60+ days without a post

Yeah, I'm lazy... and so much has gone down in the last while.
Radio RTFM has shipped it's second episode and made countless geeks laugh...
...saw Danko Jones live at the Mod Club here in town on December 5th and he rocked out. As a bonus, John Garcia (lead singer for the late, lamented stoner-rock band Kyuss) showed up for an extended encore; one that included a number of Kyuss songs with Danko and company providing the backing band. Rock.

Uh... what else? Hey I abondoned this post for a couple of months and totally forgot about it.

Oh yeah... the girlfriend moved in too!
Happy times!

The Boondocks

Man... Have you seen the Boondocks?

If you haven't, get moving and check it out!

Aaron McGruder's comic-cum-animated series is smart, witty, socially aware...
...seriously. I don't know of anything else that can do such a good job indicting the state of modern television and riffing on Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" in one plot while satirizing the PBS painting show guy in another - that's one episode.

Seriously, I think this might be the best animated series I have seen in a long damn time.

Of course it could be that I just identify with leftist revolutionaries, without regard to complexion.















Or maybe it's all of the above.

Damn you Spammers!

Nothing is sacred... that's not news by any stretch, though occasionally you see something that really drives the point home.

Case in point: I just came back from a long weekend out of town, opened my email and took a look through the spam checking for false positives.
While I was looking through the junk, I noticed the subject line of one piece of spam (I believe it was the highly reputable Bulls - N - Bears report... ah yes, investment advice via spam...) had lifted names and text directly from Isaac Asimov's (original) Foundation Trilogy.

Not even the truly geeky is safe.

Dogmatists, Fanboys, Zealots and other close-minded crap

I love digg, I really do. Feeds me more interesting tidbits than I could possibly surf for myself in a given day, lets me submit whatever I want and has the user base sort it out as to how interesting it is.
Hell, I even like the comment threads... usually.
The exception to this is the relentless "Mac rulez/Windoze drools" and "Linux kicks ass/your platform of choice sux0rz" and "Windows is great/you're stupid" brands of dogma flying around.

For fuckssakes... this is technology, not theology. You don't like a platform? Don't use it!
There is no absolute truth here... there is only the combination of bits that works for you.
You want to take your dogma for a walk? Write a decent article about why you think (that's right, think NOT know) you're right or at least respond intelligently to same.

Well, this will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes, but I've had my rant.

Continue walking the dogma... clearly it needs the exercise.

Dharma bumming in Calgary

[Ed note: I forgot I wrote this when I was out in Calgary at the beginning of August. This was a gorgeous afternoon...]

All life is suffering - certainly if you wake up with a hangover after sleeping folded in half on a loveseat in a hotel room in the northeast of Calgary.

But what the hell, the air is dry, the sky is clear and the sun is warm.

Sat outside, read some Kerouac and soaked up some rays(mith).

Being my usual bent self, see no real reason to put on a front, people are there to be challenged (and be challenging at times).

Ah Orange Pekoe - it ain't Darjeeling, but it will do in a pinch. And I need tea...

So, interesting couple of days, wedding this afternoon, dinner with Dawn and her new man tomorrow - looking forward to that.

"Rich man, poor man, beggar or thief". Ah, that Greg Graffin solo project is pretty sweet sounding.

The bike rental plan went tits up, but that's OK too. Got my stem, bars and quill adaptor... Construction can now begin in earnest.

All right, stream (of consciousness) is running dry. More later. Maybe.

Four Feckless, Counterproductive Business Approaches to IT

This EWeek article is pure gold... I've been there, I've done it and it is all true. Especially #3.

read more | digg story

Macs vulnerable to Wi-Fi hijacking: Apple

Three security flaws in software that controls wireless networking hardware in computers made by Apple Computer Inc. could let an attacker crash or take control of the devices using Wi-Fi, the company said on Thursday.

read more | digg story

A protein found in lower primates but not humans successfully combats HIV-1

Wow... this is interesting...

read more | digg story

Think Secret Leopard Screenshots

This is a direct link to a collection of screenshots from Leopard (Mac OS X.5). They depict a wide variety of new features and layouts. Enjoy!!

read more | digg story

The Robots Are Coming!

When the traditional business press starts paying attention to something this geeky you know something's in the offing...

"The robots are on the move--leaping, scrambling, rolling, flying, climbing. They are figuring out how to get here on their own. They come to help us, protect us, amuse us--and some even do floors."

read more | digg story

Lawsuit-proof Peer to Peer filesharing?

The Owner Free Filing System... makes it harder to harass bereaved families of file-sharers.

