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.