Peter Gzowski, 1934 – 2002

January 25, 2002 by Steven Garrity

As I listened to CBC Radio on my drive in to work this morning, there was a lively and joyful discussion of the greatness and quirks of CBC veteran Peter Gzowski.

I had heard that he was seriously ill and was encouraged to hear them having such a pleasant discussion of his life and work. Then my co-worker who was riding with me to work informed me that Peter had died.

It was nice to hear such a joyful wake on the public radio. This is how mourning should take place.

Peter Gzowski is remembered at Reinvented.net.

It’s an honour just to be nominated

January 24, 2002 by Steven Garrity

Note the spelling of ‘honour’, after all, it is the Best Canadian Weblog category. Acts of Volition, so far humble by necessity, not by design, has been graced with a nomination for The Bloggies.

Nikolai Nolan’s 2002 Weblog Awards are a great way to discover new sites. I had never seen Loobylu before – beautiful. I was also glad to see DollarShort.org in the best-designed category (although I think Sylloge should be in there too).

If we win, I’m not going to tell Rob or Matt (they’ll never find out), and I’m going to use the prize money to buy another copy of Sam Brown’s Exploding Dog book. The best part about the Canadian category of the Bloggies is that the prize money ($20.02) which is intended simply as a token of appreciation, takes on significantly more value when converted to Canadian Funds. Thank you, internation industrial complex.

To the ‘little people’, you can expect to be thanked if we win. If not, better luck next year.

In bed with U2’s Elavation tour

January 22, 2002 by Steven Garrity

I watched U2’s Boston concert DVD last night and I was pleased. Having seen the Elevation Tour in Montreal, I was curious to see how the DVD-on-laptop-in-bed experience would compare with the 18,000-people-in-a-stadium experience. Obviously it didn’t touch the real thing, but it was a nice compliment to attending the actual concert in that there a few things that an entire film crew was able to pick up that I might have missed from our seats at the other end of the Molson Centre.

The disc does a great job of showing how straightforward the tour was. It was a big tour with a huge crew, but on stage the four musicians were pretty much on their own. The camera catches a few great close-ups of the members of the band in which you can really see their facial expressions. The Edge seemed quite preoccupied with playing the music. Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Bono played the rock star. There are a few great shots where you see The Edge looking to Larry Mullen for the rhythm. For a second they seem less like U2, and more like four guys in a band.

The set list included 7 new songs from All That You Can’t Leave Behind, a few of the U2 classics, and a few refreshing unlikely choices (Gone, Bad, Stay (Faraway, so close), Until The End Of The World). The Edge used the set list as an opportunity to parade an amazing set of classic guitars including a full-bodied Gretsch, a pearl Telecaster, Edge’s classic Gibson Explorer, a Godin, a beautiful clear woodgrain finish Stratocaster, and a 12-string Richenbacher that The Edge kicks off the stage.

The Edge - photo from U2.com What I found most striking about the DVD was how great U2 is at putting on a rock concert. You can really see the experience of 20 years of touring. Bono plays the 20,000 strong audience like it was a percussive instrument. The Edge’s guitar and Bono’s voice alone can fill a stadium design for NHL hockey.

The new album contrasts nicely with the older material in the context of the concert. If Stuck in a Moment were a little more immature and unrefined, if would fit in perfectly on Rattle and Hum.

The live performances shed new light on some of what I had though where the weaker songs from All That You Can’t Leave Behind. New York, which always struck me as goofy (comparing the heat of New York to a “hair dryer in your face” just doesn’t hold up next to the biblical alegory of The End of the World – which Bono introduces this night with “this is judas”) and Walk On both shine make more sense in the live context.

Highlights include, the inclusion of Until The End Of The World and a great rendition of Stay (Faraway, so close). Introducing the band, Bono says “Even his mother calls him, The Edge“. The introductions to The Fly and Where the Streets Have No Name are classic goosebump-inducing stadium rock moments.

