Duane's Old World

The Importance Of Real Dynamic Content

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As most people know, both WordPress and Drupal belong to a class of software known as content management systems (CMS). The benefit of these systems is that they allow users to create content easily, often by typing in content via a dashboard or other simple form of entry. The actual HTML generation is taken care of by the CMS, allowing the user to focus primarily on creating content. I've had my personal blog for nearly ten years now, and have been on WordPress for nearly three. As I write content, there's always the implicit expectation that my content will come with me wherever I go in the future, no matter which CMS platform I end up choosing. With that in mind, it's important for that content to translate properly as technology and our uses for computing change (for example, screen resolutions increase, or the world shifts slowly towards mobile blogging). Unfortunately, most modern day web technologies are fairly weak are ensuring the latter. When an image is inserted in a post, many people still hardcore the width and height parameters of the image. The problem with that approach is that it forever ties the content to a particular presentation, and makes it difficult to transition in the future. For example, let's say you manually specify a width of 400px for an image. If one day you decide to change your theme post area to display 500px worth of content, suddenly all your images are too small. To fix the problem, you most likely have to go through and manually edit every IMG HTML tags to change the width. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? A far better approach is to use CSS to specify the desired width and height. Most modern browsers support the "max-width" parameter, and those that don't typically have workarounds. With that approach, you can simply change the layout via CSS whenever you want to overhaul the look and feel of all your images. For some people, that probably sounds really straightforward. And yet, many third party plugins (and in fact, some CMS systems), add width and height parameters to content. Every use video from YouTube or other services? If so, you'll also probably notice that the EMBED code contains specific width and height parameters, which for most people don't work well with their blog's theme. I've been testing a new BraveNewCode plugin out on my personal blog that fixes the last problem with regards to video. Using WordPress 2.5 and above, you can simply use a shortcode to access any video on the web, and have it automatically size to the proper dimensions on your blog. Should you adjust your theme presentation sometime in the future, you can simply adjust the width and height for all videos in the dashboard, and have all your previous content automatically change as well. In addition, the code generated by the plugin validates against W3C in all cases, unlike the EMBED tag which was deprecated. Anytime you generate content that has an explicit width or height tied to you, you really need to stop and think if there's an alternative. You may very well be affecting the future look and feel of your website by doing so.

Broken Laptop

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I went to turn my laptop

Entry #46: Big Brother Might Be Listening

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This next post hits pretty close to home. I work in the field of voice over IP. I write software for my day job that allows people to talk to each other using two computers. A popular manifestation of the technology I work with everyday is Skype, which many people used to communicate with each other. One of the benefits with Skype is that the entire conversation is automatically encrypted. In theory, this should mean that nobody, not even the government, would be able to listen in on your phone calls. However, a recent article speculates that there may be a backdoor in Skype that would allow governments or authorities to listen in. Now, that may seem paranoid to some people. But you should know in the United States the government has strict rules regarding encrypted calls. The actual rules regarding communications in the states is governed by the Communications Assistant For Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

On The Nature Of Giving

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As most of you know, Blogathon happened over the weekend. It was an event that involved 13 or so bloggers, all of which stayed up for 24 hours straight to write entries and support various local charities. At least count, I think between everyone involved, nearly $20,000 was raised for local charities. Given that, I find it extremely surprising that today, on various blogs and even on Twitter, I've encountered quite a bit of negativity with regards to the event and the result. Some of the complaints revolve around the issue that not many people donated for certain causes, or that certain people could have done more to help out. Many of the blog posts I wrote ultimately fell off the page and were never read. I'd be the first to admit that writing content that hardly gets read or commented on is a bit disheartening. Also, the lack of donations given the marathon like effort and lack of sleep is also a bummer. But as whole, I think $20,000 is extremely impressive, and it's something everyone involved should be proud of. Sure, various aspects of the event can potentially be improved in the future. And I'm sure everyone involved would be open to suggestions to ensure it's a good event, both for the charities involved, and the people participating. But I don't think we should lose sight of the fact that a great deal of good was accomplished during the event. Not just financial, but also

Fake Roger's Wireless Surveys?

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I've been receiving a call from a weird number ever since I boughed my iPhone in July. The number is 416-312-3901. Unless I have a pretty good idea of who is calling me, I generally just push unknown phone numbers to voice mail. Since I was in an adventurous mood though tonight, I decided to answer it. The person at the other end of the line informed me that they were calling on behalf of Roger's Wireless, and wanted to ask me a few questions. At first, I thought that would be ok, so I said sure. The first thing they asked me is to answer whether or not I had purchased a new phone in the last few months. Right away the warning lights went on in my head, so I asked the guy "you're from Roger's aren't you? Don't you know that information?" He then replied that yes, indeed, he did know the answer, but he wanted me to confirm it for him. I then asked him directly if he did in fact work for Roger's wireless, to which he answered that he was commissioned by Roger's Wireless to do surveys on their behalf. He then asked me to confirm my name and other information for him. I told him I was absolutely not going to give him any personal information, or any further details about my Roger's plan at that point. I really have no idea if the guy really was with Rogers, or was just pretending to be to try and gather data, but it kind of freaked me out a bit.

Another Last Minute Candidate For President?

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I found this video of one of the potential candidates for the president of the United States. Obviously race might be a bit of an issue for his campaign, but after a careful analysis, I strongly believe this is the best candidate: There are numerous reasons why I feel this is the best candidate, and I thought I would post a few here.

Let's be honest, this president is fairly predictable. It's fairly unlikely there will be any last-minute invasions, or any unilateral decisions being made.
Environmental awareness - this candidate is very aware of the environmental impact of his actions, and will be an advocate for helping other nations obtain clean water
While this candidate hasn't made his nuclear policy entirely clear, it seems unlikely that this president would ever press the button and launch a nuclear assault. The lack of hands might have something to do with that.

The Fallacy Of The StartUp

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

On The Current State Of Voice Over IP (VOIP)

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I just read a post about Skype over on Boris' blog, and I thought I would do a comprehensive post about voice over IP in general. It is a field I know quite intimately, having been a part of a large voice over IP company for the last four years or so. To talk about voice over IP in the present, you first need to talk about the history of VOIP. Many purists will say that VOIP is any application or piece of hardware that transmit voice data over the internet. By that definition, many services such as the old Yahoo! chat would classify as VOIP. However, most modern definitions are basically meant to encompass products like Skype, Project Gizmo, CounterPath's Xlite, and even GoogleTalk and Yahoo! Messenger. Up until about five years ago, there were several competing open standards that focused on VOIP communications. Two of the big ones were H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). For whatever reasons, SIP eventually was selected as the protocol of choice, and is used widely on the Internet to establish and maintain VOIP connections. While SIP is a powerful protocol, it is fairly complex in some areas, and has presented numerous technical challenges over the years. While some session-establishing technologies utilize servers to do most of the heavy lifting in the protocol, SIP pushes all the complexity outwards to the clients, which has both advantages and disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that most companies do a fairly poor job of testing their SIP stacks, which leads to massive interoperability problems between companies. So while the protocol is meant to be open and allow connecting between networks, the reality is that interop is still a huge problem for VOIP devices that speak SIP. To help with that problem, a few friends of mine sat down together about four years ago and wrote a completely open source SIP stack called reSIProcate. One of the main benefits of this is that reSIProcate stacks can talk to each other easily, so anyone that uses resip is essentially guaranteed a certain level of interoperability out of the gate. Project Gizmo makes use of reSIProcate, as does CounterPath's suite of products. I've even contributed some code to the project over the years, and recently started a p2p library with many of the same people that started reSIProcate. In terms of VOIP deployments, the main technical challenges still involve NAT traversal. Most consumer VOIP calls can go directly between the peers in a call, but many enterprise environments have restricted firewalls that either don't allow UDP at all, or have complex NAT bindings that make VOIP almost impossible. In these complex cases you require either a SBC or some kind of relay server out in the open Internet to relay your voice data. The current standard for this server is called TURN, but it is still a work in progress. In some ways that means that it's impossible to deploy an open-standards based VOIP network that will work in 100% of situations, at least not without deploying a SBC or some other type of element into your network. Skype works because they have defined their own protocol and also have their own super nodes that can handle scenarios involving restricted NATs. Unfortunately such options are still forthcoming from the IETF for open-standards VOIP. Without a doubt, the uptake of VOIP at both the consumer and enterprise level has been fairly disappointing. For a technology with so much potential and so much hype, it's still rather amazing that you don't hear about any amazing deployments these days. I'm going to give my take on why that is. First, there is a clear lack of vision by the incumbent telecommunications companies about what VOIP can be used for. In their mind, VOIP is meant to replace their current phone system, and nothing more. That belief, that VOIP is nothing more than another type of copper wire to someone's house, is short-sighted. And if that's what you believe, then it's hard to write the business case for reducing someone's $40 a month phone bill to $10 a month with VOIP for a company like Telus. They might as well put a gun to their head and have their investors pull the trigger. Second, the standards needed to make VOIP a dominating technology have been churning in the IETF for far too long. One example of this is ICE. When I started my current job, ICE was at revision #2. Bear in mind that ever back then ICE was a late technology, and it was introduced to solve a problem that already existed at the time. Here we are, nearly four and a half years later, and ICE is still not standardized. It has undergone various revisions and changes, many of which weren't compatible with previous versions. Last time I checked it was up to revision 18 or so I believe. TURN is another example. Without a completed TURN specification it becomes impossible to deploy open-standards based relay servers. With that in mind, it's no wonder companies like Skype are more than happy to keep doing things their own way. The one benefit of a proprietary protocol is that you can change it whenever you want and stay ahead of the curve. The obvious exception to this is Skype. Skype is a completely closed network that uses proprietary protocol.

The Smell Of Shit

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I had planned to write some really juicy stuff.. But truth is, I'm too tired to

Snail Mail Only Please

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

October

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If events of the last few weeks have tough me anything, things don't have to be brittle to break. Just a little pressure in the right spot, and things can shatter rather abruptly.

Hilarious

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Loan Update

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A while ago I did a post talking about my current effort to reduce my loans.

Moving On

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well, after about a year or so about complaining about living in downtown Vancouver

2009 TV Season

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Compared to most people, I actually don't watch a lot of TV. That being said, there are three shows I've been watching for a few years.

24

I originally started watching 24 a few years ago. I went down to a local video store and out of boredom rented the first four episodes of season four (thinking it was season one). I was immediately hooked on the cliffhanger style for each episode, and after watching those episodes, went out to Future Shop and purchased the first two seasons. Without a doubt, season two was the highlight of the entire show for me. There was a lot of character development, and

How Not To Find An Employee

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Given that I've had my resume online for a several years now, and that I get a lot of traffic because of it, I wanted to share some of my observations with regards to employees

John Biehler Photography

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I met John a few years ago, probably at some random technology event in Vancouver. John and I are made from the same sort of stuff, and he's a great guy to hang out with or someone who will show up and help you move. Obviously I've been involved in the Vancouver photography scene for a few years. I'm

CFB Chilliwack

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Given that I live on what used to be CFB Chilliwack, I thought I might write a post about it. CFB Chilliwack started as Camp Chilliwack just a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. It was created due to the perceived threat that the Japanese would have on North America during the war. When it became apparent that the threat was minor, Camp Chilliwack transitioned into more of a training facility.

Test Post

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is a test

Auto Draft

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Geek Talk

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I'm sitting around having some wine with a few friends, calming my nerves before I go under the scalpel tomorrow. While sitting around here, we started talking about some fun geek talks:

I'm about to open source my pants
Her DIVs were all over me
I'm pretty sure she's XHTML strict

The Apple Curse

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

While I heart my Macbook Pro, I gotta say, lately it's become pretty temperamental. Here's a list of all the problems with it right now:

iChat won't start and audio or video session. It hasn't worked since a few point releases ago
My FTP program, transmit, hangs occasion

Prose

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Patron Anejo

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bluetooth Audio System

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Banking Fees

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I read this morning that CIBC released an iPhone application that allows a person to do most of their daily banking right from their iPhone (it even allows email wire transfers). I actually

San Jose

Duane Storey — Wed, 03 May 2006 07:07:47 +0000

Well, Dragos, Cheung and I did some serious customer support down in the bay area for the last 8 days.. All in all, it was a pretty good trip, but it was 12 - 14 hour days pretty much the whole time, which didn't leave much room for relaxing.

Home at last

Duane Storey — Thu, 04 May 2006 06:12:47 +0000

Well, after nearly three weeks, I'm finally back home.. I left April 14th for Tokyo, Japan, bounced through Vancouver on April 24th, landed in San Francisco on April 25th, and finally arrived in Vancouver late last night.. Man am I tired.. But wow, what an amazing trip. I have never been off the continent before, and it was really amazing going to a completely different place, both geographically and culturally. Thankfully, I don't have any trips planned, since I'm completely exhausted.. But who knows, in another month or two maybe it will be time to fly again. As you might have noticed, I also decided to try out some new blog software. This one is called WordPress, and it's available at www.wordpress.org. So far I'm pretty impressed -- it sure as hell beats my old php scripts. I figured out how to tie it into flickr too, so now I think I have a pretty decent set up for blogging. Oh, and tomorrow, the CounterPath people are all taking the afternoon off and doing a motorboat scavenger hunt in Howe Sound.. It should be a great time -- look for the photos from that when I get back.

Another Fine Day

Duane Storey — Tue, 09 May 2006 01:10:22 +0000

Well, I took a day off from CounterPath today to get caught up on sleep, and to catch up on all my errands. I spent the morning doing my taxes, and then had a nice lunch on Granville Island with my mom and Marty. After lunch, I headed back to my place via the little ferry, put on my walking shoes, and went for a long walk. I'm about half way through cooking up a nice BBQ chicken, and then I think I'm going to head to the gym. All in all, it's been a very relaxing day.. I also started thinking about what I want to do this summer for a vacation. I'm pretty sure I'd like to do the Oregon coast again, or possibly even an all inclusive trip to Mexico. I only have 2300 kms on my new car, and I think it would be awesome to take it out for a full week of adventuring. I haven't been to Alaska in a while, so that's always a possibility too On the other hand, I also have a free ticket to use in the US, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do there. Does anyone have any ideas?

Technology

Duane Storey — Thu, 11 May 2006 16:41:46 +0000

So, I've recently had a revelation about technology. Walking around Vancouver, I've been amazed at how much our society depends on technology. Computers, cell phones, MP3 players, iPods, TVs, DVDs.. These things are all great. But as I walked around Vancouver yesterday I realized one thing: we have all this great technology to help us, but none of it %*(&# works. I woke up in the morning and decided to go for a short walk and listen to some music. I left my apartment, and then proceeded to wait 10 minutes to grab one of three elevators (two of which were out of service). I walked down the street, only to have my iPod die out after a few short blocks. So much for my morning walk. Next came the drive to work. Normally I try and walk to work, but today I had planned on replacing the broken windshield in my car (oh, another thanks to that guy who flung a rock at it). I pulled into the parking garage here at work, and stuck my Visa into the ticket machine, only to be greeted with "Card Invalid." Hmm, I just used it last night, so it's not Invalid. Oh well, just a buggy piece of software I guess. Several attempts later, I'm stuck in the same spot, digging through all my pockets to come up with enough cash to pay for a ticket. I manage to just scrape by, so I'm ok. Later that evening I went to the mall. The sole reason I wanted to go to the mall was to replace my cell phone (which has developed the interesting ability to turn itself off at seemingly random times). I finally find the Bell Mobility center, and pick out the phone I want. Unfortunately, the girl tells me, all their computers are down, so despite having spent 30 minutes preparing to buy a phone, I'm unable to actually get it. "Come back tomorrow," the girl says. Thankfully, before I left the mall, the computers at the Bell Mobility center come back up, and I finished my purchase. I went back home, and sat on the couch. I opened up my shining new phone, and got excited when I saw "Message Waiting." I dialed the number for voice mail, and entered the password the Bell Mobility girl gave me. "Password Invalid." Isn't technology great?

New Cell Phone

Duane Storey — Fri, 12 May 2006 18:59:41 +0000

I picked up a new cell phone the other day -- the Samsung a920. This thing is pretty cool because it has a build in mp3 player, and a 1.3 MP digital camera. The best part is that it's possible to post the photos right from the digital camera into my flickr account, so I can take photos on the fly and have them show up on my blog. Pretty cool if you ask me. Here's a sample shot taken of my desk at work (yeah I know I need to clean it). I haven't figured out how to make it send the original image (it seems to scale it down all the time), but it's a neat feature regardless.

The Vancouver Car Show

Duane Storey — Sun, 14 May 2006 02:56:44 +0000

I went to the Compact Sports Car show at BC Place stadium today with Brennen and Dave. I had never been to a car show before, if you can really call it that. The focus seems to be more on the car-models than the cars themselves. It was a pretty good time though, and I got lots of cool shots with Dave and Brennen.

Mother's Day

Duane Storey — Mon, 15 May 2006 03:45:42 +0000

So I woke up this morning, and slowly made my way to Chilliwack so that I could hang out with my mom and grandma on Mother's Day. It was a beautiful day for a drive through the Fraser Valley, hovering between about 20C near Vancouver to about 26C in Chilliwack. After visiting mom and baba, I went with Amanda, Andie and the kids to Cultus Lake to relax near the water for a while. Cultus Lake is easily my favourite campground in North America. I realize that I'm probably biased, since I grew up near Cultus, but having been up and down the East and West coasts of North America, I haven't found an equal to Cultus anywhere. Spending time near the water made me realize that I need to start planning some major camping trips for the summer. I'm also tentatively planning to take the week off before Canada Day and do a major roadtrip. Right now the plan is to hit Lake Louise, head south to the Grand Canyon, west to Las Vegas and California, and then slowly make my way up the Oregon Coast. Everything is still up in the air though. I saw Poiseidon last night with Brennen and Dave. It wasn't very good, so don't waste your money on it. Tonight I'm thinking about cleaning up, and maybe going for a walk near the water. Other than that, nothing else really new. I'm check in tomorrow with the results from week one of the big summer workout program. Here's a shot of me near Cultus.? I'm not sure what the hell I was doing with my face.

Thank you for not drinking

Duane Storey — Tue, 16 May 2006 17:53:11 +0000

Well, the whole no-drinking-for-thirty-days effort came to a crashing halt late last night as Derek, Chris, Alex, Dustin and myself managed to get ourselves pretty wrecked.? It started as a simple "just one drink, it won't kill you," and finished sometime around 4am as I passed out on the couch.? The good news is that I didn't break from low carbing, so I should still be on track. I think the whole no-drinking effort was fundamentally flawed from the start.? That being said, I'm going to try and limit my drinking during week nights I think.

Thinking About Buying A New Lens

Duane Storey — Wed, 17 May 2006 01:45:45 +0000

About 18 months ago, I picked up the Canon EOS 20D to replace my dying Canon Powershot camera. Stepping up from a point and shoot to a digital SLR was a pretty big step for me at the time, since I had never even really used an SLR camera before. I made a rookie mistake when I got it, and instead of buying a nice lens to go onto it, I picked up a cheap Sigma zoom lens. I spent the first few weeks completely disappointed with my camera, thinking that my point and shoot pictures were nearly as good as the ones coming off my SLR. After reading the newsgroups, I basically figured out that I needed to ditch the cheap lens I got, and go with something a little nicer. Thankfully the store took the Sigma back, and I walked away with the Canon EOS 28-135mm IS lens. This is a great all around lens, and it's one that many Rebel/EOS people leave on their camera body most of the time. Since the EOS 20D has a 1.6x crop factor, that lens is actually equivalent to a 44-216mm lens on most cameras. I'm pretty happy with this lens, although sometimes I find it a little soft. The next lens I picked up was the Canon EOS 50mm/f1.4 lens. This is one of Canon's flagship lenses, and it often the lens that's shown on a new camera when it hits the magazine covers. It's probably one of the sharpest lenses around with the ability to resolve around 120 lp/mm I believe (the 28-135 only does around 50-60 lp/mm if I remember). The f/1.4 speed gives you an incredible amount of creative freedom when it comes to depth of field. When the lens is wide open, the focal plane is the size of a thin sheet of paper, so hardly anything will be in focus (which gives some really cool effects). If you bump up the ISO on the Canon 20D body (which can go up to ISO 3200), you can easily shoot with this lens in a dark bar or concert hall without a flash. With the 20D 1.6x crop factor, this lens goes from being a 50 mil prime to a 80mm, which makes it a pretty decent portrait lens. While I'm really happy with these two lenses, I think that I miss having a wideangle enough that I'm ready to drop $1000 on a new lens for this camera. I'm at that point though where I can't make up my mind. I'll post the lenses I'm looking at, and maybe some people can offer some suggestions. The first lens is the EF-S 10-22mm. This is a new lens from Canon that is designed specifically for digital SLR bodies (the -S in EF-S refers to a short back focus). What that means is that this lens, while really cool, cannot be used on normal SLR bodies (it must be used with digital cameras that have a EF-S mount). I've purposely shied away from buying EF-S lenses, simply because I know that in a year or two more and more cameras are going to have large CCDs that will eliminate the need for the EF-S line (and remove the 1.6x crop factor). I'm still a few years away from upgrading my camera body, but I'm not entirely sure I want to get this lens and be locked into EF-S style bodies. On my 20D, this lens gives a 17-40mm converage. Robert has this lens, and he really likes it. So it's definitely high on my list of lenses to test out. Price tag on this one is around $1050 or so I think. The next lens, and my favourite so far, is that Canon 17-40mm/f4.0L. This is a great lens, and it typically gets high reviews. Some people knock it because of the f4.0, which is pretty slow for a lens. However, on the 20D, most people just compensate for this by raising the ISO one stop (on a 20D, ISOs up to around 800 are relatively noise free). I'd really like to have some L glass in my camera bag -- people say once you try out L, you just can't go back. My 50mm prime is so amazingly sharp that it's tough to readjust back to my zoom lens. This lens is around $900 right now. What's interesting is that a characteristic of Canon's L series lenses are that within the lens are usually several aspherical pieces of glass, one of which is usually made out of a low dispersion material. The 10-22mm lens also has this type of setup, but for whatever reason, Canon refuses to designate any EF-S lenses as "L", probably because they don't want to have professional photographers abandoning the expensive professional Canon lines and going with the prosumer 20D style cameras. The final lens I'm looking at is the relatively new EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens. Once again it's a short focus lens, meaning it can only be used on a digital camera body. What's nice is that Canon has included image stabilization in this lens, and also added a constat aperature for the entire range of the zoom. This is another lens that probably should be designated with a "L", but for the reasons mentioned above, Canon hasn't called it that. I think this one runs around $1000 as well. I'm also open to suggestions for non-Canon lenses. I hear Sigma makes a nice EX series lens for digital cameras. I'm heading away this weekend to go camping, so I'd really like to pick up a new lens before then if I can part company with the cash. We'll see.

Catching a quick sunset

Duane Storey — Wed, 17 May 2006 04:28:34 +0000

I went for a quick walk after that 70's show finished. I managed to grab a few shots of the sun going down, and after, walked barefoot in the sand for a while.

My First Canon L-Series Lens

Duane Storey — Thu, 18 May 2006 01:56:22 +0000

I'm now the proud owner of my first L-series lens: the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L. I'm just charging my 20D now, and then I'm heading out for a couple hours of shooting to see what this puppy can do (or can't do maybe). Look for a few pictures later tonight or tomorrow. Update -- I'm back, and I took some photos.. I found out that flickr doesn't support the Adobe colour profile, which is why alot of my photos end up looking washed out on there.. I'm going to have to start shooting in sRGB again I think.

Camping in the United States

Duane Storey — Mon, 22 May 2006 20:33:47 +0000

So, this weekend I decided to leave the city life behind and join my dad and Cathy for a few days in the wilderness down south.? The destination was a little place along the ocean called Fort Casey, near Deception Pass, Washington.? I had a great time, consuming an ample amount of alcoholic beverages, and sitting by the fire. Unfortunately, the one major downside to travelling to the United States is having to go through customs on both sides.? No matter how many times I cross, or how many stamps I have in my passport, I always get grilled pretty hard.? It's gotten worse now that I have a decent car.? ? The way down wasn't that bad, although the border guy asked me "do you have anything in the car?", which I had no idea how to respond to.? "Uhh, yeah, I have stuff in the car."? ? The way back was even worse.? My dad gave me a Calvin Klein duffle bag that he got for free when shopping in the duty free shop.? I figured all I had to do was tell the border guy I got a free bag, and I would be on my way.? Here's how the conversation went:

Border guy: "Can I see your ID"
Me: I hand him my ID.
Border guy: "No, I don't want to hold it.? I just want to see it."
Me: "Uh, ok".? I open my passport and show it to him.
Border guy: "Where you from?"
Me: "Vancouver"
Border guy: "Where were you?"
Me: "Camping near Fort Casey."
Border guy: "Why were you camping alone?"
Me: "I was camping with my parents."
Border guy: "Where are you parents?"
Me: "Not with me."
Border guy: "You bringing anything back?"
Me: "Yeah, my dad gave me this free bag."
Border guy: "What's it worth?"
Me: "It was free."
Border guy: "But what is it worth?"
Me: Obviously confused.? "Zero.? It was a gift when they bought something else."
Border guy: "Nothing is free.? What is it worth?"
Me: Holding the bag up to the window, showing him the big sticker on it that says *Free*.? ? "It says free, I think that means it was free."
Border guy: "Yeah, but what is it worth?"
Me: "Uhh, $10."
Border guy: "It looks like it's worth more than $10."
Me: "How about $20."
Border guy: "Ok.? Anything else you're bringing back?"
Me: "No."
Border guy: "What about alcohol? Any of that?"
Me: "No."
Border guy: "Any tabacco?"
Me: "No."
Border guy: "Any weapons?"
Me: "Still no."
Border guy: "Ok, go ahead then."

Needless to say, I hate crossing the border.? Ironically I always have more problems getting back into Canada than I do leaving it.? Oh well.

Sleepover

Duane Storey — Sun, 28 May 2006 03:56:40 +0000

Well, on Friday night Cole and Lexi came over for a sleep over. We hung out at my place, and then went down to Granville Cinemas to see Over the Hedge. I have to say, that's the one saving grace for movies these days -- that the animated shows still have heart and soul. I couldn't believe what amazing scenes I was seeing, even though it was completely computer generated. It makes a typical Hollywood look so dismal in comparison. Here's a shot of Lexi hanging out at my place.

Here birdie

Duane Storey — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:50:15 +0000

Last week, Tiffany invited me out to join her and Hanh for some karaoke down at the (yeah, that's right) the legion. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought, although the beer line was insanely long. Once we figured out how to 'shorten' the line, it was a far better evening. I didn't get up the guts to go sing anything crazy, but maybe next time. Afterwards, Derek and I went to Tiffany's place for an hour or so. Here's a shot of me, right before I ate her budgie. Actually, I think the budgie was giving me a kiss.

Ultimate

Duane Storey — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 01:20:24 +0000

Some of us met up at Jericho beach this afternoon for a quick game of ultimate, followed by some food on my portable BBQ.? It was a good time, and now I'm looking for somewhere to drink.. I'm sure I'll be out on the town tonight, so drop me a line if you're in the neighbourhood.

Me and Toaster

Duane Storey — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 06:20:52 +0000

I went to Hayz's and Hanh's house-warming party tonight. Their cat "toaster" took a real shine to me (when he wasn't biting me)..? Here's a shot of me and Toaster chilling near the bathroom: ?

Another SLR

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 07:13:36 +0000

I was just reading that Sony has finally come out with a digital SLR of their own. At first I kind of scoffed at it, thinking that nobody really uses Sony these days (seems like everywhere I go someone has a Canon or Nikon SLR). However, reading the specs, it seems pretty impressive. I like the idea of putting the image stabilization in the camera body instead of on the lens. Canon charges quite a bit for the IS versions of several of its lenses, so it's nice to know that Sony is a little smarter in this area. I'm not sure what the price point is for this new SLR, but it might be fun to check one out sometime.

We come to it at last

Duane Storey — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 05:32:20 +0000

I really wish I had some really great things to write about. But the truth is, I didn't really get up to much this weekend. I've been working on a pretty cool project at work, so I spent most of Friday night trying to lay the groundwork for it (yeah I know, real cool way to spend a Friday night, but oh well). Saturday night we went down the Global/Afterglow for Kate's sister's birthday party. That was a pretty fun time, even though the drinks were ridiculously overpriced (Derek's martini was $15). I'm not really sure why, but I've been a bit bummed out lately. I've been trying to get some sunlight and just do more things, but so far no go. Thankfully I have a week off coming up at the end of June to relax and unwind. I debated going to Ottawa for Canada day, but the flights are just too much money right now. I think the current plan is to spend a week camping around Banff/Lake Louise, and maybe visit some friends in Calgary for a day or two. Tomorrow night I'm meeting with my supervisor out at UBC to finalize when my thesis defense will be. It should be sometime late June or early July. I'll be really glad when that's done, since it's been hanging over my head for nearly four years now. I can't even imagine what a load off it's going to be when I finally defend and hand this piece of garbage in. It's been so hard working on my thesis in the evenings since I always have way more interesting stuff going on at work. Oh well. I don't have many plans for this week. I'd like to check out that Al Gore movie, "An Inconvienient Truth." I'll probably catch that Wed or Thurs down at Tinseltown. If anyone wants to tag along, let me know.

How To Make Shitty Coffee 101

Duane Storey — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 06:00:00 +0000

First off, I met with my supervisor tonight to finalize my thesis.. Although I don't have an official answer yet, it's very likely I'll be giving my defense next Thursday.. That's really soon, and I have a lot of work to do before then, but the good news is then I'm completely done before I go on vacation, which would be pretty awesome.. There will definitely be booze 'a flowin 'a plenty Thursday night if I pull it off. On Friday I'm going to Cirque de Soleil, so I hope that my defense is Thursday so I can go out and get sloshed. On another note, I found the best way ever to make shitty coffee, should you ever want to attempt this at home. Here's how:

Put water into a kettle and pretend to turn it on (the coffee is shittier if you actually *meant* to turn it on, but somehow didn't)
Put two tablespoons of coffee grinds into a coffee press
Go work on something else in another room, so you don't notice that the kettle isn't actually whistling
Come back to the kettle, and grab it, being careful not to burn yourself (since it should be hot)
Fill coffee press with water
Let mouth water, imagining the sweet flowing taste of warm coffee
Come back, fill coffee cup with "coffee", add cream and sweetener
Take a big gulp of coffee
The taste of cold coffee that you thought was hot is so amazing that it might cause the muscles in your mouth to tense up simultaneously, ejecting the liquid out all over your sink. Adding cool explosion sound effects at this point makes it more fun.
Repeat as necessary

Here's a photo I took a few years ago from the back seat of Bob's Jetta when we drove from Vancouver to Edmonton for our friends wedding. This is one of my favourite shots for some reason -- a couple coffees, a few friends, the open road, huge mountains, trees and fresh air -- it makes me really happy I live in Canada near some of this amazing scenery. I'll be doing this drive in less than two weeks. I can't wait.

Wow it's early

Duane Storey — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:03:58 +0000

I haven't been sleeping very good lately, and as a result, I tend to be awake at weird hours.. Take this morning for example -- up at 6am, even though I typically don't get into work until 9:30am. So, I've just been killing time on the computer, reading articles, taking a few photos, and working a bit on my thesis defense presentation. It's funny because even though I consider myself a night person, I always like getting up at this hour -- it makes your day seem so much more productive for some reason. Here's a shot off my patio a few minutes ago:

C'est tout

Duane Storey — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:46:52 +0000

I just finished making all the modifications to my thesis. If anyone wants to see what $12,000 and four years of your life gets you, here you go: My Thesis I'm off to Chilliwack now for a BBQ with my sister, and then spending the day with my dad tomorrow. I'm taking the big dog (the 20D) so hopefully I should come back with some great photos of cows or drunk people.

Father's Day

Duane Storey — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 06:25:00 +0000

Well, I got back from Chilliwack a few hours ago, and have just been lounging on the couch since then. I had a great time in the wack -- I spent Saturday night at my sister's house, playing with my neice and nephew, and watching a couple of movies. In the morning, we all headed over to my dad's house to watch him open a few presents. Afterwards, dad, Cathy and I went over to Frank's house for a nice BBQ. I'm pretty happy that I finally got to wash and vacuum my car this weekend.. There's nothing worse than having a new car that's caked in mud and dust. There's not much new going on. I have to be at work tomorrow morning for a 7am conference call, so I'm sure I'll spend most of tomorrow in a sleepy trance. I still have to work on my defense presentation this week, since I'll have to defend in the next 10 days or so. I'll be posting some info about the afterparty when that happens. The photo is of Frank's dog Brandi.? Apparently Brandi thought I was more interesting than the croquet game that was going on.

British Telecom (BT) Launches New VoIP service

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:50:02 +0000

"BT has stepped up the battle in the increasingly competitive broadband market by unveiling its new Total package offering interactive TV, videophoning and other integrated home media services." "The new services are being described as the biggest shake-up in communications since Alexander Graham Bell made the first landline call in 1876. " Yet another major carrier is adopting VoIP as part of their mandatory service offering. Read about it here

Food & Nutrition

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 04:29:52 +0000

For those of you who don't know me that well, I spend a lot of my spare time reading, mostly engineering (audio, speech, DSP type stuff), but also alot of articles/papers on food & nutrition. Unfortunately, my family is sort of plagued with a lot of bad health problems -- most of my mom's side has high blood pressure and heart problems. So, I'm always trying to figure out the best way to maximize my odds of living to a ripe old age. What's funny is that most of the stuff I read, that is most of the stuff that is new research and is generally considering to be "correct", is widely unknown by the mainstream and the media. For example, most people I talk to (including dieticians and nutrionalists) still promote a low-fat diet for weight loss or heart problems. But most researchers would agree that a low-fat diet is not only suboptimal for alot of people, it's actually very dangerous. A few years ago, I was having trouble keeping my weight down. I was going to the gym five days a week, eating about 1400 calories a day, and yet I wasn't losing a pound. This went on for about 4 - 6 months, and finally out of frustration I started doing my own research. Someone told me about Atkins, which at the time went completely against everything I had heard or been raised to believe when it comes to nutrition. A few times during those months I bought all the types of food I would eat on Atkin's, only to throw them away thinking they must be completely bad for me. Finally I caved in, and gave up carbohydrates around Sept 2003. In short, the next few months went by pretty quick, but by January 2004, I had lost around 30 lbs, with what seemed like little or no effort compared to the rest of my life (all without going to the gym). Since heart disease runs in my family, I have blood work done every year or so to understand what's going on under the hood. Surprisingly, the best results I ever had (for both blood pressure and cholesterol) was after that period of time. Dori, Dustin and I have had many conversations about all this stuff over the years, so I thought I would provide some good quotations and links to some cool articles on how things are slowly changing. This will be a long post, but I hope some people will read it and take notice.

A big surprise at the NIH meeting was a collection of of epidemiologic studies contradicting the conventional wisdom that extra fat shortens lives. David F. Williamson, Ph.D., an epidemiologist in the division of nutrition of the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, said that what "made people sit up and take notice" were 15 studies observing trends among several hundreds of thousands of people, all pointing to the possibility that dieting -- not being fat -- may increase a person's relative mortality risk about 1.5 to 2.5 times
The often reported impressive gains in body fat during recovery from malnutrition may result from enhancement in the efficiency of food utilization and a shift in energy partitioning in favor of fat storage. Children recovering from protein- energy malnutrition were fatter than well nourished children of the same age.
studies suggest that it is the nature of the fatty acids rather than the amount of fat in the diet which is important

Some ultra high fat (>>40% fat) diets cause weight gain in research rats. Low fat evangelists fail to note that high carbohydrate diets have proven even more fattening to these research rats

The incidence of obesity does not necessarily follow the amount of dietary fat. The average U.S. daily fat consumption is 2.52 ounces, with 10% of males obese; the average Australian daily fat consumption is much less at , but 14% are obese

A Harvard Health letter compared results of 1982 and 1991 surveys of doctors' lifestyles. Since 1982 the doctors reduced their consumption of red meat, fat, and cholesterol. They increased their dietary fiber and exercised more. Unfortunately, the increased attention to diet and exercise did not produce leaner bodies; the proportion reporting weight problems increased from 29 to 39 per cent

These quotes are from an article called Adiposity 101. It's definitely worth reading. Another great article I read years ago is by Gary Taubes from the New York times. The article is called What if it's all been a big fat lie. Here are some of the highlights:

[the] low-fat weight-loss diets have proved in clinical trials and real life to be dismal failures, and that on top of it all, the percentage of fat in the American diet has been decreasing for two decades. Our cholesterol levels have been declining, and we have been smoking less, and yet the incidence of heart disease has not declined as would be expected. ''That is very disconcerting,'' Willett says. ''It suggests that something else bad is happening.''
In the intervening years, the N.I.H. spent several hundred million dollars trying to demonstrate a connection between eating fat and getting heart disease and, despite what we might think, it failed. Five major studies revealed no such link. A sixth, however, costing well over $100 million alone, concluded that reducing cholesterol by drug therapy could prevent heart disease. The N.I.H. administrators then made a leap of faith.
when the American Medical Association released its scathing critique of Atkins's diet in March 1973, it acknowledged that the diet probably worked, but expressed little interest in why

I should point out I'm not a big Atkin's promoter, although low-carb dieting worked for me years ago. However, I think it's interesting that many big weights are trying to change the whole fat-is-bad mentality, including Harvard (who has their own food pyramid that places refined carbohydrates near the bottom). What's interesting is that the link that ties most of this together is something called hyperinsulinemia. Everyone knows about insulin: it's the hormone that diabetic individuals are forced to inject because their bodies no longer process enough of it. Insulin causes glucose (sugar) to be transported from the blood into cells throughout the body. For people who are hyperinsulinemic, the body is resistant to the effect of insulin. Because of this, the body is forced to create alot more insulin to do the same job (that is, when eating the same food, the pancreas releases a lot more insulin in a hyperinsulinemic person). Therefore hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance go hand in hand. The problem is that insulin promotes fat storage, and makes weight loss difficult. To lose weight, insulin levels in the blood must go down to the point where the body release glucagon (they negate each other). Glucagon promotes the breakdown of fat for energy. In hyperinsulinemic individuals, since the body releases so much insulin, it becomes very difficult to lose weight (since no glucagon is in the blood to assist with the breakdown of fat), but very easy to gain weight (since insulin is promoting fat storage). Eventually the amount of insulin required to remove glucose from the blood goes beyond what the body can create. This results in type II diabetes (which used to be called adult-onset diabetes, but can't be called that anymore since many kids are developing it now). Hyperinsulinemia is part of a deadly cluster of symptoms known universally as "Syndrome X." This cluster includes insulin resistance, high blood pressure, high LDL (bad) cholesterol, low HDL (good) cholesterol, admoninal obesity, and high triglycerides (very bad). I'll write a big blog entry in a few days on Syndrome X, since I find it very interesting. For now I have to get back to working on my thesis slides.

Tripod

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:26:56 +0000

First off -- I hate my tripod.. I'm going to get a new one, just because it's nearly impossible to figure out if mine is level. Anyways, I'm one of those somewhat stubborn people in life. I can be reasoned with, but if I'm in the wrong mood, it's hard to change my mind about some things.. I'd rather do some weird acrobatic maneuver with a pool cue than admit defeat and use the granny. So when it comes to photography, I can probably count the number of times I've used a tripod in my life on one hand. That being said, I read once that the difference between a good photo and a great photo is a tripod. So, I thought it might be fun to go for a quick walk tonight and take some shots around my place. I didn't have that much time, but I managed to snap a few that I liked.

London

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:44:47 +0000

I may have the opportunity to go to London, UK for a week at the beginning of July. Originally I was going to take a week of holidays next week and go camping in the rockies, but in light of this recent opportunity, I've been thinking of postponing my vacation, and using it up in Europe. I have never been to Europe, so I think it would be pretty cool to have a week there.. The question is, what should I do with a week off in Europe, knowing that I'll be starting in London? I'd like to fly to Paris, and then maybe explore a bit by train. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hook VoIP up to your phone

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:33:46 +0000

Cool article, courtesy of digg.com Read it here I think it's cool when people refer to the phone company as "Ma Bell."? This is a very old term that was used by hackers in the old days when they were doing Red Boxes, Blue Boxes and all the other neat things you could do back before everything was digital.

Ok lurkers -- time to step up

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 00:02:42 +0000

I check my weblog periodically to see who actually reads my web page.. I mean, if nobody is coming here, there's not much point in putting tons of effort into it (although it gives me something to do). However, I'm averaging a between 200 - 400 unique visitors a month that aren't web crawlers, but only about 2 or 3 of you are commenting. So my question is, who are the rest of you!? If you stop by here, please sign my guestbook so I can see where you came from and maybe check out your web page too! Thanks! Click Here to Sign My Guest Book Here's a random shot from when I was in Costa Rica.

Cirque du Soleil

Duane Storey — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 23:13:50 +0000

So last night I had a chance to see my first Cirque du Soleil down at Concorde Pacific with a few friends.. It was pretty wild, and I didn't really know what to expect. I have to say that the highlights for the night were the jugglers and the flipping guys.. It was also really cool to hang out with some of the people that I started university with in 1995 (it was our UBC reunion night... ) Today I woke up and headed over to Dustin and Dori's house to hang out for a few hours.. We walked around and enjoyed some of Kits Day, and then came back to Dustin's (where I am now) for some early-afternoon beer consumption (I'm on #3). Dustin is helping me work on my thesis slides (my defense is Tuesday afternoon). I'm pretty upset that I wasn't smart enough to bring my camera here, since there were lots of cool photo-ops walking around Kits. If anyone is around later, give me a shout on my cell, since I have a feeling there is going to be lots of beer flowing later tonight.

Drinks

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 10:28:28 +0000

I went out with Jason, Hesty, Chris and Shiela tonight for a little while.. We bounced between a few bars and checked out some of the Vancouver nightlife.. It was pretty hard to get into most pubs, so we had to settle for a few lesser known places.. We started laying the groundwork for a wicked Canada day pub crawl on Sat. Should be great! Also, Dustin show me this crazy ass video from a Norweigen band that uses kitchen appliances for their instruments.. This stuff is pretty messed: Click here Oh, Hesty turned the big 3-0 the other day. Fucking way she goes buddy.. Happy Birthday!

The Seawall

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:52:06 +0000

I can't believe how nice it's been over the last few days.. I actually have a slight tan going, which is pretty amazing considering how much time I've spent indoors lately. I think I'm going to pull a steak out of the freezer, sit on the patio and relax for a few hours.. This is going to be a pretty awesome week. If all goes well, this Tuesday will be my last day as a student, and I'll be able to put my whole graduate experience behind me. I'll probably go for a few drinks that night, but I'm more excited about the big pub crawl on Saturday. Some friends and I are going to hit the streets of downtown at around noon on Saturday (Canada Day) and see how much beer we can drink. It should be pretty awesome.

Four Years In Review

Duane Storey — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 06:16:14 +0000

Wow.. Four years doing my master's degree.. Where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday the wheels of the 737 came off the ground at the Ottawa airport, and I was heading back home to Vancouver to pick up my old life, and start a master's degree in EE. And here am I, 11pm, only a few hours to go before it's all over. It's weird looking back on things like this.. I remember starting school again, thinking it would be so much different from my undergrad, only to realize that after a few classes, nothing really had changed -- it was the same boring lectures and crap. I remember one class I sat beside this long haired redneck hippie guy.. At first I thought he was the janitor sitting in on a few lectures, but later I realized he was some American guy doing his education up here in Vancouver. And that's how Dustin and I first met, way back when (just jokin buddy). Time flies I guess. Here I am now, practicing my lecture, possibly saying goodbye to my last day ever as a student. I'd like to think that maybe sometime in the future I'll take some more classes, but I'm not so sure..? It's been a good time , but after 9 years of school, $50,000 and somewhere in the neighbourhood of 190 credits at UBC, enough is enough.? I met a lot of great people at UBC over the years -- many of whom whose weddings I've been to in the last few years. Anyways, that's it for now. I don't really have anything great to say, just that I'm glad it's over, and in a few more hours I shouldn't have to worry about doing my thesis ever again. Here's a shot of my watch at 2:30pm today, exactly 24 hours before my presentation.

Finishing My Master's Degree

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:18:58 +0000

Well, it's official -- I passed my master's exam with a whopping mark of 84% (A-) -- good enough for me. So, all that's left to do is get a few pieces of paper signed, print off a nice copy of my thesis, and hand it into the library for processing. And then it's done. The guys from CounterPath took me out for a few free rounds of drinking last night. We started at Nevermind in Kits for a few beers after my defense. Then Des and I went for dinner on Granville Island (Bridges) and met up with everyone at 8pm for some drinks at the Yaletown Brew Pub. Here's a photo of me waiting to catch the ferry to Granville Island (a few hours after defending my thesis).

Happy Canada Day!

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 19:50:23 +0000

My last Canada day in Ottawa, my friends and I woke up around 10am in the morning, and started drinking our first few beers. That day, we ended up sitting in 43C weather on the rooftop of the Hard Rock Cafe in the Byward Market. I remember that I had to drink about two water for every beer, just to keep hydrated in that heat. Now by comparison, Vancouver is pretty tame on Canada day. This one will be even worse, since everyone is preoccupied watching the world cup (which I have to say, looks pretty sweet in high definition at my place). However, a bunch of us are still going to brave today's heat, and crawl amongst a few pubs, seeing how much trouble we can get into. I may post a few photos during the day from my cell phone to my flickr account, so check that out from time to time! Here's a shot from Canada day in Ottawa - this beer garden was fully formed at around noon.

Transformers the movie

Duane Storey — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 23:18:26 +0000

I used to be such a big fan of the Transformers back in the 80s. I religiously watched the cartoon show every afternoon after school, I owned about 50% of all the toys (which I stupidly sold for about $50 one summer to fund my arcade game playing). Now, there's a new movie coming to the big screen about these guys -- I hope it doesn't suck too bad. Here's a little teaser trailer for it: Click here

The Great Mambo Chicken

Duane Storey — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 07:29:40 +0000

While I was reading about the "science" behind Superman tonight, I found this article on chickens. Funny.

There was the hyper-G work done on chickens, for example, by
Arthur Hamilton ("Milt") Smith in the 1970s.  Milt Smith was a gravity
specialist at the University of California at Davis who wanted to find
out what would happen to humans if they lived in greater-than-normal
G-forces.  Naturally, he experimented on animals, and he decided that
the animal that most closely resembled man for this specific purpose
was the chicken.  Chickens, after all, had a posture similar to man's:
they walked upright on two legs, they had two non-load-bearing limbs
(the wings), and so on.  Anyway, Milt Smith and his assistants took a
flock of chickens -- hundreds of them, in fact -- and put them into
the two eighteen-foot-long centrifuges in the university's Chronic
Acceleration Research Laboratory, as the place was called.

They spun those chickens up to two-and-a-half Gs and let them
stay there for a good while.  In fact, they left them spinning like
that day and night, for three to six months or more at a time.  The
hens went around and around, they clucked and they cackled and they
laid their eggs, and as far as those chickens were concerned that was
what ordinary life was like: a steady pull of two-and-a-half Gs.  Some
of those chickens spent the larger portion of their lifetimes in that
goddamn accelerator.

Well, it was easy to predict what would happen.  Their bones
would get stronger and their muscles would get bigger--because they
had all that extra gravity to work against.  A total of twenty-three
generations of hens was spun around like this and the same thing
happened every time.  When the accelerator was turned off, out walked
. . .GREAT MAMBO CHICKEN!

These chronically accelerated fowl were paragons of brute
strength and endurance.  They'd lost excess body fat, their hearts
were pumping out greater-than-normal volumes of blood, and their
extensor muscles were bigger than ever.  In consequence of all this,
the high-G chickens had developed a three-fold increase in their
ability to do work, as measured by wingbeating exercises and
treadmill tests

I'm stuck with this image of a spinning chicken stuck in my head now. On another note, I saw An Inconvenient Truth tonight. That's a scary, shocking movie about global warming. I'm changing all my lightbulbs this weekend, and planting a few trees. I don't want to die.

Sirius Radio

Duane Storey — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:11:35 +0000

So Sat. night, on my way back from the wack, I stopped at Future Shop and somehow got suckered into buying a Sirius Satellite radio system. It's probably a pretty dumb thing to do, since I don't drive very often, especially now that it's warm out. But I was in one of my "hey, I'm a guy and I need to buy a gadget from time to time" moods, so I picked it up. Installing it is actually pretty easy -- I plugged it in, opened the sunroof, stuck the antenna on my roof, and in about 10 minutes, I was listening to music. My first impression is that it's pretty cool, although 95% of the 150 channels don't really interest me. There are a few comedy channels, Howard Stern of course (which most people say is worth the $14/mo by himself), and some various Rock/Electronica stations that I don't mind. The quality isn't exacty CD calibre (although they claim it is), but I've been told it's because of the shitty FM transmitter in these devices, and if I wire it right into my deck it will sound alot better. The one thing I'm still not really sure of is what the term "advertising free" means, because that's really the main selling point for Sirius. In my mind, "Advertising-Free" == "No-Interruptions", but I can tell that they don't share the same mindset as me. Often after a song you'll get a quick pump for the station, or another similar station, or some rock band telling you about a concert. Sure, it's all music related content, but I'm pretty sure they are sneaking in advertisements here and there. Which leads into my other big complaint of the weekend -- why is everyone ok with 25 minutes worth of commercials in front of every movie? I remember when this concept first came out a few years ago.. I think it started with a simple Stella Artois commercial in front of a movie I was watching.. Everyone was booing and laughing. Hollywood keeps saying that movies are meant to be seen in the theatre, but who the hell wants to watch a movie with 10 ads in front of it. Think of all the extra showings they could have if they got rid of the ads and played an extra movie or two each day. And to top it all off, I don't understand advertising in general. Who sees a commercial for something and goes out and buys it? Nowadays, I know about the cool gadgets months before they are ready for selling (thanks to slashdot and digg). I know what beer I like -- I don't need a movie screen to tell me. I know milk is good for me -- seeing a guy drinking it on the big screen doesn't make me want to go to the lobby and buy some. Car commercials -- most people can't afford to go buy the cell phone they really want, so how is having a car commercial for a $50,000 car in a movie targetted at teens and young adults going to sell more cars? I'm not a believer in the whole internet advertising thing either. I'm a firm believer than someday when people realize that advertising generally doesn't work anymore, that companies like Yahoo and Google are going to disappear rather quickly. I don't know a single person that clicks on google adsense ads when they're bored,and hardly any people other than a few of my friends actually buy things online. If Dr. Evil was here, I'm sure he'd be looking at me sadly and going "you just don't get it, do you?"

The New Space

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 05:50:34 +0000

We had a huge tour today of the new space in Bentall One.? ? It's very awesome, and I think it's a great change for the company.? I put a few photos on flickr.

New York Bound

Duane Storey — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 23:34:12 +0000

Well, I finally managed to convince everyone at work that it was time for me to take a vacation and get rested up. It's been a long year, and I'm definitely a bit burnt out and cranky lately. The last vacation I took was last summer, and I wasted all two weeks of it working 12 hour days on my thesis. Come to think of it, the last *real* vacation I had was probably camping down the Oregon coast for a week a few years ago. So, I made a conscious decision this morning to make the most of this vacation. Dustin and I spent some time yesterday walking around and checking out the travel deals. I found a pretty good deal to go to Mexico for a week for around $800. But to be honest, even though I really like hitting the beach and drinking beer, it's not really something I want to do alone. Plus, it's probably insanely hot in Mexico right now. On Friday, Chris and I were talking about how awesome it would be to go see New York ciity sometime. So, this morning, I started checking out all my options on how to get there.. I found a cheap flight on Harmony Airlines leaving Vancouver this Friday at 9am, and booked it a few hours later. So, I'm officially New York bound. To save some cash, I decided to stay in a hostel, which is something I've never done before (however, since I stayed in university dorm rooms for 5 years, I think I'll easily fit in). Total cost for the trip so far including flight and accomodation: $660. I'm going to keep it relatively cheap in New York, but I'm not gonna be afraid to enjoy myself. I also picked up a new tent and coleman stove today. I get back into Vancouver next Tuesday night, and plan to leave for the Rocky Mountains Wednesday morning for a few days of camping near Banff. I think it should be a pretty awesome vacation. The only problem I see right now is deciding which camera to take to New York. Bringing my digital SLR might not be a good idea if I'm staying in a hostel. But I know I'm gonna be pissed off once I'm there if I don't have it. Having that camera is like having some big needy dog: you love the dog, but it gets tiring having to schedule your life differently because of it. *update* - I called my rental-insurance place, and they said my camera is covered for theft (even when not at home) under my current policy.? For $5 a month, I can schedule my camera and lenses so that I don't have the pay the $500 deductible if they get stolen.? Sounds like a good deal to me.

IPTV

Duane Storey — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 18:02:10 +0000

I've been attending an IPTV conference here in Vancouver for the last day or so. Definitely some interesting stuff coming out of here. The main goal of this conference is to make sure everyone can work with each other's equipment, but the devil is in the details. Lots of different approaches to Digital Rights Management (DRM), media transport, and session establishment. I went out for a while with Chris, Derek and Cisco last night, hopping between SoHo (Yaletown), Milestones and the Granville Room. Not a very late night by CounterPath standards, but fun anyways. I'll post some photos later when I'm at home.

Blah

Duane Storey — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 06:47:40 +0000

I had one of those days where I just felt completely blah all day - I was tired, I had a migraine, and I didn't feel like eating anything. By the evening, I could hardly think because of the pounding in my head. I eventually caved in and took a Tylenol-3 after the four of five regular tylenol didn't do fuck all during the day. When I was a kid I used to get really bad headaches every few days.. Nobody really could figure it out, and thankfully they eventually died down. But as a kid, I spent lots of time in bed because of these crazy headaches. I think part of the reason I felt so crappy today is that I just haven't had a good nights sleep in I can't remember how long. Lately I just toss and turn most of the night. I'm really hoping that I can find some peace and quiet in the rockies and actually sleep for 12 hours a night or more to finally catch up on sleep. I figure that still leaves 12 hours of drinking every day, which is probably enough. On another note, I finally found time to go get some new glasses. I haven't worn any in about a year since my current glasses don't do the job any more. My ultimate goal is to get contacts I guess, but at least for work, it'll be nice not to have to squint at my computer screen all day.

D'Oh

Duane Storey — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:58:46 +0000

Well, it's 2am, and I have to be at the airport at 7am, so now is probably a good time to stop drinking.. Hopefully 4 and a bit hours of sleep will be enough to keep me from having a headache :(

The Big Apple

Duane Storey — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 23:05:10 +0000

Well, I made it. I'm sitting in the hostel near central park, trying to upload a few photos to flickr using this crazy setup they have here.. I got a few there, although the quality sucks. Lots of delays yesterday leaving Vancouver. Apparently our plane was busted, so they were frantically trying to replace some parts on it so we could take off - not a very good start to a trip, especially for someone that doesn't like flying. We landed at JFK about 1.5 hours late. Thankfully I met a nice lady on the plane who offered to pay for my cab down to times square (she could expense it she said). So, about 60 minutes after landing, I stepped out of a cab and saw New York in all her glory. It's a really great city, and the people here are very friendly. I spent most of today walking around Lower Manhattan. Visiting ground zero was surreal, and it was actually pretty sad standing there thinking about all those people that died. I also saw the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and Grand Central station. Tomorrow I'll spend my time near midtown.

Some New York Photos are up

Duane Storey — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:06:56 +0000

I just got back an hour ago, and I'm pretty pooped. I quickly uploaded some of the shots I took to my flickr page, so take a look there. I plan to do a detailed write-up at some point.

New York, Day 1

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 01:26:26 +0000

Unfortunately, the night before I left for New York turned out to be a gong show. Mark, Donovan, Chris and myself went out to the bar for a few drinks, but we didn't stop until around 2am. I figured, no problem right -- I still have 4 hours to sleep and pack before leaving for the airport. Needless to say, Friday morning was really rough, and I was completely exhausted and hungover. What made it worse is that our plane was broken. After 30 minutes of waiting past of scheduled boarding time, finally the Harmony Airlines representative comes out and says "due to a minor technical problem, we're going to be a bit late. We're having trouble getting a replacement part down here." I have an active imagination, so at this point I have images of a few hungover forklift drivers laughing their asses off while carting two new engines down to our plane. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of duct tape on the wings when I finally took my seat. We landed at JFK around 6:30pm, which was an hour late (not too bad). I had originally planned to take the subway down to Manhattan, but a nice lady on the plane (also from Vancouver) offered to pay for the cab ride for me, since she was here on business and could write it off. I gladly accepted. 30 minutes later, I got out of the cab on 42nd street, looked up into the dreary thundershowers that had swept New York City that day, and looked up into Times Square. The hostel I was staying at was called the Swiss 1291. It's at 55th st and 8th avenue, which is 13 blocks north of where I was dropped off. So, I tightened the straps on my backpack, slung my camera bag over my shoulder, and started the trek through the heart of Manhattan in the rain. The check in procedure was pretty basic -- they took all my money, and I stood there looking stupid. The guy gave me a tour of the broken bathroom, then showed me the cupboard where I could have "free bread" if I got hungry in New York, and where I could do laundry if I wanted. The actual room scared the shit out of me when I first saw it. It was literally only big enough to hold three bunk beds tightly packed, and I was to stay four nights amongst five other strangers in this room. Oh well, you get what you pay for I guess. At this point, I wasn't really sure what to do with my backpack. I didn't want anything to get stolen, but I also didn't want to be hauling 20 lbs worth of shit around New York all day. I pulled out whatever I thought might be worth stealing and stuck it in my camera bag, and shoved my backpack under the covers. I didn't really feel too adventurous at this point, but I also didn't want to sit in the hostel for my first night in New York. I walked through Times Square for around 20 minutes, had my first slice of New York pizza (it wouldn't be my last), and found a small, trendy bar called Tonic around 47th and Broadway. I spent about 30 minutes just chatting it up with the female bartender, but I could tell she was tiring of my conversation pretty quick for some reason. Thankfully these two Irish guys walked in and saved the day in terms of drinking. I ended up chatting with them in Tonic for about an hour, having a few pints, then finally we decided to hail our first NYC taxi cab, and go check out what a real club was like. Here's a shot of Dave (I thought he looked like Jude Law), me, and Aiden (Hugh Jackman?), shortly after arriving at the new club. The second place we were at (also Tonic) was a wicked time. They had a few TVs playing some cheezy MTV music videos, but everyone was totally into it, singing, drinking and dancing. Dave and Aiden were happy to drink their faces off as well, and the three of us must have done a few hundred dollars of drinks at this place. We ended up staying at Tonic until around 3am, and then found our way into an Irish pub called the Pig 'n Whistle. We shut the place down (bars close at 4am in NYC), but unfortunately I somehow lost my $450 Titanium watch here (all because I wanted to take a stupid photo showing it was 4am and I was still drinking - the stupid picture didn't even turn out). I walked back to the hostel, and stumbled into my bunk bed at around 4:30am, much to the delight of my fellow bunk mates.

New York, Day 2

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 02:01:19 +0000

When the humidity finally woke me up in the hostel, it was around 11am (I had to ask scary hostel-buddy #1, since I didn't have a watch anymore at this point). I felt a little hungover, but nothing compared to the morning before back in YVR. I thought about showering, but my I-need-to-get-the-hell-out-of-the-hostel-as-soon-as-possible thought process eventually won. I strolled down the street, smiling as I walked into Ray's Pizza, knowing full well I was about to destroy his little toilet in the back-room with my post-hangover blues. I read through my Lonely Planet for a few minutes, trying to decide where I was going to spend my first full day in New York, and eventually settled on Lower Manhattan.

I had originally thought I would walk all the way there, but after 20 minutes of walking in the drizzling rain, I realized it would take about 3 hours to get there at the rate I was going. I was scanning the area for a subway station when I looked up and saw the Empire State Building for the first time.

I then managed to find a subway station, and shuttled myself southwards, eventually getting off near City Hall. I wasn't really sure where to go at this point. I knew I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but I wasn't sure how to get there. I walked a few blocks, and saw the intersection of Park Place and Broadway. For some reason, I thought this was cool, maybe because it reminded me of Park Place and Boardwalk in Monopoly.

In Lower Manhattan, the skyscrapers are so larger that it's sometimes hard to tell what time of day it is, or if it's sunny or not. So as I was walking, I was immediately drawn to an area that was full of light. Some part of me actually knew where I was heading, since logically there is only one area in Lower Manhattan that shouldn't have any buildings present. So when I turned the corner and saw the Subway sign read "World Trade Center", I knew I was at Ground Zero.

There aren't really enough words to describe what it's like to actually be at this spot. I remember being at work in building A at JDS Uniphase in Ottawa, and a guy named Jim said "did you hear that a plane just hit the World Trade Center?" I didn't really understand completely the magnitude of what was happening, but when the second plane hit, and I saw the news pouring in on CNN, I left work and went to Boston Pizza across the street where they had a TV. I saw both towers fall in real time. I saw the reports of the Pentagon being hit, and the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. When my family was waking up in Chilliwack, most of September 11th was already over on the east coast, and thousands of people had already lost their lives that day.

So being there brought back how it felt that day in Ottawa, watching people plummet to their deaths, voluntarily jumping out of windows to avoid the flames. If you dig deep on the internet, you can read about the things most people don't want to know, like how the burning jet fuel came down the elevator shafts, igniting all the people in the lobby while they had their coffees or waited for the next lift. I definitely got a bit teary-eyed standing here thinking about that day.
Ground Zero is now a memorial, where many people come to remember that day. There are posters showing the timeline of events, and a plaque with every person's name who died in the attacks. It was a bit sad to see tourists laughing and posing in front of Ground Zero for family photos, but maybe everyone grieves in their own way, or needs to remember a bit differently.

Looking through the Iron gate around Ground Zero shows that hardly anything is left, and that work is slowly starting on the replacement tower.

I headed south to Battery Park, and boarded the boat for the Statue of Liberty. It's a pretty cool one hour ride (complete with about one hour worth of waits) that gives you access to the Statue, Ellis Island (which used to be the immigration hub for NYC), and a great view of Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge from the water. I chose not to get off the ferry at the Statue of Liberty, since it looked like it would add another hour worth of waiting to the day, and I just wasn't in the mood.

Since you're not allowed to get up into the Statue anymore, I didn't really think I was missing out on too much.

On the way back, I took a few shots of Lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, with the rain and fog, none of my really sweeping shots turned out, but I got an up close one when the ferry docked.

I walked back to City Hall along the water, catching a glimpse of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, and passing by Wall Street, the heart of the financial district. At this point, I was hot, hungry, damp and sweaty, so I decided to head back to the hostel for a breather, a shower, and a change of clothes. I grabbed the first subway I could find heading north, and was pleasantly surprised when it took me to Grand Central Station. From here I walked back to the hostel.

After resting at the hostel for thirty minutes or so, I decided to go for a walk and see where it took me. What's funny is that even though Aiden and Dave told me where they were staying, in my drunken stupor I completely forgot, and just assumed I probably wouldn't see them again. So I was completely surprised when I heard an Irish accent beside me "look Aiden, it's Duane!" Which reminds me of another interesting story. When Aiden first heard I was from Vancouver, he asked me, in a thick Irish accent, "so, you must know the Groover then?" I said "no, who's the Groover?" Aiden says "you know, the Groover from Vancouver". I said, "uh no, I have no idea who the Groover from Vancouver is." He was completely surprised, since the Groover from Vancouver, known to me as Bryan Adams, is apparently still rather big in Ireland. I hung out with these guys for a few minutes, and promised to catch up with them a bit later for a beer.

As I walked around, I looked at in the sky and caught my first glimpse of sun breaking through the clouds. Since it was about 6:30pm, I thought it would be really cool to get some shots of the sun setting while watching from the Empire State Building. I did my best, but unfortunately my timing was wrecked by the long lines inside the ESB, and when I finally made it to the top, it was rather dark.

New York, Day 3

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 07:42:19 +0000

So on day 3, I had decided that I just needed to do something fairly relaxing to unwind. What better place for that than Central Park I thought. So, I grabbed a coffee, and made my way North a few blocks to Columbus Circle, which is at the south-east corner of Central Park. I can honestly say that Central Park was the one part of New York I wasn't prepared to see. Here in Vancouver, we talk about Stanley Park like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. And don't get me wrong, it is beautiful. But I think in Vancouver we take a lot of things for granted because they exist in nature. I've often compared Vancouver to other places, and unfortunately, it scores pretty low in my mind in terms of the current state of the city. Now don't get me wrong, I love living here. But I often ask other people, if you were to take the nature away from Vancouver, would you still love the city as much? Other cities like Ottawa don't really have alot of nature, and so there is a lot more to see and do there. I think Vancouver relies too much on it's geographical location to attract people here, instead of also putting effort into adding onto the city and making it better. So why I think Central Park is so amazing is that in New York, in Manhattan, on some of the most valuable real estate in the world, lies one of the prettiest pieces of nature I've seen. It's full of green grass, huge trees, pathways, bikeways, carousels, skating rinks, lakes, running paths, and places to sit and think. I spent hours and hours in here, and I loved every second of the solitude. One of the most popular places to visit in the park is Strawberry Fields, a memorial dedicated to John Lennon. I'm not a huge beatles fan, but I appreciate the influence they had years ago, and the influence they still have today, long after they parted ways with each other. At the western edge of Strawberry Fields is a tiled mosaic that fans cover in rose-petals everyday. On the eastern edge of the park, on 5th avenue, lies a few world renowned museums such as the Met and the Googenheim. I decided to spend a few hours walking around the Met. When I was down in Lower Manhattan on day 1, I was pretty worn out, and so I didn't get a chance to go check out the Brooklyn Bridge. After leaving the Met, I walked around the park a bit more, then grabbed a subway back to Manhattan to walk across the bridge. I ended off the day with a visit up the Rockefeller Center. While not as tall as the ESB, the Rockefeller Center (known as The Rock) offers some great views. In fact, while the ESB is more prestigious, I actually think the views off The Rock are cooler, since you can actually see both the ESB and Central Park from the Rock. Here's a shot of Northern Manhattan from The Rock -- notice how large Central Park is in the middle

New York, Day 4 - Heading home!

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 07:51:13 +0000

Day four was a pretty short day, mainly because I had to head to the airport around 3pm to get ready for my flight. I spent most of the day shopping for souveneirs. While I didn't spend too much money, I really wanted to shop somewhere on 5th avenue, just so I can say that I did. I really wasn't prepared for how much money stuff is in these stores. When I walked into Sak's on 5th Avenue, I figured I might be able to buy something for a hundred bucks or so. The first thing I passed was a table full of purses that had been marked down over 50% off. The cheapest of these was $1000 -- that's right, one thousand dollars. So anyways, I didn't get anything too crazy, but I did pick up something small, and I have the bag to prove it. Once all the shopping was done, I spent one more final hour sitting in Central Park, thinking about my trip, and where I'd be going next. I met some great people in New York, and had a really amazing time with everything I did. It was sad when I walked down the subway steps and the end of the day, casting one last glance up at 5th avenue as I said goodbye to the city that never sleeps. I can't wait to go back.

The Rockies

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:41:50 +0000

Well, I just finished packing, and I'm heading out the door for the rockies. I'll probably stop in Lake Louise tonight, maybe for two nights, and then do the Columbia Icefields highway to Jasper for another night. I should be back Sat night to see the fireworks. Apparently I'm heading to North Carolina next week with work, so my travelling isn't over yet.

I'm Back

Duane Storey — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 03:53:12 +0000

Well, I walked in the door about an hour and a half ago, and man oh man, am I beat. Today was a pretty rough day. I woke up in a hotel in Invermere, BC, at around 9am, seriously hungover and in a hurry to get back to Vancouver. I really wasn't looking forward to the nearly ten hour drive to get back, especially considering that I have to work again in the morning. I had a really cool time in the Rockies. I left Wednesday and made it as far as Golden BC the first night. Camping there wasn't very restful since there was a train track right beside where my tent was pitched. In the morning, I drove to Banff and set my tent up there for the night. Right before I left for the Rockies, and old friend of mine from elementary school dropped me a note and said if I was ever in the area, I should look her up. So Saturday afternoon I met Joyce and one of her friends for a few beers in Calgary. Afterwards, I headed back to Banff and enjoyed a nice rainy night in the rockies. The next day, I originally had planned to drive up to Jasper and camp, but I decided instead to just go up to Lake Louise and enjoy a full day of camping. I met lots of cool people at this camp site, including a group of older Japanese guys that were exploring Canada for 30 days. Turns out they like rum. I spent Saturday in Invermere for a dragonboat festival, and then headed back to Vancouver this morning. I really wish I had a few more days to relax, but duty calls, and I have to head back to work. I just got back from a quick walk near my place since I haven't been here in about a week. All in all, I had a really great vacation, and I'm already starting to think about where I'm going to go next. Hawaii is still pretty high on the list, as is Mexico.

Plasma TVs are a girl's best friend

Duane Storey — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 01:59:41 +0000

As reported on digg: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191601137&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

My iPod

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 05:31:42 +0000

So, a few years ago, Des got me an iPod for my birthday. And while I really love having a MP3 player for when I want to listen to music, the novelty has worn off, and I find myself more frustrated with it with each passing day. The first thing I hate is that the battery is always dead. It doesn't matter how often I charge it, or how much care I take in shutting it off when I'm not using it, it always seems to be almost dead whenever I pick it up to do anything. Part of my morning routine involves me plugging in my iPod before taking a shower so that there's a hope it will make it to work with me before dying. The second thing I hate is how easy I can blow headphones. Maybe this isn't specific to iPods, but I'm on my fourth or fifth pair of headphones with my iPod, and replacing them every few months is getting a bit old. It seems like it's almost a never ending money-pit that you can put into these things. Lastly, I hate how I have to clear the songs whenever I want to get a few songs tied to another computer. In a normal day, I probably touch three computers pretty regularly (my home PC, my laptop, and my desktop PC at work). I have songs on each of them, so if I want to listen to a certain set, I need to wipe my iPod, and add the music from that machine only. Surely Apple is smart enough to figure out a better DRM scheme for this type of use. Oh well. Travel plans with work are starting to emerge. There's definitely a trip to North Carolina in the near future, and a possibility I'll be in Boston for Fall VON. If I do either of those trips, I'd like to bounce back through Chicago and see my old friend Jan Podolej from JDS Uniphase in Ottawa. We've been talking about visiting each other for a few years now, but haven't been able to pull it together. Hopefully we can make it work soon. I've also been messing around with my blog theme. I haven't found anything I am totally in love with, but this one was pretty cool I thought.. Here's a shot of my nephew Derek (who recently graduated pre-school) taken a few weeks ago in Chilliwack.

Chris' Drinking Adventure

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 14:28:08 +0000

There's a little place in New Westminster called The Thirsty Duck (affectionately known to the locals as "The Duck") which has some of the worst tasting beer known to man. Derek and I went there a few years ago, and I distinctly remember putting my second drink down, knowing I wouldn't be able to finish it due to the horrid taste. So yesterday, Chris (aka The Kid) strolls up and starts bragging (a common occurrence in the office) about how he was going to go to the Duck and not leave until he had demolished ten beers. I told him it was a feat comparable to flying faster than a speeding bullet, and that it would ultimately end horribly, but he still wanted to attempt it. I got Chris to text message me his progress during the night (since I chose not to participate in this barf-inducing event), so I decided to plot it here: He did really good for the first two hours, then died at beer seven. Notice Chris entering phase 2 (also known as "oh my god, why in the hell did I drink this motor oil?") at his sixth drink. Also notice that between drinks 5 and 6 Chris accelerated slightly -- this corresponds to him receiving a text message from me saying: "you are slowing down." Based on an online blood alcohol calculator, Chris was at 0.14, which equates to "Obvious Impairment, illegal in ALL states." Good effort buddy. Good effort.

Happy Birthday Amanda

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:36:50 +0000

Today is my sister's birthday!? She's 32 today.? Happy Birthday sis!

HDR Photography

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 19:12:09 +0000

So there's this buzz amongst photographers about this new technique called HDR (high dynamic range). The basic idea is that a camera isn't capable of capturing nearly as much dynamic range as what our eyes can capture.? With HDR, you take multiple shots of the same scene using a digital camera on a tripod, and create a new photograph using the information from all the shots. That new image contains a much larger dynamic range than would be possible using any one shot. Here are some cool examples from flickr. I bought a new tripod and a remote shutter release for my 20D this weekend, so I might try to do a few of these this week.

Alas poor Samsung, I knew thee well

Duane Storey — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 17:54:02 +0000

Well, I don't know how I pulled it off, but somehow my cell phone got away from me the other day and plummetted 15 stories. Surprisingly, I managed to put most of it back together. It can still make calls, but the LCD is hooped, so I can't use the contact list or get text messages or anything. I'm pretty amazed actually that it managed to survive at all. I calculated a few properties of the fall:

height fallen: 40 meters
speed at impact (assuming no air resistance): 28 m/s (101 km/h)
total time taken to fall: 2.8 seconds
g-force sustained during impact: 285 G's

I was thinking about having some fun when I drop it off at the Bell Mobility store to be fixed. Here are some of the lines I'm preparing to say without smiling:

Yeah, it just stopped working
I'm not sure why the left side of the phone is cracked open
Yes, the LCD was always like that
What do you mean dropping the phone out of a 15 story window isn't covered under warranty?

Wish me luck.

Nikon Announces D80

Duane Storey — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:56:46 +0000

Man, I gotta save some money to get a new digital body next year.. These things are getting pretty awesome. Here are some specs:

2700 shots, on a single battery charge!
powers on in 0.18 seconds
3 frames per second for up to 100 consecutive shots
10.2 megapixels

Here's a link to some news on it -news

Congrats Erin!

Duane Storey — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 16:28:24 +0000

My friend Erin got married on the weekend down in Vegas.? A big congrats to Erin & Matt!

Mexico

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 05:24:13 +0000

When I was driving back from the Rocky Mountains, I was thinking about where I would go for my next trip. New York was awesome, and so was Banff and Lake Louise, but I spent so much time travelling that it wasn't really very relaxing (still very rewarding, but they are different things). So, I decided my next vacation should probably involve less travelling, and more relaxing. Thankfully, my roommate and friend from first year university, Robert May, is getting married in November in Mexico. So, tomorrow I'm going to put my deposit down, and commit myself to a week of fun in the sun in late November/early December. Bob and Candice have chosen the Gala Resort in Huatulco, Mexico, right along the southern edge of the country, for the location of their wedding. The resort is a beautiful 4.5 star, all inclusive hotel right on the beach. What's nice about this area is that it hasn't been over developed yet, so it's a popular destination for eco-tourists, or those people hoping to catch some of the natural beauty of Mexico. Unfortunately, it's times like this that being a single guy sucks, since I have to pay more $$$ to get a single occupancy room. So right now I'm looking at around $2000 for a week in the sun. I think it's going to be a great time, and it will be awesome to meet up with some of my best friends from the university days. Sometimes it's weird to think that I don't really talk to these guys much anymore, even though we spent four or five years of seeing each other every day, drinking together, studying together, and just hanging out in front of the TV together back at UBC. Thankfully, we've managed to see each other from time to time over the years (mostly at weddings), and it's nice to pick up where we left off, usually by resuming the drunken debachery of our youth (seeing Ray drunk in Saskatoon a few years ago is a nice vivid memory). I'm actually excited about this, since I've never been to Mexico before, and I haven't seen some of these guys in a few years. It's funny thinking of the first couple days together at UBC, when we were all punks with hardly any money. Most of us hadn't really spent much time away from home, and there we were, all converged in a dorm at UBC, forced to spend a few years together.? And over the years, we'd all grow together, watch each other stumble through a few relationships, fall down the stairs at a few bars, fail a few tests..? And at the end of it all, out of our Motley Crue there are a few lawyers, engineers, doctors, physicists, accountants and project managers.? Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Duane's Ass Kickin

Duane Storey — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 01:28:31 +0000

When I was back in Chilliwack last weekend, I had this strange urge to play tennis. I used to play like ten years ago with Jeff, Landy and Michele, but I had no idea where my old raquet was. So, I went down to Cottonwood Mall and picked up a new raquet and some tennis balls. After hitting the ball against the wall for about 20 minutes, I realized that it wasn't as fun as I had hoped it would be. The funny thing is that right after I got back into Vancouver, I talked to Jason and he was asking me if I played tennis. So, today Jason and I went down to David Lam Park and played some tennis (my first game in about ten years). Even though Jason kicked my ass across the tennis court, I was actually pretty happy with how I played. I just gotta figure out how to serve again, and slowly improve my game. Jason and I had a rule that for every ball we hit over the fence, we'd owe the other guy a beer. Unfortunately, nobody hit the ball over the fence, so we both have to supply our own beer. Final score 6-0. 6-2.

The Aquarium

Duane Storey — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 07:48:57 +0000

Amanda called me last night and asked if I wanted to go to the Vancouver Aquarium with her, Andie and the kids. She had a free ticket, so I thought it would be fun. Traffic was a bitch getting to and from the Aquarium, but we all had fun while we were there. I'm thinking about maybe playing tennis tomorrow, and finally getting around to cleaning up my apartment.

The following takes place between 11am and 12pm on the day of the presidential primary.

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:13:34 +0000

Someone told me last week that 24 was a good TV show. I had heard of it, but never watched any of the TV shows. So that night I went to the Yaletown video place and picked up a few episodes. Let me just say, this show rocks. Right after seeing a few episodes, I went down to Future Shop and bought the entire first season. I'm on episode 10 I think, which means I still have 14 left.? The best part is that every show essentially ends up a cliffhanger, so you're so excited to put the next episode on and keep going.? I really don't know if I could handle a real season of this, where you can only watch one episode a week -- it's just too involving to have to put aside for a week at a time (I need help I know). Since I'm a bit hungover today, I'll probably curl up on the couch later and watch a few more episodes.

24

Duane Storey — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 20:57:14 +0000

Well, I'm sad to say that I finished my last episode of season one today.? ? Lots of plot twists, lots of great action.? If I ever go missing, call Jack Bauer and tell him to come find me.

Boston Bound

Duane Storey — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 03:20:12 +0000

I got my flight confirmation today, so I'm officially heading to Boston in a few weeks for fall VON.? The only crimp in a otherwise fun trip is having to fly on September 11th.? For a guy who hates flying to begin with, it's not really an exciting thought. On Friday night we completed our move into Bentall One.? Adrian was nice enough to blow his whole weekend setting up the network, so today was a fully productive day. ? Other than that, not much else is new -- I hung out with my dad and step-mom on Saturday down in Steveston (mmm fish and chips).? My dad took some good photos, so maybe he'll let me post one here tomorrow.

My Stupid Blog

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:47:38 +0000

So if you hadn't noticed, my blog has been really flaky for the last week or so. For some reason, all the hard drive space on my machine keeps disappearing, and it's causing mysql and apache to occasionally crash. I spent a few hours this morning trying to figure it out, so hopefully it will be a bit more stable soon. As for today, I'll probably hang out by the water for an hour or so, and then maybe do some grocery shopping. I'm going to get a membership tomorrow at the Bentall Fitness Center I think (gotta look good for Mexico right?). Looking forward to the long weekend coming up. I'd really like to get some camping in before summer ends.

Chad Longland: The Hero

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 19:40:59 +0000

Margo sent me this article about her brother Chad.? I guess him and his girlfriend were hanging out by the Vedder river in Chilliwack when Chad spotted a body floating in the river.? Chad pulled him out and performed CPR on him. Here's the article in the Chilliwack Times. Wow to go Chad!

Wake me up when September ends...

Duane Storey — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:07:04 +0000

Man, it's been quite a while since I posted a blog entry.. My apologies to the three people who read this on a regular basis -- I won't let you down again. The truth is, I haven't had much time to do much of anything recently. I spent most of the weekend at work, or at least on my couch with my laptop working -- there's still a lot to do for VON, but it's starting to shape up... It's only the start of September, but I already know it's going to be one of those crazy busy months that I'll be glad is behind me when it's all over.. I've slowly been working myself back into the dating scene.. I started with lavalife a while ago (when I was "shopping" last time, I had about six dates before finding my last gf, of which maybe three of them were pretty cool).. Unfortunately, it seems like all the good ones are gone, because all the ones I've chatted with seem really superficial or overly self-important. Maybe Matt Good was right. Next I tried craigslist a few times, but that hasn't really been much better. I'm at the point where I'm just going to cut out some cardboard, tie it around my neck with the words "educated. have job. available." and head to to granville street with a cup. If that doesn't work, I'll come back once I add the words "free nachos." because let's face it -- who doesn't want free nachos? I really gotta start getting out more and meeting new people.. And the truth is, I really don't know what the answer is anymore. Everyone always says "go hang out at the library," but seriously, I don't want to hang out at the library. Who hangs out at the library anyways? I remember being in Ottawa and doing the Parliament tour.. They show you the big library at the back, and hey, guess what -- nobody is in there -- all the books are on CDROM now, and everyone is looking at the goods in their offices. Not much else new. It's almost time for the pig party. That's right. The pig party. I have this piggy bank that I've been feeding for over a year (I actually had another piggy bank that was full, but some fucker stole him from my elevator when I was moving in), and he's nearly full. I weighed him yesterday on my digital scale, and he has 19.5 lbs of money in him. So anyways, I said when he was full, I was going to have some people over to help drink a piggy bank's worth of booze one night. So stay tuned for something in the next few months. Any body have any idea how much money 19.5 lbs of change is?

Drinking at Jason and Sheila's

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 05:19:25 +0000

So tonight was a pre-party drinking adventure at Jason and Sheila's new apartment near Coal Harbour. They moved from near me down to a new place right on the water. There's a good party coming up here on Friday, so it should be a good time.. It will probably be the last big drinking adventure before we're having a few beers at the Westin Waterfront hotel in Boston. I'm actually getting really exciting about going to Boston.. I hate flying, but realizing I'm in a bar on the atlantic ocean at 2am always brings a smile to my face.. I went out today after work and snapped a few shots around Canada Place.

Know thy enemy

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:26:26 +0000

Lately at work I've been doing some developing on the macintosh platform. At first I was pretty excited about this, because I really don't have much experience developing anything on a mac (and macs seems to be the "cool" thing now). But now that I've done a week of development on the little mac mini beside me, I can honestly say that development on a mac mini is just a bad idea. These things might be able to play music in iTunes, but they really aren't meant to do anything as hardcore as compiling code. Maybe I'm a bit biased since I've used windows all my life, but even navigating the mac is frustrating for me. For example, I installed subversion on the mac mini. As soon as the installer was done, I was left looking at the desktop. "Ok, now what" I thought to myself. I couldn't find the end result of the installation anywhere. In terms of development documentation, apple definitely lags behind Microsoft: compare developer.apple.com with Microsoft's MSDN and you'll see the difference. So while the MacMini is cute, it's really not a work horse. Maybe someday I'll switch to Mac, but right now I just find it too confusing.

September 11th

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:23:28 +0000

Well, in about nine hours I'll be lifting off from Vancouver International Airport, heading for Logan airport via Toronto. I'm actually pretty surprised how normal I feel about flying tomorrow. I thought I would be pretty nervous. Maybe flying with 3 of your close pals makes it a bit easier, or maybe it's the thought of the stewardess and her cartload of beer that makes it worthwhile. Clay and Aaron flew today to set up the booth and get ready. Clay's blog entry is pretty funny. Chris and I made the obvious mistake of sitting on my couch, drinking beer and watching 24 episodes up until a few minutes ago, so I'm sure tomorrow's flight is going to be painful. What's cool about VON, and most of these other VoIP events, is that the same people usually end up going. So no matter where it is, it's always a bit of a reunion so to speak. I was watching Yahoo Messenger all day as each person from the world slowly landed (Jason landed around supper time, Hisham landed from Europe, Cullen from San Fran, four of us are on tomorrow's flight from YVR).. So tomorrow night is going to be one hell of a drinking adventure I'm sure. I'm bringing the DSLR, even though I'm completely loaded with computer shit. I'm actually pretty worried about crossing the border on 9/11 with a bag full of electronics.. I'm so getting the anal probe it's not even funny. It's like "uh, yeah, that's a mac mini, an external usb hard drive, a digital SLR, three lenses, a dual core laptop, a router, and a 10 port switch -- do you just want me to bend over here, or in the back room?" Oh well. Anyways, keep checking my blog out over the next few days.. I'm gonna to see how much of VON I can cover with my camera in three short days. I get back late Thursday night, and if everyone at work agrees, I'll be taking Friday off to rest and recover from working the last 21 days straight. Chris and I have a pretty tight schedule of bars we want to hit, so it should be pretty awesome.

Vancouver's Toast

Duane Storey — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:44:20 +0000

Well, the last 24 hours have been very frustrating. It started at around 3:30pm as we left the Boston Waterfront Hotel and headed to Logan Airport. Our original flight was supposed to leave at 6:30pm, bounce through Toronto, and get us back into Vancouver at around 11pm PST. Once we got to the airport they informed us that our 6:30pm flight would be cancelled, but there was one at 7:30pm we could catch. This also changed our Toronto-Vancouver lag of the journey, getting us at home (in theory) at around midnight. We weren't that concerned about this at first, since it gave us a few hours to drink and hang out in the bar. We got on the plane to Toronto at 8pm, and had a pretty uneventful flight. About 20 minutes after we landed, we're all standing in the lineup at Canadian Customs, and Aaron looks over at me. Aaron: "what time is out flight leaving?" Me: "9:55pm" Aaron: "what time is it now?" Me: "9:51pm" We followed the rest of the cattle through the Canadian custom's line, and got into yet another line, reserved for people who Air Canada has just fucked. The guy comes up to the line and starts asking people "anyone going to Ottawa? go here. Anyone going to Montreal, go there." Chris yells "what about us guys heading to Vancouver." Stupid Air Canada Employee: "Vancouver's Toast." Chris: "What do you mean Vancouver's Toast?" Stupid Air Canada Employee: "Vancouver's Toast." Chris: "Put us on another flight." Stupid Air Canada Employee: "There are no other flights." They filed us up to the counter one by one like a bunch of lemmings, and each of us asked for some kind of love, either in the form of a free hotel room, or some kind of upgrade on the next flight, but we all got nothing. My guy even went so far to agree with everything I said, even though he didn't offer anything in return. So, not only were we stuck in Toronto for the night, we had to pay for it ourselves. We got to the hotel at around midnight, had a bit to eat, and headed to our rooms for the 4am wake up call to head to the Airport. And here we are, stuck in Air Canada hell, waiting to get on a plane back to Vancouver, where I can spend all day in bed recovering from Air Canada's fuck up. I think it's nearly unanimous that none of us are going to fly Air Canada ever again after the terrible customer support we all got. Who the hell says "Vancouver's Toast" to their customers when they're obviously really upset and just want to get home. The guy even had the balls to come up to us later and see if we wanted to pay Air Canada some more money to get a better seat on some flight the next day. We were like "are you *#(% joking?" Air Canada's Toast. ps - check out Clay's post about the event.

Back Home

Duane Storey — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 02:05:32 +0000

Well, I can honestly say that as much as I like travelling, it sure is nice to be back home. Leaving my home city always makes me appreciate it more when I get back home. Von was a great time, but I'm looking forward to relaxing and catching up on sleep for the next few days.. I just got back from the mall where I bought a bunch of new clothes (winter's coming after all). I also picked up the new John Mayer CD (Continuum), and have been listening to it. It's pretty mellow, but it's actually really good. His concert is coming up next week here in Vancouver. Here's a shot from my patio a few minutes ago.

Goodbye summer, hello autumn

Duane Storey — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:07:22 +0000

I spent a bunch of time walking around tonight with my iPod and some new music. You can definitely tell that summer is basically over, and that autumn is slowly putting its claws into Vancouver. To be honest, I'm actually glad. I love that feeling you get in the fall when you walk outside and get the cold, crisp air in your lungs. Or crawling into bed late and night when your sheets are a bit cold. Even sitting in front of the fireplace with a plate of nachos watching a movie. A few years ago, in the fall/winter, there were a few weeks of crazy sunspot activity on the surface of the sun. When this happens, you typically get coronal mass ejections (CME), which are huge streams of electrons that are emitted from the surface of the sun. If the CME is pointed at the earth, they sometimes cause a weakening of the earth's magnetic field. This weakening can cause the auroras to be seen closer to the equator, which on a cold autumn night a few years ago, happened here in Vancouver. Dustin and I had been watching spaceweather.com for a few days, waiting for one night when we might get to see the aurora in Vancouver. After some patience, and a few beers, we managed to see an amazing display on my rooftop kitsilano patio at around 3am one evening. Here's a shot that I took that night (which was latered featured on local news, and the BBC). The original photos I took are on nasa's website at http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/aurora/gallery_01oct03_page3.html. What's interesting is that while surfing the net tonight, I stumbled upon spaceweather.com again, and sure enough, a small CME happened recently that might cause auroras in parts of Alaska and Canada. So, if you're up late at night, be sure to look up in the sky and see if you can see one. You can get a real-time view of the aurora activity (thanks to a polar orbiting satellite that monitors electric fields) at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/ I don't really have any plans for the rest of the weekend, although I think I'll be near my apartment most of the time. Even though I've been in my current apartment for over a year, I just haven't spent much time making it "homey." So my goal this weekend is to go get some new furniture, clean up, and somehow make my apartment habitable for the winter.

Chilling out at home

Duane Storey — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:41:41 +0000

So, I'm all over this "chilling out at home" thing. I've spent the last few nights just pittering around my apartment, drinking coffee, and listening to music. Hell, I even cooked my own dinner tonight (it wasn't very good though). I feel a lot better now that I've had a few good nights of sleep, even though I could still use a bit more. I rediscovered some panorama software on my computer, and decided to try and stich a few together. Here's is a stich of a few shots from my apartment this weekend. Sean asked me to try one at night, so I'll do that soon too. On another note -- does anyone have high definition at home? Is it just me, or does the HD programming royally suck? I'm always excited when I watch something in HD, but I'm so sick of watching the news of some weird animal kingdom program. Why can't I see Lord of the Rings in HD or something arguably cooler?

Weekend

Duane Storey — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:49:50 +0000

Well, it's been a very busy couple of days. I got a call on Thursday at work from my step-mom telling me that my dad was in the hospital because he had a small heart attack during the night. I left work to go to Chilliwack and be with him in the hospital. He's doing really well, and is mostly just bored now. They're going to take him to New Westminster in the next few days to do an Angiogram and see what he looks like inside. Everyone is confident he's going to make a complete recovery, so that's great. I made several trips to Chilliwack over the weekend to visit him, and just got back an hour ago. I think he was really happy for the amount of support he has gotten over the last few days. People that he hadn't heard from in a while were showing up at the hospital to give their best wishes, to drop off a little basket of fruit or a card. There's basically nothing to do in the intensive care unit, so mostly we've just been hanging out with him and keeping his spirits up. I went down to Future Shop yesterday and picked out a portable DVD player so that he could watch a movie or two during the night if he couldn't sleep (thanks to Cathy for paying for it). I don't think he's been sleeping very well since he has a blood pressure cuff on that inflates every hour or so during the night, which usually wakes him up. I'll keep everyone in the loop with how he's doing, but it looks like he's going to be just fine after a few more days. Other than that, not much else is new. I'm going to head out and return some movies in a second, and maybe grab another one to watch tonight.

Photos from my cell

Duane Storey — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:41:44 +0000

I accidentally went through my cell phone pictures tonight, and was really surprised that I had so many. So, I pulled a few off from my adventures this summer and added them to my flickr cell phone set. Here's one from the John Mayer concert. I didn't think I'd go to this concert, but it sort of fell together at the last second.

The Art of Haircuts

Duane Storey — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 04:11:33 +0000

Why is it that hairdressers just can't follow simple instructions? How does "just a little off the top" translate into "shave my head bald?" I just don't get it. I've been trying to grow my hair a bit longer for like six months now, and yet whenever I go in to clean the sides up a bit, they always chop like a full inch off the top, even though they always promise not to. It doesn't start that way either, which is what I don't get. The hairdresser always says "yeah, don't worry, I'll just take a quarter inch off the top to clean up your ends." And then, it all just goes to shit. Do this people just sit in boredom most of the day, waiting for some dumb sap to walk in so that they test out their latent skills on some guys head, or do I just have really crappy taste in hairdressers? Also, why do they hold that stupid mirror up to the back of your head after they are done? It's not like it's a bottle of wine that I can send back if it's tastes bad -- if the back is all messed up, what can I really do about it? It's like "uh yeah, you cut the back way too short, can you put some of the hair back?" I also updated my about page.

.mobi name is available

Duane Storey — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:28:27 +0000

I was reading about this this morning. Apparently landmark registrations for .mobi names begins today.. I thought about getting duanestorey.mobi, but considering not a lot of people look at my website from a normal PC, I don't think many people are going to from a mobile phone.. I tried briefly to get google.mobi, but alas, it's already taken :(

Giving Up Caffeine

Duane Storey — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:09:34 +0000

Well, the time has come for me to give up caffeine once again. Why you might ask? Because I'm way too addicted to it, and I know how completely shitty it is for the body. Here are some reasons why caffeine sucks:

It disrupts REM sleep, making you feel tired in the morning
It increases cortisol, making you feel stressed out
It distrupts the body's glucose system, increasing insulin levels by as much as 50%
It makes weight loss difficult since the body can't burn fat with high levels of insulin in the blood

The problem with working in a high tech industry is that there's free pop. So, instead of just grabbing a cup of water, I usually grab a diet coke. Which is just so wrong. Some time this morning, Clay came up to my desk and noticed the two diet coke cans I had on my desk. He was like "yo man, you should really give that shit up -- it's not good for you." And he's right. I sat there thinking as he left -- thinking about my dad in the hospital, thinking about the brown liquid shit I put into my body everyday and decided he was right - it was time to give it up. So, I had my last can of diet coke around noon today. I gave up caffeine once before, so I know just how hellish the next few days are going to be. Tomorrow should be ok, but sometime on Thursday I can fully expect to be in full withdrawl, complete with a splitting headache and the need to vomit. I really feel like I need to do this though, and start making changes in my life for the better. The unfortunate part to this is that in an effort to stay away from carby/sugary drinks, I usually have a rum and diet coke. But diet coke has caffeine in it, so that drink is toast. Wine might be ok for a while, but it's not really a pub drink. Anyone have any suggestions for other drinks?

Update from The Wack

Duane Storey — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:48:26 +0000

Today is hopefully the day that my dad gets to go home from the ICU in Chilliwack. He went into New West. yesterday for angioplasty, and the initial word is that the surgery was a complete success. He's got another 50 years of camping with the current hardware now. I spoke to him last night in the hospital via phone and he's relieved and obviously happy to be going home.

Clay's Band

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:30:26 +0000

Is playing tonight. You can read about it on his blog. Show starts around 10pm I think.

Clay's Big Night

Duane Storey — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:07:36 +0000

Last night Clay had his big concert down at the Marine Club in Vancouver. A bunch of people from work went to watch, along with Mel and some of her friends. Clay really impressed us all -- we had no idea he could do more than like, well, sell stuff. Good job buddy. I'm going to take it really easy today and stay close to home. I've had a few plants die on me over the last few months, so I think I might walk down and get some new ones.. I also might check out a show or two at the Vancouver Film Festival if this throbbing in my head goes away. I'm pretty much out of groceries, so I might go get some (I'm so exciting, I know), or just cave in and make nachos for dinner.

Sleeping in Vancouver

Duane Storey — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 02:53:05 +0000

Wow, I just woke up. Not a very exciting day, but it's nice to have a good rest. I got up earlier and went for a walk, stopped by the plant shop, and headed home to see what was on TV. I was pleasantly surprised that Garden State was on, so I watched that (I saw it about 6 months ago, and really liked it -- although Natalie Portman was a bit stiff as always). Several things stuck out this time:

Natalie Portman isn't a very good actress (IMO)
Zach Braff directed the movie (I didn't know that the first time around)
He also looks a lot like John Ritter did when he was younger
The soundtrack kicks ass

After the movie, I went online and "bought" the soundtrack, and proceeded to fall asleep on my couch listening to it. And here I am now, awake at song 12. I think I'm going to charge up my iPod, put the soundtrack on it, and head outside to see where I end up.

The Long Walk

Duane Storey — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 00:40:04 +0000

Last night, I decided I was way too lazy to drag my butt from the couch into my bedroom, so I just grabbed a blanket and slept there. And let me tell you -- what a refreshing sleep. I sometimes forget just how comfy my couch really is. I woke up at like noon, with the sounds of birds chirping and the fresh air blowing through my apartment (ok, maybe no birds were chirping, but you get the idea). I decided that it was a really good day to go for a walk, and what better destination than to head to Kits to see Dustin and Dori. I grabbed my iPod and my camera and walked down to the little ferry to Granville Island (hey, I had to walk *onto* the ferry). I learned an interesting little piece of information -- due to weird transportation rules, bikes count as people on boats. So even though the boat I was on could hold 16 people, only 7 could go due to the bikes (since everyone but me had a bike, the rest of the people standing on the shore looking at the half-empty boat weren't too impressed with having to wait yet another ferry). Oh well. At least I got on. Next, I slowly made my way through Granville Island and up 4th ave to Dustin and Dori's place, snapping a few photos on the way. On that part of the walk, I realized how upbeat I've been lately. Maybe it's giving up caffeine, or maybe it's just the new attitude that comes with a new season, but I feel really good lately, almost like I've been sleeping for the last year or so and am just waking up now. I don't know how to explain it. Dustin, Dori and I went down to their local coffee shop and sat around talking for a while. They had a really amazing trip, and are super happy to be back in Vancouver enjoying the sunshine. I went back to their place and went through all their photos from their trip (I'm jealous -- I can't wait to go somewhere new again). Afterwards, I slowly made my way back home, stopping for a sandwich on Cornwall near the water. It was such a great day, and it's sad knowing that the sunshine will soon be replaced with the rain. I'd really like to get in one more camping trip before the sun goes away completely, so maybe in the next week or two I'll be able to pull it off (my car is loaded, so I can literally go camping anywhere in about 10 minutes). If the weather is nice for the long weekend, maybe I'll organize something along the river in Chilliwack (I'll be there anyways for thanksgiving) for a few nights.

Another One Bites the Dust

Duane Storey — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 05:07:24 +0000

For the last few months, I've been telling everyone just how wicked the TV show "24" was. I got hooked a few months ago on the show at Jason's recommendation, and spent about two weeks straight on the couch watching episode after episode until I finished all four seasons. I'm eagerly waiting for season 5 to come out on DVD so I can kiss another full weekend goodbye watching it. When my dad was in the hospital, Cathy rented the first four episodes of season one for him. I tried to talk to him online tonight and he was like "sorry, gotta go, episode 13 just started." That's 13 episodes in about 48 hours, which is nearly as good as my record with that show. Way to go Jack Bauer -- you've destroyed yet another social life.

I think he's dead

Duane Storey — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 06:43:05 +0000

I read this link tonight, and it reminded me of my friend Jeff's cousin who died while running from the police in California (not sure why he ran, but the police didn't really seem to care -- they just shot him a few times and he stopped running). Now the guy in this article I just read *was suspected* of killing a cop, but seriously: did they really need to shoot him 68 times? Here's a great quote: "I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that's all the ammunition they had," Judd said. "We were not going to take any chance of him shooting back." http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/01/deputy.shooting.ap/index.html

Fitness update

Duane Storey — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:05:27 +0000

Here's a brief update on my new fitness regimen:

Times at the gym last week: 4
Weight lost this week: 1.5 lbs
Weight lost total: 1.5 lbs
Days without caffeine: 5
Marital status: still single

I'll try and keep updating every week.

A new guitar?

Duane Storey — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 06:32:42 +0000

After watching Clay kick some ass at the Marine Club the other night, I decided to go home and wipe the dust off of my guitars and play a bit.. It's funny -- I used to play all the time, but for some reason I rarely pick them up anymore.. I think part of the reason is that I just don't like either of my guitars. My acoustic was just a cheap piece of garbage I picked up in Chilliwack when I was about 20 years old (it's not bad to take camping, since you really don't care what happens to it), and my electric needs some TLC in the electronics that I just don't have time for (it has developed a weird hum). Plus, I lent my amp to Robbie about a year ago, so my electric is pretty much useless without that. Lately I've been thinking that maybe I'd like to start practicing again and see just how much better I can get. There's no real point I guess, since I will never be a rock star or anything, but it's fun sitting on the couch playing guitar, and I would really like to play live once or twice in my life. I really wish I could get a nice Takamine acoustic electric or something, but I really do have better things to spend my money on these days. Maybe in a few months I can re-evaluate again and see how much I've been playing. I went to the gym again tonight, and for some reason, it kicked my ass alot harder than most days. I've also decided that the gym I go to is a bit strange. For example, there's a full bar in the gym. Not just a little place to get a beer, but they have like 4 of 5 tables, bar seating, and a bunch of different beers on tap. It's literally like 5 steps away from the last cardio machine. Now, I can turn a blind eye to a pop machine sitting in front of the YMCA, but seriously, do they really need a bar that serves beer and nachos in the middle of a gym? Talk about pushing will-power to the absolute limits. Thankfully I can resist, but I'm amazed how many people do a workout and then head into the bar for a pitcher of beer.

Hamster

Duane Storey — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 16:19:38 +0000

This made me laugh this morning: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=1569125216323959688

The Duck: take two

Duane Storey — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:17:39 +0000

Tonight Chris is heading back to the Duck to regain his honour. In case you weren't around to follow the last time he went to the duck, you can read about it here. Needless to say, the Duck outdid the poor guy last time, but this time Chris swears he's going to demolish ten jars of their sludge. Jeff Giddens will be going along for the ride, so it should be a good time. I'm staying out of this one, because drinking ten+ beers doesn't seem like a good way to drop a few pounds in my opinion, but I'll write about it tomorrow.

Harvest Moon

Duane Storey — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 07:48:33 +0000

An update from spaceweather: HARVEST MOON: Tonight's full moon has a special name--the "Harvest Moon." It is the full moon closest to the northern autumnal equinox. Long ago, before electric lights, farmers relied on the Harvest Moon to light up their fields at night, allowing them to harvest autumn crops even after sunset. The Harvest Moon of 2006 is a big one--almost 12% wider than some full Moons we've seen earlier this year. Why? Because the Moon is near perigee, the side of the Moon's lopsided orbit that comes closest to Earth. When the Harvest Moon rises tonight, go outside and look around. You might see some strange things. --- Sounds like a pretty good night to get loaded, doesn't it?

October

Duane Storey — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:14:27 +0000

I remember I was complaining a while ago that September was going to be a brutal month, and that I'd be glad when it was all over.. I hardly even realized we were into October until today (shows how little attention I pay to dates), but I guess that means I'm in the clear. This is a pretty relaxed month in terms of things going on for me (which is a nice change), but November more than makes up for it (a stag, a wedding reception, and a trip to Mexico are the highlights next month). The climax of this month will undoubtedly be Halloween. There are some bets floating around work, and for sure some group of guys are going to have to wear dresses that day (which group remains to be seen, but rest assured, I'll be taking some photos). In terms of my costume, I still don't really have any good ones. Chris has a few wicked ideas, and I hope he does one of the crazier ones. I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on this weekend and figure something out before it's too late. I'm pretty lame when it comes to costumes. Some of my past costume attempts, for better or worse were (in roughly chronological order):

Sylvester the Cat (this was a wicked full body suit my mom made me. The guys at school thought it would be fun to pull my tail off though)
A Witch (or is it a Warlock?)
A Hippie
Leaf Man (this was really weak -- it involved me strapping leaves to myself)
A Clown ($10 at the dollar store baby)
A Vampire (oh man, the good times just keep on rollin)
A T-Bird (from the movie grease -- we nearly won for best group costume in Ottawa)

I'm hoping to up the ante a bit this year and do something a little more creative. (the pic is my nephew Derek from Halloween in Chilliwack two years ago)

Northern Lights

Duane Storey — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 23:24:04 +0000

This is a cool time lapse taken in BC a few weeks ago during a period of solar activity.

Old Friends

Duane Storey — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:52:24 +0000

Last night, Neil, Ken and I started the evening down at Earl's on Robson street. They had some good martini specials, and even though I don't like martinis, I managed to down one before I was forced to switch to beers. After we were slightly drunk, we made our way up to Doolins for another drink, and then I headed over to the Morrisey with Tiffany and her friend Jenn. I had a really great time hanging out with them, and we finished the night with three jumbo things of poutine down at Fritz on Davie. I woke up rather late in the day, sometime around 1pm or so, had a shower, and then loaded the car to head back to Chilliwack for the semi-annual perogy-fest. My family (my mom's side at least) is Ukranian, so every holiday is a chance for me to come home and have some real Ukranian food, something that I really don't get a chance to have in Vancouver. I'm pretty busy these days, so whenever my family hear's that I'm coming home, they always put in the extra effort to make me happy (I love these guys!). My grandma apparently has been slaving away in front of the stove for days just to make sure that I have perogies tomorrow, and that I can take some home with me when I head back to Vancouver. Dinner tomorrow is around 4pm, and I can already taste the cabbage rolls. When I got into town at around 3pm today, I went straight to my dad's house to hang out with him and Cathy for a few hours. I brought them season's 2 and 3 of 24, so hopefully they'll have lots to do for a few weeks now. When I left their house, I was intending to head into Sardis to see my sister, brother-in-law and my neice and nephew, but as I was driving down the road, I realized I was near my old friend Cory's house, and thought that I might pop by. I almost didn't, since I hadn't seen him in about 1.5 years (since his wedding), and I wasn't really sure if he'd be home or not, or if he was, if his son (6 months old now) would be sleeping or not. Thankfully, I stopped by, and him and his wife were really glad to see me. And this is really the point of this blog entry -- good friends never go away. I had only intended to stay for 30 minutes or so, but after a few minutes we went into our old routine, joked about old fun times at UBC, the crazy stories of our youth, and I got to see his son for the first time. Cory convinced me that a trip to the beer store was in order, so we hopped in my car, put some music on, and before we knew it we were walking out of the beer and wine store with 12 beers, soon to be in front of his Tv reliving the old days all night. I had a great time. Cory is one of those people that I know will always be around for me. Someone once said that you can tell who your real friends are by who shows up when it's time for you to move. Cory is one of those guys who will always be there to pack a few boxes, even if he has to drive a few hours to get there.. I remember a few years ago when I moved away to Ottawa. My mom threw this really big going away party for me and invited all my friends. One of my friends, Rob, drove 9 hours just to attend this party for a few hours, and then headed back that night. Even some of my old elementary and high school teachers came out that night to wish me well. It's times like that that make you really appreciate the things you have in life. I have good friends in Vancouver, but sometimes it's nice to come back to the place I grew up and hang out with some of friends from my youth About 30 minutes ago, I got to my sisters place and hung out on the couch with her and my brother-in-law. I guess my jokes got a little too loud, because after 10 minutes or so, we all heard the little pitter-patter of feet coming down the stairs, and before I knew it, my sleepy-eyed neice was staring at me wide-eyed and running up to me to give me a big hug - "I missed you uncle Duane." It's good to be back. I'll post some photos from the perogy-fest a little later tonight.

Photos from Thanksgiving

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 03:41:21 +0000

I put a few photos online. Just click one of these below to see the rest. My first helping of perogies (I had several, much to my grandma's delight): My neice Jessica being a ham: The whole spread:

Internet Explorer

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:09:03 +0000

Someone pointed out to me that my blog looks a bit stupid in Internet Explorer (IE). So, if you're using IE, and my website sucks more than usual, that's why. I'll attempt to repair the IE CSS at some point, but until then, do yourself a favour and switch to Firefox. Based on my weblog, 56% of the people are using Firefox (yay!) and 32% are using IE (boo!). A few of you wild, crazy people are even using a version of Netscape. From like five years ago. :(

Strongbad

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:18:16 +0000

I stumbled onto Strongbad again today. He's a really funny character someone made out of flash. If you haven't checked him out before, and you have a few hours to kill, definitely take a look. Some of them are pretty hilarious.

Fitness update

Duane Storey — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:00:56 +0000

Here's the latest on my quest for a six pack. Times at the gym last week: 4 Weight lost this week (this was a long week): 2.4 lbs Weight lost total: 3.9 lbs Days without caffeine: 17 I'm moving these updates from Monday to Friday, just because I always end up cheating a bit on the weekend and Monday is usually a depressing scale day :(

Friday

Duane Storey — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 17:04:02 +0000

Ahh, I love Friday. Even though a bunch of people are going into work this weekend (including me), I'm looking forward to a few days of relaxing. I want to check out Departed and Trailer Park Boys the Movie this weekend, so that's definitely on the list of things to do. I was also invited about to my friend Megan's birthday party tonight in Yaletown, along with about 10 single 26 year old girls. Me. Beers. Cute single girls. Does it get any better? As for tomorrow, not sure yet. Tiffany was trying to get a bunch of people together to watch UFC, so I might end up doing that.

Funny Crispin Glover Interview

Duane Storey — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:04:43 +0000

I was killing some time while waiting for Chris to get off work so we could go see a movie. So, I popped in the nearest movie on my rack, which just happened to be Back to the Future. Usually while I watch a movie at home, I'll surf the net and investigate random things that spark my interest while watching the show. So, I was surfing to see what happened with all the people from the movie since 1985. I found a funny youtube video of Marty McFly's dad (Crispin Glover) from an interview on David Letterman. It's almost painful to watch.

Graduation

Duane Storey — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 23:16:29 +0000

Who hoo -- it's official: I'm graduating next month from UBC. Even though I did my thesis defense in the summer, there was still some red tape to jump through with regards to having all the correct paperwork in order. I was working the phones a bit last week trying to get everyone to agree that I was allowed to graduate in the November ceremony. What made it hard for me is that you have to return your keys to the UBC security office before your grades are released to the graduate committee. Unfortunately, I haven't seen my keys in several eons, and the procedure in this event isn't clearly defined. So even though I got everyone to agree that yes, the keys were in fact *lost*, nobody knew what to do after that. So thankfully, someone figured it out, because on my UBC home page, it now says: Congregation November, 2006 Application Status Graduation Approved Ceremony November 22, 2006 at 1:30 PM Procession # 0102 Which means yes, I will be finally getting my degree. My mom and dad are coming out from Chilliwack to see me stumble across the stage once again -- although this time I get to wear the "cool" hat. There's a live webcast of the event, so I'll put the link to that here the night before it happens. **update -- it's actually not a cooler hat, it's a cooler hood I think

New Movie Page

Duane Storey — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 05:24:22 +0000

I added a partial movie list. Check it out.

Microwaved Eggs Do Explode

Duane Storey — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:26:18 +0000

I was in a bit of a hurry this morning, so I thought I would save some time by using my microwave for a change. I cooked a few eggs up last night (hardboiled) so that I'd have a little snack in the fridge when I got hungry. But, unfortunately, cold hard boiled eggs just don't really do it for me. I figured -- why not just warm those puppies back up in the microwave before I eat them? Sounds like a good idea. So, I deshelled them and stuck two eggs in the microwave. They weren't even in there that long really, just like 45 seconds. The first waited until I had opened the door to take him out, and then he exploded in a raining shower of egg pieces. It scared the shit out of me at first, and then I thought it was kind of funny. I was like "oh well, I'll just eat the other one." He was a little trickier that guy. He didn't explode at first - oh no, that would be too simple for his liking - instead, he waited until I picked him up, and then KABOOOM, steamy egg all over my shirt and counter. So, I had a piece of toast for breakfast. Apparently I'm not the only person to do this on the planet.

Fitness update

Duane Storey — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:44:36 +0000

Here's my friday update from the whole fitness thing. Times at the gym last week: 3 Weight lost this week: 0.6 lbs Weight lost total: 4.5 lbs Days without caffeine: 24 I'm shooting for the 10lb mark before I leave for Mexico.

Carson

Duane Storey — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:16:41 +0000

A few weeks ago, when I was back in Chilliwack for thanksgiving, I stopped by Cory's house to hang out and see his new kid. They just sent me a photo of Carson in his costume for Halloween. Speaking of Halloween -- Chris and I are constructing our costumes this weekend. I'm pretty pumped.

The Grouse Grind

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 18:37:12 +0000

So this morning I woke up, hangover free, and decided I should get outside and take advantage of the nice weather we were having. I called Dustin up and said "hey man, let's go do the Grouse Grind," to which he responsed: "are you *(#%#ed in the head?" After a few minutes, I managed to convince him that we should go hiking. I had never done it before, although I used to do a bunch of hiking in the old days (Lake Garibaldi has a similar elevation gain). I wasn't too worried about making it to the top, but I was a bit worried about my knee. A few years ago some friends and I did the West Coast Trail, which is a 7 day, 75km hike along the west coast of Vancouver Island. On day three, which is a 17km segment with almost no water, I came down weird from a big stump and did some damage in my knee. I managed to hobble for a few more kilometers, with every step getting more painful than the last. My friend Michele is a nurse, so she gave me some T3 and wrapped my knee up. I managed to make it to camp that night, and slept with cold packing around my knee, hoping that I would be ok in the morning. Unfortunately, I wasn't, and even though I managed to get about 500 meters down the beach in the morning, I knew I really couldn't keep going at that pace. The problem is that the West Coast Trail is pretty isolated, and there are only a few spots where they can attempt an extraction if you hurt yourself. I was standing right next to the Carmanah lighthouse (which is an extraction point), so I thought I would just call it quits and go back, since I was just holding everyone back. The nice lady who lived at the lighthouse came out with her walkie talkie and called up ahead, letting them know I was injured and that I might need to be pulled off. My friends convinced me that I should keep going, and I decided (thanks to the bag of drugs Michele showed me) that I would. So, each of them took about 10lbs from my 60lb backpack, leaving me with just the bare essentials, and I kept going down the beach with hardly any weight on my knee. Unfortunately, it was very painful, and I was chewing about 2-3 T3's a day, and a mix of other drugs to keep the swelling down. But thanks to my friends who shouldered a lot of the burden for the trip for me, I finished the trail. Unfortunately, once the drugs wore off, my knee was pretty messed, and I spent the next 6 weeks not being able to put much pressure on it at all. So, to this day, hiking is a bit if a challenge for me, and I really have to baby that knee. So, I was a bit worried doing "nature's stairmaster," since I was pretty sure it was going to bother me again. And it did, but thankfully not enough to cause me any big grief. So, I can now say that I did the Grouse Grind. Here are few shots from the day. Here's Dustin and me eating some nachos and drinking beer after getting to the top. And here's a shot I took while waiting for the 2 hour lineup for the Tram. It's a shot of Vancouver from 2800 ft up. Dustin also brought his GPS along, so we could see what the hike looked like from a GPS receiver's point of view. Here's a shot of our elevation vs our distance from Dustin's house. The first bump is most likely the Burrand St bridge, the second the Lion's gate bridge, and the last monster is the actual hike. Oh, and for a trip down memory lane, here are some shots from the West Coast Trail.

Michael J. Fox

Duane Storey — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:12:45 +0000

I've always been a big fan of his. He's grew up in Burnaby, he used to live in Chilliwack, and his uncle lives up at Cultus Lake near where I spent a few years of my life when I was a kid. I was watching a few youtube videos of him tonight. It's pretty sad what Parkinson's does to the body.

Gotham

Duane Storey — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:17:38 +0000

So, yesterday night Cisco and I met up with Cullen at Gotham for dinner. Gotham is arguably Vancouver's finest steakhouse, and despite living here for 10 years or so, I had never been there. Steaks start at around $40, and go up to the $50 Porterhouse that I had. Apparently they cook them in some funky infrared chamber that can cook a steak in around 6 minutes. Anyways, it was fun, but I'm not sure my steak was worth $50. Afterwards, we met up with Jason, Ecker and Derek for a few drinks. It was a fun night, but I wasn't looking forward to the 8am conference call in the morning. Oh, another exciting piece of information -- in exactly one month I'll be sipping tequila and drinking coronas at the Gala Beach Resort in Huatulco, Mexico. So exciting.

Cashing in my aeroplan points

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 16:11:59 +0000

I've been getting a lot of notices from Air Canada's Aeroplan recently. Apparently they have changed their policy so that air miles accumulated on airlines actually expire after a period of time. What that means is my airmiles from a long time ago are going to start disappearing off my statement in the near future. So, I guess the easiest way to get around that is to cash them in sometime in the next 6 months and go somewhere. I don't really have a lot of vacation at work, so I'll probably just have to go somewhere for an extended weekend. I have 40,000 miles right now, which will basically get me anywhere in the US (incl. Hawaii), Mexico, and Canada. Any suggestions for where to go in the next 6 months for a weekend trip?

Ahh Russia

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 10:18:40 +0000

So tonight I had originally planned to come home and work on some costume ideas.. However, while on my way home, Hesty stopped me and thought it would be a good idea to go grab a drink or two at a pub on the way home.. Thinking I wouldn't be out very late, I tagged along.. However, Adrian then invited us down to the Wild Coyote for a cool Russian Party. Since I'm part Ukrainian, and I happen to think Eastern European girls are pretty cute, it didn't take us long before we wer down there having a few drinks. Good news is that cute Ukrainian liked me, so she took my number and wants to go for lunch this week.. Tommorow night is Mel's big Halloween Bash. I hope I can figure out a costume before it starts!

Daylight savings time

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:57:20 +0000

Set your clocks back one hour tonight.

Halloween

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 23:26:10 +0000

So, I have bounced between a couple of ideas for Halloween this year, humming and hawing about what I was going to be. I woke up this morning and realized that I still didn't have a costume. Frantic, I started scanning around my living room for ideas.. And that's when it hit me.. on my floor, in a nice picture frame, was a picture I took in New York back in July. A picture of the Statue of Liberty. So, I spent this afternoon putting together a costume of the Statue of Liberty. I made a funky torch out of my camping flashlight, and the hat thing out of a beer hat I had lying around..I think it's gonna be pretty smoken, although I imagine I'm going to be spearing people in the eyes all night with my hat. Should be a good night. I still have to make the robe (Dori is bringing over some sheets), but it's coming together nicely.

Halloween part II

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 01:38:25 +0000

Last night was Mel's big halloween social down at the Marine Club. It was a great time, and everyone appeared to like the beer. Here's a link the some of Mel's photos from the night here. She also had a scary faces contest during the night. Here's mine (photo by Mel): A funny thing happened on the way home. I realized that being a national icon is hard work, and after a night of dancing, I thought the Statue of Liberty could use some poutine. So, I stopped by Fritz and ordered some food. While standing in line, I look over and Elvis Presley is calling my name. Him and and Marilyn Monroe both seemed to know who I was. Once I figured it out, I realized it was Bob and Candice who apparently also thought eating Poutine at 2:30am was a good idea. I was originally heading home, but before I knew it I was at their place having some wine and looking at old photos from university (Bob was my roommate in first and second year). It was really cool looking at some of these photos that I had never seen before. Bob and Candice are getting married in Huatulco, Mexico in just a few weeks, but I haven't hung out with both of them together for a few years. It was cool seeing them again.

More studies

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 07:30:55 +0000

I spent a half hour tonight getting caught up on medical research. I try to read pubmed from time to time just so I know when my doctor is pitching crap to me or not. This was an interesting recent study comparing diet composition with weight loss. I'm always surprised when I read research, because so much of it is bad, and the author's never want to go out on a limb and say what their research really means. For example, in the study I just linked to, 57 people went on diets, half on one type, half on another. The average weight loss by group one was 5.7kg, while the average for group two was 6.9kg. That is, group two lost 21% more weight. But the researchers say that the weight lost "did not differ significantly" between the two groups? WTF? This one caused me some grief since it's the first study in quite a while that I didn't really understand. I can't tell if it's good or bad. I'm gonna go with bad. On another note, while trying to figure out how to link to a photo on flickr tonight, I started browsing through the HTML source. Some of my favourite tidbits I found in the HTML are:

// create the location search crap!
src="/images/context_crap.gif"
class="crap"

Mexico

Duane Storey — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 05:54:52 +0000

Goodbye Mexico.. It was nice to know you..

Vacation

Duane Storey — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 15:23:14 +0000

My dad sent me this link today: Oaxaca Crisis. That's really near where I'm going in a few weeks. It seems whenever I go somewhere, there's always some big crisis that happens right before. When I went to Cuba a few years ago, our plane was turned back halfway in the air because of Hurricane Michelle. Hopefully things get better for the people down in Oaxaca soon.

Airbus A380 Coming To Vancouver

Duane Storey — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 05:09:05 +0000

It's sort of funny, because Jason and I were talking about this big bitch tonight. Apparently it's going to be making a brief appearance in Vancouver sometime in November. It truly is an engineering marvel, but I really don't want to go on it. Why not? Well, firstly, it's 590 tons of reinforced plastic travelling at mach 0.85. Doesn't scare you? How about the fact that during the initial stress test of the new plane, the wings snapped in half. Maybe it will be safe, but considering that nobody really understands the failure modes of composite materials, and that at least one airplane has broken apart in midair due to composite delamination, I think I'll stay clear of relatively unproven composite planes. Update - for those wondering when

On Nov. 29, during its flight back to Europe, the superjumbo jet will stop at Vancouver, B.C., north of rival Boeing's manufacturing facility.

Oh, unfortunately I have dug a little bit digger, and found this on Vancouver Airport's Website:

Unfortunately, the A380 visit to YVR is not open to the public. The aircraft will not be visible from any pre-security parts of the terminals and due to the parking position of the aircraft and time of day for arrival and departure, there will be no suitable outdoor viewing points. The public is advised that the best view of the A380 will be through local media coverage.

So apparently you won't even be able to see it.

The Evolution of The Hidden Rift

Duane Storey — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 07:42:06 +0000

I was going through some old things tonight, and I came across a few tokens of my past that sort of reminded me how I first got into computers a long time ago. It all started back in Chilliwack, years ago, when my dad got picked up a Commodore 64. That was the first "real" computer that we had access to, and we both got into gaming. Chilliwack was pretty ahead of the curve, and they even opened up their own computer club that my dad and I dropped in on from time to time (oh yeah, we were cool). Not long after, I got my own C64, complete with the "fastload" cartridge, bringing game loading times down from 10 minutes to 8 minutes or something stupid. Some guy in Chilliwack decided that he would use his modem and set up one of the first bulletin board systems (BBS's), and before long, my dad and I had our own online presence. For those of you who don't remember the days of the BBS, they were like really simple, localized versions of the internet. You had email, and sometimes newsgroups, but often they didn't update more than a few times a week. Connection speeds back then were usually via 300 baud modems, so you could literally watch the screen update a line at a time as you "surfed" the BBS. My dad later got a IBM XT, and I managed to waste a few years of my life playing Police Quest, Kings Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and of course Ultima. Shortly after, my mom got me a 386 SX-16, thinking that somehow I showed enough interested in computers (i.e. I was enough of a nerd) that I should have my own. It didn't take me long to figure out how my modem worked, and in just a few weeks, I had my own BBS up and running in Chilliwack. Although I can't remember how the name came to me, but at the time I thought I should call it "The Lost World BBS." The word soon spread in Chilliwack about the 15 yr old kid who was running a BBS, and before long, the local newspaper contacted me and asked if they could do an article: So while the Lost World BBS got people in Chilliwack interested in BBS's, it also unfortunately got me the nickname "Modem Man" for a brief period of time (which also, rather unfortunately, coincided roughly with prom night). Thankfully they got past that name after only 3 or 4 short years. I sort of used the BBS to get more connected with the computing world, setting up Fidonet (which at the time was a prelude to Deja-news), and contributing files and articles into the blue nowhere. I started writing shareware and managed to release a few custom BBS utilities, including a Fidonet news parser, a gaming engine, and a voting booth. One of the highlights of that era was opening the mail one day and finding a cheque in it from a guy in Texas who liked my voting booth enough to send me some money. I sent him the registration key so he could get the spiffy (*) beside the name of the voting booth, showing he was a registered user. Once the internet started to evolve (or maybe it was my social life?), I basically let the BBS die, and took a break for a few years. When I hit university, Harv, Jeff and I had an assignment where we had to create a webpage and put it on the internet. So, at that point, I started keeping track of things I was doing (long before blogs were mainstream). Jeff taught me the hard lesson about unix permissions one day, when after a few beers, he decided to replace my photo with that of a monkey (the caption read, "I'm the monkey who didn't understand what chmod did," or something along those lines). I put my website through a few iterations, and kicked it up a few notches when I moved to Ottawa. At that point in time, I really wanted to keep it going so my friends and family could sort of share in my adventures out east, even though they were 5000 kms away. And I guess that was the first real time The Hidden Rift emerged. I'm also not really sure where that name came from. Just sort of popped in my head. I used to have the website tied to www.duanestorey.org, which seemed more appropriate since I'm not a commercial website.. But, after my first year, some squatter managed to steal it from me (offering to sell it back to me for only $500). So, I told him to get bent, and registered www.duanestorey.com, and here you are. Which brings me to another point -- this was probably the busiest month ever for this website. The final stats show 672 unique visitors which surfed 9855 pages (not including any spiders or crawlers). So, thanks to everyone who keeps reading!

Erin's Wedding

Duane Storey — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 10:17:27 +0000

Ahh, I just got back from a night on the town with my ex-roommate Brigitte.. I had a great time -- it's always fun hanging out with a new crowd. This afternoon, Erin stopped by work and gave me her wedding DVD for tomorrow. You see, Erin is a good friend of mine from Chilliwack.. Her last name is Stringer, and mine is Storey, so in our younger grades, we always got sat next to each other in classes where we got sit alphabetically. So, we sort of got to know each other over the years.. This summer, she met a really great guy, and she eloped to Vegas with him and got married. Tomorrow is a big wedding reception for her and Matt down at the Vancouver Law Courts, and it should be a good time.. She said she was renting a pile of equipment to show the Vegas wedding video to everyone. I told her I could just as easily play it from my laptop for free, so she was pretty excited about it.. So anyways, I just got home from the bar, and started watching her video (which I need to have ready to show to 120 people at around 6pm tomorrow)... And it was so cool.. I love watching people you know, or at least you think you know, but you get to see them from an entirely different perspective.. it's so neat seeing what happens when a person finds their soul mate.. I watched the 8 minute video laughing to myself. Seeing them in Vegas, scared, excited, reciting their vows, getting married.. It's such a cool thing to see.. As soon as I can find out how to post it to youtube, I'll put it up here... I love it. It reminds me of Margo's wedding a few years ago.. Margo is one of my best friends, and I was the MC for their wedding.. And yet, no matter how much I knew Margo and Robbie, I was completely surprised by the video they put up of them, and their life together.. Because I thought I knew both of them completely, but the reality was I hardly knew anything about their relationship at all. It was literally like 15 years of clips from their life together (including little pieces in the sandbox before they even knew each other).. It was cool. So anyways, tomorrow should be a great time.. Also, Jeff and Michele are having a baby girl in just a few months, so I picked up the the big Penguin stuffed animal (which I promised to put in the baby's room before she was born) this week. He's been hanging out at my desk at work all week, and I hope to drop him off soon. I'll try and post some pics on Sunday.

Saturday Night Assault

Duane Storey — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:12:34 +0000

Normally I'd be writing about Erin's wedding, posting some photos and saying what I good time I had. Unfortunately, something happened on the way home that night that sort of changed the focus of this blog entry. After the wedding, a few of us decided to go down to the Railway Club for a few more drinks. After it was over, everyone slowly made their way into cabs and headed back home. I was the last guy to get one, so since it was proving difficult to get a cab, I made my way into the store right beside the Railway Club and got some food. After I came out, I overheard three guys bugging three girls, and they obviously weren't impressed. So I opened by big mouth and made a comment to these guys. I walked away, and started looking for a cab again. Apparently the guys felt like my comment cost them the chance to get together with these three girls, so they came up to me and started harrassing me. Two of the guys seemed reasonable and I thought I could talk my way out of it, but the third guy seemed pretty bent on having a fight. So, while I was basically getting ready for the third guy to hit me, guy number four appeared out of nowhere and cracked me in the head. The rest is sort of a blur to me, but somehow the guy ended up smashing me through a window and I ended up on the ground covered in blood. Just when I thought it was over, one of the four guys (I never saw who) decided head kick me point blank in the face, and put me out of my misery. The next thing I really remember, besides being completely shocked that he kicked me in the head, was a group of people helping me up and walking me over to an ambulance. I was a bit spaced out at this point, having never have been in a fight before (not that this was much of a fight really, since I didn't even see that guy coming). I remember feeling bad that I couldn't take the names and numbers of the people who helped me to thank them later. I spent the night in St. Paul's hospital being looked after by several doctors. The journey into the glass cost me several stitches to my nose and the top of my head. After several x-rays and a CT scan, it was determined that the kick to my face also fractured my orbital bone (under my eye) in three different spots. Once the doctors explained to me that the face fracture would probably require immediate surgery, I called my sister back home and told her to let everyone know what had happened. An hour or so later, Mark showed up and hung out with me in the hospital for a while, and Chris came by a while later and brought me a coffee. At this point, my left eye was completely swollen shut and purple, and the left side of my face had gotten rather puffy. My dad and step-mom arrived an hour or so later. I spent the day in hospital with friends and family by my side. To help with the pain, they hooked up an IV and started giving me morphine, which basically caused me to sleep on and off for most of the day. Around supper time the plastic surgeon finally got to look at the results from the CT scan, and said that it looked a little better than they had originally thought that none of the fractures were complete, so the bone was still intact. Unfortunately, with this type of injury, the bone can sometimes shift, causing the eye to sit a little differently than it's supposed to. I have a meeting with a plastic surgeon on Friday to take a look at me and decide if surgery will be necessary to reset that orbital bone or place a small shint under it to realign it. So, Sunday evening I made my way back to Chilliwack with my dad and step-mom to be looked after for a while. I fell asleep around 8pm and woke up at around midnight in a lot of pain. The doctor prescribed some heavy duty painkillers so I popped one of those and went back to bed. My face and eye are really swollen, and I hardly recognize myself in the mirror right now. The good news is that I can see a bit out of my left eye right now, since the swelling has gone done a bit. The main nerve for the left side of my face goes past that bone, and is probably slightly injured due to the kick, and right now I can't really feel much of that side of my face. Hopefully once the swelling goes down I'll regain some sensation again. I'm going to take things a day at a time and slowly recover from this. It's pretty unfortunate that this happened, but bad luck has to happen to everyone once and a while. If all goes well, the only remnant of this night will be a small scar on my nose. It's weird what an event like this makes you go through in your head. I remember rolling over sometime after the kick in the head, and realizing I was still somewhat conscious. The first thing I did was run my tongue along the inside of my mouth and counted teeth. When I got into the ambulance, I was so thankful for the people who helped me, still hovering outside, watching the door close and me take off. In the hospital, I went through the full gamut of emotions. I was pretty logical and methodical about everything at first. Even when they announced they'd have to open my face and do surgery, I remember just saying a little prayer, hoping that I'd be ok. While getting my CT scan, I realized I was still wearing my shirt and my tie, both soaked in blood. The first thought I had was that if my mom saw me in those, she'd probably break into tears right away, so I took them off and asked Mark to throw them away before she got there. When my dad showed up, that was the first time I wavered, because I could hear the wobble in his voice when he first saw me, came up to me and held my hand. I've had a few periods of ups and downs, knowing that there are still a few hoops to go through before I'm ok again, and also that one of the possibilities with a zygomatic tripod fracture is that in small percentage of the people the loss of sensation on that side of the face can be permanent. But like I said, one day at a time. Thanks to everyone who called me during the day yesterday, or who stopped by the hospital. It really meant a lot to me waking up periodically in the hospital and seeing a group of friends and family around my bed. Moving my eyes is pretty painful right now due to the swelling, so I probably won't be on the computer much for a few days. I took photos while in the hospital using my cell phone (I had nothing better to do for four hours or so), and have been taking them once or twice a day since. So, when this is all over, I'll have a nice collection of injury photos to add to my collection. If anyone is interested, here's a picture of a tripod fracture (which is what I have).. You can see how the cheekbone is broken in three places (although apparently mine hasn't come loose like in this photo).

Day 4

Duane Storey — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 08:02:51 +0000

So, I figured it was about time for an update, since everyone has been asking how I'm doing. I had a bad episode today. I was sitting on the couch watching TV, when suddenly I felt a sneeze coming on. It really freaked me out, because I knew at that moment just how painful a sneeze would be. I couldn't stop it, and before I knew it my teeth were bashing together from the sneeze, and my whole head was in agony. That happened about three more times, and by the end of it I thought I was going to pass out. Luckily it hasn't happened again. The swelling in my eye is down quite a bit, so my eye actually looks like an eye again. It was really freaky the first day, because my eye was basically black and swollen so large the skin was almost inverted. It's still pretty black, but some of the areas on the side have gone drained of blood and they're some sickly yellow now. Moving my eye hurts quite a bit, especially upwards. I'm not really sure why that is.. It could be because part of the muscle is caught in the fracture, or it could just be part of the swelling. I still have no sensation in the lips, gum, and cheek on the left side of my face. On days 1 and 2, the swelling on the left side of my face was really large and gross, but it's starting to come down now. Tomorrow (Friday) I get to finally meet with the plastic surgeon to see what they need to do. My family thinks I'm being paranoid, but I think my left eye is now slightly lower than my right eye, which means they'll have to go in and adjust the bone to make it ok again (think metal plates and screws). Which sucks, but I really want everything done soon so I can get on with my life again. Hopefully the stitches on my face can come out at this point in time too, since they shouldn't be in more than five days. If they do an operation, it should be early next week I hope. Thanks again for everyone who's been calling and sending emails. Hopefully I'll be back on my feet again in no time. I haven't posted any pics because, well, they're kind of gross. If anyone wants to see just send me an email and I'll show you.

So far so good

Duane Storey — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 01:36:56 +0000

So, I had my appointment today with the plastic surgeon. First, the bad news -- it will take between three and six months before I'll be able to feel my face again. Also, the double vision at the extremities needs to clear up on its own. If it doesn't I need to go back in a few months and go see an eye specialist. Now the good news -- although my cheekbone *has moved*, it's only moved about 1mm or so (inwards I believe). So, they gave me the option of having surgery (which amounts to having three incisions -- one in my mouth, and two around my eyes -- and also having titanium plates and screws fastened to my bones), or to leave it thinking that nobody will notice 1mm. Considering that he said even if they go in and try to adjust it, that they might not be able to make it any better, I chose the less painful approach -- that is, I'm not going to have surgery. He also removed the stitches on my face, which is good. I have to keep the ones on my head in another week or so. Also, more good news -- he said there's really no medical reason for me to skip my trip to Mexico. So, assuming the pain and swelling subsides, I should be all set for my vacation in two weeks time. I'm missing out on Bob's stag this weekend, but it's good because I still need a few days of sleep and R & R before I'm ok again. I'm at home in Vancouver again, so I'm just catching up on things around here. My sister and brother and law drove out from Chilliwack on Wednesday to clean my place for me (so I'd have a nice clean place when I got home), which was super nice of them. My mom also did some cleaning this afternoon while I was at the hospital again. Family is great. Thanks to Dad & Cathy for looking after me this week -- Cathy came home every lunch hour to make me some food and to visit, and always made sure I had clean sheets on my bed. My dad was great company, and my biggest supporter. Mom and Marty made me dinner one night, kept checking in on me from time to time, and drove me to the hospital from Chilliwack this afternoon. Jessica and Derek absolutely couldn't believe that there's any person out there that would actually want to kick uncle Duane in the face, which was cute to hear (you could just see the disbelief in their eyes). Baba called me over and made me perogies one day, and let me sleep on her couch for a while. Chris and Andie went around my apartment and hung all the photos I hadn't had time to hang yet, and even fixed an appliance or two. I have lots of food from relatives, cards from high school friends, and a full inbox of email from people that just wanted to show they cared. Thanks again guys -- you're the best! So, I managed to assemble all the photos of my injury together. If you want to check these photos out, be warned -- some are graphic, and some have blood in them. Doesn't look too bad, but the three fractures under my cheek are what caused me most of my grief.

And finally, here are some of the photos I took at Erin and Matt's wedding reception last Saturday night:

Damn you John Mayer, Damn you

Duane Storey — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 07:55:07 +0000

So, about a month ago I decided that I was going to pull my guitar out of retirement and try to get better at it again. I've been playing for about ten years now, but realistically I only spent about a year or two actively playing it, so I really can't play anything tha complicated. But I decided I'm going to try and get better. So, I've pulled out all my recent music and have been trying to play it on my guitar. The only problem is most of the stuff I have been listening to is rather tough to play for me on the guitar. Take John Mayer for example. He's a really good guitarist, inspired by greats like Jimi Hendrix. He's really jazzy and bluesy, and his fingers are all over the fretboard most of the time. I have smallish hands, so it's pretty difficult for me to pull out some of the crazy shit he does. I tried playing this one piece tonight, and my fingers were in some weird twister-like maneuver and I still couldn't get it right. It's a good thing I don't try singing, because that would mess me up even more. I'm determined to play some of his harder stuff though, even if I have to break a few fingers in the process (what's a few more broken bones anyways)?

Funny

Duane Storey — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:50:10 +0000

You know you're a geek when this is funny (or maybe it's my pain killers). From this site: http://xkcd.com/c10.html

Stitch Free

Duane Storey — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:16:35 +0000

I had the ones on my head out today, so I'm officially stitch free. Whoo hoo! Here's a photo of myself I took tonight using my cell phone. Although my eye is still a bit wonky, it's a pretty big improvement over where I was a week ago. Once my eye improves, I think I'll work on figuring out how to put my glasses on straight.

Jeff and Michele

Duane Storey — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:03:34 +0000

So tonight Jeff and Michele invited me over to their place for dinner. It seems that lately everyone is cooking for me, which is really cool, because I just am not in the mood for cooking lately. I've been really tired lately, and I end up sleeping most of my free time. After dinner at Jeff's, I was sitting on their couch admiring their new 40 some inch LCD screen, when I woke up about 30 minutes later while a movie was playing. I guess I had just passed out. What's kind of cool is that I think I'm going to get to be in Jeff's wedding party --- again. You see, they got married in Costa Rica a few years ago, but I guess for some reason the paperwork went missing, or the guy who performed the ceremony took the cash and ran. Nobody is really sure the reason, but I guess after two years of trying to get some indication they were actually married they are just going to go ahead and redo it here. Which is cool, because I had a lot of fun at their wedding the first time, so the second time has got to be even better.

Welcome

Duane Storey — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 04:12:34 +0000

A few days ago, Brennen and Jessica had their first baby. What's sort of interesting is that they had an ultrasound done to find out the baby's sex, and were told it was going to be a boy. So, they got lots of boys clothes, painted the room blue, picked out names, etc. But, at the hospital, they were treated to a baby girl. I popped by for a while today to see their currently unnamed baby girl. What a cutie.

People

Duane Storey — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 04:30:48 +0000

So, for those of you who have been following my blog entries over the last few weeks, you'll know that I got injured outside of a bar on Sat. November 4th, was hospitalized, and have been slowly recovering since. It's pretty sad that there are people out there who would do something like that. It seems there's violence everywhere lately. If you turn on the TV, there's always some news story about gang violence in Surrey, some beating in downtown Vancouver, some shooting at a nightclub. It never used to be this bad. In the old days you could open your mouth without worrying if someone was going to stab you for it. Now, if you say anything, you really could be putting your life at risk. If you're been reading about the PS3 release going on right now in North America, you'll know there have been several incidences of violence as a result of it. People are shooting each other over Playstation 3s, and that's sad. And it's hard when things like that continue to go on to believe that there are really good people out there. Which I guess brings me to something that happened on Friday. I walked into work, just like any other day. I turned my iPod off, threw my jacket onto my filing cabinet, and sat at my desk. It was then that I noticed a simple envelope with my name on it sitting next to my computer. I had no idea what it was, so I opened it, and pulled the contents out. Inside, was a card and a letter. And here's the story behind it. A nice lady on the east coast of the US somehow read my blog a week or so ago, and found out about what happened to me. This is someone I have never met or talked to before. She then went out of her way to send me a get-well-soon card, and also wrote a nice letter saying she was sorry for what happened to me, and thanking me for doing what I did, even though it turned out bad for me. In addition, she also sent me $20 US, with a note that she hoped I'd go spend it on beer and nachos. And it really made my day, knowing that there are people like that in the world who will go to such lengths to make someone feel better. So, thanks Kimberly -- I did hit a bar on Friday night, and I did have both beer and nachos, thanks to you! I'm really glad there are some good people still left in the world.

Friday night

Duane Storey — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 04:46:05 +0000

A bunch of us went out to Smiley O'Neils on Friday night for a few beers. It was pretty much my first beer drinking night in the last few weeks, so it was good to get out and just relax for a while. Afterwards, some of us met down at the Nelson St. Cafe. to see some live music. I originally went to see Melanie Dekker, but unfortunately, she played before we got there. However, the music was still pretty good, and I took some photos. Also, in just a few more days, I'll be boarding a plane and heading south for a week in Mexico. Bob and Candice left last Friday, and are undoubtedly sipping tequila at some pub near the beach right now. I'll be meeting Joe and Ryan at the airport early Friday morning, and will be enjoying my first cerveza on the beach Friday afternoon. I'm gonna be a bit bummed leaving the rain and this stormy weather behind, but I think I can handle the 28C down there right about now. I've never been to Mexico, so I'm really excited to be going. There are about 30 people going from Vancouver and Toronto for the wedding (which is on Tuesday), so I think it's going to be a really fun time. Saturday, Bob and Candice are treating us all to a day-long boat cruise around the 9 bays of Huatulco, which should be a great way to meet the rest of the people I don't know. Tuesday is the actual wedding ceremony, followed by a nice reception. In terms of other excursions, I plan to keep myself pretty busy. I've already committed to doing a deep-sea fishing excursion with Bob and Candice, and there's also a really cool waterfall tour which would present some wicked photo-ops I think. I definitely have a really busy week getting ready for this. I have a pile of stuff to finish at work before I go, and also a ton of shopping and packing to do. Wednesday afternoon I'm getting my master's degree at UBC (there's a live feed on the internet if anyone wants to watch remotely), and my parents are coming out to watch. I dropped my little camera off at VanCam on Friday to get fixed. Apparently I dropped it (so the guy claims) in New York, and somehow broke the shudder mechanism (which causes every photo to be overexposed) -- $140 to fix. It should be ready on Wednesday, so I'll be bringing it to Mexico as well (the 20D just isn't a very good camera to bring to a club). Tomorrow night I'm having dinner with my sister, and then heading to see the Canucks at GM Place.

Vancouver Water

Duane Storey — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 21:56:35 +0000

For those of you who live in Vancouver, by now you've heard that there's currently a water ban in effect for certain regions of the GVRD. You can read about this a bit more on Clay's Blog. The actual reason why the water is "bad" is apparently because of turbidity. What this basically means is that there is a lot of sediment in the water, and for some people, this can cause some problems in the toilet department. What's a bit strange in all this is that there are lots of places in the world where turbid water is pretty common. Even in Saskatchewan, on my relative's farm (where their water supply comes from a well), the water is routinely brown coming out of the tap. They seem to drink it without any problems. I've been to a few countries where turbid water is pretty normal as well. So, I'm not really sure why everyone is making such a big deal out of it. So, I'm not a doctor, and if you're not comfortable drinking brownish water, or are worried about health problems, then that's your choice. However, I've been drinking the water continuously since the GVRD warning, and it hasn't phased me in the least. A couple of quotes from here.

Very high levels of turbidity for a short period of time may not be significant and may even be less of a problem than a lower level that persists longer.

And a bit more...

The major effect turbidity has on humans might be simply aesthetic - people don't like the look of dirty water.

Canucks

Duane Storey — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:23:28 +0000

Andie and I went and saw the Vancouver Canucks play the Chicago Blackhawks last night down at GM Place. It's the first hockey game I've really watched in its entirety this season. The Canucks played pretty good, and eventually won with a final score of 2-1. A couple cool things happened at the game. My old friend Mike from Ottawa was there (I found out on IM earlier in the day), so Mike and I managed to text msg each other on our phones until we finally found ourselves catching up in front of 322 between the first and second periods. I haven't seen Mike in about 3 years I guess. Mike was another product engineer at JDS Uniphase. The other cool thing was that there was an older civil engineer sitting next to me that I was talking to. That's sort of the cool thing about being an engineer -- it's like a pseudo-secret society, and it's easy to pick out engineers thanks to the iron ring on their pinkies. I should really start wearing one again I guess. It's completely a habit in me now -- if it's a girl, I'm at that age where I usually cast a glance at her ring finger when she's not looking to see if she's married, and if it's a guy, I scan the pinky fingers to see if they are an engineer. Not that it really changes much, but I guess it just sort of allows you to immediately put forward geek talk without being worried if you're gonna offend someone.

Fixed

Duane Storey — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:59:46 +0000

I just got back from quickly picking up my fixed Canon SD630 camera. Apparently the warp-core phase-inverter was out of alignment, so I had to get that readjusted to the tune of $160. Seriously, those guys can turn any small problem into a huge one that can cost lots of money. I was originally told the shutter door was broken, which seemed somewhat reasonable (I pictured a really small, weak hinge breaking). However, now it's more along the lines of the "shutter solenoid ring was hosed." How does a shutter solenoid ring break? Better question, what the hell is a shutter solenoid ring anyways? Apparently it broke because I dropped it (which was an amazing leap of faith by the guy when I originally dropped it off, since he made that statement before I even described the problem), but I don't remember dropping it. And even if I did, a solenoid is just a few loops of wire, so it really doesn't seem that breakable. Oh well. I pity the people who don't understand anything about cars or technology -- they must get hosed even more than I do.

Grrr

Duane Storey — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:31:26 +0000

Most of my swelling has finally gone down, which is good. I still have some blood left in my eye, but that's slowly going away too. Unfortunately, I have three problems left that don't seem to be subsiding:

I have a lot of sinus pressure on the left side of my face
I can't look upwards without seeing double vision
My left eye appears slightly sunken compared to my right eye

So, even though my doctor said just to chill out, I decided I'd contact him again today. I had to jump through alot of hoops to get a hold of the same guy who saw me 9 days ago, but I finally got to talk to him. Thankfully, he's concerned enough that he wants to see me again this week. He's also going to go over my CT scan again in detail. The first two symptoms are characteristic of what's called a blowout fracture. Basically, it's when the paper-thin bone at the bottom of your eye breaks. This causes your eye to sit lower in the socket, and also usually involves muscle getting trapped which restricts upward gaze. I haven't been diagnosed with this yet, although, as you'll see in a moment, I bet I do get diagnosed with it soon. Kate's fiance does research on orbital trauma, and he knows a really famous plastic surgeon. Thankfully, he offered to take a look at my results and give a second opinion. The only catch is that I needed to get access to my CT scan and my X-rays. I spent some time on the phone today trying to convince people to give them to me, and after a while I finally succeeded. I went down to St. Paul's hospital today and picked up a CD with all of my imagery on it. I have to say, seeing yourself in such detail is pretty creepy. Here's a shot of my face in one of the X-rays they took: You might not be able to see here, but on the right side of the image, near the top of my eye socket, there's a break of the zygomatic bone (the xray is reversed, so that's actually the left side of my face). What's more interesting is a section from the CT scan: What seems apparent to me is that there's a break in the bone under my eye, which totally sucks because that means I would need surgery pretty soon to fix it (if the muscle stays entrapped for too long, it's really hard to repair it). So, the next few days are going to be interesting. And by interesting, I mean they could really suck.

Graduation

Duane Storey — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:27:00 +0000

I'll be graduating from UBC tomorrow at 1:30pm. If anyone wants to check out a live feed of the ceremony, go to the UBC website and watch the stream. My degree is a Masters of Applied Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (with a Specialization in Multimedia and Video Compression).

When It Rains, It Pours

Duane Storey — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 03:16:24 +0000

A few days ago, I mentioned that Kate's fiance was going to give me a second opinion about my injury. The official word back was that yes, I do have a orbital floor fracture in addition to a tripod fracture. I sent his opinion to my plastic surgeon, and he eventually agreed that I do have one and that it should also be fixed. Which raises sort of an interesting question -- how did the two or three doctors that looked at me initially not see this? I managed to get a hold of the plastic surgeon I was dealing with at the hospital, and talked it over with him. He's sending me to an eye specialist tomorrow (Wed) to see if there's actually anything wrong with my eye that could be causing me problems. This is sort of a formality, and everyone is expecting that to come back ok. Depending on the results of that test, I'm tentatively going in for reconstructive surgery on Thursday to repair the damage to the orbital floor under my eye and the breaks in my cheekbone. So, while I'm glad things are moving in the right direction, and in another week or so this should all be behind me, it's not without its costs. First, I have to miss my trip to Mexico, since I'll be in no condition to travel for a while. I was really looking forward to going and seeing my friend Bob get married, spending some time on the beach, and just relaxing from a hard year of work, so I'm obviously a bit bummed about that. Second, the tickets to Mexico are non-refundable and non-transferable, so I'm out $2100. I guess it's the one time I could have used cancellation insurance, but I always think "geez, I travel all the time, what could possibly happen that would make me cancel my trip?" And third, the specialist appointment tomorrow is the only time slot available for quite a while, so basically I have to go. The only problem is it's immediately before my graduation ceremony at UBC, so there's a chance I may not make it to my ceremony on time. And after four years of hard work getting my masters degree, it would really disappoint me if I miss the ceremony. So what can I say. When it rains, it really does pour sometimes. update - it's official, I'm going for surgery Thursday at 9am. Wish me luck.

Today in History

Duane Storey — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 08:33:30 +0000

For those of you who are history buffs, John F. Kennedy was shot at 12:30 CST on November 22nd, 1963. I once spent a lot of time reading about JFK, years ago. Also in the news lately is allegedly new evidence into the assassination of RFK at the Ambassador Hotel right after the California Primary in 1968. Some info about that assassination is here. In 1976, the House Select Committee on Assassinations undertook an investigation into the deaths of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. to help put the rest the publics' belief that these assassinations took place as a result of a conspiracy.

The Final Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations presents the HSCA's findings in the murders of both President John F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. The HSCA found a "probable conspiracy" in the JFK assassination, but was unable to determine its nature or participants (other than that Oswald was still deemed to have fired all the successful shots). In the King case, the HSCA similarly found that James Earl Ray assassinated Reverend King, but that there might have been a small-scale conspiracy involved.

Both JFK and RFK oppossed violence in Vietnam, while Lyndon Johnson (who succeeded Kennedy) dramatically increased the US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Popular Cameras

Duane Storey — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:14:46 +0000

Flickr just started publishing stats on the types of cameras everyone is using to post photos to flickr. Check it out here.

Four Years In The Making

Duane Storey — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 01:13:39 +0000

Photo of me about to walk on stage (shot by my dad) The ceremony went well, and I officially have my degree now. Gonna go hang it up in my room in a few minutes. I'll post some more photos that other people took as soon as they send them to me. My Degree (shot by my dad) -- click here to see all his photos My original goal was to do it in 18 months. I did it in 48. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Surgery

Duane Storey — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 15:40:35 +0000

Well, yesterday was an interesting day. I guess I should really start with that night, since I did whatever I could to keep myself busy, knowing that I was going in for surgery early in the morning. Obviously, I didn't really have that good a sleep, since I had a lot on my mind. 7am came pretty quicky, and I made my way down to the hospital for my 8am time. Despite them sending me multiple emails and leaving a few voice messages that I should be there at 8am, apparently at 7:45am, I was "late", and people seemed to be in a huff about that.. Not sure what that was about. So, first thing they get me to do is change into those funky gowns. Some girl took me into the changing room and told me I had to strip naked and put them on, so I did. But I guess I was a little anxious, because she apparently meant for me to strip *after* she had left, but I was nearly buck naked when she left me. Oh well, what can I say -- I'm not used to this stuff. Next thing they do is lead you into the pre-op waiting area. What's weird is that one by one, I'd see all the people show up who were in the outside waiting room earlier, now wearing the same great clothing I had on. They put you in these big reclining chairs, cover you with a blanket, give you a magazine if you want it, and leave you basically on your own until you get called for surgery. Now, this may seem like a good experience, but for me it was like being put in a sensory deprivation chamber. You can't really talk to anyone, and I didn't feel like reading, so I just sat looking at the clock most of the time. My original surgery time was at 9am, but I didn't get "the call" until around 1pm, so I had four hours to think about the surgery on my own. Not very fun. However, I realized going to the bathroom in those gowns was pretty fun. Almost empowering. You just walk into the bathroom, do your job, and walk away. No unzipping. No pulling something down. Not a bad system really. I was really greatful the nurses and doctors I met actually cared about their jobs. I've met a few in my time (even some of the ones that were helping my dad out in Chilliwack) who really take their job as a 9-5 type experience, not really caring about the people they're helping. The first really nice guy I met was the anesthesiologist. He was an older guy (which I liked, because I thought, hey this guy must know what he's doing). He went over my whole history with me, talked me through a few things, gave me a big smile, patted my leg, and said not to worry. It was really great how much stress he took out of me just by his confidence. That reminds me of airline travel actually. I really don't like to fly. I avoid it when I can, and would rather drive to Seattle than fly there. However, I recognize to get anywhere remote I have to step on a plane and just get myself through it. And whenever I start to get a bit anxious on the plane or worried, I usually look to the pilots or the stewardesses and take some comfort in how calm they are -- these are people that fly multiple times per day usually, and they seem ok. So, the anesthesiologist was effectively my pilot on that flight, and from that point on I felt really calm when he was around. Shortly after that I met the surgeon for the first time, Dr. Cam Bowman. Originally I was a bit worried about having surgery with a guy I had never met. I googled him a day or two ago, and this is what UBC wrote about him 8 years ago:

When Cam Bowman steps onstage at the Chan Centre to receive his medical degree, he'll be on familiar territory. Before entering UBC's Faculty of Medicine, Bowman spent 10 years as a keyboard player with the Juno-award winning band, Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts. A member of the medical students' choir, Bowman was also artistic director of the Spring Gala, an annual musical event performed by medical students. Bowman continues his creative ventures in his next gig -- a five-year residency in plastic surgery.

But besides for that I couldn't figure out too much about him. However, when I met him, I felt alot better. He had sort of a presence to him that most doctors don't have. I just felt like he knew what he was talking about. He explored my eye socket with his hands, asking me where it hurt, looking for step-deformities. We walked me through the procedure, and told me what to expect post-operatively (which he said would be a lot of bruising, some blood in my eye, and of course some discomfort around the incision site). They then said goodbye, and that they'd see me in a few minutes. Finally a nursed wheeled me into operating room (OR) #10, sometime around 1:05pm. OR 10 was a big scary room with these huge alien looking lights covering the operating table. It was pretty freaky looking, and I don't remember seeing anything on TV like it. Suddenly I was in a big bright room with about 5 people, each doing their own task. There was a male nurse getting all the operating tools together (you could hear the clinking of stainless steel tools one by one). A female nurse was moving me onto the operating table and getting me hooked up to the monitors. The two plastic surgeons were over in the corner talking about hockey in front of my CT scans. And the anesthesiologist was right above me making sure I was ok. Next thing I knew I had an IV in my arm, and the anesthesiologist was going over my vitals and talking me through everything. Finally he said "Note the time, 1:12pm. Ok Duane. I'm going to put you to sleep now. See you in recovery." I took one deep breath of oxygen from my mask, looked around and saw the OR, took another deep breath, looked around saw the OR. On the next deep breath, I looked around and realized I was actually in the recovery room. So, I guess that stuff works pretty good. Thankfully I don't remember anything from the surgery (which is a bit weird, because I went under general anesthetic for my wisdom teeth years ago, and I actually thought I could recall pieces of the surgery - minus the pain - when I woke up). Not this time. Waking up after something like that is a bit weird. Once I got my bearings, I glanced up at the clock above my bed, and it was a little after 2:30pm, so the surgery wasn't actually that long. At that point I went through a little checklist in my head.

Cover left eye. Can I see? Right eye still there. Go to step 2.
Cover right eye. Can I see? Left eye still there. Go to next step 3.
Lightly explore face with finger. Seem ok? Go to step 4.
Try to sleep

And that's what I did. I woke up about 30 minutes later, in quite a bit of pain, but not enough to really make me super uncomfortable. The nurse finally asked me how the pain was, and I said it hurt more than I'm usually comforable with, so she gave me an injection into my IV of something that helped. Another 20 minutes later she asked how it was, and gave me one more shot. At that point, I felt pretty comfortable. I was really hungry at this point, having not had food or drink in about 24 hours. It didn't help that every once and a while someone walked down the hall with a full plate of cafeteria food. They kept me for three hours after the surgery in a post-operative area. Some of my friends from the morning were there already when I got there, having gone through surgery themselves. I watched a few of them stroll in after I got there, everyone in their own little world of discomfort. I tried to sleep at this point, but I couldn't pull it off. My dad strolled up to me at around 4:30pm, and he looked relieved at how I looked, which obviously made me feel better (since I couldn't see myself). He snapped a photo on his cell phone so I could see, and admittedly, I looked a lot better than I thought I would based on their description of what I would be like post-operatively. At around 5pm, they let me get up and walk with my IV thing down to the bathroom. Once they were comfortable that I wasn't feeling sick, they gave me my clothes, and let me go home. My dad took me back to my place, where my friend Jeff (who was nice enough to take a good part of the day off from work to be with me when I was done) was waiting to keep me company for a while. The first few hours I was a bit dizzy, but my dad went and got my some gravol to help. We ordered some chinese food and I finally got to eat again. As I sat on the couch last night with my dad, I couldn't help but feel how far medicine has come in the last ten or twenty years. On the couch was a guy who recently had a heart attack, and another guy who had reconstructive surgery on his orbital cavity just hours before, both feeling pretty good, having a good time. We watched a movie, listened to a little music, and then I called it a night. In terms of pain, I'm pretty good, having an ample supply of schedule II and schedule III narcotics at my side. I have to go back to St. Paul's this afternoon for a follow up visit with my Dr. If he likes the look of me I can start what I hope is my last recovery cycle here.

Here's a shot of me a few hours after getting home. Thankfully my eye now appears to be in its regularly scheduled position. Those white things on my face are sterile strips meant to keep the stitches from getting infected. As for the incision, it's placed along a natural groove in my face, so in theory, it shouldn't be that noticable once the stitches come out and it fades a bit. Plastic surgeons are really good at keeping stitches hardly noticable. This whole incision is actually just one long stitch (you can see the two ends being held in place by the sterile strip tape). When they come out, they will just pull one end and it will all unravel, leaving hardly anything behind.

At home, post-operative If anyone wants to compare that shot with how my left eye looked on Wednesday (at my graduation ceremony about 24 hours prior), click here. So for those people out there debating whether or not to try getting kicked in the face sometime, I would have to recommend against it. But thankfully, this whole episode is nearly behind me. I was a bit bummed about missing Mexico originally, but I guess you can't really put a price on your health. Maybe I'll go with my original plan and see Hawaii when I'm better again, or maybe I can round up a few people in the new year and hit Mexico anyways. We'll see. Thanks again to all the people who have helped me get through this.

Snow!!!

Duane Storey — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 03:34:51 +0000

I just woke up from a little nap, and went downstairs to grab a drink from the little store.. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was snowing lightly. I love snow. I hope it stays for a while. A shot off my patio this morning And one from the valley: A shot off my dad's patio this morning in Chilliwack

The Hidden Rift has a new home

Duane Storey — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 21:38:28 +0000

I finally got tired of leaving my computer on 24-7 for this web site, so I set up a hosting account through godaddy. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard to transfer everything over from my machine. The funny thing is that I probably am going to save more money on power by having it off than it costs me to host it. I'm sure there will be a few things here and there that don't work, but I'll fix them as I hit them. So, as of now, the computer in my room is completely off, and hopefully I can finally have a good night's sleep.

Snow, Sand, and Sky

Duane Storey — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:00:20 +0000

Clay posted an article today talking about the snow, and how his camera tended to make everything look dark. What he didn't realize is that his camera was actually doing what it was probably supposed to do. And here's why. Almost all cameras have light meters that are set up to try and make every scene around 18% grey. Some guy a long time ago looked around and realized that almost every real-world scene is made up of midtones, and these midtones are usually in the ballpark of 18%. So, whenever a camera looks at a scene, it tries to figure out the amount of exposure needed to make the subject 18% grey. What this means is that on most cameras, if you were to shoot a solid black wall, a solid white wall, and a solid grey wall, all three exposures would come out grey (since the camera figures out the exposure needed to make the subject 18% grey, and shoots using that). In real world scenes, what this means is that if you shoot a scene that is predominently dark, you'll get an overexposed shot (which is why skies usually come out grey), and if you shoot a predominently bright scene (like the beach or snow), you'll typically get an underexposed shot. On most hand held cameras you can do what is called exposure compensation, where you manually bump the exposure up or down a fraction of a stop. So if I were to shoot a beach scene using my 20D, I would dial in an exposure compensation of around +1/2 EV, causing it to overexpose it slightly (which would better mimic what the eye can see). Unfortunately for Clay I doubt his Nokia can do that. So if you go to Clay's blog, please increase the brightness on your monitor temporarily so he feels a bit better.

Moral Support

Duane Storey — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:47:04 +0000

I stuck close to home this weekend, only venturing out briefly to restock my movie pile and grab some food. Friday night, Chris and Cisco popped by to see how I was doing. Later, Tiffany, Katherine and Jenn also came by, and we all just listened to music and hung out. Cisco showing off on the guitar It's pretty cool that it's snowing outside. I can't remember the last time it snowed in Vancouver in November. I really love winter. There's something about the peace and quiet that goes along with the early nights, the crisp cool air, and of course, the falling of snow. Seeing it snow motivated me to finally put my Christmas lights back up (now understand, I never really took them down, but I did readjust them slightly when I saw it snowing this weekend). I need to pick up some stuff eventually to decorate my cubicle at work. Snow falling on Davie Street

Request for Music

Duane Storey — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 06:18:12 +0000

Anyone have any good music suggestions for me? I've been trying to explore the Indie scene a bit more. I like most songs from the Garden State Soundtrack. Suggest anything! Thanks.

Best Sitting Position

Duane Storey — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:22:07 +0000

Everyone always bugs me at work for sitting in a sort of "lying down" position. However, recent research seems to back me up.

The "slouch" position revealed a reduction in spinal disk height, signifying a high rate of wear and tear on the lowest two spinal levels. Across all measurements, the researchers concluded that the 135-degree position fared the best. As a result, Dr. Bashir and colleagues advise patients to stave off future back problems by correcting their sitting posture and finding a chair that allows them to sit in an optimal position of 135 degrees. "This may be all that is necessary to prevent back pain, rather than trying to cure pain that has occurred over the long term due to bad postures," he added. "Employers could also reduce problems by providing their staff with more appropriate seating, thereby saving on the cost of lost work hours."

Does Money Buy Happiness?

Duane Storey — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:54:12 +0000

Here's a good link, thanks to Chris.

The connection is complex, he says. But in fact, very rich people rate substantially higher in satisfaction with life than very poor people do, even within wealthy nations, he says. "There is overwhelming evidence that money buys happiness," said economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. The main debate, he said, is how strong the effect is.

Christmas Movies

Duane Storey — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 05:11:01 +0000

So tonight Jeff stopped by for some nachos and to watch a Christmas movie. Well, its not exactly your typical Christmas Movie, but I like to watch Die Hard at least once a season, since it technically has some Christmas music in it. I wish they made movies like that nowadays. The last good action movie with the same spirit was probably True Lies, but everything else just takes itself a little too seriously. On another note, I have an appointment tomorrow morning to get the stitches on my face out. I've had these steri-strips across my cheek since the operation, and last night I decided to take a look just how bad the damage is. It doesn't look as bad as I originally thought, but I'm definitely going to have a nice scar under my eye now. It's going to be nice to have the bandages off so I can shower like a normal person again. I still have almost no feeling on the left side of my face (except it feels cold for some reason, even though it's numb). It's actually really annoying, blowing your nose and only feeling half of it. Hopefully those nerve endings hurry up and regenerate.

Chris' Blog Active

Duane Storey — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 05:35:10 +0000

Chris has a new blog up.. So much for the neighbourhood.

Stitch Free - again

Duane Storey — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:00:35 +0000

Well, I got the steri-strips off and the stitches out just a while ago. It actually looks pretty good. There's a small line of dried blood that should come off in the next week or so, but once that's gone I don't think there's gonna to be too much of a scar at all. Here's a picture taken just a few minutes ago (for those of you interested). Sorry for the stupid angle, and the stupid pose, but it's hard taking self pics. Me on the couch tonight after cleaning my face a bit So, as Hesty would put it, my head is nearly unfucked now. Everything is looking pretty good. My vision is nearly perfect. And I'm going to celebrate with a few beers after work on Friday. On another note -- Death Cab for Cutie kicks some serious ass. I've been listening to this stuff non-stop since yesterday.

Doritos Galore

Duane Storey — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 01:06:16 +0000

I just read that bags of Doritos suddenly started washing up on the shores of North Carolina today. I can't imagine anything better in this world than having nachos literally wash up beside you at the beach. If only a container carrying salsa would have been beached as well. You can read about it here.

Friday night

Duane Storey — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 20:40:32 +0000

Went out for a few beers last night after work with some friends. We started at Malones on Seymour and Pender, and eventually ended up down at the Atlantic Trap and Gill for a few more. Even Hesty showed up from Singapore or wherever he was. Beer Drinking Snowman at the Trap I had a good time last night, and got to know Kasia and Rob and bit better down at the Trap and Gill. Rob and Kasia I think I'm heading out to Chilliwack this afternoon to do some shopping, visit some family, and maybe watch a movie or two. Nobody out there has seen me since all my stitches have come out, so I think I'll go show them the new and improved me (which still doesn't look as good as the old crappy me, but I'm getting there).

