Earl sideswipes NC headed for Massachusetts and Moncton
Downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane Earl still packs winds of 105 miles an hour of 168 km/h
In Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island last night there was a line up at Peake’s Quay as nervous boat owners trailered their boats and brought them ashore. The damage from Hurricane Juan, which was not predicted until too late, only seven years ago is still fresh in their minds.
All over Atlantic Canada people were getting ready for Hurricane Earl, the first hurricane of the season, heading up the Eastern Seaboard.
Powered by storm-tracking software from Stormpulse.com
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Hurricane Earl tracking on Massachusetts shore and Maritimes
Storm Pulse has an interactive and predictive visual model of Hurricane Earl
We might be headed for the “Big One” on the Eastern Seaboard with Hurricane Earl. The media are obsessing over it and so is Twitter. Here is a cool interactive map of the storm. The interactive chart is updated regularly.
(Chart is found on the top of the blog.)
StormPulse is based on a predictive tracking system, using the National Hurricane Center, cloud imagery by Xplanet, NERC Satellite Station, University of Dundee , and base imagery courtesy of NASA.
UN: Replace Rhetoric With Action on Disability Rights
Include Persons With Disabilities in Planning and Implementation
Human Rights Watch – Governments meeting at the United Nations this week to discuss implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) should focus on effective strategies and good practices that benefit persons with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said today. The convention went into effect two years ago.
“If governments are serious about their commitment to people with disabilities, they need to turn the laws and policies on paper into meaningful programs and services on the ground,” said Shantha Rau Barriga, researcher and advocate on disability rights at Human Rights Watch. “Efforts will fall short unless governments include people with disabilities in planning for these programs and monitoring them.” Read the rest of this story »
Apple announces updates to iPod Touch and iPods with immodest sales pitch
Steve Jobs does his best act as huckster and traveling salesman
Steve Jobs claims # 1 in the games market with iPod Touch
Yesterday Apple CEO Steve Jobs did a live announcement of Apple’s new or improved products for the fall. Some of his claims were so preposterous it’s hard to take him with more than a grain of salt.
The show had plenty of wow’s, ooh’s and aah’s for Apple fanboys but nothing as spectacular as a new product. Most of the announcements, like the iPod Touch upgrade, had been rumored for weeks.
Apple does a good job of keeping their product line fresh and giving their competitors a target to hit.
Say it ain’t so Steve
“Steve Jobs just told an audience that the iPod touch alone outsells Nintendo’s DS and Sony’s PlayStation Portable combined, worldwide.” Engadget Read the rest of this story »
New attacks phishing attacks with out of office and email change
Clever new attacks simulate emails with moderate level of important information but no alarming key phrases
Phishing illustrations PC1 News
People started getting phony emails this week that attempt to establish contact through benign messages. The older scams promise millions of dollars in lost money, sex, dates, or jobs.
This new round of phishing is different: the messages are low key and don’t contain anything that would raise alarm bells. Replying to get more detail can open up your system to phishing or trojan attacks.
Here are a few received in in the past 4 hours. None of them are from people I know but they do raise one’s curiosity which is the point: to hook you innocently into replying.
Email Change
Steve Rich has changed his email address due to excessive spam after having the same address for 15 years. Please, go to the website and contact the office via the contact directory on the top header, , (you will get general email address where you can request Steve’s new email) or, call the office at 973-458-1188 or Steve’s cell phone to get his new email address.
More bafflegab from the Minister who told the truth about PNP
Innovation and Advanced Learning Minister Allan Campbell says he has covered the Prince Edward Island with slow speed networking
PEI hi-speed from Aliant is 1/10th Eastlink service
With great fanfare, Innovation Minister Allan Campbell declares PEI is ready to join the broadband world of hi-speed internet.
P.E.I. entirely covered by broadband network headlines the Charlottetown Guardian without a clue what they are talking about. Or perhaps they want to be a public relations extension of the government.
The truth is that outside of the Charlottetown and Summerside, Aliant customers are getting slow speed internet. Read the rest of this story »
Disabled people do have sex lives
We don’t need to exploit prostitutes to have sex – but we do need equality in society for the myths to be debunked
Image KK+
By Naomi Jacobs, The Telegraph.co.uk – The Telegraph picked a particularly shrewd moment to pry into disabled people’s care plans, seeing as we are currently are the disproportionate target of a cost-cutting campaign that has started with the poorest and most disadvantaged people in society. The article, reproduced later in the Mail and Express, claims to have found evidence of “taxpayers’ money” spent on sex services for disabled people. Read the rest of this story »
It’s a Heat Wave
UPDATE 93.7 F. or 34.3 C. on my back deck – 30 C. at the weather office
The weather network says it feels like 40 C. or 104 F.
