A Few Thoughts for Thursday

Just a few things going through my mind on Thursday (aka Friday Eve).

I've been thinking about the economy, like no one else has that topic on their mind. Right now, we are inundated with bad news, it seems you can't turn on the TV or radio, or even read a newspaper without hearing of some dire news about something. Just recently the latest has been the threat given to the various levels of government by Chrysler Canada. The threat is a simple one, extract concessions from the Unions and promises from the governments or else they will simply close all the factories in Canada. The Unions are angry and the Ontario government is unimpressed. Peter Foster of the National Post suggests letting the Automotive Companies fail.

So what should happen to stimulate the economy? I mean conventional thinking, at least the thinking of today is for governments to throw gobs of money at the failing industries, such as the Automotive and the Banks. Personally I think if history has proved anything, it is that bailouts to the automotive industry has tended to be a good thing, for one they use the money well and second they pay back with interest. As for the banks, I've got a few ideas for them.

Jo-Anne suggests giving money to consumers instead of the banks. That way consumers can buy goods and services and stimulate the economy. A good idea but a few problems, the main one being inflation. Still it's a good thought.

Is it a good idea for government to stimulate the economy by adding money, or priming the pump if you will. It seems Keynesian economics is not in fashion, after years of neo-liberalism and monetarism. The central tenet of Keynesianism is:

he innovation in his core argument is to stop taking prices and wages as perfectly flexible, arguing instead for a certain degree of stickiness. Thanks to stickiness, it is established that the interaction of "aggregate demand" (in his sense) and "aggregate supply" (in his sense) may lead to stable unemployment equilibria. His work on employment went against the idea that the market ultimately settles at a state of full employment—a central tenet of Classical economists. Instead he argued that there exists a continuum of equilibria, the full employment equilibrium position being just one of them. (This idea underlies the choice of the title "General Theory": the classical theory being just a special case.)

So, is there another way, here's my suggestion. First of all, I think the government should incorporate a little bit of Chinese Justice. You might remember the Tainted Milk Scandal, I believe the end result was the shooting of a few managers and others in high management of the guilty corporations. Now imagine a few CEO's of the banks and investment companies being marched out to a wall on Wall Street and shot by a firing squad. You wouldn't have to do all of them, just a couple and I'm sure the credit markets would open instantly. Think of it as the "Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation" response. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy described them as:

A bunch of mindless jerks that were the first ones up against the wall when the Revolution came

I think you get the point.

More seriously and I think Jason Calacanis of Mahalo was right. He opined on an episode of TWIT that the way out of this economic mess will be one entrepreneur taking a risk and hiring or keeping one persom employed. The risk is to keep one person employed when conventional wisdom would say to lay off. It is a risk because it goes against the news of the day. The word of the day is 'layoffs'. but what if one says, "I'm not bowing to conventional wisdom, I'm going against conventional wisdom".


Recently Chrysler announced the laying off of 1200 workers. All that does it maintain the dire economic news. By laying off 1200 people, the economy has just shrunk by that amount. Actually it has shrunk by more. But, consider if the Chair of Chrysler had thought it through and figured the best solution would be to keep people employed andn producing goods. Perhaps a few concessions from the Union might be a good idea, but I'll not go into that. For certain he would have taken it on the chin by shareholders for not balancing the book or getting rid of inventory. But how do you get rid of inventory when the people to buy the inventory can't afford to because they are unemployed. That would have been an incredible stimulus for the economy, plus the good news that would have come instead of all the bad news? Sure stocks would have gone down, but why is the stock market the be all and end all.

People watch what happen and think, 'perhaps things are starting to get better', this gives them optimism and they start to hire and produce again and the result, the pump is primed.

There is one difference between this method of recovery and the one that is being suggested, it doesn't cost a cent of taxpayers money. By the way, I heard that some hospitals in Windsor are cutting back staff, again another example of the economy shrinks. I suppose the assumption is people don't get sick when the economy is bad. What if that hospital accepted the challenge and didn't lay off anybody.

I realize this is simplistic, but then again, complexity doesn't always work. In fact when it appears the simple is counterintuitive, it may be the right solution.

What else am I thinking about?

Well, I got the new U2 CD, No Line on the Horizon. I can say it is a good CD, perhaps not a good or as great as The Joshua Tree or The Unforgettable Fire.

Starbucks and Tea

As you may know, I like Starbucks. It is one of my favourite coffee stores. I have enjoyed Starbucks in Vancouver, Toronto, New York City, Belleville, Windsor and Brantford, to name a few places. I've also got a collection of Starbucks cards, which I use extensively. I also make sure I have a balance on one of them, so that if the thought strikes me, I can enjoy a nice Starbucks drink.

One thing we all know about Starbucks is that they sell coffee and espresso. Usually the joke has been made as to the price of the coffee or how people have established their own language when ordering their favourite drink. Still I can't kick, they keep one of my daughter's employed as a baristra.

Over the years, Starbucks has expanded their menu and one of the major additions after their Frappuccino has been their Tazo teas.

While a good concept, I'm afraid in some cases, Starbucks has not done tea drinkers a service with their various concoctions. To wit, in some cases they have decided to devise a tea latte. Now my problem is this, tea is not to be latte. I do understand and quote extensively the saying Blythe used in the movie The Great Escape that "Tea without milk is so uncivilized". He said this to Flt Lt Anthony Hendley, by the way. There is a difference between adding a bit of milk to your tea and a latte. A latte is a rather large amount of milk. I tried their Vanilla Rooibos Latte and realized they had ruined the flavour of the Rooibos tea through the process.

There could be other examples, but I think the problem is one of concept, tea is by nature, a delicate infusion of tea leaves and hot water. It is drink that may be the puriest and simpliest drink of them all, after water. It is no wonder that tea was adopted by Buddhists accepted it as their drink. It is a very zen experience, to watch the play of leaves and water.

Certainly tea has been a great source of inspiration. There has been some great poetry written about tea. To give an example:

Saw Luk Yu off to Pick Tea

Thousand mountains greeted my departing friend
When spring tea blossoming again
With indepth knowledge in picking tea
Through morning mist or red evening clouds
His solitary journey is my envy
Rendezvous in a temple of a remote mountain
We enjoyed picnic by a clear pebble fountain
In this silent night
Lit up a candle light
I knocked a marble bell for chime
While deep in thought for old time.

Huang Pu Zhen-- Tang Dynasty poet, friend of Tea Sage Luk Yu

So I say to Starbucks, allow the tea to express itself as it should, the simplier the better.

Peace

Netbook? Notebook?

As you know, from reading my blog, I recently purchased a new laptop computer. My first one, the Dell Inspiron 1000. It was a budget computer, but it did all that I wanted a computer to do, web surfing, word processing, spreadsheets and the sort. I also used it to experiment with Linux, installing Ubuntu on it, and loving the ability to play around with this great operating system.