Superman II - The Richard Donner Cut

Duane Storey — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:59:21 +0000

For those of you who read my blog from time to time, you might remember my write up when I saw Superman Returns in the summer. It was actually not that bad of a movie (my second viewing I didn't think it was as good), and when I got home that weekend, I decided to watch Superman I and II again just to remember what they were like. And I have to say, I really enjoyed them (even though Chris says that makes me gay). I was surfing the internet about a year ago, and read about the Richard Donner cut of Superman II. Apparently the original director of Superman I and II was a guy named Richard Donner. Sometime in between Superman I's release and Superman II, they fired him, and reshot most of the movie using a new guy. Over the last twenty years, fans have been sending letters to the studio asking that they release the old footage, since most of the die hard fans weren't that happy with Superman II. This weekend, all those fans got their wish, and the studio released a version of the film based on the original footage that Richard Donner shot twenty years ago. Fifty percent of the movie has never been seen before, and although it represents some of the original vision he had, it's obviously not entirely a complete movie, since some of the scenes he wanted were never shot. It's pretty interesting to see this movie, and see new scenes with Christopher Reeve now that he's no longer around. I saw Superman Returns on the weekend again with my dad, and it made me appreciate just how good Christopher Reeve was at portraying the character. Overall, my first impression is that it's not bad, and that it could have been great, but unfortunately the pacing and everything doesn't always work since lots of the footage has sort of been squished together. There's even a scene between Clark and Lois that was actually taken from one of their screen tests, and in it Clark Kent is wearing completely different glasses and has his hair styled a bit differently. So it stands completely out. But, it was cool seeing the original Marlon Brando scenes that were stripped out due to money concerns. All in all, a good watch, especially if you're a fan of the series.

24, Season Five

Duane Storey — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:08:44 +0000

So, on Tuesday, December 5th, 24 Season Five comes out on DVD. I lost a few weeks to my life to the first four seasons, and plan to lose another week to this new season the moment it comes out. I'm pretty excited about it since it's supposed to be a pretty wicked season. Hopefully they still have a few copies left at Future Shop when I get off of work on Tuesday.

Christmas

Duane Storey — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:23:11 +0000

I'm such a big fan of Christmas. I don't know why, since most people tend to get a little grumpier, the malls are way busier, traffic is far more hectic -- yet somehow I always tend to get a little happier when my lights are up, or when I see presents under the tree. Lights up at my place The last couple Christmas's have all sort of slipped past me without me really noticing. I guess I was just really busy, but I always found myself in Chilliwack a day or two before Christmas, wondering where in the world December went, and how was it that I didn't remember it. So, today I went out and bought a few small things to make my place a little cheerier. I put up some Christmas lights around my place, cleaned up a bit, and even set up a small tree in the corner. It's not real, but it's does the job and makes my place a little brighter. I even bought some of that fake snow stuff, and I'm a man on a mission looking for things to spray. There's not really going to be any presents under my tree, but it's actually the first tree I've ever had by myself, and I think it's pretty cool. There are quite a few Christmas parties coming up in the next few weeks, so I'm gonna be pretty busy up until Christmas. But I'm really looking forward to the parties, and the break that's coming up. Even though I haven't really been at work much of the last month, it hasn't really been that relaxful. I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing break over Christmas, and an actual vacation somewhere warm in the New Year. I'm probably gonna be going alone, since all my friends already did theirs, but I'm ok with that. Maybe I'll hit a warm resort somewhere in the Carribean with a suitcase full of books, or maybe I'll try my hand at surfing somewhere in Hawaii. I still have a bunch of healing to do, but I'd like to take a real vacation sometime soon, so we'll see.

Trans Fat Banned

Duane Storey — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:50:12 +0000

I read about this when I woke up: Trans Fat Banned in NYC. I think that's pretty interesting actually. It opens up a lot of research opportunities since as far as I know it's the only place that's banned trans fat to such a large degree. I'm not sure I entirely agree with it though. I think most people know trans fat is bad, so I think putting it on the menu is good enough. Trans fat basically came about because the FDA thought it was super healthy years ago, and made everyone switch from animal/vegetable fats to trans fats. So, everyone, including my family, went out and switched from butter to margerine, thinking it was good for us. Now of course, years later, everyone figures out trans fat is way worse than saturated or unsaturated fat (since currently research points to it actuallys lowering good cholesterol and raising bad cholesterol). So, if they got it wrong once, what's to say they won't get it wrong again? I think they are subjecting the people of NYC to one of the largest controlled experiments in history, so I hope they know what they are doing. Eggs are good.. No wait, eggs are bad. Trans fat is good. No wait, trans fat is bad. Or are they good? Carbs are good for you because they are low fat. Oh wait, they raise blood sugar and cause diabetes.

Solar Flare

Duane Storey — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:57:04 +0000

There was a X9 solar flare of the sun this morning coming from sunspot 929, which is rather large. If it happens again in the next few days, there's a good chance we'll be able to see the Aurora this far south. Source: SpaceWeather.com

Sad Story

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 09:25:42 +0000

I read this a few minutes ago. I can only imagine the courage a father must have to sit in a car for nine days with his family, and then venture out alone in the cold snowy wilderness to find help. He made it eight miles on his own, even though search guys could hardly cover any ground themselves in those conditions.

"It seems superhuman to me that he was able to cover that amount of distance given what he had and also that he had nine days in the car" before setting out, Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said. "I'm amazed," searcher Robert Graham told reporters. "We spent hours down there and made very little distance. ... The conditions were very rough. It's been cold, the terrain is so rugged, just spending one day out here is very exhausting."

Unfortunately, he didn't make it. He was a senior editor for CNET, and he had two kids.

Party

Duane Storey — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 21:49:08 +0000

So, despite having been at my place now for nearly a year and a half, I never had the opportunity to have a bunch of people over for a party. Last night seemed like as good a time as any, so I invited a small group of people over for some beer, wine and of course, nachos. It was alot of fun, so thanks to everyone who came and helped drink. I'm still sort of amazed that there were more beer bottles here than there were boxes to put them in, which means some of you hardcores brought beer in a bag or something crazy like that. Me telling some weird joke that apparently involves my hand Some of my old friends from university showed up, which was great, since most of them were down in Mexico for the trip I couldn't go on. But they old had a good time, and it was fun hanging out with them again. Ryan, Bob and Candice The full set of photos from that night can be found on my flickr page. The next few weeks are pretty crazy with Christmas festivities, but all of them should be a lot of fun.

Nuclear Weapons

Duane Storey — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 09:56:43 +0000

Tonight I spent some time in front of the TV, in some nice flannel pants (oh yeah), surfing the web, looking up random events. To that end, I really love wikipedia. I can so easily lose myself in that maze of knowledge, and find I can really learn a pile of new things just by spending an hour or two a week surfing through a pile of links. Tonight I ended up going through the history of warfare, in particular, related to nuclear weapons. And I guess it kind of interested me, because technically I am a physicist (my undergrad was in Engineering Physics, and I took a few courses related to nuclear energy, atomic structure, solid state physics, and ended up being about three courses shy of an honours mathematics degree as well). Building a nuclear weapon actually isn't very hard. The hard part is getting access to plutonium or uranium. From there, it's not hard to do a lot of damage. And that's really the scary part about nuclear weapons -- that the average guy could probably put something together if they had access to the raw material. All you really need to do is take two pieces of plutonium, and put them together so the total mass exceeds the critical mass - kaboom. For plutonium, the amount needed would be a sphere that would fit rather nicely into the palm of your hand. Not very big at all. Thankfully, it's next to impossible to get access to uranium and plutonium. For now. But I was thinking to myself tonight that there will probably be a time in the future, and maybe within my lifetime, where those materials won't be so hard to acquire anymore. It is possible to create almost every type of atom using a cyclotron, but unfortunately the average guy can't build one of these things. But as technology continues to improve, and people discover new ways to do these sorts of things, I wonder how long it will be before governments aren't the only ones who will have nuclear technology. And that's a pretty scary thought. I really hate violence. I hate wars and the governments who justify warfare. I feel sick to my stomach when I hear the US slamming other countries for trying to acquire nuclear devices when it's the only country ever to drop a nuclear weapon on another country (in fact it dropped two). People justify that action by saying it saved so many lives, but I don't understand how you can justify killing hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. I read a book in high school called Hiroshima that detailed what happened that day. It detailed how the US waited until the early morning, when everyone was cooking breakfast, to drop the bomb. This would maximize the number of people who were using their gas stoves, and cause most of the underground gas pipeline network to explode after the initial blast, killing even more people. And it's just hard to fathom that things like this occured not that long ago. The largest US nuclear warhead ever tested was called Castle Bravo, and it also holds its place in history as the worst radiological accident ever in the US. The bomb was only expected to be around 4 megatons, but due to a mistake in the understanding of the how the bomb would work, it actually ended up being more like 15 megatons. The fallout from this blast went over a far wider area, and caused many civilian casualties, mostly on some Japanese fishing boats. Castle Bravo Nuclear Test In 1961, in an effort to show its superiority, the USSR created a massive nuclear weapon with a yield of approximately 50 megatons. For comparison, the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of around 20 kilotons, so this new russian bomb was 2500 times as powerful. It was named the Tsar Bomba, and here's some scary facts about it:

The original USA estimate of the yield was 57 Mt, but since 1991 all Russian sources have stated its yield as "only" 50 Mt. Nonetheless, Khrushchev warned in a filmed speech to the Communist parliament of the existence of a 100 Mt bomb (technically the design was capable of this yield). The fireball touched the ground, reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane, and was seen 1,000 km away. The heat could have caused third degree burns at a distance of 100 km. The subsequent mushroom cloud was about 60 km high and 30â€“40 km wide. The explosion could be seen and felt in Finland, even breaking windows there. Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage up to 1,000 km away. The seismic shock created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the earth. Since 50 Mt is 2.1Ã—1017 joules, the average power produced during the entire fission-fusion process, lasting around 3.9Ã—10-8 seconds or 39 nanoseconds, was a power of about 5.3Ã—1024 watts or 5.3 yottawatts. This is equivalent to approximately 1% of the power output of the Sun. The detonation of Tsar Bomba therefore qualifies, even to this day, as being the single most powerful device ever utilized throughout the history of humanity.

Tsar Bomba Pretty scary. And these things are sitting in silos, no more than a button press away from launching at any time. The current methodology is nuclear warfare is not to use heavy payloads, but rather to shower the target with multi independent warhards in more of a carpet bombinb approach. This makes the delivery systems cheaper and more reliable. Thankfully, Canada long ago decided not to develop and support a nuclear weapon's program (despite having once had nuclear weapons on its soil) -- the last nuclear device was removed from Canada in 1984.

1/3 of Americans Believe Goverment Behind 9/11

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 21:21:34 +0000

This is an interesting read: click here. I'll write more about this later.

The Great Perogy Battle

Duane Storey — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:15:25 +0000

Tonight I had the stupid idea that I would come home from work and make a huge batch of perogies. Normally, I don't attempt anything that dumb -- at least not while sober -- but with a big potlock coming up this weekend, I really need something to bring. Since I know my friends all like my grandma's perogies, I decided to attempt that. Perogies So, I realize I'm not my grandma, and there's no possible way I could put as much love and ukranian charm into my perogies as she does hers, but I thought I would take a stab at it. I've done this a few times, but at most I make perogies once a year, and everytime I forget just how much friggin work it is. First thing I had to do was call baba (my grandma) last night and get her to fill in the gaps in my memory. I knew the basics, but I forgot the little bits and pieces. First problem with making perogies is that I really don't have much food at home. To be honest, I hate grocery shopping. Like really hate it. If I had to choose between not eating for a day or going down to the grocery store, picking out food, standing in long lines, and then making three trips up from my parkade to the 15th floor, I think I'd rather starve. So, on my way home, I stopped at the IGA, hoping to only get a few things. Before I knew it, I had three heavy bags of stuff for the perogy battle, in addition to my laptop bag and my umbrella. I walked another 15 minutes, doing some weird funky shuffle down Howe street, trying to keep everything in balance. When I got to my place, my hands were killing me. This is the part of living downtown I hate. I'll skip all the stuff I had to do to make these things, but let me sum it up like this -- I spent nearly four hours slaving over the frickin stove, cutting potatoes, rolling dough, pinching perogies -- and that only amounted to 49 perogies. So, if you do the math, that's about 4.8 minutes per perogy. 4.8 minutes. Per perogy. My god, are these things a lot of work. I really don't know how baba does it. The sad part is 49 perogies isn't really alot, not for a group of people. Heck, I bet I could kill off 25 perogies myself if I was hungry enough, and my friend Brennen could probably do the whole lot himself. I think there are at least 12 people going to be at this dinner. It's a potlock, so I really don't have to bring a ton of perogies, but I definitely need to make at least one more batch. So, I can definitely look forward to giving up yet another night of my life this week making more of these frickin things. Next time I'm bringing desert. Update - I checked out Red Square based on one of the comments. Here's a description of their perogies:

Vareniki come frozen in a 1 lb plastic bag. To serve, simply empty the package into a pot of rapidly boiling water and boil for up to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until they float to the top; strain and serve with sour cream and fried onions. Vareniki are very low in fat, are cholesterol-free, and provide a delicious and highly nutritious meal. Note that the Vareniki dough is made with no fats or eggs.

They actually sound not bad. The only difference is that baba's dough is made from vegetable fat and eggs, which is why it probably taste so damn good.

Can you really be this dumb?

Duane Storey — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 08:03:16 +0000

I found something a little more dumb than me making perogies the other night. Here's a recent quote by Lindsay Lohan:

Lindsay Lohan says she's been going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for a year, but hasn't talked about it because "it's no one's business." "I just left an AA meeting," the 20-year-old actress tells People magazine in a story posted Tuesday on its Web site. "I haven't had a drink in seven days. Or anything," she says. "I'm not even legal to, so why would I? I don't drink when I go to clubs. I drink with my friends at home, but there's no need to. I feel better not drinking. It's more fun. I have Red Bull." "I've been going to AA for a year by the way," Lohan adds. When asked why didn't she say so until recently, she replies: "Well it's no one's business. That's why it's anonymous!"

Umm, is it just me, but if you're a) not legal to drink and b) don't really drink, then why the hell would you go to AA? And if you really were going for a year, why are you bragging that you've only been sober 7 days? If she really needs help, then good for her, but geez, get your story straight before opening your mouth. I'm sure right after reading this, her publicist bashed her head repeatedly into the wall.

Big News In Medicine -- Possible Diabetes Cure?

Duane Storey — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:01:09 +0000

I was coming into work this morning, and I read this on the front page of the Vancouver Sun. This is pretty big news in the medical community. Apparently some researchers at UofT have found a way to reverse diabetes in Type 1 diabetic mice. This is exciting because it was always thought that type I diabetic people lost the ability to produce insulin because their own immune system completely destroyed the beta cells in the pancreas. However, the beta cells in these mice became active again once they had an injection. Here's the original article. Also surprising is that this approach also seems to remove the symptoms of type II diabetes (sometimes called hyperinsulinemia or insulin resistance). In Type II, the body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin. So, to reduce the blood sugar in your body, your pancreas has to secrete far larger amounts than normal. This state leads to hardening arteries (since insulin damanges blood vessels), high blood pressure (since your arteries are in a perpetually damaged state), and an eventual burnout of the pancreas (eventually facilitating the need for insulin injections). The approach these researchers took also seems to completely remove the signs of insulin resistance.

"Then we had the biggest shock of our lives," Dr. Dosch said. Almost immediately, the islets began producing insulin normally "It was a shock ? really out of left field, because nothing in the literature was saying anything about this." It turns out the nerves secrete neuropeptides that are instrumental in the proper functioning of the islets. Further study by the team, which also involved the University of Calgary and the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, found that the nerves in diabetic mice were releasing too little of the neuropeptides, resulting in a "vicious cycle" of stress on the islets.

'Tis the season to be jolly

Duane Storey — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 07:10:59 +0000

Friday night I took some time out for a few beers with Derek and Cisco. We started down at Malone's on Seymour and Pender, made our way down to the Yaletown Brew Pub momentarily (only to realize it was packed), hit Elixir at the Opus Hotel for a few bottles of wine, and finally ended up down at the Caprice for a while. I find it rather unfortunate that it's next to impossible lately to go anywhere for beers on a Friday evening and actually get in. In fact, my last couple attempts for an after work beer have always involved a lot of pub-hunting, even to find two seats available. If you compare that to somewhere like Ottawa where you can basically walk into any pub and get a seat, it's pretty discouraging. I've been told one of the reasons you get a lot of violence on the weekends is the policy most bars have of keeping people stuck outside waiting to get in. Tempers start to flare, and before you know it you have the Granville Street equivalent of road rage. Vancouver also has a weird liquor license policy where you can only acquire someone else's license -- you can't apply for a new one. What that means is that even though the amount of people in the downtown core is increasing, the amount of places for them to go for a few drinks remains fixed. Saturday night was a relatively tame night over at Jeff and Michele's. It was a nice potlock Christmas dinner complete with a few board games and a lot of laughs. Unfortunately, the perogies weren't as good as I had hoped, but everyone appeared to eat them anyway (hey, what are friends for). Thursday night is our work Christmas party, and then next week I'm completely off. I'm not sure what I'll do, besides for hang out in Chilliwack, but I'd really like to disappear for a few days and take a breather.

Transformers the Movie

Duane Storey — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:47:13 +0000

A new trailer is out for it. It looks pretty cool. Check it out here.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Duane Storey — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 01:16:21 +0000

Hey everyone, I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I'm in Chilliwack for a few days enjoying some R & R with my family. I got about twelve hours of sleep last night, plus around 3 or 4 during the day on my dad's couch this afternoon in front of his new 46" 1080p TV. I'm at my sister's tonight hanging out with some relatives. A present to me from my dad Update -- well, it's officially Christmas now so Merry Christmas. Time sure is flying. It's already Monday, and it seems like I just started relaxing. I've gotten tons of sleep so far, which is really good. Apparently I've been pretty run down. On Saturday night I hung out at my sister's with some of my cousins, and then yesterday afternoon hung out at my mom's for some dinner there. Of course, in true Ukranian style, I passed out on the couch shortly after demolishing a plate full of perogies. Jessica, waiting to open her present I woke up this morning at my mom's and headed over to Uncle Lyles for a few 11am beers. After, I came over to my dad's for yet another Christmas meal, and to relax on the couch playing my new computer game, Neverwinter Nights 2. Tomorrow I'm gonna take it easy and maybe head over to Andie's parent's house for another dinner. My grandma and sister My dad opening a gift

New Toy

Duane Storey — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 02:20:31 +0000

I went out today and picked up a little Christmas present for myself - the Canon 430EX Speedlight. I've never really had a chance to get into flash photography, so I'm looking forward to messing around with it. The nice thing is that the internal flash on my 20D really sucks. For some reason they never included a focus assist lamp for low light conditions. Canon's way around this was the fire the internal flash several times in a row to try and do a focus in low light. However, this usually scares whoever you're trying to take a photo of, and causes all the epileptics in the room to go into synchronized seizures. With the speedlight, there's a focus assist lamp there fires a subtle red light to help focus. It's a much better system. Here's a shot I took with the flash a few minutes ago:

Painkillers, taken with my 50mm f/1.4

Last Couple of Days

Duane Storey — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 07:08:00 +0000

Well, the relaxing period is nearly over. In just a few days, 2006 will be over, and 2007 will ring in with the first work day in over a week for me. I've spent the last few days taking it relatively easy. On Thursday night I went out with Hesty and Neil down to some places in Yaletown. We hit Elixir, and then made a brief stop at Bar None for a few drinks. I'm definitely getting too old for that place. Hesty, struggling to contain his enthusiasm Last night, I went down to Harv's house for a house party. I was expecting only a few people to be there, but I think there was close to 25 or 30. They also had a karaoke machine set up, which was pretty cool. Ben and I had a few drinks of wine and managed to belt out some Bon Jovi and other great classics. Party at Harv's House I didn't get home until around 4am last night, which sucked because Brennen came by at around 8am to spend a day hanging out. I've been bugging him for a long time to fix my bed up for me. I've always found it a bit hard, and I often wake up with a sore back. So, Brennen finally came out and hauled my bed away. We went down to the Restwell Mattress company in Surrey where Brennen then went to work on adding some foam to my bed. Afterwards, we went back to Brennen's house and I helped him fix his computer. Brennen has this bad habit of surfing questionable websites at home, which regularly leads to his machine being completely hosed. Everytime I fix that beast, I swear to myself that it's impossible for a machine to get any worse, but everytime he manages to somehow up the ante a bit and wreck it even worse. This time there was about 200 differently spyware elements on it, task manager was disabled, explorer was deleted, it shutdown randomly, and it was so slow it was nearly useless. I gave up trying to salvage it after 5 or 6 hours, and we finally decided that a complete reinstall was necessary. Brennen pulling my bed apart I'm heading over to Bob's house for New Year's tomorrow night, so it should be fun.

Tagged

Duane Storey — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:32:27 +0000

Clay tagged me the other day, which means I need to state five things about me that nobody really knows. So here goes.

I had a job at K-Mart when I was 17. I'm not sure if my manager didn't like me, or if some cosmic power was punishing me, but I spent most of my shifts in ladies-wear folding all the panties in the bulk bins. And it's not like they were some hot thongs or brazillian panties -- these were those eggshell-white granny panties. I still wake up screaming in the night thinking of those shifts.
I was a bit pudgy in Ottawa years ago. And by pudgy, I mean sort of chunky. After struggling to lose that weight for a long time (gym 5 times a week, 1400 calories a day), I tried the Atkin's diet basically out of desperation. I didn't expect it to work at all since it went in the face of everything modern nutrition teaches. I lost 56 lbs in about 6 months and was nearly bone thin when I started eating carbs again. Despite eating "poorly", my cholesterol dropped over 100 points, and I felt great. From that point on, I started reading medical research myself instead of having someone tell it to me second hand.
I got my current job by fluke. I used to almost always work from home during my master's degree, but one day I just happened to be in the lab checking some emails when the phone rang. It was Erik Lagerway from Xten Networks. He was looking for some guy (let's call him Joe) so that they could hire him to add video to their current product. Since I didn't know who "Joe" was, I suggested maybe I could help them out. Two days later I was a full time employee. Last I heard, "Joe" was still unemployed.
When I first read the Lord of the Rings books (I think I was like 10 or 12 years old), I put a gold ring on a chain and wore it around my neck for a long time. I'm glad that wasn't nerdy or anything.
When I was first born, my grandma gave me a teddy bear. I had him all through child hood and still have him in my closet. He's a bit beat up, having been repaired a few times, but he's still pretty cool. I've lent him out on a few occasions to cheer some people up -- once to my grandma when she was recovering from surgery a few years ago, and once to my neice when she was sad. I plan to give him to my own kid someday.

Ok, so now apparently I have to tag five more people. This means you have to do this same drill. So, dad, Dustin, Dori, Hesty and Chris -- you guys are up. Oh, and please don't trash talk Teddy in the comments -- he's pretty sensitive.

The Start of a New Year

Duane Storey — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 08:46:38 +0000

Well, it's nearly that time again -- in less than 24 hours, 2006 will dissolve forever, and 2007 will be before us. It's been a strange and challenging year for most people I know, myself included. I started the year with this incredible desire to travel, and ended the year feeling the need to hover closer to home. I saw quite a bit more of the world this year, and managed to visit San Francisco, San Jose, the Monterey Coast, Tokyo, Boston, New York City, Toronto, Calgary, the Rocky Mountains, and nearly made it to Huatulco, Mexico. That's not bad for a guy who really hates to step onto an airplane. Me, thirty some floors above Tokyo, April 2006 I'm not really sure how to properly send off 2006. Most people talk about all the changes they'd like to make in the upcoming year, and maybe that's a good start. I'd like to drop a few pounds, make sure I hit the gym regularly, eat a bit better, get outside more, and most importantly, stop and enjoy life a bit more before I wake up one day and realize that it passed me by. I think I'll switch from beer to wine, and from diet pop to water. What did I learn in 2006? Well, I learned that it's ok to leave a bar and not say anything to a group of drunk guys. That one event caused me a lot of turmoil in the last few months, both physically and emotionally. I've never really been in a situation where I felt my life was in immediate jeopardy, but lying in the hospital the night of November 4th with a morphine drip made me realize just how fragile life really is. And maybe that's a good thing. It's probably better to appreciate it now when I'm relatively young than to come to that realization when it's too late to do any good. I think in general most of us take our friends and family for granted. It's sort of this hidden support structure that we rely on, but rarely acknowledge, like some concrete foundation deep in the basement of some city highrise. But this year, I've really come to appreciate my family and my friends all the more, and all the people in my life who make the effort and keep me grounded. Friends come and go as you move through life, but family is always there for you. Some people question the amount of time I spend at work. It hasn't been that bad lately, but I went through long periods of 60 to 80 hour work weeks last year, and it was pretty draining. But what most people don't realize is that the group of people I work with aren't just coworkers, they really are my second family. When I was lying in the hospital that night, the very first person to show up at around 6am was Mark, the CEO of our company. He spent that Sunday hanging out with my parents, and running around Vancouver trying to get a new charger for my cell phone so that I would have it next to me. The next person was Chris, a friend and a coworker. And before I knew it, I had a group of people there keeping my spirits up, many of them who hopped in the car from Chilliwack and came to be with me. My dad, mom, step-mom, step-dad, sister, brother in law, high school friends.. All came by to see what they could do. And that meant a lot to me. This is my last year being a guy in his twenties. In April, I turn the big three-oh, and it's sort of a scary thought at this point, but somehow fitting given the events of this last year. I can't describe it, but I somehow feel like the last little bit of the twenties was knocked out of me in November. I'm not over the hill yet, but I also don't feel like wasting any time these days. I wasn't really sure how to properly wrap up the year, but since I took a lot of photos, I thought maybe it's best to make a simple slideshow highlighting 2006 from my eyes. If you're interested, take a look here. I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve -- all the best in 2007!

New Year's Eve

Duane Storey — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:35:17 +0000

I spent last night hanging out at Bob and Candice's house. It was a good party, and I had a lot of fun ringing in the New Year. Normally I call a pile of people at midnight and wish them happy New Years, but for some reason my cell phone stopped working last night. Jane and Joe having fun on New Year's Eve It's back to work tomorrow :(

Piece of shit phone...

Duane Storey — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 17:33:29 +0000

Well, on New Year's eve, my Samsung A920 stopped working. Right around the stroke of midnight. Should I be worried? Here's the deal though. This is the *second* A920 I have owned in about 6 months. Granted, the first one breaking was completely my fault, but I'm pretty bummed that it's dead now. I've had cell phones die before, and no matter the circumstances of how they die, the repair guys always come back and say "water damage -- not fixing." And here's my take on it. We practically live in a rain forest in BC. Inside these phones is a little paper dot that changes colour when it gets wet, and that's how the guys know that it's been exposed to water. I can't imagine that these things can not change colour when exposed to weeks of 100% humidity at a time, even if they are in your jacket pocket or whatever. If they refuse to fix it, I'm just gonna reactivate my old crappy phone (that I still have), and save some money. Having a cell phone shouldn't require bank loans to maintain.

Yesterday

Duane Storey — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:38:32 +0000

All my troubles seemed so far away... (kidding) So had an interesting day yesterday. Got lots of stuff done at work, which was good. I love being on a "coding roll" where everything makes sense and falls into place.. Having those hard problems to solve is nice as well, but sometimes it's nice to fall into "brick-laying-mode" where you can just crank out code and feel good about it. At the end of the day I had my six week follow up with the plastic surgeon who did my surgery. When I saw him after week two, I was a bit concerned because it still didn't look right. He suggested we give it another month to let all the inter-orbital swelling go down. Which I did. At the meeting yesterday he basically agreed that it still didn't look as good as it should (i.e. perfect), and that he wasn't entirely sure why. One thing is that some people reject the plastic implants since they are a foreign body. So he said he might have to go in and take it out (which isn't so bad, since it's already done the job and allowed the original bone to regrow back into place). So, I have an appointment at 10am today with an eye specialist who is going to do some detailed measurements on my left eye to see exactly where it is in relation to my right eye. Then, another fun filled CT scan. And then, who knows, maybe one more surgery.. So exciting. The good news is that last night Dustin and Dori invited me over for dinner. Dori made me a nice low-carb chicken dish with a zucchini dish as well. Very tasty. Afterwards, we sat around drinking wine and watching comedy skits on youtube. All in all, a very enjoyable evening with the friends.

Another sunny day in Vancouver

Duane Storey — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 22:15:17 +0000

Harbour Center Webcam this morning

Vancouver HDR

Duane Storey — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 02:42:54 +0000

I went out tonight and shot a few photos around town. I wanted to try my hand at making a HDR image. Here's one of the better ones off the Burrard Street Bridge. Here's one more in roughly the same location. HDR from the Burrard Bridge

Old Videos

Duane Storey — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 09:56:46 +0000

Funny. I was organizing some old photos tonight and came across some videos from the last year. They're all dated now, but I'll put some of them up anyways. I have to say that youtube completely bastardizes the video quality when you give it to them, but oh well. So, I also seem to be slowly regaining a bit of sensation in my face. The entire left side of my cheek (including the lip, nose and gums on the left side of my face) has basically been numb since my surgery back in November. I think it's slowly coming back. What's weird that is that it's a bit wonky -- if I trace my finger along my left cheek, it actually feels like I'm touching my lower eyelid on that side, so I guess the nerves are a bit messed and my brain needs to figure it all out still.

Milk

Duane Storey — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:30:39 +0000

A new study says people who have full-fat milk gain *less* weight over time. I hate to say I told you so, but I'm not a big believer in the whole "fat makes you fat" belief. I agree saturated fat isn't very good for you, but the other types of fat are. As long as you don't eat the grissle in a steak, over 2/3 of the fat in it is good fat, which is better than most other things. Which gives me an idea for another blog entry later tonight. Read about it here.

Some More Night Shots

Duane Storey — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 04:10:21 +0000

Wow, big weekend for photography. I decided that this is "night shot" month, so most of my shots will be low light ones for a while. Shot from near the Planetarium And a HDR of Yaletown tonight, right before I went to bed. A shot of the Granville Street bridge and Yaletown

Loneliness and the Internet

Duane Storey — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:49:35 +0000

This is an interesting article. I've sort of followed the social write-ups about the effects of the Internet for years. I remember one article years ago saying that despite all of our great technology, people have never felt so isolated or alone as they do in this generation. Here's a quote from the article:

A decade ago, when many North Americans were still just starting to go online, Apple, AT&T, Hewlett Packard and Intel funded a research project by Washington University to study the psychological and social effects of using the Internet. While most first-time users went online for social purposes, the studies showed a rapid decline in participation for social activities beyond the net and increases in depression and loneliness. While magazines like Fortune and BusinessWeek boasted the virtues of â€œinteractiveâ€ sites such as MySpace and YouTube, most internet users were found to be joining fewer clubs, talking less in-person and hanging out with friends less often. While new tools were allowing people to network faster than ever, studies around the world have pointed to the shrinking social circles of tech-savvy consumers. A June 2006 study by Duke University concluded that the average American today only has two close confidants, while SwissCom Inc. found that 80 percent of all cell phone conversations took place with only four people.

Kind of sad if you think about it.

Gear

Duane Storey — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:39:03 +0000

I added a page detailing all my camera gear.

Sick

Duane Storey — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 20:52:41 +0000

I'm tired of blowing my nose.

State Machines

Duane Storey — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:06:28 +0000

I had the need to make a few state machines today, and grew tired of doing them on paper. Derek pointed me towards GraphViz, which is a graphics package capable of doing finite state machine diagrams. All you need to do is generate a simple text file that outlines the state transitions, and their "dot" program will output the state machine diagram for you. Pretty nifty. Here's a simple example I did:

Vancouver Windstorm

Duane Storey — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:08:53 +0000

It's crazy windy outside, and it's been cloudy and yucky for most of the afternoon. I've been listening to the wind howl from my couch. I took a quick break to snap some shots off my patio of the storm. One of them was used in this news story online. Here's another shot I took as the clouds were breaking. On another note, I figured out how to play In Repair by John Mayer on the guitar tonight.. My fingers are pretty small for it on the acoustic, but I can manage on my electric. Which makes me realize how badly I want a new guitar now.

How you know you need groceries

Duane Storey — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:25:22 +0000

Lensbaby? Huh?

Duane Storey — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 08:11:25 +0000

So first off, I'm going to bitch about Firefox briefly. I've had a problem for a while now where sometimes (randomly) whenever I would hit the apostrophe key it would think I wanted to do a search. Let me tell you -- you really don't realize how many contractions your use until you have that frickin search box take focus from you whenever you type one. Whenever it would happen, I would just stop using contractions in my head and write stuff out, but not only does that a) sound really dumb, but b) it also is really hard in some situations to remove the contractions completely without it sounding wrong. I guess that's how languages evolve. Canon camera with Lensbaby on Anyways, enough on that garbage. If you want to fix that problem, check this article out. So, the rant of the night is about lenbabies. Now, I've heard some people swear by these things, but I just don't get it. So I screw this thing onto my camera, and then I can move it around and selectively make parts of my photo in focus? And the rest of the photo looks all crappy and stuff? Some parts you can't even tell what they were any more? I think the inventor of this used to hang out with George Lucas back in the day when he would giggle has ass off while smearing vasoline all over his camera lenses to get some weird funky effect. Maybe back then you had to, but can't we do better than that nowadays? I mean I guess it has this cool accordion thing on it so I can use my fingers and refocus on something not directly in the line of sight of the camera. I mean, that's really cool since it saves me having to rotate my body 2 or 3 degrees in either direction to get that thing in the frame without the lens baby on. I'm all for doing cool camera effects. I actually even went out to get a Holga once since I heard they were a lot of fun, and hey, I never had a medium format camera. Sure, the Holga images look a little weird too, but at least it will only set you back $20 or so, not the $179 that they are asking for the lens baby here in town. I'm no expert, but looking at all the photos I see of the lensbaby, I'm pretty sure I can do most of that in photoshop without spending any cash. So, I would never knock someone else's photograph (that hard at least), because I still have tons to learn myself. And everyone has their own opinion with what a good photo is. But looking at this photo doesn't really make me want to head out and get one of these things. I mean, what does your wife say when you come home and put that picture of your son up on the wall? "Look hun, see what I did with Jimmy?" You wanna know what happens? Your wife tells you to take that photo the fuck down before the neighbours see it. If anyone has one of these things and can chime in about it, I'd love to hear what you have to say. I want to believe.

So long Blue-Ray

Duane Storey — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:46:22 +0000

Well, I've been on the fence for a while about what technology would win: Blue-Ray or the HD-DVD. I've swung multiple ways during all the debates, sometimes favouring Blue-Ray and sometimes favouring the HD-DVD. Technically, Blue-Ray is superior technology, but HD-DVD is easier to manufacture, and is cheaper to produce. I've been waiting anxiously for a clear winner to emerge to I could finally go buy one of these things. I mean, most of my research at UBC was in the area of high definition, so it seems fitting that I should have a full HD setup at home. I had thought that the PS/3 would be an instant success, and automatically put Blue-Ray players into most homes. But due to a series of blunders on Sony's part, PS/3 adoption has been slow, and the reviews haven't been that great for the system in general. Every time I walk through Pacific Center I ask if they have any PS/3s -- same answer everytime -- nope. Why? Because Sony is way behind on manufacturing them. But I think this may be the final nail in the coffin of Blue-Ray. No porn on Blue-Ray? See ya. This whole HD adoption process has been so exceedingly painful. First, companies have been pushing HD TVs at people for years now, telling them they should be "HD-ready" when the time comes. Sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, with all the piracy that's gone on in the last few years, they've now mandated that most HD broadcasts can only be shown on equipment that supports a digital interface such as DVI or HDMI (because these are protected). What that means is all those poor saps that caved into the Future Shop pressure are now left with TVs that despite being technically able to show a HD picture, won't be able to. Add to that the HD-DVD/Blue-Ray debackle and you can understand why HD is getting the big apathetic yawn these days. I went down to several Future Shops over the Christmas break, and I had a hard time finding any HD players at all. At most, the only store I found was the downtown Future Shop on Robson, and they have one Blue-Ray player and one HD-DVD relatively hidden in the back. No signs. No prices. Why? Because nobody really cares. You would think Sony would have learned its lesson now about doing customized technology. First, the Betamax was a pretty big failure, despite being technically superior. Follow that by the nearly non-existant super audio CD (SACD) adoption. And now we have the Blue-Ray which appears to be on its way out the door. I just hope it dies a quick death.

Drinks in Gastown

Duane Storey — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:41:49 +0000

So yesterday after work I strolled by the offices of Bryght to say hi to Boris and Kris. We demolished a bunch of beers in pretty short order, and Boris and I got to catch up since the last time we hung out (which was well over a year ago). Afterwards, Andre and I headed over to Six Acres in gastown to keep the beer flowing. When Andre left, I invited myself over to hang out with some flickr people that I hadn't really hung out with before. So, I got to finally put some faces to some names and make some new friends. I'm not sure what's up for the rest of the weekend. I'm gonna take it pretty easy today and maybe just veg by the TV for a few hours.

Kasia's Birthday

Duane Storey — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 09:30:37 +0000

Well, today is Kasia's birthday -- Happy Birthday! A bunch of us went out to Nevermind in Kits to celebrate with some drinks and good company. Before that, some of us even tried our hand at ice skating down in Kerrisdale. Kasia was nice enough to take out a few kids in the process. Happy Birthday kiddo!

Need New Reading Material

Duane Storey — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 07:39:42 +0000

Can anyone recommend anything good they've read lately?

Cute Shot Of Jessica

Duane Storey — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:17:32 +0000

She's always glowing

Wine

Duane Storey — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:19:57 +0000

So normally I'd make a really witty blog entry for all you early morning risers that need a chuckle before you get into the shower. But, truth is, I'm pretty bagged. I will however briefly mention my quest for a wine collection. I've been hauling this shitty Ikea wine rack around with me for years, knowing full well I'd never have more than one or two bottles in it at any one time. Finally, I decided I'm going to change that, and what better way to do that than to enlist the help of a friend. I actually took a winetasting course a few years ago at UBC. Truthfully, I think I took it more to meet cute, sophisticated women, but unfortunately it became apparent the moment I stepped into the class that every other guy on campus had the same idea. So, I smelled my little cups of liquid, nodded, and pretended like I could distinguish which grapes rotted in which barrels, or how much pepper some guy poured into a certain tub. After two or three classes like that, where guys would routinely come up to me and ask me how I felt while drinking a certain type of wine, I decided I would pick a different extra-curricular activity. Anyways, as I told myself I would start moving away from beer and rum this year, I decided I would up my knowledge of wine a bit more, which of course leads to me needing some sort of collection. So, I asked Sheila today to help me assemble the start of a decent wine collection sometime later this week. It's going to entail a trip to the liquor store on Cambie and 37th (which, if you didn't know, is the largest liquor store in BC -- something I knew quite well back in my university days) to stock up on 15 - 20 bottles of wine. I think it will be a lot of fun, so look forward to some pictures from the big night out on Thursday. Sheila and Jason were nice enough to donate the first bottle for my new collection (shown above). It's a 1996 Pinot Noir, and it's taken the first lonely position in my wine rack. Don't worry buddy -- you'll have company soon. Thanks alot guys. Also, if you have a suggestion for any type of wine in the $20 - $30 price range, please let me know. I'm partial to reds.

Another day in the life of...

Duane Storey — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:52:32 +0000

I took this on my way home tonight, using the nearest garbage can as a makeshift tripod. Also, tonight Jason, Sheila, Cisco, Michele, Ralph and myself went out to Cru restaurant on Broadway. We ordered a pile of appetizers, and a couple bottles of wine. My favourite I think was the cheese platter, but the smoked tuna was really tasty as well.

Laptop for sale

Duane Storey — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:35:09 +0000

I'm gonna take the Mac plunge. Anyone want to buy my old laptop off of me? It's pretty similar to this one: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10083210&catid= Let me know soon, otherwise it's probably going up on eBay.

New Website Coming

Duane Storey — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:21:35 +0000

Hey guys.. I've been thinking about completely revamping this website for quite a long time. Unfortunately, every time I start it, I always get sidetracked and end up throwing away a lot of the changes that I've made before. However, I'm going to make some pretty major changes to it soon. Which means, I'm probably gonna take the site down for a while, probably starting this weekend. I have some pretty big ideas about what I want to do, and I'm not even sure I have the skill set to do them all. Some of the things I want to do: 1) new theme for the look and feel that I want - it will probably be a dark background, even though most people seem to hate them 2) more ajax 3) photo-centric posts 4) better flickr/youtube integration 5) updated content 6) new hosting location (godaddy is sooooo slow) I'm hoping to get alot of it done this weekend, but the reality is it may take me longer than that. I could leave the website up, but I think I'll be far more motivated to actually finish all these changes off if I take it down. Also, changing hosting locations can be a bit of a pain due to DNS changes etc, so it's probably better to just take it down and get it done. So, I'm probably gonna find some pub or coffee shop this weekend with wireless access and see what I can come up with.

One last thing to say...

Duane Storey — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 06:39:22 +0000

Where to begin. I actually had thought that the last post I did would be my final one before taking the website down and completely revamping it. But a couple things happened tonight while sitting on my couch that inspired me to write one final one before retooling the website. Lately I really feel like I'm entering into the next phase of my life. Maybe it's turning 30 soon, or maybe it's all the events that happened over the last few months, but I've spent the last few months trying to figure a lot of things out. And to be honest, I haven't had much luck with it all. But some things I know I want to change. For instance, I'm probably going to move out of the downtown core soon. Sure it's nice to walk to work, but other than that, there's not much benefit to being down here. I don't particularly enjoy most of the people I meet in my area, and I don't really care for most of the establishments. I think I'm just starting to realize I'm more of a small town kind of guy, and the big city life isn't really my thing. To be honest, lately I've found myself rather sad and lonely. It's discouraging when you feel like you're a good person, and yet people consistently treat you poorly. I go out of my way to keep in touch with friends, and most of them don't return the favour. I email people inviting them to hang out and do things, and quite often, none of them email back. And I find all that rather depressing, especially at this point in my life. So, while sitting on my couch alone tonight, feeling a bit bummed that I was sitting on my couch alone tonight, I got an email out of the blue from someone that read my blog. And here's some of it:

.... Anyway, I admit, I poked around your blog a bit more because for some odd reason I get interested in reading blogs of people I don't know. I guess I just like to see how they write and find out if anyone else goes through the same life pains (which of course they do, and then suddenly the world feels a little cozier). I guess I just wanted to say hi to a nice sounding guy. Keep being you (sorry if that sounds cheesy, I'm not sure how else to say it). Although, I can't quite understand how such a sweet and cute looking guy can also look so sad at the same time. There is a very intriguing mystery in your eyes. I read about your eye and that story nearly made me cry. How terrible! And you were only being a good guy. I hope you're recovering well. You seem to have a good attitude about it all. ...I think random encounters can be as delightful yet fleeting as a shooting star. Hopefully this little blip is a bright spot for you, not a dark one. Feel free to drop by the blog any time, although I'm on a bit of strike right now (it's a long story, but I think I'll come back in a few days). Wishing you all the best

And it made me feel alot better. It's nice to know that there are other good people in the world, people who care enough to send heart-felt emails to strangers, or mail $20 worth of beer money across the country to someone they've never met. So much of this world is messed up right now, and with the current pace of life, the real beauty and magic in this world can sometimes pass us by with barely a fleeting glance out the side window. So, thanks for writing, and thanks for helping make my world a little brighter.

A Good Start

Duane Storey — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 07:21:36 +0000

Well, as you can see, I've started making changes to this website. They are far from done, but I think I've made enough headway to put it back up for a while. Here's what I have done so far:

Made a new theme, borrowing a few elements from the "default" wordpress theme
Added a custom flickr plugin that has read/write access to my flickr account
Added the ability to associate abritrary images or sets from flickr with any blog entry. These images can be viewed using the ImageBox javascript library

I've associated my HDR set with this blog entry just so you can get an idea of how it works. Tomorrow I'm going to revise all the content, and work on integrating flickr photo comments into the main wordpress comment system. I scoped this out tonight and it's alot harder than I originally thought, but we'll see. I'm also going to add a slider or two to alter the look and feel of the website on the fly. At least, that's the plan. It might turn out to be a stupid idea, but I'm gonna test it out. If you have any comments on the new look and feel, let me know. I'm really curious how it looks on a mac, since I don't have access to one.

First bit of wine

Duane Storey — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 07:58:26 +0000

So, as promised, Sheila and I went out today and purchased a pile of wine down at the Alberni liquor store. Here's a list of what I picked up:

2004 Las Rocas (Spain)
2003 Altos de Luxon, Jumilla (Spain)
2003 Chateauneuf du Pape (France)
2005 Wits End, Cabernet Franc, The Procrastinator
2003 Renwood Zinfandel (California)
2003 Woodhenge Shiraz (Australia)
2000 Cote de Nuits "Le Vaucrain" (France)
2005 Malbec, Achaval Ferrer (Argintina)
2004 Glen Carlou Syrah (South Africa)

Tomorrow I'm gonna head down to a place on 4th and figure out how to do this home brew stuff. I've been told that it tastes pretty good, and the price really can't be beat for the day to day stuff.

Want free stuff? Mazda 3 Sport: inquire within

Duane Storey — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:17:01 +0000

The very first car I ever owned was a 1993 Toyota Tercel, and I didn't buy it until sometime around 2003. I'm not really sure how I survived so long without a car, but I guess as a student you get pretty used to public transit. In November 2006 I got into my first car accident ever, and if I had to blame it on something, it would be because my windows were all fogged up (thanks to the never-working defrost system in the Tercel). After that, I realized maybe it was time to get rid of the used car and get something a l ittle newer. So in January 2006 I made the plunge and bought a new car: a 2006 Mazda 3 Sport. I really love it. It's good on gas (I got about 900 kms on a tank once), it rides smooth, the audio system is really good, and best of all, I feel totally safe in it (compared to the Tercel). Which is why I was a bit bummed when someone sent me this article the other day at work. Apparently, if you want to break into it, you just have to dent the passenger door, and it will fool the car into unlocking the door. And after that, someone will zoom zoom zoom away with all your valuables. I guess a good defense is just not to leave anything in your car, but sometimes that's a total pain in the ass. I'm not sure what Mazda's reaction to this will be, but I hope they offer some kind of fix for free. The photo is my step-mom camping during the summer, with a shot of my car in the background.

A bit more work

Duane Storey — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:52:50 +0000

So I had a few more hours today to mess around with the website. I really wanted to integrate flickr comments into the wordpress ones somehow, but I didn't see an easy way without changing some of wordpress under the hood. However, I've still managed to get the comments showing up in nearly the right place. If you click the title of a blog entry, it will take you to the single post page where you'll see all the blog comments along with the flickr ones. I've added a few photos to this entry just to demonstrate. Once this is all over I'm gonna clean up the plugin I wrote and release it to the public. There are a few other similar ones, but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. I'm actually really happy with how this is turning out so far. I think it goes pretty far along the path of tying some of the technologies I use on a routine basis together. There's still a lot of places I can go, but I think this will be great in the future when I start diving into photography regularly, and writing about more important things. My original goal was to abstract all the content on the blog into a series of thumbnails, be it text blog entries, mp3 files, flickr photos, etc.. Everything was going to be a thumbnail with an action associated with it. I still would like to add a media player to the viewer, and possibly a video player as well. We'll see though. I'd love feedback, or any ideas that anyone has.

UBC The Sequel

Duane Storey — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:01:42 +0000

So tonight Joe called me and told me to head down to Au Bar for Ben's Sister's Engagement Party. I didn't really have much to do, so I thought it would be a lot of fun. It was really cool seeing some of the old guys from UBC -- Joe, Balhar, Ben.. All of us used to be a bunch of dorky guys in 1995 at Totem Park, and now we've all done pretty good for ourselves.. So it's a lot of fun seeing everyone again. Joe and Jane are getting married soon, so it should be a really fun party.

Small Business

Duane Storey — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:31:37 +0000

A little bakery on Beach and Howe here in Vancouver: Tartine breads and pies.

Food Like That

Duane Storey — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 02:41:53 +0000

If you love to eat, or are in desperate need of some new recipes, check out FoodLikeThat.com. Dreamed up by internet guru Boris Mann, here's a little low-down on what it's about:

Food Like That is a new kind of recipe sharing site. It's designed to rank highly in Google. When people find your recipe, and click on the ads on your recipe page, we share the revenue with you. But that's not really the cool part. The cool part is that it helps you find more food you like. Do you like dishes with eggs? You'll probably like quiche or maybe a frittata.

Check it out. I added my world famous nacho recipe there.

Sleep & Lenses

Duane Storey — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:30:43 +0000

I'm not really sure why, but for some reason, I just can't sleep much lately. Last week I tossed and turned in my bed until nearly 6am, even though I went to bed sometime around midnight. It's like even though I'm really tired, the moment by head hits the mattress, all these involuntary thoughts start coursing through my brain. When it gets really bad, I usually take a melatonin, but those are pretty hit or miss with me. When they hit, they usually hit pretty hard, and I find myself pretty groggy in the morning. So, it's 2:11am, and I'm back on the couch messing on the computer because I can't sleep. If this were a weekend I'd be ok with it, but as I have to work in the morning, not being able to sleep pretty much sucks. So, I'm gonna beat my insomnia with a blog entry. I didn't really get up to too much today. I got some good feedback on the website from Boris and Sean, and implemented a few of their suggestions. I think it's looking better everyday. I decided to close my laptop for a few hours today =went and shot a few photos, and ended down at Chapters on Broadway. I was originally gonna come back with a book on how to take better portraits, but I couldn't really find anything I liked. So, instead I grabbed a few photography magazines and am just gonna skim through them. I did however get a cool book on Photoshop CS2. It basically has step-by-step guides on how to do really amazing things with it. It cost $75, but after reading a few sections in the store, I really thought it would be a great buy. Of course, like usual, I didn't have my chapters card on me so I paid that extra 10% (and for some reason they can never find me in the computer -- isn't technology great?). I'm also in the market for another lens for my camera. The problem I have right now is that I don't really have a good walking around lens. I have the 50 mil prime, which takes *amazingly* sharp photos, but because it's a fixed focal length, it's tricky getting some of the shots you want. It's a decent portrait lens (on a 1.6x crop factor camera), but you're close enough to your subject that they may get a bit edgy. A better portrait prime is the 85mm on a 1.6x crop factor. Canon makes several variants, and both are pretty sharp -- plus you're further away from your subject, so they can relax a bit easier. I thought about picking up the f/1.8 version of this lens for around $500 once, but decided by 50mm one was good enough for now. Canon also has the 1.2/fL version which is a very very nice lens. The only bad thing about it is cost -- it runs for around $2500 (Cullen has this puppy). Here are some flickr shots using the f/1.2L. It's definitely not in my price range, so let's move on. I currently own three lenses. I have a 17-40mm wide angle zoom lens, the 50mm prime, and a 28-135mm lens. My coverage isn't horrible, but unfortunately the 28-135mm isn't the sharpest lens around. Even though it has imag stabilization, it's still a bit slow, and I don't end up using it much. The 17-40mm is a nice lens, but 40mm is a bit on the short end for street photography (since you have to be pretty close to something to take a decent shot of a subject). So, I'm really only considering two lenses, both of which are around the same price. There's the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L, both of which are around $1400 in Vancouver. Both of these are part of Canon's prestigious L (for luxury) series, and have waterproof shells complete with gaskets. I borrowed Van's 24-70 this week and have been taking random shots with it. Besides for my 50mm prime, it's the only other lens I've used where most of the images come off tack sharp and don't require any post-processing in photoshop. And that says a lot for it. The only problem I see is that I'd be selling the 28-135mm lens and using it to fund part of this purchase. Which would mean after the purchase I only have coverage up to 70mm in my kit, which is pretty short. Not that I really use up to 135mm that often, but it would be weird not even having the option anymore. So, the next choice is the 70-200mm. It's a pretty heavy lens, and it's painted white, so it really stands out when on your camera. It's so heavy in fact that it has a separate tripod mount on the body to better balance it when it's on a tripod. Here's some info on it. As you can see, it has a rating of 9.8/10.0 out of 113 reviews -- it's awesome. If I got this lens, I'd have pretty awesome coverage ranging from 17-40, 50, 70-200. Here are some flickr shots using the IS version of this lens. So, I'm not sure what to do. I may need to borrow a 70-200mm or rent one for a few days before deciding. Anyways, I'm gonna try and hit the sack again. Maybe I'll dream the answer to my problem. Oh, the photos for this entry are from the flickr 70-200mm pool, just to give you an example of what that lens is capable of. Oh, I also found a little tool on another website which keeps track of where people are coming to this website from. Check out the results here.

Trackbacks Explained

Duane Storey — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:25:08 +0000

Since some of the current readers are new to blogging, I thought I'd spend a bit of time explaining the whole concept of trackbacks. Trackbacks are sort of an automated form of commenting so that when a blog entry is referenced by another one, this is reflected in the comments of the original blog entry. For example, let's say I write a blog entry here, and Clay comes along like the bigshot he is and wants to link to it from his blog. There are two ways he can do it. First, he can link to the actual blog entry itself, which at first seems like a good thing to do if you're Clay. Unfortunately, if he does that, the only person who will know about that link is Clay and the other three people who read his blog. If we use my post from yesterday as an example, you can see that the blog entry can be referenced here: http://www.duanestorey.com/archives/240. The right way to do it (at least in the blogging world) is for Clay to reference my trackback URL. If you look in the comment section of most blogs, you'll usually find some kind of reference to a trackback URL. On my blog, it is right by the comments section, and it looks like this: Trackback URL for this post is: http://www.duanestorey.com/archives/240/trackback/ If Clay wants to reference something in my blog, what he should do is either copy that link of text, or right click on it (depending on your OS) and click "Copy Link Location". Then on his blog, when he references something I wrote, he can use that as the URL. Under the hood, this will cause my blog software to automatically add a comment indicating that Clay has referenced my blog entry, and has added some witty words of his own. It allows not only communcation amongst blog software, but also amongst the people that read individual blogs. So, if you didn't know what a trackback URL was, now you do. Happy blogging. Oh, the photos are of everybodys' favourite sales guy, Clay Blacker.

Northern Voice 2007

Duane Storey — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 01:02:04 +0000

Northern Voice is a conference geared towards personal bloggers who want to get together and share good ideas. This is the third event of this nature in Canada, and it looks like it's going to be a great event. Kasia and I both signed up today to check out the conference and meet all the other bloggers out there. The conference runs from Feb 23 - 24, out at the University of British Columbia. As a testament to the people who are running it, they've even offered travel bursaries for those people who live out of town, but would really like to attend the event. Also, here's a testimonial about last year's event:

When I think about going to Northern Voice, I think about the community. I think about sharing secrets over sushi lunches and hanging out in the hallways. I think about discussions, dialogues that happen during the sessions, and quieter one-on-one conversations in corners. I think about some of my favorite bloggers, some of the people who inspired me most, who all happen to be together in one room in Vancouver on a Saturday in February.

I'm pretty excited to go down and check it out, meet some people, and learn a little more about blogging. Click on the link of Basco to read more about Northern Voice and to get your moose on. The photos are from last year's event.

HDR Tutorial

Duane Storey — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:57:59 +0000

I added a quick and dirty HDR tutorial to my main pages. Check it out if you want to know more about them or see how they're done.

Google Adsense

Duane Storey — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:11:32 +0000

I've had an adsense account for around a year now. I tried putting it on the blog once, but it really seemed out of place, and who was I kidding -- nobody was really reading at that point. Nobody's really reading now, but I got bored, so I put some ads up on a few pages I thought people might hit occasionally. So, after one full day of having adsense enabled, here are my earnings:

65 cents

Oh yeah, that's it baby. At this rate, I can get a case of beer in about a month. Unfortunately, I can't cash it out until I reach the $100 mark, which means I won't be sipping that sweet nectar until sometime around the 6 month mark. But at that point, I'll go grab a few cases of beer somewhere with some friends, and think about all those poor bastards who read my garbage and clicked on my links. And to each one of those people who supported me over the years and read this blog, who clicked those links even though they didn't want to buy anything, I'll drink from those sweet cases and give them my thanks. And it's gonna be one heck of a photo. Oh, and in other news, if you do a google search for "duane", you'll find my website at #10. That's not bad considering how many Duane's there probably are in the world. I searched for "clay", but I got bored looking for him after 100 pages or so. Sorry buddy.

For Sale

Duane Storey — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:00:42 +0000

Canon EF 28-138mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens. I bought this about two years ago when I first got my 20D. It's a really good walk around lens, and I'm still surprised with some of the photos I take with it. I'm upgrading to something else and want the cash. Drop me a line if you want it. Here's a review. Comes with UV filter and lens hood.

UBC Career Fair

Duane Storey — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:02:15 +0000

I'm out at UBC today for a computer science career fair. I'll add the photos here in real time..

Kits Beach

Duane Storey — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 02:08:45 +0000

On the way back from UBC tonight, I stopped near Kits beach and took a few shots. Here's a HDR of the beach and the city in the background. Also, I took a HDR by my apartment near the water. It looked nice as a black and white so I left it like that.

Finally Framed

Duane Storey — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:30:49 +0000

So the day before I went into surgery in November, I walked across the stage a second time at UBC. This time, I was picking up my master's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. It took me four years of part time work, and it was a real struggle, so walking across the stage finally was a big relief -- I was so happy it was finally over. I had an eye exam about an hour before the ceremony, and they were forced to dilate my eyes for some of the tests. So after four years, I couldn't even really see the ceremony I had waited to attend. I had to get someone to help me find my place in line since I couldn't read any of the paper work, and I basically had to follow the blob ahead of me and hope they were leading me in the right direction. When I got home that night, I sort of plopped my degree in the corner of my room and went to sleep so I could wake up and head to St. Paul's for 8am. I basically forgot that it was on the floor in my room for the last few months until my dad mentioned to me today that I really should hang it up. Since I was at UBC already, my dad offered to pay for a frame from the bookstore so I could finally put it up on my wall and get it off the floor. So, after more than two months, here it is, finally framed.

New Lens

Duane Storey — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:23:34 +0000

So, today I took the plunge and bought a new lens. I have been debating for a while just which I was going to get: the 24-70 f/2.8L or the 70-200mm f/2.8L. I found some guy in Vancouver who needed to sell his 70-200mm to get some cash, so that basically made the decision up for me. I saved about $500 compared to buying it new. I met him at Richmond center early this morning and did a bunch of test shots near the mall. I had my laptop with me so I could see just what this puppy could do. I was really happy with the shape of the lens (mint), and the pictures that it produced. So, I handed over the cash, and walked away with a new lens. First, let me just say that all the photos I've seen of this lens really don't do it justice - it's big.. Actually, it's not just big, it's insanely huge. It completely dwarfs the camera body. There's absolutely no way you could walk around with this thing in public and keep a low profile. People will notice. People will stare. It's gonna be strange taking shots with it. The lens itself weights a few pounds, so it's really heavy. It's so heavy in fact that it has it's own tripod mount on the barrel so that the tripod doesn't tip over when you mount it on the standard camera mount. I haven't had too much time to play with it yet, but I've added some photos here that I took with it today.

Vancouver Young Professionals

Duane Storey — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:32:17 +0000

I went to my second of the Vancouver Young Professionals bi-weekly brunches today. Today was sushi down at Nikko Sushi on Robson Street, and the 12:15 start time allowed me to sleep in until about 11:30am or so (I love Sundays). Afterwards, a bunch of us braved the cold with some Starbucks and good laughter. Here are some shots from today. The next big event is snowshoeing up on Grouse in a few weeks.

Dick in a box

Duane Storey — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 04:25:23 +0000

I promised a few people today at brunch that I would put this up. I completely forgot about it until now.

Telus to start selling porn

Duane Storey — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 06:02:29 +0000

That's right. Telus, one of Canada's largest phone companies, has decided that in order to generate more money, they are going to start selling porn to mobile customers. Here's a great quote:

A huge amount of that is adult programming, and we don't seem to have concerns about our ability to block children from accessing that," he said. "Frankly, their mobile screen is probably more private than aTV or computer screen. They can keep it in their pocket.

A mobile screen is more private that a TV or computer screen? Is he joking? Think of all the places you have your cell phone with you every day. Think of every place you are when you have a call. And think of your computer screen or TV at home. I realize that if you want porn, it already exists out there in plenty, but I'm really not so sure one of Canada's flagship telephone companies should be endorsing it on a mobile device. I can already picture guys on the skytrain downloading and surfing porn while travelling to their next stop. All it's gonna take is some kid and his parents to get be subjected to this in public before a huge lawsuit is filed. Has the phone company really sunk that low?

Old Photos

Duane Storey — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 07:14:26 +0000

I turned on the computer in the other room for the first time in a while. My goal was to pull off some of the nearly 10,000 photos I have on it and put some of them up on flickr, and some onto an archival drive I have around. I've added some of the photos here for your viewing pleasure. I wasn't as good with photoshop in the old days, so not all of these are that great by my standards today. A lot of these were actually taken with an old Nikon digital point and shoot I had. But, I still like most of these.

Congrats Rob

Duane Storey — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:02:09 +0000

Last week Rob and his wife welcomed a new addition to his family: baby Cole. Congratulations Rob and Debbie, and of course, welcome Cole!

Robotic Garage Opens in New York City

Duane Storey — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:38:51 +0000

I was doing a little last minute reading before going to bed, and stumbled upon this article. Apparently a parking garage in New York city will be operated by a computer. You simply drive your car onto a pallet, walk away, and it will be parked. Or maybe dropped. Here's a good quote:

Built in 2002 across the river in Hoboken, N.J., with 314 spaces for monthly rentals only, the garage dropped an unoccupied Cadillac Deville six floors in 2004 and a Jeep four stories the following year.

Wow, where do I sign up? Luckily they were unoccupied, but still. Imagine coming back to pick your car up after a long day of work, only to find it in a smoking heap because some engineer forgot to a carry a one somewhere in the code.

Dennis Clarke, the chief operating officer at Robotic Parking, acknowledged the operational problems, but said the garage has operated with ``99.99 percent efficiency.'' He called the 26-hour outage a freak incident, where two redundant sensors failed at the same time and a maintenance crew failed to follow company policy in not repairing them right away.

So the real question is what does efficiency mean? Does it mean the ability to get your car out? Or does that include dropping your car? Because 99.99 percent means 1 out of every 10,000 cars is inefficient. Which means roughly once a month in this garage somebody's car is getting totalled.

Dinner and Drinks

Duane Storey — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:41:27 +0000

Last night Jason and I went down to Morton's Steakhouse here in Vancouver for dinner. I've heard about it alot from friends and business people -- apparently it's one of the top three steak houses in Vancouver. I've been to Gotham before (which is also very nice), but it was my first time being at Morton's. Jason and I both agreed that it was better than Gotham, at least for the meal we had. Afterwards, we met up with Cisco down at Cardero's on the water and had a few more drinks. All in all, a nice relaxing night on the town.

Sold

Duane Storey — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:01:45 +0000

I put that 28-135mm lens on eBay a week ago, and it just sold for $450. I was hoping for slightly more, but that's reasonable enough that I'm happy.

State of the Union

Duane Storey — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 07:52:02 +0000

Well, I haven't had an interesting blog entry in a while, so I thought I'd give an update. I went out with Jana tonight to Sandbar on Granville Island -- it was a great time, and an absolutely amazing night to spend on an outdoor patio with good company and a bottle of wine. After I came back home and demonstrated my oh-so-rusty guitar skills in front of a live audience. This week is completely packed solid, so look forward to a pile of photos from the events.. Next update will probably be in a few days :(

CFL Lightbulb Challenge

Duane Storey — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:29:18 +0000

Ok guys. I'm tossing the gauntlet down. If you haven't been following recent events, a few days ago a major report on global warming came out that had some of the strongest language in it to date.

The group of climate experts released a 21-page report for policy makers worldwide that indicates with more than a 90 percent accuracy that rising atmospheric temperatures and increased greenhouse gases are linked, and the "most likely" cause of global warming, suggesting that humans have caused the problem. [...] The report found that it was "more likely than not" that manmade greenhouse gases have contributed to hotter days and nights, and more of them. Extreme weather patterns like more severe drought, greater than normal rainfall and more intense heat waves and "increased incidence" of extremely high sea levels are the result of man made greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere.

If you've seen "An Inconvenient Truth" or understand at all about global warming, then this shouldn't come as a surprise to you. But what may come as a suprise is the knowedge that even you can make a difference. So, I'm gonna put an option on the table here. If you don't know what a CFL light bulb is, then read on. CFL light bulbs are very efficient light sources (at least when compared to the typical incandescent light bulb).

Replacing a single incandescent bulb with a CFL will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb. If everyone in the U.S. used energy-efficient lighting, we could retire 90 average size power plants. Saving electricity reduces CO2 emissions, sulfur oxide and high-level nuclear waste.

No only that, but they are far more efficient than incandescent light bulbs, meaning that you'll save money on your electric bill each month. So here goes. I'm challenging everyone who reads my blog to go out in the next little while and replace some or all of your incandescent light bulbs in your house. A CFL will cost you a few bucks at most, and if you buy a few, you'll save money per bulb. To make this a bit more "fun", I've created a flickr group for photos: check it out here. As you replace your bulbs, take a few photos and post them to that group for inspiration. The more fun the photo, the better -- show everyone you replacing a bulb, you buying a bulb, or anything else related to this activity. I'm gonna reach out to all of you who have blogs as well, or the means to get this message out -- send a few links this way so we can see just how much of an impact we can make. Also, if you have a healthy email list with friends that you think would like to be a part of this, then please send them an email with a link to this entry -- let's put that spam to good use! If you don't have access to flickr (and don't want to sign up), just email the photos and I'll post them for you. I'll head out soon and do mine, but maybe you can beat me to the punch and put the first photos online in that group. Once you've added some photos (or if you've changed a lightbulb or two), drop me an email and let me know what you did and where you're from -- I'll try to compile a big list. Thanks guys. --- Update: some of you have started to post photos to flickr, so I'll add a few of them here as you do! Good job guys.

Crossroad Plugin Beta

Duane Storey — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 10:40:34 +0000

I finally cleaned up the main plugin for this website enough that I'm ready to release it to whoever wants to test it out. You can read about it and download it from the Crossroads Page. Basically all the flickr pieces on this website are handled by that plugin, so if you like what you see on this website, then feel free to test it on yours. I still have a ton of work to do on it, mainly in the speed optimization area, but I figured it's good enough now for some people to test out. Enjoy.

My CFL Update

Duane Storey — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:46:09 +0000

Well, yesterday I posted my CFL challenge update. So far, I only have verbal commitments from people to change a few lightbulbs this weekend and contribute some photos. But hopefully they all pull through. As for me -- I stopped at London Drugs on the way home and bought 6 CFL lightbulbs. Surprisingly, those 6 allowed me to replace 9 normal ones in my place (since the new CFL ones are way brighter in my bathroom -- so bright that I don't need all the lights I had in there). Here's a summary of what that did:

Power removed from incandescent bulbs: (7x40W + 2x70W) = 420W
Power added from new bulbs (4x11W + 2x27W) = 98W
Net power savings: 322W

Now, if you browse through the internet, you can find find out that 1 kWh of electricity produces 1.6 pounds of carbon dioxide. Assuming I use the bathroom lights for an hour a day (showering, bathroom breaks, etc.) my living room for two hours a night, and my bedroom for one hour, that means I'm saving about 0.43 kWh worth of electricity per day. Multiply that by 365 days and 1.6 lbs of CO2 per kWh gives me my final savings: 155 lbs of CO2 per year. Not bad for a days work. I have about four more lights I can replace before I'm done in my place. I'll try and do it before the weekend is out.

The Sun Run

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:02:02 +0000

In 2004, some friends and I got together and decided we would attempt to do the Vancouver Sun Run. We started our "training" that January, first doing little tiny runs around the block, then eventually moving up to hour long runs along the water in Steveston, or through the University Endowment Lands (which is an amazing place to run). The actual run itself was really fun, but a little too crowded for my liking. I didn't expect to have a very good time, but after training for four months, I really wanted to see just how good I could get -- unfortunately, I was sidestepping people for the first 30 minutes, which didn't make for a very enjoyable run or a very good time (that's my excuse at least). I found out on Friday that our office is putting a corporate team together. After a big of hagglng, I once again found myself signed up to do the 10km run. Some of the people in the office are going to walk it, which is fine, but I'd really like to take a shot at running it again. Which basically means I gotta get my butt in gear and start running. I did a small 20 minute one on Friday, and that didn't kill me. But I basically need to add 10 minutes a week until the day of the run is here. So, if anyone else wants to go for a really pathetic run during the next month or so, drop me a line. I'm right beside the seawall, and it's always fun running around it. Also, yesterday was a superbowl party at Neil's house. Here are some photos from the event. I also cleaned up my links and blogroll.

Ways to Reduce CO2

Duane Storey — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 08:16:12 +0000

So I called my friend Margo the other night and asked her if she could contribute to the recent discussion on global warming and ways to reduce CO2. Margo is a good friend of mine from Chilliwack who now works in the conservation department of BC Hydro. Here's what she had to say: There are lots of little and big things that we can all do to make a difference. The problem of global warming was created by the actions of many individuals and so the solution will also have to come from all of us. Really itâ€™s not that hard. Itâ€™s about becoming more conscious about how you live your life and making the choice to live a little lighter on the planetâ€¦and no, we wonâ€™t have to go live in caves. Here are some easy ways to get started on your journey to a sustainable lifestyle and some more resources with even more ideas. Tips to get started (based on www.climatecrisis.net):

Change a light â€“ Replacing one regular incandescent bulb with a CFL will save 150lbs of CO2 per year (on average). Make sure you select the right wattage for your application (check the boxâ€¦many CFL packages will say things like 12 watt CFL = 60 watt incandescent) and the right colour rendering (CFLs can range from a warmer yellow light to a cold blue light).
Heat more efficiently â€“ Close vents and turn off heat to rooms that are rarely used, seal leaks (weatherstripping) around doors/windows/attic hatches, consider upgrading your attic insulation, make a habit of turning down the heat at night and when away (a cheap programmable thermostat can make this a no brainer). Moving your thermostat down by just 2 degrees in the winter and up 2 degrees in the summer can save 2000 lbs of CO2 per year!
Use less (hot) water â€“ It takes a lot of energy to heat water and pump it around the city. Use less water by installing low flow shower heads and faucet aerators (>350 lbs of CO2 saved per year). Subsidized water saving packages are available from Vancouver City Hall for $12 and include a low flow shower head, aerators, and an inflatable bag for your toilet tank. Wash your clothes in cold water (try Tide coldwater).
Recycle more and avoid products with a lot of packaging â€“ You can save 2,400 lbs of CO2 per year just by recycling Â½ your waste. Why? Landfills produce a variety of global warming gases during the decomposition process. In particular, anaerobic decomposition (without oxygen) produces methane - a greenhouse gas that is 60 times more potent than CO2!
Buy more local produce and products â€“ Transportation is a big contributor to CO2 emissions, so why buy something thatâ€™s shipped half way around the world, when it can be purchased locally.
Watch your load â€“ Your plug load that is! Modern life is full of electronic gadgets which use a lot of electricity when you add them all together (even when they are turned off). â€˜Miscellaneousâ€™ load is the fastest growing residential consumption category. Many items like cellphone chargers drain a little bit of electricity even when they are idle. This â€˜phantom loadâ€™ is a growing concern.
Turn off and unplug electronic devices when not in use.
Try plugging in peripheral devices around your computer and entertainment centre into a power bar and flick the switch when you leave and at night.
Look for â€˜Energy Starâ€™ certified computers, entertainment units, and appliances. Avoid big screen plasma TVsâ€¦they are energy hogs!
Get rid of your old fridge (see www.bchydro.com for rebates and free pick-up)
Drive Less/Drive Smarter â€“ Keep your car properly tuned up and maintained. Keeping your tires properly inflated by improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gas saved keeps 20 lbs of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Walk, bike, carpool, or take public transit. Youâ€™ll save one lb of CO2 for every mile you donâ€™t drive. Added perks â€“ get some fresh air, meet people in your community, and lose weight!
Consider a Hybrid car for your next vehicle purchase. We bought one this summer and love it! Added perks - Vancity offers special clean air car loans at prime for Hybrid vehicles, 50% off parking at EasyPark in Vancouver, PST rebate (this can save you $1000s in tax).
Check out the Co-operative Auto Network in Vancouver to see if car sharing could work for youâ€¦you might just be able to get rid of your second car or do without one altogether. http://www.cooperativeauto.net/
Plant a tree â€“ one tree will absorb 1 tonne of CO2 in its lifetime.
Magnify your impact 10 fold - Get all your friends and relatives to do something. Be a role model by showing how easy it is to change.
Magnify your impact 100 fold â€“ Become a catalyst for change in your community. Blog, write the paper, attend talks, organize events, start a â€˜green teamâ€™ at work, convince every influential person you know to take action (bosses, teachers, business owners), write or call politicians and demand they do something about the issue NOW!

Learn more/do more:

Buy or borrow the book â€œThe Weather Makersâ€ by Tim Flannery â€“ this is an excellent book that provides an accessible, compelling discussion of the issue.
See the movie â€œAn Inconvenient Truthâ€ and get everyone you know to see it. I held a lunch and learn at work to show the movie and it was a great success.
Visit the â€œInconvenient Truthâ€ website http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/ for more information on the science, becoming carbon neutral, more great tips, and to calculate your carbon impact (on average since site is tailored to the US).
Visit http://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/ for more tips and ideas for becoming Power Smart at home (and to find out about rebates and programs).
Visit http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/english/index.cfm for federal government programs, incentives, and advice (Office of Energy Efficiency).
Visit One Day Vancouver to sign up for their 10 weeks of great tips (this is where I learned about the water saving kit from the City of Vancouver) http://www.onedayvancouver.ca/portal.php â€œOne Day is about taking small steps to reduce energy use, at home and on the road, to make Vancouver the cleanest, greenest, healthiest city in the world.â€
Change Everything: http://changeeverything.ca/ â€œFor people in Vancouver, Victoria and the Lower Mainland who want to change themselves, their communities or their world.â€

Post your experiences and learn from others:

Blog: http://changeeverything.ca/blog
Learn: http://changeeverything.ca/learn-how

CT Scan, Take Two

Duane Storey — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:34:35 +0000

This afternoon at 4:30pm I have yet another CT scan down at St. Paul's Hospital. I've been waiting for this one nearly a month now, so it will be nice to finally have it done. I've been told I can't eat for at least four hours before the scan, so apparently this banana bread is my only meal until supper time. I'm not sure if they are putting some funky dye into my blood, but I'll know in a few hours I guess. Update -- Ok, so it's all over now. I got down to St Paul's at around 4:15pm and just chilled in the waiting area for a while. At around 4:35, some lady calls me up and walks me into the room with the CT machine. This one was far more low tech (i.e. way more scary) than the one I had before, and it looked almost medieval. I take my jacket off, and lie down on this bench type thing attached to the CT scanner. They inform me that they're going to put some dye into my arm, and that it will require an IV. Am I ok with that? Yeah sure, why not. She tells me that the dye is going to make me feel warm, will taste metallic, and that it will make me really want to pee. Ok? Yeah sure, let's do it -- I'm pumped. Then she tells me that while the dye is relatively safe, it's possible I might have a severe allergic reaction to the dye. And if that happens, not to worry, because they have some medication around that will probably save me. Somewhere. Maybe in the back. After I get that big lecture, she asked if I had any questions. So I go, "yeah, what does that dye actually do?" To which she replies "you know, I'm not entirely sure. I think it helps the machine see better. " Great. Where's the booze around here? Next thing I know, I have a tourniquet on my arm, and she's getting me to make weird pumping motions with my fist. She's like "that's odd, I can't seem to find a vein." And I'm like "well, everyone else in the last three months found it, so it's there somewhere." She's like "I sort of feel it, but I don't see it. Here, I think it's here." And I'm like "uhh, can you please be sure -- I really don't want radioactive dye in the wrong parts of my body." The actual IV insertion was a bit anticlimatic, but she informed me that she taped it nice and tight to my arm hairs, so it would probably feel great when she ripped the tape off. Next, she grabs this big Canada-Arm looking thing from the wall and starts connecting it to my IV. Apparently that's the dye, and they have to pump it from another room along a lead lined fixture. Once it's all connected, they start pumping it into my body. It didn't hurt, but it reminded me alot like how I felt when I had morphine in the ER. You feel really warm and heavy, and your mouth tastes really metallicy. They did two scans, one with my head in some crazy ass position, and another with it lying flat on the table. The actual scanning process probably only took 7 or 8 minutes, but having your head turned nearly upside down with a chin strap fastened to your face isn't exactly a fun experience. When it was all over, I figured I'd take a shot of the whole contraption for my blog. So as a formality, I asked the nurse if it was ok if I took a photo. To which she said "no, you may not." Taken somewhat aback, I grabbed my jacket and started to leave. Then I stopped, turned around and said "why?" And she said "because I doubt GE (the makers of the CT scanner) would approve." I didn't even attempt to argue with her, so unfortunately, I have no photos of the event. All I have to show for it is a bloody band-aid and a few new superpowers. I imagine it will be a week or so before I hear what the results are. If anyone needs a nightlight this week, call me over -- I'm sure I'll glow in the dark.

Random Acts of Kindness Week

Duane Storey — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 06:18:54 +0000

Jill emailed me on the weekend and said that since she met my challenge and changed a few lightbulbs, that perhaps I'd want to take a stab at her challenge. For those of you who don't know, next week is officially Random Acts of Kindness week. And while I strongly encourage people to try and be kind for the rest of the year as well, this week is a chance to really up the ante a bit and see just how kind you can be to other people. So, since it's officially Jill's challenge, let her know if you do anything out of the ordinary to try and make the world a better place next week. If you're a female and you want to be kind to me on Valentine's day, I think that would count as well. Here are some ideas:

Buy someone a coffee
Share your umbrella if it's raining
Help someone carry something
Clean someone's monitor at work
Change a lightbulb in someone else's house!

Update - here are the random acts I have done so far (even though it hasn't officially started):

Bought a girl poutine at Fritz on Granville
Gave a homeless guy (Ken) $10 near Seymour and Dunsmuir -- talked to him for about 15 minutes
Helped another homeless guy and his wife get some cardboard out of a dumpster to build a small shelter

Crossroads Plugin Adoption

Duane Storey — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:18:26 +0000

Well, it's only been a little over a week since I open sourced the plugin used on this website. So far, based on the flickr API key statistics, it looks like 25 people are using it, which is pretty cool. A couple of people have emailed me a few suggestions, so I'm gonna try to release a new version soon incorporating some of them. If you are using it, then drop me a line and let me know!

Saturday at Home

Duane Storey — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 08:00:12 +0000

It's been quite a while since I've been home on a Saturday night, and I have to say it's been a nice change. I spent most of today walking around doing errands, and tidying up at home a bit. I bought some new stainless steel pots and pans, so maybe I will actually start cooking at home again. I even made a decent batch of chilli tonight, which is pretty amazing considering I've only cooked once or twice in about six months. My eye was bothering me quite a bit today. Most days it's pretty good and it feels normal, but today it felt all dry and scratchy, which put me in a crabby mood. I found out on Thursday that my doctor is away for the next two weeks, so I'll have to wait at least that long to figure out what the results from the CT scan were. I guess I shouldn't really be excited about getting the results, because essentially all it means is that I'd have to have another surgery, which is not something I'm obviously too eager to pursue. I've spent a ton of time reading and trying to understand everything about the injury I had, and based on what I now know, it's probably never going to be 100% again considering the displacement of the bones in the back of my eye. I still have persistent double vision in about 25% of my visual field (due to certain muscles of the eye being damaged), something I've slowly learned to compensate for by moving my head instead of my eyes. I also still only have limited sensation on the left side of my face, and still can't feel my lip or gums on that side at all. Rock on. I picked up my SLR for the first time in over a week, and it was nice to head out and shoot some photos with a decent camera again (I fuckin hate my other camera -- it ruins almost every shot). I took the ferry down to Granville Island today and bought some more wine in an effort to replace what was consumed during the last week. I was only going to buy a few bottles, but came home with seven new ones since they were having all these specials. That should last me quite a while I hope. I'm also supposed to be making some wine with Kasia and friends soon, but we just haven't gotten our butts in gear. Here are some of the recent photos I've been messing with.

Why Jason Gets Paid the Big Bucks

Duane Storey — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:18:27 +0000

Jason and I were messing around on our computers the other day and somehow found ourselves playing backgammon. He kicked my ass.

Photographing My First Wedding?

Duane Storey — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 06:35:50 +0000

Sometime this summer, my friends Mike and Kim are gonna finally tie the knot together and live happily ever after. I've known about their wedding for a few weeks now, but tonight they stepped up and asked me to officially photograph their wedding for them. To be honest, I've been asked before by other people, mostly over a few drinks, and up until now I've basically always politely declined, mainly because I didn't think I could pull it off properly and do it justice. So, after spending a few hours mulling it over tonight, I finally realized that I'm probably ready. Not only that, but most everyone at the wedding has known me for a very long time, I think I'll be able to push the envelope a little further than another photographer would, since I know most of the nuances of the people who will be there. That's not to say I'm overconfident about it. To be honest, shooting a wedding is pretty intimidating -- you only get one shot to capture this moment forever. But with some research and lots of practice before the day comes, I think it will be just fine. So, Mike and Kim, I hope you're ready!

Random Acts of Kindness, Day 1

Duane Storey — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 02:30:48 +0000

So far, I have done a few things for Jill's random acts of kindness challenge. You should visit my flickr page for some fun shots, or check some of them out there. You'll need to click on the photo's title to see what the photo is all about.

Installing Vista

Duane Storey — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:17:34 +0000

So, I was multitasking at work today, installing Windows Vista on my laptop, and doing some work on my desktop machine. I thought the upgrade process would be simple, but instead it was a huge headache. First, Windows Vista Installer analyzed my whole machine and told me I was good to go. Then, I start installing it and it goes "wait a sec, just joking --- you gotta remove all this software first before you can install Vista." So, I uninstall Nero, my anti-virus program and a DVD RAM drive thing that I've never used. Install, take 2. The next part of the process is rather uneventful, but I have to say that the progress meters in the installer are terrible. First, they aren't really tied to time or anything useful. It will hover at 2% for 30 minutes, then just up to 15% in about 3 seconds. Second, they have this little moving dot thing which is close to the most useless thing I've ever seen. After about two hours, my computer decides to reboot. When the boot menu comes up, it no longer says "Windows XP", but now says "Windows Installer"... so, it's all or nothing at this point. It's been about two hours at this point, and all I have to show for it is a trashed Windows XP partition, and a 640x480 Vista thing that shows the installer progress.. Another two hours pass, with most of that time spent hovering at 68%. Out of nowhere, a random reboot occurs yet again. At this point, I almost don't care what happens with my laptop. If it wouldn't have started after all this, I think I would have run down to the store and bought a mac laptop. I was almost sad when it fired up again and completed the last bit of the install in just under 30 minutes. Total time for the "upgrade" was a little over four hours. Here's the final stretch captured on video:

Valentine's Day

Duane Storey — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 09:03:50 +0000

I just looked at my computer clock and realized that today is Valentine's day, and here I am, on my couch in the dark, alone. I talked with my ex-girlfriend briefly on the phone tonight, asked how she was doing, what she was up to, the same old same old. We were trying to figure out a time to get together for dinner, and she said that Wednesday night was obviously out. And even though I wanted to ask, I didn't. Because really, who wants to know what their ex is doing for Valentine's day? So, what do I plan to do? I'm not really sure, but I imagine it's going to involve some liquor down at a local watering hole. Maybe my random act of kindness for Wednesday will be to wash away a few of my own memories in a flood of beer, to hang out with some old friends or to maybe reach out with a few shots of tequila and make a few new ones. It wasn't that long ago that the blue box program came out in BC. You know, that blue plastic thing where everyone puts their recycling goods into and drops them off once and a while to be recycled. I remember thinking what a good thing it was. Then, one day, I was talking with a friend and I asked what she thought of them. I was surprised when she said that she didn't support them. The reason is that most people suddenly feel like that's all they have to do to make a huge difference, and even though it does help, a lot of people simply pat themselves on the back and never do another thing for the environment. It's almost a simple way to put your conscience at ease. And maybe Valentine's day is the blue-box of love. Maybe it's the day we focus on so that the rest of the year we don't really have to step up to the plate and remind the people we love what they mean to us. Maybe all we have to do is just throw some flowers in that box once a year, or some wine or chocolate, some bath oil or some scented candles, and pat ourselves on the back for showing we care. The very first girl I really cared for was girl named Susan way back at UBC. I thought what we had was magical, even though looking back I realize how flawed my perspective was on it all. I wrote her poems, gave her flowers, did little stupid things that only I do. In fact, I just realized that we started dating on Valentine's day. Earlier in the day, I went with Brennen down to a flower shop on 12th and Alma and bought a dozen roses. Since one of the residence advisers owed me a favour, I managed to convince him to score me a key to Susan's room earlier that day. We were all out at the Pit that night (Friday), since it was officially the beginning of reading week. When the opportunity presented itself, I left the Pit, sprinted all the way back to Totem Park, filled her room with roses using the key I scored, and ran all the way back to the Pit. Later that night, we parted ways, me going to my room and her going to hers. Twenty minutes later she was at my door and we had our first kiss. After a few months, I remember thinking how cute a couple we were, and how happy we were. We did most everything together, and often would skip class just to hang out or take a nap. Then one day we were at the bar together, and I was in a bad mood, and she apparently was having way more fun dancing without me. So, I told her I was going home, and that I would meet her back in her room later that night. And when I got there, sitting open on her desk, was her little pink diary. Now, I'm really not proud that I looked, and if I could go back I probably wouldn't have, but after a few beers reading that one open page seemed like a great idea. And if you were Gage towers that night, walking back from the bar, or riding the elevator, maybe you would have heard the loud resounding crack of my heart as it echoed off the cold concrete walls. Like some dominos set in my chest put into motion by that first page, one by one each page collapsed, taking with it a little piece of my heart and my childhood. And as that last page fell, and every ounce of hope and goodness that was in that relationship dripped down my cheeks, I realized in that instant, I really had grown up. But not all love ends in sadness, and many of my friends are happily married now, some with kids or kids on the way. So, I still hope that there's someone out there for me, someone to sit at home with, to drink wine with, to grow old with, and to someday share the darkness with. A long, long time ago, I used to read a lot of poetry, so I'll leave this entry with the words of John Donne.

Yet nothing can to nothing fall, Nor any place be empty quite ; Therefore I think my breast hath all Those pieces still, though they be not unite ; And now, as broken glasses show A hundred lesser faces, so My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore, But after one such love, can love no more.

Valentine's Day Wrap-up

Duane Storey — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 08:49:48 +0000

Well, this day is finally over, so I can write about it. I cracked a bottle of wine at 6:30pm and started going through some old photos for something to do. I decided about mid way through that I would use the opportunity to try out some wines that I've been meaning to check out for a while. At around 10pm Tiffany strolled by and helped me on the drinking front. It was a pretty decent evening. I gotta get to bed for a 9am conference call tomorrow, but here are a few photos from today.

Sushi Lunch

Duane Storey — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:07:20 +0000

I'm always amazed how little liquor some people can handle. Me, it's pretty rare to get in a state where I feel like I've had too much.. But my pal Cisco -- It doesn't really take him a heck of a lot. We had some beer with lunch today, and here are the results. I think you can rent him out for parties too.

Friday

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:05:59 +0000

Part of our Friday ritual of late seems to be gathering a group of people together after work and heading out for a few drinks at a local watering hole. Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to get a seat at a pub on Fridays, and most of the time we spend 20 minutes walking around before we find anything where we can get it. Smiley O'Neils is a cool pub right near work that I really like, but I think the secret is out on that place, because I can never seem to get a seat there.. Malones (Seymour and Pender) has recently finished renovating, which means they now have a bunch more seats available. Even so, a group of about six of us were left sitting at the bar most of the night. This seems to be a growing problem in Vancouver in general -- a complete lack of pubs and bars. Apparently there are a fixed number of liquor licenses available in the downtown core. What that means is that you can't just walk in and open up a new pub -- you have to purchase a liquor license off someone else. Unfortunately, this means that as the population continues the grow in Vancouver, the number of pubs per person continues to decline. This leads to those huge lines you see everywhere on the weekends, and growing frustration amongst bar patrons who wait hours to get into a club on the weekend. The bar owners must love it since they can somehow get away with charging $20 cover to get in now (a few years ago $10 was pretty steep). After Malone's we headed to Carderos for a few drinks. On our way home, Hesty and I stopped at Six Acres for a quick drink. All in all a pretty fun night, although I am a bit hungover today (which makes a great excuse to sit on the couch in flannel pants and read).

Wine

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:49:35 +0000

My dad was down in Chilliwack today and he stopped at a home brew wine place. They had some special on so he asked me if I wanted to go halfers in with him on some homemade wine. Since I've never done it before, I thought I would give it a try and see if it's worth doing again. The one we ended up picking was a Washington Shiraz:

White Sands & Rattlesnake Vineyards, Yakima Washington A blockbuster with a rush of blackberry, plum, cherry and candied orange fragrances, which is followed by flavours of currant, fig, cedar and spice intertwined with a beautiful balance of toasted oak. The result is a rich, elegant finish.

It's one of their premium wines, so hopefully it tastes decent enough to drink. It needs at least 8 weeks before it's ready, and then they recommend aging it at home for a few more months, so we'll see. Here are some photos my dad took of the whole process.

Vacation

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 02:26:51 +0000

It's that time again -- time for me to take a little breather and catch up on sleep. Last week I was talking with my boss at work, and decided that maybe I should get away for a week and take some time off. I had originally booked a trip to Mexico back in November, but unfortunately due to a last minute surgery I had to have, had to cancel the trip entirely. So, I haven't really had a proper break since July of last year. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired and worn out. So, if all goes well, I'll be taking the week after next off to relax. I'm not really sure what I'll do. The Northern Voice conference is in Vancouver next weekend, and Kasia and I are heading down to check it out. After that, I think I might burn a few CDs, and hop in the car for a road trip. I'm a big fan of the Oregon coast, so I might just slowly make my way down there for a bit of camping or bed and breakfasting. I think it would be pretty sweet to kick my feet up in a hotel near the water and just plow my way through a few books. I have to be back in Chilliwack the following weekend for a house warming party and my mom's birthday, so that leaves me with a good five days to explore. Maybe I'll spend a day in Seattle, since I've never really spent any time there. So we'll see. I also have a $300 credit at a travel agency, so maybe I'll apply it to a flight and get the heck of dodge for a few days. I'm not really sure. But, I'll make sure I blog from time to time on my vacation to let everyone know what I'm doing.

Upgrading From GoDaddy Hosting

Duane Storey — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:26:38 +0000

If you accessed my website at all today, you would witnessed one of the slowest websites to ever grace the series of tubes that we call the internet. I spent about two hours on the phone today with web hosting company GoDaddy.com trying to convince them that it was their problem. Unfortunately, even after escalating it multiple times, they still told me it was my fault. So about an hour ago I decided that I had had enough of GoDaddy. I cancelled my hosting, acquired new hosting via HostMonster, and managed to change my DNS and completely set up my blog from scratch in a little under an hour. Unfortunately the hosting costs are a little more at HostMonster, but thankfully everything seems quite a bit faster than it used to be. So long GoDaddy.com. Thanks for coming out. Also, here's a shot I took off my patio earlier tonight.

My First And Last Week With Windows Vista

Duane Storey — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:42:28 +0000

I'm officially going to blog about my frustration with Windows Vista so far. If you were following last week, I decided (stupidly) that I would upgrade my laptop from windows XP to windows Vista. First, the whole upgrade procedure took on the order of four hours, and it wasn't exact smooth all the time. The progress meters were hopelessly broken, and the pre-check that it does to make sure you can actually install vista properly got it wrong. One thing that bothers me right away is that you can no longer install Vista on the same partition as another OS. I'm not really sure why this is, because with Windows XP, you could do this. For example, you could have one version of XP in C:\windows, and another in C:\winxp. What's funny is this feature is really only useful for an operating system that you have to reinstall periodically, which is what XP was. But, if you had to do a reinstall, it was usually easier to put a new version in a different folder, slowly bring it up to working condition, and then toast your old version. Unfortunately, Vista got rid of this. If you want to have it on the same machine as XP you basically need to make a new partition and put it there. Of course, Vista doesn't come with any partition program to do this for you, so if you want to make this happen you have to shell out some money for something like Partition Magic which you can then use to resize your current partition and create a new one. After four hours, I had Windows Vista installed, and I immediately regretted it. The machine I upgraded was a dual core 1.67 GHz Intel machine with 1 GB of ram and a pretty decent ATI graphics card. I would have thought that Vista would be able to run fine on it. However, it runs really sluggishly. For whatever reason, Vista is using around 85% of my physical memory, which means whenever I do anything, I'm probably causing page faults and causing the memory manager to swap stuff to disc. This really sucks because I don't really feel like shelling out $300 to upgrade the RAM on my laptop. Also, I can't really tell why it took five years of work. Sure, Microsoft added the Aero windowing manager which is similar to the Mac OSX windowing system. However, it's definitely not as nice. In fact, for the most part, you can't even really tell it's a 3D windowing system unless you press Windows-Key and Tab, which cycles through your active programs in a 3D view. Other than that, nothing else really indicates that this is 3D except for some subtle transitions and some translucency (which you could have had in Windows XP using layered windows). The windowing manager is also a big memory hog, which is surprising since I would have thought most of the memory it would use would be in the video card itself, not in physical RAM. I have a sense that they weren't quite done cooking the graphical system when they launched. Here's another problem I have with Microsoft -- how hard is it to make the task manager do what it's supposed to do? How many OSes have they released already? Windows 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 98, ME, XP, 2000, 2000 Server -- and still, task manager runs at a relatively low priority. How the hell am I supposed to kill a misbehaving process if I can't get task manager to come up while it's misbehaving? I can't believe this is that hard. Also, if I do manage to bring task manager up and click "End Process", it doesn't always kill it right away.. Sometimes you have to wait 30 seconds or more while Vista calculates away trying to figure out how the hell to actually get rid of the process. Microsoft. Here's an idea for what "End Process" should do.

Find the the scheduling table in memory
Find the process that corresponds to the one I just decided to end
Remove process task information from the scheduler

That's it. Process now gone. When I click "End Process", I don't want it to gracefully shutdown. If I wanted that, I would have clicked that little X up in the top corner or gone "File/Close".. But those fucking things didn't work, so I got no other options here. I want that thing gone -- now. I want what Linux gives you with "kill -9". What else sucks? Explorer seems to randomly hang all the time, at which point you're left with an unresponsive process that says "Not Responding" in the title bar. In fact, Photoshop now says that all the time, even if I launch it from a clean reboot. If I go clean my kitchen or something, sometimes Photoshop is responsive when I get back, but not always. My first attempt to launch some movies didn't work at all. If I double-clicked an AVI file, it would say "launching windows media player", and then do absolutely nothing. After about ten reboots this problem has magically gone away for some reason. Let's talk about the new security model in Vista for a sec. They've tried to make this work alot better, but the problem is that they've also tried to remain backwards compatible with a whole bunch of software that was written assuming it had administrator privileges. This has created some weird half-breed of a security model that is more annoying than useful. Here are some examples. I use OpenVPN to connect to my work network when I'm at home. That broke immediately upon installing Vista. It appears that it needs to spawn a command prompt and update the routing tables within the kernel. Unfortunately, those commands require elevated privileges which OpenVPN doesn't have by default, and for whatever reason, Vista doesn't prompt me for them. I imagine I can somehow fuck around with some manifest file or something to make this work, but what a pain in the ass. Also, I opened a command prompt today and tried to flush my DNS cache while working on my web page. That requires elevated privileges too, which for some stupid reason, you can't get while you're in a DOS prompt. So, you have to muck around in the start menu with some cleverly placed right clicks to finally get a command prompt with the properly security levels. How about the media stuff? Well, as a voice over IP person, I was really excited about the promise of tickless audio that the Vista sound engineers promised years ago. So, I fired up a few voip applications when I got everything worked and guess what.. Tick. Tick. Tick. Better luck next time. At least the sound mixer is a lot cooler. Instead of simply WAVE and MAIN, you actually get a proper slider for each application that uses audio. So finally, I have my music at a certain level and my voip calls at another level. They get a star for this one. Unfortunately, iTunes currently doesn't work with Vista (something I found out after the fact), so none of my purchased iTunes music works anymore. So.. Am I happy with Vista? Nope, not at all. It's clearly not ready. Maybe me performing an upgrade has made this far worse than it would have been if I had done a clean install, but why offer an upgrade mechanism if it's this shoddy? If you're gonna require a separate partition for a clean install, then please include some kind of partition manager on the installation CD. It's not really fair that consumers have to go spend another $50 program to pull this off. Also, 1 GB is arguably not enough memory these days, but it's not exactly that bad either. So I'm pretty disappointed that it doesn't run properly on my machine. Am I going to spend $300 and get more RAM, hoping that it gets better? I doubt it. Maybe I'll just start saving for that Macintosh computer I've always wanted.

Tenacious D in Town

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:19:32 +0000

So, I haven't really listened to too much of their music, but I've been told that it's unusually cool. Last night I was doing some shopping down at Pacific Center, and while crossing from one side of the mall to the other, I nearly walked into Jack Black. At first I wasn't really sure it was him, but after doing a double take, I was pretty certain. He had his baby in a stroller and was just walking around checking stuff out. I went home and Googled to see if that was him in town, and sure enough, he has a Vancouver concert tonight. So, if you're a fan, you might want to check it out.

Keeping in touch, the electronic way

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:32:10 +0000

One of the great added benefits of having an online presence is that it allows people to find me pretty easily and figure out what I've been up to. My parents use it to get a glimpse of the stuff I'm up to living out here in the big city, my friends who have moved away get to see a little picture of home from time to time, and old friends sometimes get a chance to reconnect. Last summer I took a week off and visited New York City for three days, which was really cool. After that, my plan was to load the car with camping gear and head out to Banff and the Rocky Mountains for some rest and relaxation. During my brief stop over in Vancouver, I decided to make sure my blog was still beating, and found a note from my old high school friend Joyce saying that she found me again by Googling me, and that if I were ever out near Calgary, that I should give her a call. So, the fact that I was about two hours away from getting into my car and driving out near Calgary was pretty coincidental, and needless to say a few days later Joyce and I were enjoying drinks and catching up on a patio in Calgary. And once again, my blog has been a portal to reconnect with old friends. Duncan, an old friend of mine from Chilliwack, dropped me a line via my blog to say hey tonight. I haven't seen him in a very long time, and we used to both nerd out together on the computer back in grade 8 or 9. It's really great when people I haven't heard from in a long time find me that way and reconnect. Another old friend, Mike Marchand, now lives in Vegas and uses my blog to check in on Chilliwack once and a while and see some of the great stuff he's missing by being down south. And I think that's pretty cool. So, for all you lurkers who are using my mind and computer from time to time, do me a favour and drop me a line someday and let me know who you are. Here's a shot of Duncan and his wife that he sent me tonight.

Northern Voice and Vacation

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:44:01 +0000

Tomorrow officially marks the start of the Northern Voice 2007 activities. Northern Voice is a Vancouver based conference where web-bloggers meet up and discuss various technological and social aspects of blogging. I've heard a lot of good things about it, and Boris and his company Bryght are the main organizers for it. The main social is tomorrow night, which will be a great chance for everyone to meet each other and break the ice before the main activities begin. Friday is "Moose Camp", which is an opportunity for conference participants to gather around and form their own agenda based on things they want to discuss or participate in. I plan to attend the Photocamp which is being moderated by Kris Krug. One of the things I'm excited to see is a real high dynamic range display, courtesy of one of the attendees who does research at UBC. If I'm right, this puppy will make high definition seem obsolete. The main conference is on Saturday, and the topics range from citizen journalism to legal aspects of blogging. And after the conference ends, I'm officially on vacation for a week. I still haven't the foggiest idea of what I'm going to do. I came close to booking a flight to Mexico the other day, and tonight I almost grabbed Vegas instead. I might just hop in the car with some tunes and see where the road takes me, but I just haven't had time to give it a whole lot of thought. I have a pile of blog entries I've started but never published, so hopefully I can finish some of those during the break, and also release a new updated version of the Crossroads Flickr Plugin

Canon's new DSLR finally released

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:01:28 +0000

Canon has noticeably lagged in releasing new DSLRS, especially on the higher end versions. To their credit, they did a big upgrade to the Digital Rebel line earlier this year with the Rebel XTi. This is a great camera that improves on a few areas that the 20D/30D had, even though it's considered part of their consumer lineup. Some of the nicest changes in my mind for the XTi are:

The ability to view the ISO in the viewfinder. On the 20D, you have to hunt for it
Larger LCD screen over the 20D
Canon sensor cleaning system

I consider the last one very important. I'm very careful when I change lenses.. I normally have the body pointed down and set myself up so I can do the switch in about one or two seconds. However, I still an prone to sensor dust from time to time. I've had it professionally cleaned once, and I was amazed at how much sharper and colourful the photos looked after that. I had it un-professionally cleaned once (I took it to a camera store where they claimed to do it properly, and then watched in horror as the guy stuck his finger into the body, manually lifted the mirror, and proceeded to blow compressed air over the $500 sensor), and that didn't really help at all. However, in town, the cost of a cleaning just went from $50 at the authorized Canon facility up to $70 I believe. Which is pretty expensive considering I probably would have it done every six months if I could. So, having an integrated system that cleans it for you is a huge step forward for digital SLRs IMO. Ever since the XTi came out, people have been waiting for that other shoe to drop in the prosumer 30D line. Unfortunately, it still hasn't come (and I'm waiting patiently), but Canon just announced their new flagship EOS 1D Mark III, and boy is it awesome. Here's a brief overview of the feature set:

ISO 50 to ISO 6400
10.1 megapixels
Live preview on the LCD without having to take a shot
Remote viewing of what the camera sees
Integrating sensor cleaning system
45 point autofocus system
Shooting speed of 10 frames per second
Lens crop factor of only 1.3, instead of 1.6 on my body -- the return of the wideangle
2200 shots on one battery charge

This thing is a real beast. Unfortunately, it's part of their pro line, and I don't use my camera enough to justify paying that amount of cash for it (I think the MSRP is around $3999 or something). So, I'll sit and wait for the next version of the 30D, with hopefully a reduced crop factor and the sensor cleaning system.

Surgery Part Two

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:44:24 +0000

I had an appointment this morning with an eye specialist to go over the last CT scan I had a few weeks ago. Prior to the CT scan, I was told that my double vision would probably be permanent, and the displacement of my eye may not be completely fixable. However, apparently the CT scan shows that the bottom muscle of my eye is depressed into the silastic implant that was put in back in November. So basically, that muscle isn't moving freely and is contributing to my double vision and cosmetic differences between my two eyes. The good news is that they think they can do something about it. That is, they are probably going to go in and adjust everything to free that muscle and hopefully restore proper function to my eye. The obvious downside to that is that it involves another surgery at St. Paul's with associated recovery time and token prescription of Percocet. I don't really mind going through all of this again, I just really want the whole episode to be over. It seems like such a brief moment back in November that caused everything, and I just want to be able to turn the page and not look back. I have a meeting with my plastic surgeon on March 7th to see what he thinks, and hopefully finalize when and where the surgery will occur.

Northern Voice 2007

Duane Storey — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:14:05 +0000

Last night was the first event of the Northern Voice conference. Everyone met down at Heritage Hall on Main Street for some great food served by some local chefs here in Vancouver. The beer flowed like Vancouver rain, and people seemed to have a really great time hanging out and getting to know each other. Having been to many conferences, it was a pleasant surprise at how smoothly the events went and how social most people were. Here are some sample photos northern voice so far, along with a live shot of Photocamp:

Hugs at Northern Voice

Duane Storey — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:36:47 +0000

I'm sitting in room 1005 at the Forest Sciences Center at UBC, eagerly awaiting the "User Generated Content and Activist Campaigns" session to begin. Prior to this was the keynote address by Anil Dash, which gave some great insights into the importance of blogging, and a few allusions to where blogging may go in the future. One of the most interesting part of this conference, for me at least, is a glimpse into the nature of bloggers. The other night at the social, Lee LeFever gave a presentation about his trip around the world, and one sentence that stands out in my mind from his presentation is that "lunatics don't blog," something that seems completely apparent walking the halls here at UBC. Never at a conference have I met such a jovial and social group of people, and it's been a pleasant surprise to see just how many people greet each other with hugs instead of handshakes. As evidenced by the number of people toting along luggage, today is the last day of the conference. Since this is my first Northern Voice conference, I can't really comment on how this compares to the previous ones, but for me at least it's been a very enjoyable experience and has reinforced in my mind just why it is that I continue to blog.

The Vista that Broke the Camel's Back

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 04:05:28 +0000

Most of you that know me have undoubtedly seem me cursing at my computer furiously this past week or punching my laptop from time to time. The reason for this sudden change in behaviour stems from my recent installation of Windows Vista. Somehow, that whole process turned a pretty decent laptop into something completely unusable. So today, while trying to edit some photos at Northern Voice, I realized that I just couldn't go on using my laptop the way it was. Everything was really slow and most applications crashed from time to time (especially Photoshop). Since I'm about to leave on vacation, and I really need a laptop to take with me, I debated spending the first day of my vacation reinstalling XP on my laptop. Which would obviously suck, but something really needed to be done. And then, looking around at my peers in the Forest Sciences Center at UBC, I found the answer in the shape of a glowing white Apple. So, after I dropped Kasia off at home, I stopped off at Future Shop and picked up a shiny new MacBook Pro. It took me about ten minutes to get up and running, and I just finished uploading a few photos to Flickr with it. It's unfortunate that Microsoft spent five years working on a product that really isn't that impressive, at least in my eyes. But thankfully, their product finally inspired me to do what I've wanted to do for a few years now -- rush out and buy a Mac. Thanks Windows, for all the memories.

SMS Encounter

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 07:43:43 +0000

When I started redoing my blog about a month ago, I thought it would be cool to add an area where somebody could SMS me if they wanted. That way, if you were on my blog and you wanted to get a hold of me quickly, you could. For some reason, it really did seem like a good idea at the time. However last night, somebody from Spain decided it would be a good idea to SMS me and let me know that my plugin wasn't working for him. Unfortunately for me, it was about 4am in the morning, and my cell phone was about 4 inches from my head. So, I woke up wondering what in the hell was going on, only to see a big SMS asking how to fix my plugin. Oh well. Thankfully they can't take my degree back.

Stupid is as stupid does

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 10:35:48 +0000

As i mentioned in one of my previous posts, tonight I went down to Future Shop and picked up a new MacBook Pro. Before I detail what the buying experience was like, I'm going to talk a bit about me. I do stupid things. Quite often actually. And maybe Forest Gump would say it's because I actually am stupid, but I think it's mainly because I'm absent minded from time to time. One good example is the day I went to work with my short not only on backwards, but also on inside out. It didn't really have any distinguishing features on it, and after three weeks of late nights working on my master's thesis, wearing my shirt on backwards was the least of my concerns. However, my girlfriend at the time laughed her ass off when I got home, not only because I did this, but because not a single guy at work noticed it either. It's not just that I do stupid things either. It's that whenever I identify something I do that is particularly stupid, often I ended up repeating that same thing in the future. Like shopping for shoes at Aldo. I've probably purchased three or four pairs of $100 shoes there in my time, and every single pair has fallen apart long before I think it should have. Maybe I compare everything to that wicked pair of Doc Martin's I had years ago, but a nice pair of leather shoes really should last for more than two months in my opinion. No matter how many times this happens, one day I'll be walking by Aldo and see a pair of shoes that pulls me in. And pretty soon I'm entertaining the thought process: "oh, maybe these ones will actually be ok..." And sure enough, two months later I'm stuck outside in the rain with a wet sock, holding half a shoe in my hand, wondering why in the hell I did that stupid thing again. And now we come to point of the blog entry -- how much I really hate shopping at Future Shop. You have to understand -- guys need gadgets.. Maybe not expensive gadgets, but we need to fiddle with things that shine and beep, and connect together in weird obscure ways. That's just how we work. And that's why Future Shop is such a neat place, because guys can mosey from isle to isle and indulge this weird part of our psyches. We can walk around, smiling, playing with random devices, pressing buttons as we look for the next semi-useless thing to take home and mount on our stereo stands. But no matter how many things I buy at Future Shop, I always walk away feeling terrible for just how bad the customer experience is. And for the most part, this negativity revolves around the sale of their extended warranties. Why is it that the moment you're about to purchase some electronic device, the guy selling it at Future Shop tries to convince you that it's a piece of garbage that's going to break the moment you walk out the door? Oh, sure that's a top of the line digital camera, but did you know the pixels are gonna start burning out in the next few days? How about that MP3 player? Well, they don't make those very good and the cases fall apart after a few months.. Your new laptop? Better buy an external hard drive to go with it, because the internal ones routinely fail.. How stupid do we all look? I really hope nobody falls for those types of lines. Almost every device comes with some kind of manufacturers warranty, and many credit cards extend these warranties as well. Please don't fall for the Marvin the Paranoid Android approach to electronics. Right when I was about to pay for my new MacBook Pro, the guy tells me what a hunk of garbage it is, and that I really should buy an extended warranty. Since I saw this coming all the way back at UBC earlier today, I politely told him I wasn't interested. Then he pulls out some graph paper and a bunch of writing utensils and continues to come up with arguments for why I really need it, and how I can't possibly buy this laptop without it. Me, obviously getting annoyed, counters with "for every dollar you knock off the list price now, I'll put that into an extended warranty for you." He doesn't like this, and continues to support his argument using parabolas and some weird form of calculus that only Future Shop employees are privy to. To be honest, if it was something like $50, I probably would have paid it just to shut him up and get out of there. But he was asking for $450 on top of the $2500 I just dropped. Finally, I told him if he asked me to purchase it one more time, I was gonna leave the store without buying anything. Problem solved. But seriously, this happens *every time* I shop at Future Shop, and *every time* I vow not to go back there. And yet somehow, I always end up back inside, arguing with some sales guy over extended warranties. Maybe next time I'll just order my gadget by mail and forgo hitting any type of store at all. It's seriously such a pain having to deal with sales people like that.

Another Happy Mac Customer

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:18:02 +0000

One of the last conversations I had at Northern Voice was with Michael Klassen, and it was about how Microsoft had completely forgotten about the end-user. Sure, maybe they spent five years working hard to make a new OS that they hoped everyone would like, but the user-experience just isn't there. Which is really the prime area where Apple excels -- they listen to the end user, and make the experience simple and productive. Other companies simply want to focus on the "how" and not the "why". Having a really elegantly coded application with a crappy user interface is just a waste of time. To have a successful software project you really need to listen to the end user. Which makes what happened a few minutes ago all the cooler. I was sitting on my couch listening to music when suddenly I got an SMS message on my phone asking me to log into Yahoo. A few minutes later I was talking to Joey, giving some guidance on how to get my plugin working for him with Wordpress. Turns out it was a simple typo on his end, brought about undoubtedly by some crappy documentation on my end, but it was rather easy to get working for him. And right away, he's another happy customer, thankful that he can replace all the flash on his website with the features of Crossroads. I even asked him for some suggestions, which he gave me. Sometime this week I'll release version 1.1 which should offer a few more cool features and bring me one step closer to integrating with a few other things such as YouTube.

Vacation

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:55:51 +0000

This is a short post, but I promised a few people I'd let them know where I'm off to. I'm officially on vacation right now, and I'm going to disappear for a few days to just relax, take some photos, and see where the wind takes me. I've never really spent any time in Seattle, so tomorrow I'm going to head down that way in the morning and enjoy some of the Pike St. Market. I'm taking all my camera gear, so hopefully I'll get some good shots of city life.. I'm staying in a pretty decent hotel downtown tomorrow, and I plan to get as much sleep as humanly possible. After that, my current plan is to hit the Oregon coast for a while, and maybe check out some of the wineries in Carleton. I'll drop in from time to time to upload some photos and write a blog entry or two. For the most part I'm going to spend my free time exploring, reading, or watching movies. Please look after the Internet for me while I'm gone. Thanks.

Seattle

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:10:22 +0000

I stopped for a quick beer near the water, and they had wireless access here.. So I put a few photos up.

Seattle day 2

Duane Storey — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:47:47 +0000

I had a really good time in Seattle last night. On my way back from my big walking adventure, I saw a pub called "The Blarney Stone" and basically had to stop by to have one drink out of honour of my home town. While sitting at the pub, I tried my first (and probably last) Strongbow beer. If you haven't had one, you definitely should at least once.. It sort of tastes like apple juice on steroids. It was here that I ran into Sara and Alec and started my drinking adventure of the evening. I had made dinner plans with a friend around 8pm, so we did a pretty good job of drinking until then.. At that time, I met Lynn down at Amber Lounge and had some appetizers and some drinks. Afterwards I called Sara and Alec (who had given me their numbers) and managed to get everyone together on some hill around here (Capital Hill?). I woke up this morning wishing I would have stopped drinking around 9pm or so, but I definitely had a good time. I originally was going to hop in the car and head to Oregon, but decided that I was rather comfy in this hotel and extended my reservation one more day. Tomorrow I'll hit the road again and see where I end up.

Adsense Update

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 05:11:25 +0000

Sometime in January, I thought I would finally throw some Google Adsense onto a few of my pages and see if I could make any cash at all. I didn't really have any expectations going into it, which is good because I'm sort of been pleasantly suprirsed. In January, my adsense revenue was around $7, which is almost enough to cover the hosting costs in one month. In Feburary, the adsense revenue was around $22, which puts me squarely into the black for hosting costs. It'll be interesting to see what March holds, and how long it will take until I get that Google Beer Check. I'll keep everyone updated as this cash cow continues to moo.

When Pop is More than Pop

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:56:37 +0000

I travel to the United States quite often with work. Maybe not as much as I used to, but for a while there I was down here every month or two, visiting California or other cool places. So, for the most part, I know what to expect in most states. I don't even really think about it anymore really, I just hop on a plane and change a few of the subtleties when I talk to people (I go out of my way not to so Eh). However, the one that always trips me up is the word "Pop". Because in the US, most people don't know what the hell Pop is. So whenever I say it accidentally, I always get that deer in the headlights sort of look like I've been smoking crack or something. Most people here call it Soda, so Pop just doesn't work. It's the one thing I just haven't figured out yet. And while we're on the subject of Pop, I'm always pleasantly surprised when I get down here and see the ample selection of Cherry flavoured pops, especially diet ones. Brennen and I used to come down here on purpose years ago just to get a few Cherry Cokes. I'm not sure why we don't have them up in Canada, but they really are quite good. So today I think I had four or five cherry diet cokes, and I loved every minute of sipping them. I didn't really do anything too exciting today, except for walk around a bit and change some plugin code around for the images on my website (I'm so cool, I know). I think tomorrow's goal will be to get a nice HDR of Mt. St. Helens, but we'll see how I feel when I get down there.. I hauled my tripod all this way, so I should probably use it once or twice.. I'd like to go down to the Oregon coast, but that makes the return trip home at least 7 hours, something I'm not too excited about doing in one day. Maybe I'll spend one more day travelling and then head back to Vancouver for a day or so before I go to Chilliwack We'll see.. Here are a few more shots from the trip:

My First Five Days With A MacBook Pro

Duane Storey — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:12:31 +0000

I thought I'm chime in with my thoughts and feelings so far now that it's been a few days without a PC. First, I'm definitely really happy with my purchase. For the most part everything has just worked, and I haven't had to mess with very many things so far. Sometimes I lament not having more control over cetain elements (for example, trying to figure out which WiFi connection to use in a public space isn't exactly obvious -- in Windows at least you can see signal strength and public/private all at once. I haven't figured out how to see all that on the Mac). The windowing manager on Mac OS X is so much better than Vista. It's really snappy, and you can program the mouse to activate certain aspects of the Windowing system just by moving it into certain corners. For example, when I move my mouse to the top-left of the screen, it automatically changes the display so I can see every window at once. Then I just pick which one I want, and it goes back to normal. Very slick. I'm not entirely sold on this apple key thing. Some of the commands I have to use in Photoshop involve like three buttons at once, most of the using some derivative of the apple key. For example, apple key, option D is a real thing that does something. I guess you get used to it, but I miss pressing PrintScreen for a screen capture since on a Mac it's apple-key, shift 3 or something. I'll get used to it. Another strange thing is the little red/green/yellow buttons on each window. Apparently I'm meant to think this is sort of like a stoplight somehow. Pressing green maximizes the window if it isn't already, and pressing it again brings the window back to normal. Makes sense so far. Pressing the yellow button shrinks the window and puts it on the dock. I get this part too. But I really don't understand the red button. If I press it, the application closes.. Sort of. That is, it still shows that it's running on the dock, and it still has an associated menu. But that window no longer exists, and if it's the main window, the application is basically closed now. So I officially don't get this part. The file associates are a bit screwy too. All the ".jpg" files on my hard drive show nice previews when I navigate the directory structure, and this is a really nice feature. But all my ".JPG" files don't, because my Mac somehow doesn't think they are image files because of the extensions. I'm sure I can change this somewhere, I just haven't figured it out yet. iPhoto seems like a really cool tool. When I plug in a USB card reader, it automatically imports all my new images and lets me tag them so I can find them later. This is great, since I lose images on my cards all the time. Unfortunately, iPhoto doesn't always pop up when I plug a card in. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, I can still manually import the files, I just don't get why it's a bit strange that way. iTunes worked better than expected. It actually read all the purchased music off my iPod and installed it on my Mac hard drive. Which was great. However, it won't pull off my non-purchased music, which blows. So now, I had to fire up Vista tonight on my other laptop and start copying MP3 files over manually. Not really a big deal, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to touch Vista ever again. Another weird thing is I never really know if my laptop is sleeping or the screen is just off. Sometimes it appears to just sleep, and moving the mouse causes everything to come back to life. But sometimes I need to press the power button to have it come back, and since this process isn't instantaneous, I'm often left wondering what it's doing. Still better than Windows (since windows sometimes doesn't come back). I'm definitely impressed with how most applications run. On Windows I'd frequently get into scenarios where everything would start to chug. I haven't really had that happen on the Mac yet. Even photoshop is pretty snappy once it's loaded into memory. So, am I happy so far? You bet. I still have a few issues with the OS, but like I tell everyone at work, 9 times out of 10 the problem is between the chair and the monitor, so I'll keep playing around with it and see if I can figure more things out. I definitely recommend playing with a Mac before you make your next purchase though. Not only do most things "just work", but hey, it looks pretty sexy too.

Total Lunar Eclipse This Saturday

Duane Storey — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 07:22:13 +0000

I'm just gonna jot this here in case anyone is interested in this sort of stuff. On saturday night, there will be a total eclipse of the moon, visible from all seven continents..

Set aside some time this weekend for sky watching. On Saturday night, March 3rd, there's going to be a total eclipse of the Moon. This means the Moon will glide through the heart of Earth's shadow and turn a beautiful shade of sunset red. Totality can be seen from parts of all seven continents including all of Europe and Africa and the eastern half of North America.

Check out spaceweather.com for more details.

Full Circle

Duane Storey — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:07:54 +0000

Well, my vacation is slowly coming to an end. It doesn't really matter how much time you take off, for some reason it always seems to go by in the blink of an eye. Thankfully though, I got to do a few of the things I wanted to do -- I spent my first weekend lounging around Vancouver and catching up on sleep. The next few days I spent in Seattle, seeing that city up close for the first time, and even making a few new friends along the way. I originally opted against going to Mexico for this vacation, simply because it would be too much money. However, between my new laptop, some hotel bills, a few bar tabs, dinner with a friend, and other bits and pieces, I probably spent somewhere on the order of $3500 in the last week, which is pretty sizable. So, I guess I should lay low for the next little while and take it easy. I've been a bit out of sorts lately. Years ago I made a bunch of promises to myself of things I would do or have done by the time I turned thirty, and that time is fast approaching. Living up to those promises means making changes, letting some things go and reaching out to other things that have been passing me by. Tomorrow I'm getting into my car and heading back to Chilliwack. I haven't been back there since Christmas, which seems odd considering I used to go back every few weeks or so. I'm hoping to spend some time with my dad and mom, and even pop by to see my niece and nephew for a bit. Saturday night is Cory's house warming party, and I'll be dropping in to check out their new place, see how big Carson is now, and to catch up with some really old friends. Other than that, it will be business as usual in a few days. One thing I'm going to try and change after my break is my daily routine. I used to get up around 9 and head into work for around 10. On a "normal" day, I'd leave the office sometime around 7, which gets me home around 8 or 9, depending on whether or not I went to the gym. The problem with that is that I never seem to go to the gym because I'm too tired, and when I get home at 9, I always end up staying up late just because I don't really feel like I've done anything. So this time, I'm going to make a big effort to a) get up earlier b) go to the gym or a run or something before work c) get into work early and d) leave work early. Engineers seem to like to get in late and leave late, but it really wrecks any chance at a normal life. So, that's my goal. Hopefully I can pull it off. On Wedneday I'll get to figure out exactly what the heck is going on with my eye, and when and where I'll be going for surgery, should they choose to go that route. Considering I saw a lot of Seattle as a sort of double-vision type blur, I'm interested to hear what they have to say. I'll keep everyone in the loop.

Fill-a-bag sale @ Discollection

Duane Storey — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:36:16 +0000

My friend Kim owns a store on the border of gastown called Discollection, and it turns out that to celebrate their one year anniversary they are having a big fill-a-bag sale. So, if you're into vintage clothing or just want to check out some cool stuff, head on down this this Saturday and join in on the fun. You can find the store location here.

Birthday's Gallore

Duane Storey — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:08:58 +0000

Wow, everyone's getting older. This is a quick entry, because I just got in from Chilliwack and I'm a bit bagged. First, my mom's birthday was on Friday, so a big happy birthday to her. Also, Jennifer, Cory, Robbie, Margo and Mike all turned 30 in the past few weeks. Tonight was also another Jen's birthday out here in Vancouver. So, a big happy birthday to all of you. Some of us met out in Chilliwack tonight for a dual housewarming / birthday party for everyone. Cory and Tanya's new place is really awesome, and it was great to see some old high school friends again.

The next month

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 04:15:40 +0000

I have almost exactly one month until my 30th birthday, and I'm going to try and make a few changes for the month leading up to it. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, as of tonight, I'm going to try and get a good night's sleep and wake up early during the week. That means bedtime for me tonight at 11pm, and up at 7am. I'm gonna shift my work schedule a bit so I'm home a bit earlier in the evenings. And get this, I'm even gonna go for a run in the morning. Also, although it's going to be hard, I'm gonna abstain from drinking until my birthday and give my liver a chance to recouperate. Hopefully I'll be able to save some a little cash and to spend a bit more time at home. March is gonna be a bit busy, but then hopefully things will die down a bit...

Hesty's New Camera

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 05:02:48 +0000

So Hesty picked up a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi last week, and has been slowly uploading his new photos onto flickr. I love watching the photos that naturally come out of a purchase like this, and to see how everyone puts their own style and content into the photos they do. Here's a shot Hesty took last night of his dog "playing" with a pillow. You're a natural buddy.

CT Scan Number 2

Duane Storey — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:09:41 +0000

I just got back from St Paul's hospital where I picked up the data from my second CT scan. For those people living in a cave, last November some guys tooled me pretty good outside a bar and ended up fracturing several bones in my face, including the orbital floor of my left eye. What this basically meant is that there was little to no support for my left eyeball in my left socket. That was November 4th. On November 22, I went in for plastic surgery to correct the defect under my eye and put my eye back to its proper position. They do this by sticking in a plastic sheet that is meant to hold the eye up while the bone slowly regrows under the sheet. After the surgery everything looked pretty good, but at around the one week mark, my eye started looking more like it did pre-operatively. My doctor decided to wait a month to see if some of the problems were associated with intra-orbital swelling from the surgery, but unfortunately after four weeks everything was exactly the same. So, at the beginning of February I had my second CT scan. Most people don't realize that they have full access to their medical records, including data on X-Rays and CT Scans. I've kept most of my lab work results at home over the years, and managed to figure out the (stupid) procedure at St. Paul's for acquiring digital data. Normally they have this 30 day waiting period before you're allowed to get access to it (nobody was able to tell me why), but thankfully I managed to run into a friendly young nurse tonight that decided to help me out and give me the data early. I also found a pretty cool open source CT viewer called OsiriX. It can read DICOM data which most hospitals use nowadays for X-Rays, MRIs and CT Scans, so it's a pretty versatile piece of software. Once I figured out how to scale the data properly, I got a good look at my eye socket. As you can see in this picture, the implant supporting my left eye (which looks like my right eye in this photo) doesn't appear to be in the correct position (it should match the angle of the bone under my other eye). What this means is that my eye is sitting slightly lower than it should, and that some of the muscles on the bottom of the eye are slightly out of place (which probably is contributing to my double vision). On Wednesday I'll meet with my plastic surgeon and see what he wants to do. Considering there doesn't appear to be much intact bone to rest the implant on, I'm not sure what they're going to do. I'll give an update once I find out. I've added a few slices here if anyone wants to step through them one at a time.

Low Carb Diets Vindicated, Once Again

Duane Storey — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:54:51 +0000

If you would have mentioned that you were trying to lose weight by a reducing your carbohydrate intake a few years ago, people would have dismissed you as crazy and told you that you were only hurting your body. However, that all changed sometime around 2003 when a prestigious medical school released a peer-reviewed study that basically showed Low Carbohyrate diets not only help people lose more weight, but also result in better blood-lipid profiles than their low-fat counterparts. Since then, I've read countless studies on PubMed that basically indicate the same thing. However, another fairly major study just came out that is of interest. Here are the key points:

A study of four popular diets found that women put on the one with the least carbohydrates -- the Atkins plan -- lost at least twice as much weight as those on the others, researchers said on Tuesday. ... Women assigned to the Atkins group lost an average of 10.4 pounds (4.7 kgs) compared to 5.7 pounds (2.5 kgs) for LEARN, 4.8 pounds (2.1 kgs) for Ornish and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kgs) for Zone, the study said. The women on the Atkins diet also had the most improvements in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure, added the study published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors said some have worried that diets low in carbohydrates but high in total and saturated fat would cause cholesterol problems and increase the risk of heart disease. "These concerns have not been substantiated in recent weight-loss diet trials," including the new research, the authors said.

Harvard Medical school, which has one of the most famous departments or nutrition, updated it's food guide years ago, squarely placing refined carbohydrates at the top of the food pyramid (that is, the ones you should eat the least of). I'm still amazed at how many nutrionists or "doctors" firmly place their nutrition beliefs in a very low fat diet, something which for many people which any type of insulin resistance is practically lethal. I'm glad to see more evidence coming out so that manufacturers of garbage food might start putting some nutrition back into their products.

Orbital Floor Surgery

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:08:59 +0000

I met with my plastic surgeon this morning, and as I thought, we're going to go ahead and do another surgery. The apparent source of my problem seems to be that the ledge that was supporting the implant ended up not being very stable, and the implant has collapsed slightly along with my eye. Also, there is slight herniation of some of orbital contents into my sinus near the back, which is most likely the source of my double vision. The good news is that it should be nearly 100% fixable. They are going to put in another larger implant, and probably secure it using microscrews (sounds so exciting doesn't it) so that it doesn't drift. Since one of the only things I've been looking forward to for a while is my 30th birthday, I've decided to postpone the surgery until after April 7th. I don't really want to risk something not going quite right and having to miss out on my own big event. I have a meeting on April 13th to discuss the surgery a little more, and will probably have the actual surgery the following week, most likely on the Monday or the Thursday. Mixed emotions right now I guess. I definitely would like to not have double vision anymore, and it would be nice to not have a constant reminder of November 4th every time I look in the mirror. I'm just not really looking forward to surgery and the associated recovery time, even though for the most part, it was relatively painless.

Duck or Chicken?

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:58:03 +0000

You decide...

Rainbow

Duane Storey — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:15:55 +0000

I drove over to Jason's tonight and right when I got there noticed one of the coolest rainbows I had ever seen. I actually had both my camera and my tripod in my car, so I quickly set up and took a few shots.

Reflections on a iPod

Duane Storey — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:07:31 +0000

I've had an iPod now for probably at least two years. On my birthday, Des picked me up one of those iPod Minis back when they first came out. And as I sit here, on my couch, patiently waiting for it to charge enough so it will make the rainy walk to work, I thought I'd reflect a bit on the iPod. Since I usually walk wherever I go downtown, I pretty much take the iPod with me when I can. I'm sure I'm going to be part of that generation that goes prematurely deaf since I'm somehow genetically inclined to listen to my iPod on max or near-max volume all the time. In fact, if it could go louder, I'd probably bump it up a few notches. It only took me about a week before I blew the headphones that came with, and now I'm on my 3rd of 4th pair of cheap ones.. None of these headphones actually sound as good as the original ones in my opinion, but I just can't bring myself to shell out another $40 for the same ones that blew so easily last time. In terms of battery life, mine's always been pretty pitiful. It seems like I can only make a few trips to and from work before it's dead again. I don't believe the claims about the battery life that Apple made, because in my experience, they are simply not accurate. The menu system is pretty cool, but I don't think it's perfect yet. I think one of the best purchases I made was this little device that lets me hook my iPod to my stereo, and at the same time charges it. It even comes with its own remote, so I can sit on my couch and cycle through my iPod in my living room with ease. It's made listening to music at home far more enjoyable, since I don't have to burn CDs anymore. Best part is I've become accustomed to dropping my iPod into the charger the moment I walk in the door, so for the most part I never really have it die on me midsong. Making the jump to my new Macbook Pro caused me to lose most of my MP3s on my iPod, so unfortunately I don't have a pile of music on it right now. Other than that, it's been a pretty enjoyable little device. I debated getting the video version a while ago, but truth is I don't really watch many videos these days, and don't really think it's an ideal form factor for watching videos. But when this puppy dies, I imagine I'll buy something else similar. Anyways, my iPod should be charged now, so it's time to make the long dreary walk to work.

More Rainbows

Duane Storey — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 01:54:47 +0000

I showed my shot of that rainbow the other day, but it seems like lots of people took great shots of it. Here are some samples of the same rainbow taken by different people from flickr.

Divorce

Duane Storey — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 03:00:49 +0000

I would love to have been there:

A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck. Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house -- which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide -- before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls. "The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased." After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother's house where he has since been staying.

Original article here.

Amanda's Birthday

Duane Storey — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 08:18:14 +0000

Tonight was Amanda's birthday gathering down at her place. I was pretty bagged, so I didn't stay too late (I actually didn't even drink), but I snapped a few photos while I was there.

When Email Just Isn't Enough

Duane Storey — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:49:40 +0000

So last night I headed down to the Alibi room for Keri's 29th birthday party. I got the official invite via a myspace bulletin a while ago, and slotted it into my calender. The piece I apparently forgot I guess was the "RSVP via Email" thing at the bottom. So tonight, I got all dolled up, and headed down there for 10pm. Only problem was nobody else was there.. So, I got myself a drink, and waited. After an hour I realized there were a few holes in my original plan.. Unfortunatley, my cell phone was recently fixed, and I don't have many numbers in there yet, so I had no way to contact any of the people who were going to be there.. After waiting nearly another hour (which wasn't totally boring because I was chatting it up with the cute female bartender and sampling their wines), I realized the birthday wasn't happening, for me at least. So I headed home, found a phone number I needed, and called to find out where everyone was. Apparently there were all next door to where I was. Oh well. Live and learn I guess. In other news, congrats to Jeff and Michele who, after 14 hours of labour, just gave birth to little baby Mia. I'm gonna head down to the hospital in a bit and try to take a few photos of the happy new family.

Maya Montgomery

Duane Storey — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 04:20:27 +0000

Going To Sleep With A Macbook Pro

Duane Storey — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:17:04 +0000

So last week I decided that I was going to try and break my whole staying up late, getting up late routine and actually make an effort to go to bed early and get up early. For the most part (except for getting in a bit later today, which is excusable but unfortunately not bloggable), I've been keeping to a routine of hitting the sack around 11, reading on my laptop until 11:30 or so, and getting up at 7am. Now, I have a queen sized bed. I've had one for years now I guess, ever since university. But the funny thing is, I will never ever be able to sleep like I have a queen sized bed. For the most part, I curl up in a ball and stick to my one side, even on the nights where I toss and turn. When I clean my sheets, one side is always crumpled and messy, and the other is relatively pristine. It's almost sad in a way, since it's a constant reminder that half of my bed is perpetually empty. Sure, I could probably switch sides from time to time, but then not only would I not have a blog entry, but it would also just be weird sleeping on that side of the bed. I guess when you're in a relationship everone forms little sleeping habits, and mine unfortunately are hard to break. So, since I'm now trying to read more in bed, both in the morning when I wake up, and at night before I go to bed, I've sort of gotten in the habit of just letting my laptop sleep beside me. I don't really have a night table (well it's more like a filing cabinet, but it has a fan on it, which I sometimes turn on just to help me sleep), so it's either getting up to put my laptop on my desk, or just setting it beside me and passing out when I'm tired. So, lately I just slide it to the other side of the bed, roll over and hit the hay. When I wake up, it's always still got lots of battery power (having actually been in "sleep" mode most of the night, unlike my Vista box which still runs full tilt when sleeping), so I can flip it on and slowly regain consciousness over the morning news. Would I rather have a warm body sleeping against me every night instead of a warm battery? You bet. But for now it will have to do.

Opacity Problems

Duane Storey — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:05:22 +0000

I'm not sure why, but for some reason the opacity on my blog is messed up. Not always, just sometimes. In random places. I've gone over the CSS with a fine-toothed comb, and it looks fine, so I'm really not sure why it's doing this. I'm gonna spend some time soon to try and fix it, because it's really pissing me off. If you highlight a section of dim code, it automatically becomes bright and stays bright, so there's almost some weird incompatibility going on with something I'm trying to do. It looks fine in Safari, just not anything Mozilla based.

Piggy Banks

Duane Storey — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:09:55 +0000

I actually came home with the intention of writing two separate blog entries, but I'm so frickin tired that I'm only gonna be able to get this one out. This is a pretty crazy little time at work right now, and I'm on day two of a pretty hard two week push. Yesterday was a 12 hour day at work, and today was pretty close to 14. By Friday I'm definitely going to be ready for a few drinks (or maybe a long nap). Anyways. I was chatting wtih my brother-in-law on MSN earlier today, and he let me know that their house was broken into in Chilliwack this morning. The guys made away with most of the expensive electronics: two laptops, some random computer stuff, and a playstation portable (PSP). I'm sure they took more electronics (since Andy is a gadget-whore like myself), but those were the big highlights that were mentioned. And to be honest, even though that really sucks, I've seen and heard of that happening enough times in my life that it doesn't really seem to affect me that much. I've had my car broken into, and so have most other people I know. Just a few weeks ago my friend Chris had his car all smashed in his own secure underground parkade. Thankfully I've never had my apartment broken into (although in university some guy walked into my quad and stole our VCR while I was studying in my room). The part that really upset me about this story though wasn't that they stole some laptops, but that they went into my eight year old niece's room and emptied her Piggy Bank that she's been putting money into for the last few years. And seriously, I doubt she had more than $50 in there, but I remember what it was like to be a kid, and that would just break my heart if that happened to me. So, you can be sure that the first thing Uncle Duane does next time he's in town is to donate a big wad of change out of my own Piggy Bank to offset what was taken from her. I just don't understand some people sometimes.

Europe Bound

Duane Storey — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:55:06 +0000

This morning I came into work fully expecting to have a long day and then go home to bed. But it now appears I have to go home, do laundry, and pack for a last minute trip to Finland. Which is cool I guess, since I've never been anywhere in Europe before (which in itself is strange considering how much travelling I've done). It's going to be a work related trip, so I probably won't have too much time to relax, but I'm taking a few days at the end (I hope) to explore a little bit and see what it's like.

Exhausted, But Ready To Fly!

Duane Storey — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 09:04:40 +0000

So, there are a million things I could say about this week, but I'm just too tired.. It's been long, and I have to get on a plane in less than 24 hours to head to Europe.. It's nearly 15 hours of travelling, and when I get there it will be cold and snowing. I went out with Derek and Cisco for a few hours tonight, despite being completely bagged. We ended up at Salt in gastown (which is a really wicked wine tasting place). Here's a shot of me tonight. And here are a few more from the night. Special thanks to Van for lending me his 24-70 f/2.8L for the week in Europe.

Waiting In Heathrow Airport

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:15:50 +0000

So I have a few minutes to kill here at Heathrow, so I thought I would write a quick blog entry. The flight from Vancouver to here was relatively uneventful. The guy next to me was sort of a prick, and unfortunately for me I don't think he brushed his teeth yesterday, but I survived. I haven't slept a wink, so I'm hoping I can sleep for an hour or two on the next flight to Helsinki. I think my next flight is delayed slightly, which means I probably won't get into the hotel until around 10pm or so. One thing is for certain -- I'm definitely going to be ready to have a nice long sleep when I get there, and wake up bright and early for a fun filled week of work. My laptop is about to die, and apparently I was too dumb to pack the European power adapter in my carry-on, so I gotta end this entry now and go look at perfume or liquor or something for another hour or so. I'll do a quick blog entry when I get into Finland later.

Sleepless in Helsinki

Duane Storey — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:31:43 +0000

Surprisingly, I actually was tired enough to go to bed sometime around 10:30pm Helsinki time last night. The last time I got any real sleep was Friday night back in Vancouver, so after 15 hours of travelling, I was pretty hungry and exhausted. I just didn't have the strength to go find food when I got here, so I popped a couple over the counter sleeping pills and went to sleep. Unfortunately, although I did sleep pretty well, I was up around 5:30am waiting eagerly for the 6:30am breakfast to start. Having just gotten back from eating, I feel well enough to finally do my first real blog entry out here. I'm staying at the Radisson Seaside hotel here in Helsinki, which is actually a pretty nice hotel for a decent price. A full buffet breakfast is included with the nightly room charges, as is wireless internet access (although it's not the fastest in the world -- I think Tokyo gets that honour). The shower is nice and large, and I've already had two rather lengthy showers to relax since being here (they have all these fancy fruit scented shampoos to choose from).. Apparently there is even a nice sauna on the top floor where you can drink wine and look out over the city. In terms of being "seaside", I haven't really had a chance to see it yet. Across the street there's a small harbour, but it looks rather frozen over right now. Landing last night reminded me a lot of landing in Ottawa in the winter -- everything was covered in a blanket of snow, and you could see the snow falling in the little aura of light around all the streetlights. For the most part, every one I've tried to speak english with has responded in english, which makes my life a whole lot easier. One guy got pretty excited that I spoke english, and wouldn't really let me go away without speaking with him for a while (which was, as friendly as I am, a challenge considering how tired I was last night when I got in). Taxis are pretty high class here -- almost all of them I've seen have been fancy Mercedes or BMW variants. The one I rode in last night was a brand new fully loaded Volvo with leather seats. So far, my take on the prices here is that everything is pretty expensive compared to home. I still haven't gotten over the Euro conversion factor in my head, but almost everything on the hotel food menu was 15-20 euros, plus a 10 euro delivery charge if you wanted it in your room. So, that seems pretty expensive to me. The cab ride was around 40 euros as well, but it was a fair distance to the airport, so that could be reasonable. In Heathrow, the ATM machines gave Euros, but everyone gave change in pounds, which seemed like a pretty easy way to screw tourists over. I'm easily one of those tourists that can be screwed over because I'm generally pretty trusting of people. When the price came up on the register, I just held out a wad of money and said "help", and the lady took away some and gave some back. So, hopefully I don't walk away from here completely hosed. It's 7:30am here, and I'm not scheduled to be on-site until noon, so I have a bit of time to kill. I'm going to spend a few hours working, and then maybe go outside for a 30 minute walk and try to find a SIM card for my GSM phone so I can have a local number. I'll also, of course, snap a few photos for flickr in the process. I'm currently scheduled to fly out of here on Wed the 28th, passing through London on the way back to Vancouver. Depending on how things go this week, I may have a day or two at the end to see a few things around Finland, or possibly even get on a plane and go see Paris or something. I'm not counting on it at this point, so we'll see. St. Petersburg Russia looked really close on a map, and I wanted to check that out, but the visa process is a bit complicated, and it's not as close as I originally thought -- so the reality is I probably won't get to go there (although visiting Russia would be pretty cool in my mind).. So that's it for my first update. I hope the rain is still falling in Vancouver..

The Quest for Santa

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:04:38 +0000

As most of my faithful readers now know, I'm currently in Helsinki, Finland with work. So far, I haven't really seen much of this city, although walking around it was really awesome to see the old style buildings and narrow walkways. Someone asked me what the buildings were like, and I stopped myself before saying "they look European" since I guess that's obvious. Yesterday someone flew down from a little town called Oulu to hang out with me for the day and work on some stuff. One of the things that we discussed was me going up there for a few days, since there are more people up there that understand what we're working on. So today, I have to get on another plane and travel even further North and spend a few days in Oulu. In fact, I'll just be a stones throw away from the Arctic Circle. Right now I'm scheduled to fly back to Helsinki on Friday and possibly spend the weekend here. My return flight to Vancouver is on Wednesday, so whatever happens I need to be in Helsinki by Tuesday so I can wake up and start the long journey home. I'm not sure which is further north, Dawson City, YT, or Oulu, Finland, but after today I will have spent time in both and will probably have seen the Northern Lights from two very different locations. I'm anxiously awaiting the opportunity to take my camera out and snap some photos. So far I've been holed up in my hotel most of the time. I'll drop another entry probably tonight or tomorrow once I'm all settled up in Oulu. Also, I've been playing around with a website called TripTracker.com. It's a neat idea, where it will basically import all your flickr photos and help you build a trip out of it. I started one for this trip, so take a look and keep track of it -- apparently there's an RSS feed for it too.

Far Away From Home

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:19:53 +0000

When I lived in Ottawa, there were times when I used to get a little homesick and miss Vancouver and Chilliwack. When that happened, I was fortunate enough to stumble across a little website called KatKam.ca. It's a live webcam that points into the direction of the evening sunset, only a block or so away from my apartment in Vancouver. To this day, I always religiously check it out from time to time when I'm out of town, just to see what I'm missing back home. Here's a shot of the sunset tonight that I missed. I'm heading to the airport now to fly up North. See you guys in about a week.

Live from Oulu, it's Wednesday morning...

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:52:25 +0000

So my body decided that it would take a brief unscheduled break from sleeping at around 2am this morning.. I decided in that time I would throw a few photos up from yesterday (I don't have that many). Oulu is pretty quaint so far, and I'm actually really eager to walk around and see some things (since the architecture looks really cool from my hotel window). I have to be on-site around 9 this morning (which means I need to get back to sleep), but afterwards I think my hosts are all taking me for dinner. For the most part, my digital SLR has been in my backpack most of the time. I took a few shots with it in Helsinki, but my little powershot has had more use on this trip. I should be able to post some photos from dinner later, and maybe a walk around. I was thinking today that this is the furthest I've ever been from Vancouver. No matter what, I have 13 hours of flying ahead of me to get back to BC, which equates to somewhere around 11,000-13,000 kms of ground coverage. Not bad (actually, in the 747 on the way over here, we had a pretty strong tail wind, and we were doing around 1100km/hr ground speed -- pretty quick). Sorry this blog entry sucks.. But it's 2:51am and I'm still a bit groggy. Maybe I'll come back and unsuck it a bit later..

A Shot From the Other Night

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:54:52 +0000

Hesty, Chris and I went out for a few drinks in Vancouver before I left.. Here's a shot Hesty took of me enjoying some beer. This was down at the Trap and Gill.

Around Oulu

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:45:59 +0000

I've been in Oulu, Finland for a few days now, and thankfully last night I actually got to go out and see a few things. Jari and Seppo were nice enough to take me to a pretty fancy Russian restaurant last night where we had some great food, nice wine, and of course some type of random vodka shot. Afterwards, we sort of started our own mini pub crawl, checking out a few of the bars in the Oulu downtown. I really love the architecture over here. I'm not sure how you'd really describe it, but everything is really quant and different looking. Last night was pretty cool because there was this fog over most of the city, and it made everything feel slightly dreamy (or maybe that was just the beer?) Poor Jari had to get on a plane at 5am, and around 1am (after ample amounts of liquor) he was looking pretty rough. Thankfully he called and reserved a cab last night to take him to the airport. Tomorrow evening I head back to Helsinki. I've sort of tossed a few ideas around of what to do after that.. Originally I was going to spend a few days in Helsinki and then maybe try and get to somewhere else in Europe. Unfortunately though, the airlines haven't been cooperating. I was hoping to change my Helsinki-London leg of the flight to be a few days earlier so that I could see London and Paris possibly. No go -- I'm not allowed any stop overs in Europe with that fare class. Next I debated just tossing that segment completely and showing up in London on my own. Jason told me I might not be able to do this, and after checking into it, I'm definitely not allowed. If I don't show up for my first leg, they'll basically cancel and resell my seat on the second leg, so that plan got tossed pretty quick. I briefly debated buying a return ticket to Paris from Helsinki, but since I don't really like flying, and am a little broke lately (thanks to my new laptop and vacation in Seattle), shelling out $1000 for a flight and a few hotel rooms to walk around one of the world's most romantic cities by myself didn't really excite me enough. So, I had to make a pretty big compromise. Almost all the flight segments I could change my ticket to were full except for the one on Saturday. So, I've changed my flights around and I'll be coming home this weekend. I fly from Helsinki to London early in the morning on Saturday, and leave for Vancouver later than night. I'm going to take the train from Heathrow to downtown London and spend Saturday snapping photos and enjoying the warmth of the 51st parallel. I think the high is around 13C, and it will be a nice break from a week of snow and cold. Maybe I'll save Paris for my next girlfriend. Around 6:30pm on Saturday (Vancouver time) I'll break through the clouds above Vancouver and catch a glimpse of the sun setting over the pacific ocean once again. Either that or a whole bunch of rain.

London Bound

Duane Storey — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:54:31 +0000

I approximately 24 hours, I'll be stepping off a plane at Heathrow and rushing madly to see some of London before my connecting flight to Vancouver leaves in the early evening. I think I'll probably only have about 3 and a half hours to see London, which I'm sure doesn't give me much time to see very much. With the time constraints, it looks like I'm gonna shell out $100 for the express train that goes from the airport to Paddington Station near central London. From there, I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. It still seems like quite a haul to get to any of the attractions, so I imagine I'll have to take "the tube" to go see something. In terms of what I really want to see, I really am not sure. I'd like to take a ride on the London Eye, but if there's any sort of lineup, I'm gonna have to just skip it entirely. St Paul's Cathedral is high on my list too, as is London Bridge. I could probably live without seeing Buckingham Palace, but if I find myself near there, I'll stop by. I debated taking one of those quick bus tours, but I think it's a pretty impersonal way to see a city, and wouldn't really allow for any good photos. I think I'd rather see a few less places but take more time to enjoy them. Westminster Abbey is a place I'd really like to visit as well. Buried there are a few people who have influenced my life to some degree, including Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ernest Rutherford and Sir Isaac Newton. Tower Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre are also pretty cool, and I'd like to check them out if I have time. I've somehow adopted a weird schedule while out here.. I've been going to bed early and getting up early (like real early -- today I was up at 5am). Funny thing is, I'm actually enjoying it. It's pretty relaxing sitting in bed at 5am slowly watching the sun come up. I sort of meander down to the buffet room around 6:30am, have a coffee, eat some of my "super breakfast", and then just chill out a while longer. I'm finding that by 10pm I'm pretty bagged and ready to go to sleep, but it's a nice change from being up late all the time. One of the interesting parts of the trip for me was viewing the work ethic of a European high tech company. In North America, we have this stupid idea that employees in high tech should work 50-60 hours a week at a minimum. That usually involves late nights and a few weekends here and there (or many in a row, depending on what's going on). Out here, everyone works from 8-4 almost religiously. Ask someone to work the weekend, and they'll probably smile and think you're making some lame joke. How about vacation? Two weeks? Nope, more like six I think. I asked if any people ever work long hours, and was told that some people do -- just the ones that are too junior or green to realize that it's up to them to say no. Funny thing is, they seem to get a lot done in the time they have. It could be because they're rested, but it's probably because they're actually happy that they have a life and things to enjoy outside of work. I have a flight tonight back to Helsinki, and my flight tomorrow morning is at 8am, putting me in London at 9:10am I think. Connecting flight to Vancouver is around 4:30pm, landing sometime around 7pm I think. That puts me home around 8pm, and drinking wine by 8:02pm roughly. What do I want to do when I get back in town? You'd be surprised, but I'm actually longing to go grocery shopping, and cook a nice meal at home.

Let the good times roll

Duane Storey — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:28:15 +0000

Now that I'm officially done what I came to do here in Finland, it's really time to let loose and party it up a bit... I just demolished my first beer here in the Oulu airport, and am now working on beer #2 waiting patiently for my plane to board. I've spent the last hour researching cool spots to go drink beer tonight in Helsinki, and I have a few in mind that I'm going to check out later.. I can't be too drunk or out too late tonight since I have lots to do in London tomorrow, but I'm going to do my best to drink as the locals do. Jari and Seppo impressed me with their drinking ability the other night, and I imagine the locals might be able to keep up with me tonight (perhaps even best me, although I haven't been bested in years). I remember the last person who said they could outdrink me (a certain 21 yr old guy at work), and how he stumbled away from the bar in shame, long before I had even started mumbling. I would really love to take my DSLR out tonight, but I'm always really afraid of what's going to happen to it when I drink. Whenever I don't bring it out, I'm always disappointed with the great photo-ops that I miss. So I'm not really sure.. Van was really nice to lend me his $1500 24-70 f/2.8L lens, and it's been great having that lens here, since it's really an ideal walk around lens. Anyways, just thought I'd drop a quick note here.. Next blog entry will probably be in Heathrow airport before my connecting flight to Vancouver.

Plane Leaving

Duane Storey — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:10:59 +0000

So I gotta jet.. Here are the photos from London.

Back At Home from London

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:46:46 +0000

I'm pretty bagged, so this will be short. The flight leaving Heathrow was pretty much a complete clusterfuck. Apparently they were out of gates, so they just parked the 747 on the concrete a mile away and had to shuttle us all there in small groups.. We took off around an hour late.. About an hour into it, we had some pretty wicked turbulence, which for someone who hates flying basically unnerved me. I popped a few sleeping pills when we hit altitude and managed to sleep for most of the flight home (surprisingly, because I had an aisle seat, and nobody asked me to get up so they could go to the bathroom).. We landed in Vancouver around 8pm I think... I missed my wine drinking time by about an hour, but just had my second glass here... I left my place a completely disaster, so I guess I have to wake up and do some cleaning.. I'm so hungry I briefly debated eating some of the Becel margerine in my fridge (since that's basically all I have).. Instead, I think I'll go for a walk and get a slice of pizza or poutine or something. That's it for me.. Will post more tomorrow..

Proper Etiquette In The Online World

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 06:43:20 +0000

A few weeks ago, I started reading over craigslist and frequenting a few of the online dating sites I used to go to in the past. A few emails have been passed around, and some of those have ultimately lead into online conversations via IM. What bothers me the most is that there's this trend where people initiate a chat with you, and then are either too busy or too uninterested to spend time chatting. For example, this one girl will always IM me whenever she sees me and ask to chat. So I say sure.. Then, I spend 5 - 10 minutes waiting around for her one or two word response to every essay I write. I'm sure she's chatting with a ton of people or something, but it just seems so rude to start a conversation without any desire to actually have a conversation. Now, if I'm at work and busy, I'll let the person know that I'm busy.. But if I'm at home, and I go out of my way to chat with someone, then I usually make sure I'm around to chat with them. Too many of these girls seem to just want attention instead of anything meaningful. And here's the best part -- I've stopped playing the game. Whenever they IM me, I just give a one or two word response and then ignore them for a while. And the funny thing is, they get upset that I'm ignoring them, or not talking to them, even though they're not offering anything to discuss... It's like I'm a puppet and I'm meant to entertain them or something. The next part I've questioned a lot recently is the etiquette of friendship. What does it mean to be a good friend to someone? Does it mean keeping in touch? How about being there for them? Making them feel better when they are sad? I've always said you can really tell who your friends are by the people who shows up to help you move. Seriously, nobody likes moving. It usually always is on a weekend, and it blows the whole day. Plus, you end up carrying shit that should have been thrown out years ago, and you have to keep a smile on as you move that 1000 lb 30 year old television set and act like you are having fun. Some of my friends always show up to help me move. They don't ask where the beer is (maybe because they know where it is), they don't ask for pizza, they just show up and lend a hand. And then there are those who always have an excuse. Just like there are those people who never commit to hanging out until the very last minute (when presumably, there is nothing else to do that night), the people who show up at your house warming party three hours late (after calling to make sure people are actually there), and the people who only return calls when they got nothing else to do. Last year I went through a pretty big breakup. Part of breaking up, especially as you get to be my age, is evaluating where you are in life -- what you did right in the relationship, and what you did wrong. Someone once told me a big part of any successful relationship, be it friendship or something deeper, is about *making* time for that person, not just about *having* time. Everyone has spare time to do random things, but it's far harder and more important to *make* time for the things that we care about or are important to us. How hard is it to pick up the phone from time to time to say hi? How hard is it to respond to an SMS message periodically? How hard is it to write a quick email to let someone know you care? Are people in this world so busy that they go around making other people feel bad because they can't *make* a few minutes of time to help make others feel good? I wish I knew.

Taking A Break From Blogging

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:18:24 +0000

After something that happened tonight, I've decided to take a small break from blogging. I originally started blogging a long time ago to keep my family in the loop about what I was doing on the other side of the country. Over time, I've sort of felt compelled to write because I think that somewhere inside I have something important to say from time to time. I've always tried to be honest on my blog, to hold up a mirror to the inner workings of my life so that others might possibly learn something from the reflection I cast. Unfortunately, writing a blog has its ups and downs, and sometimes in the process of trying to help you can inadvertently cause others to hurt. For those of you who rely on my blog as a way to keep in touch with me, I'm afraid we'll have to go back to old fashioned means. And for those of you who have lurked in the shadows this whole time, it's unfortunate that we never had a chance to chat and to get know each other. I'd like to think that after a while I'll start writing again, but I think I'm going to take some time out for me for a little while. Thanks everyone for reading, for contributing, and for taking part in my little online presence while it was active. I'll keep the site up and the domain registered, and someday, hopefully in the not too distant future, start writing again. For those looking for other things to read, here are some that I like to read. Matt's Blog Darren's Blog Derek's Blog And also a bunch of links at the right. Here's the last photo I took tonight, for those of you who liked looking at these: Sincerely, Duane Storey

Birthdays

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:55:21 +0000

So as most of you already know, in less than two weeks time, I'm going to be turning 30. No, I will not be starting any fires in Vancouver with the heat from my birthday cake, but I will be drinking no doubt in some bar somewhere with some of my friends. 30 is a really a strange birthday. As I approach it, I'm not really sad about it, but I am aware of the weight of it. I think it makes you look back on a pretty important chapter of your life and evaluate where you were, where you are, and hopefully where you're still going. As Kris said a few weeks ago over beers, "a decade will do that to you." Last night my dad came out from Chilliwack to hang out and crash on my couch (my bed is always available to guests, but honestly my couch is usually comfier), and to hang out. We took the aquabus over to granville island and had a nice dinner at the Keg. Afterwards, we came back home, opened a 1996 Chateau du Cray I've had around for a while, and drank some wine while watching movies. It was a really fun night, and it's nice to have family in the big city from time to time. During his visit, my dad gave me my very first birthday present of the season -- a powered camping cooler. He has one similar, one that he lent me during my road trip in the summer. It's awesome because you can throw it in the back seat, plug it into the cigarette lighter, and relax knowing that you'll have cold beer or pop whenever you reach your destination. (As an aside, I remember saying the word "pop" to this cute girl in Oulu and having her nearly buckle over in laughter for how stupid it sounded). As you can see, I have written another blog entry. I'm not sure what that means entirely, but I realized over the last few days how hard it is not to write about things. I've had a couple of events pop up where I was like "wow, I should write about that", only to then realize I'm taking a break from blogging. So, maybe I'm back for now. I've had some interesting emails over the last few days (some of them written while sober, some obviously while hammered), mainly about my "Etiquitte" post. Some people totally agreed with what I said, others not so much. Just to set the record straight, that post wasn't really directed at anyone in particular, it was just an observation regarding the times we live in, and how most relationships end up being, for whatever reasons, quite superficial. Which is why I'm gonna step it up a notch or two with some of my friends too. The other night I went over to Jeff and Michele's and got to see baby Maya for the first time.. I snapped a few photos and have attached them to the bottom of this post. I'm also hoping to head out to White Rock for a few hours this weekend and hang out with Brennen, Jessica and Kaedy (so if you read this, get the BBQ ready). In just a few weeks as well, sometime after my birthday, I'll be going into St. Paul's for another round of reconstructive surgery on my eye socket. The end goal is to repair the damage to the bottom of my eye socket, which should hopefully correct my double vision and the position of my eye (which unfortunately is slightly out due to the rather large hole under my eye). I still have limited sensation on the left side of my face, including my cheek, left part of my nose, and almost no sensation (like when you come out of the dentist) in my left lip, gums or teeth. If this is caused by swelling or impairment of the infraorbital nerve in my eye socket, it may correct itself slowly after the surgery. However, usually after six months nerves generally don't get any better. So, this may be as good as it gets.

Sunrise

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:45:45 +0000

Maybe due to jetlag, or maybe because the weather is so nice, but for whatever reason, I've found myself up before the sun has risen three days in a row now. I've taken photos of each sunrise, but I like todays the most I think. So here it is, for those of you who slept through it.

Harbour Center

Duane Storey — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:42:08 +0000

Yesterday after work I was thinking to myself that I have never seen Vancouver from up high really, except for on Grouse Mountain late at night. I've been up the CN Tower in Toronto and the Empire State Building and Rockafeller Center in NYC, but never up in the harbour center. So, last night I grabbed my camera and went to check out what Vancouver looks like at night.

Web Problems

Duane Storey — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:01:27 +0000

So that stupid opacity problem has finally pissed me off enough to start to do something about it. There has to be a bug in my theme somewhere that's doing it, but I haven't been able to pinpoint it exactly. For now I'm switching to this theme, even thought it's a bit buggy too (it's only temporary).. Actually, after disabling my theme and all plugins, the problem still exists in other themes.. I've only noticed it on my mac using Camino or Firefox, so I wonder if there's something wrong there.. I don't see the problem on a PC. Grr... ** Update - so, after spending a few minutes on it, I'm prepared to say this. It's in no way related to any plugins I am using, and the opacity problem spans multiple themes by multiple authors. And it only seems to affect Mac OS X and any browser based on the Mozilla engine (including Camino and Firefox). Weird. So, if you want the problem to go away, you have to use Safari for now.

Dreams

Duane Storey — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 17:43:05 +0000

For some reason, I'm one of those people that rarely dreams. Or rather, I'm told, I rarely remember what it is I dream about, because apparently everyone dreams every night. Lately, I've found myself dreaming alot more. Sometimes the dreams are good, and I'm almost sad to wake up from them. But also, I've been having some nasty ones that I just can't seem to shake. When I was a kid, I had a bunch of work done on my teeth. They pulled four out to make some room, added some weird device to the roof of my mouth to help hold things in place, and of course, I had the token installation of braces for a while. It wasn't very traumatic at the time, but I find myself dreaming about this kind of stuff lately. I have this one recurring dream (I guess you could almost say nightmare) where my teeth fall out slowly over the course of the dream. It starts out with my sort of feeling like one or two teeth are a bit loose, and then having them get looser and looser until I'm trying to hold them in place somehow. And when they do fall out, I start collecting them like they are severed limbs and there's some hope of reconnecting them in the hospital. That one always bothers me, and when I wake up it takes me a while to actually believe all my teeth are in fact still in my mouth, and are all sturdy. Last night I passed out on my bed and dreamed of boats and stormy waters. I can't really remember more than that, but I remember big waves and lots of rain.. Maybe I'll find out more tonight.

Reflections

Duane Storey — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 06:53:11 +0000

I just got back in from a nice evening out at a friend's house, and I'm a bit tired. I was going to wait until the morning to write something, but now is probably as good as any. Last night a bunch of us from work decided to get together and have a few beers. Unfortunately for me, a few beers turned into a pile of beers, a few rums, some wine, more rums, and finally some drunken blogging. All and all, a good night out, but I'm definitely getting too old to drink at that pace anymore. I spent most of today lounging around my house, cleaning a bit, eating a bit, but for the most part I just took it easy. Kasia invited me over to her place for dinner, and I spent most of the night lying on her couch, drinking wine and watching chick flicks. It was really nice to just spend a night away from computers or heavy drinking and just chill out for a change. As I was putting my shoes on, I realized that it was the end of the last Saturday of being 29. In less than a week, I will break the 30 year old barrier, and kiss what's left of adolescence behind. It's somewhat fitting that it will occur on a Saturday, and on a long weekend. I've been thinking for quite a long time about what I want to blog about on that day, and although I haven't written anything yet, I feel like there's a really important blog entry that's waiting to emerge at the end of this week. There's so much I want to say, and so much that has happened in the last ten years that I haven't had the chance to get off my chest. So, check back at the end of this next week and hopefully I will have written something worth reading. Tomorrow I think I'll wake up slowly, drink some coffee, and make my way out to white rock to hang out with Brennen and Jessica for a change.

I wanna be an otter

Duane Storey — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 16:31:11 +0000

Ok, I was randomly surfing youtube today looking for a few videos of something, and accidentally ran into this one. For the people in the crowd who like cute things, and like to "ooh and aww", this one's for you. Even the Otters are getting some lovin.

Baby on Board

Duane Storey — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:26:14 +0000

So yesterday, I met up with Jessica, Brennen, Kaedy, Michele, Jeff, Maya, Margo and Robbie, and the troop of dogs down in Steveston. In the old days, we started this day called "Friends Day", where we would schedule in a day to hang out with our old high school friends. It sounds a bit lame, but with everyone's time constraints, we found if we didn't set aside time to hang out, it never happened. So, even though yesterday wasn't actually a friend's day, we still managed to all meet out in Steveston for a few hours of hanging out. Brennen and Jessica recently had baby Kaedy, and Jeff and Michele recently had Maya. Margo and I were commenting that we really need a place where we can rent babies and dogs for an hour or two for events just like this, because we are starting to feel a bit left out. Here are some shots.

Another Sunrise

Duane Storey — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:22:44 +0000

Ok, I'm sure you're all getting tired of them, so this will be the last one for a while. It's a tad blurry (I hand held it, and since it was into the sun I couldn't really keep good focus of what it was I was shooting at), but you get the idea.

Around Vancouver

Duane Storey — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 01:29:08 +0000

So, I had almost completely forgotten that the Trailer Park Boys were in town this week. My friend Kris met them while he was at SXSW a few weeks ago and had a few drinks with the guys. He had said they were coming to town shortly, but it had slipped my mind until the end of the day today. Since I figured that the Robson's Chapters is on my way home, I swung by with my 70-200mm lens and decided to snap a few photos of the guys. I was hoping Kris or Robert would have been around so I could have gotten a quick intro (Mike Smith, or Bubbles, used to be part of a band I once listened to called Sandbox -- something I would have loved to have told him). I believe the new season starts this week, so if you're into the show, make sure to check it out. In other news, Matthew Good is currently streaming a single from his new album, Hospital Music, for registered members of his website. It's a really amazing track, so I highly recommend checking it out. Here are some of the shots from this evening.

One team, 400 kms, 12000 feet elevation change, one day -- one disease

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:07:51 +0000

A friend of mine at work, Rob Brown, is trying to raise both awareness and some money to support Cancer research here in Canada. I personally lost my grandfather to prostate cancer, and I think most people at some point or another have had someone close to them who has suffered with cancer as well. Rob is part of a team that has taken it upon themselves to bike from Kelowna to Vancouver, a distance of roughly 400 kms (a route that goes through not one, but two large mountain passes), in one day to raise money for cancer research. If you wish to donate, please visit this secure link to make a donation, or drop a comment or two here for support. Good luck Rob.

A Day Without IM

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:01:28 +0000

Yesterday, partly by chance, and later by design, I found that I didn't log into an IM client for nearly the entire day. No Jabber, no Yahoo, no Windows Live or whatever they are calling it now -- just me, alone with my machine. And it was everything that I thought it would be. Now let me just tell you what a typical day is like for me on IM. I have, quite easily, well over 100 people on my IM client. A small percentage of these are personal (friends and family), but without a doubt, the majority are business related. During a typical work day, I'd say 70 of them or so are online and working in front of a computer. What that means is that quite regularly I'll get IM messages while working. In fact, it's rather rare that I go more than 5 or 10 minutes without someone pinging me about something, and the norm that I have multiple conversations going at any one time. Unfortunately, my job involves heavy use of my brain most of the time. Writing software is actually very mentally challenging since you basically have to plan out the entire solution to a problem before you really get started. Normally, I can put the whole solution in my head for a few days or a few weeks if I'm not interrupted, and manage to pretty much implement it as planned. However, every time I get an IM that requires that I pull myself away from my machine for a long enough time, I find it's difficult to get back, mentally, to where I was before. If it happens too often, pretty soon you find that at the end of the day, you didn't really get much accomplished. I didn't go into work planning to stay off my IM client, but somehow around 2pm I realized I had been stuck in meetings for most of the morning, and had been helping others for some of the afternoon. So at that point, I basically decided to see what would happen if I didn't log in the rest of the day. I told my idea to a manager at work, and they sounded interested to see what would happen too. Now, screwing over my fellow friends and colleagues isn't what I intented to do -- everyone has my email and my cell phone number at work, and everyone knows where I sit, so I figured if anything was really important, they'd use one of the means available or simply walk over and talk to me. What did I think would happen? Well, I had expected maybe a marginal increase in traffic around my desk during the day. I had thought some people would have problems and ultimately come to my desk to get some advice or to talk about them, and perhaps send me an email with a question. However, for the most part, the traffic to my desk was pretty ordinary. Extra emails? Not really. Just the standard ones I normally get during a day. However, when I got home at night and finally logged in, there were about 30 messages waiting from me from various people, mostly idle chit chat and a bunch of people trying to get me to solve some problems for them. Funny thing is that nobody really came to my desk to ask me anything, and nobody sent me emails about what they were IMing about. So I can only conclude that they a) realized I wasn't around and attempted to solve the problem themselves, b) what they were asking wasn't really important in the first place, or c) they just gave up and did nothing. I suspect that it was probably some combination of a) and b). It's amazing the importance some people seem to place on being able to get in touch with you right away. Out in Ottawa, our managers approached us and asked us to wear pagers during the night in case there were problems with the manufacturing lines. We politely said "shove that idea as far up your ass as it will go," a sentiment they didn't really understand since, well, we'd get paid if we'd get called. However, I really don't want to be on call 24-7, and neither did any of my co-workers out in Ottawa. Cell phone are another big problem, since most people carry theirs next to their bodies almost everywhere they go. So whenever you can't get a hold of someone on their cell phone, the immediate assumption for some people is that you are screening their calls. And to some extent, that's probably true. I don't do it very often, but sometimes after a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is gab on the phone. In those times, usually I'll just let me phone ring on the table and check who it was later. But I have had people get really upset with me for not answering, or not returning their calls in a short order of time. I guess I could shut it off, but then it's obvious you don't want to talk to anyone (and I don't know why that seems bad, but for some reason it does). What about IM clients? How many people actually log in as invisible or away all the time? I've done it from time to time, mainly because I don't like being bothered consistently when I'm working. However, if everyone logs in as invisible, then the whole system breaks down. One of the main reasons I love going on vacation is that I can turn my cell phone off, close the laptop cover, and take my watch off -- three things that remove a pile of stress from my life. It's an amazing feeling waking up when the sun rises, walking around a village randomly, eating when hungry, sitting on a hammock and not even caring what time of the day it is. It's unfortunate that everyone's lives are so busy that cell phones and IM clients and nearly mandatory for most jobs nowadays. I would be really curious to see what would happen at a company if everyone shut their IM clients off for a week. I would like to think that there would be more informal personal meetings, less pointless chatter going on, more thought going into emails, and definitely more productivity from people trying to get things done. Only one way to find out I guess.

