New entrant into the Canadian mobile phone business, Virgin Mobile Canada has expanded their coverage to include almost all of PEI.

How can life be dull when you have a job like mine: today I am working on a system that supports, in part, the promotion of a service that promises to “remove evil spells.”

Back in April I lamented that Rogers Wireless’ implementation of “email to SMS” was, well, a pain in the ass. Because receiving an email by SMS required sending a “yes, I really want to read this” SMS back before the original email would be forwarded on.

In recent weeks Rogers has dramatically increased their storefront presence on the Island, fronted by AML Communications stores downtown in the Atlantic Technology Centre and uptown in the Charlottetown Mall, so I decided I’d try to see if anyone locally could tell me whether this “feature” can be removed.

And the news is good: Don Wills, from the Technology Centre outpost, did some research for me today, and in only a couple of hours was able to determine that Rogers can turn this off so that Rogers’ phones behave just like Aliant’s, with email appearing directly on the mobile phone without the intermediate step.

This makes the Rogers offering worthy of serious consideration; I’ll let you know how I proceed.

Have you noticed that this season in Charlottetown there are more men in their mid- to late-30s wearing hats (porkpie, fedora, etc.) than ever before? Just sit in Timothy’s for an hour and you’ll see most of them.

I watched David Letterman interview Paris Hilton yesterday. Although I’ve been drenched by the Paris Hilton meme as much as anyone, this was the first time I’d every actually seen her “in person.” It was, I think, a brilliant interview, mostly because Letterman was able to walk a line between his obvious contempt for Hilton and the realization that he is as much a part of the charade as she is. There were strong, strong echoes of Johnny Carson.

And my friend Oliver, currently living somewhere between North Carolina and California, thinks we should be sharing our cars. I’m up for it. But I call dibs on Saturday at the drive-in.

Meanwhile, Rob Hyndman, part-time Islander and full-time Hyndman, thinks we should be eating Flex Mussels. I don’t have a taste for mussels, but you gotta say the website is snazzy, especially if you’re a member of the “short, snappy and to the point” school of communication.

Martin Rutte, part-time Islander, full-time thinker, says we should be looking at aquanators as a possible energy solution for Prince Edward Island.

Did you know that there is a position at Tourism PEI called Familiarization Tour Coordinator? I think that’s about the best job title I’ve ever heard, and I think it more accurately describes, if expanded to include more than just PEI, the job I’ve been trying to create for myself for years.

My friend Kevin sent along an MP3 file this morning, with the comment:

Attached is a piece I recorded at Perry Williams studio last fall. I thought I’d offer it as an opening theme for your podcasts.

(I was chatting with Ray Brow while he was organizing the Eric MacEwen benefit and he said, “why not write a piece for Eric”. This popped out a little bit later and I called it “Big Eric MacEwen”.)

FYI, it’s two-tracked with three simultaneous chanels (two mics and the instrument plugged in) and then over dubbed (once) with the same three chanels but with the capo in a different position. The “magic” comes from Perry, he has techniques that brighten and separate the channels. He really is a sound chef.

Consider this a “toe in the water” podcast of the song, with thanks to Kevin for the generous offer.