DaveTraynor.com

Last week, I was a day late with the Friday fun Upload, and here it is, over half the day gone and I’m only now sending out this one. Oh well…as you’ll see from some of the items I found for you this week, time is a bit of a premium for me right now. No matter when you’re reading this, take the time to enjoy noodling around. There’s some fun stuff here.

Strange Statues

There’s not much point in introducing this segment. The images are pretty self-explanatory. And the site title says it all — these are some weird (and wonderful) statues.

– Link

Clock

One thing I’m short on right now is probably the same thing everyone else is. Time. There just isn’t as much of it as there used to be. Money’s like that too, now that I think of it. But you can have fun with time, if you know what you’re doing. If anybody can figure out how to turn this page into a screensaver, let me know.

– Link

Express Yourself

Are you a budding Picasso? Or just want to express yourself…take a look at this site. And be sure to look at some of the other paintings that have been done before. It’s a cool application.

-Link

The end of it all

And finally…It’s the long weekend here in Canada. We call it Victoria Day. Or in some parts of the country, the May Two Four weekend. We care about things like this in the Great White North. But enough research. It’s time to step away from the computer and go outside and enjoy the weekend.

-Link

Enjoy.

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Friday fun

Sadly, Kelly and her teammates on the Louisville Cardinals Division 1 Womens’ Rowing team are not going to be going to the NCAA championships in two weeks.

The NCAA announced the 16 teams that would be attending, and the Cardinals are not on the list.

Kelly’s response, not surprisingly, was short and pointed.

“Absolute b#%@#*%@! Nobody made it. This is ridiculous and unfair,” she wrote me in a furious text message minutes after the news was posted on the Internet.

The team’s hopes had been high a few weeks ago that they would finally be invited to the prestigious national championships for the first time. But in the last few weeks, they have been frustrated by the weekly rankings, which seemed to be ignoring their positive results, while other teams they had beaten seemed to get the benefit of the doubt.

It’s not the first time the Cardinals feel like they’ve been denied a place they should have received. The news was similar last year. Fortunately, the selection process is supposed to change next year, when it will be based on a more transparent system which should get rid of these kinds of controversies.

Alas, the subjective nature of the ranking system means that no one really knows the criteria that go into the final decision. So although there seemed to be a lot of competition among the schools, the predictable teams will be there again this year.

The championships will be held May 25-27 at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

For Kelly, that’s the end of her freshman collegiate rowing season, which has to be ranked as a tremendous success. She gained valuable experience and scored personal bests several times in her erg scores. And she’s got three more years ahead of her.

She’s heading up to Hamilton for a couple of weeks, then she’s going to be coming out to Victoria for the rest of the summer. She’ll be rowing with the UVIC team here over the summer and participating in the Henley Regatta in St. Catherines in August.

What about your other kids, Dave?
Good point. It’s been awhile since I updated any of you on Jaime and Cory, isn’t it?

Cory is now living at our cottage in Buena Vista, just outside of Regina. He moved out from Hamilton in February and settled in at the lake as soon as the weather warmed up. He’s enjoying the place a lot.

In a couple of weeks, he’ll be starting work in the oil fields in Alberta, which he’s looking forward to. He’ll be on a 2 weeks on, 1 week off cycle and he’ll be at the beach when he’s not at work. It’s hard work, but compared to what he used to be doing as a bricklayer’s apprentice, it should be a piece of cake.

Jaime has just started another work term with the provincial government here in Victoria as part of her recreation and health program at UVIC. She’s taking some time off from competitive rowing this spring in favour of working full time. And she’s loving every minute of it. After 7 years of getting up at 5:00 am every morning, heading off to work seems like a breeze.

She’s not sure whether she’ll be rowing in the fall again or not. Only time will tell.

And me? Well…let’s just say that I’m not rowing either. But we finally got some roof racks for our kayaks, so look out!

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Proud Papa

Well, I’ve now been cut off Pandora, unfortunately.

After I wrote last week about Pandora sending out notices to people outside the US, I was happy to notice that I was still able to get the service. But it didn’t last.

