Road Trip to the USA this Season, might take a little longer...

The US has now instantly banned Air Canada from flying from one US city to another, without going back to Canada in between. TSN has the story.

As you can imagine, this will be very messy for International sports teams.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't have phrased it this way:

"It's obvious the U.S. Department of Transportation doesn't watch hockey."

Dude...most U.S. people, and more and more Canadians, don't watch hockey! Anyway, they seem mostly concerned about injured players who don't remain with the team for the entire charter. Well, if I break my leg, I'm probably not going to be much use on the rest of the road trip...

PSA Texting while Driving, Gwent, U.K., August 2009, Peter Watkins-Hughes, Newport School, Wales

If you haven't seen this, and you drive with your cell phone...prepare for a wakeup call. (Warning: blood and crashes, etc).

Ricky You Broke my iTunes (but I fixed it!)

Ah, had some weird freezing issues with iTunes 8.2.1 today. It would freeze every time I refreshed my podcasts list to get new episodes. I had to go through each podcast feed one by one and click "Update Podcast", so it would list new episodes, but not download them. One of the last ones was my feed for Ricky Gervais Podcast. Seems he's put up a corrupt new video promo for his Carnegie Hall show...as soon as I try to download this video, BLAM. Thanks Jellycast!

Fortunately, I was able to just delete the episode from my feed without downloading, and everything is back to normal. Good grief. Hope this helps anyone else...and since the guy has millions of fans...and there's millions of iTunes users...well, you do the math!

Decouple Waves plug-ins from Final Cut

Mark Blevis brings us this life-saver of a tip for you pro audio folks out there...finally a way to prevent Final Cut/Audacity, etc from taking forever to load if you have Waves plugins installed.

Decouple Waves plug-ins from Final Cut

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Blackberry and NHL: Frienemies til the Bitter End

NHL 10 will be released on September 15th. Here's the most ironic screenshot in video game history (borrowed from Gamespot.com, whom got it from EA.com):

As you can see, BlackBerry devices will feature prominently in the new NHL video game. Players will use these screens to make trades on Trade Deadline Day, review offers, talk with other teams, etc. If I'm Gary Bettman, I just got another giant headache.

In case you've been frozen under centre ice for the last few years, Jim Balsillie, CEO of RIM, makers of the BlackBerry, has been trying to buy an NHL team. At every turn, god only knows why, tiny NHL Commish Gary Bettman and his band of merry men have been doing everything in their power (and perhaps beyond their power) to prevent these sales.

Why? Dunno. I guess they hate ridiculous sums of money? ...No, that's not right...money is the only thing that these guys value. The NHL certainly has shown they DO NOT value their Canadian fanbase, even though it is epic in numbers. Earlier today in fact, in a sign the NHL is running out of legal legs to stand on, they've now effectively resorted to name-calling, in hopes of preventing Jim's bid for the failed Phoenix Coyotes from prevailing in the September 10th auction.

Oh well. Gary knows Jim has the most money, and therefore the best offer. Jim will get the team. Gary will get the boot. Canadians will get their sport back. Oh, it'll be messy, and it may take years, but this is the beginning of the end for the NHL and their monarchal approach to business.

One more note: Soon to be published book suggests even Canadians (especially younger ones) are growing tired of hockey. Well, I think we're all tired of Gary Bettman's NHL, that's for fucking sure. This is the way to run a pro sports league?

At any rate, it's a damn good soap opera to while away the summer days...

Damn, I love that screenshot...can't wait for this game!

Holy Toilet Water

New Rule: No More iPods in the bathroom!

As is my usual routine, I was enjoying some Ricky Gervais audiobooks whilst scrubbing away at my teeth before bed this evening. I turned 'round to reach my towel, and due to the lack of slack on the length-challenged headphone cord attached to the Red 2nd Gen iPod Nano (in its leather case) folded over the waistband of my shorts, the Nano was unceremoniously disconnected and plummeted swiftly and wetly directly into the toilet!

I seem to remember Ricky's laughter stopping short as the ear bud connection was ended...and then a loud gasp which I would later recall to be my own.

As luck would have it, the roommate had cleaned this very toilet earlier in the day, and as luck would also have it, I hadn't 'conducted any business' in it's freshly Ajaxed tepid pool of judgement just yet.

Quickly (after a moment of consideration for my own safety) I reached down to the bottom of the bowl and rescued my audio precious from a potentially watery grave.

Now, say what you will about toilet water, but after softly sopping up the excess with bog roll, the iPod appears to have resurfaced, no worse for wear. It's tiny & bright display merely suggested that I do not use Firewire to charge it, as it is not a supported interface. Click to dismiss, and low and behold, Ricky, Steve & Karl were right where I left them! Sorry no photo, but it wasn't my immediate concern to share this with the blogosphere...do kids still say blogosphere?

