An anonymized conversation from the company intranet:

Subject: A&W

Dude #1:
I noticed, while gassing up this morning, that the new A&W on Univ Ave. is open for business! I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had A&W…

Dude #2:
Maybe we should eat there for lunch today…. there was a line up yesterday.

(time passes…)

Dude #3:
Let’s never do that again.

Dude #1:
I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’ll be a long time before I eat A&W again…

Dude #2:
I feel gross.

This year, apparently due to the fear of terrorism (which is apparently the new communism), the CBC’s Canada Day celebrations were moved from their traditional venue on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to our humble Charlottetown waterfront. I took in some of the festivities and have a few observations to make:

• The entire night felt less like being at a live event, and more like participating in the production of a television show – which I guess it was. There were even commercial breaks via jumbo-tron. Who are we trying to entertain? Ourselves? The idea of connecting the whole country via satellite seems like a good one. However, rather than making me feel connected to the rest of the country, it left me feeling disconnected from the people and events around me.
• I gathered further evidence of my soon-to-be-famous law, Garrity’s Inverse Law of Congregational Intelligence. The law states that the intellect of individuals in a crowd decreases exponentially as the number of individuals in the crowd increases.
• Jimmy Rankin put on a great show.
• Smoking in public places should be banned.
• I love watching fireworks. There’s something simple and good about bright lights and loud noises. Having a live soundtrack from Rufus Wainwright was a nice touch (though I’d love to see him in a better setting).

I’m a little uncomfortable with the entire idea of Canada Day. Celebrating the country is fine – it’s a pretty good one. It’s the whole concept of pride that strikes me as odd. I don’t feel proud to live in Canada. I feel fortunate, glad, and appreciative, but I haven’t really done anything to deserve living in such a wealthy country.

The obligatory gold-medal Olympian in the ceremony made a comment about the rest of the world being jealous of Canada. I’m sure his intentions were honourable, but given how wealthy Canada is compared to so much of the world, I think this is insensitive. Yes, it’s great that we have doctors, clean water, freedom, and wealth, but I’m certainly not glad that these attributes make us unique.

Happy Canada Day.

There’s an interesting article, Push Here to Save Energy, in MIT’s Technology Review about the work of Bruce Nordman of the L. Berkeley National Laboratory.

Nordman is on something of a crusade to standardize the mess of office equipment power statuses – on, off, hibernate, sleep, power-saving mode, stand-by – the list goes on. Nordman’s research suggests that an enormous amount of money and energy is being wasted simply because people don’t understand (or bother understanding) the many variations of power-saving options in office equipment.

Nordman’s group is proposing a standard of three options: On, Off, and Asleep. They are also pushing for wider adoption of the semi-standard power symbol and the crescent moon shape for Sleep mode.

This is a great idea, however, anyone interested in the practical application of a standard like this should first read of Donald Norman’s attempt to simplify and standardize the Macintosh power button. Sounds simple. Isn’t.

I would suggest (if they haven’t already done so) that Nordman approach the American Institute of Graphic Arts for a truly public and standard symbol. The AIGA has many standard icons publicly available – include the balanced and beautiful Information symbols seen here.

A regular reader (and replier) on this site, our good friend Alan McLeod has won a major legal victory for the intelligent and honest people of Canada. Hopefully, the decision will be a long overdue step away from the absurd cycle of political patronage here on Prince Edward Island – where provincial staffing often changes with leading party.

Congratulations Alan, and thanks for contributing to these amusing excerpts from an article on the ruling on the Halifax Daily News.

Yesterday’s historic victory came on McLeod’s second-last day as a lawyer. He is leaving to work with six 23-year-olds in a Web application company, silverorange.com.

“This decision will probably be appealed,” McLeod said, “but I think it will be upheld. If I had lost this case, I was going to really have to question P.E.I. I would have said this place sucks.”

Well said – good to know that PEI does not actually suck (and I’m actually 23¾-years old, thank you).

Wow – well over 100 names on the Northern Exposure petition already. I’m pleasantly surprised by the reaction.

A few updates:

• I did get one email from someone who claimed to have spoken to Universal employees. He suggested that a release of the show on DVD would never happen. However, I remain optimistic – especially in light of the response here. If there is anyone who can shed any light on the financial / political / logistical realities of releasing a show like this on DVD, please let us know.
• I’ll wait until we get 250 names (or more, hopefully) and then I’ll print them off and send it to anyone and everyone who might influence a release (anyone who has info on who I should send it to or any mailing info, please contact me).
• A few readers also pointed me towards Amazon.com’s Northern Exposure DVD page. Since it doesn’t exist yet, you obviously can’t buy it. However, you can sign up to be notified if (when?) it is ever released. By doing so, you’re also ‘voting’ for the eventual release, as the page on Amazon.com states:
  

  NOT YET RELEASED: The studio is currently not producing this title on DVD, but to be notified when it is available, enter your e-mail address at right. You’ll also be voting for this release; we’ll let the studio know how many customers are waiting for this title.

Thanks to all those who have signed and linked to the petition. Tell your friends.

For anyone interested, things have been a little slow around here as I’ve been working on the next version of aov, and I’ve bought a house.

A snippet of a conversation overheard in line at the grocery store – one annoyed girl says to another:

“…and I was like, Andrew, I can’t be snoring. I’m awake.”

Regular readers please forgive me as I use this space to promote one of my few fanaticisms.

I wish that I could buy the entire series of Northern Exposure on DVD (or at all). A few select episodes are available on VHS, but nothing close to the complete series sets available for other shows (The Sopranos, The Simpsons, Sex and the City, Star Trek TNG, X-Files, even Buffy the Vampire Slayer!).

The customer base is certainly there (unless I have the economics of DVD production completely wrong). We will buy it!

So, I would like to start a petition to Universal Playback:

We, the undersigned, kindly request the release of a complete Northern Exposure series DVD box set. Thanks.

View the current signatures and Sign up (way at the bottom of this page).

Update: The petition is closed – thanks for all of the signatures. I don’t think it had anything to do with us, but there is news that NX may eventually be released on DVD.

Five long years after the release of Netscape 4, it has finally arrived: Mozilla 1.0.

A few videos of Triumph the insult comic dog from Conan O’Brien found on MetaFilter:

• Triumph on Hollywood Squares
• New Jersey Fans of Bon Jovi Mocked by Triumph the Sock Dog
• Truimp mocks Star Wars fans

Some people might find these somewhat offensive, but they are remarkably funny.