Blood Ties

Jeff cut his eye while gardening yesterday; a small branch got behind his glasses. We called his eye doctor, whose office is conveniently only a few blocks away, and she said to come immediately. Looks like Jeff's eye will heal fine. He's wearing a protective contact lens band-aid for now and using eye drops, with a follow-up appointment early next week.

Ugh. I hate the idea of an eye cut. Reminds me of that scene in A Clockwork Orange that always makes me squeamy.

Let's move onto another topic, shall we?

Last night I watched the premiere of "Blood Ties," a new tv show based on Tanya Huff's bestselling Blood Books series. I -love- these books.







Jeff and I don't have cable tv, but our friend Reid was kind enough to record the show for us. Anyway, I loved it. For one thing, it's explicitly set in Toronto. None of this "we're in New York city in this scene even though there's a clearly marked Toronto transit bus stop right behind the main character."

But what I liked most about the show: the characters. Vicki Nelson, for example, is exactly how I imagined her from reading the books: smart, tough yet vulnerable, funny, sexy. I'm SO glad they didn't choose a Pamela Anderson type for the role. I was also very happy to see the great chemistry between the actors who played the two main characters (Christina Cox, who plays Vicki Nelson, and Kyle Schmid, who plays Henry Fitzroy); to have it come through so clearly in the first episode is extremely encouraging for the rest of the series.

Partway through, I switched from "I'm watching a cool show based on books that Tanya wrote!" mode to just "I'm watching a cool show!"



Anyway, you can find out more about Blood Ties at the official site or Tanya's Blood Tales blog, plus she sometimes posts about Blood Ties in her Livejournal. For those in the U.S., you can see Blood Ties on Lifetime TV on Sundays at 10 pm ET/PT. For those in Canada, Blood Ties will be airing on CITY TV starting August. Those in the U.S. (insert envious sigh here) can get episodes from iTunes as well.

I'm interviewing Tanya for an upcoming Inkygirl and Will Write For Chocolate.



Above: ME with the FAMOUS Michelle Sagara West and the FAMOUS Tanya Huff, woohoo!

John Chew has started a Michelle Sagara West Fan Club group on Facebook, by the way, where I have also posted a Heartfelt Poetic Tribute to my friend Michelle. Michelle only found out about the group recently, and her son Daniel posted a message for John to flee while he had the chance.

:-D




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Internet radio: will it survive?

Last night, Pandora Internet Radio started blocking access to Pandora for listeners outside the U.S. because of international licensing constraints. An excerpt from a letter they sent to many Pandora listeners:

"It is difficult to convey just how disappointing this is for us. Our vision remains to eventually make Pandora a truly global service, but for the time being, we can no longer continue as we have been. As a small company, the best chance we have of realizing our dream of Pandora all around the world is to grow as the licensing landscape allows."

This likely won't stop listeners using proxy services, but will inevitably drastically reduce visitors.

Very disappointing. Since Jeff told me about Pandora a while ago, I've been enjoying the benefits, discovering new artists as well as being reminded of old favourites. I don't tend to listen to regular radio anymore, so have been relying on friends and Pandora to introduce me to new music. I've made purchases in music online and offline as a result.

From Techdirt, on the topic:

"It's really depressing to watch the recording industry so consistently shoot itself in the foot, focusing on capturing every immediate dollar, rather than recognizing the ability of using music as free promotion to build up the size of their market."

Catching up on Pandora's blog, I also discovered more about a recent ruling that requires Webcasters to pay a flat rate per song streamed, rather than the traditional percentage of their profits. The change would result in greatly-increased fees for many Internet radio stations.

From this MSN.com article: "The Copyright Royalty Board changed rates from a percentage of revenue to a per-song, per-listener fee - effectively hiking the rates between 300 and 1,200 percent, according to a lawyer representing a group of Webcasters." If the rate goes through, many Web radio stations will shut down, not able to afford the new fees.

On April 26th, the founder of Pandora posted an update. Apparently the outpouring of public support for Pandora and other Internet radio stations resulted in a bill being introduced by U.S. congressmen Jay Inslee and Donald Manzullo: the Internet Radio Equality Act, HR 2060. For more information about the act as well as what you can to help, see SaveNetRadio.

From Nate Anderson of Arstechnica:

"Inslee's bill, the Internet Radio Equality Act, would toss out the Board's decision and return the webcasting industry to a percentage of profits model. In this case, the percentage would be set at the same rate paid by satellite radio, which is 7.5 percent of revenue."

