STM Mobile screenshot

via Patrick, a new iPhone application has been launched called STM mobile that scrapes the STM website for bus arrival times and keeps track of favourite stops for easy access. It costs $0.99 through the Apple AppStore.

For those without an OMGcool iPhone, there’s the free busmob.com service, which does the same but through a light-weight website instead of an application.

Or you could just call AUTOBUS from your phone, or check the posted schedule, but that won’t make you cool.

UPDATE (July 31): Pierre-Nick has a review that’s mostly positive, but points out that it doesn’t use geolocation to find the closest stop.

UPDATE (Aug. 2): CFD has an interview with the program’s creator.

See also:

• March 24, 2008 — Bus schedules formatted for cellphones
• August 6, 2008 — 11 problems with STM’s new magnetic fare card
• July 30, 2008 — STM, media need to learn Bullying 101

See also:

• July 27, 2008 — The Great Apple Store Opening of 2008
• January 16, 2008 — MacBook Air is a niche product

If fonts were people (via Gizmodo via some bimbo)

(But really, Comic Sans is not a hero)

See also:

• July 17, 2008 — Dr. Horrible: Adorable evil
• June 23, 2008 — Tonight’s forecast: dark
• June 15, 2008 — Go Boston

See also:

• August 2, 2008 — Gazette starting Olympics page, photographer blog
• July 18, 2008 — Use YouTube, not your crappy clone of it
• July 17, 2008 — News, the way cool people read it

Though I don’t agree with the sentiment that newspapers should get out of the printing business (yes it’s expensive, but newspapers are highly qualified to do it), I can’t help but agree about the technology stuff. A quick comparison of any media website’s proprietary hacked-together, flash-based video viewing system and something simple like YouTube and you wonder why they even bother.

So why don’t media companies take advantage of sites like YouTube and Flickr? They’re cheaper, they function better, and they provide a much wider audience for content.

The answer is, sadly, that it represents a loss of control. Newspaper websites want 100% of the ad revenue, even if they’re bleeding through the nose on IT staff to keep their own video portals running. They don’t trust YouTube and Flickr (even if some of their own journalists make liberal use of those sites when management isn’t looking).

That’s a mentality that needs to change. Either news websites’ content management systems need to improve drastically, or they should abandon them and use off-the-shelf systems that have proven popular.

Believe me, I had to deal for years with a hacked-together CMS (that I myself chose and installed) at a student newspaper. Killing all that work is painful, but it needs to be done.

See also:

• August 2, 2008 — Gazette starting Olympics page, photographer blog
• July 22, 2008 — Unidentified B-52 Crash Victims, this is your life
• July 17, 2008 — News, the way cool people read it

The CBC and Toronto Star didn’t waste any time and have already launched iPhone versions. Sadly, neither appears to be customizable (or if they are, it’s hidden).

See also:

• July 13, 2008 — Olympics blogs ahoy!
• November 26, 2007 — Why are errors in online articles not corrected?
• August 2, 2008 — Gazette starting Olympics page, photographer blog

Dear La Presse,

Maybe you should get out of the video business. Your people are great writers, but they’re not equipped to do standups in the street about business stories. It’s just embarrassing.

By all means, put up videos of things that require video to properly understand. But if the video is a talking head surrounded by B-roll, why bother?

(I’d provide a link, but Cyberpresse seems to have something against people linking to its videos)

See also:

• September 19, 2007 — Cyberpresse bloggers shutting up
• July 13, 2008 — Cyberpresse launches widget, fails
• July 13, 2008 — Olympics blogs ahoy!

See also:

• January 18, 2008 — Should letters to the editor be paid for?
• August 2, 2008 — Gazette starting Olympics page, photographer blog
• July 25, 2008 — Myles has given up on baseball

Looking through them, it was obvious someone was sending out spam mail with a forged address at my domain. I foolishly setup a catch-all for that domain so everything goes to me. None were angry messages professing eventual death, which was nice. Some were away-from-my-desk messages, others were anti-spam confirm-you’re-a-real-person messages. The rest were bounces.

Then I looked in my spam box. There were hundreds of bounces. At least 300.

Thankfully I have Gmail, so cleaning that up was pretty simple.

UPDATE: I wake up, and the same thing happens again.

See also:

• April 3, 2008 — Porn spam sinks to new low
• February 14, 2008 — Getting biblical about spam
• December 1, 2007 — Cell Unlimited not above outright spam

Recently laid off as the tech columnist and tech blogger for TQS, Jean-Michel Vanasse showed up on TVA’s Salut bonjour week-end, where he’s their new resident web geek. But he’s also pulled a Dominic Arpin and started his own solo thing online. He’s started a new online-only weekly tech show at the aptly-named jeanmichelvanasse.tv, that focuses on gaming, tech news and popular videos online.

