Sora No Woto

The first thing you notice in Sora no Woto is the amazing background artwork. The creators of the series used a real life setting for the fictional city of Seize, the story's location. The story, in contrast to the beautiful setting, is actually quite dark. When the story opens, there is a tentative ceasefire in a war that has devastated most of the world and killed all sea life. This is serious post-apocalypse stuff.

The lead character, Sorami Kanata, wants to play the trumpet so she joins the army as bugler. The fact that buglers are still required for battlefield signalling is an interesting anachronism. Long distance communication is a rotary dial telephone. In fact, there very few electronic devices used at all. An "old era" is mentioned a few times, which had much more advanced technology. This gives the hint that war may have lasted a very long time before the devastation was unleashed, possibly as an act of desperation. Some of this is confirmed later in the story, but it's never explained in detail.

Sora no Woto means "sound of the sky" and it refers to one particular tune that reverberates throughout the series: Amazing Grace. This old hymn has become almost cliche through over use, but in this series it is definitely used appropriately, given the context of the story and characters. The tune is well known to both sides in the war which plays an important role in maintaining the ceasefire at the end of the story.

Sora no Woto is an excellent sci-fi anime series and is worth checking if you get the chance.

Argh! UBB Approved!

This is turning into a really depressing week. Yesterday, it was the Canadian DMCA bill. Today, the CRTC approved usage based billing (UBB). Bell shoots and scores again!

UBB won't kick in immediately. It becomes active 60 days after Bell informs the CRTC in writing that it has eliminated all its customers on grandfathered unlimited accounts. But that won't be very difficult. Bell can just switch people without so much as a by-your-leave.

Once UBB takes effect, there is a cap of 60GB per month. The overage fee is wopping $1.75 per Gigabyte, up to maximum $22.50. There's a secondary cap of 300GB with a fee of $0.75 per Gigabyte. I used 95GB in April so my Internet bill would have been around $56 plus taxes. April was unusual though. March was 66GB which is around $44. Wow, that's suddenly one very expensive 3Mb/s DSL connection!

The throttle is supposed to go away once the UBB comes into effect, since the UBB is supposed to curtail the dastardly bandwidth hogs. I fully expect Bell to find some reason to keep the throttle in place, probably using the unchanged usage as an excuse. With the CRTC in their back pocket, they know they can get away with anything. This is turning into a very depressing week.

The Fix Is In

Oh, this is so typical of those bloody politicians! The copyright consultation last year was a pointless waste of time. The final decision on the future of copyright in Canada was made by... the Prime Minister! But wait! It gets worse!

It looks very likely that we will end up with a Canadian version of the DMCA, because the PM sided with James Moore, who seems to have forgotten he is the Canadian Heritage Minister. Last year he appeared to be on the same page as Industry Minister Clement, but not any more. The fix is in and it looks like the lobbyists from the (U.S.) entertainment industry got to Moore.

How bad will the Bill be? Will Canada have a three-strikes law? We wait with bated breath.

Broadband Promises

So Ignatieff, our wannabe Prime Minister, is promising broadband for the whole country. Sounds great! Er, wait, he is only aiming for 1.5Mb/s! How did we suddenly return to 1998? Since new infrastructure will be needed in rural areas to support broadband, you might as well use the latest technology. Then there is the question of who is going build the infrastructure. If the the incumbents (Bell, Rogers, etc.) are left to themselves, they won't spend more than is necessary to meet the minimum speed, with no room for future growth. I get the feeling that Ignatieff hasn't put much thought into this, which makes it difficult to take seriously.

Early Electronics Hobbyists

After reading this Ars Technica article, I wondered if any of Bernsback's electronics publications influenced my dad's interest radio electronics, a hobby that he had already given up before I was even born. I don't know when he started the hobby so it's hard to say if he might seen any of the Gernsback magazines.

While they were undoubtedly influentially in the U.S., South Africa was more likely to receive British publications, assuming there were any. My Google-fu hasn't turned up anything yet, but I find it hard to believe there weren't any British radio electronics magazines. Funny how an article can trigger a whole line of research, and waste a lot more time than it took to read the article. ^_^

This Is Real

Here is an article in the Toronto Star about Canadian troops "IED hunting" in Afghanistan. I especially liked the disparaging comments about The Hurt Locker which in typical Hollywood fashion gets it all wrong. But the eyes of the soldier in the picture is worth a 1000 words. The man isn't very old, probably in his early twenties, but his eyes are much older. Tells you everything you need to know about what these guys are experiencing over there. This is real, not some Hollywood fantasy.

What Next?

Uh, oh! It's been confirmed that polar bears are breeding with grizzly bears now. What's next? Cats breeding with dogs? ^_^

Seriously though, we are seeing evolution at work. As the polar bear's natural habitat shrinks, they will move into areas where they will have to compete for resources. That competition will require adaptation. One adaptation might be new species suited to the new conditions. Isn't nature wonderful?

Some species won't adapt fast enough and will die out. Humans will be among of those. Our reproduction is too restricted for evolution to save us. Our intelligence will allow us to hang on for quite some time but if our habitat changes too severely, we don't stand a chance.