Category Archives: Technology

| Business, In the news, Technology

Bell wins throttling case

Bell Canada has won a case that went to the CRTC about peer-to-peer throttling.

In April, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers complained to the CRTC because Bell was using traffic shaping techniques to slow P2P traffic on both its network and the networks of DSL Internet resellers (because of Bell’s telephone monopoly, it is required to sell wholesale net access to companies at government-set rates).

The CAIP argued that this was unfair and unnecessary. Bell argued the opposite.

The CRTC took Bell’s side on the case, in a decision which is pretty well uninteresting otherwise. The only caveat: Bell will have to inform its resellers at least 30 days in advance of similar changes in the future.

Despite the apparentloss to net neutrality advocates, Michael Geist says it’s not the last word on the subject, and there’s still hope.

UPDATE: Geist has some quick reactions from Bell and the CRTC.

| Media, Montreal, Technology

Suburban puts virtual paper online

The Suburban is very proudly showing off a virtual version of its printed paper online (see this week’s edition here). It’s done through My Virtual Paper, an outfit which takes laid-out pages and converts them into PDF-like documents for viewing online. A similar outfit is NewspaperDirect’s PressDisplay PressReader OtherWordsWithoutSpacesInBetween, which the Canwest chain uses, along with the Toronto Star, La Presse, the Globe and Mail, Quebecor’s 24 Hours chain and many smaller newspapers.

The advantage with the Suburban is that since the physical paper is free, the electronic version is also free. So you can save some paper and just look at the ads online.

As much as these companies do their best to go beyond just showing images of pages online, with features such as automated article reading, article bookmarking, comments, search engine optimization and so on, it’s still largely about adapting a format to fit another medium, and the disadvantages show clearly. It’s awkward to navigate, you have to deal with articles turning from one page to another, and you often have to scroll horizontally and vertically to read articles. Plus I’ve never been able to print a page properly from the system.

But it’s cheap to do, which is why newspapers use it. And because so much effort is spent making the printed product look good (dozens of copy editors spending hours writing headlines, laying out pages and choosing photos) and so little effort is spent making the website elegant (minimum-wage data entry clerks copying and pasting from the printed edition as fast as they can), some people (like myself) prefer to see the layout in its original paper form.

You’ll also notice that it offers the various zoned editions (west island, west end, different west end and east end)

But MyVirtualPaper does some things that really annoy me just to make it seem more paper-like and impress 60-year-old executives who don’t understand the Internet and would never use the product anyway:

  • One side of each page has a gradient on it, to simulate the curve that’s found around the fold
  • Turning the page involves a page-turning animation and a corresponding sound effect, both of which are annoying and unnecessary
  • The system feels the need to reinvent how navigation works, including a new pointer which for some reason runs at a different speed than my pointer would normally run at
  • Arrow keys can’t be used to move around within a page

It’s useful enough to check out when you want to find something. But as a weekly reference, you’ll quickly find it too annoying to deal with and go back to the physical paper.

| Blogosphere, Media, Web design

News sites moving to full-text RSS

I just noticed something going through my blog reader: The Gazette’s upgraded blogging engine is now putting out full-text feeds.

It’s a trend (unfortunately too slow) of media outlets desperate for online attention giving their stuff away for free. Looking at other news media blogs, I notice that the majority now are full-text feeds.

Here’s the breakdown:

Full-text feeds

Computer-generated excerpts that cut off midsentence

  • Branchez-Vous (MovableType)
  • Voir (CommunityServer)
  • Globe and Mail (Internal CMS via FeedBurner)

Manual excerpt (written by the post author), or title-only when none is written

Mixed

| Business, In the news, Opinion, Technology

The failed business model by Circuit City

The Source outlets in Canada (including this one in the Eaton Centre downtown) remain open for business

The Source outlets in Canada (including this one in the Eaton Centre downtown) remain open for business

Dear Circuit City,

I’ve never been to any of your U.S. stores, so I can’t really comment on why you’re facing bankruptcy right now. But I have been to The Source, your Canadian outlets that used to be Radio Shacks, and it doesn’t surprise me that your Canadian subsidiary is also filing for bankruptcy protection.

