Directed by Tim & Eric
•Justin Trudeau relives boxing breakthrough after Sun TV low blows
Has Trudeau resigned in disgrace yet? Oh, wait…
Four Years Later, the Scars of the G20 Persist
Oh, just a journalist who was beaten by police for no reason while standing in a “Free Speech Zone” in Toronto during the G20. No big deal.
How the hell did Vizio make a $999 4K TV?
By making it cheaper – stupid modern headlines. But still, that’s cheap!
Apple Watch Hands-On: The Wristwatch Just Caught Up To The 21st Century | aBlogtoWatch
back to the void
EMA does a sort of HTML director’s commentary track about her most recent album, The Future’s Void.
This is Tanya Tagaq’s performance at Polaris this year. She also gave a controversial acceptance speech but man, that performance is something else. (UPDATE: If the link goes to the beginning of the Polaris awards show, her bit is at 3 hrs 22 mins.)
•Gridlocked: how incompetence, pandering and baffling inertia have kept Toronto stuck in traffic
Some good examples of transit/road boondoggles in the T-dot – completely torpedoed by the inclusion of the Spadina Expressway with Jane Jacobs as a villain (because she set a precedent for politicians to ignore planners). Really? It would have been better to bulldoze Forest Hill, the Annex, Chinatown, Kensington and Queen West? To follow disgraced planning theory from the 50s that everyone now knows was disastrous? Just so some commuters wouldn’t have to wait to turn off the Allen Road? Toronto Life: again with the trolling.
Why Now for Apple Watch
What Ben Thompson (and John Gruber) are saying is that if the watch is simply an accessory to an iPhone, it’s got problems. And there is some evidence that this is the case, especially the lack of a cell modem. However, both Thompson and Gruber think the watch is best understood as a standalone device – a computer on your wrist.
It’s interesting that the watch is appearing alongside the iPhone 6 Plus, which sounds like a very good companion to it – big enough to be more of a tablet, but also opening up an opportunity for something smaller and easier to get at.
Sticker campaign shames drivers parked in cycling lanes
Toronto-native campaign has spread across the globe. If only bike lane parking enforcement was somehow possible, this wouldn’t need to happen.
Time Enough At Last?
Ask MeFi thread on jobs with 90% downtime. Sounds like a lot of night security.
Does the CRTC Have the Power Regulate Online Video?: Internet Companies Set to Challenge Its Authority
Michael Geist gives a good backgrounder on what’s been happening during the latest CRTC hearing, where Netflix and Google don’t seem to agree that they have to do what the CRTC says.
How everything went wrong for Olivia Chow – The Globe and Mail
Occupy group buys, then cancels nearly $4 million of student debt
Kindle Voyage Touch Screen E-Reader with Light
Oooo, new Kindle e-ink model with a higher-res display. Looks pretty boss.
Doctor prepares to give update on Rob Ford’s health
Rumour has it that the news is bad. And then there are the conspiracy theories.
TekSavvy could be looking into launching a cable service in Canada
Daring Fireball: Apple Watch: Initial Thoughts and Observations
Astute:
[I don’t think] Apple Watch in particular is what Apple thinks was “historic” about last week’s event. Rather, I think Apple Watch is the first product from an Apple that has outgrown the computer industry. Rather than settle for making computing devices, they are now using computing technology to make anything and everything where computing technology — particularly miniature technology — can revolutionize existing industries… Apple Watch isn’t merely Apple’s foray into the watch industry — it’s their foray outside the computer/consumer electronics industry. I think they’re just getting started.
I really do hope the steel one doesn’t cost a grand though. It better be Valyrian steel at those prices.
Destiny
I am a huge Bungie fan, having loved their games since Marathon in the 90s. And I was a big Halo player – I’m not in a frat and I don’t like cursing at complete strangers over the internet, but I did like playing it with my pals, for a time. So it’s almost inconceivable that I’m not planning on buying Bungie’s latest game, Destiny.
The reviews are not good. Back when I was really into console games, it bothered me that almost every heavily-marketed AAA game title got review scores in the 90s. And here we are with one of the most expensive games ever made and the reviews are floundering in the 70s. Here’s one bad review from Giant Bomb, here’s one from Polygon. Surprising!
But more than that really, I’m just not playing console games at the moment and am reluctant to spend $70+ on something I’m not sure I’ll play. I have a small child and that means I only get a couple of hours of contiguous leisure time per day. Plus I DEFINITELY don’t like paying that kinda scratch, because my media consumption is spread thinly across a lot of different things: a bunch of shows, movies, iPad games, and books. Paying $70 on one thing feels like I want it to monopolize my attention, which I don’t want. Besides that, neither shooter nor MMO lies close to my games-taste wheelhouse these days (if it was a turn-based pixel-art WWII space conquest 4X, I’d be out-innovating 8-bit Space Hitler right now, not writing this crap).
Still, it seems slightly sad to not be playing it.
Remove iTunes gift album “Songs of Innocence” from your iTunes music library and purchases
“my various document libraries, and especially my iTunes library, are sacred. You DO NOT touch them. If I entrust them to your cloud service, you double-triple especially DO NOT touch them.”
Maybe mail the gift to people instead of breaking into people’s houses and hiding it there.
The CRTC's Future of Television Hearing Turns Into The Netflix Show
Michael Geist:
How did a company that scarcely garnered a mention only five years ago come to be the industry’s chief concern? Recent data released by the CRTC indicates that 30 per cent of English-speaking Canadians subscribed to the service in 2013, a remarkable success story for a company that started with no subscribers and an untested streaming video model in the fall of 2010.
A disappointing end to the operatic tale of Mayor Rob Ford
“ it’s the equivalent of Luke Skywalker’s final confrontation with Darth Vader never happening because he got taken out by a lucky shot from a random Storm Trooper.”
I'm leaving Mojang
Notch’s comments on the heels of the $2.5-billion sale to Microsoft.
Mayor Rob Ford’s rehab clinic also does cancer detection
The rumour I heard was that they discovered a benign tumour in May.
Rob Ford dropping out of Toronto mayoral race
And Doug apparently running instead.