The Clash of Titans

In the annals of Canadian Political history, there has been many monumentous clashes: you can think of Mackenzie King vs Lord Byng, or Pierre Trudeau vs Rene Levesque. I could continue and talk about M. Brian Mulroney vs John Napier Turner. In recent history we can think Jean Chretien vs Paul Martin Jr, or Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion.

All these shall pale when we consider the latest clash of two potential titans. I'm talking about the clash between the Green Party of Canada and the Pirate Party of Canada.

It started when Gordon McDowell posted this video on Youtube. In it, he asks Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party her opinion on the launching of a Pirate Party in Canada



To sum up her opinion, Canada doesn't need a Pirate Party, since issues such as net neutrality, internet privacy and copyright reform are covered best by the Green Party. In fact she states that:

A 12 year copyright on creative material is reasonable. Lifetime of the creator +70 years doesn’t make any sense at all.” -Elizabeth May, Green Party Leader of Canada

First of all, just on the basis of that statement, we give a big cheer to Elizabeth. When the major parties are tripping over themselves to extend the length of copyright to triple digits, it's good to see someone is being realistic.

What is interesting is that in a recent blog posting by the Green Party, there is cheering by the Greens over the election of a member of the Pirate Party and the fact the member will join the EFA/Green Bloc in the European Parliament. As you can see at the end, Elizabeth concludes:

Canadians need only look to Europe to see that Greens are in the forefront of combating restrictive patent and copyright laws

All this is fascinating, and certainly one can understand that a political organization which is working hard to elect its first member to Parliament and has developed it's brand very well in the country. In fact, there are thousands of dedicated members working across the country. It seems that it is only a matter of time that one will get elected and if one gets elected, then two will get elected and so on and so forth.

Then we come to the Pirate Party, it's basically a website, which is a forum page that is becoming very active. It has no means of signing up members, yet it's getting noticed. The site, ZeroPaid made this observation:

Their membership isn’t exactly hitting tens of thousands yet. Their manifesto hasn’t even been completed. They haven’t really been around for more than 6 months in its current incarnation. They have yet to participate in an election at all. You’d think that they wouldn’t really be making any sort of movement on their issues at all, but already, they are making waves in the media and are catching the attention of other political parties. If they are this successful already, imagine what would happen by the time they make it to the point of participating in a national election.

You can read the entire response here.

I suppose the concern with the Greens is that the membership pool for both parties is approximately the same, young, politically and digitally active. The thing which should also concern the Green party is that, the Pirates have some great t shirts



That's not to say the Green Party doesn't have t shirts:


As I said earlier, you can't have a groundbreaking, culturally changing political movement unless you have t shirts.

It certainly is the case, both parties can work together for election success and to keep issues such as I already mentioned before the media and the public. I suppose one difference and this could be due to maturity, the Green Party has a broader platform that is more then simply staying with environmental issues. The Pirate Party is concentrating on issues the affect primary the Internet, such as internet privacy the the issues pertaining to copyright. Now this is not to say they are only on those issues, if you read what Pirates say about copyright on such things as drug patents, they are far reaching and very well thought out. But we all know what the media will concentrate on: 'this is the party that wants to allow kids to download music and movies...'.

Although, the Green Party seems to have some issues regarding censorship.


It will be interesting to see how both parties decide to exist in the political landscape that is Canada. What needs to happen is an awareness in Canada that we can't keep doing politics that is simply a continuation of the 19th century. Our two major political parties are based upon 19th century Canada. It's the politics of antagonism and hostility. This is a new century and we need new view of doing things. It can't happen soon enough.

As an aside, I found out about a website in Australia called Get Up! They have a campaign called "Save the Net". The problem is this:

The Federal Government is planning to force all Australian servers to filter internet traffic and block any material the Government deems ‘inappropriate’. Under the plan, the Government can add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist.

While at present, Australia is the first western democracy to consider this, remember, they are simply the first- with the present attitude of most western democracies to ratched up censorship, look to this virus to start spreading.

Chrome's Coming

So much to blog about and then comes the big announcement from Google: they're developing their own operating system. You've read it in PCMag.com, Wired.com, PCWorld.com, countless newspapers and blogs. TechCrunch says it will redefine the operating system, for example. So I'm going to add to the noise.

From what I've read, the opinion is divided about the impact Chrome will have in the OS world. Many seem to believe that it's Google's attempt to dethrone Microsoft from it's place as the predominant OS on the planet. On that basis alone, many are hoping for the success of Chrome and Google. It has to do with the entire "Microsoft is the Evil Empire" mindset that seems to inhabit the thought processes of many in the technology world. Google, with its "Don't do evil" motto is seen as just the opposite and everything Google does is good. After all it gives everything away. While with Microsoft you have to pay and pay a whole lot of money. Have you seen the price of Microsoft Office lately? Shameful they say.

Let's talk about Google for a few minutes, I do use a number of Google applications: I am on Blogger, obviously. I have a gmail account, of course and that's about it. I do have calendar, but I keep my calendar on my Dell Axim which is always with me. Then there is Google Docs, which I never use. I've tried to use the word processor, but I can't say I've seen anything that impresses me, if I'm going to use a web based application, I head over to Zoho for my word processing work, to give one example.

What do we know about the new OS. To quote from the official blog:

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Here's what we can know, it is fast, it is sleek, it is based upon open source software, ie Linux and it's going to be great on netbook computers. So in other word, Google is launching a niche OS for a niche product. I've not seen the numbers for netbook sales, but when I go to my local computer store, there seems to be a lot more regular notebook computers available rather then netbooks. Don't get me wrong, I think netbooks are cute, and I sit here with my Dell Studio 17 on my lap. So you can see where my bias is directed towards. For somem reason Google thinks Microsoft is vulnerable in this market, the issue is however, most of the netbook computers sold have Windows XP on them and apparently, Windows 7 can be installed on the average netbook. One can get various types of Linux OS installed on a netbook, but most people they want to stay with the tried and true.

I recall hearing this argument used against Bing; yes it's a pretty good search site and the search engine is also quite good, but most people out of habit will use Google, because it's what they are used too. So, most of us are familiar with Windows and likely want to stay in the Windows environment. Most of the programs and apps we are familiar with work well in Windows and we're not about to learn something new. As you know I'm comfortable working with Ubuntu, I like Ubuntu. I also am comfortable with Windows. I know a lot of people hate Vista with a passion, but I wonder if most of them are the tech types that know what should work and it drives them nuts when things don't. There were issues with Vista, but they are now fixed enough so that the OS is operable.

