Category Archives: Media

Boats and Web Sites

I’ve been remiss in posting – busy launching a new web site and a new (old) sailboat.

The web site is for Capers Community Markets and should go went live today in the next couple of days.

The boat’s a lovely old Catalina 22 swing keel that’s currently on a trailer in the driveway as I clean up some of the electrical (well, all of it actually) in preparation for a summer on Georgia Straight.

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The interesting thing is Ozzie has taken a real liking to the little plastic boat. He’s been exploring every nook an cranny and climbs the step ladder to join me as I putter around below. He’s been quite attentive as Garnet explains all the “parts of a boat” to him.

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The boys and I have hatched a plan to take Ozzie out for a sail after we put the boat in the water next week.

Oh, and special thanks to the guys at Martin Marine in North Vancouver for the patience helping me figure out how to get the boat ship shape.

Next stop will be the chandlery to see if we can find a cat PFD. Safety First!

Oh (again). I you have a little six foot dinghy you’d like to sell, let me know.

RSS Catch Up

A few days off the grid and suddenly I’m a bit behind in my reading. In my case, that means RSS feeds. Five days in Tofino results in just a few articles to catch up on…
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Ouch. Time to do some power skimming, that’s for sure.

Of the hundreds of feeds I subscribe to, the biggest output, not including wire services, was from a group of feeds at the International Herald Tribune.

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Air Travel – 10 Bucks Goes a Long Way

I’m super impressed with WestJet. I wish they were paying me to say this, but they aren’t.

westjet

My two kids traveled on their own from Vancouver to Winnipeg to visit their cousins. They were treated like VIP’s on both legs, but you pretty much expect that (particularly since you’re paying extra for them to travel un-accompanied).

On the way back from Winnipeg, one of my guys left 10-dollars in cash in the seat pocket in front of him. He was pretty bummed hours after getting home when he remembered what he’d done.

Later that night, the phone rings, and it’s WestJet on the phone. They were calling to check to find out if we could identify the object left behind in the seat back pocket. Sure enough, they’d found the 10-dollar bill, and were calling to arrange to return it !

Unbelievably, their ads about pride of ownership seem to be true.

I’m now their biggest fan – way to go WestJet. Not only are you backing up your hype, you made a 12 year old very very happy.

Pandora Founder Asks for Help

PANDORA

Pandora is one of my favourite music site.applications. And it will be greatly affected by recent copyright tariff decisions in the US.

According to Read/Write Web, Pandora founder Tim Westergreen is asking for help from users, encouraging them to sign a petition in hopes of getting congress to do something to help…

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.

An appeal launched by NPR has already been turned down, and it looks like the new tariffs will go into effect as planned.

No Reprieve for Internet Radio Stateside

Eject

Looks like there’ll be no last minute call from the proverbial governor’s mansion – internet radio operators in the US will soon be facing big bills…

A panel of judges at the Copyright Royalty Board has denied a request from the NPR and a number of other webcasters to reconsider a March ruling that would force Internet radio services to pay crippling royalties. The panel’s ruling reaffirmed the original CRB decision in every respect, with the exception of how the royalties will be calculated. full story at Ars Technica

New Magazine for Vancouver

One of our clients has a new print magazine coming out and you can get a FREE subscription.

This city magazine is contemporary and sophisticated, but with a distinct difference:
everything has a focus on sustainable living.

Granville explores all the qualities we love about Vancouver and the West Coast,
while at the same time asking, how can we ensure that those qualities endure?

Every story brings sustainability to the foreground.

Canada Wide Media, the publishers, are offering a free 1 year subscription for a limited time only to select people.  And guess what – because you’re reading this article, you’re one of those people.

To sign up to get your free 1 year subscription just use this form on their web site. 

Joe's Hot Doc

 

I like the fact that people underestimate me. You know, they pat me on the head, then I rip their throat out. 
– Sam Sullivan in Citizen Sam

Vancouver’s Joe Moulins’ documentary on Vancouver’s mayor Sam Sullivan has been selected for this year’s Hot Docs festival in Toronto. 

