Author Archives: mathan
$8 to change seat and with status?
Dear Mr. Rovinescu,
I’m quite an Air Canada advocate and usually spend time talking up Air Canada to my collegues and such. While I may not be 100k Super Elite, I do fly enough to hit 50k or 35k with status.
I was very shocked to see the following screen shot, yesterday, when checking in for my flight. In short, $8 to change my seat in the same area of the plane?
Some details
– I’m currently 35K well on my way to 50K this year.
– I fly Toronto to Vancouver (and then on to Portland) a significant number of times a year, and will be doing this at least once a month until August next year
– I’m already booked in a middle seat (which is fine, I’ll live with)
What is Air Canada thinking? Here is the exchange I had on Twitter with @ACAltitude. Firstly, I do have to commend the folks over at @ACAltitude – they rock, and are always courteous:
Iain: @ACAltitude @AirCanada sorry to be cranky but why would I pay $8 to change my seat when I have status? Flying AC101 tomorrow.
Iain: @ACAltitude @AirCanada and I have a preferred seat as well…
ACA: Hi Mathan, different preferred seats have are assigned at different amounts (ie aisle vs middle). /cc
Iain: @ACAltitude even changing between another middle seat would cost $8 – will get a screenshot for you. Not a good revenue model.
ACA: Hi Mathan, instead of a screenshot, can you DM your booking ref nbr? /cc
Iain: @ACAltitude I might stand corrected but still, feels like nickelling and dining loyal customers. pic.twitter.com/P0VoPaUfQn
Mr. Rovinescu, this is nickelling and diming your valued customers and is a digusting practice. Completely ridiculous.
I choose Air Canada because it’s not like the US airlines I deal with. United has an inconsistent product. American’s seats are way too small. US Airways service is horrible.
Air Canada is a 4-star Skytrax airline. It won’t be if you continue these practices which are more like RyanAir (Ireland) and Spirit (US).
Thank you,
Iain Bennett
1987
It was 1987. I would have been 12 going on 13. A young friend of my cousins and my sister, although he would have been about 17 or 18, was dealing with severe manic depression as a result of bipolar disorder. Unfortunately the mental health services in Halton Region were completely useless at the time and unfortunately the young man committed suicide.
This was the first funeral I had ever attended, and the first at Holy Rosary Parish in Milton.
What happened during that service was, quite frankly, disgusting. In short during the sermon, the priest at the time said that the young man would not be allowed into heaven. You could hear the wailing of the whole congregation. Seeing the mother of the young man completely distraught was inexcusable. There was practically a revolt as youth who were attending shouted back at the priest. The priest would hear nothing of it. He, unilaterally, decided that the young man wouldn’t be allowed into heaven because he took his own life.
I know I was a mess after that, and while I didn’t feel I had any power to do anything, this sparked within me, how important peer counselling and mental health is, and that attitudes had to change. People living with mental health challenges such as bipolar disorder need compassion, understanding and help. And this is what drove me to volunteer in such programs.
I wasn’t going to change the church’s view, but I could do other things. Over the years, I hoped and prayed that attitudes would change.
And another suicide would happen again to a second friend a year and a half later in 1988. I wasn’t at that funeral – I should have been.
Yesterday I attended the funeral for a friend from high school who committed suicide. I was apprehensive about the church service knowing what happened in 1987. I still to this day feel the anger of that situation. That was not going to stop me from celebrating and grieving the life of my friend from high school, with the community of people that loved him. This was too important.
That said, the church has learned since that time. Our friend was sent on his way to the afterlife with full blessings. It was a beautiful thing to see, that attitudes have changed. This helps to bring some closure to a 27 or 28 years pain. I am still brought to tears thinking about this part of the service.
There are many things the Roman Catholic Church has done wrong over thousands of years. This doesn’t erase that, but it does show you can teach an old dog new tricks and that enlightenment can happen. I know Pope Francis is working to steer attitudes of the church, or so it seems. I pray that one day the Roman Catholic Church will somehow collectively atone for it’s sins.
