I thought I'd share an interesting observation. Sure, we all know that gas prices are high. Sure, we feel the pinch at the pumps. I checked through our gas purchases, and compared 2 months of use.

I picked February, where people weren't griping so terribly about gas, and June, when we realized we were fully ensconced in a gas price explosion.

Neither the Wiz or I are full time commuters. We don't go anywhere exciting all that often, meaning there aren't lazy drives in the country on a Sunday.
In February, our gas bill was $360. In June, the cost had risen to $630. Wow, that's $270 that just disappeared. Poof. Losing an extra $270 every month. That's a big deal. A Really Big Deal. I was wondering why our checking account seemed anorexic for the past few months. I wanted to just attribute it to unexpected purchases, but this is bigger. More Insidious.

That's an additional $3200 a year that's going to go somewhere that's not my bank account. That's like having another Christmas kick you in the ass. That's the annual budget for kid activities (ie. karate and horseback riding and soccer)

We've got 2 vehicles, one, admittedly, isn't terribly efficient (Nissan Pathfinder), but my Toyota Matrix is pretty darned small and economical. Unless all 5 of us have to go somewhere, (chickadees + dog), we normally take the Matrix. The Wiz lives less than 20km from work. We've got a year left on the Pathfinder lease, will we still be able to afford to drive it soon?


Today the price per litre rose again to $1.37.

Technorati Tags: Canada, gas price

Ok - I'm keen when it comes to neat applications. Last week I set up Dipity. Dipity is a visual aggregator of all the content you create via various sources. I.e Blogging, Flickr, Picasa, Twitter, YouTube etc. Dipity creates a timeline that you can scroll through, analyse and share. It's quite neat. The collecting of all my digital noise in one place, in a visual format just tickles me. Go ahead. Check out your noise.


Technorati Tags: Dipity, Timeline

A few weeks ago I wrote about the risks associated with the new Copywrite laws being considered in Canada, and specifically how the law is going to affect timeshifting of TV programming. It turns out I wasn’t far from accurate, that Television providers are indeed considering moving the ability to timeshift and record programming into their networks. Michael Geist has an interesting bit on network based PVRs.

In the months leading up to Bill C-61, Telus consistently argued for a “living” fair dealing provision that could adapt to changing technologies. In particular, the company noted its interest in providing a network-based PVR that would allow customers to record and store programs that reside on computers that it hosts. That network-based approach of relying on centralized computers - often referred to as cloud computing - is one of the hottest trends in computing as companies look for efficiencies and consumers seek out convenience.

Michael Geist - Blog

 

 

I like having my set-top PVR, and I’m sure that the geeky-minded folks will always have a media centre with their TV, but I wonder how many folks would appreciate having their content stored on their tv providers hard drive? What does that say about privacy? Do you want it known that you’ve recorded 50 hours of Big Brother? There are sone significant issues at play, and it’s not all about copywrite.

Tags: MichaelGeist, Timeshifting, Canada Copywrite

On Wednesday, I ventured forth into the Big Smoke to partake of bevvies and snacks and geekiness. I’ve been a lurker on the Toronto Girl Geek site for almost a year, but it was last month when i bit the bullet and decided to participate.

And it was good.
Quite Good.
I didn’t sign up because of an interest in the speaker [although, the fact that the speaker ended up being phenomenal was just gravy], but because I figured it was time to discover other like minded chicklets. And besides, you can’t go to soccer games every night of the week.

The speaker happened to be Jayne Hoogenberk, the mastermind behind the e.community for Harlequin Romance. No, she didn’t really talk about product, but all about the technical ins and outs of creating on-line communities, being responsible for the care and feeding of an on-line brand and some of the best practices she used in cultivating a successful online community. There were bits and pieces of her discussion that any industry could take away and incorporate into their own on-line strategy. Stellar and very applicable.


And just guess who’s going to be the speaker for their next dinner? Sandi Jones. Yup. That’s right. One of the greatest thought leaders in the Canadian Internet Industry. I think you’ve got to go.

Technorati Tags: Sandi Jones, Toronto Girl Geek Dinner, Jayne Hoogenberk, eHarlequin

It's a big deal. The Canadian Copywrite Reform Act [if it becomes law], is going to change the way we live, the way we share and the way we enjoy media.

From Michael Geist, there's a beautiful synopsis: The Canadian public get's analog rights, the Copywrite Lobby get's digital rights. You can copy a piece of video media that you *OWN* onto a videocassette, but not a DVD.
~~~~When was the last time you had a videocassette? I haven't owned a VCR for over 5 years.

The most interesting new criminality is the PVR. If you've got a PVR, chances are you actually got it from your TV provider, you are renting or have purchased it, with the explicit permission from the provider to be able to use it to record entertainment to watch at a later date. Poof. This activity, along with time-shifting is going to become a criminal activity.

Let's just put aside the fact that this is a service provided by your cable/satellite provider. How about the financial implications of the Canadian government on said cable/satellite providers? I pay a whopping $20/month for my HD PVR. That's $240/year from just little old me. Imagine the thousands of people who are in the same boat. That revenue stream could simply disappear from the service provider's coffers with a government signature. Why is it that we aren't hearing the screams of the major service providers about this component of the copywrite bill? Are they engaged in their own lobbying? Do they have a plan?

I've got a feeling that they *do* have a plan, and something just as insidious as the Canadian Copywrite Reform. Something that takes the content out of the customer's domain and puts it back in the service provider's realm. My gut says that the TV service providers are going to offer a similar type service, but instead of downloading movies/shows to your PVR, you program the scheduling, and the shows are actually stored to disk on the service provider's premise, and when you want to view the recorded media, you get to *stream* the content down to your TV, but never actually have possession of the media. It's going to be part of the push to make network infrastructures smarter, and put the control of content tightly in the hands of the broadcasters. Think TMN on Demand, a neat service provided by Rogers. Instead of waiting for the appropriate time for a movie to be aired, you can select to watch a TMN movie whenever you want. No waiting, no schedule. Bam, it's there when you want. Rogers also offers the same service for their PPV movies, no schedule, instant watch-ability. With these services, I couldn't *save* the movie to my PVR, I could only watch it in real time. Sneaky. Good and sneaky, but you can see that the wheels are already spinning....

We are all going to be criminals.
I've got to get my tattoo figured out. And a really tough nickname.












Technorati Tags: Rogers, Canadian Copywrite Reform, Michael Geist

It was a long hot saturday, with a threat of impending rain and the squeaking of hundred of pre-teen girls. Soccer had taken over Newmarket. Whistles and refs and jerseys of all hues covered 5 acres of greenspace. Parents with foldable chairs in snappy carrying bags lined the fields. Cheering, whooping and the odd word cursed under their breath in response to a bad call from the officials.