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12.11.2007

Archiving Analog vs Archiving Digital: Which Will Last Longer?

A report this past Spring from the New Brunswick provincial archives warns that society is in danger of losing valuable historical records because they are being improperly stored on digital media.

I have been reexamining the benefits of analog vs digital in the past year, after reading reports like above. After all, as an archivist, I have been using the Net to "re-publish" works that relate to my hobbies like rail rapid transit (see transportation documents on uwto.org), CBWT's former news & current affairs program, 24Hours, where 32 videos have been re-published onto YouTube.

Recently I played back a few of the old audio cassettes that have been gathering dust for a few years. It's recommended, at a minimum, to fast wind a tape from beginning to end, to ensure that the tape binder doesn't stick to the adjacent tape, causing major playback problems. One tape had me at the age of 13 or 14 introduce two news reports I recorded in 1979 or 1980 by placing a cheap cassette recorder close to the television speaker. At the time, just like anyone else, when hearing ones own voice recorded, it doesn't sound complimentary.That recording is invaluable now. However, given its age, and the quality of tape itself was not high. It is best to make a second generation copy before it gets lost or unplayable.

Five years ago I scanned in my baby pictures from the late late 1960s into the computer and have a couple of copies accessible to me. One of them is a CD-R, the other is via an online photo sharing service. However, dozens of other family photos from our collection have yet to be digitized and I hope that they can be done before severe deterioration occurs.

The best way to keep family family photographs from being lost before future generations even have a chance to see them, is to print them out on good quality photographic paper.

If you have any audio or video recordings of your childhood or your own kids, the best way to preserve them is to use good quality analog media like reel-to-reel (do people still use those? you bet), and Hi8 camcorder tape.

11.11.2007

He Roared (Like a Lion)!

I watched the movie Michael Clayton (starring George Clooney), twice, for two reasons.

First is that the story lends itself to seeing it more than once because the storyline moves back and forth telling why certain events took place.

The other reason I saw this film a second time has to do with the character of Michael Clayton and the choice of George Clooney to play the role.

Way back in 1996 I started watching ER on NBC. George was one of the original cast members of ER between 1993 and 1999-ish, when he left for a career in movie acting.

George is one of the men that I look up to as as a role model these days, because when there are so few good role models (even if it's just for the characters that they play) for men

If you get a chance to see the movie Michael Clayton, the best part is the last 10 minutes or so, when he is telling Karen (U|North's lawyer) that he is settling for $10 and no less. She says they can't afford that kind of settlement of the class action suit. Michael says "does it look like I'm negotiating here?!".

And when it's all over, Michael just walks away with a small smile on his face, the feeling of justice served (those 400 people will get their settlement money).

Then comes the best part:

He Roared (Like a Lion)!

Not literally, but metaphorically.

Great movie. 10 out of 10. And I hear that it might be nominated for an Academy Award or more.

imdb.com - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465538/
YouTube.com movie trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l12IQe98vE

10.14.2007

Bill 208 - Grandparents Access Bill

In May of 2005, the PC MLA for Minnedosa, Leanne Rowat, introduced Provincial Bill 208, to amend Sect. 78 of the Child and Family Services Act, and is intended to ease access issues with grandparents in cases of messy divorces.

http://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/hansard/3rd-38th/vol_50a/h50a.html


The following MLAs spoke in favour of the Grandparents Access Bill:

  • Andrew Swan (PC - Minto), practiced family law at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman for 14 years before becoming an MLA in 2004.
  • Mavis Taillieu (PC - Morris)
  • Kevin Lamoureux (Liberal - Inkster)
  • Drew Caldwell (NDP - Brandon East)
  • Len Derkach (PC - Russell)
  • Leanne Rowat (PC - Minnedosa) - Bill 208 was her first that was introduced into the Manitoba Legislature.

Also present in the Gallery at the time, were members of the GRAND Society of Manitoba, a grandparents rights group, who helped design the amendment.

Christine Melnick (NDP - Riel) was the Minister of Family Services at the time the Bill was introduced.

Yes, it is truly sad when a grandparent has to fill out an application form just to spend time with his or her grandchildren. This situation is a double-edged sword, in that on the one hand grandparents now have it easier to see their grandkids, but at the same time why should this be necessary at all. Wouldn't it be better to make divorce much more difficult to begin with?

What caught my eye, was near the end of debate on May 19th, 2005, that this Bill seemed to have non-partisan support. However, the NDP government wanted to close debate because it would allow it to go to Committee, and then Third Reading. Quite impressive, I might add.

Bill 208 was indeed passed into Law on December 7th, 2oo6, and remains in effect today.

4.25.2007

A Trolley For The Forks?

Winnipeg Free Press
April 21, 2007
Page B1

The Forks CEO Jim August said he will start working next week on landscaping and a "green" transportation plan, including whether to locate parking behind the building against the rail line and how to set up some public transit or a people-mover trolley that can link the museum to other downtown attractions. A parking structure is really a last resort, August said.