Hacker Coalition Releases Lawsuit Proof P2P System:
The Digital Douwd has challenged the media giants by releasing its Owner-Free Filing System. The new system is purported to be immune from the consumer lawsuits that have plagued previous P2P systems. While the creators do not contend the fact that copyright laws exist, they do maintain that OFF System peers don't actually break any of those laws.

read more | digg story

Some people need to relax...

Hear as a WoW player flips his lid while orchestrating a raid.
From the digg summary: "This illustrative video recaps the now legendary tale of an epic raid on Onyxia's lair in World of Warcraft, a large dragon who leaves behind some cool stuff so this is a big deal - and the raid leader REALLY wants the loot."

read more | digg story

Defeating Google's Perpetual Search Logging

Requires Firefox and knowledge of/access to an open anonymous proxy.

"Google's policy of storing everyone's search histories forever is causing concern amongst many, especially since Google stores a cookie on everyone's PC expiring in 2038. But at least one user is fighting back. His short and simple guide tells you how to set up any decent web browser so that it routes Google requests through an anonymous proxy."

read more | digg story

Famster - worth a look

From the digg summary:
"I can't believe that this site isn't widely known, even with all its features: share photos, stream videos, create a blog, upload files, keep track of RSS feeds... all in Flash? and for free? Ridiculous."
Indeed. I haven't dug into this in too much detail, but it looks interesting.

read more | digg story

Wrong address to rob...

According to police, once the burglars were inside, they got into a fight with one of the residents who grabbed his roommates sword and started slashing the intruders. His feisty attack send the invaders running, but not before he wounded several.

read more | digg story

RIAA to grieving family: We depose your children in 60 days

This is... well judge for yourselves. Follow the links through digg and boingboing or just go here: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2006/08/riaa-wants-to-depose-dead-defendants.html

The RIAA brought a file-sharing lawsuit against a guy who died; they offered the departed's family a 60-day grieving period before they began to depose his children for the suit against his estate

read more | digg story

Not so sure this is a good trend...

In this age of rapidly inflating incomes and ridiculous corporate bonuses I'm not even sure which class I fall into. Label me an employed dropout.
Having said that, I'm not so sure I like the increasing stratification of cities...

Here's the digg.com summary of the NYTimes article:

Cities Shed Middle Class, and Are Richer and Poorer for It
"Places like New York and San Francisco appear to be richer and more dazzling than ever: crime remains low, new arrivals pour in, neighborhoods have risen from the dead. But middle-class city dwellers across the country are being squeezed by the rich as much, or more so, as by the poor ."

read more | digg story

(Almost) Confirmed: Tour de France winner Landis gives positive drug test

Here's the summary from Digg:

"It is not confirmed that the Unnamed Tour rider that tested positive for doping is in fact Landis. MSNBC's website now lists a headline at the top of the page confirming that his team mates have indeed said he tested positive after recieving a drug test."

The MSNBC article points out that there is still the B sample to be tested to verify wether or not doping took place.

read more | digg story

Working on Sunday... But I'm rocking out so it's OK...

Feeling productive, getting some work done.

Totally rocking out to the Burning Brides' 2001 release, "The Fall of the Plastic Empire", the track in question is "Arctic Snow".
Ass-kicking.

Greg Graffin: Cold as the Clay live (July 20, Lee's Palace, Toronto)

"We just got here, like, literally 20 minutes ago from the airport, so we're a little tired [...]but damnit, the show must go on."

With that, Greg Graffin and company launched into the material from Cold as the Clay.
Disclaimer: I'm not going to lie, I have been a Bad Religion fan for years. I think Stranger than Fiction may well have been the first CD I bought after finally giving up on tapes.

Having said that, this was a very different vibe than a Bad Religion show, the pace is slower the arrangements are traditional.
It's also very, very good live show. Here's how it played out:

Don't be Afraid to Run
Cold as the Clay
Talk about suffering
Omie Wise
Little Sadie
California Cotton Fields
The Rebel's Goodbye
Cease (Bad Religion) (Greg solo on piano)
God Song (Bad Religion) (Greg solo on acoustic guitar)
Willie Moore (Greg on acoustic guitar, Chris on banjo)
Highway (electric guitar version, not the album cut)
Watchmaker's Dial
One More Hill
The "fake" encore:
Suffer (Bad Religion) (Greg solo, acoustic guitar)
Sorrow (Bad Religion) (aborted)
Sorrow (Bad Religion) (re-take) (Greg solo, acoustic guitar, crowd singing chorus and stamping feet throughout, later joined with keyboards)

Damn... I have never seen a crowd that wanted an encore so badly. We didn't get it though. Ah well. I'm not complaining.

Cien

Well... wow... 100 posts.

Never thought I'd get by 10.