One article suggests that Chrome, while made for the netbook market right now, could be:

But eventually, the Google OS has the potential to scale up to larger, more powerful PCs, especially if it proves to run faster than Windows, she said.

Here's the catch, for the less powerful netbook cpu and specs it may run blazingly fast and if it is open source, there will be a lot of developers working to keep it that way, but if it goes to the laptop, or the desktop, where all of a sudden there are more demands and more requirements, will it suddenly lose its speed?

Also, this entire 'apps through the browser' or 'the browser is the OS', is something I'm still not sold on. The concept of cloud computing, while a good one is probably not ready for prime time. I know Google has acres of server parks set up throughout the world probably to store all my data and with all that redundancy, I'm sure it will be all safe and sound. However, what if I'm not in a place to access the web? What if the beginning of my stuff is in the clouds and I'm not connected. I know there's Google Gears, which is for times I'm offline, but what if the work is partial complete on the computer and partially complete in the clouds, but I can't sync. I like the convenience of having everything I need on my laptop and accessible when I need it and according to my schedule. I'm not paying the telecos or the cable companies extra money so I can stick a stick into my laptop and have Internet when I want it. I send them enough money every month, and I don't want to send any more.

I'm also not convinced on Google either. As I said I use some of their services but there are a few issues of concern. The first is, Google tends to stay 'stuck' in beta. Are they really developing all the time and haven't reached the final product, or is it an excuse if something goes wrong? I'm reading the book "What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis. He claims Google is a brand new company with a brand new way of looking at things. May I suggest he's totally wrong. I think Google is nothing more then a new form of mining company- except it mines data instead of minerals. Consider this, when I read my email, Google Gmail has already read it and positioned advertisements similar to the theme of the email. When I do a search the first results are companies that make something like that product. Google already knows enough about me, I really don't think they need to know everything about me. Do they really need to know about what I write, or what I am working on in a spreadsheet? How about my next presentation? Seriously, there is a limit to this mining that goes on. Now I'm not pushing some grand conspiracy here, I don't believe Google is doing anything wrong, they are in the business to sell advertisement. They do that better then anybody. I just don't know if I want to help them any more then I do.

That's all.

Arrrgh Matey! Prepare to be Boarded

Alright, as reported in my last blog about the fact Canada is the new Rogue Nation, I reported that there is a move afoot to develop a Pirate Party in Canada. The website p2p.net is reporting that a Pirate Group, or party is being formed at McGill University.

I have just registered to start a formal club at McGill Called the Pirate Party of Canada Club. It will be a while before it is official, but the wheels are now turning. The plan so far is just to get a bunch of Pirate-Sympathizers together and start scheming about how to build the party. If others start sprouting up similar organizations across the country, we will be off to a good start.

Anyone in Montreal interested in working toward the formation of the Pirate Party of Canada should let me know and we’ll schedule meetings.

Anyone passing through Montreal should let me know and we’ll start meeting each other and sharing ideas.

For anyone thinking about starting similar organizations at other schools, I’ll post the first draft of our club constitution below… it might save you some time. Please feel free to critique. Most of the document is there to satisfy the school’s guidelines. We had a little fun with the preamble but there are many improvements to be made I imagine!

I’m thinking that local clubs like these might serve as a good starting point to get PPofC off the ground. First we’ll try to establish ourselves locally in isolation; then we’ll get the communication lines running and start wikiing together the national movement; then we’ll be ready to write up the formal documents, register with the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, and really get cracking!

The news site Zero Paid is reporting the new Party is looking for members to join this band of Buccaneers.

Before I go any further, perhaps we need to remind ourselves what it means to be a pirate:



Yes, it means adventures on the High Seas, the clash of cutlass & sword, and Keira Knightley. It means searching for buried treasure, or boarding gold laden galleons. All of which would be reason enough to joining the merry band of sea dogs.

Well, not quite.

The Pirate Party of Canada is a party of ideas and ideals. I know it would be simple and easy to dismiss this group as simply "making the Internet safe for sharing copyrighted material", but that would be both naive and proof you've been reading too much material from the RIAA and its Canadian equivalent. By the way, on the Canadian site, there's a news article entitled: France's solution to online Piracy, which was recently declared unconstitutional.

The Goal of the Party is found in the Manifesto of the Swedish Party, which is probably going to take on the same authority as the Charter of the Global Greens, which presents the principles which all Green Parties acknowledge as the basis of the Party.

Likely the same could be said for the Pirate Party Declaration of Principles 3.2. There is now a 3.3 by the way.

The Principles are in the Introduction:

The Pirate-Party’s values are based on 3 fundamental values: that the personal integrity must be protected, that culture must be set free, and that patents and private monopolies are harmful for society.
We are now, in a society of surveillance in which practically everyone is registered and monitored. It is not consistent with a modern society of law that all citizens are subjected to surveillance and therefore are treated as suspects. Democracy requires strong protection of privacy.
Copyright was created to benefit society by encouraging the creation, development and dissemination of culture. The achievement of these goals requires a balance between society's demands for access and dissemination and the author's requirements for recognition and compensation. We believe, that today's copyright is out of balance. A society where culture and knowledge is free and accessible to all on equal terms benefit the society as a whole. We argue that a widespread and systematic abuse of today's copyright actively discourage these purposes by limiting both the range of culture and access to culture.
Private monopolies is one of societies archenemies. This is because it leads to excessive prices and large hidden costs for the citizens. Patents are officially sanctioned monopoly on ideas. Larger companies are fighting feverishly to break records in number of patents, which they then often use against smaller competitors in order to not be able to compete with the larger company. The monopolist’s goal is not to keep a fair market price and compete on equal terms with the customer’s benefits, price, and quality in mind. On the contrary, the patent laws are used as a lever to raise prices to a level which a free and fair market would never have paid, and to impose restrictions that it never would accept. We want to limit the possibilities of creating unnecessary and harmful monopolies.
Trademarks are primarily a protection for the consumers. We believe that the trademark law in essence works well today, so we propose no changes.

The Pirate Party of Canada echoes those principles:

The Pirate-Party of Canada values are based on three fundamental values:
that the personal integrity must be protected, that culture must be set free and that patents and private monopolies are harmful for society.

So a little more then simply sharing or stealing files as some would accuse them of espousing. When you think about it, these are issues which should concern all of us. We are becoming the surveillance society. Look around how many CCTV cameras are in operation. In the larger cities, it is the new reality. Right now, most of us see them on traffic lights, only operational when some jerk speeds through a red, and there is certainly some justification for them to be there, but what about as you enter your friendly Wal-Mart? If you think its bad here, just visit the UK; it is considered the world's leader on CCTV surveillance. A recent article in the Guardian reports on the incredible number of cameras that are trained on the average citizen. The article, entitled Every Step you Take declares:

Millions of people walk beneath the unblinking gaze of central London's surveillance cameras. Most are oblivious that deep under the pavements along which they are walking, beneath restaurant kitchens and sewage drains, their digital image is gliding across a wall of plasma screens.

