New URL for the original "Camera Workers" site

Due to the impending closure of the Shaw.ca web space on which I had hosted since 1999 Camera Workers: The British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950, I have integrated the original site with the newer version. The integrated site, based on the design of the original Shaw-hosted site, uses HTML frames coding.

The integrated site is at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com/cw1858-1950

As of March 3, 2017 I had transferred all data from volume 1 of the original site to the integrated site. When you click on the New Site link in the contents menu on the left, the new version of Camera Workers appears in the centre or main frame.

I will continue to migrate data from volume 2 and once that is completed the URL will change again to the newer version as a standalone application.

You can access the newer version as a standalone application at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com

The newer version runs on The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG) by Darrin Lythgoe.

New music, a soundscape of "Trains of Hell" posted on SoundCloud

Decided to test the limits of one of my favorite synths and my favorite DAW by creating a complex soundscape. I was getting audio dropouts so had to quit while I was ahead. Posted the whole thing, "Trains of Hell", on SoundCloud. It's a mere 2 minutes, 40 seconds or so out of your life so have a listen.

New music: "We Come in Ambient Peace"

Update for 020150523:

I was very pleased, hands in the air excited actually, to see I made the final cut of seven favorites picked by Propellerhead staff in its "Ambient challenge".
 

Original post, 020150517:

Propellerhead, the Swedish company who make Reason and a couple of interesting iOS apps called Figure and Take, are running a contest called "The Ambient challenge" for the week beginning May 15. I cranked out a 3 minute, 20 second extravaganza I called "We Come in Ambient Peace". You can listen to it here:

http://phead.mu/s/Gycn7pZC

Undersea Gardens Demolition, 2014

Shot on June 9, 2014 along Harbour Road opposite Point Hope Shipyard.

New music on SoundCloud: This Is My Groove

This is kind of a chillout/ambient piece, sort of danceable, that I called through lack of imagination "This Is My Groove". It's just a short excerpt as the entire piece is just under 7 minutes.

Time to switch (back) to Shaw? -- Telus to start charging BC and Alberta customers for data overusage

Telus is not getting any kudos for its decision to begin charging BC and Alberta customers who go over their monthly Internet data plan limit. This would include any Internet services accessed through Telus' Optik TV service. Shaw has no such plans (yet). Telus will be phasing in the charges between March and July.

Here is the Telus online statement about its course of action. And a CBC News story about customer backlash. I'm sure Shaw would love to welcome (back) any disgruntled Telus customers.

"The Peripheral" 2014 novel by William Gibson

I very much enjoyed Vancouver science fiction author William Gibson's latest novel The Peripheral. He said he drew inspiration from the 1985 story "Mozart in Mirrorshades" by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner. That story appeared in Mirrorshades: the Cyberpunk Anthology edited by Bruce Sterling (1986). I'd call Gibson's novel a sci-fi thriller, one that would make for a pretty good movie in the right hands. The novel's short chapters more or less alternate between a future, not our own, and a past whose future has been changed by that future. It's time travel, but not in any physical sense nor between the same time streams. I found the novel to be a real page turner. There are some strong female characters, including one of the protagonists. You might find it a little tough to get into at first, but if you stick with it I think you'll find it a rewarding, stimulating read.

http://www.amazon.ca/Peripheral-William-Gibson/dp/0399158448

Star Wars movies costumes exhibit debuts in Seattle

The EMP Museum in Seattle is the opening venue for "Star Wars and the Power Costume" featuring original costumes from all six films. The exhibit opened on January 31, 2015 and will end on October 4, 2015. It's organized by the Smithsonian Institution and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts. The 12-city tour across the USA will conclude in 2020.

The Darkest Hour (2014) novel: if Germany had won World War 2

Finished an absorbing first novel by British author Tony Schumacher called The Darkest Hour (2014). It's an alternate history where Germany won World War 2 and occupied much of England, including London. Set in 1946 in London, the work is very dark but compelling. It follows a former police sergeant and war hero, John Henry Rossett, who's being used by the Germans to round up Jews and deport them to the Continent. I thought I had the ending figured out, but I got fooled along the way as the novel took a different turn than I expected. Highly recommended for anyone into alternate  histories. This one also has movie all over it.

Freebase.com winding up

I see that Freebase, founded in 2007 with a goal of becoming a "Wikipedia for structured data" is being shut down by June 20, 2015. Users will be directed to Wikidata. I wrote about Freebase for the February 2008 issue of Searcher magazine, so kind of sad to see its demise.

