One Canuck's Radio Weblog

  Wednesday, 22 September 2004

.< 8:28:19 PM >
Juan Cole : "What if 3,300 Americans...

Juan Cole: "What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll." [Scripting News]

< 8:23:51 PM >

Web-log pioneer Dave Winer walked in on a meeting of Seattle bloggers last week, a bit like William Shatner breezing in on a "Star Trek" convention.

In the parallel universe known as the Blogosphere, Winer is captain.

He has developed the tools and the art of blogging, as founder of UserLand Software and creator of the Scripting News blog, the Internet's longest-running blog.[Scripting News]

< 8:10:29 PM >

As with so many things in life, preparation is the key to success. In this week's installment, you'll read about how to pack just the right amount of equipment, and how to make sure the data on it is fit for travel. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: MacDevCenter.com]

< 8:09:13 PM >

Awarding the iMac G5 five stars, PC Magazine writes, “Pros: Simple, stunning all-in-one design. Quiet. Just one cord (for power), thanks to optional Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. More compact than other all-in-one desktops. Gorgeous 20-inch screen and desktop-caliber hard drive make machine more usable than a desktop-replacement notebook, for the same money and space use… Bottom Line: Apple has another design coup on its hands with the Apple iMac G5. Its clean, simple look — imagine if an iPod grew into a full-size, self-contained PC — exclaims, ‘It’s about time they designed a computer like this.’” [Sep 21] [Apple Hot News]

< 8:08:52 PM >

Canon U.S.A. Inc. on Tuesday introduced the US$7,999 EOS-1Ds Mark II, its new flagship Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera, with 16.7-megapixel resolution and a full-sized 24x36mm CMOS sensor that eliminates focal length conversion issues. The company is hoping the new camera will appeal to professional and commercial medium-format film photographers. Canon also introduced new point-and-shoot models and a new photo printer. [MacCentral]

OK, it's definitely time for a Digital Rebel Mark II!

< 8:07:07 PM >

Market research firm IDC on Tuesday reported that broad consumer acceptance of MP3 players is expected to grow the market from 12.5 million units sold last year to more than 50 million units in 2008 -- a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent. IDC predicts the market will generate almost $58 billion in revenues by 2008, and expects that Apple, which it describes as "a portable jukebox market leader," will see increased competition from vendors offering devices based on 1.0-inch and smaller hard drives. [MacCentral]

< 8:00:24 PM >

     And those people, according to Apple Store assistant manager Nikki Veneziano, have been bombarding the store with their questions.

     "We've been getting 50 to 75 calls a day just to see if we have them since the day it was announced," she said.

     That was Aug. 31, which adds up to as many as 1,500 phone callers, more than half of whom, according to Amaechi, are potential "switchers," PC users contemplating a walk on the wild side.

     And that, of course, doesn't count the walk-ins, who, according to Veneziano, jammed the store on Saturday and were still dropping by yesterday.

.< 7:48:01 PM >
Review: FileMaker Pro 7

Version 7 of FileMaker's popular flagship product, FileMaker Pro, has something for everyone, including end users who have never defined a field or tweaked a layout, managers who make purchasing decisions, and IT types who support networks and care about security and reliability. But developers -- whether they're in-house, independent, or do-it-yourself -- will be most excited about this release. [MacCentral]

< 7:47:19 PM >

Ranchero Software has introduced a new Weblog editing utility called MarsEdit, and has also debuted a publicly available beta version of its next major release to NetNewsWire, its Rich Site Summary (RSS) Web newsreader for Mac OS X. [MacCentral]

My favourite rss newsreader. Now the weblogging component has been broken out to a separate app. Interesting. Very excited about these apps but think I'll wait for one go 'round of public beta tests. Too busy at the moment.

< 7:39:16 PM >

PC World: Sony Eyes 200GB Blu-ray Discs. Sony will announce next month that it developed an 8-layer version of the Blu-ray Disc that is capable of storing 200GB of data, according to a company spokesperson. The announcement will be made at the International Symposium on Optical Memory 2004... [Tomalak's Realm]

< 7:38:22 PM >

World: Muslim musician escorted off flight to Washington by FBI agents and sent back to Britain. [Guardian Unlimited]

< 7:32:15 PM >

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded five Emmys in the Outstanding Sound Editing and Mixing categories to television programs broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. ...Read More » [Digital Pro Sound News]

< 7:30:58 PM >

Offering a range of topics stretching from the esoteric to the conventional, the 117th AES Convention Workshops exemplify the diversity of the Audio Engineering Society membership. Convention Chair John Strawn reports that Workshop Co-Chairs Christopher Struck and David Harris have coordinated, 'an extraordinary program of fourteen Workshops.' ...Read More » [Digital Pro Sound News]