One Canuck's Radio Weblog

  Monday, 3 November 2003

.< 9:57:39 PM >
German Radio in Dolby Digital 5.1 Goes Live

German public broadcaster,

Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), has launched the world's first permanent Dolby

Digital 5.1 surround sound radio service. Following tests and demonstrations

during September 2003, the station is now broadcasting late-night classical

music concerts every other Thursday and Friday in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround

sound. These broadcasts can be received for no extra charge by the estimated

300,000 households in Germany and 3 million households across Europe who

already have compatible DVB receivers for digital television. [ProSound News] '"We received extremely enthusiastic comments on the test from hundreds of consumers," commented Martin Wöhr, head of studio production and operations at BR Radio. "It also helps radio to hold its own against other entertainment formats, such as television or DVDs. Producing 5.1 channel programming ourselves has not only been an exciting technical learning process but also a massive success with our listeners. These broadcasts will lead to more regular 5.1 programming from us, and we hope it will encourage other stations to innovate with surround sound."'

< 4:13:54 PM >

Personal debt at record level in Canada: study
Canadians have a little more cash in their wallets but are piling up more personal debt, suggests a five-year study from a social activist group. F U L L S T O R Y
[CBC News]

< 4:13:30 PM >

How many megapixels is enough? What picture format is best for your needs? A look at some of the fundamentals and trade-offs in digital photography. [New York Times: Technology]

< 4:12:28 PM >

Experts in the field say that auralization technology can forestall acoustical problems. [New York Times: Technology] '"Concert halls are the most critical listening spaces, but they are not the only ones where sound is important," said Rendell R. Torres, an assistant professor in the graduate program in architectural acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. "There are lots of ways the acoustics of a room can help or hinder people in what they are doing."

< 4:09:08 PM >

SanDisk has announced it has signed an agreement with Fuji Photo Film that covers the xD-Picture Card™ format. [Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)]

< 4:07:48 PM >

A new class of device that transmits music, photo and video files from the computer to home entertainment systems may play an important role as digital music and home networks really take off. [Wired News] 'In his Washington row house, lawyer David Rhodes prepares dinner in the kitchen while listening to a random mix of the 8,000 songs stored on his Macintosh three floors above.

Music streams over the electrical wiring of the house to a SLIMP3 audio receiver made by Slim Devices, a small black box that lists the song title and artist on a fluorescent display and costs $240.

For Rhodes, the device finally delivers on the promise of digital music, allowing him to enjoy his extensive musical collection without smearing tomato sauce on the computer.

The system is also a hit with his wife, Brooke Clagett.

"She's buying more music than ever," Rhodes said. "It's taking her back to her high-school days making mix tapes."'

< 4:01:15 PM >

Museums have recently developed devices that allow viewers to virtually browse the pages of rare books and manuscripts. [New York Times: Technology]

< 3:54:48 PM >

Berlin is the world's first major city to switch from analog to entirely digital television broadcasting. [New York Times: Technology] 'The transition went almost unnoticed in Germany or elsewhere, which is remarkable, given that in the United States, the same process has been bogged down by politics, vested interests and a stubborn fear that scrapping analog television will ignite a revolt among viewers.'

< 3:53:42 PM >

Reg Review [The Register]

< 3:43:06 PM >

The macosxhints Rating:[Score: 8 out of 10]Developer: Spiny / [Product Page]

Price: Free -- donations requested With family and friends spread across the globe, I spend a fair bit of time in iChat. Early on, I enabled loggin... [macosxhints]

< 3:40:20 PM >

KavaSoft has announced iTunes Catalog 1.0, a US$10, Mac OS X compatible application for creating Web catalogs of your iTunes music library. [MacCentral] 'iTunes Catalog creates beautiful online catalogs of your music collection, displays the cover artwork for each album, and can even look up song lyrics. In addition, it can copy all your album artwork into iTunes, so you don't have to spend hours doing it yourself!'

< 3:37:51 PM >

Future Xbox gaming consoles released by Microsoft Corp. will use processor technology from IBM Corp., the companies said Monday in what represents a significant design win for IBM over current Xbox chip provider Intel Corp. [MacCentral]

Cool. MS goes PowerPC.

