canada

Man builds social network using Atlantic Ocean

Harold Hackett has thousands of friends all over the world, and he didn't get them through social media.

The Canadian has spent the last 15 years using the Atlantic Ocean as his very own Facebook by casting bottled messages on the waves.

A resident of Tignish, a fishing village on Prince Edward Island, Hackett has received over 3,100 replies to more than 4,800 messages he has sent out, a 64 percent response rate.

Hackett, interviewed on BBC News Magazine, tossed out his first message in May 1996. He has received replies from Canada and the U.S., Iceland, Europe, and as far away as Africa, Russia, and South America.

The 59-year-old hobbyist uses juice bottles with their launch date inscribed in permanent marker. He encloses photocopied messages asking those who find the bottles to write to him--via snail mail.

Hackett often sets bottles adrift on his birthday, August 23, and waits. … Read more

Mars micro-rover Kapvik may tether to larger vehicles

Engineers at Carleton University in Canada have demonstrated a small-scale rover that could be used as a risk-assessment tool in explorations of the surface of Mars and the moon.

The Kapvik micro-rover is inspired by design concepts seen in NASA's Sojourner, Spirit, and Opportunity rovers. It has six wheels, weighs less than 66 pounds, and could be deployed by larger unmanned rovers to scout out specific areas.

One problem that has dogged Martian rovers is getting stuck in sand or other topographic features. The Kapvik, named for an Inuktitut term for "wolverine," has a tethering system for winching it up hills. … Read more

NHL 12: Unopposed and still untouchable

It's pretty remarkable that year after year, the EA Sports NHL series finds ways to innovate and take the franchise to new levels of ice hockey realism. Even though this year the game runs totally unopposed by any other hockey game, NHL 12 makes improvements across the board, both in gameplay and modes.

Plenty of noticeable tweaks have been implemented into NHL 12's gameplay, which add to the title's overall sense of NHL realism. Goalies are now live within the context of the game, meaning they can be bumped and interfered with. Overall CPU player positioning has drastically been improved, which all but eliminates unnecessary off-sides calls due to out of position computer-controlled players. Wingers and defensemen skate logical tracks up and down the ice and are usually in the right spot to anticipate a rebound or one-time pass.

In addition, there are handfuls of aesthetic tweaks to the game. Nets can come off their moorings, players can get checked into team benches, and the full-contact physics engine has been retooled to react appropriately to players of all different strengths and sizes. Player face re-creations also seem more accurate this year.

NHL 12 also marks a significant tweaking to the overall physics of the puck in game. No longer does the puck seem to unnaturally hover like in years past. Instead it now rolls on end, pops in and out of the net organically, and overall has a much more realistic presence. Fans familiar with the franchise will also notice that game speed has been increased just a bit from NHL 11.… Read more

HP TouchPad tablet liquidation begins

The $99 tablet has arrived. Hewlett-Packard TouchPads are being liquidated--at least at some Canadian retailers, in the wake of HP's announcement yesterday that it is shuttering the WebOS device business.

Prices have dropped off a cliff to $99.99 for the 16GB model and $149.99 for the 32GB version, according to a post at PreCentral.net.

A quick check at Best Buy in Canada shows TouchPads at these prices.

The same can't be said for stateside Best Buy, however. As of today, Best Buy in the U.S. was showing standard pricing. And anecdotal reports in the U.S. seem to bear this out.

Of course, consumers may pause even at these prices: You're buying into a defunct HP hardware platform. That said, there was a very limited production run of the TouchPad and it may have value as a novelty item, right next to an IBM PCjr.

Update, August 20, 9 a.m. PDT: HP's U.S. site is now showing the TouchPad for $99 and $149, though it appears to be out of stock as of Saturday. Other retailers such as Target are also showing it out of stock. … Read more

Netflix hits 1 million subscribers in Canada

Netflix now has 1 million subscribers in Canada.

The video streaming and rental company reached the milestone last month, Netflix said yesterday. The one-millionth subscriber was Amanda Bell James of Flin Flon, Manitoba. To mark the event, Netflix gave James a free lifetime membership.

Netflix launched its streaming service in Canada last September. Like its U.S. alternative, Canada's streaming service allows users to stream movies and television shows over the Web to a host of devices, including … Read more

Netflix to offer Facebook integration (outside U.S.)

Those who are both Facebook members and Netflix subscribers will soon be able to tie their two identities together in certain ways, but only if they live in Canada or Latin America.

In announcing its second-quarter earnings yesterday (PDF), Netflix touched on the topic of its integration with the popular social network.

The video service explained that it has made progress with Facebook integration and is looking to launch an in-network feature sometime in the third quarter. But users in the United States will apparently be out of luck.

"At this point, we plan to launch this initiative only … Read more

Canadian YouTubers prefer gastro-porn to Bieber?

It seems that YouTubers (in Canada and elsewhere) would rather vomit than watch Justin Bieber.

Please, this is not some comment on the fine young man who makes me believe every day that you should never say never. This is, however, a comment on YouTubers (in Canada and elsewhere).

It appears that they have fallen in love with a show in which some very strange males concoct meals that would kill a horse in its prime.

Epic Meal Time, now a projectile of Revision 3, is a show that tries to prove just how disgusting meals can be if they … Read more

Bell Mobility's Motorola XT860 4G is Canada's Droid 3

Motorola announced this week that the Droid 3 will soon make its way north of the border, arriving exclusively as the Bell Mobility XT860 4G. Save for the difference in network support, the specifications read identical to its Verizon Wireless counterpart and should make for a terrific addition to the carrier's lineup.

Features include Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a five-row sliding QWERTY keyboard, 4-inch qHD display, a dual-core 1GHz processor, and an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video. If the model number wasn't a dead giveaway, the XT860 4G offers support for Bell's growing 4G … Read more

Canadian Staples in customer privacy hot water

Canadian Staples stores are failing to fully wipe customer data off returned laptops and storage devices before reselling them, thus violating Canada's privacy laws, the CBC News reports.

More than a third of the 149 storage devices tested by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, including laptops and USB hard drives, still had customer data on them--despite undergoing a wipe and restore process to be readied for resale. Some of the lingering information was reportedly pretty sensitive, including things like tax and ID records and passport numbers.

"Our findings are particularly disappointing given we had already investigated two complaints against Staples involving returned data storage devices and the company had committed to taking corrective action," commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a press release. "While Staples did improve procedures and control mechanisms after our investigations, the audit showed those procedures and controls were not consistently applied, nor were they always effective, leaving customers' personal information at serious risk." … Read more

Canada launches anti-fraud plastic banknotes

Canadians will be packing more plastic in their wallets with the launch of new polymer bills that replace paper-cotton notes.

The Canadian dollar has traded above parity with the U.S. greenback for months, and gets technologically tougher with the new plastic money designed to thwart counterfeiters.

The polypropylene substrate lasts 2.5 times longer and makes it harder to copy than the existing paper-cotton money, according to the Bank of Canada. It marks the first full-scale use of a substrate other than paper for Canada's currency.

The two-windowed $100 note enters circulation in November and celebrates Canadian contributions to science. Aside from images of DNA, an ECG, insulin, and a researcher using a microscope, it has two portraits of Prime Minister Robert Borden. One is a unique holographic likeness set in a clear plastic window that changes colors with the viewing angle.

As seen in the promo vid below, other security features include raised ink, transparent text, and hidden numbers. If you look through the frosted maple leaf emblem at a single-point light source and hold it close to your eye, you'll see a hidden circle of numbers that match the face value of the note. … Read more