the pod bay door

:: The Copyright Board of Canada ruled on Friday that downloading peer-to-peer music files is legal, although uploading them is illegal. More information is available under “Private Copying 2003-2004“, on the Canadian Copyright Board web site.

:: According to Rolling Stone, a magazine that was once relevant in the world of music, here are the top RS 500 albums of all time. On this page you can take a quiz, check out videos associated with the albums, and debate who else should be on the list.

:: Jenny, my favorite NYC blogger, reflects on modern music as she turns 23, and then celebrates three days later when she sees her all-time fave band, Duran Duran, perform in Atlantic City. Her musical observations are worth the read.

:: How Much Information? 2003:

How much new information is created each year? Newly created information is stored in four physical media – print, film, magnetic and optical – and seen or heard in four information flows through electronic channels – telephone, radio and TV, and the Internet. This study of information storage and flows analyzes the year 2002 in order to estimate the annual size of the stock of new information recorded in storage media, and heard or seen each year in information flows. Where reliable data was available we have compared the 2002 findings to those of our 2000 study (which used 1999 data) in order to describe a few trends in the growth rate of information.

:: Congrats to Jena and Colin, because they love CKUA, and now CKUA loves them too.

:: I would like to use this space to give thanks for the gift of good friends, i.e., people who care about you.

:: I saw The Matrix Revolutions today. It is fun to watch and confusing as hell. The effects are at times overpowering, and the dialogue as offbeat and odd as in the other two movies. There is not as much martial arts this time around, and yes, the story does resolve itself. At least twice in the movie I wanted the reel to stop, rewind, and play again so I could try to understand what just happened. I did notice that most of the people in the audience were guys in baseball caps, and when they were in groups of two or more, all sat with an empty seat between each of them.

:: A report and review of The Beatles’ forthcoming, Let It Be…Naked, from the Globe and Mail’s James Adams.

:: I was not surprised to learn that NBC canned Coupling after four episodes (although the website says it’s returning in December.) Despite the fact that the scripts were almost word-for-word equal to the originals used in the British series, the Americans couldn’t seem to capture the Brits’ sensibilities, timing and delivery.

:: Microsoft has created a $5 million US fund to help track and convict virus creators.

:: Napster announced a deal on Thursday with Penn State University, in which students are given access to music funded by student fees, thereby reducing the number of illegal downloads. However, some of the students are criticizing the deal, saying it is an inappropriate use of their student fees.
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:: Do you think you know your (somewhat obscure) album covers? Take this test.

:: ConsumerSearch is a portal site, linking readers to consumer product reviews. It also provides reviews of the reviews, as it were, ranking them “according to how well they identify the category’s best products”.

:: Regarding Neil Postman, I was a day ahead of the news of his passing reaching at least one major internet site. The NYTimes published a lengthy obit today. Surprisingly, there is still no mention of his death on the NYU site.

:: Last August, I made mention of ManPop, a rock festival held in Winnipeg in what I thought was 1971. My friend in Minneapolis, Garth Danielson, sent a link to the 1970 Led Zeppelin tour list, and under August 29th, is the Man Pop Festival. So ManPop was in 1970, not 1971. Thanks for the correction, G.

:: I’ve made small progress with my workouts and nutrition program. I’ve tipped the scales down about four pounds since I turned up the intensity of the workouts a couple weeks ago, while continuing close monitoring of my food intake on a number of levels.

:: Remember Tears for Fears, and how they wanted to rule the world and shout, shout, let it all out? Principal members Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal are have reunited recently, after 13 years. After Smith left in 1990, Orzabal kept the name of band going, releasing a couple of albums in the 1990s under the TFF banner, but ostensibly those were solo albums. The band has signed with Arista to release a new album in Spring, 2004. The album will be called Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. (And this really isn’t new news: here’s an interview with Orzabal from July 15, 2003, that mentions the reunion (requires Real Player). More details here as well.

:: Among the many interviews given by Al Franken, here’s an interesting one conducted by Steven Waldman, EiC of Beliefnet, a multi-faith web site of no particular religious affiliation. (From: Derryl.)