Sarah Allen reflects on some recent developments in Email that have become a must for her. I’ve recently purchased a MacBook, and I’ve found the integration between Mail, Address Book and Adium has been very useful. We’ve looked into email before.
Is LaszloMail the future of Email?
July 21st, 2006Ice Cream Funeral
July 20th, 2006
There’s an article at the New York Times about another industry that’s being forced to offer choices to the baby boomer demographic. Funerals. In the picture above, Harry Ewell had an ice cream truck in the cemetary.
The Long Tail
July 13th, 2006Chris Anderson has released a chapter from his upcoming book, The Long Tail, in a recent issue of Wired magazine. He argues that the era of the cultural mainstream and megahits is now over, to be replaced with many smaller works. (Wikipedia has lots of good starting points on the idea)
The Future of Email
July 9th, 2006Slashdot picked up a blog post by Gabor Cselle about some recent developments of email software. What new ideas would you like to see in your email?
Fringe – Scratch
July 9th, 2006I watched a couple of shows at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and I really enjoyed the imrpov in Scratch. (See mini-reviews and showtimes in Eye and NOW.)
For the performance, the audience provides a loose structure and theme. Arlen Konopaki and Kevin Gillese generate an assortment of characters into a fractured Hollywood plot. They then mix in lots of physical comedy, a few puns and hilariously awkward situations. The duo keep the juices flowing by inserting flashes to previous moments, and they were often trying to outdo each other in their outlandish ideas. In the final scenes, when all of the plots get mashed up together, the entire audience was laughing after almost every line.
The Fringe Festival continues for another week, and shows are only $10.
A Week of Free Activities in Toronto
July 6th, 2006Who says you need some money to have a good time? Here’s a schedule of 7 things to do this summer, every week in Toronto. I’ve even thrown in a backup to mix it up.
Monday – Visit High Park Zoo – Open every night of the week from 7:00 AM to dusk.
Tuesday – Free classic monster movies in Yonge-Dundas Square, from 9 PM to 11 PM. See the schedule for showtimes.
Wednesday – See some works at the Art Gallery of Ontario, with free admission every Wednesday from 6 PM to 9 PM.
Thursday – Go play Manhunt in a new place every week in Toronto. Games start at 9:30 PM sharp every Thursday.
Friday – Get your culutre fix at the Royal Ontario Museum with free admission on Fridays from 4:30 PM to 9:30 PM.
Saturday – see some Shakespeare at the Dream in High Park 8:00 PM from Tuesday through Sunday.
Sunday – Some people gather for a weekly game of Kickball, Sunday nights at 6:30 pm at Alexandra Park.
Backup – If you need something else to do, you can always explore Kennsington, Spadina and the Annex with an eclectic audio tour thanks to Murmur.
Microsoft to Buy Songs For You
July 6th, 2006
Fulfilling promises made earlier this year, and in spite of some previously failed attempts (yes, that article is from 2004), Microsoft is going to introduce a new “iPod killer” before Christmas this year. (Another story)
Microsoft is being helped out by media companies (Music, Television, etc.). Because Apple dominates the digital music player and music download markets, they are able to strong arm the content providers and set the prices. Music labels and other media providers would like to see a more balanced market to be able to gain more control over their pricing.
For those of you who don’t know, iTunes and Microsoft-backed stores sell their songs with digital restrictions. These restrictions on the files prevent them from being copied a certain number of times, or can even cause the songs to “expire”, and stop working when the music store owner chooses. This also prevents music downloaded from iTunes from playing on Microsoft “Plays for Sure” players, and music from most other stores working on iPods. So any music you have downloaded from the iTunes music store will probably never work on Microsoft’s new player.
Rather than forcing you to re-buy your iTunes music at their store, Microsoft is planning to automatically buy it for you from their store, and pay for it, as well.
Would you be willing to switch to a new music player, if they re-bought all of your music for you? Will Microsoft be able to avoid previous traps and create a compelling product? I’m not betting on it, but if they throw as much money at it as they did for the XBox, there might be something that at least will have some presence.
Canada in 2020
July 5th, 2006CBC Radio 3 has found a site dedicated to the discussion of the future of Canada in 2020. Jointly produced by CBC, the Toronto Star, and La Presse, the site includes essays, a discussion board, wiki, and a contest. Topics range from the federalism to immigration, health care to the environment, and aboriginal issues to Afghanistan.
Story Telling and Game Design
July 5th, 2006Sarah Allen comments on a speech made by Bruce Sterling at the Game Developers conference in 1991. “Follow your weird, ladies and gentlemen. Forget trying to pass for normal. Follow your geekdom. Embrace your nerditude.”
Alive in Joburg
June 22nd, 2006Everyone likes a good independent short film, right?
Well, here’s the best I’ve seen in a long time. Alive in Joburg is an interesting piece of work that I could write for hours about attempting to dissect it. Or- you could just watch it for yourself. Awesome film directed by Neill Blomkamp in association with Spy Entertainment.