The Tragically Hip - LIVE

Ok, there are only a few people that might be interested in this, but The Tragically Hip are making available downloads of recent shows (for a fee, of course). But if you've had a hankerin' for some new LIVE Hip music, and haven't been able to go to a concert recently (and yes, I fall into both those categories), then this is perfect for you.

LIVEDOWNLOADS | The Tragically Hip

I found the link from the Hip's own website, so they are behind all of this. Of course, I wouldn't post about it unless I've already tried it. :-) The sound quality is great - these are not bootlegs by any means. They even have PDF files of the CD covers and cover art so you can make a "professional" looking CD of the MP3s (or FLAC files for those who want lossless compression), using Nero or something.

The cost is ~ $9.99 for a complete concert (~25 songs = 2 CDs worth), and they have concerts from TO, London, and Ottawa. I got the Canada-Day show in TO ("O-Canada" sung by the Hip - ). "Hundreth Meridian" is as awesome live as ever.

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)

Microsoft has come out with its own Anti-spyware program that is getting good reviews (based on the software from a company called "Giant" that MS aquired recently). Supposedly works better than Spybot + Adaware, all in one package. Can be downloaded for free from:

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) Home

A good review can be found here too:

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Microsoft Anti-Spyware Preview

I have run it on a system on which I had run SPybot and Ad-Aware, and it found one spyware app (so it works quite well). Plus, it gives excellent descriptions of what was found. Highly recommended (by your resident computer nerd - me).

Girls, girls, girls :-)

Ok, there's been too much "Rambling" and not enough "Picturing" these days... So here are some of me (Jim) with the girls.

Daddy, Sarah, and Abby



Daddy & Abby

Canadian Red Cross - Tsunami Relief

From the Canadian Red Cross:

"Double the power of your donation! When you give to the Canadian Red Cross Asia Earthquake & Tsunami Relief fund before Jan. 11, 2005 the Government of Canada will generously match your gift, and has allowed any donation made to the fund, up to and including Jan 11, to be claimed on your 2004 Income Tax Return!"

Makes your money go just a little bit further in helping those affected.

Free GMail accounts

By the way, does anyone want a free GMail email account (Google Mail). I have 6 invites to give away. Its like Yahoo or Hotmail email, except you get 1 GByte of storage space (you will *never* fill it), and you can send/receive large attachments (and, or course since its Google, some cool search abilities). Google still has not opened it up to the general public yet, but my invite will get you in.

Lemme know and I'll hook you up.

Snowcraft

Great little Shockwave game called Snowcraft. Tons o' fun, especially for those who have ever played Warcraft or similar. Must...stop...playing....

Map24 - Maps and Driving Directions for Canada, USA and Europe

Cool new map site called Map24 for getting driving directions. Supposedly gives better results than MapQuest. The best part is that the maps are all in Java, so (if you have Jave installed) you can work with the map interactively to do things like zoom, measure distances, etc. Very cool.

More stories about Christmas in upcoming posts...

Happy 2005. Jim