It’s showing Wednesday April 25th at 9:30 at the Al Green Theatre, and Saturday April 28th at the Bloor Theatre at 2 pm.  Tickets at 416-588-8DOC or visit the Hot Docs web site.

I first met Joe in the late 80s’ when he was still doing freelance radio pieces and I was producing an arts show for CBC Vancouver called Art Beat. 

Joe was one of those guys you could count on to bring pack a nicely formed item, always bringing in more than promised. Guys like him are a producers dream-come-true.

Joe’s created an amazing doc – it’s a wonderful story and captured in a way that will surprise you. 

Here a trailer at YouTube. Watch it and you’ll know why you have to see this doc.

If you’re in Toronto, make sure you see it at the festival. 

Put Dollar Signs Next to the Reply Button

In the early 90’s I was a professional yachting instructor and I worked for a charter company on Granville Island.

At the main sales desk, all the phones had big red Letraset dollar signs on the hand set, a reminder that every call was a potential sale.

It’s pretty simple. You can’t answer a potential customer’s questions if you don’t answer the phone.

Today, potential customers are more likely to send and email. It’s simple, it’s fast, and you can send the same inquiry to a number of different companies.

Incredibly, it seems that many companies are actually worse at getting back to those customers today than they were a few years ago.

An American consulting firm, Hornstein Associates does an annual survey of e-mail responsiveness. It shows a steady decline in customer response rates since 2002…

Hornstein’s research (and common sense) says that almost everyone sends an e-mail to a company at some point and that all of us expect a response within 24 hours. In 2007 only 33% of companies responded within 24 hours, down almost half from a high of 63% in 2002.

Remarkably, only 51% of the companies responded in any time period — down from 86% in 2002.

full story at MarketWatch.com

Vancouver Gets the Zipcar

Just by chance, while checking out the T-Rex, I saw a hybrid Toyota “Zipcar” parked on Burrard Street near 2nd Avenue.
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I’d never heard of them, but after a quick check online, it turns out, Zipcar has moved into town…

Beginning today [April 5th], Zipcar will place 100 vehicles in many locations throughout the Downtown, Kitsilano, Fairview, Commercial Drive and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods of Vancouver. Zipcars industry-leading selection of 11 makes and models of vehicles in Vancouver will range from standard sedans to small SUV’s and luxury vehicles.

I really like the sound of this service – you can do everything online and by using a wireless key system, you simply walk up to the car, flash your Zipcar card, and you’re on your way. From their web site:

Reserve one of our hundreds of cars – for a couple hours or the entire day. Do it online or use a phone. We’re easy. Walk to the car, then just hold your Zipcard to the windshield. The doors will unlock, and it’s all yours. Drive away… and return to the same reserved parking spot at the end of your reservation. It’s that simple. And remember, gas and insurance are included too.

We live on the North Shore, so it isn’t too likely we’ll be able to take advantage of Zipcar since all their cars are downtown, the West End, or Kits. And we can actually rent for cheaper than the Zipcar daily rates, but that’s only because we don’t have to pay the rental insurance rates (thanks to ICBC’s Roadstar service). But I think this will be a great option for a lot of people.

So Zipcar – welcome to Lotus Land.

A Frog on the Skids

It’s terribly sad to see someone so successful fall so low.

Obviously there were signs.  In hindsight,  “It’s Not Easy Being Green” was a serious cry for help.

We knew him, but we didn’t know him.   Sad Kermit

Sad Kermit

Soon after the death of Jim Henson, Sad Kermit the Frog turned to a life full of drugs, alcohol and sex. His fall to rock-bottom was quick and unrelenting. These songs document Sad Kermit’s pain during these years…and years to come.

Sad Kermit‘s acoustic rendition of RadioHead’s Creep won’t leave a dry eye in the house.

Our thoughts are with you little green guy.

Coming Back as a Pencil

This is awesome, and brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “pencil me in”.

