Adobe has finally announced costs and package details for their new round of upgrades, including some new types of Creative Suite packages. It’s Adobe’s biggest upgrade release ever – with some products expected in April, while others will show up in the summer.

If you’re thinking about getting the full suite including video and audio editing, you’ll be eyeing the “master” collection at a cool 2,499.00 USD.  Ouch.

CBC and Hockey Night in Canada have a new deal – despite concerns last year that the crown corp would be forced out of the bidding by private sector rivals. The Globe and Mail reports the deal includes multimedia properties:

As part of the new agreement, the CBC will own all new media rights associated with its NHL schedule.

[CBC VP Richard] Stursberg said online streaming of telecasts will be available free of charge to the consumer.

CBC.ca will also provide video on demand. As well, there will content produced for mobile phones.

Now that they know they’re locked-in until 2014, they should revisit Vancouver’s Exponentia and their Play-Action game. Seems like a great match.

Over the years I’ve grown to prefer the feel of my laptop keyboard over the heavier desktop models. 

I really like the feel of the MacBook keys and my previous Sony Viao had a similar feel to it.

Now I’ve found a desktop keyboard that’s almost the same, and I’m really liking it.

Its the diNova from Logitech, and though I’m not big on wireless keyboards, the feel of this ultra slim keyboard is superb.

I really like the fact that the number pad is a separate unit, and acts as a table top calculator to boot. 

The mouse is a bit flimsy so I’ve opted to stick with my barebones MS optical for now.

What launched today is a web based music site called Slacker.

But according to TechCrunch its some kind of uber-music-hardware service.

…they have PC based, iTunes-like software coming that will organize the music on your computer as well as play the same radio stations as the web based version… also has hardware ambitions….[and] a satellite car kit in the works that will ensure that wherever you are, Slacker is with you.

Whether this works out or not for Slacker, the idea makes perfect sense.

Right now there’s too much separation between online audio and our devices. iTunes is the closest we’ve got and even if you’re Mac-evolved from pod-to-desktop, it’s annoying to say the least and hardly tuned to what users really need.

Wired online today launched something called Assignment Zero, in conjunction with NewAssignment.net.

…we’re trying to figure something out here. Can large groups of widely scattered people, working together voluntarily on the net, report on something happening in their world right now, and by dividing the work wisely tell the story more completely, while hitting high standards in truth, accuracy and free expression?

Excuse me…haven’t you heard about the success of Now Public or about Orato ?

They’re two Vancouver sites that have/are/continue to prove what you’re ‘trying to figure out’.
Oh, and isn’t it just a bit weird that Wired’s online story about Assignment Zero doesn’t even link out to their partner NewAssignment.net (though they do to Assignment Zero)?

T I R E D.

Viacom, owners of MTV and Nickelodeon, has opted to sue YouTube.

Last month, Viacom, which also owns cable networks VH1 and Comedy Central, told YouTube to remove 100,000 “unauthorised” clips. Viacom said its demand came after YouTube and Google failed to install tools to “filter” the unauthorised video clips following negotiations. “There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process,” it said. full story at BBC

Viacom’s sueing for over a billion dollars, claiming its shows have been viewed over 1.5 billion times.

While Viacom is sueing, other broadcasters are leaping at the opportunity afforded by YouTube’s obvious success, using it to promote new shows and send out teasers.

Just ten days ago, the BBC set up a deal with YouTube, in the belief that the exposure will actually drive more traffic to their own web site. Other broadcasters are simply loading material on YouTube ad hoc, clearly with the intent of leveraging the kind of exposure YouTube can provide.

Deal or no deal, a quick search proves that every major broadcaster around the world has content on YouTube, and many of them are uploading it themselves.

By way of example, CTV,CBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC all have regularly updated content on YouTube. Even Canada’s staid National Film Board is using YouTube to reach new audiences, in both official languages no less…

Choose the winner!
The NFB invites the Canadian public of all ages to see the 20 shortlisted films in the contest and to vote for their favourite…

Ces œuvres ont été créées par des jeunes aspirants cinéastes à la manière du génie de l’animation Norman McLaren.
www.nfb.ca/animation

There’s a good reason these broadcasters aren’t displeased their content is on YouTube. Not only does it provide huge exposure, YouTube pays the freight on serving the video.

Clearly Viacom sees things differently.  Worth reading is Om Malik’s assessment of what’s going on.

Wired online’s RSS feed teases the story this way:

Susie Bright calls internet writers to task for labeling links as not safe for work. Is it time to drop the flag? In Sex Drive Daily.

But link out to the story, and the page comes up nice and clean, the ultimate Safe For Work page from Wired.