So the issue is more then downloading the latest MP3 file of the popular group or singer of the moment, it's some serious material that needs to be discussed. Right now it seems that governments are more interested in curtailing civil liberties then protecting them. Of course that is done in the name of protecting and fighting the war against terrorism. It's the whole "destroy a village to save it" mentality. It is also interesting to note that political parties that want to curtail and make government smaller, are the ones who want to expand the powers of government to find out more about you. So while they cut health care, they expand the authority to learn everything about you. It's as if they are waiting for you to mess up.

If that wasn't enough, consider this fact: the Pirate Party sells cool tee shirts and other paraphernalia, for the well dressed pirate to wear.

To quote Captain Jack Sparrow: "Savvy"

Canada- the New Rogue State

As we celebrate the 142nd Anniversary of Confederation, let us consider a few facts about Canada. For some reason, there has been a few headlines which point to a disturbing trending of this fair Dominion. For some odd reason, this headlines point to one frightening fact, Canada seems to be joining the list of Rogue States. To the list which has included such nations as North Korea, Iran and Eritrea, we include Canada.

Before start to send me some bad comments, let me give you three examples:

1) Early in June, it was revealed that USAirways Flight 1549 was brought down by Canada Geese. If you read the article you will discover that a DNA testing revealed the geese had come from Newfoundland. It only makes sense, rogue birds from the Rogue Province of Newfoundland & Labrador brought down a commercial jet liner. This was an act of terrorism. Sadly it makes sense, if you want to talk about the avian Al-Qaeda, you have to talk about Canada Geese. These birds are obnoxious, noisy, dirty and if you have ever been on a golf course or a city park, they leave their own IED's. These winged Mujahideen would think nothing of taking down an airplane, no matter how many of them had to give their lives to the cause. Probably the last honks would be translated 'Goose is Good'. It would not surprise me if Danny Willians wasn't involved somehow in the act of violence to that innocent plane. By the way, in response, New York City will remove from the city airports, all Canada Geese. I suspect the US will open the Goose equivalent to Gitmo to deal with these potential terrorists.

2) A recent report from the UN labels Canada as the leading exporter of both Ecstasy and Crystal Meth. The organization's drug czar Antonio Maria Costa says:

“We have seen in Canada an increase in manufacturing and seizures in illicit drugs because of pretty tough measures in the United States, which have made some of the manufacturing migrate south towards Mexico and north towards Canada,”

So while the US is cracking down the labs that manufacture the drugs, Canada with its lax drug enforcement and soft headed judges and lawyers is becoming a haven for drug manufacturers. You couple this with the fact that in BC, marijuana has replaced forests as the largest 'cash crop', you understand this is the second step into becoming a rogue state.

3) If this wasn't harsh enough, Canada has been pegged as the leader of illegal file downloads. We are the true cyberpirates. File sharing software is on 77% of computers in Canada. We simply don't understand the necessity for artists to makes a living and so we should not do such things. Music, movies and everything in between is downloaded and shared in Canada. We are the wild west. It's no wonder the music industry is suffering, it's all because of Canada.

If you look at the numbers, you would think we are Sweden. In fact if the Pirate Bay had been set up in Canada, there would have been no law suits, no criminal trials and certainly no jail time for the founders.

To continue the Swedish analogy, a recent article in the Canada Press reveals there is a move to establish a Pirate Party in Canada. It would only make sense. However let me say that the Pirate Party is no just a one trick pony, it also wants to make issues on Internet Privacy and safety. Certainly if you read one of my blogs on the various bills being before the House, you can understand the need for this group.

So you there you have it, a Rogue State in the making.

Happy Canada Day all.

iPod Touch and Dell

A number of blogs and articles have decided to take Apple to task for charging iPod Touch owners $9.99 for upgrade to 3.0. The issue is the fact that the upgrade, which came earlier for the iPhone was free for them, but us poor Touch owners have to pay through the nose, well, perhaps not through the nose, but that it seems to be an issue. Andrew Nusca wrote a blog at ZDNet.com regarding this issue. He entitled it "Are iPod touch users second class citizens? Apple says 'yes'". It does seem rather unfair, because we still pay all sorts of money for the iTunes store, in fact we paid a pretty good price for the privilege of having the iPhone sans phone. Now as I have written I do enjoy the touch I have, I listen to a lot of music and podcasts, plus I surf the web and have some nice photographs to look at. I've got a nice one of Stephanie and Jon as my wallpaper, for example.

The issue is best seen with the numbers, some 6 million copies of 3.0 have been downloaded by owners of the iPhone, but only:

However, just 1 percent of iPod touch users accessing AdMob’s network had upgraded by the same date, according to the company. Seventy-eight percent were running the latest point release of iPhone Software 2.0, released last year.

That's quite a discrepancy when you think about it, as the article states, something like 40% of iphone owners have the new software but a mere handful have done the same with the ipod touch.

I suspect two things may be the problem, one is the price, it's not paying for anything with the touch is the issue, since many of us have purchased apps and games for the touch, so that's not the issue. It is probably the fact that one group pays and the other doesn't. Some have suggested that iphone owners pay for the upgrade through the subscription, while touch owners don't. That may be true, after all the only money Apple makes on the touch happens when you buy it, there is no steady stream of income. One question is will this make the device worthless? If everything is now being geared to 3.0, will that mean an end of apps that will work on the touch? It is possible, if Apple wants to turn off a whole lot of users, a group that may not think of upgrading to the iPhone. It tends to happen.

I haven't downloaded the upgrade, I'm debating it in my mind. I'm not sure, I like what I can do with the touch right now. The upgrades don't interest me, probably because it is not my primary device for connecting to the Internet, for example. Although there are some features which do interest me, such as the landscape keyboard and the bluetooth ability, especially if it means more then just headphones. I have a bluetooth dongle which I use with my laptop and cellphone, so if I can use it the same way, it's something to consider.

It may also be a simple case that Apple is mis-reading their clientele, it does happen and nowadays, when it does, the company usually ends up getting taken to task. More then one company, in its efforts to screw the consumer finds out there is something called "Internet", that quickly gets the word out and the company ends up looking very bad.



