OK, this video is just too funny and kind of grows on you.

(Thanks to Shawn for finding the lyrics)

CANADIAN SING-A-LONG!

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

Even if in winter things tend to freeze

We’ve got the world monopoly on trees

And our country’s bordered by three different seas

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

We invented the zipper, we’ve got expertise

We made insulin to combat disease

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

CHORUS

Brits have got the monarchy

The US has the money

But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The French have got the wine and cheese

Koalas chill with the Aussies

But I know that you wanna be Canadian

Et si ce n’était pas assez

On a deux langues officielles:

L’anglais et le français

Ooh la la

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

Where else do you find mounted police

Or go to the hospital and not pay fees

Yeah I know that you wanna be Canadian, please

And when freshwater is in high demand

We’ve got the world’s largest supply on hand

So you know that we could make a pretty good friend

But it’s even better if you can be…

CHORUS

So you’re thinking to yourself,

“How do I live in this beautiful country?”

Well we’ve got some steps for you to follow…

STEP 1: Lose the gun

STEP 2: Buy a canoe

STEP 3: Live multiculturally

STEP 4: You’re ready, there is no more!

We got beavers, caribou and moose

We got buffalos, bears, and Canadian goose

And we’re sorry about Celine Dion

But she did do that good song for James Cameron…

CHORUS

Brits have got the monarchy

The US has the money

But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The French have got the wine and cheese

Koalas chill with the Aussies

But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The Greek chilled out with Socrates

Can’t build a wall like the Chinese

But I know that you wanna be Canadian

In Kenya they have safaris

We’ve missed lots of other countries

But I know that you wanna be Canadian

OK, so I bought it a few weeks ago, but I just realized I haven’t shared (gloated?) the good news yet.

Anyway, I picked up the Canon 50D digital SLR. This thing shoots like a dream, has a huge LCD screen on the back, and has some nice extra features.

Here’s a picture:

From the Canon website:

Features

* New 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved noise reduction, wide range ISO 100-3200 (H1: 6400, H2: 12800), 14-bit conversion for smooth colour tones and gradations.

* Next generation DIGIC 4 Image Processor for faster processing, 6.3 fps up to 90 JPEGS using UDMA CF cards; 60 consecutive JPEGS or 16 RAW using standard CF cards.

* 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) with multiple coatings for improved viewing and smudge-resistant protection.

* Enhanced Live View shooting includes Face Detection Live mode.

* 9 cross-type high-precision sensors for accurate target subject acquisition and diagonal center cross-type AF point with f/2.8 and faster lenses.

* New Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction setting to automatically even the brightness across the image.

* Updated EOS Integrated Cleaning System with a fluorine coating for better resistance to dust.

* Creative Auto goes a step beyond full auto with on screen setting display.

* HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) output for displaying full high-resolution images on a High Definition TV.

* Compatible with over 60 Canon EF/EF-S lenses and most EOS System accessories.

Also picked up a few nice additions to my collection…

The Canon EF-S 17 – 85 IS Lens

Overview

This EF-S lens brings true wide-angle to tele coverage to EOS 20D and Digital Rebel shooters. It has Canon’s Image Stabilization system, allowing safe hand-holding at speeds up to three stops slower than otherwise possible. And of course, it’s optically optimized for digital SLRs. A ring-type USM means both fast and silent AF, as well as full-time manual focus when in the AF mode.

And, the piece de resistance, a nice new ‘L’ series pro lens (albeit this is a poor man’s L series lens, but it is pin-tack sharp nonetheless, and I couldn’t justify twice the price for only one stop of lens speed for the big brother!)

EF 70-200mm f/4L USM

Overview

High-performance, L-series telephoto zoom lens combining light weight and compactness with an f/4 maximum aperture. Inner focusing and the ring USM enable quick and quiet autofocusing. Also, a circular polarizing filter can be attached and used without difficulty because the front lens element does not rotate during focusing. The tripod collar (sold separately) is the same one used with the EF 300mm f/4L USM.

