Yellow Pages improves search Globe and Mail Update (Oct 5)
Canada 411 has improved its Find-A-Person. It accepts partial names and will do reverse lookup on a number.
Can also lookup postal codes for a city but the code doesn't show what it covers.
"Canada411 finally has reverse lookup for phone numbers. Find-a-person lookup will also handle partial names.
"The new searches are the result of a partnership between YPG and W3 Data Inc., a provider of on-line directory assistance services and operator of the WhitePages.com Network. W3 Data Inc. will also be hosting and providing operational support for the "Find a Person" look-up."
RPM Weekly was the first newsletter to promote Canadian music. Created by Walt Grealis in 1964, Grealis and partner, Stan Klees, "helped shape the face of Canadian music". This web site from Collections Canada has over 10,000 browsable and searchable charts about Canadian music over 36 years. Wonder what the top singles were in 1978? RPM has it.
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/rpm/index-e.html
Macleans.ca has a Book Section with interviews, reviews, profiles. http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/index.jsp
Also check the Globe and Mail's book section and its book club. But because the Globe changes content often and doesn't provide an archive, use a web page monitor (such as Trackengine.com or Watchthatpage.com) to learn about new titles.
Huron County Library unveiled its new digital photographic library containing photographs of Reuben R. Sallows (1855-1937). The website - www.sallowsgallery.ca -- has over 900 original photographs, stereoscopic cards, postcards and cartes-de-visite created by Sallows. Search by subject ( agriculture, celebrations, buildings, farm life and many others). There is also biographical information aabout Sallows and some featured virtual exhibits.
Project was made possible through the Ontario Ministry of Culture: Library Strategic Development fund, an internship grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Young Canada Works at Building Careers in Heritage programme, plus support from the County of Huron, and Town of Goderich.
Read more about the project.
Munro is tops on Amazon book list By SANDRA MARTIN. Globe and Mail.
Amazon.ca published a list of the top 50 essential titles in CanLit and Alice Munro's The Love of a Good Woman was the top choice.
"Essential books follows the release of the top 50 music titles on Aug. 10 and DVDs last Tuesday. Mon Oncle Antoine, the late Claude Jutras's poetic vision of a young boy's coming of age in 1940s Quebec, took the film title while Music from Big Pink earned the nod as top CD."
Canadian Business has released the list of Top 100 Tech firms for 2004. Includes top 20 growth and top 20 money-makers.
The Rich 100 - 2003 - 2004 from Canadian Business -- the top 10, the gainers, and the losers.
Government of Canada has a website about the Canadian economy -- Canadian Economy Online. This is an education site. Researchers may find the statistics handy. Students will learn more about economic sectors and factors.
This is one of four segments that make up the Canada e-Book. Other segments are The Land, The People, The State (government). The eBook is based on the 2001 Canada Year Book - but with updates.
Gardeners can make good use of this Encyclopedia from the Canadian Wildlife Federation on Wild About Gardening. The spring edition feature tips on switching to drought tolerant plants to a garden. Native bees and the black swallowtail will be in the summer issue. The site is beautifully designed. Check the What's New page.
Be warned - this is a rant. Sympatico sold out. The new sympatico.msn personal service is not personal and not much of a service. This is the awkward and very cluttered interface from MSN's personal portal combined with MSN's minimum Canadian content.
It's not all bad. MSN lets you set up several personal pages to cover different interests - general on the main page, supplementary pages for finance, technology or whatever you wish. There are options for changing colours and themes.
But customizing is long process of adding columns and moving chunks one by one. When will they provide drag and drop?
Canadian news comes from CBC and CTV. People who prefer the Globe and Mail are out of luck. Otherwise the news is AP World and MSNBC.
I'd like to increase the number of headlines for a source. Used to be able to do this on the old Excite - can't do it.
I'd like to see weather for the cities I pick on my page. Can't do that either. Weather for my city won't show up. This must be a bug of some sort.
I can get my Hotmail inbox but not my main account with Sympatico.
On the Finance page I set up, I get AMEX, NASDAQ, and NYSE. Where are the Canadian indexes?
There are no video options. Even the old mySympatico had video clips. This isn't believable either.
There is no option for television listings. Can't anyone in Canada pick up television listings?
There is the option to add favorites where I think I'll put in a link to myYahoo?
I've opened this posting up for your comments. Do you like the new Sympatico.MSN or not? Perhaps you've figured out some of the problems.