New Glasses

Duane Storey — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:42:23 +0000

My birthday present to myself was a pair of new glasses. Check it out.

Turning 30

Duane Storey — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 03:28:21 +0000

Well, in just a few hours, yours truly will be turning 30. I originally set out last night to write something memorable, and spent a few hours writing a blog entry that I hoped would detail the last ten years of my life. However, upon waking up this morning, I realized that it wasn't really what I wanted to say, probably because I think it was heavily influenced by the events of the last six months. The truth is, this has probably been the hardest year of my life. Between a big breakup, that assault in November, a surgery and some other personal things in my life, it was really quite a challenge to get through it. But the good news is that I did get through, mostly with the help of some great friends and family. So, as I turn 30, I'm going to take this opportunity to turn the page on some of the bad things that have happened, and to say thanks for all the great people in my life for helping me get through them. I am looking forward to all the amazing things that will happen in the next ten years, and the people I will get to share them with. For everyone in my life, thanks for being with me this whole time. I hope to see most of you out tomorrow night. Here are a few photos from the last ten years. Also, thanks Matt and Rebecca for the public birthday wishes on your blogs.

The Aftermath Of My 30th Birthday

Duane Storey — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 23:48:06 +0000

Well, it's now official -- not only am I officially 30, but I have also survived my 30th birthday party. Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy a few beers. In my case, thanks to all the shots, I drank way more than I'm used to. While I had a great time, unfortunately I slipped down the stairs at Honey and lost my glasses long enough for a few people to step on them. So, apparently I'll be visiting the eyeglass store this week to put in a new order. Thanks everyone who popped by. I have a meeting with my plastic surgeon on Friday, and from there I'll know when I'll have my second surgery, which will most likely be within about 10 days after the meeting.

A Bit of Good Luck

Duane Storey — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:56:47 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, I somehow managed to lose my glasses at Honey on my birthday night. Since I only had them for two days, I was obviously a bit bummed about what happened to them. However, both Brennen and Hesty suggested I call my Visa company (since I used my Visa to do the purchase) and see if there is anything they can do. So surprisingly, my Visa policy actually has a clause that covers loss or damage for any new item for a period of 90 days. What that means is that they are going to give me a full refund on the purchase price. I just called the optometry place and put in an order for a new pair. Should be here at the end of next week. I'm actually really glad this worked out, because I was a tad bit bummed about the whole thing. Being out $600 for a pair of glasses isn't really a good way to ring in a new decade.

A Thing of Beauty

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:26:22 +0000

For those of you who read regularly, you'll know that I've been striving to wake up earlier in the morning, and get home from work earlier in the evening. For the most part, throughout my life, I have been a night owl. I have always found it rather peaceful at 1 or 2am in the morning, and used to get some of my best school work done then. However, in the last little while I've found it rather depressing getting home at 8pm, eating dinner, and basically not having very much "regular" time to do normal things like go to movies or just hang out with friends. For the most part I've now conditioned my body to get up around 7am now, which usually puts me at work around 8:30am and home sometime around 6pm or so. I eat a quick dinner and still have a wack of time to do something with in the evening. One of the unexpected side effects from this whole shift is that I've been able to witness quite a few sunrises, and even the odd sunset from the comfort of my little area by the sea here. Although I've always liked watching them, lately they have seemed a bit more lifely and vibrant than I remember. Perhaps the clouds were a little darker these last six months than I realized, or perhaps the rain came down a little harder. But sitting on my patio at 7am with a coffee and a book, watching this city slowly wake up to a ray of light is something I quite look forward to now. A friend of mine commented recently that he was tired of seeing photos on flickr of sunrises and sunsets. And to be honest, while I respect his opinion, I just can't seem to get enough of them myself. As I watched the sun set over English Bay tonight with a diet pepsi in my hand, I think I came to realize just why it is I enjoy them so much -- it's because in almost all locations of this little sphere, no matter how bad life is or how many guns are going off, you will almost always see both a sunrise and a sunset in any given day. And in a world so full of problems, it's nice to step outside, look up in the sky, and see a little beauty and hope from time to time.

Things that go "beep" in the night

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 06:57:08 +0000

I'm a gadget whore, plain and simple. If you were to come into my apartment, you would probably be surprised how many useless techie gadgets I have. From my iPod stereo adapter to my Satellite radio in my car, I just love things the beep and glow. This isn't a recent development either -- when I was a kid, my parents always made sure I had some type of computer around to play with. My first experience in the realm of engineering came probably around the age of 12 when I decided it would be a great idea to dismantle my entire commodore 64 and it's disk drive using a screwdriver -- I did manage to put it all back together again, but the look on my mom's face when she came home that day to a floor full of computer parts was absolutely priceless. As I get older, I've been less impulsive with my purchases, since I now realize that every gadget I own is just another thing that can break and force a costly replacement. So, as things die, I'm reevaluating whether or not I actually really need these things around, and if not, I don't replace them. I recently turned off my Satellite radio subscription (even though it's only $12 a month) because I just don't really use it enough to justify the cost. But one of the recent side effects of having all these gadgets around is the unexpected noises that they sometimes make. For example, last night I was getting ready for bed when my cell phone started beeping and vibrating violently. The culrpit -- some fun birthday party debachery by none other than Miss604 herself -- the phone was set to give me a reminder for a late night meeting entitled "Rebecca is great!" Tonight, while lying in bed, I heard the odd gadget chirping in the other room. After doing some exploring, I found the culrpit in my bag -- a high tech portable computing gadget I had brought home from work. Apparently it likes to let you know when it's not really doing anything by emitting a really loud annoying sound. Thanks gadget. I wasn't doing anything either until you rang -- now I'm walking around my place in my boxers with a hammer looking for you. I also seem to be fighting an ongoing battle with my iPod to disable the alarm in it. No matter how many times I disable it, it somehow always ends up going off in the middle of the night. Which is sort of stupid really, because it just makes a mildly audible sound that wouldn't really wake me up if my head was lying directly on top of it. I guess I could tape my headphones into my ears and set the alarm, and then maybe it might do something. But for the most part, it just annoys me. And while this doesn't classify as a beep, my Macbook Pro has a light on the front with a slowly oscillating intensity that indicates it is in sleep mode. However, when I usually go to bed, it's right beside me, and it's sort of the visual equivalent to a dripping faucet. I guess I could turn it off, but that sort of defeats the purpose of having a sleep mode. Anyways, I'm off to bed, assuming the gadgets cooperate.

From Where We Began

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:09:27 +0000

So, I was reading my buddy Joey's website when I stumbled across a recent article of his. It shows a video of him riding a bike when he was a kid, and of course, in typical kid fashion, hurting himself. When I saw this, I was reminded of a similar accident I had when I was a kid. My sister tied my wagon onto the back of her bike and was pulling me up and down Wiltshire street in Chilliwack. I was having a great time, probably because I was wearing my bright green boots and my tacky overalls. Out of nowhere, my sister hits the brakes. Unfortunately, the wagon didn't have any way to stop, so I smashed into the back of the bike at a pretty fast speed. I tried to open my mouth to cry, but I then realized that all my top teeth were firmly planted in my bottom lip, and I couldn't really open my mouth. I ran inside as fast as I could, only to have my parents pry my mouth open again. So without further ado, because Joey's a big success story now making Hollywood movies with Amanda Bynes and kickin ass in the internet space, I thought I'd share some of his earlier memories here by showing where he came from. So if you want to check out Joey's crazy bike accident, click here. You can read the whole article on his website.

** only one kid was hurt in the making of this video

A Road Trip

Duane Storey — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:36:20 +0000

For some reason, as this weekend approaches, I find myself yearning to get in the car and simply disappear for a few days.. I'm actually in a really good mood, just with the sun shining and the air warming, I feel like going on a little road trip. The only problem is that I don't really want to blow a lot of money. I have no problem camping if I have to, but I'm looking for somewhere to go that's not more than a three or four hour drive. Anyone have any suggestions?

Human Nature

Duane Storey — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:49:27 +0000

This is without a doubt one of the most horrible things I have read in a while.

Watcharaporn Boonmak, 26, was ambushed by gunmen as she rode her motorcycle through a Muslim village in Yala, one of the three southern provinces roiled by three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,000 people have been killed. "She might have been shot in the stomach before they set fire to her and her motorcycle," a Yala police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters by telephone. One of her relatives told Reuters that witnesses at the scene heard Watcharaporn, a garage clerk, screaming and crawling along the road for help but nobody dared respond for fear of reprisals.

I find it nearly incomprehensible that there are people out there that would do this to another human being. What has this world become?

A Quick Sunset

Duane Storey — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:12:03 +0000

A Quick Update

Duane Storey — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:59:20 +0000

First, I have to apologize for my lack of interesting blog entries lately. I have a few on my mind that I might get around to writing this weekend, hopefully some of which will be informational and humourous. I spent tonight walking down the beach with my camera snapping photos. The sunset photo below was one of a few that I ended up liking. One thing that I've noticed lately is that everyone I know that uses flickr, including me, seems to be on a bit of a break. I used to log in every night and see tons of new photos from everyone. Now, I can go days without seeing any changes in photos from any of my 60 or so contacts. Maybe everyone is busy, or perhaps some of the initial excitement over flickr is finally starting to wear off. Tomorrow is a pretty big day for me -- after postponing my surgery for well over a month, tomorrow I finally get to sit down with my plastic surgeon and map out everything about my next surgery. First, we're gonna sit down and figure out a date. Since next week I'm booked doing stuff at work with some guys from out of town, it will definitely be the week after (unless of course the hospital is completely packed solid). The next thing we'll do is go over my last CT scans in complete detail. At this point, I'm going to ask a lot of really tough questions. To be honest, although I've been really happy with my plastic surgeon, I've been pretty disappointed with some of the things that have happened along the way. When I had my initial CT scan in the hospital on the night of November 4th, I sat around for most of the afternoon fully expecting (because some doctor told me) that I was going to have emergency surgery to fix my broken cheekbone. However, once the plastic surgeon in the ER finally looked at my CT scan in detail, he said that surgery could wait a few days and let me go back to Chilliwack with my family to heal. When I went to St. Paul's a few days later for a follow up appointment, I met with a doctor (who I later learned was just doing his residency) who looked over my CT scan and said that I did not require surgery at all -- he said my cheekbone would heal properly and that if I still had double vision in six weeks I should return. I left and went home, fully relieved that I didn't have to have surgery to repair my cheekbone (which is quite involved -- it involves incisions in the eyebrow, under the eye, and a final one inside your mouth -- then the cheekbone is repaired using screws and metal plates). However, once the swelling in my eye went down, it became apparent that my eye was no longer in the proper position. Obviously looking in the mirror and seeing one eye in a different position in distressing, and the whole thing was pretty scary for me. At this point, my friend's fiancee, who lives in Switzerland, offered to look at my CT scan for me and give a second opinion. Upon seeing it, he immediately said that I needed surgery to repair not only the cheekbone (which in his opinion should have been operated on in the ER), but also to repair an undiagnosed orbital floor fracture. I placed a call to a real plastic surgeon here in Vancouver and told him everything that had been going on. Three days later I was in St. Paul's getting ready to have surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery came far too late and my cheekbone had already started to heal in the wrong position. The only way to correct it at this point is to do a massive operation that involves bone saws and blood transfusions. The plastic surgeon basically said he wouldn't even attempt it due to the minimal displacement of the injury. So, they went ahead and "repaired" the orbital floor fracture using a plastic implant. Unfortunately, as my last CT scan showed, the implant is not in the correct position and my eye is still slightly out of place. In addition, I have lost most sensation on the left side of my face and have persistent double vision in about 25% of my visual field. As a result, I have elected to do another surgery hoping that they can correct both the double vision and the position of my eye. But I want to go into the operation this time confident that there's a proper plan in place (since last time the first time the operating surgeon saw my CT scan was about 5 minutes before we started). I've been told this time they are going to use a larger implant that will go further back into my eye socket, and also probably use a few microscrews inside my eye socket to hold the implant in place. Doesn't sound very fun, but I want to get this all overwith as soon as possible. Most likely my surgery will be on Thursday, April 26th, hopefully in the morning. I'll give everyone an update as soon as I find out for sure.

Happy Trails Neil

Duane Storey — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:19:13 +0000

Neil, a friend of ours who we have worked with for the last three years or so, decided it was time to move on and has taken a new job in West Palm Beach, Florida. Last night we all got together at his place to have a few drinks and say goodbye to our pal. Good luck Neil.

Medical Students Suck

Duane Storey — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:51:11 +0000

Ever since my injury in November, I have spent quite a bit of time in hospitals, doctor's offices, and medical clinics. Part of those visits usually involves some interaction with medical students. And while I'm certain that there really are good medical students out there who are passionate about helping people and eager to learn more in their field, almost every single medical student I've encountered has been both arrogant and misinformed, a deadly combination when you're trying to help people who are sick or have undergone significant trauma. My first encounter came sometime around November 8th of last year at St. Paul's hospital with a young medical student who was looking over my CT scan. Originally I was told I was to go for surgery within the mandatory two week period (since after that point, the bones start healing wrong and the surgery is more involved). However this medical student (who I actually thought was a full fledged doctor at the time) said my injury would heal on its own and that I should just head home and let it heal. As I slowly healed in Chilliwack, my eye started looking more and more out of place, something that eventually caused me to seek a second opinion from a real doctor. The person who gave me the second opinion was quite shocked that I hadn't had surgery considering the extent of the injuries I had sustained. A few days later I was in the hospital getting my eye socket reconstructed. Ironically, the medical student who told me I didn't need surgery was the very same student they chose to assist in the operation that day. When he came up to me in pre-op, he went out of his way to introduce himself and insist that we had never met before (however, I rarely forget a face, and I'm sure it was him). Yesterday I had an appointment booked at St. Paul's to see my plastic surgeon and pick a date for my surgery. In my head, it was a very quick meeting where I would sign forms and everything would be put into motion. However, after waiting 1.5 hours in a small room for someone to come see me, a young medical student walks in and starts bombarding me with questions that I have answered about a million times in the last six months. First of all, I was a bit upset that I was meeting with a medical student in the first place -- I was here at the request of my plastic surgeon's office to meet with my plastic surgeon, not a medical student. Student: "so why have you come here today?" Me: "because I was asked to come here." Student: "what is it about?" Me: "scheduling an operation to repair the orbital floor of my eye" Student: "so you had a blowout fracture?" Me: "yes, hence the repair." Student: "so you are still having problems then?" Me: "yes, that's why there's another operation scheduled." Student: "is that your CT scan there?" Me: "yes, I brought it in at the request of my doctor." Student (pointing at screen): "wow, that's quite a large defect" Me: "uhh, no.. it's the other eye" Student: "ooh. right. So what is the operation for" Me: "I think they are going to remove the implant from my eye and replace it with something bigger." Student: "there's an implant in your eye?" Me: "yeah, that's how you fix a blowout fracture" Student: "oh neat, I didn't know that" Me: "uh yeah. Anything else you need to know?" Student: "Is there a history of cancer in your family?" Me: "No. " Student: "Diabetes" Me: "Isn't this all in my chart?" Student: "Yeah, it is, but I'm just making sure." I spent the next ten minutes doing random eye tests with this student's finger so she could be certain I had double vision, even though I've had two exhaustive eye tests by real opthamologists, all of which was in my chart. Now, I realize they need to learn and get some practice, but doing this on someone who has been stuck in a small overheated room for 90 minutes isn't the best idea. In addition, having medical students give advice when there are no senior doctors present seems really quite irresponsible and potentially life threatening for some people. In engineering, junior engineers have to have their work looked over my senior engineers, and in most fields, anything important that goes out the door has to be stamped by a professional engineer to verify that it's correct. I think the system is completely broken if nobody is watching over these medical students and verifying what they are saying is correct. After three hours, I finally met with my surgeon and signed the two forms I came to, a process that I could have done in five minutes at some front desk had the system been designed better.

Patio Panorama

Duane Storey — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 03:21:55 +0000

So as the sun went down over downtown this evening, I thought it might be a neat idea to try and make a HDR panorama. I've done this a few times using my PC, but never using my new Macbook Pro. I took a series of 20 shots and merged them together using the Mac panorama software DoubleTake. Afterwards, I created the final HDR using Photomatix. Here's the end result. The HDR process went smoothly, but DoubleTake did a rather poor job of aligning the images. Part of the reason may have been that it thought the focal length of my lens was 26mm, even though it actually was a 17mm lens. However, you can clearly seen misalignment at various places within the image. The best panorama software I've ever used is still the Autostitch program developed at UBC. Unfortunately, they only have a PC version, so I'm stuck for a while I guess.

Nighttime HDR From Vancouver

Duane Storey — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 08:40:24 +0000

Did a quick HDR off my patio before bed. And before I drop off, here's one more bit of info -- my dad and step-mom are getting on a plane at 7am to spend a week near Cancun relaxing. They usually spend most vacations every year in the RV camping somewhere, and this is the first trip that they've taken to a far-away place (except of course when they came to visit me out in Ottawa). So, I hope they have a really awesome time down there. Also, Jari and Seppo should be stepping off a plane any time soon to spend the week up here in Vancouver. These are the two Finnish guys I got loaded with during my last trip, so I'm hoping to return the favour on this side of the world for them. It looks like the Canucks might even be in town for a game while they are here, so we'll definitely try to get tickets, or possibly find the nearest watering hole so they can check it out. Jari and Seppo

When Logs Attack

Duane Storey — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:17:39 +0000

The first news of the day is that yesterday after work I picked up a new set of glasses. I still haven't finalized all the insurance papers that will let me get a refund on the first pair, but at least I'm no longer without a pair of glasses. The ladies at the eyeglass center were nice enough to remind me to remove them whenever I decided to step out, have a few drinks and then fall down. Unfortunately, in the process of falling the first time, I seemed to have gotten the world's largest splinter. To make it worse, it entered at the tip of my finger, and proceeded to go down the length of the finger itself, leaving hardly any entry point. At first, I wasn't even really sure it was a splinter, just that my finger hurt like hell. I thought perhaps it was broken, but after being in a lot of pain for a few days, I decided to do some exploration with some tweezers. I found a small chunk of a splinter, which I promptly removed, but the pain just got worse then next day. Out of desperation, I decided to press hard on my finger and see if I could figure out where the pain was coming from. You can imagine my surprise when about 1.5 cm of soggy wood came sliding out the tip of my finger. Unfortunately, I don't think that's the end of the spliter, and it really feels like there is a good 5-10mm worth of wood stuck directly in the middle of the first segment of my finger. And no matter what I do, it doesn't seem to want to come out. I can't for the life of me think of any way to remove it other than to ask a doctor to go in and surgically remove it, but that seems like a pile of effort and scarring. Maybe over time it will slowly dissolve or something? I really have no idea. But I know it's difficult to play guitar with my finger all sore, and I'm not particularly fond of a chunk of wood residing in the middle of my finger.

Vancouver Lights

Duane Storey — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 07:33:17 +0000

Most people who know me nowadays would probably be a bit surprised to learn that I used to be a big literature buff, particularly with old english poetry. I guess it all started back around grade 10. I had done pretty well in school, and had been recommended to take advanced placement calculus and physics. Because of that, and of my high marks in english I guess, I was put on a list that recommended I be enrolled in a new AP Literature class at our school. So for kicks, I said "why not"? And to be honest, looking back, it's probably the class I enjoyed the most. I studied some of the greats such as Chaucer, Donne, Milton, Shakespeare, and one of my favourites, Alfred Lord Tennyson. I still surprise myself that I know many of the poems I read from that era completely by heart, and will gladly quote a few verses while under the influence. So tonight, while showing Jari and Seppo around downtown Vancouver, I was completely surprised when out of nowhere, some words to a poem I had only read once or twice in my life somehow popped into my memory. It's a simple but powerful Canadian poem entitled "Vancouver Lights." For your reading pleasure, you can find the entire online version here.

New theme

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 06:45:50 +0000

Even though I spent quite a bit of time working on my last theme, I've grown rather tired of it. So, after checking out some themes on the net tonight, I found this one which I rather like. I think I'm going to modify it a bit and put up a new version for people to download.

Testing the waters

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 06:52:42 +0000

Tonight I had the unusual desire to spend some time working on my blog. The last theme that was up was 100% written by me entirely from scratch. And while I really liked it when it went up, I've grown a bit tired of it. So for now, I'm using the Balance theme from the internet. It has a lot of cool Ajax features, and even supports Gravatars in the blog comments. If you don't have a gravatar, I suggest you head on over and get one. So instead of reinventing the wheel with my own theme, I think my current plan is to spend some time extending this one with some of the cool features I've been thinking of. Also, this theme seems to have broken support of the Crossroads plugin, so I have to do some work on that and get it working again. If you have any cool ideas or comments, let me know. I'd like to get the blogroll back ASAP, and then clean up a few of the visual things that bug me about this blog. But for now, this is it. Enjoy. I'm also a bit behind on my blog entries, so I'm gonna try and hammer out a few in the next 24 hours. Ignore this next part -- this is an image test for Fancy Excerpt. And now a video test.

So long Jari and Seppo

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:03:56 +0000

On Friday night a bunch of us from work took Jari and Seppo out for one last night on the town in Vancouver. Since we basically accomplished everything we set out to do this week, we started drinking at around 4pm Friday afternoon at work. From there, we made our way to the Yaletown Brew Pub for dinner and some more drinks. I wasn't really sure what these guys would like to see (apparently at the end of the night it turns out they kind of wanted to see a strip club, affectionately called "The Titty Bar" in Finnish), so I sort of did a mini pub crawl with them. After YBC, we decided to hit up Glowbal briefly, which is a sort of pretentious martini bar smack in the middle of Yaletown (however, the bar definitely has its share of eye candy). We finished the night off down at the Atlantic Trap and Gill in a sea of cheap beer. I spent the better part of my off work hours hanging out with Jari and Seppo and showing them around Vancouver this week. Despite living here for over ten years now, I was still suprised how beautiful I found the city as I was walking around the various areas. It's not very often I do a full tour of the entire downtown core, so it was really nice to see everything again, especially when the sunshine was out. On Wednesday night we even had a nice dinner at the top of Grouse Mountain. While searching for interesting things for them to do, I actually even stumbled upon my old Virtual Tourist page, complete with my own Vancouver tour guide. It was an intersting trip down memory lane. Now that they are gone, I'm going to settle back into my routine briefly while I await surgery, which could be as early as Tuesday now.

Stupid Door

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:25:27 +0000

Last night I decided to go down to the little store downstairs and get myself something to drink. As I was leaving my apartment, I realized that for some weird reason I couldn't lock my door from the outside. Locking it from the inside is difficult, but not impossible. But I can't for the life of me manage to lock it from the outside. So basically, I'm stuck at home until I can figure out a way to get it fixed. The obvious answer is to call a locksmith and get him/her to come fix it. But it's Sunday, which probably means it's going to be a major pain in the ass to sort out. I've been trying to get a hold of my landlord to ask him what he wants me to do, but he's disappeared as well. It's such a nice day out today too, and I've been stuck inside on the couch watching the sun go down and listening to all the joggers and rollerbladers heading for the seawall. I'm going to attempt to take it apart myself and see if I can figure out what's wrong, but it really feels like something is broken inside so I'm not getting my hopes up. ** update - I called a locksmith, and they want $600 - $800 to come today to fix it. So, I guess I'm stuck at home until tomorrow. I'm lucky I don't have surgery tomorrow, or I'd be screwed.

CoolExcerpt Wordpress Plugin

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:47:51 +0000

A few months ago, I wrote a flickr plugin for wordpress that integrated with a few different image galleries including Lightbox and Greybox. As last count, 126 different blogs were using the crossroads plugin to show their flickr images in their posts. While updating my blog theme last night, I realized one of the current problems I have with most of the themes I downloaded. Typically, a theme will present the full content of a few blog entries on the main page. A few of the "cooler" themes I've seen only show one post on the main page, which is sort of a neat idea if you don't write very often, but on blogs with multiple entries per day, it becomes easy for readers to miss posts. A more common approach I've seen on blogs is to show the latest entry in full and also show a few other entries in brief form (what Wordpress calls an excerpt). One catch with the excerpt is that it automatically strips out all the HTML code to ensure that the text is brief. Unfortunately for me, since many of my blog entries are photocentric, I lose some of the context about what the blog post is about. For example, if you as a reader were to read the text of an excerpt for a photocentric blog entry, you may not think it was interesting enough to dig deeper, and miss seeing a photo or two. The advantage of excerpts is that you can show more content on your main page without burdening the reader by having to read every entry in full as they progress down your main page. So, today while sitting at home debating how I was going to fix my door, I decided to write something to address that issue. What I came up with is a new Wordpress plugin which I'm tentatively calling "CoolExcerpt." This plugin scans each excerpt entry and determines whether or not it contains any image or video content and indicates that by displaying related icons underneath the excerpt. In addition, I've added some Ajax functionality to automatically show the full content via an excerpt link without having to reload the whole page from scratch. If anyone wants to test it out and give me some feedback, feel free to download the plugin here. It requires the scripaculous effects library to be loaded before hand, so you must have a theme that uses the library or download the Wordpress scriptaculous plugin. After activating the plugin, replace each instance of the_content() with ds_the_content() and the_excerpt() with ds_the_excerpt() in your theme files.

New Wordpress Plugin

Duane Storey — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:53:05 +0000

I created a new plugin for wordpress that scans excerpt entries and adds photo and video icons for related posts. You can read more about it here.

The Waiting Game

Duane Storey — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:31:44 +0000

As of this moment, I am officially "on call" for my next surgery at St. Paul's hospital. I was hoping that I would have gotten the call on Sunday night for a Monday morning surgery (I just want it over with), but unfortunately I still haven't had the call yet. I won't be able to eat for twelve hours prior, so I'm pretty much guaranteed to get at least that much notice. It would be nice if they could give more notice than that, but apparently the hospitals are rather busy, and it's difficult to book them in advance. Photo by jekemp on Flickr (click photo to view)

My dad has a change of clothes in his truck waiting for the moment I know. I'm not really supposed to be alone for the first day or so just in case something goes wrong, so my dad is going to come spend a day here looking out for me while I most likely sleep the days away. I'm actually more nervous this time for the surgery, probably because I know full well what to expect, and what the recovery involves. For a recap of the whole experience, you can check out the entry from the initial injury or the entry immediately after coming out of my last surgery. I imagine this one will be rather similar, except of course they will first be removing the implant under my eye before starting any other work. I will be at home for at least a week after my surgery, healing, watching movies, and probably doing a little work on my blog. If anyone has any movie or book suggestions, just drop me a line.

Exposure Bracketing for HDR Images

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:50:08 +0000

I've been experimenting with high dynamic range (HDR) images for a few months now, and so far I really love the effect that you can get with photos. At least in my eyes, HDR images generally seem to look a bit more natural than a typical shot that doesn't have a large dynamic range. Unfortunately, this whole field is more of an art than a science currently, so getting the perfect HDR shot is a bit of trial and error (and in a lot of cases, the end result isn't always appealing). My tool of choice right now is undoubtedly Photomatix, and I use it almost exclusively when generating HDR shots. I've played around a bit with Photoshop CS2's HDR generator, but to be honest, it's really rather weak. One of the main difficulties in generating HDR shots is that they usually require a tripod. Since I rarely have a tripod on me, I often miss shots I would love to take as HDRs. However, after messing with my camera for a while the other day, I discovered its auto exposure bracketing feature. Auto exposure bracketing allows you to automatically capture a sequence of shots with varying exposure. For example, if I set a +/- 2EV exposure bracket on my camera, when I hold down the shutter, it will take one shot at -2EV exposure (which is technically underexposed), 0EV (perfect exposure), and +2EV (overexposed). The advantage of this is that I can compose a shot, press the button, and in theory walk away with three images of varying exposure in basically the same spot (give or take a little camera shake). While not as ideal as a tripod, it actually allows for some pretty decent HDR shots as long as you have enough light to avoid camera shake between shots. A normal HDR shot for me is usually five shots, so since my camera only allows three shots, I don't think you get as nice an effect. But, it's actually not that bad. Here's a sample I took on the way home. I'm pretty excited about this because now at least I should be able to do some portraits as HDR images, which should be pretty awesome.

Canadians Accused of Facilitating Torture

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 06:42:13 +0000

If you were reading the news yesterday, you probably heard of the allegations that Canadians overseas have aided in the torture of Afghan prisoners by handing them over to local authorities and then not following up on their treatment. To quote a few paragraphs from the Globe and Mail:

Critics demanded the resignation of Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor yesterday over new allegations that Afghan prisoners, detained by Canadian soldiers and handed over to local authorities, had been tortured. [...] Professor Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia, a specialist in international relations, said if the allegations proved true, Canada had broken a United Nations treaty against torture and the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. "I hope the Canadian people realize just how terrible a day this is. If this report is accurate, Canadians have engaged in war crimes," he told reporters.

I won't spend too much time detailing this whole incident or the potential ramifications of it, since it's described in great detail over at matthewgood.org. If you wish to make your voice heard about this incident or others, you can, as suggested on Matthew's blog, write to your Members of Parliament, the Cabinet, the Prime Minister's Office, or even by demonstrating with a simple photographic gesture (similar to the one shown here).

Master's Thesis

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:53:20 +0000

I've had a few requests lately from people asking if I could send them a copy of my master's thesis. So in the interest of saving time, I'm throwing it up here in case anyone wants to download it and read themselves to sleep. My research was primarily in the area of high definition video compression, specifically on a new codec called H.264 that is used in the new HD DVD formats such as Blue-Ray and HD-DVD. I proposed a novel scheme to combine concurrently broadcoast MPEG-2 standard definition (SD) streams with H.264 spatial difference information to create a HD broadcast stream at a reduced bitrate. So, here it is. Enjoy.

Clusterfuck in the O.R.

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:00:32 +0000

As most of you know, I have been waiting anxiously to have my surgery performed down at St. Paul's. About two weeks ago, I had a meeting at the hospital with my surgeon (where I sat and waited for three hours just to sign a few forms) where we discussed the surgery date (which was supposed to be this week), and a few of the details. I called last Thursday to try and nail down an exact date, but they said they wouldn't be able to give me one. So today, I called down to the doctor's office to find out what was going on. I was told that for some reason, nobody even submitted my name into the queue for surgery, so I'm been sitting around waiting for no reason. Somebody screwed up. Again. The next obvious option is to put me on the list for next week, which isn't that bad since I'll be able to have surgery with my plastic surgeon (who is performing surgery in the OR next week). Sounds easy right? Nope. They want me to come back into the same clinic where I waited three hours last time and talk. About what? Who the fuck knows -- nobody could tell me, but apparently it's standard procedure, and standard is good right? So while I realize it's not the receptionist's fault that all of this is unfolding the way it is, I let her know just how frustrating I find this, and how embarassing I think it is for the medical community. The problem is that there really is no accountability. Nobody can tell me who screwed up, and nobody wants to take responsibility for the screw up. Instead of finding a way to make it easier for me, they are quite content to solve the situation by having me take more time off work to talk about the same thing I talked about last time.

Rainy Evening

Duane Storey — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:39:02 +0000

I've been messing around a bit more with photoshop in the evenings, and one day soon I'll read the huge 1000 page book I have on it as well. Here's something I was messing with a bit last night. It's a shot from my patio looking easy towards Yaletown. The bridge is the Granville Street Bridge. The whole image involved work on about 5 different layers in photoshop. The rain was a bit trickier than I imagined, and it's not entirely convincing, but it's a good start.

Drupal Monthly Meetup In Vancouver

Duane Storey — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 03:37:38 +0000

Tonight I found myself down in the gastown area, having a few beers with old pal Boris Mann down at the Bryght offices. He was nice enough to invite me to some of the Thursday night BBQ lovin at his offices, and introduced me to the ever-sought-after "Save On Meat" store around the corner from the offices. Photo by Roland Tanglao

Afterwards, I stuck around and hung out for the Drupal monthly Vancouver meetup and learned both about Drupal 6.0 and some of the Install Profile work that the guys at Bryght have contributed back. I'm in the process of setting up a new website with a different focus than this one, and I'm debating using Drupal as the core technology instead of Wordpress. Boris suggested I swing by tonight for some cheap-meat marinated in Drupal. One of the more interesting things I overheard during the evening was everyone's recent experience with a conference that Yahoo helped accomodate down in Sunnyvale, California. Apparently entering into the US was such a pain in the ass for some of the participants (namely Europeans) that they are actually considering not having any more of these open source conferences in the United States. And while the end result of the new security measures implemented after September 11th, 2001 is to somehow improve security in the United States, it's a bit worrisome that a side effect of these changes is a reduction in conferences meant to share information. I can't help but worry that this sort of mentality will grow, not only for open source conferences, but also for crucial academic conferences as well.

Home Sweet Home

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:28:57 +0000

Last night we had a mini drinking event at work where we said goodbye to Chris and Hanh. After consuming a few beers, we sat down and started to watch a bit of the hockey game. After the second period, Hesty and I ventured down Robson street on our way home and met up with John and Rebecca for a drink at a local restaurant. This morning I woke up around 11am (and man, was it nice to sleep in), had a quick shower and hopped into the car headed for Chilliwack. It seems like it's been a really long time since I've been back home. My dad and I went halfers on some homemade wine a while ago, and today we got to head down and bottle it all up. So I now have 15 bottles of some really tasty Syrah to consume, in addition to the 20 or so bottles I already have at home of primarily pinots. After running a few errands, my dad helped me wash my car (which I haven't really had time to do for months now). I just got back from lounging around on the patio in the sun, and I'm going to lay down and take a nice nap. It's really nice to get out of the city and back to where I grew up. I think I'm going to just relax at my dad's house tonight and then spend tomorrow visiting my mom and my niece and nephew. I'll be back in the city late tomorrow probably.

Set in Motion

Duane Storey — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 08:06:27 +0000

Friday afternoon I had yet another enlightening visit down at St. Paul's hospital. I actually went in rather grumpy and upset with the whole process, but about five minutes into it was greated by a really cute, friendly medical student. So, my spirits rose pretty quickly to the point where I was making light of the whole situation. It was actually rather funny, because the first little bit of dialog went like this: Cute student: "so why are you here today?" Me: "I have no idea" Cute student: "what do you mean you have no idea? You came in." Me: "My doctor's office called me and said to come in. They didn't know why." Cute student: "So you have no idea why you're here today" Me: "Nope" Cute student: "Oh. Well let me see if I can figure it out. Me: (thinking "yeah right" to myself) -- "Go for it." Cute student: "Are you right or left handed?" Me: "Right" Cute student: "Do you work with your hands" Me: "Yeah, that's safe to say" Cute student: "Give me your hands" Me: "Ok, here they are" Cute student: (Feeling my hands) "Does this hurt?" Me: "Nope.. Feels ok." Cute student: (turns my hands over, feeling them all over) "How about this? Does this hurt?" Me: "No, that feels actually pretty good" Cute student: (stumped) "Well, as far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with your hands" Me: "Yeah, I agree, my hands are fine" Cute student: "Well, I can't possibly figure out why you're in the hand clinic if your hands are fine" Me: "Uh, I'm not in the hand clinic. I came to the plastic surgery clinic" Cute student: "Oh! Sorry!" Me: "It's ok. Feel free to play with my hands again if you want." Anyways, once we sorted all that up, she asked me to get up on the bed. After briefly getting excited, I realized she just wanted me to sit there and do some eye tests (I'm getting really good at these now. Next time I'm at the bar with you, just start dragging your finger in front of my face and watch how good I am at following it). Shortly afterwards, my doctor came in, obviously having a shitty day, and sat down. So, I cracked a few jokes and lightened the whole situation. The cool thing is for the next 10 minutes I sat and talked with two doctors and two cute medical students, and managed to actually keep up with the conversation using proper medical lingo, which seemed to impress everyone in the room. One medical student was nice enough to point out that my bad eye was technically (cosmetically at least) superior to my good eye, a fact that the doctor immediately told her she shouldn't ever say to a patient's face again (however, she was *really* cute, so I just laughed it off). And now, the best part -- surgery is officially scheduled for Thursday morning. I have to show up at the hospital at 6:45am, which hopefully means I'll be in surgery before 8am and home sometime in the early afternoon. I'm really excited to have this all behind me. I hope it all goes ok.

24 Hours of Flickr

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 08:23:05 +0000

On May 5th, Flickr is having a big world-wide event were everyone is being asked to record a day of their life in photos. I think this is a pretty cool idea, and it should make for some really interesting browsing when it's all over. Unfortunately for me, May 5th will probably involve mostly sleeping and chewing pain killers, but I'm definitely going to try and participate if I can.

Round and round she goes...

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:26:42 +0000

When I left for Chilliwack on the weekend, I accidentally left my phone sitting on my bed back in Vancouver. Considering I was only going for a day, I didn't real think that much of it, and checked my messages from Chilliwack on Saturday night. When I got back to Vancouver yesterday evening, my phone was dead, so I simply plugged it into the wall and went to sleep. Unfortunately, upon checking my messages today, I realized that I had missed a call yesterday from my plastic surgeon saying that they couldn't perform surgery on Thursday, and that they wanted to bring me in and do it today. By the time I got the message, it was too late to do anything about it. So, I will have to wait at least two weeks for the next round of surgery, possibly even three weeks. Obviously I'm pretty bummed. I really wanted to have it all over with as it's really been bothering me alot lately. I'm in the process of trying to reschedule, and I'll drop a line here once I have a new date "finalized."

On the downhill slide

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 May 2007 18:14:39 +0000

When I left Ottawa years ago, I was a pretty chubby guy. Two years of working crazy hours, drinking tons of beer, and eating primarily in restaurants had taken its toll, and my old university self had been replaced with your stereotypical software engineering stature. As soon as I got settled in Vancouver and started classes again at UBC, I decided to undo all the damage of my Ottawa experience -- I started watching what I ate, getting a bit more exercise (mostly by rollerblading and hiking), and even sleeping in a bit more. In about six months, I had dropped 40 lbs, and ended up being substantially lighter than I was in university. I would even say that when I started working at my current job I was a bit underweight for my frame. That being said, ever since my last break up, and with everything that happened in the last year (hospitals, surgery, etc), I haven't really kept up with the requirements of staying in shape. I told myself as soon as my next surgery is over, I was going to once again remedy the situation. Unfortunately, the surgery that should have happened in March keeps getting delayed and at the soonest, looks to be occurring at the end of May or early June now. So, I'm not going to wait around for it to happen. Sunday night I finally told myself it was time to start, and get back down to my pre-last-failed-relationship weight. I was a bit scared to step on the scale since I haven't been on one in about four months (even though I have one sitting in my bathroom), but I took a deep breath and waited for the LED display to light up (in my head I heard Garfield's scale saying "one at a time please") Thankfully, the number I expected was about 10 lbs heavier than the number that showed up, so things aren't as dismal as I thought. So, my current goal is to drop twenty pounds. I figure if I eat at home more, hit the gym a bit more, and scale back alcohol consumption, things should go rather smoothly. I'm sure I'll post some nerdy graph at some point to keep myself motivated and inspire all the other computer-potatoes, so stay tuned.

New Microphone

Duane Storey — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:47:33 +0000

Tonight I went down to Tom Lee music in Vancouver and picked up a new microphone. Originally I was going to get something that would simply allow me to record a few guitar tracks into GarageBand, but I think it's pretty decent for Podcasting as well. Check out the audio here. The microphone discussed is the Samson C01U.

David vs Goliath

Duane Storey — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:33:43 +0000

I wanted to pen this entry really quick before bed. A few days ago, one of the main encryption keys for the HD-DVD platform was leaked, apparently by an insider within the video industry. Basically, having this key will allow anyone with access to the hardware the full ability to decode and decrypt every HD-DVD that has been manufactured so far. Oops. The key, which amounts to no more than a 128 bit string, has been circling the internet, pulling a string of cease and desist orders along with it. Many a webowner has tried to publish the key online, only to be given a legal letter demanding they take it down. How in the world you can assume ownership of a unique sequence of numbers is beyond me, but apparently that's what they are attempting to do. Many users on Digg.com have created top stories with the HD-DVD key in them, only to have them later removed by site moderators, apparently because Digg.com has been served a C&D letter as well. However, after an outcry from people on the website, the creator of Digg, Kevin Rose, had this to say:

Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my thoughtsâ€¦ In building and shaping the site Iâ€™ve always tried to stay as hands on as possible. Weâ€™ve always given site moderation (digging/burying) power to the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that violate our terms of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads, racial hate sites, etc.). So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code. But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, youâ€™ve made it clear. Youâ€™d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we wonâ€™t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying. Digg on, Kevin

I think it's awesome that people are finally standing up to the industry. DRM has gone way too far, -- the main purpose of it is no longer to protect the artists in the industry, but more to inhibit the fair use of a product by consumers and provide incremental revenue streams to the recording industry. A sequence of numbers should not be patentable or copyrightable. The whole DMCA is a pile of shit, and it should not be illegal to reverse engineer something to provide you with fair use of a product you purchased (in many cases, multiple times) Another take on the situation is by the site DownloadSquad:

Witness the modern equivalent of the 95 thesis' Martin Luther nailed to the door of Wittenburg church. We, digital citizens --commonly referred to by the vulgar term of 'consumers' -- have had enough of content lock-in. We've bought and re-bought entertainment media -- repackaged and regurgitated digital vomitus -- until we're blue in the face. We've been told time and time again that DRM is for our own protection, and we're finally and inconsolably fed up.

I hope the whole HD-DVD and Blue-Ray industry get flushed down the toilet, and that's a big statement coming from someone who did his graduate degree in high definition video compression. ** I also want to point out that DeCSS, the original DVD decryption program, was originally created so that users on Linux could actually watch the movies they owned on their computers, since the industry refused to support it. It has been proven time and time again that DRM simply fails in the real world, so to spend tons of time and effort trying to crack down on schemes that break it seems like a complete waste of time. Another intesting tidbit of information that is often overlooked by HD DRM advocates is that most high definition televisions sold in the last few years will not be able to show a true high-definition image from the HD-DVD players. Why? Because the industry has mandated that only secure connections between the players and TVs will be allowed to show true HD content. So that means unless you recently bought a HD television that supports either the DVI (digital video interconnect) or HDMI (high definition multimedia interface), you're shit-out-of-luck. So when you went down to Future Shop and were brainwashed into getting a "HD-ready" television last year, you should have kept your wallet in your pocket and simply bent over the cash register instead - it would have been a cheaper solution with the same end result. Sure, these DVD players will still play content on your TV -- just not true HD content. Oh, and if anyone asks, that sequence above is actually part of my online banking password. I just put it down here so I wouldn't forget.

A Year of Flickr

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 May 2007 04:54:54 +0000

A few days ago, Flickr gave me the not-so-subtle warning that my account was about to expire. Since I've had a pro-Flickr account for a full year now, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my thoughts on the service so far. Flickr sort of came to the limelight about 18-24 months ago as one of the leading websites that had real Web 2.0 technology. If you haven't been there you should definitely check it out. Most of the website utilizes Ajax and as you use it, sometimes it feels more like an application than a mere website, and that was really one of their original selling points. Most people would probably be surprised to learn that they were once a Vancouver company. I actually popped by their office before (located in a small Yaletown room, next to UBVideo) they were acquired by Yahoo. I'm honestly not too sure if they still have employees here, but last time I was in that building it looked like their doors were closed forever. I'm actually a really big fan of Flickr. Not only have I really learned alot by looking at other people's photographs, I have also even made a few new friends in the real world thanks to the active user base and community feeling ingrained in the website. If you don't want to purchase a pro-account, you can still upload photos and take part in all the online photographs, you are just limited in how much you can upload each month, and how many sets/collections you can make. But for $25 a year, it's really a no brainer for anyone who enjoys photography. Plus, they promise to keep all your original photos archived for you in case you lose them. I liked Flickr so much that I wrote a Wordpress plugin a few months ago to tie my blog closer to my Flickr account (I'm almost done the next version -- should be cool). That experience has given me a really up-close look into the entire Flickr back-end API system that developers can use. While other sites have tried to mimic the functionality, I think Flickr really did a good job helping developers utilize their technology. That's not to say it's without faults -- I've emailed them on multiple occasions about the clunkiness of some of their APIs, and how with a few small changes they could drastically reduce the number of queries they have to manage (and as a plugin developer, I'm forced to generate). But other than that, it works quite well. The only negative aspect I can really think of is that some people take the whole group concept too far and almost turn it into a popularity contest. Whenever I post a "good" photo, I usually get a few people inviting me to their groups with these really ugly banners meant to demonstrate what their group is about. I really hate it, and I wish I had the option within my account preferences to turn off group invites completely. I'm really looking forward to another year of photos on Flickr, and seeing just what they have in store this year for changes to the website.

Del.icio.us

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 May 2007 07:21:08 +0000

I've finally set up a del.icio.us account. You can add me by visiting my page at http://del.icio.us/duanestorey.

A Case of the Mondays

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:28:43 +0000

Monday is typically the crappiest day of my week. A big contributing factor to that is the lack of sleep I usually get on Sunday nights, partially because of the coffee I usually end up drinking during the day, and also because I tend to stay up late working on something I've been meaning to accomplish all week. Last night I had my second big battle with Garageband, and I'm starting to learn more about the inner workings of it. The one problem I already see is that most of the recordings tend to be slightly noisy and echoey. The echo is obviously due to the fact that I'm recording in my bedroom, but I'm not really sure where the noise is coming from (could be the microphone, could be the fan noise from the computer). Either way, if I cared enough to do anything about it, I could easily remove the echo or the hiss using Matlab (thanks to that DSP course I took years ago). I still haven't recorded anything I really like, but the confidence level is going up slowly, and I think that helps the end result. I finally hit the sack sometime around 3am, and was up around 8:30am, so it's fair to say that I'm pretty much running on fumes today. When I left my house, I grabbed my knapsack that usually houses both my digital SLR and my Macbook pro, and made the 30 minute trek to work. When I got there, I realized that my bag had neither my digital SLR or my Macbook Pro in it. And it's moments lilke that that force me to reflect on the two university degrees up on my wall at home and wonder if it's at all possible for me to be any more absent-minded sometimes. Friday night was Chris' birthday, and a few of us headed down to Saltlik after work for a few drinks. I hit the hay pretty early that night, and woke up just in time to head down to Discollection to help Kim and Kris dismantle the store. Kim gave me the task of ripping stuff apart using a hammer, and if you didn't know it already, giving an engineer a hammer can sometimes result in completely unpredictable behaviour. I made pretty short work of the front desk, and then helped Kris rip apart the cubby holes on the back wall. Afterwards, I had my first drink of the day, and then headed across town towards Rebecca and John's house. Apparently John and Rebecca are some of the finest margarita-makers in the entire city, so if you ever find yourself in the west end with a bottle of tequila, I suggest you stop by their place and see if you can convince them to make you one. On Sunday, I made my way out to Richmond to spend the afternoon hanging out with Brennen. We ended up down at Silvercity Riverport watching Spiderman III and stuffing our faces full of popcorn. I read a pile of mixed reviews before going, so I really didn't expect too much, but it was actually better than I expected, and for those of you that have been following the series, I'd definitely say it's worth seeing at least once. In other exciting news, my Flickr account has expired, and I'm now officially part of the Flickr steerage class. I thought I would be cool and pay for my next Pro account using money in my paypal account, but apparently there's a big time lag on the transaction, and in that time my Flickr account expired. So, until that's fixed, you won't be seeing a lot of new photos go up. On Wednesday, the majority of our office is heading up to Whistler for a day of skiing, snowboarding, ziptrekking and in my case (since I expected to be recovering from surgery this week), sightseeing. It looks like the sun will be shining, so it should be a great, relaxing trip. And on Thursday, I have a meeting down at UBC with a surgeon to discuss the possibility of having my next surgery sometime next week. That's it for the weekend. I have about ten blog entries I've started over the past few months, and I'd like to finish a couple of them soon and get them up here.. Maybe sometime this week.

Gaboogie

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:32:18 +0000

When I first started my current job, the COO and one of the founders was a guy named Erik Lagerway. During the time he was at our company, we shared many a beer and even a plane ride or two together (the most memorable being the one to Phillidelphia where we got to witness first-hand drunken broomball in Horsham and Whatchamachukinchunk). His current brainchild is a service called Gaboogie which was designed in an attempt to simplify conference calls in the enterprise environment. Most conference calls today are setup via email, and involve participants calling into a conference bridge at a specified time, entering a six to ten digit conference code followed by a password, and then sitting around for ten minutes waiting for all the late comers to show up. Gaboogie attempts to circumvent some of these problems by having the conference system call the participants itself at the correct time, forcing people to be punctual, and removing the need for passwords. I was actually sitting around in the bar with my friend Chris a few months ago, and we hashed out something similar over a few beers. The only difference we came up with has possibly having the service send out courtesy SMS reminders 10 to 15 minutes prior to the conference for those people that had associated a cell phone with their account. I think it's a great idea, and I'm pretty sure it will take off. So, good work Gaboogie guys, and best of luck.

Duane Reduction Program

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 May 2007 07:08:46 +0000

A few blog posts ago, I mentioned that I was going to do my best to return back to my pre-last-relationship weight. To that end, I have spent the last week hitting the gym from time to time and attempting to watch what I eat. The first week has been a bit rocky, and I hit a few tasty speed bumps at Rebecca's Cinqo de Mayo party, but for the most part I've been on track. Since my life is a bit crazy thesedays, it's challenging for me to always have access to "healthy" food, but I've been doing the best I can. So without further ado, the progress after week #1 is (RSS drum roll please): 5.5 lbs

Now, I know as well as everyone else that it's basically impossible to lose more than about two pounds a week of real fat. So, undoubtedly a huge chunk of that weight is water (since the body drops water as it burns through the liver's glycogen reserves). However, I am still down that weight, and it's a pretty good motivator to see that fall off the scale right away. The week of my surgery should be a pretty good one, since it's likely that I won't eat for about 36 - 48 hours with the surgery prerequisites and the token nausea thanks to the general anesthetic. Plus, I'll spend the week after surgery working from home, which thankfully means I can cook all my meals and eat without any peer pressure. I'm probably going to switch my weekly check-ins to Fridays, since something always seems to happen on the weekend to sort of wreck the Monday check-in. But once I resync I'll try to keep everything regular. The next milestones (with names that probably only make sense to me right now), in descending order are:

Lost In Translation
The Great Barrier
Fight Club
50 First Dates

You guys can guess what they mean (it's actually more fun that way), but I'll explain each one as I blast past it over the next month or two.

Payback, Air Canada

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 May 2007 21:42:54 +0000

You thought this day would never come, didn't you Air Canada? All your posturing, your laughing. You may not remember us, but we sure remember you. Oh yes, we haven't forgotten the night we had together, have we precious? We remember landing in Toronto, coming back from a brief trip to Boston, so anxious to finally get into our own bed in Vancouver and fall asleep later that night. And dream. Yes, we dreamed once. Of fields and sunshine. But it took that from us. Yes, took it from us they did, my precious. Upon arriving in Toronto, one of its minions came forth, only to announce that our flight home, the last flight of the evening back to the ocean and the mountains was in fact, "toast" as he most eloquently put it. Toasts precious, nasty toasts. We spent that night huddled in the Toronto Airport, trying to find a hotel that would take us. We asked it to give us some kind of compensation, but its toothless minion merely mocked us, laughing at our misfortune. So, we cabbed out of the airport and found a small piece of shit hotel and set up camp for a few hours, on our own expense, and waited in the darkness for another flight to take us home. And in the time since, we have spent many a night huddled over a computer, scheming, plotting, waiting for our chance to get it back. How it has haunted our dreams, that evil airline. And now, after all this time, we believe we will finally have our chance. A few minutes ago, we cashed in our aeroplan miles (oh the irony) and booked a flight to Ottawa, on its expense -- in business class no less. And we can tell you it still doesn't fully comprehend the depths of its stupidity, does it precious? But rest assured, in August, as we walk through the doors of the Maple Leaf Lounge in Vancouver, and take seat in front of its free booze, it will know the full extent of its folly. For we will make it pay for that night with every ounce of our liver that we can muster. And we won'ts stop there, will we precious? "More champagne sir?" Oh yes, we'd love some, wouldn't we precious?

New Kickers

Duane Storey — Wed, 09 May 2007 00:37:25 +0000

First, I just want to say how bad Aldo shoes suck. I've blogged about that fact before I'm sure, but now as I am about to throw away a $110 pair of Aldo shoes that didn't last six months, I am suddenly reminded of it. After the first two months, one of the soles came off. I told the guys at the store, and they just assumed I was way too hard on my shoes. So, I coughed up some cash and had the shoes fixed by a shoe-fixer guy. Two months later, same deal, except on the other side. So, I coughed up some more cash and had another shoe repair person fix the second one. Jump forward two months, and the shoes are just falling apart. So, they are going in the trash. If I ever suggest buying Aldo shoes again, please hit me very hard. The other shoes I am about to throw out actually weren't that bad an investment. I originally picked them up in the Shibuya district of Toyko when I was there, and they actually served me quite well. However, the soles are falling apart, and they fill with water quite easily now. Besides that, they have like no support left inside, so my feet get really sore. So today at lunch I went for a quick walk and picked up a new pair of shoes, and they are both purdy and comfy. Tomorrow everyone in the office is boarding a bus for Whistler to spend the day hanging out and relaxing. Some people will be snowboarding, some will be Ziptrekking, some will be golfing, and a group of about 15 people, including me, will be bouncing around the mountain relaxing. As part of the event, I get a free pass to ride the Gondola, and unlimited access to the Fairmont Chateau Whistler's spa and gym (including their huge, heated outdoor pool, complete with underwater music, three outdoor whirlpools, saunas, two eucalyptus steam rooms, a fitness center, and a massage parlour). I'll be taking pretty much all of my camera gear (which should be interesting, since I rarely bring it all out). I'm hoping to come back with a whack of shots from the day, and even some from the drinking festivities at the end of the evening.

Orbital Floor Surgery Appointment

Duane Storey — Thu, 10 May 2007 19:29:53 +0000

Today I headed out to The University of British Columbia for an appointment with Dr. Kevin Bush, one of the best plastic surgeons (who specializes in cranial-facial reconstruction) in the province. I had some time to kill, so I spent 30 minutes just walking around enjoying the sunshine, reminiscing about the nearly eight years I spent wandering around the campus. It's really weird being on campus in the summer. Most students don't really have a chance to see the rose garden in full bloom, or enjoy campus life when the weather is nice out (since the school year coincides with the bad weather seasons in Vancouver). I had the opportunity to work on campus one summer, and it was really refreshing being there when the pace was more relaxed, and the weather nice and sunny. At around 10:40, I made my way down to the UBC Hospital for my appointment. Dr. Bush did a few quick checks of my eyesight and my eye positioning, and agreed it was probably worth doing another surgery for. I brought my CT scan with me in case he wanted to see it, but as I went to hand it to him I realized I somehow managed to crack the CD between the time I left home and the time I got to UBC (way to go Duane). Oh well. I originally left thinking it would be a few more weeks before I had a scheduled surgery date, but as I was heading towards my car, I got a call from the secretary in Dr. Bush's office. Apparently they had a last minute cancellation for this Wednesday (the 16th), and asked if I wanted to take the spot. You bet I do. So, unless something happens, I'll be heading into the OR again this Wednesday. The actual surgery is only about an hour in length, and should have about a week or recovery at home. He seemed pretty confident about restoring my eye's position, and hopefully that the surgery would correct my double vision (although he warned me that in rare cases it sometimes can get worse). Things are finally in motion again, and I'm just anxious to get everything all over with.

SuperHappyDevHouse

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:41:21 +0000

Photo by Kris Krug Starting at 1pm this afternoon, a group of internet enthusiasts will be gathering down at the Bryght offices for some food, drinks, Nintendo Wii and lots of fun. It's going to be a chance to mingle with like-minded people, enjoy some music, and even catch up on whatever internet-related project you currently have on the go. I'll be meeting up later tonight with Kris, Kim, Boris, Rebecca, John, and a whack of other people I haven't met yet. I think Kim even challenged me to a drinking contest, something I'm sure she'll regret tomorrow.

Last Entry for a Few Days

Duane Storey — Mon, 14 May 2007 03:37:26 +0000

I don't really have much to say, but I thought I'd write one last entry before my big surgery day. I spent most of the weekend putting in some hours for work, since I had a few meetings last week that took up too much time. Except for the party down at Bryght on Friday night, I didn't really accomplish too much. Well, that's not entirely true -- today I went into my room and finally sat down to do my taxes.. I think I'm technically a few weeks late, but since I don't owe any money, I don't think anybody will kick up a big fuss (in fact, those sneaky bastards owe me $1100). About two months ago, somebody suggested I check out a gourmet grocery store in Yaletown called The Urban Fare. It's pretty pricey, but everything there is really tasty. They have a really amazing meat section, complete with seafood, marinated steaks, and even lamb and buffalo. Some of their breads get flown in a few times a week from Europe, and they have one of the nicest assortments of cheese I've seen. Last week, I went down and picked up a wide variety of meats to hold me and my BBQ over for a while. I had steak tonight, and last night even roasted some cheese-filled lamb. Add a simple salad, and it's almost a complete meal. I'm going to make one more trip down there before Wednesday, so I'll have enough food here to keep myself full, and to entertain whoever stops by for moral support (so if you're stopping by, speak now since I'm taking requests). Which leads me to the final thing I want to say -- as most of you know, I'll be heading into surgery on Wednesday, most likely down at Vancouver General Hospital. To be honest, I'm starting to get a bit anxious and worried about it all. The first time was far easier since I had no idea what to expect. Now I know full well what the procedure and the recovery involves, and I'd by lying if I said it wasn't bothering me at all. That being said, I'm looking forward to having it all over. For those of you who want to see what it currently looks like, here it is, in all its glory. The main things to notice are that my left eye is slightly lower than my right eye, and there's a slight line under my eye (where the last incision was made, and where the next one will be as well). Hopefully everything will be symmetric after. I've been told that the scar under my eye should be approximately the same afterwards, something I hope is true. As everyone who has followed the whole saga knows, I have been completely frustrated with the whole experience of dealing with doctors and medical students. I had another run in with the system last week that completely pissed me off. After I left UBC on Thursday, I was asked to come down to the surgeon's office downtown and complete about 30 minutes of paperwork for the surgery. The forms basically gave my consent to have surgery, to have transfusions should I require them, and also to get a detailed breakdown of past procedures, health problems, medications etc. After filling this all out, I signed on the dotted line, picked up the document they gave me entitled "How to get ready for your surgery," and went back to work. On Friday, I get a call on my cell asking when a good time would be for a nurse to spend a half hour going over everything with me on the phone. Here's the basic flow of that conversation: Me: "What is there to go over? I've talked about this surgery with two surgeons now, and this is the same procedure I had done in November." Nurse: "We need to discuss the things you should do and don't do before the surgery on Wednesday" Me: "Isn't that all in this fancy document I have here entitled 'How to get ready for your surgery?'" Nurse: "Well, it's the same material, we just want to make sure you understand it all." Me: "I understand it all. " Nurse: "Sorry, it's standard procedure." Me: "Fine. Is that all?" Nurse: "No, we need to go over your detailed medical records, things like your height, weight, past medications, etc." Me: "Oh, you're in luck -- I just filled out that paperwork out and signed it at my Dr's office. I'll get them to forward it to you." Nurse: "No, we have all that paperwork here now. We just need to go over it line by line to make sure it's right." Me: "I took time off work on Thursday to go down and fill all this out, and then signed it -- it's not going to change" Nurse: "Sorry, it's just the way this works." Me: "It didn't work like this last time" Nurse: "So does Monday work for you?" Me: "Yup, Monday works fine. I'll be there with bells on." In the back of my mind, I heard my dad's voice telling me to just keep my mouth shut and put up with it, which I basically gave into at the end. But this is all of our tax dollars hard at work, and it's so disappointing. So tomorrow I get to sit on the phone for 30 minutes and bash my head against my desk, over, and over, and over. Anyways, back to the actual surgery. The person performing my surgery is apparently one of the best at doing this, so let's hope he comes through and manages to put everything in there back where it should be. The current plan is for me to cab down there myself in the morning, and probably be picked up afterwards by my friend Cisco. It's really difficult to bring anything into the hospital, so I'm hoping to give Cisco my Digital Elph before hand so he can bring it into me before I leave -- I'd really like to capture some of the atmosphere in the OR, and what it's like to be hooked up to tubes. Plus, it will give me something to do for the four hours or so where you just sit around in pain waiting to go home. My dad will be coming in later that day to relieve Cisco, and spend the night at my place. After that, I'm going to just relax in Vancouver with a few books, or if I feel up to it, maybe venture out of my house for a few days. I just want to thank everyone for the support I've had through all of this. Hopefully these blog entries that relate to this whole ordeal will stop in a week or so, and I can finally put it all behind me. I'm sure I'll see some of you over the next week or so, and will try and post an entry or two when the surgery is over and I'm back home.

A Quick Walk Tonight

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 May 2007 06:48:31 +0000

I know I said I wouldn't post again until after my surgery, but I took a few shots tonight, and liked this one the most. So enjoy. The countdown is officially on -- I had that exciting call with the nurse today, and got the green light from Houston to go ahead with the launch. I find out tomorrow afternoon the exact time of my surgery, and will spend part of the day cleaning up and getting ready for it. Take care of the internet for me for a few days while I'm gone. Talk to you soon guys.

New RSS Feed

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:09:13 +0000

For those of you that primarily read this blog via my RSS feed, I'd appreciate it if you can update to my new feedburner one. I plan to add some flickr photos to the stream from time to time, as well some goodies from a few other sites. You can access the new link here. I'll override the old one too at some point when I have time, but it helps if you do this manually for now. Thanks.

Back at Home After Surgery

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:26:25 +0000

I'm not up to writing a full blog entry, but just wanted to let everyone know I made it home and that I'm recovering. The whole hospital procedure was far harder on me this time than last time, and I still feel really shaky. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel alot better.

Orbital Floor Surgery, Take Two

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:47:18 +0000

As I said in my last entry, I am now at home recoupering from what is hopefully my last surgery to correct the damage from November. I'll go through a quick walk through of yesterday. I woke up around 10am and basically just tried to kill some time until I was supposed to be at the hospital. I was originally going to take a cab down there at around 12:30pm, but it was such a nice day out that I decided to just walk the whole distance myself. Surprisingly, it only took me a half hour. Once I got there, everyone was immediately friendly. Even though I had to answer a pile more questions that I had already answered before, it didn't really bother me as things were finally about to be finished. Everyone was on time thankfully, and at 1:15pm I found myself getting changed in the Jim Patterson Pavilion at VGH. And let me say -- VGH, at least the new areas that I was in, is a far nicer hospital than St. Pauls. It just seems far more modern and inviting than St. Pauls, and it was almost comforting haing out there. Oh and this time, I didn't strip naked in front of the nurse, so I learned my lesson. My actual surgery was scheduled for 3:15, and thankfully this time I brought a real novel to help pass the time. Over at St. Paul's, I spent most of the time waiting for surgery in a really uncomfortable recliner wearing a surgery gown, but at VGH I had a full bed in a semi-private room, which was really nice. While I was reading, a nurse came over and covered me with blankets, which was a nice gesture that made me feel right at home. I could have almost slept, but people kept coming by and doing various things (such as put in my IV, go over my history, put those little tags on my wrists, etc). Finally my surgeon comes in and talks to me about everything. He asked me to put my head back as he examined my eyes once more. He said he went over my CT scan, and said my fracture went really far back into my eye socket, more than normal. So instead of trying to correct it using the implant that was in my eye, he would take it out and start over. Another thing he said is that in his opinion, my eye wasn't just vertical misaligned, but also misaligned front-to-back (which an eye doctor said wasn't the case a few months ago). And even though he talked to my other plastic surgeon and the eye doctor, he disagreed with them and said just looking at me it was apparent to him, and that he was going to correct it (so maybe having the best guy in the province is a good thing). So, the plan was to raise my eye a few millimeters, and also bring it forward slightly by sliding the implant pretty far back into my eye socket (you can go about 4cm back before you hit the optic nerve). Next I met the anesthesiologist who, like his St Paul's counterpart, was a really nice guy. He was surprised I hadn't had any food or water for breakfast since my surgery wasn't until 3pm, but he was happy I hadn't since it made his job easier. But at that point, since I hadn't had anything to drink in about 18 hours, I was completely dehydrated, enough that they hooked up a saline IV to make me feel better. They were so busy at the hospital that the anesthesiologist offered to wheel me into the OR himself instead of an orderly, which is probably something that doesn't happen very often at any hospital (since anesthesiologists are pretty far up the totem pole). We actually had lot of fun since he didn't really know how to drive my stretcher and we kept whacking into things. The OR seemed a bit less high-tech than the one at St Paul's, but that didn't worry me. They started stripping me nearly naked, hooking up tubes, etc, and pretty soon I had the first cocktail injected into my IV to help relax me. At that point I was pretty out of it, just sort of passively aware of people getting ready around me. Next, I was asked to think of somewhere I really wanted to be, somewhere warm and happy. Next thing I knew, I woke up in recovery. At this point, after checking my eyesight and verifying I still had two eyes, I really wished I had a camera. As I looked forward from my bed, in pain, I realized I had a sweeping 180 degree view of the entire downtown core from my bed, and it was really pretty. It took about 10 minutes for someone to notice I was awake, and once they did notice, my surgeon came over to talk to me. He said they replaced the implant, but that I had quite a bit of scar tissue that had formed in my eye socket. So, once I was back on my feet, I was going to have to work at eye exercises to break it all down. But, he seemed happy with the surgery. It's a bit disappointing (in general) that the doctors talk to you as soon as you come to, because to be honest, I don't really remember much of that conversation. It's hard enough to keep your eyes open at that point. They are really busy though (my surgeon is in Prince George today doing surgery), so I understand they don't have much time, but it would be nice if someone wrote some of that down for you for when you have your senses back again. I was in more pain than last time, and in general, felt like complete shit. I'm not sure if they kept me under longer or what they did differently, but surgery kicked my ass in a big way this time. I had to get them to give me three separate injections of pain killers to stop the pain in my eye socket and put me at ease. Plus, I was so nauseous that they hooked up a bag of gravol for my IV so I wouldn't barf. About an hour later they moved me back into the peri-operative area where my dad was finally allowed to come hang out with me. I was really out of it at this point, and didn't even really feel up to talking. But he just sat next to me, putting his hand on my knee from time to time to let me know he was there. They gave me a couple T3s at this point to help with the pain. At this point, based on my last surgery, I would have gotten up and gone home, but I didn't really feel like I could talk, let alone walk, so I just stayed for 45 minutes to an hour longer until I felt like I could at least hop into a wheel chair. I spent the night back at home, chatting with my dad and listening to music. We put on Pan's Labyrinth to watch, but after about ten minutes I realized it was a lost cause, and we turned it off so I could pass out and go to sleep. My dad and I were both really impressed with the hospital staff at VGH. Everyone went out of there way to be friendly, and even crack the odd joke or two. Those little gestures make all the difference when you're stripped naked, and sitting there worrying about your pending surgery. We stopped on our way out to thank the nursing staff personally for making it easy on everyone, and it was a nice experience based on everything I have been through in the last six months (see, I don't hate all you medical people). So, here we are. The surgery disrupted my infraorbital nerve, which means my entire left side of my face (my left cheek, nose, lip and gums) is completely numb again. If you held a lit cigarette against it, I'm sure I wouldn't flinch. This happened with my last surgery, and hopefully over the next few weeks it will slowly come back in a series of pins and needle sensations as nerves start going active again. The incision is a bit different this time, and it looks like they didn't recreate the old one exactly (perhaps on purpose so they could see more inside of there), which will mean I have two scars instead of one, but oh well. Instead of having steri-strips on my wound, this time they just covered it with polysporin and left it exposed, which is a bit weird since last night it was dripping a bit of blood and creeped me out. However, they say it heals better this way. The vertical position of my eye seems better, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up so early in the recovery, since the swelling and everything distorts how everything looks for a while. The double vision is about the same, but it actually hurts to look in those areas now, where before it didn't. Which actually makes me happy, since I think it means those muscles are no longer trapped on anything, and are free to move again (but sore from scar tissue and lack of use). But he said hopefully the double vision will resolve slowly over the next few months, if all goes well. Here's a shot from this morning comparing the result (on the right) with a before shot taken about a week ago. At least to me it looks quite a bit better, excluding that big bloody gash under my eye. Next Thursday I'll get the stitches out, and will get to clean everything properly and see what it really looks like. Once again, thanks for all the support. Hopefully I'm on my way to having all of this behind me.

Transformers the Movie Trailer

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:53:38 +0000

Ok, so this is super geeky, but as a kid I used to love playing Transformers. For those of you who don't know, Michael Bay (Armageddon) has been working on a full length action movie about the transformers, and it's coming out July 4th. The new exclusive trailer was just released a few minutes ago on Yahoo, and it looks pretty wild. It will probably suck as a movie, but it should be entertaining. Check it out here. ** Update -- I have a new posting up about The Transformers Movie, so check it out.

Friends

Duane Storey — Sat, 19 May 2007 06:52:37 +0000

So tonight John and Rebecca stopped by for some moral support, and we spent the night hanging out, eating BBQ food, watching Trailer Park Boys, listening to music, and of course, having some drinks. It was a really awesome night, and I laughed enough that my face really, really hurts now. I'm definitely chewing two T3's before bed. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend close to home, watching movies and hopefully relaxing.

Posts

Duane Storey — Mon, 21 May 2007 23:58:27 +0000

I realized this morning that I haven't really written a blog entry in quite a few days. Truth is, I've just been feeling a little under the weather with the surgery and everything. I'm definitely healing, even though my face is a weird shade of yellow now. I don't really feel that much pain since the left side of my face is still completely numb, but my eye socket hurts from time to time. The last few days I've woken up in the morning with extremely itchy eyes, and have spent the better part of 20 minutes just trying to get them to stop watering. I'm not sure what causes that (probably the body's natural response to suddenly having a foreign body implanted in it). The drugs are keeping me rather level, although I don't really have any mental capacity right now (I tend to drift in and out of sleep throughout the day). I don't think I'll be back up to par for at least another week or so, which matches roughly when I get my stitches out. I've been including the odd photo into my RSS stream for people interested in how I'm looking, but for those that don't subscribe to RSS, here's a shot of me last night down at Jer's place in Gastown. As you can see, I still look tired and dopey, but I'm healing slowly. I lost a piece of tape on my face, so I had to improvise and split the other piece in half. If that doesn't work, I'm gonna have to resort to putting duct tape or some other shit on my face to hold it all together. In the few hours I'm actually awake, I've been trying to figure out how to write standalone applications on the Mac. Matthew Good recently released a custom Mac RSS Dashboard widget for his blog, which I think is a rather cool idea. So, I've spent some time reading up on how to make Dashboard widgets, and how to make standalone apps on the Mac (since I've developed many on Windows). Which is sort of interesting in itself, because developing on a Mac hasn't been very straightforward for me. The first hurdle is understanding the difference between the two Mac frameworks, Carbon and Cocoa. Carbon is a bit dated, but allows developers to do development in C++ using Carbon APIs. This is the route I first started to go down but then I realized that Apple recommends that most new applications use Cocoa. Unfortunately for me, Cocoa is Objective C, and not C++, which presents a rather unusual learning curve (considering I know both C and C++). If I feel up to it, I may head down to Chapters later and pick up a book on Cocoa and Objective C. I have a simple idea in my head for a neat social networking application that would piggyback Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, but I don't have the know-how to put it together on the Mac yet (and I just can't be bothered to fire up my Windows machine ever again). If I feel up to it, I might stroll down to DemoCamp on Thursday night and pitch the idea. Other than that, I think I'll be at home for most of the week sleeping. Speaking of sleep, I think it's that time again.

Sunrise

Duane Storey — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:07:18 +0000

Back at It

Duane Storey — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:51:37 +0000

Last night I ventured out for dinner briefly down to Granville Island with Jason, and managed to enjoy a bit of the sunshine. I haven't really been sleeping that well lately (yesterday I didn't get to sleep until 8am, waking up sometime around 3pm), so I think my lack of sleep has finally caught up with me (I was up at 5am this morning after only sleeping a few hours). Maybe it's the drugs leaving my system, or maybe just some stuff on my mind -- I'm not sure. The good news is that in about three hours I'll be down at UBC getting my stitches out. I'm excited because I'll finally be able to see myself without a pile of tape on my face, and will be able to shower properly and not worry when I put a shirt on that I'm going to hurt myself. My first impression of the scar on my face is that it's definitely a bit larger than the last one, so hopefully it starts to fade and blend in in short order. I generally wear glasses now so it shouldn't be too noticable (and maybe my last scar was this large last time and I just forgot). I'm meeting a few people for lunch today, and then heading into work briefly to talk about a few things. I've been told to take tomorrow off and rest a bit more before starting work full time on Monday, and I can't really argue with that logic. So, I'm going to take it easy one last weekend, and work my way back into the grind next week. I'm going to hold off commenting on my vision in any detail for a week or two just in case things suddenly get worse, but so far things seem promising. I've been a pretty delinquent blogger this last week, so I'll try and catch up on some points this weekend. I also have to set up another public blog, so I have my work cut out for me. Here's a shot of the sun rising I took yesterday from my patio.

The Price of Pretention

Duane Storey — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:30:58 +0000

After I broke up with my ex-girlfriend, I decided that for the first time in a long time, I wanted to live relatively close to work. Some people argue that if you had to choose, you should always choose to live where you play (as opposed to living where you work). But, I spent the last few years having nearly an hour commute in each direction to go to work, and I was just sick of it. So, I found a place downtown, and here I am, after nearly two years. I have a pretty sweet deal down here - I pay $1200 for an 800 sq. ft. apartment about 20 steps from the water, in a relatively nice area of downtown. But to be honest, I'm not a big fan of living downtown. I'm a very light sleeper, and a usual night for me involves waking up to sirens, or watching the fantastical art on my walls from the lights the cop cars make as they fly down the Granville Street bridge. People ask me all the time if I live in Yaletown, and for some reason some people seem to assume I live there (I don't know why?) I'm not really sure what part of downtown I live in, although if you check out this definition from wikipedia:

Yaletown is an area of downtown Vancouver approximately bordered by False Creek, Smithe, Davie and Homer Streets. Formerly a heavy industrial area dominated by warehouses and rail yards, since the 1986 World's Fair, it has been transformed into one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in the city.

then I don't live in Yaletown. Which, to be honest, is a good thing in my mind. And the fact that I can even say that bothers me to no end. Because it seems like there's this stigma attached to so many people in Vancouver simply on where they live or work. Invariably, one of the first questions people seem to ask around here in the bars is "where do you live?" And while I haven't spent tons of time in other big cities, I have spent enough, at least in Canadian cities, to know that it's a strange question to ask. What people are really asking is "are you cool enough to hang out with me?" Yaletown has a reputation for being full of self-important people willing to drop $14 on a glass of wine or a glass of rum and coke. Many of the newest bars in the region are martini bars or tapas houses, and while I swing by from time to time to meet people from out of town who are in Vancouver, I never really feel comfortable in that kind of place. I think of bringing some of my Chilliwack friends into places like that, and it nearly makes me sick to my stomach. The other day I walked into Starbucks on my way into the office. I'm not one of the people who got on the coffee bandwagon -- I actually think Starbucks coffee tastes like shit, and I just don't buy into the whole latte-three-times-a-day thing. I'll take a can of diet coke over a partially-streamed no-fat extra-hot over-priced thingamabobber anyday. But, I do like caffeine, and one of the side effects of me being downtown is that I'm usually rather tired after a night of not sleeping very well. So I walked in to grab a medium cup of drip coffee. But since it was nice outside, I figured I'd just get them to throw it over some ice and have a nice refreshing iced coffee. Well, when I hit the cash register, the guy asked for nearly $4. I was like "for what?" He was like "your iced coffee." I said "it's just coffee, with ice in it right?" And he was like "yeah it is." So, I paid $4 for a $1.50 drink with some ice in it. And I beat myself up about it all the way to work. I read a revealing article last year about why all these coffee places can get away with charging these insane prices. The author's opinion, and one that I found myself swayed towards, was that people aren't really paying $4 for a hot coffee -- they are buying a small chunk of time outside of the office and the daily grind of the work force. I guess it has slowly replaced the water cooler over time, but I think it's just insane how much money people are willing to drop at places like that. I for one, for whatever reason, am happy I am generally not associated with that lifestyle, and am still debating getting the hell out of the downtown core.

Changes in the Air

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 May 2007 21:50:18 +0000

On Friday, I met up briefly with Rebecca down at the Six Acres in Gastown for a few drinks on a patio. It was a good way to start a Friday afternoon, and since I had only woken up a few hours prior, I was definitely in the mood to drink and grab something to eat. Afterwards, we went down to the west-end for some pizza, and to hang out with John, who was busy playing with Dave Olsen's new microphone on his computer. A bunch of my new blogger-type friends (most of which I originally ran into down at Northern Voice) were down at DemoCamp the other day, but unfortunately I wasn't feeling up to venturing out of the house, so I stayed home and checked out Rebecca's live blog of the event. Apparently for short notice, there was great interest and turn-out. Rebecca, obviously excited I'm taking her photo Last night I completely overhauled my apartment. I've been living in it a few years now, and I've never really found it very comfortable. So last night, I decided to spend some time moving stuff around (which also gave me an excuse to do a deep clean of my living room, finally getting at that stuff that always ends up under the couch). So far, I'm really loving the new layout. I woke up this morning, and was suprised how much brighter and cozier it looks. I think I might go out today and buy a few small things (like a proper TV stand, or a little corner table), but I really have no idea where one would go in Vancouver to buy something like that. Ikea maybe? Or a proper furniture store? Anyways, tomorrow is my first real full day back at work. I've been working off and on during the week, but I'll head into the office tomorrow and wind back into the daily grind. In terms of the surgery, I think the jury is still out on the success of it or not. I really need to wait it out a month or so before I comment. The double vision seems a bit better, and it is supposed to slowly improve over time. In terms of the position, it's definitely better. It's not perfect, but once the swelling goes down on my cheek, I doubt anyone other than me would be able to tell the difference. The scar seems to be healing better than I thought based on a week ago. I really thought it was going to be ugly and unsightly, but it's slowly returning to nothing more than a small line under my eye, which should slowly fill in over the next six months. I've also been working on a few side projects this week in between sleeping sessions. I'm hoping to blog about them soon.

Help

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 May 2007 22:23:21 +0000

In the last year I've attempted, on several occasions, to put together a few internet-type sites that interest me. Unfortunately, I haven't really gotten that far with any of them, mainly due to lack of time and an underestimation of the time involve for these projects by me. So, instead of completely adandoning some of them, I'm going to put out a call for help on a few and see if there's any interest in teaming up to finish a few of these off. So, if you think any of these would interest any of your friends, let me know. I think we have plenty of technical help (although if you want to lend some, let me know), but would love to have some designing help. So, here they are, in order of interest by me. 1. HDRCore (www.hdrcore.com) For those of you who check out my flickr photos, either on here or via flickr, most of the ones that people really tend to like are the ones that were taken using a HDR (high dynamic range) technique. Since I've spent a lot of time and resources learning about the subject, I thought I would put together a little informative site for others interested in the field. Some of the things I wanted to accomplish are: 1. Integration with a Flickr group (that can be viewed on the site) 2. A Best-Of section, chosen by the people involves in the website 3. Some contests and prizes from time to time (which would involve sponsorship from some local photography stores or HDR software vendors) 4. Some forum for user interaction That's a good start. The website is up, but pretty empty right now. I was playing with Wordpress at the time, but am open to using something like Drupal. 2. FreeHDR (www.freehdr.com) This was an idea I had over a year ago. But, I was going to develop a HDR library and appropriate browser plugins so that people could assemble HDR images at home for free. I've written a good chunk of the library (to the point of assembling the HDR image from JPEGs), but didn't do any of the tone-mapping stuff yet. These are others that are less important, and to be honest, I'd probably just give the domains to people if they could convince me they'd do something along the lines of what I was thinking (although it would be nice to work together and do something). 3. ResearchCellar (www.researchcellar.com) During university I was sick of groups like the IEEE taking control of the research I was doing. So I set out to develop and open-source style of peer-reviewed research. I imagine something could be set up in sort of a digg.com style peer rating system. But the end result I wanted was all the research to be available for free to everyone. 4. QuarterPel (www.quarterpel.com) Some of the best video algorithms do what is called quarter-pel motion estimation, which basically means they can resolve differences up to a quarter of a pixel in size. I grabbed this domain name originally thinking it would be cool for a video-centric type website, but I can't remember what my original idea was. And last but not least, I've about to release a free RSS reader on the Mac. It's not as feature rich as some of the other ones that I've seen, but most of the ground work has been done, and it should be easy to add features based on feedback from friends. Plus, it's going to be free. If you're interested in trying it out, just drop me a line (I have a universal binary now for it). It's called TrollDigger, and will be showing up on TrollDigger.com in a few days.

Where in the hell is the PS/3?

Duane Storey — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:03:19 +0000

I remember back around Christmas, Sony announced that they were unable to meet the holiday demand for the PS/3. I suspect part of this may have been artificial, since the resulting huge line-ups across the country showered the company with press everywhere. Unfortunately, those events lead to the deaths of a few people in incidents that occurred while in the long line-ups in sometimes cold, outdoor conditions. During that period, I had passively walked into whatever electronics store I could find, and asked if they had a PS/3 for sale. The answer was always no. So here we are, nearly six months later, and I'm still completely surprised that I can't find a PS/3 in the city. Is it really because the demand is outpacing the supply? I find this hard to believe since nobody I know owns one yet. However, several of my friends own Nintendo Wii's. While I'm not really interested in the PS/3 as a gaming environment, it is still the cheapest Blue-Ray DVD player on the market, and since I'm considering ditching cable altogether, I would really like a DVD player capable of doing high-def (so my high-def TV doesn't sit there getting dusty). Another solution (one which I'm sure Microsoft is kicking themselves in the ass for) is to buy a Xbox 360 external HD DVD player. Apparently, this is just a run-of-the-mill HD DVD player, and every computer on the market will recognize it as such. Unfortunately, getting a software DVD player that does high definition is another challenge entirely, which makes that solution trickier. If anyone actually knows of anyone with a PS/3, I'd love to know since I've never, ever seen one.

Matthew Good's Hospital Music

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 May 2007 05:38:19 +0000

So, as recently reported by Entertainment Tonight Canada, Matthew Good's seventh full length album, Hospital Music, is slated to be released on July 31st. This album was recorded and mixed at the Warehouse Studios in Gastown, Vancouver during the months of January to March. Matthew Good in the Studio
Photo by Dan Lilly, taken during the recording of Hospital Music While I haven't seen any of the footage myself or spent much time scouring the internet for any news of the release, I've heard through a few people that Entertainment Tonight people attempted to briefly explain Matt's motivation for the music on his new album. And to that end, if anyone is curious about what the actual inspiration for the album was or wants to learn more from the man himself, I encourage them to check out the official Hospital Music page on Matthew's website, where you'll find information about upcoming live performances along with a detailed biography for the album itself. This Thursday the first single for Hospital Music will hit the airwaves at 6:15pm, courtesy of CFOX (99.3 the Fox) here in Vancouver. The following information is listed on Matt's website:

On Thursday, May 31st at 6:15pm (PST), Vancouverâ€™s CFOX radio station will be premiering the first single from Hospital Music- â€˜Born Losersâ€™. Matt will also be playing acoustically and answering some questions. You can tune in if you live in the greater Vancouver area at 99.3 FM.

So make sure to jot it down so you don't miss out. Shortly thereafter, Matthew will be allowing registered users of his website to listen to the single for a while online. So if you're not already a member, head on over and sign up now. Back in March, Matt was gracious enough to give me a sneak listen to the entire album down at the studio in Gastown, and to all the people who are waiting patiently for its full release on July 31st I will say this -- it is well worth the wait. Also, Matt has pages on several social networking sites, so if you're into that you can check out Matthew Good's Facebook Page or the Hospital Facilities Myspace Page. If you have Facebook, go grab the Hospital Music Facebook Application to keep up to date with the release, tour dates, information, etc. For those of you who want to see a few more behind the scenes images from the recording process, here are a few additional shots by Dan Lilly (the first five) and Vancouver Fashion Photograher Kris Krug (the last six).

Apple iTunes DRM-Free Test

Duane Storey — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:22:33 +0000

Yesterday Apple released verison 7.2 of iTunes which finally gives users the ability to download DRM free versions of songs from iTunes. The added bonus is that you can also download 256 kbps AAC versions of the files instead of the 128 kbps AAC versions. So, before I actually go into the experience, I'd have to say I was slightly hesitant about this. When people think 128kbps, they automatically think of the old MP3s. And at 128kbps, MP3 files are fairly close to CD quality (for most people), but on my stereo at least, I can notice slight distortions. However, AAC is part of the MPEG4 standard (used in IPTV and some of the HD DVD specifications), which is a big improvement over MP3. While it varies based on the material, MP3s at 128kbps sound similar to AAC files at around 96kbps due to improvements in the underlying technology. So, my point is that 128kbps AAC files should sound pretty good for most people. The first thing I should point out is that iTunes fires up after the upgrade in normal, full-on DRM mode. There's a button near the top that will enable the DRM-free mode, which will convert all the prices on in the iTunes stores to the DRM-free versions, if they exist from the band. So, after clicking that button, iTunes informs me that out of the 215 songs in my library that were purchased, and thus protected by DRM, only 13 of them (which represents the entire Air - Pocket Symphony album) can be converted to DRM-free versions. So, I figured, what the hell -- might as well let the healing begin. After typing in my iTunes password, I sat back, waiting patiently for the downloads to start, and my musical experience to be taken to the next level. Unfortunately, this is what I got: Hmm.. That's not so good. I messed around for nearly 30 minutes before it actually managed to download a full DRM-free version, and as of this blog post, 11 songs are still in an error state, waiting for some magical, celestial event to occur before they start. Thankfully, you get the option of backing up the DRM versions on your hard drive during this process. Since I now had both versions, I figured I might as well see if the DRM-free versions *were* actually better. I did a quick listen, and I couldn't really hear a difference. So, I burned both versions to a CD, then ripped them back into my hard-drive as PCM Wave files, fired up Matlab and then switched my brain into DSP mode, a place I don't visit very often anymore. I did a quick and dirty Fourier transform to figure out what the spectral properties of both files looked like. Here's the result: They look pretty similar up until around 16kHz (which is where most voice frequencies start to diminish sharply), at which point the high frequencies start to roll off fairly quickly in the 128kbps version. In the 256kbps version though, the highs are maintained up until 20kHz, at which point there's obviously a deliberate cut-off filter in-place (probably to avoid any aliasing during the conversion to 44.1kHz/CD). So, without a doubt there are extra high-frequencies in the 256kbps, which means you are actually getting more for your money (at least, you are getting more highs, so if you like more highs, then you'll be happy). I tried moving the DRM-free file to another computer and using it there and had no problem whatsoever. So Apple lives up to their promise in this area. In terms of whether or not this actually makes a difference, I'm not too sure. It's 1:30am here and I live in an apartment, so I won't be able to crank my stereo until tomorrow. But for those of you who want to take a quick listen, here's a small segment of Air's Night Slight.

If anyone has a problem with me putting 15 seconds worth of a song up here, let me know and I'll take them down. But I think it's an important comparison to make, considering tons of people are going to start converting their whole libraries based on the assumption that it's going to improve the music quality (and since Air was the only band in my collection that had DRM-free, 256kbps versions available, they were chosen -- however, you should check them out yourselves). So my personal feelings are this: a) Apple still has a few bugs in the delivery system for DRM-free music b) EMI is the only label on board right now, and they happen to be the smallest one [thanks to Boris Mann for correcting this] c) 128kbps and 256kbps files sound nearly identical So, before blowing a pile of money on upgrading to DRM-free versions, I'd recommend actually taking the time to figure out if you really need to, or would notice a difference anyway. ** The song used for the graphs was Air's Night Slight, chosen partially because it contained a lot of high frequencies, and partially because it was one of two DRM-free songs that iTunes actually managed to download.

Apple and DRM, Take Two

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 00:05:16 +0000

In the last couple days, I've read several reports of people discovering embedded user data in the new DRM-free versions of music on iTunes. While I'm not suprised, having embedded user data within these files is essentially a form of Digital Rights Management, which at the very least points to false advertising by Apple regarding these new music files. I'm quite certain that a utility will exist shortly to strip it out, should people want to, but Apple is being very guarded about these files and exactly just how DRM-free they really are. I personally have no problem with my user data being embedded, since as long as I transfer these files between equipment I personally own, nobody will ever see that data but me. But, Apple needs to make this clearer either through their advertising campaign, or in the end-user license agreement (near the top, not the bottom).

It's Hotter than a %#%%# in Here

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:01:35 +0000

Jesus.. My apartment wasn't made to survive the summer.. It's currently 26C inside, and I'm sweating to death despite having all my windows and patio door open. I made the big mistake on Friday night of heading down to Bryght for a little party, and ending up drinking myself into a coma. I didn't wake up until around 3pm the next day, which is surprising considering how hot it was inside.. I guess all one can really do in this heat is crack a few beers, kick your feet up, blare some music and take it all in stride.. Last night at around midnight, while in the middle of watching a pretty cool movie, the power went off in the building. As the last of the gadgets in my living room stopped beeping and whirring, I suddenly remembered a memo I received under my door a few days prior about a scheduled power outage this weekend. Oops. I spent the next hour or so frantically trying to hack WEP keys for other wireless connections in buildings nearby, but was unsuccessful. I even tried to get my cell phone working with my Mac so I could use the EVDO to do a few things on the internet, but that was a complete bust too. So, I lit a few candles, played in Garageband, and just took it easy until the LCD on my laptop eventually flickered out and died, the battery finally drained. Today I gathered up John and Rebecca and headed down to Ikea in Richmond for some shopping. It was a fun trip, even though I didn't buy too many things. Some asshole honked at me in a situation where he shouldn't really have, so I spent the rest of the trip honking at everyone else in retaliation. While at Ikea, I demonstrated my genetic Cow-Tipping ability on something that closely resembled a cow. As I told them, you really need to put your legs and back into the cow-tip, or it doesn't work. Photo by miss604 Afterwards, I showed everyone in Home Depot just how you're supposed to ride a tractor or a lawnmower. The trick is to pucker your lips and make tractor sounds while you drive it. Photo by miss604 A fun day, and I still have seven hours of it left. I'm going to finish a few Heineken's here, then show everyone on a patio somewhere just how Chilliwack boys drink beer in the sunshine. Maybe I'll even run into some cute beer-drinking, tractor sound-making cow-girl who wants to hop on my tractor and ride with me, past the tipped-cow, into the sunset.

Gastown Photowalk

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:14:29 +0000

Last night I pulled my camera off the shelf, blew a layer of dust off of it, and headed down to gastown for a quick photowalk. Kris Krug has done a pretty stellar job of organizing these from time to time, and it's a good chance for people to get together, learn a few tricks, and hang out with good company. We strolled around the tracks is Gastown, then made a loop around and came back through Blood Alley. Afterwards, we stopped at the Six Acres for some beers, and then eventually went to Kris' house for a little wine. I took tomorrow off, and I'm heading up to Cultus Lake with a few friends to enjoy some R & R time by the water. So, you can consider the blog out of service during the weekend.

Trap and Gill

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:43:20 +0000

Well, I haven't hung our with my pal Mel in quite a while (actually, I haven't seen her since my birthday). Tonight she invited a pile of people down to the Trap and Gill near my place. I showed up, and definitely drank my share. It was cool seeing Mel and company again, and I had a great time. I'll be camping up in Cultus tomorrow with Rebecca and John. If you're close by, bring beer.

Back into the swing of things

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:13:20 +0000

I haven't been much of a blogger lately, and I'm not sure why that is. I've had a lot of ideas about what would make for some interesting entries, but lately with everything going on I just haven't really been able to write anything. Hopefully I'll start to change that. I spent the weekend up at Cultus Lake with John and Rebecca, and I had a great time - check out Rebecca's entry for all the details. We drank an impressive amount of booze considering we were there for only two nights. Most of my immediately family made it up for a visit, and it was good to see them all again. For whatever reason, I just never seem to have time to visit with them these days, something I'm hoping to correct over the summer. I got to spend a little while down by the lake with my niece Jessica and my nephew Derek. It's funny how fast time goes -- seems like just yesterday I got the call that Jessica was being born, and made my way out to Chilliwack to be there for her first moments. Now, she's nearly nine years old, tromping through the wilderness with uncle's hand in hers, taking him to the lake to show him how to skip a few rocks. After they left, I thought to myself that I really haven't spent enough time with them in the last few years. Sure, I make it to Christmas and as many birthdays as I can, but it just never adds up to any significant amount of time unfortunately. In terms of my surgery, it's been nearly four weeks now, so it's probably relatively stable. Like the first surgery I had, the first few days after were the best in terms of visual appearance. My eye seems slightly different now than when I first got home from the hospital. That being said, it's still alot better than how it looked pre-operatively, so I guess in that regard the surgery was a success. The double vision is still there, but I don't think it's nearly as bad, and given time and lots of eye exercises, will hopefully correct itself even further. One of the interesting parts of this surgery is the disruption of the infra-orbital nerve. This nerve supplies sensations to the cheek, lips and gums, and the operation occurs near it so it usually gets slightly damaged during the procedure. So, part of the recovery involves regaining sensations in that side of my face, which manifests itself in sort of pins-and-needles type sensations as the nerves reconnect. I have to say, it's rather uncomfortable, and feels sort of like someone constantly rubbing a feather or something against your face. Now that everything is behind me, I'm going to step back up and get the Duane Reduction Program going again. I'm hoping to drop 20 pounds before leaving for Ottawa in about 2.5 months, so I better get at it. If anyone is up for some tennis, rollerblading or badminton sometime, just drop me a line. I'm going to start biking to and from work (the from work part will hopefully involve going along as much of the seawall as I can), so hopefully it all helps. No more beer for a while -- I'm going back to rum and diet coke for a while. I'm hoping to make a small trip to San Francisco for a weekend sometime in June to hang out with my friend Jason and his wife (they are having twins shortly), which will hopefully involve a day trip to Napa and some fun in downtown San Francisco. Other than that, I'm going to stay close to home for a while and reload my bank account (which has continually dwindled since Northern Voice for some reason). I have a few projects I'm going to "finish" in the next little while, and then I'm purposefully not taking anything else on for the summer and going to spend most of it away from a computer.

Diamonds are not forever

Duane Storey — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:46:14 +0000

While sitting on the couch tonight waiting patiently for my groceries to magically unload themselves into the cupboards, I stumbled upon a very interesting article on the dupe of the century -- diamond engagement rings. I encourage everyone to read that article. Before I get into it, I'm going to state, for the record, that my ex-girlfriend and I fought over this topic on more than a few occasions. You see, about four months into the relationship, I started noticing a lot of wedding material around her house -- the odd magazine, the web-browser left conveniently open to a wedding ring website, pictures of wedding dresses on her desktop, etc. At first, I kind of just shrugged it off -- she seemed happy, and who was I to say anything. The main problem was of course, at the time we had just started to enter into our endless-spiral, and I thought discussing marriage was pretty much the last thing we should have been worried about as a couple dealing with our very existence as a couple. Finally my curiosity got the better of me and I finally just asked her what the deal was. Eventually, that conversation lead into the discussion of wedding rings and what she had always envisioned for her wedding, which of course was rather large and elaborate for both the ceremony and the ring. At the time, I was a struggling student with about $40,000 worth of debt on my shoulders, so I simply said there was no way in hell I'd be able to afford anything like that in the next few years, which of course, completely upset her. You see, I completely refuse to go into further debt for a wedding, under pretty much all circumstances. I don't mind, as a couple, setting aside money each month to finance a wedding, but taking out tens of thousands of dollars for a ceremony straight out of Cinderella just simply isn't my style, especially considering that most of the best weddings I have ever been to have been small and informal. To that end, I recognize most women have dreamed about that moment for most of their lives, so I'll definitely have an open ear when the time comes -- the only constraint I am putting on it is that it must, in true Ukrainian style, have an open bar. If you consider that most couples nowadays strive to have equal responsibilities in a marriage, then the ring is pretty much one of the only inequitable components of the modern relationship:

The retail fantasy known as a "traditional" American wedding comprises many delicious absurdities, ranging from personalized wedding stamps to ring pillows designed for dogs to favors like "Love Mints." Of all these baubles, though, perhaps the most insidious is the engagement ring. Most Americans can say no to the "celebrity garter belt" on offer for a mere $18.95 from Weddings With Class. But more than 80 percent of American brides receive a diamond engagement ring (at an average cost of around $3,200) before they get married. Few stop to think about what, beyond the misty promise of endless love, the ring might actually signify. Why would you, after all? A wedding is supposed to be a celebration. Only the uncharitable would look a sparkly diamond in the eyeâ€”never mind a man on his kneeâ€”and ask what it means. But there's a powerful case to be made that in an age of equitable marriage the engagement ring is an outmoded commodityâ€”starting with the obvious fact that only the woman gets one. The diamond ring is the site of retrograde fantasies about gender roles. What makes it perniciousâ€”as opposed to tackily funâ€”is its cost (these days you don't need just a diamond; you need a good diamond), its dubious origins, and the cynical blandishments of TV and print ads designed to suggest a ring's allure through the crassest of stereotypes.

I've purposely brought this topic up when in the presence of female friends, and you're welcome to try this at home if you're brave enough (I recommend copious amounts of liquor prior to heading down this path though). Start with the topic of equal rights between men and women, and everyone in the room will nod their heads in agreement. Eventually make your way into the topic of ring-inequality, and most women in the room (at least most women I've ever encountered) will stare at you blankly, shaking their heads in unison and muttering 'he just doesn't get it' under their breath. Most couples would probably be surprised to learn that the super-expensive engagement-ring tradition didn't actually begin until part way through the 1900s, when De Beers, a large diamond producer, started a massive marketing campaign to promote the diamond:

In 1919, De Beers experienced a drop in diamond sales that lasted for two decades. So in the 1930s it turned to the firm N.W. Ayer to devise a national advertising campaignâ€”still relatively rare at the timeâ€”to promote its diamonds. Ayer convinced Hollywood actresses to wear diamond rings in public, and, according to Edward Jay Epstein in The Rise and Fall of the Diamond, encouraged fashion designers to discuss the new "trend" toward diamond rings. Between 1938 and 1941, diamond sales went up 55 percent. By 1945 an average bride, one source reported, wore "a brilliant diamond engagement ring and a wedding ring to match in design." The capstone to it all came in 1947, when Frances Geretyâ€”a female copywriter, who, as it happened, never marriedâ€”wrote the line "A Diamond Is Forever." The company blazoned it over the image of happy young newlyweds on their honeymoon. The sale of diamond engagement rings continued to rise in the 1950s, and the marriage between romance and commerce that would characterize the American wedding for the next half-century was cemented. By 1965, 80 percent of American women had diamond engagement rings. The ring had become a requisite element of betrothalâ€”as well as a very visible demonstration of status. Along the way, the diamond industry's guidelines for the "customary" cost of a ring doubled from one month's salary to two months' salary.

Now to be honest, while me penning this entry at all may convince some females I'm completely against engagement rings and anything of that sort, the truth is that I'm not. But my problem arises from my last relationship where the cost of the ring and the lavishness of the ceremony were apparently more important than what both of those two events signified. Two month's salary is a lot of money for most people -- with my own salary, it's close to a down-payment on a cheap house in the country. Considering most couples enter into marriage at relatively young ages, I just find it rather pointless to sink that much money into something that in my eyes is rather insignificant considering there are far better uses for that money. At the very least, you would think such a gesture would be reciprocal in nature given the advances in the last century for equal rights:

On the face of it, the engagement ring's origins as a financial commitment should make modern brides-to-be wary. After all, virginity is no longer a prerequisite for marriage, nor do the majority of women consider marriageability their prime asset. Many women hope for a marriage in which housework, child-rearing, and breadwinning are equitably divided. The engagement ring doesn't fit into this intellectual framework. Rather, its presence on a woman's finger suggests that she needs to trap a man into "commitment" or be damaged if he leaves. (In most states today, if a groom abandons a bride, she is entitled to keep the ring, whereas if she leaves him, she must give it back.) Nor is it exactly "equitable" to demand that a partner shell out a sixth of a year's salary, demonstrating that he can "provide" for you and a future family, before you agree to marry him. ... It may seem curious that feminism has made inroads on many retrograde customsâ€”name-changing, for exampleâ€”but not on the practice of giving engagement rings. Part of the reason the ring has persisted and thrived is clearly its role in what Thorstein Vebelen called the economy of "conspicuous consumption." Part of the reason could be that many young women, raised in a realm of relative equality, never think rigorously about the traditions handed down to them. So it's easy to simply regard a ring as a beautiful piece of jewelry and accept it in kind (I'm guilty myself). But it's also the case that a murkier truth lies within its brilliance: Women still measure their worth in relationship to marriage in ways that men don't. And many are looking for men who will bear the burden of providing for them, while demanding equality in other ways. (It's telling, for example, that in many parts of Scandinavia, where attitudes toward gender are more egalitarian, both men and women wear engagement rings.)

You see, I have yet to be in a serious relationship that wasn't primarily one-sided, both emotionally and financially. I have often paid more rent, dished out more for vacations, written more poems, given more hugs, and in general, more compassion and understanding than my significant others. And while I don't think relationships are always equally shared in terms of things like finances, the differences become glaringly apparent after the demise of the relationship, and the pieces of yourself that it takes with it. At the end of my last relationship, I found myself bouncing from couch to couch, realizing that I still was paying rent in a house that I was no longer welcome in, and still paying bills for things I had never seen. In the last few weeks, two of my friends have had to deal with divorce. I myself watched my parents split years ago as well, and most of my close friends growing up also came from broken homes. The current divorce rate in Canada is above 40%, with it breaking 50% in parts of the United States. So for those of you considering marriage or thinking long term, I would challenge you to think about what the nature of love means to you. Is it a ring, or is it something more? Is it the security of having someone sleeping beside you, or is it the absolute contentment in having that one person next to you? It is something I have struggled to understand lately, wondering sometimes if I'm one of the last people on the planet who thinks he actually gets it. Back in November, while dripping blood in a hospital bed at St. Paul's Hospital in pain, I remember staring blankly at my cell phone (through my only working eye) wondering why the very person I had supported over the last several years, the person I had helped through school, through financial troubles, whose tears I had caught more times than I can possibly count, the very first person I felt compelled to call from my hospital bed that night, refused to pick up her phone. It's the same thing I wondered a few weeks ago, while sitting on my couch recovering from my last surgery, reading an email from her mom wishing me well -- I wondered then why it was I hadn't heard from her in several months, and why it was that she didn't think I was worth caring about in any capacity any more. If she were to pick up the phone tomorrow and ask for help, I would be there for her, despite everything that has happened between us. But she can't be bothered to ask how I'm doing after surgery, or return a simple email to show me that she once cared. And perhaps the hard truth is that she never really did love me -- maybe she only loved what a diamond ring could give her.

Cross-Processing And The World Of Film

Duane Storey — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:34:25 +0000

So, I gotta hand it to my pal Kris -- he's managed to get me interested in something I never thought I'd be interested in again -- film photography. Kris is a really awesome fashion photographer here in Vancouver, and his stuff never ceases to amaze me. What's interesting about Kris, and a variety of the local photographers I've met recently, is that they have started shooting film again. Which is sort of surprising, given the focus local photography shops seem to place on digital nowadays (I called several local stores recently to talk about film, and most of them didn't even have film cameras in stock anymore). So, since I'm intrigued by this, I've been in the market for a cheap film SLR that will be able to utilize all the current lenses I have in my kit. Since most of my lenses are pretty decent now, and the body is arguably not that important (as long as you know what you are doing), I think I can get away with something rather inexpensive. To that end, I found a rather good deal here in Vancouver for a guy that's looking to make a quick buck and get rid of the film SLR collecting dust on his shelf, for the low price of around $125. There happens to be a certain look and feel that you get with film that most digital mediums just haven't been able to replicate. Despite the technological success that George Lucas made by shooting Episode III in full digital, almost every modern film production still uses film (even though it's far more expensive than shooting digitally). Some of that is probably a comfort factor with film, but perhaps some of it is simply because the look and feel of film is what we're accustomed to. While I definitely want to play around with a film camera, I also have a few other reasons for wanting to have a second body around. First, I have a wedding to shoot in October, and I want a second body around in case mine were to suddenly die on the spot. While shooting a good portion of the wedding in film is a rather scary notion for me (mainly because I'm going to be stressed out enough), I would rather shoot some of it in film (if I had to) then lose those moments forever. Assuming I can get comfortable with the film body before the wedding, then it will be my backup, otherwise I'll be forced to rent a 30D or a 5D for the day. Having a film body will also give me back the proper focal length range on my camera. My EOS 20D has a crop factor of 1.6, which basically means all images that hit the CMOS are effectively cropped, causing a multiplication factor of 1.6 to be applied to each focal length. For example, my 17-40mm wideangle lens acts like a 27-66mm lens, which just isn't as exciting. So, I might just keep my wideangle on the film body at the wedding for the serious drama shots. The last reason that I'd like to play with film again is because Kris has got me interested in the area of cross processing. To read more about it, check out Kris' post on Static Photography. So, hopefully this Friday I'll have the first film SLR body I've ever owned. It's the EOS Elan-7 model by Canon, and as I mentioned, should work flawlessly with every lens in my kit. I'll play around with shooting some stuff via film again to see what the results are. I also managed to find a set of Photoshop actions that simulate cross-processing effects on Adobe's website. Here's a shot I took at the Gastown Photowalk last week, but put through a series of cross processing effects in photoshop: And another shot of my friend Rebecca: The action set has ten different varieties of cross-processing, only one of which is shown here.

To cancel Shaw or not to cancel Shaw

Duane Storey — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:39:34 +0000

Nearly two years ago, I went out with my dad and step-mom and picked up a high-definition TV at future shop. Of course, having a high-definition TV without any sort of high-definition feed is rather pointless, so the first thing I did is pick up a HD cable box from Shaw. Unfortunately, I didn't realize at the time just how little TV I usually watch. Between the HD cable option and my "high-speed" internet, I shell out around $110 a month, which is pretty stupid considering I watch only around one TV show a week if I'm lucky. So, I think tomorrow I'm going to call up shaw and finally cancel my cable for my TV. What I'm going to do with the HD box, I'm really not sure. Maybe I'll throw it up on eBay and finance a HD DVD player (which I could see myself using far more, since I love movies and watch a few a week). But to be honest, Shaw's HD TV service is pretty shoddy. Sure, they advertise around ten HD channels or so, but most of those don't show HD programs all the time. Half the time I tune into one, there's a low-definition program that they've just upscaled, or even broadcasted it directly. I also paid money to have the movie package, which gives me access to four movie-central channels or something like that. Unfortunately, most of the time I tune into one of them, there's only some crappy one-star or a two-star movie (not that the rating system is flawless, but you get the point). And despite having one of the premier packages with Shaw, it seems like whenever I want to actually watch something interesting (like a biography or some tech program), Shaw always complains that I don't have access to that channel. So, I think I'm going to say goodbye to Shaw pretty soon. Thanks for all the one-star memories.

Baby's got a new bag

Duane Storey — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:10:56 +0000

As you can see, things look a little different around here after tonight. I got tired of looking at my old theme about two days after I put it up, but just didn't feel like doing anything about it. So tonight while watching Million Dollar Baby, I decided to take a stab and making it a bit different. It's nothing fancy -- all I did is start with the default Wordpress theme and add a few things here and there. The main header is a HDR sunrise I did off my patio about a month ago. Gravatars are broken right now, but since Keira and I seem to be the only ones using them, it's not really any big hardship. Also, I'd like to get the concept of "notes" or "asides" back, but I want to do something new with them (I was thinking some kind of Ajax ticker tape maybe?) I'll try and get those working and finish things off sometime this weekend. Feel free to comment on what you think so far. ** One of the unexpected side-effects of all this is that it seems to be so much faster now.

Hanging with Friends

Duane Storey — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:19:34 +0000

Last night I went down to Malone's on Seymour street for a few after-work drinks with Kasia, Chris and Cisco. Afterwards, we decided to make our way down Granville (which eventually brings me home) and stopped by the Granville room for a bottle of wine. I ran into my old friend Brigitte and some of her friends which was a nice surprise. Unfortunately, I drank more than I should have, and had a nice headache most of the day. Tomorrow I'm going to head into work for a bit and catch up on a few things, and then Sunday I'm heading out to Chilliwack to hang out with my family for father's day. I'm in the process of finalizing some travel arrangements shortly for hopefully a quick weekend getaway to San Francisco to see some friends. My plate is really filling up this summer, and I really need to take some time out to put it all into Google calendar so I don't miss out on some of it. I also have a few friends down in Seattle that are going to come up soon and check out Vancouver.

My Photos on the Web

Duane Storey — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:35:45 +0000

As I was browsing the internet tonight and accidentally ran into a photo of mine on a website. So, while I was there, I figured I might as well see where else some of my photos have ended up.

As I was tracking these down in Google, I realized how nice a feature it would be if Flickr had some sort of trackback mechanism, then you could see who was using your photos on the web.

Seven Years of Digital Photography

Duane Storey — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 19:46:34 +0000

Back in December of 2000, while home in Chilliwack visiting my family for Christmas, I made the digital plunge. I was in London Drugs, looking around the electronics section for something bright and shiny to make me happy, and my eyes settled on the first real section of digital cameras ever to hit the market. For the most part, most of those cameras were nothing more than glorified webcams -- they took grainy photos, and really didn't have any options. However, one in particular stood out above the rest. It was the Nikon Coolpix 880, and it became my first digital camera. I shot all my photos that Christmas completely digitally, which amazed all my older relatives and friends. The photos were pretty awesome for the day, but by today's standards, had a few colour problems (notably skin tones) and didn't really perform that well in low light. I loved having the ability to review your shots immediately after taking them, and getting instant satisfaction from all your shots. For the first time in ages, I was excited about taking photos. Unfortunately, I soon learned that I was a year or two ahead of the rest of the market. Making prints out of my digital photos was difficult, and not a single store in Ottawa would do it. So, I had to get Ofoto, a US photo company, to print them and mail them to me, which was a bit of a pain in the ass (usually took 7 - 10 days to get them). The next "step-up" in terms of Cameras was a 6MP Canon Digital Elph. I still have one of these (although not the same one), not because I like the photos they take (in fact, I think they take rather lousy photos, given how much they cost), but because they have a small form factor and can easily fit into an inside jacket pocket. Unfortunately, they aren't they durable, and I've broken my current one twice, once by having it in my pocket (the LCD cracked due to tension against it -- maybe I wear my pants too tight?), and once in New York City (I think it fell a few inches and the shudder mechanism broke). And to be honest, while I think dropping a camera 6 feet runs a pretty good risk of breaking it under most conditions, I think most cameras should be able to sustain a fall of a few inches, or take normal wear and tear. So, I'm pretty disappointed with this line of cameras (although lots of people seem to like them). This reminds me of my problems with cell phones. I've had water damage with my cell phone a few times, only one of which they have ever fixed under warranty. You see, they have a little dot inside the case which changes colour when it gets wet. If it's in the "wet colour" state when you send it in, normally they just blame you for getting it wet and charge you full replacement price. However, Vancouver is one of the wettest cities in North America, and in the fall or spring, there's usually always some sort of rain or mist blanketing the city. To argue that I shouldn't be able to use my cell phone while walking to work (while it's rainy and misty) is a bit of a stretch, but that's usually when it's stopped working for me. So, back to cameras, I think Canon should step up and make these guys a little more durable. If it can't handle normal wear and tear (a camera that claims to fits into a pocket *should* be able to survive being put into a pocket), then something is wrong. So while I still own a Digital Elph, I hit a point a few years ago where I realized that I was sort of hitting the wall in terms of my abilities and room to maneuver with my camera. I could have upgraded to something like a Canon Powershot camera with a few more bells and whistles, but I figured that I enjoyed photography enough that I should just bite the bullet and get something I really liked. So, around three years ago, I shelled out $2000 and picked up the Canon EOS 20D, 8.2MP Digital SLR body and never looked back. The first mistake I made, and it's something that most people who take the SLR plunge make, was picking up a crappy lens. It is absolutely pointless to buy a Digital SLR and throw a junky lens on it. To be honest, the pictures you end up with will probably be a lot worse than those you'd get off a cheap digital point-and-shoot camera. You can make really awesome lenses that are small for point-and-shoot cameras, but it's far harder to make good SLR-size lenses (the advantage being that with a larger lens you let in a lot more light). So, don't be cheap when it comes to your lens -- most of you will keep them for a very long time. If you really are budget limited, the exception to the rule would be Canon's really cheap 50mm f/1.8 lens-- it's great to mess around with on a SLR. The f/1.8 speed is amazing for low light photography (I've taken shots in almost no light without using a flash), and it's sharp as a tack. For $100, you really can't complain about the cost, and it's worth having in your kit all the time. Unfortunately, it's not a zoom, so it's a bit limiting, but I think my days spent using the 50mm lens have taught me to be a better photographer, since it has forced me to spend time thinking about composition, and to move my feet to obtain better photos. The build quality of the 50mm isn't that great (you wouldn't want to drop it), but for $100, I think it's well worth it. Most people new into digital photography will want a decent zoom lens, and that's where it starts to get tricky. Canon has many varieties of zooms, all with different strengths and weaknesses. If you're going to get into L series (Canon's luxury high-end series), then the choices are a bit easier. But for amateur and prosumer lenses, it's a bit trickier. I spent quite a bit of time asking forums and people who had been into photography a long time, and one lens in particular kept coming up -- the Canon EF 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS. This lens not only is a good performer, but let's face it, it looks cool on your camera as well. As soon as I put it on, everyone thought I was a pro, and that's a nice feeling to have, even if you aren't a pro. Another benefit with this particular lens is that it has built in image-stabilization. So, if you flip the switch on the side, it will take sharper photos by attempting to actively cancel out any vibration of camera-shake. That feature worked quite well, and helped get some shots I wouldn't have otherwise been able to get. The next lens I put in my kit was Canon's 17-40mm f/4.0L. It was the first L-series lens I bought and I couldn't wait to get it home and test it out. Of course, like most L-series lenses, the sharpness immediately blew me away. They say once you go "L", you can't go back, and it's really true. So unless you want to start replacing every lens in your kit, I would hold off on getting any L-series lenses until you're pretty sure you want to sink a few grand into it. Photo taken using Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L The nice thing about having this lens on a digital body is that this particular lens isn't that sharp in the corners. Once you put it on the 20D or 30D, the crop factor inherent in the camera essentially removes the softer areas from the image. Unfortunately, you also lose a bit of the drama that wide-angle lenses are known for, but everything is a trade-off. This is primarily my main walk-around lens, which might seem a bit strange for most people. But since I do primarily city-shots and landscapes, I use it quite a bit. I'm going to pick up the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L soon, and that will undoubtedly be my new walk around lens (and will almost make the 17-40mm useless). The next L-series lens I picked up was the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L. This thing is a monster, weighing approximately 3.3 lbs -- so heavy in fact that it has a separate tripod mount on it so your tripod doesn't fall over while using it. I shot most of Northern Voice using this lens, so check out the images to see what it can do. I don't use it that often, but it's great at capturing shots at a distance and keeping them super sharp and contrasty. It set me back nearly $1500, so it's not a cheap lens to have in your kit, but if you need a great telephoto, then definitely grab it. Photo from Northern Voice using 70-200mm f/2.8L While I still consider myself just a photography enthusiast, I am beginning to take photography a lot more seriously lately, and am actively going out to shoot photos and try to get even better. I still have a couple areas I need to explore, such as flash and low-light photography, and action shots, but I think I've made good progress in areas such as composition. I've also done a lot of exploring in the area of High Dynamic Range imagery, and if you want to see some of my shots, check out my flickr set here. I'm also looking for whichever friends and families want to be test subjects soon as I really need some practice shooting people under different light conditions before that wedding. So, if you're a reader and want some shots taken, just let me know. I'm going to write a few primers I think over the next few weeks and feature them on my blog in the area of photography. I seem to be writing a lot about photography lately, so maybe I'll add a separate RSS feed as well for the photography related entries.

Ben's Housewarming

Duane Storey — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:33:50 +0000

Last night, a few of us gathered down at Ben's house near the Crosstown area for a small housewarming party. Ben is a good friend of mine from the old UBC days, and he's pretty close to being a full-fledged doctor now. Afterwards, a small group of us briefly ended up at Honey for a round of booty-shaking. Me and Joe, @ Honey Lounge I also got to meet a few new people through Ben, which is always something I rather enjoy. Here's a shot of Delilah (from Toronto) and her Vancouver friend Kate. Delilah has offered to show me around a bit when I'm in Toronto in August, and I'm quite looking forward to it (since I've never really enjoyed Toronto that much). Delilah and Kate It's always great hooking up with my old UBC friends -- we never seem to get together enough these days.

Father's Day

Duane Storey — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:44:28 +0000

Today I made the trek out to Chilliwack for a mini-BBQ at my sister's house in honour of father's day. It was great seeing my family again, and I hung out long enough to play a few board games. My dad and my nephew, Derek Happy Father's Day buddy.

First Rollerblade of the Season

Duane Storey — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:21:18 +0000

That's right. Yours truly finally got his butt off the couch long enough to go outside and get some exercise. I'm happy to report that I managed to rollerblade at a pretty good clip for a whole half-hour without puking or anything. I guess you could say this officially kicks off my getting-in-shape thing (please don't search the archives for the last time I said this). I'm going to be attending a pool party in Las Vegas next Friday, and I'm hoping that with enough effort I can lose twenty pounds by then and look absolutely smokin' with my shirt off. A guy can dream, can't he?

Transformers the Movie, Almost Here

Duane Storey — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:50:40 +0000

Ok, it seems like almost 90% of all traffic hitting my website in the last week or so has been related to a blog posting I did a few months ago on the forth coming Transformers movie by Michael Bay. For those of you living in a cave, Michael Bay (director of Armageddon and Pearl Harbour) chose to turn the lovable, clickable toys from the 1980's into a full-fledged, live-action movie. The movie premieres on June 20th around the world, and opens on July 3rd here in North America. If you head over to Ain't it Cool News, you can check out a few early reviews from people who have seen it already. The current word on the street is that the special effects are pretty unreal, but the story-line is a bit weak. However, if your heading to the theatre to watch a show about cars transforming into talking robots and expecting some sort of intellectual stimulation, well, you're probably shit out of luck. I'm pretty sure most people are going for the special effects (and of course, the token hot girl, which in this case is Megan Fox). I have to admit, I was a fan of the cartoon as a kid, and I owned most of the generation one transformers. So, I will definitely be checking this out at some point, hopefully with Brennen and Jeff. It's going to be stupid, brain-numbing entertainment, but it should be a fun time. If anyone is in the area and wants to check it out as a group, drop me a line. If you want to check out a trailer, head on over to Yahoo.

From Digital Back to Film

Duane Storey — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:27:36 +0000

Tonight I did something that I've been thinking of doing for a few weeks now -- I picked up a film SLR body so that I could once again shoot film. And to even write that statement down now seems a bit weird, since I left the world of film years ago, thinking I would never ever shoot a roll of film again in my life. However, a lot of friends of mine who are into photography have started dabbling once again in the forbidden art, and it has caused me to take it seriously once again. I have no idea if it will last long with me, but it's definitely cool enough to keep me entertained for a few months I think. I met a guy down near London drugs today after work and paid him $150 for his film SLR body. This is basically one of the last film SLR bodies that Canon made, so except for not having a CCD or an LCD, it's pretty similar to the current digital body I use. Immediately after purchasing it, I threw my 17-40mm f/4.0L lens onto it so that I could see what 17mm *really* looks like (since on my digital body, it acts more like a 24mm). It was pretty amazing to see just how distorted everything looked at such a wideangle, and also very exciting since I think it opens up a whole new range of shots I couldn't take before. For now, I think I'm going to use this body to play with black and white film mostly. I picked up slide film to do a roll and cross-process it (as my buddy Kris does), but honestly, since I don't spend a lot of time doing portraits or any fashion work, I'm not sure what I will use it for. But, it will be fun to mess around with at least. I'm hoping to find a particular type of black and white film that I like before October so that I can leave my wideangle on the film body and shoot that wedding with two cameras instead of one. I'll probably throw a 24-70 f/2.8L on my digital body and do most of the wedding with that, but it will be cool to have another lens ready to go at a moment's notice. Maybe I should put the 50mm on it instead? I dunno, I'll have to think about that a bit more. Maybe even a fish-eye would be cool. I have to say, shooting with film again is pretty strange. When I went shopping or film today, the first problem I ran into was that Future Shop doesn't even carry film anymore. So, I made the trek to London Drugs, a store that thankfully still carries a ton of it. The choices are pretty mind boggling, but I picked up a few different rolls to try out. Black and white film typically needs to be processed differentlly than colour film (which I've been told adds extra time to the processing, since not many labs do it and they often have to ship it out somewhere else), so I only picked up one true black and white roll (if anyone knows a good lab that does B & W, let me know). I grabbed two black and white films that actually can be developed in colour-film chemistry (which means you can develop it anywhere you can do colour) -- I'm not sure how these will turn out, but most of the reviews are pretty decent for them. And finally, I picked up a roll of slide film, which typically needs E-6 processing, but if you develop it in C-41 (colour-film chemistry), you get some cool cross-processing results. After taking my first shot my new body, I immediately flipped it over to look at the result, only to remember I had no LCD anymore to view it with. With a digital body, if you don't have enough light for a shot you can usually crank up the ISO (the gain) of the CCD and trade off increased sensitivity for a bit more digital noise. I'm so used to doing this on the fly now that I don't even really think of it anymore. Not enough light at ISO 800 for this scene? No prob, I'll bump it to ISO 3200 for this one shot. But with film, the ISO is determined by the roll, so you're basically stuck with it for an entire shoot. This is pretty challenging, and it requires a bit more forethought into what you're going to use each roll for before you actually put the roll in the body and head out to shoot. In terms of developing, things are actually a bit better than they used to be. Back when I did it, it was basically standard to get a set of 4x6 prints with each roll and stuff them into a box later, never to be looked at again. But lets be honest, now that everyone is shooting digitally for the most part, 4x6's are pretty dead. I can't remember the last time I printed any of my own work out at 4x6. If I have a shot worthy of putting on a wall, it's at the bare minimum a 5x7, and most of the time (for the ones I've given to people), 10x14 or something of that size. Thankfully, several labs in Vancouver will actually develop the negative, and immediately scan it to a CD for your use in the digital world. So in this way, you get the analog characteristics of film, but ultimately get to present them and play with your images in a digital world. So it's really the best of both. I'll post sample images after I develop the first roll. The nice part of digital is you get instant gratification after each and every shot. But to be honest, I'm almost excited knowing I'll have to wait several hours or days after shooting a roll to see the results again. At the bare minimum, this constraint has already caused me to take more time when composing a shot (since film is expensive, and you want to get it right), which will hopefully automatically translate into helping me in the digital world as well.

Shooting Film

Duane Storey — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:35:00 +0000

Today after work I dropped off my first roll of film to be developed. It was a 36 shot roll of Ilford XP2, and it's probably the only black and white roll I've ever shot in my entire life, now that I think about it. The neat thing about this roll is that you can develop it in C41 chemistry (used for colour print film), which means you can basically get it developed anywhere in the city for next to nothing. I also have a few rolls of pure black and white to shoot, so I think it will be a useful comparison. I asked the ladies down at Custom Colour if the XP2 was noticeably different than the pure black and whites, and they both unanimously agreed that they were extremely similar. I'm pretty sure at least 10 of the 36 shots are going to be completely ruined since I struggled last night to figure out the best way to take low light shots with ISO400 film (I'm used to using ISO 1600-3200 on my digital in those same situations). So, I'm pretty sure some of them are going to turn out blurry, which is part of the learning process I guess. I resorted to using my flash out of desperation a few times, something that I almost never do on my digital body. Tonight I went for a walk and shot a complete roll of slide film, also a first for me. Apparently slide film has a slightly reduced dynamic range than print film, which probably means most of it is going to be wrecked due to the high contrast stuff I was trying to shoot with it -- but we'll find out in the next few days. Most of it was at the beach, so I don't think I'll cross-process it. I'm actually pretty excited to start seeing the end result of this process, and I really hope it's not utter disappointment. I've also decided that I'm going to put a bunch of film to the test over the next little while. Every time I get a roll developed, I'll post a bunch of photos and give my impression of it. I'll collect all these entries into a special section somewhere on my blog for everyone's reference in the future. To keep things simple, I think I'll stick to using Custom Colour (which is near me), and pull development differences out of the comparison. I'm also interested to see if anyone wants to go in together and purchase a film scanner. To develop negatives is only around $4 around town here, but to scan them to CD is between $6 and $8 per roll for really low-resolution versions. You can get decent film scanners starting at around $250, so I figure if we can get 5-10 people together, we can buy our own scanner and all share (which would bring development costs from around $12 down to $4 per roll). So if that interests you, drop me a line.

Ilford XP2 Film Shots

Duane Storey — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:39:39 +0000

I got my first roll back of Ilford XP2 back from development. My overall impression of it is pretty good - the grain is pretty light for ISO 400 (at least my memory of what ISO 400 was). It's not as contrasty as I normally like, and I bumped the contrast up slightly before posting them, but it's not that bad. The dynamic range is pretty decent, and the only shots that it struggled with were taken outside in the sun. All in all, I'm impressed enough that I'll give it another go. Kris Krug snapped a few of these, so check out the actual flickr site for more info.

Photo Duane

Duane Storey — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:52:23 +0000

Kris Krug snapped a pretty fun shot of me at the last Gastown Photowalk. And the reverse shot as seen from my camera:

Stanley Park Photowalk

Duane Storey — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:40:22 +0000

I have a wedding to shoot in a few short months, so I've been asking friends if they'd let me shoot them to get some practice. Today I met up with John, Keira and Rebecca for a quick photo walk in the park. To be honest, after doing this shoot, I think I feel comfortable shooting outside now. I sort of always assumed my 70-200mm f/2.8L lens would be pretty useless in poor lighting or in a wedding environment, but when I used it today with my speedlight, it was actually pretty awesome. Every time I pull that lens out of my bag and put it on (which isn't often enough I've decided), I'm completely blown away but just how sharp and pronounced the images are. Plus, the bokeh is absolutely amazing on most of the shots. I've always sort of shot in P mode on my camera, which is basically an easy way to say "make this shot work." It's nearly identical to AUTO mode, except I get to control the ISO as well as the when the flash comes up (in AUTO it comes up on its own). However, I purposefully tried to shoot most of today in Av aperture priority mode), which lets me choose the aperture and the camera will choose the exposure time. The benefit of this is that I am in complete control of the sharpness of the image, and the depth of field. However, it is a bit trickier since it requires a subtle understanding, or "feeling", about what each lens can do at each aperture. I sort of ball parked it knowing that f/5.6 on my f/2.8 lens is both sharp and allows for a decent depth of field for people. I bumped it forward and back from there, depending on the situation. Check out the background blur in some of the shots. So, honestly, I feel quite a bit better now that I've gone out once. Although I don't like pulling my flash out, I think I gained a new comfort level with flash photography today. I need to work on directing people though, but I still have time -- all I need is more people.

English Bay Sunset in Vancouver

Duane Storey — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:52:24 +0000

Taken last night on my way home:

Birthdays, Pool Parties, and Wineries

Duane Storey — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:15:53 +0000

Update - Matthew Good release his first single, 'Born Losers', on iTunes the other day. It's currently sitting at #11 on iTunes, and should hopefully break into the top ten sometime today.

It's been quite a while since I've had an upcoming weekend that I was extremely excited about. But this next weekend promises to be full of fun and adventure. On Friday afternoon I'll be boarding a plane and heading down to Las Vegas to spend an evening hanging out with my friend Matt on his birthday. Matt's currently working on his tan out in the Las Vegas suburbs, and has decided to treat a few friends and fans to a small, acoustic show while the sun sets over the Las Vegas desert. Matthew Good's apartment concert
Photo by Dan Lilly Matt's even going to spin Hospital Music and give everyone a listen to the new album. I'm bringing all my camera gear, so I'm hoping to get some great shots of everyone around the pool, and of Matt treating everyone to a live performance. I'm also really excited to see Vegas in general, since I've never had the opportunity to go. I'll try and pull off a few HDR shots of the Vegas strip or the sun setting over the pool. Rebecca (Miss604.com) will be bringing a laptop and hopefully live blogging some of the event for the people who can't make it. Her and I are both staying at the Luxor hotel, and will probably check out the Las Vegas strip after Matt's birthday party. My jaw nearly hit the floor the other day when I found out you can walk around Vegas drinking beer in public -- I can only imagine the pure joy that comes from taking outside photos and drinking beer at the same time. Saturday morning I will be hopping on a plane and heading for California and the west-coast sunshine. I'll be spending a few days hanging out with my friends Jason and Sheila, bouncing around taking photos and hopefully drinking a few beers in the sun. We might even take a full day and head up to Napa Valley to check out some wineries. I'll post another entry on Friday with links to my flickr set for anyone interested in checking out the weekend adventures as they unfold. I'm really looking forward to it. ** Update: I normally borrow my friend's 24-70 f/2.8L lens for trips like this, but he's using it this weekend. So, I asked around for a place to rent equipment from. Leo's Camera in Vancouver has offered to let me have the 24-70 f/2.8L for the entire long weekend and only charge me the cost of renting it one day. Thanks guys.

Hospital Music, Matthew Good's 7th Album, Now Live

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:56:49 +0000

If you're itching to hear what Matthew Good's 7th album, Hospital Music, sounds like, then head on over to MatthewGood.org - they are streaming it live from the website and also have a iTunes radio stream available. The first single, Born Losers, is available on iTunes, and the actual release date for the entire album is July 31st. Last time I checked, Born Losers was #11 on iTunes, so hopefully it will break top-ten shortly. I'm packing my bags right now, and heading down to Las Vegas tomorrow to sit around a pool on Matt's birthday and listen to him play a few tunes on the guitar - it should be a lot of fun.

Note 36.0: Happy Birthday, pal. Have fun tomorrow night.

My Bags Are Packed - Heading To Las Vegas

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:06:08 +0000

So, I'm just doing my last little bit of packing, and then in a few hours I'm heading to the airport for my flight to Vegas. If anyone wants to see what is happening down there in real time, head over to Rebecca's blog for live updates. I'm going to be adding to my Flickrset for the event, so check that out as well (I'll add the images below here in real-time, assuming I can borrow an internet connection and haven't drunken myself into a coma). I decided to leave my wide-angle lens at home, and just bring the 24-70 f/2.8L lens, which is actually a faster lens, and at 24mm is fairly close to the 17mm I have on my other lens. So, we'll see if that is a good idea or not come Monday. And for those of you that know me, you'll know that my stomach is a bit knotty since I actually hate to fly. Usually a beer or two at the airport is enough to get me through it, and I've never not gotten on a plane, but I bitch and complain for most of it. I don't land until 6:30pm Vegas time, which is gonna make things pretty tight for me to be at the party at 7pm. But, I figure if everything goes my way it will hopefully work out fine. I'm printing out the directions now, and I'm hoping I can put on a CSI t-shift, wave my Google-map directions in front of a Vegas cabby, and end up in the right spot on time. Wish me luck. I'm not sure if this will work, but if the stars align, maybe this link will show you real-time updates of where my flight is - it's Philippine Airlines, Flight 106. 9:30am - I just realized that my camera is completely dead from the Stanley Park shoot last weekend.. Good thing I noticed before getting on the plane. 10:30am - Camera now charged, and my camera bag is packed.. Apparently my camera can do 1000 shots on one charge.. I'd guess that it's more like 500-750, but that's pretty good still. Gear of the weekend is Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 (good for low light), Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L and Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L (it's a heavy bag with that in it). I also put some shoes in my camera bag. So it's not really a camera bag anymore.. It's more of a shoe/camera bag. 11:43am - Rebecca just pinged me on iChat -- she just landed in Las Vegas. 1:00pm - Packing up my Mac and driving down to the airport.. Hopefully will have internet somewhere there.. I haven't eaten yet, so I'm going to have a snack and a beer.

Apple iPhone

Duane Storey — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:06:58 +0000

I'm at the airport in Las Vegas, about to put some more photos up from last night and write a blog entry. But before I do that, you gotta check out this photo. My pal Joey out in Florida managed to get his hands on an iPhone, and sent me a shot of it pointed to my blog. Very very cool -- thanks man.

Vegas Recap

Duane Storey — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:46:42 +0000

Since I have a few minutes to kill in the Las Vegas airport here, I thought I'd write a quick update on everything since leaving my pad back in Vancouver. Firstly, traveling on a long weekend sucks. The Vancouver airport was a complete zoo, mostly because of the forthcoming holiday, but also due to all the construction on the rapid line. I walked around the US departures area for a while looking for my flight, only to finally figure out that it was actually leaving from the International terminal instead of the US side. And for those of you who don't travel that often, what that means is that I didn't clear US customs in Vancouver, but was forced to clear them in Vegas. I definitely didn't factor that into my travel plans, and right away was pretty sure that would put me at least 30 minutes late to Matt's party. Clearing customers took around 20 minutes, and had I not been sandwiched between two sweet girls, I might have been extremely upset. I SMS'ed Rebecca a few times letting her know what my status was, and watched the clock tick slowly by. As soon as I cleared customs, I darted outside of the airport and looked for a cab. In my mind, I fully expected the cab line-up to be big, and the limo line-up small, and figured I was just grab a $45 limo or something and save the hassle of a huge line and a $30 cab ride. However, since the plane landed in the steerage class of the airport, nobody was waiting for any taxis. I walked up to the waiting guy, held out the google maps sheet I printed out a few hours ago, only to hear him say "uh, I have no idea where that is. That area is new." However, since I had no other option, I was like "ok, let's roll." As soon as we started to roll, I asked what I thought was a rhetorical question - "you guys take Visa right?" However, I was told they don't, so they cabbie told me he'd swing me by an ATM and let me get some cash. I finally ended up at Matt's party, and was about 20 minutes late -- however, a few other people were too, so I don't think I held anything up. As I walked into the door at Matt's place, I was greeted to a "Hey Storey!" by Matt. There were already lots of people there, so I just unpacked my laptop, grabbed my camera and started shooting. The complete set is in my other blog entry, but I'll post a few of my favourites here. Here's a shot of Matt grabbing his guitar and starting his warmup. The first song of the night: Metal Airplanes A shot of people sitting around listening: And finally, the birthday shot of Matt laughing to a few jokes: Matthew Good, on his 36th Birthday It was a really great night, and we all hope Matt had a really awesome birthday. I even got to meet a few cool people like Tony Pierce (we sat around and discussed Michael Moore's new movie, Sicko), and a bunch of Matt's friends and fans. After getting back to the hotel, Rebecca and I walked around the strip for a while taking photos, and then popped into a little tiny restaurant to grab some nachos and my $18 margarita. It was tasty, but rather large I'm afraid. My flight is boarding in about ten minutes, and in a few short hours I'll be hanging out in San Francisco with my friends Jason and Sheila. I was originally planning on coming back on Monday, but I might hang out down south a few more days and work from here. I'll drop everyone a line again, most likely tomorrow while in San Francisco.

Quick update from California

Duane Storey — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:41:43 +0000

After leaving Las Vegas, I ended up in San Francisco yesterday. I spent a good part of yesterday just driving around with Jason taking photos, and soaking up some of the beautiful California weather. Normally San Francisco is rather chilly in the summer time due to the fog that blankets most of the city. However, the last few days it has been really nice here - sunny with a nice breeze. I walked into Safeway down here last night to get some wine. On my way out, I saw some weird type of diet coke. Upon picking it up, I nearly fell over when I saw what it was. They call it Diet Coke Plus, and it's like Diet Coke except they have added vitamins and minerals to it. Pretty soon you won't even have to eat normal food anymore. Today Jason and I drove across the Golden Gate bridge and checked out Marin County as well as the Muir Woods. It was a really nice day just chilling outside and enjoying the weather. I was originally going to head back to Vancouver tomorrow for Canada Day, but I changed my flight around and will probably be here until Thursday. I have my laptop and hand held devices with me here, so I can just work down here for the next two days. I'm going to to be working tomorrow, and taking July 4th off for celebrations down here. I don't think I've ever been in a large city in the USA before for July 4th, so hopefully there are some cool celebrations to check out.

Sick in San Francisco

Duane Storey — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:00:19 +0000

Somewhere over the Nevada desert, sometime at around noon on Saturday, I started to sneeze. It started with a little tickle in my nose, and escalated to three really huge sneezes out of nowhere. Two days later, my nose won't stop running, it hurts behind my eyes, my joints are sore, and my lungs feel like they are filled with fluid. If I didn't really have any mental capacity, I might be worried, but right now this just seems like some really weird, sudden onset cold or something. The past two days I've woken up with a sore throat, so I'm hoping that it goes away tomorrow, or at least starts to feel better. I spent a bit of time tonight curled up in bed here in the spare room at Jason's house, slowly reworking a few photos from the weekend. So if you want to see a few more photos from Matt's birthday, head on over by clicking the photo below. Tomorrow is another work day here down in San Francisco, and then Wednesday is July 4th down here which will involve a few drinks and some fireworks. Thursday morning I'll be heading home and curling up on my couch again. I'm going to take it easy on the weekend, and will probably watch Transformers with some friends and get my place in order. I'm also seriously considering the movie that's been sitting on my coffee table at home for two weeks now.

The Journey Home

Duane Storey — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:28:33 +0000

I woke up this morning feeling even worse than I did when I went to bed last night, so I bit the bullet and changed my flight -- I'll be coming home later this evening. If I'm to get any more sick, I definitely want it to be back in Canada where I can hit a clinic up and not have to worry about costs or insurance. I'm pretty sure I have health insurance down here through my work insurance, but I can't imagine the hassle with trying to actually use it. My car is at the airport, so I should be all set when I land. It works out well since I have a lens to return to Leo's camera in Vancouver. Since I worked Monday down here in San Francisco, I'll be taking tomorrow off back home and simply relaxing. Hopefully I can find a way to beat the SARS and get back on my feet again. I'm on Alaska Airlines fight 685 out of San Francisco if anyone is interested.

Apple iPhone Review

Duane Storey — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:40:44 +0000

Last night Jason and I stopped in briefly at the Apple store here in San Francisco, California, so that we could mess around with a new iPhone. Of course, the store was completely packed, and most people were simply there to do the exact same thing we were doing. Like most Apple stores, the one in San Francisco is currently sold out of iPhones. After waiting only a few short minutes, I picked up an iPhone and started messing around with it. Right away, I liked how small and comfortable it felt in my hand. The user interface is pretty revolutionary, and it's really intuitive how to use it. At the bottom is a MENU button that always takes you back a level or to the front menu. If you're using Safari or something and want to see more information, you can zoom by putting two fingers together on the screen and opening them. This "pinching" action is really pretty slick. If you want to zoom in, put your two fingers slightly apart on the screen and slide them together. Another feature I really loved is that you can move things on the screen in a panning motion simply by putting your finger on the screen and moving it. While lots of devices and applications do it, Apple actually gives everything a bit of momentum. That is, if you swing your contact list using your finger, it slows down according to physics where the velocity slowly decreases over time. It gives it an extra bit of realism that I think is really nice. I messed around with email, SMS, iTunes, etc, and everything was really easy to use, and fast. You can bookmark websites in Safari and walk between them using a system similar to iTunes Cover Art. Also, if you rotate the iPhone it will automatically change the display to take into account the new aspect ratio. Jason and I left thinking that Apple had outdone themselves again. My only complaint with the iPhone is that when typing on the virtual keyboard, it's really easy to hit other keys than the one you're trying too. Perhaps there are no pudgy ukrainians working for Apple, but I found it pretty tricky to use. I've been told this gets easier with time, but since I can't actually buy an iPhone up here in Canada for some time, I'll hold off commenting on that until I purchase one. If you have an iPhone, feel free to drop in a few comments on what you think.

Free Nachos, Enquire Within

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:24:36 +0000

So, this is the first blog entry I've written in quite some time while disconnected from the internet. I'm about 30 minutes out of San Francisco, somewhere around 40,000 feet. I feel like complete shit, and I'm really glad I decided to head back today instead of risking being down south and getting even sicker. A few minutes ago I had my head in my lap in pretty much unbearable pain -- turns out my right ear had some real problems adjusting to the change in pressure in the airplane, probably since I'm so congested right now. If I don't see some major changes in how I feel by tomorrow, I'm heading to the first clinic around my place before I end up in the hospital with pneumonia. Before I left tonight, I went through the blog entries I've written over the last few months and realized that most of them were pretty much complete garbage. Truth is, I haven't really been in the mood to write lately. Or rather, I just haven't had any significant to write about. I was out drinking with a few friends a while ago, and one of them told me they had basically stopped reading my blog because it was too depressing. And to be honest, that kind of bothered me -- while I've definitely written about a few things that have bothered me over the last six months, and have used my blog to express some personal frustrations I've had, I don't think it's all dark and gloomy over here. If my writting gets a little depressing, I always try to balance it with some heart-felt hopeful photographs. Leaving San Francisco tonight was a bit weird for me. The last time I had walked through San Francisco airport on my way back to Vancouver, I had done it with the knowledge that it would be the last trip my ex-girlfriend and I took together. We had been fighting all that weekend, and I think we both knew in our hearts that it was done. That trip was actually a last ditch effort to save it, and I purchased her a plane ticket to join me in California for a few days of hanging out together on the Monterey Coast. I couldn't tell you where it happened exactly, but somewhere between San Francisco and Vancouver that evening, we both called it quits. When she dropped me off at home later than evening and said goodbye, I knew that after two years, it was finally over. So as I walked down the escalator from the AirTram in SFO tonight, past the bench where we sat and talked for a while that night, past the stairway where I helped her carry her bag, I was reminded about the finality of some things in life. I'm thankful we are still friends, but sometimes I still struggle to understand how, from where we began, did we end up where we did. And that's life I guess, and truth be told, I don't have any hard feelings. That trip was a long time ago now, and for the most part I don't really think too often on things past. I've never met her current boyfriend, but she seems happy enough, and I'm happy for her. I know he doesn't treat her as well as she deserves, and I have done my best to fix that for her, but ultimately she needs to realize her own self worth and make her own decisions. In terms of dating, I think it's fair to say that I haven't really gotten back on the saddle yet. I went through the typical post-relationship rebounds after my last one was all done, but eventually realized just how empty they were and gave up. These days, I really can't be bothered to try and meet women at pubs anymore, so perhaps it's time to start whoring myself out on lavalife again. Truth be told, I actually met my last girlfriend on Lavalife, and met a lot of people through there that I still keep in touch with. My tagline on my profile way back then was "Free Nachos, Enquire Within" something that got the attention of a lot of women surprisingly. I do make a pretty mean plate of nachos, as I'm sure most of my friends with attest to, so maybe it's time to try that angle again. First things first though -- I really have to get back in shape. It's been bothering me for so long now, and I really need to make it a priority. To that end, I'm going to spend tomorrow at home refactoring the things in my life to make that happen. I'm going to stop eating out, which means that I need to actually get groceries and keep my fridge stocked. I need to start biking to work or something, so that I can reclaim that hour I spend walking each day. I'll probably start running again too if I can somehow force myself to get up in the mornings. And in terms of waking up, I really have to scale back the caffeine consumption. I'm pretty sure my problems sleeping are linked pretty closely to my intake of caffeine. I once lost a lot of weight, so losing it again doesn't really scare me. But it does take some personal dedication, especially in the area of alcohol consumption -- I've basically found it impossible to lose any weight if I do any amount of drinking during the weeks. I've tried switching to wine and rum and diet coke, which are both relatively low-calories, but that hasn't really made too big an impact. So perhaps I really need to go cold turkey for a while. In terms of exercise, if anyone wants to go for the odd run, rollerblade, do the Grouse Grind, or whack a tennis ball around, just drop me a line. Maybe we can start a seawall running club for people who really weren't built to run. We can make our own t-shirts and everything.

Duane's SARS Update

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:36:28 +0000

Good news is that I'm back home, awake, and compared to how I felt yesterday morning, doing relatively ok in terms of my lungs and joints. I'm still sick, and I have next to zero lung capacity, but I feel like I've stabilized at least. But here's the bad news -- I can hardly hear a thing out of my left ear. I was joking with Jason when I landed last night that my ears hurt so bad that I probably blew an ear drum while landing. At the time, I was having trouble hearing, and I thought I just needed to chew some gum and pop my ears. But, that was 12 hours ago and all I hear out of my left ear are muddled bass sounds. I quickly Googled and found the culprit most likely to be Airplane Ear:

Airplane ear is caused by unequal pressure between your middle ear and the cabin of the airplane. Normally, the tube that connects your middle ear to the back of your nose and throat, equalizes the pressure. However, if the tube is blocked because of congestion or some other problem, the unequal pressure on your eardrum may impair your hearing and cause ringing in your ear, dizziness and ear pain. If the tube is completely blocked, pressure changes may be severe enough to cause fluid buildup or bleeding in your middle ear. [...] If your symptoms don't disappear within a few hours or if pain persists, see your doctor. If you develop a fever, severe ear pain or drainage from your ear you should definitely call your doctor.

So I think I'm going to find a clinic this morning and get it checked out -- turns out that I really like hearing.

Composing Photographs from the Heart

Duane Storey — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 07:03:39 +0000

I've been meaning to write a post like this for a long time, so here goes. I've been into digital photography for around seven years now, but I would only really say I have taken it seriously since acquiring my digital SLR approximately three years ago. Years ago I would say digital photography is a hobby of mine, today I would say that it's my passion. Truth is, I love taking photos. I love the challenge associated with finding a subject, figuring out how to best represent that subject, framing the subject, and then ultimately spending time on my computer later re-factoring the shot or enhancing certain elements of it. To me, the whole process is exciting, and I don't really place any emphasis on any parts. In some ways it's like golf - you have your short game, your long game, your putting, etc, but if you want to win any tournaments, you need to be proficient at all of them. And I've slowly been improving all the areas where I feel I'm still weak in. I know some local photographers who absolutely refuse to photoshop any of their photos. And while I respect their stance, and support it to some degree, I have had relatively bad photos turn out rather nice after a bit of tweaking in photoshop. My only reason for not embracing photoshop more is that ultimately, I'm interested in photography, and I feel if I massage the photo too much in photoshop, it's really not a photo anymore. Granted, it's still art, and it's still worthwhile, but it's just not what I'm interested in right now. If you were to ask me what the one thing was this year in photography that I really felt like I made strides on, it would be, without a doubt, composition. Composition is basically the broad term that refers to placing a subject within a camera frame. Every camera format has its own challenges, but there are some basics that every photographers learns at some point. If you are new to photography, and are looking to improve your photos drastically, then you need to read up on the rule of thirds. Basically, if you're struggling to compose a shot, draw a mental tic-tac-toe sign on the frame and place your subject at one of the four crossing points (or along one of the lines). That's it. If you are taking a photo of a sunset, place the horizon along the top line or the bottom line, but rarely in the middle. Which one do you choose? Well, if the sky is interesting, then show more of it, if the ground is more interesting, then show that. If you're taking an action shot, make sure you give that action somewhere to go. For example, if you're shooting a person running down the beach place them along the line that gives them somewhere to run. The reason I'm writing about composition is that I'm finally at the point where I'm comfortable throwing the rule of thirds out the window. That's not to say that I don't think it's important, because I think it's pretty fundamental to good composition. I'm just at the point where sometimes I just take a deep breath and pass the task of composing the photograph from my brain to my heart. Technically some of these shots wouldn't be classified as good photographs, but I still love them, and I'm prepared to take a bit of artistic freedom when composing and shooting photographs. So for me, I would say the rule of thirds is basically my fallback. If I can't figure out a way to compose a shot emotionally, I'll try the rule of thirds as a last resort. But without a doubt, if you like taking photographs, you should familiarize yourself with it, because I guarantee it will help you if you are new to photography. Another thing to take into account is to properly identify what your subject is. Every time I lift my camera I ask the question "what is it exactly I want to take a photo of?" Do yourself a favour and ask the same question -- you'll be surprised how many times you'll suddenly realize there isn't really anything important that you're taking a photo of. Other times you'll lead yourself down the path of composing a shot differently just by evaluating the subject in detail. Also, never be afraid to do simple shots, or close ups of your subject. Not every photo needs to be a sweeping vista, and you can say a lot with a rain drop or a few rocks in the sand -- that is, don't be afraid to experiment yourself. Back in university, my friend Brennen and I went down to the local flower shop to get our girlfriend's something for valentine's day. I picked up six roses and blew around $30 or so if I remember, and Brennen picked up a bucket of wilted rose petals, since that's all he was willing to spend at the time. However, being the ingenious (devious?) guy that he is, he sprinkled the petals down the hall and into the bedroom, and made the night extra special -- I learned a valuable lesson that day. So remember, in the context of photography, sometimes simpler is better, and wilted petals can often hold more beauty than a rose. ** I chose these photos because not a single shot in this set follows the rule of thirds, yet I still consider these some of my favourites (and judging by the comments on flickr, so do many others).

So Long Shaw

Duane Storey — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:18:53 +0000

I just got off the phone with Shaw Cable, and have finally completed my disconnection. I basically only watched 24 on TV, and now that it's over, I really can't justify paying $70/mo for it. So, so long Shaw, and thanks for the memories. To that end, I'm now selling the following: 1) Sony Progressive Scan DVD player with Remote 2) Shaw High Definition Digital Cable Box My dad gets first dibs on #2, but if he doesn't want it, I'm open to offers before it goes on eBay. I paid $400 new for it, and $120 for the DVD player.

Microsoft to Open Vancouver Research Facility

Duane Storey — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:26:28 +0000

I caught the original news for this in a Skype back channel yesterday, and have had a few people email me links about this since. For those of you who missed it, Microsoft has announced that it will be opening a Vancouver office to attract Canadian talent and to sidestep some of the immigration problems it has had in the past:

Microsoft Corp. has ratcheted up the pressure on the U.S. government to boost the number of foreign worker visas it gets by announcing plans for a new software development centre in Vancouver. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said yesterday it plans to open the centre this fall in the Greater Vancouver Area, about 2? hours from its headquarters, but an exact location had not yet been chosen. Microsoft also had not decided what product lines the initial staff of 200 would be working on, nor what the cost of the centre would be. The company has long been pressuring U.S. immigration officials to increase the number of foreign workers it can employ in the United States. The U.S. government typically issues about 85,000 visas annually to foreign workers with specialized skills and warned in April there would be a shortage this year.

Most people don't know that there is a really active web 2.0 community here in Vancouver, something that Boris Mann and the guys over at Bryght should be very proud of. Boris actually did an interview yesterday for Global TV, and has commented extensively on what he thinks of the move by Microsoft. Also check out Dave Olson's day-job blog for some comments from him as well. I personally think it's really great for this city. As a former grad from the University of British Columbia, I have always been disappointed by the lack of opportunities close to home here in British Columbia. After university, I was basically forced to either head out east to Ottawa and take part in the dot-com boom back then, or head south to the Silicon Valley area. I have never really understood why Vancouver, despite being one of the nicest places to live in the world, has had such a poor high-tech reputation. I would hope that if this move were successful for Microsoft that other big players would also follow and set up shop here north of the border. I also think it's great in that it places additional pressure on existing software companies in the city to remain competitive so as not to lose any talent.

West Coast Sunset

Duane Storey — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 09:56:28 +0000

A week of being sick

Duane Storey — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:23:12 +0000

I normally have an immune system of steel. Not only is it pretty rare that I get sick, but when I do it normally doesn't last too long. In fact, I don't think I've taken more than three sick days in my entire life, and one of them was faked way back in high school. However, I am now officially a full week into being sick with seem weird virus, and while I no longer seem to be getting worse, I've been stuck at the "pretty darn sick" alert level for a few days now, and it's getting tiresome. I wake up each morning hoping that I'll take a deep breath without coughing, but that just doesn't seem to be happening. When I left San Francisco, I was hoping that I wouldn't have gotten my hosts down there sick, however it appears that not only is Jason now really sick, but so is his wife, which obviously sucks. Maybe I picked up some weird Las Vegas hump-alot virus or something crazy that you can only get while walking the strip at 1am, I have no idea. But I really hope it starts to clear up soon while I still have enough Kleenix and toilet paper around to combat it. In other news, I'm meeting up with a group of people in a few hours to watch the new Transformers Movie -- very exciting. I'm bringing my little camera (which I just found a few minutes ago, wedged tightly down inside of my couch), so I'll try and post a few pics later.

New RSS Feed

Duane Storey — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:54:57 +0000

Recently I've written quite a lot about photography, and it's a trend that I intend to carry on. So, I've gone ahead and created a new photography RSS feed over on the top right for those people who wish to only subscribe to photography related information. If you know of any photography-related aggregators, feel free to pass that information on. I have also added the photography subdomain, so you can view only the photography related entries by visiting photography.duanestorey.com. If you can pass some link love my way in the area of photography, that would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.

Transformers and Friends

Duane Storey — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 18:16:58 +0000

Today I met a few people down at the Paramount Theatre to watch the new Transformers movie. Rebecca, John Bollwitt, John Biehler and a few others (from the Facebook group we set up) all showed up to hear the infamous "cho-choo-cho-choo" transformation sound, and see Optimus up on the big screen again. Rebecca Simpson, waiting to see the Transformers What we immediately commented on is that despite 21 people replying and saying they were coming, only seven or so showed up. After discussing it for a while, we sort of came to the conclusion that it's pretty easy to just accept an invitation on Facebook and then forget about it. Or perhaps people just get too many and it's hard to keep up with them? Not entirely sure.. Maybe everyone just accepts everything they think they might show up to -- "helping Duane move at 6am on a Saturday, you bet I'll be there." Oh well, it was still a fun time. The movie was actually alot bigger than I thought it would be. I expected to see Optimus Prime and a few other transformers, but didn't really expect them to be, well, like the cartoon Transformers they were. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Transformers storyline flushed out, and have the characters resemble, in spirit at least, the characters they used to be in the cartoon. The last time anyone really saw Optimus Prime (if you ignore a few resurrections in the cartoons) was his death in the 1986 Transformers Movie. Peter Cullen remarked after that they until that moment, he really had no idea just how popular Optimus Prime was. When Optimus first shows up in the movie, crash landing after receiving a distress signal, and driving up to the main characters in the middle of the night, it really brought back old memories from the cartoon. It was great seeing him back on the big screen, fighting with honour, talking about how their race was as messed up as humans were long ago. I found the editing rather sloppy however. Several plot threads are woven but never end up going anywhere. Scorponok attacks a base in Qatar, gets injured, and then disappears for the remainder of the movie. Megan Fox stops her vehicle at one point, looks upset, then suddenly does something completely different. The romance between the two main characters doesn't entirely seem believable, but hey, as long as they had fun on top of that car at the end I guess it's ok. The special effects were pretty unbelievable. You actually believe you are seeing cars transform, walk and talk. They fit into their surroundings as well as 20 feet tall robot swould, that is crashing and wrecking things wherever they go. I really liked the show actually, and I'd love to see them do another one with the holes in the first one kept in mind. I actually think it's a really great series, and it's promising that they didn't screw the pooch completely with it. Even Rober Ebert gave it three stars, wishing he could in fact give it four:

Everything comes down to an epic battle between the Transformers and the Decepticons, and that's when my attention began to wander, and the movie lost a potential fourth star. First let me say that the robots, created by Industrial Light and Magic, are indeed delightful creatures; you can look hard and see the truck windshields, hubcaps and junkyard stuff they're made of. And their movements are ingenious, especially a scorpionlike robot in the desert. (Little spider robots owe something to the similar creatures in Spielberg's "Minority Report," and we note he is a producer of this movie.) How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible.

The ending leaves open multiple opportunities for a sequel, the first of which is Optimus putting a signal into space, calling all Autobots to come to earth, and the second (which I missed but read about later) is a quick shot of Starscream at the end jetting out into space (apparently everyone forgot about him). So, I hope they make enough money that they'd at least consider a sequel.

If I was a Tidal Wave

Duane Storey — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 18:39:20 +0000

Jennie Roth got a pretty good video of Matt playing 'If I was a Tidal Wave' at his Vegas Pool Party. Definitely check it out if you want to see what the event was like in person.

Click To Play

Toshiba HD-A2 High Definition DVD Player

Duane Storey — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 04:35:11 +0000

Today I went out for a nice walk, thinking I was going to get a few housewares for my place, and maybe pick up a new shirt or two. While out and about, I decided to swing by Future Shop and see what was new and exciting. When I walked in, I headed over to the DVD player area to see if anything was happening in the Blue-Ray or HD-DVD markets, since I've been looking to pick something up for a while. Last week, there was a sale on the highly regarded Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player for $399, and I almost picked one up. However, that was still a little steep for my liking, and I decided to pass on it. When I walked in today though, I noticed right away that the same DVD player was now listed for $349, and it came with three HD-DVDs in the box. Well, that deal was too sweet for me to pass up, so I threw the cash down and walked away with it. First problem was that the box was huge and I had walked to Future Shop. So, I'm pretty sure I looked really stupid waddling down Granville Street afterwards carrying this huge ass box in both hands. But whatever, I was happy waddling into the sunset. I knew going into this that I would need a HDMI cable to pull it off properly, but I just wasn't willing to shell out another $50 to Future Shop for one of those. So, for now at least, I had to hook it up using the component cables. What that means it that I won't be able to watch upscaled normal DVD movies using the new DVD player, and that some of the HD-DVDs actually will play as low-def. But for now at least, most of the HD-DVDs will play normally, and I'll shop for a cheap HDMI-DVI converter for my TV. The first thing the guy at Future Shop warned me about is to make sure I upgrade the firmware on it, since the firmware that it ships with is a bit buggy. After using the DVD player for a few hours, I can basically say that he's 100% right. While the image looks pretty amazing with a real HD-DVD in the player, I've had a few cases where it's thought there were errors in the stream, even though the discs are brand new and never been touched. I popped in a few episodes of 24, and it stuttered in a few places. I tried downloading an ISO for the new firmware for the HD-DVD player, but unfortunately the DVD player won't recognize the CD I made for it (which is weird because I followed the directions normally, and I know how to make a CD). So the only other option is to try and get the DVD player on the Internet so it can upgrade itself (which basically means hauling some cables around my place). HD-DVD players have been historically slow to use in terms of navigating menus and loadings discs, but so far I've been pretty happy with this one, and the wait hasn't seemed excessive. The picture quality is really quite excellent, and I'm anxious to see how my old DVDs look after being upscaled (in theory, this shouldn't make that big a difference, but people who own upscaling DVD players swear by them, so we'll see). Although the winner of the Blue-Ray/HD-DVD war has yet to be decided, I basically put my weight behind HD-DVD with this purchase. I have a hard time believing after this length of time that the industry can simply abandon any one of the two formats -- the consumer backlash from people who made purchases would be incredible. I imagine what will happen is that you'll start seeing dual DVD readers on the market soon (I think there might even be one or two already), as well as dual sided discs (Blue-Ray on one side, and HD-DVD on the other). Stupid I know, but the industry created this mess.

WRT54G Wireless Router

Duane Storey — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:16:40 +0000

My wireless connection at home is made possible by the WRT54G router, which is a pretty popular router for reasons I'll explain. When the router first came out, inquisitive people soon found out that it was based on a modified Linux distribution. Since Linux is GPL, the people using the WRT54G put pressure on the makers of the router to release the firmware for it via open source, since to not do so would be in violation of the GPL license. So, after finally caving in to public pressure, the WRT54G firmware was released to the public. Several variations exist of the firmware, so tonight I went about trying to upgrade mine to try and improve some wireless problems I've been having. So, after doing a bit of research, I downloaded the latest beta of the DD-WRT firmware and upgraded my device. The good news is that my wireless problems seem to have gone away, and apparently this firmware is far better than the stock one I was using. Also, you can do cool things with it like bridge other wireless devices, or create a mesh network at home. If you have one of these puppies at home, you should definitely check out a new firmware for it.

The Air up There

Duane Storey — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:11:31 +0000

Boeing Dreamliner

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:13:44 +0000

Boeing is about to do the world premiere of its newest plane, the 787 Dreamliner. In contrast to the large, intercontinental approach Airbus took with the 380 series, Boeing decided to focus its new plane on smaller segments.

The 787-8 Dreamliner will carry 210 - 250 passengers on routes of 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles (14,200 to 15,200 kilometers), while the 787-9 Dreamliner will carry 250 - 290 passengers on routes of 8,000 to 8,500 nautical miles (14,800 to 15,750 kilometers). A third 787 family member, the 787-3 Dreamliner, will accommodate 290 - 330 passengers and be optimized for routes of 2,500 to 3,050 nautical miles (4,600 to 5,650 kilometers). In addition to bringing big-jet ranges to mid-size airplanes, the 787 will provide airlines with unmatched fuel efficiency, resulting in exceptional environmental performance. The airplane will use 20 percent less fuel for comparable missions than today's similarly sized airplane. It will also travel at speeds similar to today's fastest wide bodies, Mach 0.85. Airlines will enjoy more cargo revenue capacity.

I was always intrigued by the Airbus 380, but as I've commented before, there's something that bothers me about it form an engineering perspective. That is, I don't think I'll step on one for several years after it comes out. The Dreamliner, however, seems like a pretty smart move by Boeing, and I'm looking forward to checking it out in the next few years (although, I still haven't been on a 777 yet). What is also rather interesting is the brilliant advances that Boeing has made in the area of construction. Apparently you can construct an entire Boeing 787 by simply connecting six large composite pieces together. Very very cool. I haven't looked into the two planes in great detail, but I'm pretty sure Airbus has just been handed its hat.

Casey and Rebecca

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:39:39 +0000

Michael Moore's 'Sicko'

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:27:04 +0000

So I actually managed to watch a copy of Michael Moore's new movie, "Sicko", a few weeks ago. In short, it's a really powerful emotional argument for why the United States should move to a socialized health care system. Unlike some of his other movies, he doesn't spend a lot of time quoting facts or statistics, which for some people might lead to a less effective argument. But considering most of the statistics can be found by spending a few minutes on the Internet, and Michael Moore is probably trying to appeal to the everyman, I think it's a fairly effective movie. Darren Barefoot also has a detailed review of the movie on his blog if you want to take a look. After watching Sicko, I immediately began to think about what I had been through in the last eight months, my two surgeries, the hospital visits, etc, and it made me very appreciative that not only did I not have to pay for any of it, but I also didn't have any of the emotional stress associated with worrying about any of it. When I had my second surgery, I walked into Vancouver General Hospital, slid my Care Card across the table, and that was that. It's hard for me to even imagine a system that isn't like that, and my heart goes out to families that have medical misfortune and are forced to endure that type of system. Since it's release, I've been watching the media response to 'Sicko'. A few weeks ago, Michael Moore was scheduled to have an interview inside the New York Stock Exchange. However, upon arriving there, he wasn't allowed inside the buildilng. You can watch that clip here: During the premiere that Hillary Clinton attended, she reportedly walked out the moment the scene came up where she was accused of selling her campaign out. And last night, Michael Moore appeared on CNN and bashed Wolfe Blitzer about his treatment of Sicko as well as CNN's handling of the Iraq war. You should definitely check it out: It's well known in my circles that if you want unbiased reporting that you don't watch CNN, and it's unfortunate that they continue to distort the facts for their own agenda. In response to the CNN footage with Dr. Gupta, Michael Moore has put a statement out on his blog detailing the inaccuracies. He ever goes as far to say some of it is libel:

CNN: "But no matter how much Moore fudged the facts, and he did fudge some factsâ€¦" This is libel. There is not a single fact that is "fudged" in the film. No one has proven a single fact in the film wrong. We expect CNN to correct their mistakes on the air and to apologize to their viewers

Also, Michael Moore will be on Larry King live tonight with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, so definitely check it out.

