Free Online Music - courtesy of your local library?

I Love Free...well, mostly free, and here's a cool new way I discovered to listen to music online, for mostly-free! Edmonton Public Library is now offering the entire Naxos Music Library for online listening, for Free. Well, next-to-free, because you must be a card-carrying library member to make use of this service. Still, it's rather cool, and it works through our firewall at work..so what more could you want. Another bonus reason to get your library card :-) Source: Edmonton Public Library Technorati Tags: Edmonton, Public, Library, Online, Music, MP3, Listening, Free, Streaming, Naxox

I can see clearly now...

I briefly browsed back to a photography site I used to frequent a lot - Photo Friday. I've kinda dropped it because I don't really have the time to participate in the weekly photo assignment - but it was fun while I could. But, the reason for this post - today I noticed a cool Monitor Calibration Chart posted on the site. This is a great way to ensure you've got the brightness and contrast of you monitor adjusted to view images in the best possible way. Obviously the chart doesn't help you with colour compensation, but colour management is beyond the scope of this chart. Source: Photo Friday's Monitor Calibration Chart Technorati Tags: Photography, Calibration, Black, White, Chart, Monitor, Settings, Setup, Image, Photo

The Heavy G

Yep, I am one of the blessed unwashed masses. I now have a Yahoo 360 account. This is a Blog-Imagesharing-Social-Network kind of new online community hosted at Yahoo. I'm not sure (yet) if/how it's better than the others, except that it seems to roll all into one handy site. We'll see how it develops. In the meantime, if you want to try it for yourself, check out my page and send me an email (check the blog entry there). Source: Yahoo 360 Technorati Tags: Yahoo, 360, free, beta, invitation, invite, blog, photo, sharing, network, social, community

Oops, they did it again!

It seems the folks at Google don't know when to stop! First they up the email capacity on Gmail, now they introduce Satellite images in Google Maps. This is very cool technology. The coverage is a bit spotty right now, but it does work. I tried to grab a shot of Edmonton, but it doesn't have the resolution images yet. Kelowna, on the other hand does. You'll see the map and images in the photos to the left. What was really cool was just scrolling around and seeing the terrain. I found this ancient impact crater in Northern Alberta, just west of Wood Buffalo National Park. Source: Google Maps Technorati Tags: Google, Maps, Satellite, Image, Space, Canada, Alberta, British, Columbia, Cool

To Infinity, and beyond!!!

Happy birthday Gmail! It looks like we're the ones getting the gift though - according to the Gmail login page. Google will up the 1 Gig of storage to 'infinity' + 1. Though there is an embedded javascript counter on the page that is currently around 1.4 Gig..and climbing. Either way, I hope it's not an April Fools joke, and is more of a birthday present. Source: Gmail Technorati Tags: Gmail, Google, Happy, Birthday, Email, Storage, Gigabyte, Unlimited, Free

Westcoast Atari layoffs?

Looks like one of the icons in videogaming is laying off a sizable chunk of westcoast staff. According to one insider, Atari, publisher of many classic videogames of yore, is letting go of marketing staff from their Santa Monica and Beverly offices - centralizing operations out of the east coast locations. To ad a bit of perspective to the layoffs...the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), an annual orgy of videogaming goodness, is cued up to run in May. One wonders why Atari would lay off staff going into the biggest show of the year. Source: Secret Internal Contact Categories: Atari, Video, Games, Computer, Console, PC, Layoff, Job, Employment, E3, Marketing, PR

Enhancing Blogger - Categories - the Techno-l.icio.us way..

One drawback of Blogger (the service hosting amazing.bradblog is the lack of Categories. Sure, I've been hacking around it with Technorati tags, but it's not been entirely the best way to do it. Then today, I stumbled accross a cool page that lets me create Technorati and Del.icio.us tags in one swell foop! Check the link below and the Tags created with the bookmarklet. Source: technorati and delicious tagging Categories: Technorati, Tag, bookmarklet, categories, delicioius, tags

On-line era leaves media out of loop: PR expert

Whilst scanning the papers today I came across this article discussing the role of the corporate and PR blogger, and how they need to adopt the values of traditional Jouranlists:

Richard Edelman, president and chief executive officer of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, said that as PR practitioners rely less on the media to get messages out, they need to act more like journalists.