I realize it’s convenient to blame this on the economic downturn, but may I offer some other suggestions:

And yet, shockingly, you’re in the hole. I guess that means this job you just posted in TMR isn’t getting filled…

| Media, Opinion, Web design

Is individuality overrated?

Le Droit (left) and Le Soleil (right): Can you spot the difference?

Le Droit (left) and Le Soleil (right): Can you spot the difference?

If you talk to newspaper journalists about their employers’ websites (privately), one of their chief gripes is that the site is designed by corporate management and even the newspaper’s own management has little control over its website.

Above, you see the websites for Le Droit in Ottawa and Le Soleil in Quebec City. Both are Gesca papers, and part of the Cyberpresse portal. Aside from the newspapers’ logos, the design is identical. (I would have used La Presse as an example here, but La Presse doesn’t really have a website. Instead, people are directed toward the “Montreal” section of Cyberpresse.)

It’s the same case at Quebecor, where websites for the Journal de Québec and 24 Heures are identical, worrying the Journal de Montréal union who think the same would happen once a JdM website launches.

Whether it’s Canwest’s Canada.com portal (which, as a Gazette editor, I’ve worked with on the back end), Sun Media’s canoe.ca or Transcontinental Media’s community weekly newspaper sites, each newspaper chain sets up a massive content management system and gives only bits of control to the individual papers.

The obvious reason for doing this is to save money and avoid the needless duplication of work. Stories can be more easily shared across the network when they’re all on the same system. New features like blogs can be introduced across the chain simultaneously. And there’s certainly something to be said for consistency.

On the other hand, this cookie-cutter web design removes whatever individuality the individual media outlet might have. It creates a tug of war between the paper and the chain, which can be manifested in something as simple as having to send an email or make a phone call to head office in Montreal or Toronto to get something changed on your website. The worst part is that if there’s a bug or other problem, it affects everyone.

So what’s the alternative? How do you keep individuality alive in individual media outlets while keeping those websites from degenerating into utter pieces of crap?

Beats me. But allowing individual newspapers more freedom over their site designs (while keeping the underlying structure the same) would be a good start.

Or am I being silly here? Do readers care that all these websites look and function alike?

| Media, Opinion, Web design

Com Ed

Mathew Ingram, who works at the Globe and Mail as a technology columnist and has his own very popular blog on technology and new media, has recently gotten a promotion: The Globe has named him its first “communities editor”, a job that is not very well defined (and that’s a good thing), but essentially means that he’ll be working to bring people together and encourage discussion on the Globe’s website.

In his blog post announcing the change, Ingram says the Globe should experiment:

As I told the senior editors at the Globe, in order for us to do this properly, we need to be committed to opening up our content in ways we haven’t even thought of — including some ways that might seem strange or contentious, and which could at least initially be met with considerable internal resistance. Among other things, we need to make it easier for people to find our content, share our content, link to our content and even make use of our content (in some cases to create their own content).

What this might mean (or should mean) is the end to the archive subscriber block, shorter URLs, less duplication of stories (many newspaper stories are uploaded when they are filed and then uploaded again as part of the next day’s paper), less clutter on pages, easier commenting, more tagging, and lots more user-generated content.

How much of that the Globe will go along with is anyone’s guess.

(via J-Source)

| Media, Opinion, Technology

Newspaper letter credibility scores one at the Star

Last month, the Toronto Star made an interesting decision concerning so-called “user-generated content”: It decided it would no longer be publishing anonymous or pseudonymous web comments on its letters-to-the-editor page. Such “reverse publishing” is being used by a lot of newspapers who want to appear all hip and cool and stuff, and are desperate to increase traffic to their horrible websites.

