Profile of John Gushue

Biography

John Gushue takes a tour through the Internet with the Surf's Up column each Thursday. He is a former editor and political columnist with The Telegram , and is now a news writer for CBC.ca in St. John's. Read past Surf's Up columns (and much more) at his blog: johngushue.typepad.com .

All articles of John Gushue

• Take a number
  Surf's up - The first time I read about WolframAlpha (and the second, fourth and many other times), it was described like Google, or at least ...
• Exercise demons and couch potatoes
  Surf's up - Put up your feet ... or get up on them. Do you want to kick back, or kick it? Your weekly web tour has something for all lifestyles, ...
• Its all fun and games
  I have nothing serious for you this week. After a steady diet of sobering (and sometimes depressing) news, I'm as game as anyone for, well, some ...
• Lost art: discovering things in a digital age
  J.J. Abrams, the writer, producer and director, is one of the people behind the TV series "Lost." He's also the director of the new Star Trek ...
• From pandemics to pop music
  I sometimes like to think our lives are compartmentalized, that our moments are in little segments, distinct from one another. This week, though, ...
• A Blip on your musical horizon
  Surf's up - When I was a kid, I had a transistor radio in my room that was on pretty much all the time. For good or bad, I established a habit, ...
• Like bikes? A site that will map out your future
  Surf's up - A treasure for cyclists looking to broaden their travel plans, a too-cool tool for photograph users, a way for fans of the Bone ...
• Saving Face(book): How a dominant site screwed up
  Surf's up - Facebook sparked a real uproar this winter when, briefly, it changed its terms of reference and added language vague enough to imply ...
• Airtime, schmairtime
  Surf's up - I've had a few conversations and read plenty of comments over the last couple of weeks about the fuss that the Fox talk show "Red ...
• Rooms with views, words with clues
  Surf's up - Get your scissors; time to clip a column with some sites to amuse, inform and tickle ... although, I'm guessing, not all at the same ...
• Sharing the shock: why we turned online to express...
  Surf's up - When Ed Sutton, the Roman Catholic priest who celebrated the funeral mass for Allison Maher, was preparing earlier this week for the ...
• A zing of a solution for video and audio
  Surf's up - Search engines (and for most people, that simply means "Google") are fantastic tools. But even Google has its limits on what it can ...
• Cheeky cheer: greetings that are deliciously sour
  Surf's up - Ever wanted to send someone a little note to cheer them up, but without having to pick anything cringeworthy? We have just the thing, ...
• Twitter and the tipping point
  Surf's up - In November, when Barack Obama was elected U.S. president, there was an explosion of activity on Twitter, the social networking site. ...
• Shopping mauled: You'd never know there's a crisis
  Surf's up - There might be an economic meltdown enveloping the Earth, but you might not be aware of that, if you're the type of person who spends ...
• Reel in your movie collection
  Surf's up - Just short of 20 years ago, a friend of mine gave me a bit of software that seemed like a marvelous idea. A tool that would allow me ...
• Fast ways to rid yourself of the February blahs
  Surf's up - The snowstorm last Sunday was just the reminder I needed that February can really bring you down. The month was barely a few hours ...
• Snobs, swabs and exit strategies
  Surf's up - We keep a stiff upper lip while sniffing our Pinot, then get our fingers dirty in the kitchen sink, as we help the kids learn a thing ...
• Our heads in the clouds: a new web future, again?
  Surf's up - I've been reading a lot lately about the future of the cloud - and it doesn't have anything to do with the weather. "The cloud" has ...
• Park your videos in a virtual locker
  Surf's up - We start this week's column with some sites that may help travellers - one for dreamers, another for shutterbugs on the move - and ...
• Hopscotch and the Blu-Ray dilemma
  Surf's up - A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was pondering whether to make the Blu-Ray jump. Christmas was coming, prices were dropping and the ...
• Dead sites, thrown shoes and other odds and ends
  On Sunday, when I saw video of an Iraqi journalist flinging his shoes at George W. Bush, the first thing I thought about was security. Namely, ...
• Christmas fun, for elves of all ages
  You don't have to a kid to enjoy Christmas, but it probably helps. This week, we get in the spirit of the season, with a bunch of websites that ...
• Bits of help for the struggling crossword fan
  Surf's up - I'm sure it's heresy for dedicated crossword fans, but our weekly web tour includes a site that will help fill in the missing blanks. ...
• Facing up to Facebook, for young and old
  Surf's up - If Facebook were a human being, it would have Velcro on its shoes. The social networking platform celebrates only its fifth birthday ...
• White House, no BlackBerry: Obama losing his tech edge
  Surf's up - The BlackBerry may be a marvelous tool, but it can be a marvelous distraction, too, and a spark for friction and the odd faux pas. If ...
• A newsstand in your pocket
  The economy may be collapsing upon itself, but the business in smartphones seems to be steaming away. In fact, the numbers on the trade continue ...
• Keep your eye on all the angles
  A game that simultaneously puts your eyes and math knowledge to the test leads off this week's web walk, with stops by some unorthodox ...
• Declutter your life and streamline your world
  You know your young and foolish years are far behind you when you realize you're spending your leisure time at the hardware store, checking out ...
• Sites for the spooky season
  Orange and black have taken their annual pride of place, families are stocking up for trick-or-treaters, and kids are giddy about the one time of ...