So after four years, the computer bit the dust, it has been suggested to me that there was an issue with the motherboard. So I waited until the new year and purchased my bright shiny Dell Studio 17. I could have bought any one of a number of computers, but I chose Dell because:

a) when I went to a electronic store, the staff was way too busy to answer my question and
b) I like the ability to pay monthly.

I won't go into the full details of what the computer has, because you can read it elsewhere. I can say it has a 17" glossy screen and has 3Gigs of Memory. It is a fast operating machine- plus I do like the built in webcam. Just the thing when I want to do a quick video for Seesmic or perhaps do a video message on Facebook. I haven't done that yet, I tried in February but the message I got was the servers at Facebook were down.

Of course, it is a large laptop, weighing over 7 lbs, but that's the price to pay if a person wants a larger, clearer screen for viewing videos and movies.

After saying all that, the major news has been towards the new version of laptops that are called Netbooks. I did look and consider them for a while but I must admit, I was not impressed with the small size. I know that is the main selling point, but I look at the keyboard and consider I may have problems typing. I recently saw a person use a Dell Mini-10< was not overly impressed with the compactness of it and how it operated. The one I saw had the Windows XP system, and I know this because the organization has options that can only apply to Windows software.

I undertand the machines have very reasonable prices, certainly it something to consider that a person can buy a computer for under #300.00 and have a good operating machine. Regardless of that, I like a computer that is a computer, plus I liked the fact I can get a green cover.

It seems my thinking may be a bit behind the curve, Wired Magazine reports that netbooks are becoming popular with business. It seems netbooks were all the rage at this year's CES. The author of the article I mention states:

At the Consumer Electronics Show here, much of the buzz is about netbooks. Nearly every major computer manufacturer has one, and some manufacturers are explicitly targeting businesses that want a cheaper alternative for employees than full-blown laptops.

"The netbook is catching up as a much more mobile device," said Vijay Rakesh, a ThinkPanmure analyst. "They're great just for storage and working when you're out of the office."

There is a strong push now to get into the netbook game, Om Malik wrote in his blog a couple of months ago, an article entitled: Five Things to Consider before Buying a Netbook. His main piece of advice, go with something you would be comfortable using if the thought is to go highly mobile, to use his words.

With all sorts of companies now making netbooks, and if the numbers are correcting, starting to become a major player in the computer landscape; I suppose it would be only a matter of time before the Other Computer Maker enters the fold. So right now the rumours are flying of an Apple Netbook. The rumour is that Apple has commissioned a Asian company to make the touchscreen for their netbook.

Now has engendered some discussion on the merits of an Apple Netbook. some positive and others negative. John C. Dvorak mentions in his latest Tech 6 of the fact that Apple Netbook rumours are swirling again. His point of contention is that it will be an expensive netbook.

I know there are a lot of players already out there, but as we all know, the moment anything with an apple logos shows up, there will be the MacFanatics throwing their money to purchase it, no matter how over-priced it is. Of course, if history is any guide, it will be very pleasing to the eye and be a work of modern art.

I do wonder if this is another example of the hype that tends to grip the tech world every so often. There are other voices, Joe Wilcox wrote an article entitled: The Problem with Netbooks.

There are some problems and I have to say I'm happy with a regular sized laptop then one of those smaller models.

The Arrogant Worms visit Brantford

This past Friday night (March 6th) The Arrogant Worms brought their unique combination and music and comedy to Brantford's Sanderson Centre. I had found out of their appearance in September and had bought the tickets for the event in October. So I have been waiting for their appearance for quite awhile. This was not the first time I had seen the Worms in Concert, the first time was in Picton Ontario.

The Worms, who are Mike McCormack, Trevor Strong and Chris Patterson, came to the stage at a bit after 8:00PM. Now it was immediately pointed out that Chris looked a bit different, in fact he had morphed into Mike Ford, formerly of the Canadian group Moxy Fruvous, group which had as member, Jian Ghomeshi, who was also the former host of the CBC program >Play, I still have the tee shirt.

The opening few minutes the troupe joked about Chris Patterson and how things like sleep are probably foreign to him now, in fact one of the member said he's probably walking around like a zombie attempting to change the diaper of strangers.

It was revealed that the group had a Brantford connection, Mike McCormack's parents were both born and raised in Brantford and met at the Cockshutt Plow Factory. Also, the video of one of their most popular songs, "Carrot Juice is Murder" was shot in Brantford. The scenes of the protest were shot on the steps of the Carnegie Centre in the downtown. They explained the reason for choosing Brantford was if they had done the video in Toronto, they probably would have been arrested. As it was, as they were shooting, a few of the Brantford cops came around to see what was happening and when told of the video expressed a "cool" and then suggested a location that may have offered better light.



They played a mixture of songs from a number of their albums, including the latest, Beige and Torpid. As well, a number of classics, including that great sing along song "Mounted Animal Nature Trail", the joke of the song is the audience participation during the chorus "And the cow goes....'Moo'", which is part of the joke, the animals are dead. Part way through the song, someone said outloud "Oh I get it", which led to the suggestion that should be incorporated into one of the signs of Brantford, "Brantford, Oh I get it". They also made constant reference to "Crazy Bill's", which is a local convenience store next to the Sanderson Centre. Mike Ford got tired of one young person near us and jumped down to the stage and "threatened" him, he said he was lucky he wasn't in the aisle seat. I think Mike probably gets unhinged easily, after all, he did tour with Jian.

One of the newer songs that was funny was "The Hot Dog Song". Here is the lyrics:

Everybody loves hot dogs
Even pasty Hippies
'Casue its hard to beat a tube of meat
But now a question hits me

What the hell's in
A hotdog
I shouldn't ask maybe
'Cause i don't know any animals that grow cylindricaly

So have a hotdog on me my friends
It's made out of animal oddds and ends
Have a hotdog on me my friends
It's the particle board of meat

Its good to reuse and recycle
The unpopular pieces of meat
That are quite gross
Yet after they're proccesed
Are such a Delicious treat

That the children eat them 'til they're queasy
Because they love the taste
Of sodium phosphate
And iridorbate
Soy protien
And Sodium nitrate

So have a hotdog on me my friends
It's made out of animal odds and ends
Have a hotdog on me my friends
Its the praticle board of meat

May or maynot contain
Chicken and, or
Pork and, or
Meat

So have a hotdog on me my friends
Dont think 'bout the parts from the pigs rear end
Have a hotdog on me my friends
Its the particle board
The particle board
The board particle
Off mmmmmeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaat

Meditate on that truth, "The Particle Board of Meat".

The songs were hilarious, the banter was equally so, you would think all three of them had toured for years, well two of them had, but the chemistry was great. The crowd was appreciative and got into the humour. I even cheered and got acknowledged by them when they started talking about "Tubas". Being a tuba player, I could not simply sit back.

