Broken iPhoneOriginally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson

I’ve blogged here about the iPhone before, so with the big announcement earlier today I figured an updating on what’s going on might be in order. So after the jump is all that we know about the iPhone, as of today. I’ll give you a few credentials before the jump and two disclaimers.

I’ve covered the cellular industry as a tech writer for the past several years for publications like IGN.com, The Kelowna Daily Courier and eVent! magazine. I’ve owned an Apple computer since the Apple IIe, and have an unlocked iPhone from the US which I’ve managed to break twice (see picture above). I am currently employed by a Rogers Wireless dealer, so that while I do not work directly for Rogers I am not fully neutral either. I also own shares in Apple, but not enough that I’m going to totally lie to you so that I can retire to my own personal island.

And now the iPhone. (more…)

If you’ve been online in Canada today you might be excused for thinking that everyone on the internet has just had some sort of brain aneurysm as every blog you’ve checked, every news story at the top of your Gmail account and every email in your mailbox seems to be stuck on the fact that next year the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation might not use the same theme for Hockey Night In Canada that it’s used since the 1960s’ [rc].

From Reuters:

“The tune, which has opened the Canadian Broadcasting Corp’s Saturday night National Hockey League broadcasts since the late 1960s, will not be renewed as the broadcaster has chosen to move in a new direction…”

The best blog post out there that I’ve seen on it is from Miss604 [m604].

Let’s face it though, this is one of those things that people are going to get upset about for a few months and then forget about totally once a new song is used. After a few years with we’ll forget about it altogether because we’ve always been at war with Eurasia. Speaking of which wouldn’t it be nice if people got this fiery about poverty, Canadian troops in Afghanistan or the national debt?

I like the song as much as the average hockey fan, but please if I’ve not heard from you since we graduated high school I’m not interested in joining your damn Facebook group to save it.

Update: Buzz Bishop has a blog post on the subject that points out that nothing is official yet, and maybe we as a nation should just take a pill [bb].

Former chef Anthony Bourdain is famous around foodie circles both for his books, the most notable being Kitchen Confidential, and the niche he’s carved for himself as a travel food journalist with his show No Reservations which is shown on the Travel Channel down in the States. The most talked about shtick on the show is when Bourdain will eat something stomach turning, presenting audiences with a reality television version of the monkey brains scene from Temple of Doom.

Vancouver seems an odd destination for the show, since it’s neither one of the major food capitals of the world nor a place where one is likely to find something quite so unusual as a cobra heart like he ate in Vietnam. Still our city was one of the destinations for the show on this season, and while you won’t find it on Canadian television thanks to YouTube we can watch the episode online (for now).

I’ve said before that having outsiders come to Vancouver is a great way to get a new perspective on the city, and see just how much other people appreciate what we have there. Granted some of the eating that he does in the episode is way beyond a lot of people’s pocket books (mine included) but it’s still a great indication of what we have in our city.

The first three parts of the episode after the jump.

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You must know about WordPress. It is the leading blog software and also a terrific free blog hosting site. To get the software (which is all Open Source) go wordpress.org but then you will need to find a web host but you will have all sorts of options. A more limited but much easier way to start blogging is go to WordPress.com which is how I started. It is also where we do the Vancouver MetBlog.

A few months ago at the Northern Voice conference on blogging, the WordPress session was over subscribed, so a special boot camp for bloggers is being held here next week.

It’s on Wednesday April 30th at 5.30-8.30pm at The Network Hub 3rd floor - 422 Richards Street.

Here’s a list of topics and presenters:

Adding photos [flickr, permissions, links, gallery plugins, badges] to your WordPress blog. Rebecca Bollwitt

The Joys of Amateur Blogging. Bruce Byfield

How to make money using a WordPress Blog. John Chow

Blogging & Social Media. Monica Hamburg.

WordPress for total website development. Jeff Kee

Good Typography in WordPress. Greg Andrews

Using WordPress to create a custom library, catalog, or other mashup-type site. Kulpreet Singh

WordPress and mobile blogging - i.e. how to read and write from an iPhone. Duane Storey

h/t Pete Quily

According to Jeffery, I’m rich since I’m at this event. Sweet. I had no idea. I’ll go to the bank and inform them of this turn of events.

This morning’s keynote speaker was Matt Mullenweg - creator of Wordpress and serious spam hater. He’s a great speaker and pointed out how facebook ripped off the wordpress design. Also, did you consider getting invites on facebook spam? I never thought of it before today, but in Matt’s opinion, it certainly is. I would have to agree, but I don’t mind that kind of spam as it’s coming from my mother-in-law mostly. And who doesn’t like to get a facebook poke?

After Matt’s talk, I sat in Dave Olson’s session called “F&*% Stats, Make Art. He’s clever and funny. Dave’s big into the podcast side as well. I also spoke to him briefly after he spoke - very gracious.

I’m not sure what I’m going to blog about next. I have been very preoccupied with this event. So, now what?

