Wayne D's Blog

Thank you to the reader who noted that it's iPod not IPod. What makes Apple think they can rewrite the rules of grammer? Even Microsoft isn't that arrogant.

Microsoft implemented symlinks in NTFS but then didn't include a tool to set them. Microsoft of course has to embrace and extend and calls them junctions. They are very useful especially when you want share your iTunes library among users on the same machine in Windows XP. Winbolic link is a nice visual tool for manipulating junctions if the command line makes you break out in a cold sweat.

I tried to set up Banshee which is supposed to be the best iTunes replacement for Linux. Unfortunately there is no precompiled version for Centos. I tried to use a binary for Fedora core but there were too many unresolved dependancies. When I started to compile the project I ran into more issues with missing libraries so I decided to put it off for another day.

On Sunday I participated in the local Santa Claus parade ambling the four kilometres behind the float for the Baden Powell Scouting group where I volunteer as a leader. Our recently re-elected regional councillor walked along with us and it was like being with a rock star. People were yelling out his name and calling him over to talk. He is such a personable guy it's not surprising that he does well in politics.

I don't know what's going on with this cold, It's been two weeks since I caught it and it's still hanging on. This will be a shorter entry than I really wanted to make because I just don't have the energy to write.

I've decided to join the 21st century and buy an iPod. I downloaded  iTunes a while ago while on the quest for the perfect music player. All in all it's still my favorite, what I really like is the party shuffle feature. I can tell iTunes to make a selection from my music library and then fiddle with it a bit after ITunes has made it's selections. I wish it supported a few more file formats but you can't win them all. I also have the Rogers branded Yahoo music player installed on my machine so I can listen to the streaming music that Yahoo provides as part of the package I have with Rogers. I stopped using it for a while because every time I tried to start it up it would try to go out on the Internet and then hang. That went on for a month or two. I also have the Dell branded MusicMatch Jukebox player that came with the system. It's also OK but it's constantly whining at me to upgrade which I find profoundly irritating. The one thing I really like about it is the watch folder feature which let you set folders for the player to monitor for new tracks. When it finds them it automatically adds them to your music library. Hey Apple how about adding that feature to iTunes. 

My emusic subscription means that I don't buy much other music except the occasional song from ITunes. Now that I've decided to buy an IPod it looks like iTunes will continue to be my music source for files with digital rights management. It's sad that these guys can't get their act together so that these files are interoperable across player hardware and on Linux. Maybe the Linux on iPod project will become the Rosetta Stone of DRM.

What finally made me decide to buy an iPod? Podcasts. My friend Steve told me that he had stopped listening to radio and spent most of his time in the car listening to podcasts. I subscribed to the Daily Giz Wiz podcast. I now listen to it most nights in bed before I go to sleep. I've also subscribed to a couple of CBC podcasts including The Best of Outfront and C'est la vie's Word of the Week. In anticipation of getting my iPod I spent some time on the iTunes Store today looking for other podcasts and have subscribed to a few more. We are heading off to Ottawa next weekend for a wedding and I expect I'll load some video on the iPod for the kids to watch in the back seat. It's a long drive and  sometimes it's hard to find something listenable on the radio.

Complaining about Goggle being tardy about indexing my site in my last posting worked! A day after I complained they updated their index. I'm surprised at such responsiveness from the behemouth of the Internet. Lest you think I have taken leave of my senses please realize I know that what happened is purely coincidental. Google had actually indexed my site two days before I posted my complaint. I just wish now they'd spider a bit deeper and index my java games. The one search engine I'm really unhappy with is MSN. Search for www.wdawe.com and you find nothing. The strange thing is that if you search for Wayne D's blog my article on the Six String Nation guitar comes up in the first position just like it does on Google. For some reason the search engines really like that article.

One thing Yahoo should do is look at making Yahoo 360 more search engine friendly. The long complex URL's they create make it impossible for a search engine to differentiate my Yahoo 360 blog from the other Wayne D's who have blogs on Yahoo. What this means is that if you have a friend on Yahoo 360 and you want to find his or her blog don't bother trying to use a search engine to find it.

If you are reading this article on www.wdawe.com and want to comment you need to go to the Yahoo 360 version. One of these days when I get energetic I may move my blog to www.wdawe.com but right now I don't have the energy.

