Brandon Rogers, who has been co-writing and co-tracking with Anoop, just tweeted (4:30 PM EST November 24, 2009):

http://twitter.com/brandonrogersLA/status/6019629808

“Working on the first mix of @AnoopDoggDesai ’s new song, “My Name”… Sounding good people.”

Also, during the live chat hosted by AI Now, Anoop wrote:

“Just finished recording a song called “My Name” that has a lot of bhangra influence, and another called “Not Like This” that we’re recording wtih Russell Ali. Russ, Brandon and I will be working together a lot I think. It’s a great vibe.”

You can bet that Rogers execs are freaking out right now. They’ve been using the tagline “Canada’s Most Reliable Network” for some time now. But those days have come to an end. A judge in B.C. has ruled that Rogers has to stop using that tagline unless it it can back it up. Needless to say Telus who filed the suit was happy about this:

“Our sole interest in filing the suit was to have Rogers remove what we always believed was a false, misleading and harmful claim from their advertising and this orders them to do that,” said Telus spokesman Shawn Hall.

But this isn’t over just yet. Both parties are back in court on Friday to work out the details regarding this. I couldn’t find any statements from Rogers about this, but I’m hoping that “my new best friends at Rogers” might be kind enough to offer a comment if they happen to be reading this.

UPDATE: Rogers has come out with a statement:

“We are perplexed by the decision. We continue to believe that our network reliability claim is valid. Today we have filed an appeal with the B.C. Court of Appeal. Further steps will be taken shortly.”

Here are some pictures from the FSX Fire and Ice Tour. Special thanks to Karen Taks for letting me share her pics. Riders feat in these pics are Heath Frisby, Isaac Sherbine, Sam Rogers and Willie Elam. For more information about FSX F&I Tour, check out their website. They are pretty much touring everywhere across Canada.

Sam Rogers and Willie Elam sleds - Karen Taks ©

Frisby, Sherbine and Elam's sled - Karen Taks ©

Isaac Sherbine - Karen Taks ©

Heath Frisby - Karen Taks ©

Sam Rogers - Karen Taks ©

All 4our One’s website has been updated.  Check it out at – http://www.all4ourone.com.  Let us know what you think about the website.

Virgin Mobile has just recently rolled out news that they will begin to carry the iPhone on it’s networks in Canada.

Virgin Mobile Canada will launch iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online in Canada in the coming months. For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone.

This is big news considering Canadians have, for a long time, wished that the iPhone would be on other networks other than just Rogers. Earlier this month Bell and Telus had begun to bring the iPhone to their networks, so far, so good!

Apple has already begun transitioning from old “exclusivity” contracts with carriers internationally to multi-carrier relatioships within most countries. Take Orange and Vodafone for example.

The iPhone is growing people. And now’s the time to grab one from your local telecom company!

Who really cares who has the better call clarity, fewer dropped calls and more reliable data transmission, be it Telus, Rogers or Bell.

Their all to expensive.

Hello all,

We just posted a new video on our youtube page, http://www.youtube.com/Triceptus, with a behind the scenes look of All 4our One, told from the perspective of Corsby “Catipus” Tatum.  View the video clip (IN CRYSTAL CLEAR TRICEPTUS HD) , right here:

Ethik handelt von dem, was Menschen tun, wie sie es tun, warum sie es tun und warum sie nicht etwas anderes tun.  Insofern befasst sich Ethik mit menschlichen Entscheidungen und deren Grundlagen, wobei die Fragen höher geschätzt werden als die Hoffnung auf die eine richtige Antwort. Anhand dieses nur anscheinend abstrakten Wissensgebietes möchte ich eine dritte Ebene des Lernens ansprechen.

Im ersten Abschnitt lasen Sie über Begegnung im “dritten Körper” als archetypischer Grundlage des Lernens zwischen Menschen. Im zweiten Abschnitt wandten wir uns zwei unterschiedlichen Formen dieser Begegnung zu, die im Bild des Falken und der Eiche dargestellt wurden. Bei diesen beiden Abschnitten stand ein “Wissensgefälle” unsichtbar hinter den Darstellungen, eine Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung, in der einer der Beteiligten – wie auch ich in diesen kurzen Überlegungen hier – die Kulissen aufstellt und die Lernszenerie strukturiert. Jetzt, im dritten Abschnitt, sehen wir offen auf das “Gegebene” als “Gemachtes”, auf die “Szenerie” als “Inszenierung” und tauschen uns darüber auf gleicher Augenhöhe aus. Wir reflektieren und disputieren unter dem Sigel der Aufklärung.

