sebastian troen

My Track of the Day pick is Calvin Harris’ new single, I’m Not Alone, a summer anthem-type house song with some an old skool synth melody that harkens back to hot summers in Europe in the 9os and that makes me want to drive around the beach in my top down Jeep with it cranking.

[audio:Calvin_Harris_I'm_Not_Alone.mp3]

Get Calvin Harris on iTunes now.

Warning: May cause you to turn up your stereo and start dancing.

Those of you who are slowly switching all your online communications from email to Facebook messages (like I have), take note. Facebook has been caught censoring messages. And not unauthorized spam either, but rather messages from one user to another that includes a link to torrent files.

Now it gets tricky for Facebook because torrent files aren’t actually illegal in and of themselves, in fact they are often used for the sharing of legal information (as well as lots of sharing of illegal content), but Facebook claims to have the right to sniff out links that it finds to be dubious.

Where this gets tricky is that Facebook is quickly becoming the de facto messaging standard on the web. I read somewhere awhile back that Facebook messages now account for more messages than web-based email services, such as Gmail and Hotmail. That’s dangerous if and when Facebook decides to act as ‘Big Brother’. At least with public email, I can send my friends anything I want, without worry that Google is going to block my messages.

It’s a slipper slope and it’ll be interesting to see how Facebook manages this situation. Meanwhile, don’t close that Gmail account just yet.

Facebook’s E-mail Censorship is Legally Dubious, Experts Say | Epicenter.

Hulu’s a pretty cool service. I’ve been using it off and on for a while now, through Hotspot Shield and it’s been a great, new alternative to the old model of watching television. We all want to watch what we want when we want, and finally, it seemed that television broadcasters were getting this.

Only thing that sucks about it is their restriction to the US. Which is why I’ve had to use workarounds like Hotspot Shield. Well, rather than trying to open things up to Canada and other markets, they’ve decided to go old skool and lock things down tighter. Why?

Seriously people, the Intertubes is a global thing. Figure out your damn licensing restrictions so we can all get on Hulu and turn it into the successful thing that can save your archaic business. If I can watch The Celebrity Apprentice on cable on my television set, why can’t I watch on the Net? Seriously?!

Control Freaks: Hulu Now Blocks Anonymous Proxies Too.

Last night’s offer by RIM founder, Jim Balsillie, to buy the Phoenix Coyotes (contingent upon relocation to southern Ontario) for $212.5 million (USD) was a shocking surprise twist to a day that found the Coyotes filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. After more than a decade in the Arizona desert, I think it’s time to recognize that the Phoenix experiment didn’t work out. That’s not a knock against the NHL’s southern expansion, there’s been success in several other southern markets, like Atlanta, Carolina and Tampa Bay, but Phoenix never really took off the way that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had hoped when he moved the Winnipeg Jets to Arizona in 1996.

Though Bettman has been opposed to Balsillie’s previous attempts to buy and relocate an NHL franchise (the Pittsburg Penguins in 2006 and the Nashville Predators in 2007), I think it’s time to let Jim buy a franchise. He’s clearly a passionate fan, has enough money unlike many of the owners in the league (estimated net worth: $1.6 Billion) and he wants to bring the team back to Canada and to a part of the country that is passionate about hockey.

Since I live in Vancouver, I have no real desire to see yet another Ontario hockey team. As it is we’re inundated with news about the Toronto Maple Leafs, whether we care or not (we don’t!) or even if it’s newsworthy or not (trust me, it usually isn’t). But wouldn’t you rather have a team in Ontario where fans would be passionate about the team and more importantly, keep it financially stable than in Phoenix where season tickets are going for as little as 50 bucks a month (in Vancouver fifty bucks gets you one game). Remember that the league has a revenue sharing agreement in place meaning that teams like the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs that sell out every game end up sending money to teams like the Coyotes that can’t sell out even with dirt cheap tickets.

So I say give Jim his franchise. Relocate it to Kitchener or Waterloo or wherever, create an exciting new rivalry in southern Ontario (if New York and Los Angeles can support 2 teams, why can’t southern Ontario, the cradle of hockey?!) Shane Doan will be the captain of a Canadian team, Wayne Gretzky will get to coach a professional team in his ‘hometown’ (ok, close enough, Brantford is nearby) and Canada will get an exciting new 7th team. That seems like the right thing to do.

As  for those of you calling for another team in the prairies, though Winnipeg would like to get their team back, the reality is that they can’t support an NHL team. With only 700,000 inhabitants, it’s roughly the size of Hamilton whereas London and Kitchener and Waterloo together have over 900,000 and that’s not counting the Hamilton fans. More importantly, Winnipeg’s average income is only $29,145 whereas it’s $33,946 in Waterloo. There’s more disposable income in southern Ontario, income that can be spent on things like high-priced hockey tickets.

In any case, it’ll be interesting to see the real life drama unfold over the next few weeks as the NHL goes to Bankruptcy Court in Arizona to defend its right to determine where its franchises are located and Balsillie fights for the right to buy the Coyotes and move them back home to Canada. If you’re interested in supporting the campaign for a 7th hockey franchise in Canada, check out makeitseven.