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Internet Radio Day of Silence

Today marks another day of protest by Internet radio stations around the world, and they are doing it by going silent.

On Tuesday, June 26, thousands of U.S.-based webcasters plan to turn off the music and go silent in a unified effort to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this country’s Internet radio industry. [rain]

I wrote about this not long ago, and it seems that the fight goes on. More importantly, I’m bummed that I can’t listen to WOXY today. Truly, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Thinking about this some more today, I was pondering the argument of why listen to Internet radio anyway? Well, for myself, I used to listen to it all the time while at work. Yes, while working at a radio station, I listened to another radio station for the simple fact of maintaining some sense of sanity. A little dose here and there goes a long way.

The other element to consider is the growing trend of wi-fi enabled cellphones. Look at the iPhone for instance. True that it’s an iPod and a cellphone, but the wi-fi built into it as well as the ability to develop web based applications for it means streaming media galore. You can get all the YouTube you want, but sometimes you need to let go of the controls to the music.

Streaming into WOXY from a wireless hotspot while I enjoy a non-Starbucks coffee? I am all for it.

Therefore, Save Internet Radio, please.

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Probably the best curry in the world

Flickr photo by: Miss604
Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

We decided to put this little place in the Robson Public Market to the test last night. We’ve been walking by it over and over, doing the same old, “We should try that place sometime.” It took us forever to just think about setting foot into the market, and I have since become a huge fan of their fruit selections. They have a much better variety, it’s a little cheaper, and the grocery stores around the west end of Vancouver kinda suck in comparison.

Anyway, the best curry in the world? That’s tough to say because I haven’t traveled around the world enough to sample everything there is to sample, but for the money, we had a lot of curry last night.

Mui Garden Delight is a tad on the pricey side, compared to some of the other places you can grab a bite to eat at the Robson Market, but it’s worth the price. Having the beef and vegetable specials last night that were $6 a piece, it was more of a task rather than a meal. It wasn’t too hot, and the spice was comfortable to the pallet. The taste, on the other hand, was outstanding. Even with the $6 special ending with this month, they will probably see us again.

Anytime you give me something with lots of rice, a great curry sauce to pour over it, and a nice portion of meat or chicken on top, I’m a very happy person. Even the next morning, I’m thinking about that beef curry I had last night. Holy crap.

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Von Bondies – c’mon c’mon

Just to help celebrate being two episodes into season four of Rescue Me. Well, at least if you’re in the states. And if you’re a Rescue Me fan, you’ll enjoy the full version of this track, not just the abbreviated-opening-sequence-edit of this awesome Von Bondies track.

I get a ton of hits from people searching for the details of Rescue Me and when it will be on Showcase in Canada. Chances are, you won’t see the first episodes of season four hitting the screen until the end of the season currently running in the states. That means July or August before that happens, but you might be surprised. If anyone has more details, feel free to post the news in the comments.

Update: Thanks to a comment from the folks at the Showcase Blog, which you can find out more on their blog post here, the fourth season of Rescue Me will premiere in Canada on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007.

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The Crazy Canucks #36 – Back in the off-season saddle

Recorded last night and posted today.

We’re far from gone, and this episode should prove it. Life got pretty hectic for your Crazy Canuck’ers for a while, but all of us were able to link up for this triumphant return to the podcast.

Even though it’s the off-season, there is still plenty to talk about, and we go back on the end of the Canucks playoff run to give a rundown of how everything went throughout the season. With the cup in Anaheim this year, we’re already starting to look forward to the road leading to next season. Screw golfing, eh?

36:15 minutes
The Crazy Canucks

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Google Maps, not bombs

I’ve been known to spend hours with a map, just studying where roads go. It’s something I’ve done since being a kid, trying to pass those hours away as we made our way on one of many road trips that usually ended at some relatives. That landed me the role of navigator on many excursions because I learned how to read maps that well.

So naturally, I can get lost into the depths of Google Maps, and there was something really interesting, at least to me, that I discovered last night.

The Nevada Test and Training Range[wiki] has a large portion of the range mapped now by Google Maps satellites(and apparently it’s even cooler in Google Earth). Now this gets even more interesting to me because I’m enthralled, like many, with the whole Area 51[wiki] phenomenon. It’s not so much the UFOs as it is the fact that the perimeter to the range is patrolled by unmarked vehicles and signs boast the use of deadly force being authorized if you are caught trespassing.

I’ve seen enough “declassified” aerial photos to have spotted the area from pretty far away to have spotted it, and you can get pretty far down to the Groom Lake base. For years, they said nothing was there. Now they play the hand that they have nothing to hide, but who knows what top secret technology is developed when the satellites aren’t looking.

I parsed through other parts of the range because I was curious to see if there were any sites of the range being used for target practice. After all, that is where the U.S. military can go play with live ammunition and get real experience dropping bombs.

Speaking of bombs, this is where nukes were tested for years, above and below ground. Looking around for evidence of massive blast sites, I found this.

Google Maps - Blast zone in NTTS

What made that crater, I can’t be sure. You can be assured that the area is massive though. Some quick and rough calculations come up with this being just over 400 meters in diameter. Whatever went boom there was a sizable explosive.

