[#PHOTO] Trinity College, University of #Toronto

Trinity College, University of #Toronto, a photo by randyfmcdonald on Flickr.

[LINK] "The multilingual web: A year of non-Latin script domain names"

Techmeme pointed me to Paul Sawers' article at The Next Web on the usage of non-Latin script domain names on the Internet, one year after the web finally embraced non-Latin scripts fully.

The permitted character set of the DNS has precluded the full representation of many languages in their native alphabets (scripts) within domain names. However, ICANN did approve the Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) system many years ago, and this system maps Unicode strings into the valid DNS character set using Punycode.

In short, this allows the transliteration or conversion between Unicode domain names and their ASCII equivalents (prefixed with xn--), thus allowing users to navigate the Internet in their own language. The IDNA system is designed to ensure that the Web doesn’t fragment into a number of localized versions separated by script.

So, Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) have been available for registration at the second level for a while, meaning in countries such as Japan you could register a domain using a local script rather than a Latin-based one – however, it would still have been appended with ‘.jp’, rather than a local script equivalent.

And this was the big change that came into effect last year. It became possible to register IDNs for ccTLDs such as السعودية. for Saudi Arabia, and .рф for Russia, and this at last meant domain names – including the country code – could contain non-Latin based characters throughout. This opened up the Internet’s addressing system to the majority of the world’s population, who have little comprehension of Latin-based scripts.

In Russia and Saudi Arabia, the huge booms in native-script domains also worked alongside growth in Latin-script domains, too. Support problems aside, the experiment has gone well. Well, mostly:

Greece was rejected for .ελ, because it resembled .EA – which, incidentally isn’t being used as a ccTLD, but it is a two letter string in the ISO-3166 reserve list.

And Bulgaria was rejected by ICANN way back in May 2010, because its proposed ccTLD – .бг – was visually similar to the .br Brazilian ccTLD.

That, and (arguably) more important concerns about the new domains actually working with E-mail.

[LINK] "Settlers of Catan: A low-tech island retreat for a plugged-in generation"

The Gklobe and Mail's John Wingrove writes from a Canadian perspective about the massive success of Settlers of Catan. It's the game everyone loves, it seems.

Settlers is the face of a board-game renaissance – a return to slow, measured pastimes in a smart-phone and video-game era.

“It poses a strong alternative to electronic media. It is actually an unplugged experience,” says Guido Teuber, 37, whose father, Klaus, invented the game. “All of a sudden it seems novel, having gotten used to being part of a computer screen. There is something to be said for having this very tactile, social and immediate experience.”

Settlers has a simple premise: Players collect and trade resources to develop an island. It’s interactive, there’s no war and no player loses or wins until the final turn. It’s the foremost example of an entire genre of “German-style” games.

Such games largely reject the confrontational mantras of traditional board games, such as Risk and Monopoly. Instead, they tend to be more constructive – settling an island, building a network of power plants (Power Grid), a train system (Ticket to Ride) a kingdom (Carcassonne) or farm (Agricola). The elder Mr. Teuber has spent 30 years developing board games, winning Germany’s prestigious Spiel des Jahres (game of the year) award four times, most recently for Settlers.

“All of those games are using ways to solve conflict in a non-violent way,” says his son, who lives in California and oversees the game’s North American expansion. “After two world wars, [and German] people realizing it’s time to do things dramatically differently, there’s definitely a wave of pacifism that’s reflected in the game culture.”

First invented in 1995, Settlers took hold among young professionals, students and what Mr. Teuber calls “techies” – the game is a favourite throughout Silicon Valley, where plugged-in employees of the world’s cutting-edge technology firms routinely break for a definitively low-tech game of Settlers.

It became popular because it had a unique design, was easy to learn and quick to play, said Ontario player Robin Baksh, who started playing a decade ago in university and was among three Canadians to earn a spot in last year’s Settlers world championship in Germany.

“A lot of people will win or do very well at their first game,” says Mr. Baksh, now 30. “Because of that, there’s the incentive to keep going.”

About five years ago, the game’s sales began to soar as it made its way to the kitchen tables of families.

“It’s huge. It’s absolutely huge,” says Cheryl Cameron, 52, owner of Edmonton’s River City Games. Once mostly a pool table vendor, her small chain has reinvented itself on the back of board games and Settlers. In two of her stores, board game sales now make up 70 per cent of revenue. Settlers has been the top seller for six years.

“One of the contributing factors has certainly been a great deal of concern with our children today, in that a lot of them lack social skills. I attribute a lot of that to [the fact] they’re plugged in and not interacting,” says Ms. Cameron, who plays the game with her own eight-year-old granddaughter.

(Yay! to being an early adopter.)

[URBAN NOTE] "Why doesn’t anyone swim in The Beaches?"

Contrary to what some commenters argued at the URL of today's National Post article by Jared Lindzon, skepticism about the healthiness of the Great Lakes' water--even, especially, off the Toronto shore--likely long predates modern environmentalism. City waters have only stopped making people sick recently, historically speaking.

On a warm day Mary Gore will wake up at 6:30 to begin her morning routine. After taking her golden retriever, Raven, for a run along the boardwalk near Ashbridges Bay Park, she begins an hour of yoga on the rocks overlooking Lake Ontario.