You can’t buy linux, but you can buy Red Hat

January 19, 2002 by Steven Garrity

AOL Time Warner is apparently in negotiations to buy Red Hat – the closest thing Linux has to a corporate identity (original source: Washington Post – see related discussions at Slashdot and MetaFilter). It would be interesting to see how AOL/TW would handle having a stake in the success of Linux. AOL has long had a love/hate relationship with Microsoft and the ubiquitous Windows platform. They need it to succeed (so far at least). I suppose having the most promising underdog operating systems would be a nice compliment to having the most promising underdog web browser (Mozilla).

Red Hat has had a strong web presence since their purchase of web design firm Atomic Vision a few years ago. Atomic Vision was responsible for the original design of Cnet’s Download.com, one of the better design on the web at the time. For a while, Red Hat / Atomic Vision produced some great web work, including Red Hat’s own site (great logo) and the open source news site Wide Open News. Both sites have since deteriorated somewhat in quality but are still quite good and I get the impression that much of what was bought with Atomic Vision has since been laid off (see sob story).

It’s fascinating how the life’s work of large groups of people can get lost in the mix of mergers and acquisitions. I get the feeling AOL/TW doesn’t even know it owns ICQ or WinAmp (although, I died a little bit the day WinAmp started including an AOL icon as part of its installation). They seem completely unaware of their own participation in the development of the file swapping Gnutella service.

I wouldn’t expect AOL for Linux for Dummies next week. AOL/TW has been slow to leverage their technology takeovers so far. Netscape hasn’t done much at all (their still pushing Netscape 4.x even though the open source Mozilla project has produced a far superior browser). ICQ is still an odd ball next to AOL Instant Messenger. There are two possibilities here:

they are looking a little farther down the road for integration of these various entities and a return on these investments or;
they have no idea what they are doing.

Consumers are like electricity, they’ll take the path of least resistance. So far, this has generally been dictated by pre-installation and universal compatibility of the Windows and Internet Explorer platforms (that’s compatibility via monopoly, btw) and the Wal-Mart-style lowest common denominator approach taken by AOL.

Bill Gates has often said that in 30 years, Coca-Cola will still be on top, but Microsoft will not. I think he’s right, but I think they’ll be enjoying the next 25 years first.

moments of musical transcendence

January 11, 2002 by Steven Garrity

All this talk of great music has got me thinking (more than I should, perhaps). I love music. I can’t listen to music in bed at night because instead of going to sleep, I listen intently until the entire CD is though and only then can I think of sleeping.

What I love most about music is the moments where a lyric, song, or performance just hits you. I don’t think can’t describe the phenomenon adequately. I heard Sarah MacLaughlan say describe it once as ‘resonating with peoples souls’. Sounds corny, I know – but I don’t think that’s such a bad way to describing what it.

Sometimes it has as much to do with your own thoughts and environment as it does with the artists and music itself, but I don’t think that matters much. Sometimes it’s a song – any time you hear it – sometimes its one particular time or place you remember hearing a song. Perhaps I can better illustrate what I’m talking about with some examples from my own experience.