Finally replaced my copy of Peter Tosh - Live at the One Love Peace Concert (which vanished under mysterious circumstances last summer) with Peter Tosh - Talking Revolution. The latter's a nice double disc with an acoustic bonus disc.
Ah well... I have the music and I still have the transcript of the speeches that came with the Live at the One Love Peace Concert disc. I win.

Alright... I made some comments about Metric... For the record, after listening to Live it Out, I have recanted. They're OK. I can dig it. I can admit when I'm wrong.

And ask Dr. Lono Teufel about the rudest question Emily Haines was ever asked (as per her 60 second interview on the CBC Radio 3 podcast last summer).

All right... tonight Bonde de Role, Cansei de Ser Sexy and Diplo at the Mod Club. Should be a lot of fun.

ISP stands up for customers' rights

The Legal department of Tiscali, a UK ISP, sent this letter in
response to demands by a British recording industry association to
disclose information about 17 subscribers alleged to have been
violating copyright.

Full text available at http://craphound.com/tiscalibpiresponse.txt.
Also reprinted below:

Alleged Copyright Infringement
Suspension and Disclosure of Customer Information

Thank you for your letter dated 10 July 2006, notifying us of your
allegations that certain customers of Tiscali UK Limited
("Tiscali") have and continue to infringe the copyright in various
sounds recordings owned or controlled by certain members of The
British Phonographic IndustryLimited ("BPI").

In your letter, you request that Tiscali:

1. suspends the relevant customers until such time as they enter
into an undertaking with the BPI in the form required by you;

2. discloses the personal details of the relevant customers to the
BPI; and

3. itself enters into a legal agreement with the BPI obliging it
to do the above.

I will deal with each of these issues in turn below.

Firstly, however, I would like to be clear that Tiscali does not
support or condone use of its network for abuse or infringement of
copyright. Tiscali has a history of co-operating with those
investigating any such matters, within the limits of its own legal
obligations and whilst respecting the legal rights of our
customers. Moreover, Tiscali has done a great deal of work to
further the development of the legitimate online music community
and has developed and enjoys an excellent working relationship with
most of the major record labels in the UK and many independent
labels, the majority of which are your members.

Suspension

You have sent us a spreadsheet setting out a list of 17 IP
addresses you allege belong to Tiscali customers, whom you allege
have infringed the copyright of your members, together with the
dates and times and with which sound recording you allege that they
have done so. You have also sent us extracts of screenshots of the
shared drive of one of those customers. You state that such
evidence is "overwhelming". However, you have provided no actual
evidence in respect of 16 of the accounts. Further, you have
provided no evidence of downloading taking place nor have you
provided evidence that the shared drive was connected by the
relevant IP address at the relevant time.

Similar requests we have dealt with in the past, have included such
information and, indeed, the bodies conducting those investigations
have felt that a court would consider it necessary to see such
evidence, supported by sworn statements, before being able to grant
any order.

Therefore, in order to assist you, we will require the following
information from you:

1. in respect of the remaining 16 IP addresses, please provide
screenshots of each user's shared drive so that you can prima facie
establish communication to the public;

2. in respect of all 17 IP addresses, please provide evidence that
shows that the user id is connected via the IP address concerned at
the relevant date and time;

3. if you wish to establish that downloading is taking place,
please also provide evidence of this; and

3. as these IP address are dynamic and are allocated to a user
upon connection for the duration of the connection only, please
confirm that the timings provided are all BST, so that we may
accurately identify the customer details.

In the meantime, we have contacted the customer, in respect of whom
you have provided partial evidence of communication to the public
of copyrighted sound recordings and have given such customer seven
days from the date of receipt of our letter to provide an
explanation. Should we not receive an adequate explanation during
such period, we shall suspend the user's account pending resolution
of your investigation, assuming by that time we have received
evidence from you of a link between the user account and the IP
address at the relevant time.

At this point, I would like to make it clear that a similar
procedure will be followed in respect of the remaining 16
customers, once you have provided proper evidence. Tiscali does
not intend to require its customers to enter into the undertakings
proposed by you and, in any event, our initial view is that they
are more restrictive than is reasonable or necessary. However,
should you wish our customers to enter into your undertakings, you
will need to approach them directly. It is a matter for them to
decide whether they wish to enter into such undertakings or defend
proceedings against them in the courts. It is not for Tiscali, as
an ISP, nor the BPI, as a trade association, to effectively act as
a regulator or law enforcement agency and deny individuals the
right to defend themselves against the allegations made against them.

Disclosure of Customer Details

As you will already be fully aware, Tiscali will not be able to
disclose customer details to you unless you obtain a court order
requiring us to do so. To disclose without a court order would put
Tiscali at risk of breaching the terms and conditions of its
customer agreements, and the provisions of the Data Protection Act
1998.

