In the community of voices I follow online, one of the continuing themes is the narrowness and antiquated coverage provided by NBC(I launched into a screed on the topic this weekend).

I have also heard that many people are using the tools at their disposal (open proxy servers being the most notable) to circumvent the geo-location tools of the providers to view coverage from other national providers. I thought I would share some of my experiences with two of the providers, BBC and CBC.

BBC

Finding proxy servers in the UK turned out to be relatively simple, and I was able to get to the BBC site and view, with substantial performance penalties, some of the video on the site. This was a tactic I have used before, as I am a fan of English Football, and need to use this method to gain access to highlights and match-day broadcasts.

CBC

I am, well, disappointed with the lack of success I have had with the CBC. I hear from people in the homeland that the coverage makes NBC looks like the US is the only country in the Olympics, where the CBC provides a true global perspective. However, finding a proxy server that can fool the CBC video servers has been impossible. Therefore, I continue to not watch any Olympics at all.

I am sure that there are other means (P2P, Torrents, etc.), but I am finding that, well, I don’t care that much. It is the events in South Ossetia / Georgia, Zimbabwe, and other hot-spots that I am finding far more relevant to my day-to-day life.

So while I appreciate some of the challenges posed by circumventing the monopoly of the mind that NBC wants to claim, once that was achieved with the BBC, I found that I was in a So what? position.

But before I give up, has anyone had any success with getting the CBC feeds to work outside Canada?

Canadian soldier killed, others wounded in ‘friendly fire’

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. warplanes mistakenly strafed Canadian troops fighting Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, killing one soldier and seriously wounding five on Monday in an operation that NATO claims has also left 200 insurgents dead.

This is not the first “friendly-fire” incident involving US pilots and Canadian Ground troops.

On April 18, 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed in what became known as the Afghanistan friendly fire incident: Sgt. Marc Léger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith. Eight other soldiers were wounded during a night-time live-fire training exercise near Kandahar and Tarnak Farms. The four were killed when an American F-16 fighter pilot, unaware of the exercise, noticed the ground fire and responded by dropping a bomb without determining who the combatants were. These were the first Canadian soldiers to be killed in combat since the Korean War. The pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. Harry Schmidt, disobeyed an air controller’s order to “standby” while information was verified. Schmidt was initially charged by the U.S. Air Force with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter and 8 counts of assault. The charges were dropped in June 2003 and in July 2004 he was found guilty of dereliction of duty. [here]

UPDATE: Seems that the Canadian soldier killed on Monday was a track star at Nebraska.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Mark Graham, a former Nebraska track star, died Monday in Afghanistan while serving with the Canadian military. He was 33. [here]

Technorati Tags: Friendly+fire, US+pilots, Afghanistan, Canadian+soldiers

For those of you in the US who are not blessed with a way to tap into the Canadian feeds from the World Cup, you are missing a real treat. And you know what the treat is?

Silence.

It seems that the announcers that Rogers SportsNet and TSN have recruited to cover the games know how to keep their mouths shut and let the action unfold on the screen, with occasional salient comments on the action.

As well, the screen isn’t cluttered with useless graphics and streaming ticker notes. Just the score and a timeclock in the top left corner that disappears, and re-appears in about 2-minute intervals.

Sometimes, just letting the game unfold is the best way to enjoy the beauty and skill of the teams.

Technorati Tags: World Cup, Canada, USA, Rogers SportsNet, TSN

Canada is a great country because…the trophies that have been handed out to the professional teams in our leagues where granted us by members of the English peerage.

LORD Stanley’s Cup.

LORD Grey’s Cup.

The US pro sports leagues just don’t have that level of je ne sais quoi.

Technorati Tags: Stanley Cup, Grey Cup, peerage

If you are wondering about the picture at the top of this page (sorry for you folks in RSS readers, gotta head to the blog to see it), I can tell you one thing.

It is real.

[PS: Photo provided by Chris Magnusson.]