The main argument, which was also expressed by many people inside the Star’s newsroom (they even circulated a petition about it), is that printing these comments alongside letters to the editor essentially creates a double standard: Letters to the editor must be signed and verified if submitted by email or mail, but don’t have to be if they’re posted in an online forum.

It’s a valid argument, but it ignores the big secret about letters to the editor: The verification process for “real” letters isn’t much of a verification process at all.

Many newspapers, especially smaller ones, don’t even check that the person whose name appears at the bottom of the letter is in fact the person who wrote it. They just copy and paste from their email inbox and assume that if there’s a full name that doesn’t read “Anita Bath”, it’s probably legitimate.

Larger newspapers, like the Star, require readers to send their phone number, and an editor or secretary calls them up and verifies their name and whether they wrote the letter. There’s no exchange of ID, no looking names up in a database, just a phone call. It works mainly because very few people are going to go through that kind of trouble just to get a fake letter into the newspaper.

Still, I think the change is a good one, if only because seeing online handles like “geeko79”, “No McCain fries for John McCain” and “Fagstein” attached to grammatically-incorrect texts in a supposedly respectable newspaper looks ridiculous.

The policy change doesn’t affect the website; people will still be able to post with silly pseudonyms there, though that’s not what public editor Kathy English would have decided:

I would prefer the Star demand real names of those who comment online. I’ve been told that’s a near-impossible expectation in the online environment. I don’t buy that.

Of course, online faces the same problem. Restrict it to verified names, and you cut off most discussion and spent lots of time verifying IDs. The more moderation controls you have, the less commentary you have and the less active the forum becomes.

(via J-Source)

| Montreal, On the Net, Public transit, Technology

Google Transit includes all Montreal transit networks

An eagle-eyed netizen tells me that Google’s Transit service, which allows you to choose “by public transit” when finding directions via Google Maps, has been updated to include route and departure information for the STM’s buses and metro.

For an example, here’s a route by public transit from Fairview Pointe-Claire (where all the anglos hang out, didn’t you know?) to The Gazette’s offices on Ste. Catherine St. downtown. (Et, bien sûr, c’est aussi disponible en français)

The service, which is also available in Vancouver, Ottawa, Fredericton and dozens of U.S. cities, and had previously included AMT train service (which was much easier since there are much fewer departures to put in a database), is effectively a competitor to the STM’s existing Tous Azimuts service, which although revolutionary when it was introduced is now over a decade old and doesn’t meet today’s usability standards. Google Transit is slicker, faster and easier to use.

Like Tous Azimuts, Google Transit suggests alternate routes, says how long they’ll take, and provides the time of departure and arrival of each bus or metro.

This is no simple undertaking. Google requires the transit agency to provide a database of all departures for all routes in a specific format. We’re talking thousands and thousands of departures here.

This might also make other third-party STM trip-planning services obsolete, as Google Maps becomes a must-have application for cellphones.

UPDATE: I’m told by a helpful reader below that this also includes off-island transit networks like the Société de transport de Laval and the AMT-administered CITs, but not the south shore RTL network yet RTL data just went live so it now includes all the networks.

UPDATE (Oct. 29): Google, the STM, STL, RTL and AMT are making the joint announcement today, 10am at Google’s Montreal HQ (1253 McGill College) (Thanks Jean). Google Transit has already been updated to list all the transit agencies in the area (thanks Dumitru).

Expect media coverage of the new service during the evening news. Some technology media are already covering it. UPDATE: more pieces from The Gazette, Branchez-Vous and RadCan. And Tristan Péloquin has some background about this project.

Google has also setup a special page with an introductory video in French and English, thought the English version has a British narrator and uses New York as an example.

| Business, Media, Technology

The slow death of TV guides

Erik Kohanik and the disappearing TV column

Erik Kohanik and the disappearing TV column

Next time you’re browsing through your digital cable or satellite on-screen guide, give a thought to Eric Kohanik, who until recently provided what little editorial content was left in Canwest’s TV Times. Now even that was deemed too much, according to Bill Brioux.

