I put the call out on Twitter last week for anyone who would like to contribute a guest post on my site. Tawcan, known for his many adventures, stepped up and offered to write a post that would add to my Day Tripping series:
If you’re like me, 99% of the time you’re stuck in the city during the week and on weekends you want to head out and explore what mother nature has to offer. Unfortunately it’s winter time, that means the beach is out of the questions and your favourite hiking destinations are covered in snow. Sure you can head to the local ski resorts on the North Shore or Whistler and enjoy some fresh powder but that comes with a hefty bill. Skiing/boarding ain’t cheap and we all know it.
Luckily there are lots cheaper alternatives that will still get your butt off that comfy couch and get you outside. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
The Vancouver-filmed series Dead Like Me ended a few years ago but it still has quite the following — if even according to Twitter last night when I asked if there were any fans out there and I received dozens of replies within minutes.
It has now moved on to the afterlife in the form of the DVD movie, that has been officially released today.
This morning I had the chance to do a quick interview with the star of the series and film, Ellen Muth, and my post is now available on E!Online.
Before I had even heard of this “fresh fruit and frozen yogurt” phenomenon I received an email from the owners of Froyoswirl on Homer Street, inviting me to come and try their frozen yogurt creations. I didn’t have the chance to head in until today, and in the meantime I totally jumped on board with the frozen yogurt bandwagon thanks to the good folks at Qoola.
Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
I know that seeing a post with the word “Yaletown” included in my “Cheap Things to Do” category may seem a bit out of the ordinary to some but next weekend’s Illuminate Yaletown proves that the days of Vancouver’s free family-friendly events for all are not quite a thing of the past.
On February 21st from 5:29pm until 9:29pm in Yaletown’s heritage district (Hamilton and Mainland between Davie and Nelson) everyone is welcome to enjoy light installations, music, colour-changing helium orbs, light graffiti, fire breathing and many other dazzling displays.
As the only outdoor event to take place in Vancouver at this time of year, this event will bring light to a gloomy night. Featuring light installations developed by artists and architects, cutting edge music and interactive activities, illuminate yaletown will allow attendees to see Vancouver as it has never been experienced before. [Yaletown]
The city’s first ever light-as-art show will kick off outside the Hamilton Street Grill (1009 Hamilton) last for one night only. As the Canada Line nears completion this is also a good time to check out local restaurants, shops, and businesses, access to which may have been obstructed during the construction period. Organizers also hope this will turn into an annual event.
A VIP reception will be held at the Opus Hotel and there is also a “Fire and Ice” cocktail party ($25) at the Hamilton Street Grill.
You can also submit your photos from the event to the Illuminate Yaletown Flickr group for your chance to win up to $500 in prizes.
Update: Check out reviews of this event at YatterMatters, and Gus Digital.
I’m always hesitant to grant permission to aggregator sites to redistribute my content, I mean I license my entire site under a Creative Commons License although sometimes those “attribution” or “non-commercial” bits get lost in the shuffle.
One thing I never did was republish my content on Facebook as well, knowing that they would probably somehow determine they have the right to whatever I post so I thought it best to avoid that mess. Turns out with the newly updated Facebook Terms of Service this month, it was a wise decision on my part — but does it even matter?
Facebook’s terms of service (TOS) used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire. Not anymore.
Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want. [Consumerist] — [see also: Slashdot]
Thing is, you can still delete content before you close your account (should you choose to do so) but it’s still a pretty sticky situation for many.
Some may argue that Google republishes and spreads content ie. through image searches but the main thing is that I’m linked, credited, and remain the owner — no matter how far out into the webosphere things may fly.
It’s been said before but I think everyone should pretty much know by now that once you upload something to the internet, it can travel around the world millions of times (getting saved and redistributed along the way) before you even wake up and wonder why the heck you took that photo last night.
Update: From the Facebook blog…
In reality, we wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want. The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work. Our goal is to build great products and to communicate clearly to help people share more information in this trusted environment.
We still have work to do to communicate more clearly about these issues, and our terms are one example of this. Our philosophy that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant. A lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective of the rights we need to provide this service to you. Over time we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler…
… “There is no system today that enables me to share my email address with you and then simultaneously lets me control who you share it with and also lets you control what services you share it with.” – CEO, Mark Suckerberg [Read more]
Update Feb 17, 2009: Due to the outcry, they have reverted to the previous TOS.