You're damn right there should be an electric trolley service between The Forks and other parts of downtown, Mr. August!

I spoke on the topic of a downtown trolley/streetcar loop at the May 1999 Council meeting to create CentreVenture:
http://uwto.org/articles/transit_1999streetcar.html

4.23.2007

Issues w/ American Satellite-Cable Networks

Arts & Entertainment Cable Network - I really enjoyed A&E in the late 80s and early 90s.Then they changed focus to more recent television police drama and I lost interest in the channel.

Black Entertainment Television - They need to expand the type of programs they offer to include Jazz, and maybe have a positive roll model Black family sitcom show.

CNBC - Why is Mad Money on so much and at a time after work when I want to watch a summary of the day's business news.

CNN -- Good when there's a natural disaster or something like that, but is too Rah Rah for the War in Iraq. Ted Turner shouldn't have sold to AOL Time Warner in 2001.

CNN HeadlineNews - Used to be a great service in the late 80s and through most of the 90s. Then in the early 2000s they changed their forumula and I stopped watching. There's opinion programming where there shouldn't be -- in prime time after a long day at work I want the headlines, not some schmuck telling me his or her opinions on things. HeadlinePrime needs to be focused on delivering the news, not opining about it!

The Golf Channel -- Not interested in golf as much because the commentators forcus too much on Tiger Woods. Well guys, there are other golfers out there besides him.

Speed -- Not interested in the NASCAR channel.

The Learning Channel -- This used to be a great educational channel until the late 90s. Then they started to change the focus to women's lifestyle programming, very similar to HGTv, just what there is already too much programming of.

4.22.2007

Issues w/ Canadian Satellite-Cable Networks

The promise of having several satellite-cable networks, called "narrowcasting" is that we would be never far away from the genre of programming that we love. However, the promise has failed to deliver. This blog entry and the next one attempt to review the current status of Canadian, American and International television networks available today.

The CRTC licensed these channels. So they are partly to blame for not keeping the channel owners on their toes when it comes to making sure they have interesting content on most of the time. But it's also a failure of the Canadian Television Fund which helps pay for that Canadian content over all these multitude of channels.

My answer to the problem is to combine some of these channels. For example, do we really need 5 music stations, licensed to play music videos and none of them do, but intead feature reality television crap? Maybe instead of MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic, MuchVibe, and MuchLOUD, they should consolidate into one MuchMusic station like originally. Also MTV Canada should be allowed to air music videos. In the end we subscribers would pay less for our television service and there would be fewer channels into which better programming could be produced or purchased. Everybody wins.

BNN

BPM:tv - The only music station that still plays music videos, although most of them can be classified in the "soft erotica" category. I find I have to turn off the tv because I find the "tits n ass" in the videos offensive. There is no need for most of it.

Bravo!

Canadian Learning Television - this channel isn't educational at all. It shows too much general interest entertainment programming like Monk, The West Wing, which are not the kind of educational type programming that CLT is licensed for in the first place.

CBC Newsworld - consists of three programs "Morning", "Today", and "The National". The network needs to develop more programs like in the old days of Newsworld.

CMT Canada - I'm not a Country music fan, so this channel is useless to me.

Comedy Channel - don't like 99% of the shows

Country Canada - should combine with The Documentary Channel to create CBC-2.

CP24 - This channel I like.

CPAC

CTV NewsNet - mostly better than CBC Newsworld

Dejaview - sometimes

Discovery Channel Canada - not as good as it was in the 90s. Don't watch anymore.

DriveIn - Watch very rarely.

Encore Avenue - OK. No complaints

G4 TechTv - Call for Help I watch, but the videogame shows are junk to me.

History Television - Nothing on here is interesting to me. It's mostly about various Wars.

iChannel - was good when it first started, but is not interesting anymore. I dumped the channel last year.

IFC Canada - Watch very rarely.

Lonestar - Don't watch.

Movie Central - OK. No complaints

Movieola - has too many 1920s/1930s Mickey Mouse cartoon shows.

MTV Canada - This service cannot play music videos because of the conditions of their current license. So if I want to watch music videos there's YouTube.

MuchMusic - Doesn't play music videos any more. Useless channel that used to be very good in the 1980s.

MuchMoreMusic - Was very good when it first started in October 1998, but also no longer plays music videos. Have to go to YouTube to watch a music video.

Mystery - Useless channel to me.

OLN - Good for the one month in the year that they carry the Tour De France bike race. Otherwise a useless channel. Maybe this channel could fold and TSN could pick up the annual bike race.

ROGERS SportsNet - I watch is sometimes when I'm interested in sports. They have good baseball and basketball coverage.

Showcase Television -

Showcase Action -

Showcase Diva -

Score - Don't watch this channel. I used to watch when it was HeadlineSports in the late 90s.

Scream - Rarely watch.

