Christopher Mackay's Blog

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
but we wouldn’t mind seeing some royalty checks, guv’…

• Kids on Pink Floyd album sue for royalties –cbc.ca

CBC News Morning had a short segment on Hans Albarda of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, today. His solar-powered home isn’t connected to Nova Scotia Power at all, and he wakes up to 21 degrees Celcius on the coldest winter days. Some links:

• Existing Solar Projects in NS (link added Nov 30, 2004)
• SPOTLIGHT ON…Hans Albarda and Cathy Stanley
• A House with Elegant Simplicity
• Informed Solar (Albarda’s consulting firm), listed as supplier on solarns.ca

Links updated Nov. 30.

The Globe and Mail confirms Apple will launch iTMS in Canada this month.

PureTracks.com, meanwhile, claims to offer higher-quality audio and more Canadian artists. When I use my Mac, though, they won’t let me into their site AT ALL; since they use Microsoft’s draconian Windows-only/Windows-forever DRM scheme, I’ll never know. I own a PC, too, but I choose to use my PowerBook.

Nov 30 update: I’ve discovered that PureTracks.com doesn’t let me in with FireFox 1.0 for Windows XP, either. It find it so hard to believe that a company like Microsoft could claim with a straight face that they’re fighting for consumer choice in their battle against the iPod… It’s unfortunate that PureTracks.com buys into this notion.

A few days ago it became impossible to browse the iTunes Music Store from Canada. Now, it’s never been possible for Canadians to purchase from iTMS, but we’ve always been able to browse… (Deep links still work, but you can’t get in the front door.)

Hopefully, this is just in preparation to the announced November launch of the Canadian iTunes Music Store, because there’s a new U2 album I’ve got to be buying, and I don’t want to visit a store to do it.

Nov 26 update: Macintouch posted my letter about this issue. It seems others have been seeing this too, in Canada and Australia. I should also point out that it’s still possible to browse the store by clicking a deep link from a third party site or by using the iTunes search field; they just won’t let us in the front door.

Undeniable, inevitable sign that Christmas is coming; Home Hardware has started advertising their exclusive gimmicky tools. You know the ones; wrenches that can reach around impossible corners, screwdrivers that can remove headless screws, pliers that can balance your checkbook…

Now Canadian Tire will spiral the insanity out of control until December 24th.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has written a book, Inside Out, detailing his years in the band during good times and, er, not-so-good times. According to MOJO magazine, Roger Waters says ‘it’s a good, light read, but he’s surprised there’s not more sex in it’…