I’ve got a couple of short movie reviews in the Westender today. Scroll down to check out my thoughts on Amal and Breaking the Ice, both of which will be at the Whistler Film Festival.
Canada is behind the rest of the world when it comes to both the level of cell phone technology we get to play with (no iPhone? Bah!) and our outrageously expensive data plans. So it’s nice to see that the CBC, amongst other media, is tackling the issue head-on. There’s been a bit of a groundswell of coverage of the lack of competition between different wireless carriers in Canada, and one can only hope this signals changes on the horizon.
Good luck with that, Amazon. The Kindle e-book reader the online titan is getting ready to trot out is a good try, but at $400, I don’t think I’ll be picking one up soon. Why spend that kind of money when you can just buy a book for far less? I also don’t think a dedicated reader is the answer. Apple’s iPhone is a step in the right direction…if you have a device that’s your phone, your media player, a web device, and also carries your entire library around, then I can see the e-book taking off. In fact, that’s the direction magazines and newspapers probably should head in. But the Kindle? No thanks.
Time Crash! Yes, the first meeting of Doctors old and new was of course on top of our list of things to talk about, but more or less everything else was Barrowman this and musical theatre that, along with our usual helpings of abuse and miscellany. Enjoy! (feed, web, direct download)
Some enterprising geeks have created a Half Life 2 mod located in the Canadian city of Toronto. Big deal, you say? It is if a) you’re Canadian, and b) you don’t live in the city. Secretly, all denizens of other Canadian cities suspect the place is run by aliens to begin with, and now that’s it’s been revealed that in fact it’s the evil forces of the Combine…well, time to strap on the gravity gun and save the True North.
Head on over and check out the stuff I posted about the Angel Forum, a venture capital event here in Vancouver.
The Guardian certainly thinks it’s a possibility. Citizen journalism, hyper-local reporting and other net-driven trends are making investigative journalists an increasingly rare breed. I’m a little conflicted on this, as I’ve got toes dipped in both the old and new media…..but newspapers, television and radio will have to adapt one way or the other.
The makers of “The Man from Earth,” an independent sci-fi film, have taken the unusual step of contacting RLSLOG, one of the better known torrent sites. But instead of cursing them up and down and accusing them of taking money from their pockets, they’ve actually said that having the film out and about on the internet has radically increased interest in their work.
Ah, more shaping of questionable intelligence to fit Dick Cheney’s homicidal whims. How delightful!
Yes, for only the second time in Radio Free Skaro history, two of the hosts of the show were in the same place at the same time, huddled around a single computer in Edmonton. Of course, with the inclusion of the Third Guy, we still used the invisible tethers of the Internet to connect to London, and those tethers eventually snapped, leaving him relaying his messages to us via telegraph and carrier pigeon for the final minutes of the show. But despite the technical difficulties of both this week and last, we pressed on, bringing you a bumper crop of news, sarcasm and a few selections from the Series 3 soundtrack for your listening pleasure. (feed, web, direct download)