Unter diesem Sigel kam und kommt Ethik als Unterrichtsfach an die Schulen. Nicht selten geschieht dies unter heftigen Geburtswehen, wie erst kürzlich in Berlin zu beobachten war.  Ein jüngst erschienenes Buch*, das die beiden Väter des Ethikunterichts in Südwestdeutschland als Abitursrepetitorium entworfen haben, zeigt, wie weit sich dieses Fach in den letzten Jahren entwickelt hat. Dabei tritt die Ethik eben nicht an um Religionsunterricht abzuwerten oder gar zu verdrängen, sondern um ein gemeinsames Alphabet zur Verfügung zu stellen, in dem ALLE Angehörigen unserer vielfältigen Gesellschaft ihre Nöte und Freuden buchstabieren können – in der Hoffnung, verstanden zu werden. Und das Erlernen dieses Alphabets verlangt es, einen Schritt aus dem Alltag zurückzutreten, sich aus der vertrauten Unmittelbarkeit der Urszene zu entfernen, die Natur als Natur und das Gemachte als Gemachtes wahrzunehmen und einen abendländisch-modernen, aufgeklärten, im besten Sinne kritischen  Blick auf das, was geschieht, zu werfen.

Lernen als Begegnung unter Gleichen kommt ohne Kulissenschieberei, Allüren und Voodoo aus, nicht aber ohne die drei Bereitschaften, die Carl Rogers zunächst nur für den therapeutischen Kontext formulierte: Authentizität, Empathie und Akzeptanz.  Das In-Frage-Stellen eigener Positionen gehört ebenso dazu, wie die Kunst des Zuhörens und das Einlernen einer bewussten Steuerung der Aufmerksamkeit auf unterschiedliche Ebenen der Reflektion. Diese Art zu Lernen vor allem für Menschen geeignet, die, um mit Piaget zu sprechen,  sich im formalen Denken üben.  Keine Angst vor dem Berühren von Metaebenen – also darüber zu sprechen, wie und warum man über etwas spricht – ist die unmittelbare Voraussetzung und Folge dieser Art zu lernen.

Auch im strukturellen Kontext der abendländischen Schule kann Ethik ein mündiges In-der-Welt-Sein befördern. Es ist ein Fach, das noch mit Kinderfüßen in erstaunlich großen Schuhen steckt und daher manchmal stolpert und watschelt. Nicht jeder, der etwas tut, begreift, was er gerade tut – aber die Laufrichtung stimmt. Und diejenigen, die an den Schulen versuchen die Bauklötzchen der großen Weltbilder aufeinander zu stapeln, sprechen eben manchmal auch über das Stapeln von Bauklötzchen an sich – und nicht nur darüber, ob das rote jetzt auf das grüne passt oder nicht …..

_________________

* Görgen, Klaus und Frericks, Hanns: Mein Ziel: Abitur Ethik. Manz-Verlag, 2009 ISBN 978-3-7863-4301-1 Meine Bewertung: Inhaltlich das Beste, was auf dem Markt ist. Leider ist das Seitenlayout leseunfreundlich.

Telus who loves to say that “the future is friendly” isn’t being friendly towards Rogers. I’ve just gotten word that they’re suing Rogers over the fact that Rogers claims to be “Canada’s fastest network: two times faster than any other” based on the fact that they rolled out HSPA+ on November 5th which at the very least levels the playing field. They also object to the “Canada’s most reliable network” label that Rogers is using as well. Telus wants Rogers to say that its advertisements breached Canada’s Competition Act as well as they want the ads to stop. Oh, they want to get paid too.

One wonders if this will turn into a Canadian version of  AT&T vs. Verizon? If so, it will be just as fun to watch.

More info I as get it.

Decided it was time to develop a logo for personal work. I like to keep things simple for easy manipulation and use. This will allow me to take advantage of the design in various ways (layers, backgrounds, fades, angles etc.) and keep my image from being static. I included two instances of how I can keep the logo branded while changing appearance slightly, and an instance using as a overlay to an image.

Seems the good folks over at Boy Genius have caught shot of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is its AT&T clothing. Said to be already available to business customers, stores have received stock of the handset already. Destined for a November 22nd release, itll be interesting to see if a few people are able to grab one early. The AT&T 9700 sports the same specs as its Rogers branded sibling. Looks like this one is making the rounds. With several options to choose from, what service will you pick?

