Getting my bearings

February 6, 2012

“What did I do with my cone wrench? Though I feel like my hubs are seized lately, I’m actually making progress on several fronts of interest to cyclists. Without giving away all my VeloSecrets, I’ve spent the weekend rolling from one project to another—book editing, bicycle restoration, still photography, video production—all in one way or […]

Read the full article →

Of mollusks, multiple eBook formats, and Monty Python

February 1, 2012

Ariolimax columbianus To say my progress on recently announced projects has been sluggish would be an insult to the greater mollusk phylum. Indeed, the albino banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus) pictured above, who posed seductively for me in the rainforest of Pacific Rim National Park, might have blazed the trail from Bamfield to Tofino in just […]

5 comments Read the full article →

The week’s almost gone, for god’s sake

January 26, 2012

5 am. Insomnia. I awake from a dream of dirty glasses, crayfish, frogs. We have visitors. Will they want to stay, knowing the state of our glassware? We’ve moved houses. Not because we wanted to. Because we had to. We failed to notice the house was within spitting distance of a busy train track. It’s […]

4 comments Read the full article →

First impressions of Apple’s iBooks Author

January 23, 2012

Update, February 8 Responding, it would appear, to the brouhaha surrounding its iBooks Author licence agreement, Apple today released an update for the application, specifically to clarify the intent of the “important note,” which now reads: IMPORTANT NOTE: If you want to charge a fee for a work that includes files in the .ibooks format […]

7 comments Read the full article →

The future is for the birds

January 19, 2012

I awoke this morning to a strangely quiet neighbourhood. The silence was unusual, because I’m usually disturbed—often before I’d like—by footfall, voices, and the more annoying roar of engines. When I cracked the blinds, I discovered a world muffled in white; the snow flurries of Tuesday had turned into a full-blown blizzard, driven by a […]

8 comments Read the full article →

Why should Canadians care about SOPA, eh?

January 18, 2012

Update, February 9 “… lobbyists are turning to Canada through legislation like Bill C-11 and trade agreements called ACTA2 and TPP3 …. behind-the-scenes, Big Media is pushing for powers that include website blocking, Internet termination for people that threaten their business interests, digital locks, and huge threats for sites that host user-generated content (like YouTube).” […]

2 comments Read the full article →