Now, with the launch of the PlayStation 3 and Wii just a few weeks away, Xbox 360 gamers are checking over a major update to Xbox Live, released October 31. The new update adds video playback which is a very nice addition. As well, it adds 1080p, so you can take that away from being a PS3 only advantage. They sped up the time it takes for the Xbox Live Arcade screen, no more waiting around. They revamped the marketplace, adding pictures. Also when viewing media it shows a possible field for an expiration date. I wonder if they are going to start releasing movie/tv show rentals? Either way, updates like this are always good for a console, especially when competition is right around the corner. For a complete list of updates, you can check out the official list Novermber 2006 Update List.
It has been confirmed that Conde Nast, owner of Wired and other magazines, acquired Boston-based Reddit earlier this morning, and will make the announcement later today. All four reddit employees will relocate to Wired’s San Francisco office. This is what I hope happens to me someday. I would be so happy if I could be bought out by a bigger company and be able to retire. With the news of Reddit, I wonder how much longer till Digg gets acquired. It is only a matter of time, since the new dot com buying spree is beginning again. I give them a couple weeks.
While I agree that people should be careful about what they post online, I don’t think that employers should be basing all hiring on these postings. When I post online, I make sure to consider the consequences of the posts not just in the short term but the long term as well. According to a recent survey by CareerBuilder, one in four managers now ‘Google’ potential employees and 51% of applications were rejected because of what was found. So by using those stats, it means that around 12.5% of applications were rejcted due to what they had posted online. Online posting could also work the other way; say you wrote a very interesting, insightful article. A prospective employer could infact use that to increase your chances of being hired. The moral of the whole story is, watch what you write online since people can and will read it.
The time changed the other day, although for people living in Saskatchewan, the day could pass without anyone noticing. For pretty much everyone else the time was set back one hour. Remember the saying old “Spring forward, Fall back”. The only reason people in Saskatchewan might notice is because their favorite tv shows might not be on at the same time. But it seems like every time change debate grows in Saskatchewan about whether or not we should start to change our clocks. There is a lot of argument and quite a few points brought forward, but it never seems like any progress is made. Some of the funniest excuses are from farmers who say the cows don’t know what time it is and the time change would distrupt their eating patterns. I laugh because the farmer could always feed the animals at a different time if they cared so much. In my opinion, saving daylight in the summer would be nice since the sun is always up way before I get up. It would be nice to move an hour of that into the evening. If the only inconvenience for saving an hour of daylight a day is changing the clocks twice a year, then I’m all for it.
Andrew Thomson announced in the legislature that the sales tax for Saskatchewan will be cut from 7% to 5% effective tomorrow. This change is due to the current oil and gas boom that the government is currenly enjoying. This is their way of giving back to the people of the province. This cut moves the sales tax one percent below the old level that it was at before the NDP were re-elected in 2003. The move puts Saskatchewan with the lowest PST in the country besides Alberta which doesn’t have a provincial sales tax. This news comes a little late for myself, having bought a new car two weeks ago; which kind of sucks because that kind of tax break would actually mean a lot to me.
The Techcrunch blog uncovered an early video of digg. Kevin Rose was presenting the site on The Screen Savers back in December 2004. The reason I found the video interesting is the way in which Kevin was describing the whole thing. He kept talking about the site as if it wasn’t actually his. In reality, Kevin was one of the founding members of the site, and this whole self promotion without letting anyone know its his site seems kind of deceptive. I don’t really know why he wasn’t more upfront with the matter that it was his. Maybe the producers at G4TV wouldn’t have allowed him to show it has they known. Either way, I remember that it wasn’t long after this video that he actually quit G4. Regardless, the video itself shows off a very old version of Digg with a lot less features and an uglier design. Take a look here.
On October 16, a shopkeeper (Wasek Safrah) at a mini mall in Ossining, NY didn’t like the way an employee at another store parked. He punched the guy’s car causing a dent, then got a forklift and attempted to move the car. He also punched the driver in the mouth. He didn’t succeed in moving the car. The police officer in the article just sounds stupid. “We don’t know what his intention was” — Since the guy wasn’t going to move his car, he was going to move it for him; it makes perfect sense. This guy is a hero in many peoples eyes. How many times have you ever been angry with the way someone parked but didn’t do anything about it. It is too bad that he was arrested on charges of criminal mischief and assault. After hearing about he forklift, I wish the video was on youtube.
On Thursday, October 26, 2006 President Bush signed a bill that authorizes the construction of a 700 mile fence on the 2100 mile border with Mexico. Â The fence itself is to keep illegal Mexican immigrants from entering the USA. Â The United States for the longest time has had some pretty lax border control and only now are they starting to get tough. Â Mexico’s President does not support this idea of a fence at all, calling the whole thing “deplorable.” Â I would have to agree with him. Â There is not need for a fence to control borders. Â If people really want to get into the United States, all the fence is going to do is slow them down for a couple minutes. Â In the past there was also talk from some senators about a similar project for the Canadian border! Now that is ludicrous. Â If senators think that Canadians are going to try to sneak into the United States to steal jobs they are badly mistaken. If the United States ever decided to put up a wall with Canada, I think Canada should put up a second wall but build it faster and get it up first. Â Then Canada can control the wall. But, history has taught us a thing or two about putting up walls. Â They will separate people for a bit, but in the end the wall will come down or just become obsolete. Â Take for example the Berlin Wall or the Great Wall in China; one wall is destroyed the other is obsolete. Â The United States should focus its resources on building something useful like new schools for children caught up in their war on terror in the Middle East.
Rock Star Supernova appears to have hit a speedbump even before they finished playing their first concert. Jason Newstead, bass player for the group, has injured his shoulder while catching a 90 pound bass head that fell from his amp. He will have to undergo surgery and it could take up to 9 months for everything to be rehabilitated. It should be interesting to see what happens, because they should be releasing a CD in the next month. They will most likely keep the same music but will they change any of the promotional artwork? Also, if they do auditions for a bass player, will that affect any of their tour dates? Tommy Lee doesn’t think so, as he has said he knows a bunch of guys who could step up. The new bassist will have a couple months to work on the set, as the tour starts January 1st, 2007. In the meantime, Lukas Rossi and Gilby Clarke are expected to make an acoustic performance at the upcoming Gemini Awards show November 4th, on Global.
In a landslide victory (who expected anything different), Mayor Pat Fiacco is back in office as mayor for another term. Even though the end result wasn’t even close I feel that this election will still go a long way in improving the city. Hopefully, Mayor Pat will take a look at the other candidates suggestions and possibly implement them if they are actually improvements. I would like to see the city increase not in size, but in population. Having more people in the city would go a long way at improving the tax base that has slowly been moving to Alberta. I’m not mayor so I don’t have any suggestions but hopefully Mayor Pat has a few cards up his sleeve.