Space - Rarely watch. I probably need a rest from all those Star Trek series that were on during the 90s, and the other programming doesn't interest me much because it's poorly done.

Telelatino -- would watch more often if they had musical variety programming in Italian & Spanish, but most of the time it features English language American sitcoms. You can't really call this an ethnic station I guess.

The Documentary Channel -- Too many documentaries that focus on the drug trade and prostitution. And when they do have other documentaries, they rerun them too often in the day, so if you saw one doc there is no others to watch.

The Shopping Channel -- Longtime complaint I have is that there are very few items of interest to guys like electronics, gadgets, etc... Too many items for women.

TSN The Sports Network -- Sometimes I'll watch.

The Weather Network -- Way too many frequent interruptions for advertising. And the advertising is for hair care products or cars.

Treehouse -- Nothing of interest to me. Although it looks like Treehouse has lots of Canadian content, most of it is so cheaply produced that it doesn't warrant my time to view.

Tv Land Canada -- Has some interesting programming.

Tropolis -- Nothing of interest to me. This service used to be called Prime, and it had some
magazine programs that were viewable.

YTV Youth Television -- I used to watch alot of YTV in the first 4 or 5 years, then they started to change the programming and it's been downhill since then. I'm not into anime or violent programs like that.

4.03.2007

Informal poll shows most Winnipeggers are smart on rapid transit issue







Last January 28th I set up a web poll at NewWinnipeg.com. I wanted to find out for myself what percentage of people want different types of rapid transit (BRT, LRT, subway), those that drive cars and SUVs and don't want any, those that cycle and prefer that mode of commuting.

Well, after more than two months and 43 votes later I can confidently say that Winnipeggers are smarter than the politicians when it comes to the rapid transit issue in Winnipeg.

The question was:

What form of rapid transit should Winnipeg implement?

And the results to now are:

Bus Rapid Transit 9% (4 votes)
Light Rail Transit 44% (19 votes)
Subway/metro 14% (6 votes)
None - my bicycle is my rapid transit 7% (3 votes)
None - my car/SUV is my rapid transit 26% (11 votes)

So even if you just extract the LRT and subway percentages from this poll, 58% of people like the rail option. That's impressive Winnipeg. Thanks.



So there you have it. Though the BRT Hippies like Axworthy (oh my gawd!, Lloyd Axworthy a "hippie"?), Jenny Gerbasi, Donald Benham, and Kaj Hasselriis, can be quite noisy and vocal about their rapid transit preference; in reality most people support rail in the form of LRT or a subway (even if that's just 4-car trains mainly underground) for Winnipeg. The BRT gang are in the minority. And as the climate of our planet is changing for the worse, the BRT Hippies will one day eat their words.

So I firmly believe that TRUWinnipeg is here to stay and we're on the right track. The rail transit advocates just need to make more noise than the BRT people. Soon the politicians will cave in because it'll be that mob like that Free Press article from 1990 predicted will happen if the politicians are not following the people's wishes on this issue.

Keep sending those pro subway e-mails and letters to the politicians people.

1.09.2007

Pseudo-Environmentalists Holding Back Winnipeg's Progress

As I age and as the years go by in the Internet discussions with others over what to do with Winnipeg's transportation problem, I've gained some insight as to what is keeping central Winnipeg from becoming a more lively, vibrant urban place.

There are various "factions" at work, who seem to want to stop all good progress towards this end. One of them I discuss in this piece.

Let's start off with a definition of what an environmentalist is. From Wictionary:

One who works to protect the biosphere from misuse through such measures as ecosystem protection, waste reduction and pollution prevention

But when it comes to mass transportation, they would throw out this ideal, and, in their senseless desire for "cheap" transportation, advocate for a much less desirable option for Winnipeg.
  1. They claim to be environmentalists, but advocate for things that are not -- diesel bus BRT
  2. They claim to be progressive, but are anti-progressive when it comes to downtown development and "alternative transportation"
  3. Want, in effect, a rural/country-like setting
  4. They advocate for "cheap" transportation, ie. cycling, Bus "Rapid Transit".
  5. They're generally recognized as the children of the Hippies, or are from the Hippie generation themselves
  6. During the rapid transit debate of 2004 news reporters referred to the pro-BRT camp as "transit advocates". Nothing could be further from the truth, as BRT will ultimately hurt transit ridership and the environment, not help these two things
The thing is that I like cycling myself. As I write this, it's early January, and it'll be at least another three months before the temperatures are warm enough for cycling in this city. I absolutely love cycling. Cycle commute to my parent's home twice a week and rode to Grant Park shopping centre to catch a movie. Last year I participated in three Critical Mass Winnipeg rides (August - October).

I'm not against the environment. Far from it. I recycle most of my garbage. I give away to others some of the things I don't need anymore.

But the difference between myself and the Hippie environmentalists is that I acknowledge that a rail vehicle is better than a bus for moving large numbers of people in a city.