So much for Apple, now what about Dell? It appears Dell may be re-entering the personal device market. An article in the Wall Street Journal states that: Dell is Working on a Portable Web Gadget. From the article, the new thing will be slightly larger then the touch and use Android software. It is supposed to be the first in a long line of "Mobile Internet Devices", which fill the gap between the smartphone and the laptop, actually probably the netbook. It's the small device that gives more room and probably storage as well as memory then the smartphone, read iphone but would fit in a pocket and be far easier to carry around. Hopefully the battery life will be better then the touch, which when you go to wifi tends to diminish. This is another reason to be suspicious of the upgrade, what will Bluetooth do to the battery life? I know from my cellphone, there is a faster drain when I've got bluetooth turned on. I also understand, early phones with Android ran into the same battery problems.

A "leaked" photograph of the Dell Android 'phone':



One blogger suggests it resembles the Palm Pre, but I think it more resembles the Dell Axim X50/51 series of PDA's. Likely it will not be a smartphone, or an Android phone, at least not in North America, apparently there is talk of a Dellphone coming to China in the near future.

Perhaps not being a phone is the winning combination. If you have read any of my past writings, you know I am a fan of the Dell Axim, in fact I still use my X3i daily. It contains my spreadsheets, contacts, calendar, games and music files. I also use it to connect to the Internet when I can't be bothered with the desktop or even the laptop. I replaced the standard battery with a larger one, so it has more of a charge. I'm not sure why Dell stopped making the Axim although I think it had to do with the rise of smartphones, people didn't want to carry around a whole lot of electronic devices. The Axim received good reviews when they first came out, due to the fact they put a whole lot of features and sold them at a reasonable price. They were very popular as well, in fact owners tended to be very loyal. I should know, I am one of those loyal owners.

It seems with the rise of the netbooks, people want something larger then a smartphone and if it holds true, not being a phone may not be a huge issue. So we shall have to wait. If Dell can do it, they will return to the smaller device market- I have got to find another word for 'device', and it is something which will interest a lot of people.

Stay tuned for further developments

What Truly Matters


Last week, it seems was the time for celebrities to die. You know the list, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays. All of them have passed on and much of the time of the last weekend was spent looking at the lives. While we do remember the lives of those lost and the impact each has had on popular culture, let's not forget what really counts. It is what is happening in Iran.

People are still protesting in Iran, it may not be in the streets, but they are still demanding a fair and just election. People are still being arrested and murdered by the State thugs that are under the control of the ruling body.

Recent, a group of Iranian bloggers issued a statement regarding the election. Here it is:

Statement by a group of Iranian bloggers about the Presidential elections and the subsequent events

1) We, a group of Iranian bloggers, strongly condemn the violent and repressive confrontation of Iranian government against Iranian people’s legitimate and peaceful demonstrations and ask government officials to comply with Article 27 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution which emphasizes “Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.”

2) We consider the violations in the presidential elections, and their sad consequences a big blow to the democratic principles of the Islamic Republic regime, and observing the mounting evidence of fraud presented by the candidates and others, we believe that election fraud is obvious and we ask for a new election.

3) Actions such as deporting foreign reporters, arresting local journalists, censorship of the news and misrepresenting the facts, cutting off the SMS network and filtering of the internet cannot silence the voices of Iranian people as no darkness and suffocation can go on forever. We invite the Iranian government to honest and friendly interaction with its people and we hope to witness the narrowing of the huge gap between people and the government.

A part of the large community of Iranian bloggers

Consider this from the BBC:

One hardline cleric has called for people who take their protests to the streets to be charged with waging war on God, an offence that in Iran carries the death penalty.

With the constitution, a great deal of power rests with the clerics. So for a hardliner to make this statement, it probably echoes the feelings of a number of people who make up the government. If you think this person may be speaking for himself or an unimportant part of the Iranian society, here is another fact to consider:

Saeed Mortazavi, a prominent Iranian jurist and prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, has been tapped to lead the investigation of jailed reformist leaders and party officials amidst widespread demonstrations in response the disputed June 12th presidential election.

Mortazavi, who has been implicated by Human Rights Watch for torture, illegal detention and coercion for confessions, gained infamy for his role in the death of a Canadian-Iranian photographer who was tortured, beaten and raped while detained in 2003. In 2000, Mortazavi led a crackdown against the Islamic Republic’s domestic opposition, ordering the closure of over 100 newspapers. Four years later he detained more than twenty bloggers and journalists, holding them in unknown locations. “The leading role of Saeed Mortazavi in the crackdown in Tehran should set off alarm bells for anyone familiar with his record,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch.

In 2005, the BBC published an article entitled: "The Price Paid for Blogging Iran". In the article Clark Boyd states:

Web logs have become a popular forum for dissent. And the Iranian government has responded by arresting dozens of bloggers.

If that was 2005, imagine what is going on right now. With such things as cameraphones and Twitter, the message is getting out to the world. It is through YouTube we saw the video of protests turning violent as the State apparatus decided to silent those who questioned the outcome of the election. We saw the death of Neda Agha Soltan, the message is getting out.

Blogging is so simple in the west, but in Iran, the potential for danger is real. For further information you can read the article Ctr+Alt+Delete:Iran's Response to the Internet from the site, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

It is up to us in the West to keep the pressure on, to let the protesters know they are not forgotten.

Show Solidarity with the Iranian People.

Brantford- Music City Canada

The good news about Harmony Square, besides being a natural place for people to gather is that the Bell Stage has become the place for musicians to gather for all sorts of concerts.

From its inception, those responsible have made sure, or so it seems, that music would be at the forefront of all events. I've been there a couple of times already and it has impressed how music is being used to bring people together.

As it is with us as people, music eventually comes to the forefront. After all, music is such a part of our lives that it simply makes sense. It seems so far there is a lot of music happening.

Take for example today, I was downtown because of a photocrawl sponsored by the Brantford Arts Block. Of course I arrived late and I wasn't sure where everyone was going to meet. However when I got there, a whole lot of people had assembled:



From what I gathered, the local music school was having a year end or a season ending performance with a number of the students. The various students and their bands were to perform various Beatles songs. They weren't just doing note by note covers, but bringing into the song their own interpretations. The first group decided to take the Beatles songs and add a punk sensibility to them. I talked briefly with the father of the lead singer and suggested it was the Ramones meet the Beatles.



It was good and did bring the crowd to give them a good hand of applause. It is an interesting concept, to bring classic rock to the crowd, especially since the parents of the students cut their teeth, for the most part with the Beatles.

It was one of those things that just happen, you go to Harmony Square and watch the music take place.

Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act

It appears the present government in Canada is very interested in what you do with your computer. I mean, really, really interested in what your computer is doing. The reason I say that is two bills that are currently before the House of Commons. The first is Bill C-46, also known as the Investigative
Powers for the 21st Century Act and Bill C-47, also known as Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century
Act. Funny how both those titles are refered to as the 'short' titles to the bills.

I will admit I haven't read the second one, but if I can give the explanation for it as found on the Public Safety website, it is a bill:

it will address the challenges posed by modern technologies that did not exist when the legal framework for interception was designed nearly 40 years ago. Police forces and CSIS will continue to require warrants for interception. This legislation will simply ensure that when warrants are issued, a technical solution is available so that police forces and CSIS can actually intercept communications.

In other words, it instructs ISP's to have available the means to intercept and hand over to who ever shows up with a warrent, the material requested by the warrent. As the bill itself states:

The purpose of this Act is to ensure that telecommunications service providers have the capability to enable national security and law enforcement agencies to exercise their authority to intercept communications and to require telecommunications service providers to provide subscriber and other information, without unreasonably impairing the privacy of individuals, the provision of telecommunications services to Canadians or the competitiveness of the Canadian telecommunications industry.

I would imagine that also included in this demand is that ISP's better have the ability and server farms out there to store all that data because you just never know when somebody will show up with a warrent.

Let me say, that's nothing. The bill I've been reading and really questioning is the first one, Bill C-46, this act empowers the law enforcement agencies the right to take whatever they want from you without necessarily having a warrent. I'll talk about that in a few paragraphs.

Bill C-46 considers a lot of behavior that is to be illegal in Canada, all having to do with telecommunications and the transmittion of voice and date. In particular the latter. It is an attempt to modernize the work of fighting crime and giving the law enforcement agencies the powers to search modern telecommunications material and also declare what behavior is illegal.

Let's mention just a few: phone phreaking

Everyone who, without lawful excuse,makes, possesses, sells, offers for sale, imports, obtains for use, distributes or makes available a device that is designed or adapted primarily to use a telecommunication facility or obtain a telecommunication service without payment of a lawful charge, under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the device has been used or is or was intended to be used for that purpose, is(a) guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years; or
(b) guilty of an offence punishable on

So if the police ever stop you, better get rid of the Cap'n Crunch bos'n whistle, otherwise you are screwed.

Computer Virus is illegal:

(1.1) Everyone commits mischief who wilfully
(a) destroys or alters computer data;(b) renders computer data meaningless, useless
or ineffective;(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the
lawful use of computer data; or(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with a
person in the lawful use of computer data or denies access to computer data to a personwho is entitled to access to it.

So better get rid of your copy of the Virus Creation Laboratory software otherwise you could be in trouble as well. Not that it's all that effect anyways.

AS well, phishing, uploading trojans, stealing sensitive data off computers or turning computers into spam generating zombies is also now illegal in Canada.

So what's the problem with all that, these are all annoyances that should be dealt with by the strength of the law. As well, it does put strong sentences on people who use computers for child pornography or enticing children and producing and disseminating hate material. All would agree these are crimes which should be dealt with and if these scumbags end up with a few more years in jail then previously, a good thing.

There are a few problems, the first is Form 5.001

FORM 5.001
(Subsection 487.012(1))
PRESERVATION DEMAND
Canada,
Province of ..........
(territorial division)
To (name of person), of .........., (office or occupation):
Because I have reasonable grounds to suspect that the computer data specified below is in your possession or control and that that computer data will assist in the investigation of an offence that has been or will be committed under (specify the provision of the Criminal Code or other Act of Parliament),
(or)
will assist in the investigation of an offence that has been committed under (specify the provision of the law of the foreign state) that is being conducted by a person or authority, (name of person or authority), with responsibility in (specify the name of the foreign state) for the investigation of such offences, you are required to preserve (specify the computer data) that is in your possession or control when you receive this demand until (insert date) unless, before that date, this demand is revoked or a document that contains that data is obtained under a warrant or an order.
This demand is subject to the following
conditions:
If you contravene this demand without lawful excuse, you may be subject to a fine.
You are required to destroy the computer data that would not be retained in the ordinary course of business, and any document that is prepared for the purpose of preserving the computer data,in accordance with section 487.0194 of the Criminal Code. If you contravene that provision without lawful excuse, you may be subject to a fine, to imprisonment or to both.
..................................................
(Signature of peace officer or public officer)

In other words, if the nice Police Officer shows up to your house with this piece of paper, it's 'hand it over'. Notice, this is not a search warrent, it's permission to seize your property. Now the bill specifies that this is good for only 21 days after which they return the property. Now, if you think that when you get your computer back, it might be a good idea to wipe clean the hard drive, reformat it, and then re-install the operating system, the bill has another form, 5.002 which gives law enforcement agencies the right to preserve what you have on that hard drive:

Before making the order, the justice or judge must be satisfied by information on oath in Form 5.002
(a) that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence has been or will be committed under this or any other Act of Parliament or has been committed under a law of a foreign state, that the computer data is in the person’s possession or control and that it will assist in the investigation of the offence; and
(b) that a peace officer or public officer intends to apply or has applied for a warrant or an order in connection with the investigation to obtain a document that contains the computer data.

What's the issue? If there are bad guys, then the government should have as much in the way of power to go after them, after all, we live in a scary world. Let's again consider it, the law says that if you are annoying, you are guilty:

Everyone commits an offence who, with intent to alarm or annoy a person, makes an indecent communication to that person or to any other person by a means of telecommunication

I can be arrested if I'm annoying. Think about it, most of us spend a great deal of time annoying somebody. Just because I tweet something that someone finds annoying, does that mean I should expect to see a police officer with form 5.001?

What I find very disturbing, and Drew Wilson brings this up in his blog Zero Paid, that this act gives foreign governments the right to go after Canadian citizens. The section of the Bill that deals with this is 487.012:

in the case of an offence committed under a law of a foreign state, an investigation is being conducted by a person or authority with responsibility in that state for the investigation of such offences; and
(c) the computer data is in the person’s possession or control and will assist in the
investigation of the offence.

This is troubling, if I should break the law of another nation, and if the foreign government finds out where I live, I can expect to see Form 5.001. Now there are a lot of reasons, to go after me, some very good. However, what if I'm a dissident living in Canada and I publish articles critical of that foreign government, or I send information to those who are involved in resistance groups. What if I print something or criticize a government and state that little girls should receive the same education as little boys. In some nations that is considered wrong. What protection do I have? According to that section, almost none. Now let's say the hard drive that contains my critical articles also has the names and email addresses of other dissidents- what happens to that information, is it handed over to that unfriendly government? Let's say the country I am critical about is involved in sensitive trade negotiations with my government, what happens if I'm on the bargaining table?