Tiscali Undertakings

As we have mentioned above, Tiscali has always co-operated with
investigations into alleged infringement conducted by copyright
owners, whilst observing its own legal obligations and respecting
the legal rights of its customers. In the circumstances, we do not
consider it necessary nor desirable to enter into such undertakings
nor do we believe that, in circumstances where we are co-operating
with your investigation in the manner we have outlined in this
letter, that a court would require us to do so. Furthermore, we do
not believe that you have at present satisfied the requirements of
section 97A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 with the
information you have provided.

We look forward to receiving the information requested above.

Yours sincerely
Tiscali UK Limited

The (World) Cup runneth over...

...into the streets.

I was on my way back from Duke's Cycle, where I ordered a new headset (ah yes... the bike will be built) and I noticed that I could hear the Grand Prix down on the Lakeshore.
I was heading north on Euclid, pushing to reach College before the penalty kicks from the World Cup were finished - I could hear the race all the way up.
I reached College, just as Italy nailed their last penalty to take their fourth World Cup title while denying France their second.
As soon as that ball crossed the goal line, I could no longer hear the race. People spilled off of patios and into the streets, flags were waving, chaos ensued.

Going to be a fun evening.

Props to Linux Australia

Linux Australia has set up sites for fair use petitions for the media that we all (well, some of us anyway) fork over cash for. Check out www.iownmymusic.org and www.iownmydvds.org for details.

Oh, and the Jack Valenti quote from 1982 on www.iownmydvds.org is priceless. What kills me about the ongoing fair use debate, is that the movie and music industry are making the same arguments they did over 20 years ago - arguments that proved to be erroneous then.

Afternoon musings

Bah. It's clouding over.
I'm sitting in the study, listening to Gomez' "How We Operate" (its really freakin' good by the way) while I build skeletal PowerPoint decks for three courses.
My mind isn't really on my work.
Feeling a little bitter (though the Gomez is is helping me get past that).
To all those who neglect their correspondence: get bent. Yeah, I'm talking to you... Getting really sick of one-way friendships over here.
Yeah, it's that kind of day - feeling cut off from the world around me.
Nobody's fault but mine I suppose... No, wait... I made the effort. And you? No? Thought not.

So, what's going on in the world... North Korea testing cruise missiles. Lovely.
In Toronto, we have failed as a working city. I have nothing against the Guardian Angels, do what you're going to do; but do we really need what are essentially unaccountable vigilantes watching our streets? As much as people are (and will always be) critical of the police department, at least accountability is built in there.
CBC radio (in Toronto anyway) has a series on solar power, aptly called Solar Revolution. Looks interesting.

...and Cronenberg is co-curating a Warhol retrospective at the AGO. Cool...

I have been lax

Boy have I ever.
What's going on? Still building the road bike one piece at a time (not unlike the Johnny Cash song).
Work is good, doing some writing.
World Cup has been good to watch, but painful to accept (3-1 France over Spain... that hurt!).

Saw Gomez at the Guvernment last week. While the Guvernment is not my favourite venue, Gomez puts on one hell of a show. Best time I have had at the Guvernment since I saw Aphex Twin there... crap, NINE years ago?!

OK, now I am feeling old.

So... Net Neutrality. This is a hot button issue with me lately, as it threatens to reshape electronic communication radically.
Yes, I realize that it is a proposed piece of US legislation, not Canadian.
What many people fail to realise is that no nation's network exists in isolation; changes in the US network will have repercussions for all of us.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I highly suggest you Google this topic.

Goddamnit

I can't remember the last time I was this fucking pissed off.
More to the point, I can't recall the last time I pissed myself off so goddamned much.

Bah... Fucking shitty mood, which is terrible, as work is good and so is the vast majority of life.

I may need a beer.

Oh, and the icing on the cake from the wide world: the US House has rejected the principle of Net Neutrality. Fucking genius. Welcome to the tiered internet.

Bike Week Cometh

Bike Week 2006 comes to Toronto...

In fact I think it got started yesterday. Fortunately that was the day I took a tour along Lakeshore and up through Parkdale and Liberty Village as opposed to making an ass of myself with my abortive run up the Avenue Road hill. (To my credit though, I didn't give up... I just ran out of gears and had to walk a few metres before I was back in the saddle).

Looking forward to the Critical Mass ride tonight... should be a good time. If the weather doesn't suck too badly.

Depending on how I feel after that, I may end up at Darby's... promises to be a good time, $10 for beer and bands? I'm in!

Naturally I will be riding to that event...

