Michael Boyle — Page 429

No one tops Gilles Vigneault

December 16, 2000 by Michael Boyle

, really, at describing Quebec. “Mon pays ce n’est pas un pays c’est l’hiver” is how he put it – roughly – my country isn’t a country, it’s winter.

We had over a foot of snow dump on us in the last week, today it’s warm and it might rain – leading to whispered concerns that we might have another ice storm like the great verglas of 1998.

And yet, and yet… things go on. Cheerfully. The pubs on St-Laurent were packed last night. Christmas shopping continues apace, amidst 24-hour-a-day snow removal that messes with parking, walking, driving – everything.

I really couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but here.

Minor changes

December 15, 2000 by Michael Boyle

to mikel.org this morning. First up, I’ve ditched the “cam” link from the main navigation at the top right. It wasn’t really a webcam per se anymore – it was just a popup with a static picture. I’ve replaced it with “msg me” – through which you can send a short message to my cel. I added the cam link on the side, along with a link to the Oh Candy Land weblog I’m having fun with now. I also split off the different categories of links from one another a little bit more – although I didn’t bother to add category text because it seems to me that the differences are more or less self-evident. The first group of links is to projects I’m involved in or things I’ve done on the site. The second set (only two links) are to things I’ve been involved with for some years. And the bulk of the links are to other weblogs.

Lots of people follow

December 15, 2000 by Michael Boyle

the trials and tribulations of Napster, but there’s another copyright story that’s just as important, and in many ways is the flip side of the coin. Freelancers’ rights have been drastically eroded over the past several years as big publications have drooled over the record labels’ “work for hire” contracts with their bands and have tried to implement the same for writers. Wired News is reporting on Featurewell.com, who have joined the issue on behalf of freelance writers.

The newly-redesigned

December 15, 2000 by Michael Boyle

Feed is running an article analyzing Gore’s speech the other night. It’s a thoughtful, almost tender assessment of the speech and of Gore’s prospects.

There was more on the privacy front

December 14, 2000 by Michael Boyle

in Canada today. Jen Ditchburn (who I knew when she lived here in Montreal) reports that the privacy of personal data is to become a right that will be protected by law. The new law will apply pretty broadly too, it seems. Good news.