phyllostachys 48: Minute Tech 33 show notes

33 - What is Nunavut?

Good morning, this is the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you for Saturday & Sunday, November 17th & 18th, 2007

We take a few minutes to talk about technology
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This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 33 - What is Nunavut?

Minute Tech podcast is brought to you in part by:

Larry Tolbert's Sunday Morning Wu Style Taiji - 9:30 every Sunday morning at the Dunamis Baptist Church, in Wilkinsburg, PA.
"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji" - e-mail leonardtolbert-[at]-hotmail-[dot]-com for more info.

Also by:

Ravelings, by Carol. Pittsburgh-region classes in needle-craft - encompassing crochet, embroidery, knitting, & tatting, as well as an associated lace collection. For more information, contact Carol at carolb207@alltel.net.

Tech items:

As usual, when a company brings out a decent product which sells well, people begin bandying about the M word. That's M for Monopoly. Journalists have been after Apple for being a monopoly in the music distribution arena. Do you think Apple is a monopoly? I don't - you can get your music online through iTunes, you can go to a local music store and buy CD's, you can join a CD music club, and you can visit any number of second-hand music stores. Now, is Apple a monopoly because they have the only decent music player? SanDisk, Creative and Microsoft each make very useable music players...and very affordable, perhaps more-so than Apple's range of iPods. So...what makes Apple a monopoly? Are then bullying other music distributors? Are they forcing others out of business using methods other than the rule of feet (consumers can choose which store to walk into)? Let me know what you think.

Tech Question:

What is Nunavut?

Christopher S. Penn, on his self-named blog, asks whether America and the UE will respect Canada's assertion that the Arctic Circle shipping route over the North Pole belongs to Canada, as it's within the territory designated by Canada in 1999 as Nunavut. Mr. Penn suggests that America's track record in respecting other's sovereign territories over the past several years has not been stellar, and that perhaps this behavior will move on to use of the "Northwest Passage", a holy grail of shipping industry.

For Europe, the shipping will be far easier with a bigger or permanent shipping route through the North. The Northwest passage from Europe to San Francisco is shorter than via the Panama canal, and the Northern Sea Route, formerly known as the Northeast Passage is far shorter than traversing the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Indian Ocean, South China Sea and western Pacific to reach Yokohama, Japan.

Nunavut is a land of just over 29,000 inhabitants, spread over an area equal to the size of Greenland, but with half the population. Nunavut has been continuously inhabited for roughly 4000 years, with first contact by Europeans being by Norse sailors in the 8th or 9th century, and the English, specifically Martin Frobisher, in 1576. The anthropological understanding is that the North American and South American peoples may have crossed from northern Asia some 20,000 years ago via a so-called land-bridge formed at the site of the Bering Straits in Alaska. I want to be careful here, though - go to www.native-languages.org forward slash bering.htm and check out the discussion on the "Bering Strait Theory". Native Americans certainly have a right to not have a migration theory forced upon them....suffice it to say that if you look far enough back in history, we all emigrated from somewhere...and are native to wherever we were born.

But I digress. Is the Northwest or Northeast passage going to be a bone of contention? Again, Check out Christopher S. Penn's blog post. Who knows where this global warming trend with take us?

podcasting/blogging tidbit:

If you follow @pistachio on Twitter, you may have seen that she is currently in India, far from her Boston home, but also with family there, doing speaking tours on what she knows best. check out www.pistachioconsulting.com.

Chris Brogan of podcamp fame has moved on from Pulvermedia to work with CrossTechMedia, the producers of the ITEC conference and Exhibition, which will be in 18 locations in the US and Canada during 2008. Chris, good luck on your new venture!

Have you checked out the MacBreak video shows on iTunes? Their recent shows in the studio discussed "Multicam Editing Essentials", that is the use of cameras from multiple angles to highlight whatever you're shooting, and "Droplets and Compression Templates in Compressor".

