Why Peer-to-Peer Filesharing is Good For Big Media

Mom invited me over for dafina yesterday, and as my car was in the shop most of the day, I spent the afternoon with M&D.  I had Bender with me and, to pass the time, I uploaded a few episodes of Weeds I had on my hard drive, to a jump drive.  Then I played them on Mom’s Ubuntu computer.

I always enjoy watching TV and movies with my mom: she’s very emotional and expressive.  Without fail, she’s more entertaining than the show itself.  In fact, even though she was tired and had said she was going to have a nap, she watched six episodes back to back!  She was hooked! Continue reading

Lexmark X9575 Loses Out

HP Officejet Pro L7650A few weeks ago I picked up a Lexmark X9575 Wireless 4-in-1 printer, scanner, dicer, chopper, at Costco.  It’s sat in the box, unopened, since then; not because I’m a lazy sloth (I am, but that’s another post, probably written by my wife), but rather because I looked up whether it was supported in Ubuntu.  The forums say, it isn’t.  So we wouldn’t be able to print from our Ubuntu-based Toshiba laptop in the living room. Continue reading

Strategy Building Session With Michael Geist

Michael Geist and I at the Fair Copyright for Canada strategy sessionThey called it a “strategy building session”, but it sure felt like a pep rally to me.  Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with pep rallies.  Especially when they’re done right.  And this one was done very well.  From the hip and inspiring location, to the fresh snacks, to the articulate, well-informed, engaging speakers; it was a pleasure to participate in this event. Continue reading

Look Up. Look Way Up.

Another couple of tweaks to the blog.  The first one is transparent to users: I’ve added Google Analytics to the code, so I can tell how many people haven’t visited my pages.

The second is near and dear to my heart: I’ve added a favicon.  These appear on the address bar and tab of your browser, and allow you to easily find the page amongst all the other tabs.  (This is assuming, of course, that you’re not a drooling idiot, and are, in fact, using a browser with tabs.  If you’re using IE 6, wipe your chin.)

More Firefox 3 Plugins You Didn’t Know You Couldn’t Live Without

I’ve been frustrated after the conversion to FF 3.0, looking for the Dictionary.com search engine.  The Mozilla addons site only has the Merriam-Webster engine.  I went hunting for it on the Dictionary.com site, and finally found the link: https://dictionary.reference.com/tools/firefox.html gives you access to the dictionary, thesaurus and reference engines. Continue reading

Joss Whedon Does It Again!

What cool people I work with!  Today at 12:30, we gathered in the boardroom with our lunches.  Buddy Richard hooked up his MacBook Pro (oh!  How I’m missing Bender.  And it’s only the first day…) to the projector, and regaled us with the first episode of Joss Whedon’s latest effort: a micro-miniseries (3 episodes, 15 minutes apiece) entitled Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

It’s high camp, to be sure, and artfully showcases Harris’ impeccable comedic timing, as well as Whedon’s mastery of the genre. Continue reading

Goin’ Goth

I’m enormously proud to be launching the first tweak to my WordPress theme.  Forget the blue.  We’re going black and white.

“What’s with the picture,” you ask?  Here’s a hint.  At one point I was thinking of naming this blog “Precious Bodily Fluids”.  Too cryptic?  Not to worry: I’ll be changing the header pic every week or so.  It’ll provide more hints.  In the meantime, expect further tweaks.

I’m having a terrific time learning how to bend WordPress to my will.  Still trying to wean myself from Windows, though: I have to break my addiction to Paint Shop Pro and get more familiar with The GIMP.  I’ll publish some tutes as I go along.  It would be good to have some screen capture software for the Mac.  Something like Camtasia.  Recommendations welcome.

Russian Army Dancing to Run DMC – It’s Like That

Sitting in a bar with friends, a familiar tune comes on.  I’m trying to figure out what it is and where I know it from.  Then I remember: a video of the Russian Army, dancing, to Run DMC’s It’s Like That.  Loved it.

Sharing it with you here to keep my hand in at placing videos in WordPress posts.  It took me a while to figure it out.