Year: 2005

Skype 1.4 Released! Video coming soon?

Post ImageSkype launched the latest version of their Windows software yesterday, bringing the popular VoIP tool to version 1.4.0.71. I installed it on both of my machines this afternoon, and it appears to be running quite well. Here are some of the more noticeable new features:

  • You can forward calls on to mobiles, landlines and other Skype Names.
  • They have added downloadable ringtones!
  • There’s a bunch of new emoticons, 21 to be exact.

You can see the entire list of new features, changes, and bugfixes here. And the coolest feature of all? A feature that might be coming in as little as a month, according to a post by Roland Tanglao:

There you have it! Skype introduces video calling in November 2005 for Windows. So Mac and Linux Skype video calling will be there in 2006 which means 2007 is the year of video calling for the masses.

Definitely check out his post to see the picture he attached. Interesting indeed! You can download the latest version of Skype at their website, and be sure to keep your eyes open for that video version!

As the new version of Skype has call forwarding, and because the application seems to work fairly well on my Tablet PC, I have decided to have my “mastermaq” account connect automatically, and I have set the old “blogosphereradio” account to simply forward. So if you want to get in touch with me over Skype, please use my mastermaq account.

Read: Skype

Thoughts on the Telus Labour Dispute

Post ImageI have given much thought to the Telus dispute over the last couple months, mainly because I see the workers on strike every day across the street from the office. An article in The Gateway (the University of Alberta’s student paper) today also made me think of the issue again. I’ve come to the following conclusions:

  • The labour dispute has only reinforced my desire to look for alternatives. Vonage is looking pretty good right now as far as my landline is concerned. I don’t want to get a new cell phone number though, so I am stuck with Telus Mobility for that.
  • I think Telus needs to look in the mirror and accept that they have not always acted appropriately. They have done some things wrong, and they need to own up and fix them.
  • No matter how much Telus the company might be at fault, I cannot bring myself to support the workers on strike. Never in my dealings with Telus over the last six years (I lived in the NWT before that) have I encountered an employee that was helpful, let alone polite. Ridiculous wait times on the phone only to be greeted by a rude, unhelpful employee is not my idea of a good time. And don’t give me that crap about how they’d be more polite and helpful if they were paid better, etc. I don’t buy it. People at McDonald’s aren’t paid very well, but at least they are usually more helpful and polite than Telus employees.

Clearly that last point is the most important, and it’s the one that I have thought about most.

REVIEW: Life In Slow Motion – David Gray

Post ImageToday’s review is for David Gray’s album titled “Life In Slow Motion“. The first single from the album is called “The One I Love”, a track you’ve probably heard on the radio. Actually I heard the song a while ago, but never caught who the artist was. This is actually David Gray’s seventh album, though it’s the first I have heard of him. From David’s website:

In a break with prior tradition Life In Slow Motion is the first of David’s albums to be recorded in a ‘full scale’ studio environment as opposed to the ‘bedroom’ sized facilities favoured in the past. This increased physical space is matched by an evolution in David’s musical aspirations.

I really enjoyed “Life In Slow Motion”. My main criticism applies to almost every album released these days – only ten tracks for a total playing time of 45 minutes is not enough! Why these artists can’t spend a few more months and crank out longer albums is beyond me.

The album itself is what I would call “slow and easy”. All of the songs are easy to listen to, easy to sing along with, and easy to get hooked on. My favorite song is probably “The One I Love”. The album is full of different instruments like a piano, an acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and others. Some other stand out songs for me are “Hospital Food”, “Ain’t No Love”, and “Nos Da Cariad”.

I would highly recommend “Life In Slow Motion” if you’re looking for some good music that is outside the normal top 40 stuff we hear everyday. I’ll give David Gray’s latest album 7/10.

Read: David Gray

Do you miss the CBC?

Post ImageThe CBC lockout has been ongoing for more than a month now, and people are starting to reflect on how it has affected them. Barry Reuger over at Canadian Journalist had this to say:

It’s been over a month since the CBC locked out its employees. In that time a flurry of podcasts have started and subsequently been ignored by yours truly. I now find myself reading – although not really liking – the Macleans that arrives in my mailbox each week thanks to the previous tenant.

I find that I’ve stopped missing CBC Radio, except perhaps once each morning when I would really like a newscast. I find instead that I fill my head with American public radio programming.

I would have to say I don’t miss the CBC. I think the lockout came at a particularly bad time for the workers. It’s not like I am going to miss Hockey Night in Canada, because I went a whole year without for the NHL’s lockout and somehow I survived. There are no Olympics coming up that need coverage. Actually, besides those two shows, the only thing I really watched on CBC was The Simpsons. I never really listened to CBC Radio, and I’ve always been a Global (or ITV back in the day) viewer for news.

I think the CBC is in need of a major overhaul! I don’t know what a new incarnation should look like, but The Hour was a good start. I can’t say if I think CBC has been fulfilling it’s mandate, because I don’t know what the mandate was. My generation hasn’t really had to care about mandates or responsibilities of the CBC, until now I suppose. Perhaps that would be a good step to making the CBC relevant again, review the original mandate. And on the committee that reviews said mandate, let’s have some people under the age of 30, yes?

Read: Canadian Journalist

MusicGiants

Post ImageI have always had two questions in the back of my mind about purchasing music online. First, how do the record labels/music stores decide what quality to encode an audio track at for sale? And secondly, how can they charge similar prices for CD’s and online music, the latter of which is generally much lower quality than a CD? Well I still don’t know the answers to those questions, but I discovered via Om Malik a new service called MusicGiants that sells high quality music:

Musicgiants, a high-def digital music download service is all set to launch on Wednesday. Billed as a download service for audiophiles, the 15-person company will offer songs that are uncompressed and are encoded using windows media technology at 1100 kbps. In comparison, Apple’s iTunes and others like Real’s Rhapsody offer music at a compression rate which is a tad lower than the CD-quality, mostly to keep the file sizes down. Musicgiants’ business model is predicated on widespread deployment of broadband and speeds which can handle the big-phat downloads. So far, the service works only on Windows PCs.

The songs cost $1.29 a download, and you have to pay $50 a year membership fee. The Nevada-based company claims its sound quality is seven times that of other download services.

I generally rip CD’s into WMA at very high quality, though not as high as MusicGiants – I guess I am a “sorta-audiophile”. I can’t really tell the difference when I play music on my computer, but I definitely can on my Zen with good earphones. MusicGiants looks like a very interesting concept, but I am not sure how well it will fly. Most people seem to be pretty happy purchasing from iTunes and others at a lower quality bitrate.

Oh and if you’re in Canada, don’t get too exicted, you currently have to live in the US to use the service.

Read: MusicGiants

TEC Connector

Post ImageI attended TEC Edmonton’s TEC Connector event this afternoon with Dickson. TEC Edmonton is a joint venture of the University of Alberta and the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation. Here’s what the event was all about:

This TEC Connector event will showcase companies created from the results of University of Alberta inventions and technologies. In addition, the event is an active connector which will provide networking tools and tips, plus generate opportunities to connect with useful representatives in our community, including: university researchers, start-up company leaders, professional service firms, financial support organizations, government agency representatives, media representatives, inventors and entrepreneurs.

Obviously Paramagnus is not a spin-off company, nor we do use any University research or innovations, but we though the event might be a great opportunity to do some networking anyway. We met some interesting people and found out more about many of the local companies we had only just heard of in the past. I also learned some interesting statistics about University of Alberta spin-off companies:

  • As of March 31st, 2005 there were 69 active UofA spin-off companies
  • There have been 84 such companies formed since 1963, including those that have merged, been acquired, or discontinued
  • These companies employ more than 1000 high-skilled workers
  • More than 80% of the spin-offs are based in Alberta
  • Seven are publicly traded

One of the speakers at the event also mentioned the pending offer to purchase to the Hudson’s Bay building downtown, which if approved is where TEC Edmonton’s new headquarters would be. University administration presents the proposal to the Board of Governors on Friday, so we should know either this week or next whether or not the deal will go through.

Networking events are always lots of fun! This one was especially good because there was free food and drinks 🙂

Read: TEC Connector

Commander-in-Chief

Post ImageI came home from the office relatively early tonight, so I had time to catch the first episode of ABC’s “Commander-in-Chief“. Here’s the very to-the-point plotline from IMDB:

Mackenzie Allen becomes the first woman American president after she ascends to the job following the death of president Teddy Bridges.

What’s that?! Her name is Mackenzie? That’s so awesome! I have always wondered why there weren’t more characters with my name; I quite like it. She is played by Geena Davis.

Oh yeah, and she’s the first female President of the United States. As if that weren’t enough, her ascension to the Oval Office was full of controversy – she went against the wishes of the dying President who had asked her to resign. Her daughter didn’t agree with her taking the position. Lots of good storylines.

I don’t quite get the Hillary Clinton bashing though. As Allen’s husband was being shown around the “First Lady” areas, his tour-guide kept commenting on what Hillary had done and how “it didn’t go over very well”. Hillary for President, 2008!

Interesting show! I don’t know if I’ll make it a point to watch, but we’ll see.

Read: Commander-in-Chief

REVIEW: Music of the Sun – Rihanna

Post ImageTime for the second album review this week! You’ve no doubt heard Rihanna’s first single, “Pon de Replay” on the radio or MuchMusic or something. It’s extremely catchy, and is played everywhere. Unfortunately, it’s probably the best song on the album.

Rihanna is only seventeen years old, and hails from Barbados. She’s a very attractive young woman, and she definitely has some talent, but I just couldn’t get into the album. “Music of the Sun” consists mainly of dance tracks and ballads, and the dance tracks are the better of the two. I really like “Pon de Replay”, and there’s a fairly decent remix on the album featuring Elephant Man. Other songs I kinda liked were “Let Me” which has a great hook, “If It’s It Lovin’ That You Want” (minus the weird opening) and “Rush” which is another great club track. I found the ballads to be lacking in something…they don’t seem very original. You could substitute a number of singers in Rihanna’s place for the ballads and achieve the same result.

The album isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. If I had to choose, I’d probably buy just the single and not the album. I’ll give this album 4/10.

Read: Rihanna

Google turns 7, hides index

Post ImageDid you know that Google is now seven years old? Yep, their birthday was yesterday I believe, and the front page is still sporting the birthday logo. Here’s what the official Google blog has to say:

Google opened its doors in September 1998, and we’ve been pursuing one mission ever since: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. For our seventh birthday, we are giving you a newly expanded web search index that is 1,000 times the size of our original index.

Google also no longer displays the number of documents in their index on the front page. John Battelle explains:

I asked Marissa [Mayer at Google] that since Yahoo claims 20+ billion documents, and Google claims to be three times larger, might not folks simply presume that Google has 60 billion documents in its index? The answer goes to the heart of the index debate in the first place: Google does not count the way Yahoo seems to, so the comparison is apples to oranges. Google is counting one way, Yahoo another. So the numbers don’t add up.

…Google is forcing the debate back to relevance, where, honestly, it really belongs.

Well said. We need more relevant search results! Who cares if there are 22 million matching documents. What matters is showing me the ten or twenty most relevant right away.

Read: tech.memeorandum

Everybody Hates Chris on Google Video

Post ImageI wonder how long it will be until we talk about search engines/web portals like television channels. Lots of them are streaming TV shows now, including Google Video which is streaming the premiere of Everybody Hates Chris (Via John Battelle):

Google is joining AOL and Yahoo in making new television programming available via their video search service. Today, UPN and Google have announced that Google Video now offers access (free) to the premiere episode of “Everybody Hates Chris” which aired last week on the network and is “inspired” by comedian Chris Rock’s life as a kid.

Check out the first episode on Google Video. You can read my review of the show here.

Read: Google Video