They ended the evening with their most popular song, "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate". But even after that, the crowd was not satisfied, they came back for two encores.


It was truly a great evening of fun and humour.

I would have included photographs, but the Sanderson Centre has some silly rule about using photographic equipment.

If you get the chance, go see the Worms live. You will thank me.

The year 2009 and Facebook




A couple of years ago, the Big Thing in the social networking and media world was My Space. It was huge. Everyone who wanted to have a presence was going to MySpace. It was THE place for teenagers and indie bands to go and have a presence. You had to be there if you wanted to be anyone. It was so large that Rupert Murdoch dropped 580 Million Dollars to buy it. It was going to gives News Corp a huge presence with young people.

That was part of the good news, and then the bad news began to follow. It became a place where cyberbullying was the norm and a place where sexual predators would hang out and go trolling for little kids. Part of that was due to the fact that young people were posting everything about themselves online.

While MySpace is still popular and growing, in fact according to the Wikipedia article, it was still attracting hundreds of thousands of people a day, at least during 2006, I have to believe it's slowed a bit.

There has been other problems; in the September 2006 issue of PC World, MySpace was considered the worst websitein the Internet. It was considered to be full of spyware and that it got compromised by phishers. So the lustre came off that rose. But like I said, it is still there and still making a presence.

Now let's forward to 2009. I have a facebook account. Over the last few things, Facebook was the big thing. In fact, Toronto was declared "the Capital of Facebook". You had to have an account and if you didn't people gladly sent you them. How many emails were links or invites to join facebook.

To be honest, Facebook has a lot of good points, it is a way to keep in touch with family and friends. You can meet people you haven't seen for years. There are groups of interests you can join. There are also games and quizzes a person can play and have a good time. You can post photographs to share with family and friends. It's an all in one place, where you can send messages through walls and then through emails.

Now, let's consider 2009, after two years of positive spin and hype, there are some cracks appearing in the wall. The uproar started when Facebook attempted to change its Terms of Service agreement. According to the new TOS, Facebook owned all your material. You can read it here. Here is the Big Issue:

You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the licence granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.

When people who read TOS say the change, it was the red flag before the bull. There was a huge uproar over the change. There were so many complaints that Mark Zuckerberger had to pretty well apologize and promise never to do that again, unless they have the input of the users of the site. It was hailed as a victory for users and democracy. Then again, if you can remember last year when Facebook changed the Home Page, that caused an uproar.

Now the bad news is coming strong, a teen is suing facebook over the issue of cyberbullying. Now there are issues of security. Also a koobface worm is making its rounds. You open a link to a video and you fill your computer with malware. Wonderful when you think about it.

Again, more bad news. Now I suppose the hype is now towards Twitter. It is attracting all the attention, just listen to anything by Leo Laporte and the TWIT Network. Also it's attracting celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher. There's also Stephen Fry who may have the most number of followers of all twitterers.

So I guess is, when will the negative stories about Twitter start to surface? When will read of the security problems of Twitter. Oops, they have already started.

By the way, you can add me to your twitter followers, I'm here.

Calling the World

It was about a decade ago that people were lamenting that over half the world had never made a telephone call, it revealed the sad fact of the digital divide, or at least of the communication divide that existed between the first world and the third world. The countries of the third world were simply not catching up, or were at a disadvantage.

Clay Shirky of Wired wrote:

Half the world has never made a phone call. It's a striking statistic, especially handy when underlining the seriousness of the digital divide between the Western and the developing worlds. Future South African president Thabo Mbeki cited it in a speech he gave at the Information Society and Development Conference in 1996. Vice President Al Gore said it in 1998; former FCC boss Reed Hundt said it in 2000; HP's Carly Fiorina said it in 2001; and — though they were not debating each other at the time — Michael Moore and Newt Gingrich both said it in 2001. As did Kofi Annan, secretary general of the UN, in a presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Not to be outdone, Tatang Razak, a spokesperson for Indonesia's Mission in New York, raised the stakes in April: "After all," he summed up in a speech before the UN, "most of the people in the world have never made a phone call."

This is the kind of factoid that journalists call too good to check.

Let's move forward a decade and consider the most recent news release from the International Telecommuncation Union has announced that telephony growth has meant that 60% of the world has now made a phone call. From a report by the ITU, it was announced there are now 3.3 Billion mobile phones out there and the majority of the news ones are found in the third world. The report demonstrates that while the digital divide is still there, progress is being made.

When you think about it, this makes sense, the beauty of mobile telephony has to be cost, it's far cheaper to build a bunch of towers then put in the infrastructure for landlines. You have to string a lot of wire, run it into peoples' houses, to say nothing about the technology needed to establish a phone company. Consider what is required for mobile phones, towers, radio waves and phone numbers. I know that is an oversimplication, but I think you know what I mean, it's far simplier to establish a mobile network then a land-based network.

Part of the article read:

Africa showed the strongest gains over the past two years and more than two thirds of all mobile subscribers were from developing countries by the end of 2007, the ITU said.

This is 'a positive trend that suggests that developing countries are catching up," the report said.

Mobile subscription growth stood at 39 percent annually in Africa between 2005-2007, and 28 percent in Asia over the same period.

Couple this with the fact that broadband internet access is also expanding, and in some interesting places. One of those places is Senegal, where broadband penetration stands at 90%.

The second reason is that broadband is spreading quickly.
Although in a few countries broadband is offered
mainly to businesses, almost all low-income countries
are starting to provide commercial broadband services
to private end-users. While in 2001, the number of fixed
broadband subscribers represented only 15 per cent of
the world’s total Internet subscribers, this rate increased
to almost 60 per cent by the end of 2007. In a number
of developing countries, including Senegal, Morocco
and Chile, broadband subscribers represent over 90 per
cent of all Internet subscribers.

When you think about it, that is an amazing fact, so now it seems that the Internet is no longer the private plaything of the First World, but the third world is not catching on and becoming involved. Imagine how rich it will be when that expands further.

In other information and news:

I got an email today from Starbucks, touting the new Pike Place Roast coffee. Let me say, I've tried the Pike Place Roast and it is a delight. It is worth the price for a cup of Starbucks.

"the Cult of the Amateur": A Review



While going through the list of books recommended to me by Amazon, the above title for some reason, entered the list. As I read the publisher's review my interest was piqued. I looked over the page and noticed that through the wonderful Amazon Marketplace, the book could be picked up for a mere $5.00 plus shipping and handling. As I thought about it, I became very interested and so with a simple 'click' of the mouse, I ordered a copy through the Marketplace. Honestly, why wouldn't you do the same, that is order through the Marketplace rather then through the main bookselling page.