Yesterday, I got this note from Pandora founder Tim Westergren:

Dear Pandora listener,

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora’s streaming service from Canada. We began blocking access from almost all countries outside the U.S. last week and had originally hoped to maintain access to Canada. However, it has become clear in the last week that we just haven’t been able to make enough progress to continue streaming.

It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows.

I really hope that they are able to work out licensing arrangements in Canada. It’s a great service and I’ve enjoyed discovering new music through it.

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Pandora, Internet Radio

Dan York’s Disruptive Conversations blog has a great story about how Twitter and Facebook helped him find a pair of cowboy boots in Ottawa.

Intrigued? Follow the link to see the whole post.

Here’s the link.

There’s a disturbing example in today’s Globe and Mail of the effect of lobbying in our political (and media) worlds.

Michael Geist (a U of Ottawa law professor who specializes in copyright issues) writes about the issue in his blog today:

Others have noted the Globe and Mail’s one-sided coverage of the camcording story, however, there is one paragraph in today’s story that requires an additional comment. In its front page story, the Globe reports:

Canada – particularly Montreal – is known as one of the world’s worst offenders for piracy, rivalling places such as China, Lebanon and the Philippines. A Motion Picture Association analysis of counterfeit discs in 2005 revealed close to 75 per cent of all films illegally camcorded in Canada were recorded in theatres in and around Montreal, recently identified as the No. 1 city in the world for surreptitious camcording.

This claim bears little relation to reality. While it is possible that Montreal is responsible for three-quarters of Canadian camcording, Canada is not known as one of the world’s worst offenders for piracy. While I have previously criticized the USTR’s Special 301 List, this year’s list identified at least a dozen countries for the “priority” watch list – Canada was not among them. Moreover, the claim that Montreal is the world’s leading source of camcording is rebutted by today’s Los Angeles Times, which reports an MPAA claim that New York was responsible for 20 percent worldwide camcording (last week they said 40 percent). According to the MPAA, the world’s leading source of pirated movies is the United States, home to the anti-camcording laws that supposedly solve the problem. The MPAA says that 43 percent of pirated movies are sourced to the U.S. and now says that 20 percent come from Canada. Leaving aside the ongoing inconsistency of the industry claims, there is no disputing that the MPAA itself has identified New York, not Montreal, as the number one city for camcording.

The Globe’s coverage is unfortunate, but the comments coming from MPs in today’s papers leave little doubt that change will happen. Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda says the issue is on the government’s agenda and MPs from the opposition parties, including Liberals Dan McTeague, Roy Cullen, and Marlene Jennings as well as the NDP’s Brian Masse are all on record supporting legal change (in fact, Jennings says she is working on another private member’s bill on the issue to go with her lawful access bill). With that level of support, neither the facts nor the inaccurate reporting really matter at this stage as it would appear that legislation is a matter of when, not if.

Geist has a couple of other posts here and here with more on this whole business. It bothers me that the issue seems to involve everything but the truth.

I was sitting at the kitchen table this afternoon, working away on my computer (my office has been taken over by three young boys who have taken over my computer network to play Runescape!) when I heard a soft voice calling from the front doorway.

“Hello? Hello? I’ve brought your groceries in…hello?”

“What the…?” I wondered. I don’t get a lot of visitors and they don’t usually bring me food.

Just as I made it to the door, I saw a young guy in shorts and T-shirt, with a bicycle helmet, making his way down our front walk. It was the guy from SPUD.ca, who had just dropped off our weekly delivery of organic produce. But this week, he was delivering it using his fancy bicycle trailer, which carries about two dozen Rubbermaid containers. It’s quite the rig.

I wish I could show you a picture of this contraption, but my camera is still in the shop for repairs. But I can’t resist telling you about this cool little company that brings organic produce you’ve ordered over the Internet, right to your door.

SPUD, for those who haven’t heard of it, stands for Small Potatoes Urban Delivery. It’s a web-based business, where customers receive weekly emails about what’s available, pick out what they want, send their order in, and it shows up the next week at your door.

It started in Vancouver in 1997, and has since grown to locations around Vancouver, Vancouver Island (including Victoria, where I am), Calgary and into the US.