I grew up in the shadow if this mountain called, oddly enough, Mount Seven. The Seven is a natural event that only appears in the spring as the snow recedes from the summit.

The other claim to fame for this peak is among paragliders and hang-gliders. If you ask anyone who partakes in these sports if they have ever heard of Mount Seven, their eyes will likely glaze over and drool will run from their mouths,

Why?

Well, the banner doesn’t do the mountain justice from the perspective of a non-powered flight aficianado. This perspective for Google Earth give you a better idea.

When you depart Mount Seven, it is a free and clear 5,000 foot drop into the valley below. And it’s not just any valley; it’s the Rocky Mountain Trench. At a minimum of 5 miles wide, the flying is free and clear. One glider took off from the mountain and ended up in Montana.

Mount Seven is a glorious landmark, and one of the few fond rememberances I have of the town I grew up in.

Technorati Tags: Mount seven, mount 7, golden bc, paragliding, hang gliding

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]]> http://newestindustry.org/2006/02/10/newest-industry-banner/feed/ 0 http://newestindustry.org/2004/12/29/interesting-theme-appearing-us-foreign-service-not-helpful/ http://newestindustry.org/2004/12/29/interesting-theme-appearing-us-foreign-service-not-helpful/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 smp http://crazycanuck.wordpress.com/2004/12/29/interesting-theme-appearing-us-foreign-service-not-helpful/

One of the themes I keep reading about in the stories from the Southeast Asia Disaster Zone is that Americans are all reporting how ineffective and/or invisible members of the US Foreign Service are in dealing with citizens trying to get replace documents, find loved ones or simply get home.

I hope that the Canadian Foreign Service is doing a better job.

Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the efforts of the Thai
government and the International Committee for the Red Cross, but "she
was appalled at the treatment they got" from the U.S. government, her
mother said.

At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set
up booths to greet nationals who had been affected and to help
repatriate them, she said.

That was not the case with the U.S.
government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she
said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in
the VIP lounge.

Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documentation, they had to have new passports issued.

But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said.

The
couple had managed to hold on to their ATM card, so they paid for the
photos and helped other Americans who did not have any money get their
pictures taken and buy food, Helen Wachs said.

"She was really very surprised" that the government did so little to ease their ordeal, she said.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/28/tsunami.diver/index.html

After reading the statement of claim for the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme (available here), it is clear that it is as much about the history of HNIC itself, as it is about the composition. The constant to-ing and fro-ing (Molson/Molstar, CBC)  of ownership of the broadcasts, the growth of product placement marketing, and the need to fill a 500-channel universe with re-broadcasts are all detailed in the claim.

The song is as old as I am; and it is a victim of much of the same changes in the world that the North American mass market has been. I agree that the composer should be compensated fairly for her work. And I agree that the CBC has pushed (and broken) the limits of the licensing agreement as laid out in the claim.

I wish the author well in her fight.

The question that I raise is the need for this fight to be made public. Why? Garnering of public support? If her legal case is strong (as it appears to be), there would be no need to take this fight into the public domain. The courts should be able to hand down justice.

As a reminder to others? I suppose. All firms who assume a license agreement should realize the legal ramifications. There is a cost involved. In this case, there is not a large record company or the RIAA backing her up, but rather Mr. Ciccone and his firm.

So, in the end, the stand I take is that the CBC and Ms. Claman and her representatives should settle this quietly, and not sully the iconic sound that has come to represent a segment of the Canadian life to Canadians. This sound represents a nation unified by television, a nation that could finally see its sports heroes.

And, that unifying force has been drowned out, first by cable, then the decline of the NHL in Canada, and finally, this year, by the lockout that has completely removed the league from the televisions of the world.

And you know what? I would gladly kick in $1.00 a broadcast to watch some of the old grainy games, when Montreal v. Toronto still mattered, and the HNIC theme, the league and the broadcasts were still a national  icon on Saturday nights.

As long as Dolores Claman got $0.05 for every $1.00 I spent, of course.