But I digress; the author, Andrew Keen, is an observer and commentator on technology and its affect upon our society and culture. He reveals in this book an undying hatred on all things Web 2.0. For him it is the opening of a Pandora's box of problems that will lead to the erosion of culture and learning. He fears, and this is quite obvious from his writings that Web 2.0 will bring about the end of Culture as we know it and replace it with something not as appealing. He mourns the potential loss of newspapers and magazines, not just because he likes holding and reading them, but what they represent, and that is, journalistic integrity. In the place of journalists are the bloggers who lack the ability, in his words, to write news or to even take the time to digest the news in order to develop a proper understanding of the news.

This is not to say Andrew Keen is some sort of luddite. He confesses in the first chapter as being part of the Web 1.0 bubble. He writes:

Back in the Nineties, I was a pioneer in the First Internet Goldrush. With a dream of making the world a more musical place, I founded Audiocafe.com, one of the earliest digital music sites.

He has also embraced much of Web 2.0, he blogs and can be followed on Twitter. It is on the latter you can learn he has an addiction to PG tea, drinking 25 cups a day, for example.

What is his concern? He comments on the saying of T.H. Huxley, that if you give a million monkeys, a million typewriters and infinite time, they would type all the works of William Shakespeare. To Keen, it has happened, for there are millions of people banging away on their keyboards, bringing their limited opinions to the world of literature, learning and news gathering.

To Keen, blogging might mean the end of journalism as we know it, and replace with a shallowness that defies definition. He states that people are blogging and giving their opinion on news without having the proper learning to understand what it takes to gather news.

The genesis of the book was from an article he wrote in the Weekly Standard entitled Web 2.0. He began the article with this observation:

THE ANCIENTS were good at resisting seduction. Odysseus fought the seductive song of the Sirens by having his men tie him to the mast of his ship as it sailed past the Siren's Isle. Socrates was so intent on protecting citizens from the seductive opinions of artists and writers, that he outlawed them from his imaginary republic.

We moderns are less nimble at resisting great seductions, particularly those utopian visions that promise grand political or cultural salvation. From the French and Russian revolutions to the counter-cultural upheavals of the '60s and the digital revolution of the '90s, we have been seduced, time after time and text after text, by the vision of a political or economic utopia.

Rather than Paris, Moscow, or Berkeley, the grand utopian movement of our contemporary age is headquartered in Silicon Valley, whose great seduction is actually a fusion of two historical movements: the counter-cultural utopianism of the '60s and the techno-economic utopianism of the '90s. Here in Silicon Valley, this seduction has announced itself to the world as the "Web 2.0" movement.

To him the seduction is the rise in both numbers and prestige of the glorified amateur, who has the wisdom and knowledge that can challenge that of an expert. With this as the basis, he is able to write about the dangers of Wikipedia, where amateur can opine about a wide gamut of subjects and even take on the workers of experts. He gave the example of Dr. William Connolley, a climate modeler from the British Antartic Survey. He found an error in the article on Global Warming. Unfortunately, he Point of View was different from one of the editors of Wikipedia and he was almost banned from the 'pedia. His crime, not following the prevalent 'political' point of view. So the amateur can bully the expert is what Andrew Keen laments.

His concern about Web 2.0 goes into other realms, such as the end of music, through piracy of music files, Internet porn and online gambling.

He offers a solution and most of it has to do through stronger laws and stronger enforcement.

Some of the high points, he calls Lawrence Lessig, an "intellectual property communist'. He also refers to Google as a parasite.

He brings up a number of very good points, in particular how in his view, the Internet of Web 2.0 is narcissistic and it is simply a matter of us reporting on ourselves, without the vantage of a third party giving us the proper view of ourselves. In this regard, his book is good to read to bring balance to the cheerleaders of Web 2.0. He does not that many of the most popular bloggers either contain links to mainstream media, or are hiring journalists as part of their staff to bring the proper level of professionalism to their blogs.

What he fears most, is a world without the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

There are some concerns with this book, one is his discounting of any and everything done by the amateur. It seems to him, culture is only the product of the professional and the rich. He almost ignores the fact that culture has, through most of human history, been grassroots. It is the people gathering around a fire, or enjoying time together, sharing a song or a story, that is the birth of culture and not something brought about through committee. He mourns the 'death' of music, when the question should be asked, why as the music industry not kept pace with technology, or used technology as a means of bringing its music to people.

Other concerns is the fact he tends to blame "Web 2.0" for things that happened prior to its coming, such as Internet Gambling. By doing this, he weakens his argument rather then strengthens it.

While newspapers and magazines are going through a hard time, it is for them to evolve and work with the technology rather then allow it to bury them. I truly hope there will be newspapers and I think as long as we need professional newsgatherers, and they will never be replaced by bloggers, news media will exist. Also he complains about the number of new blogs, but my question is how many blogs continue and thrive. A quick search of blogs will reveal many as only having a number of posting and then the author quits and moves on to something else.

He also complains over such thing as the rise of plagerism because of the 'copy and paste' culture. This is a good complaint and it is up to the schools and universities to enforce the rules of plagarism. It has always been there and it is only through vigilance can it be kept at bay. Plus the stress should be on independent thought and not simply reguritating facts.

I would suggest this book as a good read. It will help you understand what is happening in the Internet, but I suggest you read with a critical eye. He makes good points, but he must be kept honest and not simply complain about everything to do with 'web 2.0'

Classic Dr. Who!



I was reading a few messages from the Doctor Who Information Network message group:

While we was channel surfing tonight, we stumbled across Doctor Who on
BBC kids. They are current airing Tom Baker episode "Image of the
Fendahl".

I thought to myself "Self, this is interesting", and so I went to the BBCKids website and went to the channel schedule. I went through it and there it was: Doctor Who, Monday to Friday, from 10PM-11PM Eastern.

Wow.

Classic Dr. Who! With the Fourth Doctor.

As you may know, Tom Baker was the longest serving Doctor of all time, including the present. He was probably the most popular Doctor of them all. This is due, in some degree to the fact he was the first Doctor most of us in North America ever met.

Right now, its season 16 and it is one of the story arcs of Doctor Who. It is the Key to Time arc, in which the Doctor and his companion, a female Time Lord, Lady Romanadvoratrelundar, or Romana, or Fred, the latter given to her by the Doctor as a joke.

She was played by Mary Tamm.

It is great to see the Doctor in action again.

Android? Canada?

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I've been watching and listening to the live feed from the World Mobile Congress. Perhaps all this has got me thinking again about cellphones and their effect in Canada. I was curious about my cellphone company and so I wrote a letter asking about the type of network and whether or not they are planning to introduce any Android based cellphones. Android is the Linux or Open-Sourced based operating system for cellphones that is being championed by Google. One of the first phones was introduced by T-Mobile. The T-Mobile G1 uses the Android OS and it offers users a real keyboard and a totally new web experience. The idea behind this, and the new generation of smartphones is to make is bring the internet to the cellphone, and have it copy the computer experience. What all cellphone manufacturers and carriers understand is the cellphone is for more then simply making calls. It is for text messaging, listening to music, taking videos and photographs, surfing the web and sharing said photos and videos in sites such as Facebook, Brightkite and 12seconds.tv. Or to take photographs or videos and email them to family, friends, or the local news outlet. In other words the cellphone is a more then a phone.