Audio Input for enhanced Psychic Output

Here's the playlist in the Shuffle at the moment:

100th Window - Massive Attack
All Tomorrow's Parties 1.0 - Curated by Tortoise
Confeld - Autechre
Agharta (Discs 1 & 2) - Miles Davis
Disraeli Gears Deluxe Edition (BBC tracks only) - Cream
Cuts Across the Land - The Duke Spirit
Death By Sexy - Eagles of Death Metal
Axis of Evol - Pink Mountaintops
55 (from Clubfoot single) - Kasabian
Clash on Broadway (Disc 1) - the Clash

There's a couple on there I am forgetting... Oh well. You get the idea.

Oh, damn! Beta!

I confess that I have always liked that quote from Snake on the Simpsons and have been dying for a reason to use it.
Now I have several. I have gone beta happy this week.
My notebook is running the newest Windows Live Messenger Beta, which is fun.
I'm also running (as of yesterday afternoon) Beta 2 of Office 2007 and that is really cool. The UI changes alone are worth the price of admission (metaphorically speaking, it is a free public beta after all). As soon as my downloader starts behaving again I'm going to pull down the installers for Visio, Project, OneNote and Groove.

That isn't the coolest beta I've gotten into lately though... A few weeks back, I threw my hat in the ring to test Google-hosted mail. Imagine my surprise when I was issued an invite.
I changed my MX records, and have been accessing my mail via the hosted Gmail interface since yesterday.
I have to say... It's nice.
My previous host was not too keen on spam filtering. The filtering I am getting with the hosted GMail is damn near perfect.
The solution also allows for Google-chat based IM for all users within your domain. That's a nice bonus, especially since any Jabber client can be used to access it from outside of the browser.
I'll going to be blogging more about these betas on and off over the next little while, so stay tuned for some bleeding edge geek commentary.

The Bastard Children of NTP v. RIM

Creative and Apple are having a legal brawl over patent infringement.
Interesting to note that Creative (estimated by ZDNet to have an 11% share of the MP3 player market) struck first, accusing Apple of infringing on a key patent. Apple (with an estimated market share of 77%) struck back accusing Creative of infringing on four patents.

Is this the new competition? Stifling the more successful competitor with lawsuits over vague patents, that perhaps never should have been granted?

Apparently actually bringing something to market just isn't cool anymore. Squatting on IP that you don't actually do anything with and using the legal system to snipe away at your rivals seems to be the order of the day.

You know, maybe I am wrong about this... maybe these are just the bastard cousins of NTP v. RIM, and the real blame lies on the crop oif biz-school grads who came out of the dotcom days, eyes wild with possibility and built-to-flip business plans tucked under their arms.
Yes... the more I think of it, the more this sounds like a throwback to those days.

And that is a foul thought, to be back in that landrush mentality.

Mogwai: 16 May, Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto

Awww yeah...

This was absolutely brilliant. I left with my ears ringing slightly and a huge smile on my face. 2 nights of Mogwai live in a row will do that to you.

Here's the set list (I was standing behind the soundboard and managed to see this), songs marked with an asterisk were the encores:

Long way
Friend
Flies
Travel is Dangerous
Hunted by a Freak
Satan (note: to the guy who whooped right at the end of the mellow bit before it comes back super heavy: brilliant timing, nice one man.)
I know you are
Acid food
Summer
Happiness
New Paths to Helicon 1
We're no here
*Ratts
*Glasgow Mega-snake

The opening act, Torche... I missed them in Montreal but I did see them at the Phoenix... I wasn't overly impressed, but I didn't hate them either.
They did not, however, live up to the reviews I had heard. Having said that, they do have a heavy stoner rock vibe to them... I just didn't get into it.

Paranoia, Nationalism or something else...?

Apparently, the US Gov't has banned the use of Lenovo hardware (that's the China-based company that now produces all the IBM PC brands, including the ThinkPads) from all classified networks.

I'm not sure if this is nationalism, paranoia or pressure tactics from "domestic" manufacturers. I place domestic in quotes as many (if not the majority) core chipsets are not fabricated in North America... even when the core chipsets are made on the continent, many other crtitical subcomponents (networking, for example) are not.

This announcement clearly indicates that the US government has been using hardware rife with offshore silicon for years. So why get all paranoid or nationalistic now?

Food for thought.

Mogwai: May 15 Montréal, Québec

Show was at Le Spectrum...

Being from Toronto, I'm not used to shows starting on time. Apparently this one at le Spectrum did.
Completely missed the opening act, Torche, which was a mild disappointment as I had heard good things about their stoner rockiness.

Mogwai kicked ass. Glasgow Mega Snake was the last song of the set before they came back for a two song encore. Even standing at the back of the venue, my ears were ringing.