I have so many good ideas for blog postings but last Friday I got a cold, then went camping for the weekend. I really wanted to head home on Saturday after suffereing through a cold uncomfortable Friday night but one of the other leaders had to leave very early Saturday morning to handle a family emergency and if had left we wouldn't have had the minimum two adults that are required. Out teepee's have shipping pallets that we sleep on so we don't have to put our gear on the dirt and I decided to switch so that I wasn't sleeping head to head with one of the leaders who has a tendency to snore occasionally. Bad idea. Over the summer my pallet had aquired a list which meant that all night it felt like I was going to roll off it. The next morning I go a piece of wood and relevelled the pallet, or so I thought.

Saturday night I switched back to the other end of the pallet. Instead of rolling off the pallet I had raised the bootom corner to high and slippery nylon sleeping bag on slippery rubber sleeping mat meant that I was sliding off of the top all night. The other leader said that at one point we were almost sharing a pillow. Now he's afraid he's going to catch my cold too.

I should have went home Sunday afternoon bu instead I went to the CFL eastern semifinals to play with the Argonotes. Things weren't going so well in the first half but a change of quarterbacks from amon Alan to Michael Bishop resulted in an Argonauts win. I'm currently watching the 4th quarter of the Eastern Final between the Argos and Aloeuttes. Six minutes left and the score is 17 to 30 for Montreal.   The game will probably be over before I finish writing this blog entry. I spent all this week fighting the cold, draggin my sorry ass into work, continuing development of enhancments to the world's best golf simulator.

Yesterday I spent two hours in the cold and the rain for the Richmond Hill Rememberance Day parade and service. It didn't start raining until half way through the service. The kids didn't complain, they stood quietly and respectfully as the rain pelted down. I must be getting old, my back got so sore standing there during the service. We had hot chocolate to warm us up when we got home.

Sniff, cough. Sometimes I wonder whether anyone reads these things at all. Yahoo 360 only lets you comment on post if you are a member, hence the dearth of comments. The stats I get show that 7 people have visted my blog on Yahoo 360 in November. Assuming my brother and sister in law are two of those people and me and my evil twin are another two that leaves three visitors unaccounted for. I'm not too up to date on this whole social networking gestalt. I think I'm supposed to try to get more people on my friends list but I don't know what technique to use. Ask random people who I see on other people's blogs? I have not friends, aren't I pathetic. Will you be my friend?

I'm also kinda' pissed at Google. They haven't updated the version of www.wdawe.com in their index since October 23rd. 30 - 24 for the Alouettes with about two minutes left, the Argos may still pull it out of the bag. With only 100 million websites in the world you think that they could get back to mine a little more frequently. Montreal just completed a 31 yard pass, the Argos are really in trouble now. After the game is over I'm going to post this entry then take a nap. Montreal is trying a 44 yard field goal to put the game out of reach for Toronto. The  kick is good, the game is over.

Upcoming entries to look forward to when I shake this cold:

• a poem

• Argonotes are ephemeral

• My favorite music player

Last week I complained about CBC Radio taking down the website for Socket, the summer replacement series that showcased new, inovative visual and artists. They managed to remove almost all traces of the show but after some digging around I found an archive of the  publicity emails that they sent out weekly. It gives a tantalizing glimpse of what the show contained and in most cases also lists the artist's name. Perhaps I can shame CBC into resurrecting the Socket website or even putting up the audio archives of the show. I have included links to a number of the artists who I haven't linked to before.


July 5th
 

This week on Socket, the new show that plugs you into young Canadian artists:  go to the grocery store where pop-art cereal boxes mix in with sugar puffs and granola.  This week, Socket is all about wonder and awe.  Meet the guy who sculpted the Great Wall of China out of Rice Krispies.  The painter whose only subject is V-W bugs.  The brilliant animator who also makes ten-foot sock puppets. 
 

July 12th
 

Host Angela Antle puts privacy under scrutiny this week on Socket. Vancouver's Jessica Bushey snaps photos of women's feet in public bathrooms.  Garnet Hertz, a Canadian living in California, straps video cameras onto the backs of giant cockroaches.  Lisa Klapstock takes pictures of herself in the laneways of Toronto's Little Italy.  And Judy Bowyer of Kitchener, Ontario gets people to make their most secret worries public.
 

July 19th
 

Socket gets all homey this week, zeroing in on domestic art.  But there's nothing mundane about Edmonton performance artist Todd Janes ironing out in the middle of the street.  Or the Alberta artist who knits with paint. Or the Canadian who holds telekinetic picnics in Berlin. Those profiles and more on Socket, with Angela Antle.
 

July July 26th
 

It's interesting --but it is art? This week on Socket, Angela Antle takes you to meet some artists who are pushing back the boundaries. Jon Sasaki says a plain old guest book is. Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan mix perfume to make a political statement. Jillian McDonald inserts images of herself into Billy Bob Thornton movies anytime he's about to plant a kiss. And Women With Kitchen Appliances make wild noise using Mixmasters and wooden spoons. It's all fun. But is it art?
 

