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Why the HST is a Labour Issue I don’t usually post about taxation or provincial politics (do I?). But being one of a sizeable community of technology workers (and workers in many other industries) who are required by law to charge 12% tax instead of 5% tax to customers/clients as of today, I felt that it was really important to correct the [...]

and now on to something else I just formally completed my comprehensive exams. The oral defense was held today, I passed, and now I’m officially ABD (all but dissertation). This is the other side I said I’d see you on. I think the defining harrowing thing about comprehensive/qualifying exams is that they come to us (1) without precedent (most of us [...]

Dateline 8 May 2010 Fortunately there is much going on this weekend to keep my attention away from books and the start of the summer semester next week (& fortunately my prep is all done!). The Stone Soup Festival is happening today, the sun is out, and everyone’s in great spirits! I had hoped to attend Northern Voice this [...]

jumping ship I’ve left Facebook for good. In recent weeks I shed applications, then later removed most of my data (photos, posts, etc.), with each surreptitious nudge that they’ve given us in their relentless quest to end privacy. Previously I was irritated with the constant change in Privacy Policies on FB, but now I’m finding the tradeoff [...]

The Work Of Purification So personal stuff came to a head early in 2010. Must be something in the stars, or the numerology of it, but right smack dab in the middle of the 2010 Olympics (and right smack dab in the middle of my exams), I’ve had to review everything in my life going back 7 years, and [...]

Dance Music Blog

DMb Podcast 024 : Foamo – FAT! Club Mix (feat: Lee Mortimer, LA Riots, Tiga, Bookashade) Free DJ Mix Download Kye Gibbon aka Foamo, the 22 year old DJ/Producer from High Wycombe, UK has quickly risen to superstar status with his remixes and productions for some of the top artists in Dance Music. Foamo can be found all over the UK and Europe, and has toured Australia, America & Canada along with many guest [...] Related posts: DMb Podcast 017 : Utah Saints Live UK (feat: Foamo, Wolfgang Gartner, A-Trak) DMb Podcast 015 : Kissy Sell Out on DMb (feat Aphrodite, Aphex Twin, Steve Aoki, The XX, Kissy Sell Out)

DMb Podcast 023 : Le Castle Vania – Bulletproof Tiger Mixtape (feat: Wolfgang Gartner, GRUM, Toxic Avenger, Nosia, Boys Noize) Atlanta based and internationally known, Le Castle Vania, commonly known as Dylan Eiland, quickly escaped the local trappings of his hometown in Georgia to play music around the world. Atlanta’s burgeoning music scene allowed him to develop his passion for music and nightlife, and he soon gained notoriety with his riotous DJ sets and penchant [...] Related posts: DMb Podcast 017 : Utah Saints Live UK (feat: Foamo, Wolfgang Gartner, A-Trak) DMb Podcast 019 : djCITRIK – Ghouls, Ghosts & Ninjas (feat: Wolfgang Gartner, Miles Dyson, Herve)

DMb Podcast 022 : Treasure Fingers – 2010 Mix (feat: Nightriders, Empire of the Sun, Groove Armada, Little Boots, Don Diablo) Hailing from Atlanta, transplanted to NYC, DJ and producer Ashley Jones aka Treasure Fingers has been making it rain in the Disco with innovative remixes and original tracks. Jones is far from a new jack, having racked up over a decade of international club experience and studio chops as part of the legendary drum & [...] Related posts: DMb Podcast 020 : Punks Jump Up Promo Mix (feat: Crookers, Junkie XL, Treasure Fingers, Yelle) DMb Podcast 023 : Le Castle Vania – Bulletproof Tiger Mixtape (feat: Wolfgang Gartner, GRUM, Toxic Avenger, Nosia, Boys Noize)

DMb Podcast 021 : Torin on DMb (feat: Marc Romboy, Umek, Thee-O, Spencer &Hill) Torin Schmitt from Los Angeles, California and Berlin, Germany has become the DJ that LA goes to when it needs a Top 100 caliber DJ for a lineup. In addition to supporting all of the World’s top DJs when in town he also holds many club nights on his own in LA and around [...] Related posts: DMb Podcast 018 : Jody Wisternoff – Intensified 10 (feat: Way Out West, Mike Monday, Friendly Fires) DMb Podcast 016 : MyKill – Pleasure & Pressure Mixtape (feat Laberge, Daft Punk, Le Principle)