This doesn’t mean I necessarily support the Roman Catholic Church, but I believe it is important to acknowledge positive changes seen. Thank you to the Pastor who celebrated a life lost yesterday and for providing that healing for me, and for providing a place where we don’t have to deal with old attitudes such as what happened in 1987.
It’s too soon for any of us
I wrote this a few days ago, posted on Facebook but wanted to keep this in my blog,
I’ve been sitting back listening to some music from my high school days, which often gets me reminiscing about those days. Believe it or not, high school for me, despite all the awkwardness that happens had lots of good times. Definitely better than the previous three years prior.
I never felt like I belonged in any particular one group and I seemed to be quite transient between a group of friends my age and older into technology, programming, science and music; a group into technology and sports (later when I started playing Rugby); and another group of friends my age and younger who very much eclectic and at one level a bunch of misfits, again with a unifying interest in music, but more diverse between technology and arts.
This is where I met Chris I have to admit, we weren’t as close as some in the group but there was always a mutual respect, as there was between everyone who was part. In the group that included Chris, Chris, Chad, John, John, Catriona, Laura, Clayton and others; we all had such diverse backgrounds, tastes in music, we all enjoyed either gaming and computers and then whatever else we brought with us all complemented each other.
As some have alluded, Chris knew how to reinvent himself like Madonna – and that’s not a bad thing. The pranks, late night drives, the first time going to the Bovine Sex Club – THE goth/industrial club in Toronto, and being exposed to harder edged music which has inspired me today.
I always enjoyed Chris’ witty attitude and humour. I liked that he was into cars. I like cars, but he took it to a much deeper level.
Talking tonight at the visitation, all of us are saying, “It’s too soon for any of us”.
—
The following lyrics from Duran Duran’s song, Beautiful Colours really come to mind for me.
(LeBon/Rhodes/Taylor/Taylor/Taylor)
Today, riding the slow train along the way
Going to who knows where and who knows when
Not knowing where you’re rolling – it’s the learning of this journey
I feel all you good people gather and believe
Being of flesh and breathing is enough
Promise to carry on from each moment to the next one
These beautiful colours, infinite patterns so hard I see
And though we’re all of the same stuff
There’s not one of you who is the same as me
Whoa, the beautiful colours, in different patterns for you to see
Sometimes the beauty of it all seems unbearable ’til the colours bleed (keep breathing…)
Design – everyone’s their own universe
Besides – life isn’t a standard issue it’s customized
Ashes to supernova is the nature of existence
These beautiful colours, infinite patterns so hard I see
And though we’re all of the same stuff
There’s not one of you who is the same as me
Whoa, the beautiful colours, in different patterns for you to see
Sometimes the beauty of it all seems unbearable ’til the colours bleed (keep breathing…)
Keep breathing
Keep loving
These beautiful colours, infinite patterns so hard I see
And though we’re all of the same stuff
There’s not one of you who is the same as me
Whoa, the beautiful colours, in different patterns for you to see
Sometimes the beauty of it all seems unbearable ’til the colours bleed (keep breathing…)
Happy Pride!
Experiments with the Roland TR-8
After a week of sitting in my make-shift studio, I finally got some time to play around with the Roland TR-8 I picked up. Wow, what a machine. It totally to me to my late-80s/early-90s techno roots. What a phat beat pumpin’ beast.
Forget the basic Roland TR-808/TR-909 sounds it emulates, add the scatter functionality and you’ve got a beast that doesn’t just drum for you. If you’re not a strong beats guy like me, and you get stumped, the scatter functionality can help create breakbeats and fills to way more than satisfy my beat needs. Tie in, not just the audio over USB, but throw in the midi data and you can create some out of the world beats with your DAW drum set (Reason, Logic, etc…)
Flickr: Artistic Photos from the past
I’m starting to post some pictures from starting in 2000 when I had a Kodak DC265 Zoom camera. Those were the days! Most of these are more my attempts at something artistic. If you want to follow, please do!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mathan416/
I also have some photos at the following link as well:
http://mathan.ca/Gallery/index.html
Roland Aira TR-8, TR-3, Propellerheads Reason 7.1 and OSX Mavericks
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there about how to setup instruments that can connect to a DAW such as Propellerheads Reason over USB, with MacOS X Mavericks. Most tutorials start having completed the setup process already.
