Jared P.D. Clinton

Courtesy Demonoid

Torrent users, rejoice. File sharing website and BitTorrent tracker Demonoid is back online after being shut down since late July.

A BitTorrent tracker like Demonoid lets its users find torrents – small pieces of a file separated onto different hosts – that can then be downloaded as a complete file.

Often, torrents are hosted by “seeders” – or uploaders – and downloaded by “leechers”.

Though torrent hosting and distribution is illegal in many countries, there are a number of torrent websites, with Demonoid being one of the most notable.

Matt Lischynski, a Demonoid user for several years, said he didn’t expect it to ever come back, but welcomed the news.

“When the website comes back, I’ll be using it,” said Lischynski. “It’s how I get my music – a lot of stuff I can’t find in music stores.”

Lischynski said he uses the service to download roughly 10 to 15 albums a month.

Even with the shutdowns, Bernie Monette, program coordinator for web development at Humber, said Demonoid doesn’t risk losing its large user base.

Continue Reading…

Malls run by Cadillac Fairview are hoping to keep Ontario residents north of the border with extended shopping hours for Black Friday.

Black Friday, which falls on the day after American Thanksgiving this week, is one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the U.S., and Cadillac Fairview wants that business to stay close to home.

“It’s certainly a hope to keep shoppers within Canada,” said Meredith Vlitas, the senior marketing director at Toronto’s Eaton Centre. “We wanted to help Torontonians avoid long lines, the commute, and be able to find deals in the comfort and convenience of their own back yard.”

Canadians saw an increase in duty-free exempt goods on June 1, raising the amount from $50 to $200 on 24-hour trips south and from $400 to $800 on stays of 48 hours or more, making shopping trips to the U.S. far more enticing for Canadians.

Deloitte, a Canadian professional services firm, released a survey saying nearly 40 per cent of Ontarians plan to head south for their holiday shopping.

While Cadillac Fairview said in a release that the extended shopping hours aim to keep shoppers spending their money in Ontario, a separate Deloitte survey shows store hours may not have anything to do with where or why shoppers spend. Continue Reading…

OpenMedia.com is working towards a solution for Canadians. (Open Media Screen Grab)

When it comes to Internet access, Canadians aren’t getting the bang for their buck when compared to countries of similar economic standing.

Canadian Internet access is, “almost a human rights violation,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told reporters during a September Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment conference in Los Angeles .

“Canada does pay some of the highest prices for some of the worst Internet (access) in the industrialized world,” said Lindsey Pinto, the communications manager for OpenMedia.ca, a company working towards affordable Internet service for all Canadians.

Canadians see some of the steepest pricing in bandwidth overages and can face throttling – a process in which Internet providers control the speed of a user’s Internet.

Pinto said “big telecom” has a “strong ability to price gouge” because with little competition, they can afford to.

“One of the key things that we need to do is push back against big telecom, in order to create competition and to create a competitive check,” said Pinto, adding that OpenMedia’s Stop the Meter campaign is a good way for Canadians to fight for their Internet rights.

Michelle Noorenberghe, 18, a firstyear kinesiology student at University of Guelph-Humber and resident of North campus’s residences, said the available options are a concern.

The Internet bandwidth cap in residence – which limits her ability to download files, watch videos, and browse the internet to five gigabytes per week – can make completing school work difficult, she said.

“You find when you actually have to do your work, you have to ask friends to use their Internet,” said Noorenberghe.

Steve Lilley, an application developer for Union Gas Limited and freelance developer, uses Bell as his provider and said bandwidth caps can have an affect on his ability to complete his freelance work.

“There are times when I’m moving large documents to clients and it can concern me that I’m going to end up going over the bandwidth limit,” said Lilley.

Lilley has gone over his bandwidth limit before, and said that he had no idea that it had happened.

“My eyes just about popped out of my head,” he said. “There was no warning. I had to threaten to cancel my service just to get them to reduce the bill.”

A British mobile app company is looking to change Toronto’s cab marketplace in a big way.

Courtesy Hailo

“It’s a totally new experience – it’s a new way to hail a taxi,” said Raymond. “It’s a lot more convenient for the passenger . . . they don’t have to do anything but open up their app and, in two taps, they have virtually hailed a taxi cab.”