Fuck you Canada Post

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:25:23 +0000

A few months ago I was down in Seattle visiting my friend Lynn. I happened to leave my engineering ring down there, and so last week Lynn offered to mail it to me, which obviously seemed like a good idea at the time. To get started, I want to point out that my engineering ring is worth, oh, about $15. It's just a shoddy piece of aluminum cut from something that closely resembles a hollow pipe. However, it is what all engineers in Canada wear, so it's actually kind of important to me. So today, I look in my mailbox and see that it has arrived at a location on Davie street, and that I can pick it up. But to do that, I need to pay the $75 worth of duty they charged me crossing the border. That's right sports fans -- $75 worth of duty on a $15 ring. Needless to say I called Canada post today, fully prepared to unleash the hounds of hell on them. Unfortunately, thanks to the stellar six hour day they put in down there, I was unable to reach someone at 2:30pm PST to talk about this. Perhaps the sun will be in the proper position tomorrow for me and Indiana to use the Staff of Ra and figure out just when in the day I can call these guys to sort this out. Seriously, I'm not going to pay one cent worth of duty on a ring that I already own, and I'm fully prepared to just kiss it goodbye and order a new one from the engineering people. But I really do have better things to do than spend an hour on the phone sorting this garbage out.

Know your rights as a Canadian photographer

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 06:03:57 +0000

I stumbled across an article tonight about a student who was trying to take a photo of a building and ended up on the group being harassed by some rogue security guard. Obviously the security guard claimed that the building could not be photographed and took it upon himself to intervene. I read about stuff like this all the time, and as a photographer I occasionally run into things like that too. I was in Pacific Center a while ago playing with a lens when a security guard came up to me and threatened to take my camera way unless I stopped taking photos. While at Harvard a few years ago, I had a police officer approach me and demand I remove his photo from my camera. These situations are obviously stressful and can easily get out of hand. I set out trying to find some good resources for what your rights actually are for a photographer, but I found the resouces on the web a bit lacking. Here's what I did find though:

A couple of excerpts from PhotoJunkie:

A) You have the right to take photographs where ever you want. That being said be aware if you are doing so on private property. B) No one can tell you to legally delete a photo. Once you have taken a photo they are your property. C) Know the criminal code. For example if you are on private property and some one asks you to stop talking photos, if you continue, that would be considered trespassing, which is against the law. D) Common sense and courtesy go a long way. Being defensive and causing a scene will not necessarily help your case. Take a second to think before you speak.

I actually think this is an important area for discussion. I'm going to think about how to do that over the next little while, and maybe even call a few people at the police station or city hall for their perspective too.

Clouds imitate Northern Lights

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:04:54 +0000

Photo of the Day

Duane Storey — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:14:02 +0000

After talking it over with a few friends, I think I've finally decided to do a photo of the day on my blog. I plan on contributing a lot of my own photos to this, but I'm also calling on any readers to submit whatever photos they want and I'll grab a few of those from time to time. If you are on flickr and want to join the group, you can find the group link here. For now, I'm going to include the photo of the day in my main blog stream as well, but I also created photooftheday.duanestorey.com that has a custom, photo-centric view of the photos which I think is a nice way to view them. This is a work in progress, and I plan to change some things around a bit more, but it's a good start. Let me know what you think! Oh, and Stewart Marshall gets to be my first photo of the day.

Osoyoos Drive

Duane Storey — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:11:22 +0000

Quick Drinking Entry

Duane Storey — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:18:43 +0000

So tonight I felt like having a few drinks, so I pinged Rebecca online and asked if it was ok if I showed up with a bunch of booze. In pure Surrey girl fashion, she said "yeah sure." I spent the night hanging out with Rebecca and John, laughing my ass off to Canadian Top Models and some Comedy Show on the TV. I don't do simple things like that enough these days, and it's always nice just to relax on someone else's couch from time to time. While outside, we were privileged enough to see a weird naked girl across the street, plus a bunch of people in the highrise across the road who thought sunset photos would turn out far better with the flash on, despite the huge distance from them to the setting sun. In short, great times with friends. Check out Rebecca's blog for a recap of the Iowa/Surrey/Chilliwack connection. Also, I did some work on the photo-of-the-day tonight. It now grabs some EXIF information directly from Flickr. It's starting to look pretty good, in my humble opinion. I recommend people who are interested go to the photo of the day website instead of viewing the entries inline here, because I've done custom work over there. I'll think of some great way to merge the two at some point, but as of now, you're stuck with them being separate. Also, I pinged Leo's camera in Vancouver, and I'm pretty sure they are going to donate some prizes for my photo of the day, so make sure you start adding photos to the flickr group I created. I'll let people know when it's time to start posting lots. Add anything that stands out in your mind, even if you don't think it won't stand out in other people's minds. My goal isn't to reward people with $3000 cameras, but to showcase unique or heart-felt photographs from everyone's collection.

Gerbera

Duane Storey — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:25:23 +0000

Photo of the Day

Duane Storey — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:31:02 +0000

So I just checked, and 17 people have joined my photo of the day flickr group, which is totally awesome. If you know of anyone else, please invite them, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to get some prizes going, and it's a great way to have fun and learn off each other. I did a bit more work on the site tonight, so check out the photo of the day website to see what has changed. Today's photo of the day is below, and it's by Keira. Keep those photos coming everyone. If you have a blog and want to throw some link love to the photo of the day site, that would be awesome. I actually have some really cool ideas for it once it starts getting a bit more traffic. Also, if you like what you see, drop a few comments to let the photo taker know that you liked it. Keep up the good work fellow photo takers!

Creative Commons, Flickr and You

Duane Storey — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 01:44:56 +0000

A while ago I attended a small function and snapped a pile of photos at it, putting most of them into a Flickr set so that others could view them and use them. While sitting at work today, I did a quick Google search to see if there were any other photos from the function, or any write-ups about it. After a few clicks, I came across one site, and immediately noticed that they had used a bunch of my photos in their blog entry. Unfortunately, not only did they not link back to the original photos, but they also did not mention the source at all. After looking at the image links in the HTML, it was apparent that the author of the website had saved the photos from Flickr, renamed them to something different entirely, and then moved them to their own web-server for use on their blog. On all my photos on Flickr, I have added a Creative Commons license which basically defines the terms of use for the photo. If you click on the license information for the photo, you will see this: In essence, I give permission on all my photos for people to to share or remix (i.e. create a new work from it) the photo under the constraints that they a) properly attribute the photo, b) don't use my photo for commercial purposes and c) if the photo is modified and redistributed, it must be done under a similar license. To me, the wording of that license is pretty straight-forward. Unfortunately though, I have encountered situations like this involving my photos and other people's blog entries more times than I thought possible. For the most part, I have turned a blind eye to it and have tried to not let it bother me. Since photography is basically just a hobby for me, getting credit for the photos I take, while ethically (and due to the CC license, legally) the proper thing to do, is not really a huge concern for me. However, the website I viewed today not only did not give me credit for any of the photos, but I also strongly felt as though the presentation ultimately led the reader to believe that the author of the blog entry was in fact the person who took the photos, and that really bothered me. I sent the author of the entry a politely worded email and asked them to correct the entry and do proper attribution, which they did without any fuss. But to be honest, it is an email I don't really think I should have had to write. To me, this act is really no different than plagiarism, and plagiarism isn't tolerated at all in the academic world these days. In fact, I was in several classes at the University of British Columbia where students were immediately dismissed from a class with a "F" for including text from another source in an assignment without properly attributing where it came from. Even in high-school people caught plagiarizing were firmly disciplined. In this day and age, I would think that most people would know better. If you frequent my blog at all, you will know that I generally try to put a photo into most of my blog entries. To me, adding a photo often enhances the impact of a blog entry, or adds emotion to an entry that would otherwise lack it. While I usually try to use my own photographs, I have on occasion found suitable Flickr photos taken by others and used those. For anyone who has tried to do that, you will know that many photos nowadays on Flickr have no license associated with them, and instead show "All Rights Reserved", which obviously means that those photos cannot be used in any capacity. So I am very appreciative for the people who go out of their way to set the license on their photos in such a way that the rest of the world can freely use them in the context of the license they have chosen. I think as bloggers, we have a responsibility to not only respect these licenses, but to also make sure people are educated about them. To that end, I contacted Mike Linksvayer, who is currently the Vice President of the Creative Commons organization, and asked him if he would mind doing a quick call to help sort a few things out for me (I apologize for the poor nature of the recording, but I had to set it up rather quickly): or download the m4a file here I also want to point out that Mike was nice enough to give his opinion and allow this call to be recorded for the benefit of the Internet community, but that Creative Commons and IANAL officially do not give legal advice. To summarize, attribution, in the context of Flickr, requires at the bare minimum a link back to the original photo. To go one step further, linking back to the original photo is also a requirement of the Flickr terms of use, so it should be done regardless:

Do link back to Flickr when you post your photos elsewhere. The Flickr service makes it possible to post images hosted on Flickr to outside web sites. However, pages on other web sites that display images hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo back to its photo page on Flickr.

What I also found interesting in the conversation with Mike is the information he shared in the area of machine-readable licenses. Ultimately it would be nice if you could apply a license via HTML on your blog, and have the major search engines understand it, and respect it when showing indexed photos and articles in search engine results. This might help the problem of people linking to images via Google images and not properly attributing, or ultimately may even lead to search engines providing HTML blobs that include the proper attributing tags automatically. I want to thank Mike for taking the time out of his day to clarify those items for me, and I want to call on other members of the Internet community to help raise awareness of Creative Commons licensing so that everyone can continue to get along and play nice with each other. * the blog entry Mike talks about with regards to Business Week can be found here.

Surfing in Tofino

Duane Storey — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 07:01:26 +0000

Goldfinch

Duane Storey — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 07:00:55 +0000

Photo of the day theme for the week -- Reflections

Duane Storey — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:32:36 +0000

My dad suggested that it might be a cool idea to have a theme every once and a while. So this week, I've decided to make the theme:

REFLECTIONS

The idea is that you should take photos of the world that show some type of reflection. Be inventive, but some ideas are puddles, lakes, mirrors, glass, spoons, anything that casts a reflection. Send them in and I'll try to put them all in a group somewhere to reflect everyone's efforts! While not a stellar example, I took a shot today of some buildings with some cool reflections of other buildings in them. However, I'd encourage people to be a bit more inventive than me, and try to capture some views of the world indirectly through some type of reflection. Please add all photos to the group, and also add the tag "reflections" so that I can pool them all together. Thanks.

Post-Dating Wordpress Entries

Duane Storey — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:54:58 +0000

So I found out something pretty cool on Friday night with Wordpress. It was around 11pm and I wanted to put a new post up but have the date say the next day at 1 minute past midnight. The idea being that I could post Saturday's photo of the day Friday night before I went to bed. However, once I modified the timestamp in Wordpress and published the article, it didn't show up at all, which I thought a bit odd at first. However, after reading through the documentation, Wordpress has the ability to schedule posts in the future. That is, whenever the timestamp of the post is in the future, it is put into a queue for automatic publishing when the time is reached. That's a really cool feature, and it will make it easy to add several photos of the day in advance if I ever go away for a few days and don't have access to a computer.

Sun Rays on Waves

Duane Storey — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:01:40 +0000

Vacation, Summer 2007

Duane Storey — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:50:57 +0000

In just a little over a month, I will be taking a week of vacation. My current plan is to leave Vancouver on the night of the 23rd, bouncing briefly through Toronto and ending up in Ottawa (along with Boris and Kate) for my friend's wedding on Saturday the 25th. It's been probably about three of four years since I've been out to that part of the country, and to be honest, I've rather missed it. After graduating from university in May of 2000, I moved out to Ottawa and spent a few years working. I met many people who helped shape who I am today, and have a few friendships out that way that I've managed to keep going thanks to email and IM over the years. Since I haven't been that way in years, I decided to take a full week off and spend my summer holidays out on that side of the country. But truth be told, I have no idea what I'm going to do. Part of that makes it exciting I guess, but I also want to have some type of game-plan in my head about what to see or do. I'm pretty sure I'm going to bring a small suitcase of wedding type clothes and also my big-ass backpacker bag full of camping stuff. That way, I can ditch my super-hero clothes in Ottawa after the wedding, rent a car, and spend the rest of the week travelling around and taking in the sights. I think I'll leave Ottawa on Sunday morning, and head down towards Toronto for a day or two. I told Dale Mugford I'd swing by for a beer, and I also know a few girls in Toronto that promised to show me around should I ever swing by. After that, I might loop through New York and make my way (the long way around) to Quebec City, camping at various locations along the way. Eventually, I have to be back in Ottawa on the following Saturday to head back home to Vancouver, so I only have five or six days of relaxation, but hopefully that will be enough. It's all up in the air, but if anyone has any recommendations for things to see or do out that way, drop me a comment. I'm really debating hopping on a plane from some place and spending another day or two in New York City, since I had such a great time last time I was down there, and I can't see a flight to NYC from Ottawa or Toronto being very expensive.

Henry Hum

Duane Storey — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:01:05 +0000

Maybe it's because I've been planning a trip to Ottawa, or maybe it's because of everything that's happened in the last year or so, but lately I've found my mind wandering back to my life out east, and to a guy I once knew there named Henry Hum. Henry was a software developer who primarily worked on a piece of software called SAMI -- it was the final software in the assembly line that would ultimately give a PASS/FAIL to every single fiber optic component that probably now powers the majority of internet today. Back in those days, we were shipping 10,000 or more components a week, representing tens of millions of dollars, mostly thanks to Napster and the rampant porn industry I would imagine. In 2001, I decided I would go with my friend Rob Sample to Cuba for a week, and Henry was nice enough to be my guarantuer on my very first passport application. Despite all of us dealing out a massive amount of shit to that guy in the two years I was there, he was always friendly, always laughing, and always eager to help when others weren't. Prior to leaving Ottawa, I attended a small house-warming party for Henry at his house out in Barhaven. It was a house he had saved a few years to buy, and to celebrate the event, he invited his niece and nephew, his sister, and a few of us guys from work. A few years ago, I received a sad message by email - our friend, Henry Hum, who had recently turned 30 years old, had suddenly collapsed while playing basketball, and the doctors were unable to save him. Had Henry survived, he would be around 34 years old, and happily playing with his niece and nephew in his not-so-new home anymore. I have lost a few friends and family over the years. Henry Hum, who died suddenly in Ottawa. My friend Carey Tolmie, who was hit by a semi while riding on his motorbike in Chiliwack. My cousin Darren, who, at a young age, died of heart failure shortly after an evening drive with his girlfriend. Wherever you guys are, I hope the sun is always setting, the music is always playing, and that river of beer is always flowing.

Textures

Duane Storey — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:05:59 +0000

Just hope this doesn't happen to you someday

Duane Storey — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:53:27 +0000

I came across this as part of my morning read. Sort of gross, but I actually know of similar things happening to people. My cousin works at Holt Renfrew in Pacific Center, and she said one time someone went to try on some clothes, and came out of the change room practically running to the door. When they went into the back, they found she had used the entire change room as a big bathroom (I guess she really had to go). Check out the article of the poor lady who was refused access to the store's bathroom

Under the Influence

Duane Storey — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:08:43 +0000

So High

Duane Storey — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:01:46 +0000

Blogging and Respect

Duane Storey — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:25:36 +0000

Why people stop blogging

The other day, I wrote a pretty detailed article on my frustrations with how people have been using my Flickr photos, all of which are associated with a creative commons license. In that article, I had an interview with the Vice President of Creative Commons where we discussed what proper attribution means, and some of the grey areas associated with the non-commercial parts of the CC licenses. A few days after I wrote it, Darren Barefoot chimed in with some of his thoughts -- there is a really good comment thread over there, so go check it out. Just this afternoon, I was commenting to Rebecca online that I'm growing tired of seeing inbound links to my blog from news aggregators. If I felt these aggregators were around to provide a relatively cohesive website for a particular topic, I might support them. But most of the ones that link to me are simply trying to make a profit on advertising, and that bothers me that other people are using my work to try and make money. To counter that, I have explicitly stated on the bottom of my blog (in the footer) that the works on this website are protected under a CC non-commercial license. I don't mind other people cutting pieces out of my articles to support intellectual blog entries of their own (assuming they do proper attribution), even if they have adsense (because I have some here on my buried pages), but I'm going to deliberately clamp down on unholy aggregators, or people who I feel are simply lifting blog entries of mine. Which brings me to something that happened a few minutes ago. Rebecca pinged me on iChat and sent me a link to VancouverGo.com and showed me a blog entry of theirs that they had essentially cut and paste from her website (not just the text, but the entire HTML body of the entry). And while they put a text version of her HTML link as an aside, it wasn't a real, clickable hyperlink. 100% of the article that they posted was written by Rebecca, and the author of VancouverGo didn't add a single sentence of their own. In my mind, that's completely wrong. If you want to let people know about something interesting on someone else's blog, then link back to the blog entry itself, don't cut and paste the entire entry for your own blog -- how hard is it to write something original on your own? I'm really starting to get worried about the world of blogging. Too many people think they can just take the fruits of other people's labours and save themselves having to do any real work.

BraveNewCode

Duane Storey — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:11:02 +0000

Dale Mugford, the coding Guru over at MatthewGood.org, has just launched his new online portfolio over at BraveNewCode. Head on over and check it out.

Vancouver Dating Life

Duane Storey — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:30:49 +0000

I saw this personal ad on craigslist tonight. This basically represents the type of ads I've grown accustomed to reading over the last year:

I am an attractive woman so I deserve the best. He must be tall, athletic, and educated. He must be successful,drive a nice vehicle, live on his own (no roomates) and be on his way to owning his own home soon. He must be generous. He must be willing to pamper me, indulge me, and treat me like a princess.I want a man who will take me for nice dinners and someone who likes to travel (with me).I don't mind if he has a busy schedual. I will make him happy in return in whatever way he desires. He must be in his mid 30's. Please don't even bother to respond if you lack any of the above criteria because I will ignore you. Why would I settle for less?

This is, for all you people not from Vancouver, a typical female-bar-star attitude in this city. I happen to live right on the edge of Yaletown, which is arguably Vancouver's most pompous and pretentious part of town, and I've met many a girl in Yaletown bars who happily regurgitates this same type of rhetoric. Go ahead and send her an email and let her know just what you think of her sale's pitch.

Sorry, we only cover six broken bones

Duane Storey — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 19:31:10 +0000

This morning I went downstairs and checked the mail, and was surprised to see a bill from the ministry of health. It would seem that the government wants me to pay for the ambulance that took me to the hospital the night I ended up with multiple lacerations to my head and face, and five broken bone segments in my face. While I'm obviously appreciative for our medical system, considering I have had two surgeries now that I haven't had to pay for, given that our health care system is supposed to be covered, I'm pretty surprised that I have to pay this at all.

Safety First

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 05:49:46 +0000

I got bored tonight and threw on a few episodes of 24 Season Four. The whole season revolves around a nerve gas attack. While watching it, I thought I would google a bit and find out about the history of nerve gas and its use in warfare. While scanning the Wikipedia entry for nerve gas, I read these paragraphs:

In 1972, The United States Congress banned the practice of disposing chemical weapons into the ocean. However 32,000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean waters off of the United States by the U.S. Army. According to a 1998 report created by William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the Army created at least 26 chemical weapons dumpsites in the ocean off of at least 11 states on both the west and east coasts. Additionally due to poor records, currently they only know the rough whereabouts of half of them. It is unknown how these dumps of chemical weapons have affected the ocean ecologyâ€”it may be responsible for some of the decline in fish populations over the past decades, but no evidence has yet proved a causal relationship between dumping and fish population decline. The steel containers they are contained within face a variable rate of decay and no one is really certain where or how deep they were dumped. If a nerve agent leaks into the ocean, it can last up to six weeks, during which time it will kill every susceptible organism it touches before it breaks down into its nonlethal chemical components.

Who's bright idea was this? "Hey, we have a pile of really toxic chemical weapons we need to get rid of - why don't we just dump them into the ocean and lose most of the paperwork?" It's nice to know there are stockpiles of nerve gas just sitting around waiting to be plucked, and that a bunch of them are potentially leaking into the surrounding waters and killing everything.

A few weeks of HD-DVD

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:29:00 +0000

A while, I posted an article on my recent purchase of a Toshiba HD-A2 high-definition DVD player. Since that time, I have slowly been figuring out just what to do with it. After purchasing it, I sort of assumed that it would be easy to rent HD-DVD movies, but it's actually still rather tough. Blockbuster recently announced an exclusive deal with Blue-Ray so that they would only carry Blue-Ray titles. And while a few people have said that it's most likely the death-blow to HD-DVD, I disagree. For starters, the adult film industry has put its weight behind HD-DVD, which is my mind is a rather good industry to have in your corner. And Zip.ca, one of the larger online DVD rental companies, recently said this:

"The format fight will only end when the two sides reach agreement, or when consumers have voted with their dollars," he said. "As yet, there is no clear evidence that consumers are picking one format over the other." Over the past month, 56% of next-generation rentals at Zip were HD-DVD versus 44% for Blu-ray, he said. "This is not yet resolved, no matter how much you, we and Blockbuster all wish it was."

For now, I've resolved myself to using the Zip.ca service to order HD-DVDs online, since they are next to impossible to rent in this city. I'm paying $25 a month, which is still alot better than the $80 I was paying for cable, and am entitled to up to 11 movies a month with that plan. Since they have a Vancouver distribution branch now, I received my first batch of four movies in only two days, so I think this is going to work out quite well. If you've never used an online rental service before, it's really pretty slick. You pick a bundle of movies (in the case of Zip.ca, your "ziplist" contains at least 20 movies), and as soon as you return a movie, they'll ship you the highest movie of your ziplist that is available. In terms of video quality, it's really quite impressive. I've sort of gotten used to watching things in HD over the last year, so it wasn't a huge shock to me that the picture quality would be outstanding. I went out to Future Shop today and bought my first HD-DVD. What's interesting is that for some reason, a lot of the HD-DVDs come packaged in double-cases where you get the HD-DVD version of the movie, as well as the normal DVD version. I have to ask the question -- why? If I have a HD-DVD player, why in the world would I want to pay a bit more and have the normal DVD version? Is this insurance in case they lose the format war, so that you'll always have a version of the movie, even if your HD-DVD player becomes obsolete, and you switch to Blue-Ray?

Coal Harbour

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:05:32 +0000

Congrats Jason and Sheila

Duane Storey — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:50:43 +0000

My friends Jason and Sheila had twins the other night (well technically, Sheila had twins, but I'm sure Jason did his part). Jason sent an update email yesterday:

Sheila and I are very proud to announce that the twins were born at 11:44 and 11:45 on Thursday, July 19th, 2007. Their names are Louis Marc Fischl and Hanna Michelle Fischl. Louis was born 6 lbs and Hanna was 5 lbs 7 ounces. Both babies and Mom are doing well and should be home from the hospital on Monday.

So drop Jason and Sheila a comment and congratulate them on their new family. Also, for all you old timers, give them some advice -- they'll need it!

Apple Store Charging Fee?

Duane Storey — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:44:52 +0000

I came across this article this morning, which says that Apple is starting to charge a $5 entrance fee into their stores. I'm not entirely convinced it's true based on the wording of the article, but if it is, it's absolutely ridiculous:

If you want to see the iPhone at an Apple store, be sure to bring some cash. Large crowds flocking to see the iPhone and next generation iPods have forced Apple to begin charging a $5 entrance fee for Apple stores. Many analysts anticipated the move, and expect a positive response from customers. "Part of the move was to limit crowds to keep the stores safe, but also we wanted to keep the right kind of people in the stores," said vice president of retail outlets, Vince Sciopiano. "By 'right kind of people' I mean true Apple customers with money, willing to pay just to look at our newest wares."

Photo from http://2975.blogspot.com/2007/05/is-madison-getting-hip.html Imagine paying $5 to get into the grocery store, or Future Shop, or whatever other place you frequent. I can maybe see them justifying it if they apply the money towards a purchase (which is what some places in Vancouver do with parking fees, although many have opted out these days), but to just take the money for no reason is pretty low of them. Sure, you can argue that it's supply and demand, but there's a point when you've just gone too far.. This is the first step down the "we don't really care about our customer's" path, and I hope Apple doesn't start making the same mistakes that most of its competitors did. Update -- I'm pretty sure the article was bullshit, but it was a fun entry to write..

Shelby

Duane Storey — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:16:22 +0000

Diet Soda Bad For You?

Duane Storey — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:39:47 +0000

Sylvain sent me this link today that basically concluded that one or more cans of diet soda can lead to health risks such as the metabolic syndrome

"We found that one or more sodas per day increases your risk of new-onset metabolic syndrome by about 45 per cent, and it did not seem to matter if it was regular or diet," Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, senior investigator for the Framingham Heart Study, said Monday from Boston. .. The study included nearly 9,000 observations of middle-aged men and women over four years at three different times. The study looked at how many 355-millilitre cans of cola or other soft drinks a participant consumed each day. The researchers found that compared to those who drank less than one can per day, subjects who downed one or more soft drinks daily had a:

31 per cent greater risk of becoming obese (with a body mass index of 30 or more
30 per cent increased risk of adding on belly fat.
25 per cent higher risk of developing high blood triglycerides or high blood sugar.
32 per cent higher risk of having low HDL levels.

Those are all real bad. The researchers state at the end that they aren't really sure why, but I've read enough over the last few years to have an idea why. Last year I read a pretty interesting study about the effects of caffeine on the body. The researchers started with pop, and eventually went to caffeine supplements. What they found is that caffeine, in general, causes the body to over-react with insulin. That is, for the same amount of food, the caffeinated person will release far more insulin into their blood than the non-caffeinated person. Insulin, while vital to survival, hardens arteries, and makes it hard to lose weight (since glucagon, the hormone responsible for breaking down fat, will go low in response to the high insulin levels). Also, the current theory is that perpetually high levels on insulin can eventually lead to type-2 diabetes. That being said, the researchers also noted that this caffeine effect did not seem to happen with coffee. For whatever reason, there is something in coffee that seems to negate the effect of the caffeine on the body. So, while everyone points to sugar and high fat as the leading causes of obesity in North America (and for sure, they have contributed), there's growing evidence (at least in my mind) that caffeine (which you can also look as as an almost necessary side-effect of the North America lifestyle) has played a pivotal role. I'll post some links to studies tonight when I have more time. Links of interest:

Sunset in Tofino

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:29:22 +0000

The Final Stretch of Hospital Music

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:30:47 +0000

As most people who read my blog know, a few weeks ago I was down in Las Vegas hanging out near a pool with Matt Good along with a handful of his friends and fans, one of which was Vancouver blogger and now good friend, Rebecca Bollwitt. Matt gave a small acoustic performance that night, mainly consisting of material off his forthcoming album, Hospital Music. Hospital Music, for those who haven't been following, is Matthew Good's 7th full-length album, and was recorded after a rather difficult period in Matt's life, something that is discussed in detail on his personal website:

Prior to recording Hospital Music I spent a great deal of time confronting the past. In doing so I discovered something interesting, that through it all I viewed myself as beholden to the needs of others, even if it meant that I would endure immense anxiety because of it. I spent a great deal of time wading through past relationships and honestly examining their purpose, and in doing so came to the realization that, for years, I had not been all that honest with myself. That, more than anything else, influenced the material on this record, producing, at times, uncomfortable realizations represented in song. Some might, upon examination, call them bitter. Others might disregard them altogether, searching more for the comfortable familiarity of past work. But the truth is that what was ultimately produced was beyond my control in that, given everything that had transpired, it either had to be honest or I would have to walk away from music altogether. In the end, these fifteen songs combine to represent a remembrance, one that, in no small way, both began and ended on the floor of a shower.

The album has been streaming live from Matt's website and on iTunes for the entire month, and the feedback on his website and from people who have heard it has been rather amazing. Music has always been rather important to me. While my day job consists generally of crunching numbers or slaving away in front of a monitor for 12 hours at a time, I have always sought solice in photography, or by the dim glow of a table lamp while listening to music. My first real paycheck after graduating university, I went out and spent most of it on a pair of $1200 speakers and a $1200 receiver so that I could listen to music at home (I had no couch or furniture at the time). While my friends all made fun of me, I opted to spend my money on two high-quality speakers for listening to music instead of blowing the same amount of money on a 5.1 system powerered by mediocre speakers, an act I have never regretted (I have since added a kick ass subwoofer though). My first exposure to Matthew Good was in my third year of university. I was basically sick and tired of most of the stuff I had been listening to and ended up venting my frustration to my friend Kirsten, who immediately grabbed Underdogs and put it in my computer to listen to. I was immediately hooked, and spent the next few days listening while doing assignments in my little dorm room at UBC. That weekend, I grabbed my Strat and messed around, ultimately getting stuck on trying to figure out the solo for "My Out of Style is Coming Back." After listening to me fumble around with it for over an hour, my roommate, who happened to be a music major at UBC (and is consequently the only person I have ever met with perfect pitch), walked into my room, grabbed my pen, and transcribed the whole song, note for note, onto a piece of foolscap for me -- he got it right the first time. For those of you who have been through university, you will know that not only is it an emotionally difficult experience, but also an extremely financially difficult one. In the eight years I spent at UBC, I spent around $60,000 dollars there (even though I had a full scholarship during my undergrad) -- around $35,000 of that I financed with student loans, and the other bit mostly through summer jobs. There were times I ran out of money early, one time as soon as February, and had no idea what I was going to do to afford to eat in the coming months. The point of saying that is even though money was tight, and even though I was in school during the napster era where most people chose to download music instead of buying it, I somehow always found enough money to go out and buy one of Matt's new CDs when they came out. To this day, I am quite certain he is the only artist in my CD collection (which is probably is on the order of between two or three hundred CDs) where I own the entire artist's catalogue, and that is saying quite a bit. I have never really believed in rating music, or art in general for that matter, since art is really a highly personal experience. But at least to me, Hospital Music is truly amazing, and is, in my mind, Matthew Good's best work. In only six days, on July 31st, Hospital Music will be released simultaneously in both Canada and the United States (iTunes). For those of you who want to take a listen before it is released, you can head over to Matthew Good's website and listen to the entire CD streamed there in real-time. In addition, MuchMusic.com recently started previewing the entire album as well. While Matt may do something on his own website, I encourage every one who is going to buy a CD to take a photo of themselves with the CD and send me the flickr link when you have it -- I'll post the collection after the fact - get your friends to do the same, and if we have enough, we can make a cool collage. Several of us have already made plans to head down to HMV the night of the 31st after work and pick up our own copies of Hospital Music. Afterwards, we plan to spend the rest of the night hanging out, listening to music, having a few drinks, and sharing a few laughs amongst close friends.

Obesity in America

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:57:48 +0000

Check out this link by CNN that maps obesity in America over the last 20 years.

Fireworks and Friends

Duane Storey — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:35:56 +0000

Tony Pierce is currently in town checking out some of the Canadian sights and trying his hand at drinking Canadian beer. Tonight Tony, Robyn, Rebecca, John, Keira, Adam and Corinna all came down to my place for some pre-fireworks drinking. I wasn't up to my typical drinking self, but I still managed to demolish 6 or 7 beers in fairly short order. I didn't really eat any type of supper, so I'm a bit hungry now. On Friday some of us are going to meet up after work for a longer version of tonight, with hopefully a larger group. It was a cool night though, and it is the first time since owning my digital SLR that I've actually attempted to take some photos of the fireworks. Some of us are gonna hopefully check out Saturday's as well to see how they compared.

My Photos Sure Do Get Around

Duane Storey — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:34:34 +0000

As everyone who hits my blog these days knows, I really like taking photos. My passion for photography started about seven years ago, and is still going strong today. I've been fortunate enough to be able to afford a really nice camera and a full suite of lenses, and while I sort of understand what's needed to take "good" photos, my camera really does the majority of the heavy lifting. My friends routinely use my photos in blog posts (which I really appreciate), but every once and a while I do a quick search via Technorati to see who else is using my photos. Tonight, that search led me to one of the coolest sites ever to link to a photo set of mine -- a semi-local blogger and nude-model, Kris Madison. If you want to head over and check it out, by all means. I should point out though that it is definitely not safe for work. I would like to encourage all other nude models in the city to link to my photos. If you have any trouble, please do not hesitate to contact me -- I'd me more than happy to assist you.

A Ray From Above

Duane Storey — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:13:00 +0000

Blogathon

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 08:48:29 +0000

Rebecca (aka Miss604) is participating in a blogathon tomorrow to support a local Surrey charity.. So, I'd appreciate it if you spend tomorrow over on her site, reading her posts (one every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight), and hopefully dropping a small contribution her way. I plan to submit an entry or two during the day to help her out, so please drop by and give her some moral support! Thanks!

Crossroads 2.0 Alpha Now Available For Wordpress

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:28:21 +0000

I've really been trying hard to get a new release of Crossroads out for quite some time, but with my job at work, it's just so hard to find a few hours to spare these days. That being said, I've up-reved the plugin to version 2.0, and am making the changes I've done available as a download. This is an early alpha, and for sure it has a few bugs, so please don't expect it to be perfect. Compared to version 1.0, here are some changes:

Added support for GreyBox image gallery
Added support for HighSlide JS image gallery
Fixed a few changes with how the scripts were loaded to improve compatibility
Added more adminstration options
Removed Flickr comments from posts, as these were very slow -- you can re-enable them via the admin panel if you want

The original plugin page for Crossroads can be found here, and it details how to use it and provides a demo using Highslide JS. Please note that I have included the image galleries as part of the distribution (for compatibility reasons), but that it is your responsibility to head over to Lightbox, Greybox or HighSlide and verify that you are conforming to their licenses if you use them on your site. A few options still don't work properly (namely the local image caching), and I haven't tested HighSlide that much at all. So, without further ado, here is the download link for Crossroads v2.00a. Please post feedback or bugs as comments to this post. Also, for those of you with blogs that use it, I'd appreciate it if you can add a link to this post to get the word out (I'll add a Crossroads RSS feed at some point). Thanks. Here's a sample import of a Flickr set using one simple command in the HTML, courtesy of Crossroads:

Blogathon Nearing the Half-way Point

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:14:45 +0000

Rebecca is only a few hours away from crossing the half-way point for blogathon. 100% of the contributions she receives will be going to the Surrey Food Bank -- it's not too late to head over to her site and drop a few dollars to support a good cause. I contributed a guest post on her website for the 3pm blog entry -- you can check it out here.

Fireworks

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:33:52 +0000

Twitter Updates from Wordpress

Duane Storey — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:03:12 +0000

I took a quick break this afternoon from work and decided to hash out a quick Wordpress plugin that would push my blog entries into my Twitter feed. The end result is WordTwit, and it's available for download if anyone wants to try it on their Wordpress blog. Drop me a comment or two and let me know what you think.

Cathy's Broken Toe

Duane Storey — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 05:45:08 +0000

My step mom was apparently trying to hang a picture or something this morning and accidentally banged her toe. The end result is clearly displayed in this photo: Clearly her toe is broken. They spent a few hours in the hospital in Chilliwack today and finally put that sucker back in the correct spot. Unfortunately, she'll be on crutches for a few weeks.

Weight Loss and Insulin Resistance

Duane Storey — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:58:43 +0000

I've been writing about obesity and something called hyper-insulinemia for about as long as I can remember. For those of you who don't know, many people nowadays have something called metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of symptoms including obesity, high blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, and high cholesterol. The main component of all of these is something called hyper-insulinemia (which is also called insulin resistance). What I just wrote is pretty much accepted as fact nowadays. What is still up for debate is a) whether insulin resistance is the cause or the effect of obesity and b) whether insulin plays a larger role in weight loss than originally believed. You see, there are two competing genres in this war on the bulge. On one side of the ring you have those people who believe a calorie is a calorie, and the only thing required to lose weight is a bit of will power. For those that continue to gain weight, the people in this camp simply dismiss them for people lacking the will to watch what they eat or to make a bit of time for exercise. Photo by ieatstars on Flickr What bothers me about that camp is that most of the people I know who have always been a bit stocky are basically always watching what they eat, and always making time for exercise. These people aren't eating huge meals, or eating cookies non-stop -- they make an honest attempt to lose weight, but simply are unable to shed any pounds. On the other side of the ring are those people who do not believe in the caloric theory of food (which basically says that food that you put into your body gives the same amount of energy as burning it, which is actually the definition of a calorie), but rather believe that weight loss and weight gain are the result of the complex nature of hormones in the body. I've been reading medical research papers routinely for about eight years now, and there is growing consensus, at least in my mind, that there are parts of caloric theory is wrong, and that some parts of the endocrine theory are correct. The following is a brief exert from an article I read years ago - pay special attention to the stuff in bold (and also bear in mind that Harvard Medical is one of the most prestigious research universities in the world):

Five recent studies have shown that subjects on some form of the [low carb] diet lost twice as much weight as those on low-fat, low-calorie diets. In general, the more carbohydrates consumed, the less body fat is lost. Meanwhile, an additional five studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health failed to demonstrate any link between eating fat and developing heart disease. In other words, the recommendations that put a whole nation on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet have been overthrown and the USDA Food Pyramid toppled. Nevertheless the Department of Agriculture still maintains this standard for a healthy diet. Why has the USDA not responded to information that alternative medicine practitioners have known for years? The Harvard researchers suggest that the low-fat-is-good-health hypothesis has failed the test of time. The current obesity epidemic, as well as a significant rise in Type 2 diabetes, began in the early 1980s with the rise of the low-fat dogma. "For a large percentage of the population, perhaps 30 to 40 percent, low-fat diets are counterproductive," concludes Eleftheria Maratos-Flier, director of obesity research at Harvard's prestigious Joslin Diabetes Center. "They have the paradoxical effect of making people gain weight." Nevertheless, he notes, that still leaves a sizeable proportion of the population who might benefit from the whole-grain, complex carbohydrate diet favored by low-fat advocates.

I once lost about 50 lbs in about five months, simply by giving up the majority of carbohydrates in my diet. I wasn't going to the gym at the time (although I was walking places), and I didn't really watch my portion sizes. Contrast that to the six or seven years of "dieting" I did before that which consisted of three or four visits to the gym each week along with the recommendation from a nutrtionist that my diet consist of no more than 20% fat ( the majority of my diet was supposed to come from carbohydrates), during which I slowly gained about 40 lbs. The point of this article isn't to swing my low-carbohydrate hammer at anyone. I think dieting is really a personal preference, and if what you are doing is working then go ahead and continue that. However, if you're one of those people that has struggled for years despite advice from doctors or nutritionists, then I encourage you to read up on insulin resistance and make up your own mind. To that end, I'm going to keep writing about the subject, and giving a bit of advice when I can. I also might do something along the lines as Rebecca, and do a for-charity multi-month weight loss event or something.

Cinnamon, The Wonder Spice

Duane Storey — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 22:47:46 +0000

Part of the reason I wrote the last article on insulin resistance is so I could continue to talk about that subject without continually explaining what it is I was talking about. Sometime around the year 2003, there was a pretty seminal study performed that had an undesirable, although extremely fascinating outcome. The researchers at the time were trying to guage the body's insulin response to various foods. When they came to apple pie though, they were in for a surprise:

Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day significantly reduces blood sugar levels in diabetics, a new study has found. The effect, which can be produced even by soaking a cinnamon stick your tea, could also benefit millions of non-diabetics who have blood sugar problem but are unaware of it. The discovery was initially made by accident, by Richard Anderson at the US Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. "We were looking at the effects of common foods on blood sugar," he told New Scientist. One was the American favourite, apple pie, which is usually spiced with cinnamon. "We expected it to be bad. But it helped," he says.

Cinnamon, for whatever reason, somehow reduces the body's requirements for insulin, and improves most of the symptoms of type-II diabetes. Photo by bitzi on Flickr Right on the heels of that result came another paper that did a proper double-blind study with cinnamon. The full paper, at Beth's request, is available here. I'm going to quote the abstract below though:

OBJECTIVEâ€”The objective of this study was to determine whether cinnamon improves blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSâ€”A total of 60 people with type 2 diabetes, 30 men and 30 women aged 52.2 Â± 6.32 years, were divided randomly into six groups. Groups 1, 2, and 3 consumed 1, 3, or 6 g of cinnamon daily, respectively, and groups 4, 5, and 6 were given placebo capsules corresponding to the number of capsules consumed for the three levels of cinnamon. The cinnamon was consumed for 40 days followed by a 20-day washout period. RESULTSâ€”After 40 days, all three levels of cinnamon reduced the mean fasting serum glucose (18â€“29%), triglyceride (23â€“30%), LDL cholesterol (7â€“27%), and total cholesterol (12â€“26%) levels; no significant changes were noted in the placebo groups. Changes in HDL cholesterol were not significant.

I want to point out that those numbers are extremely amazing. The current drugs on the market that reduce cholesterol levels are very hard on the liver, and have a hard time reducing cholesterol to the extent demonstrated in this study. In addition, a 18-29% reduction in fasting insulin levels is also difficult to do using the current arsenal of diabetic medications. While this study was primarily interested in the results of cinnamon on type-II diabetics, the results are most likely applicable to those people with insulin resistance as well (since insulin resistance is often the precursor to full blown type-II diabetes). I imagine there are now a flood of studies in the works that will investigate whether or not cinnamon can have favourable results in a diet aimed at losing weight. We'll see (however, based on those numbers, I suspect it would help). If you want to add cinnamon to your diet to find out for yourself, the recommendation is to consume about 1/2 - 1 full teaspoon of cinnamon twice a day. You can throw some into your morning coffee, or stir it into a cup of milk if you want.

Dog and Ball

Duane Storey — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:19:01 +0000

Vacation in less than a month

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:16:31 +0000

In less than four weeks, I'll be getting on a plane and heading to Ottawa for my friend Rob's wedding. The last time off I took was basically back in February, and I spent that walking around rainy Seattle for only a few days. This trip, however, promises to be a lot more interesting, and hopefully more relaxing. The only real things that I have on my plate are my friend's wedding, a trip down to Toronto to see a few people, and then a visit to Quebec City (since I never spent any time there when I lived out east). I'm pretty sure I'm going to bring a suitcase with some dress clothes in it, and then a big backpacking bag with all my (small) camping gear. I'll probably rent a car, and spend most of that week staying in the wilderness. I'm hoping to bring along a few books, and just spend the majority of it as far away from a computer as I can get. The reason I know I need a vacation is not because I'm planning this one, but because I've actually started planning the one after too. I was thinking the other day that I haven't been anywhere really warm or tropical in a few years. I was supposed to go to an all inclusive resort last November for a wedding, but thanks to the kick in the head, I had to cancel. I think I'm going to start thinking about going to somewhere warm in the winter when I get back so I can see something new and bask in the warm Caribbean sun. I fly out the night of August 23rd, and am thankfully flying business class the entire way. Hopefully I'll actually be able to sleep on the plane. If anyone is out that way, drop me a line and maybe I can swing by to say hi.

I want to also point out that I have a few friends working at Nokia in Finland. Those guys get *six weeks off* of vacation every year. In fact, the Nokia office shuts down for the entire month of July and everyone goes to Paris, London, etc. Rough Life. We really have our priorities backwards here in North America.

Reality in Bolivia

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:35:01 +0000

So this photo is by Dan Lilly -- he's not officially part of my photo of the day group (he's currently vacationing in Bolivia). However, I really love this photo he took, so I'm gonna show it here -- it really pulls on the heart-strings.

Costa Rica Revisited

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:39:25 +0000

A few years ago I made my way to Central America for a week in the sun in Costa Rica. I finally managed to put the photos from it on Flickr.

Vacation Dale

Duane Storey — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:01:50 +0000

A great photo of MatthewGood.org's own Dale Mugford, taking a well deserved break from the tubes.

Hospital Music Now Available

Duane Storey — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:27:03 +0000

Matthew Good's 7th album, Hospital Music, is now available in Canada, the US and the UK. You can head over to the official Hospital Music page which has all the links you could possibly want to use to purchase the album or take a listen. Matt's currently making his way across Canada on a press tour, and will be starting the official album tour in September. For more information on some of his upcoming shows, check out the shows page over at Matt's site. I've been lucky enough to see bits and pieces of this whole process with Matt and Hospital Music, and it's really awesome to finally see it publicly available. Congratulations Matt, and all the best for the release and the tour.

Hospital Music is:

#1 on iTunes Canada
#1 on Amazon Canada
#19 on iTunes USA!
#6 in the Alternative Section on iTunes USA

99% of Champions

Miss604 — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:22:58 +0000

Guest entry by Rebecca from Miss604.com I just wrote a lovely piece on my own blog, Miss604.com then my provider decided to implode and take all of our sites with it (The Crazy Canucks, RadioZoom and Audihertz). Since I can't get to my provider's site I know it must be something on their end like a monkey in the ducts or something. Since I'm jonesing to blog, and since I haven't done ENOUGH of that lately, Duane offered up his backend to me. Hot, I know. This weekend John and I will be heading to the Okanagan for a much-needed getaway. It seems like nothing in our life comes without a struggle, and no matter how much that sucks, I'd like to think that just adds to life experience and character. That's just sugar-coated way of saying the odds always seem to be stacked up against us, but then again - things could be a lot worse. After we got married we didn't honeymoon. We spent a night in a hotel then went to my parents' house for brunch and to open gifts. A few weeks later we took a road trip to Kelowna and I don't think we've both been away together, alone, since. Even though there was no flight to Hawaii or all-inclusive resort during our post-marital bliss, I don't regret a thing or want for anything more than what I had:

My hair appointment somehow got lost in the shuffle so I ended up being 20 minutes late to the church.
My nephew Cameron fell off a pew with a 'crash' in church during the ceremony.
We put on the wrong rings and I didn't realize it until the morning, when I woke up and thought it was odd that my wedding band was thicker than the one John was wearing.
And last night we were chatting about insane wedding presents. I think a 'gift' we're most appreciative of is John's dear friend Kris serenading him with a They Might be Giants song during our reception. Priceless.

I realize now that this post might be countering all those 'looking for love in the City is tough' entries by Duane, since it's pretty mushy. But in my defense, (aside from just feeling very emotional right now from listening to Hospital Music) it took me a long time to find John... and I wasn't even looking - but that's when these things just creep up on you. So watch our Duaniac! This weekend we're going on this road trip we really can't afford to take financially, but we're so ready and willing emotionally. After spilling some personal stuff on Duane's blog, when he expected me to write about baseball and boobs or something, I hope I didn't ramble too much. Sh*t happens (even like when your website goes down), but good stuff happens too... and it just makes it that much sweeter. If not for crazy taxing events in all our lives we wouldn't even know Duane, and how super he is. He also likes long walks on the beach and can even walk through fire. Ladies, eat your heart out.

Fireworks

Duane Storey — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:30:51 +0000

Last night Hesty and I tried a different view point for the fireworks. My camera was being a bit dumb, and I didn't end up with many shots, but here's one I rather liked. And thanks to Tony for the link love, much appreciated. I hope your balls feel better soon, man.

Mexican Insect

Duane Storey — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 08:53:55 +0000

2am and all is well

Duane Storey — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:09:59 +0000

I haven't written a blog entry in a few days because quite frankly, I've been absolutely swamped at work. I've been working on a big project for a few months, and we're hoping to be done a piece of it tomorrow. I have an IM conference going between a guy in Europe, and another guy out here, and we're all putting the final pieces together. I'm officially dead tired. After I'm done with work tomorrow, I think I'm going to come back home and take a well-deserved nap to try and recharge after today. I'm going to finally do something on Saturday that I've been meaning to do for quite some time -- I'm going to go home and spend some time relaxing where I grew up. I told myself that I was going to spend more time this summer relaxing and enjoying it, but here we are in August already, and I really feel like I haven't really done much at all. Thankfully I still have a my holidays coming up in a few weeks, so I hope they are as good as I've been imagining. I got some more information on the wedding I'm going to in Ottawa. It's going to be in a little town called Manotick, and it's at a Heritage site called Watson's Mill. Looking at the photos, it seems like a pretty cool spot to have a wedding, and I should hopefully get some great shots from it. I haven't been back that way in years, and I'm really looking forward to walking down the Rideau Canal again, or having a beer next to parliament. I'm hoping to leave my computer at home this weekend so I can have a weekend completely unplugged. If you notice a lack of blog entries, don't be alarmed -- I'm just taking a well-earned break.

Plugin Competition

Duane Storey — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:36:55 +0000

Last week, John got a hold of me on iChat and let me know about a Wordpress plugin competition. Since I have written a few of them, I thought I might as well enter the Crossroads Flickr plugin into the competition. While the contest winners haven't been announced yet, they have announced all the participants over at one of the sites. If you are a user of the plugin, head on over and give it an honest rating.

Let's get this party started

Duane Storey — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:03:03 +0000

Ok, I'm gonna turn over a new blogging leaf. I'm gonna be fun. I'm gonna be happy. And most importantly, I'm gonna be frickin exciting. That's right sports fans. Let's turn down the suck knob a bit, put up a few disco balls, and get this party going. Now maybe that's the caffeine talking, or maybe it's some weird chemical reaction taking place in my brain (due to the lack of carbs in my diet of late), but it's been a few days since I've written anything, and I'm in a good mood. Part of that reason is that we finally completed a pretty big milestone at work today. It's been a few weeks now of late nights and the stress associated with a big looming deadline, but thankfully it's behind now and (cross your fingers) maybe I can even enjoy what's left of the summer a bit more. I worked on Monday for quite a bit, so I'm probably gonna jet out of work early on Friday and get the hell out of town. Thing is, I have a nice car, and I pay quite a bit of money each month to watch that sucker depreciate in my garage. So this weekend, I think I'm gonna shine 'er up a bit, crank the music and see just where in the hell I end up. Wherever it is, I sure hope it has plenty of meat and booze, since those two items are pretty much the staple of my current diet. That and a few multivitamins. Speaking of booze, my dad gave me two bottles of rum on the weekend, and I have one here. I also have some vodka, and somewhere on the order of around 40 bottles of wine on the floor. Can anyone, other than me, say the word party? Maybe that's the point of this entry -- maybe I should throw a kick ass, end-of-summer-you-know-you-worked-way-too-much-and-wasted-it-you-idiot party, complete with a big roasted cow, a dancing hula girl and a bathtub full of booze? Any takers? Photo of the rarely seen "Disco Duane" by Hesty P-something

Ottawa Bound

Duane Storey — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:19:00 +0000

In exactly two weeks from today, I will be getting on a plane (business class -- fuck you Air Canada), and heading out east for some time in Ottawa and beyond. I'll be taking the red-eye, (which I swore last time I'd never take again, since I rarely sleep on planes, and that's basically the whole point of the red-eye) and will get into Ottawa sometime early in the morning on the 24th of August. From there, I imagine I'll head to my hotel, which is only a few steps from the Supreme Court of Canada and Parliament Hill, and probably grab an hour or two of sleep. And then, I'm gonna wake up, have a shower, and start drinking. Photo by Steve Gerecke Ottawa is, without a doubt, the city I have had enjoyed myself the most in. I spent the time between when I was 23 and 25 living in the downtown core, and it was such a great experience. The people in eastern Canada are generally so much friendlier than people out here, and I find myself missing the laid-back atmospheres of the bars back there whenever I'm out pubbing here. In Ottawa, you can walk into a bar, sit at a table by yourself, and pretty much be guaranteed to meet a bunch of other fun people that want to drink beer and hang out. For the most part, people don't really go to bars out there to pick up. While I'm sure it happens, the majority of people generally just go to have a good time with old friends, and be receptive to meet new friends. The best area of Ottawa to party in is an area called the Byward Market. What makes it so amazing is that in just a few square city blocks there exists a high concentration of bars, most of which haven't even heard of the concept of a cover charge. Which means that you can realistically bounce from bar to bar all night without the hassle of line-ups or overpriced entrance fees. I'm going to help my friend Rob set up for the wedding on Friday night, and hopefully have a few catch up beers with him since I haven't seen the guy in a few years. Saturday is the wedding, and Rob's first request is that everyone gets together for some beer-filled frisbee golf in the morning, something I'm definitely looking forward to. After that, we'll be heading out to Manotick for the wedding, followed by a great reception (Rob's familiy is from near Saskatoon, so most of the people there will be small town people, and I can't wait to mingle with them all). I'm booked into a hotel until Monday, at which point I will either head to Toronto, Montreal, or possibly even back to Vancouver (depending on how cheap I'm feeling). Boris is coming for the trip too, and I hope we all get some R & R time in some Ottawa bars (in fact, I really hope we end up doing a +40C pub crawl in the market on the Sunday, something I haven't done in about 5 years). To say I'm getting excited would be a pretty big understatement. I really haven't had a "vacation" in a long time. I took a week off in February, but it wasn't very relaxing and the weather really sucked. Prior to that, I had booked a week off to go to Mexico, but ended up in surgery that week instead and had to cancel it all. I can't even remember the last time before that where I went away and spent a week just having fun. Probably Costa Rica I guess, nearly two years ago. I received a cheque in the mail today from some stock I cashed out last week, and my next paycheck on the 15th (thanks in part to a really nice bonus at my company) is going to be insanely large, so I'm basically going to be starting my vacation with a fair chunk of change in the bank. Suprisingly, I'm usually pretty cheap when I travel, to the point where I'll often go home early instead of paying for a hotel (which is really rather stupid, considering I can drop $100 in a bar fairly easily back home and not think about it), so I hope I'll be able to force myself to be fairly liberal with my spending out east.

Photoshoot

Duane Storey — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:31:09 +0000

About two weeks ago, I was contacted my Puma in Montreal and asked if I was willing to do a quick photoshoot for them for a female Team Canada player here in Vancouver. Apparently a friend of mine gave them a link to my Flickr photos, and said if they needed a photographer to help out sometime, that they should contacted me. Obviously, I was pretty flattered when they called me up, since up until now I have kept my photography completely informal and non-profit. But, with a $2000 Camera body that will need replacing within the year, and about $3500 worth of lenses, it really would be nice to make a few bucks on the side to help pay for some new gear. So, after passing a few emails back and forth, I eventually agreed that I would do it for them. So on Friday I met Martina down at Trout Lake in Burnaby and shot about 100 shots in about an hour. I put all the shots on a webserver for them to access remotely, and got official feedback last night that they loved all the shots, so I would say the shoot was a success. I've been told that the only difference between a pro and an amateur photographer is that professionals can charge money for their work, so I'm not sure what that makes me now. I guess I'm going to take it a bit more seriously and maybe put together an official photo site of some of my stuff and gear it more to doing future work. Thanks to everyone for all their support so far. This could be a pretty fun side job if I continue to get the odd job, and will hopefully allow me to get better equipment as time goes on.

Vacation

Duane Storey — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 01:05:46 +0000

What do the following things have in common?

The Caribbean
All You Can Drink
A Topless Beach
Adults Only
Three Pools
Six Bars
Sandy Beach
Dominican Republic
All Night Dancing
The "Boob" Cam

If you guessed me, then you're right. In about 13 days, I'll be hitting the beach of the Dominican Republic, enjoying the sun, warmth and liquor of an adults only, all inclusive resort in the middle of the Caribbean. If there's enough interest, I'll set up a daily iChat from the pool bar for those people who want to see how much fun I'm having. I'll ask around and see if there are any volunteers for the "boob-cam" and put up an RSS feed for that. I can't wait! I'm heading to the "Puerto Plata" area of the Dominican, which looks something like this: The resort I'm staying at is called the Blue Bay Getaway, and most of the reviews for it are pretty awesome. The only down side is that after leaving my friend Rob's wedding, I have to get on a Greyhound bus at 2:30am to Montreal, and somehow get on a plane at 7am in the morning. If I can get through that, then I'm golden for the rest of the trip.

Did You Know?

Duane Storey — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:14:29 +0000

Someone sent me a link to this a few weeks ago, and I thought it was pretty cool. So here it is.

Time Warp

Duane Storey — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:39:44 +0000

A few years ago, I was the best man in my friend Jeff's wedding. One of the responsibilities of the best man, as you probably know, is to organize the stag and to get the groom insanely drunk. I didn't do anything amazing crazy for Jeff, but I did organize a big drinking pub crawl with some of his friends around town. I also bought a bunch of disposable cameras and distributed them to all the people attending, hoping that we would get some great shots of the event. After I got home that night (and I can't honestly remember how I got home), I ended up with a plastic bag of disposible cameras, which I promptly put on a shelf to be dealt with later. Unfortunately, one month became two, and two became four, and that bag of cameras sat collecting dust on a shelf for the better part of two years. So this morning, upon seeing it in my laundry room, I decided to finally do something about them. I walked by Custom Colour on my way into work and dropped off a few of the cameras, along with two rolls I've shot with my new digital body (one of which is on slide film, which I've never shot before). So, Thursday I'll get to see just how much fun we had two years ago at Jeff's stag. Should be rather interesting I imagine.

Car

Duane Storey — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:17:39 +0000

Last weekend, I got together with Boris, Dustin and Dori, and headed up north of Whistler towards Birkinhead Lake. It was a last minute trip, decided upon while we were all under the influence, but we all decided we could use a break from the city. So on Saturday morning, at the crack of dawn, we all piled into my car and set out on the quest for fish (which would later become the quest for nachos). Surprisingly, everyone's camping gear fit into the back of my hatcbback, but I think next year I'm definitely going to get a roof rack for it. I picked up my car last January, mainly because the other one I was driving was a complete hunk of garbage and the defrost didn't work at all. I've always liked the Mazda Hatchbacks, so the Mazda 3 Sport was the first car I looked at before making my decision. Since I was already spending $22,000, I figured I'd drop another $2,000 and put in all the extra features for it, since the "fully loaded" models tend to hold their resale vale a bit better. After having my car for a year and a half though, the one thing I've noticed is how little I really drive it. If I'm lucky, I drive it once every two weeks, and mainly just to go to Future Shop or something. For the rest of it, I generally walk whenever I can. While I'm happy to have a car when I need it (especially for the road trip I just took), it's pretty hard to make use of it in the city, especially with all the crazy construction going on everywhere these days. Whenever I do try to do a cross-city adventure, I usually end up stuck in some construction zone for 20 minutes or so, which completely destroys the ability to have too much fun. I know lots of people that don't even have cars these days -- they simply join car co-ops where everyone shares a few cars, which is a pretty cool idea. I like my car, and it's fun, but if I were to make the decision again, I'm not sure if I'd buy it given what I know about big city life these days.

Me at the Lake

Duane Storey — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:39:19 +0000

BarCamp Vancouver

Duane Storey — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:43:49 +0000

Tonight I'll be heading down to the Alibi room in gastown for the opening ceremonies of BarCamp Vancouver. For those of you who aren't aware what BarCamp is, it's essentially an "unconference" where the participants meet and generate their own discussions about things that interest them. The closest event to this that I've been a part of was the unconference at Northern Voice back in February, which had a really great turn out. Here's the official description from the BarCamp website:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

I'm not entirely sure what to expect tomorrow, but tonight I've been told the liquor will be flowing-a-plenty. I'm gonna meet up with Rebecca and Boris tonight for a few drunks, and then I'm gonna hack away on a few personal side projects with Boris during the day tomorrow. Should be a good time.

Hurricane Dean

Duane Storey — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:20:58 +0000

This bad boy is going through the Caribbean right now. I sure hope it's gone by the time I get there. My trip to Cuba in 2001 had to be postponed due to Hurricane Michelle, and I made it as far as Toronto before they sent us home. Back then they gave us a full refund, but usually when this happens you lose your money entirely.

Gearing Up

Duane Storey — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:43:06 +0000

Well, my dad is officially on vacation right now, and I'm only a few days behind him. It seems weird that in just four more days I'll be getting on a plane and disappearing for nearly two weeks. The next couple days are likely to be extremely busy. I have to get some new clothes and sandals for the beach, and also get my place cleaned up and my bags packed. Hurricane Dean is hitting Jamaica pretty hard right now, and is supposed to head towards Mexico next, so it's likely it will be completely gone when I get down there -- hopefully nobody down there gets hurt while it's passing through. I get into Ottawa at around 7am on Friday morning, and will probably try to check into my hotel and sleep for a few hours. At night I'm sure I'll get together with Rob and Boris and have a few beers, even if it's while we're all setting up. Sunday I get on a greyhound bus at 2:30am and hit Montreal. The only problem is I have to get to the airport, and the bus is talking me to the greyhound station. Right now I'm planning on hailing a cab and getting to the airport, so hopefully it all falls together. So, in less that seven days, I'll be checking in from 35C weather in the Dominican, hopefully around a pool bar. I'll post as many photos as possible.

My Night At The Urban Fare

Duane Storey — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:51:36 +0000

Tonight I went down to the Urban Fare in Yaletown to get a few BBQable items. I figured the trip itself would probably only take 30 minutes or so, since I knew exactly what I was going to pick up. As soon as I put my car into the parkade, I reached into my pocket to pull out my wallet, only to realize it wasn't there. Since I'm less that 48 hours away from getting on a plane, the thought of not having access to any of my bank cards or visa was a bit scary at that moment. I rushed back to my apartment, searched a few places outside that I thought it might be at, but couldn't find it. Thankfully once I got upstairs and tore my couch apart, I found it hiding between a few cushions. With that initial scare out of the way, I hopped in the car and made the journey back to he Urban Fare. I skipped dinner entirely since I was in a hurry to get a bunch of stuff done, so I was pretty excited to finally eat when I got home. Unfortunately, as I unpacked all my groceries, it became apparent that there was a bunch of stuff missing that I knew I had bought. Sure enough, all the items were on my receipt. I went down to my car and check it out, thinking maybe a few items fell out. No go. I came back upstairs and placed a call to the Urban Fare. Sure enough, the girl at the checkout had forgotten to give me one of my bags. No problem, I'll just swing by, again and get it. Only wrench in the gear was that they had just unloaded it, figuring no one would come back for it. So I had to park my car again, go inside, and proceed to reshop for some of the items I had tried to get an hour before. The whole process took over two hours, which sucks because I still have a pile of cleaning to do. I'm also frantically trying to get a week's worth of laundry done so I'll have a few things to wear in the Caribbean. Only a few days now. Next blog entry will probably be in the Air Canada Lounge at the Vancouver Airport on Thursday. See you all then.

A Quick BBQ Before Leaving

Duane Storey — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 05:59:39 +0000

So in about 24 hours, I'll be boarding a plane and heading to Ottawa for Rob and Anna's wedding.. I'm getting pretty excited about the whole trip, and it will be good to check out Ottawa again after all these years. As I mentioned before, I'm flying the whole trip in business class (thanks for air miles), so I'm hoping it will be a pretty enjoyable flight. Sunday I fly to the Dominican Republic for a well deserved week of rest and relaxation. Tonight I had a few friends over for what will probably be my last BBQ of the summer. Keira, Rebecca and John swung by for a pretty meat-heavy evening of lamb, rib-eye and maui steak. Once I finish cleaning up, I'm going to pack my bags and get ready to head east. Make sure you stay tuned for next week, as I'm hoping to get a bunch of wicked shots from around the Dominican Republic.

Vacation Entry 1 - At the airport

Duane Storey — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:44:08 +0000

So, after work tonight I hit the bar with a few of the guys from work.. I feel great. I haven't been this exciting about anything in a long time. I am pretty excited to see Ottawa again, the Byward Market, the Ottawa River, Parliament, and of course, my friends Rob and Anna. Packing and leaving on a plane are always a bit stressful for me, partially because I am sort of afraid of flying, but in this case, given that I'm gone for nearly two weeks, I was worried I had forgotten a few things. I nearly forgot all my socks the first time I tried to leave the apartment, and completely forgot my camera the second time. Thankfully I think I managed to get everything on my final way out though. Me on Vacation Checking into the airport was a pain in the ass, thanks to Air Canada only having one agent checking in about 100 people. Thankfully I got through it all in about 30 minutes, and found my way into the Maple Leaf Lounge, thanks to my business class ticket. This place is fucked. I'm surrounded by free booze and a bunch of people who love drinking it straight. Maybe they are nice people, but considering most of them are wearing suits and have given me glares, I'm sure they think I'm out of place. But whatever -- I like booze, and they have some here, so we're good to go. "Free" Booze My plane leaves in about 1.5 hours, and hopefully I'll manage to sleep on the plane. Tomorrow will undoubtedly consist of lots of booze and a few reunions, and I honestly can't wait. Boris gets into town around 6pm, and apparently we're all going to dinner and then onward to a night on the town. Most of the business class seats on planes these days have full outlet power, so hopefully I'll be able to write a few entries on the plane. I'll check in next time, probably in the Toronto Airport on my way to Ottawa. Keep it real readers! Ps - I'm gonna web 2.0 the hell out of my vacation. So, make sure you a) subscribe to my RSS feed (Since I pump photos in there that I don't put on my blog sometimes) and b) check out my flickr stream.

Vacation Entry 2 - Pearson Airport

Duane Storey — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:14:26 +0000

Well, I'm exhausted. I can rarely sleep on planes, and this trip was no different. We landed about 20 minutes ago, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and have a nice sleep, but unfortunately I have to transfer plans in a bit and head to Ottawa. Normally I'd find a chair and try to sleep, but given that my body is about 8 hours behind on sleep now, I don't think it's a good idea to close my eyes, since I probably will sleep right through the boarding call on my plane. The flight out here was rather uneventful, although I have to say flying in business class kicks some major ass. Not only did I have a pile of room, but my seat had an electric massage thing built in. The guy next to me just happened to be one of the loudest snorers I've ever met in my life, but thankfully Spiderman III was showing and I just zoned him out. My flight leaves here at around 9am (which is about two hours from now), although I might try to grab an earlier one if I can persuade someone. I'd pull out my camera and take a few photos right now, but I'm too tired to even move my bag around. Once I get to Ottawa, I'm going to check into my hotel and sleep for a few hours, then try to grab a few photos from around downtown.

Vacation Entry 3 - Ottawa

Duane Storey — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:02:01 +0000

Well, I made it. I got to the hotel at around 10:30am and prompt went to sleep. I just woke up, and feel a bit more energized now. I'm going to go take a few quick photos and then try to find the group.

Vacation Entry 4 - Pre-Wedding

Duane Storey — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:01:42 +0000

I managed to convince the hotel staff to give me a room at around 10:30am yesterday, which meant I could finally grab a few hours of sleep. I woke up close to 3pm, which meant I only had an hour or so before I had to head down to Manotick for the wedding rehearsal. I did a quick tour of downtown Ottawa with the time I had, took a few photos, and then got picked up by Alison. Afterwards, we all headed down to Collenade Pizza about one block from where I used to live in Ottawa. Thirty of us proceeded to catch up on lost time, eat lots of pizza, drink beer, and in general have a really great time. Afterwards, Boris and I took his cowboy hat on a tour of the Byward Market. Duane, Boris, some girls and a cowboy hat This morning we woke up at around 9:30am and proceeded to get ready for an early morning of drunken disc golf in Quebec. Rob picked us up in the rental "Drink-O-Van", took us to the depaneur for some early morning beer purchase, and then hit the course. I had never played disc golf before, but I had a really good time. Unfortunately, I pretty much suck at playing disc golf, but the beers and laughter made it all worth while. Boris throwing a long one

Beer and Matt Tonight is the big wedding. Yours truly has been given the task of reading a poem for the masses, and then somehow figuring out how in the hell I'm going to get to Montreal for my 7am flight tomorrow. I have a few different options, not all of which are cheap. Boris and I are hoping to convince a cute french girl at the wedding to take us out that way for a tour. We'll see though. In less than 24 hours I'll be enjoying a beer in the 34C weather in the Dominican Republic. Next blog entry might be in Dorval early tomorrow morning, but if not, I'll check in from the Caribbean! Ps - the poem I am reading:

These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy. These are the hands that will hold your children with care. These are the hands that will help you hold your family as one. These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it. And lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.

Vacation Entry 5 - Wedding and Pre-flight Fun

Duane Storey — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:55:22 +0000

The first thing to note is that I cannot seem to find my little Canon camera, and it's the one I took all the photos with at Rob and Anna's wedding. So while I'm pretty sure it will turn up, unfortunately I do not have any photos to go with this entry :( Oh well. The wedding was quite lovely, and it was absolutely great to hang out with old friends again. It was a bit shocking to me to remember just how good some of these friends were. I guess my time back in Vancouver has sort of dulled my memory of what Ottawa life was like, but I received a lot of hugs and a lot of people went out of their way to come over and say hi during the reception. I spent a lot of time catching back up with Francois and his wife Christine. Francois was a friend of mine who also worked at JDS Uniphase in Ottawa, and also went along with us on our crazy Cuban hurricane adventure in 2001. My original plan was to leave the wedding at 1am via bus, grab my stuff in the hotel, and somehow make it to greyhound station to catch the bus to Montreal. However, during dinner a few people planted the seed for a crazy idea -- let's get a group of people together and rent a stretch limo to take me there. A few hours later, a big ass stretch limosine pulled up to my hotel, and we filled the back with beer and friends. Rob's two younger brothers were visting from Saskatchewan, so it was our first priority to get them in the limo and show them a good time. I don't even really remember much of that ride actually, probably because of how tired I was. I did the math last night, and I'm pretty sure I only had about 7 hours of sleep in three days at that point. When we got to Dorval in Montreal, Boris and Tim helped me into the terminal and made sure I got on the right plane. The girl at the counter gave us three a fairly stern glare, since it was somewhat obvious we had spent the night drinking, and technically you're not supposed to fly in that state. Thankfully she didn't assert herself, and thankfully we were smart enough to just smile and nod. The wait for the plane was excrutiating. I really wanted nothing more than to sleep, and drink as much water as I could fit into my stomach, but I had to hang out close to the gate and keep my eyes open so I didn't sleep through it. When I finally got onto the plane, I put my bag in the overhead, sat in the seat, and apparently passed right out. I was fairly surprised, given that I don't like flying, to wake up over the Atlantic ocean, around 2.5 hours into the flight. I had a quick Air-Transat-Sandwich, and then slept pretty much until we landed in the Dominican. I looked rather stupid at this point -- most people were wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but I appeared to be the only fool wearing half a suit. I was pretty ecstatic when I saw my luggage in the baggage claim, and proceeded to take it directly to the bathroom where I took off my superhero costume and changed back into regular clothes. I was still exhausted, and was already dreaming about going to sleep when I got into the resort. The bus ride from the airport was only around 15 minutes, and check in took about 10. It took me about 2 more minutes before I was fast asleep in my bed here, with the warm blue-green glow of the Caribbean just a few steps from my door. I can't really remember the last time I was that tired. I slept most of yesterday away, occasionally waking up to go for a swim or have a drink at the pool bar. But after 30 minutes or so of that, I realized that I could easily sleep more, and ended up back in my bed, dreaming of cute Caribbean girls. Despite sleeping around 8 hours during the day here, I also managed to sleep another 8 last night, and still woke up feeling like I needed more. I left my card reader back in my room, so I'm going to go get it now and post a few photos. PS - I have somehow mananged to chip my front tooth. Thankfully it's on the back of the tooth, so it's not visible at all. But my tongue is getting a bit beat from rubbing along the sharp edge of it. I'll have to hit the dentist when I get back to Vancouver and make sure it's ok.

Vacation Entry 6 - Me at the pool

Duane Storey — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:31:18 +0000

'Nuff said.

Vacation Entry 7 - The Resort

Duane Storey — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:42:35 +0000

Well here I am, in the Dominican Republic, taking a quick break from drinking to write a small blog entry here. This is the first time in quite a while where I've just relaxed and been content with reading. Last night I tried to use the wireless internet here, but it wasn't working. And as soon as I learned it wasn't, I almost felt a bit anxious. And that's when I realized just how important it is that I just put the computer away this trip, and enjoy my time by the pool. So, I doubt I'll do more than a quick blog entry a day, most likely in the morning on my way to breakfast. The weather here is pretty perfect -- around 34C during the days with a slight overcast in the afternoon, dropping to a humid 21C in the evenings. I woke up today around 9am, and made my way directly to the pool to have a beer. They have been keeping my fridge in the suite stocked with beer and coke (in cool glass bottles), so I pretty much always have a casual drink in my hand. I can definitely tell that I should have brought more books with me, as I'm nearly done the first one and it's not even 1pm on my first day here. Maybe I'll have to borrow some from some of the others here. I've been pretty much exclusively drinking girly drinks, and I'm ok with that. The Pina Coladas are rather heavenly, and I can't seem to drink enough of them. Anyways, I don't feel like being on the computer, so I'm going to shut it down, probably until tomorrow. Another batch of women is arriving shortly from wherever, so tonight will be the night to socialize and meet new people from a far. It's pretty sunny where the internet access is, and I can't really see my computer screen due to my polarized sunglasses. I could just take them off I guess, but then I wouldn't look as cool, so for now you guys are going to have to put up with spelling mistakes in my entries, since I can't easily proof read. Talk to you guys soon.

Vacation Entry 8 - Another day in paradise

Duane Storey — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:19:40 +0000

This will be a short entry, but I just wanted to say how great this place is. The people I've met have been super friendly, and the weather is pretty amazing. I took a pile of photos yesterday from around the pool. Unfortunately, upon waking up this morning, I've encountered some fairly serious camera problems. The first is that my DLSR body refuses to turn on now. It was working last night when I went to sleep, but now it just refuses to do anything. I suspect that due to the heat and humidity it's being stubborn, but it's not looking good right now. The other serious issue is that my 70-200mm f/2.8L is full of water vapour. I have no idea how that happened, since it was in my bag the entire day, and my bag wasn't really near the pool. I was taking shots with the 17-40mm f/4L all day, and that one is completely fine. What sucks is that the L-series lenses are Canon's professional line, and they are supposed to be weather sealed so things like that can't happen. So, as of right now, I'm completely cameraless. I didn't even bring my back-up film body, so I'm stuck trying to sort this out. I'm going to put everything under the A/C this afternoon for a few hours and see if that helps, but I suspect both the camera body and the lens will require servicing when I get back to Canada. If the body has been damaged by water, it's probably close to being a write-off. That's not completely bad, since I've been saving for a new body this year anyways. The lens however needs to be fixed, as it's my favourite one in my kit, and costs $1600 new. I'll keep everyone up to date. I'm gonna head back to my room and read for a while and try to air out my camera. After that, I'm not sure -- maybe head to the plaza to see about going on a trip tomorrow somewhere. Update - the DLSR body appears to be working again. A little time under the A/C seems to have recharged it. The lens is pretty screwed though, so I dunno what to do about that. I still don't really understand how it happened.

Vacation Entry 9 - Cloudy Day

Duane Storey — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:33:35 +0000

Thankfully the clouds are overhead today, because yesterday was absolutely insanely hot. So hot in fact, that most people didn't even hang out by the pool bar. I'm pretty much all pooled out I think, so I'm going to find something else to do today. I'll probably walk down to the Plaza and book an excursion or two. They have an all-day catamaran trip to a remote island (with an open bar I might add) that sounds fairly appealing, as well as a safari trip to a waterfall you can swim in. Talking to people around here, it sounds like nearly everyone has had a lackluster summer back home, so don't feel bad all you Vancouver people. As of tomorrow I'll be more than half-way done this trip, and it's gone rather quickly. Around Friday I'll start to figure out just how in the hell I'm getting home, since there are still a few unknowns (like how I get from Montreal to Ottawa for the flight home). It'll all work out though, so I'm not worried about it. I am, without a doubt, the most tanned I've been in a long while. And by tanned, I really mean burnt. My chest is a bright red, and so are my knees and arms. Despite lathering tons of sunscreen on everything, I've pretty much been getting worse. So today, I'm going to stay away from the pool, and am going to leave my shirt on for the day. Hopefully this will move me from "burn" to "solid tan". I keep sleeping in rather late, which presents somewhat of a problem in the eating department -- I usually miss breakfast (which was pretty tasty the one and only day I ate it), and have to sit around waiting for lunch to occur at 1pm. I tried hard to make breakfast today, but it just wasn't happening. So, here I am, hungry again. Thankfully I can just drink to pass the time, which is where I think I'm heading now.

Vacation Entry 10 - Who's a sweaty pig?

Duane Storey — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:03:46 +0000

Oh man, I am a very sweaty pig. The clouds have gone away, and I've been sweating pretty much non stop. I'm about to jump in the pool and relax, but as I swung by the open wireless here I thought I'd do a quick update. I made my way to the Plaza here in Playa Dorada, which is a unique collection of outdoor shops. I purchased some Cuban cigars (not sure why, but when in rome...), and just booked two excursions for the next two days. Tomorrow I'll be spending the day drinking and sightseeing on a Safari into the heart of the Dominican Republic. It will be a good opportunity to see what the Dominican Life is like and also take in some of the local culture. On Friday morning, I'll be getting on a bus and heading to "Paradise Island". We'll be drinking during this trip as well, ultimately getting on a pile of James Bond like speedboats and heading for a remote island where we'll spend three hours partying and snorking amongst some of the best reefs in the Dominican. Both events should provide for some great photo opportunities. I'm thinking about doing one more on Saturday (white water rafting maybe), or perhaps I'll just spend my last full day here by the pool. I'm not sure yet.

Vacation Entry 11 - Caribbean Sunset

Duane Storey — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:08:14 +0000

Matt Good, Las Vegas Interview

Duane Storey — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:36:22 +0000

So, I invite everyone to head on over to Rebecca's blog where she talks about a fairly well-done interview with Matthew Good down at the Las Vegas show I attended. It's a good write up, and the interview has a few cool clips of Matt discussing the last year of his life, as well as a few excerpts from Champions of Nothing (off of Matt's new album, Hospital Music) and Suburbia. I'm getting on a bus in a few minutes, so I gotta roll. Check in later.

Vacation Entry 12 - Sunset by the Pool

Duane Storey — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:40:07 +0000

Vacation Entry 13 - Safari Adventure in Puerto Plata

Duane Storey — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:28:32 +0000

To be honest, I'm not such a big fan of pre-arranged adventures at resorts. I've been on a few, and most of them are pretty basic and you kind of feel like it wasn't money well spent. However, I heard a lot of good things about the safari adventure, so I decided to check it out for the low price of $60 USD. We left the resort at 9am, and proceeded to head into the lush Dominican Countryside. It was absolutely gorgeous, full of rolling hills, lush green vegetation, and a ton of friendly Dominican people. The safari jeep was loaded to the brim of soft drinks and booze, and nobody had an empty glass the entire time. I have spent most of my time here stuck by the pool, which is nice for a few days, but to actually hit the road and actually get to see some of the sights was pretty awesome. To keep this short, I saw a DR home, a DR school, did a riverboat tour of a popular DR river, hit a fruit plantation to eat some sugar cane and fresh fruit, and also a rum factory. It was awesome! Tomorrow is a boat trip to Paradise Island -- should be awesome as well!

Toronto Island Sunset

Duane Storey — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:49:55 +0000

I'm a genius

Duane Storey — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 03:40:40 +0000

Yeah, that's right. I am. I was lying in bed a few minutes ago, trying to sleep (desperately, since I have to be up at 6am to go on another tour), my mind racing trying to figure out what in the hell happened to my professional series lens. How in the world did that one end up with water in it, and not my other cheaper one. Then it dawned on me -- in the professional series lenses, there are a bunch of weather seals. Water shouldn't get into that at all. But on the day that I was out shooting photos around the pool with it in my bag, it just happened to be insanely hot, like 35 or 36C. What I'm guessing happened is that the metal, due to heating, expanded enough to make the air-tight seals no longer air-tight. In that configuration, bits of water in my bag etc probably evaporated and entered my L series lens while it was still hot. However, immediately afterwards, I took it into my air conditioned room and set it on the table. The quick cooling probably allowed the metal and the seals to go back to normal faster than the water vapour could leave the lens. Now I have a lens with a bunch of water in it, but in a configuration where the seals are now air tight again. My other non L-series lens doesn't have this problem since there are no air tight seals on it -- water is free to come and go into/out of it at any time. I've had the problem lens near the A/C unit for two days now, and the water hasn't budged at all. It now makes sense to me because the water can't possibly leave the lens since it's currently air tight. So, if I'm right, the solution is rather simple -- I just have to take the lens out into the extreme heat again tomorrow, and let the seals re-expand and the water evaporate. As long as I don't super cool it like last time when I get back (I'll just leave it outdoors so the temperature gradually falls on it), I think it will work. Let's just hope for a super hot day tomorrow!

Riverboat Adventure

Duane Storey — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:01:32 +0000

Vacation Entry 14 - Last day

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 14:44:20 +0000

This is, unfortunately, my last full day at the resort. Tomorrow I get to wake up, pack my bags, and start the long journey back to Vancouver. While this place is really pretty amazing, I always get a bit excited whenever I get on a plane that's heading for home. I get into Montreal tomorrow evening, and will be staying overnight in a nice hotel near the airport. While the rooms here are fairly nice, the beds are unanimously hard and I haven't had the best sleeps. Hopefully the bed in the Hilton is nice and soft so I can get a really great sleep tomorrow night. I was originally going to have to get to Ottawa (by plane or bus or something) on Monday for a 4pm flight, and then have a three hour layover in Toronto. That would have put me at my place in Vancouver at around 10:30pm at night, which kind of sucked. So I called Air Canada the other day and told them my situation -- believe it or not, they actually managed to help me out. So instead of doing a milk run on Monday, I'm going to be flying directly from Montreal to Vancouver, putting me back home shortly after noon. The only down side is I had to give up my business class seat, but at least I'll be home at a reasonable time, and have nearly a full day to unpack, do laundry, and relax. I'm going to spend today relaxing by the pool and doing a bit of shopping in the Plaza. Next entry will probably be in Montreal, or maybe even when I'm back home. ** Small update. When you arrive here, you have to buy a $10 Tourist visa in order to enter the country. When I walked into the baggage area, some guy took mine from me. What's weird is everyone else still has theirs, and apparently you need to present it in order for them to allow you to leave the country. So, I'm not really sure what happens now. I imagine there's something in place for when this happens, but it's probably going to be a pain in the ass to deal with tomorrow. I'm going to get some extra US cash in the morning just in case I need to buy a new one on the spot or something.

iPhone Hacked?

Duane Storey — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 01:27:22 +0000

I just read an article that basically alludes to the fact that the iPhone has been hacked. While I'm all in favour of this, there seems to be some question as to whether or not it is actually legal to do so. To that end, I'm a fairly certain it could be argued that the iPhone "lock" is a form of copy protection, in which case it would fall under the DMCA, and hence be illegal to circumvent. We'll have to see how it all plays out, but I suspect the guys are gonna be in for a few legal headaches. -- Update So, the DMCA was updated last year with the following provisions:

Exemptions are allowed for 1) the educational library of a university's media studies department, in order to watch film clips in class; 2) using computer software that requires the original disks or hardware in order to run; 3) dongle-protected computer programs, if the the dongle no longer functions and a replacement cannot be found; 4) protected e-books, in order to use screen-reader software; 5) cell phone firmware that ties a phone to a specific wireless network; and 6) DRM software included on audio CDs, but only when such software creates security vulnerabilities on personal computers. The provision likely to be of most interest to consumers is the one allowing cell phones to be unlocked and used on other networks. The Copyright Office allowed this exception because the software that prohibits users from accessing their phone's firmware has little to do with copyright and much to do with a business model.

So, it appears unlocking cell phones is currently legal. That being said, there is still some question about whether or not profitting from the unlocking of a phone is legal:

The U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida, found that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act exception did not apply to those unlocking a phone with the intent to resell it.

The Journey Home

Duane Storey — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 04:20:52 +0000

Well, I'm currently sitting in my boxers in a Montreal hotel about to go to sleep. I spent most of the day either thinking about traveling, or actually traveling, so when I landed in Montreal at 7pm, I was a bit tired from the whole ordeal. Leaving a foreign country where the rules of leaving aren't really clearly defined is a bit stressful for me. The whole tourist card thing turned out to be not a big deal, and eventually I made it through customs and security. It's amazing how less anxious I become whenever I land back in Canada -- there's a certain comfort with knowing your bank card will always work, and you speak the primary language of the country. The currency in the Dominican Republic is a bit strange. Like most Caribbean places I've visited, locals generally prefer to accept payment in US dollars. Unfortunately, the bank machines in the DR only dish out pesos, which makes doing transactions a bit difficult. I was turned down by a few vendors who only wanted US dollars. Thankfully there are lots of merchants willing to exchange one for the other, but you take a bit hit in the transaction fee. What's also strange is that the machines dish out everything in 500 peso increments, which is about $13. To me, that's not a lot of cash, but most vendors I dealt with laughed at me when I tried to cash a 500 peso bill -- they simply didn't have the change (or didn't want me to know they had the change) for that amount of money. So, I had a wallet full of pesos that I couldn't do anything with until I converted them into US dollars for a hefty exchange rate. Tomorrow I am getting on a plane here in Montreal and finally heading back home. While it's been a great trip for me, I am definitely looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again. I've done a lot of soul searching while gone, something that I'll write about in a few days, and I'm looking forward to implementing a few items sequentially when I'm back at home. The one thing I'm going to do immediately is make a clean separation in my life between work and play. I have a fairly nice desk set up in my room which was always intended to be office space, and I'm going to spend a bit of cash to make that my only office space at home -- that is, I am going to commit to not using my laptop in the living room anymore. It sounds basic, but I think that simple shift will make me more productive at home with my time, and also allow me to shift towards things like reading again on my couch, or listening to music. I've somehow fallen into the habit of almost always being on my laptop when I'm at home, and after debating it within myself in the Caribbean, I have come to the conclusion that it really isn't healthy, so I intend to change it. That's not to say I won't do work at home, or use my computer at home, I just want to set up a separate area so that it doesn't creep into other areas or somehow taint "me-time" when I'm relaxing. Anyways, more on that later. My bed looks pretty comfy here, and I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow I'm home again.

Gonna be some changes around here

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 03:30:50 +0000

I'm pretty beat, having spent a good portion of the day traveling again. The flight from Montreal to Vancouver, with the strong head winds, was almost six hours long - thankfully it was extremely bearable up in business class, thanks to my hot towel and my tasty meals. Despite all the perks associated with business class (and there are many), I think the main one I enjoyed is that the flight attendants and people you encounter all automatically treat you with respect. If you have a problem, they'll help you solve it. If you don't like your seat, they'll help you move. Worried about your luggage? No problem -- you get a fancy "PRIORITY" tag put on it. Try any of that in steerage class, and they'll just laugh at you usually, at least on Air Canada. I don't make enough to afford business class on my own, but it sure was a nice treat this time around. All in all, I had a really great trip, and I promise to write more about it sometime soon. I haven't been on PST in about two weeks, so I imagine tomorrow might be a tad rough for me. If you've hit my website via my main URL (www.duanestorey.com), you've undoubtedly noticed a few changes. I'm going to be doing a few more this coming week, and part of next weekend (I booked this upcoming Friday off as the last day of my vacation for the year probably, so I'll have a long weekend on this side, most likely to go camping). Part of the reason I'm changing things around is that I've decided to put less emphasis on blogging in my life. I have a few different hobbies now, and while I love writing and blogging, the truth is that it's taking way too much of my free time. While in the Caribbean, I came to the realization that on average I spend around an hour or more a day working on my blog or writing new entries, which if you do the math is nearly one full day per week -- I've decided that I want some of that time back to do other things (even if those things are as simple as listening to music) for the next little while. I will still blog, but I would rather do one or two good entries a week as opposed to seven to ten mediocre ones. The main RSS feed on the front page will contain all my blog entries, and I'll probably slide my better Flickr photos in there too. I'm also going to spend some time over the next few weeks putting together a formal photography website with the expectation that I'm going to start doing more in that area. I've had a few requests recently to shoot a wedding or two (and of course there was that unexpected photoshoot for Puma that I did last month), so I think that it's about time I do a proper portfolio and see what happens. If you find anything that's broken, please let me know so I can fix it right away. Other than that, keep checking back and letting me know what you think.

First Payment

Duane Storey — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:59:19 +0000

Today I got paid for my first photo gig, which is pretty exciting. I'm currently setting up an area dedicated to photography, and it should be done sometime this weekend. I've set up a professional account at smugmug.com where I can put some of my better photos from around Vancouver and make them available for purchase. This will also let me sell wedding photos etc when the time comes. I'll post more information when it's all done.

Own one yourself!

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 02:58:38 +0000

One of the first things I wanted to do after getting back from my vacation was to finally put together an online place for people to buy a few prints of some of my better shots. I'm not entirely sure I'll make a dime, but lots of people have asked me if I sold some of my city shots, so now I can finally say that I do. If you want to check some of them out, you can check out photography.duanestorey.com. If you have a blog and want to help advertise, that would be awesome. I've put on some google adwords, so if anyone does a search for Vancouver specific photos, I should start coming up now. Since today was the first day I received a paycheck for taking photos, and also the day I've launched a site dedicated to selling prints, it's obviously a pretty pivotal moment. Thanks for everyone's support! Ps, if anyone wants to join smugmug, enter my coupon code of or8hpTynn0RGk -- it should save you some cash

Canon EOS 40D, Here I Come

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:33:14 +0000

I purchased my current digital SLR in December of 2004. It is a pretty decent 8.2MP SLR from Canon's prosumer line, which is sort of the cross over from the consumer to the professional lines. It's a really awesome camera, and it's been great to learn on. That being said, technology has continued to improve over the last few years, and my camera is becoming more and more out of date. The main problem (if you can call it that), is that my camera has a 1.6X crop factor. What that means is that the CMOS sensor inside is smaller that the size of a 35mm film, so part of the image falls on the area outside of the sensor and gets thrown away -- this effectively crops every single shot that you take on the camera. So, if you have a 50mm lens on a 1.6X crop factor, it effectively acts like a 80mm lens on a pure 35mm DSLR. Is that bad? Well, the first problem is that it's very hard to get a true wideangle on a 1.6X crop factor. I have a 17mm zoom lens that when placed on my Canon 20D actually seems more like a 27mm lens, which isn't very exciting by comparison. There's actually a benefit to a 1.6X crop factor though, and here it is. It's pretty difficult to make lenses sharp on the edges -- most lenses are really sharp in the center, but become rather soft near the edges. So on a 1.6X crop factor body, you are effectively throwing away all the soft areas of the lens, which is sort of a small bonus. I have been saving money for the last six months or so with the expectation that I will buy a new camera body sometime in the next six months. The shutter assembly on my 20D is pretty much doomed to fail pretty soon, so I either have to replace it (which is around $400 I believe), or just buy a new camera. I was originally thinking I would get a full frame camera, but with Canon's recent announcement of the EOS 40D, I think I might be leaning towards that. Compared to my current camera, it has the following improvements.

10 MP as opposed to 8.2 MP
Built in integrated sensor cleaning system that uses ultrasonic vibrations
14 bit DIGIC III processor compared to the 12 bit DIGIC II
6.5 frames per second up to 75 shots! The 20D can do 5 fps up to 30 shots
Larger viewfinder
Interchangable focusing screens for manual focus -- this just doesn't exist on the 20D
ISO setting directly in the display - on the 20/30D you have to hunt for it in the menus which is idiotic considering how often it's used
Quieter mirror mechanism -- this is actually pretty big for me. The 20D has a very loud shutter release since it uses a spring to pull the mirror up. In quiet situations, the 20D really stands out when you take a shot. The 40D has a servo controlling the mirror, and apparently it's about 1/4 as loud as the 20D.
More accurate focusing sensors
Partial weatherproofing
3.0" LCD - the 20D has a 1.8" I believe, so this is a huge step up
Live View - you can see what the CCD sees in the viewfinder somehow
Auto ISO for most modes which actually seems rather intelligent
sRAW (small RAW) for reduced size RAW images

As you can see, there are a ton of improvements compared to my camera. The list price is $1399 for it, and it starts shipping in a week or two. I paid $1999 for mine when it came out, so it seems like a pretty good deal. If I do this, then I would have my 20D as a backup camera for weddings and what not, which is probably a smart idea. Plus, I also have my film body that's full frame, so I might just stick my wide angle on that for events and shoot those in film. A full frame DSLR will run over $3000, and I'm not sure I'm ready to take the plunge yet. So, I think I'll be grabbing a 40D sometime soon.

Photography Site - Special Offer

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:23:39 +0000

As I mentioned yesterday, I have launched a photography website at photography.duanestorey.com. I'm going to give the first 20 people who link to it with a small write-up a free 8x12 of their choosing from the galleries. So, if you're interested, do a quick blog entry and then post a comment here. Send me an email with which one you want and where you want it sent to, and I'll take care of the rest. Thanks everyone. ** UPDATE - Thanks to everyone for linking. With the emails and comments here I've received, I'm pretty sure I have more than 20. So while I appreciate all incoming links should you choose to write about it, the original 20 photos are already allocated to people. Thanks everyone!

Off and Running

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 00:56:49 +0000

Well, I've had a few sales on the photography website already, so thanks everyone for plugging it -- I really appreciate it. I'm going to canvas a few stores this weekend and see if I can get some of my stuff into the local markets. I've been racking my brain for a few out of the box ideas, so hopefully I'll be able to take the marketing a bit further. I'd like to get some of my work nicely framed and visible in a few areas with high traffic. If anyone has any friends or know of any businesses that wouldn't mind a few photos on the wall, let me know! For those of you expecting free prints, please be a bit patient as it will take me a few weeks to sort everything out. I've put in a few hours myself for prints, and once I get those I'll mail a few out to people. Thanks everyone.

New Photo

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:07:55 +0000

I added my night time shot of the Burrard Street Bridge to the gallery. And also another shot of the city from the Harbour Center (which is one of my favourite shots if I were to put it on my wall).

New Lens on its Way, Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 18:36:04 +0000

I told myself before the upcoming wedding that I have to shoot that I would buy what will probably be my last lens for a while, Canon's EF 24-70 f/2.8L lens. I have a wide angle in my kit, and a medium telephoto (although mine is currently being repaired, it is absolutely great for flattering portraits), and a fixed 50mm prime lens. However, everything in my kit is fairly special purpose, which means I sort of have to know what I am shooting before hand and make sure I have the right lens on. Canon's best all-purpose zoom lens is the 24-70 f/2.8L. It's from their professional series line, and it has overlap with both the wide angle and telephoto ends. It's not cheap, running around $1500, but it's the kind of lens you can leave on your camera body almost all the time. It's fairly flexible range is perfect for something like a wedding, where you don't necessarily have time to change lenses all the time. A good pile of reviews for this lens can be found on Fred Miranda. I ordered it online from Alberta, so I'll save myself the PST on the entire purchase (which would have been over $100). The question now is what to do with my 17-40 f/4.0L. Sure, it has 7mm extra on the wide angle end, but is that worth keeping it around for? I'm not sure. I think I'll definitely hold onto it for the wedding (since I'll leave it on my full frame film body most of the time), but I'll probably spend some time after the wedding debating whether or not to ditch it. It's a great lens, but it has huge overlap with the rest of my kit now.

Tipping Rant

Duane Storey — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:59:13 +0000

Ok, this is a quick entry on something I've been meaning to write about for some time - tipping. For some reason, it seems like more and more places I visit now are introducing "tipping" into the system. In particular, a lot of interact machines I encounter are starting to show "please enter tip amount." In the old days, you'd usually encountered a "Tip: Yes/No" question first, but I've seen the former more and more lately, and it's starting to piss me off. You see, I don't think you should tip if you're buying something across the counter. A good example is Fritz on Davie. If I'm ordering Poutine, the guy just turns around, puts some fries in a container with some gravy, hands them to me, and is done. There's no real service. So what exactly am I tipping for? Another thing I hate is people who always tip a waiter/waitress, even if the service is complete shit. I used to work in the service industry, so I've been where those people are too. I'm a firm believer that if the service isn't good at all, or the waiter/waitress gives you attitude, then you shouldn't tip (or at least, your tip should reflect the level of actual service). I don't buy the whole "well, maybe they are just having a bad day" argument -- if they are having a bad day and are doing a poor job, then I think the tip should reflect it -- otherwise what's the incentive to do a good job on other days? For people who hold that argument, let me ask you this -- have you ever done the opposite? That is, on days when the service is really excellent, do you ever say "well, maybe they just had one too many red bull today, and aren't normally that good. I'm just going to tip normally today." I doubt it. I have no problem tipping for actual service, and I'll tip more than 15% for good service. That being said, I generally don't leave a full tip for a waiter/waitress that sat and gabbed with his or her friends while my coffee sat empty for 15 minutes, etc.

Housekeeping in Vancouver

Duane Storey — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:26:54 +0000

A few people convinced me to finally ante up and get a house keeper, since a) my place is usually messy and b) I don't really have much time to spend cleaning. She's in the bathroom right now, and she stepped out for a brief second to say: "wow, you're pretty messy eh?" with a cute smile. I think I can get used to having cute girls come to my place every few weeks and clean. Thankfully my place is going to be (and stay) spotless after all this. One girl came on Friday to clean the living room and kitchen, but ran out of time before finishing it all off (due to a prior constraint). So, the other girl is here now finishing it all off. At first, the whole idea of spending money to have someone clean my place seemed a bit pretentious, but having lived in a really clean kitchen and living room this weekend, it's really pretty awesome reading a book on the couch in a clean and fresh smelling room. Since I suck at cleaning, it easily takes me 3 or 4 hours a week to keep my apartment in a somewhat screwed up state. So, paying someone $100 a month to free up that time each week to do something else is a pretty good investment I'm thinking.

Hug Day Tomorrow

Duane Storey — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:17:22 +0000

I was just over at Rebecca's blog reading about "Free Hug Day" in Vancouver. I think it's a great idea, and I feel like I really need to do my part to help out. So, for tomorrow only, I'd like to encourage all single girls to come up and give me a hug. I've been told I'm quite huggable, and it's the least I can do to help out with this great Vancouver event. Photo by Rebecca Bollwitt I mean come on, who wouldn't want to hug the guy on the tractor?

Farewell Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L, It was nice to know you

Duane Storey — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:07:13 +0000

I got a call from Canon today about my lens with water vapour in it. They verdict: completely unfixable. To be honest, I'm a bit pissed off. When I shipped it out to them, I followed it up with a call telling them it was rather urgent, and they needed to get to it first since it concerned water damage. The lady on the phone told me they were 5 days behind, and there was nothing she could do. Anyways, when they finally get to it, it was corroded inside and not worth fixing. The replacement cost of the new lens is around $1600, so I'm going to be submitting my first ever insurance claim. The shitty part is that I have special insurance on all my camera equipment, except of course that lens since it's rather recent. Had anything else bit the dust, I would have been able to get a new one without any deductible at all. My main concern right now is that I have a wedding to shoot in 3 weeks, and that lens is part of it. I can always rent one, but I'm hoping insurance doesn't take forever to get the cash to me so I can go grab a new one. We'll see

A Birthday Link

Duane Storey — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:53:38 +0000

On Saturday night, Boris and I headed down to Kits to start celebrating Alexandre Brabant's birthday. Since Alex is a search engine optimization wizard, Boris decided the best thing would could possibly give him were a few incoming links to his website. So, without further ado, here it is. If you are looking for an absolutely amazing search engine optimization individual in Vancouver, BC, Canada, then look no further than this Vancouver BC Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services Expert. Happy Birthday Bud.

Updates from around the Fort

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:07:16 +0000

It's been a busy few days, so I thought I'd let everyone in one what's going on. First, I've been throwing together a photography website, using some input from some friends. It's looking good so far, and hopefully it will be done tonight or tomorrow night. In terms of my lens, my insurance company contacted me and has cut me a cheque for the 70-200mm f/2.8L, so hopefully I'll have a new one of those this weekend or early next week. I'm also buying a used 24-70mm f/2.8L tonight (I hope, assuming my bank machine gives me enough money), which rounds off my kit rather nicely. That will mean I have the 17-40mm f/4.0L, the 24-70 f/2.8L, the 50mm f/1.4 and the 70-200 f/2.8L. I've actually been debating a bit about putting my money towards the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS (image stabilized version). It's about $800 more, but it has image stabilization in it so you can in theory hand-hold it in a few stops less of available light. Apparently though (and this is just from reading reviews online), many people don't think it's as sharp as the non-IS version. It's also noticeably heavier than the non-IS version. While I haven't decided what to do yet, I'm leaning towards getting the non-IS version, which is what I had before. My place is still rather clean, which is nice because I've taken up reading again. I'm probably going to be taking my Macbook Pro to the repair facility soon to fix the "no wakey from sleepy" problem that I've been plagued with since I bought it. After talking to a girl on the phone last night, she thinks it's probably either the motherboard or the sleep sensor in it. Unfortunately, I'll have to lose my laptop for 7-10 days, which would mean I'm basically computerless during that time. It might be a fun adventure, so we'll see. Another interesting tidbit of information is that I set up a VoIP phone at home here. That's particularly noteworthy considering that I've been involved in the VoIP industry for nearly four years now, but don't have a home phone line. I'm not going to mention names here, but there's a local VoIP phone company that charges people on the order of $20-$30 a month for VoIP in your home. I managed to sidestep them completely and get my own DID (direct inbound dialing) number (which is basically a phone number that some company translates into the IP world for you) from a wholesaler, and also get outbound termination (the ability to make phone calls using VoIP) for the low, low price of (and get this), $4 a month + usage at 1.1 cent a minute anywhere in North America. I also tacked on a San Francisco phone number, which set me back a whopping 99 cents a month. So now I have both a Vancouver number and a San Francisco number at home, and will probably pay around $6 a month for a home phone, just by taking the middle man out of the equation. Something's rotten in the state of Denmark people. That's it sports fans, you're up to date.

September 11th

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:20:36 +0000

I apologize for being a day late on this, but I've been a bit busy with a few things. Yesterday, as most people know, was the sixth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Last year on that day, I was flying into Logan airport in Boston, which was a bit strange considering some of the highjackers left Logan that morning six years ago and put a plane into the World Trade Center. Ground Zero, World Trade Center Last summer, I decided I would go to New York City and pay my respects in person, so I got on a plane and spent four days out there. The shot above was taken as I passed by. It was strange to me, because without really knowing where I was going, I somehow gravitated towards ground zero myself, probably because it was the only place in Manhattan that was open and full of light. I remember thinking at the time how strange it was that for a lot of people, it had become nothing more than a tourist destination, similar to the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. People lined up with their arms around each other, smiling, giggling, taking "thumbs up" photos, etc., and I remember having mixed feelings watching it all occur around me. Perhaps everyone grieves in their own way, or pays respect differently, but some people there obviously didn't really appreciate the fact that in that exact barren region of lower Manhattan, over 3000 people lost their lives. These were ordinary people who woke up, kissed a few family members goodbye, and went to work like they do each day. Unfortunately, most of them didn't come home that evening. They say that pretty much everyone will remember where they were when they first heard about the attacks on that day. As for me, I was coming out of a clean room at JDS Uniphase's building A in Ottawa, when a guy named Jim told me a plane just smacked into the World Trade Center. Not really thinking anything of it, I continued with my day, learning shortly afterwards that another plane had hit the other building as well. I spent the next hour and a bit at my desk, hitting refresh on CNN to get updates on what was going on. My friend Ryan, who had been recently laid off, called me at one point and told me one of the towers had collapsed. I grabbed my stuff, went across the street to Boston Pizza, and spent the remainder of the day watching the day unfold on TV. Unlike most of my friends out here in Vancouver, I witnessed that entire day in real time while living in Ottawa. By the time most of my friends were waking up, I had witnessed the majority of the damage from September 11th live on TV, and was trying to make sense of it all. It was a scary day, and the scene at the Boston Pizza was much like the videos I had seen of people waiting for news about John F. Kennedy shortly after he was shot in 1963. People didn't understand, and they were scared. There's really not much more to say other than my heart goes out to the people whose lives were forever changed by the events of that day. If anyone has a story, either about where they were on that day, or anything related, please feel free to post it in the comments.

Dark City

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:40:46 +0000

One of my favourite movies of all time is a science fiction flick called "Dark City." Brennen and Jeff took me to it at the UBC theatre years ago, and we were all blown away. Surprisingly, not many people have watched it or even heard of it. When it came out, Roger Ebert took notice and gave it four stars, even going on to compare it to Pulp Fiction in terms of its cinematic perfection. If you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest that you check it out. The row boat scene near the end is one of my favourite all time scenes in any movie I've watched (along the lines of the DeNiro - Pacino coffee-shop banter in "Heat"). Here's a decent write up about it as well.

Craigslist Ad of the Day

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:16:45 +0000

Title: i need rich bf...for fun life - 25 Reply to: pers-421154529@craigslist.org Date: 2007-09-12, 10:28PM PDT Hello, im looking for rich guy white male ( 25-55) send me pics of you and frank info pls. ill send you back asap, im black hair girl.. see you soon.

Ceramics, The Wonder Material

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:11:17 +0000

Years ago, had I gone to the dentist with a chip in my tooth, they probably would have just polished it up a bit with the grinder and sent me home. Thankfully, with all the advances in material science, that is no longer the case. I had a scheduled cleaning with my dentist today, and just in passing I mentioned the chip in my tooth that I somehow obtained in Ottawa. It wasn't really that visible, and mostly was just a small annoyance to me (since it had a different texture when I rubbed my tongue along it). However, once he took a look at it, he told me that he would fix it for me using ceramics. So, about 20 minutes later I had a fully reconstructed tooth that completely matches it's original profile. Stuff like that amazes me. After it was all over though, I realized I should probably be a dentist, since they somehow billed me $320 for 45 minutes of time. I guess repairing a chip using ceramics is BIG MONEY for them, since they seemed pretty excited to do it.

Free Prints

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:11:38 +0000

For those of you who are expecting free prints, rest assured they will be in the mail soon. I have most of them printed out already, and am just figuring out the best way to get them to you guys. I'll do my best not to miss anyone, but if you haven't received one by the end of next week, drop me a line and let me know.

Canon 40D Hitting Stores in Vancouver

Duane Storey — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:35:24 +0000

So, I called around this morning, and the first trickle of the Canon 40Ds are hitting stores. Unfortunately, Canon is behind on manufacturing them, and there are tons of pre-orders, so the average Joe won't be able to buy one for some time. I have my name on a wait list, and I'm pretty sure I'll get mine on Tuesday, should I still want it. But since today was payday, and I have money sitting aside for it, I think I'll probably get it.

Canon EOS 40D Review - Day One

Duane Storey — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:36:34 +0000

Yesterday, after dropping Boris off at his place so that he could get ready to go to Spain, I went down to Broadway Camera to see if I could play around with a Canon EOS 40D camera. I had called the day before to see if I could actually purchase one, but unfortunately they said they were already completely sold out. So imagine my surprise when, after asking if they had any in stock (which was basically a rhetorical question for me), they said "yeah, we have one here." Unfortunately for me it was the box that contained the kit-lens, when I really wanted to just purchase the body only. The lens in the kit is a 17-85mm f/4.5-5.6 USM IS lens, which is pretty much the EF-S equivalent of the EF 28-135mm IS lens that is super popular. So, while I really have no use for that lens, I decided I would buy it and possible sell it on eBay (it's only $300 to get it in the kit, but if you were to purchase it outside of the kit it's around $800). The Canon EOS 40D is a fairly major improvement over the 20D that I've had for nearly three years. The body is a bit larger, and contains partial weather sealing. It has a larger LCD (3" as opposed to 1.8"), shoots 6.5 frames per second, and has the ISO in the viewfinder (which is pretty much mandatory in my mind, since I mess with ISO continuously). Anothering interesting improvement is a new "AUTO ISO" ISO setting where the camera will help with ISO settings. Normally, when you move away from the AUTO mode on the camera dial, you are then responsible, as a photographer, for adjusting the ISO. It's an added step in the decision making process that for me at least is more of an after thought. That is, normally I'll decide how I want to shoot a shot, and on what aperture etc, and then adjust the ISO to make sure I can hand hold it without camera-shake. The new AUTO ISO mode basically makes the camera take over that step now on all P, Av and Tv modes. Will I use it? I'm not sure, but I'm definitely going to messa round with it. While I'm on the topic of ISO, I want to point people towards the Noise Ninja photoshop plugin, which I use rather frequently in my post processing. Noise Ninja will analyze a photo for noise (digital or JPEG) and then go to work at removing as much as it as it can. For me, this has made ISO 3200 completely usable, whereas before I probably wouldn't post a ISO 3200 photo due to the abrasive nature of the noise. If I were to guess, I would say it probably removes about 2 stops of ISO noise from my photos. That is, an ISO 3200 shot will look more like ISO 800 after the whole process. The trade off is sharpness, since Noise Ninja ends up making the image look slightly soft. But you can always sharpen it after processing, or just live with the fact that it's a bit soft (which for wedding photos, is sometimes nice). I messed around with the new lens when I got home, and to be honest, it's pretty decent. Given that the rest of my kit primarily consists of Canon L-series lenses, the kit lens is obviously a step down, but I think it's a fairly good zoom lens for someone just starting out or wanting to mess around with it. Later in the day, I went down to the beach by Stanley Park with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and my nephew. I haven't seen them in quite some time, so we had a really nice visit and got to play in the rocks a bit. I also fired off a few hundred shots using my flash to get used to varying lighting conditions outside and to get some practice using flash photography. I'm going to try and mix it up between flash and non-flash at the wedding coming up, but I personally feel like I need to be good with a flash should I encounter a situation where a shot would otherwise be impossible without one. Once I get my insurance money for my broken lens, I will be buying either the 70-200mm f/2.8L or the IS version (I'm still on the fence). After that, I'm going to have a fairly impressive kit, in my opinion, consisting of the following:

Canon EOS 40D 10.1 MP Digital SLR
Canon EOS 20D 8.2 MP Digital SLR - my backup
Canon ELAN 7 Film SLR body - my full frame workhorse
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM lens
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM lens
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens

Which is pretty respectable I would think. I plan to leave my wide-angle lens on my film body most of the time, since wide-angle on a 1.6x crop factor body isn't really possible without an EF-S lens. In terms of film, I haven't really had much experience with my film body (although I feel comfortable using it). I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I don't really understand the purpose of black and white film, considering I post-process almost everything, including film (after scanning it digitally). I've been told you get cool contrast with B & W film, and more detail etc, but I've never really noticed a different. Plus, I think having black and white film stuck in your camera body is a bit limiting should you not finish it off during one sitting. I also think the B & W setting on most digital cameras is rather pointless too, since it's fairly easy to convert a photo to B & W after the fact (and usually better than the camera can do itself -- see the channel mixer in photoshop) without losing the ability to use a photo as colour should you want to. For the wedding, based on what people have been saying, I'll probably be using Kodak Portra film on the wide-angle body, and most likely the vivid colour version (since it seems to fit how I feel about photography). I have a few rolls here, and I'm going to go out and shoot one or two before just to get a handle on how it performs. In terms of the 40D, so far it's lived up to my expectations. The controls are similar enough to the 20D that I don't feel uncomfortable using it. There's a new feature on it that hasn't gotten much press called Highlight Tone Priority Mode. When enabled, the camera has some secret sauce enabled the preserves highlights at all costs. This is important, for example, at a wedding where the bride's dress reflects a lot of white. A typical camera on normal settings might cause the dress to be overexposed, and hence would lose most of the detail in the fabric. Most photographers know that when in doubt, you should underexpose, since you can usually recover detail in the shadows, but detail lost to overexposure is gone for good. How it works is slightly a mystery, but the documentation says it will cost you an ISO stop. So, instead of having a range from 100-1600 ISO, it will limit the range to ISO 200-1600. Some people theorize that the camera bumps up the ISO, then purposefully underexposes in this mode, and finally applies a modified tone-curve after the fact to preserve the highlight detail. I saw a few sample photos on the net that looked fairly impressive, showing obvious detail that was lost with HTP on between test photos. I don't think it's anything you can't do yourself, but in a pinch on a sunny day, it might be a good idea to turn on and err on the side of caution. Another nice improvement is in frames per second. My 20D could do 5fps, but the 40D can do 6.5fps. While I've never really used that to capture something like a sporting event (although I guess I could), it does come in handy doing HDR shots (since I've been hand holding most of mine). So, with the 40D, the time required for me to auto-bracket 3 shots is reduced, which should make for clearer HDR with fewer motion artifacts.

Robert Jordan Passes Away

Duane Storey — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:25:04 +0000

Years ago, while looking for something to read along the lines of fantasy, I encountered the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Jordan's writing style is similar to Tolkien's in that he takes great efforts to relate back stories and flesh out all his characters. While I lost interest in the series a few years ago (mainly due to my impatience for waiting for a book to be written), I did enjoy it tremendously when I first started. Today, Robert Jordan passed away from complications from primary amyloidosis. Rest in peace.

Rain Rain, Go Away

Duane Storey — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:03:56 +0000

Is it just me, or was this one of the shittiest summers we've had in a long time? It seems like anytime I looked out my window in the morning with thoughts of doing something outdoors it was either cold or rainy. Obviously today is no exception. Photo by Lyn on Flickr Interestingly enough, while down in the Dominican Republic, most people there said the same thing -- that this was one of the worst summers they can remember. I'm fairly certain the UK set a rain record this summer, based on something I heard and read while down in the Caribbean. Unlike most of my friends, I'm not particular fond of summer. It's nice that it's clear outside and to have the sun shining, but my kind of weather is more like last week, where it was sunny but not to warm. I'm more of a jeans guy than a shorts guy, so it's nice to be able to walk around without a jacket. While the forecast for the weekend is still sunshine, I've been watching the HIGH temperatures on my Mac widget dropping steadily, and I'm fairly certain we've seen the end of summer. Which is obviously a bit sad since I wanted to get in one more quick camping trip before the rain takes over again.

Weddings, Photography and Matthew Good

Duane Storey — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:44:50 +0000

This week is a fairly busy week for me. I am photographing a few friends to get some practice (I think Kasia is up later today), and hopefully one or two aspiring models at the end of this week. I also have to go buy a new 70-200mm f/2.8L lens sometime and get my suit dry-cleaned for a wedding I have to go to this weekend. Unfortunately, I'm dateless for this upcoming wedding, which kind of sucks considering I'll undoubtedly be sitting at a table full of couples. Oh well. Also, on Thursday night is Matthew Good's Vancouver concert from his "Nothing to Hide" acoustic tour. It opened last night in Victoria, and not surprisingly, was apparently pretty wicked. You can read a review of it here from a Victoria columnist. Photo by Jen on Flickr, taken in Victoria on Sep 17, 2007 I'm going to be sitting with Rebecca and John somewhere in the middle section and listening to a few hours of music. Should be a good week.

Not Doing So Well

Duane Storey — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:46:01 +0000

After work, I was feeling a bit tired so I laid down for a quick nap. When I woke up a few hours later, not only did I have a wicked headache, most of my joints hurt too. I've since turned the heat up in my apartment to around 28C, and I'm still shivering on the couch with some blankets on. The next couple days are pretty busy for me, so I can't really afford to be sick. I'm going to head to bed now and hopefully wake up at a reasonable hour. My cute maid is coming again in the morning -- so exciting.

Sick At Home

Duane Storey — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:52:32 +0000

The other day I had a nap after work, and woke up with achy joints and wicked headache. Since then, things have only gotten worse. I tried to go into work on Wednesday but had a really bad case of the chills, so bad that I was having trouble typing since my hands were shaking so much. I left work part way through the day and slept basically from around 1pm until midnight. At that point I woke up with a major fever, and think I was pretty delirious since I was having some weird argument in my head trying to convince myself to go to sleep. Today I woke up completey exhausted, still with aching joints and a headache. I had forgotten that the cleaners were coming today, so as soon as they showed up, I grabbed a blanket and slept for an hour in the back seat of my car downstairs, since I just didn't have the ability to stay awake. I've hardly eaten anything in two days, mainly because I've had trouble keeping it all down, and have been in bed most of the time. Unfortunately, tonight was the Matthew Good concert in Vancouver, and I was forced to bail on it. About the time everyone was meeting to head down, I was stuck in bed shivering, despite the heat being on fairly high. For a guy that rarely gets sick, I've sure had my share of bad ailments the last six months. My fever broke earlier in the evening, but it appears to be picking back up again. It seems that my body is struggling pretty hard to get rid of whatever it is that's causing this. For the first time in about two days, I can actually stay awake for more than about 10 minutes at a time, so I hope that means I'm starting to get better. I'm pretty disappointed that I had to miss Matt's concert. I'm hoping maybe I'll be able to catch it on another location in Canada somewhere before it's all over, but we'll see. I hope all you guys that went had a good time.

The Plot Thickens

Duane Storey — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:05:58 +0000

Friday morning, I woke up with a rather large fever, and spent the first hour or two hugging a toilet. I was feeling pretty defeated, so I called my mom out in Chilliwack and asked her to come out and spend the night with me. It's been really great. They made me a meal, looking after me, did my laundry, and tried to do what they could to make me feel better. I went to bed, and actually had a pretty decent sleep. Unfortunately, I had a really large fever upon waking up today, and realized that something wasn't really right. I went down to the walk in clinic with Marty, which was a challenge since I had a high fever and was thinking pretty cloudy. He did a few quick tests and made me do a urine sample. The first thing he noticed was that there was blood in my urine, which he says points to a pretty serious kidney infection. So while that's not great news, at least it points to something else that has been causing my body to react. I also went down a had a full spectrum of tests done on the real lab, including two blood draws. I'm supposed to get the results back for that today, so I'll keep everyone in the loop. I'm on some powerful antibiotics now to address to infection so that's good.

Good Vibes For Duane

Miss604 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:20:10 +0000

Hi Duaniacs, Rebecca here. I seriously hope I don't mess anything up but I just remembered that Duane gave me a login for his site a while back when I did a guest post. Since it's been two days I thought I would keep the Duane blog alive and give everyone an update. Like Hesty said in a comment on the previous post, Duane has been admitted to St. Paul's Hospital with pneumonia. Our contact with him has been limited and unfortunately my cell phone likes to send multiple instances of the same message which must be getting annoying for him, and the other patients. I know he doesn't like to leave his blog dormant for very long so that's why I thought I would step in. He must not be a very happy camper, his sickness prevented him from attending Matt's show on Thursday, a wedding on Saturday and John's birthday as well but he was sorely missed at each event. I hear he's pretty bored so I think John and I will be making an appearance at St. Paul's this evening to give him some company. Also, if I can find one of those little water games with the two buttons that you hit with your thumbs that pump air into the water and shoot the little fish into the net or the basketball in the hoop... I'll bring one for him, cause those are super fun. Send all the good, healthy vibes you can his way. Get well soon, Duane! (and here's hoping you're surrounded by some super cute nurses)

Back From The Dead

Duane Storey — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:58:31 +0000

Last night I was released from St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver to continue the healing process at home. I won't make this a long entry becuase frankly, I find it physically rather hard to type and concentate for writing emails and things right now. The whole episode that led me to head to the hospital is as follows. On Saturday night I was finding myself really short of breath at home. Plus, no matter what medication I took, I just couldn't seem to get my fever to come down. I hit a point when it hit 39C and my heart rate wouldn't settle down and I thought to myself that something was very, very wrong. I called St. Paul's Hospital and asked them if I should come in, and they said yes. So I grabbed a taxi and went over there. When I walked up to the ER desk and handed the girl my care card, she could see I was very sick. She started filing out forms, but I think she realized I was about to pass out so she led me over to a chair and immediately put me on oxygen. They did my vitals, which at the time, if I remember, by heart rate as 150 beats per minute, temperature around 38C, my blood was low in oxygen, and my BP was something like 140/100. The whole process to get me into the actually ER took probably an hour or more, but they had me on a stetcher with oxygen and I had managed to relax a bit. The next few hours were a bit of a blur, but I had bloods tests, urine tests, x-rays, and physical exams by many doctors and nurses. I didn't learn it until they discharged me yesterday, but apparently 50% of my right lung basically wasn't functioning at the time I was admitted due to the pneumonia. I spent the rest of that night on an IV drip trying to rehydrate me. In fact, I was on a IV drip nearly 100% of the time while in the hospital. The next few days are a blur, but I was put on anti-biotics, rehydrated slowly and brought back up to working condition. When the doctor released me yesterday a team of five of them came to talk to me. They said that pneumonia is pretty rough to deal with, and that I'll notice my energy level will be pretty small for the next little while. Simple things they said would be hard, like walking down the street or doing a flight of stairs. Now that I'm home, walking around the apartment is even a bit tiring for me, so I'm just taking it easy. I have seven days of anti-biotics to go, and am expecting to sleep most of this week and just take it easy.

eBay: turning shit into solid gold

Duane Storey — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:52:55 +0000

Considering that my 70-200mm f/2.8L is completely hosed, and there's absolutely nothing I can do with it, I figured I would just toss it on eBay and see if I could get like $50 from some guy that wanted to play with it or something. So, you can imagine my surprise when, after getting out of the hospital and checking my eBay page, I noticed that the sucker had sold for $260. I was completely clear in the description that the item doesn't work, and that it would require major repair. But still, I'm completely astounded that someone would pay that much for what I perceive as basically a paper-weight. I'm gonna go around the house tomorrow and see what other broken things I can flog on eBay.

Transformers

Duane Storey — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:58:38 +0000

I'm so making one of these for Halloween.

An Update From The Couch

Duane Storey — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:47:41 +0000

Well, it's been a few days since I've given an update, so I figure it's about time. My fever broke a few days ago and for the most part I feel pretty decent. I'm still a bit spacey from time to time, and I still can't really concentrate very well. I generally have a few hours at a time where I can do things, then I somehow end up in bed sleeping for a few hours. Yesterday I had a four hour nap around lunch time, and then still managed to sleep 12 hours last night, so apparently my body is still working on fixing itself. I went out briefly last night to hang out with Rebecca, John, Keira, Rebecca's mom and Keira's mom. We went down to Wings on Granville (a place I've never been) for a few plates of meat. I haven't been out in well over a week, so it was good to get some fresh air, although the walk down there really tuckered me out. My mom's boyfriend came out from Chilliwack yesterday with a care package full of spaghetti, chilli, and my grandma's homemade perogies. So, I don't think I'm in danger of starving anytime soon. Also, when I got back from dinner last night, there was a care package from everyone at work full of food, magazines, and a nice card everyone had signed. Also, thanks to Matt and Dale for the well wishes over at matthewgood.org, and Rebecca for running my blog while I was in the hospital. If all goes well I should be back on my feet later this week. PS - A few weeks ago I tried moving my blog from the root to /blog, but this has caused tons of search engine problems in addition to destroying my technorati rating. So, for now I've moved it back to the root which should fix most things I hope. I think I've set up my .htaccess file properly to forward all my old /blog entries back to the root.

Heroes

Duane Storey — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:06:35 +0000

Last night, out of sheer boredom, I drove down to Future Shop and picked up Season one of Heroes, on HD-DVD. Rebecca and John have been recommending this series to me, so I figured I would just go along with their word of mouth and pick it up. I'm about half way through season one already, and so far I think it's pretty good. A few of the characters I find a bit annoying, but the Tokyo guy who can bend space and time is always entertaining, as well as the guy who can read minds. I'm anxiously awaiting the Heroes to step up and start being cool, but maybe that's what season two is all about.

Crossroads Update

Duane Storey — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:42:08 +0000

About six months ago I released the Crossroads wordpress plugin. I haven't really kept up to date with the usage statistics for it, but today I stumbled upon them. There are currently 370 authenticated users, generating around 20,000 API calls a day to Flickr. Not bad.

Back to work and wedding preparations

Duane Storey — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:48:39 +0000

I nearly went into work today, but still felt a bit under the weather this morning and decided to rest a bit more. So tomorrow, I'm going to head into work and see if I can pull off a full day. I tried to go to the clinic tonight for a check-up, but there was over a two hour wait, so I'm going to try again in the morning on my way to work. Also, this weekend I'll be attending Mike and Kim's wedding as the primary photographer, which is both exciting and a bit stressful. It's not hard to grab a camera and take a bunch of photos, but it is hard to be prepared, both technically and mentally, for all the little problems that can arise during the day. The one area I've been practicing a lot with is flash photography. While I'm not a huge fan of flash photos, the simple reality is that there are lots of situations where if you don't use a flash, the photos simply won't turn out. Another example is outdoors in bright light -- if you don't use fill flash, everyone ends up with huge shadows on their faces and under their eyes. You can get around this if you have a helper and a reflector (at least outside), but that's not always realistic. So I've spent the past month practicing bouncing a flash, diffusing it, etc. I'll mix it up quite a bit during the wedding, and try to get a pile of shots without the flash, but I'm at the point where I feel comfortable pulling a flash out and making a shot look decent with it. The rehearsal is Friday after work, and I've told myself I'm not really going to do much prep before then, simply because I think it will all change once I see the venue and get some thoughts in my head. My friend Hesty is going to come and be backup photographer, mainly focusing on the crowd and the guests while I focus on the bride and groom, so that will remove a bit of the pressure from me. In terms of gear, I pretty much have duplicates of everything important, so I don't think there's a problem there. I have two digital bodies and a full frame film body, but after talking with a bunch of people, I've decided to stick to digital at the wedding. That means I've been forced to rent a 12-24mm from Leo's camera so that I can have a wide-angle lens for group shots or wide-angle shots of the bride and groom. The cost is only $15 for the weekend, so it's a good investment. It's going to be a long day, and I'm going to do my best to have fun while taking photos. I'm going to get a hotel out near the reception area on Friday so I can have a good sleep without worrying about fighting traffic in the morning. I'm still a bit sick, so I hope I can make it through the day without any problems. But once it's all over, I'm hoping I'll look back and be happy with the job I did, and with the good times I spent with my friends.

Crazy Weekends and Toronto Bound

Duane Storey — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:52:27 +0000

I've been so swamped these last few days. There are a couple of really big demos at work next week, so I've been frantically trying to whip together a few cool things for them. That's taken quite a bit of my time this last week. In addition, the wedding I'm shooting tomorrow has been occupying the rest of my time. I have to be out in Langley tonight for the rehearsal and a dinner with everyone. I'll be staying at a hotel in Langley so that I can get a good night's sleep without worrying about commuting in the morning. I had to rush around my apartment this morning and get all my camera gear together, a task which is amazingly difficult considering all the stuff I have now. I haven't really figured out the logistics of carrying this stuff around all day, but I guess I'll have time tonight in the hotel to figure it all out. I bought a flash bracket this week along with the battery grip for the 40D. The combination together is fairly scary, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to lug it around all day. I still have to figure that out. Due to my pneumonia, I was forced to miss Matthew Good's concert here in Vancouver. Thankfully, I've managed to rearrange my schedule slightly so that I can see him at Massey Hall in Toronto on October 26th (big thanks to Dale, Matt and Matt's management for scoring me a place to sit). I also have a few friends out that way, so I'm going to stay the weekend and spend some time shopping and visiting people in Toronto. Dale Mugford is going to be at the concert, which will be cool since I haven't had a chance to meet him in person yet. I'm also pretty stoked about checking out Massey Hall, which is a pretty famous venue. Once this wedding is out of the way this weekend, I should be back to my regular schedule, including more frequent blog updates I hope. I also still haven't had a chance to mail everyone's prints out to them yet, but rest assured I'll get to it soon.

Rehearsal Dinner

Duane Storey — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:16:44 +0000

I'm in a hotel in Langley, and I've started to sort the photos from tonight. Having been to the location and having spent some time with old friends, I'm feeling a lot better about tomorrow. Danika, the flower girl I'm really glad I got a chance to try out a bunch of photos in a real setting, because I made a few mistakes that I likely won't make tomorrow. I'm gonna keep this short, because I still have lots to do. Next blog entry will probably be Sunday after everything is over.

My First Wedding

Duane Storey — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:55:11 +0000

Last night I had the chance to photograph the wedding of two of my old friends. It was a great experience, and I'm fairly satisfied with how the photos turned out, considering how dark it was both outside and inside the reception area. I'll do a full write-up on everything I learned about shooting a wedding, but right now I have a turkey to eat. I shot over 1000 shots at the wedding, and I've slowly been sorting them. I put about 150 or so of them on Flickr if anyone is interested. There are still more I have to process and put together, but there's enough that it's fairly good representation of the night.

Photographing a Wedding

Duane Storey — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:44:26 +0000

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, the other day I had a chance to photography my first wedding. All in all, it was a pretty rewarding experience. The day started at around 11am for me and Hesty. We suited up, did some last minute charging of equipment, and then got in touch with the groom. Normally the photographer heads over to the where the bride is getting ready for some photos, but Kim's aunt wanted to do those ones, so I was relieved of that duty. We met Mike and the groomsmen down at the Holiday Inn in Langley to get ready. In true Chilliwack style, Mike, instead of hopping in the shower and putting his tux on, convinced everyone to head across the street to get a few beers. So, we started the day in the Shark Club, drinking beer with some old friends. After the groomsmen were suited up, Hesty and I headed down to the golf course for the main photo shots of the day. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty dismal. The rain was coming down hard, and the sky was filled with dark clouds. Originally the wedding ceremony was scheduled to be outside (in fact, the rehearsal the night before was only done outside), but with the poor weather it had to be moved inside under the tent. I did a few tests and realized it would be next to impossible to photograph anything inside without a flash, so I had prepped my two camera bodies with speedlights and got ready to go. On my main camera, I had my 24-70mm f/2.8L (which was the workhorse I used 90% of the time during the day), and on my backup I had a 10-22mm lens for wide angle shots. After talking to a few wedding photographers over the last few weeks, every one of them basically said you should have a flash bracket before attempting to shoot a wedding. A flash bracket lifts the light source up about 12 inches or so, which causes the shadows from the flash to be angled downwards and usually out of sight. Unfortunately, while playing with my setup on a flash bracket the night before, I realized I just couldn't pull it off comfortably. I made a decision to ditch the bracket and just rely on bouncing for most of the shots (which ultimately wasn't a bad decision). I know a few photographers that can have two camera bodies on the go at all times. I found it fairly hard to wear two cameras and switch between them. I ended up leaving my backup a few feet away on the ground, and simply used my main camera most of the time. Surprisingly, I wasn't very nervous during the day. Once I had taken a few photos, the rest of the day went along fairly easily. The only part of the day I was really worried about were the formals. Thankfully, most people had a fairly good idea of the shots they wanted, and we managed to get through them all in about an hour. Most of the areas we had scoped out for shots the night before were sopping wet and muddy during the wedding, so we had to improvise in a few areas on the golf course. I'm not normally a big fan of flash. The light from a flash is generally harsh, and it takes a lot of fiddling to make it so a flash photo doesn't look completely unnatural. I ran into a few problems with my flash during the day, mostly because of low light (which made it difficult not to get dark backgrounds). There's a custom function on the Canon cameras which switches the sync speed in Av mode from automatic to 1/250s (or whatever the sync speed is on your camera body). Normally you leave it in automatic so that the background is properly exposed, followed by a flash fire which properly exposes the foreground. Unfortunately, I was having a hard time outside getting the backgrounds to be properly exposed, mainly due to the lack of light from the clouds and trees. It's a fairly bad idea to shoot in 1600 or 3200 for a wedding, simply because the prints will end up being pretty grainy. I was forced to use 1600 a few times, but made a conscious decision before the wedding not to touch 3200 at all (since even after a pile of post-processing it still looks grainy usually). I had to switch to use 1/250s sync time in Av a few times just to make sure I got the shot. Putting the camera into this mode is alot like shooting in P, except you have control over the aperture. Another problem I had was that the flash seemed to be rather inconsistent during the day with properly exposing subjects. Because I had my histogram on 100% of the time, I managed to catch most of these problems as they occurred, and corrected with flash exposure compensation. However, it was a big pain in the ass having to readjust the flash for every new scene. I hadn't experienced that particular problem with a flash unit before, so when I got to my dad's house last night I spent a lot of time reading and trying to figure out why. After a few hours of reading, I think I figured it out. On my particular camera, there are 9 auto focus points which are user selectable using a little joystick on the back. The idea behind this is that once you frame a shot, you can select (using the joystick) the focus point you want to use and then press the shutter button to take the shot. I've never been a big fan of doing that though, since I don't find that the focus is accurate enough for me. Instead, I have always set my focus point to be the middle, and have used the old "focus, recompose, shoot" style of shooting (which can be down by locking the focus on a subject, then recomposing the shot prior to hitting the shutter release). Unfortunately, it turns out that Canon uses the active focus point for determining the proper exposure. So, after recomposing my shot, the active focus point was sometimes in a weird spot (like over someone's tux, or sitting on a field). The flash then tried to adjust the output to make that point look proper, which sometimes resulted in my actual subject looking under or over exposed. So in the future, I either have to use the flash exposure lock button before recomposing (which adds another step and a pre-flash to the workflow), or I have to give up my current technique for focusing. I'm not sure what route I'll go yet. To get amazing portraits, I've always been told the secret is to focus on the eyes, since that's what generally draws people into the photo. However, it's hard to do that using the 9 point auto focus system. Granted, if the depth of field is large enough, then it really shouldn't matter, and focusing on the face is sufficient, but it's something I've gotten used to doing and it's going to be hard to change. All in all, I think I did an ok job, and I'd definitely shoot another wedding sometime in the future. For those of you balking at paying $1500 or more for a photographer, let me tell you this -- it's a lot of work, a lot of stress, and requires a ton of knowledge as well as good equipment (which ultimately needs to be replaced every few years). I had a lot of people come up to me with horror stories about paying $2000 for a wedding photographer, only to be extremely unhappy with all the photos they took. So make sure when you're picking out a photographer that you understand what they are going to do, and are comfortable with their style. As a photographer, make sure you understand the bride and groom's expectations and are comfortable you can live up to them. As for me, I had a lot of fun, and learned a few good lessons. I think I'm going to take my flash bracket back and order a different style one, since the one I have is fairly awkward to use. I spent four hours last night post processing photos and am only half-way, so I'm hoping to plow through the rest tonight.

The Digital Camera Histogram

Duane Storey — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:13:04 +0000

One of the main advantages of digital photography over film photography, at least in my mind, is the ability to view the histogram shortly after taking the shot. While viewing the image on the LCD is obviously an advantage as well, it's difficult to tell if the shot actually turned out based on a small image on a 2-3" LCD. An example histogram from Luminous Landscape A histogram shows you how many pixels in the image (shown on the vertical axis) are at each intensity level (0-255 typically, shown on the horizontal axis). If the histogram is bunched to the left, that typically means the image contains mostly low intensity values, and is probably underexposed. If the histogram contains a tail that runs off the right-hand side, that typically means there are pixels in the image that are overexposed. You can typically recover information from the shadows, but it is impossible to recover information that is overexposed, so it is commonly known in photography that it is better to underexpose than it is to overexpose. Due to the digital nature of image capture on a CCD or CMOS, a lot more information is recorded at large intensity values than at smaller ones. Therefore, a rule of thumb in digital photography is to attempt to get the histogram as far to the right as possible without forcing the tail off the right hand side. The histogram is a very valuable tool for anyone who is serious about photography, since it allows you to quickly determine if the image was over or under exposed. Almost every digital camera has the ability to show this information, so if you aren't familiar with it, you should check your camera and familiarize yourself with it.

As good as it gets

Duane Storey — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:01:23 +0000

I had a meeting with my plastic surgeon today to talk about the last surgery I had. It's been a little over five months now, so in terms of results, everything should be stable. In my opinion, the position of my eye, while better, is still not perfect. In addition, I still have double vision in the top-left version of my visual field. My plastic surgeon did a few simple tests on me, mainly involving looking at my eye and tracking its movement using a finger. At least to my surgeon, the results are acceptable and do not warrant another surgery. For now, I have a few referrals to some eye doctors that will measure the actual displacement of my eye, and suggest possible other means to correct the double vision (either different glasses or perhaps muscle surgery on my left eye). I have, however, always been opposed to what I consider surgical hacks. Changing the position of a muscle on my eye or removing skin from an eyelid just doesn't appeal to me, and so if this is as good as it gets, I'll just move on and put this whole chapter behind me. I'm slightly disappointed that my surgeon, who went out of his way to tell me that he was the best in the province pre-surgery, didn't really have much more to offer today. It's not that I want to have another surgery, but this is an injury that can usually be corrected to the point where it is no longer noticable. I met a guy in the Dominican Republic who had a similar incident happen to him (he was jumped by a guy with a bat), and his entire cheekbone was displaced in addition to an orbital floor fracture. He only had one surgery, and looking at him I was unable to find any indication that he was ever injured. Perhaps some of my problems come from the fact that my tripod fracture was never properly repaired, mainly because some medical student told me it wasn't worth fixing. Or perhaps the internal anatomy of my eye has changed enough to make a proper repair impossible. The good news is that I can move on and perhaps just find an expert in a few years to take another look at it and see if there is anything more they can do. I'll go to these next appointments and see what they have to say, but I have a feeling that this is, for now, as good as it gets.

Heading to Ottawa... Again

Duane Storey — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:34:03 +0000

Slight change of plans. I was originally going to go to Toronto on the 26th, but I'm going to go to Ottawa the week before for work. So, I'll be bouncing into Toronto on the 26th, but instead of coming from Vancouver, I'll be coming in on a flight from Ottawa. That will put me into Toronto several hours earlier, which should take a bit of pressure off with having to get downtown from the airport. I'll be staying out in Kanata in a really great hotel called The Brookstreet Hotel, which just happens to be owned by Terry Matthews (whose company recently merged with ours). Apparently Terry and/or the company out there has box seats in Scotia Bank Place (formerly the Corel Center), so I'm crossing my fingers that I might actually get to see a game out there.

Toronto Blogger Meeting (aka Blogstock)

Duane Storey — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:19:17 +0000

While surfing Facebook today looking for a few photos from the blogstock that was in Vancouver a few months ago, I stumbled upon a Facebook group talking about the Toronto version of blogstock. You can imagine my surprise when I realized that it's on the same weekend that I'll be in Toronto. Photo by Corinna, taken during the Vancouver blogstock So not only will I get to see Matt's show in Massey Hall (which has been sold out for a long time now), but I'll also get to meet a bunch of the bloggers from out east. In addition, I just checked with Tony and he's going to be in town as well, so it should be a pretty awesome weekend. Dale and I are planning on meeting up before the show for a few beers, so we'll see who else is around at the time. I'm totally looking forward to the trip, and am excited about the heading to Ottawa before hand as well (since I'll probably get to see a few old friends). It also looks like a few other Vancouver bloggers will be around. Raymi is organizing a pre-show get together, along with some Tony-insipred Karaoke for Saturday night. On another note, I seem to be in the minority of people who know what Hotwire is. I do a lot of traveling, and for the most part, I generally always use Hotwire to book my hotels. Hotwire negotiates rock bottom rates with all the hotels and provides access to these rooms via Hotwire.com. The only catch is that you don't find out which hotel you're staying in until after you pay. I know it sounds a bit weird, but once you get used to it it works out pretty well. You basically pick the area you want (i.e. Downtown Toronto West), and the type of hotel/services you want (i.e. four star with internet access). Hotwire will then quote you a price, and if you pay, you'll get an email with the actual hotel name. I've used Hotwire probably about 15 times now, and I've never stayed in a bad hotel. On my Toronto leg of my upcoming trip, Hotwire gave me The Westin Harbour Castle, which is a nice hotel right on Lake Ontario (it is only about a 10 minute walk from Massey Hall). The listed price via the website is about $249/night, but through Hotwire I got it for $89/night. Slightly cheaper, wouldn't you agree? In fact, I've never paid more than $100 per night in any major city I've been in with these guys, and I've stayed in some nice rooms. I shared my secret with Tony, so hopefully he got a good deal as well.

What's with everyone smoking?

Duane Storey — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:12:21 +0000

Today I made the long trek to work, but instead of having my head down with my iPod firmly attached, I decided (mainly because my iPod was dead) to keep my head up and look around. Being a single guy, my gaze routinely fell on cute girls and, to my complete disappointment, nearly all of them had a cigarette firmly attached between their fingers. Photo by Liz Kasameyer on Flickr Now for some reason, I always thought Vancouver was a fairly healthy city. When I moved away in 2000, I don't think a single person I knew smoked. And now, coming back, everywhere I look there are people who are puffing away on cancer sticks. When I go to pubs with work people, there is always a group of people that gets up from the table every 20 minutes or so to go have a smoke outside. When did it happen, or was it always that way? There's nothing more unattractive in my mind than a cute girl that smokes. I remember one time, after a few beers, when my ex-girlfriend started smoking. I was like "what are you doing?" It was a habit that she slowly restarted, and while she never made it a primary habit again, I had to put up with it whenever we were having a few drinks. And like to old saying goes, it was like kissing an ash tray. Granted, I probably have a few stupid habits that some girls wouldn't find entirely attractive either, and that's fine. But I just don't understand why girls need to smoke. It's unhealthy, it stinks, and it makes everything around it smell.

Meet Mac

Duane Storey — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:07:08 +0000

This is my mac. He's pretty fun, kind of shinny, not too heavy, and he can nearly last a whole DVD without dying. But when he sleeps, he sometimes doesn't wake up. When I iPhoto him too hard, sometimes he rebels and he goes to sleep instead. When I photoshop, sometimes he chugs away doing something else, almost like "don't worry, I'll get to that eventually." I put more ram in Mac, hoping to make him happier, but he's still sad. When he crashes, he does it slowly to rub it in, slowly fading the screen from top to bottom until he's gone. He used to do this once a month, but lately he does it more. When Mac was new, he didn't do any of these things. He was exciting, he was fast, he didn't crash and he liked waking up in the morning. He iPhoto'ed for hours, played nice with photoshop, and loved to iChat. I'm not sure what happened, but I miss the old Mac.

Thanks Canada Post

Duane Storey — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 19:39:53 +0000

Some guy on eBay bought that broken lens off me a few weeks ago. They paid promptly and everything seemed fine, so I boxed up the lens in the original box and shipped it to California. I got an email today saying that they guy went and picked it up from the post office, only to find the box empty. So, somewhere along the way, somebody decided to help themselves. Of course, since the lens was broken, I didn't add any extra insurance to it. That being said, I think there's at least $100 included by default. But now I have the hassle of trying to sort all this out and will probably have to refund at least part of the guy's money myself (which is also a pain since it's not in my paypal account anymore). I'm waiting to get proof from his post office that the lens box was empty. Canada Post weighed the box up here and it was 3lbs, so I have my side covered at least.

Lightscribe on the Mac

Duane Storey — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 07:36:02 +0000

One of the pieces of technology I've always thought was pretty cool was the new Lightscribe CD burners out there on the market. Prior to Lightscribe technology, the best a home user could really do was to be an ink-jet printer, print out a CD label, and then mess with putting it on in the right place. Some companies tried to make blank CDs with actual, printable surfaces, but those didn't really work. But somewhere, after a few beers, some genius came up with the great idea of simply etching the label on the CD using the laser built into the CD burner. And thus, Lightscribe was created. A sample CD burned using Lightscribe - photo from hp.com A while ago I was in Future Shop and saw a Lightscribe external CD burner for around $50. At that price, I thought, it would be cool to pick up so that when I do wedding DVDs etc from anything I shoot, I could do a really nice custom CD label using a photo from the shoot or something of that nature. I thought it would provide a really custom experience, and make people happy when they got the final DVD. The only thing stopping me from making a purchase was that Future Shop never had any blank media in stock. The last thing I wanted was to buy a DVD burner, only to get home and not use it. Tonight, however, Future Shop had both DVD+R and CDR blank media available in Lightscribe form, so I picked up a drive and came back to test it out. Unfortunately, after messing around for hours tonight, it turns out that recent updates to the Mac OS have really messed up USB 2.0 talking to external devices. I have done as many updates as possible, and I still get fatal errors trying to use Lightscribe on the Mac (in all applications). Writing a disc is fine, but attempting to write the CD label always fails with a communications error, and a nice blurb in the syslog about USB time outs. So, I'm sort of at a loss for what to do. I could always take the drive back I guess, but that obviously sucks since I was excited about using it. Lots of people are pissed off in newsgroups, since the 10.4.8 version of the OS worked fine, and versions after that seemed to have broken many USB 2.0 related things. I'm getting the sense, primarily based on my own experiences (since my OS gets less and less stable with each update), that Apple's QA isn't what it used to be. It's been about six months since people started reporting these issues, and many of them are still unresolved (even though these features once worked with the OS). I've put in a support ticket with the maker of the CD drive, so hopefully they will have a recommendation for me. Tomorrow I plan to maybe get outside and go for a jog or something, and then spend a few hours finishing off the photo retouching from last weekend's wedding. I had a party to go to tonight, but I've been so busy land tired ately that I ended up bailing and just decided to stay home and relax.

Reinstalling Mac OS-X

Duane Storey — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:23:59 +0000

My Mac has been giving me tons of grief over the last few months. It seems every time I update to the latest and greatest patch, something gets worse on it. So today I decided I would wipe my OS clean and start with the CD that came with my Mac. For new readers, I purchased my Mac in February of this year, and absolutely loved it. But with every new system update I take, my system becomes more and more unstable, and more and more sluggish. It now crashes once every few days, refuses to come out of sleep, random apps hang, and my new CD burner (which is Mac approved) won't seem to work when using Lightscribe. In an effort to fix some of these, I'm going to roll the OS back using the installation CDs. In the footsteps of my pal Rebecca, I'm going to give a play by play of what will undoubtedly be a day filled with frustration. Feel free to keep refreshing -- I imagine I'll be at this for a while. Rebecca, thinking about reinstalling her OS too. Or maybe she's just thinking about something else.

11:00am - Wake up
11:30am - Stare at my new CD burner that doesn't work with my Mac
11:31am - Decide to kill my Mac and start from scratch
11:45am - Email Dale Mugford asking for help unfucking my Mac
11:49am - Dale puts his iPhone down for the first time in weeks and responds. We head over to iChat where he gives me some good advice
12:00pm - Hook up my external hard drive where I normally put all my photos
12:10pm - Install SuperDuper with the intention of backing up my entire hard drive to the external hard drive
12:12pm - SuperDuper complains because my external hard-drive is FAT32. Oops. First brick wall.
12:14pm - Briefly consider reinstalling without a backup, but decide against it due to all the photos I can't afford to lose
12:30pm - After internet research, I find there's a command line tool that you can use to resize a partition non-destructively. Very exciting. I type the command line and press return. Curse repeatedly when I see this:

1:00pm - Spent the last 45 minutes clearing space on my Macbook HD so I can move the stuff from my external HD to it. Plan is to reformat the external HD and get rid of the shitty FAT32 file system.
1:05pm - Staring at my diet pepsi, wishing it was booze
1:10pm - Start copying all my data from the external HD to my main drive. Estimated time is 35 minutes. My mind wanders to the crazy german kid video-game video. In particular what I'm going to do to my Mac should this all fail.

1:34pm - Watch crazy german kid video and decide to repost it for everyone's viewing enjoyment

1:44pm - File copy done. About to reformat external HD.

1:54pm - Format complete. External HD is now a Mac filesystem. Copying files back from my Macbook HD to free some space.

2:01pm - Moving stuff back from main HD to external HD. Another 40 minutes it looks like. Gonna take a quick lunch break.

2:31pm - Had a turkey sandwich with cranberry mayo from the bakery downstairs. Pretty tasty. 8 more minutes of copying left, then I can start the full backup, and then I can reinstall my OS.

2:46pm - Backup in progress. 4GB down, 100GB to go. I think I might go watch some 24 -- this is gonna take a while.

3:05pm - Listening to music. Up to 16GB. Been randomly surfing the web -- it's pretty quiet in the blogosphere today.

3:16pm - Just realized I have absolutely no idea where the original installation CDs for my Macbook pro are. Good news is that I found 10 beer in the vegetable crisper in my fridge. How can you tell I'm a bachelor?

3:21pm - Gonna go grab a "vegetable" from my fridge and crack it open. I invite anyone with similar (or vastly different) Mac OSX experiences to post a comment or share your experience

3:47pm - Gonna go grab another beer from the fridge, because the first one was that good. Also, my cell phone has been dead all weekend, so if you've called, I'm not ignoring you. I'll plug it in sometime this week and get back to you.

3:55pm - Backup is about half way. There are 8 more beers in the fridge. Tempting. I remember years ago I went to a Montreal Expos game in Olympic Stadium. Since Bob and I weren't driving, we came up with some stupid plan to drink at least one beer per inning. Unfortunately, the game went 14 innings, and Bob and I were completely wasted (having actual had one beer per inning). I'm surprised Chuck even bothered to give us a ride back to Ottawa.

Still Going

4:29pm - Backups sure do take a long fucking time. I'm getting bored. Although, I am listening to music, which is a nice change from the normal.
4:47pm - Beer #3 is about to fall.
5:30pm - Jesus. This is taking FOREVER. Good news is the backup is almost done, and then I can start restoring. I've also made DVDs of the recent photoshoots/weddings I've done just to make sure there's 0% chance I can lose those.
10:10pm - Backup done, but I got side tracked with beer, facebook messages, and lifestream changes.

To be continued...

OS X Reinstall Update

Duane Storey — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:18:35 +0000

Well, tonight I completed the update procedure, which went off with out a hitch. I'm currently back to 10.4.8, and so far so good. I'm not sure if I'll upgrade to 10.4.10, or wait for Leopard to come out next week and grab that. We'll see. I also spent a bit of time talking to the Lacie drive support guys today. They basically said the drive was hooped and to take it back to Future Shop. So tonight, I went down, returned the Lacie drive, but instead of getting the same one, grabbed an LG drive (which said it didn't support Mac). I figured it was more money, and I had all the system software installed for the Lacie version, so in theory it should just work. Good news is I was right -- Lightscribe and burning both work on it, so I'm good to go.

MAMP - Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP

Duane Storey — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:36:57 +0000

So since the complete develop environment on my Mac was blown away by reverting to a previous version of the OS, I started trying to put it all back together tonight. One piece that I really found useful was having my own local web environment on my laptop that basically mirrors my main site. That way, I could do development on my local machine and know that it will just work when I upload it to my main site. Part way through the process of installing everything to my laptop, resident CSS guru and web-desiger Dale Mugford pings me and says "have you heard of MAMP?" Of course, I hadn't. But MAMP looks very, very cool. It's an entire web environment on the Mac, in one easy install. It comes with Apache (a web server), MySQL (your friendly neighbourhood database), and of course PHP. So, instead of wasting countless hours installing stuff like Duane does, you can be like Dale and spend that time doing something else. Download it here.

Oh you can poop, you just can't poop here

Duane Storey — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:40:44 +0000

Warning -- you're probably gonna hear far too much information in this post, but I need to vent a bit. Ever since being discharged from the hospital, I've had some pretty bad digestive problems. It started with just your run of the mill diarrhea, but has slowly gotten worse over the last month. Lately I've been waking up a bit crampy, and have to hit the bathroom fairly often during the day right now. I spent the other evening searching on the internet, and finally pinned it down to antibiotic associated diarrhea, due mainly to the IV and oral antibiotics I had while fighting pneumonia:

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea occurs when antibiotics disturb the natural balance of "good" and "bad" bacteria in your intestinal tract, causing harmful bacteria to proliferate far beyond their normal numbers. The result is often frequent, watery bowel movements. Most often, antibiotic-associated diarrhea is fairly mild and clears up shortly after you stop taking the antibiotic. But sometimes you may develop colitis, an inflammation of your colon, or a more serious form of colitis called pseudomembranous colitis. Both can cause abdominal pain, fever and bloody diarrhea. In cases of pseudomembranous colitis, these symptoms may become life-threatening.

My mom has been urging me to hit the clinic for a few days now, and I finally decided to take her advice and hit the clinic this morning. I called the various clinics downtown and asked the wait time, ultimately settling on one in the West End that only had a 15 minute wait. An hour and a half later I was still stuck in their waiting room, wondering who the hell taught the girl at the front desk how to measure time. The doctor was pretty sure it was exactly what I thought, and filled out all the requisite forms for me to head down and get some tests done. He also recommended I hit a health food store and get some probiotics, which are basically concentrated forms of the good bacteria that should help replenish my system. Because I'm leaving in a few days for Ontario, I really need to figure this out and get on medication, if that's the route I'm going to. I really can't afford to be sick anymore, and definitely don't want to miss out on any of the Toronto festivities that are coming up. So at this point, I've blown about two hours of my morning. I walk into the lab, which is thankfully empty, and they give me a couple of containers and tell me to unleash hell in them. I say "great, where do I go?" She says "oh no, you have to go home, fill them up, and them come all the way back here again." Driving downtown sucks, and with the rain, I really don't feel like walking everywhere today. So that basically means I have to kill another chunk of time coming home, doing the container deeds, and then going all the way down to the clinic to drop them off again. To make matters worse, as I'm walking out the door the nurse tells me I only have two hours before the stuff in the vials becomes ineffective, so there's a small window of time. Great. So now that I'm back at home, wouldn't you guess it -- I don't have to go. So I'm watching the clock, hoping I'll make the deadline. I've pounded back some dairy and other bad foods that should hopefully force something to happen, but we'll see. I rarely get sick, so this whole episode is a real pain in the ass.

Apple iPod Touch

Duane Storey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:17:59 +0000

A few weeks ago I went down to the Bell Mobility store and asked how much longer I was shackled to their service. Unfortunately, it's on the order of two more years, which means I really can't get a iPhone and switch to Rogers (although, I'm still not sure that's a great option either). So tonight, while talking to Jason, he was telling me about his recent iPod Touch purchase. It's basically the same as the iPhone, except it doesn't have a camera or obviously a phone. But the user-interface is roughly the same, and it has Wi-Fi, so you can surf the web wherever you are. The first thing I have to say about Apple is I how much I appeciate the effort they take in reducing their packaging size. Seriously, the packaging is hardly much bigger than the device itself, which I think is really cool. The next thing I'm going to say is that I'm not really a huge fan of the stainless steal back on the iPod Touch. After holding it for a while, you can clearly make out a pile of fingerprints on the back. I mean, Apple ships a cloth with the device so you can clean it -- clearly that points to something that can be done better. And now for my biggest pet peeve at all -- Apple, are you listening? For crying out loud -- make some black headphones! The white headphones looked cool on the generation one iPods that were all silver, but seriously, it looks silly on a nearly all-black device. This goes for my last black iPod as well. Other than that, I've been pretty impressed with it. The browser is actually a full-fledged browser, and you can use the device to surf using wireless G, so I think this is a really useful device when your laptop isn't handy. I'll take it with me to Ottawa and Toronto and play with it a bit more in the real world.

Leaving Soon

Duane Storey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:27:48 +0000

Tomorrow I'm going to start the process of packing for my trip to Ottawa, followed by a short stay in Toronto. Jason and Derek will be meeting up with me at various times in Ottawa, so I'll definitely have some company. The hotel we're staying in is supposed to be really nice, so I'm looking forward to getting some good sleeps while I'm out there, and maybe doing a few laps in the pool from time to time. Next Friday, I'll hop on a plane in the morning and hit Toronto, ultimately ending up at the Westin Harbour Center hotel right on lake Ontario (about a 10 minute walk from Massey Hall). On Friday night there is a pre-concert meet up with a bunch of people from Matt's blog, including Dale, Tony, Raymi, Patrick, and a host of others. I have the whole afternoon to kill on that Friday, so I might see what I can do about getting a copy of Leopard at the Apple store. Rumour has it that it doesn't come up until 6pm (which is an overplayed hype mechanism Apple continues to exploit), so that would ruin that option for me. I think Dale, his girlfriend and I might go grab a few beers in the afternoon, and then hit the pre-concert gathering, but I'm really not sure yet. Tony doesn't get in until nearly show time, so he'll miss the pre-show drinks probably. Afterwards is of course Matt's concert in Massey Hall, which should be really cool. Saturday night is the Toronto Blogstock, and I think the current plan is to go karaoke somewhere with the group. I'll be able to bring my SLR out to that, so hopefully I'll bring back some fun photos for everyone to see. That's it sports fans. If I don't check back in before Sunday, then I'm in Ottawa somewhere. On another note -- if you were to take two pieces of bread, cut out circular holes in each one, and fry an egg in the center of each - what would the name of that dish be (I've intentionally removed the hyper link from the photo so nobody cheats, but I'll put it back in a few days)? There's an ongoing debate, so I want to see what everyone thinks. Photo by Boris Mann

Apple Store Coming to Vancouver?!

Duane Storey — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:58:22 +0000

This should be my last Apple post for a while, but I thought this was newsworthy. Photo from here A friend sent me an email this morning which basically talks about Vancouver being chosen for a new Apple store.

After years of speculation and anticipation, there is finally confirmation that that an Apple store will occupy a space inside the Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver (BC). The three-block indoor mall has been undergoing a long-term and extensive renovation that included demolition, construction and the juggling and moving of several retailers, along with the addition of new stores. But Apple isnâ€™t among those new tenants. Instead, additional construction will begin in 2009 for retail space where Apple will locate its first western Canada store. That work will be finished by the holiday season of 2009 and, most importantly, for the 2010 Olympic Games that begin in February.

It's still a ways away, but it looks like to plans are ready to go. Will be cool to have a real Apple store in town. This seems to be on a few sites, so hopefully it's not all based on the same rumour.

And Away We Go

Duane Storey — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 02:48:13 +0000

Last night I met up with John and Rebecca to watch the hockey game down at Fogg 'n Suds. I'm not super familiar with the Canucks line anymore, so being around super hockey Canucks people is a bit intimidating. That being said, I did manage watch some of the game and to lose myself for a time in the high-ball fishbowls that they were serving there. John and me, hanging out at John and Rebecca's house - not sure why we put hats on I'm smack in the middle of packing for my trip, trying to figure out what to bring and what not to bring. As the first leg of the trip is work-related, I have to make sure to bring all the technical things I will need, which amounts to my laptop and a few mobile devices. I also am trying to gather up my camera gear, which for some reason has become fairly scattered ever since shooting that wedding. When I normally go somewhere for more than 3 or 4 days, I usually am forced to bring a larger suitcase and check it at the airport. This time though, I think I'm just going to try and pack extremely light and hope I can get away with two carry-ons. I have a pretty cool backpack that can hold most of my camera gear as well as my laptop, so that generally takes up my first carry-on (and can usually be found stored beneath my feet on the plane). The second will of course be my weekender suitcase. I still have a pile of laundry to do, and I can guarantee tonight will not be a late night for me. I was up until past 2am most nights this week doing some work stuff and a few things associated with Wordpress, so I'm pretty exhausted. Hesty is picking me up in the morning and taking me down to the airport for my early morning flight to Ottawa. I'm going to be stuck in Kanata most of the time I'm in Ottawa, so I doubt there will any real photo opportunities. I might try and head downtown to Ottawa one night for a few drinks with some friends, but considering I won't have a car and it's a good 25 minute cab ride, I'm not sure it's really worthwhile, but we'll see. Next Friday morning I'll get on a plane and head to Toronto to spend the weekend. I don't think I've actually been to Toronto for about 5 or 6 years now, so it will be cool to actually be downtown again walking around. That weekend is jam packed, but I think it will be a ton of fun. Talk to you guys in a day or two.

Hesty called me at around 8:30pm tonight and said "hey man, I'm almost there." I was like "what do you mean?" and he was like "to take you to the airport. Are you ready?" I was like "dude, it's tomorrow morning at 8:30am, not tonight at 8:30pm," and Hesty was like "oh shit, I'm nearly at your place." Oops. Anyways, it's 12:30am, so just ignore that garbage up top about me going to bed early. Clearly I was dreaming.

In Ottawa

Duane Storey — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:57:17 +0000

The plane ride was fairly uneventful. I haven't flown West Jet for a while, but thankfully everyone on board still had a great sense of humour, and the flight was nice and smooth. I was pretty happy to see that new Harry Potter on the in flight entertainment, since I haven't had time to see it and I had really wanted to. On West Jet, you have to pay if you want to watch a movie, but I figure I can kill a paperback in about 4 hours or so, so paying $5 to watch a movie isn't that bad a deal. The rest of the time I spent messing around with my new iPod, and I have to say, that thing is really slick. Whenever I hit a snag and think to myself "oh, Apple really left this out when they should have put it in," I usually end up finding that they did in fact put it in. An example is the alarm clock. I thought they had gotten rid of this since it was a rather useless feature in older iPods (since you basically had to have your headphones on to wake you up). However, not only did I find the alarm clock feature in the iPod touch, but Apple has now added a small speaker and it was definitely loud enough to wake me up this morning. So good job Apple. Sunset over Ottawa The plane flew directly over downtown Ottawa on our final approach and did a slow circle towards the airport -- from my vantage point, I got to see autumn in all it's splendor, lit beautifully by the setting sun. Fall in Ontario is absolutely gorgeous, and people who have never seen it really are missing out. The trees are so colourful and varied, and I'm definitely looking forward to taking a nice stroll during one lunch hour this week. Downtown Ottawa Since I didn't check any bags, I was out of the airport in about 5 minutes flat. The cab ride from the airport to the hotel was about $60, and I really had forgotten just how far Kanata is from everything. During that process, I got a call from the receptionist of the medical clinic in Vancouver saying my test results are back and they wanted me to come in. I explained that I was in Ontario, and couldn't come in for at least 8 or 9 days, which for some reason, was very hard to her to understand (even though I told the doctor this last week - that if the results came in after Friday I would be gone and unable to come in for the results). I asked her if her or the doctor could give them to me over the phone, and she said no. And then asked if the results warranted medication, and she said yes. So I said "what do you suggest I do then?," to which she didn't really have an answer. I asked if they could please call the prescription into a pharmacy out here for me, and she said she would check with the doctor. At that point she said to call back tomorrow and try to sort it out. Of course, I don't like being deflected, so I said "I'm calling now from Ontario, so I'd appreciate it if you'd leave a note for the doctor and ask him if he can take care of it, or call my cell phone if there's a problem." I didn't really feel like her passing the buck on this one. So anyways, hopefully tomorrow I'll know just how messed up my gut is, and hopefully start some medication for it. In the meantime, I'm basically stuck out here in Kanata for four days, which isn't terrible since I have a lot to do and next weekend is probably going to be a gong show. I had a nice dinner at the hotel bar, and then spent the next hour bouncing between the gym and the pool. And now, I've cracked the mini-bar and am enjoying a nice rum and diet coke before bed. I couldn't find the ice machine on my floor, so I called the front desk. "Oh sir, we deliver the ice to your door for you. We'll be right there." Nice.

Clostridium Difficile Infection

Duane Storey — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:58:45 +0000

I finally got a hold of my doctor back in Vancouver today to try to figure out what's wrong with me and what I can do about it. It turns out that I have a fairly serious infection caused by a bacteria called "clostridium difficile." C. Difficile sometimes lives in the intestines and is normally kept in check by a range of good bacteria that also live there. Unfortunately, as a result of the antibiotic treament I had in the hospital (which was clindamycin I believe), a large portion of the good bacteria have died off, leaving a pile of bad stuff to proliferate:

Clostridium Difficile Infection (CDI), can range in severity from asymptomatic to severe and life threatening, and many deaths have been reported, especially amongst the aged. People are most often infected in hospitals, nursing homes, or institutions, although C. difficile infection in the community, outpatient setting is increasing. Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea (aka CDAD) has been linked to use of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as cephalosporins and clindamycin, though the use of quinolones is now probably the most likely culprit, which are frequently used in hospital settings. Frequency and severity of C. difficile colitis remains high and seems to be associated with increased death rates. Immunocompromised status and delayed diagnosis appear to result in elevated risk of death. Early intervention and aggressive management are key factors to recovery.

While I have several symptoms associated with the infection, overall I still feel fairly healthy, which is a good sign. Having figured that I had this already, I made sure I had all my bases covered by reading lots of material about it before today's call. As it turns out, that was a really good thing. After learning from my doctor that I was infected with this bacteria, he immediately said he was going to put me on the antibiotic cipro. Having read lots of web sites this week about treating this infection, I was pretty sure cipro was not recommended, and I told my doctor that. In fact, I told him that in the hospital I was on something related to cipro, and that was what caused it. Thankfully, my doctor said he would do some investigating and call me back. A few hours later I got the call, and sure enough, after talking to St. Paul's hospital, my doctor learned that I was indeed on an antibiotic related to cipro during my stay there, and that prescribing it would most likely do more harm than good. Unfortunately, there are really only two antibiotics effective against this type of bacteria. The first is vancomycin, which if you're not familiar with antibiotics, is one of the most powerful antibiotics available today. It's use is usually fairly restricted since improper use leads to bacteria that are resistant to it, and it is pretty much the last line of defense for really sick people where nothing else works. The other is an antibiotic called flagyl. I just got back from the pharmacy where I picked up a 10 day supply of flagyl, and have already taken my first pill. The good news is that I should be on the way to recovery now. The bad news is that flagyl and alcohol do not play well together. In fact, some very serious side effects can occur if one were to drink while taking it. So, unfortunately, I will be unable to join in on all the drunken debachery occuring next weekend in Toronto. I will of course attend and lend my wit and charm to the round table. But unfortunately, I will not be able to drink a single beer all weekend.

Wednesday Night In Ottawa

Duane Storey — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:36:09 +0000

Not much new to report. Work is going fairly well, and I've met most of our Ontario company now. Derek and I hit "downtown" Kanata and hit a few local establishments tonight, which was actually a lot of fun. I have two more days here, and then I get on a plane and head to Toronto for Matt's concert. I'm actually getting pretty excited about the whole ordeal. I talked with Tony briefly tonight and he's in the same hotel as me, which is cool. The next time I probably blog will be in Toronto, a few hours before the pre-show meet-up.

Samsung attempting to end format war

Duane Storey — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:28:50 +0000

This is an obvious play, but I've been waiting a long time for it to happen. Samsung has announced a new dual format (HD-DVD/Blue-Ray) DVD player, which basically means it will play everything on the market:

Samsung's HD disc player was going to be the first to do both HD DVD and Blu-ray completely right. But now, it's perfect: Samsung just sent us an alert saying the dual-format BD-UP5000 Duo HD player will come hardware-ready for BD Profile 1.1â€”at least 256MB of internal storage, secondary audio and video decoders, virtual file system. You realize that the rest of the Blu-players this fall totally lack this, and it's a wonder how Sony and everyone else can get away selling old spec Blu players while calling them new. This player ends that, and is the only one we recommend. At the risk of being hyperbolic, this player could be the beginning of the end of the format war's significance to consumers.

At around $1000, it's not cheap. But hopefully in three to six months the price will come down and more competition will enter the market.

In Toronto

Duane Storey — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:59:45 +0000

Well, I made it. I had an early morning flight and didn't get a great sleep, but I'm all checked into the hotel. I went for a long walk downtown and managed to find Eaton Center. I got my hair cut, bought some new jeans and shoes, and eventually located Massey Hall, so I'm all set for tonight. I had a ton of problems at the airport this morning, mostly due to some grumpy security worker. They made me go back and get another boarding pass, all while making me feel pretty stupid. Plus, they chucked a bunch of my toiletries (even though Vancouver security thought they were ok). In addition, they didn't give me my laptop back when I went upstairs (something I didn't realize until after I had left security), and there was a period of about ten minutes where it couldn't be located and I was stressing out. Thankfully it's all sorted out, and I'm in Toronto for a few days now. Concert is tonight around 8pm, and I think Dale will be meeting up with me sometime around 5pm. Until then, I have no idea what I'm going to do. At 7pm I'll be meeting at the Library Pub, where Raymi, Phil, Pitt, Chad and eventually Tony will end up. Should be a great time.