Fun with timelines at Histropedia

Histropedia, powered by Wikidata, a data storehouse for Wikipedia and other sister sites, lets you make your own timelines of various events. The only catch of course is that the information has to be accessible through Wikipedia and Wikidata. It's pretty cool concept nonetheless and I hope to make some timeline contributions.

littleBits Electronics: DIY hardware kits and more

littleBits Electronics is a cool concept for hardware hackers and DIYers. The company was founded by Ms Ayah Bdeir, originally from Lebanon and Canada but now living in New York City. In 2014 Popular Mechanics named her one of 25 Makers Who Are Reinventing The American Dream.  Designed to be be plug-and-play and using solderless connections, the parts and kits are pricey, so for those who know what they're doing it would probably be less expensive to source from Radio Shack or The Source. littleBits Elections also has a section called BitLab where designers can submit their projects for the public to vote on and if accepted, littleBits will put them into production and the designer will share in the revenue.

Camera Workers is live again

The newer version of Camera Workers is live again. There was a disconnect between the hosting company and its billing system and my e-mail back around 2011, so I owed 3 years worth of hosting. I think the company was sold at some point as when I started with Webserve.ca in 2009, it was based in North Vancouver. Now it's in Oakville, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York. When I tried to pay money I owed in December 2012 I was told an invoice would be sent, but it never was. After accessing the backend and generating a backup on August 31, I found the site was suddenly inaccessible the next day, both the public part and the backend. The bills have been paid. At least it's now less expensive to run than it was 5 years ago when I first started with Webserve.ca.

"Spaghetti Western Heaven Excerpt" uploaded to SoundCloud

Finished off a piece, my first real full-fledged song, this morning. Created entirely with the amazing compositional aid Rapid Composer along with some unusual software synth sounds from Modelonia and Kontakt. No music loops were used or harmed.

Have a listen to "Spaghetti Western Heaven Excerpt". The whole piece is just under 3.5 minutes, but due to the file size I couldn't upload the whole thing as a 320kbps MP3.

New music excerpt uploaded to SoundCloud

I was stuck for a title, so I just called this excerpt "Downtempo Demo". The whole piece is just over 5 and a half minutes. The excerpt is just over 1 and a half minutes.

Two things in life are certain: U.S. taxation and that other thing

Here's a very strong and clear statement from the organization American Citizens Abroad on why the United States should switch from citizen-based taxation (CBT) to residence-based taxation (RBT). It was presented to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing on July 22, 2014. The U.S. is only one of two countries in the world that practice CBT. The other country is Eritrea. http://americansabroad.org/files/8414/0732/2332/aca-statement-hearing-on-tax-reform.pdf

The end of Canadian sovereignty is in sight

Are you aware that ANY Canadian opening a new bank account at any of the major financial institutions will be asked invasive questions about their citizenship and sometimes their place of birth? This all thanks to the Harper government caving in to pressure from the United States and the banking industry as part of the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). See this IRS site for details about this draconian legislation that makes a laughingstock of Canadian, not to mention other countries, sovereignty: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Corporations/Foreign-Account-Tax-Compliance-Act-FATCA 

The law imposes penalties on non-compliant financial institutions doing business in the United States. In order for this legislation to work, however, a little extra legal twist was needed, an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA). Canada was I believe the last of the G-8 nations to sign an IGA on February 5, 2014 (http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Documents/FATCA-Agreement-Canada-2-5-2014.pdf) and it was made official as part of the omnibus bill C-31 which received royal assent on June 19, 2014. 

Now you might think it bad for Canadians to be asked those questions or you might think them perfectly innocent, however, for anyone falling under the definition of a "U.S. person" (U.S. Internal Revenue Service terminology), which includes anyone who was born in the U.S., the tax consequences could be severe. Unless you can prove you're no longer a "U.S. person", you'll find your new bank account data heading out of country via the Canada Revenue Agency to the IRS. 

The Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty (ADCS-ADSC: http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/) is planning a lawsuit against the Canadian government around the enactment of FATCA on Canadian soil through the IGA and is appealing for donations to fund the lawsuit through its own site and that of the Isaac Brock Society (http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/).

New piece of music uploaded to SoundCloud, "Ethnic Harmonies"

Had some time to work on a new piece of music today, "Ethnic Harmonies". I've uploaded an excerpt, about 1:45 minutes to a SoundCloud account. Hope you enjoy it.

Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC releases special report, "A Failure to Archive"

Elizabeth Denham, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC, released a special report on July 22, 2014 titled "A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Records Management". The report deals with three issues:

1. the decade-old backlog of 30,000+ boxes of records awaiting transfer from government to the BC Archives, which is part of the Royal BC Museum, a Crown corporation. The RBCM established a fee of $454 for the transfer of a box, so government offices decided to warehouse the records which was less expensive. 
2. "the lack of a practical method for archiving government’s electronic records", especially on the part of the BC Archives, which "does not have the capability to accept or archive those records. This challenge has been addressed in other jurisdictions, but B.C. [the province] has yet to make any significant progress in managing the archiving of electronic records."
3. modernization of the legislative framework for records management.

You can download the PDF report at https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/ and a press release is available for downloading at https://www.oipc.bc.ca/news-releases/

Springpad shutting down, June 25, 2014

Yet another reason not to trust your data to a startup: Springpad has announced it's shutting down effective June 25, 2014. They are providing some options on exporting your data.