Author Nathan Sellyn sent me an invitation to his ‘launch’ party.  Here’s what his email said:

I’m not a fan of self-promotion, but I love a good party. Thus I’d be thrilled if you’d join me at Fiction on the night of April 18th.    Fiction is a funky little place on Broadway with a great selection of beverages and a fine menu. The plan is to show up at 7, have me read just before 8, and then put a playlist on and have a good time. This invitation is open to all, so I’d encourage you to drag along as many people as you possibly can. All the best,    ns

Taking him at his word, I’m extending the invitation out to you. If you’re in the Vancouver area, you should come out.  You’ll get to meet a new young author and years later will be able to tell everyone you “knew him when…”. 

Click the invite for a printable PDF version.  See you there.

Here in Vancouver CKNW continues to dominate the market. Here’s the skinny from Broadcaster Magazine:

CKNW held their lead, remaining #1 with a 14.7% share of hours tuned for A12+. 103.5QM-FM retained the #1 F25-54 spot with a 14.8% share (up from 15.5%). #1 for M25-54 goes to 96.9 JACK-FM which continues to grow with a 13.3% share (up from 12.8%) followed closely by Rock101 at 12.2%. The FOX stays on top with M18-34, delivering an impressive 19.5% share of hours tuned for that demo (up from 17.9%). Sadly, despite impressive ratings results, Corus recently had to cut 12 staff members, reportedly to improve the “bottom line”.

To put some perspective on CKNW’s domination here, their 14.7 share of hours tuned is more than CBC Radio One and Two combined, and almost twice CBC Radio One’s hours tuned.

If you’re interested in seeing what’s going on in other markets, check out the full story in Broadcaster.
A12+ = adults 12 and up
F25-54 = females 25-54 years old
M25-54 = males 25-54
M18-34 = males 18-34

The number of new and handy tools available online continues to grow.

Like most people, 90% of the work I do is on a computer connected to the Internet, and any tools that can be used anywhere/anytime are good to have.

cl1p.net calls itself the Internet clipboard. You can copy and past between computers – or to distribute the same info to a bunch of people. For an example of how it works, I posted a message using cl1p.net here: cl1p.net/bigsnit

Along with whatever you cut/paste into cl1p.net, you can also upload files up to 2 meg.  I can see lots of uses for this, particularly when I’m away from my desk.  Let’s hope it sticks around. 

By the way – there’s a Toronto based URL – clip.net  that’s going to start getting an awful lot of unexpected traffic !

Back when we created CBC Radio 3’s New Music Canada (in 2000) one of the key aspects was that people posting their songs to the web site would stand a good chance of getting picked up by various CBC radio programs. From the day the site launched, this was true – in fact we spun the web site into a national radio show on Saturday nights and gave local show producers access to the database so they could find local bands to play in their cities (some of them did, some didn’t, but that’s another story). That same material fuels one of Canada’s top podcasts as well as CBC Radio 3’s satellite music channel on Sirius.

I’m seeing a lot of parallels now in the blogging world – which makes perfect sense. Forward thinking publishers are finally realizing that there’s a lot of expertise in those blogs, where people are largely motivated by a deep desire to share their knowledge. Just like the record companies that started cruising the New Music Canada web site for new talent, publishers are now looking at scanning the best of the blogging world for new articles.

[Blogburst] a syndication service that delivers commentary from 600 bloggers for use by newspaper publishers is set to launch on Tuesday, further blurring the lines that divide blogs and mainstream media. read the whole story in Wired News.

Here in Vancouver, we’ve got a couple of different approaches to this. Michael Tippett’s Now Public and Paul Sullivan’s Orato.com

They have different models, but in both cases, the underlying principles are the same. This represents a huge shift in how media content is generated.

The tools for the general public remain a bit confusing, RSS should be a staple for any Internet user but still has a long way to go. But we’re getting there – and every little step forward makes it impossible to go back. And that is exciting both for content creators and consumers.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Canadian carriers felt the need to offer free broadband as a way of getting phone subscribers? The BBC says it’s happening in the UK.

Mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse is expected to announce the launch of a free broadband service later this week. The company looks poised to provide free access for customers who sign up to its Talk Talk landline service.