Rejoice! For this iPod has not been sent to its great beyond, not on this day, and not in this toilet!

I've left the device and its case to sit overnight on some Kleenex, in hopes any watery remnants will find their way back out from whence they came. The leather case seems to be leaving blue marks on the Kleenex...not sure what that's about, but not a big concern, for Nano herself is safe, and will hopefully continue to deliver me many years of Gervais-based audio comedy.

One can't help but sense that a greater lesson has been taught to me through this series of events. Though I may need time to reflect and absorb all the liquidy details of just what has transpired.

...on the bright side...even if there is some damage beyond repair...it could've been my iPod Touch!

Talkey Night in Canada

Well, if you follow enough hockey over the summer, like us die-hards do, you begin to learn the finer details of the language.

Many teams these days are looking for so-called "two-way" players...defensemen who can also "put points on the board", or forwards who bring a "team-first" side to their game, who can help out "on the back end". You know, players who can play "both ends of the rink".

The joy comes when you begin to pick up on the mis-use of these phrases. Such as: "I wanna bring my full skill-set to this team, show them I'm the type of player who can play both sides of the puck."

Some gems I've caught from listening to hockey-themed talk radio over the past few months:

"...well, your point is well-made..."

"...well, I don't disagree..."

"...well, I don't know that that's not the case..."

Ah yes, it's a long summer when your team doesn't make the playoffs...

Senators Behaving Badly

Hmmm...not much at stake here...only our National Security!

NHL by the numbers

As of this writing, the Leafs have a 0.9% chance of making the playoffs, and will most likely finish in 11th place. Neat site, lots of math:

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NHL/Eastern.html

This joke of the day brought to you Amazon.ca

More on the PS3 hard drive

Ok, this morning the PS3 greeted me with a "The correct hard drive cannot be found" boot screen, meaning the 320GB drive I installed previously was having an issue.

After a mild heart attack (despite my somewhat regular backups), and rebooting, the message went away. But for how long?

After some Googling, the solution lies on this page, in the second post from the top.

Basically I took the 'SATA1 jumper' off when I installed the drive, thinking it would perhaps interfere with any speed benefits. Turns out, older PS3s like mine need that jumper on so it knows what kind of drive it is (SATA1 vs SATA2). The PS3 uses a SATA1 controller, so that's what it likes to see connected. Newer PS3s may not exhibit this problem, since they have newer components which autodetect drives better, etc. There's more tech details in that link if you're curious.

Anyway, I've attached the jumper, and will see how it goes.

Brandon Sugden Fights to come out of Retirement

http://syracusecrunch.dyndns.org/sugden/

Ok, here’s the latest pile of hockey related horseshit to slide across my desk...

Picture this: You’re an NHL calibre enforcer. You’ve been close to cracking the NHL for about 10 years, but never made it. Not a single game in the big show.

Then, your Dad gets cancer. You return home to help out the family business and be with him. In the meantime, you’re a hockey player, so you join a part time minor league.

A year later, a real live NHL team actually comes calling, inviting you to training camp for the upcoming season! The dream is at hand!

However, because you signed so-called ‘retirement’ papers two years ago and then played in the most minor of minor leagues, now the NHL (just 3 possibly 4 teams out of 30!) will not let you participate in camp.

Welcome to the Brandon Sugden Story. Only the latest in a long line of public relations nightmares for the NHL, and I would advise them to make this situation right ASAP. I’ve signed the petition, but unless the NHL feels they’re going to lose significant money on Brandon Sugden merchandise, it is assumed they will do nothing.

The team with the invite is the New York Islanders, so it’s believed that the other teams in their division do not want Sugden on the ice against their teams. Pure class. As if Sugden playing a few games this year would make any sort of long term difference to their success, either on or off the ice.

How many shifts is he really going to get? How many fights? If he does fight, he’ll only be fighting other fighters...what’s the big fucking deal? The NHL loves fighting. Fighting sells tickets, gets on YouTube, ESPN (Bettman’s dream network!). May I suggest that Sugden may even help sell tickets in other cities were he to travel to them! Ah, got your attention now, don’t I, you greedy fuckers!

Unacceptable. I’m not even that big of a hockey fight guy, but I know when I see something that is not fair. I don’t know why I’m so passionate about this, but it just strikes an absolute chord with me as soon as I heard about it. It’s just such a common sense thing I guess.