Matthew Good Concert At Massey Hall

Duane Storey — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 07:04:26 +0000

I'm bagged, so I won't write anything until tomorrow. Dale is crashing in my hotel, and we had a pretty awesome night. It's 3am here, and we just left a big Halloween party where Raymi, Fil, Chad, Dale, Patrick and I were at. Matt's concert was pretty amazing. It lasted nearly 2.5 hours (that's just Matt), and he did two encores. Dale, Sara and myself spent the entire show up on stage right, a few feet from Matt, and it was a great experience. After the show we all met up in an upstairs room and hung out for a while. Matt swung by to say hi to everyone, and then went outside to meet and spend time with over 300 fans waiting to see him. Great show Matt, thanks for having me.

Blogstock Toronto

Duane Storey — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 09:02:58 +0000

Once again, I'm tired. It's 4:59am Toronto time, and I'm just getting to sleep. I had a wicked time hanging out with Tony, Raymi, Phil, Christie and Chad tonight. The night was shut down early thanks to some asshole who broke the styrofoam eyeball, but it was still fun. I took a pile of shots, most of which are available here. That being said, my favourite shot of the night was Raymi kicking some guy's ass playing guitar hero. Dale is passed out on the bed next to me, and he's leaving first thing in the morning to hang out with Matt on tour. I'm getting up around 10:30, packing my shit, and heading for the airport for the journey home. I should be back in my apartment sometime around 4pm PST. Normally I hate traveling, and end up missing home every day I'm gone, but honestly, I haven't really thought about Vancouver since I left. So going home for me is almost a bit surreal, since I haven't really been missing it. I'm sure I'll be happy to be back at home, but for now, I can honestly say I had a wicked time and met some amazing people. It was really a great weekend, and I'm totally glad I spent the money to come out here. Here are a few more shots. Christie and Tony Chad, workin' the camera

So Raymi posted this video in the comments. I'm not sure why everyone thinks it me, since I clearly remember being outside talking to Fil at the time the styrofoam ball "allegedly" got destroyed. Looks a bit like me I guess. You can clearly hear the sound of crushing styrofoam about 20 seconds into it, and then some guy ends up on the floor. Looks like it hurt. All kidding aside -- Up until a few hours ago I thought that thing was just a party decoration. I didn't realize it was part of someone's costume. Granted all that happened around 3am, so I think it got some good use. However, if anyone knows the guy and he's bummed, let him know it was an accident and I'll replace it for him if he wants.

Blogging, Friendship and Weekend Recap

Duane Storey — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:15:38 +0000

I officially woke up this morning sometime around 10am, quickly packed my things and headed down to the airport for my flight back home. Somewhere around 30,000 feet, a few minutes out of Toronto, I realized that I didn't really have anything to read, my iPod was basically dead, and I had seen all the movies on the in-flight entertainment. So I did what I do quite often on planes -- stared blindly at the GPS indicator of where the plane is, and did some thinking. The whole weekend was pretty amazing. I spent most of the last few weeks doing some late night iChats with Dale, so it was great to finally meet him and his girlfriend in person. Watching Matt's concert with Dale, Sara, Raymi, Patrick, and Phil from backstage was a really special experience, especially given the content of the album, the people that were there, and the importance of Massey Hall.

Massey Hall, waiting for the first encore

While flying at 37,000 feet, I suddenly realized that all the fun I had during the weekend, along with every new friend I made or hug I gave or received, was basically a direct result of blogging. And that's a pretty amazing realization really, given that I consider myself a social person, and yet I often find it difficult to meet new people given the constraints of working life. Even the friends I hang out with most of the time in Vancouver only came about due to a chance encounter at a blogging conference back in February. On Saturday afternoon, after waking up slowly, Dale and I went and had coffee with Matt, and then spent the rest of the afternoon just bumming around the hotel watching TV. Tony swung by not long after, and we spent the next few hours just chatting about technology, blogging, life, women, iPods -- pretty much everything under the sun. Dale had to get up early, so Tony and I grabbed a cab and headed down to the karaoke bar. There we met up with Raymi, Phil, Chad, and eventually Christie. I've always been a fairly outgoing person, and I always love meeting new people, especially given that I frequent everyone's blogs from time to time. It was a real pleasure turning my computer on at home in Vancouver here, and seeing 15 or so emails waiting for me, all related to the good times we all had this weekend.

Dale Mugford, unfucking my Mac

The one part of the Northern Voice blogging conference that really amazed me (and if you google for it, you might find me commenting on this somewhere in cyberspace) -- most people greeted each other with hugs, even those people who had never met before. For the most part, nearly every blogger I've ever met has been genuine, and has had a really big heart (as well as fairly active liver), including the ones I met on this trip. Given that I'm a guy that's fairly disenchanted with the current state of most personal relationships, and that it's fairly difficult (in my opinion) to meet quality people in Vancouver without any sort of agenda, it's definitely refreshing meeting good-natured people that are sincere and friendly right out of the gate.

Christie and Raymi, sort of hugging

I've now attended two BLOGSLAYERS (which is the gathering formerly known as blogstock), one of which was local, and this last one which probably cost on the order of $800 or so to attend, once you factor in the hotel and the airfare. Was it worth it? Well let's see -- I danced in a karaoke bar, shared a few war stories, broke a styrofoam eyeball with my ass, played with leopard, had some great laughs, watched hockey with an american, split some pretty decent nachos, hugged a few old friends, and even managed to sneak in a few hugs with some cool new ones. I also got to watch a friend perform an amazing show along with two encores to a sold out crowd in Massey's Hall that spent a good deal of the last half hour on their feet, all backstage next to a cool guy I've only seen through the dim glow of my computer monitor this last year. So yeah, it was worth it. I'm definitely looking forward to the next BLOGSLAYER, wherever it is. And for your viewing pleasure, mostly just to share with everyone how pumped the crowd was, here's a small video I took in Massey.

This Has Got to Hurt

Duane Storey — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:27:16 +0000

I just read an article online that did a comparison between a bunch of different machines running Windows Vista. You know who the winner was? A Macbook Pro.

The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year is a Mac. Try that again: The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not even an Alienware. The $2419 (plus the price of a copy of Windows Vista, of course) MacBook Pro's PC WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88 beats Gateway's E-265M by a single point, but the MacBook's score is far more impressive simply because Apple couldn't care less whether you run Windows.

Hard to believe Microsoft and their distributors had all their shit together once.

Awesomeness

Duane Storey — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:13:27 +0000

So it's not very often something can make me bust out loud laughing, but this did the trick. I'm a closet Star Trek nerd, and used to sit around and watch episodes with my dad growing up. One of my favorites is when Kirk takes sand and rocks and shit and blows up that Godzilla looking guy on that weird planet. He's that good. I found this photo on Christie's facebook page, and she told me it was cool to blog it. This thing still cracks me up every time I see it. ** Update, the green Godzilla looking thing is a Gorn. Thanks guys.

Great Shots from Massey Hall

Duane Storey — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:34:39 +0000

Phil took some amazing shots of Dala and Matthew Good at the concert the other night. If you want to check them out, head over to Phil's blog and take a gander. Hang out there for a while -- he's a cool guy.

Matt in Massey, photo by Phil

20 Things You Didn't Know About Me

Duane Storey — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:11:05 +0000

The giant duck I bought last year at Christmas

I am Christmas fanatic. I love hanging out in malls and watching people, or sitting at home listening to Christmas music. Last year I left my tree up until April, just because it made me sad whenever I thought about taking it down.
I've been known to buy random stuffed animals (including this huge ass duck) to give away to people during the holidays. There's a Christmas moose I bought who now holds my door open in my room.
I once took part in several nationwide mathematics competitions, two of which I managed to obtain medals for (cue the screaming girls)
I always have a pocket full of change, and usually leave a trial of coins wherever I go. I somehow ended up with a few coins in the shower last week. Yes, I'm that cool.
While I do software engineering for a living, I actually have a degree in ~~physics~~ engineering physics
I have two guitars (an acoustic an a Fender Stratocaster), both of which I rarely play anymore.
I have a wine collection at home. I don't really drink wine.
I've been meaning to buy a bedroom suite for about three years now, but I never manage to get around to it. As a result, most of my clothes are piled in the corner of my room
I love camping. Especially with booze. And a nice warm duvet to curl up in when it rains. A tarp would probably be good in that scenario too. A cute girl wouldn't hurt either.
I used to have bucked teeth as a kid. My friends called me snowplow. I was forced to get braces.
My left eye socket is now composed mostly of plastic. Yes, that makes me bionic, and I can do cool stuff.
I know Pi to 12 decimal places.
When I walk up to automatic doors I usually hold out my hand and pretend I'm using The Force
I make a wicked Transformers sound when I'm hammered. It's not bad sober either. I also did a cool cookie monster impression once, but that just gets messy.
When I approach a tractor, I instinctively purse my lips and start making tractor sounds.
I can recite a good portion of the Norton Anthology of English Literature off by heart.
I can say the alphabet backwards faster than I can forwards.
I am pretty clumsy. I fell down the stairs last Halloween, landed on my face after falling down in Halifax, tripped over the ledge at my birthday party this year and broke my glasses, and recently busted a stryofoam eyeball with my ass. Apparently I have stability issues.
I can make perogies from scratch.
My heart stopped beating shortly after I was born, and the doctors thought I wouldn't make it. When my heart finally started beating again, the doctors warned my mom I'd probably have brain damage. You be the judge.

That was fun.

Statecharts

Duane Storey — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:55:52 +0000

Lately at work I've been doing a few statecharts for things, so I thought I would repost the one I made last year that I did while completely bored last year. There's a cool program ("cool" being an extremely relative notion in this instance) you can get called graphviz that can create these things fairly quickly. "Happy Times" State Transition Chart I had a cool idea for a contest too I'm gonna blog about and get some participation in.

A Nice Autumn Day In Vancouver

Duane Storey — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:07:29 +0000

Normally I don't take breaks at work, at least not many long ones. In fact, I usually buy a small lunch and eat it at my desk, using that brief time to catch up on blogs are read the current news. But yesterday, I suddenly got the urge to go outside and shoot some photos in the afternoon, so that's what I did. I didn't have my SLR, so I just shot with my point and shoot, which is always rather depressing. No matter - here are a couple shots of a surprisingly sunny Vancouver. And one this morning taken from my patio. PS - For all of you who are expecting free prints, they've been in the living room ready to go for ages. I apologize. With my hospitalization and my recent trip out east, I just haven't found time to finish that off. You will get them though.

Weekend To-Do List

Duane Storey — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:25:29 +0000

I'm so far behind on everything, it's not even funny. Being in the hospital set me back over a week, and my recent trip out east set me back even further. I'm going to try and use this weekend to catch up. Here's what I need to do.

Tidy apartment and do laundry. I hate this part.
Unfuck photoshop some how
Mail photos to everyone
Backup computer and free some space
Install XP via boot camp so I can play games
Finish wedding photos for Mike and Kim (sorry guys)
Answer a bazillion emails that I haven't yet. If I haven't answered you, I'm sorry :( If I have, feel lucky!
Drink some booze to celebrate being off of antibiotics
Catch up on Heroes season two
Go outside a shoot a pile of photos. I haven't done this in quite a while, and I miss it.

On another note, seems like a I have a few more people interested in me shooting their weddings, so stay tuned.

The Shadows Within

Duane Storey — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:00:10 +0000

Nearly one year ago today, four guys that I had never met before decided it would be a good idea to put my face through the plate glass window of a 7-11. Prior to that one moment in time, now forever etched into my memory, I was upstairs at the Railway Club in Vancouver, enjoying a few beers with some friends in celebration of their wedding earlier that night. Upon exiting the building, somewhere between catching a cab and eating a bag of nachos, I overheard these four guys harassing a bunch of girls just a few feet away from me. People have told me after the fact that perhaps I should have just kept my mouth shut, hailed a cab, and gone home. But instead, because I thought it was the right thing to do, I suggested to the group that perhaps everyone had had too much to drink, and that everyone should just call it a night and go home. Moment's later I found myself fending off punches from the group of guys, not even really realizing what was happening. I don't really remember what happened next, or what transpired during my encounter with the glass, but I do remember suddenly being on the ground, surrounded by broken shards of window and a bunch of my own blood. Having never been in a fight, I struggled to comprehend what had just happened, and what I was to do next. Where I'm from, you don't typically four on one a guy, and when the guy is down you sure as hell leave him alone. So you can imagine my surprise when, seemingly out of nowhere, one of the guys planted a soccer kick directly into the side of my face, the force of which knocked my head sideways into the brick wall of the 7-11. Shortly afterwards, the group of guys bolted from the scene, along with the girls I had attempted to protect. To this day, despite the police's "best" effort as well as my own, I have no idea what happened to any of them. I was helped off the ground by a few university students who happened to watch it all go down, and was told by them that my face was cut and I was dripping a lot of blood. As they walked me slowly to the curb, the only thing I could think to do at the time was to attempt a painful smile and jokingly ask them, "did I win?" I ended up with lacerations to my face and my scalp, both of which had to be closed with stitches. The kick to the face ultimately caused disruption of the infra-orbital nerve in my face, and five bone fractures (three of which dislocated my cheekbone, one which destroyed the orbital floor of my left eye along with part of the medial wall against my nose, as well as a slight displacement of the sphenoid bone resting against my brain). When the doctor approached me and said they were going to prepare the OR for emergency surgery to put my cheekbone back in the correct position, I decided it was time to call home and wake my family. Later that day, when my five year old nephew was told what happend, he looked at up at my sister with teary eyes and asked "mom, why would someone want to hurt uncle Duane?" I wish I knew buddy. A year has now passed, and not a day goes by where I don't think about that night, or the ramifications of it. Since then, I have undergone two rounds of plastic surgery on my eye socket, and now have a 4cm x 4cm plastic sheet implanted in my skull. I often think of those guys, wondering if to them I'm a big joke: the punchline of some story centered around violence, a tale that's told during nights of drinking and accompanied by a few high fives amongst friends. Some days I wonder if one day, when life catches up to them, if they'll ever stop and think about what happened, wonder where I ended up, and ultimately, if I was ok. To say that this last year was difficult on me would be an understatement. It has been both an emotional and a physical rollercoaster ride, filled with hope, tears, frustration and uncertainty. I was forced, many a time, to lean on friends and family when the weight of it all became far too heavy for me to bear alone, and for those that were around, I am forever grateful. I would love to say that after everything I have found myself healed on the inside, but that would not be entirely true. For I do not think I will ever be the same inside, nor I think would I want to be entirely. For while this year was difficult, is it through the entire experience that I have gained a new appreciation for life, and for the people I am fortunate enough to share mine with.

Me, one year later

I wanted to post this entry, not to draw attention to myself or what I have been through, but so that others might someday stumble upon this and realize that there are others who have been through something similar, and that I at least recognize what it ultimately does to your life. At least for me, I have moved on, and thankfully my physical scars are small. I count myself extremely lucky, since there are those who end up far worse, and those who, unfortunately, don't walk away from this type of thing at all. My email address is available on the contact page. Feel free to email me about this if anyone wants to talk.

Be Cool, Vote Raymi

Duane Storey — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:19:03 +0000

Raymi's blog is once again nominated for the Best Canadian Blog award. I've been reading her blog ever since this contest occurred last year -- it really is an awesome read thanks to its truly unique and honest content. I recently had a chance to drink a lot of beer, eat some nachos and even do some drunken swing dancing with Raymi, and she's as awesome and genuine as her blog is. Here's what Matthew Good recently had to say about her blog in The Tyee.

Over the seven years that Lauren has been writing, she has been able to maintain not only a consistent standard of interesting, quirky and, at times, crazed content, but has also transcended the format and turned it into an art form that, to me, parallels at times the likes of Bukowski. Don't get me wrong, she certainly has her detractors, most of whom are unable to grasp what she is doing and the thought processes that are attached to each offering, which to me is a sign that an artist is doing something right rather than wrong. In a word, she is original. In fact, she is so original that her style has been copied by literally thousands of others.

So, if you want to support a unique Canadian blog, head on over and cast your vote -- all the cool kids are doing it (also note that you can vote once every 24 hours, so chime in every day if you can). I also whipped up a quick little Facebook app if anyone has a profile on there (come on, who doesn't have one at this point?). You can add it by clicking here.

Vancouver Fashion Week

Duane Storey — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:26:17 +0000

This weekend in Vancouver is the annual Vancouver Fashion Week. I had the opportunity the other night to attend the opening bash down at Bar None in Yaletown. I had a really great time taking photographs and interacting with a lot of the local models and clothing designers. There are events all weekend, so make sure to check out their main web site if you are interested in seeing some local fashion. I just got an email saying I was on the guest list for the swim suit portion today, so I may have to head out and check that out, even though I really don't have much time this weekend. I also did a small post over at Urban Vancouver if anyone is interested.

Vancouver Fashion Week Show

Duane Storey — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 01:45:23 +0000

So this afternoon I headed down to a little church in east Vancouver to shoot some photos for Vancouver fashion week. Thanks to Urban Vancouver I have been able to acquire a media pass so that I basically have full access at all these events (something that I didn't realize until today, since the pass I received today was exactly the same as the one I had on Thursday night). Today was a mix of dresses and lingerie, and I had a really great time hanging out with some of the people I had met at the opening night gala the other day. And to be honest, while I have seen some amazing fashion and some cute girls, I'm really surprised at how unenthusiastic most of the models seem. Every once and a while you get a girl or guy who clearly enjoys what they are doing, but most people seem like they can't wait to get off the runway, which is a bit disappointing from a photography point of view. I put a fairly large sample of photos on my flickr set, so if anyone is interested in checking them out, head on over here. There's an after party tonight at Crush, but I think I'm gonna pass and just take it easy tonight. But we'll see.

Sunday Morning Hangover Laugh Time

Duane Storey — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:27:20 +0000

Well, I drank a bit too much wine last night, and I'm a tad hungover. So, to celebrate, here are a few fun photos. Thanks to Christie for the first one: You Fail And Rebecca for the second one here. Both of these make me laugh.

Sunset over False Creek

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:53:40 +0000

I've been stuck on the computer all day, so I figured I would go out and get some fresh air. Of course, like most walks I go on, I brought along my trusty camera. This is a shot of the sun setting over False Creek.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:16:08 +0000

When I was out in Toronto, Dale and I swung by to see Matt for a while. One of the topics that passively came up was for me to possibly start contributing to MatthewGood.org. So tonight, Dale set me up with an account and put together a small bio for me over there. I consider it a pretty big honour to be able to write amongst such passionate and thoughtful authors, and hopefully can live up to standards already set. I'll probably add the RSS feed for my entries over there into my feedburner RSS stream over here, so if you're already subscribed you should start seeing both. I'll do my best not to cross post, but will probably make an exception now and again for articles I think are worthwhile. My first entry is up over there. Check it out.

Who Let This Guy In?

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:15:52 +0000

When I was out in Toronto for Matt's Massey Hall show, it was suggested that perhaps I could start contributing an entry over two over here. So, without further ado, here goes. First let me say that I consider it a pretty big honour to be able to lend my voice to those already present. I have nothing but respect for every contributor here, and I admire the thought and the passion behind most entries here. I had a couple of thoughts for my first entry here, but I think the most fitting one would probably be the story of how I first met Matt. Last year, without a doubt, was the hardest one in my entire life. In addition to the complete collapse of a personal relationship that I had invested several years into, I was also the unfortunate victim of a random assault in November, one that ultimately saw me in the hospital with five fractures to my face along with cuts to my face and scalp. Surprisingly, a lot of time spent in the emergency room, at least for me, was waiting for someone to come help me. During one such break I remember vividly wiping the blood off of my cell phone and attempting to place a call to the one person I, for whatever reason, desperately needed to talk to at that moment. But she never answered the phone, and never showed up at the hospital to see how I was doing. Several weeks later I had the first of several rounds of plastic surgery to my face, meant primarily to repair the damage to the bone under my left eye. As time would go on, it would become apparent to me that the kick that ultimately fractured my face had somehow broken a lot more than just bone. I spent most of November and December not only healing from the physical injuries, but also trying to comprehend the changes that had taken place inside of me. Maybe it was the end result of my first real brush with mortality, or maybe it was the stark realization that there were people out there that could do something like that to someone, but whatever the cause, something inside of me had shattered. Having never before really had the need to lean heavily on the people around me, I made the mistake of attempting to understand and solve all these problems by myself. This eventually led to a state near mid December where I felt I could no longer function at my day to day routine, and I seriously considered taking a leave of absence from work and seeking professional help. When I arrived back home for the Christmas holidays, my mom could immediately see there was something terribly wrong with me. When I walked in the door and she looked at me, it took me all of about five seconds before I burst into tears. I spent that Christmas alternating between my parent's houses, sleeping on couches, and for the first time since my injury, finally opening up and talking about it. Thankfully, with the help and understanding of my family and my childhood friends, I somehow managed to unravel the complete mess that I had become, and start my road to recovery. One of the hardest parts of going through something like this is that it brings to light just who your true friends are. Within hours of the injury my parents, sister and brother-in-law had made the two hour drive in the early morning to be with me. My high school friends also showed up, and even the CEO of my current company pulled himself out of bed at 5am to spend the entire day with me in the hospital. Notably absent were some friends I had thought I had meant something to, as well as my ex-girlfriend, a person I had supported both financially and emotionally after we parted ways. Apparently that door only swings one way. When I got back to Vancouver in January, I hit a pivotal moment where I thought I could once again go out in public and interact with people again at the same capacity I had before. My thoughts were no longer dominated with the events of that night, and I had started to find peace and let a lot of it go. Since a lot of the people I had relied on had let me down, I picked up the phone and called an old friend I hadn't seen in years. A person who, as it happens, ended up forming a company right down the street from where Matt lives. After about three beers too many, I made my way across the street to a little pub in the heart of Gastown and had a few more. Unfortunately, the people I was with decided it was time to bail, even though the night was still young. Not wanting to see my glorious reemergence cut short, I did what any social small town person would do in my place -- I walked up to a table of people I didn't know and bought them all some beer. After the introductions were all complete, I realized that I had stumbled upon none other than Jeremy Crowle. The night continued on, the drinks kept going, and about an hour later, emerging from the top of the stairwell on an important mission to acquire some pinot noir, was Matt. Later that night I would find myself over at Matt's place with a group of friends, playing with his dogs, drinking his wine, and finally feeling for the first time in a very long time that things might actually be turning around for me. The rest of the story, as they say, is history, but I'm glad to say that we've been friends ever since. Me and Matt, drinking wine that night I was having a few beers with Tony Pierce during his visit to Vancouver a while ago, and related most of this story to him. The one part of it that I talked about with Tony that I still find surprising is that prior to that moment, I don't think I have ever really met a new person in Vancouver and then that night been invited over to their place to drink a pile of their booze. So to be made that offer by Matt, someone who I would have thought would have been extremely careful about who they met and let into their home, speaks volumes about his character and the type of person he is. Through this blog and my friendship with Matt, I have met a lot people I now consider friends. Just last weekend I found myself drinking beer in a hotel room with Tony and Dale, swinging Raymi around a dance floor in Toronto, talking about life with Patrick, eating dinner with Sara, and watching an amazing concert of Matt's from backstage in Massey Hall. For a guy who found himself rather friendless back in January, I think I've come a pretty long way. Thanks to everyone here who showed me friendship and kindness during this last year -- I'm really looking forward to writing entries and meeting as many people here as I can.

Blogger Profile: Miss604

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:44:41 +0000

I first met Vancouver's own Miss604, Rebecca Bollwitt, last year at the Northern Voice blogging conference. I had checked out her blog occasionally, and I recognized her from photos both on her blog, and ones taken during Matthew Good's living room show last year. Being the social guy I am, and fueled by some liquid courage, I walked up to Rebecca (who was also on her way to acquire booze) and started chatting. Since that time, I have gotten to know Rebecca and John quite well, and am proud to call them both good friends of mine. Rebecca's blog is a witty ensemble of local Vancouver happenings, Surrey reflections, and of course, tons of Canucks related entries during hockey season. It's a daily pleasure to read, and it definitely presents a unique flare on what Vancouver life is like living in the downtown core. So if you haven't ever gone over there, do yourself a favour and go check it out.

The First Bit of Christmas

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:50:49 +0000

There are some people who would say that getting excited about Christmas in November is a bit lame. And to them, I would say bah, humbug. Most of my best memories revolve around the Christmas season -- either friends in my university dorm sharing some eggnog (with rum of course), opening presents with my niece and nephew, or watching it snow in Ottawa from my festively-lit living room. I don't know why, but I just get excited when I start seeing lights up. So tonight Kasia (a friend of mine who also adores Christmas) and I went out on a quest to get me some decorations for my apartment. It tooks us nearly an hour to get to Canadian Tire, thanks to the crazy traffic in Vancouver for the Olympics. However, once we got there, we totally went to town and nerded out on everything that they had to offer. The Christmas section was pretty dead, so I'm guessing most people aren't as excited as us yet. I'm going to go put some lights up now and start decorating my little tree. I know everyone wishes they were as cool as me.

Honesty, Can I Really Get Much Cuter Than This?

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:13:17 +0000

I don't think it's really possible. Clearly a $5 Santa hat is what I was missing in life. Normally I'd just leave it as that, but I just did a semi-buzzed iChat with Rebecca and John, and we all just laid the smack down on the word CUTE, so I'm gonna post it here. Yah, you might as well logoff now because you got nothing on that.

When To Let Go

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:07:51 +0000

So, something happened tonight that kind of irked me a bit. It was completely offset by the fact that I went out and did a pile of Christmas shopping, but all the same. When I was 17, I was at a summer party in Chilliwack at this guy Geoff's house. Of course, being in a small town, we were all drinking our faces off at that point. Thankfully, most parties back then were in houses and everyone just spent the night, so for the most part we were all safe. Anyways, in walked these two girls, one of which completely caught my eye. I spent a bit of time talking to her and her friend, and ended up leaving with a really great impression of them both. They went to Chilliwack Senior, whereas I went to Sardis Secondary, so I had never met them before. This one girl, and I won't use her name, but there was something about her I really liked. I spent the next few months wishing I could hang out with her again or maybe somehow cross paths with her once again. ^^^ This is my universal photo for broken heart times Not liking to leave my fate entirely to chance, I decided to take matters into my own hands. So, on Valentine's day, I purchased a pile of roses and found a willing attendee of her school to do the delivery for me. At lunch time my friend Rob delivered them to the office at her school and left them for her, wishing her a great Valentine's day from someone who thought she was pretty cool. I purposefully didn't put my phone number on it, because I figured if she somehow managed to get it then maybe she was actually interested. Two days later I got the message on the phone to call her. Unfortunately, a bunch of crappy things happened (including a death in the family on my side) and we never really even hung out after that point. I always thought she was pretty cool, and whenever I ran into her in a bar in the years that followed, I would always say hi, even though I was pretty sure her friends thought I was a complete idiot. The other day we added each other on facebook, and for a lark I told that story in the "Friend Details" part of it, because seriously, it's was 13 years ago and I think it's fairly funny. Well, she deleted it, not wanting it on her profile. I mean really, what girl wouldn't to show that some guy, despite having next to no money and attending a completely different school somehow managed to shower her with roses (13 years ago!!!) on Valentine's day because he thought she was pretty amazing? I don't get women sometimes.

Heroes, Season Two

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:54:18 +0000

Well, it's not very often I'll write about TV shows, mainly because I don't really watch a lot of TV. In an effort to get my expenses down a few months ago, I decided finally to pull the plug on cable, something that I haven't regretted in the least. The only show I really watched last year was 24, and once that season ended, I just cancelled it all, saving myself $60 a month or whatever. A while ago, I went out and bought all of Heroes season one on HD-DVD. I thought it was a decent show, but there were a lot of characters I wasn't interested in at all. The finale was pretty lame too, and I don't think it really brought to light the potential that some of the characters had. Bring out season two. While there are multiple new character threads, I primarily find myself interested in Hiro Nakamura and Peter Petrelli. And while Hiro's character is totally charismatic (which is the main reason I think his thread is so successful), I think Heroes really comes down to Peter Petrelli. Ever story needs a hero, and Peter fits that role perfectly. He has good morals, powers he doesn't entirely understand, but he isn't perfect. Starting season two with Peter having amnesia was fairly brilliant if you ask me, because it brings to the table the sort of wonderment that Spiderman had when Peter Parker was discovering what he could do. Every episode Peter Petrelli is not only rediscovering bits of himself, but also regaining control of some of the powers he once had. The obvious danger with a character like Peter is that he might become like Neo from the Matrix in that he becomes essentially unstoppable. Audiences don't identify with characters that have nothing to lose, so having an all powerful character that wins every battle is a recipe for disaster (i.e. Matrix 2 and 3). Which is why Sylar is absolutely essential to the plot, since in my mind, he is the only counterbalance to Peter. What happens to his character remains a mystery, but I imagine there will be a pivotal moment when he regains his powers, which will ultimately lead to (I hope) a Dark City like battle between the two characters.

Mad World

Duane Storey — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:15:07 +0000

So, I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but whatever. I've been messing in garage band for about six months now, wanting to record something but just not sure what to record. I used to be in choir over 20 years ago, and I can sort of carry a tune. I know I need to have a ton of practice to get anywhere close to where I used to be as a kid (and most of my practice was pre-puberty, so I have to re-learn a deeper voice), but I decided to get over the hump and just quickly record something and take my beats for it. When I was out in Toronto visiting everyone, Raymi pointed me at this song called Mad World by Gary Jules. I decided to cover it quickly in Garage Band using an acoustic guitar. I recorded everything using a shitty USB condenser microphone (resting sideways on my desk) I picked up at Tom Lee a while ago. I know I'm out of key in a pile of places (this is definitely at the top edge of my vocal range), but considering this is my second take, and I haven't even tried singing in about 15 years, I don't think it's horrible. I know John hates the reverb, so I'll try and do another version on the weekend with a better vocal track and less reverb.

The Wheels on The Bus Go Round and Round

Duane Storey — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:38:46 +0000

I finished my antibiotics last week, which in theory meant I should have been completely fine and back to normal. Unfortunately, that's not the case, something that sometimes happens with this type of infection I have. I spent a bit of time in the doctor's office yesterday, and for whatever reason, they want a full spectrum of tests done again just to make sure they didn't miss anything. Except for some cramps, it's not really affecting me that much, but I'm anxious to be all over this. I'm heading down to the lab right now to get a blood draw, and then off to work. Going over to a friend's house for dinner later, and to play with baby Maya!

So It Begins

Duane Storey — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:57:20 +0000

My mom just emailed me and asked if I had started decorating my apartment yet. I figured I'd throw a photo up just to show her and everyone else. Still have a ways to go, but it's looking not bad. I have another strand of lights to put up somewhere, and I might get some for my patio. I also have some of those Christmas house things to put up, and I even have some fake snow for them.

There's Got To Be Something Better Than iPhoto

Duane Storey — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:12:22 +0000

So, I know there are a bunch of programs available on the Mac for doing photo work and what not, but I'd like to ask everyone what they use on a daily basis. I have for the most part made due with iPhoto, but the organization capabilities of it suck, and I end up with directories full of photos without any real means to identify them. Unfortunately, I also need something with a relatively quick workflow (photoshop is too slow to use for me except in extreme cases). Any recommendations?

Rainy Friday

Duane Storey — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:37:04 +0000

Last night I met up with Rebecca and John for some drinks at Fogg 'N Sudds on Robson Street. It's pretty much tradition with those two to watch any weekend hockey games down there, and whenever I can, I swing by to sample their fish bowl high ball drinks. Afterwards, we all went over to Trevor's house and sat around drinking wine. Trevor has a pretty cool penthouse apartment in the West End with a great view of Vancouver. Me and Rebecca, Drinking And here's a shot of John before the sleep fairy came and took him away: Good times. Tonight I have a birthday to go to in Kitsilano, and then tomorrow I'm heading out to Brennen's place in White Rock for his daughter Kaede's 1st birthday party. Should be a lot of fun.

Brock's Party

Duane Storey — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:12:34 +0000

Last night a few of us met down in Kitsilano to celebrate Brock's 26th birthday. It was good times, even though they had some weird country band playing at Copper Tank, and it was way too loud to talk. The nachos were pretty decent there, and even had an edible burrito underneath. I'm heading to the clinic this morning to get my test results back, and then heading out to White Rock to see Kaede's 1st birthday party. On a whim, I decided that I would head to Kelowna tomorrow and meet back up with Dale and Matt. I don't really have a ton of time, but I managed to score a cheap flight on West Jet that makes it a lot easier. So, sometime in the early afternoon I'll be catching up with them again. Dale is heading back to Hamilton via airplane as soon as he gets into Vancouver on Wednesday, so I'm hoping to have a beer or two with him before he heads back out east. I'll also be watching Matt's show tomorrow night, so that should be a great time like always. Slight update -- I am across the street from the medical clinic, where there is, like usual, a very long wait. So I decided to come to this little internet cafe (which has a really crappy keyboard I might add) and mess around for 30 minutes. I think it's rather idiotic that I have to wait an hour just to pick up a piece of paper so that I can wait another 20 minutes for some pills. Can't this simply be done via the phone now? I mean, it's not like I'm 6 years old and never been on antibiotics before. Another update - Well, as I thought, I still have the same type of infection. Since treatment with Flagyl failed, they have promoted me to what is one of the most powerful antibiotics available: vancomycin. Unfortunately, it's a rather expensive drug, and a 10 day supply of it cost me around $340. But what can you do.

Airports, Kelowna Bound

Duane Storey — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:45:00 +0000

Here I am, stuck in an airport again. For a guy that doesn't really like flying, I sure do fly a lot. It's a completely miserable day here in Vancouver full of rain, wind, and dark, cloudy skies. I watched a plane take off about 20 minutes ago, and you can see if visibly swaying on ascent due to the winds, so it's probably going to be a bit of a rocky ride for the first few minutes. Thankfully my flight to Kelowna is really short, so I won't have to battle the weather for long. I'm sitting in Milestone's here trying to get breakfast before I get on the plane, but it's pretty busy and all the staff apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Not many happy campers around here at this hour. Dale SMSed me last night and said they will probably be in town a bit earlier, so that means I won't have to kill as much time on the Kelowna side. I haven't really figured out where I'm going to sleep yet, so I'll probably spend breakfast surfing web sites to find a cheap hotel in the area. I have a morning flight back to Vancouver, getting in around noon. After that I'll just head into work and do a normal day. So much for the long weekend -- it sure went fast.

Heading Home

Duane Storey — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:46:17 +0000

Wow, yesterday was a pretty full day. First, let me say that I probably shouldn't have flown yesterday. I was totally conscious of the fact that there was a crazy storm going on, but for some reason that didn't translate in my head into a scary flight. And let me tell you, it was pretty scary. There was a point in the ride when the stewardesses were thrown sideways into whatever chairs were there, and both my iPod and my glasses fell to the ground. I was clutching the seat pretty hard, and was pretty amazed at how hard the plane was being thrown around. I spent most of the day yesterday just chilling out on Matt's bus with everyone. I got to watch a full sound check, which was a pretty cool experience, seeing how they go from no equipment set up to a full on concert sound. Dale and I watched the concert from stage right again, and while the whole concert was awesome, my favourite song is shaping up to be A Silent Army in the Trees (probably because it's so new) -- both Dale and I are huge fans of it, and can't wait for it to be released. Kelowna Soundcheck, photo by Dale Mugford Afterwards, we headed back to the bus and sat around drinking beers until 2am. I had to leave and head back to my hotel for the journey home, but it was a really great trip. Matt's got one show left tonight, and then the tour is officially over. It's been a long road for all those guys, and you can see the exhaustion in all their eyes. I'm sure they'll be happy to be back at home. I'll be heading into work shortly after I land and doing a full day. I gotta jet and see if I can grab some breakfast quick here. Being the complete idiot I am, I once again forgot to bring a memory card for my camera, so I got 0 photos yesterday. I rule.

Happy Belated Birthday Kaede

Duane Storey — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:44:32 +0000

A few days ago I attended Kaede's one year birthday party out in White Rock. She got a ton of presents and had a really great time. Happy Birthday kiddo.

There And Back Again

Duane Storey — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:12:06 +0000

At around 40,000 feet, currently drifting somewhere over the Canadian Rocky Mountains, there exists a very tired and slightly buzzed hobbit named Dale. Rebecca and I just got back from dropping Dale off at Vancouver International Airport, and we had about an hour to listen to his thoughts on the tour, his time away from home, and all the things he was looking forward to doing again when he walked in the door back home. Of course, giving his girlfriend a super big hug and spending a bit of time with his dog Chloe are at the top of the list. I first met up with Dale a few hours prior to the Massey Hall show nearly three weeks ago. He had his laptop, a backpack, and was clearly excited about hitting the open road with a busload of guys. Catching up with him in Kelowna a few days ago, you could clearly see that he was getting tired, but still was having the time of his life. Thanks to Matt, I was fortunate enough to see two shows on this tour, and was also able to meet some of the individuals that help pull them all off. In Kelowna I spent some time on the bus drinking beers and chatting with everyone, and it was a really great experience that I'm very thankful I got to be a small part of. Dale and I both agreed that it was such a friendly and welcoming group, full of both dedication and laughter, two qualities I think are probably essential to pulling a tour of this magnitude off. I imagine it will be a few days before Dale posts again, and I know he will probably reflect one last time on the tour. For my part, it was really great meeting Dale finally in person, along with everyone else on the tour. Big thanks to Matt and Dale for letting both me and my Santa hat come along for some of the ride - it was really an amazing experience. And for everyone reading -- I know that Dale has been working on some humorous video footage from the tour. I'm pretty sure that once he gets home and rested up, bits and pieces will start popping up - the segments that I've seen are pretty funny, and definitely well worth the wait.

Christmas

Duane Storey — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:45:45 +0000

For some reason, I seem to get a lot of flack for getting ready for Christmas this early. There are those who can't possibly believe that someone would put their decorations up in November, instead waiting until the last minute to put theirs up. For me, I love Christmas. I love coming home and flipping on the strand alongside my main window. I love being curled up on the couch with my duvet and a good movie, having no lights on except for the dim glow of my tree. My Christmas setup last year I guess part of the reason is that while in university, Christmas always went too fast. By that time, you were also extremely homesick, and putting up a few lights and some decorations somehow seemed to make studying in late December that much more bearable. Unfortunately for me, I always had exams on the last possible day, and was frequently left alone in residence, having said goodbye to most of my friends a few days before. Even the cafeteria shut down, and I was forced to fend for myself, usually by consuming vast quantities of Mr. Noodles (one of the few things you can cook without a proper kitchen). So at home, I love having a tree up, and a string or two of lights. As the next few weeks unfold, I'm going to spend a bit more time at home watching movies, getting a few gifts for my niece and nephew, and even cooking at home from time to time. One of my traditions is to sit at home with some friends and put on Die Hard. I'm not sure why, but that movie has somehow always been associated with Christmas for me. It's sitting on top of my DVD player, just waiting to be played. So, stay tuned because maybe YOU will be invited to the Die Hard party! Yippee kay-ay, mother fucka. And just to make this entry a bit more fun -- what are some things that all of you are looking forward to for the holiday season?

Also, congrats to Christie for her glorious return to the world of blogging. Glad to have you back (clearly you picked the best wordpress theme EVER to start with).

Blind, Once Again

Duane Storey — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:01:49 +0000

Today I had a specialist appointment to fully quantify the damage to my vision from my accident last year. The appointment was about an hour of waiting in the waiting room, twiddling my thumbs, and an hour of experiments. They were forced to dilate my eyes, which means not only am I totally sensitive to light right now, but I'm having a very hard time reading anything. Not sure the verdict, but it's looking pretty likely that my double vision in my upgaze is probably permanent. I can potentially compensate for this by changing my eyeglass prescription to have a slight upward taper in the lens, but since it doesn't really interfere with my job, I'm ok for now I guess. While another surgery might be able to fix everything, I was told that at this point there is nearly as much risk as there is potential reward, so it's something I'll have to think about (assuming it's even my call at all). Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm bummed out or relieved that this point. I'm looking forward to seeing again later tonight. I think I might go kill a few brain cells tonight to celebrate.

Hump Like You Give A Damn

Duane Storey — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:42:25 +0000

Any questions?

Weekend

Duane Storey — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:40:04 +0000

For the first time in quite a while, I plan to spend most of this weekend at home doing things for me. I've spent the last little while traveling, and to be honest, I'm starting to get a bit tuckered out. Except for an appearance at a friend's birthday party tonight in Gastown, I think I'm going to lay extremely low. Want to know what I'm looking forward to doing the most right now? Grocery shopping, if you can believe that. I'm going to head down to Urban Fare and pick up a pile of food so I don't have to eat out for a while. I think tomorrow night I'm going to make a lasagna and sit at home watching movies. And putting up more decorations. Anyone see any good movies lately that they'd recommend? I have a pile of movies at home I haven't returned yet from netflix or whatever, but I might head down the street and rent 3 or 4 myself.

Apple Leopard 10.5.1 Update Finally Out

Duane Storey — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:55:41 +0000

I've been waiting patiently for this update, since I've had quite a few problems with wireless since switching to Leopard. I also need to drop my Mac off at the repair facility to probably replace the logic board in it, since I've been having weird LCD and sleep problems on my Mac. Unfortunately, there seems to be over a week delay at MacStation for even looking at these things, which means I'll basically be computerless for a while. I'm sure I'll survive, but will be weird not to have a computer at home. Maybe I can go back to doing "normal" things again for a while. To get the new update, just go to the Apple Menu and pick Software Update. You can read about some of the changes here. I'll let everyone know how it goes when I'm all done.

TrollDigger Version 2?

Duane Storey — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:20:07 +0000

About six months ago I got it into my head that I wanted to play around with RSS technology and see if I could come up with something cool with it. That eventually turned into a standalone RSS reader I wrote for the Mac called TrollDigger. The one feature everyone liked is the ability to view the actual pages instead of the RSS excerpts. I haven't touched it since then, and the version that's currently available for download is a bit clunky, but I was thinking about spending a few hours on it this weekend. To be honest, lately I've been thinking about a completely GUI-less RSS reader. I'd like to be able to subscribe to feeds, and simply get Growl notifications when new articles are available. There can be a little drop down in the status bar at the top of the screen that I can click to view new articles if I happen to miss them. Clicking on a Growl balloon would simply spawn Safari with the permalink. It's less feature-rich than what TrollDigger currently is, but for some reason I find the simplistic concept sort of appealing. What does everyone else think?

The Theory Of Everything

Duane Storey — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:27:41 +0000

In 1905, a research paper was submitted that forever changed how science views the world. In it, the author postulated that the laws of physics, which were at the current time regarded as universal, actually depended on the relative motion between the object and that of the observer. The consequences of that paper are far reaching, for it implies that even the passage of time itself depends on motion. That is, two clocks that are absolutely synchronized at rest will no longer be synchronized if the clocks are forced to travel at different speeds. That result, proven time and time again in many experiments, is woven into many current technologies, one of which is the GPS navigation system, where corrections must be made to the algorithm based on the relative speeds of the various satellites in orbit. What's extremely interesting about this discovery was that it was not made by a well known intellectual at that time, but instead was submitted by a relatively unknown Swiss patent clerk who had been dabbling in physics during his spare time. That clerk was of course Albert Einstein. After turning the world of science on its head with his theory of relativity, Einstein spent the rest of his life trying to devise a grand theory (known in science circles as the Unified Field Theory) that would unite all the branches of physics, and fully explain the observable world. Despite his best efforts, he was unfortunately unsuccessful. Since that time, many researchers have struggled to complete what Einstein started nearly 100 years ago. And while many theories have been proposed (the most well known of those is now called String Theory), none of them have really come close. Which is why I find it extremely interesting that recently a new paper, receiving rave reviews from some mainstream scientists, has emerged that provides not only a relatively simple theory of how everything ties together, but also depicts the fabric of the universe as a stunning geometrical shape. The author of that paper? A 39 year old surfer in Hawaii. And while I'm sure that the quest for that grand theory will continue for a while, it is a quest I have always believed is worth pursuing. For at the heart of that effort is quite simply the search for truth, a pursuit that has shown not only how large the universe is, but also how truly insignificant our role is in it. And once you come to accept that, many of the problems we face as inhabitants of this planet seem rather small and easily repairable by comparison. Take for example this image, captured by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it passed out of our own solar system: The late Dr. Carl Sagan, a well-known astronomer, once said these words about this photo:

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

No matter what religion you believe in or what colour your skin is, there is an undeniable truth in that last sentence -- that we owe it to ourselves and each other to base our lives on kindness, compassion, understanding and respect, not only for each other, but for this place we call home.

Jer's Birthday

Duane Storey — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:39:28 +0000

After work I swung by the Alibi room in Gastown to help celebrate Jeremy Crowle's birthday. I was a bit tired from this whole week so didn't end up staying out super late, but I managed to drink a few rum and diet cokes and buy Jer a beer. There's another party tonight that I was invited to, but I'm not sure if I'll hit that. I think I really need a nice night inside with some movies. I have to hit the airport in a sec and drop my friend Hesty off for the start of his vacation. After that I'll probably check out the Eastside Culture Crawl with some friends. Also, Rebecca and John are currently airborne heading down to Iowa for a week -- you guys better bring me back something really cool, like a cow.

Ray-Me

Duane Storey — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:49:35 +0000

Here's a shot I took in Raymi's bathroom out in Toronto. I'm going to be setting up duanetheminx.com soon, so check back soon. Clearly I rock the mirror shots.

Your Kids Need To Fit In Too

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:06:56 +0000

From slashdot. Also, Rebecca just texted me -- their luggage was lost :( I told her it would happen -- it's basically a given if you bounce through O'Hare.

Duanerism 1.0

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:46:55 +0000

Someone convinced me last time I was at the bar to start posting the best of my cell phone text messages to my flickr account. So without further ado. Yup, that's a mistake I'm not likely to make again. If anyone has any wicked ones as well, let me know. Maybe we can start a cool Flickr group.

Drinking

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:19:03 +0000

Raymi promised me a tipsy iChat later with her and Phil, which means I need to start drinking. I have so much wine at my place it's not even funny. Somewhere on the order of 25 bottles I think. But, I'm a bit tired of wine lately. Wall Of Poison So, I think I'm going to go for rum and diet coke, which is pretty much my drink of choice if I'm at a pub these days. Which would you choose?

Duanerism 2.0

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:06:42 +0000

I'm guessing I wasn't having a good time there.

Duane The Minx

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:38:34 +0000

So everyone else is blogging this, so fuck it, I might as well too. My friend Raymi in Toronto has a very unique, and often copied, blog. So tonight, after getting a bit tipsy, I attempted to recreate some of her brilliance myself.

The end result is a funny parody, complete with drunk dancing by myself. You can check it out at duanetheminx.com. Thanks to Keira for helping me put the header together. Clearly I need massive help.

Another Day

Duane Storey — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:19:58 +0000

Well, now that I've gotten all my weekend fun out of the way, I think I'm going to take it easy and relax. Of course, the first thing I'm going to do is warm up some left over lasagna, but then I have a bunch of web work I really want to get done. Plus, Sunday is usually laundry day, and I need to catch up on that. I set up by Gmail/IMAP account on my Apple Mac Mail program. I'm not sure if I'm going to use it though. At least for me, it seems pretty slow. Not only does it seem to take forever to sync, but the CPU is fairly high even with the Mail program is idling. It might be related to the fact I have 16,000 emails in my gmail inbox, or maybe just another symptom of my dying Mac problems. The backlog of Macs to fix in this city is fairly high, and there's still a one week wait at MacStation before they'll even look at it. So, I'm playing the waiting game now.

Yes, I'm Grumpy

Duane Storey — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:16:35 +0000

Yup, I'm grumpy. Sunday nights are always amazing hard on me. For some reason I can never get to sleep, and end up tossing and turning most of the night. Last night was no exception, and I think I'm running on about two or three hours of sleep now. Plus, i woke up with a splitting headache and a stomach-ache, so I'm not a happy camper today. Of course, Vancouver is being rained on again, and it looks dark and dismal out. Soon I'll have to don my jacket and make the 30 minute trek to work, getting completely soaked in the process. Good times. In other news, I spent some time this weekend doing some more social networking stuff. I redid a facebook application and added a flash media player to it, which I think makes it pretty cool. I'm also going to dive into OpenSocial this week and see what kind of magic I can squeeze out of it. Eventually I'll have a RSS feed on here that has all my writings from the internet in it, but for now, here is an article I wrote over at matthewgood.org that involves a sad teen suicide. * Update 1 - I came into work this morning and my Windows box is basically dead. Grumpy + 1. * Update 2 - I have to interview a guy here for a high level developer position, but the guy's tie is about four inches too short. This should be interesting. * Update 3 - Computer at work is toast. I seem to be good at killing them lately. IT guy is going to town on it now. If anyone has anything happy to say, let me know - I could use a whole bag of happy this morning.

The End Of A Very Long Day

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:21:12 +0000

Today was a long, dreary day. I didn't get home until around 9:30pm, and barely had enough strength to pound back some left-over lasagna. I was really looking forward to sitting back and watching heroes tonight, but mininova was down and my internet connection turned out to be pretty flaky. Today was officially full of fail. I've not been feeling myself lately, and I don't really know why. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's because I'm still battling an infection, maybe it's lots of things, but I find myself pretty bummed out the last few days. One thing that's been bothering me lately is that I keep getting hammered from people about stupid things. I've gone out of my way a few times within the last few weeks to help people, only to eventually be flooded with emails asking why I didn't do more, or why I focused on one person and not the other. It's pretty defeating spending hours of your free time helping someone out, only to be made to feel bad for it. I really don't know why it happens. Photo By LastExit on Flickr To add to that, lately I've been thinking a lot about the past. Mostly during that brief time when the lights are out and the blankets are still cold, when you gaze up blindly at the ceiling and thoughts just sort of randomly enter on their own. I've thought about my injury a bit, my recovery, the last few months, but mostly, for some reason, I've found myself thinking alot about my last real relationship, even though it was quite a long time ago now. And the truth is, at some level, I find that I miss it all. I don't really miss her, at least not in that capacity anymore, but I miss how it once felt. I miss the excitement, the butterflies, drinking hot chocolate and wrapping presents at 2am. I miss waking up to the smell of coffee, candlelight, or sleeping the day away on a rainy sunday. I miss hugs, or looking down and realizing that someone is holding my hand. And while I have lots of friends, sometimes I feel like I'm meant to play a piece part with each person, even though inside I'm yearning to do the whole play - like somehow the best parts of me, the parts that you only share with someone close, are just sort of slowly wilting away in the fading light. Maybe it'll pass with the weather. Maybe the rain and the snow and the darkness will somehow take it all away over the next few weeks, right back to where it came from. I should be so lucky.

Wireless N and Leopard

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:55:43 +0000

I know for a fact that Leopard seems to work fine with Apple's router, but I've been having a lot of problems with Leopard and my Linksys Wireless N router here at home. Once and a while it will just give itself a self-assigned IP address and that's that. The only way to fix it is to reboot my Mac and my router, which usually causes it to grab a real one. Funny thing is I can switch to my neighbours connection (sssh, don't tell), and it works fine even in that state, so it's something about the Linksys it doesn't like. Seems like there's a problem with 10.5.1 and some wireless routers. Mine actually comes up in my menu as "Device" instead of where it normally is. Strange. I've put all the settings to default as well. Looks like I might need to go buy an Apple Airport Router thing. I think I'm going to buy a Commodore 64 and a modem and go back to the world of BBS's.. They seemed to work better for me. Speaking of BBS's -- if you thought YOU were cool in high school, you better think again: That's an article in the town paper about some nerdy 15 year old kid who set up a BBS and let all the people in town connect to each other. Yah that's right, I was a pretty cool cat back then. Chicks lined up for hours to meet the ever popular "Modem Man". Oh man, check this out -> [thing to check out], it actually even has reference to mine way back then (search for Duane Storey).

New Apple iMac For Home

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:12:20 +0000

As everyone knows, I've spent the last six months battling my Macbook Pro. It's been plagued with various problems, the most severe of which lately is intermittent connectivity wherever I go. Not coming back whenever it sleeps it pretty lame too. Anyways, I went to drop it off at the repair facility, and they said it would be gone for at least two weeks. So, being the impulsive buyer that I am, I decided to pick up an iMac for home. And to be honest, I used to always use a desktop computer, even though I had a Windows laptop before. But when I got my Mac, I ended up formatting my Windows machine and turning it into a Linux server -- can't really remember why I did that. So anyways, I now have a pretty sweet iMac at home, and it's a nice change to have a fully working desktop machine hooked up to real speakers again. Unfortunately, my iMac came with Tiger and not Leopard, so until Leopard comes in the mail, I'll have to make due.

It's Time to Update Your RSS Feeds Again People

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:23:24 +0000

So tonight I was trying to figure out just how in the world I was going to go about merging multiple RSS feeds together. The end result I was trying to achieve was so my RSS feed on this site would actually have my entries from duanestorey.com as well as those from matthewgood.org. I sort of assumed that feedburner would do that for me, but it turns out you can't combine your own RSS feeds using it. The solution? Yahoo Pipes. I had never heard of it, but after doing a quick search, I learned it's the tool to use. And man oh man, is it cool. You can pick and choose different source elements, filters, operators and outputs, and make your own custom output, RSS or otherwise. Took me about 2 minutes to figure out how to merge two streams (using the Union Operator), and then output a sorted list (using the Sort Element by publication date). And Tada -- I know have a combined RSS feed on this site. Which unfortunately means all you guys should re-subscribe to it. If I would have been smart, I would have put the link on here and done the redirection myself, but my current RSS feed pointer is directly at feedburner, so all you guys have to update manually to the new one. The address is here if you want, or up above on the friendly RSS icon. ** Update - Boris showed me the folly of my ways. I've changed my feedburner link, so everyone should still be good to go. So don't change anything over.

Broken Macbook Pro

Duane Storey — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:19:49 +0000

Wow. I just spent the last 30 seconds walking around my apartment looking for my laptop so I could pack it up and take it to work like I usually do. Then I remembered that I no longer have a laptop, as it's in for servicing. Which means I can leave my big bulky bag at home today. Which is weird, and honestly, sort of feels a bit freeing. I can walk to work today and actually just enjoy the nice sunny day with my iPod. I tried finding a nice sunny autumn shot for this entry, but this Central Park Shot came up from last year, and it made me miss New York. So enjoy. PS - My new iMac kicks some serious ass. It's so nice having a desktop at home again, and being able to sit in my room and listen to music with it.. Plus, the 20" screen is also pretty decent for watching movies and TV shows. Here's a shot of me watching Heroes last night: And for the record, from the moment Noah got shot, I knew what was going to happen at the end of the show, although I thought they would hold it until the beginning of the next show.

Toronto Bound? Maybe?

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:37:18 +0000

So I spent about two hours tonight talking to Tony, and I think we both agreed on one thing -- spending New Years in our own cities was pretty fucking lame. So, right now, we're both thinking about heading to Toronto for New Year's eve, which might be a fairly large mistake for me, I'm not sure.. To be honest, I'm not sure Toronto wants to handle me for that long. I need to convince Chad and Danielle to come with me. But, I'd love to get out of Vancouver for the holidays and just be me for a while. Not Duane the programmer, or Duane the engineer, or Duane the anything.. Just duane the eyeballl smasher. I miss that guy. So, if you're in Vancouver, and can swing flying to TO for New Year's drop me a line, and let's see what we can do. PS - I haven't really eaten since coming back from Toronto a few weeks ago, so yes, I'm getting skinnier. PPS - After tomorrow, I'm done my spread of vancomycin, and it didn't work at all. I haven't really talked about it at all, but when I was in the hospital with pneumonia, I acquired a life-threatening superbug, once that is extremely hard to get rid of. So if I suddenly disappear for a few weeks at a time, it probably means i'm in the hospital on IV antibiotics. Because, besides for a serious spread of IV, the only option at this point is to remove my colon. Way to go hospital. PPPS - I routinely get people stop me off the streets and think I'm Ed Norton. I think I sort of look like it here. PPPS - I didn't mean to scare anyone with this entry -- I'm ok for now. I have a bunch of treatment options left, but nothing really has done much so far. I'm still the same old lovable me :) PPPPS - Tony said he's only going to TO if a bunch of cute canadian girls hang out with him. So you guys have to sign up and go.

Safari 3.0, Leopard and GMail

Duane Storey — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:01:20 +0000

For all of you people who upgraded to Leopard and are using GMail, you have have noticed a few weird things going on. For me, my contacts no longer auto complete properly, and periodically all the javascript in gmail stops working. I've checked a lot of newsgroups and many people are having the same problems. Apparently gmail has tried moving to a newer version that isn't really compatible with Safari 3.0 yet. The solution is to just go up to the top right in gmail and click "old version", which will roll back your GMail version to one that does work with Safari. You're welcome :)

This Made Me Laugh Out Loud

Duane Storey — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:04:02 +0000

Mainly because I hate windows and I like star trek. I removed the inline image once I realized it was 1.6 MB. You can view it here. And also a neat little tidbit of information that I learned about by reading the history on the blue screen of death. In the new Mac OS, Leopard, the Finder shows all Windows machines it finds on the network as a CRT with a Blue Screen Of Death in it. From Wikipedia Too funny.

The Weekend

Duane Storey — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:54:51 +0000

Well, here we are, at the end of another week. I'm so looking forward to relaxing a bit. There's a show tonight down at the Media Club I might go check out, but I haven't decided yet. Other than that, I'm probably going to stay close to home and get caught up on rest. December will probably be filled with lots of Christmas type things and a few parties, so I'm going to do my best not to wear myself down this month, considering I'm still on antibiotics. Good news is I saw a guy this morning who knows his stuff, and he said I should be fine and is gonna mix things up again. So in theory I should be completely over everything in a week or two. I've been working on a new theme for my blog. It's a dark background theme instead of white, and I know a bunch of you hate that, but for some reason I want to mix things up a bit. I have a cool idea for my header, but it involves photoshop working for me, and right now my copy is pooched. I'm thinking about only have my latest entry on my main page, and just having links to the other ones, or doing some Ajax transition between entries. Still thinking about it. But I want to do something that looks slightly different. I should be close to home most of the weekend, so drop me a line if you're in my hood. Also, you really need to head over immediately and check this out. It's a game that's aware of the real laws of physics (ignore that you can construct hammers and put the rotational point in a cloud for a second), and it's super super cool. Thanks to Raymi for the link.

Toronto -- It's Official

Duane Storey — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:55:11 +0000

Tony officially booked all his flights and everything for New Year's in Toronto, at which point he tossed the email-gauntlet towards me and said "what's up now?' So, I have stepped up to the challenge and have also booked a flight for Toronto. Unfortunately, flying in Canada at that time of year is pretty pricy, so my flights are all at weird times to save money (and coming home it's a three-city milk-run). The Guy On The Left Should Really Come Too I'll be spending Christmas at home with the family, and then heading out to Toronto to enjoy the cold for a few days. I'll probably have to call in a few favours and find a few couches to crash on out there, but I will definitely be showing up and enjoying some snow amongst friends.

A New Look And Feel

Duane Storey — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:52:11 +0000

My parents were both pretty concerned about me in the last couple of days, so I sort of told them I'd take it easy for a little while. So tonight, instead of going out or doing anything stupid, I decided to just stay home and play around on the computer. To keep myself busy, I thought I'd take a stab at updating my blog. I finally got photoshop working, so I was able to create a new header image. It was three layers, one which was my HDR backdrop, one which was an artistic modification of it, and the last one was of course a photo of me. I also removed a pile of plugins, some of which I sort of still like using but that I feel really slow my site down. So, hopefully it should be a lot peppier around here going forward. With Wordpress 2.3 and greater, there is the added feature of real tags in Wordpress. And while I think Wordpress botched the transition between the two (because really, it's not really a transition under the hood), it seems workable with a bit of effort. Which means I can finally ditch Ultimate Tag Warrior. It's been a busy week for blog updates, and we still have to play with Rebecca's blog soon. Thanks to Dale for giving me a few suggestions, and to Kris for letting me steal the image he took of me during the gastown photo walk. Free free to drop me a line and let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions.

Updated Content

Duane Storey — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:07:50 +0000

Since I'm knee deep with reworking this big bitch, I've updated some of the content as well. Check out the new About Page, as well as a brand new Projects Page.

Where In The World Is Duane Sandiego?

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 08:45:22 +0000

For whatever reason, it seems like all I've done lately is a pile of traveling. And don't get me wrong, a good deal of it has been for personal reasons, which is usually a lot of fun. But I just sort of realized how fortunate I am that a) my job frequently sends me places that are rather cool, and b) I somehow manage to save enough money that I can do some traveling on my own. I thought I'd compile a short list of a few of the places I've been in the last few years, along with some photos and possibly a link or two to a blog entry. This actually seems like it might be fun, so it will probably be a bit long.

Tamarindo, Costa Rica

I originally went to Costa Rica since I was the best man in my friend Jeff's wedding. We spent most of the time boogie boarding and eating nachos by the beach. The wedding day was actually a bit funny, because we were on the beach all morning, and then it was like "oh yah, I guess we have to go do that wedding thing real quick." Great time though, and it was one of the best vacations I have ever been on. Me on a boat, about an hour out of Tamarindo. In addition, Michele was one of the prettiest brides I have ever seen, and was the first one I had ever had the pleasure of photographing with my digital SLR. Michele At Sunset In Tamarindo

Tokyo, Japan

There was a big telecommunications interop event in Tokyo last year, and my work sent me and two other guys to represent. Most work trips are usually stressful since there's usually some kind of customer problem, however this one was fairly laid back and we ended up doing a lot of cool things. We hit one club that was open until 6am that was fairly wild. Me 36 Floors Above Tokyo, Paying Homage To Lost In Translation Because I'm a movie buff, and I like Bill Murray and Scarlett johansson, I made a reservation a few weeks before the trip to have dinner at the New York Grill, which for those of you who have seen Lost In Translation, is where a good portion of the movie takes place. The bar is 52 stories above Tokyo in the Park Hyatt hotel. A Quick Shot Inside The New York Grill

The Monterey Coast, California

Nearly two years ago I was attending an event in San Jose, California. My girlfriend at the time decided to meet me down there, at which point we rented a car and set out on a little adventure. We eventually made our way down the Monterey Peninsula, which was one of the prettiest drives I have ever been on. One of the highlights for me was the seventeen mile drive, which takes you along some pretty scenery, the Lone Pine, and eventually the Pebble Beach golf course, where I bought my dad a few souvenirs.

Helsinki, Finland

I spent a week visiting Nokia in Finland back in March. Part of that trip involved hanging out in Helsinki, which is of course the capital. I was there mostly by myself, so I didn't really get into too much trouble. It was rather chilly at the time, but the architecture was really amazing, as were the girls wearing short skirts in -10C weather. Downtown Helsinki, Finland

Oulu, Finland

I originally assumed I would be visiting the Nokia office in Helsinki, but when I arrived it turned out that there was sort of a miscommunication, and that I would have to get on another plane and fly to Northern Finland. Having spent some time in Whitehorse, I knew what to expect being that far north. It was fairly cool being a stone's throw away from the arctic circle again. Oulu was a rather small town, but there was plenty of beer to keep us occupied. It was sort of cool to see everyone, while completely hammered, get on bicycles and head over to another bar, even though it was like -10C and snowing. I guess that's how you get around there.

London, UK

On my way back to Canada from Europe in March, I decided to take a little pit stop and see London for my first time. I only had half a day, but I managed to get in most of the popular tour attractions. I would have really loved to spent some time in St. Paul's Cathedral, but I just couldn't swing any more time. Buckingham Palace It was a fairly cold and dismal day when I was there, and pretty much everyone I encountered was rude to me. I didn't take it personally, but I'll have to head back sometime before I really can say too much about London. I met a few people in the Dominican from London, and they were super awesome people who told me to come visit sometime.

New York City, USA

This city really needs no introduction. Having spent my entire childhood in a rather small town, watching movies typically featuring New York, it had always been a dream of mine to visit it. So last summer I decided to grab a cheap flight and head out there for four days, completely on my own. I found a cheap hostel downtown and spent most of my time exploring Midtown and Lower Manhattan. While some of my vacations typically revolve around sightseeing and relaxing, it's fair to say that this one basically revolved around drinking. Times Square, Taken Shortly After Arriving In New York City My hostel was about a ten minute walk from Times Square, which made it fairly central to all the main tourist destinations. It was my first (and most likely last) time in a hostel, and it was a fairly weird experience that I don't think I'd want to do again. A Shot From The Rockefeller Center Being the nerdy and unusually charismatic person that I am, I somehow managed to acquire a whole pile of cell phone numbers from locals on my first night in the bar, so I spent a lot of time pounding back shooters and attempting to speak passable french to some locals who thought it was the coolest thing ever. I even met a bunch of Irish guys who, for whatever reason, thought Bryan Adams (affectionately known as the 'Groover From Vancouver' in Ireland apparently) was the best thing since sliced bread Drinking At Tonic In New York City I spent a good portion of my time during the days there just wandering around Central Park. To be honest, I pretty much fell in love with the city when I was there, and was a bit sad to leave. The Last Shot I Took In New York I'd love to go back sometime if I can ever convinced my company to send me for something.

Banff, Canada

I love camping, and I really wish I had more time to go camping each year. In fact, my camping gear is basically always in the back of my car in the odd event someone calls me and says "let's go." Last summer I decided to take my new car on a road trip, and somehow ended up in Banff, Alberta. I filled the campground up with a bunch of booze, and ended up hanging out with a group of Japanese people that were a load of fun. Drinking in Inveremere When I got tired of camping I met my friend Joyce in Calgary and partied with her for a little bit, ultimately hitting a little town called Inveremere for a dragon boat party.

Las Vegas, USA

Back in June, my buddy Matt was house sitting a fairly nice house with a pool in Las Vegas, NV. On a whim, he decided to host a private party for some of his friends and a handful of fans in the area. Rebecca and I flew down to hang out with him for a few hours on his birthday and listen to him perform a few songs from Hospital Music. Matt Playing Guitar on His Birthday Afterwards, Rebecca and I bounced around the strip for a few hours, eventually settling on a bar where I could work over an $18 margarita. It was insanely hot, somewhere around 40C in the early evening I believe. The Las Vegas Strip

Vancouver, Canada

Well, I live in Vancouver, so it's not like a traveled to get here. However, this fits in nicely with talking about Las Vegas, since I first met Tony Pierce in Vegas at Matt's birthday show. Shortly afterwards, Tony thought he'd come up and check out all the snow in Vancouver Keira, Adam and Tony Hanging At My Place, Summer 2007 On the night of the fireworks in Vancouver, I had a mini get together at my place and then we all headed down to the beach (which is only a short walk from my pad) to watch them. A Shot Of The Fireworks. This Is One Of My Favourite Shots.

San Francisco, USA

I awoke early in the morning in Las Vegas and grabbed another plane, heading to the west coast again to spend a few days with my friends Jason and Sheila. I unfortunately got some nasty cold on the plane ride over, and ended up leaving early because I was feeling terrible. A Shot Of San Francisco I Took While Flying Home

Ottawa, Canada

I'm no stranger to Ottawa, having spent my first two years out of university living in the high tech sector there. At the time, I was part of a team of engineers that manufactured fiber optic components, many of which now make your porn and MP3 stealing possible. I recently ended up back there for my friend Rob's wedding, and it was a really great couple of days that totally made me miss living out east. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think in general people are just a bit friendlier out there when compared to Vancouver. It was the first time in a long time where pretty much everyone I ran into gave me a huge hug (I'm a big fan of hugs), even people I hardly knew. A Shot Of Me Introducing Myself To A Few Of The Locals

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

At about 2am on the night of Rob's wedding in Ottawa, I had to leave so that I could make a 7am flight in Montreal which would ultimately put me in the Dominican Republic. I was actually going to get a $20 bus at around that time, but drunken Boris and a few other people convinced me that we should all get a limo and party all the way to Montreal. So, instead of a $20 limo, we all sort of split a limo to Montreal. Of course, Rob (the groom) packed it full of beers for us on the condition we take his little brother with us and show him a good time. Mission accomplished. Some Of The Limo People. Photo by Boris Mann Prior to my injury last November, I was actually supposed to attend my friend Bob's wedding in Mexico. However, due to the first round of surgery on my eye socket, I was forced to cancel that trip (and subsequently lost my entire $2000 I had spent on it). So, it had basically been about two years since I actually had a real, relaxing break. I had originally decided to spend a week just traveling around Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal on my own, but had a few friends ultimately convince me that it would be rather depressing. So, I ended up booking a last minute all inclusive vacation to the Dominican Republic. Sunset Near The Pool At The Blue Bay Getaway I really didn't know how the trip would turn out, since I didn't really go with anyone in particular. However, I had a really great time, and met a lot of cool people from all over the world. It was a bit more low-key than I envisioned, which ultimately was probably a good thing. A Couple Girls From Spain That I Ended Up Hanging Out With

Seattle, USA

Well, Seattle is pretty close to Vancouver, so I guess it's not really that exciting. That being said, I got pretty exhausted from working earlier this year and ended up taking a week off. I didn't want to go very far so I hit Seattle for a few days and explored. Funny story. A few weeks before that, a recruiter from Seattle contacted me at work and asked me if I wanted a new job. Thanks to the power of google, I found out a bit about her, and had a pretty good idea that she was a drinker. So, when I showed up in Seattle, I gave her a quick call and told her to meet me at the bar with bells on and recruit away. My Friend Lynn In Seattle Anyways, we ended up drinking pretty much all night, and somehow ended up being friends. She was nice enough to courier me a pretty awesome basket of flowers on my birthday this year.

Toronto, Canada

A few months ago, I was going to check out Matt's Vancouver show with a few friends, but ended up somehow getting pneumonia instead. Over the course of six days, I somehow went from feeling really good to having a partially collapsed left lung, which obviously caused me to be hospitalized. I unfortunately had to miss the show, and spent a few weeks off work getting my system back up to working condition. After checking the tour schedule, I realized Matt was playing in Toronto at Massey Hall during the same weekend that the Toronto Blogslayer was occurring. So I decided I would head down and check them both out. Matthew Good, Massey Hall Show If I could pick a single event in my mind that would represent this year, it would be watching that concert from stage right along with Raymi, Patrick, Dale, Sarah and Phil. It was such an incredible experience, and it's pretty much forever etched into my brain. Afterwards we ended up at Christie's place for a Halloween party, although I don't think I actually met Christie there (way to go Raymi). I remember spending most of that night on the patio out back, somehow convinced it was going to give way and plunge us all to our death. Halloween With Raymi, Pitt and Chad The next night was of course the infamous eyeball smashing night, where I got to hang out with Chad, Raymi, Phil, Tony and Christie mostly. Some Dude Smashing An Eyeball With His Ass, Video By Raymi It was a wicked (and very quick) weekend, and I'm definitely looking forward to heading back in about six weeks for another round (hopefully this time I'll be completely healthy and in full on drinking mode). Christie and Raymi Looking back over the course of the last two years, I got to see a lot of interesting places, and meet a lot of very cool people, some of which I'm thankful to call friends now. For a guy who hates stepping on airplanes, I sure have gotten around. I actually thought this entry would only be a few sections long, but once I got started it just started snowballing.

More Research That Caffeine Is Bad For You

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 03:53:54 +0000

I've posted a few times on this subject, but this is a new paper that's hot off the presses. Once thought to help with weight loss, caffeine has recently been cast in a new light as actually contributing to weight gain. Even caffeinated diet pop can lead to weight gain, due to increased insulin secretion in the body.

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study with periods of 7 days and washouts of 5 days comparing caffeine with placebo capsules was conducted. Participants were 16 healthy adults aged 18 to 22 years with a history of caffeine consumption. Blood samples from each subject were assayed for glucose, insulin, serum cortisol, DHEA, and androstenedione on the eighth day of each period after an overnight fast. Nighttime salivary melatonin was also measured. Insulin levels were significantly higher (by 1.80 muU/mL; 95% confidence interval, 0.33-3.28) after caffeine intake than after placebo. The homeostasis model assessment index of insulin sensitivity was reduced by 35% (95% confidence interval, 7%-62%) by caffeine. There were no differences in glucose, DHEA, androstenedione, and melatonin between treatment periods. This study provides evidence that daily caffeine intake reduces insulin sensitivity; the effect persists for at least a week and is evident up to 12 hours after administration.

Having excess insulin in your blood makes it hard for your body to break down fat, so in essence caffeine can slow weight loss efforts. You can read the whole paper here Beth.

Designing A Site For Cross-Browser Support

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:08:08 +0000

As you can plainly see, I spent some time updating my blog theme the other day. One of the main problems whenever anyone does any web development is still unfortunately in the area of supporting multiple browsers. Usually a design that at first looks good in your development browser might look a bit weird in IE or another one. It takes a lot of effort sometimes to make a site work in multiple browsers, something that should not be lost on those who visit sites frequently. For the most part, I'm lazy in this area. I generally target Sarfari and Firefox, and just sort of pray that it works in IE7 and above. For the most part that's worked our nicely for me, but I rarely do anything complicated with my themes. I know several designers that are forced to still support IE6, which is apparently extremely difficult, and for them they have my sympathies. I'm still rather amazed at the number of websites that don't properly support Safari or any Mac browsers to be honest. I good example of this is Canada's Low Cost Airline, WestJet. Upon hitting their website from a Mac, you are promptly told that your browser isn't supported, and to try switching to something else. Of course, switching to something else doesn't appear to work either, so it looks like the proplem is related to Macs. I understand people with personal websites that might only target the browser they typically use (since it takes extra resources and time to test others), but I would think that corporations would spend more time trying to support the majority browsers out there.

Trial Brother HL-4050 Printer

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:42:32 +0000

So a while ago Darren posted on his blog that Brother was looking for a few west coast bloggers to potentially review a printer or two. Considering I take a ton of photos and ultimately end up printing a pile of them out, I thought it might be a good opportunity to test out a fairly nice printer from Brother. Well, this big boy showed up at work today, and once I figure out just how in the world I'm going to get it home, I'll test it out and see what it can do. I plan to try printing out a bunch of my artwork to see how it performs in that capacity, as well as a few other tests with the card readers. Thanks to Darren for getting this going. ** Update - my final review is available here.

Vancouver IETF

Duane Storey — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:16:32 +0000

For those of you who don't know, the Internet Engineering Task Force is a group of people that ultimately decide the technologies that will ultimately be engrained into the internet. UDP, TCP, SSL, HTTP - these are all examples of technologies that were originally put through the IETF before becoming standards. Next week, the 70th IETF meeting will be hosted here in Vancouver. A bunch of people from our company usually participate in the sessions, and I might swing by and check out what's new and exciting. One of the best parts about meetings like this is that it brings together a bunch of the amazingly bright people in the industry that I usually only see once a year. I believe I've even offered my couch to someone during that time, and for sure there will be a few nerdy drinking sessions (assuming I can drink next week). I'll probably do a few posts next week as all the activities unfold, and will hopefully snap a few photos from within the IETF, which will probably be down at the Westin on the water I believe.

Windows Vista Rated One Of The Worse Products Ever

Duane Storey — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:19:52 +0000

From here Windows Vista rated one of the worse products ever by CNET:

Any operating system that provokes a campaign for its predecessor's reintroduction deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that quietly has a downgrade-to- previous-edition option introduced for PC makers deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that takes six years of development but is instantly hated by hordes of PC professionals and enthusiasts deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Windows Vista conforms to all of the above. Its incompatibility with hardware, its obsessive requirement of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings and its abusive use of hated DRM, not to mention its general pointlessness as an upgrade, are just some examples of why this expensive operating system earns the final place in our terrible tech list.

Given that the first purchase of a Mac I made this year was basically the result of me installing Vista on my laptop, I can totally understand this. Anyone reading this actually use Vista and like it?

Relationships

Duane Storey — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:11:48 +0000

I have no idea where this even came from, because Joe is already married, but for some reason we started talking about long distance relationships tonight on IM. This isn't really a Duanerism, but whatever -- reading it after the fact it basically represents how I fell about these kind of things: My last relationship started as a long distance one, and I spent a good portion of most weekends traveling. To be honest, it's probably not something I would do again unless I met someone truly extraordinary. That being said, I would easily give up my job for someone I honestly cared about, and would happily pump gas the rest of my life if it meant I could wrap my arms around someone I truly loved every night.

And while going through my archives tonight I found this entry I did about six months ago that I think is one of the best things I've ever written, so you should definitely check it out and chime in - Diamonds are not forever.

Facebook S'Macebook

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:51:32 +0000

Is it just me, or is facebook getting a little old these days? Except for the event planning thing, which I think is fairly useful, there's not really a lot about it that I really think is that great anymore. And to be honest, I'm getting a little tired of saying ignore to things like the funwall, or turkey tossing and what have you. I know people are just having a little fun with it, but I'm just not that interested in alot of those things everyone is inviting each other with. It's not really a big deal, as I don't get enough of them to where it takes a lot of time out of my day, I just don't really get the appeal is all I guess. It would be nice if facebook kept track of which apps you've said no to, and would automatically pull you out of invitation lists based on your past history. If I've said no to funwall once, chances are I don't really want it.

Last Vista Bash, Promise

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:57:29 +0000

I just read this while surfing the internet - that in a comparison of Windows XP SP3 against Vista SP1, XP blew it completely out of the water:

Vista's first service pack, to be released early next year, is intended to boost the operating system's performance. However, when Vista with the Service Pack 1 (SP1) beta was put through benchmark testing by researchers at Florida-based software development company Devil Mountain Software, the improvement was not overwhelming, leaving the latest Windows iteration outshined by its predecessor. Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP's 35 seconds.

80 seconds in Vista. 35 seconds in XP. It can be yours for only $200, plus associated hardware upgrades. Oh, and while I'm at it, check this out. Do you have a windows box at home that randomly starts playing classical music? Think your ears are playing tricks on you? No, guess again! Here's the actual excerpt from the Microsoft Support issue around the random music.

During normal operation or in Safe mode, your computer may play "Fur Elise" or "It's a Small, Small World" seemingly at random. This is an indication sent to the PC speaker from the computer's BIOS that the CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance. This is a design feature of a detection circuit and system BIOSes developed by Award/Unicore from 1997 on.

Pure awesome. I think this guy below just upgraded to Vista and was a tad pissed off: Ok I'm done now.

Shot Of The Moon

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:30:36 +0000

The moon looked really cool tonight, so I popped on the longest zoom lens I have in the house, the 70-200mm f/2.8L, and fired a few shots off of my balcony. I think it turned out not bad, considering I hand held it. If I had an extender I could probably do an even better job.

The Dead Of Winter

Duane Storey — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:08:21 +0000

Vancouver, being a coastal city surrounded by mountains, has one of the most moderate climates in all of Canada. The average temperature in the summer probably hovers around 20C or so, and in the winter, rarely drops below 0C. Last time I checked, only one out of every five Christmases in Vancouver is white. And despite the relatively warm temperatures here, walking the streets of this city in winter you'll see the homeless struggling to keep warm, often forced to cover themselves with newspapers, cardboard boxes, or whatever damp clothing can be found in the dumpsters. Every night, they find whatever protection from the elements they can, wrap themselves up, and go to sleep. Now imagine if you will cities like Toronto, Winnipeg or Ottawa, where temperatures in the winter can fall to -30C and below. At these temperatures saliva will freeze rapidly, and skin will crack from the cold. And yet, many of the homeless are forced to endure these conditions, night after night, month after month, hoping that each time they close their eyes they will be afforded the luxury of opening them again in the morning. It must be a terrible thing to live with that fear.

While Canada is experiencing a strong economy, anti-poverty advocates say that low welfare rates, lack of affordable housing, and low minimum wage are all contributing to an increase in homelessness. Toronto has the largest homeless population in the country at 5,052. Of those, 3,649 live in shelters while some 818 sleep outside. Toronto has an average of two homeless deaths per week. These, according to Crowe, result from a multitude of causes: accidents, trauma, beatings, disease, hate crimes, and hypothermia. A vigil is held once a month for those who die on the streets. Vancouver is not faring much better. A report released by Pivot Legal Society in September said the city is on the brink of a social housing crisis and called for action from all levels of government. The Downtown Eastside legal advocacy group predicts that Vancouver's homeless population of 2,175 will triple by 2010 when the city hosts the Winter Olympics. [1]

So let it not be forgotten that as the holiday season approaches and most of us take to battling long lines in malls, an important group of people will be battling instead for their very lives, each and every night out on the streets. And many of them, despite the efforts of others, will not make it through the coming winter.

Loving Music

Duane Storey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:28:20 +0000

So it's weird. When I was about 19 years old, I picked up my first guitar, which at the time was a Fender Strat electric. Surprisingly, I didn't really know how to play, but it was something I was always interested in doing so my mom surprised me and picked me up a guitar. I spent the next few years pissing my roommates off by walking around my dorm room playing Green Day and whatever else was popular at the time. When I hit the age of about 25, I sort of just gave music up completely, probably because I didn't really have much time and I wasn't really making much progress. About two weeks ago, I picked up a guitar for the first time in years, and it actually felt really good to play again. I've spent most evenings since then playing as much guitar as I can (my fingers aren't used to it anymore, so I'm having to rebuild callouses on my fingertips to be able to play - it's painful right now). Since everyone seems to be using Garageband these days, I've also been dabbling in that. I figured something out tonight that should save me a lot of time. I used to record the entire guitar track all at once for a song, but that would take a long time and if you made one mistake, you'd have to redo the whole thing. Now I've figured out how to record small sections and loop them together. Probably not great for an actual recording, but it works well enough for quick takes of things. Tonight I sat down with the intent to try and create a song in Garageband from scratch, basically just for the learning experience. I didn't really have any ideas when I sat down, but I just sort of picked a key and started strumming. It's nowhere near done, but I sort of like it so far. I haven't come up with the ending yet or finished the lyrics, but it's sort of falling together. Or I might just give up on it, who knows. You can sort of see the obvious gaps where lyrics should go, although there are some fills missing. I only have a crappy USB mic at home, so I can't really record anything that great. Also, my acoustic is a hunk of garbage that vibrates weird. I wouldn't mind throwing some piano parts in a few places, but it's just too time consuming using the keyboard to do the notes. Tom Lee has a pretty cheap USB keyboard that does MIDI, so I was thinking about maybe picking that up in the near future and testing it out. I'll probably mess around with this some more on the weekend if I have some time.

An Update From Fort Duane

Duane Storey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:15:52 +0000

Yesterday I didn't really have much time to blog, and I doubt I will today either. I've just been a bit busy with everything. Looking outside right now, it looks like there's an official snow line in the mountains around downtown, which probably means skiing and snowboarding will start soon. It's a fairly nice day in Vancouver (in fact, it's been really nice this winter so far), and you can check out a live feed if you want at KatKam.ca: Live Feed From The Kat Kam That camera is about one block from my apartment. What else is new. Well, I'm still feeling a bit under the weather in terms of my health. Tomorrow is a little party at work, followed by hanging out with John and Rebecca for a while. A I haven't pulled my camera out really for a few weeks, so I'm looking forward to snapping a few photos before I rust from lack of use. Sunday I may try to sort things out around home, pay some bills, and finally get XP running on my iMac at home. Should be a busy weekend.

Canada Post's "Real-Time" Tracking

Duane Storey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:12:23 +0000

I currently have a package en-route to Toronto, and have been trying to locate where it is. I sent it priority courier with Canada Post, since that was the simplest option. Surprisingly, their "real-time" tracking number isn't real-time at all, and basically has a 24 hour lag to it. So in the case of an over-night delivery (which I paid extra for), nobody will be able to locate the package until a day after it should have been delivered. I just got off the phone from a lady at Canada Post, and her questions were the real-world equilalent of "is your computer on?" type tech questions. She asked if the recipient had a door that the package could be dropped off at, and if the buzzer worked there. I was like, "yeah I assume so, where's the package?" Of course, they have no idea, and won't know until tomorrow when some student punches the numbers into a computer or something -- maybe it's at a bar somewhere enjoying some local beer, who knows. Is it just me, or does that seem broken somehow?

Say It Aint So Devon

Duane Storey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:01:21 +0000

Looks like the first shots of KITT are out from the upcoming TV series based on the old show Knight Rider. From here. As you can see, it's a Ford Shelby GT. Personally, I think it looks rather stupid, but that's just me. Maybe I'm just a bit nastalgic, and miss the old version of KITT.

Off The Sauce

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:01:27 +0000

Today was a strange day. I woke up this morning and went down to the clinic to get the results of some tests I had done this week. If you've been keeping up with my saga, I somehow got a digestive infection when I was in the hospital with pneumonia a few months ago. It's not contagious or anything - about 10% of people in the hospital get it after a week, and over 50% of people generally get it after four weeks in a hospital. You typically don't get this unless your body is hit with a really hard broad-spectrum anti-biotic, which in my case was clyndamycin in the hosital. This type of antibiotic actually ends up killing all the helpful bacteria in your stomach and intestines, making your susceptible to other infections such as the one I got (since the good bacteria normally fight it off for you). The main symptom I have is bad stomach cramps, usually in the morning. Other than that, I don't have a fever or anything (which is another symptom). Unfortunately, this infection can be life threatening if it doesn't go away, although it's not something that typically gets to that stage in someone my age. I've been on two anti-biotic regimens already for it. One was flagyl out in Ottawa, and the other one was vancomycin in Vancouver here. The flagyl actually helped a lot, but once I finished it the symptoms slowly returned. The vancomycin didn't really help at all. Anyways. I was waiting on two tests, one of which would say whether this infection was still present, and the other that would say whether or not it was still hurting me (since many people actually are carriers of it, but it's not harmful to them). The one that indicated whether it was harmful or not came back negative, which made my doctor happy. I left the clinic this morning thinking I was all over it, and that the little bit of symptoms I had were just the end result of being on anti-biotics for nearly two months now. However, I got a voice mail on my phone this evening from my doctor. He called a few specialists at St. Paul's hospital to go over all my results with them. Based on my symptoms, and the fact that the second test came back saying I still had the infection present, they have decided to keep treating me. Which means starting tonight, I'm on a 28 day spread of flagyl. Thankfully the dose has been increased to where it should be, and I fully except to be symptom free in just a few days (after about three days I felt nearly perfect again in Ottawa -- the only thing is they only gave me a 10 day prescription when they probably should have given be at least 14). So, a few minutes ago I took my first pills. I have a small function to go to tomorrow night, and I briefly considered postponing medication until Sunday, but truth is I just want this behind me as fast as possible, so I might as well get started. The shitty thing is that I can't drink any alcohol at all while on this medication since it can cause heart palpitations, severe headaches, flushing, nausea, and all sorts of nasty side effects. Unfortunately, that means I'll be off the sauce for every single party in December, except for of course those around New Years when I should be off all anti-biotics, and finally back to my old self. I know my health is more important than a few parties, but I won't lie and say I'm not disappointed by the recent turn of events. For sure I'll still have a good time and do all the things I normally do, including attending all parties in December, I just won't be able to participate in the drunken debauchery (I will however still participate in sober debauchery). I spent a bit of time talking to my parents tonight, and of course they were their usual supportive selves, which I obviously appreciate. This year has just been a never-ending series of problems and disappointments, and it seems like the light at the end of every tunnel just reveals the next tunnel waiting up ahead. I sincerely hope that after this batch of antibiotics that everything, including my injury 12 months ago, will finally be all behind me.

Congrats To Tony Pierce

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:18:27 +0000

I heard little bits of pieces of this last night, but just managed to read the real blog entry today. Tony Pierce is going to be leaving LAist and will be heading over to the LA Times to run all of their blogs. Congrats Tony, that's really awesome. First beer's on me out in TO bud.

More Memory

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 21:00:44 +0000

My iMac has been a bit slow when using photoshop or garageband, so today, after picking up Hesty from the airport, I stopped at NCIX and picked up some more memory for it. When I got home, I actually had a hard time figuring out just where the memory went. I finally found out where -- there's a little panel on the very bottom of the iMac that comes off easily with one screw. After that, you just slide in the SODIMM chip and you're up and running again in just a few minutes. Pretty slick, especially compared to how much trouble it was to upgrade the Mac Mini at work (I actually had to use a cheese slicer to pry that thing open).

Birthdays

Duane Storey — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:40:19 +0000

Believe it or not, not one but two of my friends are celebrating birthdays today. First, is my good friend Jeff from Chilliwack. We've been friends for a long, long time now. Jeff In Costa Rica I actually sort of met Jeff in grade nine math class, when him and I would team up and blow spitballs into Margo's hair instead of doing derivatives. Good times indeed. And of course, today is also Keira's birthday. I haven't known Keira as long as Jeff, but in the time I've known her she's been a good friend, and she's obviously a great gal -- I wish her the all best for her 27th birthday. Last night a bunch of us had an impromptu gathering down in Gastown to celebrate: Rebecca and Keira Last Night Happy Birthday guys.. Go out and enjoy the snow today!

Lightning

Duane Storey — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:29:10 +0000

On Saturday, I went down to the airport to pick up my friend Hesty. I just noticed he posted some kick ass photos on his Flickr stream, and I thought I'd show one of them here. Very cool man. Did you hold a golf club up in the air while taking these? Also, I started a Flickr group for drunken/funny cell phone messages. If you have any, go nuts.

Lost In Some Loopholes

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:13:14 +0000

A while ago I wrote an entry about Megan Meier, a 13 year old girl who was driven to commit suicide by means of a fake MySpace user account. Megan, Image from CNN A few minutes ago I read this article which indicates that no one involved in this tragedy will be prosecuted whatsoever.

St. Charles County, Missouri, Prosecuting Attorney Jack Banas said an 18-year-old woman posed as "Josh" on MySpace to find out what Megan was saying about a neighbor's daughter. The message said Megan was "mean" to her friends, Banas said. "There is no way that anybody could know that talking to someone or saying that you're mean to your friends on the Internet would create a substantial risk," Banas said. "It certainly created a potential risk and, unfortunately for the Meiers, that potential became reality. But under the law we just couldn't show that." But Banas said that conclusion doesn't mean no one is to blame. "Regardless of what we can charge or what we can't charge, there is no question the adults should have said something to stop this," he said. Asked whether he is satisfied with laws pertaining to the case, Banas said, "The bottom line is there are some -- I think -- loopholes that I think need to be cleaned up."

Obviously this whole incident clearly demonstrates that the laws in this area are in serious need of a massive overhaul. It's hard for me to fathom how a group of people can psychologically abuse a little girl to the point where she kills herself and somehow get off without even a slap on the wrist. I sincerely hope that this isn't entirely over, and that additional efforts will be taken to bring about either prosecution of those involved or changes in the laws that apply (or rather should apply) to a case like this.

Tired

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:11:28 +0000

Sorry for the lack of entries around here. I've been meaning to write something, but whenever I find a few minutes worth of time, nothing really comes to mind. First, I'm on day three of new antibiotics. Good news is that I feel a lot better again, which is a big relief and a really good sign in terms of outcome. Unfortunately, because the dosage is a bit larger, I'm finding that some of the side effects, namely headaches, are a bit worse as well. Also, I find myself extremely tired. The last few nights I've come home with the intention on lying down for a few minutes, only to take up hours later. After eating a few slices of pizza tonight, I passed right out, waking up nearly three hours later on the couch again. I've never been one to have a good night's sleep, and have sort of struggled with that my whole life. There are only a few periods where I can remember sleeping through the entire night, and for the most part, it's fairly common for me to wake up five to ten times during a normal night. And while I usually fall back asleep right away, the process can be a bit exhausting, and usually leaves me a bit groggy during the day. Which is why it's sort of nice that lately I've just been sort of passing out and somehow managing to get lots of sleep. Granted waking up at 10pm when you usually go to bed around 11:30pm on a work night is not really a great idea, but so far it hasn't hurt me too much. Granville Island Is Across The Water In This Shot I have a social event on Wednesday night to attend if I'm feeling up to it, as well as Chad's Christmas party on Friday night. Next week starts all the festivities in my little sphere, including our company's Christmas party which is taking place at Bridges on Granville Island. Should be some great times, and some good photo ops (although I'm still struggling to figure out what I'm going to wear to my Christmas party). That's it for now -- I think I might clean up a bit and head back to bed. Also, head on over to matthewgood.org and check out the interview Matthew did on the Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

Laptop Update

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:10:20 +0000

I know everyone is absolutely dying to know the current state of my laptop, so here's an update. I called down this afternoon and they said the LCD is toast on it which is why I've probably been having a pile of problems with sleep and things of that nature. A new one has been ordered and hopefully I can pick it up in a few days. It will be weird having a laptop again as I've gotten fairly used to using my desktop machine at home now. Also, I'm going to do a blog entry tonight on the end of Heroes season two. Should be awesomely nerdy.

Living In A Cave

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:23:45 +0000

I had a guy come up to me at work today (yes, you know who you are) and complain because my blog didn't look good in IE6. If you're using IE6, and you've having problems, here's what you should do:

Upgrade to a real browser!!!

Seriously, Firefox is free and I believe so is IE7 now. I really don't have the time to customize every theme for every browser. IE6 is old and it's so not standards compliant it's not even funny. Stop living in a cave and upgrade to something decent already. And if you don't want to, then subscribe to my RSS feed and read my blog that way.

Heroes Season Two Finale

Duane Storey — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:24:22 +0000

WARNING - MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: I've said it before, and I'll say it again - you can't have a show based on heroes that are near invincible. You just can't. Heroes have to be flawed, or have some element that makes them weak, otherwise there's really nothing for an audience to identify with. Peter is the prime example - he's really unstoppable, and while I used to get excited seeing him onscreen, now he just takes up screen time, mostly with a bunch of whiny morality. The only person who can really challenge him is Sylar, and for whatever reason that left him without any power at all for *the entire season*. Not really a bright decision. And his girlfriend, now stuck in the future? Seriously dude, I don't know much about chicks, but you should probably go and get her. I imagine by now she's pretty pissed off, which means you're probably going to be sleeping on the couch for a while dude. This season was full of plot threads, most of which didn't really go anywhere. I mean, that girl and her brother from South America - who the hell cares? We spent how many episodes tracking them to New York City, only to have buddy get killed last episode? By a knife? Did he get his super power down at Walmart or something? What the hell did he do again? I wish they would have killed them both right off the bat because honestly, they aren't that interesting. In terms of Claire and Adam, the writers have opened a whole can of worms by having their blood heal everyone. I mean, we've seen two people now come back from the dead with it, so I think the effect of seeing someone get killed in future episodes is going to be dampened. I mean, in theory Peter's blood should probably cure people as well, since they've stated that his DNA adapts to take other people's powers. So they basically have three people that can cure everyone. Unless of course you shoot Peter in the head, since apparently that will kill him. This season at least. Just don't make the mistake of stabbing a large piece of glass directly into his brain though, because that apparently doesn't last. I was really hoping that Hiro and Adam would have a final battle. The way that thread ended was fairly lame if you ask me. I guess there aren't many alternatives, because in theory Hiro can simply stop time and put a sword through Adam's head, but they should have come up with something a little better if you ask me. Seems like a waste to spend all season developing Adam only to have him ultimately locked away in a casket thanks to a fairly obvious move by Hiro. I mean, how long did Adam think he could talk to Hiro before Hiro got bored and jumped through time and space to kill him? That move is about as stupid as walking up to Sylar with a dotted line around your head and a shirt that says "superhero." Another thing I don't really understand is why all the first generation Heroes, including Hiro's dad, feared Adam for some reason. I mean, so he can heal himself, big deal. Other than that, he's not really that threatening. In 16th century feudal Japan when everyone had swords, I can see a guy who can heal and take people down one at a time as being maybe a bit menacing. But in 21st century New York City, where every cop is carrying a gun or a taser and has access to a pile of backup, I really don't see how he could get away with too much. In a surprising twist, I actually think Elle is the most interesting character right now. She has a wicked cool super power, and unlike most of the other characters, she already knows how to use hers properly -- while most other characters are still discovering their super powers, the bit of discovery going on with Elle is within herself, which is awesome. When I think back to 24, with Jack Bauer, and how that series has changed, I remember the character moments they used to give Jack that they don't have time for anymore. Like when he got into his car that one time and paused before starting it, simply breaking down. Or when George gives Jack that speech in the plane about what it means to be a real hero. I mean, those are defining moments that set characters apart and show that your writing staff actually cares about the characters. You don't see many moments like that in Heroes, the exception really being a few moments with Noah. And that's really what I think makes Elle interesting right now, is they are taking a bit of time to flesh her and her backstory out and shape her as a real person, complete with flaws. I absolutely love the scene in the last episode when Elle threatens to make Noah talk near the end, to which he replied "you can try." And then her power sort of fizzles out as she realizes she probably wouldn't be able to make him talk, and then, doing something she probably has never done before, caves in and says "please." At this point she's no longer the confident puppet of Primatech Paper company, but instead is simply a scared, sad little girl, trying to figure out who she really is. Jump forward ten minutes when she realizes that she just saved the group of people from Sylar and simply says "cool". Yup, she's awesome. Obviously this season was cut short by the writer's strike, so who really knows what the real story line was in its entirety. I actually thought there were some really great parts to this season, but in general I think it wasn't that great. There were simply way too many character arcs, most of which didn't really serve any purpose. The director has even said they should have exposed the virus plot in one of the first episodes instead of waiting until the 7th or whatever it was, and I totally agree. Before that, there really wasn't anything joining any of the threads together, and it simply became a bunch of arcs that really should have been left on the cutting room floor. I think there is the potential to have season three but awesome, but I think they basically blew it with season two. Only time will tell though.

Launch Party With A Twist

Duane Storey — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:10:19 +0000

~~Tomorrow night~~ Tonight there is a Vancouver technology mixer down at the trendy night club Republic on Granville Street. I haven't been out to one of these in a long time, mainly because I've been feeling a bit under the weather for the last few months, but I think I'm going to check it out tomorrow. Launch Party recently launched a new website, and if you look very, very closely, you may recognize the header image on it :) So, hopefully I'll still feel like heading out tomorrow. I will be good to catch up with some old tech friends and see what's new. Plus, it gives me an excuse to go buy a new shirt or something tomorrow at lunch.

Changes At Flickr

Duane Storey — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:44:54 +0000

I just read that you can now edit your photos online at Flickr, which is a pretty cool feature. You can read about it here.

Launch Party With A Twist 2

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:57:11 +0000

Tonight I went down to the Republic to partake in the second Launch Party. It's basically a mixer for technology enthusiasts, and an opportunity for a few startups to showcase their new products. There were about 150 people that probably showed up, and it got rather tight and cramped at times, but it was cool meeting a lot of the people involved, and hanging out with a few old friends. The Sxip Girls I'm still on some drugs, so I refrained from drinking, which was actually rather nice in a way since I spent $0 at the function tonight. Maura On Television I'm not really sure why the TV people were there, or even if it really was for television, but there were a few cameras rolling around with bright lights. Some Dude I had a good night, and I'm glad I checked it out. Also, thanks to everyone who hadn't seen me in a while who gave me a hug. .

Busy Busy Busy

Duane Storey — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:42:30 +0000

Sorry I haven't written anything for a few days, I've just been swamped trying to get my act together for December. First order of business is crazy Chad's Christmas party tonight out near Metrotown. Next week is my Christmas party at work, which is out on the water at Bridges, so that should be a good time. A Cleaner Version Of Me I'm now seven days without any type of booze at all, and so far I haven't really noticed that much. In fact, my bank account is in pretty decent shape thanks to not going out for dinners and drinks after work at all this week, which is rather nice. Thanks to the meds I'm on, I've started to get some headaches. So far I've been able to counter them with a nice dose of advil, but I sure hope they don't get any worse. My ex-girlfriend called me late the other night and told me that she had decided to move back home. I haven't really talked to her in about six months, so seeing her number on my call display was a bit weird. But I want to wish her all the best on Vancouver Island. Best Of Luck Desiree I while ago I apparently missed the article in the Vancouver Province about Martina Franko. She's a Canadian soccer player who I did a photo shoot for some time ago for in conjunction with the soccer company, Puma. You can check out the article here, which also includes a photo from that shoot. The rest of the shots from that shoot can be found in my Flickr stream. In just a few short weeks I'll be back home for the holidays, and then heading out each for a few days of R & R in Toronto. I'm totally looking forward to a nice break away from Vancouver, and it will be nice to be around snow again and hopefully see some people I haven't seen in a while. I'm going to spend all of tomorrow basically shopping and trying to get my place in order. I need some new sheets for my bed, as well as some groceries for a few events coming up.

So It Begins - Wireless During Flights

Duane Storey — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:06:48 +0000

JetBlue is about to launch a beta Airbus 320 plane that features in flight wireless. Pretty cool. Check it out here.

In a welcome first for domestic airlines, JetBlue will be rolling out free in-flight Yahoo IM and email services to passengers packing WiFi-equipped devices, starting aboard its new "BetaBlue" Airbus A320. Once this test-bed passenger jet reaches 10,000 feet, an in-plane network with three in-ceiling access points is activated, allowing most any wireless gadget with a Flash-enabled browser to view specialized versions of either Yahoo Messenger or Mail through a universal landing page. What's more, owners of certain BlackBerry handsets like the 8820 or Curve 8320 can keep feeding their addictions non-stop thanks to an agreement between JetBlue and RIM.

Tired

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 09:51:16 +0000

I'm bagged, and I'm hitting the sack. For now, if you want to see the photos from Chad and Danielle's Christmas party, you can click here. I'll write more tomorrow after I sleep like a log.

Chad And Danielle's Christmas Party

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:19:49 +0000

Last night I made the long trek out of the downtown core and ended up near Metrotown, which surprisingly isn't as far away as I imagined. Chad has a really nice pad out there, complete with an outdoor deck that would be just killer for summer parties and BBQing. Chad has a tradition at his party where everyone has to pick a decoration for the tree, and then proceed to make love to it somehow. Not sure how this came to be, but everyone eagerly began licking and kissing their decorations. After everyone had hit the beers in the fridge, Chad promptly dove straight into his massive scotch collection and started going crazy on that. After a few, he basically took position in his recliner like some dude out of masterpiece theatre and began to chuckle to himself occasionally. I was giving Raymi a play-by-play via SMS, and when I told her Chad had hit the scotch, she replied with this: Out in Toronto you see, they have this weekly tradition called "sober night", which seems to involve massive amounts of dirty martinis and drunken SMS messages from some grungy basement. And of course another fun shot from Toronto "sober night": Photo by Christie Chad was also attempting to send drunken SMS messages, but was having massive difficulty navigating his phone pad. I heard various "fucks" and "oh shits" and he somehow sent half completed messages to his friends, followed promptly by a rather large sip of scotch, and a further descent into the comfort of the recliner. At one point Chad and Danielle demonstrated the yearly Christmas Breast-Feeding-The-Bottle-By-A-Manger move, which was a big hit. Danielle was a gracious host, making sure we were all stuffed full of chips, salsa, layered dip and wings. Very tasty. It was good times. I have zero plans today. I think I'll check my back account happiness level and then maybe go shopping.

I'll Take The Staff Job -- Double The Money.

Duane Storey — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:52:36 +0000

This is a pretty important week in the life of Duane. On Tuesday I'll meet up with my plastic surgeon which might potentially be the last meeting I have with him regarding this whole affair. My first meeting was about twelve months ago and resulted in two surgeries to my eye socket. I've spent this last year bouncing between doctors offices, getting eye exams, several CT scans, and will meet this week to probably wrap everything up. In terms of my vision, it's still not perfect. I see pretty much everything perfectly below the midline (i.e. looking straight or down), but as I look up I tend to see double of everything. I have sort of naturally adjusted by automatically raising my head when looking up so the object I'm looking at is straight on, but it's a fairly big pain in the ass for me, especially when it's dark and my eyes are tired from a long day at work. I had a fairly thorough eye examination a few weeks ago, and the doctor basically said that I should I've faired amazingly well considering the extent of the injuries I received. For the most part, I doubt anyone would really notice the changes had they never met me before. A Few Minutes Before Mapping Out My Last Surgery So on Tuesday, I'm fairly certain my surgeon will basically say that's it and close my file. If I had my way, I would probably consider another small corrective surgery which would involve adding one more piece of plastic under my eye to bring it up about 1mm and towards my nose slightly. This would probably help my vision, but of course every operation carries risks, and I'm quite certain my doctor will say it's not worth it. When I look at getting glasses again next year, I might be able to correct some of what's left with special prism lenses that have a vertically changing prescription, but I'm not really sure. While most orbital floor fractures are usually correctable completely, mine is complicated by the fact that due to the kick I received in the face, my entire orbital floor (the bone under my eye) shattered, along with part of the bone against the inside of my nose. This makes it extremely difficult to properly place a plastic implant. An Implant Sort Of Like The One I Have Under My Left Eye So I have no idea what's going to happen. Some people think I'm a sucker for punishment going through all these surgeries and what not, but they have to realize that not only is my vision still affected, but I have a constant reminder every time I look in the mirror about that night. I might try to compromise with my doctor and get one more CT scan to evaluate the current position of everything. I figure with one more dose of radiation I might be able to start crawling up walls or moving objects with my mind, which would be rather cool. On Thursday is my Christmas party, and then I think there are a few more on the weekend, so this week is shaping up to be super busy. I still have no idea what I'm going to wear for my party. Last year I think I just wore a nice sweater and some dress pants, but I think I might class it up a bit more this year. Considering I might have my new super powers by then, maybe I'll wear all black and do some crazy jazz dance like Peter Parker. Or not. We'll see.

So Long Myspace

Duane Storey — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 05:18:27 +0000

Friday afternoon I logged into my myspace account after a long absence and, after debating about it for about 3 seconds, deleted my account entirely. It's not like it caused me any headache or anything, but I just don't use it really at all anymore and don't have time to maintain that and my facebook account. So, after searching around for a while, I managed to find the "Delete Account" button and forever put it into the trash. Anyone else actually still use myspace, or has everyone migrated to Facebook now? Also, a few people have been tracking my new blog entries with twitter - if you have twitter, you can add me by somehow visiting here -> http://twitter.com/duanestorey

Coming Soon, Indiana Jones

Duane Storey — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:06:59 +0000

From IndianaJones.com If anyone forgot why Indiana was cool, you can watch this video:

Stupid Canada Post

Duane Storey — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:43:27 +0000

Mailed another package. It was supposed to be there in two days. Of course, it's the end of day two and it's not there. Surprise, surprise. Stupid thing isn't even supposed to be in Missassauga, it should be in Toronto. I hate you Canada Post. Hate you bad. Next time I'm using FedEx or UPS.

Death Cab For Cutie, Lightness

Duane Storey — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:30:26 +0000

I accidentally ran into this song the other day on my iPod (yes, I have lots of music I haven't heard before on my iPod), and there's something about it I really liked. I've been working on playing it myself, and I'm pretty close. It's rather hard (for me) to pick this song and try singing at the same time, but I'm getting better. In the video the other guy is doing most of the guitar work. Check it out. It's an acoustic version they recorded at MTV.

Plastic Surgery Update

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:09:00 +0000

I just got back from an appointment with my plastic surgeon. After two surgeries, I am still left with a few problems, the first of which is a slight visual dissimilarity between my left and right eye, and the second is double vision above my mid line. Based on some recent measurements I had done, my surgeon proposed four courses of action:

Do nothing
Remove a bit of skin from eyelid on my "good" eye to make it sort of match the appearance of my "bad" eye
Adjust the eyelid of my "bad" eye to make it better match my "good" eye.
Open me back up and either adjust the current implant, augment it with another piece of plastic, or rebuild the orbital floor using a titanium mesh

So, it's decision time. I have no idea what I'm going to do, but since option #4 has the ability to restore my vision to close to perfection as well as the appearance, it's the one I'm leaning towards right now, even though it's slightly riskier than the others. Options #2 and #3 just seem like hacks to me, and if they don't work there's no going back. Even though full on surgery is a pain, in theory every operation can be undone just be removing the offending implants, which just somehow seems like a better option. I don't have to make a decision for some time, so I'm going to think about it a bit more. I'm currently scheduled to have a full MRI done of my left eye out at UBC to see the scarring of my eye muscles along with the current position of the implants. Based on that, my doctor will better be able to gauge the potential outcome if we go ahead with another surgery. The wait time on the MRI is a few months, so it's unlikely that anything will happen before the spring. But in a few months I'll know more. So it seems that this journey isn't completely over yet.

So Christmas Begins

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:08:31 +0000

Chad's party last weekend was the first of the Christmas bashes, but they are coming hard and fast starting tomorrow. I just picked up a new pair of dress pants and my altered jacket from the tailor, and tomorrow I'm spiffing it all out down on Granville Island. There should be a small little pre-party at my pad near False Creek, and then a small little ferry ride over to Bridges, which is a fairly nice seafood restaurant right on the edge of the marina. Kasia won't be coming to my place beforehand because she apparently needs a gazillion hours to get ready before hand, so we'll just have to manage without her. Should be about 100 people or so, taking over the entire upper floor, so it's bound to be a pretty fun time. This year they up'ed the ante a bit and set up a dance floor along with a DJ. Considering I work for a company of mostly geeks, this is bound to be great entertainment. I'm bringing my camera, so I'll do my best to document it. Adrian At Last Year's Bash Afterwards, like usual, we'll all make our way to a pub or a club somewhere and start the second party of the evening (memories of me dancing on a speaker come to mind). Check back in a day or so for all the photos from the parties. I'm going to be fairly busy for the next few days so I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging. Drunk Kasia, Last Year I tried my best to enjoy last year's party, but considering four weeks prior I was in the hospital, and still had a pile of bruises on my face from my first surgery, I wasn't really in a total partying mood. But I'm fairly excited about tomorrow, and it should be great.

Flickr Has New Stats

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:02:03 +0000

Check them out. I have to grab a cab so can't write now.

A New Alternative To CFL Lighting

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:41:46 +0000

Are you trying to save energy by changing over incandescent light bulbs to CFL bulbs? Well, there may now be a new alternative that uses even less power. Glow in the dark kitties! Yes, you too can own one of these purring light-bulbs! Simple feed them from time to time and all your energy needs are solved! You can read about it here.

Who Are You Guys?

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:10:18 +0000

So, I've been meaning to ask this question for a long time. Yesterday I had a pile of traffic, thanks to a few inbound links from some massive sites. I broke into the thousands for unique visitors, which doesn't happen that often in Duane-land. Given that only about ten people ever comment, I gotta ask, who are the rest of you guys? Nearly 50% of you are returning visitors every day, and yet you lurk in the shadows, thick as thieves I say. The lack of comments either means:

I'm really boring
YOU'RE really boring

I'm pretty sure I am not boring all the time, which means it JUST MIGHT BE YOU! :) So, if you swing by and read this, drop a quick comment and say hi! Tell everyone where you're from and what you want for Christmas. Don't be shy. If you've commented before, say hi anyways and introduce yourself!

Favourite Movie Scene #1: Vanilla Sky Ending

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:03:35 +0000

No, the number 1 doesn't mean this is my all time favourite movie scene, because I plan to post a lot of these over the next few weeks, and I haven't even thought about ranking them yet. However, I've always really liked this one scene. I could care less if you hate Tom Cruise or think his religion is bogus (even though it is) -- this scene is pretty high up there in terms of cinematic perfection in my mind. As a whole, Vanilla Sky wasn't that great, but this last scene, with the music, the wisps of romance, the vibrant vanilla sky, the New York landscape, and the thought of what it must be like to suddenly realize your life is nothing more than a dream makes for a powerful ending IMO - the realization that everything you ever loved died a long time ago along with the excitement of having a second chance at life. Maybe some of that is the hopeless romantic in me, but this is one of the few scenes that I can watch over and over again. Feel free to chime in on what you thought about the movie or the scene.

Favourite Movie Scene #2: Star Wars Battles

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:42:06 +0000

The original Star Wars Trilogy really needs no introduction, so I won't really say much about it except that it totally kicked ass, as would any trilogy involving a bad guy voiced by James Earl Jones. This scene is a classic battle scene involving Luke and Darth Vadar, where of course Luke loses his hand at the end and ultimately learns who his real father is. And seriously, pretty much every kid who ever watches this scene spends the rest of their lives making lightsaber noises whenever they swing anything. Hell, I even hold out my hand when I approach automatic doors and pretend I'm using the force to open them. And I have to ask, when will YouTube finally start supporting non 4:3 aspect ratios? Come on, even most new broadcast TV is shot 16:9 now, and cinemascope is 2.35:1. Step up to the plate, youtube, and aim for the fences. Ok, even though it deserves it's own blog entry, the final fight in Return of the Jedi is fairly kick ass as well. I had to watch it after watching the first one.

Favourite Movie Scene #3: Tombstone

Duane Storey — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:24:15 +0000

I hung out with some of my old high school friends tonight at a little Christmas dinner, and a few people brought up my recent blog posts about favourite movies scenes. We immediately launched into a big discussion about which other scenes were pretty awesome from our childhood memories, and I think we ended up with a list of about 20 or 30. First movie we talked about was one Brennen and I totally loved years ago: Tombstone. Here's is the scene where Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday have their final battle. Obvious spoilers ahead. I'm your huckleberry.

Favourite Movie Scene #4: Heat

Duane Storey — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:27:22 +0000

Heat is a totally awesome movie starring both Al Pacino and Robert Deniro. There are many classic scenes in it, but one that stands out is the coffee shop banter between Pacino and Deniro where we learn a pile about both characters. This type of scene has been used in countless movies since then, but they all basically pay homage to this part. Why I think it's so fascinating is that both characters open up to each other and somehow relate, even though they are basically enemies by trade. And let's be honest, Deniro and Pacino both kick ass.

Favourite Movie Scene #5: Almost Famous

Duane Storey — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:51:19 +0000

Easily one of my top ten films ever (well maybe top 20) is the rare gem that is Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous." If you haven't seen it, you should immediately head out to the movie store and rent it. It's full of touching moments, laughter, self discovery and even a dash of romance. Not only is the writing and story telling superb, but the photography and cinematography are both outstanding. I'll post a few scenes here I really like (obvious spoilers). The scene on the bus after the Golden God bit is also classic: It's all happening folks.

Favourite Movie Scene #6: LOTR - The Two Towers

Duane Storey — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:04:13 +0000

There are so many incredible scenes in The Lord Of The Rings, it's really difficult to single any of them out. The books were pretty influential in my early childhood, as well as shaping some of my literary and cinematic preferences in my teens. I am totally a LOTR geek, and even wore a little ring around my neck for a few months after reading the series for the first time. Actually, the first thing you see when you walk in the door at my Vancouver apartment is a framed poster of Aragorn from The Return of the King (so cool, I know). When the movies came out, I was totally excited, and ended up seeing The Fellowship Of The Ring in Ottawa with a group of about ten people. We waited about four hours to see it on opening night. I saw the other two films on opening night as well, and caught the first showing in Vancouver of the Return Of The King, which started at midnight and ended around 3am. I'll post a few other scenes in the future, but here's the final segment in the battle of Helm's Deep which is totally amazing. I love Shore's score for this part, along the vivid imagery from the hillside charge when the sun is rising.

Christmas Time

Duane Storey — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:55:46 +0000

Last night I got together with some of my old high school friends for an evening of games and Christmas cheer. It was great seeing that old group again -- we don't nearly get together enough. We played "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader", which was actually harder than we thought. That being said, I demolished the competition and walked away with the "you totally fucking rule" badge. The final winning question, answered by yours truly in a display worthy of it's own Rocky film, was "What Year Was Toronto's CN Tower Completed?" 1976 Bitches. 1976. Tonight I'm having a few people over on a whim to sit around and eat food, have a few drinks, and of course Keira's amazing guacamole. I'm totally not prepared for this, so I'm scrambling around trying to clean up a bit and find enough bowls for munchies. Santa Raymi and Reindeer Phil sent me a little Christmas card in the mail, which I just picked up on my last visit downstairs to the lobby. Thanks guys -- see you in thirteen days.

Friends, Beers, Santa and R2-D2

Duane Storey — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:28:31 +0000

I had a few people over sort of on a whim last night, and we all sat around listening to music and enjoying Christmas nachos. I'm not sure if this is officially year two or year three for the nachos, but I've been trying to up the ante each year to see if I can outdo myself. They Almost Don't Fit I had a few Christmas decorations sitting around in boxes, so we all took turns throwing a few up on the tree. Keira helped herself to R2-D2, and I think I got stuck with Yoda. Good times. Only five more days of work and then I'm off for a while. I'm getting excited about heading back home for a few days and spending time relaxing with the family. My friend Jan will be visiting from Chicago during the break, so I'll finally get to see him again (we haven't gotten together since our time living in Ottawa). Plus, I think Tara will be in Vancouver, and her and I will probably get together and talk about just how cool Lord of the Rings is again. There's a big boxing day bash back in Chilliwack, and then shortly afterwards I'm on a plane heading out to Toronto. Since I'll be done my anti-biotics by then, I'll be bouncing between various bars and pubs I'm sure during those days off. Plus, I'd really like to catch a movie or two, since I haven't done that in a while.

Single Is As Single Does

Duane Storey — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:30:33 +0000

Being a single guy, every once and a while I find myself reading the personal ads in Vancouver. I used to do it thinking that there was the possibility of meeting someone online, at least someone with similar interests and what not to hang out and be friends, but it's pretty clear most of the people on those sites these days just aren't really the caliber of people I'm looking for. I actually met one of my girlfriends on lavalife years ago, and we hit it off and are still friends to this day, so I don't think it's completely unheard of (although people back then used to seem a bit more real on those sites). The Vancouver craigslist ads are particulary pathetic, and I browse them once and a while more for entertainment value than anything. Here's a sample from tonight's winners:

Iâ€™m looking for someone to spoil me, take me shopping, take me out to a nice dinner, or a movie. Iâ€™m looking for someone whoâ€™s not scared to put there money where their mouth is. Iâ€™m not saying Iâ€™m a high maintenance gal but diamonds are a womanâ€™s best friend. Iâ€™m confident, young lady. Iâ€™m 20 years old have a killer body, thick hips, thick lips, lets just say Iâ€™m voluptuous without the extra junk, I have long brown hair dark brown eyes and chocolate brown skin.

Yes, the typical Vancouver lure -- please spend all your money on me. Definitely not high maintenance. Someone should put that junk in the trash. Here's another winning attitude:

Im tirred of working. i've been independent for a long time but im sick of it. I want to be pampered little princess that gets paid not to work! im fun and attractive. I like candy and want to do some travelling before i have kids.

I'm tired of working too. Can someone please spend all their money on me? Surely one of my readers is rich. And lastly, let's open up door # loser and see who's there:

looking for good man, financially responsible, opens doors, and treat me like the queen i am. if this turns into something more, needs be a bad boy who likes to be punished. i am attracted to men who are 5'10 and taller. weight between 185 to 240 (weight proportionate to height), clean cut, and good looking. i will only respond to emails with pictures, and even then, if i am not attracted to your pictures then i may not respond. (just a hint with regards to taking pictures gentleman...don't do the self portrait from the video cam in front of your computer...you just look like a creepy man). get a friend to take the pictures for you...trust me it looks much better. i am an open minded go with the flow kind of gal. i love life and everything it has to offer. i love to cook, i enjoy fine wine, going camping, skiing the slopes, traveling and socializing. i do not do drugs or smoke cigarettes, i will not go out with anyone who does either. i am 5'4, average build with curves. redish blond hair and dark brown eyes.

Yes, clearly there are some diamonds in the rough waiting to be found, loved, pampered, and adored - if you've got the cash that is.

Peter Jackson To Produce "The Hobbit"

Duane Storey — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:57:28 +0000

This is hot off the presses.

Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy "The Lord of the Rings." Peter Jackson is set to oversee the film adaptation of "The Hobbit." Jackson, who directed the "Rings" trilogy, will serve as executive producer for "The Hobbit." A director for the prequel films has yet to be named. Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after "Rings," despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion -- an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting "The Hobbit" 50/50, spokemen for both studios said Tuesday.

I'm definitely glad that Peter Jackson is involved in this project. I think the potential to completely screw it up, especially given the commercial success of the first trilogy, is huge.

Winding Down

Duane Storey — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:36:26 +0000

Tomorrow is Wednesday, and that means there are only a few more days of work left before the holiday season officially starts for me. While I'll be working all the way until Friday, the feeling around the office is a bit more relaxed these last few days, and there are more smiles and cheer than normal. Some of my lucky co-workers have already left for wherever they are going, which makes the office a little quieter and the days a little longer. I think I'll just take it easy in Vancouver on Friday night, and then head into the valley Saturday morning for the holidays back in Chilliwack. To be honest, I can't even remember the last time I was back. Months at the very least, before I got sick and ended up in the hospital if I remember correctly. I'm definitely looking forward to spending a few days in front of the fireplace, reading a book or two, visiting family, and catching up with some old high school friends that I haven't seen since last year. Plus, I'm really anxious to head outside with my camera again and snap some outdoor photos -- seems I don't do enough of that these days. Chilliwack, Taken From Wikipedia For those of you who don't know what or where a "Chilliwack" is, it's a small little farming community about an hour and a half east of Vancouver. It's part of the Fraser Valley, which means it's nestled between a whole pile of mountains, and surrounded by a few rivers. It's fairly gorgeous, and I'm looking forward to walking along the river by my dad's place, or heading up to the lake to throw rocks with my niece and nephew. There is apparently a boxing day bash somewhere I have to be where a lot of my old friends are going to show up for, so I'm definitely excited about checking that out. On the 27th I'll be coming back to the city to pack my clothes for the journey east again, and will ultimately end up in Toronto for five days of drunken debauchery, something that I'm really looking forward to. Because I'm a total geek (loser?) I added a little countdown timer to the top of my blog which in theory will count down the time until I have my first beer in Toronto (which is timed to be about 60 minutes after I land). Christie and Raymi a few months ago Considering I don't even really remember what I did the last few years at New Years, I think it will be a nice change to get out of the city and hang out somewhere new for a change. It's going to be a lot of fun hanging out with Raymi, Tony, Phil and Christie again, and I'm *so* looking forward to having a few beers with nachos again. Plus Raymi now owes me a martini, kind of like this one except way better: The dry martini Raymi is making Me. Photo by Raymi. Hopefully Dale and Sara can come out one night as well: Dale and Tony @ Blogstock Toronto And Cid owes me a beer I think. Cid and Phil If anyone's out in Toronto, drop me an email and I'll do my best to maybe meet some people at a bar one night if I can swing it.

Movies - 21

Duane Storey — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:44:14 +0000

I read a few articles last night on what 2008 holds in terms of new movies. Most of the list was fairly yawn-inducing for me (even though they author was clearly excited about them), but a few stood out. The movie 21, for example, about six MIT students who battled Vegas, seems fairly cool, even though I'm sure they've completed deviated from the real story.

21 trailer
Uploaded by mamouang

Check it out. Also on the list was the new Star Trek movie, which is essentially a prequel for the original series. To be honest, I have a hard time thinking that one is really going to fly. I'll be down there on opening night with the other geeks and my bag of popcorn, just to see the Enterprise sail through the skies one more time, but I'm pretty sure it's going to suck.

Wow, Maybe I'm Not That Weak After All - Adenovirus 14

Duane Storey — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:42:40 +0000

I stumbled upon this article about killer viruses this morning, and it pretty much echos exactly everything that happened to me. I had a nap a few months ago, only to wake up with severe fever and chills. I thought I was battling the flu, and couldn't understand why I wasn't getting better. Six days later I was in the ICU at St. Paul's with a 104 degree F fever, and my left lung had partially collapsed due to pneumonia.

A high school varsity athlete, a sturdy guy with a health history blissfully free of blips, 18-year-old Joseph Spencer had little reason to think anything was seriously wrong when he got sick last April. Doctors say Joseph Spencer could have died from adenovirus, a virus that usually just causes a cold. The vomiting, chills, fever -- "It must be the flu," he thought. Within hours, Spencer's fever was 104 degrees. Within days, he was in the intensive care unit at Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon with full-blown pneumonia. Spencer's doctor was afraid this sturdy teenage boy was going to die. "His lungs had filled up with water, it was hard to get oxygen into him," explains Dr. David Gilbert, an infectious disease expert and Spencer's physician at Providence. "Things got so bad, I thought we were at risk of losing him." But as perplexing as what would make a hardy young man so sick -- so quickly -- was his diagnosis: adenovirus, the virus that usually causes nothing worse than a nasty cold. "In the past, we considered adenovirus a 98-pound weakling," says Dr. Dean Erdman, leader of the respiratory diagnostic program at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. "But adenovirus is causing severe disease and, in some cases, death in normal, healthy people." At least 1,035 people in Oregon and a handful of other states have been infected by adenovirus so far this year. One of the largest outbreaks was at an Air Force base in Texas. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta explain the killer cold virus Â» But by far the deadliest outbreak is in Oregon, where seven patients have died.

Basically exactly what happened to me. Pretty scary.

The bug causing the serious disease is called "adenovirus 14," one of the 51-odd strains of adenovirus that typically cause anything from colds to conjunctivitis and gastroenteritis. While adenovirus isn't a new bug on the block -- it was first identified in 1955 -- researchers believe it has mutated into a more virulent form, first identified in 2005.

Of course, that was just the start of my adventure, and have been on antibiotics for nearly two months now, mainly to undo the damage caused by the other antibiotics I had in the hospital that they used to battle this. Also check out this article that also talks about a recent outbreak in the Pacific Northwest:

A potentially deadly form of community-acquired pneumonia linked to adenovirus type 14 has emerged in the Pacific northwest, according to a report presented here. Action Points Explain to interested patients that a severe form of community-acquired pneumonia has been associated with a previously uncommon form of viral infection. Note that most cases reported thus far have been in Oregon, but that does not exclude the possibility that the virus is infecting people in other parts of the country. Point out that the findings were reported at a medical conference and as a published abstract and should be considered preliminary until they have appeared in a peer-reviewed journal. First encountered in 2005 in Oregon, the viral pneumonia frequently leads to hospitalization and has a 20% fatality rate, Paul Lewis, M.D., of the Oregon State Public Health Department, said at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting. "We recommend obtaining a viral culture in pneumonia patients who lack a specific etiology, especially those with severe disease," said Dr. Lewis. "If adenovirus 14 is detected, anticipate a stormy course. We encourage an infectious disease consultation to discuss the risks and benefits of any specific therapy that might be contemplated."

Not sure if that's what I had, but considering I went from totally healthy to ICU with pneumonia in six days, it sounds pretty similar.

Almost There

Duane Storey — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:05:32 +0000

Just woke up from another of my nightly after work naps.. I really have no idea why I'm so tired lately. Must be the meds, which are thankfully almost over. I'm going to start packing now for the journey home sometime this weekend, which involves doing laundry and what not. I'll post something before I take off, and will have my laptop in Chilliwack as well, although I probably won't turn it on that often. I was really excited that I got three Christmas cards in the mail tonight, but one was actually junk mail disguised as a Christmas card, which wasn't as exciting. Thanks to John and Kirsten, and Jeff and Michele. I'll see some of you guys back in the wack I'm sure.

Update:

I was originally going to write a going-away holiday entry tomorrow morning, but I did one tonight over at matthewgood.org. So head over there and check it out.

The Journey Home

Duane Storey — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:11:28 +0000

Every year for the last twelve years I have found myself preparing for the journey back home at around this time of the month. Some years it has involved nothing more than a few hour drive out into the country, and others I have found myself spending most of a day bouncing between airports and airplanes, making my snowy way across this country. I remember one Friday afternoon late in December about five years ago, where I found myself stuck in the Ottawa airport for about eight hours with about ten of my friends, sitting around the airport bar drinking beers, laughing, waiting for the snow to lift to take us all, in varying directions, home. Like most years, I will get home tomorrow afternoon and spend the first few days trying to adapt to a slower pace of life. During my university days, it would take me three or four days to come down from the caffeine-induced high of final exams and eventually stop pacing around the house long enough to collapse by the fireplace. As my parents are divorced, the holidays have typically always involved me driving from house to house, from relative to relative, trying my best to spend as much time with as many people as possible given the time that I have. But this year I have decided to risk offending a few of them, and plan to stay as close to my dad's place as possible so I can finally get some rest. This last year has definitely taken its toll on me -- I have had two rounds of surgery on my eye socket (with a third one probably coming in the spring), was hospitalized a few months ago with pneumonia, and have been battling a fairly serious hospital-acquired infection for the last few months. This year, the 25th of December will have slightly new meaning for me since, based on my last count of pills, it will also mark the first day in months where I will be free from antibiotics or any of the other chemical crud I've had pumped into me recently, and will hopefully mark the end of this saga in my life. Like most holiday breaks, I will not only get to spend a lot of time with my family, but will also have a lot of time with myself. Being back home always forces me think of the past, of the places I've been and of all the people I went there with. It is always a time of self-reflection, of effort spent trying to bridge the gap between the person I have become and the person I once was. There is a river near my dad's house where I usually end up on my daily walks, often sitting for hours at a time just skipping rocks, reliving childhood memories, and spending a few moments by myself imagining what life would have been like had I never left. I am thankful that I am still close friends with almost everyone I grew up with. Not only does it keep me grounded, but I somehow feel like it protects me from the taint of city-life and the world which, due to my occupation, I am often forced to be a part of. When I'm back home, I usually end up over at their houses, a beer in one hand, a new addition to their family in my other, talking into the wee hours of the morning. I look around this city, full of empty homes and empty promises, and wonder why, as kids, we fought so hard to leave the country behind. Ironically, whenever I end up back there, people usually treat me like I'm a big success story, even to go so far as to assume I'm unapproachable in the local bar whenever I show up for beers. Which to me has always been a bit surprising, since for the most part I am envious of what most of them have, and what they were smart enough to not give up. I was talking to my boss at work the other day on one of our weekly walks around the harbour. For whatever reason, he asked me what it was that I was the most proud of in my life. Based on the questions leading up to that one, I am sure he expected me to say it was my career, or my schooling, or my financial position in life. But to me, for the most part, none of that has ever really mattered. What I am proud of the most I think is that I have managed to spend most of my adult life in a city I have never really associated with and somehow not been altered by it -- knowing that at my core, I am the same small town kid I have always been, and will always be. I can honestly say that if tomorrow my job were to disappear, my apartment rented to someone else, and all the fancy things at my place that go beep in the dark were to magically disappear, I would wake up, hop on the next bus home and happily pump gas until the end of my days. So for the next two weeks, I get to leave behind my job, this city, my responsibilities, and be the kid I once was again. I am looking forward to the break, to seeing my family again, to spending time with the people who helped shape me, and to being Uncle Duane again, if only for a few days. For the first time in years, I will also be leaving Vancouver behind for New Year's, which I am surprisingly excited about. Next Friday I will be getting on a plane and heading to Toronto for five days, where I will once again be hooking up with Dale, Sara, Tony, Raymi and Phil for a few beers. I plan to spend most of my time there playing trivia in pubs, watching the odd movie, sampling nachos, and maybe even playing in the snow. If anyone is in the area and wants to maybe hit a pub one night and grab a few beers, just drop me an email and I'll see what I can do. Until then, I'll probably be laying low, curled up by my dad's fireplace with a gorgeous view of the mountains, as far as physically possible from my laptop. Happy holidays everyone -- make sure you spend lots of time with those that you love.

Home

Duane Storey — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:16:57 +0000

Well, I made it. I am currently sitting on the couch back in Chilliwack, debating going to sleep, even though I just demolished a two liter of diet pepsi. I spent most of tonight just watching TV and the odd movie. Everyone around here went to bed hours ago, but I kept myself entertained with Saw and Wrath of Khan on TV. I brought all my camera gear out here, but somehow left my cable at home. So for now, I won't really be able to post any photos.. I'll head out tomorrow when I wake up and try to grab a new one and snap a few photos from around Chilliwack. I have to do some shopping in the local mall as well, which should be fairly clusterfuck-like given that it's the last Saturday before Christmas. Since this is a fairly small town and I knew most of the kids my age growing up, I'm bound to encounter a few people at the mall tomorrow. I haven't been back here in a few months, and in that time my dad and step-mom have redone what is sort of my bedroom back here -- an upstairs loft with it's own fireplace and hardwood flooring. It's quite nice, and I sort of wish I would have brought my guitar back with me so I could mess around up there. I'll probably start doing the rounds in the afternoon as well, and head on over to see my mom and my sister for a while. Tomorrow night is still wide open, but I might just stay in and watch some more movies. Haven't really thought that far ahead yet, and don't really want to. Only four more days until I can have a few beers. Can't wait.

Shopping

Duane Storey — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:18:20 +0000

Went shopping with my mom this afternoon. Shopping for toys. She wanted to check out the exercise bikes at Sears. I don't think she has room for one though. I put that one on facebook, so go check it out there.

Web 2.0 Bubble

Duane Storey — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 01:17:37 +0000

Thanks to Jason for this.

Back In The Wack

Duane Storey — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:56:14 +0000

Ahh, relaxation. Definitely enjoying it. I've been sleeping lots, eating lots, and watching a pile of movies. For the most part, my ass has been firmly planted on the living room couch, but I've managed to get outside a bit and see some relatives. Today is Christmas over at my sister's house. Since my parents are split, today is Christmas with my mom's side of the family. I have two gifts each for my niece and nephew, so I'll bring one set over today and leave the other here at my dad's for tomorrow's round. Us adults don't really buy for each other, but we've always sort of enjoyed getting the kids a few things. My grandma (or Baba as we all call her), is a cute Ukrainian lady that has been a huge influence on my life. I spent a lot of my childhood over at her place watching The Price is Right and the Young and the Restless (not by choice). As she's getting on in years, this year she said she couldn't really manage to make perogies and what not for Christmas dinner. But the other day I guess she decided she really wanted me to have some since I was back in town, and spent all afternoon making me some. So, I'll get to hang out with my grandma later and demolish a whole pile of perogies that were stuffed with pure love. My Baba In case I don't post tomorrow, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Drop me a comment and let me know what you've been up to for the holidays. I'm leaving Chilliwack on the 27th and heading back to Vancouver for a few beers and to pack, then onwards to Toronto for a few days.

Lemonade 2.0, Coming Soon

Duane Storey — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 20:58:34 +0000

Last night while watching TV with my dad, I decided to slowly hack together the start of a new game for Facebook. Inspired recently by The Oregon Trail on there, I thought I'd put another good game from my youth up, namely Lemonade. There's already one on Facebook that mimics the old version (although, it's basically a wrapper for a website that already has it), but I have some ideas that will sort of bring the game into the modern age, including a mobile component. To be honest, the mathematics behind it all has proven rather interesting. I want the game to be challenging, without easy loopholes to win, and to that end I've spent a lot of time mulling over the math in my head. For example, having a weather forecast is fairly useless unless it mimics the approximate success rates of forecasts that we normally have. To that end, the forecasts can't be entirely random, so I've started by modeling them on five state, first-order Markov chains. I might have to take this to the next level (i.e. do a second-order chain or something), but for now I think the results are fairly realistic. Unlike all the other Facebook applications I've done, this one requires a database back-end for accounting purposes and the ability to save and resume games. I've got most of the ground work done, so the rest should come together fairly quickly. If anyone has any cool ideas for this, let me know. I'll try and finish it off before I leave for Toronto and get people playing. If anyone wants to help test it, drop me a comment!

Can't Talk.. Must Eat...

Duane Storey — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 22:46:16 +0000

Perogy fest beginning soon. Here's a shot I took of the valley on the way over. You can see little streaks of rain and a few flares caused by drops on my lens, but I like them.

I am

Duane Storey — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 06:06:53 +0000

In 1977, the same year I was born, NASA launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft with a mission to explore our solar system. It is still operational, and is located some 9.3 billion miles from the sun. At that distance, light (including radio waves) takes nearly 14 hours to reach our planet. By comparison, light from the sun takes about 8 minutes to get to earth. 17 years later, as voyager passed beyond the edge of our solar system, engineers at NASA turned the Voyager 1 spacecraft around, pointed it towards earth, and took a few shots of our planet. This is one of them. We're that little speck on the right. Pretty humbling. In that same year, Dr. Carl Sagan, an astronomer, gave a talk where he first presented this rare photo of Earth. Here's what he said.

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Those words ring just as true today, as humanity continues to launch wars at each other, where countries continue to put more resources into developing weapons of mass destruction, where the planet continues to warm up but most people just ignore it, and where the prevailing mentality is that it's ok to launch smart bombs into civilian areas and just accept the casualties. Despite the advances we've made in technology, we are still no more mature as inhabitants of this planet than we used to be. We can split the atom, build skyscapers half a kilometer tall, fly at 7 times the speed of sound, send probes to other planets, and modify our own genetics, but we still cannot curb our own capacity for aggression and violence. The age of the universe is currently estimated to be somewhere around 13.7 billion years old. If you look up in the sky and imagine every bright light being a star, and every one of those stars is probably surrounded by a bunch of planets, the realization that we exist at all is a bit daunting. And yet despite the enormous cosmic improbability that life would exist somewhere in this universe, let alone on our little planet in the middle of nowhere, we still exist here somehow. And that makes the loss of life, any life, all the more tragic. Out of 13.7 billion years, the average human lifespan of 75 years seems so trivial. And for any person or government to deprive another person of the priviledge to exist, for whatever reason, seems like the greatest cosmic tragedy imaginable. And ever since November, that one thought has been on my mind a lot lately -- that life is really a gift, albeit a fragile one. Someone once said that most people live on the world and not in it, and I would agree with that. Most people try not to think about the problems of the world, or those that exist in their own backyard, hoping that either someone else will take care of them, or that they will just magically disappear on their own. And I'm entirely guilty for that as well. Which is why this year over Christmas I decided that I was going to be a bit more proactive about trying to make the world a better place. And I don't know entirely what that means yet, but I do think it's possible to make an impact with minimal effort. For me, that means taking leftovers outside instead of throwing them away. It means giving away a few dollars in front of 7-11 from time to time. It means maybe volunteering from time to time to lend support for those less fortunate. The little bits I've done since Christmas have all been very rewarding, and to see someone's face light up when you give them a meal most people wouldn't give to their dogs is a bit humbling. So, while I normally write about upbeat things, I thought I had something to say here. I'll leave this blog entry with the words of John F. Kennedy, spoken a few months before he was murdered in Dallas.

So, let us not be blind to our differences -- but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Duane Storey — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 08:42:16 +0000

Well, it's officially Christmas all across North America now, so I'll officially wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I am currently sitting on the couch in Chilliwack, nearly in the dark, listening to some music and thinking about another year nearly gone by. I spent the evening eating perogies and enjoying time with my family out in Sardis. Tomorrow I'll be hanging out at my dad's house, eating more food, sitting around talking, playing games -- it should be great. I hope everyone is enjoying time with your family, and that you have the absolute best holidays that you can! If you read this before Christmas morning, head on over to Matthew Good's Myspace page where he's showing an early demo of some new stuff he's been working on (you can read about it in an entry that he just wrote). Matt played a bit more stuff that he was working on for me and Dale out in Toronto the day after the Massey Hall show, and based on everything I've heard, I am totally excited for whatever album Matt produces next. Merry Christmas everyone.

28 Days Later

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:08:20 +0000

A few minutes ago, I took the last of the foul-tasting, side-effect inducing crud that I started nearly four weeks ago. The last few days have been particularly hard, and I've found myself extremely tired, have had a metallic taste in my mouth, and also a fairly bad migraine. While most of my family played board games tonight, I was forced to retire to the couch in the other room and attempt to out-sleep my pounding head. 168 little antibiotic goodies The Last 2 Out Of 168 Pills Hopefully in the next day or so, as the drug leaves my system, I'll start feeling alot like my old self again. I should also be healthy again, which is the most important thing. As of tomorrow night, I will also be able to have a few beers again, which I'll definitely need if I'm going to survive my trip to Toronto. I've changed my plans slightly in Toronto, and grabbed a hotel room near Bloor and Queen's Park -- that puts me within walking distance of quite a few pubs and attractions, including the Royal Ontario Museum. Late tomorrow evening I'll be heading back into Vancouver and getting ready for my trip. I have a pile of stupid running around to do before then, and I imagine I'll be fairly tired Thursday night when I finally get to sleep. My flight is at 7:00am on Friday, which means I have to get up at some ungodly hour to make it to the airport. Good news is that puts me into Toronto at around 1:30pm, and hopefully into some beer shortly afterwards. Since I'm going to be swamped until then, I doubt I'll get a chance to do another entry before heading to the airport. You can be sure I'll be posting a pile of photos from their though once I arrive.

So much to do, so little time

Duane Storey — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:59:09 +0000

I got back home last night at around 2am and promptly climbed under my duvet for a long night of sleep. I spent the evening with some old high school friends, and invited myself into a poker tournament that was going on in the evening. I somehow managed to come in second out of ten people, even though I don't really know how to play (which seems to always sort of happen - I won our first work tournament last year, and come in fourth out of thirty last time). I just woke up around 11:30am here, and feel fairly rested. My stomach is clearly not impressed that I have stopped antibiotics, but hopefully it will settle itself down soon. I have so much to do today it's not even funny. I've never been that great at self-organization, and I'm sure that will be clear by the end of today. I set myself a pile of SMS text message reminders so I didn't forget anything, but considering I woke up and a bunch of them had already fired, I'm already failing at today. I'm just having a coffee, then heading out the door to do a pile of errands. I did a quick look at where my hotel is, and it turns out it's not on the express bus line, which means my transit options are sort of screwed now. I can always take a cab, but since Toronto Airport is a billion miles away from downtown, I'm hoping to come up with a better option. Maybe some combination of express bus and a taxi. We'll see. I really gotta roll and get this stuff done, but maybe I'll post a bit more when I'm in the "laundry/packing" phase. Normally I'd bring just a small weekender suitcase for a trip like this, but with all my camera gear and stuff, I think I'm going to cave in and check my luggage this time, which means I can bring a normal suitcase. Update #1 - Went out today and returned that digital camera I bought before xmas. Of course, Future Shop wasn't accepting returns today so I had to sweet-talk the manager for a while to get them to give me a refund. Bought a new pair of jeans and a new shirt today, as well as a pair of gloves for Toronto (since I have no idea where my pair is). I still have to head out and give my landlord some checks in a bit, and then maybe meet up with a few friends. My flight tomorrow is at 7am, so that means I have to get up around 4:30am which is going to completely suck. I'm hoping I can sleep during the flight, but given how much I hate flying, I doubt that's going to happen. I'm hoping to be all checked into my hotel and ready to drink by around 3pm, but that depends on how the journey from Pearson to the hotel goes.

When You're Too Tired To Blog

Duane Storey — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:55:55 +0000

Wow.. I'm beat. I made the mistake of staying up late last night, thinking that I would be tired enough to pass out and get a few hours. Unfortunately, I hardly slept at all last night, and am at the airport, completely bagged. It's 5:50am, and I have another 40 minutes before the plane boards. Clearly I was a bit tired last night as well, since I drove all the way to my landlord's house to drop off six checks that I somehow made out in the wrong amount on all of them (something that wasn't discovered until I got all the way back home);. Thankfully, I brought along a mild sedative, and as soon as I board I'm going to hopefully manage to sleep for the duration of the flight. The procedure to checkin my luggage was a big clusterfuck this morning, so I'm hoping my luggage actually makes it to Toronto. After a four hour flight, I have an hour commute to look forward to. Depending on how I feel when I land, I may have to consider a small nap once I check into the hotel, because right now I feel like death. Of course, at 5:30am nothing is really open in the airport except for crappy little coffee shops. I managed to find one that had these gross little burrito things that had "hash browns" as a filling, which is as close to breakfast as you'll find prior to 7am I guess. It was as disgusting as I thought it would be. I stayed away from caffeine so hopefully I will be able to sleep in about 40 mins or so. Will write more in Toronto when I land.

Made It

Duane Storey — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:13:46 +0000

In Toronto and in the hotel. Fuckers gave me a king sized bed when I asked specifically for two doubles or whatever. Still an ongoing battle there. I changed my seat around prior to the flight so that hopefully nobody was going to be sitting next to me. Thankfully that plan came together and I had the whole row to myself. About 2 seconds after lifting up I made a make-shift bed out of all three seats and someone managed to sleep for most of the flight. Just waiting for Raymi to come pick me up from the hotel and the adventure will begin.

Toronto, Day One

Duane Storey — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:46:40 +0000

Well, judging from the beer bottles all around me and the chinese food stain on the bed, I think I had a pile of fun last night. I did my best to keep track of how many beers I had via facebook, but it looks like I lost count at the end or had trouble counting. I went with Raymi and Phil to the hospital when I arrived in the hotel since she hasn't been feeling that well. There they gave my a Christmas present, which included this cute little guy that plays the guitar (thanks guys, I'll post a photo later). After that, Raymi and I started our nacho-fest with some down at Sneaky Dees. We both sort of agreed that the nachos were pretty crappy. Oh, I now seem to remember having nachos down at Gabby's too which were alot better I think. So right now Fox and Fiddle is winning the Toronto Nacho adventure, but we're going to have some more today I hope. We did a little pre-party party at the hotel room, where we met back up with Christie and had a bunch of champagne, courtesy of Raymi. I'll have to make another run to the liquor store today because I'm pretty sure we're all out of beer in the hotel, which seems wrong. I also think I have to spend some time cleaning this room a bit before the house keepers come in, since we did a good job of wrecking it last night. Photo by Christie Afterwards we went to some club somewhere and dranks some beers and listened to some stuff. We then drove Christie home so she could sleep and recharge and came back to the hotel to eventually meet up with Tony since he was stuck in Chicago for a few hours tonight and arrived late. I had a decent sleep, so I think today will be another fun adventure. I was up at like 6am for some weird reason, so hopefully I can adjust to the time change today. In other news, I've been antibiotic free for two days now. I'll have to get a bunch of tests in Vancouver when I get back to make sure I'm completely healthy, but I actually feel pretty good. I had cramps and what not for the week leading up to my last day of antibiotics, which had me worried. But since stopping, the cramps have gone away, so they might have just been a side-effect from the meds.

Toronto, Day Two

Duane Storey — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:21:40 +0000

I spent most of the morning in bed on my second day of Toronto, which was fine by me since the bed here is super comfy. The rest of the day is pretty much a blur for me. Tony and I met Christie for lunch, and then walked around and did a bit of shopping. I picked up a nice scarf and Tony got some gloves and a hat, so we're both officially winter people now. After that I went back to the hotel and had a little nap prior to the little hockey game party we had at my hotel. I wasn't planning on getting super loaded, but somehow between the lack of food in my stomach, the martini Raymi made for me and the whack of beer I drank I ended up in a pretty drunken state. I think I'm going to take it easy tonight and rest up for the New Year's party tomorrow night. I'm playing around with my return flight right now as well. Currently I fly out at 7am on the 2nd and do a milk-run between Toronto, Calgary and Kelowna, which is complete stupidity. I might go back late in the evening on the 1st instead or leave a few hours later on the 2nd so I can actually get a good sleep. Not really sure what I'll do yet. Having a great time though. It's been really awesome meeting back up with Raymi, Christie, Phil, Tony and Pitt again, even though I made a drunken ass of myself last night.

Another Year Gone By

Duane Storey — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:02:01 +0000

Well, that's it folks -- 2007 is basically all over. For me, it was undoubtedly one of the hardest years in my life. I have usually always been able to find the good in things that sometimes turn out bad, but this last year is one that for the most part I am happy to leave behind. That being said, I have lots of good memories from this last year. Rob's wedding. Massey Hall show in Toronto. Crazy halloween eyeball smashing party. Las Vegas. The Dominican Republic. Drunk Camp. Finland. New friends. Old friends. Tomorrow night I'll be bouncing around Toronto, and for the first time in quite a few years, will not be in Vancouver for New Year's. It will be cool to close down the year in a different city, having a few beers with some good people. In terms of next year, I'm not really sure what to expect. The last 28 days of being alcohol free forced me to take a break and slow things down a little bit, which has actually been really nice and given me a new perspective in a few areas. While I missed the social settings that drinking provides, I didn't find I missed drinking or hangovers at all. It was great hanging out with my family over the holidays, and some of my old friends -- I'd like to do more of that in the New Year. I think I'll spend more time around home, and more time around my friends. I'd like to read a bit more, and travel a bit more. The last few trips I've done I have done alone, and I think I'll defer the next one until I can convince some people to go with me for a change. In fact, almost all my vacations have involved a plane ride, hotels, bouncing around with crazy schedules, and for the most part, have not really been that relaxing (even though they were fun). I think this year I will take at least one week off of work in the summer and simply go camping by a lake somewhere with some friends. There are a lot of things I used to do and really enjoy that I don't seem to do anymore for some reason. Things like going to the movies, or walking around with my camera. I'm going to make an effort to start doing all of those things again. But, I'm looking forward to another year, filled with great people and great memories. Next post will probably be in 2008, so Happy New Year everyone.

Meanwhile, Back on the Ranch

Duane Storey — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:02:00 +0000

Here's a shot from close to where I live back in Vancouver (which is now about 4000kms away).

Back Home From NYE in Toronto

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:08:20 +0000

Well, I made it. I had originally been scheduled to fly out on the 2nd of January, but since I figured everyone would be tired and hungover on the 1st that I'd just head back then and get rested up for the grind again. After everyone left the hotel, I called West Jet to see if there were any openings on any flights. Pretty much the only one that worked was the 7am flight out of Toronto. Since it was already 4am, I figured I might as well just head to the airport and sleep on the plane. Of course, once I got to the airport nothing was really open and the line ups were already pretty big. I did the express check-in thing, only to have to wait 30 minutes in a line up to check my bag. Needless to say I was pretty exhausted when I finally got through security and made it to the plane. I didn't want to sleep and risk not boarding, so I waited until I got on the plane to finally get a few winks. I always love going away on a trip, but it's sort of nice also heading home and sleeping on your own bed again. I'll post a pile of photos from last night when I have a sec. Thanks again to Raymi, Tony, Pitt, Phil, and Christie for showing us a great time in Toronto and on New Year's Eve.

Sweet Dreams

Duane Storey — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:05:01 +0000

I rarely dream, or remember them at least. Last night however, I had one of the best nights of dreaming in a long time. Most of them were a bit messed up, and a few of them were of the past. I woke up at around 5am this morning actually feeling like it was about ten years ago based on some dreams I was having. That's a strange feeling. Then, at 6am, the fire alarm went off, so I spent the first few minutes trying to find something to wear downstairs, and then evetually stumbled down 15 flights of stairs in some jeans, I think. Thankfully the cute girl from 14 was there too in her jammies, so I got to hang out with her for a while and chat. In other exciting news, I somehow lost my bank card on the trip home, probably on the plane. So, I'm currently without access to money. I might have to take a run out to Superstore tonight and get a new PC Financial card, otherwise I'm going to start starving soon. Back at work now. A bit tired, but looking forward to another year.

Back At It

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:00:54 +0000

2007 is officially in the past now, and today was basically the start of a whole new year, at least in terms of my routine again. I spent the day at work today getting back into the groove again. Tomorrow I will most likely dive head-first into a fairly large new project, which should be pretty exciting. I still have some unpacking to do from my trip, and will most likely take the tree and decorations down this coming weekend. At that point, the holidays will be completely behind me. I think tomorrow Dustin and I are going to get together and hang out for a bit, and this weekend there will probably be a small movie marathon at my place with some friends. I'm also going planning to take a break from the bar scene for a while, and will spend the next few weeks just hanging out with friends, and hopefully shooting a pile of new photos. I've attended a few of the photowalks that have happened in the Vancouver community in the past year, and I think I'm going to try to organize one out my way, since I don't think there's been one in a while near the beach. I'll send out a facebook event request when the time comes, but if you're interested let me know here and I'll make sure I add you to the list. Also, maybe we can add a theme to it to see what we come up with, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Problems With Facebook

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:43:28 +0000

Lately I've been noticing a ton of problems over in Facebook land. First of all, alot of the searches seem to return inconsistent results. Sometimes certain friends will appear, and another times they don't. It seems to be entirely random, but it's kind of a pain in the ass once you cross over a 100 friends or more. Local gastown-walking-guru Rod Bruno has also had his account randomly deleted several times now, with no apparent explanation. Also, from time to time when I try to login I get the "your user account is down for maintenance" message, and then told to try again later. Maybe this is happening to the users above when they temporarily do not show up in searches. I'm surprised they don't seem to schedule these things late at night so as not to disrupt usage. In terms of the developer APIs, Facebook is changing many of them at a rapid pace, often ruining backward compatibility in the process. As someone who has done a few facebook apps, it's a bit discouraging the amount of time you have to spend keeping up to date with changes going on there, and random bugs that never seem to get fixed. One that's a major pain in the ass involves images on the profile page. Facebook caches these for improved access, but it appears that if that caching operating fails in the background, then you're stuck with an imageless profile box for some unknown amount of time. Another problem I routinely encounter is a complete timeout while attempting to access Facebook. Seems to be related to which server you get back on the DNS entry. The end result is that you're stuck staring at a blank page. I realize these guys are growing fast and that they are bound to have growing pains, but I've hit enough of these problems to be fairly annoyed with it.

Drunken Stupidity

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:19:02 +0000

Not many people who read this will get the joke, but I find this funny for multiple reasons. From xkcd.com

Rebecca Represents

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:26:00 +0000

I was talking to good pal and fellow blogger Rebecca Bollwitt (aka miss604) online today, and she told me that she has recently been accepted to be on CBC's Test The Nation show in a few weeks. This is obviously really exciting, and Rebecca will be part of a team of bloggers attempting to show off their combined knowledge on national TV. Congrats Rebecca, and best of luck on the show. We'll do a group watching event here when the time comes. You can read more about it over on her site.

Spammers, Give The *%(#& Up Already

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:30:23 +0000

Seriously. I look in my spam folder of my gmail account and on my blog every few days, and it's absolutely ridiculous just how much garbage ends up in it. Between the two I see about 100 or more combined comments/emails per day. It's just insane. No, I don't need viagra, or 100 different types of drugs, or some girl in YOURCITY to come over, or to come to your shitty seminar. Please give up already. It's not like any of these are intelligent either. I bet I could wire up a resistor, a few capacitors, a nine volt battery, and a piece of chicken that would catch 99% of them without any fancy algorithms. Do any of these honestly get through anymore? I guess on my old hotmail account I see the odd one make it through, but rarely does anything come close to getting through my blog or my gmail account. Spam has been a problem for years, but I'm still surprised anyone does it in this capacity any more. My friend once gave a presentation on one way to eliminate it, and it involves charging everyone for every comment and email they send. Sounds weird at first glance, but what if every email was a fraction of a cent, and so was every comment. Maybe monthly you'd pile up a dollar or two in charges, but spammers would basically find it impossible to send any massive quantities of spam without incurring some type of charge. Already on my cell phone I get about one random SMS message a week, sometimes more. It's only going to get worse unless something is done, or spammers eventually give up. Even though going through my spam folders once every week or so doesn't take a pile of time, it's still a pain in the ass that I don't think I should have to put up with.

Old Star Wars Footage

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:09:55 +0000

Surprisingly, I have never seen this before.. It's an old opening scene from Star Wars: A New Hope. I thought it was a complete fake at first, but it looks like it was real footage that was intended to be included at one point. What's weird is that it's sort of processed and seems to have been scored, which is unusual for anything that hits the cutting room floor. Possibly some fan added some Star Wars music to those scenes, but the music fits rather nicely which sort of makes me think it was in the movie up until the last minute. I'm having a small HD-DVD movie marathon at my pad tomorrow. Should be fun.

Tim Conway Elephant Story

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:16:44 +0000

My dad showed me this over the Christmas break, and I thought it was pretty funny. Check it out.

Movie Marathon

Duane Storey — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:36:43 +0000

7:36pm - So John and Brennen just arrived for the Friday night nerd-a-thon. We're debating what movies to watch right now while waiting for pizza to arrive. We have a big list of geeky movies here, some of which are on HD-DVD. Right now the short runners are:

The Matrix in HD
Dark City
Gladiator
Desperado
Heat
Ocean's Thirteen in HD

So we'll see how it goes. Jeff will probably show up in a bit, and I'm not sure who else. I'm guessing The Matrix will be first just to kick everything off with a bag of kick-ass. My copy of Dark City has seen better days, so I'm trying to rip it to my laptop and reburn it before putting into my HD-DVD player, since it's rather flaky and doesn't like scratched discs. Photo of downtown from my place. Taken by John Biehler. 9:11pm Dustin just showed up and sneakily fumbled around in the kitchen putting some chips in a bowl, thinking we couldn't hear him. Brennen wonders why the Oracle is a chubby, smoking, aunt jemima lookin, cookie-baking bitch of a software program. Who's the brainiac he wrote that code? 10:09pm - The Matrix just finished. We're all totally full on pizza and pop. Saying hi to Dustin for the first time since he arrived mid stream there. Gonna take a short break and then pop in Dark City. 10:51pm - Still Dark City.. I did a quick google to see why Refus Sewell's one eye looks a bit different, but I couldn't find out any info. Looks sort of like the same fracture I had. A couple yawns are showing up in the weak here, so we might have to do another caffeine infusion shortly. A scene from Dark City. Photo from here. 12:16am - Brennen just took the stinkiest poop imaginable, and the whole place just reeks. I've been trying to eat Nibs, but everything I eat tastes like poo right now, so I'm gonna hold off. Desperado just went into the DVD player. I'd bring my camera out, but I'm afraid it might corrode due to the fumes coming from the bathroom. 2:18am - Desperado is done.. Most of the group had to work tomorrow AM, so we called it a night.. not much of a full marathon, but it was fun nonetheless. Tomorrow I have to go get a new bank card so I can have money again and probably do some errands. Not sure what's up tomorrow night.

Hollywood Can Kiss My Ass

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:04:42 +0000

About four years ago, the push for new television technologies first emerged, supported primarily by advances in LCD and plasma technology. Many of these new televisions supported high definition (HD) content, at least in the traditional 720p variety. While Europe is ahead of North America in this regard, we have slowly been migrating most of our North American television services to digital, and in most cases, HD. I believe the US has a target date of around 2013 to be completely digital. HD content looks, quite simply, amazing. Which is why Hollywood has spent the last few years humming and hawing over what to do about HD content distribution. The problem of course, in their eyes, is that HD content piracy has the potential to undermine further industry revenue sources. The solution, at least in Hollywood's eyes, is multifaceted, involving both software and hardware anti-piracy mechanisms. Most people making television purchases in the last few years were told that their TVs would be HD-ready, and when the time came they could simply plug in HD content and it would just work. Unfortunately, since that time, big business has basically mandated that certain HD content MUST make use of an encrypted HDMI interface, something most older HD televisions do not have. Last year, the first HD DVD players started hitting the market, but due to the greedy nature of people in Hollywood and the IP holders on some of the technology, two competing technologies ended up being released onto the market: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Because of that, consumer adoption has been extremely disappointing, and video stores have hesitated to carry content simply because most of it would have to be duplicated, taking up precious floor space. About six months ago I picked up a second generation HD-DVD player, and have been disappointed not only with the lack of quality content for it, but also for the problems inherent in an early product. Even after updating the firmware three times, several brand new discs are still unable to be played due to constantly changing specifications and feature sets. Time and time again, the entertainment industry has made this same mistake with the same results. Remember the fight between Beta and VHS? How about the battle between Sony's SACD and the DVD-Audio format? The whole episode between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is a complete embarrassment, and even the president of Sony says he wishes, in retrospect, that they hadn't come up with their own format, and instead had worked harder to develop a joint format. Yesterday Warner Brothers agreed to exclusively back the Blu-Ray format, which in my eyes is almost the death knell for the HD-DVD, which obviously sucks for me (although I knew going into it that it was a risky venture). Current studio distribution, from here. When I started my master's degree at UBC four years ago, I chose to do it in the area of high definition video compression, foreseeing a future when everyone would have HD content at home. My dealings with the industry were frustrating, and even though the research I did was exciting at the time, I had an extremely hard time convincing anyone in Hollywood to even lend me thirty seconds of HD content to do experiments with. Since then, I have been nothing but disappointed with the entertainment industry, especially with the complete debacle the last few years have been with regard to HD DVD players. We are on the verge of the collapse of the whole concept of the cinema if you ask me. There was once a time when you would go there and have a great experience, one that you couldn't possibly mimic at home. But my system at home, even though it isn't worth that much, looks a lot nicer than the screens at the theatre, sounds comparable, and I don't have to put up with long lines, expensive popcorn, or 30 minutes of adverts on each movie I watch. Sure, you can't replace the social experience of a movie outing, but at what cost is everyone willing to obtain that experience in the future? I think Hollywood is rocking dangerously on a precipice, and if they don't starting thinking about the consumer instead of their pockets, they are going to alienate future generations of movie goers, most of whom are already looking to bittorrent and bypassing the traditional movie experience. I have always viewed piracy as the result of a problem, and not the problem itself. It's like blaming a garbage filled beach on a bunch of inconsiderate people, even though there were no garbage cans around to be used. If movies were affordable, and worth seeing, I think most people would pay to see them. But nobody wants to pay $20 to go see a 70 minute movie disguised as a 120 minute one due to adverts and long lines.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotted Mind

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:44:14 +0000

In 1997, I decided to mix things up a bit and took a summer job up in Whitehorse, YT, working at the weather station up there for Environment Canada. It was really my first time away from home in any capacity, and also marked the first time I was in a long distance relationship. Needless to say, when I walked off the plane way up north, I was a bit bummed, and a bit out of sorts. I spent the first three days living in a hotel room, desperately trying to find a place to live, since Environment Canada only offered to pay for three days of hotel. I finally found a small room in a trailer living with this 30-something year old german lady and her crazy dog. The rent was pretty cheap, but the place was a good 45 minute walk to work. Since I had no other options, I decided to take it. Me In The Yukon The first few weeks were rather lonely. Everyone at work was in their 40s, and I didn't really do a lot of socializing. Nobody really had the internet at home back then, so I couldn't really chat with my girlfriend back in Vancouver except for the odd letter or email from time to time (I can't believe there was a time when I actually sent letters to people in the mail, wow). I have a stack of pseudo love-letters in a box somewhere from that summer, most of which would be rather funny to read now. Everything changed that summer for me when I decided to volunteer for the Whitehorse annual storytelling festival, held every year on the summer solstice and meant to celebrate the native history of oral tradition. Bear in mind that at that latitude, the sun basically never set at all that night, and it's a strange, surreal experience to be drinking outside at 2am in daylight. Me up in Haines, Alaska Because of my Macdonald's experience, I was instantly promoted to the food tent, and spent most of that weekend flipping burgers for the hungry patrons. It was there that I met Cheryl and Marilyn, two 30-something mom's with a love for beer nearly as large as my own. Later on I would end up meeting a crazy 25 year old Newfoundlander, and we would spend most nights down at the local saloon, drinking until midnight, watching the slight dim of the sun high above the bar, but never quite setting. Back in those days I couldn't get hungover if I tried, so it was just a daily routine of having a few pints with friends, heading home, and getting up for a full day of work. Really, there wasn't that much else to do up there. It sure was fun, and I had some great times. About half-way through that summer, I came home and caught my landlady in my room rummaging through my stuff, and decided to move out ASAP. Cheryl, a single mom of four kids, offered me a free bunk to stay at in her place, knowing I was a starving student in a bind without a pile of options. And so, I moved in with a virtual stranger, and spent the rest of that summer playing Mario Kart with her kids, drinking beers with her and her family, exploring Whitehorse, Dawson City and Alaska, and eventually coming to appreciate the difference between people of substance in this world and those who are without. I am now facebook friends with both Cheryl and Marilyn, and all of their kids. Tonight I was exchanging messages with some of them, reminiscing about the old days when I used to slaughter them at Mario Kart, giving them whatever advice I can extract from the last ten years, and thankful we are all still in touch. It was a crazy experience that summer, one that was both difficult and exciting. Like summer camp, it is not an experience I could ever hope to reproduce, nor would I think I would ever want to try. I have often thought about going back for a visit, but I am quite sure some aspects of that summer are far better in my mind now, and I'm quite content to leave them that way.

Free Desktop Backgrounds For Your Mac

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 07:01:05 +0000

Since I'm a new Mac convert, I thought I'd give a little back to the Mac community by creating a few free desktop backgrounds based on some of my HDR work. Here's a shot of the famous Inukshuk overlooking English Bay in Vancouver. Here's the sun rising over Vancouver's Granville Street Bridge. The sun setting over the ocean near English Bay, Vancouver. And a shot of downtown Vancouver from the Harbour Center at Night.

Head on over here to download one. I'll add more as time goes on.

iTunes Canadian Rock Artist of the Year

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:49:48 +0000

Is none other than Matthew Good. That's a pretty huge accomplishment, given the importance of digital distribution these days and the prevalence of iTunes. Matthew Good @ Massey Hall, Photo by Phil Ogynist Congratulations Matt, you deserve it. More information over matthewgood.org.

Sorry for the delay, they are on their way

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:13:41 +0000

A few months ago I had an offer on my website to send a few people some free photo prints. Due to my hospitalization and recent health battles, I never got around to mailing any of them out. Thankfully, I found some time tonight to put a bunch of them together, and they will be going out in the mail. Unfortunately, not all the people who were supposed to receive one sent me their address, so I still have some to send out. If you were pretty sure you were receiving one, can you please fire me off an email with your address and which print you wanted? Thanks. Also, once these are all out of the way, I will be doing a contest for a one shot item, something that I think will be really nice. Check back next week.

Raymi's Art Show

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:31:37 +0000

Tuesday evening, Toronto blogger and artist Raymi (Lauren White) will be down at the Crooked Star showing off some of her art and meeting people. If you're in the Toronto area, make sure you pop by with lots of money. The event kicks off at 7pm, and looks like it will go into the wee hours of the morning. There's a facebook event associated with it, and you can find it here. Best of luck Raymi.