"The responsibility of PR people today has grown because we're not necessarily going through the media as a screen," said Mr. Edelman, who was in Toronto recently to discuss the company's survey on corporate trust.

"If we're just putting stuff up [on the Internet] and people are reading it and accepting it as truth, then we should have a journalist-level quality as our objective instead of a promoter objective."

Globe and Mail Technorati Tags: Blog, Journalism, truth, trust, PR, Media, Marketing, Writer, Writing

Oh, the pain!

Yeah, nobody's going to feel sorry for me but I'm in pain today. The cause is my foolish desire to run 8km at the local indoor track...the longest I've run in six months. This silliness is compounded by my lack of any real exercise in the last six weeks. Yeah, I'm a doof. The one upside is, I feel like I've accomplished something. Sure, it's not like completing a race like we did last year at the Melissa's run in Banff, but I'm on the road back. For you new runners reading this, I've linked a few online resources that have helped me over the last few years. ...limping back to my foot bath. The Running Room, Cool Running's Couch-to-5k plan , The Great Human Race, Melissa's Road Race 2005 Technorati Tags: running, race, 5k, 8k, 10k, melissa's, banff, alberta, canada, fitness, marathon

Back! Up yer Tractor!! Yuh-Harrrrrrr!!!

Well shiver me timbers...the Tractor is back. Edmonton's party/beer-drinkin-band, Captain Tractor, recently completed their latest album, North of the Yellowhead. For those of you outside the Edmonton area, the Yellowhead is a highway that bisects the North end of Edmonton. I grew up there. The name-sake tune, North of the Yellowhead, implies that it's a rough place. Find out for yourself. But hey, the Tractor launched a new website, and is making available some classic Tractor Tunes:

• Another Drinking Song - Quite possibly the best Tractor song ever.
• Frozen Puck to the Head - The CBC says "The best hockey song ever written".
• 99 Luftballoons - Chris sings authentic 80's German pop.
• Gwenivere - Like a chick movie... in song... done by men...
• The Last Saskatchewan Pirate - Some classic Tractor.
• The Logdriver's Waltz - A piece of Canadiana.

And they've got a video on the same page. Oh, yeah, they're also launching their own line of Beer. Source: Captain Tractor Technorati Tags: Captain, Tractor, Music, Free, MP3, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Yellowhead, North

Customize your Google News - or anything else Google!

Whilst reading my blogline subs this am, I noticed a cool post to a Firefox hack that 'enhances' your Google search experience. Note, I had to tweak the Javascript code a tiny bit because Google.ca sites weren't being 'butler'ed properly. Butler does the following:

• removes ads on most Google pages
• fixes fonts on most Google pages
• Google web search:
  • adds links to other search sites ("Try your search on...")
  • in news results, adds links to other news sites
  • in movie results, adds links to other movie sites
  • in weather results, adds links to other weather sites
  • in product results, adds links to other product sites
• Google image search:
  • adds links to other image/photo/art sites
• Google News:
  • adds links to other news sites
• Froogle:
  • adds links to other product sites
• Google Print:
  • Removes image copying restrictions
  • adds links to other book sites
• Google Toolbar Firefox page:
  • adds links to other Firefox-friendly toolbars

Source: Butler Technorati Tags: Butler, Javascript, Google, Search, Enhancement, Code, Programming, Firefox, Tweak

Customize your Google News.