You add in the cancer angle of this story, and it is an absolutely shameful disgrace that anyone would ever possibly feel the need to block Brandon Sugden from going to training camp. If absolutely nothing else, for the sake of another human being, just let the kid’s dad finally see him make the big league! That’s all I’m asking. Jesus Fucking Christ.

Lemme tell you something about hockey dads and moms. They are the salt of the earth, I sound like Don Cherry, but seriously. Well, not the ones that go nuts in the stands and fight other parents...those ones suck. But I'm talking about the good ones. The ones you don't hear about. These people sacrifice, they work hard, they forfeit about $200k over the course of your development, all for the potential and minute chance of the dream to see your spoiled ass make the NHL. Show them some bloody respect!

Those three teams know who they are, and I bet the managers or whoever it is in charge making this wrong choice, once played hockey when they were a kid. Even if they didn't play, they sure as hell have watched games growing up, and now they watch games for a living! So they know what it's like to dream the dream, and think someday I can do it too.

It is up to them, and only them, to change their minds and do the right thing. The NHLPA can’t fight the battle, Sugden isn’t a member...yet. Best of luck man, and a lesson to all us, especially Mats Sundin: Don’t sign anything that says ‘retirement’ on it!

Go here for more on this story.

NHL 09 - Proud Owner for the past 6 hours...

Well I whipped over to the mall after work and plunked down the $60. So far, so good!

I've only played the much hyped "Be a Pro" mode so far...I'm hooked! Took me a good while to create my guy, I went through every option and every piece of gear. Good stuff. Nothing like seeing myself suit up for my first game on the Marlies! I'm not usually one for Create a Player modes, but this year is the exception, cause this mode is very revolutionary and it's not like you just make yourself and pop onto the NHL team. You start out in the minors and work your way up, kinda like real life!

I've played just 5 games so far, 5 minute periods, on "All Star" (2nd highest) difficulty..."Pro" is probably too comfortable, but "Superstar" (highest) would have the CPU pulling all kinds of cheat moves I bet. I want it difficult, but not impossible. :)

"Be a Pro" mode features a couple different ways to play. I'm playing the mode where you actually have to sit on the bench in between shifts, hoping your teammates can get it done! :) Using default settings so far, dunno what I would change yet. I've seen a few penalties, haven't taken one yet, but I assume I'll have to sit in sin bin for 2 minutes or less at some point!

It's fun to get used to calling line changes when you're on the bench...I totally blew it in my last game, left my goalie high and dry and Bridgeport scored a tying goal two-on-none in the last minute. :(

I've only scored a couple goals (really have to work for them!): one I was left all alone in front of their net after a turnover, and the other was more of an own-goal that one of their guys put home for me. :P LOTS of different ways to score in this game! Mostly I whip it wide of the net, if I make contact at all, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Most importantly, no show-stopping bugs so far. 4 hours of gaming and no freezes. I'm hoping Dynasty mode is as robust as this seems to be, but I don't wanna jinx it!

The menus are so much better than NHL 08...nice and smooth, not the jerkiness of last year. The goalie animations are much improved, I love them. The atmosphere of the arenas are also well done.

The only wacky thing I saw so far was Marlies goalie Justin Pogge making a save and then the puck shot out of our zone at superspeed...watch it here if you like. I'm going to make good use of the new replay editor, long overdue feature! Finally I can show off the wacky stuff without digging out my digital camera. You can also take screenshots, nice.

As far as negatives, the file system is kinda odd when you go to save something...it pulls up a keyboard interface so you can name your file, but you can't seem to give your files a useful name. They get named "Beapro1", "Beapro2" and "Video1", Video2" etc. It is possible to erase the text, but then you can't type in any letters, only numbers, so "01", "777", etc. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but all the alpha keys were greyed out. I'd much rather label a replay as "turbopuck" than "video3". And "BAPWellwood", instead of "Beapro02", if I want to play Be a Pro with a current NHLer, alongside my created guy, etc. Oh well, I can write them down I guess...?

Anyway, extreme nitpicking aside, I truly love this game! Bravo EA, you have rescued the franchise in a Big Way! This could be the year that succeeds longtime champ NHL 2004 as my favourite, but I'll have to put several more hours into it before we go crowning anything around here. Fortunately, the weekend is approaching.

I didn't check out any online stuff. But even if that's all a complete train wreck, the offline alone could well be worth the purchase.

I can definitely tell the AHLers have less skill than the NHLers. Slower, less accuracy, etc. Awesome. Crosby is much better than some minor league rookie.

Anyway, that's a taste. Ahh, so nice to be able to talk hockey again, even if it is a video game. Judging by the Leafs roster this year, I'll probably be playing more than watching...

See you next time with more thoughts.

My How Terms Have Changed

Installed the new iTunes 8.0 tonight...