Alex Reid

Earlier today, Internet Archive (archive.org) posted preview clips of everything that was on American network news since 2009. The new digital collection includes 350,000 news programs collected over the past 3 years from 20 TV channels; the major networks and local TV stations in San Francisco and Washington D.C.  The Archive says it will update the site with new broadcasts 24 hours after they are aired, with older shows to be added later.

“Let a thousand Jon Stewarts bloom.”

- Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle

You can find content by searching for keywords within a certain time frame. The keywords are found in the closed captioning text of each show. The web site allows you to watch the short news clip surrounding the keyword. You can also borrow the entire show or clip in person at the Internet Archive library in San Francisco or order a DVD copy.

Since 1996, the Internet Archive has been a prominent digital library; offering a variety of digital data material including movies, music and almost three million public-domain books. The non-profit organization is also known for its Wayback Machine which can show you cached versions of web sites.

Chinese telecommunications provider ZTE have announced today that they held a field demonstration of an optical network capable of transmitting 1.726 Tbps. They used Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) to separate data into different wavelengths (8 different channels, each transmitting 216.4Gbps) and transmitted those wavelengths over the same standard fiber-optic cable over 1750 KM in China.

While the company has no plans to provide a terabit-network, they say the purpose of their experiment was to prove that “a seamless upgrade from a 100G transmission system to a 200G system is possible.”

Pretty interesting stuff.

Dragons’ Den will be holding open auditions in Winnipeg on Saturday, March 10th, 2012, looking for Winnipeg’s next big thing.

Click here for the complete list of cities and dates.

For more information, contact:

Jane Chupick
Production Assistant
Dragons’ Den, CBC Television
205 Wellington St W, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3G7
416-205-3063

I have been a Netflix subscriber off and on for the past couple of years. I’ve always complained that there is a lack of content for Canadian subscribers; a truck stop gas station has a better selection of video titles than Netflix (in Canada).

It’s gotten better in recent months however, especially with TV shows. Now Canadians can find Breaking Bad, Dexter, Mad Men, Walking Dead, Weeds, Kids in the Hall, and just recently all of the X-files.

Recently I was surprised by a new TV show addition released last week: Lilyhammer.

Lilyhammer is a Norwegian-American television series, starring Steve Van Zandt (The Sopranos) who plays a New York City mobster in the witness protection program starting over in Norway.

The show is quite good. I highly recommend watching it. Van Zandt isn’t an actor, but if you liked Sopranos, you can easily look past that. And what’s even more amazing is that the show is a first for Netflix, it’s their own programming venture.

The show premiered on Norwegian NRK1 on January, 25th 2012 to a record audience equal to one fifth of the Norwegian population, and two weeks later it premiered on Netflix.

Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer of Netflix, recently said that 60% of viewing on Netflix’s newly separated streaming business is for TV episodes, with Mad Men and Breaking Bad being most popular, and they plan on expanding their TV presence.

Last March, Netflix outbid the major TV networks for the rights to the David Fincher/Kevin Spacey drama House Of Cards (a remake of a popular British miniseries). There’s talk that Netflix may revive the cult favourite Arrested Development that saw fans of the show unsuccessfully lobby Fox to bring back.

“If you want to see what people really want, look at what they’re stealing.” - Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer

I really dislike where the television industry has gone, and I hope Netflix really shakes them up. I for one, won’t be cancelling my Netflix account as I had planned to later this month.

Oh, and Lilyhammer’s second season already been commissioned.

Watch this talk from TED to understand the background and mechanisms of SOPA and PIPA.