large technology corporations, and throughout her career she has developed effective strategies and built lasting partnerships that produce exceptional results.”

Nanotech’s new development, KolourOptiks, is a state-of-the-art authenticity identification feature. Using vibrant colours and seemingly animated images, observers can effortlessly identify products affixed or marked with this new technology. KolourOptiks can be imprinted onto any surface allowing unlimited possibility for authentication and security. From currency to concert tickets, Nanotech is aiming to globalize their product and Bawa is all-aboard.

“Nanotech Security’s KolourOptiks is unlike anything now available in the market,” says Bawa, “and Nanotech shows tremendous potential in an industry that constantly seeks new solutions for enhanced security. I am thrilled to be a part of the team and to have an opportunity to grow the company.”

Yahoo Introduces New Flickr Experience with Free Terabyte of Space for 500,000 High-res Photos

July 8, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

A picture is worth a thousand words and nobody knows that fact better than Flickr. The image and video hosting website is now offering users one terabyte of free space—that is over 500,000 original, full-resolution, pixel-perfect photographs. Flickr users can now capture every image, relive moments, and share artistic expressions without any worries about storage space.

The new Flickr desktop design also enhances the photo viewing experience. By eliminating some white space, the fresh display offers more room for pictures. A photostream with an endless scrolling gallery makes exploring images faster and easier. And for the truly stunning photographs, a new slideshow feature will exhibit the most spectacular Flickr photos in full-screen from and for users all around the world.

“With smartphones in our pockets at all times, we’re all photographers on a daily basis,” writes Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on Yahoo’s Tumblr.

Flickr wants to embrace the freedom by launching the new version of a familiar app for Android and tablet users. Resembling the iPhone app that came out in December, the one for Android will maintain quality of the original image. Every picture taken, edited, shared or viewed on an Android or tablet will look its best, according to Mayer. The app is available in the Google Play store and is offered in 10 languages worldwide.

“We hope you’ll agree that we have made huge strides to make Flickr awesome again,” concludes Mayer.

Before you go

July 8, 2013 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Formerly published in The Other Press. Apr. 16 2013

The preparation and apprehension of travelling

By Elliot Chan, Staff Writer

So you’ve decided to trade in the comforts of home for the adventurous world abroad. Good choice, but there is more to travelling than just hopping into a car or stepping onto an airplane. Sometimes we get so focused on the beaches, foods, and activities we forget that we are not entering a big playground; we are entering someone’s home, natural habitats, and a different functioning society. These are important things to take into consideration before you depart.

While some friends would look at you with envy, others will eye you with trepidation, worried that you might not return. You can spin a globe around as long as you want and never land on a perfect country. Every place has their own unique problems, whether it is poverty, political disputes, natural disasters, or all of the above. It is true we are fortunate to be living where we are, but bad things can happen anywhere at any time. Despite this, it is important we make choices that sustain personal growth. I remember a conversation I had with an older man on a connecting flight in Salt Lake City. I asked him where he was going and he said, “Atlanta, Georgia to visit my family.” Then he asked me the same question and I replied, “Quito, Ecuador, to check it out.” “Check it out? You don’t just go some place to check it out!” He seemed outraged by my response, as if I had irresponsibly booked a flight to the moon. The old man’s disapproval stayed with me for a while, but he was wrong… life is all about checking stuff out.

Now that you have your passport renewed, required visas, vaccinations, traveller’s insurance, plane tickets, and packed bags there are few less tangible necessities that you should consider. Make sure you are physically healthy. I know you are a trooper, but believe me the smallest aggravation can ruin your long-awaited vacation. Any teeth, joint, or head pain should be properly assessed before departure. Your travel companions do not deserve to be your nurse for the length of the trip. And unless you are staying at an all-inclusive five-star hotel, try to get into reasonable shape. You won’t be running marathons, but sightseeing can be a strenuous activity.

Next, you must do some research about the culture. Wherever you end up going, understand that people don’t always agree on the same customs. Tourists often feel immune to the law and plea ignorance, but that is not right. Just imagine someone coming to your hometown and vandalizing your property because it was okay where they grew up. Odds are your bad habits will look bad in any country. Don’t spit, don’t cuss, and don’t fight.

Not all locals enjoy tourists waltzing around their city. Most will gladly help you, but keep in mind that they too have busy schedules. They don’t have all day listening to you fumble with words to communicate. Have a communication strategy if you don’t know the language. Bring a translator or a phrase book and attempt to learn. You might feel like an ignorant fool, but it is part of the process. Plus, you are not as good of a charades player as you think you are.

Boarding time is approaching, and you are anxiously anticipating the trip of a lifetime. Always be aware that the worst-case scenario is just right around the corner—but it probably isn’t, so have fun.