Drew tends, in his blog, to consider DRM issues, but it could be a lot worse.

I suppose the question is, would a government throw any of its citizens, or people here, under the bus? That's the question.

Perhaps it is time to consider True Crypt, but then again, the Bill gives the law enforcement officials the right to get the password out of you. A solution, John C. Dvorak suggested encrypt the drive twice and between the encryption just have some regular documents and stuff, to satisfy them.

Nerdcore Reggae

As many may know I am a big fan of Nerdcore. If you don't know what nerdcore aka nerdcore hip-hop is all about, it's; music that considers things such as old gaming platforms, star trek and star wars- all the things that are of interest to the nerd in all of us.

Nerdcore is the music of choice of such artists such as Doc Popular or the God Father of Nerdcore, MC Frontalot.

Likely you might think this is a pretty obscure form of music, only popular among those people who spend time on Twitter or YouTube. Just before you think it's totally obscure, consider this he has been featured in Wired (naturally) and MSNBC. The latter considered the documentary Nerdcore Rising, which was based upon MC Frontalot's first US tour. You can watch the trailer:



Yeah you may think, I get nerdcore, songs about LOLcats and all that is of interest to the computer nerd in all of us. It's about style and substance too:



Of course, the good news of tech nerd has now gone beyond the hip hop and entered the area of reggae. The artist Randy Ponzio who has the excellent website Questpoetics has written, produced and posted the song "Tech Nerds", it's all about the world of Leo Laporte and the TWIT network. It's all about how listening to the TWIT podcasts turned him into a tech nerd:



As all of us who have been listening to Leo Laporte for the last 200 episodes, and congratulations Leo on that milestone, we have all become tech nerds, especially since he hasn't been all over the place with twitter. You have to admit it was nauseating after a time, I mean it's twitter, not the invention of sliced bread. But once he sort of soured off twitter, although he still mentions it on net@nite, which isn't bad because I think that's the podcast that should carry news and information on things like twitter or facebook. It can be said that Leo Laporte and Kevin Rose has turned us into tech nerds.

If you think Randy is a one trick pony, he's got some excellent vidcasts and other songs that you can enjoy.



Nerdcore Hiphop, Nerdcore Reggae, the rising musical forms.

You heard it here first.

Going Green

This posting has nothing to do with whether or not you bring your own bags to the supermarket or WalMart. Nor does it have anything to do with the Green Party of Canada or the Global Greens.

It has to do with the reaction to the recent Iranian Presidential elections. When the results were first announced, it appeared that the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won reelection. However, if you have been following the news, a great number of Iranians, especially the younger adults have disagreed. They have taken to the streets in great number to protest what they consider is the 'stealing' of the election.



The young people are using the green color to demonstrate their solidarity with the man they consider to have fairly won the election, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and to show their reaction against the election results.

It might be easy to dismiss the young people as simply sour losers, after all, 'their' candidate didn't win, it's called democracy, get over it. However, there seems to be a great deal of questions as to the validity of the results.

It would take too much time to get into the nuance, you can read about the election here.

Now for the color of this blog:

people are being asked to show their solidarity with the Iranian protesters by using the colour green as part of their blog or avatar. People are turning their avatar green on Twitter to show solidarity and support for the students who are blogging, tweeting and posting videos to show the world what is happening in Iran.

A website has been established that will turn your avatar green.

Of course there are those who will ask, how does this help? After all its a relatively safe thing to do, changing the colour of one's avatar, no one is getting shot here.

What are we doing? We are letting the young people know, there are many outside of Iran who are showing they do care what is going on in that wonderful nation. They are not alone and people are doing their best to get the message out. While they are asking for intervention, this should be recognized as not possible. Iran is a sovereign nation and outside interference would only compromise the Revolution as those in power use the news of outsiders getting involved as a means of cheapening the stand of the reformers as nothing more then agents of foreign interests.

So what else? Show the green colour.

Write to the Iranian embassy and let them know you are standing with the reformers. In Canada, the website is here.

Watch the videos, remember these people are standing against the State for something they believe in, something we do share with them and that is freedom.

Europe 2009, from the safety of this side of the Atlantic

Being a political junkie I was, of course, glued to the television and computer to follow the results of the European Parliamentary Elections. The European Parliament is one of the inventions of the European Union and so it allows all Europeans a voice in the discussion of issues which effect the Continent as a whole. It's members are elected to a five year term by direct universal sufferage of the various nation states. What makes it interesting, besides the fact that most Europeans have no idea what it does, is the fact that it has two meeting places. As the EU attempts to be the EU, it has to spread out the largess so that no single place has more then its fair share of EU money. It's would be akin to the House of Commons continuing to meet in Ottawa with its committee work being done by some building in Vancouver. With the seat of power being in Winnipeg.

The European Parliament has two meeting places, namely the Louise Weiss building in Strasbourg, France, which serves for twelve four-day plenary sessions per year and is the official seat, and the Espace Léopold (Dutch: Leopoldruimte) complex in Brussels, Belgium, the larger of the two, which serves for committee meetings, political groups and complementary plenary sessions. The cost of having all MEPs and their staff moving several times a year from one place to another is of concern to some. The Secretariat of the European Parliament, the Parliament's administrative body, is based in Luxembourg.

At this point, this famous scene from the BBC series Yes Minister should be used:



Something about 'Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.'.

The good news is the Parliament is gaining more authority and one day may be more of a legislative branch and wrestle control from the bureaucrats who now inhabit Brussels. It may make the EU a truly democratic body with real clout to deal with issues that encompass all of Europe. One desire expressed by many is that there should be transnational candidates, so that a person in the UK could vote for a candidate in France, for example.

What did I learn about the election, much of the story centred on a couple of things, the first being that the Centre-Right, the European People's Party holds the plurality of the seats in the Parliament, much as they did at dissolution. The big losers have been the Party of European Socialists. Although what is interesting is that both the main blocs lost seats at this time. The EPP held onto strength by the victories experienced in France, Italy, Germany, the UK and Poland. But there is some interesting twists to this: in two of those nations, France and Italy, the Socialist opposition to Centre-Right governments, governments that should have suffered at the hands of the voters during the recession, were almost non-existent. That might be a strong phrase, perhaps a better one is, they couldn't get their act together. So the EPP may have won more by default then anything else. In Poland, the EPP is composed of members of the governing party, which has led Poland through the recession with a great deal of success, apparently it's the only nation in which the economy is growing. However, it should be pointed out that only 27% of eligible voters went to the polls, so with its share of the popular vote at 15% it means on 13.5% of the electorate supported the government party. The Conservatives did well in the UK because the Labour Party is having some problems of its own, such as preparingn to sacrifice the Prime Minister on the altar of inefficiency.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe did what Liberals tend to do and that is stay in the middle ground between the left and the right andn stay the course. They'll probably have about 100 seats when all is said and done.

