To get on to why I hate Bill C32 is because of the whole digital lock problem. The bill does allow some more rights to people like allowing you to format shift music from CD’s to your MP3 player. It does not allow people to format shift video from DVD. Now the politicians will say it does as long as there is no digital lock. Since 98% of DVD produced these days have digital locks that does not leave many DVD’s that you can format shift to your iPod, Android phone, laptop, netbook etc.\

There is also another problem. I use Linux as my main operating system. I have a Windows computer that still runs Windows XP that we use as a family computer, but Linux is what I use most. Some of the things I use Linux for include playing DVD’s, backing up our DVD’s and you guessed it, format shifting content from my DVD’s to the computer to play using my Western Digital HD Live. All of those things will soon make me a criminal. The main reason is because Linux has to use something called DeCSS to decode a DVD because the DVD CCA will not provide a license for free software players.

Any rights that Bill C32 gives people are gone as soon as you break a digital lock. By playing a DVD on my Linux computer I am a criminal. By backing up one of the DVD’s I bought, I am a criminal for one breaking the lock on my Linux computer and then by copying it to my computer in a different format. Then to format shift that same content onto my Android phone, or play on my laptop I am a criminal. I never set out to be a criminal, and I am sure that the majority of people under 35 (I would say 40 but I like to think I am special ) will probably be with me. Even if they don’t use Linux if people want to format shift video they will need to break a digital lock on their DVD’s to copy and move the data.

Looking at what the US is like after Twelve Years under the DMCA it seems like we should be able to learn a lesson from them. Instead of passing laws like the DMCA in Canada lets actually look forward to creating a copyright law that will actually help instead of making us all criminals for doing things we are still going to do if the law passes.

While the media player has a couple of USB ports to plug USB drives into the unit the real selling point for me was the wired network port. A wireless network adapter would have been great, but running a network cable into the family room was not a big deal and it means a faster connection. Once the unit was plugged into the network and my a/v receiver I was quickly able to browse my network.

Using the media player has been easy. It has played every media format I have tried to play on it so far. Everything from Xvid Avi files, 3gp video files recorded from my phone, to complete .iso backup files of our DVD’s. Streaming the data from my desktop has been no problem. No lag, jerkiness or delay. Most of my music is either MP3 or Ogg format and both have played flawlessly. Photos have been great to browse through. No problems looking through them at all.

I have only really tried the YouTube feature of the media player. It plays the content well enough, but finding the content on YouTube takes some patience to enter a search term since you only have a simple remote control to enter characters with. I have not tried option to browse Flickr photos yet. Pandora and the other Internet radio options are not really possible here in Canada.

If you are looking for a media player take a look at the Western Digital HD Live Media Player. I am very please with it and can see getting a lot of use from it. I got mine on sale from Memory Express with free shipping. That saved me around $10.00 in shipping. Not bad considering it was also the best priced at $119.00. The fact that it showed up on my doorstep the next day was a real bonus. If Memory Express does not have it on sale anymore you can also find it at TigerDirect.

Went to the Majestic Car Show on Saturday. I am not the most mechanical person in the world but I do appreciate how much time and energy people put into their cars. I have always had a soft spot for old Thunderbirds. Think they were my favourites.

Went to see the Barenaked Ladies last night here in Regina. Had a great time! Snapped this picture during “If I had a Million Dollars”. Been enjoying their new album. Lots of great tunes.

Just before Christmas I was browsing through the Walmart seasonal section and noticed way up on a shelf a whole rack full of Char-Broil BigEasy infrared cookers with a price tag around $55.00. I grabbed my cell phone and did a quick search for some reviews to see what the deal was with these cookers and why they might be so cheap. The majority of reviews looked good and the price was certainly right, so I went to customer service to get someone to help me get one down and I walked out with one.

Fast forward to Easter and I finally put it all together and got it ready to cook our Easter turkey. I am happy to report that this was a great purchase! Our turkey took roughly two hours to cook and it tasted absolutely incredible! It was nice and crispy on the outside and the inside was juicy and tender. It could possibly be the best turkey we have ever cooked. My wife is making a list of other foods to try in it over the summer.

Not only did the turkey turn out great it made the whole neighbourhood smell delicious. I am sure our neighbours mouths were watering the whole time it was cooking. We might have to invite some of the neighbours over for a turkey so they can find out how good it is.

Cleanup was also easy. I let the cooker run for a little while after the turkey was out to cook off what ever was still in the bottom. The cooking basket fit in the dishwasher and was washed up with the rest of the dishes. Certainly much easier to clean up than cooking the turkey in the over in a roaster.

We can’t wait to try other things in our Char-Broil Big Easy. It was certainly worth the $55.00 or so dollars I paid for it around Christmas time. Still not sure why it was so cheap but if you can find one at that price I highly suggest you pick one up. It will make the best turkey you have ever tasted. Even at over $100.00 that Amazon has it on sale for it is worth the price.

You might notice that she says “Erita” in stead of “Erica”. She is just starting to learn how to create the back K and G sounds.

Been having a lot of frost lately. Thought it made the Legislature building look nice.

Here is the link to the Google Map of me. I am in the red Saturn with the roof rack.

A screenshot for when Google decides to come and redo the photos.

Have you been photographed by Google Street view? Let’s see your photo? Leave a comment with your Google Street view link.

There are many good file managers available for Android but they all lacked the essential feature to be able to connect to a network share. The best app I found was ES File Manager. Not only can you use it to manage files on the local SD card but it can connect to Windows/Samba shares and FTP servers. This was exactly what I was looking for. Now I can simply connect to my main desktop Samba share and copy the files I want on my phone easily. No need to connect the phone via USB cable. This also makes it easy to copy and move photos and video off the phone to my main desktop. The only thing that would make it easier is if Dropbox finally got their Android app finished so I could just sync those files. Until then ES File Manager makes it easy to do.

Check out the official ES File Manager website for more details. Great app for those that want to browse local network file shares. Not sure why people use the other file managers.

I wrote yesterday about my new Motorola Milestone smartphone. I have been exploring the Android app market and was happy to discover that Automattic has an official WordPress app. While I don’t plan on blotting regularly with the phone it does offer the ability to do the essentials with your blog. For example you can edit and add new posts and pages. Managing comments is probably the most handy feature.

Writing long posts could be tiring and time consuming using the app on your smartphone, but it is excellent to use to jot down post ideas and some basic notes.

It is also possible to upload photos from the phone and embed them in the post. For example here is a photo I took of my kids playing in the snow.

This is one of the reasons why I wanted a smartphone. It offers me the ability to do more in places where I am normally just waiting. For example the majority of this post was written while I was waiting for my kids at one of their afterschool activities. If you have a WordPress blog and want to do more with it on your Android smartphone check out the WordPress app in the Android market. I am hoping it will allow me to blog more than I have been.