Toronto becomes the first Canadian Hailo dispatch, joining London, Dublin, New York, Chicago and Boston.

“Toronto is a world-class city. It’s a taxi cab market that has some significant opportunities for improvement,” said Raymond, adding that Hailo was excited about the operation in Ontario’s capital.

Humber student Constance Lamothe, an 18-year-old first year Protection, Security and Investigation student, said that she occasionally takes cabs in downtown Toronto, and Hailo’s service interests her.

“Sometimes hailing a cab can be kind of tedious,” said Lamothe.

Stephanie Fusco, who used Hailo for the first time just two weeks ago, said her trip was excellent.

“It was really easy for me to pay at the end of the journey, and I had an automatic tip, so I didn’t have to worry about figuring out the tip or having any cash on me,” said Fusco.

Though some may feel using cashless transactions and having their credit card information saved to a mobile app is unsafe, Fusco said she felt entirely secure.

“Once you get over the initial hurdle, you’re in a great situation where it becomes easy and convenient to use cashless payments,” said Fusco.

The partnership will make available real-time updates on the status of the region’s 447 transit vehicles through GPS tracking tied into Google Maps.

The GPS will let riders access status updates, taking into account traffic and weather, as well as informing riders of any delays.

“We want to bring YRT/Viva a lot closer and make sure the integration is the best,” said town of Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Wayne Emmerson.

Emmerson, who is Chair of York Region’s Transportation Services Committee, said the partnership had been at the forefront of their plans for months.

With nearly 73,000 passengers a week, according to YRT/Viva’s website, the hope is that allowing passengers to track the status of the buses will create a more streamlined travel experience, getting riders from one place to the next with less hassle.

Simon South, a software developer and the blogger behind York Transit website RideYork.ca, said YRT/Viva has many opportunities to make the system more simple and effective.
“One simple thing that YRT hasn’t really done yet is give riders an easy way to get transit information on a mobile phone,” said South.

Because the software Google uses is “open data,” it will allow for development of applications, something South thinks would be a simple and effective improvement for the transit service.

South is developing the software himself, and has completed most of the work already.

“My hope is to have a basic version of the web application launched by the end of October,” he said.

Dillon Clarence, 20, a third-year business administration student, takes transit to and from school each day, and said that his transit experience would be improved by the integration of a similar system into the TTC.

“You could plan when to leave school, you could get extra sleep, instead of just standing here,” said Clarence, adding that he experiences transit delays all the time.

Clarence also said an app like the one South is developing for the YRT/Viva would make riding the TTC much more efficient.

As the Stanley Cup Playoffs go from a field of sixteen to a mere two, the homegrown networks that Canadians are able to view the final battle for Lord Stanley’s mug dwindles down to just one: CBC. The Canadian media juggernaut takes over coverage for the Flyers and Blackhawks battling it out for the sports greatest prize, just as has happened since the beginning of time, or so it feels like. With the first two games already behind us with the Blackhawks jumping out to a 2-0 series lead, we can take a look at if the network we’ve all grown accustomed to has been played out or if there is still tread on the CBC’s Stanley Cup Finals broadcasting tires.

There are a great number of factors that go in to each specific networks broadcast coverage, and for most there really is a toss up between which of the Canadian networks does it best. With TSN, we are given an entirely different roster of analysts from backgrounds completely different of those on the CBC crew. The make-up of the CBC brings forth two goalies, a self-proclaimed fifth liner, a referee and some old guy who has a few screws loose and claims to own a crystal ball that helps him see into the future. But when you throw together a cast of characters like that, who would you be to say that it might not just be crazy enough to work?

The tandem of Ron Maclean and Don Cherry continue to open up each Finals broadcast with their back and forth about the keys to the game and Grapes’ ability to channel his inner Bill O’Reilly, using the “loud = right” equation to voice his opinion on what will be a factor and how the game will shake out. Don’t get me wrong; the man is a Canadian icon, but it is starting to become an issue when he is stumbling over his own words every other sentence. Undeniably, however, he does add flavour and character to the broadcast which surely has yet to truly hurt the product.

Read more: http://puckthemedia.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/guest-chair-looking-at-cbcs-coverage/