Friday afternoon I logged into my myspace account after a long absence and, after debating about it for about 3 seconds, deleted my account entirely. It's not like it caused me any headache or anything, but I just don't use it really at all anymore and don't have time to maintain that and my facebook account. So, after searching around for a while, I managed to find the "Delete Account" button and forever put it into the trash.
Anyone else actually still use myspace, or has everyone migrated to Facebook now?
Also, a few people have been tracking my new blog entries with twitter - if ...
JetBlue is about to launch a beta Airbus 320 plane that features in flight wireless. Pretty cool. Check it out here.
In a welcome first for domestic airlines, JetBlue will be rolling out free in-flight Yahoo IM and email services to passengers packing WiFi-equipped devices, starting aboard its new "BetaBlue" Airbus A320. Once this test-bed passenger jet reaches 10,000 feet, an in-plane network with three in-ceiling access points is activated, allowing most any wireless gadget with a Flash-enabled browser to view specialized versions of either Yahoo Messenger or Mail through a universal ...
Tomorrow night Tonight there is a Vancouver technology mixer down at the trendy night club Republic on Granville Street. I haven't been out to one of these in a long time, mainly because I've been feeling a bit under the weather for the last few months, but I think I'm going to check it out tomorrow.
Launch Party recently launched a new website, and if you look very, very closely, you may recognize the header image on it :)
So, hopefully I'll still feel like heading out tomorrow. I will be good to catch up with some old tech friends and see what's new. Plus, it gives me an excuse to go buy a new ...
I heard little bits of pieces of this last night, but just managed to read the real blog entry today. Tony Pierce is going to be leaving LAist and will be heading over to the LA Times to run all of their blogs.
Congrats Tony, that's really awesome. First beer's on me out in TO bud. ...
Is it just me, or is facebook getting a little old these days? Except for the event planning thing, which I think is fairly useful, there's not really a lot about it that I really think is that great anymore. And to be honest, I'm getting a little tired of saying ignore to things like the funwall, or turkey tossing and what have you. I know people are just having a little fun with it, but I'm just not that interested in alot of those things everyone is inviting each other with. It's not really a big deal, as I don't get enough of them to where it takes a lot of time out of my day, I just don't ...
From here
Windows Vista rated one of the worse products ever by CNET:
Any operating system that provokes a campaign for its predecessor's reintroduction deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that quietly has a downgrade-to- previous-edition option introduced for PC makers deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that takes six years of development but is instantly hated by hordes of PC professionals and enthusiasts deserves to be classed as terrible technology.
Windows Vista conforms to all of the above. Its incompatibility with hardware, ...
For those of you who don't know, the Internet Engineering Task Force is a group of people that ultimately decide the technologies that will ultimately be engrained into the internet. UDP, TCP, SSL, HTTP - these are all examples of technologies that were originally put through the IETF before becoming standards.
Next week, the 70th IETF meeting will be hosted here in Vancouver. A bunch of people from our company usually participate in the sessions, and I might swing by and check out what's new and exciting. One of the best parts about meetings like this is that it brings together a bunch of the ...
So a while ago Darren posted on his blog that Brother was looking for a few west coast bloggers to potentially review a printer or two. Considering I take a ton of photos and ultimately end up printing a pile of them out, I thought it might be a good opportunity to test out a fairly nice printer from Brother.
Well, this big boy showed up at work today, and once I figure out just how in the world I'm going to get it home, I'll test it out and see what it can do. I plan to try printing out a bunch of my artwork to see how it performs in that capacity, as well as a few other tests with the card ...
I've been waiting patiently for this update, since I've had quite a few problems with wireless since switching to Leopard. I also need to drop my Mac off at the repair facility to probably replace the logic board in it, since I've been having weird LCD and sleep problems on my Mac. Unfortunately, there seems to be over a week delay at MacStation for even looking at these things, which means I'll basically be computerless for a while. I'm sure I'll survive, but will be weird not to have a computer at home. Maybe I can go back to doing "normal" things again for a while.
To get the new ...
This is an obvious play, but I've been waiting a long time for it to happen. Samsung has announced a new dual format (HD-DVD/Blue-Ray) DVD player, which basically means it will play everything on the market:
Samsung's HD disc player was going to be the first to do both HD DVD and Blu-ray completely right. But now, it's perfect: Samsung just sent us an alert saying the dual-format BD-UP5000 Duo HD player will come hardware-ready for BD Profile 1.1—at least 256MB of internal storage, secondary audio and video decoders, virtual file system. You realize that the rest of the Blu-players this ...