The show is presented in high definition, which seems kind of unnecessary for a tech show that takes half its clips from YouTube and the rest from a handicam mounted on a tripod in front of the host (at 1280×628, it’s too large to even fit my screen). Trying to watch the 13-minute, 52MB video on his website, my computer could manage only about a frame every two seconds, making it completely unwatchable. Only after plenty of hacking sleuthing could I uncover this standard-definition version. Note to Jean-Michel: at least give people the option.

Otherwise, the show is what you’d expect from a tech show: a guy talking about games and videos in front of a Matrix-like display of floating ones and zeroes.

The website is still sparse. One thing it badly needs is a list of links attached to each episode. I’d like to see that video of Darth Vader doing the Thriller dance, and it shouldn’t be difficult for me to find it. A blog couldn’t hurt either.

Otherwise, it’s a decent effort for a first show. The only question is whether it will attract an audience large enough to pay for itself.

The show comes out every Friday.

See also:

• March 23, 2008 — Who got the Facebook scoop?

I’ve been following the brouhaha over the Conservative government’s new copyright bill, C-61, and specifically how the government has been responding to geeks who are finding holes in it and driving public opinion against the bill.

The more I follow it, the more I come to a rather stunning conclusion: Industry Minister Jim Prentice doesn’t understand his own copyright bill.

The big controversy, as the Globe’s Ivor Tossell explains, is over a provision about so-called digital locks (those software hacks they call Digital Rights Management, or DRM, that try to control how you access digital media). It says that users cannot bypass these locks, no matter how flimsy they are, even if what they’re trying to do with it is entirely legal.

The consequence of this is that companies just put digital locks on everything, and through a loophole in the law can claim rights they shouldn’t have in the first place.

In the above video, Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner are asked about this, and you can see them struggle to regurgitate the talking points they’ve been handed about the bill. (In Verner’s case, you might argue that language difficulties combined with an inability to hear the question might be an excuse.)

It’s also apparent in Prentice’s 10-minute interview with CBC’s Search Engine (its most popular podcast, which incidentally has been cancelled). Prentice calls common-sense hypotheticals about the law “arcane,” seems unclear about what would happen in certain cases, and hangs up on the interviewer to escape his questions.

But to me this isn’t just about a minister and a bill. It’s something that’s always bothered me about parliamentary politics: the idea that being an MP is all the expertise needed to run a federal department. You don’t need to be a doctor to manage doctors. You don’t need to have a PhD to manage universities. You don’t need to have a driver’s license to manage the transportation department. And you don’t need to understand computers to be in charge of a new copyright bill.

Of course, in many cases ministers are put in areas they would be more comfortable with. Ken Dryden being minister for sport makes sense. But cabinet shuffles being as routine as they are makes it seem as if running the military isn’t so different from foreign affairs or finance.

Maybe it’s true. Maybe being a minister is more about managing, appointing directors, making budgets, drafting legislation and shaking hands at ceremonial functions than it is about getting into the nitty-gritty.

But Prentice and the copyright bill show a clear problem with that premise.

See also:

• June 9, 2008 — The theme that wouldn’t die
• June 5, 2008 — End of an anthem
• March 1, 2008 — CBC report is a no-brainer

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Thurai Moorthy <xxxxx>
Date: Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Subject: United Earth Day, June 21, 2008, Saturday 5:00-11:00 PM, at 4775 Anthime,Pierrefonds, Quebec H9H 4L3, Please Publsh and Send a Reporter
To: letters@thegazette.canwest.com

www.ueog.org

United Earth Organization (UEOG)

United Earth Day, June 21, 2008, Saturday 5:00-11:00 PM local time, everywhere on Earth, (local location at 4775 Anthime,Pierrefonds, Quebec H9H 4L3) in your own space.  Neighbours, friends, relatives. Inform everyone from Tokyo to Vancouver. Visit www.ueog.org starting at 5:00 PM Tokyo time and continuing east ward at 5:00 PM local time around the globe. United Earth Organization (UEOG), Presentation, Music, Dance. Vegetarian potluck, No disposables.

Folowing ing messsage is meant for the editor and not for publication:

Please send a reporter to cover the above event.

Regards,

[Contact info here deleted]

Some suggestions:

1. This is a blog. I don’t have a reporting staff.
2. Your luck with media outlets is usually much better if you’re not obviously forwarding an email you sent to another media outlet.
3. Media outlets have dedicated public addresses for assignment editors. They don’t start with “letters.”
4. Don’t ask the media to convert Tokyo time to local unless it’s necessary.
5. Your event listing appears to be missing what the whole point of the event is.
6. Is SeaQuest DSV coming back?
7. I’d list the things wrong with the website, but let’s just say it’s everything, from the constant text colour changes to the lack of any specifics about what exactly this organization does.
8. All that said, good luck with creating that united Earth government that controls the world.