Here is a tutorial about how to setup a Roland TR-8, Roland TR-3 with MacOS X Mavericks (10.9) and Propellerheads Reason.
I am currently using the following equipment:
- Roland TR-8 Rhythm Performer
- Roland TR-3 Touch Bassline
- MacBook Air
I am also using a Korg Microkey25 and a Kaossilator Pro which were setup quite quickly.
The high level steps for this are:
- Download the drivers.
- Setup your audio devices
- Setup Reason’s preferences
- Setup the audio tracks
Download Drivers
The first thing you have to do is to download the drivers for your TR-8 and TR-3. If you gave the drivers installed, then you can setup your audio devices to talk to CoreAudio, Apple’s technology for interfacing everything audio on your Mac.
Setup your audio devices
Do this via Go > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup and you should see your TB-3 and TR-8 setup on the left side.
What I noticed in Reason was that I could select one of the TR-8 or the TR-3, but I could not play and record both at the same time, which is not really all that helpful. I also noticed the same in Logic.
You need to setup an Aggregate Device:
- Click the ‘+’ button and select “Create Aggregate Device”
- Select the Built-in Output, TB-3 and TR-8
- Select the Clock Source as “Built-in Output”
- Let the sample rate be 96 kHz. The TR-8 and TB-3 both are high resolution audio devices, though some may argue that one doesn’t need to sample that high. Your call.
- Rename the Aggregate Device – I set mine to TB-3&TR-8 (yes, I mistyped it in the image above).
- Right click on the new device and select “Use this device for sound input”.
- Ensure your actual Built-in Output is setup for sound output. If not, right click and select “Use this device for sound output”. You can also select, “Play alerts and sound effects through this device”.
- You’re done with this part! Take note of the output channels for the Mac’s own Built-in Output, you’ll need this for the next step. In my example, above, here is how to read the inputs and outputs:
- TB-3 has the first two input and output channels
- TR-8 has inputs 3 through 16 and outputs 3 through 6
- The Mac has only outputs 7 and 8
You want to add the Built-in Output in the Aggregate Device so that you can select it as the outbound device within Reason. You’ll see this in the next step.
Setup Reason’s preferences
Load up Reason and do this via Reason > Preferences > Audio.
- Select the Audio Device as the device you created in the previous section. This is what stumped me, I was looking for separate audio in and out and out fields.
- Click the Channels… button next to Active Input Channels, select all of the Inputs.
- Click the Channels… button next to Active Output Channels, and select only the output channels
- You’re done with this part!
Setup the audio tracks
Now you want to go ahead and create the audio tracks. Everything should be virtually wired up and ready.
- Go to Create > Utilities > Audio Track and an audio track is added.
- Expand the device on the rack and under Audio Input select the input for your device.
- If you want, rename the Audio Track to be more representative of the device you are adding.
- You’re done.
Hit the Start/Stop button on your device and you should hear everything come out of your Mac’s speaker.
Pain Points and Tips
There are definitely some pain points to this setup. What I have found is:
- After turning off your devices and existing Reason, it may be possible the devices get forgotten by MacOS X, or it may be the way the devices boot up.
- Reason might forget which devices belong with which channel or that channels should be enabled. You may have to go to Reason > Preferences > Audio to set this up.
- Be sure to save a default file with the audio tracks setup. This will save you time, and name the devices after the device and sound.
- The TR-8 will send out a stereo signal on the first two channels, one for left and one for right. The remaining channels are for the individual sounds if you want to capture the individual audio tracks separately.
- The TB-3 will send out a stereo signal, as well, on the first two channels. One for left and one for right.
- This one is a big frustration point for me. The USB plug into the TB-3 and TR-8 are FRAGILE and they can be tough to plug in. Specifically, I actually broke the plastic post on the USB port of my TB-3. Thankfully it still works, but I need to get some glue to fix it. I’m not pleased with how cheap the ports are.