For the sake of comparison, I pulled up a shot of downtown Vancouver to compare the blast zone with an area that I am more familiar with. The important element in doing this was to bring it up at the same aspect ratio as well, which I think I did successfully. Honestly, I found it fairly stunning.

Google Maps - Downtown Vancouver

Essentially, the blast zone at the Nevada Test Site is the same size as BC Place[wiki], and that’s not the only crater that I picked on. That’s just something I did as a quick comparison, and it gives you a very eerie feeling about what goes on in a place that is so closely monitored and guarded. As to if this is the result of a nuclear bomb is unclear, but the idea of it being non-nuclear isn’t comforting either.

I know that I’m late to the party on this news, but the discovery is new to me. If you take the time to poke through what you can see, because there are still some areas that are low resolution or simply “not available” for satellite view, you’ll find some interesting stuff.

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BarCampVancouver2007 is open for registration

BarCampVancouver2007 The dates for BarCampVancouver2007 have been announced, so mark August 17th and 18th on your calendar. Sign ups have been going fast, and there were about thirty people putting their name on the list of attendees within the first twenty-four hours.

Checking just now, the list is just over eighty, and there is a max capacity of 120, give or take what the organizers think they can cram into WorkSpace. My name is already on the list, and the same can be said about Rebecca.

Our adventure to BarCampVancouver2006 was our first foray into the tech community that exists here, and it was awesome. We met a lot of interesting people, many of them becoming friends as much as great people to network with. There were a lot of great sessions as well, many of which I blogged about here.

If you’re interested, sign up sooner rather than later. You can always take your name off the list as the dates approach, plus this particular unconference should be free. However, last year we gave a small donation to help cover the costs and got t-shirts in return. Very sweet.

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Trying to make money off John Chow

I am constantly amazed by John Chow. He’s a making-money-online mad man. As much as I would love to make as much money as he does off his blog, I am far from obtaining the success that he has.

One thing that the guy does is give away free things on his site every so often, and he has something that I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on. Consider this my formal entry.

John Chow dot Com, a blog that helps you make money is giving away a 24″ wide screen LCD monitor! To enter, you just have to write about it. This is my entry. Now give me the monitor! The contest is sponsored by BluFur, who wants to let you know that they’re hosting Canada and the rest of the world.

I think that making this post is all I have to do to get my name put into the hat. 🙂

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RadioZoom#134 – Six Song Donut Spectacular: June 2007

Posted and ready for downloading now!

This episode, we’re all about covers. I’ve been amassing a nice collection of artists in terms of who has give their permission to play their music on the podcast. That has allowed us to pick from their collection of recordings and play some of the covers that they’ve done of other various bands from the past.

46:41 minutes
radiozoom.net

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Easy music downloading gives not much for history

The simple matter of fact is that we can all download music to our heart’s desire. You can pay for it or not, and some of it can be obscure to the mainstream. Got that favorite music track that you heard on the local, hot hits radio station that you just can’t live without listening to at least 40 times on single repeat until you get absolutely sick of it? No problem. The Internet has you covered.

What does that do to music history though? Are the generations of music fans to come going to experience the greatness of finding new music outside of saying, “Yeah, I downloaded that. It’s sweet!”

I remember parsing through bin after bin of CD’s and records, asking the dude who reeked of patchouli behind the counter if I could listen to it, and making some killer purchases of music to add to a library that still exists today. I’d go home and listen to what I bought, fell in love, and had to know more about this band I discovered. Then that would lead to other bands who might sound similar or would be name dropped in an interview that I would read somewhere.

Then you go over to your friend’s house and parse through their collection. While you hang out, you flip through their stash, toss a record on (yes, I had friends who were vinyl junkies, but the portability of CD’s always prevented me from heading down that path to obsession), and bask in talking about bands, who is who, the odd time signatures of a song, who else we should be checking out, etc.

Anymore, collecting music is so A.D.D. You want this track, go get it right this second. Then you throw it on your iPod, only to repeat the process with so many, various tracks that you hardly ever get your hands on the album in its entirety. Then as your mp3 player plays back, you find that track that you listened to 40 times on single repeat and skip forward to the next song.

I’ve known of people to download music based on just what they heard in a commercial. You’re hanging out, all of the sudden Modest Mouse shows up in the midst of a variety of mainstream country and top 40 tunes. You do the typical and ask the question of not knowing that they were into them. They reply, “I liked their song in that one car commercial, so I downloaded it. I really don’t know much about them. Who is this again?”

It’s something I’m guilty of as well. More often than none, that sparks me on a pursuit of getting as much as I can about that band, not just that one song. On top of that, I can spend, and have on many occasions, hours with Google and Wikipedia doing a meandering of research on rock and roll history, finding out who is still around and what happened to who.

Do you ever think to look deeper into that music? Get that whole album, listen to it from start to finish, and then think about what the artist was trying to do with this thing that they created? I fear that the love is getting lost in this new digital age. Don’t get me wrong, I’m wading out there with the rest of the kool-aid drinkers, but the appreciation of the art seems to be getting left behind.