Hey. I was trying to read that !

It’s probably because they aren’t.

The Canadian government’s web site has an online portal for air travel complaints.

But according to CBC.CA news, if a tree falls in the forest and no-one is there – it definitely doesn’t make a sound…

Travellers passing through Toronto’s Pearson International Airport have reported a spate of frustrating delays in the days leading up to March Break, the airport’s busiest time of the year, but it appears no one is keeping track of the complaints.

Passengers from across the country with unresolved complaints used to be able to lodge them with the Air Travel Complaints Commissioner, a position created in 2000 to document problems.

But that job is sitting vacant. The last complaint report covered incidents in 2004.

The fastest-growing species of bamboo can gain a meter in a single day – almost enough to see the growth with the naked eye. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide live in some sort of bamboo structure, including 75 percent of the population of Bangladesh. from Christian Science Monitor)

Bamboo Technology is named for the unlikely devices that the Professor came up with on Gilligans Island. In general they are not necessarily made of bamboo — the ones on The Flintstones were often made out of wood, stone and dinosaurs. What characterizes all of them is the self-evident unlikelihood that they actually work. Most likely to be seen in the more farcical Sit Com(s). from the TV Tropes Wiki

Looks like the Professor is having the last laugh after all.

Yep, that’s a flat screen TV made out of bamboo. Featured at Playengine UK it reminds me of some of the furniture my dad used to make when I was a kid, except dad never laid a bandsaw to bamboo…

The components on the cover, except for the buttons, are made entirely of bamboo. The electronic components are lead free and comply with CE and EU safety approvals.

The unique bamboo colour offers natural beauty and style which provides many advantages for consumers. It is one of a kind, ideal for homes, offices and of course an alternative to plastic surround.

Just as I was mulling whether this is some sort of goofy eco-trendy anomaly I discovered a C-Net preview of a new bamboo covered laptop from Asus…

Asus is definately playing the eco-card on this one, the laptop is called the Ecobook, but won’t be out until next year sometime.

Not satisfied to leave well enough alone, I stumbled upon BambooClothes.com, home of the unfortunately named Panty Boo…

Oddly, the Panty Boos are not to be found on the Canadian site Bamboo Clothes Canada .

Anyway, the thought of a bamboo thong sent me off in another direction, and I ended up a Treehugger where I discovered a whole world of bioplastics using bamboo and other vegetable oils to make eco friendly plastics…

In efforts to reduce fossil fuel dependence and CO2 emissions, Mitsubishi Motors has announced the development of plastics for car interiors made from plant-based resin and bamboo fiber. The automaker hopes that the use of bioplastics can help replace processed wood and oil-based materials in car interiors.

Not green enough for you ? Check out this bamboo bike…

I’d love to see Dangerous Dan take this for a spin on the North Shore. If he did, he’d no doubt need this nifty bamboo helmet from Roof in the UK.

Now you may think I’ve become a bit bamboo obsessed. Well, maybe for just a minute. But I’ve got nothing on this guy, Australia’s Mr. Bamboo.

Doc Searls has written an insightful article about the threat to internet radio in the US due to a recent copyright board decision.

The article is called Internet Radio on Death Row and it’s a must read if you want a better understanding of why internet radio as we know it may soon disappear.

In a move that recalls the Vogons’ decision to destroy Earth to clear the way for a highway bypass through space (a thankfully fictional premise of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), the judges comprising the Copyright Royalty Board have decided to destroy the Internet radio industry so the Recording Industry won’t be inconvenienced by something it doesn’t know, like or understand.

I’m sure Steve Jobs could use this to his advantage.

Whenever I leave the PC, Ozzie curls up in my chair and goes to sleep.

But, when I leave the MacBook Pro, he jumps up into my chair and checks kitty email.

Damn those Macs are good.

Just a few weeks ago our household kitchen conversation turned to the Seven Wonders of the World.

We quickly got bogged down on the original Seven vs. the ‘modern world’ Seven vs. the marketing world’s Seven. Not even my own family was buying the argument that Ouimet Canyon in Ontario is one of the Seven wonders of the Canadian world. Ingrates.

Of the original seven wonders only the pyramids are left, and they’re not the ones in Vegas either.

An article in the International Herald Tribune introduced me to the the Seven Wonders redux – or what I’ve decided should be called Seven Wonders 2.o

Today our world is so loaded with wonders that, uncomfortable with the gaping lacunas in Philon’s legacy, a Swiss-Canadian filmmaker, Bernard Weber, is conducting a popular vote on the Internet to update the list. He says his project is the world’s first global ballot on any subject….