More lucid review of the Toronto show is upcoming....

Notes on the run: Sunday, 13 May 2006

All right... There are a number of things I have come to truly look forward to about my sporadic trips to Ottawa over the last decade.

Last night, I discovered a new one - the Dominion Tavern, AKA the Dom.

This is the Bovine sans bullshit attitude from a notable minority of patrons (don't get me wrong, I love the BSC). All punk, zero fucking pretense. This *is* what a rock and roll tavern fucking well should be.

I freely admit to being drunk as hell on my initial visit here last night, but that didn't make the generally convivial "live and let live, or just go fuck yourself if that's how you're going to be" atmosphere any less welcoming or enjoyable.

The aesthetics of the establishment are definitely old school tavern - and you know I'm all about the old school - faded wood paneling, off-white paint on the walls, quarts of Blue and 50 (cinquante motherfuckers!) avaialable at reasonable rates from the bar fridge.

The partially covered back patio offers several weathered picnic tables (some of which sit beneath a shelter of corrugated plastic), as well as ample bike storage.

I could go on at length, but my quart may be getting warm, so I'm going to sum up as follows: those who don't like the Dom "suck cock by choice". And I'm talking about farm animals you tasteless bastards...

Ear candy for sprained fingers

Yeah... I bailed. It hurt. I sprained my finger and bruised up both knees.

Here's what's on the playlist:
The Fall - Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 (Disc X) + misc tracks from Grotesque
Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman I'm a Machine
Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
Joy Division - Heart and Soul (Disc Three)
Bad Religion - The New America
Primal Scream - Xtrmntr
Eagles of Death Metal - Peace Love Death Metal
Roots Manuva - Brand New Second Hand
Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask
Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze

Cod al mezcla cinco especies chines con Pimenton

Serves 3. Recommended sides include rice, morrocan salad.

1 frozen cod fillet cut into 3 equal pieces
Chinese 5 Spice blend with Tea
Garlic
1/2 cube of seafood bouillion
3/4 cup of rice
6 frozen shrimp (18-20 count)
1/2 - 1 tsp Paprika (depending on taste)
Salt
Black pepper
0.5L water
Olive oil

Grind 5 spice mixture into powder.
Rub into each side of all 3 pieces of fish.
Let sit 5-10 minutes.

Set skillet on stove on medium to medium-high heat.
Add oil to pan once skillet has warmed.
Crush/slice/dice/mash garlic.
Add garlic to oil.
Add fish to pan.
Flip fish 3 times to ensure proper, even cooking on each side.
Add shrimp to skillet, allow to begin to cook.
Add water & bouillion.
Add paprika, stir.
Add salt and black pepper to taste.
Allow fish to poach in liquid.

Allow liquid to reduce, then plate.

Aural input for rainy days

Centro-matic: Recovery
Danko Jones: Sleep Is The Enemy
Dead Kennedys: Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Evil Doers: Welcome to the Show
The Fall: The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 [Disc Two]
The Hives: Barely Legal
Refused: The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombination in Twelve Bursts
The Strokes: First Impressions of Earth
Thrice: The Artist and the Ambulance
Up, Bustle and Out: Rebel Radio

A foul and dreich Saturday...

...It must be April.
Figures, the week was golden. Of ourse the weekend should be crap. After all, it *is* April, and the rain's going to fall sometime.

Alright, what's the deal with the CBC... last year it was announced that they had purchased the rights to the second series of Doctor Who in addition to the Christmas Invasion. Where are these episodes? Last year, we were only a week out of step with the English on this. I really would prefer not to hear we'll be waiting for the fall...

Well, apparently it may well be in the fall. Based on what I can Google, it isn't going to be anytime soon [link may be stale]. Ah well, we're still ahead of the rest of the world outside the British Isles in this respect.

No props to the CBC for delaying the air date (or the BBC if the dealy is part of the distribution deal) - this will cause fans to grab all the episodes they can on torrents.

Update: June 20th seems to be the unofficial date for CBC to start showing series 2.

"C'mon Universe hold still..."

Yeah... that's not going to happen.
NewScientistSpace reports that (yet another) one of the fundamental constants of the universe may be changing over time.

As we approach Earth Day...

...more and more people are showing themselves to be short-sighted fucking idiots.
Autopia's (Wired blogs) author seems to have noticed the same disturbing trend I have seen: people love Hummers.

The vehicles, wiseasses.

Fortunately I worked internal IT for years and have known for quite some time that people can, in fact, be extremely short-sighted fucking idiots, which spares me the utter shock and horror that I may have suffered had this been a revelation to me.

He also points out that the Honda Accord hybrid has some serious failings. Well, not failings, but certainly nothing to recommend it.