Upcoming Photowalk Along The Beach

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:30:27 +0000

I have attended a few photowalks in the last year, most of which have been in or around the Gastown area. These events have typically brought together anywhere from 5 to 50 people, and have usually involved people walking around and snapping shots for an hour or two. They are a lot of fun, and always a great chance for people to improve their skills or just get out and stretch their wings a bit. I'm organizing one down in my neck of the woods for this Sunday. It will be mostly along the beach, eventually ending up near English Bay and the famous Inukshuk. Hopefully we'll even manage to catch a sunset at the end. There's a facebook event for it if you're interested. If you're into photography and can get downtown this Sunday, make sure you come out and snap a few photos.

A Bit Busy

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:56:33 +0000

Last couple days have been a bit busy for me. Started a new project at work which is fairly interesting, and have spent a lot of time catching up in that area. Rest of the week should be about the same. I've been meaning to head down to the lab to get another run of tests to see where I stand with all the health garbage I was dealing with. Maybe on Friday. This weekend there are two birthdays going on, Kasia and Rebecca, which should be a lot of fun. Rebecca is just about to breach "cougar territory" and I'm glad I get to be around to see the start of the transition.

Sweet Obsession

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:59:24 +0000

I have to ask -- what is it with everyone's obsession to feed each other stuff that's really bad for you? Every day at work is a constant battle of having to tell people you don't want cookies, or chocolate, or donuts. It seems like everywhere I go someone is trying to ram a cookie down my throat. I like sweets as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure where this fad came from. I really hate having to tell someone "no" ten times. It's fun for the first two, and then it's just super annoying. As someone who has basically had to watch my weight my entire life, I really get upset when people hammer me for 10 minutes straight about some goodies that I clearly don't want. Ok, I'm done ranting, and no I don't want any cookies, thanks.

Happy Birthday Miss604

Duane Storey — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:17:16 +0000

Today is my good friend Rebecca's birthday. To be honest, I'm not really sure how old she is, but I'm convinced she is dangerously close to being a cougar. I've only known Rebecca for about a year now, but I'm thankful we've gotten to be good friends in that time. Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Air Transat In-Flight Magazine Atmosphere

Duane Storey — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:17:01 +0000

So Leila just came up to me at work today and said congrats. I said "for what?" And she said she was recently on an Air Transat flight and came across a pile of photos in the middle of the in-flight magazine from my last trip to the Dominican Republic. She said they all said "photo by Duane Storey", and that she was sure they were mine. Funny thing is I had no idea they had been published. I know Air Transat has a section where users can submit their photos for consideration, which I did after coming back from the Dominican Republic, but nobody ever contacted me and said they were going to use them. One of the photos they probably used I'm totally happy that people are looking at my photos on every Air Transat plane now, but it would have been nice to know I had been published though, and to maybe get a hard copy of the magazine in the mail. Update - I've talked to Air Transat, and it sounds like they are going to send me a few hard copies. Thanks!

Air Canada Emergency Landing

Duane Storey — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:12:20 +0000

Just read that an Air Canada flight from Victoria to Toronto was forced to make an emergency landing in Calgary due to turbulence. Apparently the plane hit a patch of turbulence that sent a pile of people into the ceiling. I would have probably shit my pants had that happened on my flight. My last flight to Kelowna was pretty bad, and my glasses came off at one point, but thankfully my head didn't encountered the ceiling.

Half a dozen passengers were badly injured after an Air Canada plane bucked in midair on a flight across Canada, probably because of heavy turbulence. A spokesman for Calgary Emergency Medical Services said a number of passengers had been taken off the plane in stretchers with head and spinal injuries. They were in stable condition despite "potentially life threatening" injuries. One passenger said the bumps had been over in seconds. "It happened very fast," a female passenger in the plane's front cabin told CBC Television. "One side of the plane just went up a little bit sideways and then it just sort of went back down. And our friend was really hurt ... she flew up and hit the ceiling and (came) right back down." Early media reports had said that up to 40 passengers were hurt, 15 of them seriously.

Clearly the seatbelt sign was off, otherwise most people would have been buckled in. That means either the turbulence was completely unexpected, or the pilots weren't really paying attention and didn't put the seatbelt sign on before encountering it. Here's another article that talks about the computer being disengaged due to the turbulence.

"Some of the armrests on the aisle seat sides were bent 60 degrees from people holding on - that's how extreme it was," said Jayne Harvey, a passenger on Thursday's AC190 flight that made an unscheduled stop in Calgary so that 10 passengers could be treated in hospital. None was hurt seriously. Harvey, one of 83 passengers on the Airbus A319, said the plane dropped sharply, then rolled left and right as the pilots fought to bring it under control. The pilots, she said, came on the intercom "and said they were flying manually and that the computer had been knocked out.

CBC is speculating that it was a technical malfunction, but most auto-pilots are designed to disengage when they encounter difficult situations or a pilot override. Even manually moving the sidestick or the yoke will typically disengage an auto-pilot.

Big Trouble In Little Arctic

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:12:18 +0000

I get a lot of notifications in my inbox daily about scientific rumblings going on in the world, but this one caught my eye this evening. Some recent NASA data in the arctic region seems to point to a huge acceleration in the melting rate of the ice -- should the melting continue at its current rate, NASA scientists project that it's only a matter of years before the arctic might be completely ice free in the summers.

An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years. Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end was half what it was just four years earlier, according to new NASA satellite data obtained by The Associated Press. The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colo. Just last year, two top scientists surprised their colleagues by projecting that the Arctic sea ice was melting so rapidly that it could disappear entirely by the summer of 2040. This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions." So scientists in recent days have been asking themselves these questions: Was the record melt seen all over the Arctic in 2007 a blip amid relentless and steady warming? Or has everything sped up to a new climate cycle that goes beyond the worst case scenarios presented by computer models? "The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming," said Zwally, who as a teenager hauled coal. "Now as a sign of climate warming, the canary has died. It is time to start getting out of the coal mines." ... The surface area of summer sea ice floating in the Arctic Ocean this summer was nearly 23 percent below the previous record. The dwindling sea ice already has affected wildlife, with 6,000 walruses coming ashore in northwest Alaska in October for the first time in recorded history. Another first: the Northwest Passage was open to navigation. Still to be released is NASA data showing the remaining Arctic sea ice to be unusually thin, another record. That makes it more likely to melt in future summers. Combining the shrinking area covered by sea ice with the new thinness of the remaining ice, scientists calculate that the overall volume of ice is half of 2004's total.

In addition to changes in the arctic ice, there are also many changes going on with permafrost regions in the arctic, in particular with Greenland and Alaska:

Alaska's frozen permafrost is warming, not quite thawing yet. But temperature measurements 66 feet deep in the frozen soil rose nearly four-tenths of a degree from 2006 to 2007, according to measurements from the University of Alaska. While that may not sound like much, "it's very significant," said University of Alaska professor Vladimir Romanovsky. Surface temperatures in the Arctic Ocean this summer were the highest in 77 years of record-keeping, with some places 8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, according to research to be released Wednesday by University of Washington's Michael Steele. Greenland, in particular, is a significant bellwether. Most of its surface is covered by ice. If it completely melted something key scientists think would likely take centuries, not decades it could add more than 22 feet to the world's sea level. However, for nearly the past 30 years, the data pattern of its ice sheet melt has zigzagged. A bad year, like 2005, would be followed by a couple of lesser years. According to that pattern, 2007 shouldn't have been a major melt year, but it was, said Konrad Steffen, of the University of Colorado, which gathered the latest data. "I'm quite concerned," he said. "Now I look at 2008. Will it be even warmer than the past year?"

If you've followed any reports on global warming in the past few years, the main consensus with most of them is that we are really at a point of no return, something that this latest batch of data also seems to suggest.

Thank God It's Friday

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:23:27 +0000

Ahh yes.. Friday.. So exciting.. This was a really good week. I hung out with friends, got some stuff done in the office, and have a pile of fun things to do this weekend. After work I'm meeting up with Rebecca, Kasia and maybe Keira for some wings and beer. Life's rough I know. Plus on the way over I want to buy a flash diffuser over at Leo's Camera on Granville, something that I used at the last wedding I shot and wished I actually owned. Tomorrow there are two parties, one for Rebecca's birthday and one for Kasia's. I have to make appearances at both, but I think I can pull it off. And on Sunday is the beach photowalk I've been organizing. Should be a great time. I'll post some links to the photos once they start making their way onto Flickr. I'm also listening to "Starts with One" by Shiny Toy Guns right now, and I have to say it's fairly kick ass.

Payment Gateways

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:15:34 +0000

Anyone know of any micropayment gateways available in Canada? I've been looking at paypal and Amazon's FPS system, but both of those only support micropayments in the US. Anyone have any ideas at all?

Friday Night Bowling

Duane Storey — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:41:13 +0000

Keira and me, photo by Miss604 Read about the fun and the magic over at Rebecca's website. Tonight is also Rebecca's birthday margarita party. Should be fun.

Vancouver Taboo Sex Show, 2008

Duane Storey — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:25:02 +0000

Last night, Rebecca and Trevor told me about the sex show this weekend taking place at the Vancouver Convention Center. Since I've never been to one, and haven't had an opportunity to take my camera out in a few weeks, I decided to head down and check it out. Live Entertainment In terms of layout and logistics, it was like any other tech conference I had ever been at. There were tons of booths, some of which made sense given the aim of the sex show, and some which obviously shouldn't have been there. One that comes to mind is Sun Life Financial in the back corner. Seriously, do you really expect many people to sign up for a bank loan at a sex show? Maybe. Dancers I walked around the entire floor maybe three times, mainly just to get a good feeling for the types of things on display and to make sure I didn't miss anything. Most of the shops were typical things you would expect at this type of show: places selling sexual art, lube, dildos, costumes, photography services, etc. There were even a couple online dating sites there, and I was a bit surprised by how many signups they seemed to be getting during the show. On the right side of the conference floor was an area meant for live entertainment. Most of the shows I happened to see involved trapeze acts, pole dancing, and a bunch of scantily clad girls spinning around chairs. I tried to keep a mental list going of the booths and displays that stood out in my mind. One was of course the Bondage Bed, which seemed rather innovative: Another one was the OhMiBod which was a vibrator that would vibrate in time to the music on your iPod. There's an engineering award there somewhere I'm sure. All in all, it was an interesting show, and it passed the time like I expected it too. I sort of expected a few more booth babes at this type of show, but there was definitely more of a commercial element to the show than I thought there would be. Rebecca is down checking it out as well, so I'm sure she'll have some opinions on it as well later. Some cool sexual t-shirts here I'm going to take it easy for a few hours, then head out for some margaritas down on Denman. If you want to see some more shots from the show, head on over to my Flickr page. On another note, I'm starting to feel like there is something fairly different about low-light photography with by new Canon EOS 40D when compared to the EOS 20D. For example, I find the highlights are far easier to blow out on my 40D with high ISOs than my 20D. In addition, the noise characteristics of the 40D at ISO 3200 are way worse than the 20D IMO -- on the 20D the noise seemed to be fairly random, but on the 40D it's grouped into weird regions for some reason. I have to play around with this some more, but it's basically a huge wrench in my photography gears right now.

Beach Photowalk

Duane Storey — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:34:33 +0000

In about 30 minutes, the beach photowalk near my place is going to begin. It turned out to be a rather nice day with some ideal light, so hopefully there will be a pile of great shots taken. The challenge always for me is figuring out what lens to bring and what exactly I want to shoot. I haven't shot film in quite a while, so I loaded some 160VC portrait film in my one camera and put my wide angle on it, and will bring my 70-200mm f/2.8L for doing some portraits near the water. I'm just making some coffee and making sure my cameras are good to go, then heading downstairs to meet people. I'll post some photos when I get back.

Photos From The Walk

Duane Storey — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:58:49 +0000

Here are a few photos from the photo walk along the beach yesterday. The rest of them can be found on my Flickr photoset.

StartupWeekend Vancouver

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:13:25 +0000

I have, for the last few years, had an idea about something I've wanted to do involving technology. I was talking to Boris about this a while ago, and I'm pretty certain this actually has a real name and has been done many times before in various cities. But for now, I'm just going to describe what would happen, and we'll decide an official name later (until of course Boris wakes up in whatever country he is in and chimes in). The idea is that over the course of one full weekend (that is, starting Friday at 7pm until Sunday at midnight) you get a team of people together to develop a product/service/technology completely from scratch. In my head I am thinking that it would be basically a weekend-long sleepover involving donated beer, good people, music, and tons of know how on various aspects of the web world and technology. It will undoubtedly be one massive geek-filled coding session. I am going to do my best to find sponsors for beer, a location, food, etc, but we're going to need people who can contribute something to an effort like this, and who can give up basically an entire weekend in the pursuit of something cool. Sleeping bags will be definitely be required, as will massive amounts of ~~caffeine~~ redbull mixed with booze. To pull this off, we will need the following (so if you can contribute any of these, please chime in with a comment below).

People who can contribute technical skills to this effort (web design, php, c++, ruby on rails, web platforms, drupal/wordpress, perl/python, you get the idea)
People who can contribute other skills (food runs, massages, live internet research, photography, podcasting, videocasting, blogging)
Sponsors for food, beer, and a venue (depending on the number of people I have a few locations in mind already)

If you're interested, or can help locate any of those items, chime in on the comments below. We can brainstorm ideas the night of or shortly before the event, but I'm secretly hoping whatever it is we do has some kind of mobile component as well. I'm tentatively thinking that this event would occur sometime in early April (let's say April 4-6 right now). If you can throw some link-love this way, I'd appreciate that too (post this to your facebook accounts if you got 'em!). Thanks. PS (The name is going to change as we hash things out, but keep checking back - we'll finalize something shortly).

Rebecca Bollwitt (aka miss604) has graciously offered to be the Chief Blogging Officer (CBO), and we're more than happy to have her onboard to help out!

Apple Macbook Air Notebook Announced

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:00:40 +0000

Apple just announced an ultra-think notebook computer called the Air. Photo by Gnackgnackgranck on Flickr Looks pretty cool, but it doesn't have a DVD drive, and is sealed shut like a big iPod. Based on my experiences with my Macbook Pro and Leopard, I think I'm definitely pulling myself out of the "early-adopter" crowd with Apple and waiting a while this round to see what happens.

Snowboarders Of The World, Unite!

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:50:06 +0000

I've decided that I want to go snowboarding a few times this season, starting like right now. I'm definitely going to hit Seymour with Rebecca and John soon, but was wondering if any other of my crazy readers were hitting the slopes this year. If so, where do you normally go? I need people who kind of suck to go with, since I'm pretty much guaranteed to roll down most of the hills. Snowboard, photo by miss604 The good news is that I absolutely hate my powershot camera, and will happily bring it along with the hope that I will a) capture some great, funny moments of me falling and/or b) break it and have to buy a new one. The first order of business is snow pants -- I don't have any. Maybe after work today I'll go on a snow pant adventure.

What's Up With iChat, Leopard?

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:46:33 +0000

I've been using Leopard now for around 3 months, and to be honest, I'm really not impressed at all. It's an extremely buggy OS with a bunch of mediocre improvements, many of which I haven't really found a use for. Spaces? I actually thought these would be cool, but I just haven't been able to find a good use for them. In fact, I find myself accidentally switching between spaces from time to time thanks to how heavily I rely on the control and option keys for other things. Stacks is another completely useless feature, mainly because you can't really see enough icons. Plus, it's generally a stupid idea to present multiple conflicting UI designs (the box in stacks and the curvy expandy thing) for the same feature, especially if you switch between them from time to time. I am currently on the 10.5.1 update of Leopard, which is basically the first major service pack after the OS release. Ever since upgrading from Tiger to Leopard, my Macbook Pro refuses to connect to my Wireless N WRT150N router at home. Even though it has great signal strength, it generally always comes back with a self-assigned IP address. It would seem I'm not the only person having this problem. Without a doubt though, the biggest complaint I have with Leopard is that they've completely destroyed iChat with it. Nearly every person I know who uses it routinely has suddenly found it nearly unusable. It seems with every application update it just gets a whole lots worse. I looked so much happier when iChat actually worked Tonight I tried various iChats with a few people, and pretty much all of them failed with a communications error. Looking at the logs, it appears that iChat is having problems determining which IP addresses to use. I tried on two different computers in two different network topologies with multiple people. You know how many iChats we successfully pulled off? Zero. I've gone through every thing I can think of, and every suggestion other users in the forums have come up with. I've disabled uPNP, played with my Leopard firewall settings, tried various AOL servers, all with no luck. You know what pisses me off the most though -- how you can't find any information from anyone at Apple. Clearly this must be a known issue, so at least fess up to it and tell people you're working on it. Ignoring the problem just seems arrogant, and is leading to frustration all across the board. When I first installed Leopard it worked slightly better, and I even had a few opportunities to try out the screen sharing feature. But now, it's basically completely broken -- not just for me, but for many people I know and usually talk with. I used iChat fairly frequently, so having it out of commission is a pretty major pain in the ass. To top it off, Apple isn't really talking about many of these problems openly, even though many users are reporting these same problems. I bought my Mac because it was supposed to "just work", but with each new update I take from Apple, the situation just gets worse and worse. Before spending anymore time putting out new technologies such as the new Apple Air, they really need to get their shit together and shore up this OS in a hurry. I'm going to add a few polls here to get some feedback. First, what do you guys think of Leopard? [poll=3] And second, if you've upgraded to Leopard, let me know what your experience is with the new iChat: [poll=4]

Published Travel Photographer, Air Transat

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:40:53 +0000

Yup, I now have proof that yours truly is in fact a published travel photographer. What does that mean? That if you have a plane, a sandy beach, and maybe a few cute locals in bikinis waiting, I'd be more than happy to come help you out by shooting some photos. Air Transat's In Flight Magazine, Atmosphere Air Transat sent me a few hard copies of their Atmosphere in-flight magazine, since I had only heard from a friend that some of my photos made it in. Sure enough, a few of my photos from the Dominican Republic are on pages 20-21 of the Winter edition of Atmosphere. Thanks for mailing it guys, I appreciate it. A couple of my photos on pages 20-21 Obviously I think it's pretty cool, as this is really the first magazine type publication I've had photos in. I'd love to travel to more places and take even more photos in the future.

Cloverfield

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:02:25 +0000

Photo by miss604 Be afraid. Be very afraid. I'm heading out to watch this tonight with Rebecca, John and John. Rebecca had tickets to the Vancouver premiere and invited me along, which is totally exciting. I'm going on the record as saying I'm pretty sure this is going to suck (the trailer reminds me of a techy Blair Witch Project), but it'll be a fun suck with a bunch of friends. That sounds dirty, I know. Check out the trailer below: I'm pretty sure the entire budget for the film went into the funky Independence-Day-looking poster, just to attract more people.

Photography Website

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:07:03 +0000

I set up a small photography website over at photography.duanestorey.com a while ago. I think I'm going to over haul it this weekend and make it a bit better. I also want to get a domain name for it and make it a proper stand-alone site. If anyone has any ideas for a cool name for a photography site, fire me off an email. I've been trying to come up with west-coast oriented names, but so far no go. I'll give a free 8x12 print and a blog entry on the new site for the person that picks the winner! Thanks!

Cloverfield Movie Premiere

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:51:44 +0000

Tonight I ended up down at the Paramount theatre in Vancouver for a premiere of Cloverfield. For those of you who keep up with such things, Cloverfield has been somewhat of a mystery, relying mainly on word of mouth and a few minutes of raw footage released as a trailer for promotional means. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Going into the movie, I basically expected something similar to the Blair Witch Project, and for the most part, that's exactly what I got. Granted there are a few more effects in this movie, and it is set in the heart of Manhattan, but for the most part it's just the regurgitation of the formula used for the BWP. In fact, Cloverfield to me really was a rip off of a lot of different movies. First, you have the Bourne Supremacy's shaky cam that was used throughout the entire film, even in sequences where the dude with the camera isn't moving. I understand that there's a big alien guy chasing everyone alot of the time, but seriously, the camera is shaking and zooming pretty much non-step. Peter Jackson did something similar in the Moria sequence, mainly to add a bit of realism and to fudge the special effects slightly, but there it worked in his favour. In this film, it's fairly hard to focus on anything at any moment, and I found it super annoying after a while. There are obviously elements from "Alien" here too, at least in the way the monsters or aliens attack people and impregnate them (or whatever it is they do). Once bitten, you're pretty much a goner, as evidenced by that strange girl that basically exploded blood at one point. There are a few nods towards "Signs" as well with some of the alien reveals, and up until the end of the movie you're still not entirely sure what it is you're dealing with. In fact, even though you know what the thing looks like at the end, you're still not sure what it is. I'm sort of a movie snob -- I kind of like it when stories are well written and things sort of make sense. I can suspend disbelief when required, but when there are obvious holes in a story or plot, I get a bit irritated. For me, the Alien would have been a lot better had it been shown that it had a purpose. In Independence Day the aliens wanted nothing more than to annihilate pretty much everyone, and knowing that made it all the more important that they were stopped. This alien has a capacity for knocking down famous structures, bashing the statue of liberty, pushing over buildings, taking a stroll in central park, and ever eating random camera people on the street. Why? Not really sure. While I'm at it, let's talk about the camera itself. The fact that buddy is handed the camera is a bar and asked to shoot random shots of people all night leads me to believe it's just a normal run-of-the-mill camcorder. However, clearly I'm wrong, since this camcorder not only has a huge floodlight attached to it, but it also has a night vision mode that let's you see aliens! Come on guys. I also don't get why they felt the need to use a shitty love story as the means to propagate the story forward. Let's just be at a party with friends and have the monster attack. Buddy doesn't need to have a girl he slept with, what was it, ONCE, on the other side of town that needs serious saving. The chick left with some other guy at the party -- let that guy save her. While there were a few scenes that kind of caught my eye, for the most part I found the movie fairly boring. I appreciate some of the thought that went into the realism that might surround an event like this (people whipping out cameras and camera phones during events, make-shift barracks in the subway to try and fight the monster), but I still had a problem with the acting and a few other elements. The one major beef I had with Blair Witch was that even when most of the people were dead, that chick was still being super annoying, and buddy wouldn't put the camera down. I'm a pretty big camera dork, but I'll be honest, if I'm hanging out with you guys and you all get eaten by monsters or explode in huge pools of blood, I'm probably gonna put the camera down and bolt the fuck out of there. Want me to go confront the monster? I'll meet you there, I'm just gonna take a quick piss. What's that, the super hot chick I slept with once is trapped in the leaning building with a big piece of rebar hanging out of her? Sorry guys, gotta jet. Do me a favour and hold this camera for me.

END MAJOR SPOILERS I had a great time hanging out with the group, but I thought the movie was fairly weak, and clearly an obvious rip-off (both in terms of marketing and content) of the Blair Witch Project. After the show I hit a few people up and asked them what they thought. A few people said it was ok (coincidentally these people hadn't seen the Blair Witch Project), but most of the people I asked thought it was pretty lame. I was just over at Aint It Cool News seeing what Harry thought of it (since it was pretty much guaranteed that he saw it already), and apparently he thinks it's absolutely amazing and redefines the entire genre. Sorry man, but I couldn't disagree with you more. "Signs" was a far better movie that played with some of the same concepts but didn't resort to the shaky cam approach or any blatant movie rip-offs. Thanks again to Rebecca, John and John for bringing me along. Great times. Let's do it again. Like tomorrow.

My Best To Clay

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:00:06 +0000

For the last few months, we've all been hearing Clay complain about being out of breath and not being able to walk very far around the office. His general doctor did some tests on him and said there wasn't anything wrong and that he should just move past it. Eventually Clay got referred to a specialist since things just kept getting worse for him. Turns out he has a blockage in his heart which is why he's having problems. Tomorrow Clay is heading down for an angiogram, and will probably have to get a stent in his heart. My dad had something similar last year, and while the procedure is relatively pain free, I know just how stressful the whole ordeal can be. All the best Clay, we'll be thinking about you. Give us a shout if you need anything.

How To Be A Winner

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:20:49 +0000

Eight easy steps: 1. Toss and turn all night 2. Fall asleep at 5am 3. Get up at 9:30am and try to head to work 4. Call a cab, and tell him to take you to work 5. Pay cab driver. Drop money all over the cab and look dumb. 6. Exit cab and close door, making sure to slam your iPod touch in the door 7. Stand there looking at iPod touch drive away with cab driver, only to fall off a half block away 8. Pick up iPod touch on the concrete, now without headphones

Venezuela Bound?

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:53:12 +0000

I got an email this morning asking if I'd like to speak at a university technology conference in Venezuela in May. All expenses would be paid for. Caracas, Venezuela, photo by josemazcona Fun party in Caracas, photo my rmendez Hell yah baby. Hell yah. I just have to come up with something to talk about. Maybe I'll talk about the cute group of women pictured above.

Jennifer Aniston in Vancouver

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:01:56 +0000

I'm pretty much the least star-struck person I know. I met the Barenaked Ladies a long time ago, ran into David Duchovny at UBC during the X-Files, and last year ended up sitting beside Aaron Eckhart at the Vancouver Airport bar for a while. So when I heard that Jennifer Aniston was filming a block from where I work, I didn't really think anything of it. On my way home tonight as I was passing the Hyatt on Burrard Street I decided to stop for a sec and see if I could watch anything being filmed or check out the lighting and stuff. Right when I was about to keep moving I heard a voice nearby which sounded distinctively like Rachel from "Friends." From here Sure enough, standing literally right beside me was Jennifer Aniston, who was basically just trying to keep herself warm between scenes. What sort of surprised me is the complete lack of security and stuff -- I guess I sort of assumed there would be body guards and people of that nature, but nobody seemed to care that I was like two feet from Jennifer basically watching everything. She walked past me and did a scene with Aaron Eckhart right in front of me, and then came back to where she was standing. I didn't really have any excuse to say anything, and didn't want to seem dumb, so I just stood there looking dumb instead. I hung out about ten minutes and realized I was bored watching Aaron and Jennifer act out a scene I couldn't really hear, so I left. She was definitely really pretty, although far more petite than I thought she was based on seeing her on TV. In person she looks about 5'3" and 100 lbs -- really tiny. Anyways, it was sort of cool to see it all unfold, partly because I used to like Friends, and of course because she's totally cute.

Generation iPod

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:55:40 +0000

As of October of 2007, Apple has sold approximately 120 million iPods worldwide. At approximately $250 each, that's $30 billion dollars in revenue. It is without a doubt one of Apple's crowning technical achievements, both for the ingenuity of the hardware and for the revolutionary integration with software on several platforms. And yet lately, as I've trekked the 30 minute walk between my home and work with my iPod blaring away, I've started to wonder what the impact of this technology really is. For starters, those of us who listen to iPods frequently are subjecting ourselves to potential hearing damage. Even at my age, I find myself frequently asking people to repeat themselves. I've also found that I have a great deal of difficulty hearing individuals in crowded places or bars with lots of chatter. And while my hearing has never been perfect (thanks to an uncle that went a little nuts with a firecracker when I was a kid), I am quite certain it has degraded quite a bit in the last few years. And while I can't say with 100% certainty that my iPod has caused any harm to my hearing, experts have started voicing their concerts about the long term consequences of the MP3 generation.:

Audiologists believe tens of thousands of young people are causing serious damage to themselves, and are likely to suffer tinnitus and loss of hearing in later life. The experts say MP3 players should be designed to prevent people playing music above 90db, about two-thirds of the maximum volume of a typical device," the report warns. Apple's device easily exceeds that volume limit - in fact a French law (emulated by Apple across Europe) requires that the computer company cap the iPods volume, but even the capped maximum still exceeds expert recommendations, at 100db.

And while the physical manifestations of the MP3 phenomenon may be limited to hearing loss in a small subset of buyers, there is an ever-growing concern about the social implications of personal music players. A recent article in the Seattle weekly discusses some of these:

The great paradox of the iPod is that the cultural phenom (more than 120 million sold) is purely isolationist. Whereas social networking and cell phones make the private public, iPods—more ubiquitous than the Walkmen they replaced—turn music from a public aesthetic experience into a private, mobile affair. (Note the failure of Microsoft's Zune, an attempt to make MP3 players a social affair by allowing users to share music wirelessly.) ... This social isolation is another likely outcome of iPod use, according to Areni, a professor at the University of Sydney who studies environmental psychology, music, and cognition. "Have you ever tried saying 'hello' to somebody listening to an iPod? If I see the white or black wires sticking out of somebody's ears, I don't even bother, even if it's a friend. Again, in crowded public spaces, this may be a desirable outcome.

I think that last line is extremely relevant. On my daily walk each day, I basically cross from one side of downtown Vancouver to the other, often passing corner after corner of homeless people, especially down near the business sectors on Burrard Street. While most people generally ignore the homeless individuals begging for change, you'll often notice many of these same people walk by with headphones firmly planted in their ears, completely impervious to any verbal requests, and perhaps even to whatever guilt they might have once felt. I realize that some of them undoubtedly just want to listen to music, but I suspect there are those who use MP3s and iPods and a means to limit social interaction, or at least have become comfortable with that secondary outcome. Despite the prevalence of social networks, cell phones, emails, and all this endless technology that was meant to bring people together, I somehow have this feeling lately like we are actually moving backwards, despite the constant forward motion I see outside my window daily. I was talking to my grandmother at Christmas and she remarked how things have changed since she was a little girl. Back then, she said, people used to get together often, have dinners, stay up late on Christmas, attend each other's birthday parties, laugh often, and even stop by unexpectedly a few times a week for tea. Now she says most people are just too tired or busy to come out most of the time, something that after 85 years of a happy, social life tends to saddens her. I think even in my own life there was a time when I used to pick up the phone to call friends every couple of days, and now with instant messaging and email, I find that I rarely have the impulse to. It's guess it's just far easier to send an email. I have always been worried about the dangers of technology. While it is true that it is the use of the technology and generally not the technology itself that makes it harmful, I think we have the capacity to become too wrapped up in it all and lose ourselves. And while a MP3 player at the end of the day is simply a technological device to play music, I think there are dangerous social trends developing with their usage that are counterproductive to real-world communities and social, human interaction. If we're not careful, our generation may ultimately be remembered as the one that strolled through life with our heads down and our earbuds in, a generation of people oblivious to all sounds except for that faint static we made ourselves.

Updated: Matt posted this great article in his previous Facebook entry that talks about some of these social issues in the context of Facebook. Definitely a good read.

Maid Day

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:44:56 +0000

Yes, it's that time of month again, maid day. When I got sick with pneumonia in the fall my mom came and spent a few days with me and ended up cleaning my entire apartment. Being a busy, single guy, it was in a pretty sad state. My mom, being a constant worrier, implored me, for her sake, to get someone to help clean my apartment so it would be clean and I wouldn't have to worry about getting sick at home. Since I'm sort of cheap (at least for things that don't involve technology), but wanted to put my mom's mind at ease, I made myself a compromise -- I'd get a maid but cancel my cable TV to pay for it. So, that's what I did, and I've had two girls come every two weeks and clean my apartment for me ever since. At first it felt weird paying someone to clean my apartment, but I've gotten used to it. Considering I used to spend a large amount of time each week attempting to clean my apartment (but since I suck at cleaning it never really got very clean), it's really nice having some extra time now to do other things. It costs me about $50 every two weeks, which is pretty expensive based on a few other people I know who have the same setup. But the girls are cute, fun to talk to, they do a good job and are bonded, so I'm ok with it for now. So after three or four months now, I can say I'm a happy camper and I'm glad with the decision I made. If you're on the fence about doing something similar, I'd say go for it -- you probably won't regret it. In case anyone is wondering, the people who clean my place are part of Life Maid Simple, which is a relatively new business that prides itself in only using eco-friendly products. Oh, and a little tidbit of information to start a war -- I asked them who their dirtiest clients were one time. The answer? Women, mostly professionals like doctors and lawyers. One specific girl's apartment required the removal of 8 hefty green garbage bags in a one bedroom apartment on their first visit. So I don't feel that bad now. I'm laying low tonight and probably doing a bit of work on the computer (I really need to unplug soon). Tomorrow morning (early!) I'm going on a field trip with John and Rebecca to the airport to see Rebecca off to Toronto for her showing on Test The Nation. Will post some photos when I get back.

Miss604 Heading To Test The Nation

Duane Storey — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:37:00 +0000

I was up late playing around with some stuff on the computer, and didn't manage to actually lay down until around 2:30am. I figured since I was getting up at 6:30am to drive Rebecca to the airport that four hours should be enough time. Unfortunately I think forgot to factor in the amount of caffeine I had had over the course of the evening. So when my alarm started beeping at 6:30am, I realized I hadn't really had any sleep yet. Upon arriving at the airport, Rebecca had a call from her people out in Toronto letting her know that her flight had been cancelled. So we went to Milestone's restaurant to have something to eat, hoping eventually there would be a plane that would take her to Toronto. The strange thing is Air Canada didn't really offer any excuse or anything for why the plane suddenly wasn't flying at 9am. Thankfully they put her on the 10:30am flight, which when John and I left at around 9am wasn't scheduled to leave until 11am due to some other reason. Those of you who follow my blog know I have absolutely no love for Air Canada, so I'm not surprised at all. Hopefully she's in the air by now and on her way. For those of you turning in, Rebecca will be on the air tomorrow at 8pm local time on CBC. Make sure you check it out! I got home and put my head on the pillow, and just woke up now at around 1:30pm. So much for Saturday morning.

Powerless In Vancouver

Duane Storey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:15:50 +0000

I woke up this morning and briefly turned my laptop on to check my email. After about ten minutes of cursing Leopard for not being able to connect to my wireless network I realized that the power was out in my building, which would explain why my wireless router was down (along with everyone else's). Apparently there was a memo about it, but I'm not so good with memos. So, power is still down after four hours. I'm at an internet cafe on Davie grabbing a quick jolt of caffeine, and then am going to cruise around and buy a few small things I've been meaning to pick up (like some more glasses). Remeber to catch Rebecca tonight on CBC at 8pm. My mom said she's going to check in, so be cool like my mom and watch it.

Ode To Air Canada's Ass

Duane Storey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:28:46 +0000

I hate Air Canada, really I do. They have screwed me over so many times and are at least partially responsible for how much I hate flying these days. The last time they gave it to me was last year coming back from Boston. I arrived 90 minutes before my flight and was told that due to weather they were going to delay us a while in the airport. Since I was hungry and needed a beer, I said no problem. So, they booked me on a flight two hours later and said it would be fine. The funny thing is even though it was raining outside, every other airline appeared to be operating normally. After dinner and beers we eventually made it onto our plane and headed out for Toronto. We landed at Pearson at around 10:00pm at night and were supported to board a plane to Vancouver. Only one problem, there were no planes to Vancouver - last one had left an hour earlier. So the Air Canada agent in Boston had booked us on another flight knowing we would miss our connection to Vancouver and be completely stranded in Toronto. There we were, at like 11pm at night, no plane ride home and no accommodation. I asked the Air Canada rep to help us with a hotel or at least give us a food voucher or something. No go. They didn't give a shit at all. And that was the last time I flew Air Crapada. Rebecca had a similar experience with them yesterday, although she still made it to Toronto. Thankfully her trip was paid for by the lovely people at CBC, otherwise I'm sure she would probably be a bit more upset. I did a quick search for the keywords "Air Canada Sucks" in Google -- it came back with 192,000 pages. Here are some of the winners: Poor Kirsten:

Kirsten just got off the phone with them... apparently they called to say that the were cancelling her flight to Baltimore (she's going to a conference) and rescheduling it... She wasn't allowed to know why it was cancelled, and no compensation was offered to her for the short notice... and, of course, the woman she was dealing with was a complete bag - saying, "I can cancel the flight entirely, if you'd like." And they wonder why people are fleeing them and going to Westjet.

More about how much Air Canada sucks:

Air Canada sucks, part 457,996 in an ongoing series: As if you needed more of it, hereâ€™s additional proof on why Air Canada are cock suckers. Magically, while the airline is screwing us, theyâ€™re managing to not screw us this summer. While the ban is coming into effect on July 15, barely three weeks notice as it turns out, it wonâ€™t impact those who already have made reservations. So Cathy can fly home with Boo on July 2 no problem. Iâ€™m curious to see if thereâ€™s going to be a racket on August 19. Yes, theyâ€™re saying you can fly with pets. Letâ€™s see if the staff on the ground can get that straight in their heads. I have my concerns. So the options now are: 1. Donâ€™t fly with your pets. 2. Stick them in Air Canada Cargo, which is more expensive. I donâ€™t have the exact figures, but I imagine itâ€™s $50 per flight vs. something in excess of $200 per flight. On top of that, Cargo is not going to be remotely close to convenient for many passengers. Like us, for example. 3. Fly WestJet. Thatâ€™s something Iâ€™d actually prefer, to be honest. Theyâ€™re a much nicer airline. They do have three drawbacks, however. Not as many flights going back and forth from Newfoundland, which can mean challenges. Theyâ€™re more expensive. And we donâ€™t get aeromiles from them

And this dude, who actually compares Air Canada to Satan:

Back to YYC tomorrow. And after my experiences on these last two trips, I have made a vow: Iâ€™ll never travel Air Canada domestically again, and Iâ€™ll try my damndest never to user them for international travel. They just do not deserve my business. Hereâ€™s the setup. La Fille â„¢ et moi booked on the same return flight back to Cowtropolis, but being the cheapskates we are, we chose not to pay the $15 for seat selection. On a four hour fl.ight, I donâ€™t care if I donâ€™t get aisle. I just wanna snuggle with the right person is all. Air Canada (aka Satan) makes it mighty hard for me to make that so. 12 hours before the flight, we are in theory allowed to choose from any seats not already chosen through that aformentioned $15 priority seating plan. The problem is that the website is not standards compliant, and neither Safari nor Firefox is able to render the page so that I have the option to change my seat assignment. In addition to the â€œYour Browser Sucksâ€ message (no, your Web page suckz) take a look at the spacer gifs (nbsps) in the menu tabs. Anyhow, a call to the help desk first forcfes me to listen to an ad for seat sales somewhere or other, then after a couple of menu options (no â€œ0? to directly connect to an operator) I get put on hold for 30 minutes. I know better than to argue with the only people that can change my seating situation, but does that stop me? At least I remain polite. Firm, yes, but polite. Cutting to the chase, the best they can do is put us in two middle seats next to each other (B and E) and leave us to fight with neighbors to see if they wouldnâ€™t mind switching. It shouldnâ€™t have to be this hard. Tomorrow AM Iâ€™ll see about trying to sweet talk our way into 1st class. In the meantime, Air Canada Sucks!. Big time.

Yes, it should be clear, Air Canada sucks the big one. I once used to really enjoy traveling with them, but I'll pay a premium now just to not step on another one of their airplanes again.

Bloggers Kick Ass

Duane Storey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:21:45 +0000

I watched Test The Nation tonight to see how the Bloggers and Rebecca faired on the show. The bloggers, in pure geeky awesomeness, managed the win! Here's a shot of Rebecca holding the winning trophy! Photo by Miss604 Congrats guys! You did us all proud. John Biehler posted some great clips of Rebecca rocking Test The Nation. Check it out (and listen to the idiots booing in the background -- I guess they thought they'd win?) I'm bookmarking your blog too.

Bring It On Jack Bauer, Bring It On

Duane Storey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:33:54 +0000

Yes people, today is a great day in TV land. Jack Bauer, aka Kiefer Sutherland, was released from jail after serving 48 days for drunken driving. Now I gotta say -- getting in a car while loaded is a dumb thing to do. I can openly admit I did it as a young adult once and a while, something as a grown adult I now look back on and realize how dumb it was. The trick is of course to plan ahead, otherwise you'll find yourself stuck in the boonies with no way home. Now, I just refuse to get into situations like that, or at least have the means to pay for a long cab ride if I have to. I do understand sometimes as a kid you really feel like you have no other option, which is why it's important to think about your way home before you even set out on your drinking adventure. So while drinking and driving is dumb, I admire Kiefer for at least how he handled it. He said he was sorry, and he said he was willing to do whatever it took to move on. No drawn out legal battles trying to get around the issue. He just asked the court to take into considering the people on the set of 24 that would be out of jobs should the show be canceled, and asked to serve his time with that in mind, which the judge seemed to do without problem. Today, Kiefer is free. Unfortunately the writer's strike probably means we won't see any episodes of 24 for a while, but at least there's potential again.

Better Ways To Get To My Blog

Duane Storey — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:43:28 +0000

I went through my google analytics this morning for a few minutes. The one thing that surprised me was those of you who somehow get to my site by typing "duanestorey.com" into a google search. If you are part of the 219 people who did that last month, here's a little tip for you. Up top in your browser is a little white thing we like to call the "Address Bar". You can simply go up there and type in either "duanestorey.com" or "www.duanestorey.com" into it and press enter, which should immediately take you to my website. You're more than welcome to use the not-so-standard "Google Approach Vector", but you'll save time doing it my way.

Heath Ledger Found Dead

Duane Storey — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:25:14 +0000

By now I'm sure you've heard that Heath Ledger, one of the stars of the movie Brokeback Mountain, was found dead in NYC. While nobody really knows for sure what happened, police have said he was on both antidepressants and ambien, which is a relatively new form of sleeping pill that a few of my friends have taken from time to time for insomnia. Ambien by itself has a relatively good safety record, but when taken in combination with any other agent that has the ability to suppress the central nervous system, it has been fatal before. Why I'm writing this entry is because the last few entries and news articles on it that I've read have been completely distasteful, showing tons of media in front of his place with little or no respect for his friends or family. I find it rather sickening to see there's a whole industry centered around getting photographs of dead celebrities, or getting a shot of them in a body bag (something that has been published on several news sites -- I even saw one that said they were doing everyone a favour by publishing it since it gave some people closure). My sympathy for his friends, his family, and for the daughter he leaves behind.

Wings, Launch Party, Birthdays, and Facebook

Duane Storey — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:14:37 +0000

Well, it's almost the weekend again. I awoke this morning to some major construction going on in one of the units around me, and I sure hope it's done before Saturday morning rolls around. Last night I hit Wings on Granville with Rebecca, Keira and John. For those of you who haven't been, it's a quaint little spot next to the Howard Johnson hotel on Granville Street that has cheap wings from 2-6pm daily. Rebecca and Keira, photo by Keira The girls basically did two pitchers of beer by themselves, so I imagine they were feeling pretty tipsy by the time they left. This weekend is already shaping up to be fairly busy. Tomorrow night is the third Launch Party Vancouver 3 down at the Lamplighter in Gastown. I've been asked to come shoot some photos of the Vancouver technology community, so I'll swing by and do that. I finally picked up a proper flash diffuser for my 430EX flash, so hopefully I can make good use of that if it's a bit dark. Saturday night a few of us are getting together for a few more wings and probably some bowling. Chad and Danielle are also having their engagement party, which I'll probably swing by at some point as well. Monday night is the Facebook Developer Garage, and it's looking like I'll be the official photographer for that event. Rebecca will be live blogging the event and linking to the photos in real-time, so make sure you check it out. I've been going pretty much non-stop since Christmas time, so I've decided that next weekend is going to be a me weekend. I'm probably going to hop in my car (or on a plane?), turn off my cell phone, and get the hell out of dodge for a weekend. Looking forward to that.

New Form Of Media?

Duane Storey — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:03:28 +0000

I was reading a quote by Donald Rumsfeld this morning:

Private media does not get up in the morning and say what can we do to promote the values and ideas that the free Western nations believe in? It gets up in the morning and says they're going to try to make money by selling whatever they sell... The way they decided to do that is to be dramatic and if it bleeds it leads is the common statement in the media today. They've got their job, and they have to do that, and that's what they do. We need someone in the United States government, some entity, not like the old USIA . . . I think this agency, a new agency has to be something that would take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that exist today. There are multiple channels for information . . . The Internet is there, blogs are there, talk radio is there, e-mails are there. There are all kinds of opportunities. We do not with any systematic organized way attempt to engage the battle of ideas and talk about the idea of beheading, and what it's about and what it means. And talk about the fact that people are killing more Muslims than they are non-Muslims, these extremists. They're doing it with suicide bombs and the like. We need to engage and not simply be passive and allow that battle of competition of ideas.

What do you think? I think citizen journalism, that is having the people do the reporting on various mediums, is far more trustworthy that a government agency reporting on issues. Maybe that sentiment comes from a complete distrust of government and authority, but I don't think a government run news agency would be well received. But then again, NBC still airs so..

Metal Tube Time

Duane Storey — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:31:31 +0000

Just got a call from Vancouver General Hospital. Turns out in just a few weeks I'll get the privilege of relaxing inside a big metal tube for an hour down in the MRI clinic. Apparently I can wear my own clothes, as long as there isn't any metal on them at all. Otherwise the metal will probably rip out and go crazy in the huge magnetic fields. The good news is that MRI's don't use radiation, which means my super powers will probably not be affected this round (I figure with all the CT scans and X-rays I had last year, I've had my share). Should be a fun time, staring at the inside of a tube while it makes weird noises for an hour. A few weeks after I have another appointment with my surgeon to talk about doing another surgery.

Weekend Recap

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 08:11:46 +0000

Tonight I met up with the gang to celebrate Amy's birthday down at Wing's on Granville Street. We had a few pitchers of beer and demolished somewhere on the order of 16 pounds of wings as a group (I'm now officially "winged out", so I probably won't go back there for a while). It was tons of fun, even though I ate that one hot wing that melted my mouth. Afterwards we ended up down at the Bowling Alley on Granville and played a few games. My head was still a tad sore from the night before (the danger of drinking for free at a bar), so my game was a bit off. I took a pile of photos the night before down at Launch Party Vancouver, and will write all about that in a few days. Tomorrow I'll be taking it easy, and possibly meeting up with Boris and James to talk about Startup Weekend in April. Monday I'll be the official photographer down at the Facebook developer meetup. After bowling John and I hit Future Shop so I could buy a few movies. They had this wicked sale on older movies, and I picked up four of them for an average cost of about $8 each (DVD). Since HD-DVD is basically thrashing in it's death-bed, I've decided to hold off buying any more HD-DVD discs (truth be told up-sampled DVD looks pretty damn good anyways). I just popped in Gangs of New York, and I imagine I'll pass out part way through it since I'm fairly exhausted. The one thing that bothers me to no end though is that there are adverts at the beginning of these discs. It's one thing to have ads when you rent a disc (although once I complained about that too -- funny how it's sort of become the norm now), but when I buy a disc I really don't think I should have to watch a pile of adverts for other movies. ** Update. Ok seriously, who's the rocket scientist who put the disc change between discs one and two of Gangs of New York during a sex scene? Way to go, dipshit.

Monday Morning + Facebook

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:08:55 +0000

I'm currently at the internet cafe on Davie street killing some time waiting for a Dr's appointment next door. I've been waiting for some test results from that whole stupid bacterial infection thing I got in the hospital last year. Not really sure what's going to happen there. Tonight I'm also the official photographer for the Facebook Developer Meetup down at the Vancouver Film School. Rebecca (aka Miss604) will be down there doing the official live-blog, so make sure you check it out if you want to follow remotely. I'm looking forward to taking it easy next weekend. One of the things I'm historically not very good at is saying no to people. Lately I've been involved in so many things that I'm starting to feel spread a little thin. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing next weekend, but I'm probably going to turn my cell phone off and maybe get out of town. I'd love to go camping, but it's still a bit cold, and getting ready for camping is a lot of work. So I'll probably find something else to do. Check Rebecca's blog later for some of the photos from the event.

What Are You Up To Facebook?

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:19:33 +0000

This is a rather interesting move made by Facebook. Apparently on Friday they announced a new javascript library that would let you put Facebook applications on your own web page.

Facebook announced Friday a new JavaScript client library that will allow Facebook apps to be displayed on any website. The client library allows users to make Facebook API calls from any web site and create Ajax Facebook applications on that website. Wei Zhu from Facebook explains the benefits: Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML. An application that uses this client library should be registered as an iframe type. This applies to either iframe Facebook apps that users access through the Facebook web site or apps that users access directly on the appâ€™s own web sites. Almost all Facebook APIs are supported.

I find this very interesting for several reasons. The first of which is that I've recently read a lot of articles talking about how blogs are really one of the largest social networks in existence. While Facebook makes it obvious, our blogs basically represent who we are, our abilities, and our interests. We have implied relationships (like friends) on our blogs thanks to our blog rolls and the people we link to frequently. But, unlike our Facebook pages, we have the ability to customize our blogs and really take control of our little space on the internet. Moving from their sandbox social network out into the real-world is a really interesting play. Also, since you need a developer API key to use the Facebook APIs and you can only get one by being a member on Facebook, it opens up a lot more opportunities for Facebook to data mine everyone for advertising purposes. I for one will not be putting Facebook on my blog, but I think it's an interesting idea that may rattle the cage a bit.

Launch Party Vancouver 3

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:07:42 +0000

Last Friday I met a pile of people from the Vancouver technology scene down at the Lamplighter pub in Gastown. Apparently that location is surrounded in controversy, since the Lamplighter has recently changed hands and has been transformed into a more "modern" establishment. I can't say that I ever hung out in it before, but it seemed like a pretty cool place on Friday. I would have shown up and mingled regardless, but on Friday I volunteered to drop by and take some photos of the Vancouver Technology Women for this year. That list was put together by none other than blogger-extraordinaire, Dave Olsen. On that list was good pal and super hero, Rebecca Bollwitt. Rebecca Bollwitt Maura Rodgers was one of the main brains behind organizing the whole event, so a big thanks to her for putting it on (and for feeding me those free drinks all night, although my head was a tad sore the next day). Maura Rodgers It was a great time, and I'm totally looking forward to the next one. You can check out the rest of the images in my Flickr set. I'll put a couple below as a little teaser:

Would Someone Please Fix The Internet? Thanks.

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:21:47 +0000

Ok, seriously. The things I would do if I had a few million bucks. I'm amazed to no end how many things about the internet kind of suck. Things that you'd think would be easy to fix, but for whatever reason nobody gets around to fixing them. First company that I need to bash is YouTube. Seriously, Google buys you for 1.6 BILLION dollars and what's the first thing you do? Stick your head in the sand. How come there aren't any cool features, or you know, like standard features coming your way. Why do you always screw up the audio/video sync on EVERY video I upload? Another prime example -- they STILL only support 4:3 video. More and more cameras coming out support widescreen, and many of the new CCD sizes are actually 3:2, not 4:3. All new camcorders over a few hundred dollars have 16:9 modes in them, so why isn't there any thought going into how to show them? I think YouTube is cool, but let's be honest, it's not difficult technology. I imagine underneath it all there's a big storage facility with a bunch of computing nodes just running basic conversion scripts to put everything into flash. Then, just slap a UI on it to show flash videos and you're basically done. Kudos to them for doing it, but now that they have some money, take it up a notch. The same thing happened to Flickr when Yahoo! acquired them. They were cool, they were nimble, and in my mind they really started the whole Web 2.0 AJAX-In-Your-Face movement, or at least brought a lot of lime light to it. But I haven't seen too much from these guys either. They did just come out with a way to edit your photos online, which is sort of cool (although frankly, it's fairly slow, so I can't see too many people using this). But that's really the first real change I've seen in like two years. What else are they doing over there? How about internet business models? You know what, advertising sucks. I hate it, my friends hate it. I don't want to sign up for a discover card, I don't want to click on your adsense. I'm tired of scrolling past all the ads at the fold on blogs, or paging on the same article just so you can put more ads there. You know what, here's the internet business model of the future. Don't put ads up and charge people for that. You know why? I'd gladly pay $15 for a service I like just to not have any ads anywhere. A prime example is Flickr. You can use it when it's free, but they add a few small perks to a paid account, and get rid of all the ads. Done and done. I've been a happy customer for years now. What's that Facebook, need to make some money? Make another level of service, and charge all those people $20 a year -- pawn it off as only $1.60 a month, half of a cup of Starbucks expresso. Let people pay their bills with their cell phones, using a SMS or something. Get rid of the ads and all that social-advertising garbage you're trying on that level. Just let people interact and be entertained. Social networks, photo by Luc Legay Everyone seems to be stuck with the whole idea that the way to make money with a large user base is to just advertise them to death. What ever happened to like, you know, real business models, where you provide a useful service to someone and they pay you for it? Why can't we do that anymore?

Vancouver Blogger War, Round Two

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:15:00 +0000

Well, well. Lookie what we have here.. Somehow, Google is in a state of flux. My top #1 position has indeed been usurped, but thankfully I still have a few weeks to get it back. I'm not going to get too excited about daily changes, but I definitely don't want to lose out, especially after all my trash talking. So, I'll see if I can pull a few aces out of my sleeve in the next week or so. At the very least, this is a pretty neat exercise in the realm of search engine optimization. You can read about my last post about the Vancouver Blogger War here, and more about the Vancouver Blogger challenge here.

Vancouver Blogger War, Day Two

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:10:17 +0000

Well, a few people came up to me recently and told me that they encountered a blog posting today about my #1 spot when you search for "Vancouver blogger" on Google, and how the blog owner was planning a Google coup-d'etat against me before Northern Voice in just a few weeks. To be honest, I could really care less about my rank on Google for the phrase "Vancouver blogger", but I think it's sort of a humorous effort, and I'm always up for a challenge. I'm purposefully not going to take the bait and point back to his blog (haha!), but trust me the entry exists, and YOU must help me defeat him. The person who started the challenge is encouraging everyone reading his blog to link back to his blog to increase his page rank. If you read my blog from time to time and don't already link to it, feel free to add it now to show your support for me in my battle against the evil DARTH JEALOUSY. To sweeten the deal I'll give a free 12x18" (that's pretty big) print away to one special person of an HDR shot that I've never released yet for Vancouver. It will be a one of a kind original, at least for a while :) To be entered, link back to my blog and post a comment on this entry. I'll announce the winner in a few weeks, and reveal the photo. If you manage to get someone else to drop a link as well, tell them to indicate it in the comments (a referral if you will), and I'll count you again for each one (also, if anyone still hasn't received your print from a few months ago, drop me an email. I sent a few last week and have a few on my table that I didn't have addresses for). I'll send the print anywhere in the world (as long as it's accessible easily by mail), so feel free to chime in if you're outside of North America too! Get all your blogger friends out to support me against evil. And send some juicy link love my way! If anyone wants to include that funky Star Wars knock off I did up above, just grab this code below: I'll get rid of the autoplay audio tomorrow, but put up with it for now -- it's pretty fun. You can read more about the Vancouver Blogger challenge here.

A Few Small Web-Related Changes

Duane Storey — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:08:08 +0000

There were a few things with my theme that had been bothering me for some time. Tonight I managed to take an hour or so out of my evening and clean a few of them up. The first thing I did was shrink the items on my sidebar a bit. I also ditched the previous comments since I couldn't figure out a nice way to show them. The area on the sidebar that used to be dedicated to the last ten entries has now been moved to the individual post page (which makes more sense). I also added the related entries plugin that Dale, Matt, and I threw together over at matthewgood.org. The nice thing about it is that it's fairly accurate for determining posts that are related based on all the taxonomy relationships. You should see those show up on the single post pages as well. The end result of all this is that everything looks a tad cleaner, and there are now internal cross-links between items on my site, something I didn't really have before. Should be interesting to see how this affects traffic over the next few weeks, and if it changes the bounce rate from people coming in on search engines.

Thursday, Apple Air, Sore Throat, Muffin of Death

Duane Storey — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:27:22 +0000

I woke up to my phone ringing basically non-stop thanks to Hesty and Sean at work. There's a big career fair out at UBC today, and I guess they are all going and wanted me to go too. I woke up with a nasty sore throat though, so I'm going to leave the recruiting to those guys. I'm going to pass around a bit of link-juice this morning. First, we have Rebecca and Keira, who are packing up and heading to the island for some licking and snowboarding. That means John is currently wifeless, so I think him and I are going to figure out something fun to do this weekend. Judging by the weather, I'm guessing we'll be watching movies and nerding out on the laptops for some of it. If anyone is around and into nerd sessions, drop me a nerdmail. I'm pretty sure whatever we end up doing will involve computers, beer, and a plastic chicken. John Biehler just twittered some of the first Apple Air laptop photos from some guy unpacking his. I like how they tapered the edges to make it seem a lot thinner than it is. That Steve Jobs, he's a smart cookie. Of course, nobody is quoting how thick it is in the middle. Everyone is focused on how thin it is at the outer edges, something that's obviously important should you ever try to dock it with a piece of paper. You can take a look at the rest of the photos over there. Also, I'm somehow started using twitter again, so if you're on there, you can check me out at duanestorey. I have to get some food into me before I dissolve like the witch in the Wizard of Oz, but I'll be back shortly and will probably post something else mildly more exciting in a bit. Also, two out of three of these are my new motto in life. Can you guess which two? Ok really, I have to eat. I'm going to get a muffin from downstairs. They are so good, and yet so bad.

Folksonomy Updates

Duane Storey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:10:49 +0000

One of the changes I made on the site the other day was the inclusion of wordpress related entries plugin when viewing single posts. Unfortunately wordpress has completely overhauled their folksonomy system in the 2.3 version, and not all my posts are tagged properly. In fact, I'd say only about 20% of them really are. I'm going to try and do about 10 of my old posts a day or something like that to try and get them up to snuff, but it's a fairly boring process, only made possible by this bottle of pinot beside me. In other fairly exciting news, Boris Mann, everyone's favourite Vancouver Janitor, has just pulled ahead in the competition (since he's apparently part of it). Way to go Boris. We still have a few weeks before this whole thing is over, and so far we've had two big upsets. I still have a few cards to play before I'm out of this game, so we'll see just what happens. Also, one of the cool parts of this whole exercise is that I'm re-reading a lot of old entries I had completely forgotten about. This one I wrote after a few drinks last Valentine's day is a pretty interesting read, at least in my opinion (especially since Valentine's is approaching again).

Google Adds In-Site Search To Analytics

Duane Storey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:12:56 +0000

I'm not entirely sure if this is a new feature or not, but I use analytics all the time (and if you don't, you should promptly head over and sign up for an account), and I don't remember seeing it until just a few minutes ago. It appears Google now has a new analytics section where you can track internal searches on your blog. So while Google Analytics already shows you how other people are reaching your site from Google, you can now see how people are navigating within your site based on searches within your blogging platform. To configure it, you have to go edit your website profile from the Google Analytics dashboard. Edit your main website profile and enable the in-site search capabilities. It will ask you for a custom search parameter which it will use to determine whether or not a search is being done. I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to be, but since searches in Wordpress occur by passing a "s=" parameter to the website, I suspect it wants a single "s" in that field. So, I just enabled mine, and we'll see what goodies it brings in the coming days. If you know what the search parameters are for other platforms such as Drupal, drop me an email or a comment and I'll update the post. Obviously being able to see what people are routinely searching for on your website (along with what they do after they hit a search page) is a pretty cool feature that should like web-site owners fine-tune content a bit better for usability.

New Hosting On The Way - Media Temple

Duane Storey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:24:03 +0000

As some of you know, last year I went from having my blog hosted on GoDaddy to using shared hosting services over at HostMonster (and before that, I went from having a Linux box on the floor of my bedroom to GoDaddy). Shared hosting is a fairly cheap way to set up a website, and you can usually get away with it for less than $10/mo. For the most part, I was pretty happy with HostMonster shared hosting, although in these last few months their databases kept falling over, and I had intermittent connection problems. To their credit though, they always answered the phone and fixed everything in a timely manner. Media Temple's iPhone Account Center That being said, I'm going to try someone new this time. I asked a few people who they use, and a couple people recommended the next step which is shared computing on a grid computer. The concept seems pretty cool. Instead of having one system where your website is allocated on, you actually run on a large cluster. If you suddenly get Dugg or tons of traffic, you automatically scale to accommodate the new traffic. I'm not really worried about falling down due to traffic, but since I host multiple websites on my accounts, I'd like to have a bit more peace of mind when it comes to them staying online. Last night I signed up for an account at Media Temple. I'll probably attempt to move my main domain over tomorrow sometime and some of my other smaller sites over the next few days. There may be some temporary drop outs as things move over, but I'm fairly certain I can make it transparent. Also, if you sign up on Media Temple, feel free to use my domain name (duanestorey.com) as the referral site -- much appreciated!

Microsoft Extends 44 Billion Dollar Offer For Yahoo!

Duane Storey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:57:00 +0000

Wow, what can I say. That is a pretty impressive sum of money. I read this before going to bed last night on Digg, but I thought it was fake. Turns out that Microsoft has just extended a 44 billion dollar offer for Yahoo! To be honest, Google has really handed Yahoo! their hand in search. I personally don't know anyone that uses Yahoo to do search, although I've been told it's still fairly popular in Asia. I have friends over at Yahoo!, and I once showed them my web logs from my blog indicating that something like 98% of all searches originate from Google. They refused to believe they were true, but that's how the ball rolls over here. Granted, the readers of this blog are biased towards the technical side, but I think the numbers are fairly indicative of things in North America, as I'm sure most of your logs (if you have them) also would show. I think Yahoo! Messenger is a actually a better product that Google Talk, possibly because they were in the market first and they have more contacts available on an IM client. I think the technology of Google Talk (that is XMPP and Jabber) is far more attractive than what Yahoo! uses, and wish more people would adopt it for IM and other things. Yahoo! is finding it increasingly hard to compete against Google, as evidenced by recently announced layoffs and declining growth by Yahoo!. While I'm not really that confident in either company, I think it might be a good play. Microsoft dominates the desktop space on the PC, and Yahoo has a fairly solid internet presence. If you combine the two maybe you can better leverage the capabilities of both companies. I know that both companies seem to think online advertising models are the way of the future (something I don't necessarily agree with, as I mentioned in yesterday's post), so if that's the route they want to go then it's a smart move. However, I really think the next wave in advertising will involve mobile devices. Google's Android is setting the stage for them to enter that space rapidly, but I haven't heard anything from either Yahoo! or Microsoft regarding their efforts. It seems likely they will be last out of the gate, which could prove disastrous for both of them. Apple iPhone: mobile devices are the next big step in advertising While this merger is still just talk at this point, if it goes through it could be a great opportunity for Google to tighten the noose during the multi-month shuffle that will no doubt come about from such a larger merger. Only time will tell has this plays out. [poll=5]

South By Southwest -- Help!

Duane Storey — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:17:38 +0000

So, here's the deal. I really want to attend some of South by Southwest this year. The only problem is that all the hotels in Austin, Texas are pretty much sold out. I worked the phones for a bit tonight trying to find a place to crash, but haven't had any luck. So, a friend of mine told me to put something on my blog to see if any fish would bite. So, is there anyone that has a floor or a couch they could possibly donate for a few days during South by Southwest this year in Austin, Texas. I'd happily trade some photography skills or web skills in return. Drop me a line if you can hook it up. Thanks!

Duanelander

Duane Storey — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:51:06 +0000

Yes, this is what I look like before I cut off your head and steal all your powers, bitches. Big thanks to Clay for misusing all our web design resources at work to make this possible. Apparently he thought the whole Star Wars thing was too retro, and came up with something better. Thanks for supporting my cause against the evil guys against me, dude. Watch out for my sword. PS - I'm commando under all that shit. Believe it. Also, tomorrow is a big nerd session at my place. John Bollwitt, Boris Mann and John Biehler are definitely swinging by to drink some beers, watch some movies, and play catch-up for all the things we've all fallen behind on this week. It's the unoffical "Catchup-Camp" over at my place.

Nerd Camp

Duane Storey — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:36:13 +0000

There are a bunch of guys over at my place right now, messing around with blogs, media, podcasts, and of course, beer. Right now it's John Bollwitt, John Biehler, and Boris Mann is downstairs with the next shipment of beer. I'll update this as the day/night goes on. We all have a few projects we want to do. I'm currently moving all my websites over to Media Temple, which is basically easy but requires a bunch of grunt work to pull off. After that I'm going to attempt to make really awesome movie/mp3 player for Wordpress. John Bollwitt making scrambled eggs, photo by John Biehler Wow, the day sure went quick. It's already 8:45pm. I've been working on a pretty cool Wordpress plugin during the day that will automatically extract all media out of blog posts and put it into a media player. I'll have a demo going in a few hours that I'll put on the site.

Wordpress Media Burner Plugin

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:20:18 +0000

Tonight I had a few people over at my place to watch movies, drink some beer, and hack out a few techy type things. My little project for the evening was to try and media-ify my blog somehow. One of the ideas I was playing with was extracting all the media out of all my blog posts and having that in a separate player somewhere. There are other players for Wordpress (based on the popular flash FLV player) that do something similar, except with those you have to manually input a playlist or set up a special directory. A snapshot of the media player The main benefit of the way I've done it is that it's just business as usual for you, the blogger. The plugin will parse all your entries and pull out the media you normally include anyways. It generates a site-wide RSS feed all that media which can then be used to feed a playlist for a media player. It took a little bit of sorcery to get the youtube videos to play in it (since youtube probably doesn't want you to do this), but the end result is pretty cool I think. I had to reverse engineer the FLV player to figure out how to get m4a audio files to play in it (since the FLV documentation doesn't indicate it supports it), but I seem to have figured it out. You can check out the RSS feed at this location. If you want to mess around with the player, click "Media" up in the top menu. If anyone is running Wordpress and wants to take it for a spin, drop me an email and I'll send you what I have working right now. It will be a bit slow for any large sites, and I'll have to add caching before I release it.

Where The Internet Stops And My Blog Begins

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:11:30 +0000

So here's some food for thought for the blogosphere. Lately I've been pondering a few of the legal aspects of the Internet, namely what it is we are all allowed to do, and what it is some companies think we shouldn't be allowed to. Let me give you a use-case to demonstrate what I'm talking about. Photo by Ben Sheldon on Flickr Let's say I set up a blog, and I'm checking out Flickr and I see a photo I like. Let's say for a second that the CC license is set in such a way that I can use the photo on my blog. So, I right click on the image, say "copy image address", and slap it into a blog entry. Now, according to Flickr's terms of service, I'm not technically allowed to link to any one of their images without providing a hyperlink back to the website. Which from their perspective, makes sense, since they want to drive traffic to their own website. However, assuming I'm not a member of Flickr, I have never agreed to the terms of service, so as far as I'm concerned, it's just a random bit of data on the internet that I've linked to. Isn't that fair use (assuming I'm not breaking the legal copyright of the owner)? And once you've come up with your answer, ask yourself how Google image search would rank based on the same criteria. Another example is Youtube. They've set up their website so that you can view all the videos using a player online. However, there is some HTML magic you can do that gives you the actual flash FLV file URL that you could conceivably play on your own web site. There are a few web sites where you can punch in a Youtube watch URL and download the FLV file for it. These sites aren't breaking encryption or giving out launch codes for a nuclear strike, they are simply taking advantage of some undocumented URL redirects that Youtube takes advantage of under the hood to get the actual FLV file for their player. Apparently some of these websites have been given cease and desist orders because users no longer are forced to go to Youtube and watch advertising or whatever. My question is, isn't that fair use? They argue that it's against their terms of service, but same argument I made above - if I'm not a member of Youtube, am I bound by their terms of service? Let me do another spin on it. Search engine traffic to popular websites often takes up a fair percentage of the bandwidth for that website. Is it fair for me to bury a terms of service on my blog that states all search engines will be charged for excess bandwidth to my site? Of course, people will argue that it's up to me to add information to robots.txt if I don't want search engines visiting my site, but that of course implies that search is an opt-out service where I have limited control to opt-out (since not all search engines properly respect robots.txt). So if I do something to another site (Flickr, Youtube, etc), isn't it really their responsibility to block my IP address or whatever if they don't like how I'm using their data (i.e. shouldn't they have to opt-out to my usage)? I think it's strange that their seems to be implied legal penalties for what I consider fair use of their site, but nothing of the sort for mine. It's one thing if I'm outright breaking some hardcore encryption (since that falls under the DMCA in the US), but if I'm just using a publicly available (albeit hard-to-get) URL that gives me a flash file for video on a video website, should they really have any say in that? I'm curious what everyone thinks. Chime in below.

Screw By Wire, A Strip Show At 40,000 Feet

Duane Storey — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:39:36 +0000

Curious to know what happens in the cockpit on French airlines when your dinner is being served? You might have though that the pilots were busy doing complicated fuel calculations, or checking safety systems. Think again! The stewardesses are coming up from and putting on a little strip show for the pilots. Added union incentives no doubt. Makes me wish I would have gone to pilot school. You can read more about the strip show here. I'm guessing that lady is in need of a new job.

Web Hosting Experiment

Duane Storey — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:38:43 +0000

Hey guys. I want to do a fairly simple web experiment this week. I want to try to assess real-world uptime and latency for a bunch of popular hosting sites. I need a bunch of volunteers to help out. Basically all I'll need you to do is upload a file to your root directory and allow me to ping it from time to time to do some measurements. I'll tabulate the data next week and put it online for everyone to see. So, if you can help out, drop me a comment and let me know:

The name of your hosting company
The address to your site
Your email address where I can contact you about this

The more people the better. Thanks. I am currently on Media Temple and HostMonster, so I can represent those two.

Website Data Analysis Starting

Duane Storey — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:58:06 +0000

Big thanks to all of you who pinged me about helping with my little web experiment. So far we have six hosts represented, but I'd love to have a lot more. So if you have any friends that have blogs and can help out, please direct them to me. I'm collecting data in real time right now, so it will be interesting to see what it'll all look like after a few days. When this is done, we should all have a pretty intimate insight into all the various hosting companies out there and how they compare to each other during normal wear and tear. The teaser is over for now! Stay tuned, in a few days I'll post some detailed results.

Tush Lingerie Charity Fundraiser at Sanafir - Roberta Cheema

Duane Storey — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:02:36 +0000

This Thursday, I'll be photographing a charity fundraiser down at the Sanafir Restaurant & Lounge in Vancouver. The event is put on by local fashion designer Roberta Cheema from Tush, and will consist of swimwear and lingeree. Lingerie by Tush, photographed during Vancouver Fashion Week I've spent a bit of time hanging out and getting to know Roberta, and she's really a dedicated person with a real passion for design.

It's what underneath that counts - hot spot's upscale swimwear and undergarment fashion show fundraiser - February 7 Join host MC Musician and Funny Man Rick Baker at the sophisticated and imaginative Sanafir Restaurant & Lounge for a red-carpet evening of cocktails, canapÃ©s and a captivating fashion show. Four men and 12 women will walk the runway sporting the latest swimwear and undergarments featuring Fun Fantasy Tush wear by Roberta Lee Designs and designer Roberta Cheema. There are only 130 seats available for this event. Please reserve your spot by calling Sanafir General Manager Anthony Pratt at 604.687.1049. Pick up tickets prior to the event at Sanafir Restaurant & Lounge. VVIP seating is available.

You can read more about the event here. Tickets are $100, and the proceeds will be going to the Aboriginal Mother Center Society. I'll be sure to post a pile of photos from the event, and will also post some more information on Urban Vancouver. In other interesting news, I'm somehow the number one website that shows up when you do a Google image search for Heroe's Kirsten Bell. The image was in that entry I did about the hottest girls from 2007.

Matthew Good Nominated For A Juno Award

Duane Storey — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:46:03 +0000

I was over at Rebecca's site earlier this morning and found out that they've announced all the nominations for the 2008 Juno Awards. Of note is Matthew Good, who's latest album, Hospital Music, was nominated for "Best Rock Album". In addition, the first single from the album, "Born Losers", will be featured on the compilation CD (thanks to Rebecca for pointing that out). The Junos take place in Calgary on April 6th (the day before my 31st birthday - I'm getting old). Congrats Matt, it's well deserved.

Digg Categories In Need Of A Serious Overhaul

Duane Storey — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:41:30 +0000

I love Digg. I surf it at least a couple times a day, usually when I'm bored, sitting a work waiting for something to compile. I would say that without a doubt the majority of my "cool" news actually comes from Digg. Lately I've begun submitting the odd story on my own to Digg. No matter how many times I try to submit something though, I always seem to get stuck on the same old problem -- what category does the story fit in? The main problem I think is that Digg categories are more mainstream news oriented and less about the things I actually am interested in (even though I think most techies are interested in the same things I am). Image from here The main technology categories are:

Apple - this seems straight forward
Design - what the fuck does this mean?
Gadgets - I can live with that
Hardware - Isn't that sort of a gadget? Or is it more computer oriented?
Industry News - What is considered technology industry news? That's pretty open.
Linux - straightforward, all things Linux
Microsoft - spam folder?
Mods - for the engineer in all of us
Programming - shouldn't we split web from non-web development?
Security - Security of what? Your house? Your files?
Software - this is pretty open ended too

Now, that list isn't completely horrible at first glance, but let's try and categorize a few standard things. Let's take a few of my interests, and some of the things I write about from time to time - Photography, Blogging, Social Networks, Internet Search. Where do these fit in? You could fit Photography in the Arts section I guess, but that's a fairly big umbrella. Most of photography these days is digital, so why not have a section on Digital Photography. I see tons of Digg articles all the time talking about HDR imagery, iPhoto, Aperture, etc., so why not have a section where these can end up in. Right now, these don't really end up anywhere important on Digg. Blogging? Nope, there's no real category for that. If you're talking about the technical side of blogging, it could fit into Programming. In terms of add-ons for blogs, cool new CMS platforms or things of that nature, nothing really fits. Another big miss for Digg. Social Networks? These are the ones I find strange. I've dugg a few articles on Facebook, and I have no idea where they should go. Considering all these networks are valued in the billions and most of us spend a good portion of our day on these sites, shouldn't they get a special section? Another strike. Internet Search? Yahoo, Google, search, SEO, web 2.0 -- these are all popular things to talk about on the Internet, but they don't really have a proper home in the Digg category system. Why not have a "Internet" or "Web Technologies" category to put some of these? I think the makers of Digg just choose a few random categories after a few beers one time and didn't actually stop to consider how useful they actually were. Another popular article today on digg describes how there are less and less technology stories these day. I'd wager it's partly because nobody knows where the heck to put them. I think the guys at Digg need to sit down and rethink some of these. If you have any suggestions, drop a line below. [poll=7]

The Endless Spiral

Duane Storey — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:37:37 +0000

Throughout my life, I have always had a hard time sleeping in the evenings. Although in the odd instance I can put my head on the pillow and wake up in the morning refreshed, most evenings I not only have trouble falling asleep, I have a hard time staying asleep. While I have gotten used to not sleeping very well (during the eight years I was in university staying up late and getting up early was a requirement), this week has been particularly difficult for some reason. On average I think I've had about three hours of sleep an evening, and I find myself running completely on fumes during the days. I've dropped my caffeine intake to try and counter it, but it's not making much of a difference. Last night I took a mild sedative to try and help, but it was like throwing paper into the wind. Needless to say I'm going to do my best to sleep in this weekend and get my sleep schedule back on course. In other news, it was just announced that Heath Ledger's death was accidental, the result of combining several prescription medications together. It's pretty sad so many media outlets and shows (Entertainment Tonight almost shot themselves in the head last week by attempting to air a video that they were hoping would make Heath look like a drug user - but Hollywood nearly boycotted the show for doing so) basically assumed he ODed on non-prescription drugs. It was just a tragic accident, the result of some guy simply trying to get some sleep.

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?

Duane Storey — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:46:27 +0000

I'm sure many of you remember Morgan Spurlock's Academy Award nominated movie "Super Size Me." It was a documentary that took the viewer on a one month journey with Morgan as he consumed three square meals a day of pure, wholesome McDonald's food. After the movie came out, McDonalds quickly pointed out the weight gain and rapid deterioriation of Morgan's health would have come about regardless based on the number of calories per day he was eating. Shortly afterwards McDonald's removed all super size options from the menu:

Subsequent to the showing of the film at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the Supersize fries and beverage were retired from the menu and McDonald's replaced them with healthier foods, though McDonald's denied that this was in reaction to the movie. In Summer 2006, Super Size beverage was brought back under the name 'Summer Size.' It is unknown if it will remain permanently, though. The corporation did, however, issue a press release on their website, denouncing Spurlock's film and blaming the filmmaker for being a part of the problem, and not the solution. [wikipedia]

Today the trailer was released for Morgan's next film, "Where In the World Is Osama Bin Laden?" In it, Spurlock attempts to locate the most wanted man on the planet, Osama Bin Laden. The marketing campaign for the movie has been deliberately quiet about how close Morgan came to actually locating Osama, which is obviously being used to hype up the movie a fair bit. I've been reading some comments on various forums about the film. While most fans of "Super Size Me" are looking forward to watching it and seeing what Morgan actually uncovered, there are a few complaints already that it perpetuates a few of the typical stereotypes about people from the Middle East. Watch the trailer and judge for yourself.

Apple's Expensive Solid State Add-On Drive A Bust

Duane Storey — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:15:42 +0000

This guy just did a huge Apple comparison with the new Air notebook computer, both with and without the solid state add-on drive. The verdict? The Air in general is slower than both the Macbook Pro and the Macbook, and the battery life is only average. Photo by John Biehler The writer was optimistic that the solid state drive would be a good investment. Unfortunately though, it provided rather lackluster performance, and hardly increased battery life at all. I've had my own Macbook Pro for a long time, and most of my friends have Macbook's. I'm purposefully holding off the Air because it looks totally overpriced for what it is. Plus, Leopard has been a pretty big burden for me on my Macbook Pro and iMac since upgrading. I'm anxiously awaiting the 10.5.2 update that will hopefully fix a lot of my problems. Photo by John Biehler For friend John just got his Air in the mail the other day, and has so far been happy with it. Will he upgrade to the solid state drive at some point? Based on some other data, I'd recommend no:

The $1,300 question is whether the SSD is worth the extra cash. The answer seems to be no. I experienced only moderate gains in battery life and not very noticeable speed differences. The one major benefit of the SSD model is that it doesn't cause the same types of slowdowns as the HDD model during times of high disk activity, and that's certainly a huge plus. Speedy read times are great, too, but they are balanced out by pokey write times.

The main selling point for these drives was supposed to be power consumption, but with only a marginal improvement, it doesn't sound too convincing. In fact, hard drive makers aren't very worried about the threat of solid state drives:

Even if prices for SSDs do come down and capacities go up (which they undoubtedly will), traditional spinning disc drives will likely follow the same trend lines, which means the price differential will remain. That's why it's no surprise that hard drive manufacturers like Seagate are still skeptical about consumers' willingness to shell out more money simply for the privilege of having a slightly faster, more reliable solid-state drive with considerably less capacity. Indeed, research from Gartner suggests the fastest growing segment of the laptop market will continue to be midsize and larger desktop-replacement models, almost all of which use 2.5-inch HDDs. And while solid-state drives do offer superior power savings -- an important metric for laptops -- the exorbitant prices for the drives mean that their popularity in notebooks will be muted. [from here]

So is it worth the $1000+ price tag to add the solid state drive? Doesn't look like it

And You Thought My Lens Was Big

Duane Storey — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:41:44 +0000

Image from PBase.com That, my friends, is Canon's biggest lens, the Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6L. For obvious reasons, they only make a handful of these every year. The cost? Approximately ~~$10,000~~ $100,000 if I remember correctly.

A Journey Through Stupidity

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:55:43 +0000

So tonight (after a bit of wine) I decided to blow my hotmail account away completely and never look back. Unfortunately, as soon as I tried the circus music started playing and the adventure truly began. Step 1, tell hotmail to go fuck itself. This involves telling hotmail to close down my account. While fucking itself. Oh no! Danger Wil Robinson! Cannot close down your account. Apparently there's some Microsoft mail thing associated with my account, and I have to close that down first. Not a prob. I'll gladly fuck over two Microsoft things at the same time: Microsoft says "just joking." Apparently I need to go to some separate billing site first, and de-associate my account with some phantom billing thing. For some reason it thinks I'm paying for some service, even though I'm not. At least, I better not be. No problem, I'll just stroll on over and remove it. No billing account exists. Game over. Did you hear that? That is the sound of Microsoft inevitability.

Wednesday Drinking Nights

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:01:45 +0000

Rebecca and John swung by tonight for 2.25 L of wine drinking fun. Don't shake baby. Also, my hosting account over on another server basically expired. I did my best to move everyone's websites over, but turns out that it's rather difficult to change over DNS entries for websites you don't own. I tried my best though.

Vancouver Sunset From Downtown

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:21:13 +0000

You know, there was a time when I actually sort of considered my blog a photo blog. Truth is I haven't really posted many photos lately. Here's one I took with my little Powershot camera a few days ago:

DemoCamp Vancouver Beginning

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:45:20 +0000

DemoCamp Vancouver is officially starting right now. Rebecca Bollwitt, aka miss604, will be doing live coverage of the event. You can check it out by clicking here.

Homeward Bound

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:18:19 +0000

I've decided to head back home for the weekend. I haven't been back to Chilliwack since Christmas time, so I figure I'm long overdue. A whole whack of conferences start soon, and I'm going to by fairly swamped up until mid April. So, I'm going to grab a book and curl up on the couch back home this weekend to relax a bit. Also, for those of you that have been patiently waiting for more information about what was previously called "Startup Weekend Vancouver" or "Beer Camp" -- the wait is nearly over. Stand by for the unveiling of the website along with more information.

I Hate You Subway

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:56:19 +0000

I eat subway pretty much an average of one time per day. In the little food court where I work it is the lesser of many evils, including A & W, some Pizza place and a greasy chinese food place. For the most part, I always order a little wrap, either filled with chicken or like this morning filled with ham and egg. It's not a hard thing to make really. You take some egg, put it in a wrap, but some ham and cheese on it and call it a sandwich. However, it doesn't matter how many times I order a wrap, EVERY SINGLE TIME I DO it's like watching some huge elaborate machine grind to a freaking halt. Every time, the lady will reach for a six inch white bun, stare at it for a while, then stare at me, then back at the bun, trying to figure out how to reboot her system so she can continue on. And every time, I just sit there, waiting for someone to figure out what a wrap is, where they store them, and how to put egg inside and wrap it up. Considering the word "Wrap" is predominately displayed on their menus for most items, it just boggles my mind how nobody can figure out how to make them.

Bowling for Big Brothers

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:17:38 +0000

Rebecca fired me off a link this morning asking if I'd like to be a part of Team Blogging for a big bowling charity fundraiser. Since I like bowling and I like blogging, I figured it would be a cool idea. You can read more about the details over on Rebecca's blog. I'm trying to raise $150 to go towards the event, so if you can help out by sponsoring me, I would really appreciate it. You can sponsor me by visiting this page.

Busted

Duane Storey — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:59:31 +0000

So I'm currently at my mom's place looking at her new computer. While checking out her new monitor, she spilled the goods: Mom: "Hey, you know that blog entry about people getting to your blog by googling duanestorey.com" Me: "Yah" Mom: "Don't tell anyone, but it was us.. That's what we do" So there you have it. My mom needs a few lessons in how to browse the web. I still love her though. Even though it means I might be adopted.

How To Make A Better Wordpress - Entry #1: Sitemaps

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:03:48 +0000

I've decided to do a multipart series on how to take your Wordpress installation to the next level. Most people seem to have an out-of-the-box Wordpress installation, and I think they are really missing out on a few things that can really improve the quality of their blog. The first topic I'd like to cover is search engines. Most of you know how a search engine works, but for those who don't, here's a really quick primer. Search engines employ little agents called "Bots" that basically roam around the internet taking snapshots of the content. Google's little guy is called "GoogleBot", and identifies itself by a unique User-Agent header in all HTTP requests (if you have some kind of data analytics program, you might see GoogleBot show up from time to time). Whenever a search engine encounters a hyperlink, it checks to see if it's in its database, and if not, adds to a queue of future web crawls. If you set up a new blog, you can either wait patiently for someone else to link to it (which will cause the Bot to eventually get to it), or you can manually submit it (usually there's a manual way for most big search engines). The problem with this method is that unless your site gets indexed very quickly, chances are the Bot may miss some of your content from time to time. So if you write a new blog entry one day, it may be on page 2 or 3 of your blog before each Bot actually visits your site. Since most search engines only do "deep" crawls (these are crawls that actually go deep within your tags and archive pages, as opposed to shallow ones that the Bots do every few days usually) every month or so, that entry may not get indexed at all until then (or ever if it ends up being too deep). So while most people are content to wait around and let each Bot eventually figure out the layout of your website, there's a more pro-active approach that you can take. That my friends, is a Sitemap. Most search engines look for a sitemap on your website that tells the Bot which URLs to crawl. In the site map is a list of pages, and a hint for how often the Bot should travel your website. By creating a sitemap, you basically instruct the Bots which URLs to travel and the frequency they should travel your website. One advantage to this is that entries that have no links pointing to them (or the links are deep within your website) may actually still get indexed. If you want to see what a sample sitemap looks like, you can check out the one for my site by clicking here: sitemap. As you can see, it's fairly large, and would take pretty close to forever to put one together manually. Thankfully, someone came up with a really great Sitemap Generation For Wordpress. If you install it, it will create a sitemap.xml file for your website whenever the content changes. The last step of this exercise is to tell the search engine that there's a sitemap available. Google recently added a set of Webmaster tools that you can log into and submit a sitemap for each site you have. Once you tell Google where it is, it will grab a new copy periodically and update its database. When I first added a sitemap several weeks ago, I only had around 400 out of 1600 URLs indexed by Google. A few weeks later, Google has grabbed 300 more, and it continues to climb. So that's Wordpress power tip #1. Make sure if you have Wordpress that you set up a proper sitemap. And if that power tip helped you, make sure to head on over and sponsor me for the Big Brothers bowling event coming up.

Time To Get Crazy

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:33:29 +0000

I just did a quick check of my Google calendar for the week, and it's look pretty jam packed for the next few weeks. Things start off with a bang tomorrow -- I have to go to St. Paul's Hospital for some intestinal tests in the morning, and head down to Vancouver General Hospital tomorrow evening for an MRI (two hospitals in one day people, good times). Just did some reading on an MRI, and it's not a very dangerous procedure, unless you have certain types of implants in your eye socket. I'm fairly certain mine is ok, otherwise we wouldn't be going ahead with this, but I've seen one too many TV shows, so I'm a bit nervous now. On another note -- I picked up the movie "Across The Universe" the other day based on a recommendation from Dan Lilly. It's the most unique movie I've seen in a long time, and to be honest, I actually really enjoyed it. Even my dad and my step-mom were talking about it the next day. It's sort of like a cross between Moulin Rouge and a 60s psychedelic film. So yes, there are guys periodically breaking into song -- if that makes you uncomfortable, this movie probably isn't for you. But anyways, I'm watching it right now for the second time in the last 24 hours. You should check it out.

Shrinkathon

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:36:35 +0000

Part of the reason I went back to Chilliwack this last weekend was to get caught up on sleep before all the craziness begins this month and next. Thankfully I managed to do just that, and often slept in until 11:30 or noon. I actually feel fairly refreshed, which is a nice change. Chilliwack Rainbow One of the things I'm going to try to do over the next two months is to lose a few pounds. Before being in the hospital and all my surgeries, I was in a fairly happy place with regards to health. But this last year has been tough and I haven't really been that vigilant with watching what I eat and getting exercise. So, I've decided I'm going to make a focused attempt to drop down to the happy zone again in the next few months, which means I won't be going out and doing things as much (since I don't really have a lot of time these days). Not sure how much I'll blog about my efforts, but we'll see what I can do. Considering I'm about to go on antibiotics again, I probably won't have alcohol to contend with, which should make it easier. But for all of you who like to offer me sweets, I'd appreciate it if you can keep them to yourself for the next few months. My birthday is coming up in April, so we'll see if I can be back in happy land by then. Wish me luck!

New Mac Desktop

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:08:44 +0000

Tomorrow I should be getting a brand new 8-core MacPro for my desk at work. In honor of that, I did up a little Mac desktop last night for anyone who likes to laugh from time to time. Enjoy.

Mac Update 10.5.2 for OS X

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:51:04 +0000

For all of you who have been waiting patiently for the new 10.5.2 update, the wait is over. 10.5.2 is now available on software update. I'm installing all 350 MB of it right now. For all of you about to update, I salute you. Oh, and for all you people on shitty broadband, you should know I just downloaded 352 MB in 4 minutes here.

Stupid MRI

Duane Storey — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:05:04 +0000

My first MRI was actually fair bit shittier than I imagined. I got to the hospital about 40 minutes before my scheduled time, and went to the Jim Pattison pavilion (like I was told). Unfortunately, there was no MRI facility in the JPP, and at that hour there wasn't really anyone to ask. I found an information kiosk that showed a MRI lab in the Centennial Pavilion, so I hurried down there and took a seat in the waiting room. Of course, there wasn't anyone in the reception booth so I just sat in the corner hoping that it was the correct place. There were a few other people in the waiting room with me, so I wasn't too concerned at that point. However, an hour later everyone had left and it was just me in the waiting room alone. One of the MRI technicians eventually came out and looked a bit surprised I was there. She said "who are you?" And I said "Duane Storey." And she said "you were supposed to be here 30 minutes before your MRI." And I said "I was here 40 minutes before." And she said "no, no you weren't" Anyways, she bitched for a while but eventually led me to the change room where I could put on some funky pants. A few minutes later I was seated on the MRI table and the technician was putting this funky plastic head cage on me to make sure I couldn't move my head inside the machine (since the MRI was a scan of my eye socket). Next she rammed earplugs into my ear and told me I had to keep my eyes closed for about an hour, but couldn't sleep. Good times. They slid be inside the big machine and started it up. I did a 3 minute cycle, then a 6 minute cycle, then another 6 minute cycle, and then finally a 5 minute cycle. At that point they slid me back out, put an IV into my arm (which I wasn't expecting), and pumped me full of chemicals (I still wasn't allowed to move my head or open my eyes). Back into the machine I went for two more 5 minute cycles and a final 10 minute cycle. I was pretty thankful when it was all over. The contrast agent they put in me made my mouth taste like shit and made me see everything with a blue tinge for a while. I have a meeting next week with my plastic surgeon to go over the results. Until then.

Wordpress Viper Cache Alpha

Duane Storey — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:20:10 +0000

I've been dabbling with a new caching engine for Wordpress over the last few weeks. While WP-Cache does a pretty decent job, it falls short in a few areas, and it's something I've been trying to fix. In particular, here's what I don't like about it:

It relies on the entire Wordpress engine to do it's caching
It doesn't make use of proper HTTP caching headers

The problem with the first item is that even if you have a cache hit, the entire Wordpress PHP core is parsed and partially executed. What that means is the caching system will always be limited by how fast the PHP parser is on the host machine, and how bloated the Wordpress code-base is. The second item is a little more subtle. If you request a page from a website using WP-Cache and it registers as a cache hit, basically WP-Cache reads a file from the disk and transmits it to you. This is a big gain, since you don't have to do all the database queries over again to generate the original page. However, it's sort of unnecessary to transmit the data to a browser if the data already exists already in the local machine's cache. In order to take advantage of that, you have to do a bit more bookkeeping and set proper HTTP headers at various stages of the requests, something that WP-Cache hasn't tackled yet. With the caching engine I've been working on (called Viper Cache for now), I have basically solved both of those problems. To solve the first I removed the caching engine from Wordpress and made it stand-alone, relying only on PHP itself. So when you register a cache hit, Wordpress isn't instantiated at all and an optimized PHP script serves the proper content. This works together with a Wordpress plugin that manages invalidating parts of the cache whenever content on the blog changes. In addition, proper HTTP caching headers are sent, so for most browsers, no data is even transmitted the second time a page is requested (what happens is the browser asks if the content has changed using an If-Modified-Since header, and the Viper Cache will respond with a 304 Not Modified if the local copy is the same as the remote copy). This results in a CPU and bandwidth savings. If the copy on the server has been modified, and the local cache doesn't match the remote copy, the entire page is served again from the website cache. I've been running it on my blog for about a week now, slowly ironing out the major bugs (and there have a been a few related to Wordpress cookies and improper Content-Types). I did a fairly exhaustive benchmark a few minutes ago, and using my configuration on Media Temple, Viper Cache is about 2.5x - 3.0x faster then WP-Cache for serving pages (and that's not even taking into account items that are already in the browser's cache). What I need now is a few guinea pigs to help iron out the last bugs. Is anyone interested in putting it on their blog and testing it out for a week or so? If so, drop me a comment.

The English Mosquito

Duane Storey — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:22:21 +0000

There is a relatively new device called "The Mosquito" which is being used in England to control where young people typically gather. The device works by emitting high-frequency sounds that only young people (typically younger than 20 years of age) have the ability to hear. Because it's fairly annoying, it causes young people to eventually leave a particular area. Human right's groups are obviously unimpressed with the blanket use of the devices:

Aynsley-Green said about 3,500 of the devices are in use across England to split up gatherings of youth in areas such as parks and shops. "These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving," he added.

Apparently some people feel that having young people gather in a place like a park is a huge problem. I mean, it's quite possible they might pull out a soccer ball or a frisbee and start playing, and who knows what else.

[..] Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: "What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children? Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids. "The Mosquito has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instill them with dignity and respect."

And while most of the groups that are resisting these devices are in the UK, the availability of these items for sale on the Internet is already worrying individuals in other neighbouring countries:

John Loughton, from Pilton, chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament and recent Big Brother winner, said: "If ever there was a device which highlighted the terrible way in which young people are treated in society then this is it. Since when did standing in an area become a crime?"

I obviously think that the use of a device like this is complete lunacy, but what I'm fairly surprised with is how every article I've read justifies the device by saying it helps eliminate "anti-social behaviour" by driving kids away. Wouldn't kids striving to hang out together in groups constitute social behaviour? I mean, when I was a kid it was cool to get together with our friends in parks, parking lots and even in front of the local 7-11. We weren't looking to create trouble, we were just looking for something to do. If kids really are causing problems then pick up the phone and call the police -- don't discriminate against all kids with a device like this simply because you're afraid of a few bad apples.

I'm Not Dude, Baltimore Cop Goes Nuts

Duane Storey — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:12:39 +0000

I just caught this video over on Tony's blog. I have a hard time watching confrontations like this -- I don't even know what I'd do if I were ever put in a situation with an asshole cop like that.

Valentine's Day Lovin

Duane Storey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:34:33 +0000

The guys over at AdHack have come up with a fun Valentine's day video. Check it out, and then head on over and check them out.

One Large Nutritional Science Experiment

Duane Storey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:13:16 +0000

1977, in front of the House Agriculture Subcommittee of Domestic Marketing, talking about the recent recommendations by the USDA and Food and Nutrition Board towards a low-fat diet:

However tenuous that linkage, however disappointing the various intervention trials, it still seems prudent to propose to the American public that we not only maintain reasonable weights for our height, body structure and age, but also reduce our dietary fat intakes significantly, and keep cholesterol to a minimum. And, conceivably, you might conclude that it is proper for the federal government to so recommend. On the other hand, you may instead argue: What right has the federal government to propose that the American people conduct a vast nutritional experiment, with themselves as subjects, on the strength of so very little evidence that it will do them any good? Mr Chairman, resolution of this dilemma turns on a value judgment. The dilemma so posed is not a scientific question; it is a question of ethics, morals, politics. Those who argue either position strongly are expression their values; they are not making scientific judgments. [Philip Handler]

That, my friends, was one of the last arguments in 1977 as to why the United States (and later the rest of North America), should not recommend a low-fat diet on the basis of so little information. Most people don't realize that the scientific basis for such a recommendation was sketchy at best, and in many scientific studies from the time, actually led to increased mortality rates amongst participants. But by that time the politic and economic machinery that would produce the low-fat craze had begun to turn, taking the population of North America on what is currently one of the longest, largest science experiments of all time. I'll write more about this over the coming days, but that's some food for thought.

Megan Fox Coming To Vancouver

Duane Storey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:06:04 +0000

Well, considering it's Valentine's day, and I'm fairly dateless, I thought I'd post a completely unimportant fluff piece involving a hot chick. Also, my number one post this year (in terms of traffic) was that post I did on the hottest girls from 2007. Since I'm a stats whore, I might as well keep the trend going. As the title reads, Megan Fox will be in Vancouver shortly filming a new movie. I ran into Jennifer Aniston a few weeks ago, so who knows, maybe I'll accidentally run into (onto?) Megan while she's in town. Filming for the movie "Jennifer's Body" begins sometime around March 8th. If you see her, feel free to send her my way. Thanks guys.

Best Wishes For Clay

Duane Storey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:08:12 +0000

So while many of us suffer from the end products of love, and some of us end up broken hearted, my friend Clay is the only guy I know who actually has, quite literally, a broken heart. Photo from here. Clay is currently down at St. Paul's hospital getting a coronary bypass operation. Not a very enjoyable way to spend Valentine's day. I just called down and he's still in surgery. I'll probably swing by later tonight if he's out of the ICU, or more than likely tomorrow. If anyone has that stupid fish game with the hoops and the water, let me know. I'm sure Clay will swing by my blog in a few days and check it out, so if anyone wants to leave some well wishes, just drop a comment for him.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Duane Storey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:06:19 +0000

Teaser Trailer is online. Enjoy.

Bursting At The Seams

Duane Storey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:44:55 +0000

While many of you may be out tonight doing something for Valentine's day, just hope that you don't hurt yourself and end up in an emergency room in New Westminster. Apparently the fire marshal was called in yesterday and was forced to clear part of the ER due to overcrowding:

The fire marshal has ordered an area of the emergency room at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster to be cleared because of overcrowding. Fraser Health Authority spokesman Michael Bernard said the fire department was called to the hospital after receiving a complaint about crowding. "He took a look around the emergency room and found it was unacceptable crowding in one particular area where he wanted to have free access and egress in the event of a fire or a problem," he said. [..] Eleven people were waiting to be assessed in the ER and 27 more were in the admissions area when the marshal arrived. "He said you can't operate like this. You can't have people in the hallway. This is a bottleneck."

While this may just be a temporary problem due to a sudden surge in people needing treatment, some people obviously think it is the it is the result of budget cuts over the years:

NDP MLA Adrian Dix said the crisis at Royal Columbian is a direct result of government cuts in recent years. "This is the outcome of the cuts to the acute-care beds in the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health authorities and the closure of St. Mary's Hospital in New Westminster," said Dix. "The provincial government cut 650 acute-care beds. And the Campbell government got rid of St. Mary's Hospital to build condominiums." He said the government made such a colossal mistake in closing St. Mary's that it's too "politically embarrassed" to do anything about the crisis it has caused at Royal Columbian.

The focus of the current news is obviously on the Royal Columbian hospital in New Westminster, but having personally spent time in both Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul's this year, I can say for certain that overcrowding is happening in those hospitals as well. And while you digest that little bit information, here's my contribution for Valentine's day.

Good Calories, Bad Calories

Duane Storey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:52:23 +0000

I picked up a book the other day that I've been meaning to read for a few months now. It is a book by a scientific journalist named Gary Taubes entitled Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage) (although after reading it, I think a more appropriate title might be something like "The People's History Of Diet And Nutrition.") For those of you who follow nutritional research, you may remember Gary from a controversial article he wrote in 2002 in the New York Times called 'What If It's Been A Big Fat Lie?" In that article, he proposed an alternative nutritional hypothesis - that it wasn't fat that ultimately caused obesity or led to the current epidemics of heart disease and diabetes, but it was instead largely influenced by dietary carbohydrates. If there is some truth in that hypothesis (and a great deal of research shows that there is) then the medical establishment has, for the last 30 years, recommended a diet that is not only rather lousy at helping you lose weight, but also has the potential to promote coronary heart disease and diabetes. Gary's article, along with some peer-reviewed research from a couple prestigious medical schools, started what would become the low-carb craze in 2003. Since that time, Gary has been digesting everything he can about the history of nutrition, the facts and the fallacies, along with all the current research in the medical community, to present his alternative hypothesis in an amazingly detailed and easy to follow 600 page nutritional journey. Most of what is in this book is well established within many circles in the medical community. Every Sunday night I head on over to PubMed and brush up on everything I can find about Heart Disease, Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, and Obesity. While I have been exposed to many of the facts and studies presented in this book before, many of them I have not, and of those, a great deal are fairly disturbing. One item that stands out in particular is the revelation that the entire transition in the 70s to the current, widely held nutritional belief that dietary fat leads to heart disease and obesity is essentially a myth, generated by making huge inferences from studies that were largely inconclusive. Another is that obese mothers usually produce obese babies due to metabolic changes in the newborn as a result of high blood sugar levels that cross the placenta. These heavy babies often become heavy adults, many of which are plagued with weight problems their entire lives. This is a cycle, brought on by massive dietary changes in the last 50 years, one of which potentially was the shift in a subset of the population from breast-feeding to formula (many of which were originally composed of almost entirely carbohydrates, even though breast milk contains hardly any carbohydrates in nature) that occurred years ago. This book is creating shock waves right now because it essentially implies that what we currently know and understand about nutrition is incorrect, something I also began to believe the moment I was diagnosed with high blood pressure at the age of 25 (despite having spent the better part of a decade on a low-fat diet of less than 2000 calories per day). Here's a recent interview with Gary on television where his book is discussed with several prominent people in the medical community. I also want to point out that many people in the last 100 years have also believed as Gary does, and when they presented scientific studies to support their beliefs, were publicly ridiculed and often excommunicated in research circles. The fact that people not only are stopping to consider what Gary is proposing but are also enthusiastically agreeing with him indicates to me that the medical community is starting to realize, much like I did five years ago, that the current recommendations and understanding with regards to nutrition are either flawed or incomplete. I can't recommend this book enough, even if you're a firm believer in the "a calorie is just a calorie" mantra or the "low-fat" hypothesis. I think Gary presents the information scientifically and impartially, and while it's clear which side of the fence he is on, it is apparent that he got there by logical deduction based on the overwhelming evidence in favour of the alternative hypothesis. There are many conclusions, recommendations and important observations in this book, one of which is a rather honest opinion about the current goals of the nutritional research community -- Gary sums it up rather eloquently in the book's epilogue:

Individuals who pursue research in this confluence of nutrition, obesity, and chronic disease are typically motivated by the desire to conserve our health and prevent disease. This is an admirable goal, and it undeniably requires reliable knowledge to achieve, but it can not be accomplished by allowing the goal to compromise the means, and this is what has happened. Practical considerations of what is too loosely defined as the "public health" have consistently been allowed to take precedence over the dispassionate, critical evaluation of evidence and the rigorous and meticulous experimentation that are required to establish reliable knowledge. The urge to simplify a complex scientific situation so that physicians can apply it and their patients and the public embrace it has taken precedence over the scientific obligation of presenting the evidence with relentless honesty. The result is an enormous enterprise dedicated in theory to determining the relationship between diet, obesity, and disease, while dedicated in practice to convincing everyone involved, and the lay public, most of all, that the answers are already known and always have been -- an enterprise, in other words, the purports to be a science and yet functions like a religion.

I'll wrote more on this in a few days. I have to collect my thoughts and figure out which parts I want to touch on.

The Bell Tolls For You, HD-DVD

Duane Storey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:06:33 +0000

Yes, I think it's true. HD-DVD, my friends, is dead, or at least in the last of its death throes. Being an early adopter, I went out a few months ago and picked up a HD-DVD player, thinking that at the bare minimum both formats would exist for a year or more. It turns out my timing was rather poor. A few of the major studios moved from HD-DVD to BluRay last month, and the move was so dramatic that the HD-DVD guys cancelled their talks at the CES show in Vegas (which actually probably did the most harm to their effort). Reuter's is reporting that HD-DVD is basically dead, and a leak from WalMart indicates that they are no longer planning to stock HD-DVD in the future. This is yet another example how corporate greed once again took precedence over consumer satisfaction. While nobody forced me to go out and buy a HD-DVD player, I watched the industry in a virtual stall for years (despite HD TVs being fairly prevalent now), and simply got tired of watching my TV go to waste. Had the two camps resolved their differences a long time ago, most of us would probably have cheap BluRay players in our houses already, and this sour taste in my mouth would never have occurred. So that's it. Happy trails HD-DVD, it was nice to know you.

Getting Mobile

Duane Storey — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:57:19 +0000

I love the smell of Saturday in the morning. The sleeping in, the sound of traffic that pulls me out of bed at 11am. It's not very often I get full days to myself these days, so when I do get them, I definitely enjoy them. I'm just demolishing my second cup of coffee, and then will probably hit the open road for a few hours. I went by the hospital last night to see my friend Clay. Clay had a quintuple bypass surgery, but is doing relatively well. As I well know, being in the hospital totally sucks, so I'm gonna swing by for a bit. Then, who knows. Maybe down to Urban Fare to get some groceries. Maybe out to commercial drive to take some photos. I haven't been outside with my camera in quite a while. I went over the internet real quick this morning to see if there was anything interesting I could write about, but I didn't see anything that tickled my fancy. So for now, this is it.

Commission Junction Advertising Failure

Duane Storey — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:03:43 +0000

As you can see, my little advertising experiment with Commission Junction is pretty failtastic. Which is strange, because the ads are fairly targeted based on a few specific, popular pages of mine. I'm not a big fan of advertising to tell you the truth -- I ripped Google Adsense off here a few months ago. To me, it's worth $10 a month or whatever not to have them pollute my main page. I was testing a new concept though with more targeted ads that I choose, but so far it's not working. Is anyone here actually making money with your blog (i.e, enough at least to pay for hosting)?

Shrinkathon, Update #1

Duane Storey — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:16:58 +0000

So, it's only been about 5 days since I started, but I thought I'd drop a quick update. As most of you know, I am a big supporter of low-carbohydrate diets, mostly because a great deal of research show they are superior for treating things like diabetes and heart disease, but also because I once lost a great deal of weight (with relative ease) by just giving up carbs. Effectively, the last few days have really been a transition from a moderate carbohydrate to a low-carb one for me. I've been keeping accurate food, weight and activity logs, which should help me figure out what's working and what's not. First thing of note is that I seem to be eating about 500 calories *more* per day than I was about a week ago, and I find I'm still actually quite a bit hungrier than I was before (which is sort of weird, because low carb diets typically suppress hunger). So either I was sort of starving myself before (which is possible considering I typically don't eat very much), or my metabolism is increasing due to the dietary changes. My gut feeling says it's more of the latter. The good news is I've been dropping about 0.5 lb a day for the last five days. Obviously some of that is water weight, but for me the important thing is that it's not going up. In terms of how I feel, I feel about the same -- maybe a bit more energy. I've been trying to hit the gym every second day, mostly to lift some weights and try to add a few more pounds of muscle over the next little while. Lifting weights is important because it increases whole-body insulin sensitivity (due to unknown reasons), which basically makes it hormonally easier to burn fat instead of sugar, which is the whole point of this exercise really. I'm also throwing in the odd bit of cardio, mostly for heart-happy reasons though. I've also been taking a multi-vitamin again, something that I haven't routinely done in quite a while. So far, so good. My main goal is to drop 15 lbs before my birthday, which is in approximately two months.

Dropping Technorati Rankings

Duane Storey — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:58:43 +0000

This has been a bit of a mystery for me over the last few months. I've slowly watched my technorati rating go from about 180 down to where it currently is, sitting snugly at 156 (although it was 159 yesterday). Considering it's been climbing non-stop since last year, I've been a bit confused as to why it's started to drop. After doing some research, it appears that technorati has been busy changing things on their backend. Recently, they made it so subdomains no longer count towards main domain scores. This has hurt the rating of quite a few large blogs. Prior to that change, technorati made it so that the authority rating is measured on a six month sliding scale. What that means is all your links that are over six months old are no longer going to count. Kiss all your links from other people's blogrolls goodbye. In my case, I had a huge rash of people linking to my crossroads plugin last year, and apparently all those links are expiring. So if you received a whack of links during a certain time period, I'd set a countdown timer and see what happens after 180 days -- chances are you can kiss yours goodbye as well.

HD-DVD Officially Dead

Duane Storey — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:03:29 +0000

Toshiba just withdrew their support, which basically means it's completely empty over in the HD-DVD camp right now. Remind me never to be an early adopter again. So, stay tuned for the HD-DVD burning party at a campground near Chilliwack.

Mint - Statistics Package For Websites

Duane Storey — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:07:00 +0000

As most of you know, there are several popular methods for obtaining statistics for your blog. While Google Analytics is probably the most comprehensive one I know (with the added benefit of being free), it is limited somewhat by the fact the the statistics are not real-time. For most practical purposes, that limitation isn't a big deal, but it's sometimes nice to be able to see what's going on within your website in real time. On the recommendation of a friend, I splurged the $30 to finally see what Mint was all about. If you haven't heard of it, Mint is a commercial statistics package with a pile of open-source plugins (called "Peppers" in Mint terminology). On my system, I have Peppers that display Wordpress comments, downloads, most popular posts, and bandwidth. If you're into podcasting, there are even Peppers for that. I've been using it for the past two weeks now, and for the most part I am extremely happy with it. If gives me a vary comprehensive real-time snapshot of my blog at any time, and displays just enough information to be useful, but not overwhelming (something that Google Analytics doesn't so so well, although some might argue that's the point of it). If you're looking for something similar, I would highly recommend it.

How To Make Your Website Or Blog Faster

Duane Storey — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:05:56 +0000

There are a lot of different ways you can increase the speed of your website, even if you have relatively cheap hosting. If you're lucky, your blogging platform already has a caching engine built in (Drupal does). If you're unlucky, and running something like Wordpress, you have to do a bit more work. Caching makes a website more responsive because it takes an expensive operation (such as a long database query) and stores it so that next time it doesn't have to recompute it entirely. For example, when you go to this website, normally Apache would execute PHP, parse the Wordpress code, do some MySQL database queries, and then finally output the HTML page. Depending on the hosting service, this may take a long time. With a cache, the final HTML page is simply written to disk (or memory if a memory cache is being used) so that when that page is requested the second time, it is merely read from disk and sent, which by comparison is relatively fast. The first thing I'd recommend everyone with Wordpress to do is to enable the built in object cache. It's not very well documented, but Wordpress has the built in ability to cache many of the expensive database queries. To enable it, locate your wp-config.php file (which is usually in the root directory of your web installation), and add the following line to it: define('ENABLE_CACHE', true); That's it. You should get a fair performance increase just be turning that on. I also suggest you Wordpress people download the Wp-Cache plugin. It's fairly easy to install, and gives you a huge speed increase as soon as it's up and running. Also, if your site ever gets to the front page of a website such as Digg, your website will most likely choke and die without some type of caching enabled. If you're really adventurous, you can help me test out my Viper Cache plugin that should ultimately be faster that Wp-Cache (and it's in use on this website). While that solution will increase the speed of your PHP scripts, it doesn't do much to help JPEGs or other files on your server. Thankfully, there is another easy way to make those a lot faster using the Apache mod_expires module. With mod_expires, you can tell Apache to insert caching directives for particular types of files as they are requested. For example, you can make it so that Apache instructs all browsers to store images in their local caches for four hours. With that directive, a browser will only have to download that image once and, for the next four hours, can simply retrieve it from it's local cache. This not only saves you bandwidth, but makes its seem like the pages on your website load a lot faster. If your website supports .htaccess along with mod_expires, you can simply add something like this to it:


   <IfModule mod_expires.c>
   ExpiresActive on
   ExpiresDefault now
   ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 4 hours"
   ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 4 hours"
   ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 4 hours"
   ExpiresByType audio/mp3 "access plus 2 hours"
   ExpiresByType audio/x-m4a "access plus 2 hours"
   </IfModule>

By setting the "ExpiresDefault" to "now", it is instructing Apache to make everything non-cacheable except for the items listed below it. Without this, Apache would cache everything, including PHP scripts (which since they are dynamic, would be a fairly bad thing). As you can see, I've included a directive to cache JPEG images (with a MIME type of image/jpeg) for four hours, MP3 files for two hours, etc. You can modify this and add whatever MIME type you like, and the browsers will do the caching for you. The one downside to this is that the browser will not request that file again until the allotted time expires. What that means is that even if you change it on your webpage, it's possible people won't see those modifications for quite some time. If you set relatively small expires times, that isn't normally a problem. However if you want to set longer ones, the only way to force an immediate change to an item is to change the filename on the server (which is an easy work around). If you combine those three methods, you can make Wordpress a hell of a lot faster, and decrease the demands on your hosting server. Plus, you should be able to handle a Digg or any other sudden influx of traffic with relative ease.

Another Sleepless Sunday Night

Duane Storey — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:46:50 +0000

Yes sports fans, it's 3:46am and yours truly is still wide awake. I've been lying in bed since around midnight try to sleep, but it's just not happening. I caved in and popped a sedative a few minutes ago. I think I have to cut myself off from doing anything on the computer on Sunday nights and just read or watch movies instead. Whenever I get involved in something on my blog or some coding I've been meaning to do, I just have a really hard time turning my brain off when it's time to go to sleep. Maybe I need to lay off the caffeine for a bit as well. Who knows. Needless to say I'll probably be a bit late getting into work tomorrow.

It's Gonna Be A Bright, Sunshiny Day

Duane Storey — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:03:11 +0000

Wow, what's with this weather? It's been absolutely gorgeous this winter. I'm lucky enough to have a bedroom with basically a full-wall window view of the downtown core, and every morning the sun reflecting off buildings wakes me up. It's been rather nice having sunshine instead of the dreary rain Vancouver is known for in the winter. I went out to Joey's last night on Burrard Street to have some dinner with friends. It's your typical Earl's type restaurant with token hot girls and funky music. The food was pretty tasty though, with Cajun wings actually being served with a real hibachi type stove so you could blacken them at will. It's nice to see a few more places pop up here and there to check out. Today is of course another full day of work, but I'm hoping this sunshine carries on into the weekend. I'll be out at UBC attending Northern Voice -- I'll do another blog entry soon about that. I hope some of you manage to get out and enjoy the sun a bit today.

Michael Bay Demands Awesome

Duane Storey — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:52:16 +0000

You gotta admire people who can make fun of themselves. Here's Michael Bay (director of Armageddon, Transformers, etc.) in a new commercial. Thanks to John Bollwitt for showing this to me.

Laying Off Co-Op Students - Pretty Low

Duane Storey — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:16:50 +0000

So a friend of mine pinged me online the other day and told me he had been laid off from a local company. I didn't ask too many details because I was a bit busy at the time, but since then a larger picture has emerged. Apparently the local company decided to pack up and head south of the border. And while a lot of permanent employees were laid off, they also slaughtered the co-op students as well. As someone who used to be involved in the co-op program, I can tell you that this is a pretty low blow. These students have precisely four months to earn enough money to get them through another full year of school. It would be next to impossible for a co-op student to get another job at another company half-way through their term. There's a certain responsibility you take on by hiring a co-op student. You are there to enrich their working experience and provide them knowledge they probably do not have access to at school. In addition, you are there to help fund their next term of school. To lay off a co-op student is just outright wrong, and if that story is 100% accurate, I hope that future co-op departments within the universities outright ban that company from being a part of their programs.

PhotoCamp 2008 At Northern Voice

Duane Storey — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:04:59 +0000

Yes, it's that time again -- Northern Voice, Canada's awesome personal blogging conference, is kicking off this weekend down at the University Of British Columbia. I'll be attending the whole event, starting Thursday night at the social, and finishing sometime on Saturday. Friday is of course "MooseCamp", an unconference where people come together and share ideas. I'll be spearheading a discussion on Wordpress plugins during one session, and will be giving a talk during PhotoCamp. PhotoCamp is organized and chaired by resident photo expert Kris Krug, and he has been organizing these sessions all over the place for a few years now. The topic of my 15 minutes of fame will be "Selling Your Photographs Online" and will basically talk about my experiences using SmugMug this past year. I'll be joined by Rachel Ashe (who is talking about promoting yourself as an artist/photographer), Fiona Garden (talking about photo editing and retouching), and finally, everyone's favourite bike-riding ninja, Matt Trent (who will be discussing a pile of photographic geekery). If you want some more information, head on over to the official PhotoCamp 2008 wiki. Make sure you check back here after the event -- I'll post whatever slides I do present plus some extra information on photography in general.

Viper Cache Alpha Reviewed

Duane Storey — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:51:05 +0000

Well, this is interesting. I gave a few individuals an alpha version of the Viper Cache plugin I've been working on. It has just been reviewed on Anieto2k, one of the largest plugin sites. The author compared it against all the Wordpress plugins available today for caching. The full write-up is available here. The article looks like it is in Spanish so you'll just have to settle for the pictures. Based on a few guesses in the translation, it looks like Viper Cache is the lowest in memory out of all four, and allows around 1330 pages per second on the test machine compared to the second place runner up of Super-Cache at around 300 pages per second. I also want to point out that I seriously doubt their test takes into account (only because such a test doesn't immediately come to my mind either) cache hits that are only fetched from local caches (which is made possibly by some HTTP caching directives Viper Cache inserts), and that would result in further performance gains. So, like I had hoped, it appears that this will ultimately be the fastest Wordpress caching engine around. ~~I have one more major enhancement to make to it with regards to cache invalidation, and then I'll release it~~. I just finished the change. I actually thought of a way smarter way to do what I was trying to do, and it will make an even larger difference. I'm running it here already, and I think it will work like a charm. ** Jonathan Lumb translated that article into english if anyone is interested. Thanks. I'll release this soon.

Brother HL-4050 CDN Printer Review

Duane Storey — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:42:04 +0000

A few months ago, Darren Barefoot put up a proposal on his blog asking for west-coast bloggers to review a few Brother printers. Since I love getting my hands on new technology, and have never really used a color laser printer before, I signed up for the challenge. A few weeks later the HL-4050 arrived at my office place. First of all, let me just say that nothing could have prepared me for not only how big the box was, but also how insanely heavy it was. I seriously had a hard time moving it from the front door over to the spare desk next to me. That's what it looks like when it's all unpacked. As you can see, it takes up a huge amount of desk space (this is offset by the fact that it looks pretty cool). There are a few different ways to hook it up to a computer, but I chose the network cable approach since I wanted to use it from my machine on the other side of the room. It only took me about five minutes to figure out the menu system, and in that time I managed to configure the printer to use DHCP and also determine it's IP address. Good to go. Unfortunately, the next part of the process turned out to be a major roadblock. I attempted to connect to the printer from my MacBook Pro laptop. While I managed to set it up just fine, I struggled for about an hour to get the printer to print anything at all. Finally I resorted to hitting some support forums on the web, and eventually came to the conclusion that the Brother HL-4050 CDN doesn't work out of the box with OS-X Leopard. Some of the forums suggested there were updated drivers buried on the Leopard installation DVD somewhere, but I never found them. Instead of giving up on this review, I decided to brush the dust of my Windows XP machine at work and do the review from there. Setting the printer up in Windows was a bit more challenging than on the Mac. If I would have been smart, I would have just downloaded the Brother printer drivers from their website and done the installation first. Had I done that, the installation would have gone rather quickly. Instead, I tried to use the "Add Or Remove Printers" wizard with XP, and unfortunately that was just a dead end. Even when I got it to connect to the printer using its IP address, it still couldn't load the correct driver. The Brother installation package fixed everything though, so I suggest people start with that. Once the software was configured, I went through the rest of the packaging instructions to get the printer ready to roll. The first step was to remove a few pieces of plastic on the inside that secure everything during shipping of the unit. Next, you have to manually insert the color toner cartridges into the appropriate slots. They are all color coded, so it's fairly simple to accomplish. Once they were all in, I closed it up and decided to do some tests. I guess I should also point out that I used semi-glossy brochure paper from HP for most of the tests. I tried to get my hands on real photo-paper, but I couldn't find any around the office. Since I was primarily interested in printing photographs that would ultimately go up on walls, I wanted something with a bit of a gloss to it. I slid open the bottom paper drawer and put a stack of about 50 in. I went through my Flickr sets and printed a pile of some of my favourite HDR shots, which are typically the ones I'd print and send to people. I did variations on a few of the settings available via the Brother printer driver (an obvious change is to go from the default of 600 DPI to 2400 DPI). My first impressions were fairly good, although there seemed to be an obvious dulling of the saturation on the printer compared the originals. It's fairly likely the gamut of the printer is far less than the monitor, so perhaps it's to be expected. I'm not sure if I could counter that in software though, or if it is something you just have to accept. After about 50 of these, I think I have a fairly good idea of how the printer performed. One thing I noticed was that on most of the photos there were slight indentations where the rollers gripped the paper. I'm not sure if these marks would eventually go away, but since the paper was glossy the slight impressions reflected light differently and definitely detracted from the photo. I'm being a bit picky, since I think the quality was fairly good, but I don't think I would hang one on the wall. Perhaps better photo paper or backloading the printer would make those marks less visible. I'm not sure. For everyday photos or things you want to put in a scrapbook, I think the quality is more than acceptable. But for the area I was shooting for, that is having the ability to print out high-quality images that I conceivably send to people to use as art, I think it falls a bit short. So in summary, I had troubles with the printer out of the box on a Mac. On Windows, installation of the Brother printer drivers should really come before anything else. Image quality was good, although I found they were slightly desaturated. The image quality for printed photos is definitely enough for scrap books or casual printing for friends, but I think it's still a bit wanting in the area of photographic reproduction for use as art or wall decorations. Big thanks to Darren Barefoot and Capulet for setting this up, as well as Brother for the use of the printer.

Name That Kitty

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:44:32 +0000

I'm going to do random games for fun from now on. Just because. I want the real name of the feline in question.

Northern Voice 2008 Finally Here

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:37:51 +0000

It's here, Northern Voice 2008. Tonight is the big social down at the Tiki Lounge in East Vancouver. I'll be heading down with Rebecca, John, and Keira for some drinks and a full roast-pig. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to say at PhotoCamp, but I'll spend some time thinking about it during the day and see what I can come up with. Photo by Gary on Flickr Every camera in my house is currently dead, so I'm frantically bouncing between doing laundry and charging equipment. I went to the mall to pick out some new clothes tonight, but turns out I'm just way too picky. I've decided that next time I need to bring a girl or two with me to help me spend some money. I'm hoping to see a lot of people out at PhotoCamp, or walking around the conference. If you see me, make sure you pull me aside and say hi. I'll take a bunch of photos tomorrow and post them when I get home.

Media Burner Beta

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:22:52 +0000

As you can see, I've been trying to push out some of these plugins that have been on my plate for a while. The Media Burner one is now officially in beta. Media burner automatically extracts media files (MP3, FLV, YouTube, etc) from your blog posts and creates a site-wide player. An example in action If you want to test it out, click on "Media" in the menu bar up top of this site, click here to test it. Head on over to the main page listed below for more information or if you want to download it. The standard Wordpress plugin database just fell over, so I have no way to tell the world about this. So if you check the plugin out and like it, please forward the link around or do a blog post about it. Head on over to the Media Burner Plugin page for more information. I will probably be moving some of these plugins to a centralized location in the near future, but I want to beta a few of these to get the bugs out before then.

Name That Person

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:13:15 +0000

Ok, you guys nailed round one. That cat is indeed Cid, part of the Raymi and Phil family. So, I have a harder one for you. Name this person. Bonus points if you can point me at the original photo or blog entry.

Name That Blogger

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:45:43 +0000

Ok, clearly you guys are full of awesome today. The last person was indeed Rebecca Bollwitt. Let's see if you get this one. If you know it 100% for sure (as I bet some of you are), then please save this for people who aren't and want to guess!

Vitamin C Addiction

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:00:34 +0000

Yes, it's true. I'm officially addicted to vitamin C. I'm not sure how it happened really. I started taking vitamins recently to go along with my diet. Since the store had these fun sugar-free grape ones I thought, hey, what the hell. Turns out, they are like the best tasting things ever. They recommend two per day, but I'm sure I had at least twenty over the course of the day today. It's basically impossible to OD on vitamin C, so I'm not worried at all. Unfortunately though, the sweetening ingredient in these little bad boys is sorbitol, which is a type of sugar alcohol. Sugar alcohols taste good and don't metabolize like sugar, but unfortunately lead to some pretty major gastro-intestinal distress. If you see me dash out of PhotoCamp on Friday in a hurry, it's nothing personal. It just means I stocked up on vitamins in the morning.

Vancouver Blogger Challenge

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:01:09 +0000

So, I didn't start this challenge, but I gladly played along with it. I just checked, and I"m still in the #1 spot for Vancouver Blogger. The festivities tonight start at 6pm, so I'm assuming that's when Northern Voice officially starts. I was sort of expecting someone to fly ahead at the last second, and maybe that will still happen. But unless something major changes or Google does another index, it's looking pretty good for camp Duane. Anyone want to concede defeat at this point? :)

Brothers

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:11:38 +0000

Courtesy of Patrick Pitt.

Retards

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:07:07 +0000

Someone forwarded me this via email. I seriously nearly peed myself.

Rioters Attack US Embassy In Serbia

Duane Storey — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:43:14 +0000

I have a friend who lives really close to there. I hope he's ok. More information in the New York Times. Photo from the NYT.

Northern Voice 2008 Beginning Shortly

Duane Storey — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:05:35 +0000

Just a quick update. I have about another hour or so of work, and then I'm heading down to the pig roast in East Van. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing everyone again. It's not lost on me that most of the friends I hang out with in Vancouver these days are people I met at Northern Voice last year. It's been absolutely amazing coming in contact with so many genuine people that have a real passion for blogging. Dale Olson at Northern Voice 2007 I've started a Flickr set for the event. You can check out my shots from Northern Voice 2008 here. There's wireless in the venue tonight, so I'll post some photos as the night rolls on. See you guys all shortly.

Northern Voice Social, 2008

Duane Storey — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:51:08 +0000

Tonight was the big Northern Voice social event down at the Waldorf Hotel in East Van. I was really looking forward to attending, and it didn't disappoint in the least. I hardly ate at all beforehand, so the thought of roast pig keep me going most of the afternoon. First of all, I have to say I was the luckiest guy in the house, having been fortunate enough to make an entrance with these two fine looking women: Rebecca and Keira-Anne Unfortunate Rebecca's husband (and all around great dude) John couldn't make it - he was missed, but will be leading a podcasting session tomorrow so make sure you check it out. The meal was absolutely fantastic, consisting of Roasted Pork, Chicken and Salmon, plus salads and lots of other side dishes. Thankfully, I managed to stay away from carbs for the duration of the evening, which was something I was worried about giving into (man, did that pasta look GOOD). Afterwards I got into a bit of a frenzy trying to look for some coffee (even though I've been fairly liberal when it comes to caffeine, I really wanted one after dinner). I managed to locate one in the side room, and it was smooth sailing after that. What was interesting to me is that a few people came up to me and mentioned that they had heard of my legendary beer drinking ability. I was both shocked and humbled that my legend has somehow drifted past my own blog, and into other people's hearts. I came home a bit early to work on some ideas for Photocamp tomorrow. It will probably be in the early afternoon, so come check it out if you're interested in photography. I'm bringing most of my camera equipment tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have a steady stream of photos as the day goes on. On one final note. Today (Friday) is my good pal Boris Mann's birthday. Boris has been a good friend over the last year, and is an all around great guy. Happy Birthday bud -- see you out tomorrow night. If you see Boris walking the halls, make sure you wish him a happy birthday.

Northern Voice At UBC

Duane Storey — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:15:15 +0000

Northern Voice is officially rolling out at UBC. Since today is an unconference, people are putting their ideas up on the wall for sessions that will happen during the day. I'm still waiting to here when the Internet Bootcamp and Photocamp sessions are. Megan Cole I have to finish my plan for the little talk I'm giving, so I'm chilling out on the side right now. Will drop a few more blog entries as the day goes on. Check my Flickr stream for photos as they happen.

Best Hey Jude Cover

Duane Storey — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:53:22 +0000

Northern Voice Day 2 - Keynote With Matt Mullenweg

Duane Storey — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 17:17:11 +0000

I'm sitting here with John and Rebecca waiting for the Northern Voice keynote to begin. This year it's Wordpress' own Matt Mullenweg, who will be talking about blogging and Wordpress 2.5. Boris Mann and Matt Mullenweg Keynote is over. It was really entertaining and enlightening, and I thought some of the points about advertising overload with sites like Facebook were interesting.

A Slight Kink In My Swing

Duane Storey — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:38:15 +0000

I've spent most of this last week thinking about blogging and Northern Voice, so tonight I'm going to unwind a bit in front of the TV and just relax. So, while I plan to write a Northern Voice summary, I'm going to hold off on that for a day or two. One of the aspects of Northern Voice I enjoy is the opportunity to take a lot of different photos in various settings. I practiced doing the odd wide-angle shot in some of the rooms, and used my 70-200mm for a few close ups of speakers. For the most part, I took a lot of the same shots I always take. But for some reason, something's been really bothering me lately about the results. When a golfer acquires a nasty shot on the golf course, despite typically being a good player, sometimes it's referred to as developing a shank. For some reason, I kind of feel like I've developed the photographic equivalent of a shank. I've been struggling to put my finger on it, and I just can't seem to figure it out. Lately I've just been rather disappointed with almost every shot I download to my computer. I've mixed up the lenses, the lighting, the composition, pretty much everything, and yet I'm just consistently disappointed when I finally get stuff of my camera. The composition of most shots is about where I want it, but they all seem to lack some of the punch I typically see while looking through the viewfinder. I'm really at a loss, but I have to sort it out because it's really starting to bother me. I'm going to take every lens I have and give it a major cleaning tonight. Then I'm going to tear the 40D apart and review all the custom settings. I'm also fairly certain the new iPhoto isn't working for me as well as the last one -- I think the sharpening algorithm in the new version is far uglier than the last one, and I'm having to relearn how to use it. Like I said, I'm really not sure what's wrong. I plan to figure it out over the next few days though. I'll probably do a few photography entries while I investigate.

1600 Reasons To Love Northern Voice

Duane Storey — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:05:06 +0000

Last night while lying in bed I had the crazy idea to try and make a mosaic out of all the photos from Northern Voice. Tonight, while sitting in front of the TV, I decided to make an attempt at it. So, here is the end result. It's 40 tiles wide by 40 tiles tall, for a total of 1600 individual images. If you want to see it large, click on the image to download a huge version (approximate 9MB).

Post-Blogging Photowalk Through The City

Duane Storey — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:08:02 +0000

Today was a good day. I woke up this morning fully refreshed thanks to the 10 or 11 hours of sleep I got last night. I basically had no plans upon waking up, but found a message on my cell phone this morning from Boris saying that people were meeting up on commercial drive for some brunch. Scott Hadfield and Matt Mullenweg I hopped in the car and headed down to Havanas on the Drive, which is a pretty funky restaurant/gallery that I've heard good things about. There I met up with about twelve or so people, most of which attended Northern Voice. Matt Mullenweg (now with a +1 from here for his battle against the dancing dude) also swung by for some brunch, and to take his Nikon DSLR for a spin in our city. Boris Mann We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around the city, taking little sea taxis, and even grabbing a few drinks down at the Cat's Meow on Granville Island. All in all a really enjoyable day with some good people -- the perfect end to Northern Voice and the weekend.

Laptop Bag

Duane Storey — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:01:48 +0000

I'm in the market for a new laptop bag. I currently have a backpack which holds my laptop and my camera gear, but when I don't carry my camera gear I find the bag is fairly big and bulky. So, I'd like to pick up a nice, slim laptop bag that goes over my shoulder. I googled a bit this morning trying to find recommendations where to go, but most of those sites just talked about bags and didn't really point me in any useful directions. Rebecca gave me the name of a site on Robson, but when I went by this morning they were still closed. Can anyone recommend a good place to buy a laptop bag? I'd like something a little more modern and less London Drugs-like.

New Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro Announced

Duane Storey — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:13:13 +0000

Today Apple officially unveiled the new Apple MacBook and MacBook pro laptops. Not a whole lot of excitement with the announcements, since many people were expecting a new form factor, but it looks like there are a few small improvements. Of note is the addition of the multi-touch track pad that is part of the Apple MacBook Air Notebook, more video memory, and faster CPU speeds. You can read more about it here.

Back To The Doctors

Duane Storey — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:17:59 +0000

I'm just heading out the door to meet my fate - I get the results of my MRI back today, and should know whether or not I'm having surgery again on my eye socket. I meant to wake up today and do a humorous post about boxer shorts, but I probably won't have time until later tonight. I've had my head down deep in work the last few days. Part of that has brought to my attention a PHP framework called Symfony. I've spent about 30 hours playing with it, and I can say that's fairly amazing, even though it's a bit daunting at first. All these people who swear how awesome Ruby is should really check out some of the development you can do using something like Symfony or Zend (although, having used both, I think Symfony is a bit more practical). The obvious benefit of both of these frameworks is the use of the Model-View-Controller pattern (which Ruby also has bragging rights for). Essentially you attempt to completely separate data and logic from actual presentation (think Wordpress themes, but more lightweight). In theory this makes it far easier to develop and maintain. If you do any PHP development, you should really brush up on both of those frameworks. I've saved myself lots of time by doing small things with either of those. If you're doing a project that can make use of Drupal or Wordpress, or some other CMS, then check those out. But if you're forced to develop something that's rather specific, you might want to check out Symfony.

Google Reaches Out To San Francisco

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:11:19 +0000

I'm a big believer in corporate responsibility. That is, I think big corporations should reach out and do more for people in their communities, or use whatever means they have to contribute positively towards society. Surprisingly, the Vancouver technology scene is fairly active in this area, and I've witnessed many technology-driven events in this city geared towards feeding people in the Lower East Side, helping acquire clothing, etc. So today, I was rather pleased to see an announcement from one of the largest technology companies around. Google has just announced that they are going to give every homeless person in San Francisco their own phone number with permanent voicemail. For those people that are trying to obtain jobs, or waiting to receive health-care, having a valid callback number where someone can reach you can be a huge deal. I sent the article to David and asked for his take on it, and he thought it was a good idea (something hopefully he can comment on more here). I also fired off a few quick emails to people I know at Google about potentially doing something similar in Vancouver, so we'll see. It's a nice gesture by a large company, and I hope it makes a difference.

The Apple MacPro

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:38:33 +0000

This morning I had the pleasure of swinging by MacStation in Yaletown on my way to work and picking up a brand new MacPro computer for work. I could sit here and quote technical specs until the cows came home, but I'll just say that this sucker completely rocks. It basically has two of everything:

Two CPUs, each of which has four 2.8 GHz cores
A dual-head video card capable of doing 1080p video on each port
Two network cards, so in theory you could put one on a private network and one on a public one

I've spent the last year sort of bouncing between multiple machines. In fact, looking back over the last year I'd say I did about 50% of my time developing on mobile platforms, 25% on Windows, and maybe 25% on Mac. To that end, I basically had three full development machines on or near my desk, all hooked up to an electric KVM switch to toggle inputs between them. When I'm not developing, I actually prefer to use a Mac, so I usually just hauled my laptop into work. From Apple's Website The good news is that I spent most of today destroying my desk at work, and have completed the reduction from three computers down to one. I purchased VMWare and immediately installed XP on a virtual machine (not because I like using Windows, but because I sometimes do development on it). In theory I could throw Linux in another VM, or whatever other OS I wanted. I have to say, it's pretty cool doing a major Windows build using two cores, and still having six other ones to do whatever I want on the Mac. In fact, this whole setup ran about $3300, and I can already see that being paid back with dividends due to time not spent waiting for things to build, or switching between machines. With eight cores, it really is possible to be doing development type tasks and still have a usable machine for doing other work. I'd totally recommend anyone setting up a new developer with a machine to think about something like this. Also, I've been trying to figure out a way to remote desktop into a Mac machine from a Mac. Is the only way really with Apple's commercial Remote Desktop package (Why does this cost money? Remote desktop has been free for years on PCs)? Looks like there's an open source VNC server I can run on a machine, but I find it strange there's nothing obvious I can find in Leopard that lets me do something like that remotely.

Vancouver Technology Salaries

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:54:46 +0000

Given that I've been with my current company for the last four years, I haven't really had to think about salaries for quite some time. That being said, I'm actually curious how Vancouver is doing in terms of salaries in the high-tech department. I know it's fairly easy to acquire a +100k job in the Bay Area, and in New York you can easily approach 200k in some fields (Math+Programming in the stock market for example). By talking to various people over the last few months, I gather there's a pretty big spread amongst most companies in this city. I've thrown together a few quick and dirty poll widgets to sort of test the waters. They are all completely anonymous, so don't worry about putting down your number. I've set up three areas. The developer one is for anyone doing PHP, C++, Ruby, C#, etc. The marketing one is for anyone doing internet, print or media marketing (or related) for a company on a full time basis. The last one is web design, or things pertaining to the web that don't fall under the development category. Actually, I just added one more -- if you don't fit into any of those, feel free to toss yourself on the fourth one. Please only vote for one area if you vote. I'll close the polls down in a few days and show people the results. [poll=8] [poll=9] [poll=10] [poll=11]

Another Weekend Of Duane

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:45:31 +0000

It's that time again - the weekend. Last night I attended a preview party for Strutta's new product they've been working on for the last year. I'll write more about this when I have the coveted "Jordan Screenshot" that everyone was talking about. In essence Strutta has developed a pretty funky social network that appeals to the competitive nature of most people. I.e., "Think you're better than me? Go ahead and prove it. " It's a neat concept, and it will be cool to see where it goes once they launch (which should be in the next couple of months). Tonight was also supposed to be Lyal Avery's crazy bus-a-thon, but rumor has it he's down and out due to some nasty flu bug (something I can obviously relate with given what happened to me last year). So, here's to hoping Lyal's ok, and that we can all take him out some other time. Tomorrow my friend's daughter Maya turns one year old, so I'm going to try and swing by to wish her a happy birthday. Other than that, the weekend is fairly open, which is a nice change. I have some web stuff I want to wrap up during some part of it, but I'm going to do my best to get outside for some of it. In terms of the near future, I'm still working on that startup event in Vancouver and will hopefully be able to spill the beans on it soon. Next weekend Matthew Good starts his US tour -- I think John Bollwitt and I are going to hop in my car and head down for the Seattle show (Rebecca and Keira have other saucy plans).

Blu-Ray Hard On Battery Life

Duane Storey — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:47:25 +0000

I guess this makes complete sense, given what I know about physics. Blue lasers were actually extremely difficult to make, and they didn't emerge until nearly a decade after red-lasers hit the market. Since the wavelength of light is inversely proportional to the energy of the photons, making blue light (which has a low wavelength) takes a lot of energy. In fact, most of the original blue lasers wouldn't last very long because they basically burned themselves out. Also, as Hesty pointed out, the computation requirements for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are far greater than MPEG2. Slashdot is reporting that the first-generation of laptop Blu-Ray drives are all pretty good at demolishing your laptop battery. Currently you can expect to get about half-way through a movie before your laptop sputters and dies. I imagine this is something that will slowly improve with each iteration, but not a very promising first look at the winner of the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war.

O'Hai Bacon

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:54:42 +0000

I'm hopeless, really I am. I do stupid things all the time, most of which I end up thinking are pretty funny. A few years ago I went to work with my shirt on backwards and inside-out. Since I like laughing at myself, I never take these things too seriously. This morning, after taking a shower, I went into my room and sorted some clothes looking for something to wear. Underneath a couple clothes in the corner there was a plastic bag. And in that plastic bag was.... everyone's favorite packaged pig, Mr. Bacon. Yes, I'm so not shitting you, there was bacon.. in my room. I actually remember buying that bacon a week or so ago, but it went missing and I figured they just didn't bag it at Urban Fare (which happens about 50% of the time for me). The reality is that it somehow ended up in a bag in the corner of my room. Needless to say it went from my room directly into the garbage can. Sad thing is I really wanted bacon after finding it, and now I don't have any. The life of a software developer, full of bacon and failure.

Happy Birthday Muggy

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:58:39 +0000

Today is Dale Mugford's 28th birthday. Ahh, I remember when I was 28, so long ago. Dale's an amazing web designer (and all around great guy) who also has an awesome girlfriend and an adorable pug out in Hamilton. We were all hoping he'd migrate out this way last year, but he decided to invest in his first house over on that side of the planet instead. Happy Birthday Bud.

Americans Suck At Sex

Duane Storey — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:19:19 +0000

I just read the results of an interesting study done down south. Apparently americans spend approximately three hours per week grooming themselves and looking good, but less than an hour (per week people) on foreplay and intercourse. So it appears the collective mass would rather look good in bed than be good in bed. Photo from here Here's a couple of paragraphs from the write-up.

Americans spend nearly three hours every week grooming themselves, but less than one hour on foreplay and sexual intercourse. Itâ€™s no wonder that only 46% of us describe our love lives as exciting, or existent for that matter. On average, Americans spend 35 minutes on foreplay and sexual intercourse each session. And since we have sex once every 4.3 days, that averages out to about 57 minutes per week â€“ 14 minutes below the global average. Durex also revealed that Americans are having a lot less sex than just about everyone else in the world, and when we do, less than half are fully satisfied. Great job, U.S.

How does the US compare to other countries, namely Canada? Well, here it is:

American men average 13 partners, which is: - Ten less than Canadians (23) - Three less than the British (16) - One less than Mexicans (14) - Equal to the global average (13) American women average nine partners, which is: - One less than Canadians (10) - One less than the British (10) - Three more than Mexicans (6) - Two more than the global average (7)

Apparently us guys in Canada are machines. So for you gals south of the border feeling a little under-loved and under-cuddled, why don't grab your lingerie and make the long trek up to the great white north -- we'll look after you. **disclaimer: I am a Canadian guy that never has had, nor ever will have, sex with a pie. In fact, pretty much all pastry is out. I just don't roll that way.

I Code, Therefore I Am

Duane Storey — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:51:41 +0000

Tonight, while sitting at home on the couch, I was reminded of a conversation I had last week with someone that I hadn't talked to in quite some time. That person was someone I used to hang out with quite a bit in university, but haven't really seen that much of in the last few years. We both somehow ended up in software development, although I've stayed more along the lines of developing software while he has moved on to managing a small team of developers. The thing is, I left the conversation somehow being made to feel bad that after eight years in my career I haven't advanced to full-time management, something this person moved into a few years ago. When I asked him if he still coded, he basically scoffed, implying it was basically beneath him now. I've actually been in charge of people a few times in my career. Back in Ottawa, I essentially was responsible (at least in terms of training and safety) for an entire shift (think 40 people) of people assembling fiber optics components on a line. In Vancouver I've also led a small software team before. I have no problem running a small team, I just don't particularly enjoy doing it full time. To me, it's the software equivalent of directing traffic. Sure, you make sure order is maintained and people get to where they're going without crashing, but you're still stuck in the middle of the road wearing some lame orange jacket with a whistle rammed in your mouth. In fact, I don't think any software manager can truly be effective if they don't dabble in code from time to time, or make a reasonable attempt to keep up to date on what's going on in the industry. And to be honest, I like getting down and dirty and writing software. I enjoy coming up with difficult problems and trying to devise elegant solutions. I like that I keep myself sharp and can easily create in code basically anything that I can imagine in my head. In contrast, I just wouldn't be happy at this point in my life with my feet up on a desk staring at Microsoft Project all day. I think it's a mistake to assume that the end-game for all developers is a management role. Not all artists want their own gallery -- sometimes it's enough for them to just sit and paint. Over the years I've worked with a few managers that I've had a great deal of respect for, and a few that I'm glad I'll probably never see again. You see, my idea of an ideal manager is a person who can do almost everything I can, only better. I'm sure lots of people would read that and disagree, but some of the most productive (and enjoyable) teams I've ever been on have been when the people in charge were basically technological rock stars. These are people who instilled confidence in those around them, helped develop skills within the team, and could offer reasonable solutions to problems as they arose. They also knew enough to trust the people underneath them, even if that trust led to the odd mistake. That's part of learning, and part of life. But alas, those managers are few are far between these days. Most of the time at large companies you'll encounter the dreaded middle manager, a person who's sole role is to proxy information around the office, to turn short emails into long meetings, and to keep most people just motivated enough to not quit. The problem at these companies is that a) it's hard to get rid of people and b) you need good people doing work. Those two constraints basically mean that large companies are forced to promote incompetence, people who are content to be paid a lot of money to not do anything of value. And maybe that sounds appealing to some, but I could never accept a position where I didn't actually feel like I was contributing my worth. It would just somehow feel like I was being totally dishonest with myself. Which brings me back to that conversation I had. I have no problem with management, I just don't think it's for all people. Nor do I think anyone should judge their career solely by how high up that ladder they climbed.

Falling Hillary

Duane Storey — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:11:37 +0000

I saw this over on another site this morning and thought it was pretty funny. If she gets stuck you can move her with your mouse.

Happy Birthday Mom

Duane Storey — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:59:11 +0000

Yes, today is my mom's birthday. I lost count of how old she is years ago, but she'll always be 39 in our hearts. Have a great day today mom! And hurry up and call me back so I can wish you Happy Birthday myself!

Evolution Of Dance

Duane Storey — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:30:06 +0000

Courtesy of my new Apple TV. Will write more once I'm done digesting awesome.

Watched 76 million times.

Apple TV

Duane Storey — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:33:29 +0000

Last night I went over to John Biehler's house to sit around, drink diet pepsi max, and to watch a movie. We ended up renting Michael Clayton, which is a really good movie if you are looking for something to watch. John gave me a pretty exhaustive tour of the Apple TV (which they recently updated to version 2.0 of the firmware), and I have to say, had London Drugs still been open when I left his place, I would have rushed over to pick one up on my way home last night. No matter. After bouncing between Best Buy, Future Shop, and London Drugs today I am now the proud owner of an Apple TV. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's basically a mini computer that plugs into your TV and allows you to rent movies via iTunes, view Flickr photos, play YouTube videos, and even now supports high definition content. The one catch is that movie rentals are technically not supported in Canada yet. To get around this, you basically need a US iTunes account which you can pair to the Apple TV unit. Since I don't have a US credit card, I took the gift card approach -- I called my friend Jason in San Francisco and got him to purchase a gift card online via iTunes and send me the redemption code. From there I activated a brand new account and paired it to my Apple TV. The key is that the gift card has to be from the United States (either purchased physically from a store there, or purchased by someone who has a valid US iTunes account with associated US Credit Card). I've been messing with it pretty much non-stop since I got it, and it's a cool little product. It's definitely a pain in the ass having to use the US iTunes store to rent movies, but it works well enough for now, so I'm happy. Unfortunately, the movie selection is a bit weak right now, but rumor has it they are in the process of adding a whack of new movies. John and I rented a HD movie last night, and although it looked pretty good for the most part, there was definitely some bad compression artifacts (called solarization) in really low light scenes.

Solarization Example, Photo by John Biehler

So far I'm totally happy I got it. I'll write more about it in a few days when I have some more time to mess around with it. But, if you're looking for a cool new gadget for your house, then definitely check it out.

New Look And Feel

Duane Storey — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:43:16 +0000

I was talking to Dale tonight about a few things, one of which was how I've been itching to do a dark background theme for my site again. I've fielded many complaints from people over the years whenever I've gone that route, but I always seem to come back to them for some reason. So, while crawling into bed tonight, I decided to take a quick stab at changing my last theme around a bit. The end result is this. I really like the reduced size of the header since it lets you read more in one passing. I also am pretty happy with the reduced sidebar, since there's less clutter. I might take that a step further somehow. Feel free to drop a comment if you like. I still have another iteration or two on it before I'm happy, but it's basically usable right now.

More Theme Changes

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:14:42 +0000

Well, it was an interesting day in the blogosphere, one that I'm thankful is over. Tonight I was sitting at home debating drinking myself into a coma when Rebecca pinged me online and said I should come over for wine. I was pretty comfy in my flannel pants and briefly debated staying at home. But since I really needed a few drinks, I decided to head over as I was, flannel pants and all. So for the last few hours I've been sitting on Rebecca and John's couch in my flannel pants with a big-ass afghan draped over me. It was pretty much exactly what I needed tonight (although I'm looking forward to a nice long shower when I get back home). If you poke around the site a bit more, you'll see a few more changes I hacked out tonight. The recent comments are back, although I've scaled them down a bit so they look less repulsive. I changed the RSS feed around at the top (go ahead and click it, it's fun) to finally add a feed for my comments. I also completely re-themed the comments sections, and I think they look pretty slick now. Maybe a few more changes to go, but I'm fairly happy with it right now. This might be the first theme I eventually release when it's all done.

The Tour Begins

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:37:24 +0000

This Friday, Matthew Good will be hitting Seattle for the first show of his US tour. In just a little over two weeks, Matt will bounce across most of the continental United States, hitting such places San Francisco, Austin (for South by Southwest), Boston and New York City.

Matthew Good @ Massey Hall, photo by Phil

I had tickets to go see Matt play at the second show of his last Canadian tour, but ended up connected to a bunch of tubes at St. Paul's Hospital instead (thankfully I managed to make it out to Toronto for a show instead). So this time around, I'm planning on being there for the start of the tour. John Bollwitt and I are hoping to head down to Seattle Friday afternoon for a few beers, and then to see Matt off on the start of his whirlwind tour. Shortly after the US tour ends, Matt is heading back on the road for a huge Canadian tour, complete with a full backing band. Head over to Matthew Good's website for more information about upcoming tour dates.

Are You Geekier Than Me?

Duane Storey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:49:32 +0000

Mark just swung by my desk at work and we spun into a debate about who was the bigger nerd. This somehow led to a discussion about the first computers we ever owned. My first computer was probably when I was around six years old. It was a Radio Shack's Tandy TRS-80. Back in those days you'd go out and buy a magazine with BASIC code in it and have to manually type your own games into the thing. I remember my dad and I struggled for days just to get this stupid game going where dots would bounce around the screen.

The Tandy TRS-80, From Wikipedia

Next on the list was my Commodore 64 computer. I was far cooler than it at the time, so I got my own Fastload cartridge to speed it up a few notches. There was this local nerd in Chilliwack that worked for the phone company who could reprogram the EEPROM in them with your own custom logo. So of course, all of us in the wack had our own customized fast load cartridges. I spent that part of my life demolishing Ultima RPGs and lots of other wicked black and white games. At the end of that era both my dad and I had 300 bps modems where we we could call each other and do a rudimentary form of email. 300 bps folks. Contrast that to my current 10,000,000 bps connection at home. After that, my dad upgraded to an Intel based XT computer, which started me down the road I'm currently on. I spent quite a bit of time hacking on it, learning basic ANSI art, custom hacks etc. When I was 15 I picked up my first "real" computer, which was a 386 SX-16 MHz computer with one of the largest hard drives available at the time - the 20 MB "Monster". Once I installed DoubleSpace on it, I could rock out at 40 MB. Being the super cool kid I was at school, I decided to set up one of the first Bulletin Board Systems in Chilliwack, affectionately called "The Lost World BBS." After that, I became somewhat of a local celebrity amongst the various chess clubs in Chilliwack. That was around the time I first started dabbling in software development. My friend Jeff was already a fairly awesome C++ developer at the time, but all I had around was Turbo Pascal, so I started writing software with that. I wrote a shareware voting booth for Remote Access that lots of people ended up using (I even made some money form it). The roots of the internet were starting to take hold at that point in time, and inter-BBS communication using FidoNet was already occuring, at least nightly, for many BBSes. To help spur things along, I wrote a FidoNet Node Diff tool that would take the nightly diffs and merge them into local databases. Since I wrote mine in C++ (which was pretty hard core at the time), it ended up being faster than most of the other ones at the time. This eventually led me to create a full-fledged front-end mailer (called Crossroads, hence the name of my Flickr plugin) for BBSes that would handle Fidonet requests. When university rolled around, I took a several year break from hard-core software development. I still did the odd project, mostly as an excuse to skip classes. One of the big projects was a full-fledged CD burning program in Windows called "Singe" (never released, but man, could it make a coaster in record time!) My friend Jeff and I also did a collision re-construction program for use by an engineering firm in Surrey (it was pretty cool - you could input vehicle parameters, trajectories, etc, and recreate an entire automobile accident on the computer). The rest, as they say, is history. Drop me a nerdy story about yourself. Were you a bigger geek as a kid? ** as a side note, after writing this I had this crazy idea about merging the still active RemoteAccess code-base with asterisk to provide retro BBS experience. Maybe telnet based. Would be funky.

Yaletown Sunrise

Duane Storey — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:27:24 +0000

I actually took this shot about a year ago, but I felt like posting a photo today and stumbled across this one. I took it from my patio first thing one spring morning. It's a three shot HDR with a bit of post processing.

Enjoy.

Wordpress 2.5 Beta

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:36:39 +0000

Today I took the plunge and quickly upgraded my Wordpress installation from 2.3.3 to the Beta for 2.5. In terms of look and feel on the front-end, I doubt you'll notice any major changes (especially on sites where you don't have to login). However, they've completely overhauled the administration section in the back to make things a little easier to find. I'm not going to really review it, because in all fairness it's not quite done yet. However, the back end does seem a bit slower, maybe due to the new additions. Also, I have been completely unable to add media using the new interface. It either locks up or finishes uploading but refuses to add the link to the post data. I imagine this is one of the things they are still working on fixing.

Wordpress 2.5 Dashboard

I like the overall look and feel of the back-end compared to 2.3, but I'm not so sure that it's as functional. For example, with Wordpress 2.3 I could write a post without ever touching the scroll bar. In Wordpress 2.5, most of the post options have been moved further down on the page. What that means is if I want to add tags or categories (which I always do), then I have to scroll the page down and add them at the bottom, which moves my post text out of the way. I'd really like to see these items on the sidebar, or somewhere I can edit them while still looking at what I wrote.

The post add/edit page for Wordpress 2.5

As you can see in the photo, all you can do within the post page is write the entry, give it a title, and publish it. Every other feature associated with the post has been moved underneath it. Not sure this is the best approach in terms of usability. Also note that the main sidebar essentially has the post status (which rarely changes in typical usage) and a navigation panel (which seems redundant since the top menu system allows you to navigate as well). That's some prime real-estate, and I think it would be better served by having the tags or categories back up there. Another addition under the hood is Wordpress now supports gravatars within the code. Prior to version 2.5, you needed to install a gravatar plugin. Now you can simply make a PHP function call to get the associated gravatar for a user. You can read more about the gravatar changes in 2.5 here. While I'm on the topic, one thing that's always bothered me about using gravatars is what happens when a user does not have one. Typically the gravatar service returns a static image of a generic person. While you can override this and supply your own image, you basically are forced to show that image in your theme. I'd really like to see something along the lines of a has_gravatar() function where you could fork your code to show something specific for people with images. I recognize that would result in a server call per user (you could obviously optimize this by asking for a completely list of users in one call), but that would be something I'd be happy to live with to get the desired theme I'd want. I'll save the rest for when the official Wordpress 2.5 product is released (rumours are sometime around March 10th). There are some more screen shots over on my Flickr page if anyone is interested.

Seattle Bound

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:40:19 +0000

Well, it's official -- John Bollwitt and I are heading south of the border Friday evening. We were just waiting to hear from John's work about ducking out a bit early on Friday, and he got the ok. John's booking tickets for the show, and I just grabbed a hotel near the space needle.

Photo By Chethan Shankar on Flickr

I haven't been to Seattle in over a year, so it should be fun heading down for the evening. The concert is at the Tractor Tavern, which is about a 10-15 minute cab ride away from downtown. John's wife Rebecca is hanging out with Keira that night, so John and I are going to take it easy, hit a pub or two, and catch a great show. One of the things about living downtown is that it's fairly noisy, even late at night. I thought it was rather ironic that one of the best sleeps I had last year (and the fact that I remember when I have good sleeps should be an indication of how rare they are) was down in Las Vegas, probably due to some major sound isolation in the hotel. I'm hoping the Seattle one is rather quiet as well, so I can sleep in and then maybe catch a nice salmon breakfast plate down by the Pike Street Market or something. John has a hockey game to go to with Rebecca on Saturday night, and I have a birthday party to attend, so we'll have to head back in the early afternoon. I'll be putting in a few extra hours at work tomorrow so we can head out early on Friday. Should be fun.

Title Tags And Wordpress

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:57:22 +0000

I've spent a great deal of time in the last few months trying to understand how search engines work, and how sites get indexed. In my last article, I recommending that the XML Sitemap generator for Wordpress should be installed on sites to help with search engine crawling. On this site, Google has gone from around 400 indexed articles (about 20%) up to around 1600 articles (about 80%) for my website -- a substantial increase, entirely due to the sitemap. I want to write briefly about Wordpress title tags in the context of search engine optimization. Most default Wordpress blogs are configured to output the blog name first, followed by the article title (for example, reading an entry called "Things to do in Vancouver" on the blog MyBlog would have a title that looked like "MyBlog - Things To Do In Vancouver." There are several problems with that approach. First, every entry that makes it into Google is going to end up with "MyBlog" as the first part of all descriptions. If that's you, go to Google and type "site:myblog.com" substituting your blog name. Notice how all the descriptions look almost exactly the same? Plus, if you have a large title, Google is going to truncate the useful part of descripition, leaving rather useless search results for your website. A far better approach is to reorder the title tags around so that the blog description comes first. If you're up for editing your theme, you can try changing your title block to the following:

This not only improves the appearance of your titles in Google and other search engines, but usually improves your search ranking as well (since Google weights the beginning of the title higher than the end). Another problem with Wordpress is that your post title is the part that usually ends up in the title of the post. That's fine and dandy if you always make clear, descriptive titles for all your posts. But not only is that often hard, it doesn't lead to very artistic or snappy titles. Thankfully there's the SEO Title Tag Plugin that you can download that will change the behaviour. Once it's installed you'll get an extra option in your WP-Admin panel where you can specify the actual html title element you want used for the post, decoupling it completely from the title the user sees in the blog entry. You'll have to make a small change in your theme header to get that title to appear in the title tag, but it's not very difficult.

Don't Be A Soccer Ball, Go Get A Gravatar

Duane Storey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:34:26 +0000

I've had gravatars on this site a few times over the last few years, but they always seem to disappear whenever I do a retheming. I've added them back in the comments and also added the last comment to the main page along with a gravatar. If you don't have a photo next to your name when you comment, that means you don't have a public gravatar available. If you want one, head over to Gravatar.com and sign up. It's free, and as soon as you add your photo to it you will start noticing it automatically show up on various sites around the internet. If you don't define one you're going to end up as that stupid soccer ball from Windows on this site. And who wants to be the stupid Windows ball? Feel free to drop a comment to test out if your Gravatar is working. If you've recently added one, it may not show up for a few minutes due to caching, but be patient and eventually it should.

Everybody Needs Their Own GUID

Duane Storey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:52:27 +0000

That's the phrase of the day people. I was debating a hard problem at work with a few people and after banging our heads on the table for 30 minutes, Cisco interjected "everyone really should have their own GUID." Yes that would be a rather perfect solution, albeit fairly nerdy. Some day.

Come On Steve, Show Canada Some Love

Duane Storey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:20:15 +0000

Yesterday Apple released their long-waited for SDK for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. What this means is that if you're interested in developing applications for the iPhone, you can simply download the SDK and get cracking. That is, unless you live in Canada. That's right, Steve Jobs has limited real development to people with valid US addresses. And even then, it's an application process that costs a minimum of $99 to be a part of. I realize Canada is a really small demographic compared to the United States, but we're not *that* small, and there really are some bright people up here. I had a friend download the SDK last night, and sure enough, until you get approved you can't digitally sign any of your applications, which ultimately means you can't install them on any real devices. I'm reminded of my Apple TV sitting in the other room which does not have the ability to view rented movies in Canada yet. It's fairly clear that Canada is just an afterthought to all the decisions that go on down south.

A Bunch Of Worthless Canadians With Some Apple Products

Why do you do this to us Steve? Why is our love sauce not as sweet? You guys admitted a few weeks ago that Canadians are better lovers, so why do you keep hurting us when you know we only want to be with you? I'm sure there will be ways to circumvent that if you're in Canada and you *really* want to release an application. But part of the appeal is that Apple is going to do a revenue share of these applications using iTunes. So if you make an application, Apple will mass sell it for you and you'll get a fraction (I think around 70%) of the profit. Apple also mentioned a $100 million dollar fund for cool iPhone ideas and/or applications. Only catch is you have to be an American. Come on Steve. Time to show Canada some love.

My Moo Has Arrived

Duane Storey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:58:45 +0000

Yes, they are here -- my Moo cards finally arrived in the mail today. I officially ordered them exactly one month ago, so it took a full four weeks to get here. Looking at the packaging, it looks like they went from London, UK to Germany, and then finally over here to Canada. Considering that they state they all shipping is done with First Class airmail, I'm pretty surprised that it not only takes this long to get here, but also that there isn't some sort of tracking number. In fact, there are no markings on the packaging at all to indicate when it finally did ship from London, which seems a bit odd to me. Clearly the shipping route from Moo in London to Vancouver involves a few carrier pigeons, a donkey, and some guy attempting to swim across the atlantic. I haven't opened them up yet, because really, I wanted them for Northern Voice which was several weeks ago. Unless I look about 30 pounds lighter in my cards (assuming I have a photo of me on one), I'm not sure I'd order from those guys again. Rebecca had some interesting things to say about her cards as well. ** inside the package is a voucher to receive 10% off my next order. only catch is it expired a week ago

Tired, But Heading South

Duane Storey — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:12:44 +0000

I'm leaving in just a little while to make the trek south of the border. Tonight is Matthew Good's show down at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, and John and I decided we'd go and listen to Matt, all while enjoying a few drinks away from home. Unfortunately, I haven't slept well all week, and last night didn't manage to close my eyes until almost 6am. When my alarm woke me up at around 9am, I was exhausted. So right now, I'm completely running on caffeinated fumes. I'll be fine for the drive, but I'm worried about making it a late night, not unless I manage to sleep for an hour or so when I get there. We'll see though. I brought two cameras with me, so if they refuse to let "the big dog" into the venue, I should still have a backup. Will hopefully post a few photos from the start of the tour later, most likely over at matthewgood.org.

Seattle

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 02:52:34 +0000

John and I made it. I was pounding back caffeine most of the way which meant I had to pee a lot, but we're at the Holiday Inn now (yes, very classy I know), having a liquid dinner in the hotel. We'll be heading down to the Tractor Tavern in about 90 minutes to catch the show. I'm charging the camera now, so hopefully I'll grab a few shots. Also, just checked the official website. The only musician to have a sell-out at the Tractor Travern this month:

First Show, Starting Shortly - Updated

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:59:47 +0000

I ducked out early from work this afternoon to make the 3 hour drive south of the border to Seattle. I had an absolutely terrible sleep last night, and have spent most of today trying to motivate my body to action with nothing more than caffeine and more recently a few beers. I imagine the end result is fairly similar to attempting to drive a tractor using some weird manure-based diesel. John Bollwitt and I recently checked into one of the world's most luxurious Holiday Inn Expresses I've even seen, and are getting ready to cab down to the show. I just went over to the official website of the Tractor Travern to see what time the show started, and found this: So, it looks like it's going to be a jam packed show, which is great since it's the very first one. I was lucky enough to catch Matt play in Toronto and Kelowna on the Canadian tour, which was really awesome. But to be honest, I'm just as excited, if not more excited, to catch a show in a small venue again. The very first show of Matt's I ever saw was back in 1997 down at a small nightclub in Vancouver called Richards on Richards. I'm not really sure what type of venue the Tractor Tavern is, but it's pretty much guaranteed to be a great show. Both John and I brought along our cameras, so hopefully one of us will be able to grab a few shots of tonight's show that I can post here after. So until then, drink 'em if you've got 'em, and enjoy your Friday night. ** Updated - The concert is over. As expected, it was totally awesome, especially given the size of the venue. Unfortunately for me, I was sandwiched between the drunkest guy in the place and a group of guys who thought it was cool to yell out "Hello Time Bomb!" after every song. That being said, the majority of the crowd was totally into the concert, and I thought it sounded really great. As promised, here are a few shots from the show. First, the lovely Miss Courtney Jones (who I thought was not only super cute, but also had an amazing voice). And the man of the hour, who put on an amazing show: After the show I spent some time talking to some fans, some of which even flew all the way up from Texas to see him. Great turn-out -- you guys on the rest of the tour are in for a treat.

Show's Over

Duane Storey — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:43:46 +0000

I'm not going to write too much about the concert tonight since I wrote an entry over on matthewgood.org about it. But it was a lot of fun, and it was great to see Matt off on the first show of his tour. Not only was the concert really fantastic (thanks to the long set Matt put in, as well as Courtney Jones, who put on a great opening set). The crowd was really receptive, and I think Matt's got a great two weeks ahead of him. Here are a few shots from the show:

I have a few movies to from the show, but the internet connection in the hotel sucks complete ass so I'll have to wait a bit. Here's also a video of Matt that John Bollwitt shot (I'll sort these out and cross post them in the morning -- just too tired right now). If anyone wants to see any more photos, head on over to my Flickr set.

How I Hate And Love Apple TV

Duane Storey — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 08:40:27 +0000

Yes it's true. Apple TV is both a blessing and a curse. Tonight, as I sprawled out the couch at home, I chipped away about $10 off my iTunes account, watching movies, South Park, and recently just purchased the first episode of Lost from season one. It's really great having some form of entertainment in my place again (other than a computer that is). Tonight I shut the computer down, dialed my brain down a few notches, and just vegged in front of the TV, something I rarely do. It was liking letting out a huge breath, and feeling the weight disappear for a while. While down in the states I picked up two Apple iTunes Gift cards, one for my friend Dale out in Ontario, and another one to keep me rolling for a few more weeks. It's a pain in the ass having to top up my account with US gift cards, but at least I can rent movies. It's sort of unfortunate that you only have 24 hours to watch a movie. I would rather be able to use it for a few days, so you can watch a really good movie more than once and let it sink in. I also think Apple should adopt a "rent-to-own" type program, where they keep track of how many times you've rented a movie, and when it reaches a certain point, you get your own copy to watch whenever. That would make me happy. The only major downside to Apple TV is that somehow a photo of my ex-girlfriend made it into the screen saver rotation, and due to my laziness, manages to haunt me in high-definition every 5 minutes or so. One day I'll fix that. I've also started thinking about a vacation sometime in the next few months. I had an offer to head down to Venezuela for a talk, but given the political situation down there and the requirement that I write a big research paper (something I really don't have time for right now), I don't think I'll be going this time around. I'm planning on hitting Los Angeles sometime in June, so maybe I'll take a full week off and disappear somewhere in the states around that time. To be honest, I'm fairly sick of traveling alone. It's nice to get a break and see something new, but somehow being far from home while alone just serves as a constant reminder of being single, and it's not something I particularly enjoy these days. But we'll see what happens. I think by June I'll definitely need a break, and might even need a few long weekends before then -- I'm starting to feel a bit burned out.