On the topic of increased fees... One question that comes immediately to mind, since those supporting the initial ruling claim that it's helping the artists: how much will artists actually benefit? So far, I've been having trouble finding an answer from a neutral party, so would appreciate feedback from any of you with additional information. Pandora founder, Tim Westergren, says in this article:

"It's disingenuous to say it's better for the artist. With our licensing deal now the royalties we pay go 50/50 to the artist and the label. If the fees increase, stations will enter into direct deals with labels at a discounted rate, but then the entire fee goes to the label and not the artist.""

SoundExchange.com (who supports the increased fees) says:

"Because the bill is so heavily favored to enrich the big webcasters, it raises questions as to who is really behind the SaveNetRadio Coalition. Although this coalition purports to be on the side of musicians, they have come out in support of this anti-artist bill."

In an MSN.com article, however, Ian Rogers of Yahoo! Music (Internet radio leader with 23% of the market's listeners) says:

"SoundExchange is just not dealing with the facts. Internet radio in its entirety is less than a $50 million industry. The amount of money I can make selling ads on my radio product is less than I will pay in royalties."

On May 8th, hundreds of radio stations plan to participate in a "Day of Silence" in support of the cause. It was also announced yesterday that Internet radio broadcasters are getting a two-month extension for paying their new fees.

I'm probably being naive, but I can't help but think that many are underestimating the importance of these Internet radio stations for introducing lesser-known artists and music to those who may be getting tired of mainstream music, or who are at least open to other possibilities. As technology has advanced, more and more people are becoming comfortable with the idea of podcasts and listening to radio via one's computer rather than traditional means. It's difficult to quantify how many of these listeners translate into actual sales, but that doesn't mean the potential benefit should be ignored.

SURVEY:

Do you listen to a Web radio station? If so, which one(s)?

Sources:

SaveNetRadio.org
SoundExchange.com
Radio's Tangled Web (Newsweek)
Internet Radio Equality Act would overturn decision on webcasting fees (Arstechnica)
New Webcasting fees may doom Internet radio (Associated Content)
Pay Per Play: A new royalty scheme for webcasters may shut most of them down. (Chicago Reader)
Paradise to poverty: the fight for I-radio (MediaChannel)
Killing Internet radio, not so softly (Miami New Times)
Net radio sites given more time on royalties
Slashdot discussion (Slashdot)
Internet Broadcasters Get Royalty Deadline Extension (Wired)
Music Industry Continues To Shoot Self In Foot; Forces Pandora To Block Non-US Listeners (Techdirt)




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Throwing hatchets

Above: Me, harassing my 10-year-old niece (who took the photo). She also took the photo below in the same school playground:



As Scott Snyder pointed out in Flickr, apparently "throwing hatchets" is still okay. :-)

Since Jeff installed a firmware update, my laptop stopped its random shutdowns. Yay for Technonerdboys! I've started to finally catch up on all the work and e-mail that has been piling up during various illnesses and technical difficulties over the past three weeks.

Speaking of technonerdboys...



Our friend Parki came for dinner yesterday, and we checked out his new motorcycle:



I made a spicy peanut chicken recipe from The Healthy Slow Cooker by Judith Finlayson which turned out quite well. Tonight I'm making a Turkey and Corn Chowder with Barley (with cumin, jalapeno peppers, other intriguing ingredients) from the same cookbook. I couldn't find packaged boneless turkey, so I bought a bunch of turkey drumsticks and cut off the meat. I did a terrible job and hated to waste all the scraps left on the bones, so I took the scrappy bones and dumped in a pot with water. Right now, they're simmering in a huge pot, hopefully resulting in some yummy turkey broth I can use for other recipes.

Mmm, and the air is fragrant with toasted cumin...

For you filkers out there (or anyone curious about filking), I've been gradually updating my Filk FAQ, with the help of members of the filk community. Most recent addition: What is an 'Interfilk wench'? You browse the full index of questions/answers so far and if you're not sure what filk is, here's an answer. :-)


Bryan and Scott Snyder.



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Grits, backups, and MacBook sudden shutdowns revisited

Last night I made Shrimp'n'Grits, a recipe I adapted from The Healthy Slow Cooker by Judith Finlayson; I could only find instant grits instead of stone-ground, so couldn't use the slow cooker. Still, I was very pleased by how easy it was to make and how good it tasted! The shrimp were in a tomato sauce spiced up a bit with cayenne. I fell in love with grits during a GAfilk weekend, and only recently discovered that grits are known as MILLET here. I've been dying to try the Shrimp'n'Grits recipe ever since I saw it.

A note about The Healthy Slow Cooker, by the way, in case any of you have been considering buying it. I've found these recipes more prep-intensive than other slow cooker cookbooks; Finlayson's book tends to focus more on gourmet cookery than simple standard recipes, but so far I've found the results well worth the prep time.