We were somewhere around Redmond...

...when the news took hold.
EWeek reports that Microsoft hasn't been practicing full disclosure, a policy that has had some consequences for other software and security vendors.
The ethical and practical debate of full disclosure versus controlled disclosure is not a new topic, but always makes for an interesting conversation.
The ripple effect of the example cited in the article is not inconsequential, either.

I was a blog-fiction sysadmin...

...that was based on an earlier, angrier version of me.
I'm much better now, but whenever I read the pages in question it makes me laugh.

Well, I'm busy as hell right now but I have to say I'm pretty happy about it.
I'm developing training materials for some courses my employer is offering and I'm proofing a translation of a friend's project.

Yet, I'm making good progress on both and I still have time to live life, cook, buy groceries, be a social human being, etc...

I'm really not used to this kind of balance. But I'm trying to become accustomed to it.

El mundo es un pañuelo

In the last few months I have run into a ridiculous number of friends and acquaintances that I have not seen for years...

Odd. But I'm not complaining.

It's truly odd how people turn up in the damndest places... a phenomenon I first became aware of when I was standing outside of Victoria Station in London and ran into two women I knew from Laurier who were also On The Road, backpacking the British Isles and the continent...

At this point, it shouldn't surprise, yet it always does.

I like that... It certainly ensures that life is not boring.

Easter Ear Candy for the Heathen Soul

Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction
Beck - Guero
Cardigans - First Band on the Moon
Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia
Duke Spirit - Cuts Across the Land
Stooges - Raw Power
Joy Division - Heart and Soul (Disc 3)
Ted Leo + Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak
Up, Bustle and Out - Master Sessions 2

I tried to tell ya...

...but you wouldn't listen... take that Doctor Teufel!

Teach you to have a hate on for the Mac platform. How's it feel to eat those words while reading off of the Powerbook? Meh, you say? Well, fair enough, it was better than a decade ago.

Damn... how did we all get this old and not end up either dead or in jail? Probably best to leave that question unanswered.

Heh, what I Fear and Loathe most right now is that I, personally, have very little to fear and loathe. I'm not exactly used to that.
Fuck, I'm bored. That's never a good thing.

Sloth...

...came for me in the night and busted up my blogging finger apparently. Been a wee while since I posted squat.
Bought a new bike yesterday... a nice, smooth-riding commuter. I look forward to getting my use out of it.

Life is good. Sun is shining bright this AM, I'm about to clean up my act and go get some groceries. After that I think I'm going to sweep up around the house, clean my room, do laundry and have an otherwise domestically focussed day.

Started writing again, real pencil to paper stuff... It's enjoyable, but damn I'm rusty. I'll have to polish the hell out of before it's fit for editorial consumption.

The Liberal Party has begun the process of fragmentation and in-fighting known as "leader selection". Harper has begun to try to rollback legislation that was already passed in a free vote in the House and is proposing to build massive prisons so we can make our society more like that of the US.

Here's a newsflash: I've been talking to some people down there, citizens, you know? People who work for a living, not politicians and blue-skying neo-conservative political theorists, people who actually vote... and they've been saying that they aren't happy with a lot of things that are going on down there... Maybe, just maybe, we should make our own decisions and not build our nation and society into a clueless fanboy's replica of the US as it exists right now.

Hmmm... I guess the kind of thinking that makes one be themselves is not very compatible with the conservative mindset. Well, fair enough, why make your own mistakes when you can re-tread someone else's tried and true ones?

Sloth... it affects people in different ways. Some people stop blogging, others stop thinking for themselves.

In rotation (week of 2 April 2006)

Working up at Yonge and Eglinton for the next two weeks. This means a longer than usual subway commute this week and next.

Here's the ear candy for week one:

Andre 3000 - The Love Below
Belle & Sebastian - 3..6..9 Seconds of Light
Belle & Sebastian - Lazy Line Painter Jane
Belle & Sebastian - Dog on Wheels
Led Zepplin - IV
MC5 - Take it from the Man!
Mogwai - Government Commissions (BBC Sessions 1996-2003)
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Queens of the Stone Age - Feel Good Hit of the Summer Single
Radiohead - Kid A
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
The Strokes - Is this it? (Australian Import)

Comment-driven tangent

Someone asked me about getting into the IT business without any formal education in the field... Before you decide to do this for a living, make sure you really, really want to do it.
And then ask yourself again.

This job isn't for everyone. Trust me, I have had months at a time when I seriosly considered a move to something, anything else.

But I digress... no formal education in the field? Never stopped anyone I know from getting into the punk rock IT biz.

