I’m starting to get reports of a new email being sent out to former customers of ISN about their @isn.net email:

You recently received communication from EastLink regarding changes to your ISN email address, and/or sub domain address.

Based on customer feedback, we now realize that the notice period was not well considered and we have extended the transition period for email conversion untilDecember 31st, 2008. We trust this will allow for sufficient time to update your contact lists and advise business customers, family and friends of this change.

There are many benefits to changing to the EastLink domain as the EastLink email platform provides a back-up platform and offers a more robust spam and virus filter service.

Although we are maintaining the ISN email domains until December, you can set-up your new EastLink email at anytime and send and receive emails from both your ISN and EastLink address.

We apologize for any inconvenience we have caused and please know we value your business.

Kudos to Eastlink for listening to their new customers. This is a good sign. If you’ve got an @isn.net address, I recommend that, even if you switch it over to an @eastlink.ca address, you still get your own domain for your email and forward it to your new Eastlink address. That way when Eastlink gets purchased by Comcast (or whoever), you won’t have to go through this all again.

I had breakfast with an undisclosed list of people on Sunday morning, and we spent a lot of time talking about privacy and related issues. Today I came across a quote in a New Yorker piece that summarizes privacy nicely:

This is a privacy issue and goes to the heart of us not wanting you to know.

You really have to read the whole essay, by Ian Frazier, to get the honest experience.

In 1827 Beethoven died and our house at 100 Prince Street was built.

When I learned about this coincidence, I realized I have little idea about the order of historical events that are older than I am.

I thought the U.S. Civil War, for example, was back in the 1700s. It actually happened from 1861 to 1865 (just as Canada was creating itself).

I also thought that Bach and Beethoven were contemporaries. But J.S. Bach lived from 1685 to 1750 whereas Beethoven wasn’t born until 1770. So they probably never met.

The key to learning how to spell Ljubljana is realizing that it has no letter i in it anywhere.

If you read Get your Own Domain for your Email, decided it’s something you want to do, but would like some help doing so, I’m hosting a free workshop here at Reinvented HQ on Fitzroy Street on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. (tomorrow, as I write this).

I’ll simply walk through the steps I covered in the blog post, elaborating as I go along and answering any questions you might have. The entire session shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes.

Everyone is welcome to attend; please send me an email to RSVP, however, so I figure out what to do if 200 people decide to come.

Here’s the full text of the email message that Eastlink is sending to ISN customers about the @isn.net email situation (I received a copy because I have been peter@isn.net since day one):

On January 31, 2008, EastLink became your Internet service provider as a result of our purchase of Island Services Network (ISN). EastLink has been proudly serving Maritimers for more than 35 years. During this time, we have grown to become the largest privately held communications and entertainment company in Canada and have more than 800 employees located in offices throughout Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

EastLink will be converting all customer email addresses from the existing ISN email address to new EastLink addresses throughout March and early April. This change is necessary to provide the full range of features and benefits provided with EastLink’s email service including expanded virus protection and spam filtering.

Please call us at 1-888-345-1111 to select your new EastLink email address. It is imperative that this occur before April 15th, 2008, the date which ISN email addresses will no longer operate. If you have already changed your email address, please disregard this message.

Our Technical Support Representatives will be happy to assist you in setting up your new EastLink email address and updating your email client. Throughout this time, you will continue to receive email at your current ISN address, however, please note as of April 15th, 2008 emails sent to your old ISN email address will be returned to sender as undeliverable. We understand that changing your email address is inconvenient, however it is a necessary step in providing you with the reliability and performance that has made EastLink’s Internet service one of the best in North America.

Please note that customers who utilize personal webspace will also need to transfer it to EastLink by April 15th, 2008. This can be arranged on the same call.

Note: If you are an EastLink Business client, and currently use an ISN email account, please call 1-877-813-1727 to select your new EastLink address. If you have a business vanity email (i.e. johnsmith@abccompany.com) no changes are required.

Thank you for your understanding during the transition to EastLink. We look forward to providing you with the excellent service for which EastLink is known.

The email is signed by Dan McKeen and Lee Bragg, co-CEOs of Eastlink.

Setting aside the essential inaccuracy of the argument — that disabling @isn.net email address “is necessary to provide the full range of features and benefits provided with EastLink’s email service,” which is more marketing-speak and than technical analysis — it’s March 17 today, meaning that they’re giving me and my fellow @isn.netters a month to change over email addresses we’ve have for more than a decade.

Nora Young explains how the CBC makes radio shows:

The lasting impressions I’m left with are surprise both that Nora Young wears blue jeans to the office and that the CBC uses Windows PCs to make its radio shows.

I’m also prone to wondering how CBC Radio has changed since producers and hosts moved out of an old building on Jarvis Street and into a cube farm. I think I would go crazy, and find my creativity completely sucked out of my brain, if I had to work in such a (literally) grey environment.

It seems all anyone was talking about for a few days last week was an episode of Land and Sea on the CBC about the Charlottetown Farmer’s Market. It’s a very good piece that accurately captures the essence of why and how we have such a great market here (besides teaching me a few things I didn’t know).

Halifax, on the other hand, currently has a dreadfully claustrophobic farmers’ market shoehorned into a collection of old buildings downtown. But they will soon have a brand new market at Pier 20 right on the waterfront — the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market, and in this video the designer explains its main features.

When we were in Halifax a couple of weeks ago, we ate dinner at The Wooden Monkey, an excellent restaurant with a menu, they say, “based on organic, macrobiotic, and locally grown fresh ingredients.” The food was very, very good, as was the service.”

The visit afforded me my first opportunity to have a Cannonball Chocolate Soda, the best new cold beverage I’ve had in a long time. It appears to only be available in Halifax from the Garrison Beer Store right now.