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The crossroads of life and tech

Monthly Archives: March 2007

Canucks Clinch Playoff Berth

Canucks Vintage JerseyThe Canucks have clinched a berth for the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 3-0 win over the Avs (well a 1+2-0 win…).  Sami Salo opened the scoring with a shot from the point early in the third period during a Canucks’ 2-man advantage.  Roberto Luongo held the boys in it through a very busy third period before Matt Cooke and Daniel Sedin sealed the deal with a pair of empty-netters.

Roberto LuongoThe shutout gives Luongo 5 on the season, two shy of Dan Cloutier’s single season record of 7.

Well done gentlemen, 6 games to go.  Lets win four of them and get Bobby Lou an NHL record.

Bum Rush The Charts — Results & Ramifications

After the initial results from last Thursday’s Bum Rush, the charts continued to roll for the next three days.  I’d like to thank those of you who participated.  Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff has published the top results from  more than 15 countries, and the results are extremely positive.

Notice from dozens of traditional media outlets, including a lengthy article on our very own CBC.  No doubt helped to spur on the movement, but it was the podcasting and blogging community that really pushed this initiative forward, and everyone who purchased Black Lab‘s Mine Again over the past while has really done a lot to help.  Not only will this help to legitimize social media, but it has also helped put real dollars into the pockets of students who may not have been able to attend classes this fall.

I first heard about this on RadioZoom which is a Podsafe Music podcast based out of Vancouver.  The host, Uncle John referenced having heard about this on the Daily Source Code.  After which I heard about it on DSC, and found the website.

I blogged about it here, and also passed it on to my blogging guru within our company.  Finally, on the night of the Bum Rush, I spammed select folks on my MSN list. Not exactly the practise originally envisioned I know, but it managed four extra confirmed sales.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the next time someone starts up BRTC, or something like it.  These types of efforts show that a small effort by a large enough number of people can have a huge impact.

Thank you again to all those who participated.

Microsoft Joins OpenAjax Alliance

This week Microsoft announced yet another foray into the Open-Source arena.  The company will be assigning ASP.NET team member Bertrand LeRoy to be the company’s liaison to the OpenAjax Alliance starting tomorrow.  According to a post on Scott Guthrie’s blog, one of Bertrand’s focuses will be to ensure that Microsoft’s AJAX technologies (Library & Extensions) will integrate well with other open-source projects (ie: making sure they play nice in the sandbox…)

This marks yet another step forward for the software giant who seems to be making continuous baby-steps forward into the realm of the open source community.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  Good on ya MS! (now where’s that open-source version of windows…)

Oxford Dictionary Welcomes “Wiki” (and others) to the English Language

Late last week Reuters reported that the Oxford English Dictionary has now recognized the word “wiki” as an official word in the English language.

The folks at the Oxford English Dictionary perform periodic updates to the dictionary to keep it current.  Some of the other inductees from the class of March 15 2007 are:

  • bad girl (noun)
  • chef (verb)
  • claymation (noun)
  • edamame (noun)
  • Infobahn (noun)
  • technopreneur (noun)
  • tighty-whities (noun)
  • virtualize (verb)
  • undelete (verb)

It’s interesting to see what terms have evolved.  Check out the completed list from this new set on the OED website.  If you want to get all Web 2.0 about this, enhance your vocabulary with the OED word of the day RSS feed.

PowerTray

I’m working on a new side-project which I think will be fairly useful for all you Windows users out there.  It’s called PowerTray.  The idea behind it is to have an application which will allow you to do many of your often-repeated tasks quickly and easily and at the touch of a hotkey.

That in and of itself is nothing groundbreaking… but what PowerTray also has is an open plugin API which will allow other developers to create PowerTray plugins and continue to make the application more useful over time.

I’m still working out some of the bugs with the plugin architecture, but I will continue to post information as I move forward with the project.

I’m in. Are you? – Make your mark for Podsafe Music

Bum Rush The ChartsOn March 22nd an illustration of the power of citizen-journalism and the reach of the blogging and podcasting community will take over the Internet… well at least the iTunes music store. There’s a movement afoot called Bum Rush the Charts to drive a track from a podsafe artist to number one on the iTunes music store charts.

The artist of the hour is Black Lab, and their track Mine Again the lead-off track from their latest album Passion Leaves a Trace. The point of this is to prove the power, reach and credibility that bloggers and podcasters have in the Internet community. I’ve included an excerpt from the BRTC site:

We can do better. We can match and exceed the reach of big media, corporate media, labels, and the entrenched interests. On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street. The track we’ve chosen is “Mine Again” by the band Black Lab. A band that was dropped from not just one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic) and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back. We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on – and who they ignore at their peril.

I’ll be posting a new post and a link directly to the iTunes store on March 22nd. There will also be links from the BRTC website, who have signed up as an iTunes affiliate. They will be donating the proceeds of any commissions made to college scholarships. A way to pay back students who are a major part of the music industry’s paying customer base.

This initiative has support from some fairly significant players in the podcasting world, including Adam Curry founder of Podshow, and host of the Daily Source Code. So do your part. Spend your $0.99 to support podsafe artists and the dream of a DRM-free tomorrow.