The Tragically Hip’s performance of Nautical Disaster on Live Between Us. I never really liked the hip much. They always sounded like a sloppy bar band to me (in a bad way). However, when I first heard this song, and ever time since, I was totally captivated. I listened to, heard, and understood every word (or thought I did, which is good enough for me). The lyrics are brilliant and the chord charges perfect – you can feel each chord coming and it feels perfect when it does. There are lots of songs with brilliant lyrics and great melody – this one just hits me.
The bridge in the song Transfiguration from Copyright’s album Love Story. The part of the song that goes “Love is divine; Love has its own design” and the musical phrases that follow. The chord changes are, again, perfect. It gives me goose bumps. Honestly.
Hearing the opening vocal lines of The Garden Song by Sandbox on a great old stereo in the old CIMN closet in The Barn at UPEI. When his voice drops (“…bring you down…”) Steve Albini proves that he is worth $100,000 to record your record. This took on a whole new meaning after seeing them live.
Listening to Heal from Catherine Wheel’s Happy Days as loud as possible in my bedroom on my beautiful old Pioneer 100 watt tube amp stereo when my house was empty when I was in high school. The guitar on the album reminds of a power of a giant church organ and needs to be heard very loud.
Listening to Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins from start to finish at an almost uncomfortable volume. Mayonaise is one of my favourite songs ever. Again, church organ guitar.
Skipping school and driving around in my parents old Saturn listening to my cassette of Poor Old Lu’s Straight Six.
The songs Ugly and Enya by Age of Electric’s from their self titled album.
Brighter Hell and All Uncovered by the Watchmen.
Playing Street Spirit by Radiohead with my high school garage band (we never actually played in a garage – well once)
My Boy by Eyes for Telescopes from their album Please Survive.
Watching U2’s Mexico PopMart concert on MuchMusic (the Monteal concert was good too)
The opening moments of Where the Streets Have No Name by U2 from both Joshua Tree and Rattle & Hum.
The chorus from Satellite from Catherine Wheel’s Adam & Eve.

I hope you can understand what I’m talking about despite my description. It’s not just about great songs and albums, but moments when you notice how great an album is, or actually hear a lyric for the first time even when you’ve heard the song many times before, or something as simple as a melody, vocal or chord change.

Some of you have shared your concert experiences with us before, but I’d love to know what song or lyric or album does this for you? Why? Is it even music?

the best 49 bands of all time – and korn

January 10, 2002 by Steven Garrity

SPIN magazine has released their 50 best bands of all time. While this is somewhat of a foolish exercise, I thought we could have a short and fruitless debate about it.

I’m not sure what Rage Against the Machine, Outkast, and Korn are doing in there. Other than that, I think they did as good a job as is possible. I would like to see the Smashing Pumpkins in there.

Here’s their list:

The Beatles
Ramones
Led Zeppelin
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Nirvana
Parliament/Funkadelic
The Clash
Public Enemy
The Rolling Stones
Beastie Boys
The Velvet Underground
Sly and The Family Stone
U2
Run-D.M.C.
Radiohead
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Sonic Youth
Ac/Dc
The Stooges
Metallica
The Smiths
Patti Smith Group
N.W.A.
Kraftwerk
The Sex Pistols
Pearl Jam
Grateful Dead
R.E.M.
Black Sabbath
Pavement
Fugazi
Kiss
Pretenders
Rage Against The Machine
Fela Kuti & Afrika 70/Egypt 80
David Bowie And The Spiders From Mars
Blondie
Bad Brains
The Who
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
New Order
Husker Du
Guns N’ Roses
Outkast
The Beach Boys
Massive Attack
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Korn
Pink Floyd
Red Hot Chili Peppers

bill gates vs. steve jobs – who has the bigger toys?

January 10, 2002 by Steven Garrity

While Steve Jobs was beating the drums for his new real-life Pixar logo, Bill Gates was awkwardly stumbling through a presentation of Microsoft’s new home technologies, Mira and Freestyle. Mira is a removable wireless flat screen with a touch-screen. Freestyle is TV remote interface for media.

The user interface for Freestyle looks brilliant. It looks like common sense, but that’s what makes it so good. They don’t try to use a wacky mouse/cursor replacement from the TV remote, just simple Up, Down and Select commands.

Cnet has some good video of both Freestyle and Mira in action and the Microsoft website has screenshots of the new Freestyle UI.

Why Wacky Wheatlys Sucks: One man’s subwoofer frustrations

January 9, 2002 by Steven Garrity

After kottke linked to Cory Doctorow’s hilarious PowerPoint presentation about his bad customer service experience at the DoubleTree Hotel (beautiful logo, btw) our good friend Dan J. decided to detail his unfortunate experience at a local electronics outfit.

Dan does some of his best work in the PowerPoint medium – enjoy his latest work: Why Wacky Wheatly’s Sucks: One man’s subwoofer frustrations.

