June 24, 2008
I’ve been trading in and out of BCE over the past few months to make some money, just enough to buy some furniture here and there.
But I’m now out and done. Mostly because I don’t really know where the story is going to go from here, and in the summer i stop mucking about with stocks, because I’m usually at the beach. But for Insight into whether BCE and the LBO/Banks can make a deal here Mark McQueen over at Wellington Financial has been following every painful twist and turn of the OTPP/BCE deal.
Today, Mark wrote a post that if there was an award for best post on a financial subject I’m pretty sure would win him the prize. Its direct and to the point. And by far the best analysis I’ve seen on the subject, I think anyone with an interest in the BCE saga should read it. Well done Mark!
[as a full disclosure: i no longer own BCE directly, but may in some mutual funds. And come on would you take any of my investment advice? ;)]
No Comments » | 
Business, Technology, mattroberts | Tagged: BCE, Canada, Mark McGuire, matt roberts, mattroberts, OTPP, wellington financial | 
Permalink
Posted by mattroberts
April 3, 2008
It is getting to be that I have an event to goto here in Ottawa every weeknight!
The Ottawa Wireless Cluster is hosting Nick Quain President and co-founder of CellWand. CellWand is best known for their #TAXI service on mobile phones, but they have also developed other services that include #pizza which is due to launch this year.
Should be interesting to hear his experiences about partnering with the Carrier.
Here are the obligatory Details:
Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008
Location: bitHeads Office
1309 Carling Avenue, Ottawa
(East Side of Westgate Mall, beside the Blockbuster Video Store)
Time: 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
2 Comments | 
#TAXI, #pizza, 5905679, Events, Nick Quain, Ottawa Wireless Cluster | Tagged: #pizza, #TAXI, CellWand, matt roberts, mattroberts, Ottawa Wireless Cluster | 
Permalink
Posted by mattroberts
March 14, 2008
So I”m about to start renting a new apartment down in Westboro (a nice little neighbourhood in Ottawa).
Beyond the excitement of a change in venue and a nice area to hangout in… I have a dilemma, I don’t really watch TV anymore, except for hockey and the occasional whatever’s on. But i do enjoy HD - So my question is on OTA (Over The Air), I know high definition is available for free in Ottawa from CBC, but I’m also hoping to complete a hat-trick of CTV and Global in HD at the same time. Does anyone know if they’re broadcasting here yet?
Also does anyone know of any good antennasIi should be looking at? I’m not expecting to pickup the US stations or PBS but that would a great bonus. 
3 Comments | 
matt roberts | Tagged: mattroberts, matt roberts, OTA HD, Over the Air, HIgh Definition, Television, ottawa, cbc, ctv, global | 
Permalink
Posted by mattroberts
March 14, 2008
Over at JohnnyVoIP we’re looking for people to help us develop one of our new services, JohnnyCaller.
JohnnyCaller is a new service provided by JohnnyVoIP that allows any website and phone to connect with ease! We enable a link on YOUR website that allows your users to call you directly, without leaving your website. Make it easy for your users to contact you at the same time keeping your phone number private.
If your interested in helping us out you can check out our site for more details.
No Comments » | johnnyvoip | Tagged: johnnycaller, johnnyvoip, matt roberts, mattroberts, telephony, voip, web | Permalink
Posted by mattroberts
March 12, 2008
One of things I do before an Ottawa DemoCamp is checkout the sites and products of the presenting companies. While I could do this at the camp I always find it better to watch the presenter and get a feel for what they find cool about their site. I generally don’t comment on the blog here beforehand. (well boo to rules)
On the list of companies I was looking forward to seeing (beyond Aydins new website) is LoyaltyMatch.com
LoyaltyMatch is essentially a loyalty points swapping site. Think a mix of ebay and points.com which is pretty cool idea.
Matt Walcorf from Kitchener Record, has a better way of explaining the transaction process and idea:
It works this way: Say Dick wants an iPod Shuffle for $50. An alert appears on the user pages of anyone who has enough points or miles in a rewards plan to buy the iPod.
One of those people, Jane, agrees to cash in 15,000 Aeroplan miles in exchange for Dick’s $50. Jane then either asks Aeroplan to send an iPod to Dick’s house or has the device shipped to her and sends it to Dick herself.
Everyone wins: Dick gets an iPod, Jane gets cash, LoyaltyMatch gets a $1.99 fee from each party and Air Canada gets to remove the cash value of the points from the liabilities on its balance sheet, Ball explains.
Aeroplan is not involved in the process. The system depends on users to be honest about how many points they have and to fulfil their obligations to each other.
Mike Ball their CTO just pinged me to let me know that they’re in the running to win a slot to pitch at the AlwaysOn (Vator.tv) Venture Summit - East 2008 Competition in Boston on April 8th. Mikes looking for some help getting the from their current second place standing to first (and thus to Boston). So Click on this link and spend two minutes signing up to help a Canadian web 2.0 startup go get some attention from our American cousins down south 
3 Comments | ebay, loyaltymatch.com, matt roberts, mattroberts, points.com | Tagged: aeroplan, AlwaysOn Venture Summit, democampottawa8, loyalty points, loyaltymatch.com, matt roberts, matt walcorf, mattroberts, mike ball, Vator.tv | Permalink
Posted by mattroberts