The website has a good explanation of how the service works and a history of the company, put together by founder David van Seters.

Here’s a short excerpt:

After completing a study on the economics of sustainable community food systems, I felt I had identified an ideal business – an organic food delivery company. Such a business would have numerous benefits. It could:

* protect the environment by buying local, organic, minimally packaged, and eco-friendly products;

* build community by creating more direct connections between food producers and consumers;

* reduce traffic congestion and pollution by delivering groceries on a set route;

* educate customers about important food issues through a weekly newsletter; and

* donate leftover food to food outreach groups and disadvantaged families.

Finally, by operating from a low rent warehouse, the avoided cost of a commercial retail space could be put into delivery vehicles, thereby offering customers the convenience of home delivery for no extra cost than they would pay at their local grocery store.

I like the concept and I think it illustrates a viable mix of conventional business (the grocery store) making use of today’s Web technology to deliver a useful product.

Your order arrives between 9 am and 9 pm on your delivery day, and your day depends on where you live. Most of the products are organic and you receive a print-out showing you how many kilometres everything you bought had to be trucked. There’s a preference given to local producers and even a nifty newsletter added to every order.

Maybe it’s because I’m so busy with my business these days (not that I’m complaining, understand!) that I am attracted to success stories like this. I like the integration of technology and savvy. It’s a good combination. Check out their website. If they’re in your area, I recommend you give it a try.

Today is Derby day in Louisville — when the whole city shuts down and goes crazy for the Kentucky Derby. And guess who will be attending this year — dressed in her formal gown and a trendy turquoise hat? That’s right — Kelly is going to the Derby!

We got a phone call this morning from a very excited daughter.

“Guess where I’m going??!!” she said as soon as the call was put through.

“You’re going to the Derby?” screamed back her mother, who was even more excited than Kelly, if that was possible.

It turns out that a friend’s mother had an extra ticket and so they were wondering whether Kelly might be interested in joining them in box seats on the finish line? Hard to believe, but true. Who knows? Maybe she’ll even meet the Queen, who’s attending the race as part of her visit to the US. The Queen will be watching from Millionaire’s Row, which Heather and Kelly had a tour of in February, when Heather visited Louisville.

I don’t know whether Kelly found a camera to take with her or not, but if she sends some pics I’ll post some links. I’m sure she’s going to have a great time.

It’s a busy weekend for Kelly. This morning, she moved out of her dorm at the University of Louisville (school actually finished a week ago) and into her new house that she’s renting with three of her rowing teammates. Then she’s at the derby in the afternoon, and her fancy rowing wrap-up banquet tomorrow night. But her rowing season isn’t quite over yet.

Next weekend Louisville will be racing in the NCAA Regional finals and they’ve got a pretty good chance of making it to the National finals, which are going to be held in Oak Ridge Tennessee, in three weeks. It would be the first time that Louisville has made it to the National Championships, and I’ve got all my fingers and toes crossed for them.

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Proud Papa

Well, this sucks.

If you live outside of the U.S. and enjoy listening to customized radio stations on Pandora, brace yourself for some bad news. The site will be shutting you out starting Thursday evening. Registered users who access the service from outside the U.S. received a warning email yesterday letting them know that this will be happening.

Pandora operates under Section 114 of the DMCA, which gives them a clear process for paying rights holders in the U.S. There is no international equivalent of the DMCA, and so to operate legally in other countries, Pandora must sign deals with rights holders directly. That means separate deals with labels and publishers for each song, an extremely difficult and time consuming task.

Pandora has always made it clear on the site that it is for U.S. users only, and requires a U.S. zip code for registration. That didn’t stop many international users from registering anyway, using “90210″ or another famous zip code to get access to the service. Now, with IP-based filtering, users will be forced to go through proxy servers or other complicated mechanisms for getting to the music.

I spoke with CTO Tom Conrad this evening about the change. He says Pandora has been working on international rights deals for nearly two years now, and they hope to have enough deals done in the UK and Canada to launch in those countries soon. Other markets will take longer, he says.

Here’s the link to the story on TechCrunch.

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Pandora, Internet Radio