And there you go. Hopefully I’ve taken away some of the pain that I had setting up my equipment.
PDX Food Recommendations
I’ve been visiting Portland OR and Vancouver WA for the past 3 years – at least 1 trip per quarter. As a result, I’ve had a chance to visit some very nice restaurants here. Here are my recommendations
Tommy O’s – Hawaiian-esque cuisine, great sushi and Ahi Tuna. Desserts are tasty! I’ve been downtown and at a location in Vancouver (Washington, not British Columbia).
Elephant’s Deli – And don’t forget their PDX airport location, Flying Elephants. Great lunch – I highly recommend the Kale salad, any of the sandwiches, Mac & Cheese (best I’ve ever had), the chocolate mousse and anything from the bakery. The staff are friendly, and you’ll see a lot of great Pacific NW beards here.
Red Onion – Great place for quick Thai at lunch.
Toast & Pho – A quick hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant, family owned.
Mother’s Bistro – We stumbled on this when we went for walk around the city. You can get half sized portions of their main entrees so you can try multiple dishes. Admittedly, despite being half the size of their portions, it’s still quite a bit of food. Still, if you’re diet conscious, go for a half portion and you’re set. Try the spiced plum tea – it’s awesome.
Beaches Restraurant – The only restaurant I’m mentioning that’s located in Vancouver WA. You can get a beautiful river view table. The fish and desserts are awesome, and the staff are friendly.
So I bought an XBone
Goodness – it’s been a few months since I wrote anything in this blog. I’ve been travelling between Portland, Dallas and Ann Arbor for the past 6 out of 7 weeks with 3 more weeks of travel coming up. A 2 week break and then 1 more week of travel.
True to form, some may say, “Some may doth protest to much”, and that’s pretty true of the XBox One.
I bought one.
I like it.
Possibly more than my PS4.
So what was it that turned me around?
- Firstly, I’m a race car fan and given Sony Computer Entertainment has delayed Drive Club from being a launch game to being indefinitely delayed. Forza is pretty drool worthy, and one has to admit the Drivertar functionality is pretty cool.
- The lack of games on the PS4 during the launch window and even until today has been pretty lacking. I can only think of a handful of games, that I’m not really interested in, that have been released.
- The first game I’m really interested in beyond the launch window launches this weekend – Infamous Second Son.
- The games available for the XBone are trumping those I was interested in for the PS4. Forza, Peggle 2, Max: Curse of the Brotherhood, Killer Instinct, and Crimson Dragon. I’ve been playing all of them.
- A lot of the independent games Sony has been hawking on PSN+ have not been great.
- Rehashing games from the Vita or the PS3 is not a good strategy for those of us looking for new content to play. I wanna see the limits of the PS4 pushed.
- It feels like that with the launch titles, the PS4 was going after the XBox360 demographic with a lot of first person shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. There’s more to a game console than FPS.
I’m feeling a bit burned by my PS4 purchase, honestly.
Now that said, I know it will get better. The PS3 started out slow and became such an amazing game machine. Or at least, I hope the PS4 will get better.
So what about the stink I made when the XBone was announced?
- Most of the arrogant folks who were responsible for the botched announcements have left. This clears the perceived integrity issues to a degree.
- Checking out an XBone, they seem to have gotten rid of a lot of the advertising that seemed to plague the Xbox 360. It’s still there but it seems to have toned down considerably. Maybe, just maybe, Microsoft is listening to the complaints about all the advertising.
What else turned me around?
- Playing around with an XBone at EB Games somewhat turned me around.
- I liked the operating system. It’s similar enough to Windows 8/8.1 but unique enough that it is it’s own thing.
- Kinect actually works in my man cave, surprisingly. The original Kinect for the 360 really sucked.
- Voice commands, despite the fact I really hate voice commands outside my car, actually seem to work and have some value.
I still think the XBox 360 is one of the lamest, modern, game consoles available. I think Microsoft has somewhat redeemed itself.
I still think the amount of advertising they spent on the XBone shows how desperate the company has been to address the asinine way Mattrick and others first announced the XBone.
The XBone may be worth looking at relative to the PS4.