Several blogs related to the contest are going strong with arguments over its merits and shortcomings. One suggested a rival competition, “The Seven Wonders of Ohio.”

Over at the Seven Wonders site (brace yourself for the less than wonderful Flash header):

The multimedia campaign to choose the New 7 Wonders of the World is in its final stage.

This is the biggest global vote ever to have taken place. Millions of people have already voted for their favorite “wonder.” Numerous milestones have already been reached on a journey across the Internet, television and the world’s media. This journey will reach its pinnacle on July 7, 2007 – 07.07.07, when the world will discover which monuments have been named as the New 7 Wonders of the World.

For the record, the original Seven Wonders are:

The Lighthouse at Alexandria
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
The Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus
Ouimet Canyon in Ontario
The Great Pyramid of Cheops

Last Friday’s disclosure of new copyright rates for internet radio could kill legit operators who claim they won’t be able to afford the new rate structure.

The story isn’t getting much mainstream attention – but Wired Magazine claims internet radio is vowing to fight back…

Internet radio companies big and small are revving up for a fight with the Copyright Royalty Board that could lead to the halls of Congress and — some fear — the end of streaming music stations in the United States.

The panicked preparation follows last Friday’s buzz-killing bombshell: As 50 million or so online radio listeners geared up for their weekends, the board released new royalty rates representing a potential tenfold increase webcasters would have to pay out.

Almost every analyst claims the new rates will put internet radio deeply into the red, based on current revenue models.

No word yet on whether any of these large US players are checking out rack-space in dot cee eh yet. (um, for my US friends, that’s Canada, eh?)

How much would you pay for all the back issues of the New Yorker.
Is 150.00 USD too much ? Comes on its own USB drive.

Details and ordering at Levenger

Now all 4,164 issues and 500,000+ pages of The New Yorker, from its February 21, 1925 debut to April 2006, are available to Levenger customers on one pocket-sized, USB-powered portable hard drive that’s about the size of a PDA. You can take this treasury wherever you take your laptop or use your desktop PC or Mac. Enjoy the fastest, easiest access there is to the complete archives of America’s grande dame of literary magazines.

It looks like the big US radio holdings have bought their way out of the “pay-for-play” controversy by putting up some money and providing airtime for independent music.

According to the AP story, the four major US broadcasters will fork over 12.5 million dollars to the FCC, and provide 8,400 half-hour segment of free airtime for independent record labels. Full story on the AP Biz Wire.

In addition to airplay, the broadcasters and the independent labels have also negotiated a set of “rules of engagement” that will guide how record company representatives and radio programmers interact.

The free airtime would be granted to companies not owned or controlled by the nation’s four dominant music labels – Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and EMI Group.

Broadcasters have never admitted to doing anything wrong.

Webcasters in the US may now face stiff copyright fees for streaming music. Synopsis from Wired Magazine.

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the “per play” rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange (a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).

The new rates force webcasters to pay for each song streamed to each user, and increase over the next few years as follows:

2006: $0.0008 to stream one song to one listener
2007: $.0011
2008: $.0014
2009: $.0018
2010: $.0019

Lots of analysis of what it means over on the RAIN web site, most of it not very optimistic.

They do a cost analysis based on current play levels, and it doesn’t look good for either small or big players.

Expect to hear lots more about this in the next few weeks.

Now this is the kind of talk radio that’s missing over here.

I mean, the US may have invented talk radio as we know it, and it certainly has its share of loudmouths, but this is an awesome example of how the Australians do radio on a whole other level.

Get all the messy details, and pics too, at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Melbourne’s underworld war was reignited on talkback radio today as gangland widow Judy Moran’s comments prompted a furious backlash from killer Carl Williams’s wife Roberta.

Mrs Moran told Southern Cross Broadcasting she wanted the death penalty for Williams, who pleaded guilty yesterday to killing her husband, Lewis, and her son, Jason….

Mrs Moran’s comments, especially her description of Barbaro who was killed alongside Jason Moran, appeared to infuriate Mrs Williams.

Mrs Williams, who is divorcing Williams at his request, rang in to the same radio station to contradict Mrs Moran’s description of Barbaro.

Here in the lower mainland we were all freaking because of an overnight snowfall that provided a real surprise for the morning drive.

Its easy to forget, in our west coast fog (figuratively speaking) that this more like it…

The RCMP closed the Trans-Canada Highway from Brandon to the Saskatchewan border Wednesday afternoon as another snowstorm blew into southern Manitoba.

Environment Canada said a low-pressure system over North Dakota is producing snow, heavy at times, in southwestern Manitoba.

from CBC.CA