Via John. U of Manitoba faculty are on strike. Here's a FAQ. Aimee (my sister at UofM) says 80% of classes are still running.
[11:25:54 PM] []

Everything I learned about marketing I learned from Brad. Now if only he had a similar CS240 primer.
[8:46:30 PM] []

Fairtunes.com has switched (or is in the middle of switching) from Tomato (in Waterloo) to Eggplant (in Hillsdale, New York). This is a big deal but more on that hopefully soon, but later. You'll also notice some changes. Mainly that things should be more stable.
[8:44:03 PM] []

The order Sunday night was: Chocolair (2 songs), Bruce Cockburn, Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace, Alanis and finally the Hip.

I would have thought that Chocolair would have been the worst act last night but I think that award goes to Alanis who seemingly played more new (and not so good) songs then old good ones. You should have heard the roar when she announced her last song! The audience did not want her on stage. Also oddly enough her drummer was behind a (bulletproof?) plexi-glass enclosure. Weird. I think they should have switched the Barenaked Ladies and Alanis around. It would have been better for overall concert momentum.

One of the highlights was when Steven Page from BNL played Lovers in a Dangerous time with Bruce Cockburn.

I have more to say but homework to do.
[4:55:56 PM] []

I could pick up a cheap iMac in New York (Yahoo article from MeFi)..
[4:41:02 PM] []

Introducing the Apple iPod. A truely beautiful MP3 jukebox. If I had a Mac I would have ordered one by now, I kid you not (they were just announced today).

Now Slashdot seems to be pretty critical but regardless I think this is a great device.

1. It's beautiful!
2. It's small!
3. It's fast! (Too bad I don't have Firewire)
4. Recharges over Firewire

Apple has raised the bar and have now set the standard for MP3 jukeboxes. I can only hope that this gets Sony, Creative Labs, Archos,... going and into high gear to compete.

Unfortunately it's way overpriced (just like the Blackberry). This device should retail for $225-250USD. $200USD is the price point to aim for when selling portable consumer devices (it's at least the price point I'd buy at).

I can only hope they come out with a USB Windows compatible device. (And News.com quotes Jobs as saying it'll come when they get some time).

CNET article: However, Jobs said Apple does not condone stealing music. In fact, he said, the company spent $50,000 on CDs to go along with review copies of the unit so that Apple would not be promoting piracy.

If only Apple would re-invent my cell phone as a cell phone/email combo device...
[4:06:05 PM] []

Lindows? I thought it was a hoax but here's an article confirming that Michael Robertson formerly of MP3.com is indeed the guy behind an operating system that will run both Windows and Linux apps.
[1:54:35 PM] []

From the latest Wired: Current traffic conditions in Singapore
[1:35:13 PM] []

BBC: Village in the clouds embraces computers. Time to go back to Nepal! Some quotes,

...In order to connect my village to the internet, I have installed two small hydro-generators in the stream near our village for power for the school.

...We got a telephone in the village in 1998. My whole idea for bringing the telephone was to have internet access in the village. However, I found that the quality of the line was not good enough.

...At the moment, we have to walk down for a full day to the nearest city where an internet service is available to communicate with people from around the world.

And I complain if my Internet is down for less than a minute!
[12:35:35 PM] []

Actually TextAds on Metafilter makes some sense.. Instead of paying a $10 subscription fee to read MeFi, I get to pay $10 to not only read MeFi but also drive traffic to my site via the ad. Now consider if when you bought a Salon subscription you also got some ad inventory.. Hmmmm..
[11:18:00 AM] []

Metafilter gets text ads and Slashdot to get big box ads.

Too bad there isn't a quick and dirty app out there to add text ads to my own blog. I think it could be fun. For $10 you could leave insulting/humourous/insightful comments on the homepage that would be seen by 1000 people! (which means your text ad would probably run for 3 days (too bad we didn't have a good micropayment service so you could buy one ad at a time.. (actually we are scheming about something)))

Of course I have no excuse since I do have a Visa merchant account and recently wrote something in Java to interface with PayPal's back end (for Transpose).

I wouldn't do it to make money. It just be an experiment of sorts. And of course running this silly blog certainly ain't free ($300mn in hosting subsidized by people like Ming and Angie who I re-sold server space to).
[11:11:39 AM] []