In an on-going quest to find something useful in all that spam, I figured if nothing else, spam provides a lot of data points. A while I go I used those data point to create a spam song.

Listening to people complain about spam prompted this latest project.

I took over 8,000 spam emails I’ve recieved since the beginning of the year. I sorted them into broad categories. The result:

The 1st Annual Spam Pie.

As inexact as all get-out, it does give you a pretty good idea of what spammers are pushing.

If you’re wondering about the categories, here’s a rough guide.

Love Drugs: Sexual enhancement pills of all kinds.
Stock-Investments: Hot tips, investment opportunities, increase your revenue.
Dating-Get Laid: And all in my area, handy.
Special Deals:  Everything from coupons to genuine Rolex watches.
Software Offers:  Discount prices on computer stuff, mostly software.
Spoofed Account Info: From online auctions to banks, these fake info requests are everywhere.
Prescription Drugs: Deals from online pharma.
Porn: Um, er….porn.
Personal Improvement: Weight loss, more hair, better hair, hair removal, liposuction and banish those wrinkles.
Credit-Loans: Your house is worth a fortune, or, how to get a house with no money.

Why I’ll put Windows XP on my MacBook Pro

I’ve never subscribed to the ‘this OS is better than that OS’ battle. For me, a tool is a tool, and some are better for doing some things than others. Deciding to buy a Mac after being life-long Windows PC owner was the result of need; I simply can’t make enhanced podcasts on a PC and I need to be able to see web sites on as many platforms and browsers as possible. No zealotry at play, period. My MacBook Pro lives quite happily with my Windows PC’s, I’m now using both quite happily.

Since Apple has officially sanctioned the ability to load XP on new Intel Macs using BootCamp, people are coming out of the woodwork with bizarre arguments about why this is a horrible idea. Seems like a useless argument.

For me, it’s a total win-win. I’ve got a powerful Mac laptop that I use on the road and at client meetings. When I’m giving a workshop I now can highlight both Windows and Mac software on the same machine. Handy.

Dude. Get to Australia right now

It’s big Sunday. Surf conditions on Sydney’s beaches and along the coast of NSW will today see what promises to be the biggest waves in 30 years. Former world champion surfer Barton Lynch said: “Regardless of how experienced you are, you have got to be on your game and concentrating completely in these sort of conditions. It is no time to be experimenting or learning.” read the full Sydney Morning Herald story

Podcast on the auction block

Doug Kaye is looking for a sponsor for the podcast edition of Tech Nation, featuring Dr. Moira Gunn. Much to Doug’s wife’s horror, his blog headline for this new endeavor is Pimping Moira. It’ll be interesting to see how the auction goes, they’re starting with a reserve of 12K USD.

My wrists are saved. 

I’ve been using Adobe Audition since it was Cool Edit 1.0 and over the years have used a variety of hardware controllers to varying degrees of dissatisfaction.

After a bit of a wait because of back orders, Craig from Oakwood delivered my Mackie Control Universal, which now takes up what little desktop space I still had left.

Ten minutes after plugging it in, the Mackie was working flawlessly with Audition, giving me tactile transport control, flying faders on all channels, assignable eq and pan knobs, and 35 other pre-set buttons right out of the box.  Among other things, this will eliminate the tedious and frustrating mouse work when doing complicated mixes (which mine tend to be), using faders and ‘write’ mode so that my mixes are saved on the fly.

But what makes this Mackie unit a real winner is that it is equally at home controlling other software I own and use constantly: Reason and Final Cut Pro, as well as 16 other industry standard software packages I don’t currently own. 

One controller, many applications.  Those wacky Mackie folks do it again.

I can’t wait to get started on the next podcast for Raincoast, LEBC and soon Capers. Now I just need a bigger desk.

Spamless.

Ugh. It would have been ok had it been an April Fools Joke.  But no. 

I woke up this morning to discover almost 4,000 emails in my inbox.  Thinking I had been hit by some super-spammer, I got even more annoyed when I discovered the mail had all come from me. 

Some backup software I’m trying out went postal overnight. 

It’s set up to send me an email when it finishes a task, but last night, while trying to back up my documents, it hit a snag, and started sending notices out to me, it looks like one message every 5 seconds. 

In all, I got 3993 messages, each one saying the same thing…

Doh.  I got it the first time, thanks. 