There are some answers at http://faq.sympatico.msn.ca/en/
YellowPages.ca offers new search functions Globe and Mail (May 27) New search features to YellowPages.ca, Canada411.ca and the CanadaPlus.ca network of city guides that include browsing categories and searching by proximity.
Abebooks.com virtual market to add new books On-line used book retailer takes on dominant booksellers to bolster sales By MARINA STRAUSS Globe and Mail (June 2) AbeBooks.com, based in Victoria BC and known for used books, will be selling new ones too in Canada.
Napster to launch in Canada By TERRY WEBER Globe and Mail Update (May 4) - Puretracks will have a competitor in Napster for music downloads. No date announced.
Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare has been a project at the University of Guelph to identify ways Shakespeare has been adapted in Canadian plays, films, TV shows, and songs. Search the database to find theatre productions and adaptations. Site also has interviews with playwrights.
More about CASP in When Pucks Collide by Rebecca Caldwell. Globe and Mail (Apr 24)
Teachers and students will be interested in the new Library and Archives Canada Learning Centre. The Learning Centre has collections in history, music and literature.
"Teachers and students will find websites, educational tools, and digitized primary sources (printed documents, diaries, maps, illustrations, paintings, manuscripts, and printed and recorded music) from LAC holdings. These resources stimulate students' imaginations and develop their critical thinking skills, as well as help teachers make Canadian history, literature and music come to life."
There is a new online directory for Toronto businesses called The Red Pages at http://www.redto.com/.
"The Red Pages™ combines a print directory with an online search engine that lists every business in Toronto. Your customers can search by keywords or specific business names, and information about your business will be displayed, including links to your website. Enhancements such as full color graphics are also available to advertisers."
Their press release had the headline -- Giant Search Engines Come Up Short For Toronto Users; The Red Pages Challenges Media to a Search-Off via CBS NewsWatch (Mar 11) - quite a claim!
MORE THAN 1.5 MILLIONS KILOMETERS OF ROADS IN CANADA NOW COVERED WITH MAPORAMA SOLUTIONS - (March 2)
"Maporama International enhances its cartographic coverage for Canada. The company now covers more than 1.5 million kilometers of roads and localizes more than 20.000 populated placenames across the country. Thanks to his strong partnership with DMTI Spatial, Maporama offers to its clients the highest level of detail available with for instance over 40.000 building footprints across Canada’s major urban centers, more than 90.000 points of interest (hotels, restaurants, museums, administrations, hospitals, monuments, railway stations etc.), newly built roads, one-way streets or turn restrictions. "
Can set up a personal Maporama with just your maps and itineraries.
Library and Archives Canada: A Proud Partner of Ottawa’s Sm@rtLibrary Project (Feb 19) -Sm@rtLibrary is a research portal in the National Capital Region that brings together "library catalogues of Library and Archives Canada, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, Carleton University, the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Public Library." Lucky Ottawa.
DVD rentals a click away By GAYLE MacDONALD Globe and Mail Update (Feb 19) - Now you can rent DVDs without leaving your house. For a monthly fee you can order them online from zip.ca Rent 3 DVDs in a month for $24.95 - includes delivery and return by Canada Post. Zip.ca has 15,000 titles in 18 categories.
Workopolis teams up with U.S. jobs site Globe and Mail (Feb 18)
"Toronto-based job and recruiting website Workopolis has teamed up with Chicago-based CareerBuilder.com to provide a one-stop North American on-line job-search destination."
Canadian all-business search engine debuts Globe and Mail Update (Feb 13) Reveal.ca is a new business search engine based in British Columbia. It aims to help you find any business in Canada Reveal.ca or the United States Reveal.us. "Reveal.ca lists phone numbers, addresses and maps to each business. Revenue is expected to come from businesses that post websites on Reveal.ca." My question - why wouldn't we just use the online yellow pages?
The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings will have "images and digital audio recordings, as well as biographies of musicians and histories of music and recorded sound in Canada". The site has been restructured and education resources added. It's easy to browse by performer to get biographical information. It is not easy to browse for sound recordings. There is an alphabetical index for performer and title of song. There are a few songs about canoes - "A little birch canoe and you".