So I was wrote the letter and got a reply:

uses the GSM Network. At this time there is no talk of bringing Android based cell phones

They aren't alone, an article in itworldcanada informed its readers that there are no plans to bring any Android based phones to Canada. In other words, Canada is going to be off the map as far as open source is concerned. Another blogger decided to consider the various carriers in Canada and opined whether any of them would carry an Android based cellphone. Basically he was waiting for the new carriers that are coming in 2010 as possible carriers.

Speaking of Android, there has been a few articles regarding how Android made no presence at the World Congress. It made some wonder what is going on with Android. There was the introduction of the HTC Magic, but not much else.

Then again, there was no introduction of the Microsoft Phone either. Although some have suggested that Microsoft may have killed Android with it's announced release of Windows Mobile 6.5.

Should there be a place for the Android in Canada? Why not, why should we be at the bottom end of cellphone technology. We seem to be a few years behind, after all, let's remember how many countries got the iPhone before we did.

DellPhone?

A little over a month ago some buzz made it onto the Internet regarding the possibility of Dell entering the smartphone market. It was reported in the Business Insider and the AppleInsider. The rumour is that Dell will announce said phone during the Mobile World Congress which started today in Barcalona.

When a person thinks Dell, one thinks "computers" and it's direct to consumer market. It has been rather innovative in this field, including the first, I believe, 'no shipping charges' for its products. It has also had some adventures into the consumer electronics market. It has its own line of printers and flat screen televisions. It has also had some success in the PDA market with the Dell Axim. As you know from reading previous blogs, I am a fan of the Dell Axim, I still own a X3i which I use for both work and home. I use it to quickly surf the web, read email, do spreadsheets for both work and home and take notes while in meetings. In fact it rarely leaves my side or my briefcase. I can't imagine a situation in which I would not bring my Axim, with the exception of the gym.

In fact when Dell was producing the Axim, it received a number of positive reviews; especially in the features it packed into the device for such a reasonable price. It was the first company to offer WI-FI on a PDA for under #300.00US, for example. While the x3 and x30 tended to look boxy, there was some aesthics with the later x50 and x51 models.

Of course detractors will opine about the not lamented jukebox, Dell's foray into personal music device. One person on the appleinsider forum posted this comment:

"This would be a break from the past when Dell's Axim was a line of Windows Mobile-powered Pocket PC personal data assistants, discontinued in April 2007.* Another Dell smaller form factor hardware device, the Dell DJ music player, was shelved in 2006."
With success like that why wouldn't you try the smart phone market?!?!

While being a smartmouth, the question is a good one, does Dell have the moxy and knowledge to enter an already crowded consumer market such as the cellphone market. What about its flops? I can't speak for the Jukebox since I never owned one, but I will speak for the Axim. It is a good product. Why Dell stopped production may have had to do with the convergence of the PDA with the cellphone ( Smartphone), and the belief people don't want to cart around three or four products at once.

Now in other news, Microsoft did announce its new Mobile OS, the Windows Mobile 6.5 at the Conference. Gizmodo seems to have liked it.

Already a number of phones have been launched featuring the new OS, phones such as LG's GM730 for example.

Will Dell go with Microsoft? or go with Google? That is the question, whatever way, it needs to move fast, while the market is growing, it is also becoming crowded. Should Dell use the name 'Axim' or choose something else. Perhaps the way to go would be to direct market it and give the purchaser the freedom to choose their own carriers. This would beat out the iPhone which has tended towards exclusive agreements, such as with ATT or Rogers here in Canada.

I shall be keeping an eye on this one.

Jackson's Point

I thought I'd share a few more photographs of Jackson's Point, so you can appreciate the winter scene:






Of course, not all things are outside:



A piece of information I was told:

John Wesley was not known for his personal hygiene. In fact he often went without bathing and changing his clothes. I did a search on this subject and have come up with nothing. Further digging makes me wonder the truth of this bit of history since many believe it was John Wesley that came up with the saying:

Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.

So if you can come up with the definitive answer to that bit of Wesley trivia, let me know.

A week of Retreat

This past week Jo-Anne and I were away at Jackson's Point Conference Centre, it was the usual annual event for officers of the Ontario Great Lakes Division. To be honest and probably this is due to experience, Jackson's can be a bit boring, especially after places such as Harrison Hotsprings Resort or the Lamplighter Inn. It is a nice place, don't get me wrong, but it lacks some of the amenities, such as swimming pools, exercise rooms, or wireless internet. Apparently they lost their wifi because it was open and too many people had trojans on their computers and were unleashing all sorts of spam. At least that's what Rogers reported. But there are some ethernet access sites set up, so things aren't a total loss. I had thought of going to facebook and recording some videos, but there were problems with servers at the facebook end. That is a shame, because it could have been fun.

The guests for the week were the Territorial Leaders of Canada and Bermuda, Commissioners William and Marilyn Francis. They are a tremendously gifted couple and I think the Territory is being well served by their leadership. They both have different gift mix, which is why they work so well as a team. He's an excellent teacher and she's gifted musically. I know some people find her colourful and she is.

The overall theme was holiness and the sessions took the form of Bible Studies, consider the various scripture passages dealing with the subject. There was a discussion of different views on the subject but as a whole it was more dealing with scripture. There was one different session and that was the Thursday night. For that session, it was a study of the songs in the Songbook. It began with a study of the five songs that were written by William Booth. It sounds as if he wrote only five songs, unlike Charles Wesley, who managed to write some 5500+ hymns.

It began with a rousing rendition of O Boundless Salvation, all seven verses, with no break. It was one of the few times I was glad I didn't volunteer to be part of the band. That's a great song to play but you do need a break. He gave us the history of each song, the unique circumstances behind the composition and information about the composer. There was a good mix of Salvationist, Methodist and other denominations. I think everyone did enjoy themselves, there was a smile on everyone's face at the end of the 90 minutes.

I managed to take some photographs of the Commissioners in action:





Of course, there was a few others taking photographs:



Being February, it was cold:




As good as it was to be away, it's good to be home. The cats seem to appreciate us being back.

Email Warnings and a little Life Lesson


Recently Jo-Anne got an email about a missing 16 year old young man. Here is the sad story:

Amber Alert.

Staff Sergeant Rick Williams
Wichita Falls Police Dept.
1007 N. Elm St .
Wichita Falls , Texas 76310
(940) 696-3671
Fax (940) 691-6346

Please look at the picture, read what his mother says, then forward this message on.
My 15 year old boy, Evan Trembley, is missing.
He has been missing for now two weeks.

Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see this child.
That is how the girl from Stevens Point was found by circulation
of her picture on tv. The internet circulates even overseas,
South America , and Canada etc.
Please pass this to everyone in your address book.
With GOD on his side he will be found.

"I am asking you all, begging you to please
forward this email on to anyone and everyone
you know, PLEASE.

It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone
knows anything, please contact me at:
HelpfindEvanTrembley@yahoocom
I am including a picture of him.

All prayers are appreciated! ! "

It only takes 2 seconds to forward this.

This is so sad, any one who is a parent can feel the pain the mom must be going through. The sad part of this story is, it's totally false. While there is a Evan Trembly, he is not missing, he is doing good, thank you very much. The whole thing is a hoax. You can read the story here. Now the story Jo-Anne received puts young Evan in the BC Interior, in fact this story went through official channels before it reached her. The locations have been changed and will be changed, but its the same thing, a total hoax.

If the Internet has done anything, besides Dragostea tin dei, its breath new life into urban legends. It is so prevalent that a number of sites have arisen just to give us information on urban legends. One of the best is snopes.com.

Now for the life lesson; if you receive an email about an Amber Alert, there will be a very good chance it is false. Police for some reason would rather inform the public of an Amber Alert through the news media rather then through email. I suppose it has to do with the fact that most local police departments do not have everyone's email. Sure CSIS probably does (Hi Andrew), but most police don't. In fact to give an example, did you notice very few emails were sent about Brandon Crisp. Almost none.

If you get any email that you are suspicious may be a hoax, simply do a google search, you suspicions may be validated when the first result has the word "hoax" some where in the title.

That's it for the life lesson. Now you'll have to excuse me, I've got to help this poor woman get 51 Million Dollars out of her country.

Just kidding.

Another Brilliant Decision

Over the last few weeks, the media has been reporting incidents of abuse for Canada's "Do Not Call" List. The Globe and Mail reports of Fraudester Abusing the list with impunity.

To bring everyone up to speed, the "Do Not Call" list came into being in the fall of 2008 and the purpose was to give the average person the right to live a life in peace and harmony without the annoying dinner time calls from telemarketers. All a person had to do was register their phone number and peace and quiet would be there's.

By the way, this being the CRTC there are exemptions. For example:

elemarketing calls made on behalf of certain organizations or made for certain purposes as listed below, are exempt from the National DNCL Rules:

* Canadian registered charities;
* political parties;
* nomination contestants, leadership contestants or candidates of a political party;
* general circulation newspapers calling for the purpose of selling a subscription;
* calls to a consumer who has an existing business relationship with the organization;
* calls to a consumer who has given express consent to be called; and
* calls to business consumers.

Otherwise peace was to come to your life. Of course the method of getting the list of telephone numbers that WEREN'T to be called was to be in the form of a list, which a telemarketing company could purchase, so as to update their databank of people they weren't to call. Apparently the list cost $50.00, so obviously the CRTC was to make a few dollars for their own operations.

With such an arrangement, most of us would figure the opportunity for abuse would be almost non-existent. Think again, all they provided for the telemarketers was a list of active and live telephone numbers. Why spend hours hunting down telephone books when all can be yours for a mere fifty dollars. Guess what, the nasty telemarketers who don't care a fig about rules bought up the list, and why not, here was a gold mine of phone numbers. It's kind of like spam email, you will often see a little notice that "If you don't want any further email, just click this link", do that and all you prove is that your email is live. Best way of dealing with spam, get a good spam filter.

So now, Canadians have the privilege through the workings of the CRTC of having even more telephone calls. Brilliant!

Of course, the CRTC doesn't stand for this sort of thing, in fact they have all sort of strong measures in place to deal with the n'er-do-wells. They will:

* If a violation has occurred, the CRTC will generally work directly with the telemarketer to facilitate corrective action on a voluntary basis.

* Options to encourage compliance include:

o A warning letter to the telemarketer identifying the violation and the specific corrective action to be taken; and

o A compliance meeting with the telemarketer, which may be held using teleconference or videoconference facilities, at which the CRTC would discuss the nature of the violation, the number and frequency of complaints, and the corrective action that the telemarketer must take.

* Warning letters and compliance meetings would involve informing the telemarketer that stricter measures will be considered if the corrective action is not taken and/or the violation is repeated, including:

o Imposing a monetary penalty, and

o Publishing the nature of the violation, the name of the telemarketer that committed the violation, and the amount of the penalty on the CRTC's website.

Wow, a sternly worded letter, I have to believe the telemarketers would be shaking in their boots to read that letter. As for the fines:

o the maximum penalty for a violation is $1,500 in the case of an individual and $15,000 in the case of a corporation.

o A violation that continues for more than one day constitutes a separate violation for each day during which it continues.

All this sounds good until you realize, most of the obnoxious telemarketers DON'T LIVE IN CANADA AND SO THESE RULES DON'T APPLY TO THEM.


If you want to know more of how the bad people are dealt with, click here. Got me shaking in my boots, just reading about it.

What can be done? Probably a few things,
1) change your telephone number and send the bill for changing to the CRTC
2) contact Consumer Association of Canada, if enough join and complain perhaps something will get done.
3) Write, phone, email your local MP and ask that the CRTC be dissolved; they have done nothing to protect the average Canadian, they are a worthless government body.

Remember, this is the same group that wanted to control the Internet a few years back.

Dude! I've got a Dell!

Yesterday I found a sticker on the front door from Purolator. The package I had been waited to arrive for the past few days had arrived. So with sticker with the notice in hand I went down to the local office and picked up this box:



I brought the box to the family room and began to unpack:



When everything was unpacked, I found my new laptop:



My new laptop and notice it is green in colour, is a Studio 17. It has a 17 inch screen, so it gives a lot of space for things such as videos and DVD's. I'm not going to go on and list all the features and specs, because you can read that for yourself.

What impressed me about the laptop, besides the larger screen was that it was on sale so the price was only a few dollars more then one of the Inspiron computers. So the wide glossy screen was a big point. What else got my attention was the extra memory and the fact it had Vista Home Premium. Now I should say it's only been two days but I'm not finding any of the great problems and complaints that greeted the release of Vista. Then again I'm using SP1 so I presume most of the bugs and issues have been solved. I'll keep you informed.

My old laptop simply stopped working, it was over four years old and I wanted to wait until the new year before purchasing a new one. I think I'll enjoy it and I plan to install iTunes for my iTouch and a few other programs.

So far so good

In Other News

I just finished watching Dr. Strangelove, still one of the best anti-war movies ever made. It certainly manages to reveal the madness of nuclear weapons and the Cold War. What followed it is some old Civil Defense video. Both were featured on Turner Classic Movies.