When that’s over, she does what tens of thousands of Torontonians would never consider doing: she makes her way into the water for a swim.

Although the entire city has access to the public beaches on Lake Ontario, Ms. Gore feels like she has had these waters to herself for more than 10 years.

“I feel like it’s my private beach,” she says. “Nobody else swims in it, but it’s just so wonderful, and what an incredible way to start the day. When the water is calm and it’s beckoning me, how can I refuse?”

[. . .]

This year, eight of Toronto’s 11 beaches received a blue flag rating from the Federation of Environmental Education, an internationally recognized standard for overall quality and cleanliness of beaches and their surrounding waters.

“We use a standard that exceeds the provincial standards and exceeds international standards,” said Lou Di Gironimo, general manager of Toronto Water. “The measure that we use is a tough one, but even though it’s a tough one, we meet it at eight of our beaches 80% of the time, so that’s why we’ve got the blue flag on those eight beaches.”

The three that have not been awarded a blue flag are Marie Curtis Park East Beach, Sunnyside Beach and Rouge Beach. “All three of those beaches are next to large river systems,” Mr. Di Gironimo explained. “They end up discharging into the lake, so when it rains heavily, what we see is water quality deteriorating at those beaches, and it may take a few days for it to recover.”

[. . .]

Although Toronto’s beaches are rated among the best in the world, locals have trouble overcoming their safety concerns, Mr. Grove-White said.

“A lot of people go swimming in tropical beaches that have horrible water quality and aren’t even tested and don’t even think twice, but here in Toronto you have an internationally recognized public health agency telling you it’s safe to swim, and you have an internationally recognized eco label saying not only is it safe to swim, but this is some of the best swim water there is in the world.”

On June 8, when the temperature crept to record levels, hundreds made their way to the beaches. The water was too cold for most to bear, although a number of daring children could be spotted splashing in the waves. Their parents watched confidently from the shores, seemingly unconcerned about the water quality.

“It’s great. The kids love it, and if they’re happy, I’m happy,” said Lisa Tarrant, who has made her way to Bluffer’s Beach on hot summer days for more than 20 years.

But Ms. Tarrant is the exception. Suggest swimming on Toronto’s waterfront to many locals and the reaction can be described as reluctant at best.

Me, I don't swim in Lake Ontario often at all because the water is so terribly cold. Yes, you can tell that the Great Lakes are glacial by origin.

[URBAN NOTE] "Affection for the Canucks is Misguided, at Best"

Should Torontonians not support the Vancouver Canucks against the Boston Bruins? I'd earlier this month blogged about how history made my native Atlantic Canada a fairly pro-Boston Bruins region , and earlier about howVancouver's warm climate and relative paucity of Canadian players made some Canadians root for Boston. Daniel Sellers' article is the first of its kind I've seen appear in the Toronto press. Admittedly, there may not be much of a market for this sort of thing.

[T]here is an unmistakable and prevailing sentiment among diehard NHL fans and casual observers alike that the Canucks are now our adopted home side as they continue to face off against the Boston Bruins in a best-of-seven series for hockey’s legendary trophy. Indeed, encounters with the phrase “Canada’s team” have become increasingly difficult to avoid.

Unfortunately, this appellation makes no sense.

Although it is true that the Canucks play their home games on Canadian ice, their roster is just like that of every other team in the league, Boston included, in that it is made up of players from all over Canada, Europe, and the United States. Unlike in Boston, however, the box-office staff, ushers, security personnel, beer vendors, and Zamboni operators at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver are presumably overwhelmingly Canadian. Is it for them that we are cheering? Perhaps we are cheering for the Canucks’ Canadian owner, the Aquilini Investment Group?

[. . .]

How, then, to make sense of the popularity of a Vancouver team which was a pre-playoffs favourite to win, is led by the stoic Sedin twins of Sweden, and has a reputation for delivering dirty hits and cheap shots?

In Toronto, the likeliest explanation is found in the perpetual ineptness of the Maple Leafs. Seemingly, our desperation to back a winning hockey team—or winning sports team of any kind, for that matter—has made us eager to hop onto the Canucks’ bandwagon.

But that bandwagon is traveling on a one-way street.

Calling it “Canada’s team” implies that Vancouver is battling for this championship for all of us. While the Canucks’ skaters may or may not be motivated by a sincere interest in bringing the Stanley Cup to their fans in Vancouver, or to their friends and neighbours in their various hometowns, chances are good that they would find the support of hockey fans in Toronto largely inconsequential, were they aware of it.

For their part, Canucks fans themselves will be reluctant to share their celebration, if and when their team prevails, with inconstant supporters from a city on the other side of the country who have not been around to suffer the lean years with them: the four championship-less decades, the riots that followed the Canucks' near miss in 1994, the very public shaming of Todd Bertuzzi.

With a win tonight in Boston, the Canucks will close out the Bruins in six games and get to call themselves the Stanley Cup champions until at least the same time next year. But even if they lose tonight and go on to lose the series, we in Toronto should not despair.

Because, fortunately, Canada does have a hockey team.

Just like the Canucks, Canada’s team had Roberto Luongo in goal the last time they played. Just like the Canucks, they played home games in Vancouver. But unlike the Canucks, our team was composed exclusively of Canadians, unpaid, competing for our country against teams with an equal mandate to compete for theirs.