YouTube Canada is now available. I think having a Canadian version is fantastic: for example having a Canadian-content site works really well for Google News. It provides value to a specific audience instead delivery plain-vanilla to all audiences.

But why don’t they use an actual “.ca” domain. When you go to youtube.ca you get redirected to ca.youtube.com. I suppose there could technical reasons for this. Maybe their technology platform makes it challenging to use anything else but I highly doubt it. If they truly believe that Canadian audiences will value content specific to their community, then they should really celebrate the identity of those customers/users. A “.ca” domain is the way to do that.

I wonder how big a difference it will make for YouTube. Right now the visible differences are that the homepage contains different content and there is a little indicator in the top right of the screen indicating that I am on the Canadian YouTube site. If the existence of the Canadian site change the criteria for deciding which videos are related to each other that would be very cool. The CBC has more coverae on YouTube Canada.

To celebrate the launched of YouTube Canada, here is a video I took in 2006 of the Canada Day Fireworks in Millwoods Park, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Nearly a year ago I bough a portable wifi router to take with me when I go to conferences etc. When I am in a hotel or at a friend’s house, it is very handy to use secure wifi instead of having to drag around a long ethernet cable to connect my laptop to the Internet. I bought a little Linksys WRT54GC “Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router” for that purpose.

I was disappointed when I could find no place to attach an external antenna. I have a couple of 7db antenna and a directional antenna that I can use the boast the range of wifi, but I couldn’t not find any place to plug it in. Well, the morning I was staring at my WRT54GC and noticed a weird plastic thing that looked out of place. After a few minutes of picking at it, I discovered a secret antenna socket underneath!

If you are looking at the lights on the front of the WRT54GC and holding it horizontally (laying it flat), the plastic cover for the antenna connector is on the right-hand side. If you pry up on the rounded edge of that plastic cover, it will open like a door, and reveal a connector that will pop out. It is a mini-BNC style connector.

Now you can attach the antenna of your choice!

I have posted a complete set of photos on flickr showing in more detail how to reveal the hidden antenna connector.

In my mind this makes the WRT54GC twice as value able as I thought it was. It was a good value for a good price, but now that I know I can put an antenna on it… its an absolute bargain!

Rudy Rucker is famous for a few things, not the least of which is his Sci-Fi writing. His newest novel, Postsingular, is now available for free download. Rucker has released the novel using a Creative Commons License!

If that was not enough, he has also posted 300 pages of his working notes created as he wrote the novel. The novel is available in several formats including PDF, HTML, and PDB/PRC (Palm Pilot readers!).

Via CogSci Librarian: IM IN UR COMPUTER GIVIN U COGNTIVE DISXONANCE.

Attributed to “Brian” via the LOLCAT Builder

PS That was via CogSci Librarian. A cognitive science library! That’s new. Cool, can I be the next one?!

Via Creative Commons: LibriVox has released their 1000th free audiobook.

LibriVox takes public domain books and creates freely downloadable audiobooks from them. Unlike hard or impossible to use audiobooks from OCLC, these do not have any DRM technology to stop you from hearing them. LibriVox makes their books available in MP3 format and Ogg Vorbis. Ogg Vorbis produces smaller files for the same quality as MP3 and is not encumbered by patents or DRM issues.