It’s interesting to see what happens when someone who has a grasp of the capability of technology today, is also the person who can best make use of it.

When Munroe took over as chief two years ago, his department was drowning in crime and data. Police had a mass of data from 911 calls and crime reports; what they didn’t have was a way to connect the dots and see a pattern of behaviour.

Using some sophisticated software and hardware they started overlaying crime reports with other data, such as weather, traffic, sports events and paydays for large employers. The data was analyzed three times a day and something interesting emerged: Robberies spiked on paydays near cheque cashing storefronts in specific neighbourhoods. Other clusters also became apparent, and pretty soon police were deploying resources in advance and predicting where crime was most likely to occur.

Link - via CBC

Posted: August 10th, 2007 under news.
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Ontario turns out the lights on inefficient bulbs

I’ve been waiting for this since Australia did the same in February.

However, some predictions:

• people will be hoarding these suckers for years
• dump any stock the day before the ban goes into effect
• there will be a black market for these bulbs, with bootleggers running the borders between Ontario and Quebec, Manitoba and the US
• children all over the province will mourn the loss of their easy bake ovens

Posted: June 6th, 2007 under news.
Comments: none