Snowy Saturday Evening in Toronto

Walking down Markham Street towards Bloor this eve in heavy, gentle snowfall... Listening to "Amsterdam" by the Evil Doers... put me in mind of other places, other times and brought a smile to my face. Strangely happay and peaceful thoughts on a snowy evening in a Canada under a conservative minoroty, but certainly welcome for a number of reasons...

This winter hasn't been much of a winter around here, not after the last two years' winters (all those living in Ottawa feel free to mock us down here).
Anyhow, with such a lackluster winter there's not a lot of opportunity to go for a walk in the snow. What can I say, I enjoy it, reminds me of Saturday evenings in the winter when I was a kid, in Ellcottville with the family skiing all day.
In short, I can dig it.
Given this opportunity, I loaded up the shuffle with a new playlist and went for a a stroll to get myself a latté.

Here's the rundown:
First Impressions of Earth - the Strokes
Get Behind Me Satan - the White Stripes
Gran Turismo - the Cardigans
Hearts of Oak - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Lazy Line Painter Jane - Belle & Sebastian
Mellow Gold - Beck
Pre-Millenium Tension - Tricky
Some of my Best Friends are DJs - Kid Koala
The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Welcome to the Show - Evil Doers

It begins...

It's red, older than me and needs a french-threaded bottom bracket: my new frame.
A 70s vintage Gitane road frame, to be more precise.
Getting this built is gonna be FUN. So much so in fact, that I will be blogging the whole damned thing. I may even get some pictures of it.
I definitely need to clean the frame off with a degreaser... there's years of grime and oil deposits on the metal... and I'm not sure about the forks... the action is a little stiff when I attempt to steer, hopefully it's just a bearing needing to be repacked or something similar going on there. If not, new forks for me.

This ride will be downright sick when I have finished with it. It may even be dope (as the kids have long ago stopped saying).

Geekery

Picked up the Doctor Who Series One (aka the Eccleston Years) Box Set.
It's chock full of Daleky goodness.
Drool...

"Daffy" returns to the lexicon

It's back and it's prejorative. Try it out!

Instance One: "daffy bitch"
Usage: "Veronica, that daffy bitch, was telling everyone in the office Mario was a cokehead." or
"Shelley, that daffy bitch, has the rat teeth to chew through barbed wire."

Instance Two: "daffy motherfucker"
Usage: "Sandy damn well nearly electrocuted both of us when he forgot to disconnect the power to that battery pack. Daffy motherfucker." or
"Victor, you daffy motherfucker... you set the router on fire..."

Use it wisely.

In the Shuffle and lightly Jonesing....

I haven't had a cigarette in over a week, and I have not made anyone suffer. I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Here's what I have been listening to in order to get by:

[What, you think this is a sad excuse for a blog entry?
Sod off, I maintain it, I post what I want.]

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (album) - Kid Koala
Clash on Broadway Disc One (album) - the Clash
Love is What We Need - London Funk Allstars (from Cold Krush Cuts - Disc One)
An Unmarked Grave In Memory of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Up, Bustle and Out (from Cold Krush Cuts - Disc Two)
The Revolutionary Woman of the Windmill (OestroGwen Mix) - Up, Bustle and Out (from Cold Krush Cuts - Disc Two)
Funeral (album) - the Arcade Fire
Anger (Rare Force 2 Meg Mix) - Ryuichi Sakamoto (from FunKungFusion)
More Beats & Pieces [Live in Koln] - Coldcut (from FunKungFusion)
Clockwork - Roots Manuva (from Funkungfusion)
Theme from Conquest of the Irrational (Remix by Prunes) - DJ Vadim (from Funkungfusion)
Emerald Alley (Indian Morning Theme) - Up, Bustle and Out (from Funkungfusion)
Digital - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
Glass - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
Disorder - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
Day ogf the Lords - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
New Dawn Fades - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
Shadowplay - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
Transmission - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
From Safety to Where...? - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc One)
Atmosphere - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Two)
Dead Souls - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Two)
Atrocity Exhibition - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Two)
Means to an End - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Two)
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Two)
These Days - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Two)
Warsaw - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Three)
No Love Lost- Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Three)
Leaders of Men - Joy Division (Heart and Soul - Disc Three)
The Kink Kontroversey (album) - the Kinks
Real Killer Part 2 - the Herbaliser (Remedies)
Who's the Realest - the Herbaliser (Very Mercenary)
The Missing Suitcase - the Herbaliser (Very Mercenary)
Ginger Jumps the Fence (Live) - the Herbaliser (Wall Crawling Giant Insect Breaks)

Election

OK, tonight we find out who we choose to run this country for the next 4-5 years... or until the next vote of no confidence.

I've settled into my secure compound, cracked the first beer and I am ready.

Let's rock.