I should point out that in Spain, the governing Socialist party is getting beaten, which is about right for a government in the midst of recession. So things do act out right when there is a strong opposition.

The winners seem to be as follows:

The Greens, which managed to win 50 seats, some have thought this may have been where the left vote went. In France the party picked up a number of seats, a country where the Socialist Opposition simply didn't work.

The No Alliance, which went from 29 seats to 88 seats. This is composed of winning candidates who are not declared as being a part of any bloc or having a bloc. Many in this tend to be the protest parties, those of the fringe and those of the growing far right. It is here the real result of the recession is probably seen. In the UK there is some hand-wringing as the British National Party, an anti-immigration, anti-Europe, pro-white party elected two members to the European Parliament. What does this mean? Is Britian becoming racist, or revealing its racist nature? Is it a protest vote against mainstream politicians who live with their inflated expense accounts?

As always, the Euroskeptic feeling is always present in the UK, with the election of a number of UK Independence Party elected, in fact this party tied Labour with the number of seats. This tends to be the party of Euroskeptics, standing more for Britain then Brussels. Still a great deal of this group is composed of extreme right wing parties, such as those elected in Hungary, Roumania and Bulgaria. One commentator wondered if members of this group would be able to come together as a bloc and have influence on the the debate and composition of various committees. At the same time it was observed while they may have the same views, a lot of them don't like the others, plus most are hiding their anti-racists views, although the Hungarian group is quite open about their hostility to gypsies.

However, all is not lost, the Swedish Pirate Party has won a seat. It polled 7.1% of the popular voted to send one member to Strasbourg. The Pirate Party has been growing in membership and influence ever since the trial of the founders of The Pirate Bay,many believe the trial was a sham and it was rigged against the three by the might of the entertainment industry. This will be on-going. So there is a Pirate in the European Parliament.

While discussion has been made, I think the real impact is the turn-out of the vote, 43% across Europe showed up and voted. This I think is the real story and demonstrates the fact that where there was no real credible opposition, people simply didn't bother. I haven't done the research but I would guess that this percentage is under the national average of the European member nations by about 20% give or take. It is interesting to note, where there was a credible opposition, such as in the UK, Spain and Portugal, the governing party lost big time, where there was not, it was as if the victory was by default. The voters, unless truly motivated did not necessarily vote Green but would be happy to park their vote in the fringe, where a message could be sent to the national party that they better smarten up. If so, then it could be said the European Parliamentary election are the international equivalent to a by-election, where the voters can send a message to the government without really bringing about something bad.

But when all is said and done, the real opposition is found with those who stayed home, either because there was an absence of a credible opposition, or their skepticism to Europe made them conclude it wasn`t worth the effort.

Finding Brantford's Spirit

It's fascinating being part of the revival of a downtown.

For many years downtown Brantford was considered a disaster, a place more to be avoided then to be enjoyed. When the economy went south about ten years ago Brantford became a ghost town, in fact a horror movie was shot here and the producers didn't have to make any great changes.

Now, the downtown is vibrant with life and culture. The development of Harmony Square has been an important part of the revitalization. As you know if you go back about a year, Brantford had its first jazz festival in the downtown and it was great.

Today, Harmony Square and a part of the downtown was the place to be to celebrate the Arts in the City. With the sun shining the the temperatures approaching those of a late spring weekend, it was a great day.

So the streets and the square was part of people, participating, enjoying and sharing their love of culture and culture with those around them. There was paintings and singing, there was even a drum circle established for those who wanted to pound some drums:






>

There was things for the kids to do, including the practice of their fencing ability:



I only spent a little over an hour at the Square but it was a great time.

One of the best was Gail Obediah, a local singer songwriter from the Six Nations of the Grand River. She sang songs that she had written and the crowd supported her energy and talent







There's a great deal taking place in Harmony Square, it will be a good summer to enjoy for the city.

A Dell Moment

So I'm thinking to myself that I haven't said much about the new Dell Studio 17 laptop I purchased early this year. It still is a nice working machine and I'm enjoy using it for all my social networking and generally working around with the computer. It is working fine and I'm loading it with my photographs, music and other such things that I want to save and keep. As well, I can report the Dell back up service is doing a good thing backing up documents and the sort.

I've even watched a few movies on it, and with the headphones plugged in, a nice time is had by me and I don't disturb too many people.

But today I decided to watch a few Video podcasts. I've got my favourites, shows such as: Diggnation, CommandN, Geek Entertainment TV and, of course, CrankyGeeks> I mean what would I do without my weekly watching of John C. Dvorak and all the rest of the Cranks. Seriously for a relatively short time slot, they do discuss a number of the tech news headlines. Plus John C. is quick to dismiss that which is either a) a obvious twitter, google or apple PR plant disguising as a 'news story', or b) something really not that interesting. Or how about a week without Kevin Rose or Alex Albrecht, I mean, come on, if this isn't 'must see TV', I don't know what is.

For most of the time I watch over the iPod Touch. I got my iTunes set up to download them once a week, or whenever they are available. I watch, that is until today.

I watched on the glorious 17 inch HiDef screen that is the Studio laptop and let me say, not likely to watch on the Touch. There is no comparison, the colours, the quality are spectacular. It now appears many of the vidcasts are done in HiDef and I can enjoy each and every moment on the big computer screen.

It is simply spectacular. Dell designed a great computer when they decided to make the Studio. As I have read it's a link between the Dell Inspiron and the Dell XPS.

It is considered a 'desktop replacement' meaning it has the same power as the standard desktop but in a portable form. It certainly does, as it stands right now this has more memory as the main desktop. There's much I can do with this machine and do it from the comfort of the chair.

If you can remember, I posted photographs I took of the opening of the Dell box, it now seems I'm not the only one because if you go to YouTube you can find a number of videos of people doing the same thing. Perhaps for my next laptop I'll do that. Not that I'm planning to buy one any time soon, I'm enjoying this one too much, plus I got the extended warrenty on it so I'm good to go for the next three years.

Here's an example of a video:



My Dell, I think I'll keep it.