This is an obvious play, but I've been waiting a long time for it to happen. Samsung has announced a new dual format (HD-DVD/Blue-Ray) DVD player, which basically means it will play everything on the market:
Samsung's HD disc player was going to be the first to do both HD DVD and Blu-ray completely right. But now, it's perfect: Samsung just sent us an alert saying the dual-format BD-UP5000 Duo HD player will come hardware-ready for BD Profile 1.1—at least 256MB of internal storage, secondary audio and video decoders, virtual file system. You realize that the rest of the Blu-players this ...
This should be my last Apple post for a while, but I thought this was newsworthy.
Photo from here
A friend sent me an email this morning which basically talks about Vancouver being chosen for a new Apple store.
After years of speculation and anticipation, there is finally confirmation that that an Apple store will occupy a space inside the Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver (BC). The three-block indoor mall has been undergoing a long-term and extensive renovation that included demolition, construction and the juggling and moving of several retailers, along with the addition of new stores. ...
A few weeks ago I went down to the Bell Mobility store and asked how much longer I was shackled to their service. Unfortunately, it's on the order of two more years, which means I really can't get a iPhone and switch to Rogers (although, I'm still not sure that's a great option either).
So tonight, while talking to Jason, he was telling me about his recent iPod Touch purchase. It's basically the same as the iPhone, except it doesn't have a camera or obviously a phone. But the user-interface is roughly the same, and it has Wi-Fi, so you can surf the web wherever you are.
The first thing I have ...
I just read an article that basically alludes to the fact that the iPhone has been hacked. While I'm all in favour of this, there seems to be some question as to whether or not it is actually legal to do so. To that end, I'm a fairly certain it could be argued that the iPhone "lock" is a form of copy protection, in which case it would fall under the DMCA, and hence be illegal to circumvent.
We'll have to see how it all plays out, but I suspect the guys are gonna be in for a few legal headaches.
-- Update
So, the DMCA was updated last year with the following provisions:
Exemptions are ...
Today I went out for a nice walk, thinking I was going to get a few housewares for my place, and maybe pick up a new shirt or two. While out and about, I decided to swing by Future Shop and see what was new and exciting. When I walked in, I headed over to the DVD player area to see if anything was happening in the Blue-Ray or HD-DVD markets, since I've been looking to pick something up for a while.
Last week, there was a sale on the highly regarded Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player for $399, and I almost picked one up. However, that was still a little steep for my liking, and I decided to pass on it. When ...
I'm at the airport in Las Vegas, about to put some more photos up from last night and write a blog entry. But before I do that, you gotta check out this photo.
My pal Joey out in Florida managed to get his hands on an iPhone, and sent me a shot of it pointed to my blog. Very very cool -- thanks man. ...
Back in December of 2000, while home in Chilliwack visiting my family for Christmas, I made the digital plunge. I was in London Drugs, looking around the electronics section for something bright and shiny to make me happy, and my eyes settled on the first real section of digital cameras ever to hit the market.
For the most part, most of those cameras were nothing more than glorified webcams -- they took grainy photos, and really didn't have any options. However, one in particular stood out above the rest. It was the Nikon Coolpix 880, and it became my first digital camera.
I shot all my photos ...
In the last couple days, I've read several reports of people discovering embedded user data in the new DRM-free versions of music on iTunes.
While I'm not suprised, having embedded user data within these files is essentially a form of Digital Rights Management, which at the very least points to false advertising by Apple regarding these new music files. I'm quite certain that a utility will exist shortly to strip it out, should people want to, but Apple is being very guarded about these files and exactly just how DRM-free they really are.
I personally have no problem with my user data being embedded, ...
Yesterday Apple released verison 7.2 of iTunes which finally gives users the ability to download DRM free versions of songs from iTunes. The added bonus is that you can also download 256 kbps AAC versions of the files instead of the 128 kbps AAC versions.
So, before I actually go into the experience, I'd have to say I was slightly hesitant about this. When people think 128kbps, they automatically think of the old MP3s. And at 128kbps, MP3 files are fairly close to CD quality (for most people), but on my stereo at least, I can notice slight distortions. However, AAC is part of the MPEG4 standard ...
Yesterday Apple released verison 7.2 of iTunes which finally gives users the ability to download DRM free versions of songs from iTunes. The added bonus is that you can also download 256 kbps AAC versions of the files instead of the 128 kbps AAC versions.
So, before I actually go into the experience, I'd have to say I was slightly hesitant about this. When people think 128kbps, they automatically think of the old MP3s. And at 128kbps, MP3 files are fairly close to CD quality (for most people), but on my stereo at least, I can notice slight distortions. However, AAC is part of the MPEG4 standard ...