< 3:35:38 PM >

I find it's amazing how business meetings change if you are meeting a blogger. Non-bloggers meetings usually start with at least 30 minutes of introductions, friends of friends talking, who is who investigations. Meeting a fellow blogger means talking 2 minutes of the last Technorati feature, 3 minutes of Dave (it always happens) and then you get to the core of the conversation. Cool.
[Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]

< 3:32:51 PM >

Dan Gillmor on last night's 60 Minutes segment on file sharing. As he noted, they completely presented the industry view of the situation, it was as if it were a Jack Valenti-written propoganda piece. No opposing views. No non-infringing uses. No users talking about how much more powerful music is on the Internet. Just an industry victimized. And much worse, no disclaimer from 60 Minutes that they work for a major media company with a huge stake in the outcome. That Dan Gillmor called them on this is very gratifying. This is the problem all media companies have, they report on themselves, they have become the story. They have an exceptional obligation to disclaim this, and none of them are doing it. [Scripting News]

< 3:31:31 PM >

Updated: 1000 AM EST MON NOV 3 2003

8 °C
Light Rain

Humidity: 100%
Wind Speed: N 13 MPH
Barometer: 1023 mb
Dewpoint: 8°C
Heat Index: 8°C
Wind Chill: 4°C

< 3:31:00 PM >

"We are delighted to have been able to save them for the Canadian nation," he added, as the deal makes the collection available for public viewing.'

.< 3:25:37 PM >
Succession of problems

Ottawa dispatch: A high-profile rift between Canada's prime minister and his heir apparent is creating unease and controversy. Anne McIlroy reports. [Guardian Unlimited]

A couple of quotes to deal with. Watch me contradict myself!
'What would happen if there were to be a terrorist attack on the scale of September 11? Who would be in charge?'
A silly, hypothetical question that no one other than the reporter is considering. Chrétien is the PM. He's in charge.

'Normally, the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons is prime minister. However, legally, Mr Chretien has every right to remain as PM until he chooses to step down. He was, after all, elected by the Canadian people three years ago, and has two years of his mandate left.'
The complication here is that we don't vote for PM. We vote for MPs and the leader of the party with the most MPs in Parliament is the PM. So who's the leader of the party?

< 10:58:44 AM >

A gene linked to osteoporosis has been identified by Decode Genetics, a company that is leading efforts to find the genes that underlie common human diseases. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

< 10:58:20 AM >

Comment: The war against groups such as al-Qaida stems from a clash of economic systems, argues Loretta Napoleoni. [Guardian Unlimited]

< 10:56:57 AM >

Bruce Hubbard, a left wing peace protestor in Auckland, New Zealand, has been arrested for emailing the US embassy to complain about U.S. foreign policy. Local authorities will charge him with misuse of a telephone because police claim an American worker at the US Embassy was "offended" by Hubbard's comments on her country's actions. [Kuro5hin.org]

< 10:51:17 AM >

As seen at right, the Panther Address Book does updates, finally! For a test:Create a new address with some easily distinguishable fake names. Drag the address to the desktop (creates a vCard). Open the vCard with any text ed... [macosxhints]

< 10:43:33 AM >

[GAM-Arts] 'Both unions already represent different categories of workers and "cultures" at the Crown corporation. While the CEP is Canada's largest media union , its CBC membership totals about 1,700, most of them camera staff, sound engineers and other technical and trade personnel. The other 5,000 or so CBC staffers, including producers, editors, reporters, sales representatives and announcers, are affiliated with the CMG.'

< 10:41:32 AM >

[GAM-National] 'The ability of Canadians to live the good life has increased measurably over the past five years, but a new study suggests they fail to recognize that they are better off.

The study, to be released today by the Canadian Council on Social Development, says the average disposable income has increased since 1988. People are living longer, and crime is less of a problem. But a poll of 3,000 Canadians conducted in late January and early February of this year suggests that feelings of security increased only marginally over that period.

There is a "disconnect between perception and reality," said John Anderson, the council's vice-president of research.'