Sir Elton John and me

Back when Sir Elton John was in Victoria I was cycling around downtown and went past the Parkside Victoria Resort and Spa on Humboldt Street. I noticed a couple of TV cameras and some other people standing around outside by the back entrance. There was also a black SUV with tinted windows parked there. Ah ha, said I, that's where Sir Elton is staying. I stopped by my former place of work and mentioned that I knew where Sir Elton was staying, at the Parkside Victoria on Humboldt. I don't think anyone believed me.

I was happy therefore to read in the Victoria Times-Colonist on February 26 or 11 days after his second concert performance here that he had indeed been staying there. The Parkside Victoria's blog has more stories about his stay including a link to a CHEK TV News story.

Uploaded "Malahat Snows" to SoundCloud

Greater Victoria's first big snowstorm of 2010-2011 on February 23, 2011 led me to lay down this track I call "Malahat Snows" that you can listen to on SoundCloud.

August 15, 2011: I deleted this track to make room for newer pieces.

Critique of unread novel and seen movie "I Am Number Four"

Though the premise and ideas behind the novel and its movie version are ones that highly interest me, I've not read the novel but have now seen the movie. In looking over the official site for movie I was immediately struck by what I think is a huge plot hole. Read on if you dare.

Allegedly penned by an alien, Pittacus Lore, the novel I Am Number Four is the basis for the 2011 movie of the same title starring Alex Pettyfer as alien teen John Smith (that is, Pittacus Lore). Geeze, wouldn't he be suspected immediately of extraterrestrial or non-USA origins with a name like that?

What bugged me about the premise of this novel and movie are the ruthless aliens that destroyed the population of his home planet Lorien. Come on people, if the "evil Mogadorian" (their name even sounds evil) wiped out the population of one planet, what's to stop them from doing the same in one fell swoop to poor, defenseless Earth. I hate to say it, but these 18 Lorienites who came here for refuge are not that enlightened if they're using Earth and its population as a planetary shield against the Mogadorian, hoping, I think, that whatever "humanity" their enemy possesses might be swayed by the beauty of our world. Well, folks, in the real world, an implacable enemy simply is not going to hunt its prey one by one, it will choose the shock and awe option every time. Humans of course learned this lesson long ago.

But then the novel series Lorien Legacies (the second installment is called The Power of Six) and the movie's sequel would not exist and Pittacus Lore would not be laughing all the way to his or her alien bank.

As far as the movie itself goes, I don't think an adequate explanation was given about the war between the two alien species, both of whom of course are humanoid in appearance, the Lorienites enough so that they can pass as humans while the Mogadorians, who comically dress like the good guys (and girls) in The Matrix movies have gills on either side of their noses and tiny sharp teeth. All males, they're bald and with intricate tattoos.We're told by Henri (Timothy Olyphant), John Smith's Lorienite guardian/warrior, that the Mogadorians don't colonize, they decimate planets and then move on. So my question is: why such a small force of Mogadorians to hunt 18, if the bad aliens know there's a nice defeneseless planet ripe for decimating, why not commit all their resources? As it was, they kind of skulked around secretly until the final showdown. It also puzzled me why no one seemed to think to call the National Guard out once the firefight broke out at the high school and where were all the gun-toting militiamen. I mean we were in the heartland of America.

The movie and the relationship between the hero and his high school sweetie reminded me a lot of the Twilight films.

Overall, the film was well acted, well paced and despite my dissatisfaction with the bad and the good aliens' psychology, I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction films. The film has a lot of echoes of many other movies including Jumper, Push The X-Files and even Star Wars.

When the weather's bad, make some music, like "Stormy Memories"

February 18, 2011: This piece, "Stormy Memories", is almost back to the basics. There's very little going on musically, yet I like to think it's filled with drama and tension. Have a listen, it's only 3 minutes and 45 seconds out of your day or night.

June 1, 2011: I removed "Stormy Memories" to make way for newer tracks.

Uploaded "In the Hall of the Mountain Robots" to SoundCloud

I call this one a piece of ambient grunge: "In the Hall of the Mountain Robots". It's built entirely from royalty-free music loops. Can you hear those mechanoids clanking and buzzing away? It's only six minutes and twenty seconds of your time.

Update for April 9, 2011:

Not having received many plays, I've deleted this track to make room for another.

CRTC will re-examine its Internet usage billing decision & Shaw suspends it usage caps

OpenMedia.ca announced on February 8, 2011 that the CRTC will re-examine its Internet usage billing decision. You can join this campaign by sending a Web letter (already filled out) from the OpenMedia.ca site. I added some comments to my letter from my blog post about this situation.

The Vancouver Sun published an article online that Shaw has announced it will suspend its usage caps for two months during a public consultation.

