Gus Digital

Today I was catching up on my RSS Feeds and I came across this interesting blog post by John Beihler.  It looks like Rogers has changed their rules on upgrading your phone.  As you are all probably aware I have been trying to get an iPhone from Rogers and they have refused to let me do so until my 12 months were up.  Last week I had said “screw you” and cancelled my contract (which they had suggested) and went over to Fido and picked up an iPhone.  But oh no Rogers has to say “no screw you” and throw this in my face.

What is a boy to do?

I’m not sure they will revert my cancellation fee back as I know they will say that I cancelled from Rogers and moved over to Fido.  Granted if I stayed with Rogers themselves they might have returned the fee back.

Should I be surprised at this.  I don’t think so.  I think Rogers finally realized that they have pissed off so many of their clients and they are fearing that people will just let their contracts run out and wait for the new players to come into the market.  I think this is their way to secure customers for another 3 years which will make it difficult for the new players to get customers.

Time will tell and see if Rogers will let my cancellation fee go, but I think hell will freeze over first before that happens.

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Tonight Russ and I will be joining a couple of our friends to experience “Theatre Under the Stars”. We’ll be going to see Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun.

Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) produced operettas and musicals 1940-63 at the Malkin Bowl. The original TUTS was founded under the auspices of the Vancouver Park Board by board superintendent A.S. Wootten, conductor Basil Horsfall and actor E.V. Young, with advice from Gordon Hilker, to provide entertainment in Stanley Park in Malkin Bowl, which was a band shell for summer concerts. - Source

Built in 1934, the band shell is a two thirds replica of the Hollywood Bowl and was created to honor W.H. Malkin’s wife.

Malkin Bowl

I’ve never experienced outdoor theatre before so this will be a treat indeed.

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Last night Russ and I headed out to dinner with a few friends to Delilah’s before heading to English Bay to catch the finale of HSBC’s Celebration of Lights.  I have to admit I didn’t see the 3 pervious shows, but we were convinced to join the 300,000 plus people around English Bay to catch the final show.

We cut through several crowds (most of which were very well behaved), and made our way down to the beach where we could hear the music with the fireworks. Before the show began, they announced the winner of the competition from the three entrants; Canada, US and China.  This year, as was last, the honors went to Canada! Canada’s theme this year was “Godzilla” and I was thoroughly impressed with the effects they created. I could almost picture Godzilla himself raising from English Bay to reveal himself to the masses.  Truly an amazing show.

What did start of the finale was BC’s 150th presentation, which was pretty much a history lesson of the founding of British Columbia 150 years ago.

Overall a great night with friends and great entertainment.

The photos were taken with the iPhone and don’t truly show the colours of the fireworks.  I also wish it was able to take video so you could have heard the music that went with it.

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Well I did it. I cancelled my Rogers contract and headed to Fido and got myself a brand new iPhone.

I have to say the process wasn’t as bad as I feared and they actually had some iPhones in stock. The whole process took about 20 minutes to complete. Granted the cancelation fee is going to hurt, but I feel sticking it out was going to hurt worse in the long run.

I have to say this is a sweet gadget that does just about everything I would wanted it to execpt record video.

So far I am enjoying so off the applications as well, including the Wordpress application that I am using to type this post.

Here is looking at 3 wonderful years to come.

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This past weekend, Russ and I went to see “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”.  This movie was presented in RealD 3D.  Now the theatre handed out 3D glasses, but these were not the typical blue and red 3D glasses, but polarized glasses that almost look like sunglasses.

The movie itself wasn’t the greatest, but watching the movie in 3D was a great experience.

I have experienced 3D movies through IMAX 3D before and that was amazing, but to see a 3D movie that is over 1 1/2 hours long and at the movie theatre is a different experience.

With the ability to download movies and people having home theatre systems with 50 inch plus flat screen monitors, the movie experience needed to change and  I believe this will help bring back people to the movie theatres.

Based on the RealD’s website:

RealD 3D is the global leader in 3D. We bring you the world’s leading 3D movie experience- RealD Cinema- and provide revolutionary new ways of seeing entertainment. RealD brings the third dimension to life and creates stunning 3D that is as real as the world around us and as mind-blowing as the imaginations of today’s greatest filmmakers.

This is not the 3D of years or decades ago, but a next-generation digital technology - bright, clear images which immerse the viewer in a realistic and powerful experience. In a RealD 3D theater you are seeing unparalleled visuals based upon 3D science used by NASA and others.

Because RealD 3D is digital 3D, it is easy on the eyes and every seat in the house is a great seat. Images not only come straight at you - the depth and clarity of the RealD experience pulls you into the movie.

With RealD 3D, you truly enter a new dimension.

How RealD 3D Works

Some movies that have used the RealD technology in the past have been:

1. Chicken Little
2. Monster House
3. Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas
4. Beowulf
5. Hanna Montana
6. and U2 in 3D

Just recently Cineplex Theatres has signed an agreement with RealD to have more theatres (175 of them) installed with the technology.  This will help with some up coming movies, especially the James Cameron - Avatar scheduled to be released in December 2009.

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I was given a site to go to the other day and I created the following video from TrimFlixx.com.  This is from Schick Quattro creators of the new Schick Quattro Titanium Trimmer.