Peter MacDonald Mullin (February 20, 1937  -  June 22, 2009)

http://www.ebituaries.ca/Ebit.aspx?DaId=814292818

Just a little something from the http://xkcd.com site!

When I first read the article in eWeek, I was a bit sceptical. After all, like everyone else I knew, Safari was on the Mac when it arrived, but for the most part, I used it to download FireFox and continued on with that.

According to the article, Safari “is currently the top dog in standards support”, scoring on the Web Standards ACID3 test, the only non-beta web browser on the market today to do so.

The other item they noted was speed. Safari was the fastest performing browser available for testing. So, not being one to simply believe what i read, I decided to try to benchmark things myself. Here are my benchmarks from my (underpowered!) Dell laptop I use at work (and at home when Nadine won’t let me use the iMac because she is so in love with it!!! . The laptop sports an older Pentium M class with only 1 GB RAM, so application speed is a factor. As you can see in the results below, Safari’s performance score is impressive (1246), scoring over twice as high as FireFox (555) and blowing Internet Explorer (252) out of the water!

This was a much more significant difference than I expected, so I will be repeating these benchmarking tests on my Apple iMac at home in Mac OS X and also in Windows XP SP3 on Bootcamp and will post those results when I get the chance. My iMac has a 3 GHz dual core processor and 4 GB RAM, so I expect the results to be even more impressive. Maybe even enough to convince me to switch to using Safari!

However, in closing I must inform you that there is a downside… FireFox is well known for plug-in/extension support, whereas Safari lacks the same level of support. There are still plenty of add-ons for Safari, but not nearly as many as for FireFox. I know, because I use several myself –> TwitterFox for my Twitter feeds, ScribeFire to create blog pages, and TinyURL Creator to turn obscenely long web page urls into something much more manageable.

So, I guess I will have to decide which I prefer, speed and standards or the benefit of more plug-in support. I will also be seeking out some other browser benchmarking sites to get more feedback results, so if anyone has any recommendations, feel free to share them! In any case, Internet Explorer is relegated to the minor leagues!

Added Later:

Just finished testing Opera over lunch (let it run while I went out) and Opera scored about even with FireFox, so Safari definitely wins the crown on this machine!

iMac at Home

Here are the results from Safari 4 and FireFox 3.0.11 on my iMac and Mac OS X Leopard at home. A significant difference between them!

Leaving McDonald’s with his new (and overpriced) ‘Night at the Museum‘ Albert Einstein bobblehead toy, Aidan starts reading the information sheet that comes with it:

Aidan: “In the movie, the Einstein bobblehead helps Larry unlock the mystery of the tablet. The real Albert Einstein was born in Germany and is best known for his Theory of Relativity”

(yes, he is just finishing Kindergarten, and the only word on that info sheet he had trouble with was ‘relativity‘…)

Mommy: “Very Good! Did you know that Albert Einstein was one of the smartest people who ever lived?”

Aidan: (without missing a beat…) “Is that why they make toys that look like him?”

The way the mind of a kid works is just hilarious!

vs.

For those about to blog, we salute you!

Some days blogging is fun, some days not as much. When I am at home and on the Mac, I really enjoy using ecto as my blogging software. It allows me to drag and drop almost anything into my post, edit is as if it were in a word processor, and then one-click upload it to a site.

But the problem is that they do not make a Windows version, so I end up needing to use the WordPress or Blogger sites, and they are just not anywhere near as friendly.

I have used Windows Live Writer in the past and found it was OK, but every once in a while it would spontaneously lose my blog site settings and I would have to enter all the info in again to post. That was annoying.

So, tonight I downloaded and installed the latest version (build 14.0.8064.206 en according to the help screen). I really want something simple because I have way too many other things to keep me occupied and don’t really want to battle with weak designs.