Vacation Ideas

Duane Storey — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:29:10 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, my mind is starting to drift towards a vacation sometime in the next two or three months. I'm thinking about overlapping it with a trip I'm making in June to Disneyland (to hang out with some of my family who will be there). Here are a few ideas:

Vancouver -> Los Angeles -> Costa Rica: I loved Costa Rica when I was there, and it might be cool to head back and rent a little place on the beach for a week. The flights for the entire trip are about $1000 right now. Not bad for five flight segments.
Vancouver -> Los Angeles -> Cancun: I've actually never been to Mexico, despite paying $2000 for a trip I was never able to go on. If I ended up in Cancun I would be more interested in visiting Mayan ruinds than I would be partying. But I love the Caribbean, and I've been told Cancun is pretty awesome. Visiting Cancun in June might be a bit weird though. Total flights: $890.
Vancouver -> Los Angeles -> New York City: I visited New York City a few years ago, and really fell in love with the city. I spent most of my time there doing touristy things, so if I were to go back I would spend more time in the areas I haven't been. Plus, when I was there last it was late July and it was hotter than hell. Cost for the entire trip is about $800 for this one
Los Angeles -> Auckland, NZ: I've always wanted to go to New Zealand. Flights from Los Angeles to NZ are around $1100 right now.
Vancouver -> Los Angeles -> Maui, HI: Hawaii is also somewhere I've wanted to hit for quite sometime. It might be the most obvious choice from LA, since it's not that long a flight from there. Entire trip is around $1000.

Where would you go for a week in June if you had a choice?

The Sun Is Rising

Duane Storey — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:30:53 +0000

As most of you are now aware, last night we moved our clocks ahead an hour due to daylight savings time. At 7pm tonight, as I pumped endless money into my Apple TV, I looked out the window and saw the sun still setting, a nice change from the dark evening skies of winter. This year I'm going to do something different with regards to the summer -- I'm going to keep all my weekends open for me. For the last three years, I have basically not really had any time in the summers to do the things I wanted. The summer of 2005 I spent in a small office in Burnaby with a bunch of other guys, literally working 6 or 7 days a week. The last two summers I spent attending weddings, helping friends move, going to events, and doing little side projects. But this summer, I'm going to say no a bit more and spend more time doing the things I want to do. One long weekend I plan to get in my car, put my finger on a map, and just drive. I was watching the show "Lost" tonight, and despite the grim circumstances of their situation, couldn't help but think how cool it would be to be trapped on a tropical island for a while. To truth is, it's pretty hard to see much of the world with only a few weeks of vacation each year, and it's something I've been thinking about lately (as you can tell by my last blog entry). To be honest, I'm envious of the few people I know who can work remotely 100% of the time. It must be somewhat liberating to know that you can do your job with nothing more than a laptop, an internet connection, and maybe Skype or a cell. It really wouldn't matter where you were, as long as you woke up and could go online. Imagine rolling out of bed in the Carribean at 10am, sipping some freshly ground local coffee from a sea-side hammock, and firing up the computer to do a few hours of work before your short afternoon siesta. There's a feeling lately that I've been dreaming about. It's that feeling you get when you leave a really bad relationship, or walk away from a job you really don't like. The feeling you get when you're speeding down the highway at 110 km/h with the windows open and the top down. You feel a huge weight lift and realize that for the first moment in a long time, feel like you are alive again. And in that sudden, brief moment of clarity, you come to realize that for the period before, you truly weren't really living. Some time real soon, probably before my birthday in a few weeks, I'm going to write a blog post on what some of the best lessons I've learned in my lifetime are. Most of them are pretty simple, and in retrospect should have been painfully obvious, but there are a few fundamentals that I think drive a lot of the decisions I make in my life now. But for now, I'm going to start planning things I want to do this summer, and then putting the time aside to do them. Also, does anyone own any of Lost on DVD, or have torrents on their computer? I blew $20 watching the majority of season one on my TV this weekend, but would prefer it if someone could lend me the next few to save some $$$. Thanks!

Apple iPhone SDK - Should You Be Afraid?

Duane Storey — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:47:43 +0000

Going through Google reader tonight, I've encountered a lot of shared articles about the Apple iPhone SDK. And for the most part, every one of the articles praises the SDK and Apple's approach with it.

Photo by John Biehler

But in pure Office Space style, I'm going to have to go ahead and, you know, sort of disagree with you all. In particular, I'm going to outline a few points from one specific article and give my take as a cross platform application developer who actually *has* developed software from scratch on the Mac using both Carbon and Cocoa. First point:

Overall, it is deeply impressive how many things Apple got right. We still need to see more details on terms and conditions, and a lot will depend on Apple's execution, but here are the problems they appear to have solved: --Mobile applications are hard for users to find and install, so Apple is building the applications store into every device. Apps are installed automatically when you buy them, and you can also be notified of upgrades when they're available.

Well, my iPod Touch is currently unlocked, and there's a whole open-source mechanism in place to view, download, install and upgrade applications, all for free. So why do I need a store that charges money to take care of that for me?

--Third party applications stores take far too much of a developer's revenue -- 60% or more. So the Apple store takes 30%. That's a bit high (20% would be better), but everyone else has been so greedy that Apple looks like a charity.

Honestly, if you can write a software application from scratch, you can sure as hell write a PHP script to send someone a download link when they purchase your application via PayPal for 10%. I realize Apple iTunes may make finding the applications a little easier (and I'll only buy this argument for *commercial* applications, since as I pointed out above, there's a whole system in place already for distributing free apps on the iPhone and iPod touch), but seriously, not every developer has been forced to be gouged by online stores.

-Getting applications certified for use on mobiles is expensive and time-consuming, so Apple has streamlined the process dramatically. Developers pay $99 a year, and apparently get automatic certification of all their apps. We need to learn more about how the app approval process will work, but if it's not burdensome this service alone justifies Apple's 30% cut of revenue. Apple takes responsibility for ensuring that iPhones remain secure and do not abuse the network, something that no one else has been willing to do.

Automatic certification is not equivalent to the type of certification you typically pay for when you do something like a Microsoft certification. Having experienced some of those, they take lots of time, and are extremely exhaustive when it comes to security, memory leaks, program function, etc. I'm not going to make a definitive statement here, but I seriously doubt Apple is going to exhaustively test every application for $99 a year. My understanding is that cost basically only gives you the ability to digitally sign your application and have it hosted on the iTunes store. In terms of the last point, due to the nature of the iPhone and the restrictions on the API (and the glaring terms of service which say that as a developer you can't use any undocumented feature), I actually think it would be fairly difficult to do anything that abuses the device or the network (especially since parts os using Edge are already off limits). Another thread on various blogs is how the Apple iPhone SDK will potentially limit enterprise apps. Since you basically have to digitally sign your applications and have to use iTunes to distribute it, there's a huge hole for the applications that are enterprise related but contain features not meant to be public, such as access to proprietary or private APIs and/or services. Do you have to use iTunes for those applications, or can you distribute them privately? If it's the later, do you really need to digitally sign those applications? Some big questions here. There's a point I want to bring up that most people seem to be over looking. In a world where open source has become (or is in the process of becoming) one of the most dominant software distribution models (MySQL, Drupal, Wordpress, Android, etc), the reliance of the iTunes store and the requirement to digitally sign your applications (using a certificate provided by iTunes for a price) effectively translates into the software equivalent of DRM, and ultimately may lead to the same type of restrictions on software that Apple now enjoys thanks to Fairplay on music. And while most people only have one iPhone or one iPod touch today, it doesn't take much imagination to envision changes to Apple TV or other Apple products which may ultimately require you to purchase a separate version of each application for every device you want to use it on. In software, it is generally considered a privacy violation to have your application "call home" periodically and report its status (in fact, many software projects have gone under for being flagged as Spyware for doing that very action without properly informing the user). Some applications bury information about this behavior in the fine print of the privacy policy (that thing everyone says yes to when they install stuff) or the terms of service, while others disguise it as a "check for updates" option, both of which give the developer of the application the means to see which users are using their software and also information (even in terms of their location based on IP address) about their users. In term of the latter, most applications allow you to disable checking for updates for privacy reasons. Now that the software distribution and upgrade process will be integral to iTunes, and iTunes is already required to synchronize these devices, there's the potential to have the system automatically expose information on an application level that most users would typically have the ability to disable with normal standalone applications. That's not to say I don't realize there are pluses to having an application with mass appeal on iTunes so that everyone can download it and purchase it virally, but I'm starting to get a little worried about the closed world Apple is carving for itself. At what point do they become a huge monopoly like Microsoft was in the 90s, where the only consumer friendly option is to attempt to break them apart? More evidence that Apple is trying to lock development down and keep others from playing in its sandbox can be found in this information week article:

Turns out, though, that developers are limited in what iPhone functions that can tap for the apps they're building, according to Adam Houghton's post on his eponymous blog. Houghton characterizes as a "glaring" omission his discovery that developers can't access calendar appointments, music and videos from the phone's iPod app, nor phone and SMS functionality. While the phone-function and SMS lockdowns are, as Houghton notes, likely due to security, one can't help but think that the other restrictions are because Apple wants to keep all the really good stuff to itself.

I couldn't agree more. In terms of the actual SDK itself, I've taken a look at it, and except for the Locations API, doesn't really provide a whole lot extra from the normal Apple desktop frameworks provide (and in fact, has some stuff removed). So while I think every serious Apple developer needs to take a look at the iPhone SDK, I think Apple is bringing people further inside their closed little world with the iPhone SDK. As a developer and a consumer of Apple products, I am starting to get a bit worried.

Drugs Found In Drinking Water

Duane Storey — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:47:27 +0000

I read this fairly alarming (although not entirely surprising) article yesterday detailing how prescription drugs are being detected in municipal water sources.

A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows. .. â€¢ Officials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds. Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California. Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water. A sex hormone was detected in the drinking water of San Francisco, California. The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

In terms of what that means for health, there are potentially far reaching implications of prolonged exposure to prescription drugs, even at trace levels:

But at a conference last summer, Mary Buzby -- director of environmental technology for drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. -- said: "There's no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they're at, could be causing impacts to human health or to aquatic organisms." Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation. Also, pharmaceuticals in waterways are damaging wildlife across the nation and around the globe, research shows. Notably, male fish are being feminized, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females. Pharmaceuticals also are affecting sentinel species at the foundation of the pyramid of life -- such as earthworms in the wild and zooplankton in the laboratory, studies show.

Effects from changes in diet and hormones in nature has already induced many health related changes. For example, 150 years ago the average age of puberty in females was around 17 years of age. Nowadays, it's not uncommon for girls around the age of 12 to enter into puberty. And while the reasons are still debated, there is evidence that exposure to female hormones in the environment (as well as hormonal changes due to insulin resistance) is partially responsible. I wonder at what point the risks and adverse results from the ever increasing use of prescription drugs will outweigh the potential benefits. As the population of this planet continues to increase, more and more cases of us upsetting the balance are going to emerge. I read a while ago that at our current growth rate, humans will be standing shoulder to shoulder on every piece of habitable land sometime before the year 2500. Writing that, I was somehow reminded of this fictional movie scene:

Obviously we'd be all dead long before that, having either decimated our environment or pillaged all sources of food. But clearly the survival of the human race depends largely on whether or not we can find some sort of balance with the environment, and ultimately this planet.

I Hate To Say I Told You So

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 06:19:22 +0000

The other day I commented on the Apple iPhone SDK and received a couple of emails saying I was full of shit. However, CNET just released a new article basically outlining some of the same concerns I had. In particular they are noting some serious anti-trust concerns as well as some anti-competitive behavior. You can read about it here. A couple of interesting sections:

In a Q and A session with reporters, CEO Steve Jobs was asked if voice applications such as Skype will be permitted. Jobs replied by saying that VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) will be allowed when the iPhone is using a WiFi connection, but forbidden over AT&T's cellular data network. How this will be enforced remains unclear. At the very least, Apple can blacklist from iTunes any application that doesn't play nice over AT&T's network.

Using digital signing to block applications from competing. Yup, it's obviously going to happen. Here's some more great stuff:

In addition to the anti-VoIP rules, Apple seems to have also set its sights on the Firefox Web browser. Deep in the legal agreement for developers, Apple states: "No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and builtin interpreter(s)...An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise." As a member of the Firefox development team has already noted, this is a big deal. Both the Firefox and Opera Web browsers, which compete with Apple's pre-installed Safari browser, are forbidden as they support hundreds of user-created add-ons. Furthermore, the Web browsers support Javascript, which is a key component of most Web 2.0 content. Javascript is an interpreted programming language, and thus forbidden as per Apple's terms of service. Also banned from the iPhone: programming languages Ruby, Python, Perl, and Java. Quake, the video game engine ported to practically every platform (including Google's Android), as well as Microsoft's Word, Excel, and .NET are also persona non grata.

And since I've had a few too many to drink, I'll just plagiarize the rest of the article here:

Sun announced last week that it is readying a version of Java for the iPhone. Once the restrictive iPhone license was pointed out, Eric Klein, the vice president of Java marketing at Sun, backpedaled somewhat on his own personal blog, writing that "I'll leave those (legal) questions to another forum, but we really do want to deliver a JVM if at all possible." This alone should make for an interesting fight, as Sun is no stranger to filing antitrust complaints. Net neutrality complaints Apple's blocking of Skype and other voice applications raises the same Net neutrality issues as Comcast's blocking of BitTorrent. Critics have argued that Comcast does this because the P2P video apps compete with the cable giant's own video programming. Apple is now engaging in a similar practice, blocking any VoIP application that competes with the voice services offered by AT&T--the company with which Apple signed an exclusive five-year contract. The company will be unable to borrow Comcast's line, and claim that the restriction is "reasonable network management." After all, watching a couple YouTube videos eats up far more data than a VoIP call. This is not the first time that a company has attempted to block VoIP traffic to protect its own business model. Madison River Communications, a North Carolina ISP was fined and forced to change its behavior by the FCC when it started blocking VoIP providers like Vonage in 2005.

Also, some specific examples of antitrust type behaviour:

Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer back in the late '90s led to major antitrust lawsuits brought by Department of Justice and 20 different states. While consumers were free to install Netscape and other competing browsers, it was the preferential treatment of its own browser that lead to legal problems for Microsoft. Apple is now engaged in an even more egregious practice. It bundles the Safari browser with its iPhone, it makes it impossible for consumers to remove the browser, and the company now forbids competing companies from making their browsers available to the millions of iPhone users. Firefox has over 40 percent market share in some European countries, but it forbidden from making a version for the iPhone platform. If Apple doesn't rapidly backtrack on its anti-Firefox and VoIP rules, I predict that it will soon be looking at investigations from multiple government agencies, both here in the U.S. and EU. The FCC and Congress will most likely look into the Net neutrality complaints, while the European antitrust regulators will probably take a keen interest in the Firefox issues. This would, of course, not be the first time that the Europeans have investigated Apple's iTunes store for dirty tricks

Ok I'm done now.

Web 2.0

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:43:25 +0000

It's fairly strange that nowadays, no matter the event, you can basically find some photos or video from it shortly afterwards. That being said, it's sort of cool watching Matt's tour remotely via Youtube and Flickr. Here's a shot of Matt playing in San Francisco the other night. Next stop on the tour is San Diego tomorrow, and then South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. Matt's currently working his way east across the US: you can see where he'll be next by checking out his shows page.

The 2008 Canadian Juno Awards

Duane Storey — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:15:47 +0000

When the Juno awards were announced a few months ago, I put my name on the list for media accreditation. I didn't hear anything for a while, so I sort of assumed it wasn't going through. Today I got an email saying I had a media pass, which means I have full access to photograph the Canadian Juno Awards. I'll be photographing and writing on behalf of Urban Vancouver, so look on my blog and over there from time to time for photos and a few entries. I still have to sort everything out and see if I can get a hotel room and what not, but it's fairly likely I'll be heading to Calgary for the first weekend in April (4th-6th) for the Junos.

Best Nachos In Vancouver

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:56:03 +0000

My birthday is fast approaching, and the only real event I'm looking forward to is having a plate of nachos somewhere in the city with a friend or two. So, my question to all of you is: where are the best nachos in this city? My favourites so far are probably the ones down at Smiley O'Neils on Pender, but I'm open to suggestions. Drop a comment if you've had nachos somewhere in the city and let everyone know how they were (if they sucked, say so). I had nachos last night down at the Atlantic Trap and Gill, and the beef on them was actually a cut-up hamburger patty -- not cool people. Not cool.

All Booked Up

Duane Storey — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:31:39 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I placed a few calls and booked myself into the Calgary hotel where all the media are staying for the Junos. It's right downtown and should be close to all the major events. I actually have a few friends from high school out that way, so I'm looking forward to seeing some of them again on their own turf. I went to Flickr late last night and did a search for Juno photographs. Surprisingly, I couldn't really find any. I spent some time thinking about what that means and either a) bloggers and new-media type people typically don't end up at the Junos or b) most photos end up entirely in the hands of corporate publications. Either way, I think I have an interesting opportunity to present a pretty awesome overview of what it's like to be at the Junos for three days, sort of a photojournalistic approach to being inside. I plan on writing as much as I can over on Urban Vancouver, as well as my own site. I've actually been thinking hard about how to restructure my website when the event comes to make finding and reading about the Junos straightforward (as well as help people find my website when the event is taking place). I've gone over a few different ways in my head, and I'm fairly convinced that I'll have to make changes to my theme to pull it off, at least if I want Google to take notice.

Giddy Up - Me with a cowboy hat +1

I'll be flying out of Vancouver on the afternoon of Friday the 4th, which puts me in Calgary early enough to pick up my media pass, and check out the opening night gala. Saturday is pretty much filled with music, autographing and drinking events, so I'll think I'll have no shortage of things to photograph. I'm definitely getting a cowboy hat, and when not formally dressed, will be walking around taking photos with it on. Very exciting. Sunday is the actually award ceremony, and I'm not entirely sure what my access will be like to that -- the red carpet event is pretty elite, and most photographers don't have access to it. So we'll see. Monday is April 7th, which is of course my birthday, and I'll be flying home early in the morning, landing in Vancouver just in time for some nachos.

The Case Of The Disappearing Bandwidth

Duane Storey — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:16:59 +0000

This morning I went to use my internet and was redirected to a page that indicated I had exceeded my bandwidth for the month. Granted, with my recent purchase of Apple TV, I have been using more bandwidth. But as far as I'm concerned it's not anything crazy (the odd TV show), and it's strange to me that I hit my limit. I upgraded to the next plan up which is a small SoHo package for now. The part that concerns me is that my upstream bandwidth was larger than my downstream, which makes no sense at all based on the things I do with my computer. My NAT is locked down, so it's basically impossible for someone to be stealing my bandwidth from me, and I rarely torrent. So for now, I really have no idea what's going on. I'm going to keep a watch on it from my admin panel for Novus and see what happens. Do all you guys on Telus and Shaw have pretty hardcore limits these days?

Automatic Ball Thrower For Dogs

Duane Storey — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:52:24 +0000

So, I give this guy a few brownie points for making some cool robotic arm thing.

I think he has a little too much time on his hands though. Although the dog sure seems to be having fun.

Knock Out

Duane Storey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:57:48 +0000

I haven't been sleeping well at all this week, and on Monday night only got about three hours of sleep. So last night I picked up some Sleep-Aid from the pharmacy on my way home from work. I was originally going to force myself to stay up until 11pm before hitting the sack, but actually passed out on the couch at around 7:30pm and woke up around 10:30pm. I did a bit of work on the computer until 11:30pm, then popped a Sleep Aid for the win. I woke up at around 6:30am this morning feeling rather good actually. It's nice to have a full sleep for a change. This weekend is easter (I think), and I'm heading home to spend some time with the family. My nephew's birthday is on Saturday, so I'm going to stroll by and hang out with him for a while. Sounds like most people at work are taking Monday off and making it a four day weekend, so I'll probably fill out the paperwork today and do the same.

Stick It To The Little Guys

Duane Storey — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:18:53 +0000

I love stories like this. Starbucks has just been ordered to pay $100 million worth of cash that was taken out of their employees' tip jars and given to managers and shift supervisors. It always boggles my mind how establishments like that routinely try and screw their employees, many of which are making minimum wage. My teen years were pretty much filled with an endless string of shitty jobs. First, there was Bonanza, an interesting establishment that tried to cross fast-food with grilled steak, the result of which probably kept the local hospital busy with food poisoning cases. Like Starbucks, we were all instructed to take whatever tips we had and put them in a big glass jar, conveniently located in the manager's office. Once a year, in December, management would count the money in that jar and give it to us employees. That is, whatever was left after paying for the company Christmas party. Truth is, I don't think any of us ever saw a dime from that jar, but I remember several employees lost their jobs for not putting their tips in it. Runner up on the shitty job list was K-Mart, home of the garbage. There are two malls back in my home town, one of which is "cool", and the other which invokes massive suicidal tendencies the moment you enter. K-Mart, of course, was located in the latter. Looking back, it's really hard to decide which part of that job I hated the most actually. Was it the eight hour shifts where I got to walk around in a big loop pulling all the stuff on the shelves to the front? Could be. Or was it that week I spent folding those beige granny panties in the bulk bins? No, without a doubt it was that time I was ordered to spend 12 consecutive hours locked inside the Marty The Mascot costume, all the while trying to fend off little kids who wanted nothing more than to beat the living snot out of me. Ahh yes, those were the days. I almost forgot about my time at McDonald's -- there were definitely some winners there. First there was "Rosie Palms" Steve, that quicky character who lost his job after being caught masturbating in the back freezer. Then there was this Dave guy who, upon being asked to clean up after the guy in the bathroom who let loose on the floor, threw a pizza at the shift manager and said "why don't you clean that up?" But, despite the craziness of working there, one thing they had going for them was that they always looked after their employees, either by making sure they had enough time off for school work, or giving them a big discount off food during their breaks. So they weren't all bad. I'm sure it isn't just Starbucks employees though -- the little guys are undoubtedly getting screwed everywhere. Just this morning a cabbie was telling me how the city of Vancouver is routinely going on TV saying how Vancouver cabbies aren't doing their jobs, even though whenever they try to pick people up in the downtown core, there's a city guy waiting nearby to give them a $40 ticket for being illegally parked. On an $7 fare, he said, a guy just can't win these days.

A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Duane Storey — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:34:58 +0000

Stuff like this amazes me. Scientists just witnessed the largest explosion they've seen in space. It's from a star 7.5 billion light years away. What that means is that the actual star has been dead for 7.5 billion years, but we're just seeing the light from the explosion now. Poor star.

Photoshop Disasters

Duane Storey — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:35:59 +0000

I was going through some shared Google reader entries tonight and stumbled across Photoshop Disasters from Dale. A few of the entries in there made me nearly piss myself laughing. Check it out.

My Computer Can Kick Your Computer's Ass

Duane Storey — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:46:38 +0000

I was walking around my apartment this evening, and came to the realization that I have a ton of computer equipment. So much in fact that some of it is piled is various corners of my place. Here's a small list of what I have sitting around: 1) iMac Core2-Duo 2.0 GHz Desktop 2) Macbook Pro Core2-Duo 1.8 GHz Laptop 3) Intel based 1.6 GHz mini-server running debian linux 4) Quad Core 2.4 GHz Centos-based mini-server with 1 TB raid 5 storage (I use this for storing photos and other things I don't want to lose) 5) External 350 GB USB 2.0 drive, used for time machine backups 6) Apple TV 7) External DVD USB 2.0 Burner with LightScribe (I use this for sending photo discs to people) 8) Nokia N800 mobile device (this belongs to my work, but it's here for now) Not a bad little collection for a 700 square foot apartment. Sure, it makes me rather geeky, but what's a guy to do? Some time in the next year or so I'll probably be replacing my Macbook Pro. I've only had it for a year, but since I carried it to and from work everyday, it's definitely showing wear. While the Macbook Air isn't completely practical, it sure seems like a nice thing to carry around compared to my Macbook Pro.

Wow, A Photo Of Me

Duane Storey — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:38:55 +0000

Yes, they are rare. I'm usually the guy with the camera. But looks like someone managed to snap a photo of me the last time I crawled away from the computer and into the light.

There are lots of people in the photo, and I'm sure I'll miss some names. But from left to right are Alexa Booth, Scott Hadfield, Rebecca Holt, Ariane, Boris Mann, Matt Mullenweg, (up top now) Phillip Jeffrey, Jessica Mah and me. This was the day after Northern Voice down at Havana on the Drive. Photo By Phillip's camera.

It's A Beautiful Day In My Neighborhood

Duane Storey — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:09:51 +0000

Ah yes. The sun is almost shining, and I had a good sleep. I free pretty good. I'm just packing my bags to head to Chilliwack for the day and hang out a bit with my nephew on his birthday. First order of business is to run downstairs and get some coffee though.

The best part is there's still a pile of weekend left, so I can do some more relaxing back home on the couch. I'll probably head back out to Vancouver tomorrow afternoon as I have some stuff I want to get finished up out here. Also, I think it's about time to take my Christmas tree down. What do you think?

Time Machine

Duane Storey — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:12:58 +0000

I set up my computer to do backups using Apple's Time Machine a while ago. The good news is that it appears to be working just fine. The bad news is it seems to fire up my external USB drive far more than I would like, especially during the evenings. Since my iMac is right in my bedroom, the spinning, chugging drive doesn't make my sleep situation any better. If I can't find a way to dial down how often it does a backup, I might have to look at getting a quieter drive.

WPTouch iPhone Theme - Coming Soon

Duane Storey — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:48:30 +0000

The official home for the theme will be over on BraveNewCode, so add a link and keep track if you're interested.

Summer Time Camping

Duane Storey — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:55:49 +0000

The one promise I made myself last year was that I was going to spend more time this summer doing the things I like. Number one on the list is of course my favourite past time, camping. For the first time in most of my working life, I now get *three* weeks of vacation a year, as opposed to two (I should also point out many places outside of North America get four to six weeks of vacation a year), so I'm looking forward to spending more time in the wilderness this year. I sent out a few emails to some friends tonight to try and figure out somewhere to camp.

Since I have a few close friends out by Calgary I'm debating taking a week off in July and camping up around Banff. I did the same thing last year, but didn't really have that much time to kill. While I might end up driving, part of me is thinking I'd just fly to Calgary with a backback full of camping gear, rent a car, and spend most of my time near a lake. Given that I'm fairly used to city life these days, most people would probably be surprised to know that a few years ago I was pretty heavy into the outdoors. I spent most of my weekends hiking the various local hills, and even took a week off and did the west coast trail (which is why I am comfortable taking only a backpack to camp with). Any campers amongst you readers?

Need An Accountant

Duane Storey — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:42:47 +0000

Can anyone recommend a good accountant to me for doing personal taxes? I've typically always done them myself, but due to the odd web and photography gig I've had over the last year, they are starting to get a bit complicated in terms of write-offs etc. If you can let me know, that would be great. Preferably someone close to the downtown core.

Ten Reasons Why I Need A Girlfriend

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:48:58 +0000

I just realized I don't own any glasses, just mugs
My plants are all dead or dying
My christmas tree is still up
I don't look at bills before I pay them, I typically just pay a random amount and hope it's right
I've lived in my current apartment for two and a half years, and I still don't have a bedroom suite or a dresser for my clothes
I have the boxes for my iMac and my Macbook pro still in the corner of my living room. They make me happy
I collect wine. But I don't really drink it.
I get groceries once a month, and my fridge is about 50% beer
I have nine cores worth of computing power at home. Somewhere there's a girl that finds that hot, I just know it
There are sometimes random pork products around my apartment

I Am A Series Of Ones And Zeros

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:00:38 +0000

That's it really. I no longer carry cash for the most part. My paycheck arrives in my bank account electronically. When I pay for things, I use my credit card, debit card, or paypal. My bills are paid via online banking, and except for a birthday card once a year, rarely use snail mail. I probably receive 5 pieces of mail a month, but receive around 100 emails a day, and currently have 13,050 messages in my gmail inbox. The fastest way to get a hold of me (even beating out phone calls) is actually via email these days. I ripped most of my CDs to my computer last year, and primarily listen to MP3s now. I can't remember the last time I put a physical disc into my drive. In terms of TV, I use Apple TV primarily now. I spend the majority of my time in close proximity to a computer, and in a regular day, bounce between my iMac, my Mac Pro at work, and my Macbook Pro at home. For the most part, including my cell phone and it's limited access to the internet, I am always online. In terms of writing, I only use a pen for writing the odd cheque. The last time I tried to write anything of any length, my hand got tired after no more than a page and the writing was horrid. It's weird to think that kids growing up today may not ever touch a CD, or have the need to carry cash. That learning how to write with a pen or pencil may someday not be a requirement. As we move forward, it's often easy to forget the things we invariably have to leave behind. I'm sure every generation has to watch this occur, but I can't help but think how strange it is that so many the things from my youth are becoming dated, and will eventually fade from use and into memory.

Preparing For The 2008 Juno Awards

Duane Storey — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:36:33 +0000

It's getting close. In just nine days, I'll be getting on a plane and heading out to Calgary to attend the 2008 Juno awards. I haven't really had time to let the whole event soak in yet, and to be honest, probably won't figure out where I'll be all weekend until I land in Calgary. What I really want to do is provide an insider's view of what it's like being at the Junos during the entire weekend. I'm not sure what that means yet, but it will most likely involve tons of photos and the odd video. To that end, I really want to go out and buy a new portable camera, something that can do fairly decent video. I really am looking for portability here, and would just go out and get the new Canon Digital Elph, had I not had a pile of bad experiences with them before. So, any recommendations on something small that takes decent movies? In terms of my camera gear, I'm also completely at a blank for what to bring. Switching lenses and bodies on the fly is a pain in the butt, so I'll probably just use my 24-70mm f/2.8L the majority of the time if I can. I might rent the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens as well (I have the non IS version), since that would probably be the best one for the indoor shots at the ceremony (assuming I am allowed into that one). I'll bring a speed light, but don't really feel like hauling a bracket out there, so I'll just deal with it on camera or possibly bring my flash extension. So many decisions to be made. Maybe I'll even rent a 5D for a few days, who knows. It also sounds like I'll be meeting up with some high school friends in Calgary for a few drinks (I think one of them is taking the floor of my hotel room for a night), so that should be a good time. I'm going to refactor my blog a bit this weekend and see if I can get some Google ranking going before the event starts.

Wordpress Without Borders

Duane Storey — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:17:42 +0000

Yesterday, while browsing the Google blog, I stumbled across a recent entry they did regarding the release of their new AJAX language API. While reading it, I had a couple of crazy ideas what it could potentially be used for. One of those ideas was to dynamically translate content on my blog. So after grabbing a bite to eat on my way home tonight, I decided to take a stab at creating a Wordpress plugin that would automatically translate content on the fly. My basic game-plan was to grab the HTTP header associated with the user's language, intercept a few Wordpress locations, and do some dynamic translating of the content. I just wanted to do the titles at first, thinking that would be enough. But to be honest, I was so excited after getting that working that I decided to take a stab at the rest of the content on my blog, including posts, excerpts, categories, and tags. It wasn't easy. One of the major problems I had was the failure of the Google API to translate any content with HTML tags in it (which obviously makes sense, but makes it difficult to translate dynamic content littered with it). So what I ended up having to do is decompose the content into text fragments, translate those, and then recompose it back together with the appropriate markup. The result, after about three hours, is a blog that translates itself to whatever language you are trying to view it in (assuming of course Google supports that language). If you want to test it out, you should be able to use Firefox. From the preferences panel, choose "Advanced", "Languages", and pick a new language to view the blog in (making sure to move it to the top of your list). If you stick with a well known language and refresh on this blog, you should see most of the dynamic content on this blog magically transform into the language of your choice.

My Blog, Dynamically Translated To Japanese

If you don't have Firefox, you can head on over to my Flickr set to view a few photos. I think this plugin is actually pretty elegant. If you consider how it works, it's basically dynamic content driving server side scripts which in term drive the creation of dynamic client-side Javascript that ultimately performs the translation. Dynamically. And while that by itself is really exciting to me, there's another benefit that's subtle but has the potential to really change how blogging is done. If you leave out the source translation language identifier in the API call for the translation, Google will automatically try to detect it for you. That feature is fairly useless if I write all the content on my blog myself and always stick to my primary language (since auto-detection will always come up with that language), which is the typical case for most people. However, if you couple a blog that can translate itself for every user and add the ability to auto-detect what language they commented in, you can then allow users to comment in their native language, and automatically translate it for everyone else. Quite simply, it allows for language independent information sharing. A Reader Leaves A Comment In Chinese Comment Translated To English When Viewed In English There are obviously a few bugs, and I have to give some major thought to the big picture. But as a proof of concept I think it's pretty exciting. I posted a few comments below in various languages. If all is well, they should be translated to english for you (assuming you are viewing the blog in english). Obviously there are some subtle translation differences, but for the most part the meaning still comes across. If you don't believe it, view the HTML source -- you should see the comments in their original languages prior to the AJAX translation. Ultimately this plugin will end up over on BraveNewCode, a place where Dale Mugford and myself are going to throw all the really cool things we're working on in our spare time. * Update - head over to the official Wordpress Without Borders page to download an alpha version of the plugin. note: multibyte strings should work as well, but there appears to be a bug in Wordpress 2.5 that's limiting my use of them below -- this works in Wordpress 2.3.3 though

Amazon EC2 Now With Static IP Address

Duane Storey — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:29:38 +0000

For those of you who follow what goes on in the web services part of the internet, this little tidbit may interest you. Amazon has offered relatively cheap cloud computer for the last year or so, but one of the major downsides was that it didn't have a static IP address. So if all your machines / images were to crash at the same time (which has happened before due to a power or internet outage), you lose your IP address and potentially may be allocated a new one when you restart your service. Today Amazon announced that they are offered Elastic IP addresses (which is a funky way of saying Static IP addresses). That should make it more appealing for people trying to set up services there.

Apparently I Look Like A Magician Here

Duane Storey — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:22:44 +0000

Me, Keira, Rebecca, John, and Amy

Photo "Credit" by Keira Mellis -- Attribution by force

Wordpress Without Borders, Round Two

Duane Storey — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:05:20 +0000

Thanks to everyone who left some feedback the other day about the new translation plugin. I've had some really great comments about it, and even the odd person that's really anxious to test it out. I'm hoping to put a version up online tonight for people to download and try for themselves. For those people who didn't catch it, what I did was write a Wordpress plugin that takes advantage of the Google AJAX language API to dynamically translate the content of my blog into whatever language you as a reader ask for (by adjusting your browser settings). This works in both directions: blog entries will be converted into other languages, and comments left in other languages will be converted as well. So basically, as a reader of this blog you can read it in whatever language you want, and comment in whatever language you want. Check out the comments below for an example. A couple of the new changes I made are:

You can now enable and disable the translation via a menu bar that magically appears at the top of the browser window
Comments will be translated into whatever language you request them to be in
If there is no direct conversion available between two languages (for example, chinese to french), english is used as a proxy language to assist with the translation
All menus are in the requested language as well

As you can see in the above photo, a menu will appear at the top of the screen if a translation can be performed on the page. Simply click the link if it appears and it will translate the content for you. The menu will also hover up top as you scroll down the page so you can switch back and forth between translated content. If you are viewing the content in a different language, the menu will adjust to reflect that. For example, here's how the menu looks on an english site when the viewer has their default language set to chinese.

I encourage everyone to try it out on my blog. If you know a second language, feel free to post a comment in that language. Also, if you have Firefox or any other browser that lets you adjust the language, try switching it to something else and trying it out. If you notice a menu at the top of your browser window, make sure you click on it to see what happens!

Alpha Version Now Available

If you want to try installing this on your own blog, here's how. First, download the alpha version (this is as alpha as it gets folks) by clicking this link. Install it by unzipping the file into your plugins directory and activating it in your menu. The good news is that it will translate categories and tags for you just like that. The bad news is that comments, content and excerpts require small changes to your theme (I worked hard to try and avoid this, but it's simply not possible if you want it to play nice with the rest of your blog). It's a really easy change, so don't be afraid to try it. Just replace the following:

replace the_content() with bnc_the_content()
replace the_title() with bnc_the_title()
replace comment_text() with bnc_comment_text()
replace the_excerpt() with bnc_the_excerpt()

For the_title() only replace those instances that are used to show something to the viewer. That is, if you have the_title() being used to populate an ALT or TITLE tag in a hyperlink, just leave it as the_title(). If you've ever been inside a theme, that should take you no more than 2 minutes to change over. If you have other content that you'd like to be translated (i.e. things in your menu), you can wrap the text with bnc_translate_start() and bnc_translate_stop(). Whatever is between those two functions will be translated along with the rest of the content. If you manage to get it working on your blog, please drop a comment here so other people can head on over and take a look.

Earth Hour 2008

Duane Storey — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:22:43 +0000

For those of you who hadn't heard, today is the day of Earth Hour, a event set up by the WWF to show support against global warming and climate change. From their website:

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund. Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagshipsâ€“Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. View cities involved around the world. We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)â€“whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

So if you believe in these issues, then shut your lights off at 8pm local time for an hour. * Also, I need to top up my Apple TV is US funds. Are any of my readers american? If so, can I paypal you some money that you can use to buy me a quick gift card, and then send me the code? You will keep me very happy, and I'll even blog about it! Thanks.

Earth Hour 2008 Over

Duane Storey — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:59:58 +0000

I spent most of the last hour on the couch, just thinking by candlelight. It was a nice break from the norm, having a dark apartment sans the sound of computer fans spinning or other randomness that goes beep in the night. Looking out my window, it's hard to tell just how many people participated. It seems slightly darker than normal I guess, but for the most part it looks like business as usual in this city. For those of you who missed it, I took my site down for a few hours in support of the event. Here's a snapshot Rebecca took: And lastly, I just want to mention that Wordpress 2.5 was just released, so if you're looking for an upgrade, now's a good time (and in fact, many of you are running less than 2.3.3, which is a very bad idea since those versions are totally hackable). There are major UI changes in the dashboard, some of which will involve a bit of relearning. But I've been watching the wp-testers group, and those guys have been working hard to bring you something great.

The Death Of The Newspaper

Duane Storey — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:13:29 +0000

No real surprise here, but this article talks about the seemingly inevitable death of the newspaper. I don't think I've picked one up in ages, and for the most part get most of my news from various news agencies on the web and from RSS feeds for peers. Some people argue that user-generated content is bound to be less reliable, but as most of you know, many of the huge news organizations are incredibly biased. Which is better, I'm not sure, but I'd rather trust my peers than some dolled up girl on TV reading off a teleprompter.

Raid 5 & Cheap Storage

Duane Storey — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:34:13 +0000

I finally got around to finishing off a little project of mine at home. As everyone knows, I take a pile of photos. So many in fact that I have a hard time finding places to store them all. In the old days I would just make a DVD every few weeks and be done with it, but now that my digital camera is 10.2 MP, I can easily fill up a DVDs worth of photos in a few hours. Of course, I don't need to keep all of these, and routinely I don't. But for the ones I do want to keep it's getting hard to manage them all. About six months ago I picked up a 320 GB external drive to use for backups and started using that. Now that I have time machine going as well, that drive is pretty much full. There are various off-site storage facilities I looked into, but many of them become cost-prohibiting once you start talking the amount of data I have. So, since I have a linux box running at home, I decided to make myself a RAID array for storage. For those of you not familiar with the term, RAID stands for "redundant array of inexpensive drives." It is a way to organize data such that the risk of your data being destroyed due to a mechanical failure is practically zero. There are several different ways to do this. One popular technique is known as RAID 1, or drive mirroring. In this system, data is duplicated automatically between two disks. Should one of them fail, you are left with a complete working copy on the other disk. Once you pop in a new drive, most RAID 1 systems (either hardware or software) will rebuild the second drive automatically and put you back into a "safe" state by having duplicate data. There are several disadvantages to a RAID 1 system. First, the cost of storage is 50%. That is, if you want 500 GB of RAID 1 storage, you have to have 1 TB worth of drives. Secondly, writing to the drives can potentially be slow since data has to be mirrored. On the plus side, reads have the potential to be faster since the controller can read have the data from each drive to help speed things up. RAID 1 is typically used for mission critical areas such as root operating systems and boot partitions. Since the drives are simply mirrored, there's no real logic needed to boot the OS from a RAID 1 partition, which is why they are popular for operating system installs. Apple's Time Machine is also fairly similar to a RAID 1 system, although it's more like RAID 1 over time. Next, let's talk about the bad boy of the RAID group, RAID 5. RAID 5 (sometimes called striping) requires at least three drives to obtain. Instead of duplicating content on each drive like RAID 1, what it does is split the blocks up and adds error correcting information to them. The end result is that in a 3 drive RAID 5 configuration, you can rebuild the entire data set with any two out of the three drives. So if a drive fails, you can not only continue to access your data as usual, but you can also simply replace it and have the controller or the operating system rebuild the drive automatically using the data from the other ones. Pretty cool stuff.

RAID 5, From Wikipedia

As you can see in the photo, the parity blocks (denoted with the subscript p) are distributed over all the drives. In this way, a rebuild is possible if any one particular drive fails. Doing this at home in the old days would typically have required expensive hardware. But thanks to the falling price of computers and the increasing complexity of operating systems, it's fairly simple these days. In fact, while my motherboard supports RAID, I purposefully choose to do it in software, since most forum postings seem to think this is the better approach these days (if you use hardware, you're often relying on proprietary methods for doing RAID, where as if you do it in software, your drives should work with any Linux flavor, not locking you into a particular vendor). So I went out last week and picked up three 500 GB drives for about $90/ea. I put them into my Linux box in the corner, and configured them as RAID 5. I now seem to have 1 full TB available for all my photos (and probably some movies). If I run out of space, I can simply pop in another $90 drive and the RAID array will adjust itself to compensate. The added benefit is that I no longer have to think about backing anything up (of course, one could argue about needing full offsite backups, but I simple don't have the time to handle that, and have never, cross my fingers, had an incident that required data offsite). The first thing I did when it was all configured was to simulate a full drive failure. You can do this by physically removing the drive, but I did it via software. If you mark the drive as dead using the RAID configuration tools, you'll get notification (via email) that a drive has failed and you are now operating in a degraded mode (since one drive is totally gone, the operating system has to use the error information to reconstruct the data on each read, so this will bog your system down -- but at least you're still running). I then brought the drive back online and added it back into the RAID array. Linux, being the smart beast that it is, immediately started reconstructing the drive from scratch. In about 90 minutes the entire drive was rebuilt, and my data was safe once again. So, for the cost of around $270, I now have 1 TB of fault tolerant, RAID 5 storage at home. Every drive I bought (and I purposefully picked different drives to avoid batch manufacturing problems) has a five year warranty on it, so the cost of this data is $54/year (neglecting energy costs), or about $4.50/mo (one big Starbucks latte people). Not bad if you think about it.

My Blog Moves Once Again

Duane Storey — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:55:40 +0000

After setting up my RAID 5 array last night, I decided that maybe I would take a stab at self hosting my blog again. Up until two years ago, I had always run my blog from home. It's not really that hard to set up your own Apache server, and Linux can literally run for months or more without requiring a reboot. The downside of course is that home internet connections can be flaky, and most co-locations and hosting companies have UPS backup when things go wrong. I recently upgraded my home fiber internet connection to a small business plan, so my internet connection at home is actually fairly insane -- I get 10mbps symmetric bandwidth, along with 140 GB of transfer each month. That's some serious shit. I used to be on HostMonster, but recently switched over to Media Temple. Unfortunately, I haven't been very thrilled with the service I've been getting there. You can set up a lot of sites and host them on their grid server, but at least a few times a week lately my blog has been down, or it's just sat there with a "database connection error" for hours at a time. Without a doubt I can do a lot better than that with a machine at home. So right now duanestorey.com is hosted in the corner of my living room, churning away happily on a quad core machine with 1TB of redundant storage. I tossed on a PHP op-code accelerator and tuned apache a bit, so it should be fairly smoking fast, assuming the fiber can keep up. I did a benchmark on Media Temple, and it could serve 12 requests per second. I tested my home machine here and it's around 130 requests per second, so we'll see how it goes. Obviously the major downside is that if the machine crashes while I'm at work or away, then my blog will be down. I may just send automated mysql dumps over to Media Temple (since I still am keeping my account for other things), so I can remap my DNS if my blog at home falls over while I'm away. I don't think it will though. PS - It's an absolute joy to use Wordpress when it's amazingly responsive

Juno Awards Coverage

Duane Storey — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:54:17 +0000

On Friday morning I'll be flying out to the Juno awards in Calgary. There's a press conference at noon sharp where the media will get to view the entire setup as well as talk to Russell Peters, the host of the Juno Awards. I was originally going to fly out around noon, but I just got the email about the press conference so I might take the full day off and fly out at 7am, assuming I can change my flight. I'm still waiting on a few image assets from the Juno organization, but I've started putting together a page that I'll use when I'm out there. If you can, please throw some link love at my 2008 Canadian Juno Awards Coverage page so that people can find it, and I don't feel like an idiot writing entirely for myself. I'll probably promote it to the front page (something I've never done in Wordpress before, although the option exists) during the event, but I'm hoping to flesh out my page with a few cool surprises before I get on the plane. I'll also be doing the odd post over at Urban Vancouver, and probably a guest post over at Miss604.com. John Bollwitt is also going to lend me his iPod podcasting setup, so hopefully there will be an interview or two, should the opportunity arise.

Future Shop For The Win

Duane Storey — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:09:09 +0000

I went out tonight and bought a new digital camera, the Canon SD 870 IS. I did some basic research before hand and that was one of about three cameras I considered buying for this upcoming weekend. What sold me on it was that a guy at work recently picked it up and heaped a pile of praise on it. Also, it's the only camera in it's class that had image stabilization *and* a useful wideangle end (something most cameras lack of this size). This is, unfortunately, probably the 8th digital camera I've purchased in about as many years. Several of them had untimely deaths, and one was even the victim of a previous girlfriend's stupidity. I have an older model Canon Digital ELPH that hit the floor hard in a New York bar a few years ago, and it's never been the same. So hopefully this one doesn't break on me. After I got home tonight, I unpacked the camera, only to realize that it was missing the battery. It's obviously a major bummer to come home with a new tech toy only to realize you can't use it. I called Future Shop and they said to just come back and they'd get me another one. When I got to Future Shop, I explained what happened to one of the sale's people, who immediately went and talked to the manager. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I really wasn't in the mood to have to argue my case with anyone. When the guy returned, he apologized for what happened and then threw $80 worth of free stuff at me for my time. I didn't even ask. I don't really have a lot of love for Future Shop, but it was pretty cool of them to give me a new battery pack and throw in some free stuff, including a nice leather case. I've done some bashing of those guys on my blog in the past, so I figure it's only fair to point out this time when they actually came through.

Duane's Quad Core Server 1, Media Temple 0

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:51:13 +0000

So I'm not one to gloat, especially considering I recommended Media Temple to a few friends. But Media Temple just went down again, two days after I moved my blog back to a server in my house. Thankfully, my Linux box is chugging along nicely, and I didn't experience an outage. Rebecca was Twittering how lame it was that web hosting companies struggle to keep a simple blog up, and I totally understand her frustration. It's one thing to pay $6 a month for hosting and have the odd outage, but it's another when you're paying $20 a month and expecting three to five nines worth of service. Media Temple has been fairly horrible lately, and despite my service tickets indicating how bad service is, haven't done anything to compensate me or let me know what's going on. Saying "engineers are looking into it" on their public status blog for over a week, without resolution, is pretty weak if you ask me. Also, my brother in law just set up a blog (also on my machine). You can check it out at AndieFinnigan.com. He's pretty computer retarded, so go easy on him.

Quick Blip.Tv Test

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:40:23 +0000

Good news is I'm fairly happy with the outcome, especially with the branding part of it. Plus transcoding only took about 3 or 4 minutes. I signed up for a Pro Account on a month by month basis for this upcoming weekend. It gives me priority transcoding and the ability to automatically generate iPod specific versions at the same time. The only question left is weather to shoot at 320x240 or 640x480. If I were at home, I'd just shoot 640x480, but the files end up rather large, and if I'm limited to a crappy hotel connection, might prefer speed over quality. Plus, 320x240 is basically iPod/iPhone resolution, so the conversion is easier (it's going on 15 minutes trying to convert my 640x480 into an iPhone version). I'll have to think about this one some more. Here's an embed link which should (in theory) bring up an iPhone media player. It seems to work awesome on my iPod Touch, so I imagine it will also work on the iPhone. Which means I may have to write a quick plugin to show the proper one if you're on the iPhone or not. Maybe I'll use the new short-code system in WP 2.5 to do it: [blipit id="789757"]

The Importance of a Personal Brand

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:35:59 +0000

Up until about a year ago, I used to comment entirely using the name "Duane". There wasn't really any big motivation for doing so, it was simply something I was used to doing from my old IRC chats. At one point though, I realized that it seemed a bit weird leaving big, technical comments on web-sites but not having my name associated with them. At the bare minimum, it felt like it lessened the impact of what I wrote if I use only my first name, or if used an alias. After a year of going by "Duane Storey" pretty much everywhere I write or comment, I can say that without a doubt it's led to an increase in my online credibility, with people seeking me out specifically because they had something to say to me. Plus, it's led to people remembering things I've said in the past, which generally leads into a discussion when I meet people for the first time. And while the reason I changed primarily had to do with wanting to stand behind the things I write, I think it's also led to a pseudo-brand on my website, with people routinely landing on my home page due to a Google search for "duane storey". Just some food for thought.

Pressure Washing Hell

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:57:32 +0000

I live in this weird apartment complex with a bunch of dictators who seem to enjoy flexing their muscles and causing trouble every few weeks. The entire building is managed by some local company, and there's a strata council which presumably some of the people in the building are part of. The thing is, our building isn't very ship-shape: the elevators haven't been working for nearly two years now, the security guards spend more time collecting bottles from the recycling area than they do securing the building, and there's always someone giving you flack for something. The one thing I hate are the notices that go up instructing everyone to rearrange their schedules on short-notice. The latest one is the requirement that I move my car next Monday so they can pressure wash the parkade. It's one thing to ask people to move their car, and let them know they might get debris on it if they don't, but this strata council will charge you $50 if you don't move it. For what? Where is that money going? I'm going to be out of town, so I either have to get my friends to move it for me, or I have to take my car to the airport and shell out $40-$50 in parking for the weekend (which is what I'm probably going to do). Even if I were to stay in town, I'd have to park it near work, which costs me around $20 for the day. It seems rather ridiculous that they can just impose random fees at will on people. I almost wish I owned a place in the building so I could pop into a strata council meeting and unleash hell on the guys in charge. The fact that it's been nearly two years of having one of our main elevators down (even the repair guys don't come anymore since they hate working on it, it's that old) is enough to get the council fired in my opinion, and a new one elected.

iPhone Theme Nearly Done

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:01:10 +0000

So Dale and I put some of the finishing touches on our WPtouch iPhone/iPodTouch theme tonight. It's looking pretty spiffy if I do so say myself. I've enabled it on this website, and it's running smoothly. We'll be working out a few kinks over the next few days, but you can stroll around here if you have an iPhone and check it out. A few of the features I really like:

AJAX transitions between page groups (in a search engine friendly way)
Custom adminstration panel in Wordpress where you can create a custom theme menu
Blogroll with favicon integration
Color coded calendar icons that change according to the time of year
Built in bookmarking ability for major bookmark sites such as del.icio.us, digg, etc.

Here's a quick look at the administration panel for the theme: I also just finished doing a Blip.TV plugin that will automatically show iPhone specific videos when viewed on the iPhone, or will show the appropriate EMBED version when viewed from my main site. I think this feature is really awesome for video-rich sites. It also uses the new Wordpress 2.5 short-code system, which is rather cool. Dale and I will probably release both the iPhone theme and the Blip.TV plugin in a few days. Drop a comment if you're interested in being one of the first people to try it out.

Blip.Tv Plugin Test

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:35:52 +0000

So I'm pretty stoked on blip.tv. Here's a short video from my patio that I uploaded. The conversion was done is less than 60 seconds. Plus, using my blip.tv plugin, this video should render properly on the iPhone or iPod Touch as well (so try it if you have one). Here's the video I shot the other day: [blipit id=789757] And another one I just converted: [blipit id=795411]

Packing Time

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:08:38 +0000

At this time tomorrow, I'll be bouncing around Calgary trying to get my media pass before the press conference at noon. Which means I get to spend most of tonight getting my camera gear ready and packing some clothes. Photo from Russell Peter's Website My flight is at 7am in the morning, and I hope to have a few minutes in the airport relaxing with a coffee and an eggs benedict. I'm pretty excited about going to the Junos, and really have no idea what to expect. Russell Peters will be at the press conference tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get to chat with him a bit -- I'm a big fan of some of his comedy skits. Also, make sure you bookmark my Juno Awards Page which I'll update while I'm out there. Also, check out Urban Vancouver, where I'll also be doing the odd posting as well.

Lunch And Shopping

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:26:42 +0000

I met my friend Keira-Anne for a quick lunch down at Pacific Center a while ago, and then hit the mall hard on a quest to buy some clothes. I rarely shop for clothes, not because I don't like buying clothes, but because I'm really picky and always end up leaving frustrated. Since I only had 45 minutes, I decided to be less picky and just go with the flow. I ended up buying two pairs of nice jeans, and a few cool shirts for the weekend. Pretty much everything I bought was on sale, but it still ended up being around $400 after tax. Not bad for 45 minutes of work. I have so much to do tonight it's not even funny. I have to charge all my camera gear, finish getting my blog ready, do some laundry, go grab some podcasting equipment from John Bollwitt, call my friends in Calgary, and somehow get enough sleep so I can walk straight during the press conference tomorrow. Urban Vancouver is setting up a Junos aggregator, so hopefully that will be set up tomorrow. Make sure you check both sites during the weekend, since I'm going to be posting on both. I'll cross post from time to time, but will try to keep the content separate when I can.

WPTouch iPhone/iPodTouch Theme

Duane Storey — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:08:14 +0000

Here's a little teaser trailer for the new iPhone/iPodTouch theme that Dale Mugford and myself are launching soon. It's a Wordpress theme that will allow your blog to be viewed properly on iPhone/iPodTouch devices. We've also integrated with blip.tv so that you can view iPhone specific videos on the device. [blipit id=797260] Also, make sure you head on over to BraveNewCode and subscribe to the RSS feed, that way you can keep up to date on all the future announcements. If you're viewing this on an iPhone (yes you can), head on over to this page to check out how the video looks. The content on this page is still transcoding for the iPhone. When it's ready that video above will be viewable on an iPhone as well.

Heading East To The Junos

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:08:40 +0000

Well, in exactly 12 hours I'll be getting on a plane and heading to Calgary for the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards. I haven't really had time to get excited or to even think about what I'm going to do for three days in Calgary. I picked up a few new clothes today, including that fun black shirt I'm wearing in the photo. All my camera equipment is charging in the other room, and I'm slowly adding stuff to a suitcase (and having a hard time deciding how big of a suitcase to bring). I'm heading over to Miss604's house in a sec for some quick Thai food, and to borrow some podcasting equipment from John, who unfortunately isn't feeling well. I actually really feel like having a beer for some reason, so I might stop and pick one up on the way over. Part of me feels like I'm on vacation I guess. This weekend will go fast, and I really have no idea how it will unfold. I'm assuming the role of photographer, writer, and possibly interviewer, which is a bold effort for one lone Chilliwack guy. Thankfully there will be a few Vancouver people out that way, and I have lots of friends with great technical know-how back home here to help me out if I get in a bind. In terms of following what's going on, here's where you can keep track:

The aggregator is a good bet if you're looking for information, since it has most of the above links sucked into it. But, feel free to add me on Twitter or whatever if you want to keep up to date in real-time. The next post I do will most likely be around 6am at Vancouver International Airport tomorrow. It's sort of a tradition of mine to have breakfast at the Milestone's over there. Thanks to everyone who has lent a hand this week - I'll try and give proper thanks as the weekend rolls out.

One Last Video from Miss604's House

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:12:07 +0000

Here's a quick video from over at Rebecca and John's house. As you can see, I've been mucking with my theme a bit for the Junos. We'll see if it's still up in the morning. I'll probably be promoting my Juno posts to the front page in the morning as well. [blipit id=797982] ** no beers were hurt making this broadcast

6am And All Is Well

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:16:37 +0000

It's 6am, and I'm currently sitting on a chair at the Vancouver International Airport waiting to get on my flight to Calgary. I was really looking forward to having a nice hot eggs benedict at the airport, but the airport decided to close Milestone's for me, so I'm SOL I guess. My only options right now are unripe raw bananas or my favourite liquid diet, diet pepsi. If I would have had eggs benedict though, they might have looked like this: Photo by lehedonist on Flickr I didn't get to sleep until well after 2am, so 5am came really early for me. I'm pretty beat, and can't wait to get on the plane so I can try and get 30 minutes of sleep. I'm pretty much guaranteed to be going non-stop once I land in Calgary, at least until the early afternoon, at which point I'll probably head back to the hotel and have a nice nap before tonight. I think there's some welcome reception later in the evening, but I'm really not sure. Normally going through security with a bag full of electronics is a major hassle for me, but this time nobody seemed to care at all. In fact, they seemed more interested in some purse belonging to this little old lady than they did any of my camera gear or computer equipment. While I'm not a big fan of hotels, I''m definitely looking forward to getting a good night's sleep somewhere it's quiet. That's the one part of my apartment in Vancouver that's been bothering me lately -- it's really loud being sandwiched between two bridges, and the noise often keeps me up at night. One of the best sleeps I had all of last year was in Las Vegas, partially because I was so tired, but mostly because the room was so well insulated. I'm going to chug down the rest of this pop, and then spend the next 15 minutes surfing the internet until the plane boards. Most likely the next post will be after the press conference in Calgary, at which point I should have my first batch of photos to post (I haven't touched my camera in over a month, I hope I can remember how to take photos). ** this post was brought to you by Vancouver Airport's generous $12/hour wireless internet

On My Way

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:23:16 +0000

I currently just flew past Kelowna, and according to the in-seat GPS unit, am hurtling across BC at around 32000 feet. It was raining on the ground in Vancouver, but the sun is shining way up here amongst the clouds. Latest weather report from the cockpit says it's -6C in Calgary (I should have packed some warmer clothes), so it's going to be a slight adjustment when I land. I spent the last 15 minutes reading all the emails I've been sent from the Junos media committee (something I probably should have done a few days ago). It turns out there's a lot more going on than I originally realized, and I think I'm going to be fairly busy in the next 72 hours. The press conference starts around noon today and will feature Russell Peters as well as a live performance or two. The event is sponsored by CTV, and we'll get to see the entire setup for the Juno ceremonies, which should be a pretty cool photo opportunity. That goes until around 2pm or so, and then I'll have a bit of time to unwind and regain my bearings. At 6pm tonight is the welcome reception in the imperial ballroom of the Hyatt Regency hotel. According to my media briefing, The Dudes, Lindsay Ell, Justin Rutledge, Bill Manzar and God Made Me Funky will all be performing. I'll spend some time during the break this afternoon reading up on all of them. If anyone is a fan drop me a comment and let me know. I've re-read everything I have a few times already, and I find I'm still struggling to figure out just what it means to be a photographer during the two main events tomorrow and Sunday. It seems like there are a few photo pits available for guys like me, but they are fairly far (95ft and 135ft respectively) from the stage. It also seems like that I can just hang out in the media room and take photos from there, which I might end up doing. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what it looks like in person. The person next to me on the plane was easily the most computer-addicted person I've ever seen. The moment he sat down in his seat he pulled his laptop out and started fiddling with it. He then asked the stewardess how soon after take off he could open it up and use it. The moment the wheels went up the guy was frantically trying to start up. And when it was finally up, know what he did? He moved icons around his desktop for an hour. When the plane landed and everyone was disembarking, I literally had to ask him to pack his laptop up so I could get by him and exit the plane. Time to unplug pal.

Inside The 2008 Juno Awards

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:08:00 +0000

I just got back from an invite-only press conference inside the Calgary Saddledome. Inside, we got to get our first glimpse of the set for the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards.

A Shot Of The Stage At The Junos

To be honest, I was a bit worried about being here, given that I'm not really a mainstream media person. But after seeing how everyone else handled themselves, I no longer feel that out of my element.

Ben Mulroney, The Host Of Canadian Idol

In fact, watching everyone else take photos and set up huge camera equipment, I realized I'm probably one of the only people there that will be able to post stuff within a few hours of being at an event out here.

Russell Peters, The Host Of The Juno Awards

In fact, even as I type this I have two movies uploading, one that gives a live demonstration of the lights and effects at the Juno awards, and another of Russell Peters doing what he does best.

The Set From The 2008 Juno Awards

It was pretty cool standing beside some of the media celebrities out here in Calgary. After I picked up my media pass this morning, I ran into some kids who were like "wow, you're photographing at the Junos? So cool!" I thought it was totally cute, and made my morning. The next function I have is around 6pm I think, but I might go out and buy a new memory card for my camera, since 1GB of SD just isn't enough for videos.

Russell Peters

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:20:55 +0000

I took a quick video of Russell Peters when he came out. The quality isn't stellar, but you can get a sense of what it was like being inside. [blipit id=799742]

Inside The Saddledome

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:43:08 +0000

Here's another video I took when the lights were going wild on the stage. A couple of questions were fielded with regards to the Saddledome. [blipit id=799870]

The Welcome Reception

Duane Storey — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:54:51 +0000

Wow. That's all I can say. I really had no idea what to expect, but the event so far has completely blown away all my expectations. Sometimes when you get a media pass you can't really do anything. Contrast that with my pass, where I can basically do whatever I want. I literally have walked into any room I've wanted and photographed whatever I have wanted. I was up front, literally three feet from the stage, using both my SLR and my video camera during the whole night, all while drinking free beer and chatting with cute girls in cowboy hats. I'm not coming home. I uploaded a pile of photos to my Flickr account, but here are a few teasers. First, the lovely Miss Lindsay Ell: Daniel, from God Made Me Funky: The Dudes: It's only 9:50pm, and I'm beat. I've taken 1GB worth of movies and 4GB worth of photos already, and it's only day one. I'll post more later -- I gotta go see about a girl. In a cowboy hat. Here's a quick video from The Dudes while I'm out hitting on cute girls. [blipit id=800725] Oh what the heck, here's some Justin Rutledge too: [blipit id=800715] Seriously, this is so awesome, there aren't enough words to describe it.

Interview With God Made Me Funky

Duane Storey — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:11:32 +0000

So there were five bands that played tonight, and to be honest, they were all awesome in their own way. I'm not a big country fan, but standing three feet away from Justin Rutledge listening to the guy pour his heart out in a southern drawl is enough to rope anyone in. Lindsay Ell was an absolute cutey, and I even got a chance to talk to her briefly after the show. And while they were all awesome, God Made Me Funky was pretty unbelievable. They are a group of eight members from the Toronto area, and their show is this amazing mix of funk and dance. I had the opportunity to talk to Danny from the band after the show: [blipit id=800792] Also, head on over to Danny's MySpace Page for some more information. There are some more shots on my Flickr if anyone is interested.

Juno Fan Fare

Duane Storey — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:41:35 +0000

I woke up this morning at around 10am, close to being rested, but not 100%. The stupid alarm clock in my hotel room started going off at 4:30am, and it took me like 10 minutes to figure out how to shut it off. No matter. I cabbed down to the University this morning to check out the Juno Fan Fare. It's basically a huge event where the fans can line up and get autographs from their favourite groups. Media access to this event wasn't that great. They had set up two photo pits on either side of the autographing areas, but due to the location of them, the angles on the shots were fairly horrible. A few photographers were going "out of bounds" and attempting to get better shots, which made for a few encounters between them and security. I took the high ride and simply shot where I was told. I don't really get the mass appeal of photographing celebrities, so I mostly spent my time walking around. I actually went beside some fans and took a few photos, only to be told by security that the media wasn't allowed to photograph there. To which I commented "by these other 100 people are allowed to?" The event lasts four hours, but I bailed after 45 minutes. I'm just relaxing for a few minutes, and then heading out to the Penthouse at the Fairmont for a gathering related to the 2009 Junos in Vancouver. The Gala starts around 4:30pm for the media. I'm really not sure what to expect at all, or where I'll be positioned to take photographs. I'm also heading to some club later to shoot some Red Carpet action (although, I'm less excited about this since learning that the media isn't actually allowed inside the club). That reminds me of this Cuban architect I met once who designed fancy vacation resorts, but wasn't actually allowed to step foot inside of them.

At The Junos

Duane Storey — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:42:26 +0000

First, the Penthouse Party at the Fairmont in Calgary. It was awesome. I put my camera down the entire time and just enjoyed myself, which was cool because almost every Juno nominee at the Juno Fan Fare came and hung out. I sat down and put myself next to this really cute girl (Nadine) from a Toronto Media Company. While chatting with her, the guys from State Of Shock swung by and I chatted with them for a while (great guys). There were Juno nominees everywhere, but I was too busy mingling and drinking free beer to notice. I just got back from a full behind-the-scenes look at the Junos setup for tonight (it's fairly unreal). Unfortunately, the two photo booths are basically so far away as to render most shots impossible (every photographer here is amazingly upset about them). I'm a little more optimistic, since I can do wonders with photoshop, but it's a hard shot, even with expensive gear, so I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm stuck in a back room at the Telus Convention Center, and soon I'll be able to get a runner to take me downstairs to the Junos and shoot some photos. I met a really great photographer named Barry, and I gave him my perspective on New Media (things like Flickr etc), that he whole heartedly agreed with. I commented that a shitty cell-phone photo published within 30 minutes of an event was sometimes worth more than an award winning shot published days later, and he agreed. Which makes it kind of sad that none of the photographers here are happy with the setup for taking photographs. But whatever. I'm here, I've had free beer, and I have my camera. I'll do the best I can, and then go drinking later at the bar. This town is on fire with pride, and it's amazing to be a part of it all. I'll post some more shots later.

In The Middle Of The Junos

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:53:54 +0000

Can't talk. Drinking beer and taking photos. But, I get to take photos of every winner as they come off stage.

Billy Newton-Davis

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:23:36 +0000

[blipit id=803157] Right after winning his Juno.

Behind The Scenes

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:52:17 +0000

[blipit id=803225]

Great Night In Calgary

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:59:34 +0000

So, I really don't know how to describe the last few hours. It was pretty amazing. The thing is, I was invited to shoot photos on the red carpet for some all inclusive event. Unfortunately, even though it was sponsored by a company and they wanted lots of publicity, as a photographer most of us weren't allowed inside. So after about 20 minutes of taking photographs in the cold, I figured I had better uses for my time, and headed down to this other party downtown (thanks to a girl we met during the night). Anyways, despite not being on the guest list, we all somehow get ourselves into the hotel. For the rest of the night I hung out with Juno nominees and winners in a special section of the bar, drinking, laughing and having a great time. At one point, I ended up in guitar jam room full of people that lacked a guitarist, so I grabbed the nearest Les Paul and joined the crowd. Later Arieanna told me that I was basically rocking with all the Juno nominees or winners in a crowd of people. So, that was a fairly big highlight of my weekend. I think Arieanna too a video of it, so I'll try and post it at later. I am, at best, a mediocre guitar player, but thankfully everyone was pretty tipsy and I managed to keep up for five minutes or so. I also got free shoes from Adidas. Upstairs was a room full of those people, and I went into a room where Adidas replaced my shoes with cooler items, for free. What an evening. I even have this new leather bag that says "Adidas Super Star." Tonight is the awards show, so I'm going to head on over to that shortly. And the later I'm going to come back to my hotel and relax. I have an early morning flight back to Vancouver tomorrow, and then it's back to being software engineer Duane again. But that's ok -- he's a fun guy too.

Inside The Media Room At The Junos

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:00:45 +0000

I picked up a cab and headed down to the Saddledome to attend the Junos tonight. However, as soon as I got to the front door, I was told that I wasn't allowed inside by some lady. Of course, I received countless emails that said I had access to this event, which of course I tried to explain to her. Her argument was that those emails didn't mean anything, and that they were limited by space. Eventually she let me in, but it was a rather big hassle. The media room here is fairly nuts. There are about twice as many photographers as last night, but they are stuffed in about half of the space. I went down and looked at the photo pit in the stadium, but I think it's just going to be too crowded, and I'm not going to bother. I've even a bit concerned getting photos in the media room since they are just so many people here, all trying to get shots. While I like taking photos, I'm not a big fan of having to fight to take a photo. But we'll see what happens. The actual event doesn't start until 6pm, which is two hours away. So for now I'm just going to surf the internet and work on some photos from last night.

Michael Buble At The Junos

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:36:54 +0000

Just got a few photos with Michael Buble, and I'm even in a group shot with him on someone else's camera.

Thirty One

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:01:51 +0000

I'm sitting in a hotel room, in Calgary, lying in bed in my boxers, eating some nachos that were delivered via room service. That, people, is how I rang in my 31st birthday tonight. There were lots of parties going on in Calgary, but truth is I just wanted to relax, watch some TV, and reflect on another year. I actually had the perfect photo to put up here for this entry. It was a shot of me with a bunch of other photographers at the Junos, all hanging out with Russell Peters after the awards. I thought it would be a fun shot, and would sort of sum up this weekend for me in a photo. But when I approached the photographer who took it and asked for a copy, he turned me down. I'd be lying if I said that event didn't bum me out a bit, because it did. But ultimately it just made me thankful that I am the person I am, and that the world I normally live in doesn't contain any people like that. But in terms of birthdays, it's funny how fast time flies. Some days I wake up, and for a brief moment, think that I'm somewhere else. Some other time, some other place. Like when a summer breeze takes you back to a bike ride as a kid, or the sound of the surf to the thoughts of an old vacation. A creaking floorboard that reminds you of footsteps that once walked there. The traffic lights streaking across the room at night, like memories of dancing candlelights. I never really knew my great grandmother. Because my family is Ukrainian, and our grandma is known as Baba, everyone got used to calling my great grandmother "Baba Grandma", which I guess the adults figured would confuse us kids less. Before she died, years ago, she had a conversation with my dad, one that he still talks about today. She told him that every day she woke up and felt like she was a 16 year old girl again, a girl that loved to play with dolls, run through the fields, and play outside with her friends. It was only her reflection in the mirror that gave her age away. I have so much to be thankful for. I have great friends, loving family, and the person I've become in my 31 years is someone that I'm proud of. While I'm not perfect, I do the best with what I have, I admit when I make mistakes, and I try to move two steps forward for every one I fall back. And despite the bumps in the road, especially over the last year and a half, I really have been blessed with good fortune my whole life. I mean, here I am, a computer dork, at the Juno awards taking photographs. It's a rare opportunity, and I'm really thankful that good forture has blown in my direction more often than not in my life. The next year will be different that the last two. It will be a year without surgeries and without hospitals. It will be the year where I move past the ugliness of the past and restart the engine that stalled a few years ago. And in that regard, I'm really looking forward to it. Part of me feels like it's a chance to start over again, to put things right that somehow went wrong, to make new friends, and to have a little fun along the way. I have a plane to catch in the morning, so I'll leave it as that. But I just want to thank all my friends and my family for being there for me during the last thirty one years. Also, as an added birthday present, Google is featuring the last plugin I wrote, Wordpress Without Borders, over on their coding blog. It will end up over at BraveNewCode in the near future.

Turning Thirty One

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:49:49 +0000

Well, I am officially 31, and I feel old. Tonight, Keira, Amy, John and Rebecca came by and spent the night eating nachos and watching Apple TV with me. I easily had over 100 messages between email and Facebook related to my birthday, which considering where I was last year, is totally amazing and completely appreciated. You guys are all awesome. On the plane today I ran into my old high school friend, Laura Street, and we spent the flight chatting about old times. I think there's a camping trip in Banff on the horizon for all of us. But until then, thanks so much. Tomorrow I'll write about all the Junos stuff I haven't talked about yet! But until then, thanks to everyone who took a few minutes out of their day and wished me a happy birthday.

Another Photo From The Junos

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:13:57 +0000

Russell Peters: One of the best things I heard him say all weekend was his response to a question a reporter asked him during the press conference. They asked him what he was bringing to the Junos this year that was different than what previous hosts have brought. He responded "talent"

Back At It

Duane Storey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:48:59 +0000

Back at it again. Now that the Junos are over, I'm basically full swing back into the daily grind. I have an interesting optimization problem at work that I'll write about at some point (from the perspective of how to speed up compilation of a project), but other than that, it's just business as usual. I started getting a tickle in my throat yesterday which has somehow exploded into a full-on sore throat today. So, while I'm at work, I feel like I'm on the verge of getting sick. It's most likely related to being on a few crowded planes and shaking hands with tons of new people last weekend, and I'm hopeful it passes. I'm going to use this weekend as a chance to catch up on sleep and put my body back on schedule. I've been working on a few projects on the side, one of which involves the homeless community in Vancouver. While not for certain, we might have something to show regarding it next week. So, I'll keep everyone in the loop. And finally, thanks to all of the people who sent me some link love on my birthday.

Stop Drinking The Google Kool-Aid People

Duane Storey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:06:01 +0000

Ok, I'm going to go into rant mode. Why is everyone so enamored with Google these days? I read yesterday about their recent Google App Engine, and didn't really see anything that particularly turned my crank. I've been bouncing around the web today reading what people are saying, and for the most part, everyone is down in the People's Temple drinking the Kool-Aid. I don't think the App Engine is a bad idea, I just don't really get why you'd even consider it, especially considering AWS is around and has a much more flexible offering. First, I'm going to start by saying that 99% of web companies never even reach a point in their business where they actually require scaling. I've seen this talked about many times. So why, when developing a new web technology or company would you lock yourself into the Google shackles simply on the hope that you hit that 1%? It would be different if they offered a solution that you could migrate at some point, but what they do offer is fairly Google centric. Also, in terms of the valuation of a company, most of the large acquisitions in the last five years have primarily been in exchange for the company's user base. That is, if the cost of acquiring a customer is $100 by conventional marketing means, but you can buy a few million of them (by purchasing a company) for around $30/user, that's a good deal. But if you use Google (at least based on some sites I've been reading), they you are tying your users into the Google infrastructure. Maybe that's a good thing in your mind, but if you think your user base might be worth something, then I wouldn't want that intermingling with Google's world. In fact, I'd actually question if it is your user, or theirs (i.e. read the fine print people). Google has clearly shown that all your data is their data, even inside of your personal emails (ever see the contextually sensitive ads in gmail?) Clearly Google wants to take data mining to another level with this service. In terms of actually having a legitimate web company (you know that like, makes money and stuff, and doesn't just talk about that), the majority of your costs these days will most likely be salaries, not hosting (the obvious exception might be a company like YouPorn, but they are the exception, not the rule). Our company at work hosts tons of data files for our customers, and we get hundreds of thousands of downloads a month. You know what that costs? A few hundred dollars in bandwidth per month. You know, I'm not even sure why so many companies are trying to offer cheap hosting. Who wants cheap? I want good. If I were to start a web hosting company, I would do the opposite -- I would offer expensive hosting, and then get behind my product. It would be the hosting equivalent of those gas stations in the 50s where guys would run around and pump up your tires for you. Maybe I'd make those guys really hot girls instead, and have them in cute cheerleader uniforms, but it would be the same concept. What company wouldn't pay $100 a month to have hosting that was reliable, run by people with a vision and who cared about the success of your product or website? People only go cheap today because in a sea of shitty options, you might as well have one that doesn't break the bank. If I had to choose between Amazon's AWS and Google, I wouldn't even hesitate to choose AWS. Google is far too restrictive at this point, and I really think it's a bad idea for a new company. Let's talk about Google in general for a moment. They are the clear and obvious leaders in search, hands down. But what about all the other things they've worked on? Truthfully, they haven't really done much that's exciting. Gmail was a home-run, and most people I know use that. GoogleTalk, not so successful (in fact, compared to Yahoo messenger, the numbers are fairly embarrassing). Part of the reason I think is the whole "perpetual beta" concept that these large web companies seem to be stuck in. I don't mind a product in beta, but you know, the beta should end at some point -- I think two years is enough time to work out the bugs. Also, as most of you know, Google has a flat structure internally without a ton of management (at least that's what they claim). I also know that almost every cool project that has come out of Google (GoogleTalk and Gmail I believe) was part of Google's 20% time projects (every employee is allowed to spend 20% of their time doing the things they want). So I mean, if you're management at Google, and you see that your best stuff is coming out of the time your employees are spending doing their own things, shouldn't you, like you know, make the 20% time the 80% time? Maybe tie up some loose ends and release a few solid projects? That's what I would do. How about OpenSocial or XMPP? I had a conversation with some friends last year about OpenSocial. I thought it was another interesting idea, but didn't think it would go anywhere. A year later, I'm still waiting to hear about some huge successes with it but nobody talks about it anymore, at least not in the circle's I'm in. XMPP is great technology. Really it is. But where are the wins in that space? GoogleTalk is based on XMPP, but like most things Google releases, it came out and then sort of disappeared. If Google would throw their weight behind XMPP and GoogleTalk, maybe it would turn into something truly revolutionary for the web. But that might require pulling a product out of Beta. Open standards are great, and that's the direction everyone needs to move towards. But you can't have an open standard without the support of the industry -- without it, it's ultimately bound to fail. I've seen it time and time again at the IETF and other open-source meetings. The community needs to collectively admit there's a problem, come up with an open standards approach to fixing the problem, then as a whole, get behind it.

Al Gore On Climate Change

Duane Storey — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:31:48 +0000

I just saw a fairly recent (February 2008) film showing a slide-show that Al Gore recently gave on climate change. Here's a version of the video from Ted.com. It's inline with the material presented in his film, An Inconvenient Truth, but includes recent data and observations. I watched that video once earlier today, and once again the moment this posting went live. To be honest, while I think he makes amazing points, I have a hard time watching it, mostly because the frustration is so evident in his speech. As far as he is concerned (along with most of the scientists out there), everything he is stating in so amazingly obvious it's hard to fathom how there hasn't been a huge movement to correct these issues. And I completely agree. Real change takes passion. It times time, energy, and sacrifice. But that does not automatically imply that real, meaningful change has to be hard, just that it takes determination. To clarify that point, I want to make mention of a blog entry I did a few weeks ago where I talked about how Google was giving every homeless person in San Francisco a free phone number. I approached Google about helping pull that off in Vancouver, but I never got a reply. So instead of giving up, I gathered a group of people together in Vancouver and pitched the idea of doing it ourselves. With luck, next week that system will go live. I mention that not to toot my own horn, but to show that not all change is hard to obtain. In this case, the system will hopefully help people in this city, give hope to those who need it the most, and will serve as a demonstration that not all big ideas take big effort. All it took was the collective efforts of a few people, and a little drive. That's all most things ever take. Last weekend I attended the Junos in Calgary, and went in the capacity as a photographer with the media. My blog, which doesn't really ever get a lot of traffic, was on the front page of results on Google for the Junos, often above CTV and other mainstream news outlets. And who am I? I'm just a nobody -- a computer dork that hacks away at PHP in my spare time, sets up blogs, watches movies, and sometimes treats myself to a helping of nachos. But that's the point. Our generation is really the first one that has the capacity to rise above politics, above media censorship, above lies, and have our voices heard whenever we want. Some of us have blogs, some of us get Facebook traffic, and others undoubtedly know someone that does. Some of you are writers, some painters, some singers, some photographers, all with a medium available to voice your frustrations with the world or inspire the change you want to see in it. And if you believe in something enough, whether it's climate change or something else, there's really nothing stopping you from making a difference or making yourself heard. A single drop in a pond, no matter how small, will still cause a ripple.

On The 12th Day Of Self-Hosting

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:07:06 +0000

Yes, sports fans, it's been twelve days since I decided to move my hosting back onto my living room floor. So far, it's been 12 days of pure bliss, of heavenly visions filled with bunny rabbits and endless fields of sunshine and happiness, where kids run forever. But seriously, things have been going rather great. I haven't had a single hiccup, and get complete SQL backups emailed to me twice a day, just in case something were to ever go wrong. All my data is backed up with RAID 5 storage (and will email me whenever a drive starts to get old, thanks to hourly SMART diagnostics), so unless my apartment explodes, everything should be ok. I've noticed the guys are Media Temple hitting my site from time to time, so I'm hoping they can figure out their problems soon. I still have a hosting account there, and wouldn't mind going back to using it at some point. But I'm ok for now where I am.

New Integrated Flickr Video Player

Duane Storey — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:07:32 +0000

So I felt like flexing my brain a bit tonight. Everyone has been going rather stir crazy over Flickr video, so tonight I uploaded a few and played around. Two things I really like:

The quality is really good
They let you use whatever aspect ratio you want

Those are two big wins in my eyes. Anyways, I reverse engineered their RSS feed a bit, and modified the Crossroads plugin to handle video. The end result is now on my website, and you can play with it my clicking on the videos listed in the sidebar. Have fun!

The End Of Microsoft Windows

Duane Storey — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:08:13 +0000

Yesterday I read a really interesting article about the end of Windows as we know it. I can't say that I disagree with that assessment at all. As many of you know, Windows Vista was basically my sole reason for moving to a Mac last year. I had installed it on my Toshiba notebook computer and it was the slowest piece of a garbage I had ever used -- none of the drivers worked properly, and it crashed for no reason. The worse part was their "upgrade wizard" said my machine would be fine. Here's a little video I took while installing it (looks like it's up to 50,000 views on YouTube): The thing about Mac, at least in terms of an OS, is that's basically the BSD kernel with a nice UI on top of it. And I say that in a good way. What it means is that Mac OS kernel is essentially tried and true, and Mac engineers can put their time into making the user experience great, which is what Macs have typically been known for. Contrast that with Microsoft, who at each step see to try to reinvent the wheel again. One of the main selling points about Vista was a new database-like file system called WinFS. Of course, Microsoft pulled it from the product since they couldn't seem to get it working right. In terms of my website, here's the latest data on operating systems: As you can see, Mac is slowly growing on my list (they were < 5% typically last year). Granted, my readership is heavily biased towards the geek side of the spectrum, but the point is the same. Microsoft is losing some serious share of the market to Apple. I know a lot of enterprise users were waiting for the release of the new Microsoft Office on the Mac, and now that it's out, are actually switching their desktop computers at work to Macs. Look at me - I'm a windows developer at work, and you know how I develop software? In a Windows XP virtual machine on my 8-core MacPro. Maybe Windows really is dying.

Andy Kaufman

Duane Storey — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:23:06 +0000

Why? Why not.

Nerd Camp With The Bollwitts

Duane Storey — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:11:45 +0000

Video by Miss604: We all have a pile of computer work to do this weekend, so we're just sitting around messing with them. One of these days I'll take my christmas tree down.

John Biehler In Hawaii

Duane Storey — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:57:34 +0000

So our pal John Biehler is currently soaking up the rays in Hawaii with his wife. It's been a long tradition of ours (and by long, I mean about two months) of having a nerd camp at my place. We had one today and John couldn't make it, so here's a quick Flickr video showing what he's been up to:

I Call Bullshit

Duane Storey — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:37:09 +0000

I have, over the course of my career, given a pile of interviews. One of the trends I've seen a lot in recent years is people who feel the need to lie or exaggerate on their resumes. There's nothing wrong with wording your experience in such a way to promote you a bit better, just so long as you don't lie or stretch the truth to the point where it's unbelievable. In fact, when I started in the realm of software development, I had basically zero real world experience in the area, and that was often looked as a complete detriment to me (even though I had been coding since I was about 15 years old). So in that case, I had to really stretch things a bit on my resume to make it look like I could handle a software engineering job. But the reality was I could back up what I wrote. I gave an interview last year to this guy with a master's degree who was applying for a job at our company. His resume seemed really impressive - he had a ton of journal publications, and seemed to know a lot in his field. So when I sat down with him, I began my usual binary search of his knowledge tree. First question I asked was for him to explain to me, in technical terms, what his last journal paper was about. He couldn't do it. So I asked him to pick any paper he had written and go up to the whiteboard and describe to me what the point of the paper was. Same deal. So basically, he had either lied, or got his name on a bunch of papers he really knew nothing about. I see that alot actually. I really don't know how you can walk into a room knowing that you're completely full of crap. Nobody is expected to know everything in an interview, and I give brownie points to people who simply say they are not sure when I ask them something, instead of pretending to know the answer. Anyways, that's enough ranting for now.

A Kid No More

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:24:06 +0000

One of the strange things I find about getting older is the fact that I no longer enjoy the same things I used to. Board games are a good example -- I just plain don't like them these days. I don't mind sitting around a camp fire and playing asshole for eight hours, but I can't be bothered with something like monopoly. Another strange change is that I don't really enjoy drinking or bars that much these days. I had a fairly crazy university life, and somehow (despite being in a dormitory filled with nerds and scholarship recipients) ended up on a floor full of people that liked to party hard. I was a really shy kid when I got to university, but I have fond memories of the five day bender we went on to kick start our second year of university. To be honest, I really have no idea how we did it like that back then. There was also a four day drinking adventure in Halifax, NS, where eight of my friends and I flew out there for St. Patrick's Day. The bars that weekend opened at 10am (and there were line-ups), and it was just four full days of craziness. Nowadays, my Friday nights for the most part involve Diet Coke and a movie or two. If I want to get really crazy, I might do a bit of web programming or surf the internet for a while. The funny thing is, I don't miss going to pubs really, and drinking not at all. On the odd day when I go out drinking nowadays, I find I can only have about three of four drinks before I'm pretty much guaranteed to have a hangover the next day. Maybe I successfully pickled my liver years ago -- I'm not sure.

Tax Season

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:32:43 +0000

For those that are interested, I finally found an account downtown that I think is willing to do my taxes. I've typically always done them myself, except for one year when I had a bunch of stock and moving expenses I wasn't sure how to deal with. I have income from multiple sources this year (thanks to photography and the odd web job), which should mean (in theory) that I'm eligible to write off some of my photography and computer expenses. Unfortunately, I'm not the most organized person in the world, and I somehow have to track down all my tax stuff from last year, along with everything from this year, prior to my Wednesday meeting with the accountant. So tomorrow night is undoubtedly going to be fairly crazy.

A Big Oops

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:57:47 +0000

I was just lying on my bed, opening some mail from the last few months that I haven't gotten around to opening. I thought since I have an appointment for taxes coming up that I should get all my receipts and everything in order. In one envelope, I find this letter, apparently involving some parking violation I had around Christmas:

THIS IS TO COMMAND YOU IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME TO APPEAR BEFORE A JUSTICE ON APRIL 14, 2008

In case you're not following the date, that was yesterday, and I obviously didn't show. The next part is the worrisome piece of information:

FAILURE TO ANSWER A SUMMONS IN PERSON OR BY COUNSEL MAY RESULT IN APPLICATION BEING MADE FOR A WARRANT FOR YOUR ARREST

Can you say fuck? I'm setting my alarm and calling down first thing in the morning to try and sort this out. How do I get myself into this shit.

Wikipedia And Creative Commons

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:12:21 +0000

I received an email a while ago from an editor at Wikipedia, asking me if I would mind if they using one of my juno photos on a page. The only catch is that they wanted me to change the license of the photo to allow for commercial use and derivative works. I'm a big fan of Wikipedia -- I use it all the time. So I really wanted to help those guys out and let them use my photo. Since I paid for the entire Juno trip myself, I have a hard time actively letting other people make money from my work. As a compromise, I offered to grant Wikipedia a non-revokable license for use of that photo on their site, but wanted to maintain the non-commercial license for people using the photo. They came back and said that wasn't possible, and that they were worried that if someone took the photo from Wikipedia and used it commercially that they would be held liable. To me, it's not a very good argument, considering the same thing can happen on Flickr any day of the week. But it is what it is. So, in the end I turned them down, which I'm actually kind of bothered by. I don't think I'm in the wrong as I really feel strongly that other people shouldn't profit from my work. I already let people use all the photos anyway for non-commercial use, but just feel like changing the license to allow for commercial usage was a pretty big request. Any comments?

Waves Coffee In Yaletown

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:47:06 +0000

A few days ago I started getting a soreness in my throat and lungs that has since progressed into what I figured was bronchitis. I hit the medical clinic in Yaletown tonight and got a full check-up, and sure enough, it's what I thought it was. They've prescribed Zithromax, which should hopefully have me feeling a lot better in a day or two. After filling my prescription on Pacific, I decided to check out a new coffee shop that opened up there. The coffee shop is Waves Coffee, and it's a quaint little spot right on the West Side of Yaletown. It reminded me a lot of the coffee shops I used to spend a lot of time at in Kitsilano back when I was a student. While Waves is definitely comfy looking, they also provide full 24 hour service as well as free wireless internet (as an added bonus, most of the tables are next to power outlets). To be honest, I'm really happy to see something like that opening up around here. While there are certain aspects of the Bay Area that I don't like, one of the nice things about that area is that you can usually find places that are open 24 hours a day, including coffee shops, gyms, food places, etc. As a somewhat creative person who hates 9-5 (I'm a night owl), it's sort of nice knowing there's a place I can go at 2am if I just want to chill, surf the web, or meet up with other night owls. In addition, I think it's really great for students in the area, since it's far more enjoyable to be studying into the wee hours of the morning in a nice, cozy coffee shop as opposed to your bedroom. So if you're in the neighbourhood, or looking for somewhere to have a small meeting with friends or co-workers, I highly recommend checking them out. They are at the corner of Drake and Pacific - make sure you tell them you read about them on my blog!

Congrats To Strutta

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:02:55 +0000

Today marked the launch of Strutta, a local company that has been working hard to create a unique gaming experience. I had the opportunity to check out their product about six weeks ago and play with an early alpha. I think these guys have some great things in store for them, so make sure you head on over and check them out. So on behalf of everyone here at duanestorey.com (yah I know, it's only me), I want to congratulate Maura, Danny, Alexa, Jordan, Lyal, and the rest of the Strutta team, on their accomplishments. Best of luck guys.

17 Days

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:38:09 +0000

For those of you who actually come to my site from time to time, you'll have undoubtedly noticed my little counter in the right corner of the sidebar. What that tracks is how long my website has been active in the corner of my living room. If you're on a paid hosting account, fire me off an email whenever your server goes down so I can keep track against how mine's doing. So far I'm at 17 days straight without any downtime. If you check out Media Temple's status blog, you can see that they've had 50 minutes of outage during the last three days. Based on their own blog entries, they are running at 99.7% uptime (although based on the outages I experienced and their duration, I think it's actually worse than that).

Vancouver Fashion Week, April 2008

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:08:26 +0000

Tomorrow marks the first event for the Vancouver Fashion Week, 2008 Spring Edition. I had a media pass last year and spent a few evenings taking photos. If I remember correctly, the only downside to the event (in my opinion) was that I thought most of the models lacked enthusiasm. I also remember wishing I had brought a flash to the opening event, so if anyone is going, I'd recommend bringing one. While I love photography, it's fairly dull sitting at the end of a runway for an hour taking the same shot over and over again, and I really appreciated the models that mixed it up a bit or added their own personal flare to the event. Tomorrow is basically the opening Gala at the Opus Hotel, followed by an event at Bar None. Once again I have a media pass, so I'll have full access to the events. Unfortunately, because I'm still fighting bronchitis, I will probably miss tomorrow's event. If I'm feeling up to it on Thursday night, I'll probably catch a session and swing by the after party to see what it's like this year. Or I might just come home and watch a movie.

Catch The Vibe

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:43:05 +0000

Last week both Rebecca and I got contacted by General Motors asking if we wanted to take part in GM's Catch The Vibe event. It's basically a huge multi-day adventure race, where we would have, as teams of four, gotten to test drive the new 2009 Vibe, live-blog using new Blackberry's, and drive all over the city looking for clues and what-not. Included with the festivities was a free night at the Opus Hotel in Yaletown. Unfortunately both her and I have day-jobs, and we just couldn't manage the time during the day. It looks like a really fun event, and it would have been cool to take part it in. But check out their website and watch the events unfold over the next day or two. Hopefully they do something like this on a weekend one time where I can take part in it.

Another Friday

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:43:11 +0000

I've been taking it fairly easy this week, spending a lot of time at home (when not at work) resting up. I've been on anti-biotics for a few days now, and while my bronchitis is subsiding, my stomach has been bothering me. Not sure if that's related to the infection I acquired last fall, or if it's just the anti-biotics upsetting my stomach -- I guess I'll know for sure when I stop taking them. There are a few things going on this weekend, but to be honest, I think I'm going to bail on everything and just rest. I think I might go get groceries tomorrow morning and then spend the rest of the weekend reading and drinking coffee. Lately it seems like there is just so much going on that it's hard to find time to relax, so I think this weekend I'm going to make some time and just hang out at home. I posted about my camera the other day, and it's for sure gone. I left it on a table for about 2 minutes while I walked to go take another photo -- when I came back it was gone, which sucks. Oh well. I don't have much luck these days.

Life Lessons, Volume One

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:37:52 +0000

I've been spending a bit of time talking to Dale recently about life, careers, and where we both want to end up in the next few years. During one of our recent iChats, I was reminded of this Mexican fishing joke I heard a few years ago and managed to track it down. After I showed it to Dale he suggested I post it up here, because it has a fairly important message in it.

An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, "Only a little while." The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs." The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life." The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise." The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?" The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years." "But what then?" asked the Mexican. The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions." "Millions?...Then what?" The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Vancouver Fashion Week Opening Gala

Duane Storey — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:14:53 +0000

This was on Thursday night. Good times.

Waking Up At Noon

Duane Storey — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:42:32 +0000

Yes, today I briefly debated getting out of my bed at around nine, but decided sleeping in until noon was a better idea. I've had this recurring dream for the last few years that always feels so real. In it, someone (usually my friend Jeff) tells me about some university exam that I'm late for. Of course, everyone is completely prepared for the exam except for me. So I get to the exam and struggle for a good portion of my dream trying to come up with answers I don't have. For whatever reason, that one always seems real to me. When I wake up, I sometimes almost want to make a call to the university to make sure I'm not still enrolled or something. The dream actually kind of mimics this one experience I had in university. I walked into a third year electrical engineering class not knowing it was the mid-term. It counted for 40% of the final grade, and I basically bombed the whole thing (since I hadn't prepared for it at all). I talked to the prof after the test and told him that I honestly had no idea the mid-term was that day (I had missed a few classes due to being sick), and he said he'd think about what to do. At the end of the year, he counted my final exam for 90% instead of 50%, which basically let me pass his course based on that screw-up I had. He didn't have to do that, but I'm obviously really glad that he did.

The Case Of The Disappearing Hard Drive

Duane Storey — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:53:31 +0000

Ever since I upgraded to Leopard a few months ago, I've been plagued with disk space issues on my Macbook Pro. Normally, when shooting photographs, you use your hard drive as permanent storage and your compact flash cards as temporary storage. I had so little space on my hard drive during the Junos though that I was forced to reverse the two, and was literally using extra CF cards to make up the hard drive difference. Today I sat down to see if I could figure out where it all went. The key application I used was Disk Inventory X, a great little tool that graphically displays where all your space is being used. In my case, it ended up being the following:

20GB was stuck in a Previous Systems folder from when I upgraded to Leopard
10GB was being used by Apple mail, since it was storing local copies of everything on Gmail
10GB in random movies on my computer
10GB in various random download folders

So, in about 30 minutes I managed to free up a little over 50GB, which now makes my laptop far more usable. I'm also going to pick up a miniature external hard drive for it at some point so I have extra storage available when on the road.

Score A Big Zero For Canadian Medical

Duane Storey — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:59:11 +0000

Here comes another rant: As most of you know, back in November I was in the hospital with pneumonia. While there, I picked up a hospital acquired infection known as c. diff. It's unfortunately rather common these days mainly due to the lack of cleanliness in hospitals (and also due to the abuse of broad-spectrum anti-biotics in hospitals). But without a doubt, it's a serious infection, and is responsible for many deaths. The superbug the media focuses on is MRSA, but in terms of fatalities, c. diff kills about twice as many people. Just last month it claimed the life of a mother who went to the UBC hospital to deliver twins. I spent a few months battling it with my family doctor, and eventually he referred me to a specialist at St. Paul's hospital. I went through a few runs of anti-biotics, and for the most part felt ok again. For the last few weeks though, I've been having a lot of upset stomach and some cramps, which reminds me of some of the things I went through before. So my family doctor said to go back and see the specialist again for a follow-up. I called down today to St. Paul's and asked if I could get in this week to see someone. Their response? "Sorry, nobody is around for at least a week who knows how to book appointments." I was like, "are you serious?" So, they want me to call back later next week, and maybe someone will be back who knows how to use a pencil and paper. Way to go Canadian medical.

Juno Awards After Party

Duane Storey — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:24:25 +0000

I found a bunch more videos from the Junos. After the Gala on the Saturday night, a few of us headed to some after party. Here's a shot from the Jam Room upstairs in the VIP room.

A Medical Update

Duane Storey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:53:23 +0000

After originally being denied access to see the specialist, St. Paul's contacted me the other day and said they could fit me in this morning. So I went down to the hospital and went over my last test results and had a chance to talk to the doctor. The good news is that my test came back c. diff negative, and although that's not a fail safe test, it's at least partially good news. Based on my symptoms and my tests, the specialist is fairly certain that I've developed either irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or lactose intolerance, both of which can temporarily arise after fighting a gastro-intestinal ailment. So, short answer is that I need to just wait this out, and possibly try changing my diet to exclude diary for a while. On my way out the door, I picked up a copy of all my records from St. Paul's Hospital over the last two years. It's a strange thing going back in time and reading some of the things I went through put onto paper. Here's my favourite blurb, penned the day after I went through that window back in November of 2006:

A left zygomatic arch fracture is identified, which is only minimally displaced. Also [..] the left zygomaticofrontal suture is fractured. In the region of the left orbit, there is an orbital floor fracture, with fluid and [bone] fragments herniating into the left maxillary sinus. Some of the intra-orbital fat has herniated downwards, however the [muscle at the bottom of the eye], which inferiorly displaced, has not entered the maxillary sinus. There is also a fracture line in the posterolateral orbit, extending into the wall of the pterygopalatine fossa, with a 1mm x 3mm [bone] fragment which sits within the lateral orbital cavity. There are also fractures of the anterior and lateral left maxillary walls.

The funny thing is that it was identified that I had an orbital floor fracture at this point, even though days later they didn't mention it, or that it needed surgery. When I finally got surgery a few weeks later, the operating surgeon made the following comments about the fractures:

There was a significant comminuted [bones broken into multiple pieces] fracture of the patient's orbital floor [the bone under my left eye]. The medial segment appeared to be unstable because it was attached to the patient's slightly mobile zygomatic piece. The lateral orbital wall did not appear to be completely aligned but the lateral segment was stable.

Which seemed to indicate that it was a large fracture that was difficult to fix because some of the bony shelfs were not stable. Anyways, I have to re-read all this stuff when I have more time. Looking at my blood work back in September, I was really sick in the hospital with pneumonia. Most of my numbers were outside of limits, and of prime concern was the state of my electrolytes and the fact I had blood in my urine. They noted that I was so dehydrated that my blood was taking up far less volume than normal, which usually leads to a state of shock. I'm glad that's behind me. ** Update - after reading them again at lunch, I realized there's a gap in my records during a period where I know I met with doctors. I called down to the hospital, and sure enough they have those on file, but didn't include them. So I think I should be receiving those sometime soon.

Feedburner Messing Up

Duane Storey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:04:30 +0000

I accidentally stumbled onto my own feed in Google reader today and noticed some photos I actually didn't take. For whatever reasons, it seems like feed burner is not filtering the content based on my user account at Flickr, but instead is including public photos tagged "feedburner", something it never used to do. I checked my settings, and it's definitely setup to only include photos from my stream, so the problem seems to be on their end. I tried finding a contact email on their site, but all they do is push you to the support forums (I hate this practice by companies nowadays -- support your product people). So I might have to disable this feature for now. I'll link to the feedburner blog and hope someone reads this.

New Wordpress

Duane Storey — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:48:24 +0000

Wordpress 2.5.1 came out today. Wordpress 2.5 was actually a bit buggy (IMO), so I'm happy to incorporate this new release. I was for some reason still running a 2.6 beta version, and now I'm officially back on the stable line. If you're a Wordpress user, you might want to download it and install it -- apparently it has a few rather important security releases.

Not A Very Good Job

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:36:05 +0000

From Wikipedia 1923 Bullet-proof Vest Tester

Centos Repositories

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:18:14 +0000

I set up a Linux box at home a while ago, mainly so that I'd have a stable place to run my blog. To that end, I installed Centos on it, which is an enterprise grade version of Linux (many hosting companies use it). The one downside to using Centos is that most of the packages in the repositories are rather old (although they are usually stable). So if you want to stay on the cutting edge, it's fairly hard using this distribution. While trying to install PHP 5.2 tonight, I stumbled upon a a really great up-to-date Centos repository. Thankfully it has prebuilt PHP and MYSQL versions.

The Weekend

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:03:27 +0000

I was out at Waves Coffee until around 2:10am last night, which was an interesting experience unto itself. The first question I have is for all you ladies -- how come the majority of you are dating dipshits? Pretty much every girl that walked in last night had some idiot guy attached to her. This one in particular reminded me of the typical drug dealer back home -- you know, with the fancy phone, crooked hat, tons of jewelry, and an attitude that just wouldn't quit. The guy had his girlfriend running errands in the coffeeshop for him while he sat and tried to degrade her verbally. Even after she put a package lunch together for him (apparently so he'd have something to eat the next day), he still cut her down. Thankfully they left as I was approaching my "idiot-tolerance-level", but not before the girl shot a look at me and muttered under her breath "what an asshole," referring of course to that guy. Later this one couple came in and did a Lady and the Tramp at the table using a cup of coffee. It was one of the most disturbing things I have seen in a long time. In other news, I also picked up a new driver's license today. A few years ago one of the local nightclubs ran it through one of their machines and tossed it back at me in two pieces. I was like "ok great, you're going to replace that for me right?" Three years later I finally got a new one, and no longer have to use my passport as ID, which is rather nice. Other than that, I'm just going to lay low for the rest of the weekend. I have a nice pan of bacon sizzling right now, and will pound it back with some coffee. I might even venture outside at get some sun at some point, which will be rather nice.

The War On Terror - Unsubscribe

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:38:59 +0000

Matt posted this on his site this morning, and after watching it and reading about the backstory for it (the person in the video is actually not acting -- he is in real pain), wanted to share it here too. The scene depicted in the film undoubtedly occurs daily in some parts of the world, namely Guantanamo Bay. I just read this little blurb on Wikipedia, and for some reason found it rather disturbing:

In 1986, Guantanamo became host to Cuba's first and only McDonald's restaurant, as well as a Subway.[25] These fast food restaurants are on base, and not accessible to Cubans. It has been reported that prisoners cooperating with interrogations have been rewarded with Happy Meals from the McDonald's located on the mainside of the base.

If you want to unsubscribe from the war on terror, click here.

Ode To Google Reader

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:09:37 +0000

I've been using Google Reader as my main RSS reader for some time. For the most part, I'm pretty happy with it. They've recently added the ability to share items, which makes it far more interesting. The one thing I'd love to see though is the ability to add local comments on those shared items, comments that only my friends could see. So many times I've read items in my friends' shared feeds and really wanted to say something, or get clarification. Going to the real site and posting a comment sort of implies a certain level of knowledge on my part (especially if it's a technical discussion). However, that barrier is much reduced when talking amongst my friends, and I really would love to see side-channel discussions on shared items. That's my request for the day. So Google, you missed my birthday a few weeks ago, but you should do this for me. While I'm on the subject, I'll bring it Google Gears recently. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Google Gears is basically a Javascript library that gives you, as a developer of a web product, the ability to off-line content. It received a bunch of hype a few months ago (although, like most things Google does these days, the hype seems to have died off), so I took a good look at it. And to be honest, I don't think I'd integrate it into a web application of mine. It's essentially a local caching system, and it seems a bit redundant to me in some regards. The amount of effort needed to make your application work offline, and then work again while online (via some synchronization of data and what-not), is really far too large for the average application I would think. Maybe in the extreme cases (like Google Docs), you can justify the expense, but doing twice the work to capture maybe 5% of people who want to use your application offline really isn't a good investment for most people (the good ole 80-20 rule).

This Is Awesome

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:50:50 +0000

When adult chat time doesn't quite go as expected: From here.

Gymnastics Jessica

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:45:17 +0000

My niece, Jessica, was just in a big gymnastics event. Here's a shot of her: Way to go kiddo! Photo by Andie "Shaky Hands" Finnigan.

Russell Peters

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:27:07 +0000

I had a few beer tonight, and ended up stumbling across this Russell Peters video. This guy is awesome. I, quite literally, walked into the guy at the Juno awards a few weeks ago. I nearly knocked him over while leaving the media room. PS - Media Temple just barfed again, and I'm still running.

My Taxes Are Done!

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:52:49 +0000

I got a call from the accountant this morning, and she said my taxes were all done. I just had to swing by and sign some forms and they would be e-filed. Before I gave her my taxes, I did a quick trial run myself, just to see what the difference would be. If I were to have filed them, I would have gotten back around $600. Having her do it (and properly take into account all my camera gear), I get about $1800 back. Her fee for doing my taxes was about $160, so that means my net return is $1640, or about $1000 more than I would have gotten had I done them myself. Not bad.

BraveNewCode And WPtouch iPhone Theme

Duane Storey — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:37:47 +0000

As most of you are aware, I have, over the last few years, written quite a few plugins for Wordpress. Some of these plugins have been merely for fun, and others have been for various cool features over on MatthewGood.org. Last year, Dale Mugford and Matthew Good started pooling all their awesome designs over on BraveNewCode. While talking to Dale a few months ago, we both realized that it would be cool if I started putting some of my plugin work over there. So, as of right now, the entirety of my Wordpress plugin related material has been relocated to BraveNewCode. In addition, I'm happy to announce the release of the WPtouch WordPress iPhone theme. WPtouch was the brain child of Dale Mugford, a fully featured theme for WordPress that would make WordPress more usable on any iPhone or iPod touch. We demoed an early version over on Matt's site around November of last year, and have been slowly adding to it over the last few months. Dale has completely redesigned BraveNewCode for the release, and added an amazing amount of documentation for the WPtouch theme. If you're looking for a copy of it, head on over to the WPtouch page and check it out -- it's completely free, and should work with most Wordpress installations. Some of the features of the 1.0 release are:

User-selected theme toggle (between WPtouch view and your site's regular look)
iPhone-like application appearance, functions
AJAX, Prototype, Scriptaculous, & iPhone rotation effects in only 49kb
Full WordPress search, login, pages, archives, categories, tags and links support
Theme native social bookmarking support
iPhone/iPod touch native post e-mailing support
Ajax comments, posted in real time
Ajax pagination (users can browse posts like YouTube videos)
Admin selectable custom icons for pages, logo
Easily add your own icons to customize your menu appearance
Admin inclusion/exclusion of site pages shown in the theme's menu
Compatibility suite in the admin to inform of add-ons, WordPress version support
Favicon fetch & conversion to .png for blogroll links displayed using the WP blogroll
Support for FlickrRSS plugin, Blip.it video plugin
Automatic Archives page layout (if you have or create a page called 'Archives')

Dale and I have put a great deal of evening and weekend work into making WPtouch fully featured, and we're hoping the Wordpress community makes good use of it. Over the last few days we've given it out to a select group of individuals, so thanks to those people for the help. We're also anxious to get some feedback from some of the first user's to install it. So drop a comment over on BraveNewCode if you install it. I'm also scheduled to give a talk at the first Vancouver WordCamp on Wednesday night down at The Network Hub, and the focus of my talk will be on mobile blogging. I'll be giving a live demo of WPtouch and showing people just what it can do -- I'll post my keynote slides after the event. The generous guys over at Automattic have offered to pick up the first round of beers after, which is much appreciated.

Apple iPhone Coming To Canada

Duane Storey — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:31:57 +0000

It's official -- Roger's has made what they call a public statement regarding just that:

TORONTO, April 29 /CNW/ - Ted Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers Communications Inc. today issued the following statement: We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.

Not very informative, but I guess it dispels the myth that it's not coming. Although, most people thought it would get here eventually. I also read that Rogers is testing out a $20 unlimited data plan as well, which would make sense.

Inside The CBC

Duane Storey — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:48:15 +0000

So it's been fairly cool passively watching the WordPress blogs on the internet slowly convert to BraveNewCode's WPtouch iPhone theme. Tod Maffin just sent me a link to the CBC's Official Blog, which now sports a fancy new WPtouch theme. Check it out.

Vancouver WordCamp At The Network Hub

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:25:26 +0000

Tonight is the first ever WordCamp Vancouver down at The Network Hub. WordCamp is a unique event that brings together WordPress enthusiasts with a passion for one of the most widely used blogging packages, WordPress. The presenters for the night are: Rebecca Bollwitt: Adding photos to your WordPress blog.
Bruce Byfield: The Joys of Amateur Blogging.
John Chow: How to make money using a WordPress Blog.
Monica Hamburg: Blogging and Social Media.
Jeff Kee: WordPress for total website development.
Greg Andrews: Good Typography in WordPress.
Kulpreet Singh: Using WordPress to create a custom library, catalog, or other mashup-type site.
Duane Storey: WordPress and mobile blogging
As you can see, it's a really good mix of information. For my talk, I'm going to be focusing primarily on the iPhone, and giving a live demonstration of the WPtouch theme I helped co-develop along with Dale Mugford.

WordCamp Vancouver Wrap-Up

Duane Storey — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:21:35 +0000

Last night was Vancouver's first ever WordCamp down at the Network Hub downtown. I got there about 15 minutes early, and was fairly amazed that it was already standing (or sitting, if you will) room only. There were so many people in fact, that they wrapped around the edges into locations where you couldn't even see the projector. Clearly Vancouver has a very large and supportive WordPress community. Photo by John Biehler The open-source community in Vancouver is pretty amazing. Whenever I travel and tell others this, they are always suspect, like it would somehow be impossible for our little corner of the world to have any talent or innovation. And yet, I'm constantly amazed at the level of depth, the passion, and the good nature of most people in the Vancouver blogging community. A big thanks to the Network Hub and Tazzu for organizing the whole event, and for Automattic for picking up the first round of drinks. Definitely looking forward to the next one. For those of you who caught my talk last night and are looking for the WordPress iPhone theme, you can grab a copy of it here.

Vacation Plans

Duane Storey — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:27:11 +0000

Lately I've been thinking about what I'm going to do in terms of a vacation this year. Looking back over last year, I realized that I really only took one week of vacation (to the Dominican Republic), which probably explains why I'm a bit worn out lately. I talked to our accountant at work, and he said I have more than two weeks of vacation accrued already. So, I talked it over with my boss, and I think I'm going to take two weeks off in June. Truthfully, I can't remember the last time I've taken more than one week at a time off. My dad has always said that one week is not enough to recharge your batteries -- just as you're getting rested up, you have to go back to work. Plus, if you're gone for one week, people will just pile stuff on your desk for your return, but for two they'll often give your work to someone else while you're gone. The Monterey Peninsula, California What am I going to do during those two weeks? I actually think I'm going to hop in the car and tour some of the United States. I have to be in LA on the 20th of June to hang out with my niece and nephew at Disneyland, so I figured I'll slowly make my way down there, camping at various locations in the states. Plus, Tony has promised me a night of nachos and beer on the water somewhere near LA, so I'm definitely looking forward to that (I haven't been to LA in about 20 years). Tony Pierce, in Vancouver - with Rebecca and Keira I'll probably leisurely make my way back up the coastline, stopping in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and various spots in Oregon. I'm pretty sure I have friends scattered all over the place, so I'll probably randomly pop in for beers when I stroll through. I also want to hit a few national parks, and maybe even hit Vegas again for a night. Matt's show is on the 26th of June back in Vancouver, so I definitely want to be around for that (I can't remember the last time I saw him with a full band). I'm definitely looking forward to it. Also, for those of you who read most of my content in your RSS readers, I just added my BraveNewCode entries to my RSS stream. Hopefully those will start showing up for you now.

Vancouver Casino

Duane Storey — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:10:57 +0000

Last night I had a few beers with the guys after work, and then headed down to Boneta to wish Victoria Potter a happy birthday. Then I scooted home, grabbed my camera, and went down to meet some friends at Plush near the Plaza of Nations. I realized after waiting in line for about 5 minutes that I really don't enjoy clubs like that at all. Once inside, I just found the music and the people somewhat overbearing, so I left. Since the casino is basically across the way from Plush, I decided to head inside and play 30 minutes of blackjack. I haven't been to a casino in a long time. Rebecca and I walked through a few when we were down in Las Vegas last June, but neither of us were interested in playing. I know pretty much for certain that Blackjack is pretty much the only game there where the odds aren't incredibly stacked against the player. If I remember right, the house only has a 0.5% advantage if you play straight up. That is, if you play 12 hands and hour, and the bets are $5 each, you'll lose on average about $3/hour, which isn't really that bad considering it's just entertainment. The funny thing is that I played for about two hours, and only lost about $5 I think. During that time, pretty much everyone at the table went through hundreds of dollars, and most of them walked away empty. Which is why I found it so strange how many people were giving me advice on how to play my hands. I guess everyone thinks they are the next millionaire. Anyways, it was a nice change. I just woke up here. Once I'm done breakfast I'm going to do a bit of work and then maybe go outside and shoot some photos.

Dark Knight Trailer Online

Duane Storey — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:13:02 +0000

Wow. That's all I can say. The imagery and cinematography are pretty out of this world. I'm not a big blockbuster kind of movie guy, but it looks pretty amazing. Obviously this was Heath Ledger's last film, and he commented a few times that he thought the role was fairly disturbing. Check out the trailer here

Beer O'Clock

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:32:50 +0000

I spent most of the afternoon down at a coffee shop today catching up on a few computer-related things. On my way home I decided to stop at the Yaletown Brewing Company (which is right on my way) and have a quick pint. That was two pints ago. I'm sitting in the corner, chatting with people online, and trying to plan my upcoming vacation. Truth is, I really have no idea what to do. At the end of last week I found out about a coding session taking place in the San Francisco area, and was invited down for that. So I might be heading down there for the week of June 16th. If I do that, then it completely changes my vacation, as I'd be flying instead of driving. Truth is, living in Vancouver kind of sucks in terms of seeing the world. Everything is a pretty far haul from here. Europe is a good 9 hours, and the east coast is at least 5. Living in Toronto you have so many more options (Europe, the Caribbean, New York, Boston, Florida, etc). It turns out that it's pretty slow in Vegas these days, and I've found some pretty nice (think 31 floors above the strip) four bedroom apartments for around $250/night. So part of me is thinking I'll hole up in Vegas for a few days and get myself into as much trouble as humanly possible. A few of my friends said if I get a pad like that they'll fly down for a few days, which would be pretty awesome. I'll probably go check out the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam as well. I'd like to head out towards Toronto again and hole up at Dale and Sara's place for a few days. I'm not sure I can swing it this vacation, but hopefully sometime this year for sure. I'm pretty pumped about hitting Los Angeles again as well. As I mentioned before, Tony has promised me an afternoon or early in the sun with nachos and beer (in fact, his Twitter status today said he's already practicing eating Doritos in anticipation of my monumental visit). Plus, since Shira missed coming to Vancouver for Northern Voice, hopefully she'll be able to join us for a few beers down in LA. Shira Lazar In Vancouver For Launch Party 3 I briefly debated Hawaii, but I think I'll save that until I get some more people together. At work on Friday Adrian invited me to come hang out with some of his friends in Barcelona during the first couple weeks of June. Apparently they have a 5 bedroom apartment near the water there, and will also be visiting Ibiza. Lots of options. So right now I have no idea what I'll do. If I need to book flights, I really need to get on it soon. It's clearly not a decision I can make without another beer, so I'm going to get back at it.

Happy Birthday Budd-Light

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:52:38 +0000

As most of you know, I turned 31 on April 7th a few weeks ago. At roughly the same time (and coincidentally, on the same day), somewhere over in Victoria, Lloyd Budd was welcoming his son into the world. Lloyd Budd is a hardcore WordPress user, and an all-around nice guy. I meant to post something about this a while ago, but just got swamped (with WordPress stuff). That aside, I want to congratulate Lloyd and his wife on their new addition to the family. Given that he shares the same birthday as me, I'd recommend stocking up on beer now.

A Quick Update From The Bar

Duane Storey — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:15:03 +0000

I realized I removed most of my contact information a while ago. I actually briefly had my phone number available on my Facebook page, and acquired two stalkers in the process last year, so I basically removed everything but my email. Thankfully that's passed, and I'm less timid now. So, if you're looking to get a hold of me, here are a few ways:

You can try email on my contact page
Check out my facebook page
My recently resurrected MySpace page (warning, may disappear without notice)
My Twitter page
My Jaiku Page

Launch Party Vancouver 4

Duane Storey — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:29:44 +0000

I went out for a few beers tonight with Boris and Dave down in Yaletown, a pseudo celebration for Cinco De Mayo. One of the topics that came up casually over a few margaritas was the fast approaching onslaught of Vancouver technology events. Kicking it off in approximately two weeks is the fourth iteration of Launch Party Vancouver down at the Republic on Granville street. It's always a great event, and most of the local technology companies (and freelancers) are usually in attendance. I was sort of the unofficial photographer for Launch Party III, and will definitely bring my camera around for some shots of LPV IV (although, I may focus more on socializing at this event). So, while I've been taking it easy and not attending too many local events recently, I'm definitely excited to hang out with the 'ol crew again down at LPV 4. I'll post more information as it gets a bit closer. PS - Happy 25th birthday to Shira Lazar - may your liver bring you happiness for many more years to come

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:02:21 +0000

The Amazon EC2 service is a rather revolutionary cloud computing system that came out in late 2006. It provides a fairly flexible infrastructure that allows you to launch application servers on demand. Traditionally new web companies are forced to pay for rather expensive co-location facilities for their servers, with little or not thought given to scalability (which isn't always a bad thing, considering most companies never reach a point where they need scalability). That being said, for a company that either requires scalability, or is looking for new ways to reduce costs, Amazon EC2 might be a good fit. Unfortunately, since every EC2 instance is essentially a virtualized computer, all data in an instance is lost should the instance suddenly terminate. There are several ways around this, such as storing instances and data over on Amazon's S3 service, but unfortunately none of them are entirely straightforward (especially if you're looking for MySQL or database persistence). I recently discovered that one of our servers at work that is being kept in a local co-location facility was responsible for a fairly high level of traffic last month. Due to some crazy pricing schemes in the co-location facility, we were fairly heavily charged. I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation based on the bandwidth and usage patterns and quickly realized that Amazon EC2 would be about 8% of the cost that we were dinged. I skimmed a few tutorials on the web and had a fully functional EC2 instance up in about 15 minutes. Assigning one of their new Elastic IP addresses was fairly trivial too. There are a few hiccups yet to work out due to the nature of the stuff I need to run on the box, but all in all it's been a fairly painless process. So while Amazon EC2 is still in beta and shouldn't really (IMO) be used for anything mission critical, in cases like the one I'm playing with it may be an extremely viable (and cost saving) option for some businesses.

What Constitutes a Rick Roll?

Duane Storey — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:59:26 +0000

So, this is a fairly basic question. Lately, some people have been installing little rick roll blockers, thinking that it somehow protects them from being rick rolled simply because the video no longer plays. My take on that is that it's basically a form of cheating, and that if you clicked the link, you were rick rolled. But let's see what my knowledgeable readers have to say. Chime in below: [poll=12]

iPhone Developer Program - Now Approved

Duane Storey — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:46:47 +0000

Apple announced the official iPhone developer program a while ago. Unfortunately at the time they also indicated it would only be open to people in the United States at first. I decided to just sign up for it at the time anyways, assuming they would open up to Canada at some point as well. Turns out they did. I got my official email last night saying I was accepted, so today I went and paid my $99 and can now develop iPhone applications (if I want to). So, maybe I'll mess around with XCode on my vacation for an afternoon and see if I can make anything cool.

New Era In Social Networking?

Duane Storey — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:43:17 +0000

A few months ago I talked about Megan Meier, a young girl who encountered abuse from a classmate's mother via MySpace. That abuse eventually led to Megan committing suicide, and sparked a whole series of internet debates about where the fault for something like that lies and how accountable social networks should be for the actions of their users. Today Facebook announced that they will be implementing over 40 safeguards to help protect its users from sexual predators and online cyberbullying:

Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, will add more than 40 safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, attorneys general from several states said Thursday. Facebook and officials in 49 states and the District of Columbia agree to safeguards to protect young users. The changes include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users' ability to search online for subscribers under 18 and building a task force seeking ways to better verify users' ages and identities. "The agreement marks another watershed step toward social networking safety, protecting kids from online predators and inappropriate content," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who announced the agreement Thursday with his counterparts in several other states.

Obviously I think that's a huge step forward for the internet, especially since both Facebook and MySpace have agreed to adopt the guidelines set out in the agreement. And while it's impossible to protect everyone from harm on these networks, I definitely think it's a move in the right direction.

Treadmill Kittens

Duane Storey — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:41:39 +0000

It's 5:30am, and I'm still up. Which is why I found this rather amusing:

Happy Mother's Day

Duane Storey — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:12:48 +0000

Well, most people go through this world with only one mom, but i've been fortunate enough to have two in my life. My mom, at Cultus Lake last summer My step-mom, Cathy, also at Cultus Lake last summer Once I get cleaned up here I'll be placing a few phone calls. But until then, Happy Mother's Day, moms.

Broken Dryer

Duane Storey — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:15:48 +0000

My dryer at home basically stopped working a few weeks ago, so I've been rotating ever-so-slowly through my wardrobe. My landlord was going to come by and take a look at it, but I don't think he's been feeling very well lately. So anyways, considering I'm out of clean clothes and I'm out of clean sheets, I decided to take care of it today. So I'm working from home, waiting for a repair guy to come by and fix it up. While I'm at it, I'm going to rant about people who play the lottery. I got no problem that you want to play 6-49 all day, but please make some decisions before you get to the counter. It seems like all I do lately is wait for people to decide whether or not they want the Extra, as if it was some monumental decision that will affect their future lives. ** update - the dryer is kaput. Needs to be replaced. Going to go buy new clothes tomorrow I guess.

BC Victim's Assistance Program

Duane Storey — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:30:26 +0000

A few weeks ago I received a phone call, the purpose of which was ultimately to talk about some of the injuries I obtained as a result of the incident in November of 2006. During that call, I was asked if I had ever applied for compensation to the BC Victim's Assistance Program, which I hadn't even heard of to be honest. The BC Victim's Assistance Program is a government run program meant to help people who were the victims of violent crimes move on with their lives. It provides financial compensation for people due to medical expenses, time off work, counseling services, and lost income potential, amongst other things. Due to my mother's insistence, I called and talked to someone in the program and asked if they thought I should apply. They said I should, and mailed me all the documentation to fill out last week. So a few minutes ago, I sent in my completed application, and it's now in their hands. I'm not really expecting anything to be honest. I know that had I received the same injuries in a car accident, then ultimately I would have been significantly compensated due to the permanent changes in my vision, especially considering that my day job involves staring at computers all day. It's fairly hard to put into words what the last year and a half have been like, and I really only think someone who has gone through something similar can relate. It feels like I spent a good deal of that time in doctor's offices, or in hospital beds, and am obviously glad the worst parts are finally over. The end result of everything is that I still can't really feel the left side of my face (including my left teeth or gums), and still have double vision in about 50% of my visual field. While I somehow manage to type on the computer for the most part (even though my left eye is usually fairly exhausted and uncomfortable by the end of the day), photography has become a lot more difficult since it involves actively scanning a scene to try and figure out how to frame it. I told a few people about this application before hand, and while most people were adamant it's something I should do, some people actually thought it wasn't something I should do. I imagine they probably feel a bit as I did at first, that it seems a bit odd that someone who gets hurt should get compensated with tax payer dollars. But after doing some investigation, it appears that most of the money in the fund actually comes from court fees and fines, many of which are collected while prosecuting violent offenders. So in a sense, the compensation to the victims comes from some of the people who inflicted the harm. This could be a long process, so I'm just going to put it out of my mind for now.

QR Codes

Duane Storey — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:16:07 +0000

I read an article this morning that made mention of QR codes, and to be honest, I had never heard of them before. After doing some research, it appears that QR codes are essentially two-dimensional bar-codes that are fairly popular in Japan. A user with a camera phone can simply point their phone at a QR code and, assuming it is QR code aware, will decode the symbol. QR codes can be used to encode URLs, phone numbers, text information, and SMS messages. So you can have an advertisement and simply put your URL as a QR code. A user passing by could simply hold their camera in front of the code, and it would grab the URL address, all without any typing. It's interesting that QR codes actually have a primitive form of error correction in them, so small changes in the look will generally still be decoded properly. Here's a quick QR code I generated for my website using this cool QR code generator. If you can decode it, let me know:

New Music West And Red Room Fail

Duane Storey — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:13:46 +0000

Tonight was a jam packed night. I left work around 7pm, and then headed down Granville Street, frantically looking for something to eat. I actually walked into Wings, but it was completely full. So eventually I settled on my old-faithful nacho-haven, the Two Parrots. They had a 35 cent wing special on, so I filled up with that. Eventually I ended up at some Spanish place (coincidentally, it's only one block from my place, and I had never been there) to celebrate Raul's graduation from UBC with his Ph.D. (congrats dude, well, deserved). Good times. As some of you know, this weekend is New Music West in Vancouver. I actually had a media pass to attend all the functions, but because I've been so busy at work, I haven't had time to go pick it up. Thankfully Miss604 lent me her photographer pass so I could head down and take a few photos tonight. The first show of the night was country music cutie, Jessie Farrel. There weren't many people in our group who were country music fans, but thankfully Brennen blasted it at my head for the four years we were at university together, and I have a soft spot in my heart for country music. I caught her act (which was great), along with a few others. However, what happened next was a huge damper on the evening. As I mentioned, we were at the Red Room in Vancouver. I'm going to prefix the next part by saying the following:

I'm a chubby Ukrainian
I can drink my weight in alcohol
I've been in bars all over the world - Tokyo, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, you name it

So, I've been to enough clubs in my mind to know how most of them operate. My friend Ianiv, who wasn't drinking during the night, went up to the bar and asked for a water. At that point, the lady told him that water, even tap water would cost him money, unless of course he bought a bunch of booze. Being a reasonable, sober guy, he was obviously disappointed, and thought it was rather idiotic that he would have to go to the bathroom to drink water, or drink some booze and then drive home. While talking to the waitress, the bouncer decided to go up to him and tell him basically to stop arguing with the waitress, and pay up for his water. To be honest, I hate power-tripping bouncers, as much as I hate stupid bar rules. I went up to the bar to find out what was going on, and, considering I had spent some cash on booze myself during the night, asked that Ianiv be allowed to drink tap water for free, but it was to no avail. So I just threw his water on my tab. Like I said, I've traveled all over the world, and I have yet to encounter another bar that didn't give you a glass of water when you needed it. I went up afterwards and talked politely to the waitress, and voiced my obvious disappointment with the rules (considering drinking and driving is illegal, I am suspect of any place that won't give you water if you ask for it). And while she was sympathetic, she said it was the rules set by the management of the establishment, and there was nothing they could do about it. To add insult to injury at this point, she informed me that there would be a $2 surcharge to any purchase I made if I were to use visa or debit. At that point I was done arguing, and just told her to throw another $2 on it if that's how they rolled in the bar. I don't normally use my blog to bash establishments, but I think the Red Room has a bunch of really terrible policies in place. There's no way, in my mind, that any bar should be allowed to charge for tap water, especially given that drinking and driving is illegal and dangerous, and that we live in one of the most water-rich places in the world. So, make up your own mind where you want to go during New Music West, or after, but I for one won't be heading back to The Red Room.

Heading South

Duane Storey — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:20:31 +0000

Being that this weekend is the May long weekend, and unofficially (at least in British Columbia circles) the start of summer, I thought I might get in the car and take a little road trip. My sister and the kids are camping near Deception Pass in Washington, State, and I'm seriously considering hopping in the car later tonight and making the trek down to hang out with them. It's supposed to be 30C, which is rather nice weather to be sitting outside. I have to see what the state of my camping gear is in the back of my car, but assuming it's all there are prepped to go, I might head out around 8pm and see if I can get across the border.

Back From The States

Duane Storey — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:41:40 +0000

I got back from Deception Pass early this afternoon, and I have to say, it was a really great trip. I spent most of the time there just sitting around the campfire reading, often taking a sip from a can of beer when my attention wandered from the pages. I took a little day trip on Saturday, driving back along the water towards Anecortes, and then south towards Oak Harbour. Driving along the open road with the windows open made me realize just how long it has been since I've gotten away for a weekend. Not only that, but it makes me extremely excited for the block of time off I'm taking in June. One of the things that always amazes me while camping is just how good of a sleep I can get. I'm an extremely light sleeper, and on a typical night here in Vancouver, would estimate that I wake up around 5 - 10 times during the night due to random noises or sirens outside. I've always basically had a hard time sleeping. Contrast that with camping this weekend, where I think I only woke up once Saturday night because I was a bit cold, and promptly went back to sleep. The interesting thing is that it's not really any quieter outside while camping -- in fact, there were birds chirping all morning, kids riding their bikes, and cars driving around the campsite. But somehow it all combines in some way that ends up being comforting. In terms of tomorrow, I'm just going to take it easy. I have to find a laundromat so I wash my clothes, and probably do a bit of shopping. But other than that I think I'm just going to read a book and maybe get some groceries. Also, I noticed a fairly terrible dent in my door on the way home from Deception Pass. It's possible that it happened before the trip, but not very likely I think since it's on the back door on the driver's side (which means I see it every time I get into my car). Looks like someone hit it really hard with a door or fell into it with a bicycle or something. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. Considering my car only has 15k kms on it, I'd like to get it fixed.

The World Needs Change

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:48:38 +0000

I snagged this photo from Tony's site tonight, but I think it sums up a few of the conversations I had today with a few people: That picture is a shot of Barack Obama, one of the major contenders for the US presidency next year, giving a speech to 75,000 people in Oregon recently. It is, as Tony pointed out, rather inspiring. For the most part, I hate politics, and I rarely get involved. Some would obviously say, probably rightly so, that it makes me liable for problems in government, should things go wrong. But truthfully, I have only voted once, mainly because when presented with all the choices, I just find that there hasn't been anyone I could possibly vote for in good conscience. If I were an American, and had just endured eight years of misery at the hands of George Bush (a person who ultimately started a war which most of the world now feels was completely unjust and for reasons other than those originally stated), I would most certainly be standing in line next year to cast my vote for Barack Obama. To me, he represents something lacking in most politicians these days -- quite simply, a moral conscience and a genuine desire to bring about change for the better. When he talks, I don't feel the influence of big business, or hear the sound of years of preordained policies carried along with his voice. I only hear a passionate individual who loves his country, and is upset with its current state. John F. Kennedy's Berlin Speech, 1963, from here While watching Obama on television, or reading excerpts from his speeches, I am lately reminded of the late John F. Kennedy, another young politician who represented a major change in politics. At the time, he was not only one of the youngest presidents ever elected, but was also the first catholic president if I recall. And while history sometimes looks back on his administration as one that wasn't entirely remarkable (overlooking the fact he was assassinated), I shudder to think what might have happened had him and Bobby Kennedy not been at the helm during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was talking to Dale tonight about global warming, and how whether or not we believed there was a shift in the fundamental beliefs of most people, and an honest effort to right the situation. And while we both agreed that people have changed and that the tide is turning, we both agreed that what the world lacks are true leaders, people who will push the machinery of change forward, despite the obvious economic and politic penalties (even those that are purely perceived). And while Al Gore would have been an obvious person to push the environment element forward, I am hopeful that Obama will do the same should be be elected. We are, quite simply, on the brink of self-destruction as a species. Few scientists despute this fact, and any doubt seems to rest only in the minds of politicians. Global warming is set to completely decimate this planet, probably far sooner than most people realize, unless we all stand together, not just as people within countries, but as a global community. It can happen, and I would like to think it will happen, but to pull it off, there needs to be leaders willing to step up, sever corporate ties, and pull people together.

The Great June Adventure

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:35:39 +0000

This last weekend was a big eye-opener for me -- quite simply, I don't take enough time in my life these days to go out and have fun. Sure, I attend the odd function and hang out with cool people, but really, I need to get out of the city from time to time and recharge the batteries. And quite honestly, it's about time I put the chips back out on the table and hit the dating scene again (I'm reminded of a girl at a bar last year who told me the reason I didn't have a girlfriend was because, in her words, I simply wasn't very exciting). I'll show her! San Francisco, California, from my plane last trip To be honest, June is probably going to be one of the best month's I've had in years. I've lost count of all the things I have going on, but here's a sample:

Camping at Cultus Lake
Three day coding party in San Francisco either at Google or Cisco
Day of debachery in Los Angeles, most likely on a beachfront patio with Tony and a cute girl or four
Disneyland with my sister, brother-in-law and the kids
I fly back to Vancouver from LA, just in time to have a beer with Dale Mugford at the airport, who will be flying in for a few days from Ontario
I start two weeks of vacation at this point, no idea what I'm going to do
I'll be attending Matthew Good's show in Vancouver, the first time he'll be with a full band since releasing Hospital Music
I'll probably go on some crazy road trip during my vacation, maybe to Banff or who knows

Considering June is just around the corner, I'm obviously totally excited.

Apple Vancouver Store Opening On May 24

Duane Storey — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:19:22 +0000

Well, by now everyone and their dog has blogged this, but I'll jump on the band wagon as well. Rebecca just pinged me on iChat and told me about the opening of the new Apple store this Saturday. To be honest, it comes as a fairly big surprise given the state they were in last month (based on rumours). Obviously I think it's a pretty cool thing that they are opening this weekend. Considering that many of the rumour sites are alluding to big announcements from Apple on June 9th at the developer conference, I can't help but think the construction of the Vancouver store was accelerated for some of those reasons. In particular, I expect we will see the new 3G iPhone at the Vancouver store sometime in June, and I suspect something along those lines will be announced at the developer conference.

CityTV Steals Images, Forced To Give On-Air Apology

Duane Storey — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:46:53 +0000

I read this article this morning, and as a photographer, found it rather surprising. A few weeks ago CityTV used some guy's photos off of Flickr and used them in an on-air broadcast. The person who took them did talk to someone from CityTV, but did not give them permission to use the photos. Nonetheless, they aired the photos without any sort of attribution. Obviously the person who took them was upset, and appealed to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) about it. After nine months, the CBSC finally ruled that CityTV should be forced to apologize on air:

As a result, City must issue a rare on-air statement at least twice, during prime time, over the next ten days. That statement will follow a script set by the CBSC, stating that, in part, the news organization breached the aforementioned Code of Ethics and "included three still photographs of the injured burglar without providing any credit to the photographer, whose identity was known to the broadcaster. By failing to provide that accreditation, the broadcaster has failed to honour the intellectual property rights of the photographer."

What worries me about this particular case is that there seems to be a clause in Canadian Copyright Law which (for whatever reason) news agencies think they can lift photos. Here's a quote from the directory of CityTV:

The Director also noted that "Canadian copyright law recognizes that third party materials like photos may be used for the purposes of news reporting. It was in that context that we used this photo."

If that's the case, then CC licensing seems almost like a waste of time. And if that clause is not meant to apply in this context, then I find it disappointing that an on-air organization would breach the electronic CC license that was placed on the photos. Ultimately they used someone's photos for commercial means and without any form of attribution, which was outside of the scope of the license applied to the photos. If I were to use CityTV footage on my blog without attribution, I would bet I would get a nice cease and desist letter forcing me to take it down in no time. That they think the laws should be different in each direction seems characteristic of most large media conglomerates these days.

Visa's Idiotic Security Policy

Duane Storey — Sat, 24 May 2008 21:22:28 +0000

Ever since I was about 18 years of age, I have had a credit card. The main reason, at least at first, was simply to build up a credit rating in case I ever needed a loan (which I ended up requiring when I went to university). Nowadays, I use my visa primarily for work expenses, since I tend to do a lot of traveling with my job. To that end, I probably spend close to $30,000 on my visa a year, a good portion of which comes from plane rides and hotel rooms when I'm on the road. I have no idea what my credit limit is on my visa, but last time I checked (which was a few years ago), there was enough there to buy a small car with I believe. In fact, I generally have to place a call once a year to get them to lower the credit limit on it, since they like to jack it up without telling me (hoping of course that I'll max it out one day and they'll nail me on the interest). In the old days, the only time I'd get a security flag on my card is when I bought something really expensive in an electronics store. An example of this was my digital SLR I first bought a few years ago. But over the last few years, then have been starting to flag my card for what I think are rather ridiculous purchases. When they used to do it, they would just leave my card active but ask me to call in and explain my purchase. Then, they started deactivating it, but would call my cell phone and try to sort it out in short order. The last few times though they have not only deactivated my credit card, but also haven't even given me a courtesy call to let me know that it was declined. I woke up this morning with an email saying one of my pre-authorized visa transactions was declined and my account was disabled. Of course, I called down to Royal Bank Visa's fraud department, and sure enough, they had once again disabled my card. The culprit? A $99 transaction I made buying something on the internet. Once again, they didn't even give me a head's up that this had occurred. I have complained about their policy time and time again, but each time I get some sympathetic rhetoric from the guys in the security department which basically amounts to a polite "fuck off." It's one thing when it happens when I'm in Vancouver (it's a major pain in the ass, and I hate that I have to deal with it), but it's nearly crippling when it happens when I'm traveling for work. For example, they deactivated my card in Tokyo last time I was there and, considering my Interact card wouldn't work on their systems, basically left me without any sort of funds whatsoever. I am going to be switching credit cards shortly. I am not certain if that will make things better or worse in the long run, but I'm so fed up with Royal Bank's policies in this area that I just have to make a change. Does this happen to any of you guys, or is it just me?

Matthew Good's Full Band Canadian Tour

Duane Storey — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:09:06 +0000

I've had the opportunity over the last year to attend no less than ~~three~~ four Matthew Good shows at various spots in North America. His last tour was a solo acoustic tour, which meant it was basically Matt up on stage with only his voice and a guitar. Those shows were obviously really amazing, with my favourite being the sold out show at Toronto's Massey Hall. It was there that I first got to hang out with Patrick, Raymi, Phil, Dale and Sara. Matthew Good, Encore at Massey Hall Matt's currently in Fredericton, slowly making his way back across Canada once again. This time however, it's with a full band, something that he hasn't done in a few years now. Matt practicing in Toronto, Photo by Dale Mugford One of the best parts about the Internet is that I'm able to watch, thanks to Flickr and Youtube, the progression of the current tour, all from the comfort of my couch. For those of you that are interested, here are a few teasers from Youtube.

A Single Explosion in Halifax

Odette in Moncton

The audio is maxed out, but check it out: While I loved all the acoustic shows I got to attend, I think it's going to be awesome listening to Hospital Music with a full band, as well as some of Matt's older material. Dale is meeting up with Matt back in Massey Hall again in a few days, and will be hanging out for a few spots. I'm be attending the Vancouver show on June 26th, and hopefully Dale will be too. Head over to MatthewGood.org to check out some of the upcoming Canadian shows.

Dear George Lucas

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:51:14 +0000

Please, for the love of god, stop making movies. Whatever magic you used to bring to the table evaporated a long time ago. As you can tell, I saw the new Indiana Jones movie on the weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy it, and found myself looking at my cell phone from time to time to see how much more I had to endure. First, you don't need CGI gophers to propagate the plot. The first time the camera swung by and I saw them, I almost groaned out loud, seeing the obvious resemblance to the little furry Ewoks that stunk up the screen during Episode VI of Star Wars. And to add insult to injury, he showed those stupid gophers TWO MORE TIMES, as if we somehow needed them in the film. To be honest, George Lucas used to make really good movies. The first two Star Wars films in 1977 and 1980 had a sense of wonder to them, and the special effects only enhanced the timeless nature of the film. But since that time, George Lucas has just gotten worse and worse with each film. Star Wars episode III was the moment that trilogy started going downhill, and the last three episodes were simply terrible in my opinion (the static dialog and acting effectively ruined the last three films for me). The moment he started losing his edge, in my opinion, was when he started spending most of his time hanging out with the ILM guys. Instead of thinking whether or not a special effect *should* go into a movie, George seemed motivated by whether or not a CGI effect *could* go into a movie, and went overboard whenever be set his hand on the celluloid. Peter Jackson, along with Weta Digital in New Zealand (another big effects warehouse), seem to understand that special effects should serve the plot and the characters, not the other way around. In fact, I remember reading about a visit that George Lucas made to Weta where he walked around, looked at all the huge Lord Of the Rings miniatures and what-not and commented "yeah, we used to do it this way, but now we do everything digitally." The reply to that was "we could too, but why would we want to?" Another glaring problem with the new Indiana Jones is that the dialog is fairly horrendous. Many of the lines simply don't work well, and the delivery by the actors is nearly unbelievable in some cases (which is more of a reflection of poor directing ability instead of poor acting ability). Like Harrison Ford commented during the Star Wars films, "George, you can write this shit, but you sure can't say it." Another huge beef I have with the film is that the characters don't seem to ever feel the magnitude of the situation. Maybe jumping out of a plane in a huge rubber dingy is a little far fetched, but at least the characters seemed somewhat scared and worried about the result in Temple Of Doom. In the new film, we see Indiana and crew going over 100 foot waterfalls in a little boat. Based on their reaction, you'd think they were coasting down the water at the Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit at Disneyland. I really liked the previous Indiana Jones movies, and it's disappointing that George Lucas bunted this one instead of shooting for the fences. If he wants to continue making films he really needs to start asking some of his buddies for some direction, because he's clearly lost his way.

Go Green Or Go Home, Part I

Duane Storey — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:50:57 +0000

As most of you remember, last year I threw the environmental gauntlet down and challenged all my readers to replace their old, energy inefficient incandescent light-bulbs with the newer CFL variant. Many of my friends and readers quickly went to work and replaced many of the bulbs in their houses, some even going as far to replace every single one. I replaced most of the ones in my apartment, and probably save on average of about 0.3kWh every day in my place alone. I actually started a Flickr group for this purpose last year to help motivate people. I was a bit surprised to go into it tonight and see people still adding photos into it. The first thing I'd like to do is re-open last year's challenge. CFL light-bulbs are energy efficient, and reduce the energy requirements per light-bulb by approximately 75%. That means a typical 60W light bulb will run around 15-17W while giving out the same amount of light. By replacing most incandescent light-bulbs in your home with CFL versions you will, on average, reduce CO2 emissions by 500 lbs in a given year. Just for one household. So, here's the official challenge:

Walk around your house and make a list of incandescent light-bulbs that you can replace
Go to the store and pick up CFL (compact florescent lights) versions that have the same output as the versions you are replacing (if you have a dimmer light, you'll need a special CFL bulb, so be careful about that
Replace your lights, and feel really good about it!
Come back here and leave a comment telling me how many lights you replaced and what the wattages were
If you have a camera, then post some photographic proof into the CFL lightbulb challenge Flickr group. Also, become a member and watch what others are doing

Instead of just doing this for fun, I'm going to make this an official competition this year. That means not only is there going to be a few winners, but there are also going to be prizes. You'll be judged based on a) whether or not you spread the word about this, either by a blog or some other means (be creative - you'll get points not just for you, but for others you inspire as well) b) how much energy you reduce on a permanent basis and c) other green initiatives that I'll bring up later. If you do anything that you think is environmentally friendly, please let me know via a comment and I'll factor it in somehow. I'll probably normalize everything to global CO2 reductions and tally it all that way. I'm going to be creating a leaderboard once things get rolling, and you'll be able to see, via my blog, who the big winners are on a daily basis. I'm going to trust that nobody will cheat, since this is an important cause, and we're all adults. Photographic proof of changes is always nice, but I'll take your word for it if you say you implemented something. Also, if you heard about the challenge via someone else (or their blog), let me know that as well, and I'll count some of your contributions towards their final score. In terms of prizes, I'm going to try and make them as big as possible by approaching some people in Vancouver. If you can donate something of value (> $50), then please drop me an email and let me know, or forward this entry onto others who might be able to. So get to it and change those bulbs! I'll set a tentative end date for this competition as June 30th.

Mazda 3 And The Dreaded Door Attack

Duane Storey — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:04:29 +0000

A few years ago my mom convinced me that I should finally ditch my 1993 Toyota Tercel (which seemed to be running on only 3 cylinders) and upgrade to something nicer. After spending a few days test driving cars, I finally went out and bought a 2006 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback. For the most part, it's been a really great car. The mileage isn't super amazing (it's not that bad either, but definitely no Prius), but it's fun to drive and it looks pretty sexy (for a hatchback). The only downside is that last year Mazda admitted to a problematic design flaw in the locking mechanism, one that allowed intruders to enter your car simply by banging the door in the correct spot:

If you own a 2004 to 2006 Mazda 3, the cars are are prone to break-ins and Mazda owners aren't happy. Casey Archibald and Bev Cunningham are not only friends, they bought the same model car. Now they're also victims of the same crime. On May 2nd someone broke into his Mazda 3 downtown and the same thing happened to her May 6th outside her house. "There was a dent just above the drivers handle and the car was open and it had been gone through", says Cunningham. "The door was dented and access was gained and only change stolen", says Archibald. After checking the internet they discovered they're not alone. Since early this year Mazda 3 owners in Western Canada been reporting similar break-in's. First in B.C. and about a month ago in Calgary. In every case there's a dent in the door above or below the lock. Mazda Canada says it's been aware of the problem since October 2006 but says it isn't a defect. They say the same thing could happen to any vehicle.

I received a letter in the mail from Mazda about six months ago saying that they'd install a hard metal plate behind the door panels to prevent that type of break-in. I hadn't really thought about it since, but since I noticed a nice big dent on my passenger door last week (which may or may not be related, but it's definitely possible someone was trying to gain entry), I decided to go do something about it. So yesterday I dropped my car off down at the Mazda dealership on Hastings. They installed the metal plate thing, and also added a shock sensor to the built-in alarm system so that any hit on the car will set off the alarm. And while I guess it's a good way to prevent people from actually gaining entry to the car, it doesn't really stop anyone from trying to enter it by putting a big dent in the side. As it is I'm already looking at $300 and a whack of my own time to fix the current dent. Hopefully as more people take the free upgrade from Mazda thieves will be less and less likely to attempt to break into this car. I've read stories of some people on the internet being broken into this way every few weeks or so in Calgary, and I'm thankful my car hasn't experienced anything like that.

Might As Well Just Stay Home These Days

Duane Storey — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:57:22 +0000

You know, I remember back in the good old days when you could cross the US/Canada border relatively easily. The worse thing that would typically happen was for you to have your car searched, or get asked a pile of questions from a border guard. That changed a few years ago when the border agents were given the ability to search your laptop for child pornography. And while I think the end goal (cracking down on pedophiles) is a good one, I have to say that I'm against the current method of blindly searching through digital content. Luckily I've never been searched at the border, which is rather strange given that I actually do a fair bit of traveling with my current job. My friend Jason however got searched in the Ottawa airport last time he landed there, and was forced to sit in a chair and watch as a security person went through every file on his computer. He was even forced to give up his personal passwords for any content that was protected. In the last few days some documents have leaked out here in Canada about some secret (and extremely alarming) negotiations going on in the area of copyright:

The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices. The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order. Called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the new plan would see Canada join other countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, to form an international coalition against copyright infringement. The agreement is being structured much like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) except it will create rules and regulations regarding private copying and copyright laws. Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval. The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies. The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not. The agreement proposes any content that may have been copied from a DVD or digital video recorder would be open for scrutiny by officials - even if the content was copied legally. "If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas what would they look like? This is pretty close," said David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. "The process on ACTA so far has been cloak and dagger. This certainly raises concerns." The leaked ACTA document states officials should be given the "authority to take action against infringers (i.e., authority to act without complaint by rights holders)." Anyone found with infringing content in their possession would be open to a fine. They may also have their device confiscated or destroyed, according to the four-page document. The trade agreement includes "civil enforcement" measures which give security personnel the "authority to order ex parte searches" (without a lawyer present) "and other preliminary measures". In Canada, border guards already perform random searches of laptops at airports to check for child pornography. ACTA would expand the role of those guards. On top of these enforcement efforts, ACTA also proposes imposing new sanctions on Internet service providers. It would force them to hand over personal information pertaining to "claimed infringement" or "alleged infringers" - users who may be transmitting or sharing copyrighted content over the Internet. Currently, rights holders must collect evidence to prove someone is sharing copyrighted material over the Internet. That evidence is then presented to a judge who issues a court order telling the Internet service provider to identify the customer. .... Fewer expressed concerns about the part of the proposal that calls for ACTA to operate outside of accepted international forums such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations. In the discussion paper, it is proposed ACTA create its own governing body and be overseen by a committee made up of representatives from member nations. "This initiative is unprecedented," he said.

There are so many alarming things there, I'm not even sure what to focus on. Even the courts these days have a hard time determining what constitutes copyright infringement with regards to digital content, and yet the government now wants to give border agents the ability to make that determination on their own? Forcing ISPs to pass over personal information just on suspicion of copyright infringement? So much for privacy and due process I guess. Let's hope this measure doesn't get passed. If it does, it would be a monumental step backwards for Canadians, and bring us that much closer to a police state.

Hosting Experiment Part II

Duane Storey — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:48:58 +0000

A while ago I did a quick and dirty hosting experiment with some of my readers. I actually need a bit more data, although what I'm after is a bit easier this time. So, if you have a blog, all I ask is that you let me know the following:

The URL for your blog
The name of the hosting company that you're on
If you like it or not

So please post a comment if you have some of that info, or send me an email if you don't really want it public. If you know of any friends and where they are at, let me know too. Thanks!

You Guys Have Quadruples Here, Don't Ya?

Duane Storey — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:38:32 +0000

Well, first off, it's a fairly beautiful Vancouver day today. I woke up at my usually Saturday time of around noon, only to be greeted by a huge sunbeam that had firmly planted itself onto my face during my slumber. Since it is a such a nice day, I thought I'd contribute a relatively meaningless post this morning. Given that many of the authors on this site (ok, just Dale and Matt - although rumour has it Roy has a Mac in his closet somewhere) are huge Mac enthusiasts, I thought the topic of this post might as well be Apple. As most of you in Vancouver now know, Apple unveiled their new store in Pacific Center mall downtown last week. I'm not one for long line ups in my old age (in fact, the last real line-up I probably waited in was to get into Return Of The King at a midnight premiere when it came out), so I purposefully skipped out on the opening festivities. I stopped by yesterday quickly at lunch hour to see what all the fuss was about. Having been to the Apple store in New York City, San Francisco and Toronto, I can say that the Vancouver one is fairly plain and typical. That being said, there's a definite electricity in the air when you walk towards the entrance, upstairs near the new H & M that just opened as well. The best part about the store is that every employee I talked to was absolutely thrilled that they were working there. And not just that -- they were all extremely knowledgeable people. I had random chats about Photoshop, Garageband, the Apple Air, and everything else I could think of, and the responses I got from the employees showed that they were all serious Mac power users. In other Apple news, the 3G iPhone is rumoured to be released sometime on or about June 9th, the day when Steve Jobs gives his big speech down in California. I've already started weening myself off of Bell Mobility's system, and am hoping to snag one of the new phones when they are released. The real question though on many minds up here is just how good (or bad) the new Rogers data rates are going to be. The iPhone is essentially just an iPod touch without the use of a good data plan, so it's really up to Rogers (here in BC) to step up and hit one towards the fences. Given that the CRTC opened up some more of the wireless spectrum last week for competitors, I'm hoping Rogers does the right thing and gives a plan that's competitive to AT&T in the United States. Also, given how much fun everyone seemed to have in Toronto, I can absolutely say I'm looking forward to when the tour bus rolls up to the Orpheum in Vancouver here in just a few weeks. I haven't seen Matt play with a band since probably around 2001, so it's going to be alot of fun. Maybe when it gets closer to the event we can do a quick Vancouver meet and greet somewhere near the venue. ** Photos by KatKam WebCam and John Biehler

Apple TV - Nearly Hacked

Duane Storey — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:35:51 +0000

The other day John contacted me and told me about a new hack for the Apple TV. It's basically an amalgamation of all the available hacks and updates for it, but it's packaged in a nice, easy to use USB installer. Before I get into my hacking attempt, I want to give a quick review of what I think of Apple TV so far. To be honest, I really like the idea of what Apple TV is supposed to be. Unfortunately, it's not really that yet. The main problem is there really isn't enough content on it. I check back every week, hoping for a massive change in titles, but for the most part there's just not much to watch. There are so few in fact that Apple has resorted to duplicating the same title multiple times on the page so as to make it seem like they have more. The main part of the Apple TV hack that appeals to me is the ability to access an external storage drive. With that functionality I can basically rip all my DVDs to my hard drive and watch them whenever I want on my Apple TV. The actually hacking procedure was really straight forward, so I won't go into any detail. The hard part for me was making Apple TV talk to my 1TB drive over on my Linux box. I messed around for 90 minutes trying to mount the Linux drive as NFS, but just had so many problems with it I eventually gave up. I then managed to installed an Apple File Protocol (AFP) daemon on the Linux box, which ended up solving the problem. So now I have my Apple TV connected to my Linux box over AFP. I haven't played around with this too much yet, so I really have no idea what to do next. I tried streaming a MPEG2 file from my Linux box using the MediaCloud functionality in the hacked Apple TV navigator, but it barfed on the file content for some reason. Over the next few days I'll try and figure out some way for my setup to be useful. Check back then. ** Update -- actually, the Apple TV NiTo program works well for all content. All the folders it shows are in /Users/frontrow/Movies. So to use it, I just created a symbolic link to my mounted Linux drive, which caused Apple TV to automatically show all that content in NiTo. That's not as nice as a streaming solution, but it seems to work well enough. I just downloaded one of the m4v files I took at the Junos onto my Linux drive and watched it in Apple TV without problems, so I'm good to go I think. The next step will be to try and get a DVD ripped. Maybe I'll try that right now. *** Update 2 - I ripped a few chapters of Star Wars Episode III to a mp4 file using HandBrake and tossed that on my Linux drive. The quality was actually surprisingly awesome. Unfortunately, the video is a bit choppy in Sapphire for some reason, but seems to work fairly well in nitoTV.

WRT150N Wireless Router - FAIL

Duane Storey — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:05:55 +0000

About 9 months ago I picked up the WRT150N Linksys Wireless Router. I've used Linksys products before (mainly the WRT54G) and they always performed fairly well. I have, since upgrading to Macs, had nothing but problems with that router and my wireless network in general. And to be honest, that could be just as much Mac's fault as it is the Linksys router. Last night I struggled to figure out why the videos I was trying to stream to my AppleTV kept stuttering while playing. I fired up VLC on my MacBook Pro, and it wasn't much better. I ended up doing a few wireless test of my network using SCP to copy files between machines, and the best speed I could get was around 3MB/s, which is fairly pathetic for a wireless N network. I messed with as many settings on my router as I could, but I just couldn't squeeze any more juice out of it. I just got back from Future Shop, where I bought a new Airport Extreme Wireless N - Gigabit Ethernet Router. Installation was actually fairly simple once I figured out that you need a special software application to configure it as opposed to the standard router web interfaces that most routers have. Based on a recommendation Dale gave me, I immediately set it up as Wireless N in the 5GHz wide mode. Right away I noticed that everything on my network seemed a bit snappier. I repeated the tests I did last night, and the wireless throughput on the network is around 13.3MB/s now, which is about where I thought it should be. So right now I'm watching a rip I did of Vanilla Sky I did last night on my AppleTV. No stutters after about 15 minutes, so I think I'm good to go.

Elevator Confusion

Duane Storey — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:37:02 +0000

I work in a big highrise downtown, which means I have the pure joy of dealing with the elevator system whenever I need to go anywhere. For whatever reason you can only take the stairwell in our building on the way down. Considering we're only on the third floor, the inability to walk up a few flights of stairs is a big pain in the ass. One of the things you notice after a while is that some people invariably lose their bearings whenever they enter an elevator while others do not (the confusing part is we have a bank of elevators, and sometimes you end up in one of the south side of the building, while other times it can be on the north side). In my case, I seem to always know what direction I'm heading in when I leave the elevators, which makes me enjoy watching those people who never seem to (and subsequently start walking in the wrong direction upon leaving the elevator). Anyone else have any elevator stories?

Walk The Dinosaur

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:27:28 +0000

I have no idea where the hell this song came from. I went to Canadian Tire with Rebecca and John last night and somehow we ended up singing this stupid song. Anyways, here's a quick recap from the late 80s, in case you missed them.

Apple To Show 10.6 Next Week?

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:23:22 +0000

I've seen a few rumour sites suggest that Apple is preparing to seed developers with an early 10.6 release of their operating system. You can read about it here. If true, it sounds like it's more of a maintenance/stability release, which makes me really wonder why they would name it a 10.6 instead of a 10.5.4. And to be honest, I'd be really disappointed if they were to release 10.6 as a real, full fledged (i.e. you have to pay more money) update to the operating system, considering Leopard isn't that old and that it's far from stable as it is. It's obviously just a rumour, so I'm not going to worry too much about it, but I'm starting to question some of Apple's business practices of late.

Roger's Wireless And The Canadian iPhone

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:46:45 +0000

I missed the boat on the first round of Canadian iPhone action last year mainly because I was (quite stupidly) locked into a crazy Bell Mobility contract. The current consensus of the rumour mill is that Apple is gearing up to announce the 3G version of the iPhone on June 9th, which would hopefully put that model into Canadian stores sometime in the near future. I have been patiently awaiting it's arrival so I can call up Bell and tell them where they can shove my phone and my crappy contract. The only problem is that Roger's has been completely silent on what type of plan will be available for the Canadian iPhone here in Vancouver. As most people know, the data rates in Canada are fairly atrocious. I want to point out a graph that Boris did last year that highlighted just some of the craziness:

And while data rates have come down a bit in the last year, they are still nowhere near competitive with similar US-based plans. The success (or failure) of the iPhone in Western Canada ultimately rests with how competitive Roger's plans for it will be. Granted there is a sizable portion of the geek community who will sign up regardless, but I think without a decent data plan the majority of people are going to hold off purchasing one. I've been hoping Rogers will step up to the plate when the iPhone is announced and reveal a truly revolutionary (at least in Canadian wireless terms) data plan for its users. But a few recent blog entries have sort of dashed my hopes in that area. One such article points out how Roger's has recently raised the price on it's $65 1GB data plan up to $100:

the $65/month data plan which I’ve written about previously has gone away. Rogers will still give you 1 G of mobile data, but now they want $100/month. Hello? When the rest of the world has data rates that are plunging like a stone, Jolly Rogers is cranking their rates up. Sure smells like a monopoly to me. Is anyone at Industry Canada paying attention? Needless to say, I chose to stick with my pre-existing $65/month “deal”.

Plus, I've heard rumours that the data rates might only apply to email and web surfing, and potentially won't apply to third party applications or tethering, which would obviously be disappointing. So here we are, only a few days away from the Apple announcement, and still no word from Rogers. My prediction is we're going to see a fairly lackluster offering from Rogers, along with an associated backlash from the blogging community. I hope I'm wrong. We'll know in a few days.

Clearly Not Everyone Likes Rogers

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:44:14 +0000

Jay from Giant Ant Media just emailed me a few awesome YouTube videos they did with regards to Roger's customer service. I thought I'd share them with everyone, because they're a riot. Given the content of my last post, I think these are particularly relevant. Now, I've been a Bell Mobility customer for a long time, and I can honestly say that they're not very good either. I suspect the grass is always greener, but I'm fairly certain most wireless users in Canada would agree that we need some new blood in the market to help keep the current breed of wireless providers honest and competitive.

June. It Begins.

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:09:10 +0000

A while ago I mentioned just how much fun June is going to be, and tomorrow it basically starts for me. Tomorrow after work I'm heading to a campground with a few friends for a weekend sitting around a fire and eating steak. I love camping, and really enjoy the fresh air and relatively peaceful sleeps I have when in a tent. I booked Friday off a few weeks ago, thinking that it would in fact be nice and sunny in June. Unfortunately mother nature doesn't really look like she's going to cooperate, and rain is definitely in the forecast. But no matter -- we're troopers and have several hundred square feet of tarp at our disposal. A week from this Sunday I'll be getting on a plane and heading down to San Francisco for a few days in Mountainview. I haven't been down that way since roughly this time last year, so I'm looking forward to being in the Bay Area again. After that, I'll be boarding a plane and hitting the Los Angeles area for a few days. Campfire Nachos - Photo by Boris But first, rainy camping. I have a goal to do a huge batch of nachos on the fire again, something that Boris and I experimented with last summer.

You Know You're Having A Shitty Day When...

Duane Storey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:39:19 +0000

Office Worker Meltdown Second Angle - Watch more free videos Another Angle:
Office Worker Goes Absolutely Insane - Watch more free videos You can't help me wonder what set this guy off, or if he has some illness that led to this outbreak. I've had some bad days at the office, but nothing like that. Hat Tip: John Biehler.

Apple Finalizes 3G iPhone Release Date For Canada - July 11th

Duane Storey — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:24:13 +0000

I stopped by the new Vancouver Apple store on my way to work to hang out with John Biehler and watch a bit of Steve Job's keynote. Obviously the question on everyones' mind basically revolved around the 3G iPhone that was rumoured to be announced. The good news is that the release date for the iPhone in Canada has been officially set for July 11th. The bad news is that not only is the jury is still out on just what type of data plans Rogers and Fido are going to be offering with the plan, but also most of the Rogers and Fido people seem completely clueless about the offerings. The first comment I have to make is that the new price for the 3G iPhone is $199, which is significantly less than I paid for my iPod touch. The rumours in the last couple of days alluded to the fact that Apple is going to allow carrier subsidies for the phones, so based on the announced price point, I'm going to conclude that you can only get it that cheap if you choose to lock into a 2-3yr contract with Rogers. In fact, some of Rogers current data plans require a contract, so it's looking fairly likely that new 3G iPhone users in Canada will be forced to get a contract. I hope that's not the case, but we'll see. In addition, based on a screenshot John took of Apple's new 3G website portion, it looks like you can only pick up the phone in a Rogers or Fido outlet (i.e. not online or at the Apple store), which basically adds weight to my belief that it will be available on a contract basis only. I've been screwed over by contracts a few times already, and I really don't want to lock into a new contract going forward. That's not to say Rogers won't offer a $600 version without a contract, but right now I'm guessing they're going to try to force everyone to lock in. Also, there's still no word from Rogers or Fido on the data plans they are going to provide. I'm more convinced now that the plans aren't going to be very affordable (based on Rogers current monopoly and the obvious demand for this product), which is obviously going to be a huge bummer for everyone wanting a new iPhone. Photo by John Biehler

iPhone Or Bust?

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:32:18 +0000

My mom used to always say that somethings in life seem to happen for a reason. Surprisingly, she's been right most of my life, and the strangest things sometimes happen to me that end up pushing me down a path that turns out to be a good one. While camping this weekend, my Samsung A880 phone went into a spiral of death, and started complaining about not being able to find service. I figured that I maybe forgot to pay my bill or something stupid, and called up Bell Mobility yesterday. After spending two days on the phone with them, they are all of the opinion that my phone has just gone the way of the Dodo. So, the question right now is just what do I do with myself. I currently have no phone, so I could probably break my contract and be done with it. The iPhone is coming out in about 30 days, so I could maybe do without a phone for that period of time (although it would suck). Or I could maybe try and barter a loaner phone from Bell under the guise of trying to get my phone fixed. Decisions, decisions. I'm going to head downstairs to the Bell store and see what I can do about it. But it's looking likely that I've just been pushed down the iPhone path. ** Update - after spending 10 minutes yelling at some stupid Bell Mobility person (who is obviously paid to ensure that nobody can leave THE FIRM), they finally agreed to let me go. Of course, they threw a pile of curve balls at me, namely having to do with keeping my current phone number. Finally, I just told the guy to shove my number up his ass and just cancel the damn thing. So, it's done. That means I'm technically without a phone. To be honest, I might just grin and bear it for a month. Except for text messages, I really don't field a lot of phone calls, and have voice over IP on my computer for whenever I need to make a call. I have a GSM RAZR at home somewhere, so maybe I'll pop a pre-paid SIM in it for the next month in case anyone wants to get a hold of me.

Why The Silence, Rogers?

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:25:50 +0000

Dave summed up the sentiment behind this post with one of his recent Flickr photos: While most of Canada is ecstatic for the release of the iPhone in Canada, one company seems rather mute about the whole event. Ironically, that company is Rogers, the only company that has the technology to actually bring the iPhone to Canada. As Dave pointed out, the Apple website has been updated to reflect all the available information regarding the iPhone in Canada. Roger's unfortunate marketing campaign involves what exactly? A simple teaser, like we've all been living in a cave and have absolutely no idea what's coming out next month. As I've mentioned before, I'm fairly certain Roger's data plan will be overpriced, which is why I suspect they are holding out as long as possible before revealing it to Canadians.

Enough With The iPhone Already

Duane Storey — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:59:54 +0000

Ok, ok. I'll take a break from writing about the iPhone. But business has been great lately - my traffic has nearly doubled in the last few days. Not like I really pay attention to those things, but it's pretty clear when there's a big prolonged spike -- clearly people are excited about the iPhone. To be honest, while talking about web traffic, I'm actually surprised mine has stayed up. I used to host all my plugins here and sort of assumed when I finally moved them over to BraveNewCode that alot of my traffic would disappear. But for whatever reason, my traffic has actually increased quite a bit since then. Strange things, these tubes. Anyways. As I pointed out, Bell Mobility finally lost the battle against me. I could rant endlessly about the disappointment I have that every business nowadays seems to just be looking to screw you as hard as they can against the wall, but you know the drill I'm sure. To that end, I currently don't own a phone, which is causing my mom no end of grief I'm sure. Hesty gave me an old unlocked GSM phone this afternoon, so if all goes well I'll have it up and running tomorrow using a pay as you go plan for a while. I'll wait and see what the plan looks like for the iPhone, but unless the data plan is generous and they have a non-contract version of the iPhone, I doubt I'll go that route honestly. This weekend I'm going to be boarding a plane and heading down to San Francisco. I'll be staying in Mountain View mostly since I have to be at Google's main campus for a few days. It's a work trip, but I'm technically not on the clock until Monday morning, so Sunday night I'll probably head down somewhere for dinner downtown with some friends. Next Thursday I'll hit the San Francisco airport and end up down in Los Angeles for the start of my vacation. The main purpose of the trip is to hang out with my sister, brother-in-law and my niece and nephew down around Disneyland, but I'll hopefully be seeing a few friends down there, including Tony. Since I haven't been to Los Angeles is about 20 years, I thought I'd spend my first night down there staying in a hotel right downtown. I used Hotwire, like I normally do, and ended up at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel downtown. Apparently it's where they filmed part of True Lies (I think it has the elevator that Arnold goes up in with a horse). Tony offered to lend me (graciously) his car while down in Los Angeles, but since I'm going to be doing some commuting and adventuring, I thought I might as well just pick up a rental. Sure, I could have gotten away with a measly Echo or something like that, but I decided to start my vacation with a bit of fun. So, I picked up a convertible for my time there, which is actually only about $45 more expensive for the whole trip. Photo from here I haven't really given much thought to what I'll do in Los Angeles. I want to hit a patio somewhere and eat nachos in 100 degree whether. A few beer would be nice too. Other than that, I'm not picky. Disneyland is obviously on the agenda, as is Legoland (I'm actually really looking forward to that). Last time I was at Universal Studios I nearly barfed in the Avalanche simulator as a kid, so maybe I'll go back and see if I'm any tougher as an adult. I seriously doubt it. After that, I fly back to Vancouver and still have nearly another two weeks of vacation ahead of me. Matt's show is a few days after that, and then who knows. Maybe I'll get in the car and disappear somewhere next to a stream in the Rocky Mountains.

