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Metered Internet coming to Canada [Update: Maybe not!]
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Broadband, Internet
UPDATE: Looks like Canada officials aren't gonna let this one slide - good on them! The CRTC "should be under no illusion—the Prime Minister and Minister of Industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself," a member of Canada's conservative government told the Toronto Star on Wednesday.
"Frankly, a decision like this is clearly not in the best interest of consumers," the unnamed senior official added. "This is a bread-and-butter issue."In a move that may well be a sign of things to come in the US and elswhere, Canada's CRTC (the equivalent to the FCC) made a very controversial decision recently, which allows incumbent telcos like Bell Canada to enact usage based billing, not only to their own customers, but to those of the local ISPs that resell bandwidth. Since Bell Canada is the major telephone company in Canada, that basically means that this applies to all local DSL providers. As a striking example, TekSavvy, which is a local ISP in Ontario, is forced to bring down the bandwidth cap from 200GB per month to 25GB. It's likely that most Canadians will feel the much increased charges at some point if they wish to use the Internet for large downloads, such as streaming Netflix, downloading games on Steam, buying music on iTunes, or anything that requires a lot of bandwidth.
Since then, there's been a lot of grassroots movements to protest these new rules. The group OpenMedia has a petition which has been signed over 350,000 times so far, as well as a good account of what goes on politically and in the media about the situation. Some point out at the conflict of interest that incumbent telcos are in, like in Bell Canada's case, the fact that they own the CTV television network, and thus compete directly with Netflix. The Prime Minister has heard the complaints and will review the CRTC's decision. This could be a major turning point for the Internet, first across Canada, and potentially elsewhere too.
Read More 
| StopTheMeter
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Rogers picks up Palm Pre 2
Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Cell Phones, Handhelds
Canadian carrier Rogers is the first carrier in North America to begin offering a plan for the Palm Pre 2, offering it for $99 on a three year contract.
Reports indicate that Rogers' Pre 2 is pretty much identical to the currently offerered unlocked Pre 2 for a much higher $450. Although with the Rogers plan you will pay much more in the long run.
Read More | Palm Canada
Comic Book Jobs: Teaching Comic Book Movies
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies
Can you teach? Can you teach in Canada, ey?
And more importantly, can you teach Canadians about “The Comic Book Film”?
It’s no great secret that the comic book film has permeated popular culture over the years. It’s so ubiquitous, in fact, that even tweedy, slow-to-change universities have noticed it.
It’s even spread to Canada, to the campus of the University of Manitoba.
They’re looking for a “Sessional Instructor” for their Film Studies program (Summer Session).
You’ll be teaching three classes: The Art of Film, Film History and Film Genres: The Comic Book Film. Each class is 2.5 hours long and the session runs from May 2 - June 21, 2011.
Are there a lot of requirements? It’s a teaching position, Professor Sherlock, so do the math. There are a lot of requirements and a lot of hoops to jump through.
Doug Wright’s Nipper Vs. Amazon
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Independent
I've been reading that Nipper, the first collection of Doug Wright's cartoons, is out from Drawn & Quarterly and already getting some nice notice.
Nipper's a "mischievous little kid" who appeared in newspapers across the country in the mid 20th century." D&Q's Nipper 1963-64 is the first of what the publisher plans as a long-running series of books collecting Wright's classic.
There's a preview of it (pdf) at the D&Q website that offers a nice taste of Wright.
Read More | Calgary Herald
Netflix Watch Instantly launches in Canada today
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Home Entertainment, Internet
To all our friends north of the border, you’ll be glad to know that your 13-year wait for Netflix to arrive is finally over. Well, sort of. While Canadians still don’t have access to disc rentals, today they pick up the ability to sign up for a Netflix Watch Instantly account, allowing them to stream movies to Netflix-compatible devices.
Read More | Netflix
Netflix comes to Canada this fall
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Home Entertainment, Movies
Just a quick heads up to our friends north of the border who’ve been waiting ever so patiently for Netflix to arrive, while we’ve been enjoying it here for the better part of 13 years. Netflix has announced that they’ll finally be arriving in Canada this fall. You can check out the official Netflix Canada page for more details.
Read More | Twitter
Tim Burton’s Seaweed: Euthora Timburtoni
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies
Tim Burton has directed a ton of quirkily wonderful movies – from Beetlejuice and Batman to Edward Scissorhands and Alice In Wonderland. He’s won all kinds of awards and accolades and made Johnny Depp a star. But you know what he has that no other celebrity has so far? His own seaweed!
That’s right. There’s a new brand of Tim Burton seaweed, courtesy of Bridgette Clarkston, a University of New Brunswick researcher, up in Canada.
Clarkston, so obviously the smartest girl in school this year, discovered the previously unidentified species through DNA samples and named it Euthora timburtoni, citing the director Tim Burton as someone who inspires her. The underwater weed can currently be found in the water off British Columbia.
I think there’s still time to get her on a panel for San Diego and I think this could be the start of a whole new Hollywood trend. How about the James Cameron‘s 3-D krill? Michael Bay’s nudibranch? Dennis Dugan’s Clownfish? Someone should get their agent on the phone right now!
[Artwork: a cool Edward Scissorhands drawing by Tim Burton]
Read More | Euthora Timburtoni
Kick-Ass? No, Kick Back With Defendor!
“Look out termites, it’s squishing time!”
Yeah, so there’s a super-hero movie out now. No, it’s not Kick-Ass with all its blood spurting, foul mouthiness. It’s Defendor, starring Woody Harrelson. Here’s the pitch, according to Wikipedia: “Arthur Poppington is a regular but delusional man who believes that he is a superhero named Defendor. He combs the city streets at night in search of his arch enemy, Captain Industry, befriending a young prostitute in his quest.”
So Woody puts on a costume to be a super-hero, even though he has no super powers. Sound vaguely familiar? But that’s about the only similarity to Kick-Ass. Poppington is more than a little unhinged thanks to a troubled childhood and a mangled conversation with his grandfather who says that “Captains of Industry” (aka drug dealers) killed his mom. It’s a phrase he mistakes for a villain named Captain Industry.
Reviewer Katherine Monk has nothing but praise for Harrelson’s performance. She says, “Using humor without ever compromising the round edge of his character, Harrelson finds the soft heart of our hero, and makes us care about him as he stands before us in each scene.”
Read More | Defendor Trailer
Aegis Mobility DriveAssist System Intercepts Calls
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cell Phones, Transportation
The Canadian company Aegis Mobility has teamed with Nationwide Insurance to create technology that will add to transportation safety. The DriveAssist System automatically intercepts call and text messages when the vehicle is moving. With satellite navigation technology, it will tell the callers where the driver is located and presents them with auto-call back request and priority notification. Other features include allowing 911 calls and an override feature for passengers. Aegis’ service is available by subscription through mobile service providers. We figure that the DriveAssist is like MyKey, more for parents than adults who continue to drive and speak.
Read More | Aegis Mobility
NEOSSat Tracks Asteroids and Satellites
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Transportation
Canadian scientists have been hard at work building the planet’s first space telescope that will detect both satellites and asteroids with continuous tracking. The NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) cost $12 million to build, is only 15cm and weighs 65kg. It will be launched off other spacecraft and should improve surveillance of space objects as well as evil doers checking us out by satellite. Look for the the NEOSSat, which is funded by the Defence Research Development Canada (DRDC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA,) to take off in 2010.
Read More | NEOSSat
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