Sun to set on common sense in 2009 · Sunday February 24, 2008 by colin newell
A December 2005 headline read… Congress is poised to make Feb. 17, 2009, the hard-and-fast date for the national conversion to digital TV — ending the more than 60-year era of analog broadcasts and potentially making millions of analog TV sets obsolete…
Hard and fast date? Hardly. The date of the analog expiry date has been bounced around more than the average basket-ball at a Nicks game.
Why? Why the space race to land-fill 75 million analog TV sets in the U.S.A. ?
Well – The government and the FCC (once considered the same thing, now hardly!) hope to collect more than $10 billion by auctioning off the spectrum now used for analog TV, allocating some of it to emergency services. Brilliant economics?
According to the FCC, people who want to keep their analog sets will be able to apply for subsidies. Each household can get up to two vouchers, worth $40 apiece, that will help pay for boxes that convert digital signals to analog. The bill sets $1.5 billion aside for that purpose.
Now hang on one moment. I live in Canada and I view converted digital signals from my cable company down-converted from the slightly superior digital to the analog signals that my HD Ready Sony is more than capable of slurping up.
So. Instead of forcing 75 million household to ditch their classic TV’s or add yet another set top box to their already straining consoles… why not get the cable companies to do it for you with the option of buying a box for the extra features?
No. That would make sense wouldn’t it!?
In summary, this whole affair is considered one great big gift for the tech companies and cable monoliths – thanks in full to the highly cooperative FCC which is little more than an imaginary government agency in corporate clothing.
Canadian dementia report #1 · Thursday February 21, 2008 by colin newell
The Songwriters Association of Canada will reveal a proposal Thursday that would see every Canadian’s monthly Internet bill increase by $5 in exchange for the ability to download as many “illegal” music files as they choose.
Uhm. Excuse me? Excuse me. Excuse me!
I have never downloaded a music file. Illegally or not. Never. Ever.
Yes. There are some people that do. I am not one of those people.
Yes, I have friends that steal music. I do not advocate it. It is not in my best interest to steal music… being a part time musician after all.
A friend of mine – who has a family… 3 daughters and a wife… is an advocate of stealing music at whatever cost.
Quoting my friend: “My girls need to have their music downloads”
Ok, I acknowledged, one day while trying to fix his computer after he had installed a bad copy of Kazaa or Lime-wire.
Bad meaning that his computer was kidnapped and every time one of his teenage girls tried to use their internet browser, they were taken to a porn site.
I said to friend: “Dude, your girls need” their free downloads, but their computer is being over-run with porn.”
Oh, he said. They are OK with porn.
They need their free downloads after all.
As 1/2 of a child-less couple: Color me speechless!
Yes. He is part of the problem for the music industry of Canada. Not me.
I mean. Why not get every Police force in Canada to mail traffic tickets to every Canadian… because after all, they might actually speed one day.
It is demented. It is retarded. It is part of being Canadian.
Gas Price Rant #8 · Wednesday February 20, 2008 by colin newell
Gas prices spiraled up 6 whole cents today. Across the country. At the same time. At all the pumps. And stations. Regardless of what inventory existed at each station.
In the last quarter, oil companies have recorded profits that are almost unimaginable. Sadly that “riches beyond avarice” does not trickle down to the retailers – not by a country kilometer. The distributors all the way up to the executive branch of most North American oil companies and refineries are making gains that are largely incomprehensible by the rest of us – hell, even banks are taking a second look at the performance of oil companies.
Why do gas prices go up in such a predictable way? Well – Oil is the number one commodity on the Planet. Coffee is next. It is a 100% “whatever the market (that’s you and I) will bear”. And since neither you nor I are going to get out of our cars anytime soon, expect the gas prices to keep rising and the profit margins of companies like Exxon to balloon faster than the U.S. deficit.
What can we do?
Nothing. Suck it up, pump it in and pay it out.
Now that attitude might be depressing and all. But You could get your sorry ass out of your car and walk downtown from time to time. Or park the car and take the bus to work. Or just leave the damn thing in the parking lot once a week.
I do not feel too bad overall – I did not own my 1st car until I turned 40 – and I bought a Honda Civic. In 8 years I have put less than 40,000 miles on it. Why did I wait til I was 40? Well. I got sick of buses and with aging Parents, they started needing the kind of attention that would require more immediate transportation options.
All gestures great and small · Sunday February 17, 2008 by colin newell
I witnessed two simple yet complex and complementary events today that I thought I would share.
While walking towards Clover Point on Victoria B.C.‘s scenic Dallas road, my wife and I heard the cacophony of dozens and dozens of cars.
A wedding I thought. Wrong.
As we were approaching the spectacular vista, we were quickly surrounded by a joyous throng of Kosovar-Canadians celebrating their independence… as of today.
Young and old waved the flag of their homeland, their joy infectious and emotional. Although it took a few minutes for me to lock in on the sheer magnitude of what I was witnessing – I eventually did and felt my eyes well up with tears. I can only grasp at what these new Canadians were feeling – but on a basal level I got it.
Ironically, I had last seen the Kosovar flag some eight years ago while witnessing a significantly more sombre march down Shelbourne Street – by an impromptu collection of fighting age men brought together by tragedy and genocide some 7000 miles away.
As we walked back to our car we reflected on how the World has just changed… perhaps for the better.
Lunch today was an order of foot-long hot-dogs at the Willow Galley in Oak Bay’s Estevan village – an old favorite. While walking up to the entrance, I noticed a familiar face – Stanley Cup champion Geoff Courtnall, formerly of the Edmonton Oilers. And like any other 40-something semi-middle aged dude, I act like a teenager meeting up with one of his idols… just like three or four other guys my age did as they approached this well established fish and chip shop.
Except there is a twist to this story.
While we were all there waiting for our orders to come up, a 4-door sedan pulled up to the intersection and Geoff was the first to spot the fact that the elderly couple in the car had a flat tire. So – who is the first to volunteer to change the tire? That is right – Geoff Courtnall. While a handful of giddy dudes stood by waiting to talk story with a hockey idol from a bygone era, our Stanley Cup idol make quick work of a tire-change… seemingly in minutes.
These two events, although completely unrelated, give us moments of hope in a deeply troubled World – where we can share tears of joy with complete strangers as they wave their new flag…
and tears of laughter when 2 elderly folks are quickly sent on their way by the spontaneous gesture of a sports hero.
