Monthly Archives: January 2011

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings play New Brunswick tonight

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Canadian super group plays St. John tonight, Sackville Feb 1 and Fredericton Feb 2

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings hit New Brunswick

The Canadian super group of Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden are playing a three night stand in a trio of New Brunswick spots.

The band is promoting their new release Kings and Queens, a joint venture with some of the best female singers in the business.

This is Blackie and the Rodeo Kings third trip to New Brunswick since 2004.

For details see below.

I first saw Blackie and the Rodeo Kings at the Horseshoe in Toronto for their annual Christmas show which also featured Bruce Cockburn.

It was one of the best shows I’ve seen rating up there in my memory with Daniel Lanois, another great Canadian talent.

The talent these guys have is amazing. They have a tremendous stage presence putting on a show worth seeing.

Will I travel to NB to see these guys? You bet.  Continue reading →

Nicollette survives another fall off the horse

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She has a bandage on her hand, my cousin Steve Pate has no marks

Nicollette Sheridan with my cousin Steve Pate - her hand has a bandage and he has no scars (inf.com photo)

The Daily Mail is reporting Nicollette Sheridan got thrown from her horse. Again?

“Nicolette’s boyfriend Steve, a wealthy financier. looked equally dashing in a black suit with an open neck white shirt.”

“The trendy steak house appears to be a favourite of the couple – just two weeks ago the pair were also seen arriving for a spot of dinner.” (Daily Mail)

She’s been heavy dating my cousin Steve Pate for ages now that the horse accident story seems… well … a little old.

It’s a better excuse than Tiger Woods came up with for his SUV accident.

My aunt from Texas assured everyone on the family mailing list that Steve has no scars or bruises on his face.

Maybe Nicollette did hurt her hand falling off the horse.

Edie Britt on Desperate Housewives, Nicolle’s old role, was a man-eater not a man-beater.

We all breathed a sigh of relief that Steve wasn’t taking it on the chin, if you know what I mean.

Those movie stars can be high strung fillies and Steve’s just a good old boy from Texas.

Steve is used to gorgeous women in Texas, but he also knows you can’t tell a Texas woman nothin’.

Steve CANNOT get Nicollette to wear a riding helmet. That might have saved her head but not her little finger, which is the item of faîte du bandage as they French say. Continue reading →

Facebook invades privacy with apps and Instant Personalization

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You will be surprised and perhaps not pleased to find your picture and personal Facebook information in advertisements without your permission

TripAdvisor uses Facebook personal information in webpages (click for larger image)

It shocked me when a friend told me my picture and travel history was on the TripAdvisor web page.

It was chilling and intriguing to look at the map of my mostly business travel from the 1980s and 1990s. Things are a lot quieter around here now.

How did TripAdvisor know where I had been?

Were they data-mining my old credit card records? Was the CIA keeping a file on me?

The truth is somewhat simpler – I gave it to Facebook.

Facebook is now allowing business pages and apps to use our personal information in advertising. This is part of their new efforts to monetize the free site. You do have control over your privacy but there are new places turn off the flow of private data.

Personal information can leak out of Facebook beyond the usual settings in “Privacy.” Continue reading →

Cakewalk needs to start charging for premium support

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The time for free support of mission critical DAW software is over

People who use Sonar Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) in business are losing money when the product is buggy.

Cakewalk supports Sonar as if customers are not in the business of recording music.

Update – Sonar X1b now ready for prime time

I respectfully submit that Cakewalk needs to develop a tiered support level to keep it’s customers happy and to pay for the support businesses expect.

This is not a problem with Cakewalk’s employees: it’s a failure of management to put the proper customer service systems in place.

Forget how buggy Sonar X1 is. The support of the Online Forum and email support doesn’t cut it when time = money in business.   Continue reading →

Summerside falls into honey trap for $1.3 million

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Beyoncé not coming to PEI

Our leaders are the finest men and we elect them again and again

Continue reading →

Canada needs a poverty fix that doesn’t include Charles Dickens

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PEI’s resort to the Salvation Army for winter heating fuel would make Dickens proud but has no place in a rich country

Salvation Army a Victorian era charity still needed to help the poor in Canada

During the coldest week of winter, people on Prince Edward Island who are living in poverty discovered  that the Salvation Army has run out of emergency oil support.

Continue reading →

Is Online Customer Service a FAIL

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Do you have any horror stories about Christmas shopping online or was it all peaches and cream?

Amazon.com, eBay, Newegg, TigerDirect, Indigo, Musicians Friend – those are only a few of the most popular places to buy online.

We all know how to Google and get the best price but what is your experience after that?

Help us by sending a quick comment or email to njnfeedback (at) gmail.com.
Continue reading →

Firefox to add do-not-track feature

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Firefox will allow users to foil advertisers who track what you read and buy

Firefox 4.0 beta

The ability of advertisers to spy on you will be limited in Firefox and Chrome soon.

As we wrote in Why you don’t always get the best price, your computer is watching you and telling vendors the highest price you will pay.

It’s extremely annoying and an invasion of privacy.

Washington Post – Mozilla announced it will put a do-not-track feature in its Firefox browser to allow users to opt-out of online behavioral advertising.

The company has said it does not know whether the feature, an HTTP header, will ship with Firefox 4.0. Mozilla Technology and Privacy Officer Alex Fowler posted an outline of the feature to his personal blog on Sunday, explaining the background of the feature and how the company thinks it will affect users. “We believe the header-based approach has the potential to be better for the web in the long run because it is a clearer and more universal opt-out mechanism than cookies or blacklists,” Fowler wrote.

Politico is reporting that Google Chrome will implement a similar feature today, in the form of an extension called “Keep My Opt-Outs,” based on the National Advertising Initiative’s existing opt-out tool.