http://www.kevinyank.com/blog an unfortunately-named geek living Down Under Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:40:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Like many displaced Canadians, I like to listen to CBC Radio 3 at work to keep me feeling culturally connected to my home country. But the shows I enjoy tend to be on at inconvenient times here in Australia. Thanks to Radioshift, that isn’t a problem! Radioshift from Rogue Amoeba is ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/radioshift-subscriptions-as-itunes-podcasts An open letter to the Microsoft Action Pack Regional Service Center for Australia: To: sppartner@microsoft.com Subject: MAPS digital distribution - broken link? Hi there, Following the email I received today (Subject: "Important: Action Pack software now available digitally"), I tried to follow the provided link to access my Microsoft Action Pack Subscription content online: ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/microsoft-partner-open-letter I feel like I may have some things to write about again soon. Before you ask, I’m not being cagey, here. Mostly this is just a vague feeling, perhaps brought on by my recent visit home to Canada—a reminder that there are people I care about with whom I don’t communicate ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/sketching-dreams Over the past week, I have decided once and for all to keep my computer out of the hands of Streetwise, a popular Apple retailer here in Melbourne. I have previously written about Streetwise, an Apple Authorised Service Centre, and its policy of holding onto computers while they wait days for ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/streetwise-will-throw-away-your-mac%e2%80%99s-serial-number For those who’ve asked, here’s an update on the situation with Streetwise and the Apple Service Rating that I wrote about in my last post. Streetwise replied almost immediately to my email complaint: Hi Kevin, I'm not sure why the technician on Saturday would have told you that - perhaps there was some ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/apple-service-rating-update Streetwise is my local Apple retailer. It's where I bought my MacBook laptop and my Epson printer, and it's where I was planning to buy a lot of other computery things in the near future. Unfortunately, my MacBook is in need of a little in-warranty TLC (a crack has a developed ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/streetwises-service-rating-harms-customer-service My copy of the newly-released Mac OS X Leopard arrived on my desk on launch day before I even got to work. I resisted installing it until I could update my system back-up that night, but at this point I've been using the new operating system for a full 48 ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/workaround-mac-os-x-leopard-docked-folder-icon-madness For the main event for our three-day getaway in and around Marysville, Jess and I went horse riding in Rubicon Valley on a perfect morning. We lucked out and got a guide all to ourselves, so we got to learn a lot more about riding than we had done on ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/photos-rubicon-valley-horse-riding Having one too many dusty CDs taking up shelf space, I’ve decided not to buy music in physical form any more. I don’t care how many exclusive, special edition DVDs and fancy-pants packaging they dangle out there—it’s time to move past the physical disc. By itself, that’s easy enough to do. ... http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/going-drm-free-digital After hearing about a potentially competing product in the works, let the cat out of the bag on PPQuery on the Geocaching Australia forum today. Planning on a beta release this weekend. http://www.kevinyank.com/blog/archives/cat-out-of-the-bag