If you have trouble playing some video clips on your computer, try the VLC player.
It’s a free download from videolan.org
VLC is the best on Mac of the many I have tried. And I understand it is recommended for Windows, as well.
Category: product endorsements
music – notable
These days it’s tough for a new track to break into my favourites lists in iTunes.
Surprisingly, I just downloaded a Country song and a Bon Jovi song. And they are the same song. “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, with Jennifer Nettles, #1 on the Country Billboard Charts May 6, 2006.
Bon Jovi just won’t go away.
I am keen too on the reinvention of Nelly Furtado. She’s a hip hop diva now! Producer Timbaland is magic. Everything he touches turns to gold.
Best of all is John Legend, “Ordinary People”. This is the best R&B track I’ve heard in the last decade. A timeless classic.
biodegradable plastic bottle
About time.
Congratulations to Biota Spring Water for marketing a the world’s first compostable bottle made out of corn.
We need to get these to the developing world, especially India, as quickly as possible.
Watch a cool video of a bottle disintegrating over 90 days on the Biota site.
blog – WordPress 2.0 installed
This blog has been now upgraded to WordPress 2.x software. There are some new features on the right hand navigation.
The bugs have been mostly eliminated. I recommend WordPress.
book – Angels and Demons
Like every second person, I just finished another Dan Brown book — on MP3.
Angels and Demons is the prequel to The Davinci Code, and is similar. Brown has a good formula and he sticks to it. Short paragraphs with cliff-hanger endings. He drags the reader along, willing or no.
It’s not great literature, but the plot is superb. This time his targets are the Papacy and the Illuminati.
I recommend it.
I love flash memory – update
Update – Samsung to introduce laptop computers June, 2006 without a hard drive. Instead? 32 gigabytes of NAND flash memory. US$3700 in Korea only.
Samsung Notebook Replaces Hard Drive With Flash
The very limited Apple Shuffle with 512MB of flash memory costs C$89 today.
Competitors need offer twice as much memory (1GB) plus more features for C$79 in order to sell.
A 1GB flash memory card for my camera costs C$40. A 256MB USB key fob drive C$10!
Flash memory technology has no moving parts. It is much more reliable than the spinning disk on this computer. Or on the original iPod.
Death to spinning disks. In future I buy devices with flash memory instead. Like the iPod Nano, for example.
book – Marley and Me
On Dana’s recommendation, I got the huge best seller on MP3. I’ve been listening to it as I bike about Calgary.
It is sweet, funny, touching and sad. Any dog owner would like it.
Actually, any dog owner could have written it! The story of every dog could fill a book.
(click on the book for details)
new addition to the family
Kona “Blast” – C$674 with 2-year free maintenance package.
Like an old sick dog, I put my Gary Fisher “Marlin” to sleep. Sad, but more humane.
The next hospital bill would have been pushing $300.
support the Canadian music creators coalition
The evolving dynamic of “illegal” file sharing on the internet is a very complicated issue.
Coalition of artists fights music industry over file sharing
One thing is clear, however — the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) in panic mode is handling the issue badly. Not as badly as in the USA, but badly.
The voice of reason is the Canadian music creators coalition.
A few of the CMCC Members:
Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sum 41, Stars, Raine Maida (Our Lady Peace), Dave Bidini (Rheostatics), Billy Talent, John K. Samson (Weakerthans), Broken Social Scene, Sloan, Andrew Cash, Bob Wiseman (cofounder of Blue Rodeo), Sam Roberts, Greg Keelor (Blue Rodeo), Bob Ezrin, Feist, Arlen Thompson (Wolf Parade), Randy Bachman, Metric, The New Pornographers, Bill Henderson (Chilliwack), Ronnie King (The Stampeders), Lionel Dean Jarvis (Music Director/Bassist for Nelly Furtado), Ashwin Sood, Lighthouse, Luke Doucet, Blair Packham, Chris Tate, Craig Sheppard (Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra), Chris Hogan, Golden Seals, Aaron Soloman, Dennis Ellsworth (The Little Pilgrims), Likewater, Neil Layton, The Johnny V Trio, Oneeyedjacks, Moneyshot.
I urge everyone to buy music from these artists. They are the ones looking out for the best interests of music fans, not the labels represented by CRIA.
The Career Break Book
Live your dream. … ditch the nine to five, say ciao to the rat race.
They call it a “gap” year in the UK.
Greg and Lori Chartier took off with two teenage boys through New Zealand and Australia. And loved it.
I thought the book would be filled with dream travel itineraries. The Lonely Planet Planet Earth that I have long been anticipating.
Actually, most of it deals with practicalities: house, pets, finances, vehicle, job. Where to kennel the kids.
Rick McCharles 