Upgrades

We just finished our first ever problem-free infrastructure upgrades! Our server room looks so much nicer and cleaner now. The changes took longer than expected, but that’s why we work at night 🙂 We’re well on our way to launching our podcasting services now, so stay tuned!

My kids don't know what a DVD is!

[Obviously I don’t have any kids, so play along would you?]

Sometime in the not too distant future…

The strangest thing happened today! My daughter came home from school and started telling us all about her exciting day in the first grade. Then out of nowhere, she asked what a DVD was! I guess her class had been learning about how the screens in their desks work and the teacher made a reference to DVDs. I did my best to explain that in the old days, we needed to have a small, round disc in order to get a movie or something to play. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around the idea – it was kind of like me when I learned about record players. She’s used to having everything appear automatically – the lessons, videos and assignments all appear in her desk, “like magic” she tells me. Having physical media is such a thing of the past, and thank goodness for that too!

I can’t imagine what she’ll think when I explain to her that wireless wasn’t always everywhere and we’d have to disconnect and reconnect to different hotspots!

Back to the present…

It’s going to happen, it’s only a matter of time. The time when we download everything is coming, and it’s coming sooner than you think. Physical media is dying.

As Engadget noted the other day, Blu-Ray stuff is going to start shipping near the end of May. The format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is pretty much useless though. Do we really need a new format? I think the advantages offered are not as great as those offered by DVD when compared to VHS, so people likely won’t upgrade in mass numbers. I think that’s why the Xbox 360 shipped with a good old fashioned DVD drive – people are going to start downloading content more and more.

Think about it for a second. A small percentage of online music sales are online right now, but the number is growing. The big networks like NBC and ABC have started selling downloadable video, a trend that is expected to continue. Millions of people have satellite TV or digital cable services that let them download new content all the time. Broadband connections are extremely popular around the world, and the United States is finally starting to catch up. And when we do finally have wireless everywhere (we’re getting closer) there will be no need for discs. Instead, everything will be accessed online.

Sure things will be difficult at first. What we really want is the concept of download once, play anywhere. That will take some time, but it is definitely achievable, and has already begun with devices like the Windows Media Center PC. Wifi is spreading throughout homes – how long until we see televisions with built in wireless connections so they can access content from devices around the house? These are the kinds of things that will become commonplace.

My brother and sister buy DVD’s all the time, and I have lots of friends who buy CDs, but I haven’t bought any for quite some time now (don’t have time to watch a lot of movies). If I could get entire Xbox 360 games off Xbox Live instead of just demos, I’d probably do that too.

I can already see the headlines – “DVD format disappears almost as quickly as it came!”. Never before has a format been so widely adopted so quickly. Maybe downloading will come almost as quickly? I for one think the download party is going to get much bigger in the next few years.

President Samarasekera's Message

Post ImageOn Monday an email from University of Alberta President Indira Samarasekera made its way into my inbox. The email contained her Spring Break message to students. I have mirrored the PDF here. A few things stuck out for me from the message:

  • She definitely likes her quotes, using three in the message – one at the start, one in the middle, and one at the end.
  • The message sounds very big and forward-looking.
  • To my knowledge this is the first time she has communicated her “Dare to Discover” vision directly to students, though she didn’t get into any detail.

At the end of the message she invites students to get in touch with her at president@ualberta.ca and on the undergraduate page of her website. I’m going to have to read her vision and think about it for a while. Too bad she doesn’t have a blog – there, that’s my first bit of feedback, be one of the world’s first university presidents to keep a blog!

Kellie Pickler

Post ImageI don’t watch American Idol, let alone follow who gets kicked off or not, but my Grandma happened to be watching it when I walked in the house tonight, and Kellie Pickler was performing. All I gotta say is wow, that girl is irresistibly cute and she can sing too! She’s got my vote for American Idol! And here I thought I was finished with my blondes stage…

She’s nineteen years old from Albemarle, North Carolina, and she likes Kelly Clarkson and Keith Urban. Seems as though Kellie has a similar sort of confidence to me:

What is your definition of an AMERICAN IDOL?
Kellie Dawn Pickler.

That’s like something I would say! Good luck Kellie!

Read: American Idol

Apple introduces leather iPod case

Post ImageI am continually amazed by Steve Jobs and co – its like they get away with murder! They somehow get OS X owners to pay for minor updates, their religious zealots still love them after switching to the enemy (read: Intel), and they announce “fun” products like a leather case for the iPod…for NINETY NINE DOLLARS!

Looks like Apple wants to make sure to own a piece of every sector of the iPod accessory market. In addition to the $349 iPod Hi-Fi, the company also announced its own $99 leather iPod case. Sure, it’s a pretty basic sleeve, and only fits the iPod with video or nano, but if you want an official Apple case with an Apple logo and “iPod” stamped on the front, this is the place to go (though we hear there are some pretty convincing knockoffs available on Canal Street for about $15).

When you can release a product like this for a hundred bucks and have it sell, you really do have power. There are thousands of cheaper options for protecting your beloved iPod (or Apple could make scratchless devices to begin with) yet there will still be people who will pay Apple the money for this over-priced official leather case. It blows my mind.