My friend Craig helped me taste-test my Shrimp'n'Grits as we talked about a creative project he's been working on. We had sugar-free truffles and a small bit of very dark chocolate (99%) for dessert. I even shared some of my carefully hoarded Woodchuck Cider, which I had received in a barter with John Hall for some artwork. I have five (5) bottles left; so far I haven't been able to find any in Canada. One evening I came into the kitchen to find Jeff imbibing in my precious WC but forgave him because I had just dumped some of his precious Innis & Gunn in a slow cooker pot roast recipe.



My MacBook is still shutting down without warning, though Jeff and I seem to be getting closer to a solution. My automated backup, SuperDuper, appears to be linked to the problem, though not the root cause. SuperDuper has been letting me down terribly in recent days, not only failing to work but leaving corrupted backup file images in its wake. Jeff has tried tinkering with it several times, but so far it seems not to like the taste of my MacBook.

The current pattern (what little of it there is, anyway): My MacBook always shuts down a few minutes after I've woken it up after a failed backup. It has also begun shutting down at random times during the day. Sometimes this happens after I've shut down the computer and then restarted it, sometimes after waking it from sleep. Recently, the only way I've been able to start it up again successfully is to remove the battery, replace it, then hold down the power button for a couple seconds longer than normal.



Then Jeff found info about a firmware update posted by Apple that will supposedly fix the problem. Jeff's been away but is coming back today; he's going to try the firmware update tonight. We've been trying to back up my computer beforehand without success, just in case something screws up with the update.

Hope this solution works. But even if it does, I'm still a tad nervous. From an Information Week article: "As an Apple Tech, I can confirm that this is simply ignoring a bigger issue. I have seen first hand dozens and dozens of MacBooks with the thermal sensor wires melted to the side of the heatsink. Though this may be a nice temporary fix to get people up and running, I really hope that Apple is not encouraging this as true fix."



I spent much of yesterday dragging files to an external drive for backup. I also signed up for a .Mac account. I'm using the Synch feature as a painless way of backing up my contacts, calendar, and bookmarks; this will also enable me to easily access this info from any computer with a browser and Internet connection. I've also been forwarding any important e-mails, like work-related correspondence, I'll need again later) to that e-mail address. I have a Gmail account, but I can't drag and drop files the way I can in my Mac.com account, plus since it's my main public account I get a lot of non-essential "noise" e-mail. I'm not posting my Mac.com e-mail address anywhere, and am only going to use it for archiving specific e-mails. I've also started using the Backup feature, and will also set up some automated backups. I'm assuming I'll still be using SuperDuper eventually, but this gives me an extra net.

All this has gotten me thinking a lot harder about how I'd cope if my laptop were suddenly taken away from me (stolen, stopped working, etc.) but also what I'd do if the house burned down. The logical solution would be to always keep a copy of your backups off-site, but how many of us -- the ones who have to do our own backups at home, that is -- really do this? I think I've copied stuff on CDs and given them to my sister once, a long time ago. Realistically, I know I'm going to be too lazy to do this regularly. It's one reason I've started sending important files and correspondence to my Mac.com account, which is hosted elsewhere.

A SURVEY:

This survey is geared to those who do their own backups...

How many of you do regular backups?

Do you keep these backups in your home or off-site? e.g. If your house/apartment burned down, would any of your computer data be saved?

Related links:

Appledefects.com: MacBook: Reading through this Wiki entry is both unnerving but informative. The first item on the "Resolved Problem" list is Random Shutdowns: "There have been reports of random and inappropriate shut downs, in the midst of doing typical computer tasks. After the random shut down, the MacBook frequently has trouble turning back on, and sometimes will repeat the random turn offs frequently enough to render the MacBook completely unusable (turning off every few minutes, for example)." It suggests a possible workaround is to press and hold the power button for about 15 seconds until you hear a loud beep.

Macbook Random Shutdown: Yes, someone actually registered MacBookRandomShutdown.com! From the About page:" "My wife's new 2.0 Ghz Macbook with 1GB of factory installed RAM just started randomly shutting down. What a pain! I started this site to discuss the issue. Is this happening to anyone else?"

Possible fixes for a MacBook Pro sudden shutdown issue: This fellow temporarily solved his problem by switching batteries with a coworker several times. He also drained the battery by leaving his machine unplugged and asleep, waking it and watching it do its sudden shutdown thing a few minutes later, then plugging in the machine and rebooting it, closing the lid and letting it sit unplugged for a few more hours. Whew.

Link O' The Day

Thanks to Jim Bowlin for the following:

"Since you have an interesting relationship with squirrels, Andrea suggested that I send this to you with the directive to think Marshmallow Squirrels:

Marshmallow Bunny Apocalypse"



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