Recent articles in Canada (page 1 of 2)

1. Aug 12, 2006 Leaving Canada

   After a week in Montreal shopping, touring, catching up with friends, and standing in line at La Ronde, Jess and I hop on the first of four planes that will take us to Lake Tahoe tomorrow morning, where we'll spend the last week of our overseas holiday vacationing with my mom's side of the family. I'm slowly posting photos of our travels on Flickr, but at this stage they're about two weeks behind us. Stay tuned.

2. Aug 4, 2006 A Blog From The Dark

   This entry comes to you from the failing battery of my laptop in a cottage that has been without electricity for over two days--- Correction, the electricity just came back on! (So much for my ultimate demonstration of geekery.) Far from the cushy summer retreat by a lake that my friends from Montreal expected, we have had no light, no running water, no refrigeration, and to top things off, the propane on the barbeque ran out in the middle of cooking our first meal. Today, after steeling our resolve and making a run to town for bottled water, propane and ice, we relaxed into the unwashed experience and made our first group trip out to the island for the year... only to be chased from the island by hordes of feasting blackflies. But now the electricity is back, and Marty has already made popcorn. Things are looking up.

3. May 4, 2006 Canadian Musician's Voluntary Payment Scheme

   Jane Siberry profits by making paying for her music optional.

4. May 4, 2006 Music Copyright Laid Bare

   Appearing in Monday's National Post, A Barenaked guide to music copyright reform is a statement by Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page on behalf of the the newly-formed Canadian Music Creators Coalition. Including Canadian artists such as Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sum 41, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace, Dave Bidini of Rheostatics, Billy Talent, John K. Sampson of Weakerthans, Sloan, Andrew Cash, Bob Wiseman, a co-founder of Blue Rodeo, and of course the Barenaked Ladies, the CMCC aims to promote changes to music copyright law that will "protect artists and consumers, not restrictive technologies." I'm actually surprised this didn't happen sooner. It's great to finally see some artists from major labels speaking out against prosecution of MP3 file sharers and the tightening of controls over media that threatens to drive away paying fans. As a great fan of the Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Our Lady Peace and Blue Rodeo, it's especially heartening to see so many of my favourite artists working to free their music so that I can continue to support them and enjoy their work a paying fan for years to come.

5. Mar 13, 2006 Free WiFi in Ottawa?

   Just got off the phone with mom and dad, who have just bought their first post-retirement home in Ottawa. Mom happened to mention she was connected to the Internet via a free wireless Internet service that was apparently available to all Ottawa residents. My envy quickly turned to skepticism, however, when she mentioned the SSID (network name) of the service she was connecting to was "netgear2". NETGEAR is of course a well-known manufacturer of network hardware, including wireless routers. I suspect that neighbours of my parents' simply have their home network (and associated Internet connection) sitting wide open without any security. If that's their informed choice, then great. If not, well I hope it's an old router, because there's no reason current wireless networking hardware should allow inexperienced users to expose their networks like this. Mom, if you wanted to be a good neighbour, you could probably stroll around the block with your laptop and get a good idea of which house was hosting the network you are connecting to based on signal strength. A note in the mailbox advising the occupants to configure their network more securely would certainly qualify as your good turn for the day.