I’ve been giving my mom my castoff MP3 players. Recently I bought my parents His & Her’s iPod Nano’s. New ones even. And that’s when Mom discovered the joy of podcasts. She’s got her own faves, but they’re mostly (all) French, which doesn’t really jive with my readership (yep, the same three dudes). So I thought I’d tell you about some of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis.

(BTW, if you’re not clear on the whole “podcast” thing, don’t sweat it. Check out these resources:

Tucows: How to Listen to Podcasts
Tucows: Tell Me About… Podcasting
butterscotch: Tune In: A Novice Guide to iTunes)

But first a quick rant about why podcasts are important, and should be part of your life. You’ve got limited time to expose yourself to content. You can choose pre-packaged, pre-digested, top-40’s content, or you can consume interesting, thought provoking material. You are what you ingest.

We’ve spent the greater part of our lives consuming content curated for us by others. The promise of the Internet was that we could assemble our own content feed. Is this good or bad? If you seek out content which agrees with your opinions, you’ll have no challenging opinions. No counterpoints. That’s probably not a good thing. So, I recommend finding content from a wide spectrum of sources. You may disagree with some of the views, but at least you’ll have exposed yourself to challenging opinions, and will be better able to articulate objections to those views. (OK, rant off.) (more…)

Hey Jim. Jim! Hold a minute y’all. I gots a question for you Jim. I want to aks you, how you spell AT&T, Jim?

I-N, C-O-M, P-E-T, E-N-T. That’s how you spell AT&T, Jim.

How you spell Comcast, Jim?

Same fucking thing. (more…)

Currently taking a short break from the winter cold, in Florida. Usually, my parents would be down here, and we would join them; but they had to remain in Toronto due to medical treatments. So we ended up opening the house.

My mother called AT&T ahead of our trip, and asked them to have the phone and Internet ready for the day of our arrival. And they promptly ignored her request. Upon our arrival, no phone, no Internet. (more…)

Our favourite moron is giving $150 million to private broadcasters, but is forcing the CBC to decimate its workforce by some 800 heads.  If we had any doubts of the Harper government’s agenda to put down the CBC, they’ve now been put to rest.

I don’t know about you, but I’m livid.  Clearly Harper missed the class where they explained the difference between public organizations and private enterprises.  If the private businesses can’t make it through these tough times, I say let them die, and allow new, more agile businesses take their place.  Not only are you delaying the inevitable, but you’re squandering public moneys.

As forests need the occasinal forest fire to renew and replenish themselves, to allow newer, more vital growth to take the place of the old growth, so too does business need to make way for newer businesses, with new business models and methods.  The world is changing, and we need innovation in every facet of our country, including the boardroom.

The other point which is blatantly obvious to the public, in spite of how gullible this government might believe us to be, is that with this “grant” to the private broadcasters, they’re now indebted to Harper and his minions.  Their journalistic integrity has been compromised.  I can no longer trust their judgement.

One of the victims of the CBC’s forced cull, has been Jesse Brown and his very excellent Search Engine podcast.  But in this case the story has a happy ending: TVO has picked up the show!

You can find the feed at this URL: http://feeds.tvo.org/tvo/searchengine.

(Nota bene: I had a terrific picture of Harper eating the CBC, which I’d spent a couple of hours on with Photoshop.  But it wasn’t backed up, so I lost it with Bender the first.)

I’d heard about RiP: A Remix Manifesto on CBC’s very excellent Search Engine podcast a couple of weeks ago.  I’m not sure how it bubbled up (probably through Facebook), but I ended up going to see it at the Royal on opening night with Morty and Bebe.

WARNING: You will come out of this movie hating the Disney Corporation with the red-hot intensity of a thousand suns.  (You know… if you didn’t already.) (more…)

The CRTC is in the process of gathering comments on Net Neutrality from Canadians, in preparation for their hearings on the subject this summer.  Now is your oportunity to let your voice be heard on this important subject.

Our friends at SaveOurNet.ca have set up a handy form to send your thoughts on the matter to CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.  They’ve even provided you with a very well crafted default letter (which you can easily edit, or override), in case you don’t have time to write one yourself.  The deadline is Feb. 16, 2009, so don’t delay!

Update: According to Mediacaster Magazine, the deadline has been extended by a week, to Feb 23.

‘We desire death as you desire life.’

- Hamas

Melanie Philips of the Daily Mail in the UK wrote a devastating analysis of the war.  The one place I disagree with her is in her conclusion:

But the Middle East conflict will not end until and unless the West comes to realise that Israel is in the frontline of the West’s own fight for survival, and starts properly defending the country struggling to defend civilisation instead of siding with those waging holy war against it.

There will be no peace until Hamas and organizations like it stop indoctrinating their children in hate, and martyrdom.  Otherwise each generation will have the same prejudices as the previous.

Israel Hamas Gaza TV programme Indoctrinates Children To Hate Jews

Hamas Indoctrinating Toddlers

11-year-old Palestinians: Martyrdom better than this world

Every Palestinian has a right to a full and productive life.  They are being robbed of that right by the people who teach them hate and martyrdom.  Do not be fooled by their manipulations of public perceptions.