I still fail to understand how the big telecomms like Shaw can sell bandwidth to smaller companies that then turn around and offer "unlimited" bandwidth to their customers. I'm on one of those "unlimited" plans myself and I'd really hate to give it up since it is so cheap.

Internet usage billing in Canada: who watches the watchers?

I, along with many others, are deeply troubled by the CRTC's decision on Internet usage billing. Here are some of my thoughts collected over the past two or three weeks on this subject. Some of these were intended for a letter I plan on sending to Shaw, my home Internet Service Provider (ISP).

First and foremost is the problem of the CRTC itself. The Victoria Times-Colonist in a February 4, 2011 article called the regulatory agency a "watchdog". This is a watchdog that appears to have the run of the yard with no restraints. Who watches the watchdog? What is the court of appeal for CRTC decisions? Is the appeal process something that is affordable for the ordinary Canadian? Is the CRTC public input process simple enough that the ordinary Canadian can understand the issue? If I understand the Internet usage billing decision sequence of events, it came about due to a submission by Bell Canada in October 2010 which wanted to charge its smaller customers who provided "unlimited" bandwidth Internet service plans more money based on actual bandwidth usage. Could anyone have predicted this outcome, a public backlash by individuals, organizations, corporate Canada and the government?

Second, while CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein rationalized that "Internet services are no different than other public utilities," I don't think the CRTC has ever reviewed bandwidth capacity and the caps set by the large providers such Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Telus. If the CRTC is equating itself to the provincial regulatory bodies that oversee, for example, the amount of money charged to consumers for electrical consumption, then should the CRTC also not ensure that bandwidth usage caps for various Internet subscription plans are also reviewed and regulated. The fact that various large ISPs have different bandwidth caps partly demonstrates to me that the caps should be much higher than they currently are given that the large providers are also selling excess capacity to smaller providers in much the same way Canadian electrical utilities export excess power.

Third, the idea that there's some super-class of Internet consumers identified by von Finckenstein who use it "heavily" and are engaged in "excess use" (the words quoted by the Times-Colonist in its February 4 article) and are being subsidized by "the vast majority of Internet users" (Times-Colonist, February 4) sounds fair on the surface, except for the fact that all the ISPs already and have always billed "heavy users".

Fourth, who are these heavy users? If you are not one now, you likely will be in the future.

I, along with others, believe the CRTC's decision will have unintended negative consequences for the Canadian economy. The most immediate consequence will be, given that the "unlimited" bandwidth option provided by the smaller providers that lease bandwidth from the large ISPs appears to be doomed, more Canadians, myself included, who run their own Web servers will be looking for unlimited bandwidth services outside of Canada, thereby taking dollars out of Canada that really should be spent here.

As people worry about their bandwidth consumption, they will likely spend less time, money and thought online. It's the last that's particularly frightening because unlike any other telecommunications medium, the Internet allows for real-time collaboration in a synthetic environment that the stuff of science fiction a couple of decades ago.

Federal court ruling on Cabinet authority may dampen Internet usage billing reversal

According to this Globe & Mail report, a Federal Court ruling around a Cabinet decision from 2009 that saw it reverse a CRTC decision involving a wireless carrier may dampen the same and current government's enthusiasm for reversing the CRTC's decision on Internet usage billing.

Groundhog Day music: "Wail on Jellybeans" uploaded to SoundCloud

Not that the title has anything to do with Groundhog Day, but I kind of like the sound of "Wail on Jellybeans" which I've uploaded to SoundCloud.

CRTC ordered to rescind Internet billing decision or federal government will overturn it

Update for February 3, 2011: This is a good news story for everyone, except maybe shareholders of the Big Three Canadian ISPs, but the federal government has ordered the CRTC to either rescind its Internet usage billing decision or the government will quash it. For details see this Globe & Mail report.

This decision has affected me as I have an "unlimited" bandwidth account through a small Canadian ISP as well as one through an off-shore company. One of the unintended outcomes of the CRTC's ill-thought decision of course is that it will drive Canadians to off-shore providers and take Canadian dollars out of the country when those dollars should be supporting Canadian businesses.

February 1, 2011: According to this Globe & Mail Update on the Internet Billing Crisis, Prime Minister Harper has intervened by asking for a review of the CRTC's decision.

Mind the Cap, stop Canadian Internet usage billing

According to OpenMedia.ca, the Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) affirmed the ability of Canadian Internet Service Providers such as Shaw, Rogers and Bell, the Big Three in Canada, to charge customers for usage over their allotted monthly bandwidth quota.

If you want to help Stop the Meter On Your Internet Use, you can do so through an online petition (below) as well as by writing to the Hon. Tony Clement, Canada's Industry Minister who indicated on February 1, 02011 that he will review the CRTC's decision. You can also use Facebook and Twitter to support this campaign.