All posts by Robert Ouimet

Media

Get Taunted With Your CBC Tax Dollars

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This really has to be the last post from me about the CBC today.

But.

Isn’t it a bit weird that if you write to CBC “Audience Relations” to ask a question or complain about something, or I don’t know, audience relate, there’s a good chance your comments will be made public and ridiculed by all ?

Regardless of whether it’s a Crown Corporation or not – this is just bad business, bad customer relations, and what the heck…MEAN SPIRITED.

Gives you a REAL good indication of what they think of their audience.

Shame on you and again and again.

inside_cbc.jpg

Media

Sorry I Broke the CBC !

2 Comments

While I was looking around for info on the Chalmers “retirement” on InsideTheCBC the official blog of the CBC (they had no information on it) I think I broke something.

Sorry, just my usual bull-in-a-china-shop-self I guess (click the thumbnail for an image you can actually read).

insidecbcborked.jpg

I really like the “fix this problem yourself” bit.

I guess it’s supposed to be a Web 2.0 thing, you know, empower the user.

But it reads more like “hey asshole, you broke it, you fix it”.

Wait now.

The more I think of it, maybe they should migrate this over to the main CBC.CA site for people to use when they write-in about shows they don’t like.

You know, something quick, simple and easy:

To fix this program yourself, please selection from the following options:

Get Better Host
Get Better Music
Get Connected to RealityClick here to save your changes.

Life, Media, Photos

Then again, if it is on fire…

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One of the engineers I used to work with was fond of saying “If it isn’t on fire, it’s a software problem”.

Last night while working diligently away on some wireframes on my MacBook Pro I did a double-take when my power adapter did a little pre-Halloween fireworks show and sent up a small but pungent trail of black smoke.

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“What’s that smell?” came the chorus from the kitchen. “Well, family, that’s the smell of the clash between form and function”.

All kidding aside, its a good thing I was working at the kitchen counter – not sure what would have happened had I had the computer in my lap, or sitting on bits of paper on the desk (which it often WAS).

I’d read about supposed issues where the power cord connects to the (MagSafe) magnetic connector, but Apple hasn’t issued a recall and there’s no information about this problem on their web site.

I have Apple Care and they didn’t even hesitate to offer to send a new one out. The first question the service rep asked was “Was there anything else damaged when this happened”.

Fortunately I have a 2nd adapter so I’m not without power – not sure what you’d do if you had to wait the 5-7 working days for a new one to arrive.

More, larger pictures on Flickr.

—-

UPDATE:
Wow!  I got the new replacement power cable via courier today – one day after talking to Apple Care on the phone.  That’s impressive !

r

Media

Down for the Count with Leopard

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Trick or Treat – it’s Leopard !

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Here’s what’s borked on my Mac with the Leopard upgrade (that I’m aware of) :

  • Some Flash upload sites – I use Slide Show Pro’s cms (which is awesome) and it uses a Flash interface to upload photos. That function stops working with Leopard. Work around is FTP (which dulls the convenience of a CMS somewhat) or using Windows. Adobe doesn’t mention anything on their site about issues with Flash, but the SSP folks say Adobe is aware of the problem.
  • Almost all my Alien Skin PhotoShop plug ins. No work around, crashes PS if you try to apply the filter. Alien Skin claims it’ll be December before they fix. Damn, no more goofy Gel Filters for a while.
  • AutoFX stand-alone, the apps don’t even launch. The plug-ins never worked with CS3 on Tiger so maybe they’ll fix the lot, but then again, maybe not. No mention on their web site.

There’s a very thorough review of Leopard on Ars Technica and couldn’t agree more with their review of the changes to the interface.

Life

Organic is Better

They don’t just taste better. A new UK study finds that organic foods are more nutritious…

They found that organic fruit and vegetables contained up to 40% more antioxidants than non-organic varieties. Levels of antioxidants in organic milk were up to 90% higher than in milk from conventional herds. Medical experts believe antioxidants can reduce the risk of cancer and coronary heart disease. Full story here

Media

Leopard – network share GOOD !

Ok, Leopard is impressing me with its refined ability to find shared drives and machines. We still have a couple of Windows boxes running on our home network, and sharing was always a bit spotty. Leopard seems to have sorted that out nicely, and I’m seeing drives on the other machines that I had given up trying to connect with.