Every Israeli has a right to a full and productive life.  They are being robbed of that right by the people shelling them with bombs.  They’ve had enough and it’s time to retaliate.  If Hamas decides to put their own people in harm’s way, that’s a tragedy; but Israel shouldn’t be expected to sacrifice its people because of Hamas’ lack of scruples.

As previously reported, I proudly registered my phone numbers on the National Do Not Call List the day it went live.  Since then I’ve received the usual number of telemarketing pitches from the usual assortment of crooks, swindlers and Conservatives.

In each case, I submitted a complaint about them at the DNCL website, but haven’t heard boo back.  (There is a checkbox to specify that you’d like to know the outcome of the complaint.)

Today I noticed a link to verify your registration on the list.  I checked mine, and what do you know?  It wasn’t registered.  All this time, I thought Bell and the CRTC had my back.  Guess they showed me, huh?

So I re-registered my number.  But it takes 24 hrs for it to “take” in the database.  Then, of course, it’s another 31 days before the telescum have to respect the Do Not Call request.

How long are we going to have to endure the ineptitude and incompetence of the CRTC?

You can’t swing a cat these days, it seems, without hitting a federal election.  The American election has been going on for years; and thanks to Stephen Harper’s transgressions of his own rules, we’ve got our own to deal with.  Well, bully for us!  Too bad the media are allowing important issues to remain buried.

But we have an opportunity at election time to send a message to our officials about what is important to us and our country.  How many parties pay attention to the issues that mold our quality of life?  Consumer protection, net neutrality, the protection of water and other natural resources.  The Conservatives and Liberals take these things for granted.  They trade them away for a song.  (Well, not the Conservatives, of course.  They don’t believe in the Arts.)

Now is the time to decide how we want Canada to grow and develop in the Internet Age.  We can vote for the things we know are important to us and our country.

This October 14th I’m voting for the Green Party of Canada.  Here’s why:

• The Conservatives are supposed to be all about fiscal conservatism, yet in giving away $200 billion in tax cuts they’re on the brink of bringing us back to deficit financing.  Then, of course, there’s the Arts funding cuts, and the copyright reform bill (the Canadian DMCA).  These guys are dangerous to Canada and Canadians, and for some reason the public are blissfully ignorant of this.  They DEFINITELY need to be stopped.  Want proof?  Read The Harper Report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.  Every page is an indictment of this government’s outrageous negative impact on our country and planet.
• The Liberals are, sadly, our best hope, presently, for edging out Harper and his Conservatives.  Yet, they’ve shown their callous disregard for their constituents’ concerns.  And, they’ve repeatedly slammed Israel.  They don’t care for what I care for.
• The NDP, fought against democracy in Canada when they tried to block Elizabeth May from participating in the televised election debates.  And they wanted Canada to attend the anti-semitic Durban II conference hosted by Iran and Syria.  They definitely don’t represent me.
• The Green Party has, understandably, a stated priority to promote electoral reform in Canada, so all Canadians get representation, and not just the 30 or so percent who vote Conservative.  They’re one of the only parties to support net neutrality.  And, of course, they don’t have the long history of screwing over the Canadian public that the other parties carry with them.  Finally, they’re not, as many people perceive them, a one issue party: anyone who watched the debates will attest to the terrific job Elizabeth May did.  She addressed all the issues in an intelligent, thoughtful manner.

One last point: your vote translates into dollars to the party you vote for.  Every vote garners the party $1.80.  So, if you vote for a party you don’t really believe in, you are, in fact, also supporting them financially and putting money in their coffers!  Worse still, you’re taking money away form the party you really do believe in.  So don’t fall victim to the lie of strategic voting: by voting for the party you do believe in, they’ll have more funds to get their message out next time.

So, that’s where I’m coming from.  Whatever you do on Oct 14, please vote.  If you’re thinking of voting Conservative, please read the links above first.  If you’re still thinking of voting Conservative, I entreat you to consider moving to the US.  Possibly Michigan.

It’s been over two weeks since I blogged.  It’s been busy: lots of projects at work, my sister and her husband came in to town and stayed at our place, my mother-in-law had health issues so my wife and her sisters were visiting her.  As I say busy, busy.

In the meantime, I’m participating in my Green candidate’s election campaign, putting up signs, canvassing and managing the fauxharper attack blog.  I attended an all candidates debate at Beth Emeth synagogue, but the clueless moderator turned it into a very boring, single issue debate.  It was all Israel, Israel, Israel.  Of course, Israel is an important issue, deserving of our support, but let’s not lose sight of the fact we live in Canada, and we’re under attack here as well, from the right-wing policies of Stephen Harper and the Conservative party.

I received a phone message from Ken Dryden after blasting his campaign workers for ignoring my request for face-time until they needed my support during an election.  He promised to call back, but never did.  I spoke to him briefly at the debate, but he basically wouldn’t commit to a position on either net neutrality or copyright.

Onto more pleasant subjects: I bought an electric guitar off craigslist and took my first music lesson.  Sadly, I’ve been too busy to practice much; but I’ve already started to turn that around.  This is important to me, so I pledge to dedicate time to this.  I’m shooting for at least 15 minutes of practice a day.

Well, that’s it for now.  See you in the funny papers.