"I find myself incredibly fascinating and this blog bears witness to that simple fact. Friends, from far and wide, are often pestered to keep abreast of my life and opinions. I offer sincere greetings to guests who stumble here by accident too."
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- British Columbia, CANADA
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Saturday, May 29, 2004
A Moving Target ...
Last weekend, the Prime Minister called the election, so until the end of June it's national politicking time in Canada. This means when one switches on the TV or cracks open a newspaper, there's going to be non-stop coverage.
On another tangent, I've been patiently waiting for examples from Google's Gmail to show 'targeted advertising' near my message. Few messages have included any. The privacy clan are all up in arms about how Google is evil and such. These are the same people who demand spam filters so as to not be bothered by ads for get-rich schemes and penis-enlargement devices. I wonder how they think anti-spam software does its job? Oh gads, is it really going through their email? Oh, protectors of my privacy, here's a little fact: Some of us find advertising a whole lot more palatable when it is personalized.
I'll now explore the connection between these two ideas. Today, my realtor sent the following email:
On another tangent, I've been patiently waiting for examples from Google's Gmail to show 'targeted advertising' near my message. Few messages have included any. The privacy clan are all up in arms about how Google is evil and such. These are the same people who demand spam filters so as to not be bothered by ads for get-rich schemes and penis-enlargement devices. I wonder how they think anti-spam software does its job? Oh gads, is it really going through their email? Oh, protectors of my privacy, here's a little fact: Some of us find advertising a whole lot more palatable when it is personalized.
I'll now explore the connection between these two ideas. Today, my realtor sent the following email:
For those of you involved in the Election:
I am renting an apartment. Can the Landlord prevent me from having an election sign in my window or on my allocated lawn?
NO! Elections Act sec. 322(1)
I own a Townhouse (or apartment,..condo, strata).Can the Strata Council prevent me from displaying an election sign?
No! Elections Act takes precedence over any rules passed by the Strata Corporation... regarding election advertising.
Can a municipality prohibit the placement of election signs on boulevards, street corners, etc.?
No! The elections act takes precedence over local government bylaws.
Best regards,
Randy Book
Re/Max Central
Google tried to match up some useful links to this message. I guess we can't accuse the robots of being overly U.S.-centric.
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Labels: Canada, Google, government
Friday, May 28, 2004
Proximity is Irrelevant
Even from a distance, the web allows people to connect and keep up. I started and have run an email directory for many years now .. from 5000 kilometers away from the town mentioned in yesterday's entry.
Click here ----> The Virtual Sunapee Reunion.
Click here ----> The Virtual Sunapee Reunion.
Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee
Thursday, May 27, 2004
A Lake, Some Geese, and a Rock Band
I grew up in New Hampshire in the small town of Sunapee.
The little state is one of the original 13 colonies yet produced only one U.S. president. However since 1920, due to the first-in-the-nation primaries, lots of potential presidents have run around the state in an attempt to the enter the Oval Office.
The town of Sunapee, as I learnt as a tot, roughly meant, the lake where geese visit. This was in the Algonquin Indian tongue, but in the Internet age, you're most likly read about Sunapee as the location where Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of the rock band, Aerosmith met. Yes, they did play at my high school once but I was too young to attend.
I accidently googled my way to a link which includes a fan's many pictures in a virtual tour of the area. Click the picture below to visit page one [THE LINK HAS BEEN ABANDONED:
The little state is one of the original 13 colonies yet produced only one U.S. president. However since 1920, due to the first-in-the-nation primaries, lots of potential presidents have run around the state in an attempt to the enter the Oval Office.
The town of Sunapee, as I learnt as a tot, roughly meant, the lake where geese visit. This was in the Algonquin Indian tongue, but in the Internet age, you're most likly read about Sunapee as the location where Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of the rock band, Aerosmith met. Yes, they did play at my high school once but I was too young to attend.
I accidently googled my way to a link which includes a fan's many pictures in a virtual tour of the area. Click the picture below to visit page one [THE LINK HAS BEEN ABANDONED:
Labels: New Hampshire, Sunapee
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Trial Separation
Yesterday for lunch, I wanted to make simple sandwiches to go with soup. I really wasn't in the mood for tuna fish, but I found tender flaked chicken in the same-sized can. The sandwiches were good; however, as I was stirring in the seasonings I read the label. It said that the product contained water, salt, and soya for flavour. Additionally it boasted 100% pure, mechanically-separated chicken.