From the wonderfully obsessed mind of Nadine Jarvis in the UK

Pencils made from the carbon of human cremains. 240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash – a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind.

crermain pencil

One question.

The lack of an eraser – significant ?

Cash. The New Safe Way to Do Business.

tj maxx customer alert

Ars Technica and others are reporting now that the recent data security breach at TJ Maxx is likely the largest in history.

A data breach originally disclosed this January by the parent company of retailer T.J. Maxx could be the largest case of consumer information theft to occur to date. TJX Cos. disclosed in a regulatory filing this week that the company believes that data on at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen by hackers, and has reason to believe that the actual number could be much higher.

You have to bet CEO Carol Meyrowitz wasn’t having too good a day when she had to post a note on the company web site that starts like this…

As TJX’s President and Chief Executive Officer, I want our customers to know how much I personally regret any difficulties you may experience as a result of the unauthorized intrusion into our computer systems. We are working with leading computer security firms to investigate the problem and enhance our computer security in order to protect our customers’ data.

TJX operates a number of companies – in Canada brands like Winners and HomeSense are most recognized, but they include TJ Maxx, Winners, Marshalls, Homesense, HomeGoods, AJ Wright and Bob’s Stores.

As a consumer, this is a nightmare.

Most of us are crawling with credit cards and we assume retailers take as much care with them as we do.

Reading the Ars Technica story, and the TJX FAQ just adds to the nightmare, since it appears that months went by before they realized what was going on.

All this leads me to wonder how long it will be before we see ads for the “new” safe way to do business: money bag

Just a Big Ole Bag of Cash.

Your average CBCer clocks in at 86,000 $

calculate

Information has a way of surfacing in the most interesting manner. Under a headline that reads “Private Television Profit Margins Dropping”, one of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s blogs cited a recent CRTC report. The CBC blogger’s take was to highlight the private station profits and ad revenues. The excerpt ends with this little tid-bit:

In 2006, the private conventional television industry employed 8,197 people and paid a total of $593.6 million in salaries.

But a sharp reader (who, if the name is correct, is a former CBCer who’s now a consultant) was drawn to some other information in that same report, and posted a comment

The CRTC report also contains data on the number of CBC employees, which is the only public source for that information. As of August 2006, CBC had 10,784 employees, an increase of about 50 from the previous year. Total salaries and benefits amounted to $930,393,000 in 2006.

As noted, this is the only public source of this information, since the CBC is not subject to the Freedom of Information act. Some smart spotting there.

Those numbers mean the average CBCer costs out at just over 86,000.00 (with benefits in).

If you you want to get some, the CBC job board is here.

Acting is for the Dogs

Without a doubt, the funniest and freshest couple of minutes you’re ever going to find.

Unleashed makes Mondays worth it.

unleashed

Unleashed is an animated comedy show that follows the trials and tribulations of animal actors in Hollywood. A new episode every Monday!

If there was ever an example of how main-stream-media is missing the boat, this is it.

Catch the episodes on the Unleashed website, or on Blip.TV or subscribe to their feeds.

Irrational is Irresistable and Canada Needs You

There are a lot of reasons to read Doc Searls weblog.

His tip on the NPR parody Irrational Public Radio is the latest.

IPR

IPR is the brain child of actor/writer/performer/voice over guy Joe Smith.

Surely there’s someone out there who’d love to take the mickey out of the every-so-serious CBC radio here in Canada.

If nothing else, these guys sure could use it…

CBC Radio 2 is Canada’s national music network. Our mission is to reflect the diversity of music making in Canada while embracing the network values of quality, relevance, and discovery.

Oh, and if someone could explain that header, that would be good.

The 5-years-in-the-making-newly-minted CBC Radio 2 has even launched a blog, fueled entirely by the hard working Jowie Taylor – probably the last guy who has the time. Hmmm, wait, his show Global Village got axed in the network remake – so maybe he does have time.

In any case, Canada Needs You Joe Smith. We have Public Radio Too, um, er, 2.

Believe me. Parody is required.

cross posted to LivingWithAnActor.com