Getting Binged

The word on the web is the launch of Microsoft's new search engine Bing. From what the news articles on the web are pointing out, it's Microsoft's attempt to catch up and pass Yahoo. If this is true, then it's a gainable objective, if they decide to take on Google, they are probably at least ten years too late for that to happen.

Of course, this is not Microsoft's first attempt at a browser, they've had a few in the past conneted with good old MSN. If you can remember how bad that was, you know that it did nothing to enhance Microsoft in the Internet world. Mind you, throughout the 90's and this decade, people have been convinced there is something wrong with Microsoft. They are the Evil Empire of the Computer. This is not to say they haven't done some clunks; such as the fact Bill Gates himself dismissed the Internet and then there is that little Anti-Trust problem. As you know it had to do with the fact that Internet Explorer was bundled with Windows 95 and so the average user simply went to it by default. This destroyed Netscape and gave IE a market share that was very high.

So Microsoft has had a bad reputation, which wasn't enhanced by Windows Vista. In fact a recent Time article, which I mentioned in my last blog declared it to be a technological lemon, up there with satellite radio.

Now it's Bing's time. Some complain that the name is a bit contrived and is:

Google was a stupid name that eventually grew on me. Bing seems to be trying too hard to become a verb.

David Coursey wrote an article that was rather critical of Bing. The title of the article is Microsoft Bing goes Live: So what?
He doesn't trash it totally, rather he finds nothing in it to move from Google:

There's nothing wrong with Bing, so much as there's nothing that makes me feel I've got to have it. Or even want to use it again.On good thing about Bing: At present, there is less advertising on search result pages. My bet is Microsoft very much wants that to change, but for now Bing pages are nicely uncluttered.

From the other camp is coming some very nice reviews, David Dignan wrote: Bing is Live:Nice First Impression. Some are congratulating Steve Ballmer for doing this and jumping the first set date of launch, was it an attempt to catch Google a bit off guard?

What about it? It is neat. There is the blank bar to type and it's surrounded by a very nice photograph. It is fast and seems to get good results. Microsoft claims the algorithms of its' search engine. Jennifer LeClaire wrote:

With Bing, Microsoft is renewing its focus on relevancy. Ipos Insights reports Relevant Products/Services that 66 percent of people are using online search more frequently to make complex decisions. Bing aims to help slice and dice information for that majority.

It wants to help people to make the right decisions with their search and therefore more relevent.

I've tried it a bit of time and like I said, it is a nice picture. One thing that should be done is to allow the user to personalize it with their own photographs and pictures. That would be nice and it's something that is available on a number of webistes and services. Give us a chance to change the background and we will be happy.

The map service is very good. I've used it to look up garden centres and it gives a number of results, with all the information I need. The news is lacking, let's face it, this is one of the places Google rocks. It featues the news on the newsheading. I like the opportunity to glean a large number of news sources to get an understanding of what is happening. If I know what is happening, I simply type the name in the box of Bing, in the news format and I will find the same thing, centred upon that word. It's good to have all those sources, but first of all, it's good to do a search of what is happening out there.

Now the report, would I use Bing? I can see myself doing that. Will it replace Google? Does anyone remember and use Cuil?

With Microsoft's resources it is likely to be more then "just another search engine" but will not be the Google killer. It's okay and that's about it.

Radio Snob

I will confess I'm a bit of a radio snob. By that I mean if given the choice I would prefer spending my time listening to the radio. Something about the availability and information that is radio has appealed to me. Plus it can be very funny at times.

A couple of years ago, as you may know, I was able to get an XM Radio receiver for free and I decided to sign up for the account. The unit was the XPress EZ Radio. It took a few minutes to get it placed into the vehicle, seems the Pontiac Sunfire doesn't have the easiest blowers to connect things too, needless to say I got it hooked up. To solve some of the problems I have incorporated bungee cords to keep things still and it works beautifully.

So what do I like about satellite radio? Well, after a couple of years I have learned to simply hate terrestrial radio. Perhaps 'hate' is a strong word, a better one, or phrase may be I have learned to appreciate the vast selection of satellite radio and find terrestrial radio very limited in selection and scope. For some reason Brantford has poor radio reception and selection, so satellite is the way to go.

The merger has created some problems, one writer had this article. I have to agree, anything that limits my choice of trance is a bad thing.

Now I realize any blog or news on satellite radio will probably have a negative spin to it, after all it was just about a year ago that the two main services, XM and Sirius merged. This was due in fact that both were bleeding red ink since their individual commencement. I should point out that recently, Time Magazine declared satellite radio one of the Biggest Tech Failure of the Last Decade. Yes follow the link and you can discover why Time made that claim stick with satellite radio. If you read the article the failure had more to do with the fact it has not made money, rather then any technological problem. Still I suppose if your an investor and put any money down, you would agree with the accessment. There has been problems and I will admit, there was a time after the official merger and when I was contemplating cancelling the subscription. There was a lag time as the two systems tried to come together and work out some of the bugs. Fortunately I decided to continue with it, and since I got a satellite radio boom box, that little unit has been liberated from the car and has come indoors, or outdoors, where ever I put it. The Delphi Boom Box means satellite radio goes anywhere I want to go. This means that I don't have to miss any baseball games, or hockey games for that matter. It has been a great benefit and so let me say 'thanks kids' for giving it to me for Christmas.

So I had the negative article, now for some good news, I read one article by a fan of satellite radio, in the New York Daily News one feature writer wrote a column entitled: "Why Satellite Radio makes us beam". I have to agree with him, the fact there are so many channels means I can experience a large number of niches and styles. Right now I'm listening to "Spa", the new age channel. Well, what would you expect for a quiet Saturday night.

I've heard a number of complaint about satellite radio, besides what I quoted, but I wonder if things will soon get better. I look around and see a number of family members with satellite. I know Stephanie and Jon have Sirius, Kim has XM, installed with her car and Jeremy just got Sirius, he wanted hardcore sports and the CFL. I know this is an extremely small group to consider, immediate family, but I wonder if this is something that may start to happen.

Right now General Motors is offering two years subscriptions to XM Radio with the purchase of many models. They have an Overview page with the information. I know it states a free 3 month subscription, but we've all seen the ads on television. I suppose someone could make the joke that a bankrupt car company is equipping its models with bankrupt satellite radio. Talk about synergy. It makes a person feel good all over. Still it means more people listening to satellite radio and that ultimately has to be a good thing. I don't know if I want to call it the long expected and hope for breakthrough for satellite radio, or that we shall enter a period when just by sheer numbers it will become popular, its something we can all hope for in the near future.

So I will make sure the subscription keeps going and I will continue to be a fan of satellite radio.