What d'ya suppose that machine looks like?
Labels: humour
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Counterfeit Corfu
I was at a bit unsure what to include today. It does seem as if my recent entries have been a bit wordy. So, I decided that it was time to look through old photos to scan. That's always easy.
The other weekend at Bret's house, Joel and I agreed on
the profound human themes found in the movie, Summer Lovers.
Although, I never visited the Greek islands at the same time as
the Joel and Lynne, through the magic of a photo editor ... it
apparently occurred. (You should note that we are wearing many
more clothes than the people in the early 80's flick.)
This, however, is to encourage you, Mr. Wirta to watch the movie
as soon as it arrives in the mail.
The other weekend at Bret's house, Joel and I agreed on
the profound human themes found in the movie, Summer Lovers.
Although, I never visited the Greek islands at the same time as
the Joel and Lynne, through the magic of a photo editor ... it
apparently occurred. (You should note that we are wearing many
more clothes than the people in the early 80's flick.)
This, however, is to encourage you, Mr. Wirta to watch the movie
as soon as it arrives in the mail.
Monday, May 24, 2004
Is the G for Geewhiz?
Gads, MORE email from Dennis? I'm just testing my Google Gmail
account. You know, it's the one with a gigabyte of storage. Better
than that, it allows single message attachments of 10 megabytes.
So, go ahead, send me that huge photo, video clip, laptop backup ...
== Dennis
Wow. Dennis is right in there on the cutting edge. In order to
send you something really big, I'll have to have GMAIL as poor old
Hotmail doesn't allow more than a 1 MB of attachments.
Is gmail available to all, or only a select few? I thought there
was suposed to be adverts accompanying it. I didn't get any. Or
is it the sender that gets the advert?
Dennis S Hurd (GMail)
More options May 23 (20 hours ago)
No, I think I've been identified as a select computer user ... and
have an account at Blogger.com. If you can still log in there, you
might find the link from their new, streamlined pages.
It's really a completely new way of working. You leave everything and
don't really make folders .. but each message can have a 'tag'.
Basically you find what you want using Google's search technologies.
No, the adverts are totally non-instrusive. They're like what one
sees on the right hand side of a google search. A message to myself
included a tourist website for Richmond, BC as it noted that I live in
New Westminster.
I'm not concerned about privacy issues in this case at all. I think
the scaremongering is just the competition trying to make people nervous.
account. You know, it's the one with a gigabyte of storage. Better
than that, it allows single message attachments of 10 megabytes.
So, go ahead, send me that huge photo, video clip, laptop backup ...
== Dennis
Wow. Dennis is right in there on the cutting edge. In order to
send you something really big, I'll have to have GMAIL as poor old
Hotmail doesn't allow more than a 1 MB of attachments.
Is gmail available to all, or only a select few? I thought there
was suposed to be adverts accompanying it. I didn't get any. Or
is it the sender that gets the advert?
Dennis S Hurd (GMail)
More options May 23 (20 hours ago)
No, I think I've been identified as a select computer user ... and
have an account at Blogger.com. If you can still log in there, you
might find the link from their new, streamlined pages.
It's really a completely new way of working. You leave everything and
don't really make folders .. but each message can have a 'tag'.
Basically you find what you want using Google's search technologies.
No, the adverts are totally non-instrusive. They're like what one
sees on the right hand side of a google search. A message to myself
included a tourist website for Richmond, BC as it noted that I live in
New Westminster.
I'm not concerned about privacy issues in this case at all. I think
the scaremongering is just the competition trying to make people nervous.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Update: The Software is Great!
I have been playing with a/v equipment since my Super-8 film camera in 7th grade.
No, I take that back; my parents provided me with a reel-to-real tape recorder when I was much younger. I loved running around recording people and sounds. I sat by the television during the landing on the moon in 1969 with it.