So. GOOD GOOD GOOD and super useful in our setup.

Media

Leopard – not so much

3 Comments

Here’s my mini review. This is only after a few hours of use on the MacBook Pro and our household iMac .

1. eye candy, pure and simple. there isn’t ONE new function I really need, but it all look sweet.

2. slow baby, slow. one of the things I loved about my macbook vs. my sony vaio (PC) laptop was how fast the macbook boots. well my friend, leopard is a pig, at least on my machine, and I’ve got 4 gig of ram. maybe things will improve? but so far, my mac seems to be starting very window-esque. this might not be a big deal on a desktop machine, but in a laptop its critical. (There is a thread here about this – so I guess, just like with a windows box, I now have to start hacking my way through a NEW OS so that the machine runs properly. Hmmm, deja vu.)

3. is there a revert button on this thing?

If want you really want are a bunch of new effects in PhotoBooth, parental controls (probably easily side stepped), a different way to share machines and do backups (apple claims easier) and more things swooshing across the screen, then this is for you.

Media

Must See – The Goat

If you’re in the Vancouver area, you have to go see The Goat or Who Is Sylvia at Presentation House in North Vancouver.

It opened last night and only has a 2 week run.

This is Edward Albee’s Tony award winning play, featuring top Vancouver actors. It’s theatre as it should be – sharp, challenging, surprising, tender, and shocking.

This Tony Award winning play by a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright has never been done in Vancouver before – GO!

Media

Sniff of Snow on Local Mountains

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It ain’t much, but at least there’s SOME white stuff up there.

This was shot at Cypress sky area today.

I managed to find just as much by the upper parking lot 🙂

Long way to go before we’ll be riding any of this.

Meanwhile, we bought our family downhill seasons passes this week. What a hassle.

I’ll blog (at length) about this later, but Cypress has really got to do something about their online sales (hopeless) and their customer service.

I can’t believe the hassle involved with just trying to buy a pass.

What a pain !

More later.

Media

Apple Makes Record Profits, Goes Crazy with Cardboard

Its very unlike Apple. Their packaging is always super slick and impressive. Today, I got one of their new thin keyboards, ironically, shipped in a box 10 times its size.

The keyboard box itself seems to provide loads of protection for the keyboard.

When I opened up the big box, the keyboard was at the very bottom of the box, with packing piled on top.

We’re recycling the packing – it’s great kraft paper – and the box will go into the blue box tomorrow.

Media

I'd Go Just For the Booth Babes

Every day I read about yet another big conference/trade show – things like the recent Web 2.0 Summit and dozens of others that all start to sound the same after a while.

But here’s a trade show with a real and simple mission.

“Innovations, trends and visions”

I can totally get behind that. And it’s the biggest in the world – you know – sometimes might IS right.

Each day is jammed with activities, panel discussions, stuff to buy and I’d love to check out the booth babes.

FYi has the story of this not-to-be-missed show…

This year’s Agritechnica show – the biggest indoor farm machinery event in the world – takes place in Hanover, Germany from 13-17 Nov. If you want to see what’s new in the world of agricultural machinery, it’s the place to be.

Madsu, Media

I am so ready for the weather

from Environment Canada for Greater Vancouver
11:54 AM PDT Thursday 18 October 2007
Wind warning for Greater Vancouver continued

East or southeast winds 50 to 70 km/h expected for today then shifting to west or southwest 50 to 90 km/h along parts of the southern mainland coast and southern Vancouver Island late this afternoon and early this evening.

This is a warning that potentially damaging winds are expected or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.

An intense low pressure centre approaching the coast will move across southern Vancouver Island later this afternoon and early this evening. Ahead of the low strong southeasterly winds have developed over the southern sections of the south coast with wind speeds reaching 50 to 70 km/h. As the low moves east of the region very strong west or southwest winds will follow the system especially near southern Vancouver Island with speeds up to 90 km/h forecast in Victoria near the strait of Juan de Fuca. Winds will quickly ease over all areas this evening.

This storm will also bring moderate to heavy rain with general rainfall amounts are expected between 30 to 50 mm over southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. Howe Sound will receive up to 60 mm. The rain will taper off tonight as the storm moves inland.