August 2nd
 

The focus is on what host Angela Antle calls "uber-artists" this week on Socket - people who make art in all kinds of forms, from painting and making videos to designing wallpaper.  Craig Le Blanc of Calgary even uses his own body as art.  He's just one of the uber-friendly uber-artists you'll meet on Socket.
 

August 9th
 

Love conquers all this week on Socket. Montreal artist Max Wyse talks about the hundred-year old painting that touches his heart.  And Calgary's Mark Clintberg goes out on the street to get people to declare their love for one another.  
 

August 16th
 

It's all about Do-It-Yourself art this week on Socket.  Host Angela Antle will take you to one of Paul Butler's Collage Parties.  And Mark Prier explains how he makes audio art by downloading freeware from the internet.
 

August 23rd
 

It's all about shelter this week on Socket  - from Halifax photographer Mike Boiduk, who likes to crawl into fireplaces and dryers, to Lex Vaughn, who takes refuge in old-time radio.  That's on Socket, with Angela Antle.
 

August 30th
 

This is the last week for Socket, the show that plugs you into young Canadian artists.  And today, host Angela Antle focuses on family.  The Sanchez brothers make videos and take photographs together in Montreal, while conceptual artist and new mom Jess Dobkin tries to get people to confront their hang-ups about breast milk.

It's time again for me to decide on my emusic.com picks for the month. It wasn't too hard this month. I downloaded the rest of the Norm Macdonald's Ridiculous album that I downloaded the first three tracks from last week, Aimee Mann's Christmas album, One More Drifter in the Snow and Hello Love by The Be Good Tanyas. I've been a big fan of Aimee Mann since I saw her cover James Taylor's song Shed a Little Light on The West wing back in 2002. She came through Toronto soon after that and I bought tickets to her show solely based on that performance. I wasn't disappointed, she played at an acoustic concert in Toronto back in February with Chuck Prophet and I regret that I didn't go but I did hear about it very close to show time.  I went over to youtube to see if there was any Aimme Mann stuff there. I came across a clip from when Aimee appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer which was a show I really liked. Aimee and Buffy together, that's a slam dunk, so here it is. Be warned, this clip contains both singing and vampires, viewer discretion is advised. I expect it won't last too long because I'm sure it wasn't posted with permission.

We  (the Argonotes) had originally planned on having our final tailgate party of the year yesterday at the Argonauts final regular season game. We decided the scrub the plan when the November in October weather we have been having recently made it look at if we would be eating our hamburgers in the rain. I decided that I would take down my Coleman stove and brew up some hot chocolate. My plan almost failed when my wife told me she had thrown out our kettle. Off to the dollar store i went, no suitable kettle available. Then it was off to Walmart. I decided to splurge and instead of buying the $7.50 painted kettle I went for the shiny metal kettle which I found more esthetically pleasing than the brushed metal look. I put a small table in the trunk of the car to put the stove on and at the last minute decided to fill our large stainless steel stock pot with water too. A quick aside, don't put a Coleman stove on top of a plastic table. A few weeks ago when we had a hotdog and corn roast/boil fundraiser for the Baden Powell scouting group where I am a leader and managed to have the stove sink an inch or two into the table top in the three hours we had it going, oops.

When we arrived at the parking lot where the Argonotes usually meet the lot was too full for us to park there. Not necessarily a bad thing as they had decided to charge $25 to park in that particular lot. We instead parked next door at Simcoe Place for $10. This meant that instead of opening the trunk, taking out the stuff and setting it up beside the car we had to schlep in all up the stairs and across the street. At least the $15 I saved for parking helped cover the cost of the naphtha fuel which now costs over $11 a can instead of the $8 it used to cost. For some reason parking was very tight and we ended up parking three levels down at the very bottom level of the lot. At least we found a spot near the stairs. It was a good thing that I had two of my sons with me for the game because by the time we had distributed everything among us we were pretty loaded down. The table was left in the trunk of the car. 

There was a convenient spot in the corner of the parking lot that was relatively protected from the gale force winds that were blowing by the metal newspaper boxes that were lined up at this particular corner. We set up the stove on a level spot on the pavement and got things going. I filled the cups and my sons did the stirring. Luckily there was a Toronto Sun box that had a flat top where we could line the filled up cups.  

The hot chocolate seemed to be appreciated, I think I'll do it again for the Eastern Semi-Final next Sunday.