For the Avid Berry os updater, AT&T has released their os 5.0.0.296 for the Bold 9700. Seems that os comes in behind Rogers 5.0.0.321 and T-Mobiles 5.0.0.344. RIM itself is at 5.0.0.351 with the 9700 os, so I’m not exactly sure what the AT&T version will bring.

More evidence has been presented today with a research note from Kaufman Brothers analyst, Mr. Shaw Wu. Mr. Wu points to his contacts in the industry and parts suppliers who state the touchscreen slider phone is in development and resembles a cross between the Storm2 and one of RIM’s non-touch QWERTY devices. It’s currently in the prototype stage and is likely to ship sometime in 2010.

This could be a whole new revamped Blackberry OS, or this could very well be the way RIM takes the best of the Storm 2 touch prowess and combines it with a more finger friendly modified OS to capitalize on phones screen real estate and the slide-out qwerty action in 2010. The purported handset may be released with the new WebKit browser RIM has acquired, Torch Mobile.

[via IntoMobile & electronista]

Rogers wireless scored a coup by getting the LG Eve (GW620), one of a few select wireless providers to get one however something is strange. Despite showing up on their website and commercials, I’m not seeing the phone out the real world. Nor am I seeing any popular technology gadget sites talking about it or even reviewing it. So what’s the deal?

Is the phone a dud? Reception issues? Camera quality perhaps? On paper the specs look decent and the phone appears to be a reasonably well designed device. Compared to the Motorola Cliq they’ve removed the directional pad to make texting easier. Touchscreen? Yes. QWERTY keyboard? Yes. Wifi? Yes. 3G? Yes. Very nice specs and with a cheap price over a 3 year contract. At this price point it should be getting scooped up by students everywhere. Perhaps iPhone contracts are getting in the way. Well Christmas IS just around the corner maybe we’ll see more handsets out in the wild shortly.

Can anyone comment?

[Semi-important note to all my friends: please read the very LAST (tiny) paragraph if this post is too long.  I have a question to ask of you.]

Who knew?  I didn’t, until today when I took a closer look at my Rogers wireless billing charges.  They’re charging 15 cents for every incoming text message, which is the same as it costs to send a text message!  Which also means that if a person or company spams with you with text messages, you could easily be paying a whole lot at an uncontrollable rate*.  Anyways, it turns out that they started charging for incoming texts in August 2009, I believe.  Apparently they were notifying customers in their bills as of June & July, but I don’t receive paper bills and I never noticed anything showing up via e-mail or online (even though my Customer Service Representative was trying to convince me that it must have notified me, somewhere… [he didn't know exactly how]).  I have a hunch it was in the PDF invoice/bill that I am able to download if I click in the right place.

Ok, so apparently you are only notified in your June bill.  I downloaded the PDF invoice and it notifies you of the changes on Page 4 of 7.  Thanks for not telling me anywhere else on my online billing page, or e-mailing me or contacting me by phone.  Maybe a text message to my Rogers phone would be the best (or most straightforwardly logical) way to notify me.  This is probably grounds for some better legislation that helps protect customers.

Anyways, the bottom line is that I talked to Customer Relations (the special department that got me my current iPhone monthly plan), and I got put on a $5/month messaging plan.  This is the first time I’ve ever paid a monthly fee for text messages, of all things.  For that fee, I get unlimited incoming and 250 outgoing text, picture, or video messages.  Too bad my iPhone 3G can’t record video.

*Although now that I’ve discovered in that PDF invoice that you can be protected against SPAM messages, I’ll probably downgrade to the $3/month, 100 outgoing text, unlimited incoming messages Customer Relations add-on.

Anyways, I’m going to try out the $5/month plan for a bit and see if I can actually get any use out of picture messaging.  I’ll probably switch to the $3/month plan, since I don’t text people very much at all.  But I figure if I receive or send more than 20 text messages (combined) a month, then it’s worth going to the $3/month plan.  That’s a lot better than the cheapest $10/month plan that the regular Customer Service rep (not Customer Relations) was offering me (I think it was for like… well, I can’t remember.  A lot of outgoing texts, and unlimited incoming).

The real reason I wanted to write this post was to figure out who of my friends can receive text messages for free, and who can receive picture messages for free.  I want to know, so that I can feel free to text/message you without feeling like I’m costing you money.  And that is all, thanks for reading.

On Elm and University