Finally, one of my favorite podcasts is back after a brief hiatus: VentureCast, with David Hornik and Craig Syverson..and they're back to their two-week schedule. VentureCast 27 dealt partially with an un-advertised conference titled Out of the Lobby, where tech and VC types got together in Hawaii to discuss...well, whatever they discussed.

Do you have a favorite podcast or blog? Let me know...or go to pghbloggers.org to see Pittsburgh Region blogs.

Thats all for today on Minute Tech podcast.
you can reach me at minutetech@gmail.com -
and my blog is at minutetech.blogspot.com

"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji"

- Apple’s monopolistic tendencies?
- What is Nunavut?
- Pistachio, Brogan, MacBreak and VentureCast.

Go to the Minute Tech iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

phyllostachys 42.25: Minute Tech 025

Minute Tech 003 - What is a Tool?

Show notes/transcript:

25 - What is glass to a modern human?

Good morning, this is the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you for Thursday, November 8th, 2007

We take a few minutes to talk about technology

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This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 25 - What is glass to a modern human?


Tech items:

Don't Panic was written in big friendly letters on the front of what travel guide?

Okay, here's my panic item. I'm afraid as to what this podcast could turn into.

You see, one of my minor obsessions (a liberal arts major can have many) is the stock market.

Within the stock market, I'm a tech stock junkie.

My maternal ancestor has asked me for the past 36 months if I have any hot tips...and all I could say was "Apple Computer".

So, please beware....if I'm talking up a company...I could well be long that company, and singing its praises.
By the way, I don't, as yet, sell short on companies - I can stomach risk....but I'm not yet ready for that much risk. I take Rothschilds suggestion to buy at the sound of cannon...but not to extremes...though it's at the extremes where the most return can be had.

So, the best way to deal with this type of obsession is to feel around the edges of it. A tech podcast might be a good start, as long as it doesn't focus on tech stocks, but on technology in general. Will you forgive me if I periodically sink into investing as a topic?


tech question:

Okay, if yesterday's litany of the methods of glass manufacture over the centuries wasn't boring, I have a 1963 version of the Encyclopeaedia Brittanica you could read next.

What am I really trying to say about glass here?

Its an incredible technological item...one of the easiest things to take for granted. Window glass, eye-glasses, light-bulbs, automobile headlights, traffic signals, computer screens, for which alternatives to glass are constantly being sought. Where will it stop?

My chief concern, which is probably a non-concern is: how would we cope if our way of life came to a standstill? Think about it. I guess with our just-in-time method of food production and delivery, we'd all starve before we could worry about replacing broken window glass, so why worry.

My other concern is a love. I know, i know...love is not a "fact", its a feeling...and feeling are what make this earth, for humans at any rate, really spin. Facts are for the Mr. Gratgrinds of the world....a nod to Charles Dickens.

The love is for Art glass. Art glass is glass produced for the purpose of enjoying looking at the shape, color or texture of the glass rather than using it for any particular utilitarian purpose. Hopefully more on this tomorrow, if I'm able to get a special guest to tell us what lampwork glass is for.

Suffice it to say, Dale Chihuly's work is out of this world....and yet, so much a part of it.


podcasting/blogging tidbit:

Seesmic is something new.

Pistachio, a.k.a "Laura Athavale Fitton" of Pistachio Consulting, has been twittering of late of her trip to India and filming gigs there. Several times in her short sub-140-character posts she mentions the word "seesmic". Okay, what is that?

google it. Seesmic is another San Francisco web startup, which is a purveyor of video content. Check out their web page, which had video's documenting the startup of their company. One of the interesting items on the blog of founder Loic Le Meur is about his recent visit to the White House to meet President Bush during a reception for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The idea of Seesmic being a video version of twitter comes to life as Mr. Le Meur details the buildup to the visit, with an over-arching question: if you were to spend 30 seconds with Pres. Bush, what, honestly would you say or ask? Very interesting question.