This reminded me of the “Elf-Yourself” campaign by Office Max had this past Christmas.  You can see what I did with that here.

As you can see it is actually fun to make your video and I think Junior had fun being a muscle bound human playing with some clowns.  Granted I could have set him up to play with either college girls, rocker chicks, or some guys if I wanted, but I though the clowns would be more appropriate.

After making the video you can request to receive your hands on your own free trial version of the razor. I have been using it this week and I will post a review of it later.

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How on earth did I let it pass? July 20th was my second year blogaversary.  That is right I’ve been blogging for just 2 years now.

I started to remember when Rebecca, who was a co-worker at the time, suggested I start blogging.  I wasn’t sure what I would blog about, I wasn’t sure if it should have a theme or not, and I wasn’t sure what I would get myself into.

I thought I would just make my blog more of a personal diary, a way for my family back east to keep up with what I was doing.  I wasn’t expecting more than that.

This year I took a bigger step and moved from one blogging platform to Wordpress, got a domain name, and started self hosting the blog. I have started to be more involved in the blogger community and have started to become good friends with bloggers out there and I hope to develop more.

My readership isn’t huge, but for all that come here and read my blog I hope you are enjoying it and you can always leave me a comment or just email me at gfosarolli@gmail.com.

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There are a few bloggers in Vancouver participating this weekend in the Vancouver Blogathon. What is the Blogathon? Bloggers are encouraged to sign up for a charity and blog every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. You can see more information at their wiki site.

I alas will not be one of the participants as I honestly don’t feel I could do it non-stop for 24 hours. I give great shut outs to the participants I know - Rebecca, Raul, Jenn and Nadia and Duane. You all are amazing for doing this and I’ll try to support anyone I can during the 24 hours.

I’m happy to see that awareness will be brought to your charities and the what they support.

Good luck all!

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Yesterday I finally got my Zune Kit from Matchstick.  I was excited to be one of 300 people in Canada to receive the Zune, even though some in the blogging community haven’t been too happy with Matchstick lately.

The kit came with a 8gb Black Zune model, an AC adapter and a premium headphones. The packaging is fairly neutral in colour combining earthy browns with some pink accent colours. I found it fairly trendy. Like the Apple iPod, the Zune comes with the standard headphones and a USB cord to connect it your PC.

Now I work with an Apple, and as such the Zune doesn’t support a Mac.  I have to run my Windows XP on a virtual computer to access the software which will activate the Zune and allow me to upload my music, video and photo files.

There were a few problems I found when trying to install the software. First it asks you to log in using your Windows ID account, if you have Hotmail or MSN you should be fine, otherwise you have to create one. Secondly after you finish with that, you are asked to create a “Zune Tag” name.  I tried to enter my name alone, but it wanted me to add something “funky” before it, so I settled for “WateryGusF”. After this it actually allowed me to download the Zune software.  The installation took between 30-40 minutes, which I thought was too much to install software on your computer.  You are then required to reboot, but once I did that, my virtual machine froze and I had to reinstall Windows XP all over again and go through the process.  Please note, if you do not have the Windows XP Service Pack 3, you will not be able to download the Zune Software and activate your Zune.

After finally installing and activating the Zune I became a happy man.

I uploaded a couple of CD’s and the process wasn’t too bad, but you do have to “sync” your Zune afterwards. Granted I haven’t read any manuals, so I’m going with the flow - so to speak.

The screen is fairly bright and offers a great experience.  The centre “wheel” looks similar to an iPod, on that note, the Zune reminds me of an iPod Nano 1st and 2nd generation, with the USB and headphone connections located at the bottom of the unit.  The upper side has the “hold” button. 

I haven’t fully tested everything out yet, I have tested the Music, Video and Photos, all of which look great on the screen.  I have tested the Radio and listened to our man Buzz Bishop from 95Crave on my way home today and was impressed to see the Zune showing the artist and song that was being played. I’m looking forward to testing out the “Social” feature and share some music with other Zune owners.

Overall I’m enjoying the unit, but keep comparing it to the iPod, which I’m sure we all will.

Hopefully I’ll update with more information as I see fit.

Update: I forgot to say that I am participating on ChatThreads, so please help me by filing out their survey

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The Canadian Wireless spectrum auction is now completed and the winner is….the Canadian Government which will net $4.2 billion dollars, based on the CBC report.

What does this mean, well we will now have a new national cellphone provider - Globalive who currently sells home and long distance service under Yak.

As per the Federal Industry Minister, Jim Prentice, says this will bring in more competition and will benefit the Canadian consumer. I’m currently not so sure about that. This auction itself brought in more money than expected, almost 4x as much. This means current suppliers like Telus, Bell and Rogers paid more for the auction and will of course pass on this to their consumers with higher rates. Also the new player will probably want a big cut of the “Canadian cellphone pie” and will charge higher rates just because we are so use to these rates here in Canada.

I honestly hope I am wrong in this, but really time will tell.  We have to wait for 30 days from now before Globalive announces its plan and how long it will take to be operational.

The good news is that the new player will have 3G capabilities and run under GMS, which is what Rogers and Fido currently run under.  Hopefully they will introduce the iPhone to their line and give Rogers a run for their money.

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