So, this post was created with the new Windows Live Writer. It has lots of the same type of features ecto has – WYSIWYG editor, drag and drop/resize images and videos, spell-checking, add maps, etc. Both allow me to size the images to fit into the column width of my blogs. Neither has a way for me to set column size for the entire post, which I guess makes sense given the dynamic nature of HTML.

Overall, it isn’t bad!

ecto

Writer

But it acted weird for a bit… For instance, I like to type out an entire post, then go back and add the hyperlinks later. ecto is great, you just highlight the text and then click the link button and add the url. Sometimes in Windows Live Writer, it won’t let me highlight and I need to actually insert the link, it won’t allow me to highlight existing text and add a link to it, then other times it works fine… like I said -> weird! Maybe it is something I haven’t figured out yet, but I will give it some time.

In a nutshell, Windows Live Writer is better than using WordPress or Blogger web-based  post-creation pages if you like adding images, video, etc., and you are more comfortable using a WYSIWYG editor. Plus, if you don’t own a Mac, you can’t get ecto anyway…

And I know I’m a bit biased by my love affair with most things Mac, but I think Windows Live Writer, if they have fixed the bugs I was having in the previous version with losing settings, and if I can figure out how to make it let me highlight existing text and add links all the time, will be almost as good as ecto. If this post uploads, it will be the final test…

Best part is, it’s free (ecto isn’t free, it is $19.95, but it really is slick and they don’t charge for upgrades!)

Sabian buried 100 cymbals in a muddy hole in the ground eight months ago near their factory in Meductic, New Brunswick, and today they unearthed them.

According to the CBC article, these cymbals produce a better sound quality:

After they were cleaned off, Sabian technician Nort Hargrove checked to see if the eight-month hibernation had made a difference.

“Absolutely,” he said, noting a different sound in his playing.

“What it is is the high register seems to be a little more dominant. When you play it, the edges of the cymbal are wavering.”

That’s supposed to provide a richer sound, especially for jazz.

The success of the experiment is good news for Sabian and for the drummers and collectors who’ve already put their orders in for buried cymbals.

All 100 are already spoken for — they retail for $800, about a third more than the regular price.

The company plans to donate some of the proceeds to the Children’s Wish Foundation.

The article further stated that fans of Sabian cymbals include Phil Collins, Neil Peart of Rush and Keith Harris of the Black Eyed Peas.

I think this will definitely allow drummers to get downright dirty…

Just noticed on the Skype website that their next Mac version, 2.8, will offer screen sharing. I guess that means Skype in 2009 will finally offer the same features as NetMeeting did in 2003.

Of course, NetMeeting never offered calling to landlines, but I don’t use that particular feature yet. Maybe soon…

NERD ALERT! Non-techies need not continue…

So, according to the hoopla around Twitter, they are running out of ID numbers for tweets.

They apparently assigned a 32-bit signed integer value for their unique ‘tweet’ IDs, so they had a limit of 2^{32 − 1} − 1 values (for those binary and/or mathematically challenged out there, that is the largest integer value available in a 4 byte storage location and is about 2,147,483,647 or a little over 2 billion). Apparently, they are close to this upper limit and will run out of unique IDs soon.

If this is true, I guess when they developed Twitter, they didn’t expect to be this popular! I suspect they will need to take it down deliberately before the crash and alter the database table to use a more ‘large number friendly’ data type like a bigint (or the equivalent, though I suspect they are a MySQL based operation), which can be up to 2^{64 − 1} − 1 (9,223,372,036,854,775,807) before bringing it back up. Uses a bit more memory, but they seem to need it… Hopefully they have already tested this on a dev server somewhere!

For computer programming students out there, please note that this is a real-life example of why actually taking the time to properly analyze the present AND future system requirements sometimes does make sense…

UPDATE: A bit more reading shows that this is not a Twitter issue, but an issue with all the Twitter apps out there who will have to be able to handle the unique IDs larger than 2 billion. Apparently those Twitter folks did properly analyze, but some apps may not have!