There's Change In The Air

Duane Storey — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:09:15 +0000

A couple really quick updates since I'm busy at work right now. I've added a few small features to the website. First, you can now subscribe to comments on posts via email. I've actually had a few requests by technies in the last little while for this, and I think it's a good idea. That way you don't have to poll the website looking for new comments all the time. Second, I've updated a few RSS feeds, and plan to add autodetecting category feeds at some point too. In addition, I'm going to completely rebuild the website from the ground up in the next week or so. I've started prototyping a few things with Dale, and I think the new version is going to be really representative of me, of my photography, of the events I've covered, and some of the skills I've acquired along the way with regards to Javascript and what not. I'm going to be moving the blog back to /blog, and having a dynamic landing page with integration with web 2.0 websites, aspects of my blog, and other various aspects of my persona. Plus, it will validate against W3C standards (this one once did too, but has been quickly hacked too many times) :P

Weekend Update

Duane Storey — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:53:31 +0000

Last night I ventured across the water and ended up down at Dave's house in North Vancouver. It was good times, complete with an amazing BBQ, some rum, and a bunch of tech talk. I didn't really feel like hiking to the bus stop at 1am to head home, so Dave let me crash in his guest room. The one thing about having a huge chunk of plastic under your eye is that you can really tell when your body is a bit dehydrated. For example, right now my left eye is really sore and I have a mild burning sensation, which usually happens when I'm dehydrated, or when I've had a few drinks. Obviously that kind of sucks, but it is what it is. Tonight I'm going to head home and start packing for the big trip. I have sort of a bittersweet love for traveling. While I like seeing new things and ending up in exotic, warm destinations, I don't like airports, airplanes, or some of the stress that comes with hotel bookings, car rentals, and neighborhoods you don't know. Thankfully on this trip I'm meeting up with people at every step of the way, so it should be a fairly good time. I'll probably swing by the mall tonight and buy a bunch of new clothes. I really don't have any shorts of summer-type clothes these days, and considering it's 90-100F in California, I figure now's a good time to stock up. Being that it's pay day for me today, I can happily shop without feeling any guilt. I'll probably drop a quick blog entry this weekend before I hit the airport, but in case I don't, I'll definitely keep everyone up to date with San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Heading Out

Duane Storey — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:17:47 +0000

Well, I'm sort of packed. Given that I no longer have a dryer at home, I was forced to dry most of my clothes out on the patio over night. Good news is that most of my clothes are completely dry. Bad news is some of them aren't dry yet. It's a nice sunny day in the Bay Area today, so I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt. In fact, today seems like a pretty warm day in Vancouver as well, so for all of you people hanging out at home, enjoy. I'm heading down to the airport right now. **Update - First, big thanks to Dan for helping me get through the custom's line in short order. That easily saved me a half-hour of waiting, so much appreciated Dan. I'm sitting in the US departures area, eating what is probably the world's worst egg mcmuffin. I almost fainted when I realized that the old US departures bar (where I actually sat next to Aaron Eckhart one time on my way down to San Francisco) had disappeared. I had a lot of good memories at that little pub, and used to always stop for a drink whenever I was passing by. The good news is that they simply moved it further down in the US area. Unfortunately for me it wasn't open when I walked by, so I couldn't have a father's day beer in honour of my dad. On that note:

Happy Father's Day Dad

Today as everyone knows, is father's day. Had I not been flying today I probably would have tried to meet my dad in Chilliwack for a quick beer. Unfortunately, I have a plane to catch. That said, my dad is not only my dad, but also one of my best friends. So here's wishing him an awesome father's day. I'll try and call you later dad. I have to see if I can find a phone card down in the states though, but I'll see what I can do. I might have to cave in and use Skype or something. I'm meeting a few friends in San Francisco today, and they are all arriving at various times at the airport. I am the designated rental-car-idiot, so I have to basically sit around all day waiting to drive everyone around. I might take a quick drive down to Mountain View to drop my stuff off in the hotel before heading back to the airport. I think tonight we'll go into San Francisco and have some seafood near the water somewhere, and then tomorrow I'll be heading to Google. A few days from now I'll be starting my vacation and heading to Los Angeles. Let the good times roll.

Quick Shot From San Francisco

Duane Storey — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:58:15 +0000

I tried doing a quick HDR of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. Turned out not bad with the fog.

Google, Day One

Duane Storey — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:52:37 +0000

I feel like writing a blog entry right now about as much as I feel like putting a spinning drill-bit into my temple. But I really wanted to jot down some of my thoughts from today before I passed out. There's a group of seven of us down in Mountain View right now. The purpose of this trip is to try and hash out a complete peer-to-peer communications protocol based on open-standards. When it's complete, it will essentially be an open source framework that will allow functionality similar to Skype, including encryption between nodes, even in an adhoc configuration. This trip marks the first time I have spent any significant time on the Google campus. One of the first things you notice is how many perks the employees get. There is free food and beverages scattered all over the buildings. The good thing is that they really strive to make sure everything is healthy, which is why there are no-sugar-added fruit drinks in most of the fridges, and nuts and berries for snacks. Google employs high-end class chefs in all their cafeterias, and the food that comes out is extremely varied, tasty, and ultimately healthy (they have nutritionalists on staff to ensure the latter). You'll see kids in the building, dogs, and the odd person getting a haircut or a massage right in the building. There's a full gym, pick-up sports, outdoor courts, bicycles for employees to bike between buildings, and even daycare for the parents that require supervision for their children. The main idea is to remove as many distractions from employees so that they can work without being stressed or worried. I had dinner in the Google cafeteria at around 8pm tonight, and the place was still fairly packed. We spent most of today hashing out an API for the peer to peer framework. There were lots of debates, a few heated moments, and lots of time spent honing the finer points of the interaction amongst the various components. It was a long, 14 hour day, and thankfully we're done most of planning. Tomorrow we'll get to Google early in the morning and spend most of the day locked in a conference room writing C++ code. We're hoping to have a functional vertical tomorrow, which basically means we'll have a somewhat working, but stripped down version of the end product, mainly as a proof of concept.

Last Night Gas Station Beer Run, Part II

Duane Storey — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:30:08 +0000

So, it's 30 minutes past midnight, and we just got back from another long day at Google. I'm sitting in Scott's 82 degree fahrenheit hotel room with Derek and twelve beers. Last night we realized that a 14 hour day would be a lot better if we had a few beers to finish it off, so we basically started the midnight-gas-station-beer-run tradition. For those of you who don't really know what Silicon Valley is like, I'll give you a little heads up. Most of Silicon Valley is centered around a city south of San Francisco called San Jose (affectionately called "Man Jose" by the locals, since it's predominantly populated by guys). Unfortunately, there's not really much to do in the high-tech areas except for work, or drink gas station beer. We've done fairly well on both of those activities so far. I spent most of today messing around with the protocol messages that ultimately set up and tear down the entire peer to peer network, as well as establish point to point connections between peers. The messages actually have to be digitally signed using cryptographic certificates, which makes it somewhat tricky. By tomorrow I should have the entire messaging system implemented, which is a pretty decent run after three days. This is my first hardcore coding session, and it's been actually a lot of fun for me. Most of the people down here are the experts in their industry. Sitting around telling jokes and discussing hard problems with some of the thought leaders in the IETF is obviously a lot of fun, and I hope I get a chance to do a few more of these in the future. Anyways, one more long day here, and then I'm officially on vacation. I think we're going to wrap things up a bit earlier tomorrow and all go out and have a nice dinner. On Thursday, I'll be heading to Los Angeles, and will hopefully leave my jeans behind for the rest of the summer. ** Update - we ended up plowing through the first twelve in fairly short order, so we walked down to the Gas Station and got a few more.

Daft Punk Harder Better Faster Stronger

Duane Storey — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:01:28 +0000

So this just popped up in the hotel room gas-station beer session. Pretty wild.

Quick Update From SFO

Duane Storey — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:14:12 +0000

Last night we left Google at around 9pm and headed up to Palo Alto for a nice dinner. Derek and I both had flights this morning, so we thought we might as well move our hotel close to the airport. We grabbed a really cheap travelodge, which was one of the scariest hotels I've been in for a long time. I somehow managed to misplace my laptop charger down at Google (more than likely, someone else accidentally grabbed it). That basically means I'm currently without a laptop and a cell phone. I'm hoping to get a SIM for my cell and hit an Apple store really quick to pick up a new charger. Hopefulluy that'll put me back on the grid in relatively short order. This is actually the most technologically disconnected I've been in quite a long time. My flight here in SFO is actually delayed, so I'm just killing time. They offered me an upgrade to first class for only $50, which I gladly accepted. Not only do I get a nice big seat on the plane and free drinks, but I also got to go into a priority security line which made the wait about 5 minutes instead of 90. The good news is my arrival time is almost exactly the same as that of my sister's and her kids, so I might get to run into my niece and nephew in LAX just as they get off their first plane ride. I'm meeting up with Tony tonight down in LA tonight, so hopefully we'll get into a bit of trouble.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Disneyland

Duane Storey — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:19:51 +0000

I've basically been on-the-go non-stop since San Francisco, so I haven't had much time to do anything on the computer. I originally had a 11am flight out of San Francisco, but for whatever reason it was delayed nearly four hours, and I didn't arrive until close to 4pm. It probably would have been faster to drive. Tony took me out for a great night down in Los Angeles. We went on a full tour of Hollywood, then picked up a few tall-boys and just chilled for a while. I also had some really great mexican food at a local hole-in-the-wall that Tony frequents from time to time. I only had one night in Los Angeles, otherwise I would have liked to hang out longer and hit a pub with Tony. But regardless, it was cool catching up with Tony again and seeing some of the local scenery. I spent yesterday down here at Disneyland. It's crazy hot in Anaheim -- it was 35C yesterday, and is supposed to be 36-37C today. I'm not complaining -- it's a nice change from the doom and gloom up in Vancouver. Not much has changed in the 20 or so years it's been since I've been to Disneyland. Yesterday I went on the Matterhorn, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and a few other small rides. Today we're heading over to the California Adventure, where apparently a few new rides have opened recently.

Heading Home

Duane Storey — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:18:50 +0000

Wow, it feels like I've been disconnected from the Internet for a very long time. I spent today somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego, hanging out at Legoland with my family. I actually wasn't really sure what to expect, given that I haven't really been into lego in a long time. But the good news is that Legoland was a lot of fun, and it was a nice change from the line-ups and the pace of Disneyland. Also, Legoland was near the water, and was a nice change from the hot weather down in Anaheim. Jessica, taking a break at Legoland. My nephew Derek spent about $150 on Lego in Legoland, and it was the happiest I've seen the little guy in a long time. Since he was having so much fun buying Lego, I thought hey, I might as well buy some too. I had my heart set on some Star Wars lego, but one of the workers said they were down to the last couple boxes of the limited edition Indiana Jones lego, after which they wouldn't be making any more. So based on that, I picked up a $50 set of Indiana Jones Lego. I'm actually looking forward to curling up with a movie one night and putting it together back in Vancouver. I said goodbye to the family tonight, and made the drive back to Los Angeles airport. The first order of business was to drop off the rental car, which was rather uneventful. After that I took a quick cab and ended up down at the Sheraton Gateway hotel, my home for the evening. I have an early morning flight back to Vancouver, and get in shortly before noon. Even though I had a pile of fun down here with the kids and my family, I'm looking forward to heading back home and away from this 39C heat wave they've had down here. I officially start my two weeks of vacation tomorrow, which means I have a pile of time ahead of me to do stuff. I really haven't given much thought to what I'm going to do, but I'm sure I'll sort it out in the next few days. Matt's show in on Thursday, so I have to stick around for that, but I'm about 90% certain I'm going to leave Friday morning and disappear into the mountains somewhere with my tent. Right now, I'm going to curl up in bed with my laptop and a movie. Next stop, Vancouver.

Vancouver Pre-Show Meet-Up

Duane Storey — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:21:27 +0000

A few people expressed some interest in the comments a few weeks ago about possibly trying to get together for a meet-up prior to show on Thursday night. Pitt did a bang-up job organizing two Toronto based meet-ups this last year, so I thought I'd try my best to rally some Vancouver fans and website members together. Given that it's supposed to be a nice, sunny day on Thursday, it makes sense that we should probably shoot for a patio. To that end, there's a little pub with a fun, rooftop patio about a block away from the venue called the Kingston Taphouse And Grill. So, unless there are any objections, I'm going to propose people meet there around 6:00pm for a social beverage or two and some appetizers before the show starts. Doors open at 7:30pm according to Ticketmaster, so that gives everyone a little over an hour or so to mingle and get to know each other. The address of the Kingston is 755 Richards Street, and a map to it can be found here (it also shows the Orpheum). If you plan on swinging by, please drop a comment so I can get a rough idea of who is going to show up. I'm not sure if they take reservations, but I'll see if I can sweet talk my way into getting a few tables on the patio. I'm sort of well known amongst my friends for my nacho making/eating ability, and out of all the places I've been on my lifelong nacho quest, the Kingston scores near the top. So if you're going, I highly recommend sampling some of them. Also, if you see Dan Lilly and his wife out at the meet-up, make sure you congratulate them on their anniversary, which I believe they are celebrating that night. **Update - Just to be clear, this is just a gathering of friends, fans, and members from the website -- Matt will not be showing up at the Kingston, as he will undoubtedly have his hands full down at the Orpheum preparing for the show.

On Vacation

Duane Storey — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:02:18 +0000

I've had a few people email me lately and wonder why I haven't really been blogging lately. Truth is, I'm on holidays, and I haven't really thought about blogging all that much. I've been laying low, drinking wine, doing web work, and catching up on Lost, season 4. So far, I'm enjoying myself. Tomorrow is Matthew Good's show down at the Orpheum in Vancouver. I'm getting together with some fans and members of matthewgood.org prior to the show, which should be a lot of fun. I haven't seen Matt play with a full band in a few years, so I'm definitely looking forward to it. This weekend I'm planning to hopefully head up to Birkinhead Lake or somewhere similar for a nice relaxing camping weekend. So if you don't see me online, that's why.

Last Night's Show

Duane Storey — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:08:42 +0000

What can I say, last night's show was completely awesome. It was great seeing Matt with a full band again, more so because we all finally got to hear Hospital Music like it was recorded. I was looking forward to 99% of Us Is Failure live, since it's one of my favorite songs. Here's a quick video I grabbed when it came on: The meet and greet before hand was great, and I'd say about 25 people came out. A pile of us met afterwards down at Doolin's for a few aftershow drinks as well. All in all, a great night out. Now, in terms of what I'm going to do for the next few days, I just woke up with the sudden itch to see the Rocky Mountains in the US.

The Dream That Never Was

Duane Storey — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:12:41 +0000

Most of us have been waiting patiently for Rogers to finally release their data rates for the iPhone 3G that is coming to Canada on July 11th. The good news is that the wait is finally over -- Rogers just released full information about their plans. Unfortunately, Rogers completely missed the boat on this one. They had the chance to bring Canada to the forefront of the wireless world, but instead felt compelled to keep us locked up in our draconian past. There are no unlimited data rates for the new plans, and anything approaching 1GB will cost you $100 or more per month (plus, I'm sure, the 9/11 fee and the system access fee, bringing your bill to $120 or more). To be honest, it's exactly what I expected, but I can't honestly say I didn't dare to hope that things might be better. On my recent trip down south I walked into a Best Buy and bought a pay as you go plan, including a free phone, for $15. No contract, no nothing. The same deal up here will run about $80, and you need your own phone. In addition, Jason lent me a little USB dongle for my laptop that took a GSM SIM card and provided unlimited internet access anywhere in the US for only $60/mo. We're so far behind here it's not even funny. The iPhone is a revolutionary invention, but it really needs to be augmented with an unlimited data plan to bring it to fruition. Given that Rogers is adamant about a 3 year contract (I can't think of a single other carrier that wants a 3 year contract), and that their data rates leave much to be desired, I'm probably going to pass on getting the iPhone, and spend the next few days reflecting on the wireless dream that never was.

Checking In From The Road

Duane Storey — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:30:10 +0000

I left Vancouver yesterday to set out on a mini adventure. First, I swung by Langley to have lunch with my dad, and laid out a few options about where I was going to go. During the course of the meal I eventually finalized on doing the North Cascades Highway in the United States, and headed out shortly afterwards. I spent about an hour waiting in the line-up to cross the border. Considering I didn't really have a final destination, the border guard was actually pretty nice to me and even chatted with me for a bit about life in Vancouver. I made it to Rockport on the first night, and set up camp near a little river. I didn't have a book to read or anything mildly entertaining, so I just sat in front of the camp fire with a few beers and relaxed. Later that night I invited myself over to a neighbors campsite and enjoyed a few more beers with Brian and Sara, both from Bellingham. They were both a ton of fun, and even started feeding me free beers after a while. There's was a little pub up near the highway that we ended up heading up to for an hour or so. After that, I retired to my little spot beside the river. I actually overslept this morning, and missed the official check-out time by an hour. I decided to continue along the North Cascades highway (which is only open in the summer time), stopping at a few picturesque spots along the way. My favourite was Diablo Lake, pictured here: I was actually pretty beat today, and really didn't feel like being in the car. I pushed myself to get to Spokane, since it's a large city close to some major highways. I couldn't find a campsite I liked near here, so I'm currently holed up the first hotel I saw that offered free wireless internet. I'm debating heading further east tomorrow, or perhaps finding a nice campground near here and relaxing for a day. I'm leaning towards the latter, since I wouldn't mind a day of reading or sitting by a stream. I actually picked up a GPS unit for my car on the way down here, and it's been really great to have. In fact, it seems pretty strange that I ever traveled without one. If you want to stop, you just click what you're looking for, and a list of whatever (gas stations, hotels, camp grounds) comes up and you can pick which one you want to navigate to. Plus, it always gives you a real time estimate of "are we there yet?" so you always know how much longer it is.

Happy Birthday Video

Duane Storey — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:35:40 +0000

First, a big thanks to everyone who came out to the pre-show meet and greet the other day. Most of you probably saw me walking around with my camera at one point getting little video clips of people. Well, here's the end result, plus a couple of additions from a few familiar faces. [flashvideo filename=http://www.matthewgood.org/wp-content/uploads/matt4.mov width=480 height=320 /]

How To Tell How Full Your Solar Batteries Are

Duane Storey — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:03:06 +0000

I found this useful deep-cycle battery FAQ that included a rough voltage level chart which helps you determine how full your deep-cycle battery is:

State of Charge	12 Volt battery	Volts per Cell
100%	12.7	2.12
90%	12.5	2.08
80%	12.42	2.07
70%	12.32	2.05
60%	12.20	2.03
50%	12.06	2.01
40%	11.9	1.98
30%	11.75	1.96
20%	11.58	1.93
10%	11.31	1.89
0	10.5	1.75

While I haven't blogged about it, I have a small solar panel setup on my patio which provides enough power to run a few lights in my living room each night for a few hours. This information lets me know how charged the battery system is. Right now my battery is at 12.75 volts.

Happy Canada Day

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:43:58 +0000

Whenever I think of Canada Day, I am always reminded of the few years I spent in Ottawa. Out there, Canada day is a day-long party, where they basically shut the downtown core down and let everyone mingle, get their face painted, and for those of you of legal drinking age, have a few street-side beer. At the end of the night there was always a big concert on Parliament Hill. So by comparison, Canada Day in Vancouver is pretty tame. Last year I got together with some friends and had a few pints in various locations around the downtown core. This year, I don't really have any plans, but will probably sneak out at some point and take a few photos. For all of you heading out to enjoy some friends and partake in some events, have a great Canada Day. Happy Birthday Canada!

Insulin And Caffeine

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:13:13 +0000

I do the odd post from time to time on health issues and current research I think is interesting. About a year ago I posted an article discussing how caffeine seems to have a negative influence on the body's insulin signaling, which ultimately affects blood sugar levels in the blood. What this ultimately means is that caffeine might be a major contributing factor in the obesity epidemic, since high insulin levels in the blood promote the storage of fat and make it difficult to burn it. Here's a recent 2008 study that investigated the effects of caffeinated coffee and decaffeinated coffee on the body's insulin and glucose systems. Why I think it's interesting is that it's one of the first studies that I've seen in a while that used coffee as the source of caffeine instead of caffeine pills.

BACKGROUND: The ingestion of caffeine (5 mg/kg body weight) and a 75-g oral glucose load has been shown to elicit an acute insulin-insensitive environment in healthy and obese individuals and in those with type 2 diabetes. OBJECTIVE: In this study we investigated whether a similar impairment in blood glucose management exists when coffee and foods typical of a Western diet were used in a similar protocol. DESIGN: Ten healthy men underwent 4 trials in a randomized order. They ingested caffeinated (5 mg/kg) coffee (CC) or the same volume of decaffeinated coffee (DC) followed 1 h later by either a high or low glycemic index (GI) cereal (providing 75 g of carbohydrate) mixed meal tolerance test. RESULTS: CC with the high GI meal resulted in 147%, 29%, and 40% greater areas under the curve for glucose (P < 0.001), insulin (NS), and C-peptide (P < 0.001), respectively, compared with the values for DC. Similarly, with the low GI treatment, CC elicited 216%, 44%, and 36% greater areas under the curve for glucose (P < 0.001), insulin (P < 0.01), and C-peptide (P < 0.01), respectively. Insulin sensitivity was significantly reduced (40%) with the high GI treatment after CC was ingested compared with DC; with the low GI treatment, CC ingestion resulted in a 29% decrease in insulin sensitivity, although this difference was not significant. CONCLUSION: The ingestion of CC with either a high or low GI meal significantly impairs acute blood glucose management and insulin sensitivity compared with ingestion of DC. Future investigations are warranted to determine whether CC is a risk factor for insulin resistance.

In short, caffeinated coffee caused insulin to raise in the blood about 30-40% higher than decaffeinated coffee. Obesity typically goes hand-in-hand with a condition known as insulin resistance, which is where the body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin and the pancreas is forced to excrete more to do the same job. This eventually leads (according to the current wisdom) to a burn-out of the pancreas (since it can't keep up with the body's insulin demand) and type-II diabetes. Caffeinated coffee contributes (in this study) to a decrease in whole body insulin sensitivity by about 40%. To put that into perspective, exercise causes the body to become more sensitive to insulin, but only to the tune of 10-20% increase in sensitivity. So as you can see, the effects of caffeine on the body's glucose and insulin are fairly shocking. I'm still waiting for a study that looks at soft drinks in this capacity as well, both diet and sugar filled. Given that both contain large amounts of caffeine, I suspect there will eventually be a link between diet sodas and difficulty losing weight (or ease in gaining weight). I read an article about five years ago that paradoxically predicted that the cause of obesity would turn out, once the dust had settled, to be dieting. So far current research is on the way to backing him up.

Happy Trails, Bud

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:32:19 +0000

I got home from Canada Day tonight and spent a bit of time on IM chatting to people. My friend Jeff, who is one of my best friends from high school, was online so we ended up chatting for a bit. Despite living only a few blocks apart, the sad thing is Jeff and I rarely get to see each other due to both our crazy schedules. I found out tonight that Jeff is moving to Victoria with his wife Michele and his daughter Maya. To be honest, while I want the best for them, it made me feel bad that I've been out of the loop so long with them that I had no idea they were moving away in a few weeks. I'm going to make some time to head over and spend some time with them before they leave. All the best guys.

Gone Camping

Duane Storey — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:11:15 +0000

Birkenhead Lake, last summer At the Matthew Good show the other night I ran into a good friend of mine from high school. We ended up chatting and drinking beers over at Doolin's after, and it was great to catch up. Rob and I became friends back when I was working at Bonanza when I was 16, and I haven't talked to him in a few years. Birkenhead Lake, photo by wenno on flickr It turns out that both Rob and I are on vacation this week with not a whole lot to do, so we decided to head up to Birkenhead Lake tomorrow and just chill out over a few beers. Birkenhead was the biggest surprise of last summer, and it's one of the nicest campgrounds I've been in. It's close to Whistler, and it boasts huge campgrounds with a nice glacier fed lake. So it should be a great couple of days.

Utah Switching To Four Day Work Weeks

Duane Storey — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:23:58 +0000

I've always been a big fan of four day work weeks, or better yet, working at the rate which you are most productive. That's why I have always gravitated towards jobs that don't have fixed hours. Where I currently work, I really don't have a fixed schedule. If I wake up early, I'll stroll in at 8:30am. If I have a rough night sleeping, nobody cares when I stroll in at 10:30am. Given that flexibility, I'll often do a bit of work at home during the evenings when I'm listening to music or whatever. Utah recently announced that they are switching their government employees to four day work weeks. A four day work week has a lot of advantages. First, it gives people every Friday off to spend time with their families, or catch up on errands. Second, since you're already at work and have already commuted there, it just is more efficient to work a few extra hours while you're there. Also, as the article points out, it means less money spent on gas and reduced pollution. Some people probably won't like a 10 hour day, but I imagine most people would gladly work a few extra hours to get every Friday off. I know I would.

Why I'm Not Getting An iPhone On July 11th

Duane Storey — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:28:33 +0000

As everyone knows, Rogers announced their lackluster iPhone plans not that long ago, and were immediately criticized by most Canadian wireless customers as being far too expensive. In addition, the lack of an unlimited data plan, a feature that Bell and Telus have for some of their phones, is also fairly disappointing give the web-based nature of the device. In response to the data rates, RuinediPhone set up an online petition asking Rogers to change their data rates. Since going live nearly a week ago, they've amassed nearly 36,000 signatures, and have been featured on several mainstream news segments. John Biehler recently posted a great article on how Rogers may actually be starting to listen to these various complaints. The main wireless provider in Sweden also recently revised their iPhone data plans to include an unlimited data option, mostly to appease customer complaints. I actually don't think Rogers will do something similar based on their history, but I'm obviously hoping they do. So, where does all this leave me? The thing is, I really don't want to pay $100 a month for 3 years, even as much as I want the iPhone. Had it come with an unlimited data plan, I might have considered it. Given that most of the plans leave much to be desired, that there's no unlimited data plan, and that Rogers requires a 3 year contract (something I told myself I'd never sign again), I really have no choice but to vote with my wallet. If you want to protest Roger's iPhone plans, I suggest you do the same. The other day I walked into a wireless store and picked up a cheap Solo phone with no contract. It's no iPhone, but it'll cost me about $40/mo, and should be all that I need. I would love nothing more than to be able to huck it in the garbage in July and pick up the 3G iPhone, but for that to happen Rogers will need to make a few changes to their plans. Given their history of gauging customers, I'm not so certain that they will, at least not unless they have fairly disappointing sales figures in July. So we'll see. Like I said above, if you are against Roger's pricing and policies regarding the 3G iPhone, then the best thing you can do is not walk into a store next week and buy one. If you have made a decision regarding the iPhone, I'd love to hear it here.

Birkenhead Lake

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:53:15 +0000

Here's a shot I took the other day while camping with my friend Rob. It was a great trip, and I had a really good time catching up with and old friend.

The End Of My Vacation

Duane Storey — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:37:07 +0000

Well, thus marks the end of my first two-week vacation stint. This vacation saw me bounce from San Francisco, to Los Angeles, back up to Vancouver, to a Matthew Good show, then to the North Cascades, up to Whistler, and then back home. Not bad for just over two weeks. Golden Gate Bridge, taken during my trip It was great getting to hang out with my sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids down in Disneyland. Despite only being an hour and a bit away, I don't get a chance to head home that often. Plus, I haven't really spent much time with my niece and nephew (although I was there in Chilliwack Hospital when my niece popped out), so it was a good bonding experience with both of them. I gave up caffeine again a few days ago, and already I feel a ton better. To be quite honest, most of the time I find that I lack the motivation to really get out and do anything. Most of the reason is that I rarely get a good night's sleep, and typically feel perpetually tired I'm not sure if it's because I just took two weeks off, or if it's because my body is now caffeine free, but I feel amazingly better and more upbeat. In fact, the last two days I've actually gotten up naturally at 8:30am or so, and spent the day bouncing around, even doing a pile of chores I've been meaning to do for, oh let's see, the last year or so. Camping Near Seattle Yesterday I spent two hours and completely overhauled my car. It basically looks as good as new now (ignoring, of course, the huge dent in my back door that still needs to be fixed). The inside still smells a bit like camping, but once I vacuum the carpets I'm fairly certain it will be as good as new inside as well. I also picked up some tupperware for the trunk so that I can store all my camping stuff in it and easily pull it out when it's not in use. Matt @ The Orpheum This morning I got a call from Jeff, and he asked if I wanted to head down with him and his daughter to Macdonald Beach Park for a few hours. It was directly beside the airport, and was a really nice spot to chill out and let his dog run up and down the beach. Afterwards, I swung by the new Home Depot on Cambie and picked up a wall shelving-unit for my room so that I'll finally have somewhere to pile all my clothes. I have, embarrassingly enough, been without a dresser ever since I moved into this place, and subsequently have been forced to pile some of my clothes on my bedroom floor. While this is only marginally better, it'll be nice to have everything organized again, and will make it unlikely that bacon can successfully hide in my room in the future. Tomorrow I head back into work. I'm just finishing up a pile of laundry and then I'm going to hit the hay. I'm going to try and get myself back on a morning schedule, since I'd like to be home in time to cook myself dinner for the next little while. Also, there's a chance that I'll be heading to Serbia in the next week or two to help with a project out there. If I go, I'll be gone for four weeks or so. It's nowhere near for sure yet, but if it does happen, I think it'll be a really great experience, and I'll get to see some of Europe I've never seen before. Anyways, thus ends my vacation. The next one will probably be in the fall or early winter.

The iPhone Shit Storm

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:53:25 +0000

Tonight I was pointed at a link, courtesy of John, that basically detailed a rumour that Apple is diverting iPhone shipments away from Canada next week. The reason for this, according to the rumour, is that Apple is not pleased with the grassroots backlash that Roger's and the iPhone have received in Canada. The thing is, it really doesn't matter if the rumour is true (and in my mind, I doubt it is -- it's more likely in my mind that they have general manufacturing problems and can't meet the demand) - either way, it's a huge PR nightmare for Rogers. There was one site earlier that posted the rumor, and already I've found four or five that are regurgitating it, and adding their own spin on it. By tomorrow, that rumour will basically be fact, and will have propagated to Digg and all the other big tech sites. As it stands, that petition at ruinediphone.com is well on it's way to hitting 50,000 signatures by tomorrow. Based on the rate it was going at last week, that represents and increase in consumer momentum, not a decrease. The question is, are all these people who are complaining still going to go out and buy an iPhone anyways on Friday? My gut tells me no. I think people are genuinely pissed off, and I think they are going to stick it to Rogers on Friday when the iPhone hits the shelves. There's really only one way to play this in my mind -- Roger's needs to cave before Friday. The negative press is just going to get worse before then, and I wouldn't be surprised if this current rumour starts a whole new media storm against Rogers. The first and obvious option for Rogers would be to quickly add an unlimited data plan to the mix. That would make most of the complainers (myself included) happy. And while the voice plans would still suck compared to the AT&T ones, I think most people would grudgingly go along with them. The other option would be to reduce the contract length to two years instead of three. This actually might be the safer play for Rogers, since it wouldn't require them backing down from their archaic data-plan rhetoric about how people don't actually need unlimited. I think it would be enough to push some of the complainers back into the purchasing line. If Rogers doesn't cave, and the sales end up being dismal, I think it will be a huge blow against Rogers management and the public perception of the company. Before this, Rogers wasn't very well liked in the wireless space. Now they aren't very well-liked at all, both here and in the United States, thanks primarily to the extensive coverage this incident has gotten. That's why I think it's important that Rogers admit defeat, apologize for the misstep they took, and offer a better plan before Friday. If they do that, it's basically a win-win. Sure, they'll look a bit stupid, but far better than to continue down the path they are on and force a lose-lose.

Cholesterol Drugs Now Safe For Kids!

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:09:07 +0000

Yes, it's true. Recent research says kids as young as eight years old can now safely go on cholesterol lowering medication! Man, I can't believe they are seriously pushing that. Yes, overweight kids probably have high cholesterol, but let's focus on a solution, not a patch. Most people would probably be surprised to know that the whole science of cholesterol is pretty weak. Lots of people live their whole lives with high cholesterol and never experience any problems, and some people with low cholesterol can be in danger for a heart attack. In fact, the whole science of cholesterol (LDL, HDL, triglycerides, etc.) is so over-simplified that it's basically useless as a mainstream medical concept. For example, some forms of LDL (the BAD cholesterol), aren't that bad for you, and only a very specific kind, known as VLDL (very low density lipoprotein), actually contributes to heart disease. This form typically only manifests itself on diets high in sugar, which usually coincides with high triglycerides (which when used in conjunction with a low HDL reading can be used as a warning sign for insulin resistance, also known as metabolic syndrome, syndrome-X or hyperinsulinemia). Most people are surprised to learn that 2/3 of the fat in a typical steak will actually improve your cholesterol profile, while only 1/3 will make it worse. Yet dated nutrionalists still insist that the only way to lower cholesterol is basically to remove fat from the diet and eat lots of vegetables. And while the latter is obviously ok, fat is needed in a healthy diet, and many european diets are heavy (by western standards) with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, both of which typically lead to improved health. Truthfully, most people overmedicate themselves. This is probably due to pressure from drug companies trying to make a profit, or maybe the erosion of will in doctors who, despite giving good advice for most of their careers, have been disheartened by the lack of improvements in the general population. In this case, I think giving cholesterol fighting drugs to kids is an amazingly bad idea since it doesn't address the problem, but instead attempts to apply a dirty band-aid to it. In addition. cholesterol fighting drugs are relatively new, and I don't think the safety profile is well-established enough to recommend giving it to anyone who isn't in imminent danger of having a heart attack.

Happy Birthday Jessica

Duane Storey — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:33:43 +0000

Today (Tuesday) is my niece's 10th birthday. It seems like just yesterday I was out working at UBC when I got the call telling me that my sister had gone into labour. I left work and made the trek back to Chilliwack, and made it to the hospital just in time to see the first few minute's of Jessica's new life.

That photo is one of my favourites of my niece. It was probably taken when she was only 5 years old or so, but it was one of the first times I got to spend alone with her (I had been living out in Ottawa for a few years prior to that). I had told my sister that I was going to go to Burger King and get myself something to eat. Jessica came up to me, grabbed my hand, and asked me if she could come along. What uncle could refuse? I caught her outside not long after, a jar full of bees in one hand, a flower in the other, and managed to snap this photo of her. It is a shot that always makes me smile, and somehow reminds me of the type of person she is.

I recently spent a few days hanging out with her down at Disneyland, and it was great to finally have some more time with her. Every time I see her she is that much bigger, and that much more of a little lady. So on this, your tenth birthday, I wish you an amazing day. And know that your uncle loves you very much! Happy birthday kiddo.

Happy Birthday Andie

Duane Storey — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:07:38 +0000

You know, it's hard to believe that there was a time when Andie was actually taller than me, but it's true. I think I passed him at the age of 16 or so, but Andie could always hold his own in a wrestling match.

As you can tell, today is my brother-in-law, Andie's, birthday. Andie started dating my sister when I was 14 or 15, and he's been an integral part of the family ever since. I'm proud to call him my brother-in-law.

Happy Birthday Bud.

No More Mr. Nice Guy - Updated

Duane Storey — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:03:02 +0000

Update - the contest makers have left a comment apologizing for the incident below. I've elevated this to the top for now just to give it additional exposure. You know, I have about $7000 worth of camera equipment. That represents a large portion of my disposable income and is something I buy because I enjoy photography. I put most of my images on Flickr so that others can use them in blog entries or whatever. The only constraint I have is that I ask that people respect the Creative Commons license on the photos and not use them for commercial purposes. I probably send one or two emails a month to websites that are in clear violation of the CC license for my photos. I received a Flickr email from Jay over at JayBanks.ca a while ago saying that he used some of my Flickr photos in his gallery and asked me to take a look. Given that his website is obviously targeted towards selling real-estate, I politely asked him to take them down. He then argued that that particular portion of his website wasn't commercial, even though the rest of the website was. I obviously disagreed. The last email I got from Jay a few weeks ago said the following:

Hi Duane, Thanks for writing. We are very careful to only use Creative Commons photos. We are not actually using your photo commercially, as the photo section on JayBanks.ca is not commercial. We do not buy or sell photos in any way for profit. We are only using the photo on its own in the photo section and not as an illustration for any article. And in line with your wishes and with your license, we will keep it that way. We are thinking about doing a book of Vancouver photos - also non-commercial but with copies going to contributors - but before proceeding with that project, we will asking for permission as well as print quality files. We are about to improve our attribution with links (we have to upgrade the CMS to do so), so there will be a link back to your flickr account for people who want to see more of your photography. If you have any suggestions on how to improve our photo section for other flickr CC sharers please let us know. We are working actively to make things better.

It was fairly clear I did not want my image used on his site, and that I believed it violated the CC license. I received another email from Jay yesterday that said the following:

In the meantime, I have added a direct link back to your Flickr photostream from the image. I will be honest with you: I wouldn't want to remove this great shot from this strictly non-commercial part of my website. It's just too beautiful to get rid of. But of course I don't want to upset you, so if you insist I remove it, I'll do so. But please check it out once again with the CC link and let me know.

I made it pretty clear I wanted it taken down a few weeks ago. I headed over to Jay's website this morning to take another look, and low and behold, what do I find on the front page? You know, it sure looks a hell of a lot like one that I took last year: It's one thing to argue that a portion of your website is non-commercial while the main site is commercial, but advertising a photo contest on the main page of a commercial website is obviously intended to generate traffic for the commercial portion. I tried to resolve this in back channels, even though I feel I shouldn't have to waste my time on it. But to be honest, I'm tired of people thinking they can just lift whatever image they want. In terms of the one on the front page, there's no attribution, it's on a commercial site, and I believe I don't allow derivative works. Plus, there are various "Images Copyright By Jay" text blurbs on the main page where it's hard to tell which images they appear to apply to. Clearly I still hold the copyright to my own images. And in fact, if you use a CC licensed photo and do a derivative work, you have to keep the same CC license as the original. Why is it that people feel that can just disregard the license on photos whenever they see fit? What makes it worse is I've already asked that they be taken down. I'm seriously considering switching all my photos to "All Rights Reserved" at this point. I'm tired of dealing with stuff like this.

The Saga Continues

Duane Storey — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:49:14 +0000

After working the phones on and off for the last few months, I finally managed to get a referral to one of the best (if not *the* best) Oculoplastics specialists in British Columbia, Dr. Peter Dolman. The soonest I can get in is in September with him, but he's going to go over my case and see if there's anything else they can do to correct my vision and restore the bone structure of my left eye. I called the secretary to confirm my appointment today, and to make sure she requested all my CT scans and MRI data before hand so I don't waste a trip for nothing. So sometime in late September I'll finally get a second opinion about my injury and potentially have another round of surgery. Good. Fucking. Times.

A Quick Summer Cleaning

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:59:13 +0000

As you can tell, Dale and I spent some time tonight completely overhauling my blog. To be honest, while I loved the black background at first, I've recently become rather tired of it. So, we're back to white for this iteration. The one thing I really wanted to accomplish with this theme is to have a central spot that details everything about me. Most of that information was available in my last theme, but it was buried deep and hard to get to. Now, I have a special home page available at duanestorey.com which has my contact information, Flickr photos, press quotations, blog links, and a listing of the events I've recently covered. I actually am really happy with the end result. In addition, we made sure that the theme properly validated against W3C standards during the process. A few pages are still a bit bare, and I'll fill them in slowly over the weekend. But the theme is basically done. So enjoy, and let me know what you think!

We Come To It At Last - The Great Battle Of Our Time

Duane Storey — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:10:20 +0000

Yes, today is July 11th, and that means today is the day most of use techno geeks have been waiting for patiently for the last few months. Today Roger's releases the iPhone 3G in Canada. As most of you know, I've been pretty harsh (justifiable so) against their iPhone rate plans. The last entry I posted basically said that if Rogers didn't cave before Friday, they were going to seriously hurt their credibility, not just amongst their wireless users, but also for the hoards of people that were exposed to the negative press. The good news is that Rogers finally caved and offered a decent data plan for $30/mo. When coupled with a normal Roger's voice plan, that'll bring the monthly cost of a new iPhone down from around $100 to more like $60, which is in line with what my old cell phone used to cost me. So, while my intention is to hold off a few weeks before making a decision, I think I may meander past the Roger's store that's just a few blocks away and see what the action is like this morning. I imagine there will be lines and a lack of stock, so I don't think I'm in any danger of getting a phone today. But if you managed to get yourself one, drop me a line.

Duane's iPhone Update

Duane Storey — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:22:36 +0000

Well, to say that today was a complete clusterfuck would be a gross understatement. I arrived at the Rogers store around 9am, and spent the next five hours watching Roger's employees desperately try and activate my iPhone for me. I actually ended up at a hold-in-the-wall Rogers store, which was great because there wasn't a huge line-up. Ironically, I ended up right behind my plastic surgeon in line, which was actually pretty cool because I got to spend 90 minutes just chatting with him and getting to know him. They had 14 units at the store I went to, and only 4 at the Yaletown Rogers store. I heard that the fools at the Broadway store waited in a line 100 deep for hours on end and most of them didn't even get iPhones. After spending most of the day there, I managed to walk out around 2pm with a brand new 3G iPhone in my hand. Having a full data plan makes all the difference. I've had an iPod Touch for six months now, and I'm fairly used to how to use the device. But when you couple the technology with a full data plan, it's an entirely different experience. In fact, I'm fairly certain I'm going to die by being hit by a bus or by being run over by a backhoe, since I spent all day walking down the road without watching where I was going. It's pretty cool, and I'm totally having a lot of fun playing with it.

24 Hours With The iPhone 3G

Duane Storey — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:53:36 +0000

I've been messing around with the iPhone 3G pretty much non-stop for the last 24 hours. For the most part, it has exceeded my expectations. First, being able to check your email or surf the web from any location is a pretty awesome feature. For example, today I was at the beach with some friends and we noticed that the tide was slowly creeping up the shore. I quickly fired up Safari, did a Google search for "Vancouver Tide Table", and determined that high tide was in about two hours. As most people know, the iPhone 2.0 firmware brings with it the iPhone application store. I've already purchased two applications, the premium Twitterific app and the Flickr app. The Twitterific app is a bit more polished, but the Flickr app is fully functional and will probably make life with Flickr that much easier. One application that is notably missing is something to share your current location with your friends. The AGPS system in the iPhone works surprisingly well with the Google maps application, but I have yet to have it work well with anything else. I updated my location in Twitter today using the Twitterific application, only to realize that it was about 2 or 3 miles off when someone viewed the location from my Twitter profile. Ideally, I want a way to send my GPS coordinates to someone so they can find me. I was trying to tell John Biehler how to get to the beach we were at today, when I really should have been able to fire him off a URL of where I was and have him walk right up to me. Perhaps that functionality is buried in the iPhone somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. I was pretty worried with the battery life yesterday after I picked it up. It was 50% full when I purchased it, and I nearly ran it down to 0 by the time I got home. I gave it a full charge overnight, and was relieved when I got home tonight and it was still nearly full. So battery life seems to at least be good enough to do a full day or random calling and surfing. One disappointing aspect is that the iPhone 3G doesn't appear to work with my iPod dock. The current dock I have has worked for three generations of iPods (the original, the nano and the touch), so I was disappointed when I plugged it into my stereo dock as night only to be told by the iPhone that it wasn't compatible. I can't really imagine a scenario where Apple couldn't make it work with the old dock if they wanted to (the pin configurations are the same), so I can only conclude that the purposefully broke it so people would be forced to buy new docks for the iPhone 3G. I also signed up for a trial Mobile Me account tonight. Mobile Me is Apple's new web-based service that can synchronize content between Mac devices in real-time. One nice thing about the Mobile Me service is that it operates off a PUSH delivery system, which means that it automatically sends data to all devices immediately after the data is changed. The opposite of that is a PULL system (often called polling or fetching), where each device periodically checks for updates, even if none exist. The PUSH system is obviously far more efficient, and ultimately uses less battery life (since no data is transferred when no updates are available). I have to say, it's pretty cool seeing your iPhone chirp about 3 seconds after you send an email to your Mobile Me address. I also updated a pile of contacts on my Laptop to see what would happen on my iPhone. Without any intervention, the contacts on my iPhone automatically changed as well within about 15 seconds of finishing synchronizing them on my laptop. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, the Mobile Me website seems borked right now, and it won't let me log in using my credentials. Until then, I won't be able to see how it compares against Google's suite of products. In terms of data usage, it would seem I haven't used all that much. In the 36 hours or so that I've had the device, I've only used 40MB worth of data. I would consider myself in the "power user" category, and I'm actually a bit surprised that it's so low. I imagine once I start uploading photos routinely it will climb, but at my current rate I'll barely hit 1GB worth of data this month. One thing I have noticed however is that the user interface seems a bit sluggist on the iPhone 3G compared to my iPod touch. I played around with John Biehler's device today, and although it seemed slightly snappier, you can see a slight delay when bouncing between contacts or adding new ones. I've been told that the original iPhone firmwares also had speed issues, and slowly improved with each iteration. So hopefully the next version of the 3G firmware will make the UI a bit peppier. All in all, I'm extremely happy with my purchase, and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a mobile computing device. Surprisingly, I haven't really made that many calls with it since I've gotten it. In fact, I consider the ability to surf and interact wirelessly over 3G the device's main selling point. ** Update - Also, the iPhone 3G doesn't appear to support the 802.11n. That's pretty disappointing considering every Mac product in my house is using it, including my new Airport base station. The only way I can make my iPod touch work with it is to reconfigure my router to do a+b as well as n, but that means I can't use the 802.11n in wide mode. Maybe I'll bridge my router at home with another 802.11b router I have, but that's a huge pain in the ass. I'm really surprised 802.11n isn't supported on the iPhone 3G.

Rolled Coins. What Do I Do With Them?

Duane Storey — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:52:00 +0000

I'm a change gatherer. I don't really know how it happens, but I always end up at home each evening with tons of change in my pockets. I have two piggy banks on the go at any one time, and both of them fill up rather quickly. My niece and nephew love coming over because there are always coins lying around my apartment, and it's a fun game to find them. Despite my best efforts, I usually end up with change on counters and less frequently in my bed. One time I was taking a shower in the morning and heard a few "clangs", only to look down and see a few pennies fall off my body -- apparently I had slept with them and they got stuck to my body during the night. I rule. Since I was running out of room to store my change, I decided I would simply cash them in. Only problem is the coin sorter I used to use at Safeway is no longer there. I did a quick Google and realized the only one left in the city (that I could find) was at the Burrard IGA downtown. Unfortunately, according to some forum posts, it recently went the way of the dodo as well. Not knowing what else to do, I went down to Staples and spent $30 on a change sorter. I spent about 90 minutes the other night going through two piggy banks, and ended up with close to $300 in rolled coins. The things is, I really don't know what to do with the rolls now. In the old days you'd take them to a bank and they'd give you cash in return. Usually they want your account number so that if you're short in any rolls they'll simply take the difference out of your account. Unfortunately, I do all my banking online nowadays with PC Financial, and I don't have access to any physical tellers. So I'm pretty much stumped right now. I've been told sometimes you can take them to casinos and pretend like you won them on slots, but I'm not sure which casinos in the area still use coins. Anyone have any great ideas for what I should do?

A Day In The Life

Duane Storey — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:41:59 +0000

I actually hit the sack before midnight last night, which is pretty much an unprecedented event in my life. The main reason was because I had to get up early and take my car into the shop to get some TLC. While on my road trip a few weeks ago, a few things suddenly stopped working, including the door lock switch on the driver's side door, the CD player (it currently does a better job grinding CDs then it does playing them), and a small problem with my gear shifter. In addition, my car is about one year past the date I should have had a one year tune-up. In terms of the last item, it's a weird situation with my car. I have an extended warranty, which basically has provisions that I have to take care of my care if they are going to honor the warranty. The problem is that I rarely drive it, and so it seemed sort of silly to have a full one-year tune-up when there was only 6,000 kms on it. I have been fairly religious with changing the oil and doing tire rotations, but this will be the first major tune-up my car has received. It's not cheap - $240, but since it's done at Mazda it will all be in the computer should I ever need to make a claim for the extended part. In terms of the other smaller items, I was told they should all be under warranty, so that's good. On the way to the Mazda dealership, I actually briefly passed my friend Matt who was walking his dogs and showing off his new hat. Since the CD player was dead in my car, I was forced to listen to the radio, which has, since the last time I listened to it, seriously gone down-hill. First, there are hardly any real stations left in Vancouver it would appear. And second, most of them are completely flooded with advertising. I briefly did a stint with a satellite radio last year, and actually really liked it, but couldn't justify to the money given that I rarely drive. But seriously, I don't know how people can handle normal radio anymore. I suspect mainstream radio is on it's way out, probably to be replaced by another flux of smaller stations that actually, you know, spin records again. One song that actually did play was "If I Had A Million Dollars", by the Barenaked Ladies. The funny thing is that while listening to the song I actually sort of thought that a million dollars wasn't really enough these days. Condos in this city are pushing the $500,000 price, and once your million dollars has been taxed, you'll barely have enough to buy a condo. After that, you'll still be working the rest of your life. No, I think that song needs a refresh, something on the order of "If I Had A Million iPhones", or "If I Had A Couple Tanks Of Gas". Anyways, that's it for my Monday update. Time to get to work.

The iPhone 3G Comes To Canada

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:10:40 +0000

If you would have asked me a few weeks ago whether or not I was going to get an iPhone, I would have laughed and said absolutely not. The original plans offered by Rogers wireless in Canada were, in a word, pathetic. Not only were they asking customers to lock into a three year contract, but they also didn't offer an unlimited data plan, something nearly every carrier in the entire world has offered with the iPhone. Rogers received an incredible amount of negative publicity regarding their price plans, and was covered by most of the major news outlets (only those, of course, that weren't owned by Rogers Communications). An online petition quickly formed that received over 50,000 signatures, all protesting the price gouging by Rogers. And thankfully, at nearly the 11th hour, Rogers caved in to pressure and decided to offer a 6GB/month data plan for $30/mo, which for all intents and purposes, is unlimited. Understand that the iPhone is not a typical cell phone. If anything, it is a powerful internet device that just happens to have a phone on it. That is why having a reasonable data plan with the phone was absolutely necessary. Shortly after Roger's change of heart, I found myself in a line in front of the Rogers store on Davie street last Friday. Truthfully, I actually only swung by so I could grab a few photos of all the crazies standing in line for my Flickr account. But once I realized they actually had enough units for everyone in the line, I decided to join the party. The iPhone launch that day was a worldwide debacle. Not only did Apple's activation servers go offline for the better part of the day, but Roger's entire computer backbone also fell down dead due to the sheer volume of people trying to activate their new iPhones. In addition, the free breakfast that Rogers promised everyone at their Broadway store in Vancouver turned out to be Presidents Choice drink boxes along with a bin of granola bars. Way to go all out for the launch, Rogers. It only took me 45 minutes or so to get from the back of the line and into the store, but I spent another four and a half hours on a chair waiting for the computers to come back online long enough to activate my phone. For those of you wondering about the specifics of the iPhone 3G, here they are. Rogers originally offered a few plans that started at $60/mo. These plans had very few airtime minutes for phone calls, and offered only a measly 400MB of data transfer a month. After their change of heart the other day, they decided that you could pick and choose any plan from their current repertoire (most of which are reasonable), and simply couple it with the $30/mo 6GB/mo data plan, which is basically what every single person in the line-up ended up doing. The 6GB/mo data plan is only available up until August 31st, after which (presumably) it will disappear, leaving only the original (insufficient) data plans that Rogers originally offered. For those of you on existing Rogers plans, you should be able to simply add the $30/mo plan to your phone and keep your current telephone rates and packages. For new users, you can walk into a store and choose which plan and extras (voice mail, caller ID, etc). you want, and then add the data package to it. One thing I'd recommend is splurging the extra $4/month and getting the visual voice mail. Most voice mail systems work by having you call in to receive a message. The visual voice mail system on the iPhone actually just has an icon on the phone that shows when you have a voice mail. If you click it, you can see a full listing of every voice mail you have right on your iPhone, and simply click the desired entry to listen to a MP3 of the call. No more calling in to retrieve a message. I've been using my iPhone 3G since Friday, and it's truly an amazing device. It's a strange thing to be able to access the internet from basically anywhere. I was at the beach the other day wondering if the tide was coming in or out. Instead of wondering, I simply fired up the iPhone and a did a quick Google search in Safari for the appropriate tide chart. Thirty seconds later I knew exactly when high and low tide would occur. Also released at the same time is Apple's new Mobile Me service. It effectively replaces the old .Mac service, and adds a host of features (Email, Calendar, Contacts, etc) similar to Google's Gmail and Calendar offerings. The coolest part about it in my opinion is that it supports PUSH email. Most email systems (IMAP, POP, etc) all use polling to figure out when a new message arrives. For example, I have my iPhone configured to access my Gmail account. To determine whether or not I have a new message, my iPhone will access Gmail every 15 minutes and check. With Mobile Me, the service actually contacts your phone the moment a new message comes in. So you basically get new mail the very instant it's sent to you. I tested this a few times, and it takes about three seconds from the time I click send in gmail until the time my iPhone chirps letting me know there's a new Mobile Me message on it. In addition, Mobile Me will also synchronize your contacts and data between all your Apple computers and devices, using PUSH when it can. There's also built in GPS on the unit, so you can simply press a button to see exactly where you are using Google maps. It sure makes navigating a breeze. Once a few more applications are released, I wouldn't be surprised if you can simply SMS your GPS coordinates to a friend, and have them magically show up for a beer at the bar you are at. No more having to explain to someone how to find you. So, while it's not the cheapest toy in the world, it really is a revolutionary device. I've only just scratched the surface with what it can do, but I think it's a fairly good primer for those of you looking to get one. I picked one up on Friday, and Dale got his today. Hopefully Matt's not far behind.

New iPhone Case On The Way

Duane Storey — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:34:14 +0000

The first order of business with my new iPhone is picking up a decent case to keep it from being scratched. I called around town, but unfortunately nobody has any stock for the 3G iPhone cases yet. So basically the only place left to buy one from was on Apple's store. I originally went over with the intent to buy one case. However, it appears that one case wasn't enough to qualify me for free shipping. Since I like free stuff, I decided to buy a few more things. Since I wasn't sure if I'd like the first case, I bought a second one with a different style. Worst case, I'm sure somebody will probably take it off my hands in the near future. In addition, I tacked on a new iPhone 3G dock for my stereo so I can listen to music. The case I plan to use is called the iPhone 3G Agent 18 EcoShield. Here's the blurb about it from the website:

EcoShield is made of a hard-plastic derived from recycled plastic bottles, even the package is made of recycled paper and easily recyclable plastic. And though the EcoShield is one of the thinnest cases around, it offers protection second to none. With interior pads to protect the iPhone 3G, this case is the perfect choice for life on the go. It also includes an Agent 18 dock adapter, so you can dock your iPhone in any Universal Docking device without taking it out of the case.

While the case looks cool, I was more impressed with the environmental considerations of the product. The second is the Griffin Wave Case for the iPhone 3G. For this one, I picked white since I thought it would be a cool contrast against the black: They probably won't arrive for a few weeks, but I'm fairly certain I can hold out until then. Raul talked a bit more about the EcoShield in his latest post, so go check it out. If you picked up an iPhone 3G and either have a case, or plan to get one, drop a comment here and let everyone know what you're looking at.

Want To Win A Nintendo Wii?

Duane Storey — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:53:31 +0000

The company where I currently work is currently offering a draw for at least one Nintendo Wii (more if I remember correctly). To be eligible, they are asking people to fill out a quick survey to get a bit of data with regards to telecommunications. Everyone reading this blog should be eligible. So, if you'd like to potentially win a Nintendo Wii, I'd ask if you guys could please fill out a five minute survey. If you're just a regular person (i.e. not a business owner), please fill out this version. If you're a small to medium sized business owner, please fill out this one. Also, please drop a quick comment if you filled it out. I'll keep everyone up to date with the winner of the Wii(s) when it's all over.

Back Online

Duane Storey — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:08:20 +0000

I quickly stopped by Future Shop on my way home tonight and picked up a brand new power supply for my server at home. They had a really nice (that is, if power supplies can be described as such) $150 one that was on sale for $75, so I went with that. The good news is that my old power supply was basically taxed in terms of connectors, and it would have been impossible to add anything else to it. This new one has an extra 300W of headroom on it, and also 3 more SATA connectors. To be honest, I wasn't even really sure it was the power supply, but it seemed like a pretty reasonable guess. The good news is I replaced it in about 15 minutes, and as you can see, we're up and running again. Sorry for the little blip in the service there. If you haven't filled out the survey in my previous post, make sure you head on over and make yourself eligible for a free Nintendo Wii. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, so yours truly is going to curl up on the couch and have a nap.

Feist On Sesame Street

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:03:34 +0000

I'm sure many of you know already know who Leslie Feist is. She's one of Canadian's most recognized young musicians now, thanks to obvious talent and also having her song 1-2-3-4 included in one of Apple's largest marketing campaigns. If I remember correctly, Feist snagged five awards at the Junos, which is as close to a landslide as you can really have at an event like that. I unfortunately didn't get to meet her (she was rather popular that night), but I did get to hang out a few feet away from her and snap a few photos. I was doing some reading in my RSS reader this morning and came across this cute video of Feist that was recently on Sesame Street over on my friend Kasia's blog. I used to watch that show a lot as a kid (I'm sure most of us did), and I found myself smiling and counting with the video. So, considering this big kid likes it, I think lots of little ones will as well. [easyvideo video="http://www.youtube.com/v/9fciD_II7NI&rel=0"] Not only is it a pretty catchy tune, but the video is actually pretty awesome from a technical perspective. You'll notice that the entire two and a half minutes is essentially one video take. That's tricky by anyone's standards, more so given that she's interacting with puppets throughout the entire piece. Also, compare the Sesame street video with the video for 1234. [easyvideo video="http://www.youtube.com/v/p8Z-DIAthbM&hl=en&fs=1"] There are some obvious stylistic similarities between the two, which is actually kind of cool that they integrated a few concepts into the Sesame Street piece. Now I have that song stuck in my head. Hopefully you will too!

Heroes Season 3 Trailer

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:53:57 +0000

My blog appears to be in some weird state of limbo right now, bouncing between the black and the white background, depending on where you are viewing it from. It's rather strange, considering the TTL on my DNS entry is 30 minutes, so it shouldn't take this long at all. Anyways, here is a trailer for season 3 or Heroes. I hope Peter keeps his shirt on for more of it. [easyvideo video="http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/4880d7a562043e39/487fdf8eae3c4deb/a695a3c6"]

To The Moon, And Beyond

Duane Storey — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:52:32 +0000

On September 12th, 1962, John F. Kennedy took the stage at Rice Stadium, and made one of the most ambitious pledges of any presidency - in less than ten years, the United States would put a man on the moon:

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. [JFK]

Today, nearly fifty years later, former vice president Al Gore took to the stage and asked Americans to join together with a new pledge, a ambitious goal that will ultimately better humanity. He has asked everyone to pledge to move to a 100% renewable energy system in the United States within ten years.

I’m proposing today a strategic initiative designed to free us from the crises that are holding us down and to regain control of our own destiny. It’s not the only thing we need to do. But this strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold new strategy needed to re-power America. Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

There are those who will undoubtedly think that such a goal is unattainable, or that the economic burden of such a feat will simply be too large. And yet history has shown us that when people band together with a collective goal, nearly any feat is possible. While Kennedy didn't live to see it, the United States made it to the moon, only eight years after his initial pledge. There were those who thought it wasn't possible, or that the moon was a place we should not go. And yet everyone from that generation can tell you exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong touched down on the surface of the moon for the first time, and what it felt like to be an American that night. Most people would be surprised to learn that alternative energy sources are already available, and within economic reach of most individuals. Ireland just launched a tidal generator that can power over 1000 homes using the power of the tides. Wind power already exists in many parts of the United States, especially along the windy corridor in the midwest. Solar power, which today costs around $5/watt, is expected to reach the coveted $1/watt range sometime in the next 18-24 months, making it as cost effective as fossil fuels, and obviously much cleaner. To convert an average home to use solar energy would be around $20,000 today. In a few more years, that number will come down drastically, most likely being obtainable for around $5,000 or so. Considering most provinces and states already have government grants available for clean energy initiatives, the economic disadvantages of going green are disappearing rather quickly. Gore's right, the time to act is now. In less than ten years, the United States took the space program from virtually non-existent to an historic mission that put a few men on the moon. Given the advances in alternative energy that have occurred, and will occur in the next few years, I think what Al Gore is proposing is certainly obtainable, and like the moon mission, for the betterment of all humankind.

Almost Back To Normal

Duane Storey — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:09:39 +0000

It appears that things are almost back to normal with regards to my blog. I had to juggle the DNS entries around a bit the other day, and that caused a period of time where both versions of my blog existed on the internet for a while. I think for the most part most people will be directed to this one, which is the way it should be. I went out last night to a roof top patio BBQ, courtesy of Invoke Media. I went along with Arieanna, Raul and Ianiv, and eventually we met up with Jenn for some good conversation. Invoke has a pretty cool office, complete with a nice view of the North Shore mountains. Afterwards, we all headed over to Tanya's new condo for some rock band. I arrived just in time to see Raul bust a beer bottle all over the floor, which happens to the best of us from time to time. I rocked the singing part of rock band by singing in the ever popular key of Duane-minor all night. Good times. I actually was pretty beat last night, so I ended up bailing early and coming home. I don't really have any plans for today, except for the ever-lingering desire to hit up a theatre and watch the Dark Knight. Arieanna and Ianiv and I might hit it later tonight. I also might try and hit the Apple store to drop my laptop off, although given that I might be heading to Serbia for a month, I'm not sure I can handle them taking my laptop off my hands right now.

The Fall Of Android?

Duane Storey — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:43:32 +0000

Also, if you still want to be eligible to win a Nintendo Wii, head on over and fill out the survey.

I haven't been very quiet about my recent reservations about Google. I really don't think they really have any amazing products any more, and are heading in a downward spiral. People used to brag about Google's flat corporate structure as a huge bonus, and at first it seemed really appealing. But after recently visiting the company's main location in MountainView, and talking to a few people, I'm more of the opinion that it's hurt them more than it's helped them. In fact, I think part of the reason most of their products end up being rather "meh" is that there's just not enough corporate push to make these products any better. You see, Google puts most of their products in a perpetual beta stage. That's normally the last cycle of software before it hits the customers. It's normally meant to iron out a few of the last bugs that have such a low occurrence of probability that you need a larger sample size to realistically detect them. Historically, beta cycles didn't last that long. At my current company, a beta lasts only a few weeks, assuming we even bother with a beta cycle. Some of Google's products have been in beta for years. The only motivation I can see for doing that is to purposefully place the expectation on your users that your products are going to be in a perpetual state of bugginess. And to me, that's just laziness on their part. About six months ago, everyone started talking about Android and how it was going to change everything. I sort of yawned (much like I yawned when everyone said how great open social was going to be) and said "we'll see." My main reservation about products like Google gears is that they are solutions looking for problems to solve. Sure, you can store a bunch of local stuff on your computer to make your web experience better, but most people don't need that. Plus, once you move towards a world where everyone is online constantly (we're fast approaching that), the need for local data disappears. That's why I think Android is in an even tougher spot. I just think they don't have the corporate motivation or the vision to make that platform be what it could be. Apple announced the new iPhone and the App store long after Android was in the works, and yet we're still a long way from Android. Granted, Android is attempting to solve a harder problem, but they basically missed the boat on this one. As a developer, if I want to develop for any platform right now, I'm going to choose the iPhone, hands down. Why? Because a) it's cool and b) many of the top iPhone apps are making $10k or more a day in the App store currently. Right now in the corner of my room I have a Nokia N810, a Nokia N800, and a Nokia N770, all of which have a layer of dust on them. In terms of user experience, they just aren't that exciting to play with.

Serbia Bound

Duane Storey — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:37:11 +0000

Those of you that follow my Twitter feed probably noticed that I almost made it to Serbia about a week ago. I was scheduled to fly over there to spend a month helping out our software development team, but at the last minute it all fell apart. It appears that all the stars at work have realigned, and I'm most likely heading to Serbia this week. I'll be gone most likely for around four weeks, and will be getting a small apartment out there. My flight will most likely take me from Vancouver to Frankfurt, and then onwards to Belgrade. From Belgrade, I'll be taking a car or a train up to Novi Sad, which is the second largest city in Serbia, and home to the Exit Festival. All in all, that's probably around 20 hours of traveling, so it's quite a long ways to go.

Photo by Niels van Kampenhout

Other than a quick trip to Finland about 18 months ago, I haven't really spent any time in Europe. Serbia is supposed to be really beautiful, and the weather is consistently hotter out there this time of year, so it should be a good trip. It's a strange thing to be gone more than a week though. I do lots of traveling, and whenever I leave I generally approach packing a certain way. If I'm going to be gone for three days or less, I just pack a quick weekender suitcase. Anything from about three days until ten days is one suitcase. After that, I'm in uncharted territory. I actually think I'm going to pack really light and just plan to buy some clothes out there. I'd like to keep myself mobile in case I have a few days at the end where I can possibly see Rome or Prague before coming home. Anyways, I still don't have a plane ticket, but it's looking pretty likely that I'm heading out this week. Should be an interesting adventure.

Nothing To Say

Duane Storey — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:19:13 +0000

I was going to post a big blog entry this morning, but then I realized I really have nothing to say. So, I figured I'd turn the tables a bit and see if any of my readers want to say anything. Feel free to go to town in the comments. Tell a story, do a dance, whatever you feel like! Tell everyone what's on your mind, or what the best part of your day was so far. If you've never commented before, feel free to introduce yourself to everyone.

Broken Laptop

Duane Storey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:03:58 +0000

I pulled my laptop out of my case tonight and fired it up. I was immediately greeted with this:

$1000 worth of fail

As you can see, my LCD has a wicked crack in it. I did a quick scan in the forums, and replacing an LCD via the Apple store runs about $1000, which is rather insane. Thankfully I found a few companies on eBay that are selling the raw LCD screens for around $200, so I put in an order for a replacement. Hopefully I'll be able to install it myself when it comes in the mail. So as of right now, I'm without a laptop. Thankfully I have an iMac at home as well, so I'm not really in any trouble. But I do use my laptop quite a bit, so would like to get it up and running as soon as possible.

Blogathon Vancouver

Duane Storey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:04:12 +0000

Last year my good pal Rebecca stayed up for 24 hours straight and participated in an event called "Blogathon". For a full day, Rebecca did a blog post every 30 minutes, hoping to inspire people and bring visibility to a charity of her choosing. This year I've decided to participate in Blogathon, which this year is sponsored by Miss604.com. I'm going to be supporting the Union Gospel Mission, which ultimately lends help to those less fortunate in Vancouver. Rebecca is also supporting them, so hopefully between the two of us (and possibly a few others) we'll be able to raise some money to help out some of the less fortunate individuals in our fair city. I'll be revamping my site slightly to draw attention to Blogathon as it happens, but make sure you check back often while it's going on. I'm going to be doing the sunshine shift, which means I'll be starting at 10pm on Friday night, and ending at 10pm on Saturday. If you want to support the effort, then please head over to the official blogathon page and lend your support for blogathon. You can select my name from the drop down menu, and put in a donation amount. Also, if you want to subscribe to an RSS feed for the event, please click here.

Last Day For The Wii!!!!

Duane Storey — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:23:05 +0000

If you still want to be eligible to win a Nintendo Wii, then make sure you go fill out the survey. TODAY IS THE LAST DAY!

Blogathon 2008 Starting Tonight At 10pm

Duane Storey — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:20:32 +0000

Thanks to everyone who has pledged so far. I'm currently up to $140, which will ultimately go to the Union Gospel Mission. I'd like to hit at least $1000, so if you want to sponsor, please head on over and contribute. I'll keep everyone updated during the event. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for my blogathon posts.

Tonight at 10pm I start blogathon, a 24 hour blogging marathon that will hopefully bring some exposure to the charity of my choice, the United Gospel Mission. The Union Gospel Mission is a charity in Vancouver that helps people in need:

Union Gospel Mission has been providing hope for the hungry, hurting and homeless since 1940. With 12 facilities placed between downtown Vancouver and the city of Mission, UGM is ideally positioned to help those who need it the most. Employing a full-time staff of approximately 130 and relying on a broad base of loyal volunteers, Union Gospel Mission provides meals, shelter, education, counselling, housing and more to hundreds of people each day.

The first post will go up at 10pm, and I'll continue blogging until 10pm Saturday night. I doubt I'll get a chance to sleep in that interval, although I may try to write a few posts in advance and maybe grab 30 minutes of snooze here and there if I can. To support me (and hence the cause I've chosen), please head over to the Blogathon donation page. If you have a blog, it would be great if you can do a little plug for the event as well. In addition, if anyone encounters any article that you think is interesting, please contact me or send it to my del.icio.us account to give me the goods. Thanks everyone.

Entry #1: Blogathon Begins

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:00:55 +0000

As you can tell, this is my first entry for the 2008 Blogathon. The purpose of blogathon is to, over the course of 24 hours, blog and attempt to bring some exposure to a local charity of our choosing. For me, I have chosen to represent the Union Gospel Mission, a Vancouver charity that helps the homeless and those in need.

Another Long Night In Vancouver

The housing crisis in Vancouver is worsening, and many people find themselves without shelter each and every night. Those individuals, who are a part of this city, are often neglected and left to rot on the streets while our government dumps hundreds of millions of dollars into tourism or events like the Olympics. Without organizations such as the Union Gospel Mission, many of these people might not last long on the streets. That's why I'm hoping I can encourage a few people to support the cause, and help some of these individuals out. Writing 48 blog entries in a mere 24 hours is obviously quite the challenge. I will do my best to mix the entries up and to try to make them as interesting as possible. There will be a mix of important pieces, personal entries, the odd reflection, and even a few guest entries from some friends. One thing I haven't done a lot on my blog lately is write about personal matters. It was something I used to do quite frequently, and something I used to pride myself in. But lately, I've been so swamped that I haven't even really stopped to even think about how I'm doing. Given that I'll have the next 24 hours to do some serious thinking, I'm hoping I can post a few tidbits that will hopefully shed a bit of light on how I'm doing. A major change happened to me a few years ago, directly as a response to me flying through a plate glass window. Over christmas that year, while lying in a bed in Chilliwack feeling sorry for myself, I started to actually question many aspects of my life, including religion, love, and mortality. It was a period of great stress in my life, filled with endless questions and very few answers. At the end of it all, I finally gained some solace with the knowledge that the things I was stressing about were entirely outside of my control, and not really worth getting worked up about. That revelation also led me to realize that the only real variable that I had complete control over was how I ultimately treated others in this world. So with that in mind, I'm proud to lend my fingers and my blog to a worthy cause that will hopefully help brighten a few days in the lives of some of Vancouver's less fortunate. To that end, I thank everyone who will spend some time reading these entries over the next 24 hours, and give my thanks to those that have the means to donate to the cause. So far we've raised $140 with my blog, and I'm hoping with everyone's help we can push past $1000 by tomorrow night. All the best. See you in 30 minutes.

Entry #2: WordCamp San Francisco

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:30:52 +0000

San Francisco is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. It's situated right on the Pacific Ocean, nestled snugly between Marin Country and Oakland. While Napa Valley is usually extremely hot, San Francisco boasts a fairly moderate climate, with sunshine occurring on most days of the year. In August, there's going to be a WordCamp session down in San Francisco. Given that I'm a huge WordPress advocate, and that I love the Bay Area, I registered today and made the quick, impromptu decision to attend. Flights out of Vancouver are around $400, but are only around $250 return out of Seattle. So I think I'll try and grab a late night flight on Friday and spend the weekend down in San Francisco. Lloyd Budd is also heading down, so undoubtedly I'll run into him during the event. Of course, Matt Mullenweg will be there too, and hopefully he'll bring his new and improved camera out (since he last one apparently got stolen while traveling). I gave a talk at the Vancouver WordCamp session about WPtouch, a fully featured iPhone theme for WordPress. Hopefully by the the time WordCamp takes place we'll have released our big 2.0 version, which brings with it a ton of great changes. If anyone else is heading down from the Vancouver area, drop me a line. Or, if you're in the Bay Area and plan to attend, look me up.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page. My goal is to raise $1000 in 24 hours.

Entry #3: Blogathon Shout Out

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:00:13 +0000

Blogathon is a team effort, and as such, I'm happy to be blogging along side of some of Vancouver's best bloggers. So, here are some shouts to some of my fellow bloggers participating in Blogathon, not all of who are on the sunshine shift tonight (but will be checking in at various times during the weekend): Tania Morrison (Ottawa), Raul, Shane Gibson, Karen Hamilton, Ayeza Garcia, Isabella Mori, Danny Dang, Mehnaz Thawer, Jenn Lowther/Nadia Nascimento, Barbara Doduk, Chris Richardson, and Colleen Vince. I had a little nap after work tonight hoping that it would give me a bit of extra leverage when it comes to spending the next 24 hours awake. It was probably the right thing today, but I'll admit I'm fairly spaced out right night now and feel like just hitting the sheets and sleeping again. But rest assured, I'm in this for the long haul. Rebecca's husband John just showed up with a pile of caffeine and a bag full of moral support. I'm trying my best to work on my broken laptop right now, but it seems pretty clear that this is rather futile, and I'll have to switch over to my iMac in the other room to write most of my entries. Ok, I took a five minute break and moved my iMac from my bedroom out into my living room. This will be a much better setup and will allow me to blog from the television. You can see my sample setup here: As I mentioned before, I'm hoping to have a few guest writers up over the course of the next 24 hours. If you find any articles that you think would interest my readers, please contact me. I also want to thank my mom, Valerie Storey, for her recent pledge. That puts us up to about $210.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. We have currently raised $210 for this cause, and my goal is to reach $1000 before the end of tomorrow night.

Entry #4: Antarctic Ice-Shelf In Danger Of Collapse

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:30:10 +0000

I read an article today that indicates how one of the largest ice-shelfs in the antarctic region is in danger of collapse:

Photo From ESA

The Wilkins Ice Shelf is experiencing further disintegration that is threatening the collapse of the ice bridge connecting the shelf to Charcot Island. Since the connection to the island in the image centre helps to stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the break-up of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk. .. This break-up is puzzling to scientists because it has occurred in the Southern Hemispheric winter and does not have characteristics similar to two earlier events that occurred in 2008, which were comparable to the break-up of the Larsen-A and -B ice shelves. "The scale of rifting in the newly-removed areas seems larger, and the pieces are moving out as large bergs and not toppled, finely-divided ice melange," said Ted Scambos from the National Snow and Ice Data Center who uses ASAR images to track the area. "The persistently low sea ice cover in the area and data from some interesting sources, electronic seal hats [caps worn by seals that provide temperature, depth and position data] seems to suggest that warm water beneath the halocline may be reaching the underside of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and thinning it rapidly - and perhaps reaching the surface, or at least mixing with surface waters."

Obviously global warming is taking it's toll on many parts of the world. A few years ago, scientists traveling to the North Pole saw, on their arrival, not ice, but instead a lake of water at the top of our planet. And as this article points out, the antarctic is deteriorating quickly as well. It still boggles my mind how some governments, including those of Canada and the United States, how done so little to stop global warming, or have set such unrealistic schedules as to make their attempts rather futile. Al Gore recently asked Americans to pledge to move the United States to within 100% renewable energy in 10 years, something that will obviously be hard, but he feels is something that is absolutely doable. Hopefully Al Gore can help inspire others to make changes, and help bring our planet back from the brink.

Entry #5: Vancouver Homeless Crisis

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:00:01 +0000

I have lived in Vancouver most of my life. It is a city I hold dear to my heart, but a city that has, over time, grown cold to some of its inhabitants. My daily walk takes me from my apartment near Beach avenue in Vancouver, down across Yaletown, passing near Gastown, and into Vancouver's business district. One thing that has become evident, especially in the last few years, is that the homeless crisis in Vancouver is reaching epidemic proportions, with many people forced to sleep on the street each and every night.

Homelessness in Vancouver, photo by Eric Rudolph

I posted an entry over on matthewgood.org during the winter that discussed how the housing crisis will continue to worsen as the 2010 Olympics approach:

While Canada is experiencing a strong economy, anti-poverty advocates say that low welfare rates, lack of affordable housing, and low minimum wage are all contributing to an increase in homelessness. Toronto has the largest homeless population in the country at 5,052. Of those, 3,649 live in shelters while some 818 sleep outside. Toronto has an average of two homeless deaths per week. These, according to Crowe, result from a multitude of causes: accidents, trauma, beatings, disease, hate crimes, and hypothermia. A vigil is held once a month for those who die on the streets. Vancouver is not faring much better. A report released by Pivot Legal Society in September said the city is on the brink of a social housing crisis and called for action from all levels of government. The Downtown Eastside legal advocacy group predicts that Vancouver’s homeless population of 2,175 will triple by 2010 when the city hosts the Winter Olympics. [1]

Recently an observer from the United Nations came to visit various major cities in Canada to access the housing crisis. Upon reaching Vancouver, he made the following comments:

There is a deep homelessness problem here. I must say I was taken aback by the scale of the crisis here in the Downtown Eastside. It’s glaringly apparent in Vancouver that for quite some time… successive governments have failed to create the housing that is necessary. You have a legacy of misguided government policy that has led to this massive crisis in housing and homelessness. We didn’t hear this in other places. The decrepit nature of SROs, the conditions of the buildings that people are living in, very poor health…I was repeatedly struck by the contrast that I see because it is such a beautiful city, because there has been so much investment. It is striking that a few blocks from million-dollar condominiums, that there is such immense poverty. There seems to be a disconnect between the economic policies in Vancouver and the social policies that need to be in place.

The last part of that quote is the most revealing. The problem of homelessness in this city comes about as a direct result of inadequate policies meant to address those very problems. It is a problem, I believe, that can be fixed, but only if we all work together to help build affordable housing, and to stop evicting people from low-income houses so that multi-million dollar condos can take their place.

Entry #6: An Update From The Fort

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:30:16 +0000

First off, I'm going to put together a Blogathon-wide RSS feed so that people can follow what everyone is doing on blogathon without having to visit each site individually. You can subscribe to it by clicking here. Also, if you're part of blogathon, please drop a comment and I'll add you to the feed (I'm going to do my best to add everyone I know about), but given that time constraints of writing posts, it may take me a few hours.

Raul and John at my place

Raul and John are currently keeping me company at home. My laptop LCD broke a few days ago, so instead of committing myself to spending 24 hours at my computer desk in my room, I decided to haul my iMac out into the living room. In addition, Raul was having some major laptop LCD issues as well, so I pulled an old LCD monitor I had out of storage and hooked it up to his computer. The end result in below:

Three LCDs In Support Of Blogathon

All I had to eat tonight was some nachos, so I'm probably going to be ordering pizza sometime in the near future. We just put on The Bourne Supremacy (completed with the infamous "Shaky Cam"), and are keeping ourselves busy with that. I'm going to peruse the Internet in a few minutes and find some more interesting things to talk about. If anyone wants me to comment on anything, just drop a comment and I'll see if I can work it into a post.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #7: Most People Only 11 Days From Financial Ruin

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:00:14 +0000

I read this interesting article today that basically said that most people in the United States were only 11 days away from financial ruin. That is, if they were to lose their jobs tomorrow, they only have enough money to last for about 11 days:

More than a third of adults could survive financially for only 11 days if they were to lose their job or be too ill to work, according to a survey. The finding gives a worrying insight into the lives of millions who are living on a financial tightrope. Researchers looked at how much people spend every month and how much they have in savings. It found a massive gap between the two, which means most would be crippled by a sudden change in their circumstances.

I'm actually not surprised about that statistic, and in fact, my financial situation isn't that much better. In terms of liquid assets, I really don't have a pile of money in the bank at any one time. I could liquidate some of my RRSPs and what-not, but that's obviously not a route I'd want to take. Given that I left school with approximately $40,000 worth of debt, and that I spend a good deal of my salary each month on servicing that debt, I really don't have a ton left over to build up a big safety buffer. That being said, I'm curious how much of a buffer most people have. Do most people here live paycheck to paycheck, or are you all more financially responsible than I am?

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #8: Los Angeles Planning To Ban Plastic Bags

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:30:35 +0000

I love hearing stories about groups or cities becoming more environmentally conscious. I have a pile of posts to do in the next 24 hours about clean energy, and I thought I'd start it off with this piece.

Photo by Sekihan on Flickr

Los Angeles recently voted to ban plastic bags by the year 2010. Not only did the entire city council support that effort, but the vote was actually unanimous.

The City Council voted Tuesday to ban plastic shopping bags from stores, beginning July 1, 2010. Shoppers can either bring their own bags or pay 25 cents for a paper or biodegradable bag. The council's unanimous vote also puts pressure on the state, which is considering an Assembly bill that would impose bag recycling requirements on stores. City officials said their ban would not be implemented if the state passes the bill and requires at least a 25-cent charge per bag. "We've gotten to a point where we need to act as a city, where we can have real results," said Councilman Ed Reyes, who proposed the bag ban. "We're trying to do it in a way where we can educate and inform the public of what we're doing." Reyes said the ban will minimize cleanup costs for the city and reduce trash that collects in storm drains and the Los Angeles River. The city estimates more than 2 billion plastic bags are used each year in Los Angeles. About 5 percent of plastic bags and 21 percent of paper bags are recycled in California.

Obviously I'm in huge favor of this type of action. Plastic bags are not biodegradable and are made from a pile of chemicals. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is an area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge circling pile of plastic chips and components that end up swirling in our oceans. The environmental impact of plastic, especially in the context of the Pacific Garbage Patch, is huge, affecting nearly all of the Pacific marine life, which then ultimately enters our food chain. The only part of the article I find a bit disturbing is the introduction of yet another fee. But all in all, it's a good green effort, and it gets the big A-Plus from the Duane camp. I'm hoping to also have a guest entry later today from Shira Lazer who lives down in Los Angeles. If you check back later, hopefully I'll have something up.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #9: One Of The Most Watched Videos On YouTube

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:00:45 +0000

I thought I'd mix it up a bit and post something a little different. This is a cute little video that was shot at the Vancouver Aquarium a few years ago. Consequently, it has become one of the most watched videos on YouTube of all time. This one version has been viewed over ten million times. [easyvideo video="http://www.youtube.com/v/epUk3T2Kfno&hl=en&fs=1"]

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #10: iPhone 3G Agent 18 Eco-Shield Review

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:30:09 +0000

A while ago I posted about my recent purchase of the Agent 18 Eco-Shield product. I received it via FedEx the other day and have had it on my iPhone ever since. I thought I'd give a quick review of the product.

Agent 18 Eco-Shield

First, I have to say that my primary motivation for purchasing the product was that it is supposed to be made entirely from recycled plastic. The product is indeed made of plastic, and fits my iPhone 3G perfectly (the last case I bought didn't fit properly at all). Unfortunately, while I love the case, I have to say I was extremely disappointed with how much packaging this product uses. As you can see in the photo, the packaging is made entirely of plastic, and is much larger than the actual product itself. I emailed the manufacturer, hoping to get a response before I wrote this, but so far I haven't heard anything. It's possible the packaging is made from recycled plastic as well, but it's not entirely obvious to me after opening it. But if it's not made of recycled plastic, then I sincerely hope they rethink their product in the future.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #11: Northern Lights In Vancouver

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:00:11 +0000

In October 2003, there was a massive release of energy from our sun. The resulting coronal mass ejection (CME) headed straight for our planet, bombarding it with a massive amount of charged particles. The official classification for the flare was an X17.2, which is one of the top three recorded solar flares in the history of our planet.

Photo from here

The charged particles disrupted satellite communications in space, and also lead to auroras being seen as far south as the Chicago. I was fortunate enough to be following the activity while it was happening, and was notified via email (via SpaceWeather.com) that auroras might be visible at low latitudes. At around 4am, I walked upstairs to my rooftop patio in Kitsilano, only to be greeted with one of the most amazing light shows I've ever seen.

The Aurora In Vancouver, October 2003

I was one of the few people who managed to see the entire sky over Vancouver lit up in a glorious array of red and green hues that night. Despite only having a little digital camera at the time, I managed to capture a few shots, several of which ended up on Nasa's website and local television stations. It was a really exciting event, and one of my fondest memories of my time living in Kitsilano.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #12: Some Of My Favourite Photos

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:30:05 +0000

As most of you know, I really enjoy photography. I have been fortunate enough to have received a bit of recognition for some of the shots I've done, and even managed to attend the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards as a photographer. I thought I'd post a few of my favourite shots here for those that are new here. Most of these shots make use of a technique called high dynamic range (HDR) photography.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #13: The Pains Of (Not) Owning A Car

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:00:06 +0000

The following is a guest entry by noted podcaster and new media guru, John Bollwitt.

The true reason why I’m making this post is to make a guest appearance on Duane’s blog for Blogathon 2008. In fact, he tells me that the only way he’ll give me a ride home so I can go to bed is to make said post. But in a moment of “behold the power of blogging”, it made me recall a thought I had today about owning a car in general.

Plain and simple, Rebecca and I don’t own a car. Part of it is by choice, the other is the simplicity of keeping cost of living down. We haven’t had a vehicle to be called our own for a few years now, relying heavily on transit. That means getting from point A to B is sometimes good and sometimes spotty. It really depends on the day, but for the most party, I can’t complain.

However, today I had the extreme pleasure of being able to borrow my mother-in-law’s car for the day in anticipation of Beck returning from an unexpected trip.

So, I decided to take it to work, and you would think that this is the point where I start complaining about traffic. This is not the case. It was the parking that was the most stressful thing.

Where I work, the underground parking is all reserved, and the other, optional lot is as well. That means you are subjected to the song and dance of finding various parking spots around the building, most of them being only good for one hour. Then you park here or there, stay for maybe two or three hours, and hope that this is the day that is not that once a month occurrence when they go around to pass out $40 parking tickets.

It was so stressful. All day I felt like I was constantly forgetting something when actually I couldn’t stop thinking about the car getting a ticket or having a tow truck pull it away.

We’ve been talking about getting a car for the better part of the year now, and the decision is just a matter of when. We have a good idea of what we want, but I now know, completely and fully, that this car will not be commuting me to and from work. It’s not that far to go, and that stress of finding parking is something I can certainly live without.

Give me the bus and ear buds shoved into my ears. I’ll take that over running outside everything hour and a half to move the car in a half-block to two block radius or work. It’s just not worth it.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #14: The Great Outdoors

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:30:03 +0000

I love camping. It's perhaps the second most enjoyable thing in my life these days, the first being a nice, toasty warm plate of nachos. There's something magical about a campfire next to a lake, or sitting around drinking a few beers under the stars with people you care about. I have always, for as long as I can remember, had trouble sleeping. Part of the reason is that I have a bad back (due to an injury I obtained in high school), and frequently wake up when I have an achy back. I also find that most city noises wake me up, and that I generally toss and turn most nights. The only time I find I can sleep easily is when I'm either lying in bed with my arm around someone warm, or when I'm curled up in a sleeping bag with the sound of a running stream somewhere in the distant background. Last year I hardly got out camping at all, and I'm extremely pleased that I have made it out four or five times this summer already. I'm hoping to get one more big trip in with all my friends, at which point I'll be able to look back fondly on the summer of 2008, and all the great camping trips I did with my friends. For whatever reason, lots of people I meet are opposed to the very idea of camping. They either can't handle having a bit of dirt on their fingers, or are adamant that they need a hot shower or a bubble bath every day. In terms of the girl I eventually end up settling down with (if such a girl exists), being someone that enjoys camping and the outdoors as much as I do will obviously be a fairly large requirement. I would love to find someone that would hop in the car with me at a moment's notice, and end up next to a lake a few hours later in front of a warm fire. Maybe someday.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #15: Blogathon Update

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:00:12 +0000

It's around 4am, and I'm drafting this post on the couch, glancing up occasionally to watch a bit of Dances With Wolves on Apple TV. I'm on entry #15, which means I have about 33 left to go. I am already faltering a bit with regards to content, which I think is more of a result of my lack of sleep rather than my imagination. I'm hoping to actually post an entry or two in advance and grab a wink or two if possible. Otherwise I'll be forced to do nearly a 40 hour stretch without sleep, which I imagine will prove rather difficult come tomorrow night. John and Raul both left sometime ago, so I am basically sitting in the dark leaning over my iMac. It was rather nice having a bit of company, and made it that much easier to stay the course. Now that they're gone, I have only my Apple TV and a few night-owls on Twitter to keep me company. I got fairly hungry a few hours ago, and decided to order a bit of pizza. I normally order from Bella pizza downtown, but for some weird reason most of the pizza places in this city close at midnight. That in itself is rather strange considering most pizza places in my hometown of Chilliwack are open until 2am or later. So, I was forced to order from Panago. They actually have these new multigrain crusts that ended up being a lot tastier than I originally imaged. I won't know how the donations are going until Rebecca wakes up in the morning, but so far I think I'm at around $200. Every donation is appreciated, and I'm hoping a few more people will be able to lend some support to my cause before this is all over.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #16: Baby Penguins Washing Up On Distant Shores

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:30:56 +0000

I read this story a few days ago, and found it extremely sad. Hundreds of dead baby penguins have started washing up on distant shores.

It is difficult to imagine what must have been going through the heads of Rio de Janeiro beachgoers in recent months as they have seen hundreds of baby penguins wash up onshore dead. At last count, more than 400 penguins, swept from the shores of Patagonia and Antarctica, have been found dead on Rio de Janeiro's beaches, reports the AP's Michael Astor. .. Erli Costa, a biologist at Federal University, has a different theory: He thinks rapidly fluctuating weather patterns, influenced by climate change, may be altering ocean currents and making the seas more treacherous. Since most of the penguins washing up are young, he postulates that they are babies that had just left their nests in search of food -- and succumbed to the fast-moving currents. If true, this is especially worrisome as it indicates that Rio de Janeiro and other regions can expect to see an increase in such events over the coming years.

Dead Penguins, Photo from here

While it's not 100% certain that the dead penguins are a direct result of global warming, it's just another piece of the huge global puzzle that's unfolding before us. Taken one by one, they seem mysterious and somewhat unrelated. But when viewed together on the same table, a sad picture begins to emerge about the current state of our planet. I often wonder what future generations will think of our actions, or rather our inactions, with regards to the decimation of our planet. We have become a society of consumers, with little or no regard for the sustainability of our planet. And while mindsets are slowly changing, I often wonder if the tide can be turned in time, or if that wave will come crashing down someday soon and finish us all off. Obviously I'm hopeful for the future, but it really depends on all of us pulling together in time.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #17: The Dark Knight Review

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:00:30 +0000

I've always been a fan of the super-hero genre of films. Spiderman II was without a doubt my favourite of the bunch so far, mainly because of the character development and chemistry between Peter and Mary-Jane. While I have enjoyed the Batman series of films, I was never really that interested in the character. I think of all the versions, I like Michael Keaton's version the best. Batman Begins was an interesting film, but I wasn't entirely sold on the depiction of Batman by Christian Bale.

Photo From Fox News

I've seen The Dark Knight twice now, and I think it's as close to perfection as you can get with a super-hero movie. A remember actually feeling emotion with a few of the scenes, especially near the end when everything is finally unfolding. The Dark Knight is a depressing film. It shows great people trying to do great things, only to have them all undone by the madness of the Joker, a character that will go down in cinematic history thanks to the performance given by Heath Ledger. Ledger's Joker manages to somehow stay a step or two ahead of Batman, Dent, and everyone else in the movie, and represents one of most brutal antagonists of any movie in this genre. He's smart, he's ruthless, and most definitely crazy. And that is why he can always seem to get the upper hand on everyone else, because he literally abides by no rules. I don't want to spoil the film for anyone, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes these types of films.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #18: Solar Powered Community In Canada

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:30:25 +0000

Today I read an article about a unique solar powered community in Canada. The actual location of this community is Okotoks, Alberta. The residents there have created a solar array for their houses that manages to completely power 52 homes.

The 52-home solar community has installed an array of solar panels on the roofs of their houses and garages. Glycol solution runs through an insulated piping system, or collector loop, that connects the array of solar panels. The solar panels absorb the solar energy during the daytime and heat the glycol solution. The glycol solution travels through the collector loop and reaches an underground heat exchanger within the community’s centralized Energy Center. The heat is then transferred from heat exchanger to the water stored in a short-term storage tank. The glycol solution returns to the solar collector system. The Energy Center has short-term thermal storage tanks and long-thermal storage tanks (Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system).

Seeing efforts like this is extremely encouraging. Given that solar power is dropping in price every year, and that the technological achievements in alternative energy are increasing rapidly, I foresee a time in the near future when switching to clean alternative energy will not only be environmentally sound, but also financially rewarding as well.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #19: Adrian Vs The iPhone Eco-Shield

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:00:23 +0000

So my friend Adrian is a really smart guy. I think he's completed four or more years of post secondary education, and managed the entire IT department singlehandedly at my company. I put him up to a challenge to see how long it would take him to figure out how to get the case off my iPhone 3G. Here's the end result. Only took him 43 seconds. Not bad.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #20: A New Day Begins

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:30:28 +0000

A New Day Begins In Vancouver

I took this photo at around 5am this morning. Watching the sun rise or the sun set is something I will never tire of. Seeing the orange-red glow stretch across the horizon always makes me think what a beautiful thing it is to be alive, and what an amazing part of the world I live in. There are some people who think sunsets are cliche, and that taking photos of them is a waste of time. But I think the complete opposite, and as long as I have a camera, there will always be a sunset or a sunrise worth taking a photo of.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #21: Happy Birthday Dad

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:37 +0000

Today is my father's birthday. He has been spending the last few days on a great fishing trip adventure, flying around various parts of British Columbia with some friends and fishing. As I've pointed out before, my dad is not only my father, but also one of my good friends. We've had lots of great adventures together, and hopefully we'll keep the tradition going. Given that we're both so busy these days, it's not very often we manage to get together and hang out. But that fact makes the time we do spend together that much more enjoyable. So on that note, I want to wish my dad an awesome birthday. Happy Birthday bud.

Entry #22: The Importance Of Dynamic Content

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:30:12 +0000

As most people know, both WordPress and Drupal belong to the class of software known as content management systems (CMS). The benefit of these systems is that they allow users to create content easily, often by typing in content via a dashboard or some other simple form of entry. The actual HTML generation is taken care of by the CMS, allowing the user to focus on creating content without worrying about the details of the HTML. I've had my personal blog for nearly ten years now, and have been on WordPress for nearly three. As I write content, there's always the implicit expectation that my content will come with me wherever I go in the future, no matter which CMS platform I end up choosing. With that in mind, it's important for that content to translate properly as technology and our use of that technology changes (for example, screen resolutions increase, or the world shifts slowly towards mobile blogging). When an image is inserted in a post, many people still hardcore the width and height parameters of the image. The problem with that approach is that it generally ties the content to a particular presentation, and makes it difficult to transition in the future. For example, let's say you manually specify a width of 400px for an image. If one day you decide to change your theme post area to display 500px worth of content, suddenly all your images are too small. To fix the problem, you most likely have to go through and manually edit every IMG HTML tags to change the width. On a blog with 1000 entries, that doesn't sound particularly exciting, does it? A far better approach is to use CSS to specify the desired width and height. Most modern browsers support the "max-width" parameter, and those that don't typically have workarounds. With that approach, you can simply change the layout via CSS whenever you want to overhaul the look and feel of all your images. For some people, that probably sounds really straightforward. And yet, many third party plugins (and in fact, some popular CMS systems), add hardcoded width and height parameters to content. Every use video from YouTube or other services? If so, you'll also probably notice that the EMBED code contains specific width and height parameters, which for most people don't work well with their blog's theme. What happens when you view a 500px video on a 320px screen? You could be in trouble if the width is hardcoded. In addition, if you're a web designer who tries to make your sites validate against W3C, you should know that embedded width/height attributes most likely will not validate against strict XHTML doctypes. We fixed some of these problems with Blip.it, and made the plugin automatically generate it's own width and height. We've also been testing out a new BraveNewCode video plugin on my personal blog that addresses this problem in a more generic way. Using WordPress 2.5 and above, you can simply use a shortcode to access any video on the web, and have it automatically size to the proper dimensions on your blog. Should you adjust your theme presentation sometime in the future, you can simply adjust the width and height for all videos in the dashboard, and have all your previous content automatically change as well. In addition, the code generated by the plugin validates against W3C in all cases, unlike the EMBED tag (that YouTube and others still provide) which was deprecated. Anytime you generate content that has an explicit width or height tied to it, you really need to stop and think if there's an alternative. You may very well be affecting the future look and feel of your website by doing so.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #23: Acid3 Tests And Web Browsing

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:00:50 +0000

Anyone who has attempted to design a website before knows that not all browsers are created equal. In terms of web development, a lot of my time goes into making a website work on Internet Explorer 6, since many people still used it even though it is hopeless broken with regards to being standards compliant. To help make browsers more compliant, several initiates have emerged over the last few years. The first is an effort by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) to have the source code for websites validate against W3C standards. While several exist, most developers attempt to conform to TRANSITIONAL or STRICT XHTML document types in their code. While that definitely helps cross-browser support, it still does not account for browsers that inherently perform differently. To address that problem, a group of developers came up with the Acid3 Tests. These tests are meant to do an exhaustive measure of a browsers performance in many real-world like situations. Around March of this last year it became a virtual fight amongst web developers to attempt to hit 100% on the Acid3 tests. And while several of them managed to hit that mark, none of those browsers are available to end users yet. I did a quick test of all the browsers on the Mac last week, and here are the results.

Safari 3

Firefox 2

Firefox 3.0.1

Opera

As you can see, the best browser on the Mac (with regards to Acid3 test compliance) is Opera, which I actually found a bit surprising (thinking that it would obviously be Safari). Hopefully most of these will converge on 100% as they continue doing updates. If you want to test the score of your current browser, feel free to head on over to the Acid3 tests. If you do, post a comment and let everyone know what browser you were on, and what score it achieved.

Entry #24: Qantus Jet Cracks Open In Mid-Air

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:30:11 +0000

I'm not a big fan of flying, so whenever I hear a story about a plane breaking apart in mid-air, I get a bit worried. Today a Qantus 747 busted a hole in the fuselodge in mid-flight, causing the oxygen masks to come down and the pilots to execute an emergency landing.

Passengers described hearing a loud bang and seeing debris fly into the cabin. As the plane depressurized, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and cabin crew members shouted to passengers to put them on. “There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward” into the first-class area, a passenger, Dr. June Kane, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Another passenger, Phill Restall, of Chippenham, England, said that he was awakened by the sound of what the authorities said may have been an explosive decompression, but that there was no panic. “It dawned on a lot of people that this was a major incident,” he told the British Broadcasting Corporation. “There was no screaming. It wasn’t your typical television movie.”

Thankfully nobody was hurt, although a lot of people were pretty shaken up obviously. Thankfully nothing like that has every happened to me (although I was on a plane that went into a steep dive once).

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #25: Keeping On Truckin'

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:00:02 +0000

Well, ladies and gents, we just passed the halfway mark over here. I have to say, writing 24 blog entries has turned out to be more difficult than I imagined. I managed to close my eyes for a few minutes there are recharge my batteries slightly, but I'm currently in this weird groggy limbo that is making it hard to write anything. For those of you arriving here on the day shift, welcome. Please browse the pages and visit all 24 entries so far. As you know, I am doing this 24 blogging marathon to support the Union Gospel Mission. If you are a reader and wouldn't mind supporting their cause, then please head on over to lend some support. The only way these blogathons are a success is if we're able to raise some money for charities such as the Union Gospel Misson. I'm once again going to be on the lookout for exciting articles to post about. If you see or read anything, please feel free to pass it my way.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #26: Guest Entry From Shira Lazar

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:30:47 +0000

The following is a guest post by the always lovely Shira Lazar. Shira is an amazing reporter based out of Los Angeles, and was nice enough to offer to help me out with a guest posting. You can read more about Shira Lazar on her main site, or head on over and check out her blog, The Pop Report. Thanks again Shira! After a few hours of sleep, I'm back and ready to rumble in San Fran. My fellow Canuck and blogger, Duane Storey, has been doing a 24-hour blogathon for charity starting last night at 10pm and has been getting friends to do guest entries- so here's my contribution. Last night at the Techcrunch August Capital Meetup, they had this great booth for a company called Etchstar, which engraves phones, laptops, etc with the insignia of your choice. Check out the pics below of my crackberry getting branded and zenned out. Thanks to the lovely Karina Grotz for the pics! BTW- I was definitely the black sheep last night sans Iphone. Made me feel like I should take the leap and buy one. Hmmm decisions, decisions...

Me and Karina Grotz from Etchstar

My CrackBerry Transformed

Video blogging the process. Watch my video blog at the top right corner for all the action from last night.

Hanging out with da boyz. Including from left my friend and Doctoc.com founder (and the guy who got me out for the event) Jason Nazar and his Scribd competitor. I made sure they didn't get into a brawl.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #27: Ford Posts Record Losses

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:00:44 +0000

Oh, is that right? You mean making crappy vehicles for years and years, and then basically ignoring the whole gas problem might put your company in jeopardy? I guess Ford should have turned the suck-knob down a few notches over the last few years, because apparently they just posted their worst quarter ever.

Old Ford Truck, Photo By Steven Eret On Flickr

That's not to say I don't have friends with Ford vehicles, and the stuff they have seem fairly decent. But compared to vehicles imported from Japan or Europe, North American cars are just built to lower standards. American auto companies have long since trailed behind Japan in important areas such as fuel consumption, thinking that gas would always be a cheap luxury.

Take a look at Ford’s main web page. In the “Vehicle Showroom” feature for the Ford brand, six of the vehicles are “cars”, everything else is a pickup, SUV or crossover. And that’s only if you count the Focus and Mustang twice. While the Ford Escape Hybrid offers greatly improved city mileage over it’s standard engine brother, it comes at a premium of about $8000 extra. That’s if you can find one. This spring, when I checked on availability of that vehicle, I found that there was only one, literally just one, for sale at any dealership in the entire state! For years, auto manufacturers have been saying that they just are giving the public what it wants, and that’s trucks and SUVs. Ford has continued its manufacturing based on outdated modes of thought about what people want in a vehicle. Right now, what the public wants is something affordable to operate - not another gas guzzler. Will Ford make changes to its lineup quick enough to continue as one of the major manufactureres, or will “Built Ford Tough” simply not be good enough?

Given that the United States is on the brink of a major recession, that motor companies are laying individuals off, and that banks seem to be folding daily down south, I think Ford may be in a lot of trouble. Maybe they shouldn't have, you know, bet the farm on SUVs and huge, gas guzzling trucks.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #28: Blogathon Update

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:30:55 +0000

Well, I imagine by now many of the early morning shift people are in full swing. It seems like so long ago I wrote my first entry, and here I am at number 28. It sure is getting difficult finding content on short notice, but I'm managing to stay ahead of the curve somehow.

My Blogathon Setup

Rebecca did a quick tally on her blog, and I think between all the participants we are up to around $500 so far. That number doesn't include people who have gone directly to their charity's website and donated directly, so ultimately the number will be a bit higher. In terms of people on this blog, we've raised about ~~$210~~ $260 so far. My goal was to hit $1000, which may be unrealistic, but given that we still have another 20 entries to go, I'm hoping that number can still go up quite a ways. Money isn't everything, and if you support the Union Gospel Mission, you can still make a difference by supporting some of the bloggers during blogathon, dropping by the Union Gospel Mission website from time to time, stay informed, or even try and volunteer sometime in your community. Every little bit counts, and everyone can make a difference. I created an RSS feed last night that represents alot of the bloggers currently doing blogathon. If you want to add it to your RSS reader, you can subscribe to it here. If you're not in the list, then simply fire me off a quick email and I'll make sure to add you.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #29: Missouri Community Embraces The Wind

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:00:08 +0000

If you pledge between now and 10pm tonight, I'll feature your name on the top of the next blog post. So please head on over to pledge, and then drop me an email or a comment. Help me reach my goal of $1000, and support the Union Gospel Mission.

Sometime last night, while in the middle of a weird, sleep-deprived trance, I blogged about a community in Canada that recently converted to solar power. To show that our American friends down south can be innovative and green as well, I want to talk about another community that has recently embraced the wind.

Wind Turbines, Photo From here

In Rock Port, Missouri, esidents recently converted their entire community to use wind energy.

The town of Rock Port, in Missouri, is another of the growing number of towns and cities laying claim to be powered entirely by a renewable energy. And though the small town only boasts a population of 1,300, it is the first community in the United States to be powered entirely by wind power. “That’s something to be very proud of, especially in a rural area like this - that we’re doing our part for the environment,” said Jim Crawford, a natural resource engineer at the University of Missouri Extension in Columbia. The four turbines which are powering little Rock Port are part of a greater batch of 75 turbines, which installed across three counties, are used to harvest the plentiful wind scouring the landscape. “We’re farming the wind, which is something that we have up here,” Crawford said. “The payback on a per-acre basis is generally quite good when compared to a lot of other crops, and it’s as simple as getting a cup of coffee and watching the blades spin.”

You know, it used to be hard to find an article like this, but now I see one or two pop up on Digg daily. The continued rhetoric by our governments saying that it's simply not possible to move to renewable energy sources in the near future is completed negated by these community movements. I mean, if a community of 1300 can find the means to install windmills and remove themselves from the grid, then surely the government, with all its resources, can find a way to convert the majority of the country to renewable sources as well. Believe it or not, one of the biggest arguments against wind power is that the turbines are an eyesore for many people. But looking at that photo above, I can't imagine anything more beautiful than the gentle hum of a perpetual source of clean, renewable energy.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #30: HDR Photography

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:30:11 +0000

Two more people have donated recently to the Union Gospel Mission. They are:

Kevin Haggerty
Grant Jordan

Thanks for your support. If anyone else pledges before my next entry, drop a comment or an email and I'll make sure I add your name. I don't have the exact number, but I think that brings us close to $300, with a goal of $1000. So if you can help us hit that goal, please head on over to the pledge page and lend some support. To sweeten the deal, I'll give any person who donates $50 or more to the Union Gospel Mission an 8x12 photo of your choosing from my HDR gallery located at SmugMug.

One of the techniques I've played with a lot over the past year is in the area of high dynamic range (HDR) photography. It's essentially a way to capture far more dynamic range of a scene than a typical camera would normally capture. You basically have to set your camera up to capture a scene using various different shots at different exposures. I have a detailed tutorial available on my website, The benefit of this technique is that it mimics basically what the eye actually saw when you were there. Cameras have a limited dynamic range when compared to the human eye, and hence can only capture a small subset of the detail in a real scene. The give an example, here are two shots I took of roughly the same scene a few weeks ago. The first is a shot that I took normally, that is without any HDR techniques applied:

Non-HDR Shot Of Birkenhead Lake

Now, here's a version in slightly a different position that I made by combining three different exposures into one shot:

HDR Shot Of Birkenhead Lake

As you can see, there is a lot more detail in the second shot, particularly in the clouds and some of the highlights on the vegetation. When used in excess, sometimes HDR shots end up looking artificial, but if you can keep them rather tame, most of them end up giving a rather realistic impression of the actual scene.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #31: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Summer

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:00:21 +0000

The following is guest post by my good friend, Keira Mellis, who happens to have a really amazing blog herself over at Keira-Anne.com. Also, we've received another donation, one that's eligible for my free photo giveaway. Here's a list of recent donations.

Michelle Palazzo
YOU - if you click here and pledge

Also, to sweeten the deal, any person who donates $50 or more to the Union Gospel Mission will receive a free 8x12 photo of their choosing from my HDR gallery located at SmugMug.

Since it's rather apparent that our blogalicious friend, Duane, has such a deep love for the spirit of all things Christmas (and in particular the Christmas tree), I thought I'd share a few fun facts about Christmas trees I managed to dig up online.

Notice That My Christmas Tree Is Still Up In The Background

Most parts of pine, spruce and fir trees can be eaten! In fact, they're a great source of vitamin C, which will come in great for that Christmastime cold...
Christmas trees date back to the mid-1500s, with some of the first decorations being apples. The apple was representative of the pitfall of Adam and Eve
In many cultures it's considered bad luck to put your Christmas tree up before December 1. Either this is untrue, or Duane's safe on account of the fact that, well, his tree is up 365 days a year.
The first retail Christmas trees were sold in North America in New York City in 1851. Come to think of it, I think this is where Duane's came from.
One square acre of planted Christmas trees provides enough oxygen for one day for 18 people.
In 1-6 days, you too can be just like Duane.

As much as I hassle him about the tree in July, it's really rather charming. The truth is, Christmas is my favourite time of year; Christmas is Duane's favourite time all year...

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #32: Union Gospel Mission's Blog -- 'The Street'

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:30:46 +0000

As you well know by now, I am supporting the Union Gospel Mission for Blogathon. The Union Gospel Mission provides assistance to the homeless people in Vancouver, and those who are in the most need. At last count, this blog has raised at least $320 or so towards the charity, and I'm hoping to bring it closer to $1000 as the event continues. As I mentioned in my last two posts, anyone that donates at least $50 to the United Gospel Mission will receive a free 8x12 print from my HDR gallery. It can be a permanent reminder for you of the contribution you made to help some of the less fortunate in Vancouver. For those of you that are interested in some of the things going on within Union Gospel Mission, I encourage you to check out their blog called The Street. They recently posted a blog entry regarding Blogathon and the hard work Rebecca has put into pulling it off. Given that The Street ultimately represents a forum where Union Gospel Mission can potentially share stories of some of the real-life impact of their efforts, I think it's an amazing thing to have and to share with others.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #33: Seven Ways To Help The Homeless

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:00:53 +0000

The Tyee had an interesting piece last year where they detailed seven different ways the city could potentially help the homeless. These seven items apparently were based on real-world examples of efforts in other cities that ultimately helped. I encourage everyone to head over to The Tyee and read the original article, but I'll give a short list here.

Idea One: Trade Fairs for the Homeless
Idea Two: Raise the Welfare Rates
Idea Three: Train Young Workers
Idea Four: Spread the Love Around
Idea Five: Buy a Few Hotel
Idea Six: Give Addicts Time to Heal
Idea Seven: Bring Governments Together

The details of each item are too involved to list here, but please go over and read the original article. Feel free to discuss what you think about each item below. I particularly think the Trade Fairs is a great idea, as it amounts to a one-stop-shop for the homeless to obtain help and to understand what means are available to assist them.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #34: Ok It's Official, I'm Tired

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:30:58 +0000

A big thanks to the following people who recently pledged support for the Union Gospel Mission

Cullen Jennings

Wow. To say I am completely exhausted at this point would be an understatement. I've essentially been awake since yesterday at 9am. That means I've been awake for around 30 hours now. Blogathon ends for me at 10pm tonight, which means I still have nearly eight hours left to go. I'm really not entirely sure how I'm going to make it, but hopefully I get my third or fourth wind soon.

This Is Me When I'm Tired

I've been listening to music rather loudly in my living room, hoping the aural stimulation will somehow keep me awake. Despite pounding back a full 2-litre of diet pepsi today, a coffee, and two energy drinks, I feel like I could just close my eyes and not wake up until tomorrow. I somehow managed to figure out how to pair my new iPhone with my Apple TV, and now I can control the music on my stereo simply by pressing buttons on my iPhone -- pretty slick. I won't know what the total is for this website until Rebecca lands in Vancouver, which should be shortly. I suspect it's around $350 now, and I want to thank everyone who has contributed so far. Your donations will undoubtedly help some of the homeless in Vancouver, either by helping them secure shelter, or possibly by giving them a warm meal from time to time. I have a host of articles that I could potentially write about, but I'm really not sure what people are interesting in at this point. Please drop a comment if there's any thing you'd like to know more about, and I'll do some due diligence and try to do a comprehensive post about it. Thanks.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #35: Photography

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:00:56 +0000

Based on a suggestion by Raul, I'm going to talk a little bit about my entry into photography. I originally got into a photography because I wanted a hobby that exploited my creative side without all the trappings of the math and science I typically deal with in my day job. Photography to me has always been a bit of a release, a way to unwind and simply see only a small portion of the world at a time. It's like turning the power off and noticing your ears are ringing -- it represents a way for me to unplug from the world for a period of time. I picked up my first digital camera in 2000. It cost me $1000 at the time, and compared to cameras nowadays, didn't really take great photos. That being said, it completely changed the landscape of photography for me, since the incremental cost of actually taking a photo went from around $1 down to essentially 0 cents. Given that photowalks no longer cost me any money, I quickly started experimenting with different techniques, figuring out what I liked about photography and what I didn't like. Sometime around 2004, I picked up my first digital SLR camera, the Canon EOS 20D. It was quite the departure from the camera I had used before, and immediately changed how I approached photography. Given that one of my first lenses was a 50mm fixed lens, I quickly learned how to move my feet to pull off a shot, and also the importance of properly framing a shot. Over time, I have learned to approach every shot as a unique opportunity to make an impression. Everytime I press the shutter, I basically ask myself "what is it I'm trying to take a photo of here?"

A common mistake most people do in photography is to simply hold up the camera in front of something they want to take a photo of and press the shutter. With that approach, typically you end up with a lot of clutter, or a photo that really doesn't have any context. If it's a photo of a person, which aspects are important for you to capture? Is it the model's hair, or the fact that she's standing in front of a landmark? Is it the model's beauty, or the beauty of having a model amongst an certain environment. After you ask yourself those questions, you can then approach how you want to frame the shot. Try to make the framing reflect the purpose of the photo. The best piece of advice I can give to anyone trying to get into photography is to go out periodically from time to time and force yourself not to use your zoom feature. This will cause you to think long and hard about each shot, and force you to use your imagination to make up for the inflexibility of your lens. After a while, you'll be able approach shots, even with a zoom lens, in an entirely different way.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #36: Choosing A Lens

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:30:36 +0000

Most compact cameras that you pick up from Future Shop only have one built in lens. In most cases, it's a zoom lens, capable of giving you moderate wideangle coverage upwards to a decent telephoto lens. Most people probably don't know the difference between those two, so I thought I'll give a brief tutorial. The most well known lens is probably the 50mm prime. 50mm refers to the focal length of the lens, and prime refers to the fact that it's a fixed focal length lens (i.e. not a zoom lens). In photography, the 50mm lens is also called a "standard" lens because it almost exactly matches the field of view of human eye. That is, if you were to look at a scene and then photograph it using a 50mm lens, it would closely match what you saw. Some people call a 50mm lens boring because it doesn't really add any impact based on what a typical person would see. That being said, some really great photographers have made a living by only using the 50mm lens. Anything below a 50mm essentially is known as a wideangle lens. As you go down in focal length, the field of view (what the lens can see) increases drastically. A fairly standard zoom lens is the 28mm, and that's usually the very far end on most compact camera zooms. Anything below that is somethings called an ultra-wideangle lens. Wideangle lenses are typically known for adding drama to a scene, as often the resulting photos are somewhat distorted. If you increase the focal length past 50mm, you start to get into an area known as telephoto. Telephoto lenses usually are used for taking portraits and for taking photos of objects that are far away. One feature of telephoto lenses is that they typically compress facial features. For example, larger noses typically look a little smaller using a telephoto, and most of them time they make portraits more appealing. A fairly standard focal length for portraiture is 85mm. Canon's top of the line 85mm lens runs for around $2500, so you can see it's a pretty important range.

So, next time you're playing with your camera, stop and think about what kind of lens you are using, and how it impacts the photo. If you have any questions, drop me a line.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #37: Signed Copy Of Matthew Good's Hospital Music

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:55:54 +0000

Update - Matthew Good is also offering one lucky person to be able to meet him, and listen to the demo recordings from his new album in a private session. If you're interested, head on over to the auction page.

Most people in North America probably already know who Matthew Good is. Matthew is a well known writer, political blogger, human rights advocate and one of Canada's most successful musicians. In the last ten years or so, Matthew has released seven full-length albums, all of which have gone either gold, platinum or double platinum. Last year, the release of Matthew's seventh album, Hospital Music, went #1 in Canada, and #7 on the US Alternative charts on iTunes, a record for an independent release in the United States. Matthew has generously donated a signed copy of his latest album, Hospital Music, to help with the current charity event. Any person that contributes at least $10 to the Union Gospel Mission will be eligible to win the signed copy. After blogathon is over, and all people who pledged have made their donation to the charity, I'll do a draw and pick who the winner will be. To give a pledge, please head over to the blogathon donation page and enter your pledge amount. You don't have to pay today -- you'll receive an email at a later date with your instructions on how to donate to the Union Gospel Mission. After you've done that, please leave a comment on this entry so I know which people to put in the draw. If you've already pledged more than $10, and wish to be considered, please leave a comment here. Also, a big thanks to Tyson Elder and dylshi who recently pledged.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #38 - Charity Update

Duane Storey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:33:28 +0000

I did a quick tally of all the emails pledge I've received from Rebecca's site, and we're sitting at around the ~~$400~~ $450 mark, which is great. Thanks to everyone who has pledged so far. My own personal goal was to try and hit $1000, and we're doing pretty good so far. There are only about ten entries left, so if you've been sitting on the fences waiting to potentially donate, now's your chance. As I mentioned in my last entry, Matthew Good has also generously donated a signed copy of his last album, Hospital Music, which hit #1 in Canada when it was released last year. Anyone who donates at least $10 is eligible to potentially win it. Also, for anyone that donates $50 or more, you'll also be eligible for the signed Matthew Good CD, as well as receiving a free 8x12 photo print of your choice from my Vancouver HDR Gallery. Now's your chance to contribute to a really great charity, and make a difference in someone else's life.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #39: Five More Hours To Go

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:05:02 +0000

Well, there's only five hours left in my first blogathon. It's actually been a pile of fun, even though I'm fairly exhausted. I want to give a big round of applause to everyone that's been a part of this event, especially those that are also nearing the end (and thankfully, get to go to bed soon). There's a third shift starting tonight at 10pm, so there will be plenty to read tonight. And while the blog entries and those who pen them are obviously to be commended, I think we need to all remember our respective charities, and remember the causes we are all fighting for. While I spent all last night night sitting on my couch writing blog entries, over 1000 people were sleeping outside on a sidewalk somewhere, wondering if someone might steal their belongings in the night, or stressing out wondering where their next meal would come from in the morning. John F. Kennedy once said that since all the problems in this world are man made, they must, by definition, have solutions obtainable by men as well. So while many of the problems we face seem insurmountable, they are all solvable, and all worth putting in the effort to solve. We are all in this together, and as a collective community have the ability to end homelessness, to end poverty, and to create a future for our children that is worth being a part of. Also, thanks to a donation by Madeline Lagden, we are now past $500. I also donated $50 as well, and am hoping somehow we can break the $1000 barrier before 10pm tonight. So if you've been following along and want to donate, you can do so by following the instructions below.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #40: New iPhone Firmware About To Be Released

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:26:29 +0000

We're up to about $530 now. I'm hoping we can hit $1000, which means we basically need about $100 an hour. That's a big goal, and I'll need the help of every reader to pull it off. If you want to know more information about the United Gospel Mission, please head over to their website or send me a personal email via my contact page.

When the iPhone 3G came out a few weeks ago, along with it came the new 2.0 firmware that brought many new features, including the coveted application store. Unfortunately, with the update came a pile of bugs, including problems with the GPS unit, and a completely unresponsive user interface. The good news is that the new 2.1 firmware is due to be released any day now. Hopefully that will bring a pile of fixes and make the iPhone 3G usable. Right now there are random crashes, and a sluggishness in the UI that makes the device extremely hard to use. If any of you have had any problems with your device, drop me a comment.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #41: Trans Fat Banned In California

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:59:19 +0000

Trans fat is the dietary equivalent of the devil. It provides no nutritional value, and reeks havoc on the body's ability to transport fats through the blood. In terms of the different types of fat that people obtain through their diet, the following effects take place:

Saturated fat raises LDL (the bad cholesterol), but basically leaves HDL (the good stuff) in tack
Polyunsaturated fat raises HDL (the good stuff), so it helps you
Monounsaturated fat typically raises HDL, but sometimes raises LDL, so while it usually is good for you, in excess it can sometimes be bad for you
Trans fat raises LDL (the bad stuff), and lowers HDL (the good stuff), so it's basically very, very bad for you

Thankfully California has just announced that they are going to ban trans fats.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the new legislation, which will take effect in 2010, represented a "strong step toward creating a healthier future". Violations will incur fines of between $25 (£13) and $1,000 (£502). Trans-fats are chemically altered vegetable oils, used to give processed foods a longer shelf-life. Some cities, like New York City, Philadelphia and Seattle, have already banned the fats. Many food makers and restaurant chains have also been experimenting with replacements for oils and foods that contain them.

The cities that are banning trans fats should be commended, since they have serious health effects.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #42: New Star Trek Coming Soon

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:30:07 +0000

I've a die hard Star Trek fan -- always have been, and always will be. My dad and I used to sit around every Sunday watching Star Trek The Next Generation in the old days, and I've fairly certain I've seen every episode of the original series. That's why I'm looking forward to the new Star Trek movie coming out, which is essentially an origin story. [easyvideo video="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x44i94"] Even though the trailer doesn't really show anything, I'm fairly certain it's going to be awesome!

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #43: The Final Stretch

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:00:07 +0000

Well, we're down to only three hours left now. Raul, Rebecca and John stopped by to hang out for what's left of our shift. In total, I've had about three cups of coffee and 6-liters of diet coke so far, which is probably pretty close to the LD50 for caffeine consumption. There haven't been any donations since the last time I blogged about it, which means we're still sitting at around $550. I'd like to push it as close to $1000 as possible, so if you haven't donated yet and were meaning to, please head on over to the blogathon page and give a pledge. You actually don't have to pay now, so you can you pledge an amount and pay when it's all over. Anyone who pledges more than $10 will be eligible to win an autographed version of Matthew Good's Hospital Music, which is a pretty nice keepsake to have. Apparently Rebecca is doing a post about me at 7pm, so head over to her blog and check it out.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #44: Homelessness, In Photos

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:30:38 +0000

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #45: Guest Post By Raul Pacheco

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:02:15 +0000

Duane invited me to guest post on an environmental topic, and since I had already been mulling over the question of privatization of water, I figured I'd do some quick research. Since this is an on-the-fly post and we are both exhausted after more than 22 hours worth of Blogathon, I am not going to do my usual super awesome in-depth research, and I'm just going to point you out to a quick reference page I found. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Credit: Tskdesign"][/caption] The notion that water is a commodity kind of bugs me because I don't think we can put an actual price on natural resources. Of course, there is the theory of payment for environmental services, but I am not going to go there right now because I am exhausted and my brain has completely shutdown. But if you think about it, one of the most contentious issues in Canada is that of water export and bottled water. This page aggregates a number of sources on the total volume of bottled water consumption in the world. However, I wanted to do a bit more research and went to the World Health Organization's site. The whole debate that is happening in Vancouver centers on whether non-bottled water would be safe enough. Here is what I found, on the WHO (the world's authority on health) website.

In applying the WHO Guidelines to bottled waters, certain factors may be more readily controlled than in piped distribution systems and stricter standards may, therefore, be preferred in order to reduce overall population exposure. This has, for example, been argued for the case of lead. Similarly, when flexibility exists regarding the source of the water, stricter standards for certain naturally-occurring substances of health concern, such as arsenic and fluoride, may be more readily achieved than in piped distribution systems. Contrary to this, some substances may prove more difficult to manage in bottled than tap water. This is generally because bottled water is stored for longer periods and at higher temperatures than water distributed in piped distribution systems. Control of materials used in containers and closures for bottled waters is, therefore, of special concern.[WHO Website]

If we really were to ban the sale of bottled water, the municipality of Vancouver would (a) have to prove that tap water is safe enough (I don't think that would be THAT difficult) and (b) get into big trouble with large corporations who make selling bottled water their business (because, really, who wants to lose business?). And trust me, even I wouldn't want to get into that battle (and I am a combative man). In India, for example, water becomes more than a natural resource, a political resource and a source of inter-state and inter-regional conflict. Can you imagine what would happen in Canada if we actually put a full price on water? Do you think we should ban bottled water in Vancouver? Raul's blog Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment contains an assortment of stuff, including (of course) analysis of environmental issues

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #46: Big Brother May Be Listening

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:30:25 +0000

This next post hits pretty close to home. I work in the field of voice over IP. I write software for my day job that allows people to talk to each other using two computers. A popular manifestation of the technology I work with everyday is Skype, which many people use to communicate with each other. One of the benefits of Skype is that the entire conversation is automatically encrypted. In theory, this should mean that nobody, not even the government, would be able to listen in on your phone calls. However, a recent article speculates that there may be a backdoor in Skype that would allow governments or authorities to listen in. Now, that may seem paranoid to some people. But you should know in the United States the government has strict rules regarding encrypted calls. The actual rules regarding digital communications in the states are governed by the Communications Assistant For Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). For example, if you setup an encrypted voice over IP call in the United States, you are legally required to somehow store the encryption keys used so that big brother can decrypt your call and listen in. So with that in mind, the idea of a backdoor in Skype isn't that far fetched. In fact, it's likely there is a backdoor there, purposefully to satisfy the requirements for CALEA.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #47: The End Is Near

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:01:02 +0000

This is it folks -- only two more entries to go after this one. I have, for the most part, been awake since yesterday at 9am. I hit a pretty rough patch this afternoon, but thankfully managed to get through it. It's been a really great experience, and it's been a privilege helping bring some awareness to the issues the homeless face in Vancouver.

Without a doubt, I'm pretty beat. My supper tonight consisted of peanuts purchased from the little store downstairs. Rebecca and John ordered Greek, but I've had so much caffeine that the thought of food basically repulses me at this point. I just poured myself a nice rum and diet coke, a reward for nearly 40 hours of staying awake and blogging. Only two more entries, and Blogathon 2008 will be over, at least for me. Thanks again to everyone who supported our cause, and spent time today reading our entries. We're still accepting pledges to the Union Gospel Mission, so head on over and drop a donation if you're so inclined.

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you'd like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here.

Entry #48: Vancouver Fireworks

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:31:28 +0000

I live right near English Bay, and right now most of Vancouver is gathering outside my front door to see the second night of the fireworks. As a kid, seeing the fireworks was something I used to really enjoy. But as an adult, I don't really enjoy large crowds anymore, or fighting to get a spot to sit. That being said, I appreciate that the event brings a lot of people together from various parts of Vancouver, and the Fraser Valley. Last year, our good pal Tony was visiting Vancouver, and we all got to hang out, drink a few beers, and watch the fireworks together. And while we didn't make it to the fireworks this year, we all sat around and lamented the fact that Tony wasn't up here again this time of year. This is my second last entry, and I'll leave everyone with a photo of the fireworks from last year.

Entry #49 - Blogathon 2008, Now Finished

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:00:39 +0000

As you can tell, this is my last entry. For the last 24 hours, I have essentially been in front of a computer, blogging about various topics that have interested me, and attempting to bring exposure to the realities that the homeless face in Vancouver. Rebecca and I joined forces this year to support the Union Gospel Mission, an organization in Vancouver that helps the homeless and the less fortunate in this city. First, I want to thank the Union Gospel Mission for nearly 70 years of effort with regards to helping others. By comparison, the little that most of us get to do for charity in our daily lives seems rather insignificant. Second, I want to sincerely thank every single person that dropped by and lent some support, either by donating financially, or by supporting the efforts of the bloggers in this city. It seems these days that everyone has their hand out asking for money, so I sincerely appreciate those of you that had the means to give to the cause. At the end of the day, we are all equal, and we are all inhabitants of this planet. The problems that we have inadvertently created can be solved, but it will take all of us together to extend compassion and understanding towards each other. And while we have brought exposure to our various causes throughout the day, let us not forget that the causes we support will extend well past this weekend, and it is up to all of us to stay the course and lend a hand whenever we can. For those of you that would still like to donate, I would definitely encourage it. You can continue to pledge for the next few days. I also want to thank Matthew Good for supporting this cause and for donating a personally autographed copy of his latest album, Hospital Music -- anyone that donates $10 or more towards the Union Gospel Mission will be eligible to win it. Thanks everyone. I'll announce the final results in a few days. Until then.

Matthew Good Ups The Ante For Blogathon

Duane Storey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:02:40 +0000

As most of you know, yesterday I was hunched over my computer pouring over the content for what turned out to be 49 blog entries in support of Blogathon. Thanks to a all the readers of this site and Rebecca's site, and a generous donation of a personally autographed CD from Matthew Good, we raised around $1500 for the Union Gospel Mission yesterday. That money will ultimately go towards helping the homeless in Vancouver. Late last night, over on Rebecca's "M" blog posting, Matthew Good decided to up the ante a bit. In addition to the autographed CD that some people signed up for on my 37th post yesterday, Matthew is also going to offer a private listening session to hear the demo recordings for his new album, tentatively titled Vancouver.

Matthew Good's last album, Hospital Music, opened at #1 in Canada and also climbed the US alternative charts to #7 in the United States. Matthew has been on three tours since then, and just made it back to Vancouver a few weeks ago. Since then, he has been putting the finishing touches on the demo tracks for his new album at home. This is a pretty amazing opportunity Matthew is offering, as the winner will not only get to meet Matthew Good, but will also be one of the first individuals ever to hear the demo recordings before they are recorded in the studio and ultimately released to the public. The bidding is in the form of an auction over on Rebecca's blog, with the minimum bid starting at $200. The proceeds for the event will go towards the Union Gospel Mission, and ultimately provide assistance to those in Vancouver who need it most. Head on over to Rebecca's site to place your bid.

Thank You

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:49:45 +0000

I've been lying in bed for about 20 minutes now, trying to slow my brain down enough so that I can finally catch up on sleep. Unfortunately, my mind has been racing ever since blogathon, and it's been rather difficult to shut it off. While in bed tonight, I started thinking about the day I had today, the people I spent it with, and the events of this past weekend. Like a hiker nearing the end of a long trek, I forced myself to stop and survey the trail from which I've come; the moments of exhaustion, the long rainy nights, the hills and the valleys, and the painful blisters that may never fully heal. And while the road has been long, it has been a journey filled with sunsets and sunrises, the scent of fresh mountain air, and nighttime skies where the stars go on forever. The last two years of my life were incredibly challenging. And yet, despite the many bumps in the road, I have thankfully managed to endure, and to grow. And for that, I owe a great deal to this blog and to many of the wonderful people I have met as a result of it. This weekend, with all of your help, Rebecca and I raised well over $2000 that will ultimately help the Union Gospel Mission and the homeless in Vancouver. It is a number, I feel, that is rather impressive, given that it was acquired from the comfort of our own homes, and from the pledges of all of you. Over the last few years this blog has become a rather large part of my life. Not just for the content and the outlet that it provides, but most importantly, for all of you - the discussions we've had, the contacts I've made, and most importantly, the many friendships that have come as a result of it. And for all of that, I thank each and everyone of you.

New LCD For My Macbook Pro

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:48:59 +0000

My new LCD arrived via FedEx this morning. I picked it up on the way to work, along with a Torx screwdriver to remove some of the internal pieces. I decided to take a stab at fixing it when I arrived, but it turns out it was far more involved than I thought. I ended up having to disassemble the entire keyboard portion of the Macbook Pro. Afterwards, I had to disconnect the antenna for the wireless card, as well as the inverter for the monitor. Then, the data cable for the LCD came off, and finally the entire top portion that contains the screen. At that point I was basically half-way. I then had to disassemble the entire upper portion, removing the iSight connection, the inverter, the data cables, and the grounding strip (which is basically big taped on copper strip) that allows the antenna to work. After that, I had to fight against a pile of glue that they put on to help hold everything in place. Sometime around then I cut my finger and started dripping blood inside. Good times. Anyways, I was pretty sure at that point that my laptop would never go back together. But after reversing the instructions, putting all the screws back and pressing the power button, I was greeted with one of the most glorious pieces of fruit I've ever seen: When the screen went black, I noticed one pixel that I think it hot. But I doubt they'll return it for one hot pixel. Truth is that it's only noticeable when the screen is black, so I'm not even going to worry about it.

Happy Birthday Marty

Duane Storey — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:13:30 +0000

Today is Marty Jordan's birthday. Marty is basically my step-dad, and he lives out in Chilliwack with my mom. I have a little shindig to go to tonight, so in case I don't get a chance to call, here's an official birthday greeting for you Marty. Happy Birthday!

The Boy Who Cried Mary

Duane Storey — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:55:57 +0000

Apparently some hotelier in India told everyone that he saw an image of the Virgin Mary in the sun, and also claimed that some of his statues were crying honey and bleeding oil in his home. Since then, nearly 50 people in India have gone completely blind while trying to look into the sun to try and see what he saw:

At least 50 people have lost their sight after staring at the sun hoping to see an image of the Virgin Mary, according to reports. Alarmed health authorities in India's Kottayam district have set up a sign dispelling rumours of a miraculous image in the sky and warning of the dangers of looking into direct sunlight. Forty-eight cases of sight-loss, allegedly caused by photochemical burns on the retina, have been recorded at St Joseph's ENT and Eye hospital in the region since Friday. Despite warnings, and the potentially harmful effects of their actions, believers are allegedly still flocking to a hotelier's house in Erumeli near where the divine image is said to have appeared.

Why is it that these 'miracles' always seem to manifest themselves as images in the sky or crying statues? Why can't suddenly 100 people with cancer suddenly be cured, or fields that have been barren for years suddenly start growing again? In this case, either the guy a) saw a real miracle, b) made it all up to attract business or c) imagined it all due to some mental illness. If it's (b), then he's at least partially responsible for 50 people that will never be able to see again.

Blogger Profile: Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss604

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:29:48 +0000

Well, I would hope that Rebecca would need no introduction in this city. But that being said, Rebecca has gone out of her way time and time again to throw link love towards other bloggers, and share whatever knowledge she can with others. So, the least I can do for a good friend is return the favour. Over the last few years Rebecca has firmly established her blog as the most informative and relevant source of information on Vancouver life, bar none. Her blog is a enjoyable mix of personal reflections within the city, upcoming Vancouver events, and local media and band coverage. The information on her website is so widely viewed and cherished that it is, in fact, often copied by local media agencies looking for a quick story. Far more important than that though, is my friendship with Rebecca and her husband. I actually intercepted Rebecca a few years ago on her way to the beer line-up at Northern Voice. Coincidentally, what started our friendship was a discussion we had about a living room show that our mutual friend Matt put on a few months prior. Since then, I've had the privilege of watching her stature, her recognition, and her knowledge of this city grow. And through it all, Rebecca has always maintained a sense of herself and a ever-present desire to improve the city in which she lives. Just recently Rebecca organized and sponsored Blogathon 2008, a 48 hour long event meant to generate exposure for various charities within this city. With her help and leadership, over $10,000 was raised for local charities. Today, Rebecca had a fairly crappy day. Her husband fell sick, her health insurance mysteriously got canceled, and all the weight of the past week or so came crashing down. But, she is a trooper, and she has a lot of friends like me that care about her, so I'm sure she'll do fine. She is an integral part of the Vancouver web-scene, a cherished part of this city, and thankfully, a very close friend. Make sure you head on over check her blog out if you haven't already.

Blogathon 2008 & Union Gospel Update

Duane Storey — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:43:19 +0000

Rebecca posted a comment on another entry that said as of last night, we raised $7,992.50 for the Union Gospel Mission over the weekend. That's the total between pledges on my blog, pledges on Rebecca's blog, and Matt's demo listening auction that went for $4000. Best part is that my mom had to mail her donation in because she couldn't figure out the online system (not sure where I get my computer skills from honestly). That means when it arrives, we'll be up to $8,092.50!. In terms of the entire blogathon effort, I think 13 bloggers raised roughly $20,000 total for their respective charities. Not bad for a weekend's worth of writing. Anyways, thanks again to everyone who participated, either by blogging, by commenting, or by donating financially. That money will ultimately end up helping the homeless, either by providing a warm place to sleep, getting someone the medical help they need, or by providing a warm meal from time to time.

Victoria, Friends, Feist, Beer and Me

Duane Storey — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:03:12 +0000

Update - Hotwire came through for me again. We're going to be staying at the Magnolia Luxury Boutique Hotel right in Inner Harbour. So exciting.

The other day Arieanna contacted me via Twitter and asked if I wanted a photo pass for the festivities this weekend in Victoria. Since I haven't been to Victoria in a few years, I thought it might be a good opportunity to sample some island beer and take some photos.

Sometimes photo passes just let you get your camera in the door, and aren't really anything special. However, Arieanna just got confirmation that our passes include access to the front-stage pit, as well as backstage and potentially interview access. I'm more of a photo kind of guy, but I'm sure Arieanna is anxious to get a few interviews for b5media. Shooting the Juno awards was obviously a pretty big highlight in my photography career, but truth be told, it was a rather challenging shooting environment since everything was inside and dimly lit. I'm actually really excited to shoot an outdoor concert, since the photos always turn out awesome. Plus, I'll be able to use my sharpest lens, my $1500 70-200mm f/2.8L, which will hopefully give me some fairly awesome shots. In addition, I'd love to try a few HDR shots of the inner harbour, assuming I can figure out how to take a HDR with a beer in one hand and a camera in the other. Some of the artists performing are Sarah McLachlan, Leslie Feist, Jim Byrnes, Alex Cuba, Colin James, Jessie Farrell, and more. Should be a great time. I wonder how the nachos are in Victoria? I was right next to Leslie Feist at the Junos, but I never had the opportunity to talk to her. So maybe this time I'll have a chance to say hi. I'm probably heading over on Sunday, and will be back Tuesday morning in time to go to work and detoxify.

Things That Make Me Happy

Duane Storey — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:40:58 +0000

I was talking to Rebecca tonight about how easy it is to forget all the things in life that are important. Too often people focus on the negative things, and forget all the people and things in their lives that make them happy on a regular basis. So tonight I walked around my apartment taking photos of things that make me happy at home. I added them all to a Flickr set called Things That Make Me Happy. It's a work in progress, and I'm adding a few old shots as well, including this one of me and some friends that snuck under the radar. I had a ton of fun doing this, so I'm hoping I can encourage others to as well. So, if you have Flickr, go ahead and join this group. Then, go through your Flickr set and add ten photos that represent things in your life that make you happy. Let's see what it looks like in a few days. Don't be shy! I'm going to add mine now!

BeachCamp 2008

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:10:44 +0000

I've been toying with this rather amazing idea for the last few years. I'm going to toss this out there, because I'm rather fond of it. The Vancouver technology scene is rather impressive. Almost every week there's a really awesome event taking place that brings together some great minds. I can't tell you how much I've learned from my peers in the last few years. Given that we all take time out to get together and discuss technology, I always thought it would be fun to all go somewhere all together. Sort of like a less formal SxSW, but with more of an unconference component. So here's what I imagine. Sometime around November, I was thinking it would be great for everyone to hit a beach, either in Mexico or the Caribbean, and spend a week discussing technology, learning about photography, going on photo walks, and of course, drinking beer. Considering you can get a flight plus all inclusive food and drinks for around $1000, I think it's a pretty great steal for a technology gathering. I'm just throwing this out there for now, but if there's enough interest, I'd love to pull this off. We could definitely get some group rates for the flights and the resort I'm sure. We could even tie in a WordCamp session into this as well, or maybe something fun for the Drupal guys as well. So, if taking a week off and hanging out with some great technology people in the sun somewhere interests you, then drop a comment. I think it would be a pile of fun, and I can't imagine a better environment to talk tech than next to an ocean, drinking beer and eating nachos.

Victoria Bound

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:26:22 +0000

I went for a walk this afternoon down to the mall to buy a few new shirts. When I got there, I fielded a SMS message from John Biehler saying he was heading to the Apple store and asked if I wanted to meet up. I met him and Peter there, after which time we all headed down to the new Crumpler store on the edge of Gastown. I've always wanted a Crumpler bag, but they were hard to come by in Vancouver. So today I picked up a new camera bag with the intention of taking it to Victoria tomorrow. Here's what it looks like: I opted for the smaller of the two bags they had, and I'm already regretting it. The girl said I could bring it back and get the big one if I wanted, so I might end up doing that. I've stuffed it as full as I can get it, and still I have extra camera pieces left over. It's good enough for this weekend, but I really need to rethink my whole strategy. The benefit of my new bag is that I can swing it over my shoulder, allowing me to switch lenses fairly easily. With my old backpack bag, I basically had to set it on the ground, unzip it, and then fumble around. So in theory this is the better setup. The Crumpler bag was $110, which isn't cheap. But hopefully it'll get the job done. I'm heading over to the Island tomorrow with Arieanna and Ianiv for the big BC 150 festivities. Thanks to Arieanna, I have a full access photo pass, which will give me photo-pit and backstage access to all the musicians this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing Feist in concert, taking a pile of photographs, and enjoying a few days of festivities out in the sun. Since the ferries are undoubtedly going to be packed tomorrow, I convinced Arieanna to take the helicopter to Vancouver Island with me. I've never been on a Helicopter, and I'm really looking forward to it. It leaves from the Harbour downtown, and ends up really close to Inner Harbour in Victoria. For $89, it's really not a bad deal this weekend, especially considering it will shave off around 3 hours of traveling. I'm just finishing doing laundry and charging my equipment, then it's off to bed and then onwards to Victoria. Make sure you check my blog and my Flickr during the weekend, as I'm going to be posting a pile of concert photos and hopefully a few videos.

In Victoria

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:18:33 +0000

Just a quick post. I met up with Arieanna this morning at the helicopter pad for our trip to Victoria. The helicopter was a lot of fun, and surprisingly smooth. We picked up our media passes a while ago, and are about to go get some fish and chips somewhere. Look for more shots later. You can follow my Flickr stream by clicking here. Also, I'll be posting to Twitter from my iPhone throughout the day, so add me on Twitter here.

Quick Update From Victoria

Duane Storey — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:32:09 +0000

Arieanna and I spent this afternoon walking around the festivities. Today is basically the warm up for tomorrow, so it was rather relaxed. We spent time bouncing between beer gardens and the second stage, the latter of which had various talent performing throughout the day. Ianiv took the ferry this afternoon, and will be getting here shortly. Arieanna and I sweet-talked our way onto the fireworks barge later, so we'll have press access for that as well. I haven't really taken photos since the Junos, so today was a good warm up day for me. Here are a few shots I took: Also, here's a video I took when the helicopter was taking off: [easyvideo video="http://blip.tv/play/tyXGiE8A"]

Me At Work

Duane Storey — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:43:41 +0000

Here's a shot that Arieanna took of me. And here was the shot I ended up taking:

Sarah McLachlan

Duane Storey — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:14:49 +0000

Blog traffic is pretty low, even by weekend standards. So I can only assume that everyone's out enjoying the long weekend. I'll keep this post short for now. We all had a rather crappy sleep last night, so we're a bit tired. We went down to the main stage early in the morning and managed to catch a few artists doing sound check. Here's a quick shot of Sarah McLachlan.

Here's a quick video I took of sound check. It's not finished converting yet, but head over and take a look.

BC Festival 150 Recap

Duane Storey — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:05:16 +0000

This morning we woke up at 6am in order to catch the 8am ferry back to Vancouver. I don't think my head hit the pillow until around 1am, so needless to say I was pretty exhausted this morning. I've been trying to watch my caffeine intake over the last few weeks, and I definitely had a bunch this weekend. So even though I'm really beat today, I'm trying hard to not have any more caffeine. In terms of the concert, it was easily one of the best events I've been to in a very long time. We spent most of yesterday bouncing between watching concerts, walking around in the sun, and sampling beer in the beer gardens. Our press access got us into a little press area about 10 feet from the stage. For most of the shows we were only allowed to stay for three songs, and then had to leave. But once Sarah McLachlan came on, I think they realized it would be too hard to keep people from listening, and we set up shop on a little piece of grass not far from center stage.

The big surprise of the show for me was Sarah McLachlan. I had never seen her live before, and was absolutely astounded by her voice and how personable her stage presence was. She hit the stage with nothing more than a grand piano and a guitar, and played six or seven songs. The crowd was pretty much in awe, and so was I. I sort of wished she would have kept playing all night, as it was really quite amazing. During the course of the night I managed to shoot around 12 GB of photos. I shot mostly in RAW, which is something I've never done before. My camera has the ability to shoot RAW and JPEG at the same time, so I did a few trial runs with that. It was clear afterwards that the RAW images contained far more detail than the JPEGs. So before the concert picked up steam, I went down to the store and bought a new 8GB card for my camera. I have no intention of shooting JPEG again.

Leslie Feist took the stage at 9:30pm, which was about an hour later than originally planned. Arieanna, Ianiv and I were already seated on a wood planck in front of the stage (only a few chairs away from Gordon Campbell), so we had a great view of the concert. I'm actually not that familiar with every Feist has released, although I did my best to listen to a few tracks on iTunes before going. Her concert was definitely interesting, as she combined music, light and visual performances in interesting ways. Unfortunately, from out vantage point the entire effect of the concert really required the use of the Jumbo Screens (to see what was going on behind Feist), something I hardly paid attention to. Feist also plays tonight at Deer Lake park, and I think given the style of performance, and the outdoor setting, it will be a rather extraordinary event. Without a doubt, BC Festival 150 was the most fun I've had shooting photos in a while. While attending the Canadian Juno Awards as a photographer was obviously a big privilege, I found the style of photography there, which consisted of people fighting each other to get shots, completely out of character for me. Hanging out in Victoria and shooting casual photos was far more to my liking. Right before Feist went on we found out that 106,000 people were in attendance for the shows. Seeing the entire grass, Inner Harbour, and all the streets downtown crowded with people was truly an unbelievable sight. So, a big thanks to Arieanna and Ianiv for inviting me along. I'm going to head home after work and hopefully sleep until tomorrow. I have about 1000 more photos to go through tonight, but until then feel free to browse my BC Festival 150 Flickr Set.

Paws For A Cause

Duane Storey — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:14:21 +0000

Keira and Matt, two of my good friends, are currently raising money for the SPCA's 'Paws For A Cause' program. The money raised through this event will help provide food, shelter and medical assistance to animals that are abused and abandoned. Matt had this to say on their Paws For A Cause page:

My unconditional love for my dogs is equal to that felt for my family and dearest friends. I would, without hesitation, sacrifice whatever need be sacrificed to see them healthy and happy, they are that important to me. I am certainly not alone when it comes to such feelings. There are dogs out there right now in need of good homes capable of transforming lives, of providing a companionship that people have cherished for almost our entire tenure on this planet. Thus, through them, and for them, initiatives like Paws For A Cause can help animals in need throughout the Province and place us in the fortunate position of being able to give something back in return for what our unquestioning companions have given us. I sincerely hope that you will participate by donating whatever you are able. On behalf of Benji, Casey, Pete and Bella - my most sincere thanks, Matthew Good

I've actually grown quite fond of two of Matt's dogs, Casey and Benji, over the last few years. I've spent many a day at the beach throwing sticks for Casey, and affectionately refer to him as my "stick buddy" whenever I talk about him. It's a great cause, and I'm more than happy to support it as well. So head on over to Matt's blog entry or to their Paws For A Cause page if you'd like more information, or to donate to the SPCA. Thanks.

Life Is What You Make It

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:33:52 +0000

You know, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I really have no idea where I'm going to end up career wise, but one of the things I've thought about in the last few years is becoming a real-estate agent. Sure, it's not something I'd probably enjoy, but I think I could handle the truck loads of money. It's not something I'll probably ever do (as I have my own plans), but there's something to be said for a job outside of the technology sector where you can set your own hours and fill your bank account up with rich people's cash. I mean, let's be honest - how hard is it really to sell a house in this city? It seems like there are million dollar homes going left and right, and I'm stuck on the sideline renting like a sucker. I mean, you take some clients to a house, give them the goods, and then you get a boat load of cash. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Rough life. Back when I was 15, a realtor in Chilliwack asked me if I could help him do some data mining on the MLS system. Back then, the MLS computer system could be dialed into via modem, so I wrote a little war-dialer for the MLS system that would essentially poll it looking for properties that were about to go on the market (using the taxation records). Given that most real-estate agencies were inefficient back then, he'd often get information using my program about a week before anyone else in town did. He'd then show up at the guys' house asking if they needed a real-estate agent, which most of them did. I imagine he made a truck load of money off of my idea, since last I talked to him he was trying to sell my software to other real-estate agents. He, of course, never paid me what he promised to, and as a kid I didn't have the means to go after him. 16 years later I'm still battling real-estate agents, go figure. But still, I imagine there are web 2.0 equivalents of the same technology I used back then. I'd probably have the most tech-saavy real-estate web site in the entire province, given all the web technologies I play with daily. There would be a big Flickr gallery, showing lots of my smiling, happy clients, along with some of the amazing beach front property I'd sold. Plus, there would be a pretty amazing photography gallery showcasing Vancouver, just in time for the 2010 Olympics. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't need a photographer to photograph any houses either. In fact, if I was a real-estate agent in this city, I'd probably be looking to partner with someone like me before 2010. I'd put a pile of great Vancouver photos on your website for you. I'd integrate the MLS onto your website. I'd drive a pile of traffic to you and help you get a pile of sales. Sure, I'd want a warm, juicy piece of the pie, but it would be worth it. But you know, I doubt that will happen. And maybe when I get bored of the tech sector, I'll take a stab at selling million dollar properties to the rich and famous. Doesn't sound like such a bad gig, honestly.

Duane's W3C Challenge

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:01:34 +0000

For those of you who do web design or the odd web work, you may have heard of the world wide web consortium (W3C). They are the standards body that is responsible for the HTML and XHTML specifications. One of the challenges of doing web design is ensuring that your designs work on multiple browsers and operating systems. One of the ways to help with that is to make sure that your website actually conforms to W3C standards, and properly validates against a real parser. Unfortunately, very few web sites these days actually validate, even amongst people who really should understood the importance of validation. Out of all the themes I've created, this is the only one on this website that has validated against W3C. To be honest, had it not been for the jedi-like teachings of Dale Mugford, I'd probably still be in non-validating HTML hell. But going from non-validating to validating really didn't take that much time, and it's made me approach web design and development from a new (and proper) angle. I went around the internet tonight and checked most of my friends websites and those of influential Vancouver technology people. Unfortunately, nearly every single site failed miserably, often displaying hundreds of errors. I don't want to single out any particular websites, but I encourage everyone to check their own site using the W3C validator to see for themselves. Since Vancouver contains some of the brightest most influential minds in the web world, I'd like to lay down the gauntlet for everyone to clean up their websites and make them properly validate. I'm more than happy to guide anyone who wants help in this area, but I think it would be rather impressive if the majority of the Vancouver web community could lead by example in this area. If your site does validate (or doesn't) let people know in the comments. Feel free to bash a few of your peers to get them to join the competition :) As I said, I'm more than willing to help anyone out if they need some guidance in this area. Maybe when it's done we can all get together and celebrate at a pub. I'm more than happy to buy the first few pitchers, but only people who have validating websites can attend the party.

Happy Birthday Amanda

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:22:02 +0000

Today is my sister's 34th birthday. It seems like only yesterday we were tromping out in the backyard together in Chilliwack. As most people know, my family is very important to me, and I am very protective of them. My life growing up in Chilliwack wasn't all roses, and most of us had to pull together to get to where we all are today. My university education was basically funded by various members of my family and loans from the government. My sister worked extra hard and offered to pay my phone bill every month, while my mom gave me spending money. My dad and stepmom came in and saved the day a few times when I was nearly broke and destitute. It was obviously a burden on everyone, but I'm very thankful they all pitched together to help me out. I would do pretty much anything in return to make sure they were all ok as well. The photos on this post are actually from a big scrap-book my sister put together for me prior to me moving out to Ottawa. It's filled with many pages of family photos, my high school friends, and a lot of good memories. It was something I took with me to Ottawa to remind me how many people cared for me back home, should I ever want to head back. So, have a great birthday today Amanda! Try not to drink too much!

If You're Not Crying, You're Not Trying

Duane Storey — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:40:55 +0000

Here's the latest piece of brilliance from the guys and gals over at Giant Ant Media. [easyvideo video="http://www.youtube.com/v/-ZF5w05AggM&hl=en&fs=1"] Also, I saw Step 1 from this for the first time today as well. It's golden: [easyvideo video="http://blip.tv/play/AbOXYoSmBg"] Awesome video guys.

iPhoto vs Photoshop CS3

Duane Storey — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:05:38 +0000

It should come as no surprise that photoshop is a much better tool that iPhoto. iPhoto is a free package that ships with Tiger and Leopard, and allows you to do quick adjustments to your photos. While obviously not marketed towards a high-end market, it's easy to use and is a fairly decent tool to have a in your photography arsenal. Unfortunately, sometime around Leopard, my iPhoto experience seemed to get a lot worse. I never really figured out exactly what happened, but there was a clean point in time where I felt iPhoto started really underperforming. The other day at the BC Festival 150 I made the decision to start shooting RAW. I've always sort of guessed that RAW yields a higher image quality, partially because there's no JPEG compression involved, but also because RAW images hold 12 or 14 bits of data per pixel as opposed to JPEG's 8 bits. That means you have the opportunity to correct minor exposure problems via software before converting to JPEG, allowing some photos to be saved that otherwise might have been ruined with the camera's JPEG only setting. I've been testing out various professional programs at home tonight, including Photoshop CS3, Lightroom 2.0 and Aperture 2.0. I have a few high-end photoshop plugins that come in handy from time to time, especially in the area of high-ISO noise reduction. I decided to do a little test tonight to see just how bad iPhoto was (or conversely, how good Photoshop was) when dealing with RAW images. Take note of this photo of Leslie Feist I shot the other day:

This photo was taken using a Canon EOS 40D in RAW, and processed slightly in iPhoto. At the time, I thought it was a decent enough image, and I posted it to Flickr. Tonight I started with the RAW CR2 image in Photoshop, and attempted to make the exact same shot. I cropped it a little bit looser, but in terms of processing, only adjusted the white-balance and added a slight bit of sharpening. The final result is here:

In terms of image quality, the second one is amazingly more detailed, especially in the background and in the features of Leslie's face and hair. To be quite honest, I was actually surprised that the difference between the two images was that apparent. I'm going to try and get used to Lightroom 2.0, since I hear Lightroom and Photoshop compliment each other well. I'm not a huge fan of the Lightroom layout though, as I find it rather cumbersome to navigate. But we'll see how it goes. What is everyone else using these days to edit photos? iPhoto, Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, or .. ? Drop a comment.

Media Kit

Duane Storey — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 07:15:55 +0000

After playing with my photos this evening, I decided it was about time I put together my official media kit. As most people know, I've been fortunate enough to cover a lot of great events in the last year or so. Thankfully, it's a trend that seems to be continuing. With that in mind, I slapped together the first little bit of my Media Kit tonight. I also integrated the jQuery image gallery, which is pretty slick if you ask me. I still have quite a bit to add, but it's slowly shaping up. If anyone sees anything I missed, please let me know. Also, looks like Martina Franko (the olympic soccer player I did a photoshoot for last year) has a blog up, and she's covering the team's events in China right now. So head on over and take a look!

New Flickr Plugin

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:35:04 +0000

Yes sports fans, it's that time again -- we've been messing around with yet another plugin over at BraveNewCode. But first, everyone should know that we just put the finishing touches on WPtouch 2.0 today. There are still a few small bugs to squish, but hopefully it'll hit the market sometime in the next week or two. It's pretty sexy, if I do so say so myself. In terms of the new plugin, I'll give everyone a little context. In the last two months I've had several people infringe upon my Flickr photo licenses by using my photos commercially. One of those incidences ended peacefully, but unfortunately the other one is still ongoing. While not for certain, I suspect the odd person grabs photos from my blog (after doing a Google image search), not really knowing that photos on my blog have CC licenses associated with them. So to battle that problem, I've always envisioned a Flickr plugin for WordPress that would be aware of the CC licenses for each of the photos. Today I sat down and hacked out a proof of concept in a few hours. You should be able to see the end result here: The code fragment in the HTML I used to generate the Flickr image above is the same fragment I always use, consisting of nothing more than an IMG tag. The benefit of this is that every single Flickr image I've ever used will automatically be adjusted when the plugin is on. The plugin now performs the following behind the scenes:

The plugin locates Flickr images in the HTML source, and then deconstructs the Flickr URL to determine the Flickr image number
Using the Flickr API, the plugin determines extra information about the image, including the CC license, and the author
The plugin queries the Flickr licensing information to determine information about each license, along with a URL describing each one
The plugin modifies the DOM model to add proper captioning and attribution, along with the proper license information for the photo

The last point was one of the main complaints I heard on some blogs about a year ago. For whatever reason people felt it was too much work to find the profile information on Flickr and obtain the user's real name. So, now those people don't have to. Arieanna and I had a conversation in Victoria about b5media last week, and one of the things she told me was that a great deal of traffic on their site comes in via image searches. Part of the reason the searches rank so hightly is that bloggers there spend the extra time storing photos locally and renaming the photos using SEO friendly names. So, I've added functionality to cache all Flickr photos locally, renaming them using SEO hints from the Flickr descriptions. It's still a ways away from being production ready, but I'm really excited about this plugin. It simplifies attribution, and always makes sure the appropriate license is displayed for each photo that is used. In addition, the caption is also pulled from Flickr, saving someone the time of adding one themselves. I also added a fade and a tooltip when a user hovers over a CC photo, hoping that the combination will alert the user to the fact that the photo carries a license with it. If anyone any suggestions, just let me know. For now, I'll be testing the plugin on this site. Look for an official announcement over on BraveNewCode when this one is finally released to the public.

WordCamp San Francisco Coming Up - Updated

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:28:48 +0000

Updated - I booked a flight and a hotel for this weekend, so I'll definitely be at WordCamp on Saturday. I love San Francisco, and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone in the Bay Area. If you see me on Saturday, feel free to flag me down and say hi. Drop a comment if you'll be there, and I'll try to find you!

This Saturday is WordCamp down in San Francisco. I registered to attend, although the jury is still out on whether or not I'm going to go. Flights aren't that expensive to be honest, but accommodation is kind of a killer considering how much traveling I've done lately. I'd really like to attend since WordPress is obviously pretty integral in my day to day life, but I'm not sure it's going to happen unless I can find somewhere cheap to stay for two nights. Boris is trying to find me something down there, but I thought I might drop a line on my blog to see if anyone might have a floor I can use. I'd probably arrive Friday night if I come down and leave Sunday morning. If you have a line on something, please drop me a quick email or a comment. Thanks.

Mobile Me-Too

Duane Storey — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:15:54 +0000

As most people now know, Apple released a full suite of online web applications similar to Google's offerings just a few weeks ago. Those products, launched under the name "Mobile-Me", were touted my Steve Jobs as being crucial to the future success of Apple and the iPhone. I've been using Mobile-Me for a few weeks now, and I thought I'd give some feedback. Truthfully, it's a very shoddy alternative to Gmail. I find the website extremely slow, and I have had loads of trouble even logging into the service. The only reason I'm still using the service at all is because Apple offers PUSH email if you have an iPhone and use Mobile-Me. But even that service has been spotty, and lately I've been forced to poll for my Mobile Me emails as well. So do I think Apple's Mobile Me service is worth paying for? Absolutely not. It's really hard to imagine how they think what they are offering is worth $99/year, especially considering you get a lot more from Gmail and that's free. Unfortunately though, there aren't many alternatives to Mobile Me if you want PUSH email on your phone. I actually spent one night looking, and had a hard time coming up with anything free. I almost wrote a big blog entry bashing Google for not implementing IMAP IDLE (which is the technology you need to do PUSH IMAP) a few weeks ago, but decided to investigate it a bit further. As it turns out, Google supports IMAP IDLE just fine (I tested this myself by using telnet, and sure enough, Google sent a message immediately to my telnet window the moment I received a new message). What that means is that Apple has deliberately NOT implemented IDLE in their IMAP client, hoping instead that people will move to Mobile Me. Since without PUSH email, there really isn't any incentive to go with Mobile Me in my opinion. So when it comes time to pay for Mobile Me, I think I'll be kissing it goodbye. It's just not up to snuff against the competition, and definitely not really worth paying money for.

Never Underestimate The Value Of A Bottle Of Scotch

Duane Storey — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:00:44 +0000

Wash, rinse, repeat - that's my life these days. Wake up, work, code, sleep. I eat once and a while, although considering I had a bit of cream cheese at midnight and called it supper, I think I need some drastic improvements in that department. My thermostat in my apartment shows 27C at 9am, which obviously makes it rather difficult to sleep. Actually, sleep in general is pretty difficult these days. I have a little bottle of Zopiclone that I keep around for special occasions, and even though it helps me sleep, it usually makes me a groggy mess in the morning. So in that department I am sort of screwed regardless of what I do. Today's post of the day is about ethics and their place is business. I've had this conversation with a few different people in the last few weeks, and it always surprises me what kind of responses I get. You see, I've always believed in working ethically. In fact, every time you see a little stainless steel ring on someone's pinky finger, chances are they are an engineer that actually swore to uphold ethical practices. And while some people think it's a dated practice, I think the meaning of that gesture is still as relevant today as it was when Rudyard Kipling first envisioned it. I've always believed in a sort of "do the right thing" approach in business. That's not to say I let people walk on me or abuse me, although having people attempt to exploit you comes with the territory. But I can't tell you how many times I've done a favour for someone, only to have that gesture come back much later in life along with a truck-load of dividends. One of the other things I've always been against is hiring people to work for you without paying them. A lot of industries call these interns, and most places I've worked have had a few of them. And while it's a cheap way to get work done, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth, since I remember how hard it was making ends meet as a student. The concept of paying someone zero dollars to have them do a job that they would probably have an employee working on had the intern not been there just seems wrong somehow. Many people disagree with me there, but that's where I stand. One of my mentors growing up was my high school Business Education teacher. Brennen and I ended up getting to know him, mostly because we were so disruptive in class that we were forced to hang out afterwards as punishment. During that time, we somehow ended up all getting to know each other and ended up being friends. In fact, years later when I was at UBC and seriously thinking about leaving because I couldn't afford to be there, he called me up and offered to give me whatever cash I needed to help me out. Not many people have stories like that about their high school teachers. In addition to teaching business in school, that individual also moonlighted as a manager of the old Keg restaurant in Langley. One time he brought Brennen and I out while he was working and showed us how he worked. Something he told me at the time that has always stuck with me is the importance of not underestimating the value of a few free drinks. As an example, he said every night he worked at the Keg he would buy two random people drinks. Maybe it was a couple having some wine over a romantic dinner, or maybe it was two guys sitting at the bar watching the game. But whoever it was, he would simply walk up, comp them a few drinks, and spend a few minutes getting to know them. You can't really measure the value of a gesture like that, but that restaurant was always full, and most people in there knew that manager and always went out of their way to say hi to him. Given the amount of shoddy service these days in all sectors, I would think something like that would stick with a lot of people. Another story that comes to mind is something my dad told me. My dad used to be an electrician, and worked with lots of trades people. One person he knew had worked their whole life at this one company, often working weekends and doing what he could to help the company out. Despite his positive attitude and the obvious positive effect he had on the business and their profitability, that company was quite content to pay him next to nothing, because really, that was the best way in their minds to maximize profit. One day he was approached by another company and offered a pile more money, a truck, more benefits, and probably more responsibility in the new company. Upon receiving that tentative offer, he went to his current company and told them all about it. His current company immediately countered, offering him more money, a better truck, and all the other bells and whistles he wanted. They told him that he was so integral to their current business in fact that it would be extremely hard to replace him. At that point he asked then, "if I am so important here and you guys need me so much, why is it that you've been paying me peanuts for years and working me to the bone?" Of course, they didn't have a response, and that employee was more than happy to leave. The thing is, it's really hard to do the right thing retroactively, and in their case, the damage had already been done. Another real-world story is about a prominent Electrical Engineering company in Burnaby that I once worked at for a few days. The management had built a really successful business and had brought on some of the best guys in the field. The company was rolling in the dough, and getting most of the best jobs that BC had to offer. Unfortunately though, the engineers doing all the work really didn't see a lot of the money, which given the profitability of the business, just seemed wrong to all of them. So one day they approached the owner, explained the situation, and asked him for a few pieces of the pie. The owner refused. Not long after, that owner arrived at work only to find that most of the people he had employed weren't there. They had in fact left, and started their own engineering firm. Last I heard they were probably one of the best, if not the best, electrical engineering firms in BC, doing far more business than the one they left. That owner is probably sitting there wishing he would have shared some of his pie, which had long since gone cold. Not everything in business is about dollars and cents. A lot of good business is about establishing and keeping relationships. Acquiring a new customer is a great deal of work, but by comparison, keeping an existing customer is fairly simple. So frankly, it's just good business to treat people how they deserve to be treated. Any business that has a model that fundamentally relies on exploiting people or paying people far less than they are worth is flawed in my mind, and subject to future failure or repercussions. I've seen the end result of that time and time again, and it's simply bad business.