Well, I’m here! And I managed to figure out how to log onto wifi with my old school lap top. Wow. Is it ever OLD. I’m very aware of this as I am surrounded by all types of gear heads and computer gear enthusiasts. I’ve attended one un-lecture/great big discussion about wikis and have added myself to the Northern Voice’s Wiki for the photo camp happening after lunch today.

So far I’ve run into Isabella, Jan and David - all local bloggers and I think I’ll add their blogs to the local blog-off tournament. I also met one blogger from New York who came to Vancouver specifically for this conference. Cool, no?

The location is excellent - the Forestry Building is beautiful and open and with the sun streaming in through the glass ceiling? This is a great venue.

Sadly, I’m unable to upload pictures at the moment as the camera cable is sitting on my desk at home. But there’s always tomorrow and there’s always Rebecca’s Blog. She’s ALL geared up.

From Wayan for Metroblogging DC:

Get your XO-1 geek on with VBCXO!

Have you heard about the One Laptop Per Child program? An effort to distribute “$100 laptops” to the world’s children, empowring learning with technology ona global scale? Would you like to see the XO laptop up close and personal?

Then join the VBCXO User Group for its February Meetup. Canadians are just now getting their hands on XO laptops after reminding OLPC that G1G1 Canadians Are Humans, With Kids Too, and the excitement to mesh is palatable.

VBCXO User Group February Meetup
A fun discussion and discovery of One Laptop Per Child technology for the whole kids to geeks XO-loving family.

Saturday, February 16
4:00 - 7:00pm
ShaShuka Art Gallery and Eatery
6555 Fraser St - map
Vancouver, BC

We’ll have Wayan Vota, editor of OLPC News leading the conversation, plenty of XO’s to play with, an even XO-related prizes!

Since I started blogging in 2005, I’ve often thought about attending one of the big blogging conventions - like the ones in the States that Dooce goes to with Mightygirl. I envied the bloggers that were invited to go to Amsterdam, like The Pink is the New Blog guy. I really wanted to go events like this and never thought about looking around for anything locally. I noticed last year that there was a blogging conference right here in my hometown called the Northern Voice, but I’d missed it. Ensuring that I would never miss something like this again, I made sure to bookmark the site and waited for the updated info to arrive. And it has! I got an alert on facebook letting me know that it’s time to register.

Through a series of events and thanks to facebook (Again!) I worked up the courage to contact one of the organizers, Kris Krug, to get more information so I could post about this on the Metroblogger. It sure looks like we could use a few more authors for our site, so perhaps this may help us in that recruiting process.

Kris provided me with a great overview of the event. This will be the fourth year running and it is not considered a technical event, but focused more on content. Topics discussed include getting a blog started, personal blogging and all kinds of blog and podcast related information sessions. It’s also described as being friendly and casual - just how I like it. And affordable - it’s $60 for both days - or if you can only make it one day, it’s $40. Follow this link for more information or if you’re interested in registering.

I’ll be posting a few more times before the event with updates on speakers, topics and other related news. I’ll also be attending the event, taking some photos there and will write up a summary after. I can hardly wait! This is going to be good.

I really dig last.fm [lf] because I’m a statistic nerd with iTunes anyway, and last.fm builds on that and allows me to be even dorkier. It’s also a good way to listen to the music I like on the stripped down Windows legacy machines that I have to deal with at work that we’re lucky that we can get to run a web browser.

It’s also a great way to find new music based on the rythm of its logic, and the suggestions of those people who enjoy the same sort of music I do. There’s even a group for users based in Vancouver [lf] that locals can join. If you’re on last.fm and want to friend me you can hit my profile up here [lf] and laugh at my complete lack of indie cred.

If you’re a Vancouverite on last.fm and want to let people you here know what you’re profile is feel free to post it below, and don’t forget to join the Vancouver users group [lf].

iphone

Originally uploaded by shapeshift.

Hey bloggers, want some quick hits on your blog? Then just do the following, claim that the iPhone is about to be released in Canada and reuse the same fake ad that’s been floating around the internet for the past six months. I noticed a significant pickup in the number of people coming through the store asking about the iPhone the last few days and it appears that once again bloggers have faked a story saying Rogers is about to get it and that stores are taking pre-orders.

That’s completely untrue. I’d link to one of the blogs but a) I don’t want to give them the traffic since they’re just link bait, b) the site that I found it on keeps crashing my browser which is always a testament to poor web design.

If the iPhone was coming this year it would already be announced and on store shelves for Christmas. When/if it does come to Canada you’ll hear about it, and not just through bloggers that nobody has seen before, it’s not like either Rogers or Apple are media shy, they’re not going to sneak it onto the shelves without telling anyone. My guess is that the earliest we’d see it is Feb-March after Macworld. It’s possible that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will roll out the next set of nations ready for iPhone-age during his keynote address, but I am pretty sure that we won’t see it before then.

Still now all you new bloggers have the secret weapon to getting hits. Please use it wisely.