In seventh grade however, I spliced together a number of three-minute film reels and then recorded a cassette audio track with voice and music. It was the whole summer of various times we went camping in the NH White Mountains. About 22 years after making Waterville Valley 72, I tried to run it in front of an old camcorder and made an unbelievably blurry copy which may still be around here somewhere on a VHS tape. Later in the late 80's, I put camcorder video together with radio. That was when Joel Thomas first bought a camcorder. I even used a Sony tape editing machine when I worked at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai.
It doesn't matter. Technology has finally caught up and surpassed me. In fact, I'm in the dust and it's all because of computers. The combination of a digital camcorder and Pinnacle Studio 9 is a dream. I've only scratched the surface but just burned an eight-minute DVD. Last night, we got a few clips of fireworks over the Fraser from the balcony. And today, I just walked down Columbia Street and to the New Westminster Quay. It was sunny and is Fraser Festival weekend so lots of people were out.
Today's DVD work has titles, and synthetic-muzak tracks were a breeze to drop in. The video is automatically cut into segments when being captured. I just needed to drop the chosen ones on a storyboard. It's simplicity is deceiving as I can imagine spending hours 'tweaking' a scene that nobody, except me, would notice!
I'm both amazed and amazing!
No, I take that back; my parents provided me with a reel-to-real tape recorder when I was much younger. I loved running around recording people and sounds. I sat by the television during the landing on the moon in 1969 with it.
In seventh grade however, I spliced together a number of three-minute film reels and then recorded a cassette audio track with voice and music. It was the whole summer of various times we went camping in the NH White Mountains. About 22 years after making Waterville Valley 72, I tried to run it in front of an old camcorder and made an unbelievably blurry copy which may still be around here somewhere on a VHS tape. Later in the late 80's, I put camcorder video together with radio. That was when Joel Thomas first bought a camcorder. I even used a Sony tape editing machine when I worked at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai.
It doesn't matter. Technology has finally caught up and surpassed me. In fact, I'm in the dust and it's all because of computers. The combination of a digital camcorder and Pinnacle Studio 9 is a dream. I've only scratched the surface but just burned an eight-minute DVD. Last night, we got a few clips of fireworks over the Fraser from the balcony. And today, I just walked down Columbia Street and to the New Westminster Quay. It was sunny and is Fraser Festival weekend so lots of people were out.
Today's DVD work has titles, and synthetic-muzak tracks were a breeze to drop in. The video is automatically cut into segments when being captured. I just needed to drop the chosen ones on a storyboard. It's simplicity is deceiving as I can imagine spending hours 'tweaking' a scene that nobody, except me, would notice!
I'm both amazed and amazing!
Labels: camcorder, Quay, software, technology
(Motion) Picture Perfect
I could probably have managed without it. I might have been able to stick with simple software to edit camcorder video. Yet, I figured that if I were going to throw this much effort into a new learning curve, then it should be towards software that's more universally known. I ditched the freebee Ulead and bought Pinnacle Studio, Version 9.
The things we expect computers to do nowadays have surely grown. I remember the big argument as to whether word processing needed to be WYSIWYG. In those days I had cast aside Wordstar commands but had memorized all the WordPerfect keystrokes. Now, thankfully, I haven't a clue as to the command for Reveal Codes. Years after that, I learnt ANSI and later RIPscript graphics for BBSing. It wasn't many years until HTML superseded both.
I had an original CGA card, so when it first became possible to edit simple photos on a PC, it all seemed like magic. Now, I get to choose from hundreds of transitions between digital video scenes. Should I add a sound effect to the surround-sound track? There is so much included in this software package that it certainly provides the tools needed to create stunning DVD's.
The question is ... will I really use them?
The things we expect computers to do nowadays have surely grown. I remember the big argument as to whether word processing needed to be WYSIWYG. In those days I had cast aside Wordstar commands but had memorized all the WordPerfect keystrokes. Now, thankfully, I haven't a clue as to the command for Reveal Codes. Years after that, I learnt ANSI and later RIPscript graphics for BBSing. It wasn't many years until HTML superseded both.
I had an original CGA card, so when it first became possible to edit simple photos on a PC, it all seemed like magic. Now, I get to choose from hundreds of transitions between digital video scenes. Should I add a sound effect to the surround-sound track? There is so much included in this software package that it certainly provides the tools needed to create stunning DVD's.
The question is ... will I really use them?
Locate additional information at the my eJournal and images blog site.