We’re not used to this. September 1st and it’s hotter than hell in the Iraq desert on the cool shores of Northumberland Strait. It’s 34 C. in Fredericton and 33 C. along the Atlantic Ocean in Halifax.
The record in Charlottetown was 26 C. This will last two more days. Stay cool.
Save on Cakewalk V-Studio 700 Music Production System
Offer extended to September 8th in Canada for only $2,500 a $1,500 saving
Cakewalk Sonar V-Studio 700
Update September 1, 2010 - Roland extends the offer to September 8th
The joke “Only in Canada you say” seems to be true in this under-promoted special from Roland Canada on their flag-ship digital recording workstation (DAW).
This limited quantity special is available only from some Long and McQuade stores and Axe Music, although Axe didn’t confirm it yet. Ron Huestis, a fellow Islander in Halifax and DAW salesman for Long and McQuade, has the V-Studio at home and says it smokes the competition.
The Cakewalk V-Studio 700 Music Production System combines Sonar 8.5 Professional with an integrated mixing deck, I/O and Fantom VS midi synthesizer. All of those products can be purchased separately but the beauty of the V-Studio 700 is you can get an out-of-the-box experience without the hassles of connecting gear from different companies.
For people who struggle with the complexity of home recording, the V-Studio solution is very appealing. Getting Sonar 8.5 Producer running requires hundreds of complex hardware and software integration decisions. Some people like to play with gear and that includes me but I get tired of the hour setup of the Lynx Aurora to Sonar on the computer to midi connections and the Mackie control surface. Read the rest of this story »
Dylan Bootleg # 9 to include bonus disc
Rare and previously unreleased concert at Brandeis University will make 3rd disc when purchased from Amazon.com
Bob Dylan
Rolling Stone has announced that The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9)
Songs on the disc are: Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance; Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues; Ballad of Hollis Brown; Masters of War; Talkin’ World War III Blues; Bob Dylan’s Dream; and Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues.
The concert was on a tape held by Rolling Stone co-founder and music critic Ralph Gleason. “It had been forgotten, until it was found last year in the clearing of the house after my mother died,” says Ralph’s son Toby Gleason. “It’s a seven inch reel-to-reel that sounds like it was taped from the mixing disc. A collector/dealer associate of the family said ‘This might be worth something to the Dylan office’ and we sold it to them last year.” Rolling Stone Read the rest of this story »
People are dying under patronage management at QEH
Should Premier Ghiz’s buddy be managing the largest hospital on PEI without the credentials
Video copyright CBC News
When you watch the CBC video of QEH Executive Director Rick Adams, it’s hard not to cringe. He gratuitously notes he has only been at the hospital for two years as if to wash his hands of the death of Faye Carter.
Adams was appointed to his job June 20th, 2008 according to the Charlottetown Guardian, five months before Faye Carter died after routine surgery.
Adams does candidly admit the oversight committee to review her death was not in place under his watch and still isn’t in place. He also admits her death might have been due in part to a shortage of nurses. Does he look like an assertive leader of a hospital or like a mild mannered accountant? Read the rest of this story »
Put yourself in Arcade Fire rock video
Arcade Fire’s video The Wilderness Downtown uses HTML 5 to include your home in the action
The Wilderness Downtown
Arcade Fire have produced an innovative rock video for their song The Wilderness Downtown that puts your home and your street right into the video. It is awesome.
Because it uses HTML 5, it works best in Google Chrome which you can download for free. It doesn’t hurt your computer to have Chrome and IE and Firefox so no harm in trying.
The instructions tell you to put the home where you were brought up. May not work if it has become a condo development like my old address. Any address seems to work.
The video also works in Firefox 4.00 beta 1 which has HTML 5 built in.
The video is pretty imaginative and a little far out but it shows where we are headed with the next round of browsers.
They suggest closing all other programs since the processing is intensive. Arcade Fire – The Wilderness Downtown suggested by TechDirt.
Zoom R16 digital 8 track recorder review
An out-of-box experience says our audio tech for field recording
Zoom R16 digital 8-track recorder
The Zoom R16 digital recorder is one of the best recording gizmos to hit the market for remote recording of audio. It records 8 simultaneous tracks of 24-bit video using AA batteries.
There doesn’t seem to be a competitor yet near the $480 (Canadian) or $400 (US) street price from sellers like Source: Amazon.com
We’ve been recording music for five years. The annoying part of the process is how much time a musician has to waste on learning complicated technology when they should be working at the music.
The Zoom R16 is the best product we’ve seen for removing the technology from the process of recording music. It’s simple to set-up, operate and gets very good results. Read the rest of this story »
