Aptenobytes

Oh, please protect us some more Ms. Nanny State....

Ontario farmer convicted in raw-milk trial

I'd be OK with forcing him to put warning labels on the raw milk, but this is fricking ridiculous.

iPhone unlocked

iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity, August 24, 2007, 12:00PM EDT - Engadget.
Yes, I want one. As soon as Rogers releases a sane data plan.

Tech update

Urrgh. Dead laptop. Not too fun, but hey, it happens. Which led me of course to get A: a new computer, which inevitably leads to B: other stuff discovered during the process of upgrading.

My new cellphone - SE 790a

Got me a new cellphone. Sony Ericsson k790a.

I've been wanting a decent camera phone, and this is the first one they've managed to make. I've already posted some pics from it. It's not a high end camera, but it is as good as any disposable camera I've ever owned, so it's ideal for the type of snaps that most people take, and the cellphone format means I'll actually carry it, and get the snapshots that I always wish I had a camera for.

So, that's why I bought it. Here's the review at the one day point.

Save The Cheerleader, Save The World...

I am truly enjoying the new hit show, Heroes. It's subversive in a very cool way. It's not trying to be subversive. But, it's the first show that just assumes that it's normal for people to be poor, to be drug addicts, to be rich, to be privileged, to be unprivileged.

It's addressed the pervasiveness of date rape, the various types of sexism that permeate society from the overprotection of Heidi to the ongoing abuse that nearly destroys Niki.

It's shown people from the various stratas of society, and treated them all like humans. Rich, poor, middle class. No parodies, no pretending that they're innately different. From working class cop with severe dyslexia to rich and ambitious poltiician, they're all shown as flawed humans, as fucked up I am. As fucked up as you are. No nobility in poverty. No romance to a needle stuck in a vein. No No pretense that wealth brings nobility or venality.

Nope. It's a story about normal people from all walks of life. Basically, it's a story that has the subversive message that ordinary people matter, and are capable of being extra-ordinary.

It's true. Evolution or not, we're all extra-ordinary.

OK, that's enough of being a media whore.

Eureka!

I have been trying to remember the title of this movie for ten years. I saw it once at the Towne Cinema in Ottawa when it was first released, and when I went to find it again on video it was nowhere to be found. Finally remembered that it was Dennis Hopper who starred as The Captain.

Note to self. Go rent it, or buy it as soon as possible if it is available on DVD.

It'll sit on the shelf right next to "Straight to Hell".

iTunes store comes to Canada

Woo hoo! Here's a test link :
It should link to iTunes Canada, to a delightful little ditty by the inimitable Tom Waits.

Now if only they'd quit being twits, and lose the DRM crap, I'd be happier.

Creative Commons is spreading....

This month a couple of things positive happened. First I received the new Wired magazine with a CD of Creative Commons licensed musid, and now, a medium sized label is encouraging their artists to release their music the same way.. Much cool. I may have to buy something to support them.

My new cellphone....

I finally got a cell phone again after three years without. Ended up with the Sony Ericsson T637. First things first, it is unfortunately a product of slave labour equivalency. I couldn't find one that wasn't, although there may be some very high end ones that aren't. This model is made in Malaysia, with the battery "Made in Japan, Finished in Malaysia".

It has the features I was looking for; mostly bluetooth, camera and non flip form factor... and I couldn't quite justify spending the money on the one I wanted.

So how is it you ask? Well, it works amazingly well with my PowerBook, when combined with Salling Clicker. Romeo is an open source program that does the same remote control stuff as Salling's software. Of course, I didn't find out about it until after paying the shareware fee... Doh!

The camera images are crap, but good enough that I can take a quick snap of my friends and add their photos to my address book. Kind of nice to see who's calling visually. Using the bluetooth file transfer I can manually transfer the photos to my computers address book as well, but it would have been nicer if iSync did it auto-magically. Apparently that does work with some camera phones.

The one thing that surprised me is how addictive text messaging is. I had never really tried it before. The new method of predictive text entry is quite intuitive once you start to use it. I'm a big fan of playing with different methods of communication, and this is one that I'm enjoying that I didn't think I would.

Overall, it's a decent phone, integrates well with my computer, and iSync does work flawlessly with it, although occasionally the bluetooth connection drops for no apparent reason. The camera is passable for quickie portraits, but not for details, or low light situations. The reception is good, and battery life is fair if bluetooth is off, and abysmal when it's on. Seeing as how I rarely leave the house for more than eight hours, battery life isn't an issue for me. In terms of the UI, the menu system works well, with only a few levels of menus to do most tasks, and as a phone it's excellent having a standard key layout and controls.

On the downside, is it's origin of manufacture is questionable, and the lack of MP3 ring-tones is disappointing. (god, that's an incongruous combination to put in one sentence). Buying stuff is such a pain when you're trying to harm as few people as possible... It is fun though, said the geek tech toy addict part of me...

It would be an interesting project to look at tech toys like mp3 players, cameraphones, etc, and rate them based on a scale that included, ease of recycling, conditions of manufacture, etc. More than I can take on right now, but I send the idea out there, and hope it lands in the lap of someone with more time, and energy...

FireFox hunting

Link: It's Out!!. The best cross platform browser is now outta beta.

Support web standards, support diversity, use open source browsers:

Mozilla and Friends, Konqueror, Lynx, Links, Amaya,