And yes, that’s right – he was getting a sub-woofer installed.

the ben brown show

January 8, 2002 by Steven Garrity

From the mire of unemployment comes mirth. Ben Brown, unemployed programmer extraordinaire, presents The Ben Brown Show (approx 7MB QuickTime).

Each show will only be up for a day – so check back often.

thoughts on iMac and the future of the universe

January 7, 2002 by Steven Garrity

Rob calls it the monopod My thoughts, since I know you are all eagerly awaiting them, on the new iMac:

Design is ok – kinda dopey looking. I’ll reserve final judgment until I’ve seen it in person.
Concept is good – those who watched the Keynote Address in shitty QuickTime video will notice how Jobs explained why they went with the ‘two-piece’ design (he said something like “Let each component be true to itself” which was moderately embarrassing). Computers are should be simpler and take up less space – this is a good extension of the original iMac in that regard.
Having the display on an arm is a great idea if done well. I’ve long wished I could just grab my monitor and move it. It would be even better if the monitor was on an arm connected to the end of my desk, so I could push it away and have all of my desk space free (if my shower head can do it, why can’t my monitor). While making it easy to move is nice, it is more important for it to be stable when stationary. Can you imagine how annoying it would be if your screen wobbled slightly when people walked by?
The NVIDIA graphics card (a pretty good one) has a fan on it. You may recall the fan-less silence of the iMac – which I think was one of it’s best features. They claim this one is still quiet – again, I’ll check it out in person and report back.
Another of the nice features of the previous iMac was the tray-less CD drive. Tray’s are so 2001 – yet it’s back. Possibly so they could hide the drive with a cover? Lame.

Steve Jobs uses phrases like “never been done before” and “revolutionary” like nobodies business. It’s interesting though, I think that the quiet revolution in personal computing is happening right now and it has to do with things just working.

Douglas Adams said that technology is a term for stuff that doesn’t work yet. Good call. Slowly – very slowly, computers are starting to just work. Now don’t get me wrong, I could list loads of instances where computers have failed me in the past month, but things are improving.

A few examples of technology that “just worked”:

We have an HP LaserJet 1100 that has 1 button, no settings, and just works. If you print an envelope, it is smart enough not to suck in your 8″x11″ paper – it waits for you to put in the envelope.
While visiting my parents today, I plugged my laptop into their DSL and I was online – no settings.
Stuck with a file on a laptop with no floppy drive or Ethernet – we sat it next to another laptop with an infrared port. To my complete amazement (it was my first time), the machines politely mentioned that there was another computer “nearby” (seriously) and asked it we’d like to transfer files – which we did, thank you. No setup, no configuration.
I have a second hand account of one laptop dialing on to the internet – another plugging into it with a crossover Ethernet cable under Windows 2000 – one click to turn on Internet Connection Sharing and both were online.
Stick a CD with photos into a Windows XP machine and it will ask you if you’d like to see a slide show (and ask how you’d like it to handle similar CDs in the future). Same with MP3 CDs, audio CDs, and DVDs.
When I unplug my network cable a bubble pops up and says – “A network cable is unplugged”. When I plug it back it – it picks up where I started – no hangs or reboots necessary.
Copy some text and images from a website into Microsoft Word 2002. You’re presented with a non-intrusive icon that disappears if you don’t click it (very important – it doesn’t interrupt users you don’t like or understand it) – if you do click it, it gives you three options: Keep Source Formatting, Match Destination Formatting, and Keep Text Only. That makes so much more sense than having to choose “Edit – Paste Special”.

I’m sure I could compile a must longer list of less successful technical endeavors but I do think these features are becoming more common. It is these small things that will eventually make computers accessible to more people. Apple’s Movie, iTunes, iDVD, and new iPhoto software seem to do well to make these functions more accessible to more people. Windows XP does its part in this respect as well (good handling of photos, digital cameras, etc.). Even applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have matured to a point where there are starting to feel simpler even as they become more complex.

What similar experiences have you had with technology recently?