Doing the work I do requires me to scan news daily. Google News is making that very easy for me:

1) visit Google.ca, Click on the link at the very top of the page called Customized News. Open the box in the right-hand column. Tweak the page layout to your liking. Create new sections based on keywords...such as GeoCaching, Video Gaming, Fundraising, Marketing...etc. Adjust layout of those new sections to taste. The new Google News page will contain those news stories. 2) Under the Top Stories Column on the left - click on News Alerts. Set up custom, keyword based, email news alerts. News stories that meet the keyword criteria will be emailed to you. You can also have them emailed to your cell phone if you have SMS capability.

Source: Google News Technorati Tags: News, Google, Customize, Layout, Marketing, PR

O'Reilly Network: An Interview with Cory Doctorow

An Interview with Cory Doctorow by Richard Koman -- Cory Doctorow fits the old adage: "Need something done? Ask a busy person." The European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a co-editor of Boing Boing, and a renowned science fiction writer, Cory is also on tap to speak at O'Reilly's upcoming Emerging Technology Conference. In this interview, Cory talks about his latest book and his work as a science fiction writer.

Source: O'Reilly Network Interview Technorati Tags: Interview, Free, Speech, EFF, Writer, Author, O'Reilly, Doctorow

Interesting news on the PR front...

Association Magazine popped out these two little gems of wisdom relating to PR and the Inter-hype. Association Magazine: February - March 2005 - Website Myths: Fact & Fiction is a list (and everyone loves lists right) of common sense items people and organizations should take into consideration when using/building/considering a website. The second, article Virtual Pressrooms – The Media's Window into Your World leads you briefly into the needs of the Press...what they want and how you can provide it with a virtual pressroom. Curiously - neither article discusses weblogs...too bad, because they *are* the force in PR currently. Source: Association Magazine Technorati Tags: Public, Relations, Website, Media, Press, Room, PR, Tips, List, Myths, Blog, Blogging

Back in the Day...

Once upon a time, a long time ago (1995ish), I was the webmaster for ITV News in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Back then, one of our challenges was to try and attract viewers to this new medium - the Internet. One way we found that worked, was to translate our news scripts to html, and include images from the stories. We also experimented with sound, but many people at that time didn't have bandwidth or systems able to play the files. Stumbling throught the Internet Archive - the Wayback Machine - I came across the first web news story we ever did, a fairly visual piece on the 1995 Millwoods Shopping Mall fire. A bit dated when compared to today's CNN/Reuters stories, or the Blogosphere, but it was cutting edge for its time.
Source: Millwoods Shopping Mall Fire, ITV (Internet Archive) Technorati Tags: Television, News, Edmonton, Alberta, Internet, Archive, ITV, Canada

Phun with Photos...

This is a cool little experiment that Flickr is running - a flash 'thingie' that grabs and displays random photos in a small window. Since I'm on the cusp of acquiring a new camera phone, I expect this and other flickr blog thingies will make appearances here. Source: Flickr's Daily Zeitgeist Technorati Tags: Photography, blog, blogging, photoblog, utility, tool, fun, random

Free Gmail Invites

Looks like Google has freed up some more Gmail invites - so here ye be - 6 spanky new gmail invtes to the first 6 5 0 folk (1 per person, please) to email a request to: bradblog@gmail.com ** UPDATE ** Sorry, all invites are now taken. Source: Gmail.com Technorati Tags: Gmail, email, google, mail, free, invite

A test of Hello working with Blogger

This photo is a shot of Edmonton's City Hall and the Court House, in the foreground. The shot was uploaded using Hello -> Interesting, it seemed to drop my footer info from the post template.

Dirty Pool..

It seems that Quicken users are losing some online functionality. BoingBoing reports:

Quicken disables the software you paid for to force paid upgrades Norvy sez, "I bought Quicken 2002 when it was the current version. I received a letter in the mail this week telling me that Intuit will be disabling the online bill pay feature for my version because it's too old!

Me is pissed. It seems that they're also retiring the QIF file format with another one, which means that if my bank converts, I'll have to buy the latest version of the software to remain compatible. Source: BoingBoing Technorati Tags: Quicken, Financial, Software, Disabled, Broken