Expo 67 - Man and His World - the World's Fair held in Montreal in 1967 - is remembered through Macromedia Flash at the National Archives web site. Exhibit covers the history, the pavillions, activities, special guests, news reports and stories, the legacy of the fair, and the Canadian centennial celebrations. There are several RealPlayer movies. Can pick up some souvenirs too.
http://www.archives.ca/05/0533/053302_e.html
The Maclean's website has a photo gallery for journalism. Exhibit has pictures and accompanying articles or reports. For 2003 there is the Year in Cartoons, the Liberal Leadership Convention, Trudeau in Haiti - and several more. Must have Flash installed to view photos. http://www.macleans.ca/gallery/
Canadian Business has been tracking the who's who of the 100 wealthiest Canadians for 5 years. Check the Rich 100: 2003 - 2004 edition. Who rose to the list, who fell. Has some articles on wealth by sector, lifestyles, and selected individuals.
Telecommuters or teleworkers will be interested in this new site by InnoVisions Canada (http://www.ivc.ca/), the Canadian Telework Association. It has an analysis of advantages / disadvantages, tax considerations, telework in the US, books and courses. It was reviewed in BOOKMARK THIS: www.ivc.ca By Art Chamberlain, Globe and Mail Update (Jan 14)
Canadian Sport (http://www.canadiansport.ca/) provides "sports enthusiasts with information on sport, fitness and sports medicine". Subject areas include subject areas on the database are Sports Medicine, Rehabilitation, Physical Fitness, Coaching & Training, Physical Education, Physical Therapy, Corporate Wellness, Exercise Physiology, Sport Science, Child Healthcare, Recreation, Health & Safety, Biomedicine, Complementary Therapies (Acupuncture to Yoga) and more.
Digital junkyard in works Canadian Press via Globe and Mail (Dec 8)-- University of Waterloo is building a public archive of images, sound, video and text. "The archive is to feature everything from movie outtakes to the sound bites left on the editing floor during the shooting of a music video. Researchers aim to make it accessible to anyone with a computer."
Wonderfile sees value in visual photo searches By Sue Bowness Globe and Mail Update (Dec 8) - At Wonderfile www.wonderfile.com, a royalty-free stock photography site, you can search for images that are similar to a selected one - thanks to visual search technology from Idée www.ideeinc.com.
The download dilemma: a solution? Industry players are backing paying sites like Canada's Puretracks. They hope users will, too by Kevin Marron. (Nov 17) Globe and Mail
"Puretracks works in a way similar to several new U.S.-based services, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, MusicMatch, owned by MusicMatch Inc.of San Diego, Calif.,and Napster 2.0 from Roxio Inc., a new pay site that rehabilitates the old brand. All these Web sites give users an opportunity to search through a huge store of digital files, listen to samples and buy the files on-line for fees of approximately 99 cents a track, or just less than $10 an album. Puretracks' 99-cent fee is in Canadian dollars, while users of U.S. sites pay in American dollars."
CNIB online library launches with 10,000 titles by Shane Schick (Nov 13)
Canadian National Institute for the Blind opened a digital library that "will handle production, acquisition, client records, circulation, digital rights management, secure and permanent storage, and delivery to the client". "About 10,000 of the titles available today can be read online, while the others can be ordered in Braille, CD-ROM or other formats."
Microsoft Canada (http://www.microsoft.com/canada/home/) has an online home magazine with how-to articles often related to the computer and the Internet. Its subtitle is "articles, tips + tools for better living". For example -- "organize your household records on your computer", "work wood with the web", "make headlines, create a family newsletter". It has a section on Internet Security. This site is a gem.
Microsoft unveils Home Magazine Globe and Mail (Nov 11, 2003)
JobsFutures.ca By Wallace Immen. Globe and Mail (NOv 5) JobFutures.ca is a web site created by Human Resources Development Canada to help people find the right job. It has a "know yourself" quiz, educational resources, and figures on 226 occupational groups. http://www.jobfutures.ca/
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online is now on the Web. http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography begun in the 1960s has been a a joint project of the University of Toronto and the Université Laval. Through a licensing agreement with Department of Canadian Heritage and the work of Library and Archives Canada, the 14 volumes currently in print have been brought online. These cover people who were active and died between 1000 and 1920. They are searchable by keyword, and some by identity / profession or geographic region.
There is a plain box search for keyword searches. The HTML / Web page is better because it has selection by date range, gender, identification, geography. The Flash version does the same thing but is prettier (and slower).
Red will find Liefr Ericcson, who is believed to be the first European to land on the east coast of America, and who was son of Eric the Red. Results can be sorted by date range of death - ascending or descending.