Got some responses to a few email, one is from Elizabeth May. I had complained to her about the rumour she was going to the Senate. She told me it was simply a media fabrication. Another came from CUPE. The letter contained a link to a letter from Paul Moist, the National President of CUPE. He wants all to know that it is not the policy of CUPE to have that demand, rather he wants both side to strive for peace.

iTunes and Canada



I've been a fan and owner of an Apple iPod since the iPod Mini, it was blue and came in a marvellous box. I had it until it a major flaw happened and it no longer worked. Fortunately I had extra warrenty and graduated to the iPod Nano (2nd Generation). Now I own an iPod Touch. It was a present from my folks (thanks Mom, thanks Dad). They got it for me when I was in the hospital.

It is the funnest ipod, as the advertisement asserts. With it, I have music, videos, TV programs, podcasts and apps. It is wonderful and a lot of fun. It's a great thing to have when working out at the fitness club.

Lately I was having problems downloading apps I wanted to buy, for a while I thought there was something wrong with the way I had the settings of theiTunes Music Store wrong. After all, I had problems at first, syncing the Touch with my computer. It's working very well, thank you so much. I decided to read the support to learn what I should do. The instructions listed didn't help, so I used the contact page and set off an email. I explained the problem. Actually I had two problems, that and the fact I accidently rubbed off a few numbers on an iTunes card. The latter was solved quickly by an email and I was able to put an extra $15.00 on my account, which I used to download Philip Glass' work Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance. It's a delightful piece of work, by the way.

As for the former issue, this is the response I got:

I'm sorry, but you will not be able to purchase games or applications with store credit or an iTunes Gift Card in Canada. Customers residing in Canada may only purchase games and applications using a credit card.

My response to that was, 'say what?!?' What do they mean, I can't purchase apps with the itunes card? To me this is preposterous. After all, my local electronic store, gas station, convenience store, in fact any place that sells gift cards, sells the iTunes card. They are all over the place, in Canada. I don't understanf the logic behind such a policy. It can't be the case that there is a problem with the money, since Apple doesn't have a problem taking the money that goes on the card. It can't be an issue that this is Canada and there is some problem engendered by the Security and Prosperity of North America. I wish I could give an answer or even an opinion but it so strange and odd of Apple to have this policy. I plan to write back and ask for an explanation. The whole purpose of the itunes card is convenience and security, I'm not using my credit card, I'm using a purchased itunes card, which should be as good, since you got to put in the right number to use it.

Hopefully it's a policy they will change.

A Blog about Ketchup

A couple of months ago, I came across an interesting article on ketchup. As you can read at the top, the problem with ketchup is that it hasn't changed in over 100 years. In fact with the thought:

Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?

Some suggestion with the exception of the introduction of the squeeze bottle, ketchup is ketchup, so why is it still the same?

This is a good question, I don't know about the dozens but certainly mustard is no longer simply French's Mustard, the yellow condiment that went so well with hot dogs. I know of at least two other, only because I happen to use two of them regularly on my sandwiches One is honey mustard and the other is dijon mustard. Both add different flavours to the sandwiches and so they are good, and prove you can add something new to something familiar and have a winner.

The problem with ketchup is its sameness. There has been no real change since Department of Agrilculture ordered the removal of sodium benzoate. This was a preservative and many thought it wasn't the best thing to eat. By the way, if you read the article, one of the great improvements of ketchup was the addition of vinegar, which allowed for the use of riper tomatoes and therefore improved flavour and thickness of our favourite condiment.

I wonder though if the article is not fair, ketchup has experienced an evolution, its just not kept the same name. For example, there are all sorts of Hot Sauce, which while not having tomatoes, can be said to be part of the ketchup family. I say this because most hot sauces started as chili sauce, which was a tomato based product, which actually didn't have much of a kick to it. Then there is Cocktail Sauce, which goes so well with shrimp cocktail. It is ketchup with horseradish and tastes so good.

Then there is what I believe is now the most popular of all condiments, Salsa. Finally, a condiment that has the right combination of tomato and chili peppers, a delicious mix that if the chunky variety is fantastic. You can read about the history of salsa here.

But there is hope, for Howard Moskowitz decided to make a better ketchup. His brand is the "World's Greatest Ketchup". He is the man responsible for changing the world of spaghetti sauce.

However even he realizes one thing about ketchup:

I guess ketchup is ketchup.

Perhaps, as one person suggested to me, ketchup is such the perfect food, it can't change. Perhaps that ultimately true.

Or has the change led to other variations and types with the original being the keeper of the name.

I should say this blog was inspired after I made my sandwich for tomorrow's lunch; a ham and turkey sandwich with cheese and lettuce, and dijon mustard.

Who is Canada's Geekiest Politician?

Much is being made of President-Elect Barak Obama being a Geek. If you read the article and there are a score of them, he has all the signs. First of all, he read comic books, he flashed the Vulcan salute to Leonard Nimoy. He is quoted as saying:

I grew up on Star Trek. I believe in the final frontier.

He also made a "Star Trek" joke to his wife, and promptly laughed while she rolled her eyes. A typical response of a wife of a geek. As well, to say nothing of his Blackberry which seems never to leave his side.

If there is one flaw, as some would consider, it is that he uses a Zune rather then an iPod. Which some might consider a character flaw, while others might see as part of his true maverick nature. While the rest of the world chases after the iPod, Barak Obama follows the way of the Zune.

This led to me think, does Canada have a geek politician? I was thinking of using the title: "Yeah but does he know the Babylon 5 Mantra. I'll tell you what it is later: still who is Canada's Geekiest Politician?

I have to admit, I'm kind of drawing a blank on this one. If you go through the list of present and immediate past, it's kind of hard. None of the crop seem like they are geeks, or if they are, they hide it quite well. No doubt all of them have Blackberries, but is there the same attachment. Can we imagine Stephen Harper giving the Vulcan Salute to Leonard Nimoy. For some reason, not likely. I could be wrong, he was a political wonk growing up. And if this photograph is to be believed:



he may have been a geek. I could be wrong but I can't imagine Mr. Harper peppering any speeches with Star Trek or Star Wars references. I mean it would be cool if he did. I was going to make some reference to his speeches containing Klingon words and phrases, as some might suggest- the whole evil empire appearance he has- but even that would be great. After all, the Klingons are a people of honour. So if a critic was to make a Klingon reference to Mr. Harper, it would be more a demonstration of how little the critic knows about Klingons.

So consider now the recent past Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion. Okay, we have considered him long enough, the answer is, no. What about the new leader, Michael Ignatieff. Well, the photgraph reveals he doesn't dress very well, so that is a point in his favour. He does have a twitter account, although in two months, he has 17 updates. That may change now that he is leader of the Liberal Party. Still something about him strikes me that he would be far more comfortable with a quill pen then the modern technology. To his credit, he is an author, so he is creative but I wonder if he has done any mash-ups.