Task number 1 for the day: uninstall my ‘communicating challenged’ software.  Bye.

Tapeless.

CHUM Limited keeps showing the world how to do it. They’re officially tapeless in Toronto. While this may seem like a yawner to most people, it’s a big deal in the broadcast world where tape (even if it is digital) is still a big deal. 

This was one of my goals at CBC Radio 3 when I was still there – we were early adopters of integrated chip recorders so that we could eliminate the time spend ‘dubbing’ (copying) audio from mini-discs to hard drive for editing.  Certainly no-one else at the CBC was doing it back then, and I’m happy to say I’ve been tapeless in my production studio for years. 

Topless.

Meanwhile, the porn industry is introducing Download and Burn technology.

The idea is that you order online, download via high speed, and burn to DVD without ever leaving the comfort of your home. 

Then you can play your, um, films, on any DVD player in the house. 

Apparently the resulting DVD is just like the store-bought version, complete with menu and extras.  The trick is in the digital rights management software that only lets you burn ONE DVD (though I don’t know what would stop you from using easily available DVD copying software after that).

If this works, it could usher in a whole new model for DVD sales of all kinds.  Maybe.

A couple of days ago I posted a screen grab from a Google search, where CBC.CA’s subhead was “Experiencing Technical Difficulties”. 

On the 30th Jason MacDonald from CBC’s PR department commented:

I suspect that this is showing up on Google because we were down for about 4-1/2 hours on Monday. It should disappear once Google crawls us again (hopefully today or tomorrow).

Today, the 31st, Google’s got it back to normal.

Here’s something.

Open up Google.

Search CBC.

The site’s working fine, so what’s with Experiencing Technical Difficulties ?

Maybe it’s a new show.

While strolling through a local electronics shop, I noticed that they had a new Mac hooked up to a projector and a big screen.

There was a lineup of people jostling to get in front of the machine.
But they weren’t lining up to try out the hot new Mac w/Intel chip.

They were lining up to play with Photo Booth’s crazy image mangler.

Nothing sells computers better. This effect is called Twirl.

Great for the kids who could spend all day playing with Twirl on my new MacBook Pro.

However, a far more realistic effect I’ve discovered is this one.

It’s called Bald, and wow is it ever realistic.

Look at this!

Wow. In their heyday, the Guess Who would barely look out the window as they flew over Dauphin. Even in their less-than-heydays, they’d barely slowdown. Mind you, former Guess Who guitarist Kurt Winter (now deceased) was from Dauphin, and we used to see him up there occasionally.

But this is big news.  Burton Cummings, the man who fronted the Guess Who when their 60’s hits kept the Beatles from hitting Number 1 on the Billboard charts, the very same Burton Cummings, is opening the new Credit Union Place in Dauphin.

He doesn’t own it or anything – he’s just opening it.

Holy Moly. 

That picture of Burt has got to be 30 years old. It might even be at one of those shows the Guess Who did at Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg. That was me in row 12 going ‘wooowoo’.

And check out this pricing.  “Default, Hedley and Guests” are 40 bucks, and one of the biggest names in rock history is only 60 bucks.  More Dauphin bargains for you. I kinda doubt he hauls out the white grand piano for 60 buck-a-head gigs (tax and service charges included!).

I wonder if Burt’ll make an appearance at my old station CKDM (now thoroughly country I believe).  What d’ya think Bruce? I’ll bet there’ll be more than a few 50-something babes cruising the stage door at the Credit Union Place after this gig. 

I’ve met Burt exactly twice.

Once at his ‘after’ party when he was the host of the Juno Awards.  The Toronto cops showed up at the party suite after some idiot called them because he dropped his wallet in the toilet. Toronto’s finest spent a few minutes at the door talking with Tiny (“nothing going on here officers”) then left after someone fished the billfold out of the john.

The second time was in Vancouver when he was a guest on Coast to Coast, a radio show I produced for CBC. He was totally charming.

So Burt, have a great show in my old home town, and do let me know what a Credit Union Place is, exactly.

I’ve been reading quite a bit about work/life balance lately.

It seems to be a hot topic.

So I decided I should track my day (today).

It turned out like this.

I could certainly use some more thinking time, but all in all, no complaints.