See also:

• July 30, 2008 — Back in the closet
• June 18, 2008 — I have a hot tip, officer
• February 29, 2008 — Santobama

Official “launch” of the new, crappy station is scheduled for July 1.

Meanwhile, I should mention there have been rather large, visible ads for CBC Radio One and CJAD in the Gazette suggesting that people listen to them for news and information. Hint, hint.

UPDATE (June 18): Mike Boone today has a hilariously scathing review of 940’s new format:

The Mozart Requiem was composed in 1791. But its sombre, funereal tones would be perfect for a radio format that will be DOA.

See also:

• June 25, 2008 — MP3 isn’t good enough for Corus
• June 24, 2008 — Natasha has a new job
• June 6, 2008 — 940 News switching formats, slashing staff

The next step will be having feeds for each individual keyword (they’ve been tagging articles with keywords for quite a while now, but haven’t done anything useful with it online yet)

See also:

• November 15, 2007 — More pay walls coming down
• August 2, 2008 — Gazette starting Olympics page, photographer blog
• July 23, 2008 — Le Devoir sued for correctly reporting outrageous cookie claims

Craig Silverman, who has been pushing for such pages on newspaper websites for quite a while on his Regret the Error blog, celebrates by using one of The Gazette’s corrections against it.

See also:

• September 10, 2007 — Crackerjacks at the Gazette
• August 2, 2008 — Gazette starting Olympics page, photographer blog
• July 25, 2008 — Myles has given up on baseball

I know Getty Images likes to … play … with its photos to enrich their colour (make the Red Wings’ red uniforms look like they’re almost glowing).

But this photo by Bruce Bennett really takes the cake.

Unless Dallas Drake really did get his teeth ultra-whitened before lifting the Stanley Cup. (And Johan Franzen really is a vampire.)

More Photoshop disasters.

See also:

• July 11, 2008 — This isn’t just about one photo of missiles
• February 11, 2008 — PicApp: Ads for copyright compliance?

Coincidence? Probably. Inside the CBC talks about an internal server data failure, while the rumour at Canada.com is a DOS attack. (Besides, who would want to take out the commies and the fascists?)

Jack Todd needed four tries to file his story yesterday. (Go ahead, make your jokes)

UPDATE (June 3): Kate points out problems at Cyberpresse this morning, wondering if there’s an evil conspiracy afoot. I think it’s Julie Couillard’s exes out to destroy the media.

See also:

• No related posts

Facebook certainly has privacy issues, as I’ve previously explored, and there’s no doubt that they’re trying to exploit this information for all it’s worth.

But the fact remains that, as Facebook points out, all this information is shared voluntarily. If you don’t want people to know your religion, don’t publicize it online.

The Facebook problem is a problem of user education, not Big Evil Corporations. People need to learn that as the Internet becomes more efficient at connecting and compiling information, they can’t rely on privacy through obscurity anymore. We must assume that anything we type into our computer and send over the Internet will eventually be plastered on a billboard for our parents, employers and ex-girlfriends to see and mock. And we must be vigilant about keeping our private information private. No matter how fun it might seem to break that rule just once.

See also:

• December 8, 2007 — TWIM: Facebook Beacon - threat or menace?
• November 29, 2007 — Facebook can’t be TRUSTe’d?
• March 23, 2008 — Who got the Facebook scoop?

xkcd has gone mainstream. Now I need something else to like that’s cool and ensures my geek cred. The Daily WTF isn’t enough.

(And yeah, you’re damn right I’m going to use this as an excuse to post a comic)

See also:

• July 22, 2008 — Scissors bomb mailbox!
• July 17, 2008 — Dr. Horrible: Adorable evil
• June 23, 2008 — Tonight’s forecast: dark

Tourism Toronto doesn’t have a French version.

It took me about five minutes to find the links to different language versions (they’re on the bottom of the page), in the form of flags for different countries under the banner “international sites.” There’s a Chinese version, a Korean version, a Japanese version and a Spanish version. But no French. (Incidentally, there are flags for Spain and Argentina which link to TorontoTourismMexico.com, which I’m sure isn’t going to offend anyone, right?).

I haven’t asked the site’s creators what their motives are, because that’s no fun. So let’s speculate about them here. Did they forget? Are Korean tourists more valuable than French ones? Is there some other website for francophone Canadian tourists? Are they trying to get back at us for winning the bagel war?

See also:

• July 28, 2008 — “Nuked the fridge”? Please
• July 20, 2008 — Ceci est Sparta indépendantiste
• July 13, 2008 — This is how to bring the two solitudes together