Another approach is to chose geographic region, identification, and date range. Choosing Aboriginal People in 1801-1820 finds 17 matches, including the brave Tecumseh.
CBC will be presenting a television special on the Halifax explosion October 26 and 27, 2003. The explosion of the munitions boat in Halifax harbour occured on December 6, 1917 and was the largest explosion the world had ever seen, exceeded only by the atom bomb. CBC has also created a multimedia web site about the event. http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/
Canadian firm launchs digital music service by Darren Yourk. Globe and Mail (Oct 14)
Thousands will be delighted. "The service features single tracks and full albums from major record labels as well as Canadian and international independents. Most songs are priced at 99 cents and most albums at $9.99. "
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Canadian Business has published online the 6th annual Canadian Business Technology 100 listing Canada’s largest technology companies. Sort the list by name, sales, profit, or sales per employee or get quick lists of the top 10. Can also customize the table and search the database.
At home in cyberspace A new website catalogues Ontario's housing styles, and there's more variety in the province than you might think, by Simon Avery. Globe and Mail (Oct 3)
"Ontarioarchitecture.com catalogues 300 buildings representing the 30 most prominent architectural styles found in the province, from Art Deco to Victory Housing."
www.nextsteps.org By Katherine Harding, Globe and Mail (Oct 1)
Nextsteps.org -- "Geared toward young people, the site allows you to use interactive "self-exploration" tools to evaluate things such as your lifestyle values, personality traits and job-related skills." Site is based in Calgary, Alberta.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography goes online with licensing deal by Jessica Whiteside, University of Toronto (Aug 25)
"U of T and Université Laval, joint producers of the DCB, have signed a licensing agreement giving the federal Department of Canadian Heritage the right to publish the first 14 volumes of the dictionary online. The government will pay a licensing fee of $1.6 million over the two-year contract —"
Canada War Museum has a searchable database of 144,000 newspaper articles from the Hamilton Spectator 1939-45.
http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/index.html
Macleans has a new section online for books -- http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/index.jsp. Has the bestseller lists, interviews, reviews, and literary events calendar. Macleans.ca is also inviting readers to submit recommendations for book of the month.
Free, upgraded Web data boon to lawyers, public by Michael Geist. The Toronto Star (Sep 8)
Recommends several sources on the Internet for legal decisions. For Canada these were Canadian Legal Information Institute (CANLII), http://www.canlii.org, and Supreme Court of Canada, http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca.
Legalize Downloads by George Emerson. Globe and Mail (Sep 5)
"For the first time, Canadians have a legal way to download digital music files from the internet. It's a service called Puretracks, and it makes its debut this month. " Songs begine at 99 cents.
Virtual Gramophone, Canadian Historical Sound Recordings, has added 2,300 entries from the 1920s and 30s. Has Real Audio and MP3 files. http://www2.nlc-bnc.ca/gramophone/src/home.htm
Blogs Canada aims to be a directory to blogs written by Canadians. Also keeps a list of resources new bloggers can use. http://www.blogscanada.ca
BalanceTV.ca is about strategies for living well. Covers food, wellness, relationships. Brought to you by CTV Canadian Living. Very good looking site.
The National Library of Canada has a homework page for kids. I suspect parents will get more use out of it than kids. It's colourful but a tad serious. Age levels are indicated - as if kids would care. Canadian heroes in fact and fiction has potential but is missing hundreds of names. National Library of Canada - Kids Page http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/6/29/index-e.html (Mentioned in the Sympatico newsletter)
Federation of Ontario Naturalists has published online "A Smart Future for Ontario" by Linda Pim and Joel Ornoy - why urban sprawl happens and how to control it. http://www.ontarionature.org/enviroandcons/issues/sprawl.html
New site provides extensive data about classical music, Canadian composers by Angela Pacienza. CP (Aug 6, 2003) - Canadian Music Centre has representing Canada's classical composers has opened a new website with biographies and sound bit from 580 composers. Other features include the option to buy (of course), event calendar, find a score, find a composer. Also has Sound Progression - a learning tool "designed as an introduction to the compositional trends of 20th century Canadian composers."
The Weather: Over a Century and a Half of Canada's Weather Data is Now Online Government of Canada. Press Release (July 31) "As the official keeper of the nation's weather records, Environment Canada maintains a collection of over 200 million observations from over 7,000 sites some dating as far back as 1840." The National Climate Data and Information Archive is at http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/Welcome_e.html.