grantalias

If you're a regular or long time visitor here to grantalias, you're probably thinking with the regularity of posts I'm either dead or living in a cave. Neither of which is true but sure feels like it sometime. As you can see in the photo below we are kept very busy by our growing family.

the busy family

I am also desperately waiting for the release of Windows 7 so I can buy a Dell I have my eyes on and get back to editing the family videos (and subsequent posting of said video). As I do not have the time to take my production machine off-line and do a clean install to freshen it up; and after 3.5 years it needs it big time.

Here are the stats of the Dell I'm looking at.

• Intel® Core™ i7-920 Processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz)
• 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz
• 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cach
• ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB

The service I use (and many others around VOX) to post their tweets to their blog is back up. Loudtwitter is a great tool to automatically post my tweets here in a hidden post and then every couple of days I can go back and delete the junk and (hopefully) flesh out the gems with photos and video.

A little help from my tweets.

• 18:31 Judging by tweets.. Michael Jackson just passed away. Still looking for links to confirm so don't quote me. (via @ijustine) #

• 18:37 CTV Montreal confirms Micheal Jackson died. RIP wacko jacko #

• 18:01 Michael Jackson 911 call released bit.ly/1HU3NX (via @montrealgazette) #

• 22:24 Jackson almost takes Internet with him bit.ly/Maami #

Let There Be Cut & Paste

A little help from my tweets.

It's finally here and as with the 2.0 update last summer tons of people (myself included) had to wait hours to download it from Apple.

• 06:57 RT @mashable: iPhone OS 3.0 Arrives Today: What You Should Know - bit.ly/qMaMk It's going to be a long day waiting for 3.0 to release #

• 17:45 For the love of Steve, Apple get some fracking serves and bandwidth going so I can get the OS 3.0 upgrade. I mean I'm paying for it! #

• 17:50 @rossdelliott This is horrible! I remember last year for the 2.0 it took me like 12hrs to finally get the upgrade. #apple #fail #

• 18:18 @TechShowX it should be $9.99. I'm waiting for the server load to lessen to get mine for my gen 1 Touch. #

• 18:21 @andrewmerica apple servers are melting right now. You are not alone #fail #

• 22:53 After a 5 hour wait finally able to download OS 3.0 thanks #apple lets hope this doesn't #fail Fingers crossed! #

• 03:36 @tkcom I believe that I read (when purchasing it) itunes store credit can't be used towards purchase of the OS 3.0 update. #

• 03:46 Phone 3.0 a cut-&-paste win for Twitter: tinyurl.com/n2dka6 (via @web_buzz) that's one of the main reasons I payed $9.99 for update #

A little help from my tweets.

Quebec_flag

• 19:27 English bands still on bill, says producer tinyurl.com/klt7t8 (via @ctvmontreal) Way to make Anglos fell like 2nd class citizens. #

• 22:48 Anglos win battle of the bands snipurl.com/k75fm (via @montrealgazette) Good to know common sense prevailed. #

With la St-Jean-Baptiste next week on the 24th or La Fête nationale du Québec (if you want to be less political) polictics has once again soured the day. You think by now we'd be used to it.

It really is a shame that there are a small vocal minority that view this day as one for the Pure laine exclusively. At least there is a move to be more inclusive than exclusive as in the past.

Facebook Name Rush

3 comments

I hope everyone (who knew of cared enough) got the name they wanted.

Donna and I were serendipitously still up at midnight and watched the countdown ready to snipe our preferred vanity names. Which we both got!

I supplemented it with following the #fbookvanity on twitter. It really felt like a new years countdown, but without Dick Clark and not Times Square.

Mashable has a great post and videos on the whole event that I'm going quote to death. It took 3 minutes to reach 200,000 names and an hour for a million.

Even though I was following the discussion on Twitter I had a good conversion going on (where else) Facebook.

FB vanity name discussion

Just a little help from my tweets.

• 10:44 Tiananmen Square protest 20 year anniversary, Associated Press archive photos: bit.ly/NK2Xa #china #tiananmen (via @latimesphotos) #

I was talking with a 20 something co-worker and made a offhand comment about Tianamen Square. He had never hear about it.

This blew my mind that he had never heard about one of the worse attacks on a people by a government in the modern times.

• 10:30 We'll have the full transcript and recorded video of the President's speech on www.whitehouse.gov shortly. (via @whitehouse) #

• 10:27 The Great Firewall of China Stands Tall, Still Not Unbeatable - bit.ly/bAiHA (via @mashable) #

Because I have no time to post, I need help from my tweets.

• 

  The Seven Seas

  Elephant Stone
  06:51 Check out Elephant Stone's new album The Seven Seas on iTunes bit.ly/a2goQ #

I'm not going to lie, I went to high school with two of the guys in the band. That said, I defy you to listen to the track Bombs Bomb Away and not be singing it all day.

FYI, you can buy the album for a $1 cheaper and higher quality from their site as apposed to iTunes.

• 07:12 Wow! Wish I had gone Rock Band instead of going Guitar Hero. I just don't have room for 2 plastic drums & 4 guitars bit.ly/7HfkY #

This cinematic trailer for The Beatles Rock Band game is breath taking. My tweet pointed to a G4 YouTube video but they have seemed to pulled it since this morning.

The animation is really elegant and (pardon the pun) really rocks. Of course it never hurts to have The Beatles as a soundtrack.

I always find it bitter sweet to see videos like this of The Beatles. Maybe it's because they were such at great band and they'll never make anything more. Maybe it's because their music is the sound track for a time of change and yet simpler times.