Then there is Jack Layton or as he mother calls him, John Gilbert Layton. Well, he does have a twitter account, which seems more used then Mr. Ignatieff. He is on Facebook. He does videos. He may be as close to as geek as we find but for some reason it's just not the same.

I got to think, none of our leaders would feel comfortable attending an MC Frontalot concert. I'm sorry, but I think our leaders lack a certain geekness.

Now as for the B5 Mantra, and if you are a geek, you know it, but just in case, it was first given by Susan Ivanova:

I'd like you to take the time to learn the Babylon 5 mantra.

Ivanova is always right.
I will listen to Ivanova.
I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations.
Ivanova is god.
And, if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out!

In other news: the Saudi Tanker was freed. The pirates got their satchel of money and everybody went home happy. Well, I suppose the crew was not happy to spend an extre month and a half on board when they could have been home with family. But all of them are safe. All it cost was 3Million Dollars. When you think about it, had the Saudis or the tanker owners simply given the money, there would have been no delay. Got to hand it to the Somali pirates, they are honest businessmen.

As for MC Frontalot, I watched Nerdcore Rising, a great documentary that examines and records MC Frontalot's first cross country tour. Must have been great. If you are not familiar with the Front, you can listen to "Penny Arcade" here.

It's Friday night. Have a great one.

Peace.

C.U.P.E.=???

Recently, the head of the Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees decided to open his mouth and make a policy statement. He decided that Ontario Universities should ban Israeli academics from coming onto the property, unless they denounce the recent invasion of the Gaza Strip, and probably Zionism as well. The last I have added. The news release can be read here.

Sid Ryan is angry that the Islamic University of Gaza was shelled. Apparently a group can shell Israel all they want and nary a peep comes out of the mouth of Sid Ryan, but don't Israel dare try to stem the shelling.

So Sid Ryan has decided to change the look of CUPE to something a little more appropriate, such as:





or this:





I do wonder what color of shirts members of CUPE will wear when they set up guard posts at the various Ontario Universities to ensure no "Israeli" academic sneaks onto the campus and attempts to pollute the pure Aryan minds of the students engaged in proper Anti-Zionist thoughts.

Although I do wonder why he stopped there, why not call for the expulsion of all possible "Israeli" students. Indeed let's rid our universities of the "Zionist" poison. I think members of CUPE should go through the libraries of all the University and gather all the books written by "Israeli" writers and burn them in a huge bonfire.





Of course the irony is Sid compared the bombing of the University to the Nazi burning of books. Which is very ironic, since he wants to engage is supression of academic freedoms. The National Post had a full article on the atrocity of Sid Ryan.

If you want to contact CUPE, here are some phone numbers:

Sid Ryan, President, CUPE Ontario, 416-209-0066
Pat Daley, CUPE Communications, 416-616-6142

Memo to Wired: Don't Even Think about it!

The editor of PC Magazine had an open letter in the January issue of the magazine. Lance Ulanoff wrote that after January, there would be no print copy of the magazine. He declared that

Starting in February 2009, PC Magazine will become a 100-percent digital publication. So, in addition to our popular network of Websites, which includes our centerpiece, PCMag.com, as well as ExtremeTech, blogs like Gearlog and AppScout, and audio and video content that includes PCMag Radio, Cranky Geeks and DL.TV, we'll offer PC Magazine Digital Edition to all of our print subscribers. The PC Magazine Digital Edition has actually been available since 2002. So for thousands of you, the benefits of this unique medium are already clear. And those benefits will continue to multiply in the coming months, as we work hard to enhance your digital experience.

Okay, so call me old skool, but I like magazines. I've subscribed to a number over the years and I still get a number each month or so in my mailbox. At present time I subscribe to: Wired, Broken Pencil, BriarPatch and Spacing. The latter is a fascinating magazine that studies the urban landscape and issues that face Canada's major cities.

What I enjoy about magazines is the fact that they are not news, they offer articles on timely issues that have been researched and present a point of view which I may not have thought of in the past. The writers consider issues and delve into them, having the time to ponder the full ramification of what they write. Certainly it could be said that not all magazines are like this, after all there is People Magazine, which does give me my pop culture fix. I don't subscribe or read it, except when Kimberly or Katrina are visiting; a few minutes with the latest I am up to date with what is happening. It's amazing how quickly a person can get out of step with celebrity culture, my gosh I didn't know she was pregnant, or he had broken up with her. But I digress, the point is, magazines are meant to be enjoyed, to be read and to be taken anywhere. That is the beauty, you can toss a magazine into a backpack or brief case and bring it along. It takes next to no space and its there waiting for you. It works as easily in the bed as it does in the chair. It just works. Not only that, but its portability means you can read an article one day and a week or so later, come back to read it again. Then again, if you save magazines, you can read an issue and read it again after a few years.

However, this is the year 2009 and things are now modern. The promise of the new digital edition of PC Magazine are:

# It arrives in your e-mail automatically. Just click the link to either download the latest edition, or to view it entirely online.

# It is portable. Once you've downloaded the issue (which takes a matter of seconds), just power up your PC and view it anywhere, on an airplane, in your hotel room, wherever.

# It looks like the PC Magazine you're familiar and comfortable with. I know why you've stuck with us all these years. You like the magazine and you enjoy the format. Our digital platform makes it possible to deliver that same magazine experience on your PC. So you can "turn" the pages and view our features and departments as you do now.

# It's lively and interactive. Our digital edition will eventually offer rich media options within a magazine format. So, for example, next to the product review you're reading in First Looks, you can easily view a slideshow of that product. Or while you're reading a Solutions article on Microsoft Outlook tips, our PC Labs experts can walk you through the steps of some of those tips in a video.

# Yes, you can print it. You can print as many pages of the magazine as you want.

# It's searchable. Here's something PC Magazine print cannot do. Enter a search term and PC Magazine Digital will fill all the related pages.

# A live TOC: The table of contents is not only a place to find out what's in this month's issue. You can use it to navigate directly to the stories you want to read.

# It's Green: You can actually feel good about the amount of paper, ink, and gas we'll all be saving by not producing and consuming a physical magazine.

Of course there has to be reference to it being 'green', although I wonder what sort of carbon footprint a magazine had, compared to something like a coal mine. The promise is, of course, interactivity, social networking to make it sound Web 2.0.

Of course to truly enjoy the experience, one has to download the Zinio Reader. Which is something I'm not enjoying. It is fast and prompt and in a few moments I will attempt to print an article. See, people like to read soemthing they can hold in their hands. I know with laptops one can experience the same portability, with the possible exception of the pool, bathtub or hottub. Water and electronics are still not a good mix and probably won't be for quite a few years.

I'll wait and see with this one. I've tried the program used and can't say I'm overly impressed. But one must keep an open mind. However, as I state in the title, Wired, don't even think about going digital only.