Category: Life

An article I wrote on teens and the digital music marketplace made the cover of PCWorld.ca! Or at least did so last week. Given the high rate of respondents, I didn’t want to post about it here until at least a week later. From the article:

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, and eight years later these portable music players have become as ubiquitous as cell phones amongst Canada’s youth. Brands such as the iPod are now household names, and have even spawned a new generation of words such as Podcasting. Still, the MP3 format is facing very uncertain times.

At the core of the issue is the fact that the MP3 revolution was one which the industry did not anticipate, or particularly want. Still, it was evident after the rise of Napster that the industry had to come up with a legitimate means to deal with this popular force.

The article was also slashdotted.

Well, a few new tidbits. First of all, I’ve just quickly completed the new Ottawa 2600 website. It’s to replace the old… um… txtfile that served as the Ottawa 2600 front for the longest while. You can access the new website from www.o2600.com.

In other news, Black & White, the Quintessential Player skin I designed, just hit the 2000 download mark. w00t!

Heya! Okay so new today we have the Field Notes for Blackburn Hamlet, GPS data, and more photos. The GPS data comes in two flavours: A CSV file (you can open it with Excel or Notepad), and an ArcGIS SHP file. Both are found in the ZIP file downloadable from below. I’ve uploaded the new photos; including some of the surroundings of the outcrop area to give a sense of general location.

Download Field Notes for Blackburn Hamlet here. (ZIP File; 9KB)
Download Field Notes for Aviation Parkway here. (DOC File; 56KB)
Download GPS Data here. (ZIP File; 3KB)
View all photos taken here [link removed].

Students of GEO3166 and GEG4102, I’ve uploaded the photos for your respective classes.

They photos can be accessed from here (GEO3166) and here (GEG4102.)

I am never, ever, doing a documentary again.

If I am caught dead doing one, it will never be on a polarized current mainstream issue. Fuck.

You know, I’m quite in alot of work right now. I have full time university. I have a job. I have another job on top of that. I’m trying to keep certain clubs afloat. I have minimum three reports due each week, usually of 10 pages each. Not to mention the whole documentary bit, and lazy classmates that delegate all their work onto me. This isn’t a “woe is me” piece, because I know there are many in the same shoes as I. The point is that the last thing I need on top of all this is getting phone calls and pressure from people. It’s just not what I need right now. To be honest, I just wish I could just hide in a corner and have everything done. But reality doesn’t work that way.

The problem with documentaries like these is that its on a polarized issue. People feel very strongly on piracy, and there’s lots of disagreements going on on pretty much every single aspect of the issue. Take DRM, for instance. Or how much artists are making through online music services. Or whatnot. Lots of people feel strongly in all these things, and so few of them agree with each other.

Meanwhile here I come along, basically mashing all these views up in a documentary of mine. The nature of the beast dictates that no one really gets an hour to themselves to speak, which creates more problems. I’m already throwing the whole movie out and starting from scratch again to insure a more neutral standpoint, but that doesn’t matter. Because people really don’t see that aspect of things.

People aren’t even in agreement over me. I’ve been accused of being an industry type that knows nothing. I’ve been accused of being pro-pirate. If there’s anything I’ve not been accused of I’d love to hear it.

And of course it doesn’t help when I write an editorial piece with my thoughts on things. If people weren’t in disagreement before, they sure are now.
ANYWAYS. I’m really up to here (*points to neck*) in stress, and I’m really starting to regret some of the decisions I’ve made here. Maybe its the fact that I haven’t had even a half-day off since August, and I just cannot handle it for much longer.