itunes Movie Rentals Comes to Canada Eh!

Today Apple announced that in Canada (and the UK), movie rentals and purchases can now be done through itunes, this is amazing!! The current selection is at 1200; if I wanted to watch Juno, it would cost $4.99 (all prices are in Canadian) to rent, or $19.99 to buy, no more driving to the local Blockbuster!! I think that you have 28 (or 30) days to watch the rental, but if you start watching the movie, you have 2 days to finish it. I haven't actually tried it yet, but when I do I'll post something, although I am really cheep. On another note, as things are moving online, such as music and movies, some of the evil internet providers like Rogers  are starting to place download limits on customers and if they go over this, they have to pay extra, what a bunch of idiots!! Everything is moving online, including the once "desktop" software, I think it is outrageous they are doing this, we all have to fight the power!!

Definitely Buying a Mac!

There has been an executive decision made by me, myself, and I, a Macbook will be purchased sometime this summer for Sheldon Huelin. Today Apple announced the Back to School promo which is very attractive; if you buy a Mac for college, you can get a free ipod nano or touch. There are some restrictions, but basically it applies to students, faculty, and staff and you can get up to a $319 (Canadian) rebate toward the ipod, so you really get an 8GB ipod touch for free. I am definitely going for the ipod touch, woo woo!!

                                Touch the ipod touch

Maybe I'll buy a Mac

I am getting so sick of Microsoft. I own a PC with Windows XP Media Center, its OK, but based on its specs it should be alot faster (2.4 GHZ athlon dual core processor, 2 GB of RAM). My girlfriend has a laptop with Vista, it is totally brutal, it takes about 5 mins to start up, I tried to use a USB memory stick and the computer froze up, absolutely brutal. My experience with apple products has been good. I have a 8 GB ipod shuffle, it is superb, itunes is amazing, and recently I started using Safari, it is super fast. I think I will get a Mac, maybe in August when my birthday rolls around, maybe it will be the new Macbook that hopefully will be announced next week, maybe....

The Price of $Gas$

As you may already know, the price of gas here on the island of Newfoundland went up by 6 cents/liter yesterday, bringing prices in the Avalon region up to 1.20 per liter. As expected, various news stories were done about this, with some people claiming that the larger, 4 x 4 gas guzzlers were a necessity in a Newfoundland winter and not a luxury. I think that statements like these are total BS. I drive a small hatchback 1.6 L car around town, and across the island during the winter months. My driving speed adjusts with the weather, and I have good snow tires, which equals to no accidents. People must move away from the large gas pigs and move onto more fuel efficient vehicles and/or public transportation and/or walking/cycling. They will reduce their impact on the environment and decrease the power of the oil companies. FIGHT THE POWER!!!!

Enjoying an Apple iPod Nano

Once again, Santa was very good to me and brought me an extremely nice present, an iPod nano. This is my first mp3 player, and it is excellent. Throughout the years friends have told me about the excellence of Apple products, now I am finally experiencing it. The iPod nano was extremely easy to setup, itunes was simple to install, and both of them sync superbly. Buying media is a breeze, basically you setup an account and with a few clicks of the button, you can have something purchased. Besides handling music and media, it can store photos, has neat accessories such as a calendar, and can also play some basic games including my all time favorite Sonic the Hedgehog; this will definitely make those long nites in the lab pass by a lot faster. I am so impressed with this product, that I am considering buying an iMac as my next computer. If you are interested in purchasing a mp3/video player, you should definitely take a bite out of this Apple.

Google and Goggle

I was at a "tire store of Canada" today and I saw a package that I thought read clear google, upon a second look it was clear goggle, at this moment I realized that Google had taken over my life. First of all, I absolutely love gmail, if you haven't tried it, you should, it will change your life. Besides having a storage of 2.9 GB, which means you never have to delete your emails, you can access a wide range of Google products. Picassa is a versatile photo editor and is extremely user friendly, photos can be uploaded to the web, and these can be accessed through Gmail. Google Docs can also be accessed within Gmail, and consists of a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentations application. These three are all very basic, but they are done online as opposed to offline which eliminates those nasty file transfers between computers. I usually compose my documents using these three and "spice" them up with other applications. Google Calendar can also be used within Gmail, and is excellent for staying on top of one's busy life. This can be added to Google Desktop to easily see the reminders set for a particular day. Google has many other products (like Google Earth, totally amazing), you should definitely check them out at Google Products, Google is da bomb!!!

Drive-Thru

I can't believe its been over two months since my last blog, I'm a slacker. Anyways, as I was riding home from work on my bicycle this afternoon, I passed by a fast food place (beginning with the letter M and ending with D) and a coffee shop (first word begins with T, second with H), both of these had long lineups for the drive-thru. Two major things wrong with this practice are the burning of soon to be precious gasoline and the release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Gasoline prices are constantly rising, and it is expected by 2012 that supplies will be short, why not save some gasoline and actually walk into the establishment. Earth's average temperature is increasing, which is linked to anthropogenic and natural causes, with increased carbon dioxide levels belonging to the former. This can be minimized by simple things like avoiding drive-thru lineups. Those of you that are pro drive-thru will argue that its faster to get drive thru than park your car, walk into the establishment, and get served. In some cases this is true, but when drive-thru lineups are long, it is actually faster to avoid drive-thru. About 2 weeks ago, I was in the town of Stephenville, NL, and I had seen a large lineup at a local coffee shop. Before the cars at the end of the drive-thru had been served, I had time to walk into the coffee shop, use the washroom, buy a coffee, and return to my car (a 50 mpg beast). Remember, ANTI DRIVE-THRU, ANTI DRIVE-THRU.