DMb Podcast 020 : Punks Jump Up Promo Mix (feat: Crookers, Junkie XL, Treasure Fingers, Yelle) Starting out throwing parties in east London in 2004, they quickly moved on to making music because there weren’t enough tunes around that sounded like what they wanted to hear at the time. Their first 12â€� came out in 2004 “Be You (Beep Beep)” on their own label Cassette Records which built up a [...] Related posts: DMb Podcast 022 : Treasure Fingers – 2010 Mix (feat: Nightriders, Empire of the Sun, Groove Armada, Little Boots, Don Diablo) DMb Podcast 014 : Peo de Pitte – Promo Mix

Podcasting News

You Have The Right To: 1). Rip &Remix DVDs. 2). Jailbreak Your iPhone. 3). Use Your Phone With Any Carrier You Want. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today announced that it has won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today. You now have the right to: Rip and remix DVDs for non-commercial purposes; Jailbreak your iPhone, or other cell phone, and load up any apps you want; and Use your iPhone, or other cell phone, [...]

YouTube Intros New Video Embed Format, Replacing Flash With HTML 5 YouTube has announced a new option for video embeds, designed to support HTML 5 and to fall back to Flash where HTML 5 is not supported. According to YouTube, “If you use the new embed code style, your viewers will be able to view your embedded video in one of our Flash or HTML5 players, depending [...]

Music Video Shot On An iPhone 4 flakjakt (Steve Fallows) calls his Cascades music video the “first official iPhone 4 music video”. There are rivals to that title, but at least this is the first one with hipsters and flamenco dancers. Fallows says: In a fun weeklong experiment, my friend Marty and I collaborated on this video for an original song I wrote specifically [...]

Make Your Own iPhone 4 Steadicam iPhone 4 video quality is great for a phone – but is limited by the fact that light hand-held video cameras deliver shaky video. While Tiffen has announced an iPhone Steadicam, you can also build your own. This video, by Spencer S. Watson, demonstrates how he built a DIY iPhone Steadicam out of a modified Nerf gun [...]

Podcast Audience Now Half Of Internet Radio Audience Audio podcasts now reach about half as many people as Internet radio. Accoding to a new survey of Internet users, 31% listen to radio via the Internet and 16% listen to podcasts.

Topix P2P Headline

Musicians doing it for the music P2P:- The Beatles and the British Invasion prove there's a huge appetite for music amongst the baby boomers.

Victory for Vidders P2P:- Now the dust has settled on the long-awaited announcement of new DMCA circumvention exemptions, it's time for an explanation of what they will do for consumers and creators, writes Corynne McSherry in an important EFF post.

Owings man arrested, charged with distributing child porn An Owings man was arrested for distribution of child pornography after numerous files containing child pornography videos and images were allegedly posted on a peer-to-peer networking website from his laptop computer.

First Wikileaks, now Facebook. Is this the death of privacy? The parallels between the Wikileaks saga and the openness of Facebook's user data are striking.

TalkTalk admits secretly monitoring users P2P:- Britain's TalkTalk ISP talks itself up as a Noble Defender of the Great Online Unwashed.

Torrent Freak

Police Keep Their Word, Shut Down File-Sharing Sites Following high level talks with the IFPI and very public declarations on national TV, it recently became clear that Bulgarian authorities would start taking down torrent sites and other file-sharing services. This week the Ministry of Affairs has been busy targeting what it describes as a "criminal network" of file-hosting services which allegedly generated more than $3 million.

U.S. Copyright Group ‘Steal’ Competitor’s Website The U.S. Copyright Group (USCG) has been all over the news in recent months. The lawyer group sued thousands of BitTorrent users who allegedly file-shared motion pictures belonging to their clients, including the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker. However, it turns out that USCG are not copyright purists either, as they have blatantly copied the website of a competitor without permission.

uTorrent Web Now Available on iPad and Android After adding support for the iPhone last month, BitTorrent Inc. has now made the remote access 'Web' feature of its uTorrent Falcon client compatible with the iPad and Android devices. uTorrent users can now remotely control their downloads from wherever they are on their favorite mobile device.

BitTorrent Releasers Are The New Kids On The Piracy Block For many years movies have been released onto the Internet, trickling down the so-called 'piracy pyramid' from elitist and private sites. Now a new breed of release groups are starting to make waves, bringing media directly to the masses. Today we take a closer look at this scene and speak to groups on the frontline to see what makes them tick.

Finnish ISPs to Warn Pirating Customers Following in the footsteps of the UK, Finland is preparing a new piece of legislation that will make it mandatory for Internet providers to warn customers who download music and movies without consent from copyright holders. The proposal is meant to cut down piracy in Finland but both pro and anti-piracy outfits have their doubts abouts its potential effectiveness.