TV Guide in Canada ceased paper production long ago, and the TV Times that’s distributed in Canwest’s newspapers (including The Gazette) is a shell of its former self (now it’s just a few pages of daytime and prime-time grids for the most popular channels).

This is what you talk about when you’re talking about technology cutting jobs and creating others. Some people with basic analog cable are still attached to their paper-based guides, but more and more are throwing them straight into the recycling bin.

It seems no one watches The Watcher.

| Media, Web design

RadCan ReDesign

Radio-Canada is publicizing a beta version of its redesigned news homepage, and is asking people what they think of it. Comparing it with the previous version, and you see the main story is much more prominent, there are some colour changes, and elements are rearranged, but there’s little else to speak of (except, perhaps, the “Error processing SSI file” messages I keep seeing).

This comes on the heels of its new Zone Musique site.

| Media, On the Net, Web design

Tell La Presse what to do

La Presse is running ads in its paper asking readers to become part of an online panel (read: focus group) to take surveys and say what you like and don’t like about the newspaper.

An irony, of course, is that when you enter the registration form (which is huge), you’re greeted with the words “Loading (please wait)”. I guess Research and Analysis of Media, which runs this thing, doesn’t have a French version of its software.

| Business, Media, Technology

Sun Media begins using electronic newspapers

Sun Media, which owns the Sun papers, Journal de Montréal/Québec, London Free Press, 24 heures and the Osprey chain (Kingston Whig-Standard, Sudbury Star et al), has signed a deal with NewspaperDirect to make electronic versions of the papers available to subscribers. No word on when this is going to start.

The NewspaperDirect service, which is used by the entire Canwest chain including The Gazette, produces exact copies of the paper, almost like PDFs, except with DRM so you can’t save them (at least on a Mac) and only two levels of zoon (my personal pet peeve). On the other hand, it provides some bells and whistles like having an automated reader read articles aloud.

With Transcontinental also working with NewspaperDirect (and over 700 publications in their repertoire), it’s clear that the Vancouver-based company provides a service that is either too hard or too expensive to try to duplicate.

I used it for about a year in order to save on recycling hassle, save the environment and save on subscription price. Though the saving on paper was fun (especially as I look around my living room now), reading the newspaper on my computer screen (and having to manipulate it with my laptop trackpad) and then watching TV and doing other stuff on my computer screen all day can put stress on the eyes, not to mention my posture.

Sure, I could go outside and have a life or something, but let’s be realistic…

| Blogosphere, Media, On the Net, Technology

Arpin launches WebTVHebdo

Dominic Arpin, the former TVA journalist, popular blogger and now host (again) of his own TV show about videos on the web, has finally launched a project called WebTVHebdo, which is a guide to web-based television shows. It’s a project he started a while ago with lackey Patrick Dion.

It covers international sensations like Ask a Ninja, but focuses on Quebec-based series like Le Cas Roberge and Les Recycleurs.

In a world where these things are popping up all over the place, a need quickly emerges to provide a reference, and Arpin and Dion have jumped on that void decisively.

| Opinion, Technology, Video

Fast. Finally.

Dear FinallyFast.com,

I understand computers are hard, and that filming a commercial with people you found off the street can be difficult.

FinallyFast.com is for PC Computers Only

FinallyFast.com is for PC Computers Only

But when you say your product is for PCs only,

This iMac is apparently supposed to be a PC in the magic fairytale land of FinallyFast.com commercials

This iMac is apparently supposed to be a PC in the magic fairytale land of FinallyFast.com commercials

perhaps you shouldn’t show people using what are obviously Macs (albeit with the logos covered up).

BSOD on an iBook.. err, PC laptop

BSOD on an iBook.. err, PC laptop

I can’t tell you how often I’ve gotten a blue screen of death on my iBook. Oh wait, yes I can. It’s never.