I guess I am getting ahead of myself, we don’t know how well the leather case is going to sell, but the fact that any sell at all is amazing enough. Jobs must have drugs or chemicals or radio wave emitting devices hidden in his products and packaging to get people so hooked.

Read: Engadget

Windows Live .NET

Post ImagePretty meaningless title don’t you think? You may remember that when .NET was launched, Microsoft started attaching the .NET moniker to all of it’s product names. After a while, no one knew what the heck .NET was (fortunately today it only refers to the programming environment). I agree with Microsoft Watch’s Mary Jo Folely, they’re going to do it again with Windows Live:

With over 30 services potentially taking on the “Live” moniker, industry watchers are warning that the Redmond company risks diluting the brand like it did with the .NET concept.

“Within a matter of months [after .NET’s initial release], Microsoft marketers began attaching the .Net moniker to all kinds of products, from Windows .Net Servers, to MapPoint.Net,” said Mary Jo Foley, author of the Microsoft Watch newsletter. “.Net became a meaningless term that even Redmond’s own couldn’t explain concisely.”

Looks like we’re well on our way with Windows Live. The latest service to get the name is Passport:

Microsoft plans to roll its Passport authentication service into the Windows Live family of Web services by 2007, renaming it to Windows Live ID, BetaNews has learned. While the company is keeping mum on specifics, the service will make use of Microsoft’s new InfoCard technology.

I don’t see why they felt the need to rename Passport. I think they had pretty strong brand recognition with the name, and everyone knows it is used mostly for Microsoft sites and services.

Joe Wilcox has a related post up at Microsoft Monitor where he talks about Microsoft’s marketing strategy with the Origami project. I guess we can be thankful it’s not called Origami Live!

Read: Beta News

Ten Favorite Rock Songs

Last week my Dad posted about a book he is reading called Broken Prey. In the story, the main character tries to come up with the 100 best songs of all time. So my Dad took a cue from the book and is asking for input on the ten best rock songs of all time. Now, typically a meme like this starts somewhere in the digital world not a book, and when you take part in the meme you’re supposed to actually take part (my Dad is not posting his top ten until later), but I’ve seen it circulate before too, so I decided to take part this time. Megan’s recent listing of her ten favorite albums also swayed me to posting this.

First let me say, it’s damn near impossible to come up with only ten songs for any of these kinds of lists. I basically said to myself, what songs can I listen to over and over again and still love? I came up with more than ten, so I had to spend some time narrowing it down to these ten:

  1. Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
    From Nevermind, one of my favorite albums of all time, this is one of those songs that I never ever get tired of hearing. It’s really too bad Nirvana’s life was cut short, as I am sure Cobain and the boys would have made some more classics.
  2. Weapon by Matthew Good
    Though not from my favorite Matthew Good album (which would be Beautiful Midnight) this is definitely my favorite Matt Good song. The musical build up is amazing, and the video was pretty interesting too.
  3. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson
    I guess I could have put all of Thriller on this list, but Billie Jean has always stood out for me.
  4. Wonderwall by Oasis
    I’ve never been a huge Oasis fan, but this song in particular I have always loved. Great lyrics in this one.
  5. Numb by Linkin Park
    Linkin Park have come to be one of my favorite groups in the last few years, and while I like almost all their songs, Numb is the best one for me.
  6. Fill Me Up by Staind
    Another favorite group of mine is Staind, and I absolutely love the lyrics in this song.
  7. The Ground Beneath Her Feet by U2
    I could have put just about every U2 song on the list, but this one has great musical build up that gets me every time.
  8. Blurry by Puddle of Mudd
    This song makes the list due to it’s lyrics and the memories it makes me think of.
  9. Enter Sandman by Metallica
    It was this song from the Black album, or more correctly their self-titled album, that really got me into Metallica.
  10. Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
    One of the best songs of all time in my opinion!

Here’s ten more songs from my list of favorites: Every Breath You Take by The Police, Forget It by Breaking Benjamin, Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard, Last Train Home by Lostprophets, You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette, Clumsy by Our Lady Peace, Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden, Zombie by The Cranberries, 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins, and Time of Your Life by Green Day.

You’d think it would be easy to list your ten favorite songs, but it’s not. It’s a good exercise though, because you probably haven’t thought about it before, and you’ll probably discover some forgotten favorites in the process.

Notes for 2/26/2006

What a week it has been, and what a month I have ahead. Here are my notes for today:

  • I feel sorry for the students of Lakehead University, being deprived of wireless Internet.
  • I watched most of the Shawshank Redemption tonight – I hadn’t seen it in quite a while. It’s a great movie, you really should watch it Felicia!
  • My parents recently had an anniversary, and yesterday was Kim’s birthday! It’s a busy time of year for our family.
  • The Winter Olympics are over now, and Canada ended up with 24 medals, no thanks to the men’s hockey team! I know the games are a big deal, but it will be nice for TV and everything else to get back to normal